On Neighborhood Living

walking to the doctor's office!

From 1997 to 2009 I lived with my family in the country, excepting of course the months I was away at college. The fresh air, trees, sunshine, swamp, and seclusion warm my heart even to think about. I still consider myself as a true Greenfield-girl at heart. Still, I knew that I could be happy living anywhere with the right man someday. I had enough requirements for a husband, and where we were to live certainly was not one of them. ;-)

Now I find myself in suburbia. We're within walking distance from two different grocery stores, not to mention Starbucks, Hallmark, the dry cleaner's, a cheap haircut place, fast food. And now that I have a little one, I appreciate the walking distance even more. It's so much pleasanter and easier to walk someplace than to load the baby up in the carseat.

Today we walked to the pediatrician's office. Gemma is in the 90th percentile all around--height, weight, head circumference. Actually, the doctor said "90th-95th" for height. :-D

In my ideal world, there would also be a post office within walking distance. That's one place it's kind of a hassle to get to. And all the states between here and Greenfield would be swept to the side, so that we would only have a short drive to visit our parents.

Someday, after Jesus comes back, we will live in the new earth where everything will be ideal. My ideas about ideal are undoubtedly a bit off, but everything will be perfect nonetheless! Lord, hasten the day!

some giveaways are just too good not to blog about . . .

Like this one.

Mama B is giving away 3 BumGenius 4.0's, or as I've heard some say, "the Cadillac of cloth diapers."

So, you might want to negate any advantage I get in the drawing by blogging about this giveaway by putting in a few entries for yourself. ;-)

On Making Yoghurt

I love yoghurt, and, yes, I enjoy spelling it with the "h."

When my mother was here a few weeks ago, we picked up a container of Greek-style yoghurt at Trader Joe's and I was smitten. The stuff is amazing! A facebook status to that effect generated a good bit of conversation, and a former classmate ended up directing me to this website for making yoghurt in your crockpot. She even strains a portion of it to make it Greek-style, confirming what I'd read on Wikipedia. "Greek" yoghurt simply has been strained of much of its whey, giving it its rich, delightful creaminess.

I knew that it was possible to make yoghurt because my mom has done it before. She used a yoghurt maker, but I also knew it was possible to do so without a special machine. Several of the recipes I'd examined before sounded kind of complicated, and when I was pregnant I was afraid of messing with bacteria, so I put that thought aside for a while. This crockpot recipe, however, is extremely simple and works beautifully! For my first batch, I used 2% organic milk, and while the result is a bit thinner than the yoghurt you buy in the store, it is nonetheless delicious.

As the recipe suggests toward the end, I also put a portion of it in a coffee filter-lined colander for 12-18 hrs (don't remember exactly how long!) and made my own "Greek" yoghurt as well. My second batch is in the crock pot right now and I can't wait for it to be done!!!

Things Gemma Can Do Now

Lots of cuteness ahead. :-)

Customize your own free picture slideshow

My Herb Garden :-)

I didn't do much housewifery from the end of February to the beginning of April, but I did get to reap the benefits of my mom's and mom-in-law's skills!

For some of the culinary highlights: we made and ate WONDERFUL, chewy Italian no-knead bread, a new version of chicken and dumplings, and cinnamon scones. We had cinnamon scones several times. :-D And when I write "we made and ate" I mean "John's mom made and I ate."

In other food highlights, we bought some mouth-watering sushi and Greek yoghurt. I quickly fell in love with Greek yoghurt! Mom also made chicken with goat cheese sauce from a recipe which I've had since my wedding but never had the nerve to try, and it was savory and scrumptious! We fared quite well under the care of our two mothers.

The outdoor highlight is my new herb garden! We noticed that the bushes around half of the kitchen patio were strangely dead, so my sweet mom dug them out and replanted the bed with parsley, basil, rosemary and thyme, with some lobelia for color. Oh, I love herbs.

Where Gretchen's Been

Six and a half weeks ago, I made a stupid quick-decision and tumbled off John's mountain bike, breaking my left elbow and a bone in my right hand. When the orthopedist in the ER told me that I wouldn't be allowed to lift more than a coffee cup in either hand for six weeks, I cried.

John had ridden half of the trip, I met him in the car with the baby, and we switched places. Before we set out, I saw John start to pedal away, then turn back and get his helmet. And when I fell, I hit my head on the asphalt trail. We are very thankful that John had that helmet to pass off to me! In fact, there are many little things like this that we are grateful for, such as these:
- I had just bought a new package of disposable diapers for Sundays and we were stocked on groceries, so we were set for a while!
- I was supposed to make dessert for a luncheon on Monday, and I had already done it on Friday night!
- I had cut John's hair the weekend before instead of putting it off!
- We had taught Gemma how to drink from a bottle several weeks before. Apparently for some babies, this is really a struggle!
- I responded well to the pump we bought and maintained a plentiful supply of milk for her.
- She's generally an easy and adaptable baby.

In spite of these blessings, there were many, many times when I wished I could just rewind time and not hit the brakes on that bicycle so hard! Suddenly I was no longer the blissful baby-wearing mom I loved that I'd become. Apron, nursing, cloth diapering and Moby wrap were all put on the shelf for six weeks. I felt like I wasn't able to do what I was supposed to be doing. Through it all, I learned the hard lesson that I am not in control of my life. It took consciously reminding myself that God IS in control and He purposed for this to happen to keep me, honestly, from crying all the time.

We were also blessed and greatly encouraged by John's mom and my mom, who each gave up a few weeks to come take care of us. I'm thankful that Gemma had so much Grandma bonding time. John's mom was the voice of reason when I feared that Gemma would never want to nurse again, because she had been through something similar, and baby Johnny DID return to nursing! And, of course, there's nothing like having one's own mother around, especially when she's probably one of my best friends after John.

So, that is where I've been. Here. In a sling and a cast. Now I'm doing exercises to strengthen my hand and back to holding and nursing and wearing and cloth-diapering my sweet baby . . .

God is good.

Money

There's a verse in James that I never quite understood - "If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?" (James 3:15-16).

James is using the text to illustrate the futility of saying you have faith while producing no works, because while works to not produce faith, true faith works. I've always wondered, who would actually do this? Who would say to someone's face "have what you need." and then do nothing about it. And yet this is [in effect] exactly what we do every time we go to a prayer meeting, acknowledge and pray for someone's physical needs, and then do nothing.

I notice this most when we pray at our church for those out of work. While we can't fix health problems, broken relationships that don't involve us, and other such things, the need for money is surely within our reach. We pray for God to supply their needs, all well and good, but forget that God uses means. Sure we probably can't give them a job, but have you ever met someone who'd reply to a gift with "well, I don't need that; I'm waiting on God for a job"? You don't have to read far into Acts to find people who thought exactly this way. One of the primary marks of grace is selflessness. Do we even consider delaying our next impulse purchase, that upgraded electronic gadget, or building bigger barns for our piles of stuff, to meet the needs of brethren we're going to spend eternity with?

I think this is exactly what Jesus had in mind when he said "Make for yourselves friends by means of unrighteous mammon, so that they may receive you into eternal dwellings". Ties forged by serving the brethren _now_ will have eternal benefits. A simple cup of cold water to a brother in need won't lose it's reward in that day; how much more then a few hundred dollars when it's needed?