You Are Not Alone.
October 2024 Newsletter: Fighting Fear, Links Lately, Breakfast Meal Prep Recipe + More
“…and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
Matthew 1:23b NIV (emphasis added)
Thoughts to Ponder
I’m still a relatively new parent—my daughter is 3.5, and my son is only 8 months—but I’m already navigating challenging situations that I wasn’t entirely prepared for.
For example, how does one explain to a three-year-old that while yes, the dog is in fact very patient and accepting of the tiny humans that have taken over the house, she likely does not want every blanket in the house piled on top of her? Especially when said three-year-old responds, “But Mommy! I’m sharing! And sharing is caring!” I’m glad her preschool is teaching her the importance of sharing, but we have taken it to the extreme in some instances and I’m not entirely sure what to do about it.
While some parenting challenges are humorous, and will make for a funny story someday, others are heavier. The weight of wrestling with what to do, what to say, or not to say, weaves itself into our minds, keeping us up at night and settles heavily on our hearts.
One of those challenges we’ve recently faced is fear.
When we lived in Florida, big thunderstorms rolled through a lot, often bringing thunder, lightning, and tornado warnings. This was quite scary for my toddler, as you can imagine, especially after having to shelter in my closet multiple times. As an adult, there were times my anxiety ran high as I watched the weather radar, fear creeping in and taking hold. After a tornado hit our house in Alabama a few years ago, I began struggling with pretty severe weather anxiety, and living in an area that had consistent storms didn’t help.
After our move to New Mexico, the storm frequency significantly lessened, but we still do get thunderstorms and the occasional tornado warning. About a month ago, the weather was forecasted to be pretty nasty all day. We prepped the house and secured the patio furniture, all of which Hannah saw and knew we were preparing for a storm.
“Mommy, I don’t like storms. They’re scary.” She looked at me with her big blue eyes, full of concern.
I knelt down on her eye level. “I know, honey. I don’t like them either. But we don’t have to be scared. Do you know why?”
Her eyes lit up. “Because God is with us!”
Later that day, while my son was napping and Hannah was in her room playing during quiet time, the storm picked up. Rain splattered the windows, thunder crashed, and lightning burst through the sky. I glanced at the monitor, and watched Hannah run to her bedroom window. I internally braced myself for her to call out to me in fear.
She threw her arms out wide, and boldly yelled, “Go away storm! I’m not afraid of you! God is with me!”
Tears filled my eyes as I watched her stare out the window for a moment longer, then turn to go back to playing with her dollhouse. What a response to a storm.
Fear. Uncertainty. Fatigue. Stress. Resentment. Brokenness.
We are all carrying heavy burdens, fighting battles that no one sees. But what do we do with it? The heaviness in which we carry—the fear of the unknown, the stress of the daily grind, the overwhelm of the holidays, navigating tense or broken relationships—do we internalize it and agonize over it, replaying it all over in our heads until we’re either paralyzed in fear, or so angry that we’re just a moment away from boiling over?
Or do we throw our arms open wide and declare with the boldness of childlike faith, that God is with us—that the God who created lightning and thunder and who calms the storms, is also with us in the storm?
In the famous story of Jesus napping on the boat during the storm (Luke 8:22-25), and the disciples thought they were going to drown, we tend to focus on Jesus sleeping—as if how dare He sleep during the storm! But what we miss is that Jesus was right there the whole time. And when called upon, He answered. He stood up and calmed the storm with His outstretched hand.
He is always with us.
“…and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). Matthew 1:23b NIV (emphasis added)
An angel spoke those words to Joseph, who was engaged to Mary, in a dream when he was wrestling with something very heavy. His virgin fiancé had just told him she was pregnant with the Savior—God’s son who would come to save the world.
Talk about heavy and stressful.
In the dream, the angel told Joseph to not be afraid to take Mary as his wife. He went on to take Mary as his wife, and they named the baby Jesus… Immanuel… God with us.
There’s a lot going on the world right now—on a global and national scale. It’s election week. World tensions are high. It seems as if the world is holding its breath as we wait to see what happens.
In addition, we all have our own daily struggles. Work stress, parenting challenges, navigating difficult relationships, financial struggles, busyness that runs us ragged… the list goes on.
But instead of holding our breath in fear or wrestling with worry in our minds, we have another choice.
We can exhale. We can boldly declare, God with us, and call out to Him in prayer.
We don’t have to fear whatever we’re facing. We aren’t alone in the storm. We aren’t alone in the battle.
God is with us.
What I’m Reading
My current read is The Things We Leave Unfinished by Rebeca Yarros. I’m not too far into it yet, but so far I’m enjoying it. I haven’t read her other books, which I know is terrible from a literary standpoint (she wrote Fourth Wing), but I really wanted to read one of her other books without reading her most famous ones first. For me, sometimes reading the most popular books first taints other books, especially when it’s a totally different genre. I do plane on reading Fourth Wing soon, though!
I re-read The Measure by Nikki Erlick for my squadron’s book club. We had a fantastic discussion and once again, this book blew me a way. I highly recommend it, especially for a book club choice! 5/5 stars.
I finished The Women by Kristin Hannah, and am happy to report that I actually liked this one! It’s a unique story about the nurses in Vietnam War. It’s eye-opening, heartbreaking, and honestly just a solid read. 4.5/5 stars.
What I’m Writing
I’ve had a few essays and articles published recently! You can check them out here:
Small Steps Lead to Victory — published by The Love Offering
A Grandma Who Chooses to be Involved Makes All the Difference — published by Her View From Home
Making New Friends as a Mom is Really Hard — published by Her View From Home
Red Light, Green Light — published by Coffee + Crumbs
I also shared about Why I Couldn’t Write this summer.
Interested in reading previous newsletters? You can check out the archive here.
As a side note, thank you to everyone who reads my writing. It truly humbles me that people choose to read what I write, especially when we have access to endless reading possibilities on the internet.
What Links I’m Loving
My daughter is a real-life Rapunzel with her beautiful long hair (she has yet to have a haircut and she’s 3.5 years old). While I love her hair, I don’t always love brushing out the tangles. This de-tangling spray has made brushing her hair SO much easier! Call it magic spray, and your toddler will be thrilled.
Speaking of thrilled, you know you’re an adult when you get excited about rug-corner-grippers. Yes, you read that right. We had a corner of our rug that kept rolling up in a high-traffic area, and it was driving me nuts. For $9, problem solved with these rug-corner-grips. It’s also great because if you anchor all four corners, your rug also stays firmly in place.
I am a huge fan of Aldi, and I was very sad when I realized we would not be near one when we moved to New Mexico. Thankfully, my daughter’s favorite fruit snacks can also be found on Amazon. I still wish Aldi would ship, but I’m happy that I can find a few of their items elsewhere!
I enjoy decorating my house for each season, and I was really happy with this purchase to spruce up the tops of my cabinets. I like the leaves garland so much that I’m planning on getting some sort of garland for each season to decorate the tops of my cabinets with. It really helps brighten up the area without having the decorations in the way/all over the place.
**I don’t get any kickbacks or perks from these links. I’m just sharing what has helped me lately, and thought you might want to know, too!
What I’m (Kind Of) Cooking
I recently shared on Instagram about my meal prep breakfast sandwiches. It takes me about 2 hours to meal prep an entire month’s worth of breakfast sandwiches for my husband and me—I make 48 sandwiches, which roughly covers the month (we usually cook breakfast on the weekends).
Helpful Habit: Just do the meal prep. Yes, it’s annoying. Yes, I hate doing it when I first start, but after I get in the groove it’s not bad. And future-me is SO grateful I did it!
Another Helpful Habit: as much as I love cooking with my toddler, this is not the time to involve tiny hands if you want to actually get meal prepping done efficiently. I’m all for teaching my daughter how to cook and including her, but sometimes I just need to power through and knock out meal prep as quick as possible. And that’s totally okay. You aren’t a bad mom for solo-cooking! There is no mom-guilt allowed in my kitchen, and I hope there isn’t any in yours, either!
Ground Turkey and Egg Breakfast Sandwiches
***note: this recipe is for 12 breakfast sandwiches. Feel free to double/triple/etc to get to your desired quantity of breakfast sandwiches. I quadruple this recipe to get 48 sandwiches made.
Ingredients:
6 large eggs
6 egg whites (or 8oz of liquid egg whites)
1lb ground turkey (or whatever ground meat you want to use)
4-5 bell peppers, diced
1 white onion, diced
2 cups (or a lot of handfuls) of baby spinach
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp salt
pepper to taste
12 English Muffins
Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 350*
Brown the meat on the stove until cooked thoroughly
On medium-heat on the stove, cook the diced bell peppers, onion, garlic, salt, until translucent.
Add spinach to bell pepper pan and cook down
In a bowl, mix the eggs, egg whites, cheese, and pepper
Once your veggies and meat are cooked, pour into egg mixture, and mix well
Pour entire mixture into a greased 9x13in pan
Bake uncovered at 350* for 30 minutes, then cool completely
Use a cup to cut out circles into egg bake, transfer onto each English Muffin. Use extra pieces to assemble enough egg mixture on the sandwiches, if needed
Wrap each sandwich in foil and freeze.
Defrost in the fridge overnight; separate muffin from egg bake. Toast English Muffin (toast it twice for extra crispy if you prefer), and heat egg bake on a plate in the microwave. Re-assemble sandwich.
Optional additions: add a slice of cheese after its cooked, hot sauce, jalapeños to the diced peppers, etc!
Eat and enjoy!
Thanks for reading my newsletter! Feel free to forward this email along to anyone who might enjoy it. My hope is to encourage you in your everyday faith and to share the joys and trials of life and motherhood. We’re all in this together.
—Kristin
Love the idea of meal prepping breakfast!!
I've recently been studying Jesus in the boat, too. I love how you connected it to "God with us." Lovely! Also, 3 is so much fun. Keep writing all those things that pop out of her mouth. They are treasures!!