CSA basket this week and menu planning

(The water bottles in the back are part of our earthquake supplies. We don't actually regularly drink bottled water.)

I missed posting about our basket last time it came; sorry!  But here's what we got yesterday:

-baby garlic <-- This is great! It looks like green onions, but tastes like garlic, just milder. Last time we got it, we used it on eggs. Super-yummy.

-garlic

-parsley

-cilantro

-lettuce: red, romaine, and iceberg

-chard

-beets + beet greens

-carrots

-radishes

-avocado (to Adam's joy)

-tatsoi (I know, I'd never heard of it either)

-celery, with lots of leaves

-tomatoes

-grapfruit

-potatoes

-apples

-pears

-satsumas

-oranges

-lemons

And what are we going to make of it? Well, as usual, the fruit is going to be snacks, as are the radishes, the beets and the carrots, and possibly some of the celery.

Then, we're having:

-mongolian beef (baby garlic & garlic) (and I use ground beef for this, and serve over brown rice)

-taco salad (uses cilantro, lettuce, avocado, tomato)

-chef salad (uses lettuce, parsley, tomato, carrots and celery)

-pasta with sausage and swiss chard (I'm going to stick the chard, the beet greens and the tatsoi in here - we have company the night we're having this, so I'm going to make a big batch)

-Vietnamese Fried Rice from the More With Less cookbook (Uses lettuce, parsley, and whatever else needs to be used up - this is a great use-what-you-have recipe. You can toss any extra veggies or meat you happen to have in here.)

-pork with celery, Greek Style from the Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines (uses LOTS of celery with leaves)

I just realized I made no provision for the potatoes. But potatoes always come in handy, and if nothing else, we'll roast them and have potato oven fries and cheese for lunch some time.

Anyone found any good recipes recently? particularly for greens? I'm still having trouble figuring out what to do with all these greens. And lettuce (hence all the main dish salads this time around).

I'm sure eating all those leaves is good for us. Alllllllll those leaves.

peace of Christ to you, 

Jessica Snell

update on the push-ups and pull-ups challenge

I blogged here about how my husband and I were taking on the 100 push-ups and 20 pull-ups challenges.
And since now is just about the time that such resolutions begin to fade, I thought I'd report in.
Are we still doing it? Yep.
On the pull-ups: well, I can do one now! I can almost do two. I completed Week -2 and Week -1, but the truth is, I'm not ready for Week 1 itself yet. So, instead, I am just doing my max five times in a row every other night (throwing some slow, negative pull-ups in there as well) and will keep doing that until I can do 3 pull-ups in a row, and then I'll start Week 1. I'm hoping I'll be ready for Week 1 in ten days or so.
On the push-ups: I'm on Week 4! I just did Week 4, Day one last night. Ouch, ouch, ouch. On round 5 last night I only did 18 push-ups (instead of the 25 I was supposed to hit), so I'm going to repeat Week 4, Day 1. When I can complete that, I'll go on to Week 4, Day 2. I'm hoping I can get it on the next try - I was so close!
I felt badly about not hitting that 25 max on the fifth round (it's only the second time in the whole program I haven't made it all the way through all five rounds), but then my husband counted up for me that - all said and done - I'd just done 90 push-ups in the last ten minutes. That made me feel better.

I'm excited because at the end of Week 4, whenever I get there, I get to do another test-to-exhaustion, and I'm looking forward to seeing how much I've improved since I started.

And the last question: is it worth it? Well, so far, I think it is. It surely does hurt to do that many push-ups in a row. But during the 23+ hours a day I'm not doing push-ups, I feel really good. My arms and shoulders have a lot more shape, and I feel stronger. It's doing lots of good for my tummy region too, and let me tell you, after four kids, that's a great good thing! Push-ups really are an amazing all-body exercise. And you combine them pull-ups? Wow. They're just killer.

I'm beginning to have a new goal: some day, I want to do this kind of burpees:

(Um, probably not that many though. I know my limits. I think.) (Oh, and, warning: there is a small bit of profanity at the very end of that video.)
So, have I inspired anyone else to give this a try? It really is amazing to push yourself and see change happen.
For me, doing this physical challenge, and seeing tangible results, is having a strange effect . . . it's reminding me that the same principle is true in less tangible things: in my writing, and in my devotional life, in particular. If I push myself as far as I can go, I do hit a wall. And that can feel like failure. But the truth is, by pushing myself all the way until I hit that wall, the next time I try, I can go further.
peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Links: juggling, chastity, showers and more!

My husband (who's probably craft-i-er than me) has a new how-to up on Instructables, on how to make weighted juggling balls that won't take up too much space in your backpack. So if you've got someone on your gift list who likes juggling (or wants to learn), this is the tutorial for you. Send along some nifty octohedral juggling balls so that he has something fun to do on his lunch break.

(The guys at my husband's work do all sorts of things on their lunch breaks: juggling, practicing handstands, putting together role-playing games, practicing martial arts, playing cribbage . . . they've even been known to break out the didgeridoos.)

Also, if you want to learn to juggle, Adam also has a nifty little Instructable on your basic three-ball cascade.

I found this article on how movie-dubbing works to be really interesting, especially as we're occasionally listening to the Spanish track instead of the English on our DVD's these days.

This woman's defense of saving sex till after marriage is worth reading. I liked this part especially:

I believe that having sex permanently alters your relationship with someone: makes you connected to them forever in a really transformative way. Once again, this is something that our culture doesn’t really believe but I think that it is true nonetheless and that we can see the effects, acknowledged or not. Therefore having that relationship with more than one living person would be highly problematic.

A post on how to shower? Yes. Seriously. I loved this. And the rest of the blog is one of those ones where you want to go back and read the entire archives (which I'm currently doing). Thanks to Ann for the link!

The Rev.'s Matt and Anne Kennedy are writing about their past year, and the mercies God has shown them. It's compelling stuff, and if you're interested at all in matters Episcopal and Anglican - or if you just want to read about the cost and the blessings of following Jesus - you'll want to read their account.

peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

on dressing identical twins identically

My two youngest daughters are identical (or, monozygotic) twins. They look an awful lot alike.

(And for the record: yes, I can tell them apart, but, yes, sometimes I mistake one for the other. Not often though.)

(Unless you count mistaking them from behind. That does happen more often. Their backs are much more identical than their faces!)

So, do I dress them identically? Sometimes.

The strongest current thought on identical twins – the advice you read in every book about parenting twins (all of which seem to be mainly concerned with fraternals, and only deign to give a paragraph or two to identicals) – seems to be to make sure, sure, sure they know that they are separate people. Make sure everyone knows they are separate people.

To which I think, well, of course they’re separate people. I’ve noticed. You’d have to be blind, deaf and dumb not to. But they’re also twins, and isn’t that allowed to be part of their identity too?

Like many things in life, my guess is that for them, handling their identities is going to be a sort of dynamic balance: I am myself, and that’s most important. But one of my important characteristics is that I have, from before birth, also been intimately related to her. Which makes me no less myself. In fact, it makes me more.

I recently read a book on identical twins (so good to finally find one!), written by an identical twin, that made me think the above is really true.

So do I dress them identically? The answer is: sometimes. Usually, they’re dressed differently, because they are, apart from being twins, younger sisters. Which means that they get their older sister’s hand-me-downs, and there aren’t a lot of matching outfits in there. 

But they’re also given matching outfits fairly frequently, and they look awfully cute in them.

And I figure that as soon as they care about what they’re wearing (probably in a year or so), I’ll let them choose for themselves whether or not they want to match. For now, I’ll dress them in matching outfits sometimes, and sometimes not (today’s a not).

The other thing about matching outfits is that (and I’ve noticed this is true of kids wearing school uniforms as well), sometimes they look more individually distinct when their clothes matches than when they don’t. When there’s no distinction made by clothing – let alone by coloring or height – what really makes the person individual stands out more strongly.  You can’t go by the easy things when everyone’s in uniform, you have to look deeper.

 And in some ways, though it’s been harder to get to know my twins (especially because of the exhaustion effect of twinfancy), I feel like I’m getting to know them at a deeper level than that at which I first got to know my singletons. I can’t know them just by their age or their gender or their developmental stage, because they match in all these things. I just have to get to know each one as herself.

And that’s kind of cool.

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

praying before shopping - and more

Okay, I just wrote a whole post about how much I like thrift store shopping, but then I read this post about shopping and it is so much better than what I had to say. Please, go read what this wise woman has to say.

peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

treasure hunting at the thrift store

Today I got to go to the thrift store just with Gamgee, all sturdy and boyish in his camo hoodie.   Adam stayed home (bless him) working on his own project (weighted juggling balls – he wanted juggling balls that were compact but still had heft), and taking care of the girls.

            I love going to thrift stores. I’ve being doing it for years now, and I’m getting better and better at buying things we’ll actually use and love, instead of things I’ll look at and say, “why did I get that again?”

            It’s a treasure hunt, every time. And I always go with an idea in my head of what I want to keep an eye out for. Some are perennial: we always keep an eye out for Legos.

            Also, there are some themes that are perennial: things that are green or blue, especially if combined with white, will always catch my eye. Also anything botanical. Our household items tend to be blue, green, white or wooden, and if they’re decorated, it’s with leaves and flowers, with a definite preference for the edible or the aromatic.

            I like having a big general theme, because then I can move things around from place to place, and they always fit in and look peaceful. (Do other people do this? I think they must. Do you?) 

            I’ve learned – after much trial and error – to adopt a similar stance towards my wardrobe. Again, the base colors are blue and green, with white as my go-to neutral for tops and black for bottoms. I will go for true reds and certain shades of rose, but I try not to do too much of that, because they’re harder to match, and I just don’t want to wear them as often as I want to wear green and blue.

            I generally buy natural fibers, though I appreciate what a small percentage of spandex will do for the fit of a shirt or pair of pants. I’ve learned that if I buy clothes that aren’t mostly cotton or mostly linen or mostly silk, I just won’t wear them, because in SoCal weather, they’re just amazingly uncomfortable.

            I’ve learned too, through years of thrift store shopping, that though it’s fun to experiment, there’s a lot to be said for finding a couple of brands that just always fit well, and wear well. I keep my eyes open for Ann Taylor and Ann Taylor Loft. I’ve had good luck with St. John’s Bay shirts (the ones made from India cotton – so light! so pretty!). I discovered Lucky dungarees, and don’t want to ever go back as long as I can keep finding them at thrift store prices (can’t imagine swallowing the price tag of getting them new!). Banana Republic and Gap tend to fit well too.

            I know some people don’t like thrift store shopping because it takes so long, but I think having an idea of what you’re looking for cuts down a lot on the time. (Not that I couldn’t spend hours. I’m just saying, if you didn’t want to . . .)

            Today though, Gamgee and I spent almost an hour looking at the books. Mostly at the kids’ books. We bought a copy of How Things Work, and an old Arch Bible story book, and a book about knights, and one about the human body, and a prayers and poems book and – because Gamgee was there – one about dinosaurs and trains (yes, in the same book – someone knows little boys well).

            I also found a silver tray (I’ve been wanting a tray for awhile – I didn’t have a one) and a beautiful dark blue and orange silk linen (we also have a minor theme in our home of the international – mostly presents from well-traveled friends and family – and this silk looked very Thai to me). I’m not sure what it was meant for: it could be a shawl or a table cloth or a curtain valance. But it was very cheap (probably because it wasn’t actually labeled as silk – the label was gone) and I don’t think I’ll have trouble finding a place for it. It might end up on the apothecary chest which is currently (I’m not sure why) sporting a (green and blue) yoga mat for a covering.

            I also did find a pair of jeans, and a pair of shorts and a skirt. And I’m all out of Christmas money now. But it was a lot of fun.

            And it was very fun to spend a couple of hours with just my son. It was fun watching clerks and other shoppers talk to him and comment on how cute he was. Usually his little sisters get all of that attention from strangers, and it was fun watching Gamgee be the charmer for a change.

            Because he really is one. He charms me every day.

Pick Your Line and Follow Jesus

Two of the things that inspired me the most this past year weren’t lessons I learned by reading good books or by watching stories brilliantly conveyed on the silver screen. They were a couple of sentences from my brother and my sister.

They were uttered in two different settings: one on my brother’s blog, and one by my sister as we talked about the Episcopal Church. But when I put them together, I found something that’s no less than a life manifesto.

My sister, when speaking of church, and all the disaster that was going on around us, shrugged and said, “Yeah, well, that’s what happens when you don’t follow Jesus.” Simple and devastating. (My sister, btw, combines candor and compassion in one rare personality. She’ll be the first to tell you the hard truths, but also the first to help you out of any hole you’ve dug yourself into.)

My brother, on the other hand, reminded me of something my dad taught us when we were learning to do downhill mountain-biking back when we were teenagers: “pick your line and follow it; the bike can take you over more than you think it can.” (This was the kind of downhilling where you’d ride a ski-lift up to the top of a mountain in the summer, and then ride your bike, exhilaratingly fast, all the way back down, taking fire roads and singletrack in criss-cross through the forest and over the granite ridges.)

What he meant was that when you’re downhilling, you need to look where you want to go (not where you don’t) and then let the bike’s momentum do the work. You have to trust to the line you’ve picked and to the speed you’ve picked up. Your momentum will carry you over roots and rocks and bumps, if you just choose well and then let yourself go.

Both of those things resonated in my mind for a long time. They’re resonating still. Together, what I get is that I need to look where I’m going – at Jesus – and then I just need to go.

peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell