Friday Thoughts...

Psalm 86:11 - Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.

I came across this verse last night.  I know often times my heart is divided.  As I've heard said, I have one foot still in the world.  I have a hard time turning over control.  When I ride horses, I always have a firm grasp and don't want to let the horse do it's own thing and run.  I think I do the same to God.  I won't give up control.  I keep pulling back, only giving access to the areas I don't want full control over.  I've told God many times that I'm giving things to Him, for Him to control, but I think part of me still doesn't really know exactly what that looks like or means.  So my prayer last night was for an undivided heart, a heart that pursues and wholly loves the Lord.

What I'm Loving Wedneday!

What I'm loving this Wednesday...

This quote:

“…To every man there comes…that special moment when he will be figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a special thing unique to him…What a tragedy if that moment finds him unprepared or unqualified for that work which could have been his finest hour.”

- Winston Churchill

These shoes I found today at Target, I love flats:

I put in 4 miles this morning with a great group of ladies.  I want to update you on my running in another post soon, but this puts me at 16 miles in the past 7 days, woot, woot!!

 

I'm loving that it's trivia night...it's been a while since I've been able to go.  I'm looking forward to it! (I know, a little heavy on the farm animal images today, what can I say?  It's my breeding)

Memorial Day weekend will soon be here! I don’t have much planned, so I’m looking forward to relaxing and time with family and friends.  Also, want to take time to remember those who have sacrificed for our freedom, and pray for the families left behind.

Head on over to This Kind of Love and tell what you are loving this Wednesday!

Desserts: Cheesecake Sopapilla

Kelly is all about desserts this week.  Check out Kelly's Korner for more great desserts!

Last weekend was my friend, Kathleen's, wedding shower.  It was lots of fun, and I must say, we hostesses outdid ourselves on the food.  Everything tasted delicious.  For my dessert I made Cheesecake Sopapillas.  I use igoogle as my home page, and I have a how-to section.  This recipe popped up one day, looked yummy, so I tried it, and it exceeded my expectation.  They were a hit at the party, and I was sending people home with baggies full!

Things You'll Need

(3) 8oz. packages cream cheese
1 cup & 1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cans crescent roll dough
1 stick butter (melted)
1 tsp. cinnamon


Instructions

1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a 9x13 in. baking dish.

2 In a large bowl, mix together all 3 packages of cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, & 1 tsp. vanilla.
Set aside--this is the filling.

3 Roll out 1 can of the crescent roll dough as a sheet into the bottom of your 9x13 in greased baking dish. Press together any gaps so that dough does not come apart at the seams.

4 Spread filling out evenly on top of the bottom layer of dough.

5 Roll out 2nd can of crescent roll dough as a sheet and carefully lay on top of the filling. Again, press together any gaps at the seams so that the filling does not ooze out.

6 Pour 1 stick of melted butter over the top. Spread with pastry brush if you wish.

7 Mix 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tsp. cinnamon together with fork. Sprinkle this mixture evenly across the top.

8 Bake in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.


I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.  Head on over to Alissa's Alissa's 33 Shades of Green to check out more great recipes.

What I'm Loving Wedneday!

What I’m loving this Wedneday…

It’s Wednesday, so that means Pilates at lunch!! Our instructor is really great, and today was one of those days I really needed to let go of some of the stress!

Tomorrow is a haircut. Also love my hair girl, she’s great to talk to and she knows how resistant I am to change. It’s probably time for a serious cut, but I’m not sure I’m ready to let go of the long hair yet.

Friday is football!!!! Football is my absolute hands down favorite sport. In all sub sects, high school football reigns supreme for me. Since I was a kid and my dad first explained to me how the game worked, I’ve just loved it! Friday night is my high school’s spring practice scrimmage, and I’m super excited (way more than any normal person)!

Romantically Challenged … This is a book I just finished that cracked me up. Literally laughed out loud reading it. Especially for all my fellow single ladies, or those whom it took a while to find Mr. Right, I think you’ll appreciate this book. And Amazon has their Kindle edition for only $.99 right now!

Ecclesiastes. I’ve been reading Ecclesiastes lately and Solomon continually points out how meaningless everything is. Our good times, our bad, trials, and triumphs…they are all meaningless; everything earthly is meaningless. The only thing that really matters is our relationship with God, and heaven. 12:13 "The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep His commandments; for that is the whole duty of everyone". I think one of my favorite verses is 11:4 (New Living Translation) “Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest.” I’m guilty of that, I want things to be perfect before something starts. That doesn’t happen, you have to deal with what’s there and jump right in. Sorry, a little wordy on this one.

Hope you are loving your Wednesday. Head on over to This Kind of Love and play along!

Some of my favorite blogs...

It’s amazing how you find blogs, suggestions from friends, links on blog hops, sometimes even more randomness takes you to a blog. You read it, you want to read more, and eventually you subscribe so that you are updated on all their posts. Well the following are those blogs that keep me informed, entertained, thinking, motivated, and wanting to do more. All these women (most of whom I don’t know) challenge me in some way. Hope you find one or more here you might like.


I’ve mentioned her before. She’s my cousin and my workout buddy. She’s talked me into running and late night workouts, and pushed me to do things I never dreamed I could. She tracks her journey of fitness in http://fatgirltothin.blogspot.com/

 
And then there is my friend who talked me back into blogging.  Melissa is a great blogger, always coming up with new idea and actually taking pictures to document events.  I'm loving her new Project 365.

  Nashville’s Melrose


And the folks I don't know...
 
So this blog was recommended by a friend.  While this girl is wayyyy ahead of me on the running stuff, she's just funny and fun, and gives great suggestions for running items and gear.
 
SkinnyRunner
 
I grew up on a farm.  That explains part of my love of this blog.  If my mom had kept a blog when we were little, I think she would have written some of these posts word for word.  Farm life is different, the hours are strange, the solitude is strange, but it's also wonderful, fun, and a place where you learn and do things that happen no where else. 
 
 

I lack domestic skills in a serious way, but I have begun trying to cook, and every once in a while a little creative streak wants to try something.  So, this blog gives me some great ideas on different things to try.

Lastly, I happened across this blog one day, and I rarely read a post that doesn't challenge me in some way. 



Heart of a Coach's Wife

I hope you find some of these interesting and worthy of adding to your favorite blogs.  Let me know what your favorites are!

 

Friday Thoughts...

"For what it's worth, it's never too late (or in my case too early) to be whoever you want to be.

There's no time limit. Start whenever you want.

You can change, or stay the same.

There are no rules to this thing.

We can make the best or the worst of it.

I hope you make the best of it. I hope you see things that starve you.

I hope you feel things you never felt before.

I hope you meet people with a different point of view.

I hope you live a life you're proud of.

And if you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again."

- "Benjamin Button", from the Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald

"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

- Michael Jordan

“Take time to accept responsibility. Your life is exactly that - It's your life. It is created by you. You are constantly making choices, constantly creating new experiences. And although we can be affected by circumstances which seem to be completely out of our control, essentially, we decide the direction in which we walk.”

 -- Nicolas Watkins

 

“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both.”

-- James Michener

 

After the Storm...

It’s been a crazy few weeks. Tornados came thru the south last week and destroyed homes and communities and took over 300 lives. I feel so blessed to have been left unharmed and with no property damage. Many I know weren’t so fortunate. I work across state lines and Huntsville, AL was out of power for days, which left me with an unexpected vacation. Now, it’s back to work, and back to the consequences of all this disaster. I want to share some of the practical things I’ve learned from this experience. Keep in mind I’m an accountant, so finances and money are what I think about most days all day.

1. Cash – Folks, we need to have it, accessible, easy to access, ALWAYS. When I say easy to access, I mean in your wallet, at your house, where you can find it. A wise friend mentioned this last week, and the more I’ve thought about it, it’s crazy not to have some around. The banks/ATM’s were down while the power was out, cash was king, it’s what you needed. I live in a place where tornados aren’t rare, in a state located on a fault line. Tornados, earthquakes… you need to have cash. Last comment on this, but I was listening to my favorite radio show this morning and one of the guys was talking about a bank mixup with his account and how his credit card was being declined. He couldn’t pay for his lunch, he couldn’t pick up his car, he was in a mess. A little cash would have made his life much less stressful yesterday.

2. Emergency fund – As I said before, I ended up with an unexpected vacation. I’ve worked at the same place for several years, and I’m not a big traveler, so I have plenty of leave hours saved up, but some others here at work, not so much. So now they are having to make some tough decisions on how to deal with the time off. There are others in the community who are self-employed, or business owners whose shops were closed, etc. these people don’t have accrued leave, they just won’t be making any money. That’s why we need emergency funds. We don’t know what’s going to happen, when tragedy will strike, when sickness will occur, when cars will break down, and we have to be ready.

3. Insurance – understand it. This is something I need to do, go in, sit down with my insurance man and get an understanding of what kind of coverage I have. If my house was blown away, what does that mean?

It’s been a tough week. Please continue to pray for all those affected.