Finishing February

With Aaron overseas, Katherine and I busied ourselves with all sorts of good things. 

We pruned the crape myrtles,

watched the first signs of Spring as the peonies began popping,

began to anticipate Alice's arrival,

reveled in the fragrant flowers that filled our yard,

rejoiced in the opportunity to serve as the attendance mom for the youth symphony,

found whole fish at an Asian market and recreated a favorite recipe,

hit the gym together,

and taught lots of cello lessons to some amazing students.

 

Puppy Chow Power

One of my cello students suggested I replace the powdered sugar in puppy chow with my favorite chocolate protein powder.

Game changer. More flavor and protein, less sweet. Exactly right.

Lenten Sweet Sabbath

We've known Hannah Paris since she was single and attending lingustics school with us in Dallas. She recently authored "The Sacred Sacrifice: Cultivating Lenten Traditions with Bach's Great Passion", and her research and words coupled with Bach's music are shaping my Lent this year.

 

Update from the Solomon Islands

Aaron and Sarah have wrapped up their conference in the Solomon Islands.

Aaron plans to join the rest of the translation team in the Russell Islands for the next couple of weeks, and Sarah is still praying about her next steps.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

One of the nicest things about living in America is celebrating birthdays with people we love! Katherine found a fun confetti candle for my dad's birthday, and the old standby chocolate cherry cake delighted us once again.

 

Chinese New Year

Any excuse to bake and celebrate with friends gets my vote! For the Chinese (Lunar) New Year, my buddy Marin and her little brother helped bake a delicious rice cake: Nian-Gao.

We used the recipe found in the back of "The Runaway Rice Cake", and the sweet cake was a big hit! Our library had several books that filled our basket to help us celebrate the holiday:

A Gift by Yong Chen

The Runaway Rice Cake by Ying Chang Compestine

A New Year's Reunion by Yu Li-Qiong

Bringing in the New Year by Grace Lin

This Next New Year by Janet S. Wong

It's Time to Plant

It's time to plant seeds again, and this year I'm branching out into growing flowers and a few extra veggies, too. My favorite farmer is a weath of information, and once again I'm learning all sorts of new things! 

 

Valentine's Day

My mom thoughtfully reached out to the "single ladies" for Valentine's Day. She helped us make heart shaped cookies. With her decades of experience cutting out cookies, they turned out beautifully.

The delicious lemon hearts nestled in my basket as I donned my raincoat and rainboots to walk around the neighborhood to deliver. I sent chocolate with Aaron, enough to count down from Valentine's Day until his return. I love our marriage and how it's the little things that keep us connected.

Valentine's Day is a sweet reminder that my goal is to become more loving, which shapes me to become more like Christ.

 

Rest

"Rest is a vital activity in all of creation, including us. When we forgo rest, we are not only running ourselves to exhaustion but forfeiting one of God's primary provisions for us. As part of God's original, perfect creation, rest was meant to meet us with peace and clarity. It keeps us from dialing up our lives to an unsustainable pace. It transfers us out of a domain of chaos and frenzy and centers us in God's presence, where we remember what matters most and where God would have us invest our time and energy." 

~Eryn Lynum, "The Nature of Rest"

The recent snow and ice forced us to slow down and gave us space to spend time with people we love doing things we don't normally have time and energy to do. 

Like a spontaneous afternoon of drinking coffee and playing Azul with my cousin, Luke. The slower pace and the laughter created a perfect Sunday afternoon.

Sending Off Another One

Earlier this week, Katherine and I took Aaron to the airport so he could catch a plane to the Solomon Islands. Our branch will hold a conference while Aaron is there, and then he hopes (weather permitting!) to travel out to our language group to work with the team.

I love that Aaron and Sarah are now colleagues and will get to work together in person.

And we are so grateful for the many people contributing towards this trip with finances and prayers.

 

Kicking Off February

After January's big winter storm, February started off mild and beautiful. I started keeping my "office hours" on the back patio. Sometimes I enjoyed a fire in our little fire pit, and sometimes I had little friends visit me.

During the first week of February, we enjoyed cheering for Evan (my gym and race buddy, my cello student, and my favorite basketball player) as his team played in the state tournament.

Our yard's first daffodil bloomed in the beginning days of the month, a taste of all the beautiful flowers that will soon follow.

And the days were lovely enough that Grandma and I could go for a walk to soak up some sunshine. Sure feels like Spring is just around the corner!

 

More Outside Adventures

"We are supposed to be lovers of God and neighbor in our development of the world. Like little image bearers of God, we are called to garden and cultivate creation not for our name's sake but for his. And he is always a loving God, who made us to be in a relationship with him and others."

~Justin Whimel Early, "The Body Teaches the Soul"

One of my favorite things to do as I spend more time outside is to share it with preschoolers. They have a way of seeing the world through fresh eyes that rejuvenates my spirit.

Lauren and her kids joined me in visiting Cove Creek Natural Area. The ice on the creek was still thick enough that the sticks we threw just bounced. But by the time we had stopped for a snack, marveled at a white goat we saw bounding up the mountain, and played in the water, the day had warmed up considerably.

I sure do love sharing life and experiencing God's creation with these precious people.

 

And She's Off!

On the morning of Sarah's departure, the ground was still icy outside, but inside we were warm and feasting on Danish Pecan Snails as a special sendoff treat.

We loaded up and carefully drove to Walmart, where Aaron dropped me off to wait in line. The stores were short staffed, so as one shopper exited the building, another shopper was allowed to enter. I waited for about 30 minutes before I could get inside to buy a few last minute things for Sarah. Everyone in line was kind and generous on the cold day.

Aaron returned to pick me up, then we all began to load Sarah's boxes into our van and her little car. We'll be taking care of her vehicle while she is overseas for the next several years. I was amazed at how well our old Sonlight boxes have withstood repeated moves! I had put ribs in the crockpot before we left the guest house, so lunch was ready after the last hugs and prayers had been delivered at the sweet house of ladies where Sarah has been living for the last two years.

As we began to eat lunch, Sarah got a notification from the airline. Her plane was delayed by an hour. No problem! We had already planned to be at the airport several hours ahead of departure, knowing that the ice and snow had backed up flights for the last several days. A few minutes later, she got another notification that her flight was now delayed by four hours. That was going to be a problem because she would miss her connection in LA. 

We jumped in the van and carefully made the slushy drive to the airport. The lines were long but moving quickly, and Sarah found a lovely lady who moved the ticket from the delayed flight to one that left much earlier.

We hardly had time for goodbyes because, suddenly, Sarah had to get through security and board her flight. We are super excited at how God is using the ways He designed Sarah, with her skills, passion, and training, to do the work of EthnoArts in the Solomon Islands.