I Make Stuff!

Being unemployed (hopefully not for much longer!) gives me a lot of time to do stuff during the day. "What stuff," you may be asking? Well...I'll tell you! I even have some pictures!

For starters, I've been cooking a lot. I don't have any pictures of this stuff, because hey, this isn't a food blog! Plus my camera is lame, and Dad's nice camera lives with him now. But anyway...on to the list of things I've made recently:

- More tiny jar pies (I've been sharing the tiny jar pie wealth...it's a good deal)

- I roasted garlic and made garlic butter and garlic infused oil. I haven't used the oil yet but the butter is UNBELIEVABLE. If you haven't roasted garlic before, please stop reading this and go do it. It's so easy! And so delicious! And if you want guidance, I'd recommend going here.

- Roasted Red Pepper and Black Bean soup. It's cheap, it's spicy, it's filling, it's unbelievable. I found the recipe here, and I made some cilantro yogurt sauce to go with it. Just put a few generous scoops of plain yogurt (I used greek yogurt, 'cause we had it), the juice of half a lemon, and a big 'ole bunch of cilantro in a blender and give it a whirl. You can thank me later.

- Salsa Verde! I love the Trader Joe's kind, but it's not worth the commute to the nearest TJ's. Ken and I have been tweaking our own to get it right, and I think we're close. 

- The easiest, most delicious tomato sauce known to mankind. Three ingredients: tomatoes, butter, and an onion. Give it an hour of simmering and enjoy. If you don't believe me, take Smitten Kitchen's word for it because she knows what's up!

I've been doodling a lot lately, too, which resulted in  a Valentine's Day Comic (which I never got around to sending to anyone...whoops.)

I also found and fell in love with the comic My Cardboard Life which is easily the most charming comic on the internet.

Finally, I have pictures of the room transformation that's been taking place over the last couple of months. I think I can say it's finally finished for reals as of today. 

For starters, here's one of my walls mid-repainting...ahhh I do not miss that pink.

...isn't that pink carpet nice? I don't miss it, either.

I think this brown is a little more...grown up. I'm a fan.

There's the same wall, as of tonight. I hung some of my paintings, put out some little wee candles, and I'm enjoying some good 'ole Ikea furniture. 

But really, all of this is kind of old news. I've been done painting for over a month, I've had my carpet about as long, and the furniture has been here since January as well. What's been occupying my time this week has been painting a design on the wall over my bed, which is FINALLY finished as of today:

Ta da! I'm really quite proud of it. I painted some big abstract flowers on Anna's walls at my parents' new house in Boiling Springs, and I got inspired to do the same on my own wall. And there it is! I'm kind of disappointed that it's all over, because it's been a lot of fun this week, making thumbnails, doing scale drawings, and finally getting to the painting part of it. So if anyone out there wants something painted on their wall...just let me know! I'm all experienced now, so I'll hook you up. 

So that's what I've been making! How about you? Create anything awesome as of late?

A New Week

Ughhh my brain feels like mush and I can't stop sneezing. And it's Monday morning. I got a cold this weekend that's taking it's toll mostly by making me feel totally exhausted. It's not the worst cold I've ever had, but it's pretty inconvenient, I'll tell ya that much!

But other than feeling sick, things are going well. My weekend was very nice; I went home to celebrate my sister's 8th birthday and my grandfather's 80th birthday. We had a big party with all of our family, and there was delicious food and poems and crying and a lot of love. It's unusual for that side of my family to be so...open about how much they care for one another, so it was great to hear people saying it.

I had an art history test this morning. It probably went well...right now I'm just glad it's over. Remember the brain-mush thing? Yeah. Me too.

So, I should be showering, getting stuff ready for painting, or doing my homework. But I think I'll opt for a brief nap before going off to painting for the rest of the day. I have a watercolor painting due today too. What's that? You want to see it?! Ohh, okay! Here it is:



It's of my grandparent's farm. And it's due today...soooo thankfully it turned out pretty a-okay.

Anyway, that's it for now. I'm exhausted. I'm ready for the weekend. This week should be pretty painless; I don't have to teach on Thursday and I'm driving to Dana's on Friday night! We're going out to GCC this weekend to see our friends and to catch Jinks' senior recital. So that'll be nice. And hopefully by then this cold will be loooooong gone!

Oh, and HAPPY SPRING :)

Spring Breaaaak!!!

Woah, I'm home! It's spring break! But it's very cold. Luckily, my home did not get hit with the massive snowstorm that wrecked the other half of the state this week. Had I been at school, however, I would be wading through a lot of snow...I can live without any of that right now.

Break so far has been pretty enjoyable. I had a doctor's appointment, I got new glasses, I've been working on a painting, I took my sister to Brownies and Dance lessons today, my brother and I cooked dinner, I've made hummus and guacamole - both of which were delicious, and I spent some quality time with my dad.

I still have a ton of work to do on my painting. It's due on Monday and I'm pretty unexcited about it...but we'll see.

Anyway, plans for the rest of break? Wrapping up the painting, taking pictures for watercolor, planning some lessons, going to Soup Night at my church, making cookies for my brother, and finally (here's the good stuff) going to Culpeper on Friday to visit Lindsay! And Dana is coming! I love them. It'll be great to see them and spend some time together. And on Sunday it's back to school...and back into the fray.

There's a lot to do, but it'll all get done. It always does, somehow.

Persecution, the Church...and Watercolor

It's Sunday! And I went to a different church this morning (I do that a lot - mostly because I'm not here much on the weekends, so I don't really have a "church home" here)

Sadly, the service I attended today set my teeth on edge. I'm not sure if I my response is entirely justified or Biblical; sometimes my personal values and beliefs cloud what is true. But sometimes I think my response is grounded in truth...and I think today that was the case.

Now, I'm SURE this church is rooted in the Bible. They are brothers and sisters in faith. They seek after the Lord. They want to love Him and serve Him; I acknowledge that wholeheartedly. But today's sermon frustrated me in many ways. The preacher spoke on the passage in John where Christ warns his disciples of persecution due to their faith (the end of chapter 15 and the first few verses of 16). The crux of the sermon was that we, as American Christians, are persecuted by those who hate the faith - particularly those in our government. There was lots of talk about things like pro-life pastors being arrested for protesting, laws being passed that "attacked the faith" and so forth. The pastor suggested that we should all be memorizing scripture not because it is important to have the Word in our hearts, but because one day (possibly soon!) being a Christian may be illegal in our nation.

What.

To suggest that the greatest dangers facing the American Church today come at the hands of our government is foolishness, to me. That kind of religious-right agenda puts a bad taste in my mouth, and in the mouths of many. Sure, there is merit to discussing issues like abortion - but there is much more than just that.

The American Church (oh what a varied body she is!) cannot wallow in its "persecution." We cannot point fingers at atheists, or pro-choice people, or our government. The dangers facing our church are much deeper and much closer to home than that. The dangers in our church come from within - from apathy, complacency, from being satisfied with the status quo. They come from our culture of consumption, entitlement and me-first-me-only thinking. They come from alienating others with a message of hate, or - on the other side - from being passive and postmodern in our approach to the gospel.

There is so much work to be done. Work that goes beyond mailing postcards of fetuses to senators. Work that involves loving others, not shouting at them. And even if I don't share the views of this church (I'm one of those Demi-crats, you know), I am as much a part of the problem. I know that I fail to meet the demands of the gospel. I am broken, too.

That being said...the rest of my Sunday has been enjoyable! And really, even If i don't agree with that church on that, it gave me something to think about. And that's a good thing. After church I had lunch with my roommate and some of her friends, and I just finished a watercolor!



See, there it is! I was really nervous about watercolor before I started this semester. I'm an oil painter usually, and the method is very, VERY different. But I'm starting to get the hang of it, which makes it much more enjoyable, that's for sure.

So now I'm just going to enjoy the rest of my Sabbath. I might make some granny squares, or do a crossword, or call a friend. It's a nice, snowy day to enjoy.

On Reflection

About every six months I find myself in a place where I try to sort out and make sense of where my life is, and where it is going. Usually this happens at the end of the summer and in the middle of winter. I reflect at the summer's close after a few months of working at camp, and again in winter when I feel far-removed from those experiences.

I think it's that time again.

In fact, I think it's providentially become that time again. A few days ago, I organized the Word documents on my computer. Nothing fancy, I just threw all of last semesters papers and journals into a folder marked for my senior year. As I was sorting, I cam across a reflection I wrote in early September entitled "it's time for this." And I could not, for the life of me, remember writing it.

Now, I guess I should preface this a little. Sometimes I get overwhelmed by the things I'm experiencing, and the best way for me to get a handle on things is through typing and typing and typing. It's cathartic. But when I go back to those writings months later, it's usually with some mortification. I get easily embarrassed by the things I write - mostly because I've grown out of feeling those things by the time I go back to them.

Which is why a blog may or may not be a sound choice.

But I digress...so I found this "writing" or whatever and, well, it's good that I found it again. Insightful, I know! But really. I wrote a lot about a subject that I've been encircling in thought and action for years: love. Woah, I know, PROFOUND! What a big deal! But it's true...I've spent a lot of time in Scripture, prayer and discussion over the subject of loving one another, loving God, and being loved both by Him and by others. It's a dizzying thing, after awhile.

While some of the entry is a bit personal, I think I'll be revisiting it and sharing some of the things I'm still sorting out.

In the meantime, however, I need to muster the courage to go to my painting studio. I enjoy painting, but it's been a struggle this semester. I'm floundering for anything meaningful right now; mostly because I'm still trying to sort out where I am, let alone where my art can be. So...we'll see how that goes.