Heather Between

Lenten Gratitude Day 4

2012-02-26T22:36:00.001-06:00

Candles..., originally uploaded by Klearchos Kapoutsis.

Feeling a little raw tonight. A bit lonely, a bit sad. Missing my Mom, and missing community. Keeping track of my gratitude on paper tonight.

Lenten Gratitude Day 3

2012-02-25T21:43:00.001-06:00

Candle light., originally uploaded by JoãoMoura.

655. Afternoon tea out with my girl to celebrate her birthday.
656.Chili-cook-offs at church.
657. Saturday mornings omelets with the leftover Brussels Sprouts, bacon and garlic.
658. Sunshine.
659. Dreaming about some-day homes.
660. More energy, even if it means more hormones.
661. Walking through a store full of temptation, and not buying a single thing.

Lenten Gratitude Day 2

2012-02-24T23:31:00.001-06:00

Candles -- Earth Hour, originally uploaded by DCZwick.

651. Kids who are old enough to stay home on Friday night by themselves and also not throw tantrums in the check-out line at Target.
652. Laughing with friends.
653. A better day at work, mainly because of my better attitude.
654. Looking forward to a birthday outing with my girl tomorrow.

Lenten Gratitude Day 1

2012-02-23T20:51:00.001-06:00

Candle, originally uploaded by jasonstaten.

This first full day of Lent (after the ashes last night), it hit me like a ton of bricks. It was a moody day at work, the kind that makes you want to come home and update your resume. On the way home, under dark sleety skies, I sighed when I thought of 15 minutes of exercise (let alone the 30 I normally try for on Thursdays) and the 15 minutes of decluttering. It's Meaghan's 15th birthday and my inclination was to leave these things I had chosen by the wayside. I can always start tomorrow, after all. Isn't there a fresh start every morning?

At home, I prep gifts and cards. I change my clothes to get on the rower, gritting my teeth. But then I think of my daughter, the 15-year-old who pummels young men in their 20's at Wii boxing. So instead of the rower, I challenge the birthday girl to some Wii. She barely moves, and knocks me out. I flail a good deal, but my heart rate is up :) I get in more than my 15 minutes, and it's a lot more fun.

We eat birthday pizza, and banana splits. The burdens of the day are a bit lighter. I have committed to count, every day. So I count.

646. Girl Scout cookies at the dinner table, a treasured treat.
647. My girl (who chooses goat cheese and spinach spinach for her birthday dinner.)
648. Banana splits.
649. Having a job, and health insurance, even when it gets on my nerves (The job, not the health insurance.)
650. Grace, that covers so much of me.

It's supposed to snow a lot tonight. Tomorrow will start all white and fresh and clean.

Waiting for Lent

2012-02-20T18:30:00.001-06:00

I started writing this post, and then I looked back at a previous post that I wrote for Lent and found myself repeating myself almost verbatim :) I'm going to leave it as I had it, but it definitely confirms the importance of Lent in my life. If you want to read what I wrote in February 2010, it's here.

I have mentioned before that I did not grow up observing Lent. While we were church-planting and pastoring in Spain, we adopted a lot of "ancient-future" spiritual practices. Now, several years down the road, I find myself looking forward to Lent every year. It has proved to be such a good spiritual season for me that I almost crave it every year.

At the beginning, and for the first few seasons of Lent, I gave things up. Facebook, chocolate, etc. I find it interesting that in the post I linked to above, I talked about writing more letters, and just scanning them and emailing them to people. That never really materialized...but that obviously took root in my heart, because this year (2012) I am hoping to write someone a hand-written note every day.

I am still processing what this Lent will look for me. One of the things that I realized last year was that Lent is supposed to including feast days every Sunday. That adds another beautiful layer into the season for me.

Here's what I DO know.

I have been REALLY struggling with getting my weight to come down, and getting back into a regular exercise routine since we moved in July. We still have not arrived at a definitive dosage for my thyroid medication, so I keep hoping that each higher dose is finally going to be the one that does the trick. At any rate, I believe that I need to view exercise as worship. So during Lent, I will be doing SOME kind of exercise for at least 15 minutes every day except Sunday. Even if it just means a walk around the block, I think that until exercise becomes a spiritual practice for me, I will struggle with it. This is the main things I will be adding.
Daily gratitude. Last year I kept daily track of gratitude. I have been lax with this practice lately, so I want to do it again this year.
I'll also be doing only 15 minutes per day of de-cluttering and working on things I can give away. I want to constantly be working on keeping the "stuff" in my life to a minimum.

I'm mindful of my tendency to overburden myself with lists so ambitious that I set myself up for failure, so I may tweak things a bit. There are a couple of other things I am pondering, but I want to mull them over a bit more.

When dish-pan hands become grace

2012-01-23T20:35:00.000-06:00

When we first got married, Troy and I made a deal that I would do the cooking and he would do the dishes. Although he was better at doing the dishes, he definitely got the raw end of the deal. I am a very messy cook.

For twenty years, Troy did the dishes 99.9% of the time. He washed dishes in Minnesota, in Illinois, and he washed more in Colorado. He washed them in Barcelona; where we had no dishwasher and often had 17 people for small group on Thursday nights. Then, we made it a financial priority to buy a dishwasher. (In Spain, rental apartments rarely come with appliances.) That was a happy day.

Even with the dishwasher, Troy still took charge of the dishes, and washed everything that couldn’t go in the dishwasher. The kids pitched in as well, but Troy bore the brunt of it.

At the end of June, we moved into a new apartment with beautiful light, gorgeous original 1920 wood floors, huge living room, and a dining room big enough to hold more than our behemoth of table. The kitchen was smaller than our last, and it had no dishwasher.

For 20 years, I had been using our “agreement” as law. While I did other things, my husband stood in the kitchen and did dishes. For 20 years.

When we moved, we decided that wasn’t fair. To be honest, Troy still does more dishes than anyone else. The kids often do them, but when they are asked. I hope that they soon learn to take the initiative.

And I, the messy cook, have finally started to do dishes after 20 years. My system is different than Troy’s, but I am finding grace in the hot water and the bubbles and the spider plants on the window sill.

For 20 years, my husband has had dish-pan hands, and I have not.

I consider it all grace that my hands are a lot drier than they used to be.

More grace, more joy, more gratitude:

637. Good Earth tea.
638. Beautiful snow-fall.
639. A hubby who gives up free time to do things for me.
640. Eating well and exercising better over the past 2 weeks, and resulting pounds off.
641. Purging and organizing.
642. www.commonprayer.net
643. The Message.
644. 3 Gifts found in Christ today: Joy, despite a blustery day and a sleepy me. Faith, to pray for healing, comfort and peace of mind for a friend I know and one I haven't met. Contentment and satisfaction with that I have.
645. Looking forward to more gratitude.

Encourage and Community

2012-01-22T08:40:00.000-06:00

Around the holidays every year, I try to listen to what God is whispering to my soul about the upcoming year. Some years I pay more attention to it than others. Some years I let the words make more of a difference in my life.

We have been back in the US for a year and a half now, after living in Spain for 12 years. Although it has often been a difficult transition, we are confident and peaceful that we made the right decision. Our kids are happy and thriving in every way, and that is a true blessing. They are doing really well in school and have made some great friends.

Community has been quite a bit harder to come by for Troy and I. In our life together we have experienced deep and real community, and once you have tasted that, it's really difficult to not have it. But it's a challenge, because when you move into a new place, people already have their lives pretty well full. They have routines, schedules and commitments, which are all good things. Basically their lives are working pretty well for them.

Since we moved here to Chicago, I have joked that we need to create a "friendship resume" so that people can see what we have to offer. It's a silly thing, but it got me thinking on a deeper level. Community is a two-way street, and Jesus has been speaking to me about encouraging others, and about building community where I can.

Sometimes it's hard. After 12 years in ministry, at times I long to just "take" and not have to give anymore, at least for awhile. But that's not what it's really about, is it?

Jesus also reminded me that I have good friends who are flung all over the globe. While it can be hard not to have a bunch of bffs who live next door or down the street, He reminded me to cultivate those far-off friends too. And while I don't want the internet to be my main "friend" platform, it has allowed me to become true friends with people I have never met in real life. That's pretty cool.

To balance out the internet aspect, it's my hope this year to write a hand-written note to someone for every day of the year. I am allowing myself the slack to write several in a day if I need to, but every day has someone on it.

I also hope to blog more, but I'm not going to stress about that one. :)

Here's to encouragement, and to community, and to getting off your butt and doing what Jesus tells you to :)

I so wish I was with them!

2011-11-08T17:32:00.003-06:00

Dear Muz,

2011-11-03T21:36:00.000-05:00

I have lived pretty much my whole adult life without you, but sometimes, the urge to pick up the phone and call you is overwhelming. I want to let you know how well Meg is doing in high school, to tell you Nic's newest joke, share my heartbreak about one of the kids I saw at work today, or just gab for no reason.

Sometimes, I dream about you, and I wish that we could spend just one more hour together. Although I know full well that one hour would never be enough.

Sometimes, I just need to get in the car with you and drive, like we did that summer when my heart was broken. I want to doze on the couch with my head in your lap. I want to hear you say something sarcastic, call someone "George", have just one more cup of coffee with you. So many things I miss, and want to share with you again.

I just wanted to say, I miss you.

On Jericho

2011-10-16T12:19:00.002-05:00

The neighborhood where our church is located has seen a huge increase in gang violence lately. Last weekend, there was a drive-by shooting and a young man died.

This morning, our pastor led us on a silent prayer walk around the neighborhood instead of preaching a sermon. It was quite an experience to watch the church empty out into the street and walk the streets past known gang houses. We walked together, and we prayed. For God's kingdom to come. For peace, and safety. For His mercy.

Lord, have mercy.

7 Quick Takes Friday #12

2011-07-08T20:34:00.000-05:00

Here's hoping that I can actually come up with 7 things :) The last few times I have tried to do a 7 Quick Takes, I gave up.
Moving when both adults are still working full-time is for the birds! Over the past many years, we've always had the breathing space to unpack and get settled fairly quickly and efficiently. This time, I feel like it's going to be FOREVER before things are in place. Of course, some of that is not up to us. Things like needing to get our security deposit back from the old place so that we can purchase a couple of pieces of furniture that we need are making us wait a bit to finish up.
That said, we love our new apartment. Yes, there are things we have given up, like a dishwasher, a storage room, washer/dryer in our unit, ice-maker ;) etc. But the living room is HUGE and glorious and so is the dining room. Our ginormous Ikea table that has been squeezed into spaces for years now has it's own room to do it justice :)
I think we have found the best landlady of all time. She is generally all around a sweetheart. The day we moved in, we arrived to find dinner and dessert in the fridge, and plates, cutlery, serving pieces and even treats for the dog on the counter.
I'm grateful for summer things for our kids. Meg is participating in something called Freshman Connection at her new high school, and it's so good to see her thriving and opening up to new experiences. Nic has been going to a day camp through the Chicago Park District, and he has been enjoying that as well.
Moving wreaked havoc with eating well and exercising :( Next week we are resetting and going back to eating well and I am going to get back on the rower. I am definitely much more aware now of how what I eat and my level activity does to how I feel, so that is a very good thing. I'm looking forward to feeling better and getting back on track with my weight loss goals.
I have now had this post open for several hours :) But hey, at least I made it to 7!

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Counting and Moving and Counting Again

2011-06-27T21:19:00.000-05:00

We moved on Saturday, and are still in the processing of unpacking in the new place and getting the old place put to rights so we can hand it back in great shape. I'm tired and sore, but happy and grateful...

619. Helping hands on moving day.
620. No drama, hassles or accidents with the 26 foot moving truck.

621. A wonderful landlady who left us dinner in the fridge, and plates, silverware, serving utensils and treats for the dog.
631. Feeling more and more at home in our new flat, more than we thought we would.
632. Fragrant flowering trees on our street that welcome us home.
633. Friends who brought BBQ and pie.
634. New church friends who invited us to their house for lunch on Sunday.
635. Day camp for Nic and Freshman Connection for Meaghan.
636. Constant opportunities to help our kids learn hard lessons in life

1000 Gifts, Again, Still

2011-06-06T20:24:00.001-05:00

I have been so absent from my blog for so long...

A couple of days ago I was looking at my old blog and I was struck by how much I wrote, and often not about "deep" things. It was good to see a record of my days though. I really want to start doing that again :)

We have really been in transition, somewhat, for more than 2 years; as we decided about moving back to the US, the actual planning and move, and the almost year that we have been back. In a few weeks we will be moving yet again to a new apartment not that far away, so that Nic can go to a better school. We have finally found a church that feels like home to us (that was no small feat!) In many ways we are still starting again.

Anyway, that was a nice little ramble, eh?

607. A new apartment that we can hopefully stay in for the next 3 years (or until we can afford to buy a house.)
608. A landlady that trusted her gut feeling that we would be good tenants (including letting us have a dog.)
609. The likelihood that we'll be be able to move on a weekend (so we can browbeat our friends into helping us move.)
610. Daisy, our little Nissan Altima that has been reliably getting us around.
611. Connecting on a deeper level at church on Sunday.
612. Sermons that convict.
613. The smell of lilacs heavy in the air around the building where I work.
614. Secret surprises up our sleeves :)
615. Giggling/cackling and wrestling matches between Troy and the kids.
616. Recent visits with family.
617. Watching Wings on Netflix (we used to watch it a loooooong time ago!)
618. Warmer weather.

Here's to more frequent updates!

Lenten Gratitude: Day 40 & Maundy Thursday

2011-04-21T22:48:00.001-05:00

Cross Ready for grout, originally uploaded by siriusmosaics.

602. Celebrating a Messianic Seder with friends last night.
603. That our kids know and focus on the real meaning of Easter.
604. A quiet restful day at home today.
605. Maundy Thursday service tonight.
606. Knowing that Oasis Madrid will have another spectacular Easter Retreat this year!

Lenten Gratitude: Day 39

2011-04-19T22:30:00.001-05:00

Garden_Z6312L, originally uploaded by Ennor.

599. God's unexpected blessings after we scraped together literally almost every dollar we have to pay cash for our car.
600. Plans for a Seder tomorrow night with friends.
601. Time at home this week.

Lenten Gratitude: Day 38

2011-04-18T22:22:00.001-05:00

Pansies for sale , originally uploaded by sasastro.

596. It's a girl car and we named her Daisy :) Photos to follow :)
597. Nic's utter excitement about a 14-year old car :)
598. A great dentist that made Meg's front tooth look much better today.

Lenten Gratitude: Day 37

2011-04-17T22:48:00.001-05:00

in the garden of eden..., originally uploaded by Darwin Bell.

592. Meeting another Heather and her family (kids the same ages as ours!) at church this morning.
593. Trading our palm branches for thorns.
594. Sunday afternoon naps made even more delicious knowing I don't have to go to work tomorrow.
595. Connecting with long-loved, far-flung friends on Facebook.

Lenten Gratitude: Day 36

2011-04-17T08:26:00.001-05:00

Purple flowers, originally uploaded by ben124..

587. God providing a car for us.
588. Be able to buy it with all cash, all on our own.
589. Enjoying Easter break with my family.
590. Watching a slapstick movie with my hubby.
591. Our children often staying up later than we do these days :)

Lenten Gratitude: Day 34 & 35

2011-04-15T21:23:00.001-05:00

Little Purple Flowers, originally uploaded by www.rmcbooks.co.uk.

582. A daughter who leaves notes hidden in my book.
583. Easter break!
584. That even though it has "moments", I really do love my job.
585. Sushi on a rainy Friday evening.
586. A tax return that will help us get a car.

Lenten Gratitude: Day 32 & 33

2011-04-13T20:57:00.001-05:00

Purple Flowers, originally uploaded by Elliotphotos.

576. Keeping the gratitude going even when the schedule gets full, the extra moments are few and the eyes are heavy!
577. Being excited to see what car God is going to provide for us.
578. Talking to Meg about what books we are reading.
579. Individual serving bags of lime & salt popcorn.
580. Being able to go to bed by 9 when I know I need it.
581. Two more work-days until I get all next week off! So ready for a break!

Lenten Gratitude: Day 30 & 31

2011-04-11T22:28:00.000-05:00

572. Warmer weather!
573. Daffodils blooming everywhere.
574. A church we think we'll be able to call home.
575. That our downstairs is still chilly enough to turn on the mattress warmer :)

Lenten Gratitude: Day 27, 28 & 29

2011-04-09T22:26:00.001-05:00

purple flower_0993, originally uploaded by mondays child.

567. Stopping by the library to get the newest Jan Karon book (!) I haven't read yet.
568. My hubby sneaking the Carpenters CD into the car to make me happy.
569. Going grocery shopping with the car windows down and sunglasses on.
570. Jenny coming over tonight!
571. Looking forward to church tomorrow (it has been awhile since I've felt that!)

Lenten Gratitude: Day 26

2011-04-06T21:08:00.001-05:00

Purple Flower, originally uploaded by wwarby.

563. The smell of freshly ground coffee in the evening when Troy gets it ready for morning (even though it .makes me want coffee NOW.)
564. Having teachers I don't even have conferences with come out of their rooms to sing my daughter's praises.
565. Even more important to me than good grades, hearing that my kids have good attitudes, work hard, and are polite and respectful.
566. A tear on the cheek of God.

Lenten Gratitude: Day 25

2011-04-05T21:50:00.001-05:00

Heather, originally uploaded by -Kj..

556. Staying on the rower for more than 27 minutes when I wanted to be done at 23.
557. Taking some books off the shelf to donate in the beginnings of pre-move purging.
560. An 11-year old son who likes fish.
561. My hubby having the chance to do drama again.
562. Blue skies today, sunshine and birds singing everywhere.

Lenten Gratitude: Day 24

2011-04-04T20:37:00.002-05:00

May 9/10 Purple flower, originally uploaded by Jude Doyland.

552. Finding a really great pediatrician.
553. Students at work who know my name and use it.
554. Not freezing at work today.
555. Staying healthy even when other people at work are sick.