A Recipe & A Quote

Hey lovely people!

So today I thought I would share a little recipe I tried out on the family at one of our family dinners a couple weeks ago. I got the recipe for this Spicy Pita Fattoush Salad from Haylie at Real Girl's Kitchen and it was a major success and incredibly easy! I made a few tweaks to the recipe (I left out the mint because I am just not a fan of mint at all) and used Tony's Chachere's seasoning (which we use on pretty much everything here in Louisiana) for the spicy factor. It was majorly delish and even the non-veggie people in my family LOVED it and it was gone in just a few minutes. It was also super quick and easy to make, plus it's chocked full of healthy, yummy veggies! Definitely will be making this again -- perfect little summer salad to take to all those BBQs :) You can find the recipe here 

*Word of advice: You want to go easy on the dill unless you are like a bonafide dill lover cause it can easily overpower the dish, just fyi.

Photo Source: Real Girl's Kitchen

Now that I've hopefully inspired your stomach (!), here's a little quote I found via pinterest that I adore.

Source

This quote so inspired me as I'm walking through this season of uncertainty in my life. In case you don't know, I had a really bad emotional last couple of months. I was stressed about life, the future, relationships -- you name it, I was stressed about it. I was in the process of applying for graduate schools, working 80 hour weeks, losing a relationship I really cared about, make my way through my last semester, and try to put on a (fake) happy face through it all. I kept wondering why I was feeling so stressed and frankly depressed at times and one day I finally got it (cue lightbulb cartoon effect!).

I was scared. 

Now to some of you that may not be a big deal, but for me, it was. I haven't really ever been scared before. I never had uncertainty of my future. I always had a plan A, B, C, etc, but my Plan A always worked out...until now. I'm not going to lie, it's really hard to not know what comes next. About a month ago I had a legit pity party -- I spent two days straight just holed up in my house, under the covers, crying my eyes out -- because I was scared. I was scared of not having a plan, not knowing what I was doing or where I was going. It was insane. A couple of weeks ago I finally got over that feeling of uncertainty. Don't get me wrong, I still basically have no idea what I'm going to do come May 4th (my graduation and when my current job ends), but I"m learning that being scared is okay. It's not something to be ashamed of, which is what I thought. It's natural -- it's a part of life and a part of living. Sure, there may be people who have never been scared before, but are they really living and growing then? I don't know, maybe they are -- I'm not here to judge. All I know is that I was scared, and part of me still is, but I'm okay with being scared. I'm okay with not knowing what I'm going to be doing in a month or how I'm going to pay for the astronomical amount of tuition for graduate school this fall (if anyone wants to make a donation...I accept! ha!), but that's okay. I'm okay. It's a part of life, and up to this point I've been really fortunate to have had a worry-free one (for the most part). I never had to actually look for a job, I've always just had them offered to me since I was 15 and I never had to worry about bills because I always had a job to pay for them. But that's okay. I know God will provide and He is faithful even when I am not. 

So here's to accepting that being scared is OKAY! And it is not something to be ashamed of. Vulnerability does not equal weakness ( I believed that for the longest time and it took a really hard lesson to change that view). Being scared is a part of life and it's part of growing into the person you want and need to become. 

I hope you're encouraged today, lovelies. 

Have a wonderful Wednesday and let me know if you try out that Fattoush salad :) 

Cheers!