THINK PINK

With Valentine's Day around the corner, I have a growing fondness for the color pink. Pink and I have a love/hate relationship. I think I went a little pink crazy my freshman year of college, and then got really tired of it. But we're back on good terms, and I love a small dash of pink here and there.

Here are a few pink things that are really catching my eye, and a little gem of a videoclip from Funnyface that I stumbled upon. Enjoy!

Pink Strawberry Lemonade- looks delish!

This extension cord would add a nice pop of pink to a room.

Pink cloud- not much to say about this one other than I like it.

Love a little pale pink/blush. It reminds me of ballet slippers.

Anyone remember the Yink that would drink pink ink from "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish? It was my favorite Dr. Suess creature.

o, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

WEDGES

So I've never been a big "shoe person." You know, those people that collect, obssess over, and spend excessive amounts of money on shoes? It's a guilty pleasure for many women, but not me. But considering I'm writing my second post on shoes in two weeks, I am aware that it might appear otherwise. I am definitely in want of a few good pairs of some cute wedges/flatforms for the upcoming spring and summer season. These are a few that caught my eye from Anthropologie, and Madewell.

CHICKEN LETTUCE WRAPS & DATE NIGHT IN

We've been trying to eat real healthy around here for awhile. Which is why I got excited when I found a recipe for one of mine and Alan's favorite dishes (we order it when we go eat at P.F. Chang's), Chicken Lettuce Wraps. Tonight is "Date Night In", and will consist of these babies and watching lots of our current television series on Netflix, Burn Notice.

You can find the recipe here. I'll let you know how they turn out.

Update: These were a lot of prep work, but good.

GREEN SMOOTHIES

My newest food obsession? Squeezing as many vitamins in as I can in a "green smoothie." The idea of a green smoothie, (which I believe is becoming quite popular), did NOT sound appealing to me at all. My thoughts were, "Your smoothie is green. There is NO way that can taste edible, let alone good." Then one day I tried it. And I was wrong. The frozen fruit and juice totally masked the flavor of the greens I put in. It looked a bit muddier than the picture above, but it was really good! Here's what I put in the ones I make:

Frozen berries

Frozen pineapple

Frozen mango (Trader Joes has great frozen fruit options)

Chobani Vanilla Non-fat Yogurt (or whatever yogurt you can get your hands on is probably good)

Orange Juice or V8 VFusion juice (it's fruity, not veggie)

a handful or two of spinach or kale

Drink up!

YOUR GREATEST NEED HAS ALREADY BEEN MET

From a favorite author, Gary Thomas, in regards to marriage:

"Most people today think that their greatest need is to be loved; that is why they get married. They want to find someone that will love them, they want to be noticed, they feel lonely, they want to be appreciated. The biblical view is that God has met that need. He proved His love for us through Christ, He will love us, He will accept us. So your greatest need has already been met. The greatest need now then is to learn how to love.

I look at marriage as a teacher of how to love. If you are married to a person with a temper, how do you learn to love a person with a temper? If you are married to a person who is overly sensitive or selfish, how do you learn to love a sensitive or selfish person?

Well, it is really through humility, realizing that I am, not like Christ. We often compare ourselves to people we deem to not be good examples of how to be in marriage like a Charlie Sheen and say, “Well I am not Charlie Sheen but I am not Jesus either.” So even though a person might be more spiritual than their spouse they still realize the need to grow in how they love their spouse. So then the things I used to resent about my marriage – now I see it as a purpose of my marriage, as I now see that God designed it to pinch my feet, to show me that I am selfish and that I don’t know how to love, to show me that I am not like Christ so I can become better at how I love."

via this post

I highly recommend his book, "Sacred Marriage."

LET'S TALK LOAFERS

On a lighter note, I think I shall distract myself with the loveliness of these loafers.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

OVERWHELMED

Feeling quite overwhelmed today by all the obstacles that stand in the way of my long-term goal. Just found out I have another obstacle I have to deal with before I can even begin to deal with the one I thought I was dealing with. A few moments later, I came across this. Thank you God. Still feeling overwhelmed, but a bit more hopeful. If it's meant to be, God will open the doors.

WORD FOR THE DAY

I love the book of James. It's probably my favorite in the Bible. Here's a little goodness for the day:

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking in anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. Those who doubt should not think they will receive anything from the Lord; they are double-minded and unstable in all they do."

James 1:2-7

This verse is a good one to remember in times of trial, confusion, and fear. To me it seems both comforting and convicting. I find comfort in the fact that no matter what my faults are or how many I have, if I truly seek wisdom from the Lord, it will be given. It's convicting for me to remember to pray with the trust and faith that God hears me and he answers. I need to remember and believe that God has all the capability in the world to answer my prayers within his will. It's easy to go into "auto-prayer," which I think James is warning about here.

The question I want to put out there, for both myself and others is, "Am I persevering through this trial, or am I just hanging on? What can I do to persevere so that I may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing ?"

art/design by Jim LePage

HELLO MONDAY

Goodbye Weekend. Hello Monday.

Seeing as it is January, I just bought not one, but two calendars for Alan and I to keep organized! One of them was a photo calendar I ordered through Pinhole Press, my favorite photo site (if you ever want a beautifully designed photo product like a photobook, photo labels, etc., you have to try this site!). I filled it with our wedding pictures and a few honeymoon ones, and I'm excited to be able to mark it up and see memories from the start of our life together.

The second one is a calendar that tells what produce is in season, and has a line for each day of the month. We'll use that one as our birthday calendar. I hate forgetting people's birthdays and I do it too often, so hopefully this will help us stay on track and be able to not forget to make people feel cherished on their special day! (Birthdays are a big deal to me) I'm also excited to use it because I never know what fruits/veggies are in season and I since I've been cooking more I want to incorporate whatever fresh produce is in season.

On a completely unrelated note, here are a few random things that caught my eye on Pinterest recently...

These would make a nice appetizer. Spinach Artichoke Stuffed Mushrooms.

Isn't this a beautiful print? So peaceful. It's for sale in this etsyshop.

I am dying to make a chalkboard as fancy as this one. I don't have one quite as "decadent" however I might use a large mirror I currently have and spray paint the frame gold and the mirror with chalkboard spray paint. I love easy projects like this!

The colors in these cacti are stunning. What a beautiful color palette. God is seriously an artist.

I love this movie. Amelie, an innocent and naive girl in Paris, with her own sense of justice, decides to help those around her and along the way, discovers love. I need to check and see if it's on Netflix, and if it is, force my husband to watch it with me. This is a great design by Katrina Regino.

COOKING WITH KATIE: CHEESY QUINOA CAKES WITH A ROASTED GARLIC LEMON AIOLI SAUCE

Cooking with Katie. Sounds like a cheesy recipe book. But nope, it's what I'm titling all my food/cooking posts from now on.

Last night I made cheesy quinoa cakes with a roasted garlic lemon aioli sauce. THEY WERE SO GOOD!!! And quinoa is good for you, high in protein. I got the recipe from this food blog, which I love: Spoon Fork Bacon

The only thing I would have done different is started a little earlier, because it took me longer than I had anticipated. Easy recipe though. Try them!

SOME GOALS FOR TWENTY-TWELVE

Here are some goals I have for the year twenty-twelve (I could just type 2012, but I like the way twenty-twelve looks better)...

EXERCISE REGULARLY.
What that looks like? I don't know. I tend to have very high ambitions and confidence in my ability to do this, but when actually comes down to it, I have NO self-discipline whatsoever. So we'll see how this one goes...

EAT HEALTHY.
I already eat a lot of healthy food and not too much junkfood, but my weaknesses are dessert and portion control. Currently I am curbing my dessert cravings with a couple dark chocolate peanut butter cups (they're like Reeses on steroids) or some dark chocolate covered almonds (also amazing. Both are from Trader Joes, of course). Might not seem like much progress, but trust me, it's much better than regularly eating bowls of cookie dough and ice cream. And by regularly I mean every night.

TAKE STEPS TOWARDS DREAM CAREER.
I'm currently attempting to sign up for an abnormal psych class, which is a pre-requisite for applying to grad school for an MFT (marriage and family therapy). I also want to information interview (I feel like a high school kid saying that) a certain psychologist.

COOK MORE OFTEN.
Cooking has become a favorite hobby of mine. I don't always make the time to do it, but when I do I have so much fun. I love cooking for other people, however I tend to cook more for my own satisfaction, because my husband tends to be rather skeptical of most dishes I make that contain any healthy foods whatsoever. I think broccoli, asparagus, and any form of meat may be the only exceptions. It's a good thing I love him so much.

POST MORE ON THIS BLOG ABOUT WHAT I COOK.
It will be like embracing my inner Julia Child and I will have a virtual record of everything I've cooked! No more searching around for printed out recipes.

MAKE MORE TIME FOR REGULAR TIME WITH GOD.
I think that's always one. I have some serious issues with self-discipline.

BE A BETTER FRIEND.
Be intentional about going out of my way to make people around me feel loved.

Wish me luck.