tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53007309006155417212024-03-14T03:03:01.107-07:00All In A DayMusings on the life of a teacher, mother, knitter, writer, human being.Kris Elliott Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00897042354739306665noreply@blogger.comBlogger1366125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5300730900615541721.post-5202940215201000382017-07-11T22:04:00.001-07:002017-07-11T22:04:15.514-07:00Our Seventh Anniversary<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"><img id="id_7d0d_fe85_f5c_5909" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-nfSqbSQ4Qcs/WWWrdvQxrSI/AAAAAAAAIA4/ufhgVk1fCmsovYNojqBKB_FYRkYpuVQPgCHMYCw/s5000/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 353px; height: auto;"><br></span><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;">Yesterday, July 10, Weber and I celebrated our seventh anniversary. Sometimes it feels like we were just married yesterday and then there are times that I can't remember my life without him.. The geek in me particularly loved this anniversary because it's date is a palindrome,, 7-10-17. This is a once in a lifetime occurrence…unless we live to be 155 and 160. So how did we celebrate?</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); min-height: 13.1px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"></span><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); min-height: 13.1px;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;">A few weeks ago Weber and I started asking each other what we wanted to do to celebrate this anniversary. It was too hot to do anything outside. We are both trying to be intentional about our food choices so an indulgent meal just because it was our anniversary didn't sound appealing to either one of us. And then the decision was made for us…we needed to be home because a less than professional gutter installer was supposed to come back to fix a horrible job he did installing new gutters at our house a few weeks ago. Fortunately, he said he'd call when he was headed our way. So we weren't on total house arrest all day.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); min-height: 13.1px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"></span><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;">So, we went o our favorite coffee shop for breakfast and maybe a caramel macchiato…or two. We then went home and did a few chores. Innthe afternoon, i had a pedicure while Weber went to Target. We then went to Chipotle for lunch/dinner. This was followed by a trip to the gym for our regular workouts so that we could treat ourselves to some frozen yogurt afterwards, without feeling guilty. It was a perfect day…except for the fact that the gutter guy never did show up.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); min-height: 13.1px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"></span><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;">We so enjoy our simple everyday life that doing something different, supposedly special, seemed more like stressful than celebratory. It felt funny coming to that realization. And then I thought, what’s wrong with enjoying coffee and a breakfast sandwich together? Or a simple dinner and a trip to the gym? Or conversation over the evening MSNBC shows? Nothing! To be genuinely happy with the every day is such a blessing!</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); min-height: 13.1px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"></span><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;">We did exchange a few non-traditional gifts. What says “I love you " more than Lego, a camera lens, and Flintstones DVDs? NOTHING! These are perfect gifts! Weber knows me well. And, he enables all of my addictions...er, interests.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); min-height: 13.1px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"></span><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;">A funny thing about gifts and this being our seventh anniversary…one of the contemporary gifts for this anniversary is wool. We could have gone yarn shopping to celebrate!!! I like yarn too!! I have no doubt that if I had told Weber that that is what I wanted to do on our anniversary, he would have made it happen. That’s the kind of guy he is. And I love him more than words can express.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); min-height: 13.1px;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"></span><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;">
</span><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size: 11pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"></span><img id="id_aac3_61e3_3697_10cf" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-y20CjUKw9JM/WWWreLUIHbI/AAAAAAAAIA8/eSxURa_UXi0LBmBzWtVNc9vPjK9GuaQHACHMYCw/s5000/%255BUNSET%255D" alt="" title="" tooltip="" style="width: 353px; height: auto;"><br><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 11px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br></p>Kris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336146104606375687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5300730900615541721.post-89893855769666656602017-06-30T18:57:00.000-07:002017-06-30T18:57:17.058-07:00And June Is Over!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Here is what my June looked like in a picture a day...</div>
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June is a few hours from being over. We are now halfway through 2017. And we are also closer to Christmas 2017 than Christmas 2016. You have 177 shopping days.<br />
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The word that comes to mind when I look back at my daily photos from the month and I think about all the experiences that June brought with it is <i style="font-weight: bold;">growth. </i><br />
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The biggest event during this month is that Weber celebrated his 60th birthday. There was no fanfare or big shindig, just barbecue and friends at our house. It was a fun evening and a perfect opportunity to give thanks for the many, many blessing that we have been given.<br />
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One of the most obvious images of growth at our house was our Tower Garden. It was filled with lettuce, celery, zucchini, peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes. We have enjoyed everything but the tomatoes. When we started to see the first fruits of the vine reach a good size, we checked them every day, watching for them to start turning from green to red. The first one grew and grew and then disappeared. As did the second one and the third one and... After finding what we are fairly sure were green tomato remnants, we assumed that some kind of wildlife, maybe squirrels?, were stealing the almost ripe tomatoes, so we covered the plants with a wide mesh net. Along came more tomatoes. They lasted longer making us think that we had solved our problem. Nope. The next batch of nearly ripe tomatoes are now gone too. Our only option now is to get a finer mesh net. We don't want to spray anything on the tomatoes because I'm not a fan of chemicals and our dogs are in the yard where the tomatoes are. So, we'll see. Maybe July will bring with it some tomatoes that we are able to protect from our neighborhood wildlife. And keep your fingers crossed...so far nothing has touched the almost ready watermelon! <br />
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Thanks to our friend Paul, our library was finished this month. Our number of books has not grown (yet), but the level of neatness and organization of the books that we have grew tenfold thanks to much more shelf space than we had previously.<br />
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I seem to have several food photos this month as well. Perhaps this is why that word <i style="font-weight: bold;">growth</i> applies to me as well as the tomatoes! Actually, for the last ten days, I have been working to grow an exercise routine that will help me shrink a little...well, hopefully a lot. Weber and I have made time for the gym an everyday thing. I'm hoping that between now and when I go back to school in August that it will have become a habit that being back at work will not break.<br />
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And, most importantly, relationships with friends and family continue to grow. I am thankful that I was able to spend both Weber's birthday and Fathers Day with my entire family. I am blessed and honored that my friend Joni came to celebrate Weber's birthday with us and that her arrival coincided with Best Friends Day and her departure International Albinism Awareness Day. We did our best to celebrate each of these occasions appropriately...with knitting and good conversation and maybe a little food!<br />
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I am happy to say that June was a good month. I am grateful for that since our spring was a little tough. The unstructured days and freedom to do things that feed my soul almost anytime that I want to is such an amazing feeling! Needless to say, I am enjoying having the summer off. For the last 8-10 years, I have taught summer school. I could definitely get used to this not working routine. But, that will have to wait for awhile.<br />
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So for now...farewell June. Welcome, July. <br />
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<br />Kris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336146104606375687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5300730900615541721.post-1313859964411343272017-06-26T21:20:00.000-07:002017-06-26T21:20:45.838-07:00Dear Universe<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">I was standing in the closet looking for a t-shirt to match my workout capris. We all know that time on the treadmill feels much better when your clothes match. Since tomorrow is laundry day and I've done my time on the treadmill 7 out of the last eight days, my clothing choices were limited…as in I had one pair of clean capris. And as it turned out, my choice of a matching t-shirt was equally limited. I pulled out my Human Rights Campaign shirt that boldly says across the front, <b>ALL LOVE IS EQUAL</b>. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">I turned to Weber and said that I was not sure that I should wear this shirt to our local recreation center. Though Dallas county and the city of Dallas are forward thinking, the first tier suburb in which we live is known for is backward views on many issues of social justice.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">But the t-shirt matched.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">And, today marks the two year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s passing of Marriage Equality Act.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">And why did I care what anyone thought of the message on my t-shirt?</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">I wasn’t worried at all about anyone’s opinions of me; I was concerned about someone trying to engage me in some kind of heated discussion. I wanted my physical workout on the treadmill to get my heart rate up, not an intellectual workout. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Then I decided that I was up for the challenge should the opportunity present itself.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Surely no one would say anything to me. I was only entertaining a bunch of ridiculous “what if” scenarios in my head for reasons that I can’t even really explain.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Off to the city recreation center we went.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">I have a favorite treadmill. It’s in the middle of the row of eight. The fact that it’s in the middle is not the important thing here. What's important is that it's right under the air conditioning vent. This spot is almost always available when I go to workout. It wasn’t today. I should have known right then that the universe was trying to tell me something. I opted for the treadmill on the end at the far left, right beside a major thoroughfare around the gym. It’s a treadmill I’d never used before today. An opportunity for a new perspective.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue";">I put my headphones on, deciding to walk to Mary </span>Chapin<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue";"> Carpenter’s album </span><b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue';"><i>The Age of Miracles</i> </b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue";">today. </span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Is “album” even still a part of mainstream vocabulary?</i></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue";"> I got the belt moving on the treadmill and hit play on my phone. I was on my way. I felt good. I was moving at a good pace. I was enjoying the music. I was, as they say, in the zone.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">It was about thirty minutes into my walk/run. I was hot and sweaty (since I didn’t have the benefit of normal A/C vent). My hair was falling out of my ponytail and was sticking to my face. My legs needed to be shaved. But, one of the perks of having albinism is that my leg hair is white too so unless it glimmers in the sunlight, no one can really see it so I can get away with the stubble that you dark-haired ladies can’t. :-) I tell you all of that to give you a visual…</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue";">Then next thing I know, a gentleman, probably in his sixties but I’m terrible at judging age so maybe not, rolled up right beside my treadmill in his wheelchair and was looking up at me. My knee-jerk thought was</span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i> Oh great. Here comes the comment and discussion that I so didn’t want to have.</i></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue";"> I was brave and polite and pulled off my headphones and said “hi.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">He hesitated for a split second and then said, “You are very pretty, especially your hair.”</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">That is so not what I expected to hear that I all I could say was, “Thank you.” </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">He rolled himself over to a weight machine and I put my headphones back on and walked another two miles.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">I don’t really know what that interaction was all about. I don’t know what he saw. I don’t know why he felt compelled to say something to me. I don’t know anything about him. What I do know is that what he said was not at all what I expected to hear. I had mentally prepared myself for a negative interaction, one where I would be on the defensive. In so doing, I was totally unprepared for the interaction that I had.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Dear Universe,</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Thanks for the lesson.</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Sincerely,</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Me</span></i></span></div>
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Kris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336146104606375687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5300730900615541721.post-23871978415329071792017-06-17T18:53:00.001-07:002017-06-17T18:53:55.838-07:00Power Food<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">No fifty-something year old woman with no children or grandchildren around and who is fairly competent in the kitchen should be making a special trip to the grocery store to buy cream cheese, pretzels, Cool Whip, and Jello, all to be used in the same recipe...and be excited about it. But, this is exactly where I find myself today. I partially blame my <b><a href="http://www.siftedtogether.com/" target="_blank">Sifted Together</a></b> blog buddy, Tracey, for this predicament in which I find myself. She gave me a subscription to <b><i>Taste of Home’s Simple & Delicious</i></b> magazine for Christmas and this recipe is on the front cover of the June/July issue. However, I can’t let Tracey take full blame for my enthusiasm surrounding the making of this recipe, most of it really is couched in realizing the power of food.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Let’s start with the individual ingredients…</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Cool Whip</b> - Most people won’t admit it, but almost everyone has a personal relationship with <b>Cool Whip</b>. It may not be a basic staple in their diet, but I bet there is some family recipe that shows up at family holiday gatherings, probably made by grandma or passed down through her, that has <b>Cool Whip </b>as an integral ingredient. And we all know that the holiday feast would not be the same without this dish. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Cream Cheese</b> - Cream cheese is the secret ingredient in many dips, sauces, appetizers, and desserts. I’m not much on eating plain cream cheese spread on my bagels, but I am as guilty as the next guy of using cream cheese for that extra oomph in a recipe, especially mashed potatoes. But, don’t tell anybody!!!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Pretzels</b> - I have to admit that pretzels, as far as I’m concerned, are a basic food group. They are my favorite “chip” alongside a sandwich, afternoon snack with a Diet Coke, dessert when dipped in chocolate, and the perfect complement to a nice cold beer. I’m not much of a drinker, but when I do indulge an adult beverage, my preference is a good beer. That right there probably explains why I am excited about this Pretzel-Cool Whip-Jello recipe! :-)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And then there’s the <b>Jell-O</b>…</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I have a love-hate relationship with <b>Jell-O.</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As a child, <b>Jell-O</b> was a mainstay dessert at my house, made a bit more “healthy” with the addition of canned fruit salad. Those of us of a certain age will definitely remember this combo. And if you do, you will also remember that the flavor of <b>Jell-O </b>didn’t matter. Whatever mom had on hand would do. I was OK with this “dessert” except for the grapes in the canned fruit cocktail. They brought the whole experience down a notch. Grapes should not be canned under any circumstances!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I didn't carry on the family tradition of this <b>Jell-O </b>fruit salad dessert with my girls, but the canned grapes are not the reason. My girls are the reason. Let’s see if I can explain this delicately. When I was pregnant, I had terrible morning sickness…and afternoon and evening and night sickness…and it lasted from conception to eviction. My inability to keep any food down landed me in the hospital numerous times with both girls. As any of you who have been in the hospital and on a liquid diet know, <b>Jell-O</b> is served at every meal. I ate, and often returned, <b>Jell-O </b>in every color and flavor…except strawberry and cherry because they don’t give you red <b>Jell-O</b> in the hospital. Apparently my prenatal <b>Jell-O</b> experience affected my children because neither one of them has ever really liked <b>Jell-O.</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Fast forward sixteen years, when I had suppressed the many episodes of returned <b>Jell-O</b> and other unpleasantries of pregnancy and childbirth, and <b>Jell-O</b> makes a fresh appearance in my life.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Weber, Offspring No. 2, and I went to Delaware to visit my dad. While there, we had a lunch date with Dad's side of the family - his mother and my grandmother, his sister and my aunt, and one of my cousins. We met at a local restaurant that was a cross between your typical local diner and Luby’s cafeteria. As I was perusing the menu trying to make my lunch choice, my aunt and grandmother both said that I HAD to try the <b><i>Jell-O Pretzel Salad</i></b>. For an instant, visions of canned grapes whirling around with pretzels danced in my head until I read the description of said “salad.” Thankfully, no canned grapes were used in the making of this salad. Frankly, there was really nothing about this side dish that resembled anything that I would call a salad. Not only were no canned grapes harmed in the making of this salad, no fruit or vegetable of any kind was used, according to the menu description. In this case, I think the word “salad” was attached in much the same way that “natural ingredients” is used on chocolate chip cookie packaging; these terms are meant to make us feel better about making not the healthiest food selections. Whatever. That day was about time with family, not about obsessing about food choices. That said, I ordered the <b><i>Jell-O Pretzel Salad</i></b> and it was delicious!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">After we returned home from that trip, I made the "salad" a time or two. I hadn’t thought about it much since then until it appeared on the cover of the current issue of <b><i>Simple & Delicious</i></b>. When I saw it, my first response was that I needed to make this recipe <i>right now! </i>Usually when I thumb through food magazines, I make a mental note of recipes that I want to try. Eventually I come back to them; or, I don’t. I resisted the urge to go to the store and buy the ingredients right then, however that self control lasted less than twenty-four hours. In the middle of the day, with a heat index of 105 degrees, Weber took me to the grocery store for pretzels, cream cheese, Cool Whip, and <b>Jell-O.</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I got to work making the “salad” when we got home. Despite its simple ingredients, this is not an immediate gratification kind of dish. The pretzel crust has to be baked and cooled completely before the cream cheese and Cool Whip layer is added. This layer must then chill. The <b>Jello</b> is made, cools, and partially sets before it can be poured atop the the pretzel and cream cheese base and sets completely. The whole process takes a couple of hours</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My creation was ready to be sliced and eaten about 10pm. <b><i>Jell-O Pretzel Salad</i></b>…it was what’s for dinner. Yeah, I completely forgot about making real dinner. Sorry, honey! Weber sat down with me and we enjoyed our treat together. It was every bit as good as I remember even though I used black cherry <b>Jell-O</b> instead of the “traditional” strawberry.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As I cleaned up our dishes from this late night treat, I started thinking about why I was so intent on making this recipe. I realized that it had little to do with the food itself - don’t get me wrong; this is delicious! - and more to do with the circumstance around which I first ate it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit;">That trip to Delaware and seemingly casual lunch back in June of 2009 was so much more…</span></div>
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<li><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit;">It was my first trip back to Delaware since my mother’s funeral in January of 2007</span></li>
<li><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit;">It was the first time I had seen my dad since I got divorced.</span></li>
<li><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit;">It was the trip on which I introduced Weber to my dad.</span></li>
<li><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit;">It was the first time in many, many years that I had seen my grandmother, aunt, and cousin.</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit;">(My mom was not much of a family person unless it was her side of the family.)</span></li>
<li><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit;">For the first time I saw my dad and his sister banter back and forth like brothers and sisters do, yet there there was an undercurrent of unmistakable and unconditional love.</span></li>
<li><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit;">That lunch was the last time that I saw my grandmother alive, the last time that I would be part of a four generation gathering of my family.</span></li>
<li><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: inherit;">At the end of our stay in Delaware, despite me being forty-something, Weber asked my dad for my hand in marriage.</span></li>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Looking back, I now understand why the <b><i>Jello-O Pretzel Salad</i></b> elicited such a visceral response in me.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And today as I sit here writing, I am facing the third Father’s Day without my dad and realizing that this day marks the fifth anniversary of my grandmother’s death.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thank you for the memories, <i style="font-weight: bold;">Jello-O Pretzel Salad. </i>You and I can enjoy one another remebering the first time we met and being thankful for those memories</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here’s to the power of food…</span></span></div>
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Kris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336146104606375687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5300730900615541721.post-5386740653959125002017-06-13T20:59:00.000-07:002017-06-13T21:00:03.564-07:00The Many Shades of FriendshipIt's been a whirlwind of celebration and good times around our house for the last five days or so. I know how blessed I am to be able to say that as there are so many people in the world who have nothing to celebrate and not much to call good in their lives. My hope is that I'll never take any of the gifts of this life for granted.<br />
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A good friend flew in last Thursday to spend a few days with me. It just so happened that Thursday June 8th was <i style="font-weight: bold;">National Best Friends Day</i>. I got to celebrate well! It was also the randomly assigned date that I was given to write a daily devotion to be shared worldwide by my church. I have written here before about how blessed I am to have so many wonderful people in my life to call friends...people near and far, old and young, male and female. To be assigned National Best Friends Day as the inspiration for my devotion was perfect! I'm not sure that I can call any one person my "best friend" because all of those that I call friends are near and dear to my heart and all add their own unique gifts to my life.<br />
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Here is part of the devotion that I wrote on and for <i style="font-weight: bold;">National Best Friend's Day. </i> It is based on the passage from <b>Ecclesiastes 4: 9-10</b><br />
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<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>It's better to have a partner then to go it alone. Share the work, share the wealth. And if one falls down, the other helps. But if there's no one to help, it's tough! </i></b></span></blockquote>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><b><span style="font-family: "helvetica"; font-size: 12px;">A</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i> Word of Hope</i></span></b></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Today is National Best Friends Day, "a day to honor that one special person you call your “best friend”. This day is a time to show them how much you appreciate them, how special and important they are to you and how you cherish their friendship."</i></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>As an only child and thus never having a sibling relationship, my friends have always held an extra special place in my life. Whether swapping my favorite marbles on the elementary school playground, lamenting the woes of adolescence, or sharing the joys and sorrows of adult life, friends have taught me that it is most certainly better to have a partner than go it alone. In many circumstances of my life, I know that my friends have been the hands, feet, and heart of Christ. And like Jesus, they are the ones who have shown me unconditional love, often when I didn't deserve it. Friends are those people with whom we are comfortable and willing to share trust, support, sympathy and empathy. But, how often do we think about those particular words when we think about our friends? </i></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>The <b>Urban Dictionary</b> defines friends in this way: [Friends are] "people who are aware of how retarded you are and still manage to be seen in public with you, people who make you laugh till you pee your pants, people who cry for you when one of your special items disappears. When you don’t have enough money to get an ice cream, they chip in. [A friend] knows all of your Internet passwords. They would never make you cry just to be mean." </i></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Though this definition may seem a bit trite on first reading, it exhibits trust, support, sympathy, and empathy. It is, at its core, the picture of what we value most in those we call our best friends, painted in a way that most of us can easily relate.</i></span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yes, the official day to celebrate our best friends has come and gone; however, we can and should be thankful for those </span></span>people and our relationships with them every day. </div>
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<i style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Who are your best friends? Do you see the hands, feet, and heart of Christ in them? Can they see and feel Christ in you? Do you see your friends as a gift from God? Think about your friends today. Tell them how grateful you are to have them in your life. Thank God for them.</i></blockquote>
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If I had to name one best friend, it would be Weber. He is the one that knows everything there is to know about me - the good, the bad, and the ugly - and is still willing to go to sleep next to me every night and wake up and stand by my side every day. I'll be the first to admit that some days that is not easy!</div>
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One of the reasons that my friend Joni came to visit was to help us celebrate Weber's 60th birthday. I have to say up front, he is not a birthday party kind of guy. His dislike of birthday parties is less about the aging thing and more about the party part. We had to have a little "come to Jesus" discussion about how life is a gift and allowing your friends to celebrate your birthday is a way to say thank you for that gift of life.</div>
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We spent Saturday evening, his birthday, surrounded by friends, family, and barbecue. It's hard to be grumpy when your world is filled with such awesome people! Banana pudding, instead of birthday cake, helps too! <br />
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And as if Saturday night's festivities weren't enough, we reconvened with many of the same people Sunday morning in church to worship together and afterward to break bread. Several of us were together again Sunday evening to watch the Tony Awards. Yep...that's what friends do - celebrate together, pray together, eat together, relax together. And sometimes we share hugs, tears, laughter, and hard truths. Oh...and banana pudding!<br />
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Today, June 13th, is <i style="font-weight: bold;"> International Albinism Awareness Day. </i>Though albinism is something I have lived with for my entire life, it is not something that I have ever thought deserving of a celebration. It wasn't until about seven years ago when I became active with the <b>National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation (NOAH)</b> that I allowed albinism to be more than just a part of me, but a part of me that is deserving of a celebration every day. <br />
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Through NOAH, I have many new friends with whom albinism was the commonality that brought us together, but our friendships are bound together by the things mentioned above - trust, support, sympathy, and empathy. We are now the kind of friends that will cry together when one of your special items disappears (like those stitches on your sock gusset, Joni), lend money for ice cream (Becca), and hopefully will never make one another cry just to be mean!!! Stealing your salad fork does not count as being mean, Becca! :-)<br />
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Here Joni and I are rocking our friendship and the albinism twin thing. Lol! We got to share most of <i style="font-weight: bold;">International Albinism Awareness Day</i> together before she headed home.<br />
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Thank you to everyone that I am blessed to call friend.<br />
<br />Kris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336146104606375687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5300730900615541721.post-58809703890633736312017-06-06T22:01:00.000-07:002017-06-06T22:01:19.146-07:00What If...???<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If you ignore the weeds, eventually they will take over. Just as if we allow people to make the same mistakes over and over and over again, the wrong or hurtful or dangerous ways will take over. Why is it socially unacceptable to point out the error of one's ways? Why is it wrong to acknowledge that making mistakes is natural. <i style="font-weight: bold;">Everyone</i> makes mistakes. Yes, even you! When did it become a sign of weakness rather than a sign of humility to admit when we are wrong? If not from mistakes, and even failures, how do we learn? How do we grow? How do we become better people? Why do we consider a life lived unaware of our personal shortcomings to be a life of luxury? <br />
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When did discipline, personal and parental, become passe?<br />
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When did relationships with power and money become blatantly more important than relationships with people?<br />
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It used to be that money, politics, and religion were forbidden topics of conversation even among friends. What did people talk about? What would <b>Facebook</b> look like if posts relating to politics, religion, and money were forbidden? If the conversations that dominate are not about how we spend and/or waste our money, or debating whose religion is best and why most of the world's population is going to hell, or defending and criticizing political moves that have nothing to do with governing this country and everything to do with using, abusing and manipulating people so that a handful of undeserving individuals gain personal power, what would we see in our news feeds? Lots of kittens and puppies? That would be OK with me.<br />
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How did we get here?<br />
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Why are we still here?<br />
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Yes, we need to acknowledge and try understand the weeds. We also need to learn how to tend our gardens...<br />
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...how to tame the weeds...<br />
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...how to keep them from choking out the roses.<br />
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<br />Kris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336146104606375687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5300730900615541721.post-11916258597821232502017-06-05T21:51:00.001-07:002017-06-05T21:51:15.513-07:00About The BooksI said yesterday that I am a minimalist. I don't like to be surrounded by a lot of "stuff." I also said that the one exception to my own "if I can't use it right now then get rid of it" philosophy is books. I like books. All kinds of books. Weber likes books too. This is good for our relationship and bad for our bookshelves. When we got married, we had limited shelf space. We agreed that we would both purge our collections until our combined books would ALL fit on the shelves that we had...nothing stored in boxes or double-shelved. <br />
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That was seven years ago.<br />
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We have more books now. We did not purchase shelve space at the same rate that we purchased books. The books were double and triple stacked on the shelves and the floor. We couldn't find the ones that we wanted. I didn't even want to look at the shelves because it just made me sad. This whole scenario was not pretty. We finally decided that we needed to bite the bullet and do something proactive. It was time for some new shelves.<br />
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Well...not <i style="font-weight: bold;">some</i> new shelves; it ended up being <i style="font-weight: bold;">all</i> new shelves. We went the built-in route. Fortunately, we have a very good friend who is very capable, talented, and more importantly, was willing to take on our shelf building project. <br />
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When it came time to install the shelves, we had to pull all of the books that were fortunate to be on shelves and add them to their friends on the floor. Our library was a chaotic maze of towering stacks of books. One false move, window-rattling clap or thunder, or cat who thought stack hopping her next new sport would cause the tenuous at best piles to be reduced to something that looked like a demolition site.<br />
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Fortunately the cat stayed away and the weather cooperated. It was not until the new shelves started being moved in that said cat became interested. I think she saw the new installation as six story kitty condos. She spent a great deal of time choosing her perfect unit - checking accessibility and view from every possible location.<br />
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This photo makes "the neighborhood" look much more desirable than it really is. There is just no truth in advertising!!!</div>
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Blueper B saw the the real deal and was not at all impressed.</div>
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He was not interested in renting a condo anywhere near here. Lol!</div>
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Once our friend got the shelves installed, my job of reshelving all of the books began. I have no idea how many books we have, bu I do know we have approximately 160 linear feet of shelving, that's 1932 inches. If we assume that the average width of a book is 1.5 inches and that most of our shelves are full, I'd say we have well over 1000 books. That is a lot of putting book on shelves!!! Our goal was to get them on the shelves grouped in broad categories - poetry and prose, history, biography, language, creativity, writing, photography and so on. We will make a second pass and fine tune our categories and alphabetize the shelves a little later. At this point, we just needed the books off of the floor and in some semblance of order.</div>
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Who knew that we had two copies of the <i style="font-weight: bold;">Tao of Pooh</i> and three of the <i style="font-weight: bold;">Te of Piglet, </i>Dr. Seuss titles in five different languages, two editions of <i style="font-weight: bold;">Grimm's Fairy Tales </i>- the happily-ever-after version and the not-so-happily-ever after earlier edition, an American history book with a publication date of 1865, family Bibles dating back to 1890, and a ridiculous amount of poetry.</div>
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Though it seemed next to impossible, my goal for today was to get <u>everything</u> off the floor and on a shelf. This is where I was at lunchtime.</div>
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And at dinnertime...Voila!</div>
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We are just waiting on drawer and cabinet fronts. I have a few little aesthetic things left to do, but for the most part I am done! Even though things aren't alphabetized yet, I am confident that I can now put my hands on any book that I want in no more than a minute or two. What a great feeling!</div>
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The dogs now think the real estate here is pretty nice. That cat's final choice for her abode is a single cat residence in the form of an upholstered chair rather than in a multi-story cat condo.</div>
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Now to take time to relax and read, read, read!!!</div>
Kris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336146104606375687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5300730900615541721.post-64779042337896646192017-06-04T23:51:00.000-07:002017-06-04T23:51:02.034-07:00Celery Leaves<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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My dad was raised by a single mother who grew up during the Depression. From this experience, he learned the importance of hard work and to not waste anything. Dad would save anything and everything and repurpose it. Plastic soda bottles with their bottoms cut off became mini greenhouses over pots containing cuttings that were rooting. He had an unending supply of rubber bands collected from years of morning newspapers. We won't talk of the many collections that were safely stored in butter tubs. I did not inherit this practice from my dad. I am a purger, a minimalist, an if I can't use it right now, don't save it kind of person...except for books. I guess its a good thing that books can't be stored in butter tubs!<br />
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And food...I can't stand wasting food.<br />
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This is the first year that we have grown celery in our garden. It has done quite well. Over the weekend we harvested four bunches. Yes, that's a lot of celery, but for me celery is like potato chips - a vehicle for dips of various kinds and, of course, nobody can eat just one. Peanut butter, hummus, cheese, even the occasional Ranch dip are all fair game as companions for celery. We cut and stored the stalks so they can be quickly and easily grabbed for snacks or meals. Did you know that peanut butter and celery is indeed a meal? When all was said and done, we were left with a huge pile of leafy greens from the tops of the stalks. Most of the time these have already been removed from the celery when you buy it at the grocery store so you don't have to worry about them. This big pile of beautiful greens sitting on the counter caused my don't waste food gene to kick in. The problem is that I had no idea what to do with celery leaves other than make soup or toss them in salads.<br />
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Enter Google.<br />
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SEARCH: what to do with celery leaves<br />
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This search yielded quite a few articles. Soups and stews, salads, homemade celery salt...the usual and expected suggestions were all mentioned. The one thing that I had not thought about was <i style="font-weight: bold;">celery leaf pesto</i>. I like pesto. Celery leaves have a somewhat sharp taste unlike the sweet flavor of the basil used in traditional pesto, but it was worth a try. I read several recipes, all very similar to one another and to basil pesto except for the celery leaves. I ultimately chose the recipe I used because it called for the largest amount of celery leaves of the recipes that I found and it did not use parsley.<br />
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<a href="http://deliciousliving.com/recipes/celery-leaf-walnut-pesto-sauce" target="_blank">This</a> is the recipe that I settled on, though I substituted pine nuts for the walnuts.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjNouf9qMsMA7WrmiCj3umQEXh1ObpqMS0fsEen1sDu7bcfC6lwb_1zgGlUDHRCo_dZpZnsk__bXLXm5vzL_3BCcHP2xw7kwiXz8DvpKnxqx4mbR-632LGpBYGYDtIvTjJBd3qN3XGE_U/s1600/Pesto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjNouf9qMsMA7WrmiCj3umQEXh1ObpqMS0fsEen1sDu7bcfC6lwb_1zgGlUDHRCo_dZpZnsk__bXLXm5vzL_3BCcHP2xw7kwiXz8DvpKnxqx4mbR-632LGpBYGYDtIvTjJBd3qN3XGE_U/s400/Pesto.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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As is often the case with dips and sauces, the celery leaf pesto will probably be best once it sits for a day and the flavors have a chance to meld. Though even at this point, it tastes better than it looks. Lol! Celery leaf pesto can be used as a dip, sandwich spread, over pasta, or in any way that you would use basil pesto. Other than a few licks from the spatula as I was cleaning up, I haven't tried this yet "in context." I'm giving it its time to "age." I'll give you a full report once I have explored all of the possibilities.<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: x-large;">IN OTHER BLOG NEWS:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47;">Pastries, Pies, and Tarts on <i><a href="http://www.siftedtogether.com/food-friday-pastries-pies-and-tarts-oh-my/" target="_blank"><b>Sifted Together</b></a></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #073763;">Blueper B and The Turtle Creek Chorale on <i><b><a href="http://blueperbblueprints.blogspot.com/2017/06/me-with-tcc.html" target="_blank">Blueper B's Blueprints</a></b></i></span></div>
Kris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336146104606375687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5300730900615541721.post-14104408150036887842017-06-02T22:34:00.000-07:002017-06-02T22:34:47.828-07:00What Day Is It Anyway?My world has always revolved around the academic calendar. I calculate every day and date around the start and finish of my semesters. I know what day of the week it is based on my MW or TR Thursday schedule. For the past several summers, I have taught summer school so my reference points have remained in tact all year long. This summer, however, I am not teaching and I realize that half the time I have no clue what day it is.<br />
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I recognized when Weber retired that he lost track of the days of the week. He'd ask me what time I'd be home and I'd say something like, "Well, it's Wednesday and I teach until 3:30 so I should be ready to come home around 4:30, just like every Wednesday." His response was always the same..."I forgot what day it is." Then, I couldn't wrap my head around this absolute disconnect from day and time, but now I am beginning to get it. When you have been used to a rigid daily and weekly schedule and all of the sudden you don't have that, its absence is a bit crazy-making.<br />
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Most days this summer, we have no real need to set an alarm clock. We rely on the canines to wake us up. That can happen anywhere between 5:30 am and 9 depending on how late we all stayed up, how cozy they are in bed, or how hungry they are. Essentially, we all get up when we get up, whenever the dogs are ready to get up. And breakfast occurs equally as leisurely. There is time for as many cups of coffee as I can drink without floating away. I have time to enjoy my breakfast rather than slamming it down just because I know I need to eat or I won't survive six hours straight in the classroom. Or, we can even go out for breakfast...on a Thursday! At least I think it was a Thursday.<br />
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Sometimes lunch happens and sometimes it doesn't. That too depends on how late the dogs sleep. If we sleep in and enjoy a leisurely breakfast, it may be almost lunchtime before we are done eating and cleaning up. Even though the clock says that it is lunchtime, no one's hungry. When it gets to be mid afternoon and the hunger pangs start, it's almost dinnertime so we skip lunch. Sometimes. Or we might just move dinner.<br />
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Like getting up, dinnertime can be a movable feast, happening anywhere between 5 and 9. There is no real reason for it to be routine. Lol!<br />
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For someone who is a slave to her planner and calendar most of the, this free form lifestyle is disconcerting and hard to get used to! I feel out of control, but there is little for there to be control of.<br />
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I spent all day today convinced that it was Saturday. It felt like Saturday because we were home most of the day. I took a short nap this afternoon, usually a Saturday occurrence. We also had symphony tickets for tonight, again, usually a Saturday night event. We got home and I realized that its only Friday so I don't have to set an alarm for church tomorrow morning. Woohoo. Now if the canines will just sleep late tomorrow morning! And I need to remember that tomorrow night is Saturday and I do need to set an alarm for church on Sunday morning.<br />
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Is this what it will feel like once I retire? There will be Sunday, church day, and then one other day each week, a 144 hour day, created from all the other days of the week that have all melded together into one big duration. I don't know about this. Without my planner and my routine, I may never accomplish anything ever again!<br />
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Oh, you mean I have to create a new routine???<br />
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But I don't know what day it is!<br />
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The only consistency in our week right now are the trash days. How pathetic that trash days are becoming the defining moments in my week, assuming I can figure out when Monday and Thursday are actually happening!<br />
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Maybe I need to find more consistent things to be doing over the summer.<br />
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Or. maybe it doesn't matter what day it is.<br />
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I'll think about that tomorrow, Tuesday.<br />
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<span style="color: red;">Here is something for you to think about...name three consecutive days without using the names of any of the days of the week.</span></div>
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Today's photo prompt was <b><i>Sports</i>. </b>The only sport happening in my world was amateur pie crust wrestling...and professional napping, but that picture would not have been pretty! :-)<br />
<br />Kris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336146104606375687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5300730900615541721.post-85897816976088419072017-06-01T21:30:00.000-07:002017-06-01T21:30:45.071-07:00Feeling Blue in JuneIn the eleven years or so that I have been blogging, I have written this same post countless times...the one about having gone missing for months and now being back. They always come with a promise to do better. And countless times I have failed, but I keep coming back and trying again. Before writing this tonight, I have given some serious thought to why I keep falling short with regular posts lately.<div>
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It is easy to blame a busy schedule and too little time. I know that's an excuse, not a valid reason. And not even a good excuse. I find the time to write my weekly contribution to <a href="http://www.siftedtogether.com/" target="_blank">Sifted Together</a>, the blog I co-author. I write a monthly devotion that is distributed by our church. I helped <a href="http://blueperbblueprints.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blueper B write a post on his blog</a> every day during the month of May. I have faithfully taken a photo a day for four and a half years. Yes. Time is at a premium some days, but I manage to accomplish all those tasks to which I have a commitment. Apparently I have not made a serious commitment to regularly writing and posting here despite knowing deep within that that is something that I want to do.</div>
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Admitting to a lack of a commitment, I was still in search of a reason, a reason that I am able to keep so many other commitments but not this one. Here's what I am exploring. I think that perhaps social media, Facebook and, too some extent, Instagram, might be the issue. I post my daily photos to both, usually with a bit of verbiage that places the photo into the context of the day. My day is usually what I write about here. Once I have posted my photo, I feel like I have said what I have to say and to write a blog post is redundant even though what I write here is usually a more developed version of my daily musings. I don't know that this revelation about my relationship with social media is the real reason for my inconsistent blogging. If it's not, at least I have a point from which to depart on my quest for the real reason.</div>
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For the time being, I will continue to post my photos on Facebook and Instagram, but I am going to refrain from writing any commentary to go along with them and save that for here. We'll see what happens.</div>
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So here is today's photo...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQcOWlO4aaZ-11rmJ6HSYh6JxqT-xq90vS1VlhUgMGODF-JUm62PsLKVzScSfr5zlp6bC6pSLl8LunM8fZ8pqIzWC7f3x5e3ry7JSLp6Vyixd0_UbSjeal58zsrxyzmL2BmqwLGE0DNOA/s1600/DSC_9094.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQcOWlO4aaZ-11rmJ6HSYh6JxqT-xq90vS1VlhUgMGODF-JUm62PsLKVzScSfr5zlp6bC6pSLl8LunM8fZ8pqIzWC7f3x5e3ry7JSLp6Vyixd0_UbSjeal58zsrxyzmL2BmqwLGE0DNOA/s400/DSC_9094.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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...taken at a local park at the blue hour, that magical time of day right after sunset (or right before sunrise) when the minimal light bathes the subject in a veil of blue thanks to the residual indirect sunlight that is below the horizon. This image is intentionally unfocused. Art mirrors life. At the moment, I am feeling a bit unfocused and like my world has been colored blue. Beginning again here is a first step to regaining some clarity, particularly with my creative life.</div>
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Today, right here in writing, I am making a commitment to post something here every day throughout the month of June. If I can do it for <a href="http://blueperbblueprints.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blueper B</a>. I can do it for me!</div>
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Kris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336146104606375687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5300730900615541721.post-38637314529362450402017-02-09T20:36:00.003-08:002017-02-09T20:36:42.499-08:00Toothaches and SinThis is the daily devotion that I wrote and was published as part of our church's daily devotion ministry. Don't ask me how I know so much about toothaches and sin. :-)<br />
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<b>A gift from Kris Baker, Order of St. Francis and St. Clare at #cohdallas, a United Church of Christ congregation, today's devotional is based on the following scripture :</b><br />
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<b>Scripture</b><br />
<i>Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer. </i>James 1:15 <b>The Message (MSG)</b><br />
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<b>A Word of Hope </b><br />
Today is National Toothache Day, a seemingly odd thing to celebrate. Have you ever had a toothache? If you haven't, count your blessings! If you have, this scenario may sound familiar. Occasionally when hot or cold food or beverage touches your tooth, you feel a slight tinge of discomfort. You ignore it for awhile. When the discomfort becomes a little more persistent, you make a conscious effort to eat or drink on the other side of your mouth so as not to aggravate the untoward tooth. Eventually, the pain becomes incessant. You try to end-run it with some OTC pain-killers, all the while never stopping to think about what is really causing so much pain in your mouth. Then the inevitable happens...you wake up in the middle of the night (I don't know why it is ALWAYS the middle of the night!) in unbearable pain. Nothing will even dull it, let alone stop it. You count the hours, second by second, until you can call the dentist and plead with him or her to make the pain go away right now!! By this point, you don't care by what means this happens...drill, pull the tooth, cut off your head...just do something, anything to make this excruciating pain go away. Morning finally comes and you make the call to the dentist; the receptionist says, "Good morning. How can I help you?...I can get you in next week on Friday."<br />
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We treat sin in much the same way that we treat a toothache. We ignore the slight twinges of pain caused by our lusting. We find ways to justify our less than healthy attitudes and behaviors even when we know that there is something not right. "It was just a little sin." We think that we are in control...until that dreadful moment in the middle of that dark night, when sin reaches adulthood and, as James writes, "becomes a real killer."<br />
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The good news is that we don't have to wait until morning to call for help. And no receptionist will offer us a ridiculously long wait for an appointment. God answers our calls 24/7. Once we name our sin (admit that the pain of the toothache is too much for us to bear on our own), unlike the dentist, God is immediately available and ready to relieve our pain. The treatment is always the same...forgiveness and God's unconditional love, freely given to us.<br />
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<b>Prayer</b><br />
Holy God, I bring to you a heart broken and hurting because of my sins. Please help me. Please heal me. Please hold me. AmenKris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336146104606375687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5300730900615541721.post-58584906682060814842017-02-05T21:29:00.000-08:002017-02-05T21:29:30.039-08:00About the PotI ordered a new pot last week...a four quart dutch oven. I'm not sure why I ordered a new dutch oven other than it was on sale and it is a pretty blue. I don't have a dutch oven and I make a lot of meals that could be prepared in a dutch oven, but I do have lots of sauce pans and stew pots that have served me quite well up until now, so I could have easily done without a new blue four quart dutch oven. But I don't have to do without because now I have one.<br />
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Okay. I fell prey to a sale email.<br />
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The pot is enameled cast iron made by <b><i>Staub</i></b>...in France. Not that it matters, but I think <i>staub</i> is the German word for "dust." I don't know what that has to do with cookware made in France, but whatever. I'm just easily amused and entertain myself pondering such inconsequential things.<br />
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My new pot is quite pretty!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQUe6DGEI56fSYMchTSSKG9EVIhqo6_0PVC7U6jsaRyDQgFycKunwZEnqY6pmiIqbzu5YZktlIasQKApVfwtIR-71ee2c2EZrayK-NWObqb1BoRMeFWm4bW2RrTxmxFrerYGfl5pHI76o/s1600/Pan+Top.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQUe6DGEI56fSYMchTSSKG9EVIhqo6_0PVC7U6jsaRyDQgFycKunwZEnqY6pmiIqbzu5YZktlIasQKApVfwtIR-71ee2c2EZrayK-NWObqb1BoRMeFWm4bW2RrTxmxFrerYGfl5pHI76o/s400/Pan+Top.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>
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Just in case you don't believe that it was made in France, it tells you so right on the lid.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy4d2r76ubAcIKiemCwfRhU9vZSdJB4Ll3EWm9qN8W9-GbNtph69VXk7xVLFdH1vz9mQAqh78rTTxCiVFZowvqWXH0ax49Ae6dh41awsN9KMSGyFHf2Uyr6l81hD1lBqJaz6VSgakCogg/s1600/Made+In+France.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy4d2r76ubAcIKiemCwfRhU9vZSdJB4Ll3EWm9qN8W9-GbNtph69VXk7xVLFdH1vz9mQAqh78rTTxCiVFZowvqWXH0ax49Ae6dh41awsN9KMSGyFHf2Uyr6l81hD1lBqJaz6VSgakCogg/s400/Made+In+France.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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And I don't know what the Nike swooshes have to do with a dutch oven made in France...maybe a new ad campaign...<i style="font-weight: bold;">Just Cook It! </i>Who knows?<i style="font-weight: bold;"> </i>This pot was becoming more entertaining by the minute.<br />
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Then I saw this:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_aYxObgHRFBxzdslxHj8DQ-gpmurSWMpz7E38gD-rp1gS1sLmYdkc3kZtutXzcKUseaH8rruMHICDdJbBgvvtikbaKSaH65r14WQlJGkkAmKe5pZzDiBahL0GyL2qMRmc7wDLnJtY5os/s1600/Pages+in+Book.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_aYxObgHRFBxzdslxHj8DQ-gpmurSWMpz7E38gD-rp1gS1sLmYdkc3kZtutXzcKUseaH8rruMHICDdJbBgvvtikbaKSaH65r14WQlJGkkAmKe5pZzDiBahL0GyL2qMRmc7wDLnJtY5os/s400/Pages+in+Book.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Apparently this pot requires an instruction manual, a 100 page instruction manual! How can that be?The pot has no cords, or dials, and doesn't even require an app to use it. </span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">And to further confuse things, this!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuJfFX5A4tcev1CwBlXQ_EcJ42jWgm6vG7VvzV459RRPnCU47mpwRw8w23wVZODkMAR6928hNXLRovds7V2Tzqzpf_iYnHaueR2_JhvHRjE4KknSMpMH8r_XK95Qw5FstAIj4LC21iZNw/s1600/Mini+Book.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuJfFX5A4tcev1CwBlXQ_EcJ42jWgm6vG7VvzV459RRPnCU47mpwRw8w23wVZODkMAR6928hNXLRovds7V2Tzqzpf_iYnHaueR2_JhvHRjE4KknSMpMH8r_XK95Qw5FstAIj4LC21iZNw/s320/Mini+Book.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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These 100 pages are the <u>mini</u> manual! If this is the mini manual, I wonder what the maxi one looks like! Forget that. Let's start with what's in the mini manual. </div>
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Relief! The manual contains information in nine different languages so the required information for use only encompasses ten pages per lanuguage and within those ten pages, there are lots of pictures. But still...</div>
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The manual begins with some history about the <b><i>Staub</i></b> company and then moves to an explanation of their unique manufacturing process. Interesting, maybe even a little bit fascinating if you are sucked in by reading about resistance to thermal shocks and majolique enamels. I did learn that the Nike swooshes aren't really Nike swooshes; they are "spikes"to help with humidity retention and even basting. <b><i>Just Baste It!</i></b></div>
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The important stuff, which is the same important stuff they tell you when you purchase almost any new pot can be condensed into about four sentences.</div>
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<ol>
<li>Wash with warm water, dry, and season with a light coat of oil before using.</li>
<li>Use either wooden or silicone utensils only.</li>
<li>Use a pot holder when handling and do not place hot pot on unprotected surface.</li>
<li>Do not use abrasive cleansers or sponges to clean and do not put pot in the dishwasher.</li>
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Pretty much common sense.</div>
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I should not make fun of these instructions. They assume a far greater level of intelligence than do such instructions as the one included with a hairdryer that says, "Do not use while sleeping." Or, "Do not iron clothes while on body." as instructed in the manual to a Rowenta iron. </div>
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It does seem to me that all of the necessary information needed to successfully use my new pot could have been contained on a concisely written single page, even a mini single page. And even if all nine languages must be included, still a mere nine pages. But, because booklets must be constructed in multiples of four for pagination purposes, this leaves three pages available for a nice cover, some pictures, and space to print the company's web address so that I can go there to read all about the company's history and manufacturing process on my computer in something larger than 5 or 6 point type!</div>
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All that said, the first meal that I made in my new pot was a hearty vegetable beef soup and it was delicious! It cooked and simmered beautifully. Yeah, I do like my new pot very much!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZClo_whJq6QxCfFLBhcsQNBgzVjLScIsT4-vTZ-H40zS1QbCWCfzdVqF9eWf4YAp1MejbUIUJIradkP5rymrtyFrHn2YUsd4ytCAnEN4zeFRnVHvmDFK6mCLJc3jPS2O9vmQ_2fn7xEU/s1600/Soup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZClo_whJq6QxCfFLBhcsQNBgzVjLScIsT4-vTZ-H40zS1QbCWCfzdVqF9eWf4YAp1MejbUIUJIradkP5rymrtyFrHn2YUsd4ytCAnEN4zeFRnVHvmDFK6mCLJc3jPS2O9vmQ_2fn7xEU/s400/Soup.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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And as per the instructions, I used a wooden spoon!</div>
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Kris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336146104606375687noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5300730900615541721.post-9741307041209252832017-01-31T20:27:00.000-08:002017-01-31T20:27:29.847-08:00On A Somewhat Positive NoteA friend recently texted to ask if I was OK because I haven't posted here in the last week. I am as OK as anyone is who is sad and angry about what is happening in this country right now. I have not written because all I had to write about were things that I didn't want to write about. Lol! More words about discrimination, families being torn apart, innocent people being treated like criminals, power and money prevailing over wisdom and service are not needed. I have chosen to keep quiet. I remember learning that if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. I don't always adhere to that teaching, but I have in the last week.<br />
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And now I have some more uplifting things to share...<br />
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The first month of 2017 in pictures. Its hard to believe that we are 31 days into the new year already.<br />
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And, today's post from <a href="http://www.siftedtogether.com/" target="_blank">Sifted Together.</a><br />
<br />Kris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336146104606375687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5300730900615541721.post-63506880706863637082017-01-24T20:39:00.001-08:002017-01-25T05:23:41.774-08:00Looking for Inspiration<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I am kind of in a creative slump right now, but I keep on keeping on, trying to work myself out of it. One thing that always helps is seeing this sweet little face...even when this face is up in my face at 3am because it needs to go outside. No matter what she does, it is impossible to get upset with Piper because she is such a happy and lovable little girl.<br />
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Today's <i style="font-weight: bold;">Capture Your 365</i> prompt was <b>open</b>. You know you are still in the slump when you take a photo of an outhouse as a daily photo. Lol! But, as the quote says, you never know where you will find inspiration.<br />
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I will also share here the <a href="http://www.siftedtogether.com/the-photographers-dilemma/" target="_blank">link to my <i>Tuesday in Texas </i>post on <b><i>Sifted Together.</i></b></a>Kris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336146104606375687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5300730900615541721.post-37971017490312690452017-01-22T19:53:00.000-08:002017-01-22T19:53:33.908-08:00The Nature of Things<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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There is so much going on in this world right now that is not pretty that for the last few days, I have tried to stay away from the media, searching elsewhere for alternate truths. :-) It hasn't been easy, but even in the midst of winter, the natural world is still full of beauty; it and my camera provided just the diversion that I needed!<br />
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Seeing the movie <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3741834/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1" target="_blank"><b><i>Lion</i></b></a> on Friday evening and the musical <a href="http://www.mtishows.com/the-25th-annual-putnam-county-spelling-bee" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee</a><b style="font-style: italic;"> </b>on Saturday night rounded out the weekend's retreat from reality.<br />
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Oh, and a trip to the Lego Store!<br />
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Tomorrow it's back to the real world. Kris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336146104606375687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5300730900615541721.post-89517321592050689422017-01-19T21:59:00.000-08:002017-01-19T21:59:03.451-08:00One Down, Fifteen To Go<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Week one of the Spring 2017 semester is over. Let me just say that re-entry was tough! Though I never really slept late over the holiday break, I was not up any day at 5:30 like I have been every day this week. This adjustment to my morning alarm would have been much more tolerable if I had made a similar adjustment to my bedtime, if it also had moved three hours earlier. I missed that step. The result? Three hours less sleep every night followed by a full day of work. This definitely was not a good combination!!! On the bright side...I have a great group of students. Except for one...<br />
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Why is there always one person in every situation that upsets the chi? One person who doesn't want to play by the rules. One person who has to be in the spotlight all of the time. One person who spends all of their energy trying to figure out how to beat the system rather than how to succeed within it. Right now, my tolerance for such behavior is bordering on non-existent. This may be because in almost every circumstance in which I find myself these days, not just at school, "this" person exists. Perhaps it is all just some cruel learning experience that the universe is foisting upon me.<br />
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<i>Dear Universe, </i> </blockquote>
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<i>I am too tired for this lesson right now! Can we please wait until I am getting more than four or five hours of sleep at night to start this? I will be a much better student then. Thank you for your consideration.</i><i><br /></i><i>Sincerely,</i> </blockquote>
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<i>Me</i></blockquote>
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In all seriousness, I really do have a great deal of patience with those who are sincere, genuine, humble, compassionate, humorous, a hard worker and responsible. Conversely, I have zero tolerance for insincere, fake, arrogant, hurtful, mean, lazy, and irresponsible people. Yes, I know we all have moments where we are not our best selves; however, for most of us, such instances are infrequent. My rant here is directed toward those whose normal modus operandi is to consistently put themselves first, <u>never</u> considering how their actions and attitudes affect those around them. Sadly, there are more people like this than I wish there were. And right now, they all seem to be too close for comfort.<br />
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The best I can do when my final nerve has been stepped on is to put myself in time-out. Some alone time with my camera, or a book, or my knitting will usually calm me down and help me to gain perspective and patience. But not always...<br />
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This afternoon, I had camera time and knitting time. This time to chill out made me fit to spend time in public having dinner with some close friends, people who are good and thus are capable of restoring my faith in humanity. <br />
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A good ending to my day.<br />
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<b>NO ALARM TOMORROW!</b>Kris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336146104606375687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5300730900615541721.post-37253585988798542822017-01-18T19:53:00.001-08:002017-01-18T19:53:29.633-08:00Body - 1: Mind - 0<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I made healthy food choices today, which my body greatly appreciated, but it is not at all happy with the "sleep diet" that has been imposed now that I am back in school. Though my mind would like to tackle a few things on my need/want to-do list tonight, the body said, "NOOOOO!!!!" For once, I am paying attention. No mind over matter.<br />
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Goodnight!<br />
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<br />Kris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336146104606375687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5300730900615541721.post-90538605612472659662017-01-17T19:08:00.000-08:002017-01-17T19:08:23.626-08:00Double DippingI am double dipping today...<div>
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It is <i style="font-weight: bold;">Tuesday In Texas </i> post day on <i style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.siftedtogether.com/" target="_blank">Sifted Together</a>, </i>the blog I co-write with my friend Tracey. We started blogging together two years ago and have just recently reworked and renamed that venture. We just launched <i style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.siftedtogether.com/" target="_blank">Sifted Together</a> </i> on January 9th so you've only missed a few posts. To see what's going on in my world today, as well as what was going on Monday In Michigan from Tracey's perspective, hop on over to <i style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.siftedtogether.com/">www.siftedtogether.com</a>.</i> You'll also find some great biscuit recipes in last week's <i style="font-weight: bold;">Food Friday</i> post. </div>
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Thanks for stopping by!</div>
Kris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336146104606375687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5300730900615541721.post-59877694374734176762017-01-16T22:05:00.001-08:002017-01-16T22:05:49.570-08:00January 8-16: Cleaning, Friends, and Tornado SirensOnly sixteen days into the new year and so many good things have already happened! Yes, I have taken a week long hiatus from writing here; though that was not exactly what I had planned, it is a good thing. Last weekend, while on retreat, I felt compelled to write even though I was not supposed to be. And this week, I have been at home with access to my computer, but other things were more important.<br />
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I returned home from last weekend's retreat tired, but ready to take on some tasks that I had been putting off for way too long. Our guest room has been a storage unit rather than usable space in our home since I brought things back from my parents house over a year ago. I have had lots of <strike>reasons</strike> excuses for not going through all of the boxes, but it was now time. I needed a "good" reason to get started and get it done. I finally had it! My friend, Joni, wanted to come visit from Wisconsin for a few days. Asking her to sleep either on the couch with the dogs or on an air mattress on the floor did not seem very hospitable; I had the impetus I needed to attack the guest room chaos and get it done!<br />
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It is hard work going through several generations of family papers trying to decide what to keep and what to toss. I had lots of photos of people that I could not identify in places that I could not identify. I finally had to tell myself that if the photos did not have meaning to me, they weren't going to have meaning to anyone else. With this realization, I was able to part with a lot of them.<br />
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Then there was all of my dad's Navy stuff...his sword, medals, uniforms... It's funny. I know that my dad was career Navy and I am proud of his service, but that is not how I knew him. To me, he was not a Navy Captain, he was my dad...the guy who gave me piggy back rides, taught me to garden, talked to me about Carl Sagan books, educated me about investing, tried to convert me from a Coke drinker to a Pepsi drinker, did not share my political views, called me Peanut, and shared my love of Sudoku puzzles. And this is how I want to remember him.<br />
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I hung his sword on the wall in our library, sorted and packed the medals in a box, and safely stored them in the back of a closet. This is not a permanent solution, but it is progress. It is the best I could do right now.<br />
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We did the same sorting and thinning of boxes of stuff that Weber had. Again, we are not done but now have labeled boxes. The most difficult part of this whole process is now done. Our hands have touched every piece of paper and we know what is in each box. We also sent items to other family members, various historical societies, and other agencies. Our goal is to make sure that the things that we have that we are choosing to part with go to people who will appreciate them. When Weber and I got married and combined our belongings, our test for whether something stayed or went was, "Is it useful, beautiful, or joyful?" If the answer was "no," then away it went. We did have to think a little harder before answering this question during our latest round of purging.<br />
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Thanks to our friend Paul, who helped us rearrange some furniture, hang some pictures, and built us shelves in a closet, the house was in the best shape it has been in a long time when our friend Joni arrived. Perhaps even more importantly, I felt good emotionally about all that we had accomplished. I was exactly where I needed to be to fully enjoy our visit.<br />
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I keep coming back to the importance of friendship. I was touched and honored that someone wanted to spend their vacation time with us. Of all the places to go on a vacation...Dallas...to spend time with us? My heart knows that when push comes to shove, it is the <i>who</i> that is most important, not the <i>where</i> or the <i>what.</i> My head, however, has a hard time really embracing that notion, especially when I am the <i>who.</i><br />
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Thankfully, the frigid temperatures from the previous weekend gave way to springlike weather. We were able to have a meal from the grill and also walk around downtown Dallas and visit the Sixth Floor Museum, the old Texas Book Depository, the building from which Lee Harvey Oswald fired the fatal shots at JFK. <br />
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(Ignore Snorri. He thought it was still 17 degrees outside.)<br />
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Joni and I also spent a lot of time knitting together. I am doing well with 2017 goals! More knitting and a clean guest room! <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhILSJz4oNBiJ-fsZE5VxsjqlBBUke1r7DY8GIkiwd0tr3yBUf9uehyphenhyphenDPgxsHq806zXgv7Tx2ioivxZFjn68DwysmJ2iHQqxkF8qKXfNioINbqrpla09BQm9o6Ef2yuRIK3qYPJrfhcBPQ/s1600/IMG_7522.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhILSJz4oNBiJ-fsZE5VxsjqlBBUke1r7DY8GIkiwd0tr3yBUf9uehyphenhyphenDPgxsHq806zXgv7Tx2ioivxZFjn68DwysmJ2iHQqxkF8qKXfNioINbqrpla09BQm9o6Ef2yuRIK3qYPJrfhcBPQ/s400/IMG_7522.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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I did have to start my Temperature Blanket over twice; the first time because an animal accidentally pulled my first few rows off of the needles and a second time because apparently my knitting skills are rusty and I made some stupid mistakes. I am happy to report that now I am caught up on my blanket and I'm planning to roll smoothly through the rest of the year one row at a time!<br />
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On Saturday, Joni and I met up at the mall with another one of our pale pals. We behaved fairly well while we were out unsupervised! :-)<br />
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On Sunday (yesterday), Joni got a taste of ugly Texas weather! We had a terrible thunderstorm with high winds and the threat of tornadoes. The tornado sirens did go off and we spent a few minutes huddled in the "safe room" with all of the animals. Isn't that how everyone wants to spend their vacation?<br />
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I truly enjoyed my time with Joni. I did take time out of each day to take my daily picture, but I did not want to lose any more time, so I chose not to write here. I am happy about that. The memories that I have of cursing knitting mistakes, making (and eating) cookies, downing a six-pack (of Diet Coke) every night, and getting to know each other a little better are far more meaningful than any words that I would have written here.<br />
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For that, I am thankful...<br />
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<span style="background-color: #b6d7a8; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: start;"><span style="color: #741b47;"><i>Friends are the siblings God never gave us</i>. Mencius</span></span></div>
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True story...</div>
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Friday evening we went to a production by our local community theater. Joni and I were in the restroom at intermission. An older woman asked, "Are you girls twins?" We both answered, "No." She then said, "Oh. Just sisters." Again we both said, "No." At which point she headed into a stall a bit confused.</div>
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Kris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336146104606375687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5300730900615541721.post-18575819892185966742017-01-06T21:52:00.000-08:002017-01-06T21:52:36.851-08:00A Little Cheating on Retreat<div class="_1dwg _1w_m _2ph_" style="padding: 12px 12px 0px;">
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I am on retreat this weekend and am supposed to be "fasting" from technology. I'm not doing terribly well with that. I am addicted to posting my daily photos, and I really don't want to lose my blogging momentum. I don't have the time to write a full post today, so I am sharing a daily devotion that I wrote that was published today.</div>
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Today's devotional is written by Kris Baker, <a class="profileLink" data-hovercard-prefer-more-content-show="1" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/page.php?id=460409767379806" href="https://www.facebook.com/OrderOfStFrancisStClare/" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Order of St Francis & St Clare</a>, at <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/cohdallas?source=feed_text&story_id=10154000482481396" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl _5afz" style="color: #4267b2;">#</span><span class="_58cm">cohdallas</span></span></a>, a <a class="profileLink" data-hovercard-prefer-more-content-show="1" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/page.php?id=13217786786" href="https://www.facebook.com/UnitedChurchofChrist/" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">United Church of Christ</a> congregation, based on the following scripture:</div>
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After Jesus was born in Bethlehem village, Judah territory— this was during Herod’s kingship—a band of scholars arrived in Jerusalem from the East. They asked around, “Where can we find and pay homage to the newborn King of the Jews? We observed a star in the eastern sky that signaled his birth. We’re on pilgrima<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">ge to worship him.” Matthew 2:1-2</span></div>
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A Word of Hope<br />
Today is the feast of The Epiphany, the day when the three kings from the east, who had traveled afar over field and fountain, moor and mountain following yonder star, made their way to Bethlehem bringing their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the newborn king. The word epiphany comes from the Greek word epiphainen, meaning to shine upon, to reveal, to manifest, or to make known. On this day we celebrate the manifestation and revelation of God in Christ. We celebrate the Christ child who is the light of the world.</div>
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Are we not like those three wise men on a pilgrimage to find Christ? Have we not asked, perhaps many times, where we can find him and pay homage to him? As modern day Christians, our call is to keep our eyes and heart on that guiding star, on Jesus, the light of the world, and to let that star be our guide. That is not easy. Stars are sometimes hidden by clouds; clouds of fear, despair, insecurity, and hopelessness obscure the light. And even when we can see the stars, they often appear far beyond our reach. We need to remember that Jesus is never beyond our reach. He is with us in every step of every day. Jesus is the light that shines in our darkness. He is the star that, like the one that lead the wise men to Bethlehem, guides us through our daily lives. The three kings came bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh for Jesus. In the words of Christina Rosetti, "What can I give Him, poor as I am?...[I can] give my heart." That is enough. The only thing that Jesus desires of us is our hearts. In giving Christ our hearts and following Him, the light of the world, all things are made possible.</div>
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What do you see when you look at the stars? Do you see stars of hope, peace, love? Stars of compassion, justice, mercy? Stars of contemplation, prayer, action? In the words of Paul to the Thessalonians, "You’re sons of Light, daughters of Day. We live under wide open skies and know where we stand. So let’s not sleepwalk through life like those others. Let’s keep our eyes open and be smart." (MSG)</div>
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Prayer<br />
Creator of the stars of night, help me to always trust in You and be guided by Your light. I pray that I will be a beacon of that light for others. Amen</div>
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In other news, we had snow in Texas today! There was only a light dusting where I am, but at home, apparently there was quite a bit more, enough to wreak havoc on the roads at rush hour. I did manage to sneak outside long enough to snap today's picture of the day, "Where I Stand."</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB2VX5VkjqokPalbSp7a6Z0a1kvpG9Q3LCAbknBAq8MBigdvlcdzScIuUh9yGw4EU0M3qJqpzW0WgCwWC_BHmvUffgdzbj6lP0y_o6BrEiLTciTmq2PPM1BEc5gFsd3dtjUQhKocUg2lU/s1600/unnamed-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB2VX5VkjqokPalbSp7a6Z0a1kvpG9Q3LCAbknBAq8MBigdvlcdzScIuUh9yGw4EU0M3qJqpzW0WgCwWC_BHmvUffgdzbj6lP0y_o6BrEiLTciTmq2PPM1BEc5gFsd3dtjUQhKocUg2lU/s400/unnamed-2.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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Brooke is at home dog sitting. Today's snow was Piper's first time ever to see the white stuff. Her "big sister" kindly sent me a video.<br />
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I was sad not to be there. I hate to admit that I felt like a parent who was missing a significant first in her child's life.<br />
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Obviously it it cold here in here in Texas! Despite that, Weber was excited last night to get to drive the golf cart back to our cabin. Apparently, I am not a woman who chooses a guy based on the "car" he drives. :-)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPPxyrD5VWtXf0BVJ6CvdN3w1MKMjI6CEUkq5-CYizxSaSLFA46tXczgHQ_hHXv4T-1uBNdLieQnEraqJ5SyxetVXncUFEfJ8Rb59EsZdjcPCLowiUfQL5XNLv6KG2vYOkUwi_1RL2UuE/s1600/unnamed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPPxyrD5VWtXf0BVJ6CvdN3w1MKMjI6CEUkq5-CYizxSaSLFA46tXczgHQ_hHXv4T-1uBNdLieQnEraqJ5SyxetVXncUFEfJ8Rb59EsZdjcPCLowiUfQL5XNLv6KG2vYOkUwi_1RL2UuE/s400/unnamed.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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I am going to stop here and go repent for my rule breaking sins. I wish you all a blessed Feast of the Epiphany.<br />
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This was a light on the foot path and the pattern that it cast. Perfect for today!<br />
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<br />Kris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336146104606375687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5300730900615541721.post-24190886202195193412017-01-04T22:42:00.001-08:002017-01-04T22:42:14.002-08:00Overlook<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>So many acts are</i></div>
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<i>Underappreciated.</i></div>
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<i>Little things matter.</i></div>
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KEB 1/4/17</div>
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Today's photo prompt was <i style="font-weight: bold;">overlook.</i> I could probably write pages here about all of the things that I have overlooked lately, but I have no time for that because I definitely have overlooked the fact until now that we will be out of town this weekend staffing a retreat and I had not packed a thing until 11 pm tonight. So, no time to write.<br />
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That said, I will be gone until Sunday evening and Internet access is very limited. If I fail to post here for the next couple of days, it is not an oversight!Kris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336146104606375687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5300730900615541721.post-80731316820730756852017-01-03T23:52:00.001-08:002017-01-03T23:52:55.074-08:00Boxes and More Boxes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Boxes, more boxes</i></div>
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<i>Of papers and photographs.</i></div>
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<i>Flawed memories.</i></div>
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KEB 1/3/17</div>
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For a year and a half all of the boxes of "stuff" that I brought home from my dad's house have been sitting in our guest room. Well sitting may be too kind a word. Crammed is more appropriate. It is fair to say that anyone who ventured into that room would have needed a golden clew, like that of Ariadne, to make their way out of the labyrinth of boxes. I don't think there was a minotaur in the midst of our guest room, but I couldn't be absolutely sure of that! The primary reason that these boxes have remained untouched for so long is that I wasn't sure where we were going to go with all of their contents. The other reason is that I despise clutter, particularly paper clutter, which is what a large portion of the boxes' contents. Photos of family, some of whom I could identify and lots of others that I couldn't, newspaper clippings, my mother's scrapbooks from her childhood through the birth of her grandchildren, marriage licenses, baptismal certificates, and various other records. Let's just say that there was a forest worth of paper. The prospect of going through it all was terribly overwhelming to me. So I ignored for awhile.</div>
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Back in the spring Weber and I decided that we would build an addition on to our home to accomodate the few pieces of furniture that I kept, as well as give us much needed storage space, and an extra bathroom for my sloppy Offspring that lives with us. We worked on bringing this plan to fruition for about six months. The hold up was finding a concrete company willing to take "the small job" of our little slab. Both our contractor and Weber made call after call and no one had the time or resources to give to what we needed. I took that as a sign that perhaps an addition was not the right decision for us. Right before Christmas we gave up on the idea. That meant that I now had to face the mounds of boxes. No more procrastination.</div>
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The problem with sorting all of the things from Delaware was that I still needed somewhere to go with it all once I unpacked it. This meant that I needed to clean out virtually every closet in our house in order to free up any and every free inch of usable storage space. I started this "project" on my birthday. Though I dreaded it, taking that first step was really a gift to myself, because once I start something, I will not stop until I finish. So, for a week now, the contents of not only the guest room, but every closet in the house have been pulled out, culled, reboxed, and much of it relocated. Our contractor kindly came over and added some extra shelves in a bedroom closet and also hung a few of the pieces of art that we brought back. </div>
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This process has been going on for a week. We are not done, but we have made an amzing amount of progress. Many things have been given away or thrown away. Fortunately, I am willing to get rid of things. I don't need or want every family picture that was ever taken. I saved a few, but I most certainly tossed more than I kept. Items that are staying have been organized and neatly stored in bins. And by some miracle, we found a place for all of those bins, none of which ended up in the attic. One of my weird little quirks is that I don't believe in putting stuff in the attic. First of all, in Texas, that is a certain death sentence. Second of all, I cleared out the attic at my parents house. Most things that go to an attic are never seen again until the next generation is faced with figuring out what to do with them. I don't want my girls to have to deal with all of this crap. I didn't want me to have to deal with it, but I have to and I am happy to say that I have!</div>
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We are not completely done, but we are WAY closer to that goal than we were this time last week. A few more things need to be donated. Some of Weber's family items need to be mailed to other family members who will appreciate them a little more. There is still art to be hung, some that first needs to be reframed, but the to-do list is much shorter and much more bearable than it was a few days ago.</div>
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I cleaned out the last closet today, the one that was full of all of my kniting supplies. I was a bit ruthless, but that's OK; it was all my stuff. I had more unfinished projects than I care to admit. I threw them all away with the exception of two or three. (Forget what I said above about not stopping until I finish something. Apparently that does not apply to knitting!) In my head, storing a bunch of unfinished projects created a feeling that my organizing and cleaning project was also unfinished. Discarding the "UFO's" meant that everything was tidy and ready for a fresh start.</div>
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While I was sorting my yarn into tubs, Piper decided that she would check out the yarn for her next sweater. She is the best dressed pup around!</div>
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A huge and long enduring burden has been lifted because of the work we have done in the past week. Like I said, there is still more to accomplish, but I now believe that we can do it.</div>
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I must also thank a friend who is coming to visit next week for the final nudge that I needed to get this all done. I really want to see her and for that to happen we have to have a place for her to sleep other than the couch or an air mattress on the floor in the den!</div>
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I have had my moments of frustration and despair during all of this, but they have been fleeting. I think that I can honestly say that 2017 is off to a fantastic start!</div>
Kris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336146104606375687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5300730900615541721.post-74525640481010200562017-01-02T21:01:00.000-08:002017-01-02T21:09:19.483-08:00One Little Word - Nourish<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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For body, mind, spirit</div>
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Growth, health, and good condition.</div>
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In one word, NOURISH.</div>
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KEB 1/2/16</div>
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For a second year, I am participating in <a href="http://aliedwards.com/shop/classes/one-little-word-2017" target="_blank">Ali Edwards <i style="font-weight: bold;">One Little Word</i></a> project. This project invites you to choose one word that you will work with throughout the year. The word should be one that helps you grow personally and perhaps helps you to reach a goal or goals. I attempted this project last year. My word was <i style="font-weight: bold;">Order</i>. Although I did make some progress in gaining order in my life, I did not follow through with the work of the project through the entire year. I am trying again. In considering this year's project, the word <i style="font-weight: bold;">nourish</i> came to me almost immediately. Before committing to it however, I spent some serious time reflecting on other possibilities. I entertained several other words, but I kept coming back to "nourish." Yesterday, it officially became my <i style="font-weight: bold;">One Little Word</i> for 2017.</div>
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I did toggle back and forth for a bit between the words "nourish" and "nurture." In my head these words mean two different things, but I could not make the distinction in a concrete way, so I turned to the dictionary.</div>
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<i style="font-weight: bold;">Nurture </i> - <span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-size: 16px;"><span style="background-color: #b6d7a8; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Care for and protect (someone or something) while they are growing</span></span></blockquote>
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<i style="font-weight: bold;">Nourish </i> -<span style="background-color: #b6d7a8;"> <span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Provide with the food or other substances necessary for growth, health, and good condition</span></span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: #b6d7a8; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a;">Both words come from the Latin </span><i style="color: #2a2a2a; font-size: 16px;">nutrire, </i><span style="color: #2a2a2a;">meaning to feed. (I'm glad there is a good reason for my inability to clearly differentiate the meaning of these two words.) After reading these two definitions, I still had to spend some time cogitating before I could make an absolute distinction. It didn't help that some dictionaries consider these nourish and nurture to be synonyms. The conclusion to which I came is that, though both words are verbs and thus suggest action (and I knew my word had to be one that required action), </span><i style="color: #2a2a2a; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">nurture </i><span style="color: #2a2a2a;"> implies a more general sense of caring for, while </span><i style="color: #2a2a2a; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">nourish</i><span style="color: #2a2a2a;"> demands figuring out exactly what kind of "food" is necessary to stimulate growth, health, good condition and then taking the next step...actually doing the feeding. This year I want to find the best ways to nourish my body, mind, and spirit as to facilitate positive growth and health. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-size: 16px;"><span style="background-color: #b6d7a8; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I constantly struggle with nourishing my body in a healthy way. I know what foods are good for it and which ones aren't, but I don't always make choices that reflect this knowledge. Interestingly, its not even that I don't like foods that provide the best nourishment for my body; I do. I am a big fan of fruits and vegetables and healthy grains. One of the things that I will explore throughout the year is what really drives my choices in how I choose to nourish my body and what I can do to put a better decision maker in the driver's seat.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-size: 16px;"><span style="background-color: #b6d7a8; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">In nourishing my mind, I often get stuck in a pattern of "eating" the same thing day in and day out because it is convenient. I get my news from the same sources every day. I read the same magazines. I read the same authors. I do vary things in my teaching from semester to semester. Perhaps my biggest problem with feeding my mind in that I don't feed it regularly. I alternate between "binge eating" and starvation. I suspect that the mind, just like the body, benefits from regular "meals." I need to figure out both a healthy feeding schedule and menu for my mind.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-size: 16px;"><span style="background-color: #b6d7a8; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Unlike my mind that binges and then starves itself, my spirit is constantly grazing, always chewing on something. But like my body, what my spirit sometimes chooses to gnaw on is not necessarily a healthy choice for me. And often, it is not even conscious of what it has "eaten." So here too, I will use this year to figure out how to nourish my spirit with intention.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-size: 16px;"><span style="background-color: #b6d7a8; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">I do know that to nourish my whole self, I need first to figure out how to balance the care and feeding, nurturing and nourishing, of my body, mind, and spirit individually. Attaining health and positive growth in all three means figuring out the right ingredients for each that will also combine to create a healthy recipe overall...kind of like a chocolate </span></span><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">meringue pie. With the pie you need a crust, chocolate filling, and the meringue. If any one of those three parts is lacking, the entire pie will be lacking. And so it goes with body mind and spirit.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">And so in this first month of 2017, I am beginning the process of figuring out how to successfully nourish my whole self in such a way that my body, mind, and spirit receive adequate and healthy sustenance so that I reach the end of the year in "good condition."</span></div>
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Kris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336146104606375687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5300730900615541721.post-52505919948309039962017-01-01T21:54:00.000-08:002017-01-01T21:54:56.590-08:00No New Year's ResolutionsI don't make New Year's resolutions. Instead, I prefer to think that I am setting new goals for myself in the coming year. What's the difference? A resolution is "a firm decision to do or not do something." A goal is "the object of a person's ambition or effort, an aim or desired result." I think my issue with resolution comes in the word <b style="font-style: italic;">firm</b><span style="font-style: italic;">. </span>That makes the idea of keeping to resolution sound so strict, so harsh, so inflexible. To do or not do something is binary. It's black and white. By profession, I am a music theorist. My nature as a theorist is to live in the gray areas of music. Actually, I like the gray area of most things. Its the place where I can look at something from multiple perspectives, see possibilities, make not so obvious connections. Perhaps the bottom line with my attitudes toward making and keeping a New Year's resolution is that there is no creativity involved in the process. Again, either you keep the resolution and are "successful." Or, you don't keep the resolution and you have failed. There has to be something between failure and success when it comes to New Year's resolutions!<br />
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Goals, on the other hand, don't feel so rigid. It seems to me like in setting a goal, I am tasked with deciding what is important to me and figuring out what I can do to work toward reaching a desired result. The path to that desired goal may not be obvious at the outset. Reaching a goal requires constant and creative engagement from me through the entire process of working toward that end. If I feel like I am not making progress, I have the freedom to re-evaluate both my process and the goal itself. Flexibility. Gray area. Creativity. That is the difference to me. I need goals.<br />
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I have set a few goals for myself for 2017.<br />
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<li>To be more intentional with how I spend my time.</li>
<li>To write regularly.</li>
<li>To knit more than in 2016.</li>
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I may need to amend or change my goals as the year progresses, but for now, this is where I am.</div>
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As part of my goal to knit more, I accepted a challenge from a friend to knit a <b>Temperature Blanket</b> this year. With this project, temperature ranges are assigned a specific color of yarn. Each day, you knit one row of the color that corresponds to the daily high temperature in your area. I definitely did not knit even one row a day in 2016, so, if I persevere with this project, I will meet my goal of knitting more in 2017 than in 2016.</div>
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<b><i>1/365 - Fresh Start</i></b></div>
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As digits change</div>
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One day at a time.</div>
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KEB 1/1/17</div>
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<br />Kris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336146104606375687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5300730900615541721.post-390332644021214642016-12-31T18:27:00.000-08:002016-12-31T18:27:23.579-08:002016 in Nine Minutes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Another year behind me...the days seem to pass faster and faster! I need them to slow down. I have so much that I need to do, that I want to do.</div>
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One thing that I have managed to do every single day since January 1, 2013 is to take a photo a day, a photo that in some way represents my day. Other than brushing my teeth, I'm not sure that I can say that I have any other habit that I have that I have done faithfully for 1461 days consecutively. There probably should be others...</div>
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I used the Collect App for the iPhone to save each photo from 2016. The app allows you to create a collage or a video of your photos. This year, for the first time, I have created a video of all 366 photos. It is amazing how a split second image from a day can transport me right back to that day, that moment. I remember other things from that day. I remember how I was feeling, who I was with, what the weather was like. </div>
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Not all of the photos are good. Not all of the days were good. But lots of both were. That's life. We need balance. We need to be able to see and feel that ebbing and flowing of life's events and emotions. And that's why I am so committed to this project. It gives me perspective on my life. As the video runs, I am reminded of how grateful I am for all that the past year brought - special moments with my family and friends, good food, quiet times, silly times, travel, illness, scary times, celebrations, appreciation of the everyday, the beauty of nature in calm and storm. The video is the Cliff Notes of my life in 2016. Nine minutes of the 527, 040 minutes that made up 2016.</div>
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<i><span style="color: magenta; font-size: large;">Happy New Year!</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: magenta; font-size: large;">My hope for each of you is that 2017 brings you and those you love joy, hope, and peace.</span></i></div>
Kris Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02336146104606375687noreply@blogger.com