white trash

Tonight, my mom and I spent about five minutes making, and way too long eating this lovely treat called “white trash”. If you have never put this deliciousness into your mouth, you may now make your way to a local grocery store :)

2 cups of golden grahams

2 cups of peanuts

2 cups of pretzels (I prefer the stick pretzels)

white chocolate bark, melted

2 cups of m&m’s (1 cup is really enough and I am quite the chocolate lover)

Mix it all together and spread it out on wax paper for about 20 minutes allowing the ingredients to stick together. Now make a nice hot cup of chocolatey cocoa, curl up by the fire, and watch a favorite Christmas movie. I would recommend any of the Santa Clause’s, the Elf, and of course, It’s a Wonderful Life. 

Merry Christmas!

-julie

the shoe tree

I cannot begin to tell you how many times my family and I have travelled Highway 72 over the years. Highway 72 is the road taken to visit the very best grandparents in the world, but we soon found out this road holds something else special. Out of all the time spent on this highway, you would think we would have noticed a tree with fifty plus pairs of shoes in it- nope (although I swear to have screamed something like “A tree…with shoes in it!” a few years ago, and my family ignored me because after all, who in their right mind throws shoes in a tree?- clearly the people of Cherokee, Alabama). Over Thanksgiving break, we stared in amazement and disbelief as we passed the shoe-bearing tree. I immediately googled “shoe full of trees” and found the history behind this to be quite fascinating! No one knows when it was started, but here is unwritten rule of the shoe tree, "Need a pair, take 'um, but if you can spare a pair, just do it." The tree holds everything from baby shoes, to cowboy boots, to stilettos. Needless to say, if you need some shoes, this is the place to go. Soon we will be back on Highway 72, and you better believe I have my pair ready to share. 

dare to blog

to my friends: this was one of my goals for Christmas break… to start a blog. Surprise!

Next goal: blog more than once over Christmas break.

I have been “daring to blog” since the summer. I think my excuse has been that I couldn’t think of a name so here is the explanation for choosing “peace of simplicity”:

If you know me, you know the simple things in life get me way too excited- this will have to wait for a later post :) Peace, for a reason I am about to explain, and because it can be used as a pun (I think that is what they call it in the English world. I am a pharmacy major so needless to say, English is not exactly my forte.)

God has been teaching me a lot about life lately, but particularly one fruit of the Spirit- PEACE. Through this time of learning about peace, here are some thoughts I have come across and would like to share:

-A lack of peace manifests itself in many ways- one being the horrible sense of being out of control.

-Peace and joy are so closely linked that Satan will most certainly steal our joy if He can undermine our peace. –Beth Moore

-Christ’s peace transcends all understanding, cannot be received from the world, guards our hearts and minds, and is offered to us.

-The filling of the Holy Spirit releases the glorious power of His peace.

Psalm 37:37 says, “There is a future for the man of peace.”

Proverbs 14:30 says, “A heart at peace gives life to the body.”

Peace isn’t the order you find when everything is put together and organized with the “To Do” list checked off. Peace is the rest you find even in the difficult times. Peace does not come from achievements, order, acceptance, or even getting what we want. Peace comes from God alone and the only way to receive this peace is simply by asking.