:: Adventures in Daily Living ::

Easter Morning

2013-03-31T08:00:00.000-07:00

Easter Morning
Edmund Spenser 1552?-1599

Most glorious Lord of life, that on this day
Didst make thy triumph over death and sin,
And, having harrowed hell, didst bring away
Captivity thence captive, us to win;
This joyous day, dear Lord, with joy begin,
And grant that we, for whom thou didst die,
Being with thy dear blood clean washed from sin,
May live forever in felicity:
And that thy love we weighing worthily,
May likewise love thee for the same again:
And for thy sake, that all like dear didst buy,
With love may one another entertain.
So let us love, dear love, like as we ought;
Love is the lesson which the Lord us taught.

Good Friday

2013-03-29T09:01:00.000-07:00

Good Friday in My Heart!

2013-03-29T08:54:00.000-07:00

Good Friday in my heart!

GOOD FRIDAY in my heart! Fear and affright!
My thoughts are the Disciples when they fled,
My words the words that priest and soldier said,
My deed the spear to desecrate the dead.
And day, Thy death therein, is changed to night.

Then Easter in my heart sends up the sun.
My thoughts are Mary, when she turned to see.
My words are Peter, answering, ‘Lov’st thou Me?’
My deeds are all Thine own drawn close to Thee,
And night and day, since Thou dost rise, are one.

~ Mary Elizabeth Coleridge

Easter Week

2013-03-28T08:56:00.000-07:00

Easter Week
by Charles Kingsley (1819 – 1875)

See the land, her Easter keeping,
Rises as her Maker rose.
Seeds, so long in darkness sleeping,
Burst at last from winter snows.
Earth with heaven above rejoices;
Fields and gardens hail the spring;
Shaughs and woodlands ring with voices,
While the wild birds build and sing.
You, to whom your Maker granted
Powers to those sweet birds unknown,
Use the craft by God implanted;
Use the reason not your own.
Here, while heaven and earth rejoices,
Each his Easter tribute bring-
Work of fingers, chant of voices,
Like the birds who build and sing.

Software for Writers: Scrivener, How I Love Thee.

2013-03-26T09:46:00.000-07:00

I have found the Best. Thing. Ever. Scrivener, by Literature and Latte is a writer's best friend. I am using it for fiction, but had I known about it, I would certainly have used it for all those long grad school papers. It organizes drafts, comments, and notes, and I can even stash reader's comments in it.

I easily uploaded my working draft into it from MS Office and I can export my draft into pdf, kindle versions, etc. without any fuss at all. Some of my favorite features are listed below.

The corkboard. I make for each chapter a little synopsis and then they show up on the corkboard. This is really helpful for looking at the big picture.

This screenshot is not of my story, but is one provided by the makers.

The compiler. In my old word-processor, the whole novel was in one document. A change that required backward revision required a lot of scrolling. Yuck. In Scrivener, I can divide the novel into parts, chapters, sections, etc. and view each discrete chunk, or the whole thing. You can see in the above screenshot the outline on the left. A click on any heading shows all the content below it.

The character list. Also in the left sidebar is a list of characters. As they reveal their personalities and characteristics to me, I can record these details in their character entry.

The comments. Just like in other word-processors, I can insert comments. This is really useful when I am writing new material and realize that something I am writing now necessitates a small revision in a previous portion. Rather than stop and go tend to it, I can just toss in a comment to remind me to take care of it later. When I sit down to write, I can click on the whole manuscript and all the comments appear. I can pick through them and decide what I want to work on next. A click on the comment takes me to that section.

And since I am writing and home-school (aka frequently interrupted) I can use the commenting feature to dash off a quick note of what I was going to do prior to being pulled away.

The notes. I can toggle that right sidebar to show either my own comments or the notes from other readers which I have cut-and-pasted in. Sometimes reader's comments come in and I am not in the mood to deal with that section yet. No problem! I just paste the comments into the Notes for that portion and they are there waiting for me when I am ready.

The back-ups. It saves automatically all the time. I can also take snapshots of it before I venture off in an experimental direction. If I dislike my experiment I can revert to the snapshot. Also, when I shut it down, it backs up everything.

The customer support. I had one small not-my-fault technical glitch and the customer support was prompt and personable and reassuring.

Scrivener runs on Mac or Windows and costs between $35 and $45 depending on platform and whether or not you qualify for the Educator's discount. This is not a sponsored post, but if you do click on the links here and purchase, I get a small commission. I'd be talking it up even without the commission though.

Coming soon to a blog near you . . .

2013-03-18T12:47:00.001-07:00

I have posts brewing on software/apps that help me with the following:

list-making, project staging, detail-minding
writing and revising a novel
mind-mapping family trees and plot-lines for the novel
garden bed planning and crop rotation
scheduling and tracking home-school curriculum

So stay tuned!

St Patrick

2013-03-17T07:25:00.000-07:00

Split Pea Soup

2013-01-23T17:54:00.003-08:00

Combine in your large crockpot:

4 cups rinsed split peas
1 whole onion, peeled and nasty bit removed
4 large carrots
4 stalks of celery
a lump of bacon ends, a little smaller than a fist.
water to cover + 1 inch.

Cook overnight. In the morning blend to desired texture. Add salt and pepper. Serve with fresh bread, cheese slices, and pickles.

Hearty White Bread

2013-01-23T11:04:00.000-08:00

New bread recipe! Loosely based on the recipe on the back of my Bob's Red Mill flour. Did you know that Bob's Red Mill is an employee-owned company? When I can't get to my local mill and have to buy at the store, Bob's the one for me.

Combine:

2 C white flour

1 C rolled oats

1/4 C wheat bran

5 t dry yeast

4 T sugar

1 t salt

Add:

2 1/4 C hot water (tap, not kettle)

1/4 C oil

Beat at medium for 2 minutes. Add:

1 C white flour

1 egg

Beat on high for 1 minute. Add:

2 C white flour

1 C whole wheat flour

Knead until smooth. Let stand in a warm place (I put it on my food dehydrator) and let rise until double.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Punch down and then divide and shape into two loaves. Put into greased pans and let rise until double.

20 minutes.

Mary's Song by Luci Shaw

2012-12-26T10:29:00.000-08:00

If you are not familiar with Luci Shaw's poetry, give yourself a gift this season and pick up one of her beautiful books.

Mary's Song

Blue homespun and the bend of my breast
keep warm this small hot naked star
fallen to my arms. (Rest ...
you who have had so far
to come.) Now nearness satisfies
the body of God sweetly. Quiet he lies
whose vigour hurled
a universe. He sleeps
whose eyelids have not closed before.
His breath (so slight it seems
no breath at all) once ruffled the dark deeps
to sprout a world.
Charmed by dove's voices, the whisper of straw,
he dreams,
hearing no music from his other spheres.
Breath, mouth, ears, eyes
he is curtailed
who overflowed all skies,
all years.
Older than eternity, now he
is new. Now native to earth as I am, nailed
to my poor planet, caught that I might be free,
blind in my womb to know my darkness ended,
brought to this birth
for me to be new-born,
and for him to see me mended
I must see him torn.

The Barn

2012-12-12T10:30:00.003-08:00

The Barn

"I am tired of this barn!" said the colt
"And every day it snows.
Outside there's no grass any more
and icicles grow on my nose.
I am tired of hearing the cows
breathing and talking together.
I am sick of these clucking hens.
I HATE stables and winter weather!"

"Hush, little colt" said the mare,
"And a story I will tell
of a barn like this one of ours
and the wonders that there befell.
It was weather much like this
and the beasts stood as we stand now
in the warm good dark of the barn,
a horse and an ass and a cow."

"And sheep?" asked the colt. "Yes, sheep
and a pig and a goat and a hen.
All the beasts of the barnyard
the usual servants of men.
And into their midst came a lady
and she was as cold as death,
but the animals leaned above her
and made her warm with their breath.

"There was her baby born
and laid to sleep in the hay
while music flooded the rafters
and the barn was as light as day,
and angels and kings and shepherds
came to worship the babe from afar,
but we looked at Him first of all creatures
by the bright strange light of a star!

~ Elizabeth Coatsworth

Christmas stocking stuffer ideas

2012-12-10T11:58:00.001-08:00

Some ideas, for your stuffing pleasure

:: reusable shopping tote
:: earbuds
:: battery charger
:: batteries
:: bath poofs
:: tea
:: stationary
:: octopus clips
:: scarves
:: toy mice for humans owned by cats
:: chewies and tennis balls for humans owned by dogs
:: postage stamps for anyone off at college
:: good cheeses
:: nuts
:: Christmas ornaments for young adults
:: pocket flashlights for the cars
:: chapsticks
:: Atlas garden gloves
:: hand-warmer packets for those in cold climates
:: tulip or daffodil bulbs
:: long matches
:: smoked oysters
:: SmartWool socks
:: Starbuck's cards
:: Trader Joe's cards
:: iTunes cards
:: pencils and erasers for school kids - especially home-schooling families
:: chocolate oranges
:: bottle of favorite fragrance
:: paint brushes and other artsy supplies (hat tip to Audrey)
:: LUSH bubble bars
:: drill bits
:: hairclippies and rubber bands for little girls
:: sparkly glue

What did I miss ?

The annual Thanksgiving Checklist: 10 people, my house

2012-11-16T11:33:00.001-08:00

Time for the annual Thanksgiving post. I print it an put it on my cupboard door and then, when my brain freezes over, I just do the next thing.

because proper preparation and planning prevents poor performance!

at least 1 week before
1. purchase free-range turkey
2. finalize menu

pumpkin soup - Jamie & I
green salad of some sort - Jamie and I
marshmallow salad - mom
green bean casserole - mom
mashed potatoes - Jamie & I
Roast Butternut Squash - mil
turkey - Jamie & I
dressing - Jamie & I
gravy - Jamie & I
bread/rolls - Jamie & I
dessert: pecan pie, pumpkin pie, apple dumplings - Jamie & I
beverages - brother
Trader Joe's cranberry sauce - brother

2. make up grocery list
3. make and freeze pie crusts
4. timeline food prep
5. confirm that the food thermometer works

Monday
1. grocery shop

Tuesday
1. make mashed potatoes
2. roast pumpkins
3. make pumpkin soup
4. mix up brine

Wednesday
1. pick up turkey
2. brine big turkey
3. mix up turkey rub
4. make dressing
5. prep sweet potatoes
6. mix up pecan pie filling
7. stage apple dumplings

Thursday
1. remove potatoes from fridge
2. rub down turkey if you didn't brine
3. make bread rolls

4. run & empty dishwasher
5. confirm garbage can is empty
6. sweep front porch and walk
7. stage tea station

12:00
1. make a thermos of coffee & prep coffee maker for next round
2. make sure you have eaten something sustaining
3. check your clothes: are you bespattered?

12:45
1. confirm small lamps and candles are on/lit
2. confirm dishwasher is empty
3. turn on coffee pot

2:00
1. dine

3:00
1. rest whilst others clean up.

5:00

1. set out desserts

2. receive second wave of guests.

3. listen to bluegrass jam session and chatter in a happy daze.

warts and all

2012-11-09T09:57:00.000-08:00

And I don't mean this figuratively.

Fifteen years ago I took a warty-looking mark on my foot to my (former) doctor who told me it was a pressure point. So I ignored it. Then about five years ago my "pressure point" sprouted numerous warty-looking babies. My new (and obviously superior) doctor confirmed that they were in fact warts, all off-spring from the now very well-established Mother of All Warts.

We froze. We Compound-W-ed. We injected bug venom. We froze and Compound-W-ed some more. Last spring, we cut them all out. I had FIVE huge wounds in my foot, which I will not describe in detail. Just use your imagination and then some.

They came back and brought some babies with them. Apparently all that fresh tissue is the perfect thing in which to grow new warts.

You are wondering, about now, why I am sharing this obnoxious information with you. I'm wondering this too. But since we got this far . . .

Last week I saw a dermatologist who prescribed Fluorouracil -- a topical chemotherapy -- and duct tape. Weird huh?

Guess who has 3 fewer warts this week?

And I suppose that is why I am sharing it. If you are anyone you know is suffering from persistent reoccurring warts and you are not afraid of a tube of chemotherapy and a roll of duct tape, this post is for you!

But you will want to know that you won't be able to walk properly, as instead of getting better each day, the pain gets worse, as the treatment is basically to put on your body some goopus that eats holes in whatever it touches.

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

2012-11-08T09:31:00.000-08:00

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

By Wallace Stevens

Among twenty snowy mountains,

The only moving thing

Was the eye of the blackbird.

I was of three minds,

Like a tree

In which there are three blackbirds.

III

The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.

It was a small part of the pantomime.

A man and a woman

Are one.

A man and a woman and a blackbird

Are one.

I do not know which to prefer,

The beauty of inflections

Or the beauty of innuendoes,

The blackbird whistling

Or just after.

Icicles filled the long window

With barbaric glass.

The shadow of the blackbird

Crossed it, to and fro.

The mood

Traced in the shadow

An indecipherable cause.

VII

O thin men of Haddam,

Why do you imagine golden birds?

Do you not see how the blackbird

Walks around the feet

Of the women about you?

VIII

I know noble accents

And lucid, inescapable rhythms;

But I know, too,

That the blackbird is involved

In what I know.

When the blackbird flew out of sight,

It marked the edge

Of one of many circles.

At the sight of blackbirds

Flying in a green light,

Even the bawds of euphony

Would cry out sharply.

He rode over Connecticut

In a glass coach.

Once, a fear pierced him,

In that he mistook

The shadow of his equipage

For blackbirds.

XII

The river is moving.

The blackbird must be flying.

XIII

It was evening all afternoon.

It was snowing

And it was going to snow.

The blackbird sat

In the cedar-limbs.

Wallace Stevens, “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” from The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens.

Halloween

2012-10-29T22:39:00.004-07:00

God’s World

2012-10-03T21:01:00.000-07:00

God’s World

O World,
I cannot hold thee close enough
Thy winds, thy wide grey skies!
Thy mists that roll and rise.
Thy wood, this autumn day, that ache and sag.
And all but cry with colour!
That gaunt crag To crush!
To lift the lean of that black bluff.
World, World, I cannot get thee close enough.

Long have I known a glory in it all,
But never knew I this:
Here such a passion is
As stretcheth me apart –
Lord I do fear
Thou’st made the world too beautiful this year;
My soul is all but out of me – let fall
No burning leaf; prithee, let no bird call.

-- Edna St. Vincent Millay

Sea Fever

2012-10-01T12:35:00.001-07:00

Sea Fever

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking,

I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

~ John Masefield

This is the poem that my children are memorizing this week and I liked it so much I thought I would share it with you.

still homeschooling?

2012-09-04T10:11:00.000-07:00

I find this conversation both revealing and perplexing and annoying:

Relative: Ohhhh, you're still homeschooling?
Child: Yes
(Me, silently): still?
Relative: Do you just home-school or do you ever get to be with other kids?
Child: Oh we do lots of other stuff with other kids -- book club, co-op classes, basketball . . .
(Me, silently): just? and is education supposed to be about being with other kids?
Relative: Oh good. Is that just once-in-awhile, or every week?
Child: It varies.
(Me, silently): Why don't you ask them what they are learning?
Relative -- to me: How long will you do this? Will you let them go to high-school?
Me: As long as we think it is appropriate.
(Me, silently): let them? Here they are, getting a great education, and you speak as if I am depriving them of something.

It's revealing in that it shows the relative's assumption that school is about socializing. It's perplexing in that I've always thought that school was about education. It's annoying in that it introduces to my child this rather skewed view of school and home-schooling.

Whole Wheat Egg Sandwich Bread

2012-09-03T10:07:00.001-07:00

Whole Wheat Egg Sandwich Bread

Mix in your KitchenAid Standmixer

1 1/2 C water

1 room temperature egg

3 Tb butter, cut up

2 1/3 C white flour

2 C whole wheat flour

3 T gluten flour

3 T brown sugar

1 t salt

1 1/4 t breadmaker yeast

Turn oven on to lowest setting. Put ingredients into your stand mixer and run mixer on low for 4 minutes.

Turn oven off. Set a dish cloth over the dough and set into oven. Let dough rise until double (about 1 hour).

Turn oven on to lowest setting. Knead dough for 4 minutes. Turn oven off. Pop the bread back into the oven to rise until double (about 1 hour).

Turn oven on to lowest setting. Divide dough into two loaves. Shape. Set into pans. Cover. Pop the bread back into the oven to rise until double (about 1 hour). Take out of the oven.

Bake at 350 for 24 minutes.

burn first aid

2012-08-24T12:49:00.000-07:00

If you tend to get burns when you can -- as I do -- Tecnu First Aid Antiseptic & Pain Relieving Gel is your new favorite thing. It kills the pain instantly. Who has time to soak in cold water when there are jars to fill?

We have had good success when using this on:
* bee stings, mosquito bites, etc.
* nettles
* those scratchy marks that squash plants bestow
* cat scratches -- which are notorious for leaving fine thin scars
* slivers -- makes them stop hurting and swells them up so they ooze themselves out.
* mild hives from food allergies.

It contains Tea Tree Oil and Lidocaine. I like it so much I'm considering giving it as Christmas presents.

female, respect, deserve

2012-08-23T12:44:00.002-07:00

"When Will Female Authors Get the Respect They Deserve?" Three key words: female, respect, deserve. I am so weary of this idea that because an individual is a member of a certain group they automatically deserve a certain level of respect above and beyond what they would deserve if they were not part of that group. Wasn't the whole idea of the civil right movement that we should evaluate people on their individual merits or lack thereof, and not on their status as members of this or that demographic group?

How about "When Will Quality Authors Get the Respect They Deserve?" That would work for me.

end of summer wardrobe check

2012-08-21T12:06:00.001-07:00

One of the things I dread each autumn is going through the kids' clothes and seeing what still fits (not much) and what needs to be replaced. Not only does it cost me money, but I am stuck in their rooms for hours as they try things on. Andy is not so bad, but for Juliana, every new article on her body means a new dance routine and conversation. Even this would not be so bad if she could change clothes and chat at the same time, but she cannot. She comes to a complete halt and needs eye contact.

The solution:

They bring their clothes down and change behind the divider whilst I make bread, dinner, type blog posts etc. At least I can get something done during the dance routines.

how to give a dog a pill

2012-08-20T11:59:00.000-07:00

Or at least, how to give my dog a pill.

Put some plain live yogurt in her dog dish, make sure she sees this. Maybe give her a lick the first time, so that she knows what it is.
Chop up some beefstick or other meat. Make sure she sees this.
Get out the pill -- antibiotic in our case, hence the yogurt.
Set out the yogurt, treats, and pill where she can see it all.
With a helper, open her mouth and push the pill down her gullet.
Give her lots of treats, by hand, into her mouth -- you want her to associate your hand in her mouth with good things.
Give her the bowl of yogurt.

The first time we did this, it took both adults and lots of dog-wrastling. After 5 doses, I can do it alone and she doesn't resist at all. She has figured out the the pill is the necessary preliminary to the beefstick and the yogurt.

One Second After by William R. Forstchen

2012-08-14T08:47:00.003-07:00

This is a must read. Current technology allows for a device that wipes out electrical systems: phones, cars, radios, freezers, thermostats, security systems, everything. In this alarming story, unknown enemies use this weapon on us and we are thrown back to a pre-electric life-style, without the skills that made it liveable.

Read The Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the U.S. from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack, Committee on Armed Services, House of Representatives, One Hundred Eighth Congress, Second Session, Hearing Held July 22, 2004 found at http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/security/has204000.000/has204000_0f.htm