A Pinterest[ing] Idea

While going through my Facebook and twitter feeds I found some quotes of some feelings toward today’s holiday.
"
I have a valentine. Her name is, "valentine’s day is a stupid corporate made up holiday to make you spend money at hallmark."

“#IfYouAreSingle then good... That's just more money in your pocket today!”

“tomorrow is just going to be another day for me”

These statuses drive me nuts!  The last one especially because although they are pretending it doesn’t exist …well in order to pretend something doesn’t exist it has to exist right?

How about instead of doing whatever it takes to forget this fun occasion, you embrace it, and that is what a single girl like me did.

While browsing through pinterest, I found some creative and fun ideas to celebrate this day! Of all the ideas I flipped through this one captured my attention, and so I decided to give this whirl.

                                      The "War  Zone"

               Spent a few hours tinkering with different mediums

                                      The finished product!

It was so much fun sneaking around carefully the night before placing each little treat on the door-knobs of people I care about!

I was surprised myself with recieving a valentine from my mom!

                  She gave me this cute little box of chocolates and...

                               A handmade card!

So embrace this day and do things that not only you love to do, but also do a loving gesture for family or friends in your life that you love!

Just because you don’t have a valentine, doesn’t mean you can’t be some one's valentine right?!?

Resting in Peace

“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10

It is in the stillness of solitude that we as believers can gain strength and guidance from God; however I live in a house full of loud people so this makes it kind of difficult when I am in desperate need of solitude.

Thankfully I found a place of solitude is located Hollywood Cemetery in RVA.  Yeah I know it sounds kind of morbid, but if you think about it, a cemetery is the perfect place when seeking peace and quiet.

                                             The entrance to my "resting bench"

                                          this is my "resting bench"...or I like to think it is
 

                               This is the view I see while sitting on this bench.

 

Almost every weekend I would try to go up there and chill, sadly my new car has some engine problems making it hard to visit the place…

Until I decided to give into temptation this weekend and make the drive up there, and find this risk a success!

                                                                                      

Could not be happier to make it without a hitch

                                                   Afterwards I had some celebratory thai food

love me some pad thai 

I hope you all find a place where you can find rest and guidance from God, because it totally works wonders when you're feeling discouraged :)

How Taking a Hiatus is Like "Four Letter" Word

For the longest time I have had this desire to encourage and help youth to gain a strong foundation in Christ.
I was blessed with the chance to fulfill this passion of mine when I got to work at this amazing christian summer camp named Camp CrossRoads back in 2008. But after this experience I felt that I really needed to” focus on strengthening my relationship with God”.

After a lengthy hiatus I decided to take on being a part of is helping out at Cambridge Baptist Church with the youth ministry there.

 
When it comes to working with kids, it’s very important to set aside your personal problems and be there for them.  This can be very taxing at times, but God has shown me various times that I am doing His will for me for now.

Last Wednesday I shared with them the importance of Christian fellowship. I and some help from Landon (who leads their worship time) coming up with some games to encourage this practice.

 This game is where they were all knotted up and had to untangle themselves without letting go of everyone's hands

                   This is another game where they all had to get everybody's feet inside a small box

They all participated and I couldn’t have been more proud of seeing them all work together. At the end we got them to pair off and pray together. I cannot express to you a more beautiful site.

I mentioned that the worst decision I made was going on hiatus from “God’s work”. I say this because for someone to say, “Oh I just need to be alone with God for awhile.” In my opinion is completely wrong and selfish.  If every Christian felt that way, well nothing would get done.

Christ Himself said “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” Nowhere in this passage did He say, “when you feel like it”.  

I get it there are times when we all are completely worn down and become frustrated when things aren’t going the way we want them to.  I have moments like that ALL the time, but so far what I have learned these past couple of weeks is as a believer in Christ, no matter what state I may be in, I can still do God’s work.

 It is in those moments we are at our weakest, that God shines the brightest through us.

"May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had," Romans 15:5

Baking some love

Today is my dad's birthday and in honor of this event I decided to make one of his favorite past time treats with a sweet twist.  Heart shaped ding-dongs!


 Now although I made this for a birthday, this could be a really cute idea for Valentines day. So if you would like to attempt this on your own (which I think everyone should) here are some pics on how I did it.

The main ingredients

 (well the Vitamin Water isn't necessary but it is good!)

what you'll need is:

Devil's food cake mix

Melting chocolate that hardens when cool

heart shaped tray which is super easy to find this time of year (this one is from Michael's)

Ukrops' butter cream frosting

The tub of "white stuff" is the Ukrops' butter cream frosting. If your from the Richmond Area you all know what this is, but if not well...you have got to move here because this jahnke is amazing!

Fill the tray about 1/2 full with the cake mix

let this bake for about 20 mins. (don't forget to check it with a toothpick to see if it's done)

Carefully pop them out once they are cooled

if you are not gentle they will break easily (I broke 5 of them :[ )

Once cool hollow them out

I used a wooden lollipop stick and slowly twirled it around in the middle. Then I turned them upside down and tapped it so the crumbs would fall out.

                                            Fill with butter cream frosting

I used a zip-lock bag and cut a tiny hole at the tip. If you don't live near a Ukrops then fill them with some other kind of frosting, or maybe use a jelly instead! (strawberry sound soo good!)

                             Coat top and sides with the melting chocolate

For this step I took a huge spoonful of the chocolate on top so that it spills over. Then I took a frosting knife and gently spread it around the edges. after this step pop em in the fridge till the chocolate hardens. If you're OCD like me, take a sharp knife and carefully take off the excess chocolate surrounding the heart. Then flip it over and cover the bottom with chocolate and pop it back in the fridge.

Finish Product

I had some extra chocolate so I made a few medallions, but this is what it should sorta look like!

Hopefully my instructions helped, but if not feel free to shoot me a comment under the post if you have any questions, OR let me know of any combinations you came up with!

I would love to hear from my readers!