More Special Days
Since beginning our new Special Day tradition, we’ve now gotten to do Dutch Day and Anniversary Day. For Dutch day, it was so fun to see how God coordinated everything. It was a busy Sunday, and we’d already had lunch plans that didn’t necessarily include anything special for Dutch. But it was so fun because this other couple surprised Dutch by getting him a new little Lego set, which he got to open after lunch. Then, they showed him their Lego room which is filled–no joke–with tens of thousands of legos, from floor to ceiling and everywhere in between. Castles, buildings, scenes, towns. Amazing. Dutch was so awed and inspired that we came home, got out the Legos, and he and Jeff played all afternoon. Even though I couldn’t necessarily do anything that special for him, for all he knew the whole day was set up like a Lego-loving dream come true. Thank you, God!
For our anniversary day we celebrated 89 months of marriage! It was also a busy Sunday, and while circumstances kept us from going out on a date, we planned a very special date to celebrate Jeff’s graduation from seminary next Tuesday! 5 1/2 years we’ve been plugging away at seminary and he has one week left! So we’re redeeming a very generous gift certificate that we were given to a fancy restaurant and enjoying a special date next week. Sometimes planning a date is almost as much fun as going on it–so for our 89th anniversary we planned out a date and an upcoming family vacation. Oh, and Jeff bought me a Starbucks card… that always helps too. 🙂
So yada, yada, details, right? What all this has shown me is the value of celebration. Just as God commanded the children of Israel to periodically hold feasts and gatherings and celebrations, it is healthy for us to learn to periodically celebrate the big things and little things in life. I’ve been a major dud in this department. When every day is the same it’s not long before the family’s morale is dangerously low. There is so much value in little celebrations to bring little dots of memorable moments to this long line of daily life that can tend toward monotony. Tonight I made a yummy salmon dinner (our favorite). The occasion–we’re celebrating a Happy Monday! Why not? Somehow that made dinner seem special.
So let’s sprinkle our lives with little doses of joyful celebration, amen? For This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24
Frugal Friday: The Best Black Friday Deal
The best Black Friday deal is… staying home with my two little monkeys for a cozy day of snuggling, coloring, and reading books with Nana. No deal beats that!
Frugal Fridays: Safeway Delivered for $35. Plus ways to use all that orange food.
I caught wind of this deal from FrugalLivingNW and I switched it up a bit for a wholefoods/healthy version, but it’s a steal of a deal no matter what. Consider this your opportunity to stock up on all things orange!
If you’ve never done Safeway Delivery, now’s the time! Just head to Safeway‘s online store. Here’s what I bought, all of which are super deals:
- Garnet/Beauregard yams $.49/lb. (20 lbs.) (on the “clean 15” list of items you do not need to buy organic)
- 5lb. box Satsuma Mandarins $3.99 (2) (no need to buy organic, unless you eat the peel!)
- 2 lb. brick Tillamook medium cheddar $3.99 (6)
- 5lb. bag of Organic carrots ($4.39) (2)
Total $50.50 (order must be $50 or more), then enter promo code CJSAVINGS and it’ll take $15 off your order. These are already fabulous prices on these items, for an additional 30% off ( $35.50 total, plus free delivery to your doorstep!!) is great. I scheduled mine to deliver on Wednesday so we’ll have fresh yams, carrots and mandarins for Thanksgiving day. Yes, 6 blocks of cheese is a lot. But this is a great price on Tillamook cheese, which my family loves, and the “best by” date is August 2011 so we’ll have plenty of time to enjoy it. And yes, that is a lot yams and carrots, so here are some of the ways we use them. This is a healthy bunch of delicious orange foods! Just what we need for cold and flu season!
Ways with Yams
- Roasted Yams are possibly the perfect food. SOOO delicious I have to only make a few at a time or I’ll eat them all. My kids love ’em too because they’re so sweet. But you have to cook them right:
- Peel, rinse, and slice lengthwise. Place on piece of foil, 1-2 on each piece of foil. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and fresh ground pepper. Wrap up into little foil packets. Bake at 350 degrees for at least an hour. They’re even better if after an hour you just turn off the oven and let them sit in there and soak for a bit. It takes a long time to really bring out the sweetness and the olive oil and natural sugar from the yams carmelizes. I eat them straight from the foil packets, or cut for the kids or mashed, or mixed into chili (yams taste delicious in mexican food).
- Puree. Yams are perfect for sneaking veggies into other food. You can peel, boil, then puree with a potato masher right in the water. Add to melted cheese for a delicious nacho dip, add to toasted cheese sandwiches or quesadillas for the kids, add to macaroni and cheese to veggie power, add to pancakes for a delicious change. Pretty much anything with cheese in it can benefit from yams.
- Yam, parmesan & toasted pine-nut pasta. This recipe is SO good and easy.
- Make 4 roasted yams (above)
- Boil 1 lb. whole wheat pasta
- Drizzle Olive oil in pan and add pine nuts, sauteeing until toasted (pine nuts are optional, it’s still super tasty without), then remove and add garlic, chopped onion or leeks, and either fresh oregano or sage (either is great, or if you don’t have fresh just use whatever italian herbs you have on hand). Cook until soft, add pine nuts back, and mix that and yams all with the pasta, then add 1 cup grated parmesan cheese over the top and mix together. Yum!
Ways with Carrots
- Roasted Carrots. Follow exact same process as with yams. Also delicious! Heidi devours these.
- Carrots sticks. (obvious) Peel ’em, slice ’em up, and have a big tupperware of them (in water) in the fridge. If they’re there, you’ll eat them!
- Puree. Follow exact same process as with yams. Great mix-in for chili, pancakes, soup (you can hide a LOT of carrot puree in most soups, it blends right in and you don’t even know it’s there) and, our personal favorite, applesauce. I put carrot puree in all our homemade applesauce and you can’t even see it.
- I pretty much just put carrots in any meal I make, unless it’s ridiculous. They’re so healthy and so cheap, why not? Here’s to orange food! Enjoy!
Know any other yam and carrot uses? Please share… Here’s to delicious orange food!
Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree
Day 2 of learning to be a fun mom. 🙂 Today was “Jeff Day”. Since his birthday falls on a 17th, today was his special day. I have lots of fun pictures I planned to post, but (I always have some technology hang-up, don’t I?) I don’t have my computer this week, and I have no idea how to upload computers on Jeff’s computer so just pretend like you see some really cool pics. I made Jeff a big sign/placecard with “Daddy’s the BEST!” and he sat at the special seat. Of course he was gone all day, and he actually had a rather hilariously awful day, but we made the special crepes he requested, and even served them on the bright red “You are special today” plate (does everyone have one of those?), and gave him the bright red “You are special today” cup. Heidi sat on his lap and gobbled up almost all his crepes. That girl can eat.
But the fun part of our day was a new Christmas book. A friend gave us Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree. My kids were enchanted. We ended up reading it 12 times before Daddy got home, and Dutch even constructed a green Lego Christmas Tree and made it too tall so he had to “cut off” the top. It has no Christian message, but it is just such a sweet book. I can see how it would be so fun, with little kids, to every year cut off the very top of your tree and put it outside so that some little animal can take it home to his family.
Other than that it was just a fun day of cooking and playing. Tea, a toasty warm kitchen full of goods, happy children running around, and a new treasured Christmas book. It was a good day.
(Re)Learning to Be Fun
I could have sworn that I used to be fun. I wonder if I’m alone in this. Do you ever look at your life and think, “Huh, I could have sworn I used to be a real kick in the pants. Now I’m like a well-oiled machine: Efficient, effective, productive … but about as much fun as dirty laundry.”
Maybe it’s growing up, maybe it’s responsibility, maybe its being in ministry, maybe it’s having kids, I don’t know. But I know that while I would likely get high marks in frugality, efficiency, nutrition, organization and being conscientious and responsible, I feel like my fun-report-card is scraping by with a D-. Remedy? I need to re-learn how to be fun!!
And what better way than by having fun with my kids and wonderful husband? Today was the last day of Bible study for the season, and, incidentally, my last teaching engagement of the year. In fact, I do not have a single teaching assignment on my calendar. And as much as I love teaching, it is wonderful to have nothing on my mind but snuggling up with my kiddos and re-learning how to add a little fun to our days.
So I shared in the last post that we are looking for creative traditions for the holidays and ways to spice up life at home. Now, let’s be clear about something. I am a beginner in this area, ok? To save you some disappointment, please do not expect any Martha Stewart craftiness or ingeniously creative new ideas. I’m basically just trying to quit being a remedial mom and at least get a passing grade. So if any of these ideas are helpful, awesome. But if the only thing you glean from these posts is that you feel really good about yourself in comparison to me, awesome. 🙂
Jumping in the Leaves
Yeah, so jumping in the leaves is nothing new, I understand that. But I just confess that my mind has been so preoccupied with other things that I just don’t think about taking the kids down the street and finding the biggest piles of leaves that we can. So we trotted down the street today and collected leaves. We meandered, wandered. When I usually take the kids out I confess I usually want to get “my” exercise, so I toss the kids in the stroller and huff and puff my way up the hills. Not today. Today we picked up leaves and bugs and spent almost an hour digging up “dinosaur bones” along the walking trail. We found a huge pile of leaves and after running and jumping, Dutch scooped up a huge pile, and with that sheepish grin, proceeded to dump the whole pile on Heidi’s head. I drew a deep breath, waiting for the cry, prepping myself to scold him. To my surprise, Heidi starting laughing hysterically. Huge belly-laughs. And she proceeded to grab an equally huge scoop and dump it on his head. The hysterical leaf fight was on, and they threw those leaves back and forth, up in the air, on each other’s heads, running and jumping and laughing, until they were both soaking wet and Heidi’s cream fur coat was spotted with dirt (I reminded myself that we had plenty of Shout spray at home). We came home exhausted, and I realized, “Hey, we just have fun! Woohoo!”
Play-dough
Yes, you must be really feeling good about yourself right about now, now that you know I have never made homemade play-dough with my kids. But we did today! The kids got on chairs and we used the Kitchen-Aid and mixed up a batch of bright blue play-dough, and the kids played and played and played. Dutch played for almost 2 hours with that stuff. Who knew that the kid loves play-dough?!
Heidi’s Day
So the most fun new tradition I’m excited about is so incredibly simple, but that’s why I love it. We each get a day. Whatever the day of our birthday is (February 16th, for example), that number day of each month is your day. On “your day” you get to pick out what we have for dinner and the rest of the family does special things for you all day long. Doesn’t that sound fun? I’d love to have a day just for me once a month! So today was Heidi’s day, which was pretty simple since she doesn’t have a clue. But a friend brought us some fresh-baked pumpkin bread so we had “cake” to celebrate Heidi’s special day. Tomorrow is Jeff’s special day and he has requested Crepes for dinner…yum! Of course for my special day I will be choosing a dinner that I don’t cook! It’s just fun to have an excuse to celebrate each family member once a month. I’d also like to incorporate in our sponsored children from Africa. We could write them letters and send them a little something on “their day” and tell them our family tradition and tell them that we celebrate them on that day!
The other part of this is that on the number day of our anniversary (28th for us), that will be OUR day, and the day of our monthly date. At this season of life it’s not realistic to actually go out on a date every week, so once a month is a great goal and with a number day in mind it’ll help us stick to it. We obviously haven’t done this one yet, but we could do all sorts of fun special little things to add some romance to our special monthly anniversary day.
So, these may not be huge things, but they are little steps of fun that have already blessed our family so richly. I am so excited for “Jeff’s day” tomorrow, and excited to continue in this journey of re-learning to be fun. And to all of you fun moms out there (and those re-learning fun along with me), please pass along your wisdom and ideas!
Thanks,
Kari
Calling all Creative People!
Alright, guys, I am in major need of some holiday creativity! Just realized that my kids are now at the age where they can take part and really enjoy holiday traditions and I want to establish fun, meaningful activities for us to do together. I actually just found a book by Shirley Dobson and Gloria Gaither (haven’ t heard those names in awhile, huh?) from 1983 called Let’s Make a Memory. It is well-worn and filled with my dear mom’s underlines and notations. I am amazed, inspired, and humbled by how much work my mom went into establishing fun and creative things for us to do growing up. She was (and is) amazing! Yes, the book is 27 years old, but a lot of the ideas are totally doable today!
So, I’d like to post a few, and hopefully actually follow through and do them. But first, for those of you creative and crafty types out there, can you please share with me what holiday traditions you do with your children or family? Please share! I want ideas and I know you have some. Thank you!
Because they're all God's kids
I’m continuing my adventure through Richard Stearn’s book, The Hole in our Gospel. It is ripping me to shreds, in the best way possible. Every time I read it I want to run outside and knock on doors and wave the book around like a madwoman and say, “Read this! Children are dying! What will you do?!” But since I can’t leave my kids alone in the house and because it’s 10 o’clock at night I’m electronically knocking on your door and I’m virtually waving the book around because children really are dying and I really do wonder what we will do.
Tonight I did all I knew to do, I got online and found another child to sponsor. Why? Because baby Florinah, who lives in a severely affected AIDS and HIV community in Zambia, is one of God’s children and I know He loves her beyond comprehension. Because her first birthday is this Monday and for her birthday she will now have a sponsor! Because just down the hall, tucked safely in her crib, lies my little one-year-old darling. Because at my side lies my little boy, sound asleep in his little monkey jammies. And I look at this precious boy of mine and there’s nothing in the world I wouldn’t do for him. Tonight I made him his favorite dinner–whole wheat pancakes–and we cut them in two–half for me and half for him–and we sat together and ate our delicious pancakes (with organic eggs and milk!) and talked and laughed after sister went to bed. Tonight I tucked him in and read books and prayed and kissed his cheeks and inhaled his perfect little puppy breath and just thanked God a million times over for that crazy little guy who is my son. He is my child. And while I may not be so intoxicated with love for someone else’d kid, he’s mine and I’d do anything for him. And then I was reminded that one of the books he likes to read is a book of Jesus songs, and one of the songs goes like this:
“Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red and yellow black and white, they are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world.”
I was reminded tonight, as I thought of the song and as I read The Hole in our Gospel while snuggled in bed next to my precious son, that they’re all God’s kids. I don’t know them, I’ve never hugged them or touched them, but God looks at them with the same adoring eye that I have for my kids. And we, we all, have the awareness (26,500 children die every single day to causes related to poverty), the access (get online!), and the ability (go without Starbucks! Just $35/month sponsors a child.) to save lives, bring hope, share Christ. It is SO easy to help. We just have to do it.
Need more motivation? Pick up The Hole in our Gospel and read it. Today.
Ok, I’m done pounding on your door and I’ll quit waving around the book like a madwoman. But please consider what you’ll do today to help this cause, because they’re all God’s kids.
—
The Food Stamp Challenge
As you know, I was very impacted by the eye-opening truths about the food industry revealed in Food, Inc. This past weekend we also watched The Future of Food, another documentary focusing on Genetically Modified food, and the impact of subsidizing, genetic-engineering, and patenting on the production of our nation’s food. I had no idea we were being faced with such an enormous moral dilemma which is the patenting of life. Perhaps I am way behind the times–am I the only one just finding all this out?? Again, remember this is a secular film replete with ridiculous references to evolution. However, what blew my mind again and again was seeing that we have sought to take the place of God, we have ceased asking Him how best to manage the earth that He created, an we have allowed greed to become our driving force. Even more than that, I was seeing how many of the things I thought were helping the poor in other countries (buying cheap food so I could give more money away) were actually exacerbating the problem. It was just fascinating to me. This weekend I also read through the end of Isaiah and began Jeremiah in my daily Bible reading. I was floored to see the parallels between God’s indictment on the nation of Israel and the dangers we are now facing because of our own straying from God.
So I could rant and rave for hours about this, and I promise I will not turn this into a health-food blog :), but here is the bottom line: I am convinced that genetically modified food is compromised from what God intended it to be. And, truth be told, we have no idea what the ramifications are long-term. There have never been humans who have eaten genetically modified corn and soy products (which is 90% of processed food) their whole lives … until now. Our children, my little Dutch and Heidi, are the lab rats. So we’ll see in the 50 years how they turn out? That doesn’t seem like a great idea to me.
So, I’ve mentioned before that our food budget was $200. Obviously you cannot buy organic, local, food on a budget like that. So, I did a little research. Here are a few figures:
First off, in 2007, the USDA Food Plans included these four food budget levels. They use these levels to determine budgets for alimony, foster care, military food plans, etc.
- Thrifty — “The Thrifty Food Plan serves as a national standard for a nutritious diet at a minimal cost and is used as the basis for maximum food stamp allotments.”
- Low-Cost — this is what bankruptcy courts use to determine which portion of a bankrupt person’s income is allotted to food.
- Moderate-Cost — Alimony payments, foster care, etc.
- Liberal — The Dept of Defense uses this to determine the “Basic Allowance for Subsistence for all service members”.
Here are their amounts listed for a Family of Four:
If you are a family of 4, (2 adults between 19-50 years of age, kids between the ages of 2-5 years), expect to pay, PER MONTH:
- Thrifty food plan = $482.40
- Low-cost food plan = $612.60
- Moderate-cost food plan = $750.80
- Liberal food plan = $ 930.70
Ok, that helped me realize how unrealistic I was being. Now, that doesn’t mean that all families on food stamps receive $482.40 worth of food stamps each month. That’s the maximum food stamp amount. Food stamps are meant to subsidize your overall cost. Not pay for the whole budget.
So, the actual average amount given in food stamps for a family of 4 (same ages above), at the end of 2009 was $275.53 a month.
So there’s my number. And my question? Is it possible to eat an organic, locally grown (when possible), nutritious whole-food diet for a family of four on just $275.53 a month? Now obviously if our kids were bigger this would be trickier, so I’m not suggesting this for you or anyone else, I just wanted to see how possible this is for us.
Let me say this, I believe that feeding a family of four on organic, local, seasonal and nutritious whole food even at the Thrifty Food Plan level ($482.40) would be a fabulous accomplishment. If you can get there, woohoo!! I’m just curious to see if it’s possible to do it at the average amount given to our nation’s poorest. If it were, then we could confidently challenge and cheer on everyone to choose local, choose health, choose whole.
So, just to be frank, I’m really not sure if it’s possible. But I’m excited for the challenge. We do our budget from the 15th-15th, so we’ll do this challenge from September 15th-Oct. 15th. I’ve already found local organic peaches and nectarines for $.98 lb. at Fred Meyer and I found whole organic chickens at Safeway for 30% off, along with a coupon, off which made them cheaper than the cheapest frozen chicken I used to buy. So, we’ll see. I’ll just be honest with you about what I discover, and we can learn together. And I”m going to have to learn to cook whole chickens, so I might need some cooking tips as well. 🙂 I would LOVE any additional tips you have. It’s been fun meeting all you experts out there, so please continue to share the wealth of wisdom!
September Rain and Leaving a Legacy
Yes, there are a few things missing. Over the past two weeks my blog has been hacked twice. My dear husband has worked countless hours retrieving my stuff from the ether, but this time it appears not all can be recovered. So, we’re figuring out a better system of backing things up, finding a new web host, and I’m reminding myself there are more important things in the world than my little corner of space. But I do love this little space! Yesterday the final FrugalLivingNW article posted, so head on over and check it out. We talked about Leaving a Legacy, and because I’m trying to leave a legacy of actually playing with and spending time with my children, I don’t have the time today to write a post on The One who Left a Legacy. I suppose you can figure it out, yes? No one’s legacy has been more significant than Jesus Christ’s. Because He left a legacy of grace, we can leave a legacy of thankfulness. How can we simply be thankful today?
Today I’m celebrating the first day of September by roasting yams and carrots from the garden, baking bread, and making a huge pot of tortilla soup. (I also built a pretty spectacular geo-trax train track this morning, but I hate to brag.) I’ve noticed that it’s all too easy to complain about the early rain, so how are you choosing to enjoy these first fall droplets? I’ve decided this year I’m investing in some super cute rubber boots. My kids have ’em and I think I should too! Soggy toes are a sure way to dampen one’s spirit, so I have my eye out for a deal. They may not be hot off the runway, but I think clompin’ along in skinny jeans and rubber boots sounds just fabulous. Then I’d be able to join Dutch jumping in the mud-puddles.
How will you choose to rejoice in the coming days of fall? What are your favorite fall rituals you can’t wait to enjoy?
Camping on Contentment: It’s all about expectations.
So here’s a shocker. I’ve found that 9 times out of 10, my discontentment has nothing to do with stuff, it has to do with people. Take all the clothes out of my closet. Fine. I’ll wear my bathrobe. But if my husband is three hours late for our camping trip? T-i-c-k-e-d. I’m discontent in a hurry.
Not that that happened. Purely hypothetical. Ok, it did happen. And yes, of course it wasn’t his fault, blah blah blah, none of that matters. What I realized was that usually what robs my joy has nothing to do with material possessions or even comforts, it has to do with other people not meeting my expectations. That’s a problem.
Am I alone in this? Something tells me I’m not. I’ve talked to enough women to know that we frequently are frustrated by friends or family or spouses who we feel are not holding up their end of the deal, whatever the deal is. To make matters worse, we’re usually the only ones who know what the deal is. Which, yes, is tremendously unfair.
So I’m not a professional counselor. But here’s how I worked, and do work, through times when I realize I’m discontent because of my perception that someone else has failed to follow through.
1. Identify expectations. What were they, and how were they upset. BE HONEST. Often our expectations are subconscious, so we don’t even realize we have them. I’m guilty of fantasizing expectations. For example, for an embarrassing example: My expectation was that Jeff would arrive at the campground at 8pm (kids and I arrived earlier). That gave him a 30-minute cushion, allowing for traffic, last minute stop at home, etc. He arrived at almost 11pm. Now yes, that’s 3 hours different, but what exacerbated the situation was that I realized that I’d unwittingly allowed myself to fantasize about Jeff secretly getting off work early and surprising me by showing up early that afternoon (happy and energetic of course!), swinging me in his arms and saying, “Hey babe, let me take the kids for a while so you can go have some time for yourself!”
Very foolish fantasy. We’ll get to that later. But it’s helpful to understand: What is your expectation, and how exactly was it disappointed. If we don’t know what we expected, we can’t deal with the problem.
2. Identify Idealism. Idealistic fantasies are rarely—actually, never—helpful. One of the most important lessons I continue to learn is to forget the ideal and embrace the real. We don’t have ideal kids, we have real kids. We have real spouses, real friends, real houses, real lives. Oh, and don’t forget, you are, and I am a real person. That means I don’t look like an airbrushed model and my house doesn’t look like a Pottery Barn ad. Neither do you and neither does yours. It’s ok. I am a real mom and we have a real house that we live in. So it looks lived in. My husband is wonderful, but he is also real. So that fantasy I had? Not real. Forget the fantasies. All the time we spend dreaming about how wonderful an ideal would be we’re missing out on living in the real and wonderfully blemished world around us. Turn off the fantasy and get busy living.
3. Wait to communicate. 11pm was not the time to tell Jeff that he had not fulfilled my fantasy. He was very, very tired. I was very, very tired. Sleep first, talk later. We had a great chance to talk a few days later, in a long car ride while both kids were occupied. We were on the same team, communicating in a positive way so that we could better learn how to love and bless each other in the future. It was truly a great interaction. If I’d have brought it up at 11pm upon his arrival, it would not have been a great talk. Wait to communicate.
On the note of communication, it is important to deal with an issue that is chronic. A negative habit that is continually harming the family needs to be dealt with. Seek a counselor, get help, set goals. And, always be sure to ask your friend or spouse whether the expectation you had was a reasonable one. They can inform you whether or not your expectation is fair or whether too much is being asked.
4. Do what you can. We all know this, but the only person you can change is yourself. After identifying your expectations, getting rid of unhealthy idealism, and communicating wisely and calming in an appropriate manner, figure out what you can do. For me, it was just choosing to get over my silly disappointment and move on and have a wonderful family vacation. Take action rather than sitting around waiting for someone else to come along and make you happy. Go back to our first little lesson and take steps to learn contentment, look to God for your strength to be content, and keep reminding yourself that contentment is the greatest gain you’ll have. My contentment is a much greater gain that having Jeff arrive right on time. I’m rich beyond measure if I can learn to be happy no matter what time someone arrives. A content heart means no matter who disappoints me, my joy is settled and firm. It’s all good.
So tomorrow morning we pack up our tent and roll up our sleeping bags. The kids’ finger nails are black. I’m pretty sure I’ve gained 5 lbs. thanks to s’mores and Nutella. I’ll be doing laundry for almost as many days as we spent camping. But it’s been the best family vacation this little Patterson clan has ever had. And this time away, camping on contentment, has given my heart a lot to chew on. My goal is to continue in this sweet spot of joy, even back in the busy world of work, ministry, cell phones and wi-fi. I think that’s what Paul would say to do—in abundance or in want, in busyness or in rest, in my campsite or my culdesac—I’ll continue on this journey, to learn to be content. Will you join me?