Loveseat, Icons, Adorable Kid, etc.

It's been awhile since I've updated the blog primarily because I haven't done much to the house recently due to the lack of funds and motivation. I keep thinking about ripping up the linoleum in the kitchen to see what's underneath and potentially paint it, but I haven't gotten the nerve.

I did bring back a loveseat from Tennessee. It looks good in the living room. The plan is eventually to move it in to the guest room/study/junk room when I'm able to move the upholstered chairs over from Tennessee.

For Christmas, my sister gave me a hand-painted icon she bought in Romania. I'm using a sterling silver recycled fork easel I bought at the Scrap Exchange in Durham to display it.

Tonight our Bible study group had dinner at my house and Levi, cutest boy of all times, came. He's 1 and he loves hamming it up for the camera.

Behold the Tamp!

Yet another excellent find from the Habitat Hand-Me-Ups store. The tamp (table + lamp) was $15 and a shade from Target was $20. It's pretty 70's fabulous.I got my first gas heat bill. It was a bit more than I'd hoped ($80) but it's been a cold month. I've been sleeping in the den because the couch is more comfortable than my bed at the moment. It'll be interesting to see if this makes a difference.

A Wonderful Evening

Last night, some members of the 5th grade team from Durham Academy came over for dinner. I taught with most of them last year and they are some of the most gracious, fun, and interesting people I've ever met. Can't imagine having made it through my first semester of teaching without them. I provided bread and local goat cheese, pumpkin soup, black beans and cheese grits, an apple crisp, and brownies. Others brought wine, an amazing salad with a white balsamic vinegar dressing, fall vegetables, guac, salsa, and chips, and cornbread. There's something about a really great meal in the company of people with whom you feel totally comfortable. Little kids playing on the floor, folks making the dishes in the kitchen, folks loading the dishwasher before they left, and more food than could ever be eaten. Despite the fact that I have plenty of chairs, the real action of the party was in the kitchen with people sitting on the floor and leaning on the counters. It was the happiest and most peaceful I've felt in a long time.

More photos from the evening are here.

More Habitat Finds

A couple of recent Habitat Hand Me Ups Thrift Store finds, including a table I refinished.

Before and after

A bookcase I bought for $12

Fall!

Great, blustery fall weather this week. I've been spending too much time on my school blog to get much accomplished here. Looking forward to having the 5th grade team from Durham Academy over for supper in a couple weeks.

House Blessing

I love house blessings; they combine two of my favorite things- homes and the Eucharist. The last house blessing I had at my apartment in Chapel Hill was crazy. There were 55 people there. People received their communion, went out the front door and came back in the back door.

Tonight's house blessing was a much smaller affair. It was great because there were a range of people and not necessarily the group I would have chosen if I was just trying to have my best friends. There were also children underfoot. During the house blessing liturgy, there is a prayer in each room of the house and an accompanying antiphon. It went so quickly; I kept wanting to freeze time. I had been planning for the occasion literally since the moment I bought the house. I suppose in some way it is how parents prepare for the baptism of a child. Father Timothy was incredible, as always. I love that he is just as comfortable celebrating at a coffee table in a living room as at a high altar.

Here was the gospel text for the evening from Matthew 6:

25Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 28And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

There are pictures from tonight posted here

The Back 40

Well, ok, it's more like the back .3 acres but pushing the lawn mower up the hill last night it definitely felt like more than that. Some friends had graciously given me a lawn mower they weren't using any more and I was happy not to pay $40 to the yard guy. It was hard work but I had a great sense of satisfaction when I finished. The house blessing is tomorrow and I'm super-excited. Still a couple of things that need to get done before then, but I think I'm generally on track.