Complaining

I've been complaining a lot lately. Every morning when I wake up dis-contentedness threatens to ruin my entire day and I start whining about the things that aren't exactly how I want them. I hate complaining. It is SO annoying. And I hate it when I constantly have that attitude. It's rather exhausting. So, that being said, I'm asking God to help me refocus and realize how much I have to be thankful for, first and foremost, my salvation in Christ alone. Along with a million other things, here is a list I made in an effort to be more thankful.

Thanking God for:
-cute aprons
-music to cook/clean house to
-my trusty car, Vinny
-the time off to go visit Sister and Brother-in-law
-my awesome church family
-God's grace in keeping me at home, keeping me from making stupid mistakes
-My Dad, who keeps me smiling
-my first niece or nephew on the way!!!!
-the privilege to make food for Wednesday night Bible study and serve the body of Christ
-dishwashers
-Coca-Cola (especially from Sonic)
-my Love story....even though it hasn't played out yet and I don't know when it will, God has it all planned out and it's going to be beautiful
- Olivia Jane, ya, uh-huh.
-Inside jokes(even the stupid juans)
-forgiveness
-A mom that I can talk to about anything and everything, and how she brings me back to reality when I'm lost in my dramatic world of extremes. :)
-words to express thoughts, feelings, and emotions with

The Big Picture

Confession #1: I don't know everything.
Confession #2: That really bugs me sometimes. To the point that I try so hard to figure it out that I totally miss the big picture and end up knowing less than when I started.
The past couple of weeks haven't exactly been a piece of cake for me and I found myself going, "why? Come on, God, clue me in here. You say this is gonna work out for my ultimate good, but...quite honestly, I'm not seeing it." Then I was reading in Hebrews about faith. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Hebrews 11:1. It reminded me of a Sara Groves song that says, "I want to know the ending, things hoped for, but not seen, But I guess that's the point of hoping anyway." In other words, I don't have to know how it's going to end, why it's happening, or what's going on, because the God of the universe has it perfectly under control. And if I knew everything, what good would faith do? And since God really knows what He's doing, there is no point in me trying to figure it out. Honestly that is quite a relief because trying to figure it out is exhausting. So, I will put my faith in the God of the universe who made me and planned out my life and keep reminding myself that, it's ok that I don't know everything.
O God, give me the grace that I need for today. Give me faith to believe in my heart, the stuff that I know in my head. And thank you that for the trials you put me through that draw me closer to You. In Jesus name, amen.

-JRae
P.S. I'm preaching to myself here. It's possible I will forget tomorrow and need reminding again...feel free to do so. :)

Oops...

Ok, so epic failure at blogging...sorry guys. I don't really have much to blog about, but I'll give you the short story.....I went to the beach last week with my mom and had a blast. Me and my Dearest Twin are reading Hebrews together which has been very good for the both of us. I'm making really hard choices and learning really hard lessons. Words of the wise....listen to Mom's advice the first time. She really does know what she's talking about. The End. Other than that, I've been waitressing, cleaning, and who knows what all. There ya go. You're updated. For further detail, talk to me in person. :)

-JRae

I want a hammock. The end.

So ya....

If you haven't already discovered....I'm back on Facebook. Long story short: I've set some guidelines for myself and am gonna have like a trial period to see if I can stick to those guidelines. If I can...then I'll be back for a while. :) If not, then well....I'm back off again for good. See you in cyber world!

New Favorites

Ok, so at the Farmhouse we have a new menu. Which other than making me have to memorize a whole new menu, it's pretty awesome. Not only is it a new look, but we've added a few things and improved what was already there. I thought it my duty to try as many of the new items as possible in order to be better equipped to serve my guests. I know, I know, it's a tough responsibility, but hey, someone's gotta do it. So, I started out the tasting with the new Sweet Potato Pancakes. I almost fainted after the first bite. They were simply WONDERFUL!!! The pecan praline syrup on top was just sinful and I ate all three giant pancakes on my plate. :) We've also got a couple new sandwiches on the menu: The Farmhouse Club and The Catfish PoBoy. I've had both. The club is super yummy and you get like 4 big wedges of sandwich! Add a side of the new sweet potato fries with homemade ranch and you're in business. Ok, so I thought the club was good....but then I had the PoBoy.......and once again people were catching me so I wouldn't faint. IT IS SO YUMMY!!!!!!!! Like "make you wanna slap the person closest to you" yummy! It's also one huge sandwich...which means you get to take the other half home to drool over the next day for lunch. Needless to say I am counting the minutes until lunch time. I keep opening my fridge to stare at my recyclable to go box that has the pure goodness inside. WaHAHAHA! Food is so fun.

Enough of food for now. On to another new favorite. A new song. And with that last sentence some of you are already cringing at what will come in the next sentence. Because, ladies and gentlemen, most of you have guessed....it's a new Owl City song. :D He wrote it for that new movie coming out later this month about...you guessed it....owls. The song is about flying and since I've always wanted to fly I immediately fell in love with it. It is easily in my top five favorite Owl City songs. So of course I went straight to iTunes and bought it with my hard earned tip money from the night before. :) It's called To The Sky and it's wondermous!

? m laying here, dead tired, but my brain is going a mile a minute and I can't fall asleep! Blast! Just sayin... -JRae posted from my phone.

? Ya know how in Star Wars C3PO has that turn off switch that Han Solo is so fond of switching off?...well i could really use one right now on my brain. I'