Father's Day 2014

Today I ponder the effect my father has had on my life...my father always pointed me to look to my Heavenly Father for guidance... 

My dad has always been awesome. When I was young he read me great books with such fun expressiveness, he hugged me often, and always made me feel loved. He made many sacrifices over the years to be able to provide for his six children while mom stayed home to homeschool us. I'm very grateful that he provided my mom with the opportunity to homeschool. 

Now that I'm an adult, he still makes me feel loved, he's taught me how to manage finances, to plan for the future, to show honor and respect for those who deserve it, to work hard and to always show those you love just how much you care.

I love that he still tells me "I have confidence in you."

I believe my dad embodies this verse:

Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it. (Proverbs 22:6 NIV)

And...

As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; (Psalm 103:13 NIV)

Thank you dad for showing me a small glimpse of our Heavenly Father's compassion. 

This is me and my daddy at the family's long standing vacation location walking arm in arm...lots of wonderful memories have been made in that small town in Texas. :)

Hello yellow!

I just looooove the color yellow! It makes me so happy! 

Here's some sweet summer-like yellow photos that make me smile, ENJOY! 

 

:) yellow, yellow, yellow! 

Kathrinka thinks...

...we need more JOY in our lives! 

Do you ever feel like this: 

Yeah...me too sometimes. But it doesn't have to be that way, we make the decision to be joyful. It's even found in the Bible:

"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" (Philippians 4:4 NIV)

So, next time you feel down, REJOICE in The Lord! He has given you life! Enjoy every moment of it! Today I will rejoice because:

- I have breath for another day!

- I have a God who loves me unconditionally!

- My husband is a great man who I highly respect!

- I have a home (a 552 sq ft "square" room, but it's our home that we've been blessed with for the time being!) 

- I have a great job!

- My family is awesome, supportive, and loving!

- I have five beautiful nieces!!

- My church family is just as awesome as my biological family! 

- I am blessed with wonderful friends!!

We are called to be like Christ. I encourage you to find out who Jesus Christ is, how he shared love with people, how he sacrificed so that we may have eternal joy, how he loves unconditionally and how he helps people. 

"Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus..." (Philippians 2:1-5 NIV)

Let's look to the needs of others, express your joy today in what you're thankful for and then seek out how you can attend to the interests of others. Be a blessing to someone else today! 

Here's a little handmade token from me as a reminder to find the joy in your life today...

Aaaannnnddd something cute to make you smile. :) This photo is of me and my brothers when we were young. Enjoy your day today! 

I am a pro-procrastinator!

I am a pro-procrastinator! 

Procrastinator confession: I wrote this post yesterday and told myself I would post it tomorrow! 

I started this blog, to the day, 5 years ago. May 29, 2009. I blogged off an on for a little while, quit completely for a while and then blogged again about my food adventures...but quit again a little while later. 

I have such great ideas, plans, dreams...but I just can't quite seem to get them off the ground. My goal at the beginning of 2014 was to start blogging again. Well...Here we are almost halfway through 2014, and I just keep thinking about it and never doing it! 

Oh believe you me, I've come up with excuses:

• I can't commit to even one post a month

• My pictures aren't pretty enough

• I ramble too much 

• No one is really gonna want to follow my blog anyway 

• ...I need to go cook dinner

• I should be working on my budget right now

• Laundry, laundry, laundry

• It's midnight already...

• I'm not interesting enough

• Work takes up all my time

• I don't have time to blog

And yet I keep coming back to a desire to blog! I want to share exciting experiences. 

I want to show the young, newly married woman that you CAN learn to cook! (I thought I was gonna be the biggest failure of a wife/cook/housekeeper...don't get me wrong, I'm still learning, but that's the point! You CAN learn to do what you really want to do!) 

I want to share my love of the color yellow. 

I want to enrich people's lives with beautiful photography. 

I want to help people live healthier lives by introducing them to the multitudes of benefits that Young Living Essential Oils has given to me. 

I want to encourage the depressed, to share the Love that my God so generously shares with me. 

I want to share how awesome marriage can be. 

I want to be adventurous!

I want to share my adventures in cooking, life and love! 

SO... here's to the end of procrastination and the beginning of adventures! 

Five years ago, I prayed this prayer and I'll continue to pray it: ((Lord, please give me your revelation to help guide me in my everyday walk, so that I can be the woman that I want to be. I pray for your guidance and direction, help me to be receptive to all you have to offer me. Give me clean hands and a pure heart so that everything I do will be done to the best of my ability. Thank you Jesus for all that you have given me already, and thank you for the days to come…Amen.)) 

May we all be reminded to pray: 

"Dear Jesus, give me revelation...I've got nothing without you."

Preparing breakfast for the week...

This is how I spent my late morning/early afternoon today...preparing breakfast for the week! Jesse and I are on a low carb diet right now. He's competing at work in a Biggest Loser contest, so we're going low carb! :)

Since I ended up cooking this mixture almost every other night this week, I decided to avoid having that happen again by cooking a LOT in one setting so we can eat it every morning this next week! By a lot, I mean 4 times the recipe! See the final product below.

This recipe comes from our friend Cole, who is also on a low carb diet. Thank you man!

Recipe:

1 onion

1 bell pepper

1 dozen eggs

breakfast sausage

salt & pepper

 (we added jalepenos to taste)

 

 

 Our new stove!! :)

The final product in a large tub...

Deco Mesh Christmas Trees

This year I wanted to do a little more with the "little space" we have in our home. Last year I wrapped a tomato cage with Christmas lights. This year I took it up a notch by first wrapping the tomato cages with white LED Christmas lights and then wrapping them with Deco Mesh! These are very cheap and beautiful little trees! If you want to make them you can run by your local hardware store to get medium tomato cages and then stop by Hobby Lobby to get the deco mesh. I happened to find mine on sale for 50% off, so for two large rolls of the mesh I paid a little over $10. You can do all sorts of awesome fun with the deco mesh...they come in an assortment of colors (I saw red, purple, green, white, pink, silver...oh and lime green!)

I had a blast making them and I looooove the dreamy light they create at night...

..."I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas"...
 
Merry Christmas!


Note: If you decide to make these...make sure to have a partner to help! I couldn't have done these without my husband!!   :)  

Deco Mesh Christmas Trees

Deco Mesh Christmas Trees

Country Stuffed Pork Loin

Ingredients:

Cooking spray

1/2 cup diced onion

1/2 cup diced carrots

1/4 cup diced celery

1/2 cup diced apple

1 teaspoon ground pepper

1 teaspoon salt

1 pkg seasoned croutons

2 large eggs

1/4 cup water

3 tablespoons olive oil

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Beat eggs in a bowl and then pour package of croutons into the same bowl. Add 1/4 cup of water and mix, then set aside.

Meanwhile, heat a nonstick skilled with 2 tablespoons of oil over medium heat. Add onion, carrots, celery, apple, pepper and salt; cook 10 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Add diced apple; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add this apple mixture to the bowl with the croutons and mix it all together; set aside.

Okay, I'm not going to try to explain how to cut the pork loin...you should watch this video on youtube! (Stuffed Pork Loin Recipe: How to Prep Meat for Stuffed Pork Loin) I watched all the videos on the stuffed pork loin that I could find from the company that posted this video to learn now to to this recipe! You may do the same! (I've changed up the recipe just a little, but it does help to see it done rather than just read it!)

Sprinkle salt on the cut pork loin. Spread stuffing over pork, leaving a 1/2-inch margin around edges. Roll up pork, jelly-roll fashion, starting with a long side. Secure at 2-inch intervals with twine. You can also watch how to tie the twine near the end of the video linked above. If you don't have twine, you can use skewers to poke through the meat and hold it in place.

Place stuffed pork loin into a pan coated with cooking spray, opening side down. Bake at 450 degrees for 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake additional 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a thermometer registers 155 degrees.

Remove and let pork stand about 10 minutes. Slice pork into 1/2-inch-thick slices and serve. Makes anywhere from 8-10 servings.

Calories 249; Fat 8.3g (sat 2.9g); Sodium 567mg