June 2, 2009
Cultivating joy, a mid year check-up
Late May Garden
Originally uploaded by kerner
Around New Year's, I wrote a post about how I was not going to make resolutions this year. Instead, I was going to pick a theme for the year and try to live it out to the fullest. My theme is also my Style Statement, Cultivating Joy.
I also chose this snippet of Kerouac that encapsulated the theme: "to be in a state of beatitude, like st. francis, trying to love all life, trying to be utterly sincere with everyone, practicing endurance, kindness, cultivating joy of heart."
So, now that we're well into the year, how am I doing? I made a list of small steps that I thought would go along with the theme for the year.
Read more fiction. I discovered the local used book store and I am having great fun selling old books for store credit and discovering what they have on the shelves that day. Very rarely is there a new book I just "have to have," and I've been a real slacker in the reading department for about 5 years, so there are lots of older books that are still new to me. I have learned by lesson though - if you see a book and you want it, don't assume it will be there when you come back!
Take better care of my veggie garden and our native plant gardens. I'd say I'm doing pretty well at this if I do say so myself. My peas and lettuce, which I'm growing for the first time, are doing great. I need to weed the flower gardens and put new mulch down, but hey, I'm still a work in progress, right?
Spend more time studying the Bible and in prayer. I always have room for improvement in this area, but I have joined a weekly study with some other people by age at church, so that helps keep me on track, at least on a weekly basis. We're getting ready to take a hiatus for the summer though, so I need to find a daily devotional or something to read. I don't do very well just winging it on my own.
Knit more gifts for others; less for myself. I've been doing pretty well with crafting for others at least as much as myself. I even made an embellished tee for my sister to wear this summer after she's no longer "great" with child.
I have a couple more Russian dolls left to cut out of the fabric, so I will reward those of you who managed to read this far into this ridiculously navel-gazing post. If you would like a tank top with a Russian doll on it, leave me a comment saying so, and what shirt size you wear at Old Navy (S, M, L, XL etc.) First three commenters get shirts!
Third Time's a Charm
Originally uploaded by kerner
Posted by zarah at 5:09 AM | Comments (7)
April 26, 2009
Sunday morning coffee & knitting
Sunday morning coffee & knitting
Originally uploaded by kerner
I found time for a quiet bit of knitting, coffee, and blog-reading this morning before church. I've got the back patio door open and I'm enjoying the cool morning breeze and the birds chirping. (Seriously, they're going crazy out there.)
I hope you find some time today for relaxing and quiet reflection.
Posted by zarah at 7:52 AM | Comments (2)
April 22, 2009
Happy Earth!
First of all, thank you soooo much for commenting yesterday. It is wonderful to know that I'm not just writing this for my mom (although I'm happy to have her as a regular reader and commenter!) I am looking forward to visiting all your blogs and getting to know you better.
Between Earth Day today, and Arbor Day on Friday, I was inspired to plant a new tree this week. I decided that an addition to the shade garden was in order.
An addition to the shade garden
Originally uploaded by kerner
After 2 more summers, it's looking great (and I predict this will be the year of the hosta explosion), but it's lacking a little... height.
Serviceberry Shrub
Originally uploaded by kerner
Enter the Serviceberry. (See it there with the white flowers?) Grow Native describes it as a "Tall shrub or small tree bearing clusters of fragrant white flowers in April. Flowers give rise to very flavorful, purple-black, berrylike fruits relished by both songbirds and people. This lovely tree has colorful fall foliage in a blend of orange, gold, red and green and is a Plants of Merit winner."
Sounds pretty good, right? I'm excited to see how it turns out. We've had really good with the native plants - they are perfect for low-maintenance gardeners like us. I just need to remember to water it a few times so it can get established, hopefully before it gets too hot.
I felt like I was representing happy hippies everywhere as I drove this native tree home from the nursery in my Honda, with the branches sticking out the back window! Happy Earth Day, everyone.
Posted by zarah at 7:36 PM | Comments (2)
March 31, 2009
How does your garden grow?
Pea shoots
Originally uploaded by kerner
See the little pea shoots? I'm not really sure I've ever grown anything from seed before. It's so exciting to see those little green shoots coming up after searching the dirt for any sign of life for almost 2 weeks.
Normally we just plant herbs and tomatoes, but I love the idea of these early season plants (peas, lettuce, spinach), because it makes me appreciate the cool weather and near-daily rain showers we've been having lately. After a long winter, generally I am anxious to get through this time of year, when the sky is blue and the sun is shining, but you go outside, and realize you better go back for both a jacket and an umbrella.
I've found a couple of new folks on twitter (veggielove, plangarden) that are doling out all kinds of good gardening advice, and now I'm seriously thinking about starting a worm composting bin.
Matt is helping me research it, and I think it's pretty funny that you get the worms at at a bait shop, not at a gardening center. I don't think the garden stores where I live have not quite caught on to the recent DIY craze. I called a couple today about buying worms and they were like, "Oh! Worm castings - yes, we have those." "No..." I said. "I want the WORMS." They were a little befuddled by that. But this handy dandy website from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources pretty much gave me all the info I needed.
Posted by zarah at 5:51 PM | Comments (1)
March 18, 2009
Eating (really) local
Mom cleaning wild onions
Originally uploaded by kerner
I think I have hit a new low (high?) in my quest for eating local organic food. See those nice green onions my mom helped me wash while she was visiting? Not from the farmer's market... not from the farm share... not even from my own garden. Nope, I harvested them from my front yard, where they were growing wild.
Spring grass with wild onions
Originally uploaded by kerner
See those taller green shoots in the middle of the picture, among the still mostly-brown grass? That's them. They always shoot up this time of year and make the yard look like it needs a haircut, even though the actual grass isn't really growing yet. I ended up eating them in a spring frittata with green onions and spinach. It was pretty good, although the onions were a little tougher than what I am used to getting at the store. Hopefully my next harvest will come from my garden! (I do also have wild strawberries that grow in my yard, but they're really tiny and usually my dog eats them as soon as she finds them.)
Posted by zarah at 5:34 AM | Comments (3)
March 10, 2009
My Cup of Tea
Well, I'm back home and back into my normal routine. For the past two years, that has included a monthly book club/women's group/Bible study. (We really need a name for our group.) Each month one of the members takes turn hosting us for dinner and selecting the book. This time we were hosted by my dear friend Adrianna, who I met during our freshmen year of college at MU (we lived down the hall from each other) and now lives just a couple of neighborhoods over from me (!)
She selected Three Cups of Tea as our bookfor the month. I cannot say enough good about this book. It's the true story of an American mountain climber who builds schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He starting in the early 90's and he was there (in Pakistan, I think) on September 11. It's not a political book in the sense of Republicans or Democrats, but I love its message of how education, not military action, is only way that we can ever have peace in the world.
For dinner we had some yummy couscous and hummus and pita. The point of the meal was to go along with the theme of the book, but it was no goat entrails and rancid yak butter tea. (You would have to read the book to know what I'm talking about.)
Of course, no book club is really all about the reading (or even the food!) Since we started, we have three new unofficial members! Here are the two that graced our meeting tonight (although one of them had a6:30pm bedtime so he didn't stick around too long.)
Posted by zarah at 7:50 PM | Comments (1)
February 24, 2009
Yum yum
raw meat.
Originally uploaded by D.James | Darren J. Ryan
Tonight I splurged on a burger, fries, AND an Andy's Concrete. Yes, it was a bit much but hey, isn't that what Fat Tuesday is for? The concrete was with several friends who are giving up sweets for Lent. The burger was for me - that's right, I've decided to go vegetarian for Lent. I don't really know why... I just started thinking about it a couple of weeks ago, and it seemed like the right thing to do.
Posted by zarah at 7:47 PM | Comments (2)
January 4, 2009
A New Leaf
Looking back over 2008, I'd say one thing that really changed my outlook was reading the book "Style Statement" with my book club. It's a great book on its own, but discussing our personal styles with close friends was invaluable. The book is a huge series of questions, with the point being to define your personal style in a two word statement, with the first word representing 80% of your personality, and the second word as your 20%, or your "spark." A little tidbit out of the book that really helped me was to remember that if you are your best self when completely embodied by your style statement, you may at times represent the opposite of those words when you are not at your best. Also, at first you might think that two words are very limiting, but in fact they create a succinct phrase (easy to remember) that can expanded with the many meanings of the two words.
Even after reading the book, answering the questions, and discussing them with friends, it still took me several months to finally decide on my style statement. I think this process is probably one of the more thoughtful exercises I've engaged in for quite some time,so I'm going to make this my theme for 2009: Cultivating Joy.
Here are some small steps I'd like to take in 2009 to follow that theme:
Read more fiction.
Take better care of my veggie garden and our native plant gardens (that means: pull some weeds once in a while!!)
Learn to hand-quilt.
Spend more time studying the Bible and in prayer.
Save money for a trip to Spain in 2010.
Knit more gifts for others; less for myself.
Get involved with a running or multi-sport group - no more Lone Ranger.
Turn 30 with joy, not panic.
Spend more time in nature; less time watching TV.
I searched "cultivating joy" on flickr to see if I could come up with a good photo to accompany this post, and I found an amazing quote from Jack Kerouac that uses the phrase. I'm not really even a Kerouac fan but these words are just a perfect way to sum up what I'm trying to say:
"to be in a state of beatitude, like st. francis, trying to love all life, trying to be utterly sincere with everyone, practicing endurance, kindness, cultivating joy of heart."
Posted by zarah at 8:36 AM | Comments (4)
October 21, 2008
Change I Can Believe In
This is the best book I have read in a long time. I read it as part of a book club that I've been in for about the past 2 years. We have gone through a lot of changes - new jobs, new babies, etc. Our common thread is our church, but we come from really different faith backgrounds so we have some pretty interesting discussions. Each month we take turns hosting, making dinner for the group, and the host gets to pick the book.
This book is not for the timid - while reading it, I was trying to figure out if the authors supported anarchy or a neo-Amish movement. The basic premise is that the empire - Rome in Jesus' day - isn't that far off from America today. We've turned patriotism into a new religion (like the emperor-worship of Rome) and forgotten about Jesus' teachings of peace, love, and caring for the poor. The authors are really out there - I'm pretty sure they're living near the povery line in a semi-monastic commune - and I don't agree with every point they make, but wow did it make me think. And that, chicas, is the sign of a good book.
Posted by zarah at 9:05 PM | Comments (2)
September 10, 2008
Homemade Yogurt - Experiment #1
Step 1: Heat milk to 180 degrees to kill the bad bugs. Cool to 100, stir in the good bugs (2T. yogurt) and some dry milk powder for extra thickness.
Step 2: Hold warm for 8 hours (I used my crockput crock turned upside down over a heating pad)
Step 3: Chill and enjoy!
I'm not going to be responsible for anyone getting sick, so I'm going to send you to my source for the real recipe: The Hillbilly Housewife
I ate it and didn't die... it's actually really good, although I still think I can taste the dry milk powder, even though there's not that much in there. I want to try again with a larger container (and more yogurt!) My main problem was finding something that fit inside the crockpot.
Posted by zarah at 7:49 PM | Comments (3)
September 4, 2008
Making my list, and checking it off!
It's no secret - I love making lists. But I love checking things off even more. So... I am happy to report I am no longer driving with expired license plates. YAY!
I've also checked a few other things off - I am doing good on my workouts and making some progress on my reading for my women's group next week. We rotate around to a different person's home each month and the host gets to pick the book and provide dinner for everyone. Any suggestions on what I should make? There will probably be about 8 of us.
Posted by zarah at 9:28 PM | Comments (1)
September 2, 2008
Looking ahead
Hmm... this time of year has been weird for me the past few years. This is only the 4th year that fall hasn't meant starting back to school - I guess I'm still not quite used to the natural reset button that a new school year brings.
In an effort to reclaim that feeling of starting fresh, I'm going to try to follow Kelli's lead, and post my goals for the week. I'm not quite sure if this will actually motivate me or cause me to shirk everything I've written. I guess we'll see!
This week’s goals:
~Finish reading The Sacred Echo, prepare to lead discussion for women's group next Monday
~Plan dinner for women's group
~Run 11 miles
~Swim 2 times (half of shorter master's workout)
~Lift 2 times (keep increasing weight slowly)
~Track my training on dailymile.com (let me know if you want an invite - it's like Ravelry for runners/bikers/swimmers!)
~Work on Matt's sweater
~Plan a menu for the week and go grocery shopping! (Geez, I'm so lazy!)
~Renew my license plates
~Plan something fun to do with my hubby this weekend.
Posted by zarah at 6:04 PM | Comments (2)