Josh spent Saturday competing with some of his friends in a Tough Mudder. Below would be an “official” picture taken by a Tough Mudder photographer of Josh coming out of some sort of muddy tunnel. He and his mates did quite well, although his fingers are all cut up.

Saturday evening we had Mother’s Day celebrations with Josh’s side of the family. It was great to see them all again and spend time out on the deck enjoying the beautiful evening.

Sunday I was greeted with lovely handmade cards from the kids and some of my favorite Jo Malone fragrance from Josh: Pomegranate Noir (although seriously, all her scents are fantastic!). I always used to have such a problem finding a scent I love, and I’ve struck gold with Jo Malone.

The afternoon and evening were spent up at my mom’s. It was such a picturesque day I went crazy and fell in love with my camera all over again and took tons of pictures. To check out all the fun we had, visit my photography blog . . .

How did you spend Mother’s Day?

Tonight we tried a delicious salad from Super Natural Cooking Everyday. It was the Tortellini Salad with avocado, sprouts, cilantro, and pine nuts. The grocery store I visited was out of pine nuts, so we didn’t have that to put into it. Also, I tried to find whole wheat tortellini but couldn’t. However, after more research I discovered Wegman’s sells it. I should have guessed that.

Honestly, this pasta salad was fabulous! It was full of fresh flavor. Surprisingly so, seeing how very simple the dressing was. Definitely a keeper!

Ingredients:
1 lb. cheese tortellini
8-10 asparagus spears, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 head broccoli, cut into small trees
1 small clove garlic, minced
2 Tbs. fresh lemon juice
1/4 c. olive oil
Small handful fresh cilantro, chopped
Small handful sprouts
1/3 c. toasted pine nuts
1 avocado, sliced into small pieces
salt and pepper

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt liberally. Add the tortellini and cook according to the package instructions. About 1 minute before the pasta is finished cooking, add the asparagus and broccoli to the boiling pot. Cook for the final minute, drain all together, and run under cold water just long enough to stop the cooking.

In the meantime, make the dressing. Combine the minced garlic, lemon juice and olive oil, whisking thoroughly to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste and set aside.

Toss the pasta, asparagus, broccoli and cilantro with about half of the prepared dressing. Add the sprouts, nuts and avocado, and a little more dressing, and toss gently to combine. Keep the extra dressing on hand to refresh any leftovers; the pasta tends to absorb it overnight.

Happy May Day!

To kick off this month our family is going vegetarian for 31 days. For probably about a year Josh has wanted to try something like this, but I kept putting it off. Grocery/meal planning are about my least favorite things to do, so making more work for myself in that department just sounded like a pain.

Last year we bought our poultry from friends in Lancaster who sell pastured poultry. This provided the backbone to our meat-eating diet. This spring, due to various reasons, we were unable to order from them, so we sadly are not going to have their poultry stocking our freezer. Last year, we also participated in a CSA with Rousedale Farm and were more than pleased with the experience. Sadly, they’re not offering a CSA program this year, so we signed up with Flying Plow Farm instead. I’m excited to start receiving their veggies towards the end of this month!

Last year I learned to eat vegetables last year I didn’t know I’d like: Brussel sprouts, kale, collard greens, beets, and turnips are now some of my favorite veggies. It’s not just that I’ll eat them if they’re put in front of me, but I love them more than the vegetables I’ve grown up on like beans, corn, carrots, and so forth.

We’ve been watching and reading lots of food too: Forks Over Knives, Simply Raw, Michael Pollan’s books, and Fast Food Nation to name a few. It’s just a fact: eating more vegetables is amazingly good for you.

I realized the past several weeks that eating a vegetarian meal once a week or so had slowly taken over more days in my meal planning. Actually, without even planning on it, we were only eating about two meals a week with meat in it anyway. Also, my desire to eat meat has been diminishing as well. That and I can’t actually even eat as much meat as I used to. I used to be able to put away a whole chicken breast along with two sides for dinner. Now, it’s more like a half or a third.

So, all of these circumstances converged and making it the perfect time to try going vegetarian for 31 days.

I’ve pulled out a bunch of vegetarian cookbooks from the library, my standard fave being Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Sawnson (her blog is here.) Funny thing is, when I first checked this book out of the library a year or so ago, there were only a couple of recipes I thought looked “good” and would have made. Now, most of the recipes look/sound good to me. Shows that my tastes are definitely changing . . . for the better.

I’m sharing all of this because I want accountability, so I might as well make it public! Also, I want to “journal” the experience with my readers and share delicious recipes I discover along the way.

Also, I need help! Got any delicious vegetarian recipes you’ve tried? Send them my way! Post links to the recipes or your own blog posts in the comments section. Let the veggie fest begin!

But I am going to add a few words today because I can’t help myself.

This picture I took of Sophia this past week sure did remind me of a picture of Duncan when he was about the same age . . .

Some things never change. Kids love mud!

Thankfully, one thing that did change was I learned to take better pictures!

Always give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. -Ephesians 5:20

Nancy Guthrie writes in The One Year Book of Hope:

“God gives, and God takes away. But let’s be honest. We just want to give, don’t we? . . . Genuine gratitude is a response not to the worth of the gift, but to the excellence of the Giver. If gratitude fluctuates with our estimation of the gifts, then it’s not really gratitude. In reality, that kind of gratitude is disguised idolatry.

I know you can barely stand to think about being grateful in the midst of your loss. You may think I’m crazy to suggest that you could be grateful to God for who he is and all he has done for you as you face the empty chair, the empty bank account, the aching emptiness of what was once your life. But if you refuse to nurture gratitude, you will become bitter. So would you turn your eyes from your loss and disappointment to the great Giver, asking him to reveal more of himself to you so that you might grow in gratitude? Would you ask him for peace and joy that only those who nurture gratitude are given?”

It’s just another week here at my house. No huge losses. Nothing as weighty as the above quote might suggest has happened to test my gratefulness. But such circumstances have happened in the past, and will no doubt surface in the future. So today it’s time to train myself in the simpleness of a thankful heart for the everyday blessings:

601. My dearest friend, Robin, coming over for an evening of pizza and chatting last weekend.
602. For friends who pass on clothes to us when their kids are done with them, so that we don’t have to spend lots of money on kids’ clothing.
603. The screen door on, ready for summer breezes.
604. Cuddles with Sophia.
605. A long Sunday afternoon nap and a Sunday afternoon drive.

606. Windows cleaned for spring.
607. Sophia “singing.”
608. God’s grace on our marriage and that we truly don’t have many conflicts.
609. Boys’ help at the grocery store, pushing their own little carts around.
610. Six pints of homemade stock to freeze made from pastured chickens purchased from friends.

611. Selling a camera bag I don’t use within 2 days of posting it was for sale.
612. Weeding flower gardens.
613. Reading to the kids outside on a quilt on a spring afternoon.
614. First ice cream trip of the year to Broom’s Bloom Dairy.
615. Sophia talking more, saying words like: draw, car, paci, stinky, brothers.

616. Freshly mopped floors.
617. Lilacs on the kitchen table.
618. Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies
619. A quiet morning with rain falling, the sound of wind chimes.
620. A rainy lazy Sunday. Time to knit and watch Forks Over Knives and an episode of Doc Martin.

621. Praying through Psalm 19 and 51. Thankful that God purges my sin, creates a clean heart, and restores me to joy.

This year, a trip to Home Depot proved to be much different. There was a huge array of fabulous colors of spray paint that would adhere to not just wood and metal, but plastic too.

I chose to go with purple as my color of choice. The plants that will be blooming in the flower beds I put the urns into are pink Echinacea and yellow day lilies. I think I like the look, although I’m not totally sure. The pansies and dusty millers in the urns still have to “fill out.” I might like ferns in there better, I don’t know. I’m thinking the urns might look a bit too glossy (semi-gloss was the only option) but maybe some weathering will happen naturally? The good thing is, I can always repaint them a different color or even with textured spray paint. I think I’ll give it the whole summer to decide. What do you all, my faithful readers, think?

And please ignore the weeds in the flower beds. Haven’t gotten that far in the gardening process yet!

Little girl sure is loving her doll these days. Dolls, books, and drawing being her greatest loves right now. Everyday she brings much sunshine and joy into our lives. She wrestles with her brothers and also hugs them all the time. “We have the sweetest sister!” the boys often comment. The sibling love is adorable. That’s not to say their aren’t screams when she wrecks their trains. But they really do all have a blast together.

I finished The Hunger Games trilogy the other night and am feeling a little wrecked. Overall, the ending has a feeling of hopelessness and despair, of being caught in a fear of the future. The only thing we’re given to hang onto is the good we see in other people and to recount that good to ourselves in an effort to keep going on. But is that really enough?

I can’t help but contemplate the affect of reading The Hunger Games versus other books that tell true and similar stories of those who’ve been tortured, drugged, beaten, and pawns in the hands of unjust governments. Of Tortured for Christ by Richard Wurmbrand. Of Daughters of Hope: Stories of Witness  & Courage in the Face of Persecution by  Kay Marshall Storm. Of the magazine The Voice of the Martyrs. I remember being astonished by the feeling of hope and even joy recounted by women who’d suffered unspeakable woes in Daughters of Hope. How could this be? How how how can someone go through such miseries and still keep living? Let alone feel joy and hope in the world?

Today is Good Friday. When we remember the ultimate torture of Christ. Physical, mental, spiritual, it was all laid on Him. He took all the atrocities we’ve ever committed against Him and our fellow man and bore them all the way to Hell and back. Why? 1 John 4:14-18 gives us a clue:

The Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

Jesus became the Savior so that we wouldn’t have to be captured by fear. So that we wouldn’t have to fear anything that anyone could do to us because the ultimate fear has been taken away: fear of God’s righteous wrath because of our sins. Instead we can abide (what a beautiful word) in Him. And when we truly abide in Him the result is love.

When Christians suffer, we have the choice to suffer distinctly. Whether the trial is a personal crisis, physical illness, or at the hands of an evil regime, there’s still the possibility to cast out fear through the love of God and have hope and joy. I’m not in any way marginalizing the suffering. I’m just saying there’s the possibility of living, really living, in the fullness of Christ.

And so today, of all days, I remind myself of reality. I remind myself of the truth:

My name is Danielle. I’m a child of God. Jesus died so I could abide in Him. And when I abide, fear is overcome. I can have love and joy and peace in any adversity. Thank you Jesus for bearing all my sins in your body and redeeming me to be your own. Help me live in the light of this truth everyday.

Real or not real?

Real.

A few weeks ago Josh and I visited Woodberry Kitchen and had some of the best food we’ve ever had in Baltimore. Until now, my best meals have at Range in San Francisco and Union Square Cafe in New York City. Granted, there’s still a lot of restaurants I’ve not visited in Baltimore. However, since Woodberry was just ranked #3 in Baltimore Magazine’s annual restaurant roundup, I’m guessing that my experience visiting the restaurant is consistent with other people’s visits too.

Woodberry Kitchen has been opened for four years now and I’ve been hearing about it from various friends and Josh’s co-workers. So we were very excited to visit. We ended up not being able to get a reservation. I called on Wednesday and we were planning to go there on Saturday and they were already booked! But we got there right after they opened and managed to be seated right away.

Woodberry’s philosophy of food is one I love. They create dishes based on seasonal foods grown locally. On the menu there was a list of their vendors: various farms I recognized by name from the surrounding area. It was also evident by the night’s specials: lots of asparagus! Asparagus is in season and you could have your pick of five or six dishes of your choice. I loved seeing the canning jars full of food stashed around the restaurant too. I don’t know if the staff cans for the restaurant or if they outsource it but they didn’t hide the fact but instead used it as decoration, almost, tucked around the restaurant.

When I think “fine dining” stiff white table cloths and rigid servers come to mind. That’s not the way of Woodberry. Woodberry is located in the Clipper Mill area and reclaims a lot of the original architecture of the old factory it inhabits to create a perfectly rustic atmosphere. I told Josh it felt Mumford & Sons-ish. If that doesn’t make sense to you, I’m sorry. It feels very trendy in an artsy way while at once feeling very homey. The female servers wear vintage looking aprons of varying patterns. The male servers all wore checkered button down shirts. The canned produced lined shelves. The bathrooms didn’t have paper towels but instead had piles of cloths in a basket from which you could pull from the wash your hands then throw in a laundry basket. Yeah, I really liked this place.

Our server was awesome. She went above and beyond in answering every question we asked and helped us select the best drinks to go with our food. We started with a basket of three different types of breads they’d made at the restaurant. Then we moved onto homemade pigs-in-a-blanket with grainy mustard as a dipping sauce. Josh ordered a salad, which he raved about which included, of course, asparagus. For our main meal we both ordered the same thing. Josh and I have similar tastes and in the past I’ve ordered something different from him so we could try two different dishes. But the truth was I wanted what he was getting, so why go for anything less? We ordered Rock fish that was placed on a bed of perfectly roasted potatoes, green beans, and a roasted tomato mayonnaise. Absolutely perfect. For cocktails we tried the Whiskey Smash and some sort of lemon honey concoction that went fabulously with the fish. For dessert we had coffee and Josh went with their apple pie while I tried the C.M.P. (Malt ice cream, chocolate sauce, wet peanuts, and a hardened crust of marshmallow fluff you had to crack to get to it all).

If you want excellent food (and you care about where it comes from) in an unique atmosphere with fabulous service, Woodberry Kitchen is the place for you.

(Image credit: The Hunger Games official Facebook page)

Last night I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning finishing The Hunger Games, like so many others who’ve been captured by this series.

I first started hearing about them around a year ago. My friends started reading them, but I wrote them off. I’m not really into teen fiction. I’m not really into the futuristic genre either.

However, I finally caved as more of my friends–whose opinions and tastes in literature I respect–read and raved.

I too was captured by The Hunger Games plot. The plot is what drives this book, after all. I can’t help but wish that the books wasn’t a YA book, though. I longed for the writing to be a little meatier, although I have to say I’m glad the YA slot it holds kept the violence toned down.

Due to an uprising in the nation of Panem, it’s twelve districts must each send a girl and a boy to participate in the Hunger Games, which is a fight to the death, televised live for all it’s constituents to watch. The Hunger Games follows Katniss Everdeen as she takes the place of her sister as tribute in the Capitol’s annual games.

One can’t help but view the Hunger Games and it’s arena as a futuristic version of Rome’s gruesome games at Colosseum. Nor could I shake the image of Katniss and her companion for the games, Peeta, being herded onto the train headed to the Capitol as being not unlike the image of the Jews being carted off to concentration camps during the Nazis regime in Germany. Clearly, this book is a statement about government overreach and corruption.

Also, this book calls our idea of entertainment into question. In a nation that takes in a steady diet of entertainment via reality TV in such shows as The Bachelor, Big Brother, and Survivor, such parallels are also obvious. These shows may feature challenges both mental and physical, but the real entertainment value is in the use of gossip, back-stabbing, character assassination, and false alliances. But it’s all in good fun, we tell ourselves. After all, these people sign up of their own free will. Nobody actually gets hurt. But perhaps the real question is why do we find these shows such addicting entertainment?

Most books are better than their film adaptation counterparts. However, I can’t help but wonder if a film adaptation of The Hunger Games will add a dimension to the questions Collins raises in her novel that could not otherwise be appreciated. In the book, the games are intended to be televised and watched by the entire population. And so, the movie reenacts this element of the novel. It is true that this story showcases characters who portray humanity and selflessness. And many of us–me included–plan to watch the film with the intention of cheering on these characters, and the good qualities they represent. In the end, Katniss and Peeta choose to not play by the rules of the Hunger Games, instead undermining the Capitol’s power to control to some degree.

But wait.

As thousands line up for tickets to see The Hunger Games, I cannot but help to see the irony that instead we could be proving the most chilling implication of all: that we are not so unlike the Capitol crowds that clamored for more gruesome Hunger Games exploits. Instead, we take the Capitol’s place as the audience.

And actually, deep inside each human heart we have the capacity to be just. like. them.