Life Discoveries

• I decided I really like hot tea.  Due to the absence of liquid CoffeeMate creamer here in this part of the world, I have been forced to expand my horizons beyond French Vanilla and Caramel Macchiato to discover alternative hot drinks to enjoy on chilly fall mornings…I like to try new things so this is probably good for me (especially since hot tea offers a lot more nutrional value than the artificial flavor we pour into coffee).  Since caffeine seems to have no effect on me, my primary motive in finding an alternate drink is my extreme love for holding a mug full of hot, steamy goodness in my hands.  It’s so comforting and relaxing.  I still love coffee though and am a sucker for a big cup of piping hot coffee with some delicious creamy goodness added to enhance the flavor…I will be anticipating many good cups when I come back to America!
• I love to read.  I am so spoiled, especially in my slow mornings, to lay on the couch and read.  I learn so much about life by reading and seeing the world through a different perspective.  I am encouraged and challenged as I read.  I haven’t always had a love to read, but for some reason over the past few months, I have decided to challenge myself to keep learning through reading on my own.  I like to learn, so this is good.
• I love grocery shopping. I used to love all kinds of shopping, but I have recently realized that unless I have a list and know what I am going to shop for, I get easily irritated by aimlessly wandering through stores.  Grocery shopping is my favorite.  It is task-oriented, thanks to my lists I love to create, and it presents endless opportunities for imagination of looking at all the different foods and thinking of combinations and new things to create with all that is available.  One of my favorite shopping excursions here is to the local open-air market where we can buy nearly any kind of produce we want…cheap!  It always makes my heart happy to go and pick through tomatoes, apples, etc…searching for the perfect ones.
• I love cooking.  I believe that my creative side comes out in the kitchen rather than through paintbrushes on a canvas.  This fall, I have re-discovered, or maybe only just discovered since my cooking abilities previously consisted of: spaghetti, lasagna, rice and a couple of other staples.  This is the first season in my life where I have had to learn to create a menu and plan meals for the week…through being challenged to do this, I have discovered that there is more variety in food than ramen noodles, rice, spaghetti and bananas with peanut butter! Shocking, I know! This week, I successfully made homeade (since everything here has to be made from scratch) cornbread to go with chili.  I even found cornmeal at the pazzar…finding some ingredients really is quite a chore!  I am excited about the new recipes that I have collected this fall and can’t wait to use when I get home and in my own home some day.
• Worshipping in another language is awesome!  This weekend, I had the privilege of joining a local body of national believers for their weekly service.  It blessed my heart tremendously!  While I didn’t understand anything from the message (except that at some point the speaker was talking about “fruit”…I am assuming fruit from the life of a believer haha), it encouraged me to look around the room and see nationals listening intently and eager to learn what was being taught.  Many of the songs that we sang I knew in English…but singing them in Turkish was way cooler!  Even to sing in two different languages, but to the same God is such a blessing and honor!
• Journaling is my saving grace in another culture.  What would I do without my journal?  I write about everything there.  I just finished one journal this week and my excitement to start a brand new one with crisp pages was out of control…ok maybe i’m exaggerating a bit, but i was super excited!  It is so cool to look back over the last couple of years that are encompassed in my previous journal and see where I have been…literally and figuratively.  As I am starting my new journal, I wonder where life will take me before I close the pages to it.  I am so excited!  I hope that my children can read my journals some day and learn about me…my joys and my hurts…the thoughts and emotions that I experienced that were sometimes too raw to share with my friends.  It’s where I have really learned to cultivate a personal realtionship with my Heavenly Father through journaling prayers.  So often when we are out during the day, something will happen and Sarah and I will look at each other and say “i have to journal about that tonight!”  There have been many nights that I have come home exhausted, but forced myself to stay up late and journal and process through everything that happened that day…it always leaves me encouraged and at peace to move on.  If you don’t journal or have a way to process your thoughts on paper…I would greatly exhort you to begin now! You won’t regret it!
• I love watching sunrises over the city.  I have had the privilege of watching sunrises in so many different places in my life: mountains of Colorado, water in Maryland, big hills in Virginia, flying in an airplane, the airport in London, etc. And now, looking out over a great city jam-packed with millions of people.  I have an incredible view from my apartment and I have come to adore mornings here.  If you know anything about me, then you know that especially over the past couple of years being in school I have become notorious for staying up way too late and therefore been forced to sleep past the sunrise to get a decent amount of sleep.  So, the fact that I am consistently up to see the sunrise here is a miracle.  I love it!  I love to sit and watch the city start…and journal about it! :)
• I walk fast.  For some reason, living in a large city, I have developed this incessant need to walk fast…everywhere!  I have always moved fast…my mom has often commented about my brothers and I that we have two speeds: “go and sleep!”  We are notorious for our inability to sit still for very long…Come on…life is short and there are places to go and people to see.  I need to make every minute count.
• Laughing.  This may be one of my favorite words in the English vocabulary and it is certainly one of my favorite things to do!  I have learned over and over again this fall of the necessity to be able to laugh at myself.  It is the best medicine and free therapy.  Sarah and I laugh so much together…on the bus, laying in bed at night, at the dumb things we say, and almost certainly we will pick the most inopportune times to burst into laughter!  It keeps us going though!  Learn to laugh at yourself.