Summer@Home: I'm a Bad Christian

Confession: I make Christians blush.

I find this terribly amusing since I am one.

But sometimes I don't act like it. And that's a good thing. At least in my over-rationalizing mind it is.

I have many dear, amazing, wonderful, godly, funny, sweet Christian friends who have been Christians all their lives. Who have never known a life of debauchery and deep personal sin and been heartbroken over it. That is not to say they haven't had struggles. I know they have ... struggles I'm not sure I could handle. Struggles they could only handle because of their faith. But our life stories, while they ended up at the same place, had very different paths.

So sometimes, frankly, I identify with non-Christians more readily than Christians.  

Didn't Jesus dine with tax collectors and prostitutes?

Kind of like when I was under 30 and a single mom. I identified more with the "mid-singles" group at church than I did the "young singles" group. While my age classified me as one, my life didn't.

I like friends that I can laugh with, til wine squirts out our noses.

Oh, crud. I just admitted that I drink wine. (And beer. And sangria. Oh, golly, do I like a good sangria. Read all about it here.)

Does that make me a bad Christian?

Summer@Home: The Bliss of NOT Being at Home

We went on vacation this summer.

To many people, that's not a monumental statement. However, we don't actually go on vacation very often. We visit family at their homes. Or we visit family homes when the owners are not there. But I can only count three real vacations we've been on since Herb and I were married just over 10 years ago. This year was one of them.

Our oldest, Ian, is going to college in the fall. So honestly, we don't know how many more of these "everyone is here together at the same time" vacations we're going to have. So we splurged and went to Hilton Head Island for a week. It was my favorite vacation spot when I was growing up. I had so many fond memories of Hilton Head that I wanted to share it with my kids.

One of the things I didn't really expect was how freeing it was for me to be on vacation with the family. Other than the drive up and back — which Herb had to do on his own — it was easy for me to forget that I couldn't drive. For the most part, when we went anywhere, we were all going together. No disappointments for the kids from hearing, "I'd love to take you, but I can't because Dad's not here."

And we were bicycling distance from the grocery store.  Hallelujah and pass the peanuts! I could go to the grocery store. By. My. Self. I'm not sure that I ever actually did. But just knowing that I could was enough.

And it was a Piggly Wiggly, no less! You can't beat that with a stick.

[Piggly Wiggly ... yet another amazing memory from my childhood! But I'll write about that another time.] 

There were two particularly memorable events from our vacation that I'd like to share.

Summer@Home: How NOT to Run Fast

First of all, I apologize for wimping out. I've stopped counting the days of my Summer@Home because it just served to remind me that there have been too many days between posts.

Which means that I'm not writing enough.

Which means that I'm frittering the summer away this year just like every other frickin' year.

I don't need the guilt, so I stopped counting.

Sue me.

Anyway, one thing I have been doing this summer is attempting to get back into shape. After my little "episodes" got under control and I got my sea legs again, I decided to start running. So, not wanting to take it slowly or anything, I signed up for the Peachtree Road Race.

Summer@Home Day 44 — Meet Diane

Day 44
Yesterday evening, I bought a car. You may be thinking, "That's an odd thing for a person who is legally prohibited from driving to do."

You see, my car died a little while back. You can read her obituary here. Thelma was a good girl and served our family well. But when she breathed her last on the side of Highway 9 in Roswell, we knew that it was not in our future to try to resuscitate her. Again. So we had her towed to No Longer Bound where she is now a member of their "Cars for Recovery" program.

But we leave on vacation on Saturday, and  not too long ago it occurred to us that we would need to rent something to drive. Thelma had always been our go-to girl for family trips. Just last summer we drove to Maine and back with all four boys, our dog, five bikes and three kayaks. Herb's sedan just wouldn't cut it, even with just the boys and dog. So we rented a minivan. For more than $500. 

I almost cried.

Five hundred dollars to rent a car I didn't want? I mean, heck. I couldn't even write it off as an extended test drive. I've decided I'm an SUV girl, not a minivan girl. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) But that $500 could be put towards a car I really did want.

That pissed me off just a little.

OK. More than a little.

Summer@Home Day 26 — Can Lightning Strike Twice?

Day 26
Words should be measured carefully before they are spoken. Frequently you do not know their import until it is too late. Once said, they cannot be unspoken, no matter how much we wish it were so.

Let me explain...

When I was pregnant with my now seven-year-old, we went to a Braves game. Now, you must understand that I am a huge Braves fan. Obsessive, some would say. Given the opportunity I would rather be at Turner Field than just about anywhere else. 

However, in this particular instance it was a day game in late June. I was six months pregnant, and I was ready to go home. We were on the right side of a 4-0 shutout going into the eighth, so it looked good for an on-time departure. 

Until the Orioles scored in the top of the 8th. And then three more times in the top of the 9th. By the bottom of the 9th, our four-run lead had disintegrated into a tie ballgame. 

Late June in Atlanta when you're very pregnant is enough to make even the most die-hard baseball fan weary.
 

Andruw Jones

Andruw Jones led off the inning, and the fans in the stadium rose as one. He was still in his prime and a force to be reckoned with at the plate. He and the longball were well acquainted. Exactly the person you wanted at bat at a time like this.

At that moment I spoke words that live with me to this day. 

"Andruw Jones, If you hit a home run right now, I'll name my baby after you!"

I screamed. I chopped. I prayed.

Summer@Home Day 25: Making Ghee

Day 25
One consequence of not driving is that I'm at the mercy. Of whom or what varies from day to day. Sometimes it's my schedule ... or  someone else's. Sometimes it's circumstances (like getting stranded at Publix). And sometimes it's a craving and a recipe.

Um... a recipe?

Yes. A recipe.

You see, I love Indian food. Samosas. Chicken Tikka Masala. Lentil Soup. Things made with goat and curry and ingredients I can't readily identify.

Sing with me now ... These are a few of my favorite things!

But I don't really dare trying to make anything that exotic at home. I'm a Nervous Nellie when it comes to cooking ethnic foods. I figure there's always something the recipe isn't telling you, that I would know instinctively if my name were different. But I'm one of "you white people" as one of my Indian friends calls me. So I feed my cravings at various Indian restaurants in the area.

A few days ago I logged onto AllRecipes.com and I saw this:

Their featured recipe was Curry Stand Chicken Tikka Masala in all its day-glo organge glory. Five stars out of five, based on 111 reviews.

Side note: The reviews are always my litmus test. If I'm looking at two recipes and one has 5 stars based on 500 reviews and one has 5 stars based on 2, I'll go with the 500. Call me a sheep. I don't care.

Do I dare? 

Summer@Home Day 12 — Not Stranded Anywhere

Day 12
I haven't driven since February 10 due to a medical condition. Many days I have felt trapped in my own house. There have been days I not only didn't go anywhere ... I didn't step outside.

Today was not one of those days, although it easily could have been.

My husband left for Maine today. Our oldest is graduating from high school on Sunday — long story as to why I'm not going, too — so I'm at home with the other kiddos for 48 hours and no wheels. Did we sit around the house all day?

Nope.