What I've Been Into [the last five months]

This first half of 2014 has zoomed by. Since it's been five months, I'll just hit the highlights!

• I spent January in Georgia with my family, mostly loving on my brand-new little niece. Everyone else was cool too.

Brand-new baby's first Christmas

• I had an article on body theology published in the Winter 2014 issue of Prism Magazine. 

• I was taking two classes, an internship, and writing my final Master's thesis this semester. That thesis was a labor of love if I've ever done one. At the end it was 70ish pages of writing and then all the "front and end matter." I emailed it to my adviser bright and early on Easter morning and then enjoyed celebrating new life and victory in a variety of ways. My thesis was on body-theology too, and I'm really hoping to develop it more into a publishable form. Perhaps share some here? 

77 pages of my heart, going through the final edit late at night. 

• My word for the year is "Community"  and it's like God said, "Oh? Community? I can do that!"  Last fall a small group of us were already hanging out on a regular basis, but when we were all back here by late January there was snow after snow after snow for a month solid and we all ended up hanging out together, eating soup, having french-toast feasts, playing dominoes by flashlight, and talking and chatting. We did Lent together and part of that included "sharing our stories" and somewhere in that time we became family. When someone wants to make a big dinner the answer to the question of "what time?" is just "normal time." We even took a vacation to the beach together last week and it was fabulous. Most of us are scattering at the end of summer for other places - but there are plans for "family reunions" every other year at least, and I think that's actually going to work.  I'm excited to see how God shows up in community in the second half of this year as I move to a new place.

Most of the family at the beach. 

• I graduated seminary!  My parents came up to celebrate with me and we took a short vacation up to the Connecticut shore and spent a day walking around Boston. It was a really lovely time. 

Done! 

With my parents on the Connecticut Shore

• Some of my favorite reading from this first half of the year include Latina/o Social Ethics, Kingdom Ethics, The Israeli-Palestine Conflict, and Baptist Battles.  Most of what I read this semester were journal articles or chapters of books, and I won't take on the tedious task of linking to those right now. 

• In film, television, and music:  Call the Midwife broke my heart in a hundred beautiful ways this season. My most-often listened to playlist was Songza's "Classical Easter Celebration" - - it was magnificent as a study/reading/writing background. On the big screen (though checked out from redbox,so not so big), I believe Philomena was my favorite.  

• In the kitchen - my favorite simple meal discovery is lemon-dill chickpeas. You make some rice/rice pilaf, and then saute chickpeas and onions in olive oil, add dill, lemon juice, and some spinach. Pour the chick-peas over the rice and enjoy. It's got a light flavor and it's filling. I've made it about five times since discovering the recipe in a short essay I read on food, poverty,and fasting. 

• Fashion - season changes make me want to have fun with fashion. The onset of summer has renewed my love of earrings. Check out my instagram feed for my frequent updating of which earrings I've decided to don. 

So that's a little of what I've been up to. Looking forward to the many changes life will bring me in the next few months. I'm linking up with Leigh Kramer who does this on a much regular basis. I will now go check out what other people have been up to!