To the 60 or so people

Who honored us by coming to our 2nd annual Christmas Cookie Exchange, here's to you! Our friends really make our lives sweet. You are all such a blessing to us.

Merry Christmas to you all!!

To view a slideshow, please click on this link...

today...

We had another photo shoot. One of our friends asked if I could take photos of their children today. We went back to J-----'s house and had the best time! Of course, it helps that the children are all beautiful, dark eyes and hair, tan skin and sweet smiles...We ended the day with a lovely spaghetti dinner and sitting out on the deck. One unfortunate incident occurred as they were getting ready to leave. We discovered a spider the size of a small dog (ahem) on the ceiling of our living room. Discovering the spider was not a bad thing. However, I accidentally killed the spider later. I am still sorry about it. I treasure all living things and am not happy about that poor spider dying.

How we roll...

The Superheroes minus The Sparkler

This is how we entertain ourselves---I mean, how we entertain the kids!! On Sunday mornings, we have a host of zany characters that we use to illustrate the virtue we are learning for the month. Last month was self-control and we introduced the super heroes to much fanfare. This month, we are learning about honor (letting someone know how valuable they are to you) and have just introduced the hip hop kids. whoo. They are something else!

Here are some photos of our recent escapades:
The Informer
Hot Rod
Enviro-Man
Che Guava--my South American revolutionary alter-ego
DJ Spanky
Five Cent Skittle
Boo Becca

How we roll...

The Superheroes minus The Sparkler

This is how we entertain ourselves---I mean, how we entertain the kids!! On Sunday mornings, we have a host of zany characters that we use to illustrate the virtue we are learning for the month. Last month was self-control and we introduced the super heroes to much fanfare. This month, we are learning about honor (letting someone know how valuable they are to you) and have just introduced the hip hop kids. whoo. They are something else!

Here are some photos of our recent escapades:
The Informer
Hot Rod
Enviro-Man
Che Guava--my South American revolutionary alter-ego
DJ Spanky
Five Cent Skittle
Boo Becca

affluenza

My Che Guava face...
And here I am, finally, corralling my thoughts in an effort to communicate what I have been feeling lately. By the way, have you all noticed the number of bloggers who have been radically shifting or closing their blogs? I just find it interesting that at the same time I have hit a disinterested spell in blogging, so have many other fine folks...

What I want to write about today has to do with the wonderful Frugal Subversive badge to the right of this post. Nice, isn't it? Stephanie awarded me with it and was I ever excited!! Days before she presented me with this award, my husband left his copy of Our Daily Bread lying on the computer desk where I would be sure to see it. I think it quite a propos to share here...

As people in affluent societies stock up on Blackberrys and flat-panel TVs, it's hard to deny the increasing wealth in many parts of the world. You might call it "affluenza." There is anxiety, however, amid so much prosperity. It is the economic "puzzle of our time," said Robert J. Samuelson in The Washington Post. I wonder if this is true because we are attempting to find security in "more stuff"--stuff that is temporary and fleeting.
...The "good life" cannot be found in things. Instead of seeking our security by acquiring "more stuff," may we find true satisfaction by investing our resources and our lives in and for His kingdom."
Poverty of purpose is worse than poverty of purse.
--Marvin Williams as seen in Our Daily Bread July 12, 2007

http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
Rhonda Jean over at Down-To-Earth started this meme and here is what she has to say about her Frugal Subversive movement:

Reducing our consumption of products and returning to local, homemade and reused things is something that will benefit all of us and our planet. Endeavouring to be more frugal is one of the most important steps we can all make to help redress our environmental problems. It is a small but important step towards sustainability.

And who am I tagging?
Shereen over at "Waiting For Him" because she is doing a marvelous job of living well below her means: reducing, reusing and recycling. Very inspirational lady there...

Linda, over at Reminisce... always inspires me with her deal finding, reusing and plain pleasure in simple things.

Finally, my friend in real life, Amanda is as subversive as they get. She and her husband inspire me and James continually.

You go girls!!

Broken Hallelujah

This song was sung at our wedding. Just imagine, my husband and I were married two months after Hurricane Ivan's winds ravaged the Gulf Coast. We planned an outdoor wedding in November 'cause I'm just that kind of girl. At the time, I lived two houses away from the water and our dear friend lived right on the water. We decided to be married in her front yard. J----'s home had been almost obliterated by the hurricane...we shoveled leaves and dirt out of the front room to help her recover. It was quite a surreal experience. After two months of intense clean up all over Pensacola, our dream outdoor wedding was planned. We would be married beneath the oak trees in front of J's house, surrounded by the water and children and friends...with electricity for guitar amps piped from the next house over. (J's house was still without electricity).

Anyway, I'm sure you have guessed by now that something went wrong. Yes, the rains came down on our sunset, waterside wedding. The mad dash to save candles, speakers and guests began while I was having my hair arranged in my little pink house two doors down. Can you imagine? After all this preparation and no back-up plan, I had no idea what the wedding would look like. I calmly walked down the road under a beautiful black umbrella (in my sandals and white cotton dress!), into the house where all the decorations had been rushed.

Let me elaborate more here. J's house had no electricity and the main window was boarded, so no light was streaming through the windows. What did our resourceful friends do? They arranged themselves however they could and held candles to light the room. When I entered, it was to look into the faces of our dear friends and family standing five feet or less away from me. My beloved was soaked with rain, Pastor Bobby's notes were blurry but the smiles and love were evident everywhere.

Our good friend G---- sang his version of this song. On the chorus, the guests all joined in. It was one of the most beautiful experiences ever. Folks still say our wedding was the most romantic one they have ever attended. I think so too.

Belated...my MIFS entry...

Every Wednesday night, a group of us gets together and has dinner and a Nooma. Don't know what a nooma is? Check out Rob Bell's website. He's part of the Emerging Church Movement. Not sure what that movement is? Just check out the link. It can tell you way more than I can.

Anyway, last Wednesday's dinner theme was Asian Cuisine. We had pad thai, cold peanut butter sauce noodles, miso soup, green tea, some type of excellent slow cooked BBQ chicken, salad and coconut macaroons. MMM...the food was lovely. My contribution was Chinese Sesame Kale, tea eggs and cheese puffs. The tea eggs were kind of pretty but not much else. The cheese puffs were a big hit but I wasn't too impressed with them. James' and my favorite was the sesame kale. Here are some photos from the cooking.


Cheese Puffs: these are basically crab rangoon without crabmeat. Cream cheese, garlic, salt and pepper. I made the wonton skins myself! Flour, salt and egg. Super easy!




Chinese Sesame Kale: sesame oil, soy sauce, kale, ginger and toasted sesame seeds. The kale is from our garden. What a huge plus!



Tea Eggs: hmmm...first you boil the eggs, then you take them out of the water, crack the shells, and put them back in a "tea" made with one tea bag, cinnamon, soy sauce and salt. Theoretically, the lines in the eggs should have been more prominent. Also, they were supposed to soak overnight. Perhaps that was the problem?



This week, we're doing tapas. I'm thinking of making gazpacho. Does anyone have any good tapas recipes they'd like to share???

Way back when...

For my sixteenth birthday party, my mom and my best friend's mom planned a wonderful "bop" for me and my friends. I was at the height of my fascination with all things 60s-ish and we all had a blast. I remember popping balloons with dollar bills tucked inside, an obstacle course that involved blind folds and raw eggs (ewww!), fun music and great food! What made the food so great that I remember it all these years later? Well, it was a game. Each girl was given a menu with food, drink and utensils written in code. The dining experience revolved around each girl's ability to decode the menu successfully. I remember my entire first course consisted of salad dressing and a fork. That was it. For your enjoyment, here are a few of those items I could dredge up from the dim recesses of my memory:

1. Marie Antoinette's clothes
2. letter of the alphabet
3. crispy foghorn leghorn

Can you guess what those items are?

I started this post thinking I would do a little Thursday Thirteen of the items but I can't remember that many. Instead, I'm going to do a little recap of some of those people in my life when I was sixteen and what they're doing now...

1. Robin S.--married a cattle rancher and living in Montana, I believe
2. Amber S.--found her on myspace a while back but haven't heard from since. I don't know what she's doing!
3. Joanna M.--no clue as to her whereabouts
4. Daphne C.--living in Dallas working as a fancy-shmancy computer programmer(?)
5. Tabitha B.--driving a diesel and going to school
6. Micah B.--married with two of the sweetest princesses ever!
7. Laura R.--I think she's married??
8. Elizabeth G.--hmm, no idea...
9. Scott W.--last I heard, he joined the CIA or FBI or something.
10. Matt K.--not doing so well at last check, teaching high school Latin somewhere in Texas
11. Chad M.--I hear he went to NYC, met a girl while standing in line to see a show. they hit it off and got married!
12. Toby Joe C.--he hated that I knew his middle name. I named a bird after him. one of the best tuba players I ever knew. I heard he was in Nashville singing country music...
13.Susie E.--my physics and chemistry teacher. she has since retired and is travelling the world!

the items...in order, drumroll please...

french dressing
Tea
fried chicken