New Baked Good: November

Keeping in step with one of the things on my list of things I want to do during my 25th year of life, this past Sunday I whipped up some delicious No-Bake Peanut Butter Squares. Okay, so it's not technically a "baked" good... but it counts for me. I got the recipe from a wonderful website called What Megan's Making. Mine don't look nearly as good as hers, but I think they turned out pretty well as my first no-bake good.

I was really going for something easy that I knew I could find all of the ingredients for in Mexico. And something I didn't think I could screw up in converting measurements (everything is in grams here in Mexico and how much that is in cups depends on the type of ingredient being measured) Considering I've also ruined multiple loaves of banana bread, I didn't want to be over-ambitious with this first one. I most definitely will make these again. So delicious and easy!

One month down, eleven more to go! Looking forward to next month's baked goodness!

Kitty Rescue Mission

We took in another cat...

 This is Fox.

 We found him at Rancho de los Niños, much like our cat Mancha. BUT... this cat was apparently given to one of the kids from the orphanage while they were trick-or-treating around the neighborhood on Halloween. What kind of crazy person gives a child a kitten while trick-or-treating?! Is that a trick? Or a treat? I'm going to err on the side of trick. That person didn't want the kitten, so they gave it to a child.

Well... guess what? The Ranch didn't want the kitten either. He survived there for about a week, a tiny rack of bones, before Ian and I were offered the little guy. They didn't want him, and wanted to give him to us as a gift. We had gone back and forth about taking him home on our own, but had decided that it would be too hard for me to take him home, get him cleaned up, and not keep him. THEN when we were offered the kitten... I knew there was no way we could leave without him that day.

This was not a new pet for us. This was a rescue mission. We got him all cleaned up, flea-medicated, food for kittens, and even a little bed to sleep in. Because he had fleas and we were not planning on taking him home, he stayed up in Ian's office. We did bring him down to play with Mancha, once the fleas were gone. It was fun and interesting to see how Mancha tried to get the kitten to play with him and, in spite of the size difference, how gentle he was with the kitten. 

We found a great home for him (which actually was quite difficult- people in Mexico have a lot of strange stereotypes about cats) with a girl that is a friend of a friend at the church we got to down here. She and her mother love cats and were glad to take him in and off of our hands. 

We only had him with us for a week and he hasn't even been gone for a week yet... And I kind of miss him. BUT I am happy that we did what we said we would do. Got him a bit healthier, kept him alive, and found a good home for him here in Mazatlan.

Waiting and praying...

Have you ever, after a period of intense waiting on the Lord, begging for answers, hated the response that you got?

This happened to me just the other day. After obediently praying and waiting on the Lord, he gave an answer that I was not expecting, nor that I thought I could handle. Okay... so maybe I wasn't "obediently" praying as I was selfishly crying out for the outcome that I wanted. So when the unanticipated answer came, I was not ready for it.

See, I had been planning out in my head how things would go next, when the Lord responded in the way I was expecting. But that didn't happen. The next few weeks of my life are not going to be filled with the excitement that I thought they would. But more waiting and praying.

I was expecting that, because the Lord is gracious and hears and responds to the prayers of those who love him, God would respond in a specific way to my prayers. I couldn't think of a reason why he would respond any other way.

This is where I made my mistake. The Lord does not always respond in the ways that we think he will. In my personal experience, he rarely EVER responds how I think he will. So why did I let myself give in to wishful thinking to only be so let down and disappointed by the response?

"Look here, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there for a year. We will do business there and make a profit.' How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like a morning fog- it is here a little while, then it's gone. What you ought to say is, 'If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.' Otherwise you are boasting about your own plans and all such boasting is evil."  -James 4:12-16

Ugh. Yes. Thanks, James. That is what I ought to say. Even though I wasn't saying it out loud, I definitely was telling myself the plans I had for me. This whole "taking-life-one-day-at-a-time" thing is a lot harder than I thought. At least there's still hope for change, right? I can get this right yet... Only trusting in God though. I will always fail on my own. Just need to keep in mind:

"The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps." -Proverbs 16:9

25 for 25

I can't believe it's my birthday. Being in another country with the weather basically unchanging for months, it's hard to believe November is actually here right now. I got inspired by a friend of mine a few months back. In honor of turning 25 this year (quarter-of-a-century old... weird) I am making a list of 25 things I want to do in my 25th year of life.

1. Go camping. Like, really camping. Tent, sleeping bags, build-your-own-fire sort of stuff.
2. Take a photography class.
3. Run a 5k. I used to run a lot, but I've never done one of those.
4. Bake something new once a month. I find delicious looking recipes all the time, but usually fore-go them for more familiar things. 
5. Visit wine country. Whether it's in Michigan, California, or Italy- I don't care.
6. Take a trip up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I feel funny that it's part of the state I am from, yet I have never been there.
7. Learn to make a French fish-tail braid. On myself. Might have to build up my arm strength before that will be possible...
8. Learn to shoot a bow and arrow. Inspired by Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games? Yes. Absolutely.
9. Take dancing lessons with my husband. (He doesn't know yet, but it's going to happen)
10. Go kayaking.
11. Bake fresh bread of some kind. Banana bread doesn't count. REAL bread. My stepmom got a special bread-baking machine as a wedding gift and I remember the bread she made being delicious.
12. Paint or somehow create a work of art. I used to do stuff like that all the time, as a kid.
13. Take a hot yoga class.
14. Visit my sister out in Seattle.
15. Help my husband brew beer. It's kind of more of a "guy-thing" but I think it would be fun to help...
16. Study the book of Hebrews.
17. Go to an outdoor concert.
18. Attend a midnight showing of a movie and NOT nod off to sleep during it. (Hopefully will be happening March 23rd, 2011...)
19. Spend less time sucked into the internet and more time actively doing things. (I may have to keep a log for this/to break this habit)
20. Go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Ian told me that we couldn't go until I read all of the books, well... I finished that before The Deathly Hallows part 2 came out in July so...
21. Make applesauce. My mom makes the BEST applesauce. I need to learn how to make it.
22. Attend a beer-tasting event.
23. Throw or attend a themed party.
24. Refinish a piece of wood furniture.
25. Go one weekend without technology meaning no cellphone, no internet, no computer, ipad, etc. (the camping trip won't count for this)

Here's to turning 25!