Winter Reading List: Bread and Wine

You can view my Winter Reading List here

Up first, my thoughts on 

Like most every book I read, I downloaded a Kindle copy off Amazon.

I think it was somewhere around 7.99 (which I think is a great deal on a book)

I not only read this book but I followed along with the Bloom Book Club videos/discussion of this book.  I truly think, this is one of their BEST reviews yet!  I HIGHLY recommend going through the Bloom Book Club videos as you read this book.  You will gain so much insight into the author and her work.

Shauna Niequist is real and authentic.  She portrays herself in a way that is so compelling to me as a woman and a believer.  She is a pastor's child, she is married to a worship pastor, she is an author, a mom of two boys, and connects deep with a variety of people across tables spread with simple succulent food.   Her love for Jesus simply bleeds into an unthreatening setting with those she welcomes to her table and beyond.   

I like to cook but I don't know a thing about "fancy" cooking.  I decided to give this book a try because it has gotten so many rave reviews.  This book is so far from who I am and yet so close to who I desire to be.  This book reminds me so much of two dear friends, Rachel and Holly, who are excellent cooks and wonderful hostess.  

Rachel has an ability to bake like NO OTHER.  She is a wonderful hostess and even hosted Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners in her home in Japan where she and her husband were stationed for 3 years.  She provided a multiple memorable holiday meals for families in her community around her table.  

Holly cooked many meals for me while I was in nursing school.  She would test out all kinds of recipes.  Her love language is providing people with nutritious meals to feed their body and nourish their soul.  Her oatmeal bake is one of my favorites!  I called Holly to see if she had read this book.  She called me back to let me know she had "done read the book and given several copies to friends."  She encouraged me to cook the Risotto!  Her words exactly, "It will make you want to slap your momma".  I have to tell you, I want to make the Risotto but there will be no slappin' my momma!

This book is going to take you through a journey in time from Shauna: unmarried, newly married, childess, with child, through miscarriages, on book tours, with body image struggles, vacations, family struggles, and a cooking club.  The book is divided into four sections and each section is full of awesome recipes which use simple ingredients and don't require a culinary degree.

On many levels I am an introvert.  Shauna is an extrovert.  She welcomes people into her home without hesitation into her mess.  There is something that resonates so deeply within me to open up more freely the mess of my home and invite people in.  In my life stage, it feels very overwhelming to have people over for dinner or parties.....I love what she says here about her cooking club...

"There's always a little chaos right when everyone arrives - bringing in hot dishes, shrugging off coats, lifting babies out of car seats.  We bump the oven temp up and down; we go into one another's drawers for knives and cutting boards and platters.  We chop herbs, assemble sandwiches, dress and toss salads.  The once empty spaces of our homes become overrun with baskets, coats, shoes, things we've borrowed and are now returning, cake plates, baby clothes, cookbooks.  We swirl around each other, hugging hello, opening wine, lifting down glasses from the highest shelves"

Below are several more sections from the book that I highlighted because they hold deep meaning to me personally....   

"Whatever thing seems too intimidating or enormous, whatever new skill seems too far off to develop, whatever project has been hanging over your head for what seems like forever: start where you are".

GO

"I'm talking about feeding someone with honesty and intimacy and love, about making your home a place where people are fiercely protected, even if just for a few hours, from the crush and cruelty of the day".

Fiercely protected from the crush and cruelty of the day....
YES this is what I want!

"What people are craving isn't perfection.  People aren't longing to be impressed; they're longing to feel like they're home.  If you create a space full of love and character and creativity and soul, they'll take off their shoes and curl up with gratitude and rest, no matter how small, no matter how undone, no matter how odd."

I'm praying that my spirit would rest in this and open up my mess, but it does terrify me. 

"Holiness abounds, should we choose to look for it.  The whisper and drumbeat of God's Spirit are all around us, should we choose to listen for them.  The building blocks of the most common meal the bread and wine -  are reminders to us: 'He is here! God is here, and he's good.'  Every time we eat, every time we gather, every time the table is filled: He's here.  He's here, and he is good."

Don't you just love that He collides the sacred and the secular? 
 Everything He created was GOOD!