Meditations From the Farmer’s Market

One of my favorite things about this summer has been our town’s farmer’s market.  It’s become part of the rhythm of our week, as we seek to establish some routine in our new home and community. Sundays: church.  Tuesdays: library class. Thursdays: Farmer’s Market.

Beginning to work in our gardens and buying local produce as it’s harvested is giving me a whole new perspective on time and seasons.   It’s resetting my heart’s gears to a slower pace, causing me to acknowledge that growth requires gestation, that weeds are quick to grow and even faster to choke the life out of beauty, and that the harvest happens at an appointed time. Appointed, that is, not by me.

I am learning to quiet my heart.  Yearning to keep in step with His timing, His seasons, rather than digging my heels in and insisting on dressing in bathing suits for a snowstorm or heavy rain gear for a starlit summer night.
The disciplines of thanksgiving and repentance (confession) are weeding out the contempt and bitterness and entitlement that so effortlessly shoot up like strangling vines around my heart.
And I find myself longing for more of His rhythm in my life.  And not just in the slowly passing seasons, but in the minutia. I want to create spaces for our family to gather & soak in His Word.

I’m learning to let the ordinary, normally dreaded tasks of every day serve as catalysts to interact with the Holy, just as Jesus took on such ordinariness when He came down and dwelt among us.
I hope you have time to work in your garden today, weeding or harvesting, sowing or reaping, or maybe just waiting. To quiet your busy heart and encounter the One who makes all things new, all thing beautiful, in His time.

Update: I thought it was worth mentioning… If blogs had bibliographies (blogliographies?!) these would be on my list of inspiring things I’ve been reading & listening to this week that were steeping in my mind as I wrote this:

• Kathleen Norris’ Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy, and Women’s Work
• This post by Ann Voskamp
• Ron Walborn’s lecture (available on itunes, but I can’t figure out the link!) on the Gardening Concept of Spiritual Formation. I cannot recommend the series highly enough.

Curious Thoughts on Summer Reading

I love our new library, which is my old library, which is now diamonds. (Hmmm…apparently one should not attempt creative writing while her husband watches Old Spice commercials on youtube in the background.) But really, back to the library (which really was my library when I was a little girl): My love for the library could be a whole post in and of itself.  And we’ve been spending a lot of time there lately, seeing as it’s free (I know, Dad, it’s not actually free…) and air-conditioned and such a piece-of-cake walking distance.

I love the way Laura chooses books from the library.  I’ll give you a  hint at her method: It has mostly to do with the amount of rainbow colors on the spines of books that are approximately 36 inches off the ground.  Last week, she recognized an old friend, as we meandered around the corner of the room that houses the picture books into the R-E-Y section.  That’s right.  Good old Curious George. She chose a few of Houghton Mifflin’s “Margret & H.A. Rey’s Curious George” books, and I prodded her to choose one of the seven original Curious George titles, actually created by Margret & H.A. Rey.

While Houghton Mifflin’s done well to preserve the style and look of the Curious George books (and Laura does love them), the educator in me was stunned at the quality of the writing in the original books.  Just the sheer quantity of reading comprehension skills and complex grammar lessons packed into each page of the original books, tucked into such a happy little story, makes the process of learning to read seem so effortless.  Literally, (oh, a pun, how I love a pun… even a bad one!) I spotted fourteen different language arts lessons on one page spread.  Funny that after reading so many basic, blasé stories, an eighty page children’s book would be so refreshing!

So head to the library, whether you have little people or not, and revisit those old favorites.  I’d love to know, what are your favorite classic children’s books?

Homemade Ricotta

I have a love/hate relationship with real, bonafide recipe books, because they’re always chock full of drool-inducing photographs of food that I do not have the ingredients to make. But when a sweet lady at the library gently forced Sara Moulton’s Everyday Dinners upon me a few weeks ago,  I was shocked to see how easy it is to make homemade ricotta cheese. (And with a one year old in the house, we always have lots of whole milk products on hand: score!)  I was missing a few ingredients from Sara Moulton’s recipe, but quickly found this one by David Lebowitz at Simply Recipes. It was ridiculously easy to make, and so good.

Add milk, yogurt, vinegar and salt. Boil for two minutes.Realize you should have used the larger pot as milk bubbles out of the pot.Strain.  I used a super thin dishtowel, since cheesecloth is not an item I have on hand.
The recipe says to strain for up to fifteen minutes.  Mine took about two.It was so, so yummy.  We had it with grilled chicken, zuchini & squash and sun-dried tomatoes on toasted ciabatta.
The recipe says to use up the leftover ricotta in short order, so  I
systematticaly ate the rest with almonds and blueberries and chocolate sauce.

So good. Find the recipe here.

Kuplink. Kuplank. Kuplunk.

Guess what we did this weekend (Friday, actually).
That’s right.
Blueberry picking.
At a local farm.

I remember picking berries with my mom & sisters as a kid.
It’s an ideal activity for little, tiny people.
And there’s nothing like the taste of berries fresh off the bush – warmed by the sun.

Can you see her leaping off the ground, in anticipation?

Have you ever let one of your babies eat endless blueberries all morning?
Let’s just say what goes around comes around. But she loved it.

Taking five.

Yum.

Ellie ate all the berries she could reach from her stroller.
I also found several half-eaten leaves when she got up.

Almost done.

Wish we could share some with you today!  Happy Monday.

The Bread of Idleness & the Spinach of Rest

Oh, those long gone days when my babies would fall asleep anywhere, anytime, all the time, and transfer without stirring from person to person, from carseat to crib and back again.  Such thick, deep sleep.  Such trusting rest.  Ironically, even as I’ve been mulling over thoughts of rest today, even as I rediscovered this sweet old photograph, these same dear children have joined forces to wage ultimate war against nap-time and bedtime. But I digress…

I got thinking about rest, and the concept, after reading this last night. (It’s good, check it out.) I know my blog has been a big cheer-leading camp for Ann Voskamp lately.  But there’s something about her writing that both surprises me and resonates with feelings I’ve yet to articulate.   So I was thinking about rest, real rest, and then I came across these words today, concerning a wife of noble character: She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. -Proverbs 31.27

And it occurred to me, how often, in need of rest -genuine restorative rest, I opt for idleness instead.  My heart longs for connection, for meaning, for purpose in the midst of the often mundane tasks of housekeeping and mothering, and instead of allowing myself to enter into the rest that would fill my heart with life and ease the burdens and shed the light of grace on those tasks, I take a break to check Facebook or (my newest addiction) Craigslist.  I make another cup of coffee or, if I’m lucky, like tonight, escape for some retail therapy to recharge.  Not bad, in and of themselves- coffee, shopping, social media- but not life-giving, burden-lifting, or grace-filled either. The bread of idleness. The carbohydrate of idleness – the most common source of energy, but no essential nutrients.

I’m weeding out these lesser loves. I am longing tonight for a heart that rests – with the trust of a newborn baby and the fierce intentionality of the Proverbs 31 woman.

Table Etiquette [summer edition]

Is this normal summer behavior, or could the heat be affecting their brains?  Hmmm….

American Pie :: Weekend Recap

Hope your weekend was as delicious as our strawberry-rubarb pie was! We had a blast catching up with old friends, getting to know new friends (who knew acting like a crazy person photographing pies on your front porch could be such a great ice-breaker!) and working on our never-ending house projects.  Good conversation, good food, good sleep.  I wish every weekend was a three day weekend!

Love is the Color Orange

Do you know what this is? Love.

“No, no,” you say, “this is a too-orange room, with cheap inexpensive vinyl flooring.”

Oh, no.  This room speaks of the kind of love I share with Ted.  The kind of love that loves my favorite color because he loves me. The kind that works side by side.  It’s a product of hours of labor, occurring almost exclusively between the hours of 9pm and 5am – which almost guarantees bickering, giddiness, and a less than perfect paint job!

We worked all last week on it.  Taking on this project together reminded me how much I love working with Ted.  I love the satisfaction of our very different personalities and approaches getting into a rhythm.  I love the small talk.  I love accomplishing together.  It reminds me how patient he is, and how much we have to talk about.  It makes me so glad he’s mine.  And I’m his.

Sometime in the middle of the week I read this and this, too (from what is quite possibly my most favorite blog to read) which only inspired my thinking on the gift & mystery of marriage further.  It’s not that we don’t have our problems and mis-communication at times, but this week reminded me of a few of the many reasons we choose in, and still are.  So this Fourth of July, I’m celebrating Valentine’s Day instead too.  And changing the color from red to orange. Happy holidays!

p.s. When we’re done with the laundry/mudroom (hopefully soon!) I’ll put up some before & after pictures – we just put the washer & dryer in and are waiting on the shelves & counter top to finish the project.

Her Kids Make

I discovered not too long ago that a dear friend (who makes amazing creations in the kitchen and is always trying something new) is blogging about her kids adventures in creating.  We’re talking food, crafts, homemade paper - all kinds of making going on!  She records their adventures in pictures & video on her super-pretty blog. I think my favorite might be this one. (“Look at the ah-vivs, Si-wis, look at the ah-vivs!”) I’m partially obsessed with these videos because I love these kids, but seriously, they could host their own show. I also love the heart of what Becky’s doing (without actually saying it…) – reminding parents that kids can crack eggs, and the messes that incur are worth the lessons learned and memories made.  I love it!

So, if you’re looking for some summer time activities with your kids (like a smores cake that you cook on your grill!) or some scrumptious recipes check it out! You’ll find it all at mykidsmake.com. Enjoy!

Oh-oh, those summer days…

Oh, poor neglected little blog.  Sorry to have ignored you so long.  It’s just that it’s been so nice out, and there have been so many fun summery things to do.  (Not to mention the house projects!) I have been thinking about you though.  I’ve been taking lots of pictures (see below!) & promise to be back soon!

xoxo,
Annie

I’m curioius… what’s your most very favorite summer activity?