Sunday Dinner

The last two weeks we've been to Jake and Kara's house for Sunday dinner. It feels like the way to end a Sunday - over a warm, home cooked, shared meal with friends. This week, it was our privilege to host and I made Chicken Pot Pie because one, it's officially fall and it's time for some hearty home cooking and two, I recently stumbled across an awesome pie crust recipe and now I want to make everything with a buttery crust. This, my friends, is not a waist friendly meal but, I promise, it's worth it.

I don't have much of a recipe to share with you, but this was heavily inspired by The Pioneer Woman. Her Chicken Pot Pie recipe isn't on her blog, but it is in her cookbook. I don't have her cookbook yet, but snuck a peak at the recipe when I was at a friend's house. (This cookbook just moved way up my Christmas list.) After I got home, I used her Leftover Turkey Pot Pie as a starting place.

A few changes we made - We cooked up the chicken in the pan, heavily seasoned, and then sautéed the veggies and the rest of the filling in the juices. Also, I put crust on top and bottom, because, like I said, this was almost entirely about buttery crust. Although, this time, I substituted 1/2 cup whole wheat flour for white all-purpose flour in my crust. It was a win!

To Gather

To Gather: to bring together; to collect


Today my friend Kara posted this video on her blog and I think it's just great. You should watch it. One of the things I like most about Kara is her passion for food and community. I am inspired to gather people together over food, to share the warmth of a good meal in the beauty that is community, and reflect on the goodness of God and his creation.


Of Salt and Light from The Other Journal on Vimeo.

Possibility

I've been thinking a lot about community over the past few months, years, lifetime. There is this craving in my heart, my life to be a part of something bigger. I think it's part of what points me to Jesus, God, the Holy Spirit. We are called as the body of Christ, his church. I'm not called all alone to live life just as good as I can muster up to be until someday I scrape across the line and into heaven. There is so much more life to live. There is so much good news to tell. There's a story and we're in the middle of it, all of us together.

This is a video from Soma Communities. Watch it. It was life changing for me. One of their pastors, Caesar  Kalinowski, came to visit our church this week and we had the incredible honor of getting to talk to him about the Gospel and community, about living on mission and making disciples. My heart has never been more broken for community nor have I ever been so hopeful. The church and life and community as I've always dreamed that they could be has never seemed so far or so close.


Soma Communities - Tacoma, WA from Verge Network on Vimeo.

Preparation

There's a lot of preparing going on around here.

Preparing a house to be our home.
Preparing for a huge and awesome party to celebrate our wedding.

Fun things, but not the most important things.

I went out with a friend last night who is an awesome, wise, kind, godly lady. I loved hanging out with her because, even though we chatted about the fun stuff like wedding dresses and new kitchen tile, we spent most of our time talking about the real stuff. She told me about her family, about being married and loving her husband. She asked me great questions about how I'm preparing to be a wife.

That's what I'm most excited about, not the wedding, the marriage. I left excited and feeling a little like I better do some studying or something, but also remembering that we're not alone in our preparation. We have an entire community here to love, counsel, guide and encourage us as we go. Number one on my list: pray. Also, read Sacred Marriage (a suggestion from another wonderful wise lady I know and love).

Any other book or resource suggestions for an engaged gal like me?

2011

I'm a task oriented gal by profession and I enjoy having goals to reach for at the beginning of the New Year. I think it helps keep me focused on what matters and trim the excess from my life. These goals aren't terribly specific, but they do represent some of the things I hope for in the new year.

Write a monthly Psalm I'm setting out on this adventure with some girlfriends. We are going to practice the art of psalm writing together. We already gather for lunch monthly and are hoping that sharing our poems, prayers, psalms with each other will help us to cultivate deeper friendships with each other and share our lives honestly and well.

@EngageScripture 2011 Engage Scripture is a bible reading plan developed by some guys at my church. I made an attempt to follow through last year, but life got busy and I dropped off over the summer. I hope to stick it out this year. If you're interested in joining us you can follow @EngageScripture for daily readings from the plan.

Be adventurous in the kitchen I am excited about this. Paté. Grilled lamb chops. Hosting a fancy dinner party. Cooking creatively on a budget.

Sabbath weekly I'm not sure what this will look like, but I hope to do a better job of sabbathing and establishing better rhythms in my daily, weekly life. Time to rest. Time to play. Time to work. Quality time with a certain gentleman and dear friends. Time away to pray.

Date well Speaking of a certain gentleman. 2010 brought a most welcome addition to my life - a pretty wonderful guy. I hope that we continue to date each other well. To set and follow good boundaries. To discover new things to appreciate about each other. To allow ourselves to be known by each other and our community of friends. To be bold when we need to be bold and patient when we should be patient. To have fun and glorify God in it all.

Take a vacation Yep. I want to go to the beach. That is all. I could find a way to fit Paris into my schedule if the opportunity arose. Just sayin'.

Think and speak I hope to be thoughtful in what I say and what I leave unsaid. To be courageous in who I am and who God has made me to be. To be authentic in my relationships.

A good excuse to take a day off.

Cookie. Exchange. Two words that were meant to go together. I love baking. I adore cookies. I do not have a fondness for messy kitchens or dirty dishes. So, on Friday, when I was invited to head out to the county and spill flour in someone else's kitchen with a gaggle of my favorite gals, I thought it was the perfect excuse to use up some vacation time.

I loaded up my go bag with flour, sugar, butter, and baking trays and headed out. Four (and a half) of us piled into a mini-van and headed across the river to, what felt like, the middle of no where. We passed open fields and barns and very few cars. Finally, we pulled up to a lovely brick house with Christmas music playing.

We took stock of the pantry...

And we mixed...

Grammy's sour cream cookies were a big hit!

Half Pint was a big help all day long.

and we baked...

Pumpkin chocolate chip. Yum.

and baked...

The oven wasn't ever without
at least two cookie trays baking away.

Before we knew it the sun was close to setting for the day and we were exhausted. So we city girls piled back into the van and headed home laden with six varieties of cookie (more than 60 treats all together!) and not a speck of flour landed on my own kitchen floor. Now that's a good day!

Night for the Town

I think that it would not be a leap to say that most of us want to be a part of something that is bigger than ourselves. I do.

Almost four years ago I was working in retail. Now, it was retail so I didn't love it. But, I had a good job working for a good company and really shouldn't have complained. It wasn't what I wanted to do with my whole life though. I wanted to be a part of something bigger. I wanted to give something back, to contribute, to make a difference. I didn't (and still don't) really know what that means, but I started volunteering one or two mornings a week at a local urban school reading with kids.

It turns out it wasn't so much about the reading (although it was definitely about the reading and the homework help). It was about connecting with kids. So many of them just loved the consistency we provided them by being there every week. Something dependable. Something safe. Someone to help them sound out that word or fight with fractions. It was about being there - on the same team with real kids, partnering with real teachers and a principle who was fighting to make a difference for these kids, in this neighborhood, in our city. It felt big. It felt like it meant something.

I first heard about Mission: St. Louis at my church, they are one of our non-profit partners in St. Louis - they hope to transform our city by connecting churches with people and neighborhoods in need. The Morning Reading program at Adams Elementary is just one example of how they are active in St. Louis. You can read more about them, who they are and what they do here.

This Saturday they are hosting their annual Night for the Town event. It raises funds to support them as they continue to serve the neighborhoods of St. Louis. It's a good time. You should come. And, if you can't - maybe think about sending them, or a similar organization in your own town, a donation this year. Get involved somehow. We're God's people, let's be part of his redemptive work in our cities.

The Practice of the Presence of God

The combination of good friends, food and conversation is good for the soul. Often churches (including mine) organize small groups that meet throughout the week in people's homes to talk more about a sermon or study the bible and pray together. Groups like these are great and they can add great value, but this year, for a number of reasons, joining one just wasn't in the cards for me. 


But, that doesn't excuse me from community. And just letting community happen isn't enough either. We need to plan intentional times of community. Times to honestly share our lives with people who can know us, encourage us and hold us accountable. 


Enter the Christian Ladies' Book Club. It's a corny name. We know, but it's what we are. Five girl friends who get together once a month over lunch to discuss God and our lives and how the two of them intersect. We've just gotten started and yesterday was our first lunch together. Our book for October was The Practice of the Presense of God by Brother Lawrence. 

It was an interesting book. I didn't like it when I was reading it, but, with time and a little digesting, it's grown on me. Brother Lawrence talks a lot about how to engage with God all day no matter what you're doing - being constantly in conversation with God. What an awesome idea. The truth is that I often get so busy with work or play and I forget all about God outside of the few minutes I dedicate to him when I wake up or before I go to bed. It was a great reminder that He is always there, in everything I do. There isn't anything too trivial to bring God into. God is there in the quotidian everyday details of life and He'd love to share even the seemingly boring moments that make up most of our lives if we'd just invite him in.

Rockin' Robin Reunion

My grandmother was an interesting woman. She was the type of woman who, had it been acceptable in her day, would have kept her maiden name when she married. She remembered the first automobile that drove down main street in Boise. She lost her first fiance to the flu epidemic in 1919. She lived on her own until she was 93, when she moved into an assisted living apartment. She quite smoking at 95 when she got tired of walking to the smoker's room.

She was the one who taught me about the beauty of the Round Robin letter. It's like the snail mail version of an email chain. It's like a cup of tea, a good book and the perfect hug rolled into one perfectly packed manilla envelope waiting in your mail box. My college roommates and I have been writing letters like this for almost seven years. We've been through births and deaths, career changes and marriages. We've built a history on paper. 


A history on paper is of great value, but time spent together face to face is priceless. In four short days I get to see some of the coolest, awesomest, most amazing ladies in the whole world. The third Love House Reunion is on it's way and I can't wait. There will be laughing, there will be dancing, there will be belly slapping. Don't judge. You'd slap Marilyn's belly if you could.

The Time a Lightbulb Made Me Cry

lightbulb

noun

electric lamp consisting of a transparent or translucent glass housing containing a wire filament (usually tungsten) that emits light when heated by electricity

Lightbulbs should not make me cry, but this weekend one such glass-wire-filament-thing did. It was late. It was dark. I walked into my bathroom and fsszzt the lightbulb flashed once and died. No big deal. I'm an independent lady. I know just what to do. First, I braved the dark and scary basement to dig a new bulb out of the ultra-large pack I bought at the discount store a while back. See, I'm prepared for events like this. I shop ahead.

Next, I pulled a chair in from the kitchen so that I could reach the light fixture in the middle of my bathroom ceiling. This is where the plan goes horribly awry. I couldn't reach. It wasn't even close. Standing on the chair on my tippy-toes I was still a good two inches shy of the ceiling. At first reaction I was simply annoyed. I brushed my teeth in the dark and went to bed.

I don't own a ladder, so the next day while at a friend's house I found what I thought was my solution. My friend is much taller than I am. He's got a good 12 inches on my 5'2". I asked him if he would come by later in the day and change my lightbulb for me. Not a super easy thing to ask. I felt like a helpless little girl, but in truth that's what I was. I couldn't do this for myself. Not without going to HomeDepot and buying a ladder I don't have money for.  He said sure, he'd be glad to help, but, well, he's a busy guy. The end of the weekend saw me still brushing my teeth in the dark.

On day three without a functioning lightbulb I got mad, annoyed at myself for not being able to do a simple little thing like change my own lightbulb. I spent a good part of Tuesday pissed off at my lack of independence. Then, on Wednesday, I my anger turned to sadness. I'm not independent, I'm just alone. No tall, dark and handsome husband to change the hard to reach lightbulbs (and while we're at it, let's throw in shoveling snow and killing bugs). I sat in my dark bathroom and cried.

It's been nearly a week now. No light in the bathroom. It's not ideal, but it has reminded me of a greater lessen. I may be a smart and confident lady. I am pretty independent, but I wasn't made to live my life alone. God himself exists in community and he created me to enjoy the same. Community brings light to the dark places of my life.