Category Archives: School

How It Must Have Sucked to Be Jacob! Hunter Stew. And Homecoming.

Posted on 26 January 2012 | 2 comments

Bible reading for today: Genesis 28-30, Matthew 8

As I read the familiar story of Jacob this morning, all I could think about was how much it must have sucked to be Jacob. I can’t imagine working for seven years for a beautiful wife, and then being saddled first with her freaky-eyed sister. And then to have to turn around and work for seven more years to earn the pleasure of the beautiful wife. I have to admit that if I had been Jacob, I’d have taken Rachel and run. I don’t have much patience in that regard.

It’s funny how when I was growing up, I remember hearing the story as Jacob working for seven years to get Rachel, but then Laban tricked him and gave him Leah. Then he had to work seven more years in order to get Rachel. In other words, he was stuck for seven years sleeping with a woman he didn’t love while working all day to purchase the woman he did love. The actual story is that he is given Leah, asked to finish his “bridal week” with her, and then immediately given Rachel. And if you’re Leah, this story is even more heart-breaking. Here you are with freaky eyes, being given to a man who doesn’t want you, being asked to finish out a “bridal week” with him, all the while you know he’s fantasizing about your sister?! What the hell?

I remember distinctly, when Genesis 29 came up in our Sunday School rotation, questioning how this particular story related to my Christian life. I think I was in middle school or high school when I asked what I was supposed to learn from it. I was probably waved off or given some kind of inadequate answer. I think now, from an adult perspective, I can see that it boils down to a Rolling Stones song title, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” True story, my friends, you can’t always get what you want, but if you’re Jacob, in this instance, I suppose you get what you need.

Seriously, I am sure there is some deeper theological meaning behind this story, and we know that out of this chaos and with a few children had by handmaidens comes the Twelve Tribes of Israel. After the small issues of jealousy and a little treachery, Leah, Zilpah, Rachel, and Bilhah gave birth to lots of boy children. The youngest of whom is Joseph, the deliverer of his family from famine. And, I suppose this is a huge lesson in grace. Jacob didn’t cut and run, like I would have. He patiently worked for the love of his life.

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Best stew ever:

1 pound of beef, some butter, four strips of bacon, one big onion, two cups of carrots, four cups of cabbage, three apples, 4 cups of beef broth, a bit of salt, a polish sausage

First: In a big pot, cook the bacon, which you’ve cut into 1-inch squares. Remove the bacon from the pot but leave the grease, and add the butter. Brown the beef, which you’ve cut into 1-inch cubes. Add the onion, which you’ve chopped, and the apples, which you’ve also chopped. Cook for a bit, then add the beef broth and let it all simmer for an hour and 30 minutes.

Second: Add in the carrots and the polish sausage and simmer for 20 minutes.

Third: Add in the cabbage and the bacon, which you removed earlier. Cook for another 10 minutes or until the cabbage is tender.

Last: Eat it because it’s delicious.

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This week at school is homecoming week. Let’s just say I have almost as much school spirit being a teacher as I had being a high school student. Next to none. Woot.

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Posted in Christianity, Cooking, Food, Goals, Grace, Literature, Religion, School, Teaching

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Conference. New Shoes. Fish Stir Fry.

Posted on 23 January 2012 | 1 comment

Conference

I was pleasantly surprised by the conference I went to today. Last year this same conference was pretty useless, and I left more frustrated than educated. This year, however, I went to two sessions by a woman named Jamie MacDougall. Her sessions were fun, upbeat, and informative. I got several great ideas about how to use primary documents to provide students with historically amazing mentors.

For example, if a student is excited about feminist history, s/he could look at the primary documents of the Women’s Suffrage Movement in order to better understand some of the people who were involved in it. Through those documents, that student could then begin to form an understanding of the mentor’s philosophies, work ethic, thoughts, friendships, theories, collaborations, and other facets of their lives. Through this research students will become protégés of the famous person, choosing to pattern their lives after their role model/mentor, whether the mentor is alive or long passed.

I also attended a session about quality curriculum, which inspired me to completely revise the way I approach the standards in my classroom next year. I think between the two sessions, I have a lot of work to do over the summer to make my classroom more student driven, but also more clearly focused on quality topics. Of course, this may mean being much more creative with gathering texts and with how I use the libraries (Ball State, Burris, and Muncie Public).

New Shoes

Typically I run with no shoes or very minimal shoes, but as I mentioned in another post, I have a trail run coming up this Saturday. Today it is 40ish degrees and rainy, but by Saturday it could be zero and snowy or icy. I decided that running 6.55 miles in the snow might call for more foot protection than my VFFs could muster, so I purchased the flattest trail shoes I could find. I wanted some with decent tread in case of snow, a large toe box for my wide used-to-being-barefoot feet, and a pretty sweet design. I think I got all three things, but they are certainly not minimalist. I feel like I am on stilts when I run or walk in them, and I hope I can get used to that by Saturday night. If the weather allows, I’ll still be running in my VFFs and keeping these Adidas Vigors as my standby shoes.

Casual Shoes

Fish Stir Fry

This meal was entirely made up by me. If the recipe I am about to post resembles another one that exists, the similarities are entirely coincidental. Also, I am not real hip to measuring things, preferring instead to go by instinct. I am sorry if that bothers you, but it’s just how I cook.

Recipe: In butter, saute several cod pieces/filets (use a couple more than you think necessary because they do cook down a little), which you’ve seasoned with seasoned salt and pepper, for about 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Remove them from the wok or skillet and just let them hang out for a bit.

In the same pan, saute some green onions, grated fresh ginger, diced bell peppers with some salt and pepper. When those start to give off a good smell, add in some broccoli and carrots. Cook all the mess until your broccoli and carrots are almost the desired tenderness, which for Bec and me is al dente. Then spoon all the vegetables to one side to let them stay warm, while adding the fish back into the other side of the pan to warm it back up.

If you want it all mixed together, you could do that now, but I prefer to serve out the vegetables first, topping them with the fish. I think the plate looks prettier this way, not like I just glommed out some stir fry and slapped it on the plate. I didn’t take a picture of this meal, but it was pretty tasty. The cod was a good choice of fish, but I think many other meatier types of fish would work, too.

Today’s Bible Reading: Genesis 22, 23, 24 and Matthew 6: 19-34

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Posted in Christianity, Cooking, Fat, Food, Goals, Literature, Paleo/Primal, Reading, Running, School, Teaching

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Three Things Which Bring Me Joy and One Which Does Not

Posted on 21 January 2012 | Leave a comment

Paleo Eating

Grilled Grass-fed Ribeye and Broccoli

I started eating Paleo/Primal in November, just before the holidays. Dumb move, I know. I stopped eating this way from Christmas through New Year’s Day and then hopped right back on it. Here are few things I know from the nearly three months I’ve been eating no grains or soy, no sugar, no manufactured food, and very little dairy:

  1. I have lots of energy to exercise. I am exercising in several different ways pretty much every day of the week. And, I get sore, which is to be expected when exercising, but I don’t drag through my day like I did when I was exercising this much and eating a vegan diet. And, the soreness goes away and doesn’t inhibit my workout.
  2. I get lots of sleep. When I am finished with my day, I go to bed. There isn’t any dragging myself through my day, only to end up lying in bed tossing and turning until I finally fall asleep. I go to bed. I go to sleep. I sleep through the night. And, I wake up, rested, without using an alarm clock around 5 or so, which doesn’t mean I get up then, choosing instead to lounge around in the bed until 6ish.
  3. I can be much more inventive with my cooking. This week’s menu includes fish stir fry, a dish I never would’ve even considered before trying the paleo lifestyle (even when I ate meat before, I wouldn’t have considered it). We will also be eating a beef stroganoff served over spaghetti squash. I find myself wanting to experiment with food in ways I didn’t before, not that I was a bad vegan chef, because I wasn’t, but this is better!
  4. I don’t spend a good portion of every day in the bathroom. Not to be gross, but when I was vegan I pooped at least three times every day. Now I go once, and I happen to believe it’s because my body is using what I am feeding it rather than simply passing it on through.
  5. I am not bloated or gassy. For the last three years, while I’ve been vegetarian or vegan, I have had incredible gas. It’s been pretty disgusting at times. Now, I am not saying that I don’t have some gas, but it’s not ridiculous and it smells less horrible. I don’t belch loudly, for a long time, after every single meal. I also don’t eat to the point where I am so full and bloated that I feel like complete crap, because I am paying more attention to the full feeling I get when I eat meat. I know when to stop.
  6. I am losing weight—s-l-o-w-l-y—but I feel amazing. My original hope was that the weight would just come peeling off of me, like it does for some people who go low-carb, paleo, or whatever, but then I realized that I want to still be able to do long races and swim miles in the mornings, so I need to have some potatoes or yams in my diet. I am consistently losing two pounds a week, so I think that’s fair. In a year, that’s 100 pounds. Ha! I wish.
  7. My mental state is level and even somewhat joyful. I’ve blogged before about using niacin and Vitamin C to even out my moods. It works. I don’t have the pendulumesque, out of control mood swings I’ve had all my life when I take a little of those vitamins. I don’t even have to take large doses to help me out, just a bit works fine. However, since I’ve been eating paleo, I feel so much better in my mind (mental clarity, memory, and mood) that I am going to experiment with leaving even those vitamin supplements behind. I am going to ween myself of of all additives, except my multivitamin. Right now I have pretty expensive pee. 🙂

Barefoot Running

Soft Little Barefoot Running Feet

I have been sneaking in some barefoot running at Ball Gym. I feel rebellious, like I said in my last post, but more importantly my feet are getting so much stronger and my calves are raging! I ran for about an hour the other day, and while my calves—well, really my whole leg musculature—got sore, my feet felt great. I think there’s something to this cavewoman lifestyle I’ve submitted myself to! I just feel so primal and free when I run with no shoes, like there is nothing I can’t do. (I know. Double negative. Shut up.) I feel like I could just keep running and running and never stop, but I know that’s not true, no matter how much joy running brings me.

Swimming

This is actually a high school conference meet, but I swim here sometimes.

I’ve come home. To my first love. I’ve been swimming (if you can call it that) since I was about a month old in the big-ass bath tub at our original little hovel in the big HC. Sometimes I think I can remember what that first feeling of weightlessness felt like, but I know it’s impossible. I love swimming because it’s one sport where being a fat girl doesn’t matter, and, in fact, probably works to my advantage.

At any rate, swimming soothes me, stimulates me, and feeds my mind like no other sport. Maybe because I have been doing it for so long, I don’t have to think at all about it. When I run, I still have to think about my form; though I have to think less about it when I run barefoot. When I swim, the strokes come naturally, gracefully. I’ve been swimming three times a week for the past two weeks, and I feel full. At peace. Calm. Like I can do anything in the water. Swimming is grace. Swimming is joy.

Beer

At Savage's Ale House in Muncie, IN

You aren’t really supposed to drink any alcohol when you go paleo/primal, but I really love beer. Recently, I haven’t been able to drink beer much because of my allergies. I think I am really allergic to wheat, because I feel 100% better and my allergies have all but gone by the wayside since I stopped eating wheat. In case you missed it the first time I said it, I really love beer. So I occasionally have a beer. Like once a week.

Last night was “Festive Friday.” A bunch of colleagues and I go out and have a couple of beers to celebrate the end of the week and look for a better week to come, which is really a way of celebrating life if you ask me. I had a Bell’s Porter, one of my top ten all time beers, and my face swelled up like a little bright red, hot to the touch, strawberry. I had one beer, three glasses of water, a double bacon burger, and some fries, and my face swelled up with hives. It was ridiculous. I still love beer. There is no joy in being allergic to beer.

Here are my top ten, in no particular order because I just can’t decide, but the top five are the top five, in order:

  1. Hacker-Pschorr Dark, Hacker-Pschorr Brewery
  2. Bad Elmer’s Porter, Upland Brewery
  3. Riggwelter, Black Sheep Brewery
  4. Bell’s Porter, Bell’s Brewery
  5. Taddy Porter, Samuel Smith Brewery
  6. Dogfish Head 90-minute IPA, Dogfishhead Brewery
  7. Edmund Fitzgerald Porter, Great Lakes Brewery
  8. St. Peter’s English Ale, St. Peter’s Brewery
  9. La Fin Du Monde, Unibroue
  10. Levitation Ale, Stone Brewery

Sad day that I can’t drink one of each…

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Posted in Beer, Cooking, Fat, Food, Goals, Grace, Gym, Insomnia, Mental Health, Paleo/Primal, Play, Running, School, Swimming, Vegetarian or Vegan

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Turning Over So Many New Leaves

Posted on 5 January 2012 | 2 comments

New Year Day: As I sat there in my overly full, grain-induced coma, I reflected over the past few years of my life, and I realized that I am not so happy with where it is or where it’s going. I decided to put some new resolutions into place, and they are radically different than those before.

  1. Eat paleo. Eat clean meats and vegetables without the gummy, yucky grain foods. Maybe order 1/8 of a bison or half a wild boar. Also, no beer. Or very little.
  2. Watch less TV. Watch more movies instead. Or maybe even read more!
  3. Exercise in a variety of ways (including swimming) while running a race a month. When it’s warm enough, run barefoot. Maybe do a barefoot half-marathon.
  4. Meditate. I always feel more calm when I practice meditation.
  5. Deactivate Facebook and Twitter for the year.
  6. Play more.
  7. In short, do things which bring me joy.

Maybe doing all of this will decrease my blood pressure, which isn’t really high, but feels like it.

It is my hope to start using this space to write about some current events and to write more deeply about those things that are important to me. I also want to care less about my job, but when you’re a teacher, it’s sort of difficult to stop caring, especially when you realize that the lives of your students depend on your care and nurture.

I think this year will bring new and promising events, and hopefully it will bring a much better attitude on my part. We’ll see. I’m going to try to focus on being positive, which is a HUGE goal for me.

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Posted in Beer, Buddhism, Disc golf, Food, Gleaning, Goals, Play, Running, School, Swimming, Teaching, Writing

Running a Trail-Half. Grading. Grant. Periods, period.

Posted on 24 September 2011 | 1 comment

I am totally stoked—though my other half just said her usual, “Okay”—to be running my first trail half-marathon next Sunday, October 2. As usual, I hope I haven’t bitten off more than I can chew, but since I’m not vain nor afraid of coming in last, I’ll do what I always do when I run by just putting one foot in front of the other until I cross the finish line. There really is no time-limit for this guy: it’s starts at 8:05 and ends at 4:30, so I should be in tip-top shape for finishing before they pull the plug. Since the marathoners and all the other races use the same trail, they keep it open for six and half hours, which means I might finish about the same time and in the same location as the fastest marathoners. Weird. But, I will finish. I mean, I am slow, but not that slow. If it’s anything like the Mounds, I may not even come in last. If the terrain is the same/similar as the Mounds, I should be able to finish in 3:30 to 3:45. The real reason I am so excited is that I hope this will boost my confidence for the marathon in a few short weeks. I still have about six long runs with the longest falling in two more weeks: twenty miles! I plan to run to my parents house to have them drive me back home. I suppose first I should focus on the ten-mile run tomorrow morning, eh?

I had to have silver lining this evening by signing up for the trail run, because I spent 6.5 hours at school today, grading, grading, grading. After I run in the morning, I’ll go back and grade some more. I finished all of the middle school objective tests, but I still need to grade their essays. Tomorrow I will finish my high school reflections, essays, objective tests, and anything else that needs to be caught up for them. I plan to get up at around 6 to run so I can get all my grading finished before spending the afternoon with my brother to work on our application for this grant.

We’re applying for grants to go on a two-week long tour of the midwest and the east coast to watch minor league baseball games. Apparently, the grant is aimed toward enabling teachers to plan their dream trip, a trip they’d never be able to do without the grant. We knocked around several different trips (Caribbean, New Orleans, Pacific Northwest, cross-country road trip) and decided on driving to 6 different minor league ball parks. We’ll watch the games, and my brother will take photographs while I interview people about their memories of baseball and their preference for minor league games. For some reason, my head thinks we’ve already won the grant, because I feel like we’re headed out for the trip already. I’m so excited. Okay?

What I am not excited about is living with another woman who has a regular period. I had gotten used to Bec’s non-schedule and was enjoying skipping a month now and again, but E has strong hormones, apparently, because now I am in sync with her. Sad day. I wondered why I’d been so grumpy, craving weird foods, and feeling fat all week long. Now I know.

I’m not a very good feminist, because if I was I’d revel in my period as some sign of mutual femaleness shared around the world. I’d celebrate my ability to procreate and honor my uterus with monthly praise. But, I don’t. Ever since the damn thing started when I was in eighth grade, I’ve wanted it to end. When I was younger, I wanted it to end because of sports and the occasional pregnancy scare. Now I just want it to end because it mocks me with my childlessness every month. Mother Nature is an unrelenting tease: you’re not pregnant, and you never will be. I say to her, “You can stop now, MN. I’m over it.”  She just laughs back every 28 to 30 days with her own little curse.

 

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Posted in Feminism, Goals, Grace, Relationships, Running, School, Teaching, Vegetarian or Vegan