So Tired....

 Today I just can't seem to get past how tired I am. I literally stood in the shower and tried not to cry. That's how tired I am. But at the same time I praise the Lord for how He helps me to see things. For the whole 30 minutes I stood in the shower bemoaning my life, wondering why it has to be like this, why I have to be so tired, now I'm sitting here and all I can think about is, i'm so tired, but it feels good. I have this accomplished feeling that one gets from working hard all day, and knowing that I will be working hard again tomorrow.  True, some moments I feel like I can't continue knowing that I work every single day of the week. At times I am so so jealous of Derek who gets days off and just lays around. (Which is totally what I would do......) But at the same time. I am so thankful that God has provided me with work, so that we can save up to have things that we dream about all the time.
 At some point, when I cease to be tired, and I have time to seriously sit down and do this, I am going to put a whole post about my "Truffle Dips". I created them from a suggestion, people have raved about them, and I decided to try and market them. They are a lot of work, but totally worth it. They are heavenly good!!!!! And yesterday, because of a really good friend, I sold 36 of them!!!!!! That is such a big praise. I will totally jump on any chance to make any extra money possible. So exciting!!!!!!
 This brings me to something else that I am thankful for. Great and Awesome friends. God provides them in the strangest places, and sometimes in people that we never thought possible to be friends with, and God uses them to bless and encourage us. God has used my best friend Katherine to be such a blessing to me. I love how we can be miles and miles apart, go without seeing each other for almost a year, and still be able to be blessed by one another. Her radiating Christ in everything she does is such an encouragement to me. Thank you Lord for such a good friend.  Her mother is such a blessing as well. She cares so much about everything and I know that she prays for me every day. Such little things like that, touch my heart so much!!!!!!
  Oh! And before I forget. Another praise. We looked at an apartment several weeks ago, not sure if that is where God wanted us, still not sure if it is where He wants us, but the landlords have decided to offer us the apartment. Please pray for us as we seek God's wisdom in this decision!!!!!!!!!

Life.....Just Life

  There seems to be no better fitting title for this post than just life. Nothing extremely exciting has happened, and nothing too horrible has happened either. God continues to teach us so much as we're living in this interesting situation, and He continues to bring blessing after blessing into our lives. We just have to learn to step back and realize we're being blessed.
  One of the biggest blessings that have happened this summer is my getting my old job back at the farmer's market. I loved working at Anderson's Farm Market, and when we moved back into the area I wanted to pursue working there again. However, just from suggestions from my family, and God's holding me back, I never pursued that dream of mine. Then one day my boss, Bill, approached me and asked me if I would be interested in working at the market again. Praise the Lord!!!!! Now I have been working at the market again for about a month, getting steadily 40+ hours a week. Praise the Lord!!!!! He has just allowed me to be working there again, at a much closer location, with good pay. I still do work at Wegman's on Sundays, sometimes not the greatest hours, but it's another job that the Lord has provided and I hate to give it up. I would say my biggest struggle these days is the fact that I don't have a day off, I work every day of the week, and I am tired. But I am learning to be productive in the hours that I am not working, and God is slowly teaching me to be a clean housewife. ;)
  Derek has received some blessings in the work area as well since we moved up to New York. This has been so hard for him, living with my parents, not much privacy, and his searching constantly for full-time employment. For the longest time he didn't have any luck at all. Then he finally got an interview with Borg Warner, and then we started waiting again. When we finally did hear from them it was that Derek got hired!!!!! But....waiting again, there weren't any job openings for him yet, so we had to wait until there was one. But meanwhile, in the Wegman's area, Derek was able to transfer departments. Now he is working in the Dairy department, and they are giving him a consistent 30 hours a week which is something he wasn't getting before. Praise the Lord!!!!! And some days, they are so understaffed in Dairy, Derek gets to stay late to help them catch up.  So with his working 30+ hours a week, and my working close to 50, we don't really get to see each other much. Something else I'm learning, to appreciate and cherish the times that we do have together.
  Praise the Lord!!!! Derek was able to get a new car. He is so excited, today was his first day of getting to drive it around and he loves it! The man is soooo excited!!!!!! It is such a praise though, that we were able to find a car for the right price, and one that made my husband happy!
  We are praying about an apartment right now. We have been looking around, and we went and looked at one a week or so ago, and we have been praying about this apartment, because it is looking good. Just hoping to get God's direction in this area as it is so easy to just move forward without really praying and asking for God's wisdom in this decision.

 Whew!!! So much to be thankful for. It just amazes me what God has done for us, and what He continues to do for us every day. Just today He was teaching me another lesson on my attitude at work. My boss asked me to do something and before I could even think I made a noise that showed how I was not excited about doing what he asked. So then he told me to do something else and he did it instead. To my compassionate heart that is trying so hard to be liked....OUCH!!!!!! Then it got me thinking, am I not paying attention as much as I should? Am I acting as professional and grown up as I would at any other job? Am I being a good example? Then when my boss brought it up it caused me to think about it more again. I think God halted me and said, "Yo Sarah, humility?!" Yeah it's so awesome that I have this job, but I can't take it for granted. It could be taken away from me as easily as it was given to me. I need to pay more attention, and quit cutting corners just because I feel comfortable. I know I'm rambling, but this is something that happened today, and I felt the need to blog about it. God help me to stay humble and be a good example to those around me. Wow....so much to think about.

Here are a few photos in celebration of my 1 year anniversary, even though it was a couple weeks ago, I though I would share some of my favorites. I have such fond memories of that day, but it also flew by way too fast. Myself and a couple of my friends have officially decided that every couple of years a bride should get to plan herself another wedding. By the fourth or fifth one we'd get pretty good at it, don't you think?

          

  This was totally not fair of me......In conversations leading up to the wedding he had informed me that he wouldn't smash cake in my face. But what did I do? I smashed cake in his face. I have such a determined look on my face. In reality, I am not usually that mean. Maybe Derek would disagree............

 This is just one of my favorites. The fact that we got to ride around downtown Homer in the back of a really old cool looking pick-up truck just made the afternoon. The whole day was fun actually. The only downside was all those bugs in my skirt.........                                                                                                                                                                   

Sarah's Labor Day Meal

So I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I love to cook. Bake would actually be the better word, because I prefer baking, but I also love to cook. So for Labor Day Derek and I decided to have a couple friends over, and since I miss cooking for my friends so much I decided that I would do the cooking. The line-up for the meal includes......Teriyaki Steak, Country White Bread, Potato Salad, Green Beans and Oreo Truffles.
                                               TERIYAKI STEAK
2lb boneless chuck steak marinated in:
1/2 cup soy sauce                1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup cider vinegar           1 clove garlic minced
2 Tbsp brown sugar            1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 Tbsp minced onion
This marinated all day then I broiled in the oven until cooked to taste.

                                             COUNTRY WHITE BREAD
I am so lucky to have received a bread machine when i got married. It has made my life so much easier. I greatly enjoy the ability to just throw the ingredients into the machine and walk away.
7-9 ounces milk                        1 large egg
1 1/2 Tbsp butter                      4 cups bread flour
3 Tbsp sugar                            2 tsp active dry yeast
These ingredients I threw into my bread machine on the dough setting. When the timer beeped I threw the dough into a loaf pan, allowed to rise again for about a half-hour, then threw into the oven at 350 for 28 minutes.

The potato salad is my mother's area of expertise, and I let her make it today just because she makes it better than I do. It includes a yummy assortment of potatoes, hardboiled egg, pickles, bacon and mayonnaise mixed in with it to create a scrumptuous salad.

                                                   

Relationships and Life

Living with my parents again has been an interesting experience. At first I thought that it wasn't going to be any big deal, we're just living with my parents right? It took me awhile to figure out what this experience was doing to my relationship with my husband. I hadn't realized that God built men to feel a need to provide for their families. This was exactly what Derek was feeling, but I didn't understand. God has been using this time to teach me about my husband, and to teach me that my marriage isn't all about me. (Funny thought right?!) After I took the time to set aside my selfish feelings and learn about his feelings....I feel like I understand him a little bit better. (Another funny thought.)
Now that this situation may be coming to an end soon, I have been thinking back about what this situation has taught me.
Now as an update, Derek had an interview just a couple of weeks ago and we have been waiting yet again to find out if he got the job. This is a full-time position, which would obviously provide us with more money to pay our bills. As a huge praise, God has presented me with a job that is helping to add a little extra money to our bank account each week, and is much closer so it doesn't require me driving an hour to get to work. God really does know what needs that we have, and how to provide for them. I have also learned the difference between things I want, and things I need. For instance....right now, I want my own kitchen, but I don't need my own kitchen.
I have decided though, that once I do have my own kitchen again...I will greatly appreciate it. =)

Learning to Wait....

Gosh, it has been forever since I have written here. So much has happened. First on May 28th we moved in with my parents to start looking for full-time work in the area, and to hopefully save some money to get back up on our feet before getting a house or apartment.
Well, It is now July 6th, and we seem to be nowhere in the job situation. It took two weeks after we moved in for Wegmans to complete our transfer, so we spent two very long weeks without work. We were applying everywhere, only to be turned down, or just not answered.
The week work started at Wegmans life just became extremely busy. Sure they were only giving each of us about 16 hours a week, but it's an hour drive to Wegmans in Ithaca, so most of our days that we worked were spent at Wegmans.
We also were able to travel to Frederick, Maryland to help open a brand new Wegmans there. They paid for our gas, travel time, put us up in a hotel, and paid us to work 81/2 hours a day. That week was awesome. It was just nice to get away, be alone, and go out to eat every night.
Derek has interviewed for several jobs, and then not gotten any further. Currently he is still waiting on one job which he knows he is getting an interview, it is just a matter of when. I thankfully, after not getting very far with one job, have a second part-time job lined up. Hopefully things will work out with that.
As far as normal life goes, I would have to say that spirits are down. Staying in my brother's bedroom, not having any time or space to ourselves, makes for small tempers as well. I think we have fought more since moving in with my parents than the whole time of our married life up to this point. Sigh.....ah to be grown up.

I did however get the chance to read a great chapter in a book about learning to wait, and how to wait the right way. I had to laugh when I read it cause, all I can think about is that we're stuck here in my parents house, waiting for God to provide us with full-time work, when it seems like we've been turned down at every place we've looked, and God still wants me to praise Him. That is the furthest thing from my mind right now! Being focused on worshipping Him, finding ways to serve Him, when all I can think about is my problems and how my life is screwed over.  Maybe God is just trying to teach me, that in the midst of my adversaries, i need to be content, and fully focused on Him. Still a totally far ways away from that, but learning to wait.

Carrot Bread with Cream Cheese Icing

2 Cups Flour
2/3 Cup Packed Brown Sugar
2 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Nutmeg
1/4 tsp. Baking Soda
1/4 tsp. Salt
2 Cups Shredded Carrots
2 Beaten Eggs
2/3 Cup Milk
1/3 Cup Canola Oil
Grease 1 8x4x2 loaf pan, or 3 4 3/4x2 1/2x2 pans; set aside. In a bowl stir together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl combine carrots, eggs, milk and oil; add to dry ingredients, stirring until just moistened. Pour batter into prepared pan(s). Bake for 55-60 minutes for large loaf pan, or 30-35 minutes for small loaf pans. Check 10-15 minutes before time is up and if browning to quickly place foil over the top. Remove from oven and let cool. When completely cooled cover with Cream Cheese Icing.

Cream Cheese Icing
Whisk together 2 oz cream cheese, 3/4 cup powdered sugar and 3-4 tsp. milk until smooth and glaze like. Drizzle over the top of Carrot Bread.