Xapa to the World

Month: September 2013

  • Recipe: Savory Autumn Scramble

    While I was sitting at the car shop getting my oil changed, I perused through the Better Homes & Gardens magazine. There are usually some great recipes in there and the October issue did not disappoint. I quickly snapped pictures of each one and am determined to try them out throughout the season. The first attempt was the Savory Egg and Sweet Potato Scramble. The original recipe is here, but if you’re anything like me and my husband, you need a bit more meat to make a dinner meal. I decided to add some good ole Bob Evans sausage, because nothing is more Ohio than Bob Evans. Yum.

    IMG_20130928_182558_640_1

    Here’s the updated recipe:

    Start to Finish: 35 mins

    Ingredients:

    8 eggs
    1 lb package of sausage
    1/3 cup milk
    1/2 tsp cumin
    1/4 tsp salt
    1/4 tsp ground black pepper
    1 tbsp butter
    2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled, quartered lengthwise, and thinly sliced
    2 green onions, sliced
    2 cups baby spinach
    bottled hot pepper sauce (optional)

    Directions:

    1.  Cook and crumble sausage in a skillet for 10-15 minutes until thoroughly cooked. Set aside.

    2.  In a medium bowl whisk together eggs, milk, cumin, salt, and pepper. Set aside.

    3.  Melt butter over medium heat in a large skillet. Toss in sweet potato and green onion. Cook, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are almost tender, about 8 minutes.  Add spinach. Cook until slightly wilted, about 1 minute.

    It is amazing how big spinach is until it’s cooked for a while. Unreal!

    4.  Mix sausage into the skillet. Pour egg mixture over potatoes. Let the egg cook and seep down to the bottom of the pan. At this point, I raised the heat to medium-high because the egg just wasn’t cooking fast enough. After the initial cook, begin mixing the cooked egg portion into the rest of the scramble, letting the uncooked part go to the bottom and cook. Continue this method until all egg is thoroughly cooked but still moist. This will take about 2-3 minutes. Remove from the heat and serve right away. Makes 4-5 servings. Add hot sauce if desired. This will reheat (like for lunch the next day) but I wouldn’t recommend more than three days.

    And there you are. It was a pretty easy meal. We really liked it with the sausage added in. Hope you enjoy it as well!

  • Snap Shop Phoneography

    IMG_20130921_110825_755_1

    I am finishing up my second week of a three-week online course for phoneography. I had never heard of phoneography before signing up, but it’s simply taking pictures with your phone. I have a fairly nice camera, but I never seem to have it in easy reach anymore. Even when I’ve got it in my purse, it’s too cumbersome to pull it out, turn it on, and set the features for the pic I want. My phone, however, is sadly always within reach. I love taking pictures, as you can see by my blog, but I feel like they’ve been missing just something.

    That’s what I’ve loved about this class! I’m learning tips and guidelines for great photo-taking, not just with my phone, but especially with my phone. I’ve been learning to recognize and define what it is that I’ve always liked about certain pictures and how to prepare myself for the shot that I want.

    The course is taught by Ashley at Under the Sycamore. She is fabulous and a beautiful person inside and out. I’ve been following her blog for a while now and love pretty much everything she puts out there. Not only is it great content, but the photos that accompany her entries are gorgeous! She has a whole slew of ready-models too, with their five kids and yard full of chickens. Talk about blog-envy. 🙂

    So, if you are interested in an easy-peasy intro guide to good phoneography, you can sign up on her website. She also offers an online DSLR course for those with fancy shmancy cameras.

    I think my favorite part of the course is the photo-sharing. This is done through Instagram. We use the hashtag #snapshopstudent and share the photos we are testing out and wanting some critique on. Not only does Ashley offer valuable advice, but the other students in the course do as well. Here are some of my photos for you (you can click on any of the images for a better look):

    yard 3 stacked
    Shots around our backyard and neighbor’s yard.
    suns 02 3st
    impatiens after the rain and a late blooming sunflower
    suns 01 3 st
    I love my sunflowers! These are growing from the seeds we gave out at our wedding. I was very late in planting them.
    outside 01 4sq
    beautiful sky shots, caterpillar and our shed
    out and in 01 4 sq
    vintage sugar bowl, painted to fit in with our kitchen; windmill at a local park; niece’s soccer match.
    life 2 st
    berries in the backyard and a blissful afternoon of 1 Peter and white chocolate pumpkin mocha from Cavu Cafe in West Chester.
    Huz 01 2 st
    The Huz working on our rain barrel set-up and the wedding quilt his grandmother hand-stitched us.
    house 02 2st
    Yes, sunflowers again. 🙂
    house 01 4 sq
    around The House; rain barrel, porch rocker and pavers.

    You can find me on Instagram at xapatotheworld. I look forward to seeing you there!

     

  • Review: Huffman Park – Fairfield, OH

    A couple of weekends ago, my mom and I went to a new park in Fairfield to make some rain barrels. I’ve been wanting a rain barrel for a while. We have well water at The House, so water isn’t a challenge here, but I really want to be a better steward of the resources God has given us. Rainwater is one great resource.

    But before I get going on how great rain barrels are and how we made ours, I want to share about the park!

    Huffman Park

    2100 John Gray Road
    Fairfield, OH 45014
    513.867.5345 (Fairfield Parks & Recreation)
    Website

    130907 Huffman 01 st2
    left: rock at the entrance with benefactors of the park. right: windmill used to aerate the pond through an underground tube.

    This park has a very cool back story. I remember hearing about it a year or so ago, and now, having seen the finished product, I’m very impressed.

    The Huffmans owned the property, 22 acres, and maintained the property as natural open space for their kids to play in. When the couple died, the family donated the property, land and buildings, to the city to be turned into a public park. The two conditions were that it had to be a learning park for families and all the materials in the house had to be repurposed (whether in the park or through the Habitat for Humanity Restore facility). I believe the park staff said that 92% of the house was salvageable and repurposed in some form or another. Even if that’s not the right number, the percentage was very high. Some of the trees on the property were repurposed into playground equipment.

    130907 Huffman 03 st4
    clockwise from top left: tunnel with an overhead viewing spot in the center; wood balance beam and a rock circle; bumble bee monkey bars (there is some metal on this but even in the hot sun it was cool to the touch); pond with native aquatic plants to attract waterfowl.

    Not only is there play equipment for recreation, there are quite a few places for learning more about nature. The property includes several learning spots like a butterfly garden and a fruit and nut orchard. We even saw a persimmon growing on one of the tiny trees growing there.

    jpeg format huffman
    clockwise from top left: orchard learning station; tiny persimmon tree with fruit; more playground equipment and tree steppers; beautiful flowers to attract butterflies.

    Last year, I took a community garden class down in Cincinnati. At one point I stopped attending (I’m not sure if we were done, or I pooped out), but I learned so much about natural gardening techniques. I would love to take more classes like that (especially for the free price) in the future, but I was so excited to hear that they would have community garden plots at Huffman Park. I had to check them out while I was there. They are completely self-service, so if you don’t maintain them yourself, they will die. But it’s a great idea and there was some good stuff to see.

    130907 Huffman 04 st3
    This was late in the summer and the plants were already getting brown and scorched in that heavy heat, but I bet it looked great during the growing season!
    Baby corn and some peppers. Yum!
    Baby corn and some peppers. Yum!

    Ok, back to the rain barrel class. Sara was our teacher and there were 6 of us there making 5 barrels. My mom wanted to make one and I have wanted one for a while, so we both made our own. She ended up giving hers away, but ours is proudly out front in its bright, bright blue (that will soon be remedied with some spray paint…it is kind of an eyesore right now). We quickly went through the process and started at it. The hardest part was the hole saw. We had it figured for either not enough torque or too much. One of the men came over and helped stabilize the saw for me while I guided it because it was just too strong for me. I have two little snags in my t-shirt from where it shot off the top of the barrel towards my stomach. I was not harmed. I felt like wonder woman!

    130907 Rain barrel 01 st3
    clockwise from top: two of the “students” and our teacher Sara on the right; mom snapped a pic of me in action!; cutting the big hole to sit under the downspout.

    We had a great time and learned a lot more about the park and made a couple of friends. Sara is the first naturalist on staff with Fairfield Parks and she is very enthusiastic about her job. She is looking for more ideas of things to teach Fairfield/Butler County residents. The classes are open to anybody, but they are a little more expensive if you live out of the area. Costs seem to be primarily for supplies. They have concerts, painting and photography classes, yoga, bird watching/learning, stargazing, etc. There are tons of activities for kids. Call or visit the city website (above) for more information. http://gettotheBC.com has a lot of great information about other activities throughout all of Butler County. It’s a definite must-visit for the local tourist.

    In the meantime, I’m going brainstorm how to paint my new rain barrel and get it ready for next year’s growing season!

    Yes, I realize that the spout is too close to the ground. We're working on that as well. :)
    From start to finish!  Yes, I realize that the spout is too close to the ground. We’re working on that as well. 🙂

  • Dreamscapes

    I frequently have bizarre dreams. I think they’re fun. They may or may not mean anything (I don’t put much stock in interpreting dreams), but regardless, I like a good story and mine are usually well-developed in dreams. Here you go.
     
    Last night, I began my dream looking down at my hands and in the mirror. Yes, I was a 7 yr old black boy, living in the inner city of a non-descript metropolis.  My parents, just trying to make ends meet, we were poor. Somehow, my dad got the bright idea to start an urban garden in the back patio.
     
    I can’t remember what I did, but it was the typical 7 yr old boy naughtiness and rather than face my momma, her wagging finger and disappointing look, I ran for it. The city street at night was vivid with lights and long shadows – active, as a city is around 8:30 pm – too late for a kid to be out alone. I passed a window kiosk for some kind of concert tickets. While the man paying looked to the right, I snatched away the money with no one seeing me. I mean, I’m a dark little kid; I blend in, and I’m stealthy.
     
    I took off and boarded a city bus, no one the wiser of my crime. I sat by the window watching the building pass by. They moved quicker and quicker, blurring until they changed completely to something like football risers. My attention was caught as I saw angels sitting down, watching my speed by the stands like I was in a race. And then mixed in with the angels were all these people in my own real life – friends and loved ones who have supported me over the years, cheering me on as I go on my way.
     
    My little black 7 yr old self became ashamed of what I had done. The money crumpled up in the palm of my hand as I watched people spring up on the stands shouting out my name. The buildings phased back into the picture and I let out a sigh. Standing up I called to be let off and sprinted back to the ticket window.
     
    I handed the money back to the lady standing there – it was her concert and she was so happy. I stayed and listened. Her dream was to earn a living playing the violin while dressed in a tight tiger suit and face paint. It didn’t suit myself, but the image of her so happy with whiskers sprouting from her cheeks were enough to spur me to go back home.
     
    I made it home to my parents, who were so happy to see me. I confessed everything and then told my dad that he should sell the seeds we get from the garden for $24,000 each. I don’t know where that came from, but it seemed to be part of that vision from God while I was on the bus.
     
    And then I woke up, expecting something a little more glorious, especially with seeds being sold for $24,000 a pop. But no, just a half hour later than my alarm clock and rushing through the shower.

  • Week Thoughts

    I have had quite a few things weighing heavily on my mind this/last week. Here are the chewing-overs. I don’t think I have any conclusion to share, just thoughts. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

    Syria

    I can’t really begin to wrap my mind around the whole issue. I remember the feel of Cairo, the smells, the traffic, the vibrancy of the people. When I think of what is happening in Egypt, my mind is overwhelmed. Even more so with a country like Syria – someplace I’ve never been (that list is pretty big, so not a big deal). I’ll be honest, most of my understanding of Syria is from Old Testament studies in church. I know very, very little of modern-day Syria.

    So, when this came out, I jumped at it. I’m glad someone thought out that most Americans know very little about the country, what is happening there right now, and the ramifications of it. I do not claim to be an expert on any of it. What hits me and provokes me the most thought are: chemical warfare, children, national sovereignty, tyranny…the list could go on. I often throw myself into interaction with people from other countries. What I’ve found is that they are more than not just as patriotic as the average American. We get all, “Go USA!” in our little circles, but most of these people, even after they’ve come to the States, are fiercely in love with their homeland. I want the people of Syria to be able to make their own country and be proud of it.

    I hate bullies, which is what seems to be happening with the Assad regime. When I was a kid, I can remember two specific incidents when I stood up to a bully – not for my own benefit, but for a friend or younger child. I was willing to do what it took to keep them from picking on my friend. I wanted the world to be a better place for them – for all of us – and that sense of justice has always been one of the primary gears working through my actions. Those children…I get sick when I think of what is done to children around the world…Syria is just such another place.

    I get that we need to ensure that nations and groups keep chemical warfare out of their arsenal. That is a big deal. I get ticked off when I have to drive/walk through someone’s cigarette smoke-cloud. I can’t imagine at all what it would be like in a chemical warfare attack. If we know it happened, there should be some kind of action. Not full-on involvement or even half-involvement, because we’re already stretched beyond ourselves (um, economic crisis???). But something needs to be done. That kind of behavior cannot abide.

    Ariel Castro

    This happened. Something in me wants to rejoice at justice being served. I no longer have to foot the bill for this sorry excuse of a person to continue living. And then the mercy in my beliefs and faith come up and say, “Uh, Christ died for him too. What are you going to do with that?” And honestly…all I can say is that if Ariel Castro accepted Christ’s gift of redemption, then God will reconcile the two of us into one family when we reach heaven. Right now, I don’t have that knowledge so I’m just going to leave it. Those women are still rescued and out of bondage. THAT is what I’ll just have to focus on. It’s all I can process right now.

    Loss of Faith

    I have some dear friends who talk about people close to them who have chosen not to follow Christ, are on the fence, or have walked away from it. I have been praying for them in earnest. And then I heard that some of my loved ones have left the Christian faith, in a fairly explosive way. Not only that, but the explosiveness has come from the feedback of believers who were in their circle and local community. My heart just breaks. I am ashamed of the brethren who are acting in a malicious way. However, I wonder how much of it is actually malicious and how much is genuine concern that is being presented as malice because my loved ones want to feel justified at their leaving.

    And it also brings up the question of eternal security – once saved always saved. If the person was truly a believer, can they really recant and not be one? So were they ever believers in the first place? Or are they just walking in sin now and still have their salvation secure? I can’t answer that for these particular people – I don’t know their hearts. But it hurts me to know that the fellowship has been broken and I don’t know what to do about it. Do I do anything about it? Do I just pray? How can it be just prayer and why does that always feel like a token action or last resort when there seems to be no other good solution? Prayer is powerful. Lord, help me to trust in the power of prayer, if not to change them, then to change me.

    Amish Healthcare

    Did you hear this story? I am amazed that the hospital was even allowed to get as far as they did in trying to take over this child’s life. This is just another story that disenchants me to the American healthcare system. I’ve been going to a chiropractor lately and I’m trying to get my body healthier so that I don’t have to use the standard healthcare system. It seems broken. I don’t want it. I say this knowing that tomorrow, I will be going to pick out a Primary Care Physician for myself and the future fam…and also getting an antibiotic for a UTI that has got the better of me. What hypocrisy!

  • Time for an Adjustment

    This is a lot of wordy medical shtuff. If that’s not your thing, feel free to check out. I’ll try to keep these kinds of posts to a minimum. 🙂

    I’ve always had some kind of issue with my body. There’s a whole slew of stuff I could mention. I’m not an unhealthy person, but I have weird things going on with my body – I just take it as it is. Nothing in itself is life-threatening, except two allergies: bees and penicillin.  I have other goofy allergies, though.

    I’m allergic to fake sugar. You know, that bold label on suger-free things that says, Phenylketonurics: contains phenylalanine.” There’s something missing in my blood that can process it into a “real” sugar. I don’t have PKU, which is an extreme allergy, just a low-tolerance of it. I used to work at a bookstore and would sometimes have to price the sugar-free mints at the registers. I couldn’t stay in the stock room for very long because the smell would give me a massive headache. Sometimes, when I smell it, the hair on the back of my neck stands on end. Creepy! I get sick if I ingest it, but no hives or anything. Just sick. Not that I mind too much, since there are so many reports of it being such a horrible thing for anyone.

    Same thing goes with vinegar. When I was in Japan, no sushi for me! I don’t go into a shock or anything, just get a really sick stomach. So, I say, I’m allergic. Honestly, I think my body has been telling me for years that I can’t handle vinegar because the smell repulses me. I don’t know how many times I’ve gagged when I smell sauerkraut (a staple in this Germanic region) or wings at Applebees. Yuck.

    Anyway, back to the point – I have a lot of joint issues too. Mom worked for a chiropractor when I was a little kid (pre- and elementary school) and I would get adjustments from her periodically. I didn’t know that there was anything really wrong with my body, just that it felt good and I loved sitting on that table where the roller would come up and massage your back. Loooooved it! I would beg to be allowed to lay on it while Mom was finishing up paperwork. I would also help mom out which included putting the number stickers on the patient files for quick finding (I was a beast at that….I guess I’ve always loved filing things). A lot of afternoons, I would just spend my time in the back office, drawing monster-long fairy tales on the dot matrix paper reams. That was fun.

    Growing up, I always knew that I wasn’t an athlete – especially not a runner. My ankles inevitably will twist or sprain after just a few short minutes running leaving me immobilized for only a few minutes – but it’s not my favorite thing at all. I don’t really feel like I’m missing out though. Sports are not for me. My forte was in music. I’ve played violin from 4th grade through high school and beyond. I love it. But my hands would get cramped fairly easily, my arms get tired and my shoulders sore. I carry a lot of my stress in my neck and shoulders too. I just figured it was how I was made.

    During my senior year, I really began to have serious pain in my arms and neck. Enough that we went to a pediatric rheumatologist. There was the awkward moment when we realized that he was a teaching doctor and had three med students accompanying him. He asked me how I slept at night and without thinking it through, I answered, “On my side, curled up.” He chuckled and the others stifled back giggles as I realized he meant the quality of my sleep.

    He then had me stand and go through some motions. I raised my arms straight out to my side and he reported that my pulse stopped. Intrigue! He had the students also check my pulse so they could see what it was like for someone with Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (1). It’s normally a condition for people who have an extra rib somewhere blocking their thoracic outlet, but for me, it was just another quirk.

    He had me stretch in certain directions and try to lift my knees while he pushed down on them. I had no strength to keep my legs up. In other instances, I had tremendous strength to do the task he assigned. I can lay on my belly and with my knees bent I can rotate my hips nearly completely straight out from my body. However, I can’t raise my arms straight out from my body and then above my head without rotating my shoulders for help. I can bend my hand backwards and make my pinky parallel with my wrist. I can twist my feet to the inside when I stand and make a straight line with them, toe to toe. I have very responsive reflexes in my knees. We concluded, therefore, that I am something called “hypermobile,”(2) or as he put it, I was “loosely put together.”

    Now some people who are hypermobile, also have a condition where their skin is super-elastic. I don’t have that. I am so glad, because it grosses me out. I can’t even put the picture in the blog because it creeps me out so much. I’m so glad my skin has the right elasticity. 😀

    Before I went to Japan, I went to the doctor for a complete physical to make sure everything was good. He concluded that I was healthy as a horse, but my joints were in such a bad way that I would probably be in a wheelchair by the time I was 50.

    50.

    That’s only 21 year away. I do not want that. I want to be able to run (if the urge takes me) and enjoy life at that age, on my own two feet, using my own strength to get me around. While I don’t really think he was completely accurate in that prospect, it does make me think about how I treat my body now and what I can do to keep myself from that point in the future, near or distant.

    My church has started a relationship with a chiropractor group in the area called Baker Chiropractic. I mentioned them in the last post, briefly.

    Before the wedding, I started having a “catch” in my left shoulder which increased to some fairly regular discomfort and then pain up my neck and down my arm. So I decided to go ahead and make an appointment with the chiropractor. I was thinking it would just be a quick adjustment and I might come back in a couple of weeks if I started to feel poorly again, but they had other plans. I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into.

    I showed up, had x-rays taken and was ushered off to get a massage – that in itself was wonderful! Once I got an adjustment, I felt loads better. The next week, I went to look over my x-rays and discuss treatment. I don’t know if it’s from my hypermobility, but whatever the cause, my neck is really out of position. What I like about this chiro office is that I like to understand why things are happening, and they work hard to make sure the patients are educated about what needs to be done and why.

    I wish I had pictures of my x-rays to show you. The preferred angle of a person’s neck is 43. The shot below looks fairly good.

    That angle is optimal. Mine, however, is in reverse, at a whopping -13*. That’s 50* off from what it should be. My lumbar curve (low back) is only 20* off and my right hip is just a little bit lower than my left one. I have a little bit of scoliosis too. I’ve started the full regimen of treatment: 3x/week visits, home therapy. Some of the home therapy is a bit of a challenge. I am a side-sleeper and I have some rolls that I’m supposed to use under my back and neck while I sleep instead of my pillow. That means sleeping on my back. It’s not comfortable at all. But there are other things that I can do that fit into my lifestyle more easily.

    I don’t know how much this will help my conditions. There are parts of it that I know won’t be fixed. My joints will always be too loose. But if I can get my body going in the right direction, then, hopefully, I won’t be stuck in a wheelchair by the time I’m 50. That in itself is worth it.

    ———————-

    (1) The Thoracic Outlet is the area between your neck, shoulder and chest. It is the corridor through which your veins, arteries, and nerves travel from your torso down through your arms. Thoracic Outlet Syndrome is when this space is constricted somehow, whether just by position, accident, or genetic condition.

    (2) Hypermobility is simply joints that stretch farther than normal. This can be isolated to one joint, many joints, or all over. It’s often just viewed as flexibility (think contortionists) but over time it can wear down the cartilage between joints and can accelerate osteoarthritis.