Mary Bernard

So, today is my fifteenth day of blogging. Consecutively. That’s every day in a row.

I’m at the half-way mark for the month of November.

Taking the challenge to post every day in November for NaBloPoMo has been interesting. So far, I’ve noticed:

• I’ve stayed on track to put something on my blog every day. Even if it was late or something not scheduled. I’m really excited that so far, I’ve stuck with it.
• I have actually blogged when I otherwise (if not taking part in the challenge) would not have.
• I think the commitment to blog everyday has forced me to become more creative, if that makes sense. So, the parameter of the challenge has actually contributed to my creativity, which is cool. (I guess artists do need some type of structure in which to work.)
• I don’t have a sense as to reader expectations this month. I don’t see a leap in my visitors for each day nor increased comments. Not sure if my readers are refreshing my blog page every two minutes to see if the day’s post is up yet or not. (You aren’t, are you? Because if you are, you better leave a comment and let me know how you just can’t live without updates from The Writer’s Block.)

We’ll see what the last half of the month brings.

Growing up, I was a Girl Scout from second grade until high school graduation. I’m pretty sure I earned some impressive awards but couldn’t tell you exactly what those awards were or what requirements I fulfilled to earn them.

Finally, this year, Susanna decided that she would, indeed, participate in Girl Scouts. Now that the program offers the Daisy level, first graders can participate.

Tonight we went to a “Pajama Party” for our unit. Moms and girls gathered, wearing our pajamas, for crafts, games, snacks, singing, and dancing. We all brought a pair of pajamas to donate to the local chapter of a pajama program.

It was all so girly-girl. And I loved every minute of it.

It was one of those times when I looked at my little girl in her jammies doing a chicken dance and laughing and I thought, I’m so glad I have a girl.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner. I decided to post a series of recipes that actually did come from my mom. (I’ll post recipes for cornbread dressing, gravy, sweet potatoes, and more within the days between now and Thanksgiving.)

First up: A Perfect Turkey

I promise that if you follow the directions for cooking this turkey, your turkey will turn out beautifully.

It’s a fool-proof, easy recipe.

A Perfect Turkey

one 16-pound turkey, thawed
one onion
two celery stalks
one stick of butter
1 cup of cold water
1 lemon, cut in half
kosher salt
ground black pepper
garlic powder
3-5 sprigs of fresh rosemary

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Remove giblets. Rub outside of turkey with salt and sprinkle generously with pepper and garlic powder. Inside the cavity, place one peeled onion, two celery stalks, one stick of butter, one cup of cold water, lemon, and rosemary sprigs.

Wrap the whole bird in heavy aluminum foil, checking to see that it is snug and tight. Put wrapped bird in roasting pan and cover with the lid. Or, to make your own roaster, use two aluminum roasting pans to form a top and bottom.

Cook for one hour at 350 degrees. Then lower the temperature to 275 degrees. Cook for thirty minutes per pound (about eight hours for a 16-pound bird).

During the last hour (eighth hour), lower the oven to 250 degrees. At the end of that hour, turn the oven off. Allow turkey to sit in the cooling oven for about thirty minutes.

Cool turkey completely before slicing.

I know the timing can be a little tricky to figure out. Here’s a sample schedule (I’ll be doing something like this on Thanksgiving Eve):

8:00-8:30 Prep bird for baking
8:30-9:30 Cook at 350 degrees
9:30-5:30 Cook at 275 degrees

Set alarm for 4:30 to change oven temp
and go back to bed

4:30-5:30 Lower oven to 250 degrees
5:30 Turn oven off
5:30-6:00 Turkey sits in off and cooling oven

Move turkey to cool in refrigerator

11:30-11:45 Slice turkey and plate
Noon Eat Thanksgiving dinner

When my sister and I were in high school and college, we loved Christmas mornings. Our father would take it upon himself to stuff our stockings with lots of interesting items.

Laura and I would guffaw as we pulled out random items from the stockings: Marks-A-Lot jumbo black markers, rolls of Scotch tape, and packages of Doublemint and Juicy Fruit gum.

His idea of stocking fun was practicality and office supplies.

Whether because of genetics or environmental influence, I have adopted my dad’s stocking stuffer technique. I tend to gravitate toward practical items for my kids’ stockings, too. They love them! The items aren’t expensive; they are useful; and they won’t rot their teeth.

Things that will appear in my kids’ stockings this year:

• toothbrush (characters)
• toothpaste
• stickers of their favorite characters
• socks (favorite characters)
• colorful or character bandage strips
• pencils, pens, crayons
• notepads, notebooks
• hair do-dads
• fingernail polish
• lip balm
• small bottles of Play-Doh, bubbles
• Glow bracelets and other miscellaneous small toys

Great places to shop for these items:

• Go to Dollar Tree now! I find that Dollar Tree is always well-stocked on holiday items at the very beginning of the season. That’s right now because of the early push on Christmas this year. Today I found some cute notepads and pens and those magic wash clothes that begin as a small square but grow once they are wet. My kids love those types of things; so much more useful than cheap toys and a lot healthier than candy.

• The one-dollar aisle at Target is another fabulous place to find these types of items. I found the Slinky Junior toy as well as Crazy Eight and Old Maid card games there.

• I have gotten lots of good deals at Big Lots in the past as well. I haven’t been there yet this year, but I will go. They tend to have well-recognized brand name items for a LOT less money.

It’s been one of those days where my brain is on overdrive and I can’t think/talk/write/cook/eat fast enough. Do you know what I mean? Do you get like that?

So the day started with my finding a rather terse email in my inbox, which was a comment to one of my comments left on someone else’s blog post. I couldn’t type fast enough with my thoughts. But not being one to post rashly, I am still working on it. I like to make sure my facts are straight, and I have research/Scripture/references to back up my assertions. So, I don’t know when/if I’ll get it posted. I kind of get to the point where I wonder if it’s worth all my effort anyway.

I rushed through those initial thoughts before they left me but didn’t “get it all out.” You writers will know what I mean. I needed a few more minutes to feel a real catharsis. But I had to move on to the next thing.

So then I helped a friend with some computer/blog/video/audio post questions but I couldn’t quite figure those out. We accomplished a lot with a process of elimination–we know what doesn’t work–but ultimately I was disappointed to run out of time on that project, too.

I met a blogger friend for lunch and had a FANTASTIC time getting to know her and hear about ways to grow my blog. She had wonderful suggestions for ways to make my blog more monetarily successful. We also had some brainstorming sessions on creative approaches to blogging. What a great, inspiring meal! I wanted then and there to crawl into a library corner for the rest of the day and just work on my blog. But alas, I had to go to Target …

… where I saw Scott Hamilton. Scott Hamilton? Yes! Ice skating champion Scott Hamilton. And he looked so ordinary in a windbreaker, jeans, and sneakers while pushing a cart full of soft drinks and bottled water that I did a quadruple take. It was just so odd. I saw him get into his Lexus SUV that had Tennessee plates. After a little reading online, I discovered he and his wife live in Franklin.

Then I was off to pick up the kids from school, where I discovered one child had said something hurtful to another child (though not intentionally, I’m certain). One of my other children, however, had a trouble-free day after a teacher’s note yesterday told of this child’s ultra-social and silly behavior.

So, I’m kind of done with today. I think I’ve been sapped of every emotion: anger, inspiration, worry, anticipation, confusion, frustration, disappointment.

Looking forward to sleep tonight.

is coming!

Please check back on Wednesday to read TULIP Tuesday a day late.

I’m just busy, running behind, and tired. 😉

It’s Menu Plan Monday!

Monday–Baked lemon/garlic/rosemary chicken

Tuesday–Leftovers

Wednesday–Tilapia packets with veggies

Thursday–Lentil and chicken stew

Friday–leftovers

Saturday–Meatloaf, green beans, mashed cauliflower (I’ll try to fool my family!)

Sunday–simple supper/leftovers/take out

I love my Kroger reusable grocery bags. They are practical and sturdy. The handles are roomy enough to sling the bags over my shoulders.

The Kroger baggers, however, need to heed my bagging instructions.

Do NOT bag “like with like.” When you bag three 2-liters together, I can’t lift it. When you bag two 10-pack juice boxes with one 2-liter, I can’t lift it. When you bag two gallons of milk, I can’t lift it.

When you bag a bag of chips, a box of plastic sandwich bags, and a bag of croutons together, I become angry.

Proper bagging technique is this: a heavy item on the bottom, a few medium-weight items in the middle, and a light item on top.

I’m happy to give you a bagging demonstration, if needed.

I’m concerned that each time I want to slice a grapefruit in order to scoop the fruit with a spoon, I always cut it in the wrong direction.

It’s most troubling to me since I analyze and contemplate the cut—convinced I’m doing it right—only to discover that I’ve done it wrong again.

I think I need to follow George Costanza’s lead in the “The Opposite” and just do the opposite of my initial impulse.

At least when it comes to cutting grapefruit.

(This clip makes me laugh out loud. I post it because I really need to laugh out loud tonight.)

My kids sucked me dry today and I am in the middle of Diet Failure.

Here’s looking forward to reset and reboot tomorrow.

Before I had children, I was such a good mom. I think a book was published a few years ago by that title or something similar. I only wish I’d thought of it first. It’s a sentiment that resounds loudly with me and most moms (if they are being honest) I know.

I mean, I had it all figured out: the “right” things to do and say to make my kids into perfect little angels.

I was so self-righteous.

Ironically, I’ve become the woman I used to judge. Because parenting—especially Christian parenting—isn’t quite so cut-and-dried.

I’ve now had a solid week to evaluate and ruminate over the oft-debated, sometimes controversial, issue of Christians’ celebrating and observing Halloween. We did celebrate it this year—and will continue to do so—and I think now I can articulate our reasons why and how they relate to our faith.

Growing up, we always celebrated this holiday with costumes and jack-o-lanterns. It was fun and always a family time with my aunt and uncle and some of their friends.

As I entered adulthood, I began to encounter Christian parents who chose not to celebrate Halloween. My goodness. I had never heard of that before! They cited the pagan roots and rituals from which Halloween came as their reason to shun the holiday.

Well, of course, I decided then and there that I would not partake of such evil, and my children would not, either.

And then I had kids.

As with most decisions of this ilk, I was determined to explore the issue and come up with my own defense as to why we would or would not celebrate this holiday.

Could we celebrate in good faith? Could we trick-or-treat to the glory of God?

We did decide the answers to those questions were “yes” and “yes,” based on a soup of various experiences and convictions:

• The first year we opened our door to hand out candy to our neighbors, I loved—absolutely loved—the community feeling. I loved chatting with neighbors and seeing cute little kids and meeting new friends. Like it or not, we in our neighborhoods rarely visit those who live closest to us. Our family tends to run in the same circles, and though we are called to be salt and light to those around us, I fear we rarely are because we just don’t get into the lives of those around us. Halloween night is a terrific opportunity to meet, laugh, and love on your neighbors.

After that first night of camaraderie and community, I decided that indeed it was a picture of the gospel. We gather with neighbors and caravan trick-or-treat through the neighborhood. We have the best time laughing and talking and eating and drinking. We are investing our lives in our neighbors, many of whom are not Christians.

• I think the context of Halloween has changed such that deciding not to participate in a contemporary event based on how it began 2000 years ago, is kind of like abiding by Paul’s admonition that women should not have braided hair or wear gold. Contextually and culturally, the roots of the holiday are irrelevant. (Yes, I know that there are those people who practice witchcraft and celebrate such occult aspects on Halloween. But aren’t there persons who don’t believe in Jesus who celebrate Christmas? Should we not celebrate Christmas on that basis?) Halloween was adopted by the Church in an effort to redeem it. I say, let’s continue that redemption and reformation, Christians! And to be consistent, if one chooses to abstain from Halloween based solely on its pagan roots, then one should also not celebrate Christmas and Easter and throw out their calendars, as the months of the year and days of the week derive their names from pagan gods and goddesses.

• Abstaining from Halloween because of its “evil” associations is for me a stumbling block. That’s right. That abstention actually contributes to my sin.

I am such a Pharisee at heart that I’m quick to grasp anything that may make me feel superior or more holy or more righteous. I want to point to one something that I do or don’t do that shows everyone else I’m a Christian—and a good one at that. For me, it’s much more humbling and a greater exercise in dependence on Christ to participate within the boundaries of Christian liberty. It stretches me more as a Christian (and as a Christian mom) to participate while teaching the children about freedom in Christ and doing all to the glory of God.

We’ve had discussion after discussion with our six year-old about the difference between the delight, fun, and creativity associated with dressing as a make-believe fairy or princess as opposed to celebrating or calling attention to evil or demons. So, even within the parameters of the celebration, we are able to give Christian lessons.

• We also observe Reformation Day on October 31 with our kids. In 1517, Martin Luther set the Protestant Reformation into motion by nailing his 95 theses on the Wittenburg Castle door. That one act forever changed the Church and all of civilization.

I read an interesting post that has been floating around the Internet since 1996. Basically, it states that Halloween’s pagan origins have been grossly misunderstood and Halloween began as a Christian celebration of Christians mocking at Satan as he is defeated by Christ. I certainly applaud this sentiment. The problem is that I’m not sure if it’s true or not. I question the guy’s scholarship because I can’t find any original source anywhere. I will continue to research this, though.

Finally, I do not judge nor condemn parents for any decision they make for their family. For Christians, we are free in Christ. Whether you sit at home on Halloween night, take your little princess and pirate to the church fall festival, or trick-or-treat with the neighbors and roast marshmallows at a bonfire, it is a matter of personal conviction.

As with most everything in our self-gratifying, idol-worshipping, need-meeting culture, all holidays have become sensationalized and commercialized. Redeeming the holidays with a focus on something other than self and acquiring more, more, more! is a daunting task. But I think God calls us to be culturally relevant without compromise of conviction. Let us not forget that he has ordained all, including the time and place in which we live.

Photo credit: flickr.com by solyanka

“We need just a few more volunteers. Do any of you want to help?”

No, I think. Lady, I’m just here to take pictures and watch and have no responsibility.

I felt like such a cranky b**ch this morning. But for today? I just didn’t want to do anything.

I attended my daughter’s big race at school for one hour this morning. Apparently, the organizers were short-handed on volunteers for lap-counting or they hadn’t scheduled enough people or someone didn’t show or something. Whatever the reason, the lady approached a small group of us moms standing there waiting for the race to start and asked for help.

I didn’t jump at the chance. I didn’t offer to help. I just stood there.

Ordinarily, that’s not my personality at all. I am the volunteer of volunteers. I REALLY enjoy helping. I like being part of a team to do anything. I’m a joiner. I was a member of everything in high school and college (seriously) and held a leadership office in most any organization of which I’ve ever been a part.

(Except organized sports. I don’t have an athletic or competitive bone in my body.)

As this week squeaks to a halt, however, I’m confronted with my limits. I am exhausted. I think I’m a bit over-committed (which is nothing new; I’ve been over-committed since I came out of the womb) and honestly, I don’t know what to do about it.

I guess refusing to help monitor the race was a good place to start? Hmmmm.

Here’s what our week was like (and we aren’t the busiest family by any stretch):

• Preschool fall festival party-Friday
• Basketball cheerleading signup-Saturday morning
• Trick-or-Treating-Saturday night
• Church-Sunday morning
• Cruise on the Cumberland River-Sunday afternoon
• Dinner out with church group-Sunday night
• Van wouldn’t start and was in the shop for two days
• Girl scouts meeting-Tuesday night
• Run to the grocery store for ingredients for school bake sale goods-Tuesday night during GS meeting
• Bake muffins-Wednesday night
• Deliver muffins-Thursday morning
• Spaghetti supper at school-Thursday night
• Race at school-Friday morning
• Work, work, work, and work-Thursday night I was up until 1 a.m.

So, Lady At The Race Today, if you ask me to help next year, maybe you’ll catch me at a time when I’m a bit more rested and not so overwhelmed.

Or maybe not.

I think this is one reason why my friend Jennifer chose to homeschool this year.