Spring in the Window

The fresh air makes me so joyful, especially when it's warm and friendly like it has been lately! 

The Magnolia and Redbud trees are blooming.  We don't have any near our house (that I've discovered!), but we've driven by lots of them, so beautiful.

 

I love herbs and blooms and spring!! 

On Desserts

My husband loves Klondike Bars, Reese's Klondike Bars, to be exact.  Recently, though, as a part of my on-going effort to be healthy, frugal and green, I decided to start making more of my own desserts, hoping both to save some money and to satisfy my sweetie's sweet-tooth with a little more nutritional value.  I've always loved baking, anyway, and this is the time of my life when I have the most time!

So, we started with shoo-fly pie from More with Less.  Its virtue lay in its molasses and brown sugar instead of white.  But I knew that it would probably taste funny to someone who wasn't used to it, and it did.

The next week was gingerbread, pictured above.  I chose the recipe in Joy of Cooking because of its large molasses-white sugar ratio.  It rose beautifully tall, but even I thought it wasn't very sweet.  With warm vanilla cream sauce, it was delightful, but it was just no substitute for a Reese's Klondike Bar to John.

Blueberry-lemon bread pudding was next, serving as a use for a loaf of stale bread in my freezer and a way to get so-healthy blueberries into my husband.  (I plan to share the recipe for this soon!)  Once again, I thought it was delightful and John thought it was weird.

[These "failures" have come to mean that I'll chip away at the home-made dessert for about a week unless we've had company!  At least I'm not eating the Klondike Bars!]

In the mean-time, I've made a peanut-butter pie, which John liked, and a lemon meringue pie, which he would choose over a Klondike Bar any day!  But neither of them is particularly healthy in my mind.  The quest continues . . .

Treasures on Earth

This rug was one of our Christmas presents, and last week I finally sewed a fabric tube onto the back so that we could hang it over our fireplace.  John's mother designed and hooked the entire thing herself and dyed some portion of the wool herself, too!  I know that we're not supposed to have our heart's treasures on earth, but this, and the people I love most dearly, must be small exceptions.

On Saturday night, John helped me hang it.  It's the treasure I mentioned when I had just finished the living room curtain, and it does help balance the curtain out, truly.  Perhaps there will be more living room pictures soon, to share the full effect.  :-)

While I had the sewing machine out last week, I also sewed up this little pillow.

It's not a treasure as much as the rug is, but I am pleased with it.  :-)  It used to be a full-sized pillow case which I bought at a garage sale some years ago.  I liked the embroidery, but the cotton was thin and has since gotten quite torn at the top.  So. 

Book Review: Womanly Dominion

When I first heard that Pastor Mark Chanski had written a companion book to his Manly Dominion called Womanly Dominion, I thought he had gone too far.  Wasn't dominion all about manliness?  Wasn't womanhood all about a gentle and quiet spirit?  Admittedly, I had little interest in reading it.  But then, I had the privilege of hearing Pastor Chanski preach on the topics of his two recent books at a conference.  All the conferees were given copies of his books, so I did read Womanly Dominion and found that I had things to learn!

Yes, womanhood is all about a gentle and quiet spirit, but the creation mandate to subdue and rule over the earth (Genesis 1:28) was given to both the man and the woman.  Using the imagery of a soccer team, Pastor Chanski emphasizes that as long as we are careful to "play our position" as outlined in the Scripture, we, too, are to subdue and rule the part of the world to which we are called. 

I liked how, early in his discussion of dominion in general, Pastor Chanski emphasized that God saw it as good when man did such things as lasso and train a horse to carry him around, or cut down trees and make planks and build houses.  We are stewards of this earth, yes, but we are also called to rule the earth, and we are certainly not trespassers here.  Later, he recalls examples of dominion-minded women in particular from the past and present, recounting the fitting boldness of John Bunyan's wife Elizabeth, Thomas Edison's mother, and his own wife, Dianne. 

As the book continues, it gets more and more practical.  Pastor Chanski speaks to women in all stations--single and married, with and without children--and exhorts us as to how we might take dominion in our own lives.  For example, he exhorts mothers to rule over the media their children absorb, from what they can access on the internet, to the music in their ipods, to the library books they bring home.   

Should a woman be an athlete?  Toward the end, he speaks to some controversial questions with great skill, presenting a balanced spectrum of relevant Scripture to the reader before drawing final conclusions.  And he uses these questions to further exhort us practically (e.g.  Running track may be consistent with your daughter's femininity, but the immodest track uniforms may not be).

Pastor Chanski's writing style is very lively and engaging, making his book an enjoyable read.  I wasn't terribly fond of the cover and noticed some errors the copy editor must have missed, but these will undoubtedly be caught if there is a second printing.  He does deal tastefully with the "eros" type of love between a wife and her husband and deliberately does not sugar-coat some of the dangers mothers are to shield their little ones from in today's world.  Because of these aspects, I would highly recommend it to women and mature older teens. 

For most of us, our calling may not be so public and exciting (at first glance) as our husbands' callings, but we can leave this book inspired, and with his lifting theme echoing in our minds:  The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.

An Earring Tale

A couple of years ago, my little friend Olivia (the one who made me the apron for our wedding) made me brown and pink beaded earrings for Christmas.  They were my favorites!  They were light and comfortable and went with so many things.  Since they were just plain hooks with no stopper to hold them in, I would drop one sometimes, or find one in my hair, but I always managed to find them again . . .

I brought them to Turks & Caicos for the wedding of our brother and sister-in-law.

In fact, while there, I lost one one evening.  The next morning when it was light, John and I looked around the sidewalks outside the pools.  We had just about given up, when we noticed a dollar at the bottom of the hot tub.  Hey, it's a dollar!  Worth fishing out and drying!  One of us went in for it and found my earring with it next to the drain!  That was a little thing worth praising God for. 

I brought them with me on our honeymoon, too.

They traveled safely to my new state of residence.  And then, a couple of weeks ago, I was on the treadmill at the gym and put them in the little tray because they were bouncing around so much.  And I forgot them!  Not in the lost and found, not seen by the manager, sigh.

Perhaps I'll take a class to learn how to make my own, or buy some hand-mades online.  :-)

Curry, Take 2

Last night I tried for a second time to make the yellow curry John and I love so well.  This time I used curry paste I bought at an Asian market (I could only find red, though), coconut milk and yogurt for the sauce. 

It was . . . ok.  That curry paste must have been genuine because it was hot, hot, hot.  I didn't stir fry the potatoes long enough, so they were crunchy.  And my attempt at being healthy by using brown rice just meant that the dish was one degree further from our ideal yellow curry.  We'll keep trying. 

My Kitchen Sink

I love it, especially when I've just cleaned it.  Soap and sponge are in their places and all is at peace.

Mom keeps her dish soap in an olive oil bottle, and so does Heidi, who had the idea first.  I also read about it in Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook, so maybe she really had the idea first.  Right now mine is filled with Seventh Generation lavender/mint soap, and it smells so wonderful!

Spring on Cottage lane

It's spring!  The daffodils are blooming.  The grass is growing more lush and verdant.  The pond is rippled by ducks playing and the unpredictable spring breeze.  More sophisticated, Canada Geese look on, waddling by. 

Cottage Lane and nearby streets are dressed in their finest with an abundance of white-blossoming trees which now seem to be everywhere.  They're the trees, like the one outside my old classroom window, that look so pretty but smell like rotting fish up close.  There must be a spiritual lesson in this.

Further down, trees with pink blossoms add their feminine notes to the general happy tone.

 Our windows are open.

And I'm so happy for these little things.

An Unusual Post re. An Unusual Giveaway

http://www.lisaleonardonline.com/blog/2010/03/20/a-perfectly-lovely-giveaway-and-sale/comment-page-5/#comment-47976

This lady's blog is gorgeous, and she's giving away some gorgeous things!  Even just reading it makes me so happy, though I hope I win!

Living Room Curtain, Check.

I just, just finished hanging the living room curtain I've been sewing.  John helped a lot with the rod-mounting!  You can see I couldn't wait until daylight to take a picture.  :-)  I'm not sure if I like it or not; it's rather country, rather normal, and not as exciting as the dining room curtains.

Hopefully, soon, there will be another treasure on the wall to balance it out.  I'll keep you in suspense.  ;-)

Frugal and Green

Often I feel like my shopping choices hang in a tenuous balance between trying to be healthy, frugal, and green--and to keep my Klondike-Bar-Doritos-and-DiGiorno's-loving husband happy! 

Here are a few little things I do. 

I save money and waste by not buying many disposable non-food products.  Like many housewives attempting frugality, I'll rinse and reuse Ziploc bags (unless they've had meat in them) and use yogurt containers for freezing soups and sauces.  I take reusable bags with me to the grocery store.  When I spill something, I reach for a cloth instead of a paper towel, so even though we have paper towels in the house, we don't go through many.  We use cloth napkins and put them in the wash as needed, usually once or twice a week.  If our family expands, I may resort to time-saving disposables, but for now, I'm glad to have the freedom to live in these little ways.

In our nearly eight months of marriage, I haven't once actually bought a pack of freezer bags.  Some years ago, Mom discovered that cereal bags are great for food storage!  At first it sounds kind of pack-ratty to keep cereal bags, but once I got my mind around the fact that they're really sturdy and intended to keep food fresh, it seemed like a no-brainer.  I just fold the bags down and clip them, or staple them if I'm short on clips, and they work great.  I reuse them, too, as long as they haven't contained meat! 

It must help a little.  :-)

Green or Orange?

 This darling butter pot was a gift from my Secret Pal at work last Saint Patrick's Day

Holiday #3 - Saint Patrick's Day is here!  Are you wearing green or orange?

This may sound like a ridiculous question.  Doesn't everyone wear green on Saint Patrick's Day, Irish or not?  As a kid in upstate New York, the answer was a resounding "yes"!  Wearing green got you a free ice cream cone at Stewarts!  (Last year they were 50 cents, silly recession.)  At some point, I wondered why everyone of my acquaintence wasn't bubbling over in green at this time of year, and my mom explained to me that some people just view the holiday as an excuse to go out drinking, and some other people don't want to be associated with that.

In high school and college, there was the discovery that the Protestant color is orange!  My dear friend Jenni from Northern (Loyalist, Protestant) Ireland, GB, even expressed that she didn't really celebrate it at home because it was a very Catholic holiday.  We wore orange for a couple of years as a result.  Later, though, she told me that she'd learned Saint Patrick was instrumental in bringing Christianity to Ireland.  I don't know much of the history; I did a little reading on Wikipedia, and it sounds very complex.  ;-) But all that goes to say that perhaps it's not awful to wear green after all . . .

Carrika-Rede Rope Bridge, N.I.

Photo taken by Jenni's friend, Patrycja

Northern Ireland is quite possibly my favorite place in the whole world.  I was greatly privileged to visit there with my brother in April 2007.  We stayed in Co. Antrim and saw Mt. Slemish, where St. Patrick is supposed to have worked as a shepherd.  Having Scots-Irish blood from both our parents, we were excited to find a "Derek Reid" in the phone book while we were there!  An Irish lady we talked to on the plane even thought at first that I was an Irish girl traveling with my American boyfriend!  Of course, it's also my favorite place because one of my favorite people lives there.  Love you, Jenni!

Comforting Little Thoughts

"And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den. They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea."  Isaiah 11:6-9


"For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing and her people for gladness. I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people; And there will no longer be heard in her the voice of weeping and the sound of crying. No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his days; For the youth will die at the age of one hundred and the one who does not reach the age of one hundred will be thought accursed."  Isaiah 65:17-20

I don't know when these things will be or exactly what implications they have for me, but I know that they are true and wonderful.

"Because Isaiah's words about the Messiah's first coming [ch. 52-53] were so meticulously fulfilled, down to specific physical details, shouldn't we assume that His prophecies in subsequent chapters concerning life on the New Earth will likewise be literally and specifically fulfilled?"  Randy Alcorn, Heaven, p. 96

"We learn, in the fourth place, that children are never too young to receive the grace of God.  Zacharias is informed that his son "shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb."  There is no greater mistake than to suppose that infants, by reason of their tender age, are incapable of being operated upon by the Holy Spirit.  The manner of His work upon a little child's heart, is undoubtedly mysterious and incomprehensible.  But so also are all His works upon the sons of men.  Let us beware of limiting God's power and compassion.  He is a merciful God.  With Him nothing is impossible."  J.C. Ryle, Expository thoughts on Luke, Vol. 1, p. 15 (emphasis in original)