Celebrate Today : June 2017

Friday, June 30, 2017

Summer Memories

Picture from June 30, 2009.... this picture shouts summer!!

Turn around and believe that the good news that we are loved is better than we ever dared hope, and that to believe in that good news, to live out of it and toward it, to be in love with that good news, is of all glad things in this world the gladdest thing of all. Amen, and come Lord Jesus. -Frederick Buechner, The Clown in the Belfry: Writings on Faith and Fiction

We encounter God in the ordinariness of life, not in the search for spiritual highs and extraordinary, mystical experiences but in our simple presence in life. – Brennan Manning

If we are to love our neighbors, before doing anything else we must see our neighbors. With our imagination as well as our eyes, that is to say like artists, we must see not just their faces but the life behind and within their faces. Here it is love that is the frame we see them in. -Frederick Buechner, Whistling in the Dark: A Doubter's Dictionary

The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you. -Frederick Buechner

Gentlest God, clasp me in your arms.

Show me your love for the least of me,

and inspire me in turn to such love

so that you become all my will,

all my love, and the fullness of my joy.

-Julian of Norwich- 1342-1416

God loves each of us as if there were only one of us. -St. Augustine

The secret is Christ in me, not me in a different set of circumstances. -Elisabeth Elliot

Always believe something beautiful is about to happen. –Aubrey Moskal, Elite Distance Runner

We must be careful with our lives, for Christ's sake, because it would seem that they are the only lives we are going to have in this puzzling and perilous world, and so they are very precious and what we do with them matters enormously. -Frederick Buechner

Life is grace. Sleep is forgiveness. The night absolves. Darkness wipes the slate clean, not spotless to be sure, but clean enough for another day's chalking.- Frederick Buechner, The Alphabet of Grace

There are no little things. “Little things,” so called, are the hinges of the universe. –Fanny Fern

The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly without fear for newer and richer experiences. –Eleanor Roosevelt

Let nothing upset you.

Let nothing frighten you.

Everything is changing.

God alone is changeless.

Patience attains the goal.

Who has God lacks nothing.

God alone fills every need.

--Teresa of Avila

Thursday, June 29, 2017

and she's off!!!!!!

Anna boarded the plane last night and is on her way to Costa Rica!

So excited for this adventure for her.....

May the peace of Christ go with you

wherever He may send you.

May He guide you through the wilderness

Protect you through the storm

May He bring you home rejoicing

at the wonders He has shown you

May He bring you home rejoicing

Once again into our doors....

Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Kids Cooking Night is Back!

One of the best things about teaching evening classes at SPU in the summer is that kids cooking nights are back! Last night, Anna whipped up a delicious recipe of stuffed onions she found in a cookbook Janie gave us called Plenty. Yum. Yum. Extra Yum.

caesar salad recipe from Bread and Wine

recipe for Anna's stuffed onions here:

http://www.food.com/recipe/stuffed-onions-493091

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Silverwood Weekend

We loved pulling together this last minute trip with Dani and Kelsey (our dear friends from our Kenya trip last summer) to Silverwood as a meeting spot for a little reunion this past weekend-- (sort of halfway between Seattle and Billings). We had a fabulous time camping together and riding some crazy rides.... What a sweet memory!!