Excitement!

It's been a roller coaster of a past few weeks for sure! I'm excited to see what the Lord is doing in and through my life. Here are some tidbits...

~FAMILY~
At the beginning of this month I flew up to San Francisco to work at the airport for a week ~ "Coincidentally" (I'm sure God planned it!) I ended up being up there for my brother's 30th birthday, and was able to have a nice birthday dinner with him (he lives up in the Bay area). It was an unexpected evening and a good time, having dinner at The Franciscan.

I got home Friday night about midnight, and then at 7:30am Saturday morning got a text from my brother that he and his wife were going to be driving down to buy a dog from a breeder in San Diego.

About 1pm I got a call from my sister-in-law saying my brother wasn't feeling well, they were in [city], can they come over. The city they were in happened to be only 6 miles from my house! Another "coincidence"... ;) They came over so my brother could rest before the 8-10 hr drive home.

But things weren't looking good and my brother wasn't in any condition to make the ride back up. His wife couldn't stay over so she drove home with the puppy and I would drive him to the airport once he was better. I took him to the E.R. and he felt a lot better after that, but even by Sunday he wasn't up to the flight home and so stayed another night.

Monday he was finally able to fly home. The interesting and amazing part of it all is that we had a REALLY great time that weekend despite his being sick ~ The Lord was really working in his heart and in his life, and it was SUCH a blessing to watch and be a part of! I am so blessed to have been able to be there for him and help him out.

~CHURCH~
I had been feeling down and discouraged, in particular since my grandpa passed away in April... I was really just not feeling myself and pretty apathetic toward just about everything. I knew God was (and is) good, and He was in control and had blessed me tremendously, but I was just feeling discouraged.

Then this past Sunday I ended up having a nice, encouraging talk with one of my pastors and his wife. After we talked they prayed for me, and it was like a burden had been lifted from me - Even though nothing had really changed circumstantially.

The week prior I had been invited to a beach Bible study group - I missed the first week, but this week I was able to go. I opened up my laptop to try and get the directions again, but Facebook was being weird and I couldn't load the page, or find the post from that day in the news feed, or find it using the command+F search function.............. It was crazy. I finally found it though and got on my way.

Then when I got there, I totally didn't have a clue where the group was. By the jetty? Lifeguard tower 16? Paid parking? I'm from Orange County, I'm pretty clueless about San Diego beaches. So of course I totally got lost. And I was about to give up but prayed, "God, if you really want me to go, please help me find it..." And then suddenly I had a mental image of where to park and where to go. Awesome!

Now I didn't know whether I would know anyone at this group, except for one girl, and I didn't even know if she'd be there. So here I am, wandering the beach, looking for people I don't know. LOL. I thought, it's a group of Christians, someone's gotta have a guitar or a Bible...! Lo and behold, the last fire pit in the area ~ A group of people standing in a circle and someone playing guitar. BINGO!

I had a great time at the beach and met a couple of new people, and they told me the beach group was a part of a post-college Bible study group at a church in the area. The group sounded interesting, so I made a point to go to their regular meeting the following night. I met some more new people, and had a really great time.

It's been SO long since I've been a part of a small group at church, a group of people in my life circumstances/ age range... And it was so encouraging. The Lord really knows how to answer prayers!!! Even when we are weak and doubting.

~IN CLOSING~
God is so awesome to remind us of His goodness all the time... I can be so faithless, and so lame, yet He loves and blesses me anyway! And life hasn't been without its trials, even since these blessings have happened... But I have been reminded time and again of His faithfulness.

I am excited to see what He has in store next... :)
Even when I think things will never change and always be the same, He has ways of doing things that I never even thought of. ♡

Time Flies

Time flies. The older I get the more I realize "the adults" were right - You get older but you never really feel older...

In 11 minutes it will be my 32nd birthday (well technically I'll be 32 at 5:19pm)... Yet I feel the same as 22, 25, 28... Just wiser perhaps, and less flexible physically (haha).

Well, here's to you 31, and welcome, 32 - May you be the best year yet! I'm curious to see what the Lord has in store......

A Mid-February's Night's Dream

After several years of writing a blog I am noticing that it is becoming harder and harder to come up with unique and somewhat catchy post titles. So "A Mid-February's Night's Dream" is what you get this month!

This evening I was feeling inspired in the kitchen sort of way, and embarked upon a veggie cooking spree such as has been unseen for some time in my home. I'm not normally much of a vegetable eater - I like them, but they usually go bad before I get around to eating them, and I'm usually too lazy to chop them, etc.

So I whipped up this veggie pasta dish that was just absolutely amazing... And gluten free! Although if you're partial to gluten, all you'd need to do is substitute wheat pasta... ;)

First I chopped up some sun-dried tomato & basil chicken sausages and tossed them into a dry, hot pan - Oh the sound of the meat hitting the heat is a wondrous thing indeed! So I seared those up beautifully...

Then I added, admittedly in somewhat of a convoluted order, chopped zucchini, shallot, carrots, oyster mushrooms, and green onions, and let those cook for a good bit when I poured in a tad bit of white wine (chardonnay).

I let the wine cook down, and added some fresh spinach. I know, I know - Some of you don't like cooked spinach. It was either that or peas, take your pick! (Though I love peas too!)

Once that was all cooked, I threw in my cooked rice penne, added some grated Romano cheese, dried basil (oh fresh would have been awesome, but another time...), garlic powder, sea salt and fresh ground coarse grind black pepper... Gave it a couple good whirls with the spatula and drizzled it generously with a peppery extra virgin olive oil...

And wow was it good. I've made that same dish before, but normally I make it the lazy way, with only sausage, frozen veggies (zucchini, cauliflower, maybe broccoli) and no white wine - Just the dry seasonings and olive oil. It's really tasty, but this blew it out of the water.

I'd show you a picture but I ate it all before I could get one. Sorry.

Well until next time... Cheerio mate!