My New Favorite Breakfast

It's been awhile since I posted a nutritious food idea....so today is the day!

It's confession time!  I have not been eating well lately.  Busyness, bridal showers, traveling, and simply teens in my house have all invited me to enjoy the variety of yummy flavors breads, sweets, and salty snacks bring to my palate.  (Thank you, Rafael, for the cheesecake last night!)

So this morning I was reminded of my new favorite breakfast I found on a blog - Lil' Luna who also found this recipe from another blogger, The View From In Here.

From one blogger to another and another, I wanted to share with you a fabulous breakfast idea or even for a quick "breakfast dinner" called

Avocado Bacon & Eggs

I've tweaked the recipe just a little bit to include ingredients I use to make it a little bit healthier for my family.

Ingredients

1 Medium Avocado
2 Organic Eggs
1 Cooked Turkey Bacon (cut in pieces)
1 TB of Kerrygold Ireland Cheese (Costco)
Pinch of Himalayan Salt (Costco)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425.
2. Cut avocado in half and remove pit.
3. With a spoon, scoop out just a little bit of the avocado to make room for the egg. Place avocado in a muffin pan to keep avocado stable while cooking.
4. Crack your egg and add it to the inside of your avocado.  Sprinkle with cheese on top.  A pinch of salt and top with cooked bacon.
(If you like a non-runny egg, break the yolk - that would be me!)
5. Cook for 15 minutes and ENJOY!

It's a great start to a new day the Lord has made, giving you the protein and good fats and energy you need to make the most of your day and accomplish all those things on your mind.

I even conducted a taste test.....on my In-Laws when they were in town. Two thumbs up!  I even got my father-in-law to try my brussel sprouts recipe - He liked it! He liked it!

So enjoy all those family memories that are shared simply by gathering around the foods we make.   I think that's why God made meals!

What Does It Mean To Be ALIVE?

"Because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us ALIVE with Christ even when we were dead - it is by grace you have been saved."  Ephesians 2:4-5

My buddy Frances and I enjoyed a timely women's conference in Nashville last weekend called the "Alive Conference".  The Wesleyan Church invited women across the country to gather together to Grow and Enrich one another and Thrive by serving shoulder to shoulder with each other.

Let's just say...when you bring over 800 women together and remind them of their value and purpose and worth and identity in Christ, you can't help but have a big ol' celebration full of life.  It was Alive, man, ALIVE!

Alive Conference 2015

We started our four hour trip to Nashville with anticipation and excitement but we also carried a heaviness put on by life's fullness.  A weight that can drain the life right out of ya - some call it "dead weight."  As we traveled and spent time listening to God speak through many different venues, we began to lose weight...the weight we carried 200 miles down the freeway.  Underneath the weight was new life.  Soul ready to breathe and come ALIVE again!

Sometimes you have to get away to do that.  To carve out some time for God to do a little "nip and tuck" here and there.

After the weekend, we came back to the same full lives.
It doesn't change; we do.

God graces us with new glimpses, new understandings, new visions, new life within.  And sometimes I can't even put words to His immeasurable graces.

What does ALIVE mean to you?

...when you are not at a women's conference with 800 other women shouting out praises at the top of their lungs.

...when there are still lunches to be made and deadlines to meet.

...when there never seems to be enough time to accomplish the never-ending ideas and tasks running through your mind.

I don't want to gain all that weight back!

So I...

Stand a little longer at the end of my driveway to watch my 3rd grader's little face in the bus window a little bit longer.

And I...
Walk slowly back down the driveway with gratefulness, breathing in the spring morning air (pollen included).

I wear pigtails even though I'm 41, almost 42, years old. (I should also try to find something purple in my closet)

Smile as I notice a song takes over and hips start a swayin'...

The words "chim chimney" come out and form into a Mary Poppins song. All I need is an umbrella to take me somewhere.

Up my steep Georgia driveway, put a little extra weight on the accelerator of my Ford F150 just to get the heart pumping.  And make sure it is still doing its job!

An 80's song comes over the radio and I instantly feel a sense of vigor and youth as memories flood my mind of wild, crazy, brave times.

When your heart weeps unexpectantly in a sense of grief for women you don't know but have heard their stories.  It's a deep connection of the soul that can't be explained, just felt.

Shopping for the Kentucky Derby, which is on my bucket list.  What else do you do at the mall?

When you meet a new friend in unexpected places....

Silence with a friend, knowing each other's thoughts, and unable to hold in the laughter any longer that when it comes out it is hard to stop.  Laughter that makes you feel like a giddy school girl.

Stopping to look someone in the eye and really listen.  Making time to laugh. Carving out space to play charades before bed, take a family walk, look your dog in the eye (they have a lot to say).  Step out.  Step up. Step back and get a new perspective.

Whatever it is, remember:  Jesus came to give you Life!  The thief comes to steal that life away.

Steve Wingfield says in his devotional Winning the Race Every Day - Keep Your Drive Alive:

 "The world lives with the normal, but Jesus wants you to live above normal. It's normal to sin. It's normal to get angry. (frustrated, worried, overwhelmed) But Jesus saved you so that you will not be normal and so that you will display His character to the world around you. Live above normal today."

Don't just survive.  Grow, Enrich, and Thrive.

Be ALIVE!!!

(in the way you know how)

*What does it mean to you to be ALIVE?  Share that with me in the comment section below.  I'd love to hear from you!

What Can A Girl Do?

I always loved playing basketball with my brother and my dad in the driveway...

But my greatest frustration was that we did not have a nice cement driveway like my other friends did in subdivisions.  No, we had a gravel driveway.

Rocks, sand, and gravel made it very hard to dribble without the ball flying out of control and having to chase it down.  I think I could have scored on my older brother more if I had a cement driveway. (that's my excuse)

A real pain in the side (literally, keep reading) was the fact that my mom planted a cactus nearby at the front of the yard.  So when the basketball unexpectedly went in the opposite direction of the way I was going, I had to chase it down before it landed in the sharp cactus. 

I do not know if cacti have a magnetic force, which pulls anything leather bound toward it, but it never failed...my basketball would head straight for the center of the cactus patch.  

I remember carefully freeing my ball from the cactus’ grasp and trying to... oh-so-stealthly... take out each needle stuck in my ball.  However, I lost my grip one time and the ball fell against my body and the needle went into my side. (hence the "pain in the side" comment)  

I was in quite a predicament.  The ball was now stuck to me by a cactus needle.  

How was I ever to become a basketball star in these conditions!?!  

It was just too hard.  
I’m chasing after ricocheted balls and risking my life to save a basketball from being inflated by the evil cacti.

What can a girl without a gymnasium or a cement driveway do, but to go out again the next day and....

keep shooting, 
               keep driving, 
                                    keep dribbling on rocky, uncertain surfaces. 

Learn how to quickly pick herself up when she loses her footing. 
Find a more effective way to get to the ball before her opponent does (ie. cactus).

You get smarter.  You get tougher.  

In your frustration, you get more determined.  You find resolve. 

You become better without even knowing it. 

You become a better player because of it.

Oh, how I wished & dreamed for a flat surface to play hoops on, but little did I know that the rough terrain in my life was the very thing that made me the player I dreamed of being.

I was at Grandma Lucille’s house when I looked in the newspaper and saw pictures of several high school basketball players, selected and recognized as the Girls All-State Team.  In that moment, I told myself (and maybe grandma too) that I was going to be on that team someday.  A dream was born inside.

 It wasn’t until my senior year - my last chance to reach my dream - that my small Nampa Christian team made it to the State Tournament.  And all that awkward dribbling on the bluff, all the ways I sacrificed my body for the protection of the ball, and all those hours of shooting  in front of the garage on the gravel driveway paid off.  

Due to the conditions, I could have given up and chosen another activity like roller skating.  I could have done that in the detached 2-car garage. But then I may not have ever known what I was made of  - the drive God was forming in me, the determination He was refining, and the talent He was crafting within.

The spiritual lessons here are numerous for me and timely.  

I’m reminded today to TRUST.  

Each day is training ground...instead of asking “why these conditions”, I simply and beautifully trust the process with God.  I still hold on to dreams; however, the way to those dreams look a bit different than I expected, but there is no need to give up.

I pick up my ball and head outside and keep shooting! I can’t sit on the sidelines in frustration.  I am a player, and I have a team to lead.   Lead with courage and trust.

  

“Everyone who competes in the game of life goes into strict training.”

1 Corinthians 9:25

My fabulous team at Nampa Christian High School!

1991

Being Engaged

I took a RECESS from writing the past two weeks to enjoy time with Idaho family and friends in town.  There is so much to write about.  I don’t know where to start.

I could write about how I want to be like Mary Poppins....kind, assertive, imaginative, and matter-of-factly confident.  I was so engaged in the incredibly amazing performance of Mary Poppins by the Milton High School drama department, and I’m still processing the life lessons her character brings forth. 

Or I could use this time to understand the tears that surprisingly appeared as I sat with Audra and her friend McKenna at the Dolphin Show in the Georgia Aquarium. The dolphins came out and water was not just spilling out over the wall of the water tank, but overflowing from my eyes.  Instantly, my heart connected with the experience I was watching.  For some reason my heart kicked into gear. But that's for another blog...

I could share the thoughts I’m wrestling with, and that is a perfect description - wrestling!  Or maybe today's writing is about the special place I go when I’m wrestling with the details and sometimes unexpected heaviness of life.  

I go to my neighbor's house.  

Yes, I go to Roy and Nell's house to see the Big Picture when my heart feels suffocated by the all-consuming details of life. When life feels heavy I knock on their door.  Little do they know that I'm not as sweet as they think I am. I'm selfishly coming over to visit because they make MY day.

I listen to stories of days gone by. Their 70 plus years have been filled with worries, heartache, and challenges too, but they don't talk of those things anymore. Life is too short.  They talk of those they love, who have loved them, friendships over time, stories that make us all laugh, the people and moments that mean something. 

Recently, Roy told me he became a preacher at age seven.  His first audience was a congregation of chickens on the farm.  Everyday when he would go out to feed them, he would preach at the chickens!  

Is it strange to say that is so refreshing to me?  So simple.  So pure.  So innocent. Real moments that engage my heart, bring joy back to life. 

And all those thoughts I had been wrestling with seem so small & insignificant.  

I believe visiting with Roy and Nell is so meaningful to me because that's what my Grandma Lucille instilled in me.  She was engaged in people's lives. She showed me how to value all people.  She is the one who took my brother Adam and I to nursing homes to visit the lonely.  Together we did yard work for those who couldn't.  We baked and delivered our goodies to neighbors.  

Her impact on my life is never-ending.   Grandma Lucille's imagination was like Mary Poppins and so was her creativity.  And her heart was like Jesus in every way! 

What a combination - Jesus & Mary Poppins!  She always added a creative flair to every meal and holiday, yet in her gentle disposition she had a deep commitment to share the love of Jesus at every family gathering.  

While I'm not as creative as Grandma Lucille, I still continue the traditions we enjoyed with her including decorating Easter eggs.  Again, like Mary Poppins, her eggs were like a painter's canvas!  Our eggs were no match to hers.

So this week we boiled the eggs and found the crayons...

I know Easter isn't really about eggs, but Grandma had the knack of bringing Jesus into any situation.  She could make any egg a reflection of God's glory.  (In fact, she could make art out of driftwood, rocks, and moss.  Her home was decorated with her own creations of God's creations.)

She didn't lecture me about the true meaning of Easter or pull out scripture to show that eggs are not a part of the Easter story.  She taught us who Jesus was by how she engaged in life; how she lived, loved, and served.  Her life was the Big Picture!

I looked at my first egg and thought, "What would Grandma do?" 

  

Grandma never told me what to draw on my egg.  I had the freedom to do my own creating.  But here I am now - many years later - and I'm inspired to draw the same pictures she drew. 

And after seeing a few of my eggs, Ava made some of her own...

Including one of Jesus!

Today I'm thankful for Mary Poppins and dolphins and neighbors and grandmothers - all of which reveal to me that there is something special when your heart is free to engage wholeheartedly. The gift is seeing a bigger picture, a reflection of Who has it all in His hands!  Our God is so much bigger than the details we live in. 

This weekend we celebrate a Savior who was "ALL IN", completely engaged, willing to die to mend hearts and make them new.  

Live wholeheartedly.  Fully engaged.

Don't get distracted by all the details, but 

treasure the big picture moments!

He is RISEN! Let's Celebrate!