Monk...

It's a great show.  I highly recommend it, if you happen to have cable (we don't, we borrow the dvd's from my parents).  I think it just started showing re-runs on NBC on Sunday nights.  I used to say (joking) that I married  Monk, because of some of Ricardo's particularities and peculiarities.  (Now I think we're both OCD in our own ways).  Today, however, I was the most monk-ish because we're having visitors next weekend and I am using it as an excuse to get some big Spring Cleaning done.  

I even typed up and printed out a checklist...it's maybe half done.  Some of the things on the list are extremely unlikely though: like hanging the bulletin board in our office...it hasn't been hung up in 8 months, what's another week or two? And along those lines, organizing closets probably won't happen either...as long as it looks clean, does it matter what's behind closed doors?  

Other things I have discovered about myself: I really hate bleach.  The smell makes me feel ill (headache!), and I don't like how it makes my hands feel the rest of the day.  I've noticed that I don't clean with any bleach products very often, and today while cleaning I remembered why.  While I have some cleaning products that I prefer to use because they don't bother my head, I also have started wondering how to eliminate some of the chemicals that I probably don't need to be using.  Anyone out there have more experience with this?  I'm all about killing germs...but not so keen on introducing other toxins (chemicals, allergens, etc) into our environment.  I hope some of you have some solutions!

Other news:

Some of our other priorities shifted, since a tree (or half of one) fell in our backyard on Sunday.  For those of you who remember last year's storms, this is the same tree that dropped a huge branch in our yard last May, and now it has lost more than half it's top.  It took Ric awhile with a chainsaw to get it down to manageable pieces, and most of it is now out of the way, but it cut into our cleaning time a lot.

Poor Tree.

 It fell on the telephone line too, and pulled it down, ripping it out of the box.  Good thing we only have cell phones.

Now, I'm tired of cleaning, so I used one of my old college days tricks: whenever I got stressed or too busy, or just needed a break, I would paint my nails...that way I couldn't do anything much for at least 15 minutes...usually longer. 

With pink toes and fingernails, I didn't feel like doing anything else, so blogging was a good option.  Random piece of information: did you know that people with a strong or thick Texas/southern accent actually say "fungerneyls" instead of fingernails?  

Bueno

Ready to sleep!

Estaba hablando con Fabian hace unos dias y le mostre mi blog (que es tan chido, bien bacan), pero todo esta en ingles.  Entonces tal vez puedo hacer unas historias en el castellano tambien, pero hoy no...porque ya son casi las 2 de la madrugada y estoy muy cansada.  

Hoy estaba en la iglesia todo el dia, como cada Domingo, pero llegue a casa y empece a limpiar porque mis padres y padrinos vienen a visitarnos en una semana mas. Apenas me di cuenta que ya era muy tarde, y quiero dormir...buenas noches hermanos y hermanas!

As it turns out...

I had no idea I would have trouble falling asleep tonight and be awake so late!  I did have enough hours to take 10 consecutive photos.  If only.

failure

So...I didn't succeed at my first attempt to do 10 on 10.  Thursday just wasn't the best day...6 consecutive hours of class made taking a photo each hour for 10 consecutive hours not easy.

Perhaps next month!  In case you are interested, here's what I managed to take today...really, it's not much and nothing inspiring. I'll strive for a better job May 10!

A leaf plastered to my car after last night's storms!  It stayed in place after I opened the door and got in.

\

My lunch!  Yes, I still use lunch bags.  I have this one (Cars) and Disney Princesses, and Ricardo has Spiderman, but sometimes I use it too.

School!

My Gardening Crocs!

More to love

I've taken some more pictures, just haven't blogged because of the busy weekend I had. So here are some random pictures and thoughts and basic information to catch up!

Isn't basil just beautiful?

Some of my seeds and bulbs are sprouting!  It's been in the mid-80's here, so they've decided to come and say hello.

Today was my day off, and since reading my friend Janelle's blog I was inspired to bake bread today.  My favorite to make is Challah, and since reading about hers, I've been craving some!  I think my recipe is a little different, I put very little sugar in it, and a little saffron sometimes to tint it the traditional "egg bread" color.  The recipe is from my 3rd & 4th grade teacher...Thanks Mrs. Stern!

Yummy!

This weekend was a long one...I think I mentioned that.  I had a couple of work related events on Saturday, one of them being an all-area praise band concert where our ekklesia team played (www.ekklesiaworshipcommunity.org).  It was a lot of fun...we did alright for it being our first time to travel/play in a different setting.  I got sunburned, but it was the perfect day for an outdoor music festival!  

I've learned a neat hobby from some friend's blogs: called 10 on 10.  It involves taking a picture each hour for 10 consecutive hours on the 10th day of the month...and then posting them!  I think it's a lovely idea! The tricky thing is that the 10th of April happens to be a Thursday...and I've already talked about my Thursdays this semester.  I'll see what happens, it might be possible.

One closing shot...When Carrie was here visiting, she helped me with a youth event: a mystery dinner.  The theme was 1980's Homecoming dance, and we found this tiny Sisters of Charity thrift store in a shady part of Dallas, where we found the best dresses for this event!

Enjoy!

Vocation is...

"the place where your deepest gladness and the world's deepest hunger meet."  -Frederick Buechner.

Something to ponder...on a humorous note, when I think about my deepest gladness, bed and sleep are somewhere on my list!  Yet, I doubt that's where it meets the hunger of the world, so naps are likely not my vocation.

Truly though...what then is vocation? When am I most deeply glad?  Lately, I am the happiest when I am working in the garden or on a project.  While I am not an artist, taking pictures, gardening, making things: all these acts of creativity I find peaceful and joyfully fulfilling.  I do not find it unrelated that as a child of God (the Creator), the most joy I experience is in acts that bring beauty.  Might creativity and desire for beauty be a visible aspect of the Imago Dei, the Image-of-God-ness in each of us?  

Vocation is a strong word.  Coming from latin: vocare, to call, and must be quite different from occupation, which would then be whatever keeps me busy, occupied.  What I am called to do as a child of God is to live as one created in the Image of God.  Far cry from what we normally translate as vocation...but I am only a pastor because I am appointed as one, it is my occupation.  I can succeed or fail at my vocation while being a pastor...but I assume that pursuing vocation will positively affect occupation.  

Any thoughts?

As promised...

Pictures of the gardening efforts!

(this is what carrie and i did on spring break...there are calla lilies somewhere in there, waiting to come up!)

eventually this will be full again. just not with weeds like it was before i stripped it down to this!

Ricardo dug forever to get the tree stumps out of here so we could plant...

seedlings await!

A little taste of what is still left to do...

Sore and Tired and Beat Down

Ricardo and I are beat...the battle between us and the garden left us the losers today.  

Garden-1, Los Rodriguez-0.

In all fairness, the garden had a head start, say, maybe 10+ years of overgrowth, negligence and well-established, Texas sized weeds in its favor.  When we bought the house, the goal was to whip it into shape, but I barely made a dent in it with the remaining planting time of last year, so this year it is time to be aggressive.  I really should have taken before/after photos!

As of now, we have cleaned out 2 garden beds and planted Cosmos, Zinnia, Canna, Hosta, Elephant Ears, Delphinium, 2 Rose bushes, Geraniums, Blue Bonnets, and Daisies.  One of those garden beds was what I had planted in last year, so it wasn't so bad...the other had big roots from a bush someone had left there...it had grown into a tree and took Ricardo about 2 hours to dig up. Most of what we planted are seeds/bulbs, but there's hope the yard will start looking better!

Last week Carrie was here and we gardened for several hours on the first perfectly pleasant and lovely Wednesday Dallas has seen this year.  Sunny, about 70 degrees, no rain...Ricardo and I had already removed a strip of grass in front of the house so we could plant there: Carrie and I had fun with Azaleas, more Elephant Ears and Hosta, Zinnias, Gladiolae, and Calla Lilies!! I'm getting ready for those bulbs to grow!  We planted the sweetest little Johnny jump-ups around the tree we have in the front too.

Today I also started some of our containers with vegetables: squash, zucchini, carrots, lettuce, jalapenos, rhubarb, and tomatoes...and transplanted some of the herbs I've had growing since last year.  I was able to keep most of them growing year round, since I brought them inside for the winter.  The Basil didn't make it, it was huge and beautiful (3 feet tall and still growing!), thus making it more attractive to all the caterpillars who stripped it last September.  Everything else is going strong, but my Pineapple Sage got really leggy and spindly...anyone know how to reign that in?

It was a fun and exciting day, but now that the end of it has come, we're both feeling the results (sore shoulders, sore knees) and the bad news is that we're not even half-way done yet.  There are still 4 more (huge) garden beds to dig up and get planted.  Right now, those are hosting weeds 1-2 ft. tall. And that is just the front yard.  We won't talk about the back.

The neighborhood we live in has a garden club that awards a "Garden/Lawn/Landscaping of the Month" sign to a different home each month.  Maybe someday it will grace our front yard.  Then I'll definitely be posting a picture.