He Works Miracles

The Lord has seriously blessed a situation in my life.

We all have someone in our lives who does not know the Lord, who lives in darkness, and who we desperately want to see that there is SO much more than what we can see on earth. I've wanted that for quite a few people in my time, but there has been one in particular.

This man has been an alcoholic for as long as I can remember, that's a track record of 21 years and counting. We spoke a little less than a year ago, October 2011 to be exact, and I had seen that conversation as a little glimpse of false hope.. or at least I thought it was. I had so many expectations after that conversation. I expected a phone call, a conversation, but the phone never rang. I asked God why he did this to me, why did he make me think there was heart change going on that really wasn't. What did this mean?

God is always doing a great work, even when we do not see the fruit from it. It's humbling because I wanted everything to set in motion on my time. It doesn't work that way. God has his own plan, and He has perfect timing. 

Fast forward to now, September 2012.

I receive a message from this man. The message proclaimed "let Him out of my life.. got to let Him back in." I stared at the message in disbelief, confused, and all the while I got so excited. I responded back with words that were not mine, I am a firm believer that God completely took over this conversation and gave me the exact words I needed to say.

The very next day following this conversation, I mailed him his first Bible. The Lord placed it on my heart to include a hand written letter explaining my own walk with the Lord in the very beginning of becoming a Christian. I didn't know how to find scripture in the bible. I explained how to find books, chapters, and verses, because I myself had no idea to do something as simple as that in the beginning.

A few days have passed. I finally received a message that the package had been received.

"I just finished reading the first chapter of Colossians out of my new Bible. Thank you so much Jessi! It is beautiful and I will cherish it always. My AA sponsor is going to lead me through the process of ridding myself of my old way of thinking and change it in a way more acceptable to letting God into my Heart and take the lead in my life...for the rest of my life. Keep praying for me, and with me during my recovery and the journey I am about to embark on."

God is so good. It is truly amazing what He can do, and He alone. This is a true testament to His faithfulness. This situation has opened my eyes and my heart to believe that with the Lord, anyone can be led out of darkness into light. How incredible is it that the Creator of the universe works in each of our hearts in different ways, in different seasons, and speaks to us individually.

I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them. I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them." - Isaiah 42:16

Have a great week and keep in mind that the Lord loves you just as you are, and He will forever pursue you no matter what age you reach.

Where were you?

I was an innocent 5th grader in Mrs. Cain's class. We turned on the news and saw a tall building with smoke billowing out of the side. All of my fellow classmates, including myself, were utterly confused. We didn't understand what was going on, why it was important, and why our 5th grade teacher looked so upset. I started taking notes while watching the tv, I wanted to make sense of what was going on. After filling up an entire piece of paper, it still didn't quite make sense to me.

An announcement came on over the entire school, our principal instructed that all teachers turn off their tvs and to continue about their day like normal. That announcement didn't turn off my curious mind. We went out to an early recess and a fellow 5th grader tried to explain to me that it had something to do with the World Trade Center. I didn't know what that meant, but it sounded important. I tried to remember WTC so I could ask my mom about it later. We went back inside and I received the message that I had been dismissed early, my mom was in the office to pick me up. She looked upset, but she looked even happier to see me. I remember the big hug she gave me, and then we drove home.

We watched the news the remainder of the afternoon. I was still unsure of what was going on and why it happened. Everything seemed to be chaos. She explained the situation the best she could, and after watching the news I started to make sense of it. I didn't know why, but I did know what was going on. Our country had been attacked by terrorist, and they had changed everything in just a few hours.

What's Baking Wednesday

I thought it'd be pretty fun to start a little weekly blog post about recipes I've tried or made that week. We'll see how this plays out after a few weeks, but for now I like the idea :)

Two things I have been missing since starting Paleo are sweet breads and the sweet crunch of cereal with berries in the morning. So far this week I've tried two new Paleo recipes:  Chocolate Zucchini Bread and Paleo Cereal!

So here's how it went down.

I stumbled across this recipe for chocolate zucchini bread and was dying to try it! I'm a huge fan of regular zucchini bread, so adding chocolate into the mix definitely appealed to me.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

• 1 medium zucchini, shredded (equal to 1.5 cups shredded zucchini)

• 2 eggs, whisked

• 3/4 cup sunbutter (or nutbutter if you prefer)

• 1/3 cup raw honey

• 1/4 cup cocoa powder

• 2 tablespoons coconut (or almond)  flour

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, pinch of salt

First step:  Shred your zucchini with a cheese grater. Once the entire zucchini is shredded, place onto paper towels and squeeze out excess water.

Second step:  Mix together all ingredients without the zucchini, once elements are combined well, then add in the shredded zucchini.

Step 3:  Pour into an 8x5 loaf pan and bake at 375° for 25-35 minutes. I checked mine periodically with a tooth pick to make sure it wasn't over baking.

The bread was so moist and delicious. I definitely recommend this if you're craving that sweet bread you've been missing!

I used to eat a bowl of Kashi Go Lean or TJ's bran flakes topped with frozen blueberries every single morning (I'm a creature of habit). Since Paleo took over, I have either protein pancakes or a turkey bacon omelette every morning. The pancakes take care of my sweet fix, but for some reason I've specifically been craving some cereal with milk.

Enter the Paleo cereal phenomenon.

Paleo Cereal

• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 1/2 cup walnut pieces
• 1/2 cup unsalted sunflower seeds
• 1 tbsp sunbutter (or nutbutter of choice)
• 1 tbsp almond butter (or nutbutter of choice)
• Drizzle with honey and cinnamon

Mix together all nuts, nutbutters, honey and cinnamon.

Put in baking dish (I used a pie pan) and pat down mixture.

Bake at 350° for 15 minutes. Side note, this makes your house smell delicious!

Add in some frozen or fresh blueberries and coconut milk (or almond milk) and enjoy!

I'm heading to workout at Crossfit. Today's workout is 200 double unders for time, and a 5 burpee penalty every time you mess up.. YIKES. It looks like I'll be doing a lot of burpees, which is never ever a good thing. 

Hope all of you are having a fantastic wednesday, we're half way through the work week!

Pleasing the World is Meaningless

How's that for some blunt truth? I've recently been reading through 1 Thessalonians and I am loving it, it is so full of simple truths with huge meaning. This chapter hit me over the head because I am so guilty in getting wrapped up in trying to please everyone around me. Not that there's anything wrong with being a "yes" woman, but sometimes it can get extremely overwhelming. In my case, I'll get so worried about pleasing others that I lose grasp on who I truly am as a daughter in Christ.

Sounds pretty intense right?

Verse 4 claims, Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts. Pleasing people (the world) is meaningless. Our purpose is to serve our Father and to ultimately do what is pleasing to Him. He knows the desires of our heart, so why would I not trust Him and do what is pleasing to Him, he has a plan for everything after all. Striving to please people leads to a dead end road. Sure it can be rewarding and self-satisfying, but then what? I'm speaking to myself here, but we should all try to strive toward living our lives out for Jesus, not for those surrounding us. Living to please God is fulfilling and satisfying, why settle for anything less?

Another verse that hit home for me was verse 8, We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God's good news but our own lives, too.

I'm not one to share all of my feelings, struggles, hopes, dreams, etc. I'm a "self-kept" kind of girl, I keep to myself until I can't handle it anymore. This is a struggle I've been working on for a while, and I've definitely gotten better at opening up thanks to the Lord's patience and persistence with me (including those around me, too). I've told my testimony to a hand full of people, and after reading verse 8 it got me thinking, why haven't I shared my story with more people?!

Sharing what the Lord has done in our lives is pleasing to Him, and brings Him so much glory! Talk about your trials and how God turned them into triumphs. I'm not the boldest, most outspoken, open human being, which makes it a challenge. However, isn't our purpose on earth to share the good news? I shouldn't hang on to all of the wonderful things the Lord has done in my life, He brought me through tough seasons to bring Himself glory and I am not ashamed to share that with anyone!

What has the Lord done in your life? Have you shared it with the world?

What gives us hope and joy, and what will be our proud reward and crown as we stand before our Lord when he returns? IT IS YOU!

1 Thessalonians 2:19

My Kind of Day

Braden is notorious for fun, elaborate dates that usually take up an entire day (which I don't mind one bit). Typically they're a surprise and I have no idea what we're doing or where we're going. That has always been one of my favorite things about our relationship, I love surprises no matter how big or how small! We spent the day on the lake again on Friday, but this time it was just the two of us. We love cruising around, looking at houses, and napping on the boat when it's just the two of us. It's definitely the most relaxing date you could possibly ask for and I love every second. 

We went back to the dock around 5 in the afternoon, I thought our day of leisure was coming to a close. To my surprise, Braden walks back down to the dock with a portable grill in hand. He said I had an even bigger surprise inside the grill - it was stocked with marinating chicken, pineapple, and asparagus. The boy knows the way to my heart.. good food! We had been talking about making BBQ Hawaiian chicken for a few weeks now, he just took the initiative to make it!

We anchored by a small little island that had a beach area. We got the grill going, then set up the marinated chicken topped with pineapple. Needless to say it smelled delicious! I had the idea to grill the remaining pineapple slices for dessert, probably the best idea I had of the night haha.

While waiting for the food to cook we spent some time skipping rocks. Bray makes it look so easy, I on the other hand struggle to make it skip more than two times. I guess we all have different gifts and talents right ;)

Our dinner was grilled to perfection, and although I didn't get a picture of the finished product, I did get a picture of our dinner "table" set up! The fish must have keen senses because as soon as we started eating a little school of fish hung out around Braden's toes hopefully waiting for us to drop some leftovers. This turned into an entertaining game on what we could get the fish to eat. I've learned they're fans of chicken but not pineapple haha.

We finished out the night with a sunset ride back to the dock. Sunsets are hands down the best showcase for the Lord's masterpieces, they are always so beautiful and breathtaking. This one was particularly beautiful. I may have been biased because we had such a great afternoon, but I'm thinking that it's definitely on my top 10 list.

Surprise dates are always fun. However, a surprise date in great company always takes the cake. I love spending time with Braden, especially when it feels like we're away from the craziness of reality. We both love to escape for a few hours and just enjoy each others company. 

This week marks the beginning of a crazy semester. Braden started back at his co-op today, which means less time to spend together. Although I won't see Braden nearly as much as I'd like to, I know that the time we do have together will be time well spent.  I'm confident that the Lord is going to use this season for His glory, and I'm excited to see what this semester holds for us!

Days in Pictures

Wednesday was the first day of my Senior year, which does not feel like it's real life. The first day of class was pretty normal, go to class, awkwardly introduce yourself, head to the next class, repeat. After class I got to hang out by the pool for a little while before heading to Crossfit. I also have a night class on Wednesdays, once that was over Bray and I headed to Anderson for dinner with his parents.

I'd say Wednesday was pretty average, with a twist of randomness.

Thursday is a different story. I'll let it speak for itself.

Seriously the most beautiful campus ever!

Ground turkey, sauteed mushrooms and green peppers, taco seasoning, and chili powder

Not from Thursday, but Bray and I experimented with cauliflower rice (put cauliflower in food processor, microwave for 8 minutes, voila!)

5 days. 4 locations. 1 big adventure with my best friend.

Braden and I had been planning a road trip to the beach for quite a while, but we had no idea where we'd be staying or what we'd be doing our entire trip. Taking trips like that are totally not in my character, I'm such a planner and everything always has to be organized. I don't know what came over me but I went into this trip with a completely open mind and with no expectations!

Our journey began on Saturday morning. First stop, Litchfield Beach for a Low Country Boil honoring two of our friends getting married in October.

We spent time hanging out with friends and meeting new ones while it poured rain outside. Despite the rain, the ocean view was still as beautiful as ever. We ate a delicious dinner of shrimp, sausage, corn, and potatoes (Bray and I stuck to the proteins) and followed it up with a game for the engaged couple. The rest of the night consisted of chatting and Q&A sessions for the two married couples who were there, it was a pretty entertaining evening!

The sunset over the marsh was breathtaking!

Next stop, Pawleys Island!

The next morning we had no idea where we were going to stay. We initially made a pact to not stay in the same place two nights in a row, so that made our trip pretty adventurous and kept us on our toes. We knew that Braden's aunt, uncle, and 4 cousins were staying somewhere in the area. We gave them a call, made a coffee shop stop, and headed to Pawley's Island to spend the day/night with them. The house they were staying in was seriously incredible, fully equipped with an elevator, movie theater, and workout room!

When we got there we went straight to the beach and played a round of bocce ball (Bray and I dominated, just sayin') and hung out on the beach with his family. The rest of the night was chill. We fished for a little while, had a delicious seafood dinner, and watched a movie in the theater. 

The next morning we headed to a water park! We spent a few hours climbing stairs and shooting down the slides until we were exhausted. It was so fun to reminisce on our childhood, water parks are still so fun no matter what age you are!

Once we returned to the house we packed up and it was on to location three, Charleston.

First on our list when arriving in Charleston was to get dinner, after the days festivities we were pretty hungry! On our last visit to Charleston we tried an Italian restaurant called Blossom that is located downtown. The service there is wonderful and their food is off the charts! In natural Paleo fashion we stuck to the protein and veggie heavy meals. I ordered the North Carolina Rainbow Trout with haricots verts, crushed roma tomatoes, roasted garlic, and pistachios. It was so tender and flavorful! Braden had the Oven Roasted Salmon Mepkin Abbey mushrooms, sautéed zucchini, all served in a tomato broth. Both meals were absolutely delicious!

We love the atmosphere and neat lighting at Blossom - it makes for a great experience in addition to the wonderful food!

Our friend Sarah graciously let us stay in her very Pinterest worthy apartment near downtown Charleston. She had a few friends playing at Tsunami so we thought it'd be great to support them and hear some great music. Well.. we can't resist sushi.. so we ordered dinner number two with no shame. I ordered the cucumber salad roll (my fav and Paleo friendly) and Bray ordered sashimi. We learned that we're not super fond of eating raw fish in it's simplest form.. I don't think I'll be ordering that again any time soon!

The next morning we woke up and decided to do a Crossfit workout. Doing workouts while out of town usually is difficult for me, but having Braden there to push me and cheer me on always makes it more fun! We ran a mile towards the ocean, stopping every minute to do 10 air squats, then running again unitl the next minute. Oh my legs, we ended up doing about 110 squats, talk about jello!

We wanted to shop around so like typical tourists we hit up the downtown area. We walked up and down King street, went to the shops in Charleston Place, and through the market. We stopped in and ate lunch at a little cafe called Brents. We both ordered buffalo chicken salads and it was delcious! I loved getting to spend some quality time with my boy, in addition to seeing all of the neat places Charleston has to offer. We left with new tshirts, some pecan pralines, and other nifty little things.

It was so hard having these tagging along with us but not being able to eat them!

Sarah met up with us after we finished shopping and we headed out to the beach. Instead of going to a touristy spot, Sarah took us to Sullivan's Island. It was pretty windy but we still tried passing the volleyball around, needless to say that was quite the sandy venture. The view at Sullivan's Island is beautiful. Huge cargo boats are constantly passing by, and the beach was only accompanied by us and a few seagulls.

Sarah had plans later that evening so Braden and I decided to go out for a little date night. We have been dying to try some Thai food, and my little friend Alex has previously requested that we try a place called Basil Thai Restaurant. She's a trustworthy foodie so we thought it'd be a great idea! The restaurant itself is pretty small, but don't let that fool you, the foods flavor and spice are outrageously delicious.

I ordered the red curry chicken that is paired with basil and bamboo roots. It was the perfect amount of spice! Braden ordered the beef Pad Prik, which is paired with basil, bell peppers, onions, and Prik King curry sauce. Personally I think the name is kind of silly.. but it was still very good!

Red Curry Chicken in all its glory

Beef Pad Prik

I must admit, that meal definitely opens up the sinuses haha. We were both craving something sweet after such a savory meal, but since we are eating Paleo style that craving satisfaction was a little difficult. We thought Planet Smoothie would be a safe bet. We agreed on the Chocolate Chimp (cocoa, bananas, vanilla, and honey), we thought that was close enough. Well, to our surprise the cocoa was not powder, it was chocolate syrup. We exchanged a look of concern, but still agreed to give it a go. Not even half way through the smoothie we both asked if it was making the others tummy hurt.. yep you guessed it, our stomachs are no longer used to foods high in sugar since starting eating Paleo hardcore. We had to throw the smoothie away, but it was still worth a try right?

We decided to head back to my house in Columbia to spend a little time with my mom before heading back to school. I thought that I wouldn't make it home again until later this fall but I was so happy to visit one more time. We spent the day hanging out and taking it easy, and then had lunch with my mom at Texas Roadhouse. Mmm talk about some salad, steak, and sweet potato deliciousness!

It's back to reality for us, but it was so fun to have one last adventure before everything starts up in full swing. I'm always thankful for time I get to spend with my boy, friends, and family. It's a pretty laid back week on this end. I am going to spend that afternoon with Braden's family, I'm pretty excited to see all of them, it feels like it has been weeks! The rest of this weekend will be time well spent with newly married friends and our wonderful Crossfitters.

I hope you all have had a wonderful week, but I hope you have an even better weekend :)