Pepper Jack

For a festive fall treat take an orange vegetable, hollow it out. Remove the seeds. Carefully carve a face on the front. With a pumpkin you put a candle inside to make a jack-o-lantern...
But that doesn't work with orange peppers. So I stuffed mine with cottage cheese and made a pepper jack. :D

Time Lapse Photos of Front

In the beginning... The front of my house.
Ugly and awkward (those steps are 4" high, 8" high, 8"high and 13" high!)

I painted the door and got a better trellis.

Then the digging started.

more digging

and laying block

The rose was happy about this and decided to bloom.

The foundation bed started looking substantial.

The sidewalk started looking level and I was loving the diagonal modified herring bone pattern of the granite colored pavers.

The stoop got covered and the steps became even. Hooray!

Aren't they pretty?

Yesterday I spent the whole day planting shrubs and flowers.

Wait until this all fills-in... and blooms!

So this was before.

But give it a few weeks (months)...

and... This is now.

What do you think?

Butternut Weather

The leaves crisp and color in the cold air. Pine trees shiver and drop their cones. Time to plant the daffodil bulbs. Time for apple cider and pumpkins. Time for butternut lasagna.
Layers of roasted butternut, noodle, mozzarella cheese and a fun mix of cottage cheese, basil, and pine nuts, combine to form this seasonal lasagna. Yum.

Moldy Lamp Makeover

I couldn't help it. Every time I looked at the ceiling lamp I thought it looked moldy. With it's splotchy greenish finish it didn't match anything in the living room -- but can you paint ceiling fans? Well, I thought I might try, and I began blobbing on the black acrylic craft paint. It came out pretty well -- sort of an oil rubbed look, not shiny, and much better than that strange blotchy greenish color. Don't you think?

Knitting Project

I finished the Milan Jacket in the "up to 12 months" size. The pattern is from my new favorite knitting book NATURAL KNITS by Louisa Harding. The only things I did differently? I used a yummy 3-ply alpaca yarn and substituted hand-painted Giraffe buttons instead of standard toggle buttons. I love the way it came out.

Fresh Spinach

"Taste and see that the Lord is good..."

Psalm 34:8a

I'm subscribed to several email daily devotional services, and I love getting God in my inbox every day. One of the devotions I read this morning talked about spinach, quoting the saying "Forgiveness is like spinach. You might not like the taste, but it's good for you."

This is how my mind works. I immediately thought 'But I like spinach -- you just don't know how to prepare it properly.' The writer went on to describe how hurt feelings had turned to anger and from anger to bitterness before she chewed on her spinach of forgiveness. It was an excellent devotional lesson about the need to forgive and the emotions that get in the way of forgiving those that hurt us. Except I kept thinking about the right way to prepare spinach.

Cooked, boiled, steamed, stewed spinach is nasty. It smells like old metal garbage cans. It's limp and slimy with the sort of mucilaginous texture garden slugs leave across sidewalks and the makers of paper mache strive for. Really, it's like wet kleenex.

But if you don't cook spinach, if you eat it fresh, it has a delightful green taste. Better than lettuce in a salad or on a sandwich, fresh baby spinach is substantive. Like 100% cotton resume paper instead of standard white copy paper. It's just richer somehow.

Which makes me think: Maybe the reason we find it hard to forgive those that hurt us is because we don't forgive when it's fresh. Maybe we boil, steam, and stew until forgiveness just looks nasty and unappetizing. If we find forgiveness difficult to swallow, could it be that we have prepared it wrong?

Just Do It

A children's song floats in the background as I read over my email. My taste in music is eclectic and sometimes even I have no explanation for how some songs get on my playlist.

"Do as I'm doing,
Follow, follow me.
Do as I'm doing,
Follow, follow me
If I do it high or low
If I do it fast or slow
Do as I'm doing,
Follow, follow me."

Here, at a writer's conference, there are many successful authors delivering that same message. They phrase it slightly differently: "You should do this. This works for me."

We rush to copy those whose methods we admire. We pull out our manuscripts and "follow follow" as best we can. The different methods and methodologies, the multiple rules of each genre, the quirks and habits of writers we admire and aspire to meet on equal footing.

"You have 98 books? Why, my 153rd just went to the publisher's last week."
"Oh, wow!" says the currently best selling award winning author who will not be as impressed or intimidated by this as the dream scenario indicates. "Would you sign a copy for me? I just love your writing."

As we day dream of incandescent success, as we learn how other writers write, and as we mutilate our own manuscripts trying to write in someone else's words there comes a moment when we realize what these wonderful teachers really mean.

Do as I'm doing -- follow, follow the ideas, talents, dreams God gave you.
Do as I'm doing -- follow, follow the advice that works with who you are as a writer.
If you do it high or low, If you do it fast or slow
If it's what you're born to do
Do as I'm doing -- and DO it!

Away

I love "October in the Mountains." I find myself again at Ridgecrest, this time for the Novelists Retreat. At least, that's what my name tag says I'm here for.

God made His own plans for my time here and already I have seen His hand in several unexpected meetings and chance conversations. The classes are amazing and I have been challenged and encouraged in my writing. But ALSO the Lord has offered me blessings and used me to bless others.

He has penciled in so many extra appointments for each of us here. When all I saw was a writer's conference, He saw opportunities I hadn't even considered.

I can't wait to see what else is in His day-planner.

Coffee Break

Seek the LORD and His strength; seek His presence continually!

Psalm 105:4

I found myself speaking recently to a guy who complained that he was run ragged. Events conspired to keep him busy with extra work at church, things broke down at work, and his friends needed him too. Clutching his fast food coffee he explained to me, he was so tired he couldn't even think anymore. In the course of conversation I learned he was spending every spare minute talking to everyone -- except God -- about his difficulties. He relied on caffeine and sympathy to get him through his tough times. And I realized he's not the only one who acts like that.

When we roll out of bed in the morning do we reach for the coffee and complaints? Or do we grab the Bible and time with the Lord to give us strength to meet the day?

Faced with difficulty and exhaustion, in our over-busy, barely-thinking minds it seems easier to skip quiet time. We think 'God will understand. I'm so busy. I'll catch Him tomorrow.' We underestimate the importance of time with our Maker. We think, perhaps, that caffeine will be more effective in getting us through the day. And yet.... Who created caffeine? Who created us? Who knows better than God exactly what we need for each day? So why do we seek the quick fix, the easy "solution" to our problems? Why do we run out for coffee when we ought to run to God?

Let's seek the Lord and His strength today, and every day. I bet it proves to be "the best part of waking up."