It's a cold one!

My dear one, 

It's an unusually cold day - in fact, the last time I experienced these single digits was my last northern Christmas, in December 2009. When I carried out the trash this morning, memories of my childhood came flooding to me... building snowmen, trudging up a snowy driveway to my weekly [instrument] lesson, hurrying home from orchestra rehearsal, through the snowdrifts, to catch the end of the Monday Night Football game, turning on the backyard floodlight to illuminate the silently falling snow at night. How is it that the simple sensation of COLD can bring back so many warm feelings and memories?

Yes, I had a pleasant childhood. My brothers and I were educated at home. We were taught responsibility and selflessness, we visited the housebound and those dying in the hospital, we learned principles of financial stewardship and economics, we took October camping trips to the mountains of NY and June camping trips to the coast of Maine, we memorized Scripture and poetry and hymns and the Gettysburg Address. While other children were writing letters to Santa, we were making muffins and fudge to give to everyone at church. While other children were hunting for Easter eggs, we were passing out donuts at our church's sunrise service. My parents invested greatly in my musical pursuits, and helped me get through college debt-free.They diligently pray for me and God's leading in my life, and are always willing to give me wise counsel. That's not to say that I do not make any decisions on my own; on the contrary, I have certain views that go directly against certain particulars of how I was raised. I hope to be a godly mother someday and raise a new generation of servant-leaders for the Kingdom! But until that day comes, I have my wonderful students who are pursuing God's will in their education, and so I will pour my energy into helping them become vessels God can use!

I wonder what kind of childhood you had, my dear one, and how it affects how you live today. Did you have godly parents, and will I like them? Were you raised in a faithful church, and do you know what you believe? What are your views on child discipline, and are you prepared to be a leader in your home?

My dear one, we can use these days while we are still without one another to prepare ourselves for what God has in store for our future family. So what am I doing now with my life? Am I idly twirling my thumbs until God brings you into my life? I'm afraid not...

• I stay busy as a musician and teacher, using my talents "for the glory of God and the recreation of the soul" (to quote the great master J. S. Bach). I fully acknowledge that I couldn't keep up this kind of career were I to be a wife and mother, but I would be able to develop a prosperous music studio from my home were that to be needful for our family's income!

• I am working on developing my skills in the home. I've always had a "shoeless home," and am happy to have had wonderful coaching from my mother on keeping a clean house. I'm currently making a slow switch over to all-natural cleaners. Little by little, I'm accumulating some "tried-and-true" recipes that I feel comfortable making, and am becoming more adventurous in attempting new recipes. Several times a month, I prepare a main dish for my the college students' supper after the evening service at my church. As I new build friendships in the community, it is my desire to open up my home for fellowship and discipleship. Additionally, I have been reading a few books about healthful and/or organic food choices and am making changes in what I buy at the grocery store. I like Michael Pollan's food rules:

1. Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.
2. Don’t eat anything with more than five ingredients, or ingredients you can't pronounce.
3. Stay out of the middle of the supermarket; shop on the perimeter of the store.
4. Don't eat anything that won't eventually rot.
5. Don't buy food where you buy your gasoline.

• I am striving to cultivate wise financial habits ... sticking to a conservative budget, tithing to my church, and contributing to my retirement plan. I have no loans or debt, and I drive a rather well-used car (from 2000, to be precise).

• I am always reading, learning, growing. Last year I finished 38 books (and that's outside of the reading I did while writing my dissertation). I attend a small weekly breakfast with other 20-/30-somethings from my church to discuss a chapter or two from a book we're all reading (we just finished John Bunyan's Holy War before Christmas). I'm challenging myself personally with books outside my most familiar topics this year ... right now it's Stephen Meyer's Signature in the Cell.

I have just about a week left before the spring semester commences. Looking forward to these last few days of leisure before the busyness resumes! Praying for you, my dear one. Don't lose hope. God has not forgotten us. He is working behind the scenes even today.

All my love,
Me