Edie Wadsworth

Fresh Tomato Tart

May 29, 2014 by Edie Wadsworth 22 Comments

NOTHING says summer like fresh tomatoes. Can I get an amen? And if it’s not summer where you are, please consider moving to my good state. We’d love to have you! Fresh tomatoes may be my favorite thing in all the world. I’ve got about 7 different varieties in my garden as we speak and if that weren’t enough, I live in the tomato capitol of the South. We drove to a tomato farm on the other side of the lake last week after church and have been in hog heaven all week. I’ve had tomatoes in every possible combination. I made this fresh tomato tart while our company was here last week and it was everything I ever dreamed of. [Read more…] about Fresh Tomato Tart

02: The Life You Love Manifesto|A Life of Learning [Podcast]

May 28, 2014 by Edie Wadsworth 31 Comments

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Show Notes and Outline

Why should we want to be lifelong learners?

It cultivates virtue, curiosity, and empathy.
It’s one of the best gifts you can give yourself and those around you.
It reassures us we are not alone!
It strengthens our ability to think for ourselves amid a world of chaos and distraction.

Neil Postman is a critic of modern culture with its endless quest for entertainment and distraction. He makes a compelling case for finding ways to swim against the grain and continue reading and learning.

He says that George Orwell taught us to fear the tyranny from without with his chilling, dark vision in the book 1984. He claimed that the roots of liberal democracy would be overcome by an external force and terror. But 1984 came and went and our way of life had survived. Neil Postman points out that perhaps we had forgotten another, no-less chilling, prediction by Aldous Huxley in Brave New World. Postman says, ” Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.” His book Amusing Ourselves to Death is hard to read without seeing the writing on the wall. We are being weakened by our constant desire for entertainment.

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we desire will ruin us.” (Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death)

The statistics are pretty staggering. The average American, over the age of 2, watches around 40 hours of TV per week. That’s a full time job. And if I’m not guilty of the TV portion, then certainly my “screen time” is no less staggering. We have shifted from an word centered to an image centered culture and the only way I know to protect my self and my family from the tyranny of constant entertainment is to instill in them (and myself) a love for the written word. As Ray Bradbury says, “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”

Books are powerful and life-changing, but they are demanding and require more from us than we’ve been accustomed to giving. Developing a life-long habit of reading will not be easy and you will most certainly swim upstream in our culture to do it. But it’s worth it. There is no better gift that you can give yourself and your children than the desire and ability to read great books.

How can we become lifelong learners?

Here’s a few tips on how to start.

Start with Neil Postman’s book Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. I don’t know if I’ve ever read a more compelling book on the state of our current culture and its obsession with entertainment. You will be inspired to turn off the TV and the computer and pick up a book.
Begin a reading plan that is doable. Commit to 15 minutes a day and do it at the start of your day. I try to start and end my day with books, even if it’s only a few minutes. When I first began a serious reading program, I followed Susan Wise Bauer’s The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had. It gives suggestions on a reading plan, with specific classic books, that all educated adults should read.
Don’t be too hard on yourself. Reading is a serious, demanding endeavor. It’s like exercise, but for your mind. You won’t be able to run a marathon the first six months. Start our slow, but keep going. Consider starting a book club with a few like-minded folks. And remember, “In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.” (Mortimer Adler)
I don’t agree that it doesn’t matter what you read as long as you read. It does. A lifetime of romance novels will likely not change your life. But, Plato and Homer and Faulkner and C.S. Lewis might. Here’s some inspiration to get your started. Also, try this list of the 10 Books Every Christian Should Read. And remember, “It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.” (Oscar Wilde)
Start a reading group (even if it’s just one other person) so you can discuss what you’re reading. I also LOVE to listen to free lectures on books I’ve read or am reading.

There are countless lists of the must read books. I decided to view as if I were gonna be stranded on a deserted island. So, here’s the 25 books I would choose if I could only read 25 for the rest of my life.

25 Must Read Books

Lutheran Study Bible
The Odyssey, Homer
The Aeneid, Virgil
Mere Christianity , C.S. Lewis
Hamlet, William Shakespeare
The Divine Comedy, Dante
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky
Paradise Lost, John Milton
Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton
Lilith, George MacDonald
Candide, Voltaire
The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkein
Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
Beloved, Tony Morrison
All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
East of Eden, John Steinbeck
Middlemarch, George Eliot
That Hideous Strength, C.S. Lewis
The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner
Peace Like a River, Leif Enger
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard
Jayber Crow, Wendell Berry

Links and Resources

My 2014 Reading List
The Well Educated Mind, A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman

This is the 2nd part of a 7 part series on creating a life you love. You can listen to part 1 on Calling and Vocation and then tune in next week for part 3!

Now, it’s your turn!

I’d love to know how you incorporate reading and lifelong learning into your schedule?

What are the barriers for you?
What questions do you have?

What are a few titles that would make your top 25 books list?

(I know, I forgot poetry. This list totally stressed me out!)

Freedom

May 26, 2014 by Edie Wadsworth 50 Comments

“The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day.”

Hope you are enjoying a wonderful day of rest and play with your favorite people.

True freedom is to learn to live our days for others, like so many men and women do everyday to keep us out of harm’s way. Thank you so much for your service. May God bless you and your families! We honor you today and everyday.

My favorite slice of Americana? Johnny Cash, of course.

7 Ways I Simplified My Life {And Saved Money}

May 23, 2014 by Edie Wadsworth 34 Comments

Thanks to Dave Ramsey and his Endorsed Local Providers program for sponsoring this post and inspiring us!

The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life’s plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life. ~Robert Louis Stevenson

Sometimes I look back at how drastically our lives have changed from the way they were ten years ago.

Here’s the shortest way I can tell you what happened. We finished residency and both began working in medicine. We made great money but we had incredible debt. Our student loan payments alone were $2700 per month. Gulp. We bought a brand new house and two new cars. We joined the country club and bought the clothes to match. We took fancy trips and worshipped at the altar of hedonism. We thought we were doing what doctors were supposed to do. We did it like champs. We weren’t keeping up with the Jones’s. We were the Jones’s.

Then due to some due to some circumstances with our kids, we decided that I should come home for a time. Oh, you don’t even know. It was one of the hardest years of my life. The income loss was just the beginning of the squeeze. I slowed down enough to look around and see what was crumbling behind the perfect facade. Here’s what I saw. I saw a woman who had come to believe that she deserved anything she wanted. I saw a woman who had lost touch with the reality of most of the world. I saw a woman whose worth was tied up in status and wealth. I saw a woman I didn’t know any more and I didn’t like her very much either.

So, I set out to reinvent myself. Which meant a slow stripping away of everything I had come to believe was important.

Here are a few ways I changed my life to step off the terrible treadmill called the rat race of life.

1. I stay home more.

Since I left my practice 7 years ago, I’ve found that the hardest thing about being a work at home or stay at home mom is the staying at home part. But guess what? I’m way more productive and spend way less money when I stay home. I try to stay home 3 full days a week and that means saying no to things I would enjoy doing. It means taking my work seriously and doing it even when I’d rather be shopping or lunching.

2. I cook (most) of my own food.

Now, listen. This was not easy. I realized early on that 5:00 is not a good time to start thinking about dinner. I had no clue how to feed a family of six regularly without losing my ever loving mind. But, the only way to get more comfortable in the kitchen is by getting in the kitchen. When I first started learning to really cook, I watched the Food Network and read lots of cook books. You will learn to love it by doing it and getting better at it. Fifteen years later, one of my favorite things to do in this world is put on some good music, pour a glass of wine and chop up some ingredients for dinner. You’ll save plenty of money and eat much healthier. (You’ll stay home more, too!)

3. I grow my own garden.

Just tonight, I went out to my little garden and clipped some swiss chard and some mint to go in our salad. I canNOT tell you the joy of growing at least some of your food. It feels like you’re somehow cheating the system. And in our temperate climate, we can have something growing in there for most of the year. It’s good for the soul. It’s good for the body. And it’s good for the wallet. This year, I used the square foot gardening method and I’m loving it!

4. I pursue things that are fulfilling.

I firmly believe that one of the reasons we spend to0 much is because we’re not fulfilled in our everyday lives. We’re not following our passions. We’re not living for others. We do the same thing day in and day out and fail to see the magic of ordinary life. I started reading like there was no tomorrow. I started pursuing my life long love of writing, it changed so many things for me. I wasn’t preoccupied with stuff anymore. I started using my gifts in ways that helped others. It changed everything about my life and most certainly my bank account.

5. We didn’t give ourselves a raise.

This month we reached a milestone. We paid off the mortgage on our farm!!!! It felt so surreal when I sent in the last check. This 40 acres with a cabin and barn now belongs to us. And guess how we were able to afford that while putting a bunch of kids through school on one income? When Stevie got a raise at work ten years ago, we never let that money become part of our regular budget. He set up a different account and eventually used that money to buy and improve this piece of land. We never got used to having the extra money so it didn’t feel like we were missing anything. I wouldn’t have had the foresight or the discipline to do that but I’m so glad that he did.

6. I see that it’s often more blessed to create than to purchase.

I started pursuing a more creative life. I learned to knit, sew, stitch, and craft. I homeschooled my girls and made every last handicraft under the sun. So many things that I would see that I wanted, I would try to find a way to make it way cheaper than I could buy it. I fell in love with thrifting and antique shopping and came to prefer items with a story.

7. I took Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace course and saved $5,000 fast.

I read his books, took his course, and saved $5,000 in 6 months. I decided against upgrading my car and drove the (paid-for) beast for 11 years. I didn’t realize how much we were overspending on insurance before we talked with our ELP . We got help with our taxes so that my creative business wouldn’t be a liability for us and we maximized the amount we were saving for retirement. I would not consider myself a frugal person, but I’ve learned that these principles are as much about joy and peace in your life as they are about money.

Dave’s Endorsed Local Provider program is such a huge help because we can use the professionals Dave recommends.

The truest thing you can say about money is—

All the best things in life are free!

I look around at our lives and see that almost all the things we enjoy and love about our lives are things you can’t buy. And, what’s the most important reason to find ways to save some money? In order to be generous! Steve and I want to be able to help our kids, our church, and our community. We want to continue to sponsor children in poverty and we hope to keep learning ways to live generously with the world around us.

What are some ways your family has made lifestyle changes in order to simplify your life and save money?

Summer Vegetable Soup {And Some Winners}

May 21, 2014 by Edie Wadsworth 21 Comments

“The arrival of company at the house, the arranging of dinners and suppers, in style, awoke all the energies of her soul; and no sight was more welcome to her than a pile of traveling trunks launched on the verandah, for then she foresaw fresh efforts and fresh triumphs.”~ Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Ruth and her family are coming for the weekend and I couldn’t be more excited. Her sweet little Annie had the choice of a birthday party or a weekend away and she wanted to come to Miss Edie’s house. That little doll baby. Don’t tell, but I’m making her a rainbow cake and my girls have a little surprise for her, too.

So. I’m busy with my cooking, froofing, taking my smelly dogs to the spa and in general making sure they know how loved and welcomed they are . For lunch one day while they’re here, I’m serving pesto paninis and my favorite warm weather soup—Summer Vegetable. You NEED to try this. It’s everything you ever wanted in summer vegetables and more.

Here’s what you’ll need:

3T. of olive oil
2T of bacon fat (this is the key to life itself)
3 zucchinis, cut in half lengthwise and then chopped into thin pieces
7-8 ears of fresh corn, shucked and cleaned and cut off the cob
6 large fresh tomatoes or 2-28 oz cans of San Marco or Cento diced tomatoes
1 32 oz box of good chicken stock (I use Kitchen Basics)
3 T heavy cream
a pinch of cayenne pepper
2 T honey
Add salt and pepper along the way, to taste

Here’s what you’ll do:

In a large soup pot, saute one large onion in 3T. of olive oil and 2T of bacon fat. Yes, bacon grease. It can be our little secret.
Cut the corn off the cob into the pot.
Then scrape the cob with the side of your knife to get all the good ‘milk’ off the cob.
Next, I add 3 zucchini squash, cut in half lengthwise and then chopped in thin pieces
Add many (about 6 large) fresh tomatoes, chopped and then added with juice and all (or use the canned tomatoes)
Cook the veggies for about 10 min. Add a pinch of cayenne pepper and then salt and pepper to taste
Add one box of good chicken stock
Finish with 3T. of cream and a tablespoon of honey
Add salt and pepper to taste

This only works with fresh, sweet veggies but you could substitute the tomatoes with Cento’s chefs’ cut canned tomatoes. I’d use 2-28 oz cans.

It’s really so simple and so delicious. Hope you try it! It’s just pretty to look at too.

WINNERS!!

Okay, the winner for the 3 books on calling and vocation is—comment number 43, Ruth! Email me with your address and I’ll get your books out to you!

Thank y’all so much for the kindest, most encouraging comments in the WHOLE world on my first ever podcast. I’m so excited to share this series with you and I am so thankful for the warm reception!

The winner of the half-off scholarship to Anna Maria’s quilting workshop is—

Y’all. I couldn’t just pick one. Your stories touched me. SO! There are two winners—Christy Pixley and Gina Boswell!! I’m so excited for you and so excited to meet you both. Email me soon and I’ll let you know how to get registered. Mwahhhhhhh!

Summer Vegetable Soup {And Some Winners}

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Ingredients

3 T. of olive oil
2 T of bacon fat this is the key to life itself
3 zucchinis cut in half lengthwise and then chopped into thin pieces
7-8 ears of fresh corn shucked and cleaned and cut off the cob
6 large fresh tomatoes or 2-28 oz cans of San Marco or Cento diced tomatoes
1 32 oz box of good chicken stock I use Kitchen Basics
3 T heavy cream
a pinch of cayenne pepper
2 T honey
Add salt and pepper along the way to taste

Instructions

In a large soup pot, saute one large onion in 3T. of olive oil and 2T of bacon fat. Yes, bacon grease. It can be our little secret.
Cut the corn off the cob into the pot.
Then scrape the cob with the side of your knife to get all the good ‘milk’ off the cob.
Next, I add 3 zucchini squash, cut in half lengthwise and then chopped in thin pieces
Add about 6 large fresh tomatoes, chopped and then added with juice and all (or use the canned tomatoes)
Cook the veggies for about 10 min. Add a pinch of cayenne pepper and then salt and pepper to taste
Add one box of good chicken stock
Finish with 3T. of cream and a tablespoon of honey
Add salt and pepper to taste

01: The Life You Love Manifesto|A Life of Calling [Podcast]

May 19, 2014 by Edie Wadsworth 112 Comments

The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. ~Mark Twain

You can listen on the player below or subscribe in iTunes.

Notes and Links from the Podcast

This 7 step journey toward joy begins today as we explore stepping into a life of calling.

The premise of this episode is that you will find joy, peace and incredible fulfillment when you learn to live at the intersection of your passions and your neighbors needs. The paradox is that when we stop worrying so much about our specific calling and serve the neighbors in front of us today, we’ll actually begin to discover what it is we’re made to do. The greatest joys in life come from giving ourselves away. C.S. Lewis said it perfectly when he said

“Your real, new self (which is Christ’s and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him. Does that sound strange? The same principle holds, you know, for more everyday matters. Even in social life, you will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making. Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it. The principle runs through all life from top to bottom, Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”

I hope this episode encourages you to step out in faith into your calling so that your life becomes an offering to everyone around you. This is God’s will for your life!

God’s will is for you to be saved. He has made every provision for that salvation Himself. He has given you everything you need in Jesus’ perfect life, death, and resurrection. You don’t need to do ANYthing to please Him or find Him or discern His will. He is pleased with Jesus and sees you as one redeemed by Christ.

He has placed you in various stations in life and called you to serve your neighbor, since all of YOUR needs have already been met in Him. He has gifted you in certain ways, so that you may serve your neighbor and meet his needs. And the beautiful kicker is this—God hides Himself in your vocation, so that all the service you render to your neighbor, is sacred, because it is, in reality, GOD at work through you, meeting the needs of the neighbor.
The M

Reader Questions

Ginny and Shannon both asked (on Facebook) about having vocations that weren’t creative or as life-changing as others seem to be.

I think I answered that in the podcast but remember—there are no preferred vocations in God’s kingdom. He’s pleased to use the work of our hands, no matter what that work is, to bless and serve others. I say do your job with terrific passion, remembering that God hides Himself in your vocation and counts all the service rendered to your neighbor as service rendered directly to him!

Marie asked about time management and I think we’ll be addressing this more in a later podcast. It’s such important topic and I’ve shared before how I try to budget my time but it’s always a work in progress. We have an upcoming podcast on Work and hopefully we’ll be able to talk more about this then!

Thanks for the questions, lovelies!

Resources on Calling and Vocation

Books

Blog posts

Podcasts

Issues Etc—a listing of podcasts on vocation

And remember…….

So, my question for your is this? Can you see how the circumstances and people in your life are there for a reason, both to make you all you can be and to meet your neighbor’s needs?

Leave any comment of question you have and tomorrow morning, we’ll pick a winner for the 3 books I mentioned in this post!

Thank you so much for listening! (And for being patient with my amateur recording) You’re the best!

xoxo,

edie