Why I Am a Book Hoarder

Well, okay, part of the reason I'm a book hoarder is because of packrat tendencies passed on to me genetically.  And because I always worry about needing it later if I get rid of it now.

But we've done okay at overcoming some of the packrattiness. 

Books, however ....   That's harder.

And Mrs Mussman explains part of the reason why.  The books printed today have an ideological bent.  Libraries are getting rid of old, "irrelevant" stories and replacing them with Brand Spankin' New Books.  And it's not just the in-your-face liberal brainwashing, which may be brash or subtle.  There's also
~ siblings who fight
~ normalization of divorce
~ stories that set up a no-way-but-to-sin situation
~ anti-heroes
~ "inverted" fairy tales (which may be fun for adults but are inappropriate for children).

Some books (like Harry Potter and Little House) aren't going away.  But so many great books from 70 or 80 or 100 years ago need to be cherished in people's homes because they have already been culled from public libraries or will be soon enough.

Read Anna's article.

It's good.

Nightmares

A sink full of dirty, greasy dish-water.  Bubbles are gone.  I can't wash the dishes in that gross ick.  And when I get fresh hot water, full of bubbly cleanness, it lasts for only a few dishes before it's nasty again.

If this is the content of recurrent nightmares,
I must live a pretty cushy life.

Measuring Coffee

Accurate measurements are important, right?  We're supposed to measure the coffee with a proper tablespoon or teaspoon, right?

One day, they were all dirty.  I grabbed a cereal spoon and used it to measure the coffee grounds. 

I was inexplicably happy about that.

Then I realized: Dad always used the cereal spoon.  He never used measuring spoons for the coffee grounds.  Ever since, I've been using the cereal spoon and feeling warm fuzzies over it. 

Temptation of Jesus

1.  Interesting that it was the Holy Spirit who sent Jesus out to be tempted by the devil.  We pray, "Lead us not into temptation."  But the Spirit sent Jesus to be tempted.  That's why we can pray in the Great Litany: "By Your baptism, fasting, and temptation, help us, good Lord."

2.  The devil says, "IF You are the Son of God, ..."  This incident follows immediately on the heels of Jesus' baptism.  And what had the Father declared there?  "This is My beloved Son."  As soon as God declares Jesus to be the Son of God, the devil comes in with "If."  And yet, Jesus doesn't question the Father's declaration.  He holds onto it. 

3.  The devil quotes the psalm where the Lord promises that His angels will guard us and bear us up.  He uses that as the rationale for Jesus to jump off the temple: "See?  They'll protect You."  Of course, Jesus doesn't.  But ain't it nifty to see that, as soon as the devil backs off, the angels do come and minister to Jesus?  Even though the devil twisted and perverted that promise, God still kept His word.

Garden Report

I have such a hard time pruning enough.  This year I whacked and whacked.  And it's a good thing.

The grape vines have more itty-bitty clusters of fruit starting than I've seen in years. 

Today I weeded the strawberry bed.  Because of the weekend's rains, weeds were sliding out of the ground so easy-breezy.  I couldn't stop weeding.  It was almost fun.  Because I pruned away virtually all of the strawberry bed last fall, the plants had enough space to grow nicely.  I picked a quart of strawberries.  Every year it's the same thing: wondering why I bother growing them when it's easy to buy delicious strawberries.  And then I taste one from the garden.  Yowza!  That's why I grow them.

The cilantro (which likes to reseed itself each year and come up as weeds) when nuts last week while I was out of town.  It bolted, but none of it has gone to seed yet.  I'm wondering if it can be saved by chopping it all off to about 4" high.  If not, no biggie. 

The basil plants (purchased and transplanted) had apparently died shortly after being set in the garden.  But I cut off their tops, and they're looking pretty nice now, with new shoots growing.  Maybe the cilantro will behave the same way??

Asparagus bed is weeded too.  So is the tomato patch and rest of the veggie bed. 

Something likes my beet greens.  Something that doesn't seem to want to walk in the garden dirt, but prefers to stand at the edge, nibbling greens.  I think it will be hard for the beets to grow if the root has no top. 

Something is digging in the lawn.  It looks like the problem we had from a skunk once upon a time.  But tonight we saw four squirrels in the yard, and it looked like they were doing some digging.  Rumor has it that the mild winter means there are probably lots of grubs and things in the ground, tasty tidbits for critters who don't give a rip about tearing up some lawn. 

It's been cool.  Lettuce is growing slowly.  It too is being nibbled, but apparently the lettuce isn't as yummy as the beet-tops.  It's cool enough that I'm thinking of putting in another row of lettuce seed.

It must have been warm last week.  The tomatoes grew a lot.  When I was staking them this afternoon, I saw that the gangly one had taken a beating from the wind.  The main stem of the plant is cracked.  That can't be good.  It would let in disease or bugs.  It would reduce the plant's ability to move nutrients and water around the plant.  But I've seen tomato branches that are cracked, and they sometimes manage to live and bear fruit.  So I left it and didn't dig it up.  Maybe there will still be life and healing.