Tuesday, June 30

One Way to Procrastinate...

...is to make a peach cobbler!

I didn't much feel like doing homework last night so I whipped up a peach cobbler.

[insert photo]

Peach Cobbler
--Preheat oven to 400F.
--Wash, peel and cut about 5 cups of peaches. Put in a saucepan with 1/4 cup water, 2 Tablespoons flour OR 1 Tablespoon cornstarch, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/2 to 2/3 cups sugar. Mix over medium heat until the mixture is thickening and blubbly! Resist eating the yummy goodness!
--Mix 1 cup flour, 1.5 teaspoons baking powder, 2 Tablespoons sugar and 1/4 tsp cinnamon. Cut in 1/4 cup butter. Add 1 egg and 1/4 cup milk. Mix until blended.
--Pour peach goodness into a 2 Quart baking dish. Scoop about 6 biscuits from mixture and assemble on top. Bake for 20-25 minutes in 400 degree oven until biscuits are golden brown.
--Enjoy! Best when warm and with vanilla ice cream!

Feel free to substitute or add to this recipe. In fact, I did 3/4 cup of flour and 1/4 cup of oatmeal. Other yummy additions would coconut, blackberries, maple extract, etc...

Friday, June 26

Mood Swings

I am in the mood to play in the kitchen. I want to try new recipes, desserts and entrees.
I am not in the mood to work on homework. PTL I only have about 1 week left.

I am in the mood to start exercising again.
I am not in the mood to endure...I have never reached the point where exercising is enjoyable...if there is such a point.

I am in the mood to become more active in my church.
I am not in the mood to over-extend myself, which is a good thing.

I am in the mood to play with my cameras.
I am not in the mood to get my newest camera cleaned and fixed.

I am in the mood to actively save more money, which is needed.
I am not in the mood to stop spending money, which is bad.

I am in the mood to clean my apartment...throw away junk and minimize.
I am not usually in the mood to do anything about it.

I am in the mood to read some books...I have about 20 books that have been waiting...beckoning me...enticing me with their stories, words and wisdom!
I am in the mood for coffee dates with friends or dinner parties or walks...soon!
I am in the mood to celebrate my friends new babies.
I am in the mood to visit my grandparents but that might have to wait until November.

Moods are funny things. They are quite dependent on energy levels and emotions. My current class is about making decisions using data. Although I appreciate that I am an emotional person by nature, I sure would like to be more data-minded and driven. I worked with two people once who told me that they were like steam-rollers...never slowing down, endless energy, which was true! I am not that type of person. However, because of school, I have allowed myself to become quite low energy. My life needs a power-surge...I think I'll use the list above to set goals for myself this summer!

Monday, June 22

Opportunities

One thing that is important to me is to regularly serve my church. To me serving the church goes hand-in-hand with being a Christian. This past school year I served in the AWANA programs, which I loved! I enjoyed it so much more than I thought I would. Now that AWANA is over for the summer, I'm trying to figure out what I should do this next school year.

Keep in mind that I am still working full time and technically going to school full time too! Therefore, I've decided that I can only do one ministry. The question is which ministry...

--I've been asked to co-lead a young ladies Bible Study, which I've been a participant of for the last couple years, which meets every other Monday.

--Of course, there's always AWANA, which is every Wednesday night.

--And then there my church's youth group. I love youth and yesterday at church it was announced that they need leaders...they meet every Tuesday night (and special events).

What to do? what to do?

**Oh, as a side note, I made my quiche this weekend using half-and-half instead of heavy cream. The taste was so much better but the quiche didn't set as well as last time...not sure the problem is related to the change.

Friday, June 19

My Thinking Cap

Fridays are usually a quiet day at work. Therefore it becomes my day to work on the stack of papers that sit there neglected until I have time. So today, I'm diving into chocolate. My company used to represent a Belgian chocolate company (yummy chocolate!) and our largest customer was Costco (chocolate chunk muffin)...we were fired from the chocolate company about a year ago now?? Anyhow, before we got fired we set up all these contracts (lucky us!) with a couple of our customers which means that even though we've been fired, we still get the brokerage. I have 4 checks and statements I now have to sort through...probably 3 days of work. Ugh...hopefully today I can make a good segway into my 4 statements because once I finish with those then I need to find out if the chocolate company has paid off the contracts already or how much more we should expect to receive...probably another 2 day job. Maybe all this chocolate work deserves a chocolate treat! :)

Tomorrow I'm having a meeting with my sister and my church's women's ministry team leader to discuss a book club that my sister and I are overseeing. It's been awhile since I've played in the kitchen so I've decided to make quiche...a wonderful recipe that I've tried before and will tweak a bit for tomorrow. I'm substituting Half&Half for the Heavy Cream and doing less onion. I'm excited about that.

My goal for this weekend is to make progress on my current class' final project. We have to do a research report using data. I chose the topic: Would the Great Commission Fund (a fund to support missionaries by the Christian & Missionary Alliance) be adequately supported if the C&MA required all churches to give a portion of their annual church tithing? This is a huge question and I don't have the time to research this topic as fully as possible but I have been given a wonderful amount of information for me to work through. Over the course of my class I've moved from dread over my topic (wondering why I chose it in the first place) to determination/survival (hunker down and get it done) to eagerness (this is a good topic and worthy of being researched). My paper is due 06/27 but I'm hoping to get it mostly done this weekend so that I have all next week to tweak it.

I have two weeks of school left...I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am for that. I will then have about 3 months of a blissful break to catch up on non-school books, get outside for a walk or two (I'm a Washingtonian albino by now), play in the kitchen a bit more, and spend time with friends!

Thursday, June 11

Thank-you-Jesus Moments

I haven't felt inspired to write anything over the last few weeks...life feeling pretty mundane, until today.

For my current class (Data-Driven Decision Making), I have to write a research paper using data. The very first week of class was when we had to declare our topic. The only topic I could think of was regarding the Great Commission Fund (GCF) of the Christian & Missionary Alliance (C&MA). Ever since declaring that as my topic I have been apprehensive, like I'm opening a can of worms. Key reason being is that I am going to a C&MA school and the President of the school is my professor for this class, who is incidentally, also on the board of directors for the C&MA. But feeling locked into the topic, I forged ahead. Quickly I concluded that I am way WAY over my head here...not that I can't handle or prepare this paper properly but that WAY more time is needed than the 6 weeks I was given. I emailed my district office asking for the information I needed/wanted from them (half believing they would never give it to me) and emailed my pastor (ever supportive of my education) for info on my church's giving.

I had concluded about two days ago that I was going to get a poor grade on this paper and that the only research I would have would be solely on my church family, which would give me a full 3 pages of the 8-10 I need. However today, I heard back from my district and they gave me EVERYTHING I asked for, which is much more than I expected. Now I am pretty confident I can get at least 6 pages, if not more.

Relief and gratitude abound!

Monday, June 1

Reading New Books

I love reading books for the first time. The intensity of my interaction with the book is always much greater as I emotionally interact with the characters and their story line. Sure, I do have my favorite books that I read over and over, but the initial reading is always the best.

I remember when I was in middle school (maybe younger) when I read the Anne of Green Gables series. In the last book, Rilla of Ingleside, something happened unexpectedly that upset me so much, I immediately started crying and threw the book across the room.

Perhaps its not a good thing that I get so swepted up into a book...in fact, I can think of a few reasons myself...but I love the fact that God has given me the imagination and ability to identify with people and their stories, even through books.

So what am I currently reading? The Twilight Saga. I'm on the third book and I tell you, its very hard to focus on my school work while working through the series. The only consolation is that I don't currently own book 4. So theoretically, after finishing my current book, I'll focus on my school work and grab book 4 in July when I'm finished with my class.

I'm enjoying the series very much...to the point where I want to read more than anything else and end up dreaming at night about the storyline. I figured I'd enjoy the series since so many people have commented on how good they are. My plan was to read the entire series in July, once I have a break from school. However, in the airport last week, my plane was delayed so I wandered over the book store, saw "Twilight," bought it and been consumed since then.

I should have waited.