by Kimberly | Jul 26, 2010 | Uncategorized
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIvmE4_KMNw]
Good Monday morning. I’m reminded that Mondays are always a good day to start all over.
1. Start over with grace. Pressing on!
2. I loved my vacation and seeing tons of friends: Tasya, Lisa and Baby Tanner, Amy, Lorie and Stephen and Baby Elijah, Bekah, Jeremy, Mr. Morgan, Christina, Marcus, William, and Ainsley Girl. Love friends, but wasn’t very relaxing. My October vacation and beach trips will be that.
3. Driving by myself affords me the atmosphere of praying aloud to my Father who listens, hears, comforts, and convicts.
4. I love country music. It helps me with these long road trips.
5. Fresh fruits and vegetables really are what make summer bearable! These 100 degree days gotta be worth something.
6. This is a slow week for me – which I am very thankful.
7. Praying Scripture for people is very important. I love how people have done that for me, and I love doing it for people.
8. I love my church when I am away.
9. Wondering how to more encourage men to lead? That is the question on my mind this morning.
10. Go Gators.
11. Brian Frost can preach. God uses him mightily in my life – he opens his mouth, I’m usually convicted of something in my life that the Spirit needs to work on. He preached yesterday. Hebrews 11.4. Moses is great, Jesus is Better!
Link Love:
1. My friend Courtney pulls some highlights from a favorite author (Elyse Fitzpatrick) on modesty.
2. While the above video may be adequate for helping the poor, it so misses the mark. The first questions that it answers – answers wrongly. Maybe for the world today – but the world is passing and fleeting. There is only one who can help this world, and HE wasn’t a girl, He was born a little baby in a manger and grew to die on a cross. That is the power of the gospel. The only true hope for this world.
3. The problem with frou frou coffee drinks and the scale. I don’t drink too many of them – but even ice tea lattes are more calories than I need
4. I want to try these!
5. This blog post was helpful to me – encouraging me to keep up with photoging food. As well as a great comment by a fab photo friend over the weekend.
by Kimberly | Jul 19, 2010 | Uncategorized
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNDcAWNscg8]Throughout the entire CMT awards show back in June – clips from this video were playing. I had no clue because I had never listened to it. While driving to Charlottesville the other day I took the time to listen to this very sad song – states accurately the state of our country. I’ve been around the world – this describes typical America. How can we as the church live differently? Be different? Teach our youth and children how to pursue Christ and not – This American Ride?
Momma gets her rocks off watchin’ Desperate Housewives.
Daddy works his can off payin’ for the good life.
Kids on the YouTube learnin how to be cool.
Livin in a cruel world, pays to be a mean girl.
Thats us, Thats right
Gotta love this American ride.
Both ends of the ozone burnin.
Funny how the world keeps turnin.
Look ma, no hands.
I love this American ride.
Gotta love this American ride.
Poor little infamous America’s town.
She gained five pounds and lost her crown.
Quick fix plastic surgical antidote.
Got herself a record deal, cant even sing a note.
Plasma gettin bigger, Jesus gettin smaller.
Spill a cup of coffee, make a million dollars.
by Kimberly | Jun 6, 2010 | Uncategorized
I haven’t done a real personal blog in a while, so this is what you readers (hi very few people) get when I have been awake for 90 minutes and its not even 530am yet. My Dad always said that if you sleep till the sun comes up you’ve wasted half the day.
Much has been on my mind this week; it hasn’t really had time to stop. When I awake in the middle of the night, country music starts playing (I’ve been in the car a lot this week). When I go to sleep, my brain is still in full gear and my stomach usually empty or not feeling well – take your pick (would rather take the empty).
Ok – enough random…Reason of post…
I’ve been in Raleigh 2 months. For the 2.7 years before then (and probably even longer, maybe since Thailand) – life seemed in a holding pattern. Yes, I moved to Louisville, got a great job, worked with fabulous people, had amazing friends, lost 60 lbs, started running, etc. But…what was my life pointed toward? I really think for a lot of life, my life was pointed to myself. I tried to get involved in ministry that I was excited about – but none ever seemed to come to fruition. Sure, I had a few times to speak, write, disciple – but my life wasn’t pointed in that direction. I spent much of the last 3 years focused on me: getting out of debt, losing weight, honing skills, etc.
Now that I am in Raleigh – my life looks totally different. I am busy A LOT. My boss constantly tells me it is about balance. Maybe in July it can be about balance (definitely not June). Thursdays are my day off and they are usually full (researching and hanging with friends and doing a longer run – or sleeping past 6am). Monday -Wednesday night is usually full of ministry things. This weekend that is almost over was definitely full with a drive to the mountains for a half, then to Knoxville to talk about writing, then driving back (an 8 hour drive is not a wise idea for someone just having done a half – sore hip!). Today is a full day at church and with friends. (Sleep would have been nice to get either night.) Next weekend – looking forward to being in town, running a 5k, and seeing what might come up, not having a lot on the agenda once I leave the office on Friday.
Anyway…title of this post…
Ambition: the act of soliciting for votes (literal). “Desire to achieve a particular end” Thank you Merriem Webster.
I’ve been thinking much about this term this week. Is my life pointed in any direction? Do I have ambition and if so, what is the object of my ambition. Am I passionate enough about the things in my life so that when people look at my life they would see those things? And if so – what are they?
Am I more than just a foodie? Am I more than just a person who cares about exercise and eating right? Do I care for more than Gator football (praise God we are approaching football season)? Do I love to travel? Do I love people? Do I care for more things than my job? If you were to tape all of my conversations during the week (emails, texts, chats, coffee times)…what would you hear that I am passionate/ambitious for?
God gives us many things in life to be passionate about. He gives us hobbies and things that bring us much joy. My thought is – do I point them all back to Him for his glory? Do I use food to bless people? Do I hang out with people to love on them and be loved? Do I travel and thank God for the beauty and the incredibleness of the world He has given (sunset in Winston last night, Blue Ridge mtns, storm clouds, DC flowers and history, Alaska whales and mountains and islands, Sentosa Island in SE Asia, the Atlantic ocean, airports, my cute little PT cruiser, the Black Sea in southern Russia, Red Square and all of its history and ornate design, Boca Grande’s birds, Salt run in St. Augustine, southern GA red clay, lighthouses, surf, sand between my toes, intricate design on flowers, the quite and amazingness of NE Ga, the Appalachians, the Rockies, Chicago covered in snow, the splendor or seeing a sunset from the sky, the darkness of flying over the pond at night in a plane so high above it, lightning from the safety of a metal plane, the pinkish orange sky that appears in the morning, hurricanes, tornadoes, black thunderclouds…I could go on).
Back in seminary days…I remember having a class with Dr. Reid. We sang a song almost every Friday morning (Michelle on guitar, April on the egg) – Give me one pure and holy passion, give me one magnificent obsession, give me one glorious ambition for me life…to know and follow hard after you. To know and follow hard after you, to grow as your disciple in your truth, this world is empty pale and poor, compared to knowing you my Lord, lead me on, and I will run after you, lead me on and I will run after you.
April stood up one day and said this. Is it? Is this world empty pale and poor?
Ambition. Run hard. I think of a Helen Keller quote I read today:
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
by Kimberly | May 25, 2010 | chocolate, Uncategorized
I serve in the college ministry here at my church – and what goes better with college students than brownies. As I told my roommate tonight, I explained that even though I have so many brownie recipes, I always try a new one. This one will make the top 5.
8 oz unsweet chocolate
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground coffee granules
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
Melt butter and chocolate over low heat. Mix eggs through vanilla. Add in cooled chocolate. Mix dry. Combine and pour into a foiled/sprayed 9×13 pan. Top with walnuts. Bake for about 33 minutes. Cool, remove, cut. Enjoy with a glass of milk or ice cream.
by Kimberly | May 12, 2010 | Uncategorized
How bad can butter, sugar, chocolate, vanilla, and chocolate chips be? If you don’t count the calories – these guys are fabulous. My friend Ellie made them for lunch when I went to visit the month before I left Louisville. I loved them – enjoying one with some hazelnut coffee on a rainy afternoon.
You can enjoy these with milk, coffee, on a sunny or rainy day. Just enjoy them. I made these for a birthday boy and a dinner where I have to bring dessert.
2 sticks butter
4 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup flour
1/2 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
Melt chocolate and butter over medium heat. Add in sugar, stirring till dissolved. Add vanilla. Remove from heat and stir in eggs, one at a time. Add flour and combine till no flour remains visible. Pour in pan – sprinkle with chocolate chips.
Bake in a greased 9×13 pan on 350 for 30 minutes. Let cool and enjoy. Thanks Ellie!
