From January to April, I was a student teacher at a local elementary school.
In my last month of student teaching, I made a list of the many reasons that I was eager to finish:
I was originally going to save this recipe for July, and then I learned a few very important facts:
The first bowl of overnight oatmeal I ever made was The Oatmeal Artist’s orange dreamsicle overnight oats. I fell in love instantly. It was like my mouth had found an old friend.
I just found this post that has been sitting in my drafts bin for two years. No joke, TWO YEARS!
…can a blog post grow old???
What was my life even like two years ago? Spring of 2015 was my first semester as an RA. I was working weird hours at a daycare (6:50-7:50 am, 2:30-6:00 pm). I had never been to Texas. I didn’t like tomatoes.
I think that it is about time that I share this recipe.
Ingredients
Directions
Saturday evening after supper, I was successfully avoiding real schoolwork.
To begin, I downloaded a bunch of “educational” apps so that I could “review” them for my Educational Technology class (actually I just enjoy playing children’s games). In between trying to create mathematical sentences and type parts of speech, I decided to scroll through my drafts folder.
Lo and behold, I have multiple recipes waiting to be shared. I hope you enjoy National Apple Month with these apple cinnamon bites.
Ingredients
Directions
Adapted from “(Relatively) Healthy Oatmeal Scones” by slicedpeaches.
Today for What I Eat Wednesday, I am showing pictures of my meals on Saturday. I wrote the text Saturday morning, and I felt that it gave appropriate “spiritual food for thought” to pair with my comestible activity for the rest of the day.
(hover your mouse over the images to view the captions)
Be anxious for nothing -Philippians 4:6
I seem to quote that verse on a second by second basis, and yet I am so bad at obeying it. I tend to do the opposite and worry about everything.
Right now, it is 4:30 Saturday morning, and this is what I am thinking:
I am sure the list could go on for quite a while.
Be anxious for nothing,
But in everything with prayer and supplication
Let your requests be made known unto God.
– Philippians 4:13
I think my problem is that I never really make it past that first line of that verse. I get so worried about not being anxious that I fail to realize that God does not leave me to find my own peace.
God wants me to bring my worries to Him in prayer with thanksgiving. He doesn’t expect me to mitigate my own fears.
…My peace do I leave with you. I do not give it as the world gives. Do not let your heart be troubled or afraid.
– John 14:27
So right now, I am bowing my head in prayer and dedicating myself to a stress-free Saturday. I am going to fervently surrender to God’s grace. Then I will crawl back into bed and rest in God’s peace, eager to embrace His mercies that are new every morning.
Did I spend Saturday completely stress- and worry-free? No. Nonetheless, typing that post did help me put my anxiety into perspective. I must daily hold my life up to the light of eternity and surrender my struggles to God.
Thanks Jenn (Peas and Crayons), Laura (sprint2thetable), Arman (thebigmansworld) and Meghan (cleaneatsfastfeets).
Once again, I am sharing my spiritual and physical food by linking up with Jenn (peasandcrayons), Laura (sprint2thetable), Arman (thebigmansworld) and Meghan (cleaneatsfastfeets) for What I Ate Wednesday.
This week, I am showing a full Sunday of eats.
Spiritual Food:
This week, my church elected a new pastor (which means that neither the old pastor nor the new pastor preached). Instead, the president of my college spoke in my church’s Sunday morning service, and he shared a message that he had recently given in a school chapel service. Although I had heard the sermon before, there were some applicable truths. Using Acts 9, he urged the church to be a congregation of “Barnabas”s–Sons of Encouragement. After Saul’s conversion, Christians were still afraid of him. Yet, Barnabas rescued him. Barnabas saw the life change he had experienced and encouraged the disciples in Jerusalem to accept Saul. Later, in chapter 13, Barnabas accompanies Saul on his missionary journeys. This story does more than show us the importance of being an encouragement to others. Each of us need to find a “Barnabas” to hold us accountable and keep us spiritually on track. Even Paul, who is considered a spiritual giant, learned from the humble friendship of Barnabas (compare Acts 15:36-41 and 2 Timothy 4:11).
God does not expect us to live in solidarity; He created companionship and community. Whether it be a family member, friend, teacher, co-worker or fellow-blogger, have someone to regularly encourage you and check your spiritual health.
Physical Food:
My Sundays are pretty simple, and this one was no different. I wake up like a normal school day so that I can take my time getting ready.
This week, The Oatmeal Artist’s weekly theme is red. I tried to make a beautiful apple peel rose on my cinnamon peanut butter oatmeal, but I was not too pleased with how it came out.
I snacked my way through the morning: a pumpkin square after my run, another pumpkin square as “dessert” after breakfast, and a graham muffin right before I left for church (with hopes that I would make it through the whole service without getting hungry…it didn’t work 🙂 ).
I ate lunch (stew with rice, grilled vegetables, yogurt with granola, and a super-ripe banana) in the college cafeteria. This isn’t a typical Sunday lunch for me, but I don’t know what a typical Sunday lunch actually is.
Before choir practice, I ate a plate of my mom’s meatloaf, blue potatoes, and butter beans with corn that she sent back to school with me after a quick trip home on Saturday afternoon. Originally, there were red potatoes too, but I got hungry while working on schoolwork, and I ate all of the red potatoes around 2 o’clock.
Dessert was a cereal bar topped with peanut butter because I am classy 🙂 (Side note: I go through about 2 jars of peanut butter a week, so I taste-test a lot of brands. This was my first sampling of Peter Pan Simply Ground. It was good, but it will never compare to The Best Nut Butter I Have Ever Tasted).
For as long as I can remember, I have eaten a bowl of ice cream every Sunday night. Our church had a prayer service tonight instead of our typical worship service, and it went a little late, so I knew that just ice cream was not going to satisfy my hunger. I topped the bowl with peanut butter and protein granola…and then I ate some a lot more peanut butter and granola (imagine about 4 oz. of peanut butter and 1.5 cups of granola) because I was still hungry. (Side note: don’t try to save money by buying Aldi-brand strawberry yogurt and protein granola [their regular granola is fine, though]. It is worth the extra $2 for Breyer’s and Nature Valley. Trust me. I learned the hard way).
Before bed, I ate an undisclosed number of pumpkin bars. Hint: Pictures don’t always tell the whole story 😊
Questions for you:
