Indulge me as I swerve from the usual updates and stop to note and appreciate the habits or happenings that bring grace or order or fun into our lives.
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For the Gallaghers, the deck has been reshuffled, and we are slowly figuring out this new game and how to play it.
What’s saving my life right now? Here are a few of the gems that are propping me up:
My Smoky Joe.
Coffee, always a love of mine, has lately become crucial to survival, as the days can be long, and exhaustion calls for back-up. Lately one specific version of coffee pleases me ridiculously.
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A tiny pinch of a homemade spice mix provides the magic to this smoky, dusky concoction I call my Smokey Joe. On the front end the rich, hot goodness of this coffee slides down, and my sleepy brain begins waking up and saying, “Ahhh! There you are!” The old synapses begin to spark and fire. And then there’s this little “p.s.” heat on the back end--not quite a burn, but a little extra heat-y goodness. But there’s a post-coffee benefit as well, a little magic that happens and removes some of the pain I earned yesterday!
A small pinch of my homemade spice mix provides the magic. Turmeric, with it’s widely acclaimed anti-inflammatory properties, gets the party started, though what I love first is it’s exotic goodness and hints of Indian flavors. Then a little smoked paprika adds the smoky goodness, like a little hint of campfire. Then as the blessed concoction slides down the old gullet, cayenne gives you a second, back-end blessing of heat and a second reason to wake up.
The mystery ingredient, however, is black pepper, and therein lies the alchemy. Turmeric contains curcumin, known for its anti-inflammatory properties, but it is difficult for your body to absorb curcumin. Black pepper (specifically the “piperine” in black pepper) magically unlocks the absorption of curcumin from the turmeric, and now the tasty goodness is also quieting down the aches and pains you earned yesterday. This is the yummiest medicine I know!
Add just a pinch of the spice mix to each cup, and maybe a hit of cream, and you’re golden. (Just like turmeric!)
Elizabeth Elliott’s Suffering is Never for Nothing.
You know I spent my early childhood in Pakistan, and one of my early memories is drawing on the blank backs of USIS sheets. I knew it only as drawing paper, but the USIS sheets were actually United States Intelligence Service notices sent to ex-pats living abroad to inform them of world events or concerns.
In 1956 (a few years before my birth) my father received a USIS notice with the chilling news that five American missionaries had been murdered in Equador. This hit close to home because one of the five had been in a discipleship group along with my dad, and a couple of the other martyrs were known to him in a more distant way.
The wife of one of these men was Elizabeth Elliott, who later moved with her young daughter into the very village where her husband was murdered and shared the gospel news with the tribe there. Elizabeth wrote about this amazing series of events in her first book, Through Gates of Splendor, and went on to write many more books. (Random brush with greatness: Jim once had lunch with Elizabeth Elliott when she was a guest speaker at Prairie Bible Institute!)
Suffering is Never For Nothing was not originally a book, but a series of lectures on the topic of suffering. In her later years when Alzheimers ended Elizabeth’s writing career, a friend compiled these six beautiful lectures into book form.
I listened to “Suffering is Never for Nothing” on Audible and thoroughly enjoyed the beautifully read, well-worded theology that reminds us that God’s sovereignty includes the hard and the holy, and never comes to us without divine purpose and intent. What a blessing to soak in the truth that suffering is never for nothing. In fact, it is often the conduit of blessing.
I highly recommend you test your own theology of goodness and suffering with this great read.
Making my bed.
It’s kind of a big deal, because bed-making has historically been an ongoing irritation.
Once upon a time in the early years of our marriage we decided that whoever was the last one out of bed would make it. But 99% of the time Jim was the last one out of bed, and he didn’t really see the point of bed-making, if you were going to just get back in it the next night. He is also that kind of sleeper that kicks the sheets out, so half the time my feet are annoyed because they are not neurotically tucked into a tidy sheet envelope. It’s one of those small, sandpaper irritations that you just live with, but it makes you 2% crankier every day.
Jim’s pain needs require a hospital bed that can be raised, lowered, articulated in many ways to assist him getting in and out and comfortably adjusted. It works well, but I really miss him in my bed.
One of the ways I make lemonade out of these lemons is delighting in making my bed each morning! Every night, there it is, tidy and inviting. The cherry on top is my “Sleeps with dogs” pillow that confesses correctly my situation, and adds a charming touch of humor to my pile of pillows.
The dogs, who apparently can also read, love it too.
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The Sovereignty of God.
From the vantage point of the current challenges Jim and I are working through, I often look back and see how God sovereignly prepared our hearts in advance for what was coming. These are such sweet reminders that nothing is random bad juju! Even the hard chapters of our lives do not come without God’s permission and purpose.
One of the ways He made our lives easier now is that for two whole weeks last February, our house was unexpectedly sold! A friend was house-shopping, came to see ours, and we agreed on a price. While the deal was amicably called off after two weeks, those two weeks started a conversation that is making our current life so much easier now.
For one thing, we began the complex conversation of what kind of future home we want back then, so now we are more aware of each other’s priorities. This makes our conversations now pretty sane, and we are on the same page.
But also in those two short weeks, we made a couple of changes we thought were for the new owners. It turns out they were for us, and I’ve thanked God for again and again during this extra-busy season for these two things:
1) We put in a heat pump. After 20 years of heating with wood, I’ve been SO grateful to just turn a dial and have heat or air conditioning during this busy season!
2) We bought a new dishwasher. Doing dishes by hand had become normal to us, but it is (you all know this, but somehow I had forgotten) terribly time-consuming! It now feels like magic to press a couple of buttons and unload each morning.
Hallelujah and thank you Jesus for heat, air conditioning, and a dishwasher at the right time!
High protein pancakes.
As Jim doubles down on his efforts to keep his blood sugars under control, we focus on high protein meals. But even the best eggs, cheese and meats need some variety. We are so grateful for the high-protein, low-carb pancakes that have become a family staple! Served with fresh berries and whipped cream instead of syrup, these protein-laden yummies hit the spot without spiking our blood sugar. There is little flour in them at all, and even then we mix wheat with nut flours for more protein. Best of all, you can throw all the ingredients into the blender at once, whir them into a silken batter, and just pour the pancakes into your hot pan.
And what about those blackberries that are fruiting everywhere right now? What’s stopping you from filling a bowl on your way home today? Or eating them warm right off the vine?
Here are the ingredients you throw in your blender and pour into a sizzling hot, oiled skillet (with complements to my dear, Canadian sister, who shared this recipe with me years ago):
1 cup cottage cheese
4 eggs
½ cup flour (wheat or other)
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 cup oil
½ cup milk
½ teaspoon vanilla
Combine all ingredients in your blender until smooth. Bake on a lightly greased griddle, turning when bubbles burst. Top with butter, berries and cream. Makes 24 smallish pancakes.
The habit of Scripture.
Early in life I received encouragement from several different sources to begin filling my mind and heart with the Word of God.
The Spirit of God uses the Words of God to speak truth, direction, comfort and courage to my heart.
At first reading the Bible regularly was a little like taking medicine; I did it because it was good for me, not because I liked the taste. But slowly it ceased to be burdensome, and became more of a comforting meal, the words of God speaking trusted truths that slowly became part of my own thinking pattern.
Eventually “having devotions”, as I called it, became a practice of daily realignment and encouragement--more like a dessert I couldn’t wait to eat! And now my journal (where I pour out my heart) and God’s Word (where I seek to know His heart), really are my daily bread. As I open my Bible, the Spirit of God uses the Words of God to speak truth, direction, comfort and courage to my heart.
I honestly don’t know where I would be without the words of Scripture that are now engraved in my brain! During our current crisis, God sweetly brings these words to my mind at just the moment I need them, reminding me of what is true, correcting me when I’m off course, and giving me courage and hope and perspective.
I can’t encourage you enough to begin the habit of allowing God’s Word to percolate in your heart and become a part of your inner talk. I hope in the future to do a series on journaling right here in this blog to help you on your way.
Doggies.
You know we love our labradors, and take great pride in the exceptional bloodlines of the dogs we breed. Right now we are down to two labs at home, having lost our sweet Jazz just three weeks before Jim went into the hospital—timing I thank the Lord for now! It would have been awful to lose her in the middle of Jim’s health crisis.
Oakley and Emmy, it turns out, are not just amazing retrievers, but they are wonderful therapy dogs at heart. I am astounded at their instincts. If I indulge in a good cry, these dogs sense it and just materialize out of nowhere, leaning in, resting their heads next to mine in solidarity. What a comfort they were when I was home alone for two months!
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Now that Jim is home recovering, they give him the same, sweet attention, sensing when he is in pain. Emmy, particularly, is the best nurse! When he is hurting, she will not leave him, but bends over his bed and rests her head on his chest.
We’ve always wanted to do more training with these wonderful hunting retrievers. But now I’m wondering if what we’ve really bred is a line of assist dogs.
Thank you, Oakley and Emmy, for your sweet, healing puppy love!
. . . . . . . .
There’s more!
Many more things are saving our lives right now, like friends who teach us how to paint better or haul off a non-working car or finish our deck or send us the right scripture verse at just the right moment. Like Paid Leave Oregon. (I apologize, Oregon, for thinking this was a stupid plan a year ago when it started… just in time to save our own fiscal bacon!) Like new habits, such as actually finishing things.
Stopping to acknowledge what’s saving my life right now is one way of noting the changes that are wins in our lives. Life changes! And we grow and change along with it.
I wonder what’s saving your life right now?
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