Concert Announcements

Keith and I are involved in a couple of upcoming concerts, and we're really excited! This year we've both been singing with our church choir, the Regent College Gospel Choir, and Keith recently joined the Vancouver Bach Choir. So...

The Regent Gospel Choir will be performing on Friday, March 30 at 7:30 p.m. at University Chapel on the UBC campus. This will be our leader, Ben Keyes' arts thesis presentation, and we will be singing new songs that he wrote. This concert is free, but please buy a cd, since that will help offset the costs! Also, if you are coming, come early, as we anticipate a very full house...










Keith will be performing Israel in Egypt with the Vancouver Bach Choir on Saturday, March 31 at 8:00 p.m. in the Orpheum Theatre. If you want tickets, tell Keith and he can order for you, since we think it's cheaper that way.

Email, call, or leave a comment if you want more information! We hope to see you at one of our concerts!

The Saga of the Blue Sweater

It took five years... but it's finally done! I finally finished the first major knitting project I ever started! I did lots of major knitting projects in between, but this one is the biggest, and it's for me! Here's the story of the blue sweater I never thought I would finish...

March 2002: I pick up knitting again after a 12 or so year hiatus, knit a couple of scarves, then decide that I wanted to do a sweater... and not just any sweater, but a sweater with a complicated cable-knit pattern.

June 2002: The gauge is a nightmare... the back of the sweater is finished (with a couple of major mistakes in the pattern), and when I got halfway through one of the front pieces, I realized that it was significantly smaller than the back piece. Grrrr! Not to mention, the back is also smaller than it's supposed to be. In my frustration, I begin work on another major project, a vest, which doesn't have any fancy cable knitting stuff. Consequently, the new project goes a lot better.

January 2006: I discover the beauty of blocking: simply by getting a piece of knit fabric wet, it is possible to stretch it to precisely the right dimensions, and it STAYS when it dries! I've also picked up quite a few more tricks along the way...

August 2006: This blue sweater is taking up space in my closet, and I'm feeling pretty guilty about buying all that yarn and then not using it. I have a conference with my mother, the expert, on what is to be done with it. I try making a swatch, and look, I have the right gauge!

September 2006: I rip out the unfinished front piece, keeping only the finished back piece... and start all over again!

October 2006: The front pieces are done, and I'm working on the sleeves...

November 2006: ...and the hood. I'm also learning to knit without looking. This is helpful; I can get a lot more knitting done when I do it while reading for class. The added benefit is that my mind stays more focused when my hands are active!

December 2006: (brief break, as I'm busy making Christmas presents)

January 2007: I look at the pattern with puzzlement, realizing that the button and buttonhole bands are to be knit separately and sewn on. How dumb is that? Note to self: never, ever follow the pattern. I can always improve it. Patterns always make you sew too many seams. I hate sewing seams.

February 2007: The lengthy process of sewing the sweater together. I cannot imagine a stupider pattern in terms of construction. Next time I will rewrite the pattern if it's this dumb. And I've found that most patterns ARE this dumb. Oh well, it still turned out okay... I find that I can use the detached button and buttonhole bands to jump rope while I'm wearing the partially assembled sweater.

March 2007: I finally find the time to dump my sweater in the bathtub, get it all wet, and stretch it out... amazing, the sweater is the right size! It's done! Hooray! Now where am I going to put it?

What I'm doing for Lent

This may sound a little odd, but I'm "giving up" being-a-bad-steward-of-the-earth for Lent. I don't think I was doing too badly to begin with, but I can do better. I invite all my dear friends and family to join me, too! (Also, you can leave comments with other good ideas.) Here's why I'm doing this:

1. I love God. I believe that God created the world (no, not in the literal Genesis 1 sense, with the 7 days... this account is POETIC, not scientific, and gives us information about who God is, and about his relationship to us and the rest of the created order), and I believe humans are called to be good stewards of all that God has given them.
2. I love the earth! I love trees! I love animals!
   
3. I love doing things outside, and I want "outside" to be a place worth going, now and in the future.
4. I love people. It is the poor that will be affected most by climate change. It is also my children (well, the ones I will probably have eventually) who are going to experience climate change. I want them to inherit a healthy earth. I'm not the only person on the planet! We are all in this together!
   
5. I want to be a good example, especially to others who also love God. Bad theology (the "it's all going to burn anyway" sort), selfishness, and ignorance are major causes of earth-abuse. We cannot use these as an excuse! (And no, I'm not going to stop this stuff after Lent!)
   

Anyhoo, now I will get off my soapbox and say what I am actually doing.

1. Turning off the lights whenever I'm not using them, and unplugging things that I'm not using. Apparently this saves a lot of energy.
   
2. I changed the power settings on my computer. The monitor turns off after a shorter time. I'm also being more careful about not leaving it on when I'm not using it.
   
3. Cotton balls and maxi pads: it pains me every time I throw one away. So, I'm getting reusible ones! (Yes, I know, sounds gross, but women were menstruating for hundreds of thousands of years before the invention of disposable maxi pads. Likewise, babies were pooping before the invention of disposable diapers. My children will use CLOTH DIAPERS.) I think I will also be making some nice lace-edged hankies using my new crochet skills, in order to cut down on kleenex use.
   
4. Being conscientious about water use: shorter, less frequent showers, not letting the tap run while brushing my teeth, etc. I also found that I can fill the Brita pitcher while I'm waiting for the water in the kitchen to heat up. I'm going to talk to our landlord/neighbor about getting a rain barrel to use to water the garden in the summer.
   
5. I'm going to get a drying rack for the summer, so I can hang my clothes out to dry instead of using the dryer. Unfortunately, I can't do this year-round in Vancouver (it's pouring outside as I write this...)
   
6. We're going to plant some veggies outside in pots on our lovely new patio! They'll be nice and fresh and organic, and they will cut down on transportation costs.
   
7. We don't own our house, so we can't really make home improvements, nor can we adjust the heat, since there's one thermostat for the whole house. However, as the lights burn out, we'll replace them with more efficient bulbs.
   
8. This summer, we're doing some significant travelling, since we love people, and we're attending a wedding, a baptism, and a music festival. I will research carbon offsets (planting trees and whatnot), because of the major pollution caused by air travel.

Things I'm already doing:

1. Taking the bus whenever possible (yay for the UBC student bus pass!)
   
2. Walking to the grocery store
3. Composting and recycling whenever possible
4. Reusing jars and plastic containers: cheap and useful. I also really like that some pasta sauces come in mason jars, which I can use for canning! Yay for not wasting food!
   
5. Using energy saving settings on the dishwasher
6. Wearing clothes more than once, using towels for a week, and using sheets for several weeks... thus cutting down on the frequency of laundry.

Please consider joining me in any or all of these activities! Every little bit helps...

Back to school again

When people ask us what we did over Christmas break, I usually explain that we spent the break hibernating. That's pretty much the case, if "hibernating" refers to "not doing anything remotely like schoolwork." (Ahhhhh...) It also means "sitting on our butts on the couch." This included various activities, including the playing of Pinochle, the watching of movies, the making of various things (see pics below), and the reading of non-school-related books.

It appears that we picked good classes, so the semester should be enjoyable, if busy. Both of us will be taking Systematic Theology, continuing in our language studies (Keith is taking Greek and Celia is taking Hebrew), Celia is taking a book study on Romans, and Keith is taking Church History.

We celebrated the new year in the typical fashion with the Gardners, although the pot and pan "band" continued to play for about 15 minutes, provoking my father, who was at home, to come out on the deck and add to the racket with his trombone.

Keith helped clean up the chocolate fountain.

I learned to crochet with the help of Keith's mommy and sisters, and completed an entire blanket, which I gave to my brother.

I made pillows for both of our mommies. I used scraps from the quilt I made for Keith.

Keith's special project was to make a bookshelf to house our new set of the writings of the church fathers. It lives under our piano.

I made a pair of mittens for my friend, Carla. This was my first try at making my own pattern (other than scarves, but those don't count). They turned out pretty well!

I had planned to post pictures of this project a long time ago, but never did it. It's a little hat for Fabian, Helga and Rene's new baby.

Here I am trying to wear the hat.

Our Christmas "exploits" so far

Merry Christmas! Here's what we've been doing since we finished finals. (We survived!)

Now that Carla has taught me so many wonderful Brazilian dishes, I taught her one of the best recipes from my heritage: Cardamom bread!! We made a party of it; it's much more fun to make bread in a group.

We decorated a whole bunch of gingerbread cookies with the kids upstairs. We made a special plate of penguins for Heather.

My parents lost power for 8 days, so we decorated the tree in the dark (tree lights powered by the generator). How romantic! (or something)

Colin couldn't be there for the tree decorating, but he was there in spirit (that is, Dad scanned a picture from one of the ornaments and photoshopped him in...) The next morning, off we went to Iowa!

We made a special cookbook for Keith's mommy with our favorite recipes, many of which we got from friends and family.

Favorite gifts? Keith's mommy made all of us blankets! The whole family was here this year: Joseph, Catherine, Keith, Celia, Rebecca, Nate, Sarah (and Baby Sweet), and Chris. Ilene took the picture, and Tim was off doing something else.

Nate prepares to bring his Christmas gifts home. No, you can't have the dog.

Christmas will keep right on going when we're back in Seattle with Celia's family on December 30!

Christmas Letter, 2006

Finally we are putting out our Christmas letters and cards. We should be sending them by mail shortly, but here you will find our letter and picture.


December 22, 2006

Dear friends and family,

We’ve had a really busy semester, so we’re getting our cards out a bit late this year. Now we are enjoying some restful time with Keith’s family in Iowa.

This January we started at Regent College in Vancouver, Canada studying theology. This has been an all-absorbing task; we’ve been learning a lot and enjoying the community. A third of Regent is from outside North America, which creates a very different dynamic. We have new friends from Brazil, Japan, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. We enjoy learning about their cultures, especially how they cook. We seem to learn just as much out of classes as in them.

We went to school through the summer as well, and rediscovered that we both procrastinate very badly. All the assignments for a summer class are due on the same day. Keith did some career exploration through summer school, thinking about youth ministry and pastoral care. He is currently thinking of teaching in a private school setting. Celia worked through some important questions related to music and worship, and while she wasn’t studying, went to two music festivals. Lately each of us has been busy writing and thinking about a theological topic. Keith has been working through the concepts of predestination, free will, and grace, while Celia has been studying the problems of dispensationalism. Both of us are enjoying our biblical language classes. We decided to “divide and conquer”: Keith is studying Greek, and Celia is studying Hebrew. So far our studies have been very fruitful personally and vocationally. We plan to continue our studies here for another two years or so.

We found a great church (Vancouver First Christian Reformed), where we worship with people from many ages and walks of life. The church has been very supportive of the many Regent students there, putting us to work to serve the community. Keith has been playing piano and organ for congregational singing. Celia occasionally plans worship and teaches adult Sunday school. Both of us sing in the choir.

In news totally unrelated to our studies (and to prove that we do occasionally do something different—we’re feeling a little nerdy as we look over our letter), Keith dug a great big hole in the backyard to make a place for our new patio! Unfortunately he completed it just in time for the rainy season. We look forward to some nice barbeques next summer.

We wish all of you a wonderful Christmas and many blessings in the New Year!

Christmas trees!

Over the summer, I took a class on planning worship. For our final projects, we split into groups and planned short worship services which we then presented to the class. (It was one of the best assignments so far here!) One of the other groups had an object lesson which involved baby Noble Fir trees. Somehow I ended up with four of them. I forgot what the object lesson was, but the trees are really cool. We decided to bring them inside and decorate them for Christmas!



Here they are, hanging out with our advent "wreath" and a couple of presents. The biggest one gets to be on top of the piano.

What to do with pumpkins

Once again, it's a cooking post! I do seem to do a lot of those, but I've also tried to show that I do some studying and cello/viol-playing too. In fact, Keith is practicing the piano while I type, and I went to play viol consort music with some people on Friday night! But in any case, this is pumpkin pie weekend, when we get to eat our jack o'lanterns, so I'll show you the process. It all started when my mom grew sugar pumpkins this year. She kindly gave me 5 or 6 of them for my baking needs.

Carving pumpkins with our neighbors...




Setting them out on display (Mine is on the left, and Keith's is on the right)...




Next step: baking our jack o'lanterns!


Final product: pumpkin pie that is way better than the stuff from the can!! (My pie crusts are improving, too!)


Other things to do with pumpkins: I made 2 batches of pumpkin bars, and our friend, Carla taught us to make Brazilian pumpkin and shrimp stew! We had a lovely feast complete with Brazilian coffee and Brigadiero! By the way, this is outside on our new patio, which we've enjoyed very much when it hasn't been raining and cold... so not for the last month...


Thanks, Mom!

Procrastination...

Right now I am supposed to be writing a paper. It is about gnostic tendencies in nineteenth-century evangelical (especially dispensational) hymnody. Wow, the more I read about dispensationalism, the scarier it gets. I really need to quit reading the books and get to work on the paper (it's due tomorrow), but it really holds a kind of morbid fascination, not to mention it being another means of procrastination. Anyway, I actually finished another major assignment a couple of days ago, and I thought I would post it here, since I'm rather pleased with it, and someone might actually find it helpful to sort out the monarchy of ancient Israel/Judah. I found it helpful. Have fun...

Finished Quilt!

That's right, I managed to finish my first quilt!


Let me tell you a bit about it. The whole thing started when Keith went through his closet last fall (2005), and pulled out a whole bunch of jeans that he had outgrown to give away (that tells you how often Keith goes through his closet). Unfortunately, they were so holey and covered in paint, that no one would want them... but throwing them away would be wasteful! So, I decided to make a quilt with them, supplemented by some homespun-style cotton fabric. It was supposed to be Keith's graduation present in December 2005, but that didn't happen. I had no idea how much work it is to make a quilt! I did most of the work this past summer (aided by the lovely sewing machine Keith's mommy gave me), and finished it on the second day of class. The worst part was tying. To get the thick yarn needle and thick yarn through all the layers, I had to use vice-grip pliers and work gloves to prevent blisters! Honest, I'm not a wimp! Maybe for my next project I'll do some Christmas stockings. Right now this quilt lives on the couch, to make for nice comfy studying. If you come visit, it will be on your bed!