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Squeaky Clean

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Saturday night.  9:30 p.m.  I just started the washing machine on a hot water cycle, no clothes, lots of bleach.  Why?  Oh, friend, take a seat…

After a long day working in the garden, Andrew and I cleaned up to go out to dinner.  Around 7:15 p.m., right before leaving home, I remembered I desperately needed to start a load of laundry if I wanted to wear clean clothes to church in the morning.  I started the laundry.  We went to dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant.  Andrew kept his dish mild, while I requested the medium heat.  We talked about our day.  We talked about our friends.  We talked about tomorrow, and Andrew suggested that perhaps I was unnecessarily stressed this week.  On the way home, we stopped for sorbet.

But all this is irrelevant to the bleach in the washing machine.

When we returned home, I remembered that I needed to put my clothes in the dryer.  I began pulling the clothes out of the washing machine, a few pieces at a time, shaking them gently to avoid wrinkles.  As I neared the bottom of the washer–only a few socks (no matches) remained–I saw something at the bottom of the drum, partially hidden by the agitator (I just Googled, “washing machine diagram” to learn the technical names.)

Is that a…?  No.  No way.  Catherine, you are being neurotic.  It’s just a big wad of lint.  With a tail…

“Andrew…?”

“Yeah?”

“Can you please come here?”

“What’s wrong?”

“I think… there’s a mouse…a dead mouse…in the washing machine.”

Oh yes, indeed there was.  I considered not writing about this because it is So. Gross., but figured the story was worth it.  We have no idea how it got in the house, much less the washing machine.  The best guess we have is that it came in through the garage, which opens right by the door to the laundry room.  We had been keeping a double-bagged bag of bird seed in the laundry room because when we had it in the garage, a mouse broke into it. We checked the bag, and it had (recently) been chewed, so we think the mouse must have smelled it and sneaked in while we were working in the garden with the door open.  Gross, gross, gross.

So now, 10:08 p.m., I put my wet, took-a-bath-with-a-dead-mouse clothes back in the washing machine, shaking each item individually, intentionally–just in case.  Just in freaking case.

I will not wear dirty clothes to church tomorrow;  they will be squeaky clean.

(Squeaky clean??  I can’t believe I said that.  Great word play, horrifying mental image.  I’m so sorry.  I might wear dirty clothes tomorrow.)

Today

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April 16, 2013.

The day after the horrific explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

The 6th anniversary of the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech.

What can be said on a day like today?  I feel tremendously saddened by each of these events, and equally inadequate to write about them.

Here’s what I know for sure:

In the Gospel of John, chapter 16 verse 33, Jesus tells us, “…In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart;  I have overcome the world.”

I don’t know why these tragedies happened.  I can’t say what good will come from them.  I don’t know that I’d be able to restrain myself from punching those responsible in the face, if given the opportunity.

What I do know is that we have a God who loves us more than we can fathom, and that He has already overcome every ounce of evil in this world.  In Him alone we can take comfort.

Please join me in praying for those who are grieving today, those who are remembering in sadness, and those who are on the road to recovery.  Kristin Armstrong said it well:  “The road ahead is long.  But little do they know, [runners are] good with that.”

 

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Weekend Highlights

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We had a very full weekend here, and while I know this post is a little late, I wanted to write about some of the highlights.

Thursday Night–(I know, not technically the weekend… but close enough.)  Andrew’s church league basketball team progressed to the championships last week, and the final game was Thursday night.  The guys played well…and won!

bball champs

Our good friend Kevin, who lives in Dallas, was in town for a meeting that day, and he was able to make it to the game and cheer on the guys.  We enjoyed visiting with him for a while after the game!

Friday–My alma mater, James Madison University, played their first and only game in the NCAA tournament.   They got their butts whooped, as expected, but I was still excited that they made it to the tournament.  There was a small part of me that held onto hope that maybe, just maybe, they’d be the first #16 seed to beat a #1 seed 😉

JMU

I was really excited, okay?

On Friday night we took a youth group trip to Jumpology–a new indoor trampoline gym in town.  It.  Was.  Awesome.

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The room was essentially wall-to-wall trampolines, plus areas for basketball, dodgeball, and a foam pit.  It was quite a workout!

Saturday– Yesterday I recapped the 5k I ran with my brother; you can check it out here. The short version:  we kicked butt.

Rebel Run

In the afternoon, our friend Andrew came over to watch the VCU basketball game.  Unfortunately, no havoc was wreaked.

Later in the afternoon I helped with a youth group service project.  Once a month we help wheelchair-bound adults with disabilities (residents of the Virginia Home) enjoy an afternoon of bowling.

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Everyone–youth and bowlers–had a great time!  I love to see how excited they are, not only when they do well, but simply to be there bowling.

When I arrived home, I found that Andrew had been hard at work in the yard and made some awesome progress on the garden:

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Doesn’t it look great??  We cannot wait to start planting.

Saturday night our friends Amanda and Diron came over to watch some more basketball.  With JMU out of the tournament and VT not in the tournament to begin with, we were not particularly interested in any one game other than for the sake of our brackets, but we had a great time hanging out!  Amanda and I have been friends since college, and for a long time would say, “We need to go on a double date!”  When the four of us finally hung out a couple of months ago, we realized just how similar we are, and now we get together often.  We laugh a lot, although I think it often centers on how neurotic Amanda and I are 😉  Regardless, we are very thankful for these “new” friends in our lives!

When Amanda and Diron left, we continued watching TV, and I fell asleep on the couch, as often happens (I think I inherited this ability from my grandmother.)  It doesn’t matter what time of day it is or how interested I am in what’s on TV–the couch + the sound of the television are my personal recipe for sleep.  Andrew finally turned off the TV, and the instant the sound was gone, I sat up straight, opened my eyes wide, and said, “We should go to sleep!”  Andrew started laughing and said, “Oh you think we should?  You think we should go to sleep now?”  😀

Sunday– We had a pretty typical spring Sunday until the evening when…it snowed?

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It started sticking to the ground in the middle of youth group, so I decided to send everyone home early just to be safe.   I know everyone is saying this, but I am very ready for spring to actually be spring.  Snow is great–in January–but I am so ready for warmer weather.

Even so, a blanket of white was not a bad way to end a great weekend!

 

Love is a Big Bucket of Fried Chicken

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“What comes to mind when you think of Valentine’s Day?”

This is the question I asked the middle school youth group on Sunday as a lead-in to a lesson about love–specifically love as an action word.  I received many of the answers I’d anticipated: chocolate, flowers, hearts, etc.

One girl raised her hand and said, “A big bucket of fried chicken!”  I laughed (who thinks of fried chicken when they think of Valentine’s Day?) and asked if that was a family tradition.  She shook her head, no.  Then I asked, “…or would that just be a good way for someone to show you they cared about you?”  She nodded her head with a big grin and wide “I love fried chicken” eyes.

As a side note, this is a prime example of why I love middle school youth.  You never know what they are going to say.  You think you know, but you don’t.

I laughed to myself and mentally filed that gem away as Reason # 5723 why I love middle schoolers, but as I reflected on it later it occurred to me that what this girl said went deeper than the bottom of the bucket.  In fact, she pointed to the very core of our lesson on love.

Dr. Gary Chapman is a world renowned expert on love and marriage.  In his book The Five Love Languages he describes five general categories, or “languages,” in which we communicate love: words of affirmation, quality time, physical touch, acts of service, and receiving gifts.  The idea is that every person speaks one or two of these languages stronger than any of the others, and when that person is loved in that particular language, they feel especially loved.

For example, a person whose primary love language is words of affirmation might melt upon receiving a sappy love note for Valentine’s Day, whereas a person whose primary love language is receiving gifts might think, “Are you kidding me? Where are the roses?  Where are the chocolates?”  Someone whose love language is quality time might feel most loved by taking a walk together; a physical touch person would need to hold hands on that walk to feel really loved.  Someone whose love language is acts of service might feel most loved if their spouse watches the kids so they can take a walk by themselves.

I have found this concept to be true, not only in marriage, but in non-romantic relationships as well.  Regardless of a person’s love language, however, I think the underlying truth is this:

Love is a choice.

Love is an action word.  In John 15:13 Jesus says, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”  You see, Christ demonstrated the greatest love by dying on the cross for us.   Love doesn’t get any more true than that.

There’s no question that when God commands us to love our neighbor and love our enemy, He is not suggesting we attempt to conjure up a warm fuzzy feeling toward them, but rather that we choose to love them in an active way.  In the same way that Christ loved us by laying down His life for us, we must love others by choosing to lay down our lives and put them first.

I don’t scrub the toilets because I enjoy doing so;  I do it because… oh, who am I kidding?  I don’t scrub the toilets.  Better example: Andrew doesn’t scrub the toilets because he enjoys doing so;  he does it as an act of love, because doing so means that I don’t have to.  And I hate scrubbing the toilets.

Loving someone could mean taking them on a picnic.  It could mean giving them flowers.  It could mean doing the dishes. Giving them a foot massage.  Cooking dinner.  Writing them a heartfelt note.  Sitting on the couch and talking.  Holding hands.  Telling them you are proud of them.  Buying them an unexpected gift.  Taking out the trash.  Answering the phone when they need to talk.  Giving them a ride when their car is in the shop (even if it requires you to wake up 30 minutes early.)

Loving someone could simply mean putting a big bucket of fried chicken on the table for dinner because you know they’ll love it.

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Today–and tomorrow, the next day, and so on–I challenge you to love the people around you.  To lay down your life for theirs.

It’s easier said than done, I know, but what a beautiful example we have in the One who laid down His life for us.

Something Like Moussaka

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How many ingredients can you change in a recipe before you are making a completely different dish?  After buying an eggplant at the grocery store with no plan in mind, we did a quick Google search for “eggplant recipes,” decided to make Moussaka, then proceeded to change nearly all the ingredients.

“Let’s add some more vegetables.”

“We just had a red meat and tomato sauce meal; I’m not feeling that.”

“We’ll have to substitute for dairy AND gluten…”

And now, I present to you:

Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free Not-Quite-Moussaka

Allow me to preface this with an apology for not paying attention to amounts of anything we use.  If you haven’t noticed by now, my recipes often include a lot of, “Some of this” and “A bit of that.”  That’s how we cook.  I’ll try to do better 🙂

We started by sauteeing a bunch of veggies– carrots, celery, kale, and colorful cherry tomatoes–in olive oil.

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Next, we browned the meat (we used ground turkey,) and added cinnamon, allspice, and parsley.

Then we sliced the eggplant into 1/2 inch slices, dipped them in egg, coated them with gluten-free breadcrumbs, and browned them in a skillet.

DSCN7223My goofy husband

For the Bechamel sauce we combined Smart Balance non-dairy spread, “This is not a tub of cream cheese” non-dairy spread, soy milk, and a bit of gluten-free flour in a small saucepan.  Melt and stir.

All that’s left to do is layer and bake it in the oven!  We used two glass baking dishes in order to fit everything.  We put the veggies in first, then eggplant (yes, I know that’s a veggie too,) meat, then Bechamel sauce.  Finally, we topped it all with soy cheese.  This was the real test.  Most of the other dairy-free substitutes have proven themselves to work well.  Soy cheese?  It usually burns before it melts.  We put it all in the oven at 375 for 30-45 minutes (keep an eye on it; you want to cheese to be melted and browning.)

The taste test: actually quite delicious!  (We were skeptical ;-))

DSCN7249Okay, so it’s really not a very pretty dish…

DSCN7255Still not pretty.  It tasted good, I promise.

So, for everyone out there who might be wondering, “Can I make a gluten-free, dairy-free, beef-free, tomato-paste-free Moussaka that still tastes delicious?”  Why, yes…yes you can 😀

Crabtree Falls

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There are few activities I enjoy more than hiking: fresh air, fantastic views, a workout that doesn’t seem like a workout because of the scenery.  What’s not to love?  So when the weatherman predicted a rare mid-60 degree day in January, we seized the opportunity.  Saturday morning we set off on an adventure to Crabtree Falls with our friends Chris and Regina.

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The hike from the parking lot to the top of the falls is 1.7 miles and an almost 1400 ft climb in elevation–not outrageous, but it certainly raises your heart rate!  One of the things I love about this hike is that you can see the falls multiple times on the way up.  From the top of the falls, there is roughly a two-mile hike to the base of the Appalachian Trail.  When Andrew and I did this hike back in May, we kept saying, “Let’s go a little bit further:” top of the falls, base of the AT, beautiful overlook on the AT, and beyond.  Seven-ish miles later, we turned around and began making our way back down the mountain for a grand total of  fourteen-ish miles.  We hobbled on sore legs for a few days after that.

We cut ourselves off a little sooner this weekend (we made it to the base of the AT… just over seven miles round-trip,) and I have a feeling my legs will thank me for it for the next few days.

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DSCN7129   DSCN7130Andrew photo-bombing + the photo I was actually trying to take (“Don’t think for one second that I won’t put that on the blog.” -Me)

DSCN7134View from the top of the falls

DSCN7140Yeah, we love each other that much.

DSCN7146We also got to see this guy on our way back down.  Anyone know what kind of snake it is/whether I should have gotten close enough to take this picture? 😀

DSCN7150The obligatory selfie 😉

DSCN7132Beautiful day.  Awesome company.  Gorgeous view.

Totally worth the sore legs.

The Biggest Loser Premiere

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Monday morning as I ate my breakfast, I scrolled through my Facebook news feed and caught up on events from the previous twelve hours.  Andrew sat on the couch three feet away watching ESPN.  It was a pretty typical weekday morning scene at the Storey house.

“Oh!  Jillian posted a picture of her friends watching the Biggest Loser premiere last night!”

Andrew, who had just finished his breakfast, stood up, walked over to where I sat, kissed my forehead, and said, “Catherine, Jillian Michaels is not your friend.”

Harsh words for 7:30 on a Monday morning.

For those of you who don’t know, Jillian Michaels is a trainer on NBC’s show The Biggest Loser.  She’s earned the title “TV’s toughest trainer” by her drill sergeant-like training style that brings about serious results on TBL.  I am mildly obsessed with both her and the show.

 Jillian

Season 14 of TBL premiered Sunday, and our friends Mallory and Brad came over to watch.  Years ago, before we were old and married, Mallory and I were room mates and used to watch TBL faithfully each week.  And like any dedicated fan, we had the gear, which we both wore proudly this Sunday :DSCN7108

(Take 1, Andrew: “You look a little bit crazy.”  Take 2, Andrew: “You still look a little bit crazy.)

We laughed, we cried, we snacked on gluten-free vegetable muffins that Mallory made (Brad would not take responsibility for them… the taste wasn’t bad, but the consistency was that of broccoli soup ;))  All in all, it was a fantastic night…

…even if Jillian Michaels is not actually my friend.

The Beginning

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Hello, blogging world!  I have been itching to start this blog for a while, and in the spirit of New Year’s resolutions (see you tomorrow, 2013!), I finally decided to take the plunge.

I make no promises to give you any profound insights through this blog, but rather to provide a small glimpse in to our world (and hopefully some entertainment along the way :))

Enjoy!