Monthly Munch: November 2016

Well, we've had sicknesses and successes, soups and stews, sunshine and sn...frost. I've been doing lots more writing and trying to figure out how to get people to give me money for it.

And we went mining. Actually, this photo is us in an old lime kiln, on a suitably atmospheric camera setting.

Toby

- got some glasses! Unusually for our family, he isn't short-sighted, but has some astigmatism. Children's glasses have got much more trendy since I had them; he has Star Wars and Minions.

- won first prize in his class for the Children in Need bake off at school.

- has been trying to teach me "ninja" moves, which is quite fun.

- got the sick bug which has been going around, and has been off school for a few days.

- designed a (belated) jack o'lantern and a table centrepiece for Thanksgiving.

Our mini Thanksgiving dinner

Theo

Cafes with Kids out-takes

- decided to go to preschool happily after half term.

- has twice gone to sleep on the landing instead of in his bed.

Toby's just pretending

- loves drawing and decorating things.

playgroup penguin

- did not like fireworks at all - far too noisy!

Thankful for:

- free/cheap food! I have had bags of free apples to stew, and got two pumpkins for 50p each, which provided pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving.

mmm... pumpkin pie!

- a visit from Auntie Colette, who brought the boys matching Star Wars T-shirts.

Recipe of the Month: Minestrone soup

I've never made minestrone soup before, but it's a good chunky comforting type of soup. I cut down the original recipe a bit but it still made lots; you could probably get 8 servings out of it. I froze some in portions, as soup is a nice thing to pull out of the freezer for lunch when it's cold outside.

2 large leeks, sliced
300g carrots, peeled and diced
300g potatoes, peeled and diced
1.5 litres vegetable stock
125g green beans, halved
125g mini pasta shapes
2 cans chopped tomatoes
1 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
salt and pepper
oregano

Put the leeks, carrots and potatoes into a very large saucepan and add the stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for 20-25 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Add the green beans, pasta, tomatoes and tinned beans with the seasoning, and simmer for another 10-15 minutes until the pasta is done. Serves 6-8.

Comments

The democracy of theology

Who gets to decide what God is like? I am the way, the truth and the life (Image: Pixabay) Well, God presumably has a pretty good idea. The rest of us struggle a bit more. So where do you get your theology from? Who tells you what God is like? And who do you believe when they tell you? I'm asking these questions because I recently read At the Gates , which I reviewed here . It made a lot of useful points about disability and the church. But it also, I noticed, had a very particular view of theology. Once again, I was glad I'd previously read Models of Contextual Theology , because I was able to pick up a few assumptions that the authors of At the Gates were making. I didn't feel that I totally disagreed with these assumptions, but I wasn't sure if I agreed with them either. So I'm using this post to explore them further. Assumption 1 A disabled person's lived theology is just as important as an academic person's theology This generates two opposing reaction

Limestone Way: quirky churches and cave houses

Enough theological reflection - let's go for a walk! Toby joined me for the two walks between Mayfield and Thorpe, via Mapleton and Ashbourne. My old phone finally died, so I was enjoying the capabilities of my new one, including a much better camera and the ability to plot routes on the OS Maps app. Walk One It was the first day of Toby's summer holidays, so I'd promised him a milkshake en route . We parked in Mayfield, went past the primary school, and climbed the hill to rejoin the Limestone Way where I'd left it last time . Very soon we came across Lordspiece Farm, which had what looked like a little shed on wheels outside. The sign said "Honesty Tuck Shop". One part of it was a freezer stacked full of ice cream! It was very tempting, but we'd hardly walked any distance, and we had those plans for milkshakes. We reluctantly closed the door and moved on. The farm dog had a bark much bigger than its body - it was a tiny thing! We continued across some f

At the Gates: Spiritual Formation Book 14

"A church with an accessible culture makes sure a diverse community can participate in everything they do. That's not a burden on a church - it's a cultural shift that benefits everyone." "This is a book about justice." So reads the first sentence of At the Gates: Disability, Justice and the Churches . Written by Naomi Lawson Jacobs and Emily Richardson, who are themselves disabled, At the Gates draws on interviews with dozens of Christians with disabilities to put together a picture of how they have been treated at church. In the book, the interviewees are called storytellers . All too often, the stories tell of lack of access, hurtful comments, and unfounded assumptions about their abilities and faith. This, the authors describe as ableism - an ideology that gives power to those who are able-bodied and neurotypical, while regarding others as deficient. What is the book about? The first part of the book covers the issues that disabled people have in havin

Martha's Marvellous Munchies

Search This Blog