A great and easy recipe from my friend Edie: 

5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 jar/container of mango salsa.  (In the hicks here mango salsa is not available.  I substituted pineapple peach salsa.)

1 can chicken broth

Cook overnight in the crockpot on LOW.  In the morning shred the chicken with two forks.  Refrigerate. 

Now you have incredibly delicious chicken for any recipe you need during the week. It is great to snack on.  It is ready to go.  I highly recommend it.  So good. 

 

From Patrick Henry's famous speech:

Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction?

The battle, Sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.

From the last lines of French Women Don't Get Fat:

In the end, the only thing really dividing French and American women is inertia.  For there is absolutely no French trick or custom that you can't make your own with a little common sense and attentions to your individual needs, strengths, and weaknesses--and pleasures.

Here's your toughest challenge.  Write down everything you eat this week.  Don't say to yourself, "I'll remember, I don't need to write it down."  Passivity won't launch you on your way.  If you can take the first small step of putting pen to paper regularly and get to know what you are putting into your body, you will find yourself already en route. Bon courage, bonne chance, and bon appetit.

Isn't that a great juxtaposition?  I've been struggling for several weeks with journaling my food intake.  The naughty child in me doesn't like to submit to that discipline.  So, my friends, I am writing this week.  Feel free to ask how I'm doing.  One of my daily prayers is Lord, give me strength.  Make me strong.  I would like this week to be a week of gathering strength.

This word came from Curt's college roommate Bill.  Bill and his son John come up for a visit about once a year.  We love reconnecting, sharing stories, making great food for each other, staying up too late talking.  Bill is the one who discovered Sound and Vision, my favorite music store because they sell music I like.  It takes a visitor from San Francisco to show the natives good local shopping.  Nurse!  That's the word:  Nurse!  It works for so many situations.  You discover you are out of milk after you've poured the cereal in the bowl: Nurse!  You write a cogent response to your friend's blog and then lose it before it's published.  Nurse!   Well, you get the idea.  It's one of those words that really works for any kind of exclamation.  It can mean Wow!, Bummer.  Can You Believe It? all in one word.  Nurse!

Wow.  I read The Kite Runner practically in one sitting.  I came home from church not feeling well.  We cancelled a family dinner.  At least 6 people have urged me, passionately urged me to read this book.  So I started reading about 1:30 p.m.  After the first hundred pages I insisted Curt and Collin sit and listen and went back and read the first four chapters aloud.  I did a little editing on the fly for the sake of my teenaged son. 

I finished at 12:09 a.m. this morning.  I'm processing, processing.  So many thoughts.  I heartily concur with the reviews:  beautiful and brutal, full of tenderness and terror.  When I thought it could not get any worse, it did.  But I absolutely could. not. put. the. book. down.  I'm so thankful to have some understanding of Afghan culture where previously I had none.  Hosseini shows the terror of living under Taliban rule.   

I could relate so well to the part where he was talking to an old beggar in Kabul.  It turned out that the beggar had taught at the university with Amir's mother, who had died giving birth to Amir.  The beggar shares his memories of Amir's mother with Amir.

"Baba had always described my mother to me in broad strokes, like, "She was a great woman." But what I had always thirsted for were the details: the way her hair glinted in the sunlight, her favorite ice cream flavor, the songs she liked to hum, did she bite her nails?"

"What else? What else did she say?"

The old man's features softened.  "I wish I remembered for you.  But I don't.  Your mother passed away a long time ago and my memory is shattered as these buildings.  I am sorry."

The prose is so beautiful it makes you ache.  I loved reading my friend Katie's book and seeing what she underlined.  I think I must get my own copy and mark it up myself.  My heart is bruised right now.  Lord, have mercy.

Sandy at Maple Grove has tagged me for this meme.  A first for me...goodness, how much fun can a body take?

2 names you go by:

1.  Babe.    2.  Mom

2 parts of your heritage:

1.  English   2.  Dutch

2 things that scare you:

1.  being a passenger in a car with the driver going too fast.  2. losing a child

2 of your everyday essentials:

1.  Splenda   2.  A book

2 things you are wearing right now:

1.  turtleneck   2.  fleece vest

2 favorite bands or musical artists:

1.  YoYo Ma   2.  James Galway

2 favorite songs:

1.  Into the West    2.  Great Is Thy Faithfulness

2 things you want in a relationship (other than real love):

1.  laughter   2.  comfort

2 truths:

1.  being faithful in the little things is very, very important.

2.   life is too short to be petty

2 physical things that appeal to you (in the opposite sex):

1.  eyes that are kind, alive, responsive

2.  gray hairs peeking through the natural color

2 of your favorite hobbies:

1.  reading      2. playing the piano

2 things you want really badly:

1.  lose weight    2.  win a writing contest I am entering

2 places you want to go on vacation:

1. Edinburgh    2.  Island of Skye

2 things you want to do before you die:

1.  Go to Scotland.   2.  Hear Yo-Yo Ma in person

2 ways that you are stereotypically a chick:

1.  I cry at Hallmark commercials.  2.  I adore Jane Austen.

2 things that you are thinking about now:

1. The Kite Runner (I'm on p. 171)    2.  Will I get up early tomorrow?

2 stores you shop at:

1.  WalMart      2.  Safeway

2 people you would like to complete this meme:

1.  Becky            3.  Joanne

 

Last night Curt and I went to a faculty recital of the piano professor at the university in town.  He was INCREDIBLE!  Mozart, Schubert and Rachmaninoff.  1 1/2 hours of music performed from memory!!  His touch is so light and sure and musical.  His hands crossed over so many times and yet the music flowed so seamlessly.  Matt Cooper makes playing the piano look effortless. It seemed almost anachronistic to sit in an auditorium full of people just.....listening. 

Well the thoughts are a swirling in my head.  I have cherished a dream of studying the piano with Matt Cooper for about 8 years.  It seems arrogant to even consider it (I've only had 6 years of piano lessons in my life).  The thing I'm feeling the most is fear.  Do I have what it takes to practice two hours a day, to put in the work it would require? 

I want to get Collin graduated from homeschool (3 more years) before I take on a new pursuit.  I'm thinking of getting an appointment with Matt and asking how I can prepare now so that I could possibly study with him in three years.  My husband, ever the guardian of my sanity, wants to know what I would cut in my schedule to start preparing. 

I've been very interested in the transition that takes place when your children leave home and are grown.  Suddenly many vistas seem open and available.  Which path will you choose?  The hard thing is that you are not choosing between good and evil; it's more like good and very good.   

 

Today is my husband's birthday.  Here's a picture of him when he was 7.  In honor of him, I wrote ten things that he's taught me.

 

1. The beauty of an ordered life.   Long before Flylady, Curt had morning and evening routines.  He enjoys a place for everything and everything in its place.  I’m still reforming, but there truly is freedom, comfort and beauty when organization prevails.
2. The nobility of truth telling.  Curt has never been one to skirt the truth.  There is never a question on where he stands.  This is why he is my best critic.  I know if something stinks (breath, writing, etc.), he’ll let me know.  I tend to be a cowardly liar, looking for ways to shade the truth in order to please others.  In a culture soaked in deception, honesty, spoken carefully but candidly, is refreshing.
3. The peace that comes with planning.  My philosophy has been to think about “it” when “it” arrives.  How many papers did I write the night (or early morning) before they were due?  No so with my man.  He would begin the day the assignment was announced, even if it was six weeks before the due date!  That’s why our wood is cut, stacked and split in June.
4. The graciousness that comes with thanksgiving.  I take it for granted, but after each meal, he always says a sincere thank you.  His gratitude is a lubricant that makes life smooth.
5. The security that comes with fidelity.   A man who fulfills the vows that he’s made brings a sense of security and safety to his family members.  They are confident that he will do what he says, that his word really means something.  His employer is certain that the job will be done faithfully.  His friends know they can count on his help in time of need.
6. Being masculine is good, if you are a man.  I cried the first time I shot a gun.  I still hate them, still confuse shotguns and rifles.  There are ways in which men and women differ, and it’s OK to be different.  My husband has a strong hunter/gatherer strain in him.  He taught me to accept this without trying to change him.      
7. Being decisive is efficient.  Fear of making the wrong decision doesn’t paralyze Curt.  He usually knows what he wants and makes good decisions.  Sometimes his firm decisions are wrong.  He backtracks and changes without a whole lot of agony, fuss and hoopla.  Confidence, rooted in humility, is attractive.   
8. You don’t have to be the life of the party to be funny.  When we are at social gatherings Curt gladly takes the back seat to some of our quick-witted friends.  The more people there are, the quieter he gets.  At home, it’s a different story.  I can’t remember a day in the last month that he didn’t make me laugh, really laugh, at some turn of phrase, pun, or wordplay. 
9. Daily discipline is its own reward.  Whether it’s getting up early, lifting weights, running, or studying, Curt is a good disciple.  The struggles with motivation that most of us have seem to elude him, because he truly enjoys it.  
10. My life for yours.  I have no doubt that my husband would take a bullet for me, dive into the ocean if I fell overboard, or go into a burning building to save our child.  The reason I know is because he lays down his life daily in our home.  Life is in the little things.  Things like getting up in the middle of the night and stoking the woodstove, warming the car before we leave, doing the dishes after we’ve had a crowd of people over.  Things like going to work every morning and coming home every evening.  He has shown me what sacrifice looks like.

It's the little things that count.  That's my mantra this week.  It's amazing how little changes accumulate until they become noticeable changes. 

We have had three days of school with doing ab.so.lute.ly. everything on the schedule.  That's a September and a January thing.  But it is encouraging.  Keep plugging away. Today Collin and I discussed the rise and fall of nations in recent world history. 

In my discipline of diet with WW, I'm finding the same thing.  Drinking plenty (3 qts) of water is a small thing, but it adds up and helps.  I'm struggling with taming the BLTs (bites, licks and tastes).  The little things, again.

Have you seen changes from little things in your life?

 

This morning I grabbed a book to read while I worked out on the eliptical machine.  The biggest requirement was that it would lay flat on the little stand.  A hardback would do better, especially one with a loose binding.  A quick check of the stacks of books waiting to be read made Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather my choice.  It is set in Quebec in 1697.  The main characters so far are the widowed apothecary and his daughter.

Many of you know that I lost my mom suddenly when I was 10 years old.  I read this passage with tender emotion.  I've abridged it here and there.

After she began to feel sure that she would never be well enough to return to France, her chief care was to train her little daughter so that she would be able to carry on this life and this order after she was gone.

[explanation to her daughter about foods, linen, household duties.]

Madame Auclair never spoke of her approaching death, but would say something like this:

      "After a while, when I am too ill to help you, you will perhaps find it fatiguing to do all these things alone, over and over.  But in time you will come to love your duties, as I do.  You will see that your father's whole happiness depends on order and regularity, and you will come to feel a pride in it.  Without order our lives would be disgusting."

She would think fearfully of how much she was entrusting to that little head; something so precious, so intangible; a feeling about life that had come down to her through so many centuries and that she had brought with her across the ocean. The sense of "our way," --that was what she longed to leave with her daughter.

The individuality, the character, of M.Auclair's house, though it appeared to be made up of wood and cloth and glass and a little silver, was really made up of very fine moral qualities in two women: the mother's unswerving fidelity to certain traditions, and the daughter's loyalty to her mother's wish.

Isn't that wonderful?  The last paragraph is so lovely.  Have any of you read Willa Cather?  My Antonia is my favorite, but this is perhaps the fifth book of hers that I've read.

 

Cars seem to completely absorb the young men I know (and love).  I ran across this quote last night as I was looking for a home treatment for Carson who had lost the hearing in his left ear.  Today we flushed the ear with hydrogen peroxide and we're hoping for gradual improvement.  I think flying with his friend Luke while he had a cold, then snowboarding at 8,000 ft. two days later took its toll.  So for all you car fans:

I remember my first lesson in human biology in grade school... "Think of your body as a car.  Your heart is the engine, your backbone is the axel and the suspension, your muscles are the transmission, and your arms and legs are the wheels."

"But what about the brain?" I asked.

"Ah, that's where the analogy breaks down," she said.  "A car lacks one vital component to make it go - the driver.  The body, however, has its driver built in.  We call it the brain and the nervous system."

I've loved automobiles and the secrets of the human body ever since.

~Isadore Rosenfeld MD  in Symptoms