Sunshine, Soup, and Stories (bad and good).

For this weekend, a few random things:

• This has been a weekend full of sunshine, so warm that we've hardly needed jackets. What a gift.

• Soon I'll be making this carrot soup. I'll be doing mine with almonds, yogurt, and ginger. It might be yummy to replace some of the carrots with parsnips. And while we're talking about soup (which is pretty much my favorite thing), here's another recipe that is very similar to the tomato soup that I make. It's so delicious and simple that I'll never buy another can of tomato soup again.

• Matt and I spend Wednesday nights with an amazing group of college-aged adults. We call our gathering the Bridge, and we pray together, share about real life, and seek to grow deeper in our relationships with each other and with Jesus. When I have prayer time with the girls and we talk about what's going on in our lives, one of the themes that I've noticed is how our imaginations can run away with us and our thoughts spiral into a mess of worrying, dwelling on old hurts, or judging and criticizing those around us. This has been true in my own head lately. The future is uncertain, relationships are hard. I throw myself pity parties and let the hurts and frustrations take root grow into bitterness and anger as I begin believing lies that God isn't enough, that He has given me the short end of the stick, and that the actions of others determine my level of peace and contentment (or lack of it). I am slowly learning to break old thought patterns and replace the lies with Christ's truth. This blog post calls the negative thoughts "bad stories" that we tell ourselves over and over, and encourages us to interrupt the bad stories with "good stories" that are true and lovely. I've found it to be particularly inspiring in my journey right now.