Colorado or Bust!

This week I am in Colorado for a youth conference. I am so honored and excited to be here. I have lots of great stuff to share, but typing it all out on my phone prevents me from doing it now.

Here is one thought for the road. I have found that right before God does something great in my life I am often tested and stretched to my absolute capacity. It would appear that the enemy wants to do everything in his power to make sure I don't get to the place, reward, blessing God wants me to be/have. He tempts me with fear, with anxiety and beckons me to turn back. Friends, if you ever face this too, hold on. Take that next step forward. Trust God whole heartedly. Cling to him through the storm as you would a life preserver...because when the storm ceases, you will be surrounded by God's blessing and beauty and wonder.

xoxo
have a great day.

Books!

Some of you may have wondered what happened to me during my little hiatus from the blog last week. Some of you may have wondered if I was going to quit my blog again. Some of you may have wondered if I was eaten my a mad group of hippos. Nope and nope.

Alas, here is what I was doing.

The Vow, The Atonement Child, The Girl Who Loved the Swastika, Sustainable Youth Ministry, Reality Bites Back 

I was gettin my read on! The first three books (shown in the picture) were ones I managed to snag at the yard sale. The fourth book is one I found on Amazon and the last book, on my Kindle, is one I have been reading for about a month now.

My favorite type of books are autobiographies. It's probably because I am just a nosy person, but nothing beats hearing a good/interesting/incredible/unbelievable/convicting/hilarious/tragic/insert other adjective here story from real life. This is why I blog stalk people. It's like mini-autobios every single day!
This picture really covers the range of stuff I usually read. It has two autobiographies (The Vow, The Girl Who Loved the Swastika), one fiction (The Atonement Child), and two non-fiction (Reality Bites Back and Sustainable Youth Ministry).

In case you are interested in any of them below are some short reviews.

The Vow
I picked up this book because a few months ago I saw the movie and was intrigued by the premise of the story. In my opinion, the movie and the book are two completely different stories. The true story is that this man and woman were married for about 10 weeks when they got into a terrible car accident. The wife should have died, but lived. When she woke up she could remember everything except the last year and a half of her life. The problem? In that year and a half she had met her husband, dated her husband and married her husband. She woke up remembering everything except for the fact that she was married. Both the book and the movie center on this story line. The movie (in my opinion) really ruined the book and missed the entire point of the story. The couple were strong Christians (had no clue from the movie) and the book focuses on their faith in God through this challenging time. The movie focuses on fictional plot lines of multiple love interests, affairs, divorce - none of which really happened. So, I guess if you want to hear what Hollywood thinks would happen after the initial plot line, go watch the movie. If you want to hear what really happened and how God worked miracle after miracle in this couple's lives- read the book.


The Atonement Child
Francine Rivers is an amazing story teller and has a way of incorporating the Christian faith with page turning stories. This book centers on a girl who was raped and became pregnant. Not sure what to do and having a host of people telling her what she should do, the story follows her as she grapples with her faith, her family and her future. I flew through this book in about two days. It was definitely captivating and thought provoking. It is a little cheesy at times and there are 14 pages in particular which is supposed to be a group of characters having conversation and truly it is just all the arguments that people use against abortion. I wish she would have left this section out of the story and included it as an appendage at the end of the book. While I am against abortion, the way she talked about it completely made the story stop. It was like she said, "And now, we are going to take a short break to hear from our sponsors." Right after that conversation was over, the book picked right back up. So, for the sake of the story line I felt like it didn't fit. I get where she was coming from but wished she would have included it elsewhere.

The Girl Who Loved the Swastika
Obviously by the title you can deduce this story was written by a girl who had ties to the Nazi party. This book is her life story and it is pretty fascinating. She talked about her life before Hitler, her life during Hitler's reign (and her love for him), her life after WWII (she was in East Germany and forced into a labor camp by the Russians) and her life after she came to the United States. The end of the book got a little dry for me, but I'm definitely still glad I read this one.

Sustainable Youth Ministry
I'm not actually done with this book yet and I am guessing the majority of you don't care how to run a sustainable youth ministry. So, no book review! You're welcome. :D However, if you do care  definitely read this book. It is really good.

Reality Bites Back
Wow. This book was a HUGE eye opener for me. I would deem this book the best book I have read so far this year. Let me first offer a warning for those of you who are about to skip my review and run straight to the bookstore to pick up your copy. This is not a Christian book nor is it written by a Christian (to my knowledge). The author is extremely liberal and at times can be crude and uses vulgar language. So, if you read it and are offended, I told you so.

Okay, so now do you really want to know why I loved this book? The author hits the nail right on the head and brings up an issue that is plaguing our culture. Reality T.V. I was the biggest fan of reality t.v. I loved pretty much any show that focused on the real life of people- no matter the situation. I was what you would call an unaware viewer. Pozner takes the reader through the number of problems that reality t.v. has brought upon our culture. It has been a set-back for women and women's right issues, race and racism issues, healthy body image issues. Pozner takes the reader behind the scenes and introduces the reader to the people who are producing these types of shows. Let me tell you, it is frightening. The producers cast people on their shows who are prone to violence, alcoholism, emotional breakdowns and then send the message to the viewers that this is real life. Shows like America's Top Model pretend to care about young women and exist to give them a chance, but in reality when girls have been on the show who struggled with eating disorders the producers (instead of helping them) called them fat and weak. Girls who were intellectual on this show were told they were arrogant and needed to be taken down a peg. Besides all of that, these shows are basically being run by advertising companies. These big companies have realized that they can pay big bucks to incorporate their stuff, not just in commercials, but throughout the hour/two hour show. Think "The Apprentice" (Burger King, Tanning Companies) "Dancing with the Stars" (Macy's) "The Bachelor" (Honda) "American Idol" (Ford). Why are there so many reality shows? It is not because of the ratings. It is because advertising companies have found a better way and more air time to sell their products. It is because reality shows cost $500,000 per episode while a scripted t.v. show can cost $9 million. The producers can stuff their pockets while paying people virtually nothing, or most of the time actually nothing all the while the characters of the show are doing all the work and advertising under the guise of a promise of "maybe you'll find love", "maybe you'll become the next pop star", "maybe you will have a career in modeling"... etc.
WOW. Stop me now. I'm about to start a rant. Anyway, I think most of us just find reality t.v. as an innocent way to pass the time. It is an entertaining way to escape after a long day of work. If you love reality t.v. - like I did- I encourage you to read this book. You don't have to buy into everything the author is saying - I didn't - but I promise it will open your eyes to something our culture needs to be aware of.

There ya go! Something for everybody. What do you guys like to read?

Christian Onion?

I about died when I read this article on Lark News.
Seriously, I could not stop laughing.

One of my Facebook friends posted it because they thought it was a real article. There were a number of people who were so upset by it. My thoughts? Hey, if you want to abstain for three years after marriage and eat raw potatoes... to each his own! You totally want to go read that article  now, don't you?

Come to find out Lark News was a website started by a guy who happens to think that God has a great sense of humor. Apparently this guy started a Christian website similar to The Onion. A hilarious twist on real or not so real news stories. I have seriously laughed out loud numerous times as I have spent wayyyy too much time perusing through all the different links.

I am toying with the idea of buying a shirt from this website. They have numerous shirts with funny sayings like, "Jesus loves you...then again, he loves everybody." "I'll pray about it." And my personal favorite (but you had to grow up in the church community to get this) "I'm with the puppet team."

I love laughing!

FOR THE LOVE!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

That's how I feel right now.

Thank you for understanding.

Yard Sale Madness

This past week has been insane. INSANE. I feel like I say that most weeks and then it always seems like the next week is more insane than the last. That does not make me feel very good about the future. :)

Me, at the start of Friday morning. I never know what to do with my hands in pictures so I often opt for an awkward pose. :D 

But truly, this week has been more crazy than normal because a lot happened all at once. We lost a wonderful woman in our congregation due to surgery complications. It was completely unexpected and devastating. There was a very serious issue between two of my youth students that needed extra and immediate attention. We had youth group which runs every Wednesday night. One of our freshman girls said she felt called to give a message to the other students so I was working with her this past week (she really needed very little help though...she rocked it) to prepare for Wednesday. On top of all that, it was yard sale week. (This was a fundraiser for our teen mission trip.) By Tuesday, I had a pounding headache. At this point in my week, nothing had been resolved on any of the things I mentioned previously. The woman was in critical condition, nothing had been done on the situation between the youth, youth group hadn't happened OH and we were just coming off of Easter, which at a church is a HUGE ordeal. Okay. So Tuesday, before noon, my head felt like it was seriously going to explode. I never get headaches, so when they do happen I pay attention because I know it is usually a result of too much stress. I had done very little at this point to prepare for the yard sale sans FaceBooking the kids and asking them to sign up for shifts - which only a few replied to. Also, I had picked up some pricing stickers at the dollar store. That was it.

Noon on Tuesday rolls around and I felt like I was going to lose my mind. I had never had a yard sale in my life and now I was in charge of this one. I had no idea if people would drop stuff off, if people would come, if we would have enough people to work it. To top all that off, I knew my Wednesday was completely booked (seriously, 9:00 am - 9:00 pm booked) and being that Thursday (9:00 am) was our starting drop off time for the sale, I would have no time to get ready.

I reached my breaking point and got up from my desk, announced to the office that I was "taking a break" and went to the kitchen and ate 6 1 cookie. After that I went and sat on a bench in the sun and contemplated my life. Then, I got back up, went to my office, put my head on the desk and prayed, "Dear God, you have led the way, every step of the way. I trust that you will lead me in this. I trust that the yard sale will go fine. Show your power Lord."

Seriously, I immediately felt better.

Roll tape, and we get to Thursday morning. First answer to prayer, a family with two home schooled teenage boys, shows up first thing to stay all day and help Kris and me with the sorting. Yes, we worked all day, but everything was completely organized all day long. Second answer to prayer, tons of people dropped stuff off and we seriously looked like a thrift store.

This is one room of the yard sale. The room with the open door was also full of stuff and we had furniture lined up outside the front of the church and taking up the entire foyer. 

Third answer to prayer, one woman who dropped stuff off was a huge yard saler and decided just to stay all day with us and help us sort stuff and then she proceeded to come back all day Friday and Saturday to help run it. Fourth answer to prayer, a second woman who is great at yard sales, stops by to see how it was going and tells me that she will be back later in the evening to help us with the set-up and that she will come back on Friday and Saturday as well to help run it. The other teens all showed up at 5:00 and with all of us working, things were completely ready to go for the next day by a reasonable hour.

Friday morning comes and so the does the sixth answer to my prayers. A good friend of mine from small group, who works from home, shows up early in the morning and tells me she is going to stay all day and do whatever I need her to. Let me just say, this was sooo good because my brain was still not functioning and she handled the money box like a pro. (My brain was so fried I couldn't count out five $10 bills to make $50. I kept thinking five bills made $40. Yikes!) Seventh answer to prayer, a husband and wife in the church volunteered (they had volunteered much earlier, but I didn't know how awesome they were until this) and did everything from the heavy lifting and moving of all our furniture, to pricing everything. Seriously, when people asked me questions that I didn't have the answer to, I would direct them to this woman and say, "She knows all. Go ask her." Eighth answer to prayer, Kris and I had specifically prayed the night before that God would give us $2,000 from the yard sale (total profit from both days). In the first hour we made over $500. By the end of the first day, we had just over $1,900.

Saturday comes, ninth answer to prayer. All the students show up to help, along with another student who is not going on the mission trip, but wanted to lend a hand. Plus, all the other people who God had brought along in the two days before. Tenth answer to prayer, there was not one argument or bad attitude in the entire three day event. (We seriously prayed about this.) Everybody jumped in, everybody worked hard, everybody got along wonderfully and it was a great great team building experience for the kids. I wish I had a picture, but I forgot to get one. The majority of them took signs down to the road and danced around to get attention and bring people into the sale. Later in the afternoon, they discovered the costume box and dressed up as clowns, in grass skirts and with masquarade masks and did round two of advertising in character form. It was hilarious.

I did manage to snap this shot. I love these two teens! They found Target vests (and accessories)  in the hoards of clothes we had, wore them and walked around assisting people with their shopping needs. LOVE IT! 

Eleventh answer to prayer, for as much stuff as we had donated, there was a relatively small amount left at the end. We were able to clean up and take the remaining stuff to a thrift store in about an hour. Twelfth answer to prayer, in total, we made about $2,800. There was never a down time and there was a constant flow of people both days.

God is so good. 

Thank you to all the people who helped. Thank you God for making this yard sale a success. Thank you all of you who read my blog and can celebrate this joy with me. :D 

One last really cool thing. We have to raise a total of $31,500 to go on the mission trip in July. At this point, we are only about $3,500 away from our final total. In four months we have raised around $28,000. This is not only an answer to prayer, but a testament to how great our God is. He can truly do more than we could ask or imagine! 

Green Smoothie Time!

Almost my entire life I have hated vegetables. As a child, I would be the last one to leave the dinner table (sometimes hours after everybody else) because I would refuse to eat my vegetables, or any of my dinner for that matter. I was extremely picky. I hated: all vegetables, potatoes, tomatoes, soup, tacos, chicken with any kind of sauce, spaghetti sauce, rice, any form of casserole, stew, pot roast, pork chops, any kind of chop, gravy, mayonnaise, salad dressing, any type of dressing and seriously the list goes on and on. 

Somewhere down the line I realized I had to change my ways. There is something about becoming an adult and realizing you can't go to dinner at peoples' houses and just reject the food like you did when you were a child. I slowly began to eat salad, though I still hate the majority of salad dressings. *Future post coming on this* Eventually, I began to incorporate more broccoli - this one is thanks to my husband as it is his favorite vegetable. Actually, he introduced me to spinach as well and I realized that I actually liked the taste of spinach a lot better than lettuce. I found out that asparagus and red peppers weren't all that bad either and then just like that I realized BAM I have become a vegetable eater! Woo hoo! 

But, here is my problem. I still don't love them enough to want to really eat them all the time. I don't love them enough to incorporate them into my every meal. I definitely don't get enough of them and have come to the realization that I think I am actually deficient in a lot of vitamins because I don't make enough of an effort to incorporate fruits and veggies into my diet. 

So, I set out on an adventure. The green smoothie adventure. 

I was so scared to do this. For a long time I resisted doing it. There were a lot of barriers for me. One, I didn't know how to make smoothies. Two, I didn't know what combination of fruits and veggies to use in smoothies. Three, I didn't want to drink something disgusting. I put it off and put it off. I would try and look up smoothie recipes on line and would always end up frustrated. 

Finally, one day I just took the plunge. I threw a ton of stuff in the blender, with no recipe, and hoped for the best. It wasn't bad. In fact, I actually enjoyed the taste. I kept at it and now Kris and I drink green smoothies most mornings for breakfast. Here's why this is awesome. 

1. We eat breakfast every day (and it's fast and easy) 

2. We get at least 1 serving of fruits and 1 serving of veggies every morning 

3. I am getting great vitamin packed veggies and I don't have to taste them AT ALL. Seriously, three cheers for this one. I am all about hiding veggies in food and not having to experience the taste if at all possible. I'll cover this more when I share with you my potato, onion, asparagus soup recipe. 

If you don't like veggies or you don't want to feel like you are drinking a salad, here is a very helpful tip: use kiwi in your smoothie. (I have also heard that bananas work great too, but I still don't like bananas, so I have not personally tried this.) As it turns out kiwi is a very strong flavor. All my smoothies taste like a kiwi drink and I promise you, I never taste the veggie part. 

Check out this picture. This was from this morning. 

Two kiwis (they look so little, but pack such a great punch), about 6-8 strawberries (berries are great flavor hiders too), and a few cups of kale. 

Also, I add a little bit of water, probably like a half cup or so. 

*blender tip* put in the things that have the highest water content first- fruits first before leafy greens

Sometimes I will use a blend of spinach and kale and sometimes I will just use one or the other. I always use kiwis and often use strawberries. I have also put in blueberries, strawberry Greek yogurt, and broccoli. The one thing I would not recommend using is spring mix unless you like the taste of feet. If you like eating feet, then by all means, use it! 

I used to puree it all up, but then I realized I liked using the liquefy button better because it really gives the whole thing a better texture. 

So anyway, wa la, here you go, the finished project. The above picture made two glasses full. 

I am by no means a pro at green smoothies, in fact I am very much a beginner. However, I wanted to do this post because it is really simple to do, it is super healthy and it actually tastes really good. This seriously was something that freaked me out for a long time, but I am so happy I took the plunge and just started experimenting. 

If I can do this, so can you. I was the kid that couldn't look at a vegetable without crying and now spinach and kale (sometimes broccoli) are main breakfast staples for me. 

Do it. Try it. I promise, you won't be disappointed. 

You Have To Meet My Children...

It's about time I did a cat post. If you follow me on FB or on Instagram you get a lot of this, but I don't care. I love my cats and I am proud of it. Seriously, go look under my "About Me" tab "CAT ENTHUSIAST" That's me! Boom. Cat + me = love.

Now I'm going to stop you before you start thinking I'm a crazy cat lady. I'm not. You might think that from the above paragraph or from my "yoga cat" calendar or the picture of a cat at the spa as my desktop background, but you're wrong. I'm totally normal. Those things were given to me. Okay? So are we clear? No? Okay. 

Here are my children. 

Mr. Chuckles "Boo Bear" Moses Shepherd 

 Super Nova "Novi or Squish" Jane-Marie Shepherd 

These two cats seriously brighten my day, every day. They are so much fun to be around. Uh oh, here I go talking about them as if they were human again. Nova is our rambunctious child. She is brave, curious and willing to try anything multiple times. This often results in her getting in trouble, a lot, but she doesn't care. Tomorrow is a new day and in her mind, something must get destroyed. Usually that comes in the form of toilet paper, shoes, or well anything or everything. It's a good thing she is beautiful and cuddly or she may have found herself in a new home a long time ago. Nova's best feature is that she is very very bright and has caught on to potty training very quickly. Since she decided to stop peeing on our bed, she has had zero accidents and actually loves using the toilet. Go Nova! 

Chuckles is our calm and cautious child. He is so laid back it's incredible. He lets Nova chase him, jump on him, bite his legs. He barely makes a peep when you clip his nails or brush him. He always wants to be where the people are, actually they both do. He is very deceiving because his fluffy coat screams "Pet me! Pet me! Hold me! LOVE ME!" and his personality is the complete opposite. He is your buddy, not your baby. Don't touch that fluffy coat or he will flip his tail and walk out on you. He does not like to be held unless it is on his terms. His worst feature is that he is as stubborn as a mule and this is mainly a problem when it comes to potty training. He refuses to poop in the toilet. He jumps up on the toilet to go pee. He understands the entire concept, but he refuses to do it. He can hold it an incredibly long time and as soon as you get in the shower BOOM he poops on the floor. This usually results in daily screaming, "Bad Chuckles, Bad Chuckles." Not that he cares. He's just proud that he outsmarted you once again. 

So, in case you haven't had your fill of my cats. Here are some more pictures to help you understand how awesome and cute they are. 

Participating in their favorite past-time. #Snack #Tuna juice #Tuna flavored water #Stop using hash tags 

They can seriously hear the can opener from a mile away and it is a full on sprint to maul get to me first. This usually results in me chanting, "Let me hear you screeeaaaaam." Then the cats respond with, "MEEEEEOWWWWWW!" Seriously, I'm not making this up. Kris says that Nova actually sounds like a screaming little baby. Maybe I'll treat you to a video one day. No? Okay. 

Their other favorite past-time. Looking out the window and hating me for keeping them inside. However, they can't understand my past. I've had 20+ cats and you know how they all died? Cars. Moving big fast cars. Except for the one and the unfortunate lawn mower incident of 2001. So I'm overprotective. I don't care. No more cats are going to die on my watch. NEVA! (Read that never without the r.) 

Lastly, a photo of the happy family. This shot was not posed in any way. Chuckles was having a rare moment in which he was laying in my lap. Nova, the jealous type, sprinted over and jumped on top of us. I died. (Laughing that is.) Kris grabbed the camera shouldn't camera be spelled camra... it totally just took me three tries to get that right and snapped this shot. Love it! 

Okay, now you love them too. Glad we can be on the same page.