First time reading this blog-series? You can with advantage read the introduction here and the breaking with greed #1: January, here.

25th of January, 2017: This morning, February’s “salary” ticked in. I stuck to my budget. Moved it around according to where I needed them to be. I felt relieved. Life in february does not have to be difficult, just because 10 % of the money is being given away. But, I will have to be careful not to go back to my old habits of thinking with my stomach when it comes to grocery shopping. Because, I mean. I loooove Peanutbutter-chocolate-soya-icecream. I really do.
This morning, I read something interesting though. It was basically about trusting God. The chapter of the book I was reading asked me what was the main thing that kept me from trusting God completely. At first I thought it was about the future. Trusting him to know what I need and provide me with the opportunities in the right time. I guess mainly I was, and sometimes still am, a bit disappointed that all my friends seems to get to experience love and I don’t. But as I thought more and more about it, I realised that, that was not my main concern. My main concern was whether to give money away. I mean, some months the next year is going to be difficult, even if I do not pay tithe. I was having a problem seeing what giving away some of my money to my church was going to help me dealing with that for. And that was when I realised something. The fact that I want to spend this year giving money to my church, and in order to being able to live responsibly in my everyday life – I suddenly have to think about how I spend money given to me. I cannot just spend and think about how to patch things up afterwards. Which is basically what I did, when tithing was not a part of my life as it is going to be this year. Furthermore, I do not have some kind of agreed overdraft in the bank anymore. Because, I thought that with tithing, this was the year I was going to learn how to make by with what I have and not spend beyond what I can.  So there is no “safety-net” – the only safety I have, is the safety God is going to provide me. So, imagine my relief, surprise, and pride, as I realised that January was actually the first month in a very long time I did not use my agreed overdraft and patched things up with next months surplus. I made it through January, and I do not regret not to have bought those clothes that is in my shopping basket at Zalando.com. Not disappointed at all.

27th January 2017: Another thing I think I need to admit to you and myself, is that after the failure of January and the fact that I was reminded of the promise I gave about my 2017 constantly throughout January. I literally sat down and made another budget. This time, I wanted to be sure that I was able to keep my promise and afford living. I honestly see this as a wise way of making oneself aware of what is possible and make room to those things that I want to and give tithe. Because of the fact that money is tight, I actually have to stick to it. Not that I didn’t have to before. I was more spend first, ask questions later. Now, I really need to turn it around. Thus, the budget. And thus, actually sticking to it. We’ll have to see how this goes.

7th February 2017: My previous enthusiasm about budgeting have sort of already cleared out. It is still true, but my old self took over for a while and ran the card through the money-machine with my eyes closed shut. I am on top of it again, but a dive like this cannot be a possibility in the future. I refuse to give in to my old self, because that means not being in control of what goes in and out. I guess that is a part of the journey for me right now. Learning to be in control and not make frustrating solutions after something like this has happened.
What I did want to share with you though was the fact that I actually made a full on bible study on tithing in the beginning of this month. I initially thought, I had to explain myself to the friends of mine who do not believe themselves. But it was some of my Christian friends and family that made me go home and check my bible. The church I go to often say “Go home. Read in your bible. And, analyse for yourself”, so that was what I did. Not in order to convince my non-religious as well as my christian friends and family, but in order to find out for myself what I read and understood to be tithing, so that next time I would meet opposition towards my project with an ability to fully lay out what I read in the bible. It also lead me to the conclusion, that my idea as to include the monthly paying I make to the three good causes I support was not far from the original idea. In the bible every third year the tithing was not given to the church, but to the social outcasts and poor people in society. Thus, I am not going to change the rules on how I tithe. I am no matter the circumstances going to give to the different organisations I already have planned to give to as well as my church. I find that as long as most of the ten percent is going to church it is ok. I find it problematic when half of the money is given to something else than the church and its ability to survive. Then I will make changes in how I give.
What did become real to me was how the old testamente explained tithing as the way to learn how to put God first and destroy all other things that took Gods place in our lives. I guess already back then money and wealth could be a problem to people. It could become a god in their lives. And in order to follow the biblical example, I dwelled on what could be a “god” in my life. Luckily, my church is fasting in February, thus a perfect chance for me to fast and clear out the things that cloud my connection with God. Some fast facebook, others food. I fast thought patterns. It is a tad difficult to explain, and I think it may require a blog in it self. But, shortly outlined, I have unnecessary and unhealthy thought patterns I have been fighting my entire life. God created me with a huge variety of fairy tales and stories in my head, that I sometimes have a tendency to rely on them than on my living God. Thus, I no longer listen to music and I make an effort to read instead. Oh, I really hope you are still with me.
All in all, this tithing was a journey I began with God. I had an idea as to where this was going and somehow he dragged me down a road, I did not foresee myself. How mysterious God works! How wonderful.

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The last two weeks, I admit not being as active on the blog as I had hoped for. The high hopes I had before I went away to Atlanta, disappeared the minute I found myself in the airport. The excitement of going away from this grey rainy cloud called everyday life for a minute took over and I let myself lock up everything of importance into a tiny box and did not open it until a few days ago when being reunited with my own bed and pillow (most of all).

Now after returning this Tuesday, the feeling of the sun disappearing and the clouds reappearing over my head, – and the new energy I had recollected out there in the big amazing world has disappeared like snow in the sun – as we say in Denmark. I admit that the “depression” of not having a job has reappeared in my life, as I with frustration see all the people much more qualified than myself take all the jobs I really want. Anyway, I will go back into the ring and fight for what I dream of in this respect and keep up my blog and all the other amazing things I’ve got going in my life at the moment. Furthermore, this frustration does not help when having problems with mobile phones and a sudden blanket of snow decided to throw itself down in my head when I was having fun with my brother eating at 42Raw – a fortunate impulsive spark of the day.

At least, I know from todays visit at the dentist, that I have a relatively good mouth hygiene. Thank you – at least I know how to take good care of my teeth. Which I do in fear of having to have my teeth drilled. I hate having people touching my teeth’s already. No need to make it more nightmarish going to the dentist already is.

So all in all, coming back sucks. It really do. But I have a few blogs coming your way and this weekend I am going to try making “Fastelavns boller” in a glutenfree and milkfree version. Yay. So I guess life is not that depressing after all. I guess it all depends on holding on to the little things in life.

Over and out.

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Next week, I am going on an adventure. And I am super excited about this. I am going to the US and visit a couple of friends of mine living in Atlanta, Georgia at the moment. I cannot wait, even though I have literally postponed all unnecessary preparations until the last minute. A pile of clothes is already to be packed on my chair. The last arrangements are being made. Documents printed. Downloading of books and audio-books.

A little butterfly is tumbling around in my stomach and I am incredibly nervous and excited. I have never had the pleasure to visit the US, and visiting good friends seems like the perfect opportunity! I have always been curious about other cultures – there is a reason why I’ve studied Middle East Studies and Study of Religion.

But first, a celebration of love between two amazing people are being held in this weekend and I am attending. It is a small journey on 3-4 hours, but what don’t you do for friends. I am wondering whether to give a small speech. We’ll see.

So, all in all, many things are about to happen. Most of all, I am looking forward to press pause from the frustration of looking for a job and enjoy life for a little while before life calls again.

Hope you all are doing well, wherever you are reading from. Have a nice weekend.

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Finax er en fantastisk ting. De har deres helt egen glutenfrie mel-blandinger, hvor man enten kan købe en glutenfri version eller en glutenfri og mælkefri version. Det lækre ved disse mel-blandinger er, at man som regel ikke skal bruge andet end gær. Det er derfor nemt lige at købe disse blandinger, hvis du skulle få besøg af en der ikke spiser gluten. Vær dog opmærksom på, at brødblandingerne ikke er fuldstændig glutenfrie. Hvis du derfor skal bage brød af mel der er naturligt glutenfrit, vil jeg derfor foreslå at du går den lange, lidt besværlige vej uden om disse mel-blandinger. Det er desværre det bedste resultat for de glutenallergikere der helt undgår gluten og spiser produkter der er naturligt frie for gluten. Da jeg selv først skulle lave min kost om, var de virkelig gode alternativer til godt brød – eller nogle af varianterne var. I denne blog vil jeg give min vurdering af de 3 melblandinger som både er mælkefri og glutenfri.

Denne “Lågprotein Mjölmix” var den første jeg prøvede efter at jeg lagde min kost om. Hvis man følger opskriften på siden, er resultatet nogle spiselige boller, som egentlig smager ok. Det eneste der er, er at billederne på pakken er lidt misledende. Bollerne får en underlig hvid farve. Det kan tage lidt overvindelse faktisk at spise dem – for de ligner ikke de boller man plejer at lave fra almindeligt mel. Smagen er lidt sjov, når man forsøger at lave brødet, men når man vender sig til det er det ikke så slemt.

Derfor bruger jeg dog ikke selv mel-blandingen til boller eller brød. Jeg vil gerne lave brød som ikke ser anderledes ud, så mine ikke glutenallergiker venner kan spise dem uden at tænke over eller kunne smage og se, at de er glutenfrie. Istedet bruger jeg blandingen til kager og pandekager osv. Der er det faktisk ikke et problem at det bliver lidt lysere. Det er min erfaring, at krydderier osv farver kagen, eller pandekager lavet med denne mel-blanding stegt på panden ikke er meget anderledes end helt almindelige kager og pandekager. Flere af mine venner og familie har intet imod at spise kager eller pandekager jeg har lavet med denne mel-blanding. Faktisk bemærker de ikke at det er glutenfrit. Derfor får denne mel-blanding ♥ ♥ ♥ ud af 5 hjerter. Det er et ok alternativ i andet end brød.

Denne melblanding er til gengæld en anden sag. “Grov mjölmix” fra Finax giver brød der ligner helt almindeligt brød. Man vil ikke kunne se udenpå at brødet er anderledes indeni. Opskriften på siden er dog lidt underlig, for man skal bruge noget sirup, jeg aldrig har haft i skabene, når jeg har skulle bage med denne mel-blanding.

Jeg har dog aldrig rigtig været glad for brødet jeg fik ud af melblandingen, og det har derfor været lidt en tanketorsk når jeg er kommet til at købe det. Desværre har brødet nemlig en eftersmag af sæbe, som gør at brøddet bliver utiltalende at spise. Det er under alle omstændigheder ikke et brød jeg ville servere for mine venner eller familie. Og slet ikke en blanding jeg vil have som fast inventar i skabet. Denne blanding får derfor kun ♥ ud af 5 hjerter – fordi det i det mindste ligner det helt almindelige brød. Men det er ikke noget jeg ville byde andre at spise.

finax’ “Fiberbrödmix” er til alle tider min absolut favorit af Finax’ melblandinger. Den har konsistensen og farven som et helt almindeligt groft brød og så har den en lækker smag af krydderier. Det er nemt at lave brød ud af det, selvom jeg aldrig rigtig har formået at få 2 brød ud af denne blanding. Tror mine måle-forhold er lidt anderledes.

Dette brød er et brød jeg ikke ville have nogle kvaler ved at introducere for mine venner og tror egentlig heller ikke de ville lægge mærke til at det var glutenfrit og mælkefrit. Faktisk ville jeg gå så langt som at sige at brødet sagtens kan være et alternativ til vores danske rugbrød og ville nemt kunne blive til lækre sandwiches til madpakken. Melblandingen får hele ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ for genial smag, virkelig tiltalende udseende og for at gøre det så nemt at bage.

Melblandingerne kan findes i de store supermarkeder og man skal som regel ikke bruge andet end gær til at lave brødet.

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It is definitely a long, long time ago I became tomato red in the head of embarrassment. I find myself kind of hard core on some things and on others weak as a earthworm. Anyways – smashing 5 champagne glass ought to do it – at a goods friends final exam! #IWouldHaveDougAHoleAndStayedThereTheRestOfMyLife, #Embarrasment #LuckyIWillNeverMeetAnyoneThereEverAgain.

By the way, I made myself the “Smashing Glass Queen” when I at the Copenhagen Street Food managed to smash my own glass on their concrete floor. #Dough, #OneMoreTimeForThePeople, #AtLeastIAmTheQueenOfSomething.

In my family it has become a known fact that I have a tendency to “leave” my things all around town. While visiting family in this week I managed to drop my phone, without noticing in the local grocery store. Surprisingly the episode was not that nerve racking for me, because it actually happens every now and again. My mom ended up asking intensely, every time we left some place whether I had everything and if I was sure. #TheQueenOfForgetting, #NotThatUncommon, #IAmJustNotThatAttachedToThings.

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So, I know this blog is going to channel my inner child – and that you might not find this very interesting. But, may I just say.. I LOVE this cartoon/animation-thingy. It is witty, it is funny, it is interesting. Actually, I cannot wait to see how on earth Netflix is going to follow up this first part of the TV-series. Because – apparently, it is a Netflix-original. Which, if I may say so, is a genius thing Netflix are doing there in general. It might be a HBO-rip off, but come on. They have made some pretty interesting risks. With 3% for instance.

“Trollhunters” follows the new, and first human, troll-master Jim in his challenge to overcome the new challenges – amongst other things fight insanely hugh trolls and monsters for a young fellah his age. The plot is very simple: boy falls in love and attempts to joggle between the normal teen life and the very grown up responsibility he suddenly has as a troll-master, who is supposed to protect the world.

At first, I found it strangely satisfactory. But, as the storyline moved forward and became more complex, I found it rather genius. I became addicted and just had to find out what on earth was going to happen. The series is constructed geniusly, with plots that will make you watch more. My favourite characters will be Tobbes and AAAAaaaaarghhhh (yes, that’s his name) – especially when they play the sushi-game! Oh, oh OH – and “not-enrique” the troll baby who can look like a human but in fact really is a troll!!! Oh, seriously. you just gotta watch it to understand the characters! (Oh the gifs one could make from this animation).

So, this will be my advice to you. Make some popcorns, find a blanket and start a series marathon – optionally you can bring your kids as well. But, ONLY an option.

You will not regret it. It is addictive, funny and amazingly sweet.

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