Lapidary Arts

If you knew what the title of this post meant, I am impressed.

If you are like me, however, and happen to pass a small building in a small suburb outside of Chicago and see a large sign that says "Museum of Lapidary Arts" you would be slightly confused. That is until you see a large rock outside the museum and realize that yes, you did stumble upon a rock museum. As I see it, there are two ways to respond to this finding

1. Chuckle and walk away, never again to think of the lapidary arts

2. See when its open and make plans to go

Obviously I fall into category 2 and I did go back and I am happy to say that:

1. Lapidary arts are much cooler than they sound (they carve all sorts of amazing figures out of precious stones, and fit together pieces of stones to make incredibly intricate pictures)

2. I now know what a snuff jar is

3. I have visited the ONLY museum in the United States completely devoted to the lapidary arts (or so said the lady that greeted us)

Above is a picture taken by Joe, who I should also credit for planning the outing to the museum :)

If my camera was working....

I would take a picture of the amazing cheese bread or Pane con Formaggio that I made for dinner tonight.

It is amazing because
1. It requires almost no work
2. It requires no weird ingredients (just flour, salt, yeast, water, cheese and a little pepper)
3. It comes out extremely impressive and looks just like an artisan loaf
4. Did I mention there is almost no work involved??
5. It costs very little to make
6. It tastes soooooooo good

The recipe came out of Jim Lahey's cookbook "My Bread" which was a very sweet gift that was left on my doorstep a couple weeks a go by a very generous person.

Tomorrow night I am trying the Irish brown bread recipe which has Guinness in it...we will see how it tastes!

Why?

Because sometimes you just need something to make you smile!

A thought...

Ezra read plainly from the book of the law of God, interpreting it so all could understand what was read...."Today is holy to the Lord your God. Do not be sad and do not weep"-- For all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the law. He said further "Go eat rich foods and and sweet drinks and allot portions to those who had nothing prepared; For today is holy to our LORD do not be saddened by this day, for rejoicing in the Lord must be your strength! "

-Nehemiah 8

There are two parts of this passage that I find intriguing. First of all, I am struck with the reaction of the Israelites. It made me wonder about my own faith and reaction to mistakes I make. Do I ever weep when hearing God's law? Do I truly repent when I do not follow His way, completely, wholeheartedly, lovingly? It seems like, in today's world, that it would just be simpler to not be bothered by God's law. We don't have to rely on God for anything anymore...right? Or if we do rely on God's law it would be easy to think that we are bargaining or perhaps building a big mansion in heaven with every good deed that we do. But it doesn't work like that. No, instead God loves us in a unconditional way. In a way that the prophet Ezra expressed to the Israelites and told them that EVEN THOUGH they forgot God's law, even though they had sinned, even though they had not been perfect, they were to rejoice because the Lord rejoiced in this day and in essence in them. So really it is not God who needs us to follow His rules but instead it is us that need to follow His. What a humbling thought.