Favorite Poetry

Someone asked on my favorite board awhile ago what my favorite poem was.
This is a very difficult question for me.
I was a literature major so I have a thing for the written word. My mother would also call me moody, so poetry seems to fit me well. I actually used to write reams of poetry. I haven't written anything in a very long time. Most people that I showed any of them to, didn't like them anyway. They did not have meter and they rarely rhymed. They were sometimes kind of difficult to understand. Yes, I'll admit it.....I was kind of proud of that. As it turned out, my great grandmother also wrote reams of poetry as well. Of course, hers were beautiful, they rhymed and had a meter and a sense of style and orderliness to them.

Anyway, here are three of my favorite poems:

I bet someone who reads this post will not like this one. I love it. I think it is beautiful and very visual.

Seperation
by W. S. Merwin
Your absence has gone through me
Like thread through a needle.
Everything I do is stitched with its color.



Sonnet 75 from The Amoretti
by Edmund Spenser

One day I wrote her name upon the strand,

But came the waves and washed it away:

Again I wrote it with a second hand,

But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.

"Vain man," said she, "that dost in vain assay,

A mortal thing so to immortalize;

For I myself shall like to this decay,

And eke my name be wiped out likewise."

"Not so," (quod I) "let baser things devise

To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:

My verse your vertues rare shall eternize,

And in the heavens write your glorious name:

Where whenas death shall all the world subdue,

Our love shall live, and later life renew."

And finally.....
As The Ruin Falls
by C.S. Lewis

All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you.
I never had a selfless thought since I was born.
I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through:
I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn.

Peace, re-assurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek,
I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin:
I talk of love —a scholar's parrot may talk Greek—
But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin.

Only that now you have taught me (but how late) my lack.
I see the chasm. And everything you are was making
My heart into a bridge by which I might get back
From exile, and grow man. And now the bridge is breaking.

For this I bless you as the ruin falls. The pains
You give me are more precious than all other gains.

Under Pressure

One of my favorite gifts that I got for Christmas is a pressure cooker. The only thing I don't like about it is that it is too small. I got one somewhere that was ancient and I fell in love with it. But I needed a new gasket and I couldn't find one. Then, a friend gave me one, but it didn't have directions with it. I couldn't figure out how to open the crazy thing and the pressure didn't seem to lower and I ended up breaking it trying to open it the first time I used it. So, Ski found a new one for me. I made up a chicken dish for it that is really simple....just chicken, tomatoes, onions, carrots, and some black olives. It is really good and it makes a nice juicey mixture that we pour over some noodles.

Yesterday, I was at HT and they had these little "steaks" marked down for a buck something. I snatched them up thinking I could grill them for lunch for Ski and I sometime. When I got home, I started googling for a good recipe. Turns out, these are not little fillets like I thought. They are some gnarly little tough things that they make sound pretty darn awesome on the label. The best way to cook them is to braise -- think stew or soup. So, after a loooooong time searching the net, I came up with this recipe.

Now, I must admit that pouring coke into my pressure cooker did not sound like a good idea. But I thought....what is there to loose? So, I cut up my fillets and browned them. I skipped the wine since I didn't have any I wanted to throw in there and I didn't put an entire can of coke in there -- maybe 3/4 cup. I think I would put less in next time. So then I went off cooking. In about 20 min, I had a really awesome stew with the most tender meat ever!! I made this just for Ski and I, but there was plenty for 4. The kids all had other things, but Hannah, who had gone out before dinner, had some when she got home.

Hmmmm....I will have to keep an eye out for more really cheap cuts of meat to cook in my pressure cooker.

A Lydia-ism

So, you have heard me mention the Lydia-isms. They really are hysterical. But sometimes they just don't translate to others. Sometimes, you just have to be there. Other times, they are funny because you can just hear her say it. Last night, Ski told me a good one that I thought I would share with you....

First, you need to know what Dots are. They are a common candy found in our house because 1) Ski loves them and 2) it is one of the few candies that Isaac can eat. They are flavored gumdrops that come in lime, strawberry, cherry, lemon, and orange.

The Lydiaism for today is: Yellow Dots confuse me.

First, you must understand how deadly serious she must have said this. I was not there when the conversation took place. But I can hear her clearly in my head saying this. She is not trying to be funny. Apparently, she loves the green Dots, but does not like the yellow Dots. It seems that in her mind if you like lime, you must like the lemon ones, but she is puzzled that this is not the case with her.

Mmmmm...Have a sip!!!

One thing that Ski and I missed greatly when we moved here from PA is tea cooler.
I had a friend up there who was nearly addicted to the stuff. It is a mixture of iced tea and lemonade. They have other flavors, too, like orange and peach. I think that orange is my favorite, though.

Not long ago, we were in HT and Ski noticed jugs of tea cooler!! Of course, he bought some and ever since I have been craving it. So, since it is getting warmer, I thought I would try to make my own. I happened to find lemons on a good sale, but I plan to use lemon juice in the future. I made it based on hillbilly housewife's lemonade, but halved it and left out the sugar and added tea according to the box minus sugar. Then I added a simple syrup.

Here's my recipe:
1 c lemon juice
2 family size teabags
@ 2 c sugar
Water

Boil water in 2qt saucepan
Steep two family sized tea bags for 10 min
Combine with 1 c lemon juice
Make simple syrup using 1:1 ratio of sugar to water
This made a gallon of tea.

I didn't quite use 2 cups of sugar.

BTW, the smell of a bowl of fresh lemons is pretty awesome!!
And if any of you have not found Hillbilly Housewife, here is a link. I used to use her recipes alot but that was before food allergies came into my life. Recently, I have been combing her site again looking to see if there is anything hiding that I can remake into "safe" food. If you've never checked out her site, you should. Tons of recipes and lots of neat ideas.

Oh, Oh, oh, oh!!!!
I completely forgot that the K. family did serve us the best lemony sweet tea that I have ever had and this helped inspire my recent cravings as well. But their tea was really awesome....

Covert Laundry

Today is such a beautiful day that it makes me want to do laundry.

Since I was a little girl, I have loved hanging laundry.
I love the smell of sheets dried in the breeze. I loved to hear the snap of the sheets in the wind. I loved the stiffness of my sheets that my mother had just brought in from the line.

At our first home, we had lots of trees and I had two long lines that I hung laundry on. I am not hard core at laundry hanging. My neighbor while we lived in our little house was. She hung every article of clothing that they owned 365 days a year. I will never forget her rows of jeans hanging stiffly in freezing temperatures. I discovered late that they hung all of their clothes because they did not own a dryer. When I heard of a free dryer, I got it for her and she was so pleased even though she wasn't sure they would be able to hook it up.

Last spring, with rising energy costs, people were talking a lot about line drying. That coupled with a few visits to my mother's house where she line dries in the warm weather urged me to seek out the bylaws of my neighborhood. About this same time, I saw someone line drying down the street. I looked and lo and behold, the bylaws did not prohibit line drying. They said that I could erect a line directly behind my house. I decided then to ponder this a bit more. In the meanwhile, there were messages flying back and forth about whether you were allowed to line dry or not. Someone on the board sent an email saying that the bylaws prohibit line drying. By this time, I had decided that I was going to purchase an umbrella dryer so in order to keep a low profile, I decided not to dispute what I felt was erroneous information.

Not long after, I arrived home with my brand new umbrella dryer. I line dried all summer and I ended up keeping up much more with my laundry. However, I made a few rules for myself in order to keep attention away from my laundry. So, this is what I do:

1) I only dry during the week and be sure to have all laundry in by 5pm.
2) If I hang underwear, I only hang it on the inside of my dryer -- I know that people who find line drying offensive usually are the ones who don't want to see undies hanging around. I usually have some jeans which I dry in the dryer, so undies and socks get thrown in with those for simplicity
3) I take my umbrella in every night -- this saves on wear and tear on my dryer as well
4) My dryer anchor is directly behind my house as per neighborhood bylaws

I figure that if I don't make a big stink about it, I can dry my clothes in happiness. If anyone ever questioned me, I would point them to the statement in the bylaws. I just don't want to raise a fuss. BTW, I got my umbrella at Home Depot and while I wouldn't trust it with jeans, I have hung sweatpants, sweaters, sweatshirts, and twin comforters. I don't think that I could fit 4 loads of laundry on it, though.The funny thing is, that I have maybe four or five houses that could see me. My neighbor on one side works 9-5. My other neighbor is home most of the time, but there is a line of trees between us, so there is no clear view. There is a house diagonal to me that I rarely see people at during the day. But someone must be there. Not long after I began line drying, they erected a line as well. Maybe I will start a trend. Until then, I will enjoy my covert laundry drying.

Guess what I'm doing today?!?!?

Getting to Know You

This post is looooooong overdue, but you still need to hear the story.
Besides my love of hockey, we traveled a few weekends ago to the Raleigh area for a completely different reason. Last summer, Ski and our older Ski-bums went to a youth retreat in Virginia. The kids had a blast and two of them ended up making new friends. One evening, Nate introduced himself to a young man who was playing pool. Both he and Ski met the boy and his father. After returning home, the boys began e-mailing each other. Frequently, their boy would invite us up to their church. One night Ski got the bright idea of seeing a hockey game and visiting them as well. So, we had Nate e-mail and ask if he was serious and if the invitation included all 8 of us. We were fairly sure that they were not serious. Well, it turned out after a few e-mails back and forth with son, mom, and dad e-mailing Ski and Nate, that they were serious and that ALL of us were invited. So, we figured out some days and they were very open.

After the hockey game ended, we made our way to the K. house. It was a bit of a drive and we found ourselves kind of lost. We had to call them, but they got us to the road that we had been unable to find. We found ourselves driving up a driveway in the middle of the woods. They all came out to meet us and the mom rattled off all of our names which is not an easy feat for someone who had never met us. LOL Their home was absolutely beautiful. I was immediately drawn to all of the books. The kids were fascinated by the circular stairway -- until they found the elevator. After they told us not to take it to the third floor, I was deathly afraid that the younger kids would push the wrong button. The boys spent lots of time downstairs which I heard was cool, but I never made it down there. They had a HUGE fireplace which did an amazing job keeping the house warm.

I must say, more amazing than their home and the location of their home was the family themselves. They were so welcoming and kind and just so friendly. Over the next two days, we talked and talked and piece by piece we learned about each others' lives. Unfortunately, we are night owls and they are not early birds either. So, on Fri. and Sat. we stayed up til about 2am just talking. The younger kids stayed up waaaaay too late and the boys....well, I'll just say that on Fri night, they were up later than us. It is really an amazing feat that none of us fell asleep in church on Sunday morning.

On Sat, they took us to a park where we all hiked. The scenery was just beautiful. There must have been five hawks flying around and I love to watch birds of prey. It was nice and flat so I didn't have any trouble. I certainly didn't need an ATV to get home. When we got home, we made dinner. We had turkey and okra and tomatoes and ratatouille and tons more food. The girls, Mrs. K, and I all worked on dinner. Curly chopped all the veggies for the ratatouille. Mrs. K. made a really interesting gravy. It was a Southern style white gravy and it was REALLY good. I wasn't paying attention, but Ski FILLED his plate with the gravy until one of the girls exclaimed, "Dad!!!! That's GRAVY -- not potatoes." Ski and I loved the okra and tomatoes. I got to be embarrassed by my dear Lydia. She always tells it like it is and when the raw veggie platter came to her, she exclaimed quite loudly, "I hate raw broccoli." I am not sure WHY she said this since later in the evening, she ate a good bit of it. Our host got to hear some of her Lydia-isms as well. She has a very dry sense of humor and says very funny things, but they just don't come across the same told second hand.

Lydia and Isaac had a blast playing with their little girl. She is all into playing mommy and Lydia was thrilled to have a playmate because that doesn't happen often. Their daughter was born in China and she is as cute as a button. She really likes to dance and she was really rocking out to the music in our car. Oh, and she also loves to eat -- especially pizza from what I am told. She obviously loves her brothers very much and who could blame them. Their boys are just really neat, considerate, young men. They are so funny and interesting.

After dinner, they were going to take us to see some cows that look like these: But, the place was closed. Apparently, they are never closed. But we still had fun with all 13 of us visiting Harris Teeter together. Someone actually laughed to see us all together. We came home and had chocolate cake and stayed up late again.

Amazingly, we were able to get up and to church on time. We saw three people from our church and a couple that moved from our town years ago just happened to sit in front of us. After church, we went for pizza. It was some AWESOME pizza. When we finally left thier home, it was late in the afternoon and I am sure that they were exhausted. Ski was tired himself, so I drove a bit so he could rest. We got home pretty late and we were soooooo tired. But we had the BEST time at their house. I even thanked Nate for introducing himself to them.

BTW, here is a pic of Nate and his friends.

Nate, of course, is on the left with T (c) and L(r) waiting for pizza....Don't they look like they are starving?!?!?!?!

Unfortunately, while we brought our camera, we just didn't take any pics at all. Shucks.....I guess we'll have to go back and take some pics. So, if any of you K's read this, thanks for the awesome time!!!!

**Ski said: I totally concur with my sweet B about our weekend. What an awesome God we have that He would bring us into fellowship with His awesome people. While this trip was supposed to be a little R&R for me, I DID manage to fire off a few pics of the kids after a hike and the K boys with N (and the sun in their eyes) before our Sunday afternoon trip home. Mr. K, I will be praying that your job becomes "unfrozen" and/or the Lord provides some other path. Thank you for your gracious and adventurous wife and family. They are an evidence of your God-focused leadership and are a HUGE blessing to us.

Your house is indeed amazing and God's grace shown to us through your hearts of hospitality was even more amazing. Philippians 1: 3-6**

Snow pics!

Per B's post, here are some pics from "Winter Blast 2009". I used the "Snow and beach" mode of my Olympus point and shoot. It probably under exposes the shot by a stop or two. I really am pleased with the color saturation using this mode. Maybe I should use it all the time:













IZ was so happy! The last time we got this much snow was in 2004 and he was only one year old! He had a much more memorable time this year!


One other thing I noticed this year--the kids are a LOT more accurate in their snowball throwing!!

SNOW!!!!

It has been snowing since about 5pm and it is now midnight and STILL snowing.
It is supposed to keep snowing until about 4am.
It is packing snow, so it should be fun. We have two sleds from a few years ago.
There will be pictures tomorrow!!
STAY WARM!!