LIVING TO THE HILT

Gratefulness: August 2011.

noreply@blogger.com (Toiling Ant) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 02:49:00 +0000

I am putting a bit of focus on welcoming the gifts in my life and appreciating the generosity extended to me, and to that end I set myself the task of writing one thank-you note each week in August. Blessings last month included:

A gift from my friend Kellie to see Hairspray with her, performed at the Baton Rouge Little Theater. It would have been a delight just to spend the time with her, but the quality of the musical was above and beyond what either of us expected and made the evening really memorable. Neither of us had seen it before in any form so it was quite a treat.
An overnight stay with Micah and Michelle. (Does it really count as overnight if I was under their roof for less than four hours, total? Basically a glorified nap!) No matter the length of the visit, it was a gift that made the logistics of my life immensely easier.
Several boxes of clothing, resulting from a friend's urge to clean out her closets. Hubs, Girlie, and I all added to our wardrobes, thanks to my sweet Sarah.
We are now part of a congregation that has been an incredible encouragement, so I sent a thank-you email to the friend who first shared the church with us. What a blessing, Melissa!

What blessings can you acknowledge with a note this week?

Movie: The Last Picture Show.

noreply@blogger.com (Toiling Ant) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 01:55:00 +0000

Over the past several months, Hubs and I have been working our way through the American Film Institute's list of 100 greatest American movies. Aside from just a few movies that left us shaking our heads (yes, 2001: A Space Odyssey, I'm looking at you), we have enjoyed it quite a bit.

Last week, for our usual Friday pizza and movie night, we chose The Last Picture Show. In this drama, Sonny, Duane, and Jacy are three high-school seniors, class of 1952, chomping at the bit for more than their tiny, dying Texas town can offer. Their stories are engrossing and superbly told, and they feel like real people that my parents or grandparents might have known. It was interesting to see several famous actors at such early stages in their careers, too; Randy Quaid has small role as a particularly skeevy young man interested in Jacy. I also enjoyed seeing bits of some familiar old "picture shows" playing at the doomed local movie house.

I'd watched this movie many years ago and remembered liking it, but apparently I had seen an edited version on TV because I had no recollection at all of viewing any nudity. But, lo and behold, in addition to a lot of second-basing going on with the teenage characters, there was a skinny-dipping scene that had me hoping against hope that nobody at the pool's edge would uncross their legs. Personally, I coulda gone all day without that scene, but it certainly made its point about the embarrassing lengths some teens will travel to win acceptance from their peers!

Up next: The Apartment.

Fighter Verse, August 21.

noreply@blogger.com (Toiling Ant) — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 22:55:00 +0000

Romans 10:13-12 (ESV)

For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

Fighter Verse, August 14.

noreply@blogger.com (Toiling Ant) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 00:10:00 +0000

Romans 8:38-39 (ESV)

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Hallelujah!

Fighter Verse, August 7.

noreply@blogger.com (Toiling Ant) — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 02:02:00 +0000

Jeremiah 32:40 (ESV)

I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.

Mom's birthday handprint quilt.

noreply@blogger.com (Toiling Ant) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 11:32:00 +0000

It all started the day after Christmas, 2010.

Actually, it started long before then.

My late grandmother was an inveterate crafter; among the belongings discovered after her funeral was a quilt top bearing the handprints and embroidered names and birthdates of most of her offspring. It was started so long ago that most of us grandkids don't even remember when it was that we coated our hands with paint and pressed them to the fabric. As Mamaw's things were claimed by each of her children, this precious incomplete quilt came to Aunt Linda.

Which does, actually, bring us to the day after Christmas.

Aunt Linda pulled me aside from the bustle of people eating way too much candy, slipped me a brown paper envelope containing the flimsy, and in a conspiratorial tone told me she wanted me to make it up for my mom (her sister). I took it home, tucked it away for a while, and then when Dad told me he wanted to plan a surprise 60th birthday party for Mom that summer, I knew it would be a perfect gift for her.

First, I cut apart the sections and squared them up. I chose an assortment of bright Kona cotton strips for the sashing. (My first time using Kona-- I think I kind of fell in love. No other solids will do for me now.) Sweet Hubs has a great eye for color and proportion, much better than mine, so I enlisted his help to crawl around on the living room floor and arrange the colors with the appropriate blocks.

I also got him to help put the great-grands names on the quilt; there were a few born after the quilt was started but before Mamaw passed away, and I tried to make the record as complete as possible.

I wanted this to be a cozy quilt, so I picked out a flannel for the backing (it turned out to be Very Hungry Caterpillar, but really, I just liked it for the bright dots).

I didn't want to distract from the handprint design so I just quilted in the ditch along all the seams, using my walking foot, and then bound it with commercial quilt binding.

The back got a little wonky and required some piecing. (Note to self: don't eyeball it. Your sense of dimension is not trustworthy. Go ahead and MEASURE.) Not that anyone would think this quilt wasn't homemade by a relative beginner anyway... ;-)

And then it was party day! I managed to get Mom to there without her suspecting a thing (no small feat, considering my total lack of poker face). The party was so much fun that somehow presents got lost in the shuffle so she opened the quilt afterwards (in the hallway?!) with three of her four siblings looking on.

Ta-daaaa!

Fighter Verse, August 1.

noreply@blogger.com (Toiling Ant) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 12:00:00 +0000

I've been using the Fighter Verse program for the past year or so, and though I can't claim to have actually memorized each week's verse, they have provided much fodder for meditation. I keep my card set on my bathroom counter so that it's in easy view during my morning grooming; a copy written on an index card clipped to my cubicle wall at work; and I just started using an app on my phone as well. I have made my way through Set A and am just beginning Set B.

This week's passage is Jeremiah 29:11-14a (ESV).

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, declares the LORD.

The past few weeks have seen me enter a season of healing (not of my own scheduling; it began quite unexpectedly with a little bit of emergency "heart surgery" of the divine kind) and am so looking forward to growing in wholeness. Let the seeking begin!

What tools do you use to prompt yourself to meditate on Scripture? What are your thoughts on this passage?

Recovering Grace.

noreply@blogger.com (Toiling Ant) — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 23:55:00 +0000

I just posted a new badge on the sidebar of my blog, linking to a brand-spanking-new website called Recovering Grace. It just launched a few hours ago and I am thrilled to be able to announce it here as a resource for anyone questioning the teachings of Bill Gothard. Whether you have recently been introduced to the idea of attending one of his seminars or have spent years under his influence, you will find helpful information at Recovering Grace. Here's just a bit of introduction from the site:

Recovering Grace is an online ministry devoted to helping people discover the missing ingredient of grace in the teachings of Bill Gothard. Recovering Grace has a unique perspective on this area in that it was founded and is operated entirely by adults who were raised as children in Bill Gothard’s Advanced Training Institute. For more information and resources on Bill Gothard and his teachings, visit our website at www.RecoveringGrace.org. If you would like to contact us, email info@recoveringgrace.org.

If you have never heard of Gothard, simply disregard my ringing endorsement of Recovering Grace and move on... there will soon be another post here extolling the virtues of some recipe or sewing project for your reading pleasure. ;-) However, if his name is familiar to you, and you investigate nothing else on Recovering Grace, please at least read the open letter to Basic Seminar attendees for an excellent summary of key points to observe in the seminar.

As I close, my heart echoes the words of Paul to the Ephesians:

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

Cures for two laundry blues.

noreply@blogger.com (Toiling Ant) — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 20:06:00 +0000

Using a great sheet-washing recipe from Posie Gets Cozy over the last month or two has eliminated the funky-smelling sheets that used to plague us. Now our bedding is clean and fresh and HAS NO SMELL. Yay! (Why were our sheets funky in the first place? My theory includes a combination of detergent build-up and living in a high-humidity climate. There's also the factor that I'm an energy grinch and had a bad habit of snatching things out of the dryer when they were not really bone-dry. Now I dry the sheets to a crisp.)

Today I tried this super-cheap, super-easy, super-green remedy from Foothill Home Companion to eliminate yucky sweat stains; lo and behold, IT WORKS. I didn't even scrub! Now my Hubs has clean, snowy white shirts. Yay, again!

Father's Day

noreply@blogger.com (Toiling Ant) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 01:56:00 +0000

with Dad at a church father/daughter Valentine dinner, 1992

This sweet song by Garrison Keillor from this weekend's Prairie Home Companion made me cry. Dad, thanks for being the kind of father whose name I can bless every day.

~~~~~~~~~~

Daddy was a gardener

I think of him in the spring

Sweet corn, onions, peas

Tending his own apple trees

Tomatoes, melons, row by row

He cultivated with his hoe

I never thanked him

And then he passed away

I bless his name almost every day

My daddy was a carpenter

He loved to cut and trim

Whenever I hear a power saw

I always think of him

Nails in his mouth, hammer in hand

Way up high on a ladder he'd stand

I think of him, my old dad

All the conversations we never had

Every day you did your part

Faithful service of the heart

I love you, Dad

Thank you, too

You blessed the world

As you passed through

My old dad

I've done the best I can

My regrets are few

I honored my old man,

Blessed his name as I passed through

My old dad

When I bid this world goodbye

And become a memory

Good friends, don't regret

What you didn't say to me

Just praise your children every day

Don't honk at people in your way

Every day start brand new

Bless the world as you pass through

Every day, brand new

Bless the world as you pass through

Amen, Amen

A happy weekend.

noreply@blogger.com (Toiling Ant) — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 00:24:00 +0000

Crikey, I had no idea that it had been almost a year since my last post... good golly. Well, here I am again, to report that I am finishing a happy weekend (just thought you all would like to know). For the record, this will be a fairly long, picture-heavy post.

We had our traditional Friday-night homemade-pizza-and-movie date: this gluten-free dough topped with barbecue sauce, mozzarella, and shredded turkey breast, and this documentary. Yow, we were all fired up afterward-- I didn't really learn anything I hadn't known (or heavily suspected) before but it certainly confirmed and empowered my desire to quit supporting The Man with my food purchases, and it really got Hubs on board in a new way.

Saturday morning started early with a BSF leaders' meeting; as always, a challenging and encouraging few hours. Afterward, I stopped by the credit union for some cash, then headed home to get Hubs for the trip to the farmer's market. On the way I was distracted by a sign for a car show, so I threw the cooler, market cart, and Hubs in the car and off we went-- mostly just to take pictures for Dad's enjoyment. :-)

This one was so pretty, I had to get a quick shot of the interior too:

This pink champagne beauty was my favorite of all.

Love how the racing stripes continue under the hood, across the leather seats, and onto the back of the car.

Time for the farmer's market! We have a fabulous market downtown on Saturdays; it's one of the things I love most about this city. We have an abundance of talented local vendors with a wide variety of food for sale.Usually the most popular items (eggs, meat) disappear soon after the 8am opening, but even though we arrived after 10am we still scored eggs, the last chicken, and the last 10# bag of brown rice, along with milk and butter, strawberries, kale, green onions and honey. It's too late for citrus and too early for peppers, so we stopped at another produce stand for oranges, apples, bell peppers, tamales, and frozen cookie and cinnamon roll dough for Hubs. I had to chuckle when he put back the kiwis because they were labeled Italia: "Who ships kiwis from Italy?!" People who want warm-weather food in the winter, that's who.

On to a local nursery for some shade-loving plants for our porch. I have given up trying for veggies, since three hours of sunlight a day is just not enough; the sun takes its amazing powers to the other side of the building around 10am and that's that. I wanted something colorful, not necessarily flowers, so we chose a nice variety of coleus, some dianthus, alyssum, lambs ear, and something new to me that bears a tag reading Beacon Silver Lamium Maculatum. It has lovely gray-green leaves and, eventually, small pink blooms. We chose it to add some dimension with its cascading foliage.

Before:

Hubs arranging the plants:

After:

View from the sidewalk:

I'm looking forward to seeing the plants fill in and really start to pop.

Besides the planting, for me the afternoon was filled with kitchen-work and phone calls and, for Hubs, laundry. After much back and forthing, we finally decided to venture out again to meet up with Taco de Paco, the B-Rouge's only taco truck. (It's been hailed locally as a mind-blowingly ingenious concept-- hey, get this, folks: food from a vehicle!-- which causes me to snicker, because Houston's been eating tacos from trucks for decades. But I digress...) The truck was at the new skate park, which, while I'm hardly a skater-gurl, was really quite a cool place. I foresee Saturday mornings on the running trails in my future...

I must be getting old, because I totally played the mom card on a way-underage kid (11, maybe?) sneaking puffs off an older friend's smokes-- all I did was simply observe them while I ate my tacos, but apparently it made him super-uncomfortable to be under a mom's watchful eye and eventually he got tired of looking over his shoulder only to find that yes, I was still there, sitting on the bench, watching it all. I just smiled at him once, and he stubbed out the ciggy, stuffed it in his pocket, and cycled away with the older kid. Poor baby, where was *his* mama?

After a lovely-if-I-do-say-so breakfast of ham/green onion scrambled eggs, vanilla yogurt topped with fresh strawberries, and coffee, this morning found us visiting a church with a friend. I will allow myself to tell only one story about that event. I realized quickly by the absence of visible instruments that the music leaders were singing along with a track, but when the first song's projected lyric display ended and "Comment! Rate this video! Subscribe to our channel!" appeared on the screen, I involuntarily burst out laughing. I... would never have thought of using YouTube videos for church services, but hey, it was an innovative solution to a lack of available talent. I guess. :-P I felt bad that I laughed- hard- at them, but it caught me so completely off guard, I couldn't help it...

Lunch started out as another weird situation, but we ended up sans friend for a nice meal at Sammy's Grill. Then we set off on an adventure to find our new CSA! Our interweb mappage was quite wrong, but we eventually discovered the right spot. It's a nice little farm with lovely proprietors, and we were able to walk all over the grounds, help out with a project and also meet a couple of the other members. Most of the necessary fieldwork had apparently been accomplished yesterday, so we didn't even really get our hands dirty. Instead, we helped prepare the beehives by brushing them with melted beeswax so they'd be more inviting to the bees than just the paraffin-covered pre-formed plastic molds.

Hubs stirring the melting beeswax:

Brushing it over the molds:

It was simple work but allowed us to sit and visit with our hosts for a while and start what I hope will be a wonderful relationship. I am more excited about this CSA than I have been about anything in a long time. Funny story: we knew the sign-up email was to be sent out to people on the waiting list sometime last Sunday, so I was watching for it like a crazy woman, checking email every few minutes... in fact, we had gone to the nearby big box store the day before to get my (previously scheduled) upgrade to a new phone (the kind that takes over your life and was invented by a guy who wears a black turtleneck sweater). I had excitedly set up my email on the device, secure in the knowledge that even if we left home, I would be able to get the email and reply quickly, thus securing a place among the limited memberships available. Well, sure enough, we went out to breakfast with my visiting in-laws, and on the trip back home, the phone buzzed and lo and behold, the long-awaited email! In my excitement I swiped my finger across the screen to enlarge the type, and, oops. It disappeared. Deleted. Gone. Nonexistent. Didn't show up in the trash folder. I immediately panicked, logged on to the actual computer to check there. Still nothing. I was sitting at the computer, a weeping basket-case, firing off an email back to beg them to send it again, please please send it again! Don't disqualify me from something I've been waiting on for over a year just because I haven't figured out how to work my stupid new phone! Please!

How could I do something so dumb? Thankfully, they resent it and Hubs also (calmly) managed to retrieve the email, so I was able to respond that YES, a thousand times yes, I wanted a spot for this season. When we arrived at the farm today, I mentioned that I was so excited to be there because I thought I'd missed out, blah blah, and Will said, "Ah, so you're the one who..." :-P Yes. I am the one who had a melt-down because of a lost email about fresh veggies. That's me. :-)

We ended up being sent home with a pound of honey, some (more) green onions, and a couple of plants. I asked about an unusual-looking plant and was offered a cutting, then was given a whole plant when Thais discovered she had two already potted. :-P Its common name is devil's backbone, because of the jagged stems. No idea what it really is, but I'll do my best not to kill it (not good with houseplants, I'm afraid). Hope it likes the light in the living room window!

I just pulled a steaming pot of pudding off the stove and it's time for a run and then my weekly dose of 1960's glamour on DVD. That'll just about wrap up my happy weekend; hopefully it won't be another year before I show up here again. ;-)

In anticipation of Tax Day, Pt. 2.

noreply@blogger.com (Toiling Ant) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:37:00 +0000

Mom's emailed reply to my last entry deserves its own post (and I promise this won't be a never-ending topic for the blog!).

If I may edit [and vent] a bit: Actually, TWO years after his 25th anny with the Postal Service, he came home one day with something under his arm, handed it to me with a sly grin. I was shocked to see the matted and framed award for his 25 years of service, including the little oval for the pin, very nicely done, really. I asked him to tell me all about the award ceremony, and why they had waited two years to do it. He said it had been discovered it in a closet that day at work, and it was unceremoniously handed to him with that explanation.

He just laughed it off, but I am still incredulous! I took it very personally, as a dismissal of his sacrifices, and ours as a family. Having to be in bed by 6 p.m. every night pretty much wrecks a social life, even if you ever got a rare weekend off. They have no appreciation of how our family life revolved around Dad's work schedule, what it does to be on 'stand-by' for vacation until they finally decide he could have it, to have to bring in an obituary for a parent's funeral as proof that he wasn't playing hooky, being told he would be suspended without pay if he dared to take his scheduled vacation, because they were short-handed and needed him there...the list goes on and on. [Retiring employees have it no better, with folks coming in and out at the "party" for cake on the run, and no real expression of appreciation from management about years of faithful service. It's almost like, "Oh, are you still here?" while they rush to get the mail on the street, AND then they make them come to the P.O. to pick up their first retirement check.]

I know how hard he works and how much he gives "off the clock", the breaks he doesn't take, the lunches he finally eats, maybe, AFTER a full day on the job, then there's the stress of having someone breathing down your neck all day, counting, always counting, the minutiae of meaningless goals and quotas while the mountains of abuses on the work floor are ignored until someone "goes postal"... and how they transfer their problem people from place to place until they retire is a story for another time.

We laugh at their attempts at boosting morale with the many mailings about "let's hear from you employees about how to improve the Postal Service", with a list of multiple-choice items, all meaningless ---and NONE addressing the real issues causing the day-to-day stress. The latest flyer was an invitation to nominate a favorite employee for a talent competition a la American Idol!

Until they figure out that their employees are their greatest asset, and not their drain on the bottom line, even government intervention will not save them from failure as a business, and, sadly, as a fine American institution.

*sigh*...see, I can diatribe, too!

Thanks for the kudos for Dad, will make sure he knows he is appreciated...and, frankly, it will mean more to him than any gold watch he might have received for his faithful toil.

momwholovesyou

And that's all there is to say about that. Cheerier posts to come in the future. :-)

In anticipation of Tax Day.

noreply@blogger.com (Toiling Ant) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 03:30:00 +0000

This morning I made my daily trip to the Post Office to check the company mailboxes --the new job's going great, thanks for asking! :-) -- and had the additional responsibility of sending off several large envelopes to the IRS. Typically my visits to the PO are pretty short: I drop off the mail, check two boxes, and then I'm done. This time I had to wait in line with other people shipping off tax returns, and the line was understandably a little longer than usual. Several window clerks were working when I got in line, but eventually they trickled down to just one available person, another closing out her station, and three empty stations.

People had been murmuring quietly about the slow pace of service the whole time, but as soon as the lone clerk went to the back to retrieve a package, several people began to proclaim more loudly their dissatisfaction, making remarks about the inefficiency of government workers and bemoaning the possibility of the USPS moving from 6-day service to five. When the clerk returned, one man asked to see her boss. With an expression of resignation on her face, she went to get someone (I'm not sure if her "boss" was a supervisor or the actual postmistress, but it doesn't matter).

The man proceeded, in front of the entire group (at least 15 other people in line) to demand of the lady in charge why there were so few clerks available for such a long line of customers, and wasn't it unreasonable for him to have to wait so long. "We all have more expensive things we could be doing besides standing in line at the post office," he declared.

The postmistress quietly responded with an apology for the wait and explained that she had several people off work today, one on an overdue break, and the lady closing down her station had been there since 2am and it was already past time for her to go home (it was nearly 11am at this point). Another clerk was in training but not ready to work the window without supervision, so a total of only two people were available to work the window today.

"But don't you think it's unreasonable that we have to wait such a long time for service? Shouldn't more clerks be available?" The postmistress reiterated her apology, gave another nearby option for postal services, and said that everyone available today was working.

During this whole exchange, I could feel my blood pressure rising, and wanted desperately to speak up and appreciate the labor of the postal workers. (Actually, I also wanted desperately to smack the rabble-rouser and tell him he could try to spend $7 to walk his tax return to the IRS himself and see if he wouldn't rather spend a few minutes in line instead... but I controlled that urge.) At that point, I was next in line and was called to the counter by the window clerk (who had continued to help customers throughout the whole exchange). As soon as I got to the counter, I told her how much I appreciated her hard work; I told her that my father is a 28-year veteran of the USPS and that I understand exactly what the clerks go through to get their jobs done every day, *especially* during tax season. As she handed me my change, I told her again, in everyone's hearing, "Thank you so much for all your hard work." She was grateful for the encouragement, and I hope I wasn't the only one today that had a kind word for her.

I will be the first to declare the actual faults of the postal service: it *is* inefficient, from the top down; it's an antiquated, unsustainable, expensive business model desperately in need of reform; the vast majority of the employees are underpaid and overworked, and a lot of the managers truly have no idea what they're doing. Employee morale is terrible because of customers like today's and a lack of internal recognition and encouragement (it took an extra year for Dad to be recognized for 25 years of service-- and then he got a pin. WOW.). Beyond providing a steady paycheck, the postal service has been no friend to my family. The worst had to have been the 3.5 years that Dad was transferred to work nights at a location 2 hours from our home-- all because of a clerical mistake. A CLERICAL MISTAKE that took over THREE YEARS to fix. Then there's his regular schedule, the one he's worked most of his tenure with the PO: anywhere from 2 to 4am until around noon. On weekends, too. And did you know that postal employee is one of the most stressful occupations out there, right up there with air traffic controller?! Yes, I have my own beefs with the post office, trust me.

However. As you visit your local post office in the next few days, please, please, treat the clerks with dignity. Heck, go ahead and live on the edge and express some actual appreciation. Most of the employees are just like my Dad: scheduled for odd hours, rarely getting a two-day weekend, spending all day on their feet, often literally doing the work of two people and running hard all day to get a huge volume of mail out the door to avoid taking overtime (which, these days, is generally unapproved since it's so expensive and the PO's broke), all to earn a decent but by NO means extravagant salary. Double all those stresses during Christmas and tax season. Having worked in a post office for a time myself and seeing exactly what goes on, it is astounding that ANYone gets ANY mail, ever. Seriously. And all for 44 cents. It's almost a miracle... but I digress.

Please simply remember that the people behind the counter are not your servants, no matter how much "more expensive" your precious time is. They are hardworking ladies and gents, moms and dads just like mine, and are worthy of your respect, and maybe even a smile and kind word, too. I always make it a point to have a cheerful conversation with the clerks and let them know that I appreciate them-- I'd love it if you'd take the time to do the same.

And if you've read through to the end of this much-longer-than-I-intended diatribe, you are probably either my best friend (Hi Jules!) or my mom (Hi Mom, and tell Dad I'm doing my part to make his job a little easier!).If you're anyone else, well, you get a gold star. :-)

Bedtime stories for kiddos.

noreply@blogger.com (Toiling Ant) — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 05:42:00 +0000

I've got a project in mind and need to access the hive brain for more ideas. What are/were your favorite stories for children?

When I was a kid, I never tired of hearing various Seuss books read aloud, and of course there were various Bible stories from these books. I also remember really getting a kick out of Richard Scarry's Busytown, but those books are so image-intensive that I don't think they are suited for audio recording (okay, so I just gave the project away). I'm drawing a blank on other stories appropriate and accessible to the under-eight crowd. Suggestions, please? I'll take your comment list with me to the library. :-)

Independence Days, Update 2.

noreply@blogger.com (Toiling Ant) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 14:54:00 +0000

This was not a very productive week for me as far as this challenge goes, but a lot of other very good things (stay tuned, more news later) were going on so I'm not going to beat myself up about it. :-)

Plant something: repotted pansies and aloe vera
Harvest something: nada
Preserve something: zip
Waste Not: ate lots of leftovers; continued giving veggie scraps to the worms; cleaned out the mucky worm bin
Want Not: added a couple grocery items to the pantry, nothing major
Eat the Food: made cinnamon rolls and flatbread (it didn't puff, so I'm not calling it pita) from stored grain
Build Community Food Systems: still waiting on apartment manager to let me know about community garden options (will visit her this week for progress report)

Independence Days, Update 1.

noreply@blogger.com (Toiling Ant) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:54:00 +0000

Harvest something: didn't harvest anything myself, but we did come home heavily-laden with others' bounty from the farmer's market-- carrots, brussels sprouts, eggs, milk, butter, honey, fresh ground filé, tiny new potatoes, and a half flat of strawberries
Preserve something: 4.5 pints of strawberry preserves
Waste Not: cut the bad spots out of a couple of gnarly-looking apples and put them into apple muffins; threw veggie scraps and all the strawberry crowns into the worm bin for compost
Want Not: bought ten pounds of white rice and 8-10 (I can't remember) cans of tuna on sale
Eat the Food: cooked a big pot of kidney beans (from dry beans-- painless!!!) and a pot of brown rice, part for lunches this week, part for the freezer
Build Community Food Systems: working on starting a community garden at our apartment complex-- just waiting on the manager to say yea or nay!

I want to live in a tent in Texas too!

noreply@blogger.com (Toiling Ant) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:28:00 +0000

I love this so much, it makes my heart ache.

Green Beans in the Garden.

noreply@blogger.com (Toiling Ant) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:31:00 +0000

I love this sweet little video so much.

Perish the thought!

noreply@blogger.com (Toiling Ant) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:08:00 +0000

Love it! Hat tip to No Impact Man.

By the way, Hubs and I recently rented the No Impact Man documentary. I recommend it both as entertainment and food for thought. It's fascinating, genuine, and surprisingly funny. (It also has profanity we were not expecting, so choose the "clean" audio track if you want to avoid the f-bombs. Those crazy New Yorkers!)

Independence Days.

noreply@blogger.com (Toiling Ant) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:14:00 +0000

Click here to learn more about the Independence Days challenge for 2010, hosted by Sharon Astyk.

I (and a LOT of Sharon's other readers!) will be making conscious efforts to:

Plant something
Harvest something
Preserve something
Waste not
Want not
Build community food systems
Eat the food

And I'll report on my progress each week. Stay tuned!

Spinach Alfredo Lasagna

noreply@blogger.com (Toiling Ant) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:19:00 +0000

I've been experimenting with some meatless meals lately and have hit upon a few winner recipes (the kind that Hubs tells me to write down so I can make exactly the same way next time!). Here's one we had early this week that was DELICIOUS.

(ETA: I totally forgot to include the mushrooms in the original posting-- oops!)

Spinach-Alfredo Lasagna

Cook and drain:

1 box frozen chopped spinach (or fresh equivalent

Saute:

1 cup fresh sliced mushrooms
1 Tb butter

Mix together thoroughly:

1 cup ricotta cheese (or homemade equivalent)
1 Tb dried parsley
1 egg

Prepare:

2 cups of shredded white cheese, divided-- I used a blend of provolone, mozzarella, parmesan, and, I think, jack
about a half box of uncooked lasagna noodles

Stir over low heat until cheese is melted:

1 Tb butter
1 cup half and half
1 cup milk
1 cup of the shredded cheese

Put a few spoonfuls of the alfredo sauce in the bottom of a greased casserole. Put a layer of uncooked noodles, then spread with some the ricotta mixture, then a layer of spinach, some of the mushrooms, more alfredo sauce, then 1/4 cup of the remaining shredded cheese. Repeat for a total of three layers; top with remaining alfredo sauce and cheese.

Bake at 350º for about 45 minutes, or until cheese begins to brown. (I always assemble my lasagna in advance and then put it in the fridge at least overnight; the noodles absorb plenty of moisture from the sauce and bake perfectly. I don't know how chewy the noodles would be if you used uncooked noodles and then baked it right away; if you try it that way, leave a comment to let me know how it works out!)

Got plans for Saturday night?

noreply@blogger.com (Toiling Ant) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:35:00 +0000

Where else are you going to see Alison Krauss + Union Station on the same ticket as Jars of Clay?! They're two of my long-time favorites, and Brandon Heath is another winner I'll get a kick out of seeing again. Enjoy, and please donate as you're able.

If you've ever heard of Michael and Debi Pearl...

noreply@blogger.com (Toiling Ant) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:14:00 +0000

... then please read this article.

The title is always the hardest part.

noreply@blogger.com (Toiling Ant) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 04:40:00 +0000

We spent Saturday in New Orleans to celebrate my darling's birthday, and decided rather on the spur of the moment to walk over to the National World War II Museum. It turned out to be a bigger deal than we had time for right then, but we did end up buying tickets to the theater to see the "unique and powerful 4-D cinematic experience". What started out as a time-killer between meals (because you go to NOLA to eat-- everything else is just fluff!) turned into a fantastic event that we both loved... hopefully we'll go back soon when we can tour the museum and spend the entire day.

It was Girl Scout day at the museum proper, so there were mobs of Brownies running around and doing activities... we crashed their little picture-taking area where Hubs impersonated Uncle Sam in a plastic hat, and I briefly posed as Rosie. There was a sweet little old lady volunteer wearing a jacket with the Rosie poster printed on the back; she asked me if I knew why she was wearing it, and then proudly told me, "Because I was a riveter too!" She was so cute!

The museum gift shop had the obligatory overpriced souvenir stuff available, but also had a really terrific book section. In the theater gift shop, a couple vintage-style dresses were for sale for heart-stopping prices (I think $129 is a little much for poly-rayon made-in-unknownistan, even if the cut of the dress is super-adorable). So like any self-respecting seamstress who got a book on pattern design for Christmas would do, I whipped out the camera. Now I'm just torn over which dress to sew first, and using what fabric. (I'm considering doing the polka-dot in a cherry print instead, for a less flag-waving, more rockabilly vibe... but we'll see. I do love me some polka dots.)

Eventually we wandered back to the Quarter and ended up at Fristzel's on Bourbon (a nice little place on an otherwise exceedingly perverse street). Between our faces you can see the jazzy pianist; if I didn't know better I would say his elbows were made of rubber, he flailed around so. He was really good, and played a lot of old standards like Pennies From Heaven.

(Notice Hubs' wonderfully bearded face-- he's not shaving until the Saints' season is over! I know the days are numbered but I am LOVING it while I can!)

A call to action for the children of Haiti.

noreply@blogger.com (Toiling Ant) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:32:00 +0000

Please click A Call to Action Against UNICEF to read about what's happening with UNICEF and the children in Haiti, and the specifics about how you can help bring attention to the need there.

(There are others in the blogosphere and on the ground in Haiti who have a firmer grasp on the intricacies of the situation, but a quick summary as I understand it is that UNICEF has determined that it is better to keep children in institutional tent cities than to allow them to be cared for at family-style orphanages. UNICEF beauracracy, with the apparent complicity of the U.S. government, is also blocking perviously-approved international adoptions from being completed, preventing children from leaving the country to join their adoptive families. Click here and here for more detailed, first-hand accounts.)