What's Cookin This Month!

It's been awhile since I've done a month of menu planning at a time, but with us moving in 2 months, traveling, house hunting etc I was feeling the need to do something organized! Here is what the Kennedy's will be eating throughout November, feel free to try any of these as well!

My crock pot is getting a major work out these days, as I started cooking all my own beans and then freezing them. It's cheaper than buying cans of beans, and I know that I'm not adding any sodium or anything to the beans when I make them myself. I had tried once before with a stovetop method that didn't work very well. Thanks to Sara over at Thriving Mama I have reconquered my fear of cooking beans, and might never go back to cans :) Each day this week my crock pot will be cooking up a batch of dried beans--black, garbanzo, and kidney, and at the end of the day I place 1.5 cups of cooked beans in ziplock baggies to go in the freezer (each can of beans is approximately 1.5 cups, so 1 baggie now equals 1 can of beans). When I cook something I don't even really defrost, I just toss the frozen black beans in the crock pot or soup or whatever I'm making and they heat up and defrost. Besides beans, here's what is on our menu for the month...(click on each item to go to the recipe)

Crock Pot Cranberry Chicken
Crock Pot Throw it in the Pot Chili
Homemade Cornbread
Crock Pot Chicken Azteca

Black Bean Taco Salad with Lime-Cilantro Dressing (one of our favorites!)
Go Go Mango Chicken
Broccoli with carmelized onions and pine nuts
Spaghetti with Speedy Red Sauce (vegetarian)
Crock Pot Bean and Vegetable Burritos
Mustard Crusted Salmon
Autumn Vegetable Soup
Stuffed Shells

7 Quick Takes Friday

If you read my last post, about Remembering our friend Praise, you can probably tell that it's been a tough week. So, today for my 7 quick takes, we're going to work on counting our blessings, and so here you go...7 things I am thankful for this week in the midst of grief.

**1**
Look who is one!! Photos from Lily's first birthday made my week, along with getting to video chat and watch her WALK! She can do a few steps at a time before sitting down again but she can totally do it!Yes, Megan made the Sesame Street cakes for the party, I know, they're amazing :)
**2**
Jenn & Sandeep's wedding was last weekend, and it was such a fun wedding week! I had a blast getting to know Sandeep's family, helping out with random tasks, and celebrating this amazing couple. Here are a few photos I loved...this one is from the rehearsal dinner where the bridesmaids all got to wear saris.My toast to the happy couple
**3**
Downtime. It has been such a busy fall. We've had stuff every weekend for the past two months, many of which have been out of town events. Most of our evenings have been full as well. This week for some reason we were given a break, which was a huge blessing especially in light of trying to deal with Praise's death. We've had extra space just to sit, to enjoy a spontaneous meal with friends who are also grieving Praise, to read together lying in bed one night, and to watch a few episodes of The Office as a distraction. We didn't have to be anywhere any evening this week except Friday night, and now it's almost 3 on Saturday and I haven't had to leave home yet. We literally have nothing on our calendar for today which was shocking to us both. So Charles is out watching college football with friends and I'm here enjoying quiet, apple cider, and have just finished the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy. I am very very thankful for a bit of a break!

**4**
Getting lost in a story. Last weekend on the way to Portland I read the first book in The Hunger Games trilogy. I finished it and immediately started the second one because I wanted to know where this plot was headed. I just finished the second book a bit ago and am taking a brief break before probably picking up the third book (thanks to my Kindle I don't have to wait for a library or bookstore, I can download it from my couch) :) It's been quite awhile since I have been so caught up in a story that I can't stop for anything. Suzanne Collins has crafted a magnificent, very disturbing, captivating saga that I am loving these days!

**5**
The Event. Last night was our youth programs' first crack at a big outreach type event, which we appropriately named The Event. We have a fabulous youth space in the basement of our church with various rooms to use, so they were transformed into a fantastic party for our high schoolers to bring their friends to. The main space was a big dance floor with black drapings, white twinkle lights, and a DJ. Another room was set aside as the cafe, with food, drinks, couches, and more music. The game room had pool, fooseball, air hockey, and wii stations set up. We had just over 40 kids show up and had a great time hanging out with them. I wasn't so sure how up to a big halloween party I was going to be, but honestly, dancing around singing Taylor Swift songs for several hours was very refreshing :) I was thankful for the chance to let loose and just dance for the evening!

**6**
Dinner with unexpected friends. On Wednesday night we had our friends Brian and Courtney over for an impromptu dinner. They got married two weeks ago today, went on their honeymoon, and returned on Monday to find out the news about Praise. Brian, Chuck, and Praise all co-founded the Fuller Surf club a few years ago and would spend every Friday together enjoying the beach. We've never hung out as a couple with the two of them, but as the two guys were talking about Praise earlier in the week they agreed it would be good to share a meal and a time of talking about her and how they were doing. It was fun to be the first people to hang out with this great couple as they returned from their honeymoon, and while it was a tragic event that brought us together I am thankful for their presence Wednesday night.

**7**
Afternoon naps. On top of everything else I managed to catch some cold (probably from the airplane last week) and have been fighting that this week. I am thankful for a bit of a quieter week at work that has allowed me to get a bit of extra rest this week.

Remembering Praise

It's been a week of grief around here, what a strange juxtaposition from this weekend of joy celebrating Jenn & Sandeep's wedding. Our friend Praise passed away very suddenly on Monday afternoon, leaving hundreds of people shocked and struggling at various levels with intense grief. She had been traveling overseas in Singapore and Thailand in the past few weeks, and the doctors suspect she contracted some kind of virus that began spreading through her body. She didn't know she was sick until Sunday at church, went to the ER, was admitted for having trouble breathing, and passed away 24 hours later when her lung collapsed and her heart stopped. And the doctors still couldn't figure out what it was that was attacking her body, or how to treat it. I know her family is in complete shock, along with the church community she grew up in (here in the area) and Fuller's campus. Praise graduated from Fuller with me in 2009 and just began a job working in the office of admissions here. She was extremely active with the youth at her church, and thanks to facebook I've seen the incredibly raw grief these kids are struggling with--not understanding why this happened to someone so absolutely incredible. To be honest, we're all struggling with that question. None of us understand, and that feeling sucks. She was a surfing buddy of Charles' their whole first year here, and made incredible efforts to reach out to me, to bring me into the surfing community even if I didn't actually ride waves. Praise didn't care, she just loved people so much she simply wanted them around and included. From the moment I met her (and learned that her name really is Praise, that's not a nickname!) I was always a little in awe of her. She is one of those people who absolutely radiates pure joy whenever you come into contact with her. She loved Jesus passionately, and she took seriously His call to go and love the least of His children, to give a voice to those who had none. Praise teamed up with the Sold Project an organization that is working around the world to prevent child prostitution and to empower people to act out against this horrific trend happening around the world. Not too many 28 year old women spend their breaks from work/school in places like Thailand working to bring light and justice to incredibly dark places. Praise adored being at the beach, playing in the water, taking pictures, experiencing the beauty that surrounds her. And now she's with Jesus, experiencing the unimaginable beauty that awaits all of us, her brothers and sisters in Christ someday. She loved taking jumping pictures--photos in famous place of people jumping up in the air. Someone wrote on her facebook page after she died "I can almost hear you asking Jesus to jump so you can take his picture." What a photo that would be! But the rest of us are sad. Are so so sad. It's been a long time since something has hit me like this, and I think for Chuck too. I am so grateful that we're able to grieve together, that I had a man who is willing to sit with me as I weep, who will reach out and walk with me as we both struggle to come to terms with this. And honestly, we're angry. This isn't right. There is no reason someone as incredible as Praise should be gone. There have been some beautiful moments that have come since her death because of her, but that doesn't make it easier. We're grieving alongside many of our friends, and it's been a rough few days for all of us. We miss her, her laugh, her beautiful smile, her genuine "how are you doing?" that she'd ask as she met you around campus. We were saying that it seemed like Praise lived more life in 28 years than most people do in a full lifetime, which is so inspiring to us. I know Chuck wishes he could go catch waves with her this weekend, instead of going out with their other buddies in memory of Praise. We were talking the other night about how sometimes it seems like when you name a child, their name ends up being a bit prophetic. There truly is no other way we could describe your life, dear friend, than a life of Praise.

7 Quick Takes Friday

Hello friends! It's been quite awhile since I've actually been home and not traveling on a Friday! So after a few weeks off, here's the latest 7 random things about life in our household these days.

**1**
It's my baby niece's first birthday!! I wish I could be there to celebrate in person, but I'll have to settle for a video chat date this afternoon to watch this new "big girl" on camera :) Happy, happy birthday Lily-girl, I love you more than you will ever know!

**2**
We are getting so excited about our move! Definitely overwhelmed at this point, thinking about all the logistics, but we started conversations with a realtor yesterday and are seriously looking into house hunting, even setting aside a weekend in early November to head up to look in person. The other night we were talking and over and over again my husband kept saying "I'm so excited! This is going to be such a good place for us!" We have a lot to do in the next couple months, and I think it will be a little stressful (moving always is!) but we're getting ready!

**3**
Last Friday we went to a wedding quite unlike any I have been to! I think that is a theme for this year, we've been to a LOT of weddings and several have been especially unique or memorable! This past Friday our friend, Megan, married Harout, an Armenian man with a large Armenian family :) Their wedding was quite the extravaganza in traditional armenian fashion. I have never seen so much food at a wedding in my life. When we walked into the reception site there were platters of food already on the tables, and you were expected to begin eating immediately. A half hour later, more platters were bought out. We arrived at 7:30. We left at 10:15. They were still not done bringing food, and hadn't even come close to cutting the cake and serving dessert! It was incredible! (The food was delicious!) Megan and Harout entered with an entourage of Armenian dancers and musicians which was very cool. Bottles of wine and brandy were on each table, and the party was expected to go all night (the bride and groom decided to leave around midnight, but traditionally they are to stay all night with their guests--Megan said that was not how she was spending her wedding night!)
Jenn & Josh

Becca tasting the brandy

A couple people tried sips of it, but our bottle was mostly untouched.

Standing on our chairs to get a better look as the bride and groom and entourage entered.

This was some kind of non-alcoholic punch, but we weren't sure what it was. The color was awesome, but it tasted just like black licorice.Tera, me, Becca and Jenn--Megan's small group. Probably one of our last group photos :( Tera and Dave moved this week to Virginia and since we're moving soon too our small group is kind of fizzling--it was an awesome 3 years together though!
**4**
I might have found a new TV show that I kind of like a lot. Granted it's not exactly new, it's on it's 10th season, but I've never watched it until this year. Yes, I am addicted to the Biggest Loser. This show really is amazing. I have learned a ton about food, diet, exercise, motivation etc. It's super inspiring and has made me sad I've had a sprained ankle for awhile now and haven't been able to get out and go for walks lately!

**5**
I started trying something new this week in the realm of housekeeping that is working fabulously for me. Many of you probably already do this, but for some reason it took me forever to figure this out. I used to wait until Saturday to do the main household chores, but I found that I would end up spending all day Saturday on tasks like laundry, bathroom cleaning, deep cleaning the kitchen, changing linens, vacuuming etc. After spending 8 hours cleaning our apartment last Saturday (we'd been gone for a month and it was horrible!) I decided I don't really want to spend all my weekend time doing chores. So, I started assigning each task to one day of the week, most of which can be done in about 15 minutes. I try to do a general pick up of all the things that have been left out of their normal places each evening, and then spend like 15 minutes on my "chore" of the day, and so far, our house is still remarkably clean a week later and I'm not looking at having to spend all day tomorrow straightening up!

**6**
This weekend we have another friend's wedding here in Pasadena, although I really don't know this couple well at all (it's a surfing buddy's of Chuck's). Then on Tuesday I get to head to Portland! My best friend is getting married next Saturday & I am very excited to get to be there and celebrate with her/help out throughout the week.

**7**
It has been such an insanely crazy fall that I am STILL working on book 1 of my list of 30 books to read this year! I am wondering how successful I'm going to be sticking to this list this year with all the upheaval going on in our family?? I'm still reading Heidi, which really is not hard to read (it's a children's book for goodness sake!) but for some reason I cannot seem to make solid progress. Hopefully it will be done this weekend and I can move on to book 2 :)

Our new city...the next steps for Us!

It's official! We are headed to the land of REI, coffee shops, mountains, water, hiking trails, fall colors, organic food, obsessive recycling, and GREEN! Yup, that's right, we're headed to the Emerald City for this next chapter in life! My husband took a job as the junior and senior high youth director at a church and will begin in late January. We are both so excited and feel really confident that this is where God wants us, as He has made that clear in SO many ways. After several years now of dreaming, praying, talking and wrestling with what life after seminary might look like for us, I can't tell you how good it feels to finally have an answer! Having spent 6 years in Seattle, I am super excited to head back, it really is my favorite city in the country, and I am thrilled to get to introduce SurferDude to this beautiful place. Last night he was playing with maps on line looking more at the Seattle area, when he turned to me and said "I am getting so excited! This is gonna be a really good place for our new family." I agree :) We're already grieving saying goodbye to friends and community here (and our youth group kids, we're very sad to be leaving them) :( . But we also know that Pasadena isn't where we are being called to stay, it's time for us to head elsewhere.

We have a lot of support in Seatte, which we are very grateful for--between my close college friends who are still there and my "home" church where we have a community of folks who have been an incredible encouragement already, providing us referrals of realtors, prayers, insurance agents, and rave reviews of our new church! My mom's entire extended family of aunts, uncles, and cousins live just north of Seattle, within an hour away, and I'm excited to come back and re-connect a little with them now that we're all adults.

We have so many things we love about our new church, it really was clear that this is such a healthy place, and this is going to be such a great place to serve out of, and be loved by (both of which are crucial for new ministers!) Our new senior pastor is phenomenal. We loved his preaching, the compassion and care he has demonstrated to both of us throughout this whole process of praying and wrestling with decisions. Their interim associate pastor is a professor at Fuller's northwest campus and he seems phenomenal, we love that the church has some strong Fuller connections. The committee members we stayed with and got to know were people that we immediately knew we could be friends with, people we wanted to spend more time with. It's a church that so obviously cares about their teenagers, and has in place so many things we love, things we had always dreamed of implementing wherever we went. We are confident that God has been moving through this whole process, and that He has prepared a community for us--and we are so grateful.

Everyone keeps asking me "okay, so what will you do?" To be honest, I'm not positive yet--and I probably won't know anything until we get there. We do know we don't want to be working in different churches, that feels tough on a family, so we are committed to being part of one community. If a door opens for me to become part of the church staff as well down the line, that would be fantastic, but if not, there are SO many ways to volunteer within the church that I'm not worried about being bored. Seattle is also home to some incredible non-profits like World Vision, New Horizons (a fantastic ministry to homeless youth in Seattle that many of my friends have worked with), Bread for the World, and other great organizations doing powerful ministry around the world that I'd be happy to apply at as well. So we're staying open to many possibilities for what might be in store for me in the next year or so--whether that is a new career, extensive volunteer opportunities, or starting to explore beginning a family. Stay tuned as God continues to lead us!

Welcome Elizabeth Jane!!

My sister in law gave birth on Sept. 30th to an absolutely beautiful baby girl, and I've been meaning to share our family's excitement for the past week now, but in the chaos of life these days I haven't managed to get around to that...until now!! "Jane" as she is called, was born in Japan, where my sister in law and family are for a couple years, so we've only met her via Skype, but we get to go hold and snuggle her for two weeks at Christmas when we head overseas, which of course I am beyond excited about! Enjoy your mid-week pick me up as you meet our adorable new family member!

Diana is not the baby in the family any more! She's VERY excited!

Thank You, Dan

Today was a day I'm not sure I ever really expected to see, and as I reflect on it, I do so with very mixed feelings. The senior pastor at Bethany Presbyterian in Seattle, where I'm a member and "under care" (basically it's a way of saying Bethany is my home church throughout the ordination process), Dan Baumgartner, preached during Sunday morning worship there for the last time this morning. Dan has taken a call to be the pastor here in LA, at Hollywood Presbyterian. After eleven years of ministry at Bethany, he's saying goodbye, responding to a very clear call from God, that his gifts need to be used elsewhere for the time being. Knowing what I know of Hollywood's history, it makes perfect sense to me, Dan is the perfect pastor for that hurting congregation, and I can't wait to see what kind of ministry will continue happening there. But that doesn't make the goodbyes for Bethany any easier. I can't even begin to describe what Dan and Anne mean to this congregation, what an incredible pastor he is. As a seminary student, I've had the opportunity to get to know many pastors in many contexts, but I've never met anyone like Dan. He truly has shaped what I understand the role of the Pastor to be, in some ways contradicting my seminary professors a little, which I am grateful for.

We hear over and over again in seminary that we have to be "relevant" to bring Jesus to people who don't yet know him. In some ways maybe this is true, but from my perspective Dan brought Jesus to a lot of people who did not know him, and he did so in a way that I'm sure many "church growth experts" would say was not "strategic, hip, or relevant." I always thought that to be an effective pastor you have to be a flaming extrovert, charismatic in personality and dramatic in preaching. Well, watching Dan has taught me differently. He loves people, but he's a bit more introverted. Dan doesn't preach "topical" sermons with catchy titles while wearing jeans and bouncing around a "stage". Rather he reverently climbs into a pulpit in a coat and tie, sometimes even his clerical robe week after week. He doesn't use power point, video clips, or even have a screen anywhere in the sanctuary to project words of the scripture passages on to, instead he asks people to pick up the bible in the pew in front of them and actually open to the passage he's reading from. Instead of music videos and flashy illustrations, he thoughtfully crafts beautiful sermons full of illustrations from great literature and conversations with real people he's encountered. Every Wednesday night Bethany opens the doors of their fellowship hall to anyone in the community who needs a warm meal and place to sit for a couple hours. No bible study or other such requirements are imposed on them, all they need to do is show up. Dan is present almost always, and I bet he knows the name of most of the homeless men and women who arrive week after week. The stories he has shared of individuals coming to know Christ, individuals he's had the pleasure of baptizing as a result of meeting them off the streets at this Wednesday Night Dinner, even performing a few funerals for some who didn't survive life on the streets are incredible. He's taught me that to be the pastor of the church really means you are the pastor to that community, even to the people who only show up for free food. You sit with them, ask to hear their stories, share a meal, and over the course of years you are granted the privilege of walking with them as they come to know Jesus.

He said recently in a sermon that statistics have shown that people only have a few main ideas in life, and that almost all of what we say somehow connects to one of these main themes. He was reflecting on some of his main themes, that he's preached over and over again in various ways, messages which truly have sunk deeply into my heart and mind as I begin this journey into ministry. These are some of the "Dan-isms" that I will always hold on to--words of wisdom that I know have helped make me the person I am today:

• Pay attention...watch for God, you never know where you will see Him.
• There is a huge difference between going to church and being the church.
• Life following Christ will look different--once we've encountered Jesus things will change.
  
• Living in tension is usually healthy.
• God loves you immensely, and we see that most clearly reflected in Jesus.
• The Sabbath is God's gift to you, we are a culture that has forgotten that. Somehow we have to reclaim the Sabbath.
  
• We are trying to point people to Jesus, or at least not get in the way.
• Always read good books. (Dan is a voracious reader of almost anything, and started a quarterly book club at Bethany inviting people to join him in reading many of the classics, some theology, but many fiction books where images of truth, love, and faith appear).

Back in May I had the opportunity to spend a couple hours with him one on one, driving back from a meeting. I had the chance to pick his brain about ministry, and those two hours are one of the most cherished conversations I've ever had with someone. Here was his advice to me, as a new pastor:

• "Sarah, always preach scripture, preach Jesus, and you will never run out of sermon topics."
• "It is important to set some boundaries, to create time for your family, but remember too, the call to ministry is a call to give your life away. You need to find the balance, if your boundaries are too rigid, you'll miss some incredible opportunities."
• "When you feel that nudge, that inkling that 'I should call this person,' or 'so and so just had a baby, who is healthy and everything is fine, but I should drop by just to say hi and meet the newborn,' always always pay attention to that feeling. Some of the most powerful times of ministry have happened because I just stopped by the hospital to see the new baby."
  
• "Worry about being authentic, that's what makes you relevant, not how many video clips you can pack into a sermon."
• "Your first job needs to be beginning to train your elders. They are there as the spiritual leaders of the church, to seek God on behalf of the church. They aren't there as a business committee. Get rid of the tables they sit around and put them in a circle of chairs facing one another. Lead them in worship, lead them in deep prayer, set the example that you care more about following Jesus than you do about growing your church by a certain percentage."
  

Dan has taught me more than I could ever express over the years. I know Bethany will be fine as they transition a new pastor into the pulpit over the course of the next year or so. And I know I'll still cross paths with Dan at various Presbyterian events. But even so, I still grieve a little from afar, knowing how much he has loved that church and community. Thank you, Dan, for always walking closely with Jesus. And for encouraging the rest of us to do the same.