Miriam's cookies are worth braving the January ice for...

Two years ago, I held a young women's Bible study at my house, led by my friend Miriam. The girls in the Bible study came from all over the Treasure Valley, and many of them traveled 45 minutes or more to get there. When the Bible study was done, we didn't run into each other nearly as often. So Miriam staged a little reunion in early January at Flying M in downtown Nampa, which was a great idea. Unfortunately the weather had other plans. It was snowing like crazy and there were a few inches of ice on the road. A few of the girls couldn't make it but a few of us were already on our way. So, plan B became Miriam's house and homemade chocolate chip cookies. We'll take it!


Miriam and Johanna made some sort of grainy, Malt-O-Meal stuff that I tried but didn't really go for.... it was sort of like Cream of Wheat (excuse me while I gag). And thus ensued an entire conversation on 12-grain, 10-grain, 8-grain, and 6-grain hot cereals and how well each of them provides an internal cleansing... enough said. They seemed to like it.

Ah yes, and cookies were made. I played with the camera while they threw ingredients in the Bosch. Have you ever seen a Bosch mixer? It's a baker's dream. Someday I will get one. Perhaps in place of the standard KitchenAid. Not sure yet.

Erin, Ariel and Hannah showed up a bit later and we all had a great time sitting around visiting and asking personal questions like only a roomful of girls can do. It was fun. :-) Thanks Miriam!

Tea Forte'

I got some tea from Tea Forte' as part of a Christmas gift. I have recently begun drinking way more tea than I ever have before in my life and I actually prefer it at times more than a latte (imagine!). There are thousands of flavors of tea. Gotta love that. So this one is mainly ginger root, with lemon myrtle and hints of ginseng and black pepper. Ginger is spicy on its own, so I was curious about the addition of pepper, but it was just right--made you feel warm inside without assaulting your tongue with pepperiness. And this coming from someone not too fond of pepper. But I adore ginger.

The pyramid-shape makes the bag float in your cup and there is a nifty little leaf on top so you can pull it out without a spoon.

Overall rating: 5 out of 5 stars. Would definitely have again.

A New Year

I'm debating whether to post a list of New Year's Resolutions. I would post them because a) it would keep me more accountable to others, b) it puts them in a neat and tidy list where I can always reference it, and c) something about seeing your plans in print makes them more do-able. I wouldn't post them because a) they're personal, b) there are a lot, and c) I don't really make resolutions as much as I do goals, seeing as how my birthday is coming up and that's usually the time I review the past year and make plans for the next year.
Do you make New Year's Resolutions? What are some of them?

For curiousity's sake:
Resolution: a resolve or determination, to make a firm resolution to do something.
Goal: the result or achievement toward which effort is directed; aim; end.

Camel's Back Park

A large plot of land in northwest Boise is managed by the City, but not all of it is owned by the City. The actual park, Camel's Back, is mainly a large grassy area with a playground and tennis courts. The foothills beyond the park are owned by private individuals who graciously let everbody and their brother tromp across their land. Very generous, I say. And we take full advantage of it.

My lovely friend Julie

Looking out across the valley

I call this Gold Hill because the dirt is completely orange and gold colored. There are only two visible sections of land that I have seen in Camel's Back that have this color, and this one is definitely darker. Not sure which mineral it is.

God, Vampires, and the Anthropic Principle

I hesitate even to put the words "God" and "vampires" in the same sentence lest anyone read the title by itself and not the following article. So please, read the article! :-)
It's an intriguing post on how the proof of the non-existence of vampires can be used accentuate the ridiculousness of some arguments used by agnostics, by application of the anthropic principle in negative form.
Joe Carter: "As I have stated ad nauseam, the uses of such an argument are not to prove that God exists but to highlight the metaphysical and illogical knots that the agnostically inclined will twist themselves into in order to deny the obvious. The fact that vampires don’t exist doesn't prove that God does -- but it does make that inference more reasonable and probable than its alternative."

HT: http://www.evangelicaloutpost.com/archives/004166.html

Tolkien on Soul Mates

I don't think Tolkien would be considered a key Christian figure of instruction in the history of the church (although some treat his Lord Of The Rings series as near-inspired!), but regardless he makes excellent points in this letter to his son. I appreciate the way he points out that "The real soul mate is the one you are actually married to", and "I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament". I'm assuming his "Blessed Sacrament" refers to Christ. I have never heard it described that way before.

In a letter to his son Michael, Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien writes:

No man, however truly he loved his betrothed and bride as a young man, has lived faithful to her as a wife in mind and body without deliberate conscious exercise of the will, without self-denial.

Too few are told that--even those brought up "in the Church." Those outside seem seldom to have heard it. When the glamour wears off, or merely works a bit thin, they think they have made a mistake, and that the real soul-mate is still to find. The real soul-mate too often proves to be the next sexually attractive person that come along. Someone whom they might indeed very profitably have married, if only---. Hence divorce, to provide the "if only."

And of course they are as a rule quite right: they did make a mistake. Only a very wise man at the end of his life could make a sound judgment concerning whom, amongst the total possible chances, he ought most profitably to have married! Nearly all marriages, even happy ones, are mistakes: in the sense that almost certainly (in a more perfect world, or even with a little more care in this imperfect one) both partners might have found more suitable mates. But the "real soul-mate" is the one you are actually married to.

....I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament .... There you will find romance, glory, honour, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves upon earth, and more than that: Death: by the divine paradox, that which ends life, and demands the surrender of all, and yet by the taste (or foretaste) of which alone can what you seek in your earthly relationships (love, faithfulness, joy) be maintained, or take on that complexion of reality, of eternal endurance, which every man's heart desires.

HT: http://wittingshire.blogspot.com/2008/01/tolkien-on-soul-mates.html

What would a person look like if you loved the stuffing out of him?

From Carolyn McCulley: "I want to love and be loved until all that remains is a tattered remnant... Claire did not choose Pink Bear, but she did choose to love him."


Her post is not entirely about her niece's stuffed bear, but ultimately about the choices people make when determining whom and in what way they will love: "Keeping your options open won't necessarily make you happier, and the things you fear are not as bad as you think."


See the whole article here .