Graceful

Do you ever start reading a book and feel like it was written just for you?

A few days ago, I started reading the book Graceful: Letting Go of Your Try-Hard Life. I am so glad I did. It is not an ordinary Christian book for girls; it does not map out any dating rules, tell you to obey your parents, guide you in how to manage media, or teach you how to be a good Christian girl. This book starts with the good girl. The girl whose followed the rules her whole life. The responsible one with a good image. It takes the good girl and removes her masks. In this book, Emily delves into the many roles girls can play and shows that simply trusting God is much more valuable than having it all together. "Emily Freeman gives young women what they need to be set free on the inside, no matter what is going on outside." 

Why am I so excited about this book? Because it is tying together what I've been trying to figure out for three years. Well, actually, it's not tying anything together. God is doing the tying, He is just using this book. When I was about fourteen years old, I realized something about myself. I wasn't myself! I had built up a reputation for being a good girl, but it was a mask and I could not remove it because I had no idea what I really looked like. "What a long time it can take to become the person one has always been! How often in the process we mask ourselves in faces that are not our own" (Parker J. Palmer). All my life I have been pretty much the same:  kind, sweet, reliable, responsible, innocent. I wore a purity ring, went to church every Sunday, got good grades, obeyed my parents, and worked hard. I've never been beautiful or stunning, but I'm "cute"; the perfect good girl with a pretty smile. For the first fourteen years of my life, I pretty much went with the flow.

Fun Facts Friday

1. Shane Harper is a Christian. I read it in World magazine. He listens to Tim Keller sermons. He shared the gospel with Bridget Mendler and now they're dating. Pretty exciting news if you ask me! :D

2. Jumbo coloring pages are the bomb.

3. Sunscreen is always a good  idea because sunburns HURT. And peel.... which is nasty. Why is this information so fresh and prominent in my mind? Well...

4. I love Don't Waste Your Life. I've made significant progress in this book and it is amazing! 

5. The best place to read is poolside. Well I guess it might not be the best place (sunburn...) but it is where I'm doing most of my reading lately and I gotta say I love it.  I am even reading for fun! Something that is almost impossible during the school year. Re-discovering why I named my dog Scout. 

To Kill a Mockingbird

Strawberry French Toast

This is the yummiest breakfast you will ever eat. 

A few weeks ago, my family and I went to the Cafe for Sunday brunch and I ordered strawberry French toast. It was super delicious, but I kinda forgot about it until a few days ago when I caught a glimpse of the people on the Today's Show making French toast. All the yummy memories came back and I decided I HAD to recreate the recipe. I did a pretty good job if I do say so myself!

What does it mean when your dog has better self-control than you do?

Worn

According to John Piper, the key to not wasting your life is gladly making others glad in Christ. "The greatest cause in the world is joyfully rescuing people from hell, meeting their earthly needs, making them glad in God, and doing it with a kind, serious pleasure that makes Christ look like the treasure He is" (Don't Waste Your Life). This is my goal in  my un-wasted life: to fulfill my purpose of glorify God and enjoy Him and let others witness it so they may see Christ as a treasure. However, this past week it was an excruciating struggle to complete this goal, because it was very difficult to be glad.

My week did not start smoothly, within two days I was physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually wasted. I envied my hours at home regretting wasting them sleeping, at the same time thinking sleep could not last long enough. It was a challenge just to keep myself from crying when no one was looking. But I forced myself to pull it together, to be glad so that others could be glad. Yet there was no joy in me. I was worn out and useless to everyone.

First Fun Facts Friday

1. Alliteration. It's fun. As you can tell from the title of this post :)

2. Etc. stands for et cetera. This is probably something I should have already known, but I just figured it out today while reading my College Composition book. Those writing people, they know all the words.

3. Yeah, they know ALL the words. Today I learned about a million (eh, maybe closer to 19...) commonly confused terms. Do you know all the rules for "lay" and "lie"? "Who" and "whom"? "Farther" and "further"? Yeah, I didn't think so!

4. I can make a one eyed smiley face--> .) Sorry, maybe that wasn't necessary, but it is a pretty cool discovery and I may start using it! :)

5. I LOVE the sun roof in my car! I have had my car for 1 1/2 years and have never utilized that window because I was wasn't sure how to close it. But today, listening to this song it opened. This will be the beginning of a beautiful summer!

Summer Plan

JUNE. Summer. Pool side, long walks, tanning, ice cream, zoo, theme park, beach, mowing. Free time.

Summer tunes anyone? Many various styles included :)

Or work. 9-4. Then another job, fitness training, cheer, and studying. Yay? I'm actually going to be busier this summer than I was during the school year. Didn't know that was possible, and it really isn't. I don't think I can physically do all I have planned for the summer... But I might add one more thing to the pile.. Blogging!

I was looking back at my New Year's Resolutions and one of them was to blog once a week which would total 56 blog posts in 2013. I have 8.... So I thought I might want to catch up during the summer! I would like to do three posts a week... not sure how that will go, if I will be able to get them all in, but that is my goal! And to help me with my goal I've made an update  to how I will blog! *drumroll* I am going to try to post one new recipe every Saturday, have a "Fun Facts Friday" where I will just give an update on all the funny little things in my life, and possibly a "What I Ate Wednesday"... depending on how foodie I want my blog to become and how boring I decide posts like that would be :P. I will also continue to post longer thoughts on life and such, like I have been doing, whenever I have thoughts to share! Hopefully I can keep up with this schedule and keep my posts interesting...! Summer here we come!