Jen Russum

LGO

LGO

This is my favorite place right now. La Grande Orange. Or if you're local, lazy, or just struggle to pronounce French - LGO. This place got me through the last two weeks of the semester. I wrote many pages of my Renaissance paper AND my mommy blog paper there. In fact, on the day my mommy blog paper was due, I was there for NINE hours straight. Yes, nine hours. That's longer than a regular work day. I would say this was a negative experience, but it wasn't because I was at LGO. And LGO has everything I need for a full day of writing. I start my LGO day off with a Havana Latte. Yum. It's a latte made with a pump of condensed milk to sweeten it and it's delish. I like to accompany my latte with an LGO English muffin. They are homemade goodness. The BEST English muffin you will ever have. Just typing about it makes me hungry. Every once in a while, I will trade in my English muffin for French Pancakes (aka crêpes with strawberries and crème fraiche on top). Sometimes I will eat my English muffin for breakfast and have the crêpes for lunch, if I am pulling an all-day-er at this place. Combine this amazing food and caffeine with a pretty awesome music selection (Black Keys, Ray LaMontagne, John Mayer to name a few that I've heard recently) that is played at a reasonable volume (so many coffee shops around here crank their music so loudly that you can't even think), lots of electrical outlets and a low murmur from the other patrons and you've got yourself a pretty great study spot. This place is probably too crowded for studying on weekends, but I have found that it's a nice place to work on weekdays. It's still pretty busy, but you can always find a table and they don't care if you sit there for hours on end. And if you need a snack about six hours in, you can always grab one of their fresh pastries or run next door for gelato. I have done both, obvi. But I try not to indulge in both on the same day.... If you are in the Phoenix area, I strongly suggest you visit LGO as soon as you can. And if you live far away, come visit and I will take you there! Just me, Petri (the tiny computer), and The Faerie Queene at LGO. Did I leave that water bottle there? I can't find it. The weekday morning crowd. So pleasant. Hello Havana Latte. I love you. ... Read more

Welcome to Flowers Fade Friday!

Welcome to Flowers Fade Friday!

Welcome to my new series! Before I started this blog, I had another blog called Flowers Fade. I started Flowers Fade as part of a challenge I gave myself to read through the Bible in a year and blog about my reflections on my daily readings. This happened to be the year I got engaged...and married...moved to Arizona...and started grad school. It was a crazy year. But I was faithful to my Bible reading and fairly faithful to my blogging (like once a week-ish). In fact, although my reading was extremely time consuming, I feel like my utter reliance on God's Word during those twelve crazy months is what sustained me and brought me joy and peace in the midst of so many transitions. Since my Bible reading plan ended in December (okay...on New Year's Day... I got a little behind on Revelation over Christmas), I have been trying to maintain this blog AND Flowers Fade, and, to be honest, it's been really difficult! Basically, I have failed at it. But even though my year-long journey through the Bible is done, I have felt really convicted about continuing to post about the Bible and what God is teaching me through His Word. Specifically, I know that God has gifted me with the ability to teach. He has also given me a talent for writing coupled with a passion for instructing other women on what it looks like to live a gospel life. So I cannot give up Flowers Fade completely, even though I am WAY too busy to run two blogs. So here is my solution! Flowers Fade Friday. Every Friday I will write a short devotion on something from my Bible reading that impacted me during the past week. These will be very similar to the postings I wrote on my old blog, but instead you will find them on this blog! I hope they encourage you to love Jesus more and maybe even lead you to take your own journey through the Bible. If you aren't a Christian, please feel free to read the postings and ponder. Or skip them. I will be back with regular, ridiculous AZ Russums content every Monday. But, secretly, I hope you don't skip them... :) For this first posting, I will just fill you in on how Flowers Fade got its name. There is a verse in the Bible that says:"The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever."--Isaiah 40:8-- The world is always changing; it's unpredictable and unreliable. People are fickle and sinful. Times of calamity and times of peace will come and go. People, animals, and even plants are always dying and being born. But one thing never changes and that is God's Word. Some may claim that parts of the Bible no longer apply to today's culture, but that is simply not true. Jesus is for all people and all times and all cultures, and the Bible is God's way of revealing Christ (who is the perfect, human image of God himself) to us. The Old Testament points to Christ's coming and the New Testament shows us the Savior who lived the perfect life, died to save sinners, and rose again to conquer death and offer us eternal life. The Bible is an absolute reflection of a God who is perfect, holy, loving, eternal, and unchanging. And because God is eternal and unchanging, His Words will never fade away. ... Read more

BOWLING

BOWLING

I love my missional community. They are just so freaking great and you are about to see why. We decided to do an end-of-the-year bowling adventure, even though none of us really wants an end-of-the-year anything because we will miss each other sooooo much! Okay, at least I will miss them that much. But don't worry, we invited everyone over for burgers last night, so I will post more pics of us together again soon! *You will note in these pictures that most of us are wearing green shirts. Of course, we planned this. Well, I planned it, because that's the kind of stuff I do. Have I ever told you how much I love it when people dress like twins? I really love it. My kids are going to hate me someday... Anyway, if you are doing a big group event in public and you want to stand out as a group, it's fun if everyone wears the same color. It's like saying "oh hey, we're a group." So here we are - as a clearly defined group (you will note there were a few rebels - despicable!)... Adam refused to put on his green shirt. He would rather wear work clothes than be unified??? Really??? Micah forgot his green shirt. Boo! My favorite ladies and my favorite little man! Fist pumping rebels Big O.J. /  Little O.J. Helping Hudson bowl... O.J.'s turn! Heath and Lisa! Cute. Sissies! Natalie is so anxious about her brother's bowling. You. Oh hey pizza face. The Puhala kids are getting their dance on! Look at that form! Velcro is fun. I love this little goober. *People tried to hassle me that my shirt was not really green, and I realize it is not AS true of a green as the other shirts around me, but it was green. First of all, you must know that I put this shirt on at 7:00 in the morning and then went to work on my mommy blog paper for NINE hours. That's right. Nine hours straight of writing and I still wasn't done when it was time to go bowling. I had to frantically finish and post my paper after all the bowling craziness, but before the midnight deadline. Rough night. I also HAD to wear a tank top so my pits had air flow all day. I cannot type while sweating, so all my green shirts with sleeves were out. So lay off my shirt. It's green; it's just a different shade. Want to know how I am CERTAIN it is green? Because I color code my closet and this teal-green tank is clearly at home in the green section, while some of my blue- green shirts are more blu-ish and are carefully placed in the blue section. My closet says this shirt is green and my closet doesn't lie. ... Read more