Art I'm Loving

I'm taking a fine arts class right now which talks about all kinds of art and I wanted to post some art that I am loving right now. My mom instilled in us a love of good art and music (which I am very thankful for) and I have always loved art. So here is some art I'm loving. I hope you enjoy it too.

This is Michelangelo's Pieta. Pieta refers to when Christ is brought down from the cross. Typically it is Mary holding her son. The interesting thing about this picture is that while Jesus is life size Mary is gargantuan. Look at all the folds of her dress. This was carved from stone but the clothing looks so lifelike. Her face is so serene, yet haunting. She is contemplated and sad all at the same time.

This is Raphael's School of Athens. Raphael lived a very short life but in his short life achieved greatness with the likes of Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo. He is known as the master of ordered space. This picture is one of a few he did in the Vatican. It shoes various Greek philosophers. On the right side are the science and math philosophers and the left are the more fine arts and philosophy philosophers. The two in the middle are Aristotle and Socrates. There are so many details in this picture that I could go on and on about but I won't. I do advise you to go look it up.

This is one of the most well known art pieces, but it is so haunting and beautiful. It is Leonardo Da Vinci's The Last Supper. Everything in the picture points to Jesus. The disciples are broken into sets of three. Typically two older men and one younger man. There are so many details in this picture. This is a picture of right after Jesus told the disciples he was to be crucified. His face is so excepting and serene while the disciples are in an uproar. See if you can find Judas. He has a bag of money in his hand. 

I know this is almost overused but it so amazing to me. This is, of course, Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel. It shows how all of the Bible stories point to Christ. It also has secular historical figures that Michelangelo believed pointed to Christ. The interesting thing is that Jesus is never picture in this. Interesting Michelangelo almost did not paint this. When the pope asked him to paint it he refused saying that he was a sculptor not a painter but then did it after all (its hard to say no to the major ruling power at the time). My dream is to one day see it in person.

This is Velazquez's Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor). Its really neat because when you look closely you feel like you are in the picture. If you look in the mirror you see the king and queen and you wonder if they are right behind you. You see Velazquez painting the picture. The little girl looks wondering and innocent. It is a really beautiful piece of art. I like how three dimensional it feels.

This is Rembrandt's Descent From the Cross. It is so moving and dark. You feel the emotion as Jesus is taken from the cross. It is not meant to be a historically accurate picture but rather an interpretation. When looking at this picture I almost feel like I am one of the crowd looking on as they take my Savior's body down. 

This is one of my favorite pictures. I want a print for my house. It is Etienne Aubry's Paternal Love. It really shows the happy family. You picture the father coming in from work and the family stopping what they doing to be with him. His father is looking on and admiring what his son accomplished. His wife has stopped her chores to be with her sons. The way she holds one of her son's hands is so touchlingly sweet. The father comes in and what is on his mind is not relaxing or even taking his coat off but picking up his son and being with his family. It is such a sweet picture. 

This is all for now. There are so many more and I wish I could post them all but you would be bored, and I would be here all day. We are only into the Enlightenment so as we progress in class I may post more that I am loving for your enjoyment (ok really for mine). I know its not a usual post but I hope someone enjoys the art as I am. 

The Comforter Adventures

I love to share crazy parts of my life with you, as many of you know. This is one may be one of the best crazy stories since we have been married.

On Tuesday morning I had a HUGE test in astronomy so I was studying like crazy. When I study there could be an atomic bomb drop and I would have no clue. I'm so into studying that I just don't pay any attention to anything Well, maybe I should.

Anyway, I'm being good and studying like crazy all about Newton's laws and the how fast you would have to throw a ball to get it into orbit (5 miles per second if you care to know) and lots of other interesting random things when my husband comes home.

My husband decided to be very helpful and said, "honey, I think I'm going to wash the comforter." Again, I'm studying and not paying any attention and kind of mumble a, "ok sweetheart. sounds good." without really thinking about what he said. Yes, he said he was  going to was our Queen comforter in our compact washer. And me being not the smarter wife did not say anything (so yes I'm just as guilty in this one).

He throws it in and I get to a place in my studying where I feel like I can stop so we run out for supper and errands. We don't get back until 11 pm and I'm exhausted. It was one of those bone numbing tireds where you can't think straight. I walk in the bedroom to start studying a little more than go to bed and the comforter is missing.

Isaiah says, "oh let me put in the dryer so we can go to bed." I go back to my in depth studying and then I hear it. It was the moan to end all moans. "OOOOOHHHHH NO" comes from behind the door to the washer machine. I look up (yes it did break my studying) and he comes in the bedroom looking like he just did the worse thing possible. He told me that he ruined our comforter and that it was ripped to shreds. He is VERY upset.

Our comforter was our wedding gift from his parents. It was a big deal. We had matching curtains and all (basically the only thing in our apartment that does match).

He pulled out the comforter and not only is the top fabric ripped, the stuffing is even ripped. Its way beyond my ability to fix it.

My poor husband feels terrible and I start laughing. I was so tired I started laughing. He could not figure it out. He thought I was going to be mad or upset. I was sad, it was special to us, but at that point I was able to see how funny the situation was and just laugh.

Well, we don't have another blanket that would fit on our bed so my wonderful husband offers to make a wal-mart run to get another comforter. I don't like it but I guess we have to. I wanted to go since this was like an important part of our room.

So we go to wal-mart and pick out a beautiful comforter that is now on our bed. And we learned our lessons,  my husband won't wash comforters in the laundry and I will learn to pay more attention to him when I'm studying,

I will say, he was super wonderful through it all. He acted like a true husband. He only did it to help me by washing our comforter. When he found out what happened he never blamed me or anything but was willing to do anything it took to make up for it too me. I felt sorry for him, he felt so terrible about it.

Recipe Monday

Last week my husband surprised me with 2 new cookbooks. I think he was trying to give me a hint. Ok maybe not, but I have been saying I really need some cookbooks. It was really exciting to have some now. He got really good ones too.

One was the Good House Budget Dinners. There are a lot of fun, simple and cheap recipes. I'm so excited to try.

The other one is one I've been wanting since we got married. My mom uses it all the time and I used it a lot when I was back home. It is the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. It has lots of easy, delicious recipes for many basic things like cakes and pasta, but also a lot of fun recipes. Most of them are super easy. I have never had a recipe out of it that was not full proof (which is good for me). I was sooooo excited.

That very night I tried a recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens one. It was delicious! My husband is not a huge fan of pork chops, but he really like this recipe. It was so easy too. It would be great for a fancy company dinner (especially if you find pork chops on sale somewhere). No, that is not my picture of the pork chops, but its pretty close. One thing I did differently was that I did not finely crush the stuffing mix, I let it be. I made sure to cover the pork chops with mostly seasoning, but having the bigger pieces of dried stuffing added a crunch I liked. Enjoy.

Oven-Fried Pork Chops

Ingredients

• 4 pork chops, trimmed
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 cup herb-seasoned dry bread stuffing mix

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Pour butter into a 9x13 inch baking pan.
2. Stir together egg, milk and pepper. Dip pork chops in egg mixture, coat with stuffing mix and place in pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Turn chops and bake for another 10 minutes, or until no pink remains in the meat and juices run clear.

Getting Taken to the Vet

So this week I was going to take my little girls (cats) to the vet for their mandatory post adoption check up. Well, that was the theory. I made it later in the morning so I would have plenty of time to get them in their cases and try to finagle them. But alas, it did not work quite as planned.

Isaiah was at work so it was me against the cats. We thought it would not be bad since they had started coming out and letting us pet them and all. They were starting to trust us and love us. I was praying a lot that it would be easy.

We had been realizing that Mara was probably abused by the woman who used to own her. She is really skiddish with me, but not as much with Isaiah. She won't come close to you if your hand is open, she seems to think you will hit her. And she would not let herself be touched at all until about Tuesday night.

Wednesday morning was our trip to the vet. I was really praying it would go well. It did not.

Abby went in her carrier ok. But after I put her in and went to get Mara, she cried (as only an adorable kitten can) and meowed. It was so pitiful. I had a hard time not crying. I was making my sweet little girl upset and I hated that feeling. I knew it was for the best though so I kept going.

Mara was not as easy. She was hiding under the bed and would not come out. I did everything I could to get her out. I ended up breaking the bed frame (which my wonderful husband thankfully fixed later) trying to get her out. She hissed at me and was angry.

I honestly had such a hard time with it all. I did not want to do something that would get them upset. I did not want to make them do something they did not like. I sobbed because I hated doing this to them so much.

Mara never did go in her carrier. I had to call the vet and tell her that she would not be coming. They understood. Some cats are just so scared of getting hurt that they won't, but she will have to go in very soon, probably next week.

Turns out it was good I took Abby in. She was sick. She had a sort of cat cold that we have to watch.

I knew they needed to go. Abby did not like being at the vet. She was miserable, and Mara just refused to go. But I knew it was good for them. I knew they needed to do it.

After all this I thought about how God does stuff to us. I am not saying I am like God, but the idea is there. I knew the bigger picture. I knew that the cats needed to be taken to the vet. I knew that in the end it was for the best. I would never hurt them just to hurt them, but to them it seemed like it was. They could not see the bigger picture.

Aren't we like that? We say, "God why are you doing this?" Sometimes we go into something, like Abby, but cry the whole time. We whine and get scared and are not happy, but we go. Sometimes we are like Mara, we just scratch and get mad. We are stubborn. But in the end, God will teach us the lesson, it just may be later.

When something happens we blame God and act as if He is trying to hurt us, but like the cats, we can't see the bigger picture. We cannot see that in the end its the best for us. We just see the immediate terrible thing happening to us. Its hard to trust that God has a bigger picture that we can not see and that this terrible thing happening to us is good for us.

Our New Cats

Isaiah and I did something very excited this week. We got 2 cats. I'm so happy. If you could see me you would see one proud, happy mama. Their names are Mara and Abby. Abby is a dark brown and Mara is black with a white post on her chest and tummy. They are just tiny kittens and so cute.

I had never had a cat before, just a dog, but had always wanted one. Isaiah loves cats, to the point that his nickname for me is kitten. We had been wanting to get a cat for a while but financially it just did not work outWe got some money but I had pushed it out of my mind thinking that it would never work in a million years. 

Then this week I was feeling kind of lonely being around the apartment by myself a lot. Isaiah works full time and has night classes 3 nights a week and between all that I was just feeling all alone. Isaiah said one night, "what if we got a cat now?" I was shocked but started looking into it. By the time he came home from the work the next day I knew what was needed, what kind of cat I wanted and where we should go. Isaiah said he could tell I really wanted this but he wanted to look at our finances a little more and think about it a few days and get back with me. A day later he said we could get one, but would not tell me when, just that it would be a surprise.

Friday at lunch time he texted and asked if I wanted to go out to lunch with him. He took me to Chipotle (one of my favorite restaurants) and then just said "ok get in the car." I thought we were getting the cat then, but turns out we were just going to petco to look at stuff we needed. We ended up getting almost everything we needed. 

While Isaiah was at work, I texted him and told him that I found out the place we wanted to get the cat from was closing at 4:30 and would not open until Monday. He rushed home and surprised me to get the cat. Turns out we were about 5 minutes too late. I was so sad. The guy at the shelter suggested going to the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, SPCA (which I would suggest to anyone looking to adopt an animal). 

We went there and they only had 2 kittens at that point. They had been brought in that day by their foster mom, a sweet older lady who volunteered with the SPCA. The two kittens were not related but had been together at her house for a few months and were friends. 

I held one, Mara, and Isaiah held the other, Abby. It was so sweet. Mara cuddled up against me and Abby cuddled with Isaiah. Isaiah asked me which I wanted to which I jokingly replied, "both". He said alright, let me make sure its ok with our lease. He found out it was, so that night we adopted our 2 beautiful cats, Mara and Abby.

Mara is the timid, shy one. Since we brought her home we have not gotten to pet her. She is still skiddish around us and mostly hides. She seems very sweet though. I think once she warms up she will be very loving. She is very playful and has let us play with her with a toy. She is very determined. She is very adorable.

Abby is the more outgoing one. She already sleeps wit us. She likes to cuddle up. If she is awake and we are not she will jump on us and stare at us until we pet her. She is very mischievous. She follows Mara around and pokes at her sometimes. She is the jumper and has already gotten on the kitchen counter and the top of the refrigerator. 

They are both so sweet, and so different. I am so thankful that God allowed us to adopt them and have them as part of our family. 

Abby trying to sneak up on Mara while Mara plays with her toy. 

Abby hears her name and Mara just ignores us. 

Mara is watching something. 

Our two girls. 

My Prince

I have wanted to post something a little less deep and also having to do with Valentines Day (which is just around the corner). I saw this on a blog I follow called learning to love. She has been posting something about her fiance, or her prince as she calls him. Almost everyday she talks about something random about her prince. I wanted to do the same thing for my prince, Isaiah.

I love random trivia about people. I greatly enjoy learning trivia, and though no one may really care about trivia about Isaiah, I think I will do this. Sometimes I get tired of posting all deep, hardcore stuff. I want my blog to be multifaceted. Not just deep stuff, not just deep recipes but all kinds of things. 

So some random facts about my Valentine, my prince, Isaiah. (sigh, yes I still sigh every time I think of him)

1. He loves airplanes. He loves anything to do with airplanes. He got his solo flight (which means he could fly the plane by himself, I think). He knows basically everything there is to know about airplanes (or so I think). His dream is to get his commercial license.

2. He was (and still is) in Civil Air Patrol for like most of his life. CAP is an Air Force Auxiliary that trains young men and women to be ready to help in emergencies, helps them train to be pilots and other things. Its kind of a mix between ROTC and Boy Scouts (but don't tell anyone in CAP I said that, they will disagree).

3. He is a huge Gator's fan. He comes from a family of Gator fans. They are huge, huge fans. He follows every game. I am an Auburn fan, and as you can see,  it gets interesting. 

3. Isaiah loves guns. He has always been into guns, but especially now that he can get his concealed weapons permit. He loves to look at guns, talk about guns and daydream about guns. 

4. His personality is very different than mine. I am all emotions, kind of like fire and ice. I feel very deeply. I'm either super happy, or super sad. But my dear prince is the opposite. He is very unwavering and even keeled. Its a great balance to me. 

5. He is a great Christian. When He prays you can tell that God is just His best friend. One of the first things I fell in love with was that his prayers were not pretentious but just normal, like breathing. His faith is so matter of fact. Its as if nothing would ever shake him in his faith. No matter what happens, God is God and God is unchanging. 

There is so much more I could talk about about my prince charming. He is just so amazing. His love is so unwavering and unselfish. I have the best prince in the world. I am so thankful God gave him to me.

Recipe Monday

Isaiah is not a big fan of vegetables so when I find something he likes I jump on it. I found this recipe and I was so excited. I made it and am a huge fan!!! I did not cook the carrots in the sauce long enough so they did not get to really set, but it was still good. You can't really go wrong with sugar and butter. Instead of cooking the carrots in some water, I saw a comment to drain all the water and just cook them in the margarine and brown sugar so that's what I did. Enjoy.

Buttery Cooked Carrots

Ingredients

• 1 pound baby carrots
• 1/4 cup margarine
• 1/3 cup brown sugar

Directions

1. Cook carrots in a large pot of boiling water until tender. Drain off most of the liquid, leaving bottom of pan covered with water. Set the carrots aside.
2. Stir margarine and brown sugar into the water. Simmer and stir until the margarine melts. Return carrots to the pot, and toss to coat. Cover, and let sit for a few minutes to allow flavors to mingle.

Praying for Your Husband

When I was younger, my mom and her friends would talk about their marriages and I would hear about them praying for their husbands. I heard them talking about praying for what they wanted to change in their husbands, instead of nagging them. I never really understood that concept until I got married. It works.

In my short marriage I have already seen things that I have been praying about for Isaiah come to pass. One thing I have prayed about since the beginging of our marriage is how messy he is, and how much clutter he had around our apartment. I spent many tears on it, especially when we were first married.He did not want me to clean up his stuff and I stayed so frustrated. It was hard because people would come over and comment on how messy and cluttered it was. I was so embarrassed. I started crying and nagging Isaiah to clean up. FAIL!!! It just got more cluttered. Nothing was better.

Then I started praying for God to change Isaiah's heart and make him want to clean up his clutter. I prayed hard. Amazing thing was God started changing my heart. I started realizing that the clutter was not the problem, my heart attitude was. I was embarrassed for people to see the clutter because of how they thought of me. I don't like clutter, but I realized that I loved my husband and it was part of him. He loved me, even my faults, and I need to love him like that. I also realized that I needed to give my pride in my house to God and not worry about what other people thought.

I was still a little bothered by the clutter because I don't like clutter, but not as bad. God had changed my heart. After my heart got right, guess what? Isaiah started not wanting the clutter and has been working hard to clean it out. He has spent hours on it, and our apartment looks so much better.

There have been many times where I was struggling with something so I started praying for God to work on Isaiah's heart, and of course He worked on mine. I changed my heart and gave it to God. I realized that I can't nag Isaiah into having a heart change about something.

I cannot say I never nag, or I'm perfect at not getting frustrated about things, but I can say that this has changed so many things. I need to remember to pray for him, not nag him. Only God can change him. When I try I just frustrate him.

When I give my frustration to God, I have a peace because I don't feel like I have to fix my husband. I can relax and love him. Then God can work in his heart and change him. Its a much better way to handle things.

Fallacies

Fallacy: deceptive appearance, a false or mistaken idea

I'm learning about logic and fallacies in my ethics class and its making me think about the fallacies women have. The things we think about that are so not true, but we believe them and think they are. God doesn't want us to believe these fall things. He wants us to live in Him and have His joy. If we get bogged down with thinking about these fallacies we can't live to our fullest potential in God.

A HUGE fallacies women of all ages believe is that they are not pretty. I have never met a women who has never said, "I would pretty if _____ was _____" Mine would be "I would be pretty if my body was tall and lean." or "I would be pretty if God had made my nose smaller." What I have to think about instead is that God made me perfect to His plans. God made me wonderfully. He sees me as beautiful. If I am beautiful the God of the universe who made beautiful things like roses and the sunset than wow I must be beautiful just the way I am.

A fallacy I struggle with is that if my house isn't perfect, the laundry all done and a nice supper cooked for my husband every night than I am a total failure as a wife. Guess what? Its not true. I am not superwoman. I am me. And some days my laundry will be so piled up its taking over my entire closet. Some days the sink will be so full of dishes I can't find the faucet. And some days my supper will microwave pizza rolls for supper. But guess what, that does not make me a failure as a wife. God wants me to be a wife who lifts up my husband in prayer. I am to be the wife that seeks God first, then does dishes. I am to be a wife who makes sure her husband knows she loves and respects him. And I am learning that honestly Isaiah would much rather I am seeking God and loving him than that he has a full 5 course meal every night or clean clothes.

Another fallacy women believe is that if you are not working outside the home your life is not worth anything. I really struggled with this for a while. I believe though that I am to be a housewife. I am so ok with that. I love being a housewife. But for so long I struggled with feeling like a lazy terrible woman because I was not working. I am not saying staying at home is for every woman. I just know its God's plan for me. I also know that its ok that I'm not working and staying at home and going to school right now. Its how God wants things for us right now. I am in God's will and I am not a lazy terrible woman. I am a very blessed woman.

Fallacies hurt all of us. They really hurt us. Women believe so many that are just not true. What are the fallacies you believe? What does God say about those? God will always have a loving answer for all the things that are wrong. He loves you and wants you to have His joy and know His love.

So what are your fallacies? What has God told you in responce? I would love to hear some.