Homemade Lemon Pepper Tortilla Chips

So this is an easy recipe that not only tastes amazing, but is an alternative to the $5 bag of air that you get at the grocery store and you have more control over the ingredients going into your body and your family's body.

What you'll need:

2 Bags of tortillas (I used corn this time but you can get any kind of tortilla you want)
1 bottle of lemon pepper seasoning
Salt
Coconut Oil Spray


What to do:

1. Preheat oven to 350 (this is awesome cause there's no deep frying so you don't have that gross greasy feeling while you eat the chips)
2. Spray cookie sheet with coconut oil (you could use any spray oil, I choose coconut cause it has better nutrients and is healthier)
3. Take tortillas and in small stacks cut into triangles
4. Lay out tortillas on cookie sheet, don't worry if they are kind of touching cause they aren't going to rise or anything
5. Spray with a light spray of coconut oil, sprinkle lemon pepper and salt to your tasting (you can use any seasoning you want I chose lemon pepper so it has a nice flavor to compensate for not dousing the chips with salt)
6. Place in oven for 10 mins or until golden 
7. Remove and let cool for 5 mins
8. Repeat till you've made the desired amount of chips, I make 2 bags of tortillas worth so we have some to last us through out the week. 

Rainbow Icecream

So as I promised in my last post, I will be posting quite a few recipes this next week or so. This one I found a video for on facebook, and thought I would give it a try. It originally was called "Galaxy Icecream" and looked amazing however when it came to mine, it more so looked like rainbow icecream. Flavor was vanilla and was extremely creamy and delicious and I have to say that it was rather easy to make. I did alter the recipe to make a little bit bigger batch.

What you'll need:

• 4 Cups heavy whipping cream
• 1 14 oz can of sweetend condensed milk
• 3 Tablespoons of Vanilla
• 1 box of food coloring

What you need to do:

1. In a mixing bowl mix heavy whipping cream till nice and fluffy
2. mix in sweetened condensed milk till fluffy
3. Add vanilla and mix thoroughly
4. Seperate icecream mixture in 4 different containers evenly
5. dye each container of mixture a different color of your choice and stir
6. in a plastic container large enough to hold all the mixtures pour each color one at a time on top of each other
   
7. Freeze, I froze mine overnight the video on facebook said 4 to 6 hours

Mustard Seed of Faith

Hello,
I know it's been a while, what a crazy summer it's been! I owe so many recipes I can't even think straight!!! No worries, a yummy icecream one to be posted by tomorrow evening, I promise!!! Many blessings have been pouring out to my husband and I that it's almost hard to keep track of!! All of the thanks we owe to the Lord and those who are faithful to Him!

Recently I had an appointment (as recent as yesterday), a few months ago I did a couple of posts about my infertility and about dealing with and coping with PCOS. I talk openly about it to anyone who asks or who wants to know more information but I don't post about it to often partially because for me it's become so normal for me to have to deal with and then at times there are moments such as now that I have no way of really processing what is going on other than to type it out and see it in front of my face staring me back like one of those crazy reflections in those wavy fun house mirrors where it's you but it doesn't look like you. So as I have mentioned, this page is my open journal, my easy way of updating family and friends, and my way of letting people see what a normal life is like, which I think is so important with all the reality shows out there that don't seem to be so real.

My appointment wasn't bad in the sense of the doctor was horrible or the place was horrible, but hearing what I heard was not helpful. I was once again confirmed PCOS is the gift I will have for a lifetime, and to be honest I handled it like a champ in my opinion considering I've been dealing with this for years, however with new doctors they always want to be the one to diagnos a patient. Once it was confirmed we discusses how long my husband and I have been working towards having a child (1 year, basically since the day we were married, we knew it would be a long road ahead to children so we thought start sooner rather than later) it was explained to me that most women it takes 1 year for a pregnancy to occur, for women with pcos the chances of children are less, but as my doctor put it "not no chance, just not as much of a chance as a women with no pcos or fertility issues" (Lovely thank you for the new information on that one). She then proceeeded to tell me the plan of action we were going to take, and I have to say I am quite comfortable with the plan except for one little hiccup both tests that are detrimental to my treatment and fertility plan isn't covered by insurance, why? because it's not detrimental to my way of living so therefore it is deemed as not necessary by some higher up that sits in his or her office with all the things they could want who know nothing of me, they get to deem my husband and I wanting to love a child and care for a child and make sacrifices for another human being as not necessary to our lives.

Today in politics we have people voting for the "it's her choice" well shouldn't it be my choice then on if me having a child is detrimental to my well being? Shouldn't I get the final say as to whether or not fertility tests are detrimental? Shouldn't I get the easy freedom of walking into my doctor's office and having the proper tests that are needed without having to worry about where is the money going to come from?! We are so eager to give women the freedom to kill a child so she can have the life she wants, but what about the women who want a child but can't afford treatment for the life that she wants? Where is her justice?!!

I take this with heavy heart but I place it before the Lord, because I know only the Lord can bless us with a child, that ultimately when it comes down to it, The Lord knows the desires of my heart and He has that and better planned for me, I know that I need to keep quoting one of my favorite scriptures "Faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains" though I have worries and fears of what could come of my desires to be a mother, I hold tight to knowing "Fear not for I am with you." The Lord stands strong not only next to me but over me, and I claim the healing blood of Jesus over my infertility. What comes of it I will have to be okay with knowing that it is what God wants.

I guess this piece I've written isn't my best work,and I know it's a little scattered but ultimately what I am asking is that you pray for me, my husband and for this struggle and burden that we face, I want to also clarify, I trust in the Lord whole heartedly when it comes to the funds of these treatments and upon talking this through we are going to go through with the tests. I will keep you posted :)

**By tomorrow 8/19/16 I promise there will be a recipe posted!!!

Even the Littlest of Things

My husband and I recently have embarked on a new journey in blind faith, there is faith and then there is blind faith. I used to think they were both the same but in recent weeks I am learning they are by far different. Faith is trusting in the things unknown, blind faith is trusting in the things unknown while knowing as a human this is pure crazy.

We recently have stepped down from a wonderful ministry as youth pastors to a loving church with loving people and wonderful kids, truly we were blessed. However, in recent past 2 months we have felt God starting to "nudge" we started to feel this unsettlement of what once was settled. So we prayed, was it Randy's job? Was it my job? Was it the degree programs we had chosen to start in August? All of them were no's. We both thought "Surely it can't be our ministry position?!" and with a conjoined heart we knew "yes." that was the part that was unsettled. So with prayer we both individually and together came to the mutual decision of "It's time to go." I think what was crazy for everyone was that we didn't have another ministry position in line, we didn't have a crazy place we were leaving to go to. We just knew that in order for the place God wanted to work out next we needed to be completely stepped down and in that time humbly praying and asking God "Where do we go?" and hoping and waiting and praying that He would provide all our needs when it was time to go. We had many people ask "Where are you going? What ministry opportunity are you leaving for? Will you stay in the area? Will you still be in ministry? Are you stepping down from ministry all together?" It was crazy to answer but we simply could say "You know as much as we do, all we know is that God wants us to step down and wait on His word on where we are going next."

So Now its not even 7 days into us being out of our positions, Sunday was our last day, it was a beautiful last day at that, wonderful memories, conversations and uplifting words. I have always been one to remind someone "Faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains." It's a scripture I hold fast to when it comes to getting the desires of my heart that God has placed in me.

With this "move" or new place of ministry God has for us I started to worry and so did Randy, I know so dumb considering God has it all. Randy as a husband has worries of finding a new place we can afford, and that will accept Darby, and us both having an income, and being able to thrive in a new ministry setting. My worries as a wife differed, I mean I can agree with his worry, but mine was more Will I be able to make the new house a home? Will I make friends for us? Will we have a place that I can watch little Darby grow to love? and I think Randy and I both worried "Will we have the finances for the move? Will we be able afford the utilities that come with moving to a new place?"

So for me I categorized what I could as a human, I can't determine the social part, I can't determine if Darby will love her new place (though as a beagle so long as she can romp and play  and has a window to sit in the sun, yes I know like a cat, then she will be happy). I could determine what things would make me feel better about the move, Living in the apartment we have now I didn't have a need for a dinning room table as we had a bar in the kitchen with lovely kitchen bar stools to sit at, and I didn't have a need for a dresser because we had a huge walk in closet with floor to ceiling shelving, and we didn't have a headboard because it wasn't the top priority. So if your following this you probably can imagine what I decided to Trust to the Lord and have faith He would provide.

Now a headboard, dresser, and dinning room set doesn't seem like much to have to get, but for us in the middle of summer, we went from 3 incomes to 1 income, that is a huge jump down in finances. So I knew those items were going to not only have to fit our need, but also be something I could love and feel like would fit in our home now but also later, but it would also have to be EXTREMELY AFFORDABLE! Here below is how in 7 days God provided 2 out of 3 needs (and I am sure the 3rd is soon to follow)

1. The Dinning Room set: This happened Sunday, the day we stepped down from our ministry in blind faith, I found it on facebook on accident I wasn't really looking actively yet, it was a black iron table, with a white distressed wood top with hand painted paris details on it that made it look like it belonged in a garden cafe in Paris (which if you know me you know I love black furniture, iron details and Paris) I messaged the lady without seeing the price she informed me she had it for a high price but no one seemed to want it so she lowered it to $80, well for me I knew my husband was not going to approve $80 for a table and 4 chairs even if it was a great deal for how detailed it was, and with talking to her she managed $65!!! for 4 chairs and a table all personalized and detailed beautifully!!!



So after the dinning room table set, I thought to myself and outloud "Okay God, I see what your doing here, I am going to follow you on this. If I can get my dinning room table set, dresser and headboard, then I know the next place we go will be just fine."

2. The Dresser: This happened just now on Tuesday as I am writing this, it's only been about 48 hours after stepping out in blind faith and after looking on craigslist just to look I found some dressers in those 48 hours but none seemed to work out between price, location or availability. This morning I couldn't sleep so I looked in my email and low and behold a gorgeous $25 dresser with cabinet doors on top that would match Randy's dresser and fit my need. Upon discussing with the lovely woman who has no idea just how much God is using her in this moment to bless another family, she said "she felt it was time to get rid of it because she hasn't used it and it's just sat there looking beautiful, and that she hated to get rid of it but she just didn't have a use for it." *Insert my head screaming and laughing THANK YOU JESUS!!!**

Now I don't have a headboard yet, but it's only been 2 days, who knows by the end of the night I could be picking up a headboard in the morning.

Now that you have read my long post (Can we say I am making up for the time it's been since our last one?) I want to use this to say to you, Jesus said to Cast all your worries on Him, not just the big worries, but the small ones to. God wants to provide your needs, but you have to be willing to not just reach out and press in to Him but also to go where He guides you and do some of the work with Him, not do the work on your own but WITH HIM!!! Cast your cares on God and see what He will do!!!

Lifestyle Purge

So about every year around this time, I find myself reevaluating my life and my lifestyle, this year is the first year I am doing this as a married woman, and also as someone who is moved out of state and away from home. There were many new things this year for me and I have to admit I wished someone had told me not only is the first year of marriage hard, if your moving out of state, and elbows deep in ministry it's going to be even harder, there is going to be a lot of new things thrown at you at once. Personally I think when someone in my place in life get's married and moves away from home it should come with a free counselor for the year on call 24/7. I love my husband but it doesn't make it easy leaving.

Anyways, I have been dealing with alot of anxiety attacks and a few panic attacks even (yes there is a difference). The other night my husband worked from 2pm till midnight, not getting home to me till close to 1 am. In that time I made the huge mistake of looking through facebook and seeing all the negative posts, all the horrible news in the world and it overwelmed me and scared me. I went into a frenzy of an anxiety attack and had no one there to talk me down or to pray me through it, I was on my own for the first time. So I tried my best to breathe, and pray and say scripture over me, my favorite is "Though I fear, I trust in the Lord" and with time I eventually got to a normal breathing pattern. Then the Lord pressed upon me that I needed to look at my lifestyle and revealuate the choices I have been making, and take a personal inventory of my life, especially now as a married woman in ministry.

From that I gained alot of perspective, and I have to say these past four days have been amazing! Trying but for sure amazing!!! Here are some of the things I changed and my perspective on why I changed them, these are merely what I felt pressed upon me, each person is different though.

1. Remove Facebook and Messenger from my phone: Through praying and thought, I was brought to the realization that every time an axiety attack was triggered at night it was after checking and reading facebook, by removing the convience of it being on my phone to scroll through and read, I remove the negativity from being an hourly convience, and instead save it for times when I am on the laptop (which is a lot less than most would believe). From that I not only removed the urge to be on facebook when bored or unable to sleep, it also allowed me to stretch my brain more, read more in my books, talk to God more and really focus on Him. Social media can be fun but there needs to come a limit and a line drawn in the sand, if your picking up your phone to check facebook more than your Bible it's time to change!!!
2. Sort through and remove movies: This is a random one, I don't have many movies that would be deemed inappropriate by most, but I do have quite a few, and so I pulled them off the shelves, and I was surprised by how many still had wrappers on them, (over half) and most of them I literally held wondering "Why in the world do I have this movie?" So without thinking I pulled them off the movie shelf and threw them into a garbage bag.
3. TV Limitations: I have been finding having a smart tv that has netflix and amazon prime and on demand with regular tv that watching tv was to big of a convience, and I needed to cut some tv out of not just my life but my husband's life, we were getting so caught up in watching tv I couldn't remember the last time we had tea and just talked. So we made a few rules:
1. NO watching the news, yes we need to be informed however watching the news is purely panic driven and half the time repeated for a few days straight, we check the news on our phones each afternoon and that's it.
2. No watching tv from 9:30pm on: We sometimes will bend the rule if we both have off and will be up later but if it's a night where bed is going to happen at 10:00pm we try to cut off the tv as early as possible so we can focus on reading, each other, and just being content in the quiet. 
3. No tv before supper: We were letting what we watched dominate what we talked about when we ate, and sometimes even dictate when supper would be ready by removing tv we were able to enjoy our day better and not have as much being put into our minds. 
4. If one of us is uncomfortable with the show, it does't get watched
4. Fighting Fear with Peace: I read recently in a new book I started that in the scripture Jesus has conquered everything and that there was nothing to fear but God Himself. So with that I kept in mind that though I fear I need to put it aside and understand that Jesus lives within me and therefore I should have no reason to fear because the Lord who lives within me has already conquered all my fears. 
1. That being said I need it to be known yesterday I went out to eat with my husband and there were 2, not 1 but TWO seagulls two cars away from me and I got out of the car and walked into where we were eating without crying or screaming (I am terrified of sea gulls). this is a big moment for me, and probably for my husband to, there have been moments he had to leave a good parking spot solely cause of the birds.

So there you have it some new guidelines I have instilled and hopefully this inspires you to possibly take a life inventory, honestly we all have flaws so there is always something we should be working on! 

Marbeth's Amazing Choco Yogurt

So this past weekend I had the pleasure of spending time with Randy's aunt and she gave me a ton of healthy tidbits for recipes. One of which I decided to try today and it was AMAZING!!! This is a diabetic friendly recipe that fulfills everyone's sweet tooth and chocolate craving!!!!

What you'll need:
Activia yogurt: Your choice in flavor I chose Strawberry
Blueberries or strawberries: Dice the strawberries
Cocoa Powder: I used about 1 teaspoon


What you do:

1. I scooped the yogurt into a bowl to make stirring easier
2. sprinkle in the fruit of your choice (Aunt Marbeth freezes hers so its super cold) 
3. Stir in Cocoa Powder to your tasting
4. Eat and Enjoy!

Some fun facts about the ingrediants listed above:

Cocoa Powder: The dark chocolate can reduce cardiovascular disease, 1 tablespoon only has 1/10th of a gram of sugar. 

Activia Yogurt: High in Probiotics helps with digestion, Helps in preventing bone density loss, pumped with LOW FAT protein. 

*As far as fruit goes each fruit has its own benefits! 

Chaos that has Peace

**Before I start my usual long post of a thought, I thought I would give insight to the inspiration to this post. I was listening to "Whatever You're Doing (something Heavenly)" by Sanctus Real and "Break Every Chain" by Will Reagan. I recommend listening to these songs, especially if you've never heard them. **


     Recently there has been alot of peace that has been taken from us and from myself personally and especially from this world. I don't think I need to go in great lengths to say that there is a disruption of peace and an attempt to disrupt what is God's will for our lives. With the news, social media, and terrible attacks on peace throughout the world at our finger tips it is easy to wonder where God may be, it is easy to point the finger at the christians, or the muslims or the jews, or the buddhists, but in reality we need to turn our finger to ourselves and see what we have done. Look into ourselves and focus on what we have done to our personal relationship with God, what have we done to the honor of the Bible and the peace, love and joy that God explains as examples of love.
     I was going to write about my personal walk and my personal struggles I have been facing but I felt a prompting from the Lord instead to speak to each and every person who reads this about something that is far more important than myself and that is your personal walk, your personal life, your personal choices, your most intamet parts of your life, mind, and home. As I type this I am praying that God reaches you through your computer screens, cellphones, tablets, and touches your heart, and tugs on your heart so hard that by the time you reach the bottom of this post you have fallen to your knees and reached out to Him. There is no need for fancy words or setting the scene, no need to get dolled up and go to a church to do this.

Where you are, I am asking you, God is pushing and asking you, the person reading this screen to pray. Not to let out all the woes you are facing but to come to Him with a child's heart and just in your way express your deepest love, your deepest need for Him in your life, not just so you can have the things you want, but so you can change your heart and your mind and your way of life to serve Him and want what He wants.

I used to think that you needed to have eloquent words, or live a "perfect" christian life to come to Him and then I realized if I was perfect, if I did everything right, then I would not need Him, God isn't for the 'perfect' He's for the imperfect. If you've done something wrong, if you have strayed away these past few days, weeks, months or even years I want you to know God doesn't care, all He cares about is loving you and that your there now and your wanting to make things right. The best part: All you have to do is ask and He will take care of the rest.

For my strong willed christians: Stop judging others, stop comparing others to what the Bible says about the standard of living, now don't get this twisted. I am not saying to abandon the Bible and it's instruction for the way of life, what I am saying however is it's not your job to personally take call out each person and their issues that is the Holy Spirit's job and last time I checked you are not even close to being the Holy Spirit. I love your fire and your commitment but what this world needs is not us shaking our fists and throwing stones, but instead drop your stone that you have in your hand and look at yourself in the mirror you surely are not the one with a spotless heart. You yourself have made mistakes in your past some terrible and some very little but either way your not perfect.

For the ones who are on the fence: JUMP OFF THE FENCE!! I am here writing to you to tell you the plunge into your relationship with God will be so well worth it!!! The things your clinging to you and I both know are far less important and they will be hard to let go of but when you empty your full hands of useless things God bestows great and mighty things that far surpass it so let them go and grasp onto God and what He has planned for your life.

For the ones who hate the faith that I love so much: I pray for you, not for any harm, not for you to fall off the face of the Earth but that the hate that someone put in your life for my faith will be demolished and your chains will be set free so that you can experience what true happiness is, I pray that you fall on your face praising the Lord and when you finally look up you see His face and all of His splendor.

For the ones wondering where God is: He is here, He is with you, yes the world is scary and yes there are alot of terrifying things going on in the world but it's important you remember that fear is NOT of the Lord so if the things going on the world is scaring you keep in mind it's not of God, the things that are occurring is not God abandoning us, There is a free will that comes with God, God has a will but each person has to be willing to accept it, and if they choose not to then they are turning to their own devices of evil and they are turning to their own life, and as much as we may want to question it and fight it, that is God's will to allow each person to have the opportunity to CHOOSE Him and for that we must be respectful and know that when it comes down to it God has your back.

Lastly,
I pray that we take the stones and drop them, we open our arms and start embracing our neighbors, we start to pray unceasing not for destruction, not for a war but for a spiritual awakening of the Lord amongst our entire little big world. Please take the time to look inward and see what you have done within your own spiritual relationship with God. Have you tried to take over the Holy Spirit's job judging others and have you taken it upon yourself to decide who is worthy and who is not worthy to the Lord? Have you thought critically and ill of someone? Let it go and Let God handle not just them but you.