new blog

Hi folks,
Tish Here. I don't post here anymore, but I have a blog on everyday theology and food at nourishblogzine.wordpress.com.

Officially, Summer is here.

Feeling thankful and tired. Had a cah-razy day yesterday (have to tell ya about it sometime). I got the paper in today ten minutes before it was due. The Spring semester is over and I have 4 days off 'til Summer school starts! aaannnnnddd our friend Summer flew in this evening and tomorrow we are going to Maine and will camp at a place like this. It is her life-long dream to go to Maine. Seriously. I'm so glad we get to go with her. Summer planned the trip, but it is so fun that we get to go along and see her dream come true. It is like being one of the mice in the Cinderella cartoon.

PS Pray for no bears or storms or crazy people.

feasting and famine...and confusing the two.

So for the 3 of you that read my blog I’m sure you’ve tired of hearing me talk about not getting work done and slacking off. Okay. I hear ya. Sorry. But here’s the deal. I worked my arse off the last couple of weeks. Really. I worked sometimes for 12+ hours a day. I saw no one, hung out with no one, and even, at times, slept very little. And then, miraculously, by God’s grace, I got my draft in for my Harvard class paper. And then, even more miraculously, my professor liked my draft. I only have a few changes to make. I only need to give it about 12 more hours to make it great. And I had 4 days to give those 12 hours. Sweet.
But have I diligently worked 3 hours a day? Certainly not. What have I done instead? Truthfully, I have no idea. I checked blogs a lot, watched movies, went to the pub next door and drank cider, read more blogs, sat on my ass and stared into space, and read for fun, but mainly I just checked blogs and my email over and over for 3 ½ days now. So now, I’ll need to do the 12 hours of work tomorrow. Or do 7 hours work and have a less good paper.

Okay. And so. I literally did nothing all day. So what am I doing now? Eating Ramen noodles. I’m not even kidding. I had a lot of Ramen noodles in college, and I thought that that was enough for a lifetime. I don’t even like Ramen noodles anymore. But for some reason, on days when I do nothing-like today-it reminds me of college and like Pavlov’s dog I want Ramen noodles. So I bought two packages and hid one from my husband and ate the other. I mainly just hid it to be funny because he’s going to read this blog and see that I ate Ramen noodles, and when he does he is going to say “Baaaaaabe, What were you thinking? I don’t want you to get______________.” (Fill in blank with either “a migraine,” or “cancer,” or “sclerosis of the stomach” or all three). And, you know, he’s right. It is bad for me. And Procrastination is bad for me. So here’s my question: Why do we do things that are bad for us? I’m not exactly asking this from a purely theological perspective… (well, I sorta think everything is a theological perspective)…but what I mean is that I know about original sin. I’ve written essays about the fall. But what I’m saying is that this thing we all do-this doing stuff we know is bad for us thing-on some fundamental level is crazy. Completely insane. It’s like walking into a wall over and over again or hitting our hand with a hammer. It damages us.
Here is the great irony. You know what my paper is on? Ethical choices in eating. I’ve written 25 pages on how to eat and I celebrate by eating Ramen noodles. And I know that there is freedom for us. There is freedom to occasionally do nothing in a day and eat Ramen noodles (I don’t actually feel bad about the Ramen). But what if it isn’t occasional? What about when these things we do to ourselves form patterns in our lives? Procrastination, putting things off, and laziness are certainly patterns in my life. And what about things more profound than Ramen noodles- things like our love life or our sex life? We shan’t occasionally indulge in idolatry, adultery, tax invasion, fornication or hurting the people we love. That isn’t what freedom means. Yet, we all do these things all the time. I mean maybe your thing isn’t tax evasion, fornication, or adultery, but we all do things all the time that we know aren’t good. And on some level we even know that they aren’t good FOR US. We know that they don’t bring joy or nourishment (with the noodles this is literal) into our lives and instead bring eventual pain, but we spend lots of energy convincing ourselves that what we are doing is okay until our foreheads are all bloody and the wall has a big hole in it (and we often bruise and bloody some other people in the process). How many of us know (or have been) the girl who knows deep down that a relationship isn’t good for us but spends so much energy trying to convince herself that it is right? How many of us have something in our lives that we know is wrong and yet we elaborately justify? We are all very crazy. What can I say? I don’t even like Ramen noodles. I don’t even like sin or unbelief or blind selfishness or self-delusion.

God, give us repentance and faith. Some of Martin Luther’s final words: “Weir Sein Pettlers. Hoc Est Verum. ----We are beggars. This is true.” He was right. Crazy and malnourished. But there is a feast much better than Ramen noodles.

okay....go.

So we've been watching a lot of documentaries lately. Last night we watched the corporation. I cannot plead with you enough-Watch it. Stop what you are doing now and watch The Corporation. Or cancel what you are doing tonight and watch The Corporation. I like most documentaries and recommend them, but if I had to recommend you see only one ever again- It would be The Corporation. (Then read the Q &A on the special features). The film actually made me cry. The most important film of the last 10 years.

Quick update

I’m going to start trying to write more. (no promises). I have been working like crazy to get in a draft for a paper (which I got in yesterday). Thankfully, my professor likes the paper, so I won’t have to rework it much. It is due the 16th so I still need to work on it, but yesterday after I got it in and all today I’ve done almost nothing. I’ve just watched DVD’s and checked my email a billion times. Tonight I didn’t eat dinner. I had lunch at 4 and then I went to Christina’s at 8pm to have ice cream, so I guess coconut almond chip was my dinner. I cleaned the house tonight. One of the DVD’s I watched (with J tonight) and today I watched the entire thing again with commentary (seriously). It is a documentary (we in the house of green like…have gotten sooooooo into documentaries lately) called the Weather Underground. See it. Fascinating. Really. If you are at all interested in: the 60’s or 70’s, youth movements, social change, property damage, ethics, Viet Nam, Revolutions, sexual debauchery, growing up, learning, making history, idealism, confusion, angst, bringing down the government then, watch it. Oh also, for lunch-or almuerzo- tomorrow I’m planning on partaking of the Cheese Enchiladas that my sister gave me a recipe for when I got married. I’ve never made the recipe before and tonight I made the mix for the inside of the enchiladas. Excited about that.

Justin Martyr (complex...)

It is 12:15 am. I am not nearly half way done with a 25-30 page paper due on Friday (less than 2 days!) for my Harvard class (which I'd actually really like to do well in, if possible) and the last 2 days have by and large been really bad (for reasons of drama that i can't get into here, but would love to tell all 3 of you about someday...it's very entertaining....in the same way a trainwreck is entertaining). I am exhausted and told myself I'd work til one but probably need to call it a night. I also said that I would stay offline this week because I am out of town in study land. So of course what do you do after a doooozy of a week when you are up too late with sooooo much to do & really really need to work (or sleep)...you read your friend's blog and find out what early Christian figure you are. This is me: (I couldn't get the picture to work b/c i am technologically inadequate)

You’re St. Justin Martyr! You have a positive and hopeful attitude toward the world. You think that nature, history, and even the pagan philosophers were often guided by God in preparation for the Advent of the Christ. You find “seeds of the Word” in unexpected places. You’re patient and willing to explain the faith to unbelievers. Find out which Church Father you are at The Way of the Fathers!

hospitality that's real

This is a response to my sister's monday blogpost

I know this response is way too long, but I just had this experience and wanted to share....sorry I'm not into the whole brevity thing. i'm the same as you. I LOVE having people over and hospitality, but I'm not a good enough cook to do it without stress and I feel pressure for things to go well. Here are some things that have helped me:
1. Have a back up plan--before i cook i say to the husband, "all right what is the plan if everything taste horrible and doesn't work out?" Usually, it is indian food take out....We almost never use the back up plan, but I'm more relaxed knowing that we have one.
2. The pressure is to make it nice and fancy. But I need to get used to people coming over for things that are really really easy...at first i was embarrassed about having folks over for spaghetti and sloppy jo's but then i realized, i'm going to have way fewer folks over if i have to make it nice all the time. so i keep it real and keep it really simple. people aren't coming over for the food...there coming over for the company.
3. if you want to try something new (and by new I mean anything that you haven't made 7,000 times and can make in your sleep), limit it to like 1 new thing, not 3.
4. Banish cooking magazines. They are evil. I like looking at 'em, but like bridal magazines they set unrealistic expectations for women giving parties!
5. The smaller the crowd, the less stress.
Fancier meals--
Yesterday, we hosted our first official "fancy" dinner since we've been married...It was for 8 people. I kept from stressing by 1. having a back up plan, 2.buying the cake and bread (so i knew if all else failed, we'd have good cake and bread, 3.putting a SUPER easy appetizer out (cream cheese and jam), so even if the main dish was taking forever, people could eat something and drink 4. I made a mixed CD for myself with good in- the- kitchen songs, and started the cooking extremely early (like 3 hours earlier than I needed to) so that I could putter, talk on the phone, and drink wine while I cooked & take breaks)- I’m much less stressed if I have a ton of time and can putter. (4 1/2 because i started earlier I made everything I could early...I plated salads and put em in the fridge and made some salsa the night before, but look at the recipe and make sure you can prepare it ahead of time...)& 5. when guest came over and asked if they can help, i gave them a task...I mean, they asked, after all & I told them "I don't ususally do this sort of thing so if I forgot something major-like to set out forks or if something taste bad, just holler. really, my feelings won't be hurt" & they were happy to help . 6. It still didn't go perfectly. there wasn't room on the table for the potatoes and we had to put them on the coffee table and the asparagus on my desk! The Potatoes were okay, but I got the size of the recipe wrong so they didn't have as much of an herb coating as they were supposed to, so they were a bit boring. It doesn't matter though, a good time was had by all and a memory was made, and our friends are super loving and non-judgmental of the cooking, so if the potatoes end up having to be on the bookshelf or whatever...just go with it.
So I'm NO domestic goddess at all, but we had a good dinner and I only felt hectic for like 5 minutes of it (when everything was coming out of the oven). It helped me to remember that ultimately the party isn't about me and my cooking skills, so i can just relax and enjoy my friends...and if I freck the whole thing up, there is always indian