An Education

A couple times a year, my 10 year old brother comes to stay with Shaune and myself. It's a special time for all of us. Matty gets to have different rules, different house, different EVERYTHING! We get to play parents -- all the fun, none of the suffering :) I am still the cool big sister, after all. It's always a good time. We watch movies and play games. And, Shaune and I have a chance to share our values with him. There's a subtle vein of education running through most things we do.


For example, we don't have cable television and the Internet in our apartment is pretty iffy. So when he's with us, Matt learns the value of being bored. It leads to all sorts of fun -- gardening, board games, even fishing. Plus the joy in learning how to just be quiet, without outside stimulation.


He also learns how to get his hands dirty. I'm not sure where he learned this, but he hates touching pretty much anything. Shaune and I had fun with this. When Matty caught a fish (his very first ever!) Shaune wouldn't take it off the hook for him. Shaune coached, and guided, and even provided a glove! but declared that if Matt wanted to catch fish, he had to do the whole job. We had lots of laughs over that one. Then later, we were making personal pan pizzas. Matty didn't like how squishy the dough was... so we buried his hands in it :). It's all in good fun, but it's also an important thing to learn. How are you going to get through life if you won't touch anything yucky?


We taught him about movies that actually have a plot, and no explosions. We taught him how to find the tip quickly at a restaurant. We even took him to a museum to practice thinking critically about the claims that "scientists" (or biased exhibit designers) make. But most importantly, we taught him once again that we love him and we're here for him, and he can always ask us questions and receive an honest answer (even the ones that are hard to ask parents). We teach him life. These are the weekends that make life worth living.

First M.E. Church

There's a beautiful new stained glass window installed at our church. It used to be in the old building downtown -- they moved it into a frame and stored it when that building was sold. They've just now pulled it out and hung it.

The stained glass was made back when our church was the First Methodist Episcopal Church -- a denomination that no longer exists on its own but is a part of the United Methodist Church. "Methodist Episcopal" has too many letters for a stained glass worker... they shortened it to M.E.

First M.E. Church. Every time I see the window, I get a knot in the pit of my stomach. It's beautiful, yes, and the intended meaning is innocent enough. But every time my critical eyes view it... I see a commentary on the culture of our church... and the vast majority of other churches I've visited.

First, me. I'll pray, but first me. I'll worship, but first me. I'll serve, but first... me. My needs, my wants, my preferences take higher priority than serving the Lord. I'll join the Bible School committee, but only if we do it my way. Does this ring true for your churches? Not everyone, all the time... but some of the people at least some of the time. First, me.

Lest we be too harsh on the modern church, the "me first" mindset has been a problem since the very beginning:

Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give
to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." When
the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Matthew
19:21-22

The young man was focused on his wealth, his comfort, his earthly security blanket. He was saying, "First me."

He said to another man, "Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father."
Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God."
Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord, but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family."
Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." Luke 9:59-62

These situations seem good -- caring for family -- but Jesus declares them both to be unfit. These men, too, said "First me." I'll follow you after I do the things that I want to do. Even good things can be bad if we lift them to a higher position than following Christ.

Jesus never said that following him would be easy. In fact, he said the exact opposite: "If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you." John 16:19. We are to be hated, despised, persecuted. Even if that person hating you is your own family (Luke 8:19-21).

So who's first in your heart? Yourself? Or Christ? Although I still struggle with this every single day, I'm glad there's a window at my church reminding me that I don't want to be a part of the "First Me" church culture.

Garden Mystery -- Solved!

So I posted a few days ago about a mystery in my garden: the two jalapano plants were producing very different peppers. I think I just figured out what happened.

One plant cross pollinated with the bell pepper plant right next to it!

The jalapano didn't change much in flavor, just in appearance. The bell peppers -- which I pulled the first from tonight for a pizza -- didn't fare so well. They look like bells... smell like jalapanos... and taste somewhere in between. They have some kick, let me tell you!

So, note to self, next year the pepper varieties need to be located a little bit further apart. Or else I can leave them close together -- mysteries are kind of fun!

Summer Eats

I've never been good at menu planning. I've tried -- I've read books and blogs, all excitedly touting the benefits to your health and your poketbook. I make a beautiful menu that doesn't look so beautiful by Tuesday's Lentil Casserole. I'm giving up for the summer. There's no point -- and with a lovely garden outside, there's no need!

My summer cooking routine is simple:

1. Choose protein. There's a wide variety of frozen, cooked beans and meats ready to go, as well as some quick-cook meats like ground turkey. Set selected protein on counter to sort of head towards thawing.
2. Choose starch. We love rice here and go through the 25lb bag from Sam's every 3 months of so. I set rice or brown rice up in the rice cooker (yay single button cooking!) or a pot on the stove for noodles. If I'm really lazy we just eat bread.
3. Visit the garden and pick whatever's ripe. Lately there's been nothing but squash, but today I found my first red tomato and two lovely jalapanos -- Mexican-ish it is! I can't wait for the green beans!
4. Chop veggies, stir fry or something with the protein, grab a can of sauce if desired (I've always got spaghetti sauce and italian salad dressing ready to go) or spice if you'd rather.
5. Serve the veggie mix over the protein and GO!

One caveat -- I almost always know what should be ripe in the garden, so I do think ahead a tiny bit with the protein. Like, I knew the tomato was ready today... only one, and none others even close, so it would have to be eaten alone.

Today's Garden Simple Meal

1. Black Beans (precooked and frozen in a meal size package. Never canned -- too salty)
2. Brown rice (rice cooker love. This and my crock pot are the only two appliances I couldn't live without)
3. Tomato, 2 jalapanos from the garden, plus a couple cloves of garlic from the store

Put the rice on to cook even before going to the garden. Cook the peppers and garlic, chopped, in olive oil til fragrant. While cooking, chop tomato and toss in when ready. Stir until tomato starts to break down. Break frozen chunks of black beans into the pot, stir til thawed. Hit with a little water, little salt and pepper, then let simmer. This kinda made its own gravy... yum. Put in a generous helping of rice (more for the boy, he's always hungry!) and top with the beans. It was literally heaven in a bowl.

We've lately also had squash with tomato sauce and noodles, zuccini and spinach soup, Thai chicken (theres a recipe I've got to share!), and all sorts of salads. Garden dinners are never boring and never preplanned, so we can eat what we want each evening. And, I'm pretty sure we've doubled our veggie diet! I love summer :)

Garden Mysteries

I absolutely love having a garden. If you were around last year, you probably laughed while I experimented with growing for the first time. I used Rubbermaids on the balcony. It was fabulous, but I knew there was more.

This year we have ground of our own and I have been living it up! The garden lines one side of our house. It's only 3 feet wide, but 2 bedrooms long (so exact, I know). I love staring out my window at the flowers on the squash and tomatoes... I feel more connected with the "real" world even while I'm tapping away at my computer.

This basket is my new centerpiece for the kitchen table during the growing season. Today's selection: lettuce, spinach, and a crookneck squah. Some days the selection is still store-bought, but every day there's more home grown and less hothouse!

But I have a mystery to run past you all: Do you know why 2 plants, exactly the same, purchased together on the same day, planted side by side... would turn out two completely different peppers? They taste the same -- they're both clearly jalepanos. But they look so different! One plan it putting out the rounded-end, shiny peppers. The one next to it is producing matt green peppers that are long and pointy. I repeat -- they taste the same. I'm just curious to see if anyone has any input, as I'm new to this green thumb thing!

Bobbin Lacing -- oops! Edited with pictures!

7/6, 10:13 pm : I can't believe I posted a project post without photographs! It has been remedied and will NEVER happen again! Unless I forget again...

I have been wanting to write this post for a week! Life keeps getting in the way, and, you know, life must be lived or else there will be nothing to blog about :)

When we were at the Jacksonville Civil War event back in June, I met a neat lady sitting under a tree doing something I had never seen before. Her hands were flying, throwing around these little wooden sticks displayed beautifully on a blue pillow. And what what happening when those pretty sticks crossed? LACE!

I couldn't help myself... I had to learn.

Because that's what I do... Learn stuff :)

The lady was generous enough to invite this crazy blonde into her home, promising me she'd teach me the basics of bobbin lacing. So last Wednesday found me jumping in the car on an adventure to Bloomington to learn this beautiful art.

My first lace: one section of each of the 3 stitches

Learn I did. Ramona taught me how to wind the bobbins (the little wooden sticks), then she taught me the stitches. There's actually only three stitches in bobbin lacing and they're all pretty easy. Lace is made when you put the different stitches together and grab different bobbins each time.

My first pattern!

I wish I could explain it to you better, so that perhaps you could learn, too... but I can't. All I can do is demonstrate my extreme excitement and encourage you to find a master, too! Learn! Or I can muddle through showing, maybe... but not online. What fun! I already have like a bazillion projects designed in my head to decorate all the pretty little somethings I've also designed. Maybe one day they'll get made!

My Life Goal... er, Obsession

I have a horridly ambitious goal in my life. Maybe some of you can help me achieve it. I want to learn every traditional form of handwork and sewing known to womankind.

It's been my passion for years. I never sit down to watch a movie without something to keep my hands busy. I look forward to car trips for the guilt-free, uninterrupted hours I can spend on my projects. I'll even drive far out of my way to learn something special (this week, I'm headed 1.5 hours north to learn Bobbin Lacing; my 16th birthday present was a several-hours trip to spend a day with a pattern drafter).

Here's where you come in: Do you know any interesting arts you'd be willing to teach me? I have never yet found a person to teach me tatting -- that's probably at the top of my list -- but I have a hunger for anything and everything fiber related.

You also come in on the second, more important half. I dearly pray that these arts don't die out. I would love to teach anyone anything I know. I'm not an expert, but we can practice together.

Pictures stolen from various sources. The photos themselves link back to the original location.

Jacksonville Civil War Event

It's taken me all week, but finally I get to share with you: My very first, in period dress, Civil War event!

I'm so glad I took the time to do everything correctly. It made a huge difference. I saw so many women miserable in polyester dresses and other horridly inaccurate garments that were neither attractive nor comfortable in the 95+ degree heat. My many layers of cotton kept me cool-ish, as long as I was moving or in the shade.

Before I explain everything, I have to give a HUGE thank you to Sarah Jane of Romantic History, who graciously let me borrow her stack of patterns and surprised me with the lovely sunbonnet. I would have been completely lost without you!

The picnic tables became our favorite spot.

I have to tell you a secret... I am a world-class procrastinator. It was a joke between me and my husband (and before him, my roomates) that I would never start a paper more than 24 hours before it was due. That isn't entirely true, but it was true enough to become a stereotype. This dress was no exception. I took my sweet time making the undergarments: a seam here, a hem there, "there's still x days left before the event"... all the way up until Thursday evening when I realized that, wow! The day had almost arrived!

Shaune made it onto the battlefield (He's the 2nd from the wagon, with the leaning gun)...

I fit the lining Thursday evening. I started cutting the fashion fabric Friday at 8:30, only moments after my husband walked out the door for work. From there, I worked like crazy, only pausing when absolutely necessary. The dress involved a ton more hand sewing than I'm used to -- the center front has 15 pair of hooks-and-eyes, which I stitched over the course of a movie (Les Choristes, in French -- my favorite!). By lunchtime, I had a bodice front and back mostly put together and sleeves in progress. Shaune helped me when he came home, and we decided that the sleeves really needed epaulets to make them more interesting... one more project, but a worthwhile one.

But he didn't make it off. Boo :(

Evening found me with a bodice, epaulets attached, and panels cut for the skirt. I sent my hubby to Martial Arts class so I could have another 3 hours of uninterrupted sewing. I think we ate dinner, but I'm not certain. If we did, I certainly didn't stop for long! I gave up around 1am with a completed skirt and a nearly completed bodice. I bound the edges and whipped the two halves together over breakfast. There were still safety pins, but by golly! I was fully dressed by the time we reached the event!

Aren't we a lovely pair? The banjo always draws a crowd.

I'm hooked. I spent the entire event staring at other ladies' gowns, deciding where mine needs finessed and designing my next gown. I believe we'll be camping out at the next event we go to, sometime in August, so a second dress (or at least a second chemise and some more petticoats) is a must. Although, I do believe that next time... I might start at least 2 days before the event :)

It Feels Like Home

I've noticed something: I live a busy life. We're always going somewhere, doing something, rarely home for more than a few days -- and if we are at home, we have company. It's a fun life, but ever so exhausting. Part of the problem is that home isn't "home," at least not in my heart. My heart belongs far, far away... and I got to go back this past week for my cousin's graduation.

My dad grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on the top of Squirrl Hill. My grandparents are buried there; my cousins still live there (well, a few hills over); my earliest memories are there. Even though I've lived in central Illinois since I was a small girl, every important event was marked by a trip to the mountains. Mom's family lives in or near the mountains, too. Corn fields offer no comparison in terms of beauty, mystery, and peace. Mountains signify home in my heart... especially the ones around Pittsburgh (And your farm, Erika, we just don't get there very often!)

So, I was thrilled when things fell into place for Shaune and I to go with my parents back to Pittsburgh for my cousin Beth's graduation. Shaune's never been out East. While it's always special to revisit home on your own, it is even more special to be able to share that experience with one who's never seen it before.

We visited my grandparents...

Rode the Incline (like a trolly that goes up the side of the mountain)...

Looked over the skyline...

Climbed a mountain to find a waterfall (in a skirt!)...

Played weird instruments (this is a ukelele banjo. I have no idea anything about it)...

And even punched statues (oh to be a 10 year old boy!)...

It's weird how much driving certain streets, climbing certain hills, seeing certain buildings can make a place that has never been "home" feel so much like where I belong. One of these days, we'll live out East. One of these days I'll say good-bye to corn fields and flat and buy a piece of property halfway up a mountain, and home can finally be where both my heart and my body are found!

PS: I DID get all my Civil War sewing completed -- last minute -- and had a total blast at the reenactment this past weekend. More on that when I catch a minute; we have friends in from Liberia, Africa this week and a lot of events to attend with them.

Draw Me Nearer

I am thine, O Lord, I have heard thy voice,
and it told thy love to me;
but I long to rise in the arms of faith
and be closer drawn to thee.

Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,
to the cross where thou hast died.
Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,
to thy precious, bleeding side.

Consecrate me now to thy service, Lord,
by the power of grace divine;
let my soul look up with a steadfast hope,
and my will be lost in thine.

O the pure delight of a single hour
that before thy throne I spend,
when I kneel in prayer, and with thee, my God,
I commune as friend with friend!

Hymns have a way of touching my heart in a way that words can not. They take what I'm feeling and express it much more eloquently than I can pull off. We sang "Draw me Nearer" this morning and the refrain just keeps playing through my head, a constant background to my day. It makes me think.

This song has it right in one ever so important way: God draws US nearer. He is constant; He is unchanging and unmoving. I'm the one that drifts away on the current of distractions. He stands there, a Rock for me to cling to if only I remember to do so.

He's a fisherman, too... casting out his line to draw us in. Or a lover, drawing the beloved in for a hug. He's where he's always been... I'm the one that walks away.

Draw me nearer, Blessed Lord, this day and every!