Taste of Defeat

Yeah, I lost the wager (thanks for reminding me, Cindy). But the wifey was gracious and minimized my punishment to one day of cooking. I ended up buying a Boboli crust and baking a pizza. It’s a pretty fun and simple meal to make.

1. Prepare the dough. I bought the store-ready type, but since this time, Cathie’s made a good amount of dough via our bread maker and froze it for future use. We’ve already used a few to make some pizza and they turned out great. It definitely helps to have a rolling pin though.
2. Spread out some marinara sauce. The wifey prefers her side of the pizza with a pesto sauce base.
3. Sprinkle your toppings. We’ve been using a yummy sweet sausage from Trader Joe’s, salami, mushrooms, bell peppers, tomatoes, and bacon.
4. Toss a generous helping of mozzarella cheese over the whole thing. The cheese is key, as it’s the glue to the whole thing.
5. Bake to a golden crust and lightly-browned cheese. I think we baked it at 400F for about 15 minutes.

Easy and quick. All those years of training at Papa Johns has finally paid off.

Before

After

Home Sweet Home

Cathie’s had some time off lately, so she’s been a busy bee decorating our home. I was comfortable in our cozy loft before, but it really does make a difference to add some color to our place. It’s starting to feel like a home. I’d post more pictures, but I don’t want to steal her thunder, since she’ll be posting more of her photos soon.

Sneak peak

Don’t Waste Your Miscarriage – Part 2

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing…Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. James 1:2-4, 17

Our care group leader, Gary, told us he wanted his son to play football, not because he wanted him to become a great football player, but he wanted his son to experience some measure of difficulty growing up. In the area they live, Gary couldn’t think of many hardships his son would face, so at least in playing high school football, he would learn discipline the hard and rigorous way. That really resonated with me because when he shared that, I felt like I grew up very cushioned. My understanding of hardship was not getting 8 hours of sleep one night because of school work, or not making it to UCLA, my dream school.

But in the experience Cathie and I had to go through, I see God’s grace in refining my heart in this particular way. There’s so much good that comes from trials. He certainly uses the darkness of our trials to draw our eyes to the shining light of his cross. Only because he chose to save us and fill us with the Spirit can we experience comfort and hope in these times. And it’s only because of the Spirit within us that we could see God pouring out his grace so abundantly in our lives.

I can begin to see how it’s possible that we could possibly count it all joy in the midst of trials. It’s a privilege that God would choose to sanctify us, because we’re confident that’s his will in all trials for his children (1 Thessalonians 4:3). So either in blessings or in trials, we trust that they are both good gifts from God, the Father of lights.