post its.

/ abby hummel / 1 Comment

One of my greatest little loves in life is post-it notes. I love everything about them. The weight and thickness of the paper, the eternal stickiness of the post-it strip, the colors that come together in packages, the way you can write lots of notes on different sheets and put them  in pretty arrangements on a mirror or a desk, the cute designs in the corner of some fancier ones… sigh. I have a drawer in my desk devoted specifically to post-it notes. They are organized by function (for instance, the bright pink flower-shaped pads do not have one), beauty (because I don’t actually use the yellow stack with a green fern outline in the corner, I just look at them) and size (so I can easily write out my grocery lists on the larger lined ones).

Also, I do not use imitation post-its. They must be the genuine thing. I buy real ones and bring them to work because I refuse to use the impostors.

One of the great things that happens with post-its is the hilarious cartoons at Savage Chickens. Tonight I’m freaking out a little bit, feeling like I haven’t accomplished much with my life so far, and this little one seems particularly appropriate for me:

keeping it all in perspective

My birthday is tomorrow… so despite how I may feel about what I am or am not accomplishing with the life I have lived so far, here’s to another year of not getting killed and eaten!

partakers together of (hard) grace

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It’s Thursday and I’m still exhausted from my crazy weekend. My dear friend from college, Esther, came out to visit. She drove across 3 states to spend a few days with me and we definitely made the most of the time! As usual, she beat me on our runs despite my significant height advantage and longer leg strides, she overhauled my whole wardrobe with a fashion makeover and we stayed up past the middle of the night talking about the wildest things… just like when we were room-mates at Hillsdale. Except that back then we thought we knew everything. Ha! Thankfully, we have become much wiser and humbler since then.

It’s almost three years since our graduation, and in our grown up lives we have each partaken of so much painful and beautiful grace. I am very grateful for the mutual comfort and encouragement of a friend who is my true partner in accepting and rejoicing in this life of grace, no matter how hard it is or how ungracious I feel.

we both turn twenty-five this spring...whew. what a ride!

When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.
– Henri Nouwen, The Road to Daybreak.

Esther passed on the book “One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are” by Ann Voskamp, who blogs at http://www.aholyexperience.com.

One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp

So much of our weekend was full of discussing what Ann says in this book, that our call as Christians is to live in thanksgiving; that all experiences, even the awful and sad ones, are opportunities to draw closer to God; that we miss communion and growth if we ignore our sorrow, but miss beauty and goodness if we think that is all there is; and that we can choose to live a life of full grace, full of gratefulness and in doing so we are blessed.

“I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace…” (Philippians 1:7, esv)

many-tasting foods

/ abby hummel / 3 Comments

While whipping up a “quick” venison pot-pie for dinner this evening, (side note: it was supposed to be fast, but actually wasn’t) I chatted with an old friend from college about some of our recent culinary adventures. The conversation was peppered with comments like “I read that food blog, too!” “A what-squash?” and “I think I have some of those in the freezer!” Aaron never really knows what to make out of my half of these sorts of conversations. It probably doesn’t sound much different from when I talk to myself in the kitchen. He likes eating, so I don’t let him complain about my domestic eccentricities. This friendly conversation made me realize we have tried LOTS of new foods in the past year or so, and I thought I’d share a list of our favorites.
Breakfast:
* Smitten Kitchen’s Jacked-Up Banana Bread and
*  SK’s Perfect Blueberry Muffins.
* Our current sunday brunch favorite: Eggs Benedict with ham. I also owe all my success with this dish to SK’s poached egg tutorial. Let’s just say that lady speaks my food-love language.

Lunch:
* Tuna salad – a can of tuna with cottage cheese and black beans. Mixed together between two slices of bread or over a plate of greens. I didn’t like tuna until I tried it this way!
* And my regular bagged-salad lunches at work become divine with Trader Joe’s Champagne Pear Gorgonzola Vinaigrette Dressing. For the first time in my life, I had to ask myself: Am I eating salad or dessert? It’s great with dried apricots and nuts over baby spring greens.

Dinner:
*Bon Appetit’s Salmon and Asparagus
* Something like these meatballs with BBQ sauce in the crockpot. They are almost shamefully home-style comfort food. I always bake them in little foil cupcake liners instead of browning them in oil on the stove. They still taste delicious and are awesome with steamed green beans and steak fries.
* Smitten Kitchen’s Roasted Mushrooms. I don’t use nearly that much butter and they are still delish! Sometimes I go very minimalist with a touch of butter and a little splash of lemon juice.

Totally unhealthy snacks and desserts:
* A new favorite snack is Sausage Dip in the crockpot. Sometimes something is really delicious without being nutritious or healthy in any way, and this dish is one of them.
* We’ve been very into Baked Brie lately and it seems to be on sale at a local grocery store quite a bit. Love it!
* We’ve made 3 or 4 of Nigella Lawson’s Chocolate Guinness Cake in the past few weeks and I’m not gonna lie… I kind of want another one.  Yes, I said “we” made these, because Aaron baked the first one on his own. Mostly.
* These Pumpkin Muffins from my friends Hannah and Bethany are sinfully easy (2 ingredients! I’m not joking!) and we mayhaveeatenawholepanbyourselvesonmorethanoneoccasion.

So those are some of the new foods we’ve been enjoying lately. I’m excited to see what fun new discoveries are ahead of us, too. For instance, what will I do with the 200 venison brats in our freezer? Certainly we won’t be having that many cookouts this summer. And which of our soon-to-be-planned-out garden veggies will grow well and make their way into our meals on a regular basis? We will have to wait and see…

wounds I cannot see

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The Incredulity of Saint Thomas (Caravaggio)

The idea of doubt keeps popping up in my thoughts, prayers and conversations lately.  I’m really into “knowing” things. Walking by faith is not one of my strong points. While I am not in the midst of a crisis of overall belief in God, I am often plagued with “littler” doubts about circumstances and purposes and vocations and relationships and finances and health and … so on. I’ve been working through some journals of Henri Nouwen, and I love his comments about the importance of dialogue and community in the midst of doubt. It’s definitely my natural tendency to withdraw from these practices when I am struggling or don’t understand what God is doing. I greatly appreciate the insights recorded by Nouwen here:

Today: feast of St. Thomas the Apostle. During a dialogue homily, two of the monks remarked in different ways that although Thomas did not believe in the resurrection of the Lord, he kept faithful to the community of the apostles. In that community the Lord appeared to him and strengthened his faith. I find this a very profound and consoling thought. In times of doubt or unbelief, the community can “carry you along,” so to speak; it can even offer on your behalf what you yourself overlook, and can be the context in which you may recognize the Lord again.

John Eudes remarked that Dydimus, the name of Thomas, means “twin,” as the Gospel says, and that the fathers had commented that all of us are “two people,” a doubting one and a believing one. We need the support and love of our brothers and sisters to prevent our doubting person from becoming the dominant and destroying our capacity for belief.
– Henri Nouwen “Spiritual Journals: Genesee Diary”

In pursuit of more information about doubt and Thomas, a superficial scan of the gospels brought me to John 14, where Thomas says “Lord, we do not know where you are going.” (vs. 6). Well. I think I just found my life verse!  And like Caravaggio’s striking depiction I included earlier, the gospels recount Thomas’ cry of unbelief, needing to see and touch the wounds of Christ before believing the resurrection. There is a lesson here for me, even though my doubts are not centered around things like Christ’s death, wounds, resurrection, or the existence of God in the first place.

In these small daily doubts, I must keep asking: What does it mean to walk by faith and not by sight? I know it was Christ who said: “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have  believed.” (John 20:29) This is the same thing he says to me. What is to believe God is working just when I can see that? Faith that God is working in circumstances I don’t understand means I might have to embrace things I don’t want to, to rejoice in days that aren’t at all what I would plan for them. But who am I to think I can decide where God works? I am of small account.

Godhead here in hiding, Whom I do adore
Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more
See, Lord, at thy service low lies here a heart
Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art.

I am not like Thomas; wounds I cannot see
But can plainly call you Lord and God as he
This faith each day deeper be my holding of
Daily make me harder hope and dearer love
-St. Thomas Aquinas

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.

Chip! Chip! Chip! Chip! Chip!

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Tonight we have a guest blog from author Chip Howe, the dog we are caring for this week.

 

Chip

It’s my last day at the Hummel’s. I stayed in the crate all day. Abby came home from work. I WAS SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!! SHE’S MY FAVORITE!!!!! She played with me. IT WAS SO AWESOME!!!! PLAYING IS MY FAVORITE THING EVER!!!!! She scratched my ears!!! I couldn’t stop wagging my tail!!!!! Do I even have a tail??? Let me sniff around and see if I can find it!!!!! We went into the kitchen and there are so many smells there! SMELLING IS MY FAVORITE!!!!! She started making dinner and accidentally dropped some food! HOORAY! I LOVE EATING PEOPLE FOOD OFF THE FLOOR!!!! After an hour, she remembered that I might need to go outside to take care of a few matters of doggy business since I had been in the crate all day…and BEING OUTSIDE IS MY FAVORITE THING EVER!!!!! I drank a whole bowl of water! WATER IS SO DELICIOUS!!!! I LOVE DRINKING IT!!!! Aaron came home from work! AWESOME! HE’S MY FAVORITE!!!!!!!! He took me for a run! I LOVE RUNNING! IT IS SO AWESOME!!!!! They sat at the table and ate dinner! I couldn’t help but stick my nose right next to their plates. They swatted me away and I cuddled on their carpet. It’s so soft and I know they will play with me soon! They decided to watch a movie tonight and brought me to the back room!!! I LOVE SITTING IN ALL THESE BLANKETS!!!!! They won’t let me sit on the couch but I AM HAVING SO MUCH FUN! MOVIES ARE MY FAVORITE!!!!!!!! They have my same dry dog food from home here! I LOVE MY DOG FOOD!!!!!!!!! And then before bed I can chew on my rawhide bone! RAWHIDE IS THE BEST EVER!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE BEING A DOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aaron and chip!

I’m even in a movie!!!! THIS IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!! THEY ARE AWESOME!!!!!!! WE ARE ALL AMAZING!!!!!!!!!

fire at Slane Hill

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I have many reasons to love St. Patrick’s Day. Although my strongest ethnic identity comes from my Finnish grandfather who blessed us with Saunas and Kropsu and loose familial ties to the “Flying Finn” Paavo Nurmi, I can celebrate this day whole-heartedly because I’m about one-quarter Irish. I love beer, corned beef and cabbage. I love the color green. And if it were possible for an annoying little red-haired leprechaun to give me a pot of gold, I would be in favor of that. I do have a kitchen to remodel.

I also love the nerdy and sacred historical basis for this celebration. The exact details are sketchy, but it’s widely accepted that teenage Patrick was kidnapped from his home in Scotland and taken captive to tend sheep for a druid master in Ireland in the 400’s. In the six years (My God! I whine about much shorter trials nearly every day!) of his slavery, he gave his heart over to God in prayer and was so intimately connected to the Lord that he recounted praying at least one hundred times a day in all weather and all circumstances. These circumstances were pretty awful, being kidnapped to live outdoors as a shepherd and enslaved to a druid master.  In his sixth year of captivity, God led him to run away from his captors and he escaped to be with his family again. Happy ending? Not yet. He was then trained as a priest and called to go back to spread Christianity in Ireland. Legend says he dreamed of the people of Ireland calling him to come and preach to them. (This wasn’t the first time someone heard their call to mission in a dream…)  He brought the gospel to the country of Ireland and ministered effectively throughout the land for 28 years, inestimably blessed by a full knowledge of their language and religious customs. He is famous for lighting a fire on Slane Hill the night before Easter to represent the light of Christ – this against the direct commands of the pagan rulers celebrating a Spring Equinox festival.  The fire burned brightly and incited a showdown with the pagan ruler and his men, but by the power of God, Patrick preached the gospel to the whole pagan army on Easter morning.

The Irish tune Slane is named after the memory of Slane Hill where Patrick shone the light of Christ and proclaimed his death and resurrection on Easter Sunday. We often sing it with the words of the song Be Thou My Vision. It’s a wonderful hymn, and I especially love the “hidden” verse you almost never hear sung in church:
Be Thou my battle-shield, sword for my fight
Be Thou my dignity, Be my delight!
Thou my soul’s shelter, Thou my high tower
Raise Thou me heavenward, O power of my power.
(Be Thou My Vision, English translation by Eleanor Hull)

We also have a prayer from St. Patrick which includes the following stanzas:
I bind unto myself today:
The power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, His might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need.
The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide, his shield to ward,
The word of God to give me speech,
His heavenly host to be my guard.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the Name:
The strong Name of the Trinity;
By invocation of the same.
The Three in One, and One in Three,
Of Whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.

So. If you think of all this when celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, you will see that drinking beer can be a very spiritual experience.

fat tuesday

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Aaron asks if we ate pancakes tonight in an effort to live up to the nickname “fat tuesday,” but he doesn’t really care about the answer. Pancakes for dinner? Well, okay. You don’t have to twist anyone’s arm around here.

On this day we mark the eve of Lent, when it is traditional for Christians to participate in various practices of self-denial in order to more tangibly appreciate Christ’s ultimate self-denial: death on the cross.   Reminiscent of their Jewish ancestors clearing the leaven before passover, Christians developed the habit of eating rich and sweet foods (hence the name “Fat Tuesday”) right before entering Lent, when they would abstain from such things until Easter weekend.
Just like we have plenty of meaningful and sometimes silly traditions with our own families, we really enjoyed celebrating this tradition from the family of God and I think we’ll continue doing so in future years!

poached eggs, sausage and blueberry pancakes

This recipe was adapted from my cousin Natalie, so I always think of her when I make them. They are even, um, a little bit healthier than plain old pancakes. Well… I don’t know what difference these actually make when slathered with Buddy the Elf’s fourth main food group, to be perfectly honest with you.   We make these because they are good, not because they make us look good.

Natalie’s Oatmeal Pancakes
1 c whole-wheat flour
1 c quick cooking oats
2 T sugar
1t salt
1t baking soda
2t baking powder
4T butter
2 c milk
2 large eggs

Mix ingredients to make batter, adding more milk if needed for a runnier consistency. Add chunks of fruit (fresh or frozen) if desired. Cook on a hot griddle and enjoy with maple syrup!

what shall I render?

/ abby hummel

a winter walk in my neighborhood park

The Lord preserves the simple;
when I was brought low, He saved me.
Return, o my soul, to your rest;
for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

For you have delivered
my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling;
I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

I believed, even when I spoke, “I am greatly afflicted”;
I said in my alarm, “All men are liars.”

What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.

psalm 116, english standard version.

a dream (is a wish your heart makes?)

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I had the weirdest dream last night. I had fasted all day, which I do about once a week. I am a huge fan of fasting as a spiritual discipline. But more on that later. By nightfall, I was very hungry but also very aware of the Holy Spirit. I suppose this means it could have been the Lord speaking to me very powerfully… or my brain could have been expressing its own hunger … or maybe it was just my way of processing the week’s events, which included discussions with two sets of friends about their unnamed daughters in utero.

In this crazy dream, Aaron and I needed to adopt triplet babies. Like the babies were suddenly there with us and we needed to take care of them. There were two boys and one girl. They were all caucasian, which isn’t a big deal except that all the conversations we’ve had about adoption usually refer to children from Haiti or Ethiopia. My expectations of potential adoption for us always include little black boys, but who am I to say what kind of children God could send us?

Back to the dream: I was freaking out about what we would name them all, because I didn’t want to give away my favorite names in case the babies were taken away later.  I was in this hallway with a bunch of people rushing around who had backpacks all over the place (much like a middle school) holding the baby girl and trying to figure out what her name would be. She had a large red birthmark on her jaw and dark hair. I wouldn’t put her down because I couldn’t figure out her name. One of the boys was originally named Carter and he had big blue eyes. No offense to any Backstreet Boys fans,  but that is not the sort of name we picture ourselves giving to any of the little Hummels.  The two boys were in a double side-by-side baby carseat. They don’t even make carseats like that for babies anyway. I don’t think that would be safe. Anyway, we weren’t in a car so that was the least of my concerns – remember, baby girl still had no name. Then Aaron and I were in a dressing room in a big house. The house overlooked a lake or river. Yes, it is definitely a dream of mine to live in a home with big windows over a body of water. And while we are at it, of course, a dressing room would be fabulous. But it had paneling, so, ick. I would have to redecorate in real life. There were piles of clothes everywhere, kind of like my bedroom right now. And the three babies were in their carseats. I needed Aaron to help me, so he picked up one of the boys and held the whole carseat (the little guys had their own at this point) and asked me why the clothes weren’t put away yet. I was wearing baby girl with a wrap. It seems my fascination with attachment parenting practices does not suspend in dreams.

Then we went back to the middle school, where I was late getting in to some sort of presentation at the school auditorium with clunky seats. Also, I had the three babies with me.  Clearly this was a very awkward entrance. All my friends and my sisters were sitting in one aisle. I grabbed a seat next to them and started passing the babies down so everyone could see them. None of the babies cried at all during this dream.

Then I woke up. And now I am writing about it here.

Maybe it will sort of come true someday and we can all marvel at the work of God the creator (“who still guides us on to the end of our days”) in our lives. …Or maybe someone else will think it’s as funny as I do and get a good laugh out of it right now.  Ha!

decisions, decisions (kitchen, pt 2)

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The whole cost/benefit of the kitchen project is something we’ve spent months agonizing over. I’ve heard that $15-20,000.00 is the average price of a kitchen overhaul and we are definitely not going to spend that much. But we also need to sell the house in a few years when Aaron graduates, so a frugal update should benefit us when we are courting potential buyers. I’m guessing that leaving this project undone will make anyone interested in the house automatically deduct the average cost of a kitchen remodel from their highest offer.  It seems like making a (comparably) small investment here will reap big dividends on our final selling price. This probably won’t increase our home value by $20k, but it might bring it up by about $10k, which is still more than we will pay! So after firming up in our minds that it was worth it to spend money here, we needed to get out of our hypothetical pricing and crunch exact numbers for the counters, stove, tile, lighting, and shelving that I’m dreaming of.

First we had to check out the counter top options. We are going with cheap-o laminate because it’s pretty sturdy and fits into our budget. If we were going to live here longer, we would probably spring for some sort of solid-surface counters. This laminate counter top will look MUCH better than the 53-year-old laminate counter we have now! And we were happily surprised by the cost, too.

Which one is best?

This one was our favorite!

We’re going to go with a surface that looks like Santa Cecilia granite on our dark reddish cabinets. Here is a picture of that combination with the real stuff. We’ll do a tile backsplash instead of the solid one here:

Inspiration Kitchen - Cabinets, appliances and counters

We also had to check out ranges. We desperately need a new stove and oven. Ours our separate right now and they barely work. We would probably need to replace them within the next year even if the rest of this wasn’t happening. Our criteria for the range were to have a black ceramic flat-top for the stove and a stainless steel front for the oven.  We could get a very basic one at Lowes for a list price of $649, but we checked out the scratch-and-dent section in search of a better deal.

look at that scrape!

We found this one on clearance for $599.00. It was originally almost $900.00. Unfortunately, it was truly scratched-and-dented. There were several other dents… it looks like it was dropped on its front! This was a very unfortunate appliance. We talked to someone with the thought that we might be interested in this stove for $450, but it was a no-go. We had to come back later in the week to get final pricing on counters and saw a thing of beauty sitting next to this scratched up beast. It was another black topped stainless steel range with two ovens – originally $1300 something, but on sale for $949. This was still quite a bit more than a basic range, but we kept talking about the utility of a double oven. Really, any oven is going to be an improvement since the one we have now has just one rack and the size prevents any good cookie baking. Aaron and I started talking about what we would be willing to pay for this luxury. I used words like “cookies” and “pizza” when explaining that I would definitely use and enjoy the double-oven feature, and this sealed the deal in his mind. $949 was a great deal since the stove had no scratches, but it was still well above our budget. We decided I would come back later and find out about getting a better price. Our goal was to get a range with a full warranty (since we could advertise that when selling the house) for less than $900. Imagine my joy the next day when I talked to the assistant manager and paid $700 for the range of our dreams!  We paid a little more to extend the warranty, but we would have done that for any appliance.

I also daydreamed about new (totally unnecessary) cabinet pulls that would give us a totally sleek modern-meets-“Mad Men” look:

Sleek, not sterile.

I also brought home some tile samples. We have ruled out the one in the middle. I’m leaning towards the one on the right and Aaron likes the color on the left. This is actually one of the last things we’ll do, so we can make a final decision after the counters are in.

tile options

So that’s where we’re at. I’m ordering the counters this week and then we’ll be able to set up our time-line for completion!