a tuesday, in true ramble style.

I finished "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls last night. All I can say is...wow. That woman had one heck of a childhood. Read it.

Today I kissed, held, fed and changed little ones, then came home and passed out for a few minutes before Bible study. We had an amazing dinner of "loaded" salad with brownies and ice cream for dessert and talked about conflict and confrontation within the church. I love these women and their hearts for the Lord.

I came back to an empty house (Andy works until 11pm) and read a document on Becker family history (Becker is my maiden name). I am so proud of my family's history and love to learn about the people who have influenced me and whose blood is inside me. My cousin Joe said at my grandpa's funeral earlier this year, "Becker's don't have an identity crisis." I love that! It is so true. I am so grateful to my uncle Jim for compiling family history and making it incredibly simple for everyone in the family to learn about our ancestors.

On a completely different note, Andy just got home and Casey, in her excitement, got caught up in his tie while giving him kisses and sniffing him all over.

:)

summertime and the dinners are goood

Tonight I'm serving pulled pork sandwiches, corn on the cob with herb butter, baked beans and watermelon. Ahh. As suggested by my friend Amber, I slow cooked pork shoulder (Boston Butt was the cut I bought) in 18oz of root beer. When I got home from work I added a few squirts of Sweet Baby Ray's and walked the dog and checked email. Then I shredded the pork, added a little extra bbq sauce and placed it between Martin's potato buns-- my favorite!

I made the herb butter on a whim. Every food magazine I've read lately has a recipe for corn with herb butter, so I've been thinking and salivating over it for quite some time. I used a few tablespoons of room temp butter, some chopped fresh basil, a smidge of garlic and salt and pepper. Delish.

We called Jackie and Kevin at the last minute to come help us eat all the food. It was a great impromptu dinner party and perfect for summer.

below is a pic of the pork sloooowly cooking away. it's red due to the flash.

voices to learn from

Jeanette Walls and Alexandra Fuller are two authors I would love to meet. I recently read Half Broke Horses by Walls (incredible) and I finally got a copy of her memoir The Glass Castle, so I plan on starting that tonight. I've read all three of Fuller's books and loved each of them, but my favorite was Don't Let's Go To the Dog's Tonight- my top rated read of 2008. I've re-read it since then, but already want to read it for a third time.

Read their books. Tell me what you think.

Also, one thing that continually brings joy to my life: being a Barnes and Noble member has always been worth the money for me, but now they offer members FREE shipping. I just ordered three bargain books (total w/ tax was $8.37!!) which means I better read The Glass Castle and finish Let Me Be a Woman by Elizabeth Elliott before the start of next week! Life is hard.

idyllic saturday

Last Saturday Andy and I drove to Low Moor, VA to visit my sister and brother-in-law, Katie and Todd. They took us out on Lake Moomaw and Todd taught Andy how to bowfish. You can see Andy catch his first carp here.

It was a gorgeous sunny (HOT) day and we stayed on the lake for nearly seven hours. It was so good to be out in nature, fishing, swimming and snacking. :) I especially enjoyed seeing Andy smile all day long. He called me his "lake hottie" and I could tell he was having the time of his life. We called the trip a much needed "day vacation."

In the evening the boys played 9 holes of golf while Katie and I watched Arrested Development and we all met up at Jack Mason's in Clifton Forge for a late dinner. Amazing. We all split the fried pickles and then Andy and I split nachos, wings and fish and chips. Yum.

Thank you, Todd and Katie! We love you!

OH, and we saw a bear. :)

answers to prayers

God has been busy working in my life (andy's too). This time last year I had very few friends in town who had time to spend w/ me, I was discontent and frustrated with our home and we were going to a church that we liked but we weren't meeting people and had little desire to get involved. I prayed send me friends. Remind me of how great this house is. Convict me to be more diligent in cleaning and to find pleasure in it. Help us find a church home where we receive solid teaching, fellowship and a passion for serving.

God is so faithful.

I have incredible new(ish) friends in my life. The selfish attitude of "why am I not getting attention?" is changing into an attitude of "how can I give others attention?"

I have received a new attitude about our house as well. We're in a new house, which I LOVE because I really let myself go loose on decorating and had fun with it. I recognized that the feeling of overwhelming..ness.. over silly things like laundry and dishes and dog hair and dust and that will take SO much time to clean was completely ridiculous and guess what Mom, it really DOES only take a few minutes to hang my clothes up instead of tossing them on the dresser! It only took me twenty-three years to figure it out!

We started going back to Aletheia after two years of church-hopping and while we know no church is perfect, we have found such truth and love there, in the teaching and in the people. We're learning new things and reading new things and now when we're arguing we are better equipped on how to respond to one another in love, how to turn the conflict around and forgive each other quickly and move on and forget.

So rare are my posts about my faith, and it didn't really bother me until lately. I wanted this blog to be light-hearted and fun and bring my readers pleasure. I didn't want to turn away readers. That was stupid. My faith is me, and I don't want to ever hide that.