Got us thinking...

Will and I have really been enjoying extra time to read over the past few months. And, harking back to our days as an engaged and newly married couple, we've read several books together, including The Heavenly Man, the story of Brother Yun, a house-church leader in China.

While we would highly recommend this book to anyone, don't read it unless you're ready for your heart and mind to be challenged and convicted! We've had several conversations about what it really means to follow Christ, to abandon all for the sake of the Kingdom, to pray, worship, etc. While there are so many portions of the book that have stuck with me, there is one that I don't think I'll ever forget, so I wanted to share...

"Christians who are in prison for the sake of the Lord are not the ones who are suffering. The people who really suffer are those who never experience God's presence. The way to have God's presence is by walking through hardship and suffering -the way of the Cross."

One Thousand Gifts

20. Real bbq all the way up here in CNY (www.dinosaurbarbque.com)
19. naps on a comfy couch
18. fresh veggies
17. photographs
16. a familiar hymn
15. chocolate! :)
14. laundry machines
13. white puffy clouds in a blue sky
12. a beautiful lake so close to our home
11. libraries

Sweet Memories

So Will and I are hanging out at home today, enjoying some down time together after he was out of town this week. Will is cracking pecans for a pecan pie I'll be making later for a dinner with some friends. We're listening to Andrew Peterson's "Love and Thunder." And both of these, the pecans and the CD, have brought back such sweet memories for us. We've laughed and reminisced over the past 6 years, and one line of Andrew Peterson's song "Family Man" is especially striking...

"This was not my plan -
It's so much better than."

We remembered picking up all those thousands of pecans last Thanksgiving with Mom and Dad and Mattie (and the awesome turkey we made that had to soak in a 5-gallon bucket in the basement overnight! :)

We remember all kinds of road trips we've taken together while listening to this CD - hilarious moments, times when we were dating and trying to figure out what the other was thinking. Such sweet times!

And remembering one trip brings memories of another trip, another occasion, another holiday, so I started looking back through pictures - such sweet times and precious gifts it makes my heart ache a little

Will's birthday last year at Texas de Brazil

Vacation two summers ago with dear friends

How thankful I am for sweet memories - for the loved ones who've surrounded us, for the ability to travel and do things, and for the ability to remember such precious days. God is so good to give us community!

One Thousand Gifts

As a discipline of thankfulness and paying attention to the little things in life, I've decided to start my own list of "One Thousand Gifts," which originated at a thought-provoking and challenging blog, "A Holy Experience."

One of the (many) shortfalls of my over-analytical mind is that I tend to be so wrapped up in whatever conundrum confronts me this day, or just in the dailiness of laundry, errands, dishes, e-mail, clutter, laundry... that I overlook the small joys of life and the evidences of God's presence around me on a moment-by-moment basis. I just don't see things - this is also the reason my houseplants die, but that's a topic for another post :)

This quotation from Elizabeth Barrett Browning is always so convicting to me, "Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God; but only those who see take off their shoes. The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries."

So, each Monday, I will post at least 10 things I'm grateful for, till my list reaches, and exceeds, "One Thousand Gifts"

10. houseplants :)
9. soft yarn for knitting
8. the hug of a new friend
7. the voice of an old friend
6. air conditioning on a hot, sticky summer day
5. enough phone minutes to stay connected with loved ones far away
4. comfy pajama pants
3. the feel of a baby kicking my ribs
2. a husband who loves me unconditionally
1. LIFE - the feel of breathing in, breathing out and knowing its because "in Him, all things hold together"

Two Is Not Twice One...

Sailing this weekend in Salem Harbor
(notice Will's great new glasses ... pay no attention to my crazy hair :)

I have the best husband in the whole world ... maybe I'm biased, but I'm so glad Will Trautman married me! I've been thinking about him a lot today - he's had a stressful week and I can see the weariness on his face (but he still went to - and participated fully in - childbirth class last night! :) So, right now, I'm baking him some cookies - nothing like some sugar and chocolate to melt away a stressful week, right?

I'm so grateful for these few months we have in CNY before our "Little Buddy" makes his appearance in the world. It's given us time to reconnect after a most intense semester of school, work, job-hunting, putting our house on the market, and moving prep.

The title of this post is from G. K. Chesterton's book The Man Who Was Thursday, which we read aloud to each other the summer we were dating. We were actually at the lake for the weekend with two other couples (I have no idea which lake - I was just along for the ride to "the lake"), and the reading aloud earned us the nickname "Reading Rainbow." I don't remember a whole lot about the book (I think I mostly just listened to Will's voice :), but this line resonated with me then, and still does now: "Two is not twice one, two is two thousand times one." This was Thursday's feeling when he discovered that another character (some other day of the week) shared his undercover mission.

At the time, I had that same sense about this dashing young philosopher with the Clark Kent glasses - that I had found the man whose mission I shared. And though the past 5 years haven't been easy for sure - after all, now I'm married to a dashing young engineer - I am still thrilled to be his partner and helpmate... Just thought I'd share :)

Yay for Chick-fil-A!

Though there were many highlights of this past weekend's visit to the Boston area, one of the things Will and I were greatly looking forward to was a visit to Chick-fil-A. I've eaten their juicy chicken and crispy waffle fries at least once a week since I was in college, so moving to a city without a Chick-fil-A within 100 miles was truly a sacrifice. So, in the spirit of nostalgia over fried chicken, I offer this video...

However, more than the food itself, Chick-fil-A for me has an emotional connection to precious friends and memories from the past 10 years. In college, the E-31 girls got Chick-fil-A and a movie at the end of each week for "Hermit Friday." The booth in the back corner of the Jackson location worked perfectly for lunches - and whoever was mostly likely to cry was allowed to sit with her back to the rest of the restaurant. It is good to know that the Chick-fil-A in Boston was the setting for more good memories and that the Chick-fil-A in Jackson will still be there when we return for visits to pick up with friends right where we left off!

The Beauty of the Lord

I am continually amazed at our God - His faithfulness, love, power ... but one of the aspects of His character that deeply resonated with me this weekend was His beauty. We had a wonderful weekend in the Boston area with our dear friends. It's always good to just kick back and relax, but we were also able to see some truly beautiful sights - quaint New England towns, rocky coastline, sailboats on the ocean. How gracious of our God to share His beauty with us through His creation and to give us the capacity to enjoy it!

"One thing I have asked of the Lord, that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in his temple." Ps. 27:4

So, here are just a few pictures from our trip... enjoy!