Our Madison Bucket List

What we have to accomplish before we leave Madison at the end of the summer:

-eat our favorite pies at Pizza Bruta (already did this on Wednesday, but it needs to happen at least 5 more times)
-continue our weekly walks to the library
-get lunch at Med Cafe
-buy tomatoes and fresh bread at the farmer's market
-drink beer at the Great Dane
-go to Dairy Queen then take a walk through Shorewood Hills
-sit on our balcony and read
-hike at Devil's Lake
-have picnics at Concert on the Square
-watch the sun set at the terrace
-fill up our Barriques punch card
-run through the Arboretum
-go to the zoo
-stock up on anything and everything that will fit in my suitcase at Trader Joe's
-enjoy and evening at the Capital Bier Garten

Anything to add?

Father's Day

I respect and look up to my dad for so many reasons.

I have seen him as a teacher- year after year staying incredibly dedicated to students that desperately needed his gentle and patient guidance.  

I have seen him as a coach- giving freely of his time, and treating each girl on the team the same, regardless of her talent or ability, believing in them and encouraging them.

I have seen him as a father to my brothers- supporting them, loving them, and giving them an awesome example of what a strong, generous, and family-oriented man looks like.  

I have seen him as a husband- loving and caring for my mom in the most selfless and passionate way.  My dad showed me what marriage and commitment looks like, even in the midst of the most difficult trials.  

And I have been blessed to see my dad as a father to me, his only daughter.  I never have to doubt my dad's love for me.  Thanks dad.  For all the afternoons in the backyard playing softball, for making me practice my math flashcards (even though I always cried), for teaching me how to drive in the high school parking lot, for sitting through all the band concerts and piano recitals, for allowing me to have a great education, for everything.  I love you, Happy Father's Day!

This would be pretty high up on my list of things I would buy if I had a million dollars:


Process: Woodgrain Bike Frames from Etsy on Vimeo.

"Where you invest your love, you invest your life."

What do I love?

Yes, I love chocolate ice cream cones, watching kitten videos on youtube, running, yellow daisies, yoga, putting spinach in my smoothies, and window shopping at Williams Sonoma.

But I also have so many deeper loves.  My husband, my family, my church, caring for and listening to others, writing... oh, and Jesus.  

As I was listening to the song that the above lyrics came from this morning (Awake My Soul, Mumford and Sons), I started to think about what my life is showing to others about what I love.  How am I living my life?  Ultimately, what do I love the most?  Jesus should always be my first love.  Yet, I know my life doesn't always reflect that.

Things get in the way.  I forget my first love.  Success, the approval of others, selfishness, wanting to prove myself, the pressures of our society, the want for comfort... all of these things push against me and draw my heart away from God.  John Piper wrote that "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him."  So that is what I strive for.  That Jesus comes first, day after day.  That my satisfaction comes only from God.  That my love for God is the most noticeable thing about me.  That the way I spend my time, the career choices I make, my relationships with others, and the words that come out of my mouth all point toward God.  

Reading Lauren Chandler's post on Psalm 121 perfectly summed up how I am feeling in relation to my post from yesterday.  Read it.

themchandlers.blogspot.com

"Though the doubts linger, they are drowned out by His beckoning.  Her toes dangle.  Her knees bend. 

She jumps."

Am I krumping?

I have watched this at least ten times this afternoon.

I feel like I am at the edge of something.

Well, I am at the edge of something.

Mike and I just celebrated our first year of marriage.  It was awesome, perfect even.  We spent the weekend at a small inn in Door County, where we honeymooned a year ago.  We did absolutely nothing.  Absolutely nothing besides take naps in the ridiculously comfy bed, go for walks along the shores of foggy Lake Michigan, drink wine and eat our frozen wedding cake, read in the hammock, drive to get pizza in a crazy thunderstorm, and eat popcorn and watch movies in bed.  We didn't want to leave.
We had a lot to celebrate.  Our first year of marriage was amazing.  Mike and I have been blessed in innumerable ways.  We love marriage.  We feel like we have skipped over a lot of the challenges that many newly married couples face.  It has been the best year of my life.
We were celebrating the great year that we had.  And we were also celebrating the fact that the Lord has called us to not be content with where we are at, and that we are about to embark on something big this year.  We are at the edge of a great adventure.  Year number two of marriage means moving to a foreign country.  It means transitioning to full-time ministry.  It means together leading a team of six other missionaries.  It means new, exciting, and scarey things are in the future.  In August we leave to spend a year as missionaries in the Middle East.  We feel so blessed that the Lord has led us to where we are.  We are all called to the Great Commission, every one of us.  But that doesn't mean that we are all called to get on a plane and go.  Mike and I are some of the lucky ones that actually are.  We have heard the call, specifically to the Middle East, and we are responding to it.  And we are so excited.

So yeah, I am at the edge of something.  My first year of living in Madison and being married and working as a nurse is ending.  And my first year in full time ministry, living overseas, and leading others is about to start.  It is all really bittersweet.  At times I have a lot of doubts.  But then I think back to how I was feeling heading in to last year, graduating college, jobless, about to get married and move to a new city.  It is was all really bittersweet, and I had a lot of doubts.  But God had such good things in store for me.  His plan for this past year was better then I could have hoped for.  And so all I have to do is continue to trust in that.

On to greater things!