Jen Russum

family photo shoot

family photo shoot

While we were visiting Washington a few weeks ago, my mom insisted that we have a family portrait session. We have never been very dedicated to family pictures, so I figured we could grant this wish for my mom. After all, other than my wedding last summer and snapshots from high school graduations, I don't think we've done a real family portrait for close to two decades.  I'm pretty sure in our last family portrait, circa 1994, my sister and I were dressed like pioneer children and were sporting buck teeth. Those pre-pubescent, pre-orthodontics years are so awkward... So my mom "bothered" me for about a month or two before our visit (use the word "nagged" if you must) to nail down a date for this long awaited family picture. We finally chose Thursday, July 21st. Everyone agreed to be home for it at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and my mom confirmed the time with her friend from church who would be taking the pictures. Everything was set. Then, on the day of, my parents CANCELED the photographer. Why you may ask? I honestly have no idea. I think my dad wanted it canceled because it was raining slightly and he didn't want to traipse around our neighborhood and get all soggy. I'm not sure if my parents realize that they live in Seattle, so there was automatically a 95% chance of rain on ANY day of the year they scheduled an outdoor photo shoot. But for whatever reason my mom called me around noon on the set-in-stone Thursday that took months to nail down and said they told the photographer not to come. We had already picked out our clothes. Nothing too matchy-matchy but we didn't want to clash. My sister drove up from Seattle. My brother came home. Micah and I carved out time in our schedule and now there was going to be no picture. Dumbest thing I had ever heard of. And as I was driving to my parents' house about an hour before the allotted picture time, I saw the cloudy skies clearing just a bit. It wasn't getting sunny out, but I could tell we would definitely have a rain-free hour or two for pictures. So what did I do? I took them myself. I rigged a stool to hold the camera out on our back deck and used the self-timer. I bossed my family around {as usual?} and we actually got some pretty great pics. Then I edited them and loaded them onto my mom's computer. Hello, picnik! If you've never used this program before you should...I have photoshop on my computer but always just find myself using picnik beacause it's soooo easy and fun! Family portraits = mission accomplished. My mom cannot bother me for another twenty years... :) Here are some of my faves from our photo session... I love my family! ... Read more

Thai Chicken Pizza

Thai Chicken Pizza

I got the original recipe here, but I made some changes like I always do. This is a pretty quick dinner and a good variation of regular pizza. If you've ever had the Thai Chicken Pizza at California Pizza Kitchen, then you know that Thai ingredients + pizza dough = AMAZING! Ingredients1 package pizza dough {the refrigerator kind in a tube works great!}½ cup Chinese duck sauce or plum sauce½ teaspoon red pepper flakes10 ounces {2 cups} Monterey Jack cheese½ red bell pepper {cored, seeded, and thinly sliced}1 tablespoon vegetable oil2 tablespoons soy sauce1 tablespoon peanut butter2 teaspoons hot sauce2 teaspoons grill seasoning, such as McCormick's Montreal Steak Seasoning2 tablespoons honey½  lb. chicken breast, diced or shredded {feel free to use the pre-cooked kind from the freezer section for a super-fast meal!}2 tablespoons cider vinegar4 scallions, white and green parts, chopped1 cup bean sprouts {a couple of handfuls}Fresh cilantro leaves, chopped½ cup thinly sliced cucumber {optional}¼ cup peanuts, crushed DirectionsPreheat the oven to 425°F. Form the pizza crust on a pizza pan or cookie sheet. Top it with duck or plum sauce, spreading it around like you would pizza sauce {use at least half of a 10oz. jar}. Sprinkle the pizza with some red pepper flakes, and then top it with the cheese and bell peppers. Bake until golden and bubbly, 15 to 17 minutes. {duck sauce and red pepper flakes} {add cheese and red pepper slices} In a small bowl, combine the vegetable oil, soy sauce, and peanut butter with the hot sauce and grill seasoning. Use the microwave to loosen up the peanut butter if it is too cold to blend into sauce; 10-15 seconds ought to do it. Coat the chicken evenly with the mixture and let it stand for 10 minutes. Preheat a grill pan or nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the chicken cutlets for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, or until firm. Slice the chicken into very thin strips. {If you are using pre-cooked chicken, just stir it around in the pan until it is thoroughly heated and coated with the sauce.} {chicken cooking in peanut buttery goodness} While the chicken cooks, mix the honey and vinegar in a medium bowl. Add the bean sprouts, scallions, and cilantro to this bowl and stir to coat them in dressing. {You can also add thinly sliced cucumbers if you want; I don’t like cucumbers.} {The first time I made this, I used cucumbers, but I plan to take them out next time. You can use them if you want!} When the pizza comes out of the oven, top it with the chicken, scallions, sprouts, and cilantro {and cucumbers}. Garnish the pizza with crushed peanuts, cut it into 8 wedges, and serve! ... Read more

Flowers Fade Friday: dirty.

Flowers Fade Friday: dirty.

Everything around Phoenix is still dirty. Filthy. Gross. Dusty. Disgusting. Lingering evidence of the giant dust storm that hit our city a few weeks ago. We left for our trip to Washington a few days after the dust cloud hit our city, and I was hoping the frequent evening rains that mark the desert's monsoon season would wash all the dirt away while we were gone. And they did. Kind of. Most of the ground is now free of dirt. When you drive around, the once brown cars have returned to their original colors of red, blue, green, and white. You can no longer see visible dust floating through the air. But the dirt is still there. Hidden in cracks and corners. Piled up under our patio table. Stuck to our front door. Lingering in our living room. Hiding out on the dashboard in my car. As I was driving around this week, silently thinking about how annoying the dirt is, God convicted me with an analogy. I realized that this lingering dirt is so much like my own sin. If you don't look too closely, things look pretty clean. But upon closer inspection, the dirt is still there. It clings to my hand when I open my front door. It gets stuck to my feet when I walk out onto our deck. It makes me cringe when I see it on the tabletops in our living room when the lighting is just right. I used to live my life pretending my dirt was not there. When I walked into my living room today, it did not look dirty. Not at all. It looked warm and clean and inviting like this...  but when I looked more closely, what I really saw was this... Same with my car. It looks much cleaner than the day after the storm. Micah washed it for me before we left town. It's no longer competing for DIRTIEST car in Phoenix. But, yet, in the sunlight it still looks like this... And this... I used to live my life in a way that looked like my living room. Throughout high school, college, and into the first years of my job, everything looked pretty good upon first glance. I had good friends, led a few Bible studies, attended church regularly, even read my Bible quite a bit. But if I looked beneath the surface, things were not right. There was grime there. Dirt. Dust. Filth. I was hiding all sorts of sin. Pride. Covetousness. Impurity. But I just pretended it wasn't there. I confessed it to no one. Not even God. Well, to keep myself "looking good" I had to confess sin sometimes, but it was rarely the REAL sin. It was the convenient "I'll just say this one sin that seems pretty mild, because I'm sure lots of other people are struggling with this too" kind of confession. And the dirt built up. And I honestly convinced myself it wasn't there at all. The living room looked good. Come in, have a seat, would you like a lemonade during Bible Study today? Finally, after about 25 years of living my kind-of-clean life, God broke me. He revealed to me my own depravity. He showed me the filth that had been building up in my heart. And opened my eyes to how atrocious my sin is compared to His utter holiness. He showed me the truth of my own filth. Hidden and ignored for years. And then He showed me something else. His Son. The one who truly makes all things clean and new. But I could never fully understand the love of Christ until God opened my eyes to how desperately dirty I was, with no hope of cleaning up the mess on my own. And just as I notice the dust around my apartment most often during the day, when the sun shines and reveals the dirt that is really there, Christ does the same thing with my sin. When I let the true, clean, beautiful light of Christ into my life, He reveals the sin and darkness that linger in my heart... And then, as my beloved Savior, He washes those sins away. Only He can do it. ... Read more