What Do You Love?

I read a blog post today admonishing bloggers to write about their passions -- what they truly love. This is good advice. The blogger herself finally discovered her passion:  web designing. (Web designing? Argh!)
So, I asked myself what my passion is -- what do I spend my thought life on, whenever I have the chance? What do I long for? What do I love?
And the answer was, Heaven. The New Earth. But I don't want to write about it too much here, because I'm afraid of turning you off, dear reader, with repetition.
I don't love Heaven because I'm pious or holy or churchy. I love it because life on this Earth is pretty hard and sometimes horrifying. And in my soul I long -- how I long! -- for a place that's not like this. What I want is a place with all of this Earth's beauty and goodness, and none of its ugliness and badness.
Enter:  God.  He's making a place just like that. Yay!! When do I get to go? In just a few years! Yay! How long do I get to stay there?  Forever. Forever. Let that sink in!
What would a perfect Earth look like, to you? Are you a countryside kind of person?

You know, mountains, lakes, meadows, sunsets? (Minus the mosquitoes, danger, exhaustion?)

Maybe you're a city person? Is this beautiful to you?

Is this where you want to be, with all the culture and people and excitement? (Minus the violence, dirt, stink, exhaust and meanness?)

Maybe not a new city -- maybe a gorgeous old city? Yes, please!

Maybe you'd like a few people, but not thousands ... a village? With all the neighborliness, sharing, porch-sitting? (Minus the gossip, selfishness, bickering?)

A cottage. I'd love a cottage. How pleasant gardening will be there!

Because the New Earth that God is making will have all of this. It will be a real, physical Earth, and we will be there, with our real, physical bodies. No floating in midair, strumming harps and wondering what we're gonna do for-e-ver.

Forever. Eternity. Take a minute, rest your brain, and ask yourself this bizarre question:  how would your life be different if you knew that you were never, ever, going to die? If you had forever?

I suggest a few things. We would never hurry. What's the point in hurrying, when you have, literally, all the time in the world? You may live for 1000 years in Italy, followed by 1000 years on Crete, followed by 1000 years investigating the wonders of China, and after all that -- eternity is just beginning. There is no hurry! No rush!

Every job can be done to its very best. No rush jobs. Take 100 years to perfect your favorite skill or craft. Build a ship. Carve a face in a mountain. Master the cello. You will never tire, and there's no ... hurry.

Relationships are forever. There's no anxiety about getting close to someone, only to have them leave you. No fear of death. Death is now behind you, and it's a non-entity! Yippee! Do we even realize how rushed our whole lives are, because we all know we have limited time? Deadlines overwhelm. Pressure to produce. Do this right by next week or you're fired. Hurry up, there's an exam next week. Making bucket lists. All of this hurry, this anxiety for time, will disappear.

Hallelujah! I love to sit and just imagine the New Earth. I don't know for sure what it will be like exactly, but there's enough in Scripture to tell me all of the above. It's my passion.

It's a PAR-TEE!!!

Hi y'all!

I was reading over at Sandra's this morning ("Thistle Cove Farm") and heard rumor of this bloggy party happening. The party is at "Two Bags Full," and you can participate :) Especially if you're a small blogger like me, with fewer than 200 followers, this kind blogger wants to help us by giving us some visibility and getting us all out of the doldrums of reading ...

... the same-old five blogs every morning.

You know how it is!

You love your bloggy friends, but sometimes you bore of a limited blog (like always FOOD or always RUNNING or always PARENTING), and then sometimes bloggers just quit blogging! And you're left with one fewer blog to read!

So use this party to participate, and to pick up a few new blogs to read. Click on over to Vicki's beautiful blog and join in! Do a little post like this one, leave her a comment, and jump into the fun!

Those Cute Little Potatoes

Our new shopping/cooking regimen is working very well. Adam's becoming adept at cooking just the right amount -- no overeating and no leftovers. The other day at the little grocery, he spotted these fun potatoes. Lots of neat colors and and some so small they are bite-size!

Then some friends gave us a bag of shallots (also above). We found the meat on sale. So Adam made this meal for us:

He prepped a sauce with red wine and red wine vinegar. The potatoes he prepared in an amazing way. You all need to tune in, and make your potatoes this way in future!! Okay, he steamed them first whole, in a double boiler with the steamer insert, but any steaming arrangement you have would work. This preserves the flavor of the potatoes, whereas when you boil them, you lose lots of their flavor in the water that you throw out. When the steaming made them fork-tender, he then cut and roasted them on a pan in the oven to get the outside skin a little crispy and tight. The end result is a perfect, delightful potato! The shallots were sauteed in the sauce and are on top of the steak.
The entire meal cost a total of $2.30 for all of us. I kid you not. It helps to buy items on sale, each day. It's time-consuming to go to the store that often (although the total time at the store is probably about the same as when we did one weekly, big run). But when you're rather poor, you have lots of time and not much money, so it works out perfectly! And we're still eating much better than most Americans. We're not rushing around town in the van, eating junk food in the back seat and not around the table together. I'm so glad!
Okay, here's the scene from the farmer's market, 7:30 AM. These are a few of Mr. Bob's faithful customers. Mr. Bob is the egg man -- he sells his own pastured eggs. The Pastured Egg Faithful are a very devoted group. Mr. Bob wasn't able to come to the market that morning, and they were all disappointed!

We know how we ought to eat, don't we? Real food, not junk. Fresh food, not processed and preserved. Delicious food, not insipid or chemically. Can you eat better food this week?

Technical Difficulties

Sorry the blogging has been sparse. My laptop has been giving me trouble for several months, crashing suddenly and often. A real headache. After other unsuccessful attempts to fix it, Adam decided to backup the entire computer, wipe everything off, and start over uploading absolutely everything. So the machine has been out-of-pocket for a few days, and my Iphoto is not up yet :( So, for your viewing pleasure, here is another recycled photo. Rather sad to think all those glorious leaves have already fallen, decayed, and turned ever into dirt.

More later! Adam made a wonderful meal this evening, and I want to blog about it! Must Have Photos!

At last! September!

Doesn't that mean it's (almost) autumn? Oh, I hope so!
I have no fallish photos for you today, but I can dig back into my old archives and reminisce about what we all love about this time of year.
Hunter's tea parties. Is that short bread I see? And remember that wonderful cheese, Hunter?

Oh, pumpkins. They rather define the season for me: hearty, lovely, natural, solid.

My mother's gum tree slowly transforms through the fall and turns a vibrant red.

So common. So fragile. So pretty.

Silly little girls in sweaters on long walks

Dead leaves that add such color to a table

Pumpkin cranberry bread. I need to make this again.

Fire! I can't wait until it's cold enough to need a fire.

Pumpkins, gourds, and squashes of all types

Alright, this has nothing to do with autumn, but I still remember how fabulous this was to eat. I had three pieces with the dip and was too full to eat the pizza afterward. "Appetizer" indeed!

Family gatherings. These are my kids, nieces and nephews, well most of them.

Oh, the food. Pies! Pies!

Are we all hungry now?

Back on the Bike

At long last, I went for a bike ride this evening after supper. Our weather has been exceedingly wet, which means it's been very mosquitoey and excessively humid. I've avoided the weather by staying indoors. But my lethargy was getting to me, and the wind was brisk, and we've had no rain for two days! So Adam and I took off on the bikes. I was wobbling on my wheels, trying to snap this photo of this adorable daddy/son pair, perched on the river's edge, fishing.

We rode west to the sun and the town marina.

A large hedge of these flowers bloom along the harbor bank. What are they? Do you know?

The sun sank in a hurry to go to bed.

We strolled out on the boardwalk to look at the boats -- so many for sale. See the seagull?

These two pups looked very much like they wanted out.

The sailboat was racing for its slip, leaving the blue moon behind.

Sunday's Snack Plan

This Sunday I'm in charge of providing the "snack" for our after-service fellowship time. This has developed into much more than a mere coff-and-donut affair, no matter how some of us ladies try to keep it snack-like. I mean honestly -- when you offer to feed grown men at 12:00 noon on any given day, can you expect them to eat just a little? I think not.

Adam will make a big crockpot full of homemade meatballs in sauce. 'Nuff said.
I'm making the cheese ball/loaf I made before, remember? With crackers.

I'm also making this delicious-sounding pumpkin dip from this website:

Here's the simple recipe:
15 oz can of pumpkin 
5 oz box of instant vanilla pudding {just the powder, don't make the pudding}
16 oz container of cool whip (Adam will make real whipped cream for me instead.)

1/2 tbl Pumpkin Pie Spice (or your own combination of spices)

1/2 tbl Cinnamon

 Although the carved-out pumpkin is cute, I'm not going to go to that much trouble this Sunday.

 

To that, I'll add a plate of veggies like carrots and celery, and an assortment of crackers and sliced cheese. You see, we do try to keep it as snack-like food. It's just impossible to keep it to snack-like portions. People will eat what you put out for them, and church ladies are never inclined to put out a measly dab of food when folks are hungry! But you know, our after-service fellowship time is one of the sweetest things our little church does. Very few churches eat together every single week. Many never eat together at all. My huge church that I grew up in still serves a Wednesday night supper ( I think), but years ago they quit the covered dish we children so enjoyed, and decided to have the meal prepared in the church kitchen by paid staff, and the eaters have to pay for their meals. That just takes all the fun out of it, doesn't it? It doesn't feel like the kingdom anymore; it feels like Morrison's Cafeteria. 

 

Okay, I could go on forever about how the church should be all about God's children bringing their tithes of food into His house and sharing it with each other in celebration. (Deut. 14:22ff)  That's the tithe. Not having an offering plate shoved under your nose so you can write a check, combine all the money, and pay somebody else to do the activities that should be joyfully shared by all. The kingdom of God is all about joyful celebration, and it involves food :) So, go eat together!