Finally -- race post!

Over at Maria's Half-Marathon. Check it out if you're interested!

One Quick Question

We're just traded in Miranda's plastic sippy cups (and our nalgene bottles) for Sigg bottles. Now the question is... What's the latest on the non-stick cookware debate? What's the best (as in safest) cookware to use? Any thoughts? Anyone???

A Quiet Meme

Sorry for the absence. I would really love a wireless card, so I can blog when I have a few minutes to spare in the evening, instead of during my library time when I have a million things to do. Anyway... here's a lovely, somehow centering series of questions from my deep-thinking friend at Morning Coffee.


Outside My Window … someone walks past the Francis of Assisi fountain.
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I am thinking … that I should start outlining my submissions for the Dictionary of Scripture and Ethics. And that I should probably get a shower before heading out to the Carnegie Center with Miranda tonight.
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I am thankful for … our babysitter Marie, who takes such good care of Miranda on Wednesdays so I can study.
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From the kitchen … probably a bowl of cereal later.
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I am wearing … jeans, sneakers, and a Dallas Cowboys t-shirt. And a blue bandana around my hair.
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I am creating … a tomato and cucumber garden alongside the driveway. Also, a huge mess.
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I am going … home from the library in about an hour.
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I am reading … Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury.
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I am hoping … that Billy is enjoying his trip to the mountains of North Carolina.
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I am hearing … almost nothing, I'm in the quiet room at the library.
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Around the house … are lots and lots of hangers.
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One of my favorite things … sitting on my front porch with Miranda, watching the birds at the feeders.
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A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week... finish laundry, finish veggie beds, plant veggies, paint with Miranda, Miranda's end-of-school party, pack and fly to Texas on Friday for my uncle's funeral.
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Here is a picture thought I am sharing … Miranda decided last night that she MUST try a boiled crawfish. I pulled off the tail and set it down, then turned my head for one second, and bingo -- down the hatch. Shell and all. The thought? BE BOLD.


If you are reading this, consider yourself tagged. If you complete this meme on your blog, please leave a comment.

Too Good to Pass Up

Thoughts, anyone?

Mission Accomplished!!

I did it! More info to come tomorrow at my training blog. Thanks to everyone who was so supportive -- you are awesome!

The half-marathon is tomorrow!!!

Check out the updates over at my training blog. More tomorrow. You can also donate online via the link on the right. Many thanks to my amazing donors and supporters!

Conversations in New Monasticism

Our community is hosting a School for Conversion this weekend. As part of the New Monasticism conversation, one thing we've been considering is what the tradition of monasticism might have to say to religious and spiritual life today. One of our sessions had the following thoughts, which I found very compelling. I need to chew on them a bit more, but here they are.

"By putting on a habit, by making vows, the religious is making a pledge of allegiance. By making a commitment to poverty or simplicity, I am by definition standing against the god of materialism. By making a commitment to chastity or monogamy, I am by definition standing against the god of sexual gratification. By making a commitment to obedience or humility, I am by definition making a stand against the god of power. By making a commitment to an ongoing conversion of life or to stability, I am by definition making a stand against the unexamined, ephemeral self of contemporary culture. Religious life, by its very nature, is an expression of resistance to some of the most pernicious values, ideologies, and structures of culture."

Obviously, the kind of monasticism practiced throughout the centuries is not what most of us would choose today, especially folks with families. But the core principles behind the movement can, I think, be translated into virtually every setting and situation.

Through the next few weeks, I'm going to be doing a series of posts about these commitments. I'm really hoping for lots of conversation from all of you. Feel free to post anonymously if you'd prefer, but please share what you think and how you feel.

Filthiness is Next to Godliness

This I believe to be the truth, especially in the spring.

On Tuesday, our friend Julius helped me to edge our front flower beds. We had too much coffee, too many doughnuts, too big a lunch at the Meadowthorpe cafe, and a great time in general. The sun was shining and the air was mild, and Miranda enjoyed helping us work (when she wasn't digging for worms and using her sidewalk chalk).

Miranda oversees the placement of the edging.

When I applied her sunscreen, I thought, "She's going to get absolutely filthy." And she did!

The semi-finished flower bed. I'll post pictures of the final draft tomorrow.

more gardening with Wunchie

Miranda has been helping me with our flats of flower seedlings. I really don't know what I'm doing, but I suppose we'll learn together. Here she's helping me fill shotglasses with water, to soak the seeds overnight before planting. (This facilitates germination.)

Miranda really got the hang of spraying the seedlings to moisten the soil.

I'll post some pics when the first growth emerges!

More amazing exploits of Wunchie

Here's the latest from Radio Free Wunchie:

• She sounds a lot like Winston Churchill when she says the word "never." It comes out "nevah." And she's saying it a lot now, for emphasis of her points. As in, "I don't take a nap! Nevah! Nevah!"

• (handing me a stick) "Mama, you break this in half for me, please?"


• (looking at a Central American plaque of Saint Francis and the animals) "Miranda, what's that?" "A bird... and a peagog." "A peacock?" "Yes, a peagog." "Miranda, where did we hear about peacocks?" "From Grover!" "And where did Grover see peacocks?" "In... Africa."


• "Where are the worms? Where are the WORMS???"


• "Mommy, I want to ride in the truck." "Well, the truck is a little sick right now, so we have to take the car." (deep sigh) "I nevah get to ride in the truck... nevah." (And the Oscar goes to...)

701 Golfview Drive -- I miss you

Sounds strange, I know. Here I am in a beautiful house that's twice as big as the old one, lovely new kitchen, lovely fenced back yard, lovely neighborhood, and yet there are still things I miss about our home on Golfview Drive.

• I miss how easy it was to feel in touch with the neighborhood while actually in the house. The kitchen window looked right out onto the side street, so I could see everyone walking by (and open up the window and say hello). The front windows offered a view of Golfview Drive and whomever was cruising by at the time.


• The corner lot made it a central location. Whenever we were working on the flower bed, the herb bed or the vegetable garden, we could say hello to folks going by.


• I miss our great mailman, who was so kind to John and always had news about folks in the neighborhood.


• I miss our old bedroom. I love the color -- a deep russet red -- and how cozy the color made me feel. I especially miss the view from our bedroom window. We'd constructed a mini-ecosystem in that section of the yard, so we could see the vegetable garden, the trumpet vine, the honeysuckle, the rock garden, and 2 bird feeders from our window. I'd planted a flowering crabapple just outside the window, and its leaves, flowers, and fruit were lovely to behold. It also drew cardinals and mockingbirds. I also planted a mock orange just outside the window, whose sweet scent was a gift on summer evenings. And we could watch the progress of the daylilies that I'd planted underneath the window.


• I miss the things we planted during our time there. The herbs who were 7 years old the month we moved, the japanese honeysuckle and the trumpet vine, the cranesbill in the front bed that grew 1000% during its 6 years, the coral bells (which I got from a professor at Asbury) encircling the birdbath. The mohawk viburnum, whose red berries were the same ones I carried in my wedding bouquet.


• I miss the guest bathroom, which I redecorated southwestern-Texan-adobe. I loved that room.

There are plenty of things that are wonderful about the new house, but that's for another post. Today, I just want to grieve all the things I left at 701 Golfview Drive.

Pics from last year's garden Wunchie

Helping dig the rhubarb bed, which was hard work!

Does this big shovel work any better?

Getting instruction from a friend (and his owner).

At home in the rows.

Sampling a fresh cuke from Three Springs Farm.

A butternut squash from our garden!

Wunchie-sized pumpkin

Thanks be to God -- Spring has sprung!

This afternoon, I planted 128 flower seeds in peat pots: nasturtiums, moonflowers, hyacinth beans, and Texas bluebonnets. I also have 89 cosmos seeds, 32 of which I’ll try to get potted tomorrow. I’ve always been both intimidated and impatient with seeds, preferring to get nice, big, established plants in pots that will look good in the ground that day. However, at $5-20 each, who can afford it? So, I’m trying my hand at starting seeds. (I have friends who are starting some vegetables from seed in pots – tomatoes, peppers – but I’ll save that for next year.)

Last week, we also planted our spring vegetable garden. We try and follow the square foot gardening method, where planting is based on units of square feet rather than rows. It’s a good method for backyard gardens, as it takes about 75% less space to grow the same amount of food as the row method. (So, if you would like to garden at your home but think you don’t have the room, try this out. It really does work.) We have 2 rectangular plots, about 3’X16’ each, and a 4’circular plot for rhubarb and a few strawberries. We planted one of the long plots with spring crops, leaving the other for summer planting in May. We planted seedlings of cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, spinach, and kale, as well as 24 strawberry plants. We also planted carrots, radishes, beets, arugala, 3 kinds of lettuce, and snow peas from seed.

Miranda was a wonderful helper, bringing the plants and placing them on the soil, although she did tend to pull the plants out of the containers by their stems. I kept saying, “Honey, that hurts them. That’s like pulling you up by your hair! Be gentle with the little plants!” (She didn’t really look convinced.) She loved digging for worms, seeing them emerge from the newly turned soil, although she didn’t really like getting her hands dirty. All in all, it was a great thing to share together.

I’ve always said that autumn was my favorite season, and in some ways it is – I love the colors, the refreshing coolness after sweating through the summer, the smell of wood smoke in the air, apples and pumpkins and spiced cider. But I’m coming to realize that I find spring more invigorating. After the somewhat forced imprisonment of winter, those first warm days almost catapult me out of the house, weeding and digging and planting. I love watching the bulbs beginning their upward march, the beds of daylilies glowing that light, bright green of early spring, the little rose-red circles of the emerging peonies.

Nemo helps Mommy plant.

Our new strawberry bed.

Rhubarb and strawberries.

The Chronicles of Wunchie

Time for some catch-up posting on the Wunchie. As has happened before, her verbal skills took a major leap while I was in England (or maybe it's just being away that makes the change seem so abrupt!). Billy & I have recorded some wonderful little conversations and observations.

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(Billy) Miranda, is Bambi finished?

(Miranda) Not quite yet.

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(Maria) Hey there, big girl!

(Miranda) I'm not a big girl.

(Maria) Then what are you?

(Miranda) I'm a munchie!

(Maria) Ok, and what am I?

(Miranda) You're Momma Mia!

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Billy and Miranda had just finished watching a Bugs Bunny cartoon, where Yosemite Sam is harrassing Bugs. Bugs rescues Sam from a shark, but won't pull him into the boat until they "make a deal." Sam says, "No deal!", but changes his mind after Bugs lowers him back into the water. With the stage thus set, and amidst cries of protest, Billy turns off the TV...

(Billy) Ok, wunchie, time for a bath.

(Miranda) No deal!!!

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Miranda and Marie are out walking in our neighborhood...

(Miranda) Look, Marie, a bird's nest.

(Marie) Yes, Mirada, thats a bird's nest.

(Miranda) I want the nest, please?

(Marie) No, honey, the birds need that nest to stay there.

(Miranda) ... that's ok, my daddy will come get the nest for me, and take it home and put it in my room.

...What???? how many clauses does that sentence have??

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And perhaps the best yet... on Easter morning, Billy greeted Miranda with the following...

(Billy) Happy Easter, Munchie! He is risen!

(Miranda) Daddy, are you risen? (...pause...) You're not risen.

Holy Week 2008: Footwashing