Spending bender...

The hoarder in our life is on a spending bender. I mean MAJOR. Never is it more clear that this is a disease that looks a lot like addictions in general, than when these happen. Problem is they are most of the time it seems...but this one is bigger and nastier. Seems like nothing else matters to them but their stuff. Always the best of everything for themselves, but we know that there won't even be a card for my husband's (their son's) birthday, all under the guise of "I don't have any money to spare."

Who needs hundreds upon hundreds of bucks of kitchen supplies and cookbooks when they don't even have a kitchen in their senior apartment, just as one example of many???

Either this person is losing their grip on reality, or they seem to be one of the most selfish people ever. Just my 2 cents. I'll keep praying for this hoarder and praying for wisdom for us in dealing with them.

Cooking

I have been eating healthier and I can tell that I feel better and am a little smaller. That is cool.

Let me recommend a series of cookbooks to you...if you have been living under a rock or something you may not know of the Moosewood Collective books. Their book about cooking easy stuff for every day ("Moosewood cooks at home") is particular. It won a big vegetarian award, although it is not strictly vegetarian...unless you consider fish a vegetable. ;-P

Besides lots of produce and farmers market stuff, the other thing that works for me is our big old international market. Makes it easy and cheap to eat better. Their international food is of course WAY cheaper than good old K-Roger.

Here's some Moosewood recipes...

http://www.moosewoodrestaurant.com/recipes_archive.html

Two simple words...

Far be it from me to walk around spouting lots of wisdom, but two words have occurred to me and I am pretty sure God gave me this message.

"MORE TIME".

If I woke up this morning, I have been given more time. Some people didn't get more time today. But I did.

You gave me more time. What am I going to do with it? Anybody who knows me knows my life is bizarre. I guess God wants me to keep going and use my time well.

That's kind of cool!

How about you? You got more time today too... :-)

"To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. 8I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name."

--from Revelation 3 ("The Message")

A note of praise along the way

Kiddo finally has health insurance! Kiddo could have had it months ago, but at least they have it now. The most significant, life wounding things haven't been deal with yet, so we continue to pray. Kiddo has had a longstanding problem with their feet and today they finally got to see a real podiatrist about it. After a long time of suffering kiddo had finally went to the "safety net" free clinic before they had insurance, and the general practitioner meant well, I'm sure, but multiple visits had not taken care of the problem and neither kiddo nor their mother seemed to get any followup care information, so kiddo went through several painful and not very useful visits. I'm really hopeful that the foot specialist kiddo saw today (finally! praise God!) will help them finally get some relief.

But now, back to pray more for medical solutions to this kid's REAL problem: a psychiatric one. Seeing kiddo after they work out is both heartening and heartbreaking. It is the one time that adrenaline, or whatever, seems to alter the brain long enough to have some very nice conversations that are completely unlike any other discourse we have with the kid. Then after a little while, back comes the rage, lack of ability to string coherent thoughts together consistently without anger, and etc.

To Market To Market

Market is tiring right now but the people and being with my hubby gives me energy and joy.

Finally, I am seeing interest in my aprons that I have brought to market to sell. I am trying to do stuff I would actually like, and things I can get done in a good amount of time. I will take some pics and add to this post.

It is really nice to get fresh yummy produce each week. We bought a yellow watermelon; that was a new one. The smart aleck vendor next to me sold it to us. We asked him "what does it taste like?" He said, "Yellow." Hokay... *L*

Summer edu-ma-cation is over

At least formal education. Kiddo got another A. Glad I get a few weeks off of driving, although driving two hours a day was a lot easier on us than the usual 4 or 5 during the school year. I need a vacation but I don't see it happening...arrgh.

Let's be honest here

If I said I wasn't very tense and bummed out right now that would be a lie. So here's to authenticity ;-) But somehow God will get us through this...I have no clue what the plan is for that at present, of course. I just hope I can learn what God's purpose is in all of this so I can glorify God in the midst of it all. Pretty wrung out right now.

The softer mammogram...

...oh yeah, right. They had that sign at my test and I wasn't about to fall for it. Sure enough, all it meant was a piece of thin foam under your breast as they squeezed the life outta it. Hey, I'm not ticked. If they have to squish it to see it, so be it. ;-)

Try this summery salad...

Lots of farmers market produce in our house these days...tend to buy it from my fellow vendors (or trade out sometimes). So here's one that fits great...

Steam some baby red potatoes (cut into uniform chunks before steaming, leave skin on) and mix with either fresh or canned corn. Add cut up fresh tomatoes or cut up cherry tomatoes (I used the latter). Add diced onion or some onion powder. Then finish it off with some basil, lemon juice, and olive oil. Toss gently and add some salt/pepper. Yummy!

Metro, yucko...

When I picked up kiddo the other day they were pretty ticked off. IMHO, they had a good reason to be. Kiddo was the only kid in the 25ish person class who had gotten an A on a math test. Well, the rest of the class is probably people who failed the class the first time, but kiddo had never taken the class before and was soaking up a semester worth of stuff in three weeks' time. Some kid in class kept whining that they didn't understand what the teacher had been asking for. The teacher said, "well, someone DID understand what I was asking for!" and pointed at kiddo...who had legitimately gotten 100% on the test. This is the kind of class where a teacher could have looked over the math answer and given partial credit for understanding the process but not getting the right answer. Instead the teacher just caved to the kid whining and said "okay, everyone else will get 100% too." Kiddo had even done the extra credit question on the test and gotten that correct too. Had to tell kiddo that even though they had a teacher who was being very lax in my estimation and kiddo's as well, it is important to remember that kiddo was the only one who legitimately got 100% and the rest of the class got 100% but they couldn't really do the work and that would come out later in their lives. I was proud of kiddo, but ticked about how the teacher handled it, obviously. Let's lower the standard because a student whines...arrgh...

Releasing old memories

There is a piece of fabric I've been holding on to for a few years now. My father died a few years back, and shortly before his birthday. I had purchased some John Deere fabric to make him some pillows for a birthday gift. Kitschy? Sure, but my dad made his living as a farmer, and worked so hard to provide for us. he wasn't much for gifts, and often said he already had everything he needed...so I thought I would make him something I thought he would like.

I am grateful for all he did. He always liked farm type stuff even after he was retired, and one of his favorite gifts I gave him was a metal diecast tractor (a model of his favorite tractor we'd had on the farm, an IH C...

I had the fabric in the stash for this time, not knowing what to do with it...and because of the memories attached to it, not wanting to just dispose of it either. It makes me think of all the hard work he did and what living on a farm was all about.

Finally something dawned on me. I know a "farmgirl" who has a couple sons. The youngest just arrived on the scene fairly recently. The older one is still a little boy, and probably a little jealous of all the attention the younger one gets recently.

So I'm working on a quillow for Will. He doesn't know and I wouldn't expect him to know what the meaning of the fabric is. For me, it's letting go of a memory, and letting a youngster have fun with a farm motif.

Hope you enjoy it, Will. I am enjoying making it for you. God bless ya, little man... :-)

Another good market

Lots of people, good sales, not the same stuff as last time, but hey, it worked. I am very grateful. The good thing is that the stuff that is easier for me to make right now as I don't feel that great is the stuff that is selling. Some things really need to get made, but I have been too tired to spend the many hours needed for the stuff that needs to be done. Market is tiring me right now but things will be better soon...I have faith.