Blogger Wisdom

Thursday morning I sat and read some friends' blogs while sipping my morning tea. First I went to Considering Lilies by Amy Danielle in a post entitled "Peacemakers." They'd been studying the Beatitudes in the book of Matthew. She said:

"One of the things my mister pointed out after studying the passage was that Jesus was not speaking of worldly peace, not simply lack of conflict. He was talking about peace that comes from being right with God. So to be a peacemaker is to be one who brings his or her fellow man back into right relationship with God."

That statement is loaded with so many excellent ideas that I hardly know where to start thinking! Don't we define "peace" as simply "lack of conflict." We moan, "Oh, if only people would stop fussing with each other!" But that's not the answer. Real peace is inside, a quiet heart. Human peace never comes unless first there is real peace with God -- personal reconciliation with the God who is there. Being a friend with God.  Peace with others come more easily after this.

But that's only defining "peace." Go one step further and define "peacemaker."

Making peace between my neighbors ... how futile is that, sometimes? How often have you tried to help make peace between two fighting humans, only to find that you made it worse? That happens to me a lot. I should be trying to help people find peace with God. Evidently that's a job that I can do.

The best way to spread this kind of peace is by example. Other people should see that I am at peace with God, that He is my friend, that we think alike. That I'm not fighting Him. How can I say I have peace with God and still have many conflicts with other people? It shouldn't be. Peace should breed peace.

Then I skipped over to Gretchen Joanna's blog, Gladsome Lights.  And what a treasure she served up in her post today, "What Dust Can Do"! Gretchen's post is about the great value of weakness in the Christian's life, a truth that the Apostle Paul understood fully, but that we Christians commonly reject. She quotes Stephen Freeman:

"At some level, we believe that we are not saved through our weakness, but will be saved through our strength, and that the whole life of grace is God's effort to make us stronger -- never suspecting that God's grace may actually be purposefully developing our weaknesses."

That, to me, is a profound concept. We American Christians especially are guilty of glorifying inner, spiritual (or emotional, or psychological) strength. We admire the mentally virile and feel pity for the emotionally weak. We shake our heads in dismay at people who don't have the fortitude to stand up manfully under trials. I regularly hear people talk about how our devotionals, prayers, worship, and Bible study are all supposed to strengthen us so we will be strong enough to endure the trial ahead.

Really?

We, like Paul, are to be thankful for our weakness, to glory in it, to wish for it. Does this go against the grain? Yes. But only the weak people will experience the miracle of God's strength sustaining them. Strong people get no miracle except their own strength they've worked up. If you feel yourself weakening under trials, perhaps that's exactly what God wants for you -- your weakness. His strength.

Thank you, ladies, for these excellent posts. May we all ruminate on the wisdom here.

Mary Berry's Orange Cake

We've been watching the Great British Bake-Off, and Adam is enamored of some of those delectable recipes. We watched the show on which the two judges, Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood share their favorites. Today Some day last week, Adam made Mary Berry's Orange Cake -- such a neat recipe. Any recipe that begins with boiling an orange whole in a saucepan of water, must be a great one.

Here's a link to the BBC website with the recipe for the Orange Cake. I'm not copying it here; it's big.

This is such a delicious cake. The flavor of orange infuses the baked cake. Adam is making a 2-tier 6" cake, instead of a full-size one.
Here are the candied orange rind slices for the top.

With his extra batter he made a thin full-sized sheet for us to nibble on. The cake alone is wonderful. With the light cream cheese/orange frosting, it is scrumptious. 

See the orange? I don't think we'll be bringing any of this back home from the church covered dish it's going to tonight.

Contrasts on the Neuse

After an extremely stressful week, I told Adam that we needed to go out last Friday night, just to get away!! We rode the ferry and put a 5 mile wide river between us and our troubles, and headed to Morehead. The sun was sloping down to the water's lip as we parked on the ferry.

In contrast, here's the Neuse earlier in the day, sparkling and blue.

A river can be temperamental as a woman, shifting in color daily, and in texture and movement. I never tire of watching her to see what mood she's in today.

Yarn-Over Scarf

I'm still knitting. Always knitting. If I'm not knitting, I'm crocheting. And vice versa. This time it's just a scarf.

Pretty yarn

It's this yarn. The color is "landscape." Seriously. "Landscape"? I think this company needs to hire new people to create their color names.

It's a warm color.

I'm using massive needles.
Cast on 20 stitches.
Knit four rows.
After that:
K5, (*Yarn Over, Knit 2 together*) K5
Knit 2 rows
Do this until the scarf is long enough for your preference.
Knit four rows and cast off.

I'm hoping this skien will be enough for one scarf ... might not be.

(Update: The single skien was enough. This scarf sat on my market table for only a couple of hours, and then it was sold.)

Yes, We Still Eat

(Sorry I missed a post yesterday. The friend in the hospital mentioned here, died, and we were away at his funeral all day Sunday.)

Even though Adam has now lost almost 50 pounds, and I've lost over 10 pounds, I want to assure you that we do still eat. To prove this:

We were in Greenville, NC all day Wednesday, caring for a parishioner and his wife, and by the time we left the hospital to drive home in the dark and the rain, we were weary and needy of a quiet place to sit together and a little (just a little!) comfort food. And we found a Mellow Mushroom!

I've only heard rumor of the hipster wonders of the Mellow Mushroom. At 4:00 PM, it was pretty empty, so we didn't embarrass any 19 year olds by showing up. This ominous fellow was guarding the door, I suppose because we were in Greenville, home of the ECU Pirates. This steampunk giant is, of course, Blackbeard. Adam says he could identify almost all the car parts here.

I think they failed to put the torches in his beard.
Inside, the decorations were just as interesting. This hung overhead while we nibbled our Kosmic Karma pizza.

In the entrance way, eaters are flanked on each side by a wall of books. Now I call that a welcome!!

And this photo is for my dear friend, Pom Pom. Toadstools, you see? They had several benches like this outside on the patio. It is the Mellow Mushroom, after all.

(((This has nothing to do with anything, especially with food, but I just had to share this silly thing. This was in the staff restroom at the hospital. It's a locked restroom; a staff lady let me in there. But I found this hilarious.)))

Moving on. Today Adam asked me, "If you could have anything to eat tonight for supper, what would you have?" I mumbled and tried to answer, and finally spat out: "A tender filet mignon, a baked potato, and some steamed veggies." I could have been more creative, I guess, but at the time, the thought of a mouth-wateringly-soft steak was attractive. And so Adam came through again!

Yeah, yeah. It's not a filet, but we're not that kind of rich either. It was tender!

The finished plate. Look closely -- see that yellow liquid floating under the asparagus? That's a lemon Hollandaise sauce, and oh my! it was so very good. The lemon was subtle and leant a brightness to it, and it was luscious on all the items on the plate. We'll definitely have that sauce again.

In spite of all this, the meal isn't over the top. That's a half potato, and half of a steak. We'll be eating it again because we only ate half of it tonight. The Hollandaise sauce was a calorie hit, made with egg yolks and butter, but we didn't drink it by the glass, so that's alright. It's all a matter of portion size and knowing when to say stop.

Mushrooms and Other Science Experiments

In Julia's science study this year, she's instructed to find mushrooms and examine their spores under the microscope. There's no shortage of mushrooms in our neighbor's yard! He's never home. I think he stays on his fishing boat about 11 1/2 months of the year. So ... we use his yard as our doggies' potty stop. That's a bit embarrassing, so I whispered it. The result is, a banner crop of mushrooms!!

I don't know whether that's true -- that doggie poop yields mushrooms. But it's a fine coincidence if not. Above you see the usual pink/red ones. And below an odd gray one that hugs the ground.

Above, a smooth yellow one, and below a strange brown one with kind of feathered edges.

These round brown ones are common, but below you see one that has a "skirt."

Above are some yellowish, leather-like mushrooms in clumps. And finally a fine beige one with rippled edges.

What about this strange thing?

Julia looked at them all and could find no spores. The mushrooms were mature and open, and had dropped all their spores, I guess. Finally she found a small, new mushroom, and it obliged.
She was also supposed to grow some mold on food, so we did as the textbook said and placed some homemade jam, an apple slice, and some bread on a plate. I supplied a store-bought bread and a homemade, hoping that the homemade, without preservatives, would provide her with some nice mold sooner.

We placed the plate outside with a gauze cover, but that didn't keep the yellow jackets from getting into the jam. She dampened the bread to keep it moist, and we brought the plate in from the rain. It even lived in the garage for a few days. At last I told her just to put the plate in the kitchen, covered with plastic.

But none of it ever grew any mold. Why? In desperation, since she really needed some moldy food, I decided the fastest course of action was simply to open the refrigerator and see what was growing in there. In spite of four -- yes, that's right, four! -- open containers of sour cream, none of them yielded any mold. At last I pulled out some old yogurt with a little flower of black mold in its lid. And then, the piece de resistance:  a jar of homemade ranch dressing that I'd used only the night before. I'd noticed that it was a bit scary. But I'm not much scared by such things. I told her to scrape some gummy brown scum from the inside of the lid and see what she found.

She informed me I should not eat any more of that dressing. It was "alive and wriggling," as Gollum would say.

I guess there's a limit to how much "live food" you should keep around the house, even if you are a green foodie type. But they sure are handy for science experiments!

Treats from the Thrift

 A brief stop at the local thrift store yielded some fun finds. Those are two tea towels above, for just $1 each.

 They had quite a bit of yarn, some of it interesting. I chose these two (there were 3 skeins) for only 50¢.

 I love thrift shopping. You never know what little treasures you'll find.
And lastly, one of the joys of homeschooling -- snuggling your pet Pomeranian while you do biology. While wrapped in your favorite blankie. While wearing your pajamas. For some kids, their brains learn so much better this way :)