Celebration Station
Welcome back to Sundays at 8pm, hopefully a time that we can all remind ourselves, that there is in fact enough time to get done the things that need to get done, and the things that don’t need to get done can wait.
There has been perhaps a crescendo of yikes over the last seven months. But there are a lot of things to celebrate, and I am grateful to have so many friends to celebrate. October is full of weddings, birthdays, and girlfriend trips. So I am taking it easy, I am avoiding restaurants and large groups, and I am going to take a newsletter sabbatical. I have planned breaks in the past, and usually what happens is that the first week I am struck with a wave of 19 things that I feel need to be shared, so I am giving myself permission to come back to your inboxes before November 15. But if you don’t hear from me in this space, I promise I’ll be back, I’ll be on Instagram stories, I’ll be reading Dune and Brothers Karamazov, and I’ll be having too much fun to find an outlet to charge my laptop.
This sentence now has links to the 100th issue master spread sheet, my instagram, my Outdoor Voices referral link, and old issues of the newsletter. I also still have two boxes of HelloFresh to give away, my friend Melissa reports that she only had to pay $8 for shipping, let me know if you want one.
Number One: Shape Tape Concealer
I have not so much as opened my tinted moisturizer since March. I maybe did in April for Easter, but I can’t remember.
I am pretty much full time Shape Tape concealer (worth the hype) and liquid bronzer. Always mascara, sometimes eyeliner for the office, sometimes eyebrows for church.
Number Two: Three lil iPhone tips
I’ve never been a fan of predictive text in texting, it makes me realize how predictable I am. But it’s also annoying when you have to type out your full address. So I have mine saved as a the keyboard short cut “qqq”. I feel like in other seasons I would have wanted “yyy” to shortcut “Do you have time to grab coffee or lunch this week?” or “bbb” to “do you know what’ going to be covered on the test this week?”
DIY a sleep timer for Spotify or any other music/podcast by setting your timer “when timers ends” to “stop playing.”
I have not updated my phone to IOS14, because fun fact I rarely update anything. However I have added Screen Time to my home screen by swiping right, scrolling all the way down, clicking “edit” then adding screen time to the top.
Number Three: Make your load lighter
Sometimes I need permission to get rid of things, so this is me giving that permission to you. I plan on throwing away the Aquafor I have been slowly working my through for the last three years, it’s time.
Number Four: Chickpeas for the week
None of us are eating enough protein. And one way to toss some in is to put chickpeas on anything and sometimes just eat them plain. Here is my recipe for success:
Preheat oven to 425
Lightly olive-oil a rimmed backing sheet or your cast iron skillet
Drain and rinse chickpeas, pat dry with a paper towel
Spread the chickpeas on the baking sheet and season with salt, pepper, garlic powder and Tajin or other chili-lime seasoning
Roast for 30ish minutes, the chickpeas should look like they just came back from a cruise, and not burnt
Store in a mason jar at room temp
Number Five: One last time I will remind you to vote
I’ve been thinking and talking with close friends lately about how much is too much information to be consuming about current events, how much is too much care about politics. And the place I have landed is this:
I believe that Jesus is ruling and reigning and ultimately justice belongs to him. And that being informed is not a matter of holiness.
Being informed does help me understand who is oppressed, and how I can help break the chains of the oppressed. But again, information does not equal holiness.
I try to view voting more like the bus, and less like Uber, it is going to take me near where I want to go, but it’s not door-to-door service. And I am going to have to do a little research before hand to make sure I’m taking the right routes and know when to hop off, I can’t just ride in the back seat and look at my phone.
So allow me to guilt you into making a plan to vote if you have not already done so.
As promised, here’s the link to Ticket to Ride. If you are currently employed by Reformed University Fellowship, and your RUF is making cool sweatshirts this fall, get in touch. I always want more crew neck sweatshirts, especially if they are heather gray and from schools in Power Five conferences.
ooh I've heard the bus analogy before of taking it in the direction you want to go, but never with the added uber part and how you have to do research and pay attention. love it.
Thank you thank you thank you for that bit about voting and politics <3