Bulgur Wheat Salad

I'm not going to call this recipe Tabouli because it's not vegetarian, there's no lemon juice, and the proportion of wheat to herbs is upside down.  What I will call it is delicious.

1 cup bulgur wheat

1 cup chicken broth or water, boiling.

Combine and set aside for 30 minutes.

Then add:

1 large tomato, chopped (with seeds and juice)

1 cucumber, diced

3 green onions, sliced fine (both white and green parts)

a drizzle of olive oil to bring it all together

Chill and serve.

(I served this with roast chicken.  I made my chicken broth from the pan drippings, then strained)

Quote of the Day: Zappa

This is one of my Google quotes of the day:

I think it is good that books still exist, but they do make me sleepy.   Frank Zappa

It made me laugh because I used to be able to read for hours at a time; morning, noon, and night, but now I'm lucky if I can read a half hour without falling asleep!

I'm reading a really good book, too, (Atlas Shrugged) but I only have time to read for pleasure before bedtime and I end up falling asleep.  The book is 1168 pages long, so it's going to take me a very long time to get through it!

Sunday Hymn: Come, Ev'ry Soul by Sin Oppressed

COME, EV'RY SOUL BY SIN OPPRESSED

Come, ev'ry soul by sin oppressed,
There's mercy with the Lord,
And he will surely give you rest,
By trusting in his Word.

Only trust him, only trust him,
Only trust him now;
He will save you, he will save you,
He will save you now.

For Jesus shed his precious blood
Rich blessings to bestow;
Plunge now into the crimson flood
That washes white as snow.

Yes, Jesus is the Truth, the Way,
That leads you into rest;
Believe in him without delay,
And you are fully blessed.

Come then, and join this holy band,
And on to glory go,
To dwell in that celestial land,
Where joys immortal flow.

Trinity Hymnal #724

Quote of the Week: Ferguson

When I read this, it made me weep:

In the preface of the book, you write that grace is not a “thing.” What do you mean by this statement?

It is legitimate to speak of “receiving grace,” and sometimes (although I am somewhat cautious about the possibility of misusing this language) we speak of the preaching of the Word, prayer, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper as “means of grace.” That is fine, so long as we remember that there isn’t a thing, a substance, or a “quasi-substance” called “grace.” All there is is the person of the Lord Jesus — “Christ clothed in the gospel,” as John Calvin loved to put it. Grace is the grace of Jesus. If I can highlight the thought here: there is no “thing” that Jesus takes from Himself and then, as it were, hands over to me. There is only Jesus Himself. Grasping that thought can make a significant difference to a Christian’s life. So while some people might think this is just splitting hairs about different ways of saying the same thing, it can make a vital difference. It is not a thing that was crucified to give us a thing called grace. It was the person of the Lord Jesus that was crucified in order that He might give Himself to us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Sinclair Ferguson, from an interview regarding his new book, By Grace Alone, published by Reformation Trust.

Sunday Hymn: Ev'ry Morning Mercies New

EV'RY MORNING MERCIES NEW

Ev'ry morning mercies new
Fall as fresh as morning dew;
Ev'ry morning let us pay
Tribute with the early day:
For thy mercies, Lord, are sure;
Thy compassion doth endure.

Still the greatness of thy love
Daily doth our sins remove;
Daily, far as east from west,
Lifts the burden from the breast;
Gives unbought to those who pray
Strength to stand in evil day.

Let our pray'rs each morn prevail,
That these gifts may never fail;
And, as we confess the sin
And the tempter's pow'r within,
Ev'ry morning, for the strife,
Feed us with the Bread of Life.

As the morning light returns,
As the sun with splendor burns,
Teach us still to turn to thee,
Ever-blessed Trinity,
With our hands our hearts to raise,
In unfailing prayer and praise.

Trinity Hymnal #328

Quote of the Week: Hugo

A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor.
--Victor Hugo

Elliott and Maddie

Sigh. . .Grandma love overflowing. . .

An Evening Confession

My Father, if Thy mercy had bounds, where would be my refuge from just wrath? But thy love in Christ is without measure. Thus, I present myself to Thee with sins of comission and omission, against Thee, my Father, against Thee, adorable redeemer, against Thee and Thy strivings, O Holy Spirit, against the dictates of my conscience, against the precepts of Thy Word, against my neighbours and myself. Enter not into judgment with me, for I plead no righteousness of my own, and have no cloak for iniquity. Pardon my day dark with evil.

This night I renew my penitence. Every morning I vow to love Thee more fervently, to serve Thee more sincerely, to be more devoted in my life, to be wholly Thine; Yet I soon stumble, backslide, and have to confess my weakness, misery and sin. But I bless Thee that the finished work of Jesus needs no addition from my doings, that His oblation is sufficient satisfaction for my sins.

If future days be mine, help me to amend my life, to hate and abhor evil, to flee the sins I confess. Make me more resolute, more watchful, more prayerful. Let no evil fruit spring from evil seeds my hands have sown; Let no neighbour be hardened in vanity and folly by my want of circumspection. If this day I have been ashamed of Christ and His Word, or have shown unkindness, malice, envy, lack of love, unadvised speech, hasty temper, let it be no stumbling block to others, or dishonour to Thy name. O help me to set an upright example that will ever rebuke vice, allure to goodness, and evidence that lovely are the ways of Christ.

The Valley of Vision

Sunday Hymn: Now Blessed be the Lord our God

Psalm 72:18-19

NOW BLESSED BE THE LORD OUR GOD

Now blessed be the Lord our God,
The God of Israel,
For He alone doth wondrous works
In glory that excel.

And blessed be His glorious Name
To all eternity:
The whole earth let His glory fill.
Amen, so let it be.

Trinity Hymnal #7

Quote of the Week: Calvin

Hebrews 11:5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

It does not indeed seem a great matter, when the Apostle requires us to believe that God is; but when you more closely consider it, you will find that there is here a rich, profound, and sublime truth; for though almost all admit without disputing that God is, yet it is evident, that except the Lord retains us in the true and certain knowledge of himself, various doubts will ever creep in, and obliterate every thought of a Divine Being. To this vanity the disposition of man is no doubt prone, so that to forget God becomes an easy thing. At the same time the Apostle does not mean, that men ought to feel assured that there is some God, for he speaks only of the true God; nay, it will not be sufficient for you to form a notion of any God you please; but you must understand what sort of Being the true God is; for what will it profit us to devise and form an idol, and to ascribe to it the glory due to God? 

--John Calvin, Commentary on Hebrews 11:5-6

Mama Robin?

The robins have been hanging around the nesting tree beside the front door today.  Maybe it's because we're edging around the beds today and they think they can snag some easy worms.  But maybe, just maybe, they are thinking of building a nest.

I hope so.

Thankful Thursday 2010

It's a gorgeous spring day today; the flowers are blooming and the leaves are leafing out all over the place!  I've been sitting here in my studio working with a nice breeze blowing the curtains, wishing I could be outside but thankful for a productive day of work as I prepare for the Bridal Fair next weekend.

I'm excited and thankful that my dear niece, Katie, received her hand lettered wedding invitations safely in the mail today and that she loves them!  It was such fun hearing the excitement in her voice!

I'm also excited and thankful that I have some work lined up right after I finish with the Bridal Fair.  I'm grateful for the opportunity to make connections and contacts and that my work will be getting some much needed exposure.

Most of all, today, I am so very thankful for the privilege I have to work as a calligrapher, doing what I love to do and actually getting paid to do it!

I'm joining my friend, Kim from the Upward Call,  and others in giving thanks each Thursday in 2010.  Won't you join us?



Note to Self: First mow

First mow today. I love the distant then not-so-distant then distant again sound of the mower and the smell of fresh mown grass, don't you?

Who needs a kick in the pants?

Apparently, I do.  This week I have been forced to face (yet again!) how sadly neglected my poor blog has become. A quote on Saturday, a hymn on Sunday, a recipe and a picture here and there.  Compared to the first three years or so when I happily blogged nearly every day, this blog has gone very quiet.

There are many reasons for this.  Over the past few weeks, I've been preparing for my first Bridal Fair to promote my fledgling business, The Constant Scribe.  Between preparing for that, a crop of June wedding envelopes I just finished, and a few other calligraphy projects on top of my regular house-wifely chores, spring yard clean up, and Bible study, I just haven't had time to sit down and blog.  Or read blogs, for that matter.

Lately, though, I've been longing to return to blogging and I've been intending to 'get back to it' once things 'slow down a little bit.'  A quick look at my sitemeter this week tells me that I've lost nearly all my regular readers--I guess I'm not surprised at that but it was a bit of a wake-up call. 

However, something infinitely more positive was the real 'kick in the pants' I needed!  This week, my Google Alert incorrectly identified another blog, Hiraeth in the Hurt Locker, with mine and sent me an alert to a post over there.  Being the curious person I am, I checked it out and OH!, what a great blog!  It's written by a 'new' Christian, Dai' G Bear, just a year old in the faith.  His posts are insightful, challenging, and inspiring.  Talk about making my own blog seem stale and uninteresting!  It's far and away one of the best blogs I've ever read.  I hope you'll stop over sometime soon and visit with Dai' G Bear.  I'd subscribe if I were you!

(Oh, and I don't know about you, but I had to look up the definition of hurt locker --noun. a period of immense, inescapable physical or emotional pain--it makes perfect sense to me when wedded to the meaning of hiraeth--a fit description of the Christian life reminiscent of Paul's dilemna in Romans 7: Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!)

Sunday Hymn: Exalt the Lord, His Praise Proclaim

Psalm 135:5-7 For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods.  Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.  He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.

Exalt the Lord, his praise proclaim;
All ye his servants, praise his name,
Who in the Lord's house ever stand
And humbly serve at his command.
The Lord is good, his praise proclaim;
Since it is pleasant, praise his name;
His people for his own he takes
And his peculiar treasure makes.

I know the Lord is high in state,
Above all gods our Lord is great;
The Lord performs what he decrees,
In heaven and earth, in depths and seas.
He makes the vapors to ascend
In clouds from earth's remotest end;
The lightnings flash at his command,
He holds the tempest in his hand.

Exalt the Lord, his praise proclaim;
All ye his servants, praise his name,
Who in the Lord's house ever stand
And humbly serve at his command.
For ever praise and bless his name,
And in the church his praise proclaim;
In Zion is his dwelling place;
Praise ye the Lord, show forth his grace.

Trinity Hymnal #12

Quote of the Week: Roberts

All men become like the objects of their worship.  Our inward character is being silently moulded by our view of God and our conception of him.  Christian character is the fruit of Christian worship; pagan character the fruit of pagan worship; semi-Christian character the fruit of a half-true understanding of God.  The principle holds good for us all:  we become like what we worship for worse or for better.

--Maurice Roberts

Thankful Thursday 2010

I'm thankful that Tom is safely home from a three day business trip and it's a normal day at the Shenberger house tonight; the Indians playing the Sox, the comfortable, familiar background noise of baseball, quiet conversation, that sleepy, comfy feeling that comes after a busy, productive, satisfying day.

Life is good.  G'night all!

I'm joining my friend, Kim from the Upward Call,  and others in giving thanks each Thursday in 2010.  Won't you join us?



Recipe: Yorkshire Pudding

Yorkshire Pudding

Basic recipe:

Equal parts egg, milk, and flour

Dash of salt

To make a dozen puddings:

4 eggs, placed in a two cup measuring cup

(Look and see how they measure out.  My four eggs were just shy of a cup.)

Pour eggs into mixing bowl and then measure the same amount of milk.  Add to eggs and beat with hand mixer until thoroughly mixed.  Mix in salt.  Let batter rest 10 minutes.  While it's resting, wash and dry your measuring cup and fill it up to the same line with all purpose flour.  Add the flour a little bit at a time and mix with hand mixer until smooth.  Let it rest at least a half hour; up to several hours is OK.

When you're ready to bake them, preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Place 1/2 teaspoon canola oil in the bottom of each muffin tin.  Once oven is hot, heat muffin tin and oil until oil is beginning to smoke.  Quickly whisk 2 tsp. cold water into batter and move it back to the 2 cup measuring cup.  (you need to pour it in the hot tin quickly, so that just makes it easier)

Take tin out of oven and quickly fill each muffin tin about a third of the way full with batter.  You might have a little left over.  Get it back into the oven as quickly as possible and bake for 20 minutes.

Pop them out of the tins as quickly as possible and serve piping hot with roast beef and gravy with mushrooms and onions.  MMMmmm.

(Some people like to eat the leftover pudding for breakfast with a little honey or jam.)

It's a rainy day

That in Me you may have peace

I awoke before the alarm this morning, my heart pounding; filled with a sense of terror and doom.

I had dreamed of nuclear holocaust.  Missile strikes blossoming on a map of the world, trembling fear in the voice of the news anchor.  That horrible, familiar nightmare terror of looking for my loved ones and not being able to find them.  That jumbled, crazy unreal yet too real world between sleeping and waking.

Drifting awake in my room, my heart jangling and racing, I willed myself to calm down:  'It was just a nightmare.  It was just another of your crazy dreams. . .'

And then I remembered.  It is Easter morning!  Christ arose!  I am His and He is mine!

Fear gave way to rejoicing!

In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.  John 16:33