Weather Watching

I am an admitted weather watcher.  I don't go chasing storms, but I love to watch the storms roll in.  I don't go to the basement unless I have to and only then when I think there is no other choice. Perhaps someday the windows are going to blow in on me and the building collapse around me.  I'd rather watch it come than to be in the basement with no windows, not seeing a thing and having the entire structure fall on my head.  (I've been telling the parents of my students for year, "Never surprise a firstborn.")

When Chelsea was alive, I would be out on the deck watching storms roll in, marveling at the cloud formations and loving the change in wind direction, speed, and temperature.  Chelsea would stand on her hind legs, which put her just about eye-to-eye with me, and say, "Mom, this is stupid. Get inside."

Here's a picture of the storm that came through last Friday evening.  The wind picked up and by the time it was over, any tree that had a weak spot had been found out.  There were branches and some pretty fair-sized limbs in the streets when I went to my writing group meeting. (As you can see, Chelsea is not here to stop me anymore.)

After the dry spell we had this summer, I am not complaining about any form of rain that falls.  It's the heavy winds that I occasionally wonder about.  We had a couple of local neighborhoods without power after this straight-line windstorm blew through.

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi

Dough Safe to Eat Raw

Okay, dough-eaters - you know who you are.  We love licking the beaters and eating fingerfuls of the dough, but we know that the raw egg gives the dough an element of risk.

Here's what to do.  If you buy a mix - brownie, cookie, or cake - mix it according to the directions except don't put in the egg.  Instead, for each egg required exchange it for 1/4 cup of plain yogurt.  (I throw in an egg-sized scoop of yogurt.  Stir it up and if the mixture is a bit dry, add just a few drops of water.

You now have dough safe to nibble on.

If you are making your recipe from scratch, leave out the baking soda and add the yogurt as suggested above.  You aren't going to need the baking soda since you aren't going to bake the dough. 

I have been known to make a good sized batch of cookie dough and roll up cylinders of it wrapped in waxed paper and aluminum foil and freeze it.  For us dough-eaters, there isn't much better for dessert.

I've discovered that in a recipe that needs several eggs like pumpkin pie, you can exchange half of the eggs for yogurt and bake it.  The flavor changes somewhat, but is still tasty.  The calorie and cholesterol count go down too.  Try it and see what you think.

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi

Gelatin and Other Ingredients

On my birthday, I like to make red or green Jello with chopped celery, shredded carrots, and chopped walnuts.  When it is slightly set, I pour it into a graham cracker crust.  If I feel like adding whipped topping, that's okay, but I think it is fine by itself.

Today I am going to my sisterly writers' group.  I'm taking the Jello without the crust.  On a hot day, there is not much better than this for a cool and refreshing snack.

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi

Missing One Ingredient - Enchiladas

The other day I baked  a turkey breast.  I thought I might use some of the meat in a batch of enchiladas.  I cut up a little over a pound of cooked meat, added a can of pinto beans and a large can of tomato sauce.  I have a recipe for Mexican spice mix.  I added an appropriate amount of that and then went to the refrigerator for the corn tortillas I was sure I had recently bought.  There weren't any.  Now what?

Well, necessity is nothing if not the inspiration for interesting ideas.  I had a bag of tortilla chips.  The brand I picked up is quite excellent, less salty and with an excellent crispiness.  (On the Border brand, if you can find it)

I crumbled some of the chips on the bottom of the baking pan.  The turkey mixture went on top of that and then I crumbled more chips  - sort of large pieces - on top.  Cheddar cheese made the final ingredient.  I baked it at 350 for about 20 minutes - just enough to warm it through and melt the cheese.

Delicious!!

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi

Finished Afghan

This afghan nears 7 feet across.  Here it is across a double bed.

Phew!  I'm glad it's finished!  The last couple of rounds were each about 21 feet of double crochet.  I'll be glad of it this winter.

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi

A Couple of Random Photos

Les and his Buddy

How many birds can dance on the head of a stump?

(Sorry about the screen.  If I went outside for a clear shot, they would all fly away.)

Work in Progress

Here's the afghan I'm working on at the moment.  It's a round afghan with only 12 increases per round.  You have no idea how fast that adds up!  A five-band color is 48 stitches bigger on the fifth round than it was on the first one. That doesn't seem like a lot in the beginning, but I'm up to about 16 feet per round at the outer edge and still growing.

I want to add about 12 more rounds bringing the diameter to 6 feet and the circumference to about 19 feet of crocheting.

I'm finishing it with increasingly darker blues to make a sunburst design.

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi

About the Shooting

If you haven't heard about the shooting in Aurora, Colorado, you haven't had a TV or radio on for the last two days.  Obama has even made it his version of 9/11 by cutting short a vacation, saying the federal government will help catch the criminal (he was already in custody) and ordering flags at half-mast.  What??!!  We didn't have flags at half- mast for any number of other atrocities. 

That's all beside the point.  One of the next questions that will go around - as it always does - Where is God when bad things happen?

The answer:  Right where we put Him. 

In America during the last generation, this country has done everything in its power to throw God out.  No prayer in school, remove all Christian symbols from public buildings and areas, take the ten commandments out of the courthouses, no Christmas songs or saying "Merry Christmas" during the winter holidays.  If certain people have their way, we won't have "In God we trust" on our money anymore.  With fifty years of increasing godlessness in our nation, with at least two generations of children grown up without standards, why would you expect to find God anywhere in the situation?  And if you think this country will miraculously improve under the current circumstances, guess again.

Please forgive me.  I needed to vent a little spleen about such willful ignorance.

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi

Rain

We've had just enough rain to start the grass growing again, but I'm afraid for the crops.  It looks like it might be a good idea to stock up on some supplies before the drought shortage prices hit the shelves. 

Just a thought.

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi

The Great Bird Famine

It's been dry here for so long that everything has dried up.  The robins have mostly vanished.  I attribute that to the fact that the worms have gone deep to stay cool and find some moisture. Likewise the seed-eating birds look like they've been on a diet.  Skinny birds kept coming to our tree stump where they found food during the winter.

I finally couldn't take it anymore.  I bought birdseed and am now supplying an entire flock of sparrows, a few mourning doves, and a couple of cardinals.  I'm through 20 pounds of birdseed in just over a week.

Here's what is now entertaining the little black dog again:

The birds are not looking quite so thin anymore.  God willing, it will rain soon and something that the birds will eat will begin to grow again.

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi

Another Rejection

I didn't send out hundreds of article queries, only about five or six.  So far - no takers. 

I know there are more slots for magazine articles than for books.  But I don't spend a lot of time reading magazines, and I spend multitudes of hours reading books.  That's what I know best.  Odds are, I won't change my reading habits.

The logical conclusion to this postulate is that I should be writing books.

The (possibly) cool part of that is, even though my odds of selling a book to a traditional publisher are slim, I could, in this current technology, publish my own book as an ebook or Print On Demand. 

I'll see where the Spirit moves me.

Keep you posted.

Kathi

Liberal Thinking

I always iron my work shirts.  Some of them are T-shirts with a library caption or theme on the front.  I don't feel any particular need to iron my home shirts, but I do for my work ones.  When people are paying for my  time, they deserve my respect.

I have two very liberal coworkers.  I like both of them.  That being said, there are things on which we disagree.

On one occasion, the younger of the two observed out loud, "You always iron your shirts."

My brilliant response was, "So?"

To which she responded, "They always look so perfect."

Now whenever I iron, I think of that conversation.  As short as it was, it pointed out something clearly to me. Liberals would like everyone to be on the same level.  And it shouldn't especially be the best-you-can-be level.  When I iron my shirts, it makes someone else feel inferior - and God forbid that they should iron their shirts to come up to a better level.  How dare I make them feel bad by looking better than they do?

If no one is encouraged to achieve their best, to think high thoughts, to create, to invent, to "reach for the stars", God help this country because it is going to fall into mediocrity, disrepair, and disrepute.  And God help me if I don't think we've already arrived.

How many generations of children have come up in the liberal, feel-good, self-esteem school system without learning how to become what they are capable of becoming? 

Thank God for the parents who care enough to homeschool or are willing to pay for private school in order to bring up their children to find and use their gifts.

I grieve for those who are wasted, who never find and achieve their dreams. 

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi

Yet Another Blog

I miss teaching Bible stories like I did everyday when I was at Woodstock Christian School.  I often have things about God and the Bible that I wish I could share.  So I've started a blog called God With Us.  http://godwithus-kathi.blogspot.com/

The first post has been stuck in my craw for quite a while.  I'd be happy to hear what you think of it.

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi

New Blog

http://wheniwasyourage-kathi.blogspot.com/

I've always been interested in the family stories.  I love history in general and taught it for many years. 

I was thinking about Laura Engels Wilder, who wrote her life story after she saw travel change during her lifetime from covered wagons to airplanes.  I've seen huge changes during my years also.  Since my mother is still with us, I can call up stories going back to the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and World War II.  She, in fact, recently sent me 14 pages of tightly scripted notes and stories about her youth.  I'll be posting some or all of them with her name in the byline.

I think it is worth recording these thoughts, so I started a new blog. It's called When I Was Your Age.

I would be honored if you would add your own stories there as well.  Just grab a comment box and share what you remember with us.

Kathi