Instructions for a Perfect Birthday Weekend

1. Wake up the morning of your birthday to the first snow fall of the year blanketing summer flowers and green leaves.

2. Slush over to Caribou Coffee to read your Bible and enjoy your free birthday drink.

3. Beat the sunshine before it breaks through the clouds to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. Take pictures of the juxtaposition of seasons.

4. Receive phone calls from countries like Nepal, Indonesia, Singapore, Liberia, Ghana, and three different states in the United States.

5. Enjoy a steamy and creamy bowl of turkey soup and a freshly Baked Apple Pastry smothered with warm carmel.

6. Cover your pallet with acrylic paints and transform that canvas that has been collecting dust into a burst of color, texture, and life.

7. Snuggle among pillows on your favorite couch and read the latest young adult fiction novel.

8. Wake up on a crisp Sunday morning and worship God in a community of peop

le that make you smile.

9. Head over to Amy Grady's kitchen for the party, where close friends and family have gathered to celebrate God's blessings over the past 30 years, where there is no shortage of food, where laughter echos in abundance amid games, gifts, and conversations.

10. Fall asleep in a soft, warm bed in a home where you are safe, blessed, and loved.

Thank you to everyone who made my 30th memorable. To God be the glory.

Wintertime blessings

I'm in a snow covered, Pine and Burch forest in Northern Wisconsin at my parent's cabin. My nieces and nephews have donned furry hats and puffy mittens and stumble through the drifts of snow in snowshoes. I'm savoring a cup of orange ginger mint tea by the fire watching them through the window. Wintertime blessings.