Carl and I recently decided to spice things up \u2014 not in our chili, but in our choices! After realizing we\u2019d been eating at the same-oh, same-oh restaurants, we heard Austin has over 4,000 of them. So we made a pact \u2014 no repeats (unless we\u2019re with friends). We\u2019re now at 145 new places and counting!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That \u201ctry something new\u201d mindset carried right into our weekend trip to Tulsa for a beautiful wedding \u2014 and then straight on to Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri! It\u2019s the Christmas capital of my heart \u2014 a glowing wonderland of 6.5 million lights, smells of cinnamon rolls and kettle chips, and enough funnel cakes to make an angel weep with joy.heaven,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Walking through that park felt like stepping inside a Christmas card \u2014 all twinkle and nostalgia. From the laughter-filled Frontier Follies show to the soulful gospel harmonies of the Spoken 4 Quartet, every moment was sprinkled with joy and a dash of holy awe. And just when I thought my heart couldn\u2019t take any more sparkle \u2014 we stood before an 8-story animated Christmas tree that danced with lights and music. My goodness, it felt like heaven\u2019s pre-show!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Somewhere between the fudge shop and the fireworks, I thought: this is how God meant life to be \u2014 full of joy, curiosity, and gratitude. Psalm 104:24 says, \u201cHow many are your works, Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ve decided \u2014 no more ruts, no more routines. Life is too precious to live on repeat. Whether it\u2019s a new restaurant, a road trip, or simply a walk around the block, joy doesn\u2019t just show up \u2014 sometimes, you have to drive to find it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So here\u2019s to cheerful hearts, candlelit dinners, and adventures wrapped in God\u2019s goodness. Proverbs 17:22 reminds us, \u201cA cheerful heart is good medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And trust me \u2014 when you open your heart to wonder, you\u2019ll find that every day with God is one big, beautiful, \u201cOh wow!\u201d waiting to happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Exploring God\u2019s creativity one restaurant (and one road trip) at a time!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
#AdventureWithPurpose<\/a>#FaithAndFun<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Carl and I recently decided to spice things up \u2014 not in our chili, but in our choices! After realizing we\u2019d been eating at the same-oh, same-oh restaurants, we heard Austin has over 4,000 of them. So we made a pact \u2014 no repeats (unless we\u2019re with friends). We\u2019re now at 145 new places and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1210,10974,32801,1769,251,2345,40,4159,12753,10978,6315,32797,22587,32800,1132],"class_list":["post-23198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-blog","tag-branson","tag-card","tag-christian","tag-christmas","tag-fireworks","tag-inspiration","tag-lights","tag-mindset","tag-missouri","tag-parade","tag-same-oh","tag-silver-dollar-city","tag-something-new","tag-wonder"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23198"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23200,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23198\/revisions\/23200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}