Jerusalem Jackson Greer's Blog, page 18

A Family Lent – Week 4: Give

 “No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.”

― Charles Dickens

This is Week 4 in our journey through the season of Lent, and this week we are focusing on what it means to “Give.”

Giving tends to be a theme during Advent and Christmas, but we don’t always associate it with Lent, when we find ourselves thinking more about what we should give up and less about what we could give away.

Thinking through the sorts of things that we might be able to give as a family and as individuals I tried to focus on what sort of physical or emotional gifts we could give that would bring a smile to those we encounter this week. I wanted to find a way to live out those words of Charles Dickens – to find ways to lighten the burdens of others.

This week is the second week of standardized testing for our kids, there is a forecast full of rainy days for the coming week, tax season is in full swing, and Easter seems as if it might never get here. Considering all of these factors, I determined that the four things our family could give that might mean the most this week are: smiles, hugs, encouraging words and snacks.

Which led us to making soft pretzels. Because pretzels bring about at least three of our four challenges – they are a snack, they look like a hug, and they make most everyone smile.  So this weekend our family learned how to make these edible hugs, which turned out to be surprisingly easy and incredibly delicious. Miles and I made the dough, then during family movie night we all worked on rolling and shaping the pretzels into their criss-cross shape. And after just a few minutes in the oven, we had a yummy post-movie snack, and gift to give friends on Monday.

 

HOMEMADE PRETZELS RECIPE

Yield: 12 pretzels

INGREDIENTS

4 tsp yeast

1 tsp sugar

1 1/2 cup warm water

5 cups flour

1/4 cup white sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 T olive oil

1/4 cup baking soda

2 cup hot water

kosher salt

1-2 TBSP butter, melted (optional)

DIRECTIONS

First proof your yeast. To do this mix 4 tsp of yeast and 1 tsp sugar with 1 1/2 cups of warm water. Allow to stand for 5-10 minutes until mixture becomes foamy.

Next, in a large bowl, mix together flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt. Add in oil and mix by hand. Add in yeast mixture and use a stand mixer to thoroughly mix dough together. Add in an extra water, 1 tbsp at a time if dough is too dry to work with. Knead for about 5 minutes  with your stand mixer or for 7 minutes by hand. Dump mixture onto a slightly floured kitchen towel.  Form into a ball and lightly cover the ball with olive oil. Place the dough in large bowl and place a damp towel over the top. Place in a warm area (I often place the bowl on top of my oven while it pre-heats) and allow to double in size.

In a medium bowl, mix baking soda and hot water together. Preheat oven to 450F.

Once dough has doubled in size, form into a log shape. Cut into 12 equal pieces, roll out each piece like you are making a play-dough snake.  Form the dough into a hug, or criss cross shape.

Dip pretzels in the baking soda/water mixture and place on greased baking sheet (6 pretzels per sheet). Sprinkle with kosher salt.

Bake in oven for 8 minutes until lightly browned. Remove from oven and brush with melted butter.

Let cool completely before wrapping individual  pretzels in small treat bags to give away to friends, neighbors or co-workers.

 

Oh, and make sure to save a few pretzels, hugs, smiles, and kind words to give each other as well.   You never know when someone in your own home could use a little extra lovin.

 

Pretzel making not your thing? That’s ok – here a few other ways to talk about and practice creative giving this week:

Watch

Nacho Libre

Do

The Reverse Lent Challenge

Read

Stone Soup by Heather Forest and Susan Gaber

The Girl and the Bicycle by Mark Pett

Strangers At My Door – Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

 

Are you creating A Family Lent box to keep tactile reminders of your Lenten practice in? If so, for this week ‘s theme Give, have family members write an encouraging note or draw a picture for one another telling what it is that they love or admire about each person.  Add them to the box during the week, and on Sunday take all the notes out to read. Another idea is to put a list in the box of all the people you gave pretzels, hugs, smiles, or encouraging words to during the week.

I just want to tell you each how glad I am that you are here, how encouraging to me each of your visits are, and how much I have loved sharing this Lenten journey with you!

Much love,

J

PS -Want to see ideas from the previous two weeks? Here they are:

A Family Lent Week 1 – Surrender

A Family Lent Week 2 – Pray

 A Family Lent Week 3 – Thanks

 

Enjoying this series? Looking for more ways to practice faith at home?

Try A Homemade Year: The Blessings of Cooking, Crafting, and Coming Together 

(rumor has it the Kindle version is on $2.99!)

Filed under: Blog, Faith, Family, Feast Tagged: craft, featured, Lent

Shauna Niequist – A Faith, Art, and Motherhood Interview

 

This is my friend Shauna.

She is beautiful and amazing. Wise and talented.

Shauna is one of those friends that I have only ever corresponded with, and haven’t  (yet!) had the chance to hug in person. (Although I have met her husband and mother. Now isn’t that funny?) One day our stars will align and I will sit in her kitchen and let her cook me an amazing feast. Or maybe she will sit in mine and I will fill her belly with my Granny Mary’s Chicken and Dumplins… Someday.

I discovered Shauna’s books several years ago and was immediately smitten. When I am reading her books I imagine that we are having a conversation and that I am simply listening intently to her stories, while eating pie. My copies of her books are marked and highlighted and often quoted. When I was writing A Homemade Year I made a wish list of who I wanted to ask about for endorsements, never dreaming that they would all say yes. Shauna was on that list, and I will forever be grateful.  Not only did she write the loveliest endorsement, but she also chatted me up on her blog.

Today I am celebrating the release of Shauna’s newest book, Savor, by posting this interview with her about the intersection of Faith, Art, and Motherhood in her life. I think you will find her spirit and her words to be as beautiful as I do.

So without further adieu – Ms. Niequist:

Blog Name: shaunaniequist.com

Art Form: Writer (Shauna Niequist is the author of Bread & Wine, Bittersweet, and Cold Tangerines and today her book Savor is released!)

Kids Ages: Henry is 8, and Mac is 3.

Relationship Status: Married to Aaron, a musician and pastor and incredible dad

Other Job(s) besides blogging/creating: Guest teacher at my church

Expression of Faith: Non-denominational church that my parents started the year before I was born.

Where Do You Live? In a little house in the suburbs of Chicago, on the same street as my brother.

Questions:

How did you find your creative niche? Was this something you have always done, or did you fall into it by accident?

My mom is a reader and a writer, and she raised me on books and stories. I’ve always loved to read, and books have been my guides all my life. I wanted to be a part of that, to create something that would make someone feel less alone, the way so many books made me feel less alone.

Where do you create? Office? Kitchen table? 

On our couch, under a blanket, next to the window, laptop on my knees.

Do you create best in solitude or in the middle of chaos? 

I like a life full of chaos and noise and people and parties, but I can only write in silence. So the rest of our life is really noisy, and then when it’s writing time, I carve out quiet.

How does your faith influence your creative process?

My faith influences everything, and I feel like it’s hard to talk about marriage without talking about forgiveness, which is really about trusting that God can change us. It’s hard to talk about parenting without talking about fear, which is really about believing that God sees us and keeps us safe. So I write about God as I write about everything else—love, family, the table, fear, anxiety. It’s all connected.

How does your creative process influence or enrich your faith?

I don’t know what I think or feel until I write, and especially when I’m feeling anxious, writing reconnects me back to my faith and my awareness of God’s goodness and presence.

Sometimes I feel as if writing, parenting, and the practicing my faith are all drawing from the same well inside me, that they tax the same part of my heart. This means that quite often I find that I have depleted all of my resources pouring into just one of the three, leaving the other two wanting.  Do you have this same issue, or is it just me? 

I think maybe I feel the opposite—that one fills the other, and that I’m always dipping from the overflow of one to water & nourish the other.

 

What do you do to recharge, or refill the well,

 In your creative process?

Read, read, read.

In your parenting?

Write…alone.

In the practicing of your faith?

Connect with my people, through prayer & conversation.

Do you have any advice for other mom’s out there who are also trying to learn how to live out their callings as artist, mothers and followers of Christ? What is something you wish someone had told you earlier on?

Make the time to create, every week, even if it’s just for an hour. Put it on the calendar like a dentist appointment, and keep it like you would a dentist appointment. And if you’re having a hard time doing that, meet up with someone to write or paint or edit photos, and let peer pressure work in your favor.

What are some specific challenges you are facing right now in all three of these areas? 

Sheesh: do any of us have enough time? It there such a thing as enough time? In this season, i’m trying to be ruthless about things that don’t need to be done in order to be really present in a quality way to the people I love, the work I love, and the practices of faith that connect me to God. I want to be ruthless, focused, completely simple—and then I think: I should learn how to make a real cassoulet. Ten hours later, kitchen a disaster, I realize I have a long way to go toward ruthless & simple.

 

Easter is coming up – are there any practices or traditions surrounding Easter that you celebrate at home with your kids that you would encourage other parents to try?

Oh, I could use some suggestions. I feel like we’re just getting the hang of a meaningful Advent & Christmas season, and I’d love some ideas for how to walk well with our boys through Lent and Easter.

How can I, and my readers, pray for you?

Thank you! I’d love your prayers for courage toward that ruthlessly simple, deeply connected life. It’s so easy for me to say too many yeses, to want to please people and be responsible and helpful. And when I do that too much, the writing suffers, the time I spend with my boys suffers. It’s not worth it to me, and I’m trying, in this season, to unlearn a lifetime of those patterns.

Is there anything else you would like to share with my readers regarding the interplay of art, faith, and parenthood in your life? Any experiences or practices you would like to share?

Art, faith, and parenthood are the three most transforming forces in my life. They’re costly, and they’re worth it—every second, every hard choice, every bedtime prayer. This is the good stuff.

Thanks so much to Shauna for taking time to answer my questions during this busy season and thanks to all you other creative momma’s out there who keep me inspired and encouraged!

Now go eat something scrumptuous and grab a copy of Savor!

XO

J

Other Faith, Art, and  Motherhood Interviews can be found HERE (including Sarah Bessey, Christa Wells, Megan Tietz and more!)

Filed under: Blog, Faith Tagged: At the Intersection, featured, Motherhood

A Family Lent – Week 3: Thanks

Today begins Week 3 of our A Family Lent series, and this weeks theme is “Thanks.”

Focusing on giving thanks  may seem an odd choice for Lent when all is bareness and sacrifice, but I think it is an important mid-way stop in our Lenten Journey. Thinking about giving thanks can help us refocus on why we observe Lent in the first place (because let’s face it  – by now we are getting a little weary of this 40 day journey,) and  why we have chosen to enter the wilderness at all.  What better time to contemplate giving thanks, than when we are feeling just a wee bit “over it?”

Every Sunday at our church we pray a prayer of confession that begins with these words…

Most merciful God,

we confess that we have sinned against you

in thought, word, and deed,

by what we have done,

and by what we have left undone.

It is that last sentence that gets me every time, as it is the things that I have left undone that sting the most, and it is the sentence that speaks to me of thanksgiving. It reminds me of all those times I have failed to be grateful. Those moments when I have left something kind unsaid out of laziness or pride. Those times when I didn’t love my neighbor or go out of my way to be helpful or to show mercy.

Lent is a season of repentance, and recalibration. It is an opportunity to spend time reflecting on the good things in our lives that we take for granted, and to repent of our un-gratefulness and lack of attention to them. It is a chance to repent for all the times we haven’t been thankful, and to begin again to live a life that reflects our thankfulness in word and deed.

I recently read the following statement on the Humans of New York Facebook Page -

I  wish I’d had more of an instinct for expressing love to my wife when I was younger. It was so much simpler than I realized. It can be as simple as, ‘Honey, I’m going to make myself some coffee, would you like some too?’ Or: ‘Do you need me to help put those groceries away?’ – Humans of New York

This to me is a perfect example of “the things we have left undone,” and it is the perfect example of how there are opportunities to show our thanks all around us all the time. This week as your family makes its way through another week of Lent, consider focusing on how you can each give thanks through word and deed. Take some time – while walking the dog, or folding the laundry, or making dinner – to talk about what the things are that you each leave undone and how you can change that. Ask the question “Do we live lives that reflect thankfulness?” then celebrate the ways in which you do, and spend some time brainstorming on how you can improve on the ways you fall short.

 

6 Ways to Give Thanks This Week

1. Make little thank you notes to leave for all the people who help you in your life – Teachers, Janitors, Mail Man, Babysitters, Pastors, Priest, Health Professionals, Admin Assistants, Principles, Housekeepers, Store Clerks, School Cafeteria workers, Trash Collectors, Waitresses, Coaches…. You can use these Printable Thank You notes. There are styles for every age and style.

2. Offer to help someone with a chore or job that is hard or outside your comfort zone. Tell them thanks for all the times they do it alone or unnoticed. There is no better way to learn thankfulness than to walk in someone elses shoes.

3. Donate hours to a group who helps make your community a better place – Animal Shelters, After-School Programs, Food Banks, Soup Kitchens, Schools, Churches, Museums. Take a batch of warm cookies or bread with you for all the workers who are there serving each and every day.

4. Practice giving thanks on social media. Make signs that say “Thank You for Being You,” take pictures of your families holding the signs and tag people in your post who might often be overlooked, who don’t get a lot of online strokes. Link to post about things you are thankful for, or ask everyone in your house to post at least one “thanks” on social media each day this week.

5.Try and say a prayer of thanksgiving as a family once a day – at the dinner table, in the car on the way to school, or at bedtime. For bigger kids, think about printing out the prayer above (or another of your choosing) and sticking it in the front of their notebooks. Ask them to read & pray it silently throughout the day, and then talk about what impact it has on their day.

6. Give everyone a pad of Post-It notes. Have them write “Thanks!” on every note (or you can do this for smaller kids.) Then challenge them to tag all the places where they feel thankful throughout the week. Ask them to think about what life would be like without certain luxuries – running water, the internet, education, food in the fridge… Ask them to try to be extra aware of all the good things in their lives and then to leave a note of thanks in those places.  They can then “tag” toys and other items in the house that they are thankful for, they can tag your car, o their play set, their books, the television, their bed, their iPod, their closet…. You can even take the notes into the community – leave sticky notes at the at the library, work, school, or at a favorite store. The list could go on and on of places to leave these little notes. The goal is to create a visual reminder of how many good things there in our lives. If we all did this seriously for one week, I wonder what our homes and communities would look like – would it be a festival of stickys? I hope so!

Here are a few other ways to inspire your practice of Thanks this week:

Movie to Watch:

Groundhog Day – Teen and Up

Mary Poppins – All Ages

 

Books to Read:

Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson – 8 yrs and up

Winnie the Pooh – A.A. Milne – All Ages

The Giving Tree – Shel Silverstein – All Ages

Help, Thanks, Wow – Anne Lamott – Older Teen and up

 

Crafts to Make:

Give Thanks Printable

Thankful Garland

 

Are you creating A Family Lent box to keep tactile reminders of your Lenten practice in? If so, for this week ‘s theme Thanks, make a list of all the things you are thankful for and add it to the box. Or collect all your sticky notes at the end of the week from around the house and add them (Make sure to write where you found them on each note!)

Have a good week friends!

J

PS -Want to see ideas from the previous two weeks? Here they are:

A Family Lent Week 1 – Surrender

A Family Lent Week 2 – Pray

 

 

Looking for more ways to practice faith at home? Try A Homemade Year: The Blessings of Cooking, Crafting, and Coming Together

(rumor has it the Kindle version is on $2.99!)

Filed under: Blog, Faith, Family Tagged: craft, Holiday, Lent

I've Moved!

My new address is http://JerusalemGreer.com
I figured while I was moving houses and jobs, I might as well go ahead and move blogs as well!
And like at my house and my job, I still have some settling in to do over at my new web home - but I couldn't wait any longer to share this change with my favorite peeps.
So come on over y'all, the weather is fine!

It's that time of year - AWBU!

So September is almost here and that means three things: 1) My birthday is coming, 2) Nathan's birthday is coming, and 3) It's AWBU time!
The Arkansas Women Bloggers University Conference is one of those events I look forward too every year. I love getting to catch up with all of my blogger friends from around the state, and the encouraging camaraderie that goes on - not to mention the fun speakers and sessions. This year I am going to miss the Sunday sessions because we are kicking off our new Family Formation (aka Sunday School) classes at church, BUT I get to go to Foodie Friday which I have never been able to attend before.



Taste Arkansas  is tthe sponsor again this year of the Arkansas Women Bloggers University (#AWBU) Foodie Friday event, September 5, in Rogers, AR which I think is a great fit because it marries so many of my loves - farms, food, AWB...Arkansas Farm Bureau’s Taste Arkansas blog is an effort to connect those interested in food preparation with the farmers and ranchers who provide us with an abundance of Arkansas agricultural products. Since March of 2014,  Arkansas Women Bloggers  have provided all recipes and content for this site, and I have been honored to write a Hospitality column  last spring for ToA.
I am also speaking on Saturday on the writing panel which promises to be lots of fun - though I wish I could duplicate myself so that I could be in Alison's session too at the same time.
If you are coming to the conference let me know - I would love to hug your neck!
Peace friends,J

Renters, Week 2 Begins

Well, Week 1 in the Rent House has passed.We are into week two.I feel like a month has passed at least. Maybe three months.A week? How is that possible?
This weekend I discovered that Washi tape is a renters friend.I also hung a few "things" on the wall - i.e.  whatever random items where packed last or just thrown in the car at the last minute.However, I cannot find a good place for all the cookie sheets. Would under the sofa be a bad idea?
I have only muttered the words "I hate this" once.So that's good.
The "poster" above is a scrapbook page, torn out of a collection. It sums up best where I am right now and is a good reminder for when I grow impatient with our limbo.
Because honestly, the best thing about this move has been how our little family has adapted.Sticking together.Being together.Living together. It really is what makes a house a home - this being together in it.
But don't let me paint too pretty a picture.We are all desperately counting down the days till the Internet man comes (3.)We are a wired family and I think all of us would argue that while being together makes a house a home, having wireless Internet is what makes our home happy to be in.Don't judge.
In other news, the search is still on for a farm.So many questions to sort through.The options are not vast in this area for our needs/budget so we Sweet Man and I are crunching numbers and looking at all the possible scenarios.This is our third house and our first acreage. I feel like I know a lot about how to pick the first and very little about the second.Sometimes this process is exciting, sometimes it is exhausting.But in the end it will be worth it.(Remind me if I start to complain too much, OK?)
Meanwhile I am going to go wrestle some boxes of books for the boys out of the storage unit.Wish me luck!
xoJ

Happy Birthday Julia!

(wonderful Julia image found here)
Happy 102 Julia!You continue to inspire and charm me.
Long live the love of butter!
- J

Upside Down

Yesterday a friend sent me an email checking in on some things I was supposed to finish and she graciously gave me an out by saying "I am sure things in your life are upside down right now."
Which is the absolute truth.Things are all upside down right now, and never more so than yesterday.
Yesterday the moving caught up with me.I was tired.I was cranky.I was mad about all the things that got put into storage instead of into our rent house (the boys fav toys, my good camera, the peanut butter...)I was impatient with myself.I was worn threadbare in all the wrong places.
The truth is that  I had been all of these things for days, but I  kept shoving them to the back of the to-take-care-of list, in favor of more urgent task.
Getting beds made (yes our mattresses are on the floor on purpose. Since we don't know how long we will be renting we went with minimal furniture. It is sort of like camping inside. Fun! Right?)
Unpacking the kitchen (I have way more plates than a family of four needs. Miraculously it all just fit.)
Making sure we had toilet paper.
Buying more peanut butter.
Going to work.
Monitoring homework (a little trickier without our Internet set up yet.)
But by the end of yesterday I was fini.The steak we had for dinner time we had dinner may have been medium rare, but I was well done.All of the exhaustion and holding-it-together came apart at the seems.
So as soon as the dishes hit the sink I vamoosed.I poured myself a jelly jar full of boxed red wine, adjusted our fancy new rabbit ears on the television, got into bed and proceeded to watch network television in real time for the first time in years.The Mindy Project? Adorbs. Person of Interest? I can't decide. I think I like it?Also, local news? Oh my golly, it is so depressing.
Eventually I fell asleep and today I woke up feeling better.Not quite right side up but I am getting there.
Moving is hard y'all.Moving into a temporary situation is hard.Moving while balancing work and kids and school and pets and missing boxes is hard.
As is typical, I am learning another facet of being present. Of going slow. Of not pushing myself too hard.
I tend to forget that there is no shame in being tired.That time and space is needed to adjust to big life changes, and pushing through like nothing has changed doesn't do me any good. 
I tend to forget that I am human and that I have limits. Limits that are different from other peoplesAnd that there is no shame in that either.
So here is to this season of upside down being.To going slow.To taking my time adjusting.To being upside down as long as needed.
peace and blessings-J

SOLD

This weekend, after 11 memorable, lovely, hard won, beautiful, exhausting, amazing, fun, and work- filled years, ( almost to the day,) we said goodbye to life on Ridge Road.
We have sold our house to a lovely young couple who we are happy to know love the house as much as we did.We have signed the papers, and moved out of our sweet little Casa d'Lovely and onto a new -albeit somewhat unknown - adventure.
It is all at once sad and exciting. Heartbreaking and inspiring. Happy and bittersweet.
We are currently in a rental while we  we look for our little farm of dreams.We are grateful beyond measure to be able to catch our breath for bit between permanent homes - as we are sure that our farm of dreams will require much TLC (most places we love do,) - but we are also extremely curious about what the future holds.
Limbo and I have never been great pals, but it looks like I better make friends with him if I want to survive this next season of our life.
As St. Dolly once said, " You cannot control the wind, but you can adjust the sails." 
Time to do some adjusting!
xoJ

these are the days

Y'all I have been soaking up summer best I can.I have been:Getting into the new job groove.Packing boxes.Picking beans.Taking naps.Staying up too late.Listening to beautiful books while I clean the never-ending closets out.Celebrating and being celebrated.Slowing down.Sitting still.Enjoying.
It's a good season.
I am so very thankul for it's gifts.