Learning to Love Laundry

Laundry is not my favorite activity. I pondered giving it up for lent. Think of how much more time I'd have to spend with Jesus if I didn't have to be folding clothes?! I love the idea of laundry, clean clothes, warm towels, the sense of accomplishment when it's all done. But it takes so much effort to make it all happen. You have to wash all the clothes, fold and put them in the laundry basket, but then the hard part... getting them upstairs and put away. At first I wanted to blame it on my mother, many times of the 18 years I lived in the house I watched her do the same things. But there comes a point where you can't blame your behavior on another person and you have to accept and acknowledge the way you are. I don't know why I'm not motivated to do laundry; it does not come naturally to me.

It didn't always used to be this way. It used to be worse. I would wash a load and leave it in the washer for two days only to have to wash it again. Then I would wash a load put it in the dryer and leave it in dryer for two days only to have it wrinkled and a mess. Nowadays I'm actually getting it all done and in the basket folded, but I seem to be just transferring the basket of clothes around the house. It goes from on top of the dryer, to the kitchen table, when it gets in the way it makes it to the stairs and finally up into our bedroom. It usually sits in the bedroom until Jerod says something about how nice it would be not to have to search through the pile for some black socks or clean underwear...

Despite my love hate relationship with laundry, the Lord is working on my heart. It isn't about the laundry itself. Doing laundry, and actually putting it away is a great way to serve Jerod. It is nice to have clean socks in his drawer in the morning when he's half a sleep getting dressed. I have been praying so hard for a new heart. I have been praying to view doing work in the house differently. I am selfish, when I was single I could leave clothes undone and it was my own fault if I didn't have clean socks. But as a wife I am called to put Jerod's needs before my own. I desire to view taking care of our home and Jerod as a privilege, how awesome that I can serve Jerod in the way I take care of our home! It is such a blessing to me when Jerod is happy and feeling cared for. It is hard, my selfishness so often gets in the way and I have other things I think at the time are more important. I pray daily God would give me strength and energy to take care of Jerod and our home well. And, God is faithful! If I don't get everything done Jerod is patient and kind. The more I ask for new desires the more God is growing me, changing me and convicting me of my sin sooner.

Proverbs 31: 12 and 27
She does him good, not harm all the days of her life.
She looks well to the ways of her household,
and does not eat the bread of idleness.

I so desire to honor God and Jerod. This so connects. When we serve Jesus out of only duty and ritual, we miss the point of Christ. We should not look at serving Christ as a burden, but rather it is a privilege to serve the Lord. It is a blessing that despite the Lord not needing us, he chose to give us the gift of Christ and call us to live out the Gospel. What a joy and blessing that is! God uses us! Even though I am a sinner, God is in the business of changing hearts. And praise the Lord for that, other wise Jerod would sadly never have clean clothes to wear. I live a blessed life :-)

dmj

Merlin and his favorite toys

Jerod and I went to Petsmart on Thursday to get Merlin something other than my blankets, books and arm to chew on. We came home with a new Nylabone, an no stuffing alligator and a rope for pulling. The alligator lasted all of 1 hour. He slowly pulled the fins off and then ripped it open and pulled out the plastic inside. Jerod and I decided no more soft chew toys for our dog or we'd be going to the store every day to get him a new one. His favorite is still the Nylabone. If you're going to get a dog, even a dog that isn't considered a "chewer" this is an awesome toy. Merlin never gets bored of this thing and my parents dog who normally doesn't chew anything but food or a treat loves this thing. Him and Merlin tease each other with it whenever they are together.

For some reason though lately, Merlin ventured into our office and found the Ty Beanie Baby praying bear. I keep telling him no but he keeps going back to get it. Yesterday while I was sitting with my laptop in the kitchen, I hear him run upstairs and fly back downstairs. He had the praying bear in his mouth and he dropped it right in his water bowl! At this point I'm laughing when I should be getting upset with him. The bear was all dirty, stinky and at this point saturated. Merlin drank some water, while this dumb bear was still in his bowl. Grabs it and precedes to drip water all over the kitchen floor.

Here's the casualty:

Here are some more cute pictures I took while he was calm enough to let me:

He's getting so much better at listening, and he does wonderful with people now. We need to work out being so distracted though. He LOVES other dogs and he'll almost pull your arm off to get to a dog if you're on a walk. This is slightly problematic, so hopefully sooner rather than later we'll get him some obedience training. But we love him! He follows me around the house and I like having him especially when Jerod is not home. It's never boring :-)

dmj

Biscuits... with buttermilk

Yes ladies and gentleman with the help of Google search I have managed to make a good southern style buttermilk biscuit. It started when I wanted to make apple cake, but it required buttermilk. So I went to Food Lion assuming buttermilk was sold in a smaller quantity than a 1/2 gallon, like they do with heavy cream usually. I didn't want it sitting in my fridge going bad. Well I assumed WRONG because I could only find it in a 1/2 gallon. I decided I wanted to make apple cake bad enough, so I sucked it up and got the larger container. Why am I so against buttermilk? See I've always associated buttermilk with the words nasty, thick and sour and worst of all... fattening! I went home, made the cake, which was delicious, and then was left with almost the whole container. So Jerod suggested in his southern upbringing wisdom that I should make biscuits.

Now, I've tried to make biscuits in the past and it was a complete sticky failure. But today I got off work, got home, ate lunch and immediately felt like cooking something. Biscuits here I come! First I Googled a Southern Buttermilk Biscuit recipe and found one that had pictures and everything to my joy! Pictures are good for me, I am a visual learner and its even better if I can do something myself with my hands (like make a recipe or touch a model in my Anatomy class).

To give credit where credit is due I got this recipe from this awesome food blog http://www.thehungrymouse.com/.

Oh and I make my biscuits in the food processor, just fyi.

• 2 C all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 stick of butter (really really cold butter, cut it and put it back in the fridge for a minute then put in the bowl of the food processor)
• 3/4 C butter milk and a little more if it needs it

Place the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in the bowl of the food processor. Pulse a few times.
Cut the butter into cubes and place back in the fridge for a quick minute to make sure it is cold.
Place the butter in the bowl and pulse until it looks like a coarse meal. It doesn't take much, a good 3-4 times. To me it looks like wet sand.
Then stream the buttermilk through the feeder tube slowly until the dough begins to form.

Roll the dough out onto a well floured surface and roll out to about 1/2 inch thick. I use the our crown royal class to make make the biscuits. I just dip it in flour and it works fine. Make as many biscuits as you can get with your dough. I ended up getting about 8 because I made them a little thinner.

If you're going to bake em right then and there then you need the oven at 450 degrees and bake for 10-12 minutes. I always watch everything because our oven can be funny sometimes.

You can freeze biscuits! Line a baking sheet with parchment or wax paper. Place the biscuits on the pan so they are not touching. Freeze them for about 7 hours or overnight depending on when you make them. You want them to be frozen through. Then stick them in a freezer bag. You will want to add 8-10 minutes to the cooking time but I would keep an eye on them.

Moral of the story is... buttermilk is probably still bad but it really makes the difference in biscuits. :-)

Here are the biscuits in the freezer.

dmj

Homelessness

Today, Jerod and I ran by McDonalds to pick up breakfast (yum!). When we got the the church building, we pulled up and both of us saw a Black woman, walking with a duffle bag. She looked a little ragged, her curly hair was matted and here boots were rolled over and the straps were dragging on the floor. "I think I'm going to lose my breakfast," Jerod said. And the truth is I was for a moment glad I had already eaten mine. It tasted good, I was hungry, and I wasn't the one driving. Jerod dropped me off and when to talk with her. She said she wanted a bus ticket to Greensboro. So Jerod gave her his breakfast and told her where the bus station was and that we'd meet here there around 1 to buy her the ticket.

So, we got out of church and Jerod headed over there. As Amaris and I were walking out the door I saw her! I told Amaris that was the woman. So we went to speak with her and this time she asked where the train station was. We told her and then she walked off. But we followed her and let her know Jerod went to buy her ticket. We called Jerod, he came back to the church building and picked her up. I gave her the only food in my car, they drove to the bus station and Amaris and I preceded to walk to Mellow Mushroom for lunch with the new V21 Kids Director.

While we were walking down West St. in downtown Raleigh Amaris said she saw that Jerod and I really love this city the way she does. I think she's right. Jerod and I love Raleigh and both of us have always felt the calling to stay and love this city. Raleigh is big enough but still small, we're growing and there are museums to visit, great food, shopping... but Jerod and I live life very comfortable. Sometimes we don't think we have much but we really do have so much in comparison to so many in Raleigh.

What to do about this issue of homelessness... or people experiencing homelessness to be politically correct?

I've struggled with it since I am to school at NC State. I met a wonderful woman named Sarah Puckett and I started doing Meals at Moore Square with her on either Tuesday or Thursday night. I would make lunches and we would take them to the people who gathered there. We would give the lunches out and then hang out and talk with the people there. Many of them were trying to keep jobs, some were sick and needed medicine. It got to the point where we knew we had to quit going for a time because they were getting drunk and smoking pot while we were there. The cops had come several times not to say anything to us but they saw open containers.

So what to do??? This has plagued me since I've been living in Raleigh and knew it was an issue! I have limited resources. I still do not really have answers. Jerod and I try and help where we can and it does bring so much joy. So for now Jerod and I are keeping our eyes open for where we can help. If any one has any ideas or thought let me know!

dmj

Thad Cockrell on WUNC!

Today I was coming home from work around noon-ish and I was so excited when they said Thad Cockrell was on The State of Things on WUNC (91.5 in Raleigh). For those of you who don't know who he is... Thad Cockrell is an amazing musician who loves Jesus, and I first heard him when he played in a band at Vintage 21 Church. It was really neat to hear him playing songs and speaking the gospel on the radio. Really cool!

I always joke with Jerod that all the women at Vintage soo have a crush on him :-)

Here's his website! Check him out! He streams some of him music up there so you can listen to him.

dmj