Hosting a Hymn Singing, part 7

8. Even if none of you read music, try not to forego songs with a musical score. I know you can fit more songs on the printed page if you only print the lyrics, and everybody knows, say, Jesus loves me or some of the devotional songs. There has been a growing trend in more 'contemporary' worship services to forego a hymnal altogether and move to a sort of powerpoint or overhead projector only hymnal, and there's not anything wrong with that in and of itself. However, increasingly the songs on the overhead are just lyrics, no notes. A friend of mine with musical training tells me she has noticed that when churches do that, the quality of the congregational singing goes noticeably down. I think even people who don't read music gain more from having the score than they realize- you at least get some idea of where to go up and where to go down, and I think the more you sing with a written score, the more you pick up.

9.. Don't dumb things down, and don't get stuck in a rut. Learn songs that are new to you. Do not dismiss new songs just because they are new. Do Learn old hymns that once spoke to Christians and represented their deepest spiritual yearnings, hopes, and the things that gave them comfort- if you think a phrase or word in a hymn is archaic and not readily understood, you can always explain it before singing the song, and to my mind, this is preferable to skipping a song only because you didn't know a word or too. Learning the meaning of the phrase can give the song new meaning and draw your attention more deeply to the lyrics as a whole. And I have to tell you, pretty much every time I hear somebody dismiss a word as 'archaic,' they just demonstrated their ignorance, embarrassing both of us, but of the two of us I am the only one who knows it. This is very awkward, at least for one of us.

Examples of words I've been told are 'Archaic' or worse, "Old English" (a term which actually means something pre-Chaucerian, not just 'kinda hard, dude,"):
Mallow, bittern, sackcloth, kerchief, penurious, and more- all words that may be unfamiliar, but are not archaic.
Also I've been told that Night with Ebon Pinion brooded over the vale has changed meaning. I realize most of you don't know the song, but you know the words I just listed, or could figure them out in a minute.
I have no idea why somebody, somehow, thinks these words have suddenly changed meaning. So what, now this phrase means 'day with rainbow fingers danced along the mountains?'
When I read this I brooded a little, and probably wailed in my little house in the vale. Perhaps these words have changed meaning and now refer to roasting marshmallows and playing tiddlywinks on a mountainside, but I took no notice of that possibility and brooded and wailed the old fashioned way, fuddy dud that I am.


Understand, I implore you, that I am NOT making fun of people who aren't familiar with these words. What I am making fun of is the person who arrogantly imagines that their current level of knowledge is the standard for what is and is not out of date, the person who dogmatically states, "I do not know that word, so it must be obsolete" without bothering to just look it up and see if he or she might learn something new.

I do think it's important not to assume knowledge, not taking it for granted in a sermon that everybody in the audience knows every biblical story to which you allude, not assuming that people understand scripture notation such as 1 Jn 2:9, etc- It is thoughtful, respectful, and considerate to include some of the background information that those who didn't grow up in my mother's Sunday School Class might not know, to explain the meaning of words that might be unfamiliar, and to do so in respectful, not condescending ways.

However, it is insulting and dismissive to assume that people who don't know something now, never will know it and never can know it- and that is what many of the arguments I see for 'modernizing' hymns, for not singing hymns or using language 'too hard' to understand actually do- undervalue the intelligence of others. This is not inclusive, as the makers of these arguments claim. This is not only not remotely inclusive, it is, in fact, very exclusive- to put it in raw terms, it is essentially saying 'those others are too dumb to understand this, and they always will be that dumb, and there's no hope for them to learn anything beyond what they now know, and not much point to learning anything older than yesterday, anyway.'

As an example, consider the hymn known as O Thou Fount of Every Blessing (and also known as Come Thou Fount...)

Here are two verses:

Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I’ll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.
It's a beautiful song, and the lyrics are deeply meaningful and deserve far better than an ill informed guess about their meaning. Here is a explanation of 'here I raise my Ebeneezer:'

In 1 Samuel 7, the prophet Samuel and the Israelites found themselves under attack by the Philistines. Fearing for their lives, the Israelites begged Samuel to pray for them in their impending battle against the Philistines. Samuel offered a sacrifice to God and prayed for His protection. God listened to Samuel, causing the Philistines to lose the battle and retreat back to their own territory. After the Israelite victory, the Bible records: “Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, ‘Thus far the Lord has helped us’ ” (1 Samuel 7:12).

The word Ebenezer comes from the Hebrew words ’Eben hà-ezer (eh’-ben haw-e’-zer), which simply mean “stone of help...." When Robinson wrote his lyrics, he followed the word Ebenezer with the phrase, “Here by Thy great help I’ve come.” An Ebenezer, then, is simply a monumental stone set up to signify the great help that God granted the one raising the stone. In Robinson’s poem, it figuratively meant that the writer—and all who subsequently sing the song—acknowledge God’s bountiful blessings and help in their lives.

Google is your friend- if a phrase or word stumps you, look it up, so you can sing with your heart and your mind (1 Corinthians chapter 14, verse 15)

10. Include children. I have been to singings where the children were sent out to play. We don't do that. We keep our children in the singing with us (well, they aren't that little any more). They may chafe a bit now and then, but they learn to love the singings (ours all insist on going, and they make sure we host them regularly, too). Singing is fun for kids, too, and the more they do it, the more fun they will find it.

Children also really do not need hymns dumbed down for them. They like and enjoy what they are used to, and if they are used to songs like Holy, Holy, Holy; Trust and Obey; This is My Father's World; Can You Count the Stars, and other old classics, they will enjoy them just as much as more silly and puerile songs- with the difference that they can appreciate, enjoy, and be edified by (and edify others with) the former for their entire lives.

So sing songs worth singing- NOT 'Jesus was a cool dude.'



If you enjoyed watching me make a spectacle of myself on my soapbox, you may also enjoy this post titled The Language Wars In Our Hymnals

hymn singing series of posts:


One
two
three
four
five
six
seven
eight

Homeschool Carnival of links

The Homeschool Carnival is up. You should go check it out!
Today’s Carnival of Homeschooling contains lapbboks, minioffices, tips & free curriculum!

What I do with clothes on coat-hangers when folding laundrey

It's interesting that we call it 'folding' the laundry when much of it involves hanging the laundry on coathangers, isn't it?

When you're doing the laundry and you put the clothes on coat-hangers, you can just drape them over a chair or across the bed, but then they get wrinkled again, or the hangers fall off.

Of course, that's assuming that you've gotten to the clothes before they wrinkled anyway, which I frequently fail to do. But on the assumption that the rest of the world is more organized than me, and because sometimes I do get to the clothes in time, here is a nifty solution:

See it? You should be able to click on the picture to enlarge. But on either side of the bulletin board, there are two brass colored over the door hangers. The purpose for which they were created is to hang wreaths on doors. But the purpose for which I bought them at the after Christmas sale at my thrift shop (making them .50) is to hold the clothes on coat-hangers while I fold them. There are so many awesome things about this solution, I don't know where to begin:
It's so portable. You can move them to any door in the house.
If you don't want to look at them, flip them so they are inside the closet- not only portable but incredibly space-saving.
Buy one for each member of the family and write their names in it, then they can come and get their own clothes. I just have a his and hers hanger, and the Cherub, being short, gets her clothes hung on the door knob.
They were cheap!
They can double as wreath-hangers, or spots to hang your purse, and the stronger one on the left might even hold a fractious toddler by his suspenders.

No, no, that would be a bad idea.

But the rest of them... well, they work for me! (IOW, linked at Works for Me Wednesday)

Lunch Today: The Recipe Version and Our Version

HG here, after an absence due to pregnancy woes/out of town family/general life insanity. Trying to get into a semblance of life order right now... choosing a couple major tasks each day to finish, working to not leave the apartment unless I really need to (this is mainly because time spent out makes me so, so, so tired these days).

We are almost into September, which makes me happy. Autumn should be coming soon. And with the autumn and the cooler weather, I'll move past my General Baking Strike. As I'm sure all mothers can attest to, pregnancy and heat do not mix well. So many recipes have been neglected over the last three months because they require baking and I'm looking forward to a change in that routine.

Being forced to bake less has not been all bad, though. Through looking for ways to avoid using the oven, I've had several new and successful cooking experiences this summer...pork chops, stovetop macaroni and cheese from scratch, a 7 layer salad with speedy burritos, and lunch today: a pizza frittata. Yes, there should be a picture with this post. Our camera accidentally got left in the vehicle, though, and I can't bear to bring myself out into the 90+ degree weather right now, even for a short bit. I imagine pictures will come at a later point, though, as this recipe proved to be a success.

The recipe originally came from a Philadelphia cream cheese ad in a magazine. It caught my attention because a frittata would be a new cooking experience for me, and because the ingredients listed were mostly *not* hyper expensive ready made foods.

The Original Ingredient List
* 6 oz Philadelphia cream cheese, softened
* 6 eggs
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 1/4 tsp. each dried basil and oregano leaves
* 2 Tbsp butter
* 1 1/2 c. sliced fresh mushrooms
* 1/2 c. chopped green peppers
* 24 slices Oscar Mayer Pepperoni, coarsely chopped

MY Ingredient List and the Instructions
* 6 oz store brand cream cheese (no offense to Philadelphia & Co, but with a $30 weekly grocery budget I'll take the .99 cream cheese over the $1.29 stuff)
* 6 eggs
* 1/4 tsp salt
* oregano leaves and a basil/garlic mixture ~ not measured, just sprinkled generously
* 2 TBSP butter
* 1/2 c. chopped onion (we didn't have peppers on hand and I think this pregnancy has aggravated my allergy to them)
* 1 can black olives, sliced (again, didn't have mushrooms and right now they don't agree with me. Olives are not generally cheap, but I stocked up when they were on sale a few weeks ago)
* 24 slices pepperoni, coarsely chopped (pepperoni is something I very rarely have on hand. We both like it, though, and it was on sale for a good price last week. If we didn't have it, I would have used a bit of ground beef or some cooked chicken)

Instructions: Beat cream cheese, eggs, salt and seasonings until well blended.

Melt butter in 10 inch ovenproof skillet on medium heat. Add veggies; cook and stir for a few minutes. Stir in pepperoni and cream cheese mixture.* Cover; cook 5 minutes or until center is almost set.

Heat broiler. Uncover frittata. Broil, 6 inches from heat, 2 to 3 min. or until golden brown.

~ ~
* Aha! I somehow missed the part where I was supposed to stir in the pepperoni and cream cheese mixture. I just poured the cream cheese stuff over it and covered the pan, wondering later why the veggies weren't more evenly distributed. DUH.

Other notes:
* the original recipe calls for serving it topped with pizza sauce. Doubtless this would enhance the taste. Again, my pregnant state influenced things. I didn't want the extra acidic content, so I just skipped it.

* I slightly overcooked the bottom layer of the frittata by keeping it on the stovetop too long. I think my definition of "center is almost set" needs to be a little less rigid.

* the recipe says it serves six, but I'm thinking four is probably a more accurate number. I cut it into four slices and we each ate one along with a big serving salad. I imagine, though, that it could also be stretched by including toasted garlic bread on the side.

* Next time I make it I want to experiment with more veggies... use olives *and* mushrooms, or maybe add in some fresh tomato slices.

~
Good stuff, y'all!

Soy Beans

I haven't made this one yet, I just found it in my Great REcipe Collating and Sorting Adventure, and it looks interesting:

1 cup soy beans soaked overnight or longer
cook in pressure cooker for one half hour.

In another kettle, cupt up and cook the following until tender:
1 large diced onion and potato, each
2-3 stalks celery, diced
3-4 carrots, sliced

When cool, put all (including soy beans) into blender. Add seasonings to taste, and simmer for an hour. Just before serving, add 4 T. butter and 1/2 t. garlic juice.
Cream or powdered milk can be added to make a richer soup.

Playing with Baby from 8 to 12 months

Previous posts in this series here and here.

One of the things written down in my notes is to imitate the baby, copy his movements. Funnily enough, this Sunday we were at a friend's house with the Dread Pirate Grasshopper (and his parents, of course), and one of the college students started doing just that- whatever the Grasshopper did, the young man did. The Grasshopper was fascinated. They played like this for quite a few minutes.

Other things you baby this age might enjoy:
Teach him to wave 'bye-bye'
Gently 'bonk' your foreheads together, making sound effects for the collision- silly is fun.
Make a doll's hands play pat-a-cake. The Grasshopper also likes it when I play pat-a-cake with his feet.
Bang two blocks together
Help baby stack a few blocks together and then, of course, knock them down.

Songs with movement fascinate the Dread Pirate Grasshopper. He especially likes The Wheels on the Bus and the Eensy Weensy Spider just now. What are some of your baby's favorite songs with guestures to them?

Crab Legs. Why Is It Always Crab Legs?

I live in an inland state far and away from any salt-water bodies where crabs might be fished. In other words, crab legs are distinctly not a frugal purchase here, ever. I mean, they generally aren't even near the ocean, but we once were blessed to have a friend who did book-keeping for a family fishing company who paid him in crab legs once in a while, and his wife hated crab legs, so we got them. Gratis. But I digress.

Crab is not a reasonably priced food here. And yet, the HM has had this experience. And Shasta, who works at a different grocery store, an upscale store (the HM works at a discount grocery), also told us of the time they had a big seafood promotion and he sold a huge amount of crab legs to a woman who was throwing a party - and she paid for her crab legs with her food stamp card.

And yesterday I was talking to a mother and child, a mother I have known for years, who has never lived outside of government assistance in the years that I have known her, a woman who complains about having to pay 3.00 for her own childrens' medical prescriptions but who keeps cable television at all times, a woman who was indignant when her neighbor in government subsidized apartments permitted only to people who qualified for government aid, got caught letting an able bodies male with a job live there for free for months and had to pay backrent- she thought that was wrong and the government should let the man live there for free since he had some other bills to pay. And while we were talking, the little boy interrupted with something totally off topic, as little boys are wont to do, and said,
"Mommy, when are you going to get us some crab legs again? I want some and those are yummy."

And his mother agreed that yes, it had been a couple months since they had had crab legs, that was a nice treat, and it was time to get some again. Did I mention that she has asked to borrow money from me a few times?

No.

As I said here:

It's not the end of the world if you give up choice cuts of steak and eat beans and rice flavored with bits of chopped up meat from a tougher cut. It's not deprivation to eat oats (old fashioned, not quick oats) instead of pop tarts and boxed cereal, and you know, I like my sweet boxed cereals as much as the next gal, and probably more- but I don't buy them unless I have incredible coupons and they are on sale, and then, in our house, cereal is considered a dessert, not a food.

Unfortunately, there is a long, long list of things our culture has taught us to feel like we deserve because our culture is a liar. Those things, in fact, are not an entitlement. You really do not 'deserve' them. It really will make a huge difference in your budget if you skip them, and you are not doing your family down because they eat beans and rice, home-made corn-bread, home-made cakes, french toast from a griddle and your own mix rather than from a box in the freezer, and soups and stews.

Furthermore, this particular mother has thrown out boxes and boxes of food purchased on food stamps because the dates 'expired.' In vain have we explained that those dates are 'sell by' dates, not 'this will make you sick if you eat it' dates. We even asked her once to just go ahead and give it to us, we didn't care if it was expired. But no, she threw away dozens of bottles of salad dressings and other things because they 'expired' that week.

And she is buying her kids crab legs every couple of months for a treat.

According to links at Baldilocks,

More than 40 million people get food stamps, an increase of nearly 50% during the economic downturn, according to government data through May. The program has grown steadily for three years.

A year ago it was 34.4 million, and that was one in 9 Americans.
In 2008, it was one in 11 Americans on Food Stamps.

Is everybody buying crab legs with them? No, of course not. But I'm telling you, based on what my husband sees at the grocery stores he manages, you'd be surprised.

Spinach Lasagna

This lasagna recipe was a big hit with my family. For years it was what some of them requested as a birthday meal. They didn't even know lasagna could be made with meat until the oldest was around 13 years old!
I love it because you don't cook the noodles. YOu can also make it ahead, wrap and freeze it, defrosting and baking it another day.

Ingredients:

1 pkg spaghetti sauce mix, seasonings to taste (oregano, basil, garlic, you know)
1 6 oz can tomato paste
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1 3/4 cup cold water
2 eggs
1 15 oz container Ricotta or a pound of cottage cheese (I also sometimes substitute half tofu and half ricotta or cottage cheese
1/2 t. salt
1 10 oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained (I would save the drained spinach for a vegetable soup base)
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 lb uncooked lasagna noodles, break them as needed to fit the pan.

Empty spaghetti sauce mix (or spices) into saucepan, add tomato paste, sauce, and water. Heat, stirring until well blended. Remove from heat. Beat eggs in a large bowl and add Ricotta or cottage cheese, spinach, salt and half the Parmesan. mix well.

Lightly grease the bottom of a 13X9X2 inch baking pan. Ladle a thin bit of sauce in the bottom (I tilt the pan to make sure there's a bit of sauce all over, but it's such a thin layer it's translucent).
Now layer:
Noodles (dry, uncooked lasagna noodles)
half of the cheese/spinach stuff
half the mozzarella slices, and half the tomato sauce.
Repeat layers and top the final layer with remaining Parmesan.

Lightly grease a sheet of aluminum foil OR the bottom of a cookie sheet, cover the dish with the oiled foil or cookie sheet. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven (I almost never preheat) for 60 minutes (we generally find it takes about 45, your milage may vary), or until you can stick a fork in the noodles and they aren't crunchy.
Remove covering and let stand for ten minutes before cutting and serving. This serves 8, allegedly, but we always doubled it because we were 9 and sometimes company, and we do like extras for leftovers.

Linked at Fight Back Fridays, a place for food renegades
Also at Meatless Mondays

Hosting a Hymn Singing, part 6

Once men sang together round a table in chorus; now one man sings alone, for the absurd reason that he can sing better. If scientific civilization goes on (which is most improbable) only one man will laugh, because he can laugh better than the rest.

G. K. Chesterton, Heretics

10. Timing: Sing for an hour or two, break for drinks (necessary) and snacks (fun) and visiting (giving the singing voice a slight rest). Then either just visit for the rest of the night, or go back and sing some more. We usually have ours on Friday night because we get up early for church on Sundays. Saturday afternoons work well, and we've been to some on Sunday nights.
You can also sing for a while and then take a short break for a Bible study or devotional. We often ask one of the college lads if he'll present a devotional thought- a short lesson or talk with a spiritual application.

Our groups are small enough we go around in a circle and let everybody have a turn picking one song. If it gets much larger, we won't be able to do that. The usual way is that people just take turns shouting out hymn numbers, and then one of the guys who is a stronger singer will start it and try to keep us all on key and moving along at a steady pace.

We'll be back with more on Monday night, including one of my personal soapboxes.=)


Another one, aren't you lucky?

Singing as she was once:

It is said that during the Crimean war, one night before the storming of the Malakoff, the entire Biritish army lying in the trenches before Sebastopol joined their voices and sang together the famous Scottish ballad, "Annie Laurie." "They sang of love and not of fame,

Forgot was Britain's glory; Each heart recalled a different name,

But all sang 'Annie Laurie.' "

The scene on the steamer as I recall it after so many years was not unlike that in one respect at least, for though we were not yet in the trenches we were on the way there, and some of us in groups by ourselves sang "Annie Laurie," while others sang other favorites and all were thinking of the loved ones we were leaving behind us, wondering whether we would ever see them again..

The Simple Life of a Commoner, H. H. Green, 1911

hymn singing series of posts:


One
two
three
four
five
six
seven
eight

Easy Caramel Cereal Balls

28 caramels
2 tablespoons water
4 cups cereal (the original recipe calls for alphabet oat cereal, but I think cheerios would work just as well)


Measure out the cereal in a bowl, set aside.

In a small pan over low heat, melt the caramels with 2 tablespoons water, stirring from time to time, until smooth.

Immediately pour over the cereal and toss until as evenly coated as possibly. You can stick a spoon in cold water (or oil it) and stir with the spoon. Get your hands slightly damp with cold water and quickly shape into balls about an inch in size.

Makes a little over 3 dozen.

Not healthy in the slightest, but totally delicious.=)

Linked at Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays

Find another incredibly delicious dessert here.

Printable Planner Pages

I found an adorable planner at Goodwill for .99. Now I want planner pages to go within, but I don't want to pay much for them.

I know there are free planner pages online, but I am looking for the smaller kind, about 6 3/4 tall", 3 3/4" wide, six hole punched. Do any of you clever, resourceful people know where I might find free, printable planner pages about that size?

I am especially interested in:
Calendar pages (monthly or weekly, I don't care, not so much daily)
Price Book template
Kitchen supplies inventory
kids clothes sizes

On the Making of Menus, Part the Fourth

Taken from a 1908 Good Housekeeping Article. Previous installments:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

A married older sister is teaching her younger sister, who lives with the couple, how to make frugal menus using what is on hand, while also eating healthful meals. She has just suggested to her younger sister than instead of dessert, one might end a meal with coffee and cheese, and she has explained how to use leftover creamed cabbage by making a casserole of it with cheese and crumb topping for lunch the next day. Her little sister has a question about the cheese:

"I notice that you are always suggesting things made with cheese for lunch; I thought cheese was indigestible, and if I lunch on it frequently might I not have as bad a case of dyspepsia as you threaten for Fred on a starchy diet?"

"Cheese is not indigestible at all, my dear; that is simply a popular mistake. It is one of the most valuable articles of food, because almost all of it may be assimilated. It merely takes a long time to digest it. If only people would remember always to put in every dish of cooked cheese a pinch of baking soda and a bit of cayenne pepper, they would seldom have any trouble with it. Poor people the world over fairly live on it, not in our country, to be sure, but everywhere else. But now to return to our menus; suppose you try two this time, for two successive nights."

So Dolly wrote: "Black bean soup, rounds of pork tenderloin, minced carrots, potato balls, apple pie, coffee."

"Fair; pretty good," commented Mrs Thome. "I see you plan to have your fresh vegetable, the carrots, minced and put in with the potato balls around the rounds of pork tenderloin; so far I have no fault to find; but you ought not to have pie after pork, though the apple part of the dessert is all right. Can't you use apples in some other way?"

Dolly scratched out the last course and wrote: "Apples porcupine."

"Very good indeed," said her sister. "The apples are peeled, cored and baked, basted with sugar syrup, and, when cold, stuck full of strips of almonds; possibly with cream to eat on them, if you can afford it. That is a perfect menu. Now for the second night."

I am not sure why pie after pork is not good, unless it is presumed too rich, although plain cream over apples baked in syrup sounds both delicious and rich in its own right.

Hilarious CNN Screen Catch

CNN recently identified a man who managed to get 300,000 people together at a rally in D.C. as an equally famous woman They also mispelled that woman's name and got her claim to fame wrong.

Get your giggles here.

Menus, August 30th

Meals I can make for under five dollars are preceded by an asterisk below.

I am blessed enough to have our 19 and 21 year old daughters till living at home. The 21 year old cooks on weekends, since she works at the airport doing upholstery of airplanes during the week, and the 19 year old does most of the cooking during the week.
The 12 year old boy and 14 year old girl also help with the cooking. My menu plans include instructions for them.


Breakfast:
*Chewy Brown Sugar Muffins- with butter and canteloupe
*3 minute skillet granola, with fruit and yogurt
*eggs, scrambled, fried over easy, shirred, and in omelettes.


Lunches:
Monday: Basil Tomato Soup and incredibly easy and frugal home-made garlic bread sticks (we have to have this Monday because the tomatoes in the fridge cannot wait another day)

Otherwise, pick and choose from:

leftover sloppy joes (we had these Saturday, and we have a lot leftover): Vegetarians might enjoy black bean sloppy joes. Serve with chips, pickles, and salad

Crockpot Reuben Melt (start this at breakfast time and it will be ready by lunch time)- serve with crackers and grapes

*fried rice, serve with carrots, celery, and fruit

Leftovers


Dinners:

*Monday- roast chicken, fan cut potatoes, green beans  (we did crockpot chicken adobo instead)

*Tuesday- Meatball Goulash, using ground pork, which I got for .99 a pound, instead of ground beef, serve with baked apples and buttered rolls on the side.

Wednesday: (we need to eat on the run) Chili Cheese English Muffins, serve with celery and carrot sticks

*Thursday:- Lentil Rice Tacos (we're having company and need to feed anywhere from 8 to 15 extra mouths. I provide the main dish, the guests provide a side dish and dessert. Do you potluck? Visit Potluck Saturday and share a recipe for potlucks in the linkie!)

*Friday: Morrocan Beans and Rice, a freezer meal. Serve with fruit and a lettuce and cherry tomato salad on the side.

*Saturday: Oriental Pasta Salad, Serve with fruit and lettuce on the side. Make the Caraway seed bread batter and put it in the fridge for tomorrow.

Sunday: (we have company) slow-cooker crockpot pork loin glazed with brown sugar
Serve with side dishes of mixed green vegetables, fruit, and caraway seed bread.

Sweet Tooth? Choose from the following:

Lemon Love Notes

Brownie Mix

Honey Heart cookies

Linked at Organized Junkie's Menu Planning Monday 
Five Dollar Dinners

Sunday Hymn Post

I am resolved no longer to linger,
Charmed by the world’s delight,
Things that are higher, things that are nobler,
These have allured my sight.

Refrain

I will hasten to Him, hasten so glad and free;
Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to Thee.
I will hasten, hasten to Him, hasten so glad and free;
Jesus, Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to Thee.

I am resolved to go to the Savior,
Leaving my sin and strife;
He is the true One, He is the just One,
He hath the words of life.

Refrain

I am resolved to follow the Savior,
Faithful and true each day;
Heed what He sayeth, do what He willeth,
He is the living Way.

Refrain

I am resolved to enter the kingdom
Leaving the paths of sin;
Friends may oppose me, foes may beset me,
Still will I enter in.

Refrain

I am resolved, and who will go with me?
Come, friends, without delay,
Taught by the Bible, led by the Spirit,
We’ll walk the heav’nly way.

Refrain

Cyberhymnal

A church with perhaps more heart than recording artist skillz:


Happily, it is the heart that matters.

This is my favorite, and there is an extra verse here:


Songleader Paul Williams

Hosting a Hymn Singing, part 5

From Wanderers, by Robert Browning:

We set the sail and plied the oar;
But when the night-wind blew like breath,
For joy of one day's voyage more,
We sang together on the wide sea...

[...]
We sat together on the beach to sing
Because our task was done.

8. Accomodations: Make sure people have somewhere to park- we move our vehicles out of our yard and park them at my parents' house. We have signs in the yard about where to park. If you live in town, talk to your neighbors and let them know you have people coming who may be parking on the street. Invite the neighbors, too. Ask people to carpool if parking is limited.

Have the bathrooms clean, provide plenty of toilet paper and hand towels. One of the things that personally skeeves me out is a sopping wet, well used handtowel in a bathroom.

If you have a big group who have never been there before, have an announcement about the rules and tell where the bathrooms are. Consider putting signs on the doors.

Put a sign on the front door welcoming people.

9., Seating: Circles work best. We have borrowed folding chairs from the church building, from my parents, and we buy them at thrift shops sometimes. We carry dining room chairs upstairs, and usually a couple of college guys come early and we draft them to help move furniture, too. We know one family that has a dedicated room for their regular hymn singings, and they hold upwards of a hundred people. They live in a big city. We live in a tiny town. Mostly we have 20-40, and ten of them are blood relatives.;-)

We send open invitations. If the house were smaller, we'd invite specific families.

Singing as was once done:
From the Outlook, 1901:

One evening I walked out to a little tavern among the Thuringian hills, one of those quiet places at the end of a beautiful stroll which the German loves. It was a curious old place, smoky-raftered and hung with prints half a century old. The long tables were filled with men and women and a sprinkling of children, and the beer flowed free. Along in the evening a white-bearded old man came around and distributed a leaflet on which was printed a German song. After every one was supplied the old man struck a

gong, and at once the whole party began to sing with right good will—joyously and unaffectedly. There were, as I knew, solid German citizens and business men in the company, as well as students and workmen with their wives, for a German beer resort is nothing if not democratic. All these sang together and enjoyed it well, stopping at places indicated in the song by the words " bier-pause," and after a long look into the tall wooden mugs they sang again. It was really delightful enough in its entire simplicity and complete sociability, but the sentiment of the songs—and there were many of them— was amusing enough to a stranger. They were not singing love ditties, nor national hymns, nor yet music-hall ballads. Each song was the work of a local poet, and it expressed in high-flown language the glories of this particular beer-place; how good the beer was ; how jolly and benevolent and honest the host was; what a splendid view there was from the windows; how sweet the barmaid looked, and such sausages as she served 1 And, business men and all, they sang the glories of the place for an hour or more, and then they walked home in the cool of the evening, sober but sociable.

hymn singing series of posts:


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Cutely Frugal

I've got an idea here on repurposing a dresser and the drawers. It's not original to me- I've see both ideas posted other places, and one of them I saw in use at a friend's house.

YOu can get a lot of good ideas looking at some of the craft and do it yourself carnivals. Take a peek:


Before and After Party at Debbiedoos
Spotlight Yourself at It’s So Very Cheri
Show and Tell at Blue Cricket Design
Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts
Hookin Up with HOH at House of Hepworths
Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage
Friday Fun Finds at Kojo Designs
Craft Schooling Sunday at Creative Jewish Mom
Sunday Showcase Party at Under the Table and Dreaming
DIY Projct Parade at The DIY Showoff
Motivate Me Monday at Keeping It Simple
Craftastic Monday at Sew Can Do
Making the World Cuter Monday at Making the World Cuter
Weekly Link Party at Simply Designing

Welcome to Potluck Saturday

A potluck is a gathering of people where each person or group of people contributes a dish of food to be shared among the group. Synonyms include: potluck dinner, spread, Jacob's join[1][2], Jacob's supper, faith supper, covered dish supper, pitch-in, carry-in, bring-a-plate, smorgasbord. The term potluck is not often used in the southern U.S. to mean a meal of this sort since spelled as two words it has the older meaning of what an unexpected guest will have (whatever is already in the pot).

I had no idea there were so many variations in terms for this community meal. I grew up having potlucks with our church about once a month. We've hosted a few in our homes through-out the years, too.
My mother taught me that you should also bring a main dish, a side dish, and a dessert to a potluck, and it should be enough to feed as many people as are in your family plus around four others.

My practice is usually to bring just two things- a main dish, and either a side dish or a salad, and it should be enough to feed as many people as are in our family, plus around an army.;-)

You should not go to a potluck bringing less than your family eats unless there are extenuating circumstances, and by extenuating circumstances I don't just mean you didn't feel like cooking. I have found that church potlucks where people do not bring enough food to share (or even feed their own family a single serving each of what the parents brought), generally have major problems in other areas as well. There is a certain lack of generosity in their dealings, an absence of fellowship.

Sometimes people just don't know any better, not having been brought up by my mother. Then you can set a good example and things will improve.

Potlucks are great ways to get to know each other better, to enjoy each other's company, and to build community.

Here's a fabulously rich and sweet dessert to take to a potluck. One normal box of cake mix makes two large, rich, sweet, chocolatey, cakes with gooey coconut filling in the center. Not everybody likes coconut, of course. That leaves more for you.=) I kid. People who do like coconut will love this so much you won't have that many leftovers:

Almond Joy or Mounds Cake:

1 box chocolate cake mix (pudding type, or just add a box of dry instant vanilla pudding) Mix according to directions. Pour into two 9x13" pans. Bake about 20 minutes at 350.

Filling:
While cake is baking, mix in large sauce pan 1 cup evaporated milk and 1 cup sugar. Bring to full a boil. Remove from heat, add 24 large marshmallows. Stir until melted. Add 12 ox pkg coconut. Pour over HOT cakes.

Frosting:
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup evaporated Milk
1 stick margarine

Bring to a full boil. Remove from heat and add 1 1/2 cup chocolate chips. Stir til melted. Pour over cakes immediately. Top with toasted almonds or chopped pecans, if desired.

We usually have it without the nuts.

So what about you? Have a tasty recipe you like to bring to potlucks? Share it in the comments or link to your blog post below. I ask that it be a recipe that would serve 8 or more. It can be any main dish, side dish, or dessert. And I ask that if you link, you link to your blog post and not your blog.
Also, please include a link back here in your blog post so others can participate and we can all see some nifty new potluck recipes.

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Linked at Tuesdays at the Table
and at Beauty and Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday
And at Dining With Debbie

Potluck Cooking Saturday

I've been ruminating on this idea for a while, and I just now decided to go ahead with it- a recipe link where people share recipes suitable for pot-lucks, or pitch-ins as they are called in some places.

It will go up every Saturday, and anybody can participate.
Share a recipe which will feed 8 or more people which you might take to a potluck dinner- you can share it on your blog and leave a link, or you can leave a recipe in the comments.

Be sure your blog post includes a link back to the current potluck post, the one where you left your link. And, of course, be sure to add the link back to your post, not to your blog's main page.

I hope you'll join me!

Hosting a Hymn Singing, Part 4

"Folks who have sung so sweetly together should not fight thereafter."

Robin Hood, who suprised Friar Tuck by stealing upon him while he joined in an after dinner song and joining in.


5. Who shall you have? After you have sung a few songs together as a family on a regular basis, Invite people from your local congregation, your homeschool group, your 4-H club, invite your neighbors, invite friends who like to sing- anybody you think might be interested. Make it clear that this is participatory not performance based. Make it informal. If you want to do this regularly, it helps to have a more or less regular time for it- say, the last Friday of every month.

6. This next point depends on what kind of crowd you have at your house- free range children or respectful adults? Teens who want to sing, or teens who want to get out from under a parent's watchful eye?
Lay down rules or guidelines- shut or lock doors to bedrooms- this is a singing, not a normal 'dinner party' sort of experience. It's also okay to be a little different with these guests than you might otherwise. Our friends down south who host a big singing, for instance, get a lot of teenagers they don't know anything about. They request that guests stay in the main room unless using the bathroom, and no wandering around outside. Guests are invited there to sing, not to pair up and canoodle on the porch swing. We don't allow canoodling, either, but we have been more relaxed about where guests can go because our singings are smaller and we know everybody pretty well, and a number of them are related to Strider, one of my sons-in-law. We have told the Progeny that if we get many more people, people we don't know as well, the after singing tradition of a midnight walk to the creek is over.=)

You don't necessarily have to be a drill sergeant, but it's okay to make your standards clear. If you don't want red punch on your carpet don't serve it, and do ask people to keep drinks and foods in the rooms where you want them and out of rooms where you do not. For this sort of function it is not being inhospitable to say, "We need everybody to keep their drinks in the dining room and kitchen areas, thanks."

Singing as she used to be done-

I enjoyed the role spontaneous singing plays in this short story from a 1905 Atlantic Monthly:

The evening is the time that we have always looked forward to, because then our men come home. But there has been a rush in the work this week, and Jimmy is in the office till late, and I have deserted papa, to make a fourth on the evening rides. Usually I am Marianne's companion; George and Laddie ride ahead, leaving a trail of singing and whistling to follow them by. Their voices blend in a peculiar chord, — Laddie's so clear and shrill, George's with a depth, an almost passionate sweetness, that constantly surprises me. His speaking voice is entirely without expression. Laddie is an enchanted being on these night rides. She lets her hair down (she wears it on top of her head all day for coolness), and it is one sweep of black, and she rolls up her sleeves, and her arms are glowing white in the moonlight. I am sorry for George! But I know we can trust him, after a few words that I had with him once at the beginning of the summer. I really was alarmed for my little Laddie, he seemed to seek her so much,-and of course they were always singing together, — and we wanted the singing.[...]

Laddie's lowbreathed whistle turned suddenly into loud sweet singing:—•

" Far and high the cranes give cry and Spread their wings."

— It was what they so often sang together as they rode, and it needed the vent of motion to carry off the restless thrill its cadence stirred in your blood. The deeper notes died up into highest, softest treble: —

" But there yet shall be a day; when

Love is heard ;

She shall listen, and her heart shall bid her
Come forth at my word."

"Where did you get that song?" papa called from the doorway. He has a way of waking up to things that have been going on beneath his notice.

"It's a Hungarian folk-song," Laddie answered pompously.

" Why, in Heaven's name," said George unexpectedly, "do you sing it on a day like this, to an accompaniment you have n't half learned?"

"Goodness!" said Laddie, and she really jumped. "I did n't know George had nerves. I 'm finding out things about him every day." And she improvised an air to —

"The fishes answered with a grin,
Why, what a temper you are in !"

and sang it at some length.

Appropos of naught but curiosity, George isn't interested in young Laddie (short for Gladys) at all, except in an elder brother sort of way- he's had his eye on Kate, the big sister who narrates the tale, and he's had his eye on her for probably five or six years or more.

hymn singing series of posts:


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Poetry and The Boy

The youngest two Progeny and I are reading Alfred, Lord Tennyson for poetry (this children's version looks neat).

They have read a number of his shorter poems, we just finished The Lady of Shalott, and are in the midst of The Lotos-Eaters.  The Charge of the Light Brigade is more the Boy's style, but we're also reading The Arthurian Legends, and so I want him to have at least a passing familiarity with Tennysons' work in this area.

You know the Lady of Shalott, yes?
Anne of Green Gables nearly drowned playing her.  It begins:

On either side the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the wold and meet the sky;
And through the field the road runs by
    To many-tower'd Camelot;
And up and down the people go,
Gazing where the lilies blow
Round an island there below,
    The island of Shalott.

The Lady lives in a tower below Camelot, near a river.  Some curse is upon her, she doesn't really know what, or at least the reader isn't told, and she sits in her tower day after day, weaving, watching the world through a mirror in which is reflected the passing world below.

But in her web she still delights

To weave the mirror's magic sights,

For often through the silent nights

A funeral, with plumes and lights

And music, went to Camelot:

Or when the Moon was overhead,

Came two young lovers lately wed;

"I am half sick of shadows," said

The Lady of Shalott.

III

A bow-shot from her bower-eaves,

He rode between the barley sheaves,

The sun came dazzling thro' the leaves,

And flamed upon the brazen greaves

Of bold Sir Lancelot.

A red-cross knight for ever kneeled

To a lady in his shield,

That sparkled on the yellow field,

Beside remote Shalott.

Of all the sights the Lady has seen through her mirror, Sir Lancelot, riding alone and singing Tirra Lirra by the river  is irresistable, and she leaves her loom and goes to look directly upon the world for the first time:

She left the web, she left the loom,
She made three paces through the room,
She saw the water-lily bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume,
    She look'd down to Camelot.
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack'd from side to side;
"The curse is come upon me," cried
    The Lady of Shalott.

She leaves the tower, finds a boat, writes her name on the side, climbs in, arranges herself, and floats slowly down the river to Camelot, singing a song, passing reapers and other sights she used to observe through her mirror.


A general practice of ours when studying poetry (this practice is not set in stone) is to read a different poem Monday thru Thursday, and on Friday they choose one to revisit.

Another general practice is that for copywork some days (not every day, just once in a while), I tell them to find two, four, or six lines from the poet we are reading and copy them.
 Both the Progeny were recently much taken with this stanza (I've included a bit of the previous stanza to provide context):

[And as the boat-head wound along
The willowy hills and fields among,
They heard her singing her last song,
    The Lady of Shalott.]

Heard a carol, mournful, holy,
Chanted loudly, chanted lowly,
Till her blood was frozen slowly,
And her eyes were darkened wholly,
    Turn'd to tower'd Camelot.
For ere she reach'd upon the tide
The first house by the water-side,
Singing in her song she died,
    The Lady of Shalott.

Or, as my son so charmingly put it in his copywork, where he took the liberty of revising the Poet:

1. "The curse is upon me," cried the Lady of Shalott.
2. Singing her song, she snuffed it,
    The Lady of Shalott.

What struck me when I read the young Philistine's effort is that he instinctively knew that by adding a syllable, he needed to remove one, or else he would break the back of the line.  He could not explain this to me (I know this, because we had previously had a discussion about rhyme scheme and scanning lines, and he was as clueless as a meat-eater in vegetarian grocery store).
But he felt it in his bones that the line was better if he left out a syllable, so he left out 'in' of 'singing in her song.'

And in his bones is where I am want the poetry to be.  I hope that we get over the hump and manage to learn more about rhyme and metre, the proper names for these things, how to recognize and name iambic pentameter and distinguish it from- oh, something else.=)

I do not want it to be either/or.  I want both, greedy for my children as I am.

But if it must be one, this is the one to have, to feel the music of the lines in your bones, even when you are being a 12 year old boy and a smart alec (but I repeat myself).

(Pictures and text taken from this helpful website.  They are the work of John Waterhouse, one of the Pre-Raphaelite painters- you can get the one of the Lady in her boat today for 4.98, plus (or should that be minus?), an additional 30%!  Click here:  The Lady of Shalott)

Jim Wallis, The Sojourners, and George Soros

I once wrote here that Jim Wallis of the Sojourners is well-intentioned, but wrong. I was only half right.

Marvin Olasky of World Magazine writes:

Jim has tried to have it both ways. He advises Obama while calling himself a "nonpartisan evangelical minister." For years he attacked Christian conservatives for letting the GOP rent their mailing lists, but in 2007, according to The Washington Post, Obama rented the mailing list of Jim's organization, Sojourners.
George Soros, one of the leading billionaire leftists—he has financed groups promoting abortion, atheism, same-sex marriage, and gargantuan government—bankrolled Sojourners with a $200,000 grant in 2004. A year later, here's how Jim rebutted a criticism of "religious progressives" for being allied with Soros and MoveOn.org: "I know of no connections to those liberal funds and groups that are as direct as the Religious Right's ties to right-wing funders."
Since then Sojourners has received at least two more grants from Soros organizations. Sojourners revenues have more than tripled—from $1,601,171 in 2001-2002 to $5,283,650 in 2008-2009—as secular leftists have learned to use the religious left to elect Obama and others.

Timothy Dalrymple recently intereviewed Wallis and asked him about Olasky's claims. Wallis' response was breathtakingly uncharitable, and I would say, patently dishonest:

It's not hyperbole or overstatement to say that Glenn Beck lies for a living. I'm sad to see Marvin Olasky doing the same thing. No, we don't receive money from Soros. Given the financial crisis of nonprofits, maybe Marvin should call Soros and ask him to send us money.

So, no, we don't receive money from George Soros. Our books are totally open, always have been. Our money comes from Christians who support us and who read Sojourners. That's where it comes from.

Later, Wallis' orgaization 'clarified' his blanket denial:

A Sojourners spokesman today reversed an earlier Wallis denial and confirmed the organization has received funding from Soros’ Open Society Institute. Sojourners is a leading organization on the religious left founded by Wallis, who is a spiritual adviser to President Obama. Soros is the billionaire financier of Moveon.org, a Democrat-leaning organization that pushes for abortion, atheism, bigger government, and other progressive causes.

But that's not the only bit of dishonest word wrangling Wallis (and Sojourners) engaged in:

Although Sojourners’ subsequent fact check confirms Olasky’s account—more than $300,000 in three separate Soros grants to Sojourners that Wallis considered “so small that I hadn’t remembered them”—the statement does not retract Wallis’ accusation that Olasky, like broadcaster Glenn Beck, “lies for a living.”
Wallis’ prepared text contains another apparent inconsistency. In it, he claims that as he was answering the “spirit” of Dalrymple’s question, he “did not recall the details of our funding over the decade in question.” But in his original interview, he pointed to several pieces of specific detail: twice that “we don’t receive money” from Soros, and twice that grants had been “blocked” by liberal groups unhappy with Wallis’ heterodoxy on abortion.
UPDATE: After repeated emails and phone calls, Soros spokeswoman Laura Silber responded to a query from WORLD’s Warren Smith about the disappearance of online records showing the Open Society Institute’s grants to Sojourners. She said the grants did occur but the reason the documents were gone is “pretty simple. We are overhauling our website. That feature was not working well, so we decided to disable it. It won’t be a part of our new site, which is still an ongoing project.”

It is also not accurate, as Wallis claimed that:

The spirit of the accusation was that Sojourners is beholden to funders on the political left, which is false.

Wallis also claimed that one of his heroes is Dorothy Day, but her approach was quite different to his, and those differences are instructive (see the first link in this post for more on the contrasts between Day and Wallis).

The Weekly Standard demonstrates that Wallis has always been a man of the extreme left, and his evangelical beliefs might easily strike the observer as casual.

Jay Richards at NRO looks into the issues as well, and observes:

At the very least, Wallis has abandoned even the pretense of civil discourse here. Olasky has evidence of Soros grants to Sojourners, so the most that Wallis would be justified in saying is that Olasky is mistaken and that the evidence is misleading or fraudulent (which seems unlikely). Instead, he says that Olasky is lying for a living

.

As for Wallis’s denial, notice the verb tense he uses in his reply to Dalrymple: “So, no, we don’t receive money from George Soros” — “don’t.” Perhaps later he will clarify, “Yes, we have received funding from Soros in the past. But we don’t now, in this fiscal year, receive such funding.”
There’s almost certainly more to this story, though. According to Sojourners’ 990s (go here and search for “Sojourners” in “DC”), their total assets went from $513,896 in 2002 to $4,615,468 in 2009. Call me skeptical, but I’d be willing to bet that this windfall didn’t all come from humble readers of Sojourners magazine. If in fact Wallis did get money from Soros and various other left-wing foundations, what I don’t get is why Wallis doesn’t just say, “Sure, we get (or have gotten) money from left-wing foundations. We differ on a few points but agree on a host of important issues.” Instead, we’re getting cagey denials and disappearing webpages.

Jonathan Witt notes:

Wallis may mean well, but the big-government policies he advocates have been a wrecking ball to the very communities he seeks to help. An Acton/Coldwater video short examines why the left’s approach to poverty alleviation has done so much harm. It’s called How not to Help the Poor.

From the article linked in the top of the post:

"More and more," Day wrote in her autobiography, The Long Loneliness, "[Catholic institutions] were taking money from the state, and in taking from the state, they had to render to the state. They came under the head of Community Chest and discriminatory charity, centralizing and departmentalizing, involving themselves with bureaus, building, red tape, legislation, at the expense of human values."

The point cannot be ignored: To do something for others through government inevitably introduces a host of inimical elements – coercion, corruption, bureaucracy, waste, personal agendas, the corrosive effect of money, the consolidation of power, i.e. politics – which pervert the spirit in which the action is being done, skew the intended outcome, and often bring about unforeseen, long-term consequences. In his book, A Harsh and Dreadful Love, William Miller writes that the Catholic Workers were "not opposed to organization, but wanted radical decentralization and delegation to smaller bodies and groups what could be done far more humanely and responsibly through mutual aid as well as charity."

I have a great deal of respect for those who give sacrificially, charitably, and do what they can to help others. I have little for those who demand that the government do this job for them. Nor can I respect somebody who calls a decent reporter a liar while in the process of misleading his audience himself.

ON the Making of Menus, part the Third

Taken from a 1908 Good Housekeeping.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Dolly again consulted the chandelier, and after much study produced this result: "Clear soup, lamb stew, mashed potatoes, canned string beans, prune pudding, coffee."

"Good!" said her sister. "You have grasped the idea perfectly. Now, if you analyze the meal, you will see you have a soup followed by a good, inexpensive meat, a starchy vegetable and a green one, and then a wholesome sweet and the coffee. That is an ideal winter meal. Now, let us suppose you have half of everything but pudding left over, as you will have if you follow my directions in buying and dividing supplies. This time I will take the leftovers and make out a second-day menu."

This was what she wrote down: "Puree of green peas, lamb souffle, potato cakes, creamed cabbage, string bean salad with French dressing, crackers, cheese and coffee."

"You see," Mary explained, "I plan a heavy soup because I am to have a light meat, the souffle of lamb. In place of that you could have baked hash if there was enough, but I am supposing there was only a little left over. The potato cakes are made from the mashed potatoes; you could have croquettes instead, if you wished to be more elegant. The cabbage is the green vegetable, of course. Then the half can of string beans is to be washed, chilled and served with a light dressing of oil and a dash of vinegar. If it happened that you could find one of those little round heads of lettuce I spoke of, which grocers call 'seconds,' you might buy that and put it under the beans; or you could serve them by themselves.

"Then, as you have already had the three courses I allow for dinner, I have

put down a final course of crackers and cheese and coffee. If you happened to have a family who declined to eat those good and sensible things, I should substitute some plain,and inexpensive fruit instead. I am planning dinners just now, not luncheons, but I will just throw out the suggestion that the next day I should put half the creamed cabbage in a baking dish with alternate layers of cheese and crumbs on top, and bake it for that meal. That is a distinctly good and nourishing dish."

It seems to me that the can of green beans must be larger than we see now, if it is to make a side dish for three people from a mere half can.

I'll pass on the puree of green peas, and am not interested in the prune pudding (prunes were a ubiquitous dish in the early 1900s). The use and reuse of potatoes is something I do, and I think the creamed cabbage with cheese and crumbs sounds like a yummy fall lunch.

What strikes you?

Return to "Not Under the Law"

For a while we were reading excerpts or summaries of descriptions (mostly of the food) from this book- and then the library made me give it back- hence, the gap in posts.  Not to worry, though.  I decided I enjoyed this book so much (as Grace Livingston Hill goes), that I wanted to own it, so I found a free copy on Paperback Swap.  In came in the mail this week, so sometime next week we will resume.  I really want to share her experience when she first visits a new church in her new town.  It's fascinating.

Meanwhile, you know she's been working like a navvy to earn ten dollars from the wife of a schoolboard member, partly because she needs the money, and also because she wants to be a teacher and is hoping for a recommendation to the head of the schoolboard- she cooked, waited the table, cleaned the kitchen, scrubbed the floor- and then found that the woman never intended to recommend her to the teaching position anyway.

Joyce is on her way out the door when Mrs. Powers tells her she needs to return tomorrow for a dinner she is giving. She can come at ten to clear away the breakfast things, and have dinner by five. They'll have chickens, even though the butcher is closed (of course and there is a wealth of historical and cultural data in those two words) on Sundays, but Mrs. Powers will call him anyway and he will serve her or else lose her business.

Joyce says she couldn't possibly come. Mrs. Powers is indignant and says Joyce must have some date with a young man.

Joyce is extremely angry, but controls herself enough to speak 'quietly, albeit with a trifle of hauteur' in her voice:

"...You have no right to speak to me in that way. I have no young men friends nor any others in this vicinity and no dates with anyone, but I do not work on Sunday. I don't think it's rights.

So it seems that assuming this pretty young adult goes on dates with men is something of an insult, doesn't it?

The Powers woman sneers. Then she offers 20 dollars while calling it extortion. Then she says she won't be recommending Joyce for a job.

Joyce says she'd rather Mrs. Powers wouldn't, after all, and having overheard her at the dinner table, she has no expectation of help anyway.

Mrs. Powers complains to her guests and her husband, and her husband is not impressed with his wife's complaints, although Joyce does not know that.

She goes home a bit discouraged, but determines to trust the Lord (of course).  And the next morning is Sunday.

More later.

Don't Miss That Poster Sale

Previously I mentioned that Allposters.com is having a fabulous sale- 4.98 for selected posters that three feet by two feet (and vice versa), and I gave some links to specific posters that I thought might interest our readers.

All Posters.Com Sale Page

Well- order a poster today and get 25% off! 30% off!
Use coupon code THANKS


I got my posters in the mail already, and they are outstanding. The colors are lovely and clear, the shipping was quick and the posters carefully packaged.

There are maps on sale linked to the right in my sidebar if you're interested. It would be a good time to stock up on good art prints and maps for the school year.

Updated: oooooh, looky, looky- Maxfield Parrish, Walter Crane, N.C. Wyeth, Jessie Wilcox Smith, Arthur Rackham, Beatrix Potter, Howard Pyle, Tenniel- okay, I am not finding many of these on sale, but at 30% off, you can find some sweet deals on art works for the nursery or the children's book corner. Or, of course, your own, because the children's book illustrators from the Golden Age are not just for children, are they?
The Golden Age of Literature

Ooops, Revisited

A boy, his catapult, and a drill bit:
Called our friendly homeschooling dad repairman (who does awesome work and has other wonderful attributes)

He said the manufacturer wouldn't just replace the right side of the door, not even for ready-money, but we would need to buy the whole thing- which would require placing the unbroken door.

What with one thing and another, we were looking at replacement costs of over a thousand dollars (labor not included), and he thought that was outrageous.

He asked if he could take the door home for a while and figure something out.

So then we had this:



And lo, the Common Room was very dark and dreary, and we had a singing anyway and could not open the doors to let the gentle breeze waft in the hot air stream out.

Then our handyman said he would redo the frame, get a glazier to cut glass to fit and caulk that in, and the price for all of it, including labor was 520 dollars:


And lo, the light did shine in the darkness, and the people's hearts were gladdened and their countenances were bright, excepting the young boy's. The youth is much afflicted because the 520 dollars comes from his pockets, which, verily, are empty and now like to be so for many years.

Four Moms, Bedrooms, Part the First

(Do you potluck? Visit Potluck Saturday and share a recipe for potlucks in the linkie!)

If you've come to visit us from Happy Housewife, you want to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the post, although if you look at the pictures on your way through, my window shade will make a greater impact.;-D

Welcome to the Four Moms Open House. We initially intended to do one post about sleeping areas, but I, being the loosey goosey sort of person I am led my fellow Moms astray and convinced them to break it down into two parts. I'm starting with the Master Bedroom, and part two will be our other bedrooms.

These pictures are all smaller in the hopes that the large number of pics won't freak out your browsers. Click on any picture to get a larger image.
I did do some tidying up in here (there was unfolded laundry all over the loveseat and the windowsills had become repositories for too much junk), with the help of my youngest two Progeny, but I also left some real life messes because my purpose in life is to make everybody else feel better about themselves.

Before we go on, you should know that the decor in our bedroom began from a tiny little germ of an idea that I think may be unique. It began, well, to be perfectly honest, as a joke. I bluffed my husband, he called my bluff, I called his, nobody wanted to call uncle, and here we are:

Oh, look, PINK. And then there is a touch of pink, accented with a bit of pink, and all brought together by some more pink. Plus roses.

Here's the short mid-length version:
Before moving into this house the girls and I were looking at magazines and catalogs to get ideas for the new house.One of the bedroom designs we found was exceedingly frou-frou- lace, ribbons, bows, pink flowers, dainty furniture, curly-que accents everywhere, fol-de-rol, and fancy fluff in abundance. I teased the girls and told them I thought that's how I would decorate the new master bedroom. They thought that was pretty funny, and when their daddy got home that day, they slyly brought him the catalog and pointed out the picture of what they said would be his new bedroom.he just looked at it and said it looked alright to him, whatever I wanted to do was fine by him. The girls thought he was just trying to go along with the joke. They kept trying to rib him, and he kept not seeing the joke, because there wasn't one. He really didn't care.

Still not catching on, I said, "Seriously, Honey. You do know I wouldn't really decorate our room that way, right?"

Puzzled, he asked, "Why not? If you like it, why wouldn't you?"

"Well, because it's feminine, and you live here, too. I've always been careful not to go too floral and female, because I assumed you wouldn't feel comfortable in it. And besides," (this said a bit defensively because he was giving me that 'I think you're a little loopy on this' look), "Douglas Wilson's wife says the same thing, you know."

He just laughed. "Douglas Wilson's wife is married to Douglas Wilson, whoever he is. If he cares that much what color their bedroom is, then sure, she should think about that when decorating. But I'm your husband, and I don't care. You know I probably won't even notice. If you want pink roses and all that stuff, go for it."


And so, Gentle Readers, I did.


Now we'll look at a few more angles.

From the living room you can see this part of my room a part of my room you already saw a few weeks ago when I asked for advice on which slipcover to use for my loveseat:

My husband prefers the wicker chair. The kids prefer the couch.

I decided to leave the wicker chair white for now because, well, mainly because I am lazy and also because I am not confident enough that I would choose the right shade of deep rose that all the smart ladies suggested.
The part of the room shown up at the top of the post is immediately to the left of where I am standing to take this picture.

The wall to the right as you come in has bookcases, a dresser, and the door to the master bathroom, which is large, spacious, decorated in green and burgandy, and carefully out of sight because it is a disaster right now.

Yes, kindly do remember that I left these messes which you can see because I am so noble, not because I am a slob. The tall bookcase holds a lot of homeschooling type books, and it is in our room because the bottom door is, as you see, broken off. I have that door in the garage somewhere, waiting to be repaired and returned to its rightful place.

This, by the way, is a different dresser than the one we had in here first. At first we had this one. The drawers stuck in that one, though, so we moved it to the guest-room. The guest-room is mainly used by overnight guests (at least once a week, and often more), not people staying long enough to use the drawers, so this works better. Click on that picture above and see if you can see my husband's contribution to the decor. Updated to add: Ooops, NO, I do not mean the mess- at least half of that is my mess. I meant the silly little stuffed M&M on the mirror which totally does not go with the roses and frou frou.

Along the same wall as the loveseat and wicker chair is my husband's desk and his corner of the room- he chose the pictures and hung them all himself. Part of his great charm is that he is exceedingly sentimental. He has never forgotten our anniversary, ever, unlike his dim wife (I keep telling him, I did not actually forget forget it, I just forgot the date of that particular day). I have trouble processing the passage of time.
That's my excuse, anyway.

Yes, that is a gun in the corner leaning against my very sentimental husband's desk.

His 'desk' is over a hundred years old, probably 150, and is part of the original homestead farm furniture (my ancestors are among the oldest settlers in the county and have farmed the same land, or rented it as farmland, continuously). The house where this table once lived was a station on the Underground Railroad, according to family lore, and there is good reason to believe that family lore.

The quilt, as I have mentioned previously, is made by a group of friends, dear, wonderful, loving, caring ladies. Each of them made a square, and then it was all sewn together for me at a very, very dark time in my life. I love sleeping under this quilt.



Here is the wall opposite the loveseat, parallel to the entrance, to the left of the bed. It has two closets, his and hers.

Sigh. Yes, there is an Amazon box in the bookcase. I was hoping it wouldn't show up so clearly.

I could open the doors to these closets and you show you the insides, but it would be the end of a beautiful friendship.

In front of my husband's closet: a laundry basket full of stuff I picked up for the picture.

The plates all have one thing in common- flowers, mostly roses. Except the two pink ones in the corners- those I took down from the dining room after the dining room Open House, and replaced with red plates.

The quilts in the rack were hand quilted by some of my ancestors, probably a great-aunt.

The picnic basket on my cedar chest contains my headcoverings, the scarfy ones. Hats are mostly in the closet.

Here's a fuller look at my side of the room- books, books, and more books.
The bottom door to the barrister's bookcase (or should I call it a window?) broke, and you can see it, if you click on the picture, on the ledge behind the bookcase so I will know where to find it if I ever get around to repairing it.
When we first moved in, my very large oak vintage teacher's desk was in this corner. But there was not room for my desk and the HM's, so I moved mine to the laundry room and put the bookcases in here. There is a bonnet hanging from a cool green bracket (you probably cannot see the bracket) in a funky place above the wooden crate on the barrister's bookcase- that's looked much nicer when my desk was in this corner. I'll have to take it down.
Um, one of these days.






Even though it began as a joke, I like my room. There are a couple changes I'll make, small ones, nothing major. This particular window faces south. This would make the room hot, except that we have trees right behind us which shade the room well. But the trees are deciduous trees, so in the winter we get full sunlight and glorious warmth.

I like the view:

Even the weeds and wildflowers conspire to support my color theme.=)

Although it must be said that sometimes the view on this side of the window is even more charming:

Our First Grandchild napping with his Grandpapa.

Of course, sometimes, the view from the window can be kind of weird:

A visiting Alpaca, he and two alpaca friends came with some houseguests who stayed with us for a couple of days. Yes, he is being rude and showing us his backside.

That's all I have (and it was plenty).


Thanks so much for coming! Please be sure to visit the other moms, share a link to your own Open House post, and come back next week!
Kimberly, Kim,
Connie
And ME!
I'm looking forward to seeing YOUR rooms.
Here are the rules for our Open House- Here are the full rules- We will delete links that don't follow them. Short version:
1. Your link must be to an Open House post, not just your blog, and your open house should be about a sleeping area - a guest bedroom, kids' room, your bedroom- you get the idea. Not the bathroom, in other words. Not the kitchen (even if you nap there). You do NOT need to have pictures. You can just talk about it, describe it, tell us something that happened there, something you want to happen there, plans you have- whatever. Open House. Sleeping Area. Format is up to you.
2. Your post should include a link back to the Open House and one of our four blogs (more is nice!).
3. We hope you will Join in our Open House, as we have really enjoyed looking at your different houses, arrangements, and decorating styles. Join us here:

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Posted at Coastal Charms Nifty Thrifty Tuesday


Updated: One of our trees fell over in a storm, and now in the summer, the morning sun shines full on the window over the bed for a few hours. This makes the bedroom very hot. I have one solution for the issue of sun in a window making the room hot posted at the Happy Housewife. But this is what I did in my bedroom:

Two things - I said the screen was FInding Nemo, and obviously, it's not. It's Spongebob, who is much less cute, but hey, both are ocean related cartoons, yes?

And the pic is taken from a funny angle- I am sitting on the bed with my back to Sponge boy and looking in the dresser mirror at the opposite side of the room. Why?
If you must know, because that's where I was when I spotted the camera and remembered I wanted a pic and I was just too lazy to get up.

Okay, three things- my walls look kind of pink in this picture (at least on my screen) and I promise there is NO pink on the walls.  I have limits.  Obviously, not very impressive ones, but still.  They are there.