Living Simply
We have a guest who enjoys cooking and makes wonderful food. A great blessing for us. Â Here are some of the most recent dinners we’ve had.
We had this on a warm day and it was fantastic! So much so that we had it a few days later.
What can I say? There were no leftovers. I am dreading the day our guest leaves.
No-see-ums – a cute name for a pesky bug. Indeed — these tiny flies are called that because you can hardly see them “no-see-um.” Â The females bite, suck your blood and make you itch. I feel itchy all over at night and now during the day.
They like to enter our house through the bedroom windows. Not sure why they pick that time of day except that they are attracted to light. Normally they don’t “roam” away from their home unless they are bothered. They like living in dead leaves — well, our property certainly has lots of that. In reading about them, they can travel up to 350 feet. Â That’s a long way and obviously they like our house.
Before bedtime, I have sprayed the bedroom mesh screen with Mosquito Repellant. No-see-ums are pretty tiny and can enter through the holes of the mesh screen. The other solution would be to replace our screens with one that has smaller mesh holes so they can’t enter. Or — if worse comes to worse — just use the air conditioner at night.
Oh bother! One of the things I don’t like about Minnesota are the bugs. Although, we really don’t have too many. They just seem to like my fresh blood. And I like raking leaves — one of the tasks I was hoping to work on this next week.
Maybe the no-see-ums and I will become friends. Â Yeah, right!
Click here to see pictures of what they look like.
With four Granny Smith apples sitting around, I just had to make apple pancakes — but not ordinary ones. This is one large baked pancake and is cut into pie-like pieces. It is not too sweet and does not need syrup as it is delicious eaten alone.
Ingredients
Directions
This serves 6 people.
Hmmm .. I think I’ll make it for our family reunion in August.
(Note: This recipe originally was in the Mom’s Big Book of Baking, by Lauren Chattman)
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This tried and true blueberry coffeecake from one of my favorite cookbooks tastes great with milk or … coffee.
Ingredients
Directions
Makes approximately 12 servings.
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Went to church this morning at 11:30 a.m. Â The church I’m attending off and on has two worship services – one at 9:30 and one at 11:30. They have the Sabbath School in between those two times.
I’ve always been at church by 8:45 a.m. so the later time is a new experience for me but I like it. I can sleep in and leisurely make breakfast.
The church is 30 minutes away in Minneapolis. Today it was rather warm as they don’t have air conditioning and the service didn’t end until almost 1:00. By 12:30 my eyes were getting kind’ve sleepy.
Normally I enjoy the service. The people are diverse and there are many African people here — quite a few from Kenya. The special music they have is very lively. I nod my head and tap my toe to the music. Today, although the music was great and there was a baptism, I was annoyed.
They started the service with a hymn I’m familiar with — The Battle Hymn of the Republic. But then they went and meddled. They continued with the songs America the Beautiful and God Bless America. Then they had people stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.
Fat chance I would get up and pledge my allegiance to America in church. Or any other place for that matter. I’m quite upset with the America I live in right now.
First – I believe in separation of church and state and I don’t want to go to church and pledge my allegiance to anyone but God. I go to worship God — not America.
Second – the America I know today has gone ballistic. From illegal searches at airports by our very own government to going to war for — what was it again? Oh yeah, we were trying to kill Osama bin Laden — in Iraq. Then there’s Guantanamo Bay where hundreds of people are locked up for years with no “rights.” Yeah, yeah — military rule is different than civilian rule. Give me a break!
Shouldn’t there be human justice? Forget the labels we plop on things to make ourselves feel better and/or to treat people inhumanely.
I’m tired. Tired of the excuses or lack of excuses that our beloved (uh … not!) politicians give us. Can anyone answer a question anymore? Perhaps they should ask more simple questions of our politicians. Instead of “Were you confused when you stated John Wayne was from Waterloo? Wasn’t it John Wayne Gacy?” To which the reply was “Well, my intention was … ”
I think the questions we should ask our politicians should be more basic “Was the sky blue when you entered the building today?”
No — let’s not answer the questions anymore or take responsibility for being WRONG. And, according to a recent Los Angeles Times article, Ms. Bachmann is ahead in the polls. Are you kidding me?
I was giving her the benefit of the doubt as we should anyone. I waited to “hear more.” And then I heard. I heard her not saying anything.
Pledge my allegiance to America? No. Especially knowing, from Biblical prophecy, what this America will and is already turning out to be.
So — if any more church services I attend decide to pledge their allegiance to anything other than God I’ll be walking out. And I’ll keep walking. I get enough junk in the world without having to hear it from the front of the church pulpit.
As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
So is My word that goes out from My mouth:
It will not return to Me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:10-11
I came across a house built by Frank Lloyd Wright called Fallingwater and I fell in love. It is absolutely beautiful! I found a video that shows a simulation of the building of the Fallingwater house which is on a mountain stream called Bear Run in Pennsylvania.
Click here to view the video in Vimeo or here for the Youtube version.
I am a visual person but do not have much artistic ability. I would love to incorporate some of Wright’s ideas in landscaping our one acre property. I’ll have to figure out how to do that.
While looking for a Hebrew translation of a word, I ran across the word yada which I remembered from the Seinfeld episode where they used it in phrases such as “and he went to the store and yada yada yada” meaning and so on, and so on and so on.
I never realized that the word yada has a Hebrew translation. A website I found gives more detail on the Hebrew definition. Click here to read the article.
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I got lazy and decided to buy the crust for the blueberry pie that I made. I just didn’t want to risk having to make the crust over and over again. Â The pie came out great.
Ingredients
Directions
Serves 6 people and is approximately 550 calories per serving.
This recipe is from one of my favorite cookbooks – Betty Crocker’s Cookbook.
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We live in a world where we can see everything live on TV, the internet or on our cell phones. And yet, in the U.S. we live fairly sheltered lives. We have a choice in what we see — what we allow to be in our minds.
Not so with millions of people throughout the world. In a June 22nd article in World Magazine, Afghan Christians purportedly warned President Obama of the danger in pulling our troops out of their country – a risk to their lives.
We are aghast when we see crimes in the U.S. not fit to be viewed with our eyes. But this is everyday life for a lot of people.
Our American society gives us freedom to believe as we wish and yet there will come a time when that will not be the case. (Revelation 13) There currently exists bits of prejudices against people with a different belief system whether they are Christians, Muslims, Jews, etc. yet not as bad as in some other countries.
People are afraid of the unknown and seem to be more afraid of getting to know the unknown.
For now, I choose not to look at pictures of beheadings or other gross crimes whereby the images will permanently be etched in my brain.
One day though, I’ll not have the choice.