Friday's tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut has me reeling. I think we all held our kids more tightly that day.
My kids are on the older side, so I left the news radio on for part of the day, until it just got way too sad to deal with. I was holding out hope there would be some survivors. I am praying for all the families involved, and I hope and pray that more than a dialogue about mental health and the lack of help available to parents will ensue and that change will occur.
I hate for this place to be downer, but I could use some good thoughts and prayers. I am going today to the hospital to say goodbye to a dear friend. She is the mother of Meg's boyfriend. Saturday, she was snorkeling off Catalina with Meg and boyfriend and she had some kind of event and had a heart attack. She is about my age. I am beyond sad, shocked, surprised.... I was convinced she would recover since she got help pretty fast. My heart is broken for two teenaged boys who are losing their mother. I always thought we had time to become closer friends, that the possibility was there that we might someday be inlaws.
Please pray for Isaac, Luke, their father and for my friend Jennie - that she would fly away home in peace.
Here is the reference for the title of this post, a song by Dolly Parton...
Hey, maybe I’ll dye my hair *Maybe I’ll move somewhere Maybe I’ll get a car *Maybe I’ll drive so far They’ll all lose track *Me, I’ll bounce right back
Maybe I’ll sleep real late *Maybe I’ll lose some weight Maybe I’ll clear my junk *Maybe I’ll just get drunk on apple wine Me, I’ll be just
Fine and dandy Lord, it’s like a hard candy Christmas I’m barely getting through tomorrow But still I won’t let Sorrow bring me way down...
Welcome to the LEarning Never Stops Photo Challenge {this moment} edition.
Please link up your photo entry page, not your main blog url. Linky will close 10 p.m. pacific time, Monday. Two winners will be chosen/displayed Tuesday night. Please visit around, comment and be neighborly :) Photo sharing site entries are welcome!
The deluxe gentlewoman's chicken coop I am trying to get Sky to build me :) -From Heather Bullard the Blog.
Improv Everywhere: King Philip IV shows up to sign autographs in front of his restored painting. A fun bit of silly-ness.
Mad Dog Math - teaching multiplication, seamlessly & organized for the classroom teacher and homeschool teacher. I am about to start this with the Littles.
Saturday night I tried out Pioneer Woman's Simple Sesame Noodles recipe. It was very easy and a big hit here. Sky grilled up some steak to cut up and add to it, beside the green onions, I also added red bell pepper. The kids thought it was a bit too spicy, Sky and I didn't think it was spicy enough. Next time I am going to halve the sauce recipe- using sweet chili sauce for the kids and adding more hot chili sauce for us.
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The bloggess writes about fat people on scooters at Disneyland over at Good Mom/Bad Mom-Grr and her post did not go in the direction you might think it would- it's worth reading.
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a tweet in my twitter stream:
RT - LOL, OMG & FYI have been added to the Oxford English Dictionary. Somewhere in 1596, Shakespeare begins 2 weep inexplicably.
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The Ultimate Blog Party 2011 starts April 1st over at 5 Minutes for Mom! I've joined up every year, and it is a great way to meet new bloggers. I use my Blog Party posts as my "about me" posts..kind of like recycling...
watchFood Inc. Sky and I finally viewed this. Honestly, I was intrigued but put off watching it because I was wary of being inflicted with a vigilante docu-horror filled with lots of footage of cow lots. This movie was not like that at all. The best explanation I found- was given in a review of the book The Omnivore's Dilemma- which I am reading next..- here's the description,
"approaches his mission not as an activist but as a naturalist"
Perfectly summed up the approach of this movie. It really made us think about making healthy food choices. I really recommend this movie. You can watch it on instant download on netflix.
Let's make apple cinnamon chips from kiboomu.com lately we've been all about banana chips at our house, we can buy them in bulk at the local health food store. We've been so into them that I was thinking of buying a food dehydrator. This recipe is done with an oven..simple, I like simple.
This recipe *Johnny Marzetti with cheesy noodles over at Once a Month Mom. I've been rock'n this recipe lately, which is quite a feat, since I am not really a good cook. The best part? -it gets easier and quicker after the first time :)
We have Russian guests here with us for our Bible Conference week. They treated us to a home-made Russian meal this week. The star of lunch was Borscht.
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Borscht, I learned, from watching- has beets, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, onions, tomatoes and a kind of meat. Our friends put in steak. We went to the grocery store to stock up on ingredients. I had to admit that I have never ever purchased beets. I wasn't even sure what they looked like. Really. My Russian friend grated the tomatoes and beets. I never thought of grating tomatoes before. Ever.
I liked the borscht, it was very, very good. Amie liked it, but was a bit disappointed to realize it was not watermelon soup...as she assumed from the pink color. Borscht is very pretty.
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We also were treated to a dish that translates as "fish under a blanket". It was kind of like egg salad on top, with sardines underneath. The sardines kind of killed it for me.
Pretty, yes.
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Bible conference week is so full- there is almost too much to take in. A favorite truth I enjoyed this week is this:
"Christ as God's sure mercies is the reality of all that God is and of all that God has given us; God's salvation, God's righteousness, God's justification, God's forgiveness, God's redemption, God's riches, and all God has and will do have been covenanted to us" -Isa 55:1-4; Acts 13:34-35
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My friend, known as Graceful mom here on the blog, is visiting the States from Singapore. It was so good to visit with her today. I so desperately miss visiting and just hanging out with her.
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Our new Russian friends have worked every day with Meg with her Russian studies. Most days, they worked twice a day on it. I am so grateful for this. I think she has done a semester's amount of work in one week. They've invited us to visit too, I am hoping to send her next summer.
