laundry

/ abby hummel / 1 Comment

Because a crazy summer full of:
A) Two new work projects. Both are going well, but I’m still not over the hump of the work-from-home learning curve. I have gone from four weekly students to at least seventeen over the course of a few weeks and I love it. As I wave goodbye to a kid leaving after their lesson, I think “How is this really my job!?”
B) A kitchen remodel. Also going well, and I am way behind on posting those updates. I’ll just say that right now there is a hole between the kitchen and the guest room, one of the two towers is down and the island has no counter.
C) Other desired outdoor projects weigh heavily on us, like readjusting some plant beds, building a retaining wall and putting in a fire pit.
D) At least eight sets of overnight visitors from out of town.
…wasn’t enough, we’ve had some laundry issues. More specifically, washing machine water drainage issues. So until figuring out what the problem was and getting it fixed a few nights ago, we haven’t been able to do laundry for nearly three weeks.

Now that we’re back up and running, this is what the bed looks like at all times. As soon as I get it cleaned off, another series of baskets is ready to be dumped on there. I’m thinking I’ll finally have it all done today. I also think if we could make it this far without doing the laundry, we have too many clothes.

don’t stop believin’ (garden 2011)

/ abby hummel / 1 Comment

Having an (admittedly) nerdy plant-loving husband is very helpful in the summer when he grows a garden. Aaron puts a ton of effort into both the planning and execution stages of gardening. In doing so, he finds enjoyment, we save money, and I feel hip because we’re extreme produce locavores.

This year has been pretty successful. Even though our first attempt at snow peas was an epic fail, we’ve enjoyed several rhubarb crisps, the first few fresh tomatoes have been divine, and we’re trying a new technique with the delicious acorn squash!

all our tomatoes!

the big tomato is almost ready - such a picture of hope.

these snow peas are an embarassment to nature

squash growing up on stakes!

that bee's pollination will make the flower produce a squash!

Rhubarb stalks. And sometimes I do, too.

This year I have my own little garden, too. I am very proud of it. I purchased this little basil plant at a farmer’s market and repotted it myself. I try to water it. Don’t laugh – this is actually a big deal for me. I don’t have natural horticultural nurturing instincts, but I’m starting small and trying to make this work. I don’t want to have to buy fresh basil all the time when tomato season is in full force, because my favorite way to enjoy a juicy red tomato is tossed with olive oil, chopped basil and fresh mozzarella in a caprese salad. I fully intend to try fanning the tomatoes like this, too. Yum!

grow, baby, grow!

[first picture from livingstonandporter’s etsy shop]

happy anniversary!

/ abby hummel / 2 Comments

It’s our third wedding anniversary today! And this is  our first real celebration since Aaron has been traveling around the world for our other anniversaries.

my favorite picture from the wedding!

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew;a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man. I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away. – Ecclesiastes 3, esv.

love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction. -antoine de saint-exupery

Friday Five: grilled pizza recipes

/ abby hummel / 7 Comments

We tried throwing a pizza on the grill earlier this summer and it’s totally addicting! We’re calling this “The Summer of the Pizza” and enjoy grilled pizza several times a week. Some people do this with a round baking stone, but I don’t have that – so you can do without one, too!

A) Pre-bake a pizza crust inside under the broiler, not on bake, so the top of it gets a little bit crusty. If you want to make the dough at home, this recipe is very simple and delicious. Super easy if you have a stand mixer!
B) Cover with your preferred toppings -five suggestions will follow!
C) Season your grill grates with a little bit of olive oil on a paper towel.
D) Put the pizza on the grill until the bottom is crispy and the cheese is melted. Some directions say to leave it on high, but we’ve always left our wonky grill on low and it produces deliciousness for us.

fine dining at the Hummel home

While the regular inside method makes a great pizza, nothing beats the fire-oven taste we get from the grill. Now that you know how to be sweet and grill your summer pizzas, here are five great topping recipes you should try:

1) The Hummel Special – tomato paste and italian seasoning, covered with mozzarella, pepperoni, mushroom, broccoli, and pineapple.

2) Smitten Kitchen’s Zucchini pizza is great, but Aaron prefers chopped asparagus so we do that for his half, like in the picture above.

3) Western BBQ – a little bacon and a chicken breast, chopped to smithereens and thrown into a pan with half a red onion, mixed with barbeque sauce and a can of crushed pineapple. Covered with mozzarella to keep it all on the crust.

4) Salmon pizza – herbed goat cheese or cream cheese, with chunks from a salmon fillet, thinly sliced red onions, chopped asparagus and capers. This is PERFECT with a spinach and strawberry salad.

5) Mushrooms and Bleu Cheese – cream cheese and blue cheese for the base, covered with quartered portobello mushrooms and some thinly sliced scallions or leeks.  Sprinkle a little real grated parmesan over the top!

heroine chic

/ abby hummel

My dear friend Bethany stopped by for a bit over the Fourth of July weekend! We first bonded during a Bible Study at college… not just through the themes and application of 1st and 2nd Peter, but the extraneous discussion of silverware and Martha Stewart’s complicated but reliable recipes. When she first got here, we devoured a delicious dinner on the patio of a local restaurant and walked it off at the trails around our “fake lake,” enjoying conversation and pretty flowers.  We both try to be brave women who are also pretty fashionable, so during this weekend we termed ourselves “heroine chic” and referred to that phrase often!

at Ada Hayden park before sunset

orange flowers around the trails

Instead of making 7 batches of fruit jam like we did last time she was in town, we baked strawberry-rhubarb crisp.

strawberry-rhubarb crisp!

I loved introducing Bethany to two sets of Iowa friends for holiday cookouts, one of which included lots of time with our two favorite sorts of people: babies and hilarious children. My little friend E, who is almost five, caught a particularly friendly lightning bug and named him “Farley McFirefly.”

Farley McFirefly

We spent the rest of the time knitting blankets for pregnant friends and family members (love the Log Cabin and Basketweave patterns from Purl Bee!) while watching several episodes of the ridiculous-yet-addicting show Pregnant in Heels. While I don’t envy Bethany’s daunting task of moving from Boston to Colorado Springs, I’m glad she could stop and stay a while with us in the middle of her journey!

a tale of two bunny-buns

/ abby hummel / 4 Comments

Because I can now spend my days enjoying the breeze through my screened-in patio while working and getting paid to do so, I have more chances to observe the wildlife surrounding our little paradise home.

not pictured: ice-cold ginger ale

This spring we fell in love with two little bunnies living in the back yard. It wasn’t just me! Even Aaron used the word “cute.” We called them Brother Bunny and Sister Bunny. Brother lived back by the big tree; Sister preferred the raised beds by the side patio.

Brother Bunny

Sister Bunny

It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. I’m sure waiting until they snared our hearts with their adorableness must have been difficult, but after sensing the protection of our affection, the darling Brother and Sister feasted on the leaves of my recently-transplanted hostas…

too hostalicious for ya, babe

… and, more devastatingly, one of our bamboo (bamboo bamboo!- veggie tales anyone?) clusters. Those things were $35 a pop. Hopefully the gnawed down plant comes back next year.

bamboo leftovers, now protected by a homemade cage

Please do not judge us for the unlovely rock garden. We dream that someday the rocks will be gone and replaced by lush green grass with twin bamboo clusters for privacy, bordered by variegated hostas. We’ve come to grips with our own human limitations and know accomplishing these dreams take time. It will probably come together right as we put the house on the market.

the uneaten bamboo plant in all it's wire-caged glory

So unfortunately, with the demolition of our decorative greenery already underway, my husband encouraged me to say good-bye to Brother and Sister Bunny before they had a chance to discover the edible garden full of tomatoes and snow peas. Now this story is all we have left of the two bunnies with their cotton-tail buns.

Good-bye to our two little Bunny-buns! It was the best of times to watch you play in our yard, but the worst of times when you ate all our plants.

only one came back

/ abby hummel

(this is my first midweek meditation – a little something I’ve been thinking about, shared for your encouragement and edification.)

But now indeed I find, Thy power and thine alone
Can change a leper’s spots and melt this heart of stone.
– Jesus Paid It All, Elvina M. Hall.

A few weeks ago I stood among congregants at church, singing “Jesus Paid It All,” and pondered a verse that talks about changing a leper’s spots. No, not a spotted leopard. A leper; a person who has leprosy. Amid recollections of flannel graph and puppet shows,  most who spent any time in a Sunday School classroom know that this strange disease called leprosy is mentioned often in Bible stories. Some memorable accounts  include Moses’ and Aaron’s sister Miriam, Army commander Naaman from Syria, and the ten men who sought Jesus for healing in the gospels. Now the leprosy mentioned in the Bible was probably a catch-all name for all sorts of infectious skin condition, including (but not limited to) what we now call Hansen’s Disease which destroys the  nerve endings of a person’s skin, particularly the limbs and extremities. So it’s not that this leprosy destroys a victim’s body, it just prevents a person from knowing they’re destroying themself. While a healthy person might step back from hot sand or carefully clean and bind a wound, someone with leprosy can’t feel that they’ve burned the bottom of their feet or that the gash on their hand is infected and septic. A leper doesn’t know they are doing things that are harmful because they are unable to feel their body’s natural warning signal – pain.

Though we probably can’t identify with these stories directly because infectious skin disease is not much of a threat in the comfort of first-world living, there is still a profound lesson for us here. Aren’t our hearts like this? After struggling or disappointment, when we often get to a point where we are at least a little numb? Or amid long battles, where our hearts are so taxed that we don’t feel what we’re supposed to? When we work so hard to avoid a painful situation that we ignore all affliction and don’t recognize our coping methods are actually self-destructive? A leper in ancient days would have been cast out of society to prevent passing the disease to their village. Isn’t that the second step for us with leprous hearts, too? Whether these dysfunctional hearts mean we push others away or they pull back from us, numbness often leads to isolation from the people who should be closest to us in times of difficulty.

So what do we do about this? We see the answer here:

  …He was met by ten lepers, who stood at  a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks.
-Luke 17:11-16, esv.

These ten lepers had no power by which they might declare themselves healed, and neither do we. I’m not talking here about the kind of emotional pit that calls for drastic lifestyle and medicinal treatments, but of the temptation towards self-pity and putting up “walls” to avoid dealing with things that might hurt. No work of man can cure every ill twist of the heart and facing the reality of a hardened heart can make life seem more frustrating than ever. Yet even if we sense we are at a distance and not close to the Lord, we can shed light on this numbness and cry out  for healing as the ten, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”

If we have to be lepers – and indeed we are – let us  be like the one who first called for mercy and then turned back alone with praise and thanks.

with what I most enjoy contented least

/ abby hummel

I rediscovered this Sonnet a few weeks ago and I love how Shakespeare describes the emotional and mental benefit of changing one’s perspective. This poem is about romantic love but it certainly applies to many aspects of life.

When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
-Sonnet 29, Shakespeare

Friday Five: books I’ve read lately

/ abby hummel

This week I realized I’ve read 14 books already during 2011. I’ve made an effort to read “real” books this year, and I believe this is already much more than I got through in all of 2010. I’m so glad I’ve had the chance to make this a priority! The five books I’m sharing here are some of my favorites, listed here in my own chronological reading order.

1) Orthodoxy by GK Chesterton. This book is a great look at how Chesterton came, intellectually, to accept the Christian faith. I devoured this immediately after re-reading Mere Christianity, where CS Lewis similarly reconciles his academic intellect and confession of faith, and enjoyed the way they told almost the same story in two very different ways. I especially appreciated his discussions about the way modern thinking (that is, modernism and humanism) affect human belief:

“Everyday one comes across somebody who says that of course his view may not be the right one. Of course his view must be the right one, or it is not his view. We are on the road to producing a race of men too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication table. …Just as one generation could prevent the very existence of the next generation, by all entering a monastery or jumping into the sea, so one set of thinkers can in some degree prevent further thinking by teaching the next generation that there is no validity in any human thought… Reason is itself a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all.” (Orthodoxy)

*****

2) One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp is really popular right now and I normally shy away from “those” popular Christian books because I prematurely assume they are fluffy and not interesting, but this one is on fire for a reason. This book was passed on to me by a brilliant woman, a dear friend who assured me it profoundly blessed her on the path to recovery from a life-altering betrayal, and I am so grateful I didn’t brush this off! It is anything but superficial. Her lyrical style is almost burdensome at first, if you’re not normally reading much poetry, but after the first chapter I found it easy to connect with her writing about a life of thankfulness in the midst of heartbreak, disappointment and unhappy circumstances. I loved this quote about reversing your heart in a typical “go-go-go” busy life of ungratefulness:

“The real problem of life is never a lack of time. The real problem of life – in my life – is lack of thanksgiving. Thanksgiving creates abundance; and the miracle of multiplying happens when I give thanks – take the just one loaf, say it is enough, and give give thanks – and He miraculously makes it more than enough.”  (One Thousand Gifts)

*****

3) The Scent of Water by Naomi Zacharias. I enjoyed this book immensely and thought it could be a great companion to the book above. Where Voskamp’s book is framed into her life as a farm wife and home-schooling mother of six, Zacharias uses her experiences of traveling the world in Christian ministry to tell the stories of how God reaches to us in suffering – both the hot-button exotic type, like refugee camps, orphanages and brothels and the every-day challenges we brush off because they seem so common, like rejection, death, and divorce. And what I really, really, really love is that she doesn’t say “I am so glad these awful things happened, and as a Christian you have to be thankful that you are suffering.” Instead, she reflects about the sorrow of her broken marriage:

“I am not in a place where I can say I am grateful for all that has happened. Given the choice I still wish very much that it could have been different, that there had been another way to have learned the lessons. I struggle to accept the life that is mine because it is not the story I wanted. And not a day goes by that I don’t notice it still hurts inside…. But now I see the world with perspective; I view people through vastly different lenses and recognize beauty in things that once escaped my notice. God seems more mysterious – sometimes mysteriously confusing, absent, and maddening. But always mysteriously true. …I opt for a life that is extraordinary over a life that is simple.” (The Scent of Water)

*****

4) Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. Aaron actually read this one first and convinced me to try it, too. It’s the only real “story” I read, and it’s still a biography! Apparently there isn’t much fiction being read around here. It was great to talk about this tale of Louis Zamperini, a troublemaker-turned-Olympic-athlete-turned-Japanese-POW, in the context of our own life. While, thankfully, there was no capture and imprisonment business during Aaron’s deployment to Iraq, there’s no denying that any experience of war profoundly affects everyone it touches and we were both blessed by this testimony of the invincible dignity of the human spirit, created in the image of a gracious God:

“Resting in the shade and the stillness, Louie felt profound peace. When he thought of his history, what resonated with him now was not all that he had suffered but the divine love that he believed had intervened to save him. He was not the worthless, broken, forsaken man that [his captors] had striven to make of him. In a single, silent moment, his rage, his fear, his humiliation and helplessness, had fallen away. That morning, he believed, he was a new creation.” (Unbroken)

*****

5) Here and Now by Henri Nouwen. I loved these short devotionals, especially his urging to consider the importance of communing with God in the midst of each moment:

“The real enemies of our life are the oughts and the ifs. They pull us backward into the unalterable past and forward into the unpredictable future. But real life takes place in the here and now. God is a God of the present. God is always in the moment, be that moment hard or easy, joyful or painful… God is not (just) someone who was or will be, but He is one who is. …Prayer is the discipline of the moment. When we pray we enter into the presence of God whose name is God-with-us. To pray is to listen attentively to the one who addresses us here and now. When we dare to trust that we are never alone but that God is always with us, always cares for us, always speaks to us, then we can gradually detach ourselves from the voices that make us guilty or anxious and thus allow ourselves to dwell in the moment. …If we could just be, for a few minutes each day, fully where we are, we would indeed discover that we are not alone and that the One who is with us only wants: to give us love.” (Here and Now)

*****

I hope you’ll take an opportunity to read some of these yourself if you’re looking for straightforward and thought provoking summer reading!

fiat lux (kitchen, pt 6)

/ abby hummel / 3 Comments

This might be a cheater post, since I’m calling it a kitchen update, but… oh well. I’m not going to apologize for that. There is definitely more progress than just what I have written here, but this is all I have pictures of so far. With the big job switch up, I’m mildly underemployed for most of this summer and we’re hoping this will speed up some of the kitchen work. I should have more time to blog about it, too. We all win!

We had one puny can light above the main part of the kitchen. We love that the ceiling is super dark, but this cool effect is totally lost without effective lighting. In this picture, it totally feels like the darkness is overtaking the whole room instead of sharing awesomeness with the whole room.
I knew I wanted a track light there, and when we were stove shopping I noticed a sleek 6-bulb unit in the clearance rack. Since I anticipated a little over $100.00 on this, there was no shock at the sticker price of $127.00. But you know, I’m not one to pay full price for that kind of thing. It was marked down to $23.00 (yes!) in satin nickel, which is the wrong color  (it’s pretty, but in our kitchen – no!). No fear: I knew I could spray paint it (double yes!), so we put it in the cart and grabbed some oil-rubbed bronze spray paint for my cheap-o DIY transformation.

This is the silly explanation on why I really wanted to spray paint this track: For our house, my rule of thumb is that light fixtures match the color ceiling they touch.  So the stuff in the main living area with dark ceilings will always have oil-rubbed bronze metal fixtures. Any hardwired lights we replace for bedrooms, bathroom and the back of the hall would have white or lighter silvery metal to flow with the normal white ceiling. This just seems the most streamlined way for us to go and I’m happy with our plan!

So, after we got sick of the boxed lights laying around forever, Aaron used his man power to turn off some of the electricity to the house. I should probably mention that when we turned off the lights, it was the middle of the night on Friday. Some people stay up late and get drunk on the weekends, we choose to work on house projects. In this case, with the help of a head lamp.

Aaron claims this headgear will be handy for his many future spelunking expeditions.

And after Aaron spent a half hour of finagling with it, I went to the garage and sawed some wood to create a brace for the fixture box while he was still holding the light up to the ceiling with his arms. He’s basically Atlas. Or, as he would mistakenly call himself, “Achilles”. (Nice heels, babe.)

statue of a greek god, cropped for obvious reasons

Finally, at last, we got everything up securely and connected all the wires and installed all the futuristic curly fry light bulbs. In our kitchen, it was like the first moment where God cried out “Let there be light!” Suddenly we knew this was how it was supposed to be in here all along.

before, with just the one can light

after, with six lights on a track

the view from the dining room. don't worry - the blue color and weird curtainy thing on the pantry are practically history!