7 Quick Takes Friday

1.Because I’m now Madison and Mason‘s Guardian Angel, they will always be take #1.  Madison will age out in September, so she needs a family soon! If you’d like to adopt them, let me know and I will have a matching fund drive on my blog as I did for Larisa.

Mason must think he’s a ladies’ man.

Madison is lovely.

2.  Speaking of kids who are in danger of aging out, here is Shaina!  Shaina is 14 and has Down’s Syndrome and needs a family THIS MONTH!  Shaina has over $5000 in her account, which is a good headstart for any adoptive family.

Shaina having fun.

3. Do you know a family who could adopt these kids?  Maybe you do and you don’t realize it yet!  Spread the word – these kids can’t get adopted if nobody knows they exist!

4. The  big news at Castle Henry and Cunegonda is that I did NOT get the job I applied for.  Frankly, I’m relieved; as much as DH and I wanted to be closer to his family, moving would’ve been a hardship. And hey, I already have a job so it’s not as if this is a financial hit.

5. In other news, my tomato plants are finally producing and I might actually get some ripe fruits by the end of next week.  (Maybe.)  By this time last year, I was already knee-deep in ripe tomatoes.

6. And now, the question that gets me every year in mid-June: Do I go to my favorite greenhouse and take advantage of their 50% off sale, or do I stick with the plants I have?

7. It’s Friday, so it’s time for a song!  This week’s song is “The Parts of the Brain” by Pinky and The Brain.

For more Quick Takes from Jen and others, visit Conversion Diary!

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, pray for orphans!

7 Quick Takes Friday – Big News!

1.  Larisa found a family!! She has been either adopted or fostered in her country, and her grant money has been given to Mason and Madison. And that brings me to take #2…

2. Since I was Larisa’s Guardian Angel, I signed up to be Madison and Mason’s Guardian Angel.  Madison and Mason are siblings.  Madison is a 16-year-old girl with stage 1 mitral valve prolapse and a humpback.  Mason is a twelve-year-old boy who also has mitral valve prolapse, scoliosis, and supplemental oblique cord of the left ventricle.  (I’ll be the first to admit I’m not sure what that means.)  Madison will be aging out in September, so she needs a family soon!

Mason must think he’s a ladies’ man.

Madison is lovely.

3. So, remember the job I told you about on Sunday?  I have a phone interview on Monday!   This may be the only interview I get – the hiring manager said he’d like me to start by mid-July.  Pray that I have the wisdom to make the right choice here (and that I don’t give myself a heart attack fretting about it).

4. Between frantically Googling job interview tips and warning signs, I’ve been trying to enjoy whatever time I have left in my current town.  Every time I go out with my colleagues or walk through downtown, I think that this could be the last time I do [activity], and get a little wistful.  Then I remind myself that nobody knows I’m moving and try to think about something else before somebody asks what’s wrong.

5. Having said all of that, I’m pretty sure I won’t get the job.  DH and I have a big vacation planned for about 6 weeks after I’d be starting this job, and we’ve already bought plane tickets.  (Sounds weird, but hey, we didn’t think I’d be starting a new job when we made these plans.)  Pretty sure that’s going to knock me out of the running.

6. On a completely unrelated note, my tomato plants are beginning to produce!  It’s been extremely cool and rainy this year so fruit set has been a little late.  I suspect it’ll be at least a few weeks before anything ripens, but the progress is encouraging.

7. It’s Friday, so it’s time for a song!  This Friday’s song is “Home and Dry” by The Pet Shop Boys. What?  I like these guys!

For more Quick Takes from Jen and others, visit Conversion Diary!

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, pray for Madison & Mason!

7 Quick Takes Friday – Soak Up the Sun

1. No updates on Larisa yet!  Please keep praying for her.

2. Soaking up the sun is what I’ve been doing a lot of lately!  After last week’s snow (first time I can ever recall snow in May), we’ve had gorgeous weather where I live and I’ve been enjoying the heck out of it.  (And as a result, not blogging.  Sorry, folks!)  Luckily, I saved my tomatoes from the snow.  The night before it snowed, DH and I went to the hardware store and picked up a few glass quart jars and used them to cover the tomatoes.  It looked goofy, but it worked like a charm!

3. I got nothin’ else, so let’s talk orphans for awhile.  First up is Shaina, an adorable little girl who needs to be adopted by JUNE 2013 or she will age out!

Shaina already has over $5000 raised for her adoption – wow!  Won’t somebody please take her home?

4. This one is a three-fer: Trudy, Tristan, and Tatiana!  These three are siblings who live in the same region but in different orphanages.  All three have HIV.  Tatiana has FAS, and Tristan has unspecified mental delays.  Reece’s Rainbow is hoping to find a way for them to be adopted together.  Do you know their family?  Maybe you do and you don’t know it!

Trudy, age 15

 

Tristan, age 10

 

Tatiana, age 7

 

5.  Next up is Cate!  Cate is ten years old and has the following heart issues:  discordant atrioventricular junction, corrigent transposition of magistral vessels, coronary-left ventricle fistula, complete atrioventricular heart block.  If she had the proper medical care, she could probably thrive.  She may also have FAS – the records aren’t clear.

6.  Finally, we have Matthew John, who needs a family by September 2013!  He has an absence of skull and congenital dyskinesia of his limbs.  However, he’s described as an extroverted boy who gets along with the other kids in his institution and likes to play football.  (I’m guessing they mean soccer.)  And he has zero dollars in his account – what a travesty!

 

7. It’s Friday, so it’s time for a song!  As you might have guessed, this week’s song is “Soak Up the Sun” by Sheryl Crow.

For more Quick Takes from Jen and others, visit Conversion Diary!

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, pray for orphans!

7 Quick Takes Friday – Spring At Last!

1. Spring has finally sprung, but first an update on Larisa!  Kate commented on my Larisa page that she and her husband had tried to claim Larisa, but the paper trail on her had been lost!  Please storm heaven for her!

2. As the title of this posts suggests, danger of frost has FINALLY passed where I live!  I spent my day off this week getting my tomatoes, peppers, and herbs planted.  Salsa will be a little late this year, but better late than never, right?

3.  Aside from eating whatever I grew, my favorite part of gardening season is going to the garden center and buying new plants.  I love looking at all the little tags and learning about new varieties.  I also love finding the stuff I intended to plant – when I see Jet Star tomatoes or Blushing Beauty peppers, it’s like running into an old friend.

4.  I’m not quite organized enough to have a garden plan.  Scratch that.  I am organized enough to have a garden plan… but I always throw it out once I get to the garden center.  ”Plans?  Where we’re going we don’t need plans!”

5.  I’ve been very active in a statewide professional organization for the last few years.  A few months ago, I became a committee chair for the organization.  I haven’t talked about this on the blog because, well, this blog isn’t about my professional life.  I haven’t talked about it at work either, partly because it never seemed like the right time, and partly because I didn’t think anybody actually cared.  I was proven wrong on that score at staff meeting, when Boss Man gave me a shout-out at staff meeting.

6.  I guess the moral of take #5 is: quietly doing the right thing is more persuasive than you realize.

7. It’s Friday, so it’s time for a song!  This Friday’s song is “Pon de Replay” by Rihanna.

For more Quick Takes from Jen and others, visit Conversion Diary!

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, pray for Larisa!

7 Quick Takes Friday – Spring Not Yet Sprung

1.  Let’s start today’s Quick Takes with a picture of sweet Larisa!  I Miss Larisa has over $1400 available for her adoption – that’s a head start for any prospective family!

2.  If you haven’t seen the news about Father Emil Kapaun and his posthumous Medal of Honor, I urge you to head over to the Wichita Eagle’s site.  Since Kapaun is from the Wichita area and two miracles attributed to him occurred in the Wichita area, the Eagle has covered Kapaun extensively.

3.  Last year at this time, I was posting pictures of my garden.  You may have noticed that I haven’t done that this year.  Last year was unusually warm (and I jumped the gun a bit on planting).  This year has been about average, which means we’re still in danger of frost for the next few days.  I’d hoped to head to the greenhouse today, but it looks like it’ll be just cold enough tonight that I need to wait.  Bummer.

4.  Also it was cold and wet all day yesterday, which means the garden expansion isn’t quite complete yet.  Guess I should take care of that before I plant anything, huh?

5.  Let’s see, what am I growing this year?  Narrowing the focus a bit – it’ll be tomatoes, jalapeños and at least one other hot pepper (lobbying for habañeros, but DH has a much lower capsaicin tolerance than I do).  Garlic is currently growing – once I pull it up I’ll probably put radishes and salad greens in. Oh, and cilantro.  (Sorry, Jen!)

6.  This happens to me every week.  I get to take #6 and realize I got nothin’.  Sorry, kids.

7. It’s Friday  so it’s time for a song!    I realized I’ve been doing this for over a year and have yet to include one Bob Marley song.  For shame!  I give you  “No Woman No Cry.”

For more Quick Takes from Jen and others, visit Camp Patton!

7 Quick Takes Friday – Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder?

1. Once again, I’m the last blogger to weigh in on something important.  In this case, it’s the Holy Father’s resignation.  I must admit, I never felt the kinship with him that I felt with John Paul II (yes, I realize it’s strange for me to say that, considering I never met either of them).  However, I was saddened to hear that he felt he needed to step down, and I will pray for him.

2. The pope’s retirement means that the Vatican staff only has two more weeks to see Shepherd One land and say, “Look, it’s Benny and the Jet!”  As George Carlin used to say, these are the sort of thoughts that kept me out of the really good schools.

3. What did you all give up for Lent?  I gave up pizza, mainly because that’s my go-to food when DH and I have nothing planned for dinner.  Hopefully this will force me to get my crap together as far as meal planning goes.

4.  And in case anyone was wondering, yes, DH is joining me in giving up pizza.  “It’s a personal challenge!  It’s good for me!  I need to lose weight anyway.”

“Whatever you say, dear.”

5.  Speaking of food, I’m dithering over whether or not I should grow tomatillos this year.  I’m tempted, since DH green-lighted expanding the garden.  (Currently, I have two 4′ x 8′ beds.  When it gets a little warmer, I’ll expand each to 4′ x 12′.)  However, I hear tomatillos can get really large, and you need at least two of them because they cross-pollinate.

6.  I’ve recently discovered the Billboard Classic channel on YouTube.  It’s got videos with clips of the top 100 songs from different years and one can easily get sucked in and remember all the songs you loved (and hated from a particular year.

7. It’s Friday and it’s Lent, so it’s time for a hymn.  I give you Stabat Mater Dolorosa as sung by the Benedictine Monks of the Abbey of Saint Maurice et Saint Maur de Clervaux.

For more Quick Takes from Jen and others, visit Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes Friday – More Good Things in the World

1.  Holy cow.  Someone might have found the bones of John the Baptist!  I really can’t do that story any justice here – just go read it!

2.  Leanne at Provoking Beauty has a great series on the Prayer of St. Francis, and she gave me the honor of contributing!  Several different writers have reflected on each line of the prayer, and mine – “it is in pardoning that we are pardoned” – will be up today.   Every post in the series is good food for thought; I highly encourage all of you to get caught up on them before you read mine.

3. This should give you some idea of how my mind works: At work last Friday, a few of my friends were discussing happy hour plans for that evening.  I hadn’t been invited.  At first I was miffed and wondered why they didn’t invite me, and then I remembered: I was working the evening shift.  Even if they had invited me I wouldn’t have gotten out in time to do anything.  Duh.

4.  I just finished Tomatoland by Barry Eastabrook.  If you didn’t already hate supermarket tomatoes, you will after you read this.   Modern-day slavery, pesticides that cause horrific damage to both field workers and the environment, and all for some pretty lousy fruits. But the book ends on a hopeful note: tomato pickers banded together, took on the growers, and have made some progress in working conditions.  Head over to Mother Earth News to read an excerpt.

5. Speaking of tomatoes, I have my first tomatoes of the season!  I am officially in heaven.

6.  On a lighter note, I just discovered a hilarious new blog: Not Always Working.  Not Always Working is a collection of reader-submitted funny/stupid employee and boss stories.  It’s a companion to Not Always Right, a collection of reader-submittedcustomer stories.  What are some funny blogs you read?

7. TGIF! Time for a song!   This Friday’s song is “Summertime” by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince.

For more Quick Takes, go here!

7 Quick Takes Friday – Good Things in the World

1.  Guess who I saw at Mass last weekend? Father B!  He wasn’t celebrating Mass, he was just in the foyer visiting with parishioners.  He’s looking quite well and might get back to work soon!  DEO GRATIAS!

2. A note about pictures on my blog: the good pictures on my blog come from Flickr’s pictures that are Creative Commons licensed.  I credit the author with his/her Flickr username.  Any bad pictures, however, were taken by me.

3. Anybody else like Sherlock as much as DH and I do?  After the most recent season of Downton Abbey ended, DH and I promptly became addicted to Sherlock.  For those that haven’t seen it, it’s a BBC series of the Sherlock Holmes stories set in modern times.  Holmes is always sending snarky texts and Dr. Watson has a blog, but they still save Lestrade’s rear end every time.   And like Downton Abbey, no new episodes until 2013!  Arrrgh!  British TV producers, why must you torture me????

4.  Did you catch the transit of Venus on Tuesday? If, like me, you missed it, there are some excellent pictures here.

5. Does anybody know how tall cilantro usually gets?  I swear one of my plants is pushing 3 feet.  It has, of course, started flowering, which I don’t mind; the flowers are beautiful, and that means soon it’ll go to seed and I’ll have coriander.

6. Here’s an easy way to increase exposure for Reece’s Rainbow: The Ironman Triathlon is holding a contest called Kona Inspired, in which participants send in videos with the theme “Anything is Possible.”   The winners will participate in the Ironman Triathlon in October as media athletes, which means they’ll be able to share their stories on the nationally televised broadcast of Ironman!  Brady Murray’s video features Reece’s Rainbow and discusses how his son with Down’s Syndrom inspires him!    Go to RodsRacing.org to vote for this video between now and June 18th.

7. TGIF! Time for a song!   This week’s song is “Summer Girls” by LFO.  (I like the occasional ear candy.)

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Why I Grow What I Grow

Taking a time out from what DH and Stephen Colbert would call “God Stuff” and talking about other things I love: gardening and cooking.

Photo taken by Mrs D. Krebs

I hated tomatoes as a kid.  Hated, hated, hated them.  I couldn’t understand why anybody ate them.  The texture made me gag and the taste was non-existent at best.  I was, of course, eating tomatoes from a supermarket.  Then I met DH and he introduced me to his sweet grandmother who grew tomatoes in her backyard.  We were at her house in July and she asked if DH and I would like some fresh tomatoes.  As much as I disliked tomatoes, I couldn’t stand the thought of being rude to an old lady, so I figured I’d just have one.

To say that the tomatoes grown by DH’s grandma rocked my world is no exaggeration.  From that day on, I was hooked on homegrown tomatoes.

So, years later, when I finally  had the time and space to start a garden of my own, tomatoes were first on the list.  I lost quite a few of them to disease and hornworms, and it was a struggle to keep my plants alive during one of the hottest, driest years on record, but it was worth it!

Photo taken by Denim Dave

My first garden also included peppers.  Bell peppers and hot peppers are pretty easy to grow and both DH and I like them.  My peppers struggled a little more than the tomatoes  - I grew them in containers that were too small – but again, definitely worth the effort.  And peppers are good in salsa, which gives me something else to do with my tomatoes.  :)

Photo taken by Michael Lehet

Cilantro was next on my list of garden tenants.  People either love this stuff or they hate it; DH and I both love it.   To us, cilantro makes a good salsa into a great salsa. If you’re a smaller household, it’s nice to grow your own cilantro instead of buying a huge bunch at the store. A large bunch, which is all our grocery store sells, usually goes bad before we can use it.

At my latest physical, the doctor let me know that my cholesterol was a little too high and she suggested a statin.  I begged and pleaded, and like the Ghost of Christmas Future did for Ebenezer Scrooge, she gave me another chance to change my ways.  That’s why I grow lettuce, chard, and other salad fixings.  DH and I will be more likely to eat them if they’re close at hand, and we won’t have to worry about buying a bunch of veggies that go bad.

Why do you grow the plants that you grow?  Is there anything you’ve never grown that you’d like to try?

7 Quick Takes Friday – Larisa, Tums, and Chard

1. Larisa’s matching fund drive is still ongoing!  If you can find it in your hearts to donate please do so, and I will match it!  Let’s show this girl that the Body of Christ has not forgotten her.

2.  It’s been an interesting week here.  I’m discerning the next direction for my career to take, and pondering my career usually gives me heartburn.  Plus, for one day we thought that one of the cats – the elderly, toothless one – had escaped.  We couldn’t find her before we left for work and realized we hadn’t seen her since the previous night.  I was positive that she’d somehow sneaked out of the house to die alone and I would return from work to a bereft DH.   Instead, I came home from work and found DH cooing over the cat, who was very much alive and unhurt.  She sneaked into the basement before we went to bed and spent the whole day there.   I’m glad the cat’s OK, but… oy. Pass the Tums, please.

3. On a happier note, this week I got to experience one of my favorite parts of gardening – cooking what I grew!  A few weeks ago, I had a vegetarian hash similar to this at a local restaurant and I thought, “Gee, I bet I could make that!”  So, I did, and it turned out pretty good.  It’s hash browns, yellow bell peppers, Swiss Chard, lettuce, thyme, oregano, and feta cheese.  (I used store-bought hash browns and peppers.)  Cook the hash browns thoroughly, then add the peppers.  Cook for a few minutes, then add the chard, thyme, and oregano, and cook till limp.  Top with feta cheese.

4. Speaking of Swiss Chard, I could use some more recipes for it!  I’ve never grown chard before, so aside from this lovely recipe posted by The Political Housewyf, I’m not sure what to do with it.  Any ideas, besides salad and veggie hash?

5. How is it that tomato hornworms can be so huge and so difficult to find?  I know there’s one eating one of my plants, but danged if I can find the slimy little freeloader.  I suppose the fact that they’re so perfectly camouflaged is evidence of God’s marvelous design of creation and all that happy stuff, but I appreciate God’s creations a little more when they’re not eating my tomatoes!

6.  And of course, I can’t forget Father B!  He’s still pretty weak, so any prayers you care to offer for him are much appreciated.

7. TGIF! Time for a song!  This week’s song is a tribute to the finest commander the Enterprise ever had – Captain Jean-Luc Picard.  Lend me your ears for The Picard Song by DarkMateria.

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