Posts by Bethany Wilkes

When you have a grateful heart, it changes your perspective on everything.  You experience heart change, expression change, spirit change. You feel like a different person. Gratitude can affect your physical, spiritual, and emotional health. It can affect everything. Gratitude satisfies. Have you heard the phrase “it is well with my soul”. Well gratitude centers everything you are on the things that are really important. And being centered and “well with the soul” gives you strength. A strong person is grateful for what he has and centers themselves on the things that matter.

Gratitude is the cure for so many things. Have you found yourself in the dumps? Have you been complaining? Have you been feeling bad about yourself? Have you been short with your kids? Take some time to think about the things you can be grateful for and try to notice how it affects you.

And smile. Smiling can change your mood and change what your heart is focusing on. Take some time to be grateful. Pay attention to how you feel. And live centered on gratitude. And find your strength.

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November is a great time to be reminded of thankfulness. But why just in November?? We should be thankful every day for all the things and people we are blessed with.

^{Exra 3:11} With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord:

And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.”

When I take time to focus on my blessings and why I am thankful, I have a completely different persona and perspective about life. I feel refreshed, energized, and filled with joy. So I am thankful for the reminder of November to be thankful. But I to take that into the rest of my life. Recently, my husband and I have been sharing the best part of our days at night. And it helps me reflect on thankfulness. So I am thankful for specific time that my husband and I get to connect, and the focus on thankfulness!

How can you incorporate more thankfulness into your everyday?

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PASSION PERSPECTIVE

1. All about Meghan Meredith
   1. Life motto: Today is a good day to be well! I came up with this quote while writing and creating my fitness planner and I really love it as a life motto because each day is a day we can choose to be well and begin the journey to being our best, most well self- physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
   2. Favorite food: Oh there’s so many! I love eating whole, fresh foods like crisp, cold radishes or a salad but I also love ice cream and chips and guac!
   3. Favorite dessert: Magnolia Bakery cupcakes or ice cream!
   4. Favorite Disney character: Ariel- just because we both have red hair!
   5. One thing you can’t live without: I can’t live without my Bible! And mascara!
   6. Favorite book: Again, so many good ones. Obviously, the Bible is the best book and the best story of all time but other than that, I love One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp and glean something new every time I read it…and I’ve read it 3 or 4 times!
   7. One bucket list item: Go to Tahiti! I’ve really been craving a South Pacific vacation in a hut over the water! That would be a dream!
   8. Favorite Bible verse: Again, so many good ones! I love this verse in Habakkuk a lot though and Habakkuk is one of my favorite books! Habakkuk 1:5 “Look at the nations and watch and be utterly amazed, For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.”
   9. Short biography: I am rural Pennsylvania raised, Wheaton College educated, married my Military man in Atlanta, living the good life in sunny Los Angeles currently…until the Air Force sends us to our next home. I’m a lover of beauty and

We love taking a little time to represent some amazing people in our lives and showing what they are doing. Life is filled with some amazing people, isn’t it? So today and tomorrow, we are looking into the life of Meghan Meredith, who has a passion for living a well life and inspiring others to do the same. Come along the journey with us as we explore her dreams, visions, and her most recent project.

Check out her website here

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/754730560/whole-body-fitness-a-self-guided-fitness-planner

Tomorrow we will learn what inspired this great idea and go behind the scenes with Meghan Meredith! Stay tuned!

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I was inspired today by the question, what is one thing you have done in your life that you never thought you would do… It got me thinking and reflecting on who I am, the person I have become, and where I have been. As busy adults we don’t often take time to look back at the path we have been on that has brought us to where we are today. But if you think about it, you have overcome obstacles, pushed through setbacks, broken limitations, and conquered your fears. Not your path compared to the rest of the world. But your path for you. The person you are. The things you have pushed through, grown from, and moved into.

So what is it for you? What have you done in your life that you never thought you could do, or were scared to do? Run a marathon? Given a speech? Gone skydiving? Given birth?  And what have you still not done? We all have these limitations that we put on ourselves that we think we can’t do… but I think its time to push through that lens. Look at where you’ve come from, and think you can. Just like the little engine that could, “think you can”. We aren’t all created to be a CEO of a company or the best cook in town, but you were created to be you. Don’t compare yourself to what everyone else is doing, the success they are having, or their picture of “having it all together”  And don’t let that you be held back by your hardest critic, yourself.  Go Big. Think of something that you want to do. You were also created to be courageous, to dream big, and to live free. So be you, do something big (for you), and …

This is a great meal to make to have people over, take to parents of a new baby, and eat for yourself! And it is all in one dish! Can’t get much better than that! Make it for your family, grab some salad and bread and there you go!

Spinach and Sausage Spinach Bake

• 1 ¹⁄₂lbs chicken sausage
• olive oil (optional)
• 2 onions, coarsely chopped
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 large sweet red pepper, coarsely chopped
• 20-28 ounces meatless extra chunky pasta sauce
• 1 can tomato sauce
• 1 tbs dried basil
• 2 tbs oregano
• 1 teaspoon fennel seed
• 6 cups penne pasta (1 box)
• 1 cup of yogurt
• 8 oz package fresh spinach (trimmed and coarsely chopped)
• 2 cups shredded provolone cheese or 2 cups mozzarella cheese
• 1 cup grated asiago cheese or 1 cup parmesan cheese

1. Cut sausage into 1/2 inch chunks. I large skillet, brown sausage over medium-high heat, in batches and adding oil if necessary. Transfer sausage to a bowl.
2.  Add to the oil mixture the onions, garlic and red pepper, cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes or until softened. Stir in pasta sauce, tomato sauce, basil, oregano and fennel seeds; bring to a boil, stirring and scraping up any brown bits from bottom of pan. Return sausage and any accumulated juices to pan; cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until sausage is firm throughout.
3. Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta for 6 minutes, add spinach;cook for 1 minute. Drain well and return to pot. Add one cup of yogurt Add sausage mixture and provolone/mozzarella cheese; stir to combine well.
4. Transfer to 2 greased 8-inch square baking dishes or 1 13×9-inch dish. Sprinkle with Asiago/parmesan cheese. Cover dish with greased foil, greased side down.

Summer is filled with potlucks, picnics, bbqs, and get togethers! Most of the time these events are a shared effort where every family brings an item to contribute. I find myself bringing the same types of things to every event… So I am going to share a list of some new ideas I am finding as I tackle the summer potlucks.

Salads

• Corn salad
• Quinoa Salad
• Coleslaw
• Pasta Salad
• Potato Salad
• Orzo salad
• Watermelon and mint salad
• Succotash

Sides

• Watermelon is always great! Find creative ways to cut and serve!
• Fruit tray: Make a flag for the 4th of July, arrange creatively for the event
• Sweet potato fries
• Baked Potato
• Corn on the cob
• Roasted Vegetables
• Bread

Appetizers

• Meatballs
• Chip and Dip
• Veggie Tray
• Bacon Wrapped Asparagus
• Flat Bread Pizza
• Mozzerella cheese and tomatoes
• anything on a skewer

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