Stuff of the Month! - April

Book: Babyproofing Your Marriage by Stacie Cockrell, Cathy O'Neill, and Julia Stone. There are plenty of books out there about how get through a pregnancy, how to care for a child, how to prepare for the child growing up, and so on, but few on how to maintain the leadership structure of the family when, well, it has something to be in charge of. This book is a great way to get the conversations on this topic going. Written after extensive interviewing of people ranging from newly minted parents to grandparents of more than 10, the authors discuss the unspoken assumptions and needs people often bring into parenthood, and try to get the two sides to understand each other. It is interesting to see how often the authors' advice in practical terms lines up with the ideals laid out in a certain authoritative religious text. Note: contains swearing, but nothing you won't hear watching that other great marriage advice work, Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

Theater: Eden Troupe's presentation of You're a Good Man Charlie Brown. Loved the use of color, lots of fun. A musical is hard to pull off, especially with a small instrumental ensemble, but this group did wonders with it.

Movie (home viewing): Red. Watching retirees show younger folk they still have the stuff, while at the same time passing on the ethics and codes of conduct by which the world ought to run, is just plain a good movie. (For that matter, even if it weren't particularly good, the whole two hours would be worth it just to see Helen Mirren operating old Ma Deuce.)

Honorable mention: Get Low. I grew to like this movie the more I thought about it. Portrayed in the trailers as a comedy, and certainly having its comic moments (especially when Bill Murray is around), this is a surprisingly touching story about forgiveness, reconciliation, and what it means to be community. Robert Duvall is, as usual, gold onscreen, portraying a very human hermit around whom the story centers.

Music: Santi by The Academy Is... . Good listenable music (though judging by the length of this review, nothing so memorable as to stand out to me a month later).

Household project: Putting the garden in. We have a nice plot of ground on the south side of the garage that gets reasonable sun until the trees get in the way about 2pm. We'll see what the rabbits leave.

Low point: We spent just over three weeks with two jobs in opposite directions and one car, when the green car threw a timing chain and mangled its valves, then gave the mechanics fits when trying to get everything working again. So besides the wonderful fun of watching the savings nose dive in response to the major repair, we had a long stretch of trying to shuffle commutes and work. Which I suppose is good preparation for baby flexibility. Through this all, though, we were reminded of God's faithfulness, and the importance of the church body. There were no days in which we were not able to both get to work, though this particularly turned on Jenny's flexibility and the generosity of several of her colleagues in picking her up and carpooling. Further, the very forthright gentlemen at Champion Auto in Sterling (no relationship to the one in Purcellville) were immensely helpful when it came to the bill, as there is no way we could have handled the bill for three weeks of work on the car (nor would it have been less than a much newer car).

Other thoughts: During Sunday school this month, we had a discussion of Godly grief vs. worldly grief, as set forth in 2 Cor. 7. The major difference listed in the passage is that Godly grief leads to repentance, but worldly to death. This comes about, though, because of the emphasis of the griever: does it make me think about myself (sorry for self / depression) or turn my feelings toward God and others, and what I can do with respect to them? This seems a healthy recognition that grief and feeling down are appropriate, but that what you do with it is where the moral question lies.

Man Loose In The Kitchen

This evening Jonathan presents Tilapia Scaloppine for your visual enjoyment.  My enjoyment is way more than  yours.  Fresh mushrooms, capers, tilapia sauteed to flaky perfection, fresh pasta (how can you go wrong), and a lovely, light-bodied, white wine piccata sauce.  Scrumptious.  And there are freshly steamed green beans poking into the side of the picture.  They were good too... but they had a lot to overcome, being green beans and all.

Happy Easter

This picture represents one of those classic generational moments. My Droid has a nice little 5MP camera on it (including a dual LED flash, image stabilization system, and 4X digital zoom). It is definitely handy and quite good enough for most things. Besides the fact that you can use the wireless in the phone to share the pics immediately by email, FB, and a variety of other sources, it is really convenient. No more hooking up to the cable and downloading to the desktop for me. I am not using it for award winning photos, just capturing the moment.

So, this morning, the Droid was not just capturing the moment, it was creating it as well. We asked our dear friend FrankP, Esq. to take our picture, since we were looking all spiffy for Easter. Frank's kids are a bit younger than us, but not much, or that is what we keep telling ourselves. I turned on the camera and handed him the Droid. He then turned the Droid around so that the camera faced himself and the screen faced us. He was looking for the "view-finder" on the wrong side of the little machine. He got a squint at the lens, and we got a huge view of his eye on the screen. We busted up laughing, and told him to turn the camera around. He was able to catch us at the tail end of the laughter and produce this picture for us.

Chronicle of Cocktails: D@#n the We@ther

This canton of our blog has been under-producing of late.  We decided to change the seasonal drink list over to spring items despite the weather.  Then we decided that a bad-weather-inspired drink was what our menu needed. 

So, we present the limited release D@#n the We@ther.
2 parts orange juice
1 part gin
1/2 part blue curacao
some grenadine

Serve chilled.

Man Loose In The Kitchen

This week Jonathan tried a new dish.  Orange Basil Chicken.  It was very tender and tangy.  He thinks it may need more orange, but that may just be his Floridian prejudices coming out.  To accompany the chicken we enjoyed a summer salad with apple cider vinaigrette dressing and fresh bread for dipping.  It may not be summer but our meals are tending in that direction. 

The Great House In Town

We decided to go up to the Great House and tour its newly opened facilities with Our Favorite UK Tour Guide.  It has been under renovation until recently and we have been looking forward to being able to see inside it. 

The last family to own the house, Governor and Mrs. Westmoreland Davis, definitily had flair.  They took a beautiful house and extensive grounds and turned them into a lovely country seat and working farm.  The house has undergone several different remodeling by the various and sundry owners.  

Some of the stranger touches are still present in the current version of the house.  Note odd little balcony above the formal entry and the wrought iron lantern probably imported from some far away land. 

"Us lions.  That meant him and me."  Mr. Stony Face and his new best friend.  

I think that even Ceil would approve of the boxwood garden here.  There are some charming corners and fantastic views across the valley.  The place is no Downton, but it is nice to have in the neighborhood.   

Free Tour of Morven Park

April 1-3: Free Family Fun Weekend
Free Mansion Tours, Fri.-Sun., 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Spring Horse Trials, Sat.-Sun., all day
Living History Day with Confederate Soldiers, Sun., noon-5 p.m.
All free.

http://www.morvenpark.com/