Day 120: 4/30/13- Apple Cider Vinegar as Cold Remedy

Day 120: 4/30/13- Apple Cider Vinegar as Cold Remedy         
New Thing- Take Apple Cider Vinegar as a Cold Remedy                  
Inspiration: Sinus Infection                                 
Time: A Second          
Bottom Line: We will see how this works. 

Reflection: It seems that there are hundreds of uses for Apple Cider Vinegar including treating a sinus infection. So, I took some today and I hope it will help. 

Day 119: 4/29/13- Communism Sick Day

Day 119: 4/29/13- Communism Sick Day        
New Thing- Read Trotsky by Rich Geary                 
Inspiration: Sick Day                                
Time: An Hour                   
Bottom Line: History and Sinus Infection

Reflection: So, the moment my brain/body got to the end of Sunday (my mental "end of the busy season" day), I immediately got ill. Like within a matter of hours. I was so sick this morning that I got dizzy and went straight back to bed. Waking up several hours later, I decided to read the historical graphic novel, Trotsky by Rich Geary. Geary always brings history to life in his well researched books and I highly recommend this one along with his whole catalog. Fascinating read!     

Day 118: 4/28/13- Doctoral Site Visit!

Day 118: 4/28/13- Doctoral Site Visit!       
New Thing- Welcome my Drew Faculty Advisor to St. David's for a Site Visit!                
Inspiration: Doctoral Work                               
Time: Several Hours                  
Bottom Line: Yeah!! Last step until thesis writing! (wait....) 

Reflection: Today was a big step in the DMin process: my faculty advisor, Dr. Heather Elkins, came to visit St. David's to meet with the Lay Advisory Committee and to evaluate the Lenten project. I am happy to report that things went well and I am now clear to move onto the thesis writing stage! I cannot thank the LAC and those who participated in the class enough. After the meeting, we had a celebratory dinner provided by Frank which was just what the (almost) doctor ordered. Thank you everyone!! 

Day 117: 4/27/13- Start Reading "Daring Greatly"

Day 117: 4/27/13- Start Reading Daring Greatly      
New Thing- Start reading Daring Greatly              
Inspiration: Doctoral Work                              
Time: About an half hour                 
Bottom Line: Dare Greatly! 

Reflection: I decided to start reading Brene Brown's latest book, Daring Greatly. Here is her description of the book from her web-page:

Vulnerability is not knowing victory or defeat, it’s understanding the necessity of both; it’s engaging. It’s being all in. Vulnerability is not weakness, and the uncertainty, risk and emotional exposure we face every day are not optional. Our only choice is a question of engagement. Our willingness to own and engage with our vulnerability determines the depth of our courage and the clarity of our purpose. When we spend our lives waiting until we’re perfect or bulletproof before we walk into the arena we ultimately sacrifice relationships and opportunities that may not be recoverable, we squander our precious time, and we turn our backs on our gifts, those unique contributions that only we can make. Perfect and bulletproof are seductive, but they don’t exist in the human experience. We must walk into the arena, whatever it may be – a new relationship, an important meeting, our creative process, or a difficult family conversation – with courage and the willingness to engage. Rather than sitting on the sidelines and hurling judgment and advice, we must dare to show up and let ourselves be seen. This is vulnerability. This is daring greatly.

I decided to read this book after seeing Brene give a TED talk (below). Her work in shame and vulnerability lead me to this book and I think that that it will be a very interesting piece for the reconciliation thesis. Her thesis is that being vulnerable leads to transformation and that sounds like Reconciliation to me! 

 

Day 116: 4/26/13- Painting Hives & Quail Eggs

Day 116: 4/26/13- Painting Hives & Quail Eggs     
New Thing- Stencil the Bee Hives and Eat a Quail Egg              
Inspiration: Beekeeping & Date Night                             
Time: About an hour                 
Bottom Line: It's a great day for bee keeping 

Reflection: It was a great day for bee keeping! Sally (who is on brain rest because of a concussion-poor thing!) helped me to put some stencils onto a few empty honey supers to add a little pop of color for the lady bees. Later, Ken and I went out to the White Dog where (among other foods) I tried a quail egg for the first time. I ate the whole thing raw like a shooter. The waitress called me, "hard-core." I was well pleased.   

Thanks, Sally!

 

Day 115: 4/25/13- Get Lost in The Beekeeper's Bible

Day 115: 4/25/13- Get Lost in The Beekeeper's Bible    
New Thing- The Beekeeper's Bible             
Inspiration: Beekeeping                            
Time: A long time.                 
Bottom Line: Buzz. 

Reflection: Today, my copy of The Beekeeper's Bible finally arrived at my door! I instantly feel down a rabbit hole of bee information and could spend way to much time reading abut these fascinating insects.  

Day 114: 4/24/13- Celebrate St. Mark's Eve

Day 114: 4/24/13- Celebrate St. Mark's Eve    
New Thing- Celebrate St. Mark's Eve             
Inspiration: The Feast of St. Mark the Evangelist                             
Time: Under an hour                  
Bottom Line: Spooky! 

"Maybe we didn't think this through all the way!!"

Reflection: Tonight is the Eve of St. Mark's Fest! There are actually a lot of haunted traditions associated with this feast as wiki tells us:

On St. Mark's Eve it was the custom in the villages of England, from the 17th century to the late 19th century, to sit in the church porch between the hours of 11.00 p.m. and 1.00 a.m. for three successive years. On the third such sitting, it was said that the ghosts of those to die during the year would be witnessed passing into the church. This practice took place throughout England, but was most prevalent in northern and western counties. Some accounts of the custom state that the watchers must be fasting, or must circle the church before taking up position. The ghosts of those who were to die soon would be the first observed, while those who would almost see out the year would not be witnessed until almost 1.00 a.m. Other variations of the superstition say that the watchers would see headless or rotting corpses, or coffins approaching.

So, I did go out on my pouch for a little bit, but, not seeing any ghost, I also read the John Keats poem about this night. It is to long to post, bout you can find it here. Boo!  

Day 113: 4/23/13- Visit from PVB

Day 113: 4/23/13- Visit from PVB   
New Thing- A Visit from PVB           
Inspiration: Peter!                           
Time: A night and a day                 
Bottom Line: Tre' Cool

Peter and Tracy. My heroes.

Reflection: Today, we had a visit from one of my all time heroes, Peter. Peter has been friends with my Mom and Dad for most of my father's life. He and his wonderful wife, Tracy, have been two people that I have always looked up to as models of joy and adventure and their kids (Elisa and Dana) are ever bit as cool as they are. Pete and I had fun talking about the meaning of life, the incredible journey they have been on in the last year and everything in between. It did my soul good. Just to give you a taste of how tre' cool Peter is, here is a haiku that he wrote based on our breakfast conversation: 

Chunks of temple meat,
Then:  Reconciliation
Rich compost of Life

Perfect. 
     

Day 112: 4/22/13- CrossFit Class

Day 112: 4/22/13- CrossFit Class   
New Thing- Attend a CrossFit Class            
Inspiration: Groupon Coupon                           
Time: A hour                
Bottom Line: What a workout! 

Reflection: I found a great coupon online to take a CrossFit class for the first time. CrossFit is an intense style of exercise and I was definitely worn out at the end. I'll be sore tomorrow. 

Day 111: 4/21/13- Take a Hobby Quiz

Day 111: 4/21/13- Take a Hobby Quiz  
New Thing- Take a Hobby Quiz         
Inspiration: Ken, "Get a Hobby!" Book                        
Time: A few mins.             
Bottom Line: Building a ship in a bottle will never be my thing. 

Reflection: Ken and I have decided to try and take up a hobby together but we are not sure what we should do try that we will both like. So, we found a book called Get a Hobby! to see what kind of past-time that will be good for us both. The neat thing about this book is that it has a quiz in it to help find out your hobby type. It looks like I am up for almost any kind of hobby except really minute work that requires a tons of time and patience like tying flies for fly-fishing of making a ship in a bottle. I think we are going to start by taking an art class together. 

Day 110: 4/20/13- Climb Mt. Misery

Day 110: 4/20/13- Climb Mt. Misery 
New Thing- Run the Mt. Misery and Valley Creek Trail at Valley Forge        
Inspiration: The Spirit                       
Time: Under an hour to get around the parts of the park I haven't been to.            
Bottom Line: Best run of the year despite the name. 
 

Good Morning Valley Forge!

Reflection: This morning, I took to Valley Forge for a run (I do love running there) and decided to try out some trails that I had never been on before. I started up Mt. Joy and then crossed the river near Washington's headquarters to the Horse & Shoe Trail and the Valley Creek trail and up the Mt. Misery trail. Following that, I went all over the place on that side of the park. Great run!

My Morning View

Stairway to Misery

Day 109: 4/19/13- Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Day 109: 4/19/13- Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat  
New Thing- Attend St. David's Production of "Joseph"        
Inspiration: The Youth of St. David's                        
Time: Over an hour            
Bottom Line: Go Go Joe! 

Reflection: This weekend, the youth of St. David's are preforming "Joseph"! I first saw this musical on our 8th grade class trip to Washington, DC. I loved it even though it is so very cheesy. D. love it to and we have watched the movie version several times. Well, tonight we are going to see it live and we can't wait!

Day 108: 4/18/13- Take a "Project Implicit" Test

Day 108: 4/18/13- Take a "Project Implicit" Test
New Thing- Take a "Project Implicit" Test       
Inspiration: Betsy A.                       
Time: Oh, I definitely fell down a time hole with this one.          
Bottom Line: "Your data suggest a moderate automatic association of Feminism with Self." Yep.

Reflection: A month ago, Betsy A. told me about this very cool web-site called "Project Implicit" which is a non-ending collection of psychological test that illuminate a person's true views on a subject. Here is the description:

People don’t always say what’s on their minds. One reason is that they are unwilling. For example, someone might report smoking a pack of cigarettes per day because they are embarrassed to admit that they smoke two. Another reason is that they are unable. A smoker might truly believe that she smokes a pack a day, or might not keep track at all. The difference between being unwilling and unable is the difference between purposely hiding something from someone and unknowingly hiding something from yourself. 

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) measures attitudes and beliefs that people may be unwilling or unable to report. The IAT may be especially interesting if it shows that you have an implicit attitude that you did not know about. For example, you may believe that women and men should be equally associated with science, but your automatic associations could show that you (like many others) associate men with science more than you associate women with science. 

The first one I took relieved my views on feminism. Guess what? I'm on board. Not only does it help research, it also helps to learn about yourself. You will get sucked in.   

Day 107: 4/17/13- Drew Advisory Session

Day 107: 4/17/13- Drew Advisory Session                                           
New Thing- Drew Advisory Session      
Inspiration: Drew Doctoral work                    
Time: All Day      
Bottom Line: A lovely day of higher learning.

Reflection: I headed back to the "Campus in the Pines" today for a advisory session with my doctoral professor and my fellow classmates. Everything seemed to be solid in the project thus far thanks to my wonderful Lay Advisory Committee here at St. David's. The next step will be my faculty adviser's site visit at the end of the month and, pending her approval at that meeting, I can begin to fully write the thesis. Ah yes, the thesis. Bring on the anxiety! 

Day 106: 4/16/13- Celebrate National Library Week & Line Dancing!

Day 106: 4/16/13- Celebrate National Library Week & Line Dancing 
New Thing- Record a book on tape for D.'s class & Line Dancing     
Inspiration: Ken, National Library Week, D., Susan N.                    
Time: A few mins. & an hour of dancing!     
Bottom Line: "At the sound of the 'beep' turn the page. Beep!"

Reflection: Since Ken is a librarian, we are very "pro-library" in this house-hold.  So, in honor of National Library Week, I recoded myself reading one of my childhood favorites "Roxaboxen" for D.'s pre-k classroom library. All the parents take turns doing this and it was a pleasure to read for her and her friends. 

Later on I went line dancing with Susan! I was not great at it, but it was really fun and I love Susan's "up-for-anything" look at life. Thanks, Susan!!

  

Day 105: 4/15/13- Thai Fried Bananas

Day 105: 4/15/13- Thai Fried Bananas                                        
New Thing- Eat Thai Fried Bananas     
Inspiration: Ellyn & Anna                  
Time: A few glorious seconds    
Bottom Line: So. Good. 

Reflection: Ellyn & Anna came down today and we had a very tasty dinner including Thai fried bananas. It was so very delicious! 

Day 104: 4/14/13- DIY Baking Soda Face Scrub

Day 104: 4/14/13- DIY Baking Soda Face Scrub                                       
New Thing- DIY Baking Soda Face Scrub    
Inspiration: Pinterest                   
Time: A Few Mins.   
Bottom Line: Very refreshing. 

Reflection: Today, I tried a new face scrub using baking soda. Here’s the recipe: 3 TBSP baking soda 1 TBSP water mix together well. Apply to face in circular motion. Let sit for five minutes. Rinse off with warm water. It left a nice glow and a healthy feeling. 
 

Day 103: 4/13/13- Beekeeping class at Harriton House

Day 103: 4/13/13- Beekeeping class at Harriton House                                      
New Thing- Beekeeping class at Harriton House   
Inspiration: Beekeeping, Mainline School Night                  
Time: Several Hours 
Bottom Line: It was a great day for beekeeping. Varroa mites never sounded so interesting. 

Learning about bees.

Reflection: This morning I attended a really interesting beekeeping class at the beautiful ground of the historic Harriton House. I learned alot of scientific and historical facts. For example, you can use powdered sugar to combat varroa mites (perhaps the largest plague on honey bees today) and that Charles Thomson (Harriton's best known occupant most famous for his role as the first and only Secretary to the Continental Congresses) designed the Great Seal of the United States. Now THAT'S a satisfying morning of education!

God help me, I am turning into my father. 

Day 102: 4/12/13- Handstand!

Day 102: 4/12/13- Handstand!                                     
New Thing- Yoga Handstand  
Inspiration: Amy                 
Time: Less then a min.
Bottom Line: One face-plant, one handstand.

Obviously not a picture of me.

Reflection: I had a very cool experience this morning at yoga class. My friend, teacher and fellow St. David's member, Amy, lead us through an invigorating class as normal and then asked one of the other students (who is also a yoga instructor) to stay and help her with her handstand. I had already read Amy's "Yoga Thoughts" for the day which was a powerful essay on fear and her battle with her nemesis--the handstand. So, I was really impressed to see her face this pose with bravery and energy. She executed it beautifully and I was to inspired that I wanted to try it myself!    

As I came to the wall, Amy gave me instant confidence and grace by telling the second teacher who was going to help me get into this pose that, "Hillary can definitely do this. She is totally strong and totally fearless." I was so touched and never thought of myself that way before. It definitely gave me confidence and I swung both my legs up the wall--and fell right on my face because beginners need to use one leg at a time. But the second time I got my legs up and it was great!! I definitely felt my abs for the rest of the day.    

Thank you for the inspiration, Amy!   

Day 101: 4/11/13- Celebrate a Belated National Sibling Day

Day 101: 4/11/13- Celebrate a Belated National Sibling Day                                    
New Thing- Living Like Ali for a Day 
Inspiration: National Sibling Day, Ali                 
Time: All Day    
Bottom Line: Love that Little Sis! 

Little Ali in the front and Little Hilly in the back.

Reflection: Yesterday was National Sibling Day, but I had it written down on the wrong date. So, I celebrated it today. It is a whole day dedicated to the joy of your sibling! I decided to mark the day by making all my decisions the way that I think Ali would have. Here is the breakdown: 

• I decided to sleep in this morning in true Ali fashion. She is not a morning person. When we were in high school and I had to drive her to school, I would literal have to be driving away for her to get out the door. Every so often, I would play music that I thought would make her laugh. It worked sometimes and had disastrous effects at other times.     
• I wore clothing that reminds me of her including a pair of silver/turquoise earrings that she has a matching set of and a skirt that she gave me that I have only worn a few times but got like 5 complements on today. Thanks Ali! 
• Since Ali is an art teacher, I taught the Women's Bible Study as an art class. We were focusing on Romans 8:26-30 (see below) which talks about the way God searches our hearts looking for that Spirit that sights in our hearts even when we do not know how to pray. In fact, Paul makes the case that those times when we do not have words, may be the exact time that the Spirit is at work in our hearts to make them a new creation. So, we took blank paper hearts that open up and used them as a meditation tool focusing on the Collect of Purity. We opened the hearts and on one side we put our desires and secrets that are known only to God. Then on the other side we drew those things that the Spirit was inspiring in us. Then on the outside we drew a representation of the way that we can display God's love to the world. One woman said it was the best Bible study we have ever had with Romans and it was indeed lively and fun. We finished by singing "You are my Sunshine" which was what we sang in Son Shine Nursery school as little girls.  
• Then at lunch I split a piece of peanut butter pie with Elaine at lunch since that is Ali's husband, Doug's, favorite desert. 
• I then took a spin around the flower show that was set up in the parish hall and got a flower art lesson from Jill B. Here are some of the beautiful results of their work:

 

Anne's

Mary

Jill's

• Then I went for a sun run listening to a mix that she made me--I love the Banjo Vol. 1. After all, we are Appalachian Mountain girls. I need Vol. 2, Ali!! She loves to run in the sun.
• Finally, I started to cleaned out my closet to give some old clothes away like she always does for me. I love that about her.  

Thank you Ali for being a great inspiration and the best sister a girl could ever ask for.   
 

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.  We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified. 

-Romans 8:26-30 

Sisters in crime