2012. my triathalon year.

It came!

xoxo,

2011. a synopsis in photos and bullet points.

• Dad came home to ATL
• Car paid off
• Credit Cards paid off
• Turned 26 (went to Helen to "shoot the Hooch" with my roommate Jessica)
• Took part in Sarah's wedding
• Travel to Seattle, Oklahoma (2x), Orlando, Portland, Chicago, Florence (SC), Muncie (IN), Louisville, Denver (also Colorado Springs & Fort Collins), Richmond (VA),  & NYC
• Met Trent through my dear friends, the Norman's.  Emails, phone calls, texts, skype conversations, g-chats, hand written letters, and a few treasured visits.  What a man. So thankful for Him.  #James1:16and17
• Christmas- Dad helped pick out and set up my tree/Trent helped me take it down.
• I'm more aware than ever that my understanding of the gospel is opposed by the enemy of souls (John 10:10, 1Peter 5:8)
• took 9 of 12 months of 2011 to read Knowing God by TI Packer.  Whoa.  What a great book.  One of those I could read over and over again in my lifetime.
• I had a list of goals for 2011...of which only half came to completion.  Namely the financial ones (God is soooooo good.  Also, let me just take the time right now to record that a few years ago as  I was waking up to the seriousness of my debt, I told God that I would pay it off and then, I would be open to wherever/whatever He had for me.  The very morning in June that I made my last card payment, Trent had emailed me.)
• Spent my summer Mondays with my sister Cameron, who is growing up so quickly
• Attended probably about 10 different Braves games.
• 1:04 in the Peachtree and 2:20 in the Publix GA half marathon (FKA the ING half marathon)

And now, ladies and gentlemen, for your viewing pleasure...

Sarah's wedding rehearsal

Abby's "Peanut" and I doing the scrunchy face

Braves game!

26 years old. 'Bout to 'shoot the hooch'

Beautiful sky over Midown!

Disney World!

Crater Lake Nat'l Park with Maura

Jonathan and Leslee got hitched!

Chi-town. <3

my dad said this is "almost sacriligious"

In other news, NYC was fantastic.  Rockefeller was my favorite part.  Erin Leigh and I almost got to see SNL dress rehearsals.  Contrary to my hopes and expectations, taxis do not just come screeching to a halt next to you when you wave your hand.  Also, the big ball at time square is smaller than I thought it'd be.  Finally, Gimbel's no longer exists (you know, like in Elf).  I knew these things may come as extreme disappointment to some of you, so I included the video above. You're welcome....and Merry Christmas.


"Pleased as man with men to dwell , Jesus our Emmanuel."

a here we come a-christmasing

This past weekend, for the first time in my adult life, I purchased a real live Christmas tree.  My dad helped me get it to my house and standing in my living room.  It still seems almost surreal that he's back in Atlanta now.  I was so glad to have him around to help me with my tree.  It looks a bit like Kevin's did in Home Alone...sans creepy Joe Pesci peering in the window.



Many of my gifts this year are going to be paintings, because I want to share this recently discovered love with those I love the most.  I'm pretty excited about it.  This past weekend was spent running to and fro doing the most christmas-y sorts of things- a parade, shopping, mixing a christmas cd, and attending a christmas party....all the while feeling so much pressure to get stuff done and be productive with my time.    The season of Advent is about the coming- Christ's first coming and the anticipation of His second.  I feel this year that most of my heart's time in the past few weeks has been spent in anticipation of Trent's coming.  It's been a full 6 weeks (I think...and I'm not going to count) since we've seen one another.  This period of time has been particularly hard, but the Lord told me last night that this is meant to be a very sweet season in our relationship.   It is sweet, to be sure, but it's hard to remain content and keep myself from thinking how much better it would be if we lived in the same city and saw one another all the time.  God has orchestrated every other aspect of this.  I keep asking and hoping that the Lord will tell me the purpose of this distance and waiting season.  It does make the heart grow faint.   God has not given me a concrete answer yet, but right now it's taking everything within me to wait on His lovingkindness, which I know He does not withhold from me.    A verse which Trent shared with me a few weeks ago, and now resides on a post-it next to my computer screen...and in my heart is

“He does not delight in the strength of the horse; He does not take pleasure in the legs of a man. The Lord favors those who fear Him, Those who wait for His loving kindness. (Psalm 147:10-11).

Also,  this weekend, I'll be traveling to New York City to see a dear friend, Erin Leigh. This trip has been planned for months and months now.  I'm so excited to go, spend time with her, and experience NYC during Christmas (and hopefully SNL?!).   Here's a skit from this past week's show which made my sides hurt I laughed so hard.

a bullet'd update post.

Ok, I'm home sick after a fantastic thanksgiving trip to Oklahoma to see my family.  It's not debilitating illness, but enough to keep me home from work (pretty sure it's contagious), and I'm thankful to spend a day at home on the couch recovering...and for those windows of time when I get to breathe through my nose....like right now.  ahhhhhh.  Here we go with an update- bullet style.

• Denver was good.  I've come to call Trent's friends, Jonny and Shannon, my own.  Their community exhibits a refreshing amount of candor, and we consistently asked one another, "How's your heart doing?" We were quick to pray for one another and offer words of encouragement.  Coming home from Denver was difficult, as the next time when Trent and I would see one another next was unknown at the time.   
• Going to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving was not something I had anticipated.  When I expressed the possibility to Mallory, her excitement made it impossible for me to refuse.  So, I was able to find a flight.  
• On this note, I think I should share how thankful that I switched over my finances a few months ago to a credit card, which allows me to earn travel points.  If you had told me that I'd be doing this last year, I would have slapped you.  Shortly after Trent and I started dating, I considered it for a couple of weeks...and now looking back, I can say that I'm SO glad that I did!  I'm almost to a free flight, and it's much easier than using cash to keep track of spending (mint.com).
• I do feel like I should put a disclaimer at this point.  Credit cards can be very dangerous.  I'm being vigilant over my spending, and making sure that I pay my balance each month.  The last place I want to go is back into consumer debt, especially after getting out of it earlier this year.
• I've also taken a trip with Joel to Richmond, VA to hang out with Jonathan and Leslee, who got married in September.  I really liked Richmond for the following three reasons-
• Joel, Jonathan, and I ran races on Saturday morning.  I ran the 8k and J&J the half marathon.  The awesome part was how gloriously flat the course was...and the giant downhill at the end.  
• The architecture of the buildings and homes.  Richmond is so charming.
• Jonathan and Leslee were GENIUSES in choosing an apartment right across the street from the Virginia Museum of Fine Art.  It's free. I went there 3 times in 4 days.  There was so much more in the museum that I didn't get to see.  I just love art museums.    
• I feel like so much else has happened in the past month which I've skipped over...which I'm ok with right now.  I will share with you one thing which I feel that the Lord has said to me over and over recently- "I want all of you."  
• I had a particularly hard weekend a few weeks ago, and consequently spent the majority of a Sunday afternoon pouring over old journals, trying to find some kind of anecdote to help myself feel better.  Looking back now, I see that I was looking for something other than the Lord.  
• Matthew 11:28-30 has taken on whole new meaning these past few weeks.   All that He asks is that we simply Come.

"...more like domestic traveler."

A comment I've been getting a lot lately is, "Wow, you certainly are a world traveler!"   Well, to be a little more accurate, I've not had to bust out my passport just yet.  Since the start of september, I've been to Portland, Chicago, Indianapolis (just driving around and flying out of the airport...so you can be the judge of whether that counts), Muncie (IN), and Louisville. 

Tonight, I'll jump on a plane to Denver, CO.  Tonight's flight has an itenerary which was cruelly deceiving.  When I orignally looked at it, I thought, "Oh, it's only an hour and a half...that's weird...cool!!"  Then, Sunday night, it dawned on me that Denver is on Mountain time, duh!  The trip will be pretty short, but in the time that I'm there, we'll be exploring Fort Collins and Colorado Springs (maybe a hike on Pike's peak?!). 

Alright, bullet time.

• Long distance dating is hard and the funny thing is that this time last year, it would have been on my list of things that I would never do...as the majority of my immediate family is out of state and sometimes I just miss being able to do errands with them.  So, obviously i've changed my mind about the idea.  While the time apart can be difficult, the times together are all the sweeter. 
• My fall travel isn't over.  I've still got Richmond, VA, and NY, NY on the list!  there'll also possibly be a weekend trip to Oklahoma too!
• I've given some thought and consideration to changing things up around here...namely, the quote at the top.  While it's one of my favorite quotes, it's not really an accurate representation of the blog's contents anymore. 
• I'll post some pictures later of my finished products (one and two). 
• Also, while in Muncie, Shannon (one of Trent's best friends) made this amazing butternut squash dish.  Here's the recipe-
• 2lb butternut squash, peelewd, seeded, and cut into 1-inch cubes (easier if you nuke the squash for about 3 min- rotating about halfway through)
• 4 large garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
• 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
• 2 tsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
• 2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
•  Heat oven to 375. Spray a large roasting pan with cooking spray. Place butternut squash, garlic, onion, and rosemary in the pan and mix. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with pepper and salt. Gently toss the mixture.
• Cover tightly with aluminum foil. Bake in oven for 40 minutes
• Remove from oven and uncover.

xoxo,

Brooke

the art of letting go.

I wrote this little...prose (?) around the same time last year when the leaves had started their migration to the piles on the ground:

I'm like a leaf hanging on for dear life when suddenly it is overcome by a gust or even gravity and so it decides that to hold on is too much effort. So it lets go, allowing itself to be swept away into the endless sea below of others who have let go.  Unless it's early in the season... is it lazy or brave to let go so early, to be taken over by the forces of nature (wind or gravity)?  The strength of its relationship with the branch is not as strong as it once was.  So, in that moment, it lets go of that to which it once clung so dearly for life.  But the leaf must let go in order for the tree to have life again.

...and now some words from Freddie Buechner, concerning the words spoken by Paul in Ephesians 6:16 in his sermon about spiritual warfare:

"Above all, we must take the shield of faith, and faith here is not so much believing this thing or that thing about God as it is hearing a voice that says, "Come unto me."  We hear the voice, and then we go without really knowing what to believe, either about the voice or about ourselves; and yet we go.  Faith is standing in the darkness, and a hand is there, and we take it."

One final thought that I have had over the past week which was sparked by a song lyric: "You are all I need..."  I'm not sure what or who the person was singing to, but if you had asked me 3 years ago...maybe even a couple of weeks ago, my heart would have resonated with that and I would have coveted that feeling towards God.  I have oft thought it to be so spiritually mature to be able to say to God, "You are all I need."  However, in that moment of hearing the song lyric, I remembered that God did create us to be in relationship with one another.  "It is not good for man to be alone."  He doesn't want us to be lone ranger Christians. He wants us to be in authentic, gut wrenching, life-done-together, healing kind of community.  He wants us to bear one another's burdens.

that's all for now.