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Categories Recap

Recap (5/11/2013)

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Nutrition and Health News:

  • Sucking on your baby’s pacifier might help him be healthy

    “Infants whose parents sucked on their pacifiers to clean them developed fewer allergies than children whose parents typically rinsed or boiled them.”

    This study adds to the growing evidence for the so-called “hygiene hypothesis”, the idea that protecting our kids from exposure to “germs” is actually counterproductive–leading to weaker immune systems and/or autoimmune diseases. Read more in the New York Times’ article.

Books added to my TBR list:

  • Hug a Bull and I Love Ewe by Aaron Zenz (reviewed by Carrie at Reading to Know)
    These children’s picture books that teach the names of male and female animals sound wonderful. Since my new library owns copies, I’ll definitely be looking them up!

  • The Vegetarian Myth by Lierre Keith (reviewed by Seth at Collateral Bloggage)
    I’ve seen quite a few food fads go by in my relatively few years–but the most recent fads, whether “whole foods” or “paleo” are by far the most unique. Unlike the fads of the past, which were based on complicated (and often flawed) scientific/nutritional arguments, this latest fad is almost entirely fought using evolutionary and environmental arguments. This book, which appears to argue for a similar approach to food (and against vegetarianism), sounds like it could be an interesting read.

Recipes Tried:

  • Cheeseburger Crescent Casserole (from Pillsbury)
    Daniel bought some crescent roll dough I don’t know how long ago–and it’s been sitting in the kitchen ever since. Maybe two months? I don’t particularly like the stuff, so I hadn’t used it. But finally, I decided that it must be used, so I searched for recipes. This is a really simple recipe that I adjusted rather significantly. I added onions and green peppers and red peppers and jalepenos and mustard; and used minced dill pickles instead of dill pickle relish and swiss cheese instead of American. But it wasn’t half bad, tasted like a cheeseburger. If you happen to accidentally have crescent roll dough on hand, this is a good way to get rid of it (how’s that for a glowing review?)

  • Chicken Enchilada Pizza (from How Sweet Eats)
    This was a.maz.ing. No other way to put it. I enjoyed it fresh from the oven. I enjoyed it microwaved for lunch the next day. I enjoyed microwaved three days later. It was wonderful. I used 2 cups of white flour and one cup of whole wheat in the crust, used my mom’s homemade enchilada sauce for the meat, and skipped the avocado (mine went bad in the produce basket before I made this recipe, boo!) I also cut up whole tomatoes and shredded my own romaine lettuce to cut down on cost–I think this might also have been why even the lettuce wasn’t too gross on reheating. I can’t vouch for using a regular pan, but this cooked up great on my pizza stone.

    • Chicken Enchilada Pizza

  • Creamsicle French Toast
    Daniel and I decided to make French Toast this morning, since Daniel’s project is done (at last) and we had some bread in the freezer from last week’s Caprese Grilled Cheese. Daniel was looking at various recipes and found one that involved orange liqueur–which got me to think about oranges. I figured that I had orange juice concentrate in the freezer, and we had cream cheese in the fridge…why not mix the two together and use that as a filling for our French toast? Our bread was sliced thinly enough that we made them more like a sandwich, but they turned out pretty decent, if I do say so myself. Not like every-weekend-wonderful, but certainly a nice experiment.

Apps/Plugins/Technological Gizmos Used:

  • TWICCA for Android (linked to by LifeHacker)
    Apparently TweetDeck is going the way of GoogleReader–which means I needed a new Twitter Client for my phone. LifeHacker was so kind as to suggest Twicca. I’m liking it so far, although I wish it had the capability of running my Twitter feed and my Facebook feed side by side like TweetDeck did. Oh well, nothing has everything. Download Twicca here.

Videos that Made Me Laugh:


HT: 22 Words

Categories Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday: Daniel

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Thankful Thursday bannerThis past week has been a stressful one for both Daniel and I. Daniel is nearing the end of his semester–with all the accompanying projects that go along with it. So he’s been busy with an economics project, building a model to predict entrepreneurial activity–and I’ve been…

I’ve been broken, needy, clingy.

I try to give him space to get his work done, but sometimes I forget. And sometimes he sees through my attempts to stay busy, recognizes the tears building inside of me.

And despite his own stress, he tenderly cares for me.

I don’t have an itemized list this week–not everything needs to be shared with the world.

But know this–I am so thankful for the man God has given me as husband.

He sacrifices himself for me. He listens to me. He holds me when I cry. He prays for me. He loves me.

In Daniel, I encounter a taste of the love my Heavenly Bridegroom has for me.

Thank You, Lord, for blessing me with this man, my husband. And thank You, Lord, for being the Perfect Husband after which every imperfect earthly husband is named.

Categories Everyday Life

The path they traveled

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When it got to be a week and a half after our photographer (The wonderful Chris of La Brisa Photography) told us he was sending the USB of our wedding photos and I still hadn’t seen them, I started to wonder.

I sent Chris a quick update. “Hey, we haven’t gotten the USB drive yet. Were you not able to get it into the mail as planned?”

Chris’s reply was prompt: “That’s strange. I received confirmation that it was delivered on the 25th of April!”

He went onto list the address he’d sent it to.

I read the address, looked through our pile of mail again.

Then I looked at the address again.

Just a second. Of course. That wasn’t our address. Two of the digits had been transposed–so that instead of sending our photos to 1243 Our Street, they were sent to 1234 Our Street (Not our real address :-P).

Daniel and I at our wedding

During our “first look” session

I’m sure it was my mistake.

If I weren’t so lazy, I’d look up the email trail to confirm that it was my mistake.

I’m sure I’ve done it before, if only in my mind–and once it’s wrong, it’s easy just to rush through the address for confirmation, see all the digits and transpose them in my own mind…

So, instead of being delivered to US, our wedding photos were sent to someone the next block over.

I was on my lunch break, so I prepared a letter explaining the predicament and made my way down the block to 1234 Our Street.

I rang the doorbell and waited. No one there. I’d expected that–it was the middle of the day. That’s why I’d prepared the letter. I opened the screen door to insert the letter and decided, on a whim, to knock.

The dogs barking indicated that the doorbell probably didn’t work (they would have barked at the bell, right?) and a few moments later, the resident of 1234 Our Street opened the door.

I explained my predicament in a single long incomprehensible sentence. Mr. 1234 rubbed his eyes and asked me to explain one more time.

I slowed down and tried to explain more clearly. “My name is Rebekah Garcia. I live just down the street at 1243 Our Street. I was supposed to have a letter delivered to me last week, but I believe it was accidentally sent to you. I was wondering if you’d received it–it contains my wedding pictures and I’d really like to have them.”

This time my explanation made more sense. Mr 1234 explained that he didn’t know, since he’s just back from traveling, but that he’d ask his better half when she got off work. I left my cell phone number with him and waited.

Walking to a vacant lot for photos

Walking to a vacant lot for more photos

I waited impatiently.

After two days, I checked back in.

“We’re still searching. The kids swear they got the mail.”

I assured him I knew how that went–and went back to my everyday life.

Finally, this Sunday afternoon, I was sitting in bed with Daniel’s laptop on my lap processing some data for one of Daniel’s projects when the doorbell rang.

Daniel got up to answer it, his textbook being easier to get off his lap than the laptop off of mine.

“Is this where Rebekah Garcia lives?”

I listened with growing excitement as Daniel received the package from our neighbor.

My pictures were HERE!

Daniel and I at our wedding

Categories Everyday Life

A Naming Exercise

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Working at WIC has introduced me to a whole range of names that I never would have imagined existed as names.

I have lived my entire life believing the Bible to be the best source for ideas in naming children.

After all, my siblings are Anna, Joshua, Daniel, John, Timothy, and Grace.

//On a side note, the boys in my family appear in Biblical order of appearance: Joshua comes before Daniel who comes before John who comes before Timothy–while the girls in my family appear in reverse order of appearance: Anna comes after Rebekah who comes after the first appearance of Grace. This was NOT planned.//

When trying to be unique, I still relied on Scripture for my names. I imagined daughters with Biblical place names as their first names: Bethel, Tirzah, Shiloh. (Davene has a beautiful Moriah.)

My second source of ideas for names was books, namely literature. Many of these names, of course, coincided with the Biblical names.

I could have a Jane, an Elizabeth, a William (I’m not pretentious enough to add the Fitz–and woe on the daughter named Kitty or Lydia.) I could have a Nancy, a Frank, or a Joe. I could have a Caroline, a Charles, a Laura, a Mary, or a Carrie. I could have Anne or Gilbert or Blythe (did you see what I just did there?)

The one book I never imagined getting names from was the thesaurus. But apparently, that is THE baby naming book of the decade.

Let’s give it a try. Start with a word, any word, and get looking.

I’ll start with HAPPY.

Thesaurus.com suggests “blessed, blest, blissful, blithe, can’t complain, captivated, cheerful, chipper, chirpy, content, contented, convivial, delighted, ecstatic, elated, exultant, flying high, gay, glad, gleeful, gratified, intoxicated, jolly, joyful, joyous, jubilant, laughing, light, lively, looking good, merry, mirthful, on cloud nine, overjoyed, peaceful, peppy, perky, playful, pleasant, pleased, sparkling, sunny, thrilled, tickled, tickled pink, up, upbeat, walking on air”.

Let’s get busy making naming trees now.

Blest would be a good name–but it would be even better if spelled B’lest. And its synonyms suggest: Adored (probably pronounced Uh-Door-AY-d), Divine (possibly spelled D’vine), and Celebrate.

Blissful’s synonyms are rich in possibility: Delighted (clearly the best way to spell this would be DeeLyte), Ecstatic (spell this Xtatik), Enchanted (probably pronounced “EN-shahn-T” with a silent “ed”), Heavenly (but this is too straightforward–best to spell it backwards as Yl-Neveah, pronounced “I-ul-Nuh-VAY-ah” or “Ill-Nuh-VAY-ah”), Rapturous (pronounced “Rap-TWO-russ”, of course.)

Give it a try. What names can YOU come up with?

Please note that all names are fictionalized. Any resemblance with actual WIC client names is entirely accidental. :-)

Categories Recap

Recap (5/3/2013)

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This was a light week as blog reading and recipe-trying goes…

Books added to my TBR list:

  • Blood Work by Anthony J. Carter (reviewed by Tim Challies)
    All about how the blood of Christ accomplishes our salvation. An excerpt from the book:

    “His precious blood signified His precious life and His precious death. Consequently, the redeemed do not receive a blood transfusion from God. We receive a life transfusion–His death for our death, His life for our life. It is all according to His precious blood, which satisfies God’s righteous requirements for life and justice.”

    I feel like this is the sort of book that would not only increase my knowledge, but increase my worship of the One who bled for me.

Recipes Tried:

  • Caprese Grilled Cheese (from Serious Eats)
    Wow! This was incredibly yummy. I DID think grilling both sides of the bread was overkill-but overall? Amazing.

Categories Thankful Thursday

Thankful Thursday: God

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Thankful Thursday bannerRemember a few months back, when I wrote about how life was hard?

It still is.

It might even be harder.

About a month ago, my body started doing weird things. I cry a half dozen times a day for reasons I don’t understand. Absolutely everything, and nothing, sets me off.

I am volatile, fragile, broken. God is not.

This week I’m thankful…

…for a Omniscient God
I don’t exactly know what’s going on with my body. Neither does my doctor. I don’t know exactly why I’m crying. Neither does Daniel. But God knows.

“O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.”
~Psalm 139:1-4 (ESV)

…for for a Sympathetic God
Jesus never dealt with female problems, but He did deal with all the temptations that come along with mine. He was tempted to be selfish, to speak rashly, to be unforgiving. He was tempted to manipulate, to give up, to despair. Yet He withstood all those temptations. And He, as my High Priest, sympathizes with my weakness.

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”
~Hebrews 4:15 (ESV)

…for a Caring God
My temptation can be to worry. To worry about my body, about how my moods are effecting Daniel, about money, about laundry getting done, about the house getting cleaned. Yet I have a God who cares about me, who cares for me, who will clothe me and feed me and house me.

“And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
~Matthew 6:28-33 (ESV)

…for a Sovereign God

When circumstances are tough, when I don’t understand, I rest on the knowledge that God is in control. He is the Sovereign Lord of the Universe, the Sovereign Lord of my life. He works all things according to the counsel of His will. And He has already declared the reason for my circumstances, my feelings, my struggles. He has declared that I, who trust in Him, will be to the praise of His glory.

“In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”
~Ephesians 1:11-14 (ESV)

And so I will praise and thank the Sovereign Lord of All, the God who is worthy of all praise and glory. He is working through my difficulties to conform me to His image, that I may be to the praise of His glory.

Amen, do this in me.

Categories Book Reviews

“A History of the World in 6 Glasses” by Tom Standage

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In the beginning, there was only water. Then man discovered beer.

This is how Tom Standage introduces his topic, tracing the history of the world through the lens of the beverages men drank.

Beer is the beverage of man’s early history. Standage notes how beer almost certainly was discovered rather than invented in the earliest civilization. In Standage’s thinking, beer was a sort of liquid bread–with the added nutritional advantages of Vitamin B12 (from the yeast used to ferment it) and a low level of harmful microorganisms (due to the alcohol content.) Standage traces beer through the ancient Middle East and its majestic empires: Sumer and Egypt.

Wine takes over as the world beverage when Greece rises as a world power. Greece introduced wine to the rest of the world, along with certain patterns of drinking wine. Rome solidified wine’s standing and created the wine snob.

Wine would rule the world for over a millenia–until the tee-totaling Arabs distilled it into spirits. While the Arabian world mostly regarded the spirits as an alchemical ingredient or as a medicine, once imported to Europe, spirits took off as a beverage. Distilled spirits, from a variety of sources, would be the drink of the age of exploration, fueling fleets that colonized far-flung continents. Spirits would also serve a distinct role in the expansion of slavery throughout the world.

The Age of Enlightenment replaced the inebriating spirits with the consciousness-enhancing coffee. Coffee shops became hotbeds for new political, social, philosophical, and scientific thought. Quick on coffee’s heels, tea advanced throughout the world as the British Empire reached its high point in the nineteenth century.

In the twentieth century, a new world power–and a new beverage–would come to dominate the world. America ended its mostly isolationist stance by entering the World Wars–and Coca Cola invaded the globe.

Standage’s A History of the World in 6 Glasses represents one of my favorite sorts of histories–a history that explores how people lived, and which ties social history in with the megolithic historical events like wars. Standage artfully weaves together the daily lives of people and the machinations of nations–all on the threads of six different global beverages.

I don’t know that this is a book that will appeal to everyone–but for those who like this sort of book, this is definitely worth reading. I was impressed with how Standage related information in an interesting yet fair way (for instance, he addresses the use of wine in Christian communion quite nicely). He does a good job of pulling in a variety of disciplines as he writes, talking about the making of each beverage, the various benefits of each (like the aforementioned Vitamin B12 in early beer), the ways in which the beverage was consumed, and the giant world events that led to or resulted from the preparation and trade of the various beverages. I definitely recommend this book (to those who like this sort of thing :-P).

Rating:4 Stars
Category:History
Synopsis:Standage tells the history of the world–through the lens of six beverages that dominated the world stage during different ages.
Recommendation: If you like this sort of book, you’ll like this book. It is an excellent representation of a topical history.

Categories My Beloved Daniel

Did I just… !?!

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This is the next installment in a rather long series about how Daniel and I met–and have become engaged. Click on the “Our Story” tag for context.

Having turned in way too late the night before, I overslept Wednesday morning, waking up less than an hour before my flight out of Philadelphia was scheduled to leave.

I hastily threw my belongings into my bags, hoping against all hope that the airlines wouldn’t complain that I was now carrying THREE carry-ons. Then I rushed downstairs to the hotel lobby, hoping against all hope that I’d have a way to make it to the airport, since I’d already missed the scheduled shuttle.

Hoping against all hope, my hopes were met.

The shuttle had just returned and the driver coming up the walk turned right around to take me back. I whipped through security with no difficulties (except the obligatory pat-down–of course!) and got onto the plane with my three carry-ons.

At last, I was buckled in and had a chance to process.

I was getting married.

We’d decided so the night before.

It was for real.

Really.

I rehashed the events of the night in my mind and ended with a terrible thought.

Oh my goodness! Did I just…

I’d told Daniel that it was better to marry than to burn.

Did I just…

I don’t think I did… I think I… But maybe I did…

I don’t know.

Did I just coerce Daniel into marrying me?

The flight was en route, I’d be in the air or on tight connections for the next several hours. I couldn’t answer the burning question.

I was excited, thrilled to be marrying Daniel–I was terrified that I was rushing him, coercing him into doing something against his will.

I had no way of contacting him, of reassuring myself. I had no opportunity to call. I couldn’t ask my questions in between flights via text. How can one ask the questions that were racing through my mind? Surely they couldn’t fit in 160 characters.

My text was simple. “Can we talk sometime before you have class tonight?”

He agreed. He would call me between work and class, when I should be on the road heading back to Columbus from Kansas City.

I continued my travels, brooding into my notebook, alternately dreaming of marrying him and hyperventilating that he might have changed his mind–might not have actually had that in mind until I’d pushed him.

His sister-in-law met me at the airport. I chatted with his nephew and nieces, gave them the stickers I’d picked up for them at the Expo. E loaned me his water bottle for my drive home–I’d be able to return it at the family Thanksgiving only a couple of months later. My belly continued to churn.

Did I just… !?!

At last, Daniel called. He didn’t have much time between work and class. Furthermore, he still had some homework to work on, what with being up so late with me the night before.

I poured out my concerns. Had I forced his hand? Had I rushed him? Did he really want to marry me?

He assured me I had not.

I had not.

He really wanted to marry me.

We were getting married in just 5 more months.

Categories Everyday Life

Miscellany

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Remember my new nightstand?

Apparently it is now home to Daniel’s glasses.

Daniel's glasses on Nightstand

I don’t really mind. If I did, I’d transfer them back onto his own nightstand.

Still, it’s funny how that happens.

This morning, I was telling Daniel that I was excited–and I came up with a new simile to describe my excitement: “Like a sixteen-year-old getting her period for the first time.”

Daniel suggested that I post said simile on Facebook.

It managed to gross out one of our least gross-out-able friends.

Does that gross you out, or does it convey (as I intended) the excitement and relief of the arrival of a long-anticipated event?

Our wedding photos are now up so that we can order professional prints–and the electronic copies (which we bought rights for) should be arriving any day.

Which means I should soon have wedding photos to share with you. (For some strange reason, I didn’t take any pictures of my own that day :-P)

For now, I’ll give you a teaser from among the stuff our photographer posted on Facebook.

Sunset Photo

Categories My Beloved Daniel

Erratum: We Should Get Married

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In the installment of “Our Story” entitled We Should Get Married“, the Author miswrote several pertinent details due to a faulty memory.

Her husband was so kind as to have corrected her remembrance of the story, leading her to publish the following retraction:

I wrote of Daniel suggesting that we should stop talking about getting married–and then of myself going on a tangent to tell Daniel how I’d asked God if I would marry him. After hearing what God had told me (“I know, and when I want you to know, I’ll tell Daniel”), Daniel responded, “I think I do know.”

Here, I went wrong in my storytelling.

Daniel’s response was followed by his telling me that he should/would pray about it himself a little more.

It was the next evening, a Tuesday night, when the discussion turned to possible days we could get married before the next summer–and when we ultimately decided we would get married.

The author is sorry for having misrepresented the story of her engagement and hopes that no one has been harmed by her carelessness with the historic record.

:-)