Forgiving Others

After my recent change in prayers over the last few days, I have majorly improved and have a much clearer mindset now. I'm not trying to say that I never prayed or believed in God's powers before--I have. I've prayed to God on a daily basis for around five years, and my faith continues to grow in him everyday. It's just that I know I have to change something about my relationship with God in order to grow closer to him in the future.

So far I've changed my night prayer into a Bible-study sort of conversation. I no longer use a set, memorized prayer that I created long ago, but instead read something different every night and try to find use of it in my life at the moment.

Winter break is when most of my college student coworkers come back, and not all of them left with my liking. Two of them haven't been welcome back at all by me, but I haven't said anything. Recently I worked with one and struggled to stay peaceful and to forgive her for the pain she had caused me about a year ago. Another coworker and her would always make fun of me for "never smiling" and for looking "so depressed" all the time, and it upset me. Whenever this "friend" of hers wasn't present, she would be as nice to me as possible and treat me like a friend, which drove me nuts. It agitates me when someone acts one way when someone's there and a different way when they're absent.

I asked God to help me with forgiving these two people (the other person taught me that not everyone keeps promises, and that some people will hold onto you just so that you never leave them) who bring painful memories to me when I think of them, since I want to start off 2014 in a different way--I want to be more devoted to God and his practices and I want to better myself and make my own personality shine. If I don't forgive these two people, my anger and frustration will only delay my growing faith and spirituality and will force me to take steps in the wrong direction. And I don't want that. I want sunshine, I want to be happy. I want to smile for absolutely no reason almost all of the time (which is, thankfully, becoming a habit for me!) and I want to be forgiving. I constantly hold grudges, mostly towards myself, and bring myself down, thinking that I'm not good enough, even when I know that I have such potential.

Today I went to work for lunch, and (surprise surprise) one of the people were working. I've been struggling to be nice with her for the past two days, but I am satisfied with where our conversation went today. I asked her about her college experience and she asked me a couple questions in return, and we remained friendly and sympathetic towards each other. I felt no need to try and hurt her for the pain she had caused me a while back, and I'm grateful that I am strong enough to forgive others. I know that I most likely have a couple more conversations to go with her before I fully forgive her and learn to leave those memories in the past, but it's off to a wondrous start that I'm happy with.

I have a lot of things in mind for next year, and most of all I really just want to find great people out there. I want to make new friends who share my spiritual beliefs and who are hardworking individuals. I want to find people who have a dream, like I do, and are passionate enough to put the effort into making it happen. I also want to fully love God and to find that hidden part of myself during this journey, which I will update on a regular basis.

Baylee

My New "Journey"

I'm terrified.

To make that statement less vague, I'm struggling with what I'm trying to find right now in my life. A part of me can't seem to calm down and it's keeping me up at night, making it harder for me to focus on my priorities, and allowing me to live my life.

I'm am, surprisingly, very religious. I pray several times throughout the day, especially before leaving my house in the morning and before going to bed at night. At this point in my life, I am very thankful for all that I have been given and for all the opportunities that I have found so far, and I try as much as I can to show God how thankful I really am. Whenever I'm in doubt, I pray. When I feel anxious, I pray. It doesn't matter where I am, or where I'm going--if I need to talk to God, I will.

Recently I've been getting closer to a coworker, which is all I can really seem to think about. I replay scenes from work with him, etc. etc. and it's to the point where I'm obsessing over every little thing, and no matter how many times I ask God to help me keep my mind off this coworker, it always comes back, slapping me in the face each time.

There's a lot of reasons why I can't stop thinking about this person, and it could be mainly because I'm at the point in my life where I feel I need someone in order to be complete. I know that it isn't true, but with my family constantly asking me about whether or not I'm dating, it frustrates me. I know that God has someone out there that is truly all I could ever hope for, but I'm very impatient. Through past experiences, I have ran after boys (since they weren't really "men", per se), and I've been burned. I've learned that God doesn't want me to chase after boys, but instead be patient, because He will bring someone into my life.

My priorities have been more adjusted today since I've finally acknowledged my over thinking, and I am starting to pray even more than before to God to ask for help to get back on track with my language learning and to let whatever happen happen.

If I'm meant to be with someone, God will make sure that we will unintentionally cross paths at the right times, and I have to learn to be more patient.

So, with this nice little rant of mine, I've decided that I'm going to start reading the Bible again. I began reading it during my vacation in England, so that I could stay close to God, and it was really interesting to me. Once I got back home, the habit ended, but now I'm not willing to start again. I downloaded the Bible app on my smartphone (since I prefer to keep my Bible at home) and signed up for a 7-day plan that is for "Worrying", and I think that it will most definitely help me during this travel of mine to stop obsessing and over thinking about "what-ifs", and to start following the path that God has set for me. My worrying, at the moment, is at a high with a constant headache that I can't seem to take away, and I hope that this new journey of mine will help me get back to sleeping my regular hours rather than spontaneous, agitating time periods.

Baylee

Peppermint Bark Recipe

'Tis the season for peppermint bark!
Well... almost. I know that Thanksgiving hasn't passed yet, so I couldn't sing Christmas songs while making it, but with an open Saturday, I couldn't help myself. Mummy and I have decided that this year is going to be the peppermint bark year for our handouts to neighbors before Christmas, instead of traditional cookies. Since she knows my addiction to the chocolate goodness, she allowed me to help her make it ;)

Not too shabby, right?

The recipe for this deliciousness is here (click meeeee!)

Since peppermint bark making is a very serious process (very serious), we decided to purchase Ghirardelli for both the dark and white chocolate. The peppermint candies are plain jane to even it out.

Before melting the dark chocolate, we unwrapped all peppermint candies and placed them into a Ziploc bag, and crushed them with a mallet.

Using a strainer, we took out the finest pieces of the peppermint candies so that we could place them in the white chocolate layer. The bigger pieces that were left in the strainer would go on top of the whole goody goodness.

With a bit of oil we double broiled the dark chocolate. If you don't want to be tempted to eat the chocolate, please refrain from breathing (it's a challenge, I know, but it's for the better).

Since we don't want the two chocolate layers to mix, we placed the dark chocolate on an oiled pan and let it freeze for about an hour/until it was hardened. I unfortunately don't have a picture of just the chocolate layer because I was too busy eating the leftovers from the bowl ;)

After an hour we began melting the white chocolate, which was where we found some difficulties. (Quick tip--use about 1/2 the heat for the white chocolate and add more oil! This should fix the problem we encountered)

Gah! Look at it!

 Although it appeared to be perfectly fine at first, the white chocolate began to thicken which made it harder to spread. After we finished double broiling, we added the finer bits of the peppermint candies.

Spreading it out was really annoying and nonetheless we will have to find something to do about it next time we make the bark. As long as it tastes good--right? We also placed the bigger pieces of peppermint on the bark before placing it back into the freezer.

Oh, look who was in the kitchen with us--Snick and Pika! All the animals can't seem to get out of the sunshine today--I guess it's because of the weather we've been having lately.

Pika--the disappearing white kitten <3

And, finally, wa-la! The peppermint bark is ready to be devoured! With my afternoon tea and a Doc Martin marathon, it tasts even better. I hope you try it out and tell me what you think!

Baylee

Sharpie Tattoos that Last a MONTH? (Fail)

**THIS DOES NOT WORK. AS OF NOV 18 (3 DAYS LATER), IT IS ALMOST UNNOTICEABLE. I don't know why I thought it would work, and I definitely laugh at how gullible I am, but this does not work. If you want to still do it, though, be my guest ;) **

Hello minions,

This past week my friend showed me a vine video which displayed "how to make a temporary tattoo that lasts a month" and when I saw that the person used a sharpie, I got skeptic. I use sharpies over and over again to make tattoos that last about a week, so can baby powder and hairspray really make that big of a time difference?

Well, I guess we'll find out.

After about an hour of searching Pinterest and the web for ideas, I decided that I would do something that hits home for me--French. Yeah, I know, not everyone will be able to understand what it says, but the meaning to the person is what matters.

Here we go!

What you need: a sharpie (or sharpies), baby powder, and hairspray.

1) Pick your poison (tattoo, that is); what I chose is the word "rêve" (sexy, isn't it?), which means "dream" in French. It's the imperative, though, so it's more like hey, you--dream! We'll discuss the reasoning to its importance later ;)

2) Apply baby powder over the tatt, and rub it in.

3) Apply hairspray over the baby powder. I waited until the hairspray dried (about 3 mins) to wash it off; you'll know it's dry when your skin feels tighter.

4) WASH THAT STUFF OFF! Since I don't believe it'll stay on, I cleaned it really gently, but after that it's going to be put to the test >:D

I'm still pretty skeptic about it lasting for a month, but I'll keep you updated as I continue throughout the 30 days! I'll most likely add update photos the same day as the next blog post (which is every Thursday or Friday).

This also gave me the PERFECT reason to do a mini photo shoot with my new glasses! I've been wearing the same pair since about fifth grade, and after sitting on them (it was not intentional, at least I don't think so...) I decided to just get a new pair. It also shows you what the tattoo looks like from afar (because I can't just take a photo of my glasses, can I?)

  

So, that is pretty much my new project! Other than learning Swedish, that is, but that post will be further down the road.

Happy tatt-ing!

Baylee