Month: February 2014

Dear Morning Me:

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Dear Ang in the morning:

You are smart, capable, and nearly finished with this tremendous feat that you have worked so hard to complete over four-plus years. Criticism is supposed to be constructive, so build from it and don’t let it crush you. (I realize you find that difficult to do; I’ve known you your whole life, but trust me.) Right now, you are too tired and too sensitive.

Your dissertation committee is supposed to challenge you, because they want you to conduct & write the best research project possible. It just feels crappy right now because you feel like they are picking on you. I don’t think they are, so don’t take it personally.

Get some sleep and then hug the kids good morning, one by one. Then, go and enjoy a cup of coffee at your weekly ladies’ Breakfast Bunch life group in the morning and appreciate a new day.

Love,

Sleepy & Cranky Ang

Texas Bluebonnet Wine Trail in pictures

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2014-02-01 12.25.26The Texas Bluebonnet Wine Trail features seasonal events throughout the year, and this month is a wine & chocolate pairing. My best friend and I try to “run away” a few times a year (we have 8 boys between us), and this sounded like the perfect girls’ weekend!

There are seven participating wineries* along the Hwy 6/Hwy 105 corridor in south-central Texas. Each winery featured two tasting selections and a sample-sized chocolate dish. Since the event ran Sat-Sun, we needed something to do on Friday evening. So, we started our wine tour off the trail with three stops in the west Houston area: Cellar Door, Circle S Vineyards, and Braman Winery (which also had live music that night).

Saddlehorn Winery

Saddlehorn Winery

*In case you’ve never been to a wine tasting before, I should clarify that the tastings are usually 1 or 2-oz pours, so if you sample 2-3 wines, you get a half to one glass worth, and that’s if they are generous pours. 😉  I promise we didn’t get hammered!!

We stayed in the Katy area on Friday night and started on the official trail with the three participating wineries in the Brenham area on Saturday: Saddlehorn, Pleasant Hill & Windy Wineries.

Windy Winery

Windy Winery

Pleasant Hill Winery

Pleasant Hill Winery

Next, we went to Bryan/College Station for two official stops, plus one extra just for fun. Messina Hof is an old favorite of ours (and their featured jalapeno chocolate truffle was to die for!), but we were excited to discover Peach Creek Vineyards (where we savored a terrific chocolate mole dish!), and we enjoyed some more live music and a sample flight at Perrine Winery in town. We stayed the night there before we hit the last two wineries on Sunday.

2014-02-01 14.24.24The last two wineries were tucked away, one in the rural town of Montgomery (Cork This! Winery), and the other was down a semi-paved road that were it not for signage, we weren’t sure we were going the right direction.

Bernhardt Winery

Bernhardt Winery

Bernhardt Winery was worth the drive into the boonies, though, because we enjoyed a fantastic port-filled chocolate candy, as well as a delicious chocolate cobbler with a dab of ice cream. It was so good that we stayed and tried a port flight, as well. We learned a lot about the history of port wine and sampled some truly delicious wines.

2014-02-02 18.45.35To round out the trip, we got a souvenir glass and handy-dandy corkscrew! We had a blast, learned a bit about some of our favorite wines, but best of all … we relaxed, got away from the hustle & bustle of “real life,” and recharged our batteries for a brand new week ahead. 🙂

Mercy for the Underdog (Prayer Devotional for the week of February 2, 2014)

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I’m not normally a fan of violence, but there’s something about rooting for the underdog. Remember the final scene in the original 1984 version of The Karate Kid, when Daniel crane-kicks his opponent upside the head? Throughout the movie, didn’t you want to see those Cobra Kai punks get what they deserved? Poor Daniel was bullied and beaten up repeatedly, and all Mr. Miyagi seemed to care about was getting his house painted and car washed.

We’ve been talking about the beatitudes from Matthew 5 for the past few weeks, and one part that has often stumped me is verse 7 (NIV): “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” Our hero Daniel certainly wasn’t shown any mercy by the Cobra Kai. On the contrary, their sensei (leader) announced to one class: “We do not train to be merciful here. Mercy is for the weak. Here, in the streets, in competition: A man confronts you, he is the enemy. An enemy deserves no mercy.”

If we interpret Matthew 5:7 to mean that we’ll be shown mercy by those to whom we are merciful, then I’m afraid we might be in for a rude awakening. Sure, people can turn their lives around and make amends, but I don’t think that’s what the verse is referring to. Think about the Daniel story. He was shown mercy, but it came in the form of Mr. Miyagi’s loving-kindness to him. He replaced Daniel’s busted-up bicycle, taught him life lessons alongside martial arts, and served as a sort of father figure. He didn’t shower Daniel with presents to spoil him, but he gave him the types of things that he needed, when and how he needed to receive them.

In spiritual terms, I have often heard mercy and grace explained as: mercy means not getting what you do deserve, and grace is getting what you don’t deserve. I think the two work hand-in-hand, as Mr. Miyagi showed to Daniel. The problem is, like Daniel, oftentimes we don’t understand why God allows things to fall into place the way he does, so we throw up our hands and blame him. We get angry at him for making us “wax on, wax off” the car, when what he’s really trying to teach us is a much more valuable life lesson. He does show us mercy every day, if only we’ll be alert to it.