Sabbath Mondays

So, let me just say that I am super lucky to get to take Monday as my Sabbath day. First of all, I get to completely avoid the icky Mondays that seem to plague our society. Secondly, I get to spend time with my whole family during the work week, which means we generally get the whole place to ourselves wherever we go. (Unless you're going to Goody Goody Diner in North St. Louis City. It was jam-packed at 10 am on a Monday! We seriously had to wait 15 minutes to be seated. But I'll tell you about that in minute... ) Thirdly, I really feel I should have a third reason, but I simply do not so give me a minute while I come up with something................. Got it. As a homeschooling mom, I REALLY need the extra rest to get the energy I need for the rest of the week.

A few years ago, Harry and I decided to try to take a true Sabbath- a true day of rest. Not just an off-day, or a day to collapse from exhaustion. On Mondays we try to do the things that refresh us and bring peace to our lives. It's the day we treat ourselves to the things we don't get during the week. These are some of the things that have made their way into our Monday traditions:

1. we almost always have doughnuts. My girls LOVE doughnuts and they don't really get any sugar during the week so this is a big treat for them... and me. Although, sometimes I will get a cheese bagel instead.

2. we try to get out of the house. If the weather is nice, we try to get outside, and if it's not, we may go to the mall or something.

3. we almost always watch Phineas and Ferb. We really love this cartoon. : ) This is the only day of the week the girls get to watch tv. On Friday nights we have movie night, but other than that, this is it.

4. game night before bed. Sometimes its wii, sometimes it's a board game, or a puzzle.

Most importantly, we spend the whole day together. I think taking this day together every week has really bonded us as a family.

So take today, for instance. Today was one of the BEST Sabbath Mondays we've ever had. It wasn't so much what we did, but the fact that we ENJOYED it so much! It didn't hurt that it was 65 degrees in January and the sun was shining like a bright, spring morning! That said, what we did was really cool too!

First, we met Harry's parents and some friends at Goody Goody Diner, after getting to sleep in until nearly 9am. Yum. Is all I can say--both to sleeping in and Goody Goody. I decided to try the chicken and waffles. Nothing like fried chicken, half a Belgian Waffle, hash browns, and two eggs (over medium, thank you very much) to start your day! As a side note, I would also like to point out that my kids half officially reached a new level of food consumption. It's the level where they actually eat. It's a little scary actually. I'm gonna have to start praying for the Lord to give me a little extra income just to feed them! But I digress.

After Goody Goody we decided to go for a little drive downtown. As I said before, it was warm and bright today so downtown just sparkled. Add to this Brisa's steady stream of impassioned comments about how fantastic and beautiful and wonderful and perfect the day was, and it really kept the positive spirit floating pretty high. : ) I love that girl.

Then we went home and the girls watched Netflix while Quinty, Mama, and Daddy all took naps. Yes, I said it. I napped for two hours from 1:30 to 3:30 and it was FANTASTIC. I can feel your envy.

THEN, we all went to the Tower Grove Park and drank in the last few warm hours of St Louis sun on a kick scooter for Brisa and roller skates for Kahmylia. Quinty ran around laughing and making exquisitely ridiculous faces. : 0 I spotted Kay on the roller skates and raced Brisa on her scooter while Harry took pictures of the all the fun. It was so much fun.

After a quick trip to the grocery store, we ate sandwiches for dinner and wrapped up the day with a little Super Mario Brothers on the Wii. Then we put so VERY happy kiddos to bed. It was awesome!

Now I'm chillin in the bed blogging and doing lesson plans for the week.

Ahhhhh..........

Sabbath Mondays are the best!

Love this face!

He's so fluffy I could die!!!

My girls!

Brisa Bella

Kay on her new roller skates.

Little Boy kisses! : )

My little handsome man.

Blog Envy and Acorn Squash

So, I've been poking around some blogs lately. And I've discovered that I have blog envy. This is part of the reason why I have so much trouble keeping up with my blog. I want to have a really cool, important blog, but I don't think I always have really cool, important things to write-- or really impressive photography to illustrate it.

So this is my response. To myself.

The way I figure it, the people who read my blog want to know about ME. And I want to share about ME. I'm not going to blog about things that I know nothing about. And I'm not going to present myself as someone I'm not.

So here are the facts. (I am very factual.)

I'm kinda scattered. (This drives Harry batty. Sorry, Babe.) I'm always gonna have trouble keeping up with my keys...and my cell phone...oh, and my glasses.

I'm not given to routine. My family does not eat meals at the same time every day. I don't shower at the same time everyday. After a year of effort, school is finally starting to look like something that resembles routine. After a year.

I am not a photographer. This is not my fault.

These things make blogging a bit of a challenge.

But I do have some things going for me. : 0 More facts about me.

I am very creative. I crochet, sew, decorate, sing, garden, craft, and I like to dabble in whatever else catches my fancy.

I am always cooking. I need people to love my food- and they usually do. ; )

I am a follower of Christ. My faith walk is simple, but not easy; requires much sacrifice, but is so worth it.

So there you have it. These are some of things I'll be blogging about. Illustrated with not so great pictures from my camera phone. And sometimes, if you're lucky, Harry will take some pictures for me with his fancy, shmancy camera and help me post them.

But for tonight, I'll leave you with a simple recipe with a mediocre picture of a very cute human subject and a very delicious food subject!

Two ways to make Acorn Squash

Ingredients:

Acorn Squash

Butter

Cinnamon

This recipe is so delicious and so simple and my kids love it. Triple bonus points for the kid love!

Step 1: Cut acorn squash in half.

Step 2: Scoop out the guts and seeds and throw them out.

Step 3: Smear butter all over the inside and sprinkle with cinnamon. (You can add a little brown sugar if you really like it sweet, but I and the kids find that the squash is sweet enough.)

Step 4: Bake at 400 degrees F until tender (about 30-45 mins).

Eat warm! Super yummy!

Now, you can see from the photo that I made half of the squash with just butter. Another thing you can do with this squash is stuff it! Fill up that little squash half with rice or fried cabbage and ground turkey (an Eva original I will be posting later), and you can make a whole meal out of a $2 squash!

Step 5: Make a filling as simple as buttered rice to stuff your acorn squash.

There you have it!

Starting Small

It's 11:30 pm on the first day of the year, and I'm gonna try something new.

Blogging...

at least once a week, maybe more.....

I am the queen of setting unrealistic expectations for myself, so this time I think I'll start out slow and build momentum instead of starting out in an excited frenzy and fizzling out by the end of the week.

I'm gonna start small.

In fact, I'm gonna take this idea of starting small and start applying it to everything in my life that overwhelms me. Lots of things are in that category.

Spiritual disciplines overwhelm me.

Keeping my house clean overwhelms me.

Losing weight overwhelms me.

I could go on, believe me.

I get so discouraged because everything feels too big to handle.

And then a still, small Voice whispers, "One step at a time." And I remember that one small step starts me on the journey. Starting small is gonna get me where I need to go.

Here's to starting small!

May God bless you with enough faith for that one small step.

Happy New Year Everyone!

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.