Black Friday, Amish style

While the rest of the world was trampling over each other at Walmart this morning, my family went to the Amish bulk food store in Shipshewana.

As we neared the store, we saw a buggy cruising through an intersection a bit late, giving us this quote of the day: “Did that buggy just trot the red light?”

Once we got to the store it was surprisingly empty.  We stocked up on the usual items: flour, cocoa, spices, quinoa.

Some big guy with a NASCAR jacket took a big handful of cheese samples.  Just reached into the cup and grabbed them.  No toothpicks involved.  Youngest Daughter: “Can I have cheese?”  Me: “No.”

As we were leaving, we observed a lineup of around twenty buggies along the side of the building.  Gives new meaning to Black Friday.

Over the river and through the woods…

Well, here we are at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.  We traveled early this morning, instead of trying to fight Thanksgiving Eve traffic last night.  And just what does a three hour trip from the Chicago ‘burbs to north-central Indiana look like?  Here’s my view from the driver’s seat…

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“Who wants to see my proboscis?”  (Oldest Daughter, just out of the driveway)

“I’m sure glad we’re travelling this morning instead of last night.”  (Me to Ordinary Spouse, as we made two effortless left turns  where I’d normally encounter great volumes of traffic during my morning commute)

Six minutes into the trip, we get on the “fast road” (the general nickname for limited access road, which in this case is I-55).  This is the signal for the girls to request a DVD.  In goes Fraggle Rock.

About fifteen minutes later, we’re onto I-355 and crossing the “blue light bridge” over the Des Plaines River.  McMansions overlook the valley on the south side.  I spout opinions… “If I had half a million dollars to buy a house, I’d get something with more character than these boxes.”

Shortly thereafter, I remember my blog… “If I could live blog this trip, I would.” Instead, I ask ordinary spouse if she has paper and pencil.  She anticipates my next request and writes, “My ordinary assistant will hand write the whole thing.”  I comment that “ordinary assistant” will probably get replaced by “smart-alecky assistant” when the notes make it into print.

“Could you give me blana?”  (Youngest Daughter woke up five minutes before we left and didn’t have breakfast.  Now she wants a banana.)

All along, I’m sipping coffee.  I’ve got a great thermos.  Too great.  The coffee is scalding hot nearly all the way.

Ordinary Spouse is cleaning out her purse.  She finds a diaper.

From I-355 to I-80.  The opening bars of U2’s “Zoo Station” (from the album, “Achtung Baby”) are playing as we’re exiting from one to the other.  Makes for a nice transition.

We see a white flag with a red border and a blue star.  Ordinary Spouse speculates that it’s a Czech flag.  Turns out that it’s a flag displayed by the family of a member of the armed services serving in a dangerous location.  We learned something new.

Shortly after getting on I-80, an alert Ordinary Spouse kept me from rear-ending another car.  The road was nearly empty and there was no one in my lane, so I reached for my coffee.  At the same moment, a car in the left lane braked and pulled into my lane.  Then they proceeded to the right lane and accelerated again.  Not sure what that was about.

We cruise through the IPASS lane when I-294 merges with I-80.  It occurs to us that we have no idea how much toll we’re actually paying.

The billboards along the interstate near the Illinois-Indiana border are really classy.  (“Gamble 30 minutes and get a free buffet” or “All of the liquor; none of the clothes”.)  Ordinary Spouse comments on the first one. “Sounds like  a gamble to me.”

We’ve removed Fraggle Rock, which didn’t seem to be a big hit.  It’s been replaced by the Laurie Birkner Band. “This is like a rock star for kids,” says Middle Daughter.

Rain, rain, rain.

Onto the Indiana Turnpike (I-80/I-90).  We immediately stop at a rest area.  Coffee’s coming through.

We debate the spelling of “niece”.  I comment on the weird spelling of “weird”.

We see a flock sheep walking in formation.  Then we see a sheep dog calmly standing and calling to them.  No running involved.  Impressive.

We reached the end of “Achtung Baby”.  I spout more opinions: what makes an album more than the sum of the parts, and why “Achtung Baby” is one of those albums.

We pass the pond with the big musical instruments.  Time to exit the Turnpike.  On to the bypass around South Bend.  Ordinary Spouse phones her parents and tries to make them believe we still have two hours to go.  Actually, we only have about 45 minutes – we’ll be just in time for Thanksgiving dinner.

Michael Card’s “Starkindler”  is now playing.

Ordinary Spouse and I discuss Richard Rohr and right brain/left brain duality.

Off of the bypass and on to US-33 toward Goshen.

In Goshen, we spot a couple running from their house to their car, carrying a turkey.  They didn’t cover the bird.  It’s raining.

And then, 150 miles and two and a half hours later, we’ve made it.

Thanks to God for every blessing in our lives.  May the thanks we give today continue throughout the year.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Candle making

I took today off and began the Thanksgiving holiday one day early today.  Our family was invited to a day of candle making at the home of couple from our congregation.  The wife teaches kindergarten and didn’t have today off, so the husband did all of the hosting today.  We had an awesome time.

One of the things that is really special is that our host is a good teacher, so he took the time to show the girls how to do things correctly and safely (hot wax on the stove).  Also, he has been making candles for forty years now, but he still enjoys seeing how each candle turns out.  His encouragement makes the girls feel proud of what they created.  Everyone enjoys the time.

(And a well-timed “Elmo’s World” on TV didn’t hurt when attention spans got a little short.  We spent the whole day!)

Anyway, here are the fruits of our labors today…

Ordinary Spouse made one; Middle Daughter, Youngest Daughter, and I each made two; and Oldest Daughter made four (and wanted to do more).  In addition, we made four other candles that are being used for Advent at church.  We dropped them off before we came home, so no pictures.

Here are my ordinary candles…

Note the deliberate choice of green for ordinary time.  Candles for contemplation.

On Thanksgiving eve, I’m thankful for my community, for friends, for other adults who care for my children.

Five (more) for Friday… Discontinued comics

To go with today’s earlier post, here are my favorite comics that are no longer in production.  If they were, I would have had some troubles narrowing down my favorites to a single “Five for Friday” list.

1) Calvin And Hobbes

2) The Far Side

3) Boondocks

4) FoxTrot (Technically, FoxTrot is still published on Sundays (yay!), but it is no longer a daily strip.)

5) Bloom County/Opus

Five for Friday… Comics

Today I give you my favorite comic strips, without too much explanation.  It seems to me that a person’s sense of humor is either understood or not.  If understood, explanation isn’t needed; and if not, no amount of explanation is going to help.

I’m afraid my sense of humor will be in the latter…

1) Frazz – Frazz is like a grown up Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes.  He’s a wise custodian who could be in a higher paying job.  But why move on, when you’re doing what you love?

2) Dilbert – I work in cubicle.  I’ve been known to photoshop Dilbert cartoons in order to put in my own name.  And sometimes, they’re just a little too realistic.

3) Arlo & Janis – I am Arlo.  Except that I have no desire to own a sailboat.  A canoe, on the other hand…

4) Doonesbury – I like my political commentary to lean slightly left (while still making fun of everyone).

5) Baby Blues – House with three kids.  Need I say more?

Working on relationship

Rather than giving you random, disordered, and shallow thoughts today, I thought I’d suggest some really good reading:

“Walking With God – Why Is It So Hard?” by Christine Sine

In the past year, the importance of community and relationships has become a greater concern to me.  Christine’s thoughts provide some good insight into those things.  I encourage you to give it a read.

Staying fit

(Sigh.)

I wish I were more disciplined about staying fit.  I’ve always struggled a bit with weight.  I don’t think I’ve ever hit “obese”, but I’ve certainly been overweight.  (Or, I may be in denial.)

Back in high school choir, the choir members had outfits that required fitting.  I distinctly remember going to the store that was doing this and being told by one of the employees, “You’re a bit chubby here!”  I considered that to be insulting and rude, and I never went back to that store.

But he was right.

During my undergraduate time at Goshen College, I spent one semester in Costa Rica.  During that time, my eating habits were excellent and the food was healthy.  I lost quite a bit of weight – don’t really know how much, but while I was there I had to put new holes in my belt to get it to fit my waist.  When I came home, I took up biking during the summer.  That was a good time for me.

When I started grad school, I had just gotten married.  I also purchased a bread machine about that time.  Not good.  Well – the bread was good, but its effects, combined with my lack of self-control and my wife’s great cooking, made for a steady weight gain.  Midway through grad school, I was about 45 pounds over my target weight, and I determined that I was going to do something about it.

And I did.

I ate less, I ate healthier, and I started exercising.  I biked to work, went swimming in the mornings, and took up jogging.  I actually got to the point where I was losing half a pound per day, and it was healthy weight loss.  I wasn’t starving myself or anything unhealthy like that.  I just did a major re-adjustment of my eating and exercise habits.  And I got down to a healthy weight.

Then my first daughter was born, and my discipline disappeared.

About five years later, I had put nearly all of the weight back on.  At this point, we had moved on and I had a postdoctoral research job.  Happily, there was an Olympic-sized swimming pool at the lab where I worked, and I got myself back into some healthier habits, and got my weight back to a healthier level.

And then my second daughter was born and we moved to our current house, and after about five years my weight was going way up again.

Which brings us to this year.  I determined that I needed to get my life under control again.  I had used some gift money toward starting a YMCA membership, and once again I began a diet and exercise plan.  It worked – I lost 35 pounds earlier this year.  Really – I should have lost more, but I became a bit comfortable with my success.  Then summer started, and I started spending time blogging, and…

Well, I’ve put back on most of the weight I’ve lost.  Really – it’s one of the biggest challenges to self-esteem that I face*, so I’m working at self-control again.  I need to reduce the food that I’m eating, and I need to get back into the swimming pool.  (I love swimming, although I wish the water at the ‘Y’ were a bit warmer.)  Staying in control of my diet and activity level is such a weakness for me.  But I thought that if I shared here, it might provide a bit of incentive to keep working, especially with the upcoming holiday season.

* I realize that we could discuss self-esteem and self-worth, and where those feelings come from, and what they should be based on, and so forth.  But it doesn’t change the fact that I need to modify my lifestyle.  Which is to say – I guess I don’t particularly care to discuss those thing right now.

So – watch this space for updates.  Perhaps I’ll reflect on other aspects of this journey that I haven’t mentioned here, such as the quality of food that we eat or the issue of justice and global nutrition.  And I’ll appreciate any prayers for discipline and gentle accountability nudges.

Here goes…

Turning the soil

We’ve had some really nice weather in the Chicago ‘burbs throughout this week and continuing today.  Although I had to put in a Saturday morning at work, I got home by early afternoon and (thanks to some prodding by Ordinary Spouse) was able to get out and enjoy it.

In our back yard, we have a small garden that OS tends.  There’s not much space, but I’m thankful for her efforts because the fruits of her labor add to our meals throughout the summer.  My favorite staples are probably tomatoes, cucumbers (which also show up as pickles), and arugula, but we get other things depending on which seeds in the catalog caught her fancy in January.  Turns out that this year we are still enjoying leeks and cilantro into mid-November.

Today, she wanted me to get the plot ready for winter (well – all except the patches of leek and cilantro) which consisted of taking down some rabbit fence, pulling some stakes, spreading some rich soil from our compost pile, and turning everything over just a bit.  I grumbled a bit as I was motivating my body out the door, but once outside the weather was so nice, and the work so rewarding, that I was thankful to be there.

Thanks to an Andrew Kreider song in my head, I got to thinking about the curse of the garden in Genesis.  Here are some excerpts from the song…

The soil in the garden, voluptuous and new
Bursting with promise and moist with the dew
Awakens in me the desire for you
To make me the work of your hand

We feasted that day without a care
Using spoonfuls of pepper that would singe your hair
A worm in my apple, breaking the curse
Renewing my love for the earth

“Our Souls Are Soil”
(from “Firebrands and Golden Strands)
by Andrew Kreider

Have you ever noticed in Genesis 3 that the curse is directed at the ground, and not at Adam?  And how in Romans, Paul says that “creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God”?  As my spade was breaking the ground, I was contemplating that line, “…breaking the curse, renewing my love for the earth”, and praying that God’s children would be a blessing to the ground.

In the chorus, Andrew’s song compares our own lives to the ground.  It’s rather profound:

Oh, our souls are soil.
Won’t you turn them gently?
Our souls are soil.
Won’t you turn them again?

If God the gardener is tending to the soil of my life, I hope there are some hot peppers planted.

The trials of the dishwasher saga

The dishwasher is still not in working order (we’re waiting Maytag), and it’s taking a toll on everyone.  Just recently, Oldest Daughter said…

I’d rather rinse the dishes.  Washing them hyperextends my back.

Well – I guess we wouldn’t want that, would we?

Fit for a princess

“Rose Garden Castle” by Oldest Daughter, 5″ x 7″, acrylic on canvas, 2009.