Sunday Snippits: good, bad, & awesome

Happy Sunday! I'm changing it up a bit. As my readers know, the ugly is often stuff we see in the news & something I struggle finding anything to share about. My heart doesn't stay in the ugly part of my days very easily. I've been conditioned to do otherwise & I'm not gonna fight that. So this past week while watching some sort of television show - if only I could remember which one! - I saw a segment on the 'good, bad, & awesome.' I knew in that moment that needed be something I tried with my Sunday Snippits, so here we go!

GOOD: The little ways those we love say hello. My bff, BGEG, has seen hearts popping up all over her life ever sense her Grandy passed away nearly 2 years ago. I was eating lunch the other day only to look at the core of my apple & see a heart. I thought to myself, "Why hello Grandy Mary & whoever else you have with you!" I say whoever else because death has been very prominent this year already & definitely in my life time of those I love. This heart was definitely unexpected & while the picture doesn't show it well, I especially loved that the apple seeds - which I enjoy eating - filled the heart. My good friend JMC convinced me some 4 or so years ago that it was okay to eat this part of the apple too. So hello to JMC in NJ! Yes, the little hellos come from the living & the dead. Call me crazy, but I believe in a God that gives eternal life & these hellos are one way God is working in the world.

BAD: Did I mention death? Yeah, I can't express enough how important it means to be in community & to be constantly reaching out to each other as part of community & sharing love with one another. We fall short of doing this for everybody & maybe even feel that others fall short of doing this for us, but try & try again is all I can impress here. On another note, our fur baby doesn't like the grass & seeks out the ever shrinking piles of snow to use the bathroom. However, even this doesn't convince her to always use the restroom outside. We we try & try again. Sigh.

AWESOME: I So much like ending on a good note! Going along with the little hellos & the apple heart, I read this week that people, Drew Barrymore in particular, also looks for hearts in her day-to-day life to simply see the love in the world. She even compiled enough materials to create a book titled Find It In Everything.

WORD: This is Holy Week for those who practice Christian traditions. That means this week we walk with Jesus in his last days on earth as a human & celebrate his resurrection as all peoples' salvation on Easter Sunday. This week, Christian believer or not, I encourage you to find an experience to take part in around Holy Week. There's worship services on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, & depending on where you live possibly something special on Saturday & a multitude of celebrations on Easter Sunday.

coming up: This & that, those are my days right now. Enjoying Netflix, reading a piece of daily scripture, doing yoga, blogging, keeping the laundry done, & practicing my basic French. This week I will also toss in a little Bible Study prep for working at camp this summer.

One Word 365: Healthy

So I've tried to do a bit of weaving in my healthy updates with my regular blog postings, but today deserves its own post.

Spring is finally showing its damp & sunny self! This is very good for the soul after a long cold snowy snowy winter. However, my soul is a mixture of emotions & feelings right now.

This particular season of Lent has been heavy on the side of death. End of life, no matter the age, is hard to grasp for those of us left living. This week marked the 5th person in a circle of my life who died. He was just a year behind me in school & his sister a year ahead. We were all friends through church & living in a small town. I can't quite put my mind around the pain his family is living with right now, but my heart is heavy & sad for them & his friends. Be sure to tell those you love that you love them whenever you have the chance & I hope you take this chance weekly if not daily.

Then there's the pieces of light & happiness & hope. Today I enjoyed tea with two of TE's daughter's & friends. The best part was watching TO (TE's daughter) lead a cute Pinterest art project with her not quite one year old daughter. She painted little CO's feet to press onto the pallet for flower leaves & her hands for petals. Her best friend since first grade was there too & lead the project with her little one who's 2 years old. It was just a sweet piece of my day that I'm thankful for. I also am thankful for the random phone convos with family members & my life long friends as of late. Oh & the joy of hosting, I really love sharing the simple peaces of hospitality with others. Plus hosting a small group from church meant a good reason to make a batch of my favorite chewie cookies & this time (only the second time I've tried making them) they were a success! *The first time they were a bit like eating a cookie brick*

And some of the hope comes from conversations around upcoming jobs. I love working in ministry specifically focused on senior high youth & older. This Summer I get to hone in on my passion & test my skills with Bible studies & the many adventures of being at camp. Yes I'll miss my husband & puppy while I'm gone, but what am I if not my own person?

Physically, the healthy word has not been paired with good things around here lately. There's been head & chest colds & stomach viruses & back problems. All this I stick out my tongue to, do yoga, meditate in the Word, & pray.

and the healthiest thing I've done as of late is remembered to take many a deep breaths throughout each day to acknowledge the life that I am given & the life that I am living & all that I am capable of thanks be to God.

Tuesday Tea Time!

Welcome to Tuesday Tea Time!

See this honey pot? Isn't it cute? I received it as a gift for Christmas along with another honey pot that appeared to to be more stable & would definitely hold more honey. SO I chose to keep this cute decorative honey pot as part of my Spring decorations & use the seemingly more stable one for my daily honey.

Well the other honey pot proved to be weaker than the honey that broke the honey wand off the lid it was attached to. It still works & I still use it, but it definitely isn't kid or accident prone friendly.

And there on my little kitchen shelf, next to my sink, sits my cute bumblebee honey pot.

How often do we miss-judge something or someone & miss out on life with it? I'm still enjoying both honey pots, but to be totally honest, I rarely look at the shelf (partially because it's above my line of vision) & therefore do not enjoy this kitschy gift. No, we can't truly take it all in, but I encourage us all to choose the one that seems less pretty or less trusty & see what adventure awaits you. But don't get yourself in trouble either!

I just refilled my "other" honey pot this morning & am enjoying some sweet peach tea. Enjoy your tea time no matter the time of day!

Sunday Snippits: good, bad, & ugly

Credit given to Ashley Dellagiacoma

GOOD: This past week was a low key week. As usual I had no problem keeping myself busy, but I did have to be creative with what I did to fill my time on certain days. I enjoyed allowing myself time to network & prep for some work related things as well as catch up with a few good friends. Thursday Z & I took Michi to puppy care with CH & headed away for the day. Our big adventure was honestly simply because we had bought an Up North Live coupon & needed to use it before it expired. Check out Friday Favorites to learn about my highlight from that trip. The other silly fun part is we purchased a new vacuum (Shark Rocket). It works wonderfully & is very light weight & versatile. Friday afternoon in the mix of snow, ice, & rain I enjoyed lunch with my friend AVP at Indo China Gardens. The heat of spice was a good warm me up!

BAD: Winter weather is slowly fading away, but that means allergies & sickness are rampant. Yes, there has still been stuff in the JZ Parsonage. Also, there seems to be quite a few people in my life that are at or near the end of life. This reminds me to breath deep & enjoy the air around me.

UGLY: There's a lot that could go here, but it's all in the news.

WORD: Check out Anne Lamott on FB or elsewhere, she's poetic & real which I find refreshing.

coming up: The usual networking, work, cleaning, socializing, & drinking tea while the slushy icy snow stuff reveals the grass underneath.

Friday Favorites!

It's Friday! Thursdays I try to stay off of computers & phone because it's Z's day off & so I treat it as my day off. (But if SFC is reading this, I didn't ignore your call, I genuinely believe we are in a game of phone tag!)

This week appears to be a week of little photography. Honestly I generally review my Facebook newsfeed to pick my Friday Favorites. Today nothing caught my eye that wouldn't have been too repetitive.

So today I searched on Google one of the places we visited on our day off yesterday. This picture is an aerial view of the former state hospital in Traverse City now known as The Village. In attempt to preserve the buildings, the city has refurbished the different floors for boutiques, restaurants, law offices, yoga studios, condos, vacation rentals, & more.

As somebody who loves to see historical places being put to use today & thriving in community, this was quite the little piece of adventure in my week.

Now who wants to looks into renting a space for a few days of vacation with me?!

Tuesday Tea Time!

Credit given to UnripeHamadryad

It's Tuesday Tea Time!

While I definitely have other tea lovers in my life, it seems the coffee lovers outnumber the tea lovers. Some of these people are people who don't care how they get their kick of caffeine & will go with either tea or coffee. However, I think some of the people in my life just like the idea of tea, but regularly go for coffee when given a choice.

I am thankful for this variety in my life. Without these two preferences there wouldn't be the crazy fun drinks that mix both tea & coffee that I've only ever found in the random quaint corner local coffee shops.

This mixture of tea & coffee preferences also brings us the joy of people in our lives that own a lot of the beverage they don't drink to be hospitable to people who do drink that beverage when they visit. The problem with this is both tea & coffee go stale when not stored properly or used regularly. And the problem for tea lovers is that coffee not only stains mugs & thermoses in color, but also with it's bitter flavor that most teas cannot mask.

I as an avid tea drinker, use to buy coffee to have for when visitors came, but did not know what sort of coffee to keep around that my visitors would actually want to drink. Lucky for my coffee friends Z is an avid coffee drinker & keeps a good supply of the real stuff. (But if you want a real education on the quality of coffee ask our friend PMc)

The cute thing about this piece of art is the quaint tea cup & the hearty coffee mug. I may decorate with tea cups, but I rarely drink out of them. I'm a true child of the 80s & 90s & a citizen of the USA & I want my tea in abundance (& I want it now!).

All that said, no matter which you prefer, you are always considered my cup of tea.

Sunday Snippits: good, bad, & ugly

GOOD: This past week was a good week to watch movies & do some house work & catch up on a few other things. I started the week with Zumba class on Sunday afternoon & then went into recovery mode for my head cold. Let me tell ya, intense physical exertion with a severe soar throat is not a good idea! My favorite movie that Z & I watched was Miss Potter about the life of Beatrix Potter. It is one of those movies I remember seeing advertised possibly before it came out & I couldn't believe that it came out in 2006. Renting mainly from a Redbox in the last couple of years has greatly changed the availability of what we rented. Now living in a town with a Family Video & no Redbox, there's a different variety of movies to rent. There's also something nostalgic of actually going into a video store & browsing for the right movie for that day. The other exciting peace of my week is taking on more work that will use my skill sets & allow me to work out of my strengths. More about that to come later!

BAD: Feeling cooped up so much of the time. Lucky for our fur ball, it has been warm enough to take her on several walks lately. Not so lucky for her is that she usually needs rinsed off afterwords from all the mud & dirt that has flung up on her underbelly. These pictures are the state of our back patio & yard to date. This was yesterday evening. I'd been wanting to walk out into the huge snow drift for quite some time & Z hit a point that he wanted to try & shovel it. Well, as you can see it is SO solid that I'm as tall as the house standing on the drift. We may need a heat lamp at this point to use our patio any time soon.

UGLY: All the back & forth about World Vision & their hiring policy. They made a well thought & I'm assuming prayed out written decision that upset the fruit basket & quickly took it all back. Talk about whiplash! Then there was something going on with Hobby Lobby, but I'll be honest, I was so tired of all the controversy over World Vision & things going on around the world that are less than uplifting that I didn't even read up on any of the Hobby Lobby information.

WORD: Today I suggest reading The God Article

coming up: Hunkering down & figuring out the details of some my new work. Reading b/c I'm slow at reading stories that I already know & want to finish The Help before our Paris trip. And getting outside as much as possible because while it doesn't totally look like it, Spring is here!

Friday Favorites!

Over the course of many months Fridays have become my Tuesday. Yes, I say Tuesday because they're not quite as hectic as Mondays, but they're definitely the start of something new since Z & I try to take Thursdays off. Though we just admitted this morning that we haven't been very good at truly taking a day "off." 

Yesterday wasn't much of a day off at all in lieu of household sickness. There was much cleaning & sanitizing to be done so that we didn't become more sick off of one another's ailments.

So I say thank you for the little things this week that have given us strength when physically it hasn't been a super strong week.

My BGEG sent this pretty pink card to say thank you & while it had such a heart felt message  inside, it reminded me to be thankful in return. BGEG recently ended her time working in retail book sales. My oh my did I learn through her stress how important it is to say "Thank You" as often as possible. It not only is a sign of gratitude for sharing life & talents together, but it is a sign of acknowledging each other's humanity & feeding each other souls in a very necessary survival sort of way.

Today, remember to mind your P's & Q's & remember to say Thank You to those who serve you in even the tiniest of ways.

Thank you for being you & sharing life, spirit, & sparkle!

 

Tuesday Tea Time!

It's the best time of the week & to be honest I'm on round two of my echinacea tea bag for the morning. Z started very early this morning with a full day ahead & of course our fur-baby thought she needed to get up as well. Little does she know is just because she wanted her morning routine about 90min early does not mean she'll get her evening meal 90min early. Good thing my only plans outside the house today involve buying more tissues & this time I'm splurging on Kleenex brand with lotion in them. I'm the champion of finishing off 3 boxes of tissues in less than the last 24 hours!

Naturally with this bit of a head cold I was feeling sorry for myself & a craving that I've had for quite some time - seriously a couple of months at least - needed to be calmed. When you're having a craving for something that you try to ignore, does it ever truly go away? Maybe the craving itself does, but the thought that you like that thing you're craving does not. Which overall makes me think that the craving doesn't actually go away.

So on a whim, last night, Z was at a meeting & I decided to make chocolate chip cookies to have when he came home. Let's call it a whim, since I don't really like baking. All I wanted was the dough, but I knew it'd be more fun to share, so I baked the cookies. I even cut the recipe in half so that I didn't end up with the supposed 5 dozen cookies a full recipe would've made. It's all about moderation, right? Since I baked the cookies, I ate way less dough & gave some cookies away!

Now my craving for cookie dough has been calmed & happiness has been shared & Tuesday Tea Time is a touch sweeter!

Sunday Snippits: good, bad, & ugly

GOOD: I'm always thankful for sunshine when I travel, especially when I travel long distances by myself. So that was a good start to the week. One big theme of the week was food. Oh how I love food! Momma P had sent me back to MI with the goods to make corned beef grilled cheese sandwhiches & left over Irish car bomb cupcakes for St. Paddy's Day. While still recovering from that goodness we made homemade turkey burgers with a few modifications to what's listed in the recipe. Then on Friday we made homemade pizza from a dough & sauce recipe that was gifted to us for one of our wedding showers & never been used. Thank you MTB & the rest of the Tornero family for passing on the goodness! Saturday was a relaxing day with a bit of cleaning, an adventure to the local coffee shop just to get out of the house - even if it's still quite chilly - & some planning for our upcoming trip to Paris. The bonus pieces of the week were chats through G-chat, Skype, phone & attempts at FaceTime with college friends, seminary friends, & family.

BAD: The reality that people have to debate how to react to the death of a church leader who hurt a lot of people. Death is death, it's the end of a person's life & no matter the good or bad that person caused we need to honor that a life is not in our world any longer, but another. For all the articles that have said to not cheer for death of a hurtful person, the people have already cheered simply by wondering if it is okay to do so. Do what you need to take care of yourself.

UGLY: Today my ugly is the cold, but all you have to do see ugly is turn on the news channel or go to check it out online. There is bound to be something about war or hunger or devastation.

WORD: Psalm 128 - "Happy is everyone who fears the Lord." Discuss!

coming up: Singing random songs about the dog, hopefully warmer temps again, snow melting, dancing, & more time getting to know the community in which we live.

Friday Favorites!

I know I know, most of you who follow me have prolly seeen enough Michi photos to last a life time. This past week though there was so much good that fit into Fridays I had to include this photo simply because it says "Happy Day!"

The first day of Spring, the slightly warmer temps, the adventure back to MI from hoosierland, the delicious turkey burgers we made last night, the changing ministry opportunities, & the connections I continue to make with friends new & old. All are favorites!

May your Friday be filled with many favorites too!

Tuesday Tea Time!

Do you ever feel like you have a twitch or an unsettling energy that can't be calmed easily?

It's like somebody snuck some catnip into my tea, except I'm not a cat or much of a cat lover & I made my tea.

I blame it on the changing of the seasons. Spring starts officially in 2 days even if the snow is still a few feet deep & there's more expected to fall.

I thought this twitch would be satisfied for a while with this past weekend's road trip, but it's in my soul to be adventuresome. I love seeing new scenery & meeting new people. I love hearing stories & seeing the Spirit at work in the lives of others & how that means She's working in my life.

I find community & engaging in each others' lives to be of utmost importance for survival. Maybe I'm so over saturated from all the community I experienced from my road trip that I can't help but have a twitch.

This energy or twitch is so prevalent that I am more aware of my senses & others' too. It's like the chiropractic adjustment I had done last Friday released something into the right place & it's working on staying there permanently, but because I'm so used to being out of whack, it's keeping me awake at night.

Ok, so this energy has only given me one night of restless sleep & as usual, I only had one tea bag this morning. Definitely going for the decaffeinated the rest of the day!

What gives you this twitch?

Cheers to twitchy tea time!

Sunday Snippits:

Happy Sunday!

This past week is good, bad, & ugly - as usual. Life is an adventure!

GOOD: The week started with some slightly warmer temps & March is definitely proving to be more sun shine filled than February. Tuesday was a sad & joyful celebration of TE's life. Wednesday was busy preparing to drive to hoosierland for the weekend. While in hoosierland I was spoiled by my family & friends. I enjoyed surprising my life long best friend , BGEG, at the local coffee shop as she & family were carrying in her artwork to set up her show. The baby gender revealing party KZ-S & momma & papa E held was a delight to be at. The revealing came through popping balloons with confetti the "gender appropriate color" inside. It's a girl! Then today I learned another childhood good friend is also having a baby girl. 2014 truly is the year of many babies from my peers. And let me not forget getting to worship with my brother's "praise band" & then go back to a St. Patty's day celebration with family & close friends.

BAD: The further North I drove today the deeper the snow got. While I was gone it rained & snowed. Ah the life of living in the Great North! I'm too tired from travel to remember much of anything else right now.

UGLY: In lieu of the fact that we are currently watching 12 Years a Slave. Modern day slavery & discrimination. While the movie is based on a true story that is over 100 years old, the hatred for people who are different that oneself & a ridiculous sense of entitlement is all too common.

WORD: Last night I heard a version of the story of Paul on the road to Damascus like I've never heard. One thing that struck me was that Paul was never actually mentioned. While the speaker started with a focus on washing the mud from our eyes he turned the focus into shaving & the fact that "Jesus shaves & saves" & we need to put on the "aftershave of life." Yup!

coming up: Prepping for a few different job things, dancing, singing, enjoying the sunshine!

Friday Favorites!

This week was full of adventure, sad & happy. Today I share with you my best friend BGEG & her hubby setting up her artwork at the Kenapocomocha in our childhood home town. I drove South yesterday to surprise them for the weekend as we will be celebrating together learning the sex of their baby at a gender revealing party put together by her sister & mom. 

Surprises, fresh art, & good lunch convo make for a pretty good Friday Favorites in my book. But I don't want to forget, BGEG got her blog up & running & you can find it at brittagene.com. Her artwork is day dreams & soaring imagination in color! Be sure to stop by her blog or even the 'Mocha to admire & purchase her work.

Just for a taste 'cause it's so bright & brings a smile to my face to know BGEG is doing what she loves:

Tuesday Tea Time!

Welcome to Tuesday Tea Time with my friend's God-daughter & friends!

LBG shared this photo after a stressful week of her last semester of seminary & I loved the joy it brought her. It's got some great friends in it too. I mean, how many people often have tea with Barney the purple dinosaur & Snoopy? I think Curious George might be there too!

So in lieu of today being the funeral of my friend TE & the stressful week that LBG was having last week, I share the little things that bring us joy & hope that there will be abundant smiles in our future.

Today I find joy in the puddles from yesterday. While these puddles may be seen as messy, they are a beautiful mess. They are a sign of a long hard Winter. They are a symbol of the variety in creation that God brings us each year. They are a sign of being washed clean for the coming Summer months when we'll think it's too dry & hot.

And of course there's joy in this tea time, remembering the times with TE, & the shared tea time with LBG & her God-daughter.

May tea time bring you a daily dose of joy!

Sunday Snippits: good, bad, & ugly!

Sunday Snippits!

GOOD: Winter is ending nicely. I know that doesn't mean there won't be more snow, in fact there's likely more to come this evening, but the temperatures are finally starting to warm up a bit. Facebook was filled with plenty of uplifting pieces of art & funnies this past week. Ash Wednesday went off without a hitch & with many #ashtag(s). While the #ashtag is ridiculously nerdy, it is also a pretty great way of sharing one's faith in Jesus & outwardly acknowledging our human fate of being made from dust & returning to dust. Reading this article brings me hope of change in the church for expanding the kingdom of God. Friday night we had fun with friends at a new restaurant in a neighboring town & Z tried frog legs for the first time (& prolly his last). AND to top of these good things our passports have been renewed & we have booked our first trip out of the country for next month! While we have been numerous places before ever knowing one another existed, we have not been on any over the ocean trips together.

BAD: While Ash Wednesday reminds us that from dust we came & to dust we will return, this week makes that far to real for my liking. The death of a dear friend (TE) to the most aggressive form of breast cancer (IBC), an accidental dose of chemo to my uncle who's living with PICK's disease & small cell lung cancer - it helped him breath better even though they weren't doing chemo, & the death of my best friend's (AJO) Grandma.

UGLY: The continuing war throughout the world. The crazy highs & lows that are a part of grief. The unknown.

WORD: So Z & I have been doing different devotions lately. I've been regularly doing the AM & PM devo that's part of the 'devotion' app on my phone. Occassionally we do those together, but we've also been doing the Luther Seminary Lenten Devotional. In Zumba today I shared Psalm 127 because I thought it was the Psalm I read the other day (it wasn't) through one of these devos that I just didn't connect with on that day in lieu of the grief I've been dealing with.

coming up: A funeral on Tuesday, some camp prep, some Zumba work, & as always some adventure!

Friday Favorites AND One Word 365 Update!

I share Friday Favorites with a heavy heart today. Today we are figuring out how to celebrate the life of our friend TE. I blogged about tea with TE back in November (celebrate her joy for life & people here). Sadly, yesterday afternoon TE's time on earth was ended & she fully joined God in heaven. Her mantra through all of her treatments & adventure with cancer was "God in, Cancer out!"

While it's not what anybody wanted, God is in & cancer is out. This picture that reads "With Brave Wings She Flies" is TE's current profile picture on FB. Naturally people are sharing lovely memories of who they knew TE to be.

I wrote in my November Friday Favorite that she is my inspiration. Even in her passing into a life that is whole with the Spirit staring her in the face, she continues to inspire.

And "with brave wings, she flies."

Tuesday Tea Time!

Happy Tuesday Tea Time!

Last week we talked about the World Tea Expo & my love for travel & new things. Well 'new things' is a bit broad. Really it's my love for education. Yes, I, the girl who knew I'd go to college, but didn't know if I'd do the traditional 4 year plan & then for sure was not going on to do any sort of further education that required me to take the GRE. Well I found that master's program that spoke to my heart & my being that was not connected to the GRE & went to seminary to continue my studies in World Religions & be trained deeper in my Christian - more specifically Lutheran - roots as a leader for & with the Church in the World.

Being in between jobs right now after being in a specific education program most of my life is a unique place to be. So I thought to myself aside from dreaming about potential future trips to things like the World Tea Expo, that I should decide what I can learn more about right now. Being a blogger who writes something about what's going in life while drinking tea on Tuesdays, I was led to Tea 101 with the Republic of Tea.

The 6 day e-mail series is short & filled with quality information for a better cup of tea. While it is only 6 days & very nice that it's e-mail form so that you can come back to it whenever you want, I am no high class tea drinker. The one habit I don't want to break is having more than 6oz of water to make my tea. Thus I figure means steeping the tea leaves longer, but I did not see this information in the e-course.

Daydreaming is great, but doing something with those dreams is even better.

Sunday Snippits: good, bad, & ugly

GOOD: These boots! Not only are they a quality brand with good support they were a surprise, on sale, & oh the wonderful colors! I can't get enough :-) This last Tuesday I finished my phoning job which was a bit of a relief to finally be done with the list of people to call. It was a blessing to be able to work with YE again though & to continue to promote the ministries that God has them offering. I seemed to have beat the crud that I was feeling at the beginning of last week & move into the middle of the week figuring out how to spend my time with more than enough to do & figure out about life. By the end of the week I found myself sending e-mails pulling me out of one job application process & pushing forward with another for a summer gig at Michi-Lu-Ca with ELCA Living Waters Ministries. I'm very excited to know what God has in store for both Z & I this Summer & the months following. I will be serving in the position of Senior High Camp Director.

BAD: The sleep we lost due to our worry of our poor Michi puppy licking her scar & wound from the clamp. Our puppy likes to lick, so thankfully we came up with a quick fix & knew where to find the onesie that our family used 3.5 years ago for our niece's birth announcement. Yes, she's still wearing it & still sleeping a lot, but also playful. Also bad, the constant surprise of how cold it remains to be. This is not just me who's been living around the 45th parallel for the last 7 years, this is everybody that lives above the Mason Dixon line. Bring on the mud season!

UGLY: Last Sunday Z & I watched Zero Dark Thirty & while fascinating. I wonder what that woman is up to now & where those children in the home ended up & how the soldiers are doing. SO much war going on in the world & in people's personal lives. Also, it's ugly that it is a surprise when certain states are able to pass laws in favor of all people being allowed to be married. I wish there wasn't a reason to doubt those laws passing.

WORD: I finally started reading The Help after how many years? I'm a bit behind after college & seminary. Plus I'm not a big reader. Aside from this though I've also been using the app called Devotion for a morning & evening moment in the word. It's free, definitely recommend it!

coming up: More recovery for Michi (she's doing great), prepping for Summer Work, Zumba, & planning a few trips here or there.

& now to enjoy the Oscars!

Friday Favorites or Saturday Surprise!

I started Friday Favorites on Friday, but here it is Saturday & that's how life rolls.

Yesterday was a day at home to stay out of the ridiculous cold weather that has been called the Polar Vortex. I'm tired of hearing it. It's cold, it's still Winter for a few more weeks. Yup.

I also was at home taking care of our Michi Gander as she is recovering from being spade on Thursday. So naturally I made a delicious meal for dinner that wasn't much fuss while she was snoozing & snoozing on the couch.

Recently I've been focusing on #makingthemiddlework as Kelly Barton says. Taking in life's little joys like opening the blinds to let the sunshine in & realizing how pretty a clove of garlic is. Creation makes me smile & yearn for good things in life.

And that's where life is rolling on this Saturday Surprise!

Where do you find yourself rolling today?

Tuesday Tea Time!

WORLD TEA EXPO!

This morning as I'm waiting for my tea to cool down enough to enjoy I started looking for an image to share with yall for Tuesday Tea Time. Well before I click on "images" my attention is drawn to a link for the World Tea Expo.

Just yesterday after the Republic of Tea posted a delicious looking tea on FB, I decided that I need to work in a tea shop at some point in my life. Well clearly I live in the wrong part of the country for this, so it won't be happening any time soon, but some day I will be surrounded by the smells & joys of tea ALL day long.

What part of the world would I need to live in? I told Z that this was a new life goal of mine & he said "So we're moving to Asia?" I do have lots of connections in Hong Kong, but I'm not certain I'd want to live there full-time. According to the World Tea Expo, SoCal is the place to be as a tea connoisseur. In fact, the World Tea Expo starts on my 30th birthday!

I won't be able to attend the World Tea Expo this year, but as the video from the website says, anybody that loves tea needs to attend! Who wants to come with?

Sunday Snippits: Good, Bad, & Ugly

Happy Sunday! Enjoy the Snippits of Life, Spirit, & Sparkle through the Good, Bad, & Ugly. I invite you to use #lifespiritsparkle when sharing via social media throughout the week. Together life is better, Spirit is not to be denied, & sparkle is the way you or others shine in your world.

GOOD: This last week was a bit of the same ol' same ol'. A bit of work, a bit of Olympics, a bit of falling asleep on the couch because the Olympics were on so late. Z had traveled to MN & returned safely, work life continued to whirl us forward with new & changing information to finish out the week. And today we crashed because Z lead a 24 hour famine with the youth & spent the night at the church & I am just a little cruddy. In the midst of this I was able to connect with our friends B&M BR who now live in TX. Together we shared the ups & downs of life since graduating & moving in the last year. Seriously, life is so much better when shared together.

BAD: Crashing under the weight of life. Our friend's dad died. My Uncle was diagnosed with cancer on top of his pre-existing Pick's Disease. And there's been one too many days of feeling like the only thing I have control over is the laundry & dishes.

UGLY: All the war around the world. I can't imagine what it's like for some of the Olympians returning home.

WORD: There is power in Scripture no doubt. This week while working on a newsletter article I quoted Lamentations & not because the article was about lament. It was anything but. It's amazing how hope shines through in the darkness. Check out Lamentations 3:22-24.

coming up: Finishing phoning with YE, Tea Time, checking in with some friends who recently announced big life changes, & getting rid of the crud.

Friday Favorites!

One Billion Rising is a campaign that I learned about just over a year ago & last Friday people, like these two ladies, from all over the world rose for justice because 1 out of every 3 women will experience rape or sexual assault in their lifetime.

Many will never be given the voice to speak up, so we as a community & as a world & as a people rise up together for the voiceless.

Awareness is a key education piece that will help make these numbers of victims less. Using our voice through dance or song or poetry or speech will help with the education & cause awareness to grow. Awareness will cause action. We must stop tragically hurting each other so deeply.

I find my hope in the resurrection of Jesus & God's word from Lamentations. "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 'The Lord is my portion,' says my soul, 'therefore I will hope in him'" (NRSV Lamentations 3:22-24).

Rise with us Spirit, this I pray!

Tuesday Tea Time!

Credit given to Miss Voodoo's Tattoos

Tuesday Tea Time!

Today Tea Time comes with a snoring puppy pressed against my side. She's taken to her morning nap being on my lap or as close to me as she can get. Thankfully, I'm able to get a few things done despite the puppy's closeness.

It's so fun when I Google "Tea Time" for an image & up comes something I've never seen before! While I do have a couple of tattoos & have thought about getting another, I have NEVER thought about having a Tea Time tattoo.

This tattoo is rather impressive simply knowing how hard it is to keep hand/finger tattoos looking fresh. Each tattoo has a story & I would love to know more about this tattoo or the plethora of other tea time tattoos that show up on Google images.

Frown at the idea of marking up one's body permanently or embrace it, either way it's a piece of art that's not going anywhere.

That's a splash with Tuesday Tea Time! What's in your mug?

Sunday Snippits: One Word 365 Update

What?! No GOOD, BAD, & UGLY?

I'm multitasking!

When I chose my One Word as healthy, I meant it in a holistic way, but with a special emphasis in the emotional department.

Hi, I am a forever optimist who struggles sitting with people - including myself - in the gray times of life.

There's SO much life to be lived that I don't see the point in living in the gray times more than than the clear sparkly times. However, as I've mentioned recently, I am living in a time of limbo. I'm working a couple of different jobs & applying for others & praying for what path I should follow. I can't escape the gray.

This forever optimism comes from a lot of gray in my childhood. I like to see people happy so I figure if I share a smile then it can hide the gray.

It doesn't fix the gray, but it makes me feel good.

Thus why on the usual Sunday Snippits, I ALWAYS have a LOT more to say for the GOOD than I do for the bad or ugly.

Living healthy is hard, but beautiful!

Friday Favorites!

Happy Friday Favorites!

This week has been busy with a little of this & a little of that. And it's that time of the year where the weather is still playing Winter, but showing small signs of Spring in the future.

You may think "She's Crazy!" The snow & ice keep coming & that does NOT equal Spring. Well last year it did! It would snow about once a week clear into the second week of May in MN, but it would all be melted within a day or two.

My favorites this week are watching people have fun in the snow. AND clinging to the longer bits of daylight & hearing the birds chirp a little more often.

Here's our niece E in the most snow she's ever witnessed in her life. Seriously, I may be biased, but does it get much cuter than that?!

I hope that wherever you are at the end of this week & in whatever weather you're living, that you're enjoying a piece of it & finding a reason to smile.

Tuesday Tea Time!

Meet JK & his dad LK. Mom & wife, RK, posted a few pictures of her & J's tea time last week & I couldn't help but share with all of you. Of course I asked for permission before posting pictures of my friends' adorable toddler having tea time with his mom. LK is clearly studying hard for his final semester of seminary in the background!

LK & I met Fall 2003 & both being the youngest in our families, he knew how to be the bully of a brother figure that would drive me crazy & I knew how to be the bully of a sister figure that would drive him crazy. The only difference is he shares the title of being youngest in his family with his twin sister. LK & I would go on to graduate from CAP in 2007 & then on for two years of service on separate ministry teams through YE, & then onto different ministry settings & continuing education settings. LK met RK during our time with YE & they now have 2 adorable babes & are continuing to journey together as a ministry couple about to embark on life after seminary.

I sit, writing this, enjoying my second round on my bag of English tea, smiling about the friendships with this family (1/2 of which I've never actually met, like JK). Last time LK & I were together in the same place was less than a year ago & our friendship has grown a little more mature that when Z wasn't around for one reason or another, people got confused & thought LK was Z. Don't worry LK, you're not my only college friend who's dealt with such confusions. Just ask DL about him coming to Z's & my IN wedding reception!

So from across the miles, I cherish the tea time with JK & family because in my book of life, tea time is always more precious when shared with others.

May you stop & enjoy your tea with a friend (near or far) today & may it be good till the last drop!

Sunday Snippits: Good, Bad, & Ugly!

Sunday Snippits! Bringing you the good, the bad, & the ugly from my world view. With a few other Snippits of life.

GOOD: This last week started with the second to last day of the ELCA Youth Ministry Network Extravaganza! This event is for ALL leaders working in children, youth, young adult, & family ministry throughout the ELCA & our partners in faith. I say this because you do not need to have any special degree or special title to be part of the network. You simply need to have a heart for serving the kingdom of God for the sake of children, youth, young adults, &/or families. This means your volunteers, parents, pastors, & youth leaders on all levels can join the network & attend the Extravaganza next year in Detroit, MI for renewal, education, & connection surrounding 1/3 ministries! Upon returning to Chebooboo the good is that the days are getting longer & there is hope that with the slightly warmer temps that Spring is on its way despite what that groundhog saw.

BAD: Not having much interest in football & knowing the Superbowl was boring. Leaving your interior car light on for a couple of days in a parking garage 12 hours from home & having little to no knowledge about cars is bad. I couldn't stay awake during the opening ceremony for the Olympics. Anybody else have this problem of wanting to eat & eat & then entering food coma?

UGLY: People's response to Superbowl commercials & how AMERican we are. People's attacks on Russia & having a bad outlook for having the Olympics there prior to the Olympics even starting.  Can we please live into each other's strengths & not worry about the things we cannot correct?

WORD: That read the Bible in a year plan I mentioned I restarted, I'm struggling. While having the Bible on all our techy devices is great, I still do better with opening up the book & reading as I was taught. Plus, I clearly work better with others or I'd not be struggling so much. So today my focus is on finishing Bittersweet & reading my daily devo from one of the many sources I have around here.

coming up: Another week of Zumba & phoning for YE & Valentine's Day & of course lots of Olympic games watching.

Friday Favorites!

SO many favorites from this past week.

This picture of the word "frame" is painted on a stole that was gifted to me as a first year in ministry person. While I've truly been working in ministry of sorts for the past 10 years, graduating from seminary & living into a more defined calling made it more official for me to stand up with the people who have been working in Children, Youth, & Family Ministry for 365 days or less.

YE has been a part of my life since 1996, if not sooner. Here I am with a number of team alumni from across the country. Many of us are serving in parish ministry settings, some of us are still in school, others of us work for YE on some level or have in our past, & we all have been crazy enough to follow a call to live in intentional community sharing the Gospel around the world.

The Luther Seminary connections were around every corner at the ELCA Youth Ministry Network Extravaganza! AUB & I became good friends just in our senior year. She is now serving in IL, so we are not horribly far from each other, but visits are hard to fit in. We are both looking forward to what the future of ministry leading holds for us.

The ELCA YMN is all about networking & connecting. Here I am connecting with the lovely leaders from InterServe Ministries, Raphael Malpica (his son was one of my seminary housemates), & comedian Jason Earls.

And that connecting piece I mentioned, wasn't to be avoided at this event. Here I am with 3 of my Diaconal Ministry leaders. We all attended the Diaconal Formation Event together in 2010. Three out of the four of us were students then, & now we're serving in 4 outta 9 regions of the ELCA.

May your week be as full of favorite moments as this. This is a plethora, I fully acknowledge that, but that is why we attend continuing education events and personal retreats and community events and worship, so that we may be filled up to move forward with the daily drain of life.

Tuesday Tea Time!

I don't wear graphic tees very often any more because for so long people thought I was significantly younger than I am & graphic tees didn't seem to help. The comments were never very complimentary either. This is one graphic t-shirt, however, I would wear.

Reflecting on things of my past has been a prevalent theme of the last couple of days. Not in a "woe is me" sort of way, but in a "what the what (I'm totally overwhelmed)" sorta way.

Not that a t-shirt gets me overwhelmed, but the works of the Spirit sure do. Z & I recently road tripped to St. Louis where we were surrounded by such an incredible cloud of witnesses all working for & with children, youth, & family ministry

I've been reflecting because many of the people at ELCA Youth Ministry Network Extravaganza I have met through one piece of life or another. This past weekend I was with friends from my high school years, Capital University, Outlaw Ranch, Scotland days, Youth Encounter, Diaconal Formation Event, Luther Sem, Michigan, & most likely a few more connections than I can fully remember.

It's crazy how one place leads you to the next & you never have any idea what you're going to do when you have to head to a new place, but before you know it, the new place is the comfortable slightly aged place, & you're looking into another unknown adventuresome day.

Tuesday Tea Time!

Happy Tuesday Tea Time!

It's confession time today.

The first confession is that I'm not actually drinking tea. I'm drinking a caramel latte with a touch of Bailey's Irish Cream because we're on staycation mode.

The second confession. While in conversation with Mama P the other day she mentions something about the bookS she got me for Christmas. My response was maybe the wrong one, but she wasn't mad that I know of. "What books did you get me?!"

Oops! I forgot that my mom got me books for Christmas because I had been so diligent about finding a spot for them to keep. As soon as she said what they were I remembered & knew exactly where they were, so like any good gift receiver, I made it a point to actually look at one of them since that conversation.

Tea & Crumpets is sure to help me prepare for any fancy tea party I ever want to throw. However, right now the fanciest I get is making giant scones & taking them to visit friends. This Winter has been a wear a lot of fleece & sweatpants (or track suit bottoms for my English friends) Winter. I am glad to be saying g'bye to January in just a few days & moving into February.

Maybe February will give me more time for looking into & reading about Tea & Crumpets!

Sunday Snippits: GOOD, BAD, & UGLY

GOOD~ Its vacation & continuing ed. week! So this past week has been busy work plus a lot of time inside due to weather. Aside from the busy work there was Tea Time with TE. In my attempt to make us scones I made one giant orange scone & it was delicious. I'm all about the no fuss recipes, so I purposely made one scone instead of a dozen individual ones. Plus earlier in the week I had an unexpected phone call from KT & later in the week an unexpected card from JM! A couple good heart to hearts is energy for the soul.

BAD~ Death in the family is never fun. Z's last living grandparent - Grandma Esther - went quickly into heaven Tuesday morning. We are all thankful she was on hospice for less than 24 hours. Now prayers for decent weather for travels for both the memorial & inurnment.

UGLY~ The way the winter weather makes people complain. Find something worth complaining about! I'll be the first to admit I'm not amused with the fresh snowfall anymore, but it's January & it snows.

WORD ~ Today I restarted a plan to read the Bible in a year. I read a LOT of Nehemiah, yup. I started this plan at the end of 2012 & made it 80 some days before getting tired of it so I figure I'd give it another try.

Coming up~ A little work & a lot of play & the EXTRAVAGANZA!

Friday Favorites!

What a weird week!

If there ever was a week for ups & down, this was it. And acknowledging those ups & downs is just half the battle.

There was a shooting at Purdue, Z's grandma died, & I am in a state of disbelief with this winter. The snow just keeps coming!

So as I wrote in my One Word 365: Healthy update the other day. I appreciate the things that make me smile all that much more.

Z had put this reminder in my ipod right after we had moved to Chebooboo. He figures why buy fudge from the dozen stores in the area that make it as their speciality when you can make it at home. I figure why make it when you have such a variety at your fingertips? The silly thing is I thought I deleted this reminder a few times, but it keeps popping up on my ipod! Coincidence?

His silly sense of humor is one of the reasons I said "yes" when he asked he could kiss me for the first time 4 years ago today.

See, ups & downs?! Gotta keep learning to go with the flow 'cause it's not worth it to fight against the waves.

One Word 365: Healthy

Here's the first of those random healthy updates I said I'd be posting.

The number one way I've been finding helpful with being completely healthy is posting things (FB, Twitter, & Instagram) that bring a smile to my face & hope that they do the same for others.

January is always a month of ups & downs. The snow is pretty, the sun makes it sparkle some days, & then there are endless days in a row that are nothing but gray & icy & snowy & make you wish winter was over last week.

I also made myself & Z take a vitamin D pill today. Hoping that would boost our smiles from the inside out.

Plus I've been making myself take the puppy on walks, even if only to the mailbox & around the drive-way. Fresh air, no matter how cold, is always good for the mind, but be sure to bundle up appropriately!

Physically: Zumba instructing keeps me accountable to taking care of my body.
Mentally: Goofy mostly with a healthy dose of worry & fear about the unknowns.
Spiritually: Frustrated, but happy with the surprises.

What's your OneWord365?

Tuesday Tea Time!

HAPPY TUESDAY TEA TIME!

  

It's another cold cold day appropriate for thick scarves, fleeced lined leggings, two pairs of socks, leg warmers, 3 top layers, & a cuddly puppy in your lap.

And of course on this negative degree day, the sun is shining & making me think I should go outside.

My tea today is Paris from Harney & Sons.

Yes, I have blogged more than once about how I don't drink caffeine very often. Well I now have gone to drinking one caffeinated tea drink in the morning. However, this is also influenced by the fact that none of my gifted teas this past holiday season are caffeine free. 

This rich vanilla flavored tea takes me on that adventure I wrote about last week for Friday Favorites. This is an adventure that gets me through my day. An adventure that allows me to listen to the still small voice & dream & sometimes escape life's present realities. This is sacred time.

Keep on adventuring more.

Spend time in the sacred places of your life.

Let the still small voice be heard.

Sunday Snippits: GOOD, BAD, & UGLY!

Credit given to FamilyShare.com

It's the start of another new week & in the forecast there's lot of single digit weather. It's definitely that time of year where people are simply holed up or totally escaping to someplace warm. Then there's those of us who don't have the option to do either & trudge through each day.

GOOD: This last week was full of discernment & being more attentive to listening for that "still small voice." This last week was full of joy that I can share out loud now b/c they have shared it out loud. My life long best friend, our mom's are life long best friends, my sister from another family, is having a BABY! BEG & her hubby are due in August & I just can't stop smiling. The other fun piece is that our good friends W&M now are W&M&R & my college roomie is now K&D&W! 2014 is the year for babies. Don't get any ideas, none here just yet. This last week was also fabulous because I got to FaceTime/Skype/GoogleHang/phone with BLF, RR (check out One Story Catcher), DF, & a few other great people. If you haven't noticed, I thrive in community. I also got mail from AJO (with stickers!) & M&B-BR. PLUS, we got to hang with A&S yesterday at the local winterfest. There were snow sculptures, more snowmobiles than I had ever seen at one time in my life, live music, & OUTHOUSE races. Yes, that's right, people build their own style of an outhouse & race against one another down a snow track. We decided that St. Tom's needs a team next year & can be the Holy Crappers with a confession booth or pew or prayer kneeler.

BAD: It's taken me all month to catch up with the piles on my desk. While the piles are sorted through (for now) there's bound to be more. With the schedule I've been keeping, since I work from home, I get tired of spending so much time in my office & I can't find motivation on these dark cold days to do more than I have to. I also don't really know what's going on in the world. The articles that come into my inbox are often overlooked or really have to catch my eye to be read. So I apologize if I'm missing some big bad things.

UGLY: You wouldn't believe me if I told you, so let's just leave it at there are ugly things in life & I've been incredibly snarky lately.

WORD: John 1:29 was posted by the ELCA today on FB & I wanted to share it at Zumba, but couldn't remember the exact scripture. Today, it was all I needed to read & absorb. I didn't want to study it or check out the different translations. Just read & absorb & be.

Coming up: This week I will finish phoning for YE, so that's sorta sad 'cause I love the ministries God is leading YE in. AND there will be Tuesday Tea Time AND there will be Zumba on Wednesday AND there will be more reading of Bittersweet.

Friday Favorites!

Ever feel like everybody else is living a more exciting life than you?! Lately, I've been trying to find the adventure in my daily life here in the tippy top of the mitten of MI. I have friends living & working in fields that I'm passionate about too & in places like Ecuador, South Africa, Malaysia, & Germany. 

I am blessed to have had the chance to visit at least two of the countries I listed, but it's been FAR too long since I've been out of the country or had a good adventure. None the less, there is adventure here in Chebooboo too.

See:

Tuesday Tea Time!

Tuesday Tea Time!

Two and a half years ago Z & I were newly married & I was quite frustrated with the process of changing my name. Companies & organizations just couldn't get it right that there's no 'E' in my first name.

A month before our wedding, my housemates & I had finished off this giant tub of honey that our one housemate BMG had brought back from visiting her grandma in Montana a year prior. It was so big that it took four housemates, plus house guests a full year to use the entire tub. 

This particular day that I was embarrassingly frustrated with Wells Fargo I had stormed into the alley house, blazed by some friends who were their usual over the top lovingly nice selves (you know, the kind you don't feel you deserve & maybe don't know how to really let them love you like they do), & stomped up to my room to find this giant tub of honey. 

In my anger I didn't stop to really look at the tub. I thought it was the old empty tub & didn't know why in the world they thought I would want that empty tub. Once I had calmed down & leveled with my stressed self about all the changes happening in life at the time, I realized that this giant tub was full to the brim with fresh Montana honey.

My housemate's sister had gone to visit their grandma in Montana right before she came to visit us in MN & to celebrate Z & I on our wedding day. My dear friend Jules (she does have an 'E' in her first full name) had brought a whole new tub & knowing how much I love tea, she decided to gift it to Z & I. The lid of the tub still has the piece of masking tape that says, "With love from the M girls."

AND NOW this honey, yes, Z & I are still working on it 2&1/2 years later, though it is only maybe 1/4 full now, is filling up my fun new little honey pot.

Here's to the golden moments in your day that make you stop & breath & smile.

Sunday Snippits: Good, Bad, & Ugly!

Anybody else wanna know what kinda of carnival this picture is advertising?!

I suppose it says Catholic & that should be enough. Right?

Happy Sunday Snippits!

Thanks to Google for this random image.

Here we are in 2014 with the GOOD, BAD, & UGLY!

GOOD: Lots of people I love dearly are pregnant right now & to start off this past week we celebrated my Grandma's & Dad's birthdays. YaY LIFE! This last week I officially started teaching Zumba. It's a fun adventure, but one I'm definitely still getting used to. My brain is constantly wired for new ideas for children, youth, & family ministries & Zumba was not my first plan on how to live out this wiring of my brain after graduating with my Master of Divinity. However, God works in wonderfully mysterious ways & it was SO great to see mother & daughter come to my class today. Another good thing is that we finally feel like we're recovering from the busy busy Holiday season. We took ALL day Thursday to take down, pack up, put away, & clean all the needles & dust that had settled. Plus, another fun thing of this past week was opening an account at Family Video. Yes, that's right, we live in a town with a video store & no Red Box. Gotta love small town living, it's one or the other, not both! I also hosted my first ever Pampered Chef online party & it was a GREAT experience.

BAD: I think I'm allergic to more things than I want to know. And at this point in life, I don't really feel like being tested for allergies for the first time ever. Also, it's really hard to choreograph for Zumba with a puppy who is becoming more mischievous day by day & likes to cling to your every move.

UGLY: That the above picture & the word carnival go together. Add some fake streamers or something! If this is how the church advertises for itself, then how do non-church goers view the church. Today is the day that people around the world remember the earth quake in Haiti from 4 years ago. The destruction & despair still linger today.

WORD: Currently, I'm reading Shauna Niequist's Bittersweet & it has a chapter for people at every place in life, or so it seems. Friendship & Food are important themes, which is pretty great in my book.

Coming up: More Zumba & phoning for Youth Encounter & most likely lots more ADORABLE photos of the puppy.

Friday Favorites!

Meet MG!

I know, you're thinking, haven't you had her for a couple of months now? Well it took a couple of months & one of the coldest days of the Winter for us to call the groomer who naturally could squeeze her in on that sub-arctic temperature day.

AND NOW WE CAN SEE HER EYES!

Her fur was masking her true size & now we're reminded how truly little & young she is.

How were your eyes opened to a new light this week?

Tuesday Tea Time: The 1st of 2014!

Happy Tuesday Tea Time!

Curious, does this picture represent any Tea Time for you?! I find it quirky & unlike any tea time that I've remember. However, my cousins, LC2, are expecting their first baby & LM said she is craving spaghettios. So in celebration of LC2 & their growing addition, here's our FIRST TUESDAY TEA TIME of 2014!

This is the first year in a long time that Z & I don't have anything big & life changing (that we know of yet) happening. No wedding, no baby, no graduations, no moving, no new schools.

This leaves me excitedly sitting in the anticipation of what each day & month may bring. We have a few things planned of course, like continuing ed. events & a vacation to celebrate other family members' graduations & weddings.

What are you anticipating for the days & weeks & hours of 2014?

LC2, we know your big one ;-)

Sunday Snippits!

This picture sums up my life lately!

Christmas day came & went & for the last weekend of 2013 Z & I headed to The Gathering with 3 youth from church. It was a fun weekend of networking, socializing, & worshipping.

Then just in the past couple of days I drove back to the same area for another youth event, this time Youth Encounter's Quake with no youth & abandoning Z with no car.

Then the snow whispers started whispering & a little over 24 hours later I was headed home to avoid the snow & being stuck.

Not to mention we attended/led the worship for our first funeral of 2014 already. Just a little excitement to finish out 2013 & welcome in 2014. We also had a good time hanging with friends on NYE.

In other news, I'm hosting a Pampered Chef party through this Thursday! So check it out here to pamper yourself, a friend, or simply to spruce up your kitchen gadget collection!

Zumba classes start this Wednesday too! Click on the tab above for more info.

AND we might actually get to watch the season premier of Downton Abbey because we're randomly picking up PBS right now.

There's the GOOD, BAD, & UGLY of the start of 2014.

Healthy Living

To hold myself accountable to living into my One Word for 2014 I will randomly be posting healthy related happenings. 

Today's HEALTHY happenings included: Zumba prep (my first class is 1/8!), sat with scripture from Hebrews, attended a funeral, walked the puppy, played with a puzzle with Z, enjoyed one of my favorite holiday movies, sent a couple cards, & prepped for my weekend with Youth Encounter.

Physically, Mentally, & Spiritually Healthy

What's your healthy status?

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

A New Year & I'm back full of Life, Spirit, & Sparkle to share with anybody who wants to receive the goodness of sharing.

My friend over at Thirsty Nerdy Cats did this One Word things a year ago & my friend TU at Praying on the Prairie is doing it this year. I figured I should join in the fun.

Plus, 2014 is weird year for Z & I. We don't have any known major changes or life transitions that will happen this year. Ok, so I turn 30 this year & we'll have our puppy fixed & we'll be doing continuing ed & vacation in MO & CO at different points. But nothing quite as big as finishing a degree program or knowing we have to move.

With this year being a year of anticipation of the unknowns, my word is

HEALTHY.

When thinking about what I hoped out of 2014, I thought to myself, "I want to be healthy in a holistic sorta way. Physically, Mentally, & Spiritually." AND because I'm a 2 on the Enneagram, I want to help others be healthy too.

Stay tuned for more on being holistically healthy.

What's your One Word?