Peace family, this past weekend, I went to Galveston, and there was a lot to take in!

There were many things I enjoyed; I got to see purple seahorses, penguins, and a cinnamon tree at Moody Gardens, I walked the beach at sunset and saw scampering crabs, and I got to visit the Strand, which is always a lot of fun. However, do you know what was especially refreshing?

There were so many bodies there around town and on the beach, and none of them were “perfect.” Leonardo da Vinci used to say that beauty and ugliness were both within every man, and this is still true! It was nice to get a reality check of seeing what real bodies of real people are like.

Sometimes, when the only bodies we see are in movies or magazines, it’s easy to feel like something is wrong with ourselves. We feel like we are the only person with flaws, while the whole world out there is more like the magazines and movies. However, that’s absolutely a skewed perspective!

While I did see some unhealthy bodies, I saw many healthy bodies that looked different ways, in all shapes and sizes. Even if our bodies aren’t “beautiful” as defined by photoshop, they are useful, and beautiful to God! I saw both moms and dads hefting babies, and one mom breast-feeding her baby under a blanket. I saw strong-armed old men driving trucks, and toddlers jumping in the shallow beds of foamy water. A middle school boy opened a door for me, the servers in our restaurants balanced heavy trays of food, and there was even a man in a wheel chair who had a shriveled hand, who waved to us with his other arm and welcomed us to one of the displays at Moody Gardens.

Peace family, you are beautiful. It is easy to compare ourselves to a false standard, but we often greatly fall short in adequately valuing our bodies. Let’s take care of our bodies, have grace for our bodies (and those of other people), and give thanks to God for our bodies. Let’s learn to appreciate the beauty and usefulness of our bodies, no matter what society tells us.

Peace family, there’s a great opportunity to enjoy a day of golf while supporting local kids!

Chloe Bush with Still Creek Ranch says the golf scramble will be Monday, June 19, at Pebble Creek Country Club, which is absolutely beautiful. They will be working with golf pro Chad Barrett, who has some really fun things going on this year. One particularly fun thing is that players can win a chance to have a golf pro tee off for your team, giving you a pretty great advantage.

You can also sponsor teams, sponsor holes, and it’s a really fun, relaxed day playing golf and away from the office. Kids from Still Creek Ranch will be there to serve lunch, which will be provided by Bush’s Chicken.

To get involved, go to the website by clicking the link HERE, or copy and paste this link into your browser: http://www.stillcreekranch.org/golf.html

Click below to hear Still Creek Ranch’s Chloe Bush chat with Peace 107’s Brian and Kat.

Peace family, all summer long, we are so excited to have our Peace 107 Peace Pals on Tuesday mornings from 8 to 9!

This week’s Peace Pal, 14-year-old Hattie from College Station, was a wonderful friend to have in the studio! She is spending the summer volunteering with The Bridge Ministries, doing crafts, sewing her own clothes, organizing, singing, and enjoying Chik-Fil-A! We especially loved her stories about living abroad as a child.

We really enjoyed having Hattie as our special guest! We can’t wait for our next Peace Pal, next Tuesday on Peace 107!

Peace Pals are brought to you by Wells Counseling Services.

Peace family, there are so many things in our community for kids to enjoy this summer!

Maria Lazo with Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History says they are offering all kinds of great topics each week, usually science or history-based. The first week kicked off with the topic of “Our Galaxy and Beyond,” where kids learned about outer space and astronauts.

Other topics throughout the summer include Wild About Nature (June 12-16), Young Engineers, (June 19-23), then the most popular week of the summer, which is Dino Discoverers (June 26-30). Kids will learn about dinosaurs, any animals related to them, and all kinds of amazing facts about dinosaurs.

Next is Crawly Critters (July 10-14), studying reptiles and insects, a week about primates called Monkey Business (July 17-21), one week called Legends & Lore (July 24-28), where kids will learn about magical lands and legends, as well as fantastic creatures, then a week called Animal Architects (July 31- August 4), which should be a great week for animal lovers, and Transportation Through Time (August 7-11), which looks at how trains, planes and automobiles have changed throughout history.

Finally, Summer Extension Day Camp (August 14—18), allows campers to register for a single day. Each day this week focuses on a different topic from the Magic School Bus Film Series: Decomposition (“Meet the Rot Squad”), Sound (“In the Haunted House”), Seeds (“Goes to Seed”), Cells (“Goes Cellular”), and Symbiosis (“Takes a Dive”).

Camp fees are $155/ week for members and $175/ week for non-members. Summer Extension Day Camp fees are $45/ day for members and $50/ day for non-members. Before-camp care runs from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. at $25/week. After-camp care runs from 3:00 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. at $50/week. (Days can be prorated at $5/day or $10/day). Call (979)776-2195 for more information!

Click below to listen to Peace 107’s Brian and Kat chat with Maria Lazo with the Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History.

Peace family, I love this time of year! While I don’t enjoy working outside in the heat, I still enjoy gardening when I can, and I love all of the fresh fruits and vegetables that are coming into season! I have a lot of friends who garden, and they are so generous as to bless me with the bounty of their yards!

Here is some soup I made to use up some of the veggies I had on hand this week. It is brothy with a fresh, sweet flavor. You could always make it with actual noodles, though I thought the zucchini was pretty fun. I also feel like this soup would be particularly good with potato gnocchi, and you could cut out the potatoes. You could also add peas, tomatoes, corn, and any other seasonal vegetables you fancy!

You will need:

3 cups of left over roasted, chopped chicken (you could still make this with fresh chicken; see the notes)

About 6 cups of broth, or however much you need in order to cover the vegetables

1 onion, chopped (I used a purple one)

4 small green onions, sliced in rounds (white and green parts)

1 garlic clove, minced

2-3 celery sticks, sliced (from the Texas A&M Howdy Farm)

About 3 carrots, chopped into rectangles (carrots a friend/house guest left in my frige after she returned to Colorado)

one red potato with the peel on, chopped into little cubes (from my mother’s garden)

2 zucchini, sliced thinly into fettuccine-sized “zoodles” or smaller.

About a teaspoon of fresh, chopped dill, a sprinkle of dried thyme, a sprinkle of nutmeg, a dash of turmeric (I like my chicken soups to be on the golden- colored side, plus turmeric is great for joints) plus salt and freshly ground pepper to taste (my neighbor Cynthia has the best herbs!)

Method:

First, heat about 1-2 tablespoons of butter or ghee in a large pot. Cook the garlic, assorted onions, and celery over medium to medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the onions get a little translucent. Add the broth to cover (if you are using raw chicken, add it at this point and simmer it until it is tender before the next step, then remove bones and chop if necessary). After the broth, add the potato and carrots, herbs and spices, and bring to a simmer. Cut the zucchini into noodle-like slivers, then add them to the soup, as well as your cooked chicken. The “zoodles” will probably only take about five or six minutes to become tender, depending on how thinly you sliced them. Think about how good God is and the food that he provides for us. Enjoy!

Peace family, a very happy June to you, and may this be the start of a beautiful summer!

We’re almost half way through the year. How is 2017 shaping up for you so far? Have you accomplished the things that you wanted to this year, or at least gotten the ball rolling? Do you need a little encouragement to reach your goals? What can you do this weekend, or even just today, to help make the most out of this year? Every little step counts!

We all have dreams and goals, but it can be hard to step forward and start working towards them. Change is hard, even when it is a good change.

For some reason lately, I have ended up in several conversation with friends and strangers about their dreams and aspirations. A Japanese friend who lives here shared with me her longing to get certified as a nurse (she is already certified in Japan), but also her stress about the English test portion of the certification project. An appraiser who was helping me with some property tax concerns shared his hope of getting into woodwork, though he is very focused on the process of getting a home built right now. A favorite neighbor of mine has been trying to lose weight so that she will not need medication, but it has been difficult and discouraging. One of my best friends dreams of being an author, being a foster mom, and is looking for a better job right now, because her current job pays little and has chaotic hours, but job searching takes a lot of energy, and is challenging when your current job has such bad hours.

Peace family, what dreams and goals do you have, and what are your obstacles?

As for myself, I have a lot of goals for this year, and a few things have gotten off track. I haven’t had a good quiet time in maybe two months (If I were to express how busy things have been, it would just be too stressful!), I haven’t finished a large quilting project that I started last summer, I haven’t practiced piano in a month, my yard is mostly out-of-control, and I have some other goals I need to get started on, such as doing the illustrations for a children’s story that I wrote the year before last (one of my dreams is to be a children’s book author.) These are goals that I absolutely want to reach, but whether because of other urgent needs in my own or my loved one’s lives, lack of energy and focus, or from fear of failure, I have had such a hard time bringing these things about.

Peace family, June is a fresh, new start, and we still have slightly more than half of this year to go. There is grace for me, and there is grace for you, too! My prayer for you today is that you can be encouraged in your areas where you need to grow and accomplish in order to meet goals for your life. You can do it, Peace family! We can both do it, one step at a time. June is a fresh, new month. Let’s seize the day, kiss it, and and work out not only the things we need to do, but also dedicate time to the things that we value and want to do, but haven’t made time for ourselves to do. We might not be able to do it all today, but we can at least get started! Don’t give up, Peace family!