Author: laurabell91

Easter Coffee

- laurabell91 5 Comments

Yesterday morning the alarm clocks started playing their tunes.

I didn’t even squint open my eyes, they were simply too heavy, but I had enough energy to merely tap my husband’s shoulder and say “time?”, he replied with a muffled and extremely bass voice “5 am.”

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“coffee…” I mustered out as I pushed him to get out of bed.  Yes, he literally is the most selfless man I know, besides Jesus.

He got up and made the best pot of coffee Montgomery County has ever had.

*swoon.* 🙂

I have to be honest and a bit vain for a moment… our coffee is phenomenal. Seriously, amazing.

People have been buying coffee left and right from us, and I am completely fine with that.

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The post office is my second home, believe me, they all say “Hey, the coffee girl is here!” every time I come in.  I just love that.  A few weeks ago I made a shipment to Washington D.C., yep, I felt so political 🙂

Christmas was crazy because coffee was the ultimate stocking stuffer and the last minute Christmas gifts.  I literally delivered coffee to a house as someone was walking in to give the present.. whew, just in the knick of time!

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So today, I am here to tell you, EASTER is coming SO SOON.

I’m a weirdo about Easter.  I may love Easter more than Christmas.  It is the best day of Spring.  Everyone wears white, smock dresses flood our church building, and my family always goes all out for a big family lunch, all 8 million of us.. kidding, but my family is huge, and they just keep having babies.

My Grandfather had a tradition for himself on Easter Sundays.  He would get in a little fishing boat and ride to the middle of his pond, sit, wait, and watch the sunrise.  I always imagined him out there with a cup of coffee in his hand waiting to hear the Lord speak to Him on such a glorious day. Now, He sits with Jesus on Easter Sundays, and sometimes I wonder if they have Easter Coffee together in Glory.  What a sight 🙂

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I just know that in heaven that we are the perfected versions of ourselves, and Jesus gets that. Sometimes I imagine Him having Heaven mornings with me with a bowl of Cheerios that never get soggy and a cup of coffee that never goes luke warm.

*sigh*

This Easter, you can fill up Easter baskets with bags of Bell Blend or even your morning belly with it, and we would love that.

But more than anything, that grave was left empty, so that you could be filled, filled to the brim of your being with the Spirit of the Living God.

Amen? Amen!

*if you are really interested in buying Bell Blend, go to the coffee shop tab and click the sub tab labeled “support our shop”, it will give you a direct link to our square site 🙂 *

Happy Almost Easter, I can’t WAIT!

To the City

- laurabell91 16 Comments

Born and raised in Montgomery, Alabama. Yep, that’s me.

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Dear Montgomery, I thank you.

I thank you for having history that hurt the world and history that strengthened it. I thank you for teaching me how to embrace moments with the people around me, not obsessing over the millions of “things” that my home has. I thank you for having the best fried chicken, for Wednesday morning breakfast dates at Farmer’s Market Cafe with my dad, and for the hotdog shop that never, ever lets me down.. all since 1917.

I thank you that I had friends with darker skin than me, that it was acceptable, and for the schools that I went to that gave me those friends.

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I thank you for my husband and that I found him in the Capital City, sitting in one of your classrooms.

*dragons really should retire because of him.*
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To the city that has the best Mrs. JoZetti’s cupcakes and the sweetest Mrs. JoZetti baking them, I thank you.

Thank you for my neighborhood Winn Dixie with homeless people who never fail to ask me for cash and cashiers who know my name AND my shopping schedule. 

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I thank you for the fountain at the square where Rosa kept her seat and that it is the prettiest place for a picture 🙂

Thank you for family who is rooted here, moving here, and making a difference in all the areas that need the deepest of loves. 

Thank you for the curb market  with the most fresh of vegetables and sweetest farmers.

colorboxphoto_32I thank you for giving me moments to laugh until I cry.

Thank you for teaching me about Jesus and for the common question “do you have a church family?”

Yes, I do, because of YOU.

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I thank you that I can stand in front of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church where MLK Jr. preached The Word and that I get to drive past it everyday.

Thank you for my mother, a former Montgomery tour guide, who taught me the same RICH history lessons every time we passed through downtown.

Thank you for obsessed football fans and the rivalry of Auburn/Alabama football. It’s stupid, we know, and we don’t care. 

colorboxphoto_49I thank you for ridiculously hot summers, lightening bugs, and sweet tea.

Thank you for my accent that is noticeably southern and the way my people embrace it.

Thank you for a city life and country life all in one, for hay bales and cow fields right next to subdivisions.  I thank you for historic homes that stand strong and for the Davis Theatre remaining elegant, making me feel like Audrey Hepburn every time I walk by.

I thank you for a home where people stopped by to drink my mom’s sweet tea and would stay, even if we left. 🙂

colorboxphoto_20I thank you for people with strong incomes who move to the “scary” places and love their neighbors.

Thank you for community bible studies and complete strangers that will eat Tomatino’s pizza with you, anytime, any day, ever, because it’s delicious.

I thank you that Vicki’s Lunch Van isn’t a van, but instead a really yellow building, and completely deserving of her “Best Hamburger in Alabama” Award.

I love that we all know the whole city will smell bad after it rains because of a paper mill that rests on its outskirts.

colorboxphoto_14I thank you for women obsessed with monograms, hippies, hipsters, rap artists, and country folks that all live in one city.

I love that every teenaged boy dreams of a pick-up truck, no matter the year, they just want a truck (there’s something about them).  And I love that my husband has one.. 🙂

I thank you for my favorite author finding his soul mate in this city and living in a house for a few months (although we act like he lived here for 80 years).  F. Scott Fitzgerald, we salute thee.

colorboxphoto_1We love you Montgomery, Alabama.  Thank you for being imperfect.  Thank you for having problems.  Thank you for being unpopular. Thank you for standing strong.

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We are fighting for you, you sweet little town of awesome imperfection. We love you, we love our neighbors, and we never want to stop. 

Cody and I have plans, big plans.  We want to love our city with our coffee. The sweetest Brooke Glassford, with Colorbox Photographers, took some shots of us around the place where we want to form the greatest community centered around a beautiful cause.

I ask that you pray for us as we journey towards our goal and dream.  I ask that you keep buying Bell Blend, because you are buying more than coffee.

*We want to see our city come together for something greater than themselves, and we are ecstatic to see what God is going to do!*

Y’all be sure to share your favorite things about Montgomery or even your own hometown 🙂 Comment below and subscribe!!

Run With Perseverance

- laurabell91 7 Comments

I started running in college.

I spent majority of my life in a dance studio, so when I got my diploma, it uprooted me from dance to nothing in a matter of days. The freshman 15 awaited me as the first college I attended joyfully and graciously had a chic-fil-a in their student center.

Gyms completely freaked me out, elliptical’s made me feel like an uncoordinated baby horse trying to learn how to use their legs, and just the thought of lifting weights petrified me.

But my roommate, who previously ran track at a D1 college, asked if I wanted to run with her.  I was scared, and quite frankly I was horrible at it. But every day got easier, every mile got faster, and my heart latched on.  Nichole, my roommate at the time, didn’t run with ear buds.  It was just me and her.  We didn’t talk, we just ran, and it made sense to only us. 

The only time we would talk is if we got tired, and one or the other would say “Run with perseverance the race which was been set before you.” And BOOM, lightening bolts would hit our tennis shoes and we could run for days.

Nichole even got me to run my first 5k.  I ran it in 21:19, and I am pretty sure I will never be able to run that fast, ever. again.

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When I switched colleges, I no longer had my running buddy.  Running got harder and harder, because lets be honest, if you ask a college student if they want to run with you, you get one of two answers:

1) They laugh in your face and usually proceed to tell you that only run if someone is chasing them.

2) Usually a girl, who is a perfect size, is fearful she’s gained weight, agrees to be your running partner, and quits before 0.2 miles.

But one day, Laine Kelly came to Faulkner, she ran with ear buds, but that was fine with me.  We could run together… and she could run miles further than me, but I was ok with that.

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Y’all, this girl has run so many half marathons that I can’t even count, but I promise you she has the metals to prove it.  This year it was FINALLY in Montgomery.

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Nals and I traveled all over our little city trying to catch her at her marks… yeah, we failed.  BUT we we found her as she finished the race set before her. She did so stinking good, regardless of how yucky the day was that morning. We all got to hug her neck and congratulate her and then carry on our merry way.

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You know, when I think back to people telling me “I only run if someone is chasing me”, I wish I had looked back at them and said “someone is, He created you, and He’s chasing your heart.” 

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The chaser of our hearts is running through life with us, distributing perseverance along the way.  The older I get the more I realize the desperation in my soul to have Him running the race of life with me, pushing me, encouraging me, and molding my heart the way that He does so willingly.

You may not be a runner, but I still want to challenge you to

run with perseverance the race which has been set before you.