Kimchi, and Beet Eggs, and Guacamole, oh my!

 This was one of those days that started out easy and ended up really hectic. I only had a few patients on my schedule, and they both needed to be seen later in the day, so I worked on annual education at home while drinking my tea.  

We're doing a Whole30 elimination diet, which means our food choices are limited. I've gotten into a routine, with scrambled eggs for breakfast, avocado and banana for lunch, and sweet potatoes or butternut squash with chicken, fish, or venison for dinner. But we have the annual winter picnic coming up. 

A potluck is a hard place to be on a diet. We knew we had to bring something we could eat, so I said I'd make pickled beet eggs. It should have been done a few days ago so they had time to pickle well, but I forgot. So I dashed into the store for beets this morning. While looking up a pickled beet recipe I found a kimchi recipe that I also wanted to try, so I also got a big head of Napa cabbage. ($19!) Giant had ripe avocados on the clearance rack that I couldn't resist, so I got 7 avocados for $2.15 to make guac with.

As sometimes happens, I was asked to see an extra patient and then another extra patient. It would have still been an easy day if they were all on my schedule to start with, but I wound up crisscrossing the county a little due to the change in plans. By the time I finished seeing patients, it was time to cook dinner.

Mike came home to find me multi-tasking. I had chicken and potatoes in the oven. The Instant Pot had just finished hard boiling the eggs. I microwaved a cup of tea from my morning pot, but it was getting cold. I was slicing an onion to put in with the beet eggs. He asked me what I was doing, and I got a little prickly. (In retrospect, I must say it would have been a good time to raise a hallelujah.) I couldn't get the can opener to work, and Mike stepped in, without taking offense at my tone, and opened cans, made the brine, and peeled the avocados, even though what he had intended to do was take a shower after his run. 

Sometimes I'm pretty nearsighted. What amazing bounty we have! Food, a nice kitchen to cook it in, and work, and a husband.  I'll make the kimchi tomorrow. Tonight, I'm going to remember to be grateful.

About the title

 Fate, felicity, or fluke?

It's GRACE.

In my atheist days when I first started this blog, I devised what I thought was a very clever title questioning why things happen. Is it destiny? luck? mere chance? It very accurately reflected my world view. Another belief that I fostered was that you make your own luck. 

I was so proud of myself for figuring it all out, and people around me congratulated me too. I have to ask myself what kind of twisted individual gets all happy about such a depressing concept. That's who we are without Jesus. 

Atheism and agnosticism are fatalism and denial. They are schemes to convince yourself that you are free from the Power of the universe. They are false freedom. I had grown up in a very controlled environment. I followed the rules imposed by my family, my dad, my school, my college, the church, very well most of the time. I was under the illusion that I was escaping those rules and finding freedom, but I had created for myself a much more confining cage.

Fate? Sure, God knows what is going to happen before it happens. But He is not a puppet master. He does give us free will to choose.

Luck? No such thing, but God loves to bless us with His amazing grace. 

Chance? God planned our salvation from the beginning of the world. He always knew that we would reject Him by sinning, and He knew that Jesus would bear our sin on the cross to give us the opportunity for redemption. 

GRACE- when God freely gives us what we don't deserve in the form of salvation and blessings. 

I'm so glad I was wrong.

Flexible Instruction Day

We were blessed by a beautiful snowstorm on Saturday, when we could stay home and look at it snowing and not go anywhere. Now it is Tuesday, and we have another winter weather event. I don't work today, so I was looking forward to spending the day reading and writing. 

Here's where the 'flexible' part comes in. The school system, in all its wisdom, chose to have a flexible instruction day. This means that the children stay home and do assignments on their Chromebooks and get credit for a full day of school.  This means that the parents are responsible for making sure the children do their assignments at home. Let's add and subtract mixed numbers! Actually, the instructions said "Evaluate". Does that mean solve? My evaluation is that I am a strong supporter of the metric system and decimals! My feelings on the subject become stronger every time I have to do fractions homework. 

Flexible.

Patient.

Adaptable.

My day was flexible in other ways. I started working out again last week. Today was supposed to be leg day. My HIIT video is 15 minutes. Instead of doing the video, I shoveled snow for 47 minutes. The goal is to be burning and breathless. I achieved both. 

It's hard for me to be flexible sometimes. I have an idea of what I want to do, when and how I want to do it. I need to learn to ask for instruction, wait, and pay attention. It turns out that doing my work in life is much more difficult than fractions. Finding a common denominator is important. Complex fractions are simple compared to complex relationships or complex decisions. I need to simplify. It should be the simplest thing in the world to trust my Creator and Savior to show me the way, but sometimes I'm too impatient and find out I'm not even looking at the same page as my Teacher. I need to be more flexible.

Jesus gave us some wonderful examples of flexibility. In Luke 8:43, Jesus is in the middle of talking to Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, about his sick daughter, when He is interrupted by someone touching Him. It is the woman with a bleeding disorder for 12 years, who has spent all her money on doctors and is no better. She touched Jesus and was healed. She was ceremonially unclean, and she interrupted this conversation with an important and powerful man. Jesus didn't get annoyed. He said, "Daughter be of good comfort, go in peace." What a great example for me to follow!

I should practice saying that with a smile when I get interrupted. No worries. Happy to help. God bless you. 

Flexible.