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Happy Go Stuckey

Tethering Grace & Togetherness

What I Learned this Summer

September 1, 2017 by HappyGoStuckey 1 Comment

This is what it is to truly summer. To delight in what we hold, knowing we won’t hold it for much longer.

The quarterly practice of paying attention to what I learn is important to me. The weeks tend to fly by and if I don’t stop and mark the days and moments, it’s hard to remember what I brought away from them. Emily Freeman always gives me a friendly reminder to remember with her What I Learned posts– if you would like to add your own list or peruse what others have learned, hop over here for a visit.

1. Pre-cut parchment paper sheets, make life easier and are a convenience item I can completely justify. They mean we will eat healthier and have faster clean-up on a weeknight. Two words: Roasted Vegetables.

2. Creating an atmosphere of simple fun and joy means as much as creating a masterpiece. About half way through summer– completely discouraged with all I had not accomplished, I remembered the importance of welcoming my absence with open hands. Did you have a moment like this?

3. You all love scones as much as I do. I shared a recipe for our favorite Peaches & Cream Scones and many of you made them and wrote back to let me know. I simply love that you did because it makes me feel like we’re in the kitchen together.

4. The reason for a celebration is often its’ own lovely reward. Lance and I celebrated ten years of marriage at the end of August. We celebrated in a cabin with fifteen other family members. We celebrated with an amazing dinner date just the two of us. We celebrated for days before and several days after. It was a big deal to both of us– but without a doubt, the greatest gift– the most spectacular glittering part of our anniversary? Realizing that TEN YEARS of marriage is its’ own beautiful gift. More thoughts coming on this later. 

5. I will always love butter (does that sound as weird as it does as I type it?) But I had forgotten how much I enjoy olive oil in baked goods. I made both Shauna Niequist’s Berry Crisp with olive oil and these muffins and was reminded how good and light it can be. Try substituting olive oil in something– perhaps you will like it too.

 6. The mountains in Summer are not the mountains in Fall, but they are spectacular in their own way. We picked apples in flip-flops. We went tubing down the river and fell in once or twice– all without frostbite. We hiked and picnicked and splashed in the lake and then dried out in the late summer sunshine and all my mountain memories are sitting here with me, long before the weather turns cool.

 

7. It appears I only wore one shirt all summer and it’s this one. Scanning through Instagram, I realized that I was wearing the same shirt in every photo of myself. It’s my favorite– so why not? How’s that for a capsule wardrobe/ summer uniform? Do you find you wear the same few things?

8. Reading fiction increases both my empathy and my understanding.  I’ve read several books in the WWII genre this summer, all dealing with different aspects of the war and the brave ones who walked through it. I’m amazed at the stories of both the resilience and the hardness of it all.

9. We need to be reminded that as Tolkien wrote,“There is some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.”

The most beautiful stories continue to pour from Texas as they continue to battle in the aftermath of Harvey. If you are a reader there in the midst of this terrible time, please know we are praying and giving and desiring to help. If you are not and are still looking for a way to be involved, Melanie Shankle has a great list of ways you and I can help.

 

Your turn! I’d love to hear something you learned or loved this summer. Onward to Fall! (Well, onward once the temperature drops below 86′) 

If you missed my Spring What I Learned list, you will find it here.

What I’m Loving Lately
Roasted Vegetables (they’re simpler than you might think.)

Comments

  1. Aimee Kollmansberger says

    September 5, 2017 at 10:03 am

    What a great list! Added those parchment sheets to my grocery list tomorrow! I have a pumpkin bread recipe that calls for olive oil and I love it! It tastes rustic and nutty.

    Happy 10 years! We celebrated 20 years in May and it felt so sweet, so humbling.

    Reply

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I'm Cynthia and I'm so glad you're here. I am an introvert with an extrovert's love of gathering people together. I love good books and capturing moments. Whether you visit me here or on my own front porch, I'll be the one holding the Iced Coffee for us both.

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happygostuckey

Joy is the courage of people who don’t have all Joy is the courage of people who don’t have all the answers, yet.

While you sit in a season of waiting,
the calendar can often be a cruel companion, reminding you that days go by, weeks, months— with what feels like very little change in the right direction.

Perhaps you can easily assent to: 
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick,

but you strain to see just how it will be when: “...a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” (Proverbs 13:12)

Wherever you and I are today— whether we wander, wait, stand firmly planted, or some pressed together combination of all three — we can take heart.

We are not alone.
And this will not be wasted.
What seems to be an unending blank space, an indefinite pause, is a space for new things.

Long before all is made right, and whether or not it all is tied up neatly with a perfectly crafted bow— we can know this:

We do not have to know the outcome to be faithful today.

✨Joy is not disregard for reality as much as it is obstinacy against despair.✨
Hi 👋🏻 I’m Cynthia and I’m a bit weary. T Hi 👋🏻 I’m Cynthia and I’m a bit weary. There. I said it. These days I’m gravitating to the true & the beautiful as rest for my weary self... and I wonder if you are too.

So much so, that I’m starting a new little offering, it’s called “The Feast: Wonder for the Weary” and the first issue goes out this weekend. It’s a bit more personal (okay this first one is WAY more personal. 🤭) It will be a little bit of everything, all with the goal of offering REST to both the feasters & foragers alike. If you’re already a subscriber— no need to do anything, if not— click through my bio to “keep in touch” and join the feast.✨
We are a people of both lament and praise. We hol We are a people of both lament and praise.

We hold questions without answers— yet we hold them in hands already full of good things.

We hold our daily bread, our daily gifts, and we hold the daily closeness of the God Who Sees.

The God who is no stranger to our lament, and Who Is the reason for our every hope.
He does not grow weary of our asking. Of our need to be told again, He will. 

You friend, are not invisible.
You are seen and cared for by the God who does all things well. (Even when they feel anything but.)
Married love ambition: making the kids roll their Married love ambition: making the kids roll their eyes at our “gushy-ness” as often as possible. 

President & CEO of the Lance Stuckey Fan Club— in every season, but especially on days like today.
Rainy day Mocha date, courtesy of our own toasty k Rainy day Mocha date, courtesy of our own toasty kitchen.😍🌧📚

On this chilly Saturday, we spent entirely too long browsing for books at our library and then all came home to a fire, mochas, and cocoa, respectively. Of all the things we do not know at this very moment, we know the gifts abound, and are worth counting.

PS, if you haven’t spread whipped cream on a foil-lined baking sheet to freeze, and then cut out cute shapes with cookie cutters to top your coffee or hot cocoa, may I suggest you get thee on that at once.
“If God sends us on strong paths, we are provide “If God sends us on strong paths, we are provided strong shoes.” — Corrie Ten Boom

✨File under, things to save in a fire.✨

The prayer journal pictured here contains six months of the hard & the sweet.
Six months of prayers asked & answered for ourselves and for others.
Six months of seeing through prayer, not how it changed our circumstances necessarily but how it changed us.

I always appreciate a record like this— being able to clearly see the paths we are led down, rocky though they may be? Priceless.

The ways God has come near us & drawn us to Himself again and again are written on these pages and I’ll treasure it forever.

Also pictured: Psalms Illuminated Scripture Journal. Highly recommend. Thank you always, @allifarnell
“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it th “The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

While scrolling through my photos today, my heart was heavy to realize how far back “before” was.

Before masks and distancing, before loss, before other, more personal bits of hard. Multitudinous change, neither all bad nor all good.

With our free time, we’ve introduced our girls to Tolkien, Bilbo, Frodo, and especially Samwise the Brave. They are officially hooked and we are delighted to watch them discover another world where evil doesn’t win, and the courage of the small matters much. {they close their eyes at the Orcs and we haven’t had a nightmare yet!}🤞🏻😂😬
I’m leaning increasingly more into the analog th I’m leaning increasingly more into the analog these days.

It started with the Sourdough and a dozen different kinds of jam last year.
I suddenly find great calm in activities that stand in direction opposition to hurry, the textbook definition of ✨work in progress.✨ And really, if you could see the other side of this piece, you would believe me. 🙃

Thank you to @thebarmyfox for making embroidery so accessible!
@thenester says, “It doesn’t have to be perfec @thenester says, “It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful,” and I believe that the weeknight meal equivalent is, “Just because it’s easy— doesn’t make it a second-tier supper!”

Thank you, Spaghetti with Meat sauce for being both a ministry to mom AND a crowd pleaser. Especially on a dreary January-ish day. It is ✨quite alright✨ to make something we’ve made a million times just because we know it makes the people happy.🍝
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