cushion recover

just a quick post of what i've been up to lately...

i recovered some cushions for my patio (or front porch) furniture

BEFORE:

and after....

sorry, des really wants to be a doggie model so he has to be in every picture.  he just got his nails cut because he is a demon when we try to cut his nails a pedicure today.

i think i need some mums.

Paul and I are vegan... well a lot stricter than vegan (engine 2 diet) again for the next 28 days. Check out the diet here.  In July, Paul's cholesterol went from 136 down to 83 in 28 days!!  Anyway... i'm in the middle of making some yummmy nutrient and iron rich KALE chips.... Two blue lemons is where we found the recipe.  they have some really good recipes...

anyway... the recipe is a cinch... a bundle of kale, a TBSP of olive oil and some sesame seeds

(before the oven)

Put them in the oven at 250 for an hour.  and voa la!  a super healthy snack.. you could even have some hummus (for more protein and more iron) and some red peppers (some vitamin C to enhance the absorption of the iron).   yummmy.

Promise

Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength.

Isaiah 40:31 (NASB)

Have you seen/heard Louie Giglio's message "How Great is Our God"?  If not, I would highly recommend checking it out on you tube.  i think they have it in like 5 clips or something.  but it's a 40 minute message.

At the end of the sermon, Louie talks about this verse.  This verse is so heavy on my heart right now.  I just received a rejection letter from my top school.  It is really hard.  Sometimes I wish that I had a different passion. Why am I so passionate about medicine?  why do i want to serve people like this?  But i am so sick of forcing things.  Just applying to schools while knowing that I don't fulfill all of the prerequisites.  Just hoping that I will get in.  And so I choose God.  I choose him over my passion.  I know that his plan for me is bigger than my own.  But it is still really hard.

I love his promise.  I choose to trust it.  He does not promise that I will wake up tomorrow and everything will be perfect, just as I had planned.  He doesn't promise me a spot in PA school, even if my heart is to serve him through it.  But what he does promise me is that if I hope in him.  If i wait for him, he will give me new strength.  He will give me just one more breath when i need it... just enough to keep going.  I keep hoping and waiting and he keeps giving me just enough strength to keep going.

In a way, it's comforting.  I don't need to stress or be worried.  Although i'm really good at worrying, it's an awful heavy load to deal with.  All I have to do is seek him.  and he'll give me new strength.

and so i wait.  and while i wait, it's painful. but i am not alone.

something so beautiful to me right now is the psalms.  David is so honest.  He is definitely a 'man after God's own heart'.

The beginning of psalm 4 and 5 read:

"Answer me when I call to you,
O my righteous God.
Give me relief in my distress;
be merciful to me and hear my prayer."

"Give ear to my words, O Lord,
consider my sighing.
Listen to my cry for help,
my King and my God,
for to you I pray.
In the morning I lay my requests before you
and wait in expectation."


Please encourage me now with a time in your life that you have put all of your hope in the Lord.  A time when you've waited on him.  Tell me how you found new strength.