I think this has been my sparsest week yet as far as posting goes! I was out of town for a few days, but since technology is so portable these days that hardly counts as an excuse. I’ll have some more great content coming up next week, but here’s a light post to tide you over.

I was reading an article in Redbook magazine about a movie coming out called I Don’t Know How She Does It (which, by the way, sounds pretty funny, and I’d probably like to see it!). It’s about a working mom who doesn’t do a good job of balancing everything and has some funny mishaps along the way. One of the questions asked of the actresses was, “We’ve been called the ‘Having it All’ generation of women. How does that phrase resonate in your own life?” Aline Brosh McKenna said, “I would describe my approach as: Having Some But Not All Things Some of the Time, with breaks for snacks.” I love it. Especially the breaks for snacks part. Because isn’t that so true? Some days, I whip out four loads of laundry, exercise, and make a sewing project, so then the only energy I have left for dinner is throwing a frozen pizza in the oven. And I’m totally okay with that.

Stay tuned for some a Tasty Tuesday post about cabbage, Thoughtful Thursday reflections on parental relationships, and hopefully some craft projects and a guest post from my mom. Have a great weekend!

or, More Thoughts on The Stuff We Keep

I’m visiting my parents for a few days, and on Saturday my mom and I finally went through the last closet of my stuff left at their house. It wasn’t much–between purging things and taking things with me to my apartment, it was mostly down to keepsake type things, or things that are too big or unnecessary for my current one bedroom digs. (Though we won’t even talk about the entire bookshelves of books I still have here, most of which I probably do want…those will be for down-the-road dream of having a house with a library…and a sliding ladder to reach the top of the floor-to-ceiling built-in bookshelves. Yeah, right.)

So, because I love lists, here’s a breakdown of some of the notable items. There’s definitely more I could list, but these are some of the things that stick out to me.

Things I Am Taking Home With Me:

• the t-shirt quilt I had made as a high school graduation gift, and a twin-sized blanket that I think could be useful as an extra layer, even on our queen-sized bed
• a few stray pairs of socks
• a collapsible mesh laundry hamper
• a couple of my favorite old sweatshirts
• a pair of not-very-worn-out Old Navy flip flops
• a carved wooden flower by George Berry, a craftsman we knew in Mississippi who always had "just one little stick" in his pocket from which to carve me a flower

Things I Am Leaving Behind To Be Loved In The Future:

• a box of medals from swimming, a box of plaques and trophies from various things, and a notebook full of ribbons (somehow I couldn't bear to part with them)
• a box of stuffed animals that maybe some hypothetical future child of mine will be able to love (though the collection has been greatly pared down)
• 2 pieces of framed art that I may have a wall for some day
• a small collection of twin bedding
• a collection of commemorative Habitat for Humanity Christmas ornaments that my mom bought for my grandparents every year that has now been passed on to me
• 1 box and 1 stack of old, well-loved children's books

Things I Finally Convinced Myself To Get Rid Of:

• a box full of heat sheets from just about every meet I ever swam in (though, for the record, I nerdily read those over and over, even well after the event)
• notebooks and folders full of every note and homework assignment I ever did in high school
• a set of cheap sheets I used to cover the futon in my college dorm room
• 2 twin-sized mattress covers (why did I even have two in the first place?!)
• shoeboxes full of notes from my angst-ridden middle and high school days (I didn't even let myself read them before chucking them in the recycling)

My mom had been requesting that I do this with her for quite awhile, and I can see why now. The vast majority of what she had so carefully stored away for me was junk. I threw a lot away, and we’ll be taking several bags to Goodwill tomorrow. Sure, there were some treasures, some things I’d forgotten about and will love to have now, as well as some things that will be great to have later on, but most of it didn’t need to be taking up space in my parents’ closet. It didn’t take long, and it was a nice little trip down memory lane that I’m glad my mom left for me to do. And now everything is neatly boxed or bagged up and labeled, so that next time, we’ll know exactly what we’re getting into. It was another good exercise in letting go and being discerning about what I choose to fill my space with.

Tonight we’re going to look through the box labeled “LF Artwork”…that should be fun.

root us here, oh God show us your heavens, God give us eyes to see and ears to hear to follow you beyond our fears beyond our wildest imaginations make us a blessing to the nations ~ Troy Bronsink, City Church - Eastside 

A. and I have had quite a time trying to find a church home here in our new city. On our first go around choosing a church together, back in Huntsville, we knew it might be a bit difficult to mesh our drastically different backgrounds and desires for a church, but there was a much smaller pool of churches to choose from than there is here. We ended up at a pretty traditional church that surprised even me, but we were attracted to the WONDERFUL group of other young adults. Here, it was back to square one, and the characteristics we were looking for were all over the map. It was so hard to figure out where the things we wanted overlapped and to figure out which of the plethora of churches in the metro area was even worth a visit. I realized through the process that I’ve probably put too much emphasis on the outward trappings of church. I take great comfort in the traditional rhythms of church, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it was also unnecessarily limiting our options here. Once I was able to let go of some of the things I thought church was “supposed” to have just because every church I’ve gone to has (Wednesday night supper, Sunday night Bible study, multiple Sunday school classes), we realized we weren’t so far apart after all, and that the non-traditional, neighborhood-oriented church nearby might just fit the bill for both of us.

I don’t know if we’ve officially settled in yet (although I did already sign up to be a helper in a kids’ Sunday school class), but we’ve been visiting consistently for a bit and have gone to several events apart from Sunday mornings. The first time we visited, I was taken aback by the music. I am used to (and enjoy) standard contemporary worship music, and this was nothing like that. Even the structure of the service was different from what I was used to, starting with a string of around 4 songs and then with a break for coffee and mingling before the sermon. I couldn’t figure out why I hated the music so much that first time, because if I listened objectively, it was a lot like some of the secular music I listen to - sort of folksy, with an alternative rock twang. And I think it all had to do with my expectations of what church music is “supposed” to sound like. Once I let go of those expectations (I can listen to other types of worship music on the radio in my car or on my iPhone, after all), I’ve been able to enjoy it much more. And really, what usually attracts me the most to songs are the words, a fact which ought to surprise no one. So even though I haven’t caught on enough to sing along with every song yet, I can still read the words and revel in their depth of meaning, an element often lacking in traditional worship songs.

In fact, this past Sunday, I had a powerful moment as we all sang. I couldn’t help but smile every time we hit the fifth line of the song I quoted above (which was actually written by the worship leader). Something about the chord progression and the rhythm and the energy of that line coming out of all of our mouths at once got to me. And I realized that when we let go of our expectations, God can often take us to places that are beyond our wildest imaginations. And isn’t that a beautiful thing?

I haven’t found a lot of good sewing blogs to follow yet (suggestions welcome!) but I stumbled across this great tutorial recently for a snack bag, to use in lieu of ziploc. The tutorial was FABULOUS, super easy to follow and very clear and concise. I won’t try to repost the instructions, because the original was so great.

Here it is: http://flyawayhome-4am.blogspot.com/2011/01/going-green-tutorial.html

And here is mine!

(granola bar for size reference)

This was the Saturday project that I mentioned in my Monday post. I actually made 2 of them. I used laminate for the inside so that I can put “gushy” stuff in there and just be able to turn it inside out and wipe it down. They’re clearly not perfect, but it makes me happy every time I open to ziploc bag drawer and see them in there! A. has request one in a more manly print for himself.

I haven’t done a Tasty Tuesday post in awhile! This one stems from my Birthday Resolution to “experiment with  baking bread.”

Last week, I attempted to make sourdough bread, because one time at the farmer’s market A. exclaimed that sourdough was “his very favorite.” I figured it would be a fun project for his birthday.

I used a recipe from the book Baking at Home, which I got as a wedding gift. My mom is a bread-baking pro, so she gave me some additional hints.

Sourdough gets its sour flavor from a starter, which is made ahead of time and, in the best case, is kept alive for ages and ages to let the flavor develop even more. Our starter began with half of a grated organic potato. According to the instructions, “organically raised potatoes have a number of yeast cells already present on the surface to help get the sourdough starter growing.” We “fed” the starter with additional flour and water the recommended 3 times (once after 24 hours, and 3 more times every 12 hours).

The starter did some crazy things!

 

It was really science in action inside that bowl. Not only could I see the bubbles forming and notice the potatoes dissolving away, I could feel warmth when I lifted the lid off of the bowl.

Once the starter was ready, I used 1 cup of it, along with other ingredients, to mix up the bread and threw the rest away. Ideally, I should have saved the starter, but I didn’t really know what to do with it. I thought I would have to keep feeding it every 12 hours, and it was in our biggest stainless steel bowl, taking up a lot of space. But I’ve since learned that you can keep it in a jar in the refrigerator and feed it a lot less frequently. So, next time I will definitely do that, since our final product wasn’t very sour.

I left the bread to rise with a damp cloth covering the bowl. I’m not sure it was warm enough, and I probably should have left it longer, because I don’t think it quite doubled in size in the suggested time.

I forged ahead anyway, and shaped it into two balls to rise a little bit more. I left these on top of the stove as the oven preheated, hoping they would glean some heat from it and rise better!

I baked the rounds on my Pampered Chef pizza stone, which I had let heat up as the oven heated (a very important step when using stone). The rounds came out a little bit deformed; one especially cracked a bit while baking. Also, they had way too much flour on top! My recipe told me to put them in “well-floured bowls” to rise the second time, but I think I took that step a little bit too far.

Here’s the final product!

It was definitely pretty dense and, as I said, not very sour, but it was still pretty neat to eat bread and know I had made it with my own two hands. I sliced it up and put it in the freezer (I think while it was still too warm, because the slices iced together pretty well in the freezer, oops), and A. has been eating sandwiches on it for his lunches! So while it wasn’t a rip-roaring success, it was definitely a good first try at something I have been wanting to learn how to do, and I think I picked up some good lessons to put into practice next time. When I go home later this week, my mom is going to teach me to make one of her kinds of wheat bread, so maybe I’ll have another loaf in my repertoire!

What’s your favorite kind of bread? Have you ever tried to bake it yourself?

(P.S. On a totally unrelated but tasty note, I am currently addicted to Blue Diamond Honey Roasted Almonds, which probably are not really all that good for me. But they are oh so delicious.)