Highlights of 2013

Because it's January 3, 2014, I like lists, and it's a fun trend.

THE GOOD

• Enjoyed God's presence. He was very VERY present in leading us (P and me) - encouraged by His closeness this year
• Experienced the most growth in my 3 year marriage 
• Formed some great new friendships  + grew even closer with two friends
• Traveled from VA to AZ to CO back to VA in a car. Camped at the Grand Canyon, backpacked through RMNP, and experienced the American desert for the first time.  Had some quality time with P and two brothers (...and I could go on and on about experiences had during this trip).
• Read a ton of books + short stories. Seriously. I'm proud.
• Ran a 5k Thanksgiving morning
• Learned to belay/tie proper knots and experienced having someone's life in your hands, literally
• Backpacked with Wilderness Adventure while carrying THE heaviest pack (didn't think I could do it)
• Saw P step out of his comfort zone and got a job he didn't think he could get
• Became really comfortable driving myself around D.C./NoVA
• Improved my crocheting skills a lot
• Got my passport
• Joined a church family
• Witnessed my younger brother take leaps and bounds with school + personal life 
• Went to some pretty great shows/concerts
• Biked a lot 
• Frolicked around parks, yards, ponds, woods, pools, rooms, malls, libraries, and grocery stores with my favorite little girls while getting paid. 

THE BAD

• Left my job as a nanny and said good-bye to a wonderful family
  Left NoVA + church family there
• Moved to Roanoke, VA
• Between P and I - got more traffic/parking tickets than I ever have would have liked to receive in one lifetime
• Mission trip desires didn't get to be put into action
• Lowest points of marriage reached this year
• Forced to realize and work on shoddy relationship with parental unit
• Indulged depressive states of mind more than I would have liked (didn't put up the greatest fight)

The year of 2013 was a year of movement. Not necessarily forward movement but any kind of movement can feel good. Looking back, I'm realizing this more and more. Towards the end of 2013, I finally grasped why I never felt comfortable with leaving out the negative. In trying to move away from being cynical these past few years, I thought I should just always focus on the positive, on things that move us forward, and thoughts that make us happy. To be honest, although helpful at times, it didn't seem quite right to me nor biblical. Illumination came to me through a Psychologist whose random quotes I happened to be reading through because I liked what he had to say. When I saw this excerpt, I enjoyed one of those jolting moments of clarity. I love moments like this because it's like circuits in my brain that haven't been on the right track now finally have what they need to connect with the other on-track thoughts. It feels bright and clean to have a little bit more harmony in there (because my thought life is mostly a dark confusing mess). So, it's illuminating (I love that metaphor). The excerpt is as follows:

"I actually attack the concept of happiness. The idea that - I don’t mind people being happy - but the idea that everything we do is part of the pursuit of happiness seems to me a really dangerous idea and has led to a contemporary disease in Western society, which is fear of sadness. It’s a really odd thing that we’re now seeing people saying “write down 3 things that made you happy today before you go to sleep”, and “cheer up” and “happiness is our birthright” and so on. We’re kind of teaching our kids that happiness is the default position - it’s rubbish. Wholeness is what we ought to be striving for and part of that is sadness, disappointment, frustration, failure; all of those things which make us who we are. Happiness and victory and fulfillment are nice little things that also happen to us, but they don’t teach us much. Everyone says we grow through pain and then as soon as they experience pain they say “Quick! Move on! Cheer up!” I’d like just for a year to have a moratorium on the word “happiness” and to replace it with the word “wholeness”. Ask yourself “is this contributing to my wholeness?” and if you’re having a bad day, it is.”  -Hugh Mackay

This concept of wholeness is something I want on the forefront of mind this year as I strive to continue the trend of movement from 2013. I believe understanding life this way will help me to feel more content and less depressed. It's already helped me understand better why trails are joys and to embrace the uncomfortable. This is freeing. Feeling free allows me to naturally praise and love my God and serve others more willingly. I am grateful. And a grateful heart is a happy heart.

Lately: What I'm Listening To

Elliott Smith, Elliot Smith

InnerSpeaker - Tame Impala

 Gulag Orkestar, Beirut

And the new Arcade Fire tack - Reflektor!

Recipe: A Frog in the Basket and Why an Egg is Healthy

“wonder what day god created the egg' 'how should we know? we should not question. our stay on earth is not for long. let us rejoice and believe and give thanks'. 'eat a egg” 

-Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

Lately, I've just been enjoying being outside and feeling the sun on my skin. I'm trying to do this as much as possible before ol' fall comes around (not that this is bad). There is just something about the sun sinking through me that lifts my spirits and warms me all the way to my core. So, of course I can't help but thinking about another warming friend who does just the same - the egg!

I LOVE eggs. Seriously. I'm going to tell you a confession that is actually kind of lame now that I think about but... whatever. First, an informative rant on why eggs are healthy for you:
 
An egg is really three separate foods, the whole egg, the white, and the yolk, each with its own distinct nutritional profile. A whole egg is a high-fat, high-cholesterol, high-quality protein food packaged in a high-calcium shell that can be grounded and added to any recipe. The proteins in eggs, with sufficient amounts of all the essential amino acids, are 99 percent digestible, the standard by which all other proteins are judged.

The egg white is a high-protein, low-fat food with virtually no cholesterol. Its only important vitamin is riboflavin (vitamin B2), a visible vitamin that gives egg white a slightly greenish cast. Raw egg whites contain avidin, an anti-nutrient that binds biotin a B complex vitamin formerly known as vitamin H, into an insoluble compound. Cooking the egg inactivates avidin. An egg yolk is a high-fat, high-cholesterol, high-protein food, a good source of vitamin A derived from carotenes eaten by the laying hen, plus vitamin D, B vitamins, and heme iron, the form of iron most easily absorbed by your body. Many of the egg’s incredible nutrients are found in the egg yolk (so don't exclude this either!), including choline, folate, lutein, zeaxanthin and vitamin D. The yolk also includes healthy monosaturated and polyunsaturated fats and almost half of the high-quality protein found in eggs.

I've noticed it's a trend in some veganish circles to leave eggs out of recipe's - obviously (they're vegan, right?). Well, this perturbs me slightly because usually it's for a dessert recipe and almost always the egg is the healthiest thing in the ingredient list. Why take that out? Why take out nature's perfect little health food?? So, the confession; I've been known to comment on many a vegan blog post in a passionate sort of manner about how the egg wants you to eat it (don't hate). I've had conversations with vegans about this and usually they agree, there is no harm if the egg is from a happy, free-range chicken (preferably local). AND they're much better than processed crud in most packaged and sometimes homemade vegan food items. Even if you're a raw foodie eggs are totally fine to eat raw. Seriously! But don't take my word for it, research this stuff! So, without further adieu... the recipe.
Note: I really love some aspects of vegan and raw diets.

How to Make a Frog in the Basket

 

Step One: Get some farm fresh eggs. 

I used the lovely light brown one, back left

 

 

Step Two: Get a slice of bread, pull out the center, and put it in a heated skillet. 

The options here are endless. Here I am using a thick chunk of tomato and basil bread gifted to me by my lovely grandma. The BEST option for this step though is a good sough-dough (always the trump in this genre, let's be honest). Don't waste that pulled out center either... please :)

 

Step Three: Let the bread toast for a minute or two and crack that egg (aka frog) into the hole (aka basket).

If you're like me, you like to flip something as soon as it's in the pan. But let this sit a little. My husband is continuously slapping my spatula towin' paw from whatever it is itching to flip. I have to learn to just leave the room for 5 minutes or so. After it's to your desired wait time, flip! then repeat this until it's cooked to your liking. Don't forget the salt and pepper.

 

Step Four: (optional, maybe) Tomato from garden. 

*drools*

 

Step Five: Enjoy!

Also, enjoy the rest of this fine season!

Memories: The Great Falls via Difficult Run

 "A pleasure is full grown only when it is remembered." -C.S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet

With September now here and fall close by, I keep reminiscing about one of our favorite hikes in Northern Virginia that is just lovely during the fall. Yes, there is actually some hiking in NoVA. No, you don't have to drive an hour+ to get there.

We lived just inside the beltway in Annandale and the parking for the Difficult Run trail took us approx. 20 minutes to get to. We followed the directions precisely on hikingupward.com on how to make this hike a loop. Okay, the first time wasn't precise at all as we went to the wrong side of the parking lot and started that trail, went almost 10 miles in the opposite direction, and didn't even suspect anything was up until we crossed 7 (super embarrassing). Just... make sure you are going towards the Potomac. The Difficult Run gets it's name from the creek (of the same name) that the trail closely follows as it flows out of the Potomac.  It is not named so because it is difficult. I highly recommend doing the suggested loop and not just an out and back. The loop takes you back through some mighty poplar trees that are a stately sight to behold. The ratings on hikingupward.com are pretty true, as well. It is not a tough hike at all and you get spectacular water views up until the Great Falls. You could just go to the Great Falls directly (at the Great Falls State Park entrance), pay a fee to enter the park, deal with hoards of people, and no easy (plus beautiful) hike vs. free parking, hoards of people, and an easy (plus beautiful) hike. I think the choice is pretty obvious.

Unsure & Certain

Do I contradict Myself? Very well, then I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes.

                                                                                                                         -Walt Whitman

I have been wanting to get back into blogging but also wanted it to be helpful for the reader while still blogging about my interest (see the dilemma).  Usually, when I want to know something about something I head toward the blogs as I find these to usually hold the best first-hand experience/knowledge (I never use italics this much but stick with me).

In my quest for all things road tripping, camping/backpacking, wilderness survival-esque, farming, national parking, sustainable living,  being green/cheap/thrifty, *catches breath* art-ing, wood carving, excellent fooding, traveling, missions/charities/non-profit-ing,  etc. etc. (all the things that are all the rage right now - for good reason, I might add),  I have found some parts of the wonderful interwebs to be lacking.
 

So, this is our attempt to give you helpful (hopefully) information about our adventures in whatever we see as an exciting endeavor for the day. Whether it be hiking the Grand Canyon,  how to make ginger beer, or contemplating what God is doing in our lives - I hope you'll find something useful around our humble blog.

As I try to find direction for this blog, it is very easy for me to relate trying to find direction for my life. Most of the time I just have to work towards something. If I don't know what to do, that's okay. But I don't let that keep me stagnant. As a Christian, God promises to be with us and guide us. He doesn't promise to tell me exactly what to be, how to be it, when to do it, and how to get there (Although, sure - on occasion, it happens). When I am unsure, I find it best to focus on what the Bible is very clear about Christians' doing on a day-to-day basis. It usually involves action, loving, being kind, putting others before ourselves, not being anxious, doing things to the best of our ability, and showing lots and lots of grace in everything.

As I've said, I hope this blog proves helpful to some. I also secretly (not anymore?) hope to document my life on an almost daily/weekly basis. I'm trying to slow down, be intentional, and focus on the now. I know it's cliche (as with a lot of things you'll see here) , but there really is something to it (as with a lot of things you'll see here).

I am forever awkward