HE is Faithful!

Psalms 91:4 He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will  find refuge; his faithfulness is  a shield and buckler.


2 Thessalonians 3:3 But  the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against  the evil one.


God is faithful.  Not to sound cliche, but today I truly had one of those "I have no idea what is about to happen, but God please help" moments.  I'm almost 35 weeks pregnant, driving to work going 70 mph in the dark and literally someone's whole metal car bumper comes flying directly DOWN at me from the sky.  No idea where it came from.  No other cars around me seem to be wrecking or swerving.  Here I am, staring at this huge piece of metal bearing down on me, cars and 18-weelers all around me on the freeway, and I the only thought that comes to mind as I'm bracing for impact is "God please help me".  Suddenly, I swerve to the left at the last second and this car bumper hits the passenger side of my car.  

It is dark outside as I pull over to the side of the road, and when I quickly get out to inspect all I can see is that the passenger side mirror was just completely sliced right off the car, wires clean cut and all.  Later when the sun comes up I was able to see there were more scratches on that side of the vehicle, but thats neither here nor there.  

That piece of debris sliced my sideview mirror clean off.  That easily could have come straight through the windshield and been me.  Somehow immediately after I was calm enough to call my husband and tell him what happened.  Then, as I pull back onto the freeway, my baby girl starts kicking, and then the tears slowly start to come.  All I can think is "praise God".  God is faithful.  God is mighty and he is my protector.  He is Father of all.  PRAISE HIM!

The rest of the day was mostly uneventful.  Saw some patients, did insurance claim stuff, spent a few hours in the Labor and Delivery ER per MD orders to have baby monitored.  Her HR was high for a while, I'm sure she sensed the adrenaline pumping from the events, but she is OK!

I do not thank God enough for his presence in my daily life.  I take for granted the fact that I make it to and from work safely every day, and I know there are a thousand times a day that I could thank God for his presence and I don't.  So today, I am saying thank you.  Thank you God.  Thank you for your faithfulness.  

Watchers: Knight of Light - A Review

I was captivated from the first sentence of this book. I wanted to know more about Auriella, the main character; was drawn into the world that that Deirdra Eden had created; and finished the book in less than 24 hours. The author takes you through a wonderful mythical journey, revealing bits of information regarding who and what exactly is a "Watcher" or "Knight of Light" along the way. At times the story seemed to make a quick transition from one section to the next, but that was quickly forgotten as new part of the story drew me in. This book is the first in its' series, so much of this book appears to be a lead-in to more of the story to come in future books. Overall, the author has a great ability to provide wonderful imagery with her words. This book is a wonderful fit for a younger audience with the wonder and imagination, but I am looking forward to book #2 as well, and to continuing to follow Auriella on her journey.

I received this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

To purchase this book visit:  

Http://amzn.com/0996015809

Become like little children

“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew 18:3 ESV

Yesterday my husband, daughter and I were standing in the checkout lane at Lowes to buy plants for our yard. 

Our sweet girl was attracting the attention of those around us as usual as she was commenting on the assortment of garden fountains they had set up near the checkout line. 

The people in line behind us asked how old she was and when the man handed her a red flower from the plant in his basket, she looked at him, said "thank you" and proceeded to start singing "Jesus loves me" while standing in the checkout line. The people in line behind us lit up smiling; the lady said "Oh wow I remember that one", and the husband and wife started singing along with her. 

After that they began to ask us questions about where we attended church, meanwhile my daughter was interjecting comments like "I just love my bible class", "it's my favorite". We had a nice chat about God in the checkout line at Lowes and when we left the older gentleman hollered after us "God bless you preacher". 

All this reminded me about Jesus when he tells us to become like little children. So often we find it difficult to strike up conversations with others about God and faith because we don't want to make people uncomfortable, meanwhile a 3 yr old singing "Jesus loves me" from her heart in the middle of the checkout line at Lowes brought about wonderful conversation. 

I pray that I will have a pure heart like my daughter to lovingly and boldly share my faith with others. 

Enough

I am enough. 

I am a child of God. I am a wife, a mother, a daughter, a friend, a preachers wife, a speech pathologist. 

I am enough. 

These days with social media (I am just as addicted to it as everyone else) I feel bombarded with the sense that everyone has something they are great at, their "thing" thay everyone admires them for, leading them to have 10,000 followers on Instagram. Here I sit feeling like I am so busy every moment of every day, and wondering "what's my thing?", "what am I great at?", "what are people going to admire me for?"  With all that busy what and who exactly am I?

I get so caught up wanting to be like all of these people that I admire for their accomplishments that I often lose sight of the most important thing: I am a child of God and I AM ENOUGH just as I am. 

If I never learn to knit or sew, successfully grow our own fruits and vegetables, support my family by learning to refinish old furniture and make it into something amazing, or become the most amazing pinterest mom, God still loves me. 

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

- 1 Peter 2:9 

So often I allow myself to get caught up in seeking earthly approval that I forget about the one whose love and approval matters most. God has chosen us to be His family and that is enough. 

In Him...

 

The Melting Pot

Lately I have been thinking a lot about how I should be documenting more things that I think and do in order to go back and reflect upon at a later time. I love looking at old journals from when I was little and just reading what I was thinking about or doing at the time. Even if I remember an event it is fun to read about how I was feeling and what I was experiencing emotionally at the time. 

So I want to blog more but I have no idea what to blog about. I was thinking...what is most important to me?  My God and faith, my family and well, let's me honest here....food!  So today I am blogging about food. :)

I'm not usually huge on big birthday celebrations but this being the week of my 30th birthday decided to indulge a bit. A coworker and I had been talking for a while about wanting to visit The Melting Pot, so this being my birthday week, houston restaurant weeks, AND the fact that hey emailed me a coupon for a free half dozen chocolate strawberries, we decided this was a good time to go. 

They give you a cute card and they come in this box. 

So for the restaurant weeks menu it is $35 with $5 donated to the Houston Food Bank and it comes with cheese fondue, salad, meat course and chocolate. Since we had a group of 6 we were ab,e to choose 2 cheese fondues, each chose our own salad, choose our own meat course with 2 different cooking styles and 2 chocolate fondues. 

For the cheese confuse course we chose a bacon and jalapeño one, and a spinach and artichoke. What is really neat is that the waiter "makes" the fondue at your table.  The fondues are served with veggies (broccoli, cauliflower" carrots and tomatoes), chunks of bread, and tortilla chips. To be honest I think we were all hoping the bacon and jalapeño would have a richer flavor and spice to it, but the spinach and artichoke was very good with a stronger cheese flavor. Their cheese fondues have a lot of soft cheeses in them, so if any pregnant ladies out there are wondering, they do use pasteurized cheese :).  Yes, I asked. 

I really wish I had taken a picture of the salad because it was beautiful and amazing. I ordered a strawberry caprese salad which had a spring mix of dark lettuce, large slices of tomato, slices and strawberry and beautiful large slices of mozzarella on it, served with some slivered almonds and a honey vinaigrette dressing. It was amazing. I cut my mozzarella into bite sized pieces and was able to get at least one piece with each bite of my salad and there was still some left at the end...which I ate!

For the main course they offered 2 different meat selections and 1 vegetarian. I ordered the land and sea which came with filet mignon, seasoned chicken, andouille sausage, and seasoned shrimp. 

Sorry the meat looks to dark!  They had mood lighting in the restaurant :) 

We had one pot to cook in that was a seasoned broth with some Cajun flavors to it. The other pot was a seasoned canola oil served with a tempura batter and a sesame batter. This was where the really interesting part of the meal happened, and was also where I realized that we all had color coded cooking sticks so we wouldn't get them mixed up. Kudos to them for that. They also give you mushrooms, broccoli and potatoes that you can cook with your meat and provide a number of different dipping sauces.  I liked the plum sauce. It takes anywhere from 1-4 minutes to cook your vegetables or meat per piece. I wish I had a picture option all of our prongs in the pots at the the same time. It got a little confusing at times and actually required quite a bit of thinking trying to keep track of things and how long it had been cooking. It was definitely an experience and I enjoyed trying it, but honestly I think I could do without this course at another time if I were in a large group again. Maybe it would be different if it were just a few people. 

For the best part of the meal we ordered two different chocolate fondue pots. One was a Mexican chocolate with cinnamon; the other was a yin and yang of dark and white chocolate.  Most people at our table really loved the Mexican chocolate but personally I found it to have a bit too much of a bite to it. It was the most fun to watch prepare.

The yin and yang did it for me. I was so stuffed by this point but they give you all this delectable items to dip into the chocolate.  I think the crowd favorite was the chocolate chip cookie bites.  The marshmallows plus the chocolate were a bit too rich combined.  Before it came I didn't think we would be able to eat it, but I don't think there was anything left by the end of it. No chocolate left behind!

Overall it was a great night and experience.  Personally I would probably return for cheese, salad and chocolate. The service we received was great. If you are going in the evenings, especially on the weekend, make sure you make a reservation well in advance. 

Look forward to our next adventure...