Where’s the Faith?

Posted on September 30, 2010 by Coco

I haven’t written any “faith” posts lately, and faith hasn’t been a central focus of my life over the past few weeks, which I know isn’t “right.” 

Two Sundays ago I stayed home from church to be with Sally, and I’m glad I did. It was the right thing to do. Maybe God even guided me to make that decision–I was up and dressed and ready to go when I decided that I wanted and needed to stay home with her. If I had gone to church and done any of my usual errands on the way home, she would have been gone by the time I got back.

Last weekend I missed church because we were out of town. I don’t usually go to church when I am out of town–I hate being a “visitor” at church–but did enjoy the service that we attended on our last trip to New Orleans. I used Google to look for an Episcopalian church in the town we were visiting and didn’t find one, although I did see one when we were up there (but not until Sunday afternoon), so if we go back maybe I will venture in on a Sunday morning.

I do plan to go to church this Sunday, but I am tempted to take Saturday as another “rest” day to let my knee recover (d@mn fall!) and then run on Sunday instead of going to church. Then there’s next weekend, when I will be out of town on Saturday but home on Sunday, so I again will face the “run or church” dilemma. For me, “church” is the “right” answer, but that doesn’t mean I won’t consider a run instead.

Of course, going to church isn’t the be all and end all of practicing my faith. Reading the Bible and praying probably could be even more important, but I haven’t been doing that either.

I thought that my Parish Discernment Committee work would force me to dedicate some serious time to prayer and reflection, but the woman who thought that she was being called to be a priest has decided that is not the case.  We will have a wrap-up meeting, but that’s all.

Maybe my role on our Stewardship Committee will bring more faith into my life, but that work is pretty practical–I will write a letter as part of our stewarship campaign and help with meeting logistics.  The theme of our Stewardship Campaign is “embracing spiritual hunger, rejecting material greed,” which does resonante with me but I need to figure out how to put that into practice. As part of the campaign our church is having a book study group on Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer, by Richard Rohr, but I will be out of town for the first meeting. Maybe I should get the book anyway.

Times of crisis always get me praying, but luckily I haven’t had that reason to practice my faith. I am stressing over the pressure that is now on my son’s upcoming SATs and have prayed over that, but that is more of a “Thy will be done” situation at this point. He took an SAT prep class, he has his study guides to review, and I have confirmed the arrangements for the test date. 

Now that I’ve spent all this time thinking about the lack of active faith in my life lately, I think I should hit “publish” and take some time to reflect and prayer.

Posted in My Faith | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Chocolate-Coated Girls’ Night Out

Posted on September 28, 2010 by Coco

Tonight we had a “girls’ night out” at Artisan Chocolates. My friend Beth organized the evening, and we had a group of 10 women for a private class. Most of us met for dinner first, but next time I would save room for more chocolate.

Artisan Chocolates is a small store run by 2 people who also led our class. We sampled some of their chocolates while we learned the basics of chocolate-making, and tasted chips of white, milk and different dark chocolate to appreciate the differences Then we got to work.

To make pretty designs on the chocolates, we painted acrylic sheets with colored cocoa butter and let those set to make transfers. We each ran 24 chocolates through an enrobing machine (insert I Love Lucy clip here) and then applied our transfers. Cool!

We also made the fanciest bark I’ve ever seen, spreading tempered chocolate on pre-made transfers, and then sprinkling on awesome toppings like dried cherries and fleur-de-sel.

Our final project was a gourmet variation on rice crispie treats. They had crisped rice cereal that they had coated with a light coating of homemade caramel. We selected mix-ins (dried cranberries and dried banana bits or candied ginger and almond slivers), and then mixed it all with chocolate. We dropped globs onto parchment paper and let them cool and set. As we learned, that happens quickly with properly tempered chocolate.

Not only did we have a good time and get to sample fine chocolates while we were there, but we all went home with goody bags filled with our creations. The guy warned us that they would only last 2-3 weeks, but I don’t think that will be a problem.

Posted in Food, Life | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Holding Back

Posted on September 28, 2010 by Coco

My plan to be back in action today after my fall on Saturday is not working out. I was duly warned yesterday when my knee still hurt when I walked up the stairs. Still, I was hopeful this morning. I got dressed for a TM workout and fired it up for a speed workout (i.e., I set it for 45 min on manual so I could control the speed and incline).

I walked for 5 min with no problem, then ran for 5 min at 5.5 mph with some twinges. I bumped it up to 5.7 mph for 5 min and it didn’t feel good. I tried 6.3 mph (my first “speed” interval) and it hurt. Not the kind of pain that made me stop in my tracks, but enough to imagine that ever stride would lead to more inflammation later and prolong my real recovery. So, I dropped down to 4.0 mph and finished my time walking.

I guess I should be grateful that I can walk without pain (or even discomfort) but it is so frustrating. Hopefully my restraint today will pay off later this week.

Posted in Fitness | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Sticker Shock

Posted on September 26, 2010 by Coco

We are back from a college visit weekend at my son’s first choice for college. He is a junior and this would be “early” except that he wants to play college lacrosse, so apparently this is prime time. Colleges are making offers to promising athletes and juniors are “committing” now. If I knew my son would be in the first-round recruiting pool, I would have encouraged him to look harder at more schools this summer. As it is, he has his heart set on a school with a $52,000 price tag and no athletic scholarships.

I thought our son’s lacrosse prowess would make college more affordable, not less. It will be great for him to be recruited and avoid the stress of the college application process, but the stress on us will just start that much sooner. I guess we can start planning and budgeting now . . . .

On the other hand, it would be great to have a son playing college lacrosse, especially at a school within tailgating distance. That will give my husband and I a few more years before we have to rebuild our own social life.

Posted in Life | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Ow!

Posted on September 26, 2010 by Coco

We left the house at 5:45 am yesterday for a college visit road trip. It was dark. I was loaded down with my laptop bag, bag of water bottles, and bag of snacks. Did I say that it was dark? Well, I missed that little half step on our front walk and went down. Flat on my face. Well, actually I landed on all fours. My left knee took the brunt of the impact–even put a hole in my jeans. I also discovered (later, when the sun came up) that I scraped the tops of my feet (I was wearing sandle/mules) and totally ruined my pedicure!

I took a minute to catch my breath, mentally assess the damage and collect my stuff (Beau helped with that) and climbed in the car. We had an appt to make and I didn’t want to make us late.

Sitting in a car for 3 hours may not have been the best thing for my knee, but the rest of the day had lots of walking. My knee ached but did OK, although stairs were hard. By the end of the day I could see bruising and a bit of swelling, but nothing too gruesome.

Today I decided to check out the hotel gym. I did my usual 5 min walking warmup and then started to run at an easy pace, but that hurt. I could have pushed through it, but thought every stride could mean more swelling later. I tried the elliptical but that hurt too. So, back to the TM for some brisk walking.

I think my knee will be up to running by Tuesday. I may have to modify my weight routine tomorrow–not sure about lunges and squats. Best of all, my friend Beth made us pedi appts for Thursday, so then I will be as good as new!

Posted in Fitness | Tagged | 2 Comments