Experimenting with Hot Tea

 

            This story started a dozen or more years ago. I was still single, living in Marion, and I often spent my evenings walking from my home to the athletic fields on the Indiana Wesleyan campus. One trip around the loop equaled a mile, so it was easy to measure my exercise. Even before I toyed with running, I would walk back there, enjoying the solitude that still felt safe.

            On my trek to the fields, I’d pass a small campus-owned group of duplexes. Back then, they were housing for upperclassmen, and in the summers, they housed students who stayed around for classes or work. (I actually lived there the summer between my junior and senior years!)

            A trio of girls lived in one of the duplexes, and they often sat on their front porch in the evenings, drinking tea and talking while they watched the world on the edge of campus. They would wave at me as I walked past, and one night, one of them called out to me to ask my name.

            I paused to talk to them for a while, and they asked if I liked tea. I told them I liked iced tea, but not hot tea. They told me it was because I’d never had good hot tea, and then they asked if they could have me over for tea sometime.

            So one evening I walked to their duplex and they invited me in for a proper tea party. I was skeptical, but I admit, they impressed me. They were true tea connoisseurs, with glass jars filled with various flavors of loose-leaf tea. They had metal tea strainers, little porcelain tea sets, and so much knowledge about the world of tea.

            They asked about some of my flavor preferences, and I watched in admiration as they put together a loose-leaf tea blend just for me. I watched it steep, and they added some cream for me – which I did not even know was part of a tea experience.

            It was the best tea I’d ever had, and it was the first time I knew college students could have a beverage appreciation for anything other than energy drinks, coffee, or alcohol!

            I wish I’d had more time with those girls, because I do believe they could have taught me so much more about tea, but they graduated and moved away before we could have more tea parties. I also wish I had pictures of this adventure, but it was before the days of over-documenting, so I don't. (I’m still friends with two of them on social media, and it has been a joy to watch them mature into talented young women!)

            Though Ryan and I have always been – and probably always will be – coffee champions, Ryan has been branching out into the world of hot tea lately. Part of it started when he wrestled with a cold last fall, and part of it has stemmed from our small group members, who love hot tea and drink it regularly on the nights we get together for fellowship.

            I’m much like Lexi in the fear of being left out, so I decided 2023 would be my year to learn to like hot tea. I remembered those girls from the duplex and the joy of loose-leaf tea, so I decided to start there. If I’m going to do this thing, I’m going to do it right.

            When we were in Florida for our anniversary trip, I happened upon a Spice and Tea Exchange store. I moved around the perimeter of the store, opening glass jars and inhaling blends. I ended up choosing a chai sampler packet containing chocolate chai black tea, fireside spice oolong tea, and spiced chai mate. Ryan gifted me a tea strainer in my stocking at Christmas, and I was excited to try my hand at tea!

            The first time I tried it, I chose chocolate chai. My GOODNESS, it smelled so delicious as I spooned it into the strainer. I tried drinking it just as it was, and it was too bitter – even with all the really delightful spices in it. (It contains black chocolate tea, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, and cloves, so the aroma is absolutely delightfully spicy in all the best ways.) I added some honey, and that did help. The next time, I skipped the honey and moved on to adding a little cream. I liked it – but it was still a very different experience than drinking coffee. 

            Then I tried the Spiced chai with cream, and THAT hit the spot. This one contains yerba mate tea, green rooibos tea, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, orange, lemongrass, aniseed, almond, mango, blue cornflower, pineapple, and papaya. YUM!! I realized after the first try that I hadn't steeped it long enough. (It called for a longer time than the chocolate chai.) So I tried again, but to be honest, it tasted the same.

            I’m going to keep pushing through to learn to love hot tea one way or the other, but I have also learned about myself that my first love is and probably always will be coffee. I’m always going to be more of an iced tea girl than a hot tea girl, but I do feel I can properly appreciate some version of hot tea so I don’t have to miss out on the fun!

The Idolatry of Good Things

 

I try to find a quote for my day planner each day. It’s my way of pushing myself to, in the middle of the social media scrolling, find things that are worth remembering.

Back in November, I found this quote, written by Sarah Valentour, and while it is a little on the lengthy side, it also holds a powerful message.

The idolatry of good things devalues our relationship with God by exalting something of this world to His plane in our hearts. Our lives feel incomplete without this good thing, and we feel deep despair when thinking about never having it. Slowly, it rises higher and higher in our minds until it becomes the thing we think we can’t live without.

The idolatry of good things neglects our relationship with God, because it steals our time. We warp this good and beautiful thing that we so desperately want into something that consumes our days and our every thought.

The idolatry of good things creates bitterness toward God. Since we know that every good and perfect gift comes from the Lord, we can fall into the assumption that anything good that’s missing in our lives is being withheld from us. We look at what we lack and view it as punishment or neglect rather than as providence or a season of waiting.

Such conviction!

My list-loving self makes project lists and wish lists and dream lists, and while I don’t think those things are sinful in and of themselves, I can see how they bring about the potential to yearn for things of this earth more than the God Who made the earth and all that is in it.

 For example, yesterday I shared with you about my experiment with time blocking. It was a good thing in theory, but it became an idol. It stole time away from my focus on the Lord, and it wasn’t worth it.

May nothing in this world – whether job or house or possession or person or practice – matter more to me than my relationship with the Lord and the reality of all He has done and provided. May my thoughts be focused on Him above all else. May I find contentment in what He has seen fit to offer me and trust that it is all I need.

May the good things never elevate above that level: good. May I appreciate them for the joy and beauty they offer, but may they never fully captivate my soul.

Time Redeemed: The Beauty of Giving Up Time Blocking

 

I have a confession to make at the start of this post. I originally titled it “Time Redeemed: The Beauty of Time Blocking.” You’ll notice now that I’ve inserted the phrase “Giving Up” in the middle of that title.

Why? Well, you’re about to see why in greater detail, but I want you to know that my ultimate goal writing in this space each day is to show you the reality of our lives. I don’t want to delete things simply because they didn’t end up being tied with a pretty red bow. I tried something new and had every reason to believe it would be a perfect fit into our lives, but in the end, it wasn’t. I recognize that it might be just what you need, so I’m still going to share about it, but I’m also going to share why it wasn’t right for us!

If you’ve been reading here long, you know I am quite the fan of lists, color-coding, planners, itineraries, alphabetizing, label making, and anything else that represents organization and efficiency.

I wasn’t always that way. If you could have known me as a child, you would have held out little hope that I would ever get my act together. My room was a disaster area, and it could have qualified for federal assistance if my parents had turned it in, I’m sure. I lived in chaos, with piles everywhere. I once had a bookcase literally topple over in my room, because I had loaded it down so improperly with junk that it couldn’t stand anymore. (This was back before we knew furniture in kids’ rooms should be fastened to the wall.)

But now, thankfully, I am aware of organization and quite the advocate for it. I’m always looking for ways to increase my life-organization, and sometimes people roll their eyes and say I’m too overboard. It used to hurt, but I’ve decided not to let it bother me anymore.

Last November, when Ryan and I went to Ohio for Love INC training, one of the presenters talked about the virtues of time blocking. I’d heard of it and had even mildly participated in it when I worked at WBCL. Jamie, who had my job before me, was even more organized than I, and she had her online calendar set up in color-coded time blocking. I just didn’t know that’s what it was. I continued to use her system to drive my work days, even after she left.

So what is time blocking, and how is it different from a to-do list? How does it work with (or not work with) a to-do list?

Time blocking is exactly what it sounds like. It’s all about blocking out sections of your day for specific purposes, but the blocks are general. To-do lists are the specifics of what fill the blocks of time.

For example, if you have an hour-by-hour calendar of the day in front of you, you might block out from 6-7 a.m. for your morning routine. That’s the time block. In that time, your to-do list might include making coffee, having breakfast, taking a shower, doing your hair, getting dressed, and putting on your makeup.

Time blocking and list making each serve as a means of accountability and organization, but they function in different ways.

When we went to our Love INC training, I was just a month away from starting my new job, and I knew it would be extremely important for me to manage my time well, not just in working from home, but also in balancing a full-time job alongside our personal life. While I didn’t want to give up my beloved lists, I decided to add time blocking to see if it would help me make the best use of my days.

It did not.

I want to tell you what I learned from it, though!

·       *   Flexibility can be a struggle for me, so I tried hard not to make my blocks of time TOO specific. I tried to define them loosely enough that I could breathe, yet specifically enough to accomplish what needs done. But immediately,

·       *   I blocked not just my work time but also my personal time with Ryan. I was trying to help us view our time together as a valuable appointment. (It’s probably a whole separate post topic, but sometimes we struggle to protect our time as much as we should. Things come up, people ask us to do things, and not everyone understands that “our time” matters too.)

·       *   I reminded myself that time blocking is a silicone plan, not a cast iron plan. The results may stretch in strange directions, and not feel solid at all, but it’s okay. It’s still capable of holding my plans and making room where needed. That is, after all, the beauty of the whole thing.

Why didn’t it work for us?

·      *    Maybe if I had tried this in a different season, it would have been fine. For us, right now, trying to juggle two jobs, a puppy, and a move, it was too constricting to create this plan and then see it change constantly. It brought me more stress than relief, and I decided that was counterintuitive to the entire point.

·       *   I made a paper block, and that meant it simply could not be easily changed. Though I typically loathe the digital version of anything, I can see how in this exercise, a digital version would offer more flexibility.

·        *  It took me over an hour to even MAKE the plan, and that’s an hour I could use somewhere else.

My biggest success in this experiment was giving myself permission to let go of something because I saw it wasn’t working for us at this time. Maybe one day, I’ll try again. But for now, this just wasn’t a fit. However…if you want to try, check out this video, and it was pretty helpful for me in understanding how to set up a block. Check it out if you want to learn more!

Sunday Sentiments: An Intentional Life

When we lived in Kokomo, it was common to see cars around town with a 1/168 window sticker displayed. It took me a while to hear the story behind the sticker, but I finally learned it! They were from one of the churches in town and represented the number of hours we spend in church each week (1) in comparison to the number of hours in a week (168). The stickers were meant to challenge people to consider how they spent the rest of their 168 hours every week.

It’s a question I ask myself regularly, but especially at the start of a new year. Am I being intentional with the days I have been given to live? Am I choosing to use my time on things that matter over the long term or am I whittling away the hours in ways I’ll never recover?

I have one week of 2023 behind me, and I pray I have used it intentionally. (This has been a literal matter of prayer for me. I don’t just throw that out as a figure of speech.)

·        I have been intentional in spending time growing my relationship with the Lord. That includes Bible reading and study, prayer, worship, and spending time in the fellowship of other believers.

·        I have been intentional in our marriage, making my time with Ryan a priority and trying to show Ryan – in tangible ways – how much I love him and value our marriage.

·        I have been intentional in my new work, devoting myself to learning as much as I can about this field, so I can do my very best to be a meaningful employee.

·        I have been intentional about reading at least a little bit every single day – chipping away at the book challenge I selected!

·        I have been intentional in exercising each day. This was a goal Ryan and I decided to make a priority after wayyyyyyyyyyyy too many months of not elevating it to the importance it should have had.

·        I have been intentional in resting, which is something that probably most consider to be a waste of those 168 hours, but it matters. I can’t be intentional about the other areas if I’m too exhausted. Rest is crucial.

·        I have been intentional in prayer, writing down the things I’m committing to the Lord and nailing them to the Surrender Cross that hangs in our home.

This week was 1/52 for the year. Each hour I spend is 1/168 for the week. May I use each of them this year to the fullest for the glory of God! Join me?

Saturday Suggestions

 

Happy end-of-the-first-week-of-January! How has this new calendar year been for you? Ryan and I appreciated a shorter work week since both of us had Monday off as the observed New Year’s Day. (There are perks to holidays falling on Sundays!)

Today I want to offer to you some ideas/resources/suggestions based on things I wrote about this past week on the blog. I hope you find something helpful tucked in here!

ONE. 

Last Sunday, I wrote about the wild – yet ordinary – faith I hope to live. I find that when I’m really pursuing something, it helps if I have reminders of it right in front of me. I found this water bottle from Dayspring, and it says “Faith” right on the bottle itself. I chose it because I know many of you (and I was once among you!) don’t hydrate as much as you should. The general recommendation I’ve read is that you should drink half your body weight in ounces of water every day. I do this and have found it much easier to keep track of it when I use a water bottle. I add up the ounces the bottle holds and see how many bottles I need to drink per day to equal half my weight. This bottle is 20 ounces, so it’s easy to measure. It’s glass, so you don’t have to worry about plastic-laden chemicals. It has a silicone protective sleeve over it (which is where the “Faith” inscription is located) and it has a bamboo lid. I know some people can’t take glass bottles into the workplace (schools, for example) but if you can, this is a sturdy bottle with a great message reminder stamped right on the sleeve! Remind yourself to live in wild faith while working on your hydrating health!

TWO. 

Goal setting, by default, requires documentation. The goals we don’t write down, we’re more likely to ignore, forget, or simply abandon. You can find a thousand resources out there to help you keep track of the goals you’re making this year, but I’m going to share these from the Scattered Squirrel website. I found Scattered Squirrel probably ten years ago – or more! – and I have LOVED using various resources from her site. I even interviewed her when I worked at WBCL! Everything on her site is free, by design, and she makes adorable resources. You can find planner pages, calendars, and lots of other things there, but this link will take you to her goal-setting pages. I hope this year is full of intentionality for you and that you find success in reaching the goals you set!

THREE. 

You read about our monthiversary date this week, and one of the new-to-us things we tried on that date was a hot chocolate bomb! I know they are not new in this world, but we had never had one before, and a cold January celebration felt like the perfect time to try! Now, if you have a local source that makes them, absolutely try those. I’m learning more and more the value and joy of supporting local businesses. But if you can’t find any around you, check out this site! (I found them on Etsy, initially, but they have a regular website too, which I’m linking here.) They have several flavors, including a chai version, and they are SO PRETTY! A set of two is $15.00 (plus shipping) and you can choose two different flavors if you would like. They also have a video so you can see how hot chocolate bombs work if you haven’t tried one before!

FOUR. 

Earlier this week, I shared a quick bread recipe, and I wanted to give you a link for a bread tin liner that is on my shopping list! My least favorite part of quick bread baking has always been getting the baked bread out of the tin without losing a middle chunk to the pan itself. About the middle of last year, I learned that if I lined my pan with parchment paper, I could lift the loaf right out after baking it, and that solved all my problems. But then I learned you can purchase parchment tin liners! They’re already shaped for the tin, so you don’t have strangely shaped scrap pieces of paper hanging over in the oven. At the moment, I’m still cutting parchment paper to fit my tins, but this is on my to-purchase list! (They also make them for mini loaf pans if you bake with those more often.)

FIVE.

Last summer, I had so much fun making a dessert board of fondue-dipping foods. We had our friends Jonathan and Julie over for an evening of fellowship, and we did a dessert fondue. It was delicious, but my favorite part was the board presentation. Before we knew we were going to have plans on New Year’s Eve, I had settled on making this healthier, protein-laden version of a charcuterie board. It has fruit, vegetables, cheese, and healthful dips on it. Even though we ultimately decided on a different menu plan with my friends, I still wanted to share the post that was my inspiration for the proposed board. She has some helpful tips included in her writing, so if you want to make something similar, use this as your guide! (Note: I follow a lady on Instagram who has said before that she and her husband have a simple charcuterie board as their meal every Sunday night. It’s easy and offers everything they need to have a snacky sort of meal. This could be a fun new tradition for your family, too!)

SIX. 

If you’d like to try your hand at journaling, you can obviously use any supplies you have around your home. A good, old-fashioned school notebook works just fine! But if you want a “proper” journal, this is a great one. I love writing in spiral bound journals (and planners!) because I like the flexibility of a fully open spine and pages that lay flat. I also like the option of being able to fold the book in half. This one has a hard cover, which makes for a solid surface if you’re writing in your lap. The lines are all blank, so it doesn’t require you to fill or limit you to only one page per day. There are many other cover styles you could choose, of course, but this one has a classic look to it. (And it’s on sale right now, so that’s an extra win!)

Enjoy the week, my friends! I hope you’re inspired to try something new!

Celebrating Words: The Pursuit of Journaling

 

Twenty-nine years ago, on Christmas Day, my parents gave me a blank journal. It had a puffed cover with patchwork art - featuring a cat! - and hidden on the inside were hundreds of lines waiting to receive the deep, inner thoughts of a fifteen-year-old girl.

That was the day journaling was born in my life. I started Christmas night, writing about the two dreamy men I simply couldn't decide between, wondering how in the world I could ever pick. (They made it simple for me. Neither one picked me, although both of them graciously received me as a real-life friend, even into adulthood.)

I wrote and wrote until every page was filled, and then I found more blank books and scribbled those pages full, too. I wrote dreams, prayers, fears, and most of all, the newsy happenings of every day in the halls of high school.

Sometimes I read back over a handful of pages, and I have to shake my head and laugh. Oh, the things that mattered to me so deeply back then! Bless my teenage-Bekah heart. Bless my college-Bekah heart. Bless all my Bekah-hearts.

Along the way, I found that I can type so much faster than I can write by hand, so I have moved my journaling into computer documents that I print out and house alongside my treasured books of yore.

I know that some of the pages I write will never be seen again. I would have to read for hours every day to read back through every word I have written over twenty-nine years. (And truthfully, some of those seasons were painful in real time. I don't think I want to revisit them - even if just for reading over what took place.)

If that's the case, why even bother journaling? Why spend the time to put words on paper or screen? Why invest time and materials to spew words that will be hidden for the rest of time?

For me, the joy of journaling is found both in relieving the tension in my brain that comes from its sheer fullness and in the things I learn as the thoughts leave my mind and find their way into print. 

The words build up in my mind and stretch inside my skull until they have to leave. They have to go somewhere, or I fear my mind will explode. Journaling offers a place of safe release for the thoughts that have to go somewhere so new thoughts can be born.

I don't always even understand what I'm feeling until I see it come out of my mind in the words of my journal. I've learned so much about my life, my God, and myself just by seeing my thoughts in print. That gift is priceless to me and worth every bit of the journaling.

Of course, I understand that I'm a writer and you may not find the same delight in words. The joy of writing may not be something that matters to you. But as we start this new year, I urge you to try some journaling. Dare to value your thoughts enough to transcribe them! What if you discovered it really is a passion you didn't even know you had?

If you don't know where to start, you can search on Pinterest for journal prompts. Many bloggers have made lists of ideas for journal fodder. Some are monthly lists that stay close to seasons and holidays. Others are topical prompts, so you could pick something that matters to you at this time. (Even though I've journaled for way over half my life, I still tried journal prompts and timed writing last summer just to do something different. It was a great exercise that I thoroughly enjoyed!)

Our words matter. Our thoughts matter. If you want to try something new in this new year, why not spend some time in the pursuit of journaling? You probably already have the materials, you can do it in the warmth, coziness, and solitude of your home, and you just might find you really love it!

The Celebration Continues: 121 Months

 

We've had people ask if we plan to continue the monthiversary tradition into this second decade of marriage. Yes! Absolutely! It has been one of our favorite things, and we see no need to discontinue it just because we probably can't claim newlywed status any longer. 

This week marked 121 months of marriage, and I was so excited to see it fall on a holiday for us. (Since New Year's Day landed on Sunday, both of us had Monday off work, and that was our monthiversary!)

Ryan had a handful of projects to work on at the lake house, so he went over there for the bulk of the day, and I stayed home to knock out a separate handful of projects while I had the freedom to do so. (I'm still adjusting to being back to work full time!)

One of the things Ryan and I are working to institute together is a daily workout. We are still completely off track from months of losing control of our schedule. It feels one hundred kinds of cliche to declare a workout resolution on January 1, but we did, and we are. (Of course, January 1 was a Sabbath, so our first day was January 2!) So the moment Ryan got home from the lake house, we both changed into workout clothes and got busy on week one, day one. We look less than thrilled to begin, but we wanted to get through it and have dinner!

Why do workouts always start with leg day?

Thirty minutes later, we were done in ALL the ways, and I declared to Ryan that he would need to plant me in my work chair Tuesday morning, because I knew I wouldn't be able to move.

We made our way into the kitchen to have dinner. I'd made a taco skillet with rice, and it was so very colorful and delicious!

Our initial plan had been to watch a movie and drink our first ever hot cocoa bombs, but alas, we couldn't find a good movie. It had been a heavy-hearted sort of day for both of us, so we wanted to watch something funny, and we just couldn't find anything that looked good. We finally gave up and had a heart-to-heart talk instead. I told Ryan it reminded me of our dating days when we would turn on a movie at one of our houses and then proceed to talk all the way through the movie instead.

We decided later that a good talk was better than a movie anyway. The whole point of a date or a monthiversary is to continue strengthening our relationship. We did that so much better through sharing our words and hearts than we ever could have giggling over a movie.

We did have the hot cocoa bombs, and they were as much fun as I imagined they might be. (Even better? They were gifts! I had already planned to purchase some for this date night, but some friends of ours gifted these to us, and that made them taste even better, I'm convinced!) We sipped on those while we watched an episode of Mad About You, and it provided just the perfect amount of comedy for us.

After that, Ryan switched to football, and we came upon the heartbreaking happenings in the Bills/Bengals game. I couldn't even wrap my mind around what I saw. I don't have words to further elaborate on that. So very, very hard to see.

At the end of the day, we concluded that while it may not have been the best representation of either of us individually, it was still a good monthiversary. (And how is it that only one month ago, we were in Florida enjoying a sunset cruise?) I was thankful for the time we did get to spend together on this dreary January day, and I was thankful for the good heart-talks we shared!

(And hot cocoa bombs may be my new favorite thing. I want to try them all now.)

Healthful Banana Bread

 

While this has never been a recipe/foodie blog, I do love recipes (and food!) and have shared some of my favorites with you throughout my blogging career. Last year, I had a few people ask if I ever planned to share recipes again, and the answer is...yes! 

We'll start today with this one: Healthful Banana Bread!

In truth, I've spent the last several months really evaluating how I view food and how to have a healthy relationship with it. That is, I'm sure, a separate conversation for a separate time. But the short version is that I'm learning to strike a balance between rules and freedom with what I eat and how much I consume. It's a classroom I'll be in for the rest of my life, I know, but I recognize that I'm becoming a better student, and I celebrate that.

One of the lessons I'm learning is how to diminish my dependence on desserts, but I also recognize that both Ryan and I enjoy and appreciate sweet treats. Toward the end of last year, as I tried to wean myself off overindulging, Ryan survived on packages of off-brand sandwich cookies. Understandably, he grew bored with processed cookies, and I missed baking for us.

A word that has helped me in this portion of my journey is the word healthful. A million recipes bear the title "healthy," but not all of them are truthful about that. (Also a separate conversation for a separate time.) So I'm working to find recipes that are healthful. The word means "conducive to good health." That is what I hope to find in the things I make and serve in our home.

I want to worry less about low-fat, low-calorie, low-carb, etc. Instead, I want to fill our kitchen with foods that fuel good health and not unhealthy addictions. I want them to be enjoyable to make and eat, but also worth it for us in our long-term daily eating.

These cold winter days (which have been plentiful here in Indiana in the last few weeks, although we seem to have a reprieve this week!) make me want to bake simply to add warmth to the house. In recent weeks, I've been searching for healthful quick bread recipes. I don't want them laden with oils and sugar, though I dearly love both. I want recipes filled with ingredients that fuel our bodies and our days, while simultaneously providing goodness and joy with their flavor. 

Fun fact: I am not a huge fan of bananas. I can't eat them on their own, because I can't handle the texture or the strong flavor. As I've gotten older, I can handle them in things like smoothies and baked goods, because the flavor and texture are masked.

We had a couple of bananas that had moved beyond the prime of life, but I hated to waste them. So I hunted for a healthful recipe that would allow me to use them while filling the house with warmth and delicious aromas and our kitchen with treats that weren't filled with processed everything. I found a winner right here!  (The photo at the beginning shows the version of the recipe I chose to use, but there are some variations in the link, so if you're interested, check it out!)

This recipe uses oat flour, which you can purchase at the store, but you can also make your own at home by blending old-fashioned oats until they have reached a very fine consistency. I use our Ninja to make oat flour (and have for several years) but I still can't get it flour-fine in there. It doesn't bother me, because everything still tastes the same. It's just a little grittier in texture than true, fine flour. Making it myself saves a good chunk of money, though, so it's worth it for me.

The addition of pumpkin pie spice in this recipe is helpful for people like me who don't love a strong banana flavor. The pumpkin pie spice goes a notch beyond mere cinnamon and gives this bread an extra pump of flavor! 

The bananas and maple syrup made the bread sweet enough to be classified as a treat without being over-the-top sweet and full of processed sugar. 

The oat flour, maple syrup, almond milk, and coconut oil used in this recipe elevate it into healthful status in my book. I've learned that people have strong opinions on ingredients, and not long ago, I read a fiercely worded post by a weight-loss advocate who feels all the ingredients I just mentioned are unnecessary, and you might as well eat the real thing, rather than mess with ingredient swaps. I don't agree with her at all, but she is as entitled to her opinion as I am to mine. I say this simply to encourage you to choose what seems important to you. For our family, trying to pick a more healthful ingredient when possible is what matters, and these things are a step in the right direction for us and the things we want for our daily diet and overall health.

I demanded much from one little loaf of bread, and it fully delivered. I thoroughly enjoyed the process of making it to share with Ryan, and the delicious aroma did not disappoint. (Ryan was gone when I made it and commented on how wonderful the house smelled when he came home.) It is full of healthful things that fuel us without sacrificing flavor or consistency. 

I also personally recommend consuming it warm with some hot coffee on the side...

Sacred New Beginnings

The new year has always mattered significantly to me, but it's also the holiday that has left me feeling the most displaced. Where did I fit in? And then after marrying Ryan, where did we fit in? It's a friend-holiday, but as we have moved from place to place throughout our marriage, we have always struggled to find a place to land for the transition from the weary familiarity of the old year to the bright possibilities of the new. 

I remember spending over an hour in a church parking lot on a still-single New Year's Eve, trying to muster up the courage to walk inside to a party where I didn't feel like I belonged. I ached to be there, but I was too scared to walk in. We've had a number of New Year's Eves since that day that have not been as dramatic in reality, but my heart has felt that same tug of war between desperately needing people to share this day and yet not feeling like we had people of our own. 

I dreaded that about this new year in a new place. I extended cautious feelers to see what people might do on New Year's Eve and how we might fit in. In fairness, I didn't try very hard, because the fear of rejection terrified me more than not having a place to go. It conjured up all the feelings (most of which are Satan's lies) that we hadn't found a place because we really didn't belong here. People might say we fit in, but when it came to the day that mattered so much to my heart, what if no one had room?

God is so good with surprises, my friends. 

Christmas evening, as I sat in Ryan's Grandma's dining room, my phone buzzed with a text. It was a new friend we'd just met about a month ago. She wondered if we had plans for New Year's, and if not, did we want to spend time together?

I could have cried! Yes! Yes, we would love to share the new year!

We scurried out to purchase a simple party hat kit, and I wrote a note to our new friends, thanking them for the gift and answer to prayer they had given us (unawares) that evening. I tucked in a couple of bookmarks I'd made for the new year, and then I set the table for four. 

It felt strange indeed to not worry about any cooking for a dinner I hosted. We had collectively decided to get Chinese takeout, and our friends had volunteered to bring dessert and sparkling grape juice. I used the time I would have been preparing for company to instead prepare a frittata for our breakfast on New Year's Day. (When the alarm went off early on Sunday, I was so very glad I did that.) 

We sat around the table and told stories of getting to know each other more, and then we moved into the living room to watch New Year's countdown festivities, tell more stories, and play games. (I didn't ask for permission to post their pictures, so you won't get to see their friendly faces in this space, but I did properly document the night for the scrapbook!)

Braeya and Lexi both loved them dearly and were so excited for extra pets and cuddles throughout the evening. (Three cheers for finding friends who love our four-legged children!)

We were all a bit on the bleary-eyed side the closer the clock ticked to midnight. We poured the sparkling grape juice and donned the party hats so we could gather around the TV and count down to 2023. We blew party horns, and Lexi barked in protest. Our new friends headed back to their home, and Ryan and I sat on the couch for a while to allow Lexi to calm down from a wildly overstimulated evening of excitement. We fell asleep with Matlock playing in the background and woke up sometime around two in the morning to officially go to bed. 

We started our New Year's Day with church, and it felt perfect and right to me. Being together with our church family, sharing communion, singing together, and diving into Psalm 91 was the perfect way to set the tone for 2023. I looked like I had been up until 2 a.m. but I was glad to be there with Ryan, worshipping the Lord!

We made a quick side trip to the lake house, and I couldn't help imagining the joy of waking up to that beautiful slightly-frozen water view next year on the first day of the year!

Perhaps the greatest joy of New Year's Day falling on a Sunday was the permission to fully rest and prepare my mind for the year to come. I read the first pages in my first 2023 reading challenge book. All of us took long naps. I cracked open the first page of my Bible study on Exodus.

We enjoyed leftover Chinese food for lunch and a deliciously tender pot roast for dinner. Football games played on TV throughout the day, and we threw occasional glances their way while we rested and read from the couch.

Before the evening ended, we looked through our memory box from the year, saving out some of the most extra special memories for the permanent memory box. This is one of my favorite traditions for New Year's Day. I found the idea on Pinterest the year before we married. We have a little box in our closet where we keep things like state park maps, wristbands, notes, coffee sleeves, and anything else that reminds us of our adventures through the year. On New Year's Day, we sift through the box, reliving the memories and moving the most tender ones to a permanent memory box. I can't wait to look through that one many years down the road and remember the pure joy we've shared.

The day felt sacred. Worship, rest, memories, and the time together made for a perfect way to start a new year. We are grateful for these sacred new beginnings and ended the day praying together for God to use us and guide our marriage in 2023!

Dreams and Goals for January 2023

 

The year I turned 30, I made a list of dreams and goals for the year - and a separate list for the decade to come. I still have that list somewhere, and I am so glad I worked so hard to be purposeful in that season of my life. In the last few years, I've learned that in this season of life, making month-to-month goals works better for me. 

January is here, and I have some dreams and goals I hope to accomplish as the month goes by.

ONE. I finally settled on my Bible study plan for this year. I went all over the board a ridiculous number of times, trying to figure out my forward path. I have loved working slowly through Genesis using the Precept USA study. My initial plan was to continue into Exodus, using Precept's study for it. Then I considered reading through the Bible in two years. Then I considered a handful of other things! I had settled on the Bible-in-two-years plan and then felt a nudge from the Lord to not do that, but rather to go on into Exodus. I am really excited to keep moving forward with the next step in history beyond where I've been invested for the past year. I don't have a timeline goal for finishing Exodus. I want to take whatever time I need to learn well. 

TWO. I've noticed that the simultaneous blessing and curse of a camera in my phone is that I rarely carry or use my "big" camera anymore. It's a blessing, because the phone is much easier to have on hand, and because I always have it, I've been able to capture things I know I would have otherwise missed. The curse of it is that I've never full learned all my DSLR camera is capable of offering. I've gotten lazy with photography, and I'd like to do better. I found this free YouTube course, and I'll start here. I may end up doing more later, but this is what I feel like I have time for right now. 

THREE. At the end of last year, my friend Julie loaned me Tsh Oxenreider's book At Home in the World, and I enjoyed reading about her year of world travels. It inspired me in my own travel planning - and in my writing, too. I actually started writing about some of our travels because of how her work inspired my heart! I would love to read another book this month, so I am starting with a book called Redemptive Compassion by Lois Tupyi. Lois just retired from a Love INC affiliate in Idaho, and I went through one of her virtual trainings on this topic last year. I have wanted to read the book and think it is a great way to kick off a new year. Ryan and I are going to study this one together, and I'm excited for that, too. I'm also going to launch into a year-long book challenge. Yesterday I started reading my first book in that challenge: Like a Winter Snow by Lindsay Harrel. I'm not sure how many books I'll get through in that list this month, but we'll see what time allows!

FOUR. For the first several years of our marriage, we were fastidious about our weekly date nights. The pandemic derailed us, WillowBridge kept us off the rails, and the combo of moving/searching for work/raising a puppy didn't help us find the rails last year. So we are determined to get back to dating regularly this year! We don't have to make it the same night every week. We don't have a schedule that permits that very well. But we can make it happen ONE of the nights out of every week! Happily, today is our 121st monthiversary, so we will make tonight a date night! 

FIVE. I am speaking at a women's retreat in March, and while that feels like a long way off, it's actually very close in the world of speaking! I know the theme the group wants to use and have already been tossing ideas around in my head. My goal for this month is to finish my outline and begin writing. 

      

Sunday Sentiments: A Wild Kind of Faith

 

Happy New Year, my friends!

Throughout 2022, I slowly crept through the book of Genesis, studying in greater depth than I ever have before, how Creation began and how God established humanity and cultivated relationships with His people. I don't say this in a boastful way, but simply as a fact: I knew Genesis quite well before I began the study. I knew the flow of the accounts and even the trivia, like Joseph's Egyptian-issued name of Zaphenath-paneah. Even so, I had much to learn, and that's exactly what I did throughout the entire year.

I studied backgrounds and cultural traditions. I discovered connections I'd never made before. But most of all, I learned these dear people, who lived out long and short lives without the benefit of history preceding them to guide their decisions. 

If you're familiar with the Bible, you might know that in the book of Hebrews (which at last year's pace, I wouldn't get to until...well..into my eighties) has a chapter that has been dubbed the "Hall of Faith." Hebrews 11 opens with the very definition of faith: the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. And then it unfolds a whole list of people who lived faith-filled lives. Most of those listed by name are the same people I studied in 2022.

As I skipped ahead to read this chapter last week, I thought through each of those accounts from Genesis.

BY FAITH, Abel offered a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain.

BY FAITH, Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death. 

BY FAITH, Noah...constructed an ark for the saving of his household.

BY FAITH, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance.

BY FAITH, Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age.

BY FAITH, Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau.

BY FAITH, Joseph...made mention of the Exodus.

It is true! All these men and women demonstrated what I would consider tremendous faith in the face of difficult and sometimes impossible circumstances. But I also believe that each of them was, in those faith-saturated moments, simply living to the best of their ability.

Abel was just bringing before God what he knew he should. He wasn't looking to see what Cain was bringing or how either of their offerings compared. He was just worshiping God. Enoch was just living out every day with integrity. He wasn't hoping for a pass on death - or even aware it was an option. He was just walking with God. Noah didn't set out to build the world's largest structure. He just did what God told him to do. Abraham didn't worry about how the extended family would feel about his departure to unknown lands. He just went. Sarah struggled to find the news of her impending motherhood even believable, and yet she eventually wrapped her mind around the belief it could be true and ended up having a baby. Isaac fell victim to the deceit of his own son, but he held fast to the blessings he offered. Joseph lived a most unexpected life with more than his share of heartache mixed in, but he never stopped believing God was with him. Because of him, thousands of people lived through a dreadful famine - including God's covenant people. 

These people - these heroes of the faith - didn't do anything spectacular in their own eyes. they just lived. They just did the best they could to honor God, even if they sometimes did so imperfectly. And yet those very acts of faith led their names to be included among those we should strive to emulate.

This is the wild kind of faith I long to have. Wildly ordinary. Wildly consistent. Wildly obedient.