Grey Gardens

I stumbled across a short autobiography written by documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles that mentioned several of his films including Grey Gardens. I surfed about the net trying to find it online to no avail. BUT... I did discover that HBO had just made a movie based on the documentary in April of this year... and with much patience, I finally found a place I could watch the whole movie online. (Use #14 zshare)

Jessica Lang (Big Edie) and Drew Barrymore (Little Edie) were amazing in mother/daughter roles. Great, great movie. Basically, it's the true story of New York socialites (aunt and cousin to Jackie O) who lose their money and end up living in utter squalor. But it's so much more than that...

From the New York Times Review: "...filmmakers David and Albert Maysles studied two lonely, marginal and desperately sad lives and culled the nutty resilience that can come with delusion, seclusion and upper-class breeding."

I'd still like to see the original documentary.

The photos above are: 1) Little Edie outside her family's dilapidated mansion in East Hampton (Grey Gardens), 2) Big Edie looking out a window surrounded by moldering furniture and decaying trash, and 3) Young versions of Big and Little Eddie played by Lang and Barrymore. (I would have loved to live in the 30's just to be able to wear the cool clothes!)

CONTINUE READING...

Yet Another Late Seven

Another Seven on "Sunday"...

1. Where does the weekend go? Friday night book club meeting...Cleaning house and doing laundry on Saturday morning, school supply shopping then lunch with Mary and Matt, teenage driving mishap in the late afternoon (truck stuck in ditch - all ok), grilling out on Saturday night, watching a great movie on line (more on that in a later post)...Up early this morning decorating a birthday cake, then out for a six mile walk (How am I ever going to do 13?!), worship, lunch with some new church friends to help celebrate Mary's big day, a nap (of course!), an emergency visit to the eye doctor for a funky eye-infection (the teenager again), then surfing the web looking for inspiration for our church website. And now it's over. Back to work tomorrow...and early, too. Have to set up for an emergency response class we teach all day. Ugh. One day I'm going to miss all this! Or so I'm told...

2. She's 10!! Can you believe it?


3. Below: Matt and Mary being crafty! Definition of a "Good Dad": Redneck who gives up free tickets to see Lynard Skynard in concert in order to be home with his ten year-old daughter on her birthday and build a model cruise ship. (Love you, George!)

4. Four Things I appreciate: 1) a great cup of coffee brought to me by a wonderful husband, 2) a towel still warm from the dryer as I'm getting out of the shower, 3) sharing a smile with a good friend, 4) seeing my boy being quite smitten by a Godly girl.

5. Some places to check out: Ever heard of Graphical Exegesis? And here's "the granddaddy of all small group sites" (Matt's words) if you're looking for resources.

6. A poetry exercise from Sanctuary Poet:

Memory mapping: Take a big piece of paper and sketch out, draw, the neighborhood (or the place, wherever it may have been) where you grew up, where you spent your childhood: the beautiful places, the places you weren’t supposed to go, the dark and shadowy places. Write a poem about it.

Wanna try it with me?

7. Verse from today's sermon: I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant.’ Joshua 24:13 What a picture of grace... for the Israelites in Joshua's time... but true for us today, too.

CONTINUE READING...

I've Been Thinking...

Man-oh-man, has it been a week! I'm pooped and very glad to see the word "Saturday" flip over on the calendar!

I've had these thoughts rolling around in my head for a while and just haven't had the time to sit down and write them out. So, here goes...

Matt told me that at a recent small group meeting I missed, I think while I was in Louisiana, one of our friends talked about an elderly woman she visits and helps out around the house who is very sick. The woman is a vocal atheist and has been for most of her life. She has books and books in her house supporting her belief that there is no God. She has spent much time, energy, and money being His enemy. My friend is of course talking to her about God, our Savior Jesus, their love for her, and the grace they offer. She's not arguing or debating with her, but rather showing her God's love through her actions and heart.

Anyway, this is the comment (paraphrased) from my friend's husband that put me to thinking: "This is just another example of God's grace and mercy. This woman has made it her first priority, her whole mission in life in fact, to declare and convince others that there is no God. She daily, over and over again, actively rejects Him. Yet, even as the end of her life is fast approaching, He continues to bring people to speak to her of His love, to reach out His hand to her, to open Himself up again for rejection. His mercy and grace never ends."

That may not seem very profound to you, but it was to me. God over... and over... and over again reaches out to us, provides a way for us to come to Him, and shows us mercy upon mercy.

I also think of another friend who is a nurse and has personally helped take care of an elderly man for a few years now. She visits him in his home, answers late night phone calls, and does many, many other things way above the call of duty. This man was a powerful businessman in his earlier life, extremely successful, and is now very wealthy. Perched at the edge of eternity, he is suffering greatly and yet still he scoffs at God. But in His mercy, God has put my friend in his life to continue to speak to him gently and sweetly of His love and the hope of eternal life.

Finally, I have a very, very good friend who has been diagnosed - yet again - with cancer. The news from the doctor is not good and she's not really sure what lies ahead in the days and months to come. She has a grown son who was raised to be a believer, who professed faith as a child, and who walked in the ways of the Lord as a teenager. However, in college he turned his back on God and has never returned. My friend tells me her first hope as she looks down the road to the suffering she may have to endure is not that she would be spared, but that her son would somehow come back to his faith as he watches God deal with her in this sickness. Perhaps his mother's illness will be the mercy, albeit maybe a severe mercy*, that draws him back into relationship with his Creator and Savior? I pray so.

“But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done he shall live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?" Ezekiel 18:21-23

* The phrase a severe mercy is the title of a book I read a long time ago by Sheldon Vanauken. Great book, tough read (heart wrenching).

I hope my thoughts give you some food for thought today, too! I pray we may all recognize the many mercies He has given us in our own lives and then may we be a tool to be used in the lives of others. Blessings -

CONTINUE READING...

Book Review: Safely Home

Safely Home by Randy Alcorn, Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers (January 23, 2003), ISBN-10: 0842359915

Rating: 5 of 5 STARS
Source: CCC Book Talk selection

Ok...I don't enjoy Christian fiction. At all. Usually it just seems so stilted and forced.

But this book was different. Stilted? Sometimes. Great literature? Not really. At times forced? Yes. But still the message was so powerful, the characters so likable, the story so involving, that all the negatives are far outweighed.

Here's a short description:

A soul-stirring story of two college friends who reconnect after 20 years. One is living life apart from God in comfortable corporate America, while the other is living for Christ under intense persecution in China. This challenging book will convict the heart of readers to live in the light of eternity.

I'd say it convicts you of a lot more, too... taking the availability we have of the Word of God for granted, not appreciating our freedom to worship, our dependence on "American" idols of materialism, entertainment, money, etc.

I marked many passages, but there's two in particular I'd like to share. The first is a flash Alcorn gives us of Mao in hell:

"Thirst without water to quench it. Hunger without food to satisfy it. Loneliness without company to alleviate it. There was no God here. He'd gotten his wish. On earth he'd managed to reject God while still enjoying his blessings and provisions. But it was excruciatingly clear now that God was the author of good. Therefore the absence of God meant the absence of good. He could not have it both way, not here. No God, no good. Forever."

The second is a picture of Heaven*:

Compared to what he now beheld, the world he'd come from was a land of shadows, colorless and two-dimensional. This place was fresh and captivating, resonating with color and beauty. He could not only see and hear it, but feel and smell and taste it. Every hillside, every mountain, every waterfall, every frolicking animal in the fields seemed to beckon him to come join them, to come from the outside and plunge into the inside. The whole world had the feel of cool water on a blistering August afternoon. The light beckoned him to dive in with abandon, to come join the great adventure.

"I know what this is," Quan said.

"Tell me," said the Carpenter.

"It's the substance that casts all those shadows in the other world. The circles are copies of the spheres here. The squares are copies of the cubes here. The triangles there are copies of the pyramids here. Earth was a flatland. This is... well, the inside is bigger than the outside, isn't it? How many dimensions are there?"

"Far more than you have seen yet," the King said, laughing.

(*There were many wonderful passages about Heaven, but I chose this one because I'm sure Alcorn is referencing one of my favorite books, Flatland. Maybe he's a nerd like me!)

I have Alcorn's book Heaven and never was really able to get into it. (No pun intended - haw!) I think I'll try it again.

I highly recommend you giving this Christian fiction novel a try!

CONTINUE READING...

Why the New Banners?

I went back through and looked at all the banners I've had on this blog since starting it in May, 2007. Honestly, I can't remember how or why I got to Blogger...or even how I knew what a blog was!? Basically, it's been an online journal for me - a place of remembering, a spot to lay my Ebenezer Stones, a filebox for ideas. I guess the new banners are like getting a new paper journal to start writing in. If you're a diary-keeper, you understand. It's rejuvenating and exciting to have a fresh clean notebook.

I suppose one day I'll get tired of all the change and decide on one theme to stick with, but for right now that's just not me. And I've really enjoyed learning how to use Photoshop Elements 5.0. Plus, it's not all been for blogging frivality - I've used my Photoshop skills for projects both at work and church.

I think my favorite has been the fifth one down...with a picture of everyone in our family. (Do you have any idea how long it took me to get a photo of myself that I could stand looking at everyday for a month? Ha!) My least favorite would have to be the dead wasp (first and second from the bottom.) Not very inspiring, huh?

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Seven on Saturday...er...I mean, Sunday!

Here's a late "Seven:"

1. A dog and her man...Matt and Sadie caught doing some early Saturday morning ESPN watching/napping. Maybe I should say a "furry dog and her furry man?" :-) They kinda match, don't they?


2. The Butterless Almond cake turned out yummy. I served it with fresh strawberries to friends Friday night. So good! But rather expensive to make with the almond paste. I've had a small slice with yogurt and strawberries for the past two mornings. (!!)


3. The Potato Soup with Shrimp was also excellent! I'm still in a soupy mood and looking for another new recipe for a soup to go with sandwiches tomorrow night. Thinking of this or this.

4. Convicted by my husband:

ME: I have to walk 3 miles on my training plan today. Ugh.

HIM: My plan says to run 3, too. But I like to think of it as I get to run 3 miles today instead

of "have to." One day I'm sure I won't be able to run 3 miles and it will seem like a
blessing that I ever did.

Yes, Lord, thank you for a healthy body. Forgive me for not taking care of it as I should.

5. From The Jesus Way:

God's way, always, is to use servants. Servants: men and women without standing, without accomplishment, without influence. The core element in a servant identity is not being God, not being in charge, not taking the initiative. Or, to put it positively, a servant enters into what has already been decided by another, what is already going on, alert to the gestures and guidance of the Master (Ps. 123). The servant doesn't know the whole story, doesn't know the end from the beginning. The servant's task is to be competent in the immediate affairs that have to do with what he knows of the desires of his Master. All the while he is also aware that there is far more going on, both good and evil, than he has any knowledge of. He lives, in other words, in a mystery but not in confusion. A good servant is ever eager to trust and obey and honor God as the sovereign who is always personal and present - YAHWEH: God here and now.

Good words for me this week. A very sick friend has left me feeling very, very sad. I need to be reminded of what a good servant looks like - maybe not knowing the whole story or the end from the beginning - yest being ever eager to trust and obey and honor God.

6. I picked this book up Friday at the local used book store for $2: The Book That Changed My Life: 71 Remarkable Writers Celebrate the Books That Matter Most to Them. Here's the first page of the Table of Contents to wet your appetite. This book will probably end up costing me a lot more than two dollars!

7. I've volunteered to work on the makeover for our church website... NOT do any of the technical work of course - we'll hire someone for that - but to manage the project in general. I'm looking forward to it. Here's a link to 85 great church websites from ChurchRelevance.com. I'm going to start chugging through these tonight to get a feel for layouts, contents, design, etc. I'm really excited about doing this. It's time for me to get back to serving...(see #5 above!)... been on the shelf long enough!

Blessings!

CONTINUE READING...

Dreaming...

Here's a new banner I played around with last week. While reading The Lathe of Heaven, I came across this quote from Victor Hugo:

"Daydream, which is to thought as the nebula is to the star, borders on sleep, and is concerned with it as its frontier. An atmosphere inhabited by living transparencies: there's a beginning of the unknown. But beyond it the Possible opens out, immense....Sleep is in contact with the Possible, which we also call the improbable...and the sleeper, not quite seeing, not quite unconscious, glimpses the strange animalities, weird vegetations, terrible or radiant pallors, ghosts, masks, figures, hydras, confusions, moonless moonlights, obscure unmakings of miracle, growths and vanishings within a murky depth, shapes floating in shadow, the whole mystery which we call Dreaming, and which is nothing other than the approach of an invisible reality. The dream is the aquarium of Night."

That last sentence made me pause and ponder: The dream is the aquarium of Night. So, with that quote from Hugo in my head and then finding this great drawing (see below) by a graphic designer from Argentina, I put together this header. As I said earlier in my review of Lathe, dreaming and sleeping have always been interesting to me. So - something a little different for awhile... and I like the colors. :-)

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Book Review: The Lathe of Heaven

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin, Publisher: Scribner (April 15, 2008), ISBN-10: 1416556966 (Originally published in 1971)

Rating: 5 of 5 STARS
Source: Semicolon Review

I came across a review for The Lathe of Heaven at Semicolon, a great place to find book reviews on the Internet. Sherry of Semicolon reviewed Lathe and connected it to the television series Lost. While I'm not a watcher of Lost (though I feel like I should be with all the hype I read), it was a great review. And I had just recently finished a collection of short stories by her at the beach that I really enjoyed, so I picked up a copy at the local library.

This book is good. Really, really good. I think Ursula may be a potential for my top ten favorite authors. Besides, she has such a cool name.

This book is about dreaming and the possibility of dreams changing reality - both the past and the future. It's extremely well written - see the "Good Words" I found - and unlike so many SF books I've try to read, Ursula keeps it stratightforward and easy to follow.

On another note, I've been fascinated with sleep and dreaming for a long time. I wrote my senior research paper in high school on the topic of sleep. I've collected a pretty good stash of books on sleep, dreaming, and the night. I have an idea of writing something - the word "book" is too scary to say - about sleep in the Bible. In case you've never noticed, there's a whole lot of sleeping going on in the Bible! :-> So, since this book was about dreaming, it made me all the more interested.

Sherry does a great job of reviewing Lathe, much better than I could, so if you want more info, take a look there.

But, there was one thing I did find especially interesting in the book that I wanted to mention. Le Guin originally wrote the book in 1971. Pollution, global warming, and overpopulation play a big role in the story. At some points, overpopulation is extreme and the hypothesized results are something the main characters must struggle with daily: housing shortages, urban blight, famine, constant rain, etc. She used 7 billion as the earth's population.

So - just 38 years ago, a science fiction writer guessed at 7 billion as the population point that would begin the ultimate destruction of the earth. Today's population is estimated to be 6.77 billion. - really close to her guess, but we're experiencing nothing like what was described in Lathe. I know she was writing fiction, but she must have based her ideas on something... probably what the doomsayers were saying at the time. It makes me wonder about the things our modern day doomsayers are spouting and how easily fears can be planted in our minds and souls.... It reminds me of Psalm 20:7:

Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.

This was a good reminder for me to trust in the name of the LORD, not in what men postulate will happen to this old earth... trust only in what God has told me in His Word.

CONTINUE READING...

Good Words: The Lathe of Heaven

Good Words from The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin:

Orr was not a fast reasoner. In fact, he was not a reasoner. He arrived at ideas the slow way, never skating over the clear, hard ice of logic, nor soaring on the slipstreams of imagination, but slogging, plodding along on the heavy ground of existence. He did not see connections, which is said to be the hallmark of intellect. He felt connections - like a plumber.

- and so nobody comes and nobody comes, and so finally she had to order and shove the stuff down in a big rush, and so now she'd have heartburn. On top of pique, umbrage, and ennui. Oh, the French diseases of the soul.

In bed, they made love. Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; re-made all the time, made new.

A wind had come up, too warm for the Aprils of the old days, a wet, hot wind moving the great green-fingered branches of the chestnut, stirring litter far down the long deserted turnings.

There is a bird in a poem by T.S. Eliot who says that mankind cannot bear very much reality; but the bird is mistaken. A man can endure the entire weight of the universe for eighty years. It is unreality that he cannot bear.

CONTINUE READING...

Book Review: Any Place I Hang My Hat (Audio)

Any Place I Hang My Hat by Susan Isaacs, read by Jane Adams, Simon & Schuster Audio; Abridged edition (October 5, 2004), ISBN-10: 0743538226

Rating: 3.5 of 5 STARS
Source: Public Library - where I get all my audios!

Hmm...This one lost a star immediately for being... ack... ABRIDGED!! I hate, hate, hate getting into an audio book and then realizing it's an abridged version. My own fault, I suppose, but the print saying it was abridged was so very teensy on the back cover that it took me about five minutes to find it once I started having suspicions. Anyway, I was too far into the story to stop by the time I figured it out.

And that's the thing. It was a great story. Here's the plot summary from the back cover:

No matter which side of the nature/nurture debate you're on, Amy Lincoln's prospects do not look good. Her mother abandoned her when she was ten months old (just a couple of months after Amy's father went off to serve his first prison term), leaving her in the care of Grandma Lil, who shoplifts dinner on the way home from her job as a leg waxer to the rich and refined.

When Amy is fourteen, she gets a scholarship to a New England boarding school -- her exposure to the moneyed class. After Harvard and the Columbia School of Journalism, Amy becomes a political reporter for the prestigious weekly In Depth. While covering a political fund-raiser, Amy meets a college student who claims to be the son of one of the presidential candidates. It's precisely the sort of story that In Depth wouldn't deign to cover, but the idea of tracking down a lost parent and demanding recognition intrigues Amy. As she begins a search of her own past as well as the candidate's, she discovers a new and unimpeachable grandmother and a mother who is much more than she bargained for. Most important, she finally comes to understand the stuff she's made of and finds the perfect place to hang her hat in the world.

Unfortunately, in addition to the jerkiness I assume came from being abridged, I also found the reader distracting. She kept doing this throaty laughter thing that became quite irritating by the last third of the book.

But, all that said, even with the abridged version and the irritating reader, the story was good. And I really liked the main character, Amy. I wanted to find out what happened. Did Amy find her mother? Did she accept her? Was she as messed up as you thought she would be? Did Amy find love?

So - while I wouldn't necessarily recommend this particular audio book, I would recommend the author. This is Susan Isaacs 10th novel. I haven't read anything else by her, but will definitely be on the look out for her in the future.

Here's a link to a short video of Isaacs talking about being a novelist. She seems pretty down to earth. I think I would want to be her friend. :->

CONTINUE READING...

3 Little Happies...

Top: Elephant Green Paisley notebook I picked up at Barnes & Noble Sunday. :->

Middle: My sister bought me this sweet little rest for my coffee spoon Saturday at our visit to Artist Alley. (Yes, they have a blog!)

Bottom: A brand new Vera Bradley Lola Citrus bowler tote I found at Goodwill for $15. Smile. Looks like new it was about $70. I doubt I'll use it as a purse. Maybe as a makeup bag or maybe I'll use it to store my prayer journal, pens, and pencils. (There's little elephants around the bottom edge and on the print inside. Elephants are for remembering... )

CONTINUE READING...

Afloat

I came across this photo at Shorpy a while ago and it has stuck in my mind. It was taken by a fashion photographer and published in Harper's Bazaar in 1947. Striking, isn't it?

I'm not one prone to the melodramatic (Or at least I hope I'm not, anyway. If I am, don't tell me.), but this is how I'm feeling today...just my head above the water, kicking and stroking to stay afloat. (OK - that is a bit dramatic, isn't it?)

I waited for what seemed like eternity yesterday for news on test results from a good friend. It was bad...the dreaded 'C' word for someone that has heard it before. She said she already knew... had known in her "knower." I suppose I had, too, and have spent the last week walking around this big dark thing in my mind, poking it and nudging it, to see what monsters might come out.

So today I'm praying for my friend... and for her family... and for all the women whose lives she has touched so deeply through the years... women who will be walking with her through this, too. I pray for us to be strong for her, to be able to cry with her... but more importantly to be able to laugh with her and find the joy of God's sovereign hand working and moving... always, always working and moving.

CONTINUE READING...

Note to Self

By "Rich Dark Brown" Clairol really means B-L-A-C-K!!

CONTINUE READING...

A Dozen for Today...

1. Work - Tie up loose ends on two reports, pdf 'em, and email out; write one other report; begin to figure out what exactly I'm going to do for two eight-hour training sessions I'm responsible for... next week! Gulp! (It's times like these that I'm so glad I work with my hubby... He's a great help with training sessions. ;-p Love you, George!)

2. Pick up a couple of boxes of coffee at the office supply store. WE ARE OUT! =:-O AND stop by the grocery store to get ingredients for this and this and this.

3. Scoot home and supervise Mary & E's most delightful craft project that we bought supplies for yesterday (pics forthcoming when they finish!); do lAuNdrY!!; cook (see #2 above); finish the novel I'm reading.

4. Read another chapter in The Jesus Way. (A great time for this is while I've locked myself in my bedroom doing #8 below. :-> )

5. Take the girls to the library. I think my books might be overdue. Big surprise there. I bet the librarians must think I'm the biggest loser ever.

6. Walk two miles. Philadelphia, here I come! Matt will be running the full marathon and I'm going to walk the half. I hope. How hard can it be? Philadelphia is flat, right?

7. Ponder doing a little more yard work. Nothing crazy...rake and pick up cones and sticks on the frontage part of our yard.

8. Color my hair...it's pathetic. "Advanced Gray Solution: Rich Dark Brown." Sigh. Sounds like my coffee (see #2). The good thing about it is that it's veeerrry cheap and easy. About 6 bucks and 30 minutes.

9. Consider starting an art journal. Looks cool, huh?

10. Start working on a new blog header...it's almost that time again! And while I'm in Photoshop, start on the writing group flyer I had planned to get out this summer before mom got sick in La. (She's doing really good, by the way. Driving again!)

11. Find a cute crafty sewing project to start this weekend. I've got a good little machine, the desire to do it, and once upon a time....the ability!

12. Write a summary of the next chapter of Through His Eyes... It's my turn... and I'm late. Ack!

CONTINUE READING...

A Man to Pray For...

Lynn sent me this article from Chuck Colson's BreakPoint on Dr. Francis Collins being nominated to head up the National Institutes of Health. Last year our book club read his book The Language of God. It gave me much food for thought....and I really came to like this guitar-strumming, humble scientist who became a Christian during medical school.

You may recognize his name as the man who headed up the Human Genome Project that sequenced the human DNA. President Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work in 2007.

Colson references an article about the nomination in The New York Times. Collins' open Christianity appears to be a sticking point for some:

"There are two basic objections to Dr. Collins. The first is his very public embrace of religion. He wrote a book called “The Language of God,” and he has given many talks and interviews in which he described his conversion to Christianity as a 27-year-old medical student. Religion and genetic research have long had a fraught relationship, and some in the field complain about what they see as Dr. Collins’s evangelism."

Interesting, huh? The second objection to his nomination has to do with the genome sequencing not yielding as many breakthroughs as Collins predicted. BUT, the first problem, is that he is a Christian and not ashamed to let people know it.

Even with the objections, it appears his nomination is expected to go through without much of a hitch. However Colson makes a good point:

"While his confirmation by the Senate “is all but certain,” I can only imagine what awaits him during the confirmation hearings. He is sure to face hostile questions about his faith in Christ...Some years ago, Supreme Court Justice Scalia told a Christian audience to “have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity . . . and the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world.”

I know Dr. Francis Collins has that courage—and that he’ll soon have the opportunity to show it to the so-called wise of the world."

And here's a really good article from National Geographic in February 2007 where Collins was interviewed about his faith by agnostic author John Horgan. The interview ends with this question from Horgan and Collins' answer:

Horgan: I'm really asking, does religion require suffering? Could we reduce suffering to the point where we just won't need religion?

Collins: In spite of the fact that we have achieved all these wonderful medical advances and made it possible to live longer and eradicate diseases, we will probably still figure out ways to argue with each other and sometimes to kill each other, out of our self-righteousness and our determination that we have to be on top. So the death rate will continue to be one per person, whatever the means. We may understand a lot about biology, we may understand a lot about how to prevent illness, and we may understand the life span. But I don't think we'll ever figure out how to stop humans from doing bad things to each other. That will always be our greatest and most distressing experience here on this planet, and that will make us long the most for something more.

So, here's a man to pray for in the days ahead as he goes before the Senate (and the media...and the American people) and has the opportunity to speak about his faith...and our Savior.

CONTINUE READING...

Comfort Soup

A friend is under the weather and I decided to make her some "Comfort" Soup last night. It's a slight variation to a recipe I came across at Angry Chicken. Good site, by the way. (She added lots of garlic which I had a bad experience with this weekend and feel like I can still taste it so I couldn't bring myself to add it. And I used chicken broth with the water to add a little more flavor.)

1 fennel bulb sliced thin
2 leaks sliced
1 cup sliced thin (length-wise) carrots
1 onion diced
3 radishes sliced
Olive Oil
3 medium potatoes diced
1 large can diced tomatoes
1 can shoe peg corn
fresh herbs (rosemary, basil, oregano, dill)
chicken broth

Saute the first five ingredients in the olive oil and salt/pepper for 15 minutes. Add potatoes and tomatoes (with juice). Cover with chicken broth and water. Simmer for an hour. Add corn, herbs, and more water/broth if needed. Simmer for 10 minutes more. All done!

Top with Parmesan cheese and serve with crackers or toasted bread. Yummy stuff!

CONTINUE READING...