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Categories Homemaking, Tutorials

Tuesday Night (A Pear-Sauce Tutorial)

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Dad has a coworker who has a pear tree–and she offers Mom the pears every year.

This year, Mom had plenty of pears already, so she didn’t need anymore.

But our family never refuses free food :-) and Mom and Dad would rather the coworker (who is an older woman) NOT being trying to climb the tree. So they went and picked the tree for her. They ended up with two boxes of pears–some little and some big.

Pears in a box

Mom figured one of the kids would be pleased to take the extra pears off her hands.

And one–well actually two–of us were.

Daniel got the big ones to can as halves or slices. I took the little ones to make pear-sauce with. (Debbie was right yesterday!)

Never heard of pear-sauce? Just think applesauce only with pears.

To make pear-sauce, you first need to rinse off all your pears.

Pears in sink of water

You’ll want to cut each pear in half. Remove any worm holes or bruised spots. There’s no need to peel, or core, or even stem these.

Pears in stockpot

Stick all of your pears in a big stockpot or something similar, add some water, and heat it all up. You’ll want to heat it until the pears are all nice and soft.

Pears on stove

Now, you’ll need to get out your “squitter”–more technically known as a sauce maker or food strainer. These are not the most common of kitchen appliances, but they come in handy if you plan on doing any amount of home canning. My family makes large quantities of applesauce and tomato juice using our “squitter”. A “squitter” can also come in handy if you’ve got babies and want to make your own baby food to freeze.

Pears in squitter

Dump your hot pears into the top basket of the squitter (I used a slotted spoon to transfer the pears so I wouldn’t get a whole lot of extra liquid in the sauce.) Then turn the crank. You can see that the pulpy parts of the pear come out one spout while sauce comes out the other. Continue cranking and refilling as necessary until your sauce is done.

Pears in squitter

Now you’re ready to fill the jars. Use a canning funnel if you have one and fill your canning jars to within 1/2 inch of the top. Run a spatula or knife along the inside of the jar to remove any air bubbles. Then wipe the upper rim of the jar, place a new canning lid on top, and screw a ring on to hold it tight.

Filling jars with pear-sauce

Now, you’re ready to process your pear-sauce. You can process it in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes–or you can go the easy way out :-) and pressure process it for five minutes at five pounds pressure.

16 pints of pear sauce

Now you can eat sugar-free, preservative-free pear-sauce any time you want!

(I like to mix mine with plain yogurt and eat it for breakfast.)

Categories Faith

Who can you trust?

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Greg Boyd (author of The Myth of a Christian Nation) espouses open theism. John Stott (author of The Cross of Christ) has written in support of annihilationism (which denies an eternal hell). Ergun Caner (author of Unveiling Islam) lied about the extent of his Muslim upbringing.

It seems I can’t read anyone without uncovering a theological skeleton in their closet.

What’s an armchair theologian like myself supposed to do? Who can I trust?

Should I take Beth Moore’s tack?

“She does not show much interest in theology or tradition, distrusting the way the academy has, at times, handled the Bible.”

“Moore is primarily self-taught. She uses commentaries and concordances when writing her studies, but she relies primarily on her own intuition when interpreting and applying Scripture.”

Maybe I should just throw out the academics, throw out theology, throw out tradition, throw out the scholars. I can be my own scholar.

I don’t really like the hubris of this approach. I’m not a Greek or Hebrew scholar–and it doesn’t matter how many times I look up the Greek or Hebrew word that the scholars translated as such, I don’t have the intimate knowledge of the language that allows me to determine which of the many translations of the word is the best. What’s more, I’d be foolish to suggest that I don’t have blind-spots in my theology–underlying assumptions that may or may not be based on Scripture which inform my interpretation of Scripture. Reading a variety of scholars can help me to identify and correct those blind spots.

So maybe I just need to find the perfect teacher. I can read all of his books and become a groupie. Let’s see. I could choose John Piper–he’s a favorite among the young Reformed, and I like him quite a bit. The middle-aged Reformed folk of my acquaintance really like John MacArthur–he’d be an option. N.T. Wright is a popular fellow among my book-club friends. Or I could do the really hip Reformed thing and find myself a good Puritan pastor to go ga-ga over. And then there’s always Beth Moore :-P

The problem with this approach?

There’s no such thing as a perfect teacher (except Christ Himself). Each of these men (or women) have something useful to say, certainly–but they also have blind spots, things they overemphasize, things they underemphasize. They’re humans, they’re fallible, and so is their understanding of Scripture.

I’ve said I can’t trust myself to do theology alone. I can’t trust an individual to do my theology for me. So who can I trust?

I don’t really have an answer. Instead, I have a reminder.

Remember the Bereans.

They were said to be fair-minded because they a) “received the word with all readiness”, and b) “searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.”

I urge all armchair theologians (and if you’re not one yet, you should become one!) to do the same. Gladly hear what the scholars have to say–and then search the Scriptures daily to see if what they say is so.

Some bloggers I’ve enjoyed for quite a while have recently started a new blog called Southern Baptist Girl, which encourages women to critically evaluate what they hear and read in light of Scripture. Those who want to know what critical analysis of teaching looks like might want to follow along to see how Lisa, Melissa, and Leslie do it.

Categories Books

Four Year Reading Update

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Sunday marked a special day for me–the four year anniversary of the beginning of my project to read every book in Eiseley library (except the ones I don’t read).

In that four years, I have consumed 2174 library items, 1890 of which were books, 857 of which were “full length” (not picture books or children’s easy readers).

Library Item Use in Past 4 Years

Per Year Per Month Per Week Per Day
Total items 543.5 45.3 10.5 1.5
Total books 472.5 39.4 9.1 1.3
Books (excluding children’s picture books) 214.3 17.9 4.1 .6

Notes on Each Category of Books

Items over 4 years Items in last year Notes:
Juvenile Picture Books 596 472!! Author last names beginning in “A” closed
Juvenile First Readers 49 0 3 authors closed
Juvenile Chapter Books 79 2 6 authors closed
Juvenile Fiction 238 53! 20 authors closed
Juvenile Nonfiction 68 6 Favorite category? Biographies
Adult Fiction 297 49 43 authors closed
Adult Nonfiction 503 94!! See my little challenge below
Videos/DVDs 125 33 These seem to be coming in too fast for me to watch them–I’m not much of a movie person
Cassette Tapes/Compact Discs 159 60 The more I travel, the more I listen to. I’ve been traveling a bit this year.
Periodicals 57 16 I haven’t figured out how to do these, since the collection expands so rapidly!

I don’t have much of a “system” for reading–I pretty much read what I want to when I want to. But I do have a special tab in my planner set apart for books.

First, I have the categories from the Dewey Decimal system all typed out (to the ones place, meaning I have 000-Compute science, information & general works, 001-Knowledge, 002-The book, etc. up to 999-Extraterrestrial worlds). “Closed” categories are highlighted.

Second, I have a list of closed and open authors for each category (picture books, first readers, chapter books, juvenile fiction, juvenile nonfiction, DVDs, and adult fiction). One side of the list contains closed authors written in pen. The other side houses penciled in “open” authors–that is, those authors that I have started to read but whose works I have not finished. These serve as a reminder for me to grab books from open categories (and to avoid reading new acquisitions from categories I’ve already closed–unless I really feel like it.)

Finally, I have my TBR lists. These are divided into sections of the library, and contain penciled titles plus the appropriate call number. When I’m not sure what I’m in the mood for at the library, I run about and collect titles that are on these lists.

When counting up my nonfiction reads, I discovered that over half of my reading came from two large Dewey decimal categorizations (hundred’s place). I was wondering if any of my readers could hazard a guess as to which categories are my favorites. Here are your options:

000-Information (Computer Science, Library Science, Encyclopedias, etc.)
100-Philosophy (Psychology, Logic, Ethics, etc.)
200-Religion (Bible, Theology, Comparative religions, etc.)
300-Social Sciences (Politics, Economics, Law, Education, Traditions, etc.)
400-Language (Linguistics, Grammar, Foreign Languages, etc.)
500-Mathematics/Science (Math, Astronomy, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Life Sciences, etc.)
600-Technology (Medicine, Engineering, Agriculture, Home ec. Management, Buildings, etc.)
700-Art (Landscape art, Architecture, Decorative arts, Photography, Music, Performing arts, etc.)
800-Literature (Poetry, Drama, Essays, Speeches, Letters, Satire, and Literary criticism)
900-Geography and History (Travel, History)
Biographies-Self explanatory!

So, what do you think? What two categories are my favorites?

Categories Education

My students think I’m crazy

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As many of you know, I am a teaching assistant for a couple of “Scientific Principles of Food Preparation” laboratories. For our first lab session, we discuss and experiment with sensory analysis of food–how our senses affect our perception of flavor.

I was lecturing as usual, and as usual, I was starting to get excited about the subject material.

“I was just reading a book about the senses called See What I’m Saying. It’s a fantastic book, by the way,” I told them. “And in this book, the author describes a psychological experiment in which…”

As my eyes swept over my class of 25 students, I realized that I had lost them.

They think I’m crazy.

How can I find descriptions of psychological experiments interesting? How can I enjoy the science behind cooking? How can I get so excited about food and nutrition and families and…

Few of them understand the thirst for knowledge, the relentless desire to know why and how and how to change things. They are in school because they don’t know what else to do. They have few driving passions.

They don’t understand me.

My students have generally been polite and respectful–but our interactions make clear that the majority don’t get it.

They do what it takes to get a grade from that crazy-enthusiastic, crazy-tough TA–but they don’t understand why I am the way I am.

But in every class, there are a few students who agree that I’m crazy, but make it their mission to dig a bit deeper. They listen intently, not just to get a grade, but to figure out why I find this so exciting. They start to ask questions, start to search out answers, start to find it exciting too.

This is why I love teaching.

Lecturing dead-eyed classrooms that couldn’t care less can be frustrating. Hearing half a dozen lame excuses as to why homework can’t be handed in on time can be draining. Dealing with students who can’t understand why they don’t automatically get As in my class can be exasperating.

Being considered crazy starts to get old.

But then one student looks a little deeper, discovers crazy can be good, and starts to go crazy for knowledge herself.

This is why I teach.

‘Cause the world needs more crazies.

Categories Book Notes, Theology

God’s passion for His glory (Part 2)

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At the end of last week, I posed the question:

Is God primarily passionate for Himself, or for people? Is the idea that God is passionate for His own glory contradictory with the idea that God is love?

This week, I’ll share the conclusions I’ve drawn about the subject.

First, comparing God’s purpose to man’s purpose, as Piper does when he states

“The chief end of God is to glorify God and enjoy Himself forever.”

is invalid. Man’s purpose is to glorify God, whether man consciously decides to do so or not. This is because man is a created being–and the purpose for which he was created was (at least in part) God’s glory (“Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…” Gen 1:26). God, on the other hand, is not a created being. He has no “purpose” for existing. Rather, He exists because He exists, because He is. The question then, when referring to God’s purpose, is not about God’s purpose in existing, but His purpose in acting.

Now, to a certain degree, God’s existence is explanation enough for His actions. When questioning any of God’s purposes of acting in a particular way, a perfectly appropriate answer is “He acted in this way because this way of acting is consistent with His nature.” In other words, God does what He does because “that’s just the way He is.”

God demonstrates mercy because He is merciful. He exercises justice because He is just. He displays His glory because He is glorious.

Perhaps the idea of God being passionate for His own glory is merely another way of saying “God’s purpose is to be Himself–that is, to be gloriously Himself.”

But Piper’s thesis–and I daresay Scripture itself–would suggest that God’s passion for His own glory is not merely a way of saying “When God acts in accordance with who He is, the result is God’s glory–therefore, God is passionate about His own glory.” No, it seems that Piper, and Scripture, would say that this is indeed a driving passion that influences God’s activity. It implies that just as I read out of a passion for learning, God acts out of a passion for being glorified.

Which brings us right back to the initial problem of God being self-seeking.

But what if God, though one in deity, were three in person? What if God were triune (which He is, indeed)–and each member of the Trinity were passionate not for His own glory, but for the glory of each other member of the Trinity? What if the Father’s supreme end was to glorify and delight in the Son and the Spirit? What if the Son’s supreme end was to glorify and delight in the Father and the Spirit? What if the Spirit’s supreme end was to glorify and delight in the Father and the Son?

If that were so, then God’s “self-love” would not be self-seeking. The paradox would be resolved. God could be both love and passionately God-centered.

And I think this idea has Scriptural support.

In John 8:49-50, Jesus states that He does not seek His own glory, but that He honors His Father. John 16:14 states that the Spirit glorifies the Son. In John 17, Jesus prays that the Father would glorify Him (the Son) so that He (the Son) might glorify the Father. In Hebrews 5:5, we read that Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but that God the Father “promoted” Him to that position.

God can be at once both gloriously God-centered and gloriously un-self-centered. For each member of the Trinity submits to the others’ will, and each wills the others’ glorification–with the end that God glorifies God and enjoys Himself forever.

(This is a reflection on the first chapter of John Piper’s Desiring God. For more reflections on Desiring God, see my notes here.)

Categories The Week in Words

WiW: On Facebook

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The Week in Words

Tim Challies had a great post this last week on How (and How Not) to Use Facebook for Ministry. While the article was primarily focused on pastors and other ministry leaders, I think a lot of the advice given within applies to “the rest” as well.

On Facebook as the easy way out

“Be sure that you are not allowing Facebook to be an easy way of getting around difficult ministry.”

I understand this temptation. I don’t want to actually relate to someone, don’t want to do the difficult work of ministering to them or dealing with conflict or whatever. But I still want to give the illusion that I care or that I’m maintaining the friendship. So I “like” something on their Facebook wall or leave a quick wall comment. It lets me pat myself on the back for being relational but at the same time allows me to escape from real relationship and ministry. Let’s not do that.

On Awareness versus Stalking

“Use it to learn about the lives of the people you love, to encourage them, and just generally to be aware of what they are doing in life. But do not use it to stalk them; and be careful how you introduce information you’ve learned from Facebook into real-world conversation.”

Do you use Facebook as a way to stay “in the loop”–or do you use it as a means of inappropriately inserting yourself into others’ lives? It’s an interesting dimension–and one that deserves caution.

On Farmville:

“Don’t Play Farmville. Just don’t. It’s stupid and it will make you stupid.”

The money quote!

What do you think…can Facebook be used as a ministry tool? How do you use Facebook as a ministry tool? How can Facebook hinder your witness? What words of counsel or caution do you have to add to Challies?

Collect more quotes from throughout the week with Barbara H’s meme “The Week in Words”.

Categories Family & Friends

Sunday Snapshot: Nursery

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Just a few months ago, we were regularly numbering a dozen children in our church nursery. Most of them were either rambunctious, clingy, or potty training (or all three!), requiring at least three nursery workers to keep order.

But with a spate of later summer birthdays graduating a bunch of newly minted three-year-olds to children’s church, we have gone back down to two workers a week.

Last week, my fellow-worker wasn’t around, and as only one child had come in so far, I told my sister-in-law (the nursery coordinator) that I’d be fine. I’d page her if I needed help.

I ended up with one more child for a total of two.

Cadence played happily by herself.

Cadence smiling

Jarell fell asleep in my arms and remained there for the bulk of the morning service.

Jarell sleeping

It was delicious!

Categories Recap

Recap (Aug 29-Sep 4)

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On bekahcubed

Photo Albums:

On the web

Laugh out loud funnies:

  • Nudist spotting by the Meanest Mom’s children

    “On our way to soccer practice on Saturday morning, my daughter leaned forward in her seat and tapped me on the shoulder.

    ‘The people in the car next to us don’t have any clothes on,’ she whispered.”

    This woman is HIL-ar-ious!

Projects to try:

Thought-provoking posts:

  • On “Friending” old flames on Facebook:

    “My love for my husband may be bright and burning like the sun, but having dated means that other small stars are visible in my sky, perhaps especially when the sun’s light occasionally wanes. Before the Internet, these stars were far away — I had no idea where these men lived, or how to find them if I wanted to. Now, they are as close as the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling above my sons’ beds. “

    I’ve heard the statistics about divorce suits that name Facebook as a marriage-ending factor, I’ve seen people fall into inappropriate relationships via Facebook. This is a good article reflecting on that issue. Now I just wish someone could answer the dilemma of the single woman on Facebook. How can single women make sure that they are being wise, both with their own hearts, and with those of their friends and acquaintances on Facebook?

  • On the Professional Weaker Brethren:

    “I remember Chuck Swindoll talking about this saying: ‘Be careful, there are some people out there who are ‘professional weaker brethren.’

    ‘Kristie, I have scruples with this make-up thing. Maybe I cannot find a verse or a solid principle upon which to rest my theological head, but you need to be sensitive and understanding to my hang-ups for the sake of my spirituality. One more year and my scruples will be gone.'”

    I’ve known a lot of these. Of course, there is a corollary, the believer who has been a believer for a long time but who uses the “weaker brethren” passage as an excuse for imposing his personal legalism (that by now he knows is actually unscriptural) upon others. “Yes, I know the Scripture doesn’t forbid drinking alcohol, but some weaker brothers have a problem with it, so you should never drink.”

    Someone expressed concern that my brother and sister-in-law had secular music (gasp!) at their wedding reception for us to dance to. I remember my mom taking the concern into account, considering the person who had expressed that concern, and concluding: “That person should have known better.” This person’s faith was not being harmed by the inclusion of secular music in the wedding dance. This was not a case of a new believer who has not yet discovered the freedom that is in Christ Jesus–this was an old believer (that is, one who has been a Christian for a while) who was using the “weaker brethren” passage as an excuse to remain sinfully legalistic.

    HT: Vitamin Z

Videos worth seeing:

  • Preaching the gospel every week

    What can a pastor do to begin to preach the gospel? from Journey-Creative on Vimeo.

    This video is framed as advice to young pastors, but I think the basic principle for Biblical understanding is useful for “lay people” too. Bryan Chapell suggests that readers of Scripture ask of a passage “What’s the problem? And how is God showing us that He fixes the problem?” This emphasizes the gospel in Scripture and avoids the trap of “duties and doctrines” that we often fall into in Scriptural interpretation.

    HT: Vitamin Z

Related to previous posts:

  • How should a Christian respond to Glenn Beck?
    Russell Moore offers a well needed rebuke to the church for embracing moralism as gospel and thereby denying the true gospel for the sake of our political interests.

    “It’s taken us a long time to get here, in this plummet from Francis Schaeffer to Glenn Beck. In order to be this gullible, American Christians have had to endure years of vacuous talk about undefined ‘revival’ and ‘turning America back to God’ that was less about anything uniquely Christian than about, at best, a generically theistic civil religion and, at worst, some partisan political movement.

    Rather than cultivating a Christian vision of justice and the common good (which would have, by necessity, been nuanced enough to put us sometimes at odds with our political allies), we’ve relied on populist God-and-country sloganeering and outrage-generating talking heads. We’ve tolerated heresy and buffoonery in our leadership as long as with it there is sufficient political ‘conservatism’ and a sufficient commercial venue to sell our books and products.”

    This subject has been increasingly interesting to me after reading Greg Boyd’s The Myth of a Christian Nation. See my review and my reflections on the book for more thoughts on the subject.

    HT: Tim Challies

Categories Memes

Check out my debut album!!!!

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Oxya’s first album, “Sacrifice my wife’s brother”, is sure to be an absolute hit.

You can download it via a link here at bekahcubed for a single low price of $9.99 for 15 songs, or you can order the old-fashioned CD for $24.99 plus shipping and handling. Why such a high price for the CD when the disc and case costs less than $0.50?

Because the album cover is totally worth it. Check it out!

OXYA album cover
(Modified from an original image by Allie_Caulfield)

If you haven’t figured out yet, this is completely bogus.

My little sister “tagged” me in a Facebook meme with the following instructions:

1 – Click on the link to get a random wikipedia article. The title of the article is your band’s name. (My band)

2 – Click on the link to get a Random Quotation from “Quotations Page.com”. The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album. (The quote that inspired my album)

3 – Click on a link to get some random photos from the last seven days on flickr. Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover. (I, because I did not want to violate copyright, instead went to Yahoo Images Search and selected “Only from Flickr.com” under Site/Domain and “Creator Allows Reuse–Remix, Tweak, Build Upon” for Creative Common License. I used “image” as my search term–although you could also use “random” or another vague word.)

4 – Use photoshop or similar to put it all together. (I, being a frugal soul, use the free, open-source GIMP as my photo editing software. It’s not quite as user-friendly so I’m told, but I generally can figure out how to work it from a Photoshop tutorial–and the price is right!)

5 – Post it to FB with this text in the “caption” and TAG the friends you want to join in. (Being somewhat unfond of placing images on Facebook–or of allowing Facebook rights to any of my creative works, for that matter–I chose to share my album on bekahcubed rather than on Facebook.)