Pi Day

As I browsed my favorite Pi Day images, I stumbled across this recipe for mini key lime pies and now my mouth is watering. It sounds so perfectly tart and refreshing for a day like today. Also, mini pies are the best. Portion control plus crazy indulgence {because-- hello! You're eating a whole pie!} is the very definition of awesome sauce.

If you follow me on Instagram {@melancholysmile}, you know that mere hours before J's birthday, our tax return came in. We were able to quickly pay some past-due bills {thus avoiding having our power, water and phone switched off} and celebrate by taking him out to dinner. It was a birthday miracle. :)

{Here's a little tangent on miracles:

Though J and I have been praying about our future for months, always feeling comforted and at peace, we didn't know how to interpret that peace. Did it mean that J would get more freelance work? That he'd find a corporate job? That we'd lose the house but it would all be part of a bigger plan? It was confusing and difficult to explain to others how we could feel stressed and calm at the same time.

When I was younger, I used to say, "God's version of things working out and my version of things working out aren't necessarily the same thing." I'd say it with bitterness, bravado and more than a bit of fear. But over the last six years, I've been working on saying those same words with confidence and faith.

Up until the day J got this new job {which he started on Monday} I wasn't sure that God's plan and my plan were the same, but I wanted them to be, and I was willing to change my expectations to match His. I imagined all the worst-case scenarios, walked through them in my head, and tried to find the good that could potentially come of that particular situation. I told myself that no matter what, it would be okay. No matter what, I was going to be positive. No matter what, God knows my heart and will give me what I need in this life to be like him, which is more important that getting what I want in life.

I was so busy steeling myself, determined to be happy and align myself with His will that when His will turned out to be an amazing job offer and tax-return money to avoid financial catastrophe at the 11th hour, I could only grin and then laugh incredulously.

Sometimes God's version of things working out and my version of things working out are exactly the same, and when that happens, I feel like dancing. I feel like the whole world is sunshine, and I need to spend the rest of my life spreading joy. {"You get a car! and you get a car! and YOU get a car!"}

I want to think that I'd feel just as much love if things had turned out otherwise, but for now, I'm relishing the happiness. And imagining giving away cars.}

Anyway, back to J's birthday-- Little Miss C and I made ice cream pie instead of cake for him. It had a grasshopper cookie crust, a thin-mint ice cream layer, hot fudge, a layer of whipped cream and then Andes Mints on top.

I wish we still had some. I'd eat a slice for Pi Day. :)

{images 1, 2, 3 & 4}