A Reflection on Dreams and Goals

 

At the start of the month, I shared with you some specific goals I had for January. Now that the month has ended, I wanted to offer up how they went! Some were great successes, and others didn’t work out as planned. All of it is okay! I’ve learned to hold the plans loosely. I pursue them as hard as I can, but if I find an insurmountable barrier, I trust that it wasn’t meant to work out at this time. Maybe later will be a better fit. Here’s how the month went in the land of goals:

ONE. This month I began slowly studying my way through the book of Exodus. I was so excited to begin. Spending a whole year in Genesis was far beyond what I expected to do, and while I don’t regret it, I also knew I needed to try to study a little faster starting this year, if I ever hope to finish a deep study of the whole Bible in my lifetime. The Lord kindly worked it out that my study book arrived on New  Year’s Eve, so I was able to begin my fresh start right on time on New Year’s Day! I allow myself a little extra time to be sure I’m fully immersed, but I am moving more quickly than I did through Genesis! (The study book from Precept USA is just one book instead of five, so it moves faster!) I’ve studied Moses’ life in depth before (because I wrote about it in one of my Bible studies) but I’m learning even more about him than I knew then, and the events of his life are perfect for what we are experiencing in ours right now. I'm currently in the middle of studying the plagues!

TWO. The YouTube course I found to learn more about my DSLR camera was four hours long, so I decided to break it up into four sections (one hour each) and learn that way. Sounds manageable, doesn’t it? It wasn’t. Not this month. Not with starting to read every day and trying to cook healthy meals at home every day and working out five days a week and working a full-time job and prepping to move. It may only have been a four hour course, but it proved to be four hours I didn’t have this month. I still want to do this, but I’m going to have to table it until things calm down a bit.

THREE. My book challenge is officially underway! My intent for the year had been to start with Redemptive Compassion, a book published by a former Love INC director, but our copies didn’t arrive in time. So I started with Like a Winter Snow (a short TV-movie-like novel by Lindsay Harrel), and that completed my “winter read” category. Then I moved on to Friends,Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry, which completed my “book everyone is talking about” category. Right about the time I finished that, Redemptive Compassion arrived, so I dove right in. This book didn’t mark off a category for me, but it was a convicting read. Then I started Devotedly by Valerie Elliot Shepard, which covers the "award winning nonfiction" category - and is also a book I've wanted to read for quite some time. I'll tell you more about it when I finished it. I'm about halfway through now. I wasn’t able to read a book a week, which I knew would be the case, but I did carve out time in each day to read a little bit in my books. If I had time for more, great! If not, I at least committed to reading a few pages.

FOUR. I just gave you a date night update a few days ago, but…we did manage to do one date each week! We did an at-home hot cocoa and TV night, a dinner night, a coffee night, and a double date night with friends. I felt like that was a wonderful variety and was proud of us for mixing it up!

FIVE. In the land of retreat prep, I surprised myself by getting much further along than I imagined possible. Praise the Lord for that! I not only made the outline, but I wrote all three sessions during January! This was only made possible by an unexpected holiday at work (I didn’t know we had MLK Day off work until that day), and I was so grateful for it. We have such a busy February ahead of us, and it will be a gift later that I am this far along in the process. Plus…the things I learned as I wrote were such a gift for this season of my life. I’m grateful!

In addition to my planned goals, I…

·       *  Exercised five of seven days each week.

·      

 * Fairly exclusively followed our clean eating meal plan.

·       * Helped Ryan at the lake house. (Because of my work hours, I’m rarely able to help at the lake, so getting to go over a little bit was a gift!)

·       *   Took down our Christmas décor and packed it all away using our new tub-labeling system that I devised.

·        *  Took a week of online training to learn more about grant-proposal writing.

·        *   Ordered SEVEN scrapbooks. (While I was out of work, I did not order any books to try to save money. I found a job. They ran a sale. YAY!) I also kept up with our current books and made significant headway on our anniversary book. I’m probably 95% done with it.

It was a productive month, and I am grateful for all I accomplished and learned!

Friendship Traditions

 

            Back when we lived in Kokomo, I got a text from my friend Jenna asking if it might be possible for her and her husband to stay the night with us as they traveled to and from a retreat in Ohio. We were a midpoint in the journey, and since we rarely get to see each other, the whole arrangement was a win in every direction.

            We had the best time with them that weekend. We were able to show them around our beloved town and catch up with them about life, their kids, all of our dreams, what the Lord was doing in our lives, and more. It was such a gift to be able to host them and gift them a couple of nights of lodging while also getting to enjoy their friendship!

            They ended up staying with us the next year on their way to the same retreat – and they came back another time with all their kids, and I turned our house into a hotel. The kids left me a review, and I loved everything about that visit!

            We moved to WillowBridge, and they asked if they could keep visiting on their way to the retreat. That year, their visit coincided with the week Allen unexpectedly passed away. We were a mess, everything in our apartment looked disastrous, and I'm fairly sure I've never been a worse hostess. But that’s the beauty of friendship: you don’t always have to be polished to be loved and understood.

            This past weekend, they made their way through town again. We keep moving around, and they keep finding us and enjoying the next version of home we have to offer. This time, things were a bit bare in looks, since we’ve started packing to move. I was in the middle of weeklong online training to learn the skill of writing grant proposals, so my mind was mush. Lexi is still fully puppy when it comes to visitors.

            And yet once again, they accepted and loved us where we were, both personally and geographically. Lexi lost her MIND with joy when they arrived, and she couldn’t understand why they didn’t want her to sit ON THEM at all times to show the full extent of her love. But they were kind to her and she was able to settle down eventually.

            We shared stories over Mexican food the first night of their visit. And when they stopped by on their way back home, we were able to show them the house where they’ll stay next year (ha!) and then told more stories over soup…maybe one of our last hosting opportunities in this house!

            This friendship began over twenty years ago when Jenna and I worked together in the Financial Aid Office. She was a student worker and I was a young, full-time employee who still wore all black on Valentine’s Day and sported glasses to try to look older. We drove matching cars (Three cheers for a Ford Focus). Hers was red, and mine was white. We even did a photo shoot with our matching cars! I drove to visit them in Illinois several times when I was single, and Ryan and I went to see them once after we got married.

            We love this friendship we share. It might be relegated to texting for the majority of the year, but we absolutely treasure our annual hosting tradition. We all just pick up like no time has passed and enjoy our conversations. We know it will probably be another year before we catch up in person, and it’s okay. There’s no pressure to cram in more if time does not allow.

            Friendships don’t have a formula. We have friends we see all the time and some we see only once a year – or less. But each one is dear to us. Each one has its own special offering. I’m grateful for every unique friendship tradition, and I’m grateful for our friends who visit our traveling B&B every year.

Sunday Sentiments: On God's Simple Kindness

             It happened just a few days before Christmas. Ryan had gone to work, and I was working from home. I discovered that the weather forecasters had released updated predictions about the Christmas storm, and I knew all of humanity (in our county) would be at the store by evening, buying up the French toast ingredients.

            I’d already planned to go to the store that day for some last-minute Christmas shopping, but I decided to take an early lunch and go immediately so I could avoid as much of the crowd as I could. I’d not slept well the night before, and I didn’t have any video chat meetings that day, so I hadn’t exactly taken time to do my hair or makeup. I gathered my hair into a ponytail, slapped on some mascara, and headed out to do my errands.

            Just as I left home, Ryan called. The crew installing our flooring at the new house had arrived and called to tell him the heat wasn’t working. The house was freezing. The supplies couldn’t warm up enough for installation. Ryan said he was on his way over to see what was happening.

            If I were a leg-buckling sort of person, I think that moment would have done it for me. There we were, five days before Christmas and three days before a sub-zero temperature storm. What if we had to replace the whole furnace? (It had given us troubles earlier in the fall, and our main goal was to limp through the winter on the existing furnace.)

            I found it hard to catch my breath as I plodded through the store. I worried about the furnace, the temperatures, the timing. I tried to pray, but I felt like my words fell short. I pushed the cart toward the back, and as I walked down the main aisle, I walked by a woman who caught my eye. She looked familiar, but I couldn’t place how I knew her.

            I did a double take and noticed she was doing a double take of her own back my way. I had to know her.

            I did know her. Just not in the context of this town, which is why we both stared at each other, confused. (It also reminded me why leaving the house without getting ready is a solid guarantee of seeing someone you know.)

            She was my boss at Indiana Wesleyan, right before I left to work at WBCL. She had no idea I lived in this town, and I knew she didn’t live here. We hugged right there in Walmart and then stood to catch up on life and figure out why we were both at THIS store.

            I didn’t forget about the furnace while I talked to her, but the conversation uplifted my heart and helped me breathe again. By the time we parted ways, I had stopped panicking and found a genuine smile on my face.

            Ryan called a bit later to say he wasn’t sure what happened or why, but the furnace was working again. And the Lord kept it working right through that weekend storm.

            God’s simple kindness.

            Mysteriously fixing the mysteriously broken heat. Sending a friend I never expected to see to a store in a town where she doesn’t live at a time I hadn’t planned to even be there.

            Isn’t He good?

Saturday Suggestions

 

Happy Saturday, friends! I have some fun (and even a funNY) find for you today. I hope you enjoy exploring these links!

ONE. 

I told you earlier this week that Ryan and I are determined to become more intentional about our rest on Sundays. I also told you that while I know it’s highly controversial about whether or not resting includes a break from technology, at this point, we don’t feel a conviction to turn off screens on Sundays. One of our favorite things is to watch funny video clips that make us giggle. (Or Tim Hawkins sketches…though you gotta be careful about those. We watched one where he picked on a phrase, and don’t you just know it, I heard it IN CHURCH the next week and laughed so hard at the most inappropriate time!!) Ryan sent me this clip a few days ago, and it made me laugh because THIS WOULD HAPPEN TO US!!!!! This is the kind of belly-laugh rest I enjoy.

TWO. 

Remember when I told you about the ultimate world cruise that sets sail later this year? It really is fascinating to read all about it, so if you want to learn more, you can visit this page! You can see the full itinerary, check out a map that shows the route, and see pictures from the ports of call along the way! And I’m curious (if you take a look at it) which place(s) would be your favorite to see in real life!

THREE.

I haven’t tried this one yet, so I can’t vouch for how tasty it might (or might not) be, but I found a recipe for a healthy version of Arby’sJamocha shake. I can assure you the real thing is not healthy from any angle. I really do want to try this one so I can see if the taste even remotely resembles the original. If you try it first, let me know!

FOUR. 

This is the link to the workouts Ryan and I landed on for thisyear. I learned about them because a fashion blogger I follow on Instagram shared at the end of 2022 that she had been doing them for a year and really enjoyed them and had seen marked improvement in her strength. (She was thin to start with, so she didn’t need to work out to lose weight, but she wanted to become stronger and healthier.) As you know, I’ve been desperate to find a workout program I actually enjoy, so we decided to go for this one. It’s free on YouTube, and there are multiple programs. We are currently working our way through Epic I. I love it that she doesn’t talk during the workouts and there are preview videos during each rest to show you what move is coming next. Ryan can use heavier weights to make his workout appropriately difficult for him, and I can modify as needed if something is too hard for me. We can work out at home on our own time, and we’re both already seeing slow changes!

FIVE. 

Even though I don’t think I’ve found my secret gift (yet), I do enjoy exploring different ideas. Not long ago, I watched some videos about learning to play the harp, because that has, for many years, been a talent I have thought I’d thoroughly enjoy. I don’t know that it’s something that I could successfully do, but I had fun watching some of the explanation videos on this YouTube channel – as well as some of the clips of the YouTuber playing the harp at events. She is quite talented! (Can we also just pause to appreciate her accent??)

SIX. 

I told you about some of the fun we had on our dates this month. Most of ours revolved around food, rather than adventure, and that’s mostly because that’s what we had time for this month. We do love taking part in more creative dates when we have the time and resources, and this list has several fun ideas on it!! If you’re in a date-night rut, try looking for an idea here! (Also fun ideas for just hanging out with friends, if that suits you better.)

Have a great week, friends!

Winter Dates

 

            Ryan and I purposed, this month, to be intentional about a weekly date. We did not think this would be a difficult thing to achieve, but we were wrong. We are in a strange season right now, trying to finish our work at the new house so we can move into it, which, of course, means packing the current house, too. We’re playing a significant amount of divide-and-conquer, which we both really hate. Meanwhile, I'm still learning my new job...and we have a dog. We love her to pieces, but we've learned that being dog-parents means we lack the freedom to be gone for wildly extended periods of time, and that has made our dates look a bit different this month.

            Our first week’s date was our monthiversary, and I already told you it didn’t quite go as planned. We were going to watch a movie at home together while eating popcorn and drinking hot cocoa bombs. Alas, we couldn’t find a movie we liked, and we were too full for popcorn. So it turned out to be hot cocoa bombs and an episode of Mad About You. Oh! And a good heart-to-heart talk. It was a good date, but it was not as planned, and you know what that does to a couple of planners like us!

            We had grand plans for the second week’s date. We were volunteering together at our church’s free clothing boutique, and after that, we were going to try out a café nearby and then Ryan was going to work at the house and I was going to a baby shower out of town. Unfortunately, after we did the time-math on that, we realized we would be gone far too long to be fair to Lexi, so we did a plan B again!

            We had to run to Fort Wayne for a quick errand one evening, so while we were there, we stopped at Panera for dinner. (Thank you, Ryan’s Dad and Lynn, for the gift card!) We spent two beautiful hours in there, enjoying our food but also enjoying good, old-fashioned conversation. It was so much fun to just sit and talk without feeling in a hurry! I truly don’t remember the last time we just sat for a long time to talk over dinner. We’re always on the run. Sitting has become a lost art. This date showed us why we should find the art again.

            A bonus? Before we left, we ran into one of our friends! None of us live in Fort Wayne, but we all happened to be at Panera at the same time. That was fun!

            The third week, we didn’t want to have to travel too far or commit to a whole dinner out on the town. A coffee date sounded delightful, but we have learned that in this area, the coffee shops just don’t stay open past 5 p.m. Some close in the early afternoon, even. We were so spoiled in Marion, when we lived by TWO coffee shops that stayed open until 10 or 11 p.m. But Ryan found one in our general area that stayed open until 7 p.m. a couple of nights each week, so we decided to go there for our coffee shop date!

            It was so fun for us to go there because it’s one of our favorite shops out of all the MANY we have visited throughout our marriage. It was one of our first county date locations back in 2014, and it was the shop we looked at purchasing just a couple of years after that. (We have often wondered how different our life would look if we had really done it!) People came in and out while we were there, but not many stayed, so we tucked ourselves away in a booth and had a great conversation before making our way back home to resume our chores and responsibilities.

Our week four date happened just last night! We have friends in town to visit, so we decided to take them out to the Mexican restaurant here in town for a double date! We had the best time catching up after not seeing each other in person for about two years. (And the food was so good!)

            I am so happy we were able to go out four times this month…and every single one was different! Simple variety = good dates. 

What if This is Your Secret Gift?

 

            I don’t remember now what sparked the conversation, but I won’t soon forget the conversation itself.

            I have a handful of friends I talk to through the Marco Polo app, and one of them is my former co-worker, Abagail. She’s the friend I filled in for at the Kokomo church while she was on maternity leave, right before the pandemic. She had been my friend even before that, and after our paths ran parallel for that work season, we became even closer. I love chatting with her and hearing about the things happening in her world throughout each week. (She has two kiddos now, so there are always stories.)

            Back when I was still looking for work, we talked about vocations (though I don’t remember the context) and Abagail said something I’d never before considered. She said sometimes she wonders if there’s something out there in the great wide world that she would be so talented at doing, but she’s never done it and doesn’t know it’s her secret gift.

            (As a quick note…Abagail is marvelously talented in so many areas. She is creative and organized, and I haven’t met anyone else in my life who can cook, bake, or throw a party quite like she can – no exaggeration. She has a background in culinary arts, but her skills in quality and presentation are a natural gift that can’t possibly be learned in a classroom setting.)

            Abagail went on to say that sometimes she dreams about trying this hobby or that – or even a particular career – and she wonders if she might find it’s her gift she never knew she had.

            I thought back to my days in Financial Aid. I would call myself an okay counselor. It wasn’t a natural gift for me. I didn’t love it. I found aspects that I could do well, but the job as a whole was most certainly not my secret gift.

            Then I went into radio, and at the beginning, I was terrible. I’ve heard my early recordings, and they are nothing short of intensely painful. I like to think I improved over the four years I was there, and of all the jobs I’ve ever had, I felt like that one ended up feeling the most natural to me. It’s subjective to say I felt I was gifted in it, but from where I sat, it felt like the closest thing to a secret gift I’ve ever known.

            While I improved in what I did in my advocate work at WillowBridge, I don’t think I could be remotely accused of being gifted at that. And the jury is still out on my work in writing grant proposals. I hope I find a natural gifting in it, but we’ll see.

            Writing is the only hobby I’ve ever found that tends to flow effortlessly out of me. I wish I could sit and play the piano beautifully, but after eleven years of practice and lessons, I think we can safely say it’s not my first and most effortless gift. Singing isn’t the secret gift either – and great apologies go to the shower and car for that truth. I took sign language lessons for a while too, and perhaps I could have continued to hone those skills if my lessons had continued, but they didn’t.

            Maybe there’s a hobby out there somewhere I haven’t uncovered just yet that will flow from me so easily that I won’t be able to turn away from it. Could it be playing the harp? Watercolor painting? Making bread? I don’t know. I haven’t found it yet.

            Still, I love the idea that something could be lurking around the corner that I could call my secret gift. What a pleasant surprise it would be to uncover it and live in the joy of using it.

            What would you want your secret gift to be?

Healthful Habits

 

This is an ironic post to follow the one about love tasting like a jamocha shake. I acknowledge it! We are nearly a month into this new year, officially hitting the time when so many have abandoned their good intentions for the year. It’s so easy to do. The discipline of pressing on is exceedingly difficult. What’s the saying? If it were easy, everyone would be doing it.

            Ryan and I have clawed our way into this year, grasping desperately at some of the habits we intended to change about our lives. Two of those were health-related, so I thought they deserved a spot in our conversation this week.

            Before January even arrived, I spent a couple of hours laying out the meal plans for our entire month. I have a secret hope that if I can keep this up for a “mere” twelve months, I will have a nearly-lifelong meal plan structure that I can use in years to come, saving myself so much time. I can swap out meals here and there for variety, but I won’t have to sit and really work through hard-core planning in the future if I’m consistent this year.

            I suppose it remains to be seen if I can continue this, but I’ve worked hard at January, anyway! In the interest of transparency, I will confess that the thing I’ve hated most about our January meal plans has been cooking when I’m bone-weary and don’t want to do it. But I also have tried so hard to view cooking as an act of worship. I’ve been praying as I cook, thanking God for providing for us financially so we can purchase the food and for giving me a love of working in the kitchen so that creating healthful meals for the two of us is something I am able to do and (usually) want to do.

            And on those days I really don’t want to participate, I remind myself that this is part of the discipline. As my health coach told me last year, if nothing changes, nothing changes. If I want to see change in who I am, I have to put in the work of cooking healthful meals.

            I remember one Sunday, in particular, we were driving home from church, and the meal plan was to make homemade pizza with a healthy crust and healthy toppings. The only thing I wanted to do on that drive home from church was to swing through Little Caesars and get a hot and ready box for home. Ryan talked me out of It, and though I don’t know that I could be accused of being overly happy about it in the moment, I was glad for his accountability in the long run.

            In full disclosure, there was another day, later, when we were running behind and decided to get the Hot and Ready box from Little Caesars. All things in moderation. We did well once, and we gave in once. Overall, we’re improving.

            We still go out to eat. We still get treats. But the bulk of our food is prepared at home in healthful ways.

            And then there are the workouts. We started at the beginning of January, and I wish you could have been here to see me on day five. Day one? Leg day. Day two? Upper body. Day three? Abs and core. Thank goodness for a recovery day on day four, because I couldn’t move ANYTHING by then. Day five was dumbbell day, and I told Ryan I enjoyed that one most of all. He was gone on day six, when I did a HIIT workout on my own. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that every other move was a burpee. EVERY. OTHER. ONE. I hate burpees. They are my least favorite exercise of all time. And I had to do them for half the workout. I was mostly belly flopping on the floor by the end of it. It wasn’t pretty. I think Lexi thought I was injured. She was hanging over the baby gate, whining and looking awfully concerned. I tried to reassure her that I was okay, but I’m not sure I was very convincing.

            But here we are, almost a month in, and we’re still going. We’re still cooking healthful meals. We’re still working out. We’re still attempting to incorporate rest and good conversation and all the things that make life well-rounded without including a single dumbbell.

            It’s hard to make new habits. It’s hard to carve out the time. It’s hard to keep going when you’re bored and tired and sore and really want nothing more than to go back to the blessed familiar. It’s hard when the people around you aren’t used to the new schedules and presume you have all the same time and energy to do whatever you used to do. New habits are an adjustment ALL the way around.

They are, however, completely doable – with grit and determination! Don’t give up just because it’s uncomfortable. I’m cheering you on today, friends! Let’s keep going and pursuing our best work.

Love Tastes Like a Jamocha Shake

 

Last month, we met up with Ryan’s dad, stepmom, and grandma to enjoy dinner together at Cracker Barrel. It was just before Christmas, and the hostess seated us at a round table in the farthest section. The only other people in that area were gathered at a long table down the middle of the room. They were in their own world, and we were in ours. All of us were blissfully separated from the chaos of the main part of the restaurant – and the heat of the fireplace!

            Ryan’s grandma, who just turned 95 a few weeks earlier, had so many stories for us, including some about her healthy sweet tooth. She talked about her love for milkshakes, and how sometimes Ryan’s stepmom brings her one, and she can’t help but drink the whole thing, even if she really is supposed to watch her sugar.

            The longer we talked about milkshakes, the more I wanted one! Milkshakes are a deep love of mine, and I rarely have them, because I can’t stop. I would guess I drink two or three a year, and I savor every sip.

            Speaking of dessert, I thought we were ordering some that night at Cracker Barrel, so I stopped eating dinner well before I was satisfied, leaving room for something warm and delicious.

            And then no one ordered dessert.

            And then we drove out of the parking lot and right past the Burger King and its milkshake machine.

            And then we were home, and I was hungry and craving a milkshake.

            Missing dessert wasn’t my only woe that night. My mind raced with dozens of things that I couldn’t control, but neither could I control the need to think about them. I mentally rearranged our next home about a dozen times that night. I worried about my abilities to do my new job. I lamented the busyness of the season and all the friends I wished I could sit with, but none of us had time.

            And even Ryan…I missed him so. At that time, he was gone nearly every evening - all evening - working on some projects at the new house. They were things I didn’t know how to do, so I couldn’t help. He would work late, come home, eat dinner – hours after Lexi and I had already eaten – and then he would fall asleep watching TV. I missed seeing him and talking to him.

            The cherry on top of the night was that Braeya was up the entire night, ready to talk and play. She settled down right about the time the alarm went off, and I thanked the Lord (quite genuinely) that I did not have to drive to the office that day. My lackluster attempt at “work hair” and I made it to the table to work.

            Ryan was gone again the next night, working on the house again, and when he walked in the door about 9 p.m. to find chili simmering on the stove, he held out his gift to me: a jamocha shake.

            I was too tired to cry out loud, but I cried in my soul.

            I don’t need elaborate dates, jewelry, new clothes, or anything extravagant. I can find a giant heap of love packed into a milkshake from a drive-thru.

            Of course, it really wasn’t about the milkshake. It was all about Ryan remembering my longing for a special treat and hearing my heart in the middle of the night when he awakened to find me crying over living room furniture arrangement and worrying over my general level of intelligence. It was about the way he understood that long days and evenings apart really do make me miss him so very much.

            That night, love tasted like a jamocha shake. Cold coffee and an extra spoonful of love mixed all the way through.

The Lure of the World Cruise

 

I have often said that my travel dreams are largely confined to the United States (or North America, to be more specific). It’s not that I think the rest of the world has nothing to offer, but my speed bumps in world travel are my lack of love for flying and my lack of ability to speak other languages. There is something about being unable to communicate that terrifies me.

            In North America, I can drive where I need to go (or ride comfortably as Ryan’s passenger) and I can speak the language nearly everywhere. Those things comfort me and draw me to explore close to home.

            Happily, North America is full of so much that I really want to see. Mountains, deserts, oceans, rivers, forests, plains…so much variety. I’m content to stay in the drivable zone because I genuinely desire to see what’s in my own (very large) backyard.

            But during a Facebook scroll last year, I saw a post about the ultimate world cruise, and I confess: it piqued my interest.

A ship in the Royal Caribbean fleet will leave Miami on December 10^th, and for 274 days, they’ll sail all around the world, stopping on every single continent and in 64 countries. Can you imagine? All seven continents in one trip – and in less than a year at that?

            Other than getting to Miami, flying is not involved in this adventure, which is why I first took notice. I also told Ryan that the idea of being able to sleep and eat in a place that seems like home (the ship) is also a draw.

            As you might imagine, what did not draw us in was the price tag. To get a balcony room – which I would most certainly want if I’m spending 274 days on a ship – starts at $82,000 a person. We don’t have that kind of pocket change begging to be spent, unfortunately. And I’m fairly certain they aren’t looking for mascots, so our pets would have to stay home, and I can’t bear to be without them that long.

            But back to the price tag: it comes out to about $300 a day, which initially sounded astronomical to me, but when I think about all it covers, it makes a measure of sense in my mind. That daily price covers a room to live in, airfare to and from the cruise, a hotel room and gala entry the night before the cruise, transportation to and from the airport, hotel, and ship, beverages throughout the duration of the cruise, internet access, gratuities, laundry service, and more food than any one person could ever hope to eat in 274 days. (If you’ve been on a cruise before, you know the food is plentiful!) And then, of course, the ship has pools and entertainment and a gym and housekeeping …so that $300 a day really does cover quite a bit. Can you even put a price tag on having someone cook, clean, and do your laundry – and be your chauffeur – for the better part of a year?

            I read through the itinerary and smiled at the familiar memories from the ports of call at the start of the trip. They’re the ones I’ve seen in person, and I did love them. Miami – where we thought we might die from the bob-and-weave tactics of the driver who took us to our first cruise ship. (Perhaps love is a strong word for that one.) The Bahamas – where we accidentally found a private beach and spent a romantic afternoon splashing in the water and taking beautiful pictures. Aruba – where we took the “granny tour” to see the sights. Curacao – where we saw turtles swimming in blue ombre water.

            And from there, the itinerary shifted into places I’ve only read about: waterfalls in Argentina, the icy views of Antarctica, Machu Picchu in Peru, the islands of Hawaii, New Zealand and Australia, the Great Barrier Reef, The Philippines (where the kids I used to drive to school are from), The Great Wall of China, Japan (where an exchange student friend of mine from 30 years ago was from), India (where Phoebe’s people were born), the pyramids of Egypt, Israel, so many cities in Greece, Italy (reminding me of the many stories Lynne told me when we worked together), Croatia (where my former roommate, Angela, was a missionary for a year), Spain, Ireland, France, England, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and even New York City.

            I can’t imagine how many scrapbooks it would take to chronicle the sights found in these beautiful places. (That might be another $82,000 expense.) But I can imagine that seeing the world by ship would be the only way I could do it without a panic attack. I can imagine that the sights are breathtaking, each in their own way. The God-made and man-made alike would be more than I could imagine seeing in front of my own eyes.

            When I think about the awe-inspiring worship that flooded me standing on the Gulf of Mexico last month, I can’t imagine that magnified over the whole earth in all its splendor and unique beauty!

Sunday Sentiments: Sabbath Living, Intentional Rest

 

Honoring the Sabbath isn’t new for me. I grew up in a home that had a strong focus on respecting the Lord’s Day. We never ate out on Sundays – or spent any money anywhere, for that matter. We didn’t go to stores, put gas in the car, or even take the Sunday paper. We didn’t watch TV or do any housework on Sundays. (I learned the hard way that homework was also off limits on Sundays. I never knew that was an actual rule until the Sunday when I found a forgotten assignment in my backpack and pulled it out to work on it.)

            The day was all about napping (which I did not appropriately appreciate as a child), attending church, spending time with church friends, reading, and simply resting.

            I don’t think I found the delight in the Sabbath back then. It felt to me more like a day of remembering all the things I couldn’t do, rather than appreciating the freedom of rest. (You can understand, I’m sure. How many of you crave Chick-Fil-A or want to start a Hobby Lobby project on Sunday more than any other day? The pull of what you can’t have is strong for all of us!)

            As an adult, I’ve tried to continue what I was brought up to do, but I’ve also tried to find the delight in the Sabbath.

            You could read articles for days (and I have!) on how we should observe the Sabbath, and most of them wildly – and emphatically – disagree on what is acceptable. If you’re hoping I have somehow found the accurate answer, I will disappoint you now and tell you that I haven’t.

            But I am learning, a piece at a time, to pursue what I believe shows honor to the Lord.

·         * No work. Scripture says we are supposed to work for six days and rest on the seventh. We don’t do house or yard work on Sunday. For the most part, we also don’t work vocationally on Sundays. I say “for the most part” because part of Ryan’s work involves speaking in church services, and those take place on Sundays.

·         * Resting, body and soul. We almost always take naps on Sunday afternoons, and I do so gladly and without guilt. We choose to spend part of the day watching TV, and I often scrapbook or play on Pinterest, because those things are restful to our minds and hearts. I know some people are adamant about unplugging from all technology on Sunday, and that’s completely fine! There may come a day when I feel convicted to do the same, but for now, I do choose to remain connected.

·        *  Church! We love our church. We love the teaching and our friends. Going to church is a joy and pleasure, and it’s something we choose to make a priority on Sundays.

One thing that can be challenging for us is handling the obligations that occasionally pop up from family or friends. Ryan’s family often has birthday parties on Sunday afternoons, and since we live a distance away, participation in those means traveling and carving out part of the afternoon that would normally be our rest and rejuvenation time for celebration instead. We struggle, because we want to participate in family life and support his siblings, but we also feel the pull to honor our need for rest.

Holidays, too, sometimes fall on Sundays, and that presents similar conundrums. We sometimes host and sometimes attend, but either way, the time allotted for rest on those days seems to lower significantly.

My hope is that I can hold legalism at bay and somehow remain true to the convictions of my heart. Unfortunately trying to strike a balance there is likely to offend someone along the way, so I just have to keep chipping away at finding that fine line of obedient grace.

I hold my heart open before the Lord to learn and grow as He chooses to lead and teach me, but I do want to say I’m grateful for the teaching of my upbringing, and I’m grateful for a husband who strives to honor the Sabbath too!

Saturday Suggestions

I have some (hopefully) fun finds for you this week that throw back to things I already wrote about throughout the week. Maybe you’ll find something inspirational tucked in the list!

ONE. 

Since everything is so expensive right now, keeping warm in the winter can be a challenge – especially for those of us facing an especially cold winter. This post shares some frugal ways to keep warm in the winter without turning up the heat in your house – and hopefully without spending a bunch of extra money! I will add to the list that I have my Comfy at the ready. (Those are giant warm sweatshirts that are a dream for keeping warm!)

TWO. 

My Dad has always loved hymn stories, and perhaps I have inherited from him the love of a good back-story. Earlier this week I wrote about the hymn on my heart this month: Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. I had never heard the story behind this song, so I looked it up and found it here. The hymn was inspired by another piece of writing that the hymn-writer happened upon, so the bulk of the story is actually about the writer of that piece. I find it delightful that this beautiful song is a collaboration between two women who never knew each other! (NOTE: It took a while for the page to load the most recent time I looked at the article. So if it doesn't pop up right away, give it a minute!)

THREE. 

I wrote earlier this week about how we are “different-sizing” in our upcoming move. The space we’re entering is not smaller, but its layout makes it seem smaller in some ways. This article talks about how to downsize (or different-size) your own space, even if you aren’t moving!

FOUR. 

Half the fun of drinking hot chocolate is choosing the mug you’re going to drink from! I know everyone always has plenty of mugs, but if you do like a new one, can I recommend the MudLOVE collection? These beautiful pieces of pottery are made in Indiana! I own two MudLOVE mugs – and several pieces of their jewelry, too. They donate a portion of their proceeds to providing clean water in Africa, so every purchase is a win-win! (They also do fundraisers, so if you’re looking for a fresh take on fundraising, you can check that out.)

FIVE. 

I’ve told you before that if you want to keep a principle in your mind, you should keep it in front of your eyes, too! After working my way through the bulk of the Redemptive Compassion book this week, I found this piece of downloadable wall art. It’s perfect for a constant reminder that compassion is essential in our interactions with those around us. The words are straight from Scripture! (I told you I'm mostly done with the book, but my full review will be forthcoming!)

SIX. 

Yesterday I encouraged you to declutter from your home and life things like old bed linens and towels that you don’t use anymore. But before you throw them away, see if you can repurpose them in some way! This list gives you many suggestions on how to reuse old linens that have outlived their original life. Ryan and I usually move our old towels to the garage for him to use on messy projects car/construction projects. I’ve also seen animal shelters ask for old towels and blankets to use in dog kennels. Lots of ideas to get every last piece of life out of these items!

Have a great weekend, friends! I hope you find something good for your heart in this list!