Mark A. Noll

Hosted by Cara at Ooh...Books!
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Seasons of Grace by Mark A. Noll, which I mentioned in an earlier entry, contains some lovely poetry. I felt this short verse would be appropriate for Holy Week.

Christ's Crown

The leaves emerge - a growing
garland lying lightly on his head.
The dance of spring, of resurrection,
quicks his feet; from all directions
caper those he'll call his own.
The sun shines warming down upon
the dancers 'round their pivot. Only those
up close can smell or see the thick
black-red the flowers nurse upon.

BookSwim

Jenners shared a website on her book blog yesterday that some of you might find interesting.

BookSwim works in much the same way as sites like Netflix. A simple monthly fee allows you to rent books through the mail and keep them for an indefinite amount of time without late fees. There are also options for purchase if you want to keep a book.

If I didn't already have SO many unread books sitting on my shelf, I would seriously be interested in this!!!

Palm Sunday - 2010

Last year on Palm Sunday I posted the legend of the donkey's cross along with a photo illustration from one of our donkeys. If you missed that, you can click HERE to see it.

In keeping with that, here are the words to a Lenten hymn written by Almer T. Pennewell.

So Lowly Doth the Savior Ride

So lowly doth the Savior ride
A paltry borrowed beast,
Nor pomp, nor show, nor lofty pride,
Nor boast above the least.

His scepter is his kindliness,
His grandeur is his grace,
His royalty is holiness,
And love is in his face.

'Tis thus the great Messiah came
To break the tyrants' will,
To heal the people of their shame,
And nobleness instill.

Ride on, O King, ride on your way,
While men of low degree
Exalt and usher in the day
Of peace we long to see.

Bunny auditions

One of my favorite TV commercials!

Typically British Reading Challenge 2010

Click the image for details!

I participated in my first reading challenge last December. The rules were simple, I had a few books on my shelf that qualified, so I went for it. Thanks to a post over at Petty Witter's, I'm trying my hand at another challenge. Click on the image above to find out the specifics.

Looking at my reading lists from past years, I shouldn't have any trouble with this challenge. This year's list only includes one book that fits the bill so far, but I feel confident I will at least reach the "Gordon Bennett" level.

Since I already reviewed Revelation by C.J. Sansom, I'll make a point of doing the same for any other books I read that meet the challenge.

FreeVerse ~ Natasha Trethewey

Hosted by Cara at Ooh...Books!
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Natasha Trethewey is another poet Ted Kooser recommended in the workshop I attended. This poem is taken from her collection entitled Native Guard.

Graveyard Blues

It rained the whole time we were laying her down;
Rained from church to grave when we put her down,
The suck of mud at our feet was a hollow sound.

When the preacher called out I held up my hand;
When he called for a witness I raised my hand -
Death stops the body's work, the soul's a journeyman.

The sun came out when I turned to walk away,
Glared down on me as I turned and walked away -
My back to my mother, leaving her where she lay.

The road going home was pocked with holes,
That home-going road's always full of holes;
Though we slow down, time's wheel still rolls.

I wander now among names of the dead:
My mother's name, stone pillow for my head.

Favorite Five - Vegetables

Having spent eight years as a vegetarian, you can rest assured that I like my veggies. There are a few I don't care for, mushrooms being the most notable. They say your tastes change every few years, so I periodically try them again in one form or another. I still don't like them. I think it's as much the texture as the taste. Some vegetables, such as purple hulls and butter beans, I didn't like as a child but grew to love as an adult. Others, like Brussels sprouts, I wouldn't even try for years, but liked once I gave them a chance.

Here are my favorites:

1. Spinach - No doubt about it... my favorite! I like it in any form or fashion.

2. Tomato - Okay, it's technically a fruit, but I'm counting it as a vegetable here. I started yellow tomato seeds a few weeks ago and hope to have a big harvest of them this summer!

3. Onion - I like most kinds, but especially enjoy the red/purple variety when served raw in a salad or on a sandwich.

4. Summer Squash - I prefer yellow squash, not zucchini. Steam it, fry it, pickle it, bake it in a casserole, or just eat it raw!

5. Green Beans - This was my favorite vegetable as a child. I like canned better than fresh or frozen and whole beans better than cut.

I love potatoes but didn't include them on my list since not everyone places them in the vegetable category. So tell me.... what are your favorites?

Bovine Wisdom

PB & J Cookies

Our younger daughter just left for the long drive back to school. True to form for her visits home, she got the urge to bake last night and found a recipe at allrecipes.com for peanut butter cookies. You can click on the link for the exact recipe, but basically they were just peanut butter, sugar, vanilla, egg, and jelly.

Hers might not look quite as pretty or perfect as those illustrated in the recipe, but they sure did taste good! In our photo, the lighter jelly is mayhaw and the darker jelly is huckleberry. Both were equally delicious!

A Happy St. Patrick's Day

I love St. Patrick's Day! Since I do have some Irish blood somewhere down the line, I don't feel too silly celebrating. This year I was especially looking forward to the day. If you'll remember, last May I fell off the vegetarian wagon. Well, really it was more of a leap than a fall, but anyway... having not prepared the dish since March of 2000, I was really looking forward to some corned beef & cabbage this St. Patrick's Day.

I invited the kids to come and eat with us. Our older daughter lives here in town, but ended up canceling at the last minute. A rough day at work combined with softball practice and lots of homework for her daughter left her too pooped to join us. Our younger daughter is on Spring Break from college. She and some friends spent the first few days in Lubbock, TX and Roswell, NM, but she managed to get home yesterday afternoon in time for supper. Our son is in college about 45 minutes away. He's not on break this week, but it didn't take much arm-twisting to convince him to come eat.

My original plans included homemade green pinwheel cookies, but they took too much time that I didn't have to spare. So, I went with a white cake mix with green food coloring and "rainbow chip" frosting. I did try a new garlic mashed potato recipe that turned out quite yummy: Boil 3 pounds of Yukon Gold potatoes with a whole bulb of garlic; mash with a stick of butter and 1/2 cup of half & half.

I was sorry a couple of folks were missing, but otherwise it was everything I anticipated! Maybe I won't wait until next March to make corned beef & cabbage again.

FreeVerse ~ John Updike

Hosted by Cara at Ooh...Books!

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I took Esther, our 10-year old Rottweiler, to the vet on Monday to see about a problem. Two of the vets examined her then did a needle aspiration. It doesn't look very promising.

My FreeVerse choice for this week fits my mood.

Dog's Death

John Updike

She must have been kicked unseen or brushed by a car.
Too young to know much, she was beginning to learn
To use the newspapers spread on the kitchen floor
And to win, wetting there, the words, "Good dog! Good dog!"

We thought her shy malaise was a shot reaction.
The autopsy disclosed a rupture in her liver.
As we teased her with play, blood was filling her skin
And her heart was learning to lie down forever.

Monday morning, as the children were noisily fed
And sent to school, she crawled beneath the youngest's bed.
We found her twisted limp but still alive.
In the car to the vet's, on my lap, she tried

To bite my hand and died. I stroked her warm fur
And my wife called in a voice imperious with tears.
Though surrounded by love that would have upheld her,
Nevertheless she sank and, stiffening, disappeared.

Back home, we found that in the night her frame,
Drawing near to dissolution, had endured the shame
Of diarrhoea and had dragged across the floor
To a newspaper carelessly left there. Good dog.

Favorite Five - Magazines

My love of reading isn't just limited to books. I've been a life-long reader of magazines as well. Growing up in a family of magazine lovers and relatives that liked to give subscriptions as gifts exposed me to a wide variety of titles over the years.

Some were only read in certain "seasons" of my life: Highlights when I was a kid (and again with my kids), Seventeen as a teenager, and titles like Ladies' Home Journal as a young wife and mother. Some subscriptions have spanned decades, such as Newsweek and Mad (which I finally stopped a few years back since it just wasn't funny anymore). A few were short splurges such as Architectural Digest and The Herb Companion.

The following are my current favorites:

1. Readers Digest - My paternal grandmother lived with us when I was a kid and this was one of her favorites. I would spend hours poring through her copies. The humor sections are still my favorites.

2. National Geographic - I remember my aunts keeping their copies and sending them off to be bound together by the year. I think one had them all the way back to the very first magazine!

3. Discover - I first "discovered" Discover when I was in college. It's a great scientific magazine that isn't too technical for laymen. My favorite monthly feature is "Vital Signs" which is written by real doctors sharing unusual cases they've encountered.

4. Guideposts - I've read this since I was a teenager and remember it as a favorite of my grandmother's, too. The stories never fail to inspire and uplift me.

5. Simple & Delicious - Originally called Quick Cooking, I've prepared many a recipe from this magazine. I also get their e-mail newsletters along with those from Taste of Home, their "sister" publication.

Revelation

I really enjoy reading books, but I'm not very good at reviewing them which is why I don't post many entries attempting to do that. However, I couldn't let this book go without mention.

Last fall I found a new author/series I enjoyed and wrote about it here. The fourth Matthew Shardlake book finally became available in the US a few weeks ago and I immediately put it at the top of my TBR pile.

Have you ever read a book that you just didn't want to end? That's how I felt about Revelation by C.J. Sansom. This one had to be the best of the series so far. Each book has been a different type of mystery. The first was a "closed setting", within the confines of a monastary during the dissolution. The second was, in the words of the author, a "quest" and the third a "political thriller" coinciding with Henry VIII's 1541 progress from London to York.

Revelation finds us back in London in 1543 where a close friend of Matthew's has been murdered in a horrific way. After promising his friend's widow that he will find the killer, Matthew discovers things go much deeper than he could ever have imagined. Soon the killings are multiplying and he is once again embroiled in secret affairs of state. The serial killer uses the Book of Revelation from the Bible to plan his murders, drawing from the seven "vials of wrath" listed in Chapters 15 & 16. It's gruesome!

I'm currently doing a study of the Book of Revelation at a local church. Never claiming to have all the answers (nothing should!), it has offered a lot of material for intelligent debate and discussion. Reading Sansom's book while doing this study has added an extra element regarding the views of end time events during Tudor England. Sansom states in his "historical notes" at the end of the book that he shares the view of one of his characters, that "early church fathers released something very dangerous on the world when, after much deliberation, they decided to include it in the Christian canon". I disagree.

Listening and learning

Stressful moments are not the only times I work jigsaws. I also like to work puzzles when I'm on the phone, especially while studying with my daughter. Let me explain...

When our children were little, I would "give out" their spelling words each week to help them study. By the time they reached upper elementary school, our son and older daughter no longer wanted any help. Not so with our younger daughter. Throughout elementary school, junior high and high school she brought me notes and study guides to give out. I would kid her and ask if she was going to fax or e-mail me her notes from college so I could give out over the phone. Turns out the joke was on me. Sort of.

I don't give out notes anymore, but I listen to them. My daughter takes meticulous notes in her classes. Before a test, she calls me and goes over them... teaches me what she's learned. It benefits us both. She gets to review her notes in the way that best helps her and I get to work on my puzzles while "auditing" her classes!

My daughter is scheduled to graduate from college in May with degrees in History and Psychology. Thanks to her "study habits" I feel like I've gotten to go back to school - only without the tests, papers, deadlines and stress. Learning just for the pleasure of learning. What a treat!

FreeVerse - Claudia Emerson

Hosted by Cara at Ooh...Books!
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Claudia Emerson is one of the poets Ted Kooser recommended in the workshop I attended. Her Pulitzer Prize winning Late Wife collection is wonderful. The majority of the book is divided into three sections, "Divorce Epistles", "Breaking up the House", and "Late Wife: Letters to Kent". I've featured one from each section.

Metaphor

We didn't know what woke us - just
cold moving, lighter than our breathing.

The world bound by an icy ligature,
our house was to the bat a warmer

hollowness that now it could not
leave. I screamed for you to do something.

So you killed it with the broom,
cursing, sweeping the air. I wanted

you to do it - until you did.


Breaking Up the House

Every time I go back home, my mother
tells me I should begin to think now about
what I will and will not want - before
something happens and I have to. Each time

I refuse, as though somehow this is an argument
we're having. After all, she and my father are still
keeping the house they've kept for half a century.
But I do know why she insists. She has

already done a harder thing than I will
have to do. She was only eighteen -
her mother and father both dead - when it fell
to her to break up the house, reduce

familiar rooms to a last order, a world
boxed and sealed. And while I know she would,
she cannot keep me from the house emptied
but for the pale ovals and rectangles

still nailed fast - cleaved to the walls where mirrors,
Portraits had hung - persistent, sourceless shadows.


Driving Glove

I was unloading groceries from the trunk
of what had been her car, when the glove floated
up from underneath the shifting junk -
a crippled umbrella, the jack, ragged
maps. I knew it was not one of yours,
this more delicate, soft, made from the hide
of a kid or lamb. It still remembered
her hand, the creases where her fingers

had bent to hold the wheel, the turn
of her palm, Smaller than mine. There was
nothing else to do but return it -
let it drift, sink, slow as a leaf through water
to rest on the bottom where I have not
forgotten it remains - persistent in its loss.

Puzzle therapy

There's nothing quite as frustrating as knowing your loved one is hurting and knowing there is nothing you can do about it. Two loved ones, actually. One very old, one not so old.

I've always found jigsaw puzzles to be fun and relaxing, but when my life gets ultra-stressful I can literally lose myself for hours in the mindlessness. My 360 blog from several years ago was filled with photos of completed puzzles. This blog, not so many. That says something about my life right now. I'm thankful.

I'm saying extra prayers for my loved ones. Meanwhile, I have a puzzle in progress. I wish it could ease their suffering.

Favorite Five - Books

This post (along with favorite songs) has been weighing heavily in the back of my mind ever since I began my Favorite Five series. I touched on the topic with children's books and book series, but knew eventually I would have to tackle my overall favorites. However, the question was how do I pick just five out of the hundreds I've read over the years? I've often heard folks mention favorite books and how many times they've read them. I don't do that. There are too many books out there I haven't read to spend time repeating any! (except poetry, of course)

Take a look at my choices then tell me some of yours.


The Once and Future King (T.H. White) - There was no doubt this book would be on my list. I read it in college and it remains my favorite version of Arthurian legend. It's one of the few books I've been tempted to read again, but I'm afraid it might not live up to what I remember.

Katherine (Anya Seyton) - As a teenager I read all of the Anya Seton books my local library had to offer. If I remember correctly, this was the first and it set into motion my life-long love of historical fiction.

The Silver Pigs (Lindsey Davis) - Murder mysteries are fun. Even better are murder mysteries set in the past. This is the first in a series that takes place in ancient Rome during the reign of Vespasian. It led me to a variety of "historical mysteries".

To Live is Christ (Beth Moore) - I fudged a little here...this is the workbook which accompanies the Bible study rather than the book. It had a profound influence on me and played a part in taking me to the next level in my spiritual life and my relationship with God.

The Holy Bible - This is the only book that I consistently read (present tense) over and over. I believe it's the living Word of God and every time I open its pages my soul is renewed and refreshed. I have a wide variety of versions in my home, but my favorite is the Life Application Study Bible (New International Version).

A touch of Spring

I got this in an e-mail recently:

I think we all need a little spring today!

Click on the snowman. You will get a black page. Click your mouse anywhere (and everywhere) on the page and see what happens. Better yet, click (hold down) and drag your mouse over the black page. Enjoy!!

Jane Kenyon

Hosted by Cara at Ooh...Books!

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I read my first Jane Kenyon poem, Let Evening Come, during National Poetry Month last year. Since then, I've shared two other Kenyon poems here, Full Moon in Winter and my favorite, The Pear. (As a bonus, the link to The Pear includes a Ted Kooser poem.) It was tough narrowing down which Jane Kenyon to post today. Maybe I can share more in future FreeVerse entries.

Ice Out

As late as yesterday ice preoccupied
the pond -- dark, half-melted, waterlogged.
Then it sank in the night, one piece,
taking winter with it. And afterward
everything seems simple and good.

All afternoon I lifted oak leaves
from the flowerbeds, and greeted
like friends the green-white crowns
of perennials. They have the tender,
unnerving beauty of a baby's head.

How I hated to come in! I've left
the windows open to hear the peepers'
wildly disproportionate cries.
Dinner is over, no one stirs. The dog
sighs, sneezes, and closes his eyes.

Fruit and Cheese

My Circle group hosted the UMW General Meeting at our church yesterday. I bravely (foolishly?) tried out two new recipes for the brunch we provided. The fruit dish was okay, but the cheese spread was wonderful!

Hot Fruit Compote
tasteofhome.com
Joyce Moynihan (Lakeville, MN)

2 cans (15-1/4 oz. each) sliced pears, drained

1 can (29 oz.) sliced peaches, drained

1 can (20 oz.) unsweetened pineapple chunks, drained

1 package (20 oz.) pitted dried plums

1 jar (16 oz.) unsweetened applesauce

1 can (21 oz.) cherry pie filling

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

In a large bowl, combine the first five ingredients. Pour into a 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish coated with cooking spray. Spread pie filling over fruit mixture; sprinkle with brown sugar.

Cover and bake at 350F for 40-45 minutes or until bubbly. Serve warm.

French Quarter Cheese Spread

Simple & Delicious

Heidi Blaine Hadburg (Safety Harbor, FL)

1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened

1 Tbsp. grated onion

1 tsp. minced garlic

1/4 cup butter, cubed

1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp. prepared mustard

1 cup finely chopped pecans, toasted

Assorted crackers

In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese, onion and garlic. Transfer to a serving plate; shape into a 6-in. disk. Set aside.

In a small saucepan, combine the butter, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce and mustard. Cook and stir over medium heat for 4-5 minutes or until sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat; stir in pecans. Cool slightly. Spoon over cheese mixture. Serve with crackers. Can be prepared ahead of time for convenience, then brought to room temperature for serving.

Favorite Five - Actresses

Last month I posted "Favorite Five - Actors". Now it's time for the women, a more difficult task. I mostly drew from movies and would probably have had lots more runners up if I'd thought harder about TV shows.

1. Sandra Bullock - I liked her in Miss Congeniality , but she's also proven herself in dramatic roles.

2. Jodie Foster - Looking over her filmography, I was amazed at how many television shows she appeared in as a child.

3. Dawn Wells - "Mary Ann" and "the Professor" were my favorite characters on Gilligan's Island. You should see her in The Town that Dreaded Sundown! (said with tongue in cheek)

4. Kathy Bates - The first thing I remember seeing her in was Misery, but perhaps her funniest role was "Mama Boucher" in The Waterboy.

5. Julia Roberts - For some reason this actress use to irritate me, but the more things I've seen her in, the more I like her.

Runners up: Grace Kelly, Kathleen Turner, Sigourney Weaver, Jamie Lee Curtis, Sally Field, Eve Plumb (my favorite "Brady")