The Best Gift I Could Give

The following is a paragraph written by my 8 year old nephew Jonathan, who I affectionately call Butterbean. Bean had to write on the topic "The Best Gift I Could Give." This is what he wrote:

If I could give a gift I would give a present of care and give it every day. First, I would care for animals. For example, homeless dogs, I would give them food, water, and shelter. Second, I’ll care for homeless people by giving them water and food during the holidays. Last, I will care for my family by being kind and helping out for example I would do my chores like emptying the dishwasher. That’s the best gifts I could give.

I am so proud of Butterbean! He also had some great pictures to go with his paragraph, but I couldn't figure out how to load them. :(

Blessings to you all in this Advent Season. Sorry for the lack of posts. As I explained to our good friend Mira......new job+ordination paperwork due Jan 7=no blogging. See you in the new year!

Apple...HOLLA!!!

Last Friday my good buddy Grace and I met halfway (her from the Milwaukee area and me from Chicago) at the Apple Holler in Wisconsin. The Apple Holler is a restaurant, apple orchard, petting zoo, corn maze...basically, everything that is fall in the Midwest. We ate a delicious lunch and then went apple pickin'.

We picked tart and sweet Cortland apples, mild Macoun apples, and gorgeous Asian pears.

It was a beautiful day with warm sun...that seemed to get warmer as the picking went on.

Grace found a lovely, interesting mushroom.

We came home with quite a bounty....lots of delicious fruit. I thought I would make apple and pear butter. But I just can't help eating them just as they are.

Facebook is awesome!

Ok...so I know that I have been that person who doesn't always believe the internet is all that great. In college I said that email would never catch on, and of course now I can't live without it. However, in the last couple of weeks I have fallen in LOVE with Facebook.

It's fun and a good way to waste a little time. But the greatest thing is when old friends find you! This happened to me a couple of weeks ago....

I met Nigel the summer before my senior year in high school. I was part of the New Orleans Youth Action Corps (NOYAC), which was an environmental service program run by AmeriCorps. Nigel was the office worker, and I was a corps member. We hit it off right away, even though we came from different neighborhoods, experiences, etc.

We hung out a bunch my senior year, and then life happened. I can't even remember why we stopped hanging out, but we did. We lost touch. I've moved a ton, and although I have thought of Nigel often, I had no way of finding him. Until a couple of weeks ago, when he found me on Facebook.

Now that's crazy awesome enough. But what's more amazing is that we live a mile apart! And we've gotten together twice since finding each other! He's married now to the beautiful Nancy, and they have an amazingly cute daughter Amalia. It's been so great to have him and his family in our lives. Nigel and Vince have a lot of common interests, which is great, and I can see us all spending a lot of time together.

The message here....HURRAY for FACEBOOK!!!

Almost Unpleasant

Yes, we're alive and well. Our last couple of months have been both wonderful and hectic. And basically, as much time as we both spend on the computer at work, we have lacked the desire to spend time on the computer when we get home. But there is also too much that is good going on in our lives to hinder us from sharing. First, though, I would like to share an almost unpleasant experience that we had the other day.

On Friday morning, Vince and I had the rare pleasure of walking together at the beginning of the day. Vince usually rides his bike to work, but the afternoon weather was going to be gross so it was off to the El for him. I take Fridays off, so I usually am not out and about in the morning. However, this particular morning I had a doctor's appointment in downtown Chicago, and I was taking the bus.



Anywho, we were walking along and enjoying each other's company and conversation, when suddenly we saw this...





Now this particular picture does not recreate the situation well. I was about to say, "Oh, look at the kitty." When I realized that this was not a cute little kitty, but rather a skunk butt...poised to spray. We had startled it, and we both took off in a short sprint. We spent the final block of our walk speculating about our day had we been sprayed! Vince would have called in "skunked" for work and would have to take his Greek quiz another day. I would have tried to explain to my new doctor that I don't normally smell this way, but it was unavoidable today.

Despite the fact that we live in Chicago, we have quite a bit of wildlife around us. Lots of squirrels, raccoons, and yes, skunks. This was our closest of our close calls so far. We are usually glad that we notice the skunks before Gumbo does!

Season of Pentecost - Dar Williams ~ I Had No Right

I keep thinking I will be able to make the time to write some more about this season's songs. And yet here we are a month and a half into the season, and all I've done is the initial post. So, we are into the time of the church year sometimes know as the season of Pentecost. In an older calendar (early to mid-twentieth century), this season served as a time to focus on the ministry of the Church empowered by the Holy Spirit.

I chose to start this season with the Dar Williams song, I Had No Right. It was April who pointed me towards this song. This song speaks about Catholic priest and anti-war activist, Daniel Berrigan. Through the lyrics of the song, Dar sings of the things that Daniel has gone through in the service of peace - the protests, the arrests, the trials, the misunderstandings. And the chorus repeats that none of it would have been done but for the love of God. The Holy Spirit empowers us to live in the kingdom of God - a kingdom without war, a kingdom where love of God and love of neighbor outweigh all else. Fr. Berrigan is certainly one of those who knows what it means to live in that kingdom. All that we hear in this song helps us to see what that kingdom will look like when it is fully brought into being. May we all find ourselves as empowered by the Spirit, burning with the fire of God for the justice that all deserve.

A Reflection on Popcorn

Of all of the snacks in the world, crunchy and salty ones are my favorite. Most snacks of this sort I can no longer eat. But the one crunchy, salty treat that I CAN have is popcorn! I often have popcorn as part of my afternoon snack. Today, as I looked into my bowl of popcorn, I was amazed that I had never paid much attention to how interesting popcorn is (to me, anyway).




I don't always eat butter on my popcorn, but it does taste delicious that way. What I find so interesting about popcorn is how each popped kernel is like a snowflake...no two kernels look alike. Some are popped so well that no part of the kernel husk (I don't know what it is actually called) is left showing. Others only pop half way, and some barely pop and are resigned to be at the bottom of the bowl hoping you'll crunch on it anyway...which I always do.

Popcorn is simply delicious. I had a friend (you know who you are) tell me last week that she had popcorn and a half bottle of wine for dinner two nights last week. This is what happens when your hubby is out of town. Popcorn is fabulous! I also like to sometimes put Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning on it for a little kick.

Today, I'm thinking we need an airpopper, so that I make my snack a bit healthier...with a bit less salt. What's your favorite popcorn topping?

Veggies...YUMMY!

Vince and I are always looking for ways to improve the ways we live on this earth. We recycle, even when it's not always convenient. We only have compact fluorescent light bulbs in our house. I've been going to the library instead of buying books...and y'all know that's a stretch for me! We're not perfect by any stretch, but we are trying to do our part.

So we decided to join a CSA (community supported agriculture) called Growing Home Inc (http://www.growinghomeinc.org/). They are a fantastic organization that provides job training and employment opportunities for homeless and low-income people within the context of an organic agriculture business. We split a box of organic veggies every week with our friends Wes and Charlotte. And this week we got our first box of delicious veggies. This week we got asparagus, kale, cilantro, arugula, beets, and spinach.

Here's Charlotte with beautiful, HUGE asparagus.

April being silly with beets.

What will Vince choose: kale or gelato?

It's Vince...gelato, of course!