Scary storms and scary STRESS

They say that there's a first time for everything right? Well that's exactly what happened yesterday when I had to drive home from church in a torrential downpour. What made it even scarier is that I had my siblings in the car with me. I had to concentrate SO HARD to make sure I didn't, oh you know, KILL everyone in the car. It was really a frightening experience. But we made it home safely and for that I was so grateful.

But today I started experiencing a different type of stress. I started my CommonApp, and I finally realized that my life for the next few months is going to be overtaken by worrying about:

My grades

Studying for the SAT and ACT

It's a scary thought for me, my school life pretty much being boiled down into these final moments. But I'm just going to have to push through it and hope, HOPE everything turns out right:)

Giving up

Sometimes you try and try and try to hold on but you just can't. So you give up. Many times it's a good thing, other times it's not. But hopefully there's some benefit that comes out of it, whether for you or for someone else. I've given up on many things in my life, and this is sure not to be the last. This time I'm giving up a few things, most notably my social life, sacrificing it for school. I realize it's a little bit late, and that I should have done this LAST year, but you know what? I have to move on with my life and not dwell (TOO) much on the past. I've thought about it a lot lately, and have recognized that in order to be successful in life I'm going to need to develop habits now that will carry me through my college years (provided I even get INTO college..). So I'm starting now. I will try my very best to study for my classes, study for the SAT/ACT, and do all my homework as early as possible. It's quite a stretch for me, as I have a track record of not being that reliable in oh.. EVERY SINGLE ONE of those categories. But it's a goal I'm setting for myself and I'm going to work hard towards it. There are a few other things I'm going to try giving up too, such as my bad eating habits and my clinginess. And I hope to be able to accomplish those goals. I plan on updating my progress on this blog, so be prepared to read some about my trials soon! I'll post again as soon as I get my pile of homework under control and are able to finally take some time off to type on the computer :)

Me, the cook?

I'm not really. But every so often I get on a baking jag, and I like to try out a bunch of new stuff. So last night I made these awesome lasagna "cupcakes" I saw online. It was basically two pieces of noodles for the bottom, then sauce, meat, and ricotta, mozzarella, and parmesan cheese. SO yummy. I even took some pictures just for the blog! :) They were far from perfect, but for a first time, I think they turned out pretty swell! Hopefully I'll start perfecting some recipes and will be able to post some more soon... :)

The full plate

So delicious

Mmmmmm:)

Picture recap

So I know I already talked about the beginning of school, and that it was a LONG time ago, but since I just found out camera I thought it'd be fine to put up our beginning of school pictures!

The big high schoolers!

The younger ones, middle and two elementary

Everyone's seemed to have a good time getting back into the school rhythm. I hope it stays that way. School's been going easy on me so far, although I'm sure it'll increase in difficulty soon :/ I'm crossing my fingers that it won't be THAT hard to handle!