Soul Songs

  I have handfuls of song that I love, but then there are those few that speak differently to me than all the others. I hold them a little closer. Let's call them soul songs. 

  My soul songs sing to my inner being. They hold an unique meaning to me. They can stir emotions out of me. They seem to explain me when I am not able to myself.

 

Here are my soul songs:

I first heard this song when I was going through a tough situation. As I was listening, I felt my soul agreeing and signing along, like it had been waiting all along for these lyrics to finally give me peace. This song helps me every time I feel alone or stuck somewhere. It assures me that God does wonderful things.  

If I was a song, I would be this one. Out of one of my favorite movies, this song was composed by a brilliant man, speaks to me so beautifully. I could dance to this song for days, listen to it endless of times to absorb such a song that describes who I am. I don't know how to explain it, but this song is me if I could transform into a tune. 

 

In another language but this song holds timeless beauty. Her voice is so stunning,captivating. It makes me want to sing along. Unfortunately I cannot sing opera, otherwise I would! 

What are your soul songs? I would love to hear them as much as you love to listen to them.

Bowmance

  I started getting bored with my usual hair buns. Sock bun, floppy bun, twisted bun, so I opened the magical world of Pinterest and looked at hair ideas. This particular style popped out to me the most. One, it was different than other bun styles I've seen, and two, it was pretty easy. I don't have much patience for my hair when trying to create a hair-do because it gets tangled or either does not want to cooperate with me. A few tries and straightening my hair with the hair brush (against my curly girl beliefs, but I splurged) , I achieved the bow bun. I decided to give it the name, 'Bowmance' It's romantic and looks like a bow, but it's made out of your hair. No bows needed!

It might work better depending on the type of hair you have. Since my hair is super thick, I wasn't able to make it exactly like the girl's on pinterest was. I think it has it's own charm though. 

Here's how you can do it! 

Happy To See You

The book sale finally came! I mentioned it about 2 weeks ago in another post. I didn't bring my camera with me because I didn't want to get it lost of stolen in the huge mass of people, but I do have some pictures of my book purchases.

It was an hour and a half bus trip to the book sale, but worth every stop along the way. Surprisingly I found a few authors that I admire and some genres of books I had in mind.

  

Order in which books appear in picture:

German Phrasebook

Dutch Phrasebook

Russian Phrasebook

Japanese Phrasebook 

Czech Phrasebook

Italian Phrasebook

Hungarian Phrasebook

The Art of Being a Woman by Veranique Vienne 

The Left Handers Book by MJF books

Song of the Silk Road by Mingmei Yip

It's Not  Easy Being Green by Emma Sleeth 

Hope Lives by Amber Van Schooneveld

Every Young Woman's Battle by Ethridge and Arterburn

The Tale of the Shining Princess by Mma and Viking

Sub-Merge by John B. Hayes

The Rapture of Canann by Sheri Reynolds 

Coiled in the Heart by Scott Elliot 

Molokai by Alan Brennert

Captivating by John Eldredge 

The Books Await.

Cornish Pasty Valentine's

For Valentine's dinner, my sister and I went to Cornish Pasty Co, a dark cozy restaurant that serves hand crafted goodness. The Cornish Pasty has been around since the 1200's in Cornwall, England and a favorite among tin miners, where wives would make the pasty half desert and half meat and vegetable, making it a two-in-one meal. What exactly is a pasty? Well, just scroll down and see! 

This is a Pasty! I ordered eggplant Parmesan, pictured above. It was so savory and all the flavors went together well. The whole restaurant has a fun ambiance, with indie music playing and the staff in casual wear. In a way it's fancy, but then not because everyone is relaxed around you. 

I was also trying out my camera manual mode at night, which is highly difficult without a tri-pod. I was able to find some stability to take these shots! 

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I love my sister! I love being able to go hang out with her and go have fun adventures. I love getting in mischief with her or making eye contact with her after we've seen something funny on the bus and we can't help but laugh. Or always being someone I can talk to when I'm some where new. I'm so grateful to have a friend where ever I go. Love you sis! 

Tender Heart

Like all little boys, my brother likes to dress up as a super hero, fight the bad guys and be the defender. Isaiah likes to be tough and show off his muscles and have an important job because he wants to be able to help us. Like all little boys, he can be a little too rough or be way too silly that he cracks us all up. His heart, growing in the Lord and discovering himself as he grows out of his toddler years.

There is another side to Isaiah, A sweet, tender side of this boy. He adores flowers. He cares for them and waters them, protects them from harm. In the backyard as the temperature has risen, Isaiah found a patch of wildflowers growing in the backyard. While some children may have not seen them, Isaiah immediately went and picked them to give to our mom. He had us pick out the perfect vase and once they were all safely inside the vase, he held onto them, carrying them around the house, telling everyone he came in contact with to smell them and to admire the flowers that he found. 

A little boy who has his wild days, settles down to dwell in God's creation. He sees the beauty even at his young age where there are other things to distract them. Isaiah is proud of his find, for obtaining such delicate and perfect flowers.

Seeing Isaiah take time to look and care for the beautiful things that may be tiny and invisible at first glance, there is something to be learned from him. Taking time to cherish God's creation. The smallest and hardest to find, nurturing it and seeing how breath taking and how God intended the Earth to be when he created it. 

The Tasty World of Gluten-Free

  My stomach doesn't do well with carby foods. I thought it might have been Celiac Disease because my stomach would hurt afterwards and I always had stiff joints. It turned out I am just gluten intolerant so I have to go gluten-free for certain foods. I was bummed when I first discovered I was gluten sensitive, because some of my favorite foods had gluten. One of those was pizza! The best part of pizza for me was the chewy crust.

  One day we called Barro's to order pizza and that was when we found out they had gluten-free pizza options. 100% gluten-free. I was so excited and the pizza was delicious being having no gluten in it. Barro's always tastes the freshest and realest. It's interesting to as the world is developing, more diseases are being taken into concern and changes made to accommodate them. I did a little research and surprisingly there are more and more places that offer gluten-free foods now, aka pizza! 

Domino's, GodFather's, Pizza Hut all offer gluten-free pizzas. Sweet. :)

Liebster Award

My first official award. Thank you Hannah for awarding me!

Here are the rules:

1. List 11 facts about yourself.
2. Answer the 11 questions the blogger who nominated you left.
3. Ask 11 new questions for those who you nominate.
4. Choose 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers to nominate.
5. Go to each blogger's page and let them know about the award.
6. Thank the person who nominated you and link back to their blog. 


#1. Eleven Facts About Pepper:

1. I'll buy notebooks that I have no use for, I just buy it because I like the cover.
2. I personally think noses make up the face of a person.
3. I have traveled outside the USA to England, Wales and Mexico.
4. I wear glasses but I always take them off in pictures. 
5. I love essential oils.
6. Dark Chocolate is the bomb!
7. I collect phrase books.
8. My favorite comedian is Jimmy Fallon. 
9. I like handmade jewelry that supports amazing people!
10. The only animal I can tolerate are public birds.
11. I wear flip flops in the winter.

#2. Answer the 11 Questions from the blogger who nominated you:

1. If you could go to one concert for free, who would you see? 

I would see either Fun, Ed Sheeran or Mumford & Sons. They each are brilliant and I am sure each concert would be amazing. If dreams could come true...

2. If jelly stopped existing, how would you make a PB&J with something else as the J? 

I did have to google this but I decided what I would eat peanut butter with. Jubes, a squishy kind of candy that I'm sure would taste good with it. 

3. If you could go to any one place, where would you go?

That a hard question. Europe, India, Russia, China.  They're all fascinating. 

4. What, if any, channels are you subscribed to on Youtube?

Dan IsNot On Fire, Community Channel, It's Way Past My Bed Time, Rhett and Link, Mystery Guitar Man. Awesome people :)

5. Chemistry or Physics?

Um, well I've never really taken these since I didn't go to high school. Chemistry? 

6. Do you play an instrument? If so, what?

I recently started getting lessons for piano. I played a little as a child, but now I am beginning once again. All thanks to my Grandpa for giving me the family piano. 

7. What's your favorite breakfast cereal?

Chocolate chex or fruity pebbles, gluten free!

8. How do you like your eggs cooked? (If you're vegan how do you like your (preference)  cooked?

Sunny side up with salt and pepper. And if I'm feeling risky, hot sauce. 

9. Do you listen to music while you blog?

Sometimes I do, but usually I just type to my thoughts.

10. What was the title of your first blog post?

It was called Big Poofy Hair. When I posted this, I was at the phase where I wasn't sure where this blog was going to go, so I posted about my big hair-do. 

11. Why did you start blogging?

This isn't my first blog. I actually have a blog graveyard but Would You Like Pepper With That? was created so I could muse about life topics and such. This is the farthest I have blogged yet and have followers. Thank you followers!

#3 11 New Questions:

1. What's your passion?
2. If there was going to be one food left on the Earth, what would it be?
3. Indian Cuisine or Italian? 
4. Where do you want to travel?
5. Secret obsession?
6. What book/movie character do you wish was real?
7. When did you originally start blogging?
8. What organization's cause do you like and why?
9. What is your ideal image of a (almost) perfect guy?
10. What are you thinking about right now?
11. How are you?

#4 11 Splendid Bloggers!

Hannah @ Genuine 
Lydia @ For My Own Satisfaction
Lacey @ a thinking place
Hayden @ Story Girl 
Mary @ The Fraying Scarf 
Jessica @ over thinking 
Kristin @ Serendipity 
Kate @ in pursuit
Hannah @ She's A Goody Two-Shoes
Mugdha @ A Vigilant Muse
Rebekah @ My Blue Castle  

Thank you bloggers for all your wonderful insight and making the blogging world it is today! :)

Pepper