I Have Happy Popcorn

A few wee little things.

I
Have
Happy
Popcorn.

Really snort no. But I did in my dream before I woke up! I have happy popcorn I says to me'self, and it made perfect whopping popcorn popping sense. More reason to keep laughing at myself. I'm a nut.
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Do you ever notice how plastic grocery sacks you're saving, say, ones from Kroger, come out of the cloth bag-holder you're saving them in? Possibly in your pantry? When you twist one out and shake it it's wadded exactly how you wadded and smooshed it when you put it in there. All wrinkly, and you shake it out and it's the perfect trash can liner for under the kitchen sink. Food for thought.
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I grabbed the olive oil spritzer in the pantry last night and it spat! All over me - agh! It was too puffed up. Really. It's the kind of thing where you pump the lid two or three times then press the nozzle steadily for a spritz like on veggies at the table or grilled stuff in the George Foreman. Before I put it away last (around June, hey) I pumped it. Must've. It's been holding its breath. Well I pitched it in the trash as it exploded. This morning I noticed a sheen where it's been on the shelf. (Houston, we have a problem.) The spritzer has NOT been holding it's breath, it's been slobbering, oozing all over the Morton Salt and White Lily cornmeal. My Jiff  peanut butter is skating, and the cocoa and cornstarch boxes and vanilla and tahini paste bottles. The step-stool is slimy where I set all that stuff without realizing. Ick. The Lazy Susan, a perfect oil slick. (Into the dishwasher.) Clean up is tomorrow as today is a day of (beautiful) rest.
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BE NOT AFRAID, ONLY BELIEVE. Elder Larry W. Gibbons of the Seventy at our Stake Conference this morning gave pointers for developing our faith: All inscribed in my green notebook Abbie writes in when we're together not that often betwixt her pages of art, math and spelling.

1. Trials are a necessary part of life, not an indicator that the Lord is not happy with us. It is hard to build faith in the noonday sun!

2. Lift up thine eyes. I will be strengthened beyond my own capacity when I look to Christ.

3. Live the commandments diligently.  Nothing is as powerful to strengthen faith.

4. Remember you are not alone. Remember the Lord will have been there before you.

5. Remember that you are in good company!

6. Like on a trip exploring a river, there is an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown destination. The rapids are the exciting part and bring a sense of accomplishment and energy if we will not park the boat.

7. Answers to prayer come in pieces, not all at once. Line upon line.



8. You are already armed with the gifts you need. The Holy Ghost will guide, comfort, influence you.

9. Trust the Lord, PROVE the Lord. Tithing is paid with faith, not funds.

10. Turn the matter over to the Lord and wait patiently. Let the Lord do the heavy lifting. "Is anything too hard for the Lord?"

11. Listen to our leaders.

THE FUTURE IS AS BRIGHT AS MY FAITH.

One Fine Day

I'm ready to make a new blog header. Almost ready. I studied this one, loving/hating something about it and in my current mood will decided to leave it a bit. It makes me laugh. At myself - and I need the lessons of that a while longer! :)
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What do I do with myself in a day? Any of you in a job wouldn't have to ask. Mothering? - wouldn't even have to ask. Both - yah, don't bother. LOL. I don't do either. I used to.

I'm asking myself while here I am earlier this morning under the wooden blinds on the big window in my kitchen. Yeah, on the back side of them, between them and the window, me. Dusting. Been a while already working on the front side and you know only that half is clean. Reversing how they shut, then getting to their backs finishes the task. And wiping baseboards. I might as well since I'm in nooks and crannies and dust is everywhere... and now the table is moved away from the wall so why not mop. Half the floor - the rugs taken up and shaken - then wait. Which is what I'm doing here.

... 5:03 pm... mid-sentence (above) the phone rang and it was Deen, a friend I visit teach whose daughter may have just had a stroke and she herself is squeaking into the phone because she has a lung sickness and is gasping for air. Widowed, in her late seventies, and caring for her 50-something daughter who is chronically ill, she finally finally calls on me for help and it was right then and in a hurry if you can. And of course.

So what I did this afternoon is really what I do in a day. Lately. :)

December 2009

More from Christmas vacation. It may take awhile to get it out my system!

Pray

I read the most recent NieNie blog post and feel like crying myself. The minute I finished I thought, "O God, oh Heavenly Father, please help Stephanie." I pray in my thoughts much of the day. Any day. Every day - and it's easy to turn a prayer, a plea, toward one person in a moment or a heartbeat. Like I turn on the water from a spigot: it flows - it's that fast. That dependable.



It's that much a relief pouring out my heart to my Father and knowing He hears me, especially when it's for someone else. Tears flowing or my heart racing for another person's grief doesn't access the heavens like prayerfulness.

It's my opinion that a prayer comes to heaven as one powerful thing and joins up with others where it takes on tremendous power to (in God's will and according to His time) activate blessings and bring relief. I hear Stephanie's words at the end of her post i need your prayers (again, and again) as a cry, but a cry in faith in this heavenly system that brings powerful relief. this is harder than I thought.

I'm so thankful for this personal access to our Father in Heaven. That I'm admitted in prayer into His presence specifically through Jesus Christ. And that the power of the Holy Ghost, this third member of the Godhead, comforts and, above all, enervates and heals. I'm thankful my little stream of consciousness does activate blessings for someone else. I'm sorry for suffering.

Chili Tonight

I'm making vegetable chili, really more like soup this afternoon even though it's date night and most Fridays we go out to eat for dinner. Because it's STILL overcast and dampish out, and I've been out in the car twice by the time suppertime comes - once to get my hair trimmed and boy does it look cute and yet once again to go with the sister missionaries to teach. And I want to stay HOME. And have sweet Italian bread torn from the loaf and dipped in olive oil and rosemary.

Picky Palate has the recipe, a step-by-step-with-pictures thing I find fascinating these days on food blogs. So I worked it. Hearty Vegetable Quinoa Chili. I made mine exactly like hers. Quinoa, pronounced keen-wa I think, is supposed to be healthy. Very.  I decided to try it about a half-a-year ago and bought it, then forgot to use it, so how lucky am I!

We'll see when I ladle it into my bowl and it goes down the hatch, right?

Chunky Vegetable Quinoa Chili
Picky Palate blog, 8-10 servings



1 Cup uncooked quinoa
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
5 stalks celery, chopped
5 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
6 sweet peppers, chopped
1 zucchini, quartered and sliced
2 yellow zucchini, quartered and sliced
4 cloves fresh garlic, minced
Pinch of kosher salt
32 oz chicken broth
2 15 oz cans diced tomatoes
2 cans white beans, drained
2 Tablespoons ground cumin
1 1/2 Tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
Kosher salt, fresh cracked pepper, Lawry’s Garlic Salt with Parsley
Fresh Cilantro leaves, chopped

1. Cook quinoa according to package directions.  Set aside.  Heat oil into a large dutch oven over medium heat.  Saute onions, celery, carrots, sweet peppers and zucchini’s.  Stir and cook for 5-8 minutes or until softened.  Stir in garlic and cook for 60 seconds.  Season with a pinch of kosher salt.

2. Pour in chicken broth, cooked quinoa, tomatoes, beans, cumin, chili powder, hot sauce and lime juice.  Season with kosher salt, pepper and Lawry’s according to your liking.  Add some then give a taste until you are satisfied :)   Stir in fresh cilantro leaves.

3. Simmer on low until ready to serve.  We like to crush tortilla chips over top, mmm!
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Things I'm loving at the moment, 01-10

Out with the Missionaries

Got to go out with the sister missionaries today.



A damp and sodden day, almost rain. Lowering. We visited N, a recent convert who sitting on his couch in his mother's living room listened to the discussion on the restoration of the gospel. You'd think there'd be lots of questions after once hearing this discussion from the missionaries half a year ago and being baptized in September and hearing talks and Sunday School lessons on the subject since; questions - but no. N says he doesn't ask questions (when I asked him if he had any questions). He likes to sit quietly and soak things up like a sponge. He was invited by the sisters to read for 10 minutes each day from the Book of Mormon starting sometime today, and in a motherly and sort of twisted moment I told him I'd give him a reminder call at dinnertime. Like I do my Seminary students. N is 20-something, and he nodded graciously and asked his first question: what time?

"Can we do anything for you?" one sister asked as we got coats on to go. "Take me to the mall, please?" said N. I opened my mouth to say sure, it being directly on our way to our next appointment and seeing no conflict, but I took a look from the sisters and didn't; a small discussion about them (us) needing to go the entire OTHER direction to leave a note on the door of _____ (I forget her name) saying the appointment the sisters were to have with her tonight at 7:00 would have to be postponed since the Mission President texted them a while ago to make an appointment to do interviews with them tonight. He's driving into town. She has no phone, hence the note. The other direction. Ah. "Sorry N, we can't." All are crestfallen. Them because they can't help, him because they can't help. Me because I hadn't known we were heading to our next appointment five miles northwest of here by going miles and miles in a southeasterly direction into the county and yonder.

No problem. (Except for N.)

We drove through the most beautiful winter country to leave our note, then backtracked making our way up near the mall and on to the apartment complex of S, our 3:00 appointment. 2:55: climbed to the second story apartment. Rang the doorbell. Rang it again. Knocked. Stood in place a bit then shuffled our feet and discussed how S wasn't (clearly) home. Sister H got out fluorescent pink super-sticky post-its; a note was written and welded to the front door. We went downstairs and got in the car. No lesson taught. No friendshiping. No best intentions. No questions asked; none answered. Not home.

Sister C got out her map liberally decorated with stickies covered in handwritten addresses; looked up M's name and address. We moved on down the road and made our way up a sharp incline into an old trailer park, mind you behind a yellow school bus and a Fed Ex truck. Parked near 94 and got out. And knocked on the door on a spot right under the weathered Christmas wreath. Real? I think it was, and dying - paling and curling this graying and murky and rustic afternoon. I had a little time to observe this and wonder while the sisters knocked and knocked. Then got out the (yes) pink sticky notes.

"Where to now," I asked when we were in the car, a pearly note fluttering on the door right below the wreck. I mean wreath. "Encino?" said Sister H.  "T," said sister C. (He lives across the highway in the trailer park up the incline opposite this one.) "Right-O," we said.

We (they) figured we'd sneak up on T, knock on the door at the back of his trailer and surprise him in case he's been avoiding the sisters for some reason other times they've come. He hasn't been keeping his word. Hasn't come to church. Hasn't been reading scriptures. Hasn't been home when he said he'd be. They came a few days ago after buying for him the natural foods he needed to be on the quit smoking program the missionaries offer people. Knowing he has a dollar twenty-seven to his name they bought; they used gas and miles; they came, and he didn't answer the door. They're not mad at him but have today adopted a "do or die" attitude. He does, or we don't come back. 

We knocked on the back door and stood, shuffling, on the concrete block steps. "HEY!" There he was, near the front end of the trailer unshaven and grinning at us, waving and holding his hat in his hand. Waving with his hat at us to come off the stoop, come on over. Gap-toothed, he grinned at Sisters C and H approaching. I tagged along. He put his hat on and shoved his hands in his pockets and smiled. It rained softly on us.

The sisters are enforcers. Sister H can bang on a door like a cop. He hung his head a time or two in the talk that followed, then said yes he wants the sisters to still come; help him quit smoking; teach him the word of God. 10:15 tomorrow morning, they said. "I was here," alluding to the other day when the ladies came and he [sic] wasn't home. "Just asleep. I don't hear nothing' when I'm asleep. S'like trying to raise the dead." Sister H shook her head and he shook his and nodded all at the same time. "Yes ma'am, I'm here tomorrow morning, 10:15, please come. I'll cut on my cell alarm and I've got another smaller . . . " He might have trailed off or probably I looked away, down at my feet on the pine needles bare in my Birkenstocks in the rain. Red dirt beneath that and rivulets of water tracking through it. "Would you give the prayer," I heard Sister H the enforcer say to T.  He gulped and clasped his hands and bowed his head and we stood, a circle of four in this public place on the highway on a hill in front of trailer, all our heads down and hands clasped and he prayed vocally. "Help me quit smoking. Give us the power of Your word. Help me do what I say I'll do. Help these sisters. Amen."

I backed the car out and onto the highway and drove the sisters to their apartment across town. Hours we've been together this afternoon and we only talked to two. One in a comfy living room and no questions, and one under the pines, all eager and repentant. Left three notes the other places. Drove high and low, and saw some pretty country, in the rain albeit. Missionaries must be tireless! My little sister missionaries are! I have the slightest headache but feel happy and very hopeful.

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Things I worked on over Christmas.

Life Lesson

I listened in Relief Society class to Lesson Two from the Gospel Principles manual, Our Heavenly Family. The teacher was fishing at a point for a certain response to why we came to earth, and standard answers passed among us in the room like little breezes: To get a body; to be tested; to experience things for ourselves; because it was part of our Father's plan.

It's stated right in the second paragraph on the first page: So "we can become like our Heavenly Father and receive a fulness of joy."

It came to me in a new way: We can have joy here and now -



and do minimally, there's no denying. The reward for obedience to Christ and enduring this whole mortal realm where there is more sorrow than happiness is a FULNESS of joy. All that the Father has. When He states this is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man, He's covenanting to bring us to Him in a state of full happiness.

I got an H1N1 shot this week. An inoculation. I wish I could be inoculated against pain and sadness. I heard about and saw painful events last week. I took some of it on me. I took what action I could. But much I couldn't - I just stand by in pity. All of it I pray about. Lots I shed tears over. None of it is avoidable. I wished this week for a shot in the arm of heavenly joy, an inoculation against my grief. Against mistake-making, surprise and disaster. It came to me in a new way though today how important it is for me to move through life mortal, not be immunized from it.  I need the full experience of grief now to comprehend fulness of joy to come.

I believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ which teaches that we lived in a pre-mortal spirit world where we literally shouted for joy (there it is) at the exact possibilities mortal life would provide us. The lesson touched on these things: that prior to being born we learned the purpose for our progression to an earthly life and beyond - a fulness of joy! All of us would suffer sickness, disappointment, pain, sorrow and death. These were possibilities; in fact, eventualities. They would be given to us for our experience and our good and, if we allowed them to,



would purify us rather than defeat us.

I called Jen tonight and she told me she gave a talk in  Sacrament meeting today in her ward. I didn't know. Guess what her subject was?

Joy!

 She shared a few little things with me and I came away happy.

How to Make Sausage Gravy Over Biscuits

Turn on the oven to 350 degrees F. Open a tube of 8 Grand's Homestyle Southern Style biscuits and put them an inch to two inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Put them in the oven and turn the timer to 12 minutes. Keep an eye on them.

Get a pot. That you can stir in metal on metal.

Here.

Mine doesn't look like that; probably yours doesn't either.








How about this?

And get out your new whisk that can stand up on its bottom because you really don't like the kind that lays on the counter, gooey, after you've used it.

This whisk. Saw it on Rachel Ray.

Put two pats of butter, about 2 Tbsp., in the pot and turn on the heat. Add two heaping cereal spoonfuls of flour. Whisk it while the pan gets hot - it'll dough up on you. Add milk, a little at a time, whisking, from a 10 oz. or so drinking glass. You can measure the milk beforehand, about 2 cups total, and you can use combinations of milk, like evaporated, skim, 1%, fat free half-n-half; whatever you have. (Not oh not sour cream.)

You're making roux. Roo. Don't boil it. Set it off the heat when it begins to thicken. You can put some salt and pepper in it in a minute.  Stand the whisk on the counter and admire. Check the biscuits.

Get the turkey sausage links out of the freezer. These babies. Yes, they're better for you and taste good.

Or these.

Microwave seven links (don't know how many patties) for 30 seconds on high. They'll still be kind of cold - grind them in the Magic Bullet. Pulse a few times - be careful or you'll make sausage juice! You can grate them on a cheese grater too if you want, whatever. Add the sausage bits to the roux.  Stir it and smile, it's almost done!

Take the biscuits out of the oven.



Salt and pepper the gravy. Put everything on the table, bless it and enjoy breakfast!

O Christmas Tree

I updated my version of PSE this month and have been working, working, along with getting my computer up to speed this week, to learn it and tweak it. I have to say I love it! Finally I was able to do another layout.

It's so me to not go artsy on the page; use blending modes like I see a lot of other scrappers do, or less-pics-more-papers-and-brushes; render the (few) photos black and white and dreamy-like and paint in flourishes behind them . . . Heather, I think you're artsy. You might have done this. See, I keep pictures in color mostly, and coordinate things - it's why I quilted so many years (so many years ago!) - I like the possibilities of patterns and colors. I'm traditional:  look at the rolled arms, rounded backs and brass tacks in my couch and club chair in my living room and know this.

Okay, this is a busy page, but it appeals to me. There was, is, so different a way I could have scrapped it initially, but I DID (sigh) put pictures in virtually every photo spot in the Christmas tree. I have too many faces I want to see! And I did gussy it a little.

I like it. I like the intense periwinkle of the top paper, and I LOVE polka dots and plaid. It's too bad I'm not the size of a fourteen year-old and can wear a polka-dot shirtwaist. Not! (When I WAS fourteen I couldn't wear polka-dots, and for sure not a shirtwaist.)

Anyhow. (Oh, that makes me think of Dana who says anywho). Enjoy. Jenny don't be mad about your picture, it's gorgeous. Click on it . . . love the beanie. It adds a spot of winter charm. I know, I know - you're not about charm.  :)
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Seminary Byte

Today in Seminary there were three. Four when Tania walked in with about twenty minutes to go. Kyle and I sang the opening song and had prayer and Nicole and Peter walked in part way into the lesson. 

There was an assignment on the board: Pretend you were Amulek teaching the Zoramites. Question 1. Why would you have this discussion about [insert any of these from Alma 34. (1-10, 13, 14; 17-28; 30-35; 37-41)].   Question 2. Identify and explain the principle or doctrine your listeners may learn from [the same scripture set].

They read and they wrote. Tania wrote fast. Nicole had to leave early so she finished and left her paper at the table and said goodbye.

Then they shared, Peter first: I would teach 34:37-41 to tell that them that they will obtain no good thing from the devil. It says the devil is evil. The principle is "Resist Temptation."

Then Tania, in pink fluorescent pen: 34:1-10; 13 and 14 about the Atonement. So that the people can know that they will be saved, that they do have a chance if they repent. " Atonement" is the doctrine.


Kyle, from memory: I would tell the Zoramites about repentance and finally resurrection, Alma 34:30-35. They shouldn't procrastinate repenting. "Procrastination, Repentance" are the key words for the Scripture Mastery 34:32-34, so Kyle way had help with his share. These are the doctrine and principle.

Nicole's assignment in green glitter pen:  Alma 34:37-41 1. If I were Amulek, I would discuss these verses to tell the Zoramites what they need to do to be saved in the kingdom of God.  2. Principle: "Endure to the end." Amulek tells them what to do to endure and be able to rest from any afflictions. They need to have faith, the spirit, patience, and be humble.

 When the kids are here they do fine. One for 10 minutes at the start, three for a while, then finally four then three again (too soon) is tricky, but we manage. I invited the ones at the table as we closed to pick one thing they would do during the day to apply a principle they learned. Peter said he would resist the temptation to say hi to mother after school and then ditch her. He would stay and talk to her for awhile. (Wow.) Tania said she would not procrastinate doing her weekend homework - she would do it all today. Kyle mentioned he would stop being so lazy. (What?)  I asked if I could call them today to remind them (and check up, he he) . . .  they rolled their eyes and laughed and gave me excuses, then phone numbers and times of day. Tania, after 10 p.m.

The thing I will do today is pray steadily: Alma 34:17-28 says:

17Therefore may God grant unto you, my brethren, that ye may begin to exercise your faith unto repentance, that ye begin to call upon his holy name, that he would have mercy upon you;
18 Yea, cry unto him for mercy; for he is mighty to save.
19 Yea, humble yourselves, and continue in prayer unto him.
20 Cry unto him when ye are in your fields, yea, over all your flocks.
21 Cry unto him in your houses, yea, over all your household, both morning, mid–day, and evening.
22 Yea, cry unto him against the power of your enemies.
23 Yea, cry unto him against the devil, who is an enemy to all righteousness.
24 Cry unto him over the crops of your fields, that ye may prosper in them.
25 Cry over the flocks of your fields, that they may increase.
26 But this is not all; ye must pour out your souls in your closets, and your secret places, and in your wilderness.
27 Yea, and when you do not cry unto the Lord, let your hearts be full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually for your welfare, and also for the welfare of those who are around you.
28 And now behold, my beloved brethren, I say unto you, do not suppose that this is all; for after ye have done all these things, if ye turn away the needy, and the naked, and visit not the sick and afflicted, and impart of your substance, if ye have, to those who stand in need—I say unto you, if ye do not any of these things, behold, your prayer is vain, and availeth you nothing, and ye are as hypocrites who do deny the faith.

This study is truly one of the loves of my life. It brings me close to Christ. 

I know, I know. It's showing Alma chapter 36. But we're getting there, one of my faves . . . pray the kids come next week.

Here and Now

Being present is joyous. I'm rarely all that, so when I am aware and grateful I'm zinged with immediate joy! Andrea Bocelli . . . coming onto my computer through Windows Media Player. Ahhhh!

RIP CD; yeah I'm shuffling through Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Andrea and Paul Potts (gifts from Christmases past) and YoYo Ma and Jim Brickman, ripping. And listening.

You can tell my mood pretty much.

I've got a to do list today: Mo Tab Music, rip to computer. Sort Actions. Read 32 of B of M - call Anna and Daniel after school to remind them. Groceries. Blog. Flu shot. Choir labels. Airline tickets. Call @ Gloria. Look for contacts.

Stuff's getting done. You notice "clean bathrooms" is not on my list  :) 

New Year Week One

I'm here, just busy-busy. The week has been normal except for:

Below freezing temperatures.

Construction in the front bedroom to repair termite damage. Ah, letting in below freezing temperatures.

Repair work on the roof, in the attic and in the livingroom.

Grocery shopping at night - construction crew's at the house during the day.

Two birthday parties two nights for two friends.

Lunch with ladies from work as usual - postponed two days because the construction crew's here.


Worrying about a sister I visit teach who is lying unresponsive in the hospital. Failing. Visited Sunday; waited til Thursday for the crew to be done here then ran to the hospital. Her relatives and close friends hope for dessert while they sit in the room with her, so I made a chocolate cake from scratch with fudge frosting. Have one plastic fork in the house so I take it and a few paper plates and napkins and the cake to the hospital Friday. Walk into her room and she (and the bed) gone. (To dialysis . . . whew.) Will come again Saturday afternoon.

Kent's sick. Recovering.

New computer: Parts and pieces go from the box to my desk easy enough. A dream! Windows 7's like driving a bus, though - huge learning curve. Files taking forever to get transferred from the old XP to this one. 17 hours for one; 11 hours another - all graphics. A plethora. Day by day hurry up and wait. Figuring things out on the Internet. Settings to tweak.  Lots'a being under the computer desk. Hours on the phone with Dad.

Mini-conference today 10-2 for Seminary teachers at the Stake Center. Potato soup to take, comforting altogether to body, heart and soul. It's okay, not great.

Rest this afternoon, then ramp up for Sunday.  :)

January 1

I just finished watching the Auburn-Northwestern game, the Outback Bowl. Auburn won. It's a football day complete with pizza and cold bright sunshine. There should be root beer, but no. The wind is whipping around the house. Anymore there aren't leaves on the yard, eddying, just clean-swept brown grass and at this hour very long shadows. Today is unlike the 75 degrees hot that many New Year's days are in the deep south. And sultry, where you need to wear capris and flip flops. Today I'm in long sleeves and socks and loving it.

This morning we went to Walmart. There were only old people people our age there. We went to Office Max for Kent to buy me a label maker for Christmas: for my spices which last Christmas I labeled with a Dymo label maker and about which I complained all 2009 as they fell off. I learned how to work the label maker and then did all spices during the game.

If 2010 were tall, tall, tall with day one at the top, today's so high up I'm teetery. Jan. 1 is (for me) forgettable. Football's fun but comes and goes, and pizza goes down great then stays with you all day, and you lay around wishing for a nap. In about a week I'll be more into the year. Last year a week in, Grandma Bradford died and Kent and I flew to Utah and stayed awhile. January snuck by last year.
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