My senior recital!!!!

I have been taking piano lessons for most of my natural life. 13 years to be exact. So I had a senior recital to commemorate this accomplishment. I still have a year to go, but I have made it through high school!! 

I thought I would share some pictures. The recital itself went well, except for the fact I caught a summer cold a week before the performance date, and having to sing, that complicated matters very much. So, my voice was rather hoarse for singing. But it went rather well considering it. 

So, here are some pictures from that. Mostly the cake. It was awesome. My mom made it for me. And some of the little treats. I will see if my friend took some more but this is all I had time for. :)

It is "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" on the cake. I love it!! My mom did an awesome job. 

These were chocolate treats wrapped in paper from Hobby Lobby! I love that store. I could spend hours there!!!!

My teacher surprised me with a bouquet. It is GORGEOUS!! 

My program included music from "Phantom of the Opera" and "Les Miserables". I had an awesome time. 

Also, my friend is back from Colorado!!!!!!!! I missed her so much! She was gone to Summit for 2 weeks. It was forever but she made it back in time for my recital. 

Till next time!!! 

~Emily

You never know what you have...

...until it's gone. 

Today, a cousin of mine, Trey, died. He was 24 years old. He was in an accident July 3rd. He fell from a moving vehicle and hit his head on the pavement. Over the weekend, it seemed that he would come through it, but there was an aneurism on his brain preventing his waking up from an induced coma. This morning, about 4:30, the aneurism ruptured. 

Please pray for our family during our time of mourning. Pray especially for his parents and sister. 

Thank you all for the prayers. I appreciate them so much. God bless each of you. 

Farm Life: Ups and Downs

So, we've been doing some work in the garden. (Or rather, I've been sort of working in my Granddad's garden, the big pretty one) and it got me to thinking about life on a small country farm. And from this, I decided to write about the ups and downs. 

1. Goats

Ups:

     •We have fresh milk. 

     •We know that it is organic

     •Fresh cheese

     •Cute baby goats (and they really are adorable!!! <3 )

Downs:

     •They only milk for part of the year

     •They eat a lot 

     •Contrary to popular belief, they do NOT eat everything. They taste everything but they are actually very picky eaters. 

     •The baby goats grow into...you guessed it...adult goats (not near as cute) and sometimes the adults can be ornery. 

All in all, I've enjoyed having goats. It has been a pleasurable experience (for the most part) having goats. 

2. Next up: Chickens!!

Ups:  

    •Fresh Eggs

    •Again, organic, we know pretty much what they're eating but you can never tell with chickens. 

    •They eat almost anything. Leftover vegetables from the table, vegetables that go bad, pretty much anything!

Downs:

    •They eat almost anything (including the things you really don't want them to eat...umm, also including my cherry tomatoes that finally got ripe :(

    •They make messes that you wouldn't believe 

    •They are some of the dumbest animals you will ever see. 

But, chickens are a pretty good investment for us, I suppose. 

3. Gardening

Ups:

    •Fresh veggies!!!!! (Who wouldn't like that!)

    •May not be an up for everyone but I enjoy the harvest and putting vegetables in the freezer or canning them

    •The sunshine and spending time with my granddad. 

Downs:

    •Weeds. I don't like weeds

    •Weeds is all I can think of other than when vegetables start coming in you can NOT have a busy schedule or you'll have lots of bad vegetables. 

I personally love gardening. I haven't had much time this year, but I like to garden and work with vegetables. Wherever I live in the future, I hope that I will be able to have a garden, even if it is tiny. 

I hope you have enjoyed my post on small country farming. Maybe I'll post more about it later. Right now, fresh cooked veggies are calling my name!!!!

Ciao!! 

P.S. This is a photo of the basket I took to an Aunt this morning. Isn't it pretty?? 

Happy Mother's Day

To all the Moms out there, thank you for your sacrifice. Thank you for being there for us, for kissing our scraped knees to make them all better, for wiping our runny noses, teaching us to live, teaching us to love, to laugh, to cry. For teaching us to pray. 

My mother did all these things and so much more. She taught me to cook, to be a lady. She taught me to look for the good in people instead of always seeing the negative. She taught me what it means to be a woman of God. She has been nurse, cook, chauffeur, maid, laundry-lady, teacher, drill sergeant, lawyer, surgeon, comforter and a load of other things. She has been a wonderful example for me and my sisters. 

So a special thanks to my mom: Thanks, Mom, for always being there. For being strong when I am weak, for always being able to offer advice on my numerous problems, just for being my Mom!!! I love you and I hope it was a great Mother's Day. 

Adjust the sails

My family (myself included) watched a movie the other night and it struck me how much the woman wanted to change who the man was. Mind you, he wasn't that great. He wasn't a very good husband, but it reminded me so much how I am. If I don't like something, I want to change it and change it fast.

My mind says that I should be happy, that everyone should be happy because I am. But that's not the way it works. I have to constantly remind myself that it's not about me. My selfishness is only getting in the way in matters like this.

I have to remember time and again that happiness is a choice. Even in situations where I believe I have every right to be angry, I must remember this. I have found that if I will let go of the anger and hurt feelings and just choose to be happy, things are better. But that isn't easy because of the selfishness in me.

There's another big factor in all that. My pride. It hurts to say it, but that's another big thing. I'm too proud to say I was wrong and that I'm sorry even if I was completely in the wrong. It's hard to admit it, for me anyway, to say that it was my fault and that I'll try to do better or whatever the situation may be. Instead I make excuses as to why I did what I did. That just causes more trouble because then I want once again to change things.

I said all that to say I ran across an inspirational quote yesterday that made me think of all this. It was by H. Jackson Brown, Jr. It says: "When you can't change the direction of the wind - adjust your sails."

When I want to change everything around me and can't, I have to choose to be happy, otherwise, I'm going to have an even more terrible time. The things I don't want to do, if I choose to be happy, won't be as much of a chore. That is my way of adjusting my sails.

It is a beautiful morning in Alabama. The birds are singing and the sun is shining bright. And today, I'm gonna be happy.

~Emily

Updates

You know how I said I was trying to eat healthy? Well, that didn't work out too great. I shoulda known not to try something like that right before the wedding. Which, by the way, went wonderfully! I am planning to post some pictures soon.

My sister has now been married for 2 months 4 days. They're happy. That helps me to get past missing her so bad. I got them to pose for a picture at a bonfire we had the other day.

Aren't they cute? I love them both so much!!!

I want to say that I honestly believe that God had a hand in my life over the past year. I know He is always guiding me, but this is so abundantly clear!! First of all, the day that JJ, my sister met her soon-to-be-husband, I met a girl who would become a close friend. I met her older sister next, then after getting to know them a little more, I met their sister. Since then, (I met them in July of last year) they have become some of my best friends. They are wonderful people. I love them so much! They helped me through JJ getting married. I would have had a much harder time getting through it had it not been for them. They are awesome. I feel like I've always known them and I haven't even known them a year!!

Well, that's all for today. Y'all take care!! God bless!!

Eating Healthy

     So, yesterday started my quest to try to eat healthier. That meant no more sugary drinks, no more chocolate (at least on week days. A girl's got to have her chocolate), no more unhealthy snacks, nothing like that.
   
     I did pretty good yesterday..considering we didn't have anything I wanted to eat that was healthy. I finally decided on an apple and some dried fruit and a sandwich. It was on wheat bread. I ate that and some soup for supper last night and I must say, I might have enjoyed it, except for one minor detail.

    Yesterday was the day that my sisters decided to open their chocolate and Cheetos. Of all the days, it had to be yesterday. I didn't eat any and I haven't been doing too bad, but still. I rode home from my older sister's soon-to-be-house with M-n-Ms and Cheetos in the car and I didn't eat a single one. (It was torture)

    It actually wasn't all that bad, I'm just feeling dramatic today. This morning, I got up and made some smoothies for my Mom and myself. They were pretty good! I'm not a big smoothy person, but I liked this one pretty good.

    It was called a Banana Bread Smoothie. I got the recipe off of Pinterest (I finally got Pinterest and I absolutely love it. If you want to follow me, my username is camoandlace95) and here it is:

Banana Bread Green Smoothie
Ingredients:                                              (Makes 2 big smoothies)
  ~1 ripe banana, frozen
  ~1 cup of milk
  ~2 handfuls of Spinach leaves (fresh are best)
  ~1/4 cup of walnuts
  ~1/4 cup of oats
  ~a sprinkle of cinnamon

Directions:
  Combine the ingredients in blender, light stuff on the bottom (spinach, oats, cinnamon, walnuts) heavy stuff on top (banana and ice, if you choose to use ice) and pour the milk on top of all of it.
  Blend the heck out of it (quoting word for word) until nice and smooth. ENJOY!


  So, it turned out big, like I said. My mom has some Coca Cola glasses, the heavy glass ones, and they were nearly running over with green deliciousness. I figure next time I'll half the recipe and see how it turns out. Now, I didn't have walnuts so I used almonds and it still turned out great.

   Mom and I both agreed that it was eatable and I enjoyed it after I got over it being green (really, you can't taste the spinach). I have a ton of recipes for smoothies that I want to try out so I'll try and keep y'all posted on how everything goes. Until next time, here's a picture of my smoothie. Hope you enjoy it!!!

       ~Emily