early Christmas

Winter has finally arrived in Pittsburgh! I can't say I was exactly looking forward to it, but I do enjoy the contrast of the four seasons. The snow outside my window, the Christmas cards I'm making, and the earlier and earlier arrival of holiday stuff in stores has me really excited about Christmas!

The thing is... I am a strict "no Christmas anything before Thanksgiving" girl. But I've been bombarded by my surroundings; everything screams "Christmas"!

Without going in to a discussion about how commercialism and materialism has destroyed Christmas, the thing that makes me most sad about such an early Christmas is that we miss some important things in the days leading up to December 25th. I started seeing Christmas stuff in stores before Halloween. Ridiculous. And sad. November 1 is All Saints' Day, when we remember the dear souls who have departed. And November 27 is, of course, Thanksgiving -- a time when we give thanks for all the blessings in our lives.

I'm going to keep fighting the "early Christmas" attitude. Because I am blessed.

A Thanksgiving Prayer
by Samuel F. Pugh

"O God, when I have food,
help me to remember the hungry;
When I have work,
help me to remember the jobless;
When I have a home,
help me to remember those who have no home at all;
When I am without pain,
help me to remember those who suffer,
And remembering,
help me to destroy my complacency;
bestir my compassion,
and be concerned enough to help;
By word and deed,
those who cry out for what we take for granted.
Amen."

happy faces part 2

I'm almost finished with Elizabeth Gilbert's wildly popular book eat pray love. Tonight I read a passage that reminded me about what I wrote a few days ago. Here it is for you:

As I focus on diligent joy, I also keep remembering a simple idea my friend Darcey told me once - that all the sorrow and trouble of this world is caused by unhappy people. Not only in the big global Hitler-'n'-Stalin picture, but also on the smallest personal level. Even in my own life, I can see exactly where my episodes of unhappiness have brought suffering or distress or (at the very least) inconvenience to those around me. The search for contentment is, therefore, not merely a self-preserving and self-benefiting act, but also a generous gift to the world. Clearing out all your misery gets you out of the way. You cease being an obstacle, not only to yourself but to anyone else. Only then are you free to serve and enjoy other people. (p. 260)

In being willing to open ourselves up and admit that we are not always the happy people that we project to all around us, we take the first step in healing ourselves. Our great God who created us in his image wants us to rejoice in this fact: we are his, he loves us, and he wants us to be happy! Only then, as Gilbert says, are we free to serve and enjoy others.

happy faces

I was listening to a song on my way in tonight, and these are the lyrics I heard:

In the girl there's a room
In the room there's a table
On the table there's a candle
and it won't burn out

In the woman there's a song
In the the song there is hope
in the hope revolution

I believe I've blogged about this song before, with a different attitude. Today my spirit is heavy. I'm the girl, and the candle on the table in my room has gone out. I'm the woman, but I cannot sing.

Over the years I have become adept at putting on a happy face and doing what needs to be done, no matter what I am feeling. I have become so good at this, in fact, that I actually become my happy face. The pain and struggles and burdens that I feel are forgotten out of necessity -- things must be done, and I must be the one to do them. There is no time, no room for pain. But when the aching sorrow catches up with me, it hurts even more because I've forgotten about it while I was busy being the happy face.

In a few minutes, the kids will arrive for youth group, and the happy face will settle back into her face, masking my true heart from everyone -- including myself.

Why I Love My Alma Mater

or, Everything I Needed to Know About the Church I Learned at Taylor University.


I love Taylor University!


The four years I spent there were the best four years of my life thus far. I learned so much about what it means to be in community, about my faith, about responsibility. I learned about myself. And as far as the education I received, it was excellent. I don't want to have the elitist attitude about my university that some people I know have about their schools; it is possible to get a quality education anywhere a student is willing to apply him- or herself. But still... I would recommend Taylor University to EVERYONE.

One of my professors is now studying for his doctorate at Duke, and keeps a blog titled Church Leadership Conversations. He recently wrote an article for a Taylor publication and has posted it there. It's called Everything I Need to Know About the Church I Learned at Taylor University, and the link directly to the article is above.

He puts it much more eloquently than I would be able to, so please, if you're interested, go read the article. It's not long, and is actually a good descriptor of what any good Christian community should strive to be.

Pickles!

I'm planning to make another batch of pickles and pesto today, and I want to try making dilled green beans too. Gotta work fast to get the rest of the fall bounty!

Yummy Dinner

Got a lot of fresh vegetables? Have I got a recipe for you! I love it because it's quick and flexible. Basically, you just take whatever veggies (and meat if you want it) and simmer them together.

Begin warming some broth over medium-high heat. (I used one can of chicken broth, and one can of vegetable broth because that's what I had on hand.)
If you're using meat, you should probably pre-cook it before adding it to the broth. (I used pre-cooked chicken sausage, so I just added it here while it was cold.)
Add the harder veggies early so they have time to soften. (e.g. carrots, celery, green beans if you like 'em soft. My roommate and I disagreed on this point.)
Cook those for a while before adding other veggies. (I used zucchini, onion, and corn.)
If you're adding potatoes, those should go in early with the meat and carrots. However, if you forget to put them in early (like I did), you can always microwave them for a few minutes to soften them and add them with the rest of the veggies.
Add salt, pepper, and any other seasonings you would like.
Toss in some chopped parsley before serving!

Ten on Tuesday

Well, I am blatantly stealing a great idea from my new friend Rebecca and her corner of the blogosphere: Ten on Tuesday. Basically... I tell you ten random things that have been happening in my life recently! I suppose it could also be Five on Friday, or Six on Sunday... but since today's Tuesday, and I want to start today, but I don't want to do two, or twelve, or twenty... I think ten is just right. :)

1. My favorite thing about the Halloween season is candy corn and mellowcreme pumpkins. Mmmm, pure sugar! A close second on the Halloween-favorites list is dressing up. I haven't actually dressed up for Halloween in quite a few years, because I like to spread it out through the whole year. (Although since I'm a "grown-up" now, I sort of do my dressing up through really cool fashion accessories. Anyway.) I have an entire storage box filled with all manner of dress-up items. In college, my roommate and I used to dress up randomly and run around the halls distracting people from studying. Ah, those were the days...

2. Tuesdays are looooooong days for me. I'm going to have to get typing if I'm going to actually get this post in on Tuesday! I didn't get home until 11:20pm tonight.

3. Over the weekend, I (finally) made pickles and pesto! It took me a few tries to finally get all the materials that I needed (you can read about it here), but I got it all accomplished! As a result, the kitchen is a mess and I am putting off cleaning it. Give me another day or so and I will post pictures from the pickle-making up on my other blog. I didn't take any pictures of the pesto-making, but I have another batch of basil that's ready to be chopped, so I'll do more soon.

4. I've been noticing a trend lately in the movies I'm watching. I was going to do a whole blog post about it, but I never got around to it, so I'll give you a synopsis here. The trend I'm noticing is that people are watching - and loving - movies with morals. Even coming from a Christian background, Hollywood has such skill in entertainment that I find myself wanting the characters in movies and tv shows to get their happy endings rather than do the "right" thing. But there are a few filmmakers out there who are gradually turning the tides. For instance, if you haven't seen Bella, Once, or Waitress, to name a few... go watch them. Now.

5. Nectarines are my new favorite fruit. Especially locally grown nectarines that I get from the local CSA. I ate one today, and I swear it was better than Cherry Vanilla ice cream.

6. The sermon on Sunday was really great. Sometimes I'm so distracted thinking about youth group or Sunday school, or who I need to talk to after the service, that I don't spend much time paying attention to the sermon. (True confessions... don't tell my pastor!) Last week he started a sermon series based on Phillip Yancey's book What's So Amazing About Grace? and I was really impacted by this week's message. The text was from Hebrews 12:14-15.

Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.

I realized that in some of the significant relationships in my life, I haven't been showing much grace lately, which has some interesting implications. As Pastor John said, the deeper our appreciation for God's grace in our own lives, the more we are able to offer his grace to others. So if I'm having trouble giving grace to the people who are closest to me, what does that say about my relationship with God lately? Hmm...

7. Yikes! I'm only on number 7 and I have five minutes left to post this! Better write less per number.

8. My newest favorite way to waste time on the internet? Etsy. What's that? Etsy. It's like eBay / Amazon for crafty people! Everything on the whole stinkin' site is handmade by someone just like you and me. And let me tell you, there is some awesome stuff out there! Plus lots of people on Etsy are into the "green" thing and use lots of recycled or "upcycled" (new term for me) materials in their crafts. Check it out!

9. Speaking of ways to waste time... Today I revisited one of my guilty college pleasures: Snood. It's a horrible, horrible, time-sucking computer game. Don't play it. It will drag you in.

10. It's 11:59! I'll be better next week.