Moving

Because we didn’t have enough going on in the last couple of months, (job stress with education budget cuts, brief scare when we thought my husband might have had a tumor on his brain, two fender benders in two different cars, (I was the one hit both times) and expensive, necessary, mouth work just to name a handful of all we’ve one through lately) we decided it was also time to move…next door.

We literally carried everything we own down the stairs of our lovely hundred year old renovated apartment, walked across the lot and moved into the hideous blue building next door.  The first words out of people’s mouths when they walk inside are usually along the lines of “Oh!  This is surprising.”  And it really is.  Delightfully surprising.

(Well, not in this picture, but just wait until we get all settled!)
Our landlord really did a great job of renovating both places, (for the most part.)  (And this is a great time to mention that if you own a building that you are planning on renovating and have never lived in a small space or apartment before, please call me for a consultation before you knock down/build new walls or create bathrooms with out linen closets or place the AC control unit right next to the kitchen which is the hottest part of the house or create giant rooms with two plug options or…well, you get the idea.  I will give you great, practical, experienced advice for a small fee and your future tenants will be most grateful to you for not putting carpet in the only space usable for a dining area in the house.

So, what was I talking about…oh yeah…we moved next door.  We gained an extra bedroom, bathroom and laundry room for only $75 more a month.  We won’t be ready to buy a house anytime soon, (thank you, expensive mouth of mine) so we wanted to move somewhere that we could sit comfortably a little bit longer.  And thus begins the tension in my head and heart about living simply.

We have a lot of stuff.

Not compared to the average American, young married couple, but it does look and feel like we have a lot.  Books for one.

This is what happens when a book lover marries a book lover.  Guess how many “two copies” we had to go through when we got married.  Now, guess how many we still have.

“But I can’t get rid of this one because all of my notes are in it.”

“Well I can’t get rid of my copy because ::fill in the blank:: signed it and gave it to me.”

Pathetic, huh?  Believe it or not, that is not all of them in the picture.  That is only 3 of 5 bookshelves worth.  We did shed a few (about three boxes worth) and we have found a great source to take some more off of our hands.  We are trying to purge more and more but it is VERY hard for both of us when it comes to books.  And it is hard for me when it comes to everything else.  I don’t think I quite classify as a packrat because I don’t save everything.  But I do save a lot, and when I breakdown and get rid of some things 3-4 times a year, I often end up regretting it.  Like the year I finally disposed of all of my t-shirts from high school.  Why didn’t I think of this?!?!  It was painful for me to get rid of all of those shirts and I would have LOVED to have a memory quilt.

So the tension remains.  Do I continue to hold on to things and eventually, maybe, someday, have a place and purpose for it?  Or do I continue to purge and live with less and less?  Surely there is a happy medium.  Surely…

The cats miss the old place, but they are diggin' all of the hiding places in the new.

Knitting Two By Two

Remember the Long  Shawl Collar Coat I mentioned a long time ago?  Well, all of the pieces are done and they are impatiently awaiting assembly.  I got this “knitting two at a time” idea from A Friend to Knit With who got the idea from her mother.  It’s one of those ideas that are so simple and ingenious that you ask yourself, “Why didn’t I think of that?”

There are some ups and downs to take note of when knitting two at a time.

v    First of all, it takes some getting used to but you eventually fall into the rhythm of ::knit right side, knit left side, purl left side, purl right side::.

v    The pieces (especially on this project) start to get long and cumbersome so straightening out your pieces and untwisting your skeins from each other continually interrupt the rhythm.

v    This method helped me in this project because the pattern is written in measurements rather than actual number of rows so I was able to keep the exact same number of rows on the front panels of the coat.  I knit pretty evenly so this will make stitching up the sides easier knowing that there are the exact same numbers of rows in all pieces instead of just being the same measured length with a possible difference of row numbers.

v    The best part of knitting two by two is obvious.  When you are done, you are twice as close to the end of your project than when you started!

And the verdict is...

…totaled.  I cried.  I didn’t expect myself to, but I did.  I think my tears were not because of an emotional attachment to my 14 year old car, Birdie that I have had for 12 years.  Rather, I think my few tears were because I have tried so hard for those twelve years to take good care of her so she will last until, well…it’s our style to run our cars into the ground until they won’t run anymore.  I was doing a great job of this until I was completely startled back to reality while waiting for a light to turn green.

The part that upsets me most is that the difference between the cost of the repairs and the value of the car is only $100.  A hundred dollars!  But the problem is that I can’t take his insurance’s money and buy a car that is in better shape than mine.  I know the entire history of this car and I know it is going to last a few more years without significant problems and to me that is worth more than a new $2,000 vehicle.

So we will chalk it up as blessing in disguise; keep the money and nix the repairs.  After all, it doesn’t look that bad and it still drives perfectly.

And on an unrelated note, my mom is coming to town today!  I foresee a trip to the Austin Farmer’s Market for Fredericksburg peaches and Poteet strawberries, followed by a lesson from my mom on her award winning Poteet Strawberry jam recipe.  If you're lucky I just might post the recipe.  For some eye candy, here are the strawberries I grew last year.  In the words of Rachel Ray, they were de-lish!

The Mermaid Chair

I just finished reading it this week.  Have you ever finished a book and been sad that it was over; like saying goodbye to a dear friend?  Well, that wasn’t the case with this book for me.  The first book I read by Sue Monk Kidd was The Secret Life of Bees.  It is and probably will remain one of my all-time favorite books.  For The Mermaid Chair, however, I was actually looking forward to the end and ready to put it down and say goodbye.

Perhaps my dislike of the book came from the fact that I could hardly relate to the main character who was a middle-aged woman who had been in a seemingly perfect marriage for twenty years.  She suddenly found herself dissatisfied and decided to have an affair with a widowed, Benedictine monk, of all people.  I read most of the book with a sickened feeling in my stomach and aches in my chest.  It was not a story that reached into my soul and held me close.

The character I appreciated most was the monk.  He wasn’t afraid to ask those hard questions of God that get stifled in many by some for fear of the “dangers” of doubt.  If “no doubting” were a pre-requisite for belief in God, I would have failed years ago. I resonate often in life with Brother Thomas who,, “felt God the same way the arthritic monks felt rain coming in their joints.  He only felt the hint of him.”

The story did end on a redeeming note for me.  (Slight spoiler ahead if you plan on reading the book.)  There is forgiveness in the end.  It is not an overwhelming, outpouring of love and words like any of us who have ever been on the receiving end of forgiveness might want it to be.  Instead, it was a quiet and steady shedding of grace and mercy.  It was the kind of forgiveness that has to take place again and again and again, day after day.

Sustenance in the Garden

Some Sunday mornings I go to church in my garden.  This is generally after a busy weekend when I didn’t get any “down-time”.  I will wake up with an unrelenting craving to get my hands dirty and enjoy a peaceful afternoon in the rich, life-sustaining soil in my backyard.  And so I caved to my craving yesterday morning.

I don’t want this to sound cheesy or trite but I am often amazed at how easy it is for me to “find God” in my garden when it is often so difficult to do so throughout my week or even on a Sunday morning in my own church.  Even just ten minutes on a sun-shiny, breezy day caring for my little green plants with an occasional visit from a cat or two in between bug catching, will speak to my soul and revive me for an extended amount of time.

The only thing missing from my Garden Church is a communal presence.  Sure I have the community of the leaves swaying in the trees, the bees and butterflies visiting my flowers and other bits of life teeming in the garden, but I do miss the communal presence of family and friends.  I need this bit of isolation from time to time, though.  I also enjoy listening to some of my favorite pastors and preachers such as Greg and Julie via podcast so I can be challenge and rejuvenated.

So tell me, where is your favorite place to meet God?

Springtime Parties

The first day of April marks for me, not a time of wild pranks and charades, (though if you ask my parents, I have given them a healthy dose of those in past years,) rather, my husband’s birthday.  Though I love my February birthday, it is often a little too cold to have any kind of outdoor celebration.  Not the case for his!  The weather was just right for me (probably even a little warm for others) to enjoy a lovely cookout with friends.

I started the day off right by licking clean the bowl of Double Chocolate Stout Cake batter from where else but my favorite online cookbook.  This is one of my favorite past-times complete with sitting on the kitchen counter.  It tasted great and then this happened:

I took a shower and Greg pulled his own cake out of the oven for me.  He thought it looked and smelled great but with one look I knew that I blew it.  It was half of the size it should have been in the bunt pan and I instantly knew that I left out the baking soda.  (I knew that of course, because that is not the first time I’ve made this baking mistake.)

It’s a good thing I made some vanilla-banana pudding the night before.  I melded the recipe from More With Less with another not-so-healthy cookbook to come up with a tasty recipe of fluffy vanilla smoothness that melts in your mouth (though with a splash too much vanilla.)

Next Sunday, we are hosting Beer Church in our back yard.  Don’t ask me what this is yet because I haven’t quite figured it out.  Greg has gone once and I’ve met the “pastor” of Beer Church…a very hospitable and nice guy.  So, I think it will be fitting to make the Double Chocolate Stout Cake again to share with the other parishioners of Beer Church, especially since I still have the chocolate chips ready to go in my make-shift double boiler, (a pan within a pan of boiling water) for the ganache.

By the way, I’m calling this a “Double” Chocolate Stout Cake because I always make it with Young’s Double Chocolate Stout beer.  Another variation of this cake are the to-die-for cupcakes.  They are quite labor intensive (I have to set aside several hours to do them well) but are worth every minute.  Mind you, these are adult only cupcakes since the Jamison whisky and Bailey’s Irish crème does not get cooked out of the ganache and icing like the beer does out of the cake batter.

And on a final note, we have not had internet for over a week.  I’ve not stopped writing though!  So as not to overwhelm my readers (are there any more of you out there?) with four posts at once, stay tuned for belated updates.

New Baby in the World!

Greg and I got to hang out with our sweet, two-year old friend and neighbor from about 1:00-8:00 today because her mom had a baby!  We had a lot of fun.  When we have kids, I hope they are at least a little like her.  She was so easy to be with and wasn’t the slightest bit anxious about being away from mom and dad…very adaptable.

She ate a great lunch, went to sleep easily in our guest bed with pillows all around and then we went and had a play date with another young friend.  Finally, we got to go back to the hospital and see “baby sister” one more time before bedtime.  It was a lovely day.  I love the joy that new babies bring in to the world.