What I’m Into

What I’m Into: April 2015 Edition

Even though I was counting down the days to the end of April and the beginning of our little spring vacation trip to Taiwan, somehow the end of the month What I’m Into post crept up on me. So here it is, a little late, but not forgotten. As always, I am linking up with Leigh Kramer for this monthly round-up.

What I’m Reading:

I’m actually super confused about what I read this month. I had to look back on Goodreads and check the dates because I couldn’t remember… yeah, it’s been that kind of month. Apparently, I read 5 books. I’m at 20 for the year so far which is on-pace for my goal of 60.

51gKBPHun-L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor. I really love Barbara Brown Taylor. This book was a breath of fresh after so many books (and sermons and churches and Christians) who intentionally or unintentionally separate the spiritual life from the physical world. This book made me feel so grounded in my body and to this earth. I especially loved the practical disciplines she suggested for making the world a place of worship. Things as simple as taking a walk or working with your hands. or being still and resting. The thing I loved most about this book was walking away feeling that a simple life could be good and honest and holy and true when so often I feel the drive to be more and do more, even from the church.

imgres-1A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. (First book in the All Souls Trilogy). Oh man. This book drove me nuts. I read it because several bloggers and fellow readers who have similar taste to mine raved about it. This book is Twilight for grown-ups mixed with The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Since I really hated both of those books, it makes sense that this book drove me crazy. However, if you really really liked either or both of those books, then you will love this. Diana Bishop is a witch who inadvertently discovers an old manuscript that all of the non-human community has been searching for for years. Vampire Matthew Clairmont stumbles upon Diana while in pursuit of this manuscript, and the two fall immediately, madly, and passionately in love despite the fact that a union between vampires and witches is forbidden. This book is 600 pages of almost nothing happening. And then when something finally does happen (around 400 pages in) it is resolved within 20 pages. I could not connect with the main character, Diana, at all. I didn’t understand her reactions throughout most of the book.  There was so much tea drinking and wine drinking and not-having-sex for somewhat inexplicable reasons (very reminiscent of Twilight) and what essentially felt like the same conversation happening dozens of times–Matthew saying, “No, Diana, you cannot do x. I won’t allow it,” and Diana saying, “Matthew, I am my own person I can do what I want.” And Matthew responding in awe, “Will you never cease to amaze me?” Diana also did a lot of telling people that Matthew was in charge and they all had to listen to him, which rubbed my feminist side the wrong way. And yet…at the very end of the book things suddenly got more interesting. And now I kind of want to know what happens in spite of finding this book almost painful at times. Dilemma.

imgresOrdinary: How to Turn the World Upside Down by Tony Merida. The author of this book is the pastor of a church in North Carolina that was supported by my former church in Raleigh. I picked this up because it was pitched as a sort of anti-Francis-Chan’s Crazy Love. It was supposedly about how God doesn’t call us to be radical, he calls us to be faithful in ordinary lives. But then came the twist. And the twist was convicting. Because Merida pointed out that our ordinary lives should be about extravagant justice and mercy, especially to the poor, the orphan, and the widow, because these things are the very fundamentals of what it means to follow Christ. I didn’t think this book was especially profound, but it was challenging and convicting.

imgres-2Atlas Girl: Finding Home in the Last Place I Thought to Look, by Emily T. Wierenga. I had a complicated relationship with this book. First off, I think it’s mis-marketed in a way. I didn’t get the sense that this book was about finding “home” even though the author shares life experiences that occurred in various parts of the world. To me it it was more about finding herself, coming to terms with her faith and with her family. The writing is poetic and moving at times, but at other times it feels like she is drawing connections without fully explaining them. In other words, it probably makes sense to her how these things are connected, but it doesn’t always to the reader. There were quite a few times when I wanted to know more or to understand more. Wierenga writes candidly about growing up with a missionary/pastor father who was distant throughout her childhood, about her struggle with anorexia as a child and again as an adult, and about the pain and the healing of moving home to help her father care for her mother who was ill with brain cancer. The stories she tells are poignant and evocative, even if some left me wanting more. Overall I thought this was a lovely memoir.

41YwlLvuaIL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_I also want to give another shout out to my friend Brett “Fish” Anderson’s book i, church. If you are interested in a realistic view of the problems with the church coupled with a hope for how the church could be, you should check this out.

What I’m Watching:

Television: Finished The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (sometimes hilarious, sometimes just OK) and The Mindy Project and caught up on Pretty Little Liars (total guilty pleasure show). Still making our way through the new season of Community and staying current with Brooklyn Nine Nine (hilarious) and Nashville. Also picked up where I left off with The Good Wife a few months ago. I’m mid season-2 now and still love it.

Movies: Avengers: Age of Ultron – entertaining, but I didn’t love that the villain is essentially a computer. I think Loki is one of the most fascinating villains in the realm of superhero mythology, so I missed him.

What I’m Eating:

Wraps. Guys, I just figured out that if I take a fairly boring salad and wrap it in a tortilla – Bam! Magic. I tried it out with a recipe of Bang Bang Shrimp and it was probably the most excited I’ve been about lunch in two years. Tonight I made buffalo chicken wraps. I sort of feel unstoppable. Follow me on Pinterest for more of what I’m cooking.

Photo by: cinnamonspiceandeverythingnice.com

Photo by: cinnamonspiceandeverythingnice.com

On the Internets:

My sister-in-law sent me this article called “I Followed My Stolen Iphone Across the World and Became a Celebrity.” It’s kind of long, but it’s so amazing. And hilarious.

This post from a sort-of-internet/sort-of-real-life friend Abigail Heath about wanting life to be a fairytale. I actually have a lot of thoughts about this that I plan to share in an upcoming blog post.

The news about actor Jonathan Crombie’s sudden death made many of us sad and nostalgic about the role his most famous character, Gilbert Blythe, played in our childhoods and adolescences. Here are two great posts that express some of my own feelings about what Gilbert Blythe meant to me and how one person, even playing a part, can impact the lives of so many: this one from Kelsey Munger and this one from Sarah Torna Roberts.

I was also moved by this piece “How Christians Have Sex” from my college friend, Rachel. I’ve always admired Rachel’s frankness, but more than that, the way she finds poetry in the raw truth. While our experiences are very different, this post gave me a lot to think about and I admire her courage and her willingness to express confusion and doubt in a world that prizes certainty and self-assuredness.

Also, just everything on my blogging friend Angela’s travel blog. Especially all of the spectacular apartments she and her hubby manage to find around Europe.

This video that my mom sent me made me cry. Let’s all walk through the door marked, “Beautiful,” OK?

https://youtu.be/7DdM-4siaQw

On the Blog:

I’ve really tried to stay committed to posting three times a week though I admit that sometimes it’s a challenge. Thankfully, I have my 52 Weeks of Adventure posts and my Friday Book Chats to keep me focused. This month I wrote about unplanned loveliness, a coastal hike in Busan, a professional baseball game, and a major hair change. I wrote about my favorite spiritual memoirs, about books I own but haven’t read, about the most interesting fictional characters I’ve encountered, and about my favorite books to re-read.

I also wrote about my struggles with wholeheartedness in the midst of failures and about combatting shame with self-compassion. I wrote about gratitude and started a Thankful Thursdays guest series with this post from Pradnya Vernekar.

My most-viewed post this month was an open letter to my sisters about love and regret followed by my Geronimo post about giant leaps of faith which was part of a link-up with my friend Karissa.

Also, if you just can’t get enough of me, you can like my Facebook page, or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. I will probably follow you back if I can figure out how. 😉 And I will definitely keep you updated on flash Kindle deals and other stuff I’m discovering day-to-day.

What I’ve Been Up To:

Things are starting to crank into high gear as we make preparations to move back to America. At this point we are about 3 1/2 months away. For a while I was so excited for the next step that it felt like it couldn’t come quickly enough, but nowadays I’ve become more hesitant. I’m anxious about all of the unknowns of what comes next, but also realizing how much of this life I will miss and how quickly it will all feel like a dream. I am a complete mess of contradictory emotions.

We went through some major ups and downs as we considered whether or not we should buy a house when we return to the US (we landed on not, for the record) and I struggled through some serious homesickness when all of my college roommates got together a few weeks ago to help with planning my best friend’s wedding.

I continued to wade through awkward interactions with CoT this month (which have actually declined a bit as we’ve fallen into a routine) and got to witness the school’s Sports Day at the end of the month. It was similar to Field Day in my school growing up with tons of strange relay races and athletic competitions. There was also a lot of parent and even grandparent participation built in which I thought was kind of sweet.

The first-graders had to roll this giant ball around a cone and back in pairs. It was unbelievably adorable.

The first-graders had to roll this giant ball around a cone and back in pairs. It was unbelievably adorable.

We have two short trips planned for May, one to Taiwan and one to Tokyo, so I expect this month will move quickly. I have a few guest posts coming up this month for other blogs that I am excited to participate in as well as continuing my Thankful Thursday series with guest writers here on my blog. I really enjoy opportunities to collaborate with other bloggers and I hope you enjoy those posts in the coming weeks!

What I’m Into: March 2015 Edition

March is over and spring seems to have officially arrived in Korea! I am linking up with Leigh Kramer for my monthly What I’m Into post.

What I’m Reading:

MistbornMistborn #1:The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson. I’m a big fan of Brandon Sanderson, but had not yet read his Mistborn trilogy. I tackled the first book this month and will probably delve into the second one in April. In a land where ash falls from the sky and mists envelop the night, a band of thieves plots to overthrow the Lord Ruler, the immortal king who has oppressed the people of for centuries. Kelsier is the tortured hero, leader of the band of thieves, and schemer who has designed an elaborate and perfect plan to overthrow the Lord Ruler using allomancy, the magic of metals. To complete his plan he needs the help of Vin, a street thief who has no idea the power she possesses. This book has solid characters, an interesting magic system, and a compelling plot line. It’s not Way of Kings, but it is still a really great fantasy book

Girl meets godGirl Meets God by Lauren F. Winner. This is Winner’s first book and it explores her conversion from Orthodox Judaism to Christianity. Reading this was a strange experience for me since I read it after reading her more recent book Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis which I wrote about here). To be honest, I think reading these in reverse order probably affected my reactions to some of this book. Overall I liked it more than Still and I was really intrigued by all that she shared about Orthodox Judaism and the connections between the Jewish tradition and Christianity. However, reading it and knowing about her future struggles with Christianity and even her future divorce, I felt like I could see some foreshadowing in this book. One thing that’s interesting to note is that Winner converted to Orthodox Judaism in the first place. Her father was Jewish, but her mother was Christian. In the Jewish faith, Judaism is passed down by the mother, so Winner actually had to undergo an extensive process to formally convert to Orthodox Judaism. A few years later, after becoming convinced of the truth of Christianity, she uses a marriage and divorce metaphor to talk about her conversion. In one passage in particular, she speaks about leaving Judaism in terms of divorce and she says,

“If it was a marriage, me to Orthodox Judiaism, I failed long before I met up with Jesus. I failed from the beginning. You could say I became a Christian because Judaism had stopped working for me, but the truth is that I had not done very much to make Judaism work…

Sometimes divorce is the only thing to do. Sometimes it is the more loving thing to do. Sometimes, you have to do it.”

I don’t think these passages would have stood out to me so much if I didn’t know what came later for her. There are moments when it seems that faith is more a matter of choosing what she intellectually has decided is true than it is a matter of her choosing something she believes in with her heart as well and is something that greatly impacts how she lives her life. All of that to say, I thought the book was very interesting, but reading it after Still made me wonder if some of her more recent struggles are really larger patterns in her life.

CinderCinder by Marissa Meyer (This is only $2.99 for Kindle right now!) The stand-out book for me this month might just be Cinder. This is  a YA book about a futuristic world where androids are essential to daily life and the moon has been colonized and become the home of a new species known as Lunars. This unique twist on the Cinderella story involves a cyborg/mechanic Cinderella, a handsome prince, and the search for a cure for the plague pandemic that is wiping out Earth’s population. This is not the sort of book I would normally gravitate towards, but it is so fresh and clever and well-done that I couldn’t put it down. Thanks to my friend, Karissa, whose positive reviews convinced me to give it a shot!

ImperfectionThe Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown. Brené Brown is a huge inspiration to me. I’ve written previously about her book, Daring Greatly, which explores the power of vulnerability and her two TED talks (here and here) are phenomenal. This is her book about wholeheartedness and what we need to live a wholehearted life. As most of you know, wholehearted is my OneWord for 2015. This book inspired and encouraged me in my journey towards wholeheartedness. Some of the material was already familiar to me because it was touched on in her other book or in her TED talks, but this book was still well worth the read. I will be blogging more in the near future about specific steps I am taking on my journey to embrace courage, compassion, and connection.

I’ve just started Barbara Brown Taylor’s An Altar in the World and I am GREATLY anticipating the release of Rachel Held Evans’ new book, Searching for Sunday, which comes out April 14th. If you’re a big reader (or even if you’re not) I would love to connect with you on Goodreads!

What I’m Watching:

This month I caught up/finished the current season of Nashville and Jonathan and I tried to stay current (with limited success because of internet troubles, so we are still behind) with New Girl, The Mindy Project, and Brooklyn Nine Nine. We also finished Broadchurch (amazing) and watched a few episodes each of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, the new season of Community, and Fresh Off the Boat. I have to say, the standout for me so far is Fresh Off the Boat. I think I find it especially funny and accurate since my experience living in Asia.

We actually went to a lot of movies this month and were able to see Birdman (Jonathan liked it, I was ambivalent), Cinderella (I could die of happiness.This was so beautiful I never wanted it to end), and Insurgent (I like this about the same as the first movie minus Shailene Woodley’s amazing hair. I do really like her though. It was entertaining). Speaking of Shailene Woodley’s hair, we also watched The Spectacular Now which I thought was a really good, if unsettling movie.

What I’m Eating:

I recently tried out a zucchini apple muffin recipe that came out really well and is something I will make again. You know me and zucchini – I like to put zucchinis up in everything. I’ve also been obsessed with enchiladas lately. They are all I want to eat. Follow me on Pinterest for more of my favorite recipes!

Photo by: twopeasintheirpod.com

Photo by: twopeasintheirpod.com Click image for link to the recipe.

On the Internets:

I loved this piece from Micha Boyett about choosing love and humility over rightness. I think Micha is such a beautiful writer and truth-speaker.

I appreciated this post from my friend Karissa about the differences between writing and blogging, something I’ve been struggling to sort out myself.

My friend, Briana is running a 3-part series called Love Letters to the Church from a Millennial at Off the Page that are just fantastic.

This stunning piece of prose by Addie Zierman that reminds us of the love of the father for the prodigal, even when he is still a long way off.

I loved this piece from my friend, Sara, about where our confidence comes from.

I actually really appreciated this interview from Angeline Jolie regarding her recent surgery to remove her ovaries, etc. after her double mastectomy last year. The story was completely sensationalized in the media, but I like her message about making sure women have all the information they need about their health and that they can feel empowered and in control of their bodies.

I loved this brief sermon from Nadia Bolz-Weber about that oh-so-famous verse, John 3:16. She really has a way of breathing new life into things that feel old and tired.

“God so loved this corrupt world of empires and victims and violence that God gave God’s self to us. God so loved the world that God came to us in the most vulnerable and fragile way possible. God so loved the world God created that God walked among us as love.

I love Mumford and Sons new single, “Believe” whose chorus, “I don’t even know if I believe,” might as well be my anthem most days. I think it’s a fantastic song, but I can’t pretend that I don’t miss the banjo. Something about the folksy bluegrass sound touches me in a way that electric guitars just don’t. (PS- don’t watch the video, it will make you motion sick!)

On the Blog:

This month I kept up with my 52 Weeks of Adventure series by posting  Weeks 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 adventures.

I had an article published over at Relevant.com about overcoming guilt in my sex life and did a follow-up post here. I wrote about not faking it til I make it and living authentically, about my recent struggle with anxiety, and about how judgement day might just be the best day of our lives.

I also continued my Friday Book Chat series with posts on my abandoned books shelf, my favorite mysteries, my favorite childhood books, and my guilty pleasure books. I also run a list of current Kindle deals that I’m aware of on books I’ve read or would like to read at the end of these posts.

What I’ve Been Up To:

Thinking back to the beginning of March feels like ages and ages ago. I feel like I’ve made a lot of changes this month. We started the new school year and I’ve been dealing with my interesting new co-teacher.

I got a tattoo (which I love! I already want another one), new glasses, and highlights (I don’t think I have any pictures of that, but I basically look the same just blonder).

tattoo2

Glasses

New glasses. Total cost of the frames and top-quality lenses – $60. Go Korea!

My friends have been rocking at life lately.

My best friend got engaged and I got to help her pick out a wedding dress thanks to Google hangout and lots of pictures. Two of my friends announced pregnancies this month, both of which were somewhat surprising and completely exciting. My friend, Karissa is having a poetry chapbook published cause she’s just that awesome.  And my friend Brett “Fish” Anderson published and launched his book i, church which you should all buy and read and share with others now. Brett is passionate about the church and has a realistic view of the problems with it while also sharing hope and casting vision for what the church should be.

This was also the month that things became more definitive for us in terms of what comes next. Jonathan applied to a number of graduate school programs to do an MFA. These programs are incredibly small and selective and I am so tremendously proud of his work and his perseverance.  After months of working, then waiting, then praying, we’ve arrived at a decision. (Drumroll, please!) We are moving back the US mid-August where Jonathan will be pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing (for fiction) at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. The paperwork isn’t in yet, but that’s our final step in making it official.  And just to brag on him – this program received over a hundred fiction applicants and accepted four. FOUR, y’all. He is so freaking awesome.

I will be working full-time to support us, though I don’t know where or what I’ll be doing at this point. We’ve never been to Columbia, but are really pleased about it’s proximity to some of our closest friends, almost all of whom live somewhere in the Carolinas. We are full of excitement and anticipation for this new season, though it’s going to be a crazy ride. The earliest date we can possibly leave Korea is August 14th and school starts for Jonathan on August 20th. Best case scenario is that we will have about 4 days to find a place to live and get all of our stuff there from my parents house in Louisiana. It’s gonna be an adventure. Good thing we’re always up for those!

What have you been into this month?

What I’m Into : February 2015 Edition

February is the shortest month of the year, but it always manages to feel like one of the longest to me. It’s still unpleasantly cold and very gray, but all the holidays are over as is my vacation so it just feels like this never-ending blah month. One good thing about February is that since it’s not a great time to do outdoor activities, I spend a lot of time reading, writing, and catching up on shows. As always, I am linking up with Leigh Kramer for this post.

What I’m Reading:

I read six books this month (hurray!) for a total of 11 so far this year not including the two manuscripts I read for friends which has me ahead of pace for my goal of 60 this year. Follow me on Goodreads to see more ratings and reviews.

Still Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis by Lauren F. Winner. I wanted to like this, but I just didn’t love it. Some parts of this book were so good and so helpful – especially parts about how most of life is lived in the middle – in the in-between of beginnings and endings. Winner writes about her divorce and the impact that had on her spiritual life. There were parts of this that were brilliant, but there were also parts where the author felt distant to me – writing about deeply personal experiences but somehow holding us at arms’ length, unable to see her real reactions, feelings, and motivations. I know others who have loved this book, but for me each chapter was hit-or-miss.

eleanor and park Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. This YA book had been recommended to me by many people and I finally read it this month. It’s precious. A love story for the ages, but with real characters in real and difficult situations. I was enchanted.

 

 

Maisie Dobbs Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear. This book was pretty highly recommended by a few people I know and also got pretty positive reviews from the critics, so maybe my hopes were too high, but for me it was only OK. Maisie Dobbs is a private detective living in post WWI London helping to solve mysteries and heal the wounds of many affected by the war. More than half of this book ends up being a prolonged flashback of Maisie’s life story. I think it would have been much more effective to include these as snippets throughout the book instead of stepping away from the present and spending 60% of the book on the past. I also felt no connection to Maisie herself – she’s this very generic heroine who always does the right thing and is beautiful and clever and kind and bland as white toast. I know this book is the beginning of a series, so other books in the series are probably more straightforward mysteries, but I really didn’t love it. It wasn’t a terrible book, I just didn’t think it was anything special and I found myself wishing for it to be over faster the whole time.

wild Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed. Strayed is a good writer and honestly quite masterful at interweaving present action with flashbacks. My biggest qualms with this were, unfortunately, a distaste for her personality as conveyed in the book, which is the hard thing about memoirs. At the beginning of the book she is 26 years old and recently divorced and is hiking the Pacific Crest Trail solo to “find herself” or find inner-peace or something. It’s a pretty cool accomplishment and it made me want to hike. And she wrote movingly about the experience of losing her mother at age 22. But when she talked about her divorce, I just lost her a little bit. Maybe this is judgy of me, but the divorce was the product of her continually and repeatedly cheating on her husband and she’s pretty unapologetic about that. At the end she concludes that that’s what she needed to do. So I didn’t feel like the journey resulted in the kind of growth that I was expecting. I would like to see the movie though – I’ve heard Reese Witherspoon gives a great performance.

Looking for alaska Looking for Alaska by John Green. This was my second John Green book and I really enjoyed it. It wasn’t as good as The Fault in Our Stars, but I still cared a lot about the characters. It’s a coming of age story that, like Green’s other books, deals with the usual sex, booze, and rebellion parts of adolescence, but also with grief, loss and the greater meaning of life in a tender and moving way.

 

Station Eleven Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. I LOVED this book. This was published in 2014 and hubby read it a few months ago and recommended it to me. I don’t think I would have read it were it not for his recommendation/the fact that we owned it, but I am so glad I did. This made it to the honorable mentions of my all-time favorite literary fiction books. It tells the story of a Hollywood star and the people connected to him, sometimes only by a slender thread, before, during, and after the collapse of civilization. It’s eerie and post-apocalyptic, riveting and elegaic, moving and insightful. I really thought it was masterful.

What I’m Watching:

I watched the series finale of Parenthood with many tears. Such a great show. I’m all caught up on Nashville and our comedies – Mindy Project, New Girl, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. I watched the series finale of Parks and Recreation last night, which was bittersweet- it’s possibly my favorite comedy of life. We are a few episodes behind, but still greatly enjoying (slash agonizing over) the new season of Broadchurch. Oh. Em. Gee. The BBC knows how to do it. And we recently watched the pilot of Fresh Off the Boat and I think I’ll really enjoy it.

We saw The Imitation Game this month which was equal parts fantastic and depressing. I already knew the ending since it’s a biopic, but it’s such an amazing story up til then. We also re-watched Cloud Atlas at home which is one of my favorite movies – it absolutely fascinates me.

What I’m Eating:

Lots of delicious and horrible-for-you food while in Seoul including these things I shall dub, “Fatty Fries.” Because there’s nothing fattier deep fried potatoes topped with bacon and cheese and mayonnaise, haha. Worth wearing stretchy pants for a week? I think so.

chili fries

In more healthy foods, I tried this recipe for stuffed zucchini recently and it was a winner. You can follow me on Pinterest for more recipes.

ricotta zucchini

Photo from allrecipes.com

On the Internets:

If you read only one link here, let it be Addie Zierman’s post “3 Things We Need to Stop Saying to Youth Group Kids.”  This is one of those posts I wish I’d written because it is so precisely how I feel.

If you need the reminder (and we all do) check out Shauna Niequist’s recent post – “You  are Enough”

I’m not a mom and I still loved this piece from my friend Briana about falling in love with being a mom of two.

I adored this piece from Emily Mullas Wilson about Making Church a Place for All Kinds of Women.

If you want to know why I recommend books with cursing, sex, and violence, read this post by Modern Mrs. Darcy which explains it pretty perfectly.

I also read/listened to some Nadia Bolz-Weber sermons this month. In particular I enjoyed this one about Jonah and loving our enemies and this one about Mary.

If you want to see something fun, check out this version of the Uptown Funk music video with no music.

On the Blog:

I kept up with weeks 5, 6, 7, and 8 of my 52 Weeks of Adventure challenge. I’m really excited to share this week’s on Monday!

I started a series of Friday Book Chats that I hope you’re enjoying. So far I’ve covered most-anticipated books, books I love to hate, movies that were better than their book, and my all-time favorite contemporary literary fiction books.

And in the faith-wrestling, life-pondering, contemplative posts I’ve written about celebrating eight years with my husband, about what’s saving my life right now, about my ongoing questions about the calling of motherhood, about the spiritual aspects of traveling, and about losing (and finding) prayer.

I am slowly plugging away at my book manuscript and hope to have a draft done by the time we leave Korea this summer. I also have another piece for Relevant being published sometime in the next few weeks – I’ll keep you posted.

If you haven’t yet, please “like” my writer page on Facebook to keep up with posts and discussions.

Beauty Bits:

I think I’ve found my holy grail foundation and unfortunately, it’s a Korean brand so I’m probably going to have to stock up on it and bring a bunch home with me when I leave here, but I’m sure you can order it online from sellers on ebay.

I love makeup, but I don’t like to wear really heavy foundation that makes it look like you have a ton of makeup on. I need foundation because my skin is dull and uneven, but I want my skin to still look like skin in the end, so I often do a BB or CC cream. This foundation is the bomb.com though. It is the Clio Kill Cover Realest Wear foundation and I am in the shade 04 Ginger. It’s very liquidy, but it blends out very smoothly (I use my fingers and then my beauty blender). It gives light to medium coverage. My skin still looks like skin – it’s not cakey at all, but it covers everything I need covered. If there’s a way for you to get your hands on this, you should try it.

Clio

What I’ve Been Up To:

February is an odd month in the Korean year because it’s actually the end of the school year. After five weeks of winter vacation, students come back to school for the first 2 -2.5 weeks of February and finish classes, graduation ceremonies,etc. Then there is another 2 week break that is considered their “spring vacation.” This year it coincided with the Lunar New Year. On March 1st (or close to it) the new school year will begin. This means I had 2.5 weeks of classes at the beginning of February followed by 1.5 weeks of sitting at my desk doing nothing. Which is why I got so much writing done this month! We will have new schedules, new coteachers, and some new students, but Korea is very last-minute about everything so I probably won’t get my new schedule or new textbooks until after the school year has already started. This drives the planner in me nuts, but I’m trying to be cool.

We traveled to Seoul for the Lunar New Year and have otherwise been laying low, hanging out with friends and waiting to hear news about the MFA programs Jonathan applied to for the fall. I hope to have something official to report by the end of the month!

 

 

What I’m Into: January 2015 Edition

I am linking up with Leigh Kramer for the very first What I’m Into post of 2015!

What I’m Reading:

I read 61 books in the year 2014 so this year I’ve set my sights high and set my goal at 60. Since we’ll be moving back to the US in the fall and I’ll have a few little things to do (like finding a job and a home and basically starting life over from scratch) I thought I’d be doing pretty good if I could match this year’s reading. If you count not-yet-published books (and I think we should) then I am on track so far.

Kitchen confidentialKitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain. I love food books and I really enjoyed Bourdain’s TV series, Parts Unknown which combines food AND travel in a completely addicting way. I enjoyed this book, though Bourdain is pretty rough around the edges. I will say, it makes me never want to work in the restaurant industry and gave me some nightmares about what’s going on in the kitchen when I’m sitting at the table of my favorite restaurant, but it was entertaining and informative and I enjoyed reading it. Be warned that it’s a little crass and vulgar at times.

lizzy and JaneLizzy and Jane by Katherine Reay. I read some positive reviews of this book and actually read it because it was on sale for $1.99 and a book club on Goodreads picked it for their January book so I thought, why not? I was very underwhelmed. It’s got this very interesting set-up with the potential for a lot of emotional depth and tough and nuance. Lizzy and Jane are two sisters who have been estranged every since the death of their mother 15 years earlier. Lizzy, a chef in New York, comes home to Seattle for the first time in years to visit her sister who has just been diagnosed with the cancer that killed their mother. Unfortunately, the book itself falls very flat. The characters felt shallow and not well-developed for such a heavy plot. It’s not an awful book, there’s just nothing outstanding about it.

last anniversaryThe Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty. I would seriously read the back of a cereal box if it was written by Moriarty. I think her writing is technically very good and her stories are always unique and interesting and the characters are that perfect mix of relate-able and eccentric. Sophie Honeywell is 39, unmarried, and starting to wonder if she’s missed her opportunity to have a family when she unexpectedly inherits a house from her ex-boyfriend’s Great Aunt Connie – the woman who discovered the Munro baby. This book revolves around the secret of the Munro baby – a (fictional) famous unsolved mystery where the Munro couple mysteriously disappeared from their home with the tea kettle whistling and a warm cake fresh from the oven leaving their 2 week old baby behind. The story takes place far in the future and is centered on the family who raised the baby (now a grandmother herself) and her children and grandchildren who run a family business that capitalizes on the unsolved mystery of the Munro baby. At this point I only have one Moriarty novel left to read and I almost don’t want to because I’ll be so sad when it’s over.

Leaving ChurchLeaving Church: A Memoir of Faith by Barbara Brown Taylor. I had been looking forward to this book for a long time and I was not disappointed. Taylor’s story of her call to the Episcopalian priesthood and later her decision to leave the priesthood and become a professor was full of beautiful thoughts about how the world and the church need not be enemies – separate entities that are necessarily opposed to one another. She writes beautifully about the ways she encountered God and grace outside of the church as well as inside it. Among many great quotes, here was one I particularly enjoyed since it describes my current faith journey so well, “I wanted to recover the kind of faith that has nothing to do with being sure what I believe and everything to do with trusting God to catch me though I am not sure of anything.”

Storm frontStorm Front by Jim Butcher (The Dresden Files Book 1). The Dresden Files are the sort of books that most people either love or hate. They star Harry Dresden, a wizard who is also a private detective living in Chicago, and involve lots of paranormal activity and mystery solving. What’s not to love? I wold describe these books as a mixture of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods (with the modern myth and the fantastic woven into the ordinary) coupled with Buffy the Vampire Slayer (extremely campy until you fall in love with the characters and then the camp simply adds to the charm). If you can’t stand completely unrealistic campy books, this isn’t for you. If you can buy some of the ridiculousness in exchange for the entertainment of a detective wizard who battles vampires, demons, an the occasional gangster, you can’t go wrong with this. And the great thing is, this is an ongoing series that is already 14 books long!

Love in Fast Cars (working title)  by Briana Meade. I got to read this beautiful book in manuscript form – a first draft that my dear friend Briana has just submitted to her agent (!) and that will hopefully be published later this year. I am so incredibly proud of Briana and I think her book is wise and funny and tender and resonates deeply with me and I expect many of us millenials. This is a book about growing up as a millenial and that constantly shifting line between childhood and adulthood and how we reconcile a childhood faith that doesn’t seem to fit with our adult worlds. Be on the lookout for this book and in the meantime, follow Briana’s blog and show her some love!

i, church by Brett “Fish” Anderson. I got the privilege to read another book this month that is not yet in-print, but will be self-published very soon (how amazing are my friends?!) Brett is passionate about the Church while being completely honest about some of the very real flaws with it. He writes with conviction and wisdom and what it could look like for the Church to change and grow into what it is intended to be. His book strikes that perfect middle ground between criticizing the Church’s faults and praising its virtues. I’m so proud of all the work Brett’s put into this book and am excited to see where it goes from here. I will let you all know when it is available to purchase, but in the meantime you can reads all kinds of good stuff over at Brett’s blog.

If you are on Goodreads you can follow me  to see what else I’m reading.

What I’m Watching:

Our internet (read: television) has not been working well this month and we’ve been traveling, so I’ve watched less TV than usual. I normally “watch” shows while I’m cooking, doing laundry, washing dishes, etc. so being on vacation cut out chore/tv time (not that I’m complaining!) I did manage to see a few episodes  of Nashville, Parenthood, New Girl, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the Mindy Project, and Parks and Recreation now that it’s back on. We also watched the first few episodes of Friends on Netflix, which Jonathan has never really watched (though I think I’ve seen every episode).

We saw three movies in the past two months, but I don’t remember if it was December or January since I didn’t do a December What I’m Into post: The Hobbit (it was like watching the 20 minute final battle scene from a better movie stretched out for 2 hours), The Theory of Everything (cried buckets) and Into the Woods (I’d never seen it before so I can’t compare it to the play, but I liked it even though it’s a little weird).

What I’m Eating:

Mostly I’ve been eating out a ton since I’ve been traveling. But I did take a cooking class while in Chiang Mai, Thailand and learned to make cashew chicken, chicken in coconut milk, papaya salad, khao soi (a northern Thailand curry with egg noodles), and mango sticky rice. So delicious.

On the Internets:

This post from one of my most favorite writers, Addie Zierman reminding us that change is slow work:

“And I wonder if coming to your life is a little like coming to the page: open-hearted, brave, bringing everything you have, knowing that some days you’ll get it wrong, some days you’ll get nothing done,some days it will be the wrong words…but that it’s all part of the process. You don’t know exactly where you’re going, but you have the general idea of what you want it to feel like when you get there. So you come back again and again and again. Keep trying. Keep writing. Keep going.”

This beautiful post from my friend Karissa about death and grief and the need for people who can share our pain. “A real live person is better than a Scripture verse any day.”

Loved this post from my friend Meredith about putting up an empty frame and imagining what you’d like to fill it with.

Really needed this recent post from Ann Voskamp about letting go of perfectionism and celebrating your life.

My friend Ashleigh really inspired me with her words about how a wild and radical life doesn’t have to mean living in an exotic place.

“I tend to love extremity so then I start thinking, “Oh, we just need to move to Costa Rica. Or Hawaii. Or Australia.” I’m sure pretty much everyone who has spent an hour on instagram has thought the same thing. But that’s not the right answer for me. It’s taken me a lot of slow-growing to realize that it is also wild to stay put. It’s also radical to build a good, quiet life.”

And I just loved this fantastic clip from Dax Shepard talking about Kristen Bell’s C-Section on Ellen. (I think Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell are my all-time favorite celebrity couple, btw. Her sloth video is still my favorite thing on the internet).

On the Blog:

I started the month by writing about my One Word for 2015: wholehearted and was touched by the many comments I received from readers who were inspired to choose their own One Word for the year. I was also honored to have that post featured on Freshly Pressed.

I completed the first 4 weeks of my Fifty-Two Weeks of Adventure challenge. (Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4)

I wrote here about how faith can be so slippery and tough to hold onto at times and here about friendship and social anxiety.

I also just created a writer page on Facebook to help people who are interested in my writing and writing-related news keep up with me. If you are on Facebook, you can like my page to connect there.

Beauty Bits:

So, I don’t usually write about these kinds of things because, well, they seem really shallow and materialistic, but it occurred to me recently that admitting that I’m interested in makeup does not discredit anything more serious I want to say. Do I think makeup is super important? No, of course not. But I enjoy it the same way I enjoy movies and tv shows and reading. And maybe some of you do too. And if not, you can skip this section. 🙂

Since the beginning of the fall I’ve been experimenting with lots of Korean makeup because Korea is known for its fabulous cosmetic and skincare products. If you are in Korea or elsewhere in Asia you can probably find these. If not, you can order them online if you really want to try them.

bb cushion

Etude House Precious Minerals Any Cushion BB cream – benefits of a BB cream (sun protection, anti-wrinkle, moisturizing, etc.) with pretty good coverage, applies flawlessly, and is not messy since the bb cream is in that sponge and you just press the sponge with the little to get the product out and basically stamp it on your face. So easy and it looks beautiful. Korea is where BB creams started and they are very different than western bb creams that are more like a tinted moisturizer. These BB creams have much higher coverage and work instead of a foundation.

Aritaum honey melting tints. These smell and taste amazing and go on like a very pigmented lip balm (more pigmented than the Revlon Lip Butters below). Very moisturizing which is important for me because my lips are like a desert!

Aritaum honey melting tints. These smell and taste amazing and go on like a very pigmented lip balm (more pigmented than the Revlon Lip Butters below). Very moisturizing which is important for me because my lips are like a desert!

Also, during our trip to Thailand/Singapore/Malaysia I had a chance to pick up a few Western products that aren’t easily available in Korea. Some of my favorites have been the Nyx matte lip creams and butter glosses. The lip creams are like a liquid lipstick with a matte finish – they are so soft they feel like you have nothing on and stay put all day. And the lip butters are beautiful glosses with good pigmentation that go perfectly over the lip cream if you want a little shine or need some hydration. In the US they are very affordable – $6 for the creams and $5 for the butters – and I think you can buy them at Target.

There is a huge color range - this is only half of them. I have #03 Tokyo, #04 London, and #08 Sao Paolo.

There is a huge color range – this is only half of them. I have #03 Tokyo, #04 London, and #08 Sao Paolo.

And these Revlon Colorburst Lip Butters which are like a very tinted lip balm – great for moisturizing your lips and you can wear them very lightly if you just want a little bit of color and nothing too dramatic.

You can get these at Target or any drugstore. The darker colors are more pigmented than the light ones.

You can get these at Target or any drugstore. The darker colors are more pigmented than the light ones. My favorite one that I own is Lollipop.

What I’ve Been Up To:

At the beginning of the month I finished up teaching winter English camps at school and then we spent 2.5 weeks traveling in Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia which I’ve already told you all about.

Other than that, we’ve started to get some news on the “What Comes Next” front regarding what we’ll be doing after our contracts end in August. I’m not going to announce anything until we’ve made an official decision, but I can say that it’s looking like we’ll definitely be back in the US, at least for a while.

I also re-discovered instagram and have been trying to use it more in spite of my phone’s pitiful camera because I think it’s a fun way to document. You can find me there with the user name lilyellyn.

Sorry this post got sooooo long, but thanks for sticking with me!

What I’m Into: November 2014 Edition

As usual, this is my monthly wrap-up post for Leigh Kramer’s “What I’m Into” link-up.

What I’m Reading:

If last month was a bit excessive on the reading front I think I’ve evened it out by only reading four books this months and most of them were lighter reading as well.

19715106Delancey by Molly Wizenberg. I really enjoyed this book. I love books about food and the food industry and this one – about a young couple opening a specialty pizza restaurant in Seattle, both satisfied my voyeurism about that world and broke down some of my romanticized notions about what owning a restaurant is like. I’ve heard others say this book was not as good as Wizenberg’s first book A Homemade Life, but as I haven’t read that one yet I don’t have anything to compare it to.

17557750Me Before You by JoJo Moyes. Moyes’ books are all over bestseller and other kinds of book lists, but I’d never read anything of hers before so when this one went on sale for $2.99 in the Kindle Store I thought I’d try it. (It is actually still on sale for that price if you want to check it out). I wanted a bit of lighter read in a modern setting. Well, I got the modern setting part right. Ambitionless twenty-six year old Louise loses her job and takes a temporary position as a caretaker for a 35 year old quadripalegic who challenges her to live life on a grander scale. This was a quick read, but light it was not. I’m glad I read it, but be warned that you’ll need Kleenex.

17925145Someone Else’s Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson. Jackson is another writer of what might be called “women’s fiction,” but is not really chick lit. More domestic drama? I never really know how to describe it. I admit that I didn’t love the main character of this book – I found her a little annoying – but the other characters and the situation were interesting enough that they outweighed those feelings.

 

19398490-1All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. This book has made all of the Best of 2014 book lists this year and I can understand why. I admit that I am not quite done yet, so I can’t comment on the ending, but everything I’ve read so far is very compelling. In alternating chapters the book tells the story of a blind French girl whose father is the Keeper of the Locks for the Museum of Natural History in Paris and a German orphan boy whose talent with engineering gets him recruited into an elite military academy and then sent into the field tracking the Resistance during WWII. It is a gorgeous and haunting book.

This month so many books I’ve been wanting to read went on sale for Kindle and I couldn’t resist buying them since many of them had been on my wish list for eight months or more. (I do still prefer physical books but living abroad makes the Kindle so much more practical). You have permission to scold me if next month’s books do not include some of the following: Pastrix by Nadia Bolz-Weber, Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty, Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, Wild by Cheryl Strayed, Found by Micha Boyett, and The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd.

You can also follow me on Goodreads if you want to keep up with my reading.

What I’m Watching:

My internet seems to be struggling more and more these days so I never really know when I’ll be able to stream shows or which shows I’ll be able to see. I am a little behind but trying hard to stay current with Nashville, Parenthood, New Girl, Mindy Project, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Modern Family.

This month’s new discovery/obsession: Jane the Virgin. The premise sounds kind of dumb, but I’m finding it irresistibly charming a la Ugly Betty. We also finished the entire season of the BBC’s Broadchurch which was so fantastic. Highly recommend it.

On Netflix I am nearly finished with the last season of Veronica Mars and have made it halfway through season five of my Gilmore Girls re-watch. Hubby and I have also been watching more episodes of Frasier, a show he grew up on, but that I’ve never seen before.

I saw both Interstellar and Catching Fire, this month’s two big movie releases. I love everything Chris Nolan’s ever done and Interstellar was no exception although I admit that it took me a little while to decide how I felt about it – I didn’t really know much about the plot going into the movie, which was fun but also meant it took me a while to digest it.

What I’m Listening To:

SERIAL!!!!  Need I say more? For anyone who doesn’t know (though I can’t imagine who doesn’t know) Serial is a podcast that is an off-shoot from This American Life (my other favorite podcast). Serial is a one big investigative journalism story that is being told one episode at a time. This is the first season they’ve made and it is completely addicting. This season’s story is about a murder that happened in the 90’s where an 18 –year-old boy went to prison for supposedly murdering his girlfriend. But did he really do it?!!!!! We just don’t know. We are down to the final few episodes and I am so torn. If you haven’t listened to this, you need to catch up. It’s absolutely fascinating.

I also loved hearing this original song from Lauren Daigle, a friend of my little sisters’. I think she’s got a really cool voice and she is such a sweet girl.

Fawn Larson is a friend from high school who is a pretty awesome blue grass kind of artist releasing her first album. If you’re into that kind of music and supporting indie artists, you should check her out and buy her album!

What I’m Eating:

All the Thanksgivings! Thanks to a great expat community here in Korea we got to participate in three separate Thanksgiving dinners with all the good stuff. My contributions included apple crisp and this pumpkin cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting. Pretty serious stuff.

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Photo by: cozycakescottage.com

Follow me on Pinterest for more recipes.

On the Internets:

I adored this post from Jamie the Very Worst Missionary about the obnoxious misuse and overuse of the word “Blessed.”

Also, my friend Brett has had a few different series going on over at his blog, Irresistibly Fish including perspectives on racism and reconciliation, what single people want their married friends to know, and what married people want their single friends to know. Basically, there’s always something new happening over on Brett’s blog.

If you are one of the people who is also obsessed with Serial, these charts are fun.

If you need a laugh, here’s a great video of how German sounds compared to other languages. Cause it’s always fun to laugh at people speaking other languages. 😉

 

I also enjoyed this humorous post in the New Yorker about the benefits of coconut oil. “A few dabs of coconut oil in my ears and I could hear the ghosts of all my ancestors. “You’re fabulous,” they whispered. “The triumph of our bloodline.”

On the Blog:

As most of you know I was honored to be Freshly Pressed by WordPress this month, ironically for my post about how going viral doesn’t necessarily open all the doors you think it will. Thanks so much to all of you who sent encouraging comments and messages. I’m sorry I haven’t been able to respond to each one, but I have read all of your comments and appreciate them so much! I’m really humbled by all the love and encouragement I’ve received.

I also had my friend Meredith share her story of uneventful virginity for my Sex and the Church series. (There is one more piece in this series coming this week! Stay tuned!) I wrote about why I don’t jive with phrases like, “This World is Not My Home,” about learning to speak thankfulness as a way of showing love, and about my favorite passage on gratitude.

What I’ve Been Up To:

My students all participated in an arts festival at the beginning of the month where they performed songs and dances and other routines for all of their parents. They were adorable, though I did find the song and dance to “Summer Lovin’” from Grease to be mildly inappropriate for elementary school students. I figured they didn’t understand what the lyrics were really about…

The semester is winding down so I’m about to enter the frenzy of planning for English festival and the three separate English camps I have to run over the holidays as well as (the much more exciting) planning for our two weeks of vacation in January (hurray!)

I spent a lot of time this month running in preparation for the half marathon I ran last weekend with my friend Courtney. We finished in 1:57:07 which was my first time running a half in under 2 hours.

This week we had all the Thanksgivings including one with our friends Michael and Sophia who are a Korean couple in their 60’s who just retired to Korea after living in New York for most of their lives. They were a little homesick for American Thanksgiving so we all went to a big international hotel downtown that had a big Thanksgiving buffet in their main restaurant. They didn’t really know how to cook a turkey but they had an amazing selection of food so I can’t complain. Especially since we had two perfectly cooked turkeys over the weekend.

Tomorrow, we diet!

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Look at that beauty. 28-lbs of turkey carcass.

 

What I’m Into: October 2014 Edition

Happy November! Here is my October What I’m Into post. Sorry it’s a few days late! As always, I am linking up with Leigh Kramer for this post.

What I’m Reading:

This month I buried myself in books. It was almost an addiction – the minute I stopped reading one thing I needed to pick up something else. I couldn’t tolerate any lag-time. This was partly because quite a few books I wanted to read went on sale for kindle all at once and I bought about 8 books in just a few days and then felt like I needed to justify my purchases by reading them all immediately. But mostly it was because I was hiding from writing. I kept trying to write – blog posts and book chapters and proposals –and I kept failing to write. I started to cram all of my free moments with other people’s words so I wouldn’t have to think about my own. And this is what I read:

Speak by Nish Weiseth. This is a brand new book about the power of sharing stories. The author is the founder of A Deeper Story, a website that creates space for people to tell their stories. This was a short, quick read and I really enjoyed it.

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty. I had heard this book widely praised for a long time. I’ve read two of Moriarty’s other books and really enjoyed them, so I was looking forward to this one. I was not disappointed. This book is about a woman who wakes up after a fall with no memory of the past ten years of her life. While the whole “I have amnesia” trope can feel overdone or predictable, the complexity of the characters made this a much more nuanced story instead of just a cheap plot device. This was a fun, quick read, but it also left me thinking a lot about how the little choices we make in life that can add up to change the direction of your life. Little moments can pull you somewhere you never imagined going. This book also deals with infertility in a very genuine way that I’ve never quite seen done in fiction. I’m a fan.

Help, Thanks, Wow by Anne Lamott. This is a short, sweet book about what Anne Lamott considers to be her three essential prayers. I liked the idea of distilling prayer down to the core of what we are usually really praying and appreciated the reminder that simple prayers are sometimes the most powerful.

Julie and Julia by Julie Powell. I love food books and I loved the movie version of this book. Sadly , I did not love the book version quite as much. I still enjoyed it, but frankly the author is much more likeable as she is portrayed by Amy Adams in the movie than she is in real life. (Who wouldn’t be, I guess). I just found her to be very whiny and ungrateful and she joked a lot about how mean she was to her husband and how much it sucked that she’d married her high school sweetheart and so had never been with other men, etc. The parts about cooking were definitely the best parts, but overall I’d give it a 3 out of 5.

Tables in the Wilderness by Preston Yancey. Sigh. Such mixed feelings. This is a brand new book that’s been lauded by many of the bloggers and writers I admire. It’s not a bad book. But Yancey is young. He’s even younger than I am. And honestly…it shows. This is a spiritual memoir about moving from certainty about God and faith into doubt and then back again. Much of it is about Yancey’s transition from a staunch Southern Baptist tradition to exploring more liturgical traditions, specifically the Episcopal church. His reflections on the liturgy and what it can do for us are some of the best parts of the book.  But, there are many other parts that just read (to me) as incredibly un-self-aware. The basic arc of the story is of a kid who goes to college (he went to Baylor) thinking he knows everything and then comes to understand that in fact, he doesn’t have everything figured out yet. He tries to start a church at 18 and unsurprisingly, it fails. His conversations with his friends and his questions about faith remind me of my time at Wheaton and that was very relatable for me. But ultimately he tells this long story of his time in college and how he realized he didn’t know everything as though it were a very unique and original experience. I couldn’t help feeling that this is such a common story. Most of us go to college as arrogant know-it-alls and discover that we don’t know everything. It’s called maturity. And if it had been written that way – as though he was reflecting on an experience common to young adults –I probably would have liked it better. As it was, I felt like he was trying to share a super unique story and he went into great detail about his struggles and choices and emotional conflicts. And honestly, his struggles and questions were very valid, but also very common. The best way I can say it is that in the book he was not as self-aware as he seems to think he is. He seems to still have the “I’m a special millennial snowflake” syndrome common to many of us. Also, some of the writing (particularly near the beginning) was technically poor. He switches verb tenses like it’s his job. So, I didn’t love it. I feel a little ungracious writing this, but it’s also my honest opinion.

The Nesting Place by Myquillyn Smith. This is a quick, easy read about decorating and how you don’t have to have perfection to have a beautiful home. Mostly, it’s about the pictures.

Faith Unraveled by Rachel Held Evans. I read this at the exact right time in my life. This is Evans’ spiritual memoir coming from a fundamentalist evangelical “it’s us against the world” background and learning to be ok asking questions, even if you don’t find answers right away. I loved that she actually articulated some of the really hard questions of life and faith and didn’t try to smooth them over with Bible verses or trite Christian phrases. My biggest takeaway was something Evans said at the very end of the book – that there is a difference between questioning God and questioning what you believe about God. That was so profound to me and has helped me come to terms with some of my questions.

Quiet by Susan Cain. This book is soooo good. It’s completely fascinating. If you are an introvert or you love an introvert, you should read it. It taught me so much about how I work as a highly sensitive introvert in contrast with my husband who is more strongly introverted, but is not highly sensitive. I also found her exploration of Western culture’s “extrovert ideal” so helpful in understanding the ways in which I’ve trained myself to act more extroverted. This helped me make sense of why I am 100% sure I’m an introvert, but other people sometimes seem surprised by that.

The Opposite of Me by Sarah Pekkanen. An easy but unremarkable read about fraternal twins who have never gotten along and come to understand each other better. No great shakes, but it was an easy read and a nice break from all my non-fiction.

I was reading The Inner Voice of Love by Henri Nouwen devotionally over the past few months, but I’ve finished it now. I am currently using Shane Claiborne’s Common Prayer in my devotional reading. I’m nearly finished with Molly Wizenberg’s Delancey and have a few lovely novels queued up on my kindle.

I read 10 books this month for a total of 51 so far this year. You can follow me on Goodreads if you’re into that.

Also, If you would be interested in me doing more book reviews in the future, leave me a comment and let me know, especially if there’s anything in particular you want to hear more about.

What I’m Listening To:

October has been a month of long runs preparing for a half marathon at the end of November. On long runs I like to listen to podcasts. In addition to This American Life and Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me! I’ve become obsessed with NPR’s newest podcast, Serial, which tells one long story over the course of many episodes. This story is a true crime investigation of a man who has been in prison for 15 years for a crime he still says he didn’t commit. It’s fascinating.

Also fascinating/moving/inspiring was Nadia Bolz-Weber’s interview for the On Being podcast. Bolz-Weber is a Lutheran priest and the author of Pastrix a book very high on my to-read list. If you get a chance, listen to this. There are some breathtaking moments.

What I’m Watching:

I’m on Season 5 of my re-watch of Gilmore Girls. I raced through the last season of Call the Midwife when it hit Netflix. I’ve also been watching and loving The Paradise on Netflix. I’m staying current with Nashville, Parenthood, Mindy Project, New Girl, Modern Family, and Brooklyn Nine Nine. We’ve also been watching old episodes of Frasier and just last night watched the first episode of the British show Broadchurch after which I immediately asked Jonathan if we could skip work today and binge-watch it, but he said no.

*I just edited this because I forgot the movies!*

We saw Gone Girl last weekend and I thought it was really well-done. I read the book last year and actually pretty strongly disliked it because it seemed to be trying to say something deeper about marriage and relationships, etc but epic-ly failed to do so because of the nature of the plot. (When there are psychopaths or sociopaths involved you can no longer treat any of their relationships as an effective commentary on normal society.) I thought it worked so much better as a movie where you could appreciate it as entertainment without trying to extract this deep message about marriage and society.

We also saw the Maze Runner, which was entertaining as well as long as you didn’t think about it too much.

What I’m Eating/Cooking:

Soup! I got a new thermos to take my lunch to school with me and the ability to eat hot foods is rocking my world. I make a big pot of soup on the weekend and bring it for lunch every day. Last week it was my all-time favorite chicken tortilla soup. This week it’s a chicken noodle soup with no noodles and more veggies whose recipe I just made up on the fly.

I use this recipe except I add a tsp of taco seasoning and up the other spices. And I use black beans instead of (or sometimes in addition to) corn. Photo by: Allrecipes.com

I use this recipe except I add a tsp of taco seasoning and up the other spices. And I use black beans instead of (or sometimes in addition to) corn. And I put the whole thing in my crockpot, including the raw chicken. So easy. Photo by: Allrecipes.com

Also I made my mom’s gumbo this weekend (with a bit of my own flair thrown in – let’s face it, I am pathologically incapable of leaving recipes alone) and it was like heaven.

Gumbo

I also made a pumpkin cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting for church yesterday and it rocked my world. I don’t have any pictures because I inhaled it.

If you want to see more of what I’m cooking you can follow me on Pinterest.

What I’m Writing:

As I said above, I’ve mostly been avoiding writing, so instead I’ve been hosting my Sex and the Church guest series here including such greats as “Can We At Least Begin By Saying the Words?” “You are not a gift to be unwrapped” a post about same-sex attraction, and a post from my hubby about how sex is both dangerous and beautiful. I also wrote two guest-posts for friends’ blogs. The first was for my friend Brett about being (or not being) a mom. The second guest post was for my friend Karissa’s Where I Found God series about finding God outside of the church.

On the Internets:

This off-color, but terribly funny post (similar to last month’s) about Women Having a Terrible Time at Parties

I loved this article from my friend Briana Meade about getting how we are not special millennial snowflakes and how we have to learn to live faithfully in the small moments of life instead of constantly thinking we are too good for ordinary. I have had to come to grips with this myself over the last few years and I think this piece is so insightful.

Glennon Melton’s challenge What if Your Life Is Already the Best Thing? is worth a read. (I adore her).

This post from Lisa Jo Baker about why women don’t need to be ashamed of needing to feel beautiful stuck with me.

And this post from my friend Karissa about quitting the writing rat-race (even thought this was technically a November post, I’m including it). I second everything she says here.

And, obviously, this:

What I’ve Been Up To:

I’m training for a half marathon at the end of November so I spend about half of every weekend running and then trying to recover from running. I frequently ask myself why I am doing this, but then I remember, hey, I’ve got these awesome shoes I’ve got to justify buying, and I soldier on.

Shoes

It’s like running on beautiful pillows made of mermaid fins.

I also recently discovered the enormous Korean cosmetic and skincare industry – I was always aware that that’s a huge thing here and that they’re supposed to be really good, but I hadn’t really tried out too many products. One day it occurred to me that I basically haven’t bought new makeup in eight years and I decided to try a thing or two. I made the thrilling and dangerous discovery that I love Korean cosmetics and skincare. The packaging is ridiculously cute and everything is so cheap! AND they give you SO MANY free samples. What’s not to love?!

Samples

Seriously. All free samples. Including that toner and moisturizer that are at least half-size products.

We recently joined a few other people to start a sort of house church here in Daegu and have been really enjoying getting to know some new people and getting to have church in a more casual and comfortable setting.

The past two weeks seem to be peak fall weather/foliage time for Korea so we are trying to get out and enjoy that as much as possible. Korea lights up like New England in the fall and I can’t get enough of it.

I was loving seeing all the baby costumes on Facebook this past weekend. Baby costumes are probably the biggest pro in my mind to having a baby. If I have kids, mine are gonna wear costumes all the time. I especially like this kid in his minion costume.

 

Oh, and I dyed my hair. I’m no longer a red-head. I’m a raspberry-chocolate head. I keep scaring myself when I pass mirrors.

What have you been into? Anything amazing I should be checking out?

 

What I’m Into: September 2014 Edition

I can’t believe it’s the end of September already, but since it is…it’s time for the monthly round-up. Here is my September contribution to Leigh Kramer’s “What I’m Into” link-up.

What I’m Reading:

At first I thought, “Man, I didn’t read that much this month.” But then I remembered that The Goldfinch was 750-unnecessary-pages long and I gave myself a break.

goldfinchThe Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. Sigh. I don’t really know where to start with this one. It’s not a bad book. There are some really interesting characters and ideas. I just didn’t love it. It was not up to par with what I expect of a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel (It was no Kavalier and Clay). My main beef with this book is that the main character and narrator (Theo Decker) is neither interesting nor sympathetic. Apart from the very beginning where you feel bad for him because of his family situation, he really turns out to be a pretty terrible person, but he’s not even an interesting terrible person. I don’t think all the characters in good literature need to be likeable. But they do have to make me care what happens to them. I did not care about him. Some of the secondary characters, on the other hand, were fascinating. At the end of the book Theo goes into this long tangent where he philosophizes on life in a way that I found really unsatisfying. He ends up saying essentially that life is really difficult and sucky and meaningless but it’s all we have so we should maybe try to find some joy in it. And I just didn’t understand how that was even logical. If life is sucky and meaningless, what possible motivation is there to try to be a good person and find joy? I was pretty frustrated at the end of the book – dissatisfied with both the story itself and the author’s conclusions on life. And it was a lot of pages to read to feel that disappointed.

secret placeThe Secret Place by Tana French. I love, love, love Tana French. She and Kate Atkinson are my favorite mystery writers, hands-down. This book did not disappoint me. I will say – this was the first of her books that I guessed who the murderer was pretty early on, but I don’t really think it was because it was too obvious. I just had a good gut instinct on this one. The Likeness is still my favorite French book, but I really enjoyed this one.

 

 

 


Good luckThe Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick. This is the author who wrote Silver Linings Playbook which I LOVE (the book and the movie. The movie is actually one of my very favorites). It’s told in a series of letters that Bartholomew Neil is writing to Richard Gere. Bartholomew is a 38-year-old man with some sort of social/mental impairment that’s unspecified. His mother, whom he’s lived with all of his life, has recently died of brain cancer and he is alone, unemployed, and without any adult friends except for his priest and his therapist. Richard Gere was his mother’s favorite actor and Bartholomew has become fixated on him as a sort of imaginary friend/confidant who helps him get through life. It’s a funny and sad and endearing book Not on the same level as Silver Linings Playbook, but still a good (and fast) read.

 

 

teach us to wantTeach Us to Want: Longing, Ambition, and the Life of Faith by Jen Pollock Michel. This is a wonderful book that I am still meditating on. It’s about building a theology of desire.  Michel begins by talking about how mistrustful many Christians are of desire and how early in her adulthood she felt that the right thing or the thing God was calling her to do would necessarily be difficult and uncomfortable. In other words, if it was something she genuinely desired then it must not be God’s will. She goes on to suggest that the sign of spiritual maturity is not how well we suppress our own desires, but how much our desires change to reflect God’s desires. Michel uses the Lord’s Prayer as a frame to hang the many facets of desire and to explore what role desire plays in the life of faith. This book is thoughtful and wise and I highly recommend it.

 

 

I am currently reading: Julie and Julia by Julie Powell,  Life of the Beloved by Henri Nouwen (as devotional reading), Crazy Love by Francis Chan with my Bible study, and very slowly working through, Good News About Sex and Marriage which is an exploration of the Catholic church’s teachings on marriage and sex by Christopher West. This month I’ve got my eye on Speak by Nish Weiseth and State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (though I’ve been trying to get to that one for a while now). For a more complete list of what I’ve read/am reading follow me on Goodreads or check out my Books I’ve Read page.

According to my Goodreads page I have read 41 books this year. I guess that’s accurate.

What I’m Watching:

I saw Begin Again and Frank in theaters this month. I adored Begin Again. Interestingly enough it is extremely popular in Korea. My Korea coteacher told me she has all the music and listens to it on her way to work and on her way home and before she goes to bed each night. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised since Adam Levine is in the movie and Korea has an inexplicable love for Maroon 5. Frank was weird, which is not necessarily a bad thing for me, but in this case I thought it was interesting but inaccessible. I also watched Philomena which I really loved. Oh Dame Judi Dench. You have done it again.

Before the fall premiers started I was watching Gilmore Girls season 4, the last season I have on DVD, in anticipation of its release to Netflix next month. I also re-visited my love for Ugly Betty and have been watching old episodes of Parks and Recreation with the hubby. Oh, and I’m trying to catch up on Pretty Little Liars but have trouble finding places to watch it. Now that the shows have started up again I will be watching some to all of the following: Parenthood, Nashville, ANTM (Don’t judge), Brooklyn Nine Nine, The Mindy Project (I remind you, Mindy Kaling is my spirit animal), New Girl, Scandal (after we catch up), and who even knows what else.

What I’m Eating:

In July I lost 10 lbs. In August I gained 8. I mean…I accept full responsibility for this. I really don’t have any regrets. But I don’t seem to have quite been able to kick the habit. I blame a lot of that on my discovery of these cookies which literally melt in your mouth. These are definitely my Recipe-of-the-month.

almond meltaways

Photo by: The Novice Chef Blog

For more recipes and other happy things, follow me on Pinterest.

 

What I’m Writing:

Relevant

Did I mention how excited I was to sort of be this close to Nick Offerman’s face?!

Here on the blog I wrote about my difficult summer and about praying for the grace to believe when I don’t. In response to the print publication of my Relevant article coming out, I re-posted my response blog to my Lies About Sex article. I wrote about what it means to be sensitive to others and still celebrate and mourn in community. And I wrote about Jill Duggar Dillard’s pregnancy announcement and whether or not things need to be public to be celebrated. And last week I wrote about the time I asked my mom to spank me and how I’m learning that grace isn’t really free.

I had an opportunity to submit a freelance piece for Explore God last week (not published anywhere yet) and am looking forward to contributing to Karissa Knox Sorrell’s “Where I Found God” series this month. I will also be hosting my own series on Sex, Purity, and the Church. I am still accepting submissions for this series. If you are interested in writing on this topic you can contact me at lily.e.dunn at gmail.com.

On the Internets:

This has been a good month for the internet.

Ann Voskamp’s “Why Wait Til Marriage” post was just beautiful and great to read at a time that this topic has been a major part of my work.

This re-post of Sarah Bessey’s “Dear Body” is a beautiful celebration of womanhood and extending love and grace to ourselves.

This essay my sister sent me on the art of listening is both interesting and convicting.

Emma Watson’s Kick-Butt speech about the need for male feminists was, well, kick-butt.

 

This set of graphs that explain so many truths about Gilmore Girls.

This is absolutely hilarious. “Unsatisfied Women in Art History.”  But sorry about all the curse words. I guess.

“18 Kinds of People Who Comment on Recipe Blogs.” And this I read this at school and was laughing so hard my face hurt. I don’t know if everyone will find it as funny as I did (probably not) but as someone who does a lot of perusing of recipes online I see this all the time.

Jonathan shared stories and pictures from our trip home and to Bali over at Two Sore Thumbs. Check it out!

What I’ve Been Up To:

Coming off of a rough summer I have been enjoying and embracing fall. Perhaps this has something to do with the ability to cover the 8 lbs I gained in August with fashionably bulky sweaters and stretchy tights, but hey, I’m not proud.

Really though, the fall is always the best season of the year for me emotionally and spiritually and often physically as well. I love the cooler weather, the colors, the smells and the FLAVORS. (I am eagerly awaiting my order of canned pumpkin so I can start making some fall yummies). I’ve started running again and am hoping to do another half marathon in November. So far I’m only up to 6 miles, but I got some awesome new shoes that make me feel like I’m magical, so I think it’s doable if I can just stop eating pizza and cookies all the time.

On Sunday we went hiking which my legs are still punishing me for, but it’s been really nice to be in the sweet spot for outdoor activities again and we want to take advantage of those kinds of things before it gets too cold.

Korean thanksgiving (Chuseok) fell very early this year so we had a 5-day weekend at the beginning of September which we used for a very quick trip to Japan. We were only there for two full days, but we got a quick taste of Kyoto (which is beautiful) and Osaka. We even saw some real-life geisha! (Geisha is the plural of geisha in case you were wondering).

School started up for the fall, which in Korea is just the second semester of the same school year, so there have been no big changes there although I do have a new coteacher since my original one is out on maternity leave. Yesterday she (the new coteacher) said to me, “Today it is raining and I have had many classes. I will need something sweet.” So yeah, I think this relationship is going to work out well.

I’ve also discovered that my right thumb is apparently delicious. I feel like I’ve been missing out for a long time.

yummy thumb

What I’m Into: August 2014 Edition

The month of August has been a whirlwind of experiences and emotions involving more transportation than I think I’ve ever crammed into such a short time (10 flights in 19 days, two of which were 12-14 hours long). As of last night I am back in Korea. I have one more short trip scheduled for September 7-10 and after that I’ll be settling in for a much more normal routine, hopefully including more regular blog posts.

It feels appropriate to pick up blogging again with my monthly re-cap of What I’m Into. As usual, I am linking up with Leigh Kramer for this post. I like to read through posts by other bloggers from this link up for ideas of new things to read, watch, listen to, make, think, and do. If you like that kind of thing be sure to check out some of the other bloggers on her link-up.

This Month in Numbers:

75,000 (at least) calories eaten

25,000 miles traveled

600 pictures taken

15 times I cried this month (I’ve been feeling a lot of feelings. And hey, only 3 of those were ugly crying).

11 American restaurants visited

10 flights taken

8 lbs gained

7 movies watched

6.25 books read

5 countries traveled through

4 days without luggage

4 trips to Target, just to bask in its glow

2 monkeys that sat on me

 

What I’m Reading:

I admit, my reading this month was a little all over the place, from really light fluffy books to spiritual memoirs to investigative non-fiction. But that’s the beauty of books, really. There’s something for everyone. (Or in my case, something for each of my personalities).

Three wishesThree Wishes, Liane Moriarty. Like other books I’ve read by this author, this book was a perfect relaxing read. Part domestic drama and part romance – easy reading but with more complex characters than many beach-reads and a plot that was a little predictable without being stupid. Also, this book is about a set of adult triplets, two of whom are identical and one who isn’t. I actually know someone who is part of a set of triplets like that and I’ve always thought that dynamic was unique and interesting.

 

AttachmentsAttachments, Rainbow Rowell. During last month’s What I’m Into link-up people kept mentioning Rainbow Rowell so when I saw this book on sale for kindle I decided to try it. Told mostly through email correspondence, this book was light, easy, and feel-good. You could almost read it in one sitting. There was nothing particularly compelling about it, but it was sweet.

 

 

 

womanhoodA Year of Biblical Womanhood, Rachel Held Evans. Somehow, I had never gotten around to reading this book in its entirety even though I read a lot of Rachel’s other writing and have read excerpts of it. I’m glad I finally read it. It was interesting, funny, thought-provoking, and informative all at once. Each month Rachel tackled one biblical virtue for women and tried to observe it as strictly as possible. She also interviewed women of different faith backgrounds for perspective (an orthodox Jew, an Amish woman, a family who practices what they believe to be “biblical marriage” through polygamy). While Rachel is well-known for being an outspoken feminist, this book is a very honest and gracious exploration of the nebulous concept of biblical womanhood and, I found, a very fair consideration of various points of view on the subject. I was particularly moved by the chapter that explored the iconic Proverbs 31 woman, evangelical saint of womanhood, and learned how in the Jewish tradition it is the men who learn this poem in order to recite or sing it to their wives as a blessing.

Love DoesLove Does, Bob Goff. Goff has a lot of great stories. And I absolutely love the core message of this book – that real love is active. That we shouldn’t be afraid to take risks and live a big, loud life loving others. That we shouldn’t let the constraints of others’ expectations or even, sometimes, practicality, keep us from dreaming God-sized dreams. But, Goff doesn’t address the fact that many of his stories of jet-setting around the world at a moment’s notice are only possible because he has a stable, well-paid job as an attorney and has both the finances and flexibility to do these things. I find Goff’s spirit infectious and inspiring, but this is not the first time I’ve closed a book like this frustrated, wishing the author would at least acknowledge that their circumstances aren’t universal. I want someone to tell me what it looks like to live that kind of life when you work a regular job making 25k with two weeks of vacation time a year. Because that is reality for most of us.

FreefallFreefall to Fly, Rebekah Lyons. I wanted to like this book. I really did. I deeply respect the author’s honesty in talking about her struggle with severe anxiety and panic attacks in the midst of trying to do ministry in a new city and raising young children. My problem was that I just couldn’t really understand what she was saying changed for her. I know this kind of book requires extraordinary vulnerability, but I felt that she talked around her issues rather than naming them directly and this made it very hard for me to understand what it was that changed in her life and brought transformation.

OmnivoreThe Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan. This book follows the food chain from one end to the other for four different meals. The industrial food chain which produces the McDonald’s chicken nugget (which, you will learn, is largely composed of corn, rather than chicken). The industrial organic food chain where grass-fed beef and non-chemical fertilizers and pesticides are used to mass-produce organic food for places like Whole Foods. The local organic food chain where all of the food is raised locally using sustainable practices and intentionally not traveling far from where it was produced. And finally a meal from a forager’s food chain where all of the food was personally grown or collected by the consumer. This book was fascinating and enlightening and convicting and will certainly challenge you to think about where you food is coming from and what you are putting into your body from an ethical standpoint more than a health one. I genuinely think this book will impact my food choices in the future. (After Korea of course. Because frankly right now I feel good about myself if I get home from the store with anything resembling what I was looking for).

I’m currently a quarter of the way through The Goldfinch, so look for my quick review of that next month. While visiting home I picked up a few physical books I already owned but had had to leave behind so those are next up for me though I’m not sure what order I’ll read them in yet. Those books include Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder, Barbara Kingsolver’s Prodigal Summer, I am also eagerly awaiting tomorrow’s release of Tana French’s new book, The Secret Place. I am a huge fan of hers.

What I’m Watching:

Besides racing through episodes of Veronica Mars, and (embarrassingly) all of Lipstick Jungle, all that flying meant lots of opportunities to watch movies. Before the trip we saw Guardians of the Galaxy which I enjoyed, but probably not quite as much as my husband who saw it two days in a row. On various planes I saw the Veronica Mars movie, Rio 2, and The Other Woman (Which I mostly slept through). I also re-watched Divergent and part of The Amazing Spiderman 2, and some episodes of Big Bang Theory. In America I went to the movie theater twice, once to see The 100 Foot Journey (which I ADORED – a movie about food, set in France. Recipe for perfection.) And I saw Daniel Radcliffe’s new rom-com What if? which I also loved because it was feel-good, but also quirky and endearing, which are my favorite kinds of light movies. In Bali I was able to buy a copy of the Fault in Our Stars which I watched last night and which resulted in the 3rd of my ugly-cries this month in spite of having read the book and knowing the ending. I loved the book and the movie was a good representation.

What I’m Eating:

Besides the copious amounts of restaurant food we ate in America (Bloomin’ Onion from Outback, Chili’s southwest eggrolls, Chipotle burritos, and an extravagant, delicious steak dinner with my family) we also got to eat some amazing Indonesian food while in Bali.

At home I baked two cakes, one was this lemonade cake that became a favorite of mine a few years ago.

Lemonade Cake

Image from: cookinglight.com Click photo for recipe!

The other was the absolute best carrot cake in the world from my mom’s recipe.

I also had at least 7 different kinds of ice cream. I tried to rank them for you, but it was impossible. So I will just list them. If you have an opportunity to eat any of these, do it!

Graeter’s Black Raspberry Chocolate chip
Graeter’s Coconut Chocolate Chip
Haagen Dazs Caramel Cone
Bluebell Magic Cookie Bar
Bluebell Red Velvet Cake
Bluebell Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Ben and Jerry’s Salted Caramel Core

Are you drooling yet?

You can follow me on Pinterest for other things I’m cooking/eating.

What I’m Writing:

This has been a quiet month on the blog though I did have the opportunity to celebrate the birth of our dear friends Josh and Laura’s daughter, Genevieve, in this post. And I asked for you to share your stories of how the church talks about sex here. I am planning to curate a series of guest posts on this topic, so if you are interested in contributing, please let me know! (lily.e.dunn at gmail.com)

Supposedly, a slightly revised version of my 4 Lies the Church Taught Me About Sex article was reprinted in the newest edition of Relevant’s in-print magazine, though I haven’t actually seen it. But hey, somewhere my name is theoretically in print!

I’m  working on an article for Explore God  though I’m not sure in what capacity it will be used and I have a few guest posts set up for this fall. By the beginning of August I was beginning to hit a wall with writing, feeling drained and tired and stuck with the projects I was already working on, but I’m hopeful that the combination of time away and the coming fall weather will rejuvenate me.

What I’ve been up to:

Our grand adventure included 5 days visiting my family.

My family at our fancy dinner.

My family at our fancy dinner. Aren’t they really, really ridiculously good-looking?

Five days visiting Jonathan’s family, during which my best friend flew out to Ohio to see us.

best

I don’t always make this face… but when I do it’s because I’m with Christina.

And an amazing few days in Bali where we got to see some beautiful parts of this glorious world, stay in a gorgeous villa (that was cheaper than a Motel 6), drink coffee that was once civet cat poop, and also hold this monkey.

IMG_5517

Entrance to our villa. It was like being a queen.

 

Sunset at Tanah Lot

Sunset at Tanah Lot

IMG_5612

Just chllin’ like a villain with our boy Marcus. (I feel certain that’s his name).

We’ll be sure to get a full post with a lot more pictures up soon over at Two Sore Thumbs!

What I’m Into: July 2014 Edition

I’m back for the July edition of my monthly What I’m Into posts, part of the lovely Leigh Kramer’s link-up. July has somehow felt busy and boring at the same time because our school semester just ended last week and all of the end-of-schoolyear madness as well as vacation planning and planning and running summer English camps has kept us busy, but we haven’t done a lot of exciting extra-curricular activities since we’ve been gearing up for our big trip home in August. In spite of all of that I’ve still found time for reading, seeing movies, watching shows and cooking/baking, all the while anxiously counting down the days until we get to visit home (12!)

What I’m Reading:

silkwormI kicked off this month with Robert Galbraith (AKA J.K. Rowling’s) The Silkworm, the newest installment of her Cormoran Strike mystery novels. It did not disappoint. Rowling is, of course, a master storyteller and the mystery was intriguing, the characters were well-developed, and the plot was engaging and unpredictable. I thought this book was great fun.

 

 

beautiful ruinsNext I read Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter. This book follows artists of different types – a writer, an actress, a film producer, and a musician, from post-war Italy to modern-day Hollywood. The connections between the characters are complex and interesting. Naturally I found some characters more compelling than others, but overall I really enjoyed this book. It’s one of my favorite types of books that starts with characters at all ends of the world and in very different circumstances and gradually brings them together until you understand how they are connected and why their stories belong together. And I thought this book did this very successfully.  Also, it made me want to go to Italy. But then again, pretty much everything makes me want to go to Italy.

perfumeI followed this up with Kathleen Tessaro’s The Perfume Collector which was part of a big sale Amazon was having. (Don’t worry, I still prefer physical books over electronic books, but while living in a foreign country it is infinitely more practical to use a kindle than to have physical books shipped here when I can’t even take them home with me.) I was ambivalent about this book. I enjoyed it enough. It wasn’t in any way a BAD book. It was an easy read without being mindless. It just wasn’t a great book. The book follows two women, one living in England in the 1950’s who is left a large inheritance by a complete stranger and the other – the woman who left the inheritance. I suppose the problem was that I found one of the main characters to be somewhat bland and boring. I just didn’t click with her and the plot was fairly predictable. I did like learning a bit about perfume-making, something I’d never given any thought to.

Cold tangerinesCold Tangerines by Shauna Niequist. A few months back I read Shauna’s most recent book, Bread and Wine and just loved it. (It sparked some thoughts about the role of food in my life which I wrote about here.) I was excited to go back and read her other books. The conversational style and honest observations about celebrating ordinary moments of ordinary life made this book very enjoyable. I admit that while I appreciated each individual essay or story, there were definitely moments when I didn’t see the organizing structure too clearly, but I still enjoyed the pieces individually, especially since this is the kind of book I envision myself writing someday.

 

signatureThe Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert. I’ve been meaning to read this book since it came out, but only just got around to it. Liz Gilbert is a great writer, her prose is smooth and beautiful and she paints a world you can imagine very vividly. This book follows the Whittaker family through the 18th and 19th century. It begins with Henry Whittaker, who rises from poverty to become a prosperous and enterprising botanist, and continues to chronicle the life of his daughter, Alma, who follows her father’s footsteps into botany and ultimately is driven to research and understand the workings of life itself. There were times when the action in the book seemed to move slowly, but the characters were interesting and even the writing so polished that even the more scientific passages were engaging. I don’t know that I would count this among my favorite books, but it’s certainly a good book and well worth the read.

bird by birdI also just finished up Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, which is a book about writing. There were some good tips and ideas in this book (carrying around notecards or something to jot ideas on while you’re out and about, developing a group of writing friends for encouragement and support) and there were some hard truths (like the fact that getting published really doesn’t completely change your life), but overall it was encouraging to hear another writer who has been at this for a long time sharing many of the ups and down I feel about writing myself. There were moments that felt a little over-dramatic, or not so practical for me since I am not currently focusing on fiction writing, but I still thought there were some good thoughts and some very funny moments. I realized that this book has now been out for twenty years and it made me wonder how Anne Lamott feels about writing these days and if her advice has changed at all.

On deck for this month (which will include several around-the-world flights):  Red Seas Under Red Skies, the second book of Scott Lynch’s Gentlemen Bastard’s series, Jen Pollock Michel’s Teach Us to Want, and probably The Goldfinch (though it’s on Jonathan’s kindle right now so I have to wait for him to finish.) I’ll probably also read a fluffy vacation book or two. I might pick up something from my books in storage at home so I can enjoy reading a physical book for a change. You can follow me on Goodreads if you are interested in what I’m reading.

What I’m Watching:

I’m way behind the times I know, but I’m actually just now working my way through Veronica Mars, which I never had access to before now. Kristen Bell is just the most adorable person in the world and I can’t stop watching her. When I’m not watching VM, I’m still working my way through The Good Wife and lately re-watching seasons 3 & 4 of Gilmore Girls. Jonathan and I have still been catching up on Scandal and the 24 Re-boot as well as Graceland. Every once in a while we throw in some Bob’s Burgers or an old episode of 30 Rock to get some comedy in the mix.

Last weekend we went to see How to Train Your Dragon 2.which was really fun. I think I might have liked the first one better, but it’s been a long time since I’ve seen it so it’s tough to say. And we are eagerly awaiting the release of Guardians of the Galaxy this weekend, so I’ll be sure to report on that next month!

What I’m Eating:

I’ve been trying really hard to eat super-healthy in preparation for our two weeks in the US during which I plan to eat as many foods as I possibly can. (You think I’m joking, but I’ve basically got our meals scheduled out). My dedication seems to be paying off because I’ve lost almost 10 lbs in the last month (yay!) but it does mean I’ve been eating far fewer tasty treats. And lots of eggs. I’ve eaten 2-3 eggs every day for the last month. That is a lot of eggs, particularly for someone who doesn’t like them in the first place. Fortunately, I found this recipe for chicken picatta (well, revised chicken picatta) that not only tastes AMAZING, but is much much better for you than the regular stuff. It’s low-carb, gluten-free, paleo friendly, all that good stuff. I threw some zucchini straight into the pan with the chicken at the end because I liked the sauce so much I wanted it on my veggies too.

Photo credit: holisticallyengineered.com

Photo credit: holisticallyengineered.com

In less healthy eating, I also discovered that I can, in fact, make my own samoa girl scout cookies. So I did. And they were amazing. Next time I will try to make mine smaller. And I might consider buying some sort of pre-made butter cookie for the base to save on time. In spite of being very time-consuming and ridiculously rich, the results were fabulous! (Recipe here!)

Sorry for the low-quality phone photo, but you get the idea.

Sorry for the low-quality phone photo, but you get the idea. Get the recipe here!

You can follow me on Pinterest if you want to see what else I’m cooking.

 

On the Blog:

It’s been a busy blogging month! I want to give a quick shout-out to all of my new followers. I so appreciate your support – the encouraging messages I’ve received and just knowing that at least some of what I write matters to people is really huge. Thank you so much for reading and commenting and sharing. It makes the tough parts of writing and being vulnerable worth it.

I started this month with a post about how my husband doesn’t treat me like a princess. Then I wrote a piece about how hard it is to comfort a loved one when you just don’t have the right words. I reviewed Brené Brown’s book, Daring Greatly, and I had the incredible opportunity to do a 4-part guest series about sex for Brett “Fish” Anderson. Brett also included a re-post of my “I suck at marriage but my marriage doesn’t suck” post for his series on marriage. I jumped in on the Faith Feminisms synchroblog with a tongue-in-cheek piece about being married to a feminist. And I got to write guest post and share a favorite recipe at my dear friend Asharae Kroll’s amazing food-and-photography blog, This Wild Season.

Looking ahead, an editor from Relevant’s print magazine has contacted me about a print article (no details on that at this point) and I am starting to look at this incredibly scary and overwhelming thing called a book proposal (again, no details at this point). So besides my regular blogging activities, I’ve got some potential writing projects on my plate for the next few months.

On the Internets:

I was really moved by this piece from Ann Voskamp, particularly the part where she talks about the problem of evil and whether we’ve maybe forgotten that tied up in that is the (perhaps larger) problem of good. “If there is no God, why is there so much good?”

This gorgeous piece, “On Prayer,” by Sarah Torna Roberts

This news report about the Church Of England synod voting for the approval of women bishops. Yay!

This hilarious post from my friend Briana about one of her recent mothering mishaps.

I really appreciated this post from Rachel Held Evans called, “I Don’t Always Tell You” where she admits to doubts and discouragement and fatigue from fighting battles all the time. I admire Rachel in a lot of ways, even if I don’t always agree with her, but I admit that sometimes I just can’t read another angry blog post. This post showed a softer side of her and reminded me that she is a woman too, doing some hard work, and that even people who seem really confident all the time need encouragement.

What I’ve Been Up To:

As I said before, we haven’t been doing much besides working and spending time with our good friends, Josh and Laura, who are expecting their first baby any day now. It’s kind of fun that every time we see them could be the last time we see them without a baby. Having been with them through this whole pregnancy, it’s exciting to be so close to meeting their daughter. Definitely gives me some maternal urges, haha.

I am anticipating a VERY needed vacation starting August 12th. We will be traveling home to the US for two weeks, splitting our time between my family and Jonathan’s family and from there, heading back to this part of the world for five days of vacation in Bali before going back to Korea in time to start the fall semester on September 1st. It’s been almost a year since we left the US and while I have deeply valued my experiences abroad, I need a little r&r in a familiar place with the people (and foods!) I love to get me through another year in Korea.  I’m getting over a nasty cold and I’ve got one more session of English Summer Camp to get through next week and then I am free! I. CANNOT. WAIT.

What I’m Into: June 2014 Edition

It’s time for the monthly round-up again. If you are into this kind of post, check out Leigh Kramer’s monthly link-up to find other bloggers’ posts or submit your own.

What I’m Reading:

My plan was to tackle some non-fiction books this month, but I ended up going in a different direction. This month turned out to be more stressful than I thought it would be, leading me to devote most of my reading time to fun, easy reads that served as a mental break from some of the stressors of real life. You can follow me on Goodreads if you want the play-by-play.

 

BridgetBridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, Helen Fielding. The return of Bridget Jones as a 50-year-old widow with just as much personality and all the same quirks we either loved or hated about her in the first place. Basically, if you loved Bridget before, you’ll find her not much changed (in a good way). If you found her annoying, this probably isn’t the beach read for you. I read this during our weekend at the beach at Namhae and it was fluffy and charming.

 

MindyIs Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? Mindy Kaling. Ok, I’m pretty sure Mindy Kaling is my spirit animal. Again, I guess it depends on whether you generally find her funny or not, but I do and I thought this book was hilarious. And I also wanted to be her best friend. I can’t wait for her second book to come out.

 

 

 

Husband's SecretThe Husband’s Secret, Liane Moriarty. For the most part, I really enjoyed this book. I found most of the characters to be interesting and complex and I’ve always enjoyed the types of narratives that start with different characters in different places and slowly intertwine. It was interesting and held my attention from beginning to end. And for the first time I considered the phenomenon that Easter happens IN THE FALL in Australia (and the rest of the Southern Hemisphere).  Mind bomb.

 

 

DaringDaring Greatly: How to Courage to be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead, Brene Brown. I won’t say too much about this now since I am planning a blog-post review of it in the next few weeks, but I highly recommend it to everyone. It’s different than I expected it to be – for some reason I was thinking it was more creative non-fiction whereas it is true non-fiction written by a real researcher. I believe everyone struggles with shame and vulnerability and I also believe the ideas and strategies in this book about embracing vulnerability and developing shame resilience has the power to change people’s lives. You should read it and be open to finding yourself in it.

Currently reading: The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (pen name for J.K. Rowling), Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, and American Gods by Neil Gaiman with an eye on Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch and The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt for the near future.

 

What I’m Watching:

I know I’m behind the times, but I just started watching The Good Wife and I’m totally hooked. I also spent some time this month getting all caught up on my Pretty Little Liars, which of course, has become more and more absurd and convoluted with each passing season, but which I can’t stop watching because I need to know what the heck is going on. Also those girls have great hair and I feel like I could learn a lot from them.

See what I mean. Total hair envy.

See what I mean. Total hair envy.

Jonathan and I have been watching the new season of 24 and catching up on Scandal now that Netflix just released new episodes. We also have been excited about the return of Graceland – we really enjoyed the first season and hope the second one is just as good.

I also saw Maleficent a few weeks ago and I really enjoyed it. I thought it was an interesting take on the story and Angelina Jolie was fantastic. I really, really want to see The Fault in Our Stars even though I know I will cry buckets, but unfortunately I don’t think it’s going to make it to Korea so I might have to wait awhile.

 

What I’m Eating:

Curry curry curry. I’ve liked curry for a long time, but I suddenly find myself wanting to eat it always. Indian curry. Japanese yellow curry. Thai green curry. I love them all. I still haven’t gathered all the necessary ingredients for completely homemade curry, but I’ve been rocking the packaged stuff I can bulk up with veggies and the restaurants in town that serve it.

I’ve also been really into this super easy, melt-in-your-mouth delicious almond sheet-cake recipe. I made it once as an experiment, then again for a baby shower, and again this weekend as Jonathan’s birthday cake. This thing is scrumptious and soooo easy. (Though I do but about half the amount of powdered sugar called for when I make the frosting and it’s still so sweet you’ll get a headache if you aren’t careful).

Photo from sweetandsavorybysarah.blogspot.com

Photo from sweetandsavorybysarah.blogspot.com

 

Oh, and I also made the discovery of this super easy and delicious way of doing pork loin! All you need is steak seasoning, balsamic vinegar and oil. Soooo delicious!

Photo from allrecipes.com

Photo from allrecipes.com

 

You can follow me on Pinterest if you want to see what else I’m cooking.

On the Blog:

This month has been a doozy. I started out with a post about the title of my blog, Such Small Hands. Then I had this article about sex published over at Relevant and received a ton of messages alternately praising and berating me. I wrote this response post about my experience. Jonathan and I celebrated our anniversary and I wrote a short post reflecting on that. And I wrote a post challenging myself and others to live a life of extravagant generosity.

I have some exciting upcoming writing opportunities in the pipeline as well – first of all, Brett Fish Anderson  has given me the opportunity to do a series of guest posts on his site expanding on some of the thoughts in my Relevant article regarding purity culture and pre-marital/post-marital sex. I’ll be linking to those posts here as they go up over the next few weeks.

Secondly, Explore God, a website that focuses on creating thoughtful content that engages with spiritual doubts and questions, has invited me to join their team of writers. Check out their website and keep an eye out for something from me sometime in the fall.

 

On the Internets:

This tongue-in-cheek piece “When Suits Become a Stumbling Block” is the funniest thing I have read in a long, long time. If you grew up in the Evangelical Purity Culture like I did, this will make you laugh. Please remember that this is a SATIRE and don’t get your panties in a wad.

“Cough. Breathe. Cancer. Dance.” by Shawn Smucker at A Deeper Story. This beautiful piece about mortality and suffering and beauty hit very close to home as this month I received news from home that one of my loved ones is losing one of her loved ones.

Jamie, the Very Worst Missionary’s post “A Million Ways to Say it Wrong” about her recent trip to Thailand and the near impossibility of finding the right words to talk about things like human trafficking, prostitution, and human rights violations, but also the absolute necessity of trying.

Also, this video which just makes me all kinds of weepy.

 

What I’ve Been Up To:

Jonathan and I took a long weekend trip to Namhae, which is an island just off the coast of southern Korea (connected by a bridge) where we explored some terraced rice patties, lounged at the beach, and went kayaking. He wrote a blog post about it here on our Korea blog.

On June 13th we celebrated our anniversary and Jonathan surprised me with a trip to the Busan Aquarium. Fun fact about me – I am, for no discernible reason, obsessed with aquariums. Second fun fact – the lighting in the main tank of the Busan Aquarium turns out to be the prime place to take the most hideous/evil-looking pictures of all-time. I gave myself nightmares when I saw this one.

Hideous me

Yesterday was Jonathan’s birthday so we celebrated with cake a presents and dinner at a restaurant. It was low-key, but I think still a good way of honoring the wonderful man he is and who he is becoming. In case you didn’t know it, I really love that guy.

Other than that, we are winding down the semester at school. My students have finals this week (even though there are still 3 more weeks of classes after this) and I’m in crunch time for planning our English Festival and the two camps I’ll be working before our official vacation time. But today is July 1st which means we are 43 days from being home for vacation. I’m considering making a paper chain to count down. As we say in Korea, “Fighting!”