Gindi Vincent

The Dish on Career, Fashion, Faith, and Family

Fear

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I write a lot about fear.

It’s one of my tormentors.

I’ve mentioned this before, but I come from a long line of worriers, and I think I’m actually a little better than they even were.

Past blogs have tackled the difference between being fearful or scared, fear and worry that grips you over your kids, getting caught up in the minutiae and paralyzed by fear, and heck, I even wrote an entire 10 part bible study series called Breaking Fear!

After yesterday’s post on how we are all disappointed, I woke up this morning, ready to write again, and this word sat on me. Again.

Fear.

What really got me thinking about it was watching little bit on horseback with her brothers last night.

You see, she has been obsessed with horses since I can remember. She was on grandpa’s horse, Batman, as soon as she could walk, I have pictures on her walls of her on the assorted horses from farm and ranch life the past ten years.

But there’s a break in those photos. Probably for about two years.

We had family friends at the farm. She was riding with her friend who was two years younger. The saddle must not have been cinched tight enough, and when they brought Peanut in for some water, the saddle slid sideways and both girls fell onto the concrete base of the water trough. They were bumped up with a few minor boo-boos, but there was longer term damage.

Fear set in.

Something in her little brain told her that getting back up on the horse could result in her falling and getting hurt again. So when they would saddle the horses, she would decline the invitation. In time, she would be led around by her dad or aunt, but she wouldn’t just take off on a horse like she had done before the fall.

She still loved horses. But fear stopped her from doing what she wanted to do.

I think we are all intimately acquainted with fear these days. In addition to whatever political or justice fears we may have, every one of us (around the world) are united by a fear of a tiny spiky virus we know as COVID-19.

That fear is resulting in numerous reactions from complete isolation for fear of infection to complete denial of consequences and acting like nothing has changed.

Fear has shadowed our decisions about what to do about sending our kids to school or not. (I’m fearful they’ll get sick or get us sick if they go 🆚 I’m fearful they’ll struggle emotionally if they don’t have social interaction.)

Fear has set in to our workplaces. Our churches. Our neighborhoods.

And since fear sells, Lord knows that the news is using fear, on both sides of the political spectrum and even in apolitical spaces.

So what do we do about it?

I sat with that question this morning while my daughter threw on her boots and raced out with her brothers to saddle horses and go chase a bull that got loose (that sentence gives me fear!).

She chooses the gentlest horse now. She doesn’t get in the pens with the cows where the horse is more likely to hop or kick. Her horse doesn’t gallop quite as quickly as the ones the boys ride, and she’s happy about that.

She has chosen to do what she loves again, but to do it safely.

Could she still get hurt? Absolutely. Does she know that? Of course.

But she has chosen a course of action that enables her to get back to her first love: horses. Her passion was bigger than her fear, eventually.

This will look different for each of us.

What drives me, what will beat back my fear, will be different than what drives you to overcome your fears.

I wrote yesterday I’ve been stuck in a bog. Maybe some of that bog was disappointment but a huge big sticky mess of it was fear.

We are making the best decisions we can. And our decisions will look different than yours. We decided to send our kids back to school. We are some of the few who actually have that as an option and our small private school has done so much to keep the amazing teachers and students safe. The boys are slowly putting their toes back into the sports world, outdoors of course, while little bit will wait until basketball season (which we pray will be able to proceed, but we know none of us know).

I pray for wisdom. For wisdom to make wise choices that are greater than the fear buzzing in my brain. I know Matthew 6 tells me I cannot add a single hour to my life by worrying.

I pray I would remember the 2 Timothy 1 gift God has already given me: God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

The Ephesians 6 strength.

The 1 John 4 love.

I’ll slowly get back on my horse armed with strength and love and a sound mind and ride off in the direction God leads.

Disappointed

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Last night, the boys laid out fishing poles and lures across the weathered farm table. Bray bought bobbers and fresh line. Grandpa restrung favorite poles.

We’re at the farm this weekend. 

The boys LOVE to fish.  Everyone fishes around here, but they’re particularly obsessed.  Bray and I had both had a long and draining week.  I was looking forward to sleeping in while he was looking forward to waking at 5 am to take the boys out on the boat.  Through the bayous in the little metal boat and into Calcaseiu Lake where local tales were that the water had cleared and fishing was getting good. 

Little bit and I heard them rustling this morning.  Five am alarms.  Clothes already laid out.  Ice chest filled to spend half a day on the lake.  She crawled into bed with me while they headed out in the darkness. 

It didn’t make sense to me when I was wrested out of my sleep by boy noise a little later.  Morning light was dim.  I glanced at my clock.  Not even 7:30.  Yet there a boy sat on my bed.  The motor wouldn’t turn over, he announced.  We didn’t get to go. 

You could see the disappointment etched into his face.  They were all so excited.  The first fishing trip in months that held any promise.  No motor = no trip. 

A second boy filed in.  I’m so sorry, buddy, I said into his forlorn face.  No you’re not, he bitterly retorted and slouched out of the room while I rolled over to go back to sleep.  (I was sad for them, but I was also really tired.)

As I laid there, I started thinking about how most of 2020 our spirits, even if not our faces, have worn that deep disappointment. 

I looked at this little blog and saw the last time I wrote was nearly two months ago.  Not that things haven’t happened.  But it’s like I’ve been trapped in a bog.  What do you write when you’re trapped in a bog?

I’m staring at my desk calendar for August with all these back to school photos from last year – posing in front of signs, hugging teachers…

Now, even though we’re going back, we’re among the very few in our city, I still have dear friends steeling to teach their kids (again) with distance learning through mid-October. 

We all have friends or family who have been laid off or who are struggling with the effects of the virus (or worse) or who can’t sell their house or who can’t decide whether to check the distance or in-person box for their school district. We’re mourning injustices and losses and simply trying to survive another election year.

Our emotions are taking many different forms: depression, anger, sadness, detachment, frustration, impatience…

Deeply rooted under all of this though: DISAPPOINTED.

We are disappointed life does not look like we hoped it would or think it should.

So, now what?

Well, first let’s be really honest.  This next year is not going to look like we hoped.  We will not get to go on that gorgeous vacation we planned. We won’t get to eat lunch with our kids at school on their birthday. The big milestone birthday party or wedding will get canceled.  Things at work or home or with our friends won’t look how we want (or need).

But then. After acknowledging the reality. We have to look forward.  And reconnect to our faith. 

Oftentimes in hard times, I lean heavily on God and my faith.  But I will be honest with you, I haven’t done that lately.  I’ve read a lot of fiction. I’ve watched Hallmark movies.  I’ve cooked new recipes and drank too much wine. I haven’t spent much time in prayer or studying scripture or in stillness to see how God might be able to use this pruning season in my life.  I can’t explain the reaction, but that truth hit me this morning. 

So friend, we’re in this together.  Hold on – to your rope and to each other.  This is a season.  We are all allowed to be disappointed and all the other emotions which flow from that one. 

But then we have to look forward.  We must hope.  Hope even when it seems impossible. This is not Pollyanna, slap a smile on it, find an easy sound bite, hope. This is ugly, painful, crying, not-wanting-to-get-out-of-bed-but-doing-it-anyway, hope. This is mourning while knowing joy WILL come in the morning.

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5 – NIV)

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. (Hebrews 11 – NIV)

Why would you ever complain, O Jacob, or, whine, Israel, saying, “God has lost track of me. He doesn’t care what happens to me”? Don’t you know anything? Haven’t you been listening?
God doesn’t come and go. God lasts. He’s Creator of all you can see or imagine.
He doesn’t get tired out, doesn’t pause to catch his breath. And he knows everything, inside and out. He energizes those who get tired, gives fresh strength to dropouts.
Those who wait upon God get fresh strength. They spread their wings and soar like eagles, They run and don’t get tired, they walk and don’t lag behind. (Isaiah 40 – Msg)

All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. …waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy. Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good. (Romans 8 – Msg)

What’s On My Stovetop

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Yesterday, we talked books!

Oh how I love books!

But there is something that rivals my love of books: COOKING! AND BAKING!

I love to be in the kitchen and I’ve had a lot more time to be in the kitchen. 

At the beginning of the pandemic, we baked a lot.  I also gained a lot of weight.  While we tried a number of new recipes, hand’s down my favorite recipe was Ina Garten’s cheesecake.  It is fail proof.  You do need a springform pan – ours didn’t get a lot of use before because I was terrified of cheesecake.  And you do have to do the bit about letting it sit with the oven door open at the end.  We didn’t do raspberry though.  We made her base and the first time we topped it with fresh strawberries (YUM!) and the second time we topped it with a lemon curd I found through Southern Living (also yum and another new technique, CURD!).  Bray never hands out compliments and he said this cheesecake was amazing!

(We also tried out a lot of cake recipes, I have a strawberry lemon cake and a carrot bunny butt cake recipe if you’d like it!)

As temperatures have heated up though, I’ve wanted cool things for dinner.  So less of my chicken enchiladas and pot pie (though those still make appearances, it’s just rarer) and more salads and crisp dinner features. 

I love gazpacho.  So I started with that.  You know I’m obsessed with the Pioneer Woman, so I started with her gazpacho recipe, but I also added a couple of adjustments from Ina Garten’s recipe, and I added more cucumber because it’s the freshest, and I added a little red pepper to add some more spice. 

On the salad front, I’ve tried several, but nothing beats a cobb salad.  They are simple but spectacularly delicious and everyone in my family gobbles them down.  They’re all avocado/egg/tomato/bacon enthusiasts.  The only adjustment I make for the kids is the blue cheese which Bray and I love.  I follow the Pioneer Woman’s suggestion down to the letter except I did not make our own salad dressing (wah-wah, but in the summer you just want to be outside). 

To round out my summer cooking list, I’ll highlight my deviled eggs and potato salad. 

I never have enough deviled eggs.  I sit them out before lunch or dinner and they are gone before we can even fill our plates.  We all five LOVE deviled eggs.  I use a pretty basic recipe.  I boil a half dozen eggs, which makes 12 deviled eggs, but clearly I need to boil an entire dozen instead.  However, this base is for a half dozen total eggs.  I don’t have exact measurements but I use a little less than ÂĽ cup of real mayonnaise and a more than a tablespoon of yellow mustard – you’ll see this theme in my potato salad too – I like them more mustard-y than mayo-y.  Then I add dill pickle relish to taste, at least a tablespoon.  I pour in a splash of dill pickle juice and then salt and pepper and mix together.  After filling the eggs, I top with paprika.  MMMMMM!

For potato salad, it’s not very exact either.  I make big batches when Bray’s family gets together.  I use, big surprise here, the Pioneer Woman’s recipe as my template.  Except I use more potatoes, less mayo, and more mustard.  She calls for 1 ½ cups of mayo and 4 tbsp of yellow mustard.  I would say I don’t use more than a cup of mayo, and I use more than 4 tbsp of yellow mustard as well as a splash of Dijon mustard.  I absolutely love dumping in a bunch of sliced small dill pickles (never sweet for me) and because I add more potatoes I also add more egg.  Further, I only partially peel my potatoes because I like some skin on and I prefer red potatoes to russet.  Finally I just cut and mash them after they come out of the pot because I prefer there to be some chunks in my potato salad rather than just having it smooth. 

So that’s what I’m cooking right now. 

What about you?

I love new recipes!!! Please share what you are baking or cooking over the pandemic and we’ll take some pictures of us making it!

What’s On The Nightstand

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Hello friends!

There’s been a lot of heavy stuff with talking about the pandemic and racial injustice and parenting.

But there is good too and I really wanted to focus on that today.

What tops my good list?

Reading.

Cooking.

Rinse, repeat. 

Today, let’s talk books.  Books, books, and more books.  Fiction and nonfiction. Kids and adult.  I’ll even throw in podcasts!

I love to read, but I wasn’t getting nearly as much read as I had hoped to until the world stopped. 

Because I was curled up in my hidey-hole, I focused on fiction for March – May.  Fiction is my favorite.  Well, good fiction.  I love it so much!

So let me first recommend some of my favorites:  both The Huntress and The Alice Network from Kate Quinn, The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle, The Dutch House by Anne Patchett, and I’d Give Anything by Marisa de los Santos. 

Those last two are some of my favorite modern authors of all time so if you haven’t read them already, start with Run or Bel Canto by Patchett and with Love Walked In by de los Santos. (I also started The Parisians and hated it so much that I promptly stopped after Chapter 3.)

And while it is neither fiction nor a quarantine read, I tell everyone they have to read Educated by Tara Westover – I am still obsessed with this book.

In the nonfiction camp, I was rereading Present over Perfect by Shauna Niequist which I love, The Book of Joy by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama, and Burnout by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski. 

I just read nonfiction slower, so I have not finished the last two yet.  (Because I pick up a new fiction book when things slow…)  I do like them both and would recommend. 

For the kids, we are ALL over the map.  I was reading the Harry Potter series out loud to the boys which we all loved, but now we have finished.  Sniff sniff. 

We have started both Artemis Fowl and Gregor the Overlander series together but haven’t finished either of the first books yet.  They are okay.  It’s no Harry Potter.  When we finish both of those, we’re going to read the Lord of the Rings series, and start with The Hobbit.  We’re hoping to find something to carry us away like Potter and his pals.

For little bit, she just does not love to read as much.  When we read together, she likes period fiction or mysteries.  We read several Great Depression era fiction books in the spring and she enjoyed those (like R, My Name is Rachel). 

I went through my mom’s storage unit and we pulled out all my old books.  So I have a huge collection now of Nancy Drew books, including my mom’s original books from the 1950s, so I’m hoping those may grab her attention.  And we’re reading through a Janette Oke series together because she has decided she wants to be a pioneer woman. (Not the chef, a real one, with a covered wagon.)  We’re part way through the Love Comes Softly set, and then will move on to the When Calls the Heart set because the Hallmark series based on the book has utterly captured her imagination. 

As a family, we’ll read Where the Red Fern Grows for 5th grade.  That and Wonder were required reading but we finished Wonder before third grade (and loved it!). 

Now, what’s on my nightstand now? 

I decided after months of fiction, I needed to be thinking about some important issues.  On the issues of racial injustice in our country, I’m reading White Fragility by Robin Diangelo and have Be the Bridge and Between the World and Me up next.  On the issues of parenting tweens, especially focused on technology rules of the road and conversations about their bodies and sex, I’m reading The Tech Wise Family by Andy Crouch and Teaching Your Children Healthy Sexuality by Jim Burns, both loaned to me by one of our ministers, as well as 5 Conversations You Must Have With Your Daughter (and companion book for Your Son) recommended by a good friend.  On the faith front, I’m reading The Eternal Current by Aaron Niequist and Calvinism in the Las Vegas Airport by Richard Mouw.  (I also have about a half dozen books on the faith front I really want to get to stacked by my nightstand!) On the leadership front, I am reading The Fireside Chats of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and rereading Plan B by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant. 

(And I have Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie also on my nightstand, because I need at least one fiction book at all times…)

Now that I’m driving again, I’m getting to listen to podcasts again! Hoorah!  I just finished the compelling and eye-opening NPR investigation podcast called White Lies about the murder of a minister in Selma, Alabama during a 1965 civil rights protest.  (If you like this mini podcast format, I also highly recommend The Dropout about Elizabeth Holmes!)  I listen to Elevation to get my sermons from Steven Furtick, but I was also recently introduced to Miles McPherson at The Rock Church and have added him to my playlist. 

I keep Jen Hatmaker and The Daily in the queue, and I listen depending on topic.

For the kids, we are loving Wow in the World with Mindy Thomas and Guy Raz! Little bit has listened to dozens because four out of five days of the week they are super short!  I would really love some more kids podcast ideas! We’re about to try Smash Boom Best because little bit is obsessed with debate.

Okay.

Whew!

And to think I was going to try and combine recipes in this post! 

Cooking is tomorrow! 

And Friday we’ll return with some Fashion Friday after a long hiatus.  I’m back!

Reentry

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Depending on where you live, you may or may not be going through what we are here in Houston.

We are open for business. That means reentry for some of us, in some capacity.

This opening up has come with some scary statistics.  More than just the escalating COVID-19 case numbers, the hospital beds and ICU occupancy numbers are up.  Way up (as of yesterday, each day for the past week has set a new one-day high). 

Because of this dichotomy, I’ve got friends in my circle who have responded in a number of ways. 

FROM: Embrace the openness, do as much as they can, and don’t live in fear.

TO: Completely terrified of the dangers the virus can wreak and the escalating numbers so they are nearly agoraphobic, unable to have social interaction even with family members outside their home. 

And then everything in between. 

We’re in between.  (And where ever you land, I feel you. This is all brutally hard to navigate.)

The kids have been fortunate since we have a family farm and ranch that they have been able to get out of the house and ride horses or work cows or bail hay in very remote locations. 

But we have begun reengaging.  The slow process of reentry.

A week ago, we spent the weekend with our friends at the lake.  It was wonderful to visit a new area of Texas and the kids absolutely adored tubing. 

We ate out at a restaurant to celebrate 4th grade graduation.

We’re doing more with friends outdoors – swimming, backyard drinks, biking, etc. 

I went to one of my dearest friend’s house in Fort Worth and hung out with her crew in the backyard for two days.

I took little bit to run a couple of errands with me this weekend, in our masks, her first outings to stores since pre-Spring Break. 

I’m far more comfortable doing things outside so we maximize those activities (of course with 100% humidity and feels-like numbers topping 100, it’s getting tricky). 

Next week, I go back to the office full time.  A fact over which I’m really sad. 

But as I’ve said previously, there’s a lot from our time in quarantine I want to keep. 

We’re all reading so much (I’ll talk books and cooking tomorrow!).  I can’t keep the baby and me in books (I really need to move to Kindle, because our house has stacks of them everywhere).  We’re less scheduled.  We have interesting conversations about topics that range from challenging to silly. 

We have gotten a ton of work done on our backyard remodel.  The deck and corner trees are gone, the flagstone is laid, the pergola has been ripped out, and the turtles have been relocated back to Louisiana (more on this later).

Things will not be “normal” for a very long time, I believe. 

My guess is things might not even look “more normal” until next summer. 

So this gives us the opportunity to rethink American life. 

This gives us a chance to evaluate how we can give back more authentically and connect more meaningfully.  How we can extract value from our time instead of wasting it on television or technology. 

We’re still in the reentry phase.  And I’m in no hurry. 

I’m willing to let this move forward at a pace that both protects the most vulnerable in our community and allows our family and our church and our companies and our communities to set important guardrails.  Guardrails which I hope will serve our children well.  Ones to give them a pace and lifestyle that is less rushed and more meaningful. 

Praying for your reentry, and for all of us, as we navigate the unknown.