Ordinary Time

As I was talking with my good friends right now, it seems nearly everyone is struggling with questions of faith for one reason or another. I was sharing how helpful it had been for me to start seeing a spiritual director and the subsequent reading list that I read my way through. (Because a good reading list is the cure all for everything, right?) They were interested in what I had read, so I thought perhaps my broader audience might be as well. These are in the order I finished them. I found them all valuable and gave me much to ponder. Did I agree with everything everyone wrote? No, of course not. There would be no point in reading books that didn't cause me to do a bit of wrestling, and the wrestling was the point.  So, the list, so far. -Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others - Barbara Brown Taylor -The Sin of Certainty: Why God Desires our Trust More Than Our "Correct" Beliefs - Peter Enns -The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to R

We had a potluck planned with our long-time friends the P. family and the W. family for several weeks, but it was serendipitous timing due to the whole door issue I told you about yesterday. I was gone to a class all day and J. did a ton. He took out the old sliding door, picked up the new couches, and wrangled children. Then when the P. family arrived he and the P. family dad started to install the door. I did other things because I still wasn't quite convinced that I hadn't ruined it.  See? No door there at the moment. R. watched from the comfort of the couch that was moved out in the great couch shuffle. In the meantime, P. family mom and I played in the living room trying to figure out how to get the couches to work. There was no measuring or real though behind the purchase other than J. and I liking them and guessing we could make them work. I think we did it and I'm very happy with the result. They have already been used more than the old couch and old arrangement wa

It's been two weeks, but life has been pretty calm, so I'm not quite sure how much there is to share. Y. has started algebra. She loves math but at the moment she is not quite sure that she loves algebra. D. comes home late tonight for most of August, and I'm hoping that he can help fuel her enthusiasm for the subject. I continue to love our new range.  The tomatoes are starting to ripen and we are enjoying them. The tomato plants, however, are large. They are taller than I am and are loaded with green fruit. If it all comes ripe at the same time we will have a significant amount of tomatoes to deal with. It's not a bad problem. The cucumbers however... They are not doing so well. I don't know what is up with them as we have never had issues with cucumbers other than having too many. If you were wondering about my question regarding borage, I did some searching. As well as being a pretty flower that bees really like, the blossoms and leaves are edible (and are suppo

Our co-op hosted a mom's painting night tonight. It was fun to visit with people and do a little painting. Here's what I made.  I am most proud of the little water droplets. Having now made those orange and lemon slices once, I have a better idea of how they were painted and have several ways I would do things a little differently. Will I do this? Probably not... because I need another art form like I need a hole in the head. I'll probably find a place to hang it in the kitchen and leave it at that. I'm now eating a very late dinners because I'm starving. Our late meal time can be awkward when you have an evening function. 

"Havisham [as in Miss Havisham from Great Expectations] beckoned me [Thursday Next] over to her desk and indicated for me to sit. 'Firstly, congratulations on becoming a full Jurisfiction agent.' 'I'm not ready for this!' I hissed. 'I'm probably going to fall flat on my face!' ' Probably has nothing to do with it; you shall. Failure concentrates the mind wonderfully. If you don't make mistakes, you're not trying hard enough.'"                                                    -- From The Well of Lost Plots by Jasper Fforde (p. 255), the third book in the Thursday Next series. To help put the quote in context, Thursday Next is able to enter the Book World where Jurisfiction agents of the equivalent of police officers. Miss Havisham, when not playing her part in Great Expectations is a senior Jurisfiction agent who also happens to adore very fast cars.  Next week is the beginning of August which means that I will need to buckle d

I don't have much to show for this past week. I was correct that one of the three fleeces I washed last week still has a lot of lanolin, so I hope to get that rewashed this week. I did a tiny bit of spinning. I did a tiny bit of knitting. But really, I spent most of my time working on getting the loom ready for my next project.  The reed is all sleyed, so it was time to put it on the loom and start threading the heddles. I love how it is looking. Threading the heddles is by far the most time consuming part of the whole process. The heddles are what each individual thread needs to be threaded through... one thread through one heddle in one of four shafts in a certain pattern. Here is what the other side, where I'm threading, looked like after I had just started. That photo shows about twenty heddles threaded. I have 460 ends in this warp which means there are 460 heddles which need to be threaded. Below is a photo of all of the heddles which will be needed for this project. Reme

I just finished reading Overdressed: the shockingly high cost of cheap fashion by Elizabeth L. Cline. It was published in 2012, so ten years out of date, but I'm not sure that the state of textile industry waste is any better than it was ten years ago, which, I admit, is fantastically depressing. And even though it is older, I do recommend reading it especially if you have never thought about where your clothes come from or how textiles are made. It is worth thinking about. Being conscious of where fabric and clothing comes from is a topic that makes a fairly frequent appearance here. This is because I am very interested in delving into how these things are made. If you learn to sew your own clothes, you have a much greater appreciation of fit and fabric. If you learn to spin, knit, and weave, that appreciation is even greater. You begin to understand the labor involved (or what labor was involved pre-industrial revolution.) Clothes are not something that are just there, instead on

I am in love with the flower pots I planted and put near the pond this spring. They have filled in and except for those impatiens, I started all the flowers from seed, which makes me happy. I really like the crazy combination of flower colors I ended up with. (In full disclosure, this was totally unplanned as when I was putting seedlings in pots I didn't really have any memory of what the flowers were supposed to look like.) It would be fun to dye some sheep's wool in those colors to spin, don't you think? I also think the bee balm, which is the tall purple flower in front, looks like a Dr. Seuss flower. The picture isn't at a good angle to really see it, but each of those floofy purple flowers is on the same stalk one above the next. I'm pretty sure I have seen Dr. Seuss animals with decorations on the tops of their heads which look exactly like it.  And that's all I have tonight. I'm off to knit and read after a lovely day of catching up with things around

I'm sure you are wondering what to expect with a title like, aren't you? I apologize if it raised anyone's blood pressure a notch, but I couldn't help myself mainly because I have seen similar titles to genuine articles come across my news feed. Articles that are genuinely meant to be helpful and the information in them given as a way to help struggling families. At least that this their intent. I think. I'll be the first in line to admit that years ago, I would have been first in line for content like this. We had what I thought was a good thing going, me and my five little stair steps, and I wanted to be sure we all continued along the correct path. The path that Christian writers assured me would mean that my children would follow the straight and narrow path (as defined by these Christian writers and advice givers) and would assure them (and me) of a life that was acceptable to God and by extension God's people. There were lists and to-do lists and I ate it

Our new oven arrived at the store over the weekend and earlier in the day J. got it installed. J. has had a lot of experience installing appliances over the past few years and is now pretty darn good at it. This installation went remarkably smoothly and did not require an extra trip to the hardware store. This is a definite step up from what we had before. It is also the best range we've had in the five years we've lived in this house. That also means it is the fifth range we've had while living in this house. It sounds insane to say we have gone through a range a year, but it's true. The warranty gave us the purchase price of the range which died (and was only a year old) which meant that with the sale going on we could purchase a much better range for a reasonable amount of money. Want to see? What I like about it:  Our very large frying pan fits inside the oven which was not the case for our last one.  There are five burners and those burners are slightly farther apa

This afternoon we went to a good friend's house who has a swimming pond in the backyard. Everyone had a ball and it was a lovely afternoon. (All of these pictures of children having fun? You have to remember that as we were getting ready to go, all I heard from everyone was, "I don't think I'll get in the water." "Why are we going?" "I don't like water." Sometimes you just have to let the noise flow on past you.) K.  K. R. and H. Y.  Y. -- notice she got up to a kneel! K. - more on the hat on Friday We had a great time. The weather was perfect and I got to spend time with a friend. And those non-participitory children? Swam for nearly three hours, hardly exiting the pond at all.  Thanks, friend, for the invitation!

As I've mentioned before, when my writing students don't know what to write about, I suggest they make a list. Often something on that list will trigger something that they can elaborate one. I am taking my own advice. This list will be some of my favorite things, with 'things' being interpreted in the broadest way possible. These things will also be in the order I think of them with not merit being given to being higher on the list. 1. Libraries I know this surprises no one. I'm sure it also would not surprise anyone who works at our local library because I'm running through there multiple times a week to check out books on hold that have come in. Probably more specifically, I should say I love libraries with online portals to put books on hold. Often I will read about a book I want to look at, put it on hold, and then be surprised when the book arrives because I have forgotten about it. It's the little things in life, isn't it? Also, where else can you

I crossed some items off my imaginary weaving/spinning to do list this week. First, I finished plying the 2-tone yarn for my gradient shawl I'm planning. I am really, really happy with how it is looking. Here are the first two colors done: Then I finished spinning one bobbin of the navy and have one bobbin more to spin. I also finished measuring my warp for my next weaving project and have started to sley the reed which will help keep all the ends separated and in line. This project has 460+ ends which makes it both the biggest project I've done plus I am using the thinnest thread I have ever woven with.  Here is all four sets of warp on the lease sticks (which keep everything in order) and on the stand so I can sley the reed.  I was relieved to get to this point. This is only my fourth warp and my first to do entirely on my own from start to finish. It still doesn't feel easy or automatic. Here is what it looked like when I left it today. There are four sections to this wa

As I continue with my recovering conservative reading list, I have been working my way through Rachel Held Evans' books. I find her ability to give voice to what has been going round in my head to be both comforting and informative. I recommend her writings if you are not familiar with them.  Today's post isn't so much on that topic, though it comes from one of her books. Instead it is about a different way to read Proverbs 31. Now, if you have read here for any length of time, you know I wrestle with this section of the Bible a lot. This is why I find this passage from A Year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachel Held Evans to be... freeing. This is a little long, but I think it is well worth your time. "After a few emails back and forth, I asked Ahava [a Jewish woman in Israel with whom Ms. Evans is corresponding] if Jewish women struggle as much as Christian women to live up to the Proverbs 31 ideal. For the first time in our correspondence, Ahava seemed a bit perplexed:

Here we are in the middle of July and thus the middle of summer in my book. My sympathies for my friends in Arizona who are starting back to school this Monday. It's just not right. If you subscribe or read the Bon Appetit magazine, you need to make the turmeric-dill fish tacos that is in this month's issue. It's what we had for dinner tonight and they are extremely tasty. We have no leftovers. It is a kind of cha ca/taco mash-up. (Actually you don't need the magazine because I just did a little searching for you: Turmeric-Dill Fish Tacos You're welcome.) If you are wondering what cha ca is, I'll tell you about it. It is a northern Vietnamese dish which is one of my favorites. On our second trip to Vietnam, we went to a cha ca restaurant in Hanoi. There are several of these restaurants and I have no idea what the name of the one we went to was. They all serve one thing: cha ca, which is catfish cooked with turmeric, dill, and green onions served on rice noodles

On Tuesday I had noticed that R. hadn't been following me around all morning. When I went to investigate, I found this. H. had helped R. build a zoo using H.'s magnetic building tiles and R.'s PlayMobile animals. I wasn't so astounded at H.'s doing this. She will have moments of wanting to play big sister and will spend a day or two organizing R.'s day. What astounded me was that R. was engaged with a type of imaginative play for so long. She usually has very short bursts of imaginative play... "My dolly fall down and is crying," and then she will give the baby a couple of hearty pats and that game is done. R. is usually happier to have something where she can do a repetitive motion over and over and over. Things that require any sort of intellectual thinking have been beyond her. Now, I have no idea who was doing the playing, H. or R., but I'll take it either way. This type of play has also not fallen in H.'s skill set, either. The same zoo oc