Green bean casserole-you love it or you hate it

Let’s end this ongoing debate and hate over green bean casserole. You know, we always have to have the green bean casserole conversation, the back and forth, why you hate it, why you love it. Well, let’s settle it right now, AND this might be why you hate it: because you haven’t had it the way that it’s intended to be, the best way, the southern way.

Thank God for green bean casserole and not just any green bean casserole, Southern green bean casserole. The kind that has a whole stick of Velveeta cheese, cream of mushroom soup, pimentos, the little fried onions, and all the yummies. You know, you taste one bite and can feel it in your soul. 

It is one of those delectable, savory, delicious, Southern dishes that we put on the table for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We think about it all year long, but no, we don't need to be eating it on the regular. It is just that good that your mouth waters for this yummy, yummy time of the year. We reserve it for November and December, for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Could we eat it every day? Probably, but it's something that we don't want to take for granted. It's something that we want to look forward to. We want that special person in the family to never skip out on coming to a Thanksgiving or Christmas event ever, because that's the thing that they make, and we look forward to it all year long.

I'm that person for the deviled eggs. Everybody looks forward to it. They wait and wait and wait all year long for my deviled eggs. Well, my sister is the green bean casserole maker, and she does it like nobody's business. Take a look at this picture she allowed me to use for this post. So delicious.

What dishes do you look forward to for your family holidays and gatherings? For Thanksgiving and Christmas?

I hope you and your family have a wonderfully blessed Thanksgiving.

Psalm 100:4: "Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name."

Are you going MY way?

Recently, I met one of my dear friends and sister-in-Christ for breakfast. We went back and forth deciding on a place we'd like to go. She named off a place I had never heard of and after looking it up, I decided I'd love to try it. I reached out to her the day before we were scheduled to meet, seeing if we were still good to go. The morning of, I sent her a text to let her know I was on my way. We've done several things together with others in church settings, but never one-on-one outside of church. We were both excited to be able to do this. She's about 10 years younger than me, and we have similar interests in common. She is a sweet lady that has so much insight to offer, and I just love to talk with her and hear her perspective on things. After sending that text, I got ready and headed out the door. I knew the vicinity of where this little breakfast café was but wasn't certain how to get there.

Are you all like me when it comes to using your GPS? I depend on it for EVERYTHING. Even if I know where I'm going, I use it because it can let you know the quickest route, especially if there's a traffic delay. I put the address in my GPS and headed in that direction. I turned up my tunes and was enjoying the ride, that is, until I decided to not listen to my GPS and turned off on a street that I thought would be a shortcut. “Maybe GPS didn't take this into consideration. I'm sure it'll be quicker since I'm well-versed in driving in this area and know all the shortcuts.”

When I got a little further on that road, I saw all of this backed-up traffic. It was school traffic, and I got stuck in that line. I quickly sent her a text to let her know I'd be a little late, AFTER I had already asked if we could meet sooner. I thought, “This sweet lady is gonna think I'm nuts.” As I was slowly working my way through this school traffic, I started thinking about how if I had just listened to the GPS, I would have taken the route that would have avoided these obstacles and gotten there directly and on time.

That initial thought led me to another thought: isn’t that very similar to how we are with God? We know we are better off listening to Him and going on the path that He clearly laid out for us, but just like we do with the GPS, sometimes we have to buck the system and venture out in a different direction, thinking we know a better way. I called my friend after having this thought and told her I was finally out of this madness, and the epiphany I had about the correlation between GPS and God, and trying to do things our own way. We both laughed. I told her maybe she could use that in a sermon one day.

Imagine how much less stressed we'd be if we just listened and followed Him without trying to think our way is better. I hope the next time you use your GPS, you think of this story, and it helps you listen to Him a little better.

Proverbs 3:5–6 (NKJV)
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”

Why I Stopped Chasing Happiness

What have we all been trained to believe throughout our lives?  That we should be chasing happiness. As long as we're happy, it's all good.  There are so many sayings about happiness and look how a lot of them are self-pleasing and temporary. 

If it makes you happy, it can’t be that bad. 

Do whatever makes you happy.

I just want to be happy.

At the end of the day, all that matters is if you’re happy.

Life is too short not to be happy.

As long as you’re happy, that’s what counts.  

You deserve to be happy.

You owe it to yourself to be happy.

If it doesn’t make you happy anymore, walk away. 

Go where you’re happy.

Being happy is the most important thing.

I can’t be in something if I’m not happy.

You have to choose what makes you happy.

Everyone deserves to be happy.

I’ll finally be happy when ___ happens.

I used to be happy. I just want to get back to that.

Just be happy — don’t overthink it.

I left because I wasn’t happy.

I stayed because I thought I’d be happy again.

If they really cared, they’d make me happy.

I shouldn’t have to give up what makes me happy.

I’m doing me — I deserve to be happy.

Don't worry be happy.

I fell into the "happy trap" myself.  I even helped my daughter with a project about happiness.  She wrote a piece and created a visual piece describing happiness and protecting your happiness. She went on to say the way you protect your happiness is by not allowing others to hold your key to happiness; they could lose the key or misplace it, they won't take care of it like you would, so it's up to you to hold your own key and not give it away to others. You are responsible for your own key to happiness.  She made a cute jar that had iridescent glitter on the outside about three/fourths of the way up and kept the top clear. Inside, you could see a beautiful golden key that hung from the bottom part of the lid to make it appear like it was semi-suspended, timeless. That beautiful key represented her control over her own happiness, and it was well protected. This was an inspiration and reflection of what I would always say to her and what I would teach her about happiness. I tried many different ways like this to help her with her self-doubts and self-esteem issues by teaching her that it's within herself to take charge of her own happiness and not to depend on others for it. 

It's not that what I taught her was wrong because she definitely doesn't need to depend on others for her "cheery disposition" or to be a self-esteem booster, because it leads to a what goes up must come down type of situation. And my intentions were in the right place, but after learning the difference between happiness and joy, I wish I had known sooner to teach her about joy as well as happiness. You see, happiness is fleeting and worldly.  It comes and goes depending on circumstances, the epitome of something being conditional, similar to conditional love versus unconditional. Joy is concrete and comes from the Lord.  We can persevere and appear to be happy no matter our circumstances when we have that perpetual joy that we receive by knowing and having a relationship with Him.  

It's a game-changer when we decide to keep our eyes on the eternal prize, our forever home.  Get ourselves out of the worldly thoughts of what's pleasing for us in the here and now. Don't get me wrong, I'll be the first to say that it's ok to be happy, and I'll still write about it and share the "happy" memes, but that's not the complete picture and what we should be chasing after. If I had the choice to be happy or joyful, I'd choose to be joyful, knowing what I know now. 

John 15:11 “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”

This is an AI representation of my daughter's project piece that she made, not the actual one. 

Where Life Has Led Me

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything. Years, really. When I last posted, I was in a very different season of life. There were things I couldn’t say yet, and things I didn’t know how to say. Life was changing quietly, even before I fully realized it myself.

Since then, life has continued. And so have I. There have been hard endings and lingering situations that have caused pain. There has also been healing, rebuilding, and becoming someone even more rooted in who God made me to be. And somewhere along that way, God wrote a new story into my life.

I’ve been married for almost ten years to a man who is gentle and kind. We’ve built a life that feels peaceful, even on the hard days. He loves me  and my family so well, and he loves my children as his own. When we got married, I also became a bonus mom to a son. He gave me the name Emy, and it means a lot to me because it came from him. And now I’m a Mimi, which is one of my greatest blessings.

I don’t feel the need to erase the past or rewrite it. The earlier posts on this blog are pieces of who I was then. I was doing the best I could with what I knew.
I’m grateful for the past me that led me here. So I’m leaving the old posts as they are. 

If you’ve been here before, thank you for being part of that journey.

If you’re new here, welcome. 

Still here.

Still growing.
🤍