pretty little thieves....

One of my favorite artists, Jon Foreman, performs my new favorite song in the old country style.

Doodles in the afternoon

- Posted from emikel's iPhone -

Coffee Shop Romance

It is a daydream of mine to have a date in a hole-in-the-wall coffee shop. Somewhere artsy, and eclectic. To sit there in comfy chairs tucked away in a corner, holding hot drinks in our hands. Spending hours talking, chatting, smiling, dreaming, reading, enjoying each other until the world outside of the windows has gone dark, and any dredges of our drinks are cold. It's a simple day dream. Not impossible. But very pleasent. Then I found this music video...and it made me smile.

Poetry

Summering - Robert Frost

I would arise and in a deram go on---
Not very far, not very far---and then
Lie down amid the sunny grass again,
And fall asleep till night-time or next dawn.

In sleepy self-sufficiency I'd turn;
I'd seek new comfort and be hard to please---
Far in a meadow by an isle of trees,
All summer long amid the grass and fern.

Forests would have to be all round about,
And the mead silent, and the grasses deep,
Else I might not gain such a tireless sleep!
I could not slumber if the wains were out!

Hi. My name is Emily, and I'm a vegetarian.

Ok, you got me. I am not a long term veggie head, just for the month of February.

My brother came home a couple months ago with a proposition; A few of his school friends had suggested that for the month of February they all go without meat. I questioned the reason behind this, just cause I was curious. It sounded like a good idea to me, I don't eat much meat anyways, some of it makes me sick, some of it we just don't buy for budget reasons...

I never really got a straight answer as to why my brother's friends wanted to do this, I guess because they just wanted to try it out? Anyways, February rolled around and 2/3rds of my family decided to go with it.

Menu wise, I know my mom is stressed. Most of our dinner time meals consisted of Chicken, rice, some sort of sauce, and a spoonful of veggies on the side of your plate. I wish I could say that since deleting meat from the menu our dinners have been very exciting, but that would be lying. Actually, I really can't even remember anything we've eaten...it's like we haven't. Eaten, that is.

But last night I helped my mother prepare a pretty darn tasty meal. Black bean burgers and zesty carrots! and it was pretty darn delicious.



Preheat oven to 475.

Drain and rinse your beans, then pour into a smallish/medium sized bowl and mash them till they're kind of sticky.


Next, pour in in 1/2 bell pepper (the recipe said to use green, but I thought the red added a prettier color), 1/2 onion, and 3(or more if you'd like) cloves of garlic, all of which you've minced and diced and thrown in a food processor before adding to the mashed beans.





In a small bowl crack an egg. add 1 TBS. of chili powder, 1 TBS cumin, and 1 tsp Hot sauce.

Whip it all together, and then add to the bean mixture.

*******

Once the spices and beans are well mixed, pour in bread crumbs. The recipe called for 1/2 cup, but I ended up using a little more.

When the mixture is sticking together enough to support itself, form 4-5 patties and place on a baking sheet.

Place in your 475 degree oven for 10 minutes on each side.

They were a little dry. VERY flavorful, but still dry. The only thing I would do differently would be to drizzle a little olive oil over the burgers before baking.

You also could grill these, 8 minutes for each side.

chop 1 1/2 cups of clean, grated carrots.

Cook in 1/2 cup of water for about 5 minutes. The longer you cook the carrots, the softer they will be, so if you want softer carrots...continue cooking.

When carrots are done cooking, drain them, BUT SAVE 1/4 CUP OF THE WATER!!!

For the sauce, combine the saved water (1/4 C.), 2 TBS grated onion and juice, 1 TBS prepared horse radish, 1/2 C. Mayo., 1/4 C. (or more, to taste!) grated cheddar cheese, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Mix together, add carrots and mix some more :)

Spoon into a buttered, 2 quart casserole dish.

Then, in another bowl, combine 1 C. fresh breadcrumbs, 1.4 C. butter(melted), and 1 tsp paprika.

Sprinkle over carrots and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

If I don't have love, I am nothing.

Love

[luhv]

-noun

1 - a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.

2 - a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or Friend

...

4 - a person toward whom love is felt; beloved person; sweetheart

...

9 - affectionate concern for the well-being of others

...

12 - the benevolent affection of God for His creation, or the reverent affection due from them to God...

So, Valentines day. A day for husbands to be uxorious, for wives to love and be lavished, for boyfriends to buy their girlfriends flowers and teddy bears, and children to eat gross little hearts that say the sweetest little things on them....right? If that's what you think of when you hear "Valentine's Day" then you have a very shadowed, very dumbed down, very commercialized idea of what this 'holiday' is really about, and how it got here, what it stands for.

"You mean, you don't think of these things when you hear 'Valentines Day'?"

Well...no. Not really.

Naturally one can't help but have images of rock hard conversation hearts and roses pop into their minds, but I don't think about these things because that's not how the story goes.

It all started with St. Valentine. If you don't know who he is I suggest you go to my friends blog, she just did a wonderful post giving Valentine's life story:http://mynameisnotking.blogspot.com/2011/02/hi-im-isabella-and-im-holiday-killjoy.html.

Long story short, St. Valentine was a bishop in 207 AD who believed that marriage was created by God, he lived in a Rome ruled by the emperor Claudius, who banned marriage due to his troops missing their families.

But Valentine, in secret, was performing marriages. The bishop was found out and Claudius had him jailed and eventually executed, but not before befriending the jailer's blind daughter who was miraculously healed and converted. With her sight she was able to read his good-bye note to her, signed "From your Valentine". (Here's where you have an ah-HA! moment)

This man died because he would not deny his God, the man died for love.

When I think of Valentine's day, I think of this; I think of why we love. We love, I love, because God first loved us. If you don't believe me, go read the bible. I do not say this in a "Jesus loves me, this I know..." Sunday school sort of way, although that is kinda what it is... it is no less as real as what I know.

Between Genesis and Revelation lies a passionate story of love, betrayal, lies, absolution, teaching, learning, death, and resurrection. And no, this story is not G rated.

We were created. That how it starts out, we were created to walk with God. We Disobeyed Him, and were punished, but the love never went away. Years and years go by. Generation after generation sees the same thing: We love, we run away, we are wooed back. Love. Run. Wooed.

Repeatedly we were distracted by some idol that became a god to us, and our God would become jealous. The idol would be destroyed, we'd repent for our idol-affair, and be reminded of the great love we ran away from.

Many times we are compared to whores...how does that make you feel? At one point God had his prophet Hosea marry a prostitute, to represent to us the church's marriage to God.

"Find a whore and marry her. Make this woman the mother of your children.

And here's why: This whole country has become a whorehouse, unfaithful to me, God."

Hosea 1:2

"And now, here's what I'm going to do:

I'm going to start all over again.

I'm taking her back out into the wilderness

where we had our first date, and I'll court her.

I'll give her bouquets of roses.

I'll turn 'heart brake valley' into 'acres of hope'.

She'll respond like she did as a young girl,

those days when she was fresh out of Egypt."

"At that time" - this is God's message still -

"You'll address me, 'Dear husband!'

never again will you address me, "My slave-master!'

I'll wash your mouth out with soap, get rid of all the dirty false-god names,

not so much as a whisper of those names again...

And then I'll marry you for good - Forever!

I'll marry you true and proper, in love and tenderness.

Yes, I'll marry you and neither leave you nor let you go.

You'll know me, God, for who I really am.

On that very same day, I'll answer -

I'll answer the sky, sky will answer earth,

Earth will answer grain and wine and olive oil,

and they'll all answer *Jezreel.

I'll plant her in the good earth.

I'll have mercy on '*No-Mercy'.

I'll say to '*Nobody', 'You are my dear Somebody,'

and he'll say 'You're my God!' "

Hosea 2:14-23

*Jezreel, No-Mercy, and Nobody were the names of the three children that Hosea's wife had...

Verses are taken from the contemporary translation: The Message.

If you want to understand this better, I suggest you read Hosea yourself. I also suggest that you start in Genesis...then read 1&2 Samuel, and Judges, and Psalms, and Proverbs, and Song of Solomon....and Luke, and John, and Hebrews, and Revelation.

You may not like what I just said, and it probably isn't what you think of this 'holiday' at all.

But that's ok. When Valentine's come to mind, I think of the love my God has for me, and the great and painful lengths he went through to show me his love, and how much more so he wants mine in return.

And to me, it is a beautiful thing.

*******

...of course, getting flowers and candy and hugs and kisses aren't such bad things either ;)...

We like, we like to party....

Last Wednesday my best friend turned 20. That's right, we've reached the year where crossing the invisible "I'm a Legal Adult" line is far behind us and now...we're just getting old ;) HA!

To celebrate Bella and I ran around a rather amazing and spectacular thrift store called Savers, and later ventured into the mall and F21. What did we do there? Well, we bought clothes (or in my case, purple polka-dotted pillow cases), but really we were there to play one of our favorite games....FINDTHEUGLIESTPIECESOFCLOTHINGANDWEARTHEMALLATTHESAMETIME! It's a fabulous game and Bella and I are the winners. Always.

"Dear stirrup pants,

PLEASE go back to the 90's where you belong. Our feet, no matter how unruly, do not enjoy being strapped to our pants.

Sincerely,

Emily and Bella

Concerned citizens and fashion police.... ;)

What can I say? I've always wanted to be an awkwardly bald, pepto-bismal-pink mannequin...
no, really!

Here are some of our beautiful outfits.

This poncho was so large and boxy....I think you're jealous.

Oh look! It's a double rainbow! I just might cry!

She's so pretty in pink! Just waiting for her some guy to pick her up in his pink tux so they can go to their prom...in the 80's.

don't you just love the neck line?

I have no words.

I do actually think that we lost at this one. Despite the homeschool-stereotype fabric pattern, the colors and the dress are actually pretty cute on her.

Happy Birthday Bella!

Can I have coffee?

Today I brewed my last cup of coffee. I have been watching my supply of Starbucks House Blend deplete day after day, but have procrastinated in replenishing my stock...
Now I have no coffee...

hairbrained ideas

On Saturday I got to do what I love best, dress hair. My bestest best friend of mine hasn't had a haircut since August. She loves growing it all out and then cutting it dramatically. I don't know how she does it, I personally can't go for a such a long period of time without doing something to my hair(as it is I have managed not to cut it for a good 3 months...I am going crazy!).

She emailed me a few days earlier with various pictures and sketches of what she was thinking.

I was excited. I love it when people come to me wanting dramatic change! It makes me happy.

This is her prior to it all. Look at ALL THAT HAIR! (I have to admit I am jealous of her. Her hair seems to grow so fast...mine doesn't...)

Shampood and ready to go. I have to say the worst part of doing this at my house is making my friends lean over my kitchen sink...but I hope to change that soon.

Here we go!

Look at that!

That thing that she is holding in her hand is a neck duster, you may have seen them in old movies, or barber shops. It is fun to play with :)

"Let's make a wig, and name it Marv!" - Bella

Yes, we probably could have made a wiglet with the amount of hair I cut off.

The new style. Lotsa lotsa layers.

The end product. Resulting of much razoring and point cutting... *says in best aussie accent* "Isn't she a beauty?"

After about 15 years of pondering bangs she finally decided to go ahead and take the plunge. She hadn't had bangs since she was in first grade, and they were your customary straight across fringe.

"These are not your 1st grade bangs." I promised her.

This is why we watch.

So last night was the Superbowl. And it was just ok this year, but that's only because the Packers won(bleh). But, men in tight shiny pants is not the only reason millions of Americans sit in front of their television sets every year to watch this program. No. Apart from the game you also have half-time, and the commercials.
Now, last year we had The Who at half time. They were pretty good, with their light show and stuff of legend - no matter how much they lip synced....But this year, THIS YEAR, we had *drum roll*...THE BLACK EYED PEAS! And they were....TERRIBLE! If you don't believe me, go look it up on YouTube, or all your friends FB feeds from last night.

The commercials, on the other hand, did NOT disappoint. Here are some of my favorites from last night: