Things I'm Lovin' !

Not gonna lie, this week has been pretty lame for me. Got letters and email from jobs I'd applied for saying thanks for applying, but no. The job hunting game is not a fun one! Sooooo thought it was about time I acted the opposite to the "blah" I'm feeling and be thankful for what I do have...




I'm loving the cute gifts I got for my birthday

Loving my new red dress. 

Loving this cute vest I got from the op-shop for $4.

Loving how much I'm getting outta this awesome book! So good! 

Soooo loving that I get to go back to the Barrier this weekend! My friends Mike and Jess are getting married there. The Barrier is a real spesh place for me. I've spent two lots of 3 months living there. I love how peaceful, beautiful and isolated it is. If you have never been there, you should put it on your Bucket List :)

d&m

Lately God has been talking to me a lot about dreaming, especially dreaming for the impossible...

It started last Thursday when I was driving home to Whangarei. It was just me in the car so I had my music cranked, and was singing at the top of my lungs. The song "Mighty Breath of God" thats on the Jesus Culture album came on. The chorus of that song is "blow mighty breath of God, Move across this place." As I was worshipping I began to daydream about what it would look like if God moved across this nation. What would it look like to see a nation in revival. Then a bit of doubt crept in, and I thought of how the country is now, and was like, man it would take a lot for this country to change. I then looked more closely at the vehicle in front of me. A courier van. On the top part of the back of the van was a picture of a globe with a massive New Zealand flag coming out from it. I thought to myself "thats kinda cool." Then I saw a phrase written near the bottom of the van. "The impossible is not a fact, it is just an opinion." BAM! I then cracked up because God was hardout speaking to me through a courier van. As I began to think about it more, I realized its sooo true. Sometimes we limit ourselves, and limit God because of our own perspective of what we see as possible or impossible. 

I've been reading a book recently called 'Fire and Fragrance' by Sean Feucht and Andy Byrd, and heres an excerpt, that really spoke to me.

"The word perspective, though used much, is understood little and way to infrequently put into practice for a redemptive purpose!Everyone has a perspective. It is not a matter of having it or not. The question is, who is dictating our perspective, what determines out perspective and what values are shaping our perspective. 

Just think for a moment. This morning you woke up and you began to view your day and your life with a specific perspective. That perspective will determine the tint with which you view all of life. It will either release life or death, joy or depression, risk or fear. I believe this to be one of the greatest battles for Christians in this day. How will we choose to view life, hardship, potential and our purpose as believers on this earth?

For way to many, the primary shaper of our perspectives on life is our circumstances. We have become slaves to our circumstances and live most of our lives responding to what may come.The responses are not all negative, but result in a life of defensive move after defensive move after defensive move rather than a continual move forward as a disciplined army taking battlefield after battlefield on a road to sure victory! For many of us, we taken our perspectives from the recent headlines written from a primarily negative , ungodly and extremely humanistic news media. If this becomes our daily food, and report card on the well-being or the advancement of the Kingdom, then no wonder why the Body struggles with a sense of hope for the future. Often this only feeds our propensity towards cynicism and skepticism rather than stirring faith for the seemingly impossible."

He then goes on to talk about when the twelve spies were sent into the land of Canaan. In Numbers 13:2, God tells them to "...spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel..." God had already given them the land, yet 10 of them went in with the lens of taking the land through human possibility rather then the never-failing promise of God. 

I was really challenged by this. Do I see the problems around me with my own eyes and understanding, or do I see them with the lens of Heaven? 

A couple of weeks ago my hours at work got cut to hardly anything. My initial reaction was to panic, but then I thought about and God says in His Word that He is my Provider. It is in His nature to be Provider, so when I say to Him "God, be my provider." I'm simply letting Him be who He is. I think that this is looking through the lens of Heaven and what God says about a situation, rather than looking at it through human eyes.

So dreaming for the impossible. I think that it starts with a change of perspective. With God, nothing is impossible, so I want to start dreaming like nothing is impossible. I want to dream with the lens of Heaven.

Last Sunday, I was at church, and the song "Rain Down" by Delirious was playing. Its one of those songs that you know so well that you just sing without really thinking about it. This time though, one of the lines in the song really stood out to me.

" I FEEL LIKE IT'S TIME TO DREAM AGAIN."

God is so speaking this to me at the moment. Its time to dream again. What are the dreams I have for my life, my church, this nation? Its time to dream again. I feel though that this is not only just for me, but for others out there too. Its time to dream again. 

I want to encourage all of you to take some time out this week to begin to daydream with God. Take some time to dream the impossible. 

Weekend.

This weekend was full of good times! I went up home to Whangarei on Thursday because my beautiful friend Jessie was getting married in the weekend, and also coz it was my birthday and its always nice to be with the family on ya birthday. I always LOVE going home for the weekend. My family and I are really close, and its good to catch up with friends as well, plus a little shopping never hurts haha.

On Saturday it was my birthday and I turned 20!! It freaks me out a little, coz I feel like I'm getting old, like my childhood is officially over. Oh well, I'm sure I'll get used to it. 

Its a birthday tradition in my family that the birthday person gets to choose ANYTHING they want for breakfast. Over the years we have had a variety of weird stuff including doughnuts, lamingtons and gross-full-of-sugar cereal that we were usually never allowed. I chose to have my usual fave. French toast with bacon, banana, and maple syrup accompanied by good coffee. I also invited some friends over to join in. A perfect start to the day!!

We then went to my friend, Jessie's, wedding. Such a lovely wedding and Jess was an absolute stunner!! 

My incredible mum made the wedding cake. How beautiful is it??

The wedding had a country theme to it and on the tables were pretty spring flowers in jars and mini hay bales that had the names of the people sitting on the table, sticking out of then. 

 

Me and some of my friends.

Oh and do you remember in my last post how I said I was going to get back into painting again?? Well, I finished my first one! 

Hmmm bad photo of it, but you get the idea. I gave it to my grandma. It is representative of some things we are praying for. 

How was your weekend?

Happenings.

Hello there..yes, so i did totally forget to do a Tunes Tuesday!! Oh life, why must you be so busy??!! So this blog post is gonna be a few blog posts in one..I've had a few things that I wanna blog about but haven't gotten around to doing it, so I'm condensing it all into one!! haha.

First up...I've had some pretty nice packages in the mail lately..

I got this lovely package in the mail today from my aunty. Its a crocheted blanket that my great grandmother made! I love it! I'm all about family history, and retro/antique. This made my day.

Also got my first NZSale purchase in the mail about a week ago..some lovely colours of nail polish! The pale purple is my fave! The coral is really pretty too!

I have two weddings to go to in March..the first is my friend Jessie, who I've been friends with since primary school, yes we go waaayyyy back! The first of my school friends to get married! I am so stoked for her! The second are my friends Mike and Jess, who were also part of the Internship I did last year. Mike was one of my flatmates last year, and Jess is such an amazing friend. Mike and Jess are having a destination wedding on Great Barrier Island, so that gonna be a whole heap of fun! Photos to come...

Anyways, I decided that I need a new outfit for these up and coming weddings (haha as girls do, we need a new outfit for every occasion!) so I went over to Hamilton for the day. My outfit is sooo different from what I was thinking I'd come back with, but I still LOVE it! Heres a sneak peak...

On the 11/11/2011 at 11mins past 11, me and my friends had an Eleven Party..which was mostly just an excuse to hang out and eat nice food, coz what else do you do in Te Aroha? We made 11/11 Resolutions, just for fun. One of mine was to start painting again. I did art for all my NCEA Levels and got really good marks, but since leaving school I haven't done any painting at all. So last time I went back home, I grabbed all my paints, brushes and canvas I found lying around. Watch this space!!

This week one of my best friends moved down to the South Island. Beautiful Janelle, I'm gonna miss you so much, but I'm so excited about what's ahead for you. You were born for greatness, and I can't wait to see what you and God get up too! Love ya! 

Roasted Chickpeas

ok, so you probably saw the titles of this blog and were like "what the heck??". Yup. I thought that too when I first saw this little idea on Pinterest. Lately I've been trying to eat more healthy. No sugar. No dairy. No meat. No coffee!!! (i know...that one is the hardest, especially when i wake up in the morning to the smell of coffee brewing in my flatmates brand new percolator!) So basically I'm going vegan for three weeks, to try change my eating habits to more healthier ones. I've been at it for a lil over 2 weeks now, and so far I've lost bout 2kgs. Its been really good because its taught me to snack on fruit instead of satisfying my sweet tooth. But I've also been wondering what other snacks I can make that are healthy and yum, so when i saw "roasted chickpeas" on Pinterest, I thought I'd give it a go. Plus so many people were raving about how good they were.

So first of all I drained the chickpeas from the can and rinsed them under water. I then put them on a paper towel to get rid of some of the moisture, then put them on a tray on some baking paper. Pour some oil over top and then kinda move them around to make sure they all get oil on them. I put them in the oven at 180degrees for around 40mins. You can tell when they are cooked when they brown up and start splitting. 

I then decided to flavor them with some half a teaspoon each on curry powder, garam masala, and cumin, but I think it was a bit too much spice for the amount of chickpeas I had so next time i would do less. 

Surprisingly they weren't too bad! I probably wouldn't go to town raving about them, but they make a nice, healthy snack and are super easy and cheap to make. They are definitely not as good the next day though.

Heres another snack idea I tried out! Fruit popsicles!!! Cut up some fresh fruit and put it in some popsicle moulds, then pour in fruit juice! Yum! How cute are these guitar popsicles??

Tunes Tuesday..

Wow Tuesday rolls round fast..haha don't get time to blog in between my tuesday posts so it seems..this must change! 
This weeks tunes are by Andrew Belle..a favorite Noisetrade download (don't think he's on there anymore. He got too cool for noisetrade!) ..best ever decision I made to click that download button!! Me and my friends LOVE this guy's music. Cool beans lyrics, awesome tunes. He is one of our inspirations to write. 

Check out more of his stuff here.
What are you listening to at the moment?

For Laughs.

I have gotten so much enjoyment outta this video...it cracks me up! Stuff Christian Girls Say. watch it and have a good chuckle!