Blog – Page 16

On Fear and Cancer.

October 20, 2014 by HappyGoStuckey 15 Comments

Your voice wavered on the other end of the line as you paused to collect yourself and a softball of dread dropped into my stomach. Bad news. The lump rose in my own throat.

Cancer. You said. And I cried right then and there in that parking lot. I listened as you told me what your Doctor’s plans were. Swift course of action and then two weeks of waiting to see if they got it all.

It feels as though I’ve been carrying around a backpack of bricks since then– and I don’t know if your burden feels any lighter, knowing so many who love you are carrying it with you. But I hope so.

And friend, dear friend who has meant so much to me these last few months. Who makes me both love and hate my spin bike three times a week as you encourage us all to just keep going– It’s our turn to be your coach.

It’s our turn to cheer you on. It’s our turn to tell YOU you can do this. It’s our turn to be there. And we will be. We will be there to remind you that HE HAS THIS. Because He most certainly does. He has this. He has you– right in His healing hands.

You’re the one whose name is on that medical chart, but we are all a little bit scared.

When the outcome is uncertain, the future is a little scary.

So here is what we do know:

Cancer stinks. The FEAR is big and it’s real and it can choke the truth out of what we know sometimes. We cannot let that happen. We need that truth to guide us through these next few days. So if you forget, let us remind you.

Because even when our fear is awfully big, OUR GOD IS BIGGER.

And not for one moment on that operating table or any moment after will ever HE leave your side.

We are praying for the Doctors, we are praying that they are swift and merciless with that awful stuff that threatens your health. But we know that at the end of the day, “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” Psalm 124:8

So go bravely tomorrow. And today and every day after, we will remember–

“When I am afraid, I put my trust in You. In God whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?” Psalm 56:3,4

Granola Bites

October 18, 2014 by HappyGoStuckey 9 Comments

These No-Bake Granola Bites make a fantastic snack, a perfect choice to take to a new mom who needs quick calories, a delicious and sneakily healthy dessert for little ones, or the perfect treat with your afternoon coffee. Ask me how I know.

This recipe is one I have tweaked from pulling several other recipes together. Some called for things we didn’t care for, so we just substituted ingredients we do like– and you can totally do that with these– make them your own!

Granola Bites

1 cup of regular dry rolled oats
heaping 1/2 cup of peanut butter
1/3 cup of honey (you can sub maple syrup– both are great.)
1/4 cup of ground flaxseed/ flax meal
1/4 cup of toasted wheat germ (you can double the flax if you want to avoid the wheat germ)
2/3 cup of coconut
1 tbs. chia seeds
1/4 cup of dried cranberries, diced
1/4 cup of roasted sunflower seeds
1/2 cup of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tiny pinch of salt

**Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and place in refrigerator for 1 hour. Then roll into balls, I used a tbs. size disher– and keep refrigerated. Sometimes they are messy to roll, wet your hands and it will be a bit easier.

Recipe tweaked from/ original inspiration from Gimme Some Oven (If you’ve never seen this blog before, it’s such a treasure trove of beautiful, dependable recipes and gorgeous photos!)

The Good Kind of Long Days (#Write31Days)

October 17, 2014 by HappyGoStuckey 14 Comments

Day 17/31

Our family has been needing a little rest and refreshing together, so we found a little cabin in the Georgia Mountains and jumped on it. We packed our cozy socks, fleeces all around, no-bake granola bites, and the ingredients for chili and hit the road last friday afternoon.

We picked big beautiful apples, which turned into a pretty unforgettable memory of standing in a torrential downpour while our girls wailed at the top of their lungs, but standing out there in that huge apple orchard with absolutely no outside noise and only the smell of all that fresh fruit was surreal.

We rode the railway into TN and ate Ice Cream Cones on the bank of the river in perfect 70 degree weather. We spent three full days just enjoying together, with very little distraction.

One afternoon the girls rested and Lance and I sat on the back deck and drank piping hot lattes (because you should never leave home without an espresso pot and a milk frother,) and read real books in total silence. And it was in that moment that it hit me– how much more DAY is left when you slow down long enough to watch the minutes pass.

The quiet was so thick, you could almost hear it– and as the wind whistled through the rapidly falling leaves, I am pretty sure I heard the sound of my own stress and striving melting away with the deep exhale of remembering how to breathe.

The days felt so much longer because there was so much less in them. However, they were far from empty– but rather felt more full than all those days that burst at the seams with hurry and a 3 foot long to-do list. I need more of that in my life. Every day cannot be spent at a cabin with no internet and barely enough square feet to keep everyone from being on top of everyone else– but still. Quiet is so healing.

It was good for the younger members of our party too– instead of a slightly over-full playroom, there was a small stack of coloring books gracing a sunny spot on the floor by the back door. They laid there on a blanket and colored and giggled and had plenty of silly moments– and it was more than enough. For all of us, it was more than enough and all that we needed.

HEY!!! Don’t forget to enter the Away We Go Co. Giveaway over here!!! Only a few more days!

Adjust and a Fun Bloggi-versiary! (#Write31Days)

October 16, 2014 by HappyGoStuckey 6 Comments

Day 16/31

Today is my 400th Blog Post!!!!! I know– how fun?!?!?!? However, a small disclaimer– I’ve been blogging in some capacity for 7 years. So when you think of it that way– it’s not really all that great!!! HA! BUT, most of those posts have been in the last 18 months. Before that I was all, slap a photo up every three weeks and call it a wordless wednesday, or wordless monday or whatever. (please don’t go back to my earlier archives. It won’t be pretty. Actually, it might be very pretty because it will mainly be pictures of the children.. with very little constructive thought. 🙂

But around the summer of 2013, I began to write more frequently with a renewed purpose and defined passion. It quickly became something I couldn’t not do. This last month of the #Write31Days challenge has been tough, I can not lie. From being on a 2-3 times per week consistency to publishing every single day– whew! It’s been quite the adjustment.

I have gotten up earlier, stayed up later ( a few times,) missed out on things I wanted to do, conversations I wanted to have, places I wanted to go– but the trade off has really been worth the sacrifice.

Just the exercise of writing something every day has been freeing. After October is finished, I cannot imagine I will continue posting more than my usual schedule of 2-3 times per week– but I have learned that I need to be doing some type of writing every day. In a journal, on a document, on a post-it, even. Just something.

Emily Freeman said, “Sometimes I write because I have something to say.. and sometimes I write because I need to remember how to see.”

So true. The principal of paying attention is something I need more in my life and this month, just knowing I needed to write every day has given me a renewed sense of opening my eyes to all around me. To paying better attention.

And though I feel as though I have had to simply adjust many things in my day to allow for the time to write daily, it has really been so much more than that– as the exercise and the discipline of it has adjusted my vision.

I hope I keep my eyes wide open long after October is over. Thank you for coming back every day and sticking with me!

Life, no matter how brief. (#Write31Days.)

October 15, 2014 by HappyGoStuckey 28 Comments

15/31

Sitting in that waiting room was perhaps the longest wait of my life. We were brand new in town and newly pregnant with our 2nd child. Well, we had been pregnant with our 2nd child. By the time I could get an available appointment as a new patient, I was quite certain we had lost the baby. This day was to confirm what I already knew in my heart.

20 minutes after checking in, a nurse called me aside to discuss the results of my test. Except it really wasn’t to the side at all, we were just off from the waiting room and her loud voice could surely be heard by just about everyone sitting nearby. She tossed her blonde hair over the shoulder of her scrubs and looked down at my chart,

“umm. just one thing.– you aren’t pregnant.” she said and looked up at me with this *brand new information.*

“Yes. I know I’m not. I’ve just had a miscarriage.” I said as quietly as possible. (This was my CHILD we were talking about so casually.)

“Uh, No hon. You’ve got a UTI. There were red-blood cells in your test.” She continued flippantly.

“No. I was pregnant and I’ve had a miscarriage. I do not have a UTI.” I said flatly and looked across the room at Lance who saw the need to rescue me and began to get up.

“Ok.” she said, “Well, either way– the Dr will see you when it’s your turn.” She gave me a false sympathetic glance and turned and walked away. I walked over and found the couch beneath me just before my legs gave out.

My sweet guy comforted me and we both rolled our eyes at the uncouth-ness of such a person. And then we had to wait again for a whole hour.

During which I nervously flipped through an old Good Housekeeping Magazine and tried to read an article about spring-cleaning your closet. The glossy, scented pages did nothing to distract me from the shouting thoughts in my head.

“Did I get it wrong? Was the test a false-positive? What about the 2nd test? The 3rd test? All false positives?”

I sat there in my grief which now had the added pressure of utter foolishness added on top.

“But wait? I KNOW I was pregnant. I had symptoms. I felt the loss when it happened?!!!”

By the time I entered the exam room of the kind man who would deliver our Abigail, I was in tears.

I told him what happened with the nurse and he frowned for a long time.

I told him I knew I had lost the baby– and frantically asked him to just please confirm that I had been pregnant. Just tell me the life WAS there. Please.

I had already dealt with losing a baby to miscarriage. I could not handle being told he or she was never there in the first place.

He did. He told me I had lost the baby right around when I thought and that my body was already beginning to heal.

He was kind and apologetic and told me I could try again.

And my smile through the tears came without warning.

Because it’s very difficult to celebrate life (even ever so brief) if we never acknowledge its’ presence.

Four years later, my heart is full to bursting with the love of two little girls– both given to us as gifts. But I still remember. I can’t not remember. I have to remember. Every now and then. Life is still life, no matter how short.

And we do the sanctity of life a huge disservice when we try to be BRAVE and gloss over and pretend we FOCUS on what we DO have all the time— and not ever really, truly– REMEMBER.

Because that child of ours– he exists. In heaven, with the One whose image he reflects. And he already knows things about my God that I have yet to see with my own eyes. And I will not forget. I will remember with absolute Joy and celebration– but I will not forget.

Away We Go Co. & a Giveaway! (#Write31Days)

October 14, 2014 by HappyGoStuckey 30 Comments

Day 14/31

Earlier this summer I sat in a dimly lit ballroom in Texas with a few new friends. We chatted, sipped decaf coffee and ate pie. The lights came up on stage and a video began telling the story of a young family who were church planters in Amsterdam. The screen filled with breathtaking photographs of a city half a world away– a city filled with so much culture and for many young girls, so much pain.

Chris and Cassandra Kuykendall of Away We Go Co. (formerly ckdesignmission,) came to the Declare Conference to share their mission and their artful design prints. Their mission is to share hope with the people of Amsterdam through church planting and cultural renewal, helping rescue young girls from the red light district. I sat there transfixed with their testimony and suddenly felt very small. Here stood this Mom & Dad, with two little girls just like mine– willing to take their babies clear across the world– to rescue someone else’s little girls. And here I struggled with much smaller forms of obedience.

Long after my cup of coffee was gone and the presentation was over, their story stuck with me. Their mission struck a chord with me and I wanted to help. I came home with two prints to hang in my own house hoping my small purchase would help out. God doesn’t call everyone to Amsterdam, but He most certainly calls us all to something. Sometimes we wonder what our obedience measures up to alongside someone so brave– but here’s the truth:

They need to be sent. And we can help. We can pray. We can give. We can follow their family’s story right down the streets of the city they love so much.

When we purchase one of their gorgeous prints, we cover our walls with an encouraging, tangible reminder of what we really can do to help. At the same time, our purchase provides a steady stream of support for their family and their mission.

I treasure the beautiful prints I bought at Declare this summer, and I hope that each time I pass them by, I think to pray for the Kuykendall’s and the people of Amsterdam. If you would like to purchase some of these prints for yourself (or a Christmas gift!) you can check them out here! You can order a print shipped to you in three different sizes, or can choose an instant printable option as well.

**** Guess what, friends?! The lovely owners of Away We Go Co. have offered a very generous giveaway of TWO 11×14 Prints to one HappyGoStuckey reader!!!

–The only thing YOU have to do to enter is to go HERE and sign up for their mailing updates (scroll down to the bottom left,) and then come back here and comment below to tell me you did.

— You can also earn bonus entries, if you share this giveaway on Facebook or become/ are a HappyGoStuckey follower (Leave one comment below for each entry.)

Giveaway will close one week from tomorrow, 10/22

Resources for Rest. (#Write31Days)

October 12, 2014 by HappyGoStuckey 1 Comment

Day 12/31

Rest is big topic. Something we all need and rarely experience until we are exhausted.

Rest takes planning. Whether you plan for a vacation, plan for leftovers night, plan for nothing to do on a saturday afternoon or just PLAN to do NOTHING. Rest rarely just happens accidentally– and if it does, there is usually a sickness involved.

But instead of talking about it, today I’m living it.

I scheduled this post so that I could take the day off and have a little blogging sabbath. I never blog on the weekends anyway, so this 31 day challenge has really stretched me in that area.

I would love to point you in the direction of some Resources for Rest though! (see links below.)

My sweet college roomie always wished me a cheery, “Rest Well!” when we would go to our separate rooms at night– and I always thought it was so caring and kind. I now say it to my own kiddos. <3

So today friends, I hope you “Rest, Well!”

Why Rest Takes Courage

When my Soul is truly at Rest

When Your Heart Needs a Little Rest

Why Slowing Down is Paramount if We’re Ever to be the Body

Teaching En Route.

October 11, 2014 by HappyGoStuckey 1 Comment

Day 11/ 31

They say the days are long but the years are short– and boy, do I agree– most of the time.

But every now and then the crazy-go-nuts 20 minutes before their bedtime happens in a flash and before we know it the white door with the pink sign closes on another day of parenting littles. We breathe in the total silence & an evening to recharge and sometimes my own silent wondering comes.

“Did we do it well today?”

“Did they see grace and mercy at all?”

“Do they know how much they are loved?”

Sometimes I think of those little heads on flowered pillowcases upstairs and wonder if they are half way to land with pink clouds– or stuck somewhere remembering the harder parts of the day. Wondering if in the last 12 hours since they popped out of bed– they got anything worth getting.

Often, in the heat of the “get it done” of the day– we are focused on the next thing and sometimes autopilot parenting is tempting.

But rather than worry that we really aren’t teaching them anything at all– take a moment to look at the big picture.

Mercy, especially given in difficult moments, is a tutorial on why we need it so badly.

Grace, when we ask our own kids for it– teaches them we too are absolutely human.

Love is a really good object lesson.

And just listening to them can be a full seminar of their worth and value.

So the next time you start to question if you are making a difference at all— and ESPECIALLY on the days that all of the learning happens on the go— be as gracious with yourself as you want to be with them.

And know that tomorrow is another day. Those little people forgive as wide as their chocolate-smeared smiles– and that’s beautiful.

Furthermore, remember that His mercies are new every morning. Not keeping a list of our wrongs, mis -steps, mistakes, and not quite good-enoughs, but gently pushing us on.

As He teaches us, our lives will continue to teach them. One love lesson at a time.

We must first live it in front of them, then we can lead them in it.

The best teachers are perpetual students anyway. And we absolutely need to keep learning.

Well Cared For (#Write31Days)

October 10, 2014 by HappyGoStuckey 1 Comment

Day 10/31

This time last year was one of the most beautiful times in the history of our family’s faith.

Lance lost his job and what could have been a horrible season of unrest and struggle– was completely the opposite.

It was not because the job was necessarily his forte, (though it wasn’t.)

It was not because we immediately had several offers on the table to choose from, (because we didn’t.)

It was not because we had a huge nest egg to draw from, (because we didn’t.)

We had been praying for over a year to see God’s hand of movement in the situation and we finally did; it still could have been very hard on our family, but it wasn’t.

It was all because God cared for us through His Church.

So many had been praying with us and now they saw this difficult but obvious answer to our prayers– and not even skipping a beat, they held us up.

One couple brought banana pudding less than 12 hours later, and delivered it with prayer and free hugs.

Another gifted our family with passes to the zoo and we all spent the day looking at giraffes and not talking about it.

I picked up Lucy from Preschool one day and an anonymous friend had paid her tuition for the next month.

We opened the mail almost daily to handwritten prayers, scriptures and Publix gift cards.

We traveled to visit family and friends and were endlessly loved on.

The love was tangible and the blessings were constantly arriving in text messages and voicemails.

And though it would seem that most of the gifts were things we could hold in our hands–

The true gift came in knowing that we were not forgotten, that God SAW us and was caring so tenderly for us.

And that made all the difference.

I say all of this with tears of gratefulness that one year later, I have just about forgotten the small amount of struggle– but I will never forget the feeling of being well cared for.

My prayer is that our family will always be used to be obedient care-givers of the body of Christ.

Even something small makes a big difference.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13: 34- 35

So Happy You Joined Us… (#Write31Days)

October 9, 2014 by HappyGoStuckey 3 Comments

Day 9/ 31

Before you came along the parents outnumbered the child, now we play man to man– although it usually feels like zone defense.

You are a firecracker. We have known that all along. You came out as mad as a little wet hen. Really, instead of mewling like a fresh kitten you bellowed loudly at your unpleasant eviction. Even my Doctor and all of the surgical team said, “Whoa! She’s mad!” We’ve found ourselves saying the very same thing several times since then. You are fiery alright. The good news is, this means you are PASSIONATE. You LOVE life. You hate to be missing something. Therefore carrying you upstairs for your nap time is like carrying a rabid porcupine. But as soon as you get upstairs, you snuggle into your little nest of blankets and request “Twinkle Twinkle..” Lately I’ve heard you singing to yourself after I leave, some crazy fun remix of the B-I-B-L-E. That’s you, crazy fun.

You love Cheese Sticks, Bananas and Applesauce– and get very excited to go outside. You love trying on your sister’s shoes and will tromp, tromp, tromp through the house until the 4- sizes-too-big-rain-boots bring you down to the floor in a fit of giggles. And then you get right up and try it again. You are persistent.

You took this slightly over-protective Mama and made me chill out, already. Why? Not because you are my play-it-safe girl– but because no matter what I DO, you’re still going to do things I didn’t anticipate. You scare me sometimes, kid. Remember this day?