A Lesson from the Slopes: Vision changes direction

This weekend Robert and I (with his friend John and his girlfriend Mary) went on a getaway vacation to Taos, NM, where I learned to downhill ski.



Ironic that I, being from "the north", never really skied before now. While our pro-skier men took on the black diamonds, Mary and I took some basic lessons. Lee I (Iacocca as I called him), while arrogant at best, proved to be more of a deep thinker than a great ski instructor. He made one comment that I think applied much further than the snow capped mountains of New Mexico. "When your vision goes, there your direction will follow." It was so true, as I directed my eyes toward the tree, my body followed almost involuntarily.

I think about how that statement is so true for life: whatever you have your eyes upon, that is where you are headed. That is why scripture says, "without vision the people perish". Without a goal or purpose or dream to set your eyes upon, how can you move to action to attain it?

Lord, what are my eyes set upon? Are they things of you? What is the direction in which it is taking me?

Beef... It's what's for dinner.

So tonight I thought that I would go out on a limb and try making something only partially using a recipe. For some this may be child's play, but I have trouble venturing out to the world of cooking without recipe. I often try but then just get nervous that something will go terribly wrong and I will ruin dinner, so I just revert back to the recipe I started with. But tonight I am trying beef stew. I figure it can't be that difficult right? Just beef, veggies, beef broth, and some spices. We will see how it goes. I am slow cooking it and just poured everything that I wanted into the crock pot and now I will wait. And while I was waiting I thought, what better time than this to blog...

I like the crock pot, I definitely don't use it nearly as much as I should. It is one of those kitchen items that is only used once in a while but if you don't have it, you miss it at those clutch moments.

Speaking of the kitchen, I think that may be my niche. I was thinking about how every blog I read seems to have a niche. For example, some it is about being a mom, others scrapbooking (or for my friend Jessica, it's both), even others blog about blogging. I think what will keep me going on this blog journal is cooking. I just love it. As you can tell from above, I am not that great at it yet, but the whole kitchen/dining experience just intrigues me.

I was born to a unique situation where my dad loved cooking and my mom baked. So I grew up loving both the art of cooking and the science of baking. Both are so significantly different and yet I am not partial to either. Just put me to work in a kitchen and I am happy.

Williams Sonoma and Customer Service

When I was growing up, my mom taught me all about customer service. She would critique companies (even her own) on how they were doing in the area of customer service. She taught classes on it and we would enjoy commenting on how we were treated after any experience at a restaurant, spa or other vendor.

Well today I had an experience that I wanted to make sure to share with each of you. I will forever shop at Williams-Sonoma because they have service down. It is who they are and how they respond in every situation. The first thing you will notice when you walk into a store is that they always are cooking something... today it was a double chocolate chip brownie cake. The aroma was heavenly. Samples for everyone! Another thing that I love about this store is they are all experts in the area of the kitchen. They even offer classes of incredible variety for anything you could possibly want to learn about. But I digress...

For our wedding we received some all-clad pans (which I highly recommend and may even blog on later). To make sure that I was taking proper care of these expensive items, I attended a free "all about all-clad" class at Williams Sonoma (I told you classes of every kind). There I learned the rules of the kitchen and proceeded to obey. However, somehow my pan got a stain on it. I hestitated to bring it in because I thought that pans just do this as you cook with them, but I thought better of it and went to the experts. The woman was so helpful, offering advice that maybe I hadn't followed every rule to the T and that electric stoves can be finicky. But without a second thought or arguing about my carelessness with this item, she promptly went to the back and brought out a new pan for me. No charge, no argument, just replaced it and said to come back anytime I had any other questions or concerns. I sure will Williams-Sonoma. I will be back more often than you may hope.

Hopefully you have had some great customer service experiences, or maybe some horror stories, please share yours!

Miscellaneous Thoughts

Okay, so I have already ruined my goal or writing once a week... and it is only the second entry...

It is not that I lack the words, because believe me, I have more than enough thoughts to do any entry per day. It is more that I don't make time to deposit them on this blog. So here are the thoughts that I have neglected to post that have been on my mind the past few days.

I went out to coffee with a girlfriend on Tuesday night and it was just great. I think when I first got married, I wanted to spend all of my time with Robert. I had nearly forgotten how great it was to have girl time. Just to hang out in comfy clothes, sip hot tea, and discuss just about any topic that comes to mind. There are some things that I have come to realize are better to share with your friends than your husband- not that I keep secrets from him, but rather that there are things that women get about each other that guys just don't understand. No offense boys, it's just a girl thang.

Wednesday night at Life U we shared communion and my mind wandered. I thought about how in school we always learned about primary colors: red + blue = purple, red + yellow = orange, and blue + yellow = green. But only in church do you learn that scarlet red + blood red = white. That the dark of our sin, when combined with the precious blood of our Savior, makes us somehow white as snow. (Isaiah 1:18). Thank you Jesus!

More thoughts to come... hopefully in less than a week from now.

It's that time again...

The long awaited blog post.

It has been over a year since I last posted on my blog. As 2009 rolled around, I felt this unknown desire to begin writing again. But like the first page in a new journal or that phone call to a long lost friend, I found myself putting it off in hopes of a PERFECT start. I wanted this entry to be something really good. Do I go with fresh heavy revvy that God is working in me, or just a "dear diary, here is what you have missed in the last year"? Where do i begin?

Since the last story about my friend Martinya, so much has happened. The five-second version is this: I have gotten engaged... and married, bought a home, and changed job responsibilities THREE times at Healing Place Church. Traveled to Chicago, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and Antiqua (not in that order). Friends have been married and have babies. And somewhere in this past 15 months, life happened.

Wow how time changes things. I mean married life is so different than singledom. I have a new perspective on love, God's love, and my overwhelming selfishness. It is incredible what He has been teaching me in just 8 months of married life. Robert is such an amazing complement for me, that sometimes I wonder how God matched us so perfectly together though we are so completely different. I am truly learning how marriage really only functions well in a Christ-centered relationship. That is when it all just fits.

So here I am at 2009. Fresh start, new blog design and tons of thoughts I want to share. I realize now that you are not so interested in learning where I have been, but rather to learn where I am headed...I guess only time will tell.