Recap (2015.08.31)

In my spirit:

• Marveling at how the first two “stories” in the Bible with human characters show so strongly God’s justice and mercy entwined (The fall – God’s justice in the curse and His mercy in the curse on the serpent; Cain and Abel – God’s justice in making Cain a wanderer whose crops would never grow and His mercy in preventing others from killing Cain.)
• Rejoicing in God’s mercy to the apostle Paul, which Paul says was so that “Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.” (1 Timothy 1:16) If God shows mercy to a blasphemer, persecuter, and insolent opponent – He will also show mercy to us who have placed our trust in Him.

In the living room:

• Books, books, books. I’ve been requesting books from the library, forgetting that once I request them, I have to pick them up and bring them home. My library shelf is overflowing (but we’ve been reading at a pretty steady clip, so if I can just refrain from requesting more until everything fits on the shelf…)

In the kitchen:

• The sourdough starter turned pink, which my internet sources say means no good – so I threw it away. I think I’ll take a break from the sourdough and try again when fall truly rolls around (and I won’t feel quite so bad about turning on the oven every other day to use up my starter!)
• What with my fatigue this week and some over-large recipes last week, we ended up eating lots of leftovers this week. But we still managed to sneak in a new recipe: these very nice Slow Cooker Beef Short Ribs. I used bone-in ribs from the half cow we got last year and cut the brown sugar to 1/4 cup instead of 3/4 – they were excellent.
• Daniel’s workgroup has “snack days” about once a month and the days have themes. This month’s theme was “everything crackers” – so we tossed around a few ideas before settling on this Smore’s Eclair Cake, really more of a pudding dessert. Any gains I might have been making nutritionally…
• I’ve made this Kung Pao Chicken before, and always liked it – but since I don’t stock dried red peppers, I always sub red pepper flakes. Unfortunately, I haven’t been recording amounts that I subbed, so it’s a guessing game each time. For the record, 2 tsp of crushed red pepper flakes is too much. I handled it okay – Tirzah Mae needed some watermelon and breastmilk to help her cool her mouth down after dinner.

In the nursery:

• Tirzah Mae loves to make her parents laugh. She’ll shriek to get our attention and then dissolve into laughter, begging us to join her. And when we startle her? She bursts into laughter and then opens her eyes expectantly, waiting for us to do it again.
• Either it’s one thing or it’s the other – in this case, nighttime sleep has become a struggle. She goes down for naps just fine, but when I put her down at night, she pops onto all fours and starts climbing the crib sides. Then, she’ll spend the next half hour or longer clearly fighting sleep – fluttering her eyes to check to make sure I haven’t tried putting her back in the crib.
• We took our first trip to a playground and splash park this week. Tirzah Mae wasn’t too sure about either the swings or the water – but warmed up to the latter once we started walking around the sprinkler-type jets and she realized she could get her mama wet (while she herself could be walking under the arc of the water!)

In the library:
aka “Books added to TBR list”

• Emma, Mr. Knightley, and Chili-Slaw Dogs by Mary Hathaway (added based on Barbara’s Review – I do love Austen adaptations)
• The Word Exchange by Alena Graedon (added based on Lisa’s Nightstand – it’s hard to think of a more awful world than one without the written word – the premise of this dystopia)

In the garden:

• The beans are finally growing to maturity – maybe it’s just been too hot until now? Or maybe the “Square Foot Gardening” recommendations packed them too close together. Either way, I servd fresh-from-the-garden green beans Saturday night!
• The cukes are going gang-busters (I probably could have preserved some if I’d chosen to), but some of the vines are starting to look wither-y.

On the land:

• We have a hole!
• Also, an error on the deed meant it needed to be refiled – but that’s for the title company that misfiled it in the first place to deal with. I just had to drop off the original at their office.