Pictures from Catalina

In April my class took a trip to Santa Catatlina Island off the coast of California.  Now that’s it finally summer, I thought I’d post some beach pics. We had an amazing trip despite a couple of the downfalls. We stayed in this science camp on the island which was not all that clean and had a million huge bugs, but the views and time with my friends made every second worth it. 

Here are some pictures of us kayaking. The beaches on Catalina are rocky and small, so there was no sitting around and suntanning here! We got to do some pretty fun stuff, though, other than what most people do on sandy beaches. We went kayaking, watched the sunrise on the docks, and went snorkeling. Snorkeling was…uh…a very new experience: scary and fun at the same time😆

We took a hike up one of the hills on the edge of the island. You can see a little bit of the smaller hills in the background of the pics above. From the top of our hiking hill looking out with our backs facing the ocean there were these rolling green hills speckled with tiny yellow mustard blossoms which reminded us of The Sound of Music. Here are some pics from that hike…

That hill/cliff in the background is the hill we just hiked. The views were breathtaking. I’m standing infront of a little cove at sunset. It was quite chilly. 

Oh the beautiful mustard! It was everywhere, and I so wish I could have gotten better pictures! 

More posing for pics…in the background you can kind of see the docks and part of the camp. Oh! See that white rock in the ocean? Can you guess why it’s white?? Let’s just say the seagulls don’t exactly have public restrooms…

Ah here they are!! “The hills are alive with the sound of music!!” 

After Catalina, we went to Knott’s Berry Farm!! For those who don’t know, Knott’s Berry is a theme park with some fantastic roller coasters. Oh and please don’t mind the hair: it’s not used to humidity. None of us looked good!!

My favorite pics from the vacation…there’s a sunrise on the island, me and my best friend watching the waves, a really cool tree at the camp, some Huntington Beach pics, and a tiny sandcrab we caught! Oh how beautifully blue the water is!!

Thank you so much for reading! I know looking at other people’s vacations can get boring, but I like seeing all these new pretty places and dreaming about going there (tehe). Has anyone else been to the beach this year??

What the rainbow??

Here is an original painting I’m scared to post…and it’s not for the reason you’re thinking. It’s not all that great, but it paints (no pun intended) a beautiful picture of a girl pouring the color (joy) back into another girl’s life. On the back I have written, “never let them fade”, in reference  to the colors, and have left a part of my signature in the corner so it’s harder for someone to take my work as their own (you can’t see my full signature for safety reasons). I’m not afraid, however, of showing the world my less-than-perfect piece or of someone taking credit for my work. I am afraid of people taking my piece and using it’s rainbowy-colorful theme for the opposite purpose I intended it for. 

Before I get to my purpose behind the painting, I want to take a break and talk about what a rainbow is. Anybody who’s lived for any amount of time has seen one, and will admit they are beautiful. Water and light coming together perfectly to form an arch of neatly arranged color. It appears after storms as if to say, “Be still, you’re safe now. You made it through the trouble, and now you can see the light.” The very first rainbow appear after the worst storm on record. This storm literally flooded the entire earth. It was pretty bad, but God had already told Noah to build an ark for him, his family, and a couple of animals. After the ark landed, God put a bow of all the colors in the sky as a sign and reminder of His promise to never flood the earth like that again. These ‘rainbows’ still appear today to remind us of God’s promise! 

Then God said, “I am giving you a sign of my covenant with you and with all living creatures, for all generations to come. I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my covenant with you and with all the earth. When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will appear in the clouds, and I will remember my covenant with you and with all living creatures. Never again will the floodwaters destroy all life. When I see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth.”

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭9:12-16‬ ‭

So, if the rainbow’s real meaning as a symbol is God’s promise not to send a huge storm again, how did we get to where we are today? Most people today will see a rainbow, or any array of bright colors and think, “Aw! They support LGBTQ(XYZLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ)!” This makes me sick. The most beautiful symbol representing a lovely promise has been twisted into some in-your-face propaganda show down where “tolerant” people don’t tolerate “haters” (or, people who don’t agree with them) and try to force their views down everybody’s throats. Seriously…this stuff is showing up in kid’s movies, kid’s clothes, and kid’s toys. How much more forceful can you get?? Anyway, back to my original point. I’m sick and tired of being self-conscience about doing normal stuff, like paint with color or hang out with my best friends, because of the way people will take it and will use it to further their cause. 

Why I’m not too thrilled about sharing my picture? Because I don’t want somebody to see it and think I’m supporting their rainbow movement. My painting is a simple symbol of how powerful an effect a few nice words, a shared smile, or an uplifting friendship might have on someone’s life. It shows how contagious joy can lift someone who is going through a hard time out of confusion, into the light, and pour a little bit of color, aka joy, back into their life. So please world, does everything these have to have an agenda to support your cause? Or is it so bad to just want to sit down and watch a movie for entertainment and nothing else?

Thank you for reading. If it’s your first time here, welcome to Bloom! 

Poetry!!

I’d like to introduce A new category of posts…poetry!! I know I just lost half of you guys right now, and the other half are still hanging around to be polite, right? I hope I can entertain you for a minute or two with some whimsical poems written by me and some fellow authors! 

Here’s a short one I wrote called Morning. Let me know what you think😋

Sleeping eyes flutter though soft morning beams beckon their opening,

Sweet speckled sunlight spatters the ceiling mimicking the pattern of the clouds,

Lids slip open and and eyes are met by a fresh golden face peeking over the skyline,

In wafts the sumptuous scent of spring flowers and early dawn’s dew,

Lightly cooled and newly brightened, the morning air greets a smiling face,

When one’s first thought is of the only delight, one’s day will start out right. 

Identity: not what you think

And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians‬ ‭4:19‬ ‭

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” John‬ ‭6:35‬ ‭

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭139:13-16‬ ‭

     Statistically speaking, most people don’t know who they are, what their purpose is, and what they plan on doing with their life. We as human beings need a purpose: not just because it’s what we want, but because that’s the way God designed us to be! He made us with a purpose in mind, and plans to carry it out if we follow his will. Jeremiah 29:11 says just that: For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. He designed us beautifully, carefully, and made no mistake. Psalm 139: 14 says, “I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my souls knows it very well.” Amid all these reassurances, though, we still tend to get lost. Very, very, very lost. 
     I find it gets easier every day to try to float around and be what everyone is. Looking back at all the schools I’ve been to, it’s easy to assign one or two words that describe generally what all the people are like: smart and serious about school, fun loving and drama prone, athletic and sportsy, and so on. My school right now is full of talented musicians. The people who don’t “music” either play sports or get straight A+’s. Annnddddd there’s me…the wonderful writer/artist/actress. I’m kinda the odd duck in the bunch with my quirky words and odd sense of, well, everything! It’s not like anyone picks on me or thinks less of me because I’m different, but it doesn’t make it any easier for me to get around. Every day I hear of someone writing their new song, someone else learning to play yet another instrument, and everybody’s comments on so-and-so’s new album that just got released. They’ll use their fancy music lingo that, frankly, I’m still not fluent in, and I won’t get what they’re talking about because I just don’t care enough about this music business. Don’t get me wrong, I love love love music, but it’s not my life. It doesn’t drive me. It’s not what makes me actually get out of bed in the morning. Slowly, I noticed myself trying to bend and twist myself into one of these music people that seemed to fit in so well. I tried my hand at singing, playing in a band, and learning a couple instruments, but nothing went well. I was still at the bottom of the heap. Still couldn’t sing, still couldn’t play, still didn’t speak music. And that’s where I lost it. For months I walked around literally weaving through these talented people in the hallway every day and feeling like a complete nobody. I had tried so much to throw myself into things that just didn’t fit me. 

     Eventually, I broke. There was nothing even my best friend could say or do that would make me happy anymore. There was nothing I could do to make me happy anymore, and that’s a scary thing. I’m kind of known for being happy. I’ve been told that when I walk into a room, I bring the smiles with me, and when I’m not smiling, neither is anybody else. Having nothing but fake smiles left carried none of the genuine joy I used to have. Turning to God and pouring out my heart was my last option. I was spent, and He knew that. The next few months were full of prayer and worship, and trying to figure out what I could and couldn’t do, and who I really was. Slowly, I began to realized I was not what I could do, but I was who God made me to be: I was, am, and always will be His daughter. As my pastor said, “you are not a human doing, you are a human being.” I came to terms with the fact what thought I wanted and what I thought would make me happy was exactly what he knew would not make me happy. Through prayer and reading the Bible, God showed me he had a plan for me, he had made me perfectly, and I could trust Him. I didn’t know what I could do, what I would do, or what should do, but I did know one thing: God did make me for a reason. Even though I didn’t know the who, what, when, where, and why, I still was confident I was His daughter, and I could trust in His promises. If I could trust in His promises, then I also knew I was gifted and made exactly as I should be.

     One day I picked up a pencil and some watercolor paper and mindlessly filled the next several hours with color and flowers. I cleaned up my supplies and caught myself doing a double take at the paper that sat on the table. Had I really done that?? Whhhaaaaatt?? No way…. It was simple, but I couldn’t believe I had done something like that! I can look back now and see a little trail of things God had done for me and grown in me. Right now, I can see clearly that He’s always been with me: He’s never left my side. He stood back after I had rejected what He gave, let me learn my lesson like a two year old throwing a tantrum (that is, the hard way), but never gave up or left the room. Like a loving father, he stayed right behind me making sure I never fell too far, and caught me before I fell to the ground when I tripped. I know now that who I am is not found in what I do or what I can do, but is found only in Him. 

     In Christ is where my life is found, and whatever I do I do in Him. He is where my joy comes from, and where I find my peace when the bully of the tornado they call life decides to visit. Choosing to root your identity in what God says about you means you can’t be moved and swayed by what the world says about you or what you think will bring you joy. I thought being musical like everyone else would help me, but it only beat me down and broke me in the end. The world tells me I need to be just like them to fit in. I need to love whoever or be whatever based on whichever way the wind blows that day. I should conform to their shifting view of truth because that’s where they say I’ll be happiest, but God’s truth never shifts or waivers. It never breaks or falls because it’s built on solid rock that never shifts or changes or come crashing down. I’m built on solid rock that never shifts or changes or comes crashing down. Can I say the same about you?

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. ‭‭Matthew‬ ‭7:24-27‬ ‭NIV‬‬

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. ‭‭Colossians‬ ‭3:3-4‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Chocolate Chip Cookies

              Here’s my recipe for beautiful chocolate chip cookies! They are easy to make, chewy, and very chocolatey! This picture does not do these cookies justice–trust me. Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup oil (olive, veggie, canola, coconut)

1/2 cup brown sugar 

1/3 white sugar 

1 egg

2 tsp + an extra splash of vanilla 

1 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp cornstarch 

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

     Preheat oven to 350 degrees unless using gluten free dough (you will want to chill it in the fridge for a couple hours). Cream sugars, oil, egg, and vanilla until light an fluffy (about three minutes), then mix in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and powder, and salt. Beat on medium speed until combined. If the dough is a little dry add a little more oil (but not too much!) Fold in the chocolate chips and use about three tablespoons of dough per dough ball. Note: 1/4 cup is 4 tablespoons, so using a 1/4 cup measuring cup and filling it up about 3/4 of the way will get you at about 3 tablespoons of dough. If you are using gluten free flour or if you’d like extra chewy cookies you can let the dough balls sit on a plate in the fridge for about two to three hours or until chilled. Place dough balls two inches apart on cookie sheet and bake for between nine and twelve minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Enjoy!