Not got much

Coming off of two long-ish days. Yesterday was very long: got up at 4:30, worked out, taught my 3 classes (arrive on campus at 7), wrote three exams and a quiz, got back home with enough time to do some piano practice and eat dinner, bell choir at 6, CWF at 7, and was in bed around 9....but those days now really take a toll on me, I can feel it.

Today, I taught my one class and then most of the rest of the time was spent grading the stats exams to hand back tomorrow (mercifully, no one still needs to make it up. I don't like having make-up exams hanging over my head)

But yeah. I'm tired. So I'm not doing much. I'm within a few rows of finishing the first pair of socks for my mom, probably will get that done tonight. I also made the baked beans (Sunday) out of the Amish cookbook, and again, they were good. I did cut back on the sugar - for a pound of beans, it called for a half cup of brown and a half cup of white sugar; instead, I went with a third of a cup of brown and a scant third of a cup (I didn't have a full third left, have to get more) of molasses (which I think is better in beans than white sugar would be anyway). They are also tomato-heavy, but that's a good thing in my book. (They called for tomato juice; I used a can of sauce because I keep it on hand but not tomato juice).

So, this cookbook is 2 for 2 on recipes. I will be trying another one shortly; the memorial for Liz (the woman who was killed in a car wreck) is in three weeks and they asked me to bring cookies for the reception, and I am going to do my old standard jam bars, but there's also an apple-butter bar recipe in the Amish cookbook that sounds very good, and I bought a jar of apple butter on my last Amish-store trip specifically for it. (I should also occasionally do corn fritters again; I have not done those for a while and they are good with apple butter on them).

(And thinking about it: what goes around comes around; in a few more weeks I will be up at my parents' church eating food prepared for me by the ladies of that church. At our best as people, I think, we serve when we can and accept when it is our turn to be served.)

I'm still reading on "Christ Stopped at Eboli," it seems less to be any kind of polemic or particularly sad book as more a portrait of a time and a place and a people, and while sad things happen in the account, it's....somehow not as distressing to me as some things I've read. (Though I admit as a bit of a germophobe I cringed at the description of the flies walking all over the tomatoes drying in the sun, tomatoes that would form a big part of the people's diet throughout the year).

I've also picked back up, and am trading off with it, "In the Spirit of Happiness," which is by and about the monks of New Skete, an Orthodox monastery in upstate New York.

I admit it: in some ways I am drawn to the idea of the religious life, of being a monk (or rather a nun) even though I also know I'm too materialistic (I like having my own stuff) and I tend to chafe at the idea of directed times to do things, like getting up in the middle of the night to pray. But I like the idea of a life that has such a clear-cut purpose and that has a strong and obvious spiritual component AS WELL AS a work component - the monks train dogs and also make jams (? as I remember. And the associated Sisters make vestments and paint icons)

They (the book is not written by any one man) mention that other Christian traditions have had people who lead dedicated religious lives - mentioning Episcopal (I knew that; a friend of my mother's from her college days became an Episcopal nun) and Lutheran and also, they said....Reformed.

I don't know if they meant like Dutch Reformed, or.....sometimes Disciples of Christ and their similars are referred to as Reformed, and I admit that made my figurative ears prick up a bit because...maybe....maybe if that were still possible? Maybe that would be a retirement option? I mean, if I passed all the initial testing. I admit some days the idea of being able to live in a community with people, all of whom have a common goal and who are more-or-less sworn not to participate in the sort of rat-race that this world often is, is deeply appealing. (And yes, I know: for a couple thousand years, people leading the religious life have complained of their brothers and sisters; people are people, and I might find there were sisters in the group who bugged me and I couldn't relate well to, but....)

I don't know. I like the idea of thinking about "different ways to live," I have also read a little bit on "cohousing" and while I can see there being problems (what if someone is intractably noisy or does stuff like *always* dump their kids on certain people for "babysitting"), still, as someone who finds herself frequently lonesome these days, and who doesn't have much family LEFT, even....it's an interesting idea. (On the Pointless and Arbitrary group on Ravelry where I sometimes hang out - and also on ITFF - people joke about having a "compound" where people from those groups could live together. Oh, I'm sure in "meatspace" it wouldn't be so lovely and charming but....what if it were?)

But I don't know. I admit when I'm sad or overtaxed or things aren't going as well as I feel they should, that's when I think about alternate ways to live and daydream about stuff like that.  (And yes, I am kind of sad again this week, I guess it just cycles off and on. It's not as bad as it was, but it's still definitely there.)