Peaceful

My whole body loosens when I look down my darkened hallway at the cracked doors my sons rest behind. Those cracks speak of childhood, of access, of listening, of quiet for mother and boys, and hopefully, of rest for momma, too.

Do Not Combine

The following items should not be found in close proximity to one another:

New mattress causing stiffness everywhere

Husband out of town

Deciding to start trying to get body back by doing 100 crunches the first morning

Food poisoning

Travel to see Husband with two small children

Hotel stay

Compromising diet and sleep due to travel and festivities

Interrupting sleep training

Attempting to regain sleep training upon arrival home while upstairs neighbors are moving out LOUDLY during bedtime hours.

Teething


One should be forewarned that the above items do not combine well and can make for a rather exhausted mother.

Eight Random Facts About My Kitchen

Flo has tagged me for random facts about my kitchen. Here goes:

1. I have 20+ cookbooks, and YEARS worth of "Martha Stewart's Everyday Food" magazines. But there are really only 5 books I ever look at.

2. I have lost all but my top drawer to Søren. He gets all the Tupperware, cookie cutters, plastic spatulas, children's dishes, etc. These can usually be found evenly dispersed under my feet while I am cooking as a booby-trap challenge to keep me sharp on my feet. I am currently pondering moving my utensils out of the top drawer (as I am uncomfortable with him running around the house with metal forks), but I have no where else to put them.

3. Given that Søren is not allowed soda or juice, we have a "kombucha" cupboard which always hosts a fermenting batch of the smelly foot water that Søren loves. He affectionately refers to this as "kumbie". Anytime you open this cabinet (which hosts more than kumbie) the whole kitchen fills with the vinegary kombucha smell.

4. I don't throw away peanut butter jars and the like as these are too convenient to have around. However, when not in use, they are taking up too much precious space!

5. We have ample counter space for both boys to be up on the counter with me when I cook. They enjoy tasting and smelling all my ingredients. Søren also enjoys pretending to make Daddy a latte with our espresso machine while there.

6. I actually clean out my refrigerator once a week now! This is because once a week I bring home 8 gallons of raw milk (only 3 are for us) that need a place to rest before they are delivered or picked up by various friends and neighbors.

7. My 12-inch, stainless, frying pan gets so much use that it never gets put away nor placed in the dishwasher. It just rotates from front burner to sink and back again.

8. The kitchen hosts 6 different vinegars in 9 different bottles. Raw Apple Cider, Balsamic, Distilled White, White Wine, Red Wine, and Rice. Finding the right vinegar and herbs for different marinades and dressings is what makes people think I can cook!

I would have to go back and look, but I think everyone I would tag is already tagged! If not, and you want to play, consider yourself tagged.

Stories

I am increasingly intrigued at how God communicates.

We learn so much from looking at the history God wrote in and through the people of Israel. There is so much to learn from this masterful story. Yet, small as we are, and insignificant as we are compared to the grand narrative God writes, He has taken the time to write billions of mini, non-grand narratives. As I process through the decisions of each moment, I often forget that God is writing the narrative of my little life, too. When I take the time to reflect back on my own history, I am often amazed at how seemingly insignificant details - in any given moment - can have profound meaning in retrospect. It is as if God places foreshadowing in my own story to be shown to me much later.

There are so many signals of transcendence for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear.

In need of mental recordings.

Sometimes in the evening my thoughts drip and trickle creating vast hidden pools fit for a photographer's eye, or master's canvas, when morning light slips in through cracks. Sometimes at night I see these pools so vividly that I cannot imagine not being able to paint them here in the morning. Then morning comes, and I retrace the stream to find perhaps the evidence of a dried up pool, and cannot remember at all what once brought life to the place.

Holiday madness

This week I carved a pumpkin; I roasted a turkey, complete with stuffing and gravy (I figured it would make for more leftovers); We broke out the Christmas books and music.

Am I little holiday confused? Perhaps. Or perhaps it is because the Tacoma Show begins this week. As the child (and now wife) of holiday, food and gift festival producers, Christmas is nearly year round and often seems to culminate in the Tacoma show and be well-over by the time December shows up.

All the same, right about now I start thinking of handmade, Christmas gift ideas and fool myself into thinking that this year I really will send cards and make cookies and have a holiday party and...

Anyhow, happy holidays.

Love Lessons

Tonight, for some reason, Søren was trying to give Andrew one of his toy golf clubs in a manner than looked like he was going to hit him in the face with it, and Andrew (already holding the other toy golf club) lifted the golf club up to pretend like he was going to hit Søren back with it. Søren looked a little alarmed at first, but was then studying his papa to see if this was a new kind of play. This was immediately deemed NOT okay (we both agreed). There will be no pretending to hit (or really hitting) as play in our family. So, Momma decided to put Daddy on the timeout bench for 2 minutes to help show Søren that Daddy made a mistake and that hitting and pretending to hit is not okay. Andrew and I then went through the time-out conversation.

"Daddy, do you know why you're in time out?" I asked.

"Yes, because I pretended that I was going to hit Søren" he sheepishly replied.

"And is that okay?" I asked.

"No," he said.

"Are you sorry?"

"Yes."

"Will you apologize to Søren?"

"Yes," he said. Then, to Søren, "I am sorry for pretending to hit you. Will you forgive me?"

"Yes," Søren said.

Andrew checked the timer.

"Two minutes can feel like a long time, huh?" I asked.

Andrew nodded. Then, in the sweetest, little, loving way, Søren walked over and joined his Daddy on the bench for the remainder of his timeout, knowing full well what it feels like to sit there without company while everyone else in the room watches.

The timer sounded and they got up, but the moment lingered for me. What amazing lessons I learn from my children. This is how we ought to forgive.

An Invitation...

I am attempting to make good of my desire to bring the bible back to the forefront of my reading endeavors. (Yet, as I write this, the book I have just pulled off my shelf to delve into is Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." I am provoked by the precision and grace and comprehensiveness of her recipes, not to mention of her language. My mouth waters as I read and imagine how meticulous a chef I could have been in another life. But I digress!)

Due to a camaraderie of desire (for bible, not French delicacies), we have decided to make an attempt at a ladies blogging bible study. If this is something you would be interested in, please check out Grace in Grip for a few more details and email me (you can find the link under my profile) so that I can send you an invitation to join as a contributing author.

Monkey Business

Someone's mother decided to surprise us and do a little grandmothering (i.e. keeping the boys clothed) for Søren and Elliot, as if she did not have enough adorable grand children of her own! Many thanks! We love these matching, footed jammies!

In the Kitchen with Meg and Marianne

Meg recently shared her meglets recipie, and I feel compelled to share fritatta instructions since we're swapping signature secrets here.

You will need a skillet that is NOT non-stick, and can go from stove top to oven (cast iron or stainless steel would be best).

Melt a couple tablespoons of butter in the pan on medium heat and then saute your toppings (onion, garlic, carrots, broccoli, squash, spinach, etcetera - i.e. anything you might like or that is leftover in your produce drawer).

Meanwhile whisk 6 eggs together in a bowl and add a good amount of some grated cheese.

Take your sauted mix of veggies and add them into the bowl of eggs and cheese. Melt a little more butter in the pan and then pour the whole egg-cheese-veggie mixture back into the pan
and cook for 5 minutes. Add another good amount of cheese over the top of the mixture and move the pan into the oven set on broil for 5 minutes.

Remove, slice into wedges, serve (perhaps with a little dollop of cultured creme, diced tomatoes, avocado slices, and some cilantro) and enjoy!

Noteable Mentions from the Weekend

1 - We completely rearranged our apartment. We sold our guest bed, purchased a high quality mattress pad so that my husband can sleep in the same bed as me, and put our bed on a stand. It is now 3 feet tall and we all have to climb into it. The guest room is now a "study/den/office" with the computer in here wirelessly - yes, we finally joined the 21st century! There is now AMPLE floor space and the whole apartment feels bigger (in fact, so much bigger that is seems like we're missing furniture or something).

2 - My dear friend Laurie and I got some spa treatment as a thank you for the work my husband did to replace their roof this summer. My toes have not been this cute since I got married (3 1/2 years ago). I also had a scalp massage in a personal jacuzzi in a candle-lit room. Wow. Who thinks of these things? It was amazing. I was a little worried I might fall asleep and drown if it were not for the scalp masseuse being there to pull me out.

3 - I cracked open some eggs for breakfast and one of them had twin yolks! This had never happened to me before. Perhaps those of you who grew up in the country have seen such things, but this city girl was amazed enough to share it here as noteworthy news.

4 - My mom turned 51, so we got to spend a little time having some waffles with our whipped creme and strawberries. YUM.

Boy Crazy Photo Updates

Science and Spoon....A Rematch!

Ah, the long awaited for second discrepancy between the spoon and an ultrasound!

I received news this morning that one of the spoon's current predictions - of boy - has been challenged by 2 ultrasounds claiming otherwise. This wee child is not due until February, so we will have to wait for the definitive answer. This is the exact same circumstance of the last misreading by the spoon. That time the ultrasound won....this time?

I am most intrigued by this spoon witchery. I want to know what exactly it is responding to if not chromosomes. These discrepancies should give us the most insight into other possibilities. I also would love to find an adult person on which it reads wrong, for that might help us too...but as of yet I have not found a discrepancy on grown people. Perhaps I should set up a little research booth at a Saturday market or something. Wouldn't that be fun? Oh, the things I could do if I wasn't so busy at home! (Perhaps God knows best, no?)

ps - Look at this ultrasound! So clear!

Reading

For a number of years in my younger life, I read the bible almost obsessively. It was almost idolatrous. I brought it with me everywhere and opened it for study anytime I had a spare moment. I had books for notekeeping that came with me, too. I surrounded myself with other bible-obsessed souls (aka thumpers) so that even in our social endeavors we would often sit and take turns reading it together to be profited by the mere repetition of content. When not reading, I was putting most of my efforts into introducing others to the bible and trying to "fulfill the great commission" and serve "the least of these". Of course, I still watched movies, went out to eat, and fell in love and fell in all the gaiety and obsessiveness of being so passionately young with a beloved. Still, there was SO much bible (and SO much more time!).

Then a little college beckoned, took me in, and expanded my 66 book repertoire. This process did always keep one foot firmly grounded in biblical matters, but it so consumed my energy by working to understand so many new authors that my personal obsession with the scripture was hard to keep up (not to mention I fell in love twice more - with Andrew and Søren).

For the last year I have been freed from the book laden depths of a "Great Books" school. I have read nearly nothing to recover. (This is not entirely true as I have obsessively poured myself into the study of nutrition...hmm...perhaps I am just addicted to learning?).

Suddenly, for the past week or so, I have begun reading theological blogs with a fervor that exposes my study obsessions. I find myself wondering if the profit in these blogs is the same as my other reading endeavors. There is undoubtedly very good stuff in blogland, but there are so many extraneous and poor words to sort through in order to find it. As these are strangers, there is no ability to see their lives and very little common ground (I find myself in the middle of discussions with presbyterian seminary students about pro-homosexual theology and the paradoxes of trying to do ethics - what am I thinking? I have two kids who need my attentions!). It has consumed my week, and I think I shall stop.

Andrew and I do occasionally read together in the evenings (right now we are reading "The Man Who Was Thursday" by Chesterton and quite enjoying it). I find myself asking why the bible has all but disappeared from my reading list. Somehow the last 5 years of what would look like bible-atrophy to my younger self has deepened my convictions and exponentially increased my understanding of the bible and the message it contains. My previous years of obsession made for easy instruction along deeper paths. Even so, I feel it is time to bring those 66 books back to the front burner (as if they were even on the back burner, it is more like pulling them out of the warming oven they have been forgotten in) to read for myself again and perhaps have something profitable to write.

Welcome Claire!

Chris and C.J. ended September well by welcoming little Claire Lynn into our world Sunday (September 30) at 8:03pm weighing just 5 pounds 9 ounces and measuring 19 inches long.

We paid a congratulatory visit this morning to find a beautiful tiny girl with more hair than Elliot!

I, too, was born on a Sunday and have always remembered a stanza from a poem from one of my children's books: "But the child who is born on the Sabbath day is blithe and winsome and happy and gay"

(and another agreement with the spoon!)