fitness & fro-yo: Do Not Worry

The theme of my Young Life retreat this weekend, and easily one of the most important things I needed to hear. Matthew 6:27 says, "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" And that is so true! I spend so much time worrying instead of just doing what I need to do. So our retreat was great, but more on that later.

I left y'all hanging before my swim and my baking adventures. My team nominated me to provide the baked goods, so I decided to honor their wishes and try my hand at cake balls. Cake balls are a pretty recent trend, but I have never made them because they looked pretty intimidating. However, I already had the ingredients, so I decided to give it a try so that I wouldn't have to make a separate trip to the store. As it turns out, cake balls are pretty darn easy to make - just follow the instructions given to you and they will turn out great. I will warn you that they are a process, so be prepared to set aside some time to work on them. It also helped that I have this trusty storage plate, as it gave me a place to store them while the coating hardened. Pretty cute if I do say so myself. Cake balls tend to make a good appearance, so if you are looking for dessert ideas for your next party, I encourage you to think about cake balls.

I also made a plate of brownies that the boys managed to absolutely destroy, so I apologize for not having a picture of those. They were nothing too special, but evidently they were pretty tasty!

After the baking extravaganza, I biked on over to Gregory Gym for the first time this semester to partake in my first swim since the end of last semester. It was an absolutely beautiful day, so I was worried about my chances of being able to snag my own lane, but no worries, friends, I managed to hang onto my own lane for the entire 96 laps. I was surprised at how easy it was to get back into my groove, though my toe still isn't 100% yet, so I wasn't moving quite as gracefully as I would have liked, but that will come with time and consistency, I'm sure.

In typical Murchison Young Life fashion, we arrived late to the all-area gathering that took place before headed out to Bastrop to spend the night at a family's ranch, which was absolutely precious, by the way.

It was a cute ranch house, but this particular sign was not one of my favorites!

Naturally, we made a stop at Buc-ee's to pick up some beaver nuggets and additional snacks. I don't know if this breaks my one month plan, but I did purchase a bag of peppered turkey strips because they are just so good and they allow me to add some variety to my snack options. I probably shouldn't have purchased them, but, I probably won't get to make that stop until I go home for spring break, so I figured it was a pretty necessary purchase.

Just acting up in the middle of Buc-ees

We got to the ranch around 10:00pm and proceeded to explore a bit, build a fire, tell scary stories, and just give our vision for this semester. I also love spending time with my team, but I always leave retreats feeling pretty exhausted. I went to bed around 2:00 in the morning, and woke up around 6:45 with the hopes of watching the sun rise. Unfortunately, it was pretty foggy, but I was able to do some reading and at least snap a few good pictures.

Longhorns

We headed back to Austin for some more all-area business stuff, and then dispersed. I came home and immediately retreated to my room with the hopes of getting some homework done. I was pretty tired, though, so I opened Netflix and proceeded to watch four episodes of Pretty Little Liars. My productivity level truly astounds me sometimes. But, around 5:00 I headed over to Mueller Park and ran for 57 minutes, which I would assume to be about six-and-a-half miles. It was absolutely beautiful outside, and the weather felt perfect. I know that many people hate this warm winter we are having, but if we had days like today all the time, I think people would come to appreciate it. Who wants to be bundled up in a bunch of layers, anyway?