One Thousand Gifts

Have you read it yet? You need to. I'm planning to write a review... one of these days. When I get to it.

1. Frost tipped leaves coating the lawn.

2. A ridiculously large container of Feta cheese.

3. A little baby lisping "Mama".

4. A bite of cream cheese frosting, savored.

5. Swells of music echoing in the empty concert hall.

6. Stars piercing a frosty Christmas night.

7. Sliding under warm covers on a cold night.

8. Droopy eyes and sleepy voices calling out "I love you mommy."

9. Christmas lights in a dark room.

10. A great call to do something more, to clamor on to the great movement of God, to cling to the motion of grace and compassion and CHANGE.

Menu Plan Monday

Greetings! I'm linking up my occasional blog with Menu Plan Monday at Org Junkie. Last week's menu plan was a bit off, well, it kind of went to- who knows where. It disappeared. So we'll be moving several items to this week. I'm also working on doing small main dishes and filling up with vegetables.

Tuesday: Stuffed Green Peppers, Roasted Sweet-Potato Cubes with Cilantro-Jalapeno Aioli Dip, Green Beans

Wednesday: Spicy Lime and Honey Chicken, Corn on the Cob, Salad, Spelt Rolls

Thursday: Crockpot Roast (still looking for a recipe) with potatoes and veggies, Salad, Spelt Rolls (leftover)

Friday: Leftovers

Saturday: Quick and Easy

Sunday: Small Group at Our House (Brunch Theme)- bringing Mango Fruit Salad with Sugar and Spice Tortilla Chips

And that's it, folks. Exciting, aren't we?

Menu Plan Monday. Er. Wednesday.

So I'm a bit late. Much too late to link up, but here is my menu plan anyway.

Thursday

Breakfast: Leftover homemade turkey sausage and blueberry pancakes

Lunch: Picnic lunch at the park- Sandwiches, Fruit, Pea skewers (M's favorite way to eat peas)

Dinner: Pizza Pockets (plus extra to freeze), Undressed salad (using ripe avocado in place of dressing), Sweet Potato Skewers with Cilantro-Jalapeno Aioli

Friday

Breakfast: Steel cut oats with pear, raisins and cinnamon

Lunch: Leftovers

Dinner: Shepherd's Pie (plus extra to freeze), Apple Braid Bread

Saturday

Breakfast: Quick and Easy

Lunch: OUT

Dinner: BBQ'ed something- sausages?, Corn on the cob, Ranch Potato Wedges, Undressed salad, Homemade spelt rolls, Vanilla ice cream with cherries and peaches (coconut milk ice cream for me)

Sunday

Breakfast: Quick and Easy

Lunch: Leftovers

Dinner: Wild Rice and Chicken Salad, Homemade spelt rolls, Chips and salsa, Fruit salad

Something is Enough

Haiti. I saw a picture of a child after the earthquake. His face was wet with tears. Although his hair and eyes and face were different, he looked like my son. And suddenly I saw my baby surrounded by rubble, looking for me, afraid and alone. And I could see him but I couldn’t go to him.

And everything within me cries out. WHY? Why must a child suffer so deeply? Weren’t we created by a God who is good and loving? Isn’t there something good holding this world together? There must be something better than this. Every part of my being longs for something that I don’t have. Something I don’t see in the dirt and rocks of this world.

And I feel alone. Because I feel that this God I’ve always claimed to know could have stopped this. But He didn’t. And this child that could have been mine is desperate and afraid and alone. And I don’t know why.

And I have been silent, too overwhelmed with bits and ends of thoughts to try to piece things together. Pain. Suffering. Frail humanity pretending to be strong. Longing for meaning and purpose. Fighting against death yet knowing that death will find us anyway. Mourning the loss of loved ones. To what end? We miss them, we want them with us. They fill our lives with meaning and joy. But we all die, we all become dust. Why would God spare my child over yours?

I don’t understand this God. I can’t comprehend His place in this muddle of our tiny existence. He seems too vast and our lives too simple, solid celled organisms that pretend to be infinite.

Yet in the midst of these thoughts and questions I can feel something beating within me. Stronger. My heart beats. And as it pumps out its rhythm my core- my gut- the very depth of me- longs for something greater. Something bigger. Something eternal. Something within me calls to the infinite God. And I know. I call to the infinite God. I long for Him. And this very desire is evidence to me that HE IS.

And that is something.

And for now, that is enough.

Baby Step 1: Reduce Waste

We put out a full can of garbage every week. There are four people in our family. How could we possibly generate so much trash? Ugh. No wonder this picture exists:

Stephanie suggests finding three practical ways to reduce waste. She gives a great list of ideas. Here are the three I will start with:

1. Learn what can be recycled in our curbside program and develop an easy system for recycling.

Here is what can be recycled in my area:

#1 Plastic, #2 Plastic (clear), #2 Plastic (colored) #3 Plastic, #4 Plastic, #5 Plastic, #7 (Other), Aerosol cans, aluminum cans, aluminum foil, bi-metal cans, book recycling, brown glass, brown paper bags, cardboard, catalogs, chipboard, clear glass, computer paper, cookware, gift boxes, green glass, greeting cards, magazines, mixed paper, newspaper, paperboard, phonebooks, plastic bags, scrap metal, shredded paper, tin or steel cans, toys, white office paper. (Source: earth911.com)

We have a recycling container in our kitchen; I need to add one to our bathroom in the back part of the house for toiletry items. So I put a box under our bathroom cupboard. Voila.

2. Utilize cloth rags and cloth napkins instead of paper towels. Make this easily accessible. I bought a large glass jar and filled it with pretty white washcloths (I bought both new- is that irony? Oh well, baby steps.). I keep this on my kitchen counter right next to the paper towels. It looks pretty and is an easy replacement for paper towels.

3. Reduce/Reuse ziploc bags, tin foil, etc. Every time I throw away a ziploc bag I think "oh I could wash this and reuse it" but I don't. I'm just "plain old" lazy. Gah. Well, this is easy to change. I'm going to start reusing ziplocs. Not only will this help reduce waste but it will also save money. I'm also going to use tupperware, glass jars and other reusable food storage more frequently.

Ooh. Here is an idea. We often use ziploc bags for kid snacks. Usually these snacks are crackers or nuts or some other dry type of food. At the end of the day I will take the empty bags and refill them with snack-sized portions of the same snack. That way, I will have easy "on the go" snacks for the kids and will be less likely to buy something while we are out. Many birds. One stone.

That's all for now.

This is the first in a series of posts about my journey through the ebook "Healthy Homemaking: One Step at a Time".

Natural Living

For a long time, I thought that natural living was for a particular demographic. I figured that unless I let my armpit hair grow and went to extremes in many areas of life I had no business living naturally. Recycling bottles and cans was enough to make me feel I was doing my share.

But over the past couple of years, I have become more aware of the need to be a good steward of my resources. I have become overwhelmed at the amount of garbage my small family of four puts out each week. I have seen glimpses of the chemicals used in our food these days and while I don't plan to go to great extremes, I do feel that I have a responsibility to my family and to God to be intentional about what we put into our bodies and into our planet.

It's funny how so many things are done simply out of habit or because everybody else does them. I have realized lately that many of these things are not what I want to do; however, since I didn't carefully consider them beforehand, I simply assumed they were right.

SO, here we go. I am planning to make some changes in our home. To do this, I am utilizing a book called "Healthy Homemaking: One Step at a Time" by Stephanie at Keeper of the Home. She outlines 24 baby steps to natural living. I plan to go through each section- 1-2 weeks at a time, and make changes as I feel directed. This is my journey.

A Lovely Refuge

The title of the blog is "A Lovely Refuge". You probably figured that out already, considering those words are printed in large font on the top of the screen. Good for you. But title actually has a purpose and a meaning.

"A Lovely Refuge" is what I desire for my home. I see a refuge as a place of rest, safety and shelter in the midst of chaos. I see a refuge as a place that recognizes and enjoys that which is lovely; lovely things that have been given to us to delight our senses. We have been given eyes to see, fingers to feel, noses to smell, tongues to taste and ears to hear. It is good and right that we engage our senses with all of creation. Moderation is important, of course, but we should appreciate that which is lovely.

And that's the core of this blog. I am writing about my efforts to make my home a lovely refuge, a place that provides peace to all who enter here. I am also writing about God's work in my life as He changes my own heart into one that is lovely and spurs me to act as a refuge for others. Whew. That seems deep. We'll see how this goes.