~~~
Day’s Verse:
How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings,
who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
“Your God reigns!”
Isaiah 52:7
~~~

My latest foray into yeast breads:

This challah bread recipe involved much more waiting and more complicated steps than the previous two recipes. (By the way, if my writing sounds terrible and florid at the same time, chalk it up to my current reading material: Clive Cussler’s classic stink bomb Dragon, which has so much bad writing that Ian finally asked me to please stop sharing choice portions out loud because I was reading the entire book to him.) I waited for 15 minutes between bouts of adding flour, plus of course the usual 1.5-hour yeasty-beasty rising wait, but then after I braided it and applied the first coat of egg whites, it spent another 1.5 hours rising before I applied the second egg white coat. Then the loaf baked in a mere 20 minutes rather than taking 35 to 40 minutes as the recipe predicted. The half-sesame seed application results from some dissension among parties I polled. I attribute this to Mom’s convection oven, which cooked it to a beautiful even golden all around. All told I spent about 4 hours on the bread, far too much time for a weekday activity, but an incredibly satisfying way to spend the time. Continue Reading >>

~~~
Day’s Verse:
Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
Romans 5:3-5
~~~

If I had to sum up my first week as an AmeriCorps intern with the Bicycle Alliance of Washington in one word, I’d have to choose “exhausting” – in the best possible sense, of course. I attribute part of that to the challenge of my40-mile-a-day bicycle commute, but starting my new job really exhausted me emotionally. Continue Reading >>

~~~
Day’s Verse:
This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.
John 3:16-17 (context)
~~~

Since starting my job last Wednesday, I keep finding myself opening Blogger…and never quite getting around to writing a blog. In fact, my schedule has now contracted from “Totally wide open” to “Barely time to brush my teeth.” Last night, for example, I arrived home at 6:45, showered, ate dinner, and started reading a really bad Clive Cussler book. By 8:05 my eyelids had started sliding down and I don’t think I made it to 8:30. Eventually I dragged myself out of bed long enough to brush my teeth, after which I fell asleep and slept like a log (writing that I have to wonder: What do logs sleep like? Unmoving? Because in general I’d say logs don’t sleep, so sleeping like one doesn’t really make sense.) until my 5:30 alarm. Continue Reading >>

~~~
Day’s Verse:

~~~

Since starting my job last Wednesday, I keep finding myself opening Blogger…and never quite getting around to writing a blog. In fact, my schedule has now contracted from “Totally wide open” to “Barely time to brush my teeth.” Last night, for example, I arrived home at 6:45, showered, ate dinner, and started reading a really bad Clive Cussler book. By 8:05 my eyelids had started sliding down and I don’t think I made it to 8:30. Eventually I dragged myself out of bed long enough to brush my teeth, after which I fell asleep and slept like a log (writing that I have to wonder: What do logs sleep like? Unmoving? Because in general I’d say logs don’t sleep, so sleeping like one doesn’t really make sense.) until my 5:30 alarm. Continue Reading >>

~~~
Day’s Verse:
Listen, far-flung islands,
pay attention, faraway people:
God put me to work from the day I was born.
The moment I entered the world he named me.
He gave me speech that would cut and penetrate.
He kept his hand on me to protect me.
Isaiah 49:1-2ish (context)
~~~

On Friday I will co-teach my first-ever bike-related class with Every. The Bicycle Alliance has partnered with Commute Seattle to do a one-hour brown-bag lunch class on winter bike commuting. Here are the details:

Commute Seattle is hosting a Winter Bike Seminar on Friday, January 29th to discuss the best practices for winter bike commuting. Bike commuting experts Every Day and Katie Ferguson from the Bicycle Alliance of Washington will offer tips for staying safe, navigating dark streets, and staying warm and dry in the rain. This is a chance to learn tips and tricks to best outfit yourself and your bicycle to make bike commuting an enjoyable way to get to work year round. Continue Reading >>

~~~
Day’s Verse:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
John 1:1-2
~~~

The Dalles Chronicle wrote an article on my AmeriCorps group’s Martin Luther King Jr. day service project. We’re practically famous!

Updated to add: We *are* famous — we made it into the White Salmon Enterprise, too!

More news later. Just a quick note: I started full-time at BAW on Wednesday. Looks like long days with the full round-trip commute. Continue Reading >>

~~~
Day’s Verse:
Sing to the LORD a new song,
his praise from the ends of the earth,
you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it,
you islands, and all who live in them.
Isaiah 42:10
~~~

This AmeriCorps training — which doesn’t end until Tuesday morning, by the way — feels almost exactly like going on state trip, except with the addition of beer and without the junior high hormones. For those of you who never went on state trip, it’s like going to camp, except you drive around a specific portion of Washington and learn about its features. This “training,” while actually training us on first aid, providing us with the opportunity to spend hours filling out confusing and repetitive government forms, and providing vast volumes of truly spectacular food, also has eerily state trip-like features: Continue Reading >>