Blue Jeans and Cotton Tees

I rediscovered the book Mrs. Miniver recently at the library. It’s been fun to read it again and savor some of my favorite parts.

I especially love this section:

“As she walked past a cab rank in Pont Street, Mrs. Miniver heard a very fat taxi-driver with a bottle nose saying to a very old taxi-driver with a rheumy eye: ‘They say it’s all a question of your subconscious mind.’

Enchanted she put the incident in her pocket for Clem. It jostled, a bright pebble, against several others: she had had a rewarding day. And Clem, who had driven down to the country to lunch with a client, would be pretty certain to come back with some good stuff, too.

This was the cream of marriage, this nightly turning out of the day’s pocketful of memories, this deft habitual sharing of two eyes, two pairs of ears. It gave you, in a sense, almost a double life: though never, on the other hand, quite a single one.”

Mrs. Miniver by Jan Struther

I love the idea of collecting ideas, events, attitudes, thoughts, etc… like pebbles in my pocket. Then when my husband comes home, I slowly empty them one by one and share them.

It really is the cream of marriage.

What pebbles did you collect today?

I’ve been studying love this month.

Not the romantic love that we celebrate on Valentine’s Day – but the love that God has for us.

It’s that kind of love that He wants us to have for others.

I was humbled by these verses in Ephesians -

“Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents.

Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.”

Ephesians 5:1-2 (The Message)

Wow.

Extravagant love.

The word extravagant makes me think “over-the-top”. I think of rich people throwing their money away as if they had an endless source.

While I may not be rich in money – I am rich in love! God has promised me an unlimited supply of it. There’s no way I could ever give it all away!

Webster’s dictionary defines extravagant as “exceeding the limits of reason or necessity” and “lacking in moderation balance and restraint.”

That’s how Christ loved us! He didn’t love us because of anything we could do for Him.

He loved us all the way to the cross.

It was a huge “over-the-top” kind of love that is beyond what we can reason or understand. It blows away our feeble ideas and selfish motives.

Do I love like that?

I thought of the group of believers in Haiti who, having heard about the earthquake but being far enough away from it to not be affected, gathered up whatever food and supplies they had and headed out to give aid.

These people are destitute themselves. They did not give out of their abundance – but out of their poverty.

That’s extravagant love.

Do I love like that?

Unselfishly.

Freely.

Beyond what is necessary?

Beyond the limits of reason?

Think of the difference we would make in our world if we loved like our Savior does – extravagantly!

Photo by aussiegal

This is so embarrassing.

The other night we were sitting as a family watching the Opening Ceremonies for the Winter Olympics when I felt my eyes getting heavier and heavier.

The next thing I knew – I woke up dazed.

I had fallen asleep in the chair.

For years as I was growing up,  my siblings and I would laugh at my parents who could both sit in the recliner and drift off to sleep with their mouths open – sometimes snoring.

We kids would often joke about trying to drop things inside their open mouths – but never quite got up the nerve.

Now it was happening to me.

I thought my little “nap” was an isolated incident and chalked it up to a late night after a really busy day.

But then it happened again on Sunday afternoon – and again Tuesday night – and almost on Thursday.

I’m becoming my parents.

I gathered up the courage to ask Dagmar and Angel Girl if I snored. They looked at each sheepishly before Angel Girl said, ” Kinda.”

Dagmar corrected her with, “You didn’t really snore – you just snorted every time your head fell over.”

Snorted?

Ouch.

I was going to ask if I drooled – but decided that maybe I really didn’t want to know.

So what’s next?

Are my kids going to start laughing at me? Will they try dropping things in my open mouth? Or <gasp> will I eventually start snoring as loudly as my parents?

Let me tell you people – growing old is not for the faint of heart.

By the way – kids if you are reading this and are planning to drop things in my mouth – I prefer M & M’s, but chocolate chips  will also do.

I may be getting old – but I’m still a chocoholic!

It’s official now! We have ordered the garden seeds.

Spring is definitely coming.

After perusing the catalogs, researching the varieties, and studying all the options I have  finally decided to plant <insert dramatic pause with drum roll> the very same things I planted last year!

The only difference is that last year I didn’t start the seeds – they were given to me.

One of the guys my husband works with is big into gardening. He ordered several packets of heirloom seeds and took them into a local nursery to have them started. He specifically told them to start 25 of each kind.

They planted every seed.

Instead of several hundred plants to deal with – he know had several thousand!

He handed out heirloom tomato plants like they were zucchini’s in August!

I will admit that I was not happy when my husband brought home several plants (over 100).

My only experience with heirloom tomatoes was the year I didn’t get to the Amish store soon enough to buy my bedding plants. All they had left was the Brandywine variety.

What a disaster! Have you ever seen a bulbous nose? That’s what those tomatoes looked like. They never really turned a true red – and part of the tomato would rot while the other half was still green.

The texture was funny and they didn’t work well in my spaghetti sauces.

Major tomato fail.

But we planted the heirlooms anyway. At least they were free – and there wasn’t a Brandywine in the bunch!

It was a very wet year – and nobody had a very good tomato crop – but the ones we did get were really nice!

But the real winners were the peppers – both sweet and hot. We had a jalapeno variety that made the absolute best poppers known to man. The kids and I ate them every day for lunch for weeks on end. Seriously. Every day.

I crave them even now as I’m typing.

My husband found out where these seeds came from and last night we finally made out our order at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

I haven’t started plants for at least 10 years – the old house was just too small and cold; last year was just too confusing with trying to move and settle in.

This is the year.

In a few days a packet full of springtime will arrive in my mailbox – tiny little seeds full of potential and hope.

I will plant them, water them, and watch them carefully. All the while dreaming of my beautiful, weed free garden full of luscious healthy produce.

I can just taste those poppers now!

So – how about you? What state is your garden in?

I adore bread – especially fresh bread right from oven.

I’m so thankful that God blessed me with a daughter who’s goal for the year is to learn to bake beautiful hard crusted artisan breads. (Are you jealous yet? You should be you know!)

For our Valentine’s party – she worked all afternoon to make these out-of-this-world French Baguettes.

She was so thrilled to pull them out of the oven and thump that hard crust and hear the crunch when she cut into it.

We were thrilled with the soft pillow-like inside and the wonderful yeasty flavor!

They did take some time to make – but weren’t difficult. We just had to do a little planning ahead to get them done in time.

Trust me – they were worth the effort!

French Baguettes

5  cups white bread flour (we used only all-purpose flour and it was fine)
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 ounce fresh yeast
2-1/4 cups lukewarm water

Sift the flours and salt into a bowl. Add the yeast to the water in another bowl and stir to dissolve. Gradually beat in half the flour mixture to form a batter. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for about 3 hours or until nearly tripled in size and starting to collapse.

Add the remaining flour a little at a time, beating with your hand. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8-10 minutes to form a moist dough. Place in an oiled bowl, cover with oiled plastic wrap and let rise, in a warm place, for 1 hour.

When the dough has almost doubled in bulk, punch it down, turn out onto a floured surface and divide into 3. Shape each into a rectangle measuring about 6 X 3 inches.

Fold the bottom third up lengthwise and the top third down, and press down to make sure the pieces of dough are in contact. Seal the edges. Repeat two or three more times until each loaf in an oblong. Let rest in between folding for a few minutes, if necessary, to avoid tearing the dough.

Gently stretch each piece of dough lengthwise into a 13-14 inch long loaf. Pleat a floured dish towel on a baking sheet to make 3 molds for the loaves. Place the breads between the pleats of the towel to help hold their shape while they are rising. Cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap and let rise, in a warm place, for about 45-60 minutes.

Preheat the oven to the maximum, at least 450 degrees. Roll the loaves onto a baking sheet, spaced well apart. Using a sharp knife slash the top of each loaf several times with long diagonal slits. Bake at the top of the oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden.

Spray inside the oven with water 2-3 times during the first 5 minutes of baking, or place a pan with water on the bottom rack of the oven beneath the bread. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Makes 3 wonderfully crusty loaves.

I’ve linked this post up over at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam’s Tasty Tuesday.