Monday, August 9, 2010

My Hero Of Today

I stumbled across this designer today. I not only LOVE her dresses I am also her newest fan. She grew up in New Zealand, currently lives in England, is an organic gardener, a nature girl, and shares my taste in fashion.

http://www.lynashworth.co.uk/

Sunday, August 8, 2010

French Silk Pie

It has been a tradition for many years that my wonderful Aunt Jodi would make me a French Silk Pie for my birthday. Mmmmmm My Favorite!! As things usually turn out she makes two pies. One for everyone else to share and one for me to keep for later. I'm very thankful this is the case :D.

Well, what do you know. This week I had some heavy whipping cream to use and my first thought...I'm going to make a pie.

It just so happens this pie making idea would be two days before my end of the year work picnic and we were supposed to bring a dish to pass. Could timing be more perfect?? I doubt it. I got the recipe from Jodi, and...well didn't follow it, but that's normal.

I looked up several online recipes and just kinda made up my own. The crusts were OK. The first pie was a bit runny. It was good as long as it was kept COLD, but the second pie was near perfection (from the way it looked and the lickings from the bowl tasted). I haven't actually eaten it yet, since my work party was a whopping 15 people and not very many people wanted pie I froze it for later. I'm not sure if french silk thaws very well, but I'll know soon. Overall, I was quite pleased with the way my pie turned out and I'm posting the secret wonderful birthday recipe now so all can enjoy in the unsurpassed deliciousness of my favorite dessert.


DISCLAIMER: I will never be able to make the pie taste just like Jodi (simply because she made it it's always going to taste the best) So please...don't stop making me pie for my birthday!! The pie pictured above is already frozen and is not in it's cosmetic prime.

French Silk Pie

Pie crusts
3/4 C Sugar
3/4 C butter
1 C semi-sweet choc chips (melted and cooled slightly)
3/4 C refrigerated or frozen egg product (go with refrigerated if you can find it)
1 tsp vanilla

Whipping cream or Cool Whip
Chocolate bar (to make chocolate curls)
  1. Prepare Baked Pastry Shell--I usually use Pillsbury ready to roll pie crusts. You can make your own crusts too.
  2. For filling: in large mixing bowl, beat 3/4 cup sugar and 3/4 cup butter (softened) with an electric mixer on medium speed about 4 minutes or till fluffy. Stir in one 6 oz. package (1 cup) melted and cooled semisweet chocolate chips and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Gradually add 3/4 cup refrigerated egg product, thawed, beating on high speed and scraping sides of bowl constantly t8ill light and fluffy.
  3. Transfer to Baked pastry shell. cover and chill for 5 to 24 hours. If desired, garnish with whipped cream and chocolate curls.



Monday, August 2, 2010

The Amberican Dream

In the last couple of weeks I've finally discovered what it is I want to do with my life. Hopefully, and I believe it to be true, this is also what God is calling me to do. I've had passions and desires for several things through my lifetime. I never really thought I was passionate about anything until about a year ago when I realized I actually am.

Passion One: I'm passionate about missions. I really want to be a missionary and live in another country. Maybe not forever, but at least for a while. This all came about maybe 3-4 years ago. When I was a freshman in college I was an education major because I wanted to teach elementary school kids in a poor Spanish speaking country. That isn't what I imagine myself doing any longer, but I still love missions, missionaries, people of various cultures and countries, etc. Most recently this passion has translated into an interest in agricultural mission work. My church supports a woman who works in Guatemala with Food for the Hungry teaching people how to grow food and working on ways to provide them with clean water. Up until about three weeks ago when I began to formulate what I"m about to share she had my dream job.

Once I discovered that passion for missions and agriculture, it became very difficult to stay in school. I wanted to go NOW...like yesterday. (Patience is not my strongest Fruit of the Spirit). Once I get an idea I'm ready to jump in and get it done...pronto. As I was thinking more about the prospect of living outside the United States it also dawned on me how much I love it here and how often I take this country for granted. A missions trip to the Dominican Republic in March reminded me of this fact. Although I still want to live in another country for at least year (one of my life goals) I also really desire to just live here in the US too. We're called to be missionaries wherever we are.

Passion Two: I've been told by people I have a very holistic personality, which I guess means I care about the person both physically and non-physically (emotionally and spiritually). Through out my growing up years my family often had other people staying in our home. At first it was my aunt while she was in college, then a few missionaries and people for a weekend here and there, a family who was waiting for their house to sell, then a couple exchange students, a single mom, and currently a single woman who's been dealt a rough life and just needed a place to stay. In the future I'd love to have a guest house or a basement apartment that would be open for homeless, missionaries, or other people God sends across my path to stay. If I never set foot on foreign soil again, that would be my mission. I'm passionate about hospitality-making people feel comfortable and at home within whatever space they enter. To be a person (and my home an environment) that is open, inviting, comforting, and friendly.

Passion Three: This one ties into the first passion, or is at least strongly correlated. It's not about missions, but it's about food. I'll be the first to admit I love to eat. Mmmmmm... but that's not the point of this passion. I'm not passionate about eating, but I am passionate about nutrition and good food. Yes good tasting, but more importantly healthy. My freshman year at Bethel I became very sick. I know much of it was intense spiritual warfare, but another was an unhealthy lifestyle. I had successfully avoided the freshman 15 and had actually lost 6 lbs. I thought I knew what eating healthy was, but I didn't. By the time stress, bad diet, and unhealthy lifestyle all piled up I was not in a good place. I told my mom "I just don't feel healthy. I try to eat right, I excersize, but something is just not right." So I went to see a nutritionist who put me on a really strict "Get Healthy Again" diet. What I learned was not only more about food, but also about what eating healthy really is and how we as Americans have is completely, 99%, absolutely messed up. Our food system is broken, just like this fallen world, we produce our food in a way that is unhealthy for us, the animals, and the land. We have created mono-cultures in our fields and our grocery isles. Everything is processed, fortified, salted, and loaded with sugar. "Food has just the sum of it's nutrients" (Michael Pollan - In Defense of Food) We don't let land be fallow, we spray with fertilizers, pesticides, and who knows what else*. Not what God intended, and not healthy. I go to Mexico or the Dominican Republic and see the kids eating cookies and juice constantly. No wonder many of them have diabetes by the time they're 18 (I know some personally). I'm passionate about educating people about eating balanced diets, low in sugar and processed food products. I want to grow as much of my own food as I can, and live off my own land. I also want to teach others (especially the world's poorer residents) how to use their resources to produce good food efficiently without exploiting the land so they can feed sustainably feed their families.
*I'm not trying to put down the farmers of America, I'm the grand-daughter, niece, cousin, and best friend to several of them, and I live in a rural area of Wisconsin. I know they are just trying to make a living like every other person in this country. However, the practices and methods now put into place (thanks to Earl Butts, corn subsidies, and corporate big shots) have become harmful. Did you know we produce enough corn in the US to feed the world, but instead we masquerade it into all these different products so we can find sneaky ways to use it here in the US. Companies are just dying to find more ways to pack more corn and empty calories into our diet.

Passion Four: Part of me just wants to be a stay at home mom. This isn't to say I don't want to pursue a career or somehow live the completely unrealistic vision of the "American Dream". Although at first I felt that being in the workforce would make my somewhat more meaningful to me, I've now realized this to be most completely untrue. I like to see progress, I like to be efficient, improve upon ideas, come up with ideas of my own. If I'm not learning, I'm bored. I have to get out of the house, see something, interact with people, work with my hands. I've sometimes wondered if being a stay at home wife/mother would be extremely boring to me. Then there is the whole idea of homeschooling, what do I do there? I wanted to be a teacher...for other peoples kids...but my own?? Well I'm not so sure. I have now realized two things about children and the future. Being a mom is a mission field. Our children are the only thing we leave behind on this earth. They are the vessels we send into a future that will be dirtier and darker than the world we now live in. If I never set foot on foreign soil again, or started a home ministry for missionaries, my mission would be this...motherhood. The best thing I can do for the future is bless it with Godly children who can be the missionaries of tomorrow. No, it's not official missionary training school, but in someways it is. So although I feel completely too independent and inadequate to be a mom anytime soon. I've realized that God may sometime in the future call me to that position of ministry. Oh, and as a final note, I'm planning on adopting my kids. Why be selfish enough to have my own kids when there are thousands who are already destined for the world ahead who need to see love and be loved? I guess you could say I'm passionate about adoption too. I was adopted into God's family and if I'm not passionate about that I have some prioritizing to do.

We're coming to the end. It's time to tie it all together.

So what is the Amberican Dream? This is what was revealed to me on Tuesday, July 20 2010 in my car (where the best thinking happens) on my way to work.

I had just been in Milwaukee the day before at "Growing Power" which is a sustainable greenhouse right in the city. They grow so many types of food organically in these innovative systems which allows for recycling of nutrients and use limited resources. They have solar panels, collect their rain water, compost discarded food from grocery stores, grow fish, chickens (eggs), goats, and plants all on a very small plot of land. I like many of their ideas and would love to start something similar someday. It all ties together. Everything I've ever wanted to do with missions, with food, with where I live all came to this one pinnacle.

What I'd do if I had my dream life (of course what God has planned is my dream life, but if I was planning it this is how it would go). I'd move to Florida next year after I graduate where I'd work with marine animals and plants and get some more SCUBA certifications, then I'd save up some money and go to school at a place called ECHO- a missionary minded organization which grows different plants in different habitats mimicking those found around the world. They work to discover which plants grow best in which environments and produce seeds to send to missionaries. Then I'd go abroad for 2-3 years doing missions work as described above (Passion One). Then I'd move back to the US with my husband (hopefully I'll have one by then) and we'd start a greenhouse/farm where we could train students and missionaries in how to build and run these self sustaining low cost and low power systems so they can take them back to their own rural areas and build them to feed the local people (Passions One and Three). Of course they could stay with my family (Passion Two) or in a missions house which I/we would hopefully have. Then I/we
would also go to different countries a few times a year to help assist in starting up operations for those who can't come to our training. This whole ministry would all be small scale so I would still be a stay at home mom and of course kids love playing in the dirt and with plants and animals :D (Passion Four).

Hopefully that made some sort of sense. It's all a bit jumbled and so interconnected it's hard to organize my thoughts.

We'll see where God leads and how much of this actually happens, but for now this is what I'm going to pursue. Usually when multiple things "click" together like this it's only by divine intervention. God has to be pretty obvious for me sometimes, and this all seems to work together. It not only builds upon my interests and passions it's also completely realistic (which is a miracle in itself...I can be a dreamer most of the time). I'm excited beyond belief for what the future holds and where God leads. Is this is in line with his will and plan? Ask me again in 25 years and maybe by then I can let you know. :)

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Dream Garage

These are all cars I've wanted at some point in my life. Not all of them are listed.

Here is what'd be parked in my dream garage.

"Suburban Adventure"

Make: Pontiac
Model: Vibe
Year: 2006
Color: Unsure

This car first caught my eye about 3 years ago. Of course Pontiac is now out of business, so I won't be getting one. I love that the back seat folds down for a large cargo area and the cargo rack is perfect for a canoe or kayak. It's not too much larger than a car, yet big enough you could pull a small boat.


"Cruisin"

Make: Chevy
Model: Camero
Year: 2009
Color: Unsurn, but I like this Imperial Blue

My theory is real sports cars shouldn't be (hot rod) red. Red is for the "posers" who aren't quite cool enough to look sporty by themselves, but still have a little more sweet stuff than your run-of-the-mill coupe.


"Around Town"

Make: Chevy
Model: Cobalt SS
Year: 2010
Color: Orange

In the last two weeks I've fallen in love with the rusty orange color which is really becoming popular. This is probably the most realistic choice for my next vehicle.


"For Old Times Sake"

Make: Jeep
Model: CJ7
Year: 1977
Color: Dark Metallic Green (similar to what is shown)

We bought one of these when I was 16. It was the vehicle I learned to drive "stick" on. Same year as my dad's first car.


"Hot Rod"

Make: Ford
Model: Mustang Shelby GT500KR
Year: 2008
Color: Black

My first exposure to this car was KITT in the Knight Rider movie. Most everyone in my family, and in my friend group wants one of these. A Mustang is the ONLY Ford I would EVER own.


"Mom Mobile"

Make: Jeep
Model: Liberty
Year: 2007 (I don't like the 2008-2010 body-style)
Color: Deep Blue, Berry Red, Olive Green (shown)

I think this is the perfect "small" SUV type vehicle which can easily haul a dog, a few kids, pull a trailer, and not be too "beastly".


"Power Horse"

Make: Dodge
Model: Ram 3/4 Ton Crew Cab (Cummins)
Year: 2010
Color: Unsure (Shown in Deep Water Blue)

Because real trucks don't have spark-plugs.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Spring Sprint

Each year, in the spring as the name suggests, Bethel sponsors a 5k from Fountain Terrace to North Village. The means of travel may be somewhat unconventional - students can walk, bike, rollerblade, jog, skateboard, etc. My good old excersizing buddy Camilli and I did a combination I like to call Jogking (walk, jog, and run). We were perfect "partners" as we both are about equally fit - too out of shape to run the whole thing. But we wanted to try to jog as much as possible. It was really cold this morning and slightly rainy which motivated us in an attempt to keep from freezing to death. I guess there was a little bit of snow last night, I didn't see any. The race started at 10:30 so we caught the 10:00 shuttle from Bethel to Fountain Terrace. With all the racers the 15 passenger van was packed - at least 24 people. We left at 10:30 and I think it took up about 45 minutes to get back. Half way along the trail there was a "pit stop" of oranges and water. I foud this quite silly, but a fun break. We made it up to North Village where they have a big BBQ afterward (well they call them BBQ's here in MN, but in Wisconsin terms it's a grill out. No sloppy joes, pulled beef or BBQ sauce to be found, just hot dogs and burgers). Camille and I were anxious for a cheeseburger, and the smell of charcoal is synonymous with springtime. I can still here the music quite loudly outside my window as I write this.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Avalon Floral

With this weekend being Mother's Day I decided to call my old place of employment to send her some flowers. The lady answering the phone was not someone I had met...and I know most everyone since I used to work there. She took my order and we were able to talk a little bit. She's just started working at Avalon, and she recently graduated from UW-EC. Come to find out I was actually the first phone order she's taken. Completely made my day!

5K Week Three

So I should be on days seven of my training program right now, but due to some laziness on my part I'm only on day five. Two days a week, not three :( *tsk tsk* I had planned on running this weekend, but didn't get around to it. There is just something about weekends in which nothing I plan on doing ever gets done. It's terrible.

Day Five: May 4th

Today I started off my run with longer chunks. I ran about 3 minuets and then about 2 minutes after that with 1 min walks in between. However, I was super tired out after only 15 minutes and ended up just walking most of the way back to my dorm. I didn't go for as long as normal either, due to all the stuff I need to work on and the fact that I probably overworked myself a little.

Total Time: 20 minutes

Day Six: May 6th

I think this is the first time I've ever run in the rain. It's wasn't pouring by any means but was a nice sprinkle. I didn't follow the "schedule" actually I kinda just ran until I was starting to feel tired then walked until I decided to run again. I started feeling a little bit of a shin splint coming on toward the end and a couple hours after my run my left ankle started to hurt a bit. This is the same leg that I've had issues with in the past. I guess I'll just have to press on but take it easy.

Total Time: unknown