If I said that I drank some coffee while I was on my trip, that would be a gross understatement.
If I said that I didn't have a few homemade eggnog lattes while on my trip, I would be lying to you.
If I said that I decided I might like day-old coffee, that would be completely true.
If I said that I didn't have any coffee this morning and on my airplane by 10 a.m. I had a pounding headache, that would make you believe that over the last ten days I have become an addict.
And that is exactly what happened.

This is serious, kids.

I knew it was coming, but now that IT is tomorrow, and tomorrow is December 1st, and December 1st is a good day to start things, I am having a little bit of a hesitation. But alas, to convince myself of my plans I went and bought good groceries tonight in preparation for what starts tomorrow (on December 1st):

DETOX; Self-induced.

No, not some freaky "I-am-going-on-a-detox-plan" detox plan, just more of a "I-think-I-might-eat-salad-for-lunch-every-day-this-month" kind of plan. We shall see how this goes.

This is what I have to look forward to, and you, well, you just might get a few recipes. If any of this turns into something awesome. I'll get back to you.
:)
Also, I would like to take this time to say that I LOVE cilantro.

 I know, some of you are not in agreement to what I just said, but I could eat the stuff like lettuce, and that is just what I intend to do.

With all that to be said, I need to get this body re-adjusted to the correct time zone.

Signing off,
B

Mountain Speak

Yesterday my brother and I went for a little drive in these mountains that the great Northwest has to offer. Last time I was here, which was almost two years ago, we came on these same roads and I had very similar thoughts and I took very similar pictures.
But I didn't blog then.
So nobody has read what I am going to share today.
At then end of that last excursion I came home and thought, and then wrote this little ditty about those mountains. And here is what a two-year-younger brain thought about them. And here are those very similar pictures as well.

There they were. Tall and Proud. Standing there in virtually the exact same way as they have for the last 5 millennia.

Just doing what they do---Praising God.

“Curtis,” I said, “They were here for 5,000 years before anyone other than God even saw them!”

I tried to imagine those mountains without civilization crawling all over and around them. Did they look the same in their untouched form as they do now? Would I see them the same if I saw them through a vast wilderness instead of this concrete road I am driving on?

It says that all nature is waiting for Christ to be revealed again. Like pregnancy…..Just.Waiting. Does that mean that what I am seeing is just a shadow of expectation?

 And it also says that if humans don’t worship then God will grant that mountain a voice of its own. And all I can think is----what kind of song would a mountain sing? Would it be formal and trumpetal, or a haunting melody that speaks of depth and mystery? Or better yet, would it be something unearthly—introducing me to a sound my ears could never fathom?

 What does a mountain look like that’s bowing down, I wonder. Will they dissolve themselves on that Day, or continue to do as they have best done for so long?

 I can’t help but imagine that if the sky got pulled back like a curtain would I even see the mountains anymore? Would they, in fact, be observed as a molehill in comparison to the “beyond” they have been hiding in?

And maybe my knowing of a mountain song isn’t important—but instead my revelation that the mountain simply IS singing is enough to understand. For it seems to me that that mountain never asked questions about why it was THERE. It was just spoken into being and it WAS there. To do only what it was supposed to do.

“Jesus, why did you make that mountain? I mean, it serves virtually no purpose, so why does it stand there?” I queried, and you know his response?

“Because I could.”

And the end of the matter I do believe is this---God Could. So he did. And that is all that mountain has to say about the matter or really about any matter.

And that’s always enough.

Because God could. So he did.

A "T-Gives" recap.

I have this hippie friend who wished me a happy “t-gives” the other day and I just can’t stop interchanging that with the more classic Thanksgiving.

So Happy day after T-Gives, everybody.

Here is a short little recap from a Thanksgiving (t-gives, if you will) that was similar and yet unlike any other I have ever had.

First thing: I have been waiting for DAYS to see these mountains. My friend who I am staying with here in the Pacific Northwest sees these every day because this is the view out her kitchen window. Rough, I know. But when I say she sees them every day I mean “Every day besides the ones that I have been here.” Because it has rained for like 75 hours straight.

Needless to say, when I woke up and saw these beauts I quickly ran upstairs, got my camera, jumped around, and attempted to take pictures. While even a Canon can’t quite capture the general splendor, you get the idea.

Second thing: I don’t know what came over me, but I went to a Zumba class yesterday morning with another friend out here. Do you know what that is? In my experience tt’s this small little room with mirrors and like forty women who dance crazily for like 70 minutes on holiday mornings. I suppose they do it on other mornings, too, but I sat there asking my friend in a shocked voice, “WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?!!? And why are they HERE!?!?”

I am pretty sure it’s touted as a “fun” workout, and some of it was fun, except the 4 songs I had to sit out because I couldn’t breathe.

Fortunately for me, I knew that I had these gorgeous little stuffed mushrooms (recipe at end of post) that wanted me to make them, and that was enough motivation to finish out the set strong.

This leads me to my third recap (and mind you, it’s only 9:30 in the morning at this point):

Stuffed Mushrooms, the best.

Please note that I just wrote “Stuffed mushrooms (comma) the best” and I would appreciate it if any of you who copy this recipe would go ahead and put it in your recipe box as Stuffed Mushrooms (comma) the best.

Please and Thank You.

I will also make mention that there is a chance that I maybe only ate the filling for breakfast after my Zumba class.

I digress. The rest of my day was spent in a full house of amazing people at the base of, get this, more mountains. Here is the picture out of THEIR window.

You know, I have so much to be thankful for. A couple weeks ago I was anxious. I don’t really know about what, but I was anxious and listless, and probably bored. Before bed I prayed, “God, I need something from you tonight. I don’t want to go to bed feeling this way.” I was browsing through the Psalsms when I felt that 116 was where I needed to stop. My heart gave a sigh when I got to verses 7-9, because I knew that unto me they were true. This passage has stuck with me for the past few weeks, and on a day such as yesterday was, I think this is appropriate.

Psalm 116:7-9

Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you. For he has delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before the LORD in the land of the living.

Happy day after T-Gives, kids. The Lord has been good to you.

Stuffed Mushrooms, the best.

1 lbs. pork sausage.

1 medium to large onion, chopped

The mushroom stems, finely chopped.  (I have no idea how many mushrooms I used. All I know is it was the BIG container from Costco. Happy Shopping.)

 Olive Oil.

I clove fresh garlic, sliced.

2 8-oz blocks of cream cheese. I would also like to add at this time that at that same bulk food store their six-packs of cream cheese are not quite six-packs.

Half and Half, a good little drizzle.

 parmesan, freshly grated, a nice handful

 2-3 egg whites.

Black pepper, to taste.

 red pepper flakes, to taste.

Salt, to taste.

Directions: In a pan brown the sausage. Drain. Add chopped onions and mushroom stems, a drizzle of olive oil and the garlic clove. Cook until onions and mushroom stems are tender. Cut up the cream cheese into blocks and toss in the pan. When that is combined add the rest of the ingredients. Make sure you are watching your temperature with the eggs, you don’t want them to become scrambled egg whites, so my suggestion is cooking this part at a low heat.

When everything is heated through and delicious, go ahead, have a taste.

This filling can be made ahead of time and just kept in the fridge, which is what I did.

To finish the mushrooms, spoon a good dollop into each of the cavities in the mushrooms left by removing the stems. Place filled mushrooms on a jellyroll pan or in a large baking dish with edges, and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. The mushrooms will be moist and tender when done.

And then eat 12 of them. And maybe don’t share with your friends.

Or however you choose to eat them, enjoy!

On Taming Wolves

Isaiah 65:25a The wolf and the lamb will feed together, the lion will eat straw like the ox.

*In the future, when all this whole world gets wrapped up, there will come a day when the wolves will be tamed. For this girl who has felt at some times that she is more wild, unkempt, and driven with more killer instinct than what could ever be reined in by any Force of good, there is no comfort greater than knowing that if they, one of the wildernesses most deadly predators, will be tamed, then any miniscule wildness of mine has a chance, too.

I sat praying over this verse one day this summer and heard the great small voice say, “Only Jesus can tame a wolf.”

I wrote in my journal, “I cannot wait to see that, Lord!”

I would call myself a visual person, and the picture that came to my head was me standing in the middle of this forest; surrounded by wolves and having absolutely no fear. My guard was finally down in what would seem the most foolish of settings.

Wow. Life lived without the Killer instinct. Life lived without my defenses up.

I saw me then in the forest, all glorious in a green sparkling dress, looking something like Eve, having just emerged from the earth, standing amongst the pack. They are no threat to me and I am no threat to them. We are mutually unharmful. Both tamed and yet now stronger with a Strength we have never known.

“Only you can release my feet from the snare,” comes to mind; when neither of us will have to be on the lookout for traps.

Oh for the great day of the Lord to come, when the enemy will have breathed his last and all things will finally have been righted.

“To tame a wolf,” I hear Him say.

So this is what I can think: If He can tame the wolf, than what is He capable of doing in me?

I mean, do I sometimes feel like there are monsters too big; walls too thick, insecurities too long, or grasps of sin too strangling? Surely I do. But if I feel that way am I really living in the truth that the wolf and the lamb WILL eat together, rather than the wolf eating the other? Do I really believe that all will be peaceful? Can I say with my whole heart, “All will be well”? Do I live claiming that in light of Christ, all IS well?

Do I trust you enough, Lord, and abandon my fears, insecurities, monsters, walls, and sins enough to say, “He will tame the wolf; and he has broken these chains”?

I think what I love most about that picture of me standing with the wolves in that forest is knowing that both of us ARE NOT AS WE WERE. Only you, Jesus, can take someone that wasn’t, and turn me into something that is. Only you can release my feet from the snare because left to my own devices I will fall into the same traps over and over again. Only you can call me Sought After (Is. 62:12), and only you can turn my darkness to light.

By the grace of God I am who I am and his grace to me was not without effect. The day is coming that will bring my completion.

Father God, let me cling to the Perfecter; the only One who can tame the wolf.