Callings

Sometimes I'm confused how people make decisions about offering a calling in my church. Like when my sister, a stay-at-home mom of 6 children all under the age of 7 years old, was called to nursery (caring for a roomful 18 month old to 3 year old kids). I can imagine her bishop at the time saying to himself "Who should I call to take care of all those kids for 2 hours on Sunday? Hmmm.... I know! How about Lisa! She has lots of young kids, she must love them!" Not considering that perhaps she'd like a little time away from hordes of tiny people for at least two hours on Sundays.

A similar conversation may have happened last week as some people were trying to decide who should be the single adult rep in my current ward. They might have said, "Who could we get to track the 10-15 singles in our ward, help plan activities, and attend them? Hmmm... I know! How about we choose the single mom in the ward who homeschools, is working on a PhD, and has a full-time job! She already has a calling, but I'm sure she can fit one more thing in her schedule!"

It doesn't make any sense. But here I am: the single adult rep in my ward. My hat rack is getting pretty full.... :)

In all honesty, I'm really not upset or bitter about the new hat. In fact, I think I'll like wearing it once in a while. I still don't feel like I have a place in my ward, so this is one way for me to be "forced" to meet new people and try to form a comraderie with them. And most of the time it will just mean that I miss my Sunday nap. (Which could have tragic results if it was every week, but once a month probably won't affect my sanity overly much.) Of course, I'll also have to go to more single adult activities, which proved to be problematic when I went to one this summer (I had a 50-something year old man pursue me for about a month before he got the hint that I don't want to date someone who could be my father.) But I'll just have to learn to be a little meaner to men who don't understand age differences.

I went to my first meeting today with the other ward singles reps. Even though they are all single themselves, I couldn't help but feel we oscillated between patronizing and bleeding hearts-- like we are the only hope for this group of wandering souls, disconnected from social bonds, waiting and wishing for someone, anyone, to make them feel loved. It was a bit grating. But of course, I'm probably being overly sensitive and hard on them. I know they mean well. But I also know that we "singles" aren't just a bunch of wandering souls who need church activities specially designed to fill our lives with joy and meaning.

Despite my, um, cheeriness in this post, I actually am glad for this calling. I think it will be good for me and hopefully I can help a few people feel like they are part of some group who notices them and cares.

Well, I wanted to write more about my schedule and what we've been up to lately-- but it's bedtime. Probably it's for the best that I don't write tonight anyway-- I'm feeling a bit sassy (obviously) and should limit the amount of sassiness I inflict on others.

Have a great week and perhaps I'll be back on next Sunday with some more joy and cheer. :)

Autumn Soup

I had a culinary success tonight in creating my own recipe! A few weeks ago, Joseph spent a couple days in Nevada with some good friends of ours picking organic apples. The last couple dozen of the half bushel that I bought are desperately needing to be eaten, so tonight I decided I would try to add them to my vegetable soup. I looked online briefly for a recipe and saw that people actually did put apples in soup-- so I attempted to adapt my regular vegetable soup recipe from my sister, Misty, to include them.

It turned out really yummy! Even my kids like it (and they don't usually like vegetable soup-- in fact, they cry when I tell them I'm making it for dinner). I named it Autumn Soup because it's perfect for this time of year. We topped it off with some delicious home-pressed organic apple cider which Joseph helped my friends make on his adventure.

So here's the recipe if you're looking for a new soup this fall:

1 white onion
1 purple onion
5 stalks celery
2 carrots
2-3 TBS olive oil
celery salt to taste
6 cups water with chicken bouillon
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1-2 sweet potatoes
5 small apples
1 can kidney beans (or about 1 1/2 cooked kidney beans)
1/4 cup tomato sauce


Dice or chop vegetables to desired size (bite size). Saute onions, celery, and carrots in olive oil and sprinkle with celery salt until onions are cooked through (don't brown). Add water, bouillon, and spices and bring to a boil. Add potatoes, apples, kidney beans, and tomato sauce and cook with a rolling boil until vegetables are tender (don't overcook or they get too mushy).