2020

Yesterday I attended the Joyce Meyer Conference at Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento. It was a 3-day conference, but Randy and I are getting ready to go to Mexico for a week, so, between packing and getting ahead on work, I felt like one day at the conference was all I could squeeze in. Over the course of 4 teaching sessions, Joyce addressed the topics of spirit, body, mind and emotions. "Body" was the subject for Friday morning's session and I connected with it so deeply. Joyce reminded us that our bodies are " temples of the Holy Spirit "; they are where God dwells. If you think about your body as the house of God, doesn't it follow that you should take good care of it? One of my favorite aspects of Joyce's preaching style is that she uses examples from her own life. So she told us that earlier this year she talked to God about how tired she was all the time. She travels all over the world preaching and she needs energy to do it! While some ...

I can't believe how quickly July has flown by! Rand and I knew that we were going to have a busy month, so we decided at the end of June that we were going to be intentional about showing love for one another in the midst of our busy. To help us be intentional we chose Alyssa and Jefferson Bethke's new books: " 31 Creative Ways to Love and Encourage Him " and " 31 Creative Ways to Love and Encourage Her ". (You should follow them on Instagram because not only do they write amazing books -- Jesus > Religion is an all time fav -- but they seriously have the cutest daughter in the entire world. Every time she pops up in my feed I am happy!) The subtitle of the "31 Creative Ways" books is: "One Month to a More Life Giving Relationship." But right away Rand and I knew that there would be days in July that we would barely even see each other, so we didn't want the pressure of feeling like we "had to" be creative in o...

Randy and I took our weekly hike yesterday. Nothing too strenuous. Just a 4-mile hike with the promise of a 40-foot waterfall at the end. Who doesn't love a good waterfall! The thing you probably already know about California is that it doesn't rain here. Not since early April anyway. So, while I was expecting Niagara Falls... what I actually got was Dripping Springs.   This entire rock wall should have been flooded with water, but instead it was occupied by slippery moss and a few remaining puddles. And lots of mosquitoes. Isn't that the way life is? You expect one thing, but reality ends up being something completely different. I doubt that many of us have the life we imagined... the relationships, the careers, the white picket fences. I doubt any of us have spouses who always meet our needs exactly how we expect them to. I doubt we have many -- if any! -- days that go exactly according to plan. And I don't know anyone with 2.5 children. Some...

After our 10-mile hike on Saturday, and climbing over 180 flights according to our Fitbits , our bodies were craving carbs. We raided our "Backpacker's Pantry" and came up with Lasagna . As soon as it started cooking it smelled exactly like we'd put a lasagna in the oven. And it tasted just as good! I filtered some more water and did our dishes in the lake. Then Rand pulled out another tasty treat as a surprise... Reese's Peanut Butter Cups! This treat was extra special because I know Rand can't eat them (they give him migraines). So I knew he'd been thinking only of me when he froze them before we left on our trip and carried them out into the backcountry. I savored my chocolate and peanut butter as we finished the last of our red wine, looking out at the mountains and the water, thankful for every moment. It was much colder this second night than it had been the previous evening, and we were extra tired, so we crawled into our tent at 8 p.m. We...

I wasn't sure how Jovi would handle sleeping in a tent, or if the three of us would be uncomfortably tight, but I was pleasantly surprised! That doesn't mean any of us had a great night sleep, of course. The night started eerily quiet, only to be invaded by the sound of frogs calling out to one another until the early morning hours. One of our sleeping pads had a hole in it, so Randy let me have the good one while he slept on the hard ground. Jovi was disappointed that we didn't bring her a sleeping pad and kept trying to sneak onto mine. We were definitely ready for coffee when the sun finally came up! Already our camp felt like home. Randy made some really good coffee (Starbucks instant) and some not-so-good scrambled eggs (not his fault! freeze dried eggs are simply not good!). I purified some water out of the lake to prepare for that day's needs. Jovi patrolled the area to see if any creatures had tried to sneak into our camp at night or if there were...

Randy hadn't had a weekend off from catering since April. So when I noticed that he had a free weekend coming up in July, I immediately asked him what he wanted to do. We didn't have to make plans. We could have let the weekend just come up on us and filled our time with whatever we felt like... relaxing, cleaning, going to the movies, studying Spanish, or absolutely nothing. But if we wanted to be intentional about it, if we wanted to come away from the weekend feeling like we'd made the best use of our time off, it would require some forethought. A few days later Randy suggested we go backcountry camping. It wouldn't cost anything. We already had all the gear we needed. And we would be without cell service, so we would be forced to completely disengage from work and the world, whether we wanted to or not. It sounded perfect to me! So, on Thursday after our Spanish class, we stopped at REI and loaded up on dehydrated meals. We filled our backpacks with sleepin...

Can you believe we are already halfway thru 2016? Halfway through my year of living intentionally ! I think it is really important to reflect back on how far we've come, how God has been working, and continue to make goals for the remainder of the year. So far this year, I have... * written 31 blogs (this is #32!) * read 23 books (and 5 magazines!) * taken 21 hikes (and half-a-dozen walks on the beach!) * attended church almost every week (plus a 6-week Bible study!) * traveled to Reno, NV; San Felipe, Mexico (including an overnight in San Diego, CA); Ohio and Indiana; and most recently, Lake Tahoe, CA/NV * AND gone on a date with my husband at least once a week, ranging from breakfast to double dates, a scavenger hunt to an art class, picnics to dinner cruises, movies to pedicures, and Dancing with the Stars LIVE tour.  I've grown in my faith, my calf muscles, and in my marriage. I've celebrated more and worried less. I've filled my time with things I l...