Down on "Grandpa" 's Farm

Ayer mi familia y yo fuimos a la casa de unos antiguos amigos.

Mi hermana y yo les llamamos "Abuelo y Abuela" porque ellos eran como padres a mi papa.

Pues, porque no hemos visitado a ellos hace unos meses, mi papa decidio que debamos visitarlos.

Muy pronto despues de iglesia, hicimos el viaje a la casa de ellos.

Hacia un poco frio cuando llegamos y antes largo empezaba llover .  
Pero esto no previno a mi hermana y yo de pasear por la finca :)

Me encanta los campos.

El espacio abierto.


Por cierto, todo esto es muy diferente de mi barrio.

Ahora, tengo que irme.

Hasta muy pronto!

~~
Isabel

Isabel's Week in Review

This week has been super busy.

The first half of the week I did a lot of math team prep and Spanish review.

Next week is my last week to prepare for state math competition and Spanish AP.

I'm especially nervous about the Spanish AP.  It's a really hard test; I know from experience :/
So if you think of me this week and/or on May 8th, and would pray for my test, I'd really appreciate it!

I really saw God's provision this week.
We'd been praying about finding a horn for me, since I'm graduating band and next year I'll be considered an adult.  ("Adults" don't get dibs on rentals. )
I really enjoy horn and I really didn't want to give it up next fall!
But we looked online and the horns were all really expensive and far away...
Then on Wednesday, a local music store had it's "big closing sale".
Mom and I both said on the way there: "If God wants us to find a horn, we'll find one."
Well, we walked in, and the prices really weren't that amazing.
10% off all music= closing discount???
But then we turned and saw the table where the used instruments were.
And what did I see but a French horn!!
It was significantly discounted, and it was in much better condition than my rental horn!
Long story short mom called dad, dad said yes, and we bought the horn.
I found out later that other people had their eye on that horn too.
If we had come any later, it would have been gone!
Yes, God provides and his timing is perfect :)


Later on Wednesday, we met our new volunteer at the hospital!
It was my first time training a volunteer and I arrived a taddy bit late so I was rather rushed.
And I was so hyper, it was crazy! The adult volunteer said to me:
"Honey, slow down. You're ok!!" Lol I must have seemed stressed.
Training went really well, thanks to my much more experienced volunteer partner Julia :)


Thursday was band.
I found out that "Pines of Rome" was indeed chopped! So sad.
Oh well.. our line-up is long enough already. If it gets any longer, our audience will fall asleep Lol


Yesterday (Friday) night was frisbee with some friends!
It was really fun.
The only problem was, I had randomly been doing lunges and jogging on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning, and my legs were SO SORE friday night!
So I really didn't feel like running... at all.
But I got my workout!
And practiced my spanish w/one of my opponents :)
So HA.


Yesterday I got my drivers permit x)
Today I drove in our neighborhood a little bit which was fun!
Soon I will hopefully be able to drive on bigger roads.


So there's my week in review.


Enjoy your weekend!

Muy atentamente,

~~
Isabel

Lo De Siempre

Hola gente!

Ha sido mucho tiempo que no he escrito nada en espanol en mi blog.

Esto es porque yo estudiaba en casa y tambien yo apoyaba a mi mama preparar por muchas cosas por el fin de semana.

Tal vez yo podre escribir mas ahora que no estoy tan ocupada.

En realidad, estare muy ocupada hasta junio o julio.  Ay de mi.

Por lo pronto, hare mi mejor escribir cuando yo pueda.


Oye. He observado que hay una falta de jovenes amables en nuestra pais. Porque es?
Porque ellos no estudiar en casa! Jajajajajajaaaaaa! Estoy en broma.. ;)

Lo que importa es su caracter.


No lo se como podre terminar este ano escolar.  Viva o muerta, espero terminar. YA LO CREO.

Por cierto, estoy muy proximo a terminar algunos subjectos escolares.  Creo que despues de mayo, ellos caeran uno por uno como moscas x)

Pero a  la mismo tiempo me parece que escuela continuara por siempre. Lo de siempre...

Ustedes Estan aburrido por mi hablando de escuela?
Cuanto lo siento.



Voy a hablar de algo diferente.

Mucha gente les encanta la arena.

Ayer, yo y mis amigos jugamos algunas juegos en la arena en el centro.

Estuvimos muy sucios despues!


Quieran saber lo que no me gusta?

Las lecturas!

Estos son demasiados largos y no me da igual por ellos. 

Pero, aunque estos estan disgustos, ellos aumentan mi vocabulario.
Totalmente vale la pena! xD  Yo soportare las lecturas por proposito de mejorar mi espanol.
Que es esto: mi escribiendo ve como SHAKESPEARE!! Que loco.



Si mi blog se parece a ustedes extrano, es porque estoy tratando de incluir modismos y sucesos de mi vida diaria.
De veras, no es facil.
Es dificil tener exito escribir en una segunda idioma.


Sobre todo, cuando ustedes estudian por un examen, es importante tener confianza.


Si tuviera mas tiempo, yo podria continuar hablando.. sobre tintas, vasos, cuentas,  diarios, mayores, librerias y manteles.
Pero, sin querer, creo que yo le he aburrido a ustedes. 

Que lo pases bien!

Muy atentamente:

~~
Isabel

Trifle!

Well, I ran out of time to make 2 trifles.

So I made just one instead.

I chose to make the chocolate one x)

It was so rich! 

But I thought the combination of brownies, whipped cream, pudding... etc. was really tasty!

Overall it was fun&easy to make and it fed a crowd of people!


I'd love to write a big long profound post, but its MONDAY!

So... that's all.


~~
Isabel

Girls Day

Kefir experimentation update:Due to milk allergies, we haven't been using kefir very much.
Consequently, the kefir milk has gotten really old and gross and... yeah.
So, I decided to try something new.
Coconut milk kefir!!!
Let me just say: WOW!
Banana smoothie with coconut kefir is sooooooo delicious!!
Try it!!
Hopefully it will be easier to keep up with the curds now that we have a better way to use them.
If not, we'll just have to rinse, dry and freeze them.
Hopefully they won't die :P


Mooooooving right along.


Today was a girls day!

I spent my morning doing Spanish CLEP practice and a little food prep.

Mid morning, 5am came over to study and hang out x)

Have you ever put three girls with three different school subjects in a room together to study?
With "The Kraken" (pirates soundtrack) as background music?
The result is: LOL which stands for Lots Of Laughs xDDDDD
For the record: we did actually get stuff done ;)

After our diligent study session, mom took us out to run errands and go to the mall to do a little shopping!
[Side note: My mom is really amazing and she does so much for us! Thank you mom!! :)]
So we went to a few stores and found some adorable stuff.

And then
Per 5am's brilliant suggestion:
[Chinese fast food] for dinner!! ;D
I tried chow mien for the first time.
Soooooo yummy!!

Then we came home.

And then, FRISBEE!!!
Frisbee was cold, but really fun!
We played on the astro-turf, and by the end, my shoes were full of little rubber pieces.
The astro turf is really nice for running on though!
Yay for frisbee!!!!!!!!!!!


Tomorrow, I am hoping to make two trifles. I've never done this before and it looks a little more involved than I was hoping for on a busy Saturday like tomorrow.

However, we already bought the ingredients.
I hope there will be time to put the trifles together!
One will be chocolate and one strawberry.
They look really pretty in the pictures...

But can the pictures be duplicated?
We shall see........ }:)


You know what's amazing?
How fast this year has gone!
Yeah. The end of the school year is creeping up on me and I'm hardly aware of it.
It's scary actually!
All the classes, activities, events, and just life in general is so distracting from the school work that needs doing.
And all life's business is also distracting from the Lord!
As much as I love to be busy, sometimes, we just need quiet.
Psalm 46:10
"¹⁰ “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.” "
When there's so much commotion, it's easy to forget that God is GOD and that he is in control.
It's easy to forget to trust him completely when we're hardly stopping to breathe.
So while we need to get homework or whatever done,
We need to keep the Lord as our first priority!

God, please help us to keep you as our focus despite whatever we've got going on!



Ok, tomorrow is going to be busy so I better get ready.


Hasta luego!

~~
Isabel

Safely Returned

Praise the Lord!

My cousin in the military is safely back in the United States!

Not quite home... He won't be home for some time.

But he's in the country and hopefully out of harms way.

So thank you everyone who was praying for him!

Keep praying for all those other guys who are still over there!


~~
Isabel

Busy Days

Today I went to a school to sign up for a test I'm going to take soon!
I was practically skipping down the hallways.
And my friends were laughing at/with me... I always get so giddy when I go to a new place with lots of people x)

When I got home, I found the 29 emails my sister sent me.
Yes, she sent me 29 emails!!!
WOW.
Crazy girly girl! I love her <3

This week is so busy... in addition to all the normal activities, we have a bunch of random extra stuff going including a WEDDING SHOWER for my cousin! :D
I'm so excited for her and her fiance! The wedding day is approaching quickly!
We're helping organize the shower games.  It's been great fun finding game options, writing questions, etc.

I'm amazed how quickly this last semester has gone.
There's so much stuff I want to get done that I haven't yet... And so many things I need to wrap up all at once! It's hard to keep track of everything I need to do and remember! It's going TOO FAST! Can we please slooooooow down?!!?!?!??!

If this post is overly enthusiastic, I apologize. I'm drinking a chocolatey coffee thingy.

On that note, I'm going to go try to calm down, sit still, and take a math test.

Que lo pases bien!

~
Isabel

Demo, Chicks, Horn, Weather and Stuff.

Yesterday I gave my last 4h demonstration! This is bittersweet for me... more bitter than sweet because I really like public speaking! But it's sweet because I'm moving to a different stage of life! Aaaand, because I had 2 super fantabulous helpers for my speech! [3m, 5am]
My demonstration was about "Vetrap" (a stretchy, waterproof bandage for wrapping the dressing on a wound). It ended up sounding more like an advertisement than a demo because there really wasn't much information online about Vetrap except on websites that were selling it. Lol
For my demo, we decided to demonstrate how to use Vetrap by wrapping 5am's dog's leg x)

5am and 3m practicing wrapping Tabby.

The only dilemma was, we weren't sure how the church would feel about having a dog in the church...
Here's what's cool: during the meeting, a fire alarm went off so we all had to go outside. While we were outside, I realized "Hey, I can give my demo now and that way the dog won't have to come inside!"
So we got everyone in a circle and did the demo right there! God's timing is perfect! :)



Random subject change:

The chickies have grown!!

Aren't they so cute? All perched in a row :)
They were actually cold in this picture
It's been a cold April for the chicks! (and the garden!)

First we had a warm winter, now a chilly spring- what weather!





Funny story: 2 weeks ago I was playing horn for church.
It was my first time playing a prelude by myself on horn and, as you can imagine, I was a little nervous. So in between hymns, I was nervously pushing all the keys.
Well, I wasn't paying attention, and suddenly: "POP!", one of the strings on the key snapped!
So for the next hymn, I couldn't play F, Bflat or D! Lol
During the service, I was frantically looking for some way to temporarily fix the snapped string.
PTL- my sis had dental floss! So I was able to restring my horn with floss and play on the last hymn!
I will now be more gingerly with my horn.
Moral of the story: Nervous jitters? Don't fidget, just sit still :)





Alrighty I gotta go now.

Have a lovely weekend!
~~
Isabel

Funnel Clouds and Easter Thoughts

Quote from my sister:

"Life is like a funnel cloud... it picks everything up and spits it back out [in a different form]."

Very true, no?

I like the comparison of Life/Funnel cloud.

Everything is calm and seems to be going well, then out of nowhere it gets ripped up, like a twister came down and inhaled it.
And after the storm passes, you're left to sort through the debris, and try to salvage anything you can.

It would help if we could get a "severe weather warning" a few months in advance!
There would be time to prepare, and move stuff to shelter, and brace ourselves.

But it doesn't always work that way, does it?
*BOOM*


So why is life, like a tornado, so chaotic and devastating?

Well, I'd say it's because of sin.

Since the first man, Adam, sinned, sin has left it's mark on the world.


But God uses the chaos for good.

God is in control of the weather: Mark 4:41 "⁴¹ They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” "
And as he is in control of the weather, he's got our lives under control too.

And though life will sometimes seem like a hopeless mess,
God will use it for good. And he will use it to draw us closer to him!

Praise the Lord! :)





On a more "Easter-y" note:

Last night I attended a Passover feast at the home of some dear friends.

We've gone several times, and each year something new pops out at me.

The symbolism is extensive and amazing!

One of my favorite comparisons is:

The blood of the passover lamb was to be spread on the threshold of the doors in Egypt so that the angel of death would "pass over" and spare the lives of the firstborn in the house.
In the same way, the blood of Jesus covers our sin so that when God judges in the final day, he will see Christ's blood instead of our sin and we will be spared from eternal condemnation.

Wow!!!! Isn't that beautiful?

Jesus was the fulfillment of the passover. He was the perfect sacrifice and payment for our sin!


Out of a simple obedience to his Father, Jesus suffered and died so that all who believe might live!

Romans 5:18-19 "¹⁸ Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. ¹⁹ For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous."

This is good news!!!!!

He loves us, and forgives us over and over. His blood covers ALL of our sin!
WHAT A SACRIFICE!
Just think for a minute how amazing that is... his blood covers over everything we've ever done.
The stain of our sin is so great, we could never ever remove it. But God did for us what we could not do! Praise the Lord!

In light of this forgiveness and boundless love that we have received, we are reminded to forgive and love one another.

We are to forgive as Christ forgave:
Matthew 18:21-22 "²¹ Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” ²² Jesus *said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven." "

Because we have been forgiven completely and our sins have been erased, we should be challenged to be a channel of this forgiveness: we need to forgive the people that hurt us/wrong us. And forgive them again, and again and again and again if necessary.

Lord, help us forgive each other as you forgave/forgive us!


We should be a channel of the Love that God showed (and is showing) us.
1 Corinthians 12:4-6 "⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

Are we envious of others possessions or opportunities? That's not love.
Are we proud of some ability or accomplishment? That's not love.
Are we out to get what we want? That's not love.
Are we frequently angry or even bitter towards people in our lives because of some way they've hurt or betrayed us? That's not love.
Are we hurting others? Are we pessimistic? Are we hardened/closed off towards people in our lives?
That's not love!

It's easy to think I am a "loving person", but am I really?

God loved us so much that he sent his perfect son to DIE for us! Christ loved us so much that he was willing to die!
We need to love like that. That should be our goal.

God, help us all to love one another as you have loved us!

This Sunday as we think about the wonder of God's plan for redemption,

Thank the Lord for his sacrifice!

Praise him for his victory!

♫"Oh Victory in Jesus, my Savior forever, He sought me and bought me, With His redeeming blood,
He loved me ere I knew Him, And all my love is due Him. He plunged me to victory, Beneath the cleansing flood."

He is Risen!

Hornear Es Vivr

or: Baking is living!
;)



I like to bake.

It's been interesting finding dairy free stuff.

There are a lot of dairy free food's out there, but many of them are processed, sugary junk.

For someone who's body is already having trouble digesting dairy due to allergies, replacing dairy with junk doesn't seem to be a good solution.

Then, when you find a product that isn't junk, it often turns out tasting blehhh!

We're finding that the best dairy free foods are the ones you make yourself! :D




So this week I tried 2 recipes!


First, dairy free Peanut Butter cookies!

Ok, I admit these really weren't as healthy as they should have been.
We ran out of whole wheat flour so I used normal. And they had quite a bit of sugar.
Still, they were far better than store bought cookies cuz we knew what we put in them!

Mixing the peanut butter.

Mixing the dough.

  

My handy-dandy taste tester person :)

Baking!

Finished product.

 Second, Chicken Fajita Pizza!

I love pizza, and this recipe was awesome cuz it was dairy free!

The crust was made with whole grain, and the topping is just peppers, tomatoes, chicken, mushrooms, onions and spices!

 Very yummy- I hope to make it again this summer when we have fresh tomatoes and peppers!







Well, I gotta finish cleaning up.

Buenas Noches!


~
Isabel

Muchos Pensamientos

Hoy es jueves!

A donde fue mi semana?!

La semana pasada, tendria dolor de garganta! Sentia como dejar caer muerta.



<<aleatorio cambio de sujeto!>>

Ayer fue al centro para ir de compras. Tendria mucho gusto con mis compras :)

Esta manana, tengo mucha hambre. Tengo ganas de comer galletas!! Jaja.

Tengo lastima de los que no pueden comer galletas.  Pobrecitos!



<<aleatorio cambio de sujeto!>>

Tengo mucho sueno hoy.  Esta noche, dormire a pierna suelta.

Pues, si yo beba demasiada cafe es posible que no jejeje.


<<aleatorio cambio de sujeto!>>

Mis amigas son muy divertidos.  Todavia morirme de risa xD  Pues, quiero decir que tengo mucho gusto en reir con ellos.

 

<<aleatorio cambio de sujeto!>>

Bueno, tengo algo que decir. Es mal tener envidia de alguien.  1 Corintios 13:4-7 "⁴ El amor es paciente, es bondadoso. El amor no es envidioso ni jactancioso ni orgulloso.⁵ No se comporta con rudeza, no es egoísta, no se enoja fácilmente, no guarda rencor.⁶ El amor no se deleita en la maldad sino que se regocija con la verdad.⁷ Todo lo disculpa, todo lo cree, todo lo espera, todo lo soporta."

Nos ponemos de acuerdo, no? Si!

Debemos compartir el amor de Dios.  Pero si estamos envidiosos o orgullosos o jactanciosos, echamos a perder la belleza de del amor de Dios!
No debemos quedarnos en nuestros maneras pecaminosas: Debemos  amar como Jesucristo nos ha amado! :)


Bueno,

Tengo que irme.  !Cuanto lo siento!
Atentamente,
~
Isabel

A Sibling Scenario

My sis and I crack up every time we watch this:

 Similar dialogues may or may not have occurred in our kitchen... ;)

I'll let you figure out who plays who tehe.