Grille 29
We tried another new restaurant with friends a few weeks ago — Grille 29 in the Village of Providence. The best parts of the meal, for myself, were the appetizer and the dessert. My entree, the Chicken Parmesan, was pretty good, but the gorgonzola fondue was delicious. I had never had gorgonzola before, but it turned out to be a very flavorful, sharp cheese with a nice tangy taste. The breadsticks were dusted lightly with parmesan for subtle flavor and texture. Yum, I want to eat it again!
Gorgonzola Fondue
As good as the fondue was, the best part of the meal was no doubt, hands down, the banana soufflé. Mmmm. I can still recall to memory just how adoringly yummy it was. My mouth waters just thinking about it. I’m not a big dessert person but this one was to die for! Seriously. Sweet, creamy, warm, and rich banana taste. It’s worth going back again for the dessert alone.
Banana Soufflé
In addition to food, while not as swank as Dolce, the ambience at Grille 29 is intimate enough for a romantic date but also casual enough for dinner with friends or small groups.
Chicken Parmesan over cavatapi
Filet "29"
“I was being pulled relentlessly forward, not by my own will … and not by the people who needed me … but by some other implacable gravitational force, over the horizon or buried in the center of the earth. It frightened me, but there was no resisting it.”
– Julie & Julia
Lead Me To The Cross
For more than three years I’ve lived around the corner from these crosses. I pass them at least once a week, sometimes more, depending on what’s going on. I pass them on the way to the elementary school, to the baseball fields, to Bunco. But as can happen in life, the things we see all the time can become invisible to us.
Thursday morning of this week was supposed to be a “normal” morning, meaning John takes Finn to school, I take Caden to daycare, and then each of us go to work. But it ended up that Finn hadn’t completed his math homework, I was running late packing his lunch, so I told John just to go on and I’d take both boys.
If it had been a “normal” morning I wouldn’t had been taking Finn to school and wouldn’t have driven past the crosses. With the awesome Bible study from Wednesday still on my mind and my iPod tuned to some good uplifting praise music, I got to the place where the crosses are and I was drawn to them. I’m doing a 365 photo-a-day project and thought the crosses would make a nice photo of the day. Since I was going to have to pass back by them after dropping Finn at school, I decided that on my way back toward town I’d make a quick stop, hop out of the car, and take a picture.
This is the first picture that I took. I literally, parked the car, got out, pointed my iPhone toward the crosses and snapped. (Well, you don’t really “snap” on the iPhone, but you get the idea.)
I didn’t like that you could see the building in the background, and it just seemed a little too far away. So I walked closer and took this photo.
It was OK, but you can still see the building. To get the building not to show I was going to have to get closer. The crosses are raised on a two-foot platform, so I stepped up on to the platform and walked to the foot of the cross. Now, to get the whole thing in the shot, I was going to have to kneel down. I did, and this was my next shot.
At this point I’m literally kneeling at the foot of the cross. I look up and I see a nail sticking out of side. Such a symbol of love and sacrifice, the cross and the nail. I needed that and He brought me there.
As I was leaving, I looked back one more time and I noticed a bench to side of the platform, inviting those driving by to come and sit at the foot of the cross.
Meeting Peyton
A future quarterback?
This is the story about the time I met Peyton Manning. Technically Finn met him too but he doesn’t remember it.
In the summer of 2003 I was a new mom — Finn was a month old. We were moving back to Alabama the following week, but the one big thing that had to be wrapped up before we could go was John’s Master’s thesis. It was written, but the review process involved multiple professors and we had less than a week to do it.
So for several days I made the two-hour trek from our home in Bloomington to Terre Haute, to the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, from where John was receiving his Master’s and where the Indianapolis Colts hold their annual training camp. My job consisted of taking the thesis to the appropriate person and then waiting for them to read it.
It was summer, so the campus was devoid of regular student traffic. One of these days I strolled (literally, pushing Finn in the big Graco stroller) into the student union, which in the dead of summer resembled a ghost town. We camped out in the lobby, hanging out on a nice little couch where I could sit and read while Finn napped.
We hung out there for several hours, totally unnoticed. For hours not a single person walked by.
Then I heard a commotion. People were coming. I kept reading, not even looking up. The two characters walked by to an elevator that was apparently behind me. They weren’t talking as they passed by but struck up a conversation while waiting for the elevator.
That’s when I recognized one of the voices. I’d heard it before. On TV. I strained my ear to hear, not daring to turn around. Where did I know that voice. Oh, wait, yeah, that sounds like Colts then-coach Tony Dungy. Tony Dungy? Yeah, right, I’m crazy. What would he be doing here. Must have been somebody else.
Note: Let me say, that at this point, I was not aware that the Colts training camp was at Rose-Human. And if I was, I was already suffering from mommy brain, which causes you to forget everything you ever knew and everything you ever will know, and I didn’t remember.
So, the allotted amount of time passes and I start to pack up our things to go retrieve John’s paper from this last reviewer. I start to head out the main door of the student union and encounter double doors — the kind like at malls where you have to go through one set of doors, a foyer, then another set. Being a new mom and all, and thus new at this stroller thing, I wasn’t very good at it. I’ve since become an expert, mastering the art of opening and holding doors while pushing a stroller or cart — nowadays I only take help to be polite to the person who is trying to help someone they deem to be struggling. In reality, I’ve got it down pat. But this day was probably my first time to attack double doors with a stroller.
So here we go, I push open door 1, push the stroller over the first bumpy threshold, then cross into the foyer myself. Whew. We made it into the foyer, only one more door to go. I start to do this all over again when the stroller wheels goes awry. In my attempt to recover the stroller the door starts to close back and yeah, I’m struggling. But in true strong southern woman pride, with God as my witness I’m going to make it through this door, when, lo and behold, someone catches the door and holds it open for me. I’m so grateful I don’t even look up. I wrangle the stroller back on course and through the door and say thank you as I walk through the open door. The person says you’re welcome.
Now I don’t know if I’d ever heard Peyton Manning say the words “you’re welcome” in any of his ESPN interviews, but on this day, that’s all it took for me to know who was standing there. I stopped. I looked over my shoulder and I looked up, and sure enough, it was him. I had to say something right? I mean, this was Peyton Manning. So I said, “Are you Peyton Manning?” you know, just in case I was wrong. In a voice that sounded like Cush on Jerry Maguire he said he was. I proceeded to tell him what a big fan my husband was, that he had watched him in his college days at Tennessee and that now we were big Colts fans. He said thank you and mumbled something else about appreciating the support of the fans, I think. I didn’t catch it because at this point I was star-struck and I was kicking myself for saying the same things that probably everyone who’s ever met him says.
And then he was gone. He walked through the doors from where I had just come and was gone. I kick myself for not having anything on which to get an autograph — the only thing I had was diapers (clean ones even!), but no pen or marker. And really, asking the great Peyton Manning to sign a diaper? How humiliating. But can you imagine having a Peyton-autographed diaper? If I did I bet I’d be the only one in the world to have one.
Capturing the History of Space Flight
I’m writing a book. Well, sorta. I’m “co-authoring” a book. Mostly. Right now I’m most comfortable saying I’m helping my co-worker David write a book. Maybe someday I’ll settle into the title of co-author but for now I’m “helping.”
David’s already written one book — Homesteading Space: The Skylab Story — with astronauts Owen Garriott and Joe Kerwin. The Skylab book (and the book I’ll be helping with) are part of the Outward Odyssey book series, which is chronicling the history of human spaceflight. This next book is about the early years of the shuttle program.
The funny thing is that I almost missed this opportunity. David first asked me about co-authoring the shuttle book a long time ago. A year? Two? I forget. I mostly thought he was joking, or perhaps just asking to be nice, so I gave it no serious thought. I said a polite “thanks but no thanks.” The truth was I felt ill-equipped for such a project. I was still very new to this whole NASA thing and extremely uncertain about my abilities to write about NASA stuff for work much less help craft an entire book on the subject. And I don’t write books. I write articles, that while sometimes run a little long, are not quite the same in length, depth or style as a book. So even if I had taken David seriously I don’t think I could’ve said yes then.
Fast forward to a few months ago — I felt pangs of regret over not having taken him seriously and not having at least given it honest consideration. When David would mention progress on the book I’d be sad. I mean, I was happy for him, but sad for me because yeah, I kinda wish my pride and my doubt hadn’t stood in the way of such an opportunity. Opportunities don’t come around like that every day.
I even found myself talking to God about it, feeling Him convicting me for not having taken Him up on a blessing He was trying to give me. There wasn’t much I could do about it at that point — another co-author had been chosen — so the best I could do was resolve to be more open-minded next time God opened a door and not try to rely on my own understanding or my own abilities but the confidence He has in me to give me such blessings. I figured at this point, that best I could hope for, would be to learn my lesson and next time such a knock came I’d be ready.
I had no idea next time would come so soon or that next time would be the same opportunity. But a few months ago David asked again, and this time it was no joke. I was astonished that God had been working on me about this for months, in what I thought was preparing me for “the next time,” when, how awesome is He, that He was working on me so I’d be ready for my second chance. I didn’t take it lightly because even doing 50 percent of the work is a major commitment. I prayed over it, talked to John, asked my mom to pray over it for me, and asked for peace.
And when all of those checked out I said yes.
It’s going to be an incredible amount of work — the first draft is due in six months — and I’m still totally incapable. But I’m excited. I’m a little scared. I probably don’t fully understand what I’ve gotten myself into. But I’m in it. And I’m grateful.
Still Small Voice
My co-worker and fellow blogger shared this article with me in which the columnist challenged people, in the new year and the new decade, to look at a few things through fresh eyes. The writer listed 52 suggestions, one for every week of the year. This week’s topic is the Holy Spirit.
“… Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.” — I Kings 19: 11-12 (KJV)
When I think about the Holy Spirit, that’s what it is to me: the still small voice that is with me all the time. I hear it in my heart and in my mind. It’s not audible, per se, but it might as well be because it’s that real. I talk to it, carry on conversations with it, sometimes debating and other times in agreement. It’s the one that convicts me when I wake up on Sunday morning, tired from being up late the night before, and try to talk myself into staying home from church. The still small voice is the one that encourages me to go anyway and corrects me for being willing to stay out late doing what I want but not get up early to praise and study and learn.
The still small voice is there when I wake up every morning, telling me to pick up my Bible, read, and come talk with the Father. It’s there when I pray, comforting me and bringing to mind Scripture and song as I talk to God. It’s with me throughout the day as I make decisions. It’s the one that I ask, “Should I do this? Should I not?” and it’s the one that answers. It’s the one that impressed upon my heart to volunteer to go on a mission trip, telling me so strongly that it was nearly audible, “You can do that. I want you to go.”
It protects me by guiding and shaping the way that my heart leads. It’s the one that resists and fights me when I, the flesh, want to do something I shouldn’t. It’s the one that lays on thick guilt when I do it anyway. It’s the one that gives me peace when I am doing right because it is peace. The Holy Spirit is God in me.
As I thought about those three words — still small voice — collectively they describe one thing. But each word has it’s own independent meaning too.
Still — unmoving, steady, confident
Small — succinct, gentle
Voice — words and sentences strung together from a real person
One commentary I read about this verse said, “The message of these verses seems to be that God need not appear to men embodied in great natural forces — though he certainly can do this — but may also reveal himself directly, softly, and personally, like a voice in the mind.”
That’s what the Holy Spirit is to me — God’s voice in my mind.
I often find myself clinging to the “still” part of this description because I am usually so un-still and crave stillness. But in meditating on this the last week or so really latched onto the voice and the fact that the Holy Spirit speaks.
I started looking for other verses about what the Holy Spirit does and it turns out speaking is one of, if not the, primary function.
In Isaiah 30:21, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”
In Acts 11:12, “The Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them.” In Acts 13:2, “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
In Acts 16, verse 6 and 7, “Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia.”
In NIV the still small voice is called a gentle whisper. Shhh …. Imagine hearing a whisper. To hear a whisper you have to be very, very quiet and listen intently. Sometimes you have to lean in to the speaker, getting closer to where the sound is originating, to hear what is being said. I think hearing from the Holy Spirit can be like that too. Sometimes to hear it, we may have to be quiet and draw closer.
Pillownaut’s Trip Report
Pillownaut posted her report of her trip to Marshall, along with this photo of us and the Apollo 16 capsule.
My Not-New-Years-Resolutions Resolutions
I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions because in today’s society it’s a joke. New Year’s Resolutions have the reputation for being things that you’ll say you’ll do but don’t. And nowadays people go into it knowing they won’t keep them. I wish it wasn’t that way because I think we all could stand to make a few resolutions and mean it.
So these aren’t New Year’s Resolutions even though they’re resolutions, kinda, and they fall at the beginning of a new year. These are things I don’t like about myself or my life, that I want to change, and I’m choosing now to change them. Choosing to make this list now has less to do with the alignment of the new year and more to do with recently turning 30.
1. Take off my make-up every night before going to bed. My mom says your skin ages 7-10 days every night you go to sleep with make-up on. I’ve used the Mary Kay basic skin care since I was about 12 but I’ve never consistently done it right, the way they tell you to. I’m switching to the Mary Kay Timewise system and intend to follow the directions as it was intended. I’ve been doing it for a few weeks and can already tell a difference.
2. Hydrate my skin. I have dry skin and complain about it while doing nothing about it. I also have gobs of bottles of Bath & Body Works lotions sitting around the tub, the shower, the sink, under the sink, and so on. So I’m going to moisturize my legs and arms and every day.
3. Hydrate from within. I drink water. Some. But not enough. I don’t have an exact amount I’m targeting but I just want to drink more, as much more as I can. My plan is to replace some of the soft drinks I drink now with water. I’d like to say I’ll cut out soft drinks all together but I’m not there yet. I like Sprite. I especially like Sprite with Mexican. And I get headaches often enough that I need a little caffeine each day to keep the peace.
4. Floss. I want to take better care of my teeth. I’m good on brushing and even use the fancy-schmancy toothpaste that freshens, whitens, protects, with tartar control and cavity protection and fluoride. But I don’t consistently floss. So I’m gonna start.
5. Take a multi-vitamin everyday. I’ve taken vitamins off and on over the years. When I was pregnant with the boys I took my vitamin religiously because it was important enough to me. I made it a priority. Today, I forget. Between hurrying to get ready, get them up, get them ready, breakfast, lunch box, backpack, work bag, lunch, jackets, comb their hair … it’s easy for a vitamin for mom to get missed because it’s not a priority. Which is more important — packing Finn’s lunch or me taking my vitamin? In the short term, Finn’s lunch is more important. So to help me with this I’m not taking my vitamin during the morning mad dash. My vitamins are at work so I’ll take it there when I’m sitting, calmer, with a drink and something to eat.
6. Eat breakfast. Something. Anything. Well, not anything, but I need to eat something each morning to kick-off the day. I have the food at home it’s just a matter of getting it in my work bag so it’s with me in the car, at my desk, etc. where I’ll actually have time to eat it. I’m not going to kid myself and pretend I’ll sit down in the breakfast nook each morning and enjoy a warm bowl of oatmeal, fresh fruit and a cup of juice. No, that’s not happening any time soon. Maybe someday. But for now I commit to eating, in the morning hours, a granola bar or dry cereal, or drinking an instant breakfast shake, to wake my body up and get it started right (or at least more right than eating nothing till lunch).
7. Recycle cans, plastics and newspapers. I’ve kinda been doing this but only the last couple months so I’m counting it as part of this. While there’s some debate about whether or not recycling actually creates more air pollution from the factories that process it, I believe in it because it keeps landfills cleaner and thus potentially the earth and water cleaner. Selfishly, recycling gallon-size milk jugs and two-liter bottles also keeps my kitchen trashcan from filling up as fast thus saving me time and trashbags too.
8. Switch to e-bills. On as many bills as possible I’m switching to paperless e-statements and in some cases automatic payments. This is twofold — one because the paper statements are a chore to manage. They sit unopened on the kitchen counter for a week, then when I open it, there’s all kind of promotions that I throw away, creating even more trash for landfills. Then it sits open on the counter for a few more days until I log it in the bill book. After the bill is paid the statement is stored in the “paid” section in the back of the bill book and some point has to be filed away in the filing cabinet. Right now, stacked on top of my filing cabinet, waiting to be filed is maybe six months worth of various credit card statements and bills. What a time waster, not to mention a major contributor to the clutter that at times seems to take over my house. The other part of this is better management of my finances — I anticipate it being easier to keep up with due dates and get bills paid on time if I manage e-statements with virtual file folders, etc. and use automatic payments.
9. Make my bed everyday. This is such a simple way to make my home look and feel cleaner. It’s on the short list of things realtors tell you to do when selling your house. And it’s such a simple act that takes hardly any time at all but has a huge return on investment.
I may, at some point, revisit these and update on how I’m doing, have any been harder than I thought, have any been easier, have I added any new ones, etc. And I challenge folks to make changes that will make you better, make life better, for yourself or the rest of us. It doesn’t have to be 9, it doesn’t have to be these 9, but certainly there’s at least one thing we could all change for the good of ourselves or those around us.
