A few weekends ago --- or it may be more like a month ago (my, how quickly time passes!), Brandon and I headed up to the cabin for a tiny little getaway. The cabin is also known as Hammersley Heaven. It’s a place that I was introduced to many years ago thanks to my sister marrying a mountain man. It’s a place that we’ve visited with family, with the youth group, with roommates and just with Brandon and I. It seems as if our new favorite cabin tradition is stopping at Avenue 209 in Lockhaven before getting into the wilderness. Because we love espresso. And whipped cream. And seriously, isn’t that tiny little pumpkin just the cutest?

Anyway, we headed up to the cabin and proceed to fight the good fight. Meaning, it was a cold autumn night and we needed to create fire in this rustic place. There’s an old-fashioned coal stove that seems to have a mind of its own. It has a mysterious aura and a desperate need for constant attention and an attitude problem (is it unkind to say that this stove reminded me of a teenager?).
But there was one kind of fire that we knew how to make.

Cup o’ tea, anyone? Tea cures the world’s troubles. And that statement sounded awfully British for the red-blooded American that I am. We won the war and all that patriotism. I can’t help but wish that someone gave me trunks of tea instead of throwing them in a harbor. Seriously, way to make a statement… but wow, what a waste of some delicious beverages.
Back to that silly coalstove. The problem might have been our late-night arrival, or maybe my complete forgetfulness in packing good kindling---so we wondered around in the dark like pitiful pioneers, or maybe we just were in autumn-semester/wedding-season work mode and couldn’t quite get into the cabin mindset (i.e. build a fire and read a book and that’s it).
In the end, you might say that we lost the battle… but not until we accomplished the most important cabin task: MAKING S’MORES.

We had a little adventure the next day, experienced the breathtaking scenery of Pennsylvania autumn. It’s funny how I’m beginning to love the autumn. I used to adore the summer and dread the autumn because it meant summer was over. Now I’m all about loving every single season for its peculiarities. Autumn foliage is a special thing – like the world has been painted with the brush of a Master Painter, and we are just observers who are privileged to live in a vibrant painting.


Oh Pennsylvania, why are you so wonderful?
It was such a short trip to the cabin… only overnight and speckled with fighting with the coal stove, but I love that place too much to stay away long… Until next time, Hammersley Heaven. Oh, you betcha we’re goin’ back. We can’t let the coal stove win! ;)

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you;” 1 Peter 4:12 The wind blows. Why are we surprised when it comes? The wind blows hardest and fastest and roughest on the mountaintops. It rushes in your ears and smashes your hair into the eyes and whips like a frenzy. It holds you captive for a little while with its power. It is overwhelming and intimidating… and yes, dare we say, surprising.
I feel so small.
I feel like the storm is so big.
I feel like I can’t do enough.
I feel like my fight is in vain.
I feel as if I am ripped apart by the various storms.
I feel as if no one understands.
I feel as if the attacks never stop.
I feel undone.

Then you realize… you can survive the wind. You can be moved by it, but not destroyed by it. You can be changed and formed and created into something better, without being embittered by it.

This post is for you and for me. This is for every friend and every family member and every person that is enduring a crushing trial. It is for you—that your trial has come to a close and now you’re reflecting on the goodness of God. It is for you—who know that the sharp, biting pain came to an end and now you’re living through the dull ache of loss. It is for you—who love those who say they love back and yet feel rejection every single day, and most acutely during the holiday season.
This post is for everyone… because the fact is, every one of us goes through trials every once in awhile. While we feel our own trials the most, everyone else is at times facing something just as difficult. Hard, hard trials. I could make lists of pain that would make you gasp and cry and wonder at their cruelty. Sometimes I feel like my heart is being torn out, that I am still grieving for myself and for others. Trials come. They just happen.

I’m learning something new these days. I’m learning that life is what you make of it.
This isn’t just about living through a trial. This is about living! Truly, really, authentically, vibrantly living.
I’m learning that I can frown at the past or I can smile at the future. That I can choose to wallow in the muddy hole of trial, or I can lift my eyes to the hills from whence cometh my help. I’m learning that perspective is nearly everything – when the perspective involves loving Christ and living in His will.
I’m learning that I can complain or I can live in contentment.
I’m learning that the absence of loved ones does not have to diminish the everyday joy that God gives me. That the path that I’m walking is full of light and life and good things. I cannot ever change people or circumstances – only God can do that – so in the meantime, I will LIVE. I will smile. I will love. I will embrace fiercely the beauty of every new day.

Maybe it's the time-change or maybe it's going to sleep earlier each night. Maybe it's the end of wedding season, and finally getting caught up on household chores. Maybe it's resolving to enjoy every single thing I do, and to be kind when people are not, and to not sweat the small stuff. Maybe it's the increasing awareness of God's presence in my life, and the simple reminders from the Spirit to let the love of God constrain me. Maybe it's just a change in my attitude-a decision to turn my focus away from how much I have to do towards how thankful I am for breath in my lungs and chores to accomplish and family to serve and being saved by Christ. Or maybe it's a combination of all these things.

I feel like I'm coming out of the fog. Out of the fifty-mile-per-hour pace of life and into living peacefully, slowly, reverently. This past weekend was like heaven on earth. And you know what I did? A whole-lotta laundry. I am very, very, VERY thankful for time to do laundry. It's sounds weirder than a three-dollar bill. I'm okay with that.
It was a pure, happy, continual labor at home and I loved it.
I cleaned the bathroom at 8:00 am on Saturday morning.
I trekked up and down the stairs about 40 times, with laundry baskets and without.
I ironed a mountain of clothing.
I read a cookbook. Yup, almost a whole cookbook.
I conquered the dishes begging to be scrubbed.
I hugged my husband as he did the usual 12-hour study Saturday.
I cooked. Slowly. I had promised my husband a dessert this weekend, and I thoroughly enjoyed the process of baking this delectable apple tarte tatin from Eat Drink Live. If you're not as classy as the cookbook I got the recipe from, and have no idea what that is (like me), it's a French upside-down tart. Caramelized apples topped with pastry crust, then baked in the cast iron skillet. Basically, AWESOME. Brandon agrees quite enthusiastically.



So yeah, I have a slight blogging obsession with themes and being chronological. When what I'm writing doesn't fit into the theme--or more practically, the title, sometimes I don't blog. It's sad. I am trying to overcome it, because I love the idea of sharing more of our life on this little space in the Internet, even life that is random and messy and not-quite-chronological. I have summer road trips and autumn photos and adventures and so many things to share. Hold on to your hats, folks, I'm blogging again.
I'm sharing what's on my heart.

{insert passionate spiritual speech here}
I'm gonna talk about buzzwords. I really hate 'em.
Buzzwords. They are everywhere in the Christian world, and consequently, everywhere on the Internet and everywhere in real life.
People looooove to talk about their buzzwords.
Revival! Repentance! Holiness! Healing! Faith! The Gospel! Freedom! Spirit! Evangelism! Discipleship! GRACE (times a million these days)!
Go to a million different Christian "camps" and you'll get a million different buzzwords. They're usually valid Scriptural terms, genuine Christian doctrine and authentic needs in the Church.

HOWEVER.

Ya know what bugs me? Like really-really-REALLY bugs me?
The only buzzword that people don't talk about that much--- Jesus.

It's probably a human thing --- to be fascinated with trends and fads and whatever catches our interest for a month or two. Or whatever we need the most. Or whatever seems the most intriguing at the time. But the truth is -- that current buzzword is not the end-all, catch-all. It is NOT everywhere in Scripture. It is not the answer to everything. Random buzzword is probably not the foundation of our belief system and it is most certainly not the most important thing ever.

I've been there. I might still be there, but the Lord is working on me.
You know what I'm seeing when I open up the Bible lately? The Person of Christ.
You know who I'm enthralled with today? Jesus.

There's something to be said for coming out of the fog of Christian trends and settling down at the feet of Jesus to learn the most important thing -- Him.




Our Sunday evening at-home-date. Slow-cooker butternut squash soup, biscuits and sparkling pomegranate juice. Super romantic because I scrounged around to find those candlesticks. Let's not talk about the fact that I have no candlestick holders so they are in parfait glasses. Candlelight makes even the simplest meal romantic. And instrumental Christmas music, too. :D