There's No Place Like Home

 They often say that during your freshman year of college you learn and experience so many new things since you, often for the first time, interact with people with diverse backgrounds, beliefs, ideas, etc.  Sometime students struggle with or are shocked by this new information about a world they thought they knew.*  I specifically remember a moment such as this that occurred my freshman year at K-State.  I was sitting with a group of friends in the dining hall enjoying the special Kansas Day meal and reminiscing about celebrating Kansas Day in elementary school.  A few of the gals at the table were from out-of-state so I asked how they celebrated their statehood.  I was shocked to find out they didn't.  There wasn't a quirky day set aside to be extra proud of being from Nebraska, New Mexico, or Oklahoma.  They didn't spend a week every year coloring pictures of the state seal, bird, or other important historical items.  They didn't learn about sod houses, making butter, or square dancing.  How sad.  Later on while in Kansas City for grad school a women's Bible study had a dinner around Kansas Day and was to bring dessert.  I decided Kansas Dirt would be perfect-- chocolate pudding, whipped cream, and oreos-- in view of the holiday.  I was then surprised that people living in Johnson County didn't celebrate with as much gusto as others across the state.  (Another reason to kick Johnson County out of Kansas due to a lack of state pride.  Arthur says we can't do that since our state needs their tax revenues.)

* Another world-rocking moment when my belief system was turned upside down in college was when I found out that St. Bernard dogs carry brandy in the thermos around their necks.  Ever since I was a child I thought they carried hot chocolate in those thermoses because that's what my mom told me, probably trying to avoid answering questions about alcoholic beverages from a 5 year old.  Arthur was actually the person to point out my naivete.

Lately I have wanted to move to Utah.  There is a lot of mountains, deserts, and forests.  Opportunities for hiking, biking, kayaking, and camping abound.  Utah is a state that ranks fairly high in living an active lifestyle and in overall health.  They even celebrate Pioneer Day which is essentially the same as Kansas Day.  However, I am a Kansan, born and raised.  We think and daydream about living in exotic, far off places (like Colorado or Utah) but we can't seem to leave the prairie.  I think the following passage from L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz speaks to this:

 “I cannot understand why you should wish to leave this beautiful country and go back to the dry, gray place you call Kansas."
"That is because you have no brains," answered the girl. "No matter how dreary and gray our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful. There is no place like home."
The Scarecrow sighed.
"Of course I cannot understand it," he said. "If your heads were stuffed with straw, like mine, you would probably all live in beautiful places, and then Kansas would have no people at all. It is fortunate for Kansas that you have brains.” 

Kansas does seem to have the reputation of being a "dry, gray place" to the untrained eye.  However I read somewhere lately that the beauty of Kansas is in the details.  You have to get off the beaten path (that would be I-70) and take a closer look.  No there aren't imposing mountains, grand cities, or endless coastlines.  There are back road adventures, hometown diners, and surprises in small towns.  Arthur and I love to travel whenever we can.  However at this point in our lives we work full time and are trying to build up our savings so we are into close to home budget adventures.  It has been exciting to plan some of our journeys around the state this year.  It may not be Utah or some other paradise but Kansas has rock formations, lake and rivers, canyons, lowland forests, and seas of waving fields and prairies.  There's areas to watch wildlife, gaze at the stars, and appreciate the native plants.  In Kansas you just have to look a little deeper.

Obviously one of my favorite things about Kansas is the natural beauty but here is list of other reasons we can celebrate our state.

First of all, Kansas is smack dab in the middle of everything.  Kinsley is exactly half way between NYC and San Francisco.  The center of the Lower 48 is located near Lebanon, KS.  Also the geodetic center of North America is on Meade's Ranch in Osborne County.  This means that surveyors from all over the continent are actually measuring land based on a marker in some Kansas pasture.

Castle Rock, Gove KS

Kansans feed the world since the state is one of the top producers in beef and wheat.  Furthermore in the culinary department, Kansas is home to many innovators-- the creator of ICEE slushes, Pizza Hut, Papa John's, and White Castle Burgers.

World's Largest Ball of Twine, Cawker City, KS

In addition to agriculture products Kansas is one of the largest producers of helium in the nation.  In fact groundbreaking research and development regarding helium was completed at the turn of the century in labs at KU.  I'm pretty sure the researchers inhaled some of the helium to practice their munchkin voices.

Fall at Kanza Prairie

Which leads us to The Wizard of Oz.  Interestingly enough this is the top thing that is associated with our state-- a fictional fantasy world.  Every Kansan has heard the following comments more than we can count:  "Where's Toto?", "Did you pack your ruby slippers?", and "You're not in Kansas anymore".  In my quick research into the Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum didn't visit Kansas but based it on his time in South Dakota.

Wildflowers in the Flint Hills

Kansas is also well know for another fictional character-- Superman grew up in Kansas.  While there is still much debate about where the fictional Smallville is located in the state, it could be about any small town and there are plenty from which to pick.  Reportedly, Kansas is also high on the list of most likely to survive a zombie apocalypse.  This may be due to percentage of population that has served in the military, number of hunters and gun owners, and Superman might be the kid down the street.  I think it may be since we are deal with tornadoes on a regular basis and a zombie invasion can't be that different. 

So go ahead and sing a round of Home on the Range to celebrate Kansas' 155th birthday.  After all, there's no place like home.  Omnia Vincit Amor.

World Class sunsets in Kansas

Disappointment

Today is Kansas Day.  I have been working on a special Kansas Day post most of the week.  I sat down this evening to put the finishing touches on my work which included some great research, word play, and pictures.  As I was editing I hit ctrl+Z to undo something.  A simple action and a key stroke I use all the time.  This evening that little key stroke prove to be disastrous.  The entire blog vanished and in a blink of an eye autosave had kicked in and saved the blank document sending all my hard work into the depths of cyberspace.  Frantically I searched for help forums to see if there was some trick to fix it.  Believe it or not, Google did not design Blogger with any way to retrieve lost work or old drafts.  After a long and busy week I'm just not sure I have it in me to type this blog again tonight for Kansas Day.  Maybe I will feel differently later and write is again later, just not in time for Kansas Day.   However I did want to share this photo which even caused me to crack a smile.  Omnia Vincit Amor.

Resolution 2016

As we are to the point in the New Year that most people have thrown in the towel on their new years’ resolutions, I decided to finally make a few.  I never jump right on this at the beginning of the year but like to have some time to mull over ideas.  My list this year is a mix between resolutions and a bucket list.  My cousin gave me some thought-provoking questions to guide my resolution process.  The two questions were what resources has God entrusted to us and how can we be better stewards of those resources and what gifts have God given us and what needs can we meet with those needs.  I found that my answers to these questions meshed well with my resolutions.  

One of the resources that has been entrusted to us is our health.  A lot of resolutions tend to focus health and wellness.  Another resource we can be good stewards of is the environment or nature.  God has given us dominion over the earth but in a stewardship role.  The final resource on my list was finances.  One of Arthur’s and my resolutions is to save a certain amount of money towards the future purchase of a house.  To meet our goal we will have to use our money wisely.  Probably the resolution that will be the most difficulty for me is cooking more with vegetables.  First, I am not a big fan of veggies and it will take conscious effort to adjust some habits.  This goal actually addresses the three resources.  It’s good for our health which is obvious.  As far as the environment hopefully we will grow some of the vegetables ourselves or get them at the farmer’s market.  From a financial standpoint we want to be wise with our resource and sometimes that may be investing a little more money to support local businesses like at a farmer’s market.   

The second question, what gifts do I have and what needs can those meet, is also kind of linked to the other goals on my list.  The first gift I thought of was the ability enjoy life, even the normal everyday things.  We talked about mini adventures before—adventures in your own “backyard” and are planning on doing a mini adventure each month.  A lot of these will probably involve being outside in nature.  Arthur and I have talked about how it is almost a “need” for us to get some relaxing outdoor time on a regular basis to help with moods and our attitudes the rest of the week.  Another “need” that could be met through these adventures is inviting others to join us to build relationships and community in a world where that seems to be more and more difficult.  This may be with close friends, the middle and high school kids we mentor, or even open setting where our friends can invite others friends.  With trying to be outside frequently this probably means learning new skills for us.  We have just a little bit of backpacking experience but we are excited to learn about camping and all the skills it requires.  I might take up trail running or star gazing or learning about the plants and animals that are native to the area.  Another idea for mini adventures is a little closer to home.  We love traveling and would like to see more of the globe someday but right we can experience different cultures in a small way.  Once again, about once a month, I would like to pick a different country or region, try to make a recipe from the area and then eat it while watching travel documentaries from the same area.  The final two items on my list for this year was planning and completing a Rim to Rim backpacking trip in the Grand Canyon and running a 5K in 21 minutes. 

 As New Year’s resolutions go I probably won’t complete 50-75% of what is on my list but it is sure fun to think about all the possibilities of the New Year.  Omnia Vincit Amor.

Winter wonderland

This evening we are getting our first snow of any significance this year.  It started as sleet about 5pm as we were getting home from work.  There have been some chilly days this week and I always seem to be cold on my drive.  Part of the reason may be that the audiobook I am currently listening to is South, the story of Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic expedition that left them stranded on an ice sheet for almost two years.  It is an amazing story of adventure, endurance, and ingenuity.  It also talks a lot about ice, snow, penguins, frost bite, blizzards, etc.  It might have been a better choice for July when I want to think cold thoughts.

When we headed over to church tonight the sleet was coming down so we decided to drive.  We live about 400 yards from church so we almost always walk and have gotten quite the reputation for that the past few Sundays when the temperature hovered above 0F as we made the trek.  I thought people might think we are getting soft if we drove.  And it three or four different people did comment on it but it was awful nice to have heated seats.  By the time we left it had switched to snow and there was maybe about and inch already.  I love snowy evenings-- the sky glows, everything has a certain softness to it, and surprisingly it never feels as cold.  It was cold enough I was glad to have my snug and cozy home to spend the night.

I'll enjoy the snow tonight but my tune my change tomorrow when we have to shovel out our cars and mush our way to work.  I'm not sure how Arthur feels about snow.  I do know that he hasn't been a fan of the cold when we walk to church and may grumble about it for the whole 3 minutes we are out.  I pointed out to him the other day when he was moaning about the cold that he is headed on a ski trip this weekend.  And ski usually means being outside... in the cold.... and snow..... most of the day.  You could tell from the look in his eyes this was a new idea.  He commented, "Why in the world did I sign up for this?"  I'm sure he will have the time of his life frolicking in the snow.  Omnia Vincit Amor.

Be Not Afraid

Hello faithful readers!  Arthur here, filling in for Alex as she spends the weekend scrounging up questions for a junior high school scholar's bowl.  Alex is usually pretty timid about setting me loose on a blog with no direction, and my taste does tend to run a little further on the philosophical than in reality.  I have been thinking a lot recently about one area where those ideas merge quite close today.

2 Timothy 1:7 says "God hasn't given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of sound mind."  Some in the audience might rightly point out that fear has great utility when confronted by a poisonous snake or bear or any number of life threatening scenarios, and a fairly lengthy discussion could be had on what exactly this passage might mean.  For our purposes, if I can get you to agree with the premise that constant fear is not a characteristic of the Christian life God means us to lead, I think we can continue.

James 1: 20 say "man's anger do not bring about the righteous life God desires."  As before, some will rightly bring up that there is such a thing as righteous anger, but again, if I can get you to agree with the premise that anger is not a characteristic of the Christian life God means for us, we can safely continue.

Premise 3: God wants us to live self-controlled lives.  As we saw in 2 Timothy 1:7, God did give us a spirit of "sound mind," your translation might have self control instead.  It is the last fruit of the spirit found in the famous list of Galatians 5.  I doubt there would be much disagreement on this point.

Everybody tracking with me so far?  Alright, here's where I'm going to a little farther than you might be comfortable with, so buckle up.  Premise 4: there is a lot of media meant primarily for a Christian audience that is meant to make you scared and angry.  Some of it, I'm sure, is just purely incidental; it is hard to report on scary things and not leave a person scared; the same holds true for anger.  Some of it, I'm also pretty sure, is meant to get people to act the way someone else wants.

There are people who might have good causes who realize how motivating fear and anger can be, and they use it to drive people to donate money, come to protests, vote a certain way, call their elected leaders, and shut their minds down from ever engaging someone who might have a contrary point of view.  This brings me to my conclusion: if listening or watching a piece of media makes you feel scared or angry, make sure you wait until you are completely in control and relaxed before doing anything; and you might seriously want to consider finding a new place to find your information.

Jesus didn't go around trying to scare people into the kingdom of heaven: there were times he almost seemed to be trying to scare people out of it.  He said things to the effect of, if you want to follow me, pick up your cross daily (i.e. be ready to die horribly).  He saw people were following Him for food and told them they must eat His flesh and drink His blood.  He warned that the world would hate the believer, that they would be persecuted.

Those who were left were not motivated by fear or anger; they were motivated by love, and that would be might final conclusion from this little exercise: whatever you do, do it out of love.  Instead of following the guy with the most fiery rhetoric, look for the calm man who shows no hatred for the opposing side.  This hits me hard; we live in a state with a governor I think is choosing very poor policy decisions, and it is hard for me not to get angry at him.  Whatever I do, I need to practice what I'm preaching here.

This was something of a heady subject; I'm sure next week Alex will be back to give you more lighthearted stories of marital bliss.  Until then, I hope you will consider what's written here, so that in your own life; Omnia Vincit Amour.

Newsworthy

January seems to be one of our slower months as "blog worthy" events go.  Therefore when it is a slow news month I resort to the tactics of our small town paper-- make whatever normal stuff is happening into something newsworthy.

Breaking Front page: The first actually was a very news worthy event, covered for days in the local paper.  We have lived, and still are living, in the middle of a large construction zone as they are adding onto and building schools all around us.  The new upper elementary school that has popped up in our backyard opened for students last week.  Big doings in town but only affects us in that it blocks our view of the sunset now.

Weather: It was really cold on Sunday morning.  Like 0 degrees cold.  We live one block from church so we usually walk since it is about 4 blocks if you were to drive.  We knew it was going to be cold and I told Arthur it was probably about 25F and we would survive.  It didn't seem to matter that it was a 3 min walk, we were frozen by the time we got there and it took Arthur's glasses a while to defrost.

Society Page: We had a mini Christmas today since our package from Amazon arrived.  In college I used to dread getting Amazon packages this time of year since I knew semester had begun it was usually textbooks.  However we were eagerly waiting for this box.  We used money from Christmas to order the Kansas Trail Guide which is a detail guide of hiking and biking trails throughout Kansas (for me) and new razor blades and shaving soap (for Arthur) for his safety razor.  He scampered off excitedly to finally use his badger hair shaving brush for the first time with the soap.  Nothing beats a clean shave on my husband.

Movie Reviews: Saturday we were hermits and didn't leave the house.  And it was glorious.  I kind of enjoy being a homebody in the winter.  We watched two new documentaries on Netflix which were very good.  The first was The Short Game about the world championships for 7 and 8 year old golfers.  It was intriguing to see how kids who are elite athletes act as well as their parents.  The other was titled Unbranded about a group of guys who train wild mustangs to do a trail ride from Mexico to Canada.  It discusses the importance of public lands and the issues facing maintaining the wild horses at an appropriate level in the Western United States.

Sports: The college football season has officially come to an end which means that another champion's name is engraved on a major trophy.  We participate in a bowl picking contest with my extended family and the winners name is engraved forever in black magic marker on a blue plastic popcorn bowl.  For only the second time in its glorious 10-15 year history I took home the accolades of family champion picking 8 out of 10 games correctly.  (I'm just a little bit proud about this).

Health and Fitness: Arthur continues to train for his ski trip.  A lot of his training has included watching Rocky montages for inspiration.  Jokes aside, he is improving a lot.  His two goals this week were to be able to complete a circuit of activities including holding 3 planks for 1 minute each and holding a wall sit for 2 1/2 minutes.  It's only Tuesday and he has already met both of those goals which seemed impossible when he started his training about 3 weeks ago.

Cooking: I purchased a new kitchen gadget, a George Foreman grill.  We have only used it a few times but I think we will really love it.  Arthur's favorite use so far has been grilling mushrooms on it.  A few nights before we got the grill I made burgers by broiling them.  Arthur was cleaning up the pan and made the following comment, "Cleaning up the mess of greasing and drippings from meat is about enough to make a person a vegetarian".  Since we still have a freezer full of beef we won't be vegetarians any time soon.  However I did make a lentil stew and veggie enchiladas that received good reviews from Arthur.

Human Interest Story:  It has become customary for news sites to give notice of, say, dogs surfing or pigs on skateboards.  While these events have no bearing on actual life, the cuteness factor is so strong that people find edification in these stories.  Several weeks ago, my cute little wife came up to me while I was working on the computer and asked if she could look at a picture of a penguin wearing a scarf.  It might have been the cutest thing I've ever experienced.

As the New York Times says, there is "All the news that's fit to print".  Omnia Vincit Amor.

Routine

Doesn't life seem a little better when you have a "groove"?  Or maybe that is just my type A personality.  I do love adventure and new experiences (however planning an adventure is one of the best parts for me).  But I also love have a schedule.  The over the past week and a half it seems like Arthur and I have found our groove for our time in the evenings.  It seems like during the winter we struggle more with consistency.  However we haven't had any activities in the evenings lately because of taking a break for the holidays so we have had time at home.  Arthur is preparing for a ski trip which has been motivational to start a training program before hitting the slopes.  When we get home in the evening the first thing we do is work out together.  It sure is wonderful to have a workout buddy.  Afterwards is kitchen time-- dinner prep, clean up, packing lunches.  Then we may spend about an hour or so watching TV or on the computer.  Once 9pm hits then we are in "no screen" time for an hour before bed.  Supposedly turning off all screens an hour before bed time will help you sleep better.  We both are blessed with the ability to sleep like rocks but it doesn't seem like a bad habit to get into.  I must admit that I am worse about following this rule than Arthur.  However, I have found that I am not wasting time with mindless internet surfing but have to make choices about how I use my screen time during the evening.  We spend our no screen time snuggled on the couch reading books or doing our quiet time.  And we are always in bed by 10pm since we aren't in the middle of a TV show on Netflix that we can't pull ourselves away from until 10:30 or so.
We didn't sit down and decide that a change needed to happen in our schedule but after a week or so we both love it.  Before I would get home from work and try to get motivate to do something-- should I start dinner, work out, tidy up, etc-- but now when we get home we change clothes and head to the basement to exercise.  No questions asked.  The other night I felt very energetic and I wasn't sure why but I realized it was because I love routine.  I love that I didn't have to waste energy trying to talk myself into doing what I needed to do since it wasn't optional in my head anymore.  I also find it interesting now that once it hits 10pm we hop right off the couch to climb in bed.  After reading for an hour I don't want to stay up any more to read a few extra pages.  We are also waking up a little more refreshed in the mornings too.  While it is 8:57pm so I better wrap this post up since my husband will be up in a few minutes to check to make sure the laptop is off.  Omnia Vincit Amor.

Home for the Holidays

After the flurry of holiday activities and traveling we have settled back into our humble abode enjoying a slower pace during the first few weeks of January.  The relaxation now is nice but we also have had a wonderful time with friends and family over the past few weeks.

Our first stop was making the trip to Alex's hometown for Christmas with her family.  We arrived in the late afternoon on Christmas Eve and our niece was so excited about Christmas.  She was running around singing "Christmas is going to be awesome" over and over.  I asked her, "So, can you tell me what tomorrow is?" and her reply was "Tomorrow's Friday" as if it was just another day in the week.  At the young age of 3 we don't think that she has figured out that Christmas is a particular day but basically just a wonderful time of year.  My family (Alex) always goes to the Christmas Eve program at our church.  It's traditional to say the least.  In the past quarter of a century the major changes that have taken place include the Sunday School kids singing a different song, a guitar choir for Silent Night, and now we hold battery operated tea candles during Silent Night-- I guess the 2-3 years we used real candles was not very relaxing for the adults involved.  Afterwards we always head to my grandmother's farmhouse for soup after the program.  While my grandma has been gone just over 2 years now and we miss her during these gatherings I love the tradition of still gathering around her table and living room.  While I am not the family history expert I would guess that Christmas Eve has been held in that living room for 50-60 years if not longer.  After soup most of the cousins wandered down the road to the neighbors to sing Christmas carols.  It was a full moon and so bright that our shadows were cast on the road.  On the way home we enjoyed the Christmas lights on Main Street into which could be the Main Street right out of It's A Wonderful Life.

Since my niece didn't know that it was actually Christmas Day we all got to sleep in and have our Christmas breakfast before opening p-r-e-s-e-n-t-s.  Having a small child around does add to the excitement on Christmas.  One of the gifts that was a highlight for Arthur and I was we got a book of all of our blog posts printed out.  It's amazing how many pages we have written over the past few years.  Later that morning we watched my favorite Christmas movie of all time-- The Muppet Christmas Carol.  This is a must see if you have never experienced the Muppets' rendition of this classic piece of literature by Dickens.  That evening we broke from tradition (or added a new one) with the first annual family karaoke sing. We had such a variety of numbers: Let It Go for the whole group, Walk the Line sung by the men's glee, I Say a Little Prayer for You performed by the women's chorus, and each couple sang "their song".  I will never forget my parents singing Sonny and Cher's I Got You Babe.

The next day a huge winter storm was supposed to blow through so my parents kicked us all out to go to our own homes.  While the storm never came, Arthur and I pretended it was a snow day since we had already asked someone else to take care of our obligations at church.  We slept in, curled up with some good books and movies, took a nap, and didn't leave the house.  It was wonderful.

 For New Year's Eve we got together with several of my friends from college for a game night.  We stayed up til midnight playing card games and toasted in 2016.  By the time we drove home it was 1:15am before we crawled into bed.  It's been a long time since we saw that time of day as college students. (Actually I never saw that time of day as a college student but Arthur did fairly frequently.)

For New Year's Day we took it a little easy in the morning and put away all the decorations from Christmas before hitting the road to spend the weekend with Arthur's family.  We listened to our audio lectures on American History which Arthur thoroughly enjoyed.  I must admit I probably napped more than a good copilot should on this trip.  That evening we had "Christmas" with Arthur's family.  This included one of his favorite meals; his mom's chicken and noodles, which was delicious, and his sister's peanut butter chocolate cream pie, also delectable.  From Arthur's parents we each got a couple of pairs of hiking pants which we love-- so much more comfortable than jeans for hiking or just hanging out.  The entertainment for the evening was watching the original Star Wars movie, A New Hope.  While I'm not a huge Star Wars fan I understood what was going on this time and enjoyed it quite a bit.

The next morning we got to sleep in again-- it is always a highlight if you don't have to get up before sunrise to head to work.  I spent part of the morning watching a Fixer Upper marathon on HGTV.  Arthur went out to his sister's house with his dad to visit Darcy, their basset hound puppy who is ridiculously cute, as basset hounds seem to be.  The afternoon was spent watching the K-State football game as well as other bowl games throughout the weekend.  The evening's entertainment was a family viewing of War Room.  On Sunday after church there was the customary Sunday lunch at his grandma's house which includes quite the spread plus wonderful desserts.  His grandparents on the other side of the family were also able to stop by for a visit so we enjoyed listening to some great stories before we had to hit the road to come back to our home.

It was fun to be able to go "home" for the holidays where we grew up.  We enjoyed a snow day hanging around our home here too.  As Arthur has mentioned frequently, "Home is wherever you (Alex) are".  He is racking up big husband points.  Omnia Vincit Amor.