March and April

I do realize that we are 11 days into May.
January and February life, as much of a roller coaster as it seemed, was pretty straight forward.
March and April, and now even May, are a little different. Throughout my devotions, our women's retreat, and the messages each Sunday, God is planting seeds of truth in my life that I am waiting to watch them take root and unfold.

The waiting is sometimes hard. But necessary.
The last several months I have been reading through Paul's letters to the churches. So many people at so many stages of their Christian walks, but God gave Paul the wisdom to speak truth into each of their situations, with such humility. I have been reading first and second Timothy lately. He was encouraging Timothy to live a life that was marked by the Gospel.

Since January, I knew that the Lord was leading me to different pursuits. To stop teaching full time. I just needed a break. I was tired, there was so much going on in life and our family. I was pursuing so many things that I was feeling crazy because nothing was going well. It has been a call for us to trust Him more because there are still a lot of unknowns for how God is going to carry us into the future. We don't know all of his plans, but yet we feel such peace in this decision. I get to spend more time with my boys at home. I get to give them my first best for a while, instead of the tiredness left in me at the end of the day. He has slowly begun to open up doors for us. I will teach part time while the boys go to preschool. Will has some opportunities to begin pursuing. Every time I begin to worry again, God pulls me closer so I remember that I am in his hands.

For this season I really need to stop pursuing goals, but focus on pursuing God. I need to strip away so many things in my life that are holding keeping my attention from Him. I need to pursue less things in life, but do them well, in a manner that pleases the Lord.

Not that life will necessarily get easier, or less busy. But I think the change of pace will be good. There is loss though. I am leaving a dear school and many sweet co-workers and friends who have supported me through all the joys and pains of teaching. My built-in friends and supports won't be there anymore. But I get to pursue God's designs for my life in a different way. I want to pursue Him and know him more deeply. I know he will continue to provide the right people to encourage me.
It is still not quite making sense, in my head, what next year looks like. But I know HE knows, and right now, for me, that is enough.

Strawberries

I love fruit picking. Last year we went strawberry picking for the first time and I realized how wonderful it is. We used to go blueberry picking, and I will definitely go again this summer, but picking tiny berries in the scorching heat does not seem to suit the boys very well. It takes forever since the berries are so small. They get bored and hot after 15 minutes. And the bucket it barely filled up to my liking.

Strawberries on the other hand. Perfect. It doesn't take too long. 

Alex was busy picking the whole time. Which was 30 minutes give or take. Not long at all.

Liam is wonderful at eating strawberries. It wasn't too hot. He could sit down and not get lost in the bushes.

This picture sums it up. Liam eats, Alex feels important because he has his own basket. And both refuse to look or smile at the camera. 

So what does one do with three baskets of strawberries?

I asked Alex what we should make with them. I was thinking strawberry shortcake. Grab some pre-made stuff and add strawberries.
Of course he would suggest sometime like cupcakes. Or cake. He went back and forth most of the car ride home.
Of course, I am already on pinterest as we are leaving the strawberry patch. But what way to more quickly get some ideas, and think about a list of ingredients I need before we get home.
I just knew it needed whipped cream. What better way to add strawberries to a dessert than add in some whipped cream. (unless you are making chocolate covered strawberries, and we ran out before I had the chance)

So these are the recipes I ended up using.
I found the strawberry cupcake recipe here and doubled it because I was going to make some for our community group and my hallway at school. It was delicious. Even though my butter wasn't totally room temperature and never mixed in very well.

And the strawberry whipped cream was divine. You can find the recipe here. And just go ahead and make extra of that too because it tastes good with everything.

The rest of the strawberries were eaten fresh! The boys ate them with almost every meal and as snacks. They were delicious with my granola and yogurt in the mornings too. We ate up Alex's basket first because he didn't totally grasp the concept of picking BIG strawberries... his were nice and red but pretty tiny!

Anyways. I am looking forward to filling my freezer with blueberries this summer. And we missed apple picking last year, so I am excited to do that in the fall too! But strawberry picking will always be one of my favorite family activities too! :)