Saturday's Scribbles: Mixing Things Up

My hubby likes to make daily life an adventure, finding joy in the small things.......even the concoctions he comes up with when making his own meals.  We kind of have a routine here.....we fix what we want for our breakfasts, I plan lunch and suppers.  Sunday nights we are on our own.  For as long as I can remember, what you see in this photo(with a few variations) is Sunday morning breakfast for Joel.  He lays it all out the night before because he is usually preaching and it takes less time......He has oatmeal every Sunday morning.  pretty boring, right?  But you might imagine it is pretty doctored up when you look at all the ingredients in the photo.  He adds cocoa, honey, dried cranberries, cinnamon, sunflower seeds, salt, ground flax seed and half a banana!  Sometimes blueberries and a few other surprises.  Nothing boring here!  Of course a cup of coffee follows.

Joel's breakfast adventure

Joel has always mixed things up, whether it is his order for "2/3 tea and 1/3 Sprite" drink in a restaurant or taking what he can find in the fridge and putting it together to slap on a soft tortilla shell. Our kids used to cringe if they heard dad was fixing supper, and one of their favorite groan and moan stories is about when he had them pick wild asparagus from the ditches of Montana which he used in a hot dish along with whatever else was leftover in the fridge.  It still makes them shudder!

Joel is good at creating his own meals, and creating his own joy in life.  Everything has his own "touch" added to it!  It is one of the things I love about him.  This past winter some of that joy was hard to come by for a variety of reasons.  I was right with him, just feeling pretty beaten up.   A couple of weeks ago we talked about what was at the top of our adventure list with God....kinda like a bucket list, but no one is dying here, so we made it an adventure list!  At the top of our list was a trip to CA to Bethel Church so we could sit under their ministry.  We are in the midst of making plans for that trip right now.  Mixing things up and seeking a new adventure with God.

49th Anniversary

Speaking of adventures, if you want to read a good book about living a radical, laid-down life for Jesus, pick up my friend Linny Saunders new book, "The Memorial Box".  In it she shares many big and small adventures with God that will have you smiling and giving thanks for His faithfulness. Their family of 14, with 9 still at home is an adventure enough, but you can add to that their non-profit ministry for the orphans.   I had a hard time putting it down ~ finishing it in 24 hours.  The Saunders know how to mix things up and with their family I would say every day is one big adventure.

A couple of weeks ago Joel and I were driving to another town so he could preach on a Saturday night.  As we went through a small village on the backroads there was a truck in front of us pulling a small open trailer ~ a mini version of a trailer like you would see in a parade.  There were six middle aged people sitting on the trailer, three up top and three below, all staring back at us.  We stopped at a stop sign and one of the guys said something pointing to his neck and moving across it and then pointing at us.  We knew he was talking about Joel's shirt...he was wearing a clerical collar.  I kept wanting to giggle as we continued on, having to follow them at a snail's pace through the town.  They just kept staring the whole time.  I picked up a book and put it in front of my face because I could not stop from laughing. It did not help......when I lowered the book they were still staring at us blankly. What a relief a couple of minutes later when Joel was able to pass them, smiling and waving as we did so.   Then we laughed all the way to the church a good 20 minutes away.  Sometimes God has such a sense of humor ~ our attitude was a bit snarly when we left home, but changed quickly when God mixed things up,  making a regular routine more of an adventure.  Giggle......

How do you mix things up?  I hope you are as blessed as I am to live with someone who can find or create joy in your day to day living.  It is there to be found, and from what I have learned God loves to join in!  He delights in it and in us!  We are already praying for our trip West and asking Papa God to "mix things up" for us!  We'll go along for the ride, seeking joy in the process.