Reasons to be Thankful

Thanksgiving.

A vision of family gathered around a table loaded with delectable foods most certainly comes to mind at that word. Family and fun times are very good reasons indeed to be thankful. Many other things have occured over the months since I last blogged that I'm thankful for and below is a brief overview. 

(Sorry it's been so long since last post!)

•         I am thankful for the family and friends God has blessed me with and the fantastic times I always have with them.
•        I'm thankful for the opportunity I had recently serving at an organization called Voice of the Martyrs.
•       While studying philosophy this year in World View 3, I've realized how there's no struggle for the Christian to find answers to the questions philosophers have failed to answer on their own. I'm most thankful that Christ gives value and purpose to our lives!
•        I'm very thankful that I'm doing a science this year that I enjoy learning about- Anatomy and Physiology.
•        I'm oh-so-thankful that I can now have sugar again! :D
•       I'm thankful for the fun times I have with my sister Madison, staying up late talking and laughing and reading Sherlock Holmes stories aloud in British accents.
•      I'm thankful for all the blessings, large and small, God has poured into my life this year. 
•    And lastly, I'm thankful for you, who took the time out of your day to read a tad about my life. :)

          Hope you and yours have a very blessed Thanksgiving this year!

Pearly Whites

I believe most girls, whether secretly or openly, want pearly whites. And I recently bought bright red lipstick, and just letting you know, that is not a flattering color when your teeth happen to be a little less than snow-white… So when I saw we had run out of the Crest whiteners, I slightly freaked out. Instead of waiting until the next time we went to the store, I took matters into my own hands and looked up a natural way of whitening my teeth.

Sidenote: Personally, I’m sick of the chemical route of whitening my teeth, since it always results in me barely being able to breathe because my gums are that sensitive afterwards. And when I accidentally and inevitably swallow while the whitening strips are in, it burns my throat terribly. Surely that isn’t healthy… Alright, I’m down from my pulpit. ;)

In my search, I found this somewhat delicious and, I believe, darling way of whitening your teeth. (Yes, I just used the word darling to describe whitening teeth…) It’s a fast, cheap, easy and natural way of whitening teeth.
What you shall need:
~3 ripe strawberries (the real recipe calls for 3 to 6 strawberries. I used 4 and had an overabundance of puree…How big do they think our teeth are?! Sheesh…)

~ A blender

~ A bowl

~ Baking soda

~ Cream of tartar

~ Water

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Puree 3 ripe strawberries in a blender then place in a small bowl.

2. Apply puree to your teeth with a toothbrush or a cosmetic brush. The puree should be painted on rather than brushed on. (personally I think they only said paint it on because it makes it seem more artsy and fun sounding.)

3. Make a mixture of 1 tsp. of baking soda, 1 tsp. of cream of tartar, and 1 cup of water. Swish the mixture around in your mouth and then spit it out.

4. Brush your teeth with 1 tsp. of baking soda on a toothbrush.

5. Rinse thoroughly with cold water.

Then it came with a wonderful WARNING sign that always worries you and makes you wonder how safe it really was….

WARNING: Brush your teeth well after each strawberry treatment. The whitening ingredient- malic acid- in the strawberries along with the sugar can cause cavities if left on for too long. Limit the treatment to once per week. (So watch out.)
While doing this, I was slap happy because of the beautiful color the pureed strawberries were, and it was fairly fun “painting” my teeth with strawberries, and my teeth really were whiter afterwards.

I have a few extra warnings for you.

Be prepared about the mixture of cream of tartar and baking soda…it scared me nearly half to death when it began to fizz like some science experiment. I really questioned how safe this whitening endeavor was. But I plowed ahead and I made it out alright.

Be sure you shut your mouth when you’re brushing your teeth with the baking soda. Slobber goes everywhere. You can thank me in advance because no one warned me, so you can imagine how unglamorous THAT was.

Baking soda tastes a lot worse then you think it will. For reals.

And my last warning: you might consider setting aside the rest of that strawberry puree and saving it for after brushing your teeth with that baking soda. Helps to get rid of that horrid taste if you eat some, or so I thought. And who could resist such pink loveliness that tastes good! ;)
After all said and done, I found this to be an effective and unique way of whitening your teeth and thought it would be fun to share.

The Importance of being Earnest

My time has not really been my own during July and thus far into August. This summer has been the busiest I have yet lived, and I truly believe that. The JOY Drama Group was together again most of this summer to put on a benefit play for the storm-leveled Stained Glass Theater in Joplin, Mo. All proceeds and donations went to the theater group and their ministry.

All throughout July were the rehearsals for The Importance of being Earnest, between which family were staying over at our house different weekends, we were trying to visit family and friends before the school year begins, not to mention trying to squeeze in math and French and a few other school subjects that still need finishing up…The first week in August was tech week.

Friday, the fifth, was our first performance.

Saturday was a farewell party to some friends of mine who are heading off to college. Sunday was another performance at the Artisan Theater, which is “in the round”. We had never performed in the round before, neither have we used microphones before, so it was a very new experience.

This is our cast, crew and director.

Tuesday last, our drama group headed up to Joplin, Missouri, where we volunteered at a Mt. Hope church. On the way there we had a memorable time, one of our friends had a 5-hour energy, so you can imagine he was a bit hyper. It was altogether a hilarious time!

There, we helped clean the church since they’ve had thousands of volunteers staying at the church all throughout summer. After cleaning the church, we helped them organize the sheds and trailers containing supplies donated to the distribution center. It was such fun, because we got pretty close to the other volunteers at the church. They would joke around with us, and us with them. It was a blast! Rebecca and I were given charge over organizing the baby supplies.

It was a mess -to be sure- but between us and the amazing assistance of our other wonderful friends, we were able to get it perfectly organized. At some points before it was organized, we thought we were going to drown in baby diapers…I even had dreams about baby diapers if that tells you anything about how many there were.

Here's our group with a few other volunteers we became friends with.

Every evening after working all day, we would meet the STGJ group and do something fun. We went for a frozen yogurt run, one night we watched some cartoons on a big reel movie projector, and we bowling. Since we all got on so well, it was as if we had known them for ages! We made wonderful friends, and were very loath to part with them Friday.

Last Friday was our final performance of The Importance of Being Earnest, and before the show we got our usual prayer circle, but this time, some of the SGTJ people prayed with us. It was a very … I really cannot find the right word to describe it. Humbling? Aw-inspiring? These people that we had been praying for all throughout summer, and for whom we had been putting on this production for, were praying with us, and for us. And we all had such a strong common bond; a love for Jesus, and love for the arts.
The play was a success. Beforehand we presented the SGTJ with a check for the money which had been raised for them. It was a joy bringing laughter to the audience. To hear these people, whose lives had been altered by the May 22nd tornado, laughing was the completion of all we had worked for over the past month. Backstage, we were slap-happy. It was a blast and a very neat experience.
After the play, we loaded up our set and costumes for the last time and socialized briefly with our new-found friends before we had to leave. Once they rebuild their theater, we are going to get our drama group together to watch their first production in the new location! They even mentioned coming down here to watch one of our plays!
The whole thing was a very unique experience and I loved every minute of it, even the sweaty exhausting work. Lol. I felt like I could have stayed for a month in Joplin, and almost wish we could have. Although it felt like we had been gone from home for a month, when we were there in Joplin the time went by so quickly. Good friends, hard work, funny happenings, and helping out is very satisfying. This was my first mission trip and I loved it so much I'm now looking forward to a next mission trip!
On the morning of our performance, one of the volunteers at the church came up with a Bible and showed us a verse he had found.

Jeremiah 29:13 (NLT)

“If you look for me in earnest, you will find me when you seek me.”

How awesome is that?! So that’s the importance of being earnest, folks; looking for the Lord in earnest!

The Caveman Diet and Attempts at Cookery

I cannot believe I have not yet blogged about something very big in my life that happened a few months ago! Well, to spare you boredom, I will be brief. I had my blood tested for food allergies, and found out I'm allergic to 32 foods. Yes, you read that right. The big allergies are wheat, gluten, eggs, yeast, and sugar (which eliminates almost everything delicious since I'm pretty much addicted to bready things and sugary things). The other things are superfluous, except for blueberries and citrus fruits. Hopefully it's only temporary and I'll gradually be able to eat real food again. These food allergies make finding "easy" dinners next to impossible.

  By now I mostly know what I can have for all my meals, its just coming up with ideas for snacks and sweet things that stump me. So I have been trying allergy-free recipes every now and then. Looking online for gluten-free, sugar-free, egg-free recipes, I came across what is called "the Caveman Diet". Apparently that is what my kind of diet is called. Its more formally called the Paleo diet, but I'm sticking with Caveman diet as it makes me laugh.

   The first Caveman recipe I tried was called something like Caramel Cinnamon Walnut Clusters. There wasn't anything caramel-like about it. When you first popped it in your mouth, it tasted really good, but when you swallowed it, it was like a freight train of cinnamon hitting your mouth. They really should have called it Cinnamon Explosion. 

     Next thing I tried was Banana-Nut ice cream, sweetened with honey and maple syrup. Surprisingly, it was pretty good. After that was the caramel attempt, which ended up in burnt caramel which tastes utterly disgusting...

    The best thing I've made so far are the Pumpkin Cookies. Oh heavens! You have to try it! The recipe is originally gluten free, but I replaced the eggs and sugar with what I can have.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Cookies

-3/4 cup shortening

-2 eggs (replace with flax gel) 

{to make flax gel, stir 1tablespoon flax meal into 3tablespoons warm water; let sit for 10 minutes or until thickened, enough to replace 1 egg}

-1 cup canned pumpkin

-1 tsp vanilla

- 1 cup sugar(or 3/4 cup grade B maple syrup)

- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda

- 1 1/2 tsp baking power

- 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

- 1 1/4 cup rice flour

- 3/4 cup potato starch

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325 degree f. Cream together shortening, eggs, pumpkin, vanilla and sugar. Add baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, rice flour, and potato starch. Mix well. Spoon out on cookie sheet (greased lightly) about the size of a walnut. Bake for about 15 minutes.

   And oh my goodness, prepare yourself for happiness.

When making these I didn't realize that it's best to use grade b maple syrup instead of grade a, since grade b is sweeter. Thus, they weren't very sweet and ended up more like pumpkin biscuits instead of cookies. Despite that, they were really scrumptious!

Oh, and fair warning- do not eat or smell the dough. You will become disappointed in your work of art and become nauseated. Trust me.

Happy Summer Day

Yesterday was my 17th Birthday. It was the perfect lazy summer day/Birthday. We had waffles with blackberries for breakfast, and we made a fruit pizza for dessert later that evening. While the crust was baking, we sang enthusiastically and I taught my Mother how to swing dance. My sister joined us then and we were all swing dancing together. Afterwards, Mother and I looked through a fun magazine. Once my Dad got home from work, we went out to eat at Uncle Julio's (the BEST Mexian resturant ever!), then came back home and watched the movie Beastly. It was such a fabulous day!

A Camping We Will Go!

Just got back from my first, yes, FIRST camping trip! Sad that I'm nearly 17 and this was my first time to REALLY camp. I don't call sleeping out in a tent in a backyard real camping...

Anyways, our amazing friends the Archers invited me and Maddy to Lake Mineral Wells, and we jumped at the chance! All 11 of us crammed into their car and headed off. Once there, we swam nearly 2 miles (who can believe it) altogether by swimming to and from the other side of the lake. When Katie, Maddy and I were about to head off back to our camp site as we were on the opposite side of the lake, I saw a snake head sticking up out of the water. It was WAY too close for comfort. We yelled to the boys to defend themselves or follow us as we fled in terror. Later, we figured out that it was a water moccasin. Talk about FRIGHTENING!

When we got back, we were all exhausted, in an energetic sort of way, if that makes any sense at all. After supper we sat around the fire and enjoyed each other's company. We sang a few songs, listened to the guys play their guitars, and Katie and Maddy play their ukuleles. A friendly raccoon came up every now and then around the edges of the firelight. When I first saw it, I nearly freaked out, but calmed down when I saw it wasn't leaping at me to eat me. We all dubbed the raccoon Sir (yes, we knighted it) Maximilian Arthur Rupert III. As we girls attempted to star gaze, we were rudely interrupted by a "wild animal" thrashing about in the bushes. It SCARED the living daylights out of us but it turned out to be the younger guys trying to scare us. It worked.
Today we tried to wake up early to see the sunrise...yeah, that didn't work out like we planned. After a late breakfast and packing up camp, we headed off to a different part of the lake where they were renting canoes and kayaks. Between the 9 kids, we split 2 canoes and 1 kayak. We had so much fun! We rowed over to a darling little island in the lake, explored that, found a nest with a huge egg in it, a teeny-tiny turtle, and another snake. After four hours of canoeing, swimming and the like, we packed up and headed home.

 A most delightful first camping experience, wouldn't you think? 

    

Photos from Paradise

 Ft. Walton, Florida

 Vicksburg National Military Park, Mississippi



Stories from the Beach

 Well, we're finally back home. Each day this past week was more full of adventure then the day before, and boy did I enjoy it! I sure wish we had a picture for every time something hilariously epic happened to me and my sister this week though. Like the the other day when Maddy and I were straggling towards the shore, trying to avoid large waves, and one unsuspecting wave slams into me, and I, in turn, accidentally slammed into Maddy. We nearly collapsed on the shore, from the sudden lack of balance and from laughter. Or the time I decided to wade out to a sandbar when we were in our everyday clothes, and I took a step in the wrong direction and splashed into water hip deep, soaking myself. Or the time Maddy and I were in one of the elevators and right before getting to our level, it made a horrifying sound like the cable was straining and the elevator jerked. You can be sure Maddy and I praised the Lord oh-so-sincerely when the doors opened onto our floor and we made it out alive. Or when Maddy squished into the bottom bunk with me, made each other laugh so hard we were crying and our Dad had to get onto us for being too loud, and that made it even harder not to giggle. Or the time...well, you get the point. :)

 Thursday we armed ourselves with inner tubes, sunscreen, and shades as we ran to the emerald sea. As we struggled passed the onslaught of waves to deeper, calmer waters, we noticed that the algae was rampant...eeeewww. It was like we were swimming in Kumbacha (an algea- filled, natural drink some good friends of mine like...I have no idea why...lol) or some primordial soup.

The sea-soup grossed me out pretty bad, but then I made myself ignore it. After one particularly large wave slammed us, I let out a screech, which unfortunately sounded just like a seagull. Apparently, some little kids noticed too, because on shore they were staring at me, heads cocked to one side, as if contemplating what on EARTH I was.

    

 I can see it now...

 A small child turns to it's father, pointing at me, asking, "Dad, what was that?!" The dad is thinking, looks like a girl, but sounds like a seagull...hmm...  "Well,  I believe that thing is called a Morgan. Stay clear from it kids, it could be dangerous."  

Oh heavens.

Suddenly, I look down and I am surrounded by that slime. I could have ignored it, like I did earlier. I should have ignored it, but my imagination went berserk. Here is a glimpse into my mind at that moment. The slime was really a cloud hiding some evil creature from the deep! The cloud of slime wrapped around me, about to enfold me in its embrace of death and the monster-from-the-deep was about to grab my legs and yank me under the waves and...I lost it and swam away FAST, faster than I ever have before ( I kid you not),  leaving my poor sister to fend for herself against imaginary creatures of the deep.  

Friday the waves were "dangerous", according to the red flag the lifeguards put up. A red flag means a strong current and/or large waves. Both in this case and boy was it fun! Since it was our last day at the beach, Maddy and I decided to make the most of it. We built a drizzle castle and got help decorating it by two bitty girls. After waving goodbye to our new little friends and our "feather castle", we headed off to swim. At one point I heard Maddy screaming. I whirled around expecting her to be mauled by a shark, but instead I see her hurdling towards me on her pink inner tube, on top of a colossal wave. Before she slammed into me I managed little else but a loud holler. Saltwater rushed up my nose and mouth, knocked off my sunglasses and flipped right me off that inner tube. Lucky for me I grabbed my sunglasses with one hand and with the other managed to snag the inner tube before it was washed away. Oh the delightful sensation of salt water up your nose...

Later, a veil of clouds had obscured the sun, and the wind picked up, creating even larger waves. That was the most fun! We were the only ones out there swimming for a long time. We would do different things with each humongous wave that came our way. Sometimes we would fling ourselves at it, and then be pummeled back by the wave. Sometimes if it was too large, or not large enough, we would dive into it. Sometimes Maddy would fling herself backwards and do a flip inside the wave. We had so much fun. So we decided to just exit the easy way. We tried our best to avoid the huge waves while attempting to get to shore, but getting pummeled was inevitable. I was slammed so hard, I could NOT, for the life of me, get back up, so I was momentarily tossed around by the waves. The only redeeming factor of such an unladylike exit was that we got wonderful exfoliation from the sand we SMASHED into. *ahem*

Yesterday as we were headed home, to our delight we stopped by the Vicksburg National Military Park, in Mississippi. Oh was it beautiful there! After leaving, our Dad was super sweet and drove us around historic downtown Vicksburg, where all the old, fabulous houses are. Mother, Maddy and I couldn't stop oohing and ahhing at all the old homes. One of the oldest we got a glimpse of was from 1853! If you ever happen to pass by there, you HAVE to go and look around at everything! After that fun excursion, we got terribly lost on the small backroads. That made it even more exciting! lol. Eventually, we found our way again, and here we are, home at last. I will be posting the pictures hopefully sometime tomorrow. :)

So Summer Begins

The bright and hot sun, sand between your toes, adventures abounding, briny water, cool breezes, roaring waves pounding the surf, ukulele to be strummed, songs to be sung ..where on earth could this be? FLORIDA! :D

Yes, I am here. The 13 hour drive is definitely worth it. Though we certainly had a time getting here! To make the drive go by faster this year, my Mother read aloud The Help to us. We were about an hour from our destination, mom reading from the book again, and we were so enthralled in the plot of the book that we missed our exit! We realized it WAY too late, so it took us an extra hour. Then we got stuck in traffic for about two more hours. God obviously had another plan for us than being on time...

Finally arrived and began unloading our car. We couldn’t find a trolley-thing on our level to put the heavy bags on, so Dad went off looking for one, Mom was at the car getting things out, and Maddy and I had already lugged things in the condo room. I was waiting for Maddy so we could get back to the car, and suddenly a LOUD screech rang in our room. I looked about confusedly, and the same noise rang again. And again. That’s when I realized HECK, THAT'S THE FIRE ALARM!! I mean, really? Are you kidding me? We just got here and the building and everything is going to burn up?! I opened our room door to find that whole building’s alarms were going off and people were pouring out of the rooms. I yelled at Maddy to get the room key. She took her precious time and I’m like HURRY UP BEFORE WE DIE! Turns out it was some problem with the fire sprinklers going off in room 613. (Bad luck anyone? lol) Once everything was settled, Maddy and I passed a firefighter with movie-star good looks, who thankfully had no fires to fight. Talk about an eventful beginning to our vacation!

After unpacking, we headed down to the beach and enjoyed the lovely evening. That’s my favorite time to be on the beach. It’s not too bright or hot, there’s a cool breeze sweeping across the beach, the waves crash against the sand, and there aren't gobs of people. Talk about relaxing! 

Saturday evening was when we first got here. Surprisingly and oh-so-thankfully, I have not gotten a head-to-toe, red-as-a-lobster burn as I usually do. (Excluding my feet and one ear)

        Here are a few pictures from last year, and the year before. Same beach, same lovely waters! 

        We call him Ol' Salty. Yes, that is a genuine pipe. Isn't that FABULOUS?!

 

  Here is the grand view.

~Wish you were here~



Farewell to Drama....For Now

       This last Saturday was the ending performance of JOY Christian Academy's production of Music Man Jr. It was bittersweet. Excited about no more stress of having to sing solos in front of crowds (scary), but sad because I'm going to miss my friends terribly. The same group won't ever be together again because many of us are going separate ways. But we still all had a fabulous time together! Before each and every performance we prayed, sang the Doxology, and then talked until we had to head off to our places. It was such a wonderful time, like a youth group is supposed to be, except it was a drama group.

       One of the most memorable times would have to be the Elevator Episode. Rebecca Roberts, three other friends of mine, and I got into this terribly old elevator (note, this building was built in the late 1800's or the early 1900's so the elevator -and everything else- is pretty darn old!) I had always been too scared to go in it, but with the post-performance excitement and a gaggle of friends, I decided to ride in it. Right before shutting the door, we read a plaque on the elevator wall that said the limit was 500 pounds. There were 5 of us...and I'm pretty darn sure all of us were over 100 pounds, just sayin'. But we (stupidly) didn't heed that warning, and just as the last crack of the first floor door disappeared, I commented, wouldn't that be horrible if the elevator got stuck! And what do you know?? The elevator stuck, right where the bottom of the 2nd story door was level with our eyes. We reached up and banged on it, yelling, hoping someone would hear, and you can be sure that Rebecca and I screamed, thinking for sure we would die there. Our other friends just laughed at us, while tyring to figure out what to do. Rebecca and I were pretty useless, hanging on to each other, almost in tears. Pathetic now that I think back on it, but then death seemed enevatable to our imaginations, which already lean towards the romantic/traumatic experiences. Even though the whole episode lasted four minutes at tops, it felt like a lifetime! After we made it out alive, my voice was hoarse from screaming. Apparently it was so loud backstage with everyone congratulating each other from a great show, that no one heard us screaming...just a tad alarming but thrilling to be sure! :)

       So Saturday, after the last show, the whole cast and some wonderful friends who weren't even a part of drama pitched in to help "strike the set." Afterwards we headed off to Rebecca's house for a cast-party, where we tried to star gaze, but the lovely moon was so bright we could only see parts of constellations. So we mainly talked, some had their guitars and were singing, and after an hour or so,  we set up music and began to swing dance! We danced until one in the morning before heading off home. Such a wonderful time!        

Between tech week, the two weekends of performances, and trying to finish up the remainder of homework, I have been crazy busy! 

     Other things worth mentioning since last post:

Garden is still alive and flourishing! (who can believe it??)

Sister got a ukulele today and is already fabulous at playing it

Sliced my finger on a can of beans today...lovely

Just have to finish reading Communist Manifesto by Marx, The Law by Bastiat, and write a paper and I'm through with World View II!  

And summer is almost here! :D Huzzah for fun times!



Herbs Part 2- Garden Galore!

This past Saturday my family finally planted our garden. We're terribly late in planting it, but better late than never. Here are before and after pictures of my herbs, and the vegetable/fruit garden.

This was when the rosemary was blooming.

Its obvious what this herb is.

Sweet Marjoram

The first kind of lavender we got

Sage

German Thyme (my favorite because its adorable tiny leaves...)

Sweet Basil

I know its not an herb, but I couldn't resist! I consider it my pet.

Irish Moss

Here's the second kind of lavender I got

    Bell Pepper

Watermelon

Strawberries (note the little white flower!)

These we got a week later. I nearly died with happiness when I found these two below!

    Rue

Apple Mint

 (Earlier in the day before I found this, I sort of despaired of ever finding Apple Mint around where we lived and Viola! I found some shoved in a corner of the produce store, looking like they were about to die. But I saved one!)

Here's my apple mint planted on the back porch [I took your advice Grace! :) ]

This is the area I planned on planting some of my herbs, right by the overgrown rosemary bush, and the pitiful magnolia stick (not much of a tree is it...?)

Before

And After!

And this is part of the aboveground garden with the tomatoes, peppers, cucumber plant, squash, cantaloupe, watermelon and strawberry plants.

 I'm thrilled to pieces about it and cannot wait until we actually get to eat something from the garden!