A work in progress, but…

I thought I’d go ahead an reveal the new blog. This makes about 7 blogs that I manage/did manage at one time. Hopefully this one will be something more than the others. Perhaps my AdSense will one day even say my total is more than $0.11.

Think the name’s long enough? Click through the image to check out the constantly redesigned site!

Project: Pantry Organization

Whew! Just 9-10 months after moving in, our pantry was a wreck! AND it had been gone through several times already during those 9 or 10 months! It was driving me crazy. Anybody surprised?

Some of y’all know that, starting on the first of next month, I’m taking over our family’s grocery budget, and, therefore, menu planning. I’m hoping to start (yet another) blog for this, so I won’t post too many details here. Anyway, I definitely needed to know what we had before I started planning huge shopping trips. I’ve been procrastinating for the past week or so; I really didn’t want to start inventorying our ever-changing stash of edibles. I finally knuckled down and did it this morning – only about half of it though.

Before I could even begin inventorying however, I had to be able to see what we had.

This is the shelf I started with (the picture is after I culled and reorganized.). As the top shelf sort of indicates, this shelf is generally where all our currently empty jars and containers land. When you use home-canned stuff as often as we do, I don’t need to say that this shelf was rather over-flowing with empty jars. So, I sent them to the other house. A bunch of them.

My findings from this shelf after I reorganized everything?

• If we ate half a pint of squash relish a week for the entire year, we couldn’t eat it all.

• We have almost enough green beans to have once a week for a year (at 1 quart per week).

• We can have a quart of apples about once a month for the next year.

• I really wish we were able to stockpile our home-canned tomatoes like we did our green beans back in 2009. That would have helped A LOT. As it is, we have over 100 ounces of tomato paste. That’s a lot for people like us who prefer to freeze our tomato paste in tablespoon quantities. Yeah, we pretty much never use it.

• We have enough steel-cut oats to feed an army.

Yeah, I have exact-ish numbers on everything else, but that would get boring for y’all, so I shall kindly spare the details.

This is the next bit of shelving I worked on. When the first shelf overflows with empty jars, this shelf get the extras. So I sent all those up to the other house as well. On top of that, this one tends to catch any empty medicine bottles and plastic jugs. Those went to various and sundry places too. The top shelf is now home to vases (I guess it’s good to have a couple of those, but the pragmatist in me wants to banish them too.). The two boxes are of crystal that have been up there, unopened, since we moved. I’m hoping to send them up to a safe place in the other house.Working our way down, the next two shelves have herbs. Yeah, I know. They’re not mine; don’t look at me. That’s Mama’s area, so I only dealt with those enough to send off the empty stuff.

The next shelf, from left to right: Jellos are in the hanging basket. Then there are 3 gallon jars full of macaroni; the small one is all that’s left of the penne (we’ve been using that stuff up since before we hosted Presbytery, which was what? 2 years ago?)! Then about a gallon and a half of local honey; followed by the plastic basket overflowing with various and sundry teas.

The next shelf has ice cream makers, paper napkins, toilet paper, and Ziploc bags, parchment paper, foil, and freezer paper. I didn’t do too much with the bottom shelf either. When we’ve been shopping recently, it’s full of Cosco-sized bags of toilet paper and paper towels. The green, plastic box, unfortunately, has to stay. It’s got medical stuff in it. On top of that is the silver chest which we get into occasionally if we run out of our regular silverware.

This shelf was easier that the other two. First of all, the top half or so is full of games. Then the bottom shelf was already organized – that’s where all the wheat berries (+ a bag of pop corn) were. Most of what I did was move the 25lb bag of flower and 10lb bag of sugar down next to the buckets (rapadura and soft white wheat). The cereals and crackers were there, but I moved them up. I don’t know about y’all, but I like the stuff I use often to be at roughly eye-level. That’s what I was attempting to accomplish by that move.

I guess tomorrow, or maybe this evening, I have to do the part of the pantry we use all the time. It’s a disaster zone right now, but I reckon now’s a good time to do it, since we’re low on pretty much everything.

On Ulu knives, Whales, and Eskimos

Do y’all ever have those mornings where you’re kind of trying to be productive and discuss things that probably ought to be done? We do all the time. The problem is the discussions usually wind up turning into some totally random conversation where Kyle provides obscure facts, I stand in for the common knowledge (which very often differs from the actual facts – I wonder where I get my “knowledge.”), Mama agrees with me, and Claire is the comic relief. Today was typical in that respect, but even more odd in the subject matter! I shall attempt to replay the situation without bogging it down in too much detail.

It all started as we were talking about what needed to be taken up to the other house. We have an Ulu knife that we have pretty much never used. We only have the knife, you see, not the board. Mama thinks we would use it a lot if we had the board as well. She thinks the ideal usage would be cilantro, which I thought odd since I can’t imagine cilantro growing in Alaska. Kyle said cilantro was as good as anything else for us since as far as we know the ideal usage might be chopping whale blubber! At that point I said that I thought it was illegal to hunt whales and Mama agreed. Kyle chimes in with his obscure (to this history major anyway. ) knowledge that Alaskan natives are allowed to hunt whales, polar bears, and walruses; Mama also agrees with him. And then Claire provides the comic relief with “Besides, it’s like road kill there! They’re probably washing up all the time!” *Rimshot*

So yeah, didn’t really avoid much detail there for y’all, but, if it’s not funny to y’all, at least when we look back at this we’ll probably have a good laugh!

Please do not read this post as having anything whatsoever against whales. Please don’t flood my inbox or comment section with cries of “Save the whales!” No whales, polar bears, or walruses were harmed in the composing of this blog post.

More Random Pictures

You knew I couldn’t keep pictures of random things away from this blog for very long!

Not sure what these flowers are…

I think I’ve probably mentioned that I am fascinated with getting good pictures of bugs and creatures that fall more or less in that same category (lizards, snakes, insects – creepy-crawly things). I have no idea why, I just am. Anyway, bees seem to be among the easier creatures to photograph.

I love both the Queen Anne’s Lace pictures this time! I’m a little proud of myself.

Yellow and a tiny white are the prominent colors blooming around here at this time.

In other news, I ordered THIS yesterday. Yeah, I’m jumping the gun a little, seein’ as how I don’t have camera yet, but I’m hoping to get one really soon. Yes, I’m excited! Both about the rather sweet bag (I love bags of all kinds – it’s a weakness, or maybe an addiction…) and the long-hoped-for camera!!!

Just throwing this out there

For the record, you know.

It’s not even 2012 yet, and I’m already sick of politics. Just sayin’. This quote just about sums up my opinion of our seriously messed up government:

“No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session” – Author Unknown

And that’s more than likely all the political commentary you’re going to get from this blog – certainly until much closer to votin’ time.

Muhahaha

One of the recent top searches that leads to my blog has been “what will stop the itching caused from tennessee chiggers?” This post is for whomever has been desperately seeking information. What you find here is from my personal experiences with Tennessee chiggers.

So, you want to know what will stop the terrible itching that drives you insane night and day? Well, my poor, itchy bit of chigger-food, … NOTHING!!! Muhahahahahah!

Ahem. Right.

Time, my friend. Time will heal the wound…

No, really. That’s the only thing I’ve found that consistently works. It may take what seems like forever, but it’s really not. Believe me, I’ve tried everything. Okay, almost everything. I haven’t tried those expensive, tiny tubes of stuff that’s called “Chigger-Away” or “Chigger-o” or something. I have too many serious doubts about their ultimate effectiveness to spend money on them. Also, anyone who has gotten into Tennessee chiggers, as you no doubt know by now, has more of an infestation, break-outs that look like a bad recurrence of chicken pox with itching that’s many times worse, hundreds and thousands of bites/burrows (depending on what you believe)! Those people know that the tiny tubes of lamely-named “Chigger-ease” aren’t going to go very far. Yes, I pity you, but there really isn’t a whole lot I’ve found that works.

Apple cider vinegar and tea tree oil have helped the itching temporarily – as in, maybe 5 minutes. Extremely hot showers and baths helped me through my worst chigger experience. Time, however, is always your best bet. Grin and bear it! Or don’t grin, but you’re gonna have to bear it.

I’ve heard guineas are good at eating ticks as well as chiggers, BUT that’s assuming you can keep them alive. The chances of that happening successfully are pretty slim for anybody.

How was that for being totally unhelpful?

Passing on a Post

Heavenly Harmony from YLCF. I’ve shared YLCF posts quite a bit in the past, but, like all the others I’ve shared, this post was really good. It’s long-ish, but, girls, it’s a good one! It’s rather convicting.

The faithless generally rely on feelings rather than fact … therefore, when something seems to go all wrong, or they can’t physically see how it will work out, they believe it must be to no purpose, instead of implicitly trusting in His promises.

I am thinking largely in connection with our futures.  With training for Biblical womanhood all behind us, many a young lady’s contentment is challenged – especially in the years after graduation, when the next step isn’t yet in view.

As one who has been there, I would simply like to encourage you to have faith that God has your future in His hands.  He has a plan for your life (see Jer. 29:11), and is even at this time preparing, shaping, and refining you for the next step.

See? And it just KEEPS going that good! It’s well worth reading; I’ve read it 3 or 4 times just since it was posted yesterday!

Quotes and a Review – or Randomness

Seeing as how it is, once again, a whole week since I last posted, and, although an awful lot of fun and wonderful things have happened during that week, I don’t have the inclination to post much else, here are another couple of  quotes from Orthodoxy.

“… Here it is enough to notice that if some small mistake were made in doctrine, huge blunders might be made in human happiness. A sentence phrased wrong about the nature of symbolism would have broken all the best statues in Europe. A slip in the definitions might stop all the dances; might wither all the Christmas trees or break all the Easter eggs. Doctrines had to be defined within strict limits, even in order that man might enjoy general human liberties…”

“… some people fall back on sheer submission and sitting still. Nature is going to do something someday; nobody knows what, and nobody knows when. We have no reason for acting, and no reason for not acting. If anything happens it is right: if anything is prevented it was wrong. Again, some people try to anticipate nature by doing something, by doing anything. Because we may possibly grow wings they cut off their legs [though I find it more likely that they'd try cutting someone else's legs off first. Just sayin'.]. Yet nature may be trying to make them centipedes for all they know.”

So, I got to watch “Source Code” with a bunch of friends the other night. My opinion was that it was weird, but not un-enjoyable.

I give fair warning now! What follows MAY contain spoilers. 

First, the overall feeling of the movie. I watched it with ClearPlay, of course. I’m no critic, nowhere close. I like cheesy movies. This one seemed a little like it was trying to be something it wasn’t quite. There were, what? 3 sets? 4 maybe. They got to reuse shots; some of the script was repetitive, there were strange flashbacks or glimpses of possibilities. I don’t know. Something about it seemed a little cheap. That’s probably just me though. Also, there was one particular, potentially disturbing scene that seemed unnecessary.

I was constantly thinking of That Hideous Strength during the movie. The book and the movie have some interesting parallels, but there were also quite a few differences that were possibly even more interesting to think about. In the book (from what I can remember, and it’s been a couple years or more since I read it), the brain is being used for evil. In the movie, it was supposedly being used for good. We could go into the ethics of the thing, but I’ll refrain at this point. The question that the book-to-movie parallels raised for me was, would the creepy doctor always be altruistic in his use of the dead man’s memory? (Yes, I over analyze things. Whatcha gonna do about it?) What if circumstances arose where it would be potentially profitable for him to sell the information on the black market (is that supposed to be capitalized?) or something? Would he sell? I mean, the movie didn’t even go into who all might be trying to obtain the Source Code!

I had a few other gripes with the movie as well. I think it possibly would have been interesting if Shawn Fentress had looked like Shawn Fentress during those scenes instead of looking like Colter Stevens. Again, however, I’m probably the only one who thinks that. Also, if, in the last Source Code (for Stevens, anyway), Colter Stevens’ consciousness takes over Shawn Fentress’ identity and body, where did Shawn Fentress’ consciousness go? The train didn’t blow up, no one died, what happened to Shawn Fentress??? That aside however, how on earth is the new Shawn Fentress, formerly Colter Stevens, going to teach history?! I won’t even go into the ending…

Okay, analyzing aside, it’s sci-fi. You’re not really supposed to understand it or make sense of it, I guess. Still, as far as an action thriller (which is what it was classified as at IMDB) goes, I’d say it was pretty good.

Forgot This

The other day, after going to the dentist, we went to the Tennessee State Museum to the Egypt exhibit. I took the opportunity to obtain a new key chain. I should make another category and call it “Key Chains.”

Life is Amazing.

It’s beautiful. It’s breathtaking. And, boy, ain’t it busy!

You know all those songs about lazy summers? Well, they’re lying. Just sayin’. Still, today being exactly a week since my last post, I thought I’d pop by and whip out a quick post. I don’t have the time or inclination to do much more than that.

I thought I’d share a few of my thus-far favorite quotes from Orthodoxy:

Nietzsche had some natural talent for sarcasm; he could sneer, though he could not laugh;…

Every man who will not have a softening of the heart must at last have softening of the brain.

Falling in love is more poetical than dropping into poetry.

I will always trust the old wives’ fables against the old maids’ facts.

… the old Greeks could not see the trees for the dryads. [Makes me think of Narnia, but I love the Greek literature too, so win-win, right?]

Upon the whole, I came to the conclusion that the optimist thought everything good except the pessimist, and that the pessimist thought everything bad, except himself.

Love is not blind; that is the last thing that it is. Love is bound; and the more it is bound, the less it is blind.

See? G. K. Chesterton’s writing is amazing! I love it! Though I enjoyed Father Brown more, Orthodoxy is deeper and more thought-provoking. I’m probably not even half-way through it yet, so no doubt y’all will see a few more quotes from time to time.

Now I think I’ll go reserve a Gordon Setter. Though I pray that, if this is not a wise decision, the Lord would close that door by the breeder getting back with me saying the litter doesn’t have any more females available.