appreciate

We had a great rehearsal with the band last night, these intrepid (crazy?) folks who are willing to join me on my trip out east for a few concerts. Two hours of singing later, and I was kinda tired.

I love these guys (and those of the Sequoia music gang who can't head to the coast with us) for more reasons than I can say.

They put up with me. We laugh about silly things mid-song. Egos aren't on the line. We share a common purpose and goal, to worship God through music and to share the joy that brings us with others. They are willing to drive to the east coast on their own dime to support my three concerts. They are amazingly talented, amazingly humble, deeply caring and wonderfully fun. They are themselves, they are friends. They share their musicality in a way that makes the whole unit more than the sum of the parts. Synergy is a wonderful thing.

I have a radio interview being taped on Friday morning (eek!), the events are being promo'ed out east, and we leave the following week. I'm excited!

Concert details are on my site, or you can go to myspace, facebook, ilike... aah, the joys of social media.

surround

A tactile few days of feeling surrounded.

Yesterday after a hot run, I slipped off my shoes and socks and slid, still dressed from running, into the pool. The cool water surrounded me and the nerves in my skin felt alive to the sensation of the water moving around. It was tingly and invigorating.

Last night I climbed into our bed. Where our old mattress was springy, this one is soft and envelops as I lie down, sinking into the pillow top and feeling the bed hug me into itself. It was cozy; I lay there and gradually felt each muscle group succumb to letting itself relax, shedding the fatigue of the day.

This morning the clouds are low and dark grey, the rain audible on our house's tin roof. Like a blanket the clouds wrap around our home, rejuvenating the grass and fields. The rain hitting me last night as I rescued the laundry on the clothesline was warm and soft.

I hope you can feel surrounded by loveliness today and feel some little hugs of life.

zone

I'm continuing to run, currently sitting on Week 7 of the program - trying to get back at it after a two-week hiatus. Today was 13ish minutes running (covered 2km in that time, hooray), then the return distance home a mix of running and walking. I'll get there.

It was on the homestretch that I got this strange sensation.

I was looking down the road, and the horizon point was completely the focus, as if the peripheral had faded away. All seemed still. My feet as I ran felt more stable, more sure on each step. My legs forgot they were mad at me and whispered that they could run all day. My breathing felt as if it didn't matter.

It felt oddly out-of-body (or maybe just in a better body?). For a moment I felt good, I felt strong.

Then reality jumped out of the bushes in a flying tackle and reminded me I was dead tired. From the surreal zone back to life, I plodded the rest of the way through the run home.

But that moment ... I want it again.

road trip recap

- a post in which I just realized there a lots of initials. hmm. But, in interests of a shred of internet anonymity, I will use them. If you simply must know who an initial is, email me and I might just tell. -

July had a first for me: a road trip with just me and the girlies. R and A had been in Birmingham for World Changers and after a week of hot work painting and scraping, stayed on in the city with the B's. Several fun days with S, B, and L later, they started driving north.

Meanwhile, I headed south with M to meet them part way. After an overnight stay with the H's in PA, we got an early start and headed past Baltimore and Washington, to meet S and the girls at a hotel in Williamsburg. Happy hugs and reunions all around!

We had entertained thoughts of Colonial Williamsburg, having missed it in December after a snowstorm, but with the day half gone we decided instead to try Jamestown Settlement - open later, and cheaper admission. It's very cool: a recreated fort, seaside (complete with ships!), and Native village with people in period costume showing different aspects of life in the area in 1607. The girls got to try twisting grass into rope, watching flint tools and clay pots be made, scraping a deer hide, and seeing a musket fired. It was so hot though and we were glad to get back to the hotel before supper.

M being stately on the ship's deck

The next day S returned south (boo for not being able to say when we'll see her next!) and we started north. Had an last minute scheduled lunch meet-up with a friend from WoW in Richmond, which was lots of fun and at Panera! Love that restaurant. Then we got to face Friday afternoon Washington traffic. ouchies.

Eventually though we did return to our first night's stop in PA, where we stayed on for a couple days. Saturday was spent at Gettysburg, a place D would have loved and I want to go see again. We did a self-guided car tour led by a CD (note: that's an audio CD, not somebody's initials ... sigh... this gets confusing). Sunday was relaxing with the H's, something we definitely liked after all the driving and before our return home on Monday.

A few highlights:

- bashing my head on most of the beams on the ship. Low ceilings are not my friend.

- long talks and silliness in the truck with the girls

- many games of pool at the H's, the girls loved that. (A: "can we get a pool table?")

- s'mores! yummmm. Many thanks to GH for that great idea!

- seeing S, even for only such a short time, and hand-delivering my letter. Wonder if she followed the instructions of putting it in her mailbox a la Mr. Bean when she got home?

- meeting DH's parents, listening to his dad play the banjo and singing along with him for a short bit. That was fun!

- seeing history, both re-enacted and walking the places where it actually happened.

- sitting and talking, often described as 'doing nothing', are simple pleasures that I really do enjoy.

- learning about some PA railway history, also interesting. Realizing that I would not have the patience to make a scaled, accurate model railway :) But it sure was cool to see the one others had made.

- one of these days, we really do need to make it to Williamsburg.

daring kitchen, july

This month's challenge was a fun one and once again had me trying something new: nut butter. Yes, there is in fact more out there than Skippy.

"The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online."

I started this one early (and posted this entry late, thanks to travels).

I made cashew butter in the food processor - a loud process but it made a nice butter with a more subtle flavor than peanut butter. This was then added to all sorts of goodies - soy sauce, raw garlic and ginger, sesame oil, and rice vinegar - to make a sauce that was simply AMAZING. The smell of it literally drew my family into the kitchen to taste it. This brought rave reviews and the requirement of chasing them back out so there would be less sampling and enough sauce for the noodle salad.

making cashew butter.

and yes that's duct tape on the food processor thanks to a drop a year ago. oops.

Some rice noodles boiled and rinsed (first time using those, and very good), peppers, basil, a bit of lime juice, scallions, and some sauteed shrimp were tossed with the dark brown sauce to finish the dish.

ta-dah!

And, in a word, WOW. We loved it! Me, D, and all three girls cleaned our plates and wanted more. The sauce was so good and savory, the shrimp just barely cooked to be tender and flavorful. Definitely a make-again!

I would like to try it again with roasted cashews versus the raw ones I used. I also played with pecan butter later (yum!) in the month to make a sauce with port wine for venison. That had a nice flavor but was almost too much with just the meat - that deserves another go with a stroganoff-type serving, methinks.