Kentucky

Smiling because he's out of the carseat.

Mermaid and her baby.

Carcassonne

Tim and Gary

Zoe, Eric, and Alia

Maggie and Olivia

Sitting by the lake.

Turtle-time.

Andrew and Olivia

Suppertime when there's not enough table-space.

Zoe, Katie, and Matthias

Bubbles!

 

Most of the kids.  In the "office."

Matthias, Philip, Zoe.

Rocks are fun.

Watching the hummingbirds and orioles.

Baby Henry

Rest Day

Today is a day of doing nothing.

Usually I'm not good at that.  Today we're all wiped out enough that we're managing loads of Nothing.

Two weeks ago we enjoyed a week-long family reunion.  It's a lot of work to go away.  But we love seeing the extended family.  And the resort we use is simple, relatively inexpensive, and low-key.  But it's clean, on a lake, with a pool, and awesome hosts/owners.  Weather was perfect.

After re-entry to Real Life and recuperating from our rest [??], we headed off the next weekend to meet baby Henry and rejoice in his baptism-day.  Oh, right, it was nice to see my son and daughter-in-law too.

In the days before and after baptism-weekend, I packed up supplies for the CCA symposium and the CCA sales booth.  (Oh, man, my muscles aren't what they used to be.  I am weak and pokey.  But, hey, it was possible to do the work.)

The last few days involved early mornings and late nights and physical labor.  And lots of time on my feet.  And chances to visit with friends ... though never enough time for all the people I want to see.  The topic for symposium was about keeping our children in the faith, and comfort for us when our loved ones stray.  It was helpful and encouraging.

But today is nothing.  Sudokus.  Lightweight movies.  Sitting around.  I probably should mop and do laundry and start some pickles.  Nothing big.  Just a little catching up.  But if I don't do it, I will still be satisfied.  There are three more big events coming up in the next few weeks, so a day of sloth is probably healthful right now.

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. 

A President's Character -- 8

Sometimes crime victims can avoid becoming a victim.  Recently a kid was shot in our village.  At first it was frightening to think about random shootings happening right here in my neighborhood.  But it wasn't random.  When somebody decides to rip off somebody else in an illegal drug deal, it's no surprise when bullets fly.  But when honest people are minding their own business, not hurting anybody, and they are shot down, it's worse.

Powerful people have the power to destroy others, to ruin those who have done no harm.  If they lack character, there is no reason to refrain from using their power to hurt the little people.  That is why character matters.

A President's Character -- 7

Schools cannot teach everything that a person will need to know.  That's why it's important that students learn to think and to research and to teach themselves.  They need to be able to function on their own in days to come, in matters that are unforeseen.

Same thing regarding whom to vote for.  No one can foresee what kind of terrorist attacks we may face, what kinds of wars will be waged against us, what kind of health epidemics may arise, what kind of environmental disasters may occur.  We must choose leaders who have the character and integrity and wisdom to surround themselves with wise advisors and to choose a safe direction through the troubles. 

No matter how important the issues are, we don't vote for issues (except on referenda).  We don't vote for a platform.  We vote for a person.  And then we must trust that the person will make the right decisions when faced with currently-unknown situations.    That's why character matters.

A President's Character -- 6

I hate it when people lie to me.  If I catch you in a lie, my respect for you goes down.  If I catch you in several lies, I will be suspicious of everything you say for years and years.

I know that nearly all politicians will fudge the truth, not keep all their promises, and do some outright lying.  But lots of them do stay true to a good chunk of what they espouse.  Somebody who runs on an environmental platform may cast some votes that are not what most environmentalists would prefer.  Some anti-abortion congressmen will cast votes that are not fully consistent with pro-life values.  But overall, you know where they stand.

When a person makes a career out of lies and hypocrisy, you don't have any idea what you're voting for.  That's one of the reasons why character matters.

A President's Character -- 5

Government is not the Church.  Government is not supposed to forgive sinners.  Government isn't even supposed to take care of people.  Government has the job of keeping order.  Government's main job is to punish bad guys so that good guys can go about their lives.  There are other things government does, where we all unite to do things bigger than we can do individually: build roads, operate libraries, have a single monetary system.  But these projects can be accomplished without government.  Maintaining order, on the other hand, requires some sort of authority who can punish.

Thing is, though, government's authority comes from the authority of fathers and the authority of God's word.  Even pagan governments, whether we recognize it or not, are wielding the power of God.  When they work opposite of God's law (when they reward the bad guys and punish the good guys) they are, without realizing it, undermining their own authority.  They're shooting themselves in the foot.


That's why we need leaders --regardless of what religion they are-- who will keep the innocent safe from those who would harm them. 

People who are themselves predators are not likely to do a good job of defending the innocent.  Thus, character matters.

A President's Character -- 4

I am under no illusion that presidents, governors, justices, and representatives have been above reproach.  Hardly! 

But there was a day when the big boss of the political "Machine" in a city had to keep up appearances.  There was a day when the philandering politician had to pretend to be happily married, and keep his mistress a secret.  There was a day when embezzlement and fraud were scandalous, instead of evidence of someone being "an astute businessman."

It is bad, but not uncommon, for a politician to live a sinful life behind closed doors.
It is far worse for a politician to celebrate that he takes advantage of people and to advocate for greed.
And it is worse yet when the voters give thumbs-up to this evil worldview.

A President's Character -- 3

But WHY?  Why is morality necessary for freedom?  Maybe morality is necessary in the people, but not necessarily in the elected representatives.  Why is it necessary in politics? 

In selecting men for office, let principle be your guide. Regard not the particular sect or denomination of the candidate -- look at his character. It is alleged by men of loose principles, or defective views of the subject, that religion and morality are not necessary or important qualifications for political stations. But the scriptures teach a different doctrine. They direct that rulers should be men who rule in the fear of God, men of truth, hating covetousness. It is to the neglect of this rule that we must ascribe the multiplied frauds, breaches of trust, speculations and embezzlements of public property which astonish even ourselves; which tarnish the character of our country and which disgrace our government. When a citizen gives his vote to a man of known immorality, he abuses his civic responsibility; he not only sacrifices his own responsibility; he sacrifices not only his own interest, but that of his neighbor; he betrays the interest of his country. (Noah Webster)

Even if we disagree with Noah Webster's comments on scripture and the fear of God, it still stands to reason that those lacking high moral character will have no qualms about fraud and embezzlement.  Their power can be used for selfish purposes rather than for serving the nation.

If the citizens neglect their Duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the Laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizen will be violated or disregarded.  (Noah Webster)

Pork.
Legislating from the bench.
Bribes and extortion.
People punished for refusing to violate their conscience and God's word.

Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their appetites; in proportion as their love of justice is above their rapacity; in proportion as their soundness and sobriety of understanding is above their vanity and presumption; in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsel of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.  (Edmund Burke)

Something must control the sinful inclinations.  If it's not a person's morality, it must be force and power of government.  But if the people in government are immoral, and if they are aiming for immoral principles, then a society continues to collapse.

Quotes found at the website "Quotes on Liberty and Virtue.

A President's Character -- 2

Freedom cannot long exist without morality.

George Washington: Virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.

George Washington:  Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.

George Washington: Human rights can only be assured among a virtuous people.

Benjamin Franklin:  Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.

Montesquieu (quoted by Thomas Jefferson):  When virtue is banished, ambition invades the minds of those who are disposed to receive it, and avarice possesses the whole community.

Alexander Hamilton: The institution of delegated power implies that there is a portion of virtue and honor among mankind which may be a reasonable foundation of confidence.

James Madison: To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without virtue in the people, is a chimerical* idea.

Patrick Henry: Bad men cannot make good citizens.... A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, is incompatible with freedom.  No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue.

John Adams: Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

John Adams: Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics.

Samuel Johnson: No people can be great who have ceased to be virtuous.

Quotes found at the website "Quotes on Liberty and Virtue."

* chimerical = outlandish

A President's Character -- 1

My friend Cheryl wrote an article and spoke on Issues Etc about character.  The first question Todd asked was, "Why do you reject the idea that character no longer matters in our nation's leaders?"

I was stymied by the question.

I listened to Cheryl's response.  I agree with much of what she said, but somehow I didn't find it to be a fully satisfactory answer.  After pondering through some of my chores and projects today, I still do not have a satisfactory answer, but I'm getting closer.

First, though, it should be jaw-dropping to us that we have come to a place where this question even needs to be asked.  If character doesn't matter, then it's okay to have a scoundrel in charge.  Think of that for a minute:  "Shame on you for questioning whether we should put a scoundrel into office.  Why should you be leery of that?!"  Obviously, throughout history, bad dudes have often led countries.  But that might've been due to a coup or because of a king's divine right.  It's usually not because those who were being governed chose to have scoundrels governing them.  We prefer to have honorable men as our leaders.  Duh!

But if we're going to ask questions where the answer should be so obvious that the question shouldn't need to be answered, ... what is the answer?





Quotes from the founding fathers about morality.
Quotes about corrupt leaders.
Bragging about immorality.
Immorality of leaders undermines their own authority.
Lying.
Voting for a person, not a platform.
A reason to refrain from abusing power.

Living in These Troubled Times

Amy Medina is a missionary in Tanzania.  She writes about how American Christians might need to start living as if they were missionaries.  And she's not talking about speaking the Gospel to those around you.  She's talking about feeling like an outsider, but nevertheless refusing to hole up in our little conclaves.  She's talking about being limited in job options, and expecting that we could quickly lose our possessions.  She's talking about praying for a country and being engaged with the neighbors, while still knowing that nobody cares much about our opinion or rights.

The article is a fresh perspective on how we are pilgrims in this world.  In these turbulent times of post-modernism, her message reminds us of things we know but too often blow past.

Interfering with Faith

The Large Catechism tells us about the Holy Spirit's work: "If the work [of Christ's suffering death, resurrection] remained concealed so that no one knew about it, then it would be useless and lost."

Luke 24: The atonement is not all that's necessary.  It's also necessary that repentance and remission of sins be preached.

The devil tried, but he couldn't keep Jesus from the cross.

So now his only shot at destroying God's work is to interfere with the preaching of repentance and forgiveness. 

Rebuking Unbelief

Mark's Easter account tells us that Jesus "rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart" when He appeared to the disciples-in-hiding in the upper room that Sunday.

We think rebuke and imagine a scolding, a wagging finger, and a hefty dose of "Shame on you for not believing those who had reported My resurrection!" 

But what do the other gospel accounts tell us?  There is not a shred of scolding anywhere.  The way Jesus "rebuked their unbelief" was to forgive them.  To speak "Peace to you."  To show them that He who had died was now alive.  To expound to them what the Old Testament scriptures had taught of His suffering and atonement.  To restore them to their office of forgiving others.

That is how He rebuked [chased away or beat back] their unbelief.

Repentance

"You're not really sorry if you keep on committing the sin."

There is some truth to that.  A nine-yr-old isn't really sorry if he's just saying the words while inwardly plotting a way to keep on whopping his brother as soon as Mom is occupied elsewhere.  The car thief isn't really sorry when he's found guilty before the judge for one theft, while at that very moment his chop-shop is dismantling or disguising another dozen cars. 

But there's the gossip who intends to do better, who desires to do better, but who slips back into her old ways during the course of what started as a normal, pleasant conversation.  Or maybe there's an addict who does what he can to stay clean, but sometimes in weakness succumbs to the addiction.  The devil is quick to accuse: "See?  You're still committing the sin.  You aren't sorry.  That means you are impenitent, and there is no forgiveness for you."

It gets worse when the sin is failing to trust in the Lord with all your heart.  "You aren't trusting in Him?  You still sin?  Obviously you are not repentant.  Because if you were, you'd just knock it off and overflow with abundant trust, never struggling with sin again." 

Repentance means a person is turned from trusting in his own works to relying upon the Lord.

Hey.
Relying upon the Lord?

For what?

For good behavior?
For strength to stop sinning?
For wisdom and fortitude to do what is right?

Well, yes.  For those things too.

But mostly ...
for relying on His forgiveness. 

If repentance means making sure we Just Stop Sinning Already, then repentance is still about trusting in myself.  And that's really no repentance at all.

Today's Laugh

Santa and his wife weren't getting along.  They went to a marriage counselor but still could not work out their differences.  They decided to divorce.  They discovered --to their amazement-- that divorce is not allowed at the North Pole. 

So instead of a divorce, they got a semicolon.





Why?
Because a semicolon separates two independent Clauses.

Peeling Hard-Boiled Eggs

It's like magic!  Alton Brown said to peel the hard-boiled eggs before they cool.  And it works!

With fresh eggs from happy chickens, I found it nearly impossible to deal with hard-boiling eggs.  I tried letting them get old before boiling.  I would add vinegar to the water they're boiling in.  Or add baking soda.  But it was hit-or-miss as to whether the eggs would peel.  And when they would peel, it was a painstaking and time-consuming job.

Obviously, this peel-when-warm plan is useless for Easter eggs.

But for egg salad, deviled eggs, tuna salad, etc, hard-boil the eggs, and then put them in cold water for a few minutes.  Peel them while still slightly warm.  Put the peeled eggs in a closed container and pop 'em in the fridge until you need them. 

Worst Cooks in America

The "Survivor" version of cooking lessons.  Gary and I have been enjoying watching Worst Cooks in America.  This is much better than Chopped and even more enjoyable than Iron Chef.  The contestants begin as clueless cooks.  Along they way they are taught and challenged and helped and flummoxed and just keep cookin'.

I thought I was a pretty good cook, but I've learned a few things as I watch.

~ An easier way to cut an onion.  If you halve the onion vertically, peel it, and then begin dicing without going through the root end, the root will help hold the pieces of onion hold together.

~ Frugal Gourmet always said, "Hot pan.  Cold oil.  Food won't stick."  The teacher-chefs on WCiA tell the recruits to make sure the oil is just beginning to smoke before adding the food.  Then you know the oil is good and hot.

~ Chicken and fish go skin-side-down in the skillet or baking dish. Don't try to fudge and fuss with it and loosen the meat to prevent sticking; just wait until it's cooked.  Then move it.

~ Never ever press a spatula on top of a burger.  (That habit is going to be hard to break.)

Liberation Theology Pops Up Again

With the current crop of presidential candidates, American Christians are wondering about voting this November.  Many Christians are saying that disciples of Jesus should be voting for a candidate who will help the poor and homeless, who will fight the injustices of racism and sexism and bigotry.  They quote passage after passage of Jesus' words about oppression and comfort and poverty. 

Hold on a minute, guys.

The problem Jesus came to solve was the problem of sin.


The solution Jesus offers is forgiveness of sin.

When Jesus talks about oppression, He is talking about the church leaders who oppress people with the laws and the rules and the demands for obedience.  The oppression is that we must earn God's favor through our behavior.  When Jesus talks about freedom, He is talking about the gospel of His mercy and forgiveness.

When we make an idol of our worldly goods and worldly comforts, then we think that's the main thing God cares about too.  When we make Avoiding-Suffering our top priority, we think that God is loving if and only if He frees us from temporal suffering. 

To be sure, the Lord does care about the temporal suffering of His creatures.  But sometimes He nevertheless permits it for the sake of faith, that people might call out to Him and rely on Him instead of depending upon themselves.  Christians, too, will care about their neighbors' suffering.  Insofar as they are able, they will offer help and comfort, food and clothing, clean water and mosquito netting, homes and medical care.  They will share the neighbors' burdens.  They will pray and they will give physical relief.

But we cannot eliminate poverty.  (Jesus said that too.) 

The government's place is to maintain order in society, to punish those who take what belongs to others, to take vengeance on those who do bodily harm to others.  It is not the government's job to be merciful, giving to people what they do not deserve.  That is the Church's job.  But what the Church gives is the word of forgiveness for Jesus' sake.  This may offend those who see the Church as a social agency, but it is nonetheless true:  Earthly blessings from Christians to the needy isn't the top priority; those works of mercy are rather an outgrowth of Christian love.

Those who say otherwise,
those who think Jesus is all about providing fairness in creature-comforts to everyone,
are looking for a Bread-King.  (See John 6.)
They are preaching "another Jesus" and "another gospel."  (See 2 Corinthians 11.)

Update

The last month I've done some things that I hadn't done yet in my post-stroke life.  The garden is tilled and waiting for seeds or seedlings.  The cherry trees and apple trees have been severely pruned and are looking lovely as they flower.  The blackberries and raspberries have been pruned too.  We made a trip to Minnesota to see Paul and Mandy's house and to attend a baby shower. 

One of my projects at church is (I think) completed.  Not to worry, there are plenty of other projects.  The next big project will probably be prepping a manuscript for the publisher, which is easier than decision-making.  (Making decisions is far more tiring and mind-muddling than it used to be.)

It's 74 in the house and I am cold.  Remember how, as a kid, you would go into nursing homes to visit and feel stifled by the heat?  Yeah ... that's the kind of heat I'm craving now.  I was looking forward to swimming at a family reunion this year.  After a couple of nice warm days recently, when I still needed a jacket, I suspect I'll be too chilled to get wet unless it's 100 out.

Garlic is amazing.  After a year and half of living with an infection that I got during my hospital stay, my doctor sent me to a specialist.  I did not appreciate the specialist's advice.  I determined to get serious about using garlic to eliminate the bacteria.  It took over a week.  I ate more than three heads of raw garlic.  I'm sure I reeked.  But the infection cleared up.  Finally.  Four months now and no sign of the problem.  I can now do wild and crazy things: eat a donut, or have a cup of coffee on the same day that I eat a cookie, or go for a walk that's more than a mile long, or have a beer, or drive six hours without taking a month to recuperate.  This is fantastic!

I have continued working on Saturday mornings since I ostensibly quit my part-time job last summer.  I have two Saturdays left before I'm done done.  I have such mixed feelings about leaving.

My mom's house sold the day after it was listed for sale.  I feel like a schlock that I haven't been down there this month to help finish clearing it out.  I keep giving myself the speech that I can only do what I am able to do.  And I'm not very good yet at admitting that I cannot.

Next big job must be to organize the basement.  It's become a dumping spot.  This is going to require some amount of physical labor, but more exhausting is going to be the decisions.  Especially the decisions of what to eliminate.  I had been doing a decent job of submerging my pack-rat tendencies.  But it's become harder lately.  And really, who wants to be organizing the basement when it's spring and I could be outside instead?  (Shhhh -- let's not talk about the fact that I didn't organize the basement in winter because it was too cold down there.  Excuses abound!)

Counting Calories

Counting calories is hard.
Sure, it's manageable IF you're eating food straight out of a box, with a nutrition label that tells you how many calories are in it.  But that's not the best nutrition.  Nor the best taste. 

Daughter1 told Daughter3 about her discovery:  

LoseIt.com

The website harnesses the power of the internet to do all sorts of figuring for you.  For example, if you type in "banana," it will offer you choices of a small, medium, or large banana (with lengths to help you figure out size), and then it adds in a calorie count.  It has restaurant food in its search engines.  It has brand names, so you can look up Aldi spaghetti sauce or Starkist tuna or King Arthur flour.  

Best of all -- you can add recipes and it will figure that calorie count for you.  One time, Andrew had a project at school to evaluate his diet; it was far too difficult to eat the real food he was accustomed to.  Instead, he spent a few days eating instafood and fast food.  During that project, his goal was that all food come with a label listing the calories, protein, fat, etc.  But with LoseIt, we can record what went into the stirfry or casserole or salad, and the program figures up how many calories there are.  Maggie can also have "recipes" for things she eats regularly (such as the sandwich she frequently takes with her on school days) to simplify even further the record-keeping.

Maggie is motivated to use this.  She finds it easier to avoid the junk food when she knows she'll have to admit it to herself and watch the calories add up on her daily tote board.  She finds that exercise is easier when she enjoys the reward of typing in how far she walked or how many minutes she rode her bike, and sees her day's calorie-budget increase.  She set herself a goal of 2# loss per month, but she's far ahead of that for her first month.  

After a month of using the program, an added [math] bonus is that both Maggie and I are getting much better at estimating weights, volumes, and calorie counts.  

By the way, this program would be way easier with a smart phone, but LoseIt works just fine with a desktop.

Old Navy

I have a pair of jeans.
I would like another pair of jeans.

I am tall.  My legs are so freaky long that it's hard to buy pants.  I haven't had to buy pants for quite a while because I had been wearing dress-up clothes for work and church.  Every few months I've been doing some online shopping, trying to find a pair of jeans. 

Why is it so difficult to find jeans without spandex?!
Why doesn't anybody make plain old sturdy jeans, cotton jeans?
Jeans that you could wear in the garden or in the woods or on a hike?

Because of the ridiculous shoe heights that are popular right now, apparently the jeans are extra long right now.  My daughter told me that Old Navy sells really long jeans.

I hate shopping.
I hate clothes shopping even more than other shopping.
But I bit the bullet and stopped at Old Navy yesterday.

The background music was loud.  It was awful.  It had songs with the f-word.

The store was over-crowded with customers and not enough staff.

The clothing was in disarray.  It took forever to find something to try on: jeans in size 4, size 16, size 12, size 14, and size 8 were all in one stack.  It made me wonder if some trouble-makers had come in and surreptitiously spent hours rearranging the jeans to make all the stacks completely chaotic.

I finally resigned myself to buying jeans with spandex.  When the gal rang up my bill, it came to $31.68.  I didn't have a ten or the correct change, so I handed the clerk $42.  She was confused and handed back $1.  "It's only thirty-ONE sixty-eight."  Right.  I tried to explain about the 68 cents.  She argued with me.  She did not understand.  I finally told her, "Just type $42 into the cash register.  It will tell you how much change I should get, and then maybe you'll understand."  She then figured out the $10-bill easily enough, but she had trouble figuring out how to make the 32 cents. 

Left the store.
Noticed a men's clothing store next door -- a store that specializes in work clothes.
Went in.
Sure enough, they carry a few women's jeans.

Dang it -- they're all spandex too.

Decided to start trying on men's jeans. 
Because men's jeans come in durable COTTON.
Bought a pair.
They will need to have tucks in the waist.  But if that's what it takes to get real jeans instead of silly little fashion jeans, then okay.

Went back to Old Navy to return the spandex jeans.  Stood in a long line for the cash registers again.

Two twenty-something girls were in front of me, killing time on their phones, laughing and joking together while they waited.  One of them came across a video on her phone that she wanted to show her pal.  Held it up between the two of them.  It so happens that everybody in line behind them could see clearly too.  It was a porn video. 

I ought not say I will never set foot in an Old Navy again.  Something may force me to shop there one day.  But right now I can't imagine what level of desperation it would take for me to shop there again.  It was a cruddy two hours.

And some people think shopping is FUN.

From Choir Long Long Ago

I can remember so many songs from high-school choir that I'd rather not remember.  But some of what we sang was fantastic.  Two pieces in particular are songs I occasionally like to pull up on you-tube and play on repeat.  But I can never remember the composers' names to hunt them up.  So for ease of searching next time --

For Good Friday
Surely He Hath Borne Our Griefs (by Karl Heinrich Graun)

and connected to Rogate's introit
With a Voice of Singing (by Martin Shaw)

Religious Freedom

Is religious freedom a civil right?

We had a discussion at church tonight.  From one perspective, religious freedom is not a civil right.  It is a God-given right.  We are free.  We are in Christ.  We are live in that freedom of the Gospel, that freedom of the forgiveness of sins, that freedom to speak the truth. 

Of course, that may mean we are also free to suffer on account of the Gospel.  "Blessed are you when men persecute you and revile you and speak all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake." 

The Constitution's first amendment guarantees suggests that the government not infringe on religious freedom.  That part is a CIVIL right.  A couple of centuries ago, our government wanted to ensure that people would not be persecuted for believing, speaking, and acting upon their religious beliefs.  And ... what the government gives, it can take away. 

So yes, we are free with regard to religion.
But no, we are not free to expect that there will be no suffering and no persecution.



We have been talking frequently about Daniel.  The book of Daniel shows us how believers lived and confessed during times of religious persecution.  The ones who believed in the Lord worked [gasp] for the good [gasp] of the government which was persecuting them.  They did not hide their trust and their prayers; neither did they flaunt it and be "Bible-thumpers."  They did their jobs, went about their business, helped the pagans who had kidnapped them, and then received death sentences for refusing to bow down to idols.  They enjoyed "freedom of religion" in the true sense of the word.  No one could make them deny the Faith.  These folks did not, however, have a civil right to religious liberty.

Can we fix the government so that our civil rights are once again guarantees and not mere wishes?  Maybe.  Probably not.  The problem is not new.  It started a century (or more) ago; the changes have been picking up speed.  Forty or fifty years ago all the problems we see today were already in existence; they had not yet come to fruition; but they had already started.  (This too is not unlike what Daniel experienced.)  I find it very interesting that we see nowhere that Daniel was counting on Cyrus or the work of Ezra and Nehemiah.  Daniel was not agitating for the government to change its policy.  Daniel's hope was in the promises of the Lord, not in fixing things here on earth. 

Pork Tenderloin

For my kids: This is the recipe for the pork we had on Sunday.  I don't know who/where I got it from -- probably a melding of several online recipes.  It takes about 40 minutes.

The pork tenderloins at the Pig come with two in a 2.5# package.  Each tenderloin is a little over 1#.  The whole package would be 4-6 servings.  The recipe below is for cooking both the pieces at the same time.

Use a paring knife to trim any silver skin from the tenderloin, as this silver skin will get tough.
Pat tenderloin dry with paper towel.
Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a cast iron skillet or dutch oven over medium heat, till oil shimmers.

Coat the meat pieces with
1 Tbsp olive oil
and season with 
1/2 Tbsp salt 

Sear meat in skillet.  Cook each side for about 3 minutes, until nicely browned, for a total of 12 minutes.

Meanwhile, slice or chop
2 onions
2 apples

Begin preheating oven to 450.
When meat is seared, remove to a platter.

Add another Tbsp of oil to the skillet (if necessary) and saute onions and apples for about 5 minutes.
While the apples are frying, rub into meat:
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
3/4 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp black pepper

Add 1/4 tsp thyme to onions.  Top onions/apples with meat.   Slide skillet into hot oven.
Roast 10-15 minutes, until meat thermometer reads 145-150.  Don't overcook.
Put meat on clean platter; cover with foil; let rest 10 minutes.
Put skillet back on a medium burner.  Add
1 cup chicken broth to skillet.
Stir and scrape browned bits from bottom of skillet.
Bring to boil.  Reduce to simmer.  Cook until sauce reduces by half.
Slice meat. 
Apples and onions go on the bottom of the platter, topped by meat slices, topped by the sauce.



I substituted the 10 minutes of roasting with the crockpot.  After frying the apples and onions, I added the chicken broth to the skillet, stirred to remove brown roasty bits, and then poured it in the bottom of the crockpot.  I put the meat on top.  Crockpot on low for 3 hours was a bit too long, and I did a double recipe.  So probably two hours on low [for a modern crockpot] would be good.  I don't know how much longer for a good, old-fashioned, lower-heat crockpot.  If you use the crockpot, pour the apples, onions, and sauce into a saucepan or skillet to reduce the sauce on the stovetop. 

Do you have a meat thermometer?  It's really handy for a recipe like this because you don't want to overcook it and have tough meat, and you don't want to undercook it and get trichinosis.  And on that cheery note, we should all go buy tenderloins while they're still on sale.

Brain Aneurysm Foundation

Gary tuned the radio to the ball game last night.  As I was falling asleep, a commercial grabbed my attention.  "Gary, did you hear that?  There's a Brain Aneurysm Foundation!  I never knew that."  Well, he did.  He said he used the website a lot in my ICU days.

I grabbed his iPad and started reading.  I was up far too late.  But reading the stories -- it was so compelling.  I told myself that I was just reading to see if any of the stories mentioned arachnoiditis.  But had I not given myself that excuse, I still probably would've kept reading far into the night.  Or morning....

The statistics page tells me that I'm in a small group of those who have only a small impairment.

Most people who seek help for aneurysms do so because of terrible headaches.  If people have "the most horrible headache of their life" that may be reason to seek help in ER.  On the other hand, many people have no warning signs of aneurysm.  While in the hospital, I thought (based on questions from doctors) that I had had no warning signs.  I hadn't suffered from freaky-bad headaches.  I didn't smoke.  My blood pressure was beautiful.  I didn't have the normal signs of stroke: weakness in a limb, uneven smile, blurred vision, slurred speech.  But it turns out that pain above or behind the eye is a sign of aneurysm.  That had been going on for more than half a year, and I hadn't recognized it as anything serious.  I was concerned about glaucoma and went for an eye exam.  Of course it turned out my eyeball was fine.  So I ignored the occasional pain.



Reading people's stories -- oh, how those resonated with me!

People talked about fear whenever a headache started.  "Is this going to be another humongous thing?  Will my brain explode again?"

People talked about how life is divided into the "before aneurysm" and "after aneurysm" times.

Robin wrote, "No matter how normal we may seem, believe us when we say we don't feel normal."

It's helped to read about how others mourned and grieved over the loss of "the old me." 

People mentioned how they run their finger over the scar.  It seems weird to me to touch the incision site, to feel the dent in my skull.  But I do it nearly every day.

Nobody mentioned arachnoiditis.  One man did mention a spinal tap to relieve the problem of blood pooling and contaminating the cerebral spinal fluid.  

One survivor wrote about "flat affect."  She said the doctor told her that she was likely to feel uncaring, to feel emotionally unresponsive.  I've experienced that.  Gary was so glad when my eyes teared for joy when Paul and Mandy announced they were expecting a baby.  Emotions are beginning to return.

People talked about having unrealistic expectations of themselves.  They would try to do what they used to be able to do, thinking they could (or should) be able to accomplish what used to be easy.  But they couldn't.

Survivors talked about memory lapses.  They said they'd stop in the middle of sentences to search for a lost word.  (And yes, I know that's part of aging and we all deal with it.  This is more, though.)  People talked about slower processing, and how reading or listening must be slower for me to be able to understand.  (I noticed that online training at work took me a lot longer this year than it did pre-stroke.)

Patients reflected on whether they wanted other people to know about the brain trauma.  On the one hand, sometimes people know about it and treat you differently.  Some patients don't want that stigma hanging over them: Brain-Injured Person.  On the other hand, when people around you don't know about the brain trauma, the patient so often feels compelled to explain ... to apologize for being "the post-stroke me" who is not as efficient or strong or smart or witty as I was previously.

Gabriele wrote about this apologizing, realizing that sometimes she was ashamed of the "after-me."  She wrote about needing to take more notes, make more lists, slow down, and ask for help.  It was interesting to read this after yesterday's Bible class, where Pastor talked about our tendency to long for olden days, "better days."  But the Christian life is in receiving and giving -- in that order.   We always want to be the ones giving/doing.  But sometimes we need to be in the position of having others help us, others give to us, as they serve Christ by caring for us.  Gabriele wrote about a Lent-2 sermon (Gen 12) which referred to Abram's being "banished to the promise."  We usually think that banishment is from.  But she talked about being banished to God's mercy.  That fits with what Pastor talked about, how we are not to repristinate bygone days, but live where we are, today, receiving God's mercy and His gifts, and living in love toward the neighbor that we have today. 

Summer Rice Salad

This was part of Christmas dinner.  Nobody in our family is allergic to anything in it, and that's no small feat.  The recipe makes 5-6 quarts of salad, but don't make a bunch and expect to eat it all week.  After a day and a half in the fridge, the dab of leftovers was a little soggy.  All you kids who said you wanted the recipe, here ya go ...

Toss together:
3 cups cooked & cooled brown basmati (that's 1 cup rice + 2 cups water)
2 large or 3 medium cucumbers, chopped
3 pints of grape tomatoes, halved
1 carrot, grated
4 green onions, sliced
16 oz pea pods, cut into pieces about 3/4 to 1" long
2 avocados, diced
1/2 bunch of cilantro, leaves chopped

Drizzle with olive oil and the juice of 1 lemon.
Sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic powder, paprika.
Toss.

Cleaning for Company

I feel like such a hypocrite.

After I read Don Aslett, I told myself, "No more cleaning for company!"  I clean for us.  I clean because I don't want my space to be nasty or germy or uncomfortable. 

So it's the day before Christmas.  Company is coming.  And I am cleaning.

Self-justification commences:
I've been doing Christmas prep instead of the cleaning that I want to do for me.
I've been busy at church instead of cleaning for me.
It's been too long since I cleaned, and I've been trying to get to it.
The cats are shedding, and the hair drives me bonkers.
If I don't clean today, I can't do it until Monday, because I intend to enjoy being with family.

So the vacuum is out.
And the cat hair is being dusted up.

And I still feel like a hypocrite.

The Lord's Prayer with an Antiphon

This last week before Christmas, I have been appreciating intermingling the day's O antiphon with the Lord's Prayer.

For today:

Our Father, who art in heaven,
come and enlighten those who sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death.

Hallowed be Thy name.
Come and enlighten those who sit in darkness.

Thy kingdom come.
Come and enlighten those who sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death.

Thy will be done.
Come and enlighten those who sit in darkness.

Give us this day our daily bread.
Come and enlighten those who sit in darkness.

And forgive us our trespasses.
Come and enlighten those who sit in darkness.

And lead us not into temptation.
Come and enlighten those who sit in darkness.
and in the shadow of death.

But deliver us from the evil one.
Come and enlighten those who sit in darkness.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory.
Come and enlighten those who sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death.

Second of the O Antiphons

We address Adonai.
Ruler.
Lord of might.
Law-giver.
Appearing to Moses in the burning bush.
Appearing to the Israelites in the cloud and thunder and fire at Sinai.

And what is the petition connected to this God who seems so big and scary and fierce?
"Come with an outstretched arm and redeem us."

Redeem us.

That's not scary.
That's rescue.

All of God's bigness and fierceness is directed toward saving us and defending us.

A Baby's a Blessing

An unwed girl gets pregnant.  She chooses not to kill her baby.  Baby is born. 

Christians sometimes have mixed feelings.  The ladies at church wonder, "Should we throw a baby shower for her?" On the one hand, they know that the baby needs diapers and onesies and a car seat.  On the other hand, they don't want to send a message that appears to "reward" a sinful behavior.  The local woman who runs a home for moms has the best way to put this.

A baby is always a blessing.
Even if a baby is conceived in a less-than-honorable situation, even if the baby is conceived in violence, the baby is nevertheless a human being made in the image of God.  The baby is a blessing.  God's word says that children are a gift from God, a blessing from the Lord.  Regardless of the circumstances surrounding the conception, the birth of a baby is always a cause for rejoicing. 

 

"Don't You Trust Me?"

Doctor visit to a specialist I've never seen before.

Doctor recommends a long-term course of a medicine that is rife with bad side effects and links to cancer and heart attacks. 

I ask, "But doesn't that drug have a lot of side effects?"

Response?  "I am your doctor.  I know you.  I've looked at your chart.  Don't you trust me?  I would never give you anything that would hurt you." 

Huh.
I think it's true
that she would never
willingly
give me something
that she believed would hurt me.

But is there any chance that she could have been swayed by the pharmaceutical company to believe something inaccurate about the drug?
Is there a chance that I failed to inform her of something that I didn't know was pertinent?
Is there a chance she doesn't care about nutrition and wellness, but always turns to chemical solutions?
There's even a chance that she's spot-on right.

I was shocked that a doctor in this day and age would refuse to discuss side effects of a potent drug, and just say "Trust me." 

And if she thinks I'm going to trust her after that, I guess maybe she doesn't know me after all.



Over the next two days I spent about ten hours reading up on various perspectives by the drug manufacturer, alternative medicines, nutritionists, herbalists, and other aspects of my situation.  Man oh man -- buggy-eyed and brain-tired.  At least the doctor was good for one thing: she easily ruled out a lot of possible problems that I hadn't even considered (and which were probably the reason my GP sent me to the specialist in the first place). 

Bearing Fruits Worthy of Repentance

The tax collectors and soldiers came to John, listening to his preaching, believing his message, and asking, "What shall we do?"  The answer for all of them was pretty much, "Do your job honestly, without hurting other people."

Now if you were a taxpayer in Judea at that time, whether you believed in the Lord or not, you would derive some benefit from all these people trusting in the Messiah.  These Christians beginning to bear fruits of repentance.  Some of the taxpayers would be collecting only the amount they were supposed to collect. Some of the soldiers would be fair and good.  Certainly not all of them.  And not even these new Christians were sinless.  But some of them were indeed transformed (in part) by the Gospel they believed.

So even before Jesus died,
even before He was miraculously healing people,
even before He was preaching,

already there were some temporal blessings breaking in, like the tiniest little foretaste of what was yet to come.

Wonky Comments Too

So not only has my blog been wonky, but now I see the comments have been wonky too.

No, the comments themselves haven't been.  (My apologies Suzanne, Melanie, Cheryl, Jane in SB, and Karen in MI.  You're not being weirdos at all.  Well, not any more than the likable weirdness that is the norm.)  Something IS up, however, with the comment feature.  Today I noticed that a request for comment moderation was dumped into my spam folder.  That's when I discovered that a whole bunch of other comments were awaiting moderation -- comments from months ago.  Comments that never arrived, not even diverted to the spam folder.  They were simply sucked into a tiny corner of the blogger program.

Well, they have been found and posted.

Settings have been adjusted.  I was moderating comments only because my mom couldn't manage the "Prove you're not a robot" verification.  But Mom's not reading my blog now, so I no longer need to take that into account.

The trick now is to see if I can remember to keep peeking into that little forsaken corner in case of older comments.  And in the meantime, I have to watch for new comments that would hawk lower mortgages, exercise equipment, new roofs, and sexy girlfriends.  (I suspect you want those things just about as much as I do.)

Lizzy Is Growing

I haven't posted any pictures of Lizzy since she was brand new.  This is from about 3 weeks ago.  Like her momma, she wants to STAND at a ridiculously young age.  Rachel had to put a book under the baby's feet so that she could use her walker.  But now she's grown big enough to reach the floor!

Don't Be Wonky, My Blog

This week's discovery: ignore your blog long enough, and it will act up.  It will disappear temporarily so that you cannot [gasp] retrieve the recipes stored there.  A few days later, when you google for an old post, it's nowhere to be found.  Later yet, when you click on the link, the screen may give you a countdown to an ad-site and then go blank.  Weird stuff.  So I'm saying "HI" again, in an attempt to be Active.

For Thanksgiving the whole family (except middle-son and his wife) came for dinner.  Gotta brag on those kids: they decided it would be too much work for me and determined to split up the cooking and bring most of it with them.

I've been spending a lot of time working on a project at church.  This is an immense project.  I've been working on it for over a year.  At one point, it seemed that it would never end.  Ever.  I mean, never ever ever.  But (!) even though I'm not close to finished, I can tell I'm on the downward slope.  An end is in sight.  Somewhere.  Far away.  But visible nonetheless.  And the project is currently usable, even though it's not complete. 

Christmas tree is not up yet.  This bugs Maggie.

Christmas shopping is not done.  It's not going to be done, either.  Makes me feel guilty, but I'm not sure how to remedy it.   Is it grinchy to have no desire to buy gifts for people that they don't need, may or may not like, and are just going to clutter their homes?  If I could think better, I might come up with creative ideas.  Maybe next year?

I started lacto-fermenting vegetables.  This makes non-vinegary pickles, loaded with enzymes and probiotics.  It seems to be helping my tummy.  (I even had a little bit of ice cream without a stomach ache.  Awesomeness!)  The kids at school had asked what seemed to be an outlandish question: "Is there such a thing as pickled carrots?"  It just so happened that they asked the day after I started a batch of carrots.  So today, when they were having hot lunch, I took along my pickles and offered it to them.  Several tried it.  I don't expect that from kids.  Good for them!

My Lovely Mom

Using the Precious Things

The pretty china.  The beautiful old quilts.  The crystal.  It's silly to hide it in a closet, unused.  But it's uncomfortable to use it, knowing that you're risking ruin in the short-run or wearing out in the long-run.  So I give myself the speech as best I can: use those precious things.  Enjoy the memories.  Enjoy the beauty. 

And then comes a week like this one.  We were overwhelmed in blankets.  I hauled them all out -- out of the closets, out of the storage spaces in the basement, out of the linen cupboards.  I took inventory.  I set aside some to donate.  I set some aside to offer to the kids.  I probably kept too many.  And ...

and ...

I threw some away.

Let me just say, ... OUCH.

Two of these were quilts made by Grandma, for the kids, hand-sewn, hand-quilted.  But they're over 20 years old.  When newly made, they were constructed of old fabric scraps.  These quilts were well-used and enjoyed.  They decorated the bedrooms.  They had to go through the washer regularly.  They are not merely torn, in need of repair.  They are disintegrating.  It only makes sense that they've served us well and are now ready for the garbage.  But I hate throwing them away.

Stop That Sinning!

Repentance doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to stop sinning. 

Part of repentance is recognizing that the sins I do occur because of the sinner I am.  And the sinful nature is going to keep on being sinful until I'm laid to rest in the grave. 

Here's what repentance really is:  that I'm not going to rely on myself and my own efforts to solve the problem of sin in my life.  Rather, repentance means that I flee again to Christ, and depend all the more upon His forgiveness.




So does this mean the Christian can sin-like-crazy and indulge in whatever the Old Adam might desire? [She sighs in exasperation and wonders, "Are you for-real??"]

The reason the Christian desires to amend his sinful life is precisely because there has been a change of heart, worked by the Gospel, which causes him to be distressed by sin and to yearn to be free of it.

The Confessions state that the "Holy Spirit works faith when and where He pleases in those who hear the Gospel."  It is also true He works the fruits of faith when and where He pleases.   The Lord may have different ideas about what is good in our life than we do.  When we make an idol of our "good Christian walk," then the Lord knows better than we what is good for us.

We tend to think of the "amendment of life" as doing this, stopping that, fixing that habit.  Even bigger, though, is letting go of the sins of others, where Christ's forgiveness flows through us to others who've been rotten and don't deserve kindness.  Hmm ... just like Jesus forgives us.

Joseph's Decision about Mary's News

Remember when Joseph was thinking about "quietly divorcing" Mary?  He pretty much had two choices: a) accuse her of adultery, or b) divorce her and let people think the baby was his while still leaving Mary free to go be with The Other Guy. 

If Joseph accused Mary of adultery, she would be stoned.  But not just Mary.  If she were killed, then her baby would also die.  Joseph's compassion (even prior to the message from God) was not only for this woman, but he also was showing compassion to that baby in sparing His life.

Tremble

The psalms often mention people trembling before the Lord.  It sounds like shaking-in-your-boots, terrified panic.  I'm pretty sure that's the intent of the word in the original language.

But there's another kind of trembling.  Trembling with excitement, with anticipation. 

The Lord reigns; let the peoples tremble!  He dwells between the cherubim.  Let the earth be moved (Ps 99).  

Later in the psalm He is called "God-Who-Forgives" though He takes vengeance on sinful deeds.  He forgives.  He promises.  We have some things to anticipate, things to look forward to.

Obeying God Rather Than Men

Story: King Saul orders somebody, anybody, to kill this popular young David fellow.  Prince Jonathan objects.  David escapes.  Jonathan wants David to come back to the palace.  David says, "Not on your life!  Your dad is plotting to murder me."  "No, he wouldn't do that."  "That's what you think.  He's hiding it from you because he knows you wouldn't like it."  Jonathan comes up with a plan to test it out and still ensure David's safety.  (1 Samuel 18-20)

In chapel, Pastor asked the kids about the fourth commandment.  Jonathan was disobeying his father.  Wasn't that sinful?  (By the way, in case you're wondering, the answer is NO, not sinful.)  As we read the story, and as Pastor brought in other passages, something crossed my mind.  

We cannot truly honor someone unless we are holding fast to the Word of God.

Any time we have to fudge on God's word a bit, whatever "honor" we are showing to somebody isn't really honor.  It may be for self-preservation or for gaining power or for some other reason.  But it's not honor.

So when there are ethical problems with regard to abusive husbands, or parents using kids as drug-runners, or governments enacting unjust laws, the answer will always be in God's word, especially in connection to His word of promise and mercy.




 

A Very Clean Pantry

My poor pantry was feeling left out of the cleaning binge.  So it had its own little meltdown.  A beer bottle exploded. 

1.  It was inside the closed pantry.  So flying glass stayed contained in the pantry.
2.  It was beer, not wine.  I had a wine bottle explode once.  That required not only cleaning but also painting walls.
3.  Gary was home when it happened, and did a huge portion of the clean-up work.
4.  From here on out, liquids should live on the bottom half of the pantry, and dry goods (noodles or sugar) should live on the higher shelves.

When you empty out the whole pantry, onto the kitchen floor and counters and table, it's rather surprising to see how much food we are blessed with, with it spread all over instead of contained in its proper spots behind a closed door.

So, do ants and other nasty critters like beer?  We have cleaned and scrubbed.  But I fear missing ANY drips of beer, lest I should entice pests.  (I mean the six-legged kind, you silly.)

This Is "Retirement"?

Yesterday was the first day I Should Have Been At Work, but wasn't.  (No, I haven't fully quit yet.  I'm still taking some short shifts until they replace at least one of the open positions at my branch.)

Such conflicting emotions!

Instead of doing one of a gazillion things on my After-I-Quit-Work to-do list, I spent the day with my daughter and newborn granddaughter.  Rachel ended up in the emergency room this weekend.  The surgeons removed a troublesome organ.  They sent her home on narcotics.  I spent a couple of days there, taking care of things that she simply couldn't.  While running some errands Tuesday morning, I wondered about certain customers, whether they'd come in yet.  I wondered how my co-workers were keeping up with the work, whether it was a busy day or a boring day, wondered who was subbing for me, etc.  And that's when it hit me.  Tuesday would have been loads easier physically and mentally if I had been at work instead of tending to family needs.  And yet ... working Tuesday would have been awful as my mind and heart would have been preoccupied with my babies and grandbabies, wanting to be there to help but unable.

Today I planned to spend a shorter amount of time with Rachel and Lizzy.  Instead the day was spent helping Katie get her car functional again.

Nature abhors a vacuum.

See what price my daughters pay when I make a "vacuum" of my calendar?  (Well.  Okay.  Not a vacuum.  But cleared out a little bit.)  It makes me wonder if I should protect my kids by going back to work!

Rachel says God had it all worked out.  She had a tiny baby ... and that baby is big enough to be safe/healthy but small enough to be carried by post-surgery mommy.  Rachel had been over-producing milk, so there was plenty in the freezer for Baby to live on while Mommy couldn't feed her.  And Nanna didn't have to be at work and could be butting in, soaking up some baby-snuggles between washing dishes and stuff like that.  I guess, if you're going to toss an emergency surgery into life, this probably was a darn-tootin' easy way to go about it.

Today's Laugh

What does the moon do when he needs a haircut?

'e clips.

A Very Clean Refrigerator

I blame Maggie.

Today while cutting veggies, we were watching Good Eats.  Eventually Maggie commented on how clean Alton's chill-chest was.  "How can anyone keep a refrigerator that clean?"  I told her that if I had as many aides as he has, and if I were putting my refrigerator on national TV, ours would be that clean too.  At least for the camera.

A few hours later an uncovered glass of grape juice tipped over in the refrigerator.  Grape juice on every shelf.  Grape juice on the walls.  Grape juice pouring out the bottom of the appliance.  Grape juice all over the floor.

She had to go and comment on clean refrigerators.  You know the fates heard her.



An hour-and-a-half later, any qualms I had about having Not Accomplished Much today were gone.

Tomorrow we tackle the floor, including underneath the stove and fridge.  That grape juice sure was some motivation!

Why Space Is Called "Space"

A long time ago in a county far, far away
we built a model of the solar system.

(This was before Pluto was demoted.)

Most models of the solar system put either
~the planets' distances in scale to each other, or
~the planets' size in scale to each other. 
But not both. 

So we went out on an isolated country road, and made ourselves a scale model of the solar system, with the planets' sizes in scale to their distances from each other.  We made 1 inch equal to 50,000 km.  This is awesome.  When you plunk down a couple grains of rice and a few lentils and a marshmallow or two across the space of nearly two miles, you really see why we call it "space."


The next time we laid out our scale model, several years later, I realized that the planets aren't lined up in a nice, neat row.  So our model shouldn't be in a row either.   That time, we placed our planets in two dimensions:  Pluto was about two miles to the west of the sun, Neptune 1.5 miles south of the sun, and Uranus a mile east of our 20" sun.  That really shows you the vast nothingness that's out there.  This project also gives you a really good grip on the difference between the inner and outer planets!

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If you're interested in trying this out yourself,
and if you don't want to bother with the arithmetic,
these are the numbers we used:

Sun  20" diameter
draw it in sidewalk chalk, or use a smallish laundry basket as your model

about 96 feet away
(I took 22 paces, which are about 4.5 feet each, 
calling a "pace" a set of right & left steps, 
but I have long legs)
Mercury   1/10" (we used a crumb of rice)

about 180' from the sun
(another 18 paces)
Venus   1/4"  (we used a dried pea)

about 250' from the sun
(another 15.5 paces)
Earth   1/4"  (dried pea)
with the moon 7" away
1/16"  (a pin head)

about 380 feet from the sun
(another 29 paces past the earth)
Mars    1/7"    (a small lentil)

Then we went back to the sun, and drove,
using the car's odometer to measure distance.
Sun is your zero point.

Jupiter   (3" -- a baseball)
0.25 miles from the sun

Saturn (2.5"  -- a racquetball)
0.2 miles past Jupiter
or .45 from sun

Uranus  (1" -- large marshmallow)
0.45 miles past Saturn
or .9 miles from sun

Neptune (also 1")
0.5 miles past Uranus
or 1.4 miles from the sun

Pluto (1/22 "  -- a pin point)
0.45 miles past Neptune
or 1.85 miles from the sun



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Have fun!

Recent Events

Elizabeth's arrival is the best of the recent events.  But, oh!, I do wish I had the strength and endurance to go help more, visit more, snuggle more. 

Gary's hungry.  He's having some health problems that require [deep serious voice--] Dietary Changes.  Right now it seems like there's nothing he can eat but veggie salads.  Nothing with sticking-power.  Yeah, but how much of that is real, and how much is scientists and chemists trying to figure out the art of medicine?  Once he gets the pain under control, I suppose then we can begin experimenting.  I'm wondering: if we fix guts, might the rest of the body straighten out too?

Sister, brother, and I divided up most of the belongings of my mom's house.  I've heard stories from other families about what happens when a parent dies.  Oh my goodness -- I am so thankful that we can get along and be nice to each other!

Maggie and I have an appointment coming up at Easter Seals to see if they have any programs that might benefit her. 

Between Gary, Maggie, Rachel, and me, it seems like we're seeing doctors or making appointments or receiving test results practically every day.  My head is swimming. 

Pretty soon I will be leaving my job.  Working and homeschooling and healing-from-stroke was at the utter limits of what I could do.  There was no margin.  Mom' death and helping with settling things just didn't/won't fit in.  So something has to go.  Since Maggie's not expendable, and since I have no magic wand to [poof] achieve full healing from my brain injury, the job is the only thing that I can take a break from.  I will miss it.  I will miss some of the customers.  I will miss the paycheck.  But mostly I will miss the nice feeling of having finished a task completely and correctly.  I keep reassuring myself that I can always reapply for the job when some of these family matters are wrapped up.

Google tells me that the European Union has instituted new rules for cookies on websites.  That means bloggers must inform readers about cookies and obtain consent.  I don't know how to do that!  And I don't have the time or brain power to bother with figuring it out right now.  So my counter (which is, I think, the only cookie I have) had to go bye-bye.  If you leave an anonymous comment, please sign something on the bottom so I know who you are, so I can allow the comment to go through.  (You could use initials, or first name plus last initial, or "Friend in Janesville," etc.)  It's getting tempting to just shut-down the blog or make it private (readers by invitation only).  But I'd need to save a lot of information first, including printing out recipes.  And that too is too much work right now. 

Katie, Maggie, and I watched "Pride and Prejudice" at APT last weekend.  Sarah Day does such a great job with fussy, busybody women-characters!  And Marcus Truschinski is the best Mr Darcy I ever saw.  

I'm working on lacto-fermenting veggies.   The corn relish was made with fresh-picked corn from the farm.  I made it a few years ago, and it was my favorite pickled recipe.  It's great to make another batch.  I should get my hands on some more corn while it's still available.  The pickle-batch I set aside today was sauerkraut.  Fresh, unheated sauerkraut is so much yummier than the cooked/canned soft kind.  I think broccoli slaw may be my next attempt.  There are so many possibilities that sound good.  And non-vinegar pickles are so much tastier ... as well as being super-healthy.

New Grandbaby

Baby Elizabeth arrived a few days ago.  She is so little and so pretty and it's wonderful to hold her!

The Life Which I Now Live ...

THIS life.  This life of deciding whether to take a nap or doggedly continue weeding.

This life of having overslept and needing to rush to get dressed to make it to work on time. 

This life of laundry and mowing and dishes and teeth-brushing. 

This life of figuring out where to work or where to rent or whether to go to the doctor for the owie.

I have been crucified with Christ.
It is no longer I who live,
but Christ lives in me.
And the life which I now live in the flesh,
I live by faith in the Son of God,
who loved me and gave Himself for me.  (Gal 2)

Paul's not spouting some theological mumbo-jumbo.  He's talking about the here-and-now, the nitty-gritty of what we do each day, each hour, each minute.  No matter what mundane aspects of life we're slogging through, we continue on in faith in the Jesus who saved us.  We serve Him.  We worship Him.  And when we don't --when our sinful flesh has its way-- we depend upon Him all the more because He forgives, He rescues, He saves.

Potatoes Are Done

The centipedes will gobble up Yukon Gold that sit in the ground too long.  So when we saw the potato vines beginning to yellow, we decided to get out there and dig 'em up before we lost 'em.

Somebody was having a grand time helping move potatoes from the bucket back to the dirt, or from the bucket into the wash-water, or from the muddy water back into the bowl of dirty potatoes.  Somebody else decided to help Nanna scrub potatoes. 

Grand to have such helpers!!