fredgies, faith and doubt

my small group of girls is so very wonderfully middle school. tonight, they were horsing around and one of the girls slid out of the little funky ikea rocking chair (pictured at right) i have and managed to give herself a wedgie. the conversation rapidly devolved to if you have a wedgie in the front it should be called a "fredgie" a front wedgie. they then spent several more minutes trying to figure out what to call it when you get a fredgie and a wedgie at the same time.

after bribing them with cookies & dr pepper, we finally moved onto the lesson. and somehow they were able to shift gears and talk about faith and doubt. we're using marko & kurt johnston's book my faith. tonite we were doing the section on faith and doubt. it's so amazing the questions the girls have...'how do we know we have the right god and that other religions don't?' 'what if sometimes i'm not sure god is real 'cause trying to spend time with him feels like i'm sitting alone talking to myself?' their questions are so sincere and you can just almost see their little brains trying to move from concrete to abstract thinking as they try to wrap their heads and hearts around big 'who is god?' questions.

and i'm just such equal parts amused and touched by their ability to go from fredgie to faith in a matter of minutes.

pondering updates

so here are a few follow up thoughts from my previous post:

• i'm remembering how to breathe a little more which is good. turning blue is really bad.
• popcorn at the theatre has some secret additive. okay, i don't know that for sure, but it makes sense.
• 4 weeks...it took 4 weeks for my small group girls to get bored with my hs yearbooks.

and a few new thoughts:

• doing a spiritual formation retreat for urban kids is an incredible experience
• puppy-sitting means i leave the office on time
• i could be jealous of the girl on the sit-com who's moving from socal to london
• united airlines needs more competitive fares at the moment

and finally...

• as much as i love pink...i'm really over all the pink and red in stores right now. i'm looking forward to feb 15...

pondering

over the last few weeks, i've been pondering some stuff. stuff like

• is it possible to be inept at leading the life you seem to have?
• what contributes to staying in ministry as a long-time volunteer?
• how do i discern between selfishness and drawing healthy boundaries for myself? (i'm realizing i may have grown up with skewed ideas of the two.)
• is there at all an easy or graceful way to transition from being the child of a parent to needing to be the caretaker of a parent?
• i think i've forgetten how to breathe. seriously, i catch myself actually holding my breath more and more often. i have no idea what's up with that.

and there's some lighter stuff that i've thought about too like...

• if the top 5 guys on my dream list all have accents (3 british, 2 southern), i might be living in the wrong part of the world to meet a cute guy with an accent.
• why is it that if i smell theatre popcorn, only theatre popcorn will cure the craving it creates? why won't popcorn i make at home cure the craving? it's still popcorn.
• how many weeks will it be before the novelty of my high school yearbooks wears off for my small group girls?

so there you go. a little peek at the stuff i'm pondering. at some point in the next few weeks, i'll post some of my thinking since i'm not sure there are any easy conclusions...oh, and we're at three weeks so far of my hs yearbooks entertaining my small group.

food network confessions

on most any lazy saturday or sunday afternoon, you'll find me curled up on the couch knitting and watching food network. i get lots of great ideas from the food network. i'm actually starting to think i'm really developing an addiction to food network. more and more often, it's not enough to just watch the shows. i actually feel compelled to try the recipes.

my three favorite shows--which are also the ones i've tried the most recipes from--are barefoot contessa, rachel ray's 30 minute meals and everyday italian with giada de laurentis. i also really like ace of cakes, but it's more american chopper in the kitchen than a show you can actually try in your own kitchen. i actually own cookbooks from barefoot contessa (confession: i've had hers for years--before she had a food network show. the photos are beautiful, it's more like a coffee table book) and rachel ray 30 minute meals 2.

the thing i love about these shows and cookbooks is they put together flavors i'd never think to. one of my favorite appetizers is from giada's show, honey & gorgonzola bruschetta. sounds weird, but it's so yummy and always gets rave reviews. yesterday afternoon giada had a recipe for cinnamon butter gnocchi on her sweet and savory episode. again sounds weird, but i typically like gnocchi and i love cinnamon butter so i thought, 'why not?'. so tonite, i bought some gnocchi and cooked it, made the cinnamon butter and tossed the gnocchi in it. and the weird thing is, i can't decide if i like it. i didn't hate, i didn't love it. i really just can't decide. so, if you work with me, i'm bringing some to the office tomorrow. you can try it and tell me what you think since i really think i need a second opinion.

baby, it's cold outside

brrr....it's almost 11 pm here in chilly san diego. yep, you read that right. tonite is supposed to be one of the coldest nights in recent years here. i just checked weather.com and the current temp for my neighborhood is 32. it's supposed to drop down to 25 degrees...that's cold anywhere, but it's really cold when the typical low is in the lower 40's. i guess i shouldn't complain though, we could be under a layer of ice like my friends and family in tulsa.

it is a little nice to have a taste of winter. it's just too bad kids here won't get to experience the fun of a snow day. one of my favorite memories of growing up is waking up to some white stuff on the ground and turning on the morning news to watch for school closings. it was always a good sign to see a few schools up there. i can remember holding my breath until the list scrolled to the "l's" and our school, leonard, popped up. there would be much rejoicing. the breakfast would become french toast instead of cinnamon. the jammies would stay on and one of the local tv stations would put on a half hour of cartoons when the schools were closed. after the cartoons were over, we'd get dressed and bundled up to go out and play in the snow. we'd come back in to warm up with hot chocolate. we'd make popcorn in the middle of the afternoon. i could take a nap (i've always been a fan of naps). i loved those days.

for tonite, i'll just have to stay snuggled up in my flannel jammies under my fleece throw in front of the space heater and enjoy my memories.