Food concoctions

Since living on my own, I have developed a consistently inconsistent diet.  At least I'm consistent in SOMEthing. haha.

 

I love cottage cheese.  It has been my favorite food since I was very very young.  Thankfully, I live right across from a winco, and can get a container of cottage cheese whenever I like.  Lately, I have been trying new cottage recipes using my favorite food.

 

 

The tried and true; use cottage cheese as a salad dressing!  Sometimes I mix it with ranch, but other times I just use the cottage cheese.  It's really quite amazing, and I'm sure, much healthier than ranch dressing. 

 

I tried making cottage cheese pancakes as well! Those were a success for sure.  They were different from your typical pancake, much heavier, but healthier, since they weren't bready...they were eggy and cottage cheesy. :)

 

And when combined with bacon, I mean, they were fantastic!

 

And my last cottage cheese concoction: Cottage cheese egg puffs.  Basically, they are miniature quiche's.  Bite-sized casseroles!  :) 

 

I love trying new things.  But as you can see, my main staples remain cheese, eggs and meat.  Although I do have my salads as well :)

 

Hopefully I will have another post soon! 



Desert Beauty

I have realized something about beauty.  It is versatile and diverse.  It is also subjective.  When I first moved to the desert, I expected to be surrounded by nothing, to live in sand and certainly never expected to be taking pictures almost every day of the beauty in the desert. 

 

The thing about scenery, is that changing your outlook in just one small aspect changes how you see the whole scene.  For instance, I have come to realize that cities can be beautiful!  Sky scrapers, cranes, harbors, busy streets, they can be beautiful. 

I am partial to farmland and mountains...and when I moved to the desert, I had the preconceived notion that I was definitely not going to enjoy the desert.  

Check out just a few of the many pictures I have taken lately in the desert however.  My opinion has changed. 

 

 

 

If those aren't beauty, than I do not know what is!

Beauty is all around us and the beauty of nature just shows me how powerful God is- that He made something so vast and glorious.  It also shows me how loving God is- that He made something that He wants us to enjoy.

"Nature always wears the color of the spirit."- Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

 



My Cessna 172 ride

I was able to ride in a Cessna 172 when I was visiting in Washington.  A man in the church there is studying to be a missionary pilot and needs to log so many hours of practice time flying.  So he offered to take me up with Joseph.  I remember flying in a small airplane one time when I was about 10 or 11 for a sort of homeschool field trip.  But that was the only time. 

 

 

 

As you can tell from the picture, I was very excited!  I have flown so many times on the huge planes...but this was a new experience, so I was excited to try something new. 

 

Joseph was pretty excited too. 

 

Take off was actually like, the smoothest takeoff I've ever experienced.  Much smoother than a normal jet.  I really couldn't even feel when we were off of the ground...

 

We were originally planning to fly up to Mt. Rainier and see it up close, but since the mountain was covered with clouds and fog, we flew out to the harbor port in Seattle. It was definitely equally beautiful!

 

If you look at the picture below closely, you can see TONS of containers, and right in the middle, what looks like tiny white things.  Those are all cars!  And the containers are full of brand new cars as well, shipped from overseas. 

 

 

 

At one point in the flight, Joseph took over the controls.  I was concerned for my life for about 10 seconds.  No, just kidding.  He did good!

 

After we landed, Abby and Lydia got in the plane and looked around.  It was such a nice time!

 

I'm one step closer to fulfilling one of the things on my bucket list..to sky dive.  :)  Who knows, maybe that will never happen. 

It was a lot of fun.  My next post will be up-to-date.  I need to start taking some pictures of my life in California again.  :) Until later!

Seattle and Pike Place Market

So I still have a few more pictures from my trip to Washington.  We went to Seattle one day and saw some sights.  We could see the city and the space needle from this park area.  It was nice 

 

 

When we went to the park, I was playing with the three littlest kids and there were these spin chair things.  They were SO much fun!  I had never seen one before...

After spinning casually in it for about 10 minutes or so, I felt slightly sick.  About six hours later, I was sicker than a dog.  For real.  I haven't been that sick since I was about 11 or 12.  So...the lesson I learned: too much spinning does not sit well with me.  At ALL!

 

After the park, we went to Pike Place Market.  It was absolutely huge...and I looked for the flying fish.  But alas, the employees were not throwing the fish around that day!  So disappointing. 

 

I met a man who introduced himself to me as I was standing against a wall, watching the open air musicians playing their instruments.  He said he had just arrived in the United States from Russia.  He was pleasant. 

 

The strangest thing about the Pike Place Market was definitely how short the bathroom stalls were.  They seriously came about to my shoulders.  And I stand 5 foot 5 inches.  It may be odd that I noticed them...but it was disconcerting for sure knowing how short they were!

 

I have to say, I was humored by the spelling on this raspberry sign.  Being accustomed to going to farmers markets, I couldn't help but wonder if maybe the people spelled "Razzberry" wrong on purpose so as to attract attention...? 

 

We went to Beechers cheese store, where I sampled the most amazing cheese curds I have ever had in my entire life.  They seriously were terrific. 

 

On our way back to the house, we stopped at a pull off at Puget Sound or nearby.  It was really pretty.

 

We found TONS of sand dollars.  A man who was there at the beach told us that it was because of the fresh water and salt water combination.  There were natural springs just bubbling up out of the sand in some places. Those places were where we found tons of the sand dollars.  I kept one of them as a keepsake.

 

It was a really fun day.  Except of course, the too much spinning.  It was no fun being so sick. 

My next post will be the last one with Washington pictures!



Snoqualmie Falls Washington

I went to Washington state two weeks ago and visited a dear family that I have known for four years.  When they lived in Lancaster, I used to babysit their five children sometimes.  Plus, I would play the piano for the nursing home ministry they served in.  It was so amazing to get to see them all again!  On the third day after I arrived, we went to see Snoqualmie Falls, since the kids were off school on MLK Jr. Day. 

 

 

 

 

I had a great time with them, and seeing the 270 foot waterfall was amazing as well. 

 

One of the things I loved about Washington forests, was that all of the trees and bark was covered in moss!  It makes you feel like you are walking around in a fairy tale.  I suppose this happens because of how much moisture there is. 

 

Anyway, it was gorgeous and I had a lovely time.  I will post pictures later of my visit to Seattle and the flight I took in a Cessna 172 :)



Taking life for granted...

I have been thinking a lot lately about how often I take my life for granted.  I saw this quote and it really made me think. Oh, and yes, I know; the quote ends with a preposition.  It bothers me, but is helping to prove a point for me. :)

 

 

 

This is by no means a new concept: that of not taking things for granted.  I have heard the phrase many times throughout my life...

 

But how often have I really thought about it?  How many times have I stopped myself from complaining about something in life that upsets me or that I don't like? 

 

As they say, this is where the rubber meets the road.  It is so easy to say "Don't take life for granted."  It is another thing completely to live without taking life for granted. 

Here is an example: my parents bought me a car last year when I graduated from college.  In my family, it's no big deal.  My parents made a ritual of buying each of us a car when we graduated from college.  That was the deal.  Maybe not a brand new Mustang, but a sensible, serviceable car.  My parents bought a 1999 Nissan Altima for me.  It had I think 87,000 miles on it...

Was I absolutely thrilled to have a vehicle of my own? And one with so few miles at that?  AND...for free?  No.  I'm being honest now.  I was glad to have a car to drive, yes.  But I was also skeptical, and annoyed because it was 15 years old. 

 

I was remembering all of this today as I was driving that very car over to the car wash.  Wow...

And then I thought about this.  How many people are out there are maybe praying to God for a car that is serviceable and decent?  Probably a lot of people. 

 

Today I woke up and thought nothing of it.  It's completely normal for me to wake up every morning.  But there is probably someone out there who is grieving because someone they love DIDN'T wake up. 

I ate yogurt for breakfast and thought nothing of it.  It's normal for me to fix myself something for breakfast...but on the flip side of that, I am certain that there is someone out there who would have loved to have a yogurt this morning, but didn't because they had none. 

Are these just silly examples? 

 

Maybe they are.  But thinking about these things really makes me try to live life more cautiously; with more precision and thoughtfulness. 

The next time my laptop freezes up (which it is prone to do), or next time my shower water suddenly goes freezing cold (which also happens sometimes) maybe I will be slower to get angry or grumble to myself.  

 

Just another random thought in the mind of Virginia.  

Laurel Lake Skating Rink

I left Pennsylvania for California last week on Saturday.  My flight was supposed to leave around noon, so I wanted to do one last thing before leaving PA.  That whole week the temperatures had been in the single digits, and I was hoping it was enough to freeze Laurel Lake nearby the Appalachian trail.  So on Saturday morning at like, 6:30, me and Oliver drove over to Laurel.  Sure enough, it was frozen solid.  It had just snowed like, two days before, so it was a little bumpy, but otherwise, it was good skating! 

 

 

 

Oliver insisted on opening his car windows and trunk and blaring the music so that it would be most like a skating rink. 

 

You can barely see it in this picture, but I fell once and my knee was bleeding profusely.  Okay, maybe not profusely...but it was bleeding!  The blood was all over the ice...it was gross.

 

This picture took about 6 tries to capture correctly, but finally we got it.  :) 

 

It was a really fun morning.  Later, my dad drove me to the airport where there was a mix up with my flight...but I did eventually get back to California.  I was so glad I was able to go home for the Christmas break!  Spending time with my family was the best part.  Now I am ready to start this new semester of teaching piano.  Ready, Set...