30 minute challenge

First Week's Writing Assignment: write 250 words in 30 minutes (split your time in half: first 15 write, second 15 edit). Your topic is "a meal"
I'd love to challenge ya'll to do this too. I'm sure you can find 30 minutes in your day. It doesn't have to be good writing, in fact it most likely won't be. You just need to get the words on the paper. So here's what I came up with--definitely not polished and perfected, but it is do-able. ready, set, go.

Time was taken to make the table beautiful, to prepare with love beforehand what would be so quickly consumed. Mother, my sister, and I poured hours into this celebration feast (as we do every week). It is devoured within minutes. Silverware set on either side of brightly colored plates, double salt and pepper, food steaming in the dishes set in the middle of the square table. Wine catches the light in its special way—made even more special because only on the Sabbath do we uncork the aged juice and pull out the stemware. A cloth and flickering candles adorn the oak table, dressing it up from its every day service-garb. The ladies stir and scrub and slice; the boys clear away the week’s motely collection; Dad grils to perfection: everything is prepared and waiting. This dinner is not a come when you please, just pop it in the microwave meal. It is not another quick bite and rush out the door. Today we sit together as a family—all eight of us—and delight in each other’s company. Song books are opened before we dig in and we bow to give thanks with hearts overflowing. Heavy wooden chairs slide up to the table and napkins unfold. Eagar faces smile expectantly as Daddy serves the green beans, potatoes, steak. Full plates are passed around, only to be emptied and sent back for more. We feast. Dessert is in the fridge, ready to be pulled out when the coffee pot beeps. 

beginnings of something fun

worthy of my common place...

but so is the rest of the book, so I haven't actually written it in. I might just have to stick the book at the back of my commonplace journal. This term of Rhetoric is, at least so far, SO much better than the last term. It is the poetry term, which also means creative...and you know I'll like that better than the logic term! Today I read Holy the Firm, by Annie Dillard. Oh, it is so good! It's basically just a long creative sketch about life. AND it's only 75 pages (and 14 pt. font)--you should read it. Here's a selection that I found especially inspiring (and you'll probably see more clips from this book in the near future):

"How can people think that seek a name? A name, like a face, is something you have when you're alone. There is no such thing as an artist: there is only the world, lit or unlit as the as the light allows. When the candle is burning, who looks at the wick? When the candle is out, who needs it? But the world without light is wasteland and chaos, and a life without sacrifice is abomination. What can any artist set on fire but his world? What can any people bring to the alter but all it has ever owned in the thin towns or over the desolate plains? What can an artist use but materials, such as they are? What can he light but the short string of his gut, and when that's burnt out, any muck ready to hand? His face is flame like a seraph's lighting the kingdom of God for the people to see; his life goes up in the works; his feet are waxen and salt. He is holy and he is firm, spanning all the long gap with the length of his love, in flawed imitation of Christ on the cross stretched both ways unbroken and thorned. So must the work be also, in touch with; spanning the gap, from here to eternity."

it's a Spencer recipe

Yesterday, Melissa, a fellow freshman came over and we baked all afternoon. We made Cake Balls, Cinnamon-Cappuchino Scones, Soft Pretzels and Spicy and Sweet Mustard dipping sauce. After that we made a mexican dinner: Green Chile Enchiladas, Mexican Rice, and Sopapillas.

The Sopas were a lot of fun to make. I used Daddy's recipe and they turned out beautifully--after I figured out how to measure a "quailswallow" (one of Daddy precise culinary measurements). I was teaching Mel how to use yeast in out various recipes so I was very happy that they worked so well (it was actually the first time I had made them on my own).

thanks to Mel for the pictures!