the one where we throw a garden party

i love throwing parties - especially themed parties. for the past two summers, my close high school friends (the nuns) have created a book club. last year we got through three novels. this year we only read one: the help.

the nuns (3 missing) at our book club garden party

if you know nothing about this great story, read about it here. basically, it takes place in mississippi during the 60s and describes the relationships between white ladies and their help. you love some characters and hate others, and the maids' stories reel you in. there are certain points where you sit on the edge of the seats and pray that their secrets aren't found out, until you remember that it's fiction. so there's my endorsement for the book - now go read it!

so because of my love for throwing themed parties, it dawned on me that we should have a garden party to discuss the book and eat southern food. but my knowledge of southern food is very lacking, and i've been busy trying to get ready for czech. thankfully my mom was really excited for it too and did most of my research and cooking (she also served us and was basically my help!)

here's what we discovered (skip the recipes if you're not interested, but know that everything is delicious!):

basically anything paula deen is appropriate :) but these things were wonderful:

cheese straws 

the recipe for this is here - again, thank you paula deen! we devoured these things. mom made these (and took pictures of the process while i was out), and it seems pretty simple, but mostly delicious.


basically, it's cheese, butter, flour, and cayenne pepper to add that spice. you blend them together, roll the dough out, bake them, and pull deliciousness out of the oven. eating only one is prohibited.

we also had chicken salad, but because of a lack of time on my part, we bought some from stauffers. and it was good.

then of course we enjoyed deviled eggs, which are mentioned in the story as being enjoyed by many. again, eating one is strongly prohibited.
the basic recipe for this is that you should hard boil as many eggs as you want. slice them in half and remove the hard-boiled yolk. mix the yolks together with mayonnaise and mustard to taste. fill the halves of eggs with the yolk mixture by placing the mixture in a plastic bag and cutting off a corner. sprinkle with paprika, and again, deliciousness ensues.

in our research, we also discovered that ham and cheese roll ups were a big southern thing. this recipe we found online at this site, and again it was simple and easy. i might make some now. stir together cream cheese and chives, spread over slices of ham, roll the ham up, and cut into pieces!

the final food item that was absolutely necessary at this party was chocolate pie. you NEED to read or watch the help to understand just how important this pie is...it's an easy bake, and i did NOT include minnie's secret ingredient :) just a pre-made pie shell with chocolate pudding. yummy.

homemade lemonade

homemade sweet tea

and of course it wouldn't be southern without sweet tea and lemonade. mom (who we fondly labeled as Aibeleen - the main character/help in the book), home-made both the tea and the lemonade. she does her own thing for the lemonade, but we found out some cool things about the sweet tea:


2 cups boiling water
6 tea bags (we used 4 because twinings is a stronger tea)

steeping the tea

3/4 c - 1c sugar
6 cups cool water
secret ingredient: 1/8 tsp baking soda!


supposedly the soda removes the bitterness and keeps the tea darker. and it did, because that sweet tea was excellent.

and all of this was served to us (literally - we had servers) by mom/Aibeleen and kimberly's husband tim. they brought out beautifully-garnished food on pretty plates, and cleaned up afterwards. we felt like real southern belles. thanks mom/Aibeleen and Tim!

my family has a canopy which we set up and the shade kept us nice and cool. mom had and awesome old tablecloth with matching napkins which we used, and of course i had to go over the top and make church fans for us to use (the pictures on the fans were ones that i found online and were actually pictures on fans!)

 

and of course in true fashion, we ended our time with a nerdy game of bocce ball. we could only play four times until the sun caused us all to turn inside to the air conditioning, and we ended our time by watching the movie version.

 

always a fun time with these ladies, and i'm glad that i got to spend my last days enjoying this time with them! thanks girls!

the one where the family goes to chincoteague

this morning i woke up and right away felt overwhelmed - i leave in ONE WEEK! and there's so much to do before then!

thankfully last week i got to spend the week with my family in chincoteague. i always look forward to this week away. chincoteague is such a family-friendly place. we all loosen up - leave our cell phones at home, our wallets in the car, escape the clutches of the internet (let it be known that mom and dad checked their facebooks on dad's iphone way more often than my siblings and i!), bike everywhere, and enjoy some new scenery. this year we tried crabbing...

steaming our crabs

first day crabbing

every year we've talked about how we'd like to try crabbing and finally this year i made us do it. mom watched youtube videos about how to do it which made her a pro. our first day all six adults attempted it, and we got one crab between the six of us (wah wah wah). mom felt bad for it, but we still ate it anyway. the second time, we got six crabs, and they became a yummy crab alfredo. thanks crabs! the last day, billy and i tried it again and got nothing. still, we think we're professionals.

grace digging

grace

grandpa & grace

grace and eva

we got to the beach almost every day. grace has almost always been scared of the water, and so a majority of our beach time is spent with her parents, grandparents, and aunts trying to trick/coerce her in getting down to the water. (this involves us making sandcastles/digging in the wet sand - what must others think of a bunch of adults building a princess sandcastle?) thankfully she made a friend named eva who loved the water, and grace actually let the water touch her feet a couple times. she's a total beach babe and loves digging around in the sand.

the water was perfect this year and fun to swim in. we saw a couple dolphins one day (no ponies though).

sisters

mags and i heading to chincoteague

we also bring the dogs with us - our springer spaniel, maggie, and my sister's mutt, jackson. we gave maggie a tranquilizer while going down so that she wouldn't freak out in the car as she normally does. it worked, but the poor thing could hardly walk, and her eyes were glazed over for a couple days. on the way back we had both dogs with us, and we gave both of them tranquilizers. i spent the 5-hour drive in the back seat with jackson in my lap the WHOLE TIME and maggie who stood up with her glazed eyes and panted every time the car stopped at a red light. what fun.

maggie & jackson

and as always, we enjoyed good meals. my sisters and i both cooked meals. we enjoyed fresh seafood at local restaurants and awesome ice cream at the island creamery. major thanks to my parents for blessing us all with a relaxing, restful week away!

me, larissa, dad, mom, bill, julia, grace

the one where oliver twist serves as a metaphor

sometimes i just don't want to write on here at all, but today was that kind of tipping-point day where i finally reached the point where a blog post is close to necessary!

the title doesn't imply what this entry is about. here come the groans, eye rolls, yawns: this is about my attitude toward raising support.

 make no mistake, i still very much dislike asking for support. a friend's mom wrote me a sweet note, and it helped me word and clarify some of my feelings.

if nothing else, support-raising is humbling. crazy humbling.

it's like that scence from oliver twist where he, a skinny orphan, goes up to the worker who's serving them with an empty bowl and says, "please sir, i want some more."

the worker, in the scene, responds with a loud shriek: "MOOOORE!?!" it's unnatural, rude, even, that this boy dare ask for more than was given him.

and maybe this is my view on the matter. how rude and irresponsible of me to ask others to essentially pay my salary for a year while i get to go on the big adventure...to pay for my food, my transportation, my SCHOOL LOANS! (let it be known that at first i thought it might be irresponsible to me to ask for others to help pay for my student loans. but, this is what God's called me to do right now, and i have no choice but to live on what others give me. it's irresponsible of me to try to get out of what God's doing!)

but the reality is, God's calling me to Czech right now. it's worked out, it's happening. when i give to others, i do it joyfully. why do i think others won't give joyfully to me? why do i think God's body doesn't want to help support what God's called me to do? why do i think that God's people don't want to be involved with how God's changing Czech?

support-raising is humbling, but in my humility i'm honoring God and allowing his people to serve me and him and to glorify God.

support-raising is overwhelming. this morning i sat down and cried realizing that maybe tessa and i are really going to have to pinch some pennies this year. and then this afternoon i was overwhelmed and humbled in a different way when a friend told me she was going to forgo favors at her wedding in order to help support me.

every time a negative feeling about finances floods me, God faithfully overwhelms me with his goodness.

 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:30-34

a cynic's prayer

how does a cynic pray? as a recovering cynic, let me show you:

if you've read my blog, or we've communicated in some way recently, you most likely know our most urgent prayer request (at this time) is that our visas would be processed and returned to us before we're supposed to leave on July 30th. it's not like this request isn't feasible. it totally is.

the thing is, a couple days ago we received an email letting us know that an American couple trying to get their Czech visas right now have run into trouble and may not get theirs in the allotted time.

here are the steps of my thoughts in my immediate response to this news:
1. pray that God would grant us our visas in time
2. anxiety hits...i try to think of a plan B in case our visas aren't returned
3. realize that if i'm coming up with a plan B then I'm not really trusting God to take care of this
4. hesitate to pray any more about the matter because what if God doesn't grant our request?

so there's the cynic. in this book i'm reading, "A Praying Life" (totally recommend it!), he talks about how our cynicism keeps us from praying - because we don't fully believe God will answer a prayer, we guard ourselves from getting angry at him by not even praying for it.

what a messed up theology. especially because God has provided so much for this trip. He's provided almost all of our support, and I think he'll provide us with the perfect amount. this whole thing came together perfectly after years of prayer that i would move to Czech.

but, God has allowed me to see how wrong my thought process has been and is granting me repentance. but please pray for not just our visas, but for my cynical heart. pray that i would honestly trust him and come to him with the attitude of "Lord, help me."



i'm adding an edit...God wants the consistent, persistent of his people. the more prayers the better. so please pray with us for these visas when you think about it. God will certainly answer our plea.

grace

work has been dragging even more for me lately. i don't know what it is... mrs. m said it's "moving-away-itis." honestly i think i consider myself "too good" for my job sometimes. though lately it has just been real frustration with my student.

i get in these moods where i'm so ticked off with him it's hard to move away from it, and especially hard to pray through it. i'm annoyed/frustrated/upset, and i just want to stay that way. i don't even want to be happy or focus on God's grace to me, i want to focus on my negative emotion. the only thing i can do in that moment is ask others to pray for me because i can't/won't do it myself, and pray for myself after those times.

i also realized how beautiful it is when we share our crap with each other. i compare myself to others always, and it makes it that much easier when i realize how we all sin and are all covered by grace. not saying that my sins/junk are ok, but it's also good to share it with others and help build up one another. it's not easy to admit my faults.

but...there is enough grace in Christ to cover you when you forget about grace. there is enough grace in Christ to cover you when you remember about grace and don't care.

update!

lots of excitement brewing recently (starts out boring, but i promise it gets better!)...

!! at work i've spent lots of time on my student's ipad working on making categories of different things so he can speak it...i'd love to see him order his own food at his favorite restaurants and then count out the amount of money he needs afterwards (and he'll get there)!
today's ipad highlight: uploading a picture of a worm under the "insects" category. why wouldn't they have "worm" when they have buttons for sarah palin and tom cruise?

!! currents:
book___a praying life/the forgotten God/because he loves me/jeremiah (the message)
song___soon by hillsong

!! plane tickets have been obtained! we're leaving the evening of july 30th, then a long-enough-layover in germany (frankfurt i think - can't believe i forgot already) that we hope to spend a little time roaming, and arrive in prague on the 31st. then we'd like to do the last term of english camps, but we shall see.

Czech visa application

!! OUR VISA APPLICATIONS ARE IN THE MAIL! this is a huge step for us. we've been going back and forth with Harrel (our employer) and Dasa (our czech liaison) for several months with questions, more questions, signatures, scanned copies, translations, and more questions. finally we think we have everything figured out. this is a huge burden that has been lifted...it caused much stress!



highlights from the visa process: oh wait, there are none.



!! financial support: together, tessa and i are at about 65%, but that's just money that's been given, not pledged. if you do plan to give (one time or monthly) but haven't been able to yet, please let us know so we can calculate this all in.

!! PRAYER!!
visas___so, our visas are in the mail. that's a big deal, but - there's a 3-4 month processing period. our plane tickets are acquired to have us leaving in 3 1/2 months. we're praying that they only take 3, but PRAY with us! there will also probably be some go-between with us and the embassy if we don't have everything done correctly. pray that all goes smoothly.

my car___my car has been my thorn in my side for several years. if i wasn't moving in july i would've traded it in last september. recently there have been some more problems that have been fixed (after tears on my part). i'm thankful for God's blessing of my parent's support for me through this. pray that it doesn't leave me sit again!

finances___such a huge hurdle of trust for me. sometimes it's so easy for me to trust God to provide our finances, and other times it's really easy for me to forget his faithfulness and start worrying. i'm so thankful for all of you who have given and who support me in your prayers. pray that God would grant me faith the size of a mustard seed.

finishing well___the school year is coming to a close and i have senioritis, or whatever the teacher's version of it is. change is on the horizon, and i want it to be here now. have i no patience? i'm also trying to spend time with as many people as i can before i leave, and it's sobering that i'm already saying goodbyes to some friends and family.

the triune God___i'm praying for us, the body of believers, to be encouraging and uplifting to one another. i'm thankful for seeing lives made new and the expectational hope of eternity with Christ. i couldn't live without that hope.

my twelfth birthday is one that i remember. i'm pretty sure i could even tell you what outfit i was wearing. my hair was in a pony tail, as it was always was at that point. i guess pulling it away from my face did make it look less messy, though from the front my frizzy bangs just made me look like a boy with a bowl cut.

it was a sunday. i don't know what we had to eat, but i'd assume that mom made me a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing, as was the tradition.

what sticks out about this birthday wasn't at all a special celebration - i don't think i'd had one of them since about the age of 6. what did stick out was my complete selfishness and hastiness to verbalize it.

we had a visitor. i remember what he looks like, and i think i can recall his name. we'll call him Joe. maybe he stayed overnight, or maybe he just came Sunday morning, but he came to church with us. at church after the service, my dad told me that Joe was gonna come home and spend the evening with us.

my response? WHINING. things like, "it's my birthday, why is he coming?" and, "I don't want him to!"

i don't think Joe heard me - i hope he didn't hear me - but it wouldn't have taken much to tell that i was annoyed.

whining never got me my way, and of course Joe still came over. but on the way he stopped at a store and picked me up a movie - "Lion King 1 1/2."

and then i was ok with it. how immature of me.


thirteen years later and i hope i wouldn't do that this year. of course i've matured. but reading back to my time of interning 4 years ago i was almost shocked at my me-mentality! don't get me wrong, i'm still selfish, but i got annoyed at my words - how all that seemed to matter was my feelings and emotions, not about what God was doing in my life.

what i realize now is that no matter where i am emotionally, whether i feel his presence or feel he's abandoned me; whether i'm happy or sad; annoyed or excited; needy or stable - He is still God. i may not always experience those emotional highs that missions trips can grant, but even after a moment of passion is lost, God still showers me with his grace.

what i realize now is that i may experience a low a lot of the time, but instead of getting all "woe is me" about it and spreading it around my blog or facebook, it's more important that Christ points himself to me and reminds me of how he's changed and saved me and is still actively presenting his truths to me.

thank you, God, for rescuing this sinner and opening my eyes to your grace in my life.