We had a pretty busy weekend, but considering we are headed to Virginia for a WEEK this afternoon, we were okay with that busy-ness! 
That’s right. We are taking some extra days and getting to spend the time in Virginia…let me just say, I am SO excited!
Friday night we attended a Pancake Dinner sponsored by Sigma Kappa and my, oh my…were those pancakes good! Saturday, I was at the University of Louisville for a Careers in Student Affairs Conference sponsored by CPAK. It was a great conference and I was so glad to see so many undergrads and graduate students interested in this profession.
Lewie hung out with a friend on Saturday while I was in Louisville and after I returned we had dinner and then played Trivial Pursuit. Man, oh man. I suck at that game. I understand it’s a great game to play to increase your knowledge, but it just makes me feel really dumb. Oh well, we had a good time (for the most part) 
Sunday was good singing at church and a “typical” lazy Sunday that included a little less laziness as we prepared for our trip to Virginia.
Not sure about the frequency of my posts while on a mini-vacay, but we’ll see. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there…
So, I have always loved cooking and baking and now that I’m doing that for 2 people, I’ve been able to become a lot more creative and love being in the kitchen.
Lew found this site earlier this week and girls and boys, just GET READY…it is a virtual potluck, so I recommend you click with CAUTION because there are some delectable looking foods on this site…
If you click on a photo, it will take you a blog where the recipe lies. I’m trying to figure out how to get these recipes to my kitchen without killing so many trees. I want to print them ALL! If you have any suggestions on how to do this, please let me know. I guess one day I could have a computer monitor installed into the front of one of my kitchen cabinets….sounds like a plan to me!
From a friends facebook page:
Live simply. Meditate. Consume less. Think more. Get to know your neighbors. Borrow when you need to and lend when asked.
Every once in a while we all need a weekend of rest. We often go about our days 90 to nothing doing the same routine (or a routine of crazy-no-day-is-ever-the-same), hit the sack with barely enough momentum to think through what actually happened (yes this is an over-analyzer speaking here). I’ve spent many a Mondays just trying to get through on the first day back. Many a Friday not wishing the day away, but keeping my eye on the clock and how fast it ticks toward 5pm.
After a few weeks of feeling this way, we were very fortunate to have a weekend of rest. A weekend where we made our Friday Night Pizza tradition a reality (we are loving this by the way…stay tuned for more), and also a night to start up the last push through season 1 of Friday Night Lights. Not being one to watch a lot of television, but this is REALLY good TV.
Saturday was much of the same–started out the day with breakfast and went through 2 pots of coffee as we finished season 1. It was a beautiful day out, so we got the bikes out. We watched some college football. We prepped dinner. We relaxed. We cleaned. We did whatever we felt like. We had no agenda. No where to be. Nothing we HAD to do.
Sunday we went to church, came home and made lunch, watched the Bengals whoop up on the Steelers and ventured to the library during halftime. Again, we enjoyed a day with no agenda.
I know it isn’t always easy and especially as we cruise into the holiday season with weekends already full with parties, family gatherings and opportunities to give back. Don’t forget to take some time to pull back and love those who are closest to you and take the time to regroup personally. It’s easy to forget that without cherishing those with whom you share life on a daily basis with, you are just gonna run yourself into the ground and not be very fun to be around. And when I say “you”, I’m really talking straight to myself.
THIS is the bread recipe we use. We only use 5 cups of flour though. There are some good comments and suggestions as well.
Enjoy and let me know how it turns out if you try it!
PS–Be sure to flour your hands WELL before you dig in to start kneading. Otherwise, you’ll be a big, doughy mess!
Been a CRAZY day and not much time to post, but our Small Group is having Thanksgiving Dinner tonight and are all bringing 5 things which we are thankful for, so I thought I’d share mine with my faithful readers.
- So very thankful for a job I love
- Grateful for a “normal” church community
- Thankful for my health
- Glad to work with students & feel I’m making a difference at this very important time in their lives
- Thankful for an amazing husband who makes breakfast each morning, washes dishes and wakes me up gently in the morning, as I’m not a morning person
Lewie and I have been trying our hand at homemade bread making. Although I haven’t priced it out entirely, I’m fairly certain that it is cheaper than buying a loaf that is quite processed and doesn’t taste nearly as good as the homemade stuff does. We’ve spent the past few Sunday afternoons baking two loaves which EASILY last us the week or more. Last night I tried my hand at baking with Whole Wheat Flour from a local mill (another plus) and it turned out okay. I think in the future I’ll go with a more finely ground flour.
In additional to be fiscally responsible with the bread making, there’s this whole thing about having something to do with the making of your own food–that you had a hand (no pun intended) in what is going into your body, to keep your body from expiring. Whether it be baking your bread, picking tomatoes off your vine, or whipping up your own salsa, or pesto, or pickles–YOU had something to do with it. It is a rewarding feeling. I think it also fuels the creative side of Lewie and I to a degree. Maybe we’ll venture out and do some crazy breads in the future. For now, I’ll let creativity find Lew sauteing up some lime and red-pepper chicken for our breakfast burritos (yes–I’m spoiled by a hubby who fixes a hot breakfast every morning).
I’m also happy to be learning this trade because it is something that my Mom has always been great at and known for–I’m so proud to carry on this tradition with our family.
This week at Crossroads, we looked at the hole in our gospel surrounding poverty. The challenge was to take one day this week and eat only rice and beans–a typical relief meal for those in impoverished countries–2/3 c. of rice and 1/4 c. of beans (if I’m not mistaken) with some oil, salt and sugar and some added nutrients.
This is what they receive for ONE DAY.
After being given a little baggie with rice and beans along with instructions as we left church, Lew and I decided to take the challenge yesterday, being the only day we didn’t already have plans for a meal. Sunday evening I cooked the rice that would last us our breakfast and lunch.
Monday morning, Lewie said a prayer that helped set the tone for the day in our recognizing that this was a minuscule way we could somehow relate to the poverty crisis. We are still SO incredibly blessed though, as we also enjoyed a glass of milk (vitamins) and coffee (that might have been breaking the rules, a bit, I’m not sure). Not only are we blessed in our food, but we sat eating our beans and rice in a climate controlled apartment with electricity and not candles.
Mondays I go to yoga over the lunch hour and grab something quick or eat at my desk afterward, so typically my stomach’s a little growly anyway. Yesterday was definitely no exception. Wow…can I even begin to think if my breakfast had been all I would have eaten for an ENTIRE day? The growls began around 11 and continued all during yoga. Maybe that’s why our instructor did some poses that were good for digestion. Let’s just say all the floor poses with your legs in the air were not ideal for this day…moving on.
Eating my beans and rice at my desk was a bit humbling. My office sits above the caf at Georgetown, and yesterday the smells could not have been more tempting. I knew that Lew had persevered over lunch, as his mom had made chicken salad over the weekend and he was passing that up as well.
Last night we had our last meal of rice and beans. This one contained about twice the amount of beans we had at breakfast and lunch and I used brown rice. Oh to actually have the choice of variety.
I was getting the rice and beans ready as Lewie was washing the dishes from the weekend (with clean, hot water) and I just had a lot on my mind…processing how emotional this choice had been, how mentally stimulating, yet in a sobering way. We had talked at breakfast about doing this with our kids once they arrive and thinking about what the statistics would be in 10 years when we do this with them was just overwhelming… It was nice to have a husband to share this with. So many blessings just came flooding over me.
I don’t share our exercise at all to be a pat on our back. Just the opposite. I want to encourage those of you who might have taken the challenge as well that you are not alone. You may be the only one in your family doing this while everyone else feasts and that is much different than our experience. Still, you are not alone in your journey. If you haven’t had your day of beans and rice yet this week, you can do it. If you’re just reading this and not apart of our community, I still would challenge you to get a bit uncomfortable and join us. Post your thoughts if you desire. We will never fully know what hunger is like. We can at least empathize a bit.
So we had a great weekend! It was a little busy, but also allowed for great quality time with Lew and for us to have some good personal time and time with friends.
Friday night after attending the Phi Mu’s Spaghetti Dinner benefiting the Children’s Miracle Network, we went back home and began watching Friday Night Lights on DVD. Lew had Netflixed the first few discs and we’re already half way through the second disk of season one. It really is a great show, especially if you love football. It’s simply good tv…a friend once said that Coach Taylor was the best example of a real man on TV, which is totally accurate. Apparently I REALLY liked it, because I had a football dream in my sleep that night . According to Lew, I woke up shouting “up the middle” around 5am. I vaguely recall saying something, but all I really remember is Mark Richt being in the dream.
Saturday and Sunday were both beautiful fall days and we enjoyed a nice hike on Saturday at Raven’s Run in Lexington. I sang in Andover this weekend for church so that occupied a lot of my time Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, but we were still able to hang out with some friends Saturday evening and then enjoy a nice lunch on the patio yesterday and take in the Bengals win yesterday over the Ravens!
Lew is such a great husband! When I got home from church yesterday, he had been working on lunch and knocked it out of the park. I had instructions to go enjoy the sunshine on the patio while he finished up our stir fry rice and veggies with Pecan Encrusted Salmon! Mmmmm…thankfully there was quite a bit of the “breading” leftover, so we’ll be enjoying that again soon!
The beau sent this quote over this afternoon. As a huge Nikki fan, I love it even more now!
“There is always something to do. There are hungry people to feed, naked people to clothe, sick people to comfort and make well. And while I don’t expect you to save the world I do think it’s not asking too much for you to love those with whom you sleep, share the happiness of those whom you call friend, engage those among you who are visionary and remove from your life those who offer you depression, despair and disrespect.” — Nikki Giovanni
