Side Blessings~

You know… kind of like side effects?

 

Anyway, I’m talkin’ about my new kitchen.  I’ve had it for a month.  I love it.  Instead of trying to find a thousand different ways to start a sentence that says “I like it because” I’m just going to do a little bullet thing and list em.

• I love going in there and knowing where everything is.
• I love that if something isn’t where it belongs, I can almost always guess where it is.
• I love that if something isn’t where it belongs and I didn’t guess where it is, I can actually find it anyway.
• I love that I can see at a glance what we need, don’t need, and where our meals are getting unbalanced.
• I love that we seem to waste less food.
• I love that the kitchen stays CLEAN.
• I love that my bright white cabinets can actually be DIRTY before they LOOK dirty.  I thought they’d look dirty even when they weren’t.  My mother-in-law said once that this was true of cars.  Their white car rarely looked dirty, even when it was.  However, their off white creamy car looked dirty even when sparkling clean.  YAY for white!
• I adore my countertops.
• I love that if I get sick of the clors in there that it’ll take me less than 50 dollars to completely overhaul the room.
• I love that I listened to Jenna H. and painted my walls white.
• I love that I’ve only used a dish drainer once in four weeks.
• I actually enjoy cleaning the room.  Did you know that cleaning a room that is designed to be cleaned regularly is a joy to clean?
• I love my window over my sink.
• I love my window SILL SHELF over my sink.
• I love my polish pottery pots over my sink.
• I love that my daughter can stay out of my hair and still be with me while I’m cookin’.
• I love that I have room for all my dishes and silverware and tons extra for guests and breakage.
• I LOVE my GloryQuilts Potholders.  I recommend that everyone has 4.
• It’s a silly thing but it is nice to know exactly how much room one has for something before one buys it.  Thought one ought to know.

 

Tonight as I made White Tie Dinner, I was amazed how easy it was to do everything.  Jenna has already finished cleaning the kitchen.  The job that used to take her an hour, took 20 minutes tops.  This is a blessing.

Egg Salad-

So I was talking to Cecelia and mentioned I needed to go make egg salad for lunch.  She asked how I  make it and then asked me to take pictures as I did it.  Now, I’m not exactly sure why or if I’m crazy for doing it but I thought, “why not?” and went to town.

 

Now one thing you  must know is that I don’t really use recipes.  I’m more of a “dump some here and plop some there kind of cook so I’m guesstimating.  I’m no Ree and wouldn’t try to be.  But for Cecelia, I offer you, Egg Salad.

 

Egg Salad

 

10 Eggs (or 8 or 12 or even an odd number like 9!)

2 large cooking spoons full of mayo (or three or one…)

1 large eating spoon full of dijon mustard (or a healthy swirl over the eggs)

1 large eating spoon heaped with relish

Salt (to taste)

Pepper (to taste)

Parmasean  Cheese (a bunch… like maybe oh… four or five shakes)

2 TBS  (or a couple of big pinches) of Dill

1/4 Onion (finely chopped.  I love green onion best but rarely have it.  Purple is GOOD.  White works.)

2 full stalks of celery.   Or three.  Or maybe 1… depends on the eggs.

PS… sunflower seeds are good in there too.  I rarely have them.

 

 

1.  Peel the eggs.  Put in bowl. 

 

 

2.  Squirt the mustard.  You’ll cut it later.  Sorry, couldn’t resist.

 

 

3.  Parmesean.  I usually like more but it was clumpy and I didn’t feel like getting a knife and chopping it up.

 

 

4.  Add the mayo, relish, dill, salt, and pepper.

 

 

5.  Chop the celery and onion.  I didn’t need this picture but I thought it was pretty so I took it.  I get to do that.  Cook’s perogative.

 

 

5.  Add celery and onion

 

 

6  Mash well with potato masher.

 

Eat on whole wheat, sourdough, dill, or rye breads.  Also excellent on pitas and wrapped in tortillas.  For low carbers, wrap in a cabbage leaf.  It’s yummified.

Influential People

The assignment this week…

 

Name three people who had a personal (as in person to person) influence in your life and what that influece was.

 

I chose to leave out my parents because they are obvious choices.  They are the primary influences in my life and I cannot imagine who I would have become without them.

 

1. Mrs. Elkins.  My second grade teacher.  This delightful woman introduced me to McGuffey, Narnia, fractions, and the world outside the United States.   Because of her, my love of learning flourished through the third through the fifth grades when my education went through a drought.  Dad did an amazing job keeping me intellectually stimulated and our lessons together are something I never forgot.  However, had the soil not been prepared, the little tending it got during those years could have left me high and dry.  Mrs. Elkins is a tiny lady who fills a very large part of the heart of my memories.
2. Connie.  She spent much time helping me root the Word in my heart in High School.  I spent every Wednesday with her and her children criss-crossing through the Bible as I learned to search out related scriptures to find a bigger picture.  Later, they housed my in-laws the weekend of our wedding.
3. DeLynn.  She enouraged me to search the scriptures much as Connie had.    Her influence went beyond a mutual love of the Word, however.  She showed me practical ways of serving my family and the body of Christ.  I cannot count the number of times she showed up to examine a bloody child, brought soup and coke to a house afflicted with a stomach bug, and she once came and retrieved the soiled pants and underwear of a child I was sitting, took them home, scrubbed them out, and washed them so that I wouldn’t have to deal with them while ready to vomit from morning sickness.  She was a kind of a second mother to me.    I miss her. 

 

People have an amazing ability to make a lasting imprint on our lives… what imprint are we leaving on the lives of others?

Capability~

I sat here a while ago looking at everything I think I need to do and thinking about the rest.  I wondered why it is that I don’t get as much done as I once did.  I blamed it on age.  I am older you know and I have been ill…   But you know, that isn’t it.  I can delude myself, but the fact is, I can do every single thing that I need to do.

 

It isn’t a lack of time.  I have every single minute of every single day that I need to accomplish everything that the Lord wants me to accomplish.

 

My that sounds nice and pietistic.  But it’s true.  Not only that, it doesn’t mean that I have to give up doing the things I love to do.  I don’t need to cut the internet out of my life.  I don’t need to stop writing, stop sewing, and stop sleeping. 

 

Furthermore, I believe I can do it without a rigid schedule or a self-imposed reward and punishment system.   I don’t have to take away my writing time if I fritter away a couple of hours that I should have been scrubbing or painting or if I forget to do flash cards with Ethan.

 

I’m a capable woman.  I know that sounds insufferably arrogant but frankly, it’s true.  Not only that, I think most women are very capable and accomplished if they give themselves half a chance. 

 

You know, I think it’s that stupid pendulum thing.  It swings to one extreme or another.  We either have women who are “super-women” who try to be all things, to all me all at once, all the time, all by themselves or we have women who are chronic underachievers. 

 

Why is this?  Why does human nature tend toward the pendulum rather than the scales?  I mean, a pendulum swings back and forth.  It rarely hangs straight down unless there is no movement.  When in the middle, it sweeps by quickly.  It only paues on the right or the left. 

 

Scales, however, are different.  Yes, they can be unbalanced in one direction or another, but they’re steady.  Scales can also be balanced.  You can remove excess from one side, add it to the other, and you achieve balance.  One side doesn’t work harder than the other.

Capability.  I am capable of exhibiting capability and am incapable of surviving for long without it.  I’m just not capable of making that sentence work the way I wanted to. 

In Memory of Our Recent Heroes

If tomorrow all the things were gone I’d worked for all my life,
And I had to start again with just my children and my wife.
I’d thank my lucky stars (Heavenly father) to be living here today,
‘Cause the flag still stands for freedom and they can’t take that away.

And I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free.
And I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.
And I’d gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land.  God bless the U.S.A.

From the lakes of Minnesota, to the hills of Tennessee,
across the plains of Texas, from sea to shining sea,

From Detroit down to Houston and New York to LA,
Well, there’s pride in every American heart,
and it’s time to stand and say:

I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free.
And I won’t forget the men who died, who gave that right to me.
And I’d gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land.  God bless the U.S.A.

God Bless The U.S.A. Words and Music by Lee Greenwood
© Copyright 1984 by MUSIC CORPORATION OF AMERICA, INC. & SONGS OF POLYGRAM INTERNATIONAL, INC.
All Rights Controlled and Administered by MUSIC CORPORATION OF AMERICA, INC.
International Copyright Secured All R.ights Reserved

In Memory of Our First Heroes

NATHAN HALE

( Hanged as a spy by the British, in New York City,
September 22, 1776.)

To drum-beat and heart-beat
A soldier marches by:
There is color in his cheek,
There is courage in his eye,
Yet to drum-beat and heart-beat
In a moment he must die.

By starlight and moonlight,
He seeks the Briton’s camp;
He hears the rustling flag,
And the armed sentry’s tramp;
And the starlight and moonlight
His silent wanderings lamp.

With slow tread and still tread,
He scans the tented line;
And he counts the battery guns
By the gaunt and shadowy pine;
And his slow tread and still tread
Gives no warning sign.

The dark wave, the plumed wave,
It meets his eager glance;
And it sparkles ‘neath the stars,
Like the glimmer of a lance–
A dark wave, a plumed wave,
On an emerald expanse.

A sharp clang, a steel clang,
And terror in the sound!
For the sentry, falcon-eyed,
In the camp a spy hath found;
With a sharp clang, a steel clang,
The patriot is bound.

With calm brow, steady brow,
He listens to his doom;
In his look there is no fear,
Nor a shadow-trace of gloom;
But with calm brow and steady brow
He robes him for the tomb.

In the long night, the still night,
He kneels upon the sod;
And the brutal guards withhold
E’en the solemn Word of God!
In the long night, the still night,
He walks where Christ hath trod.

‘Neath the blue morn, the sunny morn,
He dies upon the tree;
And he mourns that he can lose
But one life for Liberty;
And in the blue morn, the sunny morn,
His spirit-wings are free.

But his last words, his message-words,
They burn, lest friendly eye
Should read how proud and calm
A patriot could die,
With his last words, his dying words,
A soldier’s battle-cry.

From Fame-leaf and Angel-leaf,
From monument and urn,
The sad of earth, the glad of heaven,
His tragic fate shall learn;
And on Fame-leaf and Angel-leaf
The name of HALE shall burn!

FRANCIS MILES FINCH.

A Rant:

I’ve seen it happen on message boards but not to the extent as on blog comments.  Fortunately, I’ve generally been spared but I saw such a flagrant example of it today on Ree’s Blog that I decided to do a little ranting.  After all, it is why I  have this silly thing.  It’s a place for me to spout my opinons for my own amusement and if others enjoy it, so be it.

 

Today Ree mentioned aspertame and as often happens on her blog, a commenter had to sieze upon their pet topic and chose to sermonize about it in the comments.  Now honestly, I don’t think Ree cares one way or another.  She is a lot like I am in that regard.  If you want to be annoying and self-righteous, go for it.  However, I tend to get frustrated when it happens to others.

 

Why do we feel obliged to take something that someone has shared with us and use it as a springboard for their own soapboxes.  It’s rude.  The scenario usually follows thus:

 

Jane tells the story of how she bought her daughter a new dress for a party and isn’t it hysterical, three other little girls at the same party wore the same dress.  She jokes that you can’t avoid a peer following no matter what you try!   She tells about the cake, the ice cream, the games, and how the mothers enjoyed their fellowhip while the girls had their tea party.  Then… the commenters come. 

 

One remarks that their daughter owns the same dress.  Another asks if more cake or ice cream was eaten… she finds it interesting.  And so on… but invariably someone will comment.  It might be an attack on feeding children sugar or perhaps a tirade against children’s games and the competition involved.  Or, perhaps the person finds the short sleeves on the dress sinful.  Whatever the notion, the comment comes.  An attack on a choice made by one person, innocently mentioned in passing like the color of a flower or the breeze through the room being discussed.

 

Why is it?  Why is it that a blog poster cannot share a cute picture of their child without one or more persons attacking the presence of dirt on a chin as if the child never has a clean face?  Why, in a picture of my new kitchen, should someone feel free to make disparaging remarks because I have a 12 pack of coke on my counter.  Whether or not I drink Coke isn’t the point of the post and frankly, if I wanted to discuss the merits and demerits of it, I’d either make a post about it or start a thread on HK.

 

(For the record, that hasn’t happened- the coke thing.  I just used it as an example.)

 

Has common courtesy gone so far out of the common sphere that we can’t simply stick to a topic?  Why is it that we do this?  Why do we feel compelled to attack another’s choice of car seat brand, lack of wrist guards on the kids when climbing stairs, and  the like.  If the author brought up the topic as the topic, I could see it.  However, finding something obscure in someone’s blog post to pick on and turn into a national case is just bad manners.  It would be like if everytime a mother posted about a problem with her child’s teacher, the homeschoolers rallied on the blog with comments like, “well if you homeschooled him that couldn’t happen.”  Unfortunately this has probably happened more than I care to know now that I think of it. 

 

Oh I don’t know!  I guess I’m just very very sick of bad manners in this area.  On a message board, tangents seem to be more acceptable especially in forums where controversial topics are allowed or even encouraged but a blog post is more like a single topic article (or in my case, tirade) rather than a discussion venue that has a natural progression to other aspects of the topic or related topics.

 

Anyway,  I was annoyed today and so I chose to vent.  We all do that from time to time. 

Movie Wishes~

This week’s question on HK was,

What book would you like to see made into a movie?  Describe the cast and if possible, why you chose them.

 

I think I’d love to see the Squire’s Tales made into movies but I am too tired to think about that so I decided to do the book I’ve long wished to see as a movie.

 

The Harvester by Gene Stratton Porter (Author of The Girl of the Limberlost and Freckles).  I love the story and have often thought it’d make a beautiful movie.

 

David Langston-  Campbell Scott  or perhaps Brendan Frasier

Ruth Jameson-  Kerri Russell

Granny Moreland-  Judy Dench if she can pull off a midwestern/hick accent (I think Granny Moreland had a hint of hick to her speech patterns though not a twang.)  Otherwise, maybe Angela Lansbury

Dr. Carey-   Someone like Harrison Ford but without as much charisma.  Definitely needs a sense of humor that can deliver dry wit.

Mrs. Carey-  Glenn Close

Dr. Harmon-  Needs to be young, sandy blonde, and with a kind face

Molly Barnet- Katie Keating

Henry Jameson-  Dale Midkiff-  I’d really like to see how he plays a “bad guy.”  Otherwise, Scott Patterson.

Alexander Herron-  Edward Herrmann

Mrs. Herron-  Lesley Manville

 

Lesson of the Day:

Or LD Havig style.

 

So today I was resting after doing something.  Don’t ask what. I can’t remember.  Anyway, as I was sitting in the famous recliner, I realized that my bookcase by the front door was dangerously messy.  The shelves were a jumbled mess of nothingness, and the top.  We’ll not discuss it.  Suffice it to say, Ic ouldn’t take it.  Another minute was too long.

 

It took 45 minutes to do a much needed “de-junk” and resort, and remove and put a box of books on that shelf I’ve had here for two months.  In a box.  Next to the bookcase! 

 

I finally got the bookcase reorganized, straightened out, and fixed.  I sat down and decided to take a picture.  Proof for myself that it did look good.  Even if tomorrow you can’t tell I did anything, I have proof that today I did and it was nice.

 

Ahem.  Here is the picture.  I rest my case.

 

 

 

I lied.  I’m not resting.  I’m making it again.  Do you see the problem?  You probably don’t.  It’s not super significant.  And if you see a problem, it’s probably not the one I mean.  I mean, I can see hat I need to mop my floor, that I still have cord issues, and so on.  But one thing rankles.

 

I stood all of the Usborne books that Challice sells on the left of the top shelf.  (I have room for them so I get to house them)  If you’ll notice, laying down on the right of that same shelf is some Spanish book laying down half-cocked. 

 

Yep.  In the 3.25 minutes from stepping away from the bookcase and taking that picture, Lorna managed to put a book away in the wrong spot.

 

It drives me crazy.  It’s just training.  She’s 3.  She’s acting 3.  If she was 10 it’d still just be one of those things you have them do over.  However, this is how my day often feels.  Everything that I do seems undone as fast as I do it.  Even when it doesn’t happen that way, it feels like it.

 

I think it’s just one more step in the refining process that Jesus is doing in my life.  Stripping away my weaknesses (my lack of patience with that which is not perfect) and makng me live with those imperfections every where I turn.

 

And yes, I can’t wait to get the smocking pleater and the sewing machine cover off that shelf too!  I have other books I need to put there!

Movie Moments~

1. One movie that made you laugh:
Arthur  (No, this is a family friendly blog… The Princess Bride

2. One movie that made you cry:
The Audie Murphy Story

3. One movie you loved when you were a child:
Clash of the Titans (Just kidding Kevin)  Raiders of the Lost Ark

4. One movie you’ve seen more than once:
North and South

5. One movie you loved, but were embarrassed to admit it:
Arthur

6. One movie you hated:
Carousel

7. One movie that scared you:
CAn’t remember one

8. One movie that bored you:
 Casablanca 

9. One movie that made you happy:
Music Man

10. One movie that made you miserable:
Wuthering Heights

11. One movie you weren’t brave enough to see:
The Passion

12. One movie character you’ve fallen in love with:
Nicholas from North and South (BBC version)

13. The last movie you saw:
Prince Caspian

14. The next movie you hope to see:
Shamalyan’s “The Happening”

15. What book would you love to see made into a movie?
The Harvester by Gene Stratton-Porter