Lazy Snowy Sunday

Today was such a relaxing day. Somedays (or whole weekends) we just need to catch up and putter around the house.  I still never get everything done that I plan because I am so easily distracted (i.e. iPad my parents gave us for Christmas!) but that's okay... we still enjoyed our day.

"Important things"...

As it is a rare snowy weekend in Washington, we carefully made our way to church, which happens to be on top of Queen Anne so could be difficult if there is very much snow.  Luckily, there was much less snow the closer you got to downtown.  Today, our pastor continued our series on "Living a Generous Life" and discussion of making margin in our lives with talk of how we use our time.

I'll just say that it was yet another great, practical sermon that I go away from wanting to implement in my life.  It comes down to this... how do we use our time?  Do we schedule ourselves to full throughout the day that we don't have the ability to love, serve or be present with people?  Are we focusing our time on "getting ahead"?  Are we giving God our time and trusting Him in His wisdom with it?  Or do we hold tightly to it and try to micromanage/control everything?

And most of all, do we spend our time focusing on making the most important things, the most important things?

No, I didn't just repeat the words accidently.

Pastor Bill was talking about how we have urgent things and important things in our lives.  Do we spend time focusing on the urgent things or do we give priority to the important things.  I think I focus on the urgent things, the things that need to be dealt with, quite often.  The important things are also a priority but when I get busy or stressed at work, the important things of family, friends, etc., get obscured by the flashing neon lights of "you have to or should do this now".  (I hate the word should sometimes because I'm really good making myself feel guilty!).

So, I want to start making "important things" my priority.  Phone calls with friends/family? Yes, please.  Date with the hubby? Absolutely.  Self care with prayer and exercise? Definitely.  Being open to opportunities to serve? Yep.

Snow in Seattle

This afternoon, we've enjoyed a snowy day at home.  There is really very little on the ground and it all melted off the roads, but it felt like a good stay at home day.  To bad tomorrow is back to work... likely on icy roads!  They are supposed to get amazing snow in the mountains though so snowboarding this week is looking like a definite must!

We had fun making food today... roasted root veggie and black bean enchiladas with chipotle enchilada sauce (pretty tasty for an experiment to use up roasted root veggies in the fridge) and we make roasted brussel sprouts with balsamic.  I can't believe I used to dislike brussel sprouts... we were popping these into our mouths off the pan and there are barely any left for my lunch tomorrow!

A current addiction

One thing Chet and I are addicted to right now is Good Earth Tea (the original).

For an herbal tea, it is amazingly addicting and I think we have each been drinking a cup a day for the last 2 weeks.  It doesn't need anything added to it either... just hot water and it is so sweet and flavorful just as it is!  I'm not trying to advertise but it just seems to be the perfect thing to drink on a cold winter's night.

Well, off to bed I go for another week at work.  I do my first solo Saturday clinic this week so that will be a new adventure!