New Blog

I'm trying out a new blog.

http://foodthatworks.blogspot.com

Mostly because I am bored with all of my recipes and I hate coming up with the 2 week menu.

Please feel free to add "comments" (recipes) so I don't have to think so much. (You can comment on any of them even the old ones.)
I've already used some of the ideas with great success!

Colored Blind

I am colored blind. But not in the way you might think. Its just that color has never mattered to me.

Color has never been the first thing I notice when I see people. (And I grew up just outside of DC, so its not like I wasn't exposed to all colors.)

Unfortunately, I'm sure there are people out there who judge based on color. And I've heard stories and read books where color mattered.

All the talk this last week has been about our first "colored" president. And while I know that this week is historic for our country, and I know how important this is as a milestone for so many people; for me, he is who he is because of his ideas, not his color.

Does this make me a bad person?

I don't want to make light of the sufferings of others. And I know in my own rose colored world I haven't experienced any of that pain.

I just wonder if there will come a time when everyone becomes colored blind.

Maybe its because my mom and I used to play this game where we would look at strangers and imagine them as a different race. Or even ourselves.

All people look different.

But I never thought that looks or skin color could be a defining factor.

Naive.

Round-Trip Ticket to VA

So I am looking for anyone who might be interested in flying back to Virginia the second week of June. I need an adult who will accompany my daughter. You would have to find your own lodging but I can make the airfare worth your while (cheap cheap cheap cheap). Anyone interested? Let me know soon.

Adopt-a-Highway

So, I was traveling down the highway the other day and saw that Quilted Bear had adopted a section of it.

My immediate thought was, "where are all the cute things?"

You know, like vinyl lettering on the guardrails? quilted road signs? etc.

If my highway looked like me. . . (instead of me looking like a highway) . . . I'd have some basketball hoops, kids artwork, book titles on the overpasses, candy bar wrappers everywhere, and more grass.

What would your highway look like?

Each Life That Touches Ours For Good

I have been thinking about friends lately. And how I have not been a very good friend.

You know how sometimes you just know that you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing, but you just go on not doing it anyway.

I've been that way for about the last 6 weeks.

And I realize that I've abandoned all of my friends in the process.

My friends could have helped me be a better person this last little while. And yet I turned away from them.

My friends make me feel good about myself. They let me talk. They encourage me. They ask the right questions. They say the right things. They believe in me. They remind me who I am.

But isn't it always true that when you are messing up your life, you don't want to be reminded by others that it's not who you really are?

Luckily, there are so many people in my life who love me and whom I consider "friends". I was reminded of this when a friend called just to see how I was doing. And another I ran into said they had been thinking about me all week. My friends never left. So where did I go?

I think I got swallowed.

"No waters can swallow the ship where lies The Master of ocean and earth and skies."

Life is hard. But when I keep God close to me, I don't get swallowed. He never leaves, but I often leave Him. And when I do turn back to Him, it is always a good thing. Sometimes hard, but always good.

It is the same with friends. It might be awkward to start being a friend again. There may be a few bumps. And I know that sometimes friendships change over time (and space). And different people will come into our lives at different times for different reasons.

But I realize how much I need friends to be the kind of person I want to be.

And I need God in my life, to become the person I want to be.

Warning: content not suitable for children

First, I've got to tell you about this great book series our family found. It's called "The Adventures of Ordinary Boy". He lives in a town where everyone has super-powers except for him. And everyone gets named after their super-powers (hence Ordinary Boy). But most of them have pretty lame powers. One of my favorite is Melonhead. His head is actually shaped like a watermelon, he spits seeds all the time, and he thinks he's the greatest thing in the world. And his best friend's name is Stench (no explanation needed hopefully). Anyway, on to my blog.

I decided that if I was to have a super hero name like from the book I would be: "Half-A#* Girl". (And no that would not have anything to do with the way I looked!!)

I just feel like I never really go full out for anything. I can start something and then it just kind of dies. I get all kinds of good ideas and then phllbbbttt . . . nothing ever happens. I do everything just half- a*#! (ok, I'll say way)

In the past I've set goals like:

Learn a new language (I know the words from the first semester of spanish - see here)
Do a triathlon (I bought a swimsuit)
Run a marathon (I ran a 5k)
Be a meteorologist (I have a weather gauge)
Lose 25 lbs (I lost 20)
Give up chocolate (I actually did this for a whole year, so I know I have it in me)
Learn to play the piano (again, since it was only half-a*# the first time)

Now my kids are starting to inherit their mother's super-powers and that is totally not acceptable.

My new years resolution is to do something all the way.

So I can change my super hero name.

Something more suitable for children.