Nature's Heart

Nature's Heart

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

N"oat" to Self

It's that time again...I got another hankering for a spiced up version of oatmeal...I was browsing through some old magazines that I had laying around and came across the original recipe for the idea of "Overhal[ling] Your Oatmeal". It came from Women's Health (and my favorite) magazine. Rather than putting my own spin on it I decided to (pretty much) follow the recipe as it was written in this article.

For one portion you will need:
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 egg
1/2-1 cup spinach - chopped
1/2 cup oats - (regular or quick cooking either is fine it will just change the length of your cooking time)
reduced fat cheese of your choice (I used a blend this time but Swiss Cheese is also very tasty)
In a small pot heat 1 Cup of water (for the oatmeal) and in a small skillet put in a little olive oil and heat. 
When the water begins to boil add the oatmeal, and reduce heat stirring as needed.
  
 
As the oatmeal is cooking, chop the spinach into desired sized pieces and add the egg to the heated and oiled skillet.
When the oatmeal is almost finished cooking, add the spinach and cook for another minute or so and remove from heat. Once the egg is cooked to your preference (I like mine over-easy) place it on top of your cooked oatmeal/spinach combo. I put mine in a tupperware container and took mine to work for the morning.
Mmmmm Cheessyyyy!!!

Ha ha! Staying on that positive note, I came across two quotes/sayings that have been very thought provoking and motivational! The first one I came across was at the Oxygen 2012 Women's Conference (see previous post) and I fell in love with it!  
It is just so motivational and captures a lot of how I want to live my life... I like this quote so much that I'm thinking of painting/making my own that will color coordinate with my living room or bedroom (I can't decide which yet!) and I ended up setting this image as my cell phone wallpaper/background!

This second quote by Charles R. Swindoll is just so true! Hope that it brings some light into your life as it did mine. Enjoy!

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Oxygen 2012


Last week I attended an amazing Women’s Conference! I debated back and forth about whether to attend or not and I didn’t decide to go until about a week or so beforehand. Recently I had been feeling as if I was going through a very dry spiritual time…nothing I did seemed to be able to shake this “desert place” that I found myself in over the last several weeks. As it turns out, going to Oxygen was one of the best decisions that I could have made to break through this spiritual battle. There were so many messages that really seemed to be hitting home for me and that related to the “here and now” of my life. What an uplifting way to lead into a weekend of breakthroughs. There is something so encouraging about being surrounded by such a diverse group of likeminded "W.I.L.D" women!

Throughout these two days the word “Confidence” kept jumping out at me, tugging at my heart and especially during the last night of worship with the song, “The Everlasting God” based on the 27th Psalm where part of the lyrics/chorus are, “I will remain, confident in this, I will see the goodness of the Lord” . I realized that I need to focus on where my confidence stands in God. He ALWAYS has my best interest at heart and I can be confident and trusting that God is using everything that is happening (Or at time when I feel like certain things are not happening) in my life, is being used for my betterment and benefit.
The first evening was a general session in the main auditorium Champion Centre with worship and an amazing motivational speaker Holly Furtick who talked about the “Waiting Room” of your life. She had such a good message and I found out that she has her own blog that I now love! (Check it out at http://hollyfurtick.com/)

The second night started of with an aerialist and worship and then we broke out into smaller more life specific groups (for the married woman, women over 50, the hard-working women etc.). Once again, completely inspirational! One of the many messages/thoughts that I took away from the small group session was that, “It’s okay to say no to good things in life so that you are able to say yes to and have room for big/incredible things to happen in your life”

(Hahaha, yes I did intentionally choose the "Confidence" sign)

AAAAhhhh! I can’t get over how amazing these two evenings were and I can’t wait for next year!!!
Registration is already open for Oxygen 2013!!! You can sign up at: http://www.championscentre.com/oxygen.php

Friday, May 11, 2012

1st Birthday Bash

I can't believe that my youngest little nephew turned ONE already!!! Time is flying by! We had a wonderful gathering with family coming in from all over to celebrate!

The older brother hamming it up for the cam!

I absolutely love that I captured this moment...here I am snapping away, totally focused and out of the blue Gabriel pops into the frame to give his little brother a birthday hug and kiss.





Birthday presents! :)


Making music!


Tuesday, May 1, 2012

A Tennis Match & A Pumpkin Patch

Part II and a few more highlights of my weekend away last October:

Quality father and son time






A hay maze
And a hay ride! 

My beautiful sister...I love catching moments when people are unaware...
Family portraits




  And a classic for the books! :)