totally disgusting

Tonight as I was taking the trash container to the road, I noticed Linus had something sticking out of both sides of his mouth. To my chagrin and horror, it was a frog. I don't think he actually bit it, just carried it around for a while. Later he put it down and Lucy had it hopping by pawing at it. Poor little froggy.
Even more disgusting, while working in the garden, I came across a leaf on my tomato plants that looked like it had a fungus on it. So I pulled it off, but made the mistake of examining it before tossing it out. Turns out, it wasn't mold. It was actually a caterpillar with little white things all over it. Then I spotted another one. So I called Bobby outside and had him look at it. The little white things I thought were worms on the caterpillar, according to my farmer husband, are actually...eggs. I refused to touch the next one, and instead shook it off the plant. I think tomorrow I will actually wear my work gloves for a change.

tomato & corn salad

4 large tomatoes
1/2 tsp salt
2 T balsamic vinegar
1/2 c extra-virgin olive oil
2 c fresh corn kernels (cut from 5 ears of corn)
1/4 c chopped basil

Cut the tomatoes into small pieces (remove seeds if you prefer). Toss with salt.
In a seperate bowl, put vinegar, then gradually add in oil. Toss in remaining ingredients. Season with salt and pepper.

I tried this recipe yesterday. It was my first experience with both balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Contrary to my initial reaction when I saw the recipe ingredients, I actually liked the taste. So imagine my surprise when I pulled it out of the refrigerator tonight, and saw that the oil/vinegar had hardened. ?! I heated it slightly in the microwave, but it made me a little hesitant about eating it. The taste was still the same.

So for all my cooking connoisseur friends, I have some questions.

1. What is the difference between olive oil, virgin olive oil, and extra virgin olive oil?
2. What is balsamic vinegar?
3. Does olive oil have more fat than regular vegetable oil?
4. Should this dish have been refrigerated?

the country gal cook

little by little

I like that song Dave plays on Wed nights:

Little by little, inch by inch,
by the yard it's hard, by the inch, what a cinch!
Never stare up the stairs, just climb up the steps,
little by little, inch by inch.

That somewhat describes me these days: tiny, minute movements that don't seem to accomplish a whole lot. I attempt not to focus on the big picture but to look at the tiny things, but I've inherited my mother's gene of randomness. For example, I start cleaning Tonya's room. There's a small batch of clothes that need to be bagged to give someone. So I go to get a bag from the kitchen. While I'm in the kitchen I see a half-made grocery list, so I get side-tracked by the grocery list. In the process of finishing my grocery list I head to the bathroom for a "quick" inventory, and wind up cleaning there instead. One of the cleaning supplies reminds me of something that belongs in Tonya's bathroom, so I head back in that direction. I'm close to where I started, but not quite. Our day is approaching near over, and I have 1/2 of Tonya's bedroom ready, and 1/2 of her bathroom cleaned, but nothing is finished.

Perhaps that is why I like Laura Numerhoff's books so much. (If you give a mouse a cookie; If you give a pig a pancake; If you give a moose a muffin) I've met many children's authors who absolutely hate her books, but I can so relate to them. I like things that come full circle. (and having a cute pig or mouse as your main character enhances the story line, as well). A friend of mine took her story line, and changed the first sentence to "If a Christian prays for ________, then ____________." Each person in the room had to complete a line. It really made us stop and think about what can happen when we sincerely pray.

So now you know how random I am: we start off with music, switch to my cleaning projects, hop to children's books, move toward devotions, and now I've got to abruptly end.

August project list

Happy August 1st!
The kids are gone, and have arrived safely in Belarus.
Bobby is home, and his surgery was successful.
I am at home, and actually got a nap this afternoon!

So now that I'm almost caught up on washing clothes (and I've just come to accept the reality that I will NEVER be caught up on ironing), I'm making my major project list for the 31 days August:

• get caught up at work
• clean and sort all the stuff in the kids' bedrooms
• baste the layers of Bobby's quilt together
• put up the apples and pears
• find a decent grape juice recipe for next month
• start and finish a painting
• start the rough draft for the children's Christmas play

I could easily keep adding to this list (I like thinking up stuff!), but I'm working very hard on setting realistic goals that I can reach. (That should be a goal in and of itself!) So if I look a little haggard these next 31 days, you'll know I'm probably stretching myself too thin (haha!) once again.

still the one

4 floppies FULL of e-mails
7 months of weekly long-distance phone calls
11 years of friendship
and 9 WONDERFUL years of marriage!
Happy Anniversary, Babe!

the will to die

Growing up, I often heard people throw out comments like,
"Well, she just lost her will to live."
"He's quit fighting. It won't be long now."
and everyone solemnly nodded, as if we determine our time to go or stay.

There are the stories that make you pause and ponder the connection between our mind and our soul. For instance:
A lady from my hometown had two daughters. One was critically injured in a wreck and was spiritually not ready for death. The doctors gave her 24 hours. The Mom was a smoker and had emphysema. That night she stretched herself out on the daughter's hospital bed and prayed for God to take her instead of her daughter. The next morning the mother died sitting in the hospital chair - an aneurysm, the doctors said - and the daughter began to make steady improvements until she went home. A part of my mind argues that she was a very heavy smoker, often struggled with breathing, was under duress from her daughter's condition. Her death was brought about by stress and her unhealthy habits. But was it? Could her death have simply been an honest answer to her prayer, for God to allow the daughter one more chance to get serious about serving Him?
Two ladies in my home church grew up best friends. After marriage they lived near each other, their children were the same ages, two of their children married each other. When they both reached their last days, they were in the same hospital, one floor above each other. Dad was upstairs with one family. When she gave her last breath, he prayed with the family, then headed downstairs to be with the other family. He met them at the door to the elevator. The friend had just died, and they seemed aware their Mom's friend had died as well. They say she looked upward, reached out sideways, smiled, and was gone. Dad said it reminded him of how they always reached out to help steady each other in life.
I often made visits with Dad growing up. It wasn't uncommon for the elderly in our church to tell Dad they had a vision of a family member who had already died, to say they had seen the death angel, or God had given them a calmness that their time was up. They usually died soon afterward.
My Grandmother's doctor advised our family against a nursing home until it was an absolute necessity. He said independent people like my Granny usually lost the will to live and died within 2 years of going to a nursing home.
Scientifically I suppose one could argue that an elderly person's body is already shutting down, and they are around more illnesses in a nursing home and so succumb to death faster. But I wonder. Proverbs tells us that laughter or a merry heart is like a good medicine, and doctors of cancer patients have repetitively said that a good attitude in patients significantly increases their chances of recovery. So all this brings me back to my original pondering: If we lose the will to live, are we willing ourselves to die? Does God grant that desire, is it wishful thinking on our parts, or did He create us in such a way that our mental stability is seriously connected to our health? If so, could that be why people whose minds are gone seem to stay around forever...they don't have the mental capacity to determine their mind or will?
I know God has appointed a time for us to die, but sometimes I wonder if that appointment is a generic block of time (like this afternoon), or an exact minute kind of thing. Maybe one day I'll know.

my new job

I acquired a new job this summer, one I wasn't anticipating - that of a censor. We go to the dentist for one of T's many visits, and the boys start giggling, looking around, and holding a magazine very close. It's an underwear ad. I tell them to stop being silly and turn the page. They obey, but every boy after that wants that magazine. We go to the Hair Salon, and they get all excited when they see a cover, and I discover that there is a Maxim magazine in the waiting area. I start sorting through the many piles, pulling out all the Maxims and Cosmopolitans I can find. What are the owners thinking?
But then tonight we go to Cary Towne Center. Walking out of Macy's, we have to walk by not one, not two, but THREE huge photos (all the same picture) in the make-up aisle to get out. The lady's top is almost off with nothing else on. Thankfully Tonya spotted a picture half-way through of a woman pursing her lips at the lipstick rack and started making fun of it, so that distracted the boys some.
Maybe I'm a prude; maybe it's my Christian worldview, but even if the boys don't follow the teachings of Christ, I cannot find one rational reason for allowing them to absorb material that enforces the world's concept that women are nothing more than sex objects.
I've also had to censor music this year - a first. I have an eclectic taste of music, and apply the Phillipians 4:8 principle to what I hear. One of our boys is enthralled with rap, and was totally shocked to discover we don't approve. Tonight we stopped to get gas, and the girl next to us had her car blasting rap music, and it was repetitively blasting the B word. Has she no sense of self-esteem? Does it not bother her that her radio is repetitively belittling her gender to the status of a female dog in heat - in essence, a sex object?
I believe God created sex, like the rest of creation, to be a beautiful thing. Yet when we distort and abuse such a thing, it ceases to be pretty. It then becomes broken, which is revolting, painful and deprecating.
And sadly, we have once again this summer had to censor video games. Even though I carefully selected games before the kids came, another host family gave the boys a game. Five minutes into the game I had heard more than 4 curse words, and had had enough. We compromised by turning off the volume.
I hate being a censor, but I'm even more appalled at how often I've been called upon to work in that capacity this summer. It makes me sad for our country, for the young people-both boys and girls, and for others across the world who embrace our lascivious ways without realizing the "cool American stuff" is actually a poison that will corrupt their minds, relationships, and passions. My heart goes out to the young boys who are constantly exposed to such trash, and for the young girls who mistakenly think such actions are a show of freedom. I wonder where are their parents, and who zapped their brains?
"the renewing of our minds"...we need it today more than ever before.