High Altitude Baking

Okay, so we live at about 4,500 feet above sea level. Not too high - but high enough that it takes longer to cook things like rice and pasta (water boils at a lower temperature here, so when you boil food you aren't cooking it at as high a temperature as you would if you boiled it at sea level so it takes longer to cook) and you have to adjust baking recipes. Generally I have found that lessening the sugar slightly, cutting down on leavening by about 1/4, increasing liquids by about a tablespoon per cup, and watching closely as you bake to prevent over or under baking works. My first batch of chocolate chip cookies here were a disaster - they tasted fine but crumbled like heck and looked terrible. My first pie crust was also pretty bad - it need a lot more moisture than I put in. (I doubled the amount of water in the recipe the next time and it turned out fine.) But I have one recipe that I have always been able to pull off fine here - Chocolate Zucchini Cake. It is a recipe from one of my members in my last church who had a huge organic garden in their back yard. And it is a moist, delicious, not-too-sweet chocolate cake. So, we are having the PNC and their families over for dinner Monday (Our second annual Labor Day BBQ dinner - BBQ as in W. is smoking 16 lbs of pork shoulders today to pull by hand and put on sandwiches. That is also really yummy, but another post). Everyone else is bringing the side dishes and such, but several people requested that I make another Chocolate Zucchini Cake like I did last year. (Lots of people are almost afraid to bake at this altitude because you have to change recipes and it takes some time and experimentation.) So, this morning M. and I made a Chocolate Zucchini Cake. It is a 2 layer cake and looked great going into the oven. Looked beautiful coming out of the oven - baked until just set but not dry. Then I (tried) to take them out of the pan. They look like this now:(Okay, I had actually eaten some of the crumbs before I took this picture, but you get the idea) I. am. so. mad. I forgot to grease or line the pans. They are non-stick, but for some reason of chemistry that I don't completely understand or want to explain, baked goods are more likely to stick at high altitudes. So you are supposed to always grease your pans. I know this -grrr. So, so it is time to go off to the grocery store and buy more buttermilk so we can make another one tomorrow. These are just too broken down the middle of each one to try to hide it with icing. This is why I decide to make it today, I guess. It does taste wonderful.........

update on life

So I haven't posted in about a month, but there has been so much to post about....I started this hoping to preserve some of the stories of my life with my daughters - so some of those stories mixed in with other comments about life in general....
- C, who is now 7 months old, has learned to sit up, crawl, crawl up stairs (!!! panic moment for mom !!!) and pull up to standing in the last month. Last 2 weeks for the crawling and pulling up. She is growing up so fast - and she is so cute right now.....This is one of several pictures that I can label with "we have one brave/dumb/patient cat" - it's a bit blurry because they both moved as I took it. C. loves to crawl up to the cats and dog and pet them. She is pretty good about not grabbing fur - but Knox (the one in this picture) is the only one who lets her get very close. Well, the dog does when he's asleep, but then he usually wakes up and moves pretty quick.
- Both my brother and my mom have visited in the last month. Here are pictures of them with the girls. We love having visitors - M. especially - so if anyone wants to come see the mountains, let me know.Uncle Will with the girls
Grandma Cindy and the girls

- We don't have a picture of my mom and the girls up in the mountains because we didn't get up to the mountains because I sliced off part of my left index fingernail and nail bed while cooking dinner last Monday and spent far too long trying to figure out the easiest way to get a tetanus shot. I realized that I don't have a general doctor here - I have my midwife, and a pediatrician for the girls, but not a general doctor for us adults. Hmmm....should probably get one of those.....before the next crisis comes up. My finger is healing fine, by the way. And I was thankful for Grandma Cindy being here to help with the girls when it hurt like hell to touch my left hand to anything for about 36 hours.

- I preached at a NCD (New Church Development for those who might not know the Presbyterian lingo) for the first time. This congregation began meeting last October - and is by far the most contemporary/emerging church church I've lead worship in. It was a fun experience - there is definitely a lot of energy moving in worship there that it would be nice to see in some of the more traditional churches I have preached in. And I have all sorts of reflections on what it means to be a church with no building.....they rent space in a movie theater for worship for 3 hours on Sunday morning - all the stuff for that is stored in a trailer that someone hauls to the theater each week and then home again. They have recently rented office space (for the first 9 months everyone worked out of their homes) but all their groups - Bible studies, mom's group, etc. - meet in non-traditional places - coffee shops, restaurants, people's homes. I left feeling like many of us who are used to a church with a permanent building are missing out on being Christians out in the world - being visible in living and talking about our faith. And I should point out that reading the Bible in a group in a public space is pretty daring in Utah - the LDS "church" (the quotation marks are intentional - trust me, it's not a Christian church) actively discourages people from reading the Bible. And if you are LDS and do read the Bible, then it's the KJV and very hard to understand.

- I have been sewing some things for M. for fall/winter and enjoying it. I am working on a third set of pajamas and have fabric to do 2 pairs of pants and 2 tops and her Halloween costume. I love my new sewing machine - I hope I can still say that when all this stuff is finished.

-It is bed time. I am exhausted and must sleep. C has been teething and so I have gotten less un-interrupted sleep than normal recently. Hopefully that will change soon (like tonight...I hope)

A Sermon

I don't write many sermons at this point - but I preached at my dh's church this morning and thought I would share - As background, W. is preaching about different symbols of the faith this summer. The church he serves is woefully ignorant of anything to do with liturgical seasons, symbols, anything like that - so W. is attempting to rectify that situation. The symbol for today was water....which becomes quite obvious on reading the sermon - so here goes. Scripture texts are 2 Kings 5:1-15, John 4:1-30.

When I was in middle school, my family took the first of 2 big vacation trips driving from our home in Indiana “out west.” I should point out that driving is a more apt description than vacation of our time away – we drove and drove and drove and saw many of the great national parks and other places of the western United States. The first trip, when I was in middle school, we left Indianapolis on the afternoon of July 1 and spent the day of July 4 in the Grand Canyon. I’ll let you figure out how many hours we spent in the car each day getting to the Grand Canyon – it was a lot. From the Grand Canyon we went to the California coast near San Diego and then wound our way up California, visiting family and national parks and zoos and such. One of the things I remember most about this vacation, however, is the drought the states we visited were experiencing that summer.

Growing up in Indiana where it is so humid in the summer that you can almost cut the air with a knife, I don’t remember there ever being a drought when I was young. I may have just been unaware, as I know there have been some dryer summers since then – but water conservation in practice all over the place was something new to me. I remember going to restaurants and having to request water at the table – and then getting a small glass which my father jokingly referred to as a shot glass of water and having to request more. I remember the signs and warnings about not starting fires in the backcountry at national parks because of the fire risk in dry conditions – something we know all too well this summer in Utah. And I remember that the whole point of our mad dash to get to the Grand Canyon on July 4 was to see fireworks over the canyon – which were cancelled because of lack of rain.

I also remember, from that same vacation, experiencing water in nature in amazing ways. Seeing the waterfalls at Yosemite National Park – even not at full capacity, they are beautiful. Seeing the Pacific Ocean – in all it’s fearsome grandeur – is another memory I have of water on that trip. And sitting in the blue seats at Sea World – the splash zone for those of you who haven’t been there – during the Shamu show – that’s another experience of water in abundance.

Water is all around us. Two-thirds of the earth’s surface is covered by water. Two-thirds of our bodies are water. Water, water, everywhere. It’s all over the Bible, too. In fact, Oremus Bible Browser comes up with 719 matches for water in the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. A few of those are in the apocrypha – the books that the Roman Catholic Church includes in scripture that protestant Christians generally don’t – but even so, there’s a lot of water in the Bible.

Our Old Testament lesson today is the story of Naaman the Aramean’s healing from leprosy. I love the all-too-real human qualities that the characters in this story have. There is Naaman, commander of the Aramean army – a mighty warrior who generally used to things going his way and lots of respect. There is the king of Israel – who is known to think he has to do everything himself and therefore panics easily. And there is Elisha the prophet, who speaks from a distance and whose commands save the day.

What happens in the story? Naaman’s wife has a servant from Israel, who tells her mistress that there is a prophet in Israel who could cure Naaman’s leprosy. So Naaman gets the word, talks to his king, and sets off for Israel bearing gifts meant to insure his healing. The king of Israel panics – you can imagine a lot of four-letter words being whispered under his breath as he asks, “What am I to do?” Elisha hears, and says – send him to me. Naaman shows up at Elisha’s house with his entourage and Elisha sends word to go and wash 7 times in the Jordan River.

Now it is Naaman’s turn to mutter 4-letter words and get raving mad. Elisha didn’t even come out to talk to him in person, after all – and he is important – he deserves personal attention from this prophet. And to wash in the Jordan – that dirty, unclean river. Rivers back in Damascus have cleaner water – surely if any water was going to cure Naaman, the waters from those rivers at home would do it.

It is Naaman’s servants who manage to talk some sense into him, saying basically, “This isn’t so hard, and it might work – why not try it before we go home?” So Naaman does – he immerses himself 7 times in the Jordan River and is made clean.

Wash and be clean – it is what we do with water many times a day – washing hands, washing dishes, washing clothes – maybe even washing the car. Wash and be clean – it is what we do with water by faith as well. Like Naaman, who washed in the Jordan, we are washed by water – and we become clean. We are restored to a state of purity when we are washed by the waters of baptism. While the symbolism in our tradition of dipping a bit of water on someone’s forehead for baptism may not be as dramatic as immersing them bodily into a swimming pool sized font, the message is the same. We are washed, we are made clean.

In John’s gospel we find our second sacred story this morning – the story of the woman at the well. She is a Samaritan, unclean, outcast in society by both her ethnic identity and by her actions of having 5 husbands. Jesus asks her for a drink and she is shocked – who would dare to cross the lines and ask this of her? And what does she have to offer – just some water from a well. Jesus knows who she is – not just her ethnicity but also her behavior – and offers her something that cannot come from an ordinary well. Living Water. Jesus says, “But those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” Living Water. Eternal Life. Never be thirsty again.

The Samaritan woman’s life is transformed by this encounter with Jesus and his gift of Living Water. She goes back to tell all whom she meets about this man, this Messiah come to bring Living Water, so that they might worship in spirit and in truth. Naaman’s life is transformed as well – he is cured of a disease that led to isolation in his time. Living Water. Transformation. New Life.

Much of our liturgy for today – the Call to Worship and the prayers we say in unison – comes from liturgies written for the celebration of baptism. Baptism is the central defining moment in our journeys as Christians – the moment when we say (or our parents say for us) that we will turn from the ways of evil and follow the way of Christ. Baptism is when we die to sin and are raised to new life. In the early church, baptismal fonts were often shaped like coffins to drive this point home – the candidate for baptism was immersed in a coffin of water and pulled up to a new way of life as a disciple of the Living Lord. And for us, in this day and age when powers and principalities that are not faithful to the gospel would claim our lives and corrupt our faith, our challenge is to live as those who have been baptized. To live as those who have drunk from that stream of Living Water – knowing that our salvation is assured by the grace of God. Knowing we are freed from worry – freed for loving action to bring that Living Water to the world. To turn from sin – to turn to new life – every day.
Our first semester of seminary we took a required course called “Baptism and Evangelical Identity” – I think Wade has mentioned this before. One of the books we read that semester told of a professor at a seminary who, every time it rained, would dash around campus without an umbrella and call out to everyone he met, “remember your baptism and be thankful!” Those words are included in the liturgy for baptism – addressed to the congregation – each time we see a new believer baptized we are to remember our own baptism and give thanks. Give thanks to the God who promises to transform our lives. Who gives us living water. Who frees us from whatever holds us back – stereotypes, mistakes, assumptions, guilt – frees us to live and love and serve. May we remember – and be thankful. Amen.

M's baptism

We baptized M., our 3 year old, yesterday. After having spent the last 4 years or so obsessing about how, when, and where we would do this, I am happy to say that it all went smoothly and felt right - which is what I was most worried about. We didn't baptize her as an infant for a variety of logistical reasons (having 4 churches that we were pastoring among the 2 of us and going back and forth about where to have it is the most obvious one) and this spring she said to me, in the midst of a conversation about her Sunday School class:

"Mommy, when was I baptized?"

"You haven't been baptized yet, sweetie."

(long pause as she contemplates this)

"Mommy?"

"Yes?"

"I want to be baptized!" (great emphasis on the 'want')

So, I told W. that night when he came home that he needed to talk to Session and get it on the calendar.

Anyway, we did the service of baptism together, basically alternating parts. He did the actual baptism (M. was pretty set on this) and I did the laying on of hands that comes right after. It was really a wonderful event for our family, and a great day for M. - one I am really thankful for. I will try to post a picture or two....

It was a beautiful thing....

It's Friday!

Not really sure that's a great title, but oh well. It is Friday - and it has been a pretty good week. I've been catching up on things around the house - mundane stuff that gets put off when you have company on and off for 2 weeks - and most of it is done. I am sitting out on the back patio now and it is actually pleasant at the moment. We had rain yesterday (first time in over a month I think) so it is a bit cooler. Our backyard is also mostly shaded in the mornings, which is nice. M. is playing in her new to her sandbox that some folks from church brought over last night. Their girls have out-grown it, so they passed it on to M., who loves it. C. is rolling around trying to figure out how to crawl over to the sandbox and play too, I think. C. will be 6 months old next week, and has been trying to figure out how to move since she was 3 days old. I am not kidding. The kid has figured out that everyone in the house but her can move independently and this will not do. She must be mobile like everyone else. She can roll over and scoot some - crawling is next I believe. W. is getting ready to take the cats (we have 3 - Luke, Knox, and Calvin - and a dog, Micah) for their annual vet visit. I just hope we can find all three and get them in their crates. M. has said she wants to go with Daddy to "help" with the cats, but now is not sure she wants to leave the new sandbox. We shall see......do you remember the days of childhood when there was never enough time to play? M. has also started calling herself "George" from time to time - after Curious George. I think it's funny - it's also really helpful in getting her to do things, because George will cooperate and do almost anything without a fight. So, when it's time to go and she doesn't want to put on her sandals, I ask, "is George coming in 2 minutes?" and she will say, "yes, Mommy" and go hide for about 30 seconds and then come out as George and get herself ready to leave. Ah, the imagination of a three year old!
More to write later, but C. is hungry, so I must go....

Cleaning Day

One of the things that I have learned in the last year or so that I have not been in formal ministry is that I need a routine to my days - it is far, far, far too easy to let every day be a pajama day and accomplish nothing. While pajama days are fun from time to time (M. loves them), too many lead quickly to a very yucky place mentally - not a good thing. So, Mondays are laundry day here, Tuesdays and Thursdays I go to a mom and baby exercise class, and Wednesdays are cleaning days. Gives me a reason to get up and going each day. W. is home on Fridays (his day off) and we try to do a family activity each Friday - hiking or the zoo or botanical gardens or something like that.
Anyway, I am about 1/2 way done with cleaning for the week. I have dusted and vacuumed the three bedrooms and living room and cleaned the bathroom. My allergies are kicking in and I'm hoping my asthma doesn't follow - air quality is terrible here right now because of the fires and all - if you've read about the big fire in Utah that jumped over I-15 this weekend we are just far enough away to not be in danger of evacuation but close enough to get a bunch of smoke in the air outside. I need to go clean the kitchen, dust and vacuum the dining room, and vacuum the stairs. If I can, I'd like to dust and vacuum the rooms in the basement (which is 85% finished and where we like to hang out in summer because it's actually cool down there) but that will depend on cooperation from the 2 little bodies who follow me around all day......

The girls

I know I have the cutest daughters in the world (no, I'm not biased....) and wanted to share a recent picture. M. is 3 and a half, C. is almost 6 months. Where does the time go? This was actually taken awhile ago - C. has grown a lot since this one.