Things I Love About ASF (I know...again)

In case you weren't already sick of me braggin' on my church, here's more awesome things about All Souls Fellowship in Decatur, GA.  There are things I don't love as much about my church, but this is just about the stuff that makes me excited and thankful to be a part of this community.  I don't want to give the impression that it's hunky dory all the time, though, we certainly have our issues as well (cuz I'm sure I was fooling you after all those perfect church experiences you've had, too).

Thing 1- Infant and Believer baptisms today!  I love infant baptism.  I love what it represents and I love being part of a community that is concerned with everyone working together to bring these sweet covenant children up in the nurture and admonition of the faith.  But today we had believer's baptism too (you know, when they're all grown up and make the decision for themselves).  It was awesome.  I totally cried. To see a young man in college come up before his peers (and total strangers like me who are still gonna weep) was something very special to be a part of.  And that he'll remember, he'll always remember when the water was poured on his head (and trickled down the light blue button-up polo) is such a precious gift to him (you know, in addition to all the good baptism-y stuff).

Thing 2- We had a Turkish pastor as a guest for the sermon today.  And I'm praising God that He brought a great message to us.  I'm also praising God that He so does not need us to accomplish His work in the nations - He's got this in the bag!  Our pastor friend today is one of 2000 protestants in his country.  He came to faith from the Koran + Jean Valjean + Little House on the Prairie episodes.  Once again, God totally doesn't need us to gather the nations.  However, I remain incredibly grateful that in His great mercy He allows us to be His servants in this endeavor.  What a great God to allow us to participate in the work and share in the JOY of bringing Good News to the nations!

Thing 3- Intinction.  "nuff said.

Thing 4- During our "intermission/coffee break/passing of the peace" time, they usually play a combo of Mumford & Sons and Indigo Girls.  Seriously.  How many churches do that?  Love it!

Thing 5- Each year ASF hosts a volunteer appreciation night for...well, the name should give away who they host it for. Tonight, it was dessert and wine (which we totally drink in our sanctuary/fellowship hall combo space) and a private concert from Over the Rhine (check them out on Spotify, Pandora, itunes).  It was the first I'd heard them as I only managed to actually listen to one song on Spotify before going (and they didn't play it).  But they were awesome.  Super thankful for this special treat.

OK, now you brag on your church?  Why do you love your church community!?!?

Build Something New: Compost Bin

Spoiler Alert: My learn something new for year 32 was learning to garden (which I will post on shortly!), but ever since we got the garden project started I've really, really wanted to have a compost bin with the wiggly little worms inside.  This weekend, I finally got everything together to create a compost bin for the shed on my back porch.  Here's what happened.

Today when I got home from running errands, this box had landed at my front porch.  I had a love/hate thing going with this box because I was very excited about this project, but also, it was a box of worms.  Gross. Vomit.

I gingerly picked it and carried it around to the back porch.  The errands I was running included a trip to Target for a big Rubbermaid bin and then to Home Depot for some bricks to elevate the bin once it was finished.  Here are the initial supplies as I prepare to get started.

The first step is to poke airholes in the bin for circulation and so that the worms can breath.  I did about 20 on the top and then about 20 around the sides.

I just used a screwdriver and it was pretty easy to pop it through to get the holes.  I also popped 2 holes on the bottom of one of the narrow sides to serve as a drain for composting juice (eww).

The next step was to make some bedding for the little worms.  I went the cardboard route.  I just ripped up an old packing box.  At first I was cutting it, but that was killing my hand.  And ripping it gave each piece a little more texture which creates a fluffier (more circulation) bed.

Next I found some leaves from the back porch to add.  Not required, just an option since I needed to sweep the back porch anyway.

Then, I added one scoop of dirt.  You don't want a lot of dirt (according to blogs/videos online), but a little helps with the little wormy digestion.

Next up is scrap food.  Basically just a vegetarian diet with some paper product supplements.  I had some fruits and vegetables that were about to go bad or were scraps.  I did add a little citrus (part of a lime in the fridge), but you don't want to use too much citrus/onions.  Also, only a small amount of carbs.  So I didn't add the leftover rice from the fridge.  I'll wait until my worm colony is more established to add things like that.  I did have a toilet paper roll and some paper towels that I added.

I added a little more ripped up cardboard in between layers of food.  This was recommended on one demo although my friend's that I'm basing mine on didn't have that.

Next it's time to add the worms.  Apparently, it's recommended that you let the compost bin sit as is (all prepared) for 1-2 before adding the worms to create a better environment, but you don't have to and since my worms had already arrived, I needed to do something with them before they died.

  

So I'm dumped them in.

They came in a lot of dirt.  The demo I watched said to only use a little dirt, but I wasn't about to go picking out 1000 red wrigglers from this pile of dirt, so I'm just going to have a fair amount of dirt in my compost bin to start with.  They'll have great digestion.

I let them sit out in the sun for awhile so that they would move around.  They don't like light and dig away from it, so this got them moving and hopefully they started heading down to start chomping on my leftovers.

I added one more layer of "bedding" to the top. My friend had used paper shred for hers, but I still had half a box so I just used that.  I made the pieces bigger so they'd be easier to move when I need to add more fruits & veggies to the bin.  This part isn't for composting so much as it is just for cover and insulation.

Here's my bin all tucked away in the shed.  I need to add little bowls to the front to collect the juice that trickles out (gag), but other than that, it's ready to go!

Gratitude #31-50

I'm apparently horrible at being grateful.  Yikes!!  This is such a good practice to cultivate and posts like these are so helpful to encourage me to consciously think about all the blessings in my life.  And reading friends' blogs (you know, the people who do this more than once a quarter) is also always such an encouragement.  There are so many times when I read their words and go "oh yes, I love that, too!"  Of course, not the ones about how awesome their husband is, but you know, the ones about sunshine and Jesus and stuff.  So here we go -

31. Excellent preaching from Dr. Kooistra today at staff meeting

32. That I have this awesome job where I get to talk to pastors every week and that while part of my job is to encourage them, they always end up encouraging me, too.  I mean, seriously, who gets to talk to pastors (or almost pastors, or really awesome missionaries) for hours every week?!?

33.  People that pray for me - what an encouragement.

34. Crispy M&M's (only found in Asia - that I know of)

35. My trip to Hong Kong

36. Hanging with awesome missionaries in HK

37. Making new friends in HK (HK staff will forever be united by those fuzzy, fuzzy towels)

38.  That I'm back from HK and in my own bed and not sharing a hall bath with 40 strangers in a foreign country.

39. My Kindle

40.  The $10/month gym membership

41. The machines at the gym that have jacks for earphones so I don't have to have a radio to watch TV

42.  That I get to watch Friends and the news while at the gym

43.  Crispy M&Ms.  They're just that good.

44.  The hand wash I got for my car - it's so beautiful now!!

45. That our community garden at work is almost reading for planting

46.  The Mosaic Bible.  It's been so long since I've been eager to read the Word - obligated, begrudging, desperate?  Yeah.  Excited and eager and carryingit upstairs and down with me so that I can read more?  A long, long time.  (go to Amazon and check it out - best $20 I've spent in a long time)

47.  My neighborhood, where I run into fun neighbors in the parking lot after work while we walk dogs, take out trash, and look for a good cell phone signal.

48. Same neighbors that are crazy generous and give me extra cat food and let me borrow their vacuum cleaner.

49.  This time of quiet and peace in my house with no roommate.  What a sweet gift it's been.

50.  That God is teaching me trust and patience and contentment while I pray and pray (and recruit all kinds of other people to pray) for the provision of the right new roommate.

Favorite Things: You Tube Edition

Here are a few of the things that I've been distracting myself with on youtube lately.

1. This one I discovered via a link on another blog (It's Almost Naptime).  Great blog -definitely recommend it.  And I'm thankful to Missy for introducing me to these great covers by Nicki Bluhm and the Gramblers.  They sing covers in the van in between gigs.  This Buddy Holly one is definitely my favorite!  We grew up on Buddy Holly in my house and this brings me back to Saturday mornings dancing around the record player.

2. Next up - a shout out to my China peeps!  We watched this video quite a few times at the retreat last week.  Hilarious if you've ever tried speaking Chinese - and likely any other foreign language.  The intro doesn't have subtitles (it's funny because he says the wrong tone implying he's tired instead of asking for a certain kind of food - ha ha).  Anyway, the rest of the song does have subtitles, although I had to delete the advertisement box at the bottom in order to read them.  Language learning aside, they're a pretty good band!

3. Finally, I heart Aaron Sorkin, like big time.  West Wing is my favorite TV show of all time and the first 3 seasons are maybe the best television ever.  I'm so stinking excited for his new show on HBO - The Newsroom.  Of course, it's on HBO, so I won't be watching live, but still, it looks so much better than his last show (poor Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip).  Here's the trailer (warning: it's HBO so there is a dirty word).

Bonus: Here's a perk since all these fun West Wing clips pulled up when I finished watching the trailer.  Ainsley Hayes was probably my favorite character on West Wing.  I was devastated when Emily Procter left such a great role to stare at hair follicles with a perplexed expression on CSI: Miami.  It's hard to choose just one clip, but this is one of my favorites and has Leo and Margaret - more favorites! (who am I kidding? They're all my favorite)

Learn Something New: Knitting Project

Every year I try to learn a new skill (for all of two years in a row now).  Two years ago it was knitting. Last year is was gardening (posts still to come on that).  And this year is TBD (two options, just trying to narrow it down - one is more expensive and one is more absolutely terrifying).  In addition to learning a new skill, I also try to brush up on the previous ones.  One of my goals this year was to try some new knitting projects because I really could just endlessly knit scarves (why do something new where you actually have to pay attention to the knitting project instead of Castle?).  Anyway, a good friend commissioned a tea cosy from me and it seemed like the perfect opportunity for a new knitting project!!

First I researched all kinds of tea cosies to see how hard they were to make and what kinds I could reasonably do.  Ravelry.com was very helpful in this regard.  Next, I asked my friend to tell me what kind of tea cosy she wanted (Harry Potter themed).  And then we looked together at the pot and determined how we could combine what she wanted with what I could reasonably do.  

Then, I consulted an experienced knitter about designing my own pattern for this (new thing!) and then I learned how to add and drop stitches to create a rounded effect to expand and contract along the edge of the tea pot (new thing!) and THEN I learned how to stripe my yarn (so many new things!).  I had to do all kinds of measurements and then create a test patch and then wash it so that it would felt (shrink up and get really tight) and then convert that into how many stitches I would need in each row.  This involved math which I try to avoid outside of work (because in case I haven't mentioned it, my job involves so much math that nobody told me about beforehand so I use up my math quota at work and have none left for real life) but I was getting paid for this so I guess it safely falls under the "work" label.  

I knitted and knitted (all of the above took like two months to get together - maybe because I couldn't watch Castle while I was doing it - so blogging isn't the only thing I'm slack at) and then found some Harry Potter-esque buttons and voila - this is the result!!

I think Hermione and the members of SPEW would be proud. :)

cool things

So after this one sentence we're going to ignore the fact that I haven't blogged in, oh, roughly forever and just get back on with it.  No excuses, just lazy. :)

However, here are a couple of fun things (which are apparently all from amazon.com).

1. PB2 - this is a totally awesome new kind of peanut butter that I'm now in love with.  It has 85% less fat and calories than regular peanut butter. The ingredients are peanuts, sugar and salt.  They somehow suck out all the bad stuff and leave a powdered version of the goodish stuff that you mix with water and then have peanut butter.  I will say that it was an acquired taste.  It definitely doesn't taste just like peanut butter. But indulging in an apple with peanut butter every day isn't so indulgent anymore.  Of course, with almost no fat it's not so spready anymore, but quite yummy for what it is.  I'm a convert!  Check it out here -

2. I just ordered a new Bible - a Mosaic Bible about which I am totally excited.  A missionary at work mentioned it and I can't wait for it to arrive from Amazon.  It has the Bible divided into weekly meditations that follow the church calendar.  In addition, it has poems, hymns, and even artwork.  Very much looking forward to exploring this (and I'm sure God is very much looking forward to me having something that might lend itself toward inspiring regular Bible study).  I'll report back!

3. I'm reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society on my Kindle right now (sidenote - Kindle has changed my life - 16 hour flight to Hong Kong, whatevs, my Kindle made the time pass so quickly!).  Anyway, I'm about a 1/3 of the way through this book and very much enjoying it.  As of right now, this fiction lover's favorite quote of the book is -

"At first, I did not want to go to any book meetings.  My farm is a lot of work, and I did not want to spend my time reading about people who never was, doing things they never did."

Ha! I've never heard fiction described quite that way before.  I really am enjoying the book and loving the main character who is a terribly clever and accomplished British writer in her 30s (all the things I aspire to be).  Do check it out if you're looking for a good read.  Although, I haven't finished it yet, so if turns out sad, I'll rescind that recommendation.  So far, the book has made me laugh out loud several times while sitting in various waiting rooms so surely that's a good sign.

And that's today's post, apparently brought to you by Amazon.