Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Too Much Soccer? Nah!

You Know You've Been Watching Too Much Soccer When:

You can tell which players have had a recent haircut.
You can even name the referees before they're announced.
You know useless trivia about hundreds of players.
You remember where the players were traded from.
You follow more than one league's seasonal games, as well as championship series.
You have standard comments about certain players, teams, or situations.
You'd rather watch soccer than do almost anything else.
You've imagined who you would assemble as a "dream team" if you could.

Not that I know anyone who fits this description, though.
Well, okay, it's me.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Oct. 29, 2008

Outside my window...it snowed today. SNOW! But at least it melted. Typically, snow in Toronto doesn't stick around until January.
I am thinking...that I hope my husband has a good day at work. He has a few stressful projects and inspections at work this week. He carries alot of responsibility on his shoulders.
I am thankful...for my dishwasher. Growing up poor, it's one of those things that makes me feel like I'm rich. I really, really appreciate it. I hate washing dishes.
From the kitchen...fresh Atlantic salmon steaks, rice, green beans, and salad.
I am wearing...jeans and a purple sweater.
I am reading...Whirlwind by Cathy Marie Hake. It's a Christian romance.
I am hoping...to have a quiet night at work tonight. I'm getting too old for stress.
I am hearing...I'm Too Sexy, by Right Said Fred. I laugh every time I hear that song.
Around the house...we plan to buy a snowblower. Last winter was brutal. I also still need to get new bookshelves.
One of my favourite things...vacationing at the cottage where I spent my youth. See My Favourite Place, under Vacations.
Some plans for the week...one more night of work this week. My daughter's coming home Thursday night and then leaving on yet another Christian retreat,(her second in as many months) this time in Ottawa. It's a good thing her university is only an hour away. Shop for boots Thursday night. Get my hair done Friday morning. My husband and I are planning on seeing the movie Passchendaele on Friday night, while my youngest has friends in for a sleepover. We're going for dinner at our friends' place on Saturday. We only see them maybe once a year. Life gets too busy sometimes.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Deceitful Heart

"The seeds of all sins are in my heart,
and perhaps all the more dangerously that I do not see them."

Robert Murray M'Cheyne

Friday, October 24, 2008

Scrabble

SCRABBLE
This has got to be one of the cleverest
E-mails I've received in awhile.
Someone out there either has too much
Spare time or is deadly at Scrabble.

DORMITORY:
When you rearrange the letters:
DIRTY ROOM
PRESBYTERIAN:
When you rearrange the letters:
BEST IN PRAYER
ASTRONOMER:
When you arrange the letters:
MOON STARER
THE EYES:
When you rearrange the letters:
THEY SEE
GEORGE BUSH:
When you rearrange the letters:
HE BUGS GORE
THE MORSE CODE :
When you rearrange the letters:
HERE COME DOTS
SLOT MACHINES:
When you rearrange the letters:
CASH LOST IN ME
ELECTION RESULTS:
When you rearrange the letters :
LIES - LET'S RECOUNT
SNOOZE ALARMS:
When you rearrange the letters:
ALAS! NO MORE Z 'S
A DECIMAL POINT:
When you rearrange the letters:
I’M A DOT IN PLACE
THE EARTHQUAKES:
When you rearrange the letters:
THAT QUEER SHAKE
ELEVEN PLUS TWO:
When you rearrange the letters:
TWELVE PLUS ONE

AND FOR THE GRAND FINALE:

MOTHER-IN-LAW:
When you rearrange the letters:
WOMAN HITLER

Yep! Someone with waaaaaaaaaaay too
much time on their hands! (Probably a son-in-law).

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Why Write Memoir?

"Every life has its defining moments."
"Writing memoir is, in some ways, a work of wholeness."
"I still have a need to create a narrative of my life. To keep writing until I see how it turns out."
Sue Monk Kidd, interview with the author, in The Secret Life of Bees.

"A memoir is an act not just of preservation, but of invention. The memoir is a narrative construct: literary shape that you give to the past. Much is left out, much is subsumed, much is demanded."
"It aspires to be the truth. It claims to be the truth. But it's the truth seen through a particular prism. Time is the prism that all things must pass through. And in so doing, they change. The past is never the same. It always changes according to the present."
"...alteration is inevitable. As a result, truth belongs to the teller."
"The experience described in the memoir is not fresh. Not raw. The grit of daily life has been expunged, polished, washed away. The memoir has always the advantage of hindsight. It recognizes the significance of people and events. It pulls the past into a pattern. It gives the past shape and meaning that it did not have when it was the present."
"In a memoir, the author and the narrator have an uneasy relationship. What does the reader know of the author? That the author lived to tell the tale. What does the reader know of the narrator? That the tale needed to be told."
"The memoir presupposes a first-person narrator, and a structure. It cannot be formless or amorphous. Only you can put the structure on your experience. Your experience becomes your material. Your narrative voice must be compatible with your structure."
"The author's need to write the memoir is implied in the form itself."
Penny Taylor, in Laura Kalpakian's The Memoir Club

Warm Crab Dip


This is always a hit. I serve it with a variety of crackers.

1 pkg. light cream cheese
1/4 cup light mayonnaise
1 minced clove of garlic
1/4 tsp. pepper
Mix with mixer, then add 1/2 cup white wine

Add
2 green onions, chopped
2 tbsp. parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 pkg. artificial crab, diced small
Mix with spoon.
Spread in baking dish, Sprinkle with another 1/2 pkg of crab.
Sprinkle with 1/4 cup grated parmesan.
Bake for 20 minutes at 375.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

The Daily Grind

Oct.22,2008

Outside my window...they're still replacing our curbs and sidewalks. Our whole neighbourhood is a mess.
I am thinking...that I'm glad my daughter's dorm wasn't affected by the fire over the weekend. About 600 students now have to find alternate accommodations until January.
I am thankful...for my job. I wouldn't want to work anywhere else.
From the kitchen...a chicken casserole and salad.
I am wearing...my pyjamas.
I am reading...The Lucky One, by Nicholas Sparks. I'm liking it so far. His leading men are always witty. This one is an ex-Marine who owns a German Shepherd. Works for me:)
I am hoping...that one day I could be a snowbird and live in the South for six months of the year. We actually had snow flurries yesterday. SNOW FLURRIES!
I am hearing...the cement mixer outside. I didn't get a good sleep because of it.
Around the house...more expensive car repairs on our 2002 van.
One of my favourite things...browsing in a bookstore.
Some plans for the week...working, of course. I can't plan any farther than that.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Northern Blueberry Pie

I love this dessert. Don't even bother making a blueberry pie unless you have Northern Ontario blueberries.
This is from a Betty Crocker cookbook I was given when we were first married. I pass this off as my secret family recipe. (Oops, until now).
I use a ready made pie shell because I am hopeless with pie crusts. If you're not, make it from scratch.

1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3 cups fresh blueberries
1 tsp. lemon juice

Heat oven to 425. Mix sugar, flour and cinnamon. Stir in blueberries. Turn into pie plate. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Top with crumble topping below. Cover edge of pie with aluminum foil to prevent excessive browning; remove foil during last 15 minutes of baking. Bake until juice begins to bubble through, 35-45 minutes. Top with ice cream. Prepare for a barrage of compliments.

Crumble Topping

1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
cut in 1/4 cup hard butter with pastry blender
I'm never exact with these amounts, I go by the consistency of the crumble.

Grief

"Grief is a most peculiar thing; we're so helpless in the face of it. It's like a window that will simply open of its own accord. The room grows cold, and we can do nothing but shiver. But it opens a little less each time, and a little less; and one day we wonder what has become of it."

Memoirs of a Geisha
Arthur Golden
I haven't read the book, but I found this quote that is quite poignant.

The Son of God or a Poached Egg?

In the book Mere Christianity, Lewis famously proposed that Jesus' status as a great moral teacher cannot be divorced from his claims to divinity:

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him: I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic- on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon and you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."

According to the argument, most people are willing to accept Jesus Christ as a great moral teacher, but the Gospels record that Jesus made many claims to divinity, either explicitly ("I and the father are one." - John 10:30) or implicitly, by assuming authority only God could have ("...the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins..." - Matthew 9:6). Assuming that the Gospels are accurate, Lewis said there are three options:

1. Jesus was telling falsehoods and knew it, and so he was a liar.
2. Jesus was telling falsehoods but believed he was telling the truth, and so he was insane.
3. Jesus was telling the truth, and so he was divine.

Lewis held that for Jesus to be a liar or insane would contradict his position as a "great moral teacher", and the remaining option would make Jesus both a "great moral teacher" and divine. This was aimed against a specific line of reasoning which accepts the Jesus portrayed in the gospels as a "great moral teacher", but not as a divine being. Lewis maintained that they are failing to deal with the logical consequences of their position.

From Biblio.com

Monday, October 20, 2008

Oncology Conference

What did I learn from this two-day Oncology Conference?
That I never want to be a research/study nurse.
That I'm glad I'm not a Doctor.
That I love my job.
That it's more worthwhile to attend conferences that are actually focused on Oncology Nursing, not just Oncology.
No, I actually got a few points of interest from the classes. Here are the highlights:
It takes approximately 25 years to get a drug from being a good idea to being of benefit to patients, i.e. Rituxan, Gleevac, Herceptin. This is too long.
Medical imaging has greatly improved in the past thirty years, to aid prevention, earlier detection and better treatments.
Routine screening mammography form women 40-49 showed decreased mortality due to earlier detection.
MRI is better than traditional screening for high risk women (those with positive genetic factors and family history of breast cancer).
Digital mammography and imaging angiogenesis are new technologies that help to find hidden tumours.
There is a greater risk of breast cancer for women who have dense breasts (OH, GREAT!) :(
Discovery of tumour markers, such as HER-2 help with diagnosis, prognosis and treatment.
Conventional radiology (chest x-rays) is on its' way out, but Doctors have a hard time changing what they've been doing for a hundred years, so they tend to order both, but rely on the newer technology, which is better.
There is an ultrasound machine the size of a Blackberry.
Technology allows the point of care from hospital, to anywhere. i.e. photos of dermatology lesions can be assessed by a Doctor on-line.
Patients have launched on-line peer to peer support and patient education resources.
Most of this information posted by patients is accurate.
Sarcoma is a rare disease, so there are few patients locally.
Most of the studies are focused on children, not adults. So often must extrapolate data, but that is not always accurate.
Sarcoma is a potentially curable disease.
Surgery is the mainstay of treatment with the goal of local control, preservation of function, and limb preservation (95% of the time). Amputations are sometimes still required.
Radiation is used for soft-tissue sarcomas (brachtherapy or post-op external beam radiation). Not recommended for osteosarcomas; bones don't irradiate well.
There is 70% Disease free surivival for osteosarcomas. After resection, if there is 90-95% cell necrosis, that equals a greater event free survival.
See, I was listening.

King's Ransom

These are the lyrics to the song, King's Ransom by Petra. Beautiful. You can hear it on youtube.

It's such a paradox,
It's such a mystery,
Why a King would leave His throne
To save humanity
They could not have known
When they mocked Him in disgrace
They could not have known
When they spit upon His face
The Rose of Sharon wore a
crown of thorns that day
The carpenter had a nail
right through His hand
The Master of the earth became
a servant of no worth
And paid a King's ransom for my soul
He paid a King's ransom for my soul
Creator of the earth
Name above all names
Some just stood in unbelief
When listening to His claims
They could not have known
When they hit Him with their fists
They could not have known
When they nailed His feet and wrists
The ransom that He paid
Was the sacrifice He made
The life of a King in place of me
The shame that He bore
For the rich and for the poor
Changed His crown of thorns into Glory

Sunday, October 19, 2008

The One That Got Away

Fishermen often tell stories
of the one that got away.
They can recall every detail
of what it looked like, and can
even imagine how it would have tasted.
They have regrets, wondering if,
had they done even one thing differently,
they wouldn't have lost it.

You are the one I let get away.
I can still remember what you looked like.
I can even imagine how you would have tasted.
I live with regrets, wondering if,
had I done even one thing differently,
I wouldn't have lost you,
and been left to dream about
the kiss I'll never have.

Pia Thompson
Oct. 19, 2008

How Much Did Redemption Cost?

"To see sin as it really is, contemplate what it cost to remove it. If we had fallen into a deep pit, we could tell how deep we had fallen by the length of the rope let down to save us. In the same way, we can only understand the depths of depravity into which sin has brought us by the lengths to which God must go to redeem us."

Robert Morey

Friday, October 17, 2008

Work and Play


Oct.17,2008

Outside my window...a chilly fall day. The trees are half emptied of their leaves. It's leather jacket time.
I am thinking...the highlight of this Oncology conference was the lunch. Lentil soup, greek salad, and a chicken salad sandwich which was slightly sweet, almost like they had added cranberries to it. I skipped dessert.
I am thankful...for my library of over 800 books. It makes me smile. (see photo)
From the kitchen...Swiss Chalet. We have gotten into the habit of not cooking on Friday nights. I don't mind.
I am wearing...black dress pants, a black, white and teal print top. I should have worn something with sleeves. This hotel is too cold.
I am reading...Steal Away, by Linda Hall. It's a mystery series about a Christian private investigator.
I am hoping...the afternoon session on Sarcoma will be interesting. I hope we can get to IKEA this weekend. I need more bookshelves. Mine are overflowing.
I am hearing...the hotel equivalent of elevator music and several conversations.
Around the house...my youngest daughter is still excited about the concert she attended last night, of her favourite Christian rock band. She got to meet the band, and has pictures to prove it.
One of my favourite things...watching the ocean, especially from the back of a cruise ship. Maybe this winter...
Some plans for the week...my husband isn't going on a fishing trip after all. His work is too busy and the trip is too exhausting because of the long drive both ways all alone. I can't say I'm disappointed. I like his company. I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend watching lots and lots of soccer. Have I mentioned before that I have a good life?

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Man Overboard!

The book, Man Overboard! The Story of Jonah by Sinclair B. Ferguson was very good. I thought I was familiar with the story, having heard it preached many times. But again, there are fresh insights and life applications that made me wonder how I had never noticed them before.
Although I preferred his book, Faithful God, an Exposition of the Book of Ruth, more, this book was thorough, theologically sound and encouraging. We all have some of Jonah in us, and God has to sometimes show us His mercy before we can really have a heart for evangelism or understand the character of God. This story also demonstrates the sovereignty of God in evangelism, and over His creation. It also teaches us that God can draw a straight line with a crooked stick; He can use weak, even disobedient people for His purposes. "The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time..." (Jonah 3:1)

A Better Option

I went to an Oncology conference. I got through two and a half hours of mind numbing molecular biology and slides of cells and research statistics about clinical trials. Even the description is boring, but I assure you the reality is apt to induce narcolepsy. I did see some Doctors nodding off, so I don’t feel so bad for escaping. I don't feel guilty, though. I wasn't getting paid for the day, and I paid for the conference myself. Tomorrow should be more interesting, and I figured that books were a better choice than boredom. I stopped at Tim Horton’s for a coffee break, and then I made my way to the World’s Biggest Bookstore for an hour or two of enjoyable book browsing, along with the inevitable book buying. I also found a discount bookstore on Yonge Street where I found two great deals. I bought three new books. I admitted it to my husband as soon as I got home. He doesn't really care, but I don't like to feel sneaky.

What's worth fighting for?

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things.
The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
-John Stuart Mill

Monday, October 13, 2008

Post Thanksgiving Dinner

Oct.13,2008

Outside my window...another beautiful day.
I am thinking...that this was a great Thanksgiving Day. I can't believe I was so relaxed and everything went so smoothly. Since I was feeding 17 people I decided to do buffet style and we sat wherever. This was a good idea.
I am thankful...for my family, my husband of 22 years, for our health and safety, for our country, for our jobs, our home and car, for a church where we hear great preaching and can serve God.
From the kitchen...dim sum, crab dip and crackers. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, pork loin with apple sauce, rice and peas (a Jamaican staple), okra and tomatoes (see recipe below), corn, green beans and carrots, mushrooms in Reisling (recipe from Canadian Living magazine), candied yams, wine, Northern blueberry pie with ice cream, lemon poppy seed cake (see recipe below), pumpkin pie with whipped cream, coffee and tea. Gluttony, pure gluttony. We'll be eating leftovers for a week.
I am wearing...a navy skirt and a light blue sleeveless blouse. It's quite warm. We ate out on the deck.
I am reading...Man Overboard! The story of Jonah, by Sinclair Ferguson. I love that story.
I am hoping...that my daughter gets back to university safely tonight and my husband comes back home safely, as well. I stayed home to clean up after our guests left.
I am hearing...When God Ran, by Phillips, Craig and Dean. I love that song. It's based on the story of the Prodigal Son.
Around the house...everything is tidied up. We're putting the pictures from tonight onto Facebook. I love Facebook.
One of my favourite things...campfires. I even like the smell of campfire smoke on me. Hot dogs are best over an open fire.
Some plans for the week...as yesterday. My husband may be going on his yearly Guys' Fishing Trip on the weekend. I'm so lonely when he's gone. I didn't think I was so needy.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Thanksgiving

Oct.12,2008

Outside my window...another beautiful fall day.
I am thinking...that I'm surprised I'm not the least bit stressed about Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. I think I may even enjoy it. :)
I am thankful...my Mom's tests showed nothing to worry about. No asbestos in her lungs after all; just recovering from her broken ribs last March when she fell on the ice.
From the kitchen...PIZZA. Not homemade like last week. My daughter offered to cook and then ordered pizza instead.
I am wearing...church clothes. A black skirt, red blouse and black blazer.
I am reading...a Christian marriage magazine called MP (Marriage Partnership). It has a lot of good articles.
I am hoping...that my youngest daughter enjoys the concert of her favourite Christian band on Thursday night. She's been counting down the days since we first agreed to it. She is going to dress bizarrely in a silver wig to get noticed by the band.
I am hearing...Who Am I? by Casting Crowns.
Around the house...my oldest daughter is home for Thanksgiving weekend. She's only been at university for 6 weeks, and this is her third time back. Yet, when she's home, she's not home, because she's out with her friends.
One of my favourite things...a nice glass of white wine.
Some plans for the week...cook dinner for 17 family members tomorrow. Vote in the Federal election Tuesday. Work Tuesday night. Attend an oncology conference on Thursday and Friday, here in Toronto.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Technology Averse Consultant?

I'm one of those technology averse people. You know, the type who are always the last to get a new gadget? I can't tell you how long I avoided ATM's, CD's or debit machines. I still don't know how to set up a DVD without help, or download (or is it upload?) songs onto an iPod. I don't own a cell phone, nor do I want to. I hate talking on the phone. I commute, and they don't work in the subway. I work in a hospital, where they are not allowed, and the rest of the time I'm with my family and their three phones. So you see, I don't need one. Besides that, I can't see the small screen without my reading glasses, and by the time I've fished them out of my purse and figured out how to answer it, I've missed my call.
Even this blog was first written on paper, and then typed in afterwards, because I can't think on the computer.
I do use ATM's now, and CD's and debit cards. I don't know how I ever lived without them. DVD's are still a mystery to me. But I did get a used iPod and like it alot.
I started this blog a few months ago and have since learned how to add pictures, edit it and change the format. I have a few other internet sites I frequent, and add book reviews, lists, posts and photos. I've had e-mail for years, and can find my way through search engines.
I recently joined facebook and have learned my way around that as well. The joke was when another friend joined facebook, and actually asked ME for technological advice. Too funny.
My husband is better at these things, but even he sometimes mixes things up. He sent a message to our daughter in university saying, "Mom is on You Tube and is asking everyone to be her friend." She replied, "Umm, don't you mean facebook?"

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Life With a Nurse

Nurses have an image of being caring and gentle. But if you live with one, it's a different story.
My husband tells people the real deal. His mom is an Emergency Department nurse and his wife is an Oncology nurse. Compared to what nurses see at work, you're just whining. My mother-in-law says people come into the Emerg and say, "I'm dying!" She thinks (but doesn't say), "I've seen dying, and you're not it."
Nurses triage you. 1)Airway 2)Breathing 3)Circulation or 1)Breathing 2)Bleeding 3)Bones. If all those things are fine, you're met with a blank look.
When our kids wanted to skip school because they weren't feeling well, I was ruthless. "Unless I see a measurable sign like a fever or vomiting, etc., you're taking a Tylenol and going to school."
My husband was surprised at my apparent coldness, but I told him they were dealing with the Queen of Malingering. When I was a kid, I could invent any number of symptoms and even manufacture some signs, to get out of school. I had more tummy aches (read, belly-aching) and low-grade fevers than you'd think possible. We had a mercury thermometer. My mom would pop it in my mouth and leave the room. Did you know that friction raises the mercury? I would rub it on our couch briskly, until it was at a suitable temperature, shake it down if it was too high to correspond with how hot my forehead was (or wasn't), and enjoy my day off.
I know, I was a scoundrel.
School stressed me out, and my Mom was extra attentive to me when I was 'sick.'
Occasionally, I would get busted, like when I tried to heat the thermometer under hot water, and it would break. That happened twice.
When my husband had cancer, people said, "Oh, good, at least you have your own oncology nurse." Well, I wasn't so heartless, then. I did some things for him that I could do because I was a nurse, like flush and dress his PICC line or give him a Magnesium bolus I.V. if it was ordered, or know when to take him to Emerg. But in other ways, I didn't like it. He was my husband, not my patient. I was dealing with cancer patients at work and at home. My husband was bald and skinny like my patients and it was more than a little wierd. But we got through that time and now just look back on it as a bad memory. I wouldn't want to go through that again.
Anyway, I suppose having a nurse in the house has some benefits, even if it's only to teach the kids to tough it out and not hide from their problems.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Life Lessons From The Closet

What can you learn about yourself from cleaning out a closet? Let me tell you.
My daughter and I cleaned out a storage closet in order to give her a walk-in closet in her room. The task was long overdue, mostly because I knew it would be an all-day event. I knew it had to be done and that she'd appreciate it, but I'm a lazy procrastinator. I hardly knew where to begin.
Enter: HORMONES. I only feel like cleaning one or two days a month, but on those days I feel like a mother bird who has to feather her nest for her soon-to-arrive baby bird.
At the end of the day, we had gathered up 5 bags of clothes, 5 boxes of recycling and garbage, eight boxes of donatable goods for Value Village, and then we redirected the rest of the things we wanted to keep to other closets.
We found my wedding gown and my 16 year old tried it on. It fit, except for the length. My husband asked, "Were you really that small when we got married?" Yes, he really did! I asked him to rephrase the question.
We also found all of the nursery school curriculum from when I toyed with the idea of home schooling. I put away those toys and sent the kids to Christian school instead.
My daughter kept a few treasures. She even saved one of the homeschool posters about character, which says, "Jeff goes to bed when his mother tells him to. He obeys quickly." She put it inside her closet door.

I LEARNED:
1. I have way too many clothes. I don't even miss what I sent away.
2. I'm a pack rat. I didn't think I was, but the weight of the evidence is greatly against me.
3. We don't have enough closet space in our house. That's probably because of #2.
4. I'm nostalgic.
5. I'm only organized when the mood strikes me.
6. I don't know why I'm saving my wedding gown. Yes, I do. See #4. But if my daughters are anything like me, they'll want their own wedding gowns. I remain hopeful that they'll want to at least cut it up and use it somehow. Because it's OBVIOUS I won't be fitting into it again.
7. I hadn't cleaned out my closet in years. See #5.
8. I'm a lazy procrastinator.
9. It feels good to get rid of junk.
10. After it's done, I wonder why I didn't do it sooner. Oh, yeah, see #5 and #8.

So what are you waiting for? Go clean out a closet and see what you learn about yourself.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Technology is Our Friend

Oct. 6, 2008

Outside my window...a beautiful, sunny day.
I am thinking...that whoever invented the iPod is a genius.
I am thankful...that I can read and listen to music at the same time. My commute (an hour each way) goes so quickly.
From the kitchen...leftovers. We had an amazing dinner yesterday. Chicken, ribs, potatoes, broccoli and carrots, pumpkin pie.
I am wearing...jeans and a new "Mom sweater". That's a V-neck sweater with 3/4 length sleeves, with a mock white collared shirt underneath. It's what all 40 year old Mom's wear on commercials. I suppose now I'm supposed to smile while I think of new ways to make my house smell clean and fresh for my family. Because, what else would give a 40 year old a reason for living?
I am reading...The Forgotten War, by Mart Laar, about the Estonian Resistance movement in WW2.
I am hoping...to get more music on my iPod. I've been scanning my Christian CD's to decide what to transfer, so I won't have to pay for them again.
I am hearing...Nobody Knows, by the Tony Rich Project.
Around the house...back to the daily grind. I actually went shopping this morning and bought a new sheet set and super-soft guest towels.
One of my favourite things...watching movies or documentaries about submarines. I know, "Nerd Alert!"
Some plans for the week...Accept the challenge of writing 100 words a day for a month (officially start next month). Website http://www.100words.com/about.php

Chicken Pot Pie with Herbed Dumpling Crust


This is the ultimate in comfort food on a cold day. Add a hearty soup or salad and it is very satisfying.

1. Bake 2 chicken breasts for 40-45 minutes. Add your usual spices or chicken bouillon powder with water. Cool and chop.
2. Peel 6 mini potatoes or two large potatoes. Slice to bite size pieces. Microwave for five minutes until softened.
3. Chop: 1/2 leek or one cooking onion.
4 mushrooms, quartered
1/2 cup green beans
2/3 cup carrots
1 stalk celery
1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas
1/2 tsp. minced garlic
4. In a large frying pan, saute, leek, garlic, mushrooms, and onion in mixture of butter and olive oil.
5. Add thyme, salt and pepper, poultry seasoning to taste.
6. Add celery, beans, carrots and peas.
7. Add potatoes, and chopped chicken.
8. Add 1 cup chicken stock with 2 tbsp. flour.
9. Heat until liquid thickens. Mix thoroughly.
10. Spray casserole dish with non-stick spray. Pour mixture into it.
11. Top with Herbed Dumpling Crust (below).

Herbed Dumpling Crust

1 cup flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. parsley
1/2 tsp. dried dill
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 cup cold butter
1/2 cup cold milk

Combine first five ingredients. Cut in butter with a pastry blender. Sprinkle with milk. Gather together to form a dough. Roll dough on floured surface to fit the top of the casserole dish. Place directly on top of chicken mixture. Cut steam slits in dough. Brush top of crust with milk. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

And Loving It!

I came home from school every day and watched Get Smart! I hate to admit there were times when I actually worried about him (the time he almost drowned in the phonebooth, or when he had a tarantula crawling on him), but I digress.
This movie had all the standard lines and jokes you'd know if you had watched the show, as well as the cone of silence (updated, of course), Laraby, the agent who hides in the tree, the shoe phone and Hymie.
The new things were a smarter Agent 99, and two nerdy techies.
The downside was, as in every show and movie made now, they bring in the gay stuff, and have two men kissing. Pretty gross. Otherwise, it was fun to watch.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

The Good Life

Oct. 4, 2008

Outside my window...a cool, grey day. Our sidewalks were just replaced yesterday. My tulip bulbs are in the ground. I cover them with chicken wire and weight it down with rocks because those crazy squirrels will dig them up, take a bite, and toss them away. I learned the hard way.
I am thinking...that I have a good life.
I am thankful...for the amazing conference we attended this weekend. Great preaching on marriage, family and church life.
From the kitchen...homemade pizza and apple crisp.
I am wearing...black dress pants and a black blouse.
I am reading...The Dowry of Miss Lydia Clark by Lawana Blackwell.
I am hoping...that my co-worker gets better. She was struck by a car and has a broken hip and leg.
I am hearing...a soccer game. Toronto FC vs. New York Red Bulls. Toronto is ahead 2-1at the half.
Around the house...we have friends visiting for the weekend from out of town. My daughter is home for the weekend from university, but I have yet to see her. She's singing tonight at a Christian event.
One of my favourite things...a hot sauna and a cool lake.
Some plans for the week...just working four nights, so far. I'll see if I have energy for anything else.