Blueberry Love and Ten Weeks of Pinterest

    A few days ago I decided I wanted to one "pinteresting" thing a day up until my baby is born. Whether it be to try out a recipe, a cleaning tip, or a DIY project. Yesterday I decided maybe I'd be a little more realistic and admit I'm not really that ambitious. So instead I'm setting the goal of doing at least one "pinteresting" thing a week. If I do more, than great, I've exceeded my goal! Way to set the bar low, eh? Yea, I'm good at that, because I hate failing. Anyone else able to relate? I mean, I'm not proud of it, but this is how it's going to be for this project :) I'm excited about it. As I'm living with my in-laws and doing some traveling, and going through my final trimester of pregnancy, I think one pinteresting thing will keep me busy enough. As I find time I do hope I can do more. So keep an eye out for my reviews on the projects/recipes/tips I try out. 


     For my first Pinteresting Project, I made yummy blueberry cake doughnuts. I saw them while browsing pinterest on Thursday, on Friday I went with a friend to pick FRESH blueberries and this morning I baked them and ate them! 
You can get the recipe here on How Sweet It Is. She has an easy to follow recipe, with great pictures and amusing commentary.  Make suer your oil is the right temp, and when you roll out the dough remember the blueberries can stain things. I'd also put a little less than 1 1/2 cups of blueberries in as it makes the doughnuts very gooey and harder to stay together. I had a few fall apart in the oil and ended up making all doughnut holes for my second round. 


  If you try it, I hope you enjoy them as much as my family and I did. Although my sweet husband is in health freak mode and so he only tried one doughnut hole to humor me. He did say they were good, just not good for you. In my defense I told him I had a bowl of wheaties with fresh bananas, strawberries and blueberries! 


  Have a great weekend all and I will see you when I finish my next Pinteresting Project

12 more days...

...That is how long we have before boarding a flight back to America. In an attempt to avoid any last minute stress or strife I started packing up our house last week. Just a little here and there, things we can do without for a few weeks. Now I've got just about our whole house packed. This is possible because our landlord provided just about every necessity (a few linens, so ours are packed, dishes, so ours are packed etc.) for us, which has been such a blessing! The only things left are the clothes I am taking with me to America....and all of Brian's stuff. He isn't pregnant so I guess waiting until the last minute doesn't bother him like it does me. I really am so thankful I have taken the time to pack early on because 1. I want to stay relaxed for baby's sake and 2. I have time to hang out with friends who are wrapping up exams and starting to become more available.
    Over the next week I have a few ladies I am looking forward to hanging out with and can give them my full attention and time because all my preparations for leaving are getting taken care of now.  I hope I don't come off as bragging, this is not my intent. I really am laying all this out to say, that even with all the packing and preparing I cannot believe we will be back in Texas two weeks from now! It is a bittersweet time.
    I have had mixed feelings about going back so soon, after only nine months when we had planned for two years. I am not enjoying saying good-bye to friends here and have been praying I can continue in these friendships once we return. Thanks to e-mail, skype and facebook, I hope to keep in touch with my students as easily as I keep in touch with my friends in America while I am here. So many are excited to hear we plan on coming back in January and say they look forward to meeting our daughter when we come back. This makes me very excited to return in the winter. However, we will be gone so long.
    While there is much I am looking forward to in going back to America, especially being with family and being able to attend my brothers wedding, I am not fully ready to return. I think this is a good thing though, it should make it easier when the time comes to return to our new home.
   Please pray with me that this time back in our "home country" will be a refreshing and renewing time where we are continuing to learn,  a time we can reconnect with friends and family and a time we can strengthen our marriage. Please pray that this time will be beneficial in helping us make a smooth transition from a family of 2 to a family of 3, (especially since this is the main reason we are coming back and staying as long as we are) and that we enjoy sharing that time with both side of our family. Also, please pray that we will have the opportunity to help others in any way we can. Our work here might be put on hold, but that does not mean the work is done. There is much to do wherever we are!
   12 days is not a very long time, but I am going to fill it up with as much as I can before saying good-bye for six months.

 

Another DG link...worth looking at

       Among other form of nourishment, I often enjoy going through a John Piper sermon series. I am starting a new one on a topic I've felt so strongly about for many years and yet still do not live it out well: Risk. I am excited to dig into the word and be motivated once again to step out in faith and do what it is Father is asking me to do.

     I was raised knowing being in His will is the safest place, though there may be dangers all around, because His outcomes are best. This is why I can make plans to bring a newborn back to a country full of instability and unknowns. Having felt for so long that "keep me safe" is not the best prayer, but rather always praying "your will be done!" I am really looking forward to going through this short series. It is not risk for the sake of risk, an adrenaline rush of chances or escaping danger, it is risk for the greatest cause. It is doing what you know is right and being able to say, like Esther "If I perish, I perish." Or with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego "Our God can deliver us, but EVEN IF NOT, we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image you set up."

    Here is a short excerpt that stuck out to me from the first sermon, after quoting 2 Corinthians 11:24,  Pastor Piper says this:

 What does this mean? It means that Paul never knew where the next blow would come from. Every day he risked his life for the cause of God. The roads weren't safe. The rivers weren't safe. His own people, the Jews, weren't safe. The Gentiles weren't safe. The cities weren't safe. The wilderness wasn't safe. The sea wasn't safe. Even the brethren weren't safe—some were false! Safety was a mirage. It didn't exist for the apostle Paul.

He had two choices: run or risk. And he answered in Acts 20:24, "I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may accomplish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God." He never knew what the day would hold. But the cause of God beckoned. And he risked his life every day. And this was right.

It is right to risk for the cause of God.

And here is the link if you are interested in hearing/reading John Piper's sermon series on 

"Risk and the cause of God." http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/series-index/risk-and-the-cause-of-god