Month: March 2012 (Page 4 of 7)

lenten update

March 15, 2012 / Michele Minehart

A quick update of my Lenten experience. It’s going… fine. On the one hand it’s much easier than I imagined. It turns out I rarely go shopping for the sake of shopping, or really ever buy things unplanned. On the other hand, it’s made me quite the social recluse as most of my attempts to be with other people center around eating out, getting coffee or what have you. My cheating (“taking a Sunday” – but I’ll have you know I’ve made fewer purchases than there have been Sundays in Lent so far. I think this shows effort!) have all been around eating out – lunch or dinner on Sunday with the fam when I just don’t feel like cooking and will COMPLETELY justify and say it’s biblical. Also there the mental sanity day that I met KLR for lunch. That was a Wednesday and not a Sunday and I’ve repented for my sin. I know God’s okay with it because He completely blessed me with my time in conversation with her.

I wish that instead of just hiding at home until Lent is over, I would (have) become more creative in the ways I connect with others. I feel strongly that having others over and sharing a kitchen and a dinner together is a connection point. Since I married Mr. Hospitality himself, I wish we would make more effort at inviting others over. (On the other hand, I have no idea when this was supposed to happen. Our weekends have been booked solid, unless we’re sick, and sometimes both). I love eating out because the work involved is minimal. But I believe it also coincides with the minimal amount of relational depth that happens as well. Bringing someone into your home, to your table, is much more intimate than the industrial setting of fast food. But we’re a fast-food nation, and I wonder if our relationships have begun to mimic our eating patterns. We grab a quick conversation on the run, a FB message here and there, but relationship lacks nutritional substance. Quick calories that can fill your tank for the moment, but not the nutrients that make for healthy growth.

My friend SC lives by the idea that you know the strength of the friendship when you can walk into the kitchen to get a glass of water. You either know where they’re kept or are comfortable hunting through until you find them. But that takes more than one visit to the kitchen to have those rights. And you’ll never know if you’re only meeting at Taco Bell. Dining together is more than just how quick an easy the food can be served; it’s allowing people in. It’s joining in the chaos of what it means to get food on the table. And in the comfort of creating all of that, relationships bloom.

So, that’s Lenten Reflection #1: commerce has hijacked dining with friends. Unless you’re one of the lucky ones who still lives in Findlay and has breakfast in one another’s homes so the toddlers can frolic and you can enjoy a cup of coffee and a good breakfast burrito.

what a glorious day, today (glor-i-ous.day.)

March 13, 2012 / Michele Minehart

When the day started so swell, I had no idea it would end even better. Allow me to recap in list form.

1. The best parenting advice my sister has ever offered was not to change the clock, but change the kids. So instead of their wintertime 7pm – 7am sleeping (yes, they sleep a lot. And yes, they nap), starting on Sunday we went to an 8-8 setup. Like. A. Charm. I imagine that as time progresses and daylight invades, we might creep into the pre-8 hour, but so far it’s a good gig.

2. We were dressed, packed and out the door with little-to-no whining. No small feat, especially with the oldest’s inclinations.

3. I actually accomplished work. Inbox weeded down (I’m slightly anal-retentive about keeping 5 emails, max, all action-required, in my email), phone interviews reviewed and even some resumes rated. Not to mention some very successful calls with the client partners.

4. Afternoon run in the beautiful sun. I was apprehensive as I was sick last Friday and have been fighting a sinus infection for about 32 years, but it really was the best thing for me.

5. While on said run, I saw a phenomenally large moving truck down a street of houses much too small to contain such goods. I saw a young mom and 2 kids in the driveway filled with boxes, so I stopped to greet them to the neighborhood (I’m trying to learn how to be a good neighbor). Turns out they’ve been here a while, but her folks are moving to the area and they’ve been delegated the holding tank. But she was exceptionally friendly, a SAHM with 2. We talked sitters, because that’s my recent angst, and though she didn’t know of any she offered to be available if I’m ever in a pinch. We even talked playdate sometime. She has no idea she’s now an unknowing friend victim. MUHAHA.

6. Naptime involved all 3, simultaneously. Which gave me time to chat with the BFF and get dinner marinading, involving another batch of homemade ranch dressing.

7. Hubby was home early and the whole family went out back to tidy up and enjoy the sun. Not to mention grill dinner (kabobs).

8. Got a text from the papa with a positive message from a potential buyer. FINGERS CROSSED.

9. An evening walk with the older 2 and the blond dog led to another neighborly chat, this time a mom of a little girl slightly younger than Miss M. Very friendly. Again we talked sitters (is that all moms do? She brought it up before I had a chance!) but she takes her little one with her to Centerville where she works. She must be exploring her options.

10. Thanks to the pushed back bedtime we got jammied up, had an apple snack and read books til bedtime. And guess how much pre-bed whining there was? Nearly zero. Truly, it’s the quality time they crave when they’re fighting us at night. Our preemptive strategies work so much better than threats or bribes.

Look at that! A nice, round top 10 list. I’ll stop there before the jealousy overcomes you. I hope your tomorrow is as good as my today!

she took the fruit, as she saw it was good for eating

March 10, 2012 / Michele Minehart

Thanks to the new grain-free temporary lifestyle, I’ve been pushed into the world of alternative eating habits via blogs and Pinterest. A whole world awaits that has decided sandwiches are the enemy, and it has become my BFF every day at about 3:00 when I decide that dinner must indeed be served again. Which reminds me of one of my favorite pins:

But as I do my reading, I’ve been struck by how much evilness seems to lie in the idea of food. A quick list of everything that is awful:

1. Sugar, especially white, non-organic.

2. Non-foods, anything partially hydrogenated or that I can’t pronounce

3. Red Dye of any lot number

4. BPA, MSG or other three-lettered abbreviations

5. Margarine (as ants and flies won’t even eat it) (see –>)

But then, in reading between the lines of these Real Food blogs, insinuated other offenders pop up, depending on who you read:

1. Meat – we’re over-meated in this country, our resources could go further to feed people with vegetables as opposed to animals with food. We simply don’t need to eat the amount of meat that we consume.

2. Bread and grains – the DNA of our version of bread has been altered so much that it’s not digestible by many; it evidences itself in the form of allergies and other bodily (and sometimes mental) manifestations.

3. Milk and dairy – apparently we’re the only mammal to consume another mammal’s milk. We’re not exactly nursing at an animal’s teet, but the concept is kind of odd. Per some reading (either Pollen or a book I read by a vegetarian last year) we evolved to be able to digest cows milk sometime in Ireland when the cows were a plenty, but it’s not an original feature of the human digestive system.

So if you go through your grocery list and axe off everything that contains these things, you’re left with:

1. Fruit, though also a source of sugar and carbs, so eat between meals.

2. Vegetables

3. Nuts, but in moderation, and only those with the perfect Omega 3-to-6 ratio.

4. Water. But not from a plastic bottle.

All of this is difficult to swallow. It’s incredible to think that all of the things God created as good have suddenly been morphed to evilness. But I guess I know why.

Eve and that damned apple.

I suppose it should come to no surprise that the first sin of the world involved trying to figure out what is good for eating. It started with fruit from the wrong tree and continued on to the meat from the wrong alters, grains harvested on the wrong day and now ingredients added by the wrong source (laboratories rather than God).

But in looking at the story, the fruit wasn’t evil. It’s how she used it. She had a relationship and an expectation of the fruit that goes beyond what the fruit was created for. Thanks to genetics, Eve was nice enough to pass this trait down through the Eons – through both nature and nurture, I’m sure – and we humans continue to wrestle with how food plays into our lives. What to eat, how much of it, how often. What can keep us healthy, what can cause cancer. When to practice moderation, when to practice celebration. What we can control, what we can consume, what we can create.

So what I really want to know is… how to live within the tension. How to eat well and healthy. How to not be consumed by thinking about something I consume. How to be free of a 2000 year old (or older, depending on your theology) curse. Because I believe there is a way.

And then Jesus took the bread, gave thanks for it… and gave it to his disciples. This is my body, given for you. Take, eat and do so in remembrance of me.

Month: March 2012 (Page 4 of 7)

lenten update

what a glorious day, today (glor-i-ous.day.)

she took the fruit, as she saw it was good for eating

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