on finding peace

There is no hiding, or denying the fact, that I can be a bit of a control freak. When I feel stressed out or when there is a lot going on, my natural tendency is to grip tighter. Plan a little more. Make more lists. And while I think planning and lists are a great in moderation, it can be easy to fall into an exhausting trap.

I read once that excessive planning is our human reaction to trying to take control back from God and lacking faith in His goodness. And while that may not be our intent, there is some definite truth to that. But what a relief to know that God has it all under control. That regardless of what is going on in our lives, whatever mess we find ourselves in, we can find peace in knowing that God sees it all and far more than we are even capable of seeing.

So wherever your find yourself today, I hope you can find some peace in knowing that God has your back, so have a little faith.

what to do on a meatless monday

What do you do when you've got a giant zucchini, squash and extra carrots lying around on a meatless Monday? You make vegetable lasagna roll ups!

via Recipe Girl

Ok, so I haven't actually made this yet so I can't give you a full report of the recipe. However, I will be sure to provide a full report once we've tried it. But I assume when you combine any sort of pasta, cheese and roasted veggies, it's hard to imagine it not being delicious.

What are your favorite meatless Monday recipes?

five on friday: fall favorites

It's Friday. It's 65 degrees and I'm cozied up with a sweatshirt. Life is pretty good. Today I'm linking up with Christina, Darci, Liz and Natasha for Five on Friday. Since it s really starting to feel like fall, this weeks list is the five things I am looking forward to most this fall!

{ONE} Sweaters and boots season-- need I say more.

{TWO} Candy corn. I realize these are cookies with candy corn in them, but I have a minor obsession with these strange sugar candies. So anything that includes them is good in my book.

via Pinterest

{THREE} My Birthday. I'll turn the big 2-7 this October :) Birthdays are a big deal to me, so I always get excited when October rolls around.

{FOUR} Football season is here, which also means fantasy football is upon us. Last week was the first week of games and it wasn't a fabulous start to the season but that's ok. It's early.

{FIVE} Pumpkin flavored everything-- except coffee. I am not a PSL fan but I am a fan of pumpkin bread, scones, ice cream and pie. There will be lots of pumpkin cooking in our house this season.

via Pinterest

What are you looking forward to most this season?

Happy beginning of fall to you all and have a great weekend!

on slowing down

via Pinterest

We live in a society which demands a whole lot of us. We're constantly being asked to do more, to produce more, to make more money. We're addicted to busyness. And it's really easy to do. We're so connected all the time, between computers, tablets and phones. It's so easy to be always working or doing something. And frankly, I think that is one of the biggest mistakes of our generation. Don't get me wrong; I fall into the busyness trap often. Where I feel that if I am not doing something of value, something that can be measured, then I am not doing something of value. I found that especially while I was in college, that if my calendar wasn't chuck full of meetings, social events and activities then I wasn't achieving my full potential.

What would happen if we would all just slow down a little bit? I realized that can be asking a lot. But think about it for a minute. What if we sat down to dinner, around a table, at night with our family. No phones. Just people and conversation. Or what if we took a some time in the morning and picked up our Bibles or a book instead of our cell phones while we ate breakfast. Maybe, just maybe, things would slowly begin to change.

We weren't created to run ourselves dry. To be spread so thin that we don't have enough time to be in community with those around us. We were created to share in life with one another. I think if we all slowed down and disconnected ourselves a bit, that marriages would be stronger, relationships with children would grow and that community with friends and family would be more important. And I think that could make all the difference in the world.

homemade apple butter

Remember all those apples I told you about? Well, we finally got around to doing something with them this weekend. We spent Saturday afternoon peeling, slicing, cooking and canning applesauce and apple butter! To me, there is nothing better in the fall time than having homemade apple anything. Yum!

I love putting apple butter on a warm homemade buttermilk biscuit in the morning. It just warms my soul right up! Plus, it is so easy to make. It just take some time. I like the recipe from my handy dandy Betty Crocker cookbook. If you plan on canning it, you will need a solid 3 - 4 hours to time for it to cook. Other than that little detail, it is easy peasy! Start by peeling and cooring your apples. Cut them into fourths and put them in a dutch oven.

(Hint hint to Santa-- I would love an electric apple peeler. Just saying.)

 

Then come the easy part. Just dump the rest of the ingredients into the dutch oven with the apples. The full list of ingredients is below. Once all you ingredients are in your pan; heat it to boiling, stirring it occasionally. Once it has boiled, reduce the heat, cover and simmer it for one hour.

 

After an hour, mash the apples with a potato masher or large fork. I ended up using an immersion blender after I mashed it to get rid of the lumps. Then simmer it uncovered for another hour; stirring it occasionally. You want the mixture to get nice and thick. After an hour, let it cool for two hours.

This is where I altered it a bit-- I only waited about 30 minutes for it to cook because I was planning to can it and it was going to get heated back up anyway. If you don't plan on canning it, then just put it into a container and store it in the fridge for up to three weeks. And eat it as often as possible!

If you want to can it, you first need to clean and process your canning jars. It will typically tell you how to process your jars on the box or you can use this helpful guide. You will want to sterilize the lids; I boiled them in a pot of water. You will want to put another pot of water on to boil for the water bath canning. I have a big 12 qt. stock pot, which works well for me. 

Once your jars are ready to go, spoon your apple butter into the jars. Leave one inch of head room at the top of the jar. Be sure to remove any excess that may have dripped onto the rim. Carefully, remove the lids from the boiling water and place it on the jar. Screw on the metal band. When all your jars are ready and your water is boiling, place the jars in the water. Be very careful because the water may splash up and it is extremely hot! I have a strainer which came with my stock pot that is very handy, but you can also use rubber tipped tongs, which also work well. Let the cans boil for five minutes (as long as you are at sea level; if not, use the canning guide on the jar box). After five minutes, carefully remove the jars from the water and let them sit. Do not touch them for 24 hours. The jars need to seal. You will hear random popping noises, which is good, it means your jars are sealing. After 24 hours of sitting, you can store them or even open one right up and enjoy!

It really isn't too hard as long as you plan for enough time and read all the way through the directions before you start. I promise, it is well worth it when you can have homemade apple butter all season long!

Apple Butter 

via Betty Crocker Cookbook

12 medium cooking apples

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

1 1/4 cups apple juice

1 tbsp. ground cinnamon

1 tbsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. ground all spice

1 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp. ground cloves

five on friday

Welcome to Friday again. Today, I am linking up with Christina, Darci, Liz and Natasha for Five on Friday.

I'm not going to lie, I don't have much to report today. Actually, it has been a pretty uneventful week. I spent all of yesterday curled up on the couch with a sore throat and fever. I'm pretty sure somebody on the plane sneezed on me and got me sick. Ok, probably not. It's probably just from being exhausted. I have no idea how my husband manages to work all week after traveling. He's a rock star. Anyway, here is my five for this week.

{ONE} Confession-- yesterday wasn't the only day this week I spent on the couch. The hubs surprised me on Tuesday by coming home a little early and we watched movies for the rest of they day. Much needed relaxation time together.

{TWO} We have been waiting for some final inspection information and quotes on the (hopefully) new  house. We got our final info sent off and are waiting to hear back from the sellers. Prayers and fingers crossed! 

{THREE} Even though our anniversary was last weekend, we are finally going to enjoy our one year cake tonight!!! I am super excited! We didn't save the cake from our actual wedding day because it needed to be cut, but our baker offered to make us another one on our one year anniversary. I looooove wedding cake and I can't wait to dive into this one!

 

{FOUR} My first fantasy football player played last night. Projected to get 8 pts. and he came away with 16 pts. That's a good start, I'd say. And as much as it pains me to say it, I am grateful that Peyton Manning is a good quarterback and likes to throw to Wes. Ugh...that hurt a bit.
 

{FIVE} Last week, I tried my hand at canning dill pickles. I have done a good amount of canning in the past but I've never done pickles. We tried them this week and they actually tasted like pickles!! It was a very exciting day. I've also got a five gallon bucket full of fresh, delicious smelling apples to make some applesauce and apple butter with. Needless to say, I am beyond excited!

Happy Friday to you all! Hope your weekend is filled with lots of goodness.

a complete whirlwind weekend

The past four days have been a real whirlwind. We left Friday around 4 p.m. to head to the airport. Our flight was originally supposed to leave Chicago at 8 p.m. but thanks to a nasty line of storms and serious rain we didn't end up leaving Chicago until midnight. So we spent a lot of time playing cards, getting frustrated, strolling through the airport watching other people getting frustrate and eating snacks.

 

We arrived in Austin around 2:30 a.m. greeted by my trooper of a best friend who lovingly picked us up from the airport regardless of time, even though she had to be up early the next day to be a bridesmaid in a wedding (thanks Lauren). By the time our heads hit the pillow it was almost 4 a.m. and needless to say, we were exhausted. The hubs got up early to get some golfing in while I slept spent my morning relaxing. Oh, fyi, it's hot in Texas in August, just in case you didn't know. 

The reason we were in Austin was for a college friends wedding, which was beautiful. She looked stunning and so in love. We're so very happy for the new married couple!

**Please excuse the poor quality/lighting of these iPhone photos. 

 

We spent the rest of Saturday spending time with my best friend and her boyfriend. In case you didn't know, she moved to Memphis recently and so our visits are much more limited. It was so so good to be able to spend some much needed time with them. And in honor of our anniversary, we took this picture next to a semi creepy/morbid wall mural. We thought it was relevant due to the "til death do us part" but then we later realized there was a wall of names down the street. Oh well.

Sunday was our one year anniversary. We spend our first anniversary mostly in the airport and in the air, which was fine with us. We didn't really care as long as we were together. Thankfully, we got an early flight home to Chicago and we were able to surprise our families who were all together for the Labor Day weekend/draft weekend at my in-laws.

I am very very thankful that the nice people at the Austin airport changed our flight. We were a little sad we weren't with our family when they were all together, but since we got a few extra hours in on Sunday it all worked out just right.

Monday was the family fantasy football league draft day. This is serious business. Last year was my first year in the league and I LOVED it. It made the football season that much more enjoyable because you have so many different players that you are rooting for, instead of just one team. I'm mostly pleased with how my team turned out and am excited for football season to officially begin.

We finally got back home late Monday night. We were so wiped from a complete whirlwind weekend. But when it is filled with fun activities and people you love there is always time for sleep later.

I know I've said it before but I can't believe it's September already. I am definitely ready for fall. The air has already cooled a bit here and it brings nothing but goodness for this upcoming season.