a good cold weather recipe

Due 12/15 - Share your favorite cold-weather recipe, and the best clothes/location/activity in which to enjoy eating or drinking it.

Thank you, Bethany for this great game of Horse! It keeps my blog up to date and fresh. :) And I thoroughly enjoy reading yours!

I am really not a cook. So I guess my favorite cold-weather recipe is some hot chocolate with marshmellows. You take the Swiss Miss out of the package, dump it in your favorite mug, and after you have the boiling hot water, you pour it in the mug. Then you stir it with a spoon to mix it. Then you put marshmellows on top.

After you have that, you grab a blanket and either pop in a movie while you're snuggled on the couch, or you read on the couch with your hot chocolate. And you wear sweat pants and a sweatshirt.

To me, that's the best!! :)

now for my HORSE prompt:

what has God been doing in your life lately/showing you/teaching you/telling you?

Zits

This is in response to the latest HORSE prompt Due 12/12 - Expose something about your pre-teen/teenage years that makes you embarrassed for your past self.

I am embarrassed for all those nasty looking and feeling zits I had back in my pre-teen/teenage years. Sometimes I still get them, but not nearly as often. Ugh! Those things were hideous on me. And makeup just looked silly on me. So. I just dealt with it. No wonder I never had a boyfriend. Ha ha.

I am also embarrassed for wearing holey socks with my shoes, just so they would match what I was wearing. One time in 6th grade, without notice, we were weighed and measured. The teacher told us "Okay, everyone take off your shoes." I felt like everyone was looking at me. I didn't want to take off my shoes because one sock was one big hole with all my toes showing. Looking back, I should of just taken off my socks too, but I didn't think of that then. So when they called my name to go get weighed I dragged my foot while I was walking so no one would see the big hole in my sock. I was mortified. I had to walk in front of the whole class and if being weighed and measured weren't terrible enough! I don't remember whatever happened but somehow I was able to avoid ridicule. I was able to avoid anyone seeing. I hated 6th grade. I would never go back to Jr. High.

Thank God we only have to do Jr. High once in our lives.

a dirty apartment bugs me

so in response to Bethany's last HORSE prompt: What bugs you right now, and what are you doing about it?

one of the things that bugs me is how easily my apt gets dirty. i feel like i'm constantly cleaning. and i live by myself! how does this happen? :) tonight i did the dishes, though. i cleaned the kitchen counters and stove. and i'm going to do a load of laundry here pretty soon. my bathroom needs cleaning as does my bedroom. and i want to start putting out a few christmas decorations. i haven't decided if i'm going to get a christmas tree this year or not.

the other thing that bugs me is when people break promises. but, that's beyond my control. all i can do is let myself be sad and get over it, and trust that God's using every situation to remind me to leave all my hopes and dreams with Him. i'm also reminded that He's the only one who will never break His promises, so I can cling to them without fear or hesitation. He won't hurt me. He might break me, but I have found so much good come out of the crappiest times.

something happened a few weeks ago (or maybe months now) that really got to me. really pushed me over the edge; and i don't even think the one who was closest to the situation with me had a clue. that made it even worse. but you don't always tell someone something so they'll care, you know? because you want care, concern, love...you want it all to be real. you want it to come from their heart. you don't want to tell someone to notice something. you just want them to notice.

anyway...so i go through this thing where i was expecting applause, praise, you know...that kind of thing...for something i was proud of. but instead the reaction was completely different. almost opposite. i was crushed. absolutely crushed. when i thought that was the worst of it, something else hit me. so i cried out to God, going...i don't get it. for days and days i meditated and thought over and over and over all that happened. i replayed the conversation word for word in my mind, trying to see if i was being overly sensitive. i kept telling myself i need to get past this, i need to move on. i would wake up in the morning and the first thing i would think after a good night's rest is "okay, am i still sad about it?" and sure enough, i was. sometimes you know when you're tired you overreact to things and the next morning you realize it and go...okay, i really just needed to calm down. but this time, it wasn't like that. i finally came to the place where i realized...yeah, i should be sad. all my feelings, yeah, i felt like they were valid. but what did that mean? i couldn't change what happened. only how i respond to it. so i started painting out of a desire to want to create something, just have fun. be expressive, creative. and i painted that word "understands" to remind that God knows exactly how i feel. it started as a simple exercise. my friend elaine from college told me she believes what started as a simple exercise is now anointed by God.

what i'm so glad about with the paintings is that i truly am free from people approval. i don't care if people like them or not. i like them, and i'm doing them from my heart, and what God puts on my heart is what i paint. people could tell me it's the ugliest thing they've ever seen and i'd be totally okay. it hasn't happened yet, but if it does hopefully i really won't care as i seem to believe i won't.

MY HORSE PROMPT:
does traditional church work for you? by that i mean going into a church service where you sing worship songs, sit down and hear a sermon, pass the offering, have communion once a month (or week), and then go home.