Six Months

Six for six.

Do You Like to Bounce?

I really didn't mean for that blog post in which I threatened to wave our laptop around whenever we want to record something to be a hint to my parents to get us a Flip for our anniversary (honest!). But they did. Thanks, M & D! You really will get to see more of Juliette this way. :-)

Juliette LOVES her borrowed bouncer...

WASABI (the horror! the horror!)

When I was in seminary, I went out for sushi with my friends Lara and Nadja.

I happily popped a California roll in my mouth, only to discover, to my ABJECT HORROR, that an entire wad of wasabi had attached itself to the bottom of the sushi roll and was presently on my tongue.

I PANICKED. I made an all-out scene, frantically spitting out rice and crab and seaweed and the offending green stuff into my napkin. Lara and Nadja were completely flabbergasted, having no idea as to why I was having a conniption.

(I HATE WASABI.)

After I'd calmed down, Nadja offered me her newfound trauma counseling services (she was in a pastoral care and counseling class on trauma).

I told Elizabeth a long time ago that I'll never feel entirely safe in the world knowing that wasabi is out there.

So what does my darling sister do?

She slips a tube of wasabi in the package of hand-me-downs for Juliette.
I even had a little Willis startle effect, I did.

Foodstuffs

This whole growing things & making yummy things to eat with local, in-season ingredients is inspiring me bring out the camera.

Peach-blueberry crisp (the peaches were from Suzanne's backyard!):
A gorgeous salad:

The formerly-blighted Juliet tomatoes are getting close to harvest time(!!):

I just made a new shelf for my GoodReads account: "life-changing." The first book I put on that shelf was Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

Ten on Tuesday

1. I'm on "staycation" this week.
2. I really needed it.
3. There is a good possibility that what I needed even more was a non-preaching week to catch up and plan ahead.
4. Translation: I'm having a really hard time not sneaking in work here and there.
5. Am I going to go back next Monday to the same to-do list, one week behind?
6. Maybe... but at least I'll go back refreshed by a week of being a SAHM.
7. Juliette has the best laugh in the whole wide world. She laughs as hard as she cries.
8. I know somebody else who laughs and cries easily...
9. I'm all caught up on printing photos; Snapfish is offering up to 50 1-cent prints this week with this code: JUL4PENNY08
10. Juliette awakes, blog moment over.

Two Things to Make This a Much Happier Blog

1. It dawned on Ben today that our laptop has a built-in video camera. I played around with it today while we were lazing around underneath our new umbrella. I can't figure out how to edit, but still. Pretty cool. We'll just have to wave the laptop around in the air whenever Juliette starts doing something cute.


2. I received a wonderful email from my friend Guido this afternoon: "Thanks for sharing your "Inventory." I preached a sermon on the Midwives who feared God more than Pharaoh. I shared that I have a friend who is preaching today because she fears God more than she fears people.

Then I shared she does that because she has a community, a true community that surrounds her, supports her, encourages her, defends her and speaks the truth to her. I shared that community nurtured her to this point as well. I shared some of the responses from folks on your blog. They drew applause."

Thank you, Guido. Thank you all of you who have been such a great community. You made my heart happy this week. I'm going to print out all those applause-worthy responses and tack them up where I can see them. Sometimes people differentiate between "internet" friends and friends "in real life"; well, this is real life, and you're all real friends.

Inventory

One of my childhood pastors was female.

As a teenager, some of my best mentors were female pastors.

I went to seminary for three years and earned an M.Div. (and many of my professors were ordained female clergywomen).

My home church as well as the regional Committee on Ministry discerned that I have a call to ordained ministry.

The General Minister and President of my denomination is a woman.

The congregation I serve unanimously called me to be their first female solo pastor.

I'm preparing to go to a second preaching conference just for young clergywomen - at the National Cathedral, nonetheless.

I have a phenomenal support network of "real life" female clergy friends, the RevGalBlogPals, and the Young Clergywomen Network.

I believe that God called me to the ministry of Word and Sacrament.

So how come, when a community member calls to challenge my role as an ordained pastor (asking repeatedly, "But where is it in the Bible where it says women can be ministers?"), do I end up in tears?

Bread, Bread, Bread

After seriously considering the possibility of going the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day route, I decided on a bread machine after all. In fact, I hadn't completely made up my mind - I was waiting to see how the ABiFMaD route worked out for Elizabeth, who bought that book about 30 seconds after I added it to my GoodReads to-read list. But then a barely-used Williams-Sonoma bread machine showed up on Craigslist for cheap, and I pounced. Since then, I've made two wheat loaves, one banana loaf, and one white loaf, and there's another white loaf mixing now.

I
love
my
bread
machine.

Everything has been 100% yummy. The measuring of the ingredients gets easier every time (I have approximately four prior baking experiences, and therefore very little skill parsing the Tbsp's from the tsp's). I think it is a real possibility that we could give up store-bought loaves.

And the best part? In an hour, the house is going to smell like fresh bread again. Mmm mmm.