Bowing Back Out

Well, soon it will be NaBloPoMo time again. I had big plans for participating again this year, but... I just don't want to. I am again feeling like I don't want to do this whole blogging thing at all. The hard part about this is there are some of you whose blogs I really enjoy, and I wish we could all just meet for coffee or something, and I feel like I'm not doing my part... but, y'know? Keeping this blog up is sort of a strain for me. So I guess I'm just going back to being a lurker and occasional commenter.

Another Quick Random Post

Yes, I'm still here! H just had a growth spurt; now several of his pants are too short. He'll just have to wear highwaters for awhile, as our budget is reeling from the new car and J not getting work bonuses because sales are down because of the economy blah blah blah... In more interesting news, here's a clip about knitting the teeny tiny sweaters for Coraline.

Now That We Own a Car

It's a Run-By Fruiting!

(Don't worry about that title. It's Monty Python. EDIT: or maybe Mrs. Doubtfire? I have a terrible memory for movie details...) Whew! We're in the midst of stuff! J has a new job; same company, even, just a different location. So we had to buy a car (it was a condition of employment) and now we (and our budget) are rocking a Volvo wagon, and the car seat is out of the closet. J's in the middle of a week-and-a-half "vacation" between the two jobs, and we've been trying to pack in as many projects and outings as we can on our small budget. There's other stuff, and there's other things, and that's why I haven't sat down to write a proper post in awhile. I would like to throw out there that, with the natural disaster things happening in Indonesia and other places, I think this is a good time to donate to international aid organizations. I chose Medical Teams International because I've heard good things about them both in the press and from nurses I know. My neighbor even knows some medical folks who've gone on trips with them. Medical Teams International and Mercy Corps were specifically mentioned in a local newspaper article as working in Indonesia in the aftermath of the earthquake.

Changing the Way We Think

I like this article from We've Got Time to Help, and I love their project, and and it's been awhile since I've posted anything... so, there's that. :)

No, wait, here's a little more: fellow Portlanders Seth and Michelle are heading up this project to connect folks who need help with folks who can help them. They have a wide variety of projects going on, and really, I'd love to see more projects like this getting started in other cities. This should go viral, or something.

Tomato Sauce

I recently had a week or so where it felt like nothing went right. I just couldn't keep up with my usual chores and routines, and problematic things kept happening, and new things I tried consistently flopped. (Trivia: It turns out I hate making jam. Who knew?) Yeah. Daily life was just getting to be a challenge.

Well, I know from experience that inertia is strong. Meaning... I don't want to just sit down and stop trying things, because I will fall back into a rut that leads neatly into depression. So I decided to make tomato sauce.

Lovely, easy, consistently successful, delicious tomato sauce.

It's like this:

Cut up a red bell pepper, two or three tomatoes and an onion into big pieces like so:
(I'm making a double batch in this pic.)


Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 cup stock or broth (I use veggie, but chicken or beef is fine,) and 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add some garlic and herbs if you like.

Stir that up and cook it 'till the veggies are soft. Use your stick blender to puree it right in the pot. If you don't have a stick blender, pour everything into a regular blender, puree it, pour it back into the pot, and make a note to buy a stick blender. :)

Then, fuss with the heat until your sauce is sending up a bubble or two at a time but isn't spitting. Leave the lid off and simmer it all day long. The flavors will concentrate, the sauce will thicken, and you will have a healthy, delicious sauce for pasta, pizza, cheese sandwiches, adding to stew... it's so good.

I froze this batch in an ice cube tray, then put the cubes in a jar to keep in the freezer.

I thought a picture of finished tomato sauce might be boring, so here are pictures showing the tiny pepper I found inside one of the red bells:



This is based on the smooth tomato sauce recipe in Nourishing Traditions.

Bah-boh!

That's how H says "Bible." "Bah-boh!" with excited pointing... it's so cute!

I finished reading the Bible for the first time on my birthday, at the end of August. I started in January, and yes, that means I was not studying much in depth.

I'm going to dive right back in. I thought for sure I was going to be led straight in to a church, but no! God's making it pretty clear that I'm to stick with prayer and scripture for now. I guess He wants me to get to know Him personally?

Here are my new books (Well, I'm still waiting for my concordance to arrive:)


I chose the Complete Jewish Bible for a couple of reasons. First, I have a tendency to get to reading so quickly that I'm not really thinking about what I'm reading. This translation uses a lot of the Hebrew names and terms, which will hopefully slow me down some, which will help me reflect on the passages I read. Also, I am not convinced that Christians are meant to abandon the Old Testament laws... Well, I'm slowly, prayerfully, carefully considering this movement... whether you call it messianic Judaism or Hebrew-rooted Christianity... I personally think of it as "using the whole Bible, remembering the whole history..." Anyhow, for now, I'm sort of planning my Bible study to follow the Torah portions and readings used by the Messianic community.

I also ordered this Interlinear Bible... it has the OT in Hebrew and the NT in Greek, with a word-for-word translation along each line, and Strong's Concordance numbers printed along, too!


Lesson A: Hebrew reads from right to left:


I hope this will be a useful tool to help me dig deep in my studies. I'm pretty excited to use it!