Well, here’s a thing I know: I’ve been using social media to try to communicate and connect with the people around me.

It’s not working very well. 

Big life changes are getting brushed aside, lost in shuffle of Donald Trump articles and recipe videos. 

Or maybe no one cares? It’s hard to tell. 

What I’m feeling so acutely is that likes, emoji, double taps are all a counterfeit for real human connection. 

Nothing beats real words from a person to another person. And I think that’s what we all actually need. Connection. To feel like some really cares. To see a human make some effort to reach out to another human. 

Social media is my job and I like my job. But I don’t want it to infiltrate my life in the way that it is. It doesn’t feel very healthy. And it certainly doesn’t feel very authentic. It’s like watching a sunset on tv when you could just go outside and see the real thing. 

I don’t want to keep doing this, stuck in this artificial world we all experience through the screens on our phones. I want more. I want real. And I don’t want to keep feeling lost in the shuffle. 

This is why Jesus talked about serving so much: serving is about what kind of center of gravity you have. Some people only think about themselves, and so their center of gravity is as big as they are. Their life, then, isn’t that interesting because it’s only as big as they are. But when you give and love and serve and commit to the well being of others, you are now connected to them and your center of gravity expands. You are filled with life and your heart is opened as your life becomes larger.

—Rob Bell from part 47 of his super interesting series on the Bible

“It’s a story as old as time, told in a million different ways: We are our own antagonists, desperate for wholeness yet bent toward self-destruction. And still, God comes back for us.

It’s a story worth telling in as many imperfect, broken versions as we can.

And mine is one of them.”

–Addie Zierman (read the whole text here)

Monday
Chicken Posole verde

Tuesday
Leftovers

Wednesday
Dahl with brown rice

Thursday
Thai takeout/family dinner

Friday
Josh’s in charge

Saturday
Fish “taco” brown rice bowls

Sunday
Lemon rosemary chicken with fingerling potatoes

This tells me how behind I’m on my blog reading, I just found these pics on Carrie’s blog from our last trip to Highline lake.

Better late than never, pics from our trip to California. Can I just say, I’m in LOVE with the ocean…

This was the kid’s first time on a plane.

Josh’s goal was to eat at In n Out everyday. We got off the plane and went straight there.

We barely got any pics at Disneyland, we were too busy running from ride to ride.

Sky writing in LA

Santa Monica

dolphins!!

A couple of weeks ago, Carrie and I thought it would be funny to declare it Duck Face Week. If you don’t know what a Duck Face is, it’s when girls take “sexy” pictures of themselves, sticking their lips out. It seems to be quite the trend on the internet these days. We had fun with our little project, silly as it was.

Day 1.

Day 2.

Day 3.

Day 4.

Day 5.

Day 6.

The thing I love about living where I do is we can drive for two hours and find an amazing place to relax. After I killed myself to pull of the big conference, I needed a break. Josh suggested our usual trip to Ouray and I was feeling a little bored of Ouray and not sure I wanted to go. We ended up deciding to spend part of the day in Telluride and it was just perfect, exactly slow enough for me to recover from the craziness of the week before. I’m also starting to feel such a connection to that area. It’s becoming a symbol for me of rest and peace and relationship. Even though I wasn’t sure I wanted to go at first, I’m so glad I did. That trip grew some roots for me in those mountains.

We were there on the last day the mountain was open so people were out in crazy force, soaking up every last minute of snow. After a delicious lunch of mexican food in town, we road the gondola up to Mountain Village and sat in the town square drinking coffee around the big fire, watching people. I love ski culture, even though I’ve never really been part of it. People are so friendly, especially once you get a few beers in them. I love to watch the camaraderie. I loved sitting with the sun warming my face while the fire warmed my toes. I needed to just sit, doing what was exactly counter-intuitive to my personality: relaxing. I’m thankful that Josh knows exactly what I need, even when I don’t.

A few months ago I got a top-secret letter in the mail inviting me to a pop-up cocktail party in an empty space above Tangle. The theme was “speakeasy” and I had to email in my RSVP to receive the secret password, which was gimlet. After tearing through everything I owned, I settled on my black-sequined party dress that I got at Pollux several winters ago along with the feather hair clip that I wore to my cousins wedding.

The night of the event, we entered through the door in the alley after giving our password to the “bouncer”, climbed the stairs, hung our coats up on an old ladder in the hallway and were greeted to a live jazz band playing in the most beautiful, dimly-lit loft. Bin 707, which is hands-down my favorite restaurant in GJ, provided all the food and drinks which were AMAZING. And my darling friend Robin had decorated the whole event.

We were introduced to the idea of the West Slope Supper Club, which will be a pop-up dinner party that happens once in awhile that features local food or drinks. Josh and I had such a fun time and were really happy to be welcomed in on the ground floor of what is going to turn into something amazing. I told Josh, as were were sipping away on our gimlets, that Grand Junction just got at least 10% cooler.

(This photo by Cat Mayer. Thanks Cat!)

There’s something stirring deep inside me. I’m thinking a lot about being a woman. About being feminine and soft but not weak. I’ve been thinking about being entitled to princessdom, stamping our feet and demanding our own way. And how there could maybe be a better way. I’ve been thinking about being underestimated and overlooked and how to embrace my femininity when that happens rather than try to use my body language to act more masculine. I’ve been thinking about how strong women can really be if only we allowed ourselves to be strong… expected it of each other, fostered it in each other rather than expect a meltdown at every turn. And I’ve been thinking about how women shouldn’t be awarded something just because they are women, but because they worked hard to get it.

More to come…