Seriously?

New 'food safety' legislation. I've been snoping it out since yesterday and haven't found any good news yet. I'm so mad I could spit. And not to get political here but Obama's latest video address also made me mad along these same lines. I quote:

"We are a nation built on the strength of individual initiative. But there are certain things that we can't do on our own. There are certain things that only a government can do. And one of those things is ensuring that the foods we eat, and the medicines we take, are safe and don't cause us harm."

I'm pretty confident that I can ensure that the food I eat is safe with much more efficacy and vested interest than the government. And it seems to me that the right to grow my own food in my back yard is a right as natural as the right to breathe. I feel that way about owning chickens and drinking raw milk too but I understand the need to keep livestock out of the cities: the animals could get sick.

I don't see how the legislation is enforceable. For example, I buy my eggs from a lady who meets me in a Target parking lot at a different time each week. I get my milk from someone who could easily be selling it to me as 'pet food'. I grow herbs and vegetables for medicinal and culinary use but it can't be proven that the tomatoes aren't just decorative. And how do you keep a person from eating the cucumbers handed over the neighborly fence? I for one will continue to grow and buy my food as locally as possible, regardless of the laws, simply because I believe its the right thing to do.

Life After Aphids

I finally figured out why my spinach and broccoli have shriveled and turned yellow. You guessed it: copious aphid populations. Grrr! I've sprayed with a dish soap/tobasco solution. Is there hope for my plants or should I just cut them back, dig them up, and pray that my beets recover? They've covered the undersides of my spinach and put out their gooky goonk. My broccoli is pretty covered too and is definitely not bearing. The beets seem less affected though the aphids are definitely expanding their territory in that direction. I really want my beets to survive! I mean, I really want my spinach and broccoli too but at least I've had them for dinner. Any suggestions? How often should I spray?

Daily Bread: Low Sugar Granola

For my lenten fast from sweets, I decided to develop a granola recipe with much less sugar than what I usually use. I think it turned out quite well, but my husband misses the sugar. If you try it, let me know what you think.

4 cups regular rolled oats (not quick)
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup wheat bran
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice, or a blend of other sweet spices like cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg
1/2 - 1 cup nuts and seeds

2 cups boiling water
scant 1/4 cup sugar (white, turbinado, demerara, brown, honey, syrup, whatever)

1/4 cup oil (or melt 1/4 cup butter in the boiling water)

1 cup dried fruit

Oven: 350 degres farenheit

1. Combine the first set of dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
2. Dissolve sugar (and melt butter if using) in boiling water. Pour the sugar water over oat mixture and stir until everything is wet. Let that sit for 10 minutes.
3. Drizzle oil (unless you used butter) over the oat mixture. Do not stir. Crumble the sticky oat mixture evenly over a greased, large, rimmed cookie sheet. Drizzle any remaining oil in the bowl over the oats on the cookie sheet.
4. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, or until the edges of the granola are lightly browned.
5. Stir and turn over the granola with a spatula, bringing the outside pieces in to the center and the inside pieces out. Break up any large chunks into bite sized pieces.
6. Reduce oven temperature to 275 and continue baking until dry, stirring every 20 minutes if necessary to prevent the edges from burning.
7. Sprinkle dried fruit over granola and allow it to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

from Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy Tale by Frederick Buechner

When they brought Jesus to the place where his dead friend lay, Jesus wept. It is very easy to sentimentalize the scene and very tempting because to sentimentalize something is to look only at the emotion in it and at the emotion it stirs in us rather than at the reality of it, which we are always tempted not to look at because reality, truth, silence are all what we are not much good at and avoid when we can. To sentimentalize something is to savor rather than to suffer the sadness of it, is to sigh over the prettiness of it rather than tremble at the beauty of it, which may make fearsome demands of us or pose fearsome threats. Not just as preachers but as Christians in general we are particularly given to sentimentalizing our faith as much of Christian art and Christian preaching bear witness - the sermon as tearjerker, the Gospel an urn of long-stemmed roses and baby's breath to brighten up the front of the church, Jesus as Gregory Peck.

But here standing beside the dead body of his dead friend he is not Gregory Peck. He has no form or comeliness about him that we should desire him, and as one from whom men hide their faces we turn from him. To see a man weep is not a comely sight, especially this man whom we want to be stronger and braver than a man, and the impulse is to turn from him as we turn from anybody who weeps because the sight of real tears, painful and disfiguring, forces us to look to their real source where we do no choose to look because where his tears come from, our tears also come from.

The Tenderest Yield Yet!

Koine

I've been considering the idea of the koine Greek in light of today's sermon which was on Acts 2:42-47. The text says that these early believers held everything in common. I have always thought of this in terms of pooling their paychecks and living from one checking account so to speak - as though they sold their homes and bought a single building on a city block and converted it into apartment housing with common kitchens, gardens, and living space. This holds certain appeal to me but I'm not sure this is actually what Luke is suggesting.

Koine Greek was the lingua franca, or, the commonly spoken Greek. I remember back in seminary when I had to do a unit study on linguistics in the midst of mastering Greek II level verbs. We learned that the common meaning of the word was the way to go in interpretation even if it conflicted with the etymologically correct meaning. Language that is living always defers to the common or ordinarily understood meaning. Language that was dead when it was used can be interpreted according to etymological meanings. But do you think of penultimate as meaning 'second to last' or in terms of something that surpasses the five senses. The latter would coincide with etymological meaning while the former is more consistent with the common use of the word.

In Acts 2, Luke talks about the believers living day by day together and having all things in koina, or, in common. Suddenly it occurred to me that these believers probably did ordinary life together. Holding all things in common, they perhaps shared the quotidian things and then ate dinner together before heading home for the night.

This week a friend came over for dinner because her husband was out of town. We laughed as my husband unsuccessfully snaked the kitchen sink in search of the clog. He found other means to apprehend the offending food stuffs and beautifully fixed the problem. My point is that the work of the 'honey do plumber' became funny when we realized that I had not a clue how a siphon worked. We held our breath as my husband 'sucked' Draino until it flowed into the bucket and the sink was cleared of liquid. We made jokes about babies on the floor in the morning if I didn't make a speedy effort to mop before heading to bed. And then she spent the night and was delightfully with me for breakfast. Later that day we made cheese together and shared a pizza dinner. This was holding all things in common. This was a quotidian koine experience.

I get worn out trying to do extra activities that don't relate to my ordinary day. By ordinary I'm referring to the cooking, cleaning, laundry, and errands routine of my stay at home momma lifestyle. Its in the midst of these tasks that my day grows weary. Sometimes I try to stay busy with Bible studies, mom groups, luncheons, etc but these things are not the koina or lingua franca of my day. When Luke wrote about the church holding all things in common in a day by day way, I feel prety confident that he was referring to the ordinary things of life that they did together like a family and not to the bazillion extra things that could be added to a day to keep one super busy.

I'm rethinking ways to take my Rio Rancho suburban life out of the fragmented and private and to incorporate it into a koine sort of experience. I want to invite people into my messy home, to let them see the clogs I create in my sink and my heart and to stand by with me as it all gets siphoned out by one means or another. If I wait till all my sheets are clean to have a friend spend the night or until dinner is planned or until my kid can behave then I will never have anyone sharing the ordinary things of life with me. I long for a community that can break down these barriers and come alongside me to participate in the common things of my day with me. Perhaps then I will not be so lonely and perhaps then I will experience the blessing rather than the burden of the church in my day to day life.

I love Freecycle.

It's a New Year and Hubby has been cleaning out the garage. We 'were' going to take a bunch of stuff to Goodwill, but I thought - maybe someone could really use this stuff...and would like to receive it for FREE!

So, I posted a bunch of stuff this afternoon on Freecycle and already had requests for:

2 bowls and miscellaneous cutlery
A toddler piano toy
A leap pad
A boppy and baby robe
2 plastic bibs
Daisy shaped shower curtain rod hooks
A bunch of size 3 boys t-shirts and shorts
Miscellaneous men's clothing

WOW! I'm just excited because it feels really good to be giving it away. I haven't traditionally been what you would call a 'generous' person - so it's nice to see that God's been helping me to grow in that area.