My first successful bread making!

I've been dying to make bread from scratch for the longest time... first, I had multiple unsuccessful attempts, and ended up with unleavened bread (or at least it seemed), only to find out that most likely my yeast was a bad batch. Then, it was a question of getting the perfect pan to bake it in. I finally got a wonderful pyrex dish that's lovely for bread making, got some fresh-off-the-shelf yeast, and went to town yesterday. I was bound and determined to make a good loaf of bread, with lots of love and lots of flavor. Of course, I chose a steamy, hot summer day to crank up the oven and go to town kneading bread.
Baking bread is a LABOR of LOVE... especially when you're supposed to knead, then wait til it rises, then punch, knead and wait again - all sorts of waiting and muscle work! Tim took several pictures of me in action to prove that it was for real! We ended up with a big loaf of yummy oatmeal wheat bread (from More with Less, one of the best cookbooks ever published) that we took as part of our picnic dinner (note: bread still warm... so good!) at the concert in the park. Hooray! Can't wait to try more bread recipes and buff up my muscles.

Happy Birthday Tim!

Today I celebrate Timothy Dean Martin - my husband! What a wonderful man God has blessed me with! Tim showers me with love, caring and service.

• He's a man of God, who has a servant's heart.
• He is faithful and incredibly dedicated to the people he loves and the things he holds dear.
• He puts others first, even when he's fatigued or suffering.
• He listens - really listens.
• He loves children, and they love him.
• He is patient and kind.
• He knocks down walls and puts new ones up again.
• He doesn't take any medicine (that's good and bad for a doctor's husband :))
• He prays the most sincere and earnest prayers; he prays for the people of the world and the people we encounter in our daily walks.
• He asks for cleaning supplies for his birthday - warms my heart.
• He walks to church and car pools to work.
• He has taught me the beauty of composting.
• He refinishes hardwood floors and he redesigns closets.
• He has a heart for missions and cultures of the world.
• He supports my jewelry business and always lends a helping hand.
• He loves ginger brew!
• He sometimes starts laughing uncontrollably when he's lying in bed and overly exhausted - the smallest thing (that may not seem so funny under less tired circumstances) sets him off.
• He reads reviews about most things before purchasing them.
• He uses spreadsheets.
• He introduced me to g-mail!
• He's expanded my family and my circle of friends.
• He is my life long partner and my best friend. I love sharing life with him. I love you, Timothy!

Happy birthday, my love.

Duane & Audrey's Wedding - Slideshow

Pics from our Vacation - Slideshow

Vacation photos...better late than never!

We had a wonderful time on vacation along the central coast of California. Life picked up immediately, with its normal, very busy pace, as soon as we were home. We're happy to share our photos with you. Here are some of my favorites, with a slide show to follow in the next post!

My beautiful niece!

Tim & me at the wharf in Santa Barbara.

Our favorite artist/architect at the Italian Street Art Festival at the Santa Barbara Mission.

My nephew digging for dinosaurs at the Museum of Natural History in Santa Barbara.

Tim & me at the bluff along the Pacific Ocean, where we camped at El Capitan State Park, north of Santa Barbara.

The refreshing pools along the river in Los Padres National Forest, where we camped and hiked.

My super swell cousin, Duane, who's happy as a clam, with his new, lovely bride, Audrey. Congratulations! We love you both! Welcome to the family, Audrey.

PEACE for Memorial Day

Vacation was fabulous! Photos will be posted soon... but I wanted to start with a little glimpse of a Memorial Day Message we found on the beach in Santa Barbara - an exhibit set up by Veterans for Peace.

Vacation at last...in Paradise!

Our lives have been very full of late, and we've felt like we just kept going and going and going... but not so much like energizer bunnies. Tim worked late at the office on Thursday night, and I didn't get home from the hospital until about 8pm (sigh). It had been a really tough week - a busy service in the hospital, with many very sick patients, some dying (or trying to, at least), family meetings to transition patients to palliative care (comfort measures only), consultants with varying opinions and things to say about my management of patients (I guess they have to say SOMEthing - that's their job as consultants), not getting home until very late every night, many admissions during the day, and very few discharges. I usually like inpatient medicine and making rounds in the hospital, but this week I felt like I wasn't getting anywhere, that I wasn't doing a good job, and just couldn't get on top of things. Fortunately it's over, and I made my final phone call to one of my partners from the Chicago airport to ask him to do a few things I had forgotten to do... cuz we're on vacation!

Tim and I hadn't prepared for this trip at all, so we spent the evening into the wee hours of the morning Thursday into Friday doing laundry, packing, and getting ready to be away for 8 days - that's right 8 days! We went to bed around 1:30 AM, only to have the alarm go off at 3:45 AM to get up and get ready to catch our flight. We picked my parents up, and headed to the airport. It was a long day, but ended gloriously, when we arrived at the vacation home we've rented in Santa Barbara, California.

SB is truly a paradise, in and of its own, but our little oasis is very special. I found this house on Craig's List several months ago, and we decided to share the accomodations with my parents. Our house sits on acres and acres of gardens and fruit trees on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The gardens are AMAZING! We had fresh squeezed OJ for breakfast today. We have patios and decks all around, with indoor and outdoor firepits and a hot tub to top it off (we have yet to try this out). We both have king sized beds and our own bathrooms, and there are turtle doves inside a museum sized bird cage to sing the good morning song each day.

Last night we ran to Trader Joes, my favorite unique grocery store, and picked up all sorts of goodies for breakfast and snacks, not to mention our favorite beverage - Reeds Ginger Brew, which is a super strong ginger ale, Jamaican style. We had a breakfast of champions this morning with omelettes, home fries, toast, fruit smoothies, OJ and coffee. Delicious! We had breakfast on the deck overlooking the garden and ocean.

We had dinner at La Super Rica Taqueria last night, which is claimed to be Julia Child's favorite place to get tacos. It was super rico!

We've rested well, and now we're about to head out to explore the sites of Santa Barbara and participate in some of the wedding festivities that are forthcoming. My cousin Duane is about to get hitched - he's the 10th and final cousin in the Johnsen family to take the leap. We're so excited for him and for Audrey. They make a great pair, and we're looking forward to celebrating with them.

Enjoy some pictures from our little paradise!

Buy Fair Trade! A plug for World Fair Trade Day...

Saturday, May 10th is World Fair Trade Day, an annual event designed to increase the visibility of fair trade. If you are interested in supporting some fair trade and socially-conscious companies, check out Fair Indigo's list.

Also check out the FairTrade Foundation and Fair Trade Certified - organizations that promote Fair Trade around the world.

Note, the images above are from FairTrade Foundation and Fair Trade Certified. Please support them!

ArtWalk in Lancaster City... through the eyes of Java-JO!

This past weekend was ArtWalk, and we took advantage of the gorgeous weather to get out and about. Our friend, Java-JO, is visiting us and shared some photos with us... Here is a glimpse of the weekend, through his eyes!

Java-JO made friends with a jazz street musician near Central Market.

Outside of Annex 24 Gallery, we all posed for a Peanuts picture!
Some musicians playing outside of Gallery 141, where I have my jewelry on display this month and next.

Java-JO with the owner of a gallery that rescues architectural treasures from older homes for re-use. Java-JO spent some time relating with him, and his warm personality and tenderness left the gallery owner with goose bumps.

Gallery 2... where Tim asked me to marry him!

This is Roger, the owner of Rafiki's Deli, one of our favorite places to get some yummy African food at Central Market.

Living on Obama Avenue

On the eve of a very important day in history, we share just a few reflections about living on "Obama Avenue." I think our street is pretty exceptional. We live on a street of 12 houses, and every house on the street but 2 has Obama signage. We're a little slow to get our groove on, but ours went up tonight. Yesterday, when a young man (Brian) who was canvasing for Obama came to our house, he confirmed that we lived on Obama Avenue. It's kind of impressive to see! If you stand at one corner, all you see til your eyes meet the next corner are Obama signs.
We walked over to Obama Headquarters tonight to get our sign and pick up some paraphernalia for our friend Java-JO, who's visiting us, and has become the number one, non US citizen Obama fan! He comes to us from Germany, but is Indonesian. He dreams of one day meeting Obama, when he is President of the USA. I'm pretty sure that he's Obama's biggest fan. We managed to get him a pin (reserved for volunteers), because he's been so supportive!
I don't usually get into politics a whole lot, but I've grown to realize that we are in need of change, and I've found a candidate that I believe can guide us in that direction.
Here's a sampling of interesting (and not-so-interesting) things we got in the mail today:

1. A post card from FCNL that says: "43% of your federal tax dollars go for war. How much of your federal tax rebate will support PEACE?" Yowsers! How profound?!?! When will we start investing in more things like health care for all, education, energy efficiency, poverty, etc.? Oh, wait! Maybe when Obama's president!
2. A flyer from Barack Obama for President: "It's time for Washington to start working for you." When someone's offering an end to war, healthcare for all, reform for our country, energy independence, fair trade, improved environmental protection efforts, and more affordable college education, how could you not want to support him? It is, in fact, time for change!
3. A card from a recruiter offering me a job in North Carolina. Ha! Even though they offer the #1 ranked beach in 2007, I'm not convinced. I do, think, however, that I'm in the right place at this time - serving the poorest of the poor in Lancaster City. It's an incredibly challenging job, when 30-40% of my patients have no health insurance. What a glorious day it might be, when all will have access to the healthcare they deserve!
4. A magazine from the American Osteopathic Association Health Watch that's title article is "DOs against Diabetes." It says something about black tea treating Type 2 diabetes. Good thing I like chai! This could be revolutionary - I must read more.
5. A plethora of credit card offers (not so interesting) - thank goodness they should be disappearing soon, because we signed up to not receive credit card offers by calling a toll free number. Do it yourself: 1-888-567-8688.

Let's hope for change! We, the people of Obama Avenue, are ready for reform. Viva Obama!