A very fine dinner indeed.

Heat your over to 450.

Chop some likely-looking vegetables - I had these in the fridge:
a pint of grape tomatoes, halved;
half a large Vidalia onion, sliced medium-thin;
some peppers (I used about half a red and half a yellow pepper) chopped;
and some white mushrooms, cut in large pieces.
Put them all (with their juices) into a baking pan (mine is 9x13 pyrex.)

Drop in a big spoonful of chopped garlic, and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.
Douse the whole business with olive oil, and toss it all together, and chuck it in the oven.

Put a pot of water on for pasta.

After 10 or so minutes, the tomatoes and onions will start to get soft. Give it a stir.

After another 7 or so minutes, start the pasta. I used about 6 oz of multigrain Barilla.

The veggies are done when everything is soft and touches of brown have started to appear; the oil will be deep gold, mixed with the sticky juices that the vegetables have released. Stir, let sit for a moment while you drain and plate the pasta.

Great with or without cheese (Eric had grated parm; I had a little goat cheese, which was so lovely.

Proper Planning Prevents Poor Picking - a guide for summer in Maryland

Things That Are Helpful for Spontaneous Berry-Picking:

empty Tupperware (or easily-emptied Slurpee cup)

exceptionally tall husband

enthusiastic preschooler

bandaids

Things That I Can Only Imagine Would Be Helpful etc etc:

bug repellent

step stool

pants which come all the way down to one's ankles

shoes which are NOT basically BOARDWALK RUBBER FLIP FLOPS. (I don't care how much I paid for these things, or how comfortable and supportive they are, or even how lucky I am that I have a job to which I can go 98% barefoot every day. They are FLIP FLOPS and one should THINK TWICE while approaching blackberry thickets.)

sufficient time for picking before the enthusiastic toddler needs the bandaids.

Seriously, FIFTY-ISH PEOPLE NEED TO QUIT HAVING FATAL HEART ATTACKS.

Cut it out, you guys.
My nerves can't take it.

Wish List for the Yard

Blue Dragonfly ; Azure Hawker ?, originally uploaded by tibchris.

I woke up this morning and spent a few moments - it felt like half an hour, but I imagine it was less than 3 seconds - figuring out where I was and what day it was. This was a process of elimination - it's ot Sunday, is it? Check...Not Tuesday? Check. No, Monday, first day of a new camp for Eric and a day when, weirdly, nothing is expected of me except to hang with the kid.

I've been really focused on work lately (FINALLY, after a near-disasterous period of chronic distractibility and a few weeks of family/socializing time...) and so this whole day just felt like a bonus, an extra day in the week.

Ian and I trotted off to Lake Elkhorn, where we took a short walk, saw about a zillion dragonflies (mostly small and blue, a couple gigantic red ones) plus ducks and barn swallows but happily no snakes. (Howard County trails all have ENORMOUS posters with pictures of snakes on them, since they had a couple poisonous snake bites within the last few years. This cuts into my enjoyment of the outdoors significantly.) Ian also got to spend some time in the giant sandbox (no snakes there either) while I knit in the shade (also happily snake-free.)

Very, very pleasant.

Being at the lake, and seeing the houses that look out over the lake, gave me lots of ideas for how to make our backyard more livable. I expect the barely-80-degree weather did, mostly...last summer's heat, humidity and God help us, those trendy new Asian Tiger Mosquitos definitely made me want to stay far away from the back yard. (Plus, um, snakes, though nearly every snake I've ever seen at our house has been around the front foundation plantings.)

Anyway, I have had good luck in the past announcing my wishes on my blogs - my very first blog entry, on LiveJournal, mentioned that I needed cargo pants and some genetic material (which is to say, a chance to get knocked up) and I eventually ended up with both.

So I hereby announce to the universe: I would like some outdoor seating - just simple park benches, and some daylillies and hostas for the border. Oh, and a couple pots of bamboo for the deck.

I would like to get all those things for free.

And I would like more 78-degree bonus days this summer.

I suspect not just anyone could pull this off

The mastermind of The Uniform Project, Sheena Matheiken, calls it "an exercise in sustainable fashion." Pretty cool.

via Beauty Tips for Ministers.

I also dig this:

Since shopping at the Grand has become my number one hobby (replacing knitting, reading, and apparently, blogging) I was pleased to find a link to this:

http://asianaisle.com/

(from a comment from a woman named Sheri on How Chow, where I gather with other lovers of unusual groceries in my local area and bloviate. (Prov 18:2.)

Church Supply Marketing Sucks

Noticed this at a church supply site. This, and feltboards. No kidding.

several things you should know:

1. Alice packs for her trip to Paris:

"I’ve been practicing some important phrases, too:

Excuse me, stewardess, please make sure there is no turbulence.

Excusez-moi, hôtesse de l'air, s'il vous plaît assurez-vous il n'y a pas de turbulence.

I thought I said no turbulence. Now I require a bucket of red wine and some horse tranquilizers.

Je pensais que je l'ai dit pas de turbulence. Maintenant, j'ai besoin d'un seau de vin rouge et quelques chevaux de tranquillisants.

Do not laugh at me. I have an anxiety disorder.

Ne vous moquez pas de moi. J'ai un trouble anxieux."

from Alice Bradley's blog Finslippy

2. Wish I’d said that:

In Religion Dispatches (which I read nearly every day) Benjamin Weiner points out where Gary Trudeau falls short. He’s right, but the really fabulous part of this essay is the use of “metonymize” and “clusterfuck” – “a beautifully multi-cultural clusterfuck”, in fact – in THE VERY SAME SENTENCE.

3. Dear Pixar, From All The Girls With Band-Aids On Their Knees

"If we had to wait for your thirteenth movie for you to make one with a girl at the center, couldn't you have chosen something -- something -- for her to be that could compete with plucky robots and adventurous space toys?"

from Linda Holmes' terrific pop culture blog for NPR.com, Monkey See.

entertaining

I am very much enjoying this webpage and especially this blog by the creator of those things. You know how there are certain things you can buy - or even just look at - and you feel like you're cooler already?

Great taste and a sense of humor.
She also created these.





extremely indirectly via priscilla

Rachelle, in her excellent blog Magpie Girl, writes about fascinating things - ex-patriot life, parenthood, spiritual life after organized religion, art, ritual, and finding and cultivating life with your tribe.

Last Thursday, she posted her list of 8 Self-Care Essentials: "It’s time to think about what you need to stay healthy and sane on a day-to-day basis. "

Here's mine.
You've probably discerned these for yourself, if you check in here from time to time.


1.Sleep. I am just – literally, in the past 2 weeks - learning the joy of sleep.

2. Chemicals. For the time being, at least, I need to ingest a few chemicals, to balance out the ones that my brain makes too much of, or absorbs too little of, or...something. I’m not totally clear on the process. Here’s what I know: my brain was trying to kill me. Now it’s not. To hell with stigma. Bring on the pills.

3.A face-to-face conversation with my husband. About something other than laundry and schedules.

4.Reading time. A magazine, a library book, the Style or Food section, SOMETHING that’s not an email.

5.Food which is actual food. Like sleep, I neglected/ignored/did not believe this was necessary for about 45 of my 47 years.

6.Time to cook a meal and wash up/get things back in order.

7.A bit of news – real (NPR) or fake (Jon or Stephen, although this may threaten #1.)

8.Singing with my kid. And occasionally, without him.

Everything that is wrong with the world

Here's a post from the live chat on the Worship Facilities Conference and Expo, held last week in Long Beach CA:

szee: the conference was so great. church can
and should be as amazing as
concerts or broadway!
lets do it!

moan.

Two Recipe Links... (with a quick edit.)

..from two of my favorite people.

This article in the NYTimes (Sunday magazine section, several weeks ago) included a recipe for pizza crust by my favorite food writer, Jeffery Steingarten. (By the way -- that picture of him? In the last link, the author page? PRAY TO GOD that anyone ever takes a picture of you that is that flattering. Use it until you die. Require that a paper use it in your obituary. JS is a wonderful writer, a clear thinker, a man of unbounded enthusiasm, and very smart. But he does not look like that.)

EDITED TO ADD: This pizza crust is decidedly superior to my earlier pizza crust. If I invite you over for pizza, you do not need to be afraid!

Pizza quality will improve even more if I can find our pizza stone! I forgot that we even had one!

PS - I am grateful for a family who want to eat my experiments, no matter how questionable they look.

Anyway, I made pizza dough today. I often make pizza dough on Mondays, and it never quite pleases me (though I seem unashamed to serve it to people both inside and outside my family) so I am trying the linked recipe to see how that goes. We'll bake, eat and critique tomorrow.

AND

My dear friend Beth is writing for Suite 101 - her first post, a recipe, appeared today. I have never made this - in fact, I've never even tasted it! But I am going to try it - it's made from pantry stuff I have around (except for the ground beef), and the kid likes beans.

Speaking of beef, I got some bargains while grocery shopping today, and now I have to figure out what to do with a pork "filet". (It's long and skinny. It's like a pork log. I think I might have called this a tenderloin, were I doing the labeling. But perhaps that's not technically correct.) Off to google "pork" (oh good Lord.)

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life..and see if I could not learn what it had to teac

.and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."
Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854)

I am going into the woods to...what? Talk about ministry? Come back out with a plan for 2010? Knit? Work our asses off for 3 days and come back exhausted, yet strangely renewed?

We're retreating, and will have all the comforts of home, if your home held 10 adults and had toilets and showers and one telephone on the wall of the coat closet.

I am bringing beer.

One of my comforts, when things in life are tough (at the moment, they aren't, particularly) is that there seems to be little danger that I will come to the end of my life and discover that I have not lived. That I just visited this planet.

More and more I think this is the question I was put on earth to keep asking:

"Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?"

Jonny Baker had me thinking about that today. He proposes that planning worship - curating worship - is nothing less than creating a world, and we should consider what kind of world we would create.

I think I would most want to create a world where people have time and space and brain power to do THINGS THEY ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT. Work that is diverting and also significant. Real conversations, not just pleasantries. Making things. Seeing things. Laughing. Not so much driving (except that even driving is a great backdrop for some of the most real conversations. Yesterday, as we were finishing up our errands, Ian said to me "Let's stay. Let's just stay in the car."

"Just drive around?" I asked.

"Yes," he said. "Just stay in the car and drive some more. Just sit in the car."

And I thought, kid, I have spent so many hundreds of hours just staying in cars, doing what we're doing - talking, listening to music, looking out the window - that I know just what you mean. "I'd like that," I said.)

I would like to create a world where no one has to wonder if they are really alive.

Fail or No Fail - Dinner edition

Improvised chicken soup = NO FAIL

delicious, filling, used up leftovers and produce odds and ends. I may make soup every Friday.

Improvised whole wheat cheddar biscuits = FAIL

Massively salty. Otherwise, not that bad. Plus we get to use these ridiculous little butter knives.

How I made the soup:

Warm a splash of olive oil in a dutch over (high heat.)

Slice 2 small onions and chop 5 stalks of celery, and drop into pan. Salt and pepper them generously. Stir occasionally.

Cut 3 carrots (or like 10 baby carrots) into thick slices and drop into pan.

If the pan seems too dry and the onions are sticking, add a splash of some liquid (I used broth, water or wine would be fine.)

Add the shredded meat from about half a cooked chicken. Stir. (Add any leftover cooked veggies you would like to see out of the fridge – I had a braised leek, which added a lot of flavor, and some sliced of potato.)

Sprinkle in a little (probably less than a teaspoon) McCormick’s Montreal Chicken Grilling spice. (YES it has sulfites, don’t judge me.)

Add 32 oz of chicken broth (that’s a box of Swanson’s Natural Goodness.)

Add fresh green beans (2 cups?) Lower the heat to medium.

Add a few handfuls of pea pods (what are these things called, anyway? I love saying pea pods, for some reason.)

Simmer until the beans are as tender as you like them.

This soup is flavorful (from the onions, which pretty much carmelize) spicy (from the spice mixture, which is awesome, chemicals and all) and has lots of texture and interest from the zillion servings of vegetables. It’s forgiving, cook-time-wise, so you can prep the produce and chicken as you go, as opposed to having to have all the beans strung and the chicken shredded before you turn on the burner. This allows you to improvise throughout, and also helps with the cleanup, eliminating all those annoying little bowls of mise en place.)

More totally awesome cooking tales: Eric's birthday picnic

The courses, and how I messed them up:

Fresh Pea Salad
(from Heidi Swanson's wonderful 101 Cookbooks which is the primary reason I am slightly less fat than I used to be. Still just as Funky, though.)
How to mess it up: Instead of a seeded serrano chili in the dressing, use a habenero.

A giant pressed sandwich. I did not mess this up. It was really good.

Take one baugette. Slice it as if it is the world's largest hot dog bun. Use your fingers to pull out the places where the fresh bread has wadded up.

Assemble a sandwich using, in any order:
roasted red peppers (dry them off just a little)
fresh mozzerella (in slices or little blobs, drained)
basil leaves
butter lettuce
tiny little slivers of cured meat (in this case, Lebanon Bologne)
a little smoked provolone (because they had it at the farmer's market)
I might had had a tomato, too, although who buys tomatoes in April?

drizzle with a tiny thread of olive oil. Squish together and wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and find a way to fit it into the fridge.

Before the picnic, wrap it in foil and find a way to fit it in the cooler.

My way involved bending it in the middle.

Serve at the picnic with salt, pepper, and the insanely spicy salad dressing that nearly killed you when you tried it on the pea salad. It goes really, really well with the sandwich.

Utz Kettle Cooked Potato Chips. These cannot be messed up, as they are the most delicious chip on earth. If we're going to poison ourselves with junk food, by God, it had better be worth it.

Cardamom Iced Tea with honey in sports bottles. I did not mess this up either.

And the birthday cake: Pound Cake with Strawberries and Whipped cream.

Wash, de-leaf and slice a box of strawberries. Put them in a tupperware container with a splash of balsamic vinegar and about a quarter-cup of sugar. Keep in fridge for the day, shaking occasionally.

Make a sour cream poundcake.

Cream together 1 cup butter and 2 cups sugar. Add 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, a 7 oz container of plain yogurt (we had Fage, yippee) and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.

Mix that.

Okay, here's your chance to mess it up: add one egg and one cup of flour and mix completely. Do this twice more, until you have added 3 eggs and 3 c. flour.

There, you just messed it up. The recipe actually calls for TWO eggs at a time. For a total of SIX eggs.

The recipe also says to "pour" the "batter" into a greased and floured loaf pan. Dude, even when you use 6 eggs - I'm guessing this would be true if you used a dozen - this is by no stretch of the imagination "batter" and it will never, ever pour. It's okay. Really. Transfer with a spatula and a huge spoon.

Also, this cake is too big for my largest loaf pan. It overflowed, even without the 3 more eggs. You could easily make 2 decent-sized pound cakes from this recipe.

Bake at 325 for about 75 minutes.

This is delicious. The number of eggs does not matter at all. Sure, it's 'substantial', but that makes it excellent for absorbing the strawberry juice and contrasting with the whipped cream.

Also on this picnic, try to fly kites, regardless of the wind situation.

Happy Birthday.

I burned the no-bake cookies.

Here's the recipe from yesterday. You've had these. I'm pretty sure.

Take a large saucepan. Put in 1/4 cup milk, 1 cup sugar, 1 and a half Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa, 2 Tablespoons peanut butter (supercrunchy if you have it) and a half a stick of butter.

It works better if the butter isn't frozen.*

Stir that mess together and place over medium heat. Bring to a boil.

Boil for 90 seconds without stirring.

Remove from heat. Stir in 1 and a half cups rolled oats (old-fashioned oatmeal, your box may say. The stuff you use for cookies. The stuff you cook on the stove top for 5 minutes. That oatmeal.) and a swig of vanilla extract.

Drop by spoonfuls (or whatever sort of lumpy shape you like) onto a piece of foil. (I didn't use a cookie sheet, just laid the foil on the counter.)

Don't eat these until they cool.

Right.

The next time I make these, I will add some salt, since, in my opinion, all cookies need salt. And use even chunkier peanut butter, because the peanut pieces are nice.

* Frozen butter does not encourage even heating of all the ingredients in the fudgey stage. If you're not careful, you could even burn some of it.

And then all your Facebook friends will say you are awesome.

more fascinating output at my Flickr page

Sheeeeeps. We haz em.

greetings from the biggest fiber event in the world.

Ian rocked it and then some.




































I did not buy one gram of yarn.

I did buy myself one present = a needle gauge pendant - this form, but made of teal aluminum, not sterling like this photo. I very rarely buy knitting tools. I really have much more stuff than I need already. (And I'm not really the pewter sheep brooch type, though there were some pretty nice ones at the fest.) But I fell for this months ago when I saw it in a magazine, and when I saw one in person, I splurged.



Come on. I'm on a yarn diet, not a gauge diet. Have a heart.

what we did today

baked some cakes (we're having a bake sale. The carrot cake should pay for at least one floor tile.) (Also made the nearly-flourless chocolate cake.










Ian helped.

He actually did.






















my bangs have not fallen out.

This evening's suspense:

In 10 minutes, will I be saying,

"Dude! I totally rawk! Dig my edgy white highlights!"

or

"fuck. my bangs just fell out."

Link to the shrimp recipe (if I can get away with it.)

I know the NY Times occasionally objects when civilians link to their content, but I'm going to give this a try.

Here is a recipe I've been making for a really long time. I saw it in the Times, a Wednesday food section, and I had it tacked to the corkboard in my kitchen for years. Now I have it memorized (though I rarely trust my memory for recipes, since, as my recent birthday cake slip-up* indicates, I'm not that precise even when I have the text in front of me.) I believe (guessing, from the notes in my kitchen notebook) that I clipped this recipe about 1997 or so.

I made this tonight for friends, which was a bit of a risk - it's got very strong flavors, and I can imagine someone finding it inedible. Happily, both the shrimp devotee and the more hesitant friend loved it. Even Ian ate a bite!

I usually eat this with white rice, but was too lazy for rice tonight - I bought a baguette, which we made very short work of. We had green beans and asperagas, which was also well received. (I cut up some cucumbers for this kids, and that made me realize that some kind of cucumber side dish would be really good with this, to contrast the salty and sharp flavors. )

In related food news, Ian and I had a tremendously successful first trip to the Grand Everyday Fresh Mart in South Laurel. Large selection of very nice produce at low prices, first of all, which is what I was looking for. (Seriously - Driscoll strawberries for 2.19 instead of 2.59, grapes for .99 a pound instead of $1.99. Large (don't know the official designation, but they were BIG) shrimp for 4.99/pound )(cheaper if I had been prepared to deal with the heads, which I was not). Live crabs and lots of fish on ice, which, along with making me what to cook them, make the trip much more exciting for Ian. The prices are competitive with the PanAm Latin American market, but it's much bigger and the produce looks nicer. Like the PanAm, it's pretty chaotic, but that suits me fine.

*The cake mistake - I have a lovely recipe for pound cake, from this excellent book which I totally recommend. Yes, it's got some jello salads and some things which require cans of mushroom soup. So don't make those. Duh. The things that are good are really good, including the sour cream pound cake recipe, which is what I made for Eric's birthday Friday. I used yogurt instead of sour cream, and where the recipe calls for 6 eggs, I only remembered to put in 3. It's still absolutely delicious. It's just a little more, um, "substantial".

more evidence of my awesome maturity

People who spin their own yarn apparently use a tool called an orifice hook. Yes, they do. It's true. I know this because someone who advertises on Ravelry mentioned them in her ad.

Disappointment: her Etsy shop is out of them, so there are no pictures there to reign in the imagination.

Tomorrow, if I get a chance, I will post the recipes for Eric's birthday cake and for the picnic fare that will proceed it.

Dinner Tonight: Chickpea Tangine.

* 2 Tbs. olive oil
* Half a gigantic onion, thinly sliced
* 3 cloves garlic, minced (1 Tbs. minced from the jar.)
* i lb dried chickpeas, soaked about 18 hrs and rinsed
* several baby carrots, sliced into small chunks
* ¼ cup raisins
* 1 tsp. ground turmeric (shocked to find I had this in my cabinet)
* 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
* 1 tsp. ground cumin
* ¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
* 2 tsp. honey
(I used Really Raw honey, but didn't see any of the usual miscellaneous bee parts - Eric must have eaten them all in the top layer.)
* ½ cup plain Greek-style yogurt


The night before:
pick over the dried chick peas, rinse them in a colander, and put them in a large pot with 6 or so cups of water. I left them on the counter overnight, but transferred them the fridge before I left for work.

When you plan to cook them:
Take soaked chick peas out of fridge, rinse them one last time, cover generously with cold water and set them to boil until you can crush one with a little effort. It took about 30 minutes here. Raw chickpeas taste a little like raw chestnuts, which I don't recommend either. Cooked chick peas taste a little like roasted chestnuts, and retain some of their springyness. Stop cooking them before they get mushy.

(The original recipe called for canned chick peas, rinsed, which would make this a 20-minute dish, and I'm sure that would be fine too. I'm just a dried bean snob. And cheap.)

Heat oil in dutch over over medium heat.
Add onion and garlic, and sauté until onion slices are soft.
Stir in cooked, drained chickpeas, carrots, raisins, spices, honey, and 2 cups water.
Cover and simmer 20 to 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Keep an eye on it - I had to add about a half-cup more water at the 11 minute mark.
Serve, with a spoonful of yogurt.
Benefits from some salt and pepper.

THIS was a total winner, didn't take long, was definitely not technically challenging, and all with staple foods! We had everything except the yogurt already around the house. It's really delicious.

The original recipe is from last October Vegetarian Times. As I said above, it's even faster and easier.

to get this off the server, I'm putting it here.

Doing church and being church: blogroll

People on the journey

http://www.djchuang.com/
trends in culture, business, connecting through technology, church planting and leadership; especially focused on multiracial and Asian-American congregations

http://thecorner.typepad.com/
Bob’s personal blog – ideas, trends, politics, music, and church. Bob reads everything and knows everyone, and thinks ENORMOUS.

http://jonnybaker.blogs.com/
personal blog of a minister with an emergent congregation in London – excellent resources like “worship tricks” and tons of links to other alternative worship stuff.

http://tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com/
Andrew looks at culture, trends, media coverage and whatever catches his attention. He travels all over the world and has great perspective. Plus he’s funny, and not afraid of an argument.

http://www.reallivepreacher.com/
pondering life and community in a small liturgical Baptist church in TX. Excellent writer.

http://www.emergentkiwi.org.nz/
Steve pastors in New Zealand; their church does especially interesting thing with visual arts and contemplation

http://soupiset.typepad.com/
Paul’s art and thoughts on art, music and worship, as well as family. Pronounced monastic leanings.

http://alternative.victas.uca.org.au/
Cheryl Lawton ministers in Australia

Designing worship – big ideas and nuts and bolts

http://www.smallfire.org/
alternative worship photo archive – pictures from services and events, with links

http://BCPOnline.org
If you need an idea, a prayer or a structured liturgy, this searchable ECUSA book is the best place to start.

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/
a great music resource.

Jonnybaker’s worship tricks (see personal blogs – he has links in the right-hand column)

Cheryl’s blog has some beautiful liturgy (also above)

http://www.sarahlaughed.net/lectionary/
Dylan’s lectionary blog

www.avisualplanet.com
the very best place for church graphics

www.biblegateway.net
http://www.tniv.info/bible/
of course


Some Books of interest:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/002-3097203-8655215?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=the+complete+library+of+christian+worship
The Complete Library of Christian Worship
(Indispensible! You’ll need to assemble this set from used book distributors – Amazon always has some volumes – start with Volume 5, services of the Christian Year, then branch out to 4 (Sacred Actions) or 6 & 7 (Music and Arts.)

http://www.amazon.com/Spaces-Spirit-Adorning-Nancy-Chinn/dp/1568542429/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202231795&sr=8-1
Spaces for Spirit: Adorning the Church by Nancy Chinn
Excellent big vision for worship environments

http://www.amazon.com/Emerging-Worship-Creating-Gatherings-Generations/dp/0310256445/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202232052&sr=8-1
Emerging Worship by Dan Kimball
The primer for creating creative worship gatherings, from theological underpinnings to how-tos. The best introduction, and good to share with people who are nervous about the ‘weird stuff’, because the author is really grounded in the Bible and adamant about sound theology, right motives, etc.

http://www.amazon.com/Worship-Evangelism-Sally-Morgenthaler/dp/031022649X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202232329&sr=8-1
Worship Evangelism by Sally Morganthaler
This book changed my life. Back in the early 90s, Morganthaler went looking for what had been lost and gained in ‘seeker sensitive’ (I hate that term used this way, but I know you know what I mean) planning. Even if this isn’t you situation, this book will help you think critically about worship planning.

What we did today

 

hung in the streets

 

looking old-fashioned

 

photographed random things

 

admired my current work in progress in the sunshine.

I love this photo!

Del Primo Boots
Originally uploaded by Mama Grouch

this is gorgeous.

illustrations from yesterday's post

fig. 1




fig. 2
(This was taken the first night I worked on it - it shows the base row of triangles plus 2 tiers. Much more is finished now.)

(Also, I made a decent dinner tonight. A successful experiment. More experiments on the same theme to come.)

(Also, I have posted a couple Easter photos on The Mulligan Years (first post in 5 months!) Go experience teh cute.)

(Also, I am distressed by all this 'imbed disabled by request' business which apparently has come into being while I was on blog hiatus. How can I post the ridiculous Killers video of the song that reminds me of the summer before my senior year of high school? Perhaps MTV will help me.)

Ah yes. MTV comes to my rescue once more.

The Killers - New Music - More Music Videos

don't watch the video. Just listen to the song and think about sitting in a car in driveway, wearing shorts and no shoes. Your curfew has just passed. The grass is wet.

I have been told to update my blog.

1. Happy Birthday Natasha!

2. Finished a great shawl with handspun yarn from Three Irish Girls. It is fabulous if I do say so myself (and I do.)

3. Making a Lady Eleanor entrelac shawl from Scarf Style.

4. However, I have no photos of these projects because my computer is pretty much full and so I when I download my camera, FAIL.

5. We survived Holy Week! And the groundbreaking for the farm. No casualties. I am exhausted.

6. I'm watching a cable rerun of Criminal Intent.
Villain: Neil Patrick Harris, looking like a cleanshaven Unibomber. In a hairnet.
Attempted murder weapon: a power drill.
Sponsor of this episode (I am totally not kidding) The Awesome Auger, which is basically A POWER DRILL. You'd think it was a Google Ad Word.

7. Made macaroons last week, for the first time in years. Recipe will be forthcoming. These are even easier than the peanut butter cookies, though far, far less nutritious.

8. Zoloft is a freakin' miracle. Praise God - really, truly, no kidding - for modern pharmacology.

9. I wonder if it freaks Seth McFarland out to see that animated alien come out of his navel in the Hulu commercial.

10 This is Ian's favorite video of the moment:




we both dig the moment at about 41ish seconds where the hamster (hampster?) is tapping to the music.

some sheep for Patsy

these are 2 book cover designs for the Way of Love. Patsy was having trouble acessing them on the server, and they were unweildy as attachments, so I have posted them.

THIS ISN'T REALLY BLOGGING. ITS WORK. IT'S A WORK WORK-AROUND (of which I continue to be the complete eternal queen.) lenten blogfast is still in effect.

Try to Praise the Mutilated World

Try to praise the mutilated world.
Remember June's long days,
and wild strawberries, drops of wine, the dew.
The nettles that methodically overgrow
the abandoned homesteads of exiles.
You must praise the mutilated world.
You watched the stylish yachts and ships;
one of them had a long trip ahead of it,
while salty oblivion awaited others.
You've seen the refugees heading nowhere,
you've heard the executioners sing joyfully.
You should praise the mutilated world.
Remember the moments when we were together
in a white room and the curtain fluttered.
Return in thought to the concert where music flared.
You gathered acorns in the park in autumn
and leaves eddied over the earth's scars.
Praise the mutilated world
and the grey feather a thrush lost,
and the gentle light that strays and vanishes
and returns.


Adam Zagajewski
Translated by claire cavanaugh in the New Yorker.

Some Stuff to look at while I'm gone:

Nothing earth-shattering here, these are pretty well-known...

Our devotional blog, featuring reflections (in words and art) from people who are dear to me:

http://crcclentendevotions.blogspot.com/

Some food blogs I like:

http://101cookbooks.com

http://steamykitchen.com/blog/

http://www.cookingforengineers.com/

http://snackreligious.blogspot.com

Pictures of outfits:

http://www.thesartorialist.blogspot.com/

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/bill_cunningham/index.html

Fair warning:

Just wanted to mention that I won't be blogging during March. Blogging and Facebook are what I am fasting from for Lent this year.

Because I really love them. Much more than I love chocolate, or swearing, or making snarky judgements about strangers based on their outfits. (I have given all these things up for Lent at various times. The last one really made a change in my life - not that I never make snarky judgements anymore, but it is far, far from the reflex it used to be. Seriously.)

AND since I have a Wednesday night service to prepare for (and, like so many holiday services, IT IS NOT WRITING OR COORDINATING ITSELF, to my grave frustration) it's possible that you won't see another recipe, American Idol critique, book review, entertaining conversation with a 3-year-old, or photo of something lying in the street until April.

No, I really don't know what I'm going to do with myself. I'm trying NOT to make a plan for filling the time, but just see what it's like to go without this - without this outlet, and without you all.

I want to do it because I REALLY don't want to do it. You know?