Choosing joy: Zucchini bread.

   Honestly, I love baking and cooking and generally being in the kitchen. I've been that way ever since I was little and took every chance I had to help my mom in the kitchen {minus snapping green beans from the garden. Hated that}. I'm sure for some people, the thought of standing in your kitchen for a few hours after a really long day at work sounds terrible, but I'm learning that it is kind of a stress reliever for me. And it's not really about the food, because half of the time I end up giving it away. I guess it's just about the process of going through the motions and making something from nothing. Like bread. I'm always kind of amazed when I can make any sort of bread {see here!}. Zucchini and pumpkin breads are my favorite for this time of year, and remind me of my mom's kitchen. 
   Want to hear a fun story about God's provision? Last year, our garden only had about two good zucchinis. I think I make a batch of bread from one and then shredded and froze the other one. The next day, we found out about our miscarriage. After that, I didn't touch our garden again all summer. I just didn't have the energy, but was still really bummed about just letting it die. Fast forward to this summer, and again, we only had two zucchinis from our garden. Not because I gave up on it, though, but because of the spawn of satan, Squash Bugs. And I was just feeling really bummed again, because zucchini's are probably my favorite garden veggie. Riveting story, right? I'm getting there! Earlier this week I was looking through my freezer, with an itch to bake something. I had picked up a zucchini at the farmer's market last week, but it was a bit too small for bread. And then I found the bag of shredded zucchini from our garden last year. From the day before some of the worst heartache of my life. And so I thawed it and used it. Last summer fell so hard and dry {figuratively and literally, we had a drought here!}. This summer felt so, on hold for lots of reasons. My prayers lately have been a whole lot of God, I can't hear a thing you're sayings and How long is the waitings. I know it sounds silly, but that bag of zucchini from that really hard time in life came in handy during this really confusing time in life. It was like God used it to remind me I'm still here, have hope in the process, make zucchini bread in the meantime. 
   I mean, it totally could have just been a bag of something I forgot I had that came in handy for some silly loaves of zucchini bread. But, I'm choosing joy and choosing to believe that God cares about the details.

The Whole series:

Day 1. #31days of Choosing Joy

Day 2. Let's chat. 

Day 3. Nouwen's words. 

Day 4. A choice. 

Day 5. A picture. 

Day 6. A quote. 

Day 7. In marriage.

Day 8. Fake it.  

Day 9. A song. 

Day 10. Zucchini bread.