Five Things Friday

Thanks to the just awfulness of the news and life in general this week, I've been trying to keep calm and carry on. I can't get on Facebook or Twitter without feeling overwhelmingly helpless, sad, and angry. Oh. So. Angry.

So, I decided to try to find 5 things that make me happy. As an exercise.

1. My bestest best friend Andiroo. Though we are hundreds of miles apart, we manage to talk every day and she has been such a blessing, especially of late.

2. Rachel Held Evans. Thanks to Andi, I found this amazing writer and I've been devouring her work. I started with Searching for Sunday and now I'm deep in Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again. So thankful for this book. I'm reading an ebook copy but I may have to buy this on in paper for easy rereading. I am highlighting so many great passages. 

A favorite:

Jesus is what the living, breathing will of God looks like. This includes compassion for the poor, esteem for women, healing for the sick, and solidarity with the suffering. It means breaking bread with outcasts and embracing little children. It means choosing forgiveness over retribution, the cross over revenge, and cooking breakfast for the friend who betrayed you.

3. I found a Johann Pachelbel playlist on Spotify and it is giving me LIFE. I have always loved Canon in D, I had to play it enough in piano lessons and band in school, so it's been a thrill to hear some "new" compositions by him. He was pretty brilliant. I love listening to Classical music while reading.

4. I've been listening to Pride and Prejudice this week. It's the Audible edition, read by Rosamund Pike and it is both irritating and lovely. Irritating in that I still detest Mrs. Bennet and Lydia and now I have a new appreciation for just how irritating Mr. Bennet is as well. I did not remember just how truly terrible they were as parents. I mean, wow. Just wow. Mr.s Bennet is an empty-headed narcissist and Mr. Bennet is an aesthete and neglectful parent. Rosamund Pike, however, is a delight. She needs to read more books.

5.  Naps. I love naps. Sometimes it's the little things y'all.

Summer Readathon!

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It's Monday, What are you Reading?

CURRENTLY READING

Finding God in the Margins: the Book of Ruth by Carolyn Custis James takes the Book of Ruth and shows how it speaks to the world we are living in today "In four short episodes we encounter refugees, undocumented immigrants, poverty, hunger, women's rights, male power and privilege, discrimination, and injustice.

In Finding God in the Margins, Carolyn Custis James reveals how the book of Ruth is about God, the questions that surface when life falls apart, and how he reaches into the margins and chooses two totally marginalized women who in the eyes of the patriarchal culture are zeros.

Against the backdrop of disturbing issues we are facing today, this bracing narrative puts on display a radical gospel way of living together as human beings that shouts the Kingdom of God, foreshadows Jesus' gospel, and raises the bar for women and for men then and now." (from Goodreads.com cause they just put it better than I could. I tried, but yeah....)

__________

With all the mess going on in the world these last couple of weeks, I found myself needing a comfort read. Pride and Prejudice, read by Rosamund Pike, fit the bill perfectly. Ms. Pike's voice is so lovely and low-pitched which makes it so soothing, except when she voices Mrs. Bennet who is just as annoying as EVER*, that I can't help but relax and let my cares recede for a bit. I'll be sad when I get to the end, and I'm getting close, because I hate to leave Jane Austen's world and Ms. Pike's interpretation of it.

I think I'll watch the movie again when I'm done.

*actually I'm finding a lot more of the story irritating than I did the first time I read the book, but perhaps that is another post for another time?

JUST FINISHED

Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again by Rachel Held Evans which was SO GOOD. I feel like I'm starting on a quest to know the Bible and my Lord better and this was a fantastic place to start. I love how down-to-earth and questioning Evans is. The book was refreshing and challenging in such great ways. My ONLY criticism, is there were a couple places where I wish she had gone a little further into her interpretations of the Scripture.

I read Inspired after reading a prior book by Rachel Held Evans; Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church which was also fantastic. I haven't had a crisis of faith, but I have had a crisis of church (we had to leave our church because of the pastor, which was heartbreaking as it is the church I've attended my whole life) and this book was such a comfort.

UP NEXT

I'm not sure. I'm leaning toward another comfort read. I'm leaning toward starting a reread of the entire Harry Potter series, but then it's been awhile since I read any Neil Gaiman. On that front, I'm leaning toward Neverwhere (my favorite Gaiman [at least at the moment]) or perhaps one of his short story collections. Or hey, I have another Rachel Held Evans book waiting on my iPad!

Cinnamon Apple Jelly

This jelly is SO EASY and SO DELICIOUS. Best stuff ever.

Easy Cinnamon Apple Cider Jelly

Makes 7 to 8 Half-Pint Jars

3 3/4 cups bottled apple cider
7 cups of sugar
2 (3 oz) pouches liquid pectin
6 sticks cinnamon

Place a sieve over a large pan or bowl. Line the sieve with a paper coffee filter and strain the cider.

in an 8-quart pan, over medium heat, heat the cider and cinnamon sticks until warm. Add the sugar and heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar is completely dissolved. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring the mixture to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Stir in the entire contents of both pectin pouches. Return the mixture to a full rolling boil, for 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat.

Quickly skim off any foam and immediately ladle the hot jelly into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe the jar rims and threads with a clean, damp cloth. Cover the hot lids and apply screw rings. Process half-pint jars in a 200F water bath for 10 minutes, pint jars for 15 minutes.

Currently // June 11, 2018

Around Here | The family and I just got back from a 4 day vacation to Cherokee, North Carolina. It was wonderful. We packed a lot of fun in our 2 full days there and learned a lot about the lives the Cherokee have led and lead now. It was sad, but also inspirational. And the area is gorgeous. We did a lot of hiking Saturday, it was gorgeous, and this mama is SO. SORE.

Reading | I've been flitting from book to book, true to my "capricious" nature and have had trouble settling on anything. After the death of Anthony Bourdain, I started a reread of Kitchen Confidential. It's so good and so sad and my heart hurts. 

Listening | I started listening to Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church by Rachel Held Evans after a recommendation from my bestest best friend Andiroo. My spiritual life has been in a bit of an uproar, as my family left our home church for another one, and Andi thought this would help. It has. So. Much.

I'm also listening to a heck of a lot of podcasts. My current count is 109. *facepalm*

Watching | Whatever crap my kids have on. Right this minute it's The Loud House on Nickelodeon. It's one of the few things they watch and doesn't drive me completely batpoop crazy.

Blogging | Well, surprise surprise, this is my first post in my new home.

Loving | My precious family. They drive me up the flipping wall very often, very very often, but God, I adore their precious heads. 

Hating | Kids dying of cancer.

Anticipating | I am finding the older I get, the more I want to learn. About EVERYTHING. So, I'm anticipating the next fascinating thing I learn. There is so much!