It seems the world gets darker and darker. But there is so much good in the world. Sometimes it seems we get so bogged down by the news and the negative and the sadness and the weight it all brings: I want to be better about turning to the light and seeking out the good.
For many years I've thought it would be so refreshing if, in contrast to the news channels (Darren Hardy refers to CNN as "Constantly Negative News") there was a good news channel. Or a good news-paper. In some small way I think I can do that here: Good News Tuesday. I'm going to give it a whirl. As I've been thinking this morning I've come up with a handful of good things that are happening in my world. They probably haven't even reached your world, as they're super small things, but hopefully you've got a few things you can think of too.
1. Barbecued banana peppers stuffed with string cheese. TJ's fabulous cousin, Julianne, brought cheese stuffed banana peppers to a family reunion a few years ago. I fell in love and likely ate half the plate. Sadly, they don't carry banana peppers at Harmon's (my favorite store in all the land), so Julianne gave us four banana pepper plants this spring so we could grow our own.
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| This is Julianne (meeting Reed). There should be a halo over her head: she's an angel. |
And then this happened:
This pregnant deer moved in to our yard and ate every one of those plants to the ground. SO, I had to source some new banana peppers and I found them! The farm just a mile down the road has them and, after trial and error, I can now pretty accurately choose the ones that are actually banana peppers. So, we've been eating banana peppers stuffed with string cheese and they're always amazing.
2. Last weekend was General Conference, one of our favorite weekends all year. Our church leaders had so many words of counsel and encouragement and wisdom; TJ and I both came away with several things to think about and work on. Sometimes it's so helpful to pause and look at the bigger picture and reevaluate where you're at in life, and General Conference helps us do that. As a bonus, Reed slept through about 85% of it, so we were even able to listen mostly uninterrupted. He did wake up to hear our favorite speaker. Here's TJ introducing Reed to Elder Holland:
3. There are few things TJ loves more than teaching. Last night a niece needed help with math and he spent an hour and a half on the phone with her, using FaceTime and picture messages to help her prepare for her test today. He loved it.
4. This should maybe be 3b but yesterday TJ went to lunch with a professor he had at BYU. This gentleman is an adjunct professor at BYU Salt Lake, which is something TJ would love to get into. TJ arranged the lunch to find out how he started teaching, how he got in at BYU, pros and cons of teaching, etc. In a totally unexpected - but entirely welcome - move, the professor invited TJ to come team teach with him for the rest of the semester! TJ is so excited and I am positively thrilled to see him so happy. He's planning to watch the class next week and, if all goes well, start teaching the following week. What a fantastic opportunity.
5. Fresh raspberries. Our raspberries have done better this year than the past five years combined. Whenever TJ is on the barbecue he walks over to check on them when he's waiting for the food to cook. So last night - while our 17 turkey burgers were cooking - he walked over and found there were more raspberries ready! They haven't yet gotten old.
6. Reed is just so cute. He's laughing more and more, which is just about the most fun thing we've ever experienced. :) He's also getting really good at holding his toes and he doesn't yet roll, so we feel like we're in a pretty great spot.
What are some of the great things going on in your world right now? I hope that you can feel more light as you seek it out!
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