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Around the House, {winter edition}

February 16, 2013 by Edie Wadsworth 67 Comments

Aren’t you just itching for Spring right about now? At our house, we’re a mix of irritable and extremely contented. We’re tired of homeschooling and gray skies and shin splints and complicated epic poems and dirty floors and cluttered counter tops and pilling yoga pants. But then that’s all a lie because we hope the long, winter days snuggled in at home making art projects and reading books will never end. We’re majoring in the beautiful paradox again. We’re conflicted. Just like Tennessee February weather.

Thank heavens for the lemons, that are always in season and beautiful. They never seem to be tortured and twisted up. They’re Spring, in a bowl.
We try to ramp up the arts and crafts, to keep the winter doldrums from settling in too long and hard. Today, we’re making a skirted tablecloth, paper flowers and silhouette art in anticipation of an upcoming gathering at my house. I don’t know about your kids but my girls are SO hard on themselves when it comes to art. They complain that they can’t draw or paint well, that they’re not creative. LIES. It’s all lies, I tell you. So, I just keep making them do it, through the tears and the heartache. And then this occurs.

And this…..

And this…..

And with all the weeping and thrashing around about how UN-artistic we are, someone emailed me to ask me the name of the folk artist who did oil pastel chicken drawing on my wall in the living room. Well, I’m so glad you asked. Her name is Cutie Pie Wadsworth and she’ll be happy to do some chalk drawings for you. Her work may be stained with tears because she’s convinced she’s not very good. So, thanks for asking and I’ll keep reminding her that someone loves her work!

Sometimes I wonder if what I’m doing here in these long days with these girls is really making a difference. I despise my work too. But then the early morning quiet time, reflecting on their words, their tender hearts, their carefree dancing and laughing—I know it’s important. I know it’s good.

I can sense that these days are numbered and I wish I could bottle them up and keep them here forever.
We read our books and talk about Greek heroes and the new color of Essie polish and how to make freezer paper art and I’m overcome with joy that they beg me to sit on their beds and just talk.

Then, I’m pushing too hard— to do Latin grammar and to stop doing so much dancing, to quit goosing around and laughing all the time. At least they’ll never have to wonder if their mother was crazy. That one’s in the bag.

It is February so right after a week of 60 degree sunshine, we got snow. The girls were thrilled. When you live in TN and it snows, you know you’re on borrowed time so you keep your gear on the ready. There can be no looking for gloves for ten minutes because it’ll all be melted by then.

So, I knew I had exactly 47 minutes to snap this photo. We even made snow cream. Twice.

Also, I’ve got some news to share with you all but I’ll be sending it out through the newsletter to protect the names of the innocent. If you’re not subscribed yet, do so before Sunday. I am not sending every blog post out through the newsletter but some of you have asked for that. How about if I send an email update once a week or so with the links to all the posts from that week and then a newsletter once per month? I can have it set up to send an email with every post, but then I would want to unsubscribe because of all the emails. Tell me what your preferences are. Do you want an email with every single post? Tell me all about it. I’ll be checking the comments, amidst all the crafting today!
I’m using the email service to protect myself in case Google ever ‘loses’ me, which has happened to some of my friends. I don’t want to be at the mercy of Google to connect with my peeps so an email service gives us more control and connection.

Okay, happy weekend, dears!
Hope it’s full of beautiful contrasts!
Tell us how you’re fighting the winter blues!!
Mwahhhhhhhh!

Jesus, Mumford and Sons, and the Sermon on the Mount

February 14, 2013 by Edie Wadsworth 28 Comments

I’ve been in love with lyrics since I can remember. I ALWAYS want to know the lyrics of a song. That may be why I love historic hymns so much—they usually have a rich, depth of meaning that is missing in most modern music. When I hear a new song I love, I usually Google the lyrics and then argue with the screen about what the lyrics really say. Maybe it’s the romantic in me. I’m a lover. Good writing and good lyrics are my love language.

And don’t we often insert ourselves into the lyrics, somehow? It’s hard to listen to a song that you love and not insert yourself into it. The same thing naturally happens with scripture. We hear the Sermon and the Mount and we start trying to figure out how pure and peace-making and merciful we are, so that we can ‘see God’ and ‘inherit the earth’. The truth is, the Sermon on the Mount is fulfilled in Jesus, not us. He’s the one who’s poor in spirit, meek, merciful and pure in heart. If we’re ever to be called Sons of God, it’ll because of His peacemaking, not ours.

That’s where Mumford and Sons comes in. (You knew they were be here on Valentine’s Day, right?)

I’ve decided that since I’m not into most modern praise music, I’m adopting this as my official Lenten praise song.

I like to imagine Jesus is talking to God, His Father. He’s anxious to ransom mankind but he waits, and tames His flesh and fixes His eyes, and does it all willingly and never forgets the Father’s kindness toward us on His Son’s behalf.

I can’t help but see Him everywhere, giving Himself over in love for His creation.

“Herein is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us.”

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Mumford and Sons – I Will Wait – Grammys 2013 by IdolxMuzic

And I came home
Like a stone
And I fell heavy into your arms
These days of darkness
Which we’ve known
Will blow away with this new sun

And I’ll kneel down
Wait for now
And I’ll kneel down
Know my ground

And I will wait, I will wait for you
And I will wait, I will wait for you

So break my step
And relent
You forgave and I won’t forget
Know what we’ve seen
And him with less
Now in some way
Shake the excess

But I will wait, I will wait for you
And I will wait, I will wait for you
And I will wait, I will wait for you
And I will wait, I will wait for you

So I’ll be bold
As well as strong
And use my head alongside my heart
So tame my flesh
And fix my eyes
That tethered mind free from the lies

But I’ll kneel down
Wait for now
I’ll kneel down
Know my ground

Raise my hands
Paint my spirit gold
And bow my head
Keep my heart slow

Cause I will wait, I will wait for you
And I will wait, I will wait for you
And I will wait, I will wait for you
And I will wait, I will wait for you

40 Days of Water

February 13, 2013 by Edie Wadsworth 49 Comments

Today, we begin our Lenten pilgrimage in a 40 day trek to the cross, where we remember the sufferings of Christ and His stubborn love toward us.

The penitential season of Lent reminds us that we are not what we should be. It’s a time of stripping away, peeling back the layers that keep us from seeing ourselves rightly.

It’s easy to think I’m kind, generous, temperate, disciplined and loving when life is good, there’s plenty of excess, and I’m not being tested.

But Lent reminds me that I’m none of those things and that I must lean hard into Jesus who is kind, generous, temperate and loving in my place.

One of the ways I know I need Him so desperately is when I try to practice a Lenten discipline—I’ve fasted from chocolate, coffee, social media, sugar, bread, wine. Those periods where I try to deny myself something reminds me that I’ve constructed a house of cards that seems to be standing on the firm foundation of caffeine and sugar and Moscato. If you’ve never practiced a time of fasting/self-control, I urge you to try it. If nothing else, you’ll realize, like me, that you’re not very disciplined and self-controlled. And that is the beginning of repentance.

This year, I’ve decided to partner with Blood:Water Mission and some other awesome bloggers to do something different.

It’s called 40 Days of Water and it goes something like this: you forego the expensive latte, the glass of wine at dinner, the diet coke at lunch and donate the money you would spend on your drinks to provide clean water for folks in Uganda. You can sign up here to participate with me and I’d be so honored to walk alongside you to build a well together—with the excess money we often spend so mindlessly, we don’t even realize we do it.

You can be as specific as you’d like and even give up every drink but water for Lent but don’t fall into the trap of legalism. The focus of this is the people in Uganda who need clean water. Keep track of the money you would have been spending on those drinks and donate that money at the end of the 40 Days to the Blood:Water Mission for the Agali community in northern Uganda.

You can sign up to join the 40 Days of Water with me (I’d be so honored!), follow Blood:Water on Twitter, with the hashtag #40Days and on Instagram at @bloodwatermission, with the hashtag #40days. You can also join their facebook page for inspiring links and updates on their work in Africa.

When you turn on your faucet this morning to get a drink or wash the dishes or take a shower, say a prayer of thanks, that it’s just that easy to access the basic necessities of life. You didn’t have to walk miles to get it, it was clean when it came out of the faucet, it cost you very little. And then say a prayer for those who don’t have that luxury.

Forty Days of Water – 2013 from Blood:Water Mission on Vimeo.

(Blood:Water Mission is a nonprofit started by the Nashville based group Jars of Clay to bring clean water and blood to Africans in need and those infected by the HIV virus.)

Anne Jackson wrote a 40 Days of Water Journal that you can download, that will walk you through the 40 days with inspiration, facts and reflections on the water project.

In whatever way you can participate, I will be grateful.

If nothing else, pray that our brothers and sisters who struggle for life’s basic necessities will have clean water to drink and will learn about Jesus, who came to bring us all His life-giving water so that we would never thirst again.

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For every person that signs up with me for the 40 Day program, I’ll donate an additional $2 per person at the end of the 40 Days. Just leave me a note in the comments that you are planning to support the clean water program in Uganda!

Pillow Talk::It’s All a Sham

February 11, 2013 by Edie Wadsworth 53 Comments

Welcome to my blog!! I recently updated my ‘about’ page which has lots of links to give you flavor and feel of lifeingrace. In a nutshell, I’m crazy over decorating, cooking, cowboy boots and C.S.Lewis. And I homeschool, which might make me just plain crazy!

This story of this pillow cracks me up.
I bought the striped pillow sham at Pottery Barn and took it to a local shop and had a 7 inch (aka ginormous) monogram added to it.
I love everything about it—the size, the color, the fanciful monogram.

But it’s not what it seems.
And everytime someone emails me and says they saw it in Better Homes and Gardens and would I please spill the source on the pillow, I laugh. And then everything in me wants to apologize.

Because the pillow is just acting the part. Just pretending. Sitting up tall and straight and hoping beyond all hope that noone figures out she’s just a sham.

Literally hanging on by a thread, or a pin, as it were.
And so it is with me too. I’m just pretending.

I’m acting the part of mother, wife, creator, writer, chef, blogger, christian.

The imitation and pretending might offend you. It offends me too and makes me want to apologize, for the rough places, the parts of me that aren’t what they should be yet.

But with all this imitation, we learn to be the real thing. We study and read and watch and imitate long enough—and pretty soon, it’s hard to see that we’re posers.

Slowly, over years and struggle and repetition, we become who we were always meant to be.

But the underside, the part of us that’s unfinished is not to be scorned. It reminds us that real, finished beauty takes a lifetime. It reminds us to be patient with ourselves and with others.

We are made in the image of God, creator or all things, so this mimesis, or imitation, is written on our hearts.

The question is not will we imitate but who or what will we imitate?

p.s. (And I say that someday, I’m gonna make a proper pillow out of this poser, but she does so good playing the part, I keep forgetting that she’s just a sham! And I think she does too!)

Lent: Learning from my Father

February 10, 2013 by Edie Wadsworth 17 Comments

Lent begins this week on Ash Wednesday and lasts 40 days with it’s culmination in Easter. This is a repost from last February {and the February before that!) and will explain Lent in further detail for the newcomer to the season. My thanks to Pastor Will Weedon for allowing me to republish part of his post.

“Lent begins with this realization. That we are a people in exile. That we are wandering far from our true home.

And thus the beginning of repentance isn’t merely the terror that one finds in wandering in a strange land; the beginning of repentance is homesickness.

Lent teaches us to fess up to how often we settle down in the land of our exile as though it were our true home; attempting to still the yearning the Spirit has created by throwing at it physical or psychological pleasure, and how it never works.”

courtesy of Pastor Will Weedon

Lent is a 40 day period leading up to Easter that is characterized by prayer, reflection, repentance and often fasting, then culminating in the celebration of the resurrection and the feasting of Easter. It roughly mimics the 40 days Christ retreated to the wilderness and wrestled with the devil.

It’s a methodical way of proceeding through the scriptures and it prevents such things as quickly glossing over the celebration of Christ’s resurrection without spending time in quiet reflection of His death on the cross, the mental anguish and suffering which took place while He was in the wilderness, and the details of the events of His life during Holy Week. It’s like walking in ‘real time’ with Him during the last weeks of His life.

Lenten discipline is not commanded or mentioned in the scriptures but we are admonished to fast and pray and forsake the flesh. We all practice degrees of discipline already. Lent is the spiritual equivalent of physical exercise for the body. The body gets stronger when we demand much from it—not when we always ‘give in’ to what it wants. The same is true in disciplining our children. Because we love them so much, we demand what is best for them—which is often not what they, in their immaturity, want for themselves.

In C.S. Lewis’ The Problem of Pain, he puts it this way:

“It is for people whom we care nothing about that we demand happiness on any terms; with our friends, our lovers, our children, we are exacting and would rather see them suffer much than be happy in contemptible and estranging circumstances. God has paid us the intolerable compliment of loving us, in the deepest, most tragic, most inexorable sense………The Church is the Lord’s bride whom He so loves that in her no spot or blemish is endurable.”

Though the analogy breaks down when taken to extremes, God compares our relationship to Him to that between a parent/child. And Lewis, in his book, compares our being brought into God’s family to a very ‘badly brought up boy’ being introduced into a decent family. When they see traits in this child that are detestable, Lewis says ‘they not only hate it, but they ought to hate it. They cannot love him for what he is, they can only try to turn him into what he is not’.

…we are at present, creatures whose character must be, in some respects, a horror to God, and as it is, when we really see it, a horror to ourselves.”

God our Father, despite our unloveliness, has given us everything we need and has clothed us with the righteousness of Christ, but we, like Adam, want to ‘clothe’ ourselves. Lent is a time to strip down; to take off the filthy clothes of our own righteousness and to let our Father give us from His hand what He knows we need.

It’s like the picture of Stevie teaching Emme to fish. We learn from our Father by spending time with Him. There is much He wants to teach us and much that needs to be changed in us. But more than all that, He wants to give us Himself—-knowing that we were created for relationship with Him. And nothing will satisfy the deepest longings of our soul save Our Father’s perfect love. Lent is time to retreat with Our Father. To confess to Him that we have wandered so far from home and that we have become far too ‘comfortable’ in the pleasures of this life. To confess to Him how utterly dependent we have become on everything, but Him. And He will gladly ‘receive’ us back with open arms: not because we demonstrate to Him our growing discipline and holiness, but for the sake of Christ and Him alone.

A few stray thoughts:

1. Lent is a time for penitence and reflection and the practicing of christian discipline. It does not make God ‘more pleased with me’ and is not a ‘good work’. God is pleased with Christ alone and good works are those things which I do in service to my neighbor.
2. If I purpose to ‘give something up’ for Lent and then two weeks later find that I fail and can’t keep my lenten discipline, God is not disappointed in me. God is pleased with Christ and thus pleased with me when I have faith in Christ. I am a sinner who fails and sins constantly. And my failing is not a surprise to God.
3. If I keep my lenten discipline to the ‘tee’, I must be careful not to try and convince myself that I’m ‘more spiritual’ or holy than before. I have been freely clothed with the righteousness of Christ and am only learning to ‘fit’ into clothes that were given me by God.
4. We must also be careful not to view our discipline as ‘suffering’ and remember that Christ suffered on the cross for our redemption and we do not get to choose our own suffering (by giving up, say diet pepsi for a month).
5. It is a good exercise to occasionally deprive our bodies, to not give in to every fleshly desire. We are so often slaves to our own bodies and teaching ourselves discipline in any area is often met with resistance.

I leave you with another quote from Pastor Will Weedon who kept me from seeing Lent as a season where ‘I work hard to become more holy’;

The holiness into which you seek to grow has already been given to you, whole and entire! It’s yours in Jesus Christ, the gift of His righteousness fully bequeathed you in Baptism, and constantly renewed in you by absolution and the Holy Eucharist. Through these wonderful gifts, we get to GROW in the apprehension of that which is already our own, learning to live more and more from it, more and more from union with Christ and less and less from the old self. So it is not that holiness grows in you; it is that you grow in holiness! Getting used to whom God has made you to be in His Son. There’s real effort here, of course, but the effort is working at resting in Him who works all things through us. I don’t overcome sin by my willpower (ha!), but by the strength of Him who has united Himself to me.

You might find these podcast links helpful. The Gospel-Driven Church, Dr. Micheal Horton , Ash Wednesday and the Season of Lent, The Sermon on the Mount with Carl Fickensher, The Parable of the Lost Son with Bill Cwirla all brought to you via my favorite radio program Issues,Etc.

This podcast on Lent with Pastors Todd Wilken and Heath Curtis is one of the best I’ve heard.

Blessed Lent to you, dear friends!

Broccoli Soup {with cheese}

February 6, 2013 by Edie Wadsworth 45 Comments

I ain’t gonna lie, this broccoli soup (with a generous helping of cheese) will knock your socks off and make you take back all the lies you’ve spread about broccoli.

4 tablespoons melted butter
2 T. olive oil
1/2 medium chopped onion
1 stalk celery
1/2 cup flour
2 cups half-and-half cream
4 cups chicken stock
1 head fresh broccoli
fresh grated nutmeg, to taste
6 ounces grated sharp cheddar cheese
4 oz fontina or gouda, shredded
salt and pepper

Sauté onion and celery in butter and oil until onion is translucent. Then, add flour and whisk over medium heat for 3-5 minutes. Add the half & half and chicken stock and stir well and then add the chopped broccoli and cook over low heat 20-25 minutes. With an immersion blender, blend the broccoli until it’s the consistency you like. We like ours to have larger chunks of broccoli but also some nice smaller bits. Just blend until it’s the way you like it! Add salt and pepper and nutmeg. The nutmeg is key!! Don’t leave it out. If you don’t have fresh nutmeg to grind, just add about 1/2 tsp. of ground nutmeg. But don’t leave it out. I’m bossy like that. Return to heat and stir in cheese, heat until melted and garnish with a little shredded cheese.

NOW. Here’s where I have to admit a little creative license. I am crazy over cheese and we have about 75 varieties at any given time. That might be slight exaggeration but not much. When a recipe calls for cheese, I just shop the fridge and see what I have. I would definitely use some cheddar in this but add something else for variety. Gruyere would be amazing. I had gouda and fontina and added those and it was AMAzing. It might have helped that the broccoli came out of my winter garden. That garden beats all I’ve ever seen. We’ve been eating out of that little garden since May. The goodness just won’t stop!!
Serve with crusty bread and prepare to be crowned Queen of the Kitchen. Or in my case, Queen of Bean Station. And even if you think you don’t like broccoli cheese soup, give it a try. This one might surprise you.

Need more help with menu planning? Subscribe to my newsletter and get a monthly meal plan. Just find the black subscribe box in the sidebar!

I also wrote a post about the spiritual aspect of feeding people. It’s my favorite way to change the world.

broccoli cheese soup

Mwahhhhh!!
Check out some of my other recipes!

Spicy Tomato Soup

Fish Tacos

Old Fashioned Griddle Cakes

Blucberry Coffee Cake

Strawberry Dream Cake

Late Summer Vegetable Soup

Chicken and Dumplings

Cheese Tortellini Soup

Grannie’s Fudge

Chipotle Pumpkin Barley Soup

Rocky Top Chili

Italian Sub Soup

Cheeseburger {in paradise} Soup

Taco Casserole

Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sea Salt

Potato Corn Chowder

Roasted Zucchini Lasagna

Broccoli Soup {with cheese}

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Ingredients

4 tablespoons melted butter
2 T. olive oil
1/2 medium chopped onion
1 stalk celery chopped
1/3 cup flour
2 cups half-and-half cream
3 cups chicken stock
1 head fresh broccoli
fresh grated nutmeg to taste
6 ounces grated sharp cheddar cheese
4 oz fontina or gouda shredded
salt and pepper

Instructions

Sauté onion and celery in butter and oil until onion is translucent.
Add flour and whisk over medium heat for 3-5 minutes.
Add the half & half and chicken stock and stir well.
Add the chopped broccoli and cook over low heat 20-25 minutes.
With an immersion blender, blend the broccoli until it's the consistency you like.
Add salt and pepper and nutmeg.
Return to heat and stir in cheese, heat until melted and garnish with a little shredded cheese.
Serve with crusty bread!