The story of Cathy

I had a phenominal time in Champaign with Kirby and the church here. It was so great to meet everyone and be able to hang out with my church family out in the Midwest. And, of course, to be reunited to my friend and sister in Christ, Kirby!!

A definite highlight was being able to meet Cathy. Kirby and two of the brothers from the church here and I were in the University of Illinois student union at 10:30pm (ironing shirts...funny story). At the other side of the room we noticed this woman who was middle aged, by herself, just sitting on the couch, not reading or talking or sleeping, but just sitting. It got our attention so we went over to talk to her, see if everything was alright, and invite her to church. It was funny, the first thing she said to us when we asked her if she was alright was, "Yes, you can sit with me if you'd like, I'm very religious." Kirby and I laughed and I wondered if she overheard us saying we should go talk to her, but we sat down and she told us about her life. After leaving a relationship 6 years ago, she's been in and out of homelessness ever since. She was heart broken that her old paster at her church left after being her biggest support for years. We listened to her, asked her if she wanted to join us the next morning for church, and prayed with her.

The next morning, Kirby and I went to pick her up, and I was so happy to see her smiling face right inside the union where we said we'd pick her up!! She loved church and was singing and dancing and laughing and talking and crying and everything. It was such an encouragement! Kirby talked to the head of benevolence in Champagna and they put Cathy up in a hotel for the week, and she said she wanted to come back to church. Amen. This is what I live for!

James 1:27

²⁷ Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Vegetable broth and coffee shops

So I just made some yummy veggie broth, and I love making my own food! Making my own broth has saved me so much money, esp during the winter when I want to cook a lot of soups and stews.




I went to Para Coffee shop on the corner the other day after looking at the lights in the Rotunda for work, and when they poured my almond milk into my coffee (I know I'm a snub and an elitist and a priss), I saw they had a glass jug so I asked where they got their almond milk. Apparently they not only make their own almond milk, but walnut and pistacio milk as well! So crazy! So this is my next endeavour. And, this will save me money too. Considering I went over my food budget by $20 this month (it's not even the end of the month yet...sheesh), I could use all the savings I can get. And, the added benefit to this recipe is that it produces flour too, so I can bake more!

http://www.ohnuts.com/blog/2011/03/how_to_make_almond_milk_recipe_1.html

My next baking: cinnoman buns. Vegan brunch for the win. Also with these.

http://veganmenu.blogspot.com/2010/02/super-bowl-buffalo-tofu-pommes-frites.html

Speaking of going over budgers, I also went over my gas budget. So, it's back to riding my bike again. Amen for muscles! But with all that calorie burning I need some extra food. Basically someone needs to make me food. That's my love language. Food.

Speaking of food, I had a food dream the other night! I have been thinking a lot lately about the best dessert I've ever had....it was after my half marathon and my friend Grace had us over and made this delicious meal, but I totally forget what it was because the dessert was AMAZING!!! It was slow baked apples (how do you even do that???) with vegan vanilla SOY ICE CREAM!! I can't even explain how good this was. So, in my dream, I had vanilla ice cream with cocao toast, and I heated it up in the microwave, and it was delicious. So, let the dream inspired food begin.

Burn List

We had a great family time last week. We wrote letters to god (aka prayers...), and then we burned them! This is not to be confused with a burn list. You might actually say they are completely opposite. And then we made smores (well THEY did), and then Leanna burned her junk mail. It was a beautiful night, if only because it's 60deg in the middle of January. I can't take this. Tell global warming to cool it. Ha.

This weekend was pretty crazy, but what's new? But Saturday started our real fine with Leanna and I spending some time at La Taza, a decent cafe in Belmont. It was so great to spend time with Leanna but it reminded me of hanging out with Aryn and I missed the old days, which really aren't that old yet. But, I'm super nosgalgic so old days they will be!

Comfort food

The search for great vegan comfort food is on!

Ok honestly I dont really know what comfort food is really (perhaps because I'm vegan?), but I know that lots of people say mac n cheese is their comfort food, so I decided to try this recipe. It's good! And it's baked! But I have no idea if thats normal for mac n cheese, but what is normal anyway? Over rated! I'll take my cheese fake, my pasta dish baked and my orange juice room temp with a side of hot water and you can leave your criticism at the door thank you very much!

Also it snowed today, making my choice for comfort food even more appropriate.

The Trouble with Leaving

The trouble with leaving is there is always something to run away from. It's like my feet are moving but my heart is just along for the ride. It's a little disturbing the treasures I choose to store in my heart. And just for the record, if you're not sure what treasures you're storing up in your heart, just wait for a period of trial and testing and see what comes out.

But, the beauty of leaving is that there is always something to run towards. I am a firm believer of the grass being greener, because I believe that we can grow and learn no matter where we are. But sometimes we leave lessons half-learned where we came from, the pruning incomplete, the cleansing only partial. God promises full, complete, all encompassing sanctification (1 Thess 5:23-24). He is faithful, I am faithless. It's a shame the cleansing I run from.

Ezekiel 36:26 "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh."

We had a leaders retreat this weekend for the churches in Virginia to kick off the new year. We made goals, we prayed for great expectations, we learned how to build up leaders. It was so great to see old friends and new friends and the pillars in the church. With the things going on in my life and the wave of nostalgia and thankfulness church retreats bring I was feeling quite emotional. Praise God. Still moving towards that heart of gold.

True family

New year, new food

Yum new year! So I have officially cooked my first meals. The first was a balsamic curried chickpea raison thing, for lack of a better word. I used the very last can of chickpeas and other staples I have floating around and ate it over brown rice. nom.



The second was much more involved and forced me to get over my anxiety of blenders (they are so complicated, especially getting them out of the drawer, it turns out). This recipe had the added benefit of working out my arm muscles as I mashed all the incredients with the back side of a ladle.

I broke the final product into pieces to eat on a wrap with lettuce, hummus, avocado, cucumber, and peppers. Gotta admit, I'm pretty proud of this one.

The recipe was adopted from http://www.mangopowergirl.com/2008/08/veggie-burger-number-1.html

Bring on the food.

Christmas 2011 with a fist pump

After much accidental sleeping, rushing, and phone calls I am finally in Charlottesville safely, intact, and unpacked! Alarm clocks are apparently like weathermen. You can't trust them.

So under what context would fist pumping and yelling "Christmas 2011!!!!" be appropriate you ask? Well, celebrating Christmas in 2011 of course! After all the dust has settled, I am just extremely grateful for friends. It became evident this break how fortunate and blessed I have been with all my friends who have, and continue to, support me, encourage me, challenge me, and refresh me. I really can't speak enough about how completely humbled I am by this gift. And that is cause for much praise and fist pumping if you ask me.

But, my homecoming is marked with new (and renewed) relationships, but also a broken relationship that has left my heart calloused. Perhaps it was foolish of me to dream for a perfect break, but, I have to remember, "a sad face is good for the heart" (Ecc 7:3).

For NYE, I stayed with Kirstin and Jen in Pittsburgh at their gorgeous house. I think I completely maxed out all my laugher for 2011 in those last few days with them, but I think that kind of thing is use it or loose it so thank goodness it starts back over in 2012. Below are some highlites!

I love vegan food

Double decker vegan style

Super glittery nails drinking tea!

Braddock. Future home?

What our bodies lacked in enthusiasm our nails made up for