Off the map

There is a very good reason why I've disappeared. Please pray for me. Thank you.

Bus Humor

This was an ad I saw on the bus this weekend: I thought it was hilarious!

Homemade laundry detergent

So a couple of weeks ago I decided to try something different - I decided to try making my own laundry detergent! Why, you may ask, did I decide to do this? Well for one, it is environmentally friendly. All of the ingredients are natural, biodegradable, and eco-friendly. Plus, it is really really cheap! I was looking at the laundry aisle at the store the other day, and holy cow laundry detergent is expensive! You can buy all the ingredients for this for less than it will cost for a jug of detergent and these ingredients will last for like 10 or more batches of homemade detergent! This detergent is also septic safe, and HE machine compatible.

Now the inevitible question is, how does it work? Really, really well! I think it gets out stains better than my old detergent and it makes the clothes look brighter than they have in a long time!

So if you are interested, here is the recipe:
1 5 gallon bucket
1 bar of soap (any kind will do, but I use ivory b/c it is cheap and one of the purer soaps)
1 cup of washing soda (similar to baking soda, you can probably find this in your laundry aisle. Arm & Hammer makes it)
1/2 cup borax (again, will probably find in the laundry ailse)

Grate bar of soap (I use the cheese grater) and boil 4 cups of water on the stove. Slowly add the grated soap until it is all dissolved. Meanwhile, fill the bucket with 3 gallons of water. Add the soapy water and stir thoroughly. Then add washing soda, and stir some more. Finally, add the borax and keep stirring for a couple minutes. If you want, you can add in 15 drops of your favorite essential oil to give it a light scent. Then, let it sit overnight and it will turn into a gel! Use 1 cup per load.

Some things you should know: this detergent barely suds (that's why it's good for HE's) b/c it's all natural stuff and the sudsing in commercial detergents is mostly just a show. It is still cleaning just as well. Also, even with the essential oils, the clothes won't really have a scent when they come out. They will smell clean, just not perfumed. Also, if it's not stirred just so, it will come out lumpy looking- that is completely fine, it still will work just as well.

Anyhow, I had a lot of fun making this- it is really simple and does not take long at all.

Places that are warmer than Seattle right now:

1. Siberia
2. Alaska
3. Norway
4. Iceland

I kid you not.

Coffee Plug

Even though I live in the land of Starbucks, there is one other coffee that just all around wins. Camano Island Coffee Roasters. These guys are also local to the Seattle area- they are about 45 minutes away from where I live. All of their coffee is fair trade (so the farmers are getting a fair wage for their goods), organic (so it's healthier for both you and the environment), and made with specialty grade beans (which makes it extra tasty). It is by far the best coffee I have ever tasted. Every time people come to our house, we tell them that our coffee is the best, and usually they agree. So for all you coffee lovers out there, I wanted to share this delicious news with you. They have this coffee of the month club (but you can set the dates so it's whenever- for us it's more like coffee of the quarter b/c we just don't go through it fast enough). And the coffee is shipped the day it is roasted to your door for free! They also donate a dollar of your order to a charity of your choice going to support the coffee growers. (One of the charities was founded by a local Christian - it helps the coffee growers buy their own land and other community projects like building schools, etc.) So, if you're looking to experiment with some new coffee, I highly recommend giving these guys a try! I doubt you'll be sorry.

Enough already

Okay, snow, you were cute in December. You were even still cute in January and February. March, you started getting a little old. But now, this is just getting completely ridiculous. You've had your chance, it's time to give spring a turn!

Warning: A Political Endorsement

The first time I saw Barack Obama was on some PBS interview, talking about his new book, "The Audacity of Hope". I remember rolling my eyes and thinking, "A politician talking about hope - HA! What a scam." A few weeks later, after he announced his presidential bid, I heard from a classmate that he was not accepting any contributions from lobbyists or special interest groups- that he was only taking contributions from individuals. He did not want to owe any special favors to oil or insurance companies if he became president; he wanted to be held accountable to the American people who he was serving. I have to admit that I was very much taken with that.

Then I learned that after graduating from Columbia University, Obama turned down high paying job offers to make $10/hr working for a church based non-profit in the slums of Chicago as a community organizer. There he became inspired by the faith of the Christians he was working with and gave his life to Christ. While working as a community organizer, he decided that he could only do so much to help the people; that in order to really help the people, the system must change. That inspired him to go to law school. After graduating from Harvard law school, Obama again turned down lucrative job opportunities to instead return to the projects of Chicago to be the director for Project Vote- a program which worked to register low income people, minorities and other populations which had low voter registration rates. This is not a man who has spent his life seeking to gain political power. This is a man who has used his ivy league training and talents to work to empower "the least of these".

Yeah, I know it is the cliche about his supporters, but the man gives me hope. And I don't think that hope is something to be mocked and dismissed. I am a woman who was so fed up with our government and our political system that I wanted nothing to do with it. I have not voted in any presidential election before. Part of that is due to the fact that I was overseas for both of them, but honestly there never seemed anyone worth voting for. Republicans and democrats were both screwed up and full of corruption.

Now, I have gone from wanting nothing to do with our government and political process to making phone calls to complete strangers encouraging them to vote and make their voice heard. I went to the Washington state caucus and ended up a delegate! (Which is a whole other post!) And that, I think, is the true strength in Obama's campaign. It's not that Obama is the savior of America and is going to change everything. It's that he's inspiring and mobilizing people to engage in the political process. He is giving a voice to those who felt hopeless and powerless. I think the slogan at the top of his website sums it up best: "I'm asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to make change in Washington... I'm asking you to believe in yours."

But don't take my word for it. Get involved! Research for yourself!

It's 7pm and it's still light outside! Can I just say that I LOVE daylight savings time? And I REALLY REALLY love the fact that they (whomever the "they" might be) decided to move it up several weeks so that now it comes in time for my birthday! Wahoo! I am at the Everett Library right now, looking out over the sound at a glorious, but cloudy view. There are also some naval ships in the way, but they are pretty cool, and I take them as part of the view. Fourth of July here is awesome- they stick a naval ship out in the middle of the sound and set off fireworks from it- and all the islands across the water are having their own fireworks shows, so you literally see fireworks in every direction... I love it. But that is still many months away.

Today the weather seemed to be set against me. The morning started out promising, with sunlight beginning to break through the clouds. But then in the 15 mile drive from work to school (well really, only in the last 5 miles or so) everything became clouded over and this FIERCE rain storm took over. I parked across the street from the school, and in the 30 seconds it took me to walk from the car into the building, I was DRENCHED. Completely soaked through my clothes. I was wet for hours. Within 20 minutes of arriving at school, the sun was out and it was beautiful. Grrr. So, as I was leaving school and beginning the drive home, I decided since it had turned into such a lovely sunny day, it would be a great afternoon to go to the park, where daffodils were beginning to bloom, along with the cherry trees. I was getting so excited about my idea that I did not notice it was starting to get cloudy again. I did notice when it started to pour. So I went home and took a shower and ate some dinner, and then drove to the park, and looked at it through the windshield of my car, darn it. I was not going to miss out on the daffodils. And then I came to the library. The end.

Only in Seattle

This is SO true here! I cannot even tell you how many Starbucks are directly across the street from each other, or are in the same shopping plaza! Too funny!

Study break

If you're looking for a laugh... click here. This is me, my bro, and Ned.

Snow

It's snowing outside! - again! Last weekend it snowed all weekend and then this morning we woke up to another snowy day. There's just something about snow that is so peaceful, and so playful. This morning I think I stood at the window and watched at it gracefully falling down for about 10 minutes. I could have easily stood there all day. I have noticed that snow seems to bring out the playful side in people. Having grown up in a place where it snows ALL the time, I know that it is not necessarily always so- but even there- at the first snow of the year, everyone was giddy. Something about it just brings out a sense of awe and wonder. It is so beautiful, and it is so silly! Little fluffy flakes falling gently out of the sky, and melting on your nose. I love it! If it snowed here instead of rained all winter, I could definitely handle living in this place. Here's some pics taken from our windows.

Cinnamon & Snow

It's snowing outside! This is a treat here in Seattle, where "it never snows." I put that statement in quotation marks, because that's what everyone from around here says, but last winter we had quite a few snowstorms. So I'm not totally convinced. Although I do have to say that they are better prepared to deal with snow in North and South Carolina than they are here. I find that quite ridiculous, but that is another subject entirely. In the spirit of snow and coziness, I decided to slice up an apple and sprinkle some cinnamon on it. This was all going very nicely until the spice bottle dumped a mound of cinnamon onto my apple slices. I ate them anyway. So I am hoping that there are no ill effects from eating too much cinnamon. These things happen on snowy nights when one is putting off writing one's papers.

Um...

This is the billboard you see approaching the Canadian/American border en route from Vancouver to Seattle.

Three weeks, 6 papers, and 1 final exam to go. (Yes, we only have a final exam in one of my classes. Papers seem to be preferred by the profs here). As of tomorrow, it will only be 5 papers left to go. For the paper that I am working on right now, we have to pick a tragedy in our life, write a two page description of the event (written in an engaging manner- like fiction) and then spend 4-5 pages analyzing its effects on our lives. Last week I had to write a Bible study on the book of Job. As you can imagine, this has been a very uplifting several weeks for me.

In other news Ned is tearing out the ceiling in our kitchen today.

Meltdown

7 (big) papers left to write this semester. Today I'm not so sure if I'm going to make it.

Our Kitchen

Can you see why this would be stressful?

Death of a Church

As you might or might not know, when Ned & I moved here we began attending a church plant in a coffee shop. (I think I might have blogged about it once). It was less than a year old when we started going and had less than 15 attendees (which included us). Since the church was so small, it quickly became family, and in a way we felt like we were involved in a church planting team. Ned helped lead worship and I once preached a sermon. Although it wasn't perfect, it was definitely home, and before we moved here we had specifically talked about wanting to be involved in a coffee house church plant- and voila!

This May, the pastor announced that we would be having a meeting immediately after the service. He sat the less than 10 of us down and announced that we would have 1 more service, and then the church would be closing down. He said he had spoken and prayed with many people about this, and that is what he believed God was telling him to do. This came as an absolute shock, but at the same time, once he announced it, Ned & I felt like "yes, this is right". That does not mean we were happy about it, it just meant we had a peace about it, and knew it was the right thing. But it still really sucked. Less than 2 years after this church opened its doors, it closed them for the last time.

Now, six months later it seems to be sucking much more than it did that Sunday it was announced. Finding a new church has been a struggle. We have found one that we have been going to, and we enjoy the services, but we know virtually no-one there, and it has been hard to make connections. It has not become home. Yes, they offer small groups, but they always happen to be meeting when I have classes. We try to keep in touch with our friends from the old church, but with everyone being so busy, this is hard to do. It has become lonely.

This past week the new church we've been attending celebrated their 2 year anniversary. This was especially difficult. While I am happy for this new church and celebrate what God has accomplished, I can't help but think about our old church, how it never made it to its second birthday. How this new church averages 100+people every Sunday and how our old one on its most crowded day barely passed 25. And I just don't understand why. Wasn't our old church also faithful? Don't get me wrong, I'm not jealous of the success of this new church, I am genuinely happy about it! It is doing great things in the community and impacting many lives, and I praise God for it. But why couldn't they both succeed? Why does God seem to bless some ministries so much and let other ministries fizzle out and die? It just doesn't make sense to me.

Thoughts on a Tuesday

Not sure who all reads this anymore. I have been a less than prolific blogger, so I only blame myself. This week is "reading week", which means I have no classes. This is a beautiful thing, however I'm finding that this one week is not nearly enough to catch up on everything I need to do. I need a reading month. Unfortunately, this is not allotted to us MHGS students. I had the momentary urge to drop out of school earlier today. Mostly this stemmed from the two papers I have looming over my head which are due next week. There was a time in my life after I graduated from my undergrad where I missed writing papers. What on earth was I thinking???

Our house is in complete disaster mode right now. We have no kitchen, which makes life infinitely more stressful. We have to do dishes in the bathtub. It is very difficult to cook, which means we eat out more often that we ought, which is wreaking havoc on our already struggling budget. I am feeling very overwhelmed with everything right now.

Some "After" pics

Well we tore up the carpet and refinished the wood floors underneath, and gave the room a coat of paint. Now the kitchen's all torn apart... still a lot to do. Much more has transpired in the last 6 months since I've made a post, but that's all I have time for now :)

Flip This House

This is our first flip. Ned & I bought this house last month. We want to flip it and sell it, but in the meantime, it's our home. We've managed to replace all of the plumbing and re-do the entire bathroom - I mean, taking out all the walls, the toilet, the floor, EVERYTHING. It has been quite the job... and that's only the first room! (Although bathrooms and kitchens are supposedly the hardest- the kitchen's next).

In other news, I am fighting off a nasty cold. Seems the only chances I've had to update my blog are when I've been home sick! Well, that's all for now, hopefully I will be healthy when I write my next post, and hopefully it will be sooner.