FAILURE

Failure is apparently a hot topic right now. I have read several blog posts on failure recently, the sermon series at my church is about faith in crisis, and personally the reality of failure has been on my mind.

Have you ever failed? I mean truly failed, falling flat on your face, hitting true rock bottom. All of us have experienced some form of disappointment in our lives, we failed a test, lost the big game, didn't make the team, but how many can say that they have experienced true failure?

In an interview J.K. Rowling once said that she does not believe that anyone can ever be truly successful unless they have first failed. Following this same line of thinking, it is often said that one cannot truly experience pleasure if they have not first experienced pain. Otherwise you will not have an appreciation for the pleasure because you have never known what it feels like to have pain in order to appreciate the absence of it.

We see a similar message in the Bible in the book of Habakkuk. Though Habakkuk does not say that pleasure cannot be experienced without pain, we do see that this is often how God works. God often does wonderful things through Babylon. Meaning that it is often through struggling and hardship that the most wonderful things in our lives happen to us. The lose of a loved one allows us to reconnect with estranged family members, being rejected from our top college choice allows us to meet our spouse at our second choice, etc.

Finally, I recently read a blog post that brought up issues that I have heard a thousand times, but that suddenly had new meaning for me. The author describes how embarrassing it would be to be caught drowning in the baby pool, or worse standing in the baby pool believing you had accomplished great things. He insist that we all must be willing to take great leaps of faith, because otherwise we will never be able to experience the greatness that God has planned for our lives. 

None of us want to experience failure and the pain that goes with it, so we often construct our lives as safe bubbles, we only swim in the baby pool. Yes, it is true that if we never try, or put ourselves out there, it is likely that we will never fail and will never have to experience the pain and humiliation that are often a result of failure. However, it is only by taking great leaps of faith that we will ever be able to experience the greatness that God has planned for us. 

It is a matter of having faith that God has a plan for our lives and that he will provide for us. God will do amazing things in our lives, even if it means that we must first go through Babylon. So, take that leap of faith, allow yourself to fail, and know that God is carrying you through to better things. 

Fabulous Five

So, I am going to jump on the bandwagon and post about the five things that I am loving right now.

1. Glee Sing It. I love to sing karaoke, and now I can do so in the privacy of my own home without having to worry about humiliating myself in front of complete strangers!

2. OWN. Have I mentioned yet that I absolutely love Oprah, and now she has her own network that runs 24/7. I am especially loving Ask Oprah's All Stars.

3. Keurig. Coffee in under a minute's time. Perfect for when I am running late getting out the door for school.

4. Kindle. No more late night readings, but I have been enjoying being able to carry multiple books and games all on one device.

5. Pandora. Makes working on my computer a lot more fun. My current favorite stations include: Sugarland, Defying Gravity, and Hillsong. 

What are you currently loving?

Fabulous Friday

Today is a fabulous Friday because Mike and I do not have any plans for this weekend. I will probably get some laundry done, and work on applications, but we have nowhere that we need to go. It will be nice to just hang out at home with my hubby catching up on TV shows and watching movies. School starts back up again on Monday, so I better enjoy it now before reality truly sets back in.

On a completely unrelated note, I found this song out in the blogging world and absolutely fell in love with it. I hope that you all enjoy it as much as I do.

I hope you all have a blessed weekend!

Iced In

I had grand plans for today. I was going to wake up early and head to the gym, then go to school and work on job applications for several solid hours, and finally come home for an important phone call that I have been expecting.

However, I woke up this morning to find a sheet of ice outside, and a text message from school saying that we were closed today. So, I had to go with plan B, working from home instead. So, here I sit at the kitchen table trying to not be distracted by the TV, dishes, and laundry. 

There is a lot that needs to be done today, so hopefully I am successful in my effort, and don't need to lock myself upstairs in the office in order to be productive. 

Have a nice day, and be safe if you are out there moving around in this 'wintery mix'!

P.S. my friend shared this video on her fb page this morning, and I couldn't help but to repost it here. I am currently feeling a lot like the song writers, so I hope you enjoy! 

Fabulous Friday

Today is a fabulous Friday because I have an exciting weekend to look forward to. This weekend is Mike's company's holiday party (I know! I know!), so we are going to be spending our Saturday cruising down the Potomac with Mike's coworkers. Afterwards a group of us have plans to go out in DC. It should be a fun day! Mike has a lot of female coworkers around our age, and I haven't seen them in awhile, so it should be fun catching up with everyone.

On Sunday we are going to be advertising our FPU class before both services at church. Hopefully we will get a lot of people so that we have a successful class. Then, like every other week I will be teaching the three- and four-year-old Sunday school class. The rest of the day will probably be filled with job applications, football, and laundry :).

Finally, this weekend is going to be especially fabulous because it is a three-day weekend! Mike has off for MLK day, and I get to make my own schedule, so I will also be staying home on Monday. We have plans to practice pool (did I mention that I am playing again?), but I am mostly excited about sleeping in and watching bad daytime television with my hubby :).

But, for today, I am off to balance my checkbook, wash my dishes, clean my living room, and proof read job applications. Then we are going out to dinner with Mike's coworkers because there are people in from out of town for the party tomorrow.

Hope you have a fabulous Friday and a fantastic weekend!

Kindle and 30 minute meals

For Christmas this year, Mike got me a Kindle, which seemed to have been the gift of the year, as I know at least seven other people who unwrapped one on Christmas morning. However, I was telling Mike yesterday about how inappropriate this gift was for me. I have been reading a pleasure book for the past several weeks, and when I needed a break from my other work last night around 7pm I sat down to read, with the belief that after two hours I would get back to work. Well, 7 hours later I finally put the book down, and that was only because I had read the entire thing!!! Not good when I have my dissertation proposal tomorrow morning, and five job applications that need to go out this week! I guess I need to learn a little self-control and/or download my articles for school so that my time spent with the Kindle is much more productive. 

On a completely unrelated note, last night for dinner Mike and I decided to make a Rachael Ray 30 minute meal. Mike really likes Rach (I know, I know!), and I typically like her food. My only issue is that the 30 minute meals almost always end up taking me at least an hour, or in last night's case an hour and a half! Maybe it would be quicker if I had a staff prepping all of my ingredients. In any case it was yummy, though I forgot to add the peas, and would definitely not add the bananas next time. Mike and I will probably be eating this for dinner all night, because it definitely made a lot! Enjoy!

Turkey Sweet Potato Shepherd's Pie (from foodnetwork.com)

(she says it takes 20 minutes to make and serves 4, but I think that both are grossly underestimated)

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 pounds ground turkey
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
• 2 1/2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 onion, cut into 1-inch dice
• 2 carrots, peeled and grated
• 4 ribs celery, chopped
• 4 tablespoons butter, divided
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups turkey or chicken stock (recommended: Kitchen Basics brand)
• A few dashes Worcestershire sauce
• 1 (10-ounce) box frozen peas
• 1 very ripe banana
• A few dashes hot sauce
• 2 cups shredded sharp yellow Cheddar

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

In a deep skillet or a Dutch oven heat 2 tablespoons oil over high heat. Add meat and break up with a wooden spoon, season with salt and pepper and poultry seasoning.

Place sweet potatoes in a pot, cover with water, cover pot, bring to a boil, salt and cook 15 minutes until tender.

Grate onions and carrots into the turkey. Add the celery and stir, cook 5 minutes. While vegetables are cooking, heat 2 tablespoonsbutter in a small pot over medium heat. Add flour to melted butter and whisk 1 minute then whisk in stock and season with salt, pepper and Worcestershire. Thicken a few minutes.

Stir the gravy into the turkey mixture. Stir peas into meat and turn heat off.

Drain potatoes and return pot to heat. Add remaining butter and melt over medium heat. Peel and slice banana and add potatoes to the pot. Season the potatoes with salt and pepper and a few dashes hot sauce. Mash potatoes and banana to combine, adjust seasoning. Top the meat with the potatoes. Cover potatoes with cheese and set in oven. Bake to melt cheese, 5 minutes.

Bobby McKeys

Last night Mike and I went to National Harbor to a dueling piano bar. It was soo much fun! If you are in the area I would definitely recommend that you check it out, but be forewarned, it is a bit pricey.

Here are some videos for you to all enjoy:

This one is for Kerri

My song!

For all you Gleeks {and no, that is not me singing in the background ;)}

Mike and I spent the morning taking down all of our Christmas decorations, so now there are no more signs of the holidays at our house :(. Now I am off to finish preparing my presentation for Monday morning, wish me luck! 

New Year, New You

I must confess that I am extremely excited about Oprah's new network Own. I really like Oprah, because her emphasis on being the best you possible. This doesn't mean that you need to go to Africa and build a school for girls, or donate billions of dollars to charity. It just means that you need to do the best you can and be the best you can given your circumstances.

This is the approach that I am trying to take in 2011. I know perfection is not an option, but I can choose to do better and to be better. I am aiming to make better financial decisions, better time management decisions, take care of my body better, and stand up for myself more. However, like Toby Keith, start living is the next thing on my list. I also need to learn how to start living and enjoying the moment, and not spend my time stressing about the future.

One thing that I heard Dr. Phil say on the first episode of Oprah's All Stars (I know, I know, but just hear me out!) is that we need to make small attainable goals that fit naturally into our lives. Otherwise, as soon as things get too hard we will get discouraged and quit. So, this is the tactic that I am taking with the hope that this year I will be able to stick to my new years resolution.

I am not looking to reinvent myself in 2011, but I am going to work on making better decisions in my life, and being a better me.

What are your new years resolutions? Any tips for sticking with them?

Looking back at 2010

January- Mike and I rang in 2010 in Dallas Texas. Last year our Christmas gift to each other was a trip to Dallas to see the Cowboys Eagles game. Our flight was supposed to get us to Dallas in plenty of time for us to check in at the hotel, and then find some place to go to watch the ball drop. However, there was a lot of bad weather that day, so our flight was delayed numerous times, and we ended up getting to Dallas with just enough time to stop at Taco Bell (yuck!) and make it back to the hotel to watch the ball drop in New York. I was soo tired from all the traveling that I didn't make it to see the ball drop in Texas! 

February- VA saw record breaking snowfall, that resulted in me being stuck in the house for about seven days (let's not repeat that this year!). 

March- Our first niece, my goddaughter was born. Mike went back to school to get the credits he needs to become a CPA. Mike and I celebrated our two year anniversary. 

Mike and I began attending FPU. 

April- This month brought the sad news that Mike's grandmother lost her battle with cancer. 

May- Mike celebrated another birthday, and I went to Boston to present my research at a conference.

June- This month was definitely the calm before the storm, spent preparing for comps. 

July- This was definitely the most eventful month of 2010 in the Ferhat household! The first 15 days, which might have been the most stressful two weeks of my life, were spent writing my comprehensive exams. Immediately after I was done I drove to PA to babysit my niece for a week, and then from there I went to the beach to visit my grandmother and recuperate from all the stress!
August- Mike and I went to the beach for a week, and then I flew to San Diego for a conference. I celebrated another birthday.
September- I found out that I passed comps! Then the job search began. Mike and I began teaching our first FPU class.
October- I sent out my first job application (another stressful experience!).
November- The job search continued, and Mike and I headed to PA for Thanksgiving.
December- I completed my last class ever, my sister and I went to New York to see Promises, Promises, and Mike and I drove back up to PA to visit our families for Christmas.

2010 definitely presented a lot of challenges, but I feel like I have learned and grown as a result. I am looking forward to the opportunities and lessons that 2011 will bring.

Happy New Year!