goodbye gunston

Today we say goodbye to our first home on Gunston road. It's very bittersweet (more sweet with a good dose of sentiment mixed in), but we are grateful to the Lord that this house sold! With this being our first home, many wonderful memories were made here. And so I thought I'd post a few pictures in honor of the wonderful year we spent there. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 The End!

the best chicken you will ever eat. ever.

Tony & Karalee Reinke had us over last Friday night and fed us one of the most amazing home-cooked meals we've had in a while! It's actually called "The Best Chicken You Will Ever Eat. Ever." The first thing I noticed when I walked in the door was how their whole house smelled like the fall. I kept looking for a candle when Karalee told me it was actually the chicken in the oven that I was smelling. Apparently, this recipe calls for allspice, hence the incredible fall smell. I'm attempting the meal myself tonight, and thought I would pass along the recipe in case anyone else wanted to try it out! Karalee also recommends this cookbook where she first found the recipe:

The Best Chicken You Will Ever Eat. Ever.

Step #1: Brine the Chicken

1. Put 1 quart of water in a large ziplock bag and add 1/4 cup salt. Let salt dissolve.
2. Add the 2-2.5 lbs of chicken breasts to the bag.
3. Put the bag in the fridge for 2 hours.
4. Remove the bag from the fridge.
5. Rinse the chicken well.
6. Place in a sieve to drain/dry while you move to Step #2.

Step #2: Spice Rub

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons curry powder
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon ground allspice
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

 Directions: 

1. Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and mix well with a fork.  

Preheat a gas grill on high heat, with the lid closed, about 10 minutes.

2. Coat the chicken pieces with the mixture; massage and pat it on. 

You want the pieces pretty densely coated.

3. Place the chicken smooth side down on the preheated grill, 

close the lid, and cook for 4 minutes. Flip the chicken, 

cook for an additional 3-4 minutes with the lid closed, 

until the chicken is browned and cooked through.

Chicken can also be roasted in the oven at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes 

or until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.

Step #3: Moroccan Herb Dipping Sauce 

Ingredients:
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 medium clove garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon paprika (sweet, hot, or smoked)
pinch cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons minced cilantro or parsley
salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Whisk the lemon juice, garlic, cumin, paprika, cayenne, 

and salt & pepper together in a small bowl.

2. Gradually whisk in the oil, then stir in the fresh chopped herbs.

3. Serve at room temperature.

Recommended side dishes: freshly sliced tomatoes, green beans, and white rice.

Enjoy!

slow to anger

"Lord, You are gracious
You are slow to anger
Abounding in love 
You are good to all..."

shane&shane sing this beautiful rendition of psalm 145, which has been playing over and over in my mind for the last week. the literal verses read:

the LORD is gracious and merciful,
        slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
    the LORD is good to all,
        and his mercy is over all that he has made.
(Psalm 145:8-9 ESV)

i've known these verses for a long time, but something new clicked as i listened. i am often frustrated with the Lord when he doesn't answer my prayers. "Lord, we have needs, we have hopes, we need your divine intervention, and You seem so slow to answer! You seem so content to let us fret and fear and wonder and we need a Provider!" (in my weaker moments, ok maybe more often than not)

and that's when it clicked.

all this time i've been thinking how patient with the Lord i'm being. waiting on Him. trusting Him. not seeing, but walking by faith. and in reality, he's the one who is being so incredibly patient with me, his child, so slow to see his unfolding plan. he is slow to anger towards me! he is being gracious towards me! he is loving and abounding in good works towards me! with all my kicking and pleading and striving to get what i think i need, his loving plan for my life is being worked out, through the testing, through the waiting, through the praying. he is producing (hopefully) a harvest of righteousness in my heart, in my husband's heart, maybe even in those around us.

so today, my subconscious thoughts cannot be,
i am gracious towards the LORD,
i am slow to anger towards him,
i know what's best for my life, no.

but rather,

    You open your hand;
        you satisfy the desire of every living thing.
    the LORD is righteous in all his ways
        and kind in all his works.
    the LORD is near to all who call on him,
        to all who call on him in truth.
    he fulfills the desire of those who fear him;
        he also hears their cry and saves them.
(Psalm 145:16-19 ESV)

p.s. if you know of anyone who would like to buy a townhouse in DC or Vancouver, let me know!

Our First Christmas Tree

Well we did it. We chopped down our very first Christmas tree. Yes, we'll have been married two (!!) years in a few weeks, but we've never had a tree before. Why?

The first year we were together, our wedding fell one week after Christmas. The second year, our real "first Christmas," we were up to our ears in moving boxes, about to head north just after the holidays.



Therefore, I went all out this year because my domestic urges to decorate for the holidays have been too long suppressed. This season commenced with chopping down a real tree the day after Thanksgiving (more time to enjoy it!) and followed with stringing white lights, using left over garland to decorate the mantle, making childhood Christmas crafts with Melissa and Rachel, and putting up the few decorations given to me by family members over the last few years.



A common problem newlyweds have is scrounging up enough ornaments to make a tree look legit. My recommendation, let your tree grow in size each year along with your stash of ornaments and potentially the size of your home. I didn't follow my own advice though, and we got a 7-footer! She's lovely and I just used garland to fill in the gaping holes where no ornaments hung. Thankfully, Josh's mom supplied us with many of his childhood ornaments when we were home in Thunder Bay this weekend, so that will help our little tree out a great deal! We borrowed a tree stand from the Hogansons, I got a skirt from the dollar store and a star from Goodwill to top her off! (Josh will tell you since I began organizing our finances in the fall, I've gotten somewhat "cheap," or as I like to say, resourceful.)



I wasn't just taking pictures of his hard work the whole time...
I did get down there and saw with him.





This little treasure is called a "donilla." It's basically a deep fried vanilla wafer and you could smell them all the way from field where we were chopping down our tree. Yum!



ta-da!



...and then I added ribbon because she just needed a little something.



Cheers to our first tree in our first Minnesota home!
Merry Christmas...

Prisoner of Hope

The following is a poem written by Faith Cook and inspired by a letter written by Samuel Rutherford to William Gordon of Earlston in 1637. Both of these men faced great persecution on this earth and were themselves men "of whom the world was not worthy."


Fair and lasting summer day
Shine from under night's dark sky;
For this prisoner of hope
Waits deliverance from on high.

With submissive heart I take
My appointed suffering here,
Knowing that the all-wise God
Carves to each his needful share.
Pent in this poor house of clay
Patiently would I endure
Until Christ shall break time's chain,
Lead me to a fairer shore.

Vain it is to sit and weep
At a deaf and dumb decree
Made before the stars were born,
Planned immutably for me.
Let me rather windows make
In my prison walls to see
Vistas fair in worlds to come,
Far beyond adversity.

Glory soon shall over-pay
Every light, short-dated cross,
Swallow up in endless joy
All my pain, affliction, loss.
Break, O summer morning, break,
Set Christ's hopeful prisoners free--
Free to breathe the King's pure air,
Loosed from all captivity.

Rutherford was writing from prison to a man who would soon shed his blood for Christ. Powerful perspective.

This poem and the rest of the collection can be found in the book, Grace in Winter. I highly recommend it, and anything else by Faith Cook.

we belong!

This past Saturday evening, Josh and I became official members of Bethlehem Baptist Church. It's taken almost a year (and felt like a big step towards acknowledging my more-than-temporary existence here in Minneapolis), but we want to "be all here" and so that means putting down roots into a local church for however long God keeps us planted in Minnesota.

We have been feeling more settled here of late in more ways than one, and that is an answer to many prayers. The rhythms and routines of life are feeling more familiar (ie. I know how to drive to the important places: DG, Target, church, the gym, a few of our friends' houses, and Trader Joes) and God has blessed us with some dear friends here that we are very grateful for. I gave up on the idea that I wouldn't make any new friends here because all of my "real" friends are back home. I realized that my friends will still be my friends back home no matter what, but daily friends here are necessary (and good!) too and God gives grace for both. Maybe it's like the parent who can't imagine loving a second child as much as the first and then, it happens and they never think about it again... but they know their heart has grown.

Moving has been no less than a process of loss and gain, but I would describe more accurately as a time of growth. God expands your capacity and, excuse me for going Jabez here, but "expands your territory." And I'm left feeling like, "Who am I to have been given two homes and two sets of friends and two church families, etc. Why would the Lord give me SO much?!" The losses feel more like changes, but the gains cause me to feel doubly rich. So, I was never very good at math, but I think that leaves me in the positive. This is not to say that I don't miss everyone back home very much on a day to day basis, but it is to say that God has been gracious to give me a perspective that, instead of crushing me, is growing me. And I bless Him for that!

And now, in a meaningful way, we officially belong here in more ways than just the signatures on our lease agreement. We belong to a church. And while our hearts continue to love the people and the mission of Redeemer back home, we are grateful that God has provided a church family for us here. For the time, however long that is, that God keeps us here. Something to be thankful for this week. And I am.

New Tradition: Apple Picking

We love traditions around our house... and especially coming up with new ones! So this past Saturday as Josh and I drove the picturesque country roads out to Afton Apple we decided: October 1st shall henceforth be called Apple Picking Day. And, I'm sure many of you will disagree with this, but Josh also decided October 1st is the official it's-ok-to-start-mixing-in-christmas-music-day. So if you happen to come over for dinner between October 1st and November 24th, don't be distressed if "O Come All Ye Faithful" pops up on the playlist... it's tradition!

the fruit of our labor: