Family and Friends and Fall

My weekend trip to Michigan was filled with orange leaves, chilly air, little brothers, ma and pop, close friends, a few tears and lots and lots of love. 

I was able to fly home two weekends ago for the dual purpose of seeing my family and going to see my sweet friends Ashleigh and Josh get married. They are officially the first of my friends to get married as I enter this weird season of life so casually called, "My Twenties." (Holy cow, I want to barf.) 

During the weekend, I got to go to my favorite hot yoga studio (my Grand Rapids friends, click the word "yoga" and then go there immediately); go to my favorite food places (Noodles and Company, Yesterdog, and Bombay Cuisine); get manicures and pedicures with my mom and grandma; see my high school's football game; spend time with two of my oldest friends; spend time alone with just me and the brothers; see my sweet friends get married; dance with some of my favorite people. 

Here are a couple things I have learned from the great state of Michigan and those people living in it:  

Family is the most important thing. I have four little brothers that are my favorite human beings and a mom and dad that are a constant blessing. After being away for so long and realizing the number of weeks a year I'll be living in that house is slowly going down, I am much more appreciate of all the loved ones in the mitten. Shout out to the Feet, you da best.



Pets are family too. One of my favorite parts of the weekend - I wish I was kidding - was coming home and having my dogs and cats recognize who I was. I came in the house while Nelly was still locked up so I could properly hug all my family, but when my mom let her out she ran straight at me to give me plenty of licks. College makes you miss those annoying but cuddly, furry little critters.



Dancing like an idiot is good. At the wedding, I got to dance around with some of my oldest and greatest friends. After watching my sweet friends say, "I do," it seemed only right that we dance it out. Thank God for dancing at weddings. Additionally, when my parents tried to get me to come off the dance floor when they needed to go, my dad came onto the dance floor and basically busted the same caliber of moves Kevin James pulled out in Hitch.

Hard goodbyes are a blessing. I always have a hard time leaving home. Why? Because I love it so much and I love all the people in it. But, I never want an easy goodbye. I never want to be so distant that departing from loved ones is easy. However, I've realized the best friends and the best relationships I have are not ones I have to see every day, but the ones who you don't see for awhile...and then when I do see them, nothing has changed.

See ya in December, Michigan. It was a blast. 

You don't have to know it all

Photo: Ellen Emery

I often feel that - especially in this phase of my life - I am supposed to know it all. People are constantly asking what my future plans are, whether it's tomorrow, next week, next month, next semester, next year, post grad, 10 years down the road...you get it. I am expected to know what's in the cards. But, let's be honest: no one does, and that is 100 percent ok.

This is new: I decided to double major in journalism and business marketing. I am now getting questions every day on how I plan on graduating on time. How am I going to balance having a life and having a double major? How am I going to pay for an extra semester if needed? How am I going to have time for two internships with so many classes? What do you even want to do with your life? Whoa everyone, calm down. I don't know and that's ok. 

This is also new: I am applying to study abroad in New Zealand from May 5 to June 6 of 2014. This study abroad program is brand new for communication and journalism students only. It's competitive because only 12 students get to go, but I have to go because, well, it's New Zealand. Now I'm getting more questions. How am I going to handle not being home for another month? How am I going to pay for it? What will I do if I don't get in?

Consequently, I've realized in the last few weeks as I've tried to plan my life out for the next couple of years that I really can't until I know a couple more things. I need to know if I'm going to New Zealand to schedule my classes for next semester. I need to know what my summer plans are to know if I'll be taking classes this summer. I have to know what next summer is going to look like to plan how many units to take next semester. I need to know if I'll pass my CLEP tests to get out of the classes I need to.

And the more I tried to plan, the more I realized I can't. There is nothing more humbling than not knowing what the next year is going to look like. I have often given out the advice not to worry, and have brought up the flowers of the field and the birds of the air and the way God provides, but have never taken the advice myself...until now. I had never been in a position where I honestly had no clue what the future holds. I have been praying for humility for over a year now, and it seems like God has been delivering this year with dose after dose (or maybe kick after punch) of pure humility.

But the greatest thing is that instead of doubting everything I know, I have been leaning into His direction more. I thought my uptight control freak self would panic in this moment, but I've never loved not knowing more.

So here's to not knowing, and to feeling out of control, and to leaning in and letting God move. 

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, 

for tomorrow will worry about itself. 

Each day has enough trouble of its own." 

Matthew 6:24

On The Menu: Apple Crisp

My roommate had some extra oats laying around (don't ask), so I decided to make some apple crisp! 

Prep Time: 30 minutes // Bake Time: 60 minutes // Total Time: 90 minutes

For the filling: 
3 Granny Smith apples
2 Gala apples
1 lemon
1/4 cup of granulated sugar
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

For the crisp:

3/4 cup of flour
3/4 cup of oats
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 stick of butter (melted)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Peel, core and cut the apples. I chose to cube mine so it would be easier to eat. Mix the sugar and cinnamon with the apples. Put the filling in a 9" square baking dish. Then using just a slice of the lemon, squeeze some lemon juice over the filling.

3. Combine the flour, oats, brown sugar and granulated sugar in a bowl. Add the melted butter while stirring until all the flower gets absorbed.

4. Put the crisp on top! Put it in the oven until the crisp is golden brown and the apple juices have thickened. It took mine approximately an hour in the oven.

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Hike the Hollywood Sign

In honor of throwback thursday (yes, sometimes I cave into peer pressure), I wanted to post these photos! I hiked the Hollywood sign during the spring semester of my sophomore year with a couple girls from my hall because one of my dearest friends flew out for a long weekend. It's a relatively easy hike and ended up being a blast - minus the horse poop situation that was not under control for a small portion of the hike.

Welcome to the Nest

I am out of the dorms and into the apartment! At APU, sophomores get to live in on-campus apartments and I moved into my home sweet home this last week. My roommates, Ellen and Sarah, moved in as well and we are just so excited to be living together. We have deemed the apartment "The Nest." We wanted to name the apartment something that would be appropriate and we loved the imagery of it being something we made together, and it's somewhere where we can snuggle in and feel safe.

We furnished the apartment to suit seating for large groups as Sarah and I will be Discipleship Group leaders this year and Ellen is an Alpha leader. This means that we will have three different groups of freshmen in our apartment each week. Ellen will have around 10 "Alphies" under her wing, and Sarah and I will have up to seven under our own. We are so excited to see the community that The Nest is able to facilitate!

Here's a little of what we've done so far!

This wall will eventually be full of our photos. 

We made this with a little bit of Modge Podge,  a few pieces of scrapbook paper and a lot of Jane Austen love.

These are each of our states with a golden glitter heart at each of our hometowns: Grand Rapids, MI; Ft. Collins, CO; Tacoma, Washington. 

The terrifying cat you see behind the adorable Ikea milk bottles is Lucifer.  

A New Year, A New Look

Welcome to sophomore year! In just about 20 days, I fly back out to California for the beginning of my second year in college. How did I get so old? The adventures of this year include: moving into my first apartment, getting paid for my journalistic writing for the first time in my life, and leading a group of freshman girls while we do life together.

After a summer working at Hiawatha Youth Camp, I am so ready to go back to school. For most of my life, I've gone up to the Upper Peninsula to be filled up with knowledge of the gospel and to be filled with the spirit. Usually, I go home and the "Jesus high" slowly fades until the next summer.

This year, however, I went through a year of consistent spiritual growth. This completely changed how my summer affected me and my faith. Instead of being filled up, I was completely poured, wrung and squeezed out. After so many months of being consistently filled with the Spirit, God was able to use me as His servant in ways I've never been used before.

There will absolutely be more information and stories and retellings of how God worked this summer, but for now...some fun.

These are the success stories of the photo booth photos from my last post! 

DIY: Photo Booth Props

Hey all! It's been awhile, but I thought I'd post a craft I just got to make! These will be used at the camp I work at for a photo booth at the big, end-of-the-week dinner! I'm so excited to see how the photos will turn out. Here's how to do it for whatever you are planning too! 

Supplies:

• Foam sheets in assorted colors
• Wooden dowels 
• Hot glue gun
• Scissors/Exacto blade
• Sharpie

I started with a template for everything I made. There is a great one here! Thanks to Kensie Kate for her post. Or, if you're brave you can make your own! I traced the template with a Sharpie and cut it out with the scissors or Exacto knife (usually for the glasses). For the bow ties I added a long, thin strip of the same color foam to wrap around it to make it seem more 3D. I then hot glued the props to the dowels! Viola! Simple, easy and fun way to spice up your photos. I paid around $20 for all the materials start to finish (excluding the hot glue gun supplies).