Welcome Aboard

I'm so excited! We have boarded the Titanic for its maiden voyage. She was completed in February (1912) at a cost of $10,000,000. She can accommodate 2,500 passengers, but don't worry—we will have plenty of room to roam and explore since the ship is about four city blocks long (882.5 feet). There are also eleven decks, of course I'm sure we will want to stay in the first class areas. And if you need anything, don't hesitate to call on one of the 860 crew members who are here to serve us.

We have obtained both first-class suites with private promenades, at a cost of $4,350 per suite. Our suite is composed of a sitting room, two bedrooms and a bathroom. Unfortunely, many of you will have to suffer in suites without a private deck, only $2,300 per suite.

As we boarded, the docks were crowded with both passengers and spectaters who wanted to get a glimpse of this majestic ship and the many famous passengers. There are many honeymooning couples on board, but the most famous is Colonel John Jacob Astor and his young bride. Our suites are located close to Isidor Straus and his wife Ida (co-owners of Macy's). Further along the passage you will find Benjamin Guggenheim.

Our table's centerpiece

First-class passenger Washington Dodge was overheard saying "It was hard to realize, when dining in the large and spacious dining saloon, that one was not in some large and sumptuous hotel." Mrs. James Brown presided over the most raucous table for dinner. It is said she is course, loud and ready to share wild stories of her adventures with her entire table. Rumor has it that she is separated from her husband, a Denver gold mining tycoon. She is all the talk of first class.

As first class passengers, we have many choices of where we would like to dine. The Ritz Restaurant offers a more sumptuous chamber than the dining saloon. You may also order anything on their a la carte menu, which includes only nine courses, unlike the eleven course meals served in the Saloon. The Café Parisien offers a more relaxed enviroment. It is easy to lose yourself in the sidewalk café atmosphere. If you prefer, The Verandah Café gives you the illusion of an open air verandah. Of course, you are also welcome to dine in the Dining Saloon and Reception Room.

Roast Sirloin of Beef Forestiere

As we gathered in the reception room we were serenaded by a five piece orchestra. This gave us the opportunity to meet our fellow passengers. The Titanic's bugler called us to dine with "The Roast Beef of Old England." My husband then escorted me to our place at the table. Each course was served on a silver salver, with so many courses we chose to sample just a small amount of each course.

Tonight we dined on Roast Sirloin of Beef Forestiere. I enjoyed the meal so much I requested the recipe from the chef. I am happy to share it with my friends.

Roast Sirloin of Beef Forestiere

• 1/3 cup red wine


• 2 tbsp vegetable oil


• 1 tblsp chopped fresh thyme (or 2 tsp dried)


• 1 small onion, chopped


• 1 clove garlic, minced


• 2 2-inch thick sirloin steaks


• 1/2 tsp salt


• 1/2 tsp pepper

Sauce:

• 2 oz side bacon


• 2 1/2 cups sliced wild mushrooms


• 1/2 cup red wine


• 2 springs fresh thyme


• 1 bay leaf


• 1 1/2 cups beef stock


• 1 tbsp butter


• 1/4 tsp salt

In a baking dish, combine wine, vegetable oil, thyme, onion and garlic. Add steak, turning to coat well; cover and marinate for at least 30 minutes. Bring steaks to room temperature before cooking.

Season steaks with salt and pepper and place in roasting pan. Roast in 425F oven for 20 minutes; reduce temperature to 375F and continue to roast for 15 minutes for medium wellness. When cooked, remove sirloin and cover with foil.

Sauce While steaks are cooking, in a small skillet, cook bacon over high heat for 5 minutes; remove from pan. Drain off all but 2 tbsp fat; stir in mushrooms and cook, stirring gently, for 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from pan and add to the bacon.

Stir in wine, thyme and bay leaf. Bring to a boil; cook for 7 minutes or until reduced to about 2 tbsp. Set aside. Place roasting pan on medium-high burner. Pour beef stock into pan, stirring, bring to a boil. Simmer for 3 minutes or until it begins to thicken. Stir in wine mixture, butter, mushrooms, bacon and salt. Heat thouroughly, remove the bay leaf and thyme sprigs.

Thinly slice sirloin across the grain and serve garnished with onions and sauce.

*I had my steak served without the sauce, since I am allergic to mushrooms.

We also were served Chateau Potatoes, I will be happy to share that recipe with you tomorrow. We will be exploring the ship today, so I hope to see you tomorrow to let you know what enjoyments are being offered.

Update on David

Titanic Menu

Thank you to everyone who has visited my son's blog and commented. He is one happy little boy, at least about the blog.

However, if you look at how I've decorated my new kitchen board you will see our Titanic menu. You will also notice an addition of beef liver. Yes, David needs a reminder lesson on not throwing away food. David chose to make an afternoon snack of cereal, only then didn't eat it. I told him he would need to eat it before he was allowed to eat the pork chops meal I had already planned.

David smiling in spite of his liver dumplings

When a little later I was informed he had eaten it, I had my doubts. I asked him another two times, then I explained that he needed to think carefully before answering me again because if he lied he would be eating liver for a week. "David did you eat all the cereal?" "Yes" was his reply. After checking the sink and not finding anything I checked the trash. Bingo. He then had to have abother bowl of cereal for dinner and liver for the week. Of course, he wanted to know if he could change his answer after I found the dumped food.

I explained to him again that even if I had not found out his sin that God would have known. And that his disobiedience—and worse, his lying—would have consequences. He had been given every chance to be honest with him only having to eat a bowl of cereal. But, his lying pushed us into a more serious consequence.

A Special Invitation

We would like you to be our guest for the historic maiden voyage of the Titanic. We have found ourselves with an extra ticket and felt you might enjoy crossing the Atlantic Ocean on this unsinkable palace to arrive in New York. We set sail from Southampton, England on 10 April, 1912 at 12:00 pm.

No I have not lost my mind, but I have had the privilege to see for myself parts of the Titanic recovered from her watery grave. It becomes intensely real when you are able to see the porthole that cracked under the water pressure, the cherub recovered from the grand staircase. The painstaking efforts used to recover bits and pieces of this "unsinkable" ship have paid off. The sinking of this memorable ship may have been 96 years ago, but those who passed through the exhibit showed a reverence and solemnity as if the tragedy had occured last week. One room in the exhibit held the words of the survivors upon their arrival in New York and as we read their words uttered almost a century ago we heard sniffles and saw the tears of those around us.

My men preparing to board Titanic

My encounter with the Titanic was totally unexpected. We had been given free tickets to see the Baltimore Orioles several years ago so we decided to make a day of it in the Baltimore Inner Harbor. The Harbor is right down the road from Camden Yards Baseball Stadium, so we parked our car at the harbor and started to explore. Imagine our surprise and joy to find the Titanic Exhibit had just opened at the Baltimore Science Museum. We had fun exploring the museum but then had to check out the exhibit. The admission was a bit pricey, but after seeing the exhibit we felt it was well worth it.

I have been fascinated with the Titanic since watching the 1953 movie with Barbara Stanwyck. It had me in tears everytime with the unrealistic hope that this time the tragedy would be averted (hope springs eternal).

So starting tomorrow I will be sharing some of the recipes that were served on the Titanic and first-hand words from Titanic survivors. I will also share my piece of the Titanic. There is only one item brought up from the depths that is allowed to be sold—the coal. And I have a piece of it.

Santa Fe Boy

We knew it wouldn't be long, our son now has a blog of his own. David has turned his love of trains into the theme of his blog. His blog header is a picture Rich took last year on a visit to the transportation museum. David is scouring information and brainstorming ideas to post on his blog.

© Richard D. Gelina

We feel this will be a good exercise in self-discipline. He desperately wants comments on his blog, so we have explained that he will need to post often and have interesting material on the blog if he wants people to visit him. This is also a chance for him to learn how to format and do page layout also.

So if you would like to check out what's on a twelve-year-old's mind, visit him at http://santafeboy.wordpress.com/, and if you could leave a message you would make him very happy.

Hebrews 9:15

Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
—Hebrews 9:15

The Community Market

This morning found us exporing the community market. We found some beautiful flowers to decorate the front of the house with. We also made many food purchases. David loves brown eggs and we found some farm fresh brown eggs for much cheaper than the store charges for them. They were so fresh that one of the eggs still had a hend feather on it. We also bought Amish roll butter, goat cheese and fresh sweet pork sausage. We are going to fire up the grill this evening to cook up our sausage!

David at the Market

After the market, we explored a used bookstore across the street. Rich found a book and I found a very interesting book that I will be sharing later. We spent several hours just walking and exploring shops that we had not been to before. The market and bookstore were the only ones we made purchases in, but we had a great time. Since David didn't find a book he liked we made a trip to the dollar store afterwards, where I found the small shepherds hooks for plants. I intend to use them in the backyard and hang small candles in holders on them. Very romantic.

Go Hillcats

David & me with Southpaw

Tonight is the opening game for the Lynchburg Hillcats, the minor league farm team for the Pittsburg Pirates. Last year we attended many games and enjoyed many hours of family fun. If you've never been to a minor league game you are missing out on an enjoyable experience.

The price for the Hillcats games is very resonable—$5 to $6 for kids and $7 to $8 per adult. If you buy the Kids Club for $25, children under 14 can get in all 70 games free, a tee shirt, giveaways and meet-and-greets. On Tuesdays last year they had all you could eat—Pizza Hut pizza, hamburgers, hotdogs, peanuts and popcorn for just $10 and that includes the price of admission! And when you have a growing boy, that's a great deal.

One of the benefits of a minor league game is that you can be up close and personal. Last year our favorite player, Pedro Powell gladly posed for pictures with our son and signed a game ball for our son. Pedro was loved by everyone in the stands, I don't see his name on the roster this year and he will be sorely missed.

Love and Logic

One of the books we have used with parenting our child is Parenting with Love and Logic." The authors use Proverbs 22:6 to provide insight into parenting issues.

Proverbs 22:6 – Train children in the right way and when old, they will not stray.

The main thrust in this book is teaching responsibility, which is sorely lacking in this day and age. I think that we as parents seem to take one of two paths when parenting. Either we make all the decisions for our children until they are eighteen and allow them to start making their own mistakes. Or we allow our young children to rule the roost, allowing them to make decisions they are not capable of handling.
The introduction states "love is powerful enough to allow kids to make mistakes and permit them to live with the consequences of those mistakes. The logic is centered in the consequences themselves."

Parenting With Love & Logic

When there are no natural consequences, parents are encouraged to come up with a consequence that will easily be tied to the mistake. The writers encourage parents to be creative and not have one consequence that is always used for the same mistake.

We have taken this to heart. Four years ago when David was eight and knew better, he hid food in order to get dessert. I had gone to answer the door and when I returned the food was gone and after checking the trash and not finding it, I gave him his dessert. Only the next day I found the uneaten dinner behind a piece of furniture. But, what to do? I got creative and he will never forget the lesson.

I took him to the grocery store and made him buy his own piece of large liver—that's right liver. Each night as Rich and I ate what was already planned for dinner, David would help cook up a nice slice of liver. The first night David made a huge deal of how much he was enjoying it and was glad that he would have to eat it for a week. "Thank you, Mom!" The next night he was not so excited and by the last night of the liver he was positively miserable.

I know everyone is groaning right about now, but was this effective? Oh yes, since even now if he even considers not eating his food all we have to say is "liver" and he finishes up with little fuss. Even David will laugh when this story is told.

Another situation we ran into was with the school. It was always a big war to get David to wear his coat, even in winter. I decided to not battle and let the natural consequences take over. No coat—no playground time at school. Only, after three days I found out from David that the school was loaning him a jacket for him to play outside in.

The next day I called the school and informed them they were not allowed to loan him a jacket. I was trying to teach him responsibility and they were teaching him not to be responsible. The next day he left without a coat and was shocked to find that he was not allowed outside at playtime. The next day I didn't even have to mention a coat, he gladly grabbed one on the way out the door.

If we don't give our children the opportunity to fail in a safe environment in a small way it could result in large and dangerous mistakes.

Not all of the logic has worked with our son, so like most parenting books we have to pick out and use what works for our son. No two children are alike, so what works for one may not work for another.

The Inventor

My son David, has always been interested in how things work. Two of his favorite books are "How it works in the city" and "How it works in the country." These books explain how just about everything works, from sewer systems to milking machines.

At the grand old age of 9 months our son did not awaken us in the early morning hours as was his custom. Checking the video monitor that covered the entire crib we saw no David. We ran into his room, only to find a pile of stuffed animals in the middle of the room next to a crib that had been dismantled. The bottom of the crib was still attached, but one of the side pieces was laying on the floor. So David had slid down the front like a slide and begun playing with his toys and stuffed animals.

How did this happen? Were we that bad at putting the crib together? Then we heard the giggles emanating from the pile of animals and saw a smiling face that looked strangely like our son peeking through. That afternoon we repaired the crib, taking extra care to tighten all the bolts. That evening we watched in fascination as our 9-month-old son would shook the front of the crib, then with those little baby fingers tried to unscrew the bolts. This went on repeatedly until he came to realize this was not going to work. So for the next several months we had to tighten the crib bolts on a daily basis. I kid you not—this is a true story. We even kept a copy of the e-mail we sent to my in-laws about the incident.

Inventor-man David

When he was three he would ask to ride the rides at Wal-Mart, only to jump off as soon as the ride started. People's looks at me were comical—Why would a mother let her child lay on the dirty floor under the ride? But the first time I asked what he was doing he just said "I gotta see how it works." He then would tell us in great detail what rod was being rotated in order to make the ride go forward. My philosophy was dirt can be washed off and if he wants to learn, he should go for it.

I, however, was not so thrilled when at the age of four he took the toilet apart to see how it worked. My clean bathroom was not so clean as water from the tank spewed out the top. I had to wade into the half-inch deep water to shut off the water flow.

Today as my inventor was mowing the lawn I found a sight to start my head shaking. He had taken the rake and attached it to the lawnmower. When asked, he stated this was to collect the cut grass and save time. One smart cookie.

Breaking God's Heart

© Richard D. Gelina

While preparing for this week's Bible Study, I came across this quote by Margaret Gibb:

"We must move from asking God to take care of things that are breaking our hearts, to praying about the things that are breaking God's heart."

How often do we pray this? This quote is what Christians should be praying, taking the focus off us and our desires and focusing on God. It was such a powerful statement and we should all examine our prayer lives constantly to ensure it's all about Him and not us.