Farmer's Market Report

I love the Farmer's Markets in our area.  The one on Wednesday afternoons is called Smart Markets and features vendors who farm locally and minimize the use of chemicals.  Yesterday we rode our bikes up there (note to self: no fresh eggs if one does this).

This time of year all kinds of yummy vegetables are showing up.  Using what we picked up, I made the following recipe.  It's from The Glycemic Index Cookbook.  One change though -- I used regular mayo instead of fat free.  I can't stand the fat free stuff.  But if you go with the fat free, you'll save some calories. I wish I had taken a photo, but I forgot and the family gobbled them down too quickly for me to rescue that moment.  Sigh.

BLT CUKES

1/2 cup finely chopped lettuce
1/2 cup finely chopped spinach
3 slices bacon, crisp-cooked and crumbled  (I usually do a whole package and then keep it in the fridge for various things -- doesn't take much bacon to give a lot of flavor to something that needs some zing)
1/4 cup finely diced tomato
1 Tbs plus 1 1/2 tsp fat free mayo
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/8 tsp salt
1 large cucumber
   Minced fresh parsley or green onion (optional)

1.  Combine lettuce, spinach, bacon, tomato, mayo, salt & pepper in a medium bowl; mix well.

2.  Peel cucumber; trim off ends and cut in half lengthwise.  Use spoon to scoop out seeds, discard seeds. (I didn't peel the cuke as I used an English style one).

3.  Divide filler mixture between cucumber halves, mounding in center.  Garnish with parlsey.  Cut into 2 inch pieces.  Here's where you can be smarter than me.  I cut the cucumber into 2 inch pieces and then tried to fill each one.  Made a REAL MESS!

If made with the no-fat mayo: Calories: 26, Carbohydrage: 2g, Total Fat: 2g. Sat Fat: <1g. Fiber: <1g

Enjoy your summer bounty!

Wheels Keep Turning

Of course, I found this in New York City too.  They have an awesome bike path on the Battery.  However, we saw it mid morning on a work week, so I can't even imagine what it must be like on the weekends.  One of the A-1 folks told me that a friend of hers got a SPEEDING TICKET while in NYC -- on his bike.  Hmmm.

Here's a photo at the end of the harbor lights cruise in NYC.  Not the best photo of my two, but after two days of non-stop walking, they're both still smiling, so it's a win!

And here are two of my graduate, first with her grandmother (my mom) and next with the best principal EVER, Bruce Butler. He's retiring this year.  What a bummer for my son.

Our exchange student left yesterday.  The house feels a little bit emptier, but he had pretty much "checked out" the last month anyway in a desperate attempt to relive the non-smutty parts of "Endless Summer."  You know how you meet the most interesting people one month before you're supposed to leave the area forever. Then someday you make a movie about it and everyone is bathed in that perfect glow.

So now it's back to getting that room cleaned up, painted, new carpet (not because of him but because it needed it before he moved in!).  Will post photos as it happens.

Time to go for a bike ride.  Catch you on the flipside, dude.

Not Sophisticated Enough

In an effort to not offend people who really like modern art, I will refrain from expressing in words what I kept thinking in the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City.  Instead, I will show you a few photos I took and let you decide what constitutes "art".

My son said this looks like the white boards at school
AFTER they've been cleaned!

And here are some photos of things I thought were interesting, but not necessarily "art".  At least they spoke to my heart!

And finally, some things that are indisputedly famous art.

Experts call Van Gogh's The Starry Night a work of art -- I agree.
But my son, a young man fearfully and wonderfully made by our Creator,
is even more so.

I don't have to understand an artist's motivation in order to grasp the artwork, but I do try to apply the standard of Philippians 4:8 -- and if the work doesn't in some way glorify God, I have a hard time calling it art.  Next time I go to MOMA, I'll start at the top floor (where the Picasso and Van Gogh paintings are) and work my way down.

Oops, last one.  This is my graduate, who will be studying Geospatial Imaging in college this fall.  In other words, she is a map geek.  Maps can definitely be art!

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

Whew!  Back from New York City.  My son and I had never been, my daughter had only been for "hit and run" visits through school, my husband hadn't been there since BEFORE the World Trade Center towers were built and our exchange student hadn't been at all.  BUT OF COURSE, it was the one place he wanted to see before he leaves the US next week.

I whined, I complained.  I hate crowds, I hate noise, I hate pretentious people.  I thought New York was all about that.  My son whined along with me.  But in the end, we sucked it up and went.

And don't tell anyone I said this:  It wasn't so bad after all.

Yes, it was busy, and noisy, and crowded and smelly.  And there were people of all kinds who were almost uniformly generous, and helpful and kind.  A few were less than pleasant, but compared with some of the people we run into in the Washington, D.C. area, they weren't so bad.

We stayed in Brooklyn at Ft. Hamilton (love those military benefits) which made the trip affordable.  We bought City Passes so we could visit some of the sights without having to stand in line forever.

And most importantly, the rift that had grown between my children and our exchange student closed a bit. It will never be a perfect relationship, but they understand each other better and they are more patient with one another. Sharing trudging a zillion blocks of city pavement cuts through the B.S.

Did we find pretention?  Oh yeah -- but that's another post another day.  In the meantime, here's what we saw last night on our river cruise.  The two structures under construction are the World Trade Center towers that are being rebuilt.  The one on the left is the Freedom Tower.  It will top out at 1776 feet.  On purpose.

It Went By Too Fast

Wow -- that was fast!  After anticipating it all year, the week of high school graduation flew by!  My oldest is now a graduate, and eagerly looking ahead to college.  In fact, "one foot out the door" best describes her these days.  She's a maps whiz so she's working at an internship at nearby USGS.  She also continues her volunteer work with Spirit Open Equestrian -- a therapeutic horseback riding group.

Because of the graduation, my mom has been with us.  That's been very nice.  She's the perfect grandmother -- indulgent but not interfering. Both kids love having her here.  She's leaving this morning.

Yesterday evening I took her for a walk at some of our pretty gardens.  They are next to the Fannie Mae building, and we could see how the recession is affecting their maintenance.  That part was sad.  But as we were gazing across one of the ponds we saw a huge leaf moving along -- like a sail.  By squinting, we could see it being pulled by a beaver!  He took it all the way across the pond and then "flip", he took it underwater.  We think his wife sent him out to get fresh salad.  I did take a video, but it's not really clear using the viewer available through blogger.  Oh well.

We are headed to NYC for a few days for our exchange student's last "hurrah."  He leaves next Monday.  I'll post some good NYC photos when we return.

Have an excellent Father's Day!

Sweat or Wet?

I rode to the next town west today (Herndon, VA).  There's a Great Harvest bread store there (awesome breads -- if you have one near you and haven't tried it, you MUST).  They give samples.  We LIKE samples!  I also needed to pick up our favorite loaf, Apple Scrapple, since my mom arrives this evening for graduation Thursday afternoon.  This is the link for the Herndon store -- you can see their menu and their "home town" approach.

One of my daughter's friend's dad works there.  They immigrated (legally) from Guatamala about ten years ago.  He works two jobs, and his wife works as well so their three children will be able to succeed in America.  The kids are 16, 10, 8.  The oldest already works part-time during the school year and full time in the summer.  She's a year behind my daughter, so every time I'm in there I talk to her to dad about scholarships and preparing his kids for college. It always floors me how little the immigrant parents from Central American really understand about how to access the higher education system in this country.  I'm looking forward to sitting down with them one evening this summer and trying to map out a plan, not just for their daughter, but for the younger boys as well.

Look how cool the new bike racks are!  Herndon has an old-timey downtown and they do a good job of preserving its character.  I love the whimsy of these -- and the marked off parking places!

At any rate, since I talk about my bike all the time, I thought I'd show you a photo.  This is before the rain started.  Yeah -- 5 miles home getting soaked.  All in a good cause, right?

It's a Bianchi road bike, purchased in Germany 22 years ago.  I've replaced the seat and tires, but the Shimano brakes and gears are original and still working pretty well --- okay, the middle gear is starting to slip more and more -- but after 22 years, I think I've gotten my money's worth!

Last night my son agreed with me to try a 26 mile ride this summer.  That's from our town center out to the end of the W&OD trail.  I did 10 today in the rain, without anyone to talk to -- twice that in dry weather with someone for company should be a lot easier.  Still, I think I'd better start extending my mileage!

If you click on it, you can see where the green line crosses the county line between Fairfax and Loudoun.  That's close to where we start and head west, all the way out to Purcellville.  Did I mention that Purcellville is in the foothills of the Blue Ridge?  As in mountains?  So our plan, the first time, is to have my husband drive us out to Purcellville with the bikes racked and then we'll ride back towards home.  Better to do it the first time in a downhill elevation, I think!

If it gets to the end of the summer and you haven't seen me post "I did it!", feel free to harass me!

An Incomplete Phrase

Reading news stories today, I was once again struck by how well-meaning people, in the midst of trauma, claim "God doesn't give we/us more than we can handle."  I think often people say it in order to affirm their faith in a benevolent, loving God who will give them what they hope the outcome will be.  It is to comfort themselves, give themselves something brave to say as they face the awful thing.

While I do believe God is loving, and benevolent, I also believe we can't see what He sees, thus as humans we define "love" in a completely different way.  Our interpretation says that if we love someone, we want them to be happy, healthy, etc.  But that's not true love. It's opportunistic. What if being unhappy or unhealthy for a season is what God has called them to?  What if everyone prays for healing, but the person dies. Does that make God wrong? Or our prayers not good enough? If we love someone the way God does, we want the very best for them as defined by God, not by human desire.

Romans 8:28 says, 'And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

To repeat that "God doesn't give we/us more than we can handle," gives great comfort but indicates an incomplete understanding of how that works.  Jeremiah 29:11-13 says, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."

The idea here is that in order to claim that promise -- that God doesn't give we/us more than we can handle, we have an active part in the relationship to play.  We are to seek Him, call upon Him, talk (pray) to Him, and we are to do it with all our heart.  Mark 12:30 says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."

This comes directly from the Old Testament in Deuteronomy 6:5, which says, "Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength."

I love The Message version: " Love God, your God, with your whole heart: love him with all that's in you, love him with all you've got!"

And that's just it.  If we aren't loving God by seeking His will constantly, we are not in fellowship with Him. And if we aren't in fellowship with Him, we have no idea whether the bad things that are happening to us might be potentially lessened, or more thoroughly understood.

So what people ought to say is, "God doesn't give we/us more than we can handle with His help."