My new favorite crouton recipe:

Tear or slice bread into 1 inch squares. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt. Stir until oil and salt are distributed evenly. Bake at 425 for 5 min. Yum.

On Saturday I drove down to Chattanooga to take a wire wrapping class at My Color Image, a jewelry art boutique. I had a wonderful time! I caught up on some podcasts along the way, including a very interesting interview on Red Dress Conversations about merging creativity and law careers. Very interesting stuff!

The class was so much fun- first of all, it was just me, so I got very personalized attention. And, she may have just been flattering me, but the sweet teacher said that I was a “fast learner” and “a natural.” I felt just as happy as I did in elementary school when my teachers said stuff like that!

Here’s what I made. I’m not thrilled with the gold piece- it was the first one we did and I’ll probably redo it, but for my first time, I’m pretty proud.

Have you seen this episode of “The Middle?” It’s hilarious. Except for my near re-enactment today. I went for a run and, IN THE MIDDLE OF A SUBDIVISION, a deer turned the corner and came running down the sidewalk right at me.

The poor thing looked scared, but I don’t know who was more scared- me or it. Since it didn’t seem to have any intention of moving off of the sidewalk, I did. I stepped out in front of a car. The deer was behind the car, so I’m not sure if they saw it or not, but they saw me and looked at me like I was nuts. The deer passed within about 18 inches of me on the sidewalk and into a backyard after it made it through the intersection.

Whew. That was close!

Check out these two adorable little girls, playing at the zoo:

Too tired to write tonight, so instead, I’m decided to make some margaritas & popcorn, watch The Office and blog. Here’s my latest art:

Tonight, Chris and I watched TV and played WordsWithFriends on our phones, with each other.  Our conversation:

Me: You know, we could actually play Scrabble

Chris: What do you mean?

Me: The game.

Chris: What?

Me: The board game.  In real life.

Maybe we need to unplug?

Do you remember the song “Let the music heal your soul?” It was done as a benefit for autism back in the late 90s by just about every member of every boy band ever it seemed.  I bought the single at KMart during my junior year of high school.  The song is still on my iTunes.

The chorus says:

Let the music heal your soul
Let the music take control
Let the music give you the power to move any mountain

I’m having some musical healing lately.  To be perfectly honest, I haven’t been dealing with being off my thyroid hormone all that well, I am exhausted and incredibly irritable.  Incredibly irritable.  I told my dad that I might need some “filter” medication, because right now, I have to say everything I’m thinking.  Luckily, I am, so far, able to find an appropriate time and place to do this, but all irritants seem to be magnified.  The one thing that I’ve found that consistently helps is listening to the music that has been a comfort to me before- a lot of older Christian stuff, but I’ve found myself listening to new Christian music too- even Christian radio, which I haven’t done since I left the industry.  Not because of any huge controversy or anything, but because listening to it all day everyday made me not want to listen to it then and questioning my reasons for leaving the industry made it hard to listen to it later.  It has been an incredible comfort for me lately though.

What is some of your favorite “comfort music?”

Slavery is an antique word.  Especially for me, a transplant from the north, living in the the state with the second most civil war battlefields.  Growing up, what I learned about slavery made it sound like it was a non-issue in Minnesota.  Here in Tennessee, we have slave houses preserved as historic places.  Slavery is not a current issue.

Except that I’m learning more and more that it is, and in ways more horrible than our plantation-owning forefathers even thought of it.  Where southern slavery was, in a lot of ways, a part of the economy of the south (this does not excuse it in any way, don’t get me wrong) human trafficking now often involves women and children being sold into sexual slavery.  Starvation and abuse are the norm.

I just started reading Lisa & Laura Ling’s Somewhere Inside tonight. If you’re not familiar with the story, Laura was captured by North Korean border guards while in China reporting on the plight of defectors from North Korea to China.  Through her family’s connections (she was working for Al Gore’s TV station at the time of her capture) she was freed, but after nearly eight months in captivity.  In the interest of protecting those she was there to report about, she destroyed all of the notes/video/audio from her interviews.

There are a few things about this that are really striking to me:

• Her descriptions of the abject poverty that the North Koreans are escaping to face near-certain poverty and hardship in China sound exactly like those of Mexican’s coming to the United States.
• This is the third in a series of human trafficking issues that have been brought to my attention IN THE LAST FOUR DAYS.  There is something going on here.
• We need more people willing to speak up for those who have no voice.
• I need to be one of those willing to speak up.

I was quite excited to learn that through the WordPress iPhone app I can post to my blog almost as easily as if I’m online. But, reading through the last few posts, I’ve noticed that every time I meant “me” it says “mr.” HOW ANNOYING!

I’m not sure why or how, but my iPhone thinks that mr is a more common word than me. I promise to do a better job of proof reading in the future.

Thank you for your patience.

“Those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.”

This verse came to me tonight while I was thinking about how frustrated this stage of my life can be. I feel like I’m waiting for my real life to start- waiting until I can do what I love, waiting until we are financially stable, waitin until I’m healthy, skinny, whatever. Just waiting. The worst part about it is, I don’t even really know what I’m waiting for. I don’t know what it is my life is supposed to look like. So how will I even know if I get there?

I read a statistic today that terrifies me- there are over a million books published each year! What makes me think I can make a meaningful contribution to that sea? I have a better chance of getting cancer than being a successful author.

Oh wait- I already have cancer- so does that mean I have a better than average shot?

I have been letting myself shut down this past week, and it’s not good. I haven’t painted, I’ve barely read and barely written. I’ve watched TV. And now I feel sorry for myself.

So, I will go to bed and wake up tomorrow ready for God to move, or at least sit with me while I wait.