Having friends and community sometimes means drama. Life drama. Either directly between me and other people, or just by association. You know, someone has a crisis or an emergency or an interpersonal conflict, and because you are in community with them, that means you get some of the drama. Sometimes I like it, because without it life gets boring and I like walking alongside people. However, after two weeks with numerous crisis in several sectors of my life here, I'm cringing when I check my email these days, and I am SO emotionally drained. I sit in my car in the morning and desperately pray for wisdom and grace for me and for the other people involved in all these situations.
-- 2 --
On an entirely different and lighthearted note, I have been working out, and it's been fantastic because at the $10/mo gym I'm using, I get to watch tv while I work out. Working out has never been so easy. It's wonderful. On Monday none of my preferred TV shows were on so I ended up watching For the Love of Ray-J. It's essentially the Bachelor, except... umm... completely trashy. What's that you say, the Bachelor is trashy? Yes, you're right, it is, but it's got nuthin' on Ray-J.
Apparently this show has already been on once before, however Ray J dumped his first pick rather quickly, and I guess the runner-up ended up pregnant? And the conversations on the episode I watched (which was the first of the season) were so absolutely ridiculous that I laughed out loud multiple times. It was mind-blowingly awful.
Do not consider this a recommendation for the show. Quite the opposite. But it was definitely worth a stunned laugh. ;)
(Girls, those do not qualify as skirts. They are long shirts, and definitely need something more to cover your bottom half!)
-- 3 --
This is sort of related to #1, but a little different. Working with people is simultaneously heart-breaking and heart-warming. Recently I've experienced some of the best of both. Last week on my theology blog I wrote about the pain of having people I care about state things like, "I don't like Christians." And yet, at the same time it has been such a joy the past few weeks to see my freshman girls come on Wednesday nights, open up their Bibles, and come away talking about how cool certain verses were that we studied this week. That interspersed with general highschool girl craziness is such a total delight to be a part of! I love them...
-- 4 --
I forgot to talk about reading Anne Lamott's book, Traveling Mercies: Thoughts on Faith. It's a current favorite of the disillusioned evangelical/emerging type of person, and I know I lot of those kinds of people. I sort of had high expectations and wanted Lamott to be so profound, and so I was a bit let-down by how ... normal it was. However, that is sort of the beauty of the book. Lamott has a messy background and her faith is very much not stereotypical and is rather messy itself, which is exactly why disillusioned evangelicals love her. I felt like a prude when I continued to feel uneasy about her faith, but I did. On the other hand, what I love was her little stories about love and grace worked out in funny vignettes from her life. It was worth the read but it didn't stun me, just like The Shack.
Easy Chicken Enchiladas
- 1 can (10 ounces) enchilada sauce, divided
- 4 ounces cream cheese, cubed
- 1-1/2 cups salsa
- 2 cups cubed cooked chicken
- 1 can (15 ounces) pinto beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 can (4 ounces) chopped green chilies
- 10 flour tortillas (6 inches)
- 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Mexican cheese blend
- Shredded lettuce, chopped tomato, sour cream and sliced ripe olives, optional
Directions
- Spoon 1/2 cup enchilada sauce into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish. In a large saucepan, cook and stir the cream cheese and salsa over medium heat for 2-3 minutes or until blended. Stir in the chicken, beans and chilies.
- Place about 6 tablespoons of chicken mixture down the center of each tortilla. Roll up and place seam side down over sauce. Top with remaining enchilada sauce; sprinkle with cheese.
- Cover and bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until heated through. Serve with lettuce, tomato, sour cream and olives if desired. Yield: 5 servings.
Nutrition Facts: 1 serving (2 each) equals 468 calories, 13 g fat (6 g saturated fat), 75 mg cholesterol, 1,394 mg sodium, 51 g carbohydrate, 8 g fiber, 34 g protein.
Easy Chicken Enchiladas published in Simple & Delicious July/August 2006, p15
-- 6 --
I wrote about an article that came out in the NY Times about the Obamas' Marriage. It was a great article. And this photo of the First Couple on Halloween (from the WhiteHouse Photostream), cracks me up. The wookie to the right just makes the photo.
-- 7 --
Nicholas Kristof had a great column this week in the NY Times about healthcare in America and how big of a misconception it is for us to act as though we have fantastic healthcare here in the US. To quote him:
The United States ranks 31st in life expectancy (tied with Kuwait and Chile), according to the latest World Health Organization figures. We rank 37th in infant mortality (partly because of many premature births) and 34th in maternal mortality. A child in the United States is two-and-a-half times as likely to die by age 5 as in Singapore or Sweden, and an American woman is 11 times as likely to die in childbirth as a woman in Ireland...
Yet another study, cited in a recent report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Urban Institute, looked at how well 19 developed countries succeeded in avoiding “preventable deaths,” such as those where a disease could be cured or forestalled. What Senator Shelby called “the best health care system” ranked in last place.
The figures are even worse for members of minority groups. An African-American in New Orleans has a shorter life expectancy than the average person in Vietnam or Honduras.
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That recipe looks good! Thanks for sharing. (Got here from CD.)
ReplyDeleteOh my. That show is one of the reasons I'm glad we don't have cable :) I'd be sucked in, no doubt, but still -- not people I need to be spending time with!
ReplyDeleteThat recipe does sound good -- I just happen to have some cream cheese and leftover shredded chicken...
Love the excerpt from the NY Times article. The stuff about maternal and infant mortality is so sad to me. All of it, really, but I think alot about those certain aspects. Have you watched the documentary called The Business of Being Born? It was a fantastic look into the status quo of birth in America compared to the statistics coming out of other countries. Very thought provoking.
For the Love of Ray-J! hahaha
ReplyDeleteThere are many Americans who are not aware of these statistics nor will they accept them when confronted with them, not until sources they trust like Fox News, the AFRC, Rush limbaugh et al consider them. It's sad but in this matter they are ideologically opposed to such facts and so consider them irrelevant.