Classical Singing and Contemporary Worship: Incompatible?

So, here's the thing. I'm a classical singer. I am a Christian. Many of the churches I've attended are really going for a contemporary style in music, presumably in an effort to be "relevant" in an ever-changing culture. Now, I am fairly certain that a classical style voice wouldn't be welcome on a Sunday morning at my church. I am married to the worship pastor after all. I won't put words in his mouth, but I know opera isn't a sound he's looking for. I'm not really sure that I'm suggesting that we should be incorporating this style into our worship services, but I do find myself wishing that I could somehow merge two of my passions: classical singing and worshipping God. That does make sense, right? It seems logical to me. Music and worship go together, right? I recognize there are churches out there that do incorporate classical style voice (I accompanied for one for a year and a half), but in my experience these churches can't or don't do any contemporary music at all. And I LIKE contemporary music! I guess I just want it all.

Am I being unreasonable?

My Name

Now, let's just make one thing clear. I do not have a problem with people mispronouncing my name. This is not about that. What I do have a problem with is people who make me feel like I don't know how to pronounce my own name, or maybe--more accurately--my parents didn't know how to pronounce my name. So, I'm hear to set the record straight.

If you are reading this and you speak Spanish, you already know how to pronounce Eva in Spanish. However, the question then becomes, how should Eva be pronounced in English? The easiest thing for me would have been simply to go by the English translation of my name--Eve. Simple. No one would mispronounce it. But, (sigh) my parents didn't get that started for me, and having people call me Eve just never occurred to me as a child. Other ideas did come to me, most notably the day I decided to tell the neighbor girl that my name was Isabel (my middle name) and when she came over and asked if Isabel could come out to play, my parents didn't know who she was talking about! So, you can't say I didn't try.

So back to the question at hand. How should Eva be pronounced in English? Some bearers of this name prefer to have it pronounced, Ava with a long a sound. I've never really preferred this because it just doesn't sound close enough to the Spanish pronunciation. Others prefer Eva to be pronounced with a long e sound as though it were short for Evangeline. This one I particularly dislike because it sounds the least like the Spanish pronunciation. Sadly for me, it is the most common pronunciation of my name, and, as I understand, a rather common southern name. My favorite thing that people ask me is, "So, do you pronounce your name 'ava' (long a) or 'eeva' (long e)?" Hmmmm......Neither. I prefer my name to be pronounced with a short e sound as though it were short for Evelyn. This sounds almost like the Spanish pronunciation of Eva, only people usually pronounce it "Ehvuh" as opposed to "Ehvah."

Now, again, I don't have a problem with people mispronouncing name. I get that people have different preferences for how they like their names pronounced. But if you ask me how to pronounce my name and I tell you how to say it, don't then say, "Oh, you're name is really Eeva (long e), but you just pronounce it Ehva (short e)." Really? Or how about, "Are you sure that's how you pronounce your name?"

Seriously.

And yes, that really happened.

Rant Week

Welcome to Rant Week at All Things Eva! Starting tomorrow and each day for the rest of this week I'm going to "rant" about things that I really care about, or maybe even things that really bug me. I am looking forward to sharing my heart, and I'm hoping that people will respond in kind--with their hearts. Here's to some good conversation!

Stolen Moments

This morning when I woke up it was raining. I don't always love rainy days--especially when there is a long string of them--but this particular morning I just wanted to curl up, stare out the window, and listen to the sound of the world rushing by in the downpour. But then I heard the girls moving around upstairs and I thought, "The girls are up. Soon they will wake up Quint, and my quiet moment will be interrupted before it starts. Why bother." Funny. I find that I am interrupted so often that I now anticipate interruptions. But then I thought, "You know, I think I'll sit for a minute anyway. Even if I only get two minutes it will be worth it." And then I had a minor epiphany. How often do I miss out on a moment because I know I'll be yanked out of it before I'm ready? VERY OFTEN. Every day, in fact. How much enjoyment of life am I missing? I think I'd like to find out! So, guess what? I decided to steal a moment staring out the window this morning. And--delightfully--my moment turned into half an hour of reading the book of Esther curled up next to my husband on the sofa. Eventually, the girls clomped down the stairs and interrupted my reading, Quint woke up fifteen minutes later, and I had to get up. But I guess the point is that had a I resigned myself to what I thought would happen, I would have missed out on a beautiful start to my day.

I pray you savor a moment today, Friend.

Quirky things about Me

So tonight I thought I would share some things about myself that some of you may not know about me.

I like to crochet--a lot. My grandmother taught me a few basic stitches and the rest is history. I have never followed a pattern, but I've crocheted scarves, blankets, skirts, shawls, pot holders, curtains, anything I can think to crochet. Someday I plan to learn how to read patterns.

I breastfeed, use cloth diapers, and make my own organic baby food. I did this with all three of my kids. I didn't use cloth diapers exclusively with the girls the way I do now, but I think it still counts. ;)

I was a piano major for three years.

My childhood nickname was Evie. Also, my name is Spanish. Eva is the Spanish name for Eve. I have no idea why Eva is so difficult to pronounce or why people feel the need to tell me that I'm mispronouncing my own name.

I feel the need to keep things that are not recyclable instead of throwing them away. I feel a twinge of guilt every time I put something plastic in the trash.

I have uncontrollable empathy. I frequently feel physical sensations of embarrassment when I watch television or movies. Many times I just change the channel or get up and walk away.

Well, there is a lot more to be told, but I will save it for another night!

Sweet Potato Cinnamon French Toast

I made this recipe up last week, and I have to tell you... it was DELICIOUS. Seriously. So I must share. Now, if you read my last recipe, you know that I have trouble with measuring and following directions. So bear with me; these are just estimations. But I highly doubt you could mess this up if you've made French Toast before.

Ingredients:

1/2 of a large baked sweet potato

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 tbsp (or so) of sugar and cinnamon mixed together

2 large eggs

1 1/2 milk (you can always a little more if needed)

bread ( I used Trader Joe's Organic Oatmeal Multigrain Bread)

butter

maple syrup

Directions:

Take the sweet potato (peeled of course), applesauce, and sugar/cinnamon mixture and mash it and mix it together. In a separate bowl, beat two eggs. Add milk and sweet potato mixture. Mix together until combined. At this point, you will want to warm your skillet on medium heat. I personally don't like cooking spray so I use butter. I put enough butter in the pan to coat it. Be careful not to let the butter burn. Take a slice of bread and dip it in the egg mixture, covering both sides. Place the bread in the pan and cook on both sides. Serve with a sprinkle of powdered sugar and drizzle some maple syrup over the top. So good!

Tips and Tricks:

I mix ground cinnamon and sugar in a spice container so I can just sprinkle some on my food when the desire strikes me. Very handy.

I use a pastry cutter to mash things with-avocados for guacamole, bananas for bread, etc. You get the picture.

The trick to this recipe is to find just the right temperature. If it is too hot, it will burn the egg coating and leave the middle of the bread too soggy. Not hot enough, and you end up standing there for 5 minutes, spatula in hand, wondering if they're ever gonna cook (my family isn't patient enough for this scenario).

Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did!

Pressed for time

I don't really have the time for a good post right now. The problem is, if I wait to find a good time, well, you can see that I haven't blogged in a month. So, I just want to take the time to say, "Hello, everyone!" It's been a while. I have a lot of post ideas from the last month. I will get around to posting them soon. But now, I must go because Quint is eating paper.

Much love,

Eva

Quint's Doctor's Appointment

Today we took Quint to the pediatric urologist for his follow up appointment.  I have been dreading this all week!  The possibility of putting my little one through surgery was really weighing on my mind.  For those of you who don't know, Q was born with a mild hypospadias.  I won't go into detail here, but, in a nutshell, his urethra didn't form perfectly in utero.  (You can google it if you feel you need more details.)  All of his plumbing functions normally though, so no worries there.  Anyway, today his urologist told us that his hypospadias is so mild that he does not think surgery will be necessary!!!!!  I am thrilled and relieved to know that he won't have to go through the pain of surgery and the risk of general anesthetic.  I am singing praises!

Today was a beautiful, blue sky, no surgery day!

Heartache

On Tuesday last week I found myself feeling a lot of heartache...and stomachache. In a word, flu. The stomach flu to be precise. I truly cannot remember the last time I felt that sick. The funny thing is that, in general, I have a high tolerance for pain. Nausea, however, turns me into a big baby. A really, big baby. I DESPISE feeling nauseated. My own kiddos got to see me crying, and moaning, and well, you get the picture. Fun times, let me tell ya. But I was telling you about my heartache.

While I lay in bed with Kahmylia, (oh by the way, she was sick too) Harry picked up my work load. For those of you who don’t know, Harry separated his shoulder and bruised his clavicle a few weeks ago. He has been wearing a sling on his right arm to keep him from using it... Needless to say, he has been in incredible pain. And he took his sling off so he could take care of Quint. He read books, played Wii, cooked meals, cleaned the kitchen, made countless trips up and down the stairs to the sick room to bring 7up and crackers, and was pretty much a superhero. Of course, staying home to care for four people meant he had to try to work from home. I think you can all figure out how that turned out. My heart just ached for him because by the end of the day he was frustrated, tired, and in soooo much pain. I wanted to get up and help him, especially when I heard Quint screaming and crying, but I just didn’t have the strength to move. It’s ironic because a part of me hated that Harry had to sacrifice for us, but it was through that same sacrifice that I saw how much he loves and cares for our little family.

Sacrifice...what a beautiful ache.

Recipe o’ the Week: Black Bean Steak Chili

So I’m going to try to post a new recipe each week.  These will, for the most part, be originals, although, when the occasion arises that I post someone else’s recipe I will of course give proper credit.  So, if I don’t give someone else the credit, you can safely assume it’s mine!  

Thursday night, is chili/soup night at the Walls residence, and tonight I decided to throw in a few twists on a traditional recipe.  First off, I will say, that I rarely measure my ingredients, so I apologize in advance to you precision chefs.  I’m just not that disciplined.  I also like to use fresh ingredients when I can, but it is winter in St. Louis, so you will need to cut me some slack in that arena tonight!  

What you will need:

1 lb. dry black beans

2 lbs. beef sirloin tri-tip steak cubed

14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes

2 cloves garlic

onion powder

cumin

Mexican chili powder

salt

optional garnishes -- shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, rice, lime juice

The first thing I did was make my black beans.  I usually make my beans in a crock pot, but in the interest of time, today I boiled them for an hour with 2 cloves of garlic first.  I like to cut the cloves in half just to release the flavor.  Then I transferred the beans over to a crock pot (set on high) and added the steak.  I waited to add the tomatoes, but, in retrospect, it would have saved more time to add them at the same time as the steak.  Since I always season my food to taste, I added the spices about an hour before serving the chili to give them some time to simmer.  (I can see how it would be to my advantage to have exact measurements for the spices because I could just place all the ingredients in the crock pot at once in the beginning.  But I can’t exactly season to taste when there is raw meat in the mix!    However, adding the spices in an hour before serving worked out just fine.)  The chili simmered in the crock pot for about three hours.  But then we had to eat it.  And it was delicious.  Harry said it was one of the best meals I’d ever made.  But then again, he says that a lot!  

About the garnishes.  We mexicans like to garnish our soups with mexican rice, a squeeze (or two or fifteen) of lime juice, and chopped onion.  I don’t think the chopped onion would go well here, but the lime juice and rice were fantastic!  Of course, I do have my own recipe for the rice which I will share soon.  Maybe tomorrow night?  

Notes:  You could use canned black beans instead of making your own.  If you wanted to make the chili in the crock pot, I would remember to add enough water to cover all of your ingredients.  You’ll have a lot less water if you use canned beans.  Also, it is hard to over season with chili.  You could easily put in a 1/4 tsp of each spice at the beginning and still season to taste at the end.  If you followed both of these suggestions, you could  throw all of your ingredients into the crock pot at the beginning of the day, set it on low and come home to a delicious chili dinner at the end of the day!  

Food, glorious food!

Wow!  It’s been a crazy week!  I’ve found it hard just to keep my head above water.  I’ve been doing a lot of grocery shopping this week, trying to stock up my pantry so I’m not running to the store every other day.  Correction:  So I’m not sending Harry to the store every other day.  Let’s be truthful now.  Anyway, this little project involves cleaning out the pantry and a closet and my kitchen cabinets, blah, blah, blah.  I am now working on my menu for the month of February, which I will be posting as soon as I get it done.  I have recently found that having a menu saves me a lot of time during the day because I don’t have to figure out what to cook.  This makes sense, since I spend ridiculous amounts of time preparing food, cooking food, serving food, and cleaning up food.  By the time I'm done cleaning up the food, it's time to start preparing food again!  But I digress.  I don’t make an exact menu, but I do make a general plan for the month, and then I post it on the refrigerator.  Now if only I were this organized with the homeschooling planning...  Ah well, one thing at a time I suppose.  Actually, brief side note, I won’t be blogging about homeschooling here, but if you want to read about that you can check out Walking with the Walls, our new family blog.  So, back to the subject.  I was thinking of doing a Mexican food theme for the month (which would translate to Mexican inspired dishes two to three times a week).  While I’m putting together my menu, does anyone have any fabulous recipe ideas to contribute?  Extra points if they are healthy!

Beautiful Ache

There are many things in my life that are beautiful.  They are uplifting, inspiring. I am blessed beyond belief--not because I'm overwhelmed with material blessing, but because I'm overwhelmed by a God who loves me.  And yet I find so often that this beauty is marred by heartache.  That nothing in my life is truly perfect or complete.  I feel this terrible longing for perfect beauty.  I want completeness.  But the reality of my life today is that I'm living in this imperfect world as an imperfect human being with an imperfect marriage and an imperfect family--yet, with a PERFECT God!  The beauty and the ache are overwhelming.  So I find that to share about myself I must share about the beautiful and about the heartache.  I originally wanted to name this blog Beautiful Ache, but I thought it might be too deep for the title of a blog.  So instead, it will be the theme behind my writings... I will be sharing about my ups and downs, bursts of creativity in my very domestic life, my spiritual walk, and everything in between. 

Before I sign off, I want to give special thanks to one of the most beautiful things in my life, my husband, Harry.  I am so grateful to him for giving me the push I needed to get this blog up, and for always encouraging me to be the best Eva.  I just hope I can live up to all the hype!   

Because My Husband Loves Me...

My wife really wanted to post on her blog tonight for the first time. She can't seem to make that happen so I, her ever-loving husband is starting off her blog with a guest post. Now, I won't take the time to bore you with the things that I write about in my own blog, I will just take the time to tell you how amazing my wife is and why you should follow this blog in the future.

This woman is quite amazing and has taken the position of mother and wife to a whole new level. The reason she is so tired right now is because she has been taking care of her bonehead husband who tried to break his shoulder by falling down Art Hill in Forest Park yesterday. She also has to take care of our 3 beautiful children who need a lot of attention. She gives them that attention sometimes to the point that no attention is given to her. So that is why I'm writing her first blog tonight.

Why should you read this blog in the future? Well, my wife is amazingly smart and has a lot of really great thoughts and things to say. I'm really excited about the fact that she is deciding to write a blog on her own. I believe that this is going to be helpful for her to share her heart and mind. You will want to read what she has to say. I guarantee it.