Veggies out my ears!

Hello again, everyone. Yes, I know, I've been away for almost a month. But I tell you the truth, I have been really busy! I have missed blogging, and I mean to start up more faithfully again.

So what's up in my life? Well, school is still going well, but I won't bore you with the details. But what I love is that I only have to do school four days a week and even for those four days I'm done by early afternoon.

Something that's been keeping me really busy lately is VEGETABLES! Yup, that's right. :) Our family purchased a food share with a local organic farm this summer, where we get to pick up a big load of vegetables and fruit every Thursday. We have learned so much about selecting the best produce, and cooking, storing, and preserving all of it. I feel like I'm so much more prepared to feed my future husband and children someday. :) So anyway. We've been getting a lot of veggies each week all summer, but lately we've been getting a TON because we get unlimited pick-your-own on some things, plus the final motherload of the harvest in everything else. It takes my mom and I all Friday and even into Saturday just to process it all!

Here is everything we got this week:
7 enormous head of cauliflower (I mean, this is a SCARY amount of cauliflower!)
5 ears of popcorn (really cool!)
15 kale leaves (which are pretty big!)
7 squash (or is it squashes?)
8 watermelons (thankfully they aren't too big!)
4 quarts of apple (so awesome! I'm thinking applesauce)
10 green bell peppers (I ate a whole one today just for a snack!)
2 Banana peppers (which are actually quite boring raw... I expected them to be sour.)
8 Sweet Italian peppers (They taste pretty much like normal peppers)
4 yellow bell peppers (I have nothing to say about these but I don't want them to be left out...)
3 jalapeno peppers (I can make delicious Mexican recipes!)
6 collard greens (which I'd never had before this year)
1 colossal head of cabbage (I hate cabbage...)
A bunch of potatoes, I don't know how many (We love potatoes... they're so versatile)
2 heads of garlic (We've been getting two a week all summer - that's a LOT!)
1 quart of onions (I love the flavor that onions add to pretty much anything!)
A couple of pounds of carrots (They're pretty bitter, but that's okay)
1 heaping quart of sweet potatoes (Yummy!)
Fresh dill (Good for potato salad!)
Fresh parsley (Nothing like fresh herbs!)
Cutting celery (It's like regular celery, but thinner, stronger flavored, and more herb-like)
1 bunch of green onions (A nice, mild flavor)
1 bunch of radishes (Mexicans eat them as a side to most any meal, and I like the habit =])

YIKES! Isn't that a scary amount of vegetable? To add to it all, we had a ton of tomatoes leftover from last week that just finished ripening, and some kale and peppers, too. So today we got done all of the kale, tomatoes, cauliflower, and leftover peppers. In addition to having delicious healthy food all summer, we now have a freezer full of healthy food to last us through the winter. I'm so blessed by this abundance!

Bake Sale!

Hello again everyone!! First, I want to say thank you all SO much for praying for me... I have been feeling much better! Hopefully it will last.

And I wanted to tell you about my bake sale! It went AMAZINGLY well. The Lord brought in a lot of money for the orphanage - people were so generous! And, it was super fun baking everything. And since my awesome friend Sarah took lots of pictures, I thought I'd share some of them with you. :)

This is Sarah and I at the beginning of the day, excited and ready to go!

Mixing lots of things up :)

Cupcakes! :D

Silly grin! I looked so horrible :P

Mmm... rocky road cupcakes and Oreo cupcakes all finished!

Triple Chocolate cookies... sooo good!

Are they done yet?!

This batch was a total FLOP! But surprisingly, they sold pretty well.

They tasted like rocks!! Very tasty rocks, of course ;)

Marshmallow pops! So cute and yummy :)

My beautiful bouquet :)

Cinnamon Swirl bread :)
(I know, it looks sunken in, but that's just because of the swirls)

The whole table of goodies... and that's not even all of them!

Another angle... mmm so tempting :)

It was such a wonderful, faith-building event! Perhaps sometime I will write about how awesome God was through it, but right now my brother wants the computer. So goodbye for now! :D

Spring is wonderful!

Oh. My. Word! It has been almost 3 months since I've posted! Well, I won't try to catch you up on all that's happened. I'll just tell you all what has been happening recently. :)

In about 3 weeks I will be done with school for the summer! WOOT! I can't wait. As of right now, I only have 3 subjects left - Spanish 2, Chemistry, and Algebra 2. Also, my spring piano recital is coming up in a few weeks. I'm totally loving school these days. Since I don't have as much to do, I am able to really focus my attention and effort on a few subjects, which I really enjoy. I've been spending my extra time cooking and baking up a storm - and I love every minute of it!

Some exciting news: I'm holding a bake sale at the end of this month, and giving the proceeds to an orphanage! I'm trying to raise $1,000 to send to Danita's Children, a wonderful Christian orphanage in Haiti. I've been working on it since about Christmas, but all of the other things have tried have fallen through. I'm SO excited that I am finally going to have an opportunity to do this!

I am SOOO glad that spring weather is here! Since it's been cold for so long, I am soaking up every bit of this warm weather! It's sunny, warm, and green! I am so thankful to the Lord for all of the blessings He has given and continues to give me. He is teaching me so much!

Hopefully soon I can upload some pictures to show you all what I've been up to lately. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Shelter amid the chaos

Hello everyone! Sorry I haven't written much these past few weeks. I actually intended to write about more things than snowboarding in my last post, but I ran out of time. I guess now I'll have to double time to catch you up! I will summarize though; it won't be too long. :)

Saturday, 1/9 - Sunday, 1/10
My wonderful friend friend, Vicki, came over! Although Christmas was already over, we wanted to make a gingerbread house, so we did! We got a gingerbread house kit at Wal-Mart for a couple of dollars; it was on sale because Christmas was already over. We had a hilariously awesome time putting it together! We made a mess! After a lot of messy, fun work and lots of laughing, we were finished. Amazingly, we didn't destroy anything in the process. ;-) It looked creative and adorable. We watched Fireproof (a GREAT movie!) and then went to sleep.
The next day we went to the morning church service together. After it was finished we went home and had lunch, and then Vicki went home. We had a great time!

Tuesday, 1/12
Psalm 37 is such a great chapter! God is so incredibly good to us! Although we are sinners, He still continually takes us back. If not for Him, I would be nothing! I love Him so much!

Thursday, 1/14
Yay! Another Thursday! That means more snowboarding for me. :) The sun was shining cheerfully, the air was warm, and it was a fantastic day! Excitedly, we threw on our snow gear and went out to enjoy the day. I rode with my friend, Courtney, for most of the day. It was nice to have such a sweet friend to go with! Talking and riding with her was a lot of fun.
My lesson was at four o'clock. My instructor said that I was advanced enough to start learning jumps, if I wanted to. Nervously, I said I did. Although I was scared to try the jump at first, I got used to it. I learned a lot from the lesson, and continued to try the jump throughout the evening. I only tried a few small kickers and rollers(the two smaller types of jumps) because I'm not very good yet. I improved a lot! I can't wait to go again this Thursday.

Friday, 1/15
When I got done with all of my school I went to a Bible study. The study is held at the home of some friends of ours. The topic was love. It is so astonishing to see what true love is! The passage was from 1 Corinthians 13: "⁴Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant ⁵or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ⁷Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ⁸Love never ends." We all fall miserably short of this level of love. Thankfully, God is forgiving!
We stayed for several hours after the Bible study and spent time with our friends. We laughed, talked, sang, danced, and had altogether a wonderful time.

Saturday, 1/16
I went shopping with my best friend! We went to Kohl's, which is my favorite store ever! I got a pair of nice jeans and two shirts. I was excited to be able to get a pair of jeans that were modest and feminine! It is so hard to find them.
Seeing my best friend is always SUCH a blessing. I love her SO much! Not surprisingly, we had a delightful time together! I thank God for her every time I remember her. (Philippians 1:3 =])

Sunday, 1/17 -Wednesday, 1/20
The message in the evening service was very good. It was about Ai from Joshua chapter 7, and avoiding defeat. God has been teaching me so much. I love reading His word; it is the only shelter amid the chaos in this world. Please pray for me. Specifically, please pray for me on Friday: I have an appointment with a TMJ specialist. Hopefully he will be able to help me know what to do from here on out. Thank you so much!

~Christy <3