BFF

Best. Friends. Forever.
I think every girl has written that somewhere at least once in her life with her best friend. I have had many good friends over the years but true best friends are not easy to find. In the book I'm still reading, Captivating, (which I'm really sad that I'm almost finished with it! I wish it could last forever!!!) I finished the chapter on mothers, sisters, and friends. God showed me so much through this book, especially with this chapter. In case you don't know this about me, my best friends tend to be guys, and I think it's because during middle school and junior high,some of the girls I hung out with seemed to often let me down. Girls just naturally know what to say to other girls to make them feel completely insecure, self-conscious, and worthless. They even make movie after movie about this!! (Mean Girls!? I mean come on, we ALLLLL have had a Regina George in our lives at one point....) I still even to this day have some things I'm self-conscious about because people made fun of me in the 6th grade. Thankfully I've grown up a lot, but some of those things that happen to you when you're that age are really hard to work through, ya know?? I know I'll always have my Lucy Lane group, but ow that I'm in Auburn, God has blessed me with an abundance of the most amazing friends I could wish for. Unfortunately, I haven't had much of a social life lately thanks to school and constantly being sleep deprived (welcome to college, right!?) so I went about two weeks without even talking to my best friends. The other night when I was having my "Jessie-time" I finally got to this chapter in Captivating. I felt really bad about secluding myself from my friends and being completely over taken with school and I was really worrying they were all going to be upset with me. I prayed about it that night and the very next day I had FOUR of my good friends call me that I hadn't talked to in over a month and hung out with my very best friends after chapter! And to add to that, throughout the past week, God has just filled my life with little moments with my best friends that I really really needed. God definitely showed me to never take the relationships I have with my best friends for granted or they could be gone! Anyways I know this is kind of a random, babbling post, but just remember no matter how silly of an issue you feel you have, just pray about it!!

Fall is in the Air

I don't know one person in the South that doesn't love the fall. Right now, I am sitting in my bedroom with my window open and can hear the birds chirping, the leaves rustling, and can feel the breeze blowing through cooling down our cozy apartment. I've been reading a book lately, written by John and Stasi Eldredge, called Captivating . It's a very inspirational book for girls and women of all ages and I highly recommend it. Last night I finished Chapter 7 entitled "Romanced." It was about how God gives us little gifts proving how much he loves us. In my opinion, fall is one of the best gifts God could give us. The weather feels amazing, the colors of the trees are completely breathtaking, and the leaves that slowly drift down falling on our lawns look like God had fun dotting blobs of paint on His masterpiece. Just this morning while having a quiet devotion time outside on our patio I snapped a couple of pictures.





Another reason to love fall so much is the food. If someone doesn't love all cookies, bread, pies, and cakes that accompany the arrival of fall you just haven't experienced it the way my momma and grandmothers do it. As y'all know, I've been baking since I was about 8 years old. I LOVE IT. I love everything about it, including eating it (with moderation because I wouldn't be able to fit through a door if I ate everything my family made during this time of year). Just the other day my sister bought a precious cookie jar at an antique shop. We have been keeping it full of cookies ever since. She made some yuuuuummmmmyyy oatmeal-raisin cookies that I loved! (This is a huge accomplishment because I have never liked oatmeal-rainsin cookies) And two nights ago I made some Ginger Cookies. I found a recipe in one of Paula Deen's cookbooks and once again, she reminded me why I love her so dang much. They were awesome!! Unfortunately I didn't get a good picture after they were baked before they were all gone. If you want to give them a try, which I totally recommend doing because they are really easy and incredibly delicious, then here's her link! Ginger Cookies.