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  • I’ve been using Mailchimp for a couple of years to run our ministry update letter but it’s been such a hassle lately (and honestly overbuilt for our needs) that I think I’m going to be moving it to Buttondown like I do for my personal newsletter.

    → 9:15 AM, Mar 5
  • While my day has already not gone entirely to plan, I tried to make sure that I got some writing done before starting on my regular tasks and that seems to have helped me begin to get in the flow. Even with needing to parent while in the middle of getting the words down.

    → 9:19 AM, Mar 4
  • Pretty happy with how this loaf turned out. 🍞 👨‍🍳 9A1097FF-79A3-4078-B570-0F941BD4E302.jpg 41CB192E-688E-4422-A387-14C2BE52A146.jpg

    → 9:42 PM, Mar 3
  • I feel like I’m starting to finally get into the rhythm of waking up early (by my definition, 6am is early). That doesn’t mean I’m enjoying the rhythm itself, but I am enjoying the way that it has helped ensure my mornings aren’t pure chaos.

    → 10:57 AM, Mar 3
  • I love living here. Scotland has some beautiful sunsets.

    → 10:33 PM, Mar 2
  • Since starting my training course back in September, I have had the weekly privilege of finding that my brain no longer functions after 4pm on a Tuesday (class days for year 1 are Monday and Tuesday).

    → 4:17 PM, Mar 2
  • Today was a day where I actually felt kind of… free? I’ve had to be dependent on folks to drive me places because my driving license from the States is expired and I can’t get a UK one yet. But I was able to cycle into town to help at the church and it was glories. 🚴

    → 6:50 PM, Feb 28
  • February 2021 officially marks the first time I’ve managed to run 100km in one month.

    → 2:44 PM, Feb 27
  • Lambs have arrived! 4EBBB1B9-5D3F-46D0-B6AC-24BC6A19CA47.jpg

    → 12:28 PM, Feb 26
  • Just finished writing tomorrow’s newsletter. I don’t know why it feels so different to writing a blog entry or even a social media update, but it does.

    → 10:43 PM, Feb 25
  • Considering that my average pace lately has been closer to 8 minutes per kilometre, this is a huge encouragement. Especially since this is post-injury recovery on top of the hills around here! 4320EE5B-6265-4D68-A091-458720DFA71B.jpg

    → 2:47 PM, Feb 25
  • Looking forward to tomorrow for a couple of reasons:

    • It’s a study day so I get to focus on one task rather than grinding through a list.
    • Tomorrow is the day I pull the plug on our ministry Facebook presence. It’s become a truly useless place to try and share anything so it’s time to be done.
    → 11:15 AM, Feb 25
  • I’m really late to the Phoebe Bridgers party but the engineering and mixing on this performance are the most stunning thing I’ve heard in a while. Headphones or high quality speakers required.

    → 7:05 PM, Feb 24
  • The slow emerging that seems to be marking our days

    One of the reasons why we’re in Scotland at the moment is for me to be mentored by the pastor of the church we’re working with. Because of lockdowns, that’s mainly been happening on Zoom but we made the effort to meet in person at the church building (socially distanced, working at separate tables).

    Being able to pray with someone who is sitting across from you does something for the soul that cannot be over-emphasised.

    I’ve been spending time praying for the persecuted church and realised that I have many brothers and sisters for whom isolation in their faith is an ordinary, everyday reality. My heart goes out to them as I consider that the pandemic isn’t the thing that prevents them from experiencing the fellowship of the saints. The obstacle for them is the fact that they might be the only Christian for miles and miles in a country where they are not free to practice their faith.

    → 2:15 PM, Feb 24
  • Yesterday was bright, sunny and breezy. Today? Well, it’s not freezing but we do have rain and winds gusting over 50mph at the moment so I’m going to have to wait until after a full day on Zoom to even attempt going for a run.

    → 8:34 AM, Feb 23
  • Nach eil i àlainn an-diugh! C4333FCF-7050-469A-A91C-29C4BC099D97.jpg

    → 10:09 AM, Feb 22
  • I got to write an article for the local paper and it looks like there may be opportunity to write for them semi-regularly. So that’s pretty exciting. 0CD6789C-4321-4EE1-9115-B2EBD76208EE.jpg

    → 3:34 PM, Feb 21
  • It was a pleasure to preach at church today!

    → 12:34 PM, Feb 21
  • Saturdays are for analogue pursuits. 731AF1CB-D226-4C27-811E-661821FFE471.jpg

    → 9:13 AM, Feb 20
  • Daily bread

    What is there to say about baking?

    I wrote on my newsletter about how running helps to keep me sane. Baking is something that soothes my heart. When I’m baking bread, it’s like I get to do magic. To take four or five ingredients and have the potential to turn them into so many different things is a kind of alchemy. Fight me, you won’t change my mind.

    To get a little bit nerdy, I can confirm that adding a pre-ferment or poolish to the process means you can get really good flavour and texture while making the bread work around your schedule.

    This was a bread that I made for our dinner today. I made it between finishing up my sermon for Sunday, going for a run and completing my weekly review. Normally, a poolish has to be done the night before. Except I forgot to make it last night. Thankfully, two hours will get the job done.

    Yes, you sacrifice some of the sour notes that you’d get from an overnight fermentation but when it’s bread that’s going to be paired with something like a chorizo stew, you won’t miss the sour notes.

    The other thing is that I did not knead this. I did some stretch-and-pulls after the first half hour of bulk fermentation and that was it. Then I got on with things.

    The result? A bread that I feel like I could make just about every day. It’s just a matter of learning enough about how bread works to make it work with your schedule, to say nothing of what you can do if you add in the ability to use the fridge.

    → 7:16 PM, Feb 19
  • I’ve been following Matt Ragland for a while and his 15-minute weekly review looks like it could be really helpful.

    → 3:02 PM, Feb 19
  • I present to you: Alison Roman’s sticky apple cake as prepared by me. 57B46502-354D-4527-A273-1E4E4B5D30CD.jpg

    → 9:24 PM, Feb 18
  • It’s been a day of not getting as much sermon prep done as I want so I’m baking a cake at 8:30pm.

    → 8:25 PM, Feb 18
  • It is possible/probable that I am wrong but I am completely failing to see why news being removed from Facebook in Australia is a bad thing.

    → 11:10 AM, Feb 18
  • I should have kept going

    Obviously, life comes with regrets. I try not to dwell on them too much, but sometimes they are so clear and present that it becomes worth the practice of observing them and figuring out how to avoid them in the future.

    At the moment, the big one for me is letting certain aspects of improving and maintaining my physical health fall by the wayside.

    There are a variety of reasons why this happened and they run the gamut from:

    • Moving out of our apartment into the unstable world of kind of being digital nomads for 6 weeks at the end of the summer
    • Organising and executing an international move in the middle of a pandemic while simultaneously starting Bible college as a part of the continuing of my apprenticeship
    • Moving again from England up to temporary accommodation in Scotland
    • Moving from that temporary accommodation into the house where I am currently writing this and locked down with my family

    Now, all of that isn’t to say that I’ve done nothing. In the bulk of that time, I continued my new hobby of running. And it was great. We live in the countryside and these country lanes are surrounded by sheep farms and wind farms. It’s a sweeping landscape where all of the trees lean toward the east. It also comes with a built in means of making running more challenging, and consequently more effective, because it’s ever so hilly here.

    But I ended up spraining my ankle in early December and suddenly everything came to a grinding halt. Pain was present on every single day and it was intense.

    And so I stopped.

    The other day, I shared about how I started up doing the 100 pushups plan. And right now, the thing that I am wishing I had done while I was waiting for my ankle to heal is start the plan then. Or to have started anything at all. At least then I would be slightly more ahead than I am now. I would be stronger than I am now.

    So if you’re wanting to start, just start with one thing that you can definitely do. If it’s trying to write, just write for 5 or 10 minutes. If it’s exercise, just go for a walk or try doing a few pushups everyday.

    Now that I am in this stage of things and struggling under the weight of lifting my own body, literally, I can really see that anything is better than nothing.

    James Clear was really on to something when he explained about trying to improve by 1%. 1% is infinitely more progress than 0%.

    → 2:22 PM, Feb 17
  • I meant to take pictures of pancakes yesterday but they didn’t last long enough! 🥞

    → 7:28 AM, Feb 17
  • In case you’ve missed it, I started a new newsletter. The focus of this one is a bit more general than my previous newsletter (r.i.p. Fake Suede). You can sign up for it here!

    → 2:08 PM, Feb 16
  • Yesterday, I decided it would be a good idea to start the 100 Push-ups plan alongside my running training. Present me is not very happy with past me. 🏃‍♂️ 💪 🤕

    → 1:24 PM, Feb 16
  • A few weeks ago, I showed my kids CGP Grey’s video Hexagons Are The Bestagons. Ever since, our youngest has been pointing out every hexagon he sees and saying “Look! It’s a hexagon-the-bestagon!” 😍

    → 12:01 PM, Feb 15
  • a snowy road

    I took this a week or so ago while out on a run. The landscape here is beautifully bleak.

    → 8:16 PM, Feb 14
  • A birthday traybake

    → 8:59 AM, Feb 14
  • Somehow, half our kids are in double digits now. It’s my younger daughter’s 10th birthday! Feeling well old now.

    → 8:52 AM, Feb 14
  • The road in winter

    I really love living here.

    → 7:42 PM, Feb 13
  • It’s been quite a while but I seem to find myself back on micro.blog just as I launch my new personal newsletter.

    I haven’t decided how I’m going to use it yet, but at least I know I have a place to share stuff.

    → 12:26 PM, Feb 12
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