home

...now browsing by category

 

I’ve never had to go hungry…

Friday, May 8th, 2009

..and I haven’t even come close. My parents always made sure we had more than enough food (even if it was meat loaf or split pea soup and I ended up at the supper table all night trying to finish-small bite, sip of water, small bite, sip of water, until it was gone). And thankfully, Jonathan and I have enough money to ensure that we not only have food everyday, but it’s pretty good, fresh and delicious food. Tomorrow is National Stamp out Hunger Day. Your postal carrier will pick up non-perishable food items when delivering your mail. Please, leave what you can. If you can’t leave anything, know that we’re doing it because I can’t think of any reason for someone to go hungry in America-the very thought of our neighbors struggling troubles me greatly. My pantry is full, how about yours? I’m sure there’s a box of pasta or a can of soup you can spare.

In our area, the donations will go to Food Lifeline if you’re interested in learning more, just click their name. If you forget to leave some food by the mailbox, I’m quite certain they’ll take an online donation. If you work for Microsoft I’m confident they’ll match that gift.

Posted in home, in the news, need | No Responses »

Prepping

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

Tonight we came home from work, ate some dinner, headed to a meeting then came home where I began to do some dishes while Jonathan started his final prep for Bible study tomorrow night. You see, he meets with a group of guys at our house on Tuesdays and they take turns teaching-this month is his turn. He’s good at being prepared and teaching, so he’s already got an outline and info prepared and usually spends Monday night reviewing his notes and making more notes to ensure he’s set to go. Tomorrow is special because an elder from the church will be visiting (probably to get to know the guys better and generally hang out). I forgot about the get to know the guys part and began prepping for this elder whom I will likely not see tomorrow by doing the following:

Arranging items in our home in height order and, if applicable, handles all facing the same direction
Moving some mostly decorative canisters from one counter to another
Cleaning the area around the switches for the fan and light above the range
Cleaning the counters
**This is where Jonathan mentioned, “You know they never come in here, right?” Uh, nope. Didn’t know that and why aren’t they in the kitchen? When I have girls over we spend almost the whole time in the kitchen!

So I moved on to cleaning the living room, fluffing pillows, vacuuming, sweeping, dusting, arranging items again. Then I remembered, once the guys arrive, the pillows will likely be on the floor. The floor will be dirty from the stuff tracked in from their shoes, we go weeks without anybody using the hall bathroom and, most importantly, they don’t gather to check out my ability to clean. If I hadn’t dusted, they might not have even noticed. Instead of rushing around, I stopped to pray and thank God for the fact that we have this house where people gather to grow in their relationship with Jesus. I’m so grateful that I’m married to Jonathan (world’s best husband!) who is willing to continue studying and preparing to encourage his brothers in Christ while I rush around like a crazy woman singing German songs and cleaning up. Praise the Lord that HE is in the business of cleaning up my heart, not my floors! (Though I wouldn’t mind if someone wanted to clean my floors for me.)

Posted in home, marriage | 2 Responses »

Home from South Africa.

Wednesday, December 17th, 2008

We said goodbye to our friends at iThemba Lethu on Monday and boarded the jumbo jet that would take us home.

It was a long series of flights and more than 30 nearly sleepless hours of travel. Along the way, we were regaled by a chorus of crying children in the row behind us, and the airline managed to lose ALL THREE pieces of our luggage, IN DIFFERENT PLACES. Now any old airline can lose luggage, but let’s take a moment to recognize South African Air and United for their unique ability to carefully distribute a single group of bags, checked in together, to locations around the world. Bravo!

(As an aside, if you’ve never flown internationally, it’s actually quite nice. You get actual food–meals, not three smashed pretzels and a watered-down ginger ale that ensures an awkward visit to the lavatory–and your own personal entertainment device that allows you to watch any of dozens of movies, or the entire first season of Prison Break, for no extra charge.)

It’s wonderful to be home.

Our house, which sometimes feels small, felt palatial. We have so much.

Our bed is so comfortable. Kelly put flannel sheets on it right before we left, and I have never been so thankful for a horizontal place to sleep.

We are incredibly grateful for our friends and family here. We missed them. And they made us cookies.

And it’s Christmas season, for real. There’s just a smidge of snow on the ground, and the forecast promises more. We went out last night to fight the jetlag and hunt for a Christmas tree, and we had success on both fronts. The McPherson clan flies in on Sunday to join us for a week of Christmas festivities.

Thank you, again, for all of your prayers and support on our trip. We’re really looking forward to celebrating the holidays and sharing stories with everyone. Merry Christmas!

Posted in family, friends, home, travel | No Responses »

Judy the travel nurse

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008

As Jonathan mentioned in an earlier post, we signed up for life insurance. I know, it’s big, scary and too grown up for us. We agree. Regardless, we were (rightly) advised that our insurance premiums would be higher if we waited until after we traveled this month so we signed up for some life insurance, thought about how much might be required if one of us perishes and I cried a little because I don’t want to be a widow.

This morning we had Judy the travel nurse come to our house to give us the requisite exam. She asked if we had gone sky diving, scuba diving, mountain climbing and various other activities we haven’t done (yet!). She also asked about our general health, weighed us and measured Jonathan’s belly and hips! (I found that part hilarious!) The most interesting part was that we had to provide fluid samples. Have you ever peed in a cup in your own bathroom? It’s totally weird. Weirdest yet was having a cup of my own “fluid” sitting on my kitchen table, telling me the its temperature, just sitting there completely uncovered. Once Judy had poured the sample into the vials she’d be sending in, she gave me back the cup and the leftovers so I could dispose of it. What? So strange. I will hand it to Judy though, she didn’t spill a drop. Way to go!

And now I’m at work. To celebrate the fact that I wasn’t super crabby after having been up for two hours without food, I splurged on a bacon, cheese and egg sandwich in the cafeteria. It’s going to be a good day.

Posted in home, just plain weird, marriage | 1 Response »

Root Vegetable Tagine

Wednesday, October 29th, 2008

Okay, this is the last recipe for the day, but I’m not going to lie, it was a good one! I’ve been having a hard time looking for slow cooker recipes that do not take less than nine hours to finish or require meat on the bone (one of us doesn’t like meat on the bone)…..I finally found one!

I prepped the veggies last night and put them in the crock pot before we left for work and it looked like this:

073

Upon our return home, we found this:

083

 

I added some funky Trader Joe’s mix of couscous and some other stuff to it and here’s the final product:

085

 

The verdict: We have ourselves a winner! It is like a delightful autumn stewy thing. It’s both sweet and spiced and it was a really nice way to end the day.

Okay, here’s the recipe:

1 pound parsnips, peeled and diced
1 pound turnips, peeled and diced
2 medium onions, chopped
1 pound carrots, peeled and diced
6 dried apricots, chopped
4 pitted prunes, chopped
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 tablespoon dried cilantro
1 (14 ounce) can vegetable broth

In a slow cooker, toss together the parsnips, turnips, onions, carrots, apricots, and prunes. Season with turmeric, cumin, ginger, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, parsley, and cilantro. Pour in the vegetable broth.

Cover, and cook 9 hours on Low.

McPhersonisms on this: I have no idea how much of each vegetable I put in here. I just bought a turnip, a couple of parsnips and had some carrots so in they went. I used three onions because I happened to have three and I didn’t use the same amount of spice…we use frozen cilantro from Trader Joe’s so we put eight cubes in rather than the measured amount of dried. I also use heaps or scoops of spices so it was maybe a little more zesty. Upon reading the comments on allrecipes, I also added an additional 1/2 can of broth. I set the crock pot to cook on low for only eight hours, knowing it would have an additional two hours to be on “warm” before we returned home. It worked out very well. If you’re so inclined, one could easily add some chicken.

And now a confession. I had no idea whether I was holding a turnip or a rutabaga at the store, so I bought both. Anybody know what to do with a rutabaga around 1.5 to 2lbs in size?

Posted in cooking, home, marriage, recipes | 2 Responses »

Birthday Dinner

Wednesday, October 29th, 2008

om nom nom nom by J. McPherson.

For Jonathan’s birthday, he asked me to cook up a new recipe for dinner (we had already gone out to eat the previous two evenings and we like to keep things balanced). I offered up a selection from the various cookbooks and magazines we’ve got around the house and this is what he selected. (From Real Simple, November 2008) I did not really change much on this, but I did use salmon with the skin because I wasn’t paying attention. Not such a big deal. It was delicious!

Salmon and Fennel with Roasted-Lemon Vinaigrette


2 bulbs fennel, thinly sliced
2 lemons, cut in half crosswise
4 cloves garlic, unpeeled
3 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt and black pepper
4 6-ounce pieces skinless salmon fillet
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
12 ounces mixed greens (about 8 cups)

Heat oven to 400° F. In a large roasting pan, toss the fennel, lemons, garlic, 1 tablespoon of the oil, and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Roast until the fennel begins to soften, about 8 minutes.Yield: Makes 4 servings NUTRITION PER SERVING
CALORIES 372; FAT 17g (sat 2g); CHOLESTEROL 97mg; CARBOHYDRATE 17g; CALORIES FROM FAT 40%; SODIUM 696mg; PROTEIN 40g; FIBER 6g; SUGAR 4g

Season the salmon with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper and nestle in the fennel. Roast until the salmon is opaque throughout, 12 to 15 minutes.

Squeeze the garlic out of the skins into a small bowl and mash to a paste. Squeeze the lemon pulp and juice into the bowl. Stir in the honey, rosemary, the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Place the salmon and fennel on the greens. Drizzle with the dressing.

 

Posted in birthday, cooking, family, home, marriage, recipes | 3 Responses »

South Africa…updated

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

I wrote a few months ago about a trip to South Africa that we are going on with a group from our church. We have more details and many of you have received our “McPherson South Africa” email lately, but I thought I’d blog about it as well…. Basically, we will be in the town of Durban, South Africa for two weeks. There is a group of seven of us going and we’ll be helping out with two camps and with two transition homes (orphanages) during our time there. This means we’ll be doing anything from leading songs to playing soccer to giving messages and sharing in small group discussion with middle schoolers to spending time caring for babies and generally helping out where we can be of use. Why am I blogging about this right now, oh because we leave soon! The first week of December we’ll be on a plane and on our way! We are thankful for our friends and family who have supported us financially and with your prayers and kind words of encouragement. We’re hoping to blog a couple of times while we’re away, but we’ll for sure blog about our trip upon our return!

Also, I made a delicious dinner for Jonathan’s birthday on Sunday. I’ll post more about that soon. And I’m working on a root vegetable tagine for the crock pot tomorrow. This could open a whole new door of slow cooking possibilities for us or leave us with a pile of left overs and a sincere desire for more ketchup or cheese. I’ll keep you posted.

Posted in OCC, cooking, family, fun, home, marriage, travel | 1 Response »

Where’s Jonathan?

Sunday, September 14th, 2008

I know many of you are used to having Jonathan update his livejournal and flickr photostream and that’s maybe not happening as much lately. Sorry about that. Here’s a brief explanation:

1. We got married. It took a few days (okay weeks and months) for us to plan things.
2. I moved into the house. Then we moved around the furniture (and then I moved it around a bit more while Jonathan was out one day).
3. For Memorial Day weekend this year, we cleaned up/dreamed up a plan for our yard. You saw the photos on that one.
4. He’s replaced the closet doors in one of the bedrooms.
5. He’s painted the bathroom in our bedroom and added some decorative touches.
6. He remodeled our hallway bathroom (complete with ripping out the vanity and vinyl flooring and replacing it with tile and a pedestal sink and also installing a new mirror and lights and medicine cabinet).
7. We hang out a little.
8. We’ve added teaching Sunday School to our activities (and we LOVE it-they’re great!).
9. He’s currently painting the guestroom. Photos on that later.
Here’s a photo rundown of the bathroom remodel….in case you were wondering.

It started out looking something like this (yellow walls, sort of plaid floor, weirdly scratched up vanity):

009 by J. McPherson.

Then Jonathan got it down to this:

015 by J. McPherson.

Which is when we did this:

on with the light blue paint! by J. McPherson.

So he could do this:

DSC_2915 by J. McPherson.

And with some help from Jacob, got to this:

on with the tile flooring! (our friend jacob gave us a hand here.) by J. McPherson.

Which ended up looking like this:

almost-finished product! (i) by J. McPherson.

and this:

almost-finished product! (ii) by J. McPherson.

I know, it’s completely impressive! Who knew he was such a handy fellow?!?!

A big thanks to Jacob who helped with the tiling! We really appreciate it! And of course, Thank You Jonathan for being willing to completely change the sink and the floors all because the existing sink and flooring clashed with the paint I really liked.

 

Posted in home, marriage, photo | 5 Responses »

Cheese.

Monday, August 25th, 2008

Sometimes, Kelly and I have small picnics in the living room.  And sometimes, those picnics contain wine and cheese.  Tonight was one of those sometimes.  We selected a selection of cheeses from the extensive selection of selections available at our neighborhood QFC.  And here, presented only as a note of guidance for your next cheese adventure, are reviews of each of tonight’s cheeses, directly from your hosts as we carefully tasted each.

Cheddar Cheese W/ Lavendar
Sharp and surprisingly good!  The lavendar makes it almost sweet.  More creamy than I expected; the soft lavendar note is pronounced.  A very eatable cheese.

Beecher’s Flagship
It’s delicious–it’s kind of tangy, and I like it. Subtle and slightly crumbly. 

Cave Aged Gruyere
Delicious.  Cool and salty, yet strong in taste and firm without dryness.  Love the calcifications. Caramel and nut finish.

Cheddar W/ Caraway and Cardamom
Soft and creamy, like the cheddar with lavendar except with caraway and cardamom.  Kelly got an entire caraway seed and it was delicious, surprising, and happy.

Perrin Vermont Edel de Clerin Cheese
Soft, creamy, and disappointing; a little too stinky.  Forgettable.

Have you eaten any good cheese lately?  We’d love to hear about it.

-Jonathan.

Posted in fun, home | 5 Responses »

Shopper’s Voice

Monday, August 18th, 2008

In today’s mail, we received the great fortune to have an opportunity to provide “greatly needed input” in the form of a survey. In return, we have been promised good coupons, not just the regular old coupons you receive in the newspaper or weekly adverts. We had a few minutes, so we took the Shopper’s Voice survey. If you receive this, I would highly recommend taking the survey with a friend (or spouse, if applicable). Jonathan and I took the survey together. Here are some highlights:

Travel:
What types of travel do your household members enjoy taking?
These were our options-casino gambling (that’s a type of travel!?!?), cruise ship, frequent flyer, RV, theme park, timeshare, business travel, Canada travel, family travel, foreign travel, leisure travel, US travel….We’ll let you guess which we picked!

Hobbies and Interests:
What activities are pursued by members of your household?
Our options-bird watching, bird feeding, car repair, cigar smoking, educational courses (does going to the library count?), environment friendly lifestyle, motorcycle riding, self improvement, sweepstakes or lotteries (THIS is a hobby?), theater or performing arts, wine appreciation.
None of our hobbies were represented in this list. We appreciate an environmentally friendly lifestyle, but we don’t consider it a hobby so much as well, a lifestyle.

Half of a page was filled with questions about cigar/cigarette preferences. Oh boy! I can only imagine what sort of valuable coupons we’ll receive….Christmas is coming people, keep this in mind!

I promise we’ll blog about something more interesting soon. Jonathan is currently finishing up the bathroom project and well, let’s just say he’s an amazingly handy fellow who is doing a fantastic job!
~Kelly

Posted in family, fun, home, marriage | No Responses »

« Older Entries