Espresso, Sweet, Intoxicating, Liquid

Torrefacto coffee beans (roasted with sugar) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

 

I’m officially addicted.  Not to the Starbucks, Coffee Bean, Peet’s varieties that the majority of us indulge in, no, I am addicted to the home-brew.  I’m addicted to the ritual, the  process, and the intoxicating fragrance.  The espresso that is brewed into the little glass is dark, sweet, no trace of bitterness to be found, and believe me, once you have made it for yourself, there really is no going back to the corner coffee shop.

 

After my visit to my sister, I was addicted.  I lay all the blame at her feet.  She had this lovely little machine, a coffee grinder, and a beautiful little frothing machine.  Grinding the beans fresh, tamping it into the portafilter, and pulling a shot.  There are endless possibilties for flavorings to add in, endless combinations of milk, cream, syrups, sauces.  Then the spice grinders for the top of your foam.  My sister gave me a grinder of cinnamon and one with cocoa beans and can sugar.  She also gave me a frother and a starter can of beans.  By the time I left for home I was truly addicted and I made sure to think of ways to convince Matthew that we needed our own machine.  We would save money by not going to Starbucks, we could be more  creative with our coffee.  Well, he let me buy the machine, the grinder and after the first cup he was hooked.  He’s addicted, completely addicted.

 

I’ve even used Starbucks coffee in my espresso and it’s completely different from what you get in store.  My favorite bean is Illy, however, at 15 dollars a can, you are defeating the purpose of home espresso.  For a real treat though, Illy can’t be beat.  Their tins are really beautiful too and have so many uses for storage.

 

My favorite latte, so far, is an orange flavored cup of love!  Two double shots of espresso swirled with a couple of teaspoons of sugar.  Then a foaming milk concoction of milk, half and half, and a 1/2 tsp of orange extract, a little bit of cinnamon ground over the top.  So yummy!!

 

My coffee consumption has decreased to two cups of coffee a day.  That is down from about 6 cups pre-espresso addiction.  I’m loving that!

 

Examining My Heart

Seeing a huge group of teens laughing, having fun, eating, playing, singing…that was a good way to spend the evening.  Now the mess to clean up after, not so much, but I don’t even mind, it was a joy to experience the smiles and hugs and love that filled the back yard and the house.  I don’t even miss the sleep that I missed.  Plus, my daughter has this boyfriend who makes it a priority to help around the house and make things easier on us.  I think he enjoys the food so much that he wants to make sure I don’t stop feeding him .  I’m still thinking about a nickname for him.

After yesterday’s tragedy in Connecticut, it was a joy to see a bunch of happy kids.  I didn’t hear about the shooting until I got home yesterday evening.  It was a day of rushing around and fighting Christmas crowds and traffic, preparing for that group of kids.  I’m blessed to have had that experience, especially in light of the loss so many parents and children were experiencing yesterday and in the weeks to come.

In the midst of all the chatter, the conversation turned to the shooting and I heard something that gave me a moment for pause.  One of the boys in the group said that he just couldn’t feel anything about it because it seems that there is a school shooting every week.

I know that there aren’t that number of shootings, however, what he said struck me.  I felt pain in my heart, I lifted up prayers for comfort for this community, and then…well, I guess I know what he was talking about.  It seems that we face so much tragedy each day that it is desensitizing us.  Sure, I saw all the posts on Facebook, I know that it was something that everyone gave pause to, but I wonder how many of us are like this young man? Unable to feel anything about it because it happens so much.  Isn’t that a tragedy in itself?

I often question my heart and how I respond to the evil that is roaming this earth and then wise friends remind me that all I can do is pray for those effected, but that I still have a life to live, children to raise, a Savior to serve.  So giving pause to examine my heart this morning, making sure I am not being desensitized to the evil in this world, and remembering the hope that I have been given and learning how to spread that hope to others.

 

Social Media

There are many things that I can appreciate about social media.  It’s a way to keep up with friends that are now spread all over the world, it’s a way to keep up with family that I only get to see every few years and sometimes even less.  On Sunday I discovered why I really dislike it.  I logged on to check in with my little church group and saw these RIP messages for my nephew.   I called my brother.  As soon as I heard his voice I knew those RIP messages were real.  I couldn’t believe it.

This brilliant young man whose short life had been riddled with pain and confusion, gone.  When I first met him he struck me with the twinkle that held a lot of mischief.  He was older than his years and when he put a pencil to paper he could draw just about anything.  The last few years I learned that he could also sing, play guitar, and was writing music too.  Gifted with a big heart and a way of making friends with everyone, he will certainly be missed.

After I got married and moved around, we lost touch.  I got small reports from my brother and his wife.  I only saw him a few times as an adult, he was always busy when we were in town visiting.  I knew his life was filled with challenges, trouble, sadness, but I didn’t expect this.  I don’t know that any of us did, those closest to him feared it.  I think all of us with kids just hope they will reach out for help.

Here is just a sample of his talents.  This drawing was done for my brother and sister-in-law from their engagement photo.

His talents in music just astonished me because I never knew he had a love for singing.

Here is a cover of a song he did by Rome, it wouldn’t let me embed it, but here is the link

Here is another link for his cover of Rocket Man

His life was ended much too soon and his family and friends will miss him so much.

Revelation 21:4 …and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.

 

Following the Ten

I’m just going to put this out there and hope that if you have read my blog for a while you know my heart and  can know that I am on a journey just like any of you and this is helping me to become closer to God.

Over our Thanksgiving trip I had great conversations about grace and love.  We can become victims of our religious upbringing, and it can stifle our growth, and then something like this conversation can reveal the heart of the matter and free us of stuff that we have hung on to.

Think about the bible and all the things that it records, then think about what Jesus said it ALL boils down to.  All of the law boils down to this, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul and love your neighbor as yourself.”  I know that many things in the bible are dictated by the culture of the time.   I also know that the bible in its entirety was inspired by God.  It was inspired into imperfect men.  The only part of the bible written by God’s finger, the 10 commandments.  Not that we can’t pull the beneficial from the entire bible, because we know that it is ALL a benefit to us, however, I want to focus on the 10 and the one the 10 boil down to.

1. You shall have no other gods before or besides Me.

2. You shall not make yourself any graven image [to worship it] or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; You shall not bow down yourself to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, But showing mercy and steadfast love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.

3. You shall not use or repeat the name of the Lord your God in vain[that is, lightly or frivolously, in false affirmations or profanely]; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

4. [Earnestly] remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy (withdrawn from common employment and dedicated to God). Six days you shall labor and do all your work, But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, your daughter, your manservant, your maidservant, your domestic animals, or the sojourner within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it [set it apart for His purposes].

5. Regard (treat with honor, due obedience, and courtesy) your father and mother, that your days may be long in the land the Lord your God gives you.

6. You shall not commit murder.

7. You shall not commit adultery.

8. You shall not steal.

9. You shall not witness falsely against your neighbor.

10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.

Now, if you take those ten commandments and follow them earnestly, and then you take Jesus’ command to  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27, you will be doing what you need to do to live the best life that you can live.  The overflow of just that, will be placing God first and loving ALL the people around you.

Here is the analogy that really struck me.  There are many people who don’t eat pork because they are restricted by their religious code to do so.  They have taken that from the old testament and held on to it.  However, I don’t hold to that because the dream that John was given was that all things were permissible.  That is left to interpretation and if I am wrong I am counting on God’s grace, and if those who hold to it are wrong, they should also count on His grace.  We cannot judge one another on those things that we hold to or don’t.   We also cannot say that in Heaven there will be no homosexuals, no murderers, no liars, no, you fill in the blank.  Yes, they will all be in their forgiven, perfected, selves, but in their former earth suits, this is what they were.  Judgement is only going to push the un-saved farther from us and our goal in life should be to bring all men into relationship with God.  How can we do that when we are bickering over all the messiness of each other?    And so, while the entire bible is definitely good for us, beneficial in all ways, we need to change our focus to ourselves, follow the 10, love each other, love God and give grace in abundance.  I think when we do this we will find that it is easier to embrace one another and to embrace ourselves in light of how God sees us.

Is It Over Yet?

I disappeared from Face Book for about 2 months prior to the elections because I just couldn’t take the back and forth bashing from all sides trying to make their point and those people I love, who claim to have the love of God, in the constant attack mode against whatever side they didn’t take.  Politics destroy our unity as Christians if we allow them to.  Even in our households, where one is a moderate and one an ultra conservative, discussions just can’t be civil when there is political turmoil.  I was relieved when election day was here, and thought it might be safe to tread the social networking waters again, no chance for it to be peaceful.  The losing side is bitter, the winning side is gloating.  Neither side wins in this battle.

However, as we live in this world we can either choose to allow the things of it to bring us down to distress and despair or we can rise above.  We know that God is in charge, we know the end of the story, we know where our future lies, we should be enrobed in peace, no matter who sits in that oval office.  Whether we agree with the current administration or not, we can pray for them, our nation, the people of this world.  We can focus on the love that we are supposed to have for all people, not just those who agree with us.

This morning my husband shared an article with me that really shed a lot of light on something that has floated in my subconscious for a long time.  We have cycles as people, we have patterns that are not easily overcome because our human nature grabs at us and woos us to follow it down dark alley ways and weedy paths.  I’m putting this out there and hope that you can read it and think on it and maybe it will allow you to let all this political mess go.  When we let it go we can focus on the things that are really important to God and I promise, the things that are important to Him are much more worthwhile.

“How Long Do We Have?”
About the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution, in
1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of
Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some
2,000 years prior:

“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a
permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until
the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts
from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for
the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with
the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal
policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.”

“The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of
history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations
always progressed through the following sequence:

1. From bondage to spiritual faith; 2. From spiritual faith to great
courage; 3. From courage to liberty; 4. From liberty to abundance; 5. From
abundance to complacency; 6. From complacency to apathy; 7. From apathy to
dependence; 8. From dependence back into bondage “

It is believed the United States is now somewhere between the “complacency
and apathy” phase of Professor Tyler’s definition of democracy, with some 40
percent of the nation’s population already having reached the “governmental
dependency” phase.”