Coffee, Pie and Jesus

My friend, Felicia and I happen to take the same route of public transportation as part of our morning commutes.  Although our destinations are quite different, we have 20 minutes together in the mornings before I get off at my stop and she stays on.  It makes our big, spread out city seem much more intimate and Urban when you can count on seeing a friend in an out-of-the-ordinary context.

We're in the same Tuesday night Bible study so yesterday morning, being a Tuesday, we chatted about that evening's upcoming group.  It was going to be a girls night- the ladies would be meeting at my house and our husbands at a different house.  We had never done this before- usually we all just meet as couples.  Felicia and I were sharing our excitement about our impending girl's night, and how a walk to Starbucks might be in order.  She then casually mentioned that she had really be craving coffee and pie.  Suddenly, there was nothing I wanted more on that rainy day than coffee and pie. I told her I would make it happen.

After school, I bought three pounds (yes, I went a little overboard) of big, juicy blackberries, found my aunt's famous pastry recipe and got busy.  A couple hours later, I had four lovely friends and the smell of coffee and blackberry pie filling my tiny house.  We talked for almost three hours.

There is something so rejuvenating about a girls night with coffee, pie and Jesus.  I feel so renewed today; so thankful for my Jesus and my beautiful smallgroup friends.  Our lives are each so different and we each face our own set of difficulties, but we are there for each other- there to remind one another of our value and the love Jesus has for each of us.  I think we all needed that last night.  The rain, coffee and pie made it that much sweeter.

I Believe

I believe in Jesus Christ.

I believe that He is all good, and all love, and that in His spirit there is freedom.

I believe that there is nothing you can do to make Him love you more, or less.  He loves you fully and completely, just as you are.  We are all imperfect and flawed, and He is still crazy about each one of us.

I believe that His love cleans every wound and is bigger than any sin.

I believe that nothing is too small or seemingly insignificant for Him; that He cares about every detail of your life.

I believe that if you truly experience His power and love, you can never, ever be the same.

I believe that his heart aches for His people, His creation.

I believe that Jesus Christ is the hope of the world.

I believe that He is coming back here, to this messy place, to right every wrong and end every kind of injustice.  That with righteousness and justice as the standard, He will make His creation perfect again.

Isaiah 11:4-9
But with righteousness he will judge the needy,
with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist.
The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together,
and a little child will lead them.
The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The infant will play near the hole of the cobra,
and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest.
They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.

I believe that He is the creator of creativity itself.

I believe in all things lovely and beautiful, because they point to Him.

I believe that if you let Him, He will show you a life more beautiful and full than anything you could ask or imagine.

And then you will be found.

My Valentine

Yesterday was Valentine's day.  I've kind of always been one of those people who could take it or leave it, mostly because I don't like braving the crowds at restaurants or feeling like I have to out-Valentine all my friends.. (Yes, I know it's not a competition, but we've all felt that, right?  Or is it just me?)  What's funny is Dan loves Valentines day.  I think partially because he associates all the pink and red and hearts with his birthday (the 7th).  Even so, we’ve never really been a Valentinesey couple.

This year was our 8th Valentine's day together, and for the first time, I LOVED it.  I had a fantastic day yesterday.  I think because I didn't let myself feel pressured into doing what I thought I was supposed to do, like bake heart shaped cookies and paint my fingernails pink and whatnot.  I did cut out a lot of paper hearts because I remembered doing that in 1st grade, and it was fun back then.  It's actually even more fun now because I don't have to use those dull scissors we all had to use back in the day.  I think I cut out close to 100 hearts, just because.  I also wore a pink shirt to school.  Not necessarily because it was Valentine’s day, but mostly because the shirt was clean and long sleeved, and it was  a bit chilly yesterday.  The festivity of it was just a bonus.

We didn't go out to dinner.  What we did was even better- we ate leftovers at home and watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off in sweatpants.  I wouldn’t have had it any other way.  And then after dinner and Bueller, we changed out of our sweaties and drove all the way to Little Italy for gelato.  I couldn’t get that amazing Gelato I saw on Saturday out of my mind, so we figured V-Day is the perfect day to drive a bit out of the way for a treat.  It was totally worth it.  Delicious gelato.  The walls of the shop even had pictures of Italy all over them, so we got to eat our gelato and look at pictures of places we went on our honeymoon.  (I’ll write about that trip another day!)  It ended up being the most fun, romantic Valentine’s day ever, and it cost less than $10.

My Valentine and I in Florence, Italy, in 2010

Uninspired

I just need to take a moment to pause and acknowledge the fact that today was hard.  For a number of reasons.  First of all, I was so inspired today.  I wanted to craft and plant seeds in my garden and make a delicious dinner and write and read and play my piano and guitar.

Instead, I had to spend the day on an assignment that's due tomorrow.

A 1-2 page paper.

No big deal, right? Apparently wrong.  Because I have spent literally 8 hours on it.  8 hours on a 2 page paper?  I have written 10 page papers in less time than that.

It just made me realize (again) that grad school is hard work.  I shouldn't feel bad about the fact that it's hard.  I'm glad it is.  I'm learning SO MUCH and I love linguistics.  I feel like I was made to study it.  But today was hard.

And I made waffles for dinner.  Waffles with bacon and eggs.  Not that there's anything wrong with waffles.  But waffles on a day where I felt so inspired to make something new and exciting sort of left me feeling unsatisfied.

But then I remembered that my satisfaction comes from Christ and not what I make for dinner, or even how much of my day was spent on writing seven paragraphs.

So now it's 10:41, and even though today was hard and I didn't get to feed my inspiration, I do get to wake up tomorrow, hop on a big, red trolley and be a graduate student.  I will learn a lot and be challenged to think and ask questions.  And that is exciting.

Goodnight!

-Alicia

The Mercato

One of my favorite ways to spend a Saturday morning is at the Little Italy Farmer's Market- my favorite farmer's market in town.  It's three blocks long, and has such a lovely view of the sailboats in the harbor.  Little Italy is already so charming, so once you add the farmer's market, it almost makes me feel like I'm on a trip!  It's picture perfect.

My lovely friend Shannon had the morning off, so we headed down to The Mercato bright and early for some coffee and wandering.  We stumbled upon a darling little coffee shop I had never heard of before called Pappalecco.  When we walked in, I immediately felt like I was back in Italy. Everyone who worked there was Italian, and all of their food was homemade.  The biscotti, cakes and gelato looked amazing- just like the little storefronts in Florence.  I can't wait to go back there again to try some gelato.  I was tempted to get some, but it was 8am so I resisted.  We got our latte's (made with almond milk!) and happily headed over to the market after being told "Grazie!" as we left the shop.



Yesterday was rainy, so today's weather was perfection.  The sky was bright blue with big, puffy clouds, and the pavement still looked a little damp.  A lot of people came to enjoy the vibrant colors of the market.



I snacked on a delicious cheese croissant.



Some farm-bred inspiration.



Shannon and I enjoying our coffees and croissants.

It was so refreshing to walk around the beautiful market and get to talk about life and community.  Seven years ago, Shannon was in 8th grade and I was her jr. high smallgroup leader at church.  Now, she's 19 and we both lead high school smallgroups!  She has great perspective on faith and life with God, and such a heart for people.  I am thankful for her!

My idea of a perfect morning!  I hope your weekend is full of beauty as well.

-Alicia

Here and Now

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Every child hears that question. I, like most kids, had various answers during the different stages of my upbringing. My youthful career prospects hopped around from veterinarian to environmental researcher to teacher, doctor, public health guru, physical therapist and physical therapist for horses and dogs. As I got older and started thinking about college, I knew I wanted to major in biology. I felt that it was a very practical degree to pursue, and that it would give me a great foundation for anything I wanted to do. I was so wrapped up in the practical- what would give me the tools I needed to have a good career- that I didn’t give a single ounce of thought to my true interests. In my mind, my hobbies and interests had to be separate from my college degree and future career.

In college, I would spend an hour or two studing for organic chemistry and then spend the remainder of my night trying to teach myself foreign languages. For every science flashcard I made, I made a flashcard for Spanish, or Norwegian, or whatever language I happened to be interested in that week. During my junior year of college, some of my friends were taking an introductory linguistics class. They would talk about it during lunch, and I would sit silently intrigued (and somewhat jealous) of what they got to learn. One night in my dorm room, I started a folder on my computer of potential graduate programs. I was scrolling through the list of SDSU’s masters degree programs, saving Biology and Environmental Science to my folder, and as I scrolled through the alphabet on my way to the “M’s” for Microbiology, Linguistics caught my eye. I clicked on the link, read over the description and saved it just for fun. I thought “That looks great, but it could never happen. I’m a biology major.” For four years it just sat there.

I graduated with my biology degree in 2009 and took a couple of years off to really figure out what I wanted to do. I finally applied to an immunology Ph.D program and was flown halfway across the country to interview for it. I heard the other interviewees talking about how much they love cell signaling and how they can’t wait to be published scientists, and I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. As soon as I was back in my hotel room, I called my husband crying because I just knew it wasn’t right for me. Sitting alone in that Marriott four states away from home, I pulled up that old folder on my laptop and double clicked on the little header that said “Linguistics SDSU.” That was the moment I finally realized two things that are foundational to why I am getting my masters in linguistics today: 1. God gave me these interests and passions for a reason, and I should listen to that and 2. Linguistics is far more scientific than I ever gave it credit for years ago when I casually bookmarked that webpage. I applied to SDSU and got in, even without a Linguistics background.

I believe that God has a plan for my life that is bigger than anything I could have ever thought up for myself. I also believe that majoring in biology was a necessary step to get me to where I am now. The road to this masters program was definitely not straight and was full of many tears and frustrations, but now I realize that all of my passions- words, languages, music, science, teaching, people- will be things that I can explore through Linguistics. I don’t have it all figured out, but I do know that I have experienced God’s faithfulness and timing so intensely over this past year.  I am right where I belong, and that is such an amazing feeling.

Sunshine

Mondays are normally my "get stuff done at home" day, with cleaning, laundry and homework on my to-do list before my piano students start coming.  Today was no different, other than the fact that it was just so gorgeous outside- I had to take advantage of the perfect weather.  My inlaws live about 10 minutes away, and my husband has an office space at their house out of which he runs his business.  I decided to set up a little office of my own today, in their backyard.  Look at the lovely view I had while doing my homework:



I just couldn't help but stare out over the valley as the beautiful sunshine kissed the hills and the Redwood swayed in the breeze.  My husband's grandma (she's 93!) planted that Redwood tree in the 1950's; she brought the little sapling home in a coffee can.  Look at it now!  Such an amazing reminder of God's ability to grow such beautiful things out of small, seemingly insignificant ones.

Quiet moments like these are my favorite.

I hope your day was full of beauty too.

-Alicia

Dadda

Today, my dad turned 65.  He turned 40 exactly one week after I was born, so we always enjoy the week of only being 39 years apart.  I loved celebrating him today.  We are closer now than we ever have been.  We didn't get along when I was a kid or teen, but I can honestly say that God has redeemed our relationship and made it something wonderful.  I am so thankful for him and that we have gotten so much closer over the past few years.  So happy birthday, dad!  Thank you for your humor, kindness, and your appreciation of the simple things in life.  Not to mention the fact that you're always willing to watch a romantic comedy.  I hope you enjoy watching Pitch Perfect for the 7th time tonight.  I love you!

Vanilla Sugar

This time of year is party time around here.  My birthday is January 26th, my dad's is one week later on February 2nd, and then my husband, Dan's is February 7th!  Needless to say, we eat lots of cake within that two week span.  This year, I decided to make this cake for my birthday.  To be honest, I've never been much of a cake person, but lemon cake is a whole different story.  This cake was absolutely perfect.  So perfect that I am making it again for my dad's birthday tomorrow...

The frosting calls for seeds from two vanilla beans.  I figured birthdays are a great excuse to splurge on vanilla beans (they're like $5 each!)  It seemed wasteful to throw the empty pods away because they still smelled so delicious, so I sealed them in a jar with some sugar and ended up with lovely vanilla sugar after only a couple days!  A teaspoon of it makes for an unbelievable cup of coffee.  And a great way to get some extra mileage out of those pricey little vanilla beans.