Tag Archives: Everyday Life

The Doggie Trinity

10 Saturday Oct 2009

Posted by in Life at Home, Soul Care

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Even in my wildest dreams, I never thought I’d wake up one day to find myself living with three rambunctious dogs.

Life with three young dogs — the oldest turned two in May — reminds me of those never-a-dull-moment days of young family, when my husband and I were raising four children.  But instead of eight legs, it’s twelve; and instead of being thirty-something, my husband and I are teetering close to the golden years of senior discounts.

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Cosmo, our Holy Terror Terrier

To their credit, the dogs do their part to keep us active and healthy.   Three times a day they remind us it’s time to eat —  Cosmo especially likes her grub.  Then they remind us to relax and pet our pets, to relieve the stress lint picked up from everyday life.  Max especially lines up for rubs.  And finally the dogs remind us when its time to exercise, to venture outdoors for a walk  around our Mesta Park neighborhood.  Maddie especially likes her dubs.   So thanks to our doggie trinity, we live a balanced life of grub, rubs and dubs.

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Queen Mother Madeleine

Dub is our family shorthand for the letter “W”, which stands for the word ‘walk.’   It was once  secret code known only to the human half of the family. But being the smart dogs poodles are, Maddie and Max have learned that Dub means walk. And whenever the “DUB” alarm is heard, all canine heaven breaks open:  Maddie begins her dizzy circus pirouettes, Max starts lumbering through the house like a wild beast unleashed and Cosmo goes zoom, zoom, zoom as she effortlessly threads poodle and human legs like Sonic the hedgehog on a video game obstacle course.  Our version of the Wild West Show leaves us in the middle of doggie mayhem, with leashes in hands and canines circling us like wild Indians.

Members of  our doggie  trinity each know their role.  Maddie is our holy mother — holy in the sense of being set apart from the pack.  Maddie rules her canine kingdom from her throne that once upon a time, was my husband’s favorite recliner.  Max is Maddie’s adopted son, the lover of all guests.

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Maximilian -- Loved and Lovers of a Billion

  

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Holes - Work in Process

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Who Needs Termites when you have a Terrier?

Max stands ready to offer his poodle love — even if Max has to put his paws on your chest or shoulder to do it.  But if guests are shy about receiving french kisses, they should keep their mouths shut.  Cosmo’s mission in life is to make holes.  When she’s not charming the socks off of our guests, she’s chewing a hole in a sock.   Or digging a hole in the garden.  Or chewing a hole in my back door frame.  Or gnawing a hole in my stairwell post.  Cosmo our holy terror, is the cannine child I don’t dare take my eyes off for a minute.    

A good friend recently reminded me that dog spells god backwards.  And I’m beginning to think  this sharing of three letters is no mere coincidence.  Because I know unconditional love when my dogs soft wet eyes meet mine; and this reminds me that God beholds me with soft eyes too, and that I should regard myself a whole lot more tenderly —  especially during all those times that I’m being well…..so human.  

So I wonder:  Is it possible that we who live on this side of eternity come closest to experiencing the love of heaven when keeping company with a dog?  As I ponder life with our doggie trinity  — that Mother, Son and Holy Terror — I’m thinking yes.  

Tortilla Soup

09 Friday Oct 2009

Posted by in In the Kitchen, Life at Home, Mesta Park

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This simple Tortilla Soup recipe has made the rounds in my life.

I first enjoyed the soup ten years ago, when my husband prepared it after snagging a copy of the recipe from a lovely church lady in Lake Jackson, Texas.  Betty was then Council on Ministries chair of our church.  And like any good Methodist, Betty found it easier to get people to a church meeting when she offered to feed them.  Lucky for me, she served this Tortilla Soup that’s been part of my life ever since.

When we moved to Oklahoma three plus years ago, we were asked to open our historic home to the public in Mesta Park’s annual Holiday Home Tour.  Like  a fool with stars in her eye, I said yes with nary a thought.  Because I love it when guests descend, especially when the house is all decorated for Christmas.  But I was a fool to get ahead of myself, because that first Christmas back in Oklahoma, our house was still in a state of transition — it was half-former owner’s style and half mine — and in those months leading up to the tour, I sort of wished I’d waited another year until the house was more put together.

Moving is so unsettling.  Furniture and furnishngs acquired for a previous home don’t always fit the new place.  And even when they do, it may take a while to figure out what goes where.  And then what color to paint the walls, especially the dining room walls.  Yet, I’m still hanging pictures and moving furniture around and fine-tuning the wall color in the dining room — which so far, I’ve changed three times.

So maybe we were on the tour, exactly when we needed to be.  Especially, when I recall how Mom and my sister Christi came up to dress my home for the holidays.

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Because one short year later, Mom was no longer with us.   And even though the house was less put together, I’ll be forever glad that Mom was here to be a part of it, since she really loved decorating the house.  Even now, I cherish the memory of watching Mom slowly and painstakingly shaping the holiday greenery to artfully cover the staircase railing.

Anyway, this home tour story has a point that leads back to the soup recipe.  I thought it would be fun to offer a gift of one of our favorite recipes to those touring our home.  So I laid out professionally printed copies of the Tortilla Soup recipe under a Christmas-tree shaped Rosemary sitting on top of our kitchen counter.  The only problem was that in the printing process, one ingredient was inadvertently removed.  So there are 500 plus copies of an incomplete soup recipe floating somewhere around Oklahoma City.

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I should have brought a few leftover recipe cards with me last night to church, when I became the church lady serving this soup to a small group of prayer companions.  Because like the church goers of Betty’s meeting ten years ago, I was asked to share my soup recipe.  And I will, though I can’t claim the recipe as mine.  And it really wasn’t Betty’s either.  Appropriately, Betty got the recipe from Julie, a local Lake Jackson doctor’s wife, who in her spare time, puts on a great imitation of Saturday Night Live’s church lady.  But this recipe isn’t just for church ladies.  Try it yourself.  Here’s a copy with all the ingredients included.  From my life to yours.

Tortilla Soup

A simple and quick holiday supper – serves 6 to 8

 
Ingredients:
1 lb sausage or ground beef, browned and crumbled
1/2 cup each, chopped onion & green pepper, sauted in 2 Tbsp olive oil
1 can beans – pinto or black beans (rinsed) or ranch style
2 envelopes of taco seasoning
1 4 0z. can of chopped green chilies (optional for a milder soup)
4 cans chicken broth (or home-made) – About 8 cups or 60 ounces
1 can Rotel
1 to 2 cups of frozen corn
1 14 oz can petite chopped tomatoes (optional — for a less spicy or salty soup (which accompanies use of sausage)
1 package tortilla chips  (Reserve for serving bowls)
8 oz package of cheddar or Monterey jack cheese, grated  (Reserve for serving bowls)

Preparation: Add all ingredients, except tortilla chips and cheese, to a large pot.  Simmer for 30 minutes.  Taste.  If too salty or spicy, add a 14 oz can on petite diced tomatoes.

 
To Serve: Ladle soup over tortilla chips, covered with grated cheese.
 
 
 

Off-Center Stage

06 Tuesday Oct 2009

Posted by in In the Garden, Prayer, Soul Care, The Great Outdoors

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The days are slipping through my fingers just as leaves are slipping from the trees. 

The Magnolia in the back yard is making a terrible mess right now; its yellow nitrogen-deprived leaves are dropping like flies.  As I reach down to pick up the leaf litter scattered across the yard, I notice houseflies resting on the leaf’s shiny surface.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many houseflies, even at a summer picnic.  What do they know that we don’t?  Perhaps their presence is a harbinger of winter’s too early arrival.

My week is slipping away, with a piece of my day allotted here and there.  I am sad that I’ve no signficant blocks of time to devote to gardening and I’m in a mad rush to get my gardens put to bed and the duplex gardens next door completed before winter descends.  Like the piles of leaves and army of flies, I also sense that a winter freeze  is just around the corner.   And this makes me grieve the shortness of autumn.

Tomorrow I’ll attend my graduation ceremonies at the Oklahoma County Extension office, where I will officially be certified as a master gardener.  Like a true gardener, I joked with one of my fellow graduates that I’d rather be in the gardens than at the ceremony; yet, knowing the day is as much about our faithful trainers as it is about us who are graduating, I will go to eat, drink and be merry.  Then afterwards, I’ll rush back to the gardens for the afternoon.  If all goes well, all purchased plants will be installed; and with decent weather, the duplex gardens will be finished by week-end.

Another fly in the ointment to make my week so choppy is the spiritual writing I’ve been squeezing in to the open cracks of  my day.  After three months out of the saddle, I’ve picked up the loose threads of  this curriculum and Thursday night I’ll lead a small group of faithful women in the practice of centering prayer.  That I will be offering this lesson on centering prayer in a week where I am pulled in so many directions merely shows that God does have a great sense of humor.

But as I write, I sense a rightness and order in my world, even in winters that come too early and in graduations that mark a beginning of gardening knowledge rather than an ending and in teaching a lesson in centering prayer when I feel so off-center.

To God be the glory in all my days, especially when I slip off-center stage and reveal my broken humanity.