The full moon and the bouncing stars

Last night there was a beautiful, huge full moon. We took James home. He is from Liberia, Africa and he said they loved full moons there. People come out of their home in the evening and go around visiting each other. This is unusual because it is usually pitch dark there in the evenings....no street lights or house lights, just maybe a candle inside or a fire outside. It was a good memory for him.

As we turned on to our neighborhood street we were greeted with bouncing star-like lights coming down our street....highly unusual.  As we got closer, we realized it was lots of people jogging down the street with headlamps on. lol LOTS of people....maybe 40 or so by the time I stopped watching them.  A group of them had stopped where a street comes into ours at a T intersection and they were drawing something on the ground with chalk....a big circle with direction I think.

My first thought was that they were playing Cops and Robbers. My kids play this, but not in our neighborhood.....too close to the real thing here. But when I asked one of them what they were playing, he called out, "Just enjoying a run.....and beer!" hmmm I had to look it up. So I googled headlamps, run, chalk drawings.

They are 'Hashers'. I won't link to their sight because besides running and drinking (they end the run at a club or bar), they do a lot of off color talking on their website and do a lot of hooking up, if you know what I mean. And I think you do, so no need to mention specifics.

Apparently the full moon and for some reason Wednesdays in particular are the days to hash around town. It is a nation wide organization. (I need to just put a stop to this curiosity sometimes. Now I will be suspicious of people with headlamps.)

I think Geo-caching (also a sort of secret society of people with adventurous spirits)  is a lot more tame and family friendly (and you can wear headlamps to do this too!). But I did learn something new....to me.

A tale of two packages

A few weeks ago, before the world started spinning at a tornado-ish pace, we received two things in the mail.

*One was for my daughter Emma and one was for me.
*Both were from dear friends across the miles on separate sides of the Unites States.
*Both were very silly, yet very meaningful little packages.
*Both arrived totally unexpected.

The first was a package from another pastor's wife friend of mine. There was quite a discussion on cornbread recipes on a message board we go to and so she posted hers. Here it is:

This recipe is on the Martha White Self Rising Cornmeal Mix bag.

1 egg, beaten

1 and 1/3 cups milk or 1 and 3/4 cups buttermilk (I usually use milk)

1/4 c. vegetable oil

2 cups Cornmeal mix

THis is my secret ingredient--I add about 1/3 c. sour cream instead of buttermilk ( I do add milk)

1. head oven to 450F. Grease 9-inch cast iron skillet. I put enough oil in the skillet to coat the bottom and put it in the hot oven for about 10 minutes.

2. In large bowl, combine all ingredients well. Pour batter into hot greased pan.

3. Bake at 450 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes

And so I,  I who used the 49cent Jiffy cornbread mix regularly, decided to tease poor Donna. I asked her what cornmeal 'mix' was and accused all women in the South of having secret products from which they produce lovely southern dishes which the rest of us cannot replicate, even if we follow their recipes. This escalated until I received this in the mail from Donna. I had NO idea what was inside.



It was the secret product!!!  Which, after reading the bag, decided it is just a half and half mixture of cornmeal and self rising flour. ;) (the egg was just for decoration, not for making the recipe)

I made the recipe:



To which there were very favorable reviews by the people who live here. It was yummy and very southern tasting....kind of like the cornbread from Cracker Barrel, but better. It held my honey with love and corniness.

Thank you Donna!

The next package was from a friend of Emma's (and mine). She has moved off to college in the northwest and is having great adventures there. It was an odd package, as one might expect from Sara. She never does anything normally and this is a good thing, not a weird thing. ;) It may have been an envelope at some point, but it was totally covered in duct tape of all different colors and patterns. And I had to wait very impatiently for Emma to get home to open it. Cutting off one end with scissors, Emma dumped out a whole cache of little green army men and one little note. It said something to the effect of: "Portland moves to attack Phoenix, will one die or two?" And yes, on closer inspection there was a decapitated army man and several missing limbs.

Such violence....lying on my dining room table.

How dare they declare war on us, we said! Immediately we set up the battlefield. We humiliated the enemy by making them dress like cartoons.




They looked goofy, but I think it sent the right message:





They were devastated!



So there Sara! Are you devastated? Are you shocked?

hello

I guess I have nothing left to say.


*pffft* just kidding....this is the longest blogging break I have taken since I started the nest back in 2005 though. And I barely thought about blogging the whole month. hmmm, I say.   My friends here are starting to mention it. I dunno. I guess I haven't felt like sharing much lately. 


Well, here is my eclectic collection of thoughts tonight.....

I am husbandless for a few days while he is visiting his mom in Oklahoma. It was a planned visit, but it sure did come at a good time. He's had a very intense week.  A 21 year old boy from our church died while on a mission trip in Africa. The feeling of being stunned is still hanging around for all of us....it is hard to process.


...the heaviness of the past week has left me it seems....maybe that is because all the services and details are over and taken care of now.  I am glad the anxiety I was feeling for everyone and for things to go right is gone for now. whew! There is just sadness mixed with an eternal longing left in my head after it's all said and done. More about this later....too tired to put it all out there tonight.


My preschoolers are naughty little punks lately! It makes 6 hours each day feel like torture. 


And I ate ice cream....and feel guilty....I was doing so well in that area too.

My dog just put herself to bed. This is only the second time she's ever done that. She just climbed in her crate and sighed. Goofy thing. She was all mad last night because Charles was packing a suitcase. I don't think I mentioned it before on here, but she got a crazy short haircut a few weeks ago. Charles dropped her off (I'm thinking this may have something to do with it). I asked him to get her trimmed short. I should have been more specific. I did want her to have a little bit of hair. I didn't really want to see her skin and all of her freckles so ummm, unobstructed. The worst part was that they also shaved her ears. She is a bichon/poodle mix. She is supposed to have fluffy ears, but it was shaved off, leaving her looking very pathetically chihuahua-ish, bulging eyes and trembling and all. And though it looks absolutely ridiculous, it's kind of cute in a freakishly funny way. I will have to take a picture soon. 

And lastly, because I'm starting to ramble, I like air conditioning. Weather that flirts around in the 90's calls for air conditioning....it calls loudly and in a screechy, whiny voice like it's in menopause, yes it does. ....even if it is still April. 

God loves

I just got done reading my daughter Hannah's report on her recent mission trip to Alabama and I had to share it with you. Our God is amazing and is still at work on a very personal basis in our world today....even with the 'least of these', the ones we have cast off in society and don't have much hope for. Please read it, pray for the boys they ministered to and for the young people in your  lives and see what God sees....let Him work.

Look at these!

I have not seen these before today.

I like these a lot!

Blessed like spring muffins

It's spring break this week for all of our various schools represented in my house. The preschool I work for, the junior high Maggie goes to, the high school Emma goes to and the college Bethany goes to. Nice. Now if they just had spring break for pastors, it would be perfect.

Our week so far:

-Bethany has been working at the zoo every day, all day. They are crazy busy there because of springs breaking and such.

-Emma has been busy with her friends, babysitting her little cousin who is 4, and at our youth department, which is having 'reality week'.  I think it includes a lot of messy, painful, wet games from the looks of my kids when they come home. They also do a lot of culturally relevant talks and videos and  Bible studyish things.

-Oh, and our youth pastor finally joined facebook. He has been a long time hold out on all the technology the past few years.  For instance, if you sent him an email, really, it was like sending you message to the cosmic void. gone gone.  One of our church members even started a fan page called " Josh K should be on facebook", to which he put conditions on the number of people who had to join before he would join and that one specific other person had to join. And now, wallah! He's all into facebook, making comments, building photo albums of his mini me children and generally being a normal person of our era!  Yay to Josh.

-Maggie has been doing the reality week plus various days of fun with me and her cousin and auntie(s). We went to the zoo on Tuesday....all day....I think I am still recovering from that.  Then today we went over to the east side of town and hung out at Arizona Mills Mall and went to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D.  She and her sisters have named all of us in the family as resembling the characters of that movie. I am by unanimous vote, the Mad Hatter. (even though he's a boy and I'm a girl) After seeing it, I am not arguing except on that one point.  Some things you just can't deny.

-I got to meet up with another pastor's wife I've known for a few years but had never actually met....yes, that does make sense, but I really don't want to make sense of it for you. Mysterious, yes? We met at Paradise Bakery and ordered muffins and coffee. The woman running that counter, then waited on another woman (I guess she was thinking it would be a quick order, but no, the lady had questions and ordered many many muffins which were carefully placed into boxes, etc).  My friend and I stand there.....and stand there.....no sign that she had even begun making our fluffy coffees. Then I asked her, as a way to remind her of our coffee-less existence, if there was a problem (and I was very nice, unlike today when I had to get real with a telemarketer). She apologized and said she would throw in some free cookies because the wait was so long.

She finally made the coffees and while explaining the buy one get one free cookie special to the woman who was ordering many muffins, she had a surprised look on her face when the woman pointed to the sign that said buy one, get one free MUFFINS. No one had informed her that it was  BOGO muffin day instead of  BOGO cookie day. So instead of doing a refund for us and our full priced muffins, she gave us two more muffins, plus the apology cookies for having to wait. So we ate our original muffins and took home BOGO muffins and cookies and by the way, they have really good fluffy coffees there.

I did not mean to go on and on about that, but you had to get the feel for how long it took. ;)

I hope you are having a happy springy week wherever you are and that God blesses you with many new ideas, blessings and His plans along the way. (like muffins)

Blossoming

I opened the back door this afternoon to let the dog out and a faint scent of orange blossom wafted it's way into my head.

mmmmmmmmmmmmm, it's Spring in Phoenix!

For these days...

Just kidding, this is what I really wanted to say,

  “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing?  Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are?  Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? 

  “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing,  yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you.  

Why do you have so little faith?

  “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’  These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.  Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. 

  “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today. Matthew 6:24-34 (NLT)

Wow, look at that ring, ummmm

This morning the preschool classroom was running smoothly, children were all enjoying quiet activities at the tables while everyone arrived and got settled. The next child entered with her mother and M, seated at the play dough table, looked up at her friend's mom and shouted, "Hey Mrs. A, look at my new RING!"  All eyes turned to her, at which time she enthusiastically held up the finger the ring was on....her middle finger....only.



Oh bother.

Construction zone

Pardon the construction. If you have me on any kind of subscription like Bloglines, you'll notice the boatload of posts coming from me today.  I have been moving my old blog posts here to this blog.

I have just finished moving 2005 over here!

In other news.....

Did you know that today's date goes backwards?

3/2/10