Seeking Joy Every Day - December Sanity Challenge 2013

This month my goal for the December Sanity Challenge has been to seek out joy, especially in the small moments. The everyday moments. And honestly after a few days, you suddenly begin to see joy all around you. Today I want to share with you a photo essay of joy I've found over the past two weeks!

 

Joy is: Going to a local production of  "The Grinch" and seeing the wonderful talent of people in your community! 

 Joy is: Seeing the smiling faces of friends & children you absolutely adore in a local Christmas production! 

photo from: Southern Blonde

Joy is: Seeing your finished stacks of Christmas cards and actually being slightly sad you finished them! It's a joy to connect with others on a personal level with hand-written notes through snail mail. 

Joy is: Being old enough to look forward too and actually enjoy the Annual Family Christmas Potluck! 

Joy is: The annual Family Bingo Tournament at said potluck dinner! (And if you don't love bingo, you have to love those bright, vivid buttons!)

Joy is: Seeing little ones fascinated by their picture reflecting back to them from a smartphone (Oh technology, how I'm learning to love you!)

Joy is: Winning a brand new set of crayons at said bingo tournament! Is there anything better than the scent of new crayons?

Joy is: Seeing the local Sudan club drivers at your small town Christmas parade!

Joy is: Getting really excited about your small town Christmas parade even when it's only about 20 minutes long and it's raining!

Joy is: Being grateful for those who give their talent and time as volunteer firemen serving rural areas!

Joy is: Smiling faces and handmade signs!

Joy is: Little boys tossing tootsie rolls from the big shiny firetruck with sirens blaring down main street!

Joy is: Still getting a thrill about seeing Santa show up at the end of the parade! 

Joy is: A hot steaming mug of my great-grandma's Russian Tea.

Joy is: Seeing three snuggling kitties on your bed, as Cheryl said, a big 'ol pile of wuv!

Joy is: A really sweet companion on chilly winter nights.

Joy is: Seeing the contentedness of a 12 year old furry friend.

Joy is: Seeing your "Sammie" hamster run up to you in her cage every time you enter the room!

 

Joy is: Keeping a record of all the amazing things that bring you joy and peace and gratitude! I recommend this really fun and beautiful journal, illustrated by Molly Hahn.

*What is joy to you? Do you look for it every day?*

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A message from our host Cheryl Harris: 

The holidays can be a beautiful time of family bonding, celebration and beauty. They can also be an overdoing, overspending, over stressing time of all flavors of excess. For the last 3 years, I’ve been delighted to host the December Sanity Retreat and the July Self-Care Retreat. This is our 6^th retreat! It’s been wonderful for me to have an extra excuse to focus on self-care and rein in my natural tendency to need to bake (at least) 18 kinds of cookies.

 

I know how powerful it is for me to focus on self-care, and I imagine it’s similar for most of you, so as a gentle extra nudge, we’re doing 2 giveaways.

Giveaway #1: Let us hear your voice!

Prize: a $50 nuts.com gift certificate) they are not sponsoring, I just wanted something with healthy gluten-free, vegan, sugar-free, etc. options (US/Canada)

Comment on any of our hostesses’ posts on the Sanity Retreat, like this one. Leave me a comment on how you cultivate gratitude in your life, OR what you’re most grateful for on this week’s post HERE

Giveaway #2: make the challenge your own!

Blog on your own self-care plans, and a post will be chosen at random as the winner. If you don’t have a blog, contact the hostess of the week and they’ll post for you.

Prize: a box of fun things from me.

As always, self-care is whatever it means to you. So the December Sanity Challenge can be on whatever YOU need to work on to stay sane during the holiday season

Balance around food * Joyful movement * Sanity & stress management * Making space for art, expression, and spirituality * Connection with friends and family

Or whatever else speaks to you along those lines.

The challenge—post on what you plan to do to make your holidays sane, happy and healthy.  Make it specific!  Not just “I’ll get more sleep”, but “I’ll get at least 7 hours of sleep, 5 days a week”.  Not just “I won’t go crazy making desserts”, but “I’ll make a maximum of XX desserts, and space them out over XX time”.  You know what you need to do to keep this doable, and writing it down will help you get there!

I’m delighted to be joined by wonderful hostesses with like-minded blogs:

• Kickoff: Gluten Free Goodness 
• Dec 7th Kate of Eat, Recycle, Repeat
• Dec 14th Carrie of Ginger Lemon Girl
• Dec 21^st  Valerie of City Life Eats
• Roundup: Gluten Free Goodness

I hope you choose to join us, too.  Grab a badge and we’re good to go!

We’ll also be meeting up in our Facebook group for extra encouragement and support. You’re more than welcome to join us there.

Posts so far:

• Valerie’s Kickoff post
• Carrie of Ginger Lemon Girl’s Seeking Joy
• Eat Recycle Repeat’s Joy to the World

Cheryl's 30 days of gratitude:

• Day 1: Gratitude
• Day 2: Grateful for Genghis Khat
• Day 3: Grateful for amazing people
• Day 4: The roundabout road to gratitude
• Day 5: Grateful for beautiful weather
• Day 6: Grateful for New Experiences
• Day 7: Grateful for Local Apples
• Day 8: Grateful for Acts of Kindness
• Day 9 and 10: Grateful for Everyday Miracles

Seasons of change

Life has changed so much for me in the past several years. I've spent the past two years writing books nearly non-stop... and honestly I'm tired! For a little while I felt like I was pretty much done with cooking. I was "cooked' out, burned out, baked out. And "written" out as well...

Over the past few years we've been there with my Dad as he's survived a severe heart attack, followed by three months in the hospital and rehab, then this summer he was blessed with a "brand new" heart via a transplant... those times brought so much reflection, there was joy with tension, hope with timidity, love with smiles followed sometimes by tears... and through it all deep, deep appreciation for doctors and nurses, for people who choose to give their organs, for family and friends who have ALWAYS been there for us along the way. And of course for my Dad.

My cat Mitten (who was so much more than just a "cat") passed away this year and that brought deep grief and despair and yet, hope. We lost my amazing grandmother "Nan" along with my cousin Annie. We lost Michael's aunt, we had other family members going through major life changes that were painful and hard. And all we could do was simply watch, pray, be there... and yet feel like we couldn't really help, which feels so "helpless" in itself..

So my thoughts and my heart have been so incredibly far away from food these past few months. Which probably isn't the most effective way to be a successful cookbook author... but it was important to me to learn where my priorities needed to be and how to ride peacefully with each ebb and flow of life.

I've been thinking a lot about what I want to do with this blog, with this little space on the vast internet that I've shared my story and my recipes since August 2007.

I haven't been creating a lot of recipes as of late, I've just been trying to get dinner on the table. Yes, it's gluten-free... but trust me, it isn't exciting. Yes, it's mostly paleo... but you wouldn't need a cookbook to make it.

Our meals have consisted of a protein + veggies + sometimes a healthy starch, like sweet potatoes or butternut squash or even white rice or potatoes on occasion. Truly nothing exciting... and honestly it's been a good place. I'm not looking for excitement at dinner these days.

I've found my thoughts veering towards simple, real food. I've been thinking about the way my grandmother made meals for us, the way my great-grandma always wanted to feed us. The way my Dad  has always expressed so much of his love for his family through food. I've been fascinated with food history and about the ways we need to honor the local foods of our region and our family traditions. I've always loved these things, but they've become much more important.

So as life has changed, my plans for this blog have changed. I'm not going anywhere... but I'm still not exactly sure about the content I plan to share in the future. I want to focus more on simple meals, on real foods, on family traditions, on bringing food close to home, etc... but how to do that, I'm not quite sure yet. I want to write more.

At it's core, this blog has been a way for me to write, and write often. And probably much more than cooking, I love to write. I love to explore thoughts and ideas through words and this means I may lose some readers along the way. I hope not, but I'm afraid that may happen.

I also want to share more about other aspects of our lives. Our faith, our journey, possibly poetry or short stories, essays, etc... and I want to hear from you. I want to share your stories. Your food stories, your life stories, your faith stories... I'd love to know what inspires you, what moves you, what makes you sing and dance, and cry, or simply pause in awe..

Oh and cats... maybe we'll share more cat pictures... those seem to be pretty popular around the internet these days :-P

Saying Goodbye, Weddings, and A New Heart

My grandmother "Nan", a few summers ago

So the last three months have been an emotional roller coaster for me. I finished up two more books. My grandmother Nan passed away in mid-August, my sweet cousin Tiffany was married two weeks later, and a week after that my Dad received a new heart!

It's been quite a ride and as sad as I am about my grandmother passing away, I'm also incredibly happy for my sweet cousin Tiffany and my Dad's new heart, which will hopefully give him the gift of a much longer life. How do you take all that in? How do you process all those emotions and feelings.

Sweet Nan 

We found out my grandmother had a heart-attack in mid-August and thankfully Michael and I were able to drop what we were doing, go down and spend her last week on earth with her. I'm so thankful for that time. I'm thankful that my job was willing to be flexible and give me that special time with her. It was a gift I will never forget! She was such an amazing woman. Words cannot adequately describe the legacy she leaves behind in 2 sons, 5 grandchildren, and 13 great-grandchildren. My dad wrote a beautiful tribute to her for the local paper and her life was truly lived well.

Many of the recipes on this blog have been because of Nan. She taught me how to make skillet dinner, she loved Caesar salad, and she taught my Dad how to make his famous pancakes. She was a gifted listener and she loved her grandchildren more than anything in the whole world. We were all truly blessed to have her as our grandmother.

Tiffany's Beautiful Wedding

My cousin Tiffany is a lot like me. I've often thought of her as a younger sister, even though she's really not that much younger than me. We look a lot alike and we have similar physical builds and even the same color hair. She's always been a favorite cousin of mine (don't tell anybody Tiffany!! :-p) Her wedding was absolutely beautiful and had an autumn woods theme. They love nature and the outdoors and it was a small, intimate wedding in the mountains of NC. It was such a beautiful weekend and I felt so honored to be there and be a part of their special day.

Tiffany, if I could tell you anything about marriage, is that it's a journey. And as fellow hikers, you know the ups and downs of a good day on the trails! There are awesome days and rough days and you work through them all. It's a true gift to wake up to your best friend everyday and I know you and Deron have a great future ahead of you! I can't wait to see where life takes you and to see the wonderful journey you have ahead of you!

Dad's Brand New Shiny Heart

My Dad has been given one of the greatest gifts in the world. The gift of time. The gift of a new heart. There have been such crazy, yet glorious mixed emotions during this time! Sadness for the family who lost a son or daughter, yet absolute thankfulness for their donation of organs. Such a gift. Such a gift.  And so much happiness for my Dad. So thankful that he has an positive, hopeful future in front of him and I'm so happy we can be there along the way.

This surgery and hospital visit was so much easier than his heart attack last year. He was talking just about 15 hours after surgery. It was amazing to witness. Here he was with a brand new heart, with major surgery behind him and he was already talking, sitting up, and eventually walking the floors of the hospital. As a matter of fact, he went home yesterday, less than two weeks after his surgery!

He still has a long medical journey ahead of him... but it will be a very positive one! I hope one day we can somehow connect with the family of the person who donated their heart. I hope I can tell them what an incredible gift they have given us and how thankful we are.

Thank you for the precious gift of time with my Father.