a life beyond running shoes.

for any of you who are affiliated with babies & toddlers, you have probably heard of this stuff. it is a liquid vitamin that smells about as good as you could imagine liquid vitamins smelling - NASTY! most kids hate it, but we as parents force them to take it to make sure they are getting the daily essentials, especially iron. well, micah has to be different. somehow, we have managed to train him that this stuff is good......almost yummy. (i cringe as i think of the smell) he gets it every night during his bath because, as we found out as an infant, the stuff is black and stains clothing - sounds yummy, huh?! so, it has been a part of the regular night routine, not big deal, right? until yesterday morning......i had a bad night sleep and so john stayed home a bit extra and did the morning routine with micah. somehow, micah got a hold of the bottle of vitamins and proceeded to ask for some with his very cute, "please" that really just sound like "peas."...

i mean really? is fresh ricotta really all that different from the ricotta that one would buy in the grocery store? perhaps it is since in my recipe book it says that the ricotta should be crumbly.... huh? ricotta is crumbly? like feta? oh boy. last night i made peas, bacon, and ricotta sauce (page 163) over fusilli pasta. it was tasty except for the fact that i don't like peas, particularly frozen ones and that fact that my ricotta was not crumbly. should i try this one again? nope, i think we consider this one checked off until someone convinces me that the fresh stuff makes ALL the difference in the world. has anyone every had it? does anyone read this thing.... other than my brother in japan - which is really cool that he does. it made me smile when he emailed. i guess there could be a few readers out there and i would never know because even though there are a few blogs that i check on daily (where have you gone "shows" & "movable pockets")...

yesterday started with a "tossing of the cookies" in the middle of 10th street. it was one of those pregnancy moments of "i feel sick; i think i might get sick; i am going to get sick; i got sick; i feel fine." strange to say the least as this has not been common for either pregnancy. i was just thankful not to have been on an avenue block - i at least could hide behind a car for my display of breakfast. this lead to last night's dinner of braised pork chops with sage and tomatoes, modena style (page 422) along with sauteed broccoli with olive oil and garlic (page 477). so the debacle was the pork chops. it called for a can of peeled tomatoes and of course i got a can of crushed tomatoes. now it was still tasty, but what was lost was the flavor of the fresh sage; therefore, i don't think i can officially check it off as a completed recipe since it was no where near what it should have been. the broccoli - not my favorite. i think i still prefer it s...

there was a write up in Paste Magazine page 40 about this place. it was started by dave eggers (author of "a heartbreaking staggering work of staggering genius") and is located in our neighborhood....literally four blocks away. i got my sister a ray gun for her birthday one year - it made her way cooler. it is affiliated with the non-profit organization 826nyc .

our morning at the playground with our friend andrew. it was a photo opt mostly with the grandparents in mind.... my mother has been anxious for pics of the "bump." well, here we are in mom, micah, and segundo! as you can see we are in long sleeves... the mornings feel like fall but after trekking up hill to the playground, it is warm again. it is officially fall but we are expecting a warm weekend. i am ready for cords & sweaters to say the least!!! i love the crisp mornings though and leaving the windows open at night. i love fall and continue to wait patiently for it.

well, last night was oven-roasted chicken with garlic & rosemary (page 328) with sauteed green beans with parmesan cheese (page 472) and a side of risotto with parmesan cheese (page 244). the chicken was juicy & tasty - and easy other than the basting every 15 minutes. micah actually ate his green beans for the first time (of course w/o the cheese). i was almost as excited about that as when he first starting walking. it has been a while since he has had a vegetable that was not pureed. but the parmesan added a really nice flavor to the fresh green beans. the risotto was a bit bland for me. it was still tasty but i think i would opt not to water down the stock i was using. over all a tasty dinner. tonight's dinner was fast and simple. pesto by the food processor method (page 176). since i do not own a mortar set, the food processor method was my only option. we have this amazing fresh basil growing out in our glorified front yard. we have had our fill of fresh toma...

i am working my way through another marriage book. in the first book i read, he quoted this book in almost every chapter, so i thought i would give it a whirl. i am only through the first two parts (out of five). it is good. i like that there are questions at the end of each chapter to work through - it is good for me to take a hard look at what i really believe is true of me, my spouse, and our marriage. there are some tough questions, some good ones, and some that i just couldn't answer cuz i wasn't quite sure actually. part one asks the question: who are we as husbands and wives? what i like about this book is that each part is really four chapters. chapters 1 & 4 is about a specific couple that allowed their story to be told. chapters 3 & 4 are about scripture. that is where the hard questions come in. so, back to part one - two things that really struck me. first, "in view of the cosmic status of each individual as a reflection of god's image, ...

oh, but they were so much more!!! i made pan-roasted chicken with rosemary, garlic, and white wine (page 329) with a side of braised carrots with parmesan cheese (page 480 but i forgot the parmasan cheese, so i might have to try them again). what is most interesting about this meal is that i have a strong aversion to cooked carrots. i have to admit that these were scrumptious. i underestimated the cooking time and had our original plans with friends worked out, the timing would have been perfect.....those plans were canceled and the timing was off in terms of eating with the kid. the chicken was very tasty when you really got the juice from the pan. it was a fairly easy meal in terms of ingredients - not many - but did take over an hour for each of the components. it was yummy! it won't be a couple of days until i try something else. we have to throw in tacos or hamburgers in there to make sure we stay somewhat normal and don't get too "foodie" on ourselves. ha...

first - THE CYST IS GONE!!! on segundo's brain. i had my sonogram today and was totally prepared to not hear anything until next week. well, she confirmed that in fact it is gone and he is almost 2 pounds. YEAH!!! thank you for praying and thinking of us over the last four weeks. we feel god's goodness and his faithfulness to us in being surrounded by such a community. second - john and i have purchased the "essentials of classic italian cooking." we tried out our first recipe last night. thanks to my read from julie & julia, i think i will follow suit. of course, we are not going to do every recipe and in fact we may only try a few, but i have to comment on the carbonara sauce (page 202) john made last night. YUM! of course, it calls for real pancetta - which he did - and makes enough for six servings. we will be eating it for awhile. it was so tasty and called for nine ingredients....some being garlic, pepper, olive oil, and pasta. how simple could i...

while today was a significant day in the life of our country, i feel selfish and myopic in thinking that it was a more significant day in the life of our family. today we got to celebrate the anniversary of john's ordination. it is a big deal in the least to look back over a year of ministry and seeing how god has developed us (john), shaped us, challenged us, and loved us. it was nice to sit down over wine & steak and talk about the future (totally unclear) and the year that we just ended all while micah slept peacefully thanks to an early dinner and bedtime. we again recounted the great celebration that last year was....thank you zimmermans!!!! we look forward to the fall and how john's responsibilities continue to be shaped & shifted as we had our fall kick-off yesterday. it will be a busy fall but it will be a good season.... i can feel the hint of it in the air. i love fall!

does this woman have a life? i mean really, can a prganant mother of a toddler really get through this many books? she must be a really fast reader!!! wrong - the answer really boils down to the fact that none of our tv addictions have had their fall premier yet, or our next netflix has not arrived in the mail. solution: read! i really enjoyed julie powell's book on working through julia child's "mastering the art of french cooking." while you get a healthy dose of her life (marriage, work, friends, family), it is all through the lens of working through 524 recipes in the course of one year. it was quite inspiring, actually. i was NOT inspired to repeat her project, but i was more challenged to take a few more risks in my cooking. i had never thought about just trying a recipe or working through a cookbook (skipping of course anything that requires liver or bone marrow) and trying new things. i think there are a few things in child's cookbook that i would ...

have i seen a worse movie since we moved to new york? i'm not sure..... well, perhaps. i know that when we watched nicole kidman in "dogville" we thought that we had been robbed of two hours of our lives.... but then again perhaps there was artistic merit to that movie that we failed to appreciate. this "film" with sarah jessica parker not only robbed me of my sunday evening - when i could be reading a decent & entertaining book - but it made me dumber. the only good thing that came out of it was in fact the reassurance that my husband loves me despite my TERRIBLE choice in a movie for a sunday evening....and did not rub it in all night long! what a gem he is.

what an amazing book. i don't think i have read this since middle school and even then it was totally lost on me. the healthy tension between themes of race, growing up, adolescence, family, and society. it was rich and enjoyable. i kind of expected it to be over rated, reading it this many years later as an adult.... how shallow am i? i think my favorite character is not scout but jem (her brother) in part to the fact that he was not narrating. it is all through scout's eyes that we see the changing of the tides in regards to racial relationships.... was it really changing - baby step, baby steps. jem is the character that can understand what is going on more than scout and feels it passionately...... yet is also confused because of that healthy innocence of being just enough too young to fully understand human nature. i loved it.

fully enjoying leigh nash's lyrics, music, and even her voice (which had previously eluded me) on her solo album titled "blue on blue." soft, delicate, and poetic cd. so i am a day late in finding her.... thanks for the tip molly! i have to say that i simply love the first two songs.... could listen to them all day and am having to find my way past track three..... i think i'll enjoy the journey.

i finally finished "sacred marriage." it got long but was still a worthy read considering i had never read a book on marriage. it was good to check in and see where i was & what i thought of this gracious gift in my life.... that is sometimes hard to see as god being gracious when it can be so much work. i am still overwhelmed by the reminder that my marriage is not here to make me happy - it is to make me holy. here are some more quotes that struck me: "the opposite of biblical love isn't hate, it's apathy. to stop moving toward our spouse is to stop loving him or her. it's holding back from the very purpose of marriage." marriage is a discipline of fellowship nurtured through three spiritual practices: "learning not to run from conflict, learning how to compromise, and learning to accept others. these practices will serve us well both in the church and in the home." quote from the Whiteheads: "the challenge is n...

i was thinking about my quote from "living on air" that i posted and i had to stop and be extremely grateful because hope has not been like that for me over the last week. we have made it through a full week since the news about the baby and i am most certain that the harder i hold onto hope and faith the more i am reassured - not that everything will be fine but that god is getting bigger and bigger. i am so thankful that i do not live in the paradox that maude did...... my god is so big so strong and so mighty there's nothing my god cannot do!!! i also saw this movie on thursday. i don't get to see movies all that much in a real theater.... you know the popcorn, coke, and sticky floor experience. well, i absolutely loved this movie. i would go and see it again.... before it comes out on netflix. it was fun and thoughtful. i loved the way that it rallies around finding the support you need and the support you need to give. i did find the dialogue about suffer...

i realize i have gone through about twice as many books in the last three months than in the last year combined. what is that? perhaps the choice of not turning on the tv at night, perhaps needing to disengage during nap times, possibly having renewed my love of books while on vacation this summer.... who knows. i am enjoying it though. shapiro's book started slow for me. i could not engage with this 14 year-old living in the paradox of prep school and artist home. she was elusive to me as a character and there was not enough plot... where was this going? what was the point? i was reading to pass the time..... and then something happened. i finished the book and was sad it was over. i felt like it started out simply as a pretentious book about the change that the art world incurred during the 60s and how this impacted yet another coming of age story..... it was that but ended up being so much more. "maude made her was to her room thinking about this paradox: that the...

the author describes it as "a novel that asks you to consider the imperfect lives of people, as distasteful and as glorious as they often are, in a fictional small town in indiana." it was a good read. a variety of narrators revolving around the single evening a nine-year-old girl disappears. it is the story of "who dunit" but not as engaging as a true mystery would be - but it wasn't trying to be that. it was more about what we think of people and the difference between the private and public lives they lead. it raises the question of who is really responsible....can't say that i really saw the glorious aspect the author refers to but perhaps i was not reading close enough. i saw the idealism that people place on what they consider the perfect lives of others.... it was interesting to say the least.

from "my prayer book" copyright 1957 lord god, heavenly father, "whom have i in heaven but thee? and there is nothing upon earth that i desire beside thee. my flesh and my heart may fail, but god is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever." i am deeply grateful that your are god, who has promised never to leave me or forsake me. i trust your word that nothing shall be able to separate me from your love which is in christ jesus, my lord. i am ashamed to confess that sometimes my heart is filled with fear as i look at the trouble and turmoil in the world today. sometimes i am afraid to face a difficult problem in my personal life. forgive my little faith. increase my faith in your loving kindness and in your almighty power that i may overcome my fears and meet every trying experience with confidence. make your strength perfect in my weakness. by your holy spirit enable me confidently to say, "i fear no evil, for thou are with me." in jesus nam...

i just finished sarah dunant's novel about 15th century florence. having been there, it was a fascinating read to learn a bit about the medici family, a serial killer, and the changing times of italy in particular to how it affected on art & religion. it is totally fiction but uses history as the backdrop. i even liked the narrator - even though it was a coming of age story.... sorry mary, but i did enjoy it! one review i read of the novel compared it to chevalier's girl with a pearl earring. while not quite as rich in art & description, dunant's story is much more intricate and engaging. here is botticelli's painting of the same title: