Small Things Are Big Things

June 26, 2014 by: Kara Noel Lawson

If it’s adding to the noise, turn off this blog

My husband and I given blood every 3-4 months since we got married in 2005… because I think it’s super important… everyone’s civic duty… like jury duty. Except that instead of waiting 8 hours in a room full unhappy people you get to give three people life AND get snacks afterward.
FREE SNACKS!!!
You should schedule an appointment right now.
Go.
OK, now that you’re back, I’ll finish my story.
So I’m the table giving life blood and the nurse keeps looking at me. I’m thinking that I must look shocking without my makeup on or that I have poop smeared on my shirt. She finally asked my parents’ names.
Um?… OK?
I told her and she said, “That’s it!! I recognized you from pictures your mother showed me.”
It turns out this nurse worked at my mom’s general practitioner over 5 years ago at an office that was over 40 miles away.
But she remembered my mom.
And loved her.
It’s crazy to me that I keep meeting people who have somehow been affected by my mom’s life. I have received cards in the mail from people I’ve never met, who feel compelled to tell me what a great person my mom was to them.
But I guess it’s not so crazy when I think about how my mom truly cared about people and lived the kind of life that touched everyone who came in contact with her.
It automatically makes me reflect on my life.
How could it not?
Are my actions, words, and blog posts adding to the noise?
Or are they loving, encouraging, and inspiring my friends AND strangers.
Now, I’m not saying that you have to be perfect, or “on” all the time.
I am saying that if you are genuine, if you love, if you have general goodwill for people, then being impactful will just come naturally.
Make sense?
It made me think of a song called “Adding to the Noise.” The lyrics say, “What’s it gonna take to slow us down to let the silence spin us around?… If we’re adding to the noise turn off this song.”
What does it take for me to slow down?
Silence spin around??
HA!
Often it feels like I can’t just “be” anymore. When we are watching TV and a commercial comes on, I pick up my phone and go on Instagram.
REALLY!?!?
Is it even possible for me to sit and be bored for like 3 minutes?
Apparently not.
But I want that.
I want my mind to be OK if I’m not being entertained.
What is adding to the noise in my life?
It doesn’t have to be something bad like a sin, just things that prevent me from the Small Things that really matter.
So I guess what I’m saying is, if there is “noise” in your life, turn it off.
Even if it’s this blog.

If its adding to the noise, turn off this blog.

May 30, 2014 by: Kara Noel Lawson

A Tale for the Time Being {My Own Personal Book Club}

I picked this book for it’s cover.
Seriously, how great are the color combos???

Book: A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki.

About:
”A time being is someone who lives in time, and that means you, and me, and every one of us who is, or was, or ever will be.”
In Tokyo, sixteen-year-old Nao has decided there’s only one escape from her aching loneliness and her classmates’ bullying. But before she ends it all, Nao first plans to document the life of her great grandmother, a Buddhist nun who’s lived more than a century. A diary is Nao’s only solace—and will touch lives in ways she can scarcely imagine. Across the Pacific, we meet Ruth, a novelist living on a remote island who discovers a collection of artifacts washed ashore in a Hello Kitty lunchbox—possibly debris from the devastating 2011 tsunami. As the mystery of its contents unfolds, Ruth is pulled into the past, into Nao’s drama and her unknown fate, and forward into her own future.

To Read or Not to Read:
Yes.
I loved the feeling I had after finishing A Tale for the Time Being. There were some pretty gritty parts, but I loved the way Ozeki tied in all the storylines. And there were many: 16-year-old outcast, suicidal computer genius with a secret humanitarian’s heart, 104-year-old feminist Zen Buddhist nun, WWII scholar Kamikaze pilot, Japanese American novelist, and Canadian environmentalist. Some of the first dream sequences were a little blah to me, but overall it’s an interesting read. I loved the peek into the Zen Buddist world! A lot!

My Thoughts:

Nao talks about her 104 year old grandmother, Jiko, doing things really slowly “in order to spread time out so that’ she’ll have more of it and live longer.” I actually love this concept and I feel like it goes along with my own little mantra to ‘be present’ and to ‘do small things with great love’. Our lives are collections of small moments and our moments should be savored. p24
Nao says she quit blogging because she “caught (herself) pretending that everybody out therein cyberspace cared about what (she) thought.” And that when she thought about “all the millions of people in their lonely little rooms, furiously writing and posting to their lonely little pages that nobody has time to read because they’re all so busy writing and posting, it kind of broke (her) heart.” As a person I couldn’t agree more with this statement, and as a blogger I feel like everyone has a story to tell, and if they are passionate about their story, and have an important message to share then they should. But a blog (or FT or twitter or instagram) shouldn’t be your life. p26
Ozeki quotes Milan Kundera from Book of Laughter and Forgetting. The book was written in 1980 and I feel like is rings so true today! “Once the writer in every individual comes to life (and that time is not far off), we are in for an age of universal deafness and lack of understanding.” Wowza! How true is that today!!?!? It is so easy to share your story, and that’s great! But so many people substitute that for more authentic interactions. And you know how I feel about that! p26
Suicide is a common theme in this book. Nao’s father writes a letter trying to explain the Japanese perspective about suicide and I found it so interesting. I wonder if this really represents the way the Japanese culture views suicide. p87
Nao talks a lot about her experience living with Jiko in the Zen Buddhist temple. Nao shares many of the Japanese prayers the nuns say throughout the day and over mundane tasks like bathing and even pooping. This was a lovely reminder to me to pray without ceasing. p164 p167
Jiko introduces the practice zazen to Nao. Its about meditating and thinking of nothing. She calls it “nonthinking.” I love this. p183
The concept of fighting a wave. LOVE! This comes up later with Jiko’s son who is a kamikaze pilot in WW2. This is such a beautiful metaphor and I’ve thought about that whole story so many times… but I can’t ruin that for you!! p192 p251

Believe it or not, I could talk a lot more about this book! And all the different layers of theology.
Read it and let’s chat!

May 28, 2014 by: Kara Noel Lawson

The Fresh 20 {the cookbook that changed my life}

If you follow my instagram feed (and you should), then you’ve seen my Fresh 20 posts. (Under the hashtags #thefresh20 and #growupandcook)
The Fresh 20 cookbook has changed our lives.
Really.
Before The Fresh 20 I made healthy-ish food but there was no variety and too often I would pop a frozen lasagna in the oven. Every night we had raw spinach salad with tomatoes, and the kids had ranch dressing. I would make chicken as a main dish and bake it with some sort of random spice. I had one recipe for tortilla soup (thanks Rachael), which I would make for guests, and then a few other recipes for tacos and enchiladas (thanks Aimee). We also went out to eat A LOT.

Then I got The Fresh 20 for a post about being a healthy family. I loved the premise (which I’ll explain in a sec) and the look of the book, but it just sat around for a few months before I finally decided to buckle down and start learning to cook.
The heart behind the book is simple – 20 fresh ingredients for a weeks worth of healthy dinners. (The 20 items you need for the week don’t include pantry staples like salt and olive oil.) And the recipes are divided up by what’s in season. So we can get fresh fruits and veggies at the farmers market, or for a bit cheaper at the store. There are 4 weeks of meals for each season in the cookbook or you can get an online subscription with so many more options. Many of the meals are gluten free, dairy free and/or vegan too!!
Yes Please.
One of the many things that had overwhelmed me about making dinner was picking 5 random recipes for each night of the week, then buying ALL the ingredients for each recipe. I was wasting so much food. We have saved a lot of money by sticking to the plan, and we have virtually no food waste (especially with our chickens eating all our scraps).
But the biggest selling point for me, is each week has a shopping list (of only 20 items).
Now some of you are very good at this meal planning thing, and can design plans that have lots of crossover ingredients. That isn’t my…um… gift.
I started in February.
I committed to try everything. No matter what.
Shrimp and grits? Sure!
Salmon and bok choy? Why not!
Mussels? Yep! (Eli’s new favorite food.)
You guys! I had only cooked about 7 recipes in my whole life, and now I’m making my own salad dressing and meatballs and verde sauce from scratch!
I just made The Fresh 20’s scalloped potatoes for a Memorial Day BBQ people asked me for the recipe.
This is crazy.

The Fresh 20 even featured our family on their blog. That’s crazy too! I’m not getting paid to write about The Fresh 20, but it has really changes our lives.
Really.
You can get the book on amazon for only $15!

UPDATE: A lot of people have asked me if the recipes are time consuming or complicated or too fancy for kids.
Here’s what I would say…
Time: I am a VERY slow cook and I have to read a recipe 20 times during the process. It’s actually pretty pathetic. Some of the recipes take me about 5-10 minutes longer than the suggested time. I usually look at that night’s recipe during nap time and do any required chopping early. Having a plan and all the ingredients a head of time has been a huge time saver for me in other ways – no last minute trips to the store or scrambling for what to make for dinner.
Complicated: The recipes are simple and straight forward.
Fancy: The author, Melissa Lanz, is cooking for her husband and two sons. So she is planning meals with her family in mind. Our family is a little extreme in the food area and our kids have to eat what we eat, no matter what, and without other options. We “always try new things.” And while there were a few things I won’t make again (artichokes and butternut squash soup), we ate them and it was good enough. I would say 95% of the meals were awesome for the whole family.

May 25, 2014 by: Kara Noel Lawson

The House at Tyneford {My Own Personal Book Club}

I passed by a book at Costco and noticed the review, which reads, “Fans of Downton Abbey… will absolutely adore The House at Tyneford.”
So I bought it.
And loved it.

About:
It’s the spring of 1938 and no longer safe to be a Jew in Vienna. Nineteen-year-old Elise Landau is forced to leave her glittering life of parties and champagne to become a parlor maid in England. She arrives at Tyneford, the great house on the bay, where servants polish silver and serve drinks on the lawn. But war is coming, and the world is changing. When the master of Tyneford’s young son, Kit, returns home, he and Elise strike up an unlikely friendship that will transform Tyneford—and Elise—forever.

To read or not to read:
Yes!
I say The House at Tyneford by Natasha Solomons is worth the read.
The feeling at the end was satisfying but also pretty heavy.

My thoughts: (spoiler alert especially on the last bullet point)

Julian and Anna, Elise’s parents, are waiting for their visas to get out of Austria and at one point Elise remarks that she doesn’t understand why it’s taking so long because the country doesn’t want them there anyway. I feel that way the whole book. Ug.
Margot, Elise’s sister, escapes to the United States and in one letter she says she finds herself “hording all (her) memories of Anna and Julian, reciting them again and again, terrified in case (she) forgets something.” This breaks my heart. Having lost someone I love, I feel the same way. At the beginning you can’t wait till you can get through the day hour minute without thinking of them, but at the same time you are so scared to forget. p298
The Tyneford House is so secluded, the town and residents are left out during the first part of the war. But as time passes they are very involved – hosting Land Girls and growing food for the troops. During one day’s chores, a German plane is flying low and chases Elise and actually fires at her till she runs to safety in the woods. I just thought this was so interesting and the pilot was so cruel. War changes people. p280
While Elise and her friend Poppy are out in the field working they watch an English Spitfire plane and a German Messerschmitt plane going head to head. Elise is reflects, “I felt oddly distanced as I watched them weave among the clouds. It was hard to imagine that inside each cockpit lurked a young man, filled with sweat and terror and fighting to the death…” I feel like so much of what my generation knows of war, is detached. It’s hard to believe that right now in so many places young men and women are fighting for their lives. p298
This book was based on a true story about a town on the Dorset coast called Tyneham. The English military took over the town “temporarily” for the war. Then never gave it back. Now it’s a ghost town and residents who had lived there for generations were displaced. Mr. Rivers says there has been a Rivers living in Tyneford since 1610 and when they are told to move, 500 years gets packed up in boxes. p328 This breaks my heart. I have such a great love for old homes. When I look at a home or estate that has gone to ruins it kills me. I think of the family that built the home and how they imagined their future generations living in, and loving the home as much as they do. I look at all the care and attention to detail uncared for. Sigh. If I ever become a millionaire I’ll buy up the old homes, restore them, then rent them to rad families. True Story.
Elise’s father, Julian, was an author and his last novel was smuggled out of Austria in Elise’s viola. Elise doesn’t open the viola to read the novel until she discovers her parents are dead. When she finally takes the pages out they are all blank. p340 I hate that the pages are blank. To me this was one of the most tragic moments in the whole book (and I mean, there are A LOT of tragic moments). But to think that Julian’s last works were lost and that his one wish wasn’t granted felt wrong. Also, his daughters didn’t get that last conversation with him through his words. This would probably be the only thing I would change in this book, and the blank pages left my heart heavy for all that was lost to the family in this story.

Now grab a cup of tea and enjoy The House at Tyneford!

May 17, 2014 by: Kara Noel Lawson

Pismo Pit Stop and Los Olivos Godparents

South.
Now it felt like we were going home.
And I just wanted to be home.
Our first stop was at Pismo Beach.
It was windy and lovely.

(If you’ve ever wanted to know how to take a panoramic picture on your iPhone, I’ll let you in on the trick! Plan the picture, so there is an adult on each end. Start the panorama, and as soon as the picture is off the first adult, she runs to take over the the camera as the other adult takes his place on the other end of the picture. Awesome family picture without a timer or a stranger.)

Pismo Beach is so much fun and I would love to spend a weekend there, instead of just an hour. I can picture our family making fun memories there.
We already made some fun ones…

After Pismo we made a quick stop in Los Olivos to visit my God Parents.
I have so many great memories during my childhood with that family. And then the visits stopped. us kids were growing up, and things were too busy, I guess.
Or maybe the promise of doing something “next year.”

I often think of the saying, “If the Devil can’t make you bad, he’ll make you busy.”
Have you heard it?
I think about that phrase a lot.
What is my busy-ness keeping me away from?
Am I too busy to miss something God wants for me?
Sometimes my lips say yes to something, at the same time my mind is saying, “are you kidding me!?!?” I do like saying yes, because I like helping people and being involved in fun things.
Often when I say no to something, I know I’m saying yes to my family.
And that matters.
It also matters when I say yes to things that are important to my children.
Like lego battles, or crafts, or banana bread or dress up.
If you don’t know what’s important to your children, ask them.
They’ll tell you.
Promise.

Our children keep asking when we can take another vacation in the RV. (I can’t believe it’s already been a year since our trip!) But Brad has had to take a lot of work off for his ACL surgery and I totaled our car, so we get to save for that.
Busy-ness… maybe “next year.”

We had the best trip!
Memories our family will have forever.
I’ll share a fun travel DIY when I finish it soon.

Day 14 – Traveled 593 miles
Grass Valley to Pismo Beach 362 miles
Pismo Beach to Los Olivos 48 miles
Los Olivos to Orange County 183 miles

View our whole trip here:

May 14, 2014 by: Kara Noel Lawson

Grass Valley Family

We left Eureka and headed south to our Grass Valley family. During our RV trip, we tried our best to visit as many people as we could, without getting overwhelmed, or making visits the focus. And this visit worked out perfectly. We arrived, and got to spend time with Brad’s family on their BEAUTIFUL property.
They have a lovely garden.
And a pond.
I want a pond.

Brad is blessed to have both his grandparents on this side of the family. And I couldn’t help but wonder if this would be the last time we would see them together.
I never thought that way before.
Maybe age is making me more realistic or maybe my mom’s death is making me more morbid.
Maybe both.
This life thing is hard.
And time just keeps going on.
Despite sickness and pain and milestones and joy.
Nothing can slow it down.
But sitting next to a pond at twilight sure helps.

We sure do love you guys and we were so thankful for this visit!
I love that we can just pick up where we left off, and have meaningful conversations.
Loving Jesus can do that to people.

Day 13 – Traveled 273 miles

View our whole trip here:

May 8, 2014 by: Kara Noel Lawson

Crazy Month with Answered Prayers

I’m not sure if you noticed (and it’s no big deal if you didn’t), but I disappeared from cyberspace for a while. (That gap in blog posts bugged me so I did a bit of back posting… I’m insane.) This has been a crazy month with answered prayers!
Over the course of a month and a half I totaled our car, we had 3 cases of pneumonia, two ear infections (one with a ruptured ear drum… which was GROSS), ACL replacement surgery, eye infections, and so much more… random things like a roof leak and a pipe bursting and one of the chickens getting killed.
Random bad/costly things.
But our biggest struggle was the worst asthma episode Eli has ever had in his 7 years of asthma episodes. It was rough. Like lips-turning-blue-every-night rough. With 3 rounds of steroids and nebulizer every few hours, 24 hours a day.
I was overwhelmed.
(Below I took a picture of just a few of the meds we got to take recently.)

As the sickness wore on I became even more overwhelmed.
And tired.
My biggest prayer was that we wouldn’t be distracted by the noise of multiple doctor appointments and sheer exhaustion, and miss whatever God was trying to show is in this little world we live in.
So I listened in the stillness.
And I tried to learn.

Eli missed over a month of school, and I learned I really like doing his school work with him.
He learns differently than the rest of his class and I was shocked at how much he isn’t picking up at school. Maybe a new school for him?

We did a lot of waiting.
Waiting in waiting rooms (ha) for Dr. visits or ER visits. Waiting for the next dose of the next medicine. Waiting to see if Eli would start breathing again. Often when I wait, I pull out my phone as a distraction. Over this month I didn’t – for two reasons: 1) I was so flipping overwhelmed and busy I didn’t have the energy and 2) we did a media fast with our church for Easter.
When you wait without distraction you are present.
I learned to be present.
We took time for the smaller things.
Just in case you haven’t received the memo – Small Things are Big Things, friends!
(Below we spent half an hour floating leaves after a doctors appointment.)

A month into Eli’s asthma episode the specialist was prescribing a THIRD round of a heavy dose of steroids along with 2 other new medications (symbicort and singulair) to go along with his 2 OTHER medications in his nebulizer… which we had to do every 2 hours.
Brad and I were going to a prayer night and Brad felt like we needed to bring the kids. I thought he was crazy because trying to keep 4 kids entertained at a prayer meeting seemed like it would be a huge pain in the arse.
It wasn’t.
We went, we prayed fervently for Eli, and our friends did too.
Everyday I’m thankful for our church family. But especially at times like these – when I see how much they love and care for my children. We are lucky.

The night of the prayer meeting was the first night in a month we weren’t woken up by Eli struggling for air.
We were so thankful his new medication worked!
The Dr called early the next morning to see how the night went. He had been concerned we would need to go to the hospital because Eli was doing so poorly the day before.
I told him the new meds were amazing and Eli slept through the night without a hitch.
(pause on the other end of the phone)
Dr: Really?
Me: Yep… the meds are awesome and just what we needed.
(awkward pause)
Me: So… um… thanks…
Dr: The medicine shouldn’t have kicked in for 4-6 days. I thought you would end up in the hospital last night.
Me: Oh. Well… we didn’t.
Dr: That’s great we’ll see you for a follow-up in two days.

At the follow-up appointment the nurse asked Eli how he was feeling, he said, “Great! I was cured at our prayer meeting.
Me: “Huh? Well I suppose that’s true.”

Often I ask God to show me his power.
Often he does.
Often I don’t see it.
Often I ask God to be real to me.
Often he is.
Often I don’t see it.
Or I try to explain situations with my human brain.
God showed me his power at that prayer night.
I see it.
God became real to Eli at that prayer night.
And we see it.

April 30, 2014 by: Kara Noel Lawson

Growing Gestures {HomeFront in April}

We like games around here.
I made up this game for the April issue of HomeFront and it was a HUGE hit. I call it Growing Gestures and we can’t stop laughing every time we play.
What!?? You don’t believe me?!
Try it.

A popular phrase is, “Preach the gospel, and if necessary, use words.” Modeling helps us tangibly see the gospel play out in our own lives, and shows others what we believe. During dinner this month play Growing Gestures then get your children talking with the questions below. And remember, even eating dinner together as a family is modeling Jesus’ desire for community in our lives.

How to play: One person does a gesture (any kind of hand/body/head motion easily executed while sitting at the table), the next person does the first gesture and adds one of their own, and the third person does the first two gestures and adds another. Keep going around the table until someone messes up or you are laughing too hard to finish!

Conversation starter: We just played a game where we learned a motion, copied it, and then added our own motion. The things we do in our lives, work in a similar way – we see a behavior, copy it, learn from it and make it our own. Jesus showed us the ultimate example of love, by choosing to die for our sins on the cross. Let’s talk about ways we can be a Christ-like example for others.

Do you think actions speak louder than words when it comes to our faith?
What is Christ-like behavior mean to you?
What are some examples from the Bible about Jesus’ life that can teach us on how to live our lives?
Who do you see modeling Christ-like behavior?
What are some good examples of following Christ you have seen in our family?
What are things you would like to do to show others you believe in Jesus’ Resurrection?

I hope you have as much fun as we did, while playing this game. It is so fun and silly!

April 28, 2014 by: Kara Noel Lawson

My Own Personal Book Club – Coram Boy

Have you ever seen the book section at the dollar store?
I’m not talking about the board books area, but that random two foot section of even more random books… next to all the New Testaments.
Yeah, you’ve passed it.
Have you ever actually looked at it?
Check it out next time you are picking up bleach.
I love reading and I don’t care if it’s a current best seller or a best seller from 15 years ago! And that’s what you’ll find in this random mix. Older books. And I mean, who cares if you don’t like it. It’s a dollar… use it for kindling at your next beach bonfire if you get bored after the first 30 pages.

The last book I picked up was Coram Boy by Jamila Gavin. It was a Whitbread Children’s Book of the Year in 2000. I love historical fiction so I picked it up and it was a good read.

The book takes place in eighteenth century England and centers around ‘the Coram man’. Peddlers in different areas would collect abandoned children and deliver them to the Coram Hospital for the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and Deserted Children. A charity that still exists today! In this area the ‘Coram Man’ was Otis and his assistant was a boy named Meshak. Instead of delivering the collected children, Otis would kill them and collect the money every year from the families to “take care of the child” or to blackmail rich women who wanted their out-of-wedlock-pregnancies hidden.
I know, huge bummer right!?!?
This story centers around the complicated relationship between Otis and Meshak, then how Meshak ends up escaping and saving a child, Aaron, from Otis. Then the story continues with the Aaron’s story!
It’s good, and because it teen novel, the story doesn’t end depressing.

If you read if for your book club, click here for some great discussion questions!