Oh Marriage! {Sunday Fun Day}

So, last night I was reading some of the blogs I like and Pinteresting for recipes, and I somehow came across this video from youtube.  I can't give credit to the blog I found it on, because I just have no idea where I found it.

For any of you out there who are married, you can relate to this video.  It is SO true!  God made men and women unique, and we can both do dumb things sometimes, but this one is just so typical.  Husbands and wives will like this one!  Please, please, please take the minute and a half to watch this... you will not regret it!!!

Haha!!!  I love it!  Have a fun day this Sunday!

Recent Reads

Well, here's a peek into another part of my life that summer allows me to enjoy:  reading!  I absolutely love to read.  There are very few things that are better than sitting on the beach all day reading a good book.

However, there is a disclaimer to this post and any future posts that talk about books I read.  I don't read a lot of adult books.  I could say that I just came out of two years of high school where I wanted to read teen books to relate to my students more, but that would really just be an excuse.  I really like teen fiction.  I get caught up in a good "fantasy" story.

See, here's my opinion.  If I'm going to spend a considerable amount of time reading a book, then I want it to be about something that I can't flip on the tv and see on the news.  Most of the books I read take place in fictional worlds, and I love that about them.  There is a plethora of sources I could get information from that involve our own world, so I like my reading to be more creative, more unique.

It's not like I'm trying to convince you to like the books I like, but I just want you to know why I like them.  Also, though I am very secure in knowing what I like in a book, I will say that I have read and liked some books that I am a bit embarrassed about.  I tend to read books that are very popular, and therefore, I sometimes come off as a 15 year old girl in my taste.  Oh well, that's who I am, but it is sometimes embarrassing talking to adults and confirming that I have, in fact, read the Twilight series, and I did actually like them.  Ya know, especially when I'm supposed to be an adult.  (Just between you and me, I'm just waiting for the day when word gets out that I'm an "imposter adult", because I never did really grow up in some areas.)  : )

Anyway, here are some books I've read recently and enjoyed.  Not that you'd like them, unless you are actually a 15 year old girl!  Lol.  Just kidding, I'm pretty sure a lot of grown-ups secretly still like teen books!  Just FYI though, I can't guarantee that you'll like any of these books; they're just my personal preferences.

• The Maze Runner Trilogy by James Dashner - I really liked these three books that are quite popular right now.  I'm on a post-apocalyptic kick, and these were an interesting take on trying to remake the world after the end has come.  It starts out with a bunch of teenage boys dropped into the middle of a maze with no adult supervision, and they must survive.  The books evolve a lot from the original scene and scenario, and I was constantly wondering what was going to happen next, who was really on which side, and which characters I should trust.  These three novels were action packed and suspenseful.
• Divergent and Insurgent by Veronica Roth - These two books burst onto the scene just after The Hunger Games (another series I love) and have been making waves.  There is a movie being made and the highly-anticipated third book comes out later this year.  These are another post-apocalyptic set of books where the surviving population is set in highly separate factions.  The main character, Tris, seems to be going about her life semi-normally until things start happening and the world begins to change.  They're really great and just the perfect blend of action, suspense, romance, etc. for me.
• The Lorien Legacies by Pittacus Lore - If you pay close attention to movies, you may have heard of one called "I am Number Four" that came out a couple of years ago.  The movie was based on the first book in The Lorien Legacies.  The series is really hard to explain mainly because it involves two separate races of aliens hiding on Earth and trying to kill each other.  (Trust me, I do know how ridiculous that last sentence just sounded.)  But they're really interesting if you're into aliens and superpowers and stuff.  (Wow, I'm just going to move on... I'm sounding more convincing by the minute!)

So, those are a few of my recent reads.  However, just in case you were wondering, here's a photo of my book case so you can see some of my favorite reads!  (The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis are my all-time favorite.  And here's proof:  I own seven different copies of the series in all different formats.)  As you can tell, I'm also obsessed with hardbacks... if it's not a hardback, I basically don't buy it.

You may or may not have noticed...

Well, you may have noticed my absence this week.  Or, maybe not, considering I'm not the most dependable blogger in the world.  But, I've been on vacation!  Woohoo!

Thomas and I just got back from a trip to St. Louis to visit our families.  We were so blessed to get to travel there since our chances to see family and friends are few and far between since we now live 1100 miles away!  So we were very thankful to get to see everyone again!

The one thing I miss about St. Louis, besides our families of course, is some of the food.  There are a couple of places in St. Louis that we just don't have where we live.  And on this trip, I'm pretty sure I got to eat at every single one of them!  Yay!  So, I should be set on my St. Louis food cravings for a while.

Just in case you're wondering, here are the faves I am referring to (most of which are major chain restaurants that do not live in my area of Florida):

• Qdoba Mexican Grill - This one is a major chain that Brevard County, Florida seriously needs to adopt.  Moe's has NOTHING on Qdoba!
• The Old Spaghetti Factory - Once again, an AMAZING chain restaurant Florida needs.
• Imo's Pizza - A thin crust St. Louis pizza company... either you love it or you hate it.  And I love it!
• Red Robin - Aaaahhh!  Best chicken caesar wrap ever!  I could eat it every day.
• McAlister's Deli - We had to take a special trip to McAlister's just for sweet tea and POTATO SALAD.  Seriously, I could cry eating their potato salad; it is that good!
  
  
• And last but certainly not least, SnoBiz - A little old shack that serves the best sno-cones ever.  This place holds so many memories for me.

 This was our after church hang out spot on Wednesday nights in the summers.  Our whole group would drive over, grab sno-cones and sit in the bed of Thomas' truck hanging out.  Thomas and I went to SnoBiz after dinner, before homecoming junior year when we went as "friends" because I didn't like him yet.  We went there on the night before I left for college freshman year (I had band camp so I had to leave before everyone else.  I know, I'm a nerd.).  We went there the night before our wedding.  And fifty million times in between...  So much laughter, so many memories.  Here's another memory to add to the mix.

I have some more things to blog about...recipes, goings on, movies... but I'll save them for later.  I have a kitty cat bugging me to hang out, so I'm going to be an old cat lady and oblige her!

Have a great weekend!

In the Tough Times...

...you tend to lean on God more.  It's much easier to think you can go it alone when everything's hunky-dorey.  But when life throws starts throwing proverbial curve balls, we all tend to wanna hit the "Pause" button and talk to God a little more.

Even though this is certainly not something to be proud of, it is very true for me.  It is so much easier to lean on God when you have no idea what He's planning because there isn't anything you can do on your own.  I wish I could say that I look to God first in every situation, but I am not there yet.  I am desperately striving to be the person, wife, daughter, friend, servant He wants me to be, but all too often I get caught up in the everyday activities of life.  And then I find myself, laying in bed after another day, praying for forgiveness for neglecting to seek God continually.

So in an effort to train my heart and mind on Him, I am currently working on memorizing a short passage of scripture.  I have been reading the Bible through in chronological order in my personal Bible study, and this past week, one of the days readings was Psalm 119... the whole long thing.  (Btw, I'm fairly convinced that chronological order is one of the best things ever!)  And while reading, this set of verses really stuck out to me.  I want these to be my heart's desire, every moment of every day.

Psalm 119: 33-40 

(in the New International Version)

"Teach me, O Lord, to follow your decrees;

then I will keep them to the end.

Give me understanding, and I will keep your law

and obey it with all my heart.

Direct me in the path of your commands,

for there I find delight.

Turn my heart toward your statutes

and not toward selfish gain.

Turn my eyes away from worthless things;

preserve my life according to your word.

Fulfill your promise to your servant, 

so that you may be feared.

Take away the disgrace I dread, 

for your laws are good.

How I long for your precepts!

Preserve my life in your righteousness."

I just love the Psalmist's passion for wanting to do the will of God.  Especially the phrases he used like "with all my heart", "away from worthless things", "How I long for your precepts".  I want my passion and desires to match those of the Psalmist; to focus on the things above, the things that really matter and not get caught up in all the worldly, worthless things.

Any thoughts?!

A Rachel Original {Wednesday Wins}

Are you on Pinterest?  I am... and I'm addicted!  Right now, my current fascination is with all of the single serving "mug" foods there are.  For a two person household, single serving desserts can be a life saver.  We can never eat a whole cake, and an entire batch of cookies is just suicide.  So, I end up giving a lot of food away.  But sometimes, I just want a little something sweet, and I don't want to spend the entire night in the kitchen making a huge batch of cookies that I don't have anywhere to take.  So, I've been trying out some of these recipes.

And after finding this apple crisp recipe, I had the idea to make a recipe of my own!  So, I used several different recipes for inspiration, including the apple crisp, my grandmother's homemade biscuits, and a Better Homes and Gardens cobbler recipe to come up with my very own single serving apple cobbler!  Yummy!!!

I don't want to sound like I'm full of myself or anything, but I was really happy with how it turned out!  It's always a cool moment when you stand in the kitchen, tasting something you made up yourself and finding out that it doesn't suck.  (It's also a relief to know that you didn't just waste all that time and all the ingredients!)

So here's the recipe!

Single Serving Apple Cobbler

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup flour
• scant 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1-2 drops vanilla extract
• heaping 1/4 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/2 tablespoon milk
• 1 small apple (I used half of a HUGE Fuji apple, my favorite)
• 1/2 tablespoon flour
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• heaping 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:

1. Chop the apple into small pieces and then toss in 1/2 tablespoon flour, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, and 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon to coat.  Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, combine all remaining ingredients except butter and milk.  
3. Then cut in butter using a fork until the mixture is nice and crumbly; if it's still too dry, add a little more butter.
4. Then add the 1/2 tablespoon milk and stir until everything is moist.  The mixture should stick together so you could form a biscuit out of it.
5. Place the apple mixture in a mug or ramekin.  Break the dough into small crumbles and place on top of the apple mixture.  (If you're using a tall, skinny mug, you might want to layer everything so you don't have a really thick layer of biscuit on top.  I don't know how this would work though because I made mine in a ramekin.)  I then sprinkled a little more cinnamon and sugar on top to make it prettier.
6. Microwave on high for about 70-90 seconds.  Let cool for a few minutes before eating; the apple will be hot like molten lava!  Also, this would go really well with some vanilla ice cream melting on top!  Yummy!

I hope you enjoy it!

My New Kicks {Lundi Little Lovelies}

Hey yall!  One thing I love about summer: only needing to know what day of the week it is every-once-in-a-while.  Sure, it's a little confusing sometimes, but it is so lovely to not need to know what day it is all the time!  Anybody else there with me?!

Any who, with all the running I've been doing, I decided that it would be a pretty good idea to actually get some running shoes.  I've been wearing a pair of tennis shoes that I got at least 6 years ago, and I'm pretty sure they're not even meant for running.  But, now that I'm jogging and walking for longer amounts of time, my feet are feeling the burn by the end of the workout.  So after thinking and talking about it for a while, this past week we shopped for some new shoes!  And, even better, I bought some!!!

After I tried on what felt like a billion pairs (but was probably more like 12), Thomas picked these out for me.  And it turned out that the fit, color, and price were right.  And I know it goes against everything you should care about when picking out a running shoe, but I am soooo relieved that they're not hideously ugly.  In fact, even though the base color isn't white (an obession of mine), I think they're pretty cute!

They also felt pretty darn good on their first run!  Though anything is better than the worn out, rock hard soles I've been running on!

Fun fun!

Funfetti Dip {Sunday Fun Day}

Woot woot!  Today was a lovely Sunday!!!  (Side bar: has anybody picked up on the fact that I love the word "lovely" yet?!)  Let's count off some things I loved about today:

1. My breakfast yogurt parfait was delish!  Publix Vanilla Yogurt, fresh strawberries, and Oatmeal Squares (these are a great crunch to yogurt when I don't have any granola made).  Yummy!
2. I just really love our church.  God has really blessed us with some great Godly people to surround ourselves with.  You all know who you are!
3. A calm afternoon of hanging out with the hubby and preparing for our trip to St. Louis this summer to see our families.
4. Then, we spent the afternoon/evening at the beach with our life group and ate some delicious pizza for dinner.
5. We were leaving the beach when the rain started (I love that it waited for us to be done)  :)
6. For dessert: chocolate covered cheesecake on a stick at our favorite hot dog joint!  Double YUM!
7. And finish it up with a nice, hot shower and some snuggling and one of our tv shows in bed with the hubs!

So, I repeat, what a lovely Sunday!

But, here's for the FUN DAY part.  It's so fun, it's called Funfetti Dip!  I found a recipe on Pinterest for Skinny Funfetti Dip, and boom, I was there!  Some of you may not know, but I have an intense love affair with sprinkles.  I would put them on anything.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE sprinkles!  So, funfetti?  Yes please!

 The recipe I found actually called for Funfetti cake mix, but alas, I did not have any in my house!  So, I improvised, and here's my version.  (I also divided everything by 3 because it would have made loads of dip, and we really don't need that in the house, even if it's not incredibly fattening.)  It's pretty darn delish.  Oh, and the even more fun part, after stirring the dip a couple of times, it's now all tie-die-ey.  Like an Easter egg on drugs.  It's pretty awesome and hilarious.

{Low Calorie} Funfetti Dip
Adapted from Sweet Treats and More
(For a LOT of dip, multiply everything by 3)

Ingredients:

• 1/3 box of Gooey Butter Cake Mix (my box was 15.25 ounces, so I just weighed out 5 ounces)
• 1/2 cup light Cool Whip, thawed
• 2/3 non-fat vanilla yogurt
• As many sprinkles as your heart desires

Directions:

1. Stir the cake mix, cool whip, and yogurt together in a bowl until smooth.
2. Add sprinkles and stir in.  Then garnish more sprinkles on top.
3. Eat with graham crackers, nilla wafers, Teddy Grahams, animal crackers, etc.
4. Store in the fridge.

So, YUM!  Do you have anything along the lines of "Sunday Fun Day" to share?