It’s hard to believe tomorrow is my twenty-third birthday. I know everyone says this, but it really does feel like yesterday that I woke up on my birthday last year! (and let me tell you–that was a weird way to wake up. I had fallen asleep on the beanbag chair in my husband’s, then fiance’s, living room and woke up to one of his housemates singing a song on ukelele at 7 a.m. Not completely out of the norm for my life in college, but it was a thing to remember for sure.)
Twenty-two was definitely a year of crazy transitions for me. I graduated from college, left my job, got married, moved to a new city, got two new jobs, and adopted a new pet. If you feel like you’ve got whiplash reading that, that’s pretty much how I felt.
I have had to learn a new outlook on life. My life is so different from the place it was a year ago that if I stayed in the same thought patterns and looked at the world the same way now as I did then, I’d be super confused. Although transition can be difficult at times and I often question what my purpose is here (see my last post for details on that journey), I think I have grown for the better.
Within the struggle of missing the friends I am so close to and was so used to being around, I have been learning how to build new community and how to appreciate myself. I have had valuable time spent with my husband and valuable time spent re-learning my own passions and likes/dislikes. Although I found myself in some dark places during this year, I also found myself in the midst of a lot of excitement at times! Our wedding and honeymoon and the initial excitement of moving, as well as the excitement of college graduation, were all wonderful times! I appreciate having those bright points amidst a year of chaos.
Although, as with every good thing in life, the growth I’ve seen in myself this last year has been hard-won, I am grateful for it. I have learned who I am at this point in my life, I am learning where my passions may point me, and I am learning how to handle my own feelings during times of turmoil. Twenty-two was chaotic, but it was worth it.
Here’s to twenty-three!
My husband is finishing his teaching credential. My best friend is operating her business. My college squad is achieving or about to achieve more than you could imagine: going to the best vet schools in the world, getting graduate degrees, killing the game in the professional world, and leading in ministry. They’re blazing their own paths and developing their futures. And here I am: not using my degree (which I’m so passionate about), not even working in my field, not living where I had wanted to live, and not being around all the people I so want to be with. And you know what? If I dwelled on those things, if I stayed in that mindset, I’d flounder and die.
It feels like I’m the only one “not.” I get so caught up in my friends’ successes and am genuinely happy for all of them, but alone, in the silence, I can be swallowed up by the “not.” And if I am swallowed up by what I am not being or what I am not doing, I become what I am not. Our self-talk truly can limit us, and if I say I am not enough, I will not be enough. Surrounded by success, I easily fall into feeling like a failure, but feeling that way is truly the only time I am failing myself. Comparing myself to others makes me identify myself by what feel I am not, instead of by who I am.
Trader Joe’s is by far my favorite grocery store. Growing up, I had several friends whose parents shopped exclusively at Trader Joe’s and I LOVED going to their houses for all the fun snacks they had. I thought that because they shopped at Trader Joe’s that must mean they were rich–I always had the conception that it was a crazy expensive store. My family started shopping there a little when I was in high school, but I really didn’t start my love affair with it until college. In college, I realized it was the place where I could get the most easy meals the most affordably, and when I needed snacks, who was there for me? Trader Joe’s! Anyone who came to the Bible studies I led in college can attest to the tastiness of the Trader Joe’s snacks I would bring every week.
Anyways, I was thinking about all the great products I love the other night and listing off my “must-have” Trader Joe’s items and I thought I would share them with y’all!
If you’ve been living on your own (or basically anywhere outside of your childhood home) for a while now, you might have figured out that cleaning without someone telling you to do it can be quite difficult sometimes. I did, at least. I feel like there are two sides to me–the side that wants everything clean all the time and the side that gets home from work and sits down with the idea of cleaning so far from my mind it might as well be nonexistent. There’s a disconnect in my desire to have a clean place and my exhaustion after working two jobs. Because of that, I’ve had to learn how to create a cleaning routine that actually WORKS, and doesn’t end me either in a pigsty of a home or a permanently exhausted pigeon (more than I already am, at least).
Luke 19:28-40 (NIV): After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it.’” Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” They replied, “The Lord needs it.” They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!” “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”
In many churches that utilize a liturgy, such as the one I am a member of, the normal succession of readings is as follows: Old Testament, Psalm, Epistle, Gospel. Usually the pastor is the one to read the gospel, the Old Testament and Epistle readings are read by a member of the congregation, and the Psalm is said or sung in unison. Palm Sunday is a little different, though.
(Note: this post has been adapted from a speech I made at a college ministry women’s retreat in early 2018.)
Galatians 2:20– “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Something that has been on my heart for a very long time is the concept of surrendering your life and your plans up to the Lord. I feel as if this is a concept that is talked about over and over in the church, and we give this Christian-ese cursory glance at it, like “of course I’m giving up my life to God!”, but we really don’t realize what it means. Full surrender to God means growing pains. It means hurting a little to gain a lot. Christ has offered us fullness and we keep clinging to the little things–I want to remind you what that means for us.
All of us have passions, skills, giftings–things we bring to the world. However, sometime it can seem like others’ gifts overshadow our own or that we are incapable of using ours in a practical way. Thankfully, that’s not the case! It can be hard to learn how to use what we’ve been given, but just like we needed to learn how to walk and talk, we need to learn how to use our unique talents.
In the environmental world we have a term, the niche, which describes the specific spot in the ecological web that an organism resides within. This is the spot on the web (think about the food chain) where the organism has “hit its stride”, so to speak–it it the specific environmental condition where the organism thrives. This includes the exterior environment, temperature, humidity, etc., as well as the food sources and the other organisms this specific one will be interacting with. This is a great way to think about our giftings.
Hi there! If you’re reading this, I actually published this blog (lol). I am notorious for creating blogs, making a post or two, and then abandoning them. By my count, I’ve done this to at least ten blogs. My only “successful” blog was one about ten years ago, but the focus area was the Neopets website and a book series called Warriors about cats… not exactly my interests nowadays. But! Here we are, trying again. I always seem to be drawn back to writing posts/writing in general, and to spare my poor Facebook friends from long posts every day, I decided to return to the world of blogging.
Instead of choosing a gimmicky name for my blog (this time), I just went with my first name and middle initial. It sounds the best to me as is (and spares me the fate of a blog name that doesn’t match my main interest–since I don’t really have a main interest here). I like to talk & share my thoughts about anything and everything, so that’s really what this will be.
Here goes!
This review was originally posted on my old reading blog, Gwenith Reads.
A delightful answer to the question I always ask myself in the morning, “who is outside my window making all this annoying noise?!” Sometimes that answer is a neighbor with a leafblower, but more often the answer is one of these dumb guys. How dare they. Matt Kracht pokes fun at the sport (oh the irony of using the word sport in this review) of birdwatching/birding in a refreshing and kindhearted way. Describing birds by shape, from normal bird to murder bird, the book leads you through whatever little bothers you may find in your backyard or on a trail in any given moment. I was laughing the whole time I read this and couldn’t put it down. Anyone who loves birds, or the outdoors, or just simply laughing should read this book.
(Disclaimer: I received this title free from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.)
This review was originally posted on my old reading blog, Gwenith Reads.
🌟🌟🌟🌟 (4 out of 5 stars)
Disclaimer: I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest reveiw.
Simply Hot Pots, the new offering from Amy Kimoto-Kahn, author of Simply Ramen, is a cookbook for anyone who wants to implement an easy, delicious set of staple meals into their family diet.
Kimoto-Kahn presents her relationship with the food she makes as something that naturally flows from her upbringing and her family background. In her introduction, she explains how her association with her mother’s tight-knit group of Japanese-American women, The Dames, gave her an introduction to dinner parties and the deep social roots of eating food together. She lays out recipes in the book that are connected to her society and her heritage–family recipes, recipes from friends, and recipes inspired by those she loves (she mentions that her Beef Brisket disk is inspired by her Jewish mother-in-law.)
The author walks us through each step of hot pot cooking, or nabemono, a traditional Asian style of cooking which she describes as not only a complete meal in a single dish, but it is also delicious, affordable, and simple to make comfort food. She begins with helping you choose a donabe (clay pot) and telling you tips on how to cure it, or choosing an alternative to an earthenware pot altogether. She then has a helpful list of all the equipment she uses, and that you may need, for a successful hot pot dinner.
Recipes you will find in this book are often accompanied by beautiful photos which, at least in my case, were enough to make me want to start making hot pot meals tonight. There are many different types of broths and sauces you can make, most which include some animal products, but some which are vegetarian or vegan. I imagine that some of the others could be tweaked to make them vegetarian-friendly as well. There are sections for each type of protein you could want, whether pork, beef, poultry, or seafood, and–once again–a spattering of vegetarian options. Despite the name of the book, there’s a little more than “simply” hot pots here, too–there are several side dishes and a few desserts (the photos for which made my mouth water!)
I am very much looking forward to nabemono in my own home after reading Simply Hot Pots!