Friday, October 19, 2007

Friday Five: Are you Chef enough?

REVHROD from over at revgalblogpals brings us today's Friday Five. This Fall my family has been energetically watching Top Chef on the Bravo channel. My teenage daughter watches with the dream of some day being a chef. My husband watches because he loves reality shows and I mean, really loves them. Plus the whole competition thing really works for him. Me, I love cooking and good food. Every so often I get an idea from this group of talented young chefs who are competing for big money and honors galore.The winner for this season was Hung. Not the fan favorite, but he won fair and square. In his bio, he says if he were a food "I would be spicy chili - it takes a while to get used to, but once you eat it you always come back for more!" With that in mind, here is this week’s Friday Five.

If you were a food, what would you be?
A strawberry. When I was a little girl, we would go to the strawberry fields to pick the ripened strawberries. It was such a fun time. We would eat some of them as we would go along. By the time we were done, we had that red juice done the front of our tee shirts and all over our hands and face. Sheer joy, Sheer succulence. I would be a strawberry just because of the memories. Besides it is such a great tasting fruit, now admit it.

What is one of the most memorable meals you ever had? And where?
Memorable meals? M-m-m. It could be the first date I had with Bob at that little German restaurant. Or it could be the meals we were treated to in Germany by his friends. Or it could be the meals my grandma Carlisle would fix. Or it could be the meals we had in China. Fiddle Dee, I just don’t know which one to choose.

What is your favorite comfort food from childhood?
Anything home baked, chocolate and ice cream.

When going to a church potluck, what one recipe from your kitchen is sure to be a hit?
You mean the ones that hit like a brick? Don't ask me to make biscuits. Or the ones that are a hit with the kids? That would be my cookies, home made Chocolate chip.

What’s the strangest thing you ever willingly ate?
Oh my, I really don’t know what to say. I have willingly eaten a lot of different wild meat, but then found it to be good. We really didn’t eat anything strange in China, although the presentation of the food was different than here, and so a little strange. I ate fish head soup, which was wonderful. No dog or cat meat. But, and I do say but, in the first group we went with to China, some of them did eat a strange/different thing that is considered a delicacy; Fried water bugs. Yep, you heard me right, and they enjoyed them.

Bonus: Who was my favorite chef? I have two; my Grandma Carlisle and my dad. My Grandma was the best Southern Cook. And my dad followed in her footsteps, but he was really better at baking. On the other hand, my Grandma Eastman, just could not cook, and neither could my mom. Guess who cooks in our family now?

Angels in the church


So sorry, I have not blogged in awhile, but Angels have been in our church.

By that I mean, the human kind who have been working in a Women's Retreat, Angel Food Ministries, A Yard Sale/New purse sale/pancake breakfast/lemonade stand/baked goods to benefit our upgrading to meet ADA standards, planning for a Fall Festival, and planning for a Caregiver Conference. My goodness, there have been Angels everywhere!


Now if the Angels who complete all the Charge Conference forms and all the meetings for charge conference prep would get their work done. Whoops, that's me and the secretary. Sigh. Anybody else having to do theirs a new way? We have work sheets to complete and then we have to enter the data into an online form. It is different and will be different. But the way theyhave it set up, next year's won't be so bad.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

A flat tire and a "good samaritan"

The drive from Camp Sumatanga is a long one, anywhere from 2 1/2 hours to 3 hours. All these years of going there I have made it to and from safely and without anything going wrong with the car.

But not this time. And really it was my fault, I did what they tell you not to do, I looked down to take care of something, and bang hit a curb. I did it on the highway in Moulton in front of a church, a Baptist church. I drove the car off into the church's parking lot.

I called Bob to tell him what had happened. I was at this point about an hour from home. He said he would come down to help me.

Now in the van, the tire is under the floor between the front seats and the next row. First you have to move away from the carpet area anything your kids have thrown down, or that you have set back there as well. It doesn't matter where you put that stuff now, just get it out of the way. You have to take the carpet up, and then lift up the cover. Fortunately it has a way to hook it to one of the seats to hold it up. You have to unscrew the tire and lift it out of its holder, maneuver it between the seats, and then get it out of the car. I got it done.

Then you have to go to the back of the van, move everything out of the way that you have back there already or have thrown back there to make room for getting the tire out of the floor. Then they have this net that hold things that you have to take down and take out whatever it is holding. Then you unscrew this side panel and there is your jack in three parts. You can pull out the two parts easily, but then you have to unscrew the top part of the actual jack, in a limited area to get it unscrewed in, to get it out. It will come out after doing that and getting stuck several times.

After wrestling with the things in your car, the carpet, the cover, the tire, and the jack you are now ready to fix your tire. Wooh I am already beat. Then you make sure you put your jack in the right place to jack up your car so you can take the tire off. At that moment a good samaritan will drive up, and right on time one does. It happens every time. Actually I was glad he did, because I was so tired from wrestling with everything else don't you know. He got the tire changed. And I was glad he came because for some reason the car rolled off the jack and he had to rejack it up, and the lug nuts were so tight he had to work hard to get them off. I also had to go get air put in the little spare tire.

Bob and the kids met me at the gas station. I was so glad to see them. He followed me all the way home in case something else happened. Today he is going to get that tire replaced and another one.

Thank you to my good samaritan that stopped and helped me when no one else did.

Tom Long continued

Tom Long is professor of preaching at Chandler Seminary of the Emory University in Atlanta. He is Presb. He has written many books on preaching. He has been one of the featured preachers at the Festival of Homiletics many times. I have to say he was great. The convocation was great. The Bishop preached on Monday night and was the most relaxed he has ever been with us. He issued the challenge and yet gave us hope as well. What a difference. He also had a panel discuss his sermon. And he even accepted what they had to say, both positively and negatively.
Tom was awesome in preaching and in teaching. I like that he is willing to learn new things. He is working on what to do that this new generation is not listening to narrative preaching. He talked about some of things he has been thinking and putting together. I was glad he did it.
He also talked about those in the pews who are listening to us. He talked about how neo-gnosticism has entered into our church members' thinking. Of course he is writing a new book as well and some of what he talked about is part of his new book.
Camp Sumatanga was as beautiful as ever. I really enjoyed being there. I enjoyed being with my friends and peers. I have a lot to think about in terms of preaching.

Monday, October 08, 2007

Tom Long

Gone to Bishop's convocation for a few days. This year our main speaker is the Tom Long. Can't wait. Love to listen to the man at the Festival of Homileticts, and the tapes from there. Now I get to spend a couple of days listening to him again. See ya on the other side.

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

High Water pants


You know your kid has grown when the pants that hung on him last year, and you had to cuff, now are high waters.

You know your kids has grown when the next size jeans you put on him are too tight.

You know he has grown, when the shirt has a gap between the bottom of the shirt and the top of the pants.

You know he has grown when you find rips in shirts he has put on.

You know he has grown when the clothes just don't fit anymore.