it's a family tradition

Since I was a little girl, I remember getting together with my family for almost everything - family members' birthdays, graduations, holidays, Sunday night dinners, and many more. I love that my family instilled in me the art of celebrating, bringing people together to celebrate other people, for everyone to be a part. It was never out of the norm, for 20 or more people to be gathered in one of my family member's living room, with a buzz of chatter filling the room. When I think about all of the really significant moments in my life, and in my family's life, we've always all been there. In the hospital when babies are born or someone is sick, at baseball/softball games from t-ball to high school, award ceremonies, birthdays, you name it. For as long as I remember, I've always felt celebrated with or celebrating victories of the others, whether big or small.

I still to this day love GATHERING with those dear to me and CELEBRATING. I love when people come together to celebrate someone or something, whether it be the first day of a new job, new opportunity for someone, a birthday, a new house, or just for the sake of getting together. I am fortunate that along the way I have made friends that have now become like family to me. Whether we are across town, across the country, or the world, we find a way to be there for each other in the victories. (Even if that means we have to meet in the middle in a snuggly cabin tucked away in the Carolina mountains to do it)

There is something powerful in showing up and saying "yes" we are with you and for you. To have a cheering section in the ups and downs of life. We were never meant to do it alone. How the Lord made community is one of the most beautiful things, everyone with their own strengths and weaknesses to come together for the greater Good.

I encourage you to find someone or something to celebrate with those you love. It's one of the sweetest reflections of the Lord's heart for community.

Sunday's best

Sunday's have easily become my favorite day of the week. Sabbath - something that I've been learning a lot about lately. That my soul was yearning for. That it is so important to retreat and realize that our value is not in our work, but from who we are not what we do. The createdness of ourselves in view of the Creator, not the created of our human hands. I will be the first one to admit that this slips to the back of my mind way too much. So I am fighting to protect the Sabbath and learn the importance of withdrawing, retreating, and recalibrating my heart. and that is the BEST for me.

My sweet friend, Christian, and I have started a Sunday tradition of cooking a meal and a fellowshipping with one another. It's good the soul and has also taught me so much - the significance of the table & community. It's not perfect and pretty hilarious, trial and error. It involves mostly lots of chips and salsa, wine, and laughs when the meals don't go exactly according to plan. Hey, but it's a process. A learning process. We also celebrate the process of life at the table. Even the little victories are worth celebrating. Ending a busy work, cheers to that. Overcoming a fear, cheers to that. Coming in to your own, cheers to that.

I love when the kitchen soars with the aroma of whatever we are cooking, and lots and lots of chatter. It's my happy place.

“The heart of hospitality is about creating space for someone to feel seen and heard and loved. It's about declaring your table a safe zone, a place of warmth and nourishment.” -Shauna Niequist, Bread & Wine: A Love Letter to Life Around the Table, with Recipes

full swing

It's been awhile since I have been jotting in this little space. However, I have greatly missed a creative outlet. I have had a deep desire to create things lately. What better way to express the Creator than to create things, places, and relationships. The Lord has been teaching me so much about His creative nature through birthing a lot of creativity in me.

create: bring (something) into existence

Lately, me and my mister, TP, have been working on some little renovation projects. It has been so rewarding to be working with my hands, to see the process in something. So often I forget that the process is what makes something so beautiful. I have seen this is parallel my life as well. It blows my mind that I can be watching the sanding on wood, and how much the Lord speaks to me about process in that moment. As the sander smooths out the rough places in the wood, so does the Lord refine us through tough times to make us more like His Son -- and that -- is a wonderful gift.

My mom had this really old swing in the backyard that she was about to put in the trash. Over the years it had grown dingy, moldy, and honestly unusable. TP thought he would take a shot to see if there was anything he could do to help this swing.

The crazy thing about it is after one week of scraping the swing down, we found that the wood below all the grim was absolutely beautiful! I don't know how many times I count something out that is beautiful underneath -- a opportunity, a person, a situation, whatever it may be. If we had not rigged deeper we would have never known what was underneath. What we had considered a lost cause, still had so much life underneath. Sometimes we just have to take a second in our situation, in our relationship, in an opportunity were standing in, to go deeper, to not just take it at face value, but to see what is beyond.

Little did I know this little swing, that I had not even noticed in years, would minister to me so much, and now become a staple in my mom's backyard.

I yearn to see beautiful things spring out of "dead places", to come forth and declare that all is not lost, just perhaps not found. I love to see things, people, and places come to life and life to the full.

Be not afraid.

A phrase that I often take a deep breath even thinking about... There are so many things that we are faced with that causes fear- especially that of the unknown, the hidden. Let's be real, most of the time the future can absolutely terrify us. Many times we are plagued with the what-if scenarios swirling around our brain so violently until yes, we all know, it causes serious anxiety in our hearts.

However, "Be not afraid" and "fear not" are two of the most common phrases throughout the Bible. I take it here as the Lord driving a significant point not only for our minds, but our hearts. Projecting ourselves in the future from our present place actually has no efficiency, it solves nothing. Why? We don't know exactly how things will look AND we are not there yet. We try to derive answers based on estimated circumstances and it truly can end up just being a big mess of us trying to pin point the movement of God. But guess what?

"Now to him who is able to do FAR MORE ABUNDANTLY than all that we ASK or THINK, according to the power at work within us," (Ephesians 3:20)

Well this sure does put a cramp in our calculations does it not? Almighty God + FAR MORE ABUNDANTLY = way above my feeble understanding. I ultimately fall to my knees thanking the Lord for that. On most days I couldn't even come up what is best for me for that 24 hours, much less my entire life time. 

He knows us so intimately and in the now He is just asking us to know Him. Not necessarily what He can do, but just WHO HE IS. He is such an incredibly good Father. Even if we are given every single blessing we are asking for, HE IS STILL BETTER. Knowing Him is the greatest reward and all else is loss. 

"Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." (Philippians 3:8)

What if He perhaps is delaying our deliverance from our current situation/circumstances because He is developing a greater intimacy in us with Him? That is a game changer. A perspective shifter. To me, it's a GIFT. Thank you Lord. To know Him is the greatest reward and that is where my gaze is and should always be, even though I fall short sometimes. So I challenge myself and you to ask ourselves daily, where is our gaze?

pumpkin bread

Today, I made my most favorite seasonal pumpkin bread (from Pioneer Woman). It is the best intro to the fall. Perfect for breakfast, afternoon snack or dessert (or anytime, really).

Recipe:

3 3/4 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/4 tsp cinnamon 

1/2 tsp nutmeg

3 whole eggs 

3 1/2 cups sugar 

1 1/4 cup vegetable oil 

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

29 oz. pumpkin puree 

1 bag semi-sweet choc. chips

Directions:

-large bowl: combine flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking powder

-separate large bowl: combine eggs, sugar, oil, vanilla, and pumpkin puree

-stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients 

-add chocolate chips

-transfer mix to greased bundt pan

-cook on 350 degrees 45-55 min