Friday Favorite(s)

Thank God it's Friday Favorite!

Z's ordination service & the laying on of hands

My niece E & I loving on each other

FRIENDS visiting for a work retreat

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Tea Time AND Winesday Wednesday!

AND    

Tuesday Tea Time came & went & now it's Winesday Wednesday! Thank you Kathy Lee & Hoda for the reminder! Yesterday was a WONDERFUL day. While I was still coming off the high from the weekend with family & friends & Z's ordination, I let life be a total distraction in all the best ways possible.

While enjoying my morning cup of tea, I was able to Skype with RMG in MALAYSIA! Her & her hubbie CG have some exciting great news that is very cool & I hope it means I have more of a chance to possibly visit them in Malaysia while they're there. Dreaming never hurt anybody!

Then I had a scheduled Skype date with my friend & fellow Diaconal Minister(DM) SN in BISMARCK! No, not the same ring as MALAYSIA, but still exciting. I also got to meet her sweet 4mo old Evie & hear about all the wonderful things the Spirit is doing in her call to DM. It is such an encouragement to share these connections to specialized ministry. Check out Heart River Lutheran Church & support their ministry in whatever ways you are able.

After Skype filling up my morning, I headed to Mackinaw City to meet up with KS & KR at Starbucks. Can I say what a luxury Starbucks is for those of us living in rural areas. KR & KS are living in more rural areas than me (I think). KS & I are friends from seminary & KR & I met through Youth Encounter's ministries. She actually was on the New Dawn team prior to mine that also went to MALAYSIA.

Then of course the end of the day included entertainment from The Voice.

What has been your great life distractions as of late? Share the goods & enjoy the tea & wine!

Tuesday Tea Time!

It's Tuesday & Tea Time lasted all day for me from one cup of tea to another! The day just seem to get away from me.

Check out Rev. Nanette Sawyer & Grace Commons for more great artwork - like the one featured in today's Tuesday Tea Time - focused on the stations of the cross.

Reading this book review revived my interest in reading more on Hospitality & the Spirit behind it. I read Sawyer's book, Hospitality, a year & a half ago & going through the many transitions of finishing my Diaconal Ministry (DM) fieldwork, Z's internship, moving back to St. Paul, starting senior year of grad school, rewriting my DM fieldwork paper to turn it into my CYF thesis - all focused on Spirit Led Hospitality - assignment, graduation, interviews, and moving twice within a month....I lost site of some of my interest & passion for what has so greatly created & centered my call to Diaconal Ministry.

The Holy Spirit has been doing some great reassuring of ways that she recognizes me lately through a lot of ways.

You are recognized. You are special. You are loved.

Know this. Soak in this. Trust it. Believe it.

Sunday Snippits: GOOD, BAD, & UGLY!

Sunday Snippits, here again! And since I forgot Friday Favorites:

Z & I started our week last Sunday evening with a game of croquet. This was a week of using several wedding gifts we had yet to use. And as I joked on FB yesterday, we are officially married because we have used up all of our wedding gift money to Target. Thankfully we have graduation gift money still, 'cause this house needs a few more changes to make it ours. The BAD part is, the closest Target is 2 hours away from where we live now. I enjoy Target so much more than Walmart or Kmart, but of course there's both of those things where we live now. First world problems!

GOOD: The good is endless. We are moved. We are getting more settled everyday. Last Monday we finally got internet hooked up in our house & then were able to FaceTime or Skype with a number of friends & family that are all over the country & world right now. While we miss them & wish we could see them face-to-face, we are working on creating a new community of friends here, as are they where they are. The other good is Z's ordination is coming together slowly, but surely. I designed, assembled, & sent out paper invites for the non-FB users mid-week & man alive, while I enjoy being artsy, I'm not always so in the crafty side of things. SO if you wanted an invite in the mail & didn't get one, message me & I'll send ya the info! Friday night fun was at the local football game. While we couldn't see good parts of the game due to the rowdy student section, it made it much more enjoyable to sit by the life of the party. Even Moses showed up!

You can see him in all white in the middle.

BAD: I'm itching for a job. Networking is a slow, but seemingly fruitful process. In the meantime it's hard to keep myself busy with things that seem worth while. Sure, I could volunteer with countless things, but that's not what I'm looking to do. Thankfully, Zumba is a good way to network that has me doing something. So yeah, I'm still trying to figure out this call to Diaconal Ministry, but I know we're in the right place.

UGLY: Our couch. Ha, this seems really silly, but as my good friend MS said, "You're sitting on an English tea cup!" This might seem perfect for a tea lover, but the English tea cup patterns belong in another generation. I'm not up to par enough on the news to talk about other ugly things with Syria & such. It doesn't take much to figure out, things are ugly in the world.

WORD: That's why I turn to the Good News. Recently, I've been using a new app called Photo-Verse. This is helping find my new norm. The "read the Bible in a year" wasn't a logical goal for me with all the changing going on in life this year.

That is my

LIFE, SPIRIT, AND SPARKLE

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Sunday Snippits: GOOD, BAD, UGLY

GOOD: We're moved & settled & Z is building a magnificent Lego castle. We have been blessed over & over again by a variety of people. Our home is lovely & easily 4x larger than our 1st 2 living spaces as JZ Nelson. We were able to pick the paint colors & that made a world of difference in making it ours. Z officially started his pastor job today, which makes him the "pope of Chebooboo." Props to the Verizon for that title! Another fun update is I have officially joined the ZIN (Zumba Instructor Network) & hope to start teaching in October. I'm really excited to get back into a regular routine of Zumba parties!

BAD: We don't have Internet set up yet, so I'm typing this from my smartphone. We also don't know many people yet, so I'm scheming some ways to network & be relational. I also don't have a recognized call yet as a Diaconal Minister, so that discernment & prep is in the works.

UGLY: As usual, check out the news. The Syrian civil war is scary stuff. Our government is facing some messy situations (when aren't they?).

Yes, I just typed a whole blogpost on a small cell phone keyboard. Enjoy!

Tuesday Tea Time!

Photo courtesy of The Kristen Project

This morning is gray & wet & I'm enjoying a cup of hot loose leaf tea (using my wooden tea strainer from my bro). No, I do not look all dawled up like the ladies in the picture. After I write this I plan to to embrace my push for Life,Spirit, & Sparkle with a workout.

We have started the move to get rid of things by donation or consuming (food) because we know our annual move will be coming soon. It's exciting & anxiety causing. 

How do you clean out your pantry?

It seems to me there is no consistant way to clean out the food you don't want to move. Sure you can donate some of it, but generally you can't eat all of it (First World Problem!). To use it all, you need to inevitably buy more groceries to make the meals you want.

And this doesn't even touch the books that have accumulated after another 4 year degree! Then there's clothes & kitchen accessories. Have I mentioned that my kitchen is maybe 12 feet long & 2.5 feet wide? It bleeds into our living room or sitting area & to be creative we have a "kitchen" table between the 2.5 feet of tile that is the kitchen floor & the carpet that is the living room.

This is what my tea conjured up because I sit on my couch & look at my apartment & know that it will not be my apartment in a month. Gotta love transition!

Here's to a non-anxiety inducing Tuesday Tea Time!

Saturday Spirit

"For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God." Romans 8:14

Sorry, I missed Friday Foto Fun! It's been a busy couple of days celebrating my dear friends, B&C's wedding. BMG & I met at seminary & were immediate friends & when she met CG, B & I were housemates. It's been a true blessing to be friends with both of them & venture through the questions of what God is up to in our lives & where the Spirit is moving us.

One passion of mine is learning to be the church with the priesthood of all believers. Romans 8 has become one of my favorite scriptures to dwell in, so today I pick this piece.

Where is the Spirit leading you today?

Where is the Spirit leading me today?

Today the Spirit is leading me to my couch. This sounds silly, but a) it was a day of recovery from being constantly on the go & b) I can only plan so much of my life out. So today I sit on the couch, watching episodes of different Netflix shows, napping, & dwelling in the scripture of Romans 8 to see where the Spirit shakes my knowledge.

Tomorrow will be a whole new adventure!

Tuesday Tea Time!

TUESDAY TEA TIME!

I've missed this time & am glad to be back to share Tuesday Tea Time with you.

To my surprise this quirky animation is from a t-shirt company called Ript Apparel.

Today, as I drink my chai (a mix of powder & a simple Lipton black tea bag) I'm wondering how am I Living, acknowledging the Spirit, and Sparkling?

This random design for a t-shirt seems to bring Life, Spirit, & Sparkle to life. I'm sure there are more inspiring photos out there, but this was quirky & involved dancing tea, happy tea bags, & singing (or screaming - you choose) spoons.

Recently I have found myself in a weird place between being a full-time student & a graduate still living in student housing, knowing that there's exciting new things coming in the near future, but we don't know what those things are yet. Seriously, I feel all the expressed emotions in this photo. The dancing tea bags because I completed my master's degree (I was never going to do more school after college), the tangled tea "water" because I'm thankful for what I have & hopeful for what is to come (though dealing with friends moving out is sad too), & the singing/screaming spoons...yeah, who doesn't relate to those?!

WHAT ARE YOU DOING FOR YOUR LIFE, SPIRIT, & SPARKLE?

I want your answers!

My efforts & encouragement to you. GET OUTSIDE! (Bike, Walk, Swing, Sit in the Sun!)  READ (I'm taking suggestions being recently graduated & also digging into scripture more freely) COMMUNICATE! (Call a friend you haven't talked to in a long time, write a letter, set up a tea time date!) EXERCISE! (Zumba, Yoga, Tribal Challenges, whatever your thing is! EAT! (good summer produce & don't forget to drink your tea!