Edie Wadsworth

Thanksgiving Replayed

November 28, 2009 by Edie Wadsworth 16 Comments

We gathered around the table and prayed a Thanksgiving litany–written by Pastor Bill Cwirla.

The food was served buffet style—-and if I do say so myself—it was pretty yummy!

Some of the crew (my brother was sick this year and we missed him dearly—-he always does the dishes!)

Let the feasting begin!

The ‘teens and tweens’ table and their beloved sparkling grape juice.

A sneak peek at myspace….

…and a whole lot of football!

Apparently my sister has rescued her husband from his ten year old worn out Carhartt (?acid-washed) jeans—I thought it was picture-worthy.

The cute couple Marcus and Katilin (and a sneak peak at my freshly painted tiffany blue door)

I was a little disappointed with my performance on desserts this year. Pride comes before a fall and I sorta pride myself on serving a plethora of yummy desserts. They were just ‘ok’. Next year, I promise to bring back ‘chocolate crusted creme brulee’—-and red velvet cheese cake. Accept my sincerest apologies.

It was a glorious day altogether and we counted our many blessings.
Friday I took the kids to see Blind Side and cried through 75% of the movie. Steve was 95% sure I’d come home with a 250 pound homeless football player. I seriously pondered it and may be in an adoption ‘funk’ for weeks. Today, I’m thinking about resurrecting the fresh Christmas tree tradition. Hope your weekend is marvelous.

Renovations

November 25, 2009 by Edie Wadsworth 68 Comments

1. Studio Eight {the craft room makeover}

2. Kitchen Makeover

3. Guest Bathroom

4. Our Homeschool Room

5. Our lake kitchen

Thanksgiving Tabletop Tips

November 24, 2009 by Edie Wadsworth 31 Comments

Every year I swoon at the Pottery Barn catalogue and their many varied and luscious Thanksgiving tabletops. Have you ever calculated how much money it would cost to do a table exactly like theirs? A lot of money. An obscene amount of money. So, every year I set out to make my tables comfortable, fresh, and inviting. I took Darby’s tutorial on making Christmas stickers and made Thanksgiving ‘cards’ that I tied to pumpkins.

Then, I printed out the names of my guests {in elephant font at 36pt}, taped them to these cute Martha Stewart tags—that I found in the scrapbook section of Walmart—and tied them with twine to the pumpkins stalks.

Then, I took all my mismatched gold goblets and white dishes and set my table.

I lined the center of the table with 10 votive candles {I bought the votive holders on clearance at Pier One for $1 and then put ’ember’ votive candles in the holders–also from Pier One. ‘Ember’ is a most wonderful combination of orange, cinnamon, and cloves.

I used different colors and words at everyones’ place setting and you can download the words in sets of two in the form of pdf files. For the words joyful and thankful, click here. For the words lovely and wishful click here. For the words merry and cheer, click here. For the words grateful and cherish, click here.

Voila! A fresh Thanksgiving table for under $30 (unless you count the printer ink)!

And because I don’t know when to stop with a good thing, I printed my Thanksgiving menu and my current ‘to-do’ in the same way. I’m pretty certain that I’m more motivated to finish my ‘to-do’ list when it looks like this.

Then, I officially declared this ‘Home-Economics’ week at Logos School and rallied the troops to help me

1)Bake the sweet potatoes {I’ll add the brown sugar, cream, and butter and then bake them again before Thursday}

2) Peel the russet potatoes—all ten pounds of them—-for the chive mashed potatoes. We’ll doctor these up later too but at least the peeling and cooking are done!

3) Bake faux-made bread. I use this Rhodes brand all the time when I need homeade bread in a pinch. You just spray a muffin tin with Pam and put two of these frozen dough balls in each tin. Let them rise for 5-6 hours and then bake them. I’ll be making my standard Parker House Rolls for Thursday too but this way, we’ll have plenty for my family to take home with their leftovers.

And then we sat down and spent a couple hours reading about the Pilgrims and their amazing journey across the Atlantic—and how they landed in a foreign country—tired, sick, hungry with no ready available food or shelter.

We are so blessed. With so many brave people for whom to be thankful.

Check over at Kimba’s DIY day for more creative solutions that are easy to do yourself.

Projects Unfinished and Children Unplugged

November 23, 2009 by Edie Wadsworth 35 Comments

painting my bedroom/bathroom/bedroom ceilings (and don’t you love the lamp that I rescued from my own yard sale and painted blue?)

Last week, I started 37 projects. That’s kinda how I roll. And I should have learned by now that when I do that, I end up sick. So, now I have 37 half finished projects and raging bronchitis. And our family Thanksgiving just happens to be Thursday—-at my house. I am blessed to have been able to hire a painter who’s coming today to help me finish. But I’ll show you a few pics from the week and we’ll all cross our fingers that we get all our ‘stuff’ done in time to relax and enjoy our families. Keep in mind, NOTHING is finished. And while I coughed and painted, the little girls played a lot of American Girl fantasyland and the ‘big’ girls made the cutest shirts.

a new wall of frames and the cutest pillows (TJ Maxx for the geometric and Target for the birdies)

a spruced up mantle for Christmas–did I emphasize unfinished?

new paint for the girls’ room

new paint for the girls’ beds

Christmas lights for the craft room

Check our my tumblr site for a peek into some of the yummies I’m making——in between coughing and painting. I promise I’m not coughing in the food. My brother in law may no-show when my sister reads this post to him.

And for finished Thanksgiving projects, visit Clover Lane!

Whether the projects all get done or not, this I know: I am profoundly blessed, beyond anything I could ever hope for or ask. And I will pray for a heart of thankfulness, for myself, for my family and for you.

Stages of Blog Friendship

November 21, 2009 by Edie Wadsworth 95 Comments

1. Infatuated

Day 1: You click on a link to a new blog. Hmmmm. You make the following mental notes.

“Nice header.”

“No opening music—that’s good.”

“Awww, she looks sweet. Cute kids. Cool project.”

You click to a link within her post and get lost for a period of time on Martha Stewart’s craft site trying to figure out how to make those origami ornaments. But you make a mental note to visit again.

Day 5: You remember that there was a new blog that you might potentially add to your reader so you rack your brain to try to remember how you got there. Was is from Melissa’s link list? Or maybe BooMama’s blogroll? Or Nester’s lamp party? While trying to find the link, you get sidetracked 40 times and wander around in the blog wilderness confused as to how you ended up on a page that says ‘The four stages of falling in love”—but you make mental note of how similiar the stages seem to blog crushes—and you determine to write a post someday about the stages of blog friendship.

Now back to our search. You click around to blogs that you know have good blogrolls and pray you’ll recognize the name when you see it. Finally, 237 clicks later, you find it! Aw, the relief. You thought you’d ‘lost’ her forever. Her newest post is a tutorial on how to recycle old sheets into a gorgeous table runner for Thanksgiving.

“And she’s industrious. I think I like this girl.”

You bookmark her site and vow to visit again in a day or two when you have more time.

Day 10: You remember the bookmark you saved and sit down with a cup of coffee to get to know your new friend a little. You learn that she’s a reformed Baptist, has five kids, bakes a lot, has a brother serving in Iraq, wants to adopt a baby, loves to make her home beautiful, and takes incredible pictures. Yep, we’re definitely gonna be friends.

2. Smitten

Day 20: You have periodically visited her site and searched a few different categories. You love what you see and decide that sometime in the next few weeks you’re gonna read some of her archives. You carve out some time between 11-1a and devote it completely to your new friend. You skim most of her blog posts and are enamoured with her photography, her fresh view of the world, her creative life and make a decision—despite the fact that she seems to be quite outspoken on certain issues—-that you will most certainly add her to your reader.

Day 40: You are smitten. In the last 3 weeks, she’s posted about making Texas sheet cake, the struggles she has with her strong willed toddler, the amazing Super Bowl party she threw last year, her 10 year love affair with her husband, and the reasons why she loves reformed theology. You forgive her for being in the wrong political party and decide that the blog posts you ‘skimmed’ late one night are gonna have to be read word for word. You usually read her blog outside the reader because when you’re on her actual site, you feel like you’re at home–and it allows you to comment when you want and read the comments of others.

3. Head Over Heels

Day 60: You start from her first blog post ever and read nearly every word she’s written. You see how she’s developed as a writer/blogger/woman. You respect her for the boundaries she hasn’t violated. You know that if you met her in real life you’d be the best of friends. You don’t agree with her on everything. She can be sarcastic and self-deprecating at times. But you are sure that you have never known anyone quite like her. She’s a remarkable woman. She inspires you on so many levels. She has shown you that being a woman, a mother, a wife is honorable and noble and good. She makes you a better person. She has been gracious to open her life to you. And you are forever thankful.

You finally decide to introduce yourself to her. You become pen pals. Friends.

You start to read her comments and feel the need to defend her if someone—who doesn’t ‘know’ her—seems to misunderstand her. You learn what her ‘community’ is like and decide to become part of it yourself.

4. Just Old Friends

Day 432: After months or years of ‘following’ her, you feel like you know her. You probably do know her better than some of her friends who don’t read her blog. Her posting has been a little ‘off’ lately. Is she okay? Is she struggling with something? You pray for her and hope all is well. You send her an email encouraging her. And you say a prayer of thanksgiving. For this connection—for this fellowship. That has changed your life forever. You ponder C.S. Lewis’ quote, “Eros will have naked bodies, friendship naked personalities.”

No wonder this medium fosters friendship.

We bare our souls, expose our fears, confess our frailties and pray that those who receive our words do so with compassion and understanding—-just like old friends. She is not perfect. But she is your friend and you are blessed indeed.

Sound familiar? Please tell me I’m not the only one.

The Theology of Harry Potter

November 20, 2009 by Edie Wadsworth 48 Comments

::Spoiler Alert::

Though I’m guessing that most of you who are going to read them

have already!

The first Harry Potter book, The Sorcerer’s Stone, was released in 1997, when my son Taylor was 7 years old. I bought the first book and we read the first five or so chapters aloud before I began to hear the siren calls that the book was demonic, full of witchcraft, and ought to be renounced by christians. I obeyed the cry of James Dobson and others to keep the book safely from my children—–until last Monday. I’m also ashamed to say that I likely criticized J.K. Rowling during the last twelve years without knowing much about her and certainly without reading the series or watcing the movies for myself—all the while, secretly wondering if I was misguided in my uneducated summation of her work. In retrospect, I don’t think that was a very academic or even a very christian thing to do. I’ve had to do a similar sort of eye-opening on many subjects since I’ve become Lutheran, so I’m accustomed to the routine of relearning, of challenging old dogma that once ruled the day in my life.

So, after twelve years in exile, I resurrected the first book and the little girls and I are reading it ravenously. Perfect for the upcoming Thanksgiving holidays. I’m not sure what first kindled my interest in Harry Potter again but I think it has something to do with the fact that I’m taking my 17 year old to see New Moon tonight—-another series of books with themes that some have called ‘questionable’ for christians. You can listen to a distintively christian review of the Twilight Series at Issues Etc, which I highly recommend, but that’ll have to be another post for another day.

Imagine my surprise when I find this series of interviews between Todd Wilken and Dr. Rick Stuckwisch on the Harry Potter books; both of whom are Lutheran pastors I highly respect. And whether or not you’ve read the books or renounced them from your lives, I think you’d find the interviews enlightening. First, J.K. Rowling is not only an extremely well-educated and brilliant writer, but she is a christian. She has openly admitted to the christological themes in the books and not unlike C.S. Lewis, has purposely set out to be subtle with these themes so that the books would have a broader reach and appeal—possibly to engage those who would otherwise be repulsed by a book with overtly christian ideas. Furthermore, she has been harshly criticized for using magic {which she uses as a literary device—akin to the use of technology in the Star Trek series} by the same christians who gladly let their kids read Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia and Tolkeins’ Lord of the Rings; both of which are full of ‘miracles’ and magic.

And given her christian heritage, it shouldn’t surprise us that in the 7th and last book {the number of completion in the Bible} Harry dies, giving himself up out of love and mercy for others—-then rises again—-not unlike Aslan in the Narnia series. It also seems that even without the themes of mercy and self-sacrifice, the story is compelling in its’ own right—-a story of an orphan boy who grows up in a world full of good and evil and his journey in learning to navigate his often treacherous circumstances.

As I thought about all the hype surrounding these books, especially ten years ago, I found it sadly ironic that had I chosen to continue with the series at the time, I might have found more theological truth in them than I found on any given Sunday at the church I attended. {I’ve since changed churches}. At the very same time that I was so critical of Harry Potter, I tolerated regular preaching and teaching that more often than not, was much more pop psychology than it was Christ-centered theology. I condemned Harry Potter—who turns out to be somewhat of a Christ-type character while sitting by unaffected, watching the oprafication of my church take place. “7 Steps to a Better You” or “40 Days of Purpose” is not the gospel. If I had been as critical of the handling of God’s Word as I was of Rowlings’ handling of magic, I might have spared myself some years of agony. But then the themes of the scripture that run so clearly through our lives, and often so clearly in good literature, are unchanging. We struggle for truth. We wage war—-often at the wrong enemy. In the end, it is only in dying that we are raised to life. The true enemy is defeated. Not with swords. Or magic. Or by ‘my best life now’.

But by the vicarious atonement of Another.

Redemption is really the only story of mankind. {to paraphrase C.S. Lewis}

And perhaps we should rejoice wherever we find it.

* I saw these owl cupcakes online after doing a google search and just used chocolate cupcakes decorated with oreos for eyes, pecans covered in chocolate icing for ears and candy corn for nose. The Hogwarts students often have owls for ‘pets’.