hey, what's for dinner?

It's no secret that since Andy has taken over the kitchen, this girl has basically forgotten how to cook. Well, it's not completely true, but the meals for which I am responsible are involved and extravagant: meatballs, lasagna, pizza, calzones (apparently I am Italian?), all from scratch. So on the evenings that Andy's not home to feed us (4ish each week), I'm usually at a loss for what to do. I don't like to touch or look at raw chicken. You can really only eat spaghetti so many times each month before they start complaining. I don't like TV dinners. Or Hamburger Helper. Or canned, sodium rich soups. Andy can make a gourmet stir fry out of just about nothing. Not I.

Last year, I met this couple, Brad and Darlene, who owns a little store over in the Cape called Dinner by Design (site). The deal with this is that you place your order, go into the kitchen, and make a bunch of meals at once. Then you take them home and throw them in the freezer to have at any point in the month. At first, it sounded a little strange to me, but I tried it, and it's actually fantastic. First off: yes, you are making frozen dinners. However, instead of getting a frozen dinner at the grocery store that has unpronounceable and incomprehensible ingredients in it, your dinner has real chicken, veggies you recognize, and seasonings that you put in yourself. So you still actually know what you are feeding your family. When you go into the kitchen, there is a separate station for each meal option and everything is ready for you to put together. The best part is that Brad and Darlene follow right behind you and clean up. I want them to come to my house too!

I don't normally do shameless plugs on here, but if you are in the Fort Myers/Cape area and are meal challenged at all, Brad and Darlene are just awesome. My children love the dinners (I went last night and Elanor said "Mommy, I love the design dinners. I am so glad you are getting more design dinners!"). A full meal will do for us for two meals, especially if Andy's not home for one of them, but generally even if he is. They also do half meals if you're just cooking for two (or, like a lot of my friends, two actual eaters). If you don't have time to go in and make the meals, you can pay a little extra and they'll make them for you and you just pick them up. The last two times I've done it, I've gone in with friends and it's a lot of fun to do together.

If you're in my neighborhood, give it a try! If you're not, look anyway and see if there is a kitchen near you. You can't get any nicer than Brad and Darlene, but I imagine the food at the other ones is just as good.

do they ask more questions in wyoming than in any other state?

(That's for you and Dara, Jen.) So, my lovely and wonderful husband encouraged me to make the cross country trek this week to see Phoebe, one of my college roommates and dearest friends, get married. It was a totally whirlwind trip--flew to Jackson Hole on Wednesday and home on Friday--but it was completely worth it. It was lovely to finally meet Joe in person (their story is so unique and typical of something Phoebe would do) and wonderful to get to see Phoebe on this day of days.

I traveled light. No camera. Well, I took a camera--broke out our old Sony point-n-shoot. I guess that counts. It took pictures, anyway. But I really really really missed my camera. I am no longer qualified to use that little thing.

Phoebe was just radiant--this is what the camera did to me shooting around a handful of people as she and Joe "recessed". It's not in focus but I love the shot anyway.Sarah, one of my other roommates, was my date for the wedding and we took the long way back into town. Can you imagine getting married in a setting like this?

This mountain was our view from the hotel terrace where the wedding was.
I just liked this branch and how crunchy it was.
Congratulations, Phoebe and Joe!

feels like home to me

I had an interesting chat with a fellow church member the other day (actually I do not know where his/her current church membership is). (S)he said that one day (s)he had gone back for a visit to Covenant, second time since our split, and was sad because both times, it no longer felt like "home". This person went on to say that New Hope "doesn't feel like home yet either". For this person, the sanctuary was what made the church not feel like home at New Hope. I imagine that the only thing which has really changed about Covenant's sanctuary is the people in it (and the numbers), so the difference there intrigued me.

I started thinking about why New Hope does feel like home to me. It is obvious that it quickly felt like home to my children (considering that Covenant is the only church home they have ever known--Michael was a baby when we came here--I kind of expected them to be sad to leave, but they weren't). Why is that? I certainly don't think the building is homey. Is it because the programs have moved over? That may be part of it, but I doubt it, because those of you who know me know that I am happy to tear a program down to its core elements to strip out what doesn't work, and we have been doing that. We started in the new building without programs, actually, and are only now getting ready to start them up for the fall, some with pretty major changes.

The conclusion I have come to is that what makes New Hope feel like home is not the location, the building, or the programs: it's the people. My family moved to New Hope--my church family--and because of that, New Hope feels like home. We could have met in a gymnasium, like some other New Wineskins churches have done, and as long as the people came, it would feel like home. I think this has been true for a fair number of us. I know of at least one family which was not planning on coming to New Hope, but is now here, and I am reasonably confident that their presence can be traced to the fact that the people they loved as part of Covenant's body have come over, too. As a church, of course our first loyalty and allegiance must be to God and his glory, but I think many of us choose our church because we believe it's important to be part of a community. And that community, those people, become family, and family is what feels like home.

So, does New Hope feel like home to me? The building doesn't, I confess. But when I sit in that building on a Sunday and see my family in the pews around me, then I have to say that yes, I am at home.

one reason i love the olympics

i was in the kitchen making some sticky buns for tomorrow morning, when I looked out and saw Elanor jumping on the couch, saying ...

"Go, United States! Go, Go, United States! YEAH!!! Mommy Mommy - our country just won the game! Yeah United States!"

wonderful. And all the athletes are household first-and-last names to Caroline with her impeccable diction. I love it.

a quick look

I thought I'd pause mid-year to share a few things I've read lately that have left a huge impression on me. So here they are!

The End of Memory by Miroslav Volf is one of the most amazing works I've read: rich, humble, personal, wise, and utterly hopeful. If you ever wonder about or struggle with issues related to forgiveness, justice, and painful memories: take and read. I don't want to sound like a sop, but I cried when I read the last page. That says something for a theology book!

More than any other book so far this year, Surprised by Hope (By N. T. Wright) has caught me firmly in its grasp. This book has fired my imagination. I have often felt that Christianity is not about going to heaven when you die but I haven't had the words or concepts to express what I want to say instead. I do now. Thanks, Tom - the energy and life you put into this exploration of the basic, historic Christian message is extraordinary.

Thank you, Jim Collins, thank you. I needed to read this short book right now. Your words at the bottom of page 14 and the top of page 30 rocked my world. I need to get to work.

Happy Reading!
grace and peace,
Andy

check it out!

I decided that I was ready for a website revamp. Yes, again. As I thought about what I wanted from the site and the current site usage, I realized that I wanted was a blog with a few extra pages on the side, instead of what I had, which was a few pages plus a blog on the side. The pages weren't that exciting anyway, so I thought, "Let's toss these altogether!" So I did.

You can check out the new site here.

my latest project

Remember, I am no web designer, but I was happy to be able to try to help the girls' ballet studio out with their website, which just launched this past weekend, along with the studio's annual Festival of Dance. There is a little gallery with pictures from this past year (taken by yours truly) and they have started a blog. There are pictures (also mine) from the show on the dancers' blog, with more to come, plus a link from the latest blog entry to a whole slew of pictures on our local paper's website (before you ask, no, no pictures of my girls on either site, but when I finish going through images I hope to have some for you here).

Anyway, a fun side project and hopefully some fun pictures.

habitat for hope looks to the future

Y'all, I just wanted to encourage to you read a recent article about Habitat for Hope and their hopes for the future. Please pray for their appeal next Thursday! This ministry is just awesome.

congratulations!

I just wanted to say a big congratulations to my beautiful sister-in-law Rabia, who (as of yesterday) is officially a US Citizen! I am just guessing it was a little anti-climax after years of paperwork and interviews, which were sometimes a little silly...her final interview included an English test consisting of writing a sentence along the lines of "The man wants a job." Have I ever mentioned that she is a writer? And alumnae of an Ivy League school? I think it's Ivy League, anyway, certainly a step or two up from Wheaton.

Anyway, welcome to the mix, Rabia, and congratulations on picking an interesting election for your first!

calling my fellow Florida homeowners

Y'all, I just got the call from my insurance agent (who is officially on my "A" list just for this whole thing) to deliver some good news to me. I couldn't keep it to myself and decided to celebrate by telling y'all about it and putting up this, my 100th post on this blog. Hooray!

Last summer or fall, the state of Florida launched a program called My Safe Florida Home. I don't know much about it, except that it is supposed to help and reward homeowners who make their homes more hurricane proof and verify it by having a wind inspection done. At the time, our agent sent out letters to everyone recommending that we have it done and gave us the names of some inspection companies. We didn't do anything about it because the inspection cost $150 and "might" save us "some" money. I have better ways to spend $150 than on a "might", honestly.

A couple months ago, I realized that I needed to insure my camera and equipment, since I take it all over the place with me, run out into the ocean carrying it, and do other hazardous activities with it (it's pretty active). My agent asked if we had done the wind inspection. When I sheepishly said that we hadn't, he told me about a company called WB Sanders which will do the inspection for free (don't ask me how they get paid because I don't know). He also said that he thought we would save a bit of money because our roof is pretty new (same age as Elanor, in fact, as I recall having water pour into the house during a rainstorm while our roof was essentially naked and I had just come home from the hospital... certainly not in any emotional shape to yell at the roofers on that one). I filled out the form, set up an appointment with the company, and waited. I've told a few friends about the inspection because, hey, it's free, right?

Charlie (my agent, whom I adore right now) just called. Our premiums went down by just about 60%. Which, at our current rate, is a truly phenomenal amount of money. It's going to seriously affect our escrow payment. I am completely bowled over. Charlie is my hero.

It made me realize, you know, I think most companies insure homes more or less blind, right? So we are all probably paying more than we really need to, because they have to charge based on a house that might just fall over in a hurricane. Having the wind inspection just gives us a chance to show that our house is actually in pretty good shape. (Yes, our roof is new but our windows are original to the house--pretty bad, actually.)

What I'm saying is that if you live in Fort Myers, call this WB Sanders company (239.931.3880) and get your wind inspection done. Even if you only save a little bit, with your rates being as high as I'm sure they are, it's totally worth the 30 minutes it takes to have the inspection done.

If you've been wondering why I haven't posted in so long, it's because I've had two significant projects on my plate: 1) the church website, and 2) the MOPS spring fundraiser. The website is up and now all I need to do is fill in the content as I get it, and I am going to put the pictures up for the MOPS moms today!

"places we go" update

I know, I'm going crazy with the blogging this week... but then again I could be David Ziser, who posts his entries a half dozen at a time. I just wanted to take a moment to direct your attention to our sidebar, down in the section called "The Places We Go". I've added some links there that are worth a visit!

• Phoebe's Page: our dear friend Phoebe has started new adventures in Rwanda with Compassion International. She's promised me that she'll keep us updated in her blog. Also, she is now officially engaged to Joe, a guy I would love to meet in person.
• Dance Bochette: right now when you go here all you will see is a temporary page, but I'm including it in my list because I am the one responsible for it. Somehow my shooting my girls at ballet classes and shows has transitioned into web design for the studio. Kind of exciting!
• Confessions of a Pioneer Woman: she lives on a ranch, takes pictures like crazy, and is a really gifted writer. I am totally hooked on "Black Heels to Tractor Wheels" and it is so worth a read. Be warned, though, she is up to 26 or 27 chapters at this point. Oh yes, she also cooks.
• Ugly Mug Coffee: Don't forget to buy some yummy coffee through this link and support Habitat for Hope.

The links I didn't mention are fun as well... I've been adding feeds to my Google Reader like crazy and might add some to our list over there. Frequently, if I take the step of recommending someone here in a post, I'll add them to that list. Enjoy!

bag swings

Friends of ours invited us to their family place in the country last week while Andy was gone (Medieval/Reformation Church History). They have a "bag swing" (so called because the seat used to be an actual bag instead of wood). Elanor was not the only one of my children to swing, I promise, but these three were my absolute favorite images from the day. I have others. And I apologize for the frame, but I'm double dipping here--the same images are already on my photo blog. I just liked them that much!

ugly mug makes some goooood coffee

Mark & Mylissa sent us a Christmas present with two things in it. One was a book called The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible (link) and the other was a pound of coffee from a company called Ugly Mug.

First, the book. It's quite well written and hilarious at times. I read it more or less against my will, but I will say that I really enjoyed the ride. He got some things right... I would venture to say that he missed the boat on quite a lot about the Bible and our faith (both Jewish and Christian but more so on Christian). Fun book, though.

The other part of the gift.... mmmm..... wow. Andy and I are kind of picky about our coffee. Him more so than me. For me, as long as it's hot, strong, and black, I can live with Maxwell House. Not he. So you have to understand that sending Andy coffee (that's not Starbucks) as a gift is a gutsy proposition. We liked the first bag enough that we ordered a second, a different blend. And this one knocked our socks off. So, we're hooked.

To that end, I'm going to share the wealth with you (so to speak). Go visit Ugly Mug. And order some coffee. The best part is that when you use that link that I just gave you (no typing in the address please), 25% of the proceeds off the coffee go to benefit Habitat for Hope. I have to tell you, I've been sitting on the email with this code for a while, partly because I can send money to HFH without buying gross coffee. But now that I know it's not gross, I am spreading the good news that you can buy good coffee and support a wonderful cause!

I would also like to tell you that I met the CEO type for this company when I was in Memphis for Labor Day and I got to hear the philosophy behind Ugly Mug. Y'all, this is fair trade coffee--really--and it is roasted right there in Memphis! So it's really a threefer--buy good coffee, support Habitat for Hope, and drink responsibly. We are almost done with the second bag. Time to go buy more.

Now, where did I put that link? Go order yourself some coffee!

christmas in virginia

It has been pointed out that I have failed you in my duties as a blogger. Not only have I not wished you a Merry Christmas yet, but I also forgot to tell you all that we were leaving for the holiday (not, I suppose, that that is a fact one wants to advertise online, is it?). To make up for it, today's post is excruciatingly long. We flew up to Virginia for a family holiday with my mother's family--our first time with that side since last May/June and this was actually my first time to see my new niece! Who is not so new anymore. She is cute, though, and now I have documented that fact for myself. Here are some pictures.

What little boy doesn't love new trains for Christmas?

And what little girl doesn't love new shoes?

The cousins on this side of the family--my brother David, me, cousin Julie and her brother Mike.

My great uncle Don and Elanor.

We wanted a picture of all the great grandchildren with my grandfather. My father has absolutely no reason to be in the picture except that her Miminess (the aforementioned niece) refused to let him put her down. I think he encourages her.

My grandfather. Looking pretty distinguished for 88, isn't he?

My grandfather and my uncle. Who is not distinguished. And who took my family on a "three mile hike" on Friday. He neglected to mention that we would have to still hike back.

Her Miminess and her devoted slave, I mean, my dad.

More.

Isn't he cute? This is my nephew. Who looks just like my brother at the same age, but in a different shade. Actually, her Miminess looks even more like my brother at the same age and the two kids don't look much alike, so the conclusion is that Isaac actually looks more like his mama, which is totally OK. And I will point out that her Miminess is actually cuter than my brother, but most toddlers are much cuter than their parents.

We wanted a picture of the two three year olds together.

Mine didn't want to cooperate.

What is it with the tongues?

Still no cooperating. I give up.

If you are wondering if you are no longer on our Christmas card list, don't worry, you probably are. We just haven't ordered cards yet. We'll be doing New Year's cards this year. Or SuperBowl cards. Maybe Easter?

this is really where we live

Honestly, sometimes I am still really boggled by where we live. I mean, it's beautiful. Wow. It looks like vacation. I remember being startled in the shower every morning because I would look out of the window and see a palm tree. Seriously, who has a palm tree in their backyard? I do! And two more out front!

And the beach is just a short drive away. As a matter of fact, I'm getting ready to go there now to shoot a family. Who also is probably coping with disbelief about living in vacation.

Andy's mom came for a great little visit this past week. We had a blast with her, as usual, and now that the kids are older, there is no breaking in period (remember those fun days, Mom?). We took her out to Fort Myers Beach one day to see the results of the sandcastle sculpture contest (sorry for no scale, but these are all bigger than I am) and then to Barefoot for a morning of play. The Barefoot pictures are actually first because Blogger and I apparently have differing notions of how to work with pictures and I actually don't have time to argue the point right now. But enjoy.

happy birthday

Hard to imagine it, but my baby brother is 30 today. I feel pretty sure that he was a gawky teenager just yesterday. Or at least last week. But 30? I started to do the math in my head for his age and wanted to pinch myself that it's really 2007. Amazing. I'm sorry I don't have a recent picture of him to share with you, but that's not a problem I can correct until Christmas. At which time I will take care of that. No longer a teenager... he has a lovely, intelligent, and creative wife now, and two cute-as-a-button kids, a house, a real job... the only thing missing is a dog. Hmmm, Rabia, did you get David a puppy for his birthday? Because I'm thinking that's what he's really missing here. Me, I gave him an awesome compact flash card months ago for his new camera, because it's really important to me that he take lots of pictures of his cute children and send them to me since I live thousands of miles away from them and can't shoot them for myself. Talk about a self serving birthday present. Do you even want to know what I'll give him for Christmas?

Sunday: blood drive at church. Stay tuned for times!

rock star

This just in, citizens: Jenny reports that not only did she donate a pint of whole blood in a near record time of 4 minutes, 57 seconds, but she also got a free Bengals t-shirt signed by actual Bengals. Even better, she is officially signed up for the National Bone Marrow registry! Sounds like a lot of action packed into one morning to me. But I guess you can get more done when you bleed quickly.

Great work, Jen!

And to the rest of you: have you donated blood lately? Have you asked about signing up to be a bone marrow donor? Get on it!

family pictures

Mylissa's family, not mine. I had a lot of fun shooting them and figured Mylissa wouldn't mind too much if I shared some favorites with you:






I have officially finished up the post processing work from this trip... I was surprised by how much it was! Although I supposed I shouldn't have been, since it was actually 4-5 events wrapped into one weekend. That is one busy weekend, if you ask me! It was a ton of fun, though, and I am hoping to be invited back for another round... maybe next year, when I've recovered.

more traveling for me!

I'm not sure what happened, but I think it means our kids are growing up. Suddenly, I am doing things and going places by myself. I have almost forgotten how. Exciting side note here: I am going to see the David Crowder Band in concert in November! Have never seen these guys perform and boy am I excited. And it's one more thing I'm doing sans kids (and hubby, poor guy, I know he would like to go too but it was his idea for me to go). Yippee!

I just got back from a fun fun weekend in Cincinnati with Jenny... hard to believe that we have been best friends for 2/3 of our lives at this point. That seems like a pretty long time to me! Thursday, I drove north with my dad (getting up at the truly ungodly hour of 3:30 am to hit the road without coffee until 6) and landed at Jen's in time for a delightful homemade pizza. For a late dinner.

Dad left Friday morning and Jenny and I started in on a fun weekend... which kind of felt like being back in high school, but on an extended slumber party, and more fun. Jenny also loves to shoot (you should see some of her rockin' pictures from travels in France), so we planned on "playing pictures" a.k.a. shooting whatever looked good to us. It's a different thing for me, shooting scenery instead of children, and I kind of feel lost doing it, but we had fun. (there are pictures on the sadly neglected flickr link if you click that: see, it's right up there on the side. I labeled who took which ones because Jen's still shooting film, but she played with my camera too). We hit Ault Park, which is a beautiful place somewhere in Cincinnati... Jenny's camera tried to scare us with a lockup so we detoured by her friendly camera store and spent a good half an hour talking over all kinds of fun photography subjects with the friendly guy there... then we headed downtown to her office and the newly renovated Fountain Square. On to Dilly Deli for a tasty dinner and then we tried to go see The Bourne Ultimatum, but yours truly suffered a serious attack of motion sickness (I'd like to know who thought that video style was cool, because it's really not), so we bailed halfway through and enjoyed the pleasant evening outside of the coffee shop nearby.

Speaking of which... let me tell you, the weather was awesome. We had the windows open all weekend... almost warm enough for tees, but cool enough that a jacket sounded good, especially in the evening... wow, that weather was just amazing. I came home and it's still in the upper 90s, no end in sight.

Saturday was a leisurely breakfast at First Watch, followed by a delightful ramble through the fabric store (don't even ask), ice cream at Graeter's, and a relaxing afternoon baking cookies and working on the fabric (again, please don't ask). It was just like being in high school again, except we are (supposedly) grownups. Jenny cooked a scrumptious dinner for her parents and my dad, so we spent a fun evening eating and hanging out!

Early, but not too early, flight home on Sunday, which was crazy easy. It was on a budget airline I'd never heard of and I was a little nervous about flying on it, but the price was too good to pass up. We actually left early and landed even earlier, plus they gave me a front row seat. I got off quickly and was able to have lunch with my family! I missed them, but boy was it a fun trip. Very relaxing, too!

walking in memphis

Sorry, I just had to say it.

I had a great weekend in Memphis with Mark and Mylissa, but I have to tell you, it was tiring, too! I knew they were working hard, but seeing them in action added a whole new face to it. I came home completely exhausted and this is after Mylissa told me it was a light weekend! It was such a fun weekend. I got to take some fun pictures, both portraits and candids.... I was a fly on the wall at a birthday party and a minor league baseball game (for pictures, visit the HFH blog). I feel like there's a lot I could say about the time I spent there, and I probably will say more, but at first blush, it was neat to see this little community of people gathering together, supporting each other, and becoming a kind of family as they are all going through these illnesses together. Mark and Mylissa are crazy busy, and they do have stressful things going on at times, but at the same time I felt like they just have this peace about them... that they know they are where God wants them to be and that they are doing what God wants them to do.

It was an awesome trip. Here's a sneak peek of some shots: