a journey of 2531 miles.: free time.

well, a week and a half later, i finally have settled into the routine of having free time. this morning i went on a bike ride that ended at a friend's house, where i ended up working on a project for a few hours. i biked home for some taco salad lunch, then leisurely cleaned the kitchen with dana and talked for a while. in the afternoon i walked to sugar rush baking company and sipped a $1.21 cup of coffee while reading and writing for a while. then i walked home, stopping in the grocery store on the way to pick up some broccoli for dinner, which i incorporated into a delightful stir fry after searching the top rated recipes on allrecipes.com. after dinner i spent the next hour or so sifting through recipes for other things that i have coming up that i'll be cooking for, then topped off the evening by making some homemade vanilla (and chocolate, and lemon, and cinnamon) pudding as a test run. such a lovely day.

it's been nice to be so free, to have so much time to use at my disposal. i finally finished the last big project to decorate downstairs, covering the ugly picture in the big frame i bought at goodwill with fabric and hanging it from the ceiling. i couldn't keep this lack of schedule for too long though. i've already been craving some sort of routine, i just get so much more done that way!

maybe i'll consider a culinary career. when i look at how i've spent my time these past ten days, so much of it has been in cooking! i say that half as a joke, but half seriously. someday i think i'd really enjoy something like a little bakery or catering business. but at this point, that's still just a lofty idea. i have a lot to learn before then.

this past week has been full of lots of time with friends too. i went blackberry picking at melissa's house, had dinner with the hernandez family, and had the campus cleanup crew over to the house for ice cream. i've had plenty of time to go on long runs. i discovered a new route that is almost 7 miles and takes me down the main strip of west seattle, then along the western side, overlooking the olympics. it's beautiful, and at one particular spot, reminds me of being in italy.

i added a bunch of new podcasts to my queue, including several by rc sproul and tim keller. the sproul ones are much more theological, i feel a bit like i'm in seminary when i listen to them. a little harder to follow on a run. the keller ones are really great- i've listened to two, one on doubt and one on the fruit of the spirit, both of which have really made me think. in the one on doubt, keller made the point that behind every doubt is actually belief, just in something other than the thing you are doubting. really it just comes down to what you choose to believe in. he gave the example that you are being chased by a wild bear and end up at the edge of a cliff with there are three branches below. you have the choice to either jump and possibly survive, or face the bear. in that moment, when you jump, it doesn't really matter if you have good technique, or how prepared you were for dinner that night, or what clothes you're wearing. what matters is which branch you grab on to and put your faith in. if you grab the wrong one, you're still going to fall. so, he asked, what do you choose to believe in this life? what do you choose to put your faith in?

i've been thinking about plenty these past several days, and learning a lot too. but i'll elaborate on that in another post. for now, i'll leave you with some pictures...