Recent Doings

Three days in a row at home.

Oh, it's a beautiful thing!

After two and a half months of working extra days every week, we made a trip to Illinois to visit parents.  The next week was Christmas shopping, Christmas decorating, and napping to ward off the impending illness.  The next week was Christmas and all the fun of visitors and extra Services.  The next week was the exhaustion of defeating the ice dams.  The next week I expected to be driving to Illinois again and arranged all plans around that.  But the trip was delayed by a day, so Gary traveled by himself.

While there, his mom passed away.  He was blessed to have had the opportunity to talk to her, reminding her of her baptism and the forgiveness that Jesus bestows on her, and to thank her for all she did for him, especially bringing him to the Lord.  He helped his dad with arrangements for a couple of days, came home for two days, and then we all turned around and traveled back for the funeral.  I was very thankful that my brother drove over with my mom.  (It gave my mom a chance to meet Mandy.  That girl gets enthusiastic thumbs-up from everybody in the family!  We thinks she's dandy!)

Paul started his new job in MinnesOta.  I haven't heard yet how it's going.  It's nice hours: full-time days, Monday through Friday.

Maggie and I have cleaned nearly the whole house this week.  It's about time, given the neglect it's endured.  We also finished (!) the laundry.  Well, "finished" for a couple of hours.

I cooked a Real Meal four nights in a row.  I was beginning to suspect I was no longer capable of real cooking.  But oh, the deliciousness was delicious.  Mmmm hhhmmmm.

I made two batches of soap this week.  Of course, with curing time they won't be ready for use until end of summer.  But hey, I've been putting off this task for over a year, so I'm pleased that I finally have some bars sitting and drying.

We still haven't succumbed to the germies floating about the city and the family.  Between sick tummies and terrible colds, it's nasty out there.  We're not exactly well, but we're still functioning.  It probably helped that I slept in several days this week, skipping chapel.

Maggie has exercised every day for the last week.  This is fantastic!

Andrew started his new semester this week.  He's half-time at school and working as many hours as he can get.

It's amazing how little effort, time, and money it took to fix the shower-head that was spritzing water all over the bathroom walls and ceiling.  Really?  Why did it take me so long to make a repair that was so simple?

Next up: more proofreading for CCA, shampooing carpets, a visit to the Social Security office for Maggie, and seeing if the "Christmas cards" can make it in time to be valentines.  

Fish Recipes

Thawed tilapia.  What to do with it for dinner?  Yowza -- I hit the jackpot with an online recipe.  I used 2# of fish and cooked it in two 10" skillets.  It's quick, easy, healthy, and so delicious that I'm wishing I could make it again tomorrow!

To start, grab a pint of canned tomatoes and drain the juice off for some other use; or chop a few tomatoes.  Chop a couple of onions too.  Then sprinkle a spice mix on both sides of the fillets.  (I used Emeril's Essence.  Next time I'll reserve Maggie's fillets to be seasoned with salt and pepper only.)  Heat 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil in each skillet.  Cook fillets in the hot oil for about 45-60 seconds per side. Gently lift fillets and toss the onions and tomatoes underneath.  Lower heat to low-medium, cover skillets, and cook for about 3 minutes.  Pour in enough coconut milk to make a nice sauce (about 1 cup per skillet), heat through until fish flakes and sauce is somewhat thickened and, well, saucy.  Serve over a small amount of rice.





Our other fave fish recipe is for salmon.  Meghan turned us onto this.  For each 4-oz salmon fillet, you'll combine about 1/2 Tbsp each of butter and mustard with 1 tsp of honey.  In another bowl you'll combine 1.5 Tbsp each of bread crumbs and finely chopped pecans with 1/2 tsp chopped fresh parsley.  Salt & pepper the fillet; brush with honey-mustard; sprinkle with bread crumbs & pecans.  Bake at 400 for about 10 minutes or until fish tests done by flaking it with a fork. 

I also want to try another of Meghan's recipes.  My only problem with this one is thinking ahead far enough to do the marinating. 

Moses and Elijah

Moses and Elijah both struggled with doubts.  "I don't want to be doing this, Lord."  "I've had enough of this; these people don't want to listen to me; how about I quit now?"  Or "How about You just kill me now?"  Okay, sure, they both had the problem of "hearers" who refused to listen to them.  But even more, they suffered with their own unbelief, hating it, and yet incapable of freeing themselves.  And what help is there for that?

Oh.  Yeah.  Talking to Jesus about His suffering and death that was approaching.

Holier Holiness

Cleaning my room today, I found a note 

from an Advent sermon.  I don't know

 if it's a quote from somebody famous, or 

just a distillation of what Pastor was saying 

that day.  Either way, it's sweet to think on.

The holier real holiness is,
the closer it draws near to sinners.

Violence

This two-minute video has been spreading around Facebook.  I finally watched it.  Maggie caught me crying over it.



To direct and defend our president and all in authority;
To watch over and help all who are in danger, necessity, and tribulation;
To grant all women with child, and all mothers with infant children, increasing happiness in their blessings;
To strengthen and keep all sick persons and young children:
We beseech Thee to hear us, good Lord.

Quote

We rarely get enough of what we don't need to make us happy.   

(From p. 15

of  A Little Book on Joy 

by Matt Harrison.)

Little boys and their Legos.
Little girls and their Barbies.
Grown-ups and their money.
Women and their shoes.
Men and their tools.
Hangin'-out-with-friends time.
Sometimes even a Christian's "level of sanctification."


"We rarely get enough of what we don't need to make us happy."
Jesus, Jesus, only Jesus
can my heartfelt longing still. ...

What to me may seem a treasure
but displeasing is to Thee,
oh, remove such harmful pleasure;
give instead what profits me.
Let my heart by Thee be filled. 
Make me Thine, Lord, as Thou wilt.  (TLH 348)

Haircut

Same ol' long hair pulled back in a ponytail/bun.

I like the back!

I think the bangs are too short. 

 (And boy, it's weird how my profile makes me look so much like my mom but also like a cousin on my dad's side.)

The front of the new haircut. 

I haven't cried yet.  That's a good sign, right?  Considering what I was anticipating?  Yup.

The War Against the Ice-Dams

On those days before Christmas when it was raining, how often did I thankfully say, "At least we don't have to shovel it"?

Well, maybe that didn't turn out as well as I'd thought at the time.

So it turns out that the pre-Christmas rain, snow, slush, goo, froze into several inches of packed snow and ice on the roof and in the gutters. A week later when it snowed, I could roof-rake the new snow down. But not those inches of ice. Underneath the snow-ice were, in places, several inches of solid ice, just threatening to be ice-dams with the first thaw, diverting thawed snow into the attic instead of having it drip into the gutters or off the roof.

So it had to go.

Except on days I had to be at "work" [ha ha ha ... the place where I go to rest up] I spent hours daily on the ladder, with a hoe, hacking off small slices of snowpack, trying desperately to be gentle enough to Not Touch The Shingles while being vicious enough to crack the ice that needed to come down.

I'm trying to think of a part of my body that didn't ache from the work.  Not figurin' it out...


BUT you can see the results over the front door: several feet of roof that had been cleared and then sat in the sun for a couple of days.  Woo hoo!!!


And yesterday, with the warm weather, no ice dams!  No icicles!  (Now we just hope that the clean-up efforts didn't cause a different set of roof problems.)

Friends

DARE to be Lutheran!

Andrew, Philip, and Matthew have a game day.

Consternation over Hair

Do you scan the bookshelves of people you're getting to know?  When you're visiting a friend, do you check out the front of the refrigerator door?  If there's a scheduling calendar or a to-do list prominently displayed, do you notice it?  

What we see tells us a lot about who that person is.  



So, I've lost a lot of hair over the past year or two.  A lot.   My ponytail looks thin like a rat tail.  My bun is tiny and flat.  My hair looks scraggly when it's down.  I need a haircut.  Not 6" trimmed off.  But a completely different haircut.  A haircut that works with old-lady hair.

And I don't want one!    [waaaaahhhh!]

Everybody says, "It's just hair."  
Everybody says, "You can always grow it back."
Everybody says, "It will be fine."

But my boring hairstyle that I've had for 20+ years says something about who I am.  It reveals who I am just like my refrigerator door and the contents of my bookshelves.

Okay, so gazillions of American women change their hairstyle and their hair color every few months or every couple of years.  That's great.  But it's not me.  So I'm, like, having this identity crisis over the upcoming appointment for the haircut, fully anticipating a week or more of mourning.

And everybody thinks I'm silly. 
    
 

The Amazing, Lovely, Awesome Fireplace

Zoe quickly became attached to the fireplace.  Three times in a row (Dec 22, 23, 25) when she was here, there was a fire.  When she arrived on Tuesday, she looked at the cold and lifeless fireplace.  The expression on her face was clear: "What's up with THAT?!"

Papa made her a fire.

Life was good again.

The Trailers at the Movie

I really like living in LalaLand.  I don't want to notice the degradation of society.  I can't change the world.  So I pretend not to notice.

We went to a movie last weekend.  Before it started were ads for five movies.  Every single one of them was twisted.  Every. single. one.   Every one was about the apocalypse.  Or gaining power to take over the world to destroy and conquer.  Witches.  Zombies.  The attempt to annihilate mankind.   Or fighting for survival after everything else has been annihilated.

1)  THAT's what we, as a society, watch for entertainment?  For fun?  Oy!

2)  I couldn't figure out why they would choose those kind of movie trailers to accompany the Hobbit movie.  Well, that should have been a clue as to the action-focus of the movie we were about to see.



PS:  It seems that world domination was often a part of movies from years past [I'm thinking of Lex Luther here], but it was always recognized that Good Guys had to stop the ones who want to take over the world.   I think we've changed: the quest for power (which used to be recognized as bad) is now seen as perfectly acceptable and normal.

The Hobbit

And now for something completely different ...

I suspect I may be the only one, but I didn't like the movie.  It was definitely an ACTION movie.  And I don't like action movies.  I'm thinking Anthea will enjoy it.  :-)

The Lord of the Rings had lots of action, lots of battle scenes, ... but it seemed like there was more story than in Hobbit.

Andrew and Maggie told us that it was such a good film that Gary and I would have no problem staying awake to the end of the show, even if we attended a 7:00 movie.  (Yes.  I know that makes us sound like old fuddy-duddies who go to bed ridiculously early.  So ... sometimes the truth hurts.  And embarrasses.)  Even though we went to a 3:30 showing, I was bored 3/4 of the way in, and forcing myself to stay awake.  All that slashing, fighting, lopping off heads, running, stabbing, and more escaping -- it was getting old.

That said, the arkenstone was magnificent, as was much of the scenery.  Bilbo was marvelously cast and played, as perfect as Samwise in the LotR.   I still love Gandalf.  The dwarves' singing (particularly the night in the Shire before they headed off on their quest) sends shivers down the spine.  And I tried to convince my mathematical brain to enjoy some of the escape scenes, where the choreography reminded me of complex Rube Goldberg machines.

So there were bright spots.  But I have no desire to head back to the theatre for another showing, and I doubt I'll be talked into seeing Part 2 and Part 3.

 

Mugs

Gary with his TARDIS mug.

Mandy showing off the disappearing/reappearing TARDIS.

Dr Who?  Why, Doctor Matt, of course.  Accompanied by the Supreme Empress Dictator of Life, the Universe, and Everything.

Christmas Pictures

Rachel and Alia (early in the day)

Zoe borrows an FS hat

The fire is captivating!

Pirate Paul has a Polly Parrot on his shoulder.  Squawk!

Evidence that little girls were here!  Horses on parade, headed to dinner.

End of the day meltdown.  "But I don't WANT to go home!  I want to stay at Nanna's and Papa's!!!"

Humble Cattle

The English translation of "From Heaven Above to Earth I Come" used to read:
... that Thou dost choose Thine infant bed
where humble cattle lately fed.

I noticed this year that the new translation goes:
... that You should choose to lay Your head
where lowly cattle lately fed.

Lowly.  Humble.  It's the same thing.

But somehow we've turned "humble" into something to brag about, something to admire, something to work toward, something for which we [oxymoronically] pat ourselves on the back.

In the modern definition of "humble" it must sound mighty queer to anthropomorphize the cattle by suggesting that they possess the quality of humility.  But that's NOT what humility is!

Someday I'm going to have to 

tell the story of the Humble Girl.

Family Pictures

Gary and Zoe

Katie and Maggie

Mandy and Paul

the kids

front row:Philip, Maggie, Katie, Mandy, Paul

back row:Andrew, Nathan, Rachel, Matt

the whole family

Alia, Katie, Zoe, Nathan

Susan and Gary

Rachel and Matt

New Year's Treats

So what does it mean when you go to the grocery store to buy goodies to celebrate the new year, and come home with --
brussels sprouts to roast
fresh salsa
avocados
shrimp
spinach turnovers
cauliflower to steam & butter
mushrooms, cucumbers, and tomatoes?

I think we must be old farts.
Old farts who OD-ed on treats last weekend.

A Few Christmas Pictures

Fish fingers and custard.
Really, Katie?
It's something that Doctor 11 enjoyed.
And no, they're not really fish sticks.  They're cookies designed to look like fish sticks.  Even though my tastebuds told me this was quite the yummy snack, my brain just couldn't cope with the looks of it.

[shudder]  Fish fingers and custard.  [shudder]

By the way, notice 11's sonic screwdriver also on the tray.  And it just so happens that on the back of the table is the box for Gary's "Disappearing Tardis Mug" from Paul and Mandy.  Combine that with timeshares for Gary and Maggie, in ownership of a brand-spankin'-new Dr Who lunchbox, and sonic screwdrivers for Matt and Rachel, and we shall call this a very merry Dr-Who Christmas.

French-Fried Frog Legs!!!!

"I'm goin' on a picnic and I'm taking ....
FRENCH-FRIED FROG LEGS, eggs, dandelion greens, carrots, bananas, and apples."

[Whew.  Good thing nobody had heard of fish fingers and custard back then.]

Andrew wanted a hair cut.  When I cut it to 3/4" that wasn't enough for him.  So I buzzed him shorter.  Wow -- it's hard to recognize him now.

 

 So it takes three adults to dress one child in snowsuit, mittens, and other outdoor paraphenalia. And Katie can accomplish this feat quicker than the three of us put together.

Matt and Katie taking the girls sledding down the "hill" in the backyard. Isn't the light gorgeous off the snow when twilight is approaching?



Okay, so there are other pictures.  Tomorrow or the next day I'll try to post pictures from the weekend.  But first there are chores to catch up with.  It's been a very nice few days.  Plenty of chance to soak up God's Word at church, and plenty of time to hang out with my dear kiddoes.

Impossible

So when the rich young ruler comes to Jesus and then goes away sad (Mt 19, Mk 10, Lk 18) and the disciples ask, "Well, who then can be saved?" Jesus answers, "With men it is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

Interesting how that's so much like what Gabriel told Mary.  "How can this be, since I do not know a man?"  "With God nothing will be impossible."

Forget "easy" things like Elizabeth's getting pregnant.

With God,
not even the salvation of arrogant sinners
is impossible.

"You shall call His name JESUS 

for He shall save His people from their sins."