{the selflessness challenge}

Hi, everyone! I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving!

Recently I have been convicted of the sin of selfishness.  I can be a very selfish person, and I need to do something about it.  So I came up with the idea to do something I'm calling The Selflessness Challenge, and I thought that I would invite y'all to do it with me.  Here's what it is: starting tomorrow, I'm am going to be deliberate in striving to be unselfish for the next week.  When I am tempted to be selfish, I am going to instead act in unselfish ways.  I am going to be intentional in seeking out opportunities to serve others and sacrifice my own desires.

If you want to do it with me, let me know in a comment!  Even post about it on your blog if you want to so that your followers can participate too!  Even if you aren't going to do it, I would love it if you pray for me and anyone who is going to do it with me - it's not going to be easy, but with God's help we can do it.  And I'll be praying for those of you who are doing it too :)

I have a really hard time remembering to act on the things I want to work on, so here are some things I'm going to do that might help you as well:

• If you listen to secular music (or fun Christian music that doesn't specifically uplift you or draw you to worship) listen to Christian music that will encourage you.  Either listen to songs about unselfishness and serving others like Outta My Mind, Give Me Your Eyes, So Long Self, or My Own Little World to help focus you on it
• Wear a ring on a different finger than you normally do or something like that that you'll notice frequently.  Or put a band-aid on your finger and write something on it to remind you
• Write yourself a note in dry erase marker on your mirror
• Set yourself alarms throughout the day

And of course we shouldn't stop after this week - hopefully it will become a habit and we'll continue to do it!  I'm excited to see what God is going to do in our hearts and lives this week!

if you met me

Inspired by Petie, one of my favorite bloggers ever :)

(Hey y'all, did I ever tell you that I won a photo contest in my neighborhood with this picture? :)

If you met me, we would go to Sonic (at happy hour of course, because who wants to pay full price for a slushy that costs a dollar)

If you met me, I would ask if you’ve seen the BBC show Robin Hood, then convince you that we should watch an episode because it is the best show ever

If you met me, I would interrogate you on your tastes in music, hoping that they would match up with mine

If you met me, I’d probably end up telling you the story of how I met Anthem Lights at the Newsboys concert

If you met me, I might awkwardly ask you if you would mind if we went on a photo shoot, because I don’t really have many people to take pictures of

If you met me, I’d probably abruptly change subjects in the middle of a sentence because it reminded me of something else 

If you met me, I’d end up showing you our music room

If you met me, I’d probably tell you about how Richard Armitage is going to be in Hobbit and then tell you all the other movies he’s in

If you met me, I’d probably say that my room is a mess (cuz it probably would be)

If you met me, we’d end up on the topic of school 

If you met me, you’d probably get lost when I tried to tell you what grade I’m and how I’m a non-homeschooled homeschooler

If you met me, I’d try to see if you like Jane Austen, then which Pride and Prejudice movie you like better (then try to convince you that the Keira Knighley version is better and that Ending isn’t dorky, it’s important to the story)

If you met me, I’d mention my friends every other sentence 

If you met me, we’d laugh a lot

If you met me, we’d eat a lot. Like, a lot.

If you met me, I’d probably show you the nine Vera Bradley bags I have in my pattern

If you met me, we’d have a lot of fun

November Photo Challenge {Week 3}

November 12: Drink

November 13: Where you slept.

Yes - I still sleep with a stuffed animal.  His name is Geoffrey Scott, and he's a knock-off pillow pet they were giving out at a baseball game....we've been inseparable ever since :)

November 14: man-made

A doll my dad got me from Norway :)

November 15: in your bag

My awesome aunts always keep me stocked up on Sonic gift cards :)

November 16: the view from your window

November 17: the last thing you bought

Vera Bradley pencil case

I just had to put this on here cuz it's pretty cool!

This Song Gives Me Chills Every Time

I know that you probably don't stop to listen to songs on posts when you're going through your dashboard, but just listen to the bridge on this song (1:54)....it gives me chills every time I listen to it.

I am the thorn in Your crown, but You love me anyway

I am the sweat from Your brow, but You love me anyway

I am the nail in Your wrist, but You love me anyway

I am Judas' kiss, but You love me anyway

I am the man who yelled out from the crowd for Your blood to be spilled on this earth-shaking ground

And I turned away with a smile on my face with this sin in my heart, trying to bury Your grace

But You love me anyway,

It's like nothing in life that I've ever known,

Yes You love me anyway

Oh Lord, how You love me

November Photo Challenge {Week 2}

Hey, y'all! Here are this week's November Photo Challenge pics a day late since I was out of town over the weekend! (Pics of that to come :)  For some reason I was kinda out of ideas for my pictures this week...but when you're doing a photo challenge you have to take them even if you don't have great ideas! 

November 4: TV

I was going to try to come up with a clever way to take this picture, but nothin' was coming to mind, so I just decided to be super boring and stick my lens up to the TV and press the button...  This is of Henry V, a Shakespeare play I had to watch for school.  And if you have to watch Henry V, of course you pick the version with Tom Hiddleston (Loki from the Avengers and Thor)!

(None of y'all noticed that I actually took this of our Mac since my camera was out of battery the night we watched it on the TV, right?  You didn't? Ok good :)

November 5: 5 o'clock

Self-explanatory - y'all know what a sunset is :)

 November 6: a favorite thing

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen! Best book ever!

November 7: reflection

I kinda stole this idea from my cousin Anne Marie, but I'm sure she doesn't mind ;)

November 8: something you do every day

Homework!  (For any of you math geeks trying to figure out the problem, don't try too hard - I think I got it wrong...Maybe I should've spent more time on the problem than on the picture :)

November 9: Small

Baby tomatoes from our garden!

November 10: can't (won't)  live without

My brother, since he's my best friend and I couldn't live without him :)

November 11: night

Cuz I do homework at night too :)

Oh and by the way, I named my camera Darcy :)  It was a tie between Darcy and Robin, but my friend and I decided that Darcy was better :)  Ooops, a lot of my Jane Austen love came out in this post :)  Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Trick-or-Treat Pizza

Hey, everyone!  If you have a bunch of leftover chocolate from Halloween, here's something you can do with it!  You can really use any kind of candy you want, but I decided that I only wanted to use chocolate for mine :)  Here's the recipe from Taste of Home magazine:

Ingredients: 1 tube (16 1/2 oz.) refrigerated sugar cookie dough

Assorted candies, unwrapped

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

3 Tbsp. creamy peanut butter  

1. Let dough stand at room temperature for 5-10 minutes to soften.   Press onto an ungreased 14-in. pizza pan.  Bake at 350 for 18-22 minutes until golden brown.  Cool on pan on a wire rack.

2. Coarsely chop large candies; set aside.  In a microwave, melt chocolate chips and peanut butter; stir until smooth.  Spread chocolate mixture over crust; top with candies.  Refrigerate, covered, until chocolate is set.  Cut into wedges.

Don't be scared to put lots of the chocolate sauce on the pizza - I didn't do it enough last night, and it wasn't as good.  You might want to take it out of the fridge a couple minutes before you're going to eat it, or else it can be hard to cut.

Another alternative is making smaller pizzas (individual sized) - just do the cookie dough like you're making cookies, and spread the sauce and candies the same way.  The great thing about this recipe is that you have tons of flexibility, and there's really no way you can mess up too bad! I didn't put nearly as much candy as they did in the picture - it's already super rich :)

Here are some pics of when I made them :

Here are some pics of when I made them :

November Photo Challenge {Week 1}

Hey, y'all!  Here is the first post for my November photo challenge!

November 1: something beginning with "C" - candy!

 November 2: color - the icing for my birthday cake!

 November 3: breakfast - I had leftover cold pizza from my birthday dinner last night :)

Hope y'all had a great Saturday!