The Month To Surpass All Months

It's here! It's here! We are officially in February and I am too hype, because that means my wedding is in just over three weeks! Ahhhh! Excitement, man. Excitement. So many awesome things are happening this month, I just have to share...

February 4

Bridal Shower! My maid of honor, who's been my best friend since like...forever!, has been totally enjoying herself by not sharing ANY details with me about the shower. Grrr! Oh well, I know I'll enjoy it :-)

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February 5

 The Favorite and I's 3 year dating anniversary! (Oh, you thought I was gonna say the Super Bowl?! I didn't even know it was on the fifth til my brother told me a couple days ago. Shows how much football I watch!)

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February 14

 Valentine's Day! Not even one my favorite "holidays," but I'm always down for chocolate :-)

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February 18

 Spiritual Birthday! On this day of 2001, Jesus drew me to Himself, opening my spiritually blind eyes to see my need of Him and His grace and mercy! No longer am I among the walking dead, but the alive in Christ!

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February 25

WEDDING DAY! "And the two shall become one..." It's so surreal; I'm marrying the love of my life! My first boyfriend is also my last, and I have the honor of being his wife! (And he has the honor of being my husband! hehe) Definitely pray for us, that we'll truly have a wedding & marriage that honors the Lord!

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February 26

 Cruise!! DEFINITELY looking forward to the honeymoon, ya'll. Nobody better try to contact us! ;-)

Do you see how much LOVE is in each of these days!? From the beginning of the month with people showering love and gifts on me and the Favorite, to the beautiful union we'll have before family and friends, love, GOD's love is so real and present. And with that in mind, I already know that there are probably more things that are going to arise during this month, some great, some not so great, but in the midst of it all, whether good or bad, I choose to rejoice, and I choose to count my blessings because they are MANY and my great God has been doing, is doing, and will continue to do a great work! 

Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you 

will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.

~Philippians 1:6

Gourmet Pizza, Friends, and Fun

At the beginning of the year, there was one thing on the minds of me and several other ladies: Action. Each of us have different stories; whether individually or collectively we'd been seeking to know the Lord more and more. Books, Bible studies, accountability, church activities, and more had been apart of our lives We all want to be examples to others of Biblical womanhood, but standing alone, attempting to become the Proverbs 31 prototype can all too often begin to feel dreadful and burdensome. Where was the joy? (Or maybe that's just me...?)

Either way, on January 2nd, me and four other ladies gathered around my best friend's table and tossed around different things that personified biblical womanhood to each of us (Biblically based, of course). We also shared goals for the year, both spiritually and otherwise, things we want to learn, and prayer requests. Once all of this was laid out, we submitted it all before the Lord in prayer, leaving our goals and desires at His feet for Him to do with them as He saw fit during the year of 2012. Though we weren't sure how it would all play out, we knew one thing. We were actually going to ACT. We collectively determined that by putting feet to our faith during 2012, this year, even more so than previous years, would actually be one of action. Actually. Action.

Photo credits go to Treneka,
who needs to make a website for her awesome photography!

One thing that was a general consensus is that we all gotta work on our cooking! Haha. So it's set up where each month a different person will "host" an event or outing that coincides with something we discussed early in the year. What better way to start than by food and fellowship!? My best friend (who's also my Maid of Honor! sidenote, hehe) hosted the first one, and made it a Chicken Pizza Night. It was a great turnout, and we ended up being able to catch up with some we haven't seen in years! We each brought an ingredient and made everything but the dough from scratch! We ended up making three pizzas! They were DELISH. We got the recipe from The Pioneer Woman, who we all know (or...anyone who knows who she is!) is an amazing cook!

Photo credits go to Treneka, who needs to make a website for her awesome photography!

 There are so many more things we want to do together to grow as young women to the glory of the Lord, and I think this was a great kick off! Actually Action is actually happening!

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant or to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God,

 who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 

Command them to do go and to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.

 ~1 Tim. 6:18-19

How are you ready to Actually Act this year?

Marking Time

We're almost an entire month into 2012, but I'm still going to say it, for posterity's sake: HAPPY NEW YEAR! Time is FLYING, and for obvious reasons, I'm very excited. Oh, did you miss the obvious reason? I'M GETTING MARRIED NEXT MONTH!!! Woohoo! It's so crazy how quickly time has passed; one day the Favorite is proposing to me in DC, the next day I'm 27 days away from being a bride and a wife! Excitement!

Unfortunately the Favorite and I weren't able to bring in the new year together because he was sick :-( He was the first person I called though! :-) My family and I went to our church's annual NYE gathering with food, games, worship, and testimonies about the Lord's working over the past year! It was a blessing. My last time having a New Years Eve with my "maiden name"!! :-)

Life is definitely busy right now, as anyone who is married, has been to a wedding, or has at least watched a wedding show can imagine. (Hence the reason I'm saying Happy New Year 29 days into the year! hehe) But I don't want to neglect to share the awesome things that the Lord has been doing from day one of 2012! I will definitely be having more posts to give a glimpse of these final weeks as I go from being a Miss to a Mrs.

How have you seen the Lord work so far in 2012? Are there things that you are anticipating happening during the upcoming months? I'd love to hear :-)

...And Who Am I To Think Otherwise?

In 59 days I will be a "Mrs." ...Incredible, right? I am so very excited; time has flown by faster than I ever could have imagined!! If 200 days went by this quickly, then I can only imagine how fast the last 59 will go, ahhh!

Anyways, there is a LOT of stuff that needs to get done still. Wedding related, life related, etc., etc. And I know myself. Sometimes I get overwhelmed, because I'll sit there, and I'll stare at the circumstances, and you know what happens? The longer I look at it, the bigger it gets, the bigger it seems, and then I begin to feel crushed and perplexed and frustrated... My emotions go haywire and I start to freak out and I think I just can't handle it and I wonder where in the world is God working in this? and why me? and why can't it just go easy for my like in such in such person's life? and on and on and on and on and ON go the questions and complaints. Then I hole myself away and bawl my eyes out and sleep and sleep, and bawl my eyes out again, then I vent to the Favorite and then, THEN I do what I should've done at the very beginning--opened up my Word, poured out my heart to Him in prayer, and let those burdens go from my heart and shoulders to His.

It's really quite unfortunate that this is the case, but by no means do I desire to purport myself to you guys like some kind of perfect Christian who isn't in need of some serious growth. Because clearly, I'm not! But amazing things happen when you really confront the truth about yourself instead of just ignoring flaws like they'll just disappear over time. (Trust me, they just magnify!)

Now, to switch gears for a sec...James is such an awesome book, man! I love it. As I'm writing, I just opened up my Bible to chapter 1, and there are like fifty billion sticky notes with stuff written on them from that chapter alone! Not to mention most of the verses in the chapter are either circled or underlined. All that to say that this is a well read chapter in my Bible. Even still, I think this is a good time to go over it again!

Now I'm no Bible scholar, but as I read there are three main things I can pull out that James predominantly talks about in chapter one: Trials (v.1-12), Temptations (v. 13-18), and Adherence to the Word (v. 19-27). ALL of it is good and convicting and essential to the life of a believer, but I'm gonna focus on that last one, adherence to the Word. You know, for a while I was in complete denial that I'm the type of person that lets life circumstances affect my emotions and relationships. I think I got really good at hiding it from myself by saying things like, "Oh, I just learn to adapt quickly," or "I'll be okay," or "Things could be worse." Now all of these things are actually true, but deep down I was using those cliches to smother this fear and doubt that this time the change would be too much for me, and I won't be able to handle it, that things could only get worse from here.

My relationship with the Favorite has played an integral role in me admitting that what I believed about myself was not actually the case. (I mean, it's always easier to think better of ourselves than we actually are, right?) Well this is a rough comparison, I'm gonna reference the section where James talks about how we are not merely to be hearers of the Word, but also doers.

Anyone who listens to the Word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

Now that was me. Just as though I were looking in the mirror to see if there were any flaws in need of correction, I was confronted with the fact that I really don't trust God with situations (I'd just allow them to overwhelm me until I reached some sort of breaking point). But upon realizing there was something wrong, you know what I would do? Walk away, and completely forget that there was ever anything wrong and in need of fixing. Is the problem gone because I ignored it? Absolutely not! If anything, I am worse off than before because those sins and doubts and lack of trust begin to fester and grow and swell into something uglier and even more self-destructive than before.

Thank God the scripture doesn't end there! I don't have to muddle through my life with false truths about myself and a lack of faith in God. James continues by saying,

But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in what he does.

There is so much freedom in allowing God to show us what's real about us and to transform us from the inside out!! I stopped letting what God was saying to me go in one ear and out the other; I stopped and listened, then I acted upon what He was saying.

So now, back to all the gazillion things I need to get done between now and the wedding day. Why sit here stressing my little mind about what could be and what might happen and so on? If it doesn't fall under the parameters of what God says in Philippians 4:8 (thinking on things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, praiseworthy), then I need to cast down those imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bring into captivity every thought unto the obedience of Christ! As I actively DO what God is telling me in order to have better responses to life's situations, the unhealthy and, dare I say, sinful habits and negative responses I've grown accustomed to begin to take a backseat go in the trunk go out the window!

There are a ton of unanswered questions in regard to how some pretty important details are going to work out for the wedding and life after the wedding. However, I know my God, and He is the first and the last, the beginning and the end, and before I was even formed in my mother's womb He knew me and knew I'd be getting married in February 2012 and that I'd face situations and struggles outside of my control. This same God who knows all this also has ALL power to work all these things together for my good! That's what He said He'd do, so who am I to think otherwise?

Holiday Week and Sore Feet

Sorry I've been gone so long, guys. I just could not seem to work up the motivation or the energy to write a new post. (Something I'll be working on for 2012 ;) hehe.) These past few weeks I've been working a ridiculous schedule at work. I've been a sales associate for Things Remembered (TR) for almost two years now (I do sales, managerial, and engraving duties), and this job has definitely made Christmas the least anticipated season of the year for me! Sounds sad, right? Maybe if you've ever been a sales associate during the holidays, you understand. TR engraves items for customers same or next day, and any items that customers choose to pick up the next day have to get engraved overnight. Big deal, you say? Well, overnight typically means that a shift that would normally end at 11:00pm extends til 8:00am the next morning! Alas. Sleepiness. And soreness. Nothing like standing over an engraving machine for 10+ hours! Thankful for the job, even still. Well, now that Christmas is here, I can officially say that the holiday craze is over (at least for my store), but my sleep schedule has been all out of whack! So here I am, 6:15 in the morning, typing a blog post! In spite of the time, I'm glad to be getting one done. :-)

Anyways, MERRY CHRISTMAS! everyone!! Today is also my younger sister's 19th birthday, so a huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY shout out to her! My family, including the Favorite and my brother in law, had a Christmas Eve birthday celebration for Erin so we could all be together for it, and it was So. Much. Fun. From the delicious food my sis and her husband baked from scratch, to singing along to the Sound of Music, to dancing the Cupid Shuffle to finishing off the night with homemade pound cake and homemade fried ice cream, it was an all around fantastic night!! After we left their place at like 2am, we got our Christmas tree. Better late than never, right? Well typically my family gets it closer to Christmas anyway, so this was no new phenomena, hehe. I was knocked out in the car during most of the tree buying process, except for when I was ever so rudely awakened by gusts of cold air swirling into the car as my dad and brothers tied said tree to the truck :-/ Even more...excitement...followed when we got home... But I won't share those details on here, not yet. Haha. But yes, it's now only 6:31am, and it's already looking to continue being a great day!

In other news, today is the two month mark for the Favorite and I's wedding day!! So incredibly super excited!! It's crazy how quickly time has flown by, and thinking about it in terms of days (62 days!) makes it seem all the more close. There is still so much prep to be done, but slowly but surely it's all coming together.

Hmm, let's see what else I can update you all on... Well, I have been cooking alot of random yummy things lately, and if you couldn't tell by the word "yummy," they've been coming out delish! Fried fish and grits with seasoned tomatoes, meatloaf and mashed potatoes, country fried pork chops, and more! Yum yum yum. I took some pictures, so if I can find them perhaps I'll share :-)

Ya'll familiar with Pinterest? Well, I am new to it and already absolutely in love with it! It has so much amazing cool stuff on there that I want to try! What's really cool is that I found out about it around the same time my bestest and I began discussing how we can become more Proverbs 31-ish in the new year, and we've both seen on the site that we can really put to use! Excitement! Actually, there are more details to come about this; I'll probably share in a New Year's post!

Life is good though, really. The Lord has been so gracious and faithful to continually, by His Holy Spirit, remind me of the things He's been teaching me in His Word, preaching, articles, and other formats. I have got some MAJOR stuff to work on though!! Like it says in James, the Bible really is a mirror, and it is a constant fight to kill my flesh and keep on looking into that mirror and make changes as the Lord leads instead of going away and forgetting what I really look like before Him. The Christian walk is a constant battle, and I'm working on keeping my armor on every day!

Well, this has been quite a smorgasbord of a post!! I could hardly ask you to provide as many snippets of your life from the past few weeks as I've just provided you with, so I'll end this with one question that I'm asking myself also:

What are you doing this year during this Christmas season to really make Christ known to those around you, to set you apart from Christmas celebrations as the world knows it? 

Hmm... Food for thought!

Enjoy your Christmas, guys! :-)

Thanksgiving Comes 365 Days A Year

I had such a great Thanksgiving with my family! Unfortunately, my hermanita and her husband weren't with us this year, but my boo and I got to do most of the food prep this year together, which kinda made up for that, haha. Even though we should be thankful every single day out of the year, it is extra special to have a day set aside to celebrate the manifold blessings the Lord pours out on us! No matter our circumstances, the sovereignty of God alone is a reason to rejoice and give thanks! 

Elijah made the green bean casserole this year, and it turned out delicious!!! Making it is pretty straightforward ...unless of course your can opener is broken. Ahhh!! Thanksgiving day issues!! Well the Favorite was able to put his knife skills to the test, and at a safe distance I watched as he chopped open the can of green beans, hehehe. 'Twas quite entertaining, I must say. Just glad he didn't lose any appendages!!

He was so intent on it!! How adorable. :) 

I made cranberry sauce from scratch, as I have been for the past few years now. Turned out tasty, but for whatever reason the two bags of cranberries I got from the store made sooo much more sauce than it has in years past!! Weird... Funny story though -  When the Favorite and I went to the store to get the cranberries, as we were approaching the produce section, all of a sudden A BIRD FLEW OUT OF THE GRAPES!! Yes, there was a bird in the grocery store, hiding out in the grapes, eating them! Guess we scared it off! We just looked at each other and busted out laughing. I'm still chuckling to myself now just thinking about it!!

We decided to go the pre-cooked turkey route, primarily thanks to the hermanita and brother in law getting our turkey for us! I am SO glad it was precooked too, because I really wasn't feeling like putting in the work this year to do it from scratch, hehe. It was really quite tasty, though. Yay Butterball!

Now, check out these before and after pics of these rolls we get every year! You butter them, let them thaw, let them rise, then bake them!! We ended up letting them rise for a SUPER long time so they went from 

THIS...

to THIS....

Hahah!! They were pretty much swelling up over the pan! It was fun to poke them though; they were definitely the most abnormally plush rolls I've ever had! Tasted really good fresh out the oven though!

Pretty much all the food is ready to eat....

Mr. Turkey and Mrs. Ham....

Joshua planted himself right in front of the turkey, and I can't say I blame him! I was ready to eatttt....

My hubby to be is just too cute. :)

Erin's home from Howard for Thanksgiving break!! Not to into taking pics right now... but once the food's getting served, smiles pop up all around!! 

My mommy is so pretty! And she got her braces off! Look at that sparkly white smile! :-D

Daddy insisted on getting some dishes done RIGHT before we were about to eat!! Typical, hehe. He's looking forward to dinner, too, especially since we were eating around 5:30 instead of our typical late dinner :-/ 

Smiles :-)

Yep, that's my plate. And that's not even all the food!! That's just all I could fit on my plate at the time... (sidenote, my dad makes the BEST sweet potatoes in the WORLD!!)

Our food preferences are quite different, and we're still learning to adjust! But included a few of my Favorite's  choices on the Thanksgiving menu this year, so yay :)

She kept trying to sneak extra ham!! But I caught her in the act ;-)

There's me!! Haven't quite made a dent in my food yet though... 

Falling into a food coma... 

The Favorite is falling into a food coma, too! 

I HAD to make some ice blue raspberry lemonade koolaid :)

Erin and Daddy having fun dancing off the food! :) So sweet.

Hope all of my readers also had a FANTASTIC Thanksgiving this year!! Anything special happen? What'd you do? I'd love to hear! Next up...CHRISTMAS! :-)

O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever!!  ~Psalm 30:12b

Having Fun Isn't Hard When You've Got A Library Card!

I love Arthur, man. Nope, I didn't accidentally write that in the present tense; I still enjoy the show now! :-) Arthur taught me how to spell "aardvark", the greatness it is to own a library card, and all sorts of other cool stuff! Ya know, I think I just may get on Netflix and watch some Arthur after this :) Just kidding, maybe some other time. Lol. Anyways, in case you didn't know, my status is from a song on Arthur, that you can listen to here, it's pretty awesome. It randomly popped into my head when I looked over at the stack of books I have next to my bed that are on my "to do" list to read!



Technically I didn't get most...well, actually any of these books from the library; a friend let me borrow them! (She actually just got married a few months ago, and I so admire how she and her hubby have actively been drawing near to the Lord, and thus to each other, from their dating, to engagement, to now!) A couple of the books are actually from my personal library though (personal library = the box in my closet I just started unpacking two days ago).

One thing I really want to do is take in as many resources as possible in preparation for becoming a wife, and Lord willing one day a mother! The first and main resource will continue to be my Bible, and the other books will just be supporting literature. Here are some (or maybe I'll just include all!) of the ones that I plan to have finished between now and February...

This book is amazing already! This topic and these lessons excite me, and it's like ahhh, I really am about to be a wife, and one day a mom! That's enough to bring me to my knees right there, and cry out the Lord to make His Word clear and real and apparent and evident in the fruit of my life! 

I started this one a couple years ago, and never quite finished it... I figure now is as good a time as any to pick it back up though!

Single, dating, engaged, married, EVERYONE can read this book. It's crazy how the world's view of sex and things related to it can begin to subconsciously permeate our thinking and distort the way GOD views it and how we should also see it! Plus this is by Piper!? Looking forward to getting to this one.

I was lost but now I'm found! While this typically refers to the person lost without Christ then being found by Him, I am actually referring to the fact that I borrowed this book from my bestest years ago and definitely thought I lost it :-/ But lo and behold, it was in the unpacked box, go fig! I was LOVING it before I semi-lost it, so I'm definitely looking forward to getting back into it. EVERYONE READ THIS!!! It's amazing. And now I get to relate it to the covenant of marriage, woohoo!

Just like Sex and the Supremacy of Christ, people have super distorted views of marriage in the world today. (Think, Kim Kardashian. I could care less about her, but everyone was blowing up Twitter about her and her ridiculously, shamefully short "marriage.") Walking in reality about the purpose of marriage, expectations, and more is essential to starting off strong! (I talk like I've been married before! hehe. This is just what I've heard. ;)

I don't know what to say other than I am absolutely intrigued and I already know that this book will have some crazy great application points. And conviction points. Gahhh! Good stuff.

That is quite a few books, don't ya think?? That's 826 pages, not including Disciplines of a Godly Woman and Our Covenant God. (I didn't feel like getting up to get those two out of the box in my closet.) Good thing I like to read!

Again, reading the Word is essential and should always be the primary source of gaining wisdom in every area, but specifically biblical womanhood, since that's what I'm trying to grow in! One thing that really made me happy was in the intro to Feminine Appeal (or maybe the review? I don't recall) it said that for the readers who don't have a discipler or other such Titus 2 figure in their life, this book can serve as that mentor! I thought that was cool. There are definitely several examples of biblical womanhood I can think of in my life right off the bat (my Madre, for one!!), but the supplementary teaching will, I think, be very beneficial for me.

So this is probably a good spot to insert that these aren't books that you should only read if you are engaged to be married! Preparation should begin before the engagement season! (Not to say I haven't been preparing, I'm just saying...umm...foot in my mouth?...yeah.) I've already suggested Feminine Appeal to a friend, and I haven't even gotten through the first chapter; it's just that good! VERY convicting, but God's Word being brought to light and seeing how He can make me into a beautiful example of a godly woman definitely stirs me to change! Oh, but as I was saying, I definitely encourage my female readers to check these out! And yes, the male readers too, if you so desire hehe. Plus a couple of them, like Sex and the Supremacy of Christ, Our Covenant God, and When Sinners Say I Do aren't written *just* for women. :-)

To my engaged and married readers:  What kind of prep are you doing or did you do prior to getting married? Books? Sermons? Counseling? I'd love feedback, as I am open to checking out new tools and ideas and passing them on to others!

To my single, dating, and confused readers: (I'm kidding about the confused! ...actually I'm not, I suppose it is quite possible to be confused about your "relationship" status...!) What kind of prep are you doing now, or would you like to do, not just for marriage, but in becoming the type of woman or man that God desires to make you into? Any good books, or groups you get involved with? Anything? I'm all ears! ...er, eyes! You know, since I'm reading, not listening... haha. (Don't mind my corny jokes. You don't have to laugh. I do though.)

Definitely looking forward to seeing what you guys share! And who knows, maybe I'll end up posting up some reviews or lessons I learn from the books as I go; we shall see...!!!