Kaki's Favorite Things: It's Friday, have a cookie

Happy Friday everyone! Man I've had an awesome and busy week, which gives me a ton to blog about. But I figured I'd talk about cookies (again, wow.) today. But this time they aren't metaphorical cookies, they're literal cookies and they ROCK. I just discovered these cookies on Wednesday, but I decided to hasten the Kaki's Favorite Things stamp of approval process with all deliberate speed because they are awesome (side note, "with all deliberate speed" is one of my favorite expressions. You get an extra cookie if you know what moment in history this is from without looking it up).

I bought Grace's Best Sunflower Seed cookies at my local health food store, which obviously makes me really hip and the cookies super trendy. They're interesting because they have sunflower seeds in them and as far as cookies go, they're pretty healthy, being made from oats, sunflower seeds, butter and brown sugar. But they're full of flavor! And a serving size is FIVE COOKIES (130 calories). That's definitely a number I can live with. Delicious by themselves or with tea/coffee. But beware, they are super addicting. There were free samples of them at the store and I ate like 2 or 3, at which point I caved and bought a bag.

This is my second post in a row about cookies but I don't see anyone complaining. Plus, this is my blog and I do what I want. But tomorrow I'll be talking about another awesome book I've just finished so stay tuned!

Faith and cookies: The most important thing I've learned about being a Christian adult

When I was a senior in high school, a youth minister whom I have always admired gave a talk at a retreat I was attending that has been so meaningful to me as I have navigated my way through college and the first few years of young adulthood. I was in my last semester of high school at the time and the talk was about developing an adult faith life, so he had my attention. My parish in my hometown was my home--I was so involved in everything and it fed me so well during my high school years (both literally and spiritually). But it was all I knew, and I was about to move. He talked about how when you're in high school, there are so many opportunities to go on retreats and be involved in a youth group, and how God provides us with so much consolation during that time. Its a beautiful experience that draws us close to God and shapes us in faith, but faith, he said, is like a chocolate chip cookie.
The sweet moments of consolation we have in prayer, the times when we really feel close to God and encounter Him in an emotional way, those are the chocolate chips. But a chocolate chip cookie is made of more than just chocolate chips. In fact, the bulk of a chocolate chip cookie is actually flour. The flour represents the hustle and bustle of adult life...work, bills, assignments, the things we don't normally think to see God in. But if we're only seeing God in the chocolate chips, we're missing out on the whole cookie and not seeing the Lord in the bulk of life. And honestly, school, work and struggles are the places we need God the most! So the message was to recognize that in adult life, there might be a lot more flour than chocolate chips, but we have to know that God is present in both and that prayer and being faithful are important in those sweet chocolatey moments of consolation and in the not-so-sweet moments. You can't have a chocolate chip cookie without both ingredients.
He also talked about how the chocolate chips flavor the rest of the cookie, and just so, those moments of sweetness with the Lord should "flavor" the rest of our lives. Not only should we look for God in our every day lives, but we should bring him to others as well by showing love at our jobs, in our communities, and to our families.
I hope you have lots of chocolate chips in your life, but I also hope that you look for God in the flour because I promise you He's there.
And if you're craving a cookie after reading this, the best ones are at Whataburger.

Kaki's Favorite Things: My Year with Eleanor

I'll be honest, I'm not a reader. I like the idea of reading, and I can definitely appreciate good literature, but I'm too impatient most of the time to read an entire book or I lose interest or just am simply too busy doing things (haha.) to read. But recently, I read an entire book the whole way through! For fun! And it was great! (!!1!!!) My Year With Eleanor by Noelle Handcock is a memoir about a 29 year old pop-culture journalist who loses her job and soon realizes she doesn't really have a life and is afraid to step out of her comfort zone that seems to have shrunk since before her job started consuming her social life. One day in a coffee shop, she sees a sign with the famous Eleanor Roosevelt quote, "do one thing every day that scares you," and is inspired to take Eleanor literally. She dedicated the next year of her life to facing all of her fears. From sky diving to shark diving to confronting ex-boyfriends, she does things (hey look!) that take her on a journey of self-discovery. She even climbs Mount Kilimanjaro! Throughout her journey, she faces fears that a lot of people face--public speaking, karaoke, making hard decisions, and finds that there is "nothing to fear but fear itself" (another famous Roosevelt said that one).
Its a really good book, ya'll. And, as cheesy as this is, by the end of it, I was doing more things that scared me--I went to the weight room where all the buff guys work out, I wore red lipstick to church, I started being more honest with people. I discovered the same thing as Noelle in the book--most of the things we fear aren't actually that scary. Looking our fears straight in the face makes us stronger people. We gain more self confidence in knowing that we have conquered hard things before, and that brings motivation to keep pushing, keep facing, keep growing.
This book was light-hearted, easy to relate too, SO funny and just so good! My roommate Anna had to read it for class, and I read it after she did. Once I finished it, our other roommate read it! We loved it. Now we have this sign hanging in our kitchen:

This book gets the very first "Kaki's Favorite Things" stamp of approval so do something and check it out!!