I have been thinking about this a lot lately, so I have decided I should record it for posterity. I had a very profound experience towards the end of 2006 that I have not yet recorded, but it was a very important experience for me on a lot of different levels.
Roger has been having pain lately and a hard time walking, and we were talking about this yesterday, so I am going to try to put it in a written form.
Last year when I became totally unable to walk without assistance, a lot of people started suggesting what I should do including surgery, a knee replacement. Others suggested medications I should try. I was thinking about the different options and which one would be best because it was obvious I could not continue going on as I was.
Because we don't have medical insurance, I was not quick to run to the doctor and ask his advice, but I think this is a good thing. We become too dependent on those we consider "professionals" in our society instead of thinking through our problems. All answers to all problems are not always "Go ask a professional." In fact, in the scriptures, I think we are more directed to "Ask God." Actually, we are supposed to sort out the problem, come up with what we think is a solution, and THEN ask our Father in Heaven if that is a good solution.
Well, I pondered on all the advice I had been given, and did some other research, but I did not feel good about any of these solutions. None of them felt right. The thing that kept coming into my mind is, "Why are you relying on the arm of flesh?" I kind of ignored it thinking the answer would come.
Finally, after a long night with a lot of pain and sleeplessness because of the pain, I was pretty desparate, and asked, if not the arm of flesh, then who or what? The answer came into my mind, "caffeine". What did caffeine have to do with this? I had started drinking cokes again (mostly icees - my addiction to them is known far and wide). I have these cycles I go in where I give it up, have the headaches, stay off for a while, and then go back to it usually in the summer when it is hot. So what did that, howbeit a flaw I needed to give up, have to do with the pain I was having?
Well, I prayed, and asked Heavenly Father if he would take away the pain if I gave up the caffeine one final time. I didn't think much about it knowing these things take their time, but I was pain free the rest of the day. I couldn't believe it. I thought surely this was a fluke.
Needless to say, I haven't had to walk with assistance since this time. It truly was a miracle given by a Father who I realized loves me very much. I am one of those people who can't believe He really does love me, so this meant a lot to me. I have not had too many personal one-on-one things with Him, but this was one of those times.
This has been on my mind a great deal. In fact, each time I get up and can walk, I say a silent prayer of gratitude. But I have been thinking of other things within this context as well.
I don't doubt that I could have gone to a doctor and had him fix this up. Well, who knows? Why did HF want to go this route? Well, obviously, the caffeine thing was not something in my best interest. Was the pain a way to get my attention? Is it THAT big a deal to Him?
Maybe it was just the next step in MY personal progression. That really seems most likely to me.
The other thing that I can't get out of my mind is the idea that He really can fix anything. I don't think I really got that before. And if he can and will fix anything, what did I want him to fix next? Well, now, that just sounds greedy. How much is too much? I guess He can just say NO! if I ask too much.
So, I haven't asked for anything else. I, of course, have asked for guidance and inspiration, but I haven't asked Him to just fix anything else. Maybe He only does that when that is the only way the problem can be solved.
There are so many problems we have while we are walking on this earth. I am so grateful that I got a glimpse into the fact that we are not all alone. I really do try to do it alone most of the time, and that is really stupid. Ego, I guess. I suppose I am reaching a point in my life when I am forced to be more dependent as I become more vulnerable. Maybe that is why we are allowed to live so long as this would be a hard lesson to learn while young. Then again, perhaps missionaries learn this as they go out away from the security of their families. That seems so incredibly hard to me, even now. Perhaps the only way they survive it is dependence on their HF.
A lot of problems can be solved through inspiration and doing the right things. I know that caffeine was not causing the problem that I was having, but I also know that giving it up when inspired to do so resulted in the miraculous healing. Inspiration can be about more than solutions; it can be about way to improve our relationship with Him.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
NO Success Will compensate for failures in the home
Roger and I are pretty whipped tonight, but I wanted to record a couple of things before I go to bed.
We had a meeting with the Schroeders today as she wanted to go over ways we could attract more people to the home storage center. I related our efforts to those of a proselyting mission where most of the people you contact don't want to hear what you have to say. Unfortunately we are working with members who should want to know about home storage, but it falls on deaf ears most often.
She said we are supposed to do open houses for the stake welfare committees, so we are going to figure out some good dates for that, and we want to do a Christmas open house this year (probably in September) for the regular members.
We delivered four of our Walton orders today, so I guess I will end up paying for what we couldn't sell. One of the ladies that ordered is not a member and her husband is a minister for their church. She said she has felt impressed to put food away. So we are trying to friendship her a little to help her know why we (as Mormons) do food storage.
We went to the Duval container warehouse on Myrtle Street and bought 13 2 gallon pails for the gamma lids I had previously purchased. I think they will be the perfect size. They also had ball canning jars which I found interesting. The 1/2 gallon size is $1.50 each in cases of 6. This includes a 2-piece lid. I am going to use them to break down the dehydrated potato products I purchased: hasbrowns, dice, slices. 6 gallon buckets is way too big. Maybe I will put my beans in them too. It takes me a long time to use a #10 can. Of course, I am going to start canning more of my beans and store them that way. I'm not sure what I'm going to use the 2 gallon pails for; I think I'll put wheat and grains in them instead of the #10 cans so they can be recycled.
We went to Wyatt's pack meeting tonight, the blue and gold banquet, their big yearly event. Wyatt had earned several awards for which he was very proud. He's done a great job with a little help from his fantastic den leaders!
The mood was spoiled a little by remarks made by the cubmaster who had all the eagles in attendance come to the stand. Most held leadership roles in their ward, and the cubmaster tried to make the connection that it was no accident that their eagles all held leadership positions. Previous to this, his father, one of the eagles, had made the point that scouting is a tool for parents to use as they try to rear their children righteously. It is too bad they didn't stop there because evidently they forgot about all the great men in the Church who have not earned their eagle. In fact, the majority of members in the church today do not have boy scouts in their countries and so are not afforded this opportunity.
Scouting is a great tool, but that is all that it is. It is not an inspired program in and of itself. The brethren have been inspired to incorporate in the YM's programs of the Church, but I believe the day will come when that will not be the case.
The true success in the Church for effectively building leaders is the missionary program of the Church. I think seminary is helpful in preparing YM for their missions along with other church programs. Ultimately, I think what goes on in the home is the greatest factor.
We had a meeting with the Schroeders today as she wanted to go over ways we could attract more people to the home storage center. I related our efforts to those of a proselyting mission where most of the people you contact don't want to hear what you have to say. Unfortunately we are working with members who should want to know about home storage, but it falls on deaf ears most often.
She said we are supposed to do open houses for the stake welfare committees, so we are going to figure out some good dates for that, and we want to do a Christmas open house this year (probably in September) for the regular members.
We delivered four of our Walton orders today, so I guess I will end up paying for what we couldn't sell. One of the ladies that ordered is not a member and her husband is a minister for their church. She said she has felt impressed to put food away. So we are trying to friendship her a little to help her know why we (as Mormons) do food storage.
We went to the Duval container warehouse on Myrtle Street and bought 13 2 gallon pails for the gamma lids I had previously purchased. I think they will be the perfect size. They also had ball canning jars which I found interesting. The 1/2 gallon size is $1.50 each in cases of 6. This includes a 2-piece lid. I am going to use them to break down the dehydrated potato products I purchased: hasbrowns, dice, slices. 6 gallon buckets is way too big. Maybe I will put my beans in them too. It takes me a long time to use a #10 can. Of course, I am going to start canning more of my beans and store them that way. I'm not sure what I'm going to use the 2 gallon pails for; I think I'll put wheat and grains in them instead of the #10 cans so they can be recycled.
We went to Wyatt's pack meeting tonight, the blue and gold banquet, their big yearly event. Wyatt had earned several awards for which he was very proud. He's done a great job with a little help from his fantastic den leaders!
The mood was spoiled a little by remarks made by the cubmaster who had all the eagles in attendance come to the stand. Most held leadership roles in their ward, and the cubmaster tried to make the connection that it was no accident that their eagles all held leadership positions. Previous to this, his father, one of the eagles, had made the point that scouting is a tool for parents to use as they try to rear their children righteously. It is too bad they didn't stop there because evidently they forgot about all the great men in the Church who have not earned their eagle. In fact, the majority of members in the church today do not have boy scouts in their countries and so are not afforded this opportunity.
Scouting is a great tool, but that is all that it is. It is not an inspired program in and of itself. The brethren have been inspired to incorporate in the YM's programs of the Church, but I believe the day will come when that will not be the case.
The true success in the Church for effectively building leaders is the missionary program of the Church. I think seminary is helpful in preparing YM for their missions along with other church programs. Ultimately, I think what goes on in the home is the greatest factor.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Gratitude helps us overcome trials...
I have been a little frustrated with my inability to keep this up any better than I have. There have been some great experiences lately, and some not so great, that I would like to have recorded, but I haven't.
I had a really negative experience last weekend that I would normally have written about in a "real" journal, but because of the public nature of this one, I did not. The writing would have been cathartic, and as I write now, I wish I had written about it in my paper journal.
President Kimball always advised against writing really negative experiences because of their public nature, even the written ones. But he does say that it helps those reading the journals to know of the struggles people have as it makes their own not seem so bad.
I think my life is so easy it might be discouraging to those who read it who truly have trials. Not that I am wishing anything upon myself. I think Heavenly Father knows where my threshhold for endurance is, and He knows when He has pushed me close to it.
In thinking about my negative experience all week, I finally realized today how much of a test it truly was, and will continue to be. My metal, my compassion, has not been truly tested. This will aid and abet that part of my growth.
Last Saturday, I attended the temple with Jac and Bonnie. Alicia was not able to go due to the CLAST which was scheduled for that day. While I really missed her, I was glad we went anyway. It seems the more we try to schedule for everyone, the more difficult that becomes.
On that particular day, the temperature was below freezing. When we woke up, we had no water in the house or outside. Once the temperature came down enough for the pipes to thaw, the pump came on, but no water came up. Later we learned that the pump had lost its prime, which I should have remembered from a previous experience. Fortunately, the pump does not break often enough for us to remember how to fix it each time.
I went on to the temple, and Roger stayed home from his assignment at the home storage center to make sure our pipes had not broken when frozen. Once when we returned home after a freeze, this had happened, and the pump had run non-stop until we turned it off. This is not good either. The pump man who came out primed the pump and made us feel better about the service call by telling us the points were shot too. So he took care of that as well, and we are $144.00 wiser. Well, not that $144 can buy much wisdom with inflation and all.
It was pleasant at the temple as it was not as crowded as it is no most Saturdays. Good for us, but bad for those waiting to have their work done. How difficult it would be to have to wait that long! I wish I were more dedicated to doing more on their behalf.
I was a little off my game in terms of engaging conversation with my daughter-in-laws. I never sleep well when it is cold even if I am not. I don't know why. So I was a little tired and glad to get back home even though I enjoyed the girls so much.
Jac gave us an adorable little initial zipper pull from her trip to New York, but I'm not supposed to tell Alicia before Jac can get hers to her. She said she had an awful time finding something METs for Darius as even the New Yorkers hate them! She brought Roger some playing cards which say New York on them, so it will be nice to use these items knowing she was thinking of us there.
Our chickens have been laying almost an egg every day. We are loaded with eggs, and eat them almost every day. It is great! I was wishing today that I had goats too, but I know that they are a lot more work. I try to give them greens every day; we have a lot of weeds in the yard, so that is not hard. Plus I give them sprouts from the kitchen when they are past their prime. I try to start a new batch of sprouts every other day or so.
My in house tomato plants are doing great too. I will need to get them outside soon. I haven't started my pepper plants yet. I want some cucumbers this year too, but I don't have much luck with them. Maybe I need a different variety as Bro. Hurtado's cukes are fantastic. Last year the corn was horrible; I don't think we got more than an ear or two out of several rows. I think the pollenation was off.
I put a math problem in the message for the students for last month, and we have had two guess the right answer. Yay! Several more have guessed, though incorrectly. Now I need to think of a good prize.
The problem was: Suppose a water bottle is 3/4 full, and you drank 80% of the water. What percent is left in the bottle?
Easy, right? I am going to come up with another brainteaser for this month, maybe not math related this time.
Last Friday, Roger and I cleaned out our food storage shed. We had boxes and boxes and boxes of books in there which was taking up space needed for food storage. I couldn't believe we had dumped so much school stuff in there.
Most of the books we dontated to the Palatka public library for the annual book sale. Some we thought were appropriate for the grandkids were given to Bonnie, and maybe one stack was kept for reference purposes, or were books we know we would use. (For example, I found
the Articles of Faith and Jesus the Christ books given to me by a sister from Canada that I used to visit teach. They are older editions.) There were also a couple of boxes of old church manuals.
I don't know what we will do with them.
We bought 2 shelves at Home Depot to put in the shed where it is now shelveless. We are going to be reorganizing our food storage and making it more shopper friendly, us being the shoppers! We want to keep a week's supply in the house, and then shop from our staples list each week in the shed to replenish what we have used that week. It will also help us be more realistic about how much we need. We have a lot more than we will ever eat at this point in time, but it is hard to know how much we will need to share at a critical time. I guess we will continue to try to follow the spirit in knowing how much we need.
We served at the home storage center today; it was our branch's canning today, and we had 5 people make up orders, but only Graciela went with us. So 7 families participated. Graciela always buys the bulk cartons and bags, plus today she bought a can of vanilla pudding mix. She was trying to figure out if she should buy the rice in the can instead, so I showed her how the math worked out on it, and she bought the box. I asked her how long the food she bought today would last, and she said about 3 months. Maybe some day, I will get them to but 4 times as much so that they have a year's supply. I hope if they ever need it, the crisis will come at the
beginning of the 3 months and not at the end. I bought more oxypacks as I am going to buy the 2 gallon pails on Tuesday. I got my gamma lids last weekend.
I have had a wonderful experience teaching my seminary class. I cannot believe the wonderful spirit that is there. It is the same as when I taught institute, so I guess it is related to the willingness of the class participants. It was rare when I was teaching Palatka early morning for that spirit to be present, maybe once a week or so.
This has been unusual because I have never taught members so recently converted and with so little experience with Church terminology and doctrine. They don't have too much Biblical
background either. Even without me saying, one of the students observed that they were kind of like Joseph Smith: they were learning about the Church from the beginning, just like he had too. I shared with them the "Journey with Joseph" concept we did in institute, and they liked that. One of the points we brought up is that one of the things that helped Joseph be prepared for the part he was to play in the restoration of the gospel was the excellent foundation he had in the Bible from his family's daily scripture study. They realized they were at a disadvantage because they had not been brought up that way. How much we take for granted our blessings!
They have a hard time with the vocabulary, both in the manual and the scriptures. Since their families only speak Spanish, and they aren't very good students at regular school, they are in many ways illiterate. I promised them that if they would study their scriptures every day that the Spirit would help them gain knowledge in all things, not just the scriptures. I know that this is true.
We are learning a Spanish hymn in our Spanish choir practice that is not found in the English hymn book, #190, Bello Hogar. They are doing a great job learning it. We are also singing the hymns of the restoration isolated in the Gospel Principles manual. They are all very anxious to learn. One of the sisters noticed that she could follow my lips to know when to sing what. They have a hard time figuring out when to make a word have 2 notes as they do not know how to read notes. We are trying to teach music theory as well. It is a lot to take in.
Well, as I have written all these great things, I have been able to push the heartache away from the bad experience I had at church last week. I realize my life is very rich and that the challenges are needed so that I can realize how very blessed I am.
I had a really negative experience last weekend that I would normally have written about in a "real" journal, but because of the public nature of this one, I did not. The writing would have been cathartic, and as I write now, I wish I had written about it in my paper journal.
President Kimball always advised against writing really negative experiences because of their public nature, even the written ones. But he does say that it helps those reading the journals to know of the struggles people have as it makes their own not seem so bad.
I think my life is so easy it might be discouraging to those who read it who truly have trials. Not that I am wishing anything upon myself. I think Heavenly Father knows where my threshhold for endurance is, and He knows when He has pushed me close to it.
In thinking about my negative experience all week, I finally realized today how much of a test it truly was, and will continue to be. My metal, my compassion, has not been truly tested. This will aid and abet that part of my growth.
Last Saturday, I attended the temple with Jac and Bonnie. Alicia was not able to go due to the CLAST which was scheduled for that day. While I really missed her, I was glad we went anyway. It seems the more we try to schedule for everyone, the more difficult that becomes.
On that particular day, the temperature was below freezing. When we woke up, we had no water in the house or outside. Once the temperature came down enough for the pipes to thaw, the pump came on, but no water came up. Later we learned that the pump had lost its prime, which I should have remembered from a previous experience. Fortunately, the pump does not break often enough for us to remember how to fix it each time.
I went on to the temple, and Roger stayed home from his assignment at the home storage center to make sure our pipes had not broken when frozen. Once when we returned home after a freeze, this had happened, and the pump had run non-stop until we turned it off. This is not good either. The pump man who came out primed the pump and made us feel better about the service call by telling us the points were shot too. So he took care of that as well, and we are $144.00 wiser. Well, not that $144 can buy much wisdom with inflation and all.
It was pleasant at the temple as it was not as crowded as it is no most Saturdays. Good for us, but bad for those waiting to have their work done. How difficult it would be to have to wait that long! I wish I were more dedicated to doing more on their behalf.
I was a little off my game in terms of engaging conversation with my daughter-in-laws. I never sleep well when it is cold even if I am not. I don't know why. So I was a little tired and glad to get back home even though I enjoyed the girls so much.
Jac gave us an adorable little initial zipper pull from her trip to New York, but I'm not supposed to tell Alicia before Jac can get hers to her. She said she had an awful time finding something METs for Darius as even the New Yorkers hate them! She brought Roger some playing cards which say New York on them, so it will be nice to use these items knowing she was thinking of us there.
Our chickens have been laying almost an egg every day. We are loaded with eggs, and eat them almost every day. It is great! I was wishing today that I had goats too, but I know that they are a lot more work. I try to give them greens every day; we have a lot of weeds in the yard, so that is not hard. Plus I give them sprouts from the kitchen when they are past their prime. I try to start a new batch of sprouts every other day or so.
My in house tomato plants are doing great too. I will need to get them outside soon. I haven't started my pepper plants yet. I want some cucumbers this year too, but I don't have much luck with them. Maybe I need a different variety as Bro. Hurtado's cukes are fantastic. Last year the corn was horrible; I don't think we got more than an ear or two out of several rows. I think the pollenation was off.
I put a math problem in the message for the students for last month, and we have had two guess the right answer. Yay! Several more have guessed, though incorrectly. Now I need to think of a good prize.
The problem was: Suppose a water bottle is 3/4 full, and you drank 80% of the water. What percent is left in the bottle?
Easy, right? I am going to come up with another brainteaser for this month, maybe not math related this time.
Last Friday, Roger and I cleaned out our food storage shed. We had boxes and boxes and boxes of books in there which was taking up space needed for food storage. I couldn't believe we had dumped so much school stuff in there.
Most of the books we dontated to the Palatka public library for the annual book sale. Some we thought were appropriate for the grandkids were given to Bonnie, and maybe one stack was kept for reference purposes, or were books we know we would use. (For example, I found
the Articles of Faith and Jesus the Christ books given to me by a sister from Canada that I used to visit teach. They are older editions.) There were also a couple of boxes of old church manuals.
I don't know what we will do with them.
We bought 2 shelves at Home Depot to put in the shed where it is now shelveless. We are going to be reorganizing our food storage and making it more shopper friendly, us being the shoppers! We want to keep a week's supply in the house, and then shop from our staples list each week in the shed to replenish what we have used that week. It will also help us be more realistic about how much we need. We have a lot more than we will ever eat at this point in time, but it is hard to know how much we will need to share at a critical time. I guess we will continue to try to follow the spirit in knowing how much we need.
We served at the home storage center today; it was our branch's canning today, and we had 5 people make up orders, but only Graciela went with us. So 7 families participated. Graciela always buys the bulk cartons and bags, plus today she bought a can of vanilla pudding mix. She was trying to figure out if she should buy the rice in the can instead, so I showed her how the math worked out on it, and she bought the box. I asked her how long the food she bought today would last, and she said about 3 months. Maybe some day, I will get them to but 4 times as much so that they have a year's supply. I hope if they ever need it, the crisis will come at the
beginning of the 3 months and not at the end. I bought more oxypacks as I am going to buy the 2 gallon pails on Tuesday. I got my gamma lids last weekend.
I have had a wonderful experience teaching my seminary class. I cannot believe the wonderful spirit that is there. It is the same as when I taught institute, so I guess it is related to the willingness of the class participants. It was rare when I was teaching Palatka early morning for that spirit to be present, maybe once a week or so.
This has been unusual because I have never taught members so recently converted and with so little experience with Church terminology and doctrine. They don't have too much Biblical
background either. Even without me saying, one of the students observed that they were kind of like Joseph Smith: they were learning about the Church from the beginning, just like he had too. I shared with them the "Journey with Joseph" concept we did in institute, and they liked that. One of the points we brought up is that one of the things that helped Joseph be prepared for the part he was to play in the restoration of the gospel was the excellent foundation he had in the Bible from his family's daily scripture study. They realized they were at a disadvantage because they had not been brought up that way. How much we take for granted our blessings!
They have a hard time with the vocabulary, both in the manual and the scriptures. Since their families only speak Spanish, and they aren't very good students at regular school, they are in many ways illiterate. I promised them that if they would study their scriptures every day that the Spirit would help them gain knowledge in all things, not just the scriptures. I know that this is true.
We are learning a Spanish hymn in our Spanish choir practice that is not found in the English hymn book, #190, Bello Hogar. They are doing a great job learning it. We are also singing the hymns of the restoration isolated in the Gospel Principles manual. They are all very anxious to learn. One of the sisters noticed that she could follow my lips to know when to sing what. They have a hard time figuring out when to make a word have 2 notes as they do not know how to read notes. We are trying to teach music theory as well. It is a lot to take in.
Well, as I have written all these great things, I have been able to push the heartache away from the bad experience I had at church last week. I realize my life is very rich and that the challenges are needed so that I can realize how very blessed I am.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Why, we use numbers every day...
I just wrote this tremendous dissertation, and when I went to the published page, there was nothing there. What a bummer! I guess I need to write it off line, and then copy, paste. This has happened twice now.
We went to the HSC on Saturday with a group from Savannah and a sister from Middleburg. The latter usually comes with daughters and daughter-in-laws as she really worries as I do that her children will have what they need should hard times come upon them. It is funny how we worry more about that when our children are grown. I guess we understand vulnerability more as we grow older.
Jac has gone to NYC with her mother and sisters. There is more than 11 feet of snow in upstate New York. I don't know how much where she is. We're hoping she gets home safely. Orion wanted us to stay in Jax on Saturday to watch a movie or something, but we are too whipped by the weekend to do much of anything. I felt bad as I know he doesn't like to be alone.
We had purchased 224 pounds of rye and 125 pounds of whole oats from Walton during the last order and needed to put it in storage containers.
I have been thinking of changing the way we do our food storage as I hate the waste that is generated by using the metal cans. I am thinking of going to 2 gallon pails. I can use a lid called a gamma lid on them which can be done and undone at will and seals completely when it is closed. The metal cans cost about 77 cents each, and when they are emptied, they are trash. The pails can be used over and over again.
Of course, if one stores their food and never uses it, the metal cans are a better option as long as they don't rust. But if one is using it as a working pantry, then the recycled $3 pails are a better choice. They come in 1 to 6 gallon sizes, but we have to consider how heavy they are when full and how long it will take to empty them.
The only source for gamma lids makes them about $6 each, but you can get in and out of the pails without compromising the storage ability of the lid. Again, they can be used over and over again, so each use depreciates the cost.
I have been thinking a lot about how Bonnie says they use half a #10 can every time they have pasta. They can buy a 20 pound box for 56 cents a pound. Each can holds about 3 1/2 pounds, so they are using about 2 pounds each time she prepares pasta (compared to our use of 4 oz at a time). Even a 20 pound box would only last them 10 uses at that rate. A six gallon pail would hold the 20 pounds, I think and last them 10 dinners. That's probably a 2 month supply, so she'd need 6 6-gallon pails (120 pounds of macaroni) for a year. (and lot's of powdered cheese!!!) It would be a lot cheaper to purchase the 6 pails and lids, and each year buy 6 more boxes of macaroni to fill them up. Once the initial pail purchase is made, there is no more storage container expense. I don't know if you'd need to oxypack them or not if they were only going to be stored for one year. I guess that wouldn't hurt.
When my kids were home, I used these big pails I found at the warehouse club for our flour, wheat, sugar, oatmeal, and cornmeal. It was a little tricky to find room for them, but after a while they become fixtures. They were too heavy to move around when they were full. I think they were the kids' seats for a while before we changed the kitchen around. If they were sitting when I was cooking, they just had to get up while I scooped. These were not air tight pails, but they did the job. It was a very efficient system. I don't recall any of the food getting buggy or anything. I still buy flour and sugar in 25 pound bags and store them in those containers that fit under the bed.
I guess it is silly that my mind is always playing these numbers games, but if more people did it, there wouldn't be as much waste in the world. I always told my kids growing up when they got a job that paid a certain wage per hour, they should truly work that hard. People make it sound like $5.00 / hr. isn't that much, but you can still fill a gas tank with 4 - 8 of them, and drive a heck of a long way. $5.00 will buy 20 pounds or more of grain which will feed a hungry person about 3 weeks. Sometimes we get too tied up in our luxury items and forget that the basics are not as expensive. We can have anything we want if we want the right things.
And so there you have it, we DO use numbers every day. Or they are being used on us...
We went to the HSC on Saturday with a group from Savannah and a sister from Middleburg. The latter usually comes with daughters and daughter-in-laws as she really worries as I do that her children will have what they need should hard times come upon them. It is funny how we worry more about that when our children are grown. I guess we understand vulnerability more as we grow older.
Jac has gone to NYC with her mother and sisters. There is more than 11 feet of snow in upstate New York. I don't know how much where she is. We're hoping she gets home safely. Orion wanted us to stay in Jax on Saturday to watch a movie or something, but we are too whipped by the weekend to do much of anything. I felt bad as I know he doesn't like to be alone.
We had purchased 224 pounds of rye and 125 pounds of whole oats from Walton during the last order and needed to put it in storage containers.
I have been thinking of changing the way we do our food storage as I hate the waste that is generated by using the metal cans. I am thinking of going to 2 gallon pails. I can use a lid called a gamma lid on them which can be done and undone at will and seals completely when it is closed. The metal cans cost about 77 cents each, and when they are emptied, they are trash. The pails can be used over and over again.
Of course, if one stores their food and never uses it, the metal cans are a better option as long as they don't rust. But if one is using it as a working pantry, then the recycled $3 pails are a better choice. They come in 1 to 6 gallon sizes, but we have to consider how heavy they are when full and how long it will take to empty them.
The only source for gamma lids makes them about $6 each, but you can get in and out of the pails without compromising the storage ability of the lid. Again, they can be used over and over again, so each use depreciates the cost.
I have been thinking a lot about how Bonnie says they use half a #10 can every time they have pasta. They can buy a 20 pound box for 56 cents a pound. Each can holds about 3 1/2 pounds, so they are using about 2 pounds each time she prepares pasta (compared to our use of 4 oz at a time). Even a 20 pound box would only last them 10 uses at that rate. A six gallon pail would hold the 20 pounds, I think and last them 10 dinners. That's probably a 2 month supply, so she'd need 6 6-gallon pails (120 pounds of macaroni) for a year. (and lot's of powdered cheese!!!) It would be a lot cheaper to purchase the 6 pails and lids, and each year buy 6 more boxes of macaroni to fill them up. Once the initial pail purchase is made, there is no more storage container expense. I don't know if you'd need to oxypack them or not if they were only going to be stored for one year. I guess that wouldn't hurt.
When my kids were home, I used these big pails I found at the warehouse club for our flour, wheat, sugar, oatmeal, and cornmeal. It was a little tricky to find room for them, but after a while they become fixtures. They were too heavy to move around when they were full. I think they were the kids' seats for a while before we changed the kitchen around. If they were sitting when I was cooking, they just had to get up while I scooped. These were not air tight pails, but they did the job. It was a very efficient system. I don't recall any of the food getting buggy or anything. I still buy flour and sugar in 25 pound bags and store them in those containers that fit under the bed.
I guess it is silly that my mind is always playing these numbers games, but if more people did it, there wouldn't be as much waste in the world. I always told my kids growing up when they got a job that paid a certain wage per hour, they should truly work that hard. People make it sound like $5.00 / hr. isn't that much, but you can still fill a gas tank with 4 - 8 of them, and drive a heck of a long way. $5.00 will buy 20 pounds or more of grain which will feed a hungry person about 3 weeks. Sometimes we get too tied up in our luxury items and forget that the basics are not as expensive. We can have anything we want if we want the right things.
And so there you have it, we DO use numbers every day. Or they are being used on us...
Friday, February 9, 2007
Life IS the obstruction
When I think about why I don't get more writing, I can think of a lot of things that keep happening that get in the way. While I am trying to live life, it keeps getting in the way. Perhaps I'm not seeing the whole picture here. In fact, life is the obstruction to my fantasy of what life should be like.
Take for example, my efforts to pull together an order for the NE Florida area. I wasn't going to push a fall order, but folks kept asking for stuff, so I decided a small one might be ok. Our goal was to have a spring Jacksonville order, and the fall one would be a small one we'd pick up again in Gainesville. Turns out, we had 3 pallet loads, so Walton wanted to deliver it in Jacksonville.
I should have gone with my first intuition. Obstruction number 1: some people wanted to pay with paypal, and when I collected their money, I lost the percent that paypal takes out. Gotta remember that next time.
Obstruction number 2: one sister who paid with paypal had never done it before, so I had to set up the account for her. She wanted it taken out of her bank account, so we had to go through the 2 deposits to her bank thing that is such a pain in the butt. Finally, about a dozen e-mails later, it got done. (And my kids think all I do is church and work.)
After I sent the order off, one person wanted to change her order slightly. Melissa in South Carolina who coordinates all this wanted to let her since it was her first order and she is a non-member. It was no problem for me because I had not sent the check yet. So I sent Melissa the revised order. Big mistake. When I got my shipment on Tuesday, Melissa had forgotten to take off the original order, so I got the original one AND the revised one. Now I have to try to sell off $1200 worth of food storage which is all over my house presently.
Another sister who order $1100 worth didn't get my e-mail, so she was not there to pick up her order. I could not take it home as I had all this other order, so we had to hide it at the Bishop's Storehouse. Now this is a big no-no, and we are fixin to get hollared at real hard for that.
I don't know how I keep getting in these messes. Now Dorian would say, this isn't my problem, it is Melissa's. While he is correct, it would be very hard for her to solve the problem from all the way up in South Carolina. I guess if I can't sell all this stuff, I will have to figure out a way to get it to her. She says there is a co-op in St. Augustine who would want to buy it, but she didn't give the info on how to contact them.
As if I didn't have enough other things going on. We started our homestudy seminary class last night and got things straightened out for Pedro and Luis to do their school work. They are concerned that I am not charging them, but I tried to explain that we are doing this as part of our mission because we know money is a struggle for their families. Roger told them that if they graduate from high school and serve missions, that will be compensation enough.
I taught a knitting class last night as well to the Mexican ladies. All the sisters were invited, but it is only the Mexican sisters who come. They were a quick study with all of them getting it. Of course, they had the occasional dropped stitch, and one sister added stitches every so often, but I told them how badly can you mess up a dishcloth. It will be ugly anyway after it has scrubbed a few loads of dishes. It is a good piece to practice on.
One of the sisters had her 12 year old son (Rodrigo) with her who wanted to learn. He did a pretty good job as did the 8 year old daughter (Crystal) of another sister. I don't think Rodrigo's dad was too excited by it. I was surprised that the children want to learn, but I'm sure they will bore of it soon. J'hlem came up after the class and said she wanted to learn too. Maria really wants to make socks, but I told her they are a little harder, and she needs to learn the basics with dishcloths. I did all the casting on for them, and they are only knitting at this point (no purling), but we can do the other stuff next time we meet.
There were several men at the other part of our meeting. 2 tenors and 3 bass. Pretty good, huh? They were all singing different notes, but by the end, they were harmonizing. Sister Reyes kept calling me in to sing with them when she was trying to play the melody; everytime she played the melody with their parts, they'd revert to the melody. We finally told them that was the girls' parts, and they didn't want to sound like girls, did they? (Hispanic men, for all their humility, are nothing if not macho!) So they shaped up after that!!!!
When I was sitting with the sisters knitting, I was thinking how relaxed I was. There is only one other place I am that comfortable: when I am with all our children at our family gatherings. I would think being with a group of people with whom I can only partially communicate would be stressful, but it is not. There is a great sense of comradery.
We have had new enrollments almost every day to futher complicate the events of this week. It is crazy.
Today we are getting ready for a date night at Palatka 1st ward. They are having a Valentine's Dinner first, and then we are to do our presentation. I made bread, tuna salad, and mini cheesecakes in the muffin pans. I used the crunchy wheat cereal recipe to make the crumb crust. I still have dilly beans to serve with it. I don't know how hungry they will be since they are serving dinner first, but Sister Hudgins said she thinks they'll eat again. Hope so. We're supposed to do the newlywed game since it is Valentine's Day. Bishop Owen in the Atlantic made an appointment for them in March, and another sister is working on one for April. I don't know where she lives.
I decided if I am going to do this blog thing right, I will need a digital camera. Just have to find the time to go shopping.
Take for example, my efforts to pull together an order for the NE Florida area. I wasn't going to push a fall order, but folks kept asking for stuff, so I decided a small one might be ok. Our goal was to have a spring Jacksonville order, and the fall one would be a small one we'd pick up again in Gainesville. Turns out, we had 3 pallet loads, so Walton wanted to deliver it in Jacksonville.
I should have gone with my first intuition. Obstruction number 1: some people wanted to pay with paypal, and when I collected their money, I lost the percent that paypal takes out. Gotta remember that next time.
Obstruction number 2: one sister who paid with paypal had never done it before, so I had to set up the account for her. She wanted it taken out of her bank account, so we had to go through the 2 deposits to her bank thing that is such a pain in the butt. Finally, about a dozen e-mails later, it got done. (And my kids think all I do is church and work.)
After I sent the order off, one person wanted to change her order slightly. Melissa in South Carolina who coordinates all this wanted to let her since it was her first order and she is a non-member. It was no problem for me because I had not sent the check yet. So I sent Melissa the revised order. Big mistake. When I got my shipment on Tuesday, Melissa had forgotten to take off the original order, so I got the original one AND the revised one. Now I have to try to sell off $1200 worth of food storage which is all over my house presently.
Another sister who order $1100 worth didn't get my e-mail, so she was not there to pick up her order. I could not take it home as I had all this other order, so we had to hide it at the Bishop's Storehouse. Now this is a big no-no, and we are fixin to get hollared at real hard for that.
I don't know how I keep getting in these messes. Now Dorian would say, this isn't my problem, it is Melissa's. While he is correct, it would be very hard for her to solve the problem from all the way up in South Carolina. I guess if I can't sell all this stuff, I will have to figure out a way to get it to her. She says there is a co-op in St. Augustine who would want to buy it, but she didn't give the info on how to contact them.
As if I didn't have enough other things going on. We started our homestudy seminary class last night and got things straightened out for Pedro and Luis to do their school work. They are concerned that I am not charging them, but I tried to explain that we are doing this as part of our mission because we know money is a struggle for their families. Roger told them that if they graduate from high school and serve missions, that will be compensation enough.
I taught a knitting class last night as well to the Mexican ladies. All the sisters were invited, but it is only the Mexican sisters who come. They were a quick study with all of them getting it. Of course, they had the occasional dropped stitch, and one sister added stitches every so often, but I told them how badly can you mess up a dishcloth. It will be ugly anyway after it has scrubbed a few loads of dishes. It is a good piece to practice on.
One of the sisters had her 12 year old son (Rodrigo) with her who wanted to learn. He did a pretty good job as did the 8 year old daughter (Crystal) of another sister. I don't think Rodrigo's dad was too excited by it. I was surprised that the children want to learn, but I'm sure they will bore of it soon. J'hlem came up after the class and said she wanted to learn too. Maria really wants to make socks, but I told her they are a little harder, and she needs to learn the basics with dishcloths. I did all the casting on for them, and they are only knitting at this point (no purling), but we can do the other stuff next time we meet.
There were several men at the other part of our meeting. 2 tenors and 3 bass. Pretty good, huh? They were all singing different notes, but by the end, they were harmonizing. Sister Reyes kept calling me in to sing with them when she was trying to play the melody; everytime she played the melody with their parts, they'd revert to the melody. We finally told them that was the girls' parts, and they didn't want to sound like girls, did they? (Hispanic men, for all their humility, are nothing if not macho!) So they shaped up after that!!!!
When I was sitting with the sisters knitting, I was thinking how relaxed I was. There is only one other place I am that comfortable: when I am with all our children at our family gatherings. I would think being with a group of people with whom I can only partially communicate would be stressful, but it is not. There is a great sense of comradery.
We have had new enrollments almost every day to futher complicate the events of this week. It is crazy.
Today we are getting ready for a date night at Palatka 1st ward. They are having a Valentine's Dinner first, and then we are to do our presentation. I made bread, tuna salad, and mini cheesecakes in the muffin pans. I used the crunchy wheat cereal recipe to make the crumb crust. I still have dilly beans to serve with it. I don't know how hungry they will be since they are serving dinner first, but Sister Hudgins said she thinks they'll eat again. Hope so. We're supposed to do the newlywed game since it is Valentine's Day. Bishop Owen in the Atlantic made an appointment for them in March, and another sister is working on one for April. I don't know where she lives.
I decided if I am going to do this blog thing right, I will need a digital camera. Just have to find the time to go shopping.
Monday, February 5, 2007
Fast Sunday Outcome
That last date of 4 Feb. is misleading, as it was actually done in the wee hours after being up all day Saturday. Yesterday was a busy day with church and all. Being fast Sunday, Roger and I fasted to know if I should start teaching seminary again next year (as in early morning, you don't have a life anymore, seminary). We had very positive feelings, so I talked to President Allen about it in the hallway, and he jumped at the opportunity. I wasn't sure if he was happy about releasing me as RSP or putting me into seminary, but he was happy none-the-less. Perhaps he already has someone in mind for president.
I talked to one of the boys who was enrolled with us, but had to leave because he didn't have the money to pay tuition. I told him I would re-enroll him and give him his lessons at no charge if he would do the seminary program. He was ecstatic about both. He said he loves to study the scriptures. I will need to get hold of Bro. Lowry to get materials. We will finish out this year with homestudy and start with early morning next year.
I was surprised at how easily everything fell into place, but I shouldn't be. Everything we have done with the school has come about through the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Ghost. I know it is what Heavenly Father wants us to do with our life, and I know it is a blessing to many of His children. As long as we keep this at the upper most part of our minds, I think we will be doing what we are supposed to do.
I taught the lesson in RS on testimony. First we talked about the challenge to memorize the articles of faith we were given at the beginning of the year. A few members have been working on it. Then I asked why we should do this. I tried to develop the concept that as we kept saying the words "Creemos" or "We believe", it would challenge us to find out if we really do, hence helping us to develop a testimony. I know I cannot keep saying those words without thinking about my beliefs.
I had a very spiritual experience while bearing my testimony at the end of my lesson. I wish that would happen every time so that I could know that what I am saying is confirmed by the Holy Ghost, but it does not. I am very grateful when it does.
At sacrament meeting, several primary children bore their testimony as well as a couple of young women and Rodrigo, the only YM. He talked about how much he liked being a deacon. It was very sweet.
After church, I changed up the visiting teaching yet again to resolve some issues, and I will be going with Victoria Albarran, at least for a couple of months. I have 2 routes plus a bunch of mailing. Fanny is investigating, and it looks as though she will be baptized; that will be a big help.
It is hard to believe that soon I won't have to worry about that...
When I got home I had to put the beans on for nachos at Orion and Jac's house. They don't take that long in the pressure cooker. I had forgotten to soak them, and they were completely done after an hour. That helps people eat more nutritious foods if they know they can cook them faster.
We had a good FHE lesson at their home. Orion used the example from the new testament of the apostles who were called to leave their nets and follow the Savior to help us leave our own necessary nets behind. We are all to often willing to settle for our comfort zones. I guess that's how I feel about early morning seminary.
During the super bowl game, we drove over to see their new house. The inspection is today, and they will know then if they will be buying it. They are hoping to close at the end of the month. What an exciting thing for them! It is a very cute house.
I can hardly believe that all of our children will have their own home. I never would have anticipated such a thing. Roger and I did not have our own home until we moved here in 1985. We had been married 13 years! I am so proud of them. They all have nice homes, nicer than ours, so I suppose we have done our job (you know, that bit about the next generation being better than the one before it, not worse). They are all great men who have married wonderful women. I could not ask for more. I am truly a blessed mother in Zion.
I talked to one of the boys who was enrolled with us, but had to leave because he didn't have the money to pay tuition. I told him I would re-enroll him and give him his lessons at no charge if he would do the seminary program. He was ecstatic about both. He said he loves to study the scriptures. I will need to get hold of Bro. Lowry to get materials. We will finish out this year with homestudy and start with early morning next year.
I was surprised at how easily everything fell into place, but I shouldn't be. Everything we have done with the school has come about through the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Ghost. I know it is what Heavenly Father wants us to do with our life, and I know it is a blessing to many of His children. As long as we keep this at the upper most part of our minds, I think we will be doing what we are supposed to do.
I taught the lesson in RS on testimony. First we talked about the challenge to memorize the articles of faith we were given at the beginning of the year. A few members have been working on it. Then I asked why we should do this. I tried to develop the concept that as we kept saying the words "Creemos" or "We believe", it would challenge us to find out if we really do, hence helping us to develop a testimony. I know I cannot keep saying those words without thinking about my beliefs.
I had a very spiritual experience while bearing my testimony at the end of my lesson. I wish that would happen every time so that I could know that what I am saying is confirmed by the Holy Ghost, but it does not. I am very grateful when it does.
At sacrament meeting, several primary children bore their testimony as well as a couple of young women and Rodrigo, the only YM. He talked about how much he liked being a deacon. It was very sweet.
After church, I changed up the visiting teaching yet again to resolve some issues, and I will be going with Victoria Albarran, at least for a couple of months. I have 2 routes plus a bunch of mailing. Fanny is investigating, and it looks as though she will be baptized; that will be a big help.
It is hard to believe that soon I won't have to worry about that...
When I got home I had to put the beans on for nachos at Orion and Jac's house. They don't take that long in the pressure cooker. I had forgotten to soak them, and they were completely done after an hour. That helps people eat more nutritious foods if they know they can cook them faster.
We had a good FHE lesson at their home. Orion used the example from the new testament of the apostles who were called to leave their nets and follow the Savior to help us leave our own necessary nets behind. We are all to often willing to settle for our comfort zones. I guess that's how I feel about early morning seminary.
During the super bowl game, we drove over to see their new house. The inspection is today, and they will know then if they will be buying it. They are hoping to close at the end of the month. What an exciting thing for them! It is a very cute house.
I can hardly believe that all of our children will have their own home. I never would have anticipated such a thing. Roger and I did not have our own home until we moved here in 1985. We had been married 13 years! I am so proud of them. They all have nice homes, nicer than ours, so I suppose we have done our job (you know, that bit about the next generation being better than the one before it, not worse). They are all great men who have married wonderful women. I could not ask for more. I am truly a blessed mother in Zion.
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Now, this is a boring day to write about!
Well, I think the ones who were reading this have gotten bored with it, and it is just as well. My intent is to record what is going on in my life, not attract a crowd. It is fun getting the feedback. It is also interesting that something I think of as boring might be interesting to someone else. or not.... i do live a boring life.
I was thinking about that at John's wedding reception tonight. That is an incredibly talented family (in the entertainment field). When I am around people like that, I realize what a small microcosm of a life I have.
I'm really tired tonight, but I am trying to record something every day. Maybe I should try to do this BEFORE I check my mail...
There are 20 people confirmed dead from the tornadoes. There have been so many disasters of late, I think people are getting conditioned to them. This one has not gotten nearly the press the tornadoes of 1998 did. Of course the 145,000 left homeless from Indonesia floods makes our little incident pale in comparison. This truly is a day for the prophecies that were made: signs of the times. Plus I heard there has been an outbreak of the bird flu in England. A quarantine is not IF but WHEN.
We worked at the HSC this morning. We had a nice group from Kingsland, Georgia. We had to make up 2 monthly kits, and they were pouches which I have never done, so you can learn something new everyday.
I put together 2 cases of Pinto beans for John and his new wife who were married / sealed today. We also through in a can of dry onions. Then we went to the Penzey spice store where you can make up a box of herbs/spices in a decorative way. It was less than $20 for what looked to me like a nice gift. I had also purchases a bean smasher from BBB. He was a good friend to Orion when he was trying to figure out where he wanted to live. I guess some people think food storage is a dumb gift, but I always imagine how they will feel about it if they ever have to use it. Not often you get to save someone's life. How's that for dramatic?
We talked to the bishop of the Atlantic ward today about doing a date night there. I guess I should make up a flyer about it, so people will know what we are trying to do. Bishop Owen asked us to make up a flyer for him to pass out in his ward as well.
I got a knitting needle and yarn charm at Hobby Lobby today to put on one of my yarn markers. Too cute. I almost finished my first Kroy sock today.
I purchased most of the supplies at Costco for our RS Valentine's party. We are making Lasagna. Graciella is going to do all the decorating and table settings, thank goodness.
I found a DVD with Mister Ed's greatest hits. That should be fun! One of my more enjoyable childhood favorites.
It was nice to see Jac and Orion and some of their friends at John's reception tonight. We are blessed to have some wonderful young adults in our stakes here. I marvel at their strength. Jac was in a really good mood and had a new dress. Could there be a connection there? They had been at the temple yesterday and today, so I'm sure that's it!
I bought another carton of pineapple at Costco. The previous ones I dried earlier this week are soooooooooooo good. I've got these on drying now. I like dried pineapple with almonds.
There was a bag of fruit and nuts with the following combination: pistachios, dried cranberries, dried cherries, almonds, white chocolate chips. I think I'll make some of that up for the FHE tomorrow.
Uh oh, I have to teach in RS tomorrow, and I don't have my lesson yet. Better get on it. I'm using the Visiting Teaching topic for February: testimony.
I was thinking about that at John's wedding reception tonight. That is an incredibly talented family (in the entertainment field). When I am around people like that, I realize what a small microcosm of a life I have.
I'm really tired tonight, but I am trying to record something every day. Maybe I should try to do this BEFORE I check my mail...
There are 20 people confirmed dead from the tornadoes. There have been so many disasters of late, I think people are getting conditioned to them. This one has not gotten nearly the press the tornadoes of 1998 did. Of course the 145,000 left homeless from Indonesia floods makes our little incident pale in comparison. This truly is a day for the prophecies that were made: signs of the times. Plus I heard there has been an outbreak of the bird flu in England. A quarantine is not IF but WHEN.
We worked at the HSC this morning. We had a nice group from Kingsland, Georgia. We had to make up 2 monthly kits, and they were pouches which I have never done, so you can learn something new everyday.
I put together 2 cases of Pinto beans for John and his new wife who were married / sealed today. We also through in a can of dry onions. Then we went to the Penzey spice store where you can make up a box of herbs/spices in a decorative way. It was less than $20 for what looked to me like a nice gift. I had also purchases a bean smasher from BBB. He was a good friend to Orion when he was trying to figure out where he wanted to live. I guess some people think food storage is a dumb gift, but I always imagine how they will feel about it if they ever have to use it. Not often you get to save someone's life. How's that for dramatic?
We talked to the bishop of the Atlantic ward today about doing a date night there. I guess I should make up a flyer about it, so people will know what we are trying to do. Bishop Owen asked us to make up a flyer for him to pass out in his ward as well.
I got a knitting needle and yarn charm at Hobby Lobby today to put on one of my yarn markers. Too cute. I almost finished my first Kroy sock today.
I purchased most of the supplies at Costco for our RS Valentine's party. We are making Lasagna. Graciella is going to do all the decorating and table settings, thank goodness.
I found a DVD with Mister Ed's greatest hits. That should be fun! One of my more enjoyable childhood favorites.
It was nice to see Jac and Orion and some of their friends at John's reception tonight. We are blessed to have some wonderful young adults in our stakes here. I marvel at their strength. Jac was in a really good mood and had a new dress. Could there be a connection there? They had been at the temple yesterday and today, so I'm sure that's it!
I bought another carton of pineapple at Costco. The previous ones I dried earlier this week are soooooooooooo good. I've got these on drying now. I like dried pineapple with almonds.
There was a bag of fruit and nuts with the following combination: pistachios, dried cranberries, dried cherries, almonds, white chocolate chips. I think I'll make some of that up for the FHE tomorrow.
Uh oh, I have to teach in RS tomorrow, and I don't have my lesson yet. Better get on it. I'm using the Visiting Teaching topic for February: testimony.
Friday, February 2, 2007
Tornadoes Rip Through Central Florida
Having a hard time getting in the habit of journaling every day. This week my schedule has been very irratic, but that is not all that unusual. I used to be good at it, so I guess I need to re-develop the habit.
For posterity's sake, it be wise to mention that yesterday a bad storm front came through Florida causing many tornadoes. Many lost their homes, and there are 14 dead as of now. One of the touch down points was to the southwest of us about 100 miles away. It is frightening to think how one could recover after that experience. I guess it makes us tougher, and we find out how well prepared we are. People think they know what is coming...I don't think we have a clue. When it hits us, we'll say, "Oh, that's what I was told to get prepared for...".
We served at the HSC last night. Austin and Andrea Strickland came up to put up their year's supply of basic foods (grains, beans, milk, and sugar). It was a fun thing to do. I was surprised when I checked her out that it cost less than $600. I would have thought it was more, but then again, I have never purchased everything I need all at once.
Since this was a stressful week for me, I was glad I had my knitting. I joined a dishcloth KAL (knitalong) which makes 2 cloths a month. Since one is done in an evening, it is an easy go of it, totally brainless, and as stress relieving as solitaire except you get something out of it. I stayed up late 2 nights knitting because I could not gear down.
Today I got a package of knitting yarn I had ordered online to make a SCRAWL - a scarf, shrug, or shawl, depending on how it is worn. I bought enough yarn to make matching socks. It will be my new "I'm going to bed now" project. I was going to make a lace shawl, but all of the patterns scare me.
Roger is driving kids to a 5-stake dance tonight. He went buy shoes today, and went to a real shoe store in downtown Palatka where they measure your feet. The guy told him the reason his feet hurt all the time is because his feet are a size 15! Holy cow... So he bought a pair of 15's and says they feel great. I told him they looked geeky, but he doesn't care because of all the pain he has been in.
My tomato seedlings are up and running!
I was trying to decide which peppers to grow this year. The freeze this week finally wiped out my plants from last year. I grew all of them from seed, and they have really produced like crazy. For some reason peppers grow better here than anything else. I wonder why that is.
I decided to do some dehydrating this week. I had some fresh pineapple I had bought. We can never eat the whole thing, so I decided to dehydrate what was left. Didn't want to run the thing just for that, so I opened a #10 can of sliced peaches, drained them, and put them in there too. The pineapple is still drying as they were big spears, but the peach slices are done and mighty tasty. There are some more peppers in the garden that have survived, so I might stick them in there Monday.
I have been thinking more and more about teaching seminary next year. I think that is what I am supposed to do. We are going to fast and pray about it this Sunday.
For posterity's sake, it be wise to mention that yesterday a bad storm front came through Florida causing many tornadoes. Many lost their homes, and there are 14 dead as of now. One of the touch down points was to the southwest of us about 100 miles away. It is frightening to think how one could recover after that experience. I guess it makes us tougher, and we find out how well prepared we are. People think they know what is coming...I don't think we have a clue. When it hits us, we'll say, "Oh, that's what I was told to get prepared for...".
We served at the HSC last night. Austin and Andrea Strickland came up to put up their year's supply of basic foods (grains, beans, milk, and sugar). It was a fun thing to do. I was surprised when I checked her out that it cost less than $600. I would have thought it was more, but then again, I have never purchased everything I need all at once.
Since this was a stressful week for me, I was glad I had my knitting. I joined a dishcloth KAL (knitalong) which makes 2 cloths a month. Since one is done in an evening, it is an easy go of it, totally brainless, and as stress relieving as solitaire except you get something out of it. I stayed up late 2 nights knitting because I could not gear down.
Today I got a package of knitting yarn I had ordered online to make a SCRAWL - a scarf, shrug, or shawl, depending on how it is worn. I bought enough yarn to make matching socks. It will be my new "I'm going to bed now" project. I was going to make a lace shawl, but all of the patterns scare me.
Roger is driving kids to a 5-stake dance tonight. He went buy shoes today, and went to a real shoe store in downtown Palatka where they measure your feet. The guy told him the reason his feet hurt all the time is because his feet are a size 15! Holy cow... So he bought a pair of 15's and says they feel great. I told him they looked geeky, but he doesn't care because of all the pain he has been in.
My tomato seedlings are up and running!
I was trying to decide which peppers to grow this year. The freeze this week finally wiped out my plants from last year. I grew all of them from seed, and they have really produced like crazy. For some reason peppers grow better here than anything else. I wonder why that is.
I decided to do some dehydrating this week. I had some fresh pineapple I had bought. We can never eat the whole thing, so I decided to dehydrate what was left. Didn't want to run the thing just for that, so I opened a #10 can of sliced peaches, drained them, and put them in there too. The pineapple is still drying as they were big spears, but the peach slices are done and mighty tasty. There are some more peppers in the garden that have survived, so I might stick them in there Monday.
I have been thinking more and more about teaching seminary next year. I think that is what I am supposed to do. We are going to fast and pray about it this Sunday.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
reasons to NOT write
I'm thinking today and yesterday were those kinds of days that make me NOT want to write in my journal because my life is so darn boring. I have a lot of things to do, but none of them are too thrilling, especially not interesting enough to actually write about. But then, when I think of reading the things my grandmother did on a day to day basis, if she would have thought to write them down, it would have been interesting to me, and perhaps even helpful. So I will persevere. Anyone reading this can stop now if you'd like.
Monday, I needed to bake 4 more loaves as we had finished up what was left from the Friday baking after Lake City. I was going to take one to a sister who was home recovering from open heart surgery, but that will have to wait until Wednesday when I can go to Crescent City.
The bread was wonderful. I love the aroma. I wish I could bake every day just to smell it.
I made a brilliant discovery a few weeks ago during one of my bread-baking episodes. If I used latex gloves, I wouldn't get bread dough under my fingernails! It goes much faster now that I don't have too dig gook out from under my nails for 1/2 hour each rising...
I made a tuna noodle casserole for lunch because we have this partial bag of potato chips that is all smooshed up. It is driving me crazy, so I have been trying to think of something to make to use them up. The casserole was good, but I really don't make casseroles all that often.
Another problem I have is that I started alfalfa sprouts for the Lake City class but too late. They were still itty-bitty on Friday night. The problem is that NOW they are big, and I have way more than we will eat ever, no less before they go bad. So that was another wasteful undertaking. I have two full trays of the things. I should go hunt down Orion as I think he eats them. Dorian always called them horse food and refused to eat them, so I know I can't pawn any off on him. I don't recall if Darius eats them or not. If I had goats, they'd like them, that's for sure, and now that I think about it, the chickens will go absolutely crazy if I throw some in there, so that is what I will do before they go bad.
Now, that's what journals are good for -- helping you think through your problems. Didn't get too far with the potato chip problem, though. Wouldn't it be nice if that was all the serious our problems were - smooshed up potato chips and too many alfalfa sprouts?
I'm really cold, so I hope I can get this done quick. I'm too lazy to go put on some shoes so that my feet aren't so cold. Laziness is a terrible thing, it really is.
Dozens of phone calls yesterday. I hate talking on the phone.
So today, I left the house at 9:00 and didn't come home til 10:00 tonight. Still had to pick up 4 calls on the answering machine and several that came into my cell phone. I guess some kids to read the literature if they are able to find my cell phone number.
Last night while I was wasting time (time which I don't have, mind you, but I am very burned out right now), I found a dishcloth knit along group on the internet. Now this might seem like a silly thing to many people, but I adore knitting dishcloths. First, they are very fast. Second, I hate washing dishes, so knitting dishcloths makes me feel like I've done my duty. When I do work in the kitchen, knitted dishcloths are the only ones I will use. I make Roger use the few store bought ones that insist on hanging on. I guess when they finally die, he'll be allowed to use the older, faded knitted dishcloths. (You know I'm joking, but honestly, he really can't tell the difference, so he doesn't deserve to use the "good" ones.) (Actually, I'm just grateful he doesn't mind doing the dishes. I don't care which cloths he uses. Yeah, right!)
Anyway, I knit up the January dishcloth, and it is very pretty. I really needed a knitting night.
I was making buttermilk yesterday to replace what I used in my bread. When it should have been finished, I couldn't get the thermos open. Roger couldn't get the thermos open. Things were getting tense as all who know me can imagine. We tried for quite a while, and Roger thought to get an adjustable wrench. I had suspected that a vacuum had been created, but I was not prepared for how strong a one was there! When he released it, cottage cheese sprayed all over me and the kitchen (not him for some reason...am I sensing a pattern here?). I don't have any idea why this happened, but I'm not tense anymore...
I also made some chicken soup from the soup mix the home storage center used to sell. I love that particular soup. I don't know why I don't make it more often. I was going to make it to give to the sister with the bad heart, but we ate most of it, so I'll make her a new batch tomorrow. Here's the recipe:
1 cup of dry soup mix (lentils, split peas, alphabet macaroni, rice, onion, I don't know what else)
1 quart chicken broth
Let that cook until the beans are soft. Then I add a pint of canned chicken and a can of evaporated milk. More water if it needs it. That's it. It is really delicious. For a bigger family, you could use everything double except the chicken, and that would help stretch the meat. I don't think I double the milk either. Just the soup mix and broth.
Today, we did new enrollments for 3 new students, and I have one more tomorrow before our church meetings. We decided to get some things done in Jacksonville we weren't able to do last week. Roger had to get the van serviced. I can't find my 9 x 13 cake pan which I use all the time, so I bought 2 more. I also got a new silpat because we aren't eating store bought baked goods anymore, so I am baking cookies more and needed another silpat. We don't eat as many of the home made cookies as we did of the store bought, but we don't feel deprived if we have some. I make a big batch, make one tray, and freeze the rest of the dough. Then I pull off one tray's worth at a time, so we never have more than 8 cookies without having to go bake some more. Last night, we even had 2 cookies left over! Of course, if I am only baking one tray of cookies at a time, you may ask yourself why I needed another silpat. When I was in BBB, I was thinking there might be an occasion when I would need 2 trays, and I am very spoiled by my silpat lined baking sheets. Whenever I have to use parchment, I could just die!
I also bought some modge podge for Roger to cement his latest puzzle. I think I'm going to die of boredom! This means we will have to find somewhere to hang his latest puzzle. I'm going to have to pick more attractive art pieces in the puzzle department. Renoir, anyone?
Joann's had cotton yarn on sale 2/$3, so I bought some balls for the knitting class I have been asked to teach at church. Hobby Lobby had needles on sale, so I bought those there. Now my ladies will have the proper supplies. I couldn't bear to give them a list and have them all bring crappy stuff, incorrect stuff, and no stuff at all saying, "I'll just watch..." It's just easier this way. Oh, quitcherbitchin, you don't have to pay for it.
We're going to start out with dishcloths, just garter stitch. I think I'll even cast on for them, and they can learn that later. They want to make socks, but that is not a good first project. Dishcloths are functional. We've already been through all that. They won't be happy, but I'm not going to start with socks when they don't even know how to knit.
I also got my new favorite knitting book rebound. I read about this on my sock list. Orion did it at Kinko's and it is only a couple of bucks. He said he has thought about rebinding his church manuals; I hadn't thought of that, but it is a good idea. None of those books want to sit flat when they are open. Then you've got to juggle them while you look something up in the scriptures.
I also had to buy a bunch of paper for February newsletter and bulletin bored, I mean board...I am not into decorating.
I have been thinking about asking to teach seminary again next year. I've been thinking about it for several weeks. I was asked if I thought I could handle it last year, but it was decided I couldn't if I was still Relief Society President, and he didn't want to release me yet. I'm thinking I might be ready for that change now.
Something that has been really bothering me is how poorly the Spanish members' kids are doing in school. I have been trying to think of a way to help them since that is what I do. I guess I'm thinking seminary might help in some way.
Monday, I needed to bake 4 more loaves as we had finished up what was left from the Friday baking after Lake City. I was going to take one to a sister who was home recovering from open heart surgery, but that will have to wait until Wednesday when I can go to Crescent City.
The bread was wonderful. I love the aroma. I wish I could bake every day just to smell it.
I made a brilliant discovery a few weeks ago during one of my bread-baking episodes. If I used latex gloves, I wouldn't get bread dough under my fingernails! It goes much faster now that I don't have too dig gook out from under my nails for 1/2 hour each rising...
I made a tuna noodle casserole for lunch because we have this partial bag of potato chips that is all smooshed up. It is driving me crazy, so I have been trying to think of something to make to use them up. The casserole was good, but I really don't make casseroles all that often.
Another problem I have is that I started alfalfa sprouts for the Lake City class but too late. They were still itty-bitty on Friday night. The problem is that NOW they are big, and I have way more than we will eat ever, no less before they go bad. So that was another wasteful undertaking. I have two full trays of the things. I should go hunt down Orion as I think he eats them. Dorian always called them horse food and refused to eat them, so I know I can't pawn any off on him. I don't recall if Darius eats them or not. If I had goats, they'd like them, that's for sure, and now that I think about it, the chickens will go absolutely crazy if I throw some in there, so that is what I will do before they go bad.
Now, that's what journals are good for -- helping you think through your problems. Didn't get too far with the potato chip problem, though. Wouldn't it be nice if that was all the serious our problems were - smooshed up potato chips and too many alfalfa sprouts?
I'm really cold, so I hope I can get this done quick. I'm too lazy to go put on some shoes so that my feet aren't so cold. Laziness is a terrible thing, it really is.
Dozens of phone calls yesterday. I hate talking on the phone.
So today, I left the house at 9:00 and didn't come home til 10:00 tonight. Still had to pick up 4 calls on the answering machine and several that came into my cell phone. I guess some kids to read the literature if they are able to find my cell phone number.
Last night while I was wasting time (time which I don't have, mind you, but I am very burned out right now), I found a dishcloth knit along group on the internet. Now this might seem like a silly thing to many people, but I adore knitting dishcloths. First, they are very fast. Second, I hate washing dishes, so knitting dishcloths makes me feel like I've done my duty. When I do work in the kitchen, knitted dishcloths are the only ones I will use. I make Roger use the few store bought ones that insist on hanging on. I guess when they finally die, he'll be allowed to use the older, faded knitted dishcloths. (You know I'm joking, but honestly, he really can't tell the difference, so he doesn't deserve to use the "good" ones.) (Actually, I'm just grateful he doesn't mind doing the dishes. I don't care which cloths he uses. Yeah, right!)
Anyway, I knit up the January dishcloth, and it is very pretty. I really needed a knitting night.
I was making buttermilk yesterday to replace what I used in my bread. When it should have been finished, I couldn't get the thermos open. Roger couldn't get the thermos open. Things were getting tense as all who know me can imagine. We tried for quite a while, and Roger thought to get an adjustable wrench. I had suspected that a vacuum had been created, but I was not prepared for how strong a one was there! When he released it, cottage cheese sprayed all over me and the kitchen (not him for some reason...am I sensing a pattern here?). I don't have any idea why this happened, but I'm not tense anymore...
I also made some chicken soup from the soup mix the home storage center used to sell. I love that particular soup. I don't know why I don't make it more often. I was going to make it to give to the sister with the bad heart, but we ate most of it, so I'll make her a new batch tomorrow. Here's the recipe:
1 cup of dry soup mix (lentils, split peas, alphabet macaroni, rice, onion, I don't know what else)
1 quart chicken broth
Let that cook until the beans are soft. Then I add a pint of canned chicken and a can of evaporated milk. More water if it needs it. That's it. It is really delicious. For a bigger family, you could use everything double except the chicken, and that would help stretch the meat. I don't think I double the milk either. Just the soup mix and broth.
Today, we did new enrollments for 3 new students, and I have one more tomorrow before our church meetings. We decided to get some things done in Jacksonville we weren't able to do last week. Roger had to get the van serviced. I can't find my 9 x 13 cake pan which I use all the time, so I bought 2 more. I also got a new silpat because we aren't eating store bought baked goods anymore, so I am baking cookies more and needed another silpat. We don't eat as many of the home made cookies as we did of the store bought, but we don't feel deprived if we have some. I make a big batch, make one tray, and freeze the rest of the dough. Then I pull off one tray's worth at a time, so we never have more than 8 cookies without having to go bake some more. Last night, we even had 2 cookies left over! Of course, if I am only baking one tray of cookies at a time, you may ask yourself why I needed another silpat. When I was in BBB, I was thinking there might be an occasion when I would need 2 trays, and I am very spoiled by my silpat lined baking sheets. Whenever I have to use parchment, I could just die!
I also bought some modge podge for Roger to cement his latest puzzle. I think I'm going to die of boredom! This means we will have to find somewhere to hang his latest puzzle. I'm going to have to pick more attractive art pieces in the puzzle department. Renoir, anyone?
Joann's had cotton yarn on sale 2/$3, so I bought some balls for the knitting class I have been asked to teach at church. Hobby Lobby had needles on sale, so I bought those there. Now my ladies will have the proper supplies. I couldn't bear to give them a list and have them all bring crappy stuff, incorrect stuff, and no stuff at all saying, "I'll just watch..." It's just easier this way. Oh, quitcherbitchin, you don't have to pay for it.
We're going to start out with dishcloths, just garter stitch. I think I'll even cast on for them, and they can learn that later. They want to make socks, but that is not a good first project. Dishcloths are functional. We've already been through all that. They won't be happy, but I'm not going to start with socks when they don't even know how to knit.
I also got my new favorite knitting book rebound. I read about this on my sock list. Orion did it at Kinko's and it is only a couple of bucks. He said he has thought about rebinding his church manuals; I hadn't thought of that, but it is a good idea. None of those books want to sit flat when they are open. Then you've got to juggle them while you look something up in the scriptures.
I also had to buy a bunch of paper for February newsletter and bulletin bored, I mean board...I am not into decorating.
I have been thinking about asking to teach seminary again next year. I've been thinking about it for several weeks. I was asked if I thought I could handle it last year, but it was decided I couldn't if I was still Relief Society President, and he didn't want to release me yet. I'm thinking I might be ready for that change now.
Something that has been really bothering me is how poorly the Spanish members' kids are doing in school. I have been trying to think of a way to help them since that is what I do. I guess I'm thinking seminary might help in some way.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Sunday...and it begins again
First, I'd like to say how much I enjoy reading all your comments. I have been thinking since Dorian said something about starting his own blog, and since Bonnie has begun her own blog, that we could have a blog ring. Then when we want to read what others in the family are doing, we could read their blog. We wouldn't have to feel obligated to comment unless there was something of particular note. I think we all have to use the same blogger for that to work, but I'm not sure. I'm very new at this as you know.
I have found this a pleasant way to keep in touch. Most of us aren't the types that pick up the phone just to say "How are you doing?", but we still want to know (or at least I do) what and how you are all doing.
The address for the one I am using is: http://www2.blogger.com/home
Reading Orion's birthday list reminded me to ask: What did everyone think of Superman Returns? Not quite sure why, I really liked it. I guess it was kinda of an origin type movie which I always like them. It's kind of like my favorite scriptures are phophet farewells.
It is so hard to believe my children are getting older...Bonnie will be 30 this year! I don't know where the time goes. I can remember as a young child time used to stand still. I wonder if there is a phenomenom that happens as we get older to make time go so fast. I keep imagining that it will eventually spin into a dot, and that is when I die. When we start out on this life, it is a giant swirl that takes forever to resolve. I wonder how close to the center I am?
My favorite part of Sunday is the investigator Sunday School class. I have been attending that class all of my church life except for the years I taught in Primary or taught Gospel Doctrine. Some of the years when I taught seminary, I would use the Sunday School time to prepare my lessons for the week, but don't tell the Sunday School president!
The last few years I have had the opportunity to attend the investigator class in Spanish. We have both an English and Spanish investigator and Gospel Doctrine class this year plus the teenager class Orion used to teach.
Since I have been attending the class so many years, I am pretty well versed on the lessons, so it is pretty easy for me to follow even though it is in Spanish. The only problem I ever have is when Bro. Reyes teaches, as he does a lot of visual object lessons, and if I don't catch the noun, I don't know what he is talking about. One time he did one on elephants, and I was really lost since I didn't know the spanish word for elephants (still don't). Today it was monkeys, which is monos, I believe. (I'm sure Darius will correct me if I'm wrong.) We have 2 new members who have been called to teach that class, but they have not been there for a couple of weeks, so Bro. Reyes teaches since he is the branch mission leader.
Anyway, the reason I love the class so much is because we have so many great gospel lessons. The Spanish people are so open about asking questions. There was a man there for the first time who asked, "Who is this Joseph Smith you keep talking about?", so Elder Nielson took the opportunity to teach the first discussion. Another sister there for the first time asked why there were so many churches anyway. A newer member who is still in the class was disturbed when Bro. Reyes mentioned heavenly parents; he had taught that lesson a couple of weeks ago, but she was not there. I love classes where everyone participates, and I find that in that class, people are more willing to participate than not. Some great questions come up, and there was a beautiful spirit there today as Elder Nielson told about Joseph's quest to find the truth.
We also talked about the war in heaven over free agency. Since I have been reading that chapter in _Articles of Faith_, it was interesting. I really do love the gospel and how it affects every area of our lives even when it doesn't seem like a churchy thing.
I was depressed after church though; there are so many families having some really serious trials right now. I worry about them and whether they have the strength to get through it. I wonder if there is something I should be doing to help them. I know I will feel prompted, but I feel prompted all the time. Roger gets upset with me for my constant go, go, go. There is so much to do. I know I need to pray more these folks, and as I pray for them listen carefully for answers as to whether my help is needed or not for real. I know that for me, oftentimes prayer was what was needed.
One young mother of 3 has been told she probably has cancer of the spleen. They are doing tests. They have no insurance. Her husband was just baptized a month ago, so I know this is a testing for them. It all seems so dramatic somehow. Why do people need such a difficult trial?
Another family with 5 children, the father has moved out. He took the car with him as they only have one vehicle. Today he came home so that they could come to church, I guess. He is not giving them money for food; I don't know why. Maybe he is having expenses too, being on his own although he is staying with his brother. I wish I knew what to say so that they could know they need to stick it out. What makes me think I know what is best for them anyway? I just hate to see people struggling that hard.
On the up side, I asked one of the boys where his girl friend was, and he said they realized that going out was not wise, that they needed to be just friends until they were older. Sister Reyes has really been throwing the Strength of Youth pamplet at them, so I'm hoping this is for real, and that the youth realize solo dating is not a good thing for them. He is only 15 and she is a non-member 8th grader who has been coming. We have another couple getting serious; he is 17 and she is 14; both live in homes that have been pretty worldly, so we're not expecting good things there. Maybe I'm too pessimistic. I just know how hard it is in the world for our youth. I held my breath for about 15 years with my kids, and I think they had it easier than most kids who are in the world today. (I doubt that they think so, however!)
We were asked to go to the NEW Beginnings tonight, and as they young women sang their song, I looked in their sweet, little faces, and wondered how many of them would indeed make it to the temple. Only one of them had parents who have gone! It will be so hard for them. I know I have been greatly blessed...
I have found this a pleasant way to keep in touch. Most of us aren't the types that pick up the phone just to say "How are you doing?", but we still want to know (or at least I do) what and how you are all doing.
The address for the one I am using is: http://www2.blogger.com/home
Reading Orion's birthday list reminded me to ask: What did everyone think of Superman Returns? Not quite sure why, I really liked it. I guess it was kinda of an origin type movie which I always like them. It's kind of like my favorite scriptures are phophet farewells.
It is so hard to believe my children are getting older...Bonnie will be 30 this year! I don't know where the time goes. I can remember as a young child time used to stand still. I wonder if there is a phenomenom that happens as we get older to make time go so fast. I keep imagining that it will eventually spin into a dot, and that is when I die. When we start out on this life, it is a giant swirl that takes forever to resolve. I wonder how close to the center I am?
My favorite part of Sunday is the investigator Sunday School class. I have been attending that class all of my church life except for the years I taught in Primary or taught Gospel Doctrine. Some of the years when I taught seminary, I would use the Sunday School time to prepare my lessons for the week, but don't tell the Sunday School president!
The last few years I have had the opportunity to attend the investigator class in Spanish. We have both an English and Spanish investigator and Gospel Doctrine class this year plus the teenager class Orion used to teach.
Since I have been attending the class so many years, I am pretty well versed on the lessons, so it is pretty easy for me to follow even though it is in Spanish. The only problem I ever have is when Bro. Reyes teaches, as he does a lot of visual object lessons, and if I don't catch the noun, I don't know what he is talking about. One time he did one on elephants, and I was really lost since I didn't know the spanish word for elephants (still don't). Today it was monkeys, which is monos, I believe. (I'm sure Darius will correct me if I'm wrong.) We have 2 new members who have been called to teach that class, but they have not been there for a couple of weeks, so Bro. Reyes teaches since he is the branch mission leader.
Anyway, the reason I love the class so much is because we have so many great gospel lessons. The Spanish people are so open about asking questions. There was a man there for the first time who asked, "Who is this Joseph Smith you keep talking about?", so Elder Nielson took the opportunity to teach the first discussion. Another sister there for the first time asked why there were so many churches anyway. A newer member who is still in the class was disturbed when Bro. Reyes mentioned heavenly parents; he had taught that lesson a couple of weeks ago, but she was not there. I love classes where everyone participates, and I find that in that class, people are more willing to participate than not. Some great questions come up, and there was a beautiful spirit there today as Elder Nielson told about Joseph's quest to find the truth.
We also talked about the war in heaven over free agency. Since I have been reading that chapter in _Articles of Faith_, it was interesting. I really do love the gospel and how it affects every area of our lives even when it doesn't seem like a churchy thing.
I was depressed after church though; there are so many families having some really serious trials right now. I worry about them and whether they have the strength to get through it. I wonder if there is something I should be doing to help them. I know I will feel prompted, but I feel prompted all the time. Roger gets upset with me for my constant go, go, go. There is so much to do. I know I need to pray more these folks, and as I pray for them listen carefully for answers as to whether my help is needed or not for real. I know that for me, oftentimes prayer was what was needed.
One young mother of 3 has been told she probably has cancer of the spleen. They are doing tests. They have no insurance. Her husband was just baptized a month ago, so I know this is a testing for them. It all seems so dramatic somehow. Why do people need such a difficult trial?
Another family with 5 children, the father has moved out. He took the car with him as they only have one vehicle. Today he came home so that they could come to church, I guess. He is not giving them money for food; I don't know why. Maybe he is having expenses too, being on his own although he is staying with his brother. I wish I knew what to say so that they could know they need to stick it out. What makes me think I know what is best for them anyway? I just hate to see people struggling that hard.
On the up side, I asked one of the boys where his girl friend was, and he said they realized that going out was not wise, that they needed to be just friends until they were older. Sister Reyes has really been throwing the Strength of Youth pamplet at them, so I'm hoping this is for real, and that the youth realize solo dating is not a good thing for them. He is only 15 and she is a non-member 8th grader who has been coming. We have another couple getting serious; he is 17 and she is 14; both live in homes that have been pretty worldly, so we're not expecting good things there. Maybe I'm too pessimistic. I just know how hard it is in the world for our youth. I held my breath for about 15 years with my kids, and I think they had it easier than most kids who are in the world today. (I doubt that they think so, however!)
We were asked to go to the NEW Beginnings tonight, and as they young women sang their song, I looked in their sweet, little faces, and wondered how many of them would indeed make it to the temple. Only one of them had parents who have gone! It will be so hard for them. I know I have been greatly blessed...
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Lake City, finally
I didn't have the opportunity to write yesterday because it was a busy day getting ready for the event in Lake City. I indicated finally in the title because we have been building up for this since November!
The yogurt cheese was absolutely divine. (I hate to be dramatic, but there is no other word for it.) I used 36 oz. of it to make the cheesecake in the biggest baking pan I have. I use another hunk for an olive sandwich spread, and still have quite a large chunk of it. I also have 2 quarts of regular yogurt left out of the 2 gallons. It was the only yogurt I have been able to tolerate straight up, but you all know, of course, I would prefer it sweetened. My favorite way to eat yogurt is with a little sweetener and some lemon juice over fresh or canned fruit - cantalope or pineapple are my favorites. The Lake City loved both the sandwich spread and the cheesecake; they devoured nearly all I made leaving only crumbs.
I had decided to bake bread since I couldn't see a food storage class without homemade bread, and a lot of people don't think you can make good homemade whole wheat bread, so I have to leave my mark there. The recipe I use for large batches makes 4 loaves. They ate 2 1/2 of them, so we have some to get us through the weekend. I was trying to make one loaf at a time and eat it fresh, but Roger really loves having bread around, so I am now baking this 4 loaf batch all the time. We slice it when it cools in my deli slicer so all the slices are thin enough for sandwiches, and then we freeze it in 2 slice portions in sandwich bags and a big loaf bag to protect it from freezer burn. I think the last batch lasted about 10 days, so I guess that is a good plan. Roger gets positively ballistic when there is no bread in the house. It doesn't seem to matter how much other stuff there is...
I also used a recipe I found the little food storage handout book for a grape-nut cereal like product. Once made, the large brick can be ground; the bigger chunks are used for cereal, and the crumbs can be used like graham cracker crumbs to make a pie crust. It is a very interesting recipe and one that I have wondered about for a long time. There was a sister in Lake City who routinely eats Grape-Nuts who said it tasted remarkably like them.
Here is the recipe in case you can't find your booklet:
I think the frost might have killed off most of the peppers, but it looks like some of the more tree-like ones might have survived it. I guess I will order more seed this spring as I don't want to be without peppers. I may order fewer varieties though. Those pickled peppers are so good! We had them with refried beans the other day and I used them in the sandwich spread. I'm going to bring some to the FHE super bowl party.
The yogurt cheese was absolutely divine. (I hate to be dramatic, but there is no other word for it.) I used 36 oz. of it to make the cheesecake in the biggest baking pan I have. I use another hunk for an olive sandwich spread, and still have quite a large chunk of it. I also have 2 quarts of regular yogurt left out of the 2 gallons. It was the only yogurt I have been able to tolerate straight up, but you all know, of course, I would prefer it sweetened. My favorite way to eat yogurt is with a little sweetener and some lemon juice over fresh or canned fruit - cantalope or pineapple are my favorites. The Lake City loved both the sandwich spread and the cheesecake; they devoured nearly all I made leaving only crumbs.
I had decided to bake bread since I couldn't see a food storage class without homemade bread, and a lot of people don't think you can make good homemade whole wheat bread, so I have to leave my mark there. The recipe I use for large batches makes 4 loaves. They ate 2 1/2 of them, so we have some to get us through the weekend. I was trying to make one loaf at a time and eat it fresh, but Roger really loves having bread around, so I am now baking this 4 loaf batch all the time. We slice it when it cools in my deli slicer so all the slices are thin enough for sandwiches, and then we freeze it in 2 slice portions in sandwich bags and a big loaf bag to protect it from freezer burn. I think the last batch lasted about 10 days, so I guess that is a good plan. Roger gets positively ballistic when there is no bread in the house. It doesn't seem to matter how much other stuff there is...
I also used a recipe I found the little food storage handout book for a grape-nut cereal like product. Once made, the large brick can be ground; the bigger chunks are used for cereal, and the crumbs can be used like graham cracker crumbs to make a pie crust. It is a very interesting recipe and one that I have wondered about for a long time. There was a sister in Lake City who routinely eats Grape-Nuts who said it tasted remarkably like them.
Here is the recipe in case you can't find your booklet:
CRUNCHY WHEAT CEREAL & CRUMBS
Makes approximately 5 cups cereal and 2 cups crumbs
6 cups whole wheat flour
Makes approximately 5 cups cereal and 2 cups crumbs
6 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 cups buttermilk (2/3 cup powdered milk, 2 cups water, 2 tbsp. vinegar or lemon juice)
Mix ingredients thoroughly. Press or roll evenly to fit two ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown around edges. Turn over with spatula, break into small pieces and return to 200 degree oven to dry out thoroughly. Grind chunks in food or meat chopper on coarse blade. Put ground chunks in strainer and sift out small granular pieces. Larger pieces may be used for cereal and casseroles. Finer pieces may be used as you would graham cracker crumbs for pie crusts and other desserts.
2 cups buttermilk (2/3 cup powdered milk, 2 cups water, 2 tbsp. vinegar or lemon juice)
Mix ingredients thoroughly. Press or roll evenly to fit two ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown around edges. Turn over with spatula, break into small pieces and return to 200 degree oven to dry out thoroughly. Grind chunks in food or meat chopper on coarse blade. Put ground chunks in strainer and sift out small granular pieces. Larger pieces may be used for cereal and casseroles. Finer pieces may be used as you would graham cracker crumbs for pie crusts and other desserts.
To make a pie crust:
CRUNCHY WHEAT PIE CRUST
1 1/3 cups Crunchy Wheat crumbs
2 tbsp. sugar
1/3 cup melted margarine
Using the finer crumbs sifted from the Crunchy Wheat cereal, combine all of the ingredients, mix well and press firmly against sides and bottom of pie tin. Pour filling into the shell and refrigerate until firmly set.
1 1/3 cups Crunchy Wheat crumbs
2 tbsp. sugar
1/3 cup melted margarine
Using the finer crumbs sifted from the Crunchy Wheat cereal, combine all of the ingredients, mix well and press firmly against sides and bottom of pie tin. Pour filling into the shell and refrigerate until firmly set.
Here is the yogurt recipe:
1 qt. lukewarm water
2 cups dry milk powder
2 tbsp. plain yogurt or dry yogurt starter
Mix all ingredients together. Pour into a thermos bottle and let stand overnight.
To make cream cheese: Hang the finished yogurt in a cheesecloth bag overnight. Add salt to taste.
To make salad dressing or sour cream substitute: Add salt and seasonings.
To serve as a dessert, add sugar to taste.
2 cups dry milk powder
2 tbsp. plain yogurt or dry yogurt starter
Mix all ingredients together. Pour into a thermos bottle and let stand overnight.
To make cream cheese: Hang the finished yogurt in a cheesecloth bag overnight. Add salt to taste.
To make salad dressing or sour cream substitute: Add salt and seasonings.
To serve as a dessert, add sugar to taste.
To make yogurt cheese, you just dump the yogurt in a cheese-cloth lined colander overnight. In the morning you will have a nice ball of cream cheese like product that has no fat.
To make the cheesecake, I mixed 12 oz. of yogurt cheese with 1/2 cup lemon juice and 1/2 cup sugar and 2 eggs. It bakes at 350 degrees until it doesn't jiggle, about 20 minutes if you make a small pie plate size. Good stuff.
The sisters in Lake City couldn't believe it was all from food storage. I also make tuna salad with all the dehydrated veggies (onions, celery), homemade relish, and we served that with dilly beans. We had the olive spread to make sandwiches out of as well.
Olive Sandwich Spread
Yogurt cheese
small can black olives
a few green olives
some home pickled jalopeno peppers
I just ground it all up together in the food processor.
I think that was about it. We had some games to make up and picked out some prizes to give away, and off we went. It took us 2 1/2 hours to get there because we let Wilma guide us through all the back roads (Wilma is our Navigator), but only 1 hour and 45 minutes to get home when we went the way we knew. Of course traffic was not as bad coming home either. It was still a long haul.
There was about 26 folks there which I thought was great including several husbands and their stake president and his wife. She and I e-mail back and forth a lot about food storage, so I guess she wanted to check me out in real life. There were some very knowledgeable brothers and sisters there, but some who had not gotten started yet. One had 7 children, and we knew her dad from the temple. I was so glad she seemed committed to start her food storage. I can't imagine having 7 children and no way to provide for them when the bottom falls out. I will keep up with her through e-mail to encourage her.
We took the computer and our printer to print out the worksheets like we make up so that they would know how much product was needed. One of the things we have learned while serving at the HSC is that most people have no idea how much they really need if they were to truly have to live for a year without purchasing food. That is one of our goals in doing these classes.
Another thing we did was make up the food storage "seed" and demonstrate that people can store in other ways besides metal cans (that cost 75 cents apiece). We put some white wheat in a PETE juice bottle with an oxypack to demonstrate that. We also gave away 1/2 pint canning jars with 12 oxypacks in them so that they could do it at home themselves with stuff they buy in bulk at the grocery store or warehouse club, or they can buy bulk at the HSC and process it at home less expensively than the metal cans. Plus the PETE bottles are being recycled and can be used again and again. We are hard pressed to find uses for those 1 gallon cans when they start accumulating.
We saw a few things we need to improve upon for our next demonstration in 2 weeks, but it went very well, and the people there were very kind. They all said how nice it was and how much they appreciated us coming. I guess it was good to hear somebody different.
One member there, the one who originally invited me, is someone I have known through e-mail a couple of years. She and her husband are almost totally self-sufficient. We are going to go to their house to see how he built a solar powered pump that he uses to aerate a 2 acre pond he built for bass and blue-gill. He stocked it initially and keeps it self-perpetuating with minnows. It sounds amazing. The solar powered pump is what I am interested in because I worry so much about being without water if there is no power.
Today we had an assignment to work at the HSC, but they called to cancel at the last minute, so we spent the morning catching up in the garden. I planted about 8 different kinds of lettuce in one box and more cole crops in another. I also started some tomato seeds in the house. I am going to try little tomatoes this year; I always do so horribly with the bigger ones. I think the little ones are better suited to my conditions here. Anyway, I planted 3 different types, 24 seeds of each. I don't think I can resist one big one; I keep thinking I'll find the variety that will grow in my garden without being nasty.
I think the frost might have killed off most of the peppers, but it looks like some of the more tree-like ones might have survived it. I guess I will order more seed this spring as I don't want to be without peppers. I may order fewer varieties though. Those pickled peppers are so good! We had them with refried beans the other day and I used them in the sandwich spread. I'm going to bring some to the FHE super bowl party.
Oh, and I finished my wool-silk socks the other night and started a new pair yesterday of a wool blend put out by Paton called KROY. But these match my Christmas serape, so I like them in the dark green color, and the lace is pretty too. The picture doesn't do it justice. Anybody know how to get this to turn the other way? I have it right side up in my folder, but it won't move that way.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Obedience Begets Freedom
As I was studying last night, I came upon the following aha moment: "Obedience to law is the habit of the free man; the transgressor fears the law, for he brings upon himself deprivation and restraint, not because of the law, which would have protected him in his freedom, but because of his antagonism to law" (Talmage, Articles of Faith, 1977 copyright edition, p. 53).
The part that particularly fascinated me was that the transgressor (me) fears the law because it brings deprivation and restraint when I make choices contrary to it. I know when I disobey that there will be a consequence, and I just stand there waiting for it to happen, knowing it will in some way. The opposite of deprivation is living a full, rich life. Why then, do we ever make the choice that will lead to the opposite of what we ultimately desire?
The only answer I have for that now is that we want the immediate desire and decide that the blessing for obedience is too far down the road. The whole 2nd article of fe is about free agency, so maybe I'll get more into this as I go along.
The part that particularly fascinated me was that the transgressor (me) fears the law because it brings deprivation and restraint when I make choices contrary to it. I know when I disobey that there will be a consequence, and I just stand there waiting for it to happen, knowing it will in some way. The opposite of deprivation is living a full, rich life. Why then, do we ever make the choice that will lead to the opposite of what we ultimately desire?
The only answer I have for that now is that we want the immediate desire and decide that the blessing for obedience is too far down the road. The whole 2nd article of fe is about free agency, so maybe I'll get more into this as I go along.
How do I know what the title is until I'm finished? or DONUTS...
This has been bugging me. In most journal entries, titles are not an important aspect of that, so this is foreign to me. Once I'm done rambling, I suppose I could come up with a title. I don't know if I have that option or not.
Anyway, today was an interesting day. We are trying to prepare for our presentation tomorrow night in Lake City. I started two trays of alfalfa sprouts which I should have started earlier. Some of them have little sprouts on them already, so maybe they will be sufficient for tomorrow. Then I made 2 gallons of yogurt in my pickle crock. This will be drained for yogurt cheese which will be made into cheesecakes. Very yummy. I decided to make it in the dehydrator since it was more than my little Stanleys could hold, but I think the crock plus 2 gallons of milk might be too heavy for the plastic dehydrator shelves. I think it could handle 1 gallon though easily enough.
Well, we didn't get to breakfast until I had finished these tasks, and the missionaries called while we were eating and told us one of their investigators didn't have any food. It was a young sister who has come a few times with her 18 month old baby and novio, but they aren't married for some paperwork reason that has to do with immigration.
The way the church usually works in this situation is for the missionaries to contact the bishop (or branch president), so I wondered why they didn't contact him first. The church does not normally help non-members, but there are exceptions to that as well. There is nothing to stop individual members from assisting those whom they perceive to be in need, so that is how we decided to proceed. We simply went through our food storage and pulled some things we thought they could use.
I don't give away my home bottled goods, so we went to the store to buy some meat, masa harina, fresh milk (cause they probably aren't used to drinking storage milk), and diapers. I didn't know how the new numbering system works on the diapers (weight, not age), so I asked a women who had a baby about that age what size her baby wore, and that turned out to be the right size for this baby. I was kind of proud of myself as she spoke only Spanish, and I was able to communicate with her. I had to call diapers "pantalones por la bebe", but she knew what I meant. She came back with the correct word, but I couldn't catch it. That was very satisfying. Roger is always so amazed when he hears me having conversations with Spanish people.
We picked up our groceries there and delivered them. We forgot to get a can opener, so had to go back to Winn Dixie for that. The missionaries had said she probably didn't have one, but they didn't have them at Sav-A-Lot, and I forgot to stop elsewhere. Besides, it seemed improbable to me that *anyone* anywhere wouldn't have a can opener. But when we got there, I asked her, and she said, "No, I have never cooked anything out of a can." And of course, she had never purchased bulk commodities in a can either. What a lesson! Darius said that in Mexico the people there think that is all that we eat: canned food.
My point in recording this is two fold: Isn't is hard to imagine being in the position that all you have to eat is eggs and beans (as told to the missionaries)? I can remember though, that when I was first married, there were many times that all we had in the house was popcorn. We figured that would be something cheap to live on that was also a little nutritious. If we got any extra money, we'd buy hotdogs or tuna fish and some bread. So I guess it isn't that hard to imagine someone being that down on their luck. We really didn't think we were starving; we just thought we were poor. And that's how it is when you're poor, right?
Of course, when we joined the church we were able to learn a better way of living in many different aspects of our lives. I suppose it takes experiences like this today for me to remember that. Now I know that we can live without luxuries without suffering nutritionally or emotionally. I knew how to bake bread back then, but for some reason it never occurred to me to do that. I have a lot more skills now then I did then, and I never really had anyone to help or counsel me. We didn't talk to our parents about our situation; we just assumed everyone went through this. We have definitely come full circle: not only do we have what we need, but we have enough to share. What a blessing that is!
Which brings me to my second point. It has always bothered me when I hear people say that they get such a good feeling when they help others. I have never felt this way! What is wrong with me?
It is not that I have a *bad* feeling when I serve; I don't. I look at service as something that needs to be done, and when it is done, then I have the feeling like the satisfaction I get when a job or task is finished. I definitely feel that people are here to serve others, and I love to serve. I just don't get the warm fuzzy thing going. What is up with that? I asked Roger what he thought, and he thinks it is because most people don't have as many opportunities as I have. When they do, there is the warm, glowy thing. I'm not sure that is it. Maybe some people need the warm glowy thing to motivate them the next time. I don't know. It just bugs me, that's all.
2 of our best students are moving to Pennsylvania. They are going to get the rest of their work for the year when they meet with us in February, but I am so disappointed they are leaving. It seems like we lose the good ones all too often, but the mean ones just hang around forever. Such is life, right? We have an amazingly diverse student body. I sometimes wish they could get to know each other as I know them, but I guess this is just a special blessing I am enjoying at this time in my life.
I guess I should share my goals with Roger...last night he brought home a bag of donuts!
Anyway, today was an interesting day. We are trying to prepare for our presentation tomorrow night in Lake City. I started two trays of alfalfa sprouts which I should have started earlier. Some of them have little sprouts on them already, so maybe they will be sufficient for tomorrow. Then I made 2 gallons of yogurt in my pickle crock. This will be drained for yogurt cheese which will be made into cheesecakes. Very yummy. I decided to make it in the dehydrator since it was more than my little Stanleys could hold, but I think the crock plus 2 gallons of milk might be too heavy for the plastic dehydrator shelves. I think it could handle 1 gallon though easily enough.
Well, we didn't get to breakfast until I had finished these tasks, and the missionaries called while we were eating and told us one of their investigators didn't have any food. It was a young sister who has come a few times with her 18 month old baby and novio, but they aren't married for some paperwork reason that has to do with immigration.
The way the church usually works in this situation is for the missionaries to contact the bishop (or branch president), so I wondered why they didn't contact him first. The church does not normally help non-members, but there are exceptions to that as well. There is nothing to stop individual members from assisting those whom they perceive to be in need, so that is how we decided to proceed. We simply went through our food storage and pulled some things we thought they could use.
I don't give away my home bottled goods, so we went to the store to buy some meat, masa harina, fresh milk (cause they probably aren't used to drinking storage milk), and diapers. I didn't know how the new numbering system works on the diapers (weight, not age), so I asked a women who had a baby about that age what size her baby wore, and that turned out to be the right size for this baby. I was kind of proud of myself as she spoke only Spanish, and I was able to communicate with her. I had to call diapers "pantalones por la bebe", but she knew what I meant. She came back with the correct word, but I couldn't catch it. That was very satisfying. Roger is always so amazed when he hears me having conversations with Spanish people.
We picked up our groceries there and delivered them. We forgot to get a can opener, so had to go back to Winn Dixie for that. The missionaries had said she probably didn't have one, but they didn't have them at Sav-A-Lot, and I forgot to stop elsewhere. Besides, it seemed improbable to me that *anyone* anywhere wouldn't have a can opener. But when we got there, I asked her, and she said, "No, I have never cooked anything out of a can." And of course, she had never purchased bulk commodities in a can either. What a lesson! Darius said that in Mexico the people there think that is all that we eat: canned food.
My point in recording this is two fold: Isn't is hard to imagine being in the position that all you have to eat is eggs and beans (as told to the missionaries)? I can remember though, that when I was first married, there were many times that all we had in the house was popcorn. We figured that would be something cheap to live on that was also a little nutritious. If we got any extra money, we'd buy hotdogs or tuna fish and some bread. So I guess it isn't that hard to imagine someone being that down on their luck. We really didn't think we were starving; we just thought we were poor. And that's how it is when you're poor, right?
Of course, when we joined the church we were able to learn a better way of living in many different aspects of our lives. I suppose it takes experiences like this today for me to remember that. Now I know that we can live without luxuries without suffering nutritionally or emotionally. I knew how to bake bread back then, but for some reason it never occurred to me to do that. I have a lot more skills now then I did then, and I never really had anyone to help or counsel me. We didn't talk to our parents about our situation; we just assumed everyone went through this. We have definitely come full circle: not only do we have what we need, but we have enough to share. What a blessing that is!
Which brings me to my second point. It has always bothered me when I hear people say that they get such a good feeling when they help others. I have never felt this way! What is wrong with me?
It is not that I have a *bad* feeling when I serve; I don't. I look at service as something that needs to be done, and when it is done, then I have the feeling like the satisfaction I get when a job or task is finished. I definitely feel that people are here to serve others, and I love to serve. I just don't get the warm fuzzy thing going. What is up with that? I asked Roger what he thought, and he thinks it is because most people don't have as many opportunities as I have. When they do, there is the warm, glowy thing. I'm not sure that is it. Maybe some people need the warm glowy thing to motivate them the next time. I don't know. It just bugs me, that's all.
2 of our best students are moving to Pennsylvania. They are going to get the rest of their work for the year when they meet with us in February, but I am so disappointed they are leaving. It seems like we lose the good ones all too often, but the mean ones just hang around forever. Such is life, right? We have an amazingly diverse student body. I sometimes wish they could get to know each other as I know them, but I guess this is just a special blessing I am enjoying at this time in my life.
I guess I should share my goals with Roger...last night he brought home a bag of donuts!
Legumes, beans, pulses
I posted this as a response to Dorian's question in the comments for day one, but decided to give it its own post for ease in finding it later. Legumes are an important food health wise, and for survival.
http://waltonfeed.com/self/beans.html
Introduction
What distinguishes beans from other plants? Beans have pods with seeds inside them. Aside from beans this includes peas, lentils and some people even include the peanut in this category. All legumes are able to take large amounts of nitrogen from the air and convert it to protein in the seeds. They also return large amounts of nitrogen to the ground and because of this the green plants are sometimes plowed under; as an organic fertilizer.
Right along with the early grains, legumes were among the first crops cultivated and date back to the Bronze Age. Beans have been discovered in the tombs of the Pharaohs and Aztecs. The ancient Egyptians considered beans to be an emblem of life and had temples dedicated to them. Later, the Greeks and Romans used them in festivals to worship their gods. The Roman's four most distinguished families were named after beans; Fabius (fava bean), Lentulus (lentil), Piso (pea), and Cicero (chickpea). Early discoverers learned that Indians scattered all over the Americas grew and ate numerous kinds of beans. And from the very beginning, beans were carried back and forth, traded and planted as explorers and nomads wondered the earth. In the Middle Ages beans were one of the primary foods of the peasants of Europe. And in more recent times because of their great storage ability, beans were a primary food for sailors which is exactly how the Navy bean got it's name. Beans have fed the armies of the world from ancient times to the wars of recent history. From the Great Depression right up to the present, beans have been recognized for their high nutritional content. At a small fraction of the cost of meat protein, one cup of cooked beans provides 25% of the daily requirement for the amino acids.
Nutrition
During the lean years of the Great Depression, beans were also tagged "poor man's meat" because of their protein power at pennies per pound. Beans are a source of Niacin, Thiamin, Riboflavin, B6 vitamins and many other nutrients as well. They are also rich in complex carbohydrates and fiber. All of these nutrients are necessary for normal growth and for the building of body tissues. Beans are high in potassium which is required for the normal functioning of nerves and muscles. A cup of cooked beans contains more potassium than a banana. In fact, beans have more calcium and iron per cup than three ounces of cooked meat but contain no cholesterol and with less calories.
Beans are the best source of folate and are excellent sources of minerals and vitamins. High in fiber they have good cancer fighting characteristics and have been specifically linked to lower the risk of colon cancer.
Recent research has brought to light that beans have 'anti-aging' agents or antioxidants found in the seed coat. There are eight flavonoids in the outer bean layer, six of which are particularly strong antioxidants. Because of new research, we are learning that beans have a perfect nutrient base for people interested in weight loss. They also aid in reducing cholesterol, improve digestion and, as already mentioned, are an aid in cancer prevention.
Cooking Beans
Beans can be eaten raw, sprouted or cooked. Unknown by many, they can even be ground into a flour and in this form beans cook up in two or three minutes into a hearty soup. But this is not all, for the more adventurous among us, beans can be juiced into milk, curdled into tofu, fermented into soy sauce or made into transparent noodles called vermicelli. Truly, beans rival the versatility of wheat in what you can do with them. Let's look at some of the different processes in preparing beans for eating.
Soaking: This step isn't completely necessary, however, there are some real advantages. A shorter cooking time is probably the biggest advantage. Figure about an extra hour of cooking time for beans that are not pre-soaked. Beans should be soaked for at least 6 hours. During this time, the beans will absorb water until they have increased in volume and weight about 3 times. You should add 5 times as much water as dry beans. Soaking also leaches some of the gas producing properties out of the bean. But for this to work, you need to discard the soaking water and replenish it with fresh water before cooking. The longer you soak them the less gassy beans will be. You can also drain the water after 12 hours, then rinse and re-drain them every 12 hours for 2 to 3 days until the sprouts are as long as the bean. This not only dramatically increases the vitamins in the beans but also removes some of the gas producing qualities. After you have sprouted them as described above, cook them like regular soaked beans. You can also quick soak beans by boiling them for 10 minutes first, then setting them aside for two hours. As with a cold soak, you should discard the soaking water and replace with it fresh water before cooking them. Boiling the beans kills the seeds so don't expect them to sprout after you've heated them.
One lb. dry packaged beans = 2 cups dry = 6 cups cooked beans.
Cooking: After soaking, most people cover the beans with water then boil them. This can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the bean. You should check them for softness every 15-30 minutes then pull them off the heat when they've reached their desired softness. But you can also throw them in a crock pot in the morning and let them go until the evening. And we've already mentioned that beans ground into a flour cook up almost instantly into a soup or paste, depending on how much water you use. If you've boiled your beans for several hours and they still haven't softened, it's probably because they are old. Old, air stored beans 5 or more years old get 'hardened' and may never soften up. There are two ways of getting around this. You can put them in a pressure cooker for 45-60 minutes and this should do the trick, or you can grind them. Incidentally, normal beans that aren't 'hard' cook in about 20 minutes is a pressure cooker. Hardened beans still contain much of their nutrition.
After your beans are cooked, add your flavorings, meat, vegetables or whatever you are adding to make the bean dish you are preparing. Don't add these ingredients while the beans are cooking as there are many ingredients that will increase the beans' cooking time before they become soft. This includes the acidic foods which include tomatoes, lemon juice, vinegar and similar ingredients. Adding a bit of cooking oil, butter or margarine to the cooking beans will help to keep the foaming down as they cook. Consider cooking a double batch and freezing the beans not used immediately. Beans soaked for 12 hours or more often have a more uniform shape than quick soaked beans. You may need to increase the cooking time if your water is overly hard or you live at high altitudes.
Cooked beans will store nicely in your refrigerator for a week and they freeze nicely for a minimum of 6 months.
What Are The Different Beans Used For?
Adzuki: Japanese dishes.
Anasazi: Can be used in place of Navy, Pinto, Great Northern, or Kidney beans.
Black-eye: Used with rice dishes such as Hoppin' John.
Black Turtle: In Latin American dishes, soups, refried beans, salsas.
Garbanzo: Most often used in soups, salads and Mexican dishes; main ingredient in the popular Middle Eastern dishes hummus and falafel. Coffee substitute.
Great Northern: Soups, baked beans.
Kidney: In soups, salads, sandwiches, chili, dip, or over rice.
Lentils: Soups, raw sprouts, stirfried sprouts, meatless patties, Ethnic food.
Lima: Popular as a vegetable side-dish or added to soups and casseroles.
Mung: Sprouts, vermicelli or transparent noodles.
Navy: Baked beans, soups, casseroles, ethnic dishes.
Pink: Often used to make chili. Good substitute for pinto or kidney beans.
Pinto: In chili, refried beans, dips.
Small Red: Chile, salads.
Soy: Soy milk, tofu, soy flour, TVP, sprouts, tempeh, mise, soy sauce (shoyu or tamari), natto.
Gas:
Beans have somewhat of a bad reputation because of their gas producing characteristics. However, there are several things you can do to minimize or eliminate this. The easiest thing you can do is pick a bean that is not as gas producing as the others. Gas is produced when the intestinal tract doesn't adequately digest beans. Wouldn't it be great to have a list of beans sorted according to their gas producing qualities? Here it is... The beans on the bottom produce the least gas.
1. Soybeans
2. Pink beans
3. Black turtle beans
4. Pinto beans
5. Small white beans
6. Great northern
7. Baby lima beans
8. Garbanzo beans
9. Large lima beans
10. Black-eyed peas
11. Anasazi beans
The most likely reason for this is caused by a lack of enzymes needed to digest this food. As your body gets used to eating beans, the needed enzymes are introduced and this problem disappears. There's also a way of introducing these enzymes through a product called Beano. Beano contains alpha-galactosidase, an enzyme that helps digest the complex sugars that beans contain. (They also work on broccoli, cabbage and other gas producing foods.) There are a couple of herbs that also reduce or eliminate the gas from beans. From personal experience I've learned that a couple of '00 gel caps' stuffed with nutmeg will also do the trick and that peppermint, spearmint, marjoram, anise, basil, caraway, carrots, dill, ginger, onions orange juice, parsley, savory, thyme and ginger are also reported to have gas reduction properties to one extent or another as well. We've been drinking orange juice with our bean meals for years with good results. That old wives tale of throwing a carrot in with the beans as they cook then throw it out is also founded on successful experience.
As mentioned already, you should throw out the water you've been soaking your beans in before cooking them and it's also reported that fruits shouldn't be eaten at the same meal.
http://waltonfeed.com/self/beans.html
Introduction
What distinguishes beans from other plants? Beans have pods with seeds inside them. Aside from beans this includes peas, lentils and some people even include the peanut in this category. All legumes are able to take large amounts of nitrogen from the air and convert it to protein in the seeds. They also return large amounts of nitrogen to the ground and because of this the green plants are sometimes plowed under; as an organic fertilizer.
Right along with the early grains, legumes were among the first crops cultivated and date back to the Bronze Age. Beans have been discovered in the tombs of the Pharaohs and Aztecs. The ancient Egyptians considered beans to be an emblem of life and had temples dedicated to them. Later, the Greeks and Romans used them in festivals to worship their gods. The Roman's four most distinguished families were named after beans; Fabius (fava bean), Lentulus (lentil), Piso (pea), and Cicero (chickpea). Early discoverers learned that Indians scattered all over the Americas grew and ate numerous kinds of beans. And from the very beginning, beans were carried back and forth, traded and planted as explorers and nomads wondered the earth. In the Middle Ages beans were one of the primary foods of the peasants of Europe. And in more recent times because of their great storage ability, beans were a primary food for sailors which is exactly how the Navy bean got it's name. Beans have fed the armies of the world from ancient times to the wars of recent history. From the Great Depression right up to the present, beans have been recognized for their high nutritional content. At a small fraction of the cost of meat protein, one cup of cooked beans provides 25% of the daily requirement for the amino acids.
Nutrition
During the lean years of the Great Depression, beans were also tagged "poor man's meat" because of their protein power at pennies per pound. Beans are a source of Niacin, Thiamin, Riboflavin, B6 vitamins and many other nutrients as well. They are also rich in complex carbohydrates and fiber. All of these nutrients are necessary for normal growth and for the building of body tissues. Beans are high in potassium which is required for the normal functioning of nerves and muscles. A cup of cooked beans contains more potassium than a banana. In fact, beans have more calcium and iron per cup than three ounces of cooked meat but contain no cholesterol and with less calories.
Beans are the best source of folate and are excellent sources of minerals and vitamins. High in fiber they have good cancer fighting characteristics and have been specifically linked to lower the risk of colon cancer.
Recent research has brought to light that beans have 'anti-aging' agents or antioxidants found in the seed coat. There are eight flavonoids in the outer bean layer, six of which are particularly strong antioxidants. Because of new research, we are learning that beans have a perfect nutrient base for people interested in weight loss. They also aid in reducing cholesterol, improve digestion and, as already mentioned, are an aid in cancer prevention.
Cooking Beans
Beans can be eaten raw, sprouted or cooked. Unknown by many, they can even be ground into a flour and in this form beans cook up in two or three minutes into a hearty soup. But this is not all, for the more adventurous among us, beans can be juiced into milk, curdled into tofu, fermented into soy sauce or made into transparent noodles called vermicelli. Truly, beans rival the versatility of wheat in what you can do with them. Let's look at some of the different processes in preparing beans for eating.
Soaking: This step isn't completely necessary, however, there are some real advantages. A shorter cooking time is probably the biggest advantage. Figure about an extra hour of cooking time for beans that are not pre-soaked. Beans should be soaked for at least 6 hours. During this time, the beans will absorb water until they have increased in volume and weight about 3 times. You should add 5 times as much water as dry beans. Soaking also leaches some of the gas producing properties out of the bean. But for this to work, you need to discard the soaking water and replenish it with fresh water before cooking. The longer you soak them the less gassy beans will be. You can also drain the water after 12 hours, then rinse and re-drain them every 12 hours for 2 to 3 days until the sprouts are as long as the bean. This not only dramatically increases the vitamins in the beans but also removes some of the gas producing qualities. After you have sprouted them as described above, cook them like regular soaked beans. You can also quick soak beans by boiling them for 10 minutes first, then setting them aside for two hours. As with a cold soak, you should discard the soaking water and replace with it fresh water before cooking them. Boiling the beans kills the seeds so don't expect them to sprout after you've heated them.
One lb. dry packaged beans = 2 cups dry = 6 cups cooked beans.
Cooking: After soaking, most people cover the beans with water then boil them. This can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the bean. You should check them for softness every 15-30 minutes then pull them off the heat when they've reached their desired softness. But you can also throw them in a crock pot in the morning and let them go until the evening. And we've already mentioned that beans ground into a flour cook up almost instantly into a soup or paste, depending on how much water you use. If you've boiled your beans for several hours and they still haven't softened, it's probably because they are old. Old, air stored beans 5 or more years old get 'hardened' and may never soften up. There are two ways of getting around this. You can put them in a pressure cooker for 45-60 minutes and this should do the trick, or you can grind them. Incidentally, normal beans that aren't 'hard' cook in about 20 minutes is a pressure cooker. Hardened beans still contain much of their nutrition.
After your beans are cooked, add your flavorings, meat, vegetables or whatever you are adding to make the bean dish you are preparing. Don't add these ingredients while the beans are cooking as there are many ingredients that will increase the beans' cooking time before they become soft. This includes the acidic foods which include tomatoes, lemon juice, vinegar and similar ingredients. Adding a bit of cooking oil, butter or margarine to the cooking beans will help to keep the foaming down as they cook. Consider cooking a double batch and freezing the beans not used immediately. Beans soaked for 12 hours or more often have a more uniform shape than quick soaked beans. You may need to increase the cooking time if your water is overly hard or you live at high altitudes.
Cooked beans will store nicely in your refrigerator for a week and they freeze nicely for a minimum of 6 months.
What Are The Different Beans Used For?
Adzuki: Japanese dishes.
Anasazi: Can be used in place of Navy, Pinto, Great Northern, or Kidney beans.
Black-eye: Used with rice dishes such as Hoppin' John.
Black Turtle: In Latin American dishes, soups, refried beans, salsas.
Garbanzo: Most often used in soups, salads and Mexican dishes; main ingredient in the popular Middle Eastern dishes hummus and falafel. Coffee substitute.
Great Northern: Soups, baked beans.
Kidney: In soups, salads, sandwiches, chili, dip, or over rice.
Lentils: Soups, raw sprouts, stirfried sprouts, meatless patties, Ethnic food.
Lima: Popular as a vegetable side-dish or added to soups and casseroles.
Mung: Sprouts, vermicelli or transparent noodles.
Navy: Baked beans, soups, casseroles, ethnic dishes.
Pink: Often used to make chili. Good substitute for pinto or kidney beans.
Pinto: In chili, refried beans, dips.
Small Red: Chile, salads.
Soy: Soy milk, tofu, soy flour, TVP, sprouts, tempeh, mise, soy sauce (shoyu or tamari), natto.
Gas:
Beans have somewhat of a bad reputation because of their gas producing characteristics. However, there are several things you can do to minimize or eliminate this. The easiest thing you can do is pick a bean that is not as gas producing as the others. Gas is produced when the intestinal tract doesn't adequately digest beans. Wouldn't it be great to have a list of beans sorted according to their gas producing qualities? Here it is... The beans on the bottom produce the least gas.
1. Soybeans
2. Pink beans
3. Black turtle beans
4. Pinto beans
5. Small white beans
6. Great northern
7. Baby lima beans
8. Garbanzo beans
9. Large lima beans
10. Black-eyed peas
11. Anasazi beans
The most likely reason for this is caused by a lack of enzymes needed to digest this food. As your body gets used to eating beans, the needed enzymes are introduced and this problem disappears. There's also a way of introducing these enzymes through a product called Beano. Beano contains alpha-galactosidase, an enzyme that helps digest the complex sugars that beans contain. (They also work on broccoli, cabbage and other gas producing foods.) There are a couple of herbs that also reduce or eliminate the gas from beans. From personal experience I've learned that a couple of '00 gel caps' stuffed with nutmeg will also do the trick and that peppermint, spearmint, marjoram, anise, basil, caraway, carrots, dill, ginger, onions orange juice, parsley, savory, thyme and ginger are also reported to have gas reduction properties to one extent or another as well. We've been drinking orange juice with our bean meals for years with good results. That old wives tale of throwing a carrot in with the beans as they cook then throw it out is also founded on successful experience.
As mentioned already, you should throw out the water you've been soaking your beans in before cooking them and it's also reported that fruits shouldn't be eaten at the same meal.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
journaling
Darius brought up an interesting issue with his comments for opening day. This blog phenom is an interesting one. I suppose there are several ways to look at it.
Are we living in a world that just wants to find more ways where someone will pay attention to us? I have been following a couple of blogs in areas of my own interests, and one thing I have noticed is that they are of more personal nature than comments found in yahoo groups for example. I belong to about a dozen yahoo groups, and these more or less address the issues of the group as a whole. Bloggers tend to express more of the personal issues in their lives as they apply to their blog topics and otherwise.
Or, are blogs a way for people in the world to record their life history in a different way? There was a time where every young woman kept a journal (before my day!). I don't know at what point that went out of vogue. With the home school movement came a renewed desire to restore journaling at least among the children being homeschooled. Some families had more success than others. We were not too successful with this, but I think all of the boys kept mission journals, again, some more detailed and resolute than others.
As a member of the church, we have always been encouraged to keep journals as a way to record our life's events for posterity. Again, some members are more successful than others, but I think as a rule, most members don't do too well with this. I think most of can't believe what we have to say is really all that interesting to anyone.
So, with that being said, why are blogs coming into their own in such a big way? Perhaps we are thinking the things we are doing in our lives do have value, and that someone, somewhere, might benefit from it. If you do have values you believe to be important, it is very difficult to get anyone to listen to you, even in your own family. Maybe the blog is our way of *feeling* like we are being heard, even if no one is paying attention. So then it is an ego thing.
Well, I'll go along with the prophet Elijah: this is my small way of turning the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers. As far as whether to write things of a personal nature, I don't quite know yet about that. I thought about that when contemplating a blog, but couldn't rationalize both sides. I guess I will cross that hurdle when there is something of a sensitive nature on my mind. Of course, if there really is no one reading, i.e. listening, than it won't matter anyway, right?
Today was a busy day. Alicia came this morning with her weekly enrollment packets and brought her digital camera to give me a mini lesson. I guess I shall have to bite the bullet and get one. There have been many times when I needed one, and things would have gone better had I had one, but I have avoided it. Of course, I should never do that, and realize it is my own stubbornness. I fought getting a computer for many years before I actually purchased one, and then found out they (the computers) think like I do. I had missed out on all those years of having a best friend who thinks like I do. Those of you reading this who know me, know that there are not too many folks out there who think like me!
We could not get her camera to download on my computer, so as soon as she sends them to me, I will post some pictures so this isn't so boring.
I had some planting to do in the garden as I mentioned yesterday and decided to pick some peppers while I was out there. I got at least 5 pounds! I didn't realize there were so many ripe ones.
So I decided I better can them right away or I would never get to them. I tried a couple of different applications which my family will be forced to try at our next family get together, and I also canned some pickled garlic I had read about on one of my yahoo groups. I can't imagine I will like it, but I'll bet some of the kids will, and besides, I was intrigued by it. The author said you can whirl it up in the blender to make a great salad dressing too, so that will also be worth a try.
That took much of the day in activities I had not previously planned on doing. I am seriously behind on getting the English courses rewritten, and we still have a lot to do for our "date night" presentation in Lake City Friday. I also have to get the visiting teaching handout made up for Kitsy to mail out.
Last month, she indicated that I'd better get my act together because we miscommunicated about who was going to do what. She's right of course, but I don't think it's going to happen as she would like it to. Hopefully I will get that done tonight.
Unfortunately, Roger and I got to bed late last night as I decided to roll a large skein of lace weight yarn into a ball. I have been wanting to make a shawl for the longest time, and bought this hank some time ago on sale. I belong to a sock of the month club, and in December they sent me some Regia silk with a lace patterned sock. I finished the first one on Friday, and I have fallen in love with both the yarn and the pattern. My success with that lace encouraged me to begin this shawl project, so I looked for a simple pattern yesterday and decided on the yarn harlot's "snowdrop" pattern. I made Roger help me roll the ball, and it is huge. It took us a long time, 3 - 4 hours I think, to roll it. There were a few knots too that took me forever to get out. I think next time it would behoove me to pay the nice lady at Knitwits to roll it for me.
Anyway, I did start knitting it last night, but was too tired to concentrate on it as much as a lace pattern requires. I figured I would start fresh tonight.
Well, I suppose I have rambled on enough. Here are the recipes for the items made today in case you get a chance to taste them and want to try them yourself.
Pickled Garlic
Peeled garlic cloves
2/3 c Vinegar; (white)
2 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Salt
1 1/3 cup Water
Purchase 1/2 gal peeled garlic cloves at Costco or peel your own. Combine solution of white vinegar, water, sugar, and salt. Must be enough to cover garlic. Bring solution to a full rolling boil. Drop in peeled garlic. Return solution to full boil and boil 2 minutes. Turn off fire and allow to cool. Put into container and store in cool place 3 months.
Bonus: The author says it makes excellent salad dressing too. We'll let you know when we try it. We got about 9 (1/2) pints out of it, but i had used some for canning the peppers.
From Lynnda/tnlds on my food storage yahoo group:
We eat a lot of jalapeno peppers and our favorite recipe for pickled jalopeno is:
1 cup water
1 cup vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
Bring this to a boil. Put sliced pepper and 1 tsp dried garlic chips (I didn't know what this is, so I just used fresh garlic, about 2 cloves per 1/2 pint jar) in a jar and pour hot vinegar solution over them to collar. Cap and process for 5 min. in boiling water bath.
I think this made about 5 jars (1/2 pints).
I still had a lot of peppers left, so I decided to try this other pickled pepper recipe. I got 19 more 1/2 pint jars of jalopenos, and then I used the same recipe for the serano peppers, poblanos, and whatever those other peppers are. I think they're anaheim, but stupidly I forgot to label them when I planted them. I got 6 quarts of the whole peppers, and decided to cut the poblanos up in to cracker sized squares to use as hors d'euves. Man, I hope this stuff tastes good.
Pickled Peppers
8 quarts peppers
1/4 cup sugar
8 cups white vinegar
2 cups cold water
16 cloves garlic
If using small whole peppers, cut two slits in each pepper to allow for complete pickling. When using larger peppers, cut the stems off, take out the seeds, and cut in fourths or eighths. I like (the author of this recipe) to cut them in squares so they're the perfect cracker size for hors d'oevres.
Combine all ingredients in a kettle except the garlic; simmer 15 min.
Pack the pepper and 2 garlic cloves in each clean, hot pint jar, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. process 10 min BWB
We are relying more and more on our food storage and avoiding eating out as much as possible as per my goal for the year. It will be fun learning to use this stuff.
Are we living in a world that just wants to find more ways where someone will pay attention to us? I have been following a couple of blogs in areas of my own interests, and one thing I have noticed is that they are of more personal nature than comments found in yahoo groups for example. I belong to about a dozen yahoo groups, and these more or less address the issues of the group as a whole. Bloggers tend to express more of the personal issues in their lives as they apply to their blog topics and otherwise.
Or, are blogs a way for people in the world to record their life history in a different way? There was a time where every young woman kept a journal (before my day!). I don't know at what point that went out of vogue. With the home school movement came a renewed desire to restore journaling at least among the children being homeschooled. Some families had more success than others. We were not too successful with this, but I think all of the boys kept mission journals, again, some more detailed and resolute than others.
As a member of the church, we have always been encouraged to keep journals as a way to record our life's events for posterity. Again, some members are more successful than others, but I think as a rule, most members don't do too well with this. I think most of can't believe what we have to say is really all that interesting to anyone.
So, with that being said, why are blogs coming into their own in such a big way? Perhaps we are thinking the things we are doing in our lives do have value, and that someone, somewhere, might benefit from it. If you do have values you believe to be important, it is very difficult to get anyone to listen to you, even in your own family. Maybe the blog is our way of *feeling* like we are being heard, even if no one is paying attention. So then it is an ego thing.
Well, I'll go along with the prophet Elijah: this is my small way of turning the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers. As far as whether to write things of a personal nature, I don't quite know yet about that. I thought about that when contemplating a blog, but couldn't rationalize both sides. I guess I will cross that hurdle when there is something of a sensitive nature on my mind. Of course, if there really is no one reading, i.e. listening, than it won't matter anyway, right?
Today was a busy day. Alicia came this morning with her weekly enrollment packets and brought her digital camera to give me a mini lesson. I guess I shall have to bite the bullet and get one. There have been many times when I needed one, and things would have gone better had I had one, but I have avoided it. Of course, I should never do that, and realize it is my own stubbornness. I fought getting a computer for many years before I actually purchased one, and then found out they (the computers) think like I do. I had missed out on all those years of having a best friend who thinks like I do. Those of you reading this who know me, know that there are not too many folks out there who think like me!
We could not get her camera to download on my computer, so as soon as she sends them to me, I will post some pictures so this isn't so boring.
I had some planting to do in the garden as I mentioned yesterday and decided to pick some peppers while I was out there. I got at least 5 pounds! I didn't realize there were so many ripe ones.
So I decided I better can them right away or I would never get to them. I tried a couple of different applications which my family will be forced to try at our next family get together, and I also canned some pickled garlic I had read about on one of my yahoo groups. I can't imagine I will like it, but I'll bet some of the kids will, and besides, I was intrigued by it. The author said you can whirl it up in the blender to make a great salad dressing too, so that will also be worth a try.
That took much of the day in activities I had not previously planned on doing. I am seriously behind on getting the English courses rewritten, and we still have a lot to do for our "date night" presentation in Lake City Friday. I also have to get the visiting teaching handout made up for Kitsy to mail out.
Last month, she indicated that I'd better get my act together because we miscommunicated about who was going to do what. She's right of course, but I don't think it's going to happen as she would like it to. Hopefully I will get that done tonight.
Unfortunately, Roger and I got to bed late last night as I decided to roll a large skein of lace weight yarn into a ball. I have been wanting to make a shawl for the longest time, and bought this hank some time ago on sale. I belong to a sock of the month club, and in December they sent me some Regia silk with a lace patterned sock. I finished the first one on Friday, and I have fallen in love with both the yarn and the pattern. My success with that lace encouraged me to begin this shawl project, so I looked for a simple pattern yesterday and decided on the yarn harlot's "snowdrop" pattern. I made Roger help me roll the ball, and it is huge. It took us a long time, 3 - 4 hours I think, to roll it. There were a few knots too that took me forever to get out. I think next time it would behoove me to pay the nice lady at Knitwits to roll it for me.
Anyway, I did start knitting it last night, but was too tired to concentrate on it as much as a lace pattern requires. I figured I would start fresh tonight.
Well, I suppose I have rambled on enough. Here are the recipes for the items made today in case you get a chance to taste them and want to try them yourself.
Pickled Garlic
Peeled garlic cloves
2/3 c Vinegar; (white)
2 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Salt
1 1/3 cup Water
Purchase 1/2 gal peeled garlic cloves at Costco or peel your own. Combine solution of white vinegar, water, sugar, and salt. Must be enough to cover garlic. Bring solution to a full rolling boil. Drop in peeled garlic. Return solution to full boil and boil 2 minutes. Turn off fire and allow to cool. Put into container and store in cool place 3 months.
Bonus: The author says it makes excellent salad dressing too. We'll let you know when we try it. We got about 9 (1/2) pints out of it, but i had used some for canning the peppers.
From Lynnda/tnlds on my food storage yahoo group:
We eat a lot of jalapeno peppers and our favorite recipe for pickled jalopeno is:
1 cup water
1 cup vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
Bring this to a boil. Put sliced pepper and 1 tsp dried garlic chips (I didn't know what this is, so I just used fresh garlic, about 2 cloves per 1/2 pint jar) in a jar and pour hot vinegar solution over them to collar. Cap and process for 5 min. in boiling water bath.
I think this made about 5 jars (1/2 pints).
I still had a lot of peppers left, so I decided to try this other pickled pepper recipe. I got 19 more 1/2 pint jars of jalopenos, and then I used the same recipe for the serano peppers, poblanos, and whatever those other peppers are. I think they're anaheim, but stupidly I forgot to label them when I planted them. I got 6 quarts of the whole peppers, and decided to cut the poblanos up in to cracker sized squares to use as hors d'euves. Man, I hope this stuff tastes good.
Pickled Peppers
8 quarts peppers
1/4 cup sugar
8 cups white vinegar
2 cups cold water
16 cloves garlic
If using small whole peppers, cut two slits in each pepper to allow for complete pickling. When using larger peppers, cut the stems off, take out the seeds, and cut in fourths or eighths. I like (the author of this recipe) to cut them in squares so they're the perfect cracker size for hors d'oevres.
Combine all ingredients in a kettle except the garlic; simmer 15 min.
Pack the pepper and 2 garlic cloves in each clean, hot pint jar, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. process 10 min BWB
We are relying more and more on our food storage and avoiding eating out as much as possible as per my goal for the year. It will be fun learning to use this stuff.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Opening Day!
23 January 2007
Since this is my first day posting, I'm trying to decide what would be a good format. I've been fascinated with blogs since I first saw one on CSI Miami. Lately, I've been reading quite a few knitting blogs, and decided it was time to jump in.
Not that what I do is that interesting, mind you. But I do feel an obligation to keep a journal and failing miserably at a hand written account has led me to other alternative. How much better would I do at this? Well, no harm done, right?
There really are a lot of things going on in my life for which I would like to have a written account. For example, there's our great homeschool program, Deseret Academy. We registered with the State of Florida in 1994 as a private school where students do their work at home, but we have been homeschooling since 1976. Of course, our own children have all graduated from homeschool and college, but we continue working with other people's kids as they attempt to become educated in an alternative fashion. Our own children are working with us in the school now as we attempt to back away so that we can "retire" and serve missions for our church.
We joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in 1976 (that was a big year for us), and have thought of serving a mission ever since. We are very active in our church, and presently are serving an at-home mission which means we commute from our home to serve at the Home Storage Center in Jacksonville, Florida. Being more prepared in the face of adversity will always be one of our passions. Besides our mission, Roger, my sweetheart of almost 35 years, serves as young men's president, and I am currently the Relief Society President. We are members of the Crescent City Branch in the Jacksonville Florida West Stake. It was formed in November of 2002. I'm sure you'll hear more of our shinanigans as we go along.
Our children are the light of our life. We have always enjoyed being parents and have been blessed with 3 wonderful boys: Dorian, Darius, and Orion. They are all married now as of last year to great daughter-in-laws: Bonnie, Alicia, and Jac respectively. Dorian and Bonnie have three children: Kayla (11), Wyatt (8), and Angelina (5). You can only imagine how much we love them. Darius and Alicia are expecting; they have put in their papers to adopt a baby, so it is exciting to think that is coming up soon.
As far as interests in our lives, Roger and I both enjoy gardening. Living in NE Florida gives us the opportunity to garden year round. Currently we are growing lettuce and cabbage. We still have peppers growing from our 2006 spring garden. The plants are quite large and able to withstand what little cold weather we've had. Our cauliflower and broccoli have gone to seed as it is way too warm this year for them to thrive. Either that, or it wasn't a very good variety. I bought them at a nursery. I picked up some herb plants at the fruit stand last week that I am hoping to get in the ground: sage, thyme, and parsley. I think I bought a few more cabbage plants too. I can never grow too much cabbage as I like to can a cabbage slaw that we eat all year long. I make sauerkraut occasionally too, but we don't eat that as often as the slaw. I have been reading about drying cabbage in my yahoo group on food drying, so I may try that this year as well. Supposed to be good in soup.
Which leads me to my other passion: canning. Last week I put up 25 pounds of dried pea beans in the form of baked beans. I think it was close to 96 pints. I did 8 with hotdogs to make a beenie weenee, and I think it was a hit with Roger. He ate a pint last night before going to bed. I am anxious to put more beans up, as we are a lot more likely to eat them if they are fast and easy. I also like to can meats. This is the only way I will put meat in my food storage as I don't trust the freezer for large amounts and don't like meat dried. We had some pork loin I canned in Sept of 2004 for our dinner today (Sweet and Sour Pork), and it was still delicious.
I don't have an electronic camera, but I will try to get my hands on one soon, so I can add photos to my blog. I can't imagine how boring this would be to read without pictures.
Another passion, sewing. I own 4 sewing machines! Unfortunately, I have not sewn for a while as I have not organized a sewing area, so that is one of my goals this year.
I also love to knit. I used to crochet before a bad car accident in 2001, but damage to my wrist prevents the twisting that crocheting requires. Knitting fits the bill perfectly and is even more interesting I have found. Previous to my car accident, I had not knit very much though I had completed a sweater. I wasn't very good. I decided to start knitting socks, and all that has changed. You can't knit socks without getting better! I knit my DDIL Jac a shrug for Christmas and Dorian got a cap, Angelina got a cap and matching cape, Wyatt some fingerless gloves. My Mom got socks for her birthday. All in all, I've knit about 50 pairs, I think. I'm not sure why those of us who knit socks love them so much, but we do. They truly become a passion if one is so inclined.
We had our monthly Trunk family FHE on setting goals Sunday at Darius and Alicia's house. One of the points brought up is that we seem to do better when we share our goals with others. I am a terrible goal maker as I am an awful chicken when it comes to failing. My goals this year include the following:
1. Memorize the Articles of Faith in Spanish. I continue to struggle to learn Spanish so that Roger and I might be able to serve a mission in Mexico. Since Darius' stint there and our subsequent visits (2 times), we are totally in love with the Mexican people. My two counselors in RS are Spanish and my secretary is fluent in both English and Spanish, so they all help me a lot. (Thank you Maria, Graciela, and Kitsy).
2. Read the _Articles of Faith_ by Talmage.
3. Eat better. We continually struggle with this one and have reached a point in our lives when we realize it is a necessity if we wish to have a good quality of life. To accomplish this goal, I would like to do the following:
1. Eat more fresh vegetables from the garden and kitchen (sprouts).
2. Eat more homemade bread and grain products. I have made noodles a few time, but am still relying heavily on purchased pasta products. We are eating a homemade whole grain cereal product every morning.
3. Eat legumes daily (sprouted and home canned).
4. Only eat homemade sweets. We figured if we had to bake them, we might not eat them as often. We need to cut down on our sugar consumption.
4. In our missionary calling, we are going to start doing "date nights" in the areas served by our HSC. We would also like to visit wards on Sunday to spread the word about services offered there. Many members have not participated in this aspect of preparedness.
5. Attend the temple at least monthly for a session besides our work assignment there. (We are ordinance workers at the Orlando Temple.
I know these are pretty wimpy goals, but I already told you I was a wimp! I will be very happy if I can accomplish even these limited things.
That is about all there is about my life and passions except I should mention sports. I can't describe that as a passion, but it certainly is a large part of my life since marrying Roger. In fact, we started dating because of a football game, and sports has been a part of my life ever since. The 2 older boys are also pretty passionate about sports, so we do spend time watching the various teams play. None of us are too much on the participation end, unfortunately. The super bowl is coming up soon, and Jac and Orion are hosting the family that day for FHE first, snacks, and football. It should be fun. If it's a long game, I'll get a whole sock done! I actually won the adult pool last week when the playoffs were going on with the Bears and the Colts! That was a first, believe me. I have a horrible record when it comes to guessing the winner. Angelina and Kayla both won for the children, so that was exciting too.
Since this is my first day posting, I'm trying to decide what would be a good format. I've been fascinated with blogs since I first saw one on CSI Miami. Lately, I've been reading quite a few knitting blogs, and decided it was time to jump in.
Not that what I do is that interesting, mind you. But I do feel an obligation to keep a journal and failing miserably at a hand written account has led me to other alternative. How much better would I do at this? Well, no harm done, right?
There really are a lot of things going on in my life for which I would like to have a written account. For example, there's our great homeschool program, Deseret Academy. We registered with the State of Florida in 1994 as a private school where students do their work at home, but we have been homeschooling since 1976. Of course, our own children have all graduated from homeschool and college, but we continue working with other people's kids as they attempt to become educated in an alternative fashion. Our own children are working with us in the school now as we attempt to back away so that we can "retire" and serve missions for our church.
We joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in 1976 (that was a big year for us), and have thought of serving a mission ever since. We are very active in our church, and presently are serving an at-home mission which means we commute from our home to serve at the Home Storage Center in Jacksonville, Florida. Being more prepared in the face of adversity will always be one of our passions. Besides our mission, Roger, my sweetheart of almost 35 years, serves as young men's president, and I am currently the Relief Society President. We are members of the Crescent City Branch in the Jacksonville Florida West Stake. It was formed in November of 2002. I'm sure you'll hear more of our shinanigans as we go along.
Our children are the light of our life. We have always enjoyed being parents and have been blessed with 3 wonderful boys: Dorian, Darius, and Orion. They are all married now as of last year to great daughter-in-laws: Bonnie, Alicia, and Jac respectively. Dorian and Bonnie have three children: Kayla (11), Wyatt (8), and Angelina (5). You can only imagine how much we love them. Darius and Alicia are expecting; they have put in their papers to adopt a baby, so it is exciting to think that is coming up soon.
As far as interests in our lives, Roger and I both enjoy gardening. Living in NE Florida gives us the opportunity to garden year round. Currently we are growing lettuce and cabbage. We still have peppers growing from our 2006 spring garden. The plants are quite large and able to withstand what little cold weather we've had. Our cauliflower and broccoli have gone to seed as it is way too warm this year for them to thrive. Either that, or it wasn't a very good variety. I bought them at a nursery. I picked up some herb plants at the fruit stand last week that I am hoping to get in the ground: sage, thyme, and parsley. I think I bought a few more cabbage plants too. I can never grow too much cabbage as I like to can a cabbage slaw that we eat all year long. I make sauerkraut occasionally too, but we don't eat that as often as the slaw. I have been reading about drying cabbage in my yahoo group on food drying, so I may try that this year as well. Supposed to be good in soup.
Which leads me to my other passion: canning. Last week I put up 25 pounds of dried pea beans in the form of baked beans. I think it was close to 96 pints. I did 8 with hotdogs to make a beenie weenee, and I think it was a hit with Roger. He ate a pint last night before going to bed. I am anxious to put more beans up, as we are a lot more likely to eat them if they are fast and easy. I also like to can meats. This is the only way I will put meat in my food storage as I don't trust the freezer for large amounts and don't like meat dried. We had some pork loin I canned in Sept of 2004 for our dinner today (Sweet and Sour Pork), and it was still delicious.
I don't have an electronic camera, but I will try to get my hands on one soon, so I can add photos to my blog. I can't imagine how boring this would be to read without pictures.
Another passion, sewing. I own 4 sewing machines! Unfortunately, I have not sewn for a while as I have not organized a sewing area, so that is one of my goals this year.
I also love to knit. I used to crochet before a bad car accident in 2001, but damage to my wrist prevents the twisting that crocheting requires. Knitting fits the bill perfectly and is even more interesting I have found. Previous to my car accident, I had not knit very much though I had completed a sweater. I wasn't very good. I decided to start knitting socks, and all that has changed. You can't knit socks without getting better! I knit my DDIL Jac a shrug for Christmas and Dorian got a cap, Angelina got a cap and matching cape, Wyatt some fingerless gloves. My Mom got socks for her birthday. All in all, I've knit about 50 pairs, I think. I'm not sure why those of us who knit socks love them so much, but we do. They truly become a passion if one is so inclined.
We had our monthly Trunk family FHE on setting goals Sunday at Darius and Alicia's house. One of the points brought up is that we seem to do better when we share our goals with others. I am a terrible goal maker as I am an awful chicken when it comes to failing. My goals this year include the following:
1. Memorize the Articles of Faith in Spanish. I continue to struggle to learn Spanish so that Roger and I might be able to serve a mission in Mexico. Since Darius' stint there and our subsequent visits (2 times), we are totally in love with the Mexican people. My two counselors in RS are Spanish and my secretary is fluent in both English and Spanish, so they all help me a lot. (Thank you Maria, Graciela, and Kitsy).
2. Read the _Articles of Faith_ by Talmage.
3. Eat better. We continually struggle with this one and have reached a point in our lives when we realize it is a necessity if we wish to have a good quality of life. To accomplish this goal, I would like to do the following:
1. Eat more fresh vegetables from the garden and kitchen (sprouts).
2. Eat more homemade bread and grain products. I have made noodles a few time, but am still relying heavily on purchased pasta products. We are eating a homemade whole grain cereal product every morning.
3. Eat legumes daily (sprouted and home canned).
4. Only eat homemade sweets. We figured if we had to bake them, we might not eat them as often. We need to cut down on our sugar consumption.
4. In our missionary calling, we are going to start doing "date nights" in the areas served by our HSC. We would also like to visit wards on Sunday to spread the word about services offered there. Many members have not participated in this aspect of preparedness.
5. Attend the temple at least monthly for a session besides our work assignment there. (We are ordinance workers at the Orlando Temple.
I know these are pretty wimpy goals, but I already told you I was a wimp! I will be very happy if I can accomplish even these limited things.
That is about all there is about my life and passions except I should mention sports. I can't describe that as a passion, but it certainly is a large part of my life since marrying Roger. In fact, we started dating because of a football game, and sports has been a part of my life ever since. The 2 older boys are also pretty passionate about sports, so we do spend time watching the various teams play. None of us are too much on the participation end, unfortunately. The super bowl is coming up soon, and Jac and Orion are hosting the family that day for FHE first, snacks, and football. It should be fun. If it's a long game, I'll get a whole sock done! I actually won the adult pool last week when the playoffs were going on with the Bears and the Colts! That was a first, believe me. I have a horrible record when it comes to guessing the winner. Angelina and Kayla both won for the children, so that was exciting too.
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