a bag and a beer.

last night i hosted 17 of my closest friends over for our 3rd annual thanksgiving potluck with our community group. (for the mental picture -- keep in mind my condo is 1100 square feet!)
everyone brought something to share -- stuffing, casseroles galore, pumpkin pie, apple cider, wine. and it was the job of my roommate laura and i to provide the turkey. now, in years past, i've gone the route of purchasing some turkey + ham from honey baked ham...because, honestly, cooking a turkey did not sound fun.
but this year we were determined...we would truly tackle a turkey. (say that 5 times fast)

so we picked up a fresh, brined, all natural 13.5 pound turkey from trader joes on sunday, and then i really started to get nervous. as the bird chilled out in my fridge for 2 days, i asked around for some ideas. credit goes to annie's mom for the 2 things that i believe made this turkey a success:
a bag and a beer.

i think i knew oven bags existed, but i had definitely never purchased or used one before. i was told it cut down the cooking time, though, so i was totally willing to try it. (keep in mind i'm cooking this after work and before a 7pm gathering...time is of the essence!) so we put mr. turkey into the bag and placed him in a deep baking tin.

and the beer? that's right. now, an ice-cold beer probably would have helped during the "stick your hand inside the turkey and pull out the neck and gizzards this is so incredibly gross" phase (props to laura for actually doing it -- i just watched and tried not to barf). but no cold beers for us. we poured our michelob ultra into a glass and microwaved that bad boy up til he was good and hot, then poured it all down over the turkey, making sure to get the breast super moist. (side note - i hate the word moist) then we sealed up the bag, cut 6 small slits for steam, and cooked that bird at 350 for 2 1/2 hours.

and seriously, y'all...one of the best turkeys i've tasted! a moist (there's that word again) and delicious turkey that couldn't have been better! not nearly as painful as i anticipated, and even worth the unpleasantness of pulling out the insides.


so stock up on some bags and beer and go make yourself a turkey!

gobble gobble.

brett + aynsley

i had the honor of being a part of my friends aynsley + brett's wedding 2 weeks ago in atlanta. everything about the day was just beautiful and glorious. here's a video to give you a glimpse...
{can you recognize my voice?}

tuesday tunes - regina spektor.

i had the opportunity to go see regina spektor for the first time last night. she played at the ryman (which, by the way, is such an amazing venue) and did not disappoint. what regina lacks in between-song-banter she definitely makes up for in quirky catchy lyrics and melodies. this girl is a music triple-threat -- singer. songwriter. musician. and she's really good at all 3.

you probably recognize her single from a few years back, "fidelity", off her 4th album, begin to hope... or even the song "us" from her 3rd album, soviet kitch (which was also recently on the (500)days of summer soundtrack!)

regina released her 5th album, far, this summer and played a lot of it last night. here's the video for my favorite off this album, "eet"...

mocha club experience.

{taken from mocha club's website:}

2 Friends, 7 Countries
20 Projects, 90 days

Africa is most commonly known around the world for its tragic headlines. But the global community seems to know little about Africa’s heart: its people. Join Seattle Pacific University recent graduates Daniel Skiffington and Charlie Beck as they visit all 20 of Mocha Club's current projects in 7 countries and take Mocha Club supporters and friends on a three-month virtual adventure to experience real life in Africa. Via weekly video blogs, Twitter updates, and more, the duo will go beyond misconception and stereotype to document real stories of courage and hope. See evidence of Mocha Club’s impact in Africa, and see how “Skiff and Char’s” lives are changed as well. The tour begins November 1st and we hope you will join us on this journey.

seriously, you want to keep up w/ these guys the next couple of months -- they're doing an awesome job documenting our projects and the people and places that we support!

-->follow them on twitter!

here's the most recent webiside...

{shameless plug....like the shirts charlie & daniel are wearing? they're available in the mocha club store!}

tuesday tunes - carrie underwood

so it's no surprise that i love american idol.
and carrie underwood is hands-down my favorite past winner.
and it's CMA week here in nashvile {and she's co-hosting the awards tomorrow night with brad paisley}.
and she just released her third album last week, play on.
so it really just makes sense for her to be the tuesday tune this week.

although i wasn't a huge fan of the early singles from her debut album, some hearts (ie: "inside your heaven" and "jesus take the wheel"), her sophomore album, carnival ride, was one of those that i could listen all the way through over and over.

so i'm excited to see what play on brings. i'm already a fan of the first single, "cowboy casanova".

sure, carrie's albums aren't the most lyrically or instrumentally diverse...but for some fun, catchy tunes that stick in your head, they'll do just fine. and no one can deny this girl can SING. personal fav? this duet with randy travis.

kinda crazy that she's gone from this {american idol audition}...



to this {the video for her most recent single, "cowboy casanova"}...

home sweet home.

i'm a part of a group of bloggers writing about this concept of home today.
to see who else is talkin' about it, go here.

to some, home may mean an address. to others, a memory. or some sort of combination of places, people, and experiences that come together to form the feeling of home in our hearts.

but honestly, for me, it feels very undefined.

sure, i've had some great addresses over the years. hermitage and howell wood trail in duluth. 1111 south milledge and 105 southview drive (still my favorite to say) in athens. i've even had summer homes -- weeks at my camp in the north georgia mountains, summer beach projects in college in clearwater, florida. but those are all just places to me. a place where i got my mail. a place where i had a key.

and then there's the memories. while i do have some sweet memories from childhood, i wouldn't call those years the most warm and fuzzy ever. and as i've moved away and become more independent, home becomes less and less the place i grew up and more and more the places i'm growing.

so that brings me to nashville.
i'm so grateful for the home that God provided for me here -- a place to call my own, to invite others into, to host parties and prayer nights. i love creating a welcoming, warm environment and making people feel "at home". {here's 100 words i wrote last year about my home in nashville}
but then there's this restlessness within me that desires to be nomadic. i don't want to be so comfortable that i can't just get up and leave. there are so many places i want to go and see and experience. i want to be both in the biggest of cities here in the US and then in the furthest parts of the rural areas overseas. i feel just as much at home in a cab in downtown chicago as i do in a hut in uganda.

{ok, so home is still unclear.}

i think something i grasped pretty early on in my walk with the Lord was the idea that this world is not my home. c.s. lewis says it this way -- "if i find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that i was made for another world."

this song by shawn mcdonald (appropriately titled "home") describes my feelings well... that no where on this earth can ever truly be home. and the brokenness and deceit that exist just make me crave better days. and, thankfully, those better days are coming. rescue is coming. and we will eternally be at rest. at peace. at home.

so in the meantime, i will fight to find meaning and a sense of belonging in each moment, each place. because for me, today, home is right where i am.

"home is not where you live, but where they understand you"
christian morgenstern

thursday tunes?

i just couldn't wait til the next tuesday for this. so, sorry 'bout it, but you're getting a little "tuesday tunes" action on a thursday!

ok, so who likes FREE music? {answer: everybody}

matt wertz is giving away his new live album for FREE. all you gotta do is go here and get it! it's from the acoustic tour he did this past summer with justin rosolino and super fun.

what are you waiting for?

tuesday tunes - annie parsons.

meet my friend annie parsons. (just one of a few of my favorite nashville annies) she just released her first ever ep, and it's super exciting. i got to see her play at the famous bluebird cafe a couple months ago and was really blown away with her gift for songwriting.

be sure to check out annie's blog -- she's streaming one song each day this week for your listening pleasure. but don't delay -- once the day is done, the song is gone!

and here's a video of that night at the bluebird...



need more convincing? annie does a great job here.

fear factor.

in honor of today's holiday {happy halloween} and all the creepy/scary things that come with it, i decided to reflect on the idea of FEAR...

fear is such a weird thing. we all have the tendency to be consumed with it. many of us let it rule our thoughts and our actions all too often. fear is usually the precursor to anxiety and stress. when you get down to it, fear is basically a lack of control (and let's face it...we're all control freaks in our own ways) it's also the title of a horrible movie starting mark wahlburg circa 1996...do yourself a favor and do not see it.

dictionary.com defines fear as "a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid." and author stephen king notes that it is the most physically debilitating of human emotions.

but the reality is we don't have to live in that. "...for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self control" (2 timothy 1:7) "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear" (1 john 4:18). that's the bad kind of fear. in the Greek the word is deilia. it's living life not resting and trusting in that perfect love of our Father...in His plans, His purposes, His control.

but there's a good kind of fear, too. it's the Greek word eulabeia. and it's the exact opposite of deilia. it is trusting and resting in God's control. it's a reverence and awe kind of fear. a wow-i'm-afraid-because-i-realize-how-not-in-control-i-really-am kind of fear. and that type of fear...fear of the Lord...brings wisdom (psalm 111:10) and leads to life (proverbs 19:23).

so next time you're tempted to be afraid of something the world whispers...when you're scared or anxious of the unknown...when you're full of doubts and "what ifs"...stop and remember truth.
you're not alone...you're not in control. He's there...and He is.

transfer fear of the world into fear of the Lord.

"fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." {isaiah 41:10}

it's in the baayeehheggg.

this past weekend was another rendezvous with the girls of 105 southview drive. mk has been living in madison, wisconsin for over 2 years, so we decided it was time to pay her a little visit.

besides great girl time with 3 of my favorites, the 2 things that stick out the most are:

1. cheese. lots and lots and lots of cheese. from fried cheese curds at "the old fashioned" restaurant to buying hot spicy cheese bread off the streets to countless cheese samples at the farmers market to late-night pokey stix from gumby's...we can confidently call ourselves cheeseheads now.

2. the pronunciation of "bag". we could not stop getting a kick of out the way the midwest says "bag"...it became a goal to work it into almost every sentence.