God has a plan + our vows

Today has not been the greatest day and the hubs and I are in the middle of some pretty big decisions; so, those weigh on me. It's scary, to be honest - making big decisions, that is. But at the same time, I am reminded of the fact that God is so kind and he has GREAT plans for our lives.

Great doesn't necessarily mean lots of money. Great doesn't necessarily mean easy or super fun and adventurous all the time. I think what it does mean is that God promises us growth, hope, and whatever is best for us. I've learned in my (almost) 25 years of life that what is best may not be what I want. But I've also learned that ultimately, the results of "best" is definitely what I want...so I can deal with the how to get to the result. I'm kind of just writing here to encourage myself - I need to be reminded of these things.

G and I wrote our own wedding vows. We both felt that we wanted something very personal and thought through, but also something that we really meant. I thought about what I was committing to, to make sure I was willing to do it (ha!) but also because I thought of Gordon and our relationship specifically. And he did the same.

You might wonder what that has to do with anything I just said - and with the way my brain seems to be working today, in the logical world, it may have nothing to do with all of that. But I find myself being encouraged and content remembering the vows we made to each other and the growth, hope, and whatever else is best for us that we are discovering, as we grow in fulfilling these vows.

I think a lot of people look at vows as a ball and chain, a burden, a "why would you do that?!" kind of thing. But we've only been married about three months now, and I am filled with hope (and gratitude for God, his scriptures, people that help us) as I see us learning and growing in how to be married and how to be a husband and a wife. I recently heard someone say that a good marriage is not having as little "fights" (bumps, arguments  disagreements...whatever you want to call them) as possible, but rather getting better and faster at resolving them. I loved that and have been so encouraged by it! :)

We didn't read our vows to each other before the wedding; the ceremony was the first time we heard them. But we had them printed on a canvas for all our guests to sign at our wedding (my mom helped us do this so we didn't see them). I loved the idea of everyone acting as witnesses to what we were vowing on that day and to be able to remember them the rest of our lives. The canvas, with everyone's signatures, now hangs in our house. :)

I've had a number of requests to read a copy of our vows, so here they are. (Sorry for all the caps - I just copied and pasted from our canvas template.) And I hope my earlier ramblings make sense - in the midst of big life decisions, things don't always come out quite so clearly.

Love,
ef

Gordon's vows to me:

I VOW TO BE A MAN THAT LOVES GOD WITH ALL MY HEART, TO BE FAITHFUL TO GOD, TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR MY WALK WITH GOD AND TO PUT GOD FIRST. I VOW TO BE A MAN WHO WILL LOVE YOU THE WAY JESUS LOVED THE CHURCH—SACRIFICIALLY AND WITH ALL OF MY HEART. I VOW TO BE FAITHFUL TO YOU MY ENTIRE LIFE, TO NEVER LEAVE YOU, AND MAKE SURE YOU MAKE IT TO HEAVEN. I VOW TO NEVER INTENTIONALLY HURT YOU, AND TO BE ONE IN OUR FIGHT AGAINST OUR COMMON ENEMY- SATAN. I VOW TO CARE FOR YOU AND WORK HARD TO THE BEST OF MY ABILITY TO PROVIDE FOR YOU AND OUR FUTURE FAMILY. I VOW TO BE FAITHFUL TO YOU WITH MY EYES, MY HEART AND MY ACTIONS, TO ALWAYS GET HELP AND TO GROW. I VOW TO ALWAYS LOVE YOU NO MATTER WHAT, THROUGH WHATEVER LIFE THROWS AT US, TO BE A TEAM AND FACE IT TOGETHER. I VOW TO STRIVE TO STAY EMOTIONALLY CONNECTED TO YOU. I VOW TO ALWAYS BE THERE FOR YOU, TO LISTEN TO YOU, TO LET YOU KNOW HOW MUCH YOU ARE LOVED BY ME AND HOW IMPORTANT YOU ARE TO ME, AND FOR YOU TO BE MY BEST FRIEND FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE. 

My vows to Gordon:

I vow to whole HEARTILY love and follow God above all else, and above you, until he returns or calls me home. I vow to stay faithful first to God and then to you – with my heart, my eyes, and my actions. I vow to strive to follow you as the church follows Christ. I vow to never stop learning and growing as a follower of Jesus and in life itself. I vow to be fun and spontaneous and try anything at least once. I vow to hug you and kiss you and hold you as much as you need when you are hurting, when you are hard-pressed, when you are happy, and when you are old. I vow to follow you wherever God leads you - where you go, I will go; where you stay, I will stay; and your people will be my people. I VOW TO LOVE YOU FOREVER – THROUGH EVERY WONDERFUL AND AMAZING MOMENT IN OUR LIFE, THROUGH EVERY CHALLENGING AND TEARFUL TIME; WHILE WE ARE YOUNG, WHEN WE HAVE KIDS, AND IF THERE’S EVER A TIME THAT I CAN’T REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE OR YOU DON’T KNOW WHO I AM – I WILL STILL LOVE YOU. I WILL LOVE YOU UNTIL WE ARE STANDING TOGETHER BLAMELESS BEFORE OUR LORD.

And in our home: 

Our wedding - the ceremony, part 2

In part 1 of our ceremony pictures, I featured the start of the ceremony up until Gordon and I saw each other and were standing together. Today's photos highlight most of the meat of the ceremony - the message and our vows. These really are some of my favorites, as you really see the emotion of the day.
G and I wrote our own vows. It was such a moving and surreal experience to be saying these things (we didn't tell each other our vows before hand) to each other, in front of so many people we love - and it was real! It was happening!
Throughout our whole relationship and engagement, there were times when I wondered, "Am I sure?" "Is this God's plan?" Not because I didn't love G with all my heart, or because there was someone else I was thinking of - not at all! But because it is SUCH a big decision. And as we stood there, vowing these words to each other, and has they now hang on a wall in our house, and as we grow in our marriage and our love for each other, I only become more and more convinced that I married the right person. I married my best friend, the man I am and have been in love with, and the person who helps me grow the most spiritually and will get me to Heaven.

Hope you enjoy the pictures. :)

Love,
E.F.

We had a moment in our ceremony where we turned around and thanked our parents for their love and support and guidance and exchanged hugs. We were going to give the moms roses, but somehow those went missing. I'm actually so glad we did this. It was so wonderful to hug them and I think it meant a lot to them. And to take this brief moment out of the normal order of things really helped me to take it all in.

I love how expressive he is!

I feel like this one of the various moments where I thought, "Oh my gosh, this is real!"

I loved these photos of our parents. :)

Our wedding - the ceremony, part 1

The more I look at our wedding pictures, the more I love them and the more I'm so glad I married my husband! But it is so hard to choose which ones to share. So, I've decided that I have to break up the ceremony pictures because there are just too many I want to show!

I think our photographers did such a great job of capturing emotion; I hope you can get a sense of that from these, to really experience how special the day was. This post covers the start of the ceremony to the point where Gordon and I are standing in front of each other. :)

Love,
e.f.

This is the garden our ceremony was in. I loved having the ceremony in more a circle - it really felt so much more intimate.

The handsome groomsmen. Top left: Gordon's little brother. Top right: my brother. Bottom left: Gordon's older brother. Bottom right: the best man.

My gorgeous bridesmaids. I told them I want short, black dresses (not strapless) and beyond that, they could pick whatever they wanted. I love how it all looks together! Right: maid of honor and best friend.

Here he comes! :)

Moms. :)

Our ADORABLE flower girls!

I entered from the house (as did our whole bridal party) by myself and with my veil down, then met my dad at the end of the staircase. He lifted my veil back, gave me a kiss, and we continued to the garden together.

My veil kept getting caught on the pebbles, so we just picked up the veil and carried it. Definitely not planned but c'est la vie. :)

I love these. When he first saw me. :)

Seeing each other.

Roreo velvet cookies

I hope you had good day yesterday - whatever you did, whomever you were with. :)

I had planned to cook husband's favorite meal and have a wonderful evening at home. It was wonderful, but not quite what I had planned. My back has been hurting all week but yesterday it became unbearable. I could hardly walk and even if I didn't move, I could feel pain in my back. (This has been quite frustrating as I can't figure out what I did; although, I'm often lifting and moving things at work, so perhaps I had just done that one-too-many times without using my knees.) So, rather than coming home and quickly getting started on dinner, I came home, took an anti-inflammatory, and then husband (who has a history of back problems) helped me stretch some of my back muscles. I was in tears by the end but it sure did make a difference! So we got Thai take-out and watched Valentine's Day at home. Luckily, I had made these the day before, so we still had something that I had planned on. :)

So today's feature is Oreo-stuffed red velvet crinkle cookies: a fabulous Pinterest find! (I'm so proud of myself for actually making things I find on Pinterest.) Or as my husband decided to call them: Roreo velvet cookies.

Love from the southern hemisphere,
E

Roreo velvet cookies (Renamed by my husband. Original name: Red Velvet Orea-stuffed crinkle cookies. My comments in italics.)

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 tsp. vanilla
2 tbsp. liquid red food coloring
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
24 chocolate sandwich cookies (Oreos)
1 cup confectioners' sugar

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F or 190 degrees C. Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper (or spray with cooking spray).
2. Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time. Beat in buttermilk, vanilla and red food coloring. 
3. Sift together all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt. Add to butter mixture and beat on low until just combined. The dough should be very soft and a little sticky. If it is very sticky then add 1/4 cup more all-purpose flour and stir again (I didn't add more...all seemed good to me). Cover and chill in the freezer until the dough is very cold and easy to handle.
4. Place confectioners' sugar in a bowl and set aside. (Now, I left mine in the fridge over night to save time in the whole baking progress and this seemed to work really well. I made the dough one night and baked the other. The dough was still quite sticky once I started handling it, even after being in the fridge over night.)
5. Using buttered fingers (I used cooking spray) (I used buttered fingers, well hands) scoop out a 3-4 tbsp.-sized piece of dough and press the dough around the sandwich cookie.  Alternate method: flatten dough between the palms of your hands.  Place a cookie on the flattened dough and fold the dough around the cookie. (Butter hands between each dough piece.) (The alternate method is the one I used. I found that the Oreo cookies were not strong enough if I just pressed them into the dough. But I must have used way more than 3-4 tbsp of dough per cookie, because my cookies turned out MASSIVE. See below.)
6. Roll lightly between the palms of your hands to make the cookie-stuffed dough a little more ball-shaped and roll in powdered sugar. Repeat until all the dough and cookies are used. (I also did this over two days because of the little bits of time I was working with. The dough kept fine in the fridge, even over two days.)
7. Place dough balls on a cookie sheet about 3 inches apart.  These cookies will spread, so I suggest placing no more than 5 per cookie sheet.  Tip: re-roll dough balls in powdered sugar just before putting them in the oven.  The crinkled appearance will be more prominent.
8. Bake until cookies are puffed and cracked on top about 14 minutes. Let cool on the pan about 5 minutes (cookies will be soft) then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

The main thing I would do differently if I make these cookies again, is to use a smaller amount of dough per Oreo cookie. With mine, you get a few bites of cookie with no Oreo, before you get to the Oreo. They taste really good though, nonetheless, and look so pretty! My husband loved them. :)

Pre-dry ingredients. That red dye is RED. Watch your clothes. 

Cookies on their way into the oven. 

Right out of the oven. I told you they were huge. Granted I have a really tiny baking sheet and only one at the moment, but they really are BIG.

Happy husband. :)

True love

Happy Valentine's Day!

So, yesterday I had written most of this post and thought I would be ahead for the day, but then a few thoughts came up last night that I thought I should share and, to be honest, are a bit more meaningful than what I had previously planned.

We have a church service every other Wednesday night - more of a workshop - and right now, we're in a series on marriage. Last night's lesson was great and really left me with a lot to think about, but one particular thought has stuck with me so strongly.

"Love never fails." - 1 Corinthians 13:8

It's not a new statement. It's not revolutionary. And the Bible does not talk about love in the "happily ever after" way that our society portrays in movies, books, etc. Love that the bible speaks about  - true, real love - is selfless. It is sacrificial. It initiates. It holds onto nothing bad and it never looks to its own interests. It really isn't glamorous. And that's why it never fails; because it is always better to be loving, to be giving, to be selfless. Even when I'm hurt or confused or my feeling are off, showing love to my husband and others is the best option. It always works.

You might be sitting there thinking, "duh", but I have found this to be a powerful reminder that I am trying to apply every day. And in light of what has happened in South Africa today (have a look here if you're not sure...it's so sad), I feel desperate to cling to the good and to love - to love despite my feelings indicating otherwise. The world needs real love - selfless, sacrificial, self-controlled love.

So, I thought this was a more appropriate thought on love than the below, and it applies to everyone - single or not. :) The below is still fun, nonetheless, and I would like to share, if you'd still like to read.

Growing up, my mom always made Valentine’s Day special in little ways. We’d come home from our days to a dinner table set with a red table cloth, one red, heart-shaped balloon tied to each of our chairs, and a small heart-shaped basket in front of our dinner plate that would have a few small presents – candy, pens, those wash-clothes that open when you put them in water. It wasn't anything extravagant, but it made the day special regardless of what happened the rest of the day – regardless of if I had “a valentine” or not. I think I always liked Valentine’s Day, but felt like I needed to be a typical girl and wallow in self-loathing and rom-coms.

As I got older, it became more of a day where I (subconsciously and/or secretly) had an excuse to daydream without guilt about my future Mr. Darcy and where he may be and what he could be like. (Please tell me someone else did/does feel that way?) As well as bake lots of brownies and continue watching rom-coms with my girlfriends.

Now, being married – yes it’s nice to have an automatic date, but – I think what I love most about Valentine’s Day is just basking in the love of simple things: red (love anything red!), extra sweets and chocolates (actually, this happens all year long for me), the Valentine’s Day soundtrack (have you heard it? so fun!), and stormy summer days (in the southern hemisphere. If I was living in the Northeast still, this would be the hope of approaching, warm spring days).

So, what little things are you loving right now? And jumping back to the more serious side of love: what do you find most challenging about practicing real love?

Here are a few of my loves right now and my Mr. Darcy. :) 

Lots of love,

E

Milk-chocolate covered marshmallows. I CAN'T STOP eating them!

Closet inspiration. I'm trying to choose things I pin on Pinterest and actually  finds ways to do them at home. I loved this multipurpose closet...we'll see if I can incorporate this at home. ;) You can find picture on my "Nesting" board on Pinterest. 

Summer thunderstorms. Miami looks like this in the summer, so I'm so lucky to have moved somewhere that has similar summer weather. We're in the peak of it right now and have probably has this picture happen three times this week, already! That picture shows the Johannesburg skyline. 

I fell in love the first time I saw these! Pictures of my attempt to bake them coming soon!. :) You can the link to this recipe  under my "Sweet tooth" board on Pinterest. 

My mother actually introduced me to this website and again,  instant love. They do online and paper invitations that  are just stunning!

My Mr. Darcy :)

What I know and don't know

I know I love God.

I know I want to be a better disciple of Jesus.

I know I love my husband. So much.

I don’t know what I want to do for a living.

I don’t yet know how to balance marriage and everything else in my life.

I know I want to keep being adventurous.

I know I want to move back to the US and then again to another country, one day.

I know some more money in our bank account would be really helpful.

I don’t know where that money could come from.

I know I need to pray more.

I know I want to hear what God is telling me he has planned for my life.

I know I miss my family  - so much sometimes that I don’t know how I can keep living so far away.

I know I want to keep making other disciples of Jesus.

I don’t know where I’m going to be this time next year.

I know I’m going to be 25 next month.

I know God loves me, my husband loves me, and my end goal is heaven.

I don’t know what heaven will be like, but I know there is nothing else better to pursue in life.

I know that God knows everything that will happen in my life today, tomorrow, and until the end of my time.

And I know that I can trust Him and rejoice in the hope and unconditional love he shows me, and promises to show me, forever. 

Happy Weekend & Badia-lime chicken

 Hi all,

For some reason, of all the past few Fridays, I am particularly feeling like I need this one and am so eagerly anticipating the weekend. I hope your weekend is fun, restful, and all around lovely.

As I mentioned last week, Friday is cleaning/maid day at our house, which means Thursday is cooking day (well, uninhibited cooking day...no worries about how many dishes I use and have to clean afterwards, because I don't). So I'd like to share with you one of my favorite and easiest meals! (It's not much of a recipe because I just improvise and make whatever size portions I want at the time.) Black beans are an extreme rarity here (and I used my last can on this meal - so sad!) - but the combination of black beans, lime, and rice takes me right back to my Miami, not-actually-Hispanic roots. And the little garden awning that my husband built for me, and twinkle lights, sure helps with the atmosphere.

Happy Weekend!

EF



Badia-Lime chicken with black beans and brown rice

Ingredients
Badia seasoning (If you don't own this, you need to. It is the all-purpose, amazing, go-to seasoning that will make your 15 minute meal taste like you spent all day slaving over the stove.)
One lime or 1/2 - 3/4 cup lime juice (I absolutely adore limes, but I couldn't find any here! So I had to settle for lime juice)
1 can black beans
As much chicken as you want
As much brown (or white - but brown is better) rice as you want

1. Heat frying pan on medium heat, with a light coating of oil.
2. Beginning cooking rice as normal.
3. Generously coat uncooked chicken in Badia seasoning. Sprinkle with lime juice. Place in frying pan once hot.
4. Place black beans in small pot and cook on low to medium heat. Once boiling, just keep covered pin the pot on the lowest heat.
5. Continue cooking chicken in pan until crispy, brown, and (obviously) cooked all the way through. Apply additional seasoning or lime juice as desired.
6. Once chicken is cooked and removed from pan, gently scrape the pan for the bit of seasoning that has cooked in the pan. This is great to put out for additional flavoring during the meal, either for the chicken, on salad, on veggies, or on garlic bread. (See it truly is the all-purpose seasoning!)
7. Serve with black beans and rice...salad and garlic bread are great additions too!
Enjoy!

The star of the show (well, and the lime juice too).

Our little stove top.

The fabulous kitchen tongs I found!

The remaining seasoning and lime juice from the pan - great for topping veggies, salads, etc!