Anointed Motherhood Issue 2: Seeking Beauty, Chai Spiced Coconut Latte and more!
read or LISTEN!
If you would rather listen, I had fun recording this post for you!
Hello friends! I am excited to be here again this week with some more encouragement and inspiration for your life at home with your family.
Today you will find:
Encouragement for Cultivating Beauty
Anti Inflammatory Chai Spiced Coconut Latte
A worship song that’s blessing me
A poem to share with your family
I hope you enjoy these few moments together!
From My Heart |
When I came in to the home educating world, I, unexpectedly, found a group of mamas who were fiercely choosing contentment and pursuing joy.
At first I don’t think I understood it. Was this beauty and joy some kind of home educating aesthetic? Was it the trendy look for Instagram? Could they really be that delighted with the flowers they picked and put on their table?
I realized fairly quick that you won’t last in this high intensity life style if you aren’t purposing to seek beauty. The demand is simply too high and you can’t get enough little breaks away from the workload to satisfy.
You simply have to fall in love with your ordinary, chaotic life.
I saw incredible women walking this out in different ways. Some took their homes to levels of beauty through crafting and creating. Others walked out their artistry in cooking. Still other chose to give beauty through their words of encouragement or homeschool groups they ran.
Beauty and wonder kind of found me staring out my window. It came in the form of a cardinal, the most vibrant bird I had ever seen with a song that made my heart want to burst.
That beautiful bird caused me to run wild and free through a forest one spring day while my children tried to keep up because it was back, and I needed just one more glimpse of it.
Beauty found me in home baked bread that didn’t turn out so well off the start, and in poetry collections by Robert Louis Stevenson that I picked up for my children and ended up crying through myself.
Goodness and beauty in the ordinary life can feel like an elusive thing when my home never feels complete ordered at once.
For me order is beautiful, but I cannot live in the kind of order I desire, and yet that will not be the end or the defeat of beauty if I am brave enough to look beyond the surface and see the glory of God sparkling in other ways.
When I am walking close to Jesus, I feel an invitation to create beauty for him. I find my worship becomes showing him the many ways I am content at home, even thankful, in the place he asked me to be.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 AMP
Rejoice always and delight in your faith; be unceasing and persistent in prayer; in every situation [no matter what the circumstances] be thankful and continually give thanks to God; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.
I find myself enjoying something lovely like a coconut milk latte and my response is: Thank you Jesus for choosing this life for me.
From my kitchen window I see my little chickadee and breathe: Thank you for sending these birds for me to delight in today.
A jar of bubbling starter sits on my counter and causes me to whisper: Thank you for this sourdough starter that gives me a doorway into new spaces of creativity.
These are my beauty-filled moments.
With everything happening in our world and all the destruction and devastation, it can feel trivial, or perhaps even wrong to fight for beauty. And yet the Lord himself knows how vital this is for the health of our spirits.
Proverbs 15:30 TPT
Eyes that focus on what is beautiful bring joy to the heart, and hearing a good report refreshes and strengthens the inner being.
Jesus understands and sympathizes with our weaknesses and I believe that when we demonstrate boldly in our pursuit of joy that the darkness will not win, He is glorified.
This light is catching. It spreads like a wildfire to the ones around us.
My children were consumed by this pursuit of beauty when I found them all tucked in the window well watching a flock of Cedar Waxwings swoop between our trees.
They chased down the light when they hung up more bird feeders to ensure they wouldn’t miss one flying miracle from our living room window.
Proverbs 31:25 NLT
She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future.
It is not insignificant to forge a trail of victory through despair and it is only through our union with the Holy Spirit that we may laugh without fear of the future.
Oh Jesus, it’s easy for us to give in to despair and let the darkness crowd in around us. It is brave and bold to rise up in your strength and create beauty and goodness in your name. Inspire creativity in each one of us that we may live out your call to rejoice always in front of our children. Open our eyes to your beauty-filled moments all around us. In Your name. Amen.
From My Kitchen |
This week I made this delicious chai spiced coconut milk latte. The website boasted its anti inflammatory properties so I had to try it.
I didn’t use the dates to sweeten this, I just added a little stevia instead, but I’m sure the dates would be great, especially if you’re going to share it with any of your kids! I also didn't have any star anise on hand so I added a little turmeric in for added anti inflammatory help. This was so frothy and delicious and felt like an expensive latte in the comfort of my own home! This was easy enough for me to throw together while I was making snack for everyone else in the middle of our homeschool morning.
Chai Spiced Coconut Latte Recipe
Stories & Songs |
There is such an intimacy that comes when you sing to Jesus, and I find the kitchen is often the most scared spot in my home. I have had this song on repeat from Vineyard Live each day since we sang it at church this past Sunday. It’s a classic from my childhood made a little more modern and taken a little bit deeper. This will usher the beautiful and good presence of the Lord right into your home.
Have you heard of Marchette Chute? I don’t know much about her but a few of her adorable little poems are in a sweet book we have out from the library called “A Small Child’s Book of Cozy Poems” compiled by Cyndy Szekeres. Her rhymes are so fun to read aloud and perfectly illustrate childhood. She has a tiny poem called “Morning” which ends with the words:
How wonderful it is to hear someone say
There will be pancakes for breakfast today.
Ah just reading that makes me want to make pancakes for the kids in the morning! I love how a little poem can make an ordinary event like eating pancake extra sweet!
I hope you feel inspired to cultivate beauty and goodness in your heart and in your home as worship to Jesus! Thank you so much for being here! Please let me know if you try a recipe, song or story and share what you thought of them!
I don’t have a lot of extra time in my life but I feel strongly pulled to put together this newsletter for you. It means the world to me if I hear how God is speaking to you or what stood out for you. Personal connection and impact is everything for me!
Have a wonderful, blessed remainder of your week!
Love,
Monica
This winter I’ve had a flock of birds that show up at 5pm outside my kitchen window. It always feels like such a peaceful gift from God!