It's a fun campus, really it is.

The Beaver arrived on Friday. After spending the 4th of July at my aunt and uncles, we headed home. I wanted to show him around campus and when I emailed the Hospitality department, they said that there weren't any official tours this Sunday but they would be open from 12-4. So we ate a quick lunch and headed out so could get there in time. Except when they said the visitors center would be open from 12-4, I guess they meant every other weekend. On this weekend, the one I asked about, it was closed for the holiday weekend.

Oh, well. I know the campus fairly well, having spent more of my life living here than pretty much anywhere else in the world, so I just made it up as I went. We walked all around, seeing Sul Ross, Sbisa, the Rec, Kyle Field, Rudder Tower, the Century tree, Fish Pond, G. Rollie White, some dorms and the Bonfire Memorial. It only took about an hour and a half which was long enough because we were both hot and I was beginning to get sunburned. It would have been nicer to go in the evening but remember, we hurried so we could make it to the visitors center. I still think he enjoyed it but I tried to get across the fact that normally, there are actually people here. But it is a Sunday afternoon on a holiday weekend in the summer so the only people we saw were a couple of campus police men giving us funny looks.

Afterwards, I was going to take him out to eat at the Dixie Chicken but we didn't feel like a big meal (we'll try to get to it later this week) so I thought frozen custard from Shakes would be fun. It probably would have been except Shakes is also closed on Sunday. Geez, you would think I was back in Utah. In theory I like it when places are closed on Sunday but it is less than pleasant when you don't remember that and drive all the way down University to not have ice cream. We ended up at Dairy Queen. It's not the coolest place in College Station to show him, but you can't really beat two dipped ice cream cones for $3.

Dad is back.

He's home! Yah!

My Plan for DC

People who visit, or live in, or read about Washington, DC know that housing there is expensive and many people who work there commute a long way. As the federal government grows like the insatiable leviathan it is, this problem will only get much, much worse. At the same time, talk persists about the supposed need to give DC representation in Congress because of all the people living there.

Well, I have a solution for all this. We need to take a number of federal agencies and move them somewhere else. To Cleveland or Omaha or wherever, just somewhere outside of Washington.

Now, some agencies need to be in DC because they have to be near the White House or Capitol Hill. So DOJ, State and other major agencies should stay. But does the IRS really need to be there? Tax collection would seem to be something that could be done anywhere. And maybe the USDA should be somewhere close to where farmers actually operate. There are a number of agencies that should be able to move.

I understand that the leaders of all agencies probably have to appear before Congress fairly often. A couple of buildings could be set aside for executive offices. Each agency or department that relocates could have an office in DC with a few senior employees.

This plan would have large costs up front, due to the need to relocate equipment, records, and people. But in the long term, I think it would save money. The government would be able to pay lower cost-of-living adjustments to employees living in lower-cost locales. An exodus of employees from DC would lower the cost of living there, as well. Many government employees also get mass-transit benefits; the number of people receiving this money would be reduced. Maybe they could cancel the planned Metro expansion to Dulles airport and save $3 billion.

Moving these agencies would provide a boost to the cities that receive them. A new, stable employer would increase local tax revenues. Unfortunately, Congress would get involved in deciding what agencies move where, so decisions would be made based on where senior Congressmen live, not on more relevant criteria. But that would be better than doing nothing, I think.

I think this move would also encourage better people to run for Congress. Congressmen have to maintain residences back home and in DC, and this is very difficult unless you are rich. This is only one reason that people choose to avoid politics (others are media scrutiny and the need to raise money), but it might help some. Also, more good people might come work for the government if housing cost less and commutes were shorter.

This plan obviously will not be carried out, but I'd just like to put it out there.

Nourishing Beginnings: Part 3

So now that I've talked about what we try to eat and try to avoid, I thought I'd try to talk about how we do it. I'm really lucky I started hearing about all this when I first started regularly cooking.

If I had been married five years and had an arsenal of recipes I regularly used, it would have been quite a bit harder on both of us for us to change our ways. And I also was raised to eat fairly healthy so many of the changes I had to make were small and that helped. But even so, the way we eat isn't typical and it takes work to stop ourselves from falling back to our old ways.

When I started to switch, I realized there were two main ways of making our new lifestyle happen: Keeping our mindset but changing the ingredients and coming up with new recipes.

Changing the old ones was easiest on us - at first. It just involved switching from low-fat yogurt and milk to full fat, adding an extra vegetable to a casserole we already loved or making a few substitutions. It's a great place to start because you can make great changes which motivate you to make more. And you can do it gradually so your kids/husband won't revolt because they feel like they are starving.

Take tuna salad. I used to mix mayonnaise, tuna and a stalk of celery and call it a day. Now I use half mayonnaise, half yogurt, onions, celery, a few homemade lactofermented pickles cut up, a can of beans and serve on wheat bread with tomato and lettuce. I easily changed an okay meal to a great one full of vegetables, probiotics and fiber.

But another one of Craig's favorite meals to make used to be the classic chicken and stuffing casserole made with Stove Top and Campbell's cream of whatever-you-want soup. And I won't lie - it's tasty and really hits the spot on a cold rainy day. But now when I make it, I use this recipe and throw in a few extra vegetables as well. It's better but still not needs some work. If I made my own stuffing, it would be all real food.

And we really love chicken packets. I've thought about making my own yogurt cheese to replace the cream cheese and then making my own dough to replace the crescent rolls. But what have I just done to those two meals? They used to be quick and easy. Now they are a big pain and not so great for a weeknight anymore.

Ingredient replacement is also where it can get expensive to do "organic/healthy." People see Annie's macaroni and cheese in the store and think to themselves that they can't go healthy because that box is three times more than the blue one. And unless you snag a really great coupon, Kashi is quite a bit more than the typical box of fruit loops. So yes, it is more time-consuming and/or more expensive to go healthy if you try and stick with your old ideas of what you meals should look like.

That brings me to the second way to do it - complete overhaul. I had to come up with a lot of new recipes in order to make healthy eating work with our budget and not kill myself. I've stopped eating cereal and milk for breakfast. With a little bit of prep work, oatmeal, muesli, or granola and yogurt are just as easy to grab in the morning but cheaper since they don't use much milk. And good milk is like gold around here.

We also eat a lot of beans and eggs. One of the dishes that we brought into our repertoire is this cheesy lentil and rice casserole. It's not necessarily that much healthier than the chicken recipes would be (once overhauled) but so much quicker and cheaper. I can make two or three meals from the same big pot of lentils or pinto beans. And eggs, toast and green smoothies is always a dinner favorite around here. I'll be honest though, not all of those bean meals would have been tasty to me a year ago, but as our diets have slowly changed, so have our taste buds.

And it's worth it. Having a few really cheap meals every week leaves my budget open to the items I feel we need to spend more on. You have to think about your overall budget. It's hard because when you shop you are seeing individual prices but that is one thing I really learned from my grocery challenge last month. Yes, the eggs I'm buying from the farmer's market are slightly more expensive that the typical grocery store egg, but still not as expensive as the meat that it is actually replacing. Same thing with milk, my milk is more expensive but I'm using less of it and getting more nutrition out of it so I think it is worth it.

And we can still have the new healthier versions of my old favorite comfort foods, on the weekend when I want a nicer meal or if I know we are entertaining others who may have pickier palettes.

But where do you find these recipes? Well, other bloggers of course! Here are a few of my favorite healthy foodie blogs. (I don't agree with them about everything, but in general their mindset is similar to mine and I've gotten a lot of good information from them all).

Nourishing Gourmet - Just started a new carnival, pennywise platter, full of frugal healthy recipes!
Kelly the Kitchen Kop
Cheese Slave
Keeper of the Home*
Passionate Homemaking*

*Not strictly food related but has lots of recipes and nutritional information

I want my inheritance!

I just wrote a comment about how I don't feel guilty, only convicted. Well, I lied.

Not intentionally, but in writing that, I was referring to food/nutrition situations. And in that case it is true. I realize that for the most part, what I eat isn't a sin issue. And if I come to the conclusion that something needs to change, I can understand how it doesn't matter how much I think about the past, I can't change it. I just move forward, making changes as I can.

But when it comes to my faith walk, I am not very good about differentiating between guilt and conviction at all. And I need to be because one is good and the other is not. In theory I know the difference. I can even describe it for you.

Guilt that leads to condemnation is depressing. It brings you down. It's past-focused. It's also sinful because it's self-centered. I'm not thinking about how God took away my sin or has the ability to "renew a right spirit within me." but instead have started focusing on what I did wrong or how I messed up or worse - how I appear to others. For that to logically hold water it has to start from the idea that I could have done anything better. As a Christian, the fact that I continually fail at living out God's perfect will should not be shocking or depressing. It should be obvious. I should know that apart from God, I never stood a chance. But if I only feel guilty over my own self's lack of goodness, I must have been thinking there was something good in there to begin with. Guilt is focused on the sin (what I did) and not the forgiveness (what God did) and it doesn't lead to any changes.

Conviction is the work of the Holy Spirit, it brings to light areas that I still need to let God have control over, to let him into them so he can mold me into his image. It's honest sorrow over sin and it opens me up to ask God to restore me and to use me to glorify Him. That type of guilt, what I call conviction, is God-focused and God-glorifying. It comes from the idea that yes, I failed at ____ because I am human and sinful. It doesn't excuse it, it doesn't mean that it's not a big deal. It just means that it has to be God that fixes it. And until he does, I can boast in His glory and my weakness. God's power is made perfect in my weakness. I'm not perfect, but He loves me. I mess up, but He forgives.

Most people would say they don't like feeling guilty and on the surface I don't either. Except for the part of me that does. It means I can go on doing what I am doing without actually having to change, but I can still feel like I'm a good person because "at least I feel guilty." I don't even like to admit that to myself but it is true. Guilt is hard to give up, so I cling to it even knowing that is is dragging me down when what I really need is conviction.

But the thing with conviction is - it means a loss of control. Real conviction, turning those things over to God, that is freedom. But it comes at a cost. I've given them up, those issues, those sins, now they belong to God. And if I have really given them to God, he is probably going to start working on them. Like Aslan removing Eustace's scales - it might be painful but it is good.

I really like this little worship song:

Lord prepare me
to be a sanctuary
pure and holy
tried and true

But I like to think about that song at the end result. Yes, I want to be a sanctuary. I want to be tried and true. But that isn't how it goes.

That song is asking to be prepared. It's talking about verbs, not nouns. Well, I don't always want that, I don't want to be prepared to be a sanctuary, I just want to be one. I want to be tried and true without having to go through trials, refined with out having to go through a fire. I just want to be a great Christian without God having to go through all that work shaping me into one.

I've been struggling with this lately, especially in the area of meekness. One of the Christian radio programs I listen to has been focusing on being meek. At first I wasn't really interested but then she started describing what meekness, and a lack of it, looked like. And I realized her description of meek didn't fit me very well.

Swift to hear, slow to speak? Peaceable? Gentle? I don't really think I am.

Unperturbed and unruffled? Composed? I don't think most people would describe me like that.

Hurried? Harsh? That sounds more like it. But oh wait, that is in the lacking meekness category.

Exorbitant passion? Ouch, that touched a nerve.

There are so many aspects to meekness but it hit me that in each of the two or three main areas where I feel like I am struggling, it all comes back to having (or not having as the case may be) a meek spirit. And as the first few days of the program went by, I just kept feeling worse and worse. Yes, I get it God, I'm not meek. I'm convicted.

Then several situations arose and my response was, you guessed it - not very meek. But I didn't mean to be like that. It's just I can be passionate and going at full speed and I have a type A personality.Or I'm a stressed person, that's not my fault. Or at least that is what I told myself, but I still felt bad and "Agghh, I was so mad at myself. Maybe I should just give up blogging and this and that and all these circumstances where I tend to act a certain way.

But then I realized, I wasn't acting convicted. I was acting guilty. It wasn't the situations that needed to change, it was my heart. And while I was going around annoyed at myself for
acting a certain way, I wasn't asking God to change me, or asking him to give me a meek spirit, not asking for forgiveness from those my harsh responses might have offended or my hasty actions impacted. And you know what that indicated to me - I lacked meekness (I told you, it all comes back to meekness). So in a way, I'm back to square one. But this time, I'm not going to "feel bad" about it, I'm just going to ask God to change it. Because I want my inheritance.

Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5