aileen, August 15th, 2010
 Enjoying the good weather and great food!  The perfect beach day, sunny, 90 degrees and a light breeze... 
My dear friend made the long trek from California to visit me this last week (actually she came to visit all her Seattle friends but I like to think she just came out to see me). It felt like old times going on Seattle adventures and hitting up the best happy hours and I took a Thursday and Friday off just to fit everything in. This visit to West Seattle and Alki beach was very memorable since I had never been to this amazing little corner of the city. It had a very California feel (or at least I think it did since I’ve never been to California; it’s the way I’d imagine California to be) and had a boardwalk lined with great open air shops and eaterys. A visit to Husky Deli provided some of the best homemade ice cream I’ve ever had, all nestled inside a fresh homemade waffle cone. The coconut, complete with real chunks of coconut, and the rum truffle ice creams make an especially delish combo. A BLT sandwich complemented the meal quite nicely. After sitting in the sun for hours and doing a little longboarding we faced the sad fact that we were sunburnt and dehydrated and had better head back home before we turned into human raisins.
 Bacon lettuce and tomato awesomeness!
 
I read somewhere once that pink was the color for dressing baby boys in during the 1700′s since it is a muted form of red, which to this day, is thought of as a masculine color. Well, somewhere along the line that whole idea went totally out the window and most men today recoil at the very idea of pink entering into their field of vision at any point during the day. I, however, love love love pink (I almost bought a pale pink wedding gown, but my dear daddy wouldn’t have it) and have found a successful way to incorporate it into the home I share with two males. (Granted, one of them is unable to voice his opinions on any aesthetic choices yet, but maybe he’ll come around by the time he can talk, and I’ll have saved his wife a whole lot of trouble.)
- Introduce the idea casually. Use words like “fuschia” or “sorbet colors”, don’t say the actual word “pink”.
- Bring in items slowly so that the process happens gradually without causing any shock. I started with the wallpaper, but initially convinced him it was more red than anything. Next I bought the pillow and brought in peonies from the yard. That set the tone for the kitchen curtains and tablecloth. Next I put Queen Zozo up all over the kitchen.
- Ask him “What do you think of this new arrangement in the living room?’ Oh, you like it? You know, it’s pink. It’s hot pink.. . . . like hot Barbie pink. . .. and you are ok with that?” You are? Oh good.. . . So. . . what do you think about painting the bathroom a light creamy sort of berry color?. . .
This white lamp on the table is the one from the second hand store , I painted the pair of them white and decided to split them up for now. I hope to find two matching shades later and put them in the dining room flanking my watercolor painting of a giant PINK flower.
I might go for a more artsy print from Amy Butler or Anna Maria Horner with the curtains but in the mean time this pink stuff is fun for the kitchen windows.
My sister-in-law and I found this print in the airport in Denver of all places (during one of the looooong layovers that make you peruse every store 6 times slowwwwwwly just so you don’t have to go sit in a chair for another hour of mindnumbing boredom). I decided this odd little girl had to come home with me and live in my kitchen. She kind of reminds me of Freggie.
 How many times have I heard that in my lifetime? I can’t even count them. Most recently was the other night as I was struggling to carry a rolled up full-size oriental rug down the street to my apartment. In the rain. By myself. The question came from a guy across the street who looked like he was on his way home from work. My automatic reaction, as I almost always do: a smile and a chipper “No thanks! I think I’ve got it!” From the way I felt (and must have looked) lugging the dead weight of the area rug I was not ok and definitely could have used the help. I realized this about two steps later when it was too late. I eventually did get the rug all the way up to my upstairs apartment, panting and weak (my upper-body strength is limited to about 2.5 push-ups after a bowl full of wheaties). And I did it all by myself. But what I missed out on was the chance to meet someone new and the opportunity to say and really really mean something that I say far too infrequently to God and to all the people in my life.
Thank you.
So next time I’m in that sort of situation I am going to try to remember to pause, realize that yes, I could use some help and that I don’t have to do it all myself. And it might just present an opportunity for real thankfulness on my part and a chance for someone else to be truly generous.
 Beautiful fungi Aileen brought Jarrett Taite and Matthias down for the long weekend and I kind of wondered if we would be able to find enough to do now that we don’t have the sights of Seattle to entertain us. But between a bon fire, squirrel shooting, late night games, Saturday farmer’s market, and a package of stamp on tattoos, we had as much together as we always do. The weather wasn’t great but we took advantage of Saturday afternoon’s break from rain to go mushroom hunting north of where we live near Joseph Canyon.
After a couple false alarms in which all 7 of us would tear through the forest toward the yells of, “I got one, I found one, everybody come over here!! . . . .oh, wait never mind. . . . it’s a toad stool ” we became expert morel mushroom hunters. These odd little fungi look like small brown Christmas trees with a brain-like texture and grow around Wallowa County in late May and into June. They are a rare delicacy because they can’t be farmed, but instead have to be searched out on the forest floor. After a couple hours of “shrooming” we turned up with 25 morels, roughly a pound which could sell for $20 an ounce! Dried Wild Morel Mushrooms
The thrill of the hunt got to us and we started identifying where the fungi liked to grow best. Not too dry, not too wet, with a little undergrowth and m0ss in the surrounding area, and dark rich soil.
 The happy hunting party
 Aileen turned out to be a natural morel finder  Jarrett Matt and I (with Jude's help of course) found a small jackpot on an exposed bank of rich soil.  Zac's findings We hiked, discovered streams, animals, birds and lots of poop that Matthias was good enough to identify for us at every point, and then the boys reverted to putting moss up their noses and any other clever place they could think of. Next Jarrett entertained us with his back flips off of stumps. Then everyone decided they were hungry and we headed home to fry up our prize in a little flour and butter to serve with cocktails and soda before dinner. Perfect end to a perfect day.
 The drive home
 
Since two of my daughters are traveling home from a family wedding, one is visiting with her mother-in-law, and one is flying high with a ring newly placed on her finger(!) I thought I’d interrupt our recipes for a bit because they won’t know.
I have been so totally bowled over by the sermons of Timothy Keller in NYC that I sometimes finish and just sit in a stupor ( some might call that meditation) and just weep.
My favorite and most stupefying is his sermon Praying our Tears. He begins by saying there are three ways of dealing with our emotions; two won’t work.
1. The religious way where we are so uncomfortable with our strong and horrible emotions that we want to deny the power, depth and darkness of them. How many Sundays must you meet with everyone and ask, “How are you?” and be told. “Fine.” What would happen if you admitted you struggle with bitterness, with hatred, with abject fear, with pettiness, with anger? What would happen if a prayer request were about your own wicked soul and not your best friend’s brother’s great aunt’s big toe?
2. The secular way where we say, “those are my feelings, and that’s just the way it is.” ”I have always been like this and there’s no changing me now.” You want to tell everyone everything all the time.
3. The third way, and better way, is to pray your feelings. Bring them before God. Bring the down and dirty stuff before God and know that He knows how to deal with you. He’s not shocked. What a humongous relief to be told, “God already knows worse than you can tell Him about you.”
David tells God in Psalm 39 to “Remove your gaze from me, that I may regain strength. Before I go away and am no more.” In other words, “God, leave me alone so I will not be tormented any longer by You. My days are almost at an end and I just want to die in peace.” God knows how to hear our prayers and how to answer them in spite of us. It is safe to be honest with God. He will not catch you up in your words like an astute lawyer, but will rather hear your cry for help, for peace, for comfort and do the right thing. Christ knew what to do even though Peter tells him to, “Depart from me.” The very presence of prayers like these in Scripture is a witness to His understanding. He is not shocked, He knows how we speak and what we will cry out when we are desperate.
I was awe struck meditating that Christ felt absolutely and totally abandoned by God, His Father, His perfect Father. Jesus asked God the Father, “Why have you forsaken me?” This relationship that was so singular, so full of perfect love, so full of trust and in the last hours of Christ’s life on earth for him to anguish aloud that He was forsaken by his Father. AND to feel safe asking that question!
Our deepest feelings of anger, tears and pain belong with God, not in neat little pre-orchestrated packaged prayers. He understands, He was a man of sorrow acquainted with grief. He can take it. And He will turn it for joy.
So, how do we do this??
“Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”
We shouldn’t just ignore our tears (religiosity) but neither should we just dump our feelings (secular) rather we are told to sow our tears. Invest our tears with God. When we do that, when we bring our deepest feeling before God, it will not just make the pain, anger, bitterness go away but it will reap joy! Our tears will be turned into an opportunity for fruitfulness and growth.
But when we pray like this we always need to first have Christ’s death on the cross before us, His saving grace and then we can let ‘em rip. It is safe.
Don’t think that the good days are from Jesus and the bad days aren’t. Things don’t happen by accident, they are purposeful and orchestrated, always.
In the day of prosperity be joyful,
But in the day of adversity consider:
Surely God has appointed the one as well as the other
I remember wondering about that portion of Handel’s Messiah where the choir sings,
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low, the crooked straight, and the rough places plain.
thinking, “why would we want just flat land with straight roads, heck, we’d be in Kansas!”
We live in a crooked, rough world full of sin, sadness and suffering. Wise people and fools live in this crooked world but wise people understand God’s plan includes crooked things, fools never learn. Fools try to change the course that God has set before them, wise people learn to navigate. So, how does the wise person navigate through the rough hard things in life?
1. Wise people begin by understanding God did not intend for us to have an easy, carefree, simple, painless life.
2. Wise people understand they are not God’s public relations with a slapped on happy face. In the day of adversity wise people embrace grief. Wise people go through sadness and mourning, while foolish people try to ignore it.
Better to go to the house of mourning
Than to go to the house of feasting,
Sorrow is better than laughter
The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning
When times are sad, you need to mourn, go through it. Eating, drinking and partying when you’re depressed is foolish. But then, when times improve, eat, drink and be merry. When times are bad, mourn and grieve but then when times are good, play Settlers of Catan with your kids, go to Baskin Robbins for ice cream, and read books to them in bed.
3. Wise people choose their friends carefully. He who walks with the wise grows wise.
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise
Than for a man to hear the song of fools.
Wise people have friends who will pray for them and be there for them.
4. Wise people accept that ultimately bad days come from God. Ministry to others comes out of pain and brokenness, we don’t wish for it and we wouldn’t choose it but through it we are able to talk about God’s goodness in a way that convinces.
My example here is fairly trivial but in the mind of eleven and thirteen year olds it looms a bit bigger and really, that is where trials begin. Matthias is on the losing-est baseball team this year and Taite was left in the dust in her dance class because while others of her age were progressing in dance, we did not have the finances to put her there. Did we sin as parents? Did Taite sin? Did Matthias? Does God hate us!? No, He loves us.
He knows that if we lived a simple, carefree, painless life we would never need Him, we would never seek Him, and ultimately we would die apart from Him. So, he brings us trials. God has made our lives complicated and crooked on purpose but one day He shall make “Every valley exalted, and every mountain and hill made low, the crooked straight, and the rough places plain.”
Could Matthias have been placed on a winning team? You bet. Could Taite have been dancing with girls her own age? For sure.
And so, Taite and Matthias have had the privilege of misery in their young lives, to be humiliated and miserable through no fault of theirs. That is where God will work. They have been able to say, “This stinks,” and then move on knowing by faith and not by what they see right now, ‘that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.’
As we discussed this Matt proclaimed triumphantly, “If it’s true that good things come out of bad, we’ve got a whole lot of good coming!”
What could possibly epitomize “small town fun” than a community talent show? We heard about the show last minute, threw our uneaten dinner in the fridge and drove (about three whole blocks) to the “OK Theatre” for a night of endearing entertainment.
Of course the best part was that my darling nieces and nephews performed some folk songs accompanied by their very musical parents. As the little troupe took the stage an elderly lady leaned toward my mother in law and whispered, “This must just make you as proud as punch!”
Freyja couldn’t believe her cousins were on the stage and screeched out with a mouth full of popcorn, “Mer mer, mee mee!” (I think this is her collective term for Meredith and Bella.)
Fiddlers, singers, guitarists (and one very unconventional trombone/piano duo) performed old gospels, folk, country, and some originals, most dressed in cowboy hats or other western wear. A five year old fiddler was a crowd favorite as she screeched her way through “Old Joe Clark”, and one very good singer/songwriter had a new CD out.
After the evening, I was feeling a little more inspired to get up some guts to go sing karaoke with all our bravest friends for Zac and Darrel’s birthday this weekend. But somehow, I still can only imagine it will end in fumbling, off-key humiliation.
 Even Jude enjoyed the show with minimal crying
 Post-race, it's never felt so great to just be standing there drinking water! I have never considered myself to be much of a runner or much of an athlete at all so when I decided on a whim this January that I should run a 1/2 marathon I didn’t really expect to go through with it. But there’s nothing like putting some money down to motivate yourself… so I signed up and paid up early just to further motivate myself. My boyfriend’s parents also signed up and I was thrilled to not have to run it alone. After about 8 weeks of training and a lot of freaking out that I was not going to be able to do it (two of those weeks I was out with a knee injury!) I crossed the finish line 5th in my age group in the Wenatchee marathon! You can see my stats here, I was really just wanting to do it in under two hours and was able to, at 1hour, 50 min and 42 seconds! Running is pretty addictive, though; I’m already plotting my next 1/2 marathon and have a 5k and 10k lined up within the next two weeks. Who knows maybe I’ll even graduate to a full marathon some day!
 Pre-race, still waking up!
 I think Fox might just have wavy hair.  He has always had a bit of a cowlick.
 Fox at six months
I was told by someone that I have not posted nearly enough pictures of Fox. So here they are.
aileen, January 24th, 2010
 
If you are looking for a good way to get outside during these long winter months, I would highly recommend snowshoeing, a sport whose glories I was just introduced to this weekend. I am more of a snowboarder when it comes to winter sports and the thought of trudging through the snow on over-sized metal shoes didn’t thrill me at first but I decided to give it a whirl anyways (mostly as an excuse to not have to run around Greenlake instead). I dragged myself out of bed at 6:20 on a Saturday morning (a miracle in and of itself…) and we made it to the trail head by 9:30. After spending some time fiddling with the snow shoes and figuring out how they work (I am still convinced I was wearing two right foot snow shoes) we headed out into the fresh snow. Imagine all the joys of hiking in a winter wonderland minus the sinking thigh-high into snow then floundering to get out again with every step. Instead you trot right across the surface and bravely forge up mountainsides all thanks to the snow shoes.
One of the most important parts of snow shoeing is picking a good trail. The MOST important part is bringing a good trail mix. But of course everyone knows that. We took on Skyline Lake trail up at Stevens pass and the views were well worth the initial uphill climb. But I understand that not everyone is blessed enough to live here in God’s country (that’s Washington state, by the way) so check out trails.com to find somewhere near you. Happy hiking!
caitlin, January 14th, 2010
 Maybe some day I'll turn my whole fridge into a list like this cute chalkboard one. . . I hate cleaning out my fridge so much that I do it every week.
No, this isn’t some form of self-inflicted sanctifying punishment. It’s just that I’ve learned this makes it easier in the long run. Face your fears often and you become fearless. Actually, it more had to do with the fact that I got tired of finding half used heads of lettuce, now turned brown, or yogurt that was growing things.
So I made a rule for myself:
Clean out the fridge BEFORE you go grocery shopping. Every time.
Ok, maybe I do it every other time, just to be honest, but it’s amazing how pleasant it is to come home with bags of fresh groceries when you know you have a clean fridge to put them in. And once you are in the swing of it, it will take you 15 minute. max.
So here’s what I like to do.
1)Get a pen and piece of paper for writing your shopping list.
2) Open the fridge and start on the top shelf and work your way down. Take note of what you are out of and put it on your list, open up tupperware to see if leftovers are still good, check expiration dates. Toss whatever is bad and add it to your list if you need more. Put thing that you know you won’t use this week into the freezer. Empty each shelf, one by one , wipe it clean, and put the food back in an organized system.
3) Designate a place for each food type. Drinks, Dairy, Produce, Condiments, etc– just do it in a way that makes sense to you and fits in your fridge.
One other unexpected boon is that this helped me save money by planning my menu around things that should be used up. “Hmmmm, I’ve got some mushrooms and sour cream that need to be eaten- I’ll get some meat and egg noodles to make Beef Stroganoff.”
Another couple of nerdy things that I love:
1) A freezer list.
Who wants to get frostbite digging around, wondering if you have any frozen green peas left? Keep a list of everything that’s in there so there’s no guessing. Tape it to the front of your freezer in an inconspicuous place and cross things off as you use them up. Use a pretty piece of stationary and a cute magnet if aesthetics are a must in your kitchen.
2) A pantry list.
This was only necessary once I started shopping at Costco and had to convert a storage closet into a place to keep the army-tank-sized jugs of olive oil and other such things. It was much nicer to glance at a list on my cork-board than to go through the whole closet before a trip to Costco. “Nope, still haven’t run out of the 60 pounds of baking powder…”
meghan, January 12th, 2010
 I'm afraid this is all that's left of the jacket.
I find it a bit ironic that my post on organizing is being written last minute. I’m not so sure that I’m that great at organizing. It’s just that it’s easy to organize when you don’t have anything to organize.
My mom said I live a spartan life. I like to get rid of stuff, actually I LOVE to get rid of stuff. It’s almost a hobby I have. And there is little I regret having gotten rid of. I guess there is the lettermens jacket. That was Eric’s and that is still a sore subject around here. But other than that…
I first practiced this method on my mom when I was still at home because she was, as she said herself, a pack rat. I got rid of lots of her junk this way and yes, she does know about it now (at least she will after she reads this post). In fact, I think she said she was thankful I had done it.
I would take all the things I wanted to get rid of and stuff them in a big garbage bag and then stuff the bag in some dark hole never to be found by my mom. If she wondered where a particular item had wandered off to; an item I thought needed the ol’ heave ho, I could quickly produce it. “Why here it is!”
I would keep the bag around for about three months and if she never asked for an item from the bag the whole thing went to the Goodwill, never opened again. That’s the rule of this game, if you never yearn for another thing out of the bag you have to get rid of all of it without peaking. Otherwise you may find yourself longing for the collection of rocks you painted in second grade or the bright yellow smiley face teapot. You know the kind of things I’m talking about.
I generally skip this step and ship it all to the Goodwill. I should probably employ this method more around my house and we might not be short a lettermens jacket.
caitlin, January 10th, 2010
 The time of the year we all aspire to having a junk drawer like Martha. I’m wanting to know– is there some little timer inside every adult head that goes off in January telling you to clean out, get rid of, and organize EVERYTHING within reach? From the number of magazines that follow this trend for their first issue of the year, I would say yes.
Closets, garages, fridges, children’s rooms, and shoe shelves– nothing is safe from the purging. And for me, it really doesn’t help that this year I’ve got an insane case of “nesting syndrome” setting in with my due date just 3 weeks off. Zac came home the other night to find both Freyja and our bedroom’s completely re-arranged with all the new baby furniture set up in a corner of our room, and me in a little, red-faced heap on the bed panting from exhaustion. I’m trying to tone it down now, and get organized with a little more order and restraint.
So this next week we’re offering some tips, tricks, and ideas on giving in to that wonderful, new year impulse. It’s time to get organized!
Enjoy!
A terrific thing that I learned recently is that things will happen whether I obsess over them or not , even though that’s what I do best, obsess.
There is, I think, a careful balance between planning and organizing and knowing when to let off and be done. Too often, I am able to fill the time allotted with the chores at hand and if I am done ahead of schedule the temptation is to just keep doing stuff. Perhaps nothing important or even necessary but just because the time is there I manage to busily fill it.
So it was really throwing three sheet to the wind for me to simply hop in the car and go on an explore the entire day before Christmas. Ten of us jumped into two cars and went to a barren beautiful place and climbed a large hill (and some of us including Andrew did some major jumping), we walked and drove along the river, and simply enjoyed the day.
 
And when we got back in the late afternoon, we still managed to bake a batch of gingerbread cookies, wrap the last few gifts, fill stockings (17 of them!), go caroling in our neighborhood with little bags of cookies made up by Caitlin and Aileen, attend church that evening and visit by the fire with cookies and hot chocolate and just one gift for the little kids to open.
 
But! We were out of eggs and gingerbread waffles need eggs, and sixteen people eating gingerbread waffles need a lot of eggs. Things were surely falling apart because I was not holding it together, I had foolishly thought I could gallivant around and have enough eggs for Christmas breakfast.
We found the store open Christmas Eve and bought eggs and I am so glad I went out that day. I am so glad I didn’t know I was out of eggs.
The memories will last a lifetime.
caitlin, December 31st, 2009
 I finally selected this absolutely weird and delightful calendar. I hope Zac doesn't object to its Marie Antoinette girliness. I get excited about buying my new calendar. Probably more excited than is decent and normal, but I do. A fresh, crisp calendar includes most of the things I love: pretty pictures, paper or graphics, orginization and record keeping. And there is excitment is wondering what the pages will be filled with over the new year. . vacation dates will be penciled in, my son’s birth will have a date and time, I might record a planting schedule this spring since I’ll have a yard all my own for the first time, and then there are all the wonderful, normal things you scribble down. Dinner plans, babysitter’s phone numbers, deadlines, reminders. The work and play that make your life, yours.
So here’s to a magical 2010.
 I think September will be my favorite month's picture to look at. I imagine I'll do a lot of baking that month. . .  Love it  It may be a little weird staring at these oddball characters for all of August, but maybe they will grow on me.  The best part is that I will chop this to bits at the end of the year and turn it into cards, and valentines and other fun things. I had never heard of the artist, her name is Gianna Majzler and as far as I can tell this is the only site you’ll find her whimsical work. I think it would be so fun to throw an Alice in Wonderland themed birthday party for Freyja with all of the decortations and things you can buy. Maybe I’ll put it down on the calendar now. . . .
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