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We’re back with another Out of the Kitchen post – Here’s what we’ve been up to for the month of October!

Out of the Kitchen - The First YearWhen you find a pregnant spider who’s webbed herself into the ceiling, you must take all precautions necessary. I’ve seen those youtube videos where someone kills a pregnant spider and 500 baby spiders come crawling out.. not happening in my house! Ryan safely removed the spider, wheeew! The second photo – this was a Friday night banana muffin baking extravaganza!

Out of the Kitchen - The First YearI had a few of my recipes published in the winter issue of Yum for Kids magazine! It was exciting and scary to see the magazine, I felt like the other blogger’s images were better than mine, but Ryan reminded me that the magazine must have thought my images were of the same quality as the other bloggers because they wanted them in the magazine. The second photo – I bought new backgrounds from Erickson Wood Works so I tested them out by making and shooting a chocolate chocolate cake. Everything passed with flying colors :)

Out of the Kitchen - The First YearWell well.. Ryan was trying to clean up this egg on the floor without me knowing! I walked by the kitchen and he said “Don’t come in here!”.. well naturally I want to see what’s going on. I guess he set the egg on the kitchen table, it rolled and bounced onto the chair and then onto the floor, haha! The second photo – when you have tons of bubble wrap, you have a stomping party!

Out of the Kitchen - The First YearThe top photo – we sent this photo to my family and I think we gave them the wrong impression.. pretty sure they thought I was holding up a $1 bill because that meant I was pregnant with one baby! WRONG! We’re holding up the dollar because it’s the only dollar we have left now after paying off our massive college loans!!!!!! Back in the summer, we decided that after we paid off our loans we would get a kitten. So we did! The bottom photo – every year I like to make a halloween drawing for my nanny kids – what do you think? You would pay money for it? hahaha.

Out of the Kitchen - The First YearWe went to this local pumpkin patch owned by a family of farmers. All of the money earned from selling the pumpkins goes towards their kid’s college! Maybe I should start growing and selling pumpkins to help our future children. The second photo – our celebratory “we paid off our loans” gift to ourselves.. Salsa the kitten! I can’t get any work done because he likes to sit on my keyboard.

Here’s a good picture of the fur ball..

Salsa-10-2015_4

Out of the Kitchen - The First YearSalsa is helping me photograph, which his version of helping is more like chewing up my camera strap.. mauahahaa. The second photo – sneak peek at a thanksgiving dessert! I love making turkeys out of food!

Getting more personal..

Last month in our out of the kitchen post I shared that I’ve been experiencing anxiety.

God is really opening up my heart. I don’t think I’ve ever been this vulnerable about what I’m going through, in person with friends and family and here on the blog. Something that God has laid so heavily on my heart is that fear and suffering breed in loneliness and in the quiet. There is power in exposing your fear. There is power in sharing with others what you’re going through. There is power in asking for prayer.

“God wrote suffering into our stories and wants to redeem it for his glory. If we stop shaking our fists at him, we could possibly sit down and see we are running from a life in flames toward a great purpose – one that could never exist without the flames.” -Restless by Jennie Allen

Everyday I’m planting myself in God’s truth. He is in control. Some days it’s easier to believe, but I’m learning that Jesus inhabits suffering. He suffered, immensely. Jesus asked God to take away his suffering, but Jesus also said, “yet not my will, but yours be done.” Those are the words coming out of my heart. Instead of asking God to take away my suffering, I’m asking for more of Jesus.

Friends, will you be praying for me? Pray that He would give me the courage to be authentic, that He would give me opportunities to work through the things that make me anxious, and that He would cast out any lies.

How can I be praying for you? E-mail me! For Real! thefirstyearblog@gmail.com – I would LOVE to pray for you!

See our previous out of the kitchen posts.

About Beth

I believe that everyone should have a go-to dessert to bring to parties! With hundreds of recipes, I'll help you find yours!

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39 Comments

  1. That is one crazy busy month!! Congrats on paying off your school loans  (always a relief.) As for that spider… yeah, I don’t know what I would have done there. I cannot believe you even thought to look up videos! Arg! And stop worrying about your photos, they are gorgeous!!! 

  2. I love these posts, Beth! They are so fun. You kitty is too cute. And how fun are you guys?! I love the bubble wrap popping party :) Thanks for sharing this with us.

  3. First – a pregnant spider is pretty much my worst nightmare.  Second, your kitten is adorable!!  How fun and what a great reward for paying off student loans…we still have a ways to go with that! 

  4. Thank you for getting so personal with this post. I am so glad that you came out to BHF and that we had the chance to meet. 

  5. Congrats on paying off your loans – you chose a perfect gift to celebrate.  Salsa is adorable!  We have to start paying off med school, mba and other loans in a few months.  Oy vey…

  6. I love this post Beth! Mainly because I am a totally cat lover. My black and white cat loves to stand on the keyboard and get all up in my photography too. Salsa looks absolutely darling. Congratulations on paying off your college loans, that is a MASSIVE achievement. Also a big congratulations for getting your recipes in print! What a wonderful achievement! And your husband is right, you ARE good enough – nuff said! :)

  7. Congrats on your new little bundle of fur! I wish I’d gotten a chance to meet you at BHFood this weekend, I hope you had a great time though! And a seriously HUGE congrats on paying of those loans… that is so so awesome and totally deserves a puppy too ;)