The Life and Times of Bethany Iblings

Happy New Year!

2012-01-14T19:18:00.000-08:00

The hubbub of the holidays is over and lifeis back to some semblance of normality.

Truth be told, I didn’t spend too much time coming up withNew Year’s Resolutions this year. For the most part, they are remnants fromgoals I set this last year and just haven’t come to fruition yet.

I must saythough, I bought my first gym membership in November, so when all the Januarypeople started coming, I felt ahead of the game. The gym is a rather oddconcept to me. In our society, it makes sense and I appreciate the fact that whenI leave for work in the dark and come home from work in the dark, I can stop onthe way home to run for a bit. However, everyone goes to this building, picks amachine to work out on, and spends solitary time inches from other people –pretending they are in their own world. Once the weather is nice, I’m lookingforward to being outside again, but since we had snow this morning, I’ll keepthe gym membership as a means to keep active.

My other goals for this year include reading more,increasing my Arabic fluency and getting some travel in. Sounds simple enough,right?

I am excited for this New Year. 2012 promises to be a yearof opportunity. World events will continue to be full of struggle, pain andselfishness – as they have since Adam and Eve. But there is also great hope andchances for new beginnings that we have never seen before. My plans for 2012 arefor the most part a mystery to me. But I know who made the stars that are soclearly shining tonight and who holds the future in His hands. Therefore, Ilook forward with anticipation and excitement to that which will come.

O Christmas Tree

2011-12-12T22:27:00.001-08:00

December is well underway with holiday festivities in full swing and life in utter chaos as deadlines are extended and stress levels yo-yo.

This time of year is full of traditions: special cookies (it’s not Christmastime ‘til lebkuchen is made!), songs celebrating the season, family activities (holiday charades, anyone?), movies you watch once a year (finishing Miracle on 34th Street tonight) and stories of Jesus.

One of the traditions my family has is going to get a Christmas tree together. We go to the same place every year, meander through the field of trees and ultimately choose one to take home with us.

We are known as the “axe family” since we ignore the provided handsaw and prefer to chop down our tannenbaum of choice.

Then we joyfully put the tree in the wagon and head back to the parking lot to load the tree, get our free candy cane and drive home.

Decoating the tree is another tradition and an evening (or two) of festive music helps get the job done.

So the activities of Christmas are well underway as we prepare for the celebration of life, hope, love, and peace that has arbitrarily been assigned to the day of December 25. In reality, the story of Jesus should be celebrated every day, though we often forget this.

The Blog is Not Dead

2011-11-15T21:36:00.001-08:00

Though you may have thought I disappeared off the face of the earth, I’m happy to say that I’m still here. The last few months have flown by and now it is November. The leaves have turned into beautiful hues of the fall color spectrum and the nights are crisp and frosty.

Life has been full of changes – as always. My new job is going well, though keeping me busy. For non-profits, Christmas is the busiest time of year as the fundraising push is in full swing. It really is fun to work for an organization that is working to improve lives around the world, but we are definitely a small non-profit, which means that there is always too much work for too few people. Attempting to personalize marketing just takes more time and effort than mass generic mailings – hopefully with better results though! I’m also learning more about email, twitter and facebook than I ever thought I needed to know. Keeping up with a media crazed world is quite intense.

Over the past months, my family has gone through some changes as well. My sister and her family finished their summer vacation and traveled back to their teaching post in Asia. My younger brother got married to a lovely lady and moved up to Canada. My other sister and her family moved out of state for my brother-in-law to pursue his vocational passion. So within a relatively short time frame, family meals have gone from 11 people to 3 (my parents and I).

I know you don’t really want to know every mundane detail of my life, so I’ll draw this update to a close. I hope you get to enjoy the fall colors this week and take some time to appreciate the constant movement of life amidst the absolutes that make life worth living.

Bellingham Creativity

2011-08-31T21:01:00.000-07:00

I’ve only lived in Bellingham for about 8 weeks, but I guess some of it has rubbed off on me. It definitely has a culture of its own and a lot of its culture has to do with tree hugging, saving the earth, and organic food. In light of this, a new law was passed about a month ago (though it won’t be in effect until July 2012) banning the use of plastic shopping bags in town. Included in the ban is a 5 cent charge for paper bags.

Taking care of the environment is good, recycling is great, and I always love finding ways to reuse things since I have slight hording tendencies. And I usually avoid gaining plastic bags whenever I can, but more for the fact that I have hundreds of them stored under my kitchen sink than for environmental concerns.

All this said, I was doing a little research since I figured there ought to be something that can be done with plastic bags since they aren’t really recyclable. When I found out about the idea of crocheting with plastic, I was hooked. Despite being an old lady hobby, I love to crochet and always have a project going.

So, here’s what I did.

First I had to make the “yarn”:

Flatten the bag.

Fold in half, then in half again.

Cut off both ends of the bag.

Cut the middle section into 2" strips.

Unroll the strips and slipknot them together so they form a chain.

Voila!

Roll your plastic yarn into a ball.

Then I used the yarn to crochet a bag which I will happily use for toting groceries and other items, ultimately avoiding gaining more plastic bags.

I am fully aware of the fact that you can by $1 reusable bags in grocery stores these days. But this was so much more fun to make, plus it puts all those old plastic bags to good use!

Mahshi Making at it's Finest

2011-08-26T23:29:00.001-07:00

Earlier this summer I picked up a Middle Eastern Cookbook at a library sale. What better time of the year to try out some recipes than during Ramadan?

Some friends and I gathered for iftar (to break the fast, eating dinner when the sun goes down) so I thought I would experiment and make some Egyptian food. Mahshi was my first choice.

Mahshi is basically stuffed vegetables. You can make it with peppers, zucchini, and many other veggies. I chose to use tomatoes, cabbage leaves, and grape leaves. It’s a pretty simple process, really - though time consuming. Thanks so much to my “mom in Egypt” for letting me observe her amazing cooking - it helped with my experimenting!

Here’s some photo’s to share the process:

In case you want to try it!


Everything you need!


Prep station

Roll the leaves tight!

Assembled product - ready for the stove!

It was my first solo attempt at this and it turned out well.

Ramadan’s coming to a close, but I’ll probably continue my experimental cooking. If you’re lucky, maybe you’ll get to try some!

City Riding

2011-08-11T22:22:00.000-07:00

I finally did it. I had been planning to all week, but was up to late to get a good start in the morning. This morning I finally did it though. Woke up at 6:00 AM and rode my bike to work.

Now, according to googlemaps (bike version) it should have only taken about ½ hour, but since I’m just starting out with the whole bike thing, and since googlemaps gave my some wonky directions, it took about 45 minutes. Those who know me well know that I am seriously directionally challenged, and might think that I lost my way, but really, it was googlemaps fault. Giving me directions where backroads don’t connect isn’t fair at all.

It was a lovely day for a ride though, and I enjoyed the trek. Coming back home was a bit more strenuous as the traffic on the main roads increased since the morning. I made it home without getting run over though, and my experience of city riding has begun. I will be a more conscientious driver as well, especially at busy intersections!

I don’t think I’ll be riding every day, as I really do cherish that extra ½ hour of sleep in the mornings. Plus, just as I was about ½ a mile from home, my gears started hanging up - goes to show for not doing any maintenance on the bike in quite a few years.

Reminders for the day:

Be nice to others
Being outside brings joy and clarity of mind
Sometimes life leads you into weird/unknown places. Deal with it, and keep moving towards your goal

Family

2011-07-28T22:05:00.001-07:00

There's not much I can do to hide the truth: I have an amazing family.

For 4 days, almost 70 members of the Iblings family gathered together for a time of fun, food, fellowship, and games. Family reunions are always a great time. It's the only time I see many of my extended family members, and since our reunions are held every three years, there is always a lot to catch up on. Kids grow up, people get married, couples have babies, the older generation passes on … a lot can happen in three years!

Every time we have a reunion though, I am reminded of the amazing heritage I have. During the reunion, there were times when we split up according to our generational groups and had some discussion time. We talked about many things, but one thing that kept coming up was the fact that there aren’t many families today like ours. The family unit in society today is broken. I don’t know for sure, but I am pretty confident that almost 80% of the kids in the school I worked at this last year came from single parent families, homes with substance abuse, living with their grandparents, or similar situations. It really is unique to have 3 (with the beginnings of 4) generations of the same family that is intact and that actually likes each other.

This last week, the couple that I know went to go visit her family. I asked her how it went and her reply was “Oh, you know how family is … there’s always issues.” It’s true. There are always issues because we are all humans and whenever you get at least one human in a place there will be issues. I’m appreciative of the fact that my family doesn’t seem to have as many issues.

Whether your family has many issues or whether it is perfect, I hope you take the time to get to know your family members and make family a priority. Human society was created in family units for a reason. Don’t take yours for granted.

P.S. - I’ll try to get up some pictures soon.