God in Time

The Christian walk is high-maintenance. By high-maintenance, I mean that it will require a lot of time, effort and dedication. The rewards are outstanding and nothing else in this world can compare. However, if you're looking for a religion that only requires a few hours each month, Christianity isn't the way to go. With Christianity, you're working with a living God, not just a set of rules. Relationships, especially your relationship with God, take time and regular attention to maintain. As you pour time into your relationship with God, you find yourself wanting more. You fall in love with Him, because He is already in love with you. I say all this because one of my current methods of maintenance of my relationship with God - a current method of spending time with Him - has been through reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. Since the purpose of this blog is to share things with you, that includes sharing my current readings and the parts that strike me as particularly captivating/interesting/striking/wonderful! Here ya go!

I learned some really cool things about God the other day. Have you ever thought about God's relationship with Time? How does it work? He obviously thinks very little of Time, since He has eternal life. But C.S. Lewis took this thought a bit further.

"Almost certainly God is not in Time. His life does not consist of moments following one another. If a million people are praying to Him at ten-thirty tonight, He need not listen to them all in that one little snippet we call ten-thirty. Ten-thirty - and every other moment from the beginning of the world - is always the Present for Him.

That is difficult, I know. Let me try to give something, not the same, but a bit like it. Suppose I am writing a novel. I write 'Mary laid down her work; next moment came a knock at the door!' For Mary who has to live in the imaginary time of my story there is no interval between putting down the work and hearing the knock. But I, who am Mary's maker, do not live in that imaginary time at all. Between writing the first half of that sentence and the second, I might sit down for three hours and think steadily about Mary. I could think about Mary is if she were the only character int he book and for as long as I pleased, and the hours I spent doing so would not appear in Mary's time (the time inside the story) at all. . .

God is not hurried along in the Time-stream of this universe any more than an author is hurried along int he imaginary time of his own novel. He has infinite attention to spare for each one of us. He does not have to deal with us in the mass. You are as much alone with Him as if you were the only being He had ever created. When Christ died, He died for you individually just as much as if you had been the only man in the world."

I'll be chewing on that one for a while.

Introducing... My Darlings

The defining quote of this blog is "People with many interests live, not only longest, but happiest." (See above). Today, I share yet another of my interests with you... My babies.

Meet Maverick (black) and Goose (gold). Taking photos of fish is tricky business, so forgive the poor quality. Maverick and Goose refused to sit still and pose. It was probably the severity of the flash hitting their giant eyes, but whatever.

I bought Maverick for my little 1-gallon tank at school in March. Some dumb mistakes on my part killed Purl, who had been my faithful companion all fall, and Maverick was Purl's replacement. He was tiny when I purchased him. And my, how he's grown! With the help of the internet, my goldfish care skills have dramatically improved. I bought the 5-gallon tank this summer and rescued Goose a few weeks later. Now they are two of the happiest goldfish out there! Maverick is a Black Moor, one of the hardiest kinds of goldfish and - in my opinion - one of the most beautiful. Poor Goose was slowly dying in a pet store when I walked in one day, looking for telescope-eyes. I saved him from a potentially horrible fate. Within a few days his fins brightened and he was alive again! The two have become the best of pals and tend to follow each other around the tank. Don't let anyone tell you that fish don't have personalities. Maverick, especially, tends to be moody and shy. Goose is sort of dumb and adventurous. Since Goose entered the picture, however, Maverick's confidence has improved and I've even watched him explore their tiny cave (A note about the cave: it was specifically chosen to be small enough that they wouldn't attempt swimming into it, but that didn't stop either of them and I nearly lost it when Maverick swam in there. I'm convinced one of them will lose an eye that way. Don't laugh, it happens with telescope-eye goldfish!).

Some things you might not know about goldfish:

• Goldfish are completely capable of eating vegetables. Peas, cucumbers, lettuce!
• Goldfish are prone to overeating and constipation. So you have to be careful with the amount of food given to a goldfish.
• You can leave a goldfish for the weekend - don't worry about feeding him, he'll be fine. They're great pets for frequent travelers. (Or people who live in two cities at once...)
  
• If a Black Moor is exposed to warm water, his color will become more golden.
• Telescope-eye and bubble-eye goldfish are handicapped. They just don't see very well and tend to run into things. Care must be taken not to expose them to sharp decorations and to give them plenty of time to find food and eat.

Sharing Happiness

The Maque Choux was a complete success!!! Mom and Boogie made it; I handled the rice and reheating the fried okra from yesterday's lunch. A big spoonful of Maque Choux on top of white rice made for a colorful meal. Someday soon I'll buy a good camera and start adding pictures to these descriptions! I'm excited about the vegetarian sausage we used in the recipe. It was delicious! I can't wait to try the brats and other products by Morningstar. No meat replacer will ever have the same texture or taste as real meat, but this one came close enough for me!

Now, I can't write for long because the Bachelorette is on and nothing else matters when the Bachelor or Bachelorette is on. However, everyone knows how much I love to share happy things. Finding myself on YouTube, I decided to look up an old classic and play it for my family. They all loved it and I hope you will, too!

Click Here Just for Kicks

Have a great night!

Food! Food! Food!

Well, I finally did it! I finally went to the farmer's market! It all started - as it so often does - with a recipe...

Okra-and-Corn Maque Choux (Beware, there is no picture of the dish online. The picture in the magazine, however, makes the dish look really good!)

Our local farmer's market is only open on Tuesdays and Saturdays, so I stopped by before work on Saturday. I had very little time to waste and the luxury of browsing will be saved for another day. In a matter of minutes, I located a tent with all the veggies I needed, loaded up a bunch of bags, and paid only $6 for all the delicious fare! I only wish I'd been able to visit and browse.

I still went to Kroger after work to pick up some other things I needed. I bought rice to serve with the Maque Choux, and veggie sausage to substitute in the recipe. I'll let you know how that goes later. I'm planning on making the dish tomorrow or Tuesday... The weekend has been too busy to bother much with cooking.

So far my experiences with veggie versions of meat products have been negative ones. With the exception of Morningstar Spicy Black Bean veggie burgers, I have yet to find a "fake meat" that tastes good. Speaking of Morningstar Spicy Black Bean veggie burgers, I had one yesterday on Ezekiel bread with tomato, avacado, and cheese (and a side of fries). It was the best sandwich I've made at home in months! I toasted the bread first, and it was yummy! And crunchy! And divine! By the way, a friend of mine has a soft spot for hot dogs and texted me after making a trip to her favorite hot dog place in Nashville... She said that they have veggie dogs that are rumored to be very good! I can't wait to try them! The shop is called Hot Diggity Dogs. If you get there and have a veggie dog before me, tell me how it goes!

In other exciting news, it looks like Southern Living has caught on to the cupcake craze! Check it out here. The thing about cupcakes is this... Single serving. Fun size. Each one looks like a whole piece by itself, not like some small part of a larger whole. How can you help but love them? I made peanut butter cupcakes yesterday night. They are moist and crumbly with melted chocolate chips on top. I really like the texture of the recipe and will probably make these again. They're vegan, of course.


New food finds that I'd recommend:

Amy's Kitchen soups and chili. Many are vegan and make for quick, easy meals. Organic section of grocery.
Raphael's Coffee. Coconut coffee with real coconut flakes! I've had it every morning for almost a week and it is fantastic! I'd love to try other flavors and this coffee is a delicious way to treat yourself and support locals.
Ezekiel bread products. Found in the organic section in the freezer, it's a bit rough and rustic at first, but addicting in a good way. Benefits of sprouted grains are explained at their website. P.S. Christian company!
Publix. I will always love Kroger, but Mom and I made a stop at Publix last week and the most amazing thing happened... All of the organic food is........... *drumroll here*.......... mixed into the aisles with the regular food!!! For example, on the baking aisle, there is a section of shelf labeled "Greenwise" with organic versions of all your baking ingredients! Imagine a world where you don't have to split your grocery run into two parts - organic section and regular. Pretty sure Publix is where God does His grocery shopping... Just sayin'.

I'm from the South because...

• My Mom cooks sausage with Mrs. Buttersworth Syrup and/or honey.
• We have every Southern Living Cookbook, from the mid 1980's to date.
• I don't feel comfortable unless my toenails are painted. I really don't feel comfortable if my nails and toenails are two different colors.
• Despite my Dad's efforts, we have yet to go skiing. The family vote always goes to the beach vacation.

More to come later...

I quit drinking coffee... It was a rough three days.

In the past two weeks I have....

1. Driven to Nashville, stayed the night and then driven back to BG, only to turn around and drive back to Nashville the next day.

2. Contracted Strep Throat, probably from a baby in the nursery last week, and was convinced it was a mono relapse. I didn't go to the doctor for days and days, because there is nothing a doctor can do for mono... So, I exposed all of my family to the Strep virus. Learned a lesson about making doctors visits earlier, rather than waiting until symptoms are really bad.

3. Watched Star Wars Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 over the course of two days. Spike TV usually does themed holiday weekends and this weekend was the Force of July. Of course, since my family is mostly comprised of brainiacs and nerds, we watched most of it.

4. Hardly ate anything over the weekend cause I was nauseous. Then ate a whole lot on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, cause my appetite was back.

5. Made S'Mores cupcakes. They were not my favorite. The cake part was a gingerbready-cakey-graham-cracker-y flavor... It was weird. In typical Bond Family fashion, not many of us liked it because there wasn't a lot of chocolate involved.

6. Quit drinking coffee for a few days because I thought it was making the mono worse. (I was really sold on this mono idea). This led to #7.

7. Bought a latte as soon as we finished up at the doctor's office and I knew it was Strep. I bought the latte before I even bought my prescription, if that tells you anything about my desperation.

8. Fell in love with the Publix in Brentwood. All of the organic food is scattered throughout the store, not just in its own area. There's an organic section on each aisle and the soymilk is next to the regular milk! Who would've thought this was possible?!

9. Saw Avatar: The Last Airbender and LOVED IT! Many hardcore fans are upset that they messed certain things up. Here is what I say to that: Someone finally made a movie out of one of your favorite series, and it's not perfect. It is never going to be perfect, so enjoy everything that you can - like the special effects and cool costumes and rockin' action sequences - and quit ruining it for yourself by getting upset about the little things like name pronunciations.

9.5 P.S. Don't write your angry rants on my status. No one wants to see people get upset on facebook. It's inappropriate.

10. Drove back to BG with a table and four chairs packed into the back of my little sister's Prius. Let me tell ya, visibility in the rearview mirror was low.

11. Listened to the Eclipse soundtrack the whole ride home. Loved several songs on there. Including this one. Beware, the main singer needs to put on more clothes, but the lead guitarist has a really neat guitar.

12. Finally watched the Bachelorette with my sister and Mom. The drama continues! It's our guilty pleasure. Don't judge.

Happy 4th of July!

Figured it was time for another post. It's the 4th of July, and instead of celebrating by canoeing the Harpeth with my cousins, siblings and parents, I'm sitting on the couch watching Star Wars and drinking juice. I defeated mono last summer and now I've relapsed. It isn't nearly as bad as last time, but the symptoms of the disease are all present. It explains many of the odd ways I've felt lately - anxious, tired, unable to sleep, sore throat, etc. I'm fighting the symptoms by resting, taking lots of supplements, drinking lots of juice and tea and mostly just paying attention to my body. Hopefully I'll have it back in remission by the end of vacation.

There is nothing that matches time with family, and today I am reminded of the thousands of men and women who have fought to make this nation free. Their service has protected all of our families. I was saddened to see a friend of mine update their status, saying that today is a day for mourning those who had no choice but to fight and give their lives so that new freedoms could be attained. I disagree. Perhaps some of us mourn, but I choose instead to celebrate. If I were to give my life so that another could experience freedom, my hope would be that they enjoy that freedom to its fullest. So, today we'll watch TV and shot off fireworks. But we'll also pray for those who are living without family members who gave their lives to service. I am thanking God for their bravery, for His provision and His grace.