Apple a Day

Michele Bachmann recently withdrew her membership from her church of 10+ years http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michele_Bachmann.  She was an Evangelical Lutheran, a denomination that identifies the antichrist as the Catholic papal system.  If I were Catholic, I’d be offended by that belief, and I wouldn’t vote for her (okay, I wouldn’t vote for her anyway).  However, I’m not Catholic.  I’m Seventh-day Adventist.  Many (probably  most) SDA founding members and current theologians identified the antichrist as the papal system, too (not “the Pope” if that is an important distinction).  It’s not anywhere in our church’s fundamental beliefs (for those, see here http://www.adventist.org/beliefs/fundamental/index.html), but it’s something we’ve all been told at some point.  Oh, and regarding fundamental beliefs in general.  Good grief.

Adventism started out in the 1800s with the creed of Sola Scriptura, which was variously paraphrased as “the Bible and the Bible only” or “the Bible is our only creed.”  Beautiful, simple, allowing for individual differences of interpretive opinion, perfect.  Oh, but not really perfect, because it turned out there were a bunch of other denominations who also followed Sola Scriptura and came to different enough conclusions about what exactly was in the “scriptura” that if we were all the same religion we wouldn’t even know what day to show up for church.  Oops.  Sola Scriptura is still my church’s official creed.  But, to clarify it, our leadership listed 28 fundamental beliefs that sum up what SDAs believe the Bible says.  Thereby, in my opinion, going against our own creed, but that’s a rant for another day.

So, here’s where I stand in this.  I believe in our original statement.  The Bible is my only creed.  Sorry, Ellen.  I strongly concur with 25 of the 28 fundamental beliefs of SDAs.  I am undecided about the other 3.  I’ve read a lot of E.G. White books, and gotten a lot out of them.  I believe she was inspired by God.  I believe the word “inspired” can mean a wide continuum between, say, “I felt inspired to share some of my grapefruit with my neighbor” and “John was inspired to write the book of Revelation.”  I don’t know where on that continuum Ellen was, although she herself said she was not to be canonized.

Adventism isn’t my entire religion.  In a generation of postmoderns who ascribe to our consciences above tradition (or “make up our own religions right and left,” depending on whom you ask), I fit right in.  My personal religion rejects pantyhose as a product of the devil, believes that generosity is of higher moral value than obedience, and agrees with a lot of what the Baha’i Faith has to say about lifestyle issues, interpersonal, and global responsibility.

But you know what, Mrs. Bachmann?  Here’s the kicker.  I plan on worshiping with the Adventists, and keeping my name on the church records, for as long as it is the religion that fits most closely with my own deeply-held personal beliefs.  I might leave my church someday, if it becomes an issue of conscience.  But never for the sake of political convenience.

P.S.  I’m going to just go ahead and throw this out there for discussion.  Every single instance in the Bible where it lists a descriptor of the antichrist, you could substitute the answer “Catholicism” with “organized religion” and you’d still be right.

It’s happened to me more than once, that some otherwise well-meaning friend or acquaintance has accused me of indoctrinating my one-year-old in the ways of environmental responsibility.  “You’re going to turn her into a tree-hugger!” they’ll say, with alacrity.  They’re darn right!

It’s what all Nature’s best mamas are doing these days!

If you’re interested in finding resources for helping teach your kids compassion for their fellow creatures and practical conservation-type activities, check out the National Geographic Kids site (link on the right of this page).

…But seriously, BUA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

The monsoon rains have finally come!  And I swear my plants can tell the difference between my very realistic, rain-like garden hose attachment and real live rain.  They have perked up with this new development.  I’ve got sunflowers, rhubarb, carrots, tomatoes, borage, basil, bee balm, bee’s friend, and the rest of the usual suspects.  One of my new additions this year was nasturtiums.  They’re growing great, but I don’t yet have enough for this amazing salad.  I have sampled some of the leaves, though, and they are spicy perfection.  The other picture is just to make you think deeply and reevaluate your life choices.  Oh, who am I kidding?  I’m totally in the pie group!

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I haven’t blogged in forever!  Well, there’s a very good reason for that, I suppose.  I’ve been hired on as the new science teacher at Thunderbird Adventist Academy in Scottsdale, AZ.  It’s about a 3 hour drive from where I currently live.  So, we’re planning a move!

My contract started July 1, which means I’m supposedly working full time right now.  Well, I am making lesson plans (such as I make), preparing Power Point presentations for my new Smart board (yay!) and ordering posters from art.com.  I’ve already made one trip down there and got housing lined up, all my HR paperwork done, and started cleaning out my classroom, lab, office, and 4 chemical storage rooms.  Let’s just be nice and say the former teacher left in a hurry to start her next job…such a hurry, in fact, that when I went in I found vials and beakers half full of unlabeled substances sitting around on student desks!  Nice.  Well, the office lent me a couple of student workers who were a great help in trying to make some order out of the whole shebang.  Shout out to Dianna for cleaning off an entire (20 ft. long) work bench that was about 3 feet deep in piles of lab equipment, glassware, broken stuff, trash, old homework assignments, a preserved fetal pig in a clear plastic bag, etc.  Further shout out to Narcy for inventorying and restocking all the student lab drawers, which was a bigger job than it sounds like.  Still a lot of work to do, but at least I feel like I can function in there for now.

I’ll be teaching Biology I and II, Chemistry, and Anatomy & Physiology, as well as helping with student activities and such (it is a boarding school, so there are a lot of extra extra-curriculars).  I think it’s going to be a ton of fun.

So, in regards to this blog, I can’t promise when I’ll post anything, but I am going to keep the blog at least minimally alive.  I have started on the 1 week vegan meal plan, and will post that when I have it all pulled together.  In the mean time, you must sate yourself with this awesomely refreshing summer recipe http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/watermelon-agua-fresca-recipe-5567.

Happy Independence Day!  May God continue to bless America, and may America be a blessing to the rest of the world.

We finished!  Here’s team “Tri Anything” right after our finish.  We placed second in our category with a time of 2:48:20.  The swim was freezing (66 degrees, so cold that throughout the 800 m swim I could never gain control of my gasp reflex — not a great thing with my face underwater!).  I didn’t make my goal time for the swim, but at least I finished, which is more than can be said for some.  I’m going to have to sign up for another triathlon so I can redeem myself in that department.  Evie beat her personal goal of 1:30 on the really difficult mountain bike course by a comfy margin, and Ally held down a very respectable time on the trail run as well.

I will definitely do this again!  I think I can improve my time by about 5 minutes if I put more energy toward swimming and less toward flubbing around out there trying to just not die.  It was a lot of fun being out there and watching the pros and uber-athletes, and cheering on those like myself who were doing this for the first time.  There was even a 77-year-old man out there who finished it (and not with too shabby of a time, either).  Go, Old Dude!

Very proud of my team.  Thanks, Evie, for pulling us all together in the first place, and for kicking butt on the bike.  Thanks, Ally, for a wonderful run and a strong finish.  It was great!

I never gave much thought to rainwater collection before living in Arizona. Here, it’s all the rage. A big household savings, and an ecologically responsible thing to do. Bi-winning! (Too late for that joke? Yeah, I think so.)

Well, looky here. Someone made those ugly old plastic barrels into something lovely. I want one of these!

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/05/urban-rainwater-collector-saves-water-in-the-city-turns-into-a-green-wall.php

Gotta say, I was ahead of the trend on this one!  I’ve been using old 2-liter soda bottles as plant pots for years.  (Just cut in half and punch holes in the bottom with a nail.)  And this is my current windowsill seed starting arrangement made from a half egg carton and a used food container.

This article has a lot of interesting ideas for using old junk to make pretty pots.  Some are useful ideas for common recycling items like coffee cans and juice boxes.  Others are truly artistic and quirky, like the rotary phone planter.  Check it out if you’re interested!

http://www.treehugger.com/galleries/2011/05/10-gorgeous-container-gardens-made-from-trash.php?page=1

Happy Spring!

Hey, ya’ll!  Click on this link!  Despite the ubiquitous spam posts going around of late, I promise this one’s okay.

Wow, That’s Smart! – CNBC.

What a fun read!  I thought the bottle cap bracelets were whimsical, the multi-use baby protector was genius, and the jumbo garden hands would really help with my swimming.  The coffee temperature moderator was ridiculous; who wants to drink 5-hour-old coffee, even if it is still warm?  But I bet there are plenty of other good uses for the same technology, such as, oh, I don’t know, throwing a handful of them into your bath for a nice long soak.  You could also throw one into your crock pot or science lab chemical immersion bath, once it’s up to temperature, to keep the heater from having to work as hard.

What, you don’t have one of these at home?  Then how do you do your home chemistry and molecular biology experiments?

Well, all that said, I enjoyed viewing average people’s unique ideas.  Here’s to creativity!

“The opposite of war is not peace; it’s creation.”

– source unknown