- We had a very nice birthday celebration. M and I made a donut run early this morning, and we had a junk food breakfast with mimosas. Heh. I had gotten the day off from work, so I found myself at the grocery store at 11:30 a.m. and the place was hopping. Who knew?R spent the day as he wished–smoking a huge brisket and a rack of beef ribs for some friends and for our freezer. Fork-tender and finger-lickin’ good. Cooks Illustrated is R’s gold standard for most recipes, but they don’t like mesquite chips for smoking because they are “Too strong.” Tsk–yankees.
He also smoked a chicken for good measure, and made some queso fundido, homemade bbq sauce, potato salad and Austin baked beans. C and I baked a yellow cake and I made chocolate sour cream frosting while MaDear wrangled kidlets. C has a new rolling suitcase for her trip to visit the cousins next weekend, and MaDear managed to find one *without* a licensed character on it. Amazing.
- Clergy Novelist shared an article from the New York Times (registration required?) about clergywomen. Upshot: clergywomen rise pretty high in the ranks of denominational leadership, but when it comes to big fluffy pulpits, there’s still a lot of bias in favor of men. Lots of churches, especially big ones, still want a youngish guy with a wife and kids. No big surprise. What the article doesn’t talk about is the opt-out phenomenon. Lots of women I know (including me?) don’t seek out large pulpits because of what it means for family-work balance. So I always feel conflicted about articles like this one. I would like to hope that if I wanted to be a head of staff of a tall steeple church, I would be able to find something and not have the stained-glass ceiling to contend with. But I don’t feel called to that right now.Is that a bad thing? No and yes. No, because I want to be true to my call–not only my pastoral call but my call to be spouse, parent, etc. But also yes, for the same reason that Linda Hirshman (google her) had an actual point that got lost in all the arrogance and the vitriol: the more women who opt out of ministry (or other demanding, male-dominated professions), the greater the burden on those who remain to try to advocate for change. Sigh.
- The divine miss m and I are off tomorrow for Suburban Pres’s annual staff retreat at Senior Pastor’s cottage on the Chesapeake Bay. We will be WAY out of internet range. I’ll check in when I get back. I expect my blogging will continue to be less frequent, but on the upside, I’m getting quite a bit of real-life stuff done.
- St. Cass and all of those on the Gulf Coast are in my thoughts and prayers this week.
Published by reverendmother 2 years ago in food, things/life/whatnot, ministry
13 Responses to “sunday/monday peace-loving dots”
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Asides
» I have been remiss in posting SBJ’s latest stats: 23 pounds and 27 inches at six months. Yes, I’ve got the big mama biceps.
» Aaaaaand little she-who-is lost another tooth this week!
» SBJ is four months old, 19 pounds 5 ounces, and 26 inches tall. GIGANTOR!
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
The birthday “boy” outdid himself again…the beef was better than what they serve at the restaurant where RM and him had their rehearsal dinner, so there!
But the sides…amazing! I’ve never, ever had baked beans as good as the ones R made tonight and the potato salad was heavenly! You just should have been there…he continues to amaze my taste buds.
And C’s cake, even with the Washington Redskin color scheme, was yummy.
I had three different people send me that article.
I don’t feel called to big fluffy pulpit yet, but by the time I do (if I do) I’m afraid middle age women with grown children will be so passe. St Stoic tried to call young men with toddlers and wives with a “bun in the oven”, but the reality was that it was someone like me, with a spouse who had 25 years in his profession, who could afford to take this church. I don’t recall the article talking about that, but that was the reality for my seminary contemporaries and I. Many of us took calls that others could not afford to take.
As one who for very different reasons will never be offered a big fluffy pulpit…or probably anything close to it, I try not to care, but I can certainly see the dilemma.
As for R’s culinary skills…I believe that there is something in the letter R. R and another married pal O mine, named R, who is now back in Texas, are the best home cooks I’ve ever encountered…EVER.
Whoa. The comparison of my R to the Texas R is VERY flattering. I will tell him.
As I have sampled the culinary delights of both Rs, I whole-heartily concur with ChiRev. Pretty much my idea of a perfect night is a meal cooked by one of them and attended by spouses (and now, kids,) ChiRev, and a few others. Rememeber when we actually used to be able to do that? Sigh.
Happy Birthday, R!
You just described Mr. Listing’s Favorite day…
Do you watch BBQU?
I’ve already sent that article to a few folks and had it brought to my attention as well…
Does someone want to write a letter to the NYTimes editor? Would it get published? Did anyone besides us read this article?
They don’t like mesquite? What a bunch of heretics! Just try to find BBQ NOT smoked with mesquite around here. Heck, try to find a vacant lot that isn’t covered with the stuff. Sounds like a great feast!
I’m with you and Grace on that one - pansy heretics! My mouth waters at your description of this meal. Yummmm…
Have a great retreat!
I think it’s easy for us clergywomen to read an article like the NY Times through the filter of our own biography. We respond as to whether or not we are personally interested in a tall steeple church. But what about the fact that our personal reasons are largely shaped by family considerations that most men don’t have to weigh? Or the fact that certain choices were not open to us — possibly because of our own heads — as well as because of other people’s perceptions of a woman in a pulpit. This issue is bigger than any one clergywoman’s story, don’t you think?
I was actually contacted for the article. The writer is a friend of a friend. She was very clear about only wanted to represent a specific viewpoint. I think a L2E would probably get published—esp. if the writer was omeone who actually reads the NYTimes (I don’t.)
PH speaks of the classmates of his who walked into the front door of his seminary (that lovely Pres one in Albert Einstein’s former home town) and shared that they were looking forward to “significant pulpits.” In my naive way, I figure that if I get to the point that I think that one pulpit is more significant than another, I’d better change professions.
Vis-a-vis the food fiesta you guys did yesterday, it all sounds scrumptious. RM, you’re right: the Cooks Illustrated folks are New Englanders (Chris Kimball lives in Vermont and the mag is based in Boston), thus their lack of enthusiasm for mesquite. As a nomad who has spent most of her life in NY and north, I count my brethren and sistern who introduced me to mesquite-smoked BBQ brisket and such during my visits to Austin as just a few notches below those who taught me about the Lord. No blasphemy intended!
Happy BDay one day late, R!
Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. Today is the Big Anniversary.
I enjoyed this post about food, the Times article and thinking about you and Miss M heading off for a staff retreat.
(o)
Caroline had a Redskins colored cake?
*sigh*
That BBQ sounds hella good.