Let It Snow

Joy

I'm pleased, not only that it snowed, but also because it is colder than usual.

Too Cool for This Cat

Ezer enjoys his creature comforts, his food and water dishes, his cat box, and his Mama (that's me).  On the rare occasion that he sneaks out, Ebenezer turns right around and sits on the door mat, waiting for me to let him in.  Isabelle, on the other hand, likes to wander.  Because we have both coyotes (ugly) and foxes (elusive and beautiful) in the neighborhood, I do my level-best to keep my pets indoors.

So Long Summer!

Here in the Denver Metro Area, we often get our first snow around Halloween.  This year, I picked my last tomato on November 10, and our first snow arrived at about the same time.  For some odd reason, I harvested more tomatoes in October than I did in July, August, and September.

Orange

Yellow

The Last Tomato

The First Snow

Good Night, Isabelle 

When in Doubt

Most people who know me well know I dislike clutter.  Part of this may be due to the fact that I've lived in smaller spaces most of my life.  Furthermore, as a person who is mobility-challenged, stuff on the floor is just plain dangerous.  I like to joke that my life motto is 'When in doubt, throw it out.'  

Several days ago, UPS delivered two boxes to me.  I typically tote boxes to the trash shortly after I unpack them. This time, I waited until morning and Ebenezer had fun.

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Here's a smattering of everyday pictures I've taken over the past few weeks.

Basil

Flowers by the Mailbox

(not my handiwork)

Bunny by my Doctor's Office

Bunny by my Door

Geranium

Make a Quick Get Well Card?

(not if I have anything to say about it)

First Fruits

Future Fruits

Bunnies, Go Home.

Tick Tock

Caturday

I took these three pictures not long ago.  The sunlight that streams into my bedroom in the late afternoon and early evening is really pretty. 

Ebenezer

Isabelle

Connecting

Several days ago, I found out that one of my friends is receiving hospice care.  Often, I connect with people by making them a card or providing them with something to eat. Earlier today, I sat down to make my friend a few cards, in a color that she loves, but I do not.  She does not have much energy for visitors, but I thought I would share some lessons I've learned about visiting with people who are in the midst of loss.  

First, be willing to be quiet and just BE with them.  In this day and age, people are particularly uncomfortable with silence.  I continually remind myself that there's a reason God gave me two ears and one mouth.  Listening is vitally important whether your friend is in hospice, has lost a pet, or a job.  

Second, refrain from saying things like 'I know just how you feel.'  You probably don't.  How could you?  You aren't them.  A better follow-up to the ubiquitous 'How are you?' is 'That sounds . . .'   Fill in the blank with words where you acknowledge what they have shared.  If you are feeling brave and your acquaintance is being particularly chatty, open the door with the phrase 'Tell me more about that. . .'

Third, consider bringing your friend a little something - their favorite fruit, a CD with their favorite music, a book by their favorite author, and so on.  Loss - in its various forms - can be lonely.  Ultimately, most important thing you bring your friend is YOU.

Booked

Most of these books – read over the past year or so – have a faith component.  Still, I don’t know whether my choice of books is typical.  I am single by choice and I’ve never been to a Women’s Retreat or attended a Bible Study where people gather in a large room and watch a DVD.  I read about topics that interest me.

FALLING INTO PLACE: A MEMOIR OF OVERCOMING

Hattie Kauffman, in 1989, was the first Native American correspondent to have a story appear on a network news program.  Falling Into Place is the story of not only her career in television news with CBS and ABC but also the story of growing up in a poor family with seven children and two alcoholic parents.   Hattie struggles with alcoholism as an adult, her husband divorces her, and she wrestles with faith issues.  I heard Hattie interviewed on a Moody Radio program and bought the book (used on Amazon) because it did not sound like the typical inspirational tear jerker.  It was a great book with a redemptive theme, but I wish it had been a little longer.

GO TELL IT: HOW AND WHY TO REPORT GOD’S STORIES IN WORDS, PHOTOS AND VIDEOS

Authors Jim Killiam and Lincoln Brunner, in the introduction to Go Tell It, state ‘This book is for anyone working in and around missions who wants to learn a few basic techniques for telling better stories via the written word, photography, and video.  It’s especially for anyone who wants to pose two questions that can change lives:  What is God up to?  How can I get in on it?’

I resonated with this quote from the first page of the photography chapter.  ‘But at its core, good photography is about composition, lighting and intuition.  The best photographers can do that with a $25 Hello Kitty camera.  The worst can’t accomplish it with a $10,000 DSLR.’ Amen.

If I were giving advice to missionaries and people starting faith-based non-profits, I’d tell them to share their story in the way they feel most comfortable.  Just share it!  Your supporters and friends won’t know what you are doing if you don’t share with them.  If you need help telling your story, ask someone to help you.  With the growth of online blogs, Facebook, email attachments and the like – issues with printing and postage are a thing of the past.

I purchased Go Tell It to learn how to use social media – Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and the like – to tell faith stories.  The authors – surprisingly – did not touch on social media.  The information contained in the book was quite good – but I have a journalism degree – so it wasn’t new.

ISAIAH: FEELING SECURE IN THE ARMS OF GOD

Isaiah: Feeling Secure in the Arms of God is the third Bible study I’ve done by Warren Wiersbe.  Dr. Wiersbe, who served as Senior Pastor at the Moody Church in downtown Chicago and was the teacher on the Back to the Bible radio program, is now in his late-nineties.  He writes particularly insightful life application questions.  It was great and I learned a lot, but any study that addresses Isaiah’s 66 chapters in detail is challenging.  I just finished John: Get to Know the Living Savior.  It was far less mind-numbing, but just as engaging.

LOVED BACK TO LIFE: HOW I FOUND THE COURAGE TO LIVE FREE

Loved Back to Life: How I Found the Courage to Live Free, chronicles Sheila Walsh’s experience living with depression.  Not long after she moved to the United States from Scotland and became a co-host of the 700 Club, Walsh checked into a psychiatric hospital to be treated for depression. 

I have heard Sheila share her story from the platform at a Women of Faith conference, and found it more compelling than Loved Back to Life.  Still, the book contains a powerful message.  If you are struggling with mental illness, get treatment.  

In this day and age, there are still people who remain untreated or inadequately treated for diagnoses such as depression and anxiety.  If you know someone who needs treatment for a psychiatric diagnosis who is hesitant to see a mental health provider, offer to accompany him/her to an appointment.  

Furthermore, if a mental health provider suggest medication, try it!  Psychiatrists write lots of prescriptions for mental health diagnoses, so that's the best place to start. People don't question when a healthcare provider writes a prescription for high blood pressure, for example, but they become uncomfortable when that same provider suggests an antidepressant.  

I'm just a lay person - but I have travelled this road - and I am passionate about encouraging my friends and acquaintances to obtain adequate care.

SAVOR

If I were 20 years younger and still lived in the Chicago suburbs, Shauna Niequist and I could be best friends.  She loves Jesus, writing, cooking for friends, and based on the picture I saw of her kitchen – knows her way around Crate and Barrel.  Savor is a 365 day devotional book that encourages readers to enjoy life wherever they are.  There are conversation starter type questions for each day and recipes scattered throughout the book.

Niequist has written several other books with a food/faith theme including Bittersweet, Cold Tangerines, and Bread & Wine.  Though Bread and Wine is a cookbook, I promise that you won’t find any margarine, imitation whipped topping or green jello anywhere.  She's not that kind of church lady - nor am I.

STITCHES: A HANDBOOK ON MEANING, HOPE AND REPAIR

“Lamott’s …most insightful book yet, Stitches offers plenty of her characteristic witty wisdom…this slim, readable volume [is] a lens on life, widening and narrowing, encouraging each reader to reflect on what it is, after all, that really matters.”—People

I generally love Anne Lamott’s books.  Her latest – Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair – not so much.  It’s only 96 pages.  Ordinarily, I’d finish a book like Stitches in an hour or so.  I didn’t finish it.  In short, I don’t agree with People magazine’s assessment of the book.

There are several possible reasons for this.  First, I’m relatively familiar with the subject matter.  Stitches addresses how to put your life back together when it’s coming apart at the seams.  I took a great class called Redemptive Suffering when I was at Denver Seminary.  It was the last class Bruce Demarest taught before he retired.  People who were not enrolled in the class showed up to hear what Dr. Demarest and his compelling guest speakers had to say.  

I’ve also read a number of good books on suffering – most notably A Grace Disguised: How the Soul Grows through Loss, by Jerry Sittser and A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis.  Second, I like clear, concise writing.  Stitches is a short book, but it lacks her usual laser-like focus.  Third, Lamott’s books typically contain compelling anecdotes or stories.  Suffering is not funny, but the author has experienced more than her share of challenges and I thought she would share more personal stories than she did.

TALKING TABOO

Talking Taboo: American Christian Women Get Frank About Faith, contains 30+ essays addressing hot-button issues like women in church leadership, domestic violence and male headship in marriage.  Though I am more liberal than many Evangelicals because I support the full-participation of women in church leadership, I’m more conservative than some of the authors that contributed to Talking Taboo.  Still, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the issues these women dealt with and the questions they ask.  Asking questions is healthy.

Undaunted: Daring to Do What God Calls You to Do

In Undaunted, Australian author Christine Caine chronicles how her faith enabled her to conquer life-long fears and led her to found the A21 Campaign with her husband, Nick. The A21 organization is dedicated to the eradication of human trafficking, a deplorable practice that, most likely, has been going on since the beginning of time.  It also is a hot topic among Evangelicals as of late.  I’m more interested in hunger and access to maternal-child healthcare, but that’s just me.  I had trouble reading this book - not because of the discussion of human trafficking - but because I'm not convinced that I am doing all that God has called me to do/be.

YOU’LL GET THROUGH THIS: HELP AND HOPE FOR YOUR TURBULENT TIMES

I am not a huge fan of Max Lucado’s books.  I much prefer Philip Yancey and John Ortberg’s non-fiction books.  I got You’ll Get Through This as a gift and I really liked the cover illustration – a tiny green plant that has pushed through the cracks in a crumbling cement sidewalk, so I read it. 

Lucado uses the story of Joseph – he of the Technicolor Dreamcoat and those nasty brothers who threw him into a cistern – to encourage Christians who are experiencing challenging times.  Lucado’s point is ‘If God redeemed Joseph, he’ll redeem you.’  He also includes some anecdotes about well-known people who’ve thrived in the midst of chaos.  I LOVE the Joseph story that begins in Genesis 37.  There’s so much good material with real-life applications for kids of all ages.   My advice?  Bypass Lucado and read Joseph’s story straight from the Bible.

RIGHT NOW

Currently, I am reading Vanishing Grace: Whatever Happened to the Good News by Philip Yancey and True Woman 201: Interior Design – Ten Elements of Biblical Womanhood by Mary A. Kassian and Nancy Leigh DeMoss.  So far, I love Yancey’s book.  True Woman 201 is a Bible study that addresses a variety of virtues.  While I don’t agree with Kassian and DeMoss on some issues, this book appears to be as well-written and thought-out as True Woman 101 was and I will get a lot out of it.

Ebenezer prefers picture books.

Patio Agriculture

Last Wednesday, I went to King Soopers and purchased four traditional tomato plants designed for container gardening, one cherry tomato plant, and one basil plant.  The tomatoes and the basil came in peat pots which you can place directly into a container with potting soil.  

My mom grew seedlings in first-generation peat pots in the early 1970's.  I think they are fantastic.  The transplant process is painless and I was also able to view how healthy a plant's root structure was/was not before I purchased it.  I had already purchased potting soil and two containers with drainage holes at O'Toole's to go along with the two plastic pots I saved from last year, and roller skates (my term) for each.

I placed my veggies in their new homes early this evening.  All but the cherry tomato survived.  Unbeknownst to me, Ebenezer tipped the cherry tomato plant over late last week.  The peat pot had begun to break apart and the infant plant's roots were fried by the sun.  Oh well.

My friend QQ, who is now a physicist for the Department of Defense, has given me her old digital camera to use.  These are the first pictures I have taken with said camera - and no I did not read the manual or install the editing software.  I promise the next pictures will be better.

Look at the wee tomatoes.

Looking out for bunnies, big and small.

Luckily, I have a great, big black cat.

Resurrection Cookies

I got the recipe for these awesome sugar cookies from my friend Daun several years ago.  They have a crumbly texture and taste really good.  Last year, I made them in heart, dove, and cross shapes for Easter.  Make sure you frost them with the Sour Cream Icing.

SOUR CREAM SUGAR COOKIES

º       1 cup sugar

º       1 stick butter, melted

º       1 egg, lightly beaten

º       ½ cup sour cream

º       1 ½ t vanilla

º       2 ½ cups all purpose flour

º       1 t baking soda

º       ½ t salt

Measure and mix together wet ingredients in a medium mixing bowl.  Measure dry ingredients into a second mixing bowl and combine with a fork.  Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula.  Chill the dough until you are ready to roll it out.

Use a rolling pin to roll out dough.  Cut into shapes.  Bake 7-8 minutes @ 350 degrees.  Do not over-mix or roll and re-roll dough or the cookies will be tough.  I divide the dough into several smaller chunks - say three or four - and roll one out at a time.  Keep the dough you have not rolled out in the refrigerator.

ICING FOR SOUR CREAM SUGAR COOKIES

º       2 cups confectioner’s sugar

º       ¼ cup butter, melted

º       ¼ cup sour cream

Combine ingredients.  Add food color as desired and use to ice cooled cookies.

Sprung

No, I don't have a new camera yet.  These pictures are from last year, but it has been seventy something the last two days.  I can't resist.  Murphy's Law says that it will probably snow next week.  March is our Number One Snow Month and April is Our Number Two Snow Month.  I would love a Happy Birthday Snowstorm.

Snowbound

Friday, I headed to King Soopers to do some shopping.  I often order groceries online, but I had a lot of coupons and the King Soopers website is far from coupon friendly.  I also like that my neighborhood store has a whole lot of yogurt and plenty of produce.  Anyhow, prognosticators had predicted a storm and the crowds in both the parking lot and the store were reminiscent of the day before Thanksgiving.

People were rushing around, cutting off fellow shoppers with their carts and throwing staples into baskets.  Several thoughts came to mind as I moved through the craziness.  

First, storms rarely materialize exactly as planned.  Sometimes they go north.  Sometimes they go south.  Conversely, some of our biggest blizzards don’t register on anyone’s radar.  Our storms – even those that hit places like Winter Park and Vail – rarely last longer than 24 hours.  We don’t live in Boston or South Bend.  For what are we stocking up?  The sun is going to shine on Sunday.

Second, hustling, bustling and getting hostile does little more than raise the collective blood pressure of those around you.  It does not stop an impending snowstorm.  It does not make cartons of milk materialize on empty shelves – although I saw two 18 wheelers pull up while I was waiting for my transportation home.  It does not make the line at checkout move more quickly.  Breathe in.  Breathe out.  Relax.

Third, how many people have cupboards are as bare as Old Mother Hubbard’s?  I have been reading the book 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker.  Though I don’t read many books aimed at Evangelical Christian women, this one hit close to home.  In it, Hatmaker chronicles how her family made intentional cutbacks in clothing, spending, waste, possessions, media, stress, and FOOD.  I have more than enough food to last the weekend.  I think most of my middle-class neighbors do too.

Who Knew?

Did you know that you can make homemade pizza dough in your food processor?  This recipe comes from How to Cook Everything: The Basics by Mark Bittman.  It's quick, easy and your hands don't get all sticky.  I use the pizza sauce recipe from the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog.  Yes, that's a marble rolling pin.  My dear friend Q got me it for a housewarming present.

Let's Play Two

I’ve lived in Colorado a long, long time.  Still, when people ask where I'm from, I reply 'Illinois.'  I like Illinois as much as I like Colorado.  My dream job – had I finished Seminary – was to be a chaplain at Northwestern Memorial, Lurie Children’s Hospital or The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. 

If President Obama were to meet me and find out I was from DuPage County, he'd likely remark: ‘I bet you root for the Cubs.'  And he would be right.  When I was a kindergartener, I watched the Cubs on a black and white TV with my maternal great grandfather.  When I got bigger, I went to games at Wrigley Field with my paternal grandfather.

I love the Chicago Cubs.  Wrigley Field is an incredible place to watch baseball.  On the rare occasion that I eat red meat, it’s because I am craving a Chicago Dog.  Ernie Banks, who died of a heart attack January 23, 2015, is my favorite baseball player of all time.  The first 500+ page book I read was Banks’ biography, Mr. Cub.  

While Banks' statistics certainly were impressive, I was as impressed with his peaceful, positive demeanor as I was the 500+ home runs he hit. My mom volunteered for several non-profits that served special needs kids.  As such, I had the opportunity to meet a number of well-known Chicagoans.  Unfortunately, I never met Mr. Banks.

Do you have a Wrigley Field rubber stamp?  I bet not.

Better Late Than Never

In 2013, I bought supplies to create Christmas cards.  I didn't make them, because I didn't believe I should spend the money on postage.  I send lots of cards.  Fast forward to October 2014 - I toted my supplies and tools I needed to the kitchen table where they sat.  And sat.  I finished the cards last week.  It was quite the adventure as I had never done any heat embossing.  As they say - better late than never.

Enjoy

I enjoy this box.  It's the cameras that drive me nuts.