we interrupt the Israel blogging for:

an update on normal life:

A wonderful Memorial Day weekend in Michigan kick-starting the summer of things I love around here like a Saturday morning in Holland with Christina & running into friends:

(Kate this picture is for you).

We spent Saturday between benches & shops, sipping JP's...tulip time blend of course while we caught up on life, thankful for great friendships like these. I did have to pick up a bag of Good Life granola at the Farmer's market of course!

We are usually on a wine tour on this front bookend of summertime; last year we were these two cats:


Due to just having traveled, we decided to keep it local this Memorial Day. We spent a lot of time around the house, had a bonfire with the neighbors and spent Sunday night & all day yesterday at the cottage.

The weekend also included my first attempt at schnitzel, something we ate in Israel and fun to share with my Dad & Evon. I continue to process deeply and realize that something in my paradigm was reshaped by our time in Israel. Thank for for your encouragement to keep writing...a few more posts left including these working themes:

hospitality & hope
Galilee: a few little fishing boys
traveling & teachings
mountaintops & making disciples
the shining city: Jerusalem

The beginning of June also marks the beginning of my birthday month--which my sister in law reminded me this morning via facebook. Haha. love that my family engages in this silliness.

For some good reading today, head over to Molly's new blog for her "coffee for thought" today. I met Molly two years ago through working at William Edwards; were both different girls in different jobs and our friendship has continued to be a blessing through the ebb and flow of the past two years. To know Molly is to love Molly & I am so glad she has started to share her writing with the world at large.

coffee snobbery

Ahh... nothing like a cup of really good coffee. Good enough that I don't need creamer or any sugar; so smooth it just slides down. I have grown to have an emotional attachment with coffee, where historically stood only a needs-based relationship, "I need to wake up, therefore, I need to drink coffee" has developed into mutual embrace. I love coffee and it makes me happy.

I thought about this on my morning run, a new "old" routine that I am trying to reinstate into my life as I attempt to shake my body into a higher metabolism. I thought about the dark whole beans from Ferris Coffee & Nut that were awaiting my return, only to be ground into submission for liquid bliss. I love that this current coffee love is also roasted and distributed locally, here in West Michigan.

Here is where the snobbery steps in. We tried to buy one of those big economy size containers of ground coffee at the grocery store, the full bodied blend with a screw on lid and really put our hearts into trying it for the sake of reducing our budget (along with shopping at Save-a-Lot, Dollar General & Aldi's, all of which have been VERY successful endeavors). But a few mornings into it, we both admitted that the generic brand brew just wasn't cutting into it. I didn't mean to become a coffee snob, a "mean girl" in the beverage world. It just happened and I don't want to go back.