Encouraging Deep Roots

We are on vacation for the next few weeks and have been trying to do a few different things than our normal hiking trips. We love to hike and will still incorporate that into the weeks, but also wanted to do a few fun things that make it actually feel like vacation. We started the week by driving 2 1/2 hours to go to The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Now to be honest, I actually thought I wouldn't enjoy this as much as the guys did. I was wrong. This was 6 floors of exhibits, music, and memories from my growing up years. I loved every minute of this place and it was well worth the money. Dan and Stephen loved "The Garage" which was a floor dedicated to instruments and being able to play them all. They had a studio where you could play with a live band and they jumped right in to play. Of course, they have both played for years so did great. It was so fun! On Tuesday, Dan and I went hiking on a local trail and did a 6 mile hike on a very hot and humid day. I love that there ...

After a couple of days of beautiful weather we were back to cold and snow over the weekend. The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity and I am looking forward to a much slower week ahead. I can honestly say though that I was doing things that were enjoyable to me. I got to work in my happy space which is one that involves creativity. We had a missions conference at church and our speaker had served in France so of course, French pastries were a must. I enjoyed trying to master some of them. Macarons. These were not as pretty as the ones I see in bakeries, but tasted delicious. Lemon yogurt cake. French butter cookies. I do think I will add these to my list of cookies I make for the farmer's market this summer. I've mastered the sourdough bread and really enjoy making this. I spent the day in the kitchen (my happy place) on Saturday prepping food for the freezer and pantry. There is a local farm market I go to and they had a basketful of green peppers for 3 for a $1. ...

This past week our church had its yearly missions conference. It started on Sunday night and went through Wednesday night and I knew that it was going to be a busy time, but I was prepared. The way the missions conference works in our denomination is that each district is assigned an International Worker and it's the responsibility of the host church to get him to his next church and on and on. The other day I discovered that our International Worker was not required to get to the next place until late in the afternoon on Thursday. Since Dan had to tutor and our friend needed to be out of the place he was staying by 11 a.m. that meant I was going to have to be the one to entertain him yesterday. I had planned on getting other things done so to be honest, I wasn't super happy about the whole thing. However, it ended up being a great unexpected change.  I snagged another friend and we drove our International Worker friend around to see all the sights. We ...