a day late

Happy birthday to my wonderful mom!

even though it was yesterday.

I know many of you may not realize just how amazing my mother is, or rather how amazing YOUR mothers are. I have only just discovered it. This year it seemed like my brain finally matured just enough to realize just how much my mom does, and APPRECIATE IT. Sometimes I can't even believe it.

 Sometimes my family and others try to stop her. I suppose we do that to other people too, when we think they are giving too much. Why do we do this? Is it really our place to try and prevent someone from giving all they have for Christ's sake? Simply because we don't understand how they possibly could be willing to do so? This brings me to another point I've recently been challenged by in various ways. To be actively living out my faith.

Sure, I could write all day long on how I'm growing or how I see changes, but where is the proof? Where is my involvement in the Word, in my church, in the people around me? Are my actions demonstrating the amazing love of Christ that I talk about? My mom is definitely one of the best examples for Christ that I have, and for that I'm thankful. My one and only resolution for this coming year is that by God's grace, I will stop talking the talk, and start walking the walk. 

James 1:22-25

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. ²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. ²⁴ For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. ²⁵ But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

christmas blessings

can I just say that this Christmas has been so filled with blessings that it brings tears to my eyes if I think about it too long. God is so merciful! The year was a rough one, from a car crash early in the year to not having enough money for school at the end. But God has been merciful through it all and blessed me and my family. The obvious ways, since I already mentioned them were that I got a new car at an incredible price that didn't break my parents or my bank, and help and parental wisdom with the school fees. In between all that, our youth went on our best mission trip to the Dominican republic yet. That trip was led by God I tell ya, the entire thing went smoothly and a lot of families were reached. I also had a GREAT fall smester, both in school and all THREE jobs (yes three). Christmas this year was awesome. He provided so that all of us could get eachother great gifts this year. Despite our almost bare pockets we were able to think of others. Blessings keep coming as meylin is about to pop ( give birth) any second now and the passion conference coming up in January! Me, Leslie and three other friends are stay in a hotel those days and we'll get to listen to awesome God given wisdom filled men like John Piper, Louie Giglio, and Francis Chan. oh, Chris Tomlin will be there too as one of the worship leaders, in case those other guys aren't awesome enough. I hope to do a lot of growing! Well I'll post some Christmas pictures soon. Hope you all have had an amazingly blessed year and Christmas too!

BRACE YOURSELVES

This week is going to be completely  crazy. The Lord has blessed me so much!
I'm bracing myself fooooooor....

1. BECOMING AND AUNT AGAIN! the little guy will be here any day.
2. White elephant part-ay at mi casa
3. My favorite (shhhh don't tell anyone) aunt coming!!!!!

 and of course, christmas shopping, food prep, house prep, and other Christmas crazy good madness.

IT"S GONNA BE AWESOME

I'll blog about them as they come of course ;)

on long hair...

Long hair, it's fun. Except when it tries to attack you.

I think my hair has finally reached the "long" stage. I've been waiting forever. How can I tell? Well when your hair gets tangled in what your eating... or when it gets tangled in a heavy bag on its way down and tries to bring you down WITH it..... then I think you know its long. (that happened to me yesterday) I'd say tangled comes up a lot when it comes to long hair, hence the perfectly titled movie "tangled" about Rapunzel.

Long hair is a part of you, it's like a creature that you'll always have by your side (or behind you). Its pretty unruly, but when it finally decides to behave it looks great. It feel good on your shoulders, like a permanent comfort blanket. And there so much you can DO with it. So many styles its overwhelming,  but it's still just as great hanging down free. Yesterday I took the bottom section of my hair, wrapped it around the rest of my hair, stuck a pin in it and BAM, ponytail without the ponytail holder.

It's a blessing and a pain that my hair is thick and curly, which is one of the reasons it gets everywhere. Long straight hair stays down. That just won't do for curly hair. And, when I try to run my fingers through it, they get lost. Curly hair has a mind of its own. But its nice when it comes to ponytails with just one pin. Yeah, its fun too. Like yesterday, when it tried to pull me down, thats a great story I can tell my grand children some day... Sure I'm afraid it'll catch on fire some day, but I wouldn't trade my wild curly hair for anything.

five minutes

So I've been inspired by this blog to do a five minute post. here goes.

Right now I'm standing in front of my computer which is connected to my stereo while playing my keith and kristyn getty station on pandora. I've been home a one all morning,and actually started the day right with my precious Lord and Savior. Something I realized this morning while reading matthew is that Jesus hardly ever stopped. He rose early and spoke/traveled/worked all day. He would still wake up even earlier to make sure He could spend quiet time with His Father. JESUS! He was God's Son and still took out time to spend with God. How much more do we need to do so? Well I'm praying He'll keep me faithful in spending time with Him. This getty station is one of the best I've heard. I don't think I've heard one song I don't. Today looks like it's going to be a good day. Especially if I keep taking time to savor the biggest flavor in my life. Jesus.Welp, I'm almost at five minutes, I suppose I should take some time to spell check. Have a great day!

thanksgiving!

Is 6 days too late to post about thanksgiving? Oh well, we should be thankful everyday anyways.

A little bit about our thanksgiving, because I know you are all dying to know what Dominicans do for an American Holiday. Well let me tell you, we spice it up.

First of all, the ONLY typical American food we consistently have is turkey, oh and we always have and pecan pie. I'm serious. However, we do have other different American foods depending on on who's coming or what was on sale that year. Stuffing, pumpkin pie, mashed potato, cranberry sauce, etc. have all had a place on our table some year or another. This year it was cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie, incase you were curious. The rest of our beautifully delicious spread (which is number 2 on my list of things I'm thankful for by the way, Salvation is number one) is full of Dominican stuff. I'm talking pastelitos, pasteles en hoja, rice and beans, ham cooked with pineapple, tipil (which turns out is actually Arabian), and other random stuff. We also have other things that aren't "typical" anywhere, like I said, it depends on the people and the sales. This year the Malone's came over. their dad couldn't come, but to make up for it, he, Mr. Chef made......... GUACAMOLE!!!!!!!! You all know how near dear that is to my heart. Anyways the rest of the night was full of loud people, laughter, kids bumping into walls, explodingly full stomachs that we kept filling anyways, festering wounds being considered refreshing (long story, it involves apples to apples), sticky babies and much more that made me extremely thankful to God for the friends and family I have. Here's some snapshots. I'll try and comment as little as possible, promise.

p.s. Remember that last post I wrote? About the preparation for Thanksgiving? Well I took pictures of it all. I even managed to take pictures on Thursday night. But of course, when the actual EATING part came, I forgot all about my blog. As usual. Sorry.

 

We made these little guys for a Hispanic senior center. 

 

Pastelitos in the making 

 

  Julian's hand made these!

 This was on wednesday during some food prep, but nevertheless it was Julian's first real thanksgiving food.  turkey and mashed potatoes.

 That's right, we listen to hispanic music while setting up for an American holiday.

This is how you cook a thanksgiving meal without an oven. BAM. 

and may I just say, my mother has been successfully cooking without an oven for about 4 years now. 

 Based on above and below, that kid is going to have a lot of fun growing, though he may not appreciate it yet. or ever.

 My beautifully pregnant sister

 Dum tada dum! GUAC (Mr. Malone made the salsa too)

 And this my friends, are cooked pastelitos, and of course, we began eating at this moment, so my camera was long forgotten. Sorry you weren't able to view our extremely interesting game of Apples to Apples and my honey covered nephew.

 

Hope you all had a great thanksgiving. And don't forget, God blesses us so much through out our lifetime, we don't need to wait till thanksgiving to thank Him.

It's beginning to look a lot like...

 

Thanksgiving has many parts. A big part of it is the smells that come in the week of preparation. Each morning you wake up to a different smell, leave with a different smell on your clothes, and come home to a different smell. Whether it is meat cooking, pies baking, or decorations being pulled out of closets and basements, they are the smells that let us know that something is coming. For those of us in school, we already get a taste for the holidays by being off for the week, but those with jobs, or those at lame schools that only give you a long weekend, those smells, sights, and sounds, the things that awaken your senses are the things that get us ready for the holidays. So even those still in their morning commute can get excited. Thanksgiving and Christmas preparation, especially the food prep, has become one of my favorite times of the year. We started making food on Monday. It’s exciting. When we remember to enjoy these things along with the actual holiDAY, we get so much more out of the entire week, months, and even years. It also has given me more time to spend with my family, especially my mom. This school year I have been a crazy busy fast moving train, and it’s nice to slow down and appreciate what we have and remember how much we love our families.