Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Brain Dump
I've recently become familiar with the term Naturalism. According to wikipedia, Naturalism is a philosophy that posits a particular picture of reality, being, and existence that typically excludes the supernatural. In lay-man's terms Naturalism is the belief that being and existence do not occur outside natural law and the observable universe.
Does that mean no heaven?? How depressing.
The afterlife aside, I am confused by scientists that dismiss the supernatural so easily. Not because I believe in the loch ness moster, and not because I believe in ghosts or even creationism, but because I believe that the only consistent and unchanging thing about science is the fact that we continue to prove we do not know everything. Daily the unseen becomes seen. Daily the observable universe expands. Natural law is not a finite set of rules guys. There isn't one concrete set of rules you can reliably hang your hat on for the rest of eternity because pesky little things like space, time and gravity have been shown to be inconsistent thanks to all your hard work, no less!
It's just sad to me when people say they don't know everything, but act like they know enough to say there is no God or afterlife. What a subject to come to a conclusion on. I mean, genes, molecules, viruses...these are frontiers that no scientist in his right mind would say we've seen it all. Yet, the frontier of an afterlife or higher power is wrapped up; the book is shut.
I'll be the first to admit the supernatural, and religion are slippery slopes. There are a lot of stupid, fanatical and superstitious people out there that give spirituality a bad name. I believe whole heartedly in a God. I believe whole heartedly in an afterlife. I'm not 100% on any of the details, but it seems in the history of man, no other belief has been so universally held as one in a deity and an afterlife. It takes many shapes and forms in many different cultures, but every continent, every race, and just about every society from the smallest tribe to the largest empire believed in a higher power. That says something to me. That says that something deep down in our make-up wants to believe (maybe even senses?) there is something bigger than us out there. That this life is not the end. To take it one step further, it is a yearning that does not seem to diminish with time or scientific discovery. Religion has not died out since the discovery of the cell, the atom, evolution or even DNA. Every one of these discoveries, and countless others like it, should have profoundly negated religion, but religious beliefs have persisted in the face of every major scientific discovery. Everything that should have convinced us there is no God, hasn't. My point is, there are observable things going on here....just not under the microscope.
The trouble with God is he is judged by the most vocal of his followers, and sadly, the most vocal are often the least educated. As much as I admire the spirit of anyone speaking up for what they believe in, I wish a few more smart Christians would speak up from time to time. I don't claim to be the smartest of Christians, but I am smart enough to realize the world as we know it was not created in 7 days. The whole idea of a 'day' wasn't even created until around 3500 B.C. with the advent of obelisks that tracked the sun's movement, and the whole idea of a '24 hour' day (or even an hour for that matter) wasn't created until 1500 B.C. (or later) with the advent of sun dials. And even if God, for some reason was privy to the current form of time keeping, the sun wasn't created until the fourth 'day' of the creation story, so how then, if it were a literal story, would the first three 'days' be marked? So, no, the creation story in the bible is not a play by play on exactly what happened at the dawn of life much the same way Revelations will not be a play by of exactly what goes down if an asteroid ever hits the earth. It doesn't mean God didn't create the universe or earth or everything else, it just means the story is not a literal translation of how it happened because you have to remember, the target audience was the illiterate commoner of 1400 B.C., not the 21st century scholar. But, if you ask me, the creation story does correlate very closely to what we do know about evolution. Eerily so for a document that was written thousands of years before Mr. Darwin came along. I mean, for a writer (or writers) who knew nothing about natural selection and gene mutation, primordial soups and such, the author or authors of Genesis did a pretty good job explaining to the common folk how we could go from nothing to something.
Anyway, I don't know where I'm going with all of this, I just know that everything I believe about God and Christianity has been wavering lately. I believe in God, I am just having deep issues with the whole Christ thing and I don't like such huge aspects of my belief system being up in the air, and I'm eager to reconcile these uncertainties, but not sure that I will like what I find if I go looking for answers. Other thoughts have been heavy on my mind, like what I want to be when I grow up (I'm leaning towards flight attendant), or how it is that I can be 30 years old with an amazing husband, house and kids and still find a zillion reasons to be insecure, but I think that's plenty of brain dumping for one day.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
The best six-bucks I ever spent
Our kitchen island is the only logical place to store pots and pans, but it's just a mess under there. It's one big open shelf with this huge venting tube running down the middle and conduit cables running everywhere (our cook top is in the island). Anyway, it's hard enough keeping the pots and pans stacked, but throw in the lids sliding around, and it's just chaos.
I took a trip to Ikea to check out their built-in kitchen storage solutions, but I was just window shopping. On my way out, I spied a cheap plastic drying rack and decided to give it a shot. I can't believe what a difference $6 made!
I took a trip to Ikea to check out their built-in kitchen storage solutions, but I was just window shopping. On my way out, I spied a cheap plastic drying rack and decided to give it a shot. I can't believe what a difference $6 made!
Update: Ikea doesn't seem to sell this drying rack anymore, but they sell something similar for $8.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Baby steps
We finally had some free time last weekend to jump start a few projects, and I wanted to share the finished product.
I have been toying with the idea of painting our bedroom the color in this photo:
but I was worried it would be too dark (we don't get much natural light in there), so I decided to try it first in the smallest room in the house, the powder bathroom.
The color we chose was Sherwin Williams Deep Sea Dive (the middle color). It's a dark teal that has a little more blue to it than the teal in the inspiration picture.
We took the swatch to Lowes and had it color matched in their Olympic Premium paint with no VOC's. It's about $5-$10 cheaper than a gallon of SW paint, and has almost no odor - very nice when working in tight spaces and around small kids.
Our powder bathroom before (sorry about the angle, it's tight in there):
Here's a better shot of the color
Notice anything different other than the paint? I'll give you a hint....it rhymes like packsplash. It's hard to tell because the picture is so dark, but the backsplash is gone. The idea came from a blog I am not-so-secretly obsessed with called young house love (thanks Lindy for getting me hooked!). I do not love our bulky built in sink/cabinet in that tiny room and have been pricing out pedestal sinks. I decided if we'd be demo-ing the whole buit-in someday, it was worth removing the backsplash to see if it made the sink look any less built-in. Plus, it gave me a little room to hone my DIY skills (catch the pun?). I must say....we hit a few road bumps like the hole that was hiding behind one of the pieces of granite.
It took three tries, lot's of cursing and questioning if it we should just put the backsplash back on, but I finally got the hole fixed. You can check out the tutorial I wish I had watched before my first two unsuccessful attempts here.
Between the backsplash, hole repair and paint job it's shocking how many lessons were learned in updating such a tiny room and I'm glad it's over with, but I'm also glad we took a leap of faith and tried something ourselves for a change instead of paying someone to do it. And the verdict on the color? Well, I love it, but it's way to dark for all four walls of our bedroom, so I'm thinking of trying it as an accent wall much like this photo.
Stay tuned! :)
I have been toying with the idea of painting our bedroom the color in this photo:
The color we chose was Sherwin Williams Deep Sea Dive (the middle color). It's a dark teal that has a little more blue to it than the teal in the inspiration picture.
Our powder bathroom before (sorry about the angle, it's tight in there):
And after (ignore the arm):
Notice anything different other than the paint? I'll give you a hint....it rhymes like packsplash. It's hard to tell because the picture is so dark, but the backsplash is gone. The idea came from a blog I am not-so-secretly obsessed with called young house love (thanks Lindy for getting me hooked!). I do not love our bulky built in sink/cabinet in that tiny room and have been pricing out pedestal sinks. I decided if we'd be demo-ing the whole buit-in someday, it was worth removing the backsplash to see if it made the sink look any less built-in. Plus, it gave me a little room to hone my DIY skills (catch the pun?). I must say....we hit a few road bumps like the hole that was hiding behind one of the pieces of granite.
It took three tries, lot's of cursing and questioning if it we should just put the backsplash back on, but I finally got the hole fixed. You can check out the tutorial I wish I had watched before my first two unsuccessful attempts here.
Between the backsplash, hole repair and paint job it's shocking how many lessons were learned in updating such a tiny room and I'm glad it's over with, but I'm also glad we took a leap of faith and tried something ourselves for a change instead of paying someone to do it. And the verdict on the color? Well, I love it, but it's way to dark for all four walls of our bedroom, so I'm thinking of trying it as an accent wall much like this photo.
Stay tuned! :)
Thursday, January 20, 2011
nO Meat Goodness
If you're anything like me, you are constantly on the hunt for filling, tasty meatless dinners. Well, we've had some hits and misses, but we tried a winner tonight and I just wanted to share.
Lentils and Spinach over Rice
(got the original recipe here, but my version is way better if I do say so myself)
While rice is simmering, heat vegetable oil over medium high heat in a stock pot. Add diced onion and garlic, saute until tender and a nice golden color (about 5-7 min give or take). Add a splash of the broth and stir, scraping the bottom to loosen any cooked-on garlic/onion goodness. Add the rest of the broth, lentils, salt and cumin, give it a good stir, then cover and turn down heat to simmer for 35 minutes. When there are *20 minutes remaining, add the carrots. When there are 10 minutes remaining, add the tomatoes. When there are 5 minutes or less remaining, wilt in the spinach. Season to taste and serve over rice.
*15 minutes or less if you prefer your carrots al dente
I failed to take a picture of the final product because my cooking endeavors are usually not photo-worthy, but the final product looked something like this, only less soupy and with tomatoes
(p.s. the pic is from a lentil soup recipe I found here. Will have to try it, it looks tasty!)
Lentils and Spinach over Rice
(got the original recipe here, but my version is way better if I do say so myself)
- 2 cups brown rice (and any additional ingredients required by pkg)
- 2 TBS vegetable oil
- 2 med-large white onions, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 cup lentils
- 3 cups broth (I used low sodium chicken broth)
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 1/2 tsp cumin
- 2 carrots finely chopped
- 1/2 of a 14.5oz can diced tomatoes (I used fire roasted with garlic flavor)
- 3 handfuls of fresh spinach (a little more than 4 cups, I think)
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
While rice is simmering, heat vegetable oil over medium high heat in a stock pot. Add diced onion and garlic, saute until tender and a nice golden color (about 5-7 min give or take). Add a splash of the broth and stir, scraping the bottom to loosen any cooked-on garlic/onion goodness. Add the rest of the broth, lentils, salt and cumin, give it a good stir, then cover and turn down heat to simmer for 35 minutes. When there are *20 minutes remaining, add the carrots. When there are 10 minutes remaining, add the tomatoes. When there are 5 minutes or less remaining, wilt in the spinach. Season to taste and serve over rice.
*15 minutes or less if you prefer your carrots al dente
I failed to take a picture of the final product because my cooking endeavors are usually not photo-worthy, but the final product looked something like this, only less soupy and with tomatoes
(p.s. the pic is from a lentil soup recipe I found here. Will have to try it, it looks tasty!)
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Christmas Card Contest!!! PLEASE VOTE!! :)
Clearly I am not above begging for votes for our family Christmas Card in order to win a free photo session (first place) or mini photo album (second place) from our amazing photographer Mackenzie Wheatley in her Christmas Card Contest! :)
PLEASE help us out - casting your vote is as easy as 1. 2. 3. 4.!
Step 1:
Become a Chubbyfoot fan on facebook by clicking HERE and then clicking "Like" at the top of the page
Step 2:
Open up the Christmas Card Contest 2011 photo album by either clicking on the link in the news feed, the Photos tab or HERE
Step 3:
From the Christmas Card Contest 2011 album select our card (8th pic in the album last I checked)
Step 4:
"Like" our Christmas Card to cast your vote!
Still confused? Here are some visual aids to walk you through the process. Dad, these are not actual screens, just pictures of screens, so take mental notes, then go back through the above instructions to actually cast you vote :)
Thank you so so much for taking the time to vote! If you feel so inclined, feel free to share these links with friends and family! :)
PLEASE help us out - casting your vote is as easy as 1. 2. 3. 4.!
Step 1:
Become a Chubbyfoot fan on facebook by clicking HERE and then clicking "Like" at the top of the page
Step 2:
Open up the Christmas Card Contest 2011 photo album by either clicking on the link in the news feed, the Photos tab or HERE
Step 3:
From the Christmas Card Contest 2011 album select our card (8th pic in the album last I checked)
Step 4:
"Like" our Christmas Card to cast your vote!
Still confused? Here are some visual aids to walk you through the process. Dad, these are not actual screens, just pictures of screens, so take mental notes, then go back through the above instructions to actually cast you vote :)
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