Painting

I have been trying to get back into painting. Art is something I have always enjoyed and painting is a great creative outlet for me. I am just lazy about starting the process. Which is my roadblock in most things-getting myself started. 

A blank page is kind of a fun start. Overwhelming but full of possibilities. 

Sketching

Yep, some of these are my old childhood paints. Complete with my name printed on them. 

And the end result. I usually get my ideas of pintrest.  This is one of them-an abstract Venice canal. Figured I would put my longing for our may vacation to use. 

House of God

Yep...I have been the slacker-est blog post-er ever lately. I have been spending each morning writing on my own so I feel like less of that is coming out here. I have also just been flat out lazy. No other way around that. All good.
Wanted to share one of my new favorite songs these days. We sing one of Jon Foreman's songs in church (I am assuming it is his song), so I was checking out his other music and found this great song. (Photo courtesy of Amazon)

 It is really just the 23rd Psalm but the melody and mood of the song so perfectly fit the words of that Psalm. I feel as if I am sitting in green pastures by a quiet stream with a breeze blowing gently by whispering words of love and trust to me.
Here is the YouTube link if you want to hear it. Happy listening!

Quote Part 2

"Silence gave me back my dignity" Brene Brown. 

This quote has come back to me...one I found while I was in Seattle and learning how to allow room for silence. It has given me pause this week...do I invite silence into my life? Do I create the opportunity for white space or time that I can sit in silence? If not why?

Quote

   Today a friend sent along a clip from a Brene Brown interview. I know I have talked about Brene's work some...her books have been great for me-a lot about honesty, shame, living in who you are, love. Her interview was about the church and allowing brokenness and pain to be a part of it. Basically that life is not easy and we shouldn't act like it is. Or have the expectation. She refers to the idea that church should not be like an epidural for a laboring woman, more like a midwife gently encouraging her to work through the pain.
The idea of pain in the midst of the journey is something I need to hear right now.
She quoted a Leonard Cohen song, which I have always loved both for it's melody and the lyrics. Here is the quote:
  "Love is not a victory march, it's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah"
Hoping I have the bravery to embrace the broken Hallelujah's a bit more....
  

Words

As an introvert I can live my life in my head. And be pretty content with that. If you are an extrovert, that probably sounds excruciating! Journaling helps me get that mess out of my head. I need that. Though I forget it all the time. Thank you to today's very randomly cool July temperatures 

Journey

This Enneagram thought has been the topic of many thoughts over the last few weeks. What is my journey?

Summer Sorbet

My pictures are not going to this justice. However, I found this recipe on pintrest and it far exceeded my expectations and was super easy.
They have several flavor options, but I chose for my first run to try Strawberry. They all call for bananas, which is apparently to thicken the sorbet-it didn't really make the sorbet taste like bananas. They also call for maple syrup. To say I dislike maple syrup is an understatement, so I substituted agave for the syrup. The nice thing is you can get all these ingredients on a Target run. Easy.
1 1/2 cups frozen strawberries (slightly thawed)
1 1/2 bananas (ripe)
1/4 cup lemon juice (one lemons' worth)
1/3 cup agave
Thaw the strawberries slightly before starting. Have a metal container in the freezer to put the sorbet in (all I have is a loaf pan :).
Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Don't overblend. Place in chilled container and freeze until solid.
Looking forward to trying the other flavors.