Mozzarella Salad

Next time you have people over or are asked to bring a dish I would highly recommend this!

This Mozzarella Salad is not only a healthy alternative to a pasta salad, it is deliciously different than most people would make.

The recipe calls for fresh mozzarella balls. Not every grocery store carries it, I had to make a couple stops to find it. I ended up at Ultra. In addition to that, I added some fresh Romain lettuce and broccoli to bulk it up. Putting lettuce with it also makes it less frightening to those steer away from trying newer things.

It turned out great and I am definitely going to make it again cause there was not a leaf left in the bowl!

Here is the recipe link:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/mozzarella-salad-recipe/index.html

Summer Days

May, June, July and then August, this summer is flying by. I have managed to keep busy and keep my life semi-exciting these past months. So here are some phrases to sum up what I have been up to...

Visiting Peoria. Bush Trimming. Organizing an Office. Delivering Wedding Cakes. Cleaning Houses. Watching Houses. Watching HGTV. Netflix. Taking the Amtrak to the Quad Cities. Gun Lake with Greg's family. Volley Ball Games. My 21st Birthday. Planning a Baby Shower. Riding my Bike. Mercy Hill Church. Refining what I let my eyes see.

Above are a few of my favorite pictures from all those happenings...

With August around the corner, I have begun preparing to move back into school on August 16th. I headed to Target this week for a few killer deals, including a new pillow for $3.79 and a mattress cushion for $8! In addition to furnishing my dorm room, as an RA, I am responsible for furnishing a giant hallway. I have my theme picked out: Battle Field of the Mind.

I will keep you updated as I decorate, I think you are going to like it!

Skinny Jeans

I have been eating a lot of Dove Dark Chocolate of late. Every time I open up one of those little candies I am greeted with an inspirational phrase. This is one of my favorites...

It brings me back to the third grade, when flare jeans and bell bottoms came back in style. At that time I had acquired a couple pairs of the newest bell bottoms, but I can still remember the day when I decided to wear a pair of my, at the time called, straight leg jeans to school. The whole day I regretted that decision. I felt so ugly and outdated cause nobody wore those anymore, what was I thinking!

It was that day I made a pact to myself; I would never again wear straight leg jeans. I laugh just thinking about how serious I was about that decision, but it was life changing at that time.

About two years ago they came back in-style with a new and improved name, Skinny Jeans. I broke the pact I made; I am the proud owner of my fair share of Skinnies. And, like Dove chocolate implies, I feel great in them.

This wrapper deserves to be preserved.

The Longest Day of the Year

I often tell myself that I should never wear makeup to church, not because its wrong, but because it holds me back on Sunday morning. I always think that if I let the tears escape from my eyelids, then I am are going to have black smudges on my cheeks and bloodshot eyes during coffee time, and that is just not pretty.

But, it always seems to amaze me how captivated I am when singing Holy Holy Holy, Amazing Grace or any other song that talks about Jesus. Most songs I can't even get a whole verse out before I begin deep breathing and mentally singing just to keep the tears back.

It happened to me again this Sunday, out in Gun Lake, Michigan on the longest day of the year. Specifically during church, when we were all singing "Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me." I was just thinking about the character of Christ; his ability to love, but also his power, might and jealousy for us when we seek other things. I love it! I love every part of who Christ is!

I often think about challenging myself to keep the mascara off during church for one Sunday, to see where Christ leads my heart when I am not hindering the emotion.

Theory of Gardens

The past two weeks of working in high-class neighborhoods and learning the art of bush trimming from a talented landscape designer has been an eye-opening experience. It was the many days of maintaining beautiful landscapes that caused this thought: the way a person maintains their yard says something about their personality. This stems from a well-known theory: what a restaurants bathroom looks like is what the kitchen looks like.

That thought led me to these psychological readings on gardens:

If the plants are all close together and there is one too many, maybe the owner likes clutter.

If the garden is filled with lawn ornaments, one can assume their house is full of trinkets and when they go on vacation they buy everyone they know useless souvenirs.

If the garden is full of weeds, maybe their life has a lot of unwanted pain that keeps creeping in, and like weeds, if not taken care of they soon take over and make a pretty garden ugly.

If the garden has perfect landscaping, maybe they are perfectionists and controlling and if they are constantly using pesticides they are trying to hide the ugly because they are dominated by others opinions.

And for the people who put fake flowers in their gardens instead of real ones, maybe they have a fear of death or they just like to look good no matter how they are feeling.

Take a look at peoples gardens and tell me if I'm right, I hope I'm way off.

This is My House

For Greg's internship in Nicaragua he made a film. Since I have experience in film making, I was able to be a part of its creation. I would like to post it on here, but I don't think I can, so just click on the link and enjoy!

http//www.youtube.com/user/estudiocn

*You can also go to youtube.com and type in This is My House (2Yt).mov

Where the Wild Things Are

Watching the film Where the Wild Things Are evoked an emotion that I was not expecting. It put me in the shoes of a parent who hurt the feelings of their child. It also brought me back to the emotions I experienced as a kid; not knowing how to channel the feelings of loneliness and fear.

If you have not seen the movie, in the end the mother has this look in her eyes, like she is overwhelmed by the love she has for her son and drained from the discipline.

As a son or a daughter there is an unexplainable pain when the one person who loves you the most and says they never want to hurt you does. But, watching that movie helped me to see the other side of the story, discipline or fighting is sometimes just has painful for the parent.

Although it was a good movie, I walked away feeling down. It made me feel bad about the day I will hurt the feelings of my child or misread their calls for attention as bad behavior. I can only hope that my judgment will be right and my patience will be plentiful.

A Moment to Remember

I take my bike out and mount myself upon it. At first there is a level of excitement, followed by discomfort, depending on how many hours I spent on it the previous days.

I proceed to peddle, with the wind blowing my hair and the world swirling by. This dream-like moment is quickly halted when I reach the business of Calumet Avenue; where the semi-trucks blaze by and everyone else is in a hurry to make it to happy hour.

It is here that I become increasingly paranoid, looking from side to side while thinking terrible thoughts about those behind the wheel. "I can not believe they are not slowing down for me" or "look how close their mirror was to hitting my handle bars!"

I make it across the four lanes of traffic alive, ready to go back to my euphoric ride when I am hit with conviction. When I am behind the wheel, I am not thinking about bike riders safety. There is only one concern: getting where I need to be on time. If anything, when I see someone on a bike I think they ought to be more careful and considerate of those behind the wheel.

Soon I get over it and continue on my ride, but it is never the same as the first uninterrupted moment. The paranoia never completely leaves, until I am safely back home. Where the pride of accomplishing something good creeps in and the only thing that matters is the memory of the happiness I felt on that first block.

Why-the-Chicken-Crossed-the-Road Santa Fe-tastic Tortilla Soup

Since I enjoyed writing my blog in Nicaragua, I decided I would continue to make a habit of it. I would like to invite you to join me on my life journey and what ever God brings my way. Whether its the recipes I try, places I visit, or the things God reveals to me I want you to be a part of it. I hope you enjoy reading and feel free to join in my conversation.

Thanks to Rachel Ray's 30 minuet meals, I was able to make tortilla soup for the first time last night. It was quite simple and the results were tasty! The only thing I would have changed was to make it less chunky, but that is just my preference for all soup.

It calls for charred corn and red bell peppers, those two along with the sauteed onions and chili peppers gave the soup the perfect unique taste that you don't find in other dishes with a tomato base.

The recipe can be found at...
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/why-the-chicken-crossed-the-road-santa-fe-tastic-tortilla-soup-recipe/index.html