7 Things I've Wanted To Tell You But Haven't Had Time

--1--

It's rare that we take a vacation to a place like Alaska, and I wanted to share some more memories, in addition to the pictures I posted.  I wanted to tell you how strange it is to be where there are so many hours of daylight, and that when it's 10 p.m. and still light out, I hardly know what to do with myself.  I feel like if I go to sleep, I might miss something.  I wanted to tell you that I never cared about dogsled races, but after this trip I might just have to follow some; at least the Iditarod, and maybe the Yukon Quest too.  I wanted to tell you more about the musher we met and the dogs he trains, and how he rescues them from shelters, works with them, and adopts them out to families with kids; they'll most likely never be in any races, but they'll be happy and loved.

--2--

We found this video of Emmitt the Dog Musher giving a demonstration on how he trains his dogs.  We were privileged to see him do this while we were there.

--3--

Did you know there are geocaches all over Fairbanks, Alaska?  We didn't have time to go searching for many of them, but we did manage to find one here

and here.

Maybe someday I'll go back to Alaska and look for some more.

--4--

I still haven't quite adjusted to my increase in work hours.  I'm still getting myself into a rhythm, and I've been trying out different time management strategies to help me balance my work, play, rest, and prayer.  Once I get into a regular manageable routine I'll tell you all about it.  Meanwhile, bear with me as blogging takes a back burner.  And pray that I don't lose my mind.  All you moms out there who work full time (and technically, my job is still part-time), any advice you can give me will be most welcome!

--5--

Last week I overheard a three-year-old say to her friend, "Sometimes I just get weally fustwated wif my mommy."  Ah, the deep discussions that take place over Play Dough.  I'm sure my boys have said this about me plenty of times.  I love my job.

--6--

Last weekend I pulled a ham bone from my freezer left over from last New Years', and I made split pea soup for the very first time.  I am happy to say that even though the color seemed a little off, it was delicious.  We've been eating it off and on all week for lunches and dinners, and I even had enough to freeze for later.  Here's the recipe I followed from The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook:

SPLIT PEA SOUP

1 (16-ounce) package dried green split peas

2 quarts water

1 medium onion, chopped

1 medium potato, peeled and diced

1 cup chopped celery*

1 large meaty ham bone

1 clove garlic, minced

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 bay leaf (which I forgot to put in)

2 cups chopped carrot

-Sort and rinse peas; place in a Dutch oven.  Cover with water 2 inches above peas; let soak overnight.  Drain; add 2 quarts water and next 9 ingredients.  Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 2 1/2 hours, stirring occasionallyt.  Remove ham bne; cut off meat and dice.  Discard bone and bay leaf.  Let soup cool slightly.

-Process mixture in batches in an electric blender until smooth.  Return mixture and meat to Dutch oven; cover and simmer 5 minut3es or until thoroughly heated.  Sprinkle each serving with Homemade Croutons.**

(The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook, p. 428)

*Joe and Larry do not like celery, so I left that out and just used a little more carrot and onion.

**I did not follow the recipe for these provided in the book.  I just took some extra pieces of gluten free bread (mostly heels and such) and cut them into pieces; stirred them with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder and placed them on a baking sheet.  I baked them at 425 degrees F for about 10 minutes.  You can stir them after 5 minutes of baking, but I don't think I did that and they turned out just fine.

--7--

And last but not least, my sister-in-law Jenn has joined the blogging world!  Pop on over to The Cookie Jar Adventures and say hello!  (And be sure to check out this post to see an ultrasound photo of our nephew, due to enter the world in late December.  I love his nickname, "Bopper;" after my most favorite contestant on The Amazing Race ever.)

This week, Grace at Camp Patton is hosting "7 Quick Takes;" head over to her place for more!

7 Quick Takes, Volume 50

--1--

As summer is winding down my life is getting busier, it seems. I'm spending less time online (yay me), but I've still managed to post a few things here and there.  Over on Cooking Nick's Books this week I posted a wonderful ratatouille recipe--a perfect quick weeknight summer dish.  And last Friday I posted my "7 Quick Takes" on that blog as well.  I hope you'll check those out!  (My ratatouille post only has ten hits.  Pathetic.  You don't know what you're missing! *smile*)

--2--

Last week Moe attended his annual day camp at the nearby reservoir, where the kids go hiking and canoeing, learn to build fires and bake cakes in Dutch ovens, discover animal tracks and identify trees.  The lake has a new resident this year; the kids named him Steve.  Just don't get too close to him or he'll hiss at you like a banshee.  (Actually, I don't know whether or not a banshee would hiss.  But it sounds cool.)

(Not bad for a photo taken from my phone...)

--3--

Last Saturday Larry took his Black Belt test in taekwondo.  He wasn't nervous until the day before the test.  His instructors and Taekwondo Master were confident that he would do well, and he did.  He won't get his actual belt until the fall, possibly as late as October.  We are so proud of him!

--4--

I took the boys to my parents' house near Blacksburg for a couple of days this week.  I wish I could spend more time with them.  Whenever we visit them I always looking at the pretty little gardens Mom and her neighbors plant and maintain around the springs behind their homes.  You always see lots of animals around, especially birds and rabbits, and when it gets dark Curly likes to stand on their back deck and watch for the deer that always visit.

 (another phone pic.  This one of the pump and bridge turned out better than the one I took with my "real" camera.)

--5--

Curly and I went out on Wednesday afternoon to a park in Christiansburg to explore and look for some geocaches.

We found this one near one of the picnic shelters,

And then set out on a quest for another.

We finally found it not far from where Curly is standing.

We returned slightly hot and thirsty, but it was worth it.  We don't do that as often as I would like.

--6--

When I was a kid, there was one movie theater in town, the Lyric.  When it was built it served as a venue for movies as well as stage shows.  It was quite a fancy place in its heyday.  By the time I came along it was pretty run-down.  Sometime in the 1970s another movie theater was built, then another, and then in the late 1980s the mall went up with a new-fangled multiplex.  For a while the Lyric was closed.  Recently it was renovated, and the dusty brown curtains on the walls were removed, the worn (stained) upholstery on the seats was replaced, and the theater was restored to its former glory.  We patronized the Lyric on Wednesday Night for the movie Madagascar 3; which, thankfully, was much better than I expected.  Very cute. I ventured a photo with my phone from the balcony, but it doesn't do the place justice.  But do you know what?  It's smaller than I remember.  Funny, that.

A lot of memories are here.  Star Wars (you know, the one they call Episode IV, A New Hope nowadays). Freaky Friday.  The one with Jodie Foster, not that crazy Lindsay Lohan.  The Apple Dumpling Gang.  (How many of y'all remember THAT one?  And no Googling.)  It was nice to get a taste of the way going to the movies used to be.

--7--

I had another take in mind, but I'm exhausted because we just returned from seeing this band in concert:

I'll save my rants about people who hate Chick-Fil-A for another post.  And I'll post some photos and tell you all about the fantastic show we saw tonight.  (I don't know...it might even have been better than the Gavin DeGraw concert...I'll study on that awhile and let you know.)  And I have a 6 am appointment with Jesus, the Blessed Sacrament.

Have a wonderful weekend, and don't forget to check out Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes!!

7 Quick Takes, Volume 49

--1--

We spent a wonderful day last Saturday with Joe's parents.  Larry had spent part of the week in Williamsburg with them, and we drove down last Friday night and everyone went to Virginia Beach on Saturday.  We spend two fantastic hours on the beach, until the rain chased us away.

Nearby is a great  seafood restaurant called Catch 31, where we enjoyed a fantastic lunch.  The bronzed tilefish is to die for.  And they make a pretty good mojito, too.

--2--

I hunted for a couple of geocaches this week while the boys were at camps and swim practice and such.  I was able to get a little exercise too, you have to walk a little way to find them.  This one is called "Take Two Bites...Alice."  Can you see it?

Very clever.  And I only have a couple of teensy poison ivy bumps.

If you want to look for this geocache, click here.

--3--

Not far down the trail is another geocache called "Really Wet Land."  I love the setting for this one.

I searched in vain for that cache.  I even emailed the person who placed it for help, and I still couldn't find it.  If you want to try, go here.  Maybe you'll have better luck than me.

What I love about geocaching is that you have to keep your eyes open and you see things you might not notice, like the beautiful churchyard I showed you in this post.

Along the path this week I spotted these things:

--4--

We have a hummingbird feeder.  The other day Curly and Moe spotted a hummingbird taking a sip.  What we usually see is this (look closely):

Nice, huh?

--5--

This next take was going to be a rant about President Obama's latest idiocy, where he claimed that people who have successful businesses that they built from the ground up didn't actually build them.  I had lots of snarky things to say about that, including that Obama didn't really earn that worthless Nobel Peace Prize, someone better actually did, and that everyone knew it all along.  But then I opened up my Twitter feed (see Take Number 7 for my navel-gazing drivel about how maybe I should quit social networking, blah blah) to the news that fourteen (now they're saying twelve) people had been shot dead--and many more people badly injured--in a movie theater in Colorado.  I may or may not have more to say about that later; right now I'm just shocked and saddened.

Sometimes I wonder why we don't react as strongly when something like that happens overseas, like when someone blows up a bus full ofIsraeli tourists in Bulgaria.  I think it's because it's happening here, in our own country, and we're shocked because those things just don't happen in America.

--6--

Yesterday I posted another project on my Cooking Nick's Books blog.  It's a delicious pasta dish that my mother-in-law handed down to me--well, actually, Joe explained to me in detail how she used to make it and according to him, it's just like hers.  So far it's only gotten nine pageviews.  Nine.  If you haven't seen it, you're missing out on something yummy and REALLY EASY to make.  Check it out here!

(While you're at it, here's another one I published last summer for peach ice cream.  That one has only had nine views as well.  Can we make it ten? *smile*

--7--

You may see a significant reduction in my online presence very soon, partly because we'll have a lot going on during the latter part of the summer and I won't have much time for blogging and social networking.  There will be a lot for everyone to do to get ready for the new school year.  For the last several years I've been working about 20 hours a week on average; this year I'll be working 30.  That's not a whole lot, I know; lots of moms work 40 hours per week or more and still have time for other things.  But ten hours is ten hours, and every hour I spend online is one hour I'm missing out on (or neglecting) something else.  I need to take some time and re-evaluate how I want to spend time online, make sure my online presence is meaningful to myself and others.  It's so easy to idly browse Facebook and Twitter and blog readers with no real purpose, and then suddenly you've wasted an hour of your day doing nothing.  Plus with Blogger's new format, it's easier than ever to see exactly how many times people have viewed my blog posts, and the meager numbers are depressing.  At times I'm not sure if it's really worth the time I spend writing blog posts if only a handful of people are going to see them.  I'll never be an "it" blogger and get lots of traffic and comments (I haven't really taken the time to figure out how many comments per month I get on average because it varies, but I can go through an entire month of blogging and have none--which sounds hypocritical coming from me because I almost never leave comments) and I hope that the few people who do read this don't feel like they've wasted their time.  And how many people actually see every 140-character-or-less post I put up on Twitter?  Not many.

(Boy, it sure sounds like I'm whining, doesn't it?  Enough of that.  I do love blogging and social networking; maybe I just need to spend less time doing it.)

Jen Fulwiler is definitely an "it" blogger because, well, her blog rocks.  She's the one who invented "7 Quick Takes," so now that you've wasted five minutes of your day reading this one(ha ha), head on over to Conversion Diary and read her post from this week, and check out lots of other ones, too.  Have a wonderful weekend!

7 Quick Takes, Volume 42

ONE

We've had a pretty eventful couple of weeks here. Last week Curly did this to his arm,

playing a game called "Balance Beam Dodge Ball."

Now he's sporting a green cast that reaches past his elbow, and is trying to do everything one-handed. I've gotta hand it to him; he's coping very well, learning to write with his left hand and even insisting on tying his own shoes and buttoning his own shirt. He sure is a trooper.

TWO

Last weekend Moe decided he wanted to spend some of his allowance on an air-soft gun, so Joe drove him to Wal Mart and bought him one. He and Curly have been spending much of their free time shooting cans and paper targets and seeing how many times they can make the little plastic BB's skip on the lake.

Much more fun than video games, don't you think?

(Curly, the one-armed bandit...)

THREE

I posted this on Cooking Nick's Books a while back, my second ever attempt at cooking lamb. I will have to say that it was amazingly delicious, despite my fears that it would be a disaster. I hope you'll head on over and check it out!

I'm hoping to put up one or two more posts there between now and Ash Wednesday, before I give up social networking for Lent, so stay tuned!

FOUR

I've been torturing myself these last couple of weeks, growing more and more angry and frustrated and upset. Every time I read anything related to Obama's health care mandate, I become more and more convinced that Our Dear Leader is a deceptive, coercive, backstabbing, two-faced, lying jerk who is willing to do anything, anything, to get re-elected, including throwing the first amendment out the window and picking a fight with the Catholic Church. He paints himself as a Christian, and I'm not one to judge a person's heart, but in this case? He's either lying or deceiving himself. He listened to the devil and fell for it. The same can be said for Kathleen Sebelius, who has said "F*** You" to her own Catholic faith and decided that SHE knows what's best for America, and whoever disagrees can go jump in a lake.

And anyone who believes the lies spouted by Obama and Sebelius and Pelosi and Planned Parenthood that women have the RIGHT to free contraception and sterilization and that all those religious right-wing nutjobs are just trying to take away your birth control pills, needs to wake up and smell the Kool-Aid. This isn't about women's health. It's about government leaders deciding they're more important than God, and to hell with that inconvenient first amendment. (And that little tweak they announced, the one that said religious organizations would not have to directly pay for contraception and sterilization, but the insurance company would? It's crap. It doesn't change a thing.)

FIVE

Now that I have that off my chest, I need to make one thing clear. I judge no one for the personal choices you make. (And right now I am not willing to share the details of my own sex life and the choices my husband and I make; you can make any presumptions that you wish, but I'm not going there, sorry). Whether you use birth control or not, whether you've had your tubes tied, even whether or not you've had any abortions is none of my business. But the fact is that the Catholic Church has always condemned the use of birth control and sterilization, because the Church teaches that God made both men and women in order for them to marry each other, have sex, and bear children. Sex is a gift that God gave us to enjoy with the one who we marry, and any attempt to separate that act from its intended end (procreation) is considered morally wrong. Whether I agree or disagree with that teaching is irrelevant. If I work for an organization or a company that does not offer a health insurance plan that covers contraception, and I want to be on the Pill, I can either: a. pay for it myself; b. buy another insurance plan that covers it; or c. find a job somewhere else. That is the way it has always been, ever since contraception became widely available. Employers and insurance companies could decide whether or not to cover it. Now the Powers That Be have decided that it MUST be covered, even if your religion condemns it. THAT is what I have a problem with.

(Oh, and please go here and sign the petition to have the mandate rescinded.)

SIX

The other day I went for another little hunt for a geocache. Can you see it?

The weather was lovely, so I took a little stroll through a churchyard nearby.

Want to learn more about geocaching? Visit geocaching.com for more. Nowadays it's easier than ever, because you can do it right from your smart phone.

SEVEN

I'm giving up social networking for Lent; specifically Twitter and Facebook. I'm not sure about blogging; right now I'm thinking I'll probably refrain from reading blogs, maybe allowing myself to post once in a while on a Sunday. We'll see. Anyhow, if anything it should keep me from reading so many articles online about our screwed-up government and their crazy mandates, and allow me to focus on other things--like my own relationship with Jesus. I think it will be very refreshing!

For more Quick Takes, visit Hallie Lord's blog, who is guest-hosting for Jen this week.

Get Thee to the Woods, vol. 6: River, Rocks, Rain, and Raccoons. And puppies.

This is your last chance to get in the running for a signed copy of Miracles: Healing for a Broken World by Father Stafan Starzynski and Chris Grzasko! I'll announce a winner tomorrow. I hope. No later than Monday for sure. Click here for details!

It's been HOT here this past week, but we were still able to enjoy the outdoors a little bit. We haven't had rain in so long, that the nearby river has been unusually low. On Thursday, Larry took a canoe trip with the local Parks and Recreation department, and while we were waiting for them to return Moe and I did a little river wading.

Moe made a friend!

On Friday morning after we dropped Larry off for yet another adventure, we had some time before Moe's swim team practice to explore another part of the river.






The snails and clams he found were neat, but THIS was the jackpot find.


Friday afternoon we were invited to a picnic where there were horses,

apple trees,

and dogs.

And toads, too.

Later Curly and I decided to look for some geocaches near our home. This looks like an unusual hiding place...

Curly spotted it right away. Can you?

This morning we finally got some much-needed rain!

We spent the day with my mother-in-law while my husband went to New York with his dad and his brother to see a Mets game together. The kids had fun playing with their grandparents' eight-month-old Springer Spaniel.

We took the puppy for a lovely walk in their neighborhood. There are beautiful crepe myrtle trees everywhere you look.

Their subdivision is considered an official bird sanctuary.

When we got home, we noticed that our next-door-neighbors had a visitor in their backyard, eating their cats' food...

...and checking us out.

The cats didn't seem to mind much.

Finally my neighbor chased him away. He's a regular visitor, so I'm sure he'll be back.

Check out 5 Orange Potatoes for this week's Outdoor Mondays post!