Paint By Number

Some of you know that I have had a veritable caravan of home improvement people filing through the Little Condo on the Prairie as of late. The first thing I did was have the carpets cleaned. I LOVE clean carpets. My new blinds come in a couple weeks. Today, I had the second bedroom and bathroom painted lovely shades of blue.

Growing up, I enjoyed accompanying my dad on trips to J.C. Licht, a local paint store. There are two reasons for this. One, it was close to Grandpa’s house. If Grandpa was home, he made us lunch. If Grandpa wasn’t home, I knew we’d stop at Portillo’s on the way back to our place. Two, I enjoy color in all forms. Brand-new crayons, colored pencils, pastels, construction paper, rainbows, flowers, fresh fruits and vegetables. One of the best things about owning your own home is you can paint it any color you wish. It’s so much fun!  Sarabeth, my new roommate, moves in sometime in August. She requested blue or lavender. Benjamin Moore #816 and #817 it is.

So Many Shades

How Much?

Out with the old

In with the new

Fat Cat

Today

Tuesday afternoon, I took Isabelle and Ebenezer to Deer Creek Animal Hospital for their annual checkups and booster shots.  Ebenezer, who was 3.7 pounds last May and 5 pounds when he had his sterilization procedure, is now a whopping 13 pounds.  Isabelle, who is a mere 7.4 pounds, had bloodwork done as she is approaching her fifth birthday.  Issie hid beneath one of the kitchen chairs until early this morning.  I'm guessing she didn't enjoy her visit to the good doctor.


Because I was shoehorned into a treatment room with two cats and two soft-sided carriers, I was unable to witness the veritable parade of companion animals and the occasional wild thing that frequent(s) my neighborhood animal hospital.  It's a busy place in the mid-afternoon.  By virtue of its location and the fact that has a large staff, Jefferson County Animal Control and the Colorado Division of Wildlife, bring injured critters to DCAH.  Like many who live in the South Metro Area, I have seen both a fox and a coyote in my neighborhood.

One Year Ago

Teary

Biblical Exegesis Fourth Grade Style

Yesterday was my last day of teaching Sunday School in Boulder.  I cried like a baby at the end of the hour.  Let me explain.  I have been involved in Children and Family Ministry in various forms and at various levels for 25 years, most of them at First Presbyterian Church of Boulder, a PCUSA congregation.  This summer, I will begin attending an EPC church, most likely Cherry Hills Community Church or Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church.

While I am satisfied with First Pres Boulder and the capable leaderhip there, I am disatisfied with some of the changes that are occurring within the denomination at the national level.  This is a BIG deal for me.  I have never belonged to a non-PCUSA church.  My beloved Grandpa was a founding member of a PCUSA congregation in Elmhurst, IL.  He served as an elder.  Joan, whom Grandpa married roughly a decade after Grandma Evie died of cancer, served a term as deacon.

I do not cry easily.  United Airlines commercials (really), the last episode of the television show ER, when they removed the Marshall Fields' logos from the sides of the stores when Macy's invaded Illinois (I was home for a family gathering that weekend), and my last day of Sunday School in Boulder.  These are a few of the things that move me to tears.  When the Cubs win the World Series. . . I digress.

My church family means the WORLD to me.  These are the people I want accompanying me on a surgical adventure or when I am stranded on the proverbial desert island.  These are the people for whom I will gladly scrub tables (lots of little laminate tables), organize supply closets, stand in line at FedEx Office in the wee hours (back when it was called Kinko's and I had no printer at home), bake bread, and make homemade chicken soup.  I've even transported a musical instrument to Nairobi.

I've SO LOVED sharing God's Word with God's Kids in Boulder.  Those of you who haven't been involved in Children and Family Ministry simply don't know what you are missing.  It's so much fun and, at times, it is quite the challenge.  If you can engage 20 four year-olds in a Bible Story for 10-15 minutes, you can teach just about anyone.  With fourth graders, get yourself a whistle.

Marti Harris and Mark Matheson - Two of the Best 4th Grade Teachers Ever

Tell Me

The past few weeks, we have been teaching on the Apostle Paul's Missionary Journeys in Sunday School.  These stories provide an excellent opportunity to showcase the Gospel Message.  The kids wrote things they knew about Christ on the butcher paper poster.  Next week, I hope to utilize the Salvation Poem bookmarks to share the entire message.

Bread of Life

Cheryl Richardson, whose family kept me sane when I spent time at LifeCare Littleton after my chest surgery in '09, and Janet Wineman who was a catalyst in my faith journey in college (in a sorority house at CU no less), both suggested that I share the no knead bread recipe.  Here goes:

 NO KNEAD BREAD

Ingredients

º 3 cups bread flour (So far, I have used King Arthur Bread Flour)

º 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast

º 1 teaspoon table salt

º 1 1/2 cups warm water

º Dutch oven with cover (3 quart is the perfect size)

HOW TO

Make Bread Dough
The night before you wish to eat bread, combine all ingredients in a big bowl with a fork until the dough just comes together. It will look messy. Add a bit more water if all of the flour isn’t mixed in. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it sit on the counter for 12-20 hours. I have mixing bowls with covers that are perfect for this step.

Flour, salt, yeast.

Just add water

Shape Bread Dough & Preheat Oven
Your dough be wet, sticky and bubbly. Using wet hands or a wet spatula, place the dough on a floured surface. Fold ends of dough over a few times – nudging it into a round shape.

Wet, sticky and bubbly

Generously dust a clean dish towel (not terrycloth) with flour. Set dough seam side down on top of towel. Fold towel over the dough. Let it rest on the counter for 2 hours. Ninety minutes in, place your covered pot into the oven and preheat the oven to 450-460 F.  If you do not generously dust your towel with flour, the dough will stick to it - not the situation you want to be in as you attempt to dump the dough into a Dutch oven that is hot enough to toast Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

Let dough rest.

Place your pot in the oven.

Bake

At the two hour mark, your bread dough should have doubled in size. Remove your preheated pot from oven. Be careful. It will be quite HOT. Place your bread dough in the pot.  It does not matter how the dough lands. Shake the pot to even out the dough. Cover. Bake 30 minutes. Uncover, bake another 10-15 minutes or until the crust is beautifully golden. Remove and let the loaf cool on wired rack. The bread will make pleasant crackling noises as it cools.  If you are not eating your bread right away, you can re-crisp the loaf by wrapping it in foil and baking it in a 350 F oven for 10 minutes.

Gently shake the pot to even out the dough.

The crust is beautifully golden.

I hear music.

The best type of pot in which to bake the bread is either cast iron or enamel covered cast iron.  The lid must fit snugly in order to provide the moist enironment in which the bread bakes.  Jim Lahey's bread book provides recipes for wheat, rye, olive, and other types of no knead bread.  I have not perfected those yet.  This recipe is a hybrid of Lahey's basic recipe and several others that I found.

Please do not make fun of my photographs.  Unlike the Pioneer Woman, I am using a Honda Civic of a digital camera that I bought for my trip to Africa.  Dependable and basic.  And no PhotoShop.

Lavender

The HOA has placed some dwarf lilac bushes in some places near the Little Condo on the Prairie.  Lombard, the community where I took swimming lessons at LILAC POOL and where we bought birthday cakes at LILAC PASTRY SHOP, was all about the bushes with little purple flowers.  I have to admit that I wasn't a big fan of them back then.  Perhaps I am becoming nostalgic . . . or old.

Can U Tell I'm a Sunday School Teacher?

This morning, I was struck with how much my cats remind me of the brothers, Jacob and Esau, in Genesis 25. Isabelle, my Esau, was lying on her belly in front of the picture window in the living room rumbling at the robins, ready to move in for the kill. Ebenezer, on the other hand, is my Jacob. He was sitting on top of the kitchen cabinets watching me bake a loaf of bread. Yesterday, he lapped up the brine I drained from a jar of Greek olives.

I put those Greek olives to good use in a loaf of no-knead bread. 

Not bad for someone who struggled through Middle School Home Ec