The Passionate Mind

Kindhearted Miscommunication

2011-08-27T15:34:00.000-07:00

Oh, Amazon . . . what did I ever do without you? This gem comes from the description for a folding, papasan-style chair:

"Operating guide: 1. When unfold it, one hand catch the chair's back top tube, the other hand catch the back leg tube and stretch it. 2. When fold it, let the fabric face to our body, and press down the each tube's push-button. Then push it to our body with our hands. Matters needing attention being used: 1. Please note that the max weight capacity of this folding chair is 220Lb. Exceeding this limit will damage the chair and may cause person hurt. 2. Please take care of your fingers when unfold and fold the chair. 3. Please put the chair on safe and flate place. Sit on the chair only when the chair is wholly opened. When sit on the chair, please don't incline the chair. 4. Do not sit more than two persons at the same time in case of any accidents. 5. Childre should use the chair within the guardian's visible sope. Please don't let infant use this chair. 6. When being carried, please fold the chair. Placement and Maintenance 1. The chair can't be kept in a damp environment. 2. Don't keep the chair a long time in the sun and don't use it when it is rainning and keep it away from the fire.. 3. Don't put the chair togther with the sharp article Please use rare & neutral detergent when clean the chair."

At least the author shows a genuine concern for the safety and comfort of the end-user, eh?

FANTASTIC NEWS!

2011-07-22T00:44:00.001-07:00

Beauty, Redefined. You go, girls!

From the Inbox: All European Life Died In Auschwitz

2011-06-08T09:57:00.000-07:00

The tidal wave of rabidly anti-Islamic sentiment in the US following 9-11 turned me off to the entire issue of Islamic influences in our country. I don't know how technically accurate the following information is with respect to Muslims, but I do know the Jewish info is largely correct. The Holocaust was a far greater tragedy than I think hardly any of my generation understand.

*********************

Date: Tue. 15 January 2008 14:30

ALL EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ By Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez

I walked down the street in Barcelona , and suddenly discovered a terrible truth - Europe died in Auschwitz .... We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a culture, thought, creativity, talent. We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people who changed the world.

The contribution of this people is felt in all areas of life: science, art, international trade, and above all, as the conscience of the world. These are the people we burned.

And under the pretense of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove to ourselves that we were cured of the disease of racism, we opened our gates to 20 million Muslims, who brought us stupidity and ignorance, religious extremism and lack of tolerance, crime and poverty, due to an unwillingness to work and support their families with pride.

They have blown up our trains and turned our beautiful Spanish cities into the third world, drowning in filth and crime.

Shut up in the apartments they receive free from the government, they plan the murder and destruction of their naive hosts.

And thus, in our misery, we have exchanged culture for fanatical hatred, creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for backwardness and superstition.

We have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of Europe and their talent for a better future for their children, their determined clinging to life because life is holy, for those who pursue death, for people consumed by the desire for death for themselves and others, for our children and theirs.

What a terrible mistake was made by miserable Europe ...

***********************************

And now, for some interesting numbers and commentary (not part of the above piece, but came in the same email):

The Global Islamic population is approximately 1,200,000,000; that is ONE BILLION TWO HUNDRED MILLION or 20% of the world's population. They have received the following Nobel Prizes:

Literature:
1988 - Najib Mahfooz

Peace:
1978 - Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat
1990 - Elias James Corey
1994 - Yaser Arafat:
1999 - Ahmed Zewai

Economics:
(zero)

Physics:
(zero)

Medicine:
1960 - Peter Brian Medawar
1998 - Ferid Mourad

TOTAL: 7 SEVEN

The Global Jewish population is approximately 14,000,000; that is FOURTEEN MILLION or about 0.02% of the world's population. They have received the following Nobel Prizes:

Literature:
1910 - Paul Heyse
1927 - Henri Bergson
1958 - Boris Pasternak
1966 - Shmuel Yosef Agnon
1966 - Nelly Sachs
1976 - Saul Bellow
1978 - Isaac Bashevis Singer
1981 - Elias Canetti
1987 - Joseph Brodsky
1991 - Nadine Gordimer World

Peace:
1911 - Alfred Fried
1911 - Tobias Michael Carel Asser
1968 - Rene Cassin
1973 - Henry Kissinger
1978 - Menachem Begin
1986 - Elie Wiesel
1994 - Shimon Peres
1994 - Yitzhak Rabin

Physics:
1905 - Adolph Von Baeyer
1906 - Henri Moissan
1907 - Albert Abraham Michelson
1908 - Gabriel Lippmann
1910 - Otto Wallach
1915 - Richard Willstaetter
1918 - Fritz Haber
1921 - Albert Einstein
1922 - Niels Bohr
1925 - James Franck
1925 - Gustav Hertz
1943 - Gustav Stern
1943 - George Charles de Hevesy
1944 - Isidor Issac Rabi
1952 - Felix Bloch
1954 - Max Born
1958 - Igor Tamm
1959 - Emilio Segre
1960 - Donald A. Glaser
1961 - Robert Hofstadter
1961 - Melvin Calvin
1962 - Lev Davidovich Landau
1962 - Max Ferdinand Perutz
1965 - Richard Phillips Feynman
1965 - Julian Schwinger
1969 - Murray Gell-Mann
1971 - Dennis Gabor
1972 - William Howard Stein
1973 - Brian David Josephson
1975 - Benjamin Mottleson
1976 - Burton Richter
1977 - Ilya Prigogine
1978 - Arno Allan Penzias
1978 - Peter L Kapitza
1979 - Stephen Weinberg
1979 - Sheldon Glashow
1979 - Herbert Charles Brown
1980 - Paul Berg
1980 - Walter Gilbert
1981 - Roald Hoffmann
1982 - Aaron Klug
1985 - Albert A. Hauptman
1985 - Jerome Karle
1986 - Dudley R. Herschbach
1988 - Robert Huber
1988 - Leon Lederman
1988 - Melvin Schwartz
1988 - Jack Steinberger
1989 - Sidney Altman
1990 - Jerome Friedman
1992 - Rudolph Marcus
1995 - Martin Perl
2000 - Alan J. Heeger

Economics:
1970 - Paul Anthony Samuelson
1971 - Simon Kuznets
1972 - Kenneth Joseph Arrow
1975 - Leonid Kantorovich
1976 - Milton Friedman
1978 - Herbert A. Simon
1980 - Lawrence Robert Klein
1985 - Franco Modigliani
1987 - Robert M. Solow
1990 - Harry Markowitz
1990 - Merton Miller
1992 - Gary Becker
1993 - Robert Fogel

Medicine:
1908 - Elie Metchnikoff
1908 - Paul Erlich
1914 - Robert Barany
1922 - Otto Meyerhof
1930 - Karl Landsteiner
1931 - Otto Warburg
1936 - Otto Loewi
1944 - Joseph Erlanger
1944 - Herbert Spencer Gasser
1945 - Ernst Boris Chain
1946 - Hermann Joseph Muller
1950 - Tadeus Reichstein
1952 - Selman Abraham Waksman
1953 - Hans Krebs
1953 - Fritz Albert Lipmann
1958 - Joshua Lederberg
1959 - Arthur Kornberg
1964 - Konrad Bloch
1965 - Francois Jacob
1965 - Andre Lwoff
1967 - George Wald
1968 - Marshall W. Nirenberg
1969 - Salvador Luria
1970 - Julius Axelrod
1970 - Sir Bernard Katz
1972 - Gerald Maurice Edelman
1975 - Howard Martin Temin
1976 - Baruch S. Blumberg
1977 - Roselyn Sussman Yalow
1978 - Daniel Nathans
1980 - Baruj Benacerraf
1984 - Cesar Milstein
1985 - Michael Stuart Brown
1985 - Joseph L. Goldstein
1986 - Stanley Cohen [& Rita Levi-Montalcini]
1988 - Gertrude Elion
1989 - Harold Varmus
1991 - Erwin Neher
1991 - Bert Sakmann
1993 - Richard J. Roberts
1993 - Phillip Sharp
1994 - Alfred Gilman
1995 - Edward B. Lewis
1996- Lu RoseIacovino

TOTAL: 129!

The Jews are NOT promoting brain washing children in military training camps, teaching them how to blow themselves up and cause maximum deaths of Jews and other non Muslims. The Jews don't hijack planes, nor kill athletes at the Olympics, or blow themselves up in German restaurants. There is NOT one single Jew who has destroyed a church.. There is NOT a single Jew who protests by killing people.

The Jews don't traffic slaves, nor have leaders calling for Jihad and death to all the Infidels.

Perhaps the world's Muslims should consider investing more in standard education and less in blaming the Jews for all their problems.

Muslims must ask 'what can they do for humankind' before they demand that humankind respects them.

Regardless of your feelings about the crisis between Israel and the Palestinians and Arab neighbors, even if you believe there is more culpability on Israel 's part, the following two sentences really say it all:

'If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel ." Benjamin Netanyahu

General Eisenhower Warned Us

It is a matter of history that when the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Dwight Eisenhower, found the victims of the death camps he ordered all possible photographs to be taken, and for the German people from surrounding villages to be ushered through the camps and even made to bury the dead.

He did this because he said in words to this effect:

'Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses - because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened'

Recently, the UK debated whether to remove The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it 'offends' the Muslim population which claims it never occurred. It is not removed as yet. However, this is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it.

It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended. This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the, 6 million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians, and 1,900 Catholic priests who were 'murdered, raped, burned, starved, beaten, experimented on and humiliated' while many people looked the other way.

Now, more than ever, with Iran , among others, claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth,' it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets.

How many years will it be before the attack on the World Trade Center 'NEVER HAPPENED' because it offends some Muslim in the United States?

************************

And now, for the best thoughts on this article, reprinted from PlancksConstant.org, first posted on 27 Feb 2006:

Ican tell a fake when I see one. Before I go into the details let me say that about 100 blogs in the past 6 months repeated the story below and a few like vodkapundit rightfully had qualms about its authenticity: 'With some reservations, I'm posting the translation in full. If it turns out this is a fake, let's steal a page from the MSM and call it "fake but accurate."'

Here is the post, usually prefaced by Written by Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez, Spanish Writer or "This is a translation of an article from a Spanish newspaper":

All European Life Died In Auschwitz
I walked down the street in Barcelona, and suddenly discovered a terrible truth – Europe died in Auschwitz. We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims.
In Auschwitz we burned a culture, thought, creativity, talent. We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people who changed the world. The contribution of this people is felt in all areas of life: science, art, international trade, and above all, as the conscience of the world. These are the people we burned.
And under the pretence of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove to ourselves that we were cured of the disease of racism, we opened our gates to 20 million Muslims, who brought us stupidity and ignorance, religious extremism and lack of tolerance, crime and poverty due to an unwillingness to work and support their families with pride.
They have turned our beautiful Spanish cities into the third world, drowning in filth and crime. Shut up in the apartments they receive free from the government, they plan the murder and destruction of their naïve hosts. And thus, in our misery, we have exchanged culture for fanatical hatred, creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for backwardness and superstition.
We have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of Europe and their talent for hoping for a better future for their children, their determined clinging to life because life is holy, for those who pursue death, for people consumed by the desire for death for themselves and others, for our children and theirs.
What a terrible mistake was made by miserable Europe.

Here are a few problems.

The phrasing and syntax look like they were originally written in English but as if translated.
I disregard any post as true unless it gives me the name of the paper and date of publication.
Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez only exists in these posts.
And most importantly - there is no European Paper with the cojones [one can take a cojones test here] to actually publish anything this provocative against Muslims. Indeed Spain has been on a push to encourage Muslim immigration since 2004, see Jihadwatch.

As to "fake but accurate"; it is undoubtedly true that almost all the sentiments expressed in this "article" reflect the Muslim reality in Europe. It is too bad that no paper actually published it.

Update: The email stating that this appeared in a Spanish Newspaper is false. It did however appear on the rightwing, pro-Israel, anti-Communist, Spanish language website Gentiuno.

No doubt there will be those who protest the seemingly flagrant racism and I am equally certain that it will come mostly from liberal Jews who need to scratch the political correctness rash of theirs. I would call them fellow Jews but they are no different than Jews that deny the holocaust [yes they exist, Virginia]. They will rant that this is no different than the antisemitism of the Nazis.

One difference. The Nazis lied when they said Jews wanted to control the world. It is not racist to describe the truth. Perhaps a few months ago one could have posited the notion that it is a blatant, racist lie to say of Muslims that "they plan the murder and destruction of their naïve hosts" and that we have "exchanged culture for fanatical hatred, creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for backwardness and superstition". But today, after the Danish Cartoon Affair, can anyone deny that this entire article indeed has the ring of truth?

As final proof of the truth of this article, go to any European and tell him a thousand Jews are coming into his city and he will say, "Great, and in what area are they going to invest?" Now change 'Jew' to 'Muslim' and the response would be "Crap, and what area are they going to destroy?"

***********************

Local Girl Makes Good

2011-05-21T14:37:00.000-07:00

Reading all of that Seth Godin pays off. ;o)

Hooray for Houzz.com, that listens to its users!

Why I don't live in California

2011-05-17T10:24:00.000-07:00

This just in from the inbox:

A southern California man was 51-50'd and placed under 72-hour psychiatric observation when it was found that he owned 100 guns and allegedly had a million rounds of ammunition stored in his home. The house also featured a secret escape tunnel.

By southern California standards, someone owning 100,000 rounds is considered "mentally unstable.

If he lived elsewhere:

In Arizona, . . . He'd be called "an avid gun collector."

In Texas , . .. . He'd be called "a novice gun collector."

In Utah, . .. .he'd be called "moderately well prepared," but they'd probably reserve judgment until they made sure that he had a corresponding quantity of stored food.

In Montana , . .. .he'd be called "The neighborhood 'Go-To' guy."

In Idaho , . . . He'd be called "a likely gubernatorial candidate."

In Washington, ……he'd be a "retired Policeman"

And, in Wyoming, . . . He'd be called "an eligible bachelor."

~ Author unknown

The Great Homophone Chase, vol 1

2011-04-29T19:43:00.000-07:00

"par down" instead of "pare down"

Time4Learning Review

2011-03-24T09:57:00.000-07:00

Well, our free trial period is complete. For some families, this might be a great solution, but at the end of the day, I think we'll pass. Here are my thoughts, entirely my own, not written or endorsed by Time4Learning:

Pros:

It's a lot of fun. The kids have really enjoyed the learning activities. They're reasonably well done, the information is presented in a way that's accessible, and there are only a few lessons that have markedly annoying voices. ;o)

Structured. It's laid out like a traditional school curriculum, so one lesson builds upon another.

Engaging. All of my four older children really looked forward to their "turn" to work on their homeschool lessons. Even the two-year-old loved to watch, too.

Adaptable. The student can repeat a lesson as many times as necessary, and complete them in any order.

Cons:

No assignment functionality. One of the most attractive feathers of the program (to me) was the ability to set assignments for each student. I saw this in the control panel when I first logged in, and was very disappointed to learn (only after a LOT of searching through the control panel and then searching the support forums) that feature is reserved by Odyssey (the company that owns the lessons & software) for public school teachers. Boo. Yes, you can see which lessons the student has completed, but if you want to pick and choose according to ability and make a custom lesson plan, it's got to be separately elsewhere (which is a big headache for me).

The lessons can be too chatty. There are, especially in the upper grade lessons, times when my eleven-year-old needed to sit and think through the problem he was working on, and the software would repeat instructions he had already heard at narrow intervals. It made it very difficult for me to help him, as the voice was distracting, and turning the volume up and down is somewhat involved and inaccurate on that computer. The time allotted for figuring out the problems were fine for an adult already familiar with writing numbers in expanded form or deciphering Greek numerals, but not for my very bright and quick-thinking son who had never seen them before.

Some of the voices are not what I would choose. In the lessons my five year old often worked on, there were voices made to sound like a child her age, with imprecise enunciation. While that might sound like a good idea (attract the children with a child's voice), repeated exposure to less-than-perfect examples isn't something I consider a good idea. Add to that the fact that that particular voice was talking down to the student in a Dora-esque way (using the same inflection over and over, regarding normal and friendly usage patterns), it made me a lot less excited for my five-year-old's lessons. (We don't use baby talk around here, fwiw.) Thankfully, she only ran into that kind of voice a few times . . . but she didn't work very far through the lessons, so I don't know how many more of those might be lurking in there.

Too much emphasis on screen time. The children showed a marked tendency to want to spend all day in front of the computer (and with four of them spending 20-30 minutes each, usually with siblings looking in on others' lessons, it often felt like they did anyway). And after online schooling was done for the day, they pestered me more and more to play games or watch movies, etc. We're not a big-time "watching" family, and this was a definite tradeoff.

The fee structure just doesn't work for us. While the cost of this might be workable for small families, it's pretty spendy for us. (At the time of this writing, the monthly price is $19.95 for the first child, and $14.95 for each child thereafter. You'll want to double-check the website before making a decision, as pricing can and will change, and this price is not binding on Time4Learning. They can and will set whatever pricing seems best to them.) For the $65/month (or $777 annually), we can go and do a whole lotta fun stuff, pay for an entire prepackaged curriculum that's largely reusable, or any number of other big-bang homeschool-related things. For a family that's very activity-oriented (and loves to do things outdoors), allocating that much of our limited income for a one use-type service is too high an opportunity cost. I don't know if Odyssey sets per-student prices (as they were designed for public schoolrooms, and would charge differently), or if it's a T4L thing, but I would love to see more attractive family pricing . . . especially considering that my tax dollars pay for public school students' expenses, and my own schooling costs are on top of that.

I know of a couple of families online that really enjoy using Time4Learning, and it is, overall, a pretty neat service. It just doesn't work as well as it needs to for our family in order to justify the cost. I hope this reviews will help other families know if this service would be a good fit for them.

Thank you so much, Time4Learning, for providing this trial period for our family, so we could really see if it worked for us!

A quick shout out

2011-03-10T19:10:00.000-08:00

Lisa over at Suburban Retreat is having a great Spring giveaway, which includes a copy of this beautiful book:

So, you should go check it out, since I never win anything, anyway. ;o)

Quote of the Day: Seth Godin

2011-02-18T16:45:00.000-08:00

"Art is not in the eye of the beholder. It's in the soul of the artist."

Amen.

(Found here.)

4Shared: Not.

2011-02-15T22:02:00.000-08:00

If you're currently using 4Shared's service, I would caution you to not try to use it as a file sharing/download service for your readers. Here's what happened to me today, and (from the comments I've read at another blog) has happened to plenty of others, as well.

4Shared has crafted their website very carefully. If you're looking to upload files to share, it's as easy as pie. Registration is quick and simple, offers a snazzy app to help you upload things automatically, and makes getting set up and sharing files a breeze. I went through that part of the process a couple of months ago when I needed a quick backup option.

But.

If you're on the download side of the coin, watch out. Sure, they say you can download for free. After a wait.

Okay, I thought. No problem.

So, I bring up a few download pages with files shared by a fellow blogger. I click on the links, wait the prescribed 90-ish seconds, and then click "Download". The first file starts great. The second file even begins to download concurrently. Then, when I click on the third, I'm given a message that I'm already downloading a file from my IP address, and will need to wait until it's done to start another one. Ugh. But, it's free, so I figure I'll wait. Again. I carefully look past the fact that there are three computers sharing an internet connection in my home, and we all use the same portal IP address, so only one of us could download anything from 4Shared at any given time.

At this point it's annoying, but still doable. (Hint to businesses . . . the LAST thing you want to do is annoy potential customers who have come to your website . . . people who may have come wanting to give you money.)

So, I wait until the file finishes, and go to click on the next download link. Apparently each page has some kind of session, and it had expired. Clicking the download link reloads the page. At this point, I notice the "Log In" link, and think to myself: "I'll just log in; that should make things better," Right? Right.

I log in, am greeted by cheerful text at the top of the page, and then click on the first "Download Now" link again. I wait (this time for 240 seconds). I'm surprised by the four minute wait, and am now graduating past the "annoyed" benchmark.

I manage to get back to the page before the session times out and requires another page reload and another wait, (because I'm not going to sit there and watch 240 seconds count down), and click on the second "Download Now" link. At this point I have very little faith in the "Now" part. My browser grinds for about 30 seconds, and then the page loads to an "Unable to connect to . . . yadda yadda yadda." {Insert expletive here.}

I click back and reload the page.

Click the initial "Download Now" button (which I now understand really means "Download Eventually, after we make you wait even LONGER, and reload the page a few more times"), and see that the wait THIS time is going to be 381 seconds.

Yep. That's 6 minutes, 21 seconds. And a serious slap in the face.

I even managed to get back to the page after the elapsed wait time, but before the session expired, and try the download yet again. With no results. (Another "cannot connect to" page.)

4Shared, do you think that you will EVER, at any point in the remaining 50-or-so years of my life, EVER get any of my money? EVER???? Or that I will tell anyone to use your service?

Quite the contrary.

Your extortionate tactics have just made sure that you have not only lost a customer, but have a very unhappy ex-customer on your hands, who feels tricked and abused. My time has been wasted, the files I was hoping to download (which would have proven very useful in my tasks today) are now firmly out of reach, and I'm going to do all I can to see if I can influence my fellow blogger to switch to some other service. Advertising free downloads when, in reality, no download is possible (but the user only learns that after wasting their time), is absolutely beyond the pale.

And life is too short for that.

{/rant}

Quote of the Day

2011-02-09T15:07:00.001-08:00

Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we're here we should dance.

Trying out Time4Learning.com

2011-02-07T14:55:00.000-08:00

I’ve been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so be sure to come back and read about my experience. Time4Learning can be used as a homeschool curriculum, for afterschool enrichment and for summer skill sharpening. Find out how to write your own curriculum review for Time4Learning.

Some books I'm going to read . . .

2011-01-01T22:52:00.000-08:00

Here are some thoughts on books I have read, or am going to read:

The Silmarillion -- I've read the beginning part of this, and it's an amazing, epic tale. Written in an arching, (ahem) epic style, there's very little showing and a lot of telling . . . and yet it's gripping and poignant. It has a lot of sorrow and sadness, for it's how middle earth began. It also is where we found the name of one of our daughters. I highly recommend it, and I need to put it on my "to read" list so I don't forget to finish it again in the whirlwind that is my life.

The Tale of Two Cities -- I read this in high school, and remember being really touched at the end. I would definitely read it again, and probably understand it a whole lot better, to boot. I have a far, far better mind now than I did then.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man -- Curiosity, mostly, drives my desire to read this one. I've heard it mentioned in enough books that I've read that I want it to be part of my cultural knowledge.

Foucault’s Pendulum -- Ditto.

The Poisonwood Bible: a novel -- I've read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and Loved It. I really like Barbara Kingsolver's writing, and this one is currently on my list. It was recommended by one of the women in my book review club, and several of us have read it.

To the Lighthouse -- I did not like this one. At all. I read it for a college literature course, and the strangeness of the family culture just didn't do it for me. Well, that, and the incest. (I have a hard time with that kind of thing in lit. Just don't like it.)

Les Misérables -- I've gone back and forth on this one, but after reading a recent review, it's back on my to read list.

Dune -- Vern has read these, and I've watched the first movie. I just can't quite get into it now, as the move ruined them for me forever. They should have waited until now to make them, as they may have been more believable. (Star Wars was more believable than Dune.)

Slaughterhouse-five -- I thought I had read this in high school. But, after reading up on it at Amazon, I realized I hadn't. But I'm going to. And it puts Catch-22 back on my list.

Catch-22 -- Because I didn't read it in high school, and I'm highly intrigued by the reviews.

Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything (Nothing by an economist, please.) -- I think you should give this one a chance. I've read several economists, and they're a fascinating bunch (if you get the right type). Economics isn't a finance-bound discipline. It's the study of behavior, and what motivates it. So, banish thoughts of Keynes from your mind, and see what this guy has to say. ;o)

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values -- This is one of the most interesting and mind-bending books I've ever read. It's beyond explanation . . . you've just got to read it. (And make sure you've got some quiet time to digest it, too. This isn't a speed-read.)

The Three Musketeers -- Love the story and movie. I wonder if I'll love the book, too? It's on my list.

Wicked: the life and times of the wicked witch of the West -- I've heard smashing things about the play, and want to read this one. Update: Here's a bit of a note from a friend: "I saw Wicked on your to read list, and I thought I'd tell you that it's pretty nasty. Apparently the musical took the general idea, (I don't know, I haven't seen it, but I've heard it's fabulous), but the book made me cringe. And it is hard to make me cringe." So, this one is off the list.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time -- The title alone had me at "hello". Didn't it for you? (Edited to add: I read some of this at Amazon, and while the book is fascinating, the recurrence of pretty foul language has me looking elsewhere. I was really hooked at first, because I have two autistic nephews, and found the point of view intriguing . . . but my mild OCD kicks in when the f-bomb drops, (don't ask me why) and it's all I hear in my head for at least a day. So, this one's out.) In other news, I found it funny that the reviewer talked about how this "first-time novelist" did such a great job. Well, he's a professor of creative writing at a British college, for Pete's sake. It's not like he's a freshly-stamped BA. ;o)

Heheheheh . . .

2010-12-19T10:00:00.000-08:00

I had no idea Hunt's was dipping its toe into electronics . . .

This was a nice spot in a somewhat stressful day the other day. I don't know how the Hunt's ketchup ended up as #1 in my search results for an external DVD burner (quick tip: Apple's SuperDrives are VERY poorly named), but it sure is great.

Small Pig is back!

2010-12-14T08:20:00.000-08:00

Finally, Arnold Lobel's Classics (he's one of my favorite children's book illustrators/authors) are back in print! (And you can often get used library binding editions for about the same price as a new paperback.)

I'm so glad my old copy of Small Pig is now replaceable. My children love that story. Now, if they would just reprint Prince Bertram the Bad . . .

Every Teacher An Artist

2010-12-13T16:37:00.000-08:00

In the heart of an artist lies passion. Passion achieve, passion to excel. Whether artistry lies in visual medium, written word, audible expressions, in the act of teaching, or in some other arena, every teacher must be an artist, else education dies in utero as students are taught boredom instead of curiosity, plodding instead of enthusiasm, apathy instead of passion. through the indomitable lesson of example.

"Passion occurs when we engage with energy in accomplishing great things, though they may seem small or simple at the time. While most people seek peace, comfort and security, those with a Leadership Education understand that the place of leaders is in the middle of change and even crisis. Living and working with passion means that you thrive in times of challenge as well as peace. An education that creates life-long passion is worth every bit of effort and study; anything less falls short."

-- Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning, by Oliver & Rachel DeMille, p 229.

No Predeterministic Parenting

2010-12-12T11:51:00.000-08:00

One if the most important missions I have as a parent is to learn what it is my children love and dream and want, and to help them achieve it. Whether it's discovering what they would really like for Christmas, or helping them to explore something which has piqued their curiosity. I need to be in tune with them, with their questions and desires, and let them know that those questions and needs are valid and important . . . not superimpose my own wishes from childhood on them.

Flabby

2010-12-10T22:53:00.000-08:00

My brain needs exercise. (So does my body, but I've still got two weeks of post-partum recovery before I can do much of that.)

I was reading Seth Godin's blog tonight, and then it hit me, as I read this post: I want to blog like Seth does. He's mindful, and thoughtful, and shares (in succinct and clear ways) his thoughts. Most of his posts are short (really short). Some are longer, and deserve to be. Many of them pose questions of some kind. But they're all really, really good. (Granted, he has written a dozen books (maybe more--I'm not counting), and has blogged for years, so he's got something on me there . . . )

But I can think, too.

I can read more of his blog. (Good writing rubs off.)

And I can be more mindful--and blog it.

So, here an experiment: Blog like Seth. I wonder if I can turn it into a movement? ;o)

Mmmmm . . . Ice Cream

2010-11-26T17:59:00.000-08:00

Chocolate Silk

2 cans Thai Kitchen Coconut Milk
1 1/4 c. Blue Diamond almond milk -- unsweetened
1/2 t xanthan gum
4 T raw cacao powder
4 T raw agave nectar
40 drops Stevita Stevia
2 t 2x Madagascar Bourbon vanilla extract
3/4 t peppermint extract
1/2 t RealSalt

Mix it all together well, and put it to chill in your ice cream maker. I'm going to sprinkle sliced almonds on top this time . . . and maybe some shredded coconut.

Dairy-free, refined sugar-free, gluten-free, egg-free . . . I can eat it! :o)

This would make an awesome base (omitting the peppermint extract) for all kinds of chocolate decadence. Sub orange extract, or add in chopped pecans (or praline pecans!), try coconut extract/flavoring . . . or go the fruit route by adding in fresh or thawed blueberries, raspberries, or strawberries. I'm going to have a lot of fun with this one . . .

Frustration

2010-11-22T22:53:00.000-08:00

Would the folks who brought the stomach flu to church please stop it? The rule of thumb is a full 24 hours symptom-free. (Not "Well, s/he was sick last night, but today looks just fine.")

I have family in town (like many of you). My brother and his family flew at great expense from Texas to spend the holiday with us, my parents, and my other brother & his family. We only get to see them once every couple of years, and their visits are precious. He and his wife have three small children, the oldest of which (at 4 years old) dearly loves to play with her cousins--which cousins are currently either running fevers or vomiting all over the place . . . and they played with my niece today (before they showed any symptoms). It's looking like not only will any of my family be unable to attend the Thanksgiving celebration, but if my niece and her brothers were given the bug today, then they won't be able to, either. Talk about a waste of a trip. Instead of a wonderful holiday together, we've got stomach-churning messes to clean up.

I have a brand-new baby in the house, who hasn't been vomiting (praise heaven), but has been really fussy and hasn't slept much all day. I'm beginning to wonder if he's got it, too.

I'm so short on sleep as it is . . . and instead of being able to go to bed tonight, I've been cleaning up various regurgitations. It's now nearly eleven o'clock, and I'm feeling pretty frustrated. Please, think next time before you bring recently-ill children to church. (Even if it is the Primary Program that week, and you don't want your child to miss out on presenting his or her part . . . the consequences are just too unfair for those of us who stay home when we're sick, and trust that others will, too.)

Thank you. I now return to my regularly-scheduled clean-up efforts . . .

He's here . . .

2010-11-18T20:03:00.000-08:00

Mother and baby are doing fine. :o)

Recently Overheard

2010-11-17T10:09:00.000-08:00

Lil'MissL: Mom, when I grow up, I'm not going to buy any grenades.

Me (with relief): Oh, that's good.

MissE: I don't think they sell them to kids.

Vern: Nope, not at Wal-Mart . . .

In honor of Remembrance Day

2010-11-12T22:03:00.000-08:00

Here's to more role models.

(What's Remembrance Day?)

Pend Orielle Bay Trail -- Please help out!

2010-09-22T11:56:00.000-07:00

I love Lake Pend Orielle, and the small communities that surround it. Right now there is a partial trail that individuals and various organizations (both governmental and private) are working to complete, and make it safe and truly pedestrian/bicycle friendly. Currently traversing the trail involves crossing the railroad tracks (not too tricky for adults, but hazardous for children), and it's not signed at a couple of crucial points. Sandpoint declares itself to be a walking town, but it has been interesting to me to note there isn't any support for alternative traffic outside of the somewhat overactive ticket-doling downtown when motorists don't manage to stop in time when a pedestrian steps into the crosswalk when the motorist is too close to stop safely (i.e. without hazarding an accident by being rear-ended).

Providing access along the waterfront would be such a great addition to the community here . . . if you've got talents or abilities (or, as always, funds) you could donate to help the Pend Orielle Bay Trail effort, please go fill out one of these and send it in. Here is the comprehensive plan, which details the current state of things, the proposed changes and features of the trail, and how it would be taken care of down the road. I think it's well-planned, and look forward to using the trail if it makes it to completion. Even if the community must fund it out of their pockets . . . I'd be glad to help pay for it myself.

I dearly hope this project doesn't go the way of the bypass, and take nearly 60 years to get underway. I want to be able to use this with my children when we visit!

A word to the wise.

2010-08-15T16:04:00.000-07:00

If you make yourself a set of blocking wires, and a nifty PVC pipe capped on both ends to keep them in, if you don't open it for a couple of years, the caps will. not. come. off.

At least, nothing I've tried yet has worked. Any ideas?

If you haven't tried out Blogger's new template designer . . .

2010-08-09T12:40:00.000-07:00

you should. It's pretty decent.

Still a little short on actual templates, but all the tools are there to make the ones they do have pretty interesting. I was in the mood for a little more color . . . and I love it that I don't have to worry about losing all of my sidebar gadgets, etc., when I change things up.

In other news, it's fairly hot here. I'm getting by without a/c, 6.5 months pregnant. Mostly just tired, and feeling akin to a beluga whale. ;o)

Have a great day!

Feeling crafty?

2010-07-05T23:14:00.000-07:00

A good friend of mine just opened a sweet little Etsy shop, selling patterns for her adorable little soft toys. They're quick, easy projects, and you couldn't deal with a sweeter, more lovely person. Do go check it out:

All In Jest

She's only got four patterns so far, but they're all really fun. :o) Enjoy!

Oh, woman, contrary is thy name . . .

2010-07-01T13:36:00.000-07:00

So, I have the hardest time knitting with alpaca laceweight. I've tried (and frogged) a number of projects, from a simple feather & fan scarf to an aborted Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl. So, would you please tell me why it is that I happen to have 8,333 yards of 100% alpaca laceweight in my stash? Hmmmm?

I must be more of a sucker for a good hand than I thought. ;o)

A Fitting Post for Today

2010-06-14T17:36:00.000-07:00

As today is my birthday, I'm doing my very best not to do anything I don't want to do. :o) Including blogging. lol However, this article was too good not to share. Please do read it, as it's right on the money.

And have a wonderful day!

Something with Substance

2010-06-11T13:48:00.000-07:00

Sooooo . . . it has been a while.

(Now I'll tell you some things you don't already know. ;o)

We're expecting #6. Yeah. It was a shock to us, too. I'm about 19 weeks along, and just really getting used to the idea. Anyone know if you can get a bench seat for the front row of a Honda Odyssey?

The powerful advent of morning sickness signaled a significant pause in our raw diet adventure. Thusfar it has been a four month pause, but we'll see what happens. I'm not feeling as good as I did while raw, (duh), but I did what was necessary (considering the circumstances in my life right then), and I feel good about my choice . . . especially because I can change it at any time.

We've managed to make some progress on getting the site work done at the farm. (That's what I'm calling our homesite and surrounding property. We'll see if it sticks.) We lost three months' progress (and sight of our dream for that time) in late winter/early spring due to an out-of-area health department inspector denying us a reasonable assessment during the perc test; but as it turns out, that hasn't really changed much, because it's STILL a bog out there due to the nearly-constant rain we've had. (Rain nearly daily since March . . . I think Mother Nature is trying to make up for an unusually snowless winter.) We've taken a bid for putting in the road, and we're currently reviewing bids for the concrete work. Bids for the septic system are under review. Once site work actually begins, I'll have photos to share.

The house plan is coming along fairly well . . . we're refining things we've already decided on, and working out kinks in the new story-and-a-half version. It'll be cozy, but that's the point. A home that will fit all of us without putting us in bondage for nearly times the cost of the home. (Making reasonable assumptions, we would be paying 2.8 times the cost of our home with a 30-year mortgage. No way, Jose. Paying $504,080 for a $180,000 loan is just not in the cards.)

In other home-related news, our landlord is the best we've ever had. He gave us permission to put eight small raised beds in the backyard, and we've been eating salad and greens from them for about a week now. (Yummmmmmm.) I also have a brand-spanking-new dryer vent. The old one was the no-no-big-time-fire-hazard-white-vinyl installed when the house was build fifteen years ago, and never cleaned. If my dryer's high-limit thermostat hadn't worked as intended, shutting off the dryer's heating element before the vent caught fire, I'd have been blogging to a very different tune by now. The "we're all okay, but we've lost everything in the fire" refrain. Photos and details and an illustrative video will ensue.

I've just finished a beginning weaving class, which I really enjoyed. It was with Kristie of the Weaving Room at Bluster Bay Woodworks, and she did a great job. (Being a textiles teacher at the University of Alaska for a couple decades helps with that.) I have an eight-foot scarf woven in decently-recognizable herringbone tweed to show for it, and quite a few hours logged on Schacht's new Wolf Pup loom. I really do enjoy weaving, and would love to do more . . . but I'm not taking on any new hobbies/tasks/adventures until after the house is built and my impending mother-of-a-newborn status has passed. Home construction is a full-time endeavor; adding a new baby to that is going to be interesting. ;o) When the time comes, though, that I purchase a loom, it will probably be either a Wolf Pup or a Baby Wolf. The Pup has a few disadvantages (like harnesses that are at the complete upper limit of width without a center support), but it's a great "little" loom with a really conservative footprint, and I found it very easy to use.

I'm just coming out of a verrrrrry long stint with a sinus infection. Like two weeks. Nasty bug, that one, that brought it on. Vern and MrC are still working on kicking it. One great serendipity, though, was I got several solid days of knitting in while stuck on the couch, directing traffic. (Thanks so much, Mom, for helping so much!) I've knit two WHW Trim Soakers, one adorable Owlie Sleep Sack set, and I'm finishing up my fourth pair of Nifty Knickers. (A bottom-up version, which will be posted for free in my Rav pattern store soon.) Photos and more info to come, as well as Rav project entries for all of the above. (Those are Ravelry links, so anyone reading who hasn't yet signed up at Ravelry, please feel free. There's no longer any waiting. :o) Newborn knitting is just so fun and fast; you use incredibly luscious yarns, on teensy tiny sweet little things, and get to finish really fast. It's a beautiful thing.

I've been dreaming about starting a Granny Stripes Afghan, crocheting along with Lucy of Attic24, but haven't yet found a natural fiber DK-weight yarn that will survive my daughter and leave me with a penny to my name. It's got to be less than about $6.50/4oz, be less than 50% acrylic, and have a wide range of brilliant colors. Any ideas?

Hmmmm . . . what else? Those seem to be "the biggies", as my Mom would say. I've just been feeling in just a little over my head, but have been provided with a tremendous amount of help, in many forms. (Thanks so much, Mom . . . ) And now that I've given you the debriefing, I've got an outline for the next half dozen posts or so. I love it when that happens . . .

Hopefully I'll get back to blogging a little more regularly. I've always got thoughts running through my head, complete with ideas for photos and posts, but time all-too often simply does not allow.

Quote of the Day

2010-05-31T12:30:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of a Ravatar*

ENGLISH: A language that lurks in dark alleys, beats up other languages, and rifles through their pockets for spare vocabulary.

Mwah-ha-hah-haaaaa . . . .

*A Raveler's avatar.

Reasons Why I Homeschool: #15

2010-04-02T10:38:00.000-07:00

A basic understanding of geology is already a part of their education. Guam doesn't float.

My apologies for the painful experience listening to that video . . . but the best part was the Marine officer's response: "We don't anticipate that . . . " His self-control far exceeded what I would have been able to maintain . . .

Why I Homeschool: Reason #37

2010-03-27T22:59:00.000-07:00

Every time I turn around, I'm reading a blog post by a mother whose child's behavioral/emotional problems (often severe) were completely eradicated by keeping them home. Every other time I turn around, I'm hearing from someone I know how their child was literally saved by homeschooling . . . how at school they either had already completed or were in the process of becoming someone completely different from who they were (drastic personality changes for the worse, social influences taking them on paths 180-degrees from their parents' guidance, etc), and once they stopped the school attendance, their beloved child reemerged.

Just talking to DawnEtta, an old and solid friend from another town, during a chance meeting at the store, I learned that her junior-high-aged daughter will not be attending high school in their small town. And that her elementary-aged daughter would not even be attending junior high, as she has watched that very thing happen with other children.

The answer to family problems is not distance. It is proximity. Increased time together. Firm limits. Plenty of time to talk and connect. And the elimination of the influences which were destroying your child. DawnEtta is taking preemptive action to ensure her daughters' emotional and psychological safety--and I applaud her for it.

Parents, if your child is struggling at school (or struggling, period), don't think for a second that the limited time in the evenings and weekends will be sufficient to rescue them. While in college, I ran across a quote that I'll never forget:

"If you spend 15 minutes a day with God, and 16 hours on stuff, is it any wonder that stuff is more real than God?"

We each determine our own reality by where we choose to focus our time. This is as true for children as it is for adults . . . but vitally more influential as they are still making life-determining choices in their development which determine their world view. Those choices can be reset, but it takes a lot of time and a lot of work. More time than we have in the evenings and weekends. The pull of peers is frighteningly strong . . . and it's positively horrifying if our children have chosen peers that actively pull them away from the ideals and standards we have worked so hard to instill.

When children spend eight-plus hours each day in company with their peers, and a total of two or three actually in our presence*, is it any wonder that the world their peers present is more real than ours?

*Even though children may spend nearly the same number of hours away from school as at school, those hours are eaten up by personal pursuits, extra-curricular activities, TV/video/computer/screen time, showering, texting/talking on the phone with friends, etc. If lucky, families of school-attending children get two hours of good "face time" together each day between meals and conscious and careful use of evenings.

Once a child has chosen peers who pull counter to their family's healthy culture, even moving them to a new school (or moving the family to a new city) doesn't usually do the trick . . . for the child will seek out similar peers in their new environment.

Parents, please, invest in your children. If you see your child struggling, don't leave them in the maw of the social dynamic at school, where they are either being showered with (or choosing to drink from) an emotional cesspool. Bring them home. Love them. Keep them close . . . even if it takes months for them to stop being resentful for taking away all of the things which they had chosen to define themselves. It is the job of a parent to guide their children, providing clearly defined and rock-hard limits, so each child can learn and grow towards a happy and healthy adulthood.

Sometimes our children want what's not only not good, but actively damaging for them. We don't let them drink anti-freeze, so why should we allow them to continue (or, heaven forbid, facilitate!) their destructive behavior?

(Please note: this is written from my perspective: that of a devout Christian mother. Whatever your beliefs, studies have shown that children taught strong ethics and given a well-defined framework (whether religious or not) from which to understand the world tend to grow into much stronger, more confident adults. I welcome questions and opposing views, so long as they are structured respectfully and constructively. Calling me bigoted and narrow-minded might make you feel better, but it does nothing to help me understand what your issue might be, or how we could continue the dialogue in such a way as to come to a better understanding. Thank you.)

Why I Unschool

2010-03-19T08:09:00.000-07:00

"If every child was unschooled -- given the chance to explore and discover and learn in the real world what they love to do, what they're uniquely good at doing, and what the world needs that they care about -- then we would have a world of self-confident, creative, informed, empowered, networked entrepreneurs doing work that needs to be done, successfully. We would have armies of people collaborating to solve the problems and crises facing our world, instead of going home exhausted at the end of the day seeking escape, feeling helpless to do anything that is meaningful to them or to the world. We would have a world of producers instead of consumers, a world of abundance instead of scarcity, a world of diversity instead of what Terry Glavin calls "a dark and gathering sameness". We would have a world of young people choosing their lives instead of taking what they can get, what they can afford, what is offered to them. We would have a world of people who are nobody-but-themselves, and who know who they are, and how to live and make a living for themselves."

--Dave Pollard, An Unschooling Manifesto

That is the kind of human being unschooling produces. Those are the children I am raising to adulthood, one at a time. I can only influence a few human beings in my lifetime . . . why would I send those over whom I have the most influence into an environment that has, so crushingly and universally, turned out exactly what our "Real World" does not need?

As Sir Ken Robinson so astutely stated, the children going into school now will be retiring in 2075. None of us have the faintest idea what the world will look like then. Honestly, there aren't many who belong to the older generations (or my own, for that matter) who really understand what the world is like right now. Educating our children in a structure designed by 19th Century Prussian socialists to turn out obedient public servants is one of the highest disservices we can offer our children in the name of preparing them for the "real world". The classroom has its place . . . but only in small and measured doses, and when the student chooses freely to go . . . and is free at any time to leave.

The Real World I was warned about, educated for, and made to worry about in my own schooling doesn't exist for me. It never has. It was the Real World of my high school teachers . . . and even if there are some for whom that world construct still serves, it never served for me. I have always chosen to remain outside of it. The dark and gathering sameness has never attracted me. The dawning light of new understanding, the striving and sweating to reach new heights, the call of a better way that the limping gait of culture have always kept me forging ahead elsewhere.

Each of us makes our own Real World, full of possibilities, priorities, paths and pastimes. Why on earth should we be educated identically?

On Randonimity

2010-03-18T21:30:00.000-07:00

Just a friendly reminder: this blog is a reflection of parts of my life. (Mostly the hobby and intellectual pursuits parts.) It has been random most of the time, filled with whatever I happen to be doing. I hope that those of you who may have gotten on board way back when for knitting content have found things to interest you, and those who are along for the ride are enjoying it. I know I am. :o)

Onward and upwards, friends. Who knows what will be next?

Some laughs on a sunny day.

2010-03-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

see more Epic Fails

see more Epic Fails

see more Epic Fails

And finally, yet one MORE reason to keep your kids OUT of the public schools:

see more Epic Fails

Even if you're not a grammar whiz, you can show your children how to use the Grammar Checker. ;o)

Have a great day!

This is How I Know.

2010-03-13T07:00:00.000-08:00

My kids learn what they need to know, and it's easy to see it.

Down with Schooling, Up with Education!

2010-03-12T15:02:00.001-08:00

Quote of the day, by John Taylor Gatto:

"From a system perspective, schooling makes a neatly manageable mass. Education makes efficient but dangerous men and women."

Here's to dangerous men and women. :o)

RS&RB in CDA!!!

2010-03-04T21:00:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone who lives anywhere close to me . . . one of my favorite bands of all time, Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band, is coming to both Spokane and Coeur d' Alene weekend after next. Advance tickets are $2 less, and the CDA venue is only about 400 seats, so we're not waiting until we get there to buy ours.

The details and ticket purchase info are linked above (click on the city name for each event page), and here's an intro to RS&RB, in case you haven't yet experienced their music. (Just too much fun . . . I love it!)

Here's another fun video that only has a link: http://www.shupe.net/ecard/

And if you want more Shupe, here's Facebook, their blog, and the official RS&RB Site.

Hard, hard work.

2010-02-27T09:23:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time working on our ever-evolving house plan. Things are coming along (sorry, but I'm not going to post floor plans online . . . that just weirds me out for some reason), and I got to spend more time than was probably necessary "researching" studio/craft room layout and renovations. I discovered some very definite trends in the images that drew me.

1. Even though the decorating fashionistas say colored walls are going the way of the dinosaur, I love clear, clean, bright, airy blues and greens with white, ivory or black cabinetry.

2. I must have concealed/restful-to-the-eye storage. Kitchen cabinetry, closets, workstations with cabinets and drawers, etc. In order to feel creative and peaceful, I can't be looking at every craft item I own. I've discovered I'm a very visual person, so while it's really important for me to be able to see what I have at a glance, most of it simply must be behind closed doors.

3. At least a 10' x 12' room for the work surface necessary for really thorough scrapping/crafting/sewing/etc, and for friends to come over and "play". 12'x 12' would be wonderful. (I know a lot of you are probably thinking "Only 12' x 12'? That's tiny!", but when we've got five children to house as well (and Vern really needs an office to facilitate pay for all of this) I find it hard to insist on a room that's as large as one of the childrens' bedrooms. (It'll probably end up being larger than the master bedroom, though! lol)

Here are some of my favorites . . . (now, if One Pretty Thing would just post another Craft Room Redo roundup!) I'll start with the rooms who have elements I really love.

Cathe Holden's creative space, from a profile at Craft.

I was kind of surprised that I liked this one, because it's definitely the busiest of my favorites. I just love the color, and the way she uses vintage mail sorters and card catalog files to provide homes for everything.

Yvonne's Bright White Sewing Room, at Apartment Therapy.

I've discovered that I just love bookcases with square cubbies. I can hardly bear it. lol I'll have to make my own out of green plywood (no voc-glues are a must around here). I won't have a basement space (her transformation is incredible!), but I love the way she makes things large, clean, and bright with lots of white.

Here's one from the Handmade Spaces Flickr Pool, belonging to Lavender and Limes, featured on the Modish blog.

Pink walls and another Ikea bookcase. Sigh . . . lovely.

And now, onto the winners in the "Overall Look and Feel" category. In no particular order:

HGTV had a great little collection of rooms I adored. Here's the first, from Ingregory, whose photo was on Rate My Space (HGTV sure made it hard to link to these! Sorry I couldn't give better attribution):

The incredibly blue, set off by the restful black cabinetry and desk, are simply lovely.

Next up is Nichole's efficient and excellently-designed small-room makeover. (This was a 9' x 10' bedroom!)

You need to head over to her blog to see more photos . . . she posted tons of them, and showed off her excellent use of cabinetry, keeping a very small space feeling open and uncluttered. I simply <3 her arrangement here.

Wookiemouse had a photo on HGTV, with more cabinets. I love the shiny chrome-topped jars in her glass-fronted cabinets.

And Valentine's Stampin' Space gave me some excellent ideas . . . the banks of Very Useful Boxes, and slim shelves with chubby little spice bottles filled my deep inner need for abundance in a most satisfying way. ;o)

I found Valentine's craft space at the Crafty Storage blog . . . and I could get lost there for days . . .

Vanessa Coppola's space really profiled over at Craft appeals to me, too.

(Although I must admit that her glossy green songbird and macro shot of pinchable-chubby Ikea spice jars were home runs. :o)

And finally, I've saved my absolute favorite for last. Kari's lovely room at her blog Spring Chick Designs.

Some of you may recognize that photo . . . it was on Ikea Hacker, Apartment Therapy, and probably a few more. You need to go check out her space, and see what a wonderful place it is . . . and all in a 12' x 12' room, too. (She gives me hope.)

And finally, what started all of this was an old article in a Creative Home Magazine (sadly now discontinued, sniffle, sniffle), of a living room makeover that included a crafting corner. I've got this one filed under "Craft Room of my Dreams". :o)

It's a smallish-scan, but it gives you an idea. While it's no longer my all-time favorite (Kari's and Nichole's are my top two.) And, while I won't post a floor plan, you can bet your bobbins I'll post photos of finished spaces in a year or so when the whole thing is done!

So, with these percolating in my head, I'm off to try to make something of my Saturday morning . . . wish me luck!

Calling all Pun-lovers

2010-02-24T13:33:00.000-08:00

I love it. :o)

Be not faint of heart . . .

2010-02-21T19:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I was privileged to attend a special series of meetings, essentially a micro-conference, for the women in my stake. Titled "The Divine Light Within", I was able to attend an opening and closing service and three smaller classes in between, and came away fairly glowing with the spirit of what was said, and the powerful principles of which I had been reminded. The following quote was shared in a class titled "Be Happy Anyway," and is probably the most memorable quote of the day. Spoken by Elder Neil A. Maxwell in the April 1991 General Conference, it rings with his distinctive sincerity, love, and piercing clarity:

"Therefore, how can you and I really expect to glide naively through life, as if to say, 'Lord, give me experience, but not grief, not sorrow, not pain, not opposition, not betrayal, and certainly not to be forsaken. Keep from me, Lord, all those experiences which made Thee what Thou art! Then let me come and dwell with Thee and fully share Thy joy!'" (From "Lest ye Be Wearied and Faint in Your Minds", by Elder Neil A. Maxwell).

I hope you all have a wonderful week! (But I hope it won't be that long 'til I post again . . . :o)

Bob's Red Mill Owner Gives Away Company

2010-02-18T16:38:00.000-08:00

This man knows what it means to be a Christian. (You'll have no idea what I'm talking about unless you read that link. :o)

And, lest you think I'm anti-freedom, let me explain.

The Law of Moses, which for most of my life I just thought to be a bunch of nanny-laws and mindless restrictions (such as detailing the number of steps you can go on the Sabbath, unless it's to retrieve something you've lost or dropped), is in actuality a body of laws teaching only one thing: lovingly care for one another (a.k.a. no greediness allowed!). A prime example:

"In passing through any field or vineyard in Israel, anyone was free to take what he needed if he was hungry (as the Lord and the apostles did; Mark 2:23); if the owner denied him that, he was breaking the law; if the person took more than he needed for lunch, then he was breaking the law–it was still manna (Deuteronomy 23:24–25). When gathering harvest, said the law, never go back to make sure that you have taken all the olives, grapes, or grain of your farm to the barn or to the press. That may be sound business practice, but the Lord forbids it. Some of it must always be left for those who might need it. From the wine and olive presses we get the word "extortion," meaning to squeeze out the last drop, another way to make a margin of profit–putting the squeeze on, wringing out the last drop. The Latter–day Saints, like the ancient Israelites, are to accept God's gifts gratefully and not "by extortion" (D&C 59:20)."

(Quoted from an awesome resource for understanding this concept further. Hit "Page Down" four times to "Moses Distributes the Lunch". Quote is the 11th paragraph of that section.)

In our highly-industrialized modern world, it is more difficult to do this, as money is such a touchy subject and a highly corruptible thing. It's a lot harder to turn a loaf of bread or a home-cooked dinner into a pint of whiskey or a joint of marijuana than it is to turn money into such a thing. But I think that Bob Moore has the story straight. His original plan was to retire to Oregon a couple decades ago and learn to read the Bible in its original languages . . . but I think that he has done far more good in the world by listening to the desire born in him and building Bob's Red Mill into what it is today. Now, the employees not only have a way to feed their families as the years go by, but have a guaranteed retirement plan when they're done working, essentially being bought out when they retire. I think that's tremendous. And Bob's got a good few years left in him to help them transition and to see that his plans are executed in the spirit in which they were given. :o)

Good job, Bob. The world needs more men like you.

Farmhouse Dreaming: Dining Room Inspiration

2010-02-17T15:07:00.000-08:00

So, as I've begun to work on home plans, often wanting to bang my head against a real brick wall, instead of an energetic/emotional one, I've started collecting images for inspiration, to remind me what I want to plan for, and why this whole process is going to be So. Worth. It.

Here are two of my favorite contenders for dining room storage, images scanned from an old Pottery Barn catalog that fell as one of the casualties of one of our many moves. (And Pottery Barn should thank me for posting these, as it's free advertising for their Logan Collection.) I absolutely looooove the robin's egg blue china in the first one . . .

I love the simple lines, and the way that the monochromatic dishes turn into sculptures on the shelf.

And, thanks to Ana* over at Knock Off Wood, I'll be building this myself . . . either from her plans, or ones I modify from coordinating plans she has already done, if she doesn't have all of these components planned out by the time I need them. :o)

(*Why is it that a couple of my favorite bloggers have names similar to mine? Hmmm? I think it's a sign. We of the clan of An(n)a are pretty cool. ;o)

Babies are the same the world over . . .

2010-02-17T08:46:00.001-08:00

as this home video shows. :o)

The Night I Met Einstein, by Jerome Weidman

2010-02-16T18:59:00.000-08:00

When I was a very young man, just beginning to make my way, I was invited to dine at the home of a distinguished New York philanthropist. After dinner our hostess led us to an enormous drawing room. Other guests were pouring in, and my eyes beheld two unnerving sights: servants were arranging small gilt chairs in long, neat rows; and up front, leaning against the wall, were musical instruments. Apparently I was in for an evening of Chamber music.

I use the phrase “in for” because music meant nothing to me. I am almost tone deaf. Only with great effort can I carry the simplest tune, and serious music was to me no more than an arrangement of noises. So I did what I always did when trapped: I sat down and when the music started I fixed my face in what I hoped was an expression of intelligent appreciation, closed my ears from the inside and submerged myself in my own completely irrelevant thoughts.

After a while, becoming aware that the people around me were applauding, I concluded it was safe to unplug my ears. At once I heard a gentle but surprisingly penetrating voice on my right.
“You are fond of Bach?” the voice said.

I knew as much about Bach as I know about nuclear fission. But I did know one of the most famous faces in the world, with the renowned shock of untidy white hair and the ever-present pipe between the teeth. I was sitting next to Albert Einstein.

“Well,” I said uncomfortably, and hesitated. I had been asked a casual question. All I had to do was be I equally casual in my reply. But I could see from the look in my neighbor’s extraordinary eyes that their owner was not merely going through the perfunctory duties of elementary politeness. Regardless of what value I placed on my part in the verbal exchange, to this man his part in it mattered very much. Above all, I could feel that this was a man to whom you did not tell a lie, however small.

“I don’t know anything about Bach,” I said awkwardly. “I’ve never heard any of his music.”
A look of perplexed astonishment washed across Einstein’s mobile face.

“You have never heard Bach?”
He made it sound as though I had said I’d never taken a bath.

“It isn’t that I don’t want to like Bach,” I replied hastily. “It’s just that I’m tone deaf, or almost tone deaf, and I’ve never really heard anybody’s music.”

A look of concern came into the old man’s face. “Please,” he said abruptly, “You will come with me?”

He stood up and took my arm. I stood up. As he led me across that crowded room I kept my embarrassed glance fixed on the carpet. A rising murmur of puzzled speculation followed us out into the hall. Einstein paid no attention to it.

Resolutely he led me upstairs. He obviously knew the house well. On the floor above he opened the door into a book-lined study, drew me in and shut the door.

“Now,” he said with a small, troubled smile. “You will tell me, please, how long you have felt this way about music?”

“All my life,” I said, feeling awful. “I wish you would go back downstairs and listen, Dr. Einstein. The fact that I don’t enjoy it doesn’t matter.”

He shook his head and scowled, as though I had introduced an irrelevance.

“Tell me, please,” he said. “Is there any kind of music that you do like?”

“Well,” I answered, “I like songs that have words, and the kind of music where I can follow the tune.”

He smiled and nodded, obviously pleased. “You can give me an example, perhaps?”

“Well,” I ventured, “almost anything by Bing Crosby.”

He nodded again, briskly. “Good!”

He went to a corner of the room, opened a phonograph and started pulling out records. I watched him uneasily. At last he beamed. “Ah!” he said.

He put the record on and in a moment the study was filled with the relaxed, lilting strains of Bing Crosby’s “When the Blue of the Night Meets the Gold of the Day.” Einstein beamed at me and kept time with the stem of his pipe. After three or four phrases he stopped the phonograph.

“Now,” he said. “Will you tell me, please, what you have just heard?”

The simplest answer seemed to be to sing the lines. I did just that, trying desperately to stay on tune and keep my voice from cracking. The expression on Einstein’s face was like the sunrise.

“You see!” he cried with delight when I finished. “You do have an ear!”
I mumbled something about this being one of my favorite songs, something I had heard hundreds of times, so that it didn’t really prove anything.

“Nonsense!” said Einstein. “It proves everything! Do you remember your first arithmetic lesson in school? Suppose, at your very first contact with numbers, your teacher had ordered you to work out a problem in, say, long division or fractions. Could you have done so?”

“No, of course not.”

“Precisely!” Einstein made a triumphant wave with his pipestem. “It would have been impossible and you would have reacted in panic. you would have closed your mind to long division and fractions. As a result, because of that one small mistake by your teacher, it is possible your whole life you would be denied the beauty of long division and fractions.” The pipestem went up and out in another wave. “But on your first day no teacher would be so foolish. He would start you with elementary things--then, when you had acquired skill with the simplest problems, he would lead you up to long division and to fractions. So it is with music.” Einstein picked up the Bing Crosby record. “This simple, charming little song is like simple addition or subtraction. You have mastered it. Now we go on to something more complicated.”

He found another record and set it going. The golden voice of John McCormack singing “The Trumpeter” filled the room. After a few lines Einstein stopped the record.

“So!” he said. “You will sing that back to me, please?”

I did--with a good deal of selfconsciousness but with, for me, a surprising degree of accuracy. Einstein stared at me with a look on his face that I had seen only once before in my life: on the face of my father as he listened to me deliver the valedictory address at my high school graduation.

“Excellent!” Einstein remarked when I finished. “Wonderful! Now this!”

“This” proved to be Caruso in what was to me a completely unrecognizable fragment from “Cavalleria Rusticana.” Nevertheless, I managed to reproduce an approximation of the sounds the famous tenor had made. Einstein beamed his approval.

Caruso was followed by at least a dozen others. I could not shake my feeling of awe over the way this great man, into whose company I had been thrown by chance, was completely preoccupied by what we were doing, as though I were his sole concern.

We came at last to recordings of music without words, which I was instructed to reproduce by humming. When I reached for a high note, Einstein’s mouth opened and his head went back as if to help me attain what seemed unattainable. Evidently I came close enough, for he suddenly turned off the phonograph.

“Now, young man,” he said, putting his arm through mine. “We are ready for Bach!”

As we returned to our seats in the drawing room, the players were tuning up for a new selection. Einstein smiled and gave me a reassuring pat on the knee.

“Just allow yourself to listen,” he whispered. “That is all.”

It wasn’t really all, of course. Without the effort he had just poured out for a total stranger I would never have heard, as I did that night for the first time in my life, Bach’s “Sheep May Safely Graze.” I have heard it many times since. I don’t think I shall ever tire of it. Because I never listen to it alone. I am sitting beside a small, round man with a shock of untidy white hair, a dead pipe clamped between his teeth, and eyes that contain in their extraordinary warmth all the wonder of the world.

When the concert was finished I added my genuine applause to that of the others. Suddenly our hostess confronted us. “I’m so sorry, Dr. Einstein,” she said with an icy glare at me, “that you missed so much of the performance.”

Einstein and I came hastily to our feet. “I am sorry, too,” he said. “My young friend here and I, however, were engaged in the greatest activity of which man is capable.”

She looked puzzled. “Really?” she said. “And what is that?”

Einstein smiled and put his arm across my shoulders. And he uttered ten words that--for at least one person who is in his endless debt--are his epitaph:

“Opening up yet another fragment of the frontier of beauty.”

--Jerome Weidman

A Simple way to avoid SIDS

2010-02-15T16:46:00.000-08:00

I've never been asked to face the challenge of losing a child. Miscarriage, yes. Death of one of my children, no. My heart goes out to those who have lost a tiny, precious member of their family to SIDS. And that's why I'm posting this short article.

Please read it. I'll wait right here.

Wrapping a baby's mattress is such a simple thing to do. Whether or not you've lost a baby to SIDS, you have nothing to lose. The materials are inexpensive for DIY'ers, and it's dead-simple to do. If you don't have a tiny baby, please post this on your blog so more parents can know that they have a simple way to protect their babies from the dangerous gases that cause SIDS.

Lately Overheard

2010-02-09T17:03:00.001-08:00

Between my 4yo, Lil'MissL, and her 4yo friend, MissM:

MissM: "I got this hat fow Chrwistmas. It was made fwom an Indian in Pewu."

Lil'MissL: "Huh? Then how did you get it to your house?"

Good for a gray day.

2010-01-29T08:33:00.000-08:00

These two were so tuckered out from something or other . . .

Hope your day is a good one!

So. Random.

2010-01-28T13:39:00.000-08:00

I have about fifty blog posts run through my head in a given day. And time for about .374 posts/day.

I love books. Right now I would love to tell Amazon to send me about fourteen. My juvenile library is pathetic, and already exhausted. But. I currently have no library, so they would need to live in cardboard boxes until I build one. Which will probably not be finished until about a year from now. I think the kids and I are going to the library today. Very, very soon.

I'm an ENFJ. Vern is an INTJ. (Supposedly we're really ill-matched. ;o) Luckily, knowing how our personalities differ makes it possible for us to eke out an existence together.

What are you?

If you'd like to help, but don't know quite how . . .

2010-01-18T12:36:00.000-08:00

If you'd like to help with the disaster efforts in Haiti, I would encourage you do to so. Here are two ways you can:

1) Donate to the LDS Humanitarian Aid Fund. 100% of donations go to disaster relief, and we have one of the world's best track records in actually getting the supplies to those who need them.

2) Donate to Doctors Without Borders via the Yarn Harlot's Knitters Without Borders campaign. I highly respect DWB and what they do, and if you're not comfortable donating to an organization with a religious affiliation, this is the one I recommend.

While I don't have TV/Cable, I understand that damage in Port au Prince is devastating. Please, take a minute to think about something you could easily go without buying this next week or month, and then go make a donation. The babies being born in Port au Prince, those who are just being found after days of entrapment in rubble, and countless others will be blessed by your small sacrifice.

I live such a blessed, easy, prosperous life.

And THAT's the Rest of the Story . . .

2010-01-15T15:37:00.000-08:00

Curtis & Leroy saw an ad in the Starkville Daily News Newspaper in Starkville, MS and bought a mule for $100. The farmer agreed to deliver the mule the next day. The next morning the farmer drove up and said, "Sorry, fellows, I have some bad news, the mule died last night."

Curtis & Leroy replied, "Well, then just give us our money back."

The farmer said, "Can't do that. I went and spent it already."

They said, "OK then, just bring us the dead mule."

The farmer asked, "What in the world ya'll gonna do with a dead mule?"

Curtis said, "We gonna raffle him off."

The farmer said, "You can't raffle off a dead mule!"

Leroy said, "We shore can! Heck, we don't hafta tell nobody he's dead!"

A couple of weeks later, the farmer ran into Curtis &Leroy at the Piggly Wiggly grocery store and asked. "What'd you fellers ever do with that dead mule?"

They said,"We raffled him off like we said we wuz gonna do."

Leroy said,"Shucks, we sold 500 tickets fer two dollars apiece and made a profit of $898."

The farmer said,"Good Heavens, didn't anyone complain?"

Curtis said, "Well, the feller who won got upset. So we gave him his two dollars back."

Curtis and Leroy now work for the government.

They're overseeing the Bailout Program.

Raw Update Journal: It's only the beginning.

2010-01-13T21:13:00.000-08:00

I blogged that I had gone raw . . . blogged that I would continue raw . . . and now I'm making good on the promise to actually tell you all something about it. ;o)

It has been interesting.

First, I'm going to list some of the latest perks:

Since the day we went raw (one month and four weeks ago this Friday), I have lost 14.4 pounds. I'm the only one in my family losing weight . . . Vern is maintaining (he doesn't have anything to lose), and the children are looking healthy and round, and growing just fine.

While I'm not down to the 4-5 hours sleep many raw foodists rave about, I do really well on eight . . . which I haven't been able to do in at least six years.

My pathetic abdominals have really made a good show of finally getting back to their former selves. (With all the other pregnancies, they did so within six months or so on their own . . . this last time, they simply stopped at about six weeks post-partum and refused to improve no matter what I did.)

My irises are getting clearer and lighter in color. This week I noticed the brown inner portion (I have hazel eyes: half green, half brown) is significantly lighter . . . more of a dark straw color than the medium earthy brown they have been all of my life.

My back is getting better all on its own. Nearly two months of treatment in Oregon before the move did little lasting good (although it really helped me feel better while I was going), but once I went raw, it improved dramatically all on its own.

And now, onto some of the actual story . . .

In the beginning, I kept things very simple. VERY simple. I used the recipes at the back of the book 12 Steps to Raw Foods, along with some common sense dishes (fruit or green smoothies, salads, raw muesli, etc). For the first four days or so, I would begin to feel like it was time to eat and start thinking about things I would usually make (grilled salmon, brown rice and salad, for example), and then I'd feel the fear begin to rise. Fear of not knowing what to feed my family, fear of being hungry, fear of who-knows-what. Then I'd think calmly about my handly little book, and start going about the task of feeding everyone.

After a few days, those fearful episodes ceased entirely. I began sleeping better, feeling better, and began (for the first time in a LONG time) to actually feel hungry again. It has been years since I have felt what we all know as hunger. Due to the hypoglycemia, I would go straight from doing fine to shaky and/or headache and/or depressed and/or panic attack. So not fun. Sometimes I even got to feel the draining, sinking feeling as my blood sugar plunged, and to anticipate for a terrible minute or two on what was coming next.

A few days after we made the switch, I was up very, very late on a Saturday night. (I think I got about five hours.) Sunday is a full day for us, with church attendance and service, and the rest filled with family time. It takes a lot of energy, but is the most fulfilling and happy day of the week for me. I was a little less energetic than I had been the preceding days, but compared to what I would have been pre-raw, I was amazed. So was Vern. I've had plenty of short nights since then, and while most of the following days haven't been as great as that Sunday was, they're still like a walk in the park compared to the "bad" days of the past.

I should probably explain just what the "bad" days were like, eh? Okay.

A typical bad day included most of the following, and sometimes all:

Deep fatigue, such that climbing the stairs took all of my energy, made my heart pound, and required rest at the top.
Nearly overwhelming feelings of hopelessness and despair.
Incredibly short temper.
Unkind tones of voice (often completely unnoticed by me until someone pointed it out)
Lots of time spent distracting myself from everything around me.
Deep-level hunger, accompanied by a complete disinterest in eating anything (with the disinterest often bordering on revulsion).

Those, my lovelies, are what hypoglycemia can do to you. Many health professionals call those symptoms "depression" . . . which they are. But depression is not a disease. It is a symptom. And if you change the fuel you give your body, the depression will leave. Whole, raw, complete foods do the trick. I can eat raw, whole fruit smoothies and dates for an entire day, and feel great. No crashes, nada.

Now that I'm past them, it seems easier to talk about them. While stuck in that cycle, the knowledge that my life consisted mostly of these kinds of days felt as though it would crush me . . . it was difficult to be anything like the mother I want to be, and to not be able to see my way out of where I was didn't help. (Yeah. Understatement, that.) I felt like I could never catch up to my husband's and children's needs . . . that I would always be behind them on sleep, mealtimes, everything . . . I wasn't fast enough, strong enough, good enough . . .

And now they're nearly gone. (The bad days, not my husband and children. ;o)

I still have off days every so often. Short nights bring them on, as have times when I've allowed something a little questionable to come into my food supply. (Agave syrup more than once or twice a week in small amounts is not good for me.) But these "off days" are barely even a shadow of what the bad days used to be. Honestly, my off days now are what my really good days were like then. And those good days were only two (or if I was lucky, three) out of seven. Now I'm at least five good days out of seven, and it's really more like six or seven out of seven.

People ask me all the time "Don't you miss _____?", or "Isn't it hard?", or "How can you handle it?"

My response is simple: "Giving up _____ is nothing. I have my life back."

The Economy is Bad, Folks . . .

2010-01-13T11:47:00.000-08:00

How bad? It's so bad that . . .

I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.
I ordered a burger at McDonald's and the kid behind the counter asked, "Can you afford fries with that?"
CEO's are now playing miniature golf.
If the bank returns your check marked "Insufficient Funds," you call them and ask if they meant you or them.
Hot Wheels and Matchbox stocks are trading higher than GM.
McDonald's is selling the 1/4 ouncer.
Parents in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and learned their children's names.
A truckload of Americans was caught sneaking into Mexico .
Dick Cheney took his stockbroker hunting.
Motel Six won't leave the light on anymore.
The Mafia is laying off judges.
Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.
Congress says they are looking into this Bernard Madoff scandal. Oh Great!! The guy who made $50 Billion disappear is being investigated by the people who made $1.5 Trillion disappear!
And, finally...
I was so depressed last night thinking about the economy, wars, jobs, my savings, Social Security, retirement funds, etc., I called the Suicide Lifeline. I got a call center in Pakistan , and when I told them I was suicidal, they got all excited, and asked if I could drive a truck.

(This came via email, without attribution. If anyone knows who came up with these, I'd be happy to add a reference.)

Too Stinkin' Cute!

2010-01-04T10:32:00.000-08:00

So maybe I'm late to the party, but I've just discovered Jinjerup. If you, like me, have wondered where all the cute has gone, (so much for the kids' stuff lately is either plain ugly or licensed advertisement), hop on over to Jinjerup's blog and see for yourself. She's got free printables each week (including adorable little gift boxes and bookmarks), and her use of color is both adorable and sophisticated. Man, I've got to get a color printer . . . yesterday. ;o)

Back to the Future

2010-01-01T20:55:00.000-08:00

It's now officially the year Two Thousand and Ten.

2-0-1-0.

Is it just me, or is there this aura of mystery and living "in the future" around this year? When we were kids, movies were made about years beginning with "Twenty". "What will you be doing in 2010?" seemed to be such a far-off question. But far off it is no longer. Here's what I'll be doing in 2010. How about you? I'd love to hear answers from everyone who sees this . . . just leave me a comment so I know where to go read your answers. :o)

1. Keeping my inobx EMPTY.

2. Continuing to eat a 98% raw diet.

3. Purging more than a decade's worth of stuff.

4. Keeping only what I'll use that I love and/or that will make me happy while I use it.

5. Designing (personally) and constructing (not completely personally) a carriage house, in which we'll live until the house proper is complete. Seven people in a 24'x 36' apartment should be F-U-N, right?

6. Designing said house, and seeing how much we need to save before we can begin. ;o)

7. Putting in a garden large enough to help significantly in feeding my family.

What seven things are you going to do this year?

Ahem.

2009-12-23T21:55:00.000-08:00

Another Oldie but Goodie from the world of email forwards . . .

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A woman, renewing her driver's license at the County Clerk’s office, was asked by the woman recorder to state her occupation.

She hesitated, uncertain how to classify herself.

"What I mean is,” explained the recorder, "do you have a job or are you just a ...."?

"Of course I have a job," snapped the woman.

"I'm a Mom."

"We don't list 'Mom' as an occupation, 'housewife' covers it," said the recorder emphatically.

I forgot all about her story until one day I found myself in the same situation, this time at our own Town Hall. The Clerk was obviously a career woman, poised, efficient, and possessed of a high sounding title like, "Official Interrogator" or "Town Registrar."

"What is your occupation?" she probed.

What made me say it? I do not know. The words simply popped out. "I'm a Research Associate in the field of Child Development and Human Relations."

The clerk paused, ball-point pen frozen in midair and looked up as though she had not heard right.

I repeated the title slowly emphasizing the most significant words. Then I stared with wonder as my pronouncement was written, in bold, black ink on the official questionnaire.

"Might I ask," said the clerk with new interest, "just what you do in your field?"

Coolly, without any trace of fluster in my voice, I heard myself reply, "I have a continuing program of research, (what mother doesn't) in the laboratory and in the field, (normally I would have said indoors and out). I'm working for my Masters, (first the Lord and then the whole family) and already have four credits (all daughters). Of course, the job is one of the most demanding in the humanity ties, (any mother care to disagree?) and I often work 14 hours a day, (24 is more like it). But the job is more challenging than most run-of-the-mill careers and the rewards are more of a satisfaction rather than just money."

There was an increasing note of respect in the clerk's voice as she completed the form, stood up, and personally ushered me to the door.

As I drove into our driveway, buoyed up by my glamorous new career, I was greeted by my lab assistants -- ages 13, 7, and 3...
Upstairs I could hear our new experimental model, (a 6 month old baby) in the child development program, testing out a new vocal pattern.

I felt I had scored a beat on bureaucracy! And I had gone on the official records as someone more distinguished and indispensable to mankind than "just another Mom." Motherhood! What a glorious career!

Does this make grandmothers "Senior Research associates in the field of Child Development and Human Relations?"

And great grandmothers "Executive Senior Research Associates?"

I think so!

I also think it makes Aunts "Associate Research Assistants."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

We interrupt this program . . .

2009-12-18T10:21:00.000-08:00

to bring you one of the neatest Ikea hacks I've ever seen . . .

a yarn swift. :o)

It wouldn't be hard to drill a few more holes, to make the skein size adjustable. Man, I do miss living near Ikea . . .

Vegetables in Winter?

2009-12-17T15:29:00.000-08:00

So I've just ordered this book:

And I'm not sure I can adequately express how excited I am. (I know, I know. Vegetables. In winter. That's what the grocery store is supposed to be for.) But I've been seriously uncomfortable with getting all of our food from mostly unknown sources, exposed to who knows what (pollution, unwashed hands, the treatments allowed under the "organic" label), and harvested long, long ago. A Safeway produce lady told me they warehouse their produce for two weeks before it gets to the store. I was astounded. Not only does that mean it doesn't keep (good for them, I guess), but the nutritional value is pretty much gone by then. Safeway successfully changes fresh, reasonably healthy produce into empty calories. With fiber.

Since most of our diet is now fruits and vegetables (along with sprouted nuts & seeds, and fermented foods), the idea of providing our own, even in winter, is wildly attractive. (Have you SEEN the prices of organic produce lately? Ay yi yi.) And as our growing season here is between 4-5 months, knowing how to continue to provide for ourselves gives me this great, warm feeling inside.

So, I'll let you know what I think of this book. It seems to be the small-scale farm version of his Four Season Harvest, which I really really love. Elliot Coleman has a respect for, and understanding of, the earth, its seasons, plants, and their needs. The kind of understanding that I'm eager to gain; first through study, and then through faith*.

(You know, I really should probably post a few book reviews of books I actually ready lately . . . like Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Thy Gold to Refine, 12 Steps to Raw Foods, Signature Family Dishes, Kabul Beauty School, La Hacienda, or any of the fourteen Georgette Heyer novels I devoured during the first half of the year. Requests on which goes first welcome.)

*My definition of Faith: a belief which moves one to action, or the application of knowledge gained by teaching (as opposed to the knowledge gained by experience). Faith is work--the application of principles learned and the true test of a principles truthfulness or validity.

Lemme Hear Whoop! Whoop!

2009-12-08T11:04:00.001-08:00

Google has delivered.

Chrome Beta for Mac is live.

All y'all Mac users out there, go and try it out. Clean, light, and darn fast. And Google's home page logo today is a kick, to boot.

Have a great week!

And so . . .

2009-11-29T20:14:00.000-08:00

About two weeks ago "12 Steps to Raw Foods" by Victoria Boutenko arrived from Amazon. It finally filled in the gaps, and made raw foods accessible and comprehensible . . . it was a book on color theory when all the other recipe books and blogs I had read were more like paint-by-number kits. (A review of 12 Steps to Raw Foods to come . . . )

Here's what I've noticed after ten days on a very nearly 100% raw menu:

1. My back is FINALLY beginning to heal. I didn't stop to think about how much better it is until I noticed a broad white "healing line" through the darker area of my right iris which corresponds to my lower back. (Iridology fascinates me, btw.) That made me stop and think about how long it has been since I really hurt . . . and it has been quite a few days. (Five-ish.) The change in diet and a slightly firmer bed have really been a good combination. (Fwiw, we were sleeping on a firmer surface before the diet change, but it didn't help much.)

2. I'm rested when I wake up in the morning. Sometimes waking up is still tough, but it's NOTHING like the days of severe hypoglycemia. Within a few minutes, I feel cheerful, and have a reasonable amount of energy (total shocker for me). Oh, and a huge bonus: I no longer have nasty morning-mouth. That was a recent development (started about a year ago), and it's just lovely to have it gone.

3. My body is able to restore itself during sleep in a manner completely different than anything I've experienced in the last three years. Or, come to think of, since I don't know when. Possibly before the critically-sleep-deprived days of high school. The last two nights, I've woken up to the baby's cries before Vern stirred at all, got up to take care of whatever it was he needed without feeling depressed or frighteningly weak or like my back would literally not hold me up, and woke up the next morning feeling better than the nights two weeks ago when I didn't have interruptions. When I don't get sufficient sleep, I'm still tired, but it's wholly physical now . . . I'm no longer a hostile, depressed, snarling wreck. (My family is glad. lolol) Last night was a chopped 7.5 hour night. A solid 1.5 hour deficit from what I really have needed lately to feel reasonable solid during the day. Today has been a phenomenal day.

4. I no longer am driven by food cravings. I know I can eat all I want of whatever whole, good, fresh food I want (even if it's nothing but dates for a couple days, which I nearly did), and when I find myself hungry and wanting to root through the fridge, I know from experience that I'll find what will truly satisfy my hunger. It's a secure, solid feeling. Gone are the days of being driven nearly crazy by a deep hunger, not seeing anything that tempted me. (Barring frozen desserts and chocolate, which quieted the hunger, but never silenced it.)

5. I'm slowly dropping weight. I shed about five pounds of retained water the first two days (which was more than I could do, even with dieting, before!), and have lost a few ounces each day since then, except for Thanksgiving Day, and the two days bracketing it. Those three days I included a small amount of cooked foods, and I simply maintained. Not too bad, though, considering what has happened in the past to myself, and others. (T-day I had a 1" x 1.5" piece of turkey, no refined sugar, a couple small helpings of maple-syrup sweet potatoes, and lots of salad.)

6. My moods have been milder, lighter, happier, nicer, and far more buoyant than they have in a looooong, looooooooooong time. I'm a woman of no small will or drive . . . but depression really had me pinned the last few years. Even the last year and a half, living in such a great spot in Oregon with such great people as friends, I struggled. It has been so good to really want to smile, and then to smile and feel that smile grow and strengthen and deepen until it fills my entire body. Smiling at people today during church was so fun . . . especially complete strangers who seemed down, worried, or reserved. I'd smile at them, looking them in the eye, and I could see my happiness enter their hearts, and then break out over their faces. That alone is worth giving up every cooked, traditional, lovely comfort food I ever knew. Driving home from church today, Vern turned to me and said: "I've never seen you this happy." I replied: "I don't think I've ever felt this happy in my whole life."

I know things won't be smooth sailing. Life happens. People will have trouble with this choice I've made, even though I will do all I can to make sure those I love and interact with (who need to know my eating habits, lol) know that this is something I've done wholly for my own well-being, and is not something that I expect them to cater to, listen to, or (heaven forbid), have forced on them. My body simply wouldn't do what I need it to do eating the way I had been (and by American standards, I was eating darn good foods: organic, natural, and mostly whole--just mostly cooked, and very few veggies). This is a gift I'm giving myself, and my family who has to live with me. :o) Before and After photos will come . . .

Have a wonderful, wonderful week!

Annalea
(Who thinks she has had a small taste of why the raw-vegans she has corresponded with have always signed their emails with things like "In Joy!", and have used seemingly too many !'s . . . )

Quite the Bully, eh?

2009-11-23T20:35:00.000-08:00

Seen today in a Ravatar*:

ENGLISH: A language that lurks in dark alleys, beats up other languages, & rifles through their pockets for spare vocabulary.

Ravelers are the best. :o)

*A Ravelry avatar.

Kids say the darndest things.

2009-11-17T12:43:00.000-08:00

This morning, Vern was helping Lil'MissL out the door to play while she told him about her recent trip to the chiropractor. She had bumped her elbow pretty well on a hard floor, and we took her in to see if there were any breaks. Dr. Webster used a tuning fork, held against various places along her arm, to test for fractures. Lil'MissL's highly recountable account:

"We went to the chiropractor. He touched my elbow with a forky thing. It was a tuna fork."

:o)

Requisitioning Contentment

2009-11-14T15:45:00.000-08:00

I am grateful . . .

that packing tape holds boxes together so well
that we can pay the bills
that I recognize that I have the power to choose whether I grumble and grip, or count my blessings
for playsilks (one of the best. toys. ever.)

You've got to see this.

2009-11-09T19:57:00.000-08:00

These are from Sir Ken Robinson's, PhD, talk on creativity. It's a must see. (And I don't say that lightly.) If you have children, you need to see this.

"All kids have talents. And we squander them. Pretty ruthlessly."

"Creativity is as important in education as literacy; and we should treat it with the same status."

"If you're not prepared to be wrong, you're not going to come up with anything original."

"We don't grow into creativity, we grow out of it. In fact, we're educated out of it."

"The problem is we educate children progressively from the waist up. And then we focus on their heads, and slightly to one side."

Please, go take the few minutes it takes to watch this. He makes you laugh, keeps it interesting, and points up one of the most serious problems facing the children of today. The fact that our educational system critically handicaps them for the unknowable world into which we're all hurtling. I remember my best friend, in fifth grade, repeating: "They're trying to take my imagination away from me." I couldn't understand it . . . but then again, I didn't have the kind of rich, full imagination she did. I had already succumbed.

Super-Cute Alert

2009-11-03T12:06:00.000-08:00

This is one of the most adorable things I've seen. Ever.

I'll show you pics when I'm done. :o)

I Want to Cry

2009-10-30T09:10:00.001-07:00

This morning, a 6' torchiere floor lamp was knocked over in the bonus room. The "catch all" room where the toys are. Carpeted. The lamp shade wasn't broken, but the top portion of the lamp that held the shade on was knocked into pieces, and the shade shattered the bulb as it came free, sending fine shards of glass who knows how far into the room. From where I sit, I can see glass more than ten feet away. There are boxes of blocks (tossed in willy-nilly, with plenty of cracks and crevices for the glass to settle into--boy, is this going to be an object lesson to remember), toys, blankets, open cardboard boxes from the move, clothing, shoes, stuffed animals, and who knows what else in the path. Yet another reason why I should let my OCD run wild and keep everything clean.

So, if you need me, I'll be in the bonus room. Probably until Wednesday. {Wry smile}

Today

2009-10-02T17:13:00.000-07:00

There's a steady rain falling . . . a nice, even, soothing sound. Mom has taken the kids for the last two days, and the quiet nearly deafens me from time to time. Simply wonderful. I now have both the washer and dryer hooked up (what a miracle), my closet is slowly coming to rights, and a few less boxes remain to block the way into the living room.

I now know a little of what it feels like to live near family . . . really and truly nearby. When I used to think about friends who lived close to their parents, in their own little house, with their young families, making grandma and grandpa a part of their everyday lives, I always had this comfortable, settled, complete feeling. Now, when I think about us, Vern and I and our young family, living here . . . that same feeling comes sweetly for us.

We're here.

2009-09-30T20:10:00.000-07:00

The trip went well, so far nothing has been damaged, and the house is great. We were blessed beyond our broadest expectations by generous help from our ward in Oregon, and have already had a lot of help unloading here.

More to follow . . . it's just such a huge relief to have the biggest hurdle behind us.

Thanks so much, everyone!!!

On Choice

2009-09-28T13:08:00.000-07:00

In essentials let there be unity;
in non-essentials, liberty;
in all things, charity.

--Unknown (to me)

Wisdom from Plutarch

2009-09-24T09:02:00.000-07:00

"The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled."

Plutarch

The trouble with Insurance Agents

2009-09-19T10:58:00.000-07:00

Stephen Leacock: "I detest life-insurance agents: they always argue that I shall some day die, which is not so."

I'd like to introduce you to Jace Vek

2009-09-08T08:23:00.000-07:00

If you've never thought you liked orchestral music, you've never listened to Jace Vek's work.

Let me know what you think . . .

Brothers

2009-09-07T23:06:00.000-07:00

We are not amused.

2009-09-07T23:01:00.000-07:00

"Your stories of a mild climate were inflated, underling."

(Why is it that cats always look at you that way? Or even worse, as if you weren't even there?)

Of Course!

2009-09-07T14:07:00.000-07:00

Or, The Practicality of the Antiquities

Thinking about someone today . . .

2009-09-05T13:08:00.000-07:00

Love you, Vern . . .

A Short Hello

2009-09-01T11:41:00.001-07:00

Just stopping in to say the blog will either be quieter or busier than normal. I'm working my way up to my eyeballs in moving preparations, and if I know myself, my mind will either be too distracted by children and boxes and naptimes and meals and packing to remember to blog, or I'll have so much contemplative time as I fill boxes and endeavor in the aforementioned tasks that I'll stop by the iMac several times a day to toss off short posts just to get the ideas down somewhere.

So, enjoy the next few weeks, and let's see what happens in this more passionate of minds. :o)

The Roots of Power

2009-08-29T20:53:00.001-07:00

I have a great deal of respect for, and value in, tools. In your tools lies your freedom. --Me

Thought of the Day

2009-08-29T09:56:00.000-07:00

"Life is all about energy. Try to feel it around you, through you, and in you. Distinguish the positive from the negative." --Author Unknown

An Actual Conversation

2009-08-25T14:18:00.000-07:00

Getting children ready for bed last night, I hear the doorbell rung quickly twice, followed immediately by a staccato knock. As yesterday was rather unwelcomely eventful, the last thing I wanted was someone at the door. So, I went down and opened it, to be greeted by a nervous-looking man in a purple sweatshirt, standing a good dozen feet back from the door.

Him: "Hi there! Idelivertoyourneighbors (motioning to a truck with beef and other meats on the outside) andthoughtI'dstopbyandseeifIcouldhelpyouout."

Me: "We're vegetarian."

Him: "Oh.Well,I'llletitgoatthat,then.Hey,doyoueatseafood?I'vegotseafood."

Me: "No."

Him: "Oh.Wellokaythen.Haveagoodnight."

Door-to-door sales visits are something I definitely won't miss.

Mommy, he's copying me!

2009-08-22T07:25:00.000-07:00

I'm so tired of patent law and it's attendant disputes. Even though the concept is frightening to a lot of people, I think Benjamin Franklin was right in opposing patents.

Moving On Up

2009-08-21T11:13:00.000-07:00

Part of Unschooling is providing your children with the things they need, when you understand they need them. Play is the work of small children . . . but work is also important "play", as children grown and seek to find how they fit into the larger world around them. Well, MrC is nearing his 10th birthday, and it has become apparent to me that he would thrive with some structure. Yesterday, I read about the Robinson Curriculum. I really like it . . . the foundational principles, the fact that it follows very closely the model of the original small-scale frontier schools that worked so well, and that it teaches children to think. I love that it's full of original sources, that I can buy it once for all of my children, and that it provides a very solid approach: reading, writing, arithmetic. Best of all, the manner of learning isn't dependent on the children having me hold their hands. I'm there to answer questions, help solve problems when they're stumped, and keep the structure of our home solid. But it engenders self-sufficiency of mind--one of the most vital traits of a strong individual.

I know this is short . . . but it covers the subject, and there's plenty to read at the RC website. Enjoy!

So Apropos

2009-08-20T07:46:00.000-07:00

Calling all knitterly geeks . . . I love the IT Guy's "test run" of the new Knit Picks Zephyr needles.

Remembering

2009-08-19T19:48:00.000-07:00

I could see the lights of houses, twinkling in the distance as we rounded the Point of the Mountain. The little white car's enging purred, kitten-like, as Cathy drove along the Wasatch front. One hand on the steering wheel, the other always seemed on the move . . . from the gear stick to the air to help tell a story, or to motion to something I should see out the window. She kept up a steady monologue, reeling off story after story with relish. And I loved listening to her. Cathy loved life with an intensity belied by her ability to brush off just about anything negative. She made the best of things, often with some cackling sarcasm, and she had always been a stalwart friend, even though she was old enough to be my mother.

Cathy was taking me home after a night out. She had picked me up at the Salt Lake City airport in the late afternoon, and had taken me out to dinner and then to the grocery store. "D'you need any pit polish?" she had asked in her matter-of-fact, dryly humorous voice. Now, I listened to her tell a story I had heard her tell the last time she had given me a drive home; about traveling to visit friends in the South, punctuated with bits of advice on how to travel without as much baggage as she'd seen me pack into her trunk. "I only need an overnight bag with a change of clothes and a Sunday dress when going to visit family or friends. They have a washer & dryer, and they all use shampoo and soap, after all," she'd say.

On our way down the hill, past the place where Thanksgiving Point would later be built, she told me the story of the last time she brought me home at night . . . how the snow was falling so thick you couldn't see, and how they closed the Point of the Mountain right after her car went by. She had followed the snow plow's and a police car's flashing lights all the way up and over, singing the same snatch of the Primary Song, I Am a Child of God, over and over to try to stay calm because she couldn't remember any more of the words. And yet she laughed and laughed as she told me, and I laughed, too.

Tonight I'm thinking about what if's. What if Cathy hadn't died in her early 50's from congestive heart failure, a complication of diabetes? What if I could have convinced her that if she would only break her lifelong rule of never eating anything green? What if? What if?

She would have seen her 13 year old daughter grow up. She would have been around for grandchildren. She could have met my children, and gotten to see how my life has turned out. I would still be able to pick up the phone and see how she was doing, hear all of the gossip from the little California town where I grew up going to church with her, and listen to her latest adventures in travel.

I miss my friend.

But one thing I have definitely learned: I will not allow time to steal away from me the opportunities I have to include loved ones in my life. I miss Cathy. I pray that God will allow her to know that. And I pray that I will remember it, so I won't let precious days slip past without calling a friend.

Tiger

2009-08-19T08:59:00.000-07:00

The Tiger

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And water’d heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the lamb make thee?

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

William Blake 1757–1827.

Monday Morning

2009-08-18T09:30:00.000-07:00

The light only held for a minute . . . just long enough to snap this.

Getting up early does have some perks, after all . . .

Chaos Reigning

2009-08-17T21:22:00.000-07:00

Still life, photons on CCD.

Overheard at the Sock Summit

2009-08-15T12:56:00.001-07:00

These are awesome . . . many of them even if you're not a knitter.

(My apologies to those who aren't Ravelers, if that link won't work for you. However, it's fast and easy to sign up, so why miss out? ;o)

On Rough Days

2009-08-11T07:58:00.000-07:00

"Tough times never last, but tough people do."

-- Robert H. Schuller

Thoughts of Gerard, a Reckless College Boy

2009-08-03T20:35:00.000-07:00

"Waking in a sweat, it was a little time before he could throw off the impression of the dream, and realize that whatever else Rotherham might do, he would not challenge his ward to a duel. But Rotherham was a boxer, and whether he would consider himself debarred by his guardianship from wreaking a pugilistic vengeance on his ward was a question to which Gerard could find no answer. Of the two fates he thought he would prefer to be shot."

--Bath Tangle, by Georgette Heyer

. . . "wreaking pugilistic vengeance" . . . I love it. :o)

If you've wanted to try Soap Nuts . . .

2009-08-01T09:30:00.001-07:00

. . . but haven't yet, you can go leave a comment at Passionate Homemaking, for a chance to win one of 20 free samples of a new liquid soap nut detergent. The 1 oz sample will wash 12 (that's right, TWELVE) loads in a front loading HE machine, or six regular top-loader loads.

I wasn't excited about the seemingly imprecise nature of the whole soap nuts, but this liquid version is really attractive.

Have a great day!

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

2009-07-24T17:42:00.000-07:00

I just got off the phone with Tina, herself. I'm now an official Sock Summit volunteer, and am seriously excited. :o)

Maybe missing the classes I wanted to attend so much was a good thing, after all . . . lol

Wahoo!!!

Turn of Phrase

2009-07-22T23:57:00.000-07:00

"The doctor is a worthy individual, Jim, but he knows
even less of the art of dressing than you do.
He does not understand the soul-agony of a man
who makes his first appearance in puce."

--The Black Moth, p 121.

Some of Chicago's Opinions

2009-07-17T08:16:00.000-07:00

*~*~*~*~*~* Still working on the technical details of getting these photos to show. Ever since Gmail's right-click context menus quit on me, this has been a tricky business. Thanks for your patience! *~*~*~*~*~*

Here's another one of those emails . . . those who have visited will recognize the downtown area. Some of these posters are funny, some downright incendiary, others are fighting words. It's a clear indicator of how some of the people in Chicago feel about the new President's policy thusfar, especially as Chicago is fairly hard hit by all of the economic madness.

Voter's remorse. I wonder how many who voted for him now wish they hadn't. My dad was right . . . when my younger brother asked him what he thought of Obama, dad said: "If you ever want to make any money, you don't want to vote for him." I didn't vote for him, either . . . but am still stuck with him.

Most of the damage, economically speaking, has already been done. It now remains for us to watch and see how long it takes for the first few stones to bring down the whole snowy mountainside.

And thus we see, democracy can indeed be a tyranny of the majority.

The Fellowship of the Unashamed (Take 2)

2009-07-02T14:04:00.000-07:00

Please Note: This was mistakenly attributed to Elder Henry B. Eyring, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The proper author has been found, a Dr Bob Moorhead, and is taken from his book Words Aptly Spoken. Please accept my apologies for mis-attribution, and for not catching the glaring grammatical errors. (As a writer, I can only plead sleep deprivation. ;o) Many thanks to Doug & Jess, for finding the proper source of this great piece.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I am part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have the Holy Spirit power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made--I am a disciple of His. I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure. I'm finished and done with low living, sight walking, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tame visions, worldly-talking, cheap giving, and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need pre-eminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don't have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean in His presence, walk by patience, am uplifted by prayer and I labor with power.

My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions are few, my Guide is reliable, my mission is clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, hired away, turned back, diluted, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the enemy, pander at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I won't give up, shut up, let up, until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, give up till I drop, preach till all know, and work till He stops me. And when He comes my banner will be clear!

I must go 'til he comes. Give 'til I drop. Preach 'til all know. And work 'til he stops me and when he returns for his own he will have no problem recognizing me. My
banner will be clear.

--Dr Bob Moorhead, in Words Aptly Spoken

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Good for a Monday

2009-06-29T10:13:00.000-07:00

From the depths of email forwarding pops this gem . . .

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

With all the new technology regarding fertility recently, a 65-year-old acquaintance was able to give birth. When she was discharged from the hospital and went home, we went to visit.

"May I see the new baby?" I asked

"Not yet," She said "I'll make coffee and we can
talk for a while first."

Thirty minutes had passed, and I asked, "May I see the new baby now?"

"No, not yet," She said.

After another few minutes had elapsed, I asked again, "May I see the baby now?"

"No, not yet," replied my friend.

Growing very impatient, I asked, "Well, when can I see the baby?"

"When he cries," she told me.

"WHEN HE CRIES?" I demanded. "Why do I have to wait until he CRIES?"

"Because I forgot where I put him, Okay?!!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

When I feel like I'm losing my mind, I can be glad I'm not this bad yet! lol

Happy Birthday To Me

2009-06-14T19:04:00.000-07:00

Frozen Yogurt

5 c. whole milk plain yogurt
2 c. pureed blueberries (frozen is fine--it's just more work to puree them)
30 drops Sweet Leaf stevia
1 1/2 t. lemon juice

Mix all ingredients well in a bowl. Put it in the ice cream maker, and let'er rip.

Yum.

Corn-Pancake-ucopia

2009-06-05T18:24:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd share my research for dinner tonight.

Pretty basic Cornmeal Pancakes from Many Veggie Recipes.

Deluxe Lemon Poppy Seed Pancakes from Erin at You-Name-It-Free. (She's a girl after my own heart, what with that corn blip at the end. Love it!)

Whole Foods Market brings us a Whole Gran Pancake Mix. I'm so mixing this up (minus the dry milk). Talk about quick and easy!

And, for the very most serious of cornmeal fans, here's a flourless Cornmeal Pancake recipe from AllRecipes.com.

And now, decisions, decisions . . .

(Btw . . . does anyone know of a good stainless steel griddle big enough to cook pancakes for seven without keeping me in the kitchen for three hours?)

Future Furniture

2009-05-28T13:52:00.001-07:00

Just watch . . . these will be all the rage . . .

Locally sourced, locally produced, repurposed, low-waste, low-consumption (you only need six bolts/nuts & six drywall screws!), comfy chairs.

This would have been a perfect Earth Day post, don't'cha think?