houses and hiking

I think every update starts with "we've been busy". I am beginning to wonder if I just exaggerate our actual busyness or if we really are busy. But, alas, we have been a bit busy. This time it's been looking at houses to buy. Can I just say, this whole idea of buying a house is quite scary to me? I know it's like renting from the bank and hopefully we can at least get some of the money back. It's hard for me to commit to any place and sign my name on any line. We've seen a handful of houses of varying quality. The housing market here, at least the area we want to live, is challenging. It's more expensive per square foot here than the southeast but it's cheap compared to California. But a lot of people in our buying range are trying to purchase here. We found a little house built in 1907 that is in good shape in the general area we want to be. Everything is walkable and there are plenty of parks and large old trees. I guess you could say the area we can afford is "in transition". It can be a little hit and miss in ascetics due age and growth of suburbs in the past. But as with most of Salt Lake City, it's pretty darn safe. As more young folks move back into the city, it definitely can get much better.  Overall, I want to feel confident and care-free about committing. We will be here for at least three to five more years due to work. I know other people do this sort of thing all the time. That is great for them. I am still scared. I realize I am asking my confidence to be based on knowing with certainty the future.

I'll update y'all on the final verdict on this matter in time. But what I am going towards is how desperately I think knowing the future will give me confidence and peace. I think it would be gracious of God to give me foreknowledge in all life matters. When I think about that, I realize knowing would really limit the present moment. Already, a struggle is to not look to the future calendar and count down to the next big thing planned. If I were to know all things, would I really embrace the grace, love, mercy, and joy provided in the moments of life? I doubt I would. I am hoping I can see this need to trust God as a form of mercy and grace in my life. That goes not just for home buying, but all the things I worry that could happen or desire to happen.

There are other things we are realizing that we thought or wish we could control and plan that is ultimately not up to us to make happen. This also is driving me back to Jesus. Trusting. Trusting in a constant, loving, covenant God who is present with us moment by moment.

We always talk about how much there is to do here daily. We often are worn out come Saturday, we rarely go out to enjoy it. Sundays have become with busy with a ton of church responsibilities. However, this Saturday after getting good sleep, we skipped the farmers market and headed for the mountains. We had a lovely hike in the Uintas trekking Lofty Lake loop. Below are a few of the sights.

meadows with streams flowing

 Ingrid is about to take off sniffing

snack break with a view

snow patch, Ingrid flipped out
she loves to run around in snow and stick her nose in it

wildflowers, glacial lake, and rocky mountains. incredible.

So, that is where we are currently. Hope everyone is having a lovely summer.

swirlings

Honestly, I am probably only updating because I feel some sense of obligation to keep up. While I have a million things swirling around in my mind and heart, I have yet to process and organize everything. Lately it seems Davis and I are unsettled, shifting our focus, changing our old habits... I don't know what to call it or what it is. Perhaps we are just growing up some more. It's not a bad thing, God hasn't changed at all, we just perceive something in ourselves is changing.

my favorites

But here I am, my one sort of day off this week, writing a bit. I had my BLS re-certification this morning, yes the scene is safe. I'm settling more into this double job conundrum, still fighting the desire to look into the future and arrange my circumstances to provide me hope and peace.  Speaking of looking into the future, we have some exciting arrangements and also some sad realities. Davis and I are finally taking a trip to Europe together in May. This is about three years in the making and lots of money saved (mostly spent just flying in that big metal bird). We are excited. It's our first big vacation as a married couple just the two of us. As soon as we get back, our dear friend is getting married in Colorado. In the fall my brother will be getting married and one of my best friends is also to tie the knot in November. We have family coming to visit us throughout the Spring and Summer. We received a truck load of compost for gardening. It's all very exciting.

truck full of dirt

At the same time, our hearts hurt as we look into the future. Our closest friends are all leaving or have left Salt Lake City. We often find ourselves longing to leave too. Right now our future looks lonely.  We also feel somewhat worn out. There are some additional circumstances that also have been weighing on us, but that is a whole other can of worms. Instead of remember the Lord is at hand, we struggle with seeking to amend our circumstances so we can be happier. How can we learn to trust God as we look into the future, with so much that is unknown and what we do know so far isn't what we consider favorable?

Last night we had a discipleship group meeting focusing on prayer. Entirely convicting and practical, I am reminded of this privilege and  requirement. The discussion is somewhat part of what is swirling around in my head and heart right now but I am convinced the timing was no accident. Prayer is something I struggle with so very much. Easily distracted and selfish with my time, I rarely see it as I ought nor use it as I should.

So, as I live in the present, knowing joys and heartache will come with the future, I want to remember this:

"The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus" Philippians 4:5b-7

bootstraps

Life lately has been somewhat uneventful. I am fine with that. Some work, some play, some sunshine, and surprisingly a good bit of rain. It's been looking like a Georgia winter the past five days or so. I am not complaining, I am much more experienced being mobile in rain than snow.

Let's see... I woke up before work last week to check out the snow fall before heading out for the 6am work start. To my surprise, there was a herd of twenty-ish deer and moseying down the side walks. It was a pretty cool sight but also made me a little sad. Come to find out, they live in a large cemetery a couple blocks away and sometimes find their way into town. The awe and sadness dissipated a little with knowing the facts. However, in the moment I was so mesmerized I woke Davis up just in time for him to be super sleepy and miss the whole thing.

only proof of deer, tracks in the snow

Hmmm... Jenna and I had a girls date to the hair salon, I feel silly using the word salon, last week.

Tonight will be our second meeting of a nine week discipleship group through church.

Our dear friend in Fort Collins, Eric James, got engaged to a fabulous lady. We can't wait to celebrate with them in May!

I had a stupid cold for awhile. I felt fine except that my eyes constantly watered and my nose eternally dripped. I had to miss work because who wants their nurse dripping snot on a their fresh newborn? 

Saturday we had lunch with the McKinneys and Moffats to send the McKinneys off on their RV adventure. I have another friend moving in a week and a half. And then the Moffatts will leave SLC at the beginning of the summer. It seems right now everyone is leaving. It's gotten me down a bit. These people have been our family here.

Saturday night we took some of the youth group to a University of Utah basketball game. I am really very impressed and thankful for the group of students in these churches. Despite the fact I feel super insufficient for this task, I have received so much joy and encouragement through their lives already. Davis and I were thinking back on our married life and had to giggle a bit at where our lives are currently. Never ever did we foresee a life in Utah and helping start a youth group. A place we never thought twice about before and a job we never thought we were great at. God is good and sometimes humorous.

uuuuuuuuuuuutah

This coming Saturday we fly to North Carolina to visit Davis' family for a long weekend. We haven't seen them in a long time. We will get to celebrate our niece's fourth birthday while we are there. And they live near my hometown of Asheville, which also happens to be one of my most favorite places in America.




So that's the update.

Now, that I finished that I just need a minute to confess and be so very thankful.  Davis can attest that I was pretty grumpy, sour, argumentative, and selfish this weekend. Not that those things were limited to this weekend, they just seemed to be more pronounced this weekend. Y'all, I am a big time sinner. So often I expect Davis (everyone really) to read my mind and get on board with my selfish plans. I often neglect or miss opportunities to serve, encourage, love, and ultimately glorify God because I want to live for myself.

But the problem is, even if I wanted to better myself of these things, I can't. I  cannot do enough good to save ourselves. Christianity is a religion of love and grace. There is nothing I can add or do to earn our salvation. Jesus paid it all. There is no such thing as being able to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Anything I think, do, or say that is glorifying to God is because of the Holy Spirit's work in my heart. And it's not to try to fix myself up so God will finally love me and bless me. It is because he has/does love me and has/will bless me.  Repent and believe. So simple and beautiful. Thankfully, I can't mess that up by being grumpy sour pants all weekend.

So, to end the ramblings. Here is part of a prayer the pastor gave us during discipleship groups...  I just really like it...

"Lord, you are full of compassion and gracious,

slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy;

there is always forgiveness with you!

Restore to us the joy of your salvation;

bind up that which is broken,

give light to our minds,

strength to our wills,

and rest to our souls.

Speak to each of us,

and let your word abide with us

until it has wrought in us your holy will. 

Amen"

eric came to visit! (and other thoughts)

When I started this blog it was mostly because we have friends and family all over the world. Just in case people wanted to keep up with us, I decided to blog the highlights which can be checked at their (who ever they are) leisure.  I am finding that although I never really intended to go deeper than "We did this, saw that, ate there" I have gone deeper. Perhaps I shared more than you ever wanted to know about me/us and the struggles of my/our heart. I guess I can't separate my doings from my thinkings/feelings/struggles.  So here it goes, some more doings and thinkings...


We spend the weekend with on our of dearest friends from Fort Collins, Eric. When Davis and I consider the many relationships we've had over the years, we never had felt or been alone. The older I get, the more years I have to really look back and see the providential blessings of people, whether for a season or lifelong. Although a self-proclaimed super introverted  and shy person who often afraid of people, I cannot deny my love and need of fellowship with others. Eric is a friend who just meshes so well with both Davis and me. We had a fabulous weekend eating, drinking, laughing, sharing, and exploring. We are so very thankful for his friendship.

brunch brothers

utah mountain adventures

some autumn

and some winter

we are small in the vast world

Davis and Eric with Uintas behind

Davis borrowed my hat for part of the hike :)

Sundance, Utah

Sunday afternoon hymn enjoyment

We miss having Eric around on a regular basis but thankful he wanted to visit us.  I kept thinking this weekend how much joy we experienced. God is so good to use to give us so many beautiful, precious gifts to display his love for us. 

However, I typically have the shadows and doubt and fear that steal joy. Often times my cynicism, suspicions, anxiety, fear, unbelief, and distrust makes it hard to enjoy those gifts. I am terrified that they will be taken away or look to the future and dread the end. Or I feel too guilty or ungrateful to enjoy good things because I often compare blessings and either think  superior or inferior  thoughts depending on how I measure up. There is a complex entanglement in my heart of lies, fear, and doubt. I often see the entanglement grabbing hold in so many areas of my life. Often times it seems like the second I stop preaching the gospel to my heart, I slip into this darkness. This weekend, I noticed again how I go from joy to dread so quickly, falling prey to traps of sin in my heart.

Like I said, I never intended for this thing to get so much into the mucky muck of my heart, but I am certain I am not alone in these sorts of struggles.  How do we live in the present, keeping an eternal perspective, and have joy? Obviously I haven't conquered this nor will I be made perfect this side of heaven. I believe God and his reconciling work is the source and object of joy. If my life is missing joy or joy is stolen by cynicism, suspicions, anxiety, fear, unbelief, and distrust  it is because perhaps I am not living as though I believe this.

I am just beginning to wade through these thoughts, so they are very unpolished and under developed.

more than surviving

wide open spaces in wyoming

I am having hard time putting my thoughts into writing. Therefore, I am distracting myself by looking at pages of skirts, dresses and shoes. Super cute but not practical for someone who spends a large portion of my life in scrubs. Okay, moving into what I wanted to write about.

We went on a quick weekend trip back to Fort Collins. It was lovely and relaxing. So many friends took time out of their lives to see us. We ate some of our favorite food, walked familiar streets, caught up on lives, and hugged necks of dear souls. I was afraid visiting would produce discontentment in my heart. Both Davis and I were surprised to find, although we had great comfort in familiarity of friends, we are starting to look at life differently. What I mean is this: so often we spend most of our time merely trying to survive and safely navigate and control all ups and downs of life. We both could logically say we loved our time in Fort Collins and it would have been desirable to stay there. Circumstantially, it was not for us to stay in Fort Collins. But there was more we realized in our hearts than just the logic of the situation. God is doing something in our lives.

(I'll try to break this up with pictures)

road trip buddy

pit stop for cheap ice cream at Little America

There was a sermon given by Ryan Baker over a year ago in Fort Collins that has been on my mind and heart for a long time. It has begun to really change the way I think about life and overall what on earth does Christianity/Salvation/Trinity/Love/Truth/Bible has to do with our daily struggles. The point that rings in my heart is Jesus loves you, what are you so afraid of? I often live in fear while trying to survive with self preservation and self glorification. I am terrified of letting go of the illusion of control, safety and importance. Why is it so hard to let go and be loved? God is calling us to let go and rest in him. He loves us, do not be afraid.  Take a  listen if you have the chance. I am listening to it as a write this.

More recently, Bryce Hales, the RUF director for University of Utah preached at church here in Salt Lake City. He spoke from a hard passage in the Old Testament where Moses goes to Pharaoh and says "let my people go". Instead of setting Israel free, he doubles the workload required of them. Of course, the Israelites are thinking, oh geez thanks for saving us (not). He stopped there and didn't go into the fact God brings plagues to Egypt, parts the Red Sea, provides all their needs in the desert, gives them victory over their enemies, and provides the promise land. Instead, his point was in our lives, God is at battle with the idols and false gods in our lives. In this example Pharaoh had made himself a god over these people. Therefore, the true God must deliver his people from captivity to him. He created us in love and is righteously jealous for us. When things are hard and they hurt, many times it is God turning our hearts towards him by removing these idols and false gods. A lot times we miss the bigger picture of God's hand in our lives as Israel did in this situation.  I am no expert on understanding suffering and hardships. It is by far one of the hardest subjects. Life is hard, oh my goodness and sometimes it flat out sucks beyond comprehension. His intention was not to gloss over the difficulties and pains we often feel.   But for us to know we have a God who loves us and fights for us. What are we so afraid of? God gave up everything to make us his children. And as long as we live this side of eternity, he will have to continue to be at war with the idols and false gods we often cling to.  (I would put the link to this sermon up but it's not available yet, plus my summary is probably really pathetic)

This is huge, glorious and deep story I am touching on. All that I wanted to say, with more clarity but writing is not a particular gift of mine, was to explain why this trip to Fort Collins didn't stir up sadness or discontentment in my heart. Lovingly, God has been teaching us to see life in light of these truths just discussed above.

new puppy friend, Layla

We have been praying a lot about this move. We do not just want to merely survive while preserving our illusion of control and safety. While our living in Colorado was a huge blessing relationally, we spent most of our time being safe. We moved from one island of safety to another, minimally engaging in non-safe surroundings like at work. Moving to Utah, although we have not left our native country, we have left the comfort zone we worked to build and maintain. Instead of doing the same in Utah, we want to really be salt and light for Christ. According to wikipedia, in 2000 about 7% of Utah's popular claimed to be Evangelical Christians. Coming from the south and then Colorado where nearly all our friends were originally southern and/or we met them at church, this is very different. There is so much to do in the work of restoration and redemption. We do not want to be lazy and safe, okay yes we idolize that still, but we are seeking to not fall back into that lie. Instead we are clinging to these truths: Jesus loves you, what are you afraid of? and God is our God and is fighting  against the idols and false gods in our lives to give us true love and freedom. 

Davis and I do not want to be lazy. We do not want to just survive. How do you live in light of the gospel? How does a Christian live in truth and love? It is easy to become unloving with concern only for truth. It is easy to let go of truth when only concerned with a more worldly definition of  love. We aren't looking for an epic life or to be all stars on the Jesus team. How do you live radically in the mundane life? Maybe it is as simple as believing God loves you and fights for you and living as though you believe God loves you and fights for you. Davis and I will fail at this, we already have. Thankfully God is much bigger than the summation of all our failures and He indeed will have final victory. Additionally, if you read this you might think y'all are crazy. We do not want to be afraid of not having answers for all the questions, no human can. Neither one of us is perfect nor are we omniscience. We do not want to put up a facade that we have it all together because we don't and pretending to always be right or happy despite where your heart is is exhausting and not helpful.  Both of us desire to grow, be challenged and challenge, and daily lay down the notion of surviving and comfort for the joys of living for Jesus.

the most honorable lucy

Even though we miss our friends and will miss watching their children grow up.  We are content because there is so much more than meets the eye. We cannot cling to earthy things to give us eternal satisfaction. Although we aren't sure yet why and what God has in store for the Wares in Utah and maybe we won't ever know fully, we at peace in our hearts. Of course, this doesn't stop us from bugging (or encouraging) friends to move here.

sign of promises He has kept and will keep

I realize if you did read all that, many will not agree. We are open to any and all questions. And of course, we are always open to visitors!

¡Olé!

I'll tell you a little secret but you must promise to use this knowledge only to keep me accountable. I am attempting to "learn" Spanish. Again. Those years in high school fairly wasted although I remember about three to five words. I'm still in the process of figuring out what would be the best way to learn besides skipping out on good ol' 'merica for awhile and living in a Spanish speaking culture. Let me tell you, as a nurse it would be so super stinking helpful to be able to navigate around some in Spanish. Davis is always encouraging me to learn German but I believe Spanish would be so much more useful to me. In general he is just encouraging to use time wisely and productively. If it turns out I do not suck at learning other languages, then maybe German can be next. If you have recommendations for ways of learning languages, let me know. I think I'm going to use the library and try to learn from several different types of sources so maybe it will actually work.  Stay tuned for that! The other week, I learned the Spanish word for royal is real. Of course not pronounces as it would be in English. However, this was not learned in my studies but from MLS.

So it turns out Salt Lake City has its very own Major League Soccer (MLS) team and they are fairly good. Since our only other professional team is the Utah Jazz, this team has quite a following, especially from the large Hispanic population and anyone hip and cool enough to follow soccer. New friends from church are season ticket holders and invited us to tag along to a Saturday evening game against the Seattle Sounders. The SLC team name is the Real, basically modeled after the Real Madrid, where futbol is much loved. We took our first public transportation ride on the UTA Trax a few blocks from our house down to the stadium. I felt so, what I imagine, European, taking fancy public transportation to a soccer game. Of course in Europe I'd have to say futbol.

Over all, it was super fun. I had to pull from the recesses of my mind the rules learned from my days on various soccer teams as a child. Best of all, we won 2-0.

fans with their flag

post- game winning picture :)

One of the most enjoyable things about sporting events is the camaraderie amongst fans. It is especially enjoyable when there are chants/songs/cheers everyone can get into. Real Salt Lake has a song and they were nice enough to put the words up for us newbies.

We feel so cultured now. Riding public transportation, attending MLS games, and yes we are still plotting for a European trip for next year. Saving for it has been quite a challenging. The move to Utah totally threw us off. Additionally, we've bought two sets of plane tickets for August alone. Very excited about those trips just so expensive! Flying out of SLC has proven to be more expensive than Denver. This discussion could go in many directions so let's stop here.

Quick garden update:

zucchinis and one baby tomato

beets and lettuce

We have been able to harvest a few things. These yellow/orange baby tomatoes are really the best thing you could put in your mouth. Not to mention, beets and goat cheese are the perfect combination to make any pile of lettuce more enticing. Yesterday I ate a whole zucchini by myself for lunch about an hour after it was picked. My body is still thanking me for those nutrients, I am sure.  Have a lovely 4th tomorrow!

summer is upon us

Summer is full on.  In the south "summer" is more relative since the warm days start earlier in the year. I tend to think of summer as at least mid-May until Labor day, even though the heat will continue until Thanksgiving. Here in SLC, they seem to take the literal season of summer as the official summer. Most summertime activities really do not take off until July. Davis' job has granted him every other Friday for "summer hours" meaning he gets to leave at noon that day. I asked him the whole month of May when that started and low and behold, it started literally with the season and goes through the end of September, when fall rolls in officially. Apparently we are having an usual summer. I sure hope this is unusual. We have been hitting over 100 on a daily basis for about a week now, although it feels like forever. It is a dry heat so we aren't drowning in humidity as well but it has been fairly miserable. I am desperate for a swimming hole. Ingrid and I spend our days inside now, fans pointing at us. I drink probably about a gallon of water and eat frozen berries to alleviate the heat. Sleeping as been interesting, especially without air conditioning and it's still 90+ degrees at 1030pm. Our landlords said two summers ago it never got over 100. I am hoping the nonsense will end soon.

Before the heatwave of 2013 came and dried out the land, we were enjoying the sunshine and outdoors frequently. Davis and I took a Sunday afternoon to explore a few trails close to Park City. It was dog and bike friendly, so we took Ingrid and maybe someday when we get bikes we can try that as well. All the flowers were blooming. So very lovely.

looking down into outskirts of park city

flowers were in bloom

flowers!

flowers!

 

flowers!

yeah, flowers!

two types of flowers!

wild columbine (flowers!)

All the trails were named primarily after food, like short stack and spare ribs. Made me feel slightly hungry the whole time. It was all fun and games until towards the end. Davis was attacked by a vicious bee. It flew up under his glasses, panicked and stung Davis right under his eye.

pre-sting joy

a little confused about the trails but no angry bee yet

poor victim of bee hate

Apart from the bee sting, it was lovely. Ingrid Enjoyed it. I drove home after the incident due to slight decrease of the vision field.

We have made a new friend here in SLC. Through mutual friends, we found out about a girl from Georgia coming to SLC for Pharmacy Residency. We know it sucks to be new and we like making friends, so we immediately attempted sucking her into our lives. It turns out she is fairly independent and hasn't needed our hand holding but we've really enjoyed getting to know her. In the midst of her crazy life, she took part of a day to hike with me up in Big Cottonwood Canyon. We found a lovely hike called Willow Heights but we decided to call it Wuthering Heights. It probably looks nothing like the setting of the book and nobody was full of weird brooding emotions and secrets, the names just sounded similar.

trail up through beautiful aspen forests

refreshing willow creek

lovely new friend in a lovely land

We hiked up to the Willow lake and sat and chatted for awhile. Everything was so very lovely.

panorama

sky blue sky

tad bit of snow left and ski runs down the mountain

We kept exclaiming how beautiful and unbelievable that this could be 20 minutes outside of the city. Definitely a great, easy, beautiful hike to do. Only bad thing, no dogs allowed.

Hope y'all are enjoying the summer!

things and food

As our life settles into a pattern, I have less to write about. Or perhaps the daily living just does not seem as interesting as exploring, processing, and change. The changes are slowing and everyday we work, eat, sleep and so on. In other words, this post will be fairly boring.

So, today I was basically kicked off orientation at work. Not in a bad way, they said I was doing great and ta-da you are off orientation! I am not sure how I feel about it. It is not that I can't handle the patient care and all the paper work associated with healthcare. It is just that I am slow and still on the steep learning curve.  The pace and requirements are very different from floor, which is what I am used to. I am not experiencing anxiety, fear, and/or dread, I just hate the period where you know you could be better, faster, and stronger (Daft Punk shout out for Davis) but it will only come with more time. Patience is not a strong fruit in my life...

So what else are we up to? We are slowly making and building connections. To be living in an area of over a million people, we actually run into familiar faces often in our community. Salt Lake City itself is not very large, so we've been walking Ingrid or at a store and run into people we actually know.  Our neighbors are all nice, we've met most of them but can't say I remember all their names. Even if I can't remember all the names of people we've met through work, church, and neighborhood, I hope we can be salt and light to those we encounter. We are trying to collect contact information (thanks to libby's encouragement) and throwing ourselves out there and inviting people for meals. We've hosted small group a few times. Ingrid loves the influx of people to visit. Our days fill up fast and life is flying by still.

One of our favorite pleasures in life is food. Davis and I try to adhere to a primal/paleo type diet. We are not super strict but cooking at home we usually do fairly well. We do a weekly date night and alternate between less or more pricey as well as whose turn it is to pick. When we started this, we had a hard time deciding on where to go so we established the turn system and if it is not your turn then you do not get to complain about the choice. We still consider each others desires but clearly you can see it was Davis' week.

German food in downtown SLC

it did not disappoint young german lad, davis

Davis did a little internet research and found a german butcher/deli type place. He was super pleased with the results and immediately decided we needed to frequent it. It was quite good. We will have to go back just for their assortment of german chocolates and candies.

best ice cream sandwich ever

 We've been exploring the different little shops tucked in throughout the neighborhood. There is a tiny but adorable and pricey unique grocery store that sells a variety of unique beverages, cheeses, meat as well as the traditional apple and potato. This little goodie caught my eye and I couldn't resist (see not super strict with the primal thing). It was well worth it too. So refreshing and delicious for a hot Saturday afternoon snack. Oh, by the way, I am loving not working on weekends!

delicious miracle

Now, it may not seem like a big deal, but this strawberry represents victory to me. I have planted strawberries the past three summers. This is the first whole berry I have been able to eat. The first year, they would be almost be ripe and would go to the garden to pick them and some critter had already eaten half. Last year I planted no joke about 20 baby strawberry plants. Nothing ever came of it until this year but I am not there to eat them. (Libby, I am glad my strawberries converted young Viola!) So when my plants this year started producing fruit I guarded and watched them carefully. This berry survived Ingrid's explorations, weather, bugs, and our poor gardening skills. One day when our roots are more permanent, I want a huge strawberry patch.

cauliflower tortillas

 Tonight we tried some new recipes. The cauliflower tortillas turned out better than expected and actually held together about as well as a corn tortilla. Living far from the ocean, we often crave seafood but rarely buy it for various reasons. We became even more serious about our meal planning recently and added a seafood night into the rotation. They turned out quite tasty for not being super traditional. We will be perfecting these in the future.

fish tacos on cauliflower tortillas

After dinner, Davis went to a manly gathering with church folk. I took Ingrid for a walk. The sunset was stunning behind the silhouetted buildings. It has been quite warm recently but it cooled off a bit this evening and lighting  was perfect. As I climbed the steep streets, I am always thinking. Either about who lives in that house/apartment and what it looks like on the inside or about living faithfully in all the big and little things of life. I know I've written about it before, but what does it look like to live in grace. How can we be warm, loving, patient and generous in even the most basic things? Most of our Christian life isn't stunning or heroic. I have been praying about this a lot lately. Just some thoughts.

good evening SLC

Anyways, that is all for today. The 6 am work start has made me quite sleepy.