Terribly Interesting

As you may recall, my studio had some water damage from before we moved in. This led to the tearing down of the beautiful ceiling. I salvaged all of that wood and began making signs out of it to pay for restoration. A few of those signs ended up in the hands of my beautiful friend Camille after a tragic event in her family. God used that ceiling to bring us together. We became friends because she ordered some things from me on the internet. She is now one of my dearest friends.  As we had duct work ran out to this room, we had to get a ceiling up before we could run it. Denbigh and Camille's husband have become really good friends as well. When we needed to get a ceiling up ASAP, Denbigh called John and asked for help since he is a custom home builder. Of course, I am thankful for John's extreme generosity. Today I was struck by something else. God brought our families together by ripping down this ceiling. Tuesday, it came full circle as John came over and helped put ...

I did a little math in my head the other day, y'all, because that's what delightfully nerdy people do. We figure stuff. We like right angles. Fractions bring us joy. I digress. Anywho, at the beginning of this year we needed $28,000 to refinance Gomer's House and God gave it to us. We need $28,000 in air conditioning and God gave it to us. We needed a car and God gave us two. Now, the thing that blows my mind is that God has somehow seen fit to give a couple of yahoos in the middle of nowhere somewhere close to 80 grand this past year. What.  I remember our first few years when we paid for every single thing in this house out of our own pockets. That meant we did without most everything like sinks, kitchens, insulation, and heat...for years. We waited. After God directed my heart to start painting, my first fundraiser netted a few hundred dollars. I would cry every time someone bought something from me that cost $20. I cried the first time I saw running water in my n...

Down South: Bourbon, Pork, Gulf Shrimp  & Second Helpings of Everything I am sure that you can tell by looking at the cover of this book that I am head over heels for it. Look at those prawns, y'all. They are so beautiful that I want to hug you. This book made me happy. Even if were not full of amazing recipes, the witty banter and food photography is enough to bring joy to your heart. I remember when cookbooks were just photocopied recipes. This is like a bonus book inside page after page of culinary delight.  From a cocktail entitled The Cherry Bounce, to gougéres, to rémoulade, beignets, and spicy grilled quail, this book has it all. It's a little bit fancy and a bit down home. Of course, there are crazy whole animal recipes that I could never conjure up the courage to cook. Perhaps that just makes me a semi-Southerner. People who cook whole ducks, alligators, and pigs are a brute force to be reckoned with.   Pick this book up. Even if you just set...

I read this book. It took me a while. I hate to even write a review about it because I didn't like it very much. I have a hard time not liking things. I mean, I have to work at it. I just couldn't get into it. I thought it was going to give some sort of biography of this famous convert to Christianity, but it was just a bunch of "yodaesque" dialogue. I thought the writing could be easily confused and misconstrued. There were about five sentences that I thought were interesting and helpful to me. I am sad to say that I cannot recommend this book.  The Wisdom of the Sadhu was graciously provided for review by the publisher.