hooray for new weather and new happiness.

well, after that last sad bit of a post, things have decided to look up just a wee bit. and I am so thankful. not that really anything has changed with regard to circumstances but i think that Jesus is giving me a tiredness of wanting to feel grumpy and ungracious and i kinda have started to feel more invigorated by warm feelings of hope-full-ness. i am learning that one has a much better time when one is filled with joy as opposed to mean, thin-lipped grouchiness.

i saw a recipe that made me feel really happy...it's over there to the right in the sidebar > and it's for pumpkin butter roll up things..and the website is TOO bloody cute. scrumdilly-do! that's what it's called...anyways, try that sucker out!

thanksgiving is just three days away and i just want to bake! I think i may try my first banoffee pie (it will always remind me of the ever lovely Liz Baynes - she bought a slice in a little cafe in Christchurch and I was a bit nervous about the banana factor but shucks, it was fabulous!) and also lots of pumpy-pumpkin thingys. I bought a HUGE sack of flour yesterday in hopes of domestic goddessing this season.

who is making what over this coming feasting season?

tell me if you know of any deliciously crafty blogs that you love okay?

over and bloody well out.
janey.
x

sheesh

Life is often shitty. You know that weird and random and anonymous saying that goes like this,

'My life is but a weaving
Between my God and me
I may but choose the colours,
He worketh steadily.
Full oft He weaveth sorrow
And I in foolish pride
Forget He sees the upper
And I the underside.'

For someone who loves thread and knitting and sewing blah blah blah, it's appealing to me. But sometimes, honestly, the 'underside' is just a drab and dreary and terrible side to be looking from. It includes, foodstamps, living significantly below the federal poverty line, sleeping in a laundry, the scourge of cancer, being thrust into a swirling maelstrom of church politics and feminism and being the terrible liberal, and pretty much being on the other side of the world from my family.

So I am waiting, not very patiently, for life to become nice. And easy. And filled with the hope of impending Christmas presents.

Love
Jane.
xx

i need to get moving

My creative juices have all but dried out in this current climate of stress and of us living in the laundry. But then I went to a friend's house (thank you Beth Buerge) and she is so highly motivated it's fantastic. She is selling gorgeous felt brooches and is making scarves and she has two kids...I thought, dammit! I can do this too!

So I came home and tidied up my house cos it was filth and I got over the fact that I don't own my own house (yet...) and just made this one as beautiful as I could. It's so much more relaxing to be in one's home when there is order and no clutter. I never thought I would ever say that.

But anyways, as soon as I get my hands on a bloody sewing machine, I am gonna get stuck in already. I can't tell you what I am gonna make cos I heard somewhere that when somebody tells people their main goal/s, it's like they have already got a bit of the satisfaction of actually doing so then there isn't as much motivation. I totally believe that you know? So I'm-a gonna keep it on the ole down low...

lovies lovies
jane.
xx

here's an interesting tidbit - 'you don't have to be pretty'

http://www.dressaday.com/2006/10/you-dont-have-to-be-pretty.html
Just a bit of cute little truth that we all need to hear every once in a while...(thanks alterKNITive) ;)

Somehow...

Somehow, when I started this blog, I thought I would be writing about knitting and sewing and pottery and art and my funny preschool boys and I'd put pictures of things around my house and I'd talk about gorgeous fabric that I might drool over but hang on....suddenly it has turned into an egalitarian-loving, Jesus-adoring, feminist yak! Yikes!

But you know? I kinda like that. I wanna mix this sucker up and get some answers to tricky questions and try to 'seek to understand rather than being understood' in the midst of it all.

I am ready for the ride.

Jane.
xx

Are you even kidding me?

Somehow, my last HUGE blog got deleted?!!! Is there a chauvinist virus that is attacking my feminist sensibilities? ;)

Flip!

So I was starting to feel like a bit of a loser regarding how I passionately believe that women have just as much calling and equality in the Kingdom of God as men...I just thought, shoot...am I the only one that feels like this?
And then...da da da da da da dahhhhhh, along comes http://www.cbeinternational.org/ ...Christians for Biblical Equality. I felt SO good to see that here was an amazing group of people who realise that keeping women subservient, cramped in their God given giftings, not allowing women to have leadership roles in the Church and their families, was oppressive and unjust.
'Christians for Biblical Equality (CBE) is a nonprofit organization of Christian men and women who believe that the Bible, properly interpreted, teaches the fundamental equality of men and women of all ethnic groups, all economic classes, and all age groups, based on the teachings of Scriptures such as Galatians 3:28:
“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (TNIV).
CBE recognizes that injustice is an abuse of power, taking from others what God has given them: their dignity, their freedom, their resources, and even their very lives. CBE also recognizes that prohibiting individuals from exercising their God-given gifts to further his kingdom constitutes injustice in a form that impoverishes the body of Christ and its ministry in the world at large. CBE accepts the call to be part of God’s mission in opposing injustice as required in Scriptures such as Micah 6:8.'
I love this. But I want to be a gracious bringer of this truth to people who are still clinging to the traditional roles the Church still imposes upon women. So in this pursuit of Truth and Justice, I want to be kind and understanding to people who have different ideas than me.
Love,
Jane.

Fascinating Womanhood

So here is my second blog in five minutes. I had to get this out!

I just started reading a book that a lot of women around here are loving. It's called Fascinating Womanhood. Interesting title, I like the word fascinating. However, I have become fascinated for all the reasons the author, Helen Andelin, probably didn't intend.

The basic premise is 'How the Ideal Woman Awakens A Man's Deepest Love and Tenderness'. Hmmm, well that would be awesome. The ideal woman? Let's have a read I thought.

The first thing that struck me was a personal testimony during an initial flip-through was on page 317 of the May 2007 edition. A woman is recounting her marriage relationship before reading the book on F.W. Describing her husband she says this, 'When he was home he was always drinking, yelling, and slapping me around...I feared him and almost hated him...I felt helpless...where had things gone wrong?' Then she read the book and realised, 'All this time I had blamed my husband for our bad marriage. How wrong was I! Bit by bit I started to change, I bought new feminine dresses in soft colours with full skirts, let my nails grow and put a permanent in my hair....I did these and much more, trying to show him in all ways, at all times, that I accept him as he is, a man and leader.'

Well, sheesh, it doesn't say if he stopped beating her or not but at least she had nice pretty skirts and long nails. Where do you even start with this kind of writing? In New Zealand, women are murdered regularly at the hands of their spouses and to have these kind of dangerous ideas floating around in the church is absolutely reprehensible!!! That it is the woman's fault that her husband is an alcoholic abuser? A woman has the absolute right to feel safe in her own home, regardless of what the hell she is wearing!

The book had me laughing almost to the point of tears where it stated that, 'Women need protection from work that is not appropriate for the feminie sex, such as driving a truck, construction work, road work or anything greasy or masculine. Some types of office work are inappropriate, such as executive jobs, management positions, police work or top political posts.' (p. 164) ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

I wouldn't really pay this book any other attention other than the fact that this is being read by many, many women around here!

You want a Godly, fascinating womanhood? Proverbs 31 is a much better outline for a strong woman.

Ahhh, that's my rant for the day.

Love
Jane.

new prettier blog space...although i am still trying at changing the template..

Hi friends,

Thanks for your comments on the other blog at wordpress which i probably won't be using anymore. This will be my proper one now.

Okay, so jail...I went to jail last Thursday. Ha ha. No, I really did.

I feel like out of nowhere, all these books about prison and jail kept appearing on my knee and I just had to keep reading them and I learnt more and more about the prison and jail population in the USA and how it's like they are North America's 'untouchable' caste. Prisoners have very few rights, have no power and are at the mercy of the system and whatever guards might be there to be 'caretakers'.
Yeah, they committed a crime and consequences need to be enforced but when you learn about the dysfunction of childhood that is a pretty constant theme in prisoners' lives, you can't help but think of a certain Grace that longs to start working in these precious people's lives.

The difference between jail and prison here in the US is that prison is where you spend your sentence if it's lengthy enough and jail is a place where you go if you are in a pretrial phase or if your sentence is really short - say 60-90 days - it's just easier to spend it in jail.

I contacted the County Jail and they have let me in on chapel services as the worship leader. It was my first week last week and it was great.

So that's that news. I will keep you updated.

Love Jane.