Done and Done

Calvin finished 7th at DIII Nationals this year. The meet was in Minneapolis (Tom, Jeanne, Nik, and Zoe came to watch on Saturday morning), a good bookend with freshman year Nationals.

I had a great individual meet, swimming some best times in the 50 fly (on the 200 medley relay) and the 100 free (on the 400 free relay.) I don't have any pictures to put up because everyone with cameras went on to spring break. Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm now done with 15 years of competitive swimming. (As long as you consider "8 and under" agegroup competitive swimming.)

I saw "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" last night. It's a sad movie. And it makes me want to read the short story it was based on. And pick through it a little bit.

And on the 8th day, He made chocolate ice cream.

Navajo Fry Bread
Sift into a bowl:
4 1/2 cups flour
1/3 c dry milk powder(optional)
1/2 t. salt
2 t. baking powder
Stir in:
1 1/2 c water
1/2 c milk




Knead with hands. Pat or roll into circles approximately 5" in diameter (I tried to flatten mine as well.) With fingers make small hole in center. Fry in hot oil at 400 or MH. Dough puffs and bubbles. Turn when golden brown. Drain on absorbent paper and serve hot with honey, or use while fresh with:

Navajo Tacos
Spread Navajo Fry Bread with refried beans/other taco toppings (I cooked some onion and green peppers), then top with cheese. Broil until cheese melts.
Sprinkle generously with shredded lettuce.

It was very easy, and though you can only see Cara eating, the rest of my house stole some with honey and ate it too. It says it serves about six... Two tacos more than filled me up.

Second point on the agenda - I need tips on how to make an omelette. Because I keep desiring an omelette but end up eating scrambled eggs with toppings.

In the spirit of enjoying food and not taking it for granted, I'd like to leave you with a quote from Bonhoeffer'sLife Together:
God cannot endure that unfestive, mirthless attitude of ours in which we eat our bread in sorrow, with pretentious, busy haste, or even with shame. Through our daily meals He is calling us to rejoice, to keep holiday in the midst of our working day.

I challenge you to eat your meals with someone else - not standing up - slowly, putting your fork down in between bites - focused on the food and not the television/radio/dogs. (Well, maybe dogs, if that's who you're eating with...You know who you are...) THIS is the day the Lord has made (Psalm 118:24) - if we want to know joy, it must be THIS day. Today! Let us rejoice and be glad in it - in all of it, including the meals.

Invicem!

Every year, the Calvin teams pick themes for Saturday night of the conference meet. This year, the boys picked - this theme? - and their cheer poked fun of another team's cheer. The other team's cheer repeats "WISE OWL!" and holds up an owl statue with a towel on it. At our dual meet, Calvin men cheered "DRY TOWEL!" and then the cheer advanced farther. They are repeating "DRY ROSS!" (Ross is in the dress) and then Ross got "sacrificed" to the water, at which point the cheer changed to "WET ROSS!"












Our theme was construction. We (but I do want to give myself some credit here) developed a cheer mimicking Bob the Builder. If we were losing on Saturday night, we could chant, "Can we fix this? Yes we can!" as Bob does. If we were winning (as we were), we chanted, "Can we win this? Yes we can!" and then repeated "BOB!" in a huddle.



















Overall, the meet was a success. I had best times in almost every event, getting "B cuts" (aka provisionals) in the 50 free and 100 fly for the first time in my swimming career. I was 3/100 off the school record in the butterfly, as was Caitlin (we tied for fourth in the finals - see picture above.) I am also on a few relays that will go to Nationals (the official list comes out Friday, I think.) Thus, I am headed to Minneapolis for March 19-21 to swim on some relays and two individual events. My last swim season - my last trip to Nationals - I am so grateful to be going. In practice today (long course = amazing) I realized that I am not ready to be done. What will I do with myself? I'm glad I am going again, swimming again, enjoying myself again.
I tried to swim as a type of worship to God - not just enjoying it myself, although that's a part of it, but actually swimming so that God could look down and say, "Again! Again! I love this!" Someday, I'll add in my favorite sermon story of all time that talks about God saying "again! again!" It will make more sense.

The future's so bright, I've got to wear... blinds?

Wolfe's Fables: Episode 1

Pogo had always lusted after Roller’s skills. His steady rhythm increased exponentially as he raced downhill. His laces were always tied just right, looking like a helmet or a sleek shell whenever he shot past. Unfortunately, as most skates were wont to do, he was well aware of his skill and bragged about it incessantly.
“I love the wind I feel when I SHOOT down the hill,” he boasted.
One day, Pogo snapped. He had enough with Roller’s bragging, no matter how cool he looked or how fast he skated.
“That’s it, Roller. I’m sick of your gloating. Let’s race.”
Pogo knew that he could boing higher than Roller. Who said he couldn’t make it downhill just as fast – or faster?
“You sure, Pogo? Yes? Then let’s roll.”
So even though Pogo had never practiced a descent, he boinged to the top of the hill. He visualized himself boinging down, flying past, hearing the audience’s cheers.
Go!” the starter cried.
Roller began rolling, leering back at Pogo. Pogo took a giant leap.
Unused to the grade, Pogo missed his landing, so Roller the show-off won, fair and square. He could have napped before Pogo finished. Pogo flopped home, affirming the value of restraint and readiness.



Some updates:

1. We are still out of heat - which is not really worth a big whine because this is the first time I've been in the house for more than 2 hours. Our heat broke Saturday, so I have spent most of the time at other people's houses (thanks, kids). It is supposed to be fixed tomorrow. Until then - slow typing by these fingers, I guess.

2. I heard a quote that I am going to butcher, but it said something about "theologians have one eye on the Bible and one eye on the newspaper." We really need to be aware of what is going on in the world in order to best work toward shalom.

3. Conference is this week!

4. Sunday, I heard about how God keeps His promises. In the book of Joshua, Caleb had 45 years to wait before He received the land God had promised him. Kind of crazy, and it makes me feel very impatient when I am wondering why I still "wait for answers" for WEEKS on end.

5. Saw these sunglasses at Target, and then at the movie theater Saturday night. This is what this blog title is about.

thoughts?

There are some practical issues that you should be aware of.
1. I often confuse "Germany" with "Austria"
2. I'm actually left-handed. (Criticizers, this is acknowledging not only that I drew a right-handed student, but that I DO have a dominant hand in drawing. And this was it.)
3. I did steal an idea off of failblog. Thanks, small child, and teachers who post failed work.

Humility, Autumn Film, a Byronic Hero, and some prepositions

You now have the privilege of reading the blog of a record holder in the 100 butterfly for two pools! Also, very humble. That's right, Calvin's pool (seeing as it was the first meet in the pool), and Alma College's pool on Saturday. (Both of them are the 100 fly.) I just wanted to put that out here before we have another meet in Calvin's pool and potentially I will only have one pool record after that. Having small goals and seeing them achieved really does remind me that God gives us enough for each day, as the sermon was about yesterday. (Also, God gave me great friends. And great, intertwining connections. And people with birthdays on Valentine's Day. I like all of you.)

I heard a new, amazing band named Autumn Film. Here is a video embedded for your enjoyment. They're making a new cd of rearranged hymns at some point, and the songs I've heard so far have been awesome.


Second semester classes start today - I'm taking Doctrine of God, History of Math (I didn't make that one up), Rock Climbing, Psychology (two of them) and Creative Writing. I got so excited for creative writing that I may have gotten a little obsessed over our interim break, thanks to a great suggestion from a friend and some old English notes. I would say, "YES! OMG!" (paraphrasing, since I've never said OMG and plan on never, ever actually saying it) and my housemates would say, "Another idea for your story?" And every time they said it, it was true. On the plus side, I feel like I've made new friends. Literally, made.

My English knowledge comes in handy for my summary of my prayer class: it's all about prepositions. We're not just praying TO Jesus. We are praying WITH Jesus, FOR Jesus (we should be praying as if it were Him praying), AS Jesus, ABOUT Jesus, and I think a lot of other prepositions work there as well. So we'll just leave it as "& etc."

"Just Because You Can't See the Sun Doesn't Mean it's not Shining"

Hope Meet: Yesterday was the Hope-Calvin meet at our new pool. The girls team won, and we had a lot of really good swims. I had a couple season-best times (I swam the 200 medley relay (butterfly), 200, 100, and 100 fly) and a lot of people on the team had season-bests as well. I'm not sure what we're cheering for there - the 400 free relay, I think - but Mom and Mark were here so they were timing. (I really should stop letting Mom time... Or teach Mark how to time multiple lanes. Someone gets too excited during good races, or races where me or my friends happen to be in the water.) AND the sun was shining yesterday amidst the frigid cold. But the title of this post is actually from an awesome Anathallo song.

On Friday, Cara and I did a trial run putting on our Blue Seventys: this is me at minute 15.

And Cara at minute 7.

This is me, 29 minutes later. Could've been quicker (it took Cara 22 minutes) but I was too busy taking pictures and wriggling around ungracefully. It is the right size - nothing ripped when I went into ta handstand. Molly, if you're reading this, I hope you feel ashamed of yourself when you see the mug that I happened to notice when I unpacked stuff from Christmas. Don't look too close, your future birthday present is on the shelf.

Finally! We're both in the Blue Seventy suits. They're like a wetsuit material. Kind of fun, right?

This week is the last week of interim, and then I start my last semester. In interim, we talked a little about healings with prayer, and then the NY Times ran an article about parents who are going to trial for their daughter's death (Link here). That opens up a can of worms - on the one hand, God CAN do anything. So we should entrust problems to him, physical as well as emotional and spiritual. But, we have developed hospitals and medicines and it seems as though those are a gift from God that we can use to bring shalom to the world. I don't have a convincing argument either way, although I do know how my actions lie on this issue. And that ambivalence doesn't bother me - perhaps it should?
The team with the main donor and her family.