New cover for an old journal
This is what happens when I’m in a funk and need to distract my mind with something creative and cheery!
The back
All you need are some old magazines, a glue stick, some scissors and something made of thick paper or cardboard to cover with your creation.
Make a pot of your favorite tea, put on some great music and start creating…
Wow! What?! It’s been how long since I’ve posted? Sorry friends… I’ll try to do better…
One of the things that’s been distracting me is a great book by Tim Chester called A Meal With Jesus. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to be inspired by the way that food and christian fellowship can change lives, as well as to anyone who wants a little insight into the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.
I love the following part of the introduction:
“ How would you complete the sentence: “The Son of Man Came…”? The Son of Man came… preaching the Word… to establish the kingdom of God… to die on the cross.
…..There are three ways the New Testament completes the sentence, “The Son of Man came…” “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45); “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10); “The Son of Man has come eating and drinking…” (Luke 7:34).
The first two are statements of purpose. Why did Jesus come? He came to serve, to give his life as a ransom, to seek and save the lost. The third is a statement of method. How did Jesus come? He came eating and drinking.
The Jews of Jesus’ day would have said the Son of Man will come to vindicate the righteous and defeat God’s enemies. They didn’t expect him to come to seek and save the lost. And they would have said the Son of Man will come in glory and power. They would never have said he would come eating and drinking.
….Jesus spent his time eating and drinking – a lot of his time. He was a party animal. His mission strategy was a long meal, stretching into the evening. He did evangelism and discipleship round a table with some grilled fish, a loaf of bread, and a pitcher of wine. “
Don’t you love it? I get chills every time! (Maybe I’m just a big food nerd…)
My mission for you is this… Find this book! Read it. Live it.
I don’t (as a general rule) like rain. I am a sun person to the core! (Weird how I ended up in NW Washington.) There are, however, a few exceptions to the no-rain rule. My favorite rain of all time happens in the desert in the middle of summer and is ideally accompanied by thunder and lightening. Any summer rain beats winter rain in a heartbeat.
And right now… tonight… I love the rain that is falling outside. Keep it up a few weeks more and I’ll be sick of it. But for now… I am content.
There is something so completely refreshing and cleansing about getting done with your job in a hot kitchen and stepping out into the dripping pouring dusk.
I love driving in pouring rain just as it’s getting dark. Add wind and I’m not as happy, but rain I like. Everything looks so dramatic… Black roads cut only by shining beams of yellow lamplight. The mist that covers the far edges of the fields makes it easy to imagine that ghosts exist. I can see a softly glowing figure walking alone in the distance with trailing hair and dress.
The rain is coming down and most of my car windows are fogging up and I smile as I near the well known spots on my drive home that are sure to capture extra water. Water that will tug my car to the right and surge over my tires. It’s fun when you’re prepared for it!
The spray from the road combines with headlights to create a friendly yet visibility destroying glow around each passing car.
For now – I like rain.
I am a big fan of camping! Particularly – car camping. (However I recently purchased a backpack and hope to become proficient at the kind of camping where you haul everything up the trail with you in a little bag!) The great thing about car camping is that you can chuck everything into the trunk and backseat of your car in about 15 min for a last minute camping trip and if you bring to much stuff or forget something and have to run to the store – it doesn’t matter!
If you haven’t figured it out yet – we Farris’ like to eat good food. And if I’m going to be camping I’m going to be cooking over a fire. (None of that bring-your-own-gas-grill stuff for me!) So the challenge is to make good food over a wood fire! Veggies, some kind of meat and some sort of bread seem to be a winning number!
For dinner there was grilled shrimp on a skewer along with grilled veggies and lightly toasted bread! (Tip: I always bring my own grill grates to lay over the top of the rusty one that may or may not be provided.) I cut up some zucchini (long big strips), quartered some bell peppers and cleaned some mushrooms (leaving them whole). Tossed the whole bunch with some olive oil and salt and pepper and grilled them until just tender! Also sliced up some crusty bread and threw that on the grill. The shrimp we kind of cheated with by buying them pre-skewered from the seafood section of our local grocery store. When grilling shrimp it is important to keep a close eye on them and pull them off almost before you think they are done… Over cooked shrimp is dry and chewy.
Of course… because we waited to long to get all of this going, we were cooking in the dark (no pictures) by the light of one small flashlight and the dimly burning camp fire. It was challenging. All-in-all though – it was a delicious meal!
*Stay tuned for my next post to see what we had for breakfast!
Thank you to everyone who helped make my birthday special by reading my blog or commenting on my post 
I’m excited to announce the winner of my first ever Birthday Blog Party Giveaway! The winner will be getting some delicious spices and fabulous loose leaf teas from my favorite shop Wonderland Teas & Spices (Bellingham WA). 
I decided to opt out of sending chocolate because… well… it would melt :-/
And the winner IS… Meg S. Congratulations! (I’ll be sending you an e-mail soon – if you don’t see it let me know!)
Thanks again for all of the birthday wishes and fun birthday tradition ideas! I had fun “planning” this party and picking out the teas and spices I was going to give away! Can’t wait to do it again
It’s my birthday! Twenty-seven years ago today I was born in Portland Oregon to the best parents on earth!
Birthdays are interesting things. When I was younger I always thought I would wake up feeling different somehow… Older maybe. I always felt the same – although I usually felt pretty special My family has some great birthday traditions… When I was little we would wake up to a bedroom completely covered in crepe paper! We would have to climb out of it like a spy through laser beams or rip our way through in order to get to the door. As I got older my parents decided that toilet paper was cheaper, so from then on we just got our room “toilet-papered”. One year (when I was either 21 or 22) my dad called up my neighbors/good friends and (easily) talked them into toilet-papering my entire apartment! This year I won’t be waking up to a room strewn with toilet paper. I will instead be waking up at 5:00 am to go to work and cook for 10.5 hours. I’m not complaining. I’m grateful to have a job! I’ll be celebrating my birthday with my sisters on Sunday when we go camping! And next week I’ll be able to see my family and have a little family party…
With my brother at my birthday last year!
Another family tradition that we have is that the birthday person always gets to pick what they want to have for dinner. And when I was little we had “money cakes” that were just traditional style cakes with coins stuck in them! (Don’t worry, the coins were thoroughly washed.) We always got really excited if we got anything bigger then a penny
This year I want to start a new tradition! I want to celebrate with all of you by hosting a little blog party/giveaway! I’m going to give away a gift box filled with stuff from a couple of my favorite local shops (spices, teas, possibly chocolate), simply because it’s my birthday! In order to be entered to receive this gift box of foodie goodies you need to leave me a comment telling me what your favorite birthday tradition is!
It would make my day if I got a whole bunch of comments – so spread the word!
My foodie pen pal this month was Sloane from Florida! It was so fun to come home from an eight day trip and find a package of goodies waiting for me 
I loved the Mango Coconut Water which I slurped down the second these pictures were taken… And the delicious Almond & Sea Salt in Dark Chocolate bar was gone by the end of the night (The almonds and sea salt were perfect together!) 
I have yet to use the Quinoa, Pesto or Risotto but I’m scheming up some delectable dishes for each. Thank you Sloane!
Want to know more about the Foodie Pen Pal program? Want to join? I highly recommend it! Check out the details and sign up here: The Lean Green Bean.
