wednesday words.

This blog entry was written by Jamie Tworkowski (the founder of To Write Love on Her Arms.) I have kind of been in love with him, or his writing at least, for a long time now. You should read this one. He always hits the nail on the head. He is dang good.



Dear Valentine's Day,
Feb. 14, 2011 at 4:19pm
My friend Don wrote a blog about you today and his blog suggests that you used to look a lot different than you do today. He says that you are the product of a poet and that before this poet's pen, you were not a romantic holiday.
i think i would have liked you more back then, whenever that was. The truth is that you really bother me now. i think you bother a lot of people, honestly. You show up every year right after Christmas. You turn the windows pink and you sell your diamonds on the radio and i think i've gotten five emails from 1-800-FLOWERS in the last three days. i'm not sure how you got so much power.
Don't get me wrong. It's not that i don't like love. i love love - i think it's the best thing that happens on the planet. It's the biggest dream inside me. But i bought a lie somewhere along the way. i bought the lie that says i'm not alive if i'm not in love. i bought the lie that says if i love someone but then they stop loving me or they start loving someone else, then i must have no value or power or worth. i bought the lie that says if i'm not in love, then i'm as good as dead.
And if you believe that lie long enough, it makes a giant hole. It makes a hole so big that no one person could ever begin to fill it. Not even a princess. Believe me, i've tried. To fill it with a person, to fill it with beauty, to fill it with all the things you sell.
But i don't think it works that way. Bono says his songs come from a God-shaped hole inside of him. He's my favorite singer and he has a lot of things. He has great stories and a wife and kids and plenty of money. But in spite of all of those things, he says he still has this hole and he says that it's the reason that he sings.
i've been thinking lately that maybe i've confused a girl for God, a different one every year or two, since the first day of junior high. And man, that is a lot of pressure to put on someone, to make them God. That is a ton of power to hand someone. Especially when they're just a person. A person with questions and flaws and pain of their own.
So maybe there's a war, inside of me and for me and maybe my heart is the opposite of small. Maybe it's the opposite of cheap and empty and alone. Maybe it's sacred and enormous and wild.
To make a long story short, i think i've given you way too much power. i let you scare me and i let you name me and i let you tell me what i'm worth.
i don't want to do that anymore.
There are dreams inside of me and those are mine and my guess is that they're there for a reason. But for all the days like now where the dreams are asked to be only dreams, i'm gonna keep getting out of bed. i'm gonna keep living my story. i'm gonna believe that there is reason and purpose, and power in my life. i'm gonna believe that i'm alive inside a story bigger than my pain, bigger than everything missing.
It crossed my mind to try to ignore you, to try to go to bed early and wake up when you're gone. But i changed my mind. i am part of a gang in Florida and we're gonna get together tonight. We're going to open our computers and we're going to choose to believe that words are powerful. We're gonna do our best to tell someone something true. We're gonna ask people not to give up on their stories.
Valentine's Day, i don't hate you. i don't even blame you. Perhaps you did not name yourself. Perhaps you are the product of hundreds of years, hundreds of thousands of broken people and a million God-shaped holes.


The truth is that we're all living love stories.


Peace to you tonight.
jamie



I've got ot folded up maps showing where I'm gonna be.

Fun! I got so excited when I saw how many different things I could do with old maps. Seriously..some of these made me giggle because they were so cool. I shouldn't really be blogging right now seeing how I have 5 test next week. I blame my StumbleUpon account because it got me started on the map excitement during a study break. Here goes it..

I think i want to use a map i have of the Old City in Jerusalem to make these type of coasters.How to.

The artists behind these says to use maps of towns or countries that are significant to you and you love. cute =)

Garland fun i found here

This seams easy enough

I have been wanting my own globe for a while but have not had any luck finding one for cheap. Now I REALLY want one so I can do this to it. I love the butterflies. Stinking cool.

I am now on the look out for lots of cool maps. I want to make a lot of these and give them as gifts. Thanks for traveling with me. Back to studying...

 p.s. I'm obsessed with this song right now. it makes me want to dance, with a skirt on, outside.It also makes me crave Spring weather. Me and my best friends get to see Lucy in March. Excited!!




Shalom, Amanda.

wednesday words.

"If the point of life is the same as the point of a story, the point of life is character transformation. If I got any comfort as I set out on my first story, it was that in nearly every story, the protagonist is transformed. He's a jerk at the beginning and nice at the end, or a coward at the beginning and brave at the end. If the character doesn't change, the story hasn't happened yet. And if story is derived from real life, if story is just condensed version of life then life itself may be designed to change us so that we evolve from one kind of person to another. "
— Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. (you need to read this book.)

a late valentines post.

I have the best lover of all. Seriously. Read this and tell me its not true..

^{Ephesians 2
1-6}It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.
 ^7-10Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

^11-13But don't take any of this for granted. It was only yesterday that you outsiders to God's ways had no idea of any of this, didn't know the first thing about the way God works, hadn't the faintest idea of Christ. You knew nothing of that rich history of God's covenants and promises in Israel, hadn't a clue about what God was doing in the world at large. Now because of Christ—dying that death, shedding that blood—you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything.



Woohooo!! We are so loved even though we don't deserve it! He is worth so much more of my time and thoughts and affections than I give him. Who would not want to spend more time with someone that is this loving?


One of the times I felt Gods love the most was on a trip I went on to Israel last summer. I found this video and thought I would share. One night we ran into a group of South Koreans worshiping right in the middle of the streets in Jerusalem. I still get the chills when I watch it. 

Happy Valentines day. I hope you know you are deeply loved.

Some kind of wonderful.

I don't know what this Burberry Acoustic is all about but it has stolen my whole night. These are especially beautiful.

happy sunday.

wednesday words.

I miss clear skies.

The smell of snow and flannel shirts.

Its snowing like crazy here in Arkansas. All I can think about is how bad I wish I had a kitchen full of things to bake. But I don't. Also I can smell the homemade bread my dorm Mom is making from all the way upstairs and its killing me. So these recipes might be making things worse..but I will tell you about them anyway=)


Sayy whhhat! Whole wheat sugar cookies! Oh goodness..

Whole Wheat Chocolate Brown Sugar Sugar Cookies

Makes:  about three dozen cookies
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder.  Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, fit with a paddle attachment, beat together butter and sugars.  Beat until well incorporated.  Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl.  Add the egg.  Beat on medium speed until mixture is glossy and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes.
Stop mixer and add the dry ingredients all at once.  Mix on low speed until all of the flour is incorporated  Stop mixer and finish incorporating ingredients with a spatula.  Spoon batter out onto a sheet of waxed paper, and form loosely into a log.  Roll and seal cookie dough and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours.


I really want to try these. I make pancakes for the girls that live on my hall ( I am an RA) on Saturday mornings. I am wondering if they will go for these. Humm maybe I will just make them and see if they notice.

Chai Spiced Buttermilk Pancakes
2 eggs
2 cups flour
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
healthy pinch of ground cloves
scant 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon crushed black peppercorns (or a dash of freshly ground black pepper)
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup brewed black chai tea
4 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
½ teaspoons vanilla extract
oil or cooking spray (for cooking)

Thanks to  Joy the Baker  for teasing me with these recipes.

Love! From my snowy cabin aka my warm dorm room.

-Amanda

Its February!

Yess! I really like the month of February. Honestly, most months that have fun holidays in them I get really into. I am a slightly cheesy person and get really excited about giving into traditions and getting wrapped up in each different season.
So February to me means lots of girly colors, sweets, pretty flowers, and the continuation of wearing warm scarves, boots and my favorite leather jacket.Anyway. Today I wanted to show you some fun Valentine craft ideas that are a little different and maybe more fun than the Jonas Brother valentines I sent a couple of years ago..(at least I'm admitting it.)


This project would be cool for anytime really. I like the skeleton key shape a whole lot but you can be creative and do whatever shapes you want!

You can use little trinkets,things you find around the house,old pieces of jewelery you don't care about anymore, or even things that are significant to you and your special someone.

 see instructions for this wall art idea here!


I see paper dollies used for seriously everything these days. These envelopes are a cute way to make a note more personal. I think I will make one for my mom=) Source!

I LOVE FLOWERS!! There are so many pretty options that are in reds,pinks,and whites right now and I am always wanting to find ways to keep them in my dorm room. When I saw this idea I seriously could not wait till I got some fresh flowers.

and this means I also get to take a trip to Sonic happy hour to get the carrier=)

find out how its done here=)

These are just plain cute. I don't know..might be a bit more tricky to actually do than the others but I still really like them. Homemade bow and arrows make real cool decorations.

source!

And here are two desktop calenders that can help keep you in a winter mood. I really love the second one, I  print the Free People calenders off every month and put them by my desk in my room.

dearest.

FP

Hope you enjoy this month as much as I do friends. Shalom-Amanda.

 

“To love someone is to see a miracle invisible to others."

- Francois Mauriac