Love. Respect.

      

“Wives submit to your husbands so if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see purity and reverence in your lives ”  1 Peter 3:1-2

What does it really mean to show our husbands love through behavior rather than words?

Marriage in the beginning was really hard, wanna know why. Well I am going to tell you anyways.  Because I’m selfish.  I wanted to do things my way and the way that I grew up.  He was supposed to know that if I put things on the stairs then that means when you walk up the stairs you pick it up on your way upstairs.  (How is he supposed to know this? Since I grew up this way in my family?)  He shouldn’t.  That’s the thing.  We both grew up in two different homes, learning how to do life two completely different ways.

So what does it look like to show through behaviors rather than words?

Well for me, showing through actions is choosing to do something I don’t feel like doing (ummm I’m selfish).  It is really hard to show someone respect, when you don’t think they deserve it.  When you feel put down or discouraged by someone, why would you want to show them respect?  Well my question is why not?  That is what makes you different and shows to them that your better than that.  Now don’t get me wrong, its okay to feel and have feelings but what you do or how you handle those feelings is what matters and makes a big difference in your  marriage.  By showing my husband respectful behavior, even when I don’t feel respected shows him through these actions that I support and love him and his decisions or his way of thinking (because sometimes his thinking is way different than my thinking and I would do things totally different than he does) .  Wives we are crazy to think we will win a battle by attacking our husbands. We will lose the war every time if we continue to attack, criticize, and lecture our husband.

Lift him up, encourage him, let him know your so grateful he is working hard for the family every day, and that you like that he is different than you and encourage his thought process.  When in doubt, sometimes you will feel unloved or disrespected, so respond in a manner that tells him vocally how those words or actions made you feel in that moment.  Address how you feel first before dropping the bomb and going straight to a scale of 10.  I guarantee the way you respond to him will change his attitude toward you and you will end the conversation way better than anticipated.

9 Signs that Your Getting Older

It’s been awhile since I last posted something on my blog, with Christmas just ending, New Years, and graduating from college,  I just couldn’t find the time to write, but now that I have had some time to get back into order, I want to continue to blog.  One subject I would like to talk about today is the fact that I’m getting older, and I don’t know when it happened. Maybe overnight? Maybe after I got married? Maybe after I graduated?  But there are some things now that I find so much joy in that I never did before and its scaring me. Let me give you a couple of examples of things that have changed, within the past couple months:

1.  When I want to be relaxed, I light my candle and turn on classical music ( I find this relaxing, like what? Since when do I enjoy this?)

2.  I like going to Michaels (enough said)

3.  My metabolism is slowing down, so I cannot consume the usual meal I would eat after my dinner in highschool: donuts, ice cream, and popcorn. I now read  ingredients for PLANTAIN CHIPS!!!!

4. I like VEGETABLES!!!

5. When friends ask us to go see a midnight showing on the weekend, were more concerned about sleeping in, than seeing a movie.

6. I take vitamins every morning, not just gummies, but vitamins that help you stay strong and healthy (if we ever get the pill container with the days marked on them, then were doomed (sorry grandparents))

7. We would rather read, than watch the Bachelor.

8. I want to cut my hair.

9. We’ve started planning our vacations around our airline and hotel points.

I don’t understand why this all happens, but it does.  These are 9 things that I have already noticed about myself that have changed, and I love them all. I wouldn’t go back to my normal habits, except maybe being able to consume donuts, popcorn, and cookies all in one night sometimes.  I guess this is what happens when you grow up?

The next blog I write will have a recipe attached to it!! ( We have started doing Paleo this month of January so you may get some vegetable meals)

Stories That Inspire Me

Why is it, that some of us, not all (don’t want to pass any judgment on anyone, but I know from my own personal experience) we can’t help but walk past a homeless person on the street and either get scared and think they will harm us, or we just walk right by with the mentality of; “if they want money why don’t they stop asking and just get a job”, or another mentality is, “it’s their fault they got themselves their in the first place”, or “I don’t want too give them money because they might go buy drugs or alcohol” or the last one,  “I won’t be able to make that much of a difference in their life why should I stop and give them something?.”  I am not going to lie, I have said all of these thoughts to myself multiple times, and wish I didn’t.Why is it that we jump to all of these conclusions and assumptions? What if, we stopped making assumptions, and stopped walking by?  What would happen?

Now I am not saying every person you walk by, drop and give them everything.  But I do think, that when we feel that urge to do something, then we should do it.  Last night, something happened.  While I was at my night class last night, my husband started texting me all of these paragraphs. I thought it was important so I started to read them in class (sorry professor, but she knows what happened as I shared it with the whole class afterwards).

Clinton told me that there was a young girl about 20 years old,  extremely exhausted and falling asleep in Starbucks.  She was trying to eat her donut and stay awake to drink her coffee but couldn’t even keep her eyes open.  She had now spilled her coffee on accident and people started to stare, walk by, and move on with their lives.  But…….not Clinton.  If any of you know Clinton he is the most giving and generous person you will ever meet, he always looks at people through a different lens, he looks at people as God’s beloved children.  His heart broke when he saw her because he knew Gods heart broke for her.

Clinton walked over to the woman, and asked if she was okay.  She said she came out here to try and live a sober lifestlye but before she knew it she was living with soomeone who was using and now she is back on the streets.  She said she had no where to stay, and no friends.  She said that she was currently  living on the streets, and had been for a couple days now (hence the reason she was falling asleep in Starbucks, exhausted). My husband’s heart started to break.  He wished there was something he could do, and finally realized what he needed to do. I think the thing that breaks my heart the most about this story is the men who were comments about Clinton as he talked to her with love in his eyes.  When Clinton walked out of Starbucks with this young woman, men stared and looked at him as if he was the “lucky one to take her home”.  I can’t imagine how Clinton must have felt wishing it didn’t look the way it did. The reason this makes me so sad, is that if Clinton didn’t approach her someone else would have and I don’t know how the story would have ended.

Clinton finally asked her what she needed and she responded with , “a  safe place to sleep and a bed would be nice…” (Im sorry we’re just going to pause for a second)  This girl is 20 years old!!!!!   I am 22 years old!!!  That is two years younger than me and I cannot imagine sleeping on the streets and being all alone, and being grateful for a place to sleep. (this is when I started bawling in class, hence the reason why my whole class found out this story) He then took her to a Motel 6 and the entire time they were in the car she was bawling.  She didn’t know why Clinton was doing this for her, or how this even happened.

When they arrived at the Motel 6 she was crying and thanking him tremendously for the gift he had given her.  She replied to him saying “I am safe tonight, I can’t believe i have a warm bed and that I’m safe..” (with a big smile on her face)  This brings me to tears, thinking that a girl younger than me hasn’t felt safe, and probably hasn’t been for the past couple days.  I can’t even imagine what she has been through the past couple days and nights on the streets.

This story broke me.  Everytime I think about what happened last night and imagine what she looks like I start to cry.  I can’t imagine the pain and suffering she has endured these past couple days and all I have wanted to do is save her.  I have never been the type to sit down with a homeless person before and hear their story, but today I am.  Clinton’s story did something to me, and it made me not want to be afraid anymore.  To treat her like a friend she deserves.  Today I feel really stretched as I am going to take this young girl to lunch and just hear her heart.  I don’t know what will happen after, but I do know that God is using Clinton and I as his hands and feet on this earth.

I hope that this story has inspired you as much as it has inspired me.  I am not telling you this story hoping you will do the same, or to share that I have an amazing husband, but I am sharing it hoping that somewhere in your life you will stretch yourself out of your comfort zone.  To take time out of your busy schedule, to invest into someone you know who needs to be heard or someone you don’t know, that needs to just be looked at and viewed as an equal.

Here is a recipe, Chicken Gyros:

Tzatki Sauce:

• -1 and ½ individual size greek plain yogurt
• -1/2 cucumber, finely chopped
• -1 tsp of garlic salt
• -1 tsp of salt
• -1 tsp of lemon juice
• -1 tsp of pepper

Greek Lemon Chicken

• -2 chicken breasts cut in half and than covered with plastic wrap and beat with tenderizer (for thin pieces of meat)
• -1 lemon
• -1/2 tbsp of garlic salt
• -1/4 cup of olive oil
• -1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar
• – 1/2 tbsp of salt and pepper

Preheat Oven to 350F, in a pyrex dish add chicken.  Slice half of lemon into thin slices spreading over chicken. The other half of the lemon squeeze over the chicken.  Pour  the balsamic vinegar and olive oil, and than add salt, pepper and garlic salt.  Than heat the chicken to 30 minutes.Than slice the chicken into thin slices and put in your pita bread, with any other condiments on top…we like the tzatki sauce and feta cheese!!

What’s Your Passion?

What are you passionate about?  Are you pursuing that passion? If so, how? If not, why?

Yesterday I went to the Identity Conference, and left feeling adrenalized with so much passion I thought I was about to become the next Bill Gates…….(I know…a little over the top)  But I felt on top of the world.

Have you ever left a business/church/relationship conference walking away feeling so empowered and inspired to do something different with your life?  This I think is a pretty normal feeling. Why do we feel this way? Well it’s because for the past couple hours/weekend, life somewhat stopped…..your not in your office, not in class, not taking care of the kids, and not being distracted by everyday life.  Finally,  no one is looking at you or expecting anything from you, instead your looking at the speakers expecting something from them.  You finally get to be at this place where there are no distractions unless the guy next to you is picking his nose or the people around you are whispering (my pet peeve, NEWS FLASH: we can still hear you, whisperers!!!!)

Anyways….a conference is a place that you get to disconnect from your duties or tasks from the world for a little bit, and get to be you.  Its a place to grow, learn, and become inspired.  It’s a place to help get you motivated towards something your currently not, for some reason. Why is it, that when we leave this conference, most of the times everything we learned just stays on our notebook paper? Is it because once we get out of this conference….life hits us again with emails, meetings, schedules, cleaning, errands, picking up the kids, hw, projects, you name it were doing it.  So what happened at that conference and why isn’t it reflecting into our lives?

I believe that when we get back home life kinda hits…HARD!!!And we lose sight of why we even went to the conference in the first place.  Well, right now, I am making an active decision to continue my feelings and emotions I received at this conference yesterday. So for the next month I am going to take 30 minutes for ME.  Time away from life, and a time to reflect.  To reflect who I want to be, what I want to achieve, and why I want to achieve these things. We might not realize it, but we do have the ability to put a pause on life. Isn’t that INCREDIBLE!!!

Im doing it!!! Why? Because, at Identity Conference they inspired me and motivated to be the best me, I can be. To be fearless, and not let anyone stop me or get in the way of my passion.  Well, I am not going to let this conference just sit in my notebook. I want to actively live out what I learned at this conference and continue to let my imagination grow.

Don’t let fear, or this world distract you for WHO your supposed to be, WHERE your supposed to be, and WHAT your supposed to be doing.

Some people may look at you funny and think it looks dumb on the outside, but its because its not their passion, its YOURS.  Be brave and let your worst failures be your greatest successes.  If your not supporting yourself, than no one will support you.  Be your #1 Supporter. Believe in yourself, stay committed to yourself, and don’t be afraid to promote yourself.

So what is your passion? Run with it, and don’t look back.

Steven Chandler’s mission statement: “Create environments that enable individuals to release their genius and achieve things they never thought possible”

Think the IMPOSSIBLE.

Here is a recipe for amazing Apple Crisp:

Topping:

• 1/3 cup of flour
• 1/3 cup of sugar
• 1/3 cup of brown sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• 2/3 cup of oats ( I used packaged maple brown sugar oatmeal)
• 6 tablespoons of butter

Filling:

• ¼ cup sugar
• 2 tbsp flour
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ¼ salt
• 7 medium sized apples
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Preheat oven to 375

For topping grab a mixing bowl and add flour, sugar, brown sugar, salt, and oats. Mix together. Than add butter and mix all together, so it is crumby.  Than put in the fridge to let chill and harden while you make your filling.

Filling grab a mixing bowl and add sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt and mix together. Add peeled and sliced apples. Add lemon juice and mix together so all of the apples are coated evenly.  Coat an 8-inch glass pan or ceramic baking dish with butter. Add apple filling and spread evenly.  Than add the topping over apples. Cook for 40 minutes or until topping is crisp and add a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side.

Caleb’s World

This weekend, we had a very eventful family weekend.  We got the amazing blessing to babysit my brother Caleb, who is just the biggest joy on this earth to be around.  His biggest joys on this earth is Cheerios, jumping on the bed, tickle fights, and throwing people in the pool. And we did just that.  Having a down syndrome brother has changed my life.  He continues to show me and plenty of others what life is really supposed to be about. Happinness and love, the two things he does so well.

You see like my husband always says when he is around my brother, is that we forget how to live and he (Caleb) lives the right way.  He is the only person I know that will cheer for the other team he is playing against.  He will high-five you if you beat him in Wii, and cheer you on as if he is on your team.  There are no enemies in his eyes.  He sees us all being on the same team. WOW!! Could you imagine that? My husband and I are the most competitive people ever and are constantly trying to beat each other….definitely not high fiving each other when he gets a point. The thing I have realized is he’s on everyone’s team.  He never picks sides.  There are NO TEAMS!! He loves all…..unless you give him donuts or pizza then he might be on your side a little more (tried this and it works).

He loves hugs and wont let go, until you have felt all the love he has to offer.  When your around him he helps you remember how your supposed to live.  To not worry about anything, and love unconditionally.  He reminded me and my husband of this on Friday night.  We jumped on our bed and tickled each other until our abs were hurting, we sang songs in the car, laughed at each other, ran around racing each other in the grocery store, jumping in the pool, and eating popcorn and ice cream.

He doesn’t dress to impress, he doesn’t care about people’s opinions, he is happier than most people, and way more content with who he is than most people, and he doesn’t live his life to this worlds standards. He makes is own standards and they seem to work. He seems like he has figured out life way better than most people.  He is the happiest and most lovable person I have ever met, and brought so much joy to our family.  Seriously the most amazing gift God has given our family.  I think we take life for granted sometimes, and really should take a step back and analyze what is important to us.  I want to live in Caleb’s world!!!

On another note here is a recipe I made this weekend that was so good.  It was supposed to be bbq pulled pork, but it ended up being such good pork we just ate the pork by itself with mashed potatoes and asparagus. Enjoy!!

Crockpot Christmas Pork

• 1 medium yellow onion thinly sliced
• 4 medium garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 1 cup chicken stock
• ¼ cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt, plus more as needed
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 pork chops
• 2 cups barbecue sauce (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Place the onions and garlic in an even layer in the slow cooker and pour in the stock or broth. Combine the sugar,salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Pat the pork dry with paper towels. Rub the spice mixture all over the pork or put the mixture in a big plastic bag and add the pork in the bag and rub the mixture in the pork. Place the meat on top of the onions and garlic. Cover and cook until the pork is fork tender, about 5 to 7 hours on high or 8 to 10 hours on low.
2. Turn off the slow cooker and remove the pork to a cutting board. Set a fine-mesh strainer over a medium heatproof bowl. Pour the onion mixture from the slow cooker through the strainer and return the solids to the slow cooker. Set the strained liquid aside.

It Takes Practice to Make Perfect

Have you ever had one of those dessert’s that you just crave and want all the time?  Well my craving is crepes. NOT just any crepe……NUTELLA PEANUT BUTTER filled crepes.  I don’t know what it is, but for some reason the slimy texture of the crepe and the thinness is just so yummy.  I am not a pancake lover…I know, I don’t know whats wrong with me, so instead of pancakes, I eat crepes.

Now I have to give my husband all the credit for these, and the credit for my new awesome weight gain!!! (definitely sarcasm in that) They are just so delicious and so easy to make, its hard to resist NOT eating them.  Let me give you a little background story about these crepes, so you know the reason why we love them so much. He used to make swedish pancakes when we were dating and honestly they were good but not that good…(hopefully he doesnt read that) Here is a picture to show you the first swedish pancake he ever made me. (this is when I knew I loved him)

Looks pretty good for a first timer……than we brainstormed and he made me this crepe with fruit, when we were trying to be healthy before the wedding #Diet4Dayzzz

Than when we were on our honeymoon and we found our weakness.  A crepe bar…….. let me tell you we ate crepes 3 times a day!!!! After our breakfast, lunch, and dinner!!!  That is not normal!!!

If you can’t tell they fold the sides over so it is in a square shape, and the nutella is in the middle as a filling!!!! Okay this is why it was our weakness and now maybe explains why all of our jeans are tight on us!! #toolate2diet?

So he now comes back from our honeymoon and has a mission. To make the crepes taste just as good when we were in Jamaica.  He buys all the tools and a specific pan and this is how they turned out!!!!!!

Here is the recipe:

• 3 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups low-fat milk
• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons butter melted
• ½ tsp of cinnamon
• ½ tsp of vanilla

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs with half the milk. Beat in flour and salt until smooth.Stir in melted butter and remaining milk, cinnamon, and vanilla.Heat a griddle or large skillet with a small amount of vegetable oil.For each pancake, pour about 1/4 cup batter onto the griddle and cook over medium heat 1 to 2 minutes.With a spatula, turn the pancakes and cook until golden brown, about 1/2 minute, and than add any filling you want.  Than fold over if you have the right tools and serve warm with a side of milk.

By the way, it takes practice to make perfect.  Don’t give up.

What Does the Fox Say

On Friday, we invited some of our friends over that we hadn’t seen since being married.  We were called the fearsome 6.  We hung out all the time, went up to San Francisco together, went to the movies, ate lots of food together, watched youtube videos together, had inside jokes, and could basically finish each others sentences.  We were that friend group…… (and we definitely sang together What Does the Fox Say)

I was so excited to see them, that I wanted to bake a goodie for them.  I actually just wanted to have an excuse for me to eat chocolate #whatelseisnew

It also gave me an excuse to decorate our home for Halloween. This meant I got to decorate however I wanted, because it was MY HOME (well my husbands home too).  Since we are on the #marriedbudget that meant I was on an hunt for cheap accessories to decorate our home. My destination = TARGET.

First of all, I am a business student, so I notice product positioning.  Right when you walk into Target there is the DOLLAR SPOT!! Okay let me tell you that place is dangerous.  They have so many goodies that are only $1!!! But you end up buying tons of things for $1, and it equals out to as if nothing was $1!!  I do have to say, its awesome and now every time I enter Target, I will be going in blindfolded until I pass that section.

I decided to make some chocolate cake pops.  These turned out to be a huge hit, and my husband now wants me to make them for his birthday!!!

Chocolate Cake Pops

• 1 box of chocolate cake mix
• 1 package of chocolate almond bark
• 1 can of chocolate frosting
• 1 container of sprinkles

Follow the directions on the cake box, and cook a cake as you normally would.  After the cake is baked in your pan, let it cool for 30 minutes.  Once cooled move the cake into a bowl, grabbing sections of the cake so it falls apart in your bowl.  Then us a spoon to break apart the cake, and turn it into crumbs.  Then add the can of chocolate frosting (may not need to add the entire can of frosting, just depends on the moisture of the cake). Then mix the crumbs and cake together until you get a moist texture.  After mixing roll the cake into balls the size of a golf ball.  Put these balls on a cookie sheet and then put in the freezer to let them harden for 10 minutes.  Grab a saucepan and put the chocolate almond bark in the pan on Lo heat, until it is smooth and melted. Once the cake balls are pretty stiff, cover them with the chocolate in the saucepan and add them back on the cookie sheet. You can then put these covered chocolate cake balls back in the fridge to harden for 15 minutes.  Then take them out, eat, and serve!!!

Just One of Those Nights

There is a famous line that I hear a lot of people saying and it goes something like this….”My diet starts tomorrow….”  Well I think I have said this every day now since I have been married…… #justoneofthosenights. Since being married, we constantly have fun in the kitchen and want to bake new recipes. Since no one is living with us….we just eat it all.  #notokay #welovefood Last night was one of these nights where we couldn’t stop and well today we’re saying “Our diet starts tomorrow…or never” .

This is a really funny clip I thought was appropriate for this blog. I can’t tell you how many inside jokes we have with our friends and family over this clip.

This happens to be what I am saying today after a night like last night.

I came home late from school last night and hadn’t defrosted anything out of the freezer or even think about what we were having for dinner.  I knew we were carving pumpkins and I wouldn’t have time to cook up a nice dinner. So I decided to not even think about dinner until our stomachs started growling (which isn’t the best time to think about dinner, because you run into your kitchen devouring anything and everything that is edible in front of you once you get hungry)  #dontrecommendthat

So we start off with the halloween candy on our coffee table, that is supposed to be for our cute trick or treaters…..  That satisfied us enough for about 20 minutes until the next devour, so we continue pumpkin carving.  I started getting really excited about pumpkin carving because all of these memories that you have as a kid come rushing back to you in the moment.  I wanted to eat pumpkin seeds, and carve a really cool design now that I was older and artistic…or so I thought I was……(mine looks like a 3rd grader).  Than of course listen to the good old jams like Ghostbuster and Monster Mash…..I don’t know about anyone else but these sounded a little bit cooler when I was a kid (I still knew all the words). #notashamed

It was about that time we were getting hungry once again and time to make pumpkin seeds.  Really hard recipe folks!!

Pumpkin Seeds:

• Preheat oven to 350 F
• Wash the pumpkin seeds
• Put them on a baking sheet spread evenly
• Put salt on them
• Bake for 20 minutes

That held us over for about 1 minute and now was time for our extravagant dinner…DiGiorno pepperoni and sausage pizza!!!!

Than you can’t have pizza without cookies, so I finally decided to actually be in the kitchen longer than 10 minutes and bake Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies:

Makes 24 cookies (depending on how big you make the cookies…we only made 12 huge cookies)

• 1-1/2 sticks of softened butter
• 1 egg
• ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-1/4 cup of flour (if you don’t want them too thin, I would add another ¼ cup extra flour)
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ teaspoon of salt
• 1 ½ cup of chocolate chips
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup granulated sugar

Preheat your oven at 375 degrees.  Add all ingredients into a large bowl and mix away, until ingredients are blended.  If you want your cookies right away, then put the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  If you can wait for the cookies, I recommend letting the cookie dough get a little stiff in the refridgerator, for about 30 minutes.  Than take out the dough and start rolling them onto the backing sheet, let the cookies bake for about 8-12 minutes (depending on your oven).  Than eat them all with a glass of milk before anyone else has the chance too!!! Seriously amazing cookies!!

Our diet starts tomorrow……..

La Salsa (Spanish for Salsa)

Today we have a special guest on the blog, he’s really handsome, but taken ladies….sorry #myhusband

Hola Amigo’s . Me llamo es Clinton Roberto Philipe Jose Santiago MUÑOZ. I vant to tell you a leetle stohry of when I vas a young boy and how mi padre’s salsa came to be…..

Growing up I noticed how people loved my dad’s salsa. He would make it and then all of a sudden family from all over the place that I hadn’t seen in years  would be at my house! (misunderstanding of Christmas and Thanksgiving)… One time these two you guys even fought for who would get the last drip. I would ask my dad, “papi, when can I  learn how to make your salsa?” he would answer, “you’re still too young mijo.” Not until three weeks ago did i understand what he meant. This salsa cannot be taught. It has to come from within. So Here is what you need to do: Embrace the inner mexican. #sombrero #starttalkingspanglish #eatbeans

The recipe below is not exactly how I did it. Every time I would add something Charity would say, “how much of that did you use?!” and I would answer, “a pinch and a half???” #notarealmeasurement.  The truth is, we don’t know exactly but I think we got close. But no matter how perfect you get the quantity, it is the pinch here and the pinch there with the touch of Mexican Love that makes it La Salsa. (that’s spanish for #thesalsa) 

Homemade Salsa

• 1/2 Diced tomatoe can
• half chopped onion
• 6 green onions chopped
• 1-1/2 limes, squeezed
• half bunch of cilantro
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1/2 tbsp pepper
• 1 whole pepper chopped

Then blend it all together in a food processor or my favorite, the magic bullet!!!

Chicks Dig Scars

“Chicks dig scars” my dad would always say this to me, when my brother or him got hurt. He would look at me and say its true!! “Girls love scars on guys, it makes them look tough” he would say.  I think it was more to help my little brother feel confident whenever he had a scar, and make him feel like a tough man. But till this day, I have always believed girls dig scars. ….Well do guys dig scars?

“There is something beautiful about all scars, of whatever nature.  A scar means the hurt is over, the wound is closed and healed, done with.” Harry Crews

When I think of a scar, I of course remember what my dad always said about them, but they also mean something different to me.  I think they are a live example of the process of healing, that we get to show to others. No matter how deep, or small the wound or cut may be, it shows what kind of person we are.  Everyone knows when they have a wound or cut that it definitely doesn’t heal overnight.  We know that there is a process for healing.

But of course these marks don’t leave us.  They will always be there. Showing a visual representation to the world of the suffering you went through.  But good news is, its only for a season!! These marks now represent something different.

We can now choose to show  and represent this scar as something that is healed, and beautiful (or strength for you men).  These scars tell stories, of the person you are and how you got there. You can now share with others that healing takes time, but in the end those scars turn into something beautiful.  I think scars are a beautiful picture of life, and how we get through tough times.  They leave a scar on our body but how you NOW represent this scar makes all the difference.

I refer to them as beauty/healing marks on my body.  These marks have turned me into the strong woman of God that I now am.  I love showing people my wounds, because it allows me to show a picture to them of real wounds in their lives that have caused them deep hurt and suffering.  The process is not short, but in the end it can be turned into a beauty mark, to represent your strength.

Well enough of me talking about deep stuff.  This is a recipe blog….(I guess its somewhat my life stories too) #excitedaboutit.  Yesterday morning I had more time in the morning than I usually do, and saw that the spinach in our fridge was getting bad. Since nothing is ever wasted, I wanted to turn it into something yummy.  I decided to make a spinach, egg, bacon, ham, and potato casserole!!! So yummy!! What to make when you have spinach thats getting old?

Egg Spinach Potato Casserole

Here’s all you need:

1. 1 ½ cup potatoes (sliced or shredded)
2. Salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste
3. 1/2 C cooked and diced {any combination of the following} bacon, ham, sausage, spinach.
4. 8 eggs
5. ½ cup Tbsp whole milk or half & half
6. 1 ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese

Here’s all you do:

1. Heat oven to 350*; spray an 8 x 8 dish with non-stick cooking spray
2. Arrange potatoes in a single layer in pan
3. Add salt, pepper and garlic powder
4. Add bacon, ham, sausage, spinach
5. In a medium bowl, beat eggs and milk
6. Pour egg mixture over potatoes
7. Sprinkle with cheese
8. Bake at 350* for 50 minutes or until eggs are firm

So your probably wondering why I brought up scars…well let’s just say maybe I could make a profession of hurting myself while cooking. #cookingproblems

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