The January Challenge presented by the Discipleship Steering Committee and committee chair Bev Shelenberger again requires your creativity and sharing. The pandemic has created “NFT” as Bev’s husband, Don, calls it. It may not be true for all of us because some have stretched time and patience to the max, but for the rest of us it is “New Found Time.” We have time but what have we chosen to do with it? Some of us have tried new recipes, learned new skills, acquired new pets, or found new websites. Bev is asking that you share with others recipes, pictures or products of your New Found Time.
January brings a new year and a new hope. We are blessed by our church and its people. We do not go through this alone. Share the love. Find those who need help and help in whatever way is safe. We can be creative in solutions. Prayer Warriors, you are doing great work, too. Bev’s new find is recipes. She likes a sheet pan supper called Arroz Con Pollo. She will send you a copy of the recipe if you like or put several copies at the church. See you in church, either virtually or in person.
Share your thoughts fo NFT by emailing them to media@nwpresby.org and we’ll include them below on this webpage later this month.
Todd Cole submitted recipes (click here).
From Nicole Hunter: It’s been a blessing during the pandemic to find a little bit of a different pocket of time to explore work of my hands! I started a small, side gig called “Evergreen by Nicole Hunter.” It’s handmade, minimalist reminders of where we’re rooted – in nature. (click here)
Alyson Knop is mending “holey” socks using my grandmother’s darning egg.
From Judi Hartzler:
This pandemic has caused me to have to be so much more creative with my “extra” New Found Time (NFT) in retirement. Given the restrictions on travel and exposure this became a challenge. The things that have given me the most pleasure and distraction are:
1. I have a buddy reading time every day at 10:00am, on Google Meet, with my second grade granddaughter, Madelynn. She is at home doing live virtual learning, but has an independent reading time from 10:00-10:50. Sometimes she reads a chapter or two in her book to me or I pick something fun to read to her. We also take a few minutes just to visit and share how things are going.
2. My 5 year old grandson, Avery, is also at home, but missed the Kindergarten cut off, so he has a nanny/tutor that monitors Madelynn and works with him on pre-kindergarten skills every day. Since the beginning of the pandemic I have been writing his curriculum (all subjects) based on interesting and fun literature. I mail a box of activities, manipulatives, and lessons based on many different books each month. He just finished a study of how holidays are spent in different countries. This has taken the biggest chunk of my NFT. I consider this, and reading to Madelynn, a wonderful opportunity to be involved in their education – something that would not be happening regularly if it weren’t for the pandemic. It is using time, and one of my favorite parts of teaching, – curriculum writing.
3. I am writing more personal notes, sending small packages, and sending cards to people. It keeps our Post Office busy, the Amazon deliveries regular, and people really do love to get snail mail.
4. I am trying a lot of new recipes and baking. This is both good and bad – I love to cook, but we also love to EAT. I just signed up for an online cookie decorating course that you can do the activities and the tutorial on your own NFT!!
5. Every Saturday night since the pandemic started we have done “Adult Family Game Night”. It is my husband and I and our 3 kids, our son-in-law, our son-in-laws parents and his siblings. We all meet and sign in on Google Meet and then someone chooses -either one of the JackBox games online, or one house sets up a board game and we play teams. Last week we played Trivial Pursuit and found out how much or how little we knew!! It is lots of fun.
I am not pretending that every day is occupied, or that it isn’t very difficult some days, but the above activities have really been helpful.
From Sara Arblaster: “We were able to focus more on the beauty of the college/community through all of the seasons and getting some exercise while taking it all in. Sara took on the challenge of all the puzzles throughout these past 10 months. We were able to spend more time exercising (whether running together, Sara swimming a 5k, or with the small group of church friends led by Dan Urban doing Crossfit). We also adopted a new dog, Toby, to fill in some empty time! 🤪 And finally, we were able to spend more time in the kitchen cooking and baking (and trying our hand at making hot cocoa bombs).”
