2008

Today is the last day of 2008, so what a better way to end it than some quick reminiscing. So much has happened in the past couple of years, so quick reminiscing might not be accurate. While 2007 was the hardest year I’ve ever been through, ’08 was amazing. I’ve done so much growing and so much learning this year that I can hardly believe where I was just a year ago.

Some of the greatest things that happened in 2008:

I grew. I had alone time for the first time in my life in 2007, and hated every moment of it. In 2008, I learned to enjoy my time alone and used it to grow closer to God and learn (and am learning still) to rely on Him alone. That has made all the difference in ‘07 and ‘08. Being away from family for the first time was hard. Really hard. But God brought me through and made me more independent on people and more dependent on Him.

I made some of the best friends I will ever have – Chris and Beka (picture 1) and Earl and Amanda (picture2, awful picture, but the only one with all of us!). They have truly been our Nashville family. Without them, 2008 wouldn’t have been half as meaningful. Thanks guys! We love you!

Dave and I had a lot of fun adventures (picture 3) and many not so fun adventures (picture 4). He has been a great friend and wonderful husband. I could not have survived Nashville without his constant love and support for me. We make a good team.

With all the changes of the past couple of years, I'm kind of hoping for a non-eventful 2009. Some exciting things that I am hoping for...an awesome and fulfilling job for Dave, a pregnancy of a very dear friend, and a baby for me too? Only if Dave gets the aforementioned job, I'm afraid. Maybe we'll save that wish for 2010. A girl can wish can't she?

Souper!

I’m feeling pretty hungry this morning. I suppose I’m not back on track after all the holiday pigging out, and my body expects to still be overfull. Because of this, I have been inspired to share two of my favorite soup recipes with you all. I created both of these recipes earlier this fall, and cannot get enough of them! Feel free to share the recipe with all your friends and family.

Tortilla Soup
· 1 large can cream of chicken soup
· 1 large box chicken stock
· 1 can water
· 2 bouillon cube
· about 3/4 of a jar of your favorite salsa
· ½ bag taco seasoning
· 2 tsp chili powder
· cayenne to taste (we like it really hot, so we use about ¾ tbsp)
· ½ tbsp minced garlic
· ½ tbsp onion powder
· 2 tsp cilantro
· salt and pepper to taste

Cook all of those ingredients to boiling and let it simmer for about 20-30 minutes

Top it all off with:
· cooked shredded chicken
· sour cream
· Mexican cheese (I use shredded Mexican blend and crumbled queso fresco)
· tortilla chips

Chicken Wild Rice Soup
1 large can cream of chicken soup
1 can chicken stock
1 can water
1 bouillon cube
½ tbsp onion powder
cubed chicken
salt and pepper to taste

Simmer for 20-30 minutes (add rice and mushrooms just before serving)

Make one box of Zatarain’s wild rice mix according to the directions on the box

Sauté sliced mushrooms on the stove with butter, minced garlic, salt and pepper

Enjoy!

Merry Christmas!

Stephanie's Christmas Workshop

I was in creative hyper-drive this weekend. I have nearly reached the peak of the handmade Christmas mountain. I have two little tiny parts of gifts left to complete tonight, but then that’s it! What ended up being eighteen gifts took me a mere three weeks to finish. Hopefully next year when I start to think about making homemade gifts again, someone will remind me of these past weeks and gently knock some sense back into me.

Tonight, Dave and I will be opening gifts from each other and having a nice evening in front of the fireplace, drinking sparkling grape juice- my favorite. In the midst of our holiday evening together, we’ve also got to do laundry, clean the apartment (which has been put off for several weeks when all my free time was going to crafts…it’s really quite gross) and pack for our trip home.

Since my camera is still missing I will try very hard to get some pictures when everyone is opening their gifts on Christmas Eve and morning. Although this might mean lots of photos of people in their pajamas with no make-up, I think that’s more festive. What are the holidays without family pajama time?

Family Crafting

I promise I'm not talking about Christmas today. Today is just craft chat.

Last night Dave and I sat down to do something we don't often do. Craft together. I am always making things, and Dave is always constructing - don't call it crafting, he doesn't like that - but we rarely do them together. Dave was working on the picture frame for his parents made from a set of shutters we picked up at the flea market and I was working on the gifts for my two closest Nashville friends. We were listening to music (not Christmas music!) and giving each other input on the other's project. It was great!

The projects are coming along pretty well. I have three projects completely checked off the list. That doesn't really sound great, but I have six of the remaining sixteen underway, and nine more will be done tonight (the really quick and easy ones)! I hope you're as excited as I am.

Silent Night

Forgive me for being far too festive lately. I cannot get enough of this time of year, really. I love to be overwhelmed with tradition and festivities and gift making and carols.

But the other evening I had a “true” Christmas moment. I was helping a good friend put her two-year old son to bed and listening in while they read bed-time stories. He wanted to hear a Bible story, so we read about the birth of Jesus. This is a story that I really have heard hundreds of times, but that evening I was so touched by the quiet moment of the three of us sitting on the floor listening to the same story…the story of God giving us His precious son in the form of a baby. The baby born to Mary and Joseph, wrapped in pieces of cloth, lying so sweetly in a manger took on a new sense of reality to me. It could have been watching his little fingers pointing to the pictures and hearing him saying “Mary” and “baby Jesus” and “Bethlehem” that reminded me of the story from the eyes of a child. I truly grasped that Jesus, powerful, infinite Jesus was once a small boy too, listening to stories and sitting on his mother’s lap, snuggling. It was such a sweet moment to witness. It was a beautiful picture of why we give gifts and sing Christmas songs and build traditions. With all the festivities of Christmas that I get caught up in, it was a simple reminder of the true gift we received that cold night in the stable.

You're Here

Here's a little Christmas themed inspiration for you today. It was for me at least. These are the lyrics to a song by Francesca Battistelli titled "You're Here".

Hold on now, I gotta take a deep breath
I don’t know what to say when I look in your eyes
You laid the world before I was born
Here I am holding You in my arms tonight
Noel, Noel, Jesus our Emmanuel
You’re here, I’m holding You so near
I’m starring into the face of my Savior, King and Creator
You could’ve left us on our own, but You’re here
Don’t know how long I’m gonna have You for
But I’ll be watching when You change the world
Look at your hands, they’re still so small
Someday You’re gonna stretch them out and save us all
Noel, Noel, God with us Emmanuel
You’re here, I’m holding You so near
I’m starring into the face of my Savior, King and Creator
You could’ve left us on our own, but you’re here… you’re here
Someday I’m gonna look back on this
The night that God became my baby boy
Someday You're gonna go home again,
But You leave your spirit and flood the world with joy
You’ll be here, I’m holding You so near
I’m starring into the face of my Savior, King and Creator
You could’ve left me on my own,
but you’re here… You’re here
Hallelujah… You’re here… Hallelujah... You’re here

Soup, Snow, and Sara

Those of you who know me well know that I have an almost disturbing obsession with Sara Groves who just released a new Christmas CD, O Holy Night (which Dave helped record). You probably also know that I love the holidays so much that I could celebrate year ‘round. Those things mixed with the two and a half inches of snow that fell Thursday night, a big bowl of Pesto soup, and lots of Christmas crafting made for one wonderful, heart-warming weekend. I spent most of Saturday watching Christmas movies on TV and sewing. I finished one very cool, if I do say so myself, gift for one very cool, no doubt about it, 2 and a half year old. I made a fold-up coloring pack complete with crayon rocks, watercolor crayons, pencils, a rain forest coloring book, and a sketch pad. I wanted to take some photos of the coloring pack, but my camera is missing. I will be sure to post some pictures if that sneaky camera of mine shows itself. So, that's a total of two Christmas presents totally crossed off the list.

Sitting Still

There's something so peaceful inside all of the hustle and bustle of the holidays, for me. I'm not sure if it's the sense of togetherness or maybe just nostalgia, but I always feel a very satisfying sense of calm around this time of year. People are rushing to get gifts purchased and packaged, the decorations out, the cards addressed, and traveling arrangements made. But, there’s a beautiful balance between being excited about the holiday, and being calm in the midst of the stirring of the season. I’m hopeful this year that I can perch myself in that balance in spite of the schedule and number of projects I have going. That may mean that I have to make an extra effort to just sit and be still. So this evening, after I take a trip to the craft supply store, the grocery store, and get a new project started, I’m going to sit still. Here’s hoping you have time this holiday season to sit as well!

Thanksgiving Replay

Since I didn't post much from Thanksgiving, and I'm running low on inspiration today, I'll just give a quick summary of our Thanksgiving extravaganza.

The first day with everyone there served as a Birthday party for all the ones we missed while we were apart.

The next day was Thanksgiving. My very first turkey! Since I tend to be an expiramental cook, I made the choice of following a recipe for something as crucial as a Thanksgiving turkey. It turned out pretty well; I was quite glad.

This is the whole gang eating Thanksgiving dinner.

This is Dave and his Dad, John, relaxing after the big meal. Like father, like son. In many ways.

One tradition Dave grew up with was the "Turkey Bowl", an annual game of football after dinner. We carried on the tradition here in Nashville.

We played games all week.

Thursday night we all decided to go outside and have a bonfire.

Our very good friends, Earl and Amanda, spent the whole week with the family too. It was so nice for them all to get to meet finally.

This is Allister, me, and Earl at Chuck E. Cheese.

It was such a nice time for all of us to be together and just spend time playing and talking and being close again.

Christmas Crafting

Arts and crafts time is in full swing in my apartment! I’m making all of my Christmas gifts by hand this year, which definitely has its pros and cons. Pro – handmade is always sweeter. Con – handmade always takes a lot longer. I have currently finished one of the fifteen on my list. YIKES. Three are in the midst of being completed, and that’s a good start, I suppose. So, if I finish one per day until we leave for Missouri, I’ll be done in time. Yikes again. My goal this weekend was to complete four gifts, but I started a project not related to Christmas and started one gift. I’m not exactly a goal oriented person; I should have known that wouldn’t work.

Since the people who normally would be reading my blog are the ones that are receiving these handmade goodies… no pictures to post. Maybe in January I’ll be able to take a nice picture of my pile of Christmas gifts. Worst case scenario – I buy Christmas gifts and give homemade birthday presents this year.

Art*Music*Justice - Africa and Beyond

Sometimes things change in your life that you never expect to change. For example, I recently developed a love for mushrooms. Up until about a year ago, I couldn’t stand mushrooms. Now I want them in every meal. That’s not something I expected to change about myself. More important than my newfound love for mushrooms is the unexpected change in my “missions mindedness”, though. Much more important!

I’ve got plenty of relatives and close friends who are involved in full time missions and I support them 100% in their passion for that. But I have always been slightly afraid of missions work for myself. I have done plenty of state side mission trips in youth groups and things, but as an adult, the idea of missions scared me. I couldn’t comprehend being so far out my comfort zone and my abilities. This fall, I had the opportunity to attend an Art*Music* Justice Concert http://www.myspace.com/artmusicjustice and was really impacted by the evening. If you haven’t heard of the Art*Music*Justice tour, I would urge you to check out the link and see what they’re all about. In this one evening, my heart towards missions grew so much. I wanted to go. I would have left that night and headed to wherever God wanted me to go. Although the opportunity to leave right then did not present itself, we did end up with a sponsored child named Bokayo (pictured below). She is a five year old from Kenya, Africa. That was the next step.

Now, we’re considering taking a ten day trip to Zimbabwe, which is south of Kenya, to work in an orphanage for children who have lost their parents to AIDS. What a change in me from just a few months ago. I have a desire to be changed and to see the world the way God sees the world, and I’m hoping that this opportunity to work in Africa will bring that change. I'll keep the blog updated as to how the plans unfold. Pray with me that I might see sweet little faces, like Bokayo's in July through the eyes of Christ.

Bokayo Dida Ejersa

Not This Door

This week I’m learning. I’m not sure what I’m learning yet, but I know there’s a lesson in here somewhere. Dave was half-offered a job earlier this week, and as I was getting my hopes up about that opportunity, God closed that door. More frustrating than Dave not having a job is the fact that we’re not sure where God wants us. It seems that when we get our hopes up about an open door, it quickly shuts ahead of us. I know that God’s plans for my life are great, and they will be the best plans for me. But I worry that I’m not seeing His plans because I’m too focused on my own plans. Monday is another meeting for Dave regarding a possible job opportunity. I’m hopeful that although the position wouldn’t be his dream job, that it would provide an excellent stepping stone to a career that he is passionate about.

As for me, I’m still plugging away. Waiting to find the door that remains open. Waiting to find the passions that God has placed in my heart. Waiting to finally feel the patience that I’m being taught.

We Made It!

Here we all are on our annual trip to Chuck E. Cheese.