Random Musings

I've been reading through a book on hospitality by Annie Chapman. Early on, she mentions this passage from Genesis 18:   6 So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. “Quick,” he said, “get three seahs [ b ] of the finest flour and knead it and bake some bread.”   7 Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it. 8 He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree. Now, I don't know about you, but this would have probably irritated me. If you've ever made bread, even if it is unleavened bread, there's NOTHING quick about it. From my way of thinking, he should have offered the men dried fruit or something, and then I would have prepared an early supper. After all, about the time she finished cooking for the strangers and cleaned up her cooking area, it would have been time to start it all again. And can...

Arlington National Cemetery 25 years ago, while taking a 7th grade spelling test in a very tiny room (yes, we called it spelling instead of vocabulary back then), an 8th grader named Ira popped his head in the door and said "The space shuttle just blew up." Our teacher quickly finished the test, then we joined the rest of the 7th-12th graders in watching the news broadcast and its replays of the exploding Challenger. A teacher from Birmingham, Alabama had been one of the finalists in the selection process to send the first teacher into space, so our Alabama news media was naturally making a big deal about that as well. After a week of all the shock and the constant replays and talk of O-rings and such, many students began to grumble a little that no one knew the names of the other astronauts who died, but every knew about "school teacher Christa McAuliffe".  There was some truth to that. And the other thing I remember about that day and the weeks that followed...

Caller: Good-morning. This is Hudson's and we are calling to let you know your repair is ready, and the total cost is xx.xx. Me: I'm sorry, but I don't think there's supposed to be a charge. Caller: Um, yes, we always charge for work. It's xx.xx Me : No, this was a gift. The person who purchased this ring was told that you would re-size it for free. So there shouldn't be a charge. Caller: laughing , We don't resize lawnmowers. This is Hudson's Hardware. Me: embarrassed and laughing: OH! I am SO sorry. I was thinking Hudson BELK's! It'll be Saturday before I can pick it up. Is that okay? Caller : Yes, that's fine. We're just calling to let people know. Me: Thank you. And I will bring my credit card. I am so thankful Hudson's Hardware has lawnmower men who know how to laugh instead of getting angry when people tell them they're not going to pay! And now I'm laughing and whatever tension I started out with has gone...

Have you ever had one of those days when there's more than one thing happening in your life that you want to blog about, but it's too much for one blog post? Have you ever had one of those crazy weeks when there's a gazillion things you want to say, but life is simply too busy to blog? I may be one of the last to learn about this feature, but if you notice at the bottom of your blog writing screen, there's this little underlined phrase that says "Post Options".  Once you finish blogging, you can click on that. An expanded bar will appear, and to the right of the bar it says: Post date and time. You can schedule what day and at what time your blog will appear! Once you fill that information in, you simply click the normal orange "Publish Post" button. I tried this out at Christmas time when everything was so chaotic, and I absolutely loved it! So if you ever find yourself like me and thoroughly enjoy blogging but don't want to post three blo...

My first "trial" recipe for the week: Gumbo. And I modified it. Quite a bit. So I'll give you my version. COMBINE: 1 pack of chicken breast tenderloins, cut into pieces 2 chicken bouillon cubes a lot of water 1 T salt a handful of mushrooms, chopped up (optional) 1/2 an onion , chopped up 1 tsp of minced garlic a lot of celery seed (my substitute for not finding the celery stalks I "KNEW" I had in the fridge) Bring to a boil in a saucepan, then lower to a simmer. In a skillet, cook 1/2 lb of sausage (my substitute for not having kielbasa, or whatever it is). Add it to the chicken mixture, but save the grease in the skillet. Throw a thing of corn in the mixture (I gotta get rid of those multiplying frozen bags somehow!) Pull some of the broth from the mixture, and use in place of water for the rice . Start cooking the rice . Peel the shrimp , then add it to the chicken mixture. (I used 1/2 of a pd bag) Add oil to the skillet (with the ...

my passport photo 18 years ago: my  passport photo in 2011: But in my defense, people are no longer allowed to smile. It might mess up the scans and facial recognition mess when they check to see if I'm terrorist. That's what they say. I think someone just gets a kick out of seeing people at their ugliest.

We have well water. Well water has minerals. And if you ignore the advice of people who grew up with well water and use it (instead of buying distilled water) in your iron, in time it will cease to hold water for the steam function. Trust me on that one. So I now have an iron that heats very nicely, but refuses to steam. I spent a little bit at Target looking at irons yesterday. I thought it would be like my college days where I go in, have two to three choices, and then I grab one of the shelf. hahahahaha.  There were probably 20 choices of irons.  Yes, twenty. Can you believe that? And the prices ranged from $9 all the way to $60! I looked, compared prices and features, then came home without one.  Buying an iron should not feel like car shopping. I should not need to read reports and features to buy a simple, solid iron that will steam clothes while I starch them without clogging and heat properly. Is it really that difficult? And then I look at a sales flyer for ...

The more I look and browse, I've noticed that the fabrics and patterns I tend to buy are usually from the same company, and often from the same pattern maker/designer. Hoffman Fabrics are one of the three quilting fabric lines that I absolutely adore, and I was very impressed to discover that their website offers free downloads of quilt patterns (that other stores sell). In addition, one of their fabric designers, McKenna Ryan, is also one of my favorite quilt artists. Ryan's quilts are not designed to be bedspreads. If you're like me, that is the sole purpose of a quilt: to provide beauty along with its primary function of warmth. I'll be honest; I've yet to attempt one of Ryan's patterns. But I have purchased a few, and with some slight modifications, I think I can alter the patterns to make them not just beautiful, but also user friendly. For example, in her square above, the edges of the fabric on the eggs, the flower, and the biddie are adhered to the b...

It was a mad dash, but I made it. Gym, one chore, grocery store, food prep, throw supper ingredients in the crockpot, lunch, travel, funeral, travel, home, and...the crockpot was on.... BUT IT WASN'T PLUGGED IN!!!! So I look at the clock, throw it in the oven, thinking we'll once again be rushed to church, when Bobby comes a few minutes before it's ready and his fever is rising. It really didn't matter after all. It's funny how we stress and plan and calculate, and then life throws us a curveball and all our swings are futile at our home plate. "Be anxious for nothing..." That includes time frames, supper plans, grocery budgets, weight/health issues...God didn't allow me any exceptions. "...but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."   (Philippians 4:6) He cares. How cool is that? He wants to know about my achy foot, my thorn in the flesh of food, my struggle to maintain a goo...

Well, if there were ever any doubts...you can erase them. I stink at math. My parents and former teachers would say I'm careless. Perhaps. SO, even though I somehow calculated incorrectly and I now have an extra strip and two extra sashes and I won't need the top and bottom bar after all, I HAVE FINISHED A QUILT TOP! Yes, let it out! Join me in the happy dance! I have actually finished one of my January projects!!!! shhhhh! Hush! Yes, I am well aware this is only step one of the quilt. Don't rain on my parade!  So here it is, in all it's glory! (And in case you're wondering, the pattern is "Civil War Soldier Cot Quilt" and this is being made for a teen boy who loves history.) I originally had a grey strip with blue paisley swirls in it (yes, historians are fair and represent BOTH sides in the war), but it was too busy, so I went for a simple grey pattern. After all, there's plenty of blue and grey in the squares, and both sides used re...

A few weeks ago while cooking macaroni noodles  (and cleaning the kitchen and pulling clothes from the washer only to throw them into the dyer and answering the phone and trying to clean off the kitchen table), I burned the noodles. You'd think after observing my Mom over the years I would have learned that you only burn things when you multi-task while cooking. Or perhaps I learned it, but have just failed to apply it. Regardless, here's what a burned pan looks like after a week of soaking and scrubbing and soaking and scrubbing.... And then, yesterday afternoon I made some banana bread for the class Bobby is facilitating at church. The videos that go with his class don't last as long as the other two classes, so there will be some nights we will have extra time. I figured no one would object to a little food and fellowship. Except when I was informed that we only had five minute till departure time and I turned the fresh out of the oven pan over to put the loaf o...

I love wood.  Seriously!  I LOVE wood. There's nothing that makes me cringe more than seeing a gorgeous piece of wood furniture painted.  (Disclaimer: I said a "gorgeous" piece of wood furniture...distressed or worn out furniture could often use a good coat of paint instead of stripping & staining). Yet recently through blog hopping I found this artist, and I absolutely loved her furniture portfolio: http://www.karenhetzer.com/hand-painted-furniture.html And the crazy thing is, I'm not sure I have a favorite out of all the many she has posted.  I like several of them, enough so that it wouldn't bother me in the least to have a piece like that in my house. I'm one of those people that usually need to see an idea before my creative juices start flowing. Hetzer's artwork certainly does that for me. Yet as much as I like her work, I don't believe I'll be pulling out my paintbrushes and overhauling what furniture we have. My painting skills are ...

Today I have to choose: either to wallow in self-pity or relish the day and its empty moments. between my health and my cravings between a Dr. Pepper or a glass of water between squandering my time or making the most of it either mopping the floors or ironing clothes to be thankful or ungrateful whether to focus on the expectations of others or my Creator and whether to fix my hair or just pull it back out of my face. Not all choices in life are bad.

The above photos are from December's ice storm, but I was reminded of them yesterday while walking down the sidewalk. The sun had come out, and all the ice formations on the shrubs were falling off, while still maintaining their shapes. There were piles of little leaf-shaped pieces of ice in the mulch. I didn't have my camera, but was so impressed with how the water (aka freezing rain) molded itself to the shape of whatever it touched, from the shingles on our house to the mailbox. And it made me think of my life and the teachings of Christ. More than ever I have been woefully aware of how short I come to adequately displaying true Christlike qualities.  Had I been that freezing rain and Christ the leaves, I'm not so sure I would be such a perfect reflection of the very thing I'm supposed to be. It's a sobering thought. But on a much more cheerful note, the sun is SHINING!!! Nothing perks the soul like sunlight. And with this bright sunshine and its warmth, the...

It's January. That means if you garden it's time to start pricing and ordering seeds. Or you can be lazy like me and simply wait a few months and then buy them at Hudson's hardware.  Yes, I know, tomato seeds need to go into the ground now, but when I tried that last year I was totally unsuccessful. So rather than spend a fortune of time and a little money on seeds and soil and fertilizer only to turn around and buy plants for the garden, I'm just going to skip step number one. It makes life a little bit easier. And I'm in a tad of a quandary. For the last three years, I have been unsuccessful with bean or pea plants. Thanks to drought, deer, bugs, lawn mowers, and goodness knows what else all my peas and bean plants have only harvested about two meals (with no leftovers!). As much as I enjoy watching them come up, I also know when I look at the time factor it's more cost effective to simply buy them frozen in the store. And truly? They taste just the same. ...

the cardinal...(both the NC and the Alabama state bird) I think we have more ice than we do grass! Can you see the bluebird? female cardinal...I was most disappointed to learn the male birds always have the brighter colors. and....a bird I've never seen up close before...the red-headed woodpecker! and our front yard, with an assortment of birds I don't know We might not sit around and watch the turtles cross the road (my sister-in-law had a classmate ask her if that's what they did for fun on the farm), but we do sometimes sit and watch the birds. I've seen a very fat and gorgeous bluebird, but it flies away every time I try to get a shot. So what are you doing on your ice day?

49 years ago a little boy told his mother he was NOT going to school on his birthday. She informed him he was. And on his birthday, he woke up to snow. His Mom still shakes her head in disbelief when she tells that story. Today he stayed home (but is actually working!) on his birthday, because of snow.  Happy Birthday, babe! :)

I'm trying to line my ducks up in a row for the day, and every time I hit "print", I get one line of text on a page, followed by the first page of full text.  Would it really be so hard for Google, or the printer company to have a "fit to page" button for these times when it truly wouldn't hurt to shrink things a little bit? Meat for supper in the crockpot, and there may actually be time to knock out a dessert before gym class...brownies!  Yes!...um... no...they take 35 minutes and I only have 30....plan B a Quilt show, 40 vendors from all over NC (and one or two from SC and VA), which I'm sure will have a gazillion cool things to look at and consider. And I have, um, well, I won't tell you how many quilt projects I currently have going.  Wouldn't it make more sense to stay home and use today to actually QUILT instead of tantalizing the senses by browsing? And snow...I've lost count of how many "snowfalls" we've had this w...

Monday night, close to midnight, my former teacher and mentor, Bert Tippett, heard the words "Well done my good and faithful and servant."  And what a good and faithful servant he was! I snagged the picture above from his Facebook photo page, and I chose this one because it's how I most remember Mr. Tippett and Mrs. Diane : smiling, vibrant.  But even had I chosen the pic on his profile, even in a hospital gown and swollen, he's STILL smiling. I can't even begin to tell the tremendous impact this man had on my life, and judging from comments left on Facebook pages from Free Will Baptist Bible College alumni, I am not alone. He was in charge of publications for the school. He could have easily holed up in his office, only coming out for the required chapel. But he didn't. He took on the students' Wednesday night Bible study, taught classes on publications, counseled students, and since we were still in dinosaur days with only the whisperings of this th...

After 11.333 years of observing life from a different vantage point, I've learned that most modern conveniences are really not that convenient.  Take parking decks for example. They're great things for cities or hospitals or other places that see a large traffic volume but have limited land spaces for parking.  But evidently they're expensive to build, and companies hope to recoup some of the costs through parking fees.  There's nothing wrong with that. It makes good business sense.  But the modern method of using machinery to speed things up creates a problem for disabled drivers. You drive up, roll down your window, and either pull a tab of paper or else press a button to get a tab.  Seems simple enough. But it's not if your fingers don't work. Every time we go somewhere that has one of these things, it requires me getting out of the passenger side, crossing over in front of the van (and making sure your spouse is not mad at you before you do :)), grabbing ...

My Dad used to get exasperated with us girls, proclaiming us "emotional".  I thought that was a bunch of nonsense. Today, I have to wonder if he might be right ( gasp! ). Someone gave me a "project" (a job) a few months ago.  Well, rather, they gave it to my husband to give to me. It wasn't the best of timing. I briefly talked with the person and told them it would be a while before I could get to it. They were fine with it. I have resolved to finish the roughs for this project by today so I can tackle a new job.  It's really simple. Take the sketches they made, apply the design principles, give them the roughs, make the necessary adjustments. That's all it takes. How hard can that be? But I find it often works more like this: He's not going to like this design. I just know he's not.  He's not going to want anything creative or cool but something old school because that's just how old men are. He says he wants a sketch, more of an ill...

yes, I know.  That's supposed to say "Go."  But we go all the time. This week, we are running. I have some work-work to do (the kind you get paid for) in addition to some long overdue laundry. I'm excited about it (the work, not the laundry), and am curious to see how long it will take to corral my scatterbrained thoughts. I would LOVE to have all my work finished by Thursday night so I can head to Sanford Friday morning. The Quilting and Fiber Art Marketplace  is taking place this Friday and Saturday. http://quiltersgallery.net/the-quilting-and-fiber-art-marketplace-directions-vendors-from-2010-and-hotel-info/   If you scroll down past the hotel information, it lists the 40 vendors who will be there and what their specialties are.  I can't go Saturday since we have a baby shower (Bobby's about to be a great-uncle for the fifth time...and two more coming before the year is out!), so I would really like to make it there and browse half the day away on Friday....

Calamity Jane's General Store in Wilson's Mills, NC (with a Clayton address) started something new today.....a poultry auction!  Since today was the first time for it to be held, we weren't expecting them to have a whole lot of fowl things, but they did! We were going to go and observe today, but after being there about twenty minutes I registered for a bidding number. We came home with two geese, (one female, a light brown like our grey ones; and one white, sex unknown that resembles the Chinese goose). They had a roman Toulouse (what we call the mohawk geese), but it had a bad leg.  With all the wildlife problems we encounter, I was afraid we would be feeding it to the slaughter. I seriously considered bidding on a box of 16 black austrolop biddies, but refrained. It was the first animal auction I've ever been to, and it was quite fun! The only disadvantage to buying birds at auction is that you can't ask the owners questions (not that you always get honest answer...

2011. wow. I remember laughing in high school about living in a decade that started with 20 and how far away that would be, and now we're already into the second decade of this millennium. Last year I didn't set monthly goals or challenges, as I had several lengthy projects. While I read more this past year and did a much better job of staying caught up on the laundry and housework, I also had several projects that I never accomplished. So this year I hope to break them down into smaller, more realistic goals in hopes of actually getting a few extra things done. What does 2011 hold? Doctor appointments, weddings, births, and a plethora of activities. :) That much is already guaranteed. Beyond that, it's probably safe to say that my spirit is gasping, my health is weird, and my brain is (as always) a constant whirlwind of ideas. At this time next year, I will still not weigh my "ideal" weight according to the weight charts (but will hopefully be 20 pounds lighte...