Remembering the Sabbath
Earlier this year I was reading the first few books of the Bible, and I was pretty shocked at how much the Sabbath was mentioned. It wasn’t just a ‘take a rest day now and then’ it was more like – “keep the Sabbath or we’re putting you to death” So I decided I’d try and implement that into my life.
Saturday seemed the most natural to me, instead of Sunday, because it’s at the end of the week. I’m a morning person, so Sunday morning is for getting up and starting a new week. But Saturday feels to me like when you plop down on the couch with a glass of lemonade after a hot, busy day and just sigh because you can finally relax.
At first we’d make the big family meal on Friday night, but if I didn’t get cleaned up by sundown, I’d tend to leave it….. I’d just wake up on Saturday and refuse to do anything. No cleaning, no cooking – this was my day off! But that went south pretty quickly. No one had anything to eat and there were no clean dishes. We’d end up doing a McDonalds run and everyone was crabbing at each other all day. As soon as the sun set on Saturday, I’d be scrubbing down the house in frustration. We’d do all the ritual but it was hardly relaxing.
Then I was reading a forum and the woman on it said that it all came together for her when she started centering her weeks around Sabbath. She’d make sure the whole house and family was in order before Friday night. Instead of halting life, it was like taking a vacation. You have to plan to relax, or it won’t happen.
So that’s more what I’m going for now. I do have a few rules, and it doesn’t always happen perfectly, but I at least make an effort to sleep in a bit, catch up on my Bible reading, do some family activity, and reconnect with myself, my family, and God.
Here’s what an ideal Sabbath would look like….
Friday — clean the whole house. Company ready clean. All the laundry done, the dishwasher run and empty in the afternoon instead of before bed. Dust, sweep, empty the compost bowl, make sure there are drinks in the fridge, clean the coffee maker, etc. Also I see if there is enough leftovers to feed everyone on Saturday, otherwise I put together something in the crockpot and turn it on Saturday morning.
Friday night — dinner is simple. Tonight we’re having pizza. After dinner is cleaned up we do something as a family. We take a walk, build a fire, play games, read together – but no TV. I try not to surf the net from Friday night to Saturday night, but that doesn’t always happen.
Saturday — First thing in the morning I have to bring the community garden harvest to the food pantry pick up, but after that I go back to bed. Saturday mornings Andrei looks forward to video game time right when he gets up (usually it’s after chores). Brent and I get up and eat breakfast leisurely and spend the morning reading or napping or lazing around. I catch up on any days I missed my Bible reading too.
After lunch, Brent has to go back to work, and I’m trying to start the habit of Andrei and I going on a nature walk on Saturday afternoon.
Saturday for dinner, Andrei and I make big bowls of popcorn and watch a movie together – his choice. After Brent gets home from work, and Andrei goes to bed, I make a light dinner for Brent and we have an at-home dinner date. After this, Sabbath is over.
Sunday morning is an early riser again, getting Brent off to work and cleaning up from the previous day. And the whole week starts over agian.
Like I said, it doesn’t always happen this way – in fact, rarely does it all work out perfectly. But I try and do what I can and keep in mind the point of the day and do the best I can.
Now, today is Friday so I have a lot to do – have a peaceful weekend. 
Adventures at ReBike
Tonight my parents graciously lent me their van, and I took three bikes to ReBike.
ReBike is an organization here in Sheboygan that helps people repair their bikes, and also if you don’t have a bike, you can work for a couple of hours and they will give you a donated bike. Pretty cool, right?
So I took two bikes that were rusting in our shed for a donation, and I brought in my own bike which was acting a bit funky.
ReBike is located in the basement of Paradigm Coffee-shop, and they meet on Wednesday nights. So a guy came up and refilled my tires, and then showed me that the chain had come off from a pulley or something and then it was fixed already.
I had some extra time so I went to check the place out and see if I could offer my help in any way. Since I have -5 Mechanical, but +10 Non-greasy Hands, he gave me the job of writing down people that were finished fixing their bikes and taking them home.
It was pretty cool to help, even in this minuscule way, and I’m super glad to have my bike in working order again.
Camping?
http://www.vimeo.com/13693424
Brent made this video last night. I will say it is only accurate up to about 9:45 when Andrei declared “I don’t like this, I’m going in the tent” When I asked him why, he said, “I don’t want to talk, I just want to leave.” Oh well.
After that I stretched out on both ‘beds’ and curled up with all the blankets. Looking back I see that it was not a good idea to sleep outside after a week of storms and mosquito revelry. The amount of exposed skin shrunk to just my nose sticking out of the blanket top and after waking up for the 802937th time, I went inside and scared the poo out of Brent at about 3:30.
Camping Fail 
Also video embed fail. If anyone could help me out with that, I’d be eternally grateful.
Libyan dinner
Tonight was Libyan night. Yummy yum yum!
For the main course I made Bazin with stew (link). Bazin is very simply – flour and boiling water. You boil water, and then add flour and mix and mix and knead until it makes a big ball. Here’s a pic.
It became really difficult to stir, so the instructions said to knead with your hands, but it was much too hot. So I threw it into the mixer until it was the right texture. Then, you make a ball of dough, put it into a bowl, and put sauce or stew over top. You don’t use silverware to eat it, but rather break off a piece of dough and dip it into the sauce and eat with your fingers. It was messy, but sort of fun. My sauce had onions, garlic, carrot, potatoes, tomato sauce, chili powder and tumeric. It was pretty good but the texture of the dough got to me after a while and I couldn’t finish.
Then dessert I made Halawah bil-Fawaaki. This smelled a lot like applesauce but was more like a pudding because of the couscous. I really liked it – the boys not so much.
Everything I knew about Libya was from watching the movie Long Way Down (great movie btw). I remember from the movie that every restaurant or location had a picture of Khadafi displayed, so I made sure to add one to our table too.
Libya was country #11. Next up – Central African Republic.
Mosquito bite
I have a mosquito bite on my bum. Sorry, no pics… but I will tell you how it happened.
A few months ago, I thought to myself – Our church has a lot of grassy area – wouldn’t that be the perfect place for a community garden! Our church already runs a weekly day-old bread pantry – it would be great to add some fresh produce to that! :)
I looked high and low to find others who would help me with this but I could only find a few people who were interested – not near enough to get a good garden going
Our church also has a program called Love Your City and their focus is to beautify the community and help the lower income neighborhoods with home repair, gas discounts, lawn care, etc. The head of Love Your City said – wouldn’t our church be a perfect place for a community garden? And all his helpers said – Yes! Tracy wanted to do that – you should call her!
So he did. And I told him my dilemma of having no volunteers. And he said that he was working with the city, and he had some Huber Law guys that couldn’t find jobs, but the jail was letting them work with Love Your City instead – sooooo – insta volunteers! So I had 6-10 strong men who could till, rake, dig, plant, and help us get this garden in the ground. We also called around and found some people who were willing to donate plants!
So now our church has a great big huge garden bursting with yummy vegetables! And weeds, but we’re working on that part. Here are some pictures:
Rolling the sod
All the plants in
Cute bug
First week harvest
So, this morning is the Bread Basket, where I take our harvestings. And I was lazy yesterday and didn’t get out to bring in the ripe veggies. So this morning I had to go out in the drizzle and see what I could find. And I found out that bugs like to hide under leaves when it’s raining, so if you go looking for veggies, they will come flying out and attack you. And when I squatted down to pick some basil, a mosquito flew up my shorts and bit me in the bum. The end.
Recipes for a mixed diet marriage
I’m a vegetarian and Brent is not. Andrei isn’t either and they both like to tease me if there is no animal on the table at dinner time. I did become a vegetarian after Brent and I was married, so I figured it wasn’t fair for me to force my veggie ways on him and I would continue to cook meat for him. The only thing I won’t do is pork.
The meat for the boys mostly consists of frozen chicken breast, meatballs, and beef keilbasa. It isn’t the most economical, but it’s what works for us. I make a vegetarian dinner and then grill or microwave whatever would work best, and he adds it himself. The only complaint he has is sometimes he wishes the meat would simmer with the soup or something, but mostly he’s fine with it.
Here’s some other ideas to avoid cooking two meals all the time:
- Fajitas - I grill peppers, make some beans, and grill some chicken, and then anyone can add what they want to their own tortilla.
- I very rarely make casserole, but if I do (or lasagna) I will make one in an 8×8 pan and one in a bread pan. Then I don’t have tons of leftovers – and both smaller pans can bake at the same time
- Burger crumbles (by Morning Star or Boca) – with these you can make chili, sloppy joes, or whatever else you use ground beef for. This stuff is expensive though so I only get it when it’s on sale.
- Sandwiches – easy enough – also half and half pizza.
- If we go to a grill-out fundraiser or a party, I will actually bring my own boca burger and ask them to grill it for me. That way I’m not stuck eating chips and that’s it.
Let me look at my meal plan for the next week and see what it’s about.
Thursday – lunch – going out of town, so picnic food. Dinner – pesto if we’re home in time – I’ll just add chicken after cooking
Friday – lunch – Fajitas – mentioned above. Dinner – Blue cheese and potato tart – probably won’t have any side meat with that
Saturday – Pizza at a party. I can order a half pizza – I think the party is ordering taco pizza which I’ve had meatless before and it tastes fine.
Monday – lunch – Pasta with marinara sauce – the boys will add meatballs. Dinner – Libya food – There is some stew so I’ll add chicken to the boys’ stew
Tuesday – lunch – Fried rice – easy enough to make vegetarian and add meat later. Dinner – Zucchini and tomato tart – if we have any kielbasa that would go nicely with it.
That’s about all I have planned. After 7 years of this, I think I’ve gotten it down pat, and we’re both happy. :)
He called for me!
Andrei called for me last night about 2AM. So what – big deal – you say – my kid wakes me up all night long.
Not Andrei.
Andrei has it hardwired deep in his brain to know that if he calls in the middle of the night, no one will come. From day one, I doubt there was anyone who was there to cuddle him, rock him, or respond to his 2am hungry cries So if he wakes up in the night because he’s scared, or because of a nightmare, he just lays there, alone. Every night I tell him to call me if he has a nightmare or something, and every morning he tells he woke up for some reason or another but didn’t call for me.
So last night, when he had a stuffy nose and needed a drink of water – he yelled for mama. And that’s a big deal for him. He was confident that someone would come help him. He was trusting enough to know I’d be there. He was dependent on me, instead of thinking he could fix everything in his 9yo self.
And I was more than happy to be there for him.
hww