On Keeping the Sabbath

I don't get to keep the Sabbath, because I work for a church. Sunday is my main day of work, the day when everything comes to a head and I'm rushing about trying to do 6 things at once and respond to 200 people as though I have time to truly see and hear them. It is intense, and not a day of rest for me.

You would think that I could just pick another day of the week to be my day off, but going into my third year of this, I can tell you that is far easier said than done. Whatever day I have picked has been eroded by slow encroachments. A meeting that could find no other time that worked for everyone, or a church related phone call made to my cell phone, an "emergency" email, or even just my own interest in a work project would serve to suck me into work on my day of "rest".

And then I have other work that takes over my day off - I usually still have to drive the kids to and from school and other activities, and I have to cook for the family, and a day off is the only good time to deep clean the house or do a home and garden project. When I attack my days off like that, actually just going to work at my office at church feels like a vacation from the "hard work" of being at home.

But, despite my demonstrated inability to actually do it, I do believe that there is a spiritual value to keeping the sabbath. Thinking about this problem, I have just read The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel. Although I am not Jewish and have never been particularly moved before by this theology, I found this book beautiful in every sense. It is beautifully written, with layers of metaphor and meaning and lovely prose, but it is also beautifully envisioned to begin with. Heschel argues that Judaism finds meaning not in space, and the material things that make up space, but in time and the eternity and spirit that imbues it. Time is its own phenomenon, separate from space and the events that occur in space in that time - time is eternal and holy.

"To Rabbi Shimeon eternity was not attained by those who bartered time for space but by those who knew how to fill their time with spirit. To him the great problem was time rather than space; the task was how to convert time into eternity rather than how to fill space with buildings, bridges, and roads; and the solution to the problem lay in study and prayer rather than in geometry and engineering."

I still don't know how I would keep a Sabbath day - it seems more practical to me to start out small with even a Sabbath evening or just a Sabbath Hour - but I have some new thoughts as to why I would want to. Time filled with spirit, rather than bartered for space or the material things is a moving goal.

a sweet big brother

As I was picking him up from school today, Carbon and I found ourselves talking about some of the younger students at his school and how they are doing. I asked him if he thought his sister would be OK there next year, when I hope to send her there for 3 days a week.

He replied that she'd be just fine, and said that she would be "tough enough to stand up to _____", referring to a student whom Carbon thinks is a bit of a bully. He then went on to talk about all the things he thinks she will enjoy doing, and which of the younger students he thinks will be her friends.

I asked him if he thought she'd be able to follow all the rules and deal with the JC (judicial committee). And here is where he was super sweet.

"She'll be fine" he says. "I can go into JC - you're allowed to go in as an observer if you want, and I can sit close to her and we can make up signs for things like 'be quiet now'."

Now, serving on JC and going to JC is one of the things he likes the least about school. And here he is telling me he would stop playing with his friends and go in to support his little sister if she had to go to JC.

I don't necessarily believe it would happen that way - but I think he is so sweet to believe that that is how it will be.

snack bags

After work yesterday, we had a very chill and quiet Sunday afternoon and evening - something unusual for us because we normally have Sunday dinner every week at my in-law's. They are out of town, so instead we just had banana bread and bacon and baked apples for our dinner, and sat around our house being very lazy and playing video games and reading.

I also managed to do this very small sewing project, and make the kids some fabric snack bags. These can replace ziplock bags in the lunch boxes, holding chips or crackers or really anything dry. And after lunch they can just be thrown in the washing machine. I had this Halloween fabric in my stash from some long-ago year when I couldn't pass up the post-holiday sale rack. It finally got a good use. :)

On the nightstand

A bit of what I'm reading right now (this doesn't show the book in the bathroom and the one in my purse).

A movie party

Last night we hosted a "party" for the kids at church during a congregational meeting, so kids could come to the party and their parents could attend the meeting. We were hoping this would get higher attendance from the younger families at the congregational meeting. Not sure we met that goal this first time out, but we did have a simple and fun movie night.

We rented a helium tank and had tons of balloons. The balloons tied to the dollhouse greeted kids as they arrived. The Family Ministry Team at church all came together to make this work - getting the balloons, getting snack food, watching the kids. Thank you all! I work with wonderful people.

Menu planning after the market

I go to the Farmer's Market on Fridays, so I never make my weekly menu plans until after that trip. But today, I'm a bit stumped!

Here's what I've got to work with:

• fresh unshelled cranberry beans
• a hot daikon radish
• a big bunch of green kale
• lemon cucumbers
• parsnips
• tomatoes
• tomatillos
• a big rump roast
• bacon

already in the house:

• potatoes
• onions
• carrots
• apples
• 2 "patty pan" squash
• 2 acorn squash
• 2 super ripe avocado (is the plural of avocado just avocado? do you add an "e" and an "s"?)
• gruyere cheese
• "mexi mix" pre-grated cheese
• staples, such as beans and rice, etc.

What on earth do I make with this stuff? I see a chili coming with the tomatillos and tomatoes, and I can sprinkle the grated cheese on that - maybe serve the ripe avocado with it too. But what about that daikon radish? The kale and the parsnip might go nicely together in a soup. I see the roast going in the slow cooker and having potatoes on the side with it. Maybe the radish could go in the roast pot, just to add a touch of exotic flavor to the roast? The cranberry beans could make an interesting dish with the acorn squash, bacon, and apples. I think I would roast the squash and apples and drizzle them with brown sugar and cook the beans lightly and mix them in, then cook bacon bits and stir those in too.

Typing this out has helped, already. I've got a few meals:

• Chili
• Kale and parsnip soup
• Roast and potatoes
• squash scramble

And I'm probably set with that, as there will be leftovers and it uses up most of the perishables. If you stuck with me through that ramble, thank you for your attention!

Help that I can get

My last post was the complaining part, here is the solution part. Many folks, both here and on facebook suggested that I hire a cleaning service. That has been something I've been thinking about for a couple years now - basically ever since I started working full-time outside the home. But we still aren't quite ready to commit to spending that money.

And the good news is that my husband just got a new job! He'll be working here in town for the next six months, and this job actually has to pay overtime if he goes over 40 hours a week, so that should be the end of the 60-70 hour work weeks with 2-4 hours of commuting a day. What a relief that is going to be! He might actually be able to help a bit more around here.

But I have a few more labor saving solutions:

1. Ask more of Carbon. It turns out he's old enough to do a lot around here: scrubbing the kitchen floor (although he did say that was "the worst chore I've ever done"), doing some pet care, folding laundry, vacuuming. He can also assist: holding boards in place as I hammer to repair the fence, gathering up the branches that I trim off the bushes, etc.

2. Calling and scheduling a time for my Dad to come down and finish installing this dishwasher in my kitchen. I have a hand-me-down dishwasher - it's just sitting in my garage and not hooked up to anything. To install it will require redoing the cabinets - it's major but once it's done it should really help me keep up with cleaning the kitchen.

3. Getting the outdoor dog run finally fixed enough that the dog doesn't escape during the day. Then I don't have to leave her in the garage while I go to work anymore, and I shouldn't come home from work to quite so many unwelcome "gifts" and "surprises". My husband is planning on fixing the dog yard tonight when he gets done with work.

4. Redoing the front flower garden areas so that they are lower maintenance. Instead of trying to use ground cover plants anymore to go between flowers, I'm just going to get bark mulch and go with more big bushes instead of so many little flowers. I just don't have time to weed the flower bed enough to keep it from looking like crap anyway. My husband is also going to help me put in more of a barrier between my flower bed and the neighbors lawn, too, so I don't have to mow her grass anymore in order to keep my flowers from being eaten alive.

My husband and the kids all want this to get better - the stress on me is starting to trickle down and worry them too. So I do have some willing helpers around here, and I just have to figure out how to best use that help. And it's the same at work - I do have willing helpers, I just have to get to the point where I'm planning far enough in advance to know what can be delegated.

It's all going to work out. Our lives are good, and I am blessed with so much.