Spring is (Almost!) Here!
I was walking to my car in the parking lot. I was carrying three bags, one for each class I was teaching that day at our homeschool co-op. I had a lot on my mind, where to go, what to do, was I prepared?
I was hit with a particular type of breeze, known only to Texas in “Fool’s Spring,” February or March. This is when we get wafts of warm Spring weather but are not fully out of the woods as far as ice storms and frozen roadways are concerned.
I love the way they feel. Like something new and amazing is headed this way and nature can’t help but breathe faster.
This one brushed over my face, my hair and my bare forearms and lower legs. It was a rush of a beautiful season, my personal favorite, to come with all its freshness and beauty, real Spring! It was a tangible hope for brighter, warm days to come, a preview of bluebonnets and thunderstorms, of enjoying being outside before the hateful Texas summer makes us all bitter and resentful, a time when Texas does a bit of showing off and dazzles us with her colors.
Took the time this week to take a short hike at Black Creek Reservoir
I was grateful for the physical feeling of the breeze, cool mixed with warmth and promise, and all the things on my mind that tend to make me fold inward momentarily faded. Homeschooling four kids, my part time nursing job, what we’re going to have for dinner, “why is my husband doing that??;” all seem to float for a minute up away from my body and far from my mind. It was a pleasant reprieve and I wondered why it took a breeze to make me take that mental break.
When gauging acceptable levels of pain in my patients at work as a nurse, I use a standardized scale in my charting. The scale is standardized, and individual perception of pain and tolerance are anything but standardized so I explain it like this:
Let’s say zero is no pain and ten is the worst you’ve ever felt and you kind of want to die. What is the number on that scale that you can rest at? Keeping in mind if you’re at a zero on the scale you’re likely not breathing anymore, what’s our goal number to keep you comfortable?
Most people say 2 or 3 and those of us with higher pain tolerances or aversion to medication might say 6 or 7. When you stop and think about it, yes, you’d like to be comfortable but not completely unfeeling.
Of course this is used in order to appropriately demonstrate how I, as a nurse, handled a patient’s pain, giving it a measurable scale. If you started feeling like you were at an 8, I treated you with medication and when I checked back you were at a comfortable 2 then we’ve succeeded.
However, pain perception is very individualized. Basically though, if you feel nothing, you are all the more separated from the world around you and the moment you’re currently in. This is interesting considering the great lengths we have taken as a society to separate ourselves from feeling just about anything. We numb ourselves to pain, struggle or even inconvenience. In turn we numb ourselves to good things, beneficial things, clarity, and even other people. In doing so we alter our perceptions. This often results in us understanding reality as a crude caricature of what is actually before us.
There are many things that we can use to alter our pain perception or mentally step away from truly experiencing the moment we are in.
When my oldest son was eighteen months old, I got my first smartphone. I was a little late to the party but by the time I had my second baby a few months later, his late-night feedings were often accompanied by me and my iPhone. To stay awake, I’d peruse what my little screen had to offer until one day I wondered if I or worse, he was getting less out of our precious mother and baby relationship because I wasn’t looking at him and engaging with him. Instead, I was on my phone.
I feel like screens really do get into our brains and do some damage, the least of which is taking away even just a little pit of attention from our current moment and being purposeful in it.
We, as a society, no longer have to toil and labor to put a roof over our heads usually. We don’t necessarily work the ground to grow our food and feed our family. We don’t even walk most places, we drive. Our physical experience in reality and in real time is lessening.
Of course, there are other things that are less passive that we engage in to mentally check out. Some people drink, smoke, experiment with drugs and all kinds of things to get away from the moment they are living. We can even eat gluttonously and somehow detach from experiencing real life. Some of these vices are addictive which leads to a whole host of other problems.
People have all kinds of vices and distractions and seemingly tempting things to take us away from the moment we are in, addictive or not.
Sometimes we are so stressed and overwhelmed we truly do need to step away from our situation for a moment. I’ve actually thought about this a lot lately. As a wife and mother, I often find myself up late at night because it’s the only time I have to myself. It’s a break. So, I feel I have to either sleep, which is profoundly important, or clear my stressed-out head by watching a dumb show on my iPad or reading a book until I can’t hold my eyes open any longer. The next day I’m still tired. Why is this? I have so many mom friends that tell me they do the exact same thing.
I mean, obviously breaks and rest are important but as mothers and wives we don’t usually take them. I’ve thought about how in the Bible Jesus now and again must go away to rest. He has to step away for some moments so that is what tells me it's important. I can also see that Jesus; the Son of God doesn’t seem to hesitate to step away when it’s needed. We haven’t built that into our lives at all.
We can listen to scary statistics about how habitually getting less than 7 hours of sleep each night is horrendous for your health but how many people really truly only get 4 or 5? Because we’re stuck in a stressful, fast paced cycle mandated by our society?
I’ll go back to screens for a minute. Why, even though there is a lot of research being done on the usage of screens and how bad they are for your brain, do they consume so much of our time?
Why, when it is becoming increasingly apparent that social media is a growing monster, do we continue to consume it? Share it? Engage addictively in it?
Why when we know we should be getting rest so that we can dutifully serve our families are mothers not committing to getting more sleep?
Why do people, even though we know good and well it’s bad for us, engage in overeating or consume copious amounts of alcohol or experiment with pharmaceuticals?
It’s because we often feel desperate. Desperate for rest, for respite, for calm.
So, logically the next question is why? Why do we feel so desperate to separate ourselves from some of the moments in front of us?
It’s because we’re stuck in a cycle of societal expectations that have nothing to do with what is good for us as individuals, God formed human beings. We’re distracted. Our efforts are well intentioned but misplaced.
Somewhere in human history we began to believe the idea that struggle, toil, or hard work was to be avoided when being present, even if it is difficult, is essential to not only living a rich life but to use the gifts God gave us for His purpose.
So, we’re either distracted or constantly in the mode of avoiding hardship and strife.
That breeze I was talking about? It was a reminder. I am not alone in my tendency to fold inward and think of only what’s going on in my life or in my head on any given day. When I do, I miss so much life that’s right in front of me. My husband is our primary breadwinner but we’re both making a living. We’re maintaining our household and raising a family even though we both have distinct roles. The vices we grasp onto when that effort gets a bit intense only steal the purpose and heart of what we’re trying to achieve. When we keep our phones in our hands and stare at the screen we miss so much and can easily lose sight of why we’re here in the first place.
My second born, Barrett, wishing it was warm enough for this rope swing!
Vices are a hiding place. Why are we hiding?
Maybe we’re going through a tragedy or a terrible situation and it’s natural to want to run and hide but running and hiding only prolongs the inevitable which is dealing with our problems and moving on or even healing. Vices really only make things more difficult in the long run.
I want to fully experience this coming spring. It’s my favorite time of year and I’m excited about it! Will my family stress me out and will each day probably give me challenge after challenge? Absolutely. But I want to deal with them with all of my mind and body, not distracted or hidden away.
Black Creek Reservoir
Spring is a time of newness, of fresh ideas and renewed efforts. I enjoy it when the weather warms up and the grass begins to green. I most especially like it when I get to walk through that green, new grass barefoot. Childish, maybe, but it is a physical engagement in the world around me and it makes me feel hopeful and so alive.
Spring is coming so ya’ll, let's put down our distractions, our vices and engage! This week engaging for me looked like a hike with two of my kiddos. These are the pictures I’ve interspersed into this blog. Stepping away was a breath of fresh air!
Digging in the dirt!
Speaking of engaging, one way I’ve been stepping away from vices and engaging in the moment is to work on projects and improvements and goals that seem to get lost in the hustle and bustle. They seem to disappear or get put on the back burner, especially those that bring me joy in the doing. One of my projects or goals as of late is perfecting my pie crust. I’ve always been sort of mediocre at it at best. I cracked the code, finally and am making pie crust that is slightly sweet, flakey, delicious, and perhaps most importantly, easy to implement and plug into a busy day when we want a treat or to have quiche for breakfast. So, why not? Why not take some time, step away from the screens the unhealthy habits, and treat your family with my favorite, easy, uncomplicated, unpretentious quiche?
Family Quiche
Sorry for the bad picture! This is a few weeks ago when I made quiche and also some apple butter cream cheese pastry.
Crust:
Fill a small bowl with ice water and set aside
In your food processor blend the following thoroughly:
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
½ cup shortening (I know, I know, butter is best, but this is a quick and delicious crust meant to delight your family, not the persnickety pastry meant to demonstrate your skills gleaned from Le Cordon Bleu)
½ - 1 tbsp sugar
Pour mixture into a large mixing bowl
Add ice water a couple tablespoons at a time, using a pastry cutter or fork until mixture can be formed into a ball incorporating all of the dry mix
Refrigerate while you do this:
Preheat Oven to 400
In a skillet brown ½ lb. of your favorite ground sausage or bacon or if you’re feeling it, both. Place 8 eggs in a bowl and whisk until you can’t tell they were once yolks and whites, add salt and pepper to the eggs to taste. Grate 1 cup of your favorite cheese, good Ol’ sharp cheddar works really well for this, but a good Monterrey jack goes really well with sausage, too.
Roll out your refrigerated dough ball on a clean, floured surface until about ¼ inch thickness or thinner, roll onto your floured rolling pin. Roll crust out again on a 9-inch pie pan, hand crimp the edges.
Spread out your cooked breakfast meat onto the prepared pie crust.
Top with Cheese
Add any added seasoning you’d like. Onion powder, garlic powder and paprika, about 1/8 tsp of each, make a nice addition
Pour egg mixture over meat and cheese
Bake for 20 minutes at 400 or until egg is puffy, almost firm and cheese is beginning to brown
Slice up some juicy strawberries or apples or accompany this quiche with ripe grapes for a great breakfast or brunch. This is a nice meal but if you have teenage boys around like I do, make two!
