Progress at Work

The paid job: When I started balancing my drawer at work today, the balance sheet came up $1 off. My first response was "So where did I make a mistake on the balance sheet? Did I count one too few $1-bills? Did I put an extra $1-bill in my 'rag' pile and forget to change the entry for mutilated money on my balance sheet?" It didn't cross my mind that maybe I'd counted wrong when I was taking in cash or giving out cash to a customer. That's a good sign! That means I so seldom make cash-counting errors that my assumption is simply a problem with the balance sheet and not the actual amount of cash in my cash drawer.

The unpaid job, the main job: I've been forcing encouraging Maggie to work with me more in the garden. She has been, and she's finding it not as abhorrent as she expected. We're getting the garden put to bed for the winter much faster than if I were doing the work alone. She's learning something. She's being helpful. And on top of it all, it's been very nice to work alongside her, talking as we go. Besides, could you ask for a more gorgeous week to be working outdoors? As unbelievable as it seems to me, most of the garden work is done, and there is actually an end in sight within the next few days.

But the tomatoes are done. The sadness of eating the last tomato is so so sad. It makes a person desperately yearn for next July.

Me? Stranger Danger?

I understand that I was more into free-range parenting than most other parents I knew. I also understand that, in the past 25 years, society has leaned much further in the direction of Protecting Children At All Costs. But, really, now, c'mon....

For the last two days, I have spent copious hours in the garden, catching up on weeding and tilling that hadn't been done properly since last spring last year. I had kids out there helping me for a good part of the time. The next-door-neighbor kids have a babysitter who's been around for over a year. If I remember correctly, Katie has even taken Alia over to play with those kids and chatted with the sitter.

So I'm sitting in the dirt, trying to separate the Creeping Charley and the grass from my perennial onions. The 3-yr-old girl next door comes over to chat a bit. She's done that several times on weekends when her daddy is working in the yard. But today the babysitter is there. The babysitter called the girl back to the patio. Eventually, the girl wandered back in my direction; she was interested in what I was up to; she wanted to ask about my strawberry patch; she was having a hard time understanding that today I was working on the onions and not the strawberries. Please imagine the picture. The girl is in her own yard, and I am in mine. She is nowhere within my reach -- never closer than 10-15 feet away from me. I am sitting, not standing; I can't bolt over to grab her. We are both in full view of the sitter, only about 40-50 feet from her. We are far enough apart that we have to raise our voices to be heard by each other.

But still, the sitter kept calling the child back to the patio. At one point, I smiled and called to the sitter, "Oh, it's no problem; she's not bothering me!" The sitter ignored my comment: "Come back here and stay on the concrete patio. Don't you go over there!" Pretty soon, the sitter even had interjected herself in the boys' game of catch, rounding up the 6-yr-old and 8-yr-old on the patio, putting herself in the yard where they'd been, stationing herself between me and her charges. She gave them instructions not to go out into the yard.

Wow.

It would make perfect sense to me if the sitter didn't want the kids to follow me into the garage. She doesn't know me well enough to use me for a back-up sitter if an emergency should come up. I understand this. But to keep the kids corralled in a small space outside on a gorgeous day because the neighbor happens to be outside too? Oh dear me.

Coals of Fire on His Head

I guess I'm very bad and vengeful. You know that verse?
If your enemy is hungry, feed him,
and if he is thirsty, give him a drink.
For in doing so, you will heap coals of fire on his head.

(Romans 12:20)

It always struck me as if it were saying, "Be really nice to the dudes who hate you. That'll make 'em feel guilty. Oh yeah, if you're good to them when they're rotten to you, that'll show them! So ha!" What a guilt-free way to get 'em back ... by making them feel small for what they did to such a nice person as you.

Now, that wouldn't be exactly, uh, selfless and giving, now would it??

But you know what? When Isaiah saw heaven and was commissioned to be God's prophet (Isaiah 6) the angel took a coal from the altar and placed it on Isaiah's lips and said, This has has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is purged.

So maybe the coals are not about "Ha! Got you! Don't you feel bad now?" but maybe it's just plain about the forgiveness of sins. If your enemy is hungry, feed him even though he expects retaliation. If your enemy is thirsty, give him a drink even though he wouldn't do that for you. For in doing so, you will show mercy and forgiveness, and if the absolution is heaped upon his head, it may purge his sin and work love & faith in his heart. "And you will gain your brother."

Grand Babies

They Didn't Drop Dead

God had said, "In the day that you eat of [the fruit of the tree of knowledge] you shall surely die." Then Adam and Eve ate the fruit anyway. A very common question is "Why didn't they drop dead, then and there?"

In yesterday's sermon, Pastor talked about the answers typically given to that question and that there is truth in those answers: they were immediately separated from God; they began to die. But he posited another answer: they didn't keel over and die instantaneously because God is longsuffering. He is patient. He doesn't zot people but gives them time, calling and calling and calling them back to Himself. Adam and Eve weren't zotted, and this was the first demonstration of a God who put up with garbage from His people whom He loved. (We heard about this in the Isaiah 5 reading and the Matthew 21 reading this Sunday.) He loved, they rejected, and still He loved. Still He forgave. Still He bore with them.

Stephen

The martyr first whose eagle eye
could pierce beyond the grave,
who saw his Master in the sky
and called on Him to save.
Like Him, with pardon on his tongue,
in midst of mortal pain,
he prayed for them that did the wrong --
who follows in his train?

Today's Kitchen Goals

Four loaves of bread.
Turning a pie-pumpkin into a pumpkin pie.
Roasting the seeds.
Stewing two chickens for meals later this week.
Teriyaki chicken and rice for tonight's supper.
Setting some batches of kombucha to brew.
Mashed potatoes to make salmon patties tomorrow.
And hopefully a batch of cookies.

And with these goals, I still think I'm going to do yardwork??? And schoolwork with Maggie? And clean the house? I have no sense of proportion.

Hey, you know what I did yesterday?That's a pile of birch, maple, apple, cherry, lilac, locust, and crabapple branches. There's still quite a bit of tree-trimming to do in the next two weeks before the town's brush pick-up. I better have the good sense not to wield the pruning saw today: my shoulders are still aching from yesterday's efforts.

There was a florist in Delavan who asked us for our downed birch twigs and our tree trimmings from the birches. She loved how they look in flower arrangements. While picking up the mess I made in the yard yesterday, I noticed again how beautiful those twigs are!

Letting Go

Yesterday I unplugged from half my Facebook friends. This doesn't mean they aren't friends any more, but it does mean that I won't be keeping up with their daily lives like I have been. I want to say that I'll still be interacting with many of these people on a homeschooling email list, but I'm not as involved there as I used to be.

As I was getting ready to leave for work yesterday, Katie called and asked about the annual bird-banding presentation in Horicon. It would be a fun and educational outing for her and the girls. Katie's job is a lot more fun and fulfilling than my job.

Last week we cleaned the garage. We took quite a few items to Goodwill. There are homeschooling items I'm willing to sell. But there are a lot more I'm not willing to part with yet.

As much as I may enjoy my job (y'know, with its being a job and all), the downside is that I'm taking on my job at the bank in the wake of having had The Best Job In The Whole World. And that would make anything pale in comparison.

I don't want to get rid of those books. That would mean admitting that I'm done with them. I don't want to get rid of craft kits. That would mean admitting that I'm not going to teach Maggie how to use them. I don't want to disengage from gatherings of homeschool mommies (whether in person or online) because that would mean admitting that I'm done with that job and on to the next stage of life.

We're used to people getting better at their jobs, continuing in increasing enjoyment of their work as they hone their skills and advance in doing the part of the job they do best. But today's economy doesn't allow for that so much any more. So I'm not the only one saying goodbye to the best job I ever had or ever will have.

Pasta Test

Last time I shopped at Aldi, there was no whole-wheat pasta. When I asked the clerk, she said it had been discontinued due to lack of sales. Oh no! We'd been so disappointed with whole-wheat noodles in the past, and Aldi's was not only cheap but also a great product. We didn't have choke down the brown pasta because it was "good for us." It actually tasted great.

Yesterday I bought one box each of five different brands of pasta. In separate saucepans, I cooked about 1/4 cup of each kind. Here are our conclusions:

Hogsdon Mill has the brownest taste of the ones we bought, but it was edible.
15.8 cents per ounce.

Da Vinci 100% whole wheat also tasted brown, but acceptable.
19.9 cents per ounce.

Racconto 8-whole-grain pasta had a nicer texture and a lighter taste than the two 100% ones. It's a blend of grains: wheat, rye, buckwheat, kamut, spelt, etc.
16.2 cents per ounce.

Ronzoni Healthy Harvest and
Barilla Whole Grain
were our favorites. They're both half whole-wheat and half white. The taste and texture is much closer to the white pasta we'd been used to prior to discovering the now-gone pasta from Aldi. The ingredient list and nutrient list on the Barilla and Ronzoni look very similar to the label on the Aldi box.
Barilla = 9.0 cents per ounce
Ronzoni = 10.5 cents per ounce

For nutrition reasons, I'd prefer to buy Rocconto. The taste and texture is comparable to the Ronzoni & Barilla, but the mix of whole grains has a variety of minerals that you don't find when eating just wheat. But the Rocconto is almost twice the price of the Barilla. I think that means Barilla wins out for our family.

Let Me Not Be Ashamed

Our psalm for this week is 25. Four times David talks in this one psalm about being ashamed or not being ashamed. I don't know about you, but I tend to think of ashamed as pretty much equivalent to embarrassed.

But the word shame is in "ashamed." Shame isn't really a feeling so much as it as a status that comes in the wake of one's behavior. We pray in the Sixth Petition "that God would guard and keep us so that the devil, the world, and our sinful nature may not deceive us or mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice." That part of the Lord's Prayer sheds a different light on what David is saying in the psalm.

Facebook

In an attempt to cut down on my computer time, I've decided to ban myself from Facebook four days per week. I intend to cut my friends-list in half or more. When I originally signed up for Facebook, my plan was to "friend" only close family and a couple of friends. I was "hidden," and my list consisted of around 20-25 people for many months.

Then Facebook took away the option to be hidden. The recent changes on Facebook seem too overwhelming for me to figure out at this point in my life. Facebook wants to give us more reasons to interact on their site, and that's the exact opposite of what I want. Given that I've spent the last few years trying to curtail my attraction to goofing on the computer, this seems as good a time as any to back off in this one area. I'm not willing to axe the whole account (at least, not yet) because I want to see baby pictures and wedding pictures and reunion pictures, all of which are easy to share via Facebook.

If I believed in signs from God, I would say that He sent several this week confirming that this is a good plan. Please don't take it personally if I 'unfriend' you or fail to respond to FB messages. I'm just trying to spend more time with In-Real-Life interaction than electronic conversations.

Wish me luck.

When the Ark Set Out

The pillar of cloud/fire led the Israelites in the wilderness. At the end of Numbers 10, we hear what Moses said when they started out journeying and what he said when they stopped.

Psalm 68 (written by King David about 500 years later) starts with the exact same words that Moses said whenever the ark set out.

I think that's so cool. I love seeing in the Bible how we keep saying the same things over and over through the centuries, how we keep repeating what the previous generations have prayed. Those words which sustain our faith are words which transcend the years, the decades, the millenia.

Two Silver Trumpets

God instructed Moses that there should be two silver trumpets. They would be used to notify the Israelites when to gather, and when to pick up camp and move. They would be used as a call to arms and, at other times, as a call to worship. (See Numbers 10.)

So look at Psalm 81. "Blow the trumpet at the time of the New Moon, at the full moon, on our solemn feast day."

How 'bout that? Those trumpets referred to in the psalm weren't simply the brass in the orchestra used for worship. They were sacramental trumpets. (Don't look at me like that! They were. Look at the story!)

Boring Ol' Update

We keep trying to find time to work in the garden. Andrew and Maggie helped me a lot at the end of last week, but it's been raining constantly since Friday night.

Rachel was here on Sunday. Katie and the girls came over too. Ah, enjoyment!

My mom is home from hospital and rehab, enjoying being back in her own house!

Someone was sent home sick from work. I was the only one available to sub. So I will have three full days this week instead of two. So much for washing sheets or going to the grocery store. Actually, I'm quite pleased that we managed to eat Real Meals both yesterday and today, in spite of my paid-job interfering with cooking.

Also regarding job-news, the best teacher we have at our branch is taking a promotion at another branch. Oh, I will miss him! I have to ask a lot of questions and learn a lot before he goes elsewhere. He has such a calm way of teaching, but always explains well and gives opportunity to the learner to be doing some thinking instead of just rote copying, but he's fun and no stick-in-the-mud. That other branch that stole him away is sure lucky to get him! Thankfully, I really like the person who will probably replace him.

And in still more job-news, my regular schedule was changed with the start of the school year. There are a couple of minor downsides to the new schedule, but it also opens up two important days annually that I look forward to but had to miss this past year. So what worked best for my manager turned out to be what works best for me too! Can't get much better than that.

Saturday we all worked together on garage cleaning. We found plenty of items that had gone missing. This past weekend I also managed to clean off all the kitchen counters and the bedroom dressers. WHY are they already littered with papers and misplaced items? Already?!!

We watched The Blind Side again tonight. Yowza, that is one FANTASTIC movie.

Love Means ...

Love means "I will do whatever it takes so that you might live."

-- Kenneth Korby

Day of Atonement

In Leviticus 16, God tells the people about atonement. The bull is sacrificed. The goat is sacrificed. The sins of the people are imputed to the scapegoat, and it is driven away. But one thing seemed so odd.

The Holy of Holies had to be atoned for. The altar had to be atoned for. What? These places are not sinners. They didn't do sin. The Holy of Holies is the place of God's saving presence. This place is so holy that even the high priest can't enter, except once a year, after bathing and donning the holy garments and entering with the blood of atonement and the incense to cover the mercyseat. But still, God says several times in the chapter that the tabernacle and the altar and the Holy of Holies must be atoned for. They are in the midst of an unclean people.

It looks like our sin contaminates even the holy things that come to us. It's like the Holy of Holies shows us that Jesus (the true Holiest Place, the true Tabernacle) gets polluted by being among us unclean people, like as if our sin made Him to be the sinner. Thank God that Jesus is also the sacrifice which purifies.

A True Treasure

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.

Thorin Oakenshield, spoken to Bilbo
shortly before Thorin's death

Birthday "Cake"

Andrew thought birthday donuts sounded like a better plan than birthday cake.

Yummy!

Anniversary

Picnic in the park last week:

Our dear Frederick the Wise (aka Ed Suelflow):

After we heard a firm admonition from Pastor that it is not HIS anniversary but OUR anniversary, I will not label this picture "the honoree." But in some of the pictures you can see some members of the congregation, so that makes the whole "pair" for the anniversary.

Garden Mistakes

Liz asked about pruning raspberries.This is what I accomplished a couple of weeks ago. Thing is, I shouldn't have. Because I didn't prune shortly after the canes were done bearing, they were too crowded. Next year's canes didn't grow strong enough. The wind has bent and broken too many of next year's fruiting canes. What I should have done (given my neglect in July and August) was to prune out all of this year's fruiting canes and some of the baby canes. But I should have left plenty and then pruned again in spring. Right now, I have no margin for loss to winter's ice and snow and deer. But for the sake of Liz's education, this IS how thick the bearing-canes should be standing when a person is done with the spring pruning.



The strawberry patch has been a project screaming for attention for about 10 weeks now. Mark & Julie loaned me their Mantis [tiller] and I love it. It's lightweight enough that I can handle it. It took me three hours to spade up the weeds and eliminate that row by hand, till deeply and add manure, and replant strawberry crowns/plants. So, only about 12 more hours to go.

I can't believe how exhausted I was from fixing that one row. I couldn't make supper, clean, or do anything last night except collapse and relax. Not good. I felt so lazy. All I did was three measly hours of manual labor, and then I was shot. The plan was three more hours each day until I was done. But rain interrupted today's efforts. That does wretched things to my momentum!



Look at those miserable cucumber vines. The fungus got 'em. And yet, they bore. Not much, to be sure, but they did bear something. The powdery mildew also plagued the volunteer cantaloupe vines that showed up in the compost pile. And yet, we have 8 nice cantaloupes out there ripening. "God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayer, even to all miserable gardeners, but we pray that He would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving."

On a science note: I think this fungus problem in the garden is helping me figure out things in the Bible where it says the crops were destroyed, and yet there was still something left for the next plague to come along and destroy.