Dana posted this recipe last week.  It looked good and I decided to make it that day.  As a young girl, I never enjoyed potato salads and bean salads, which just means there are some good things that come with growing up. This is THE MOST festive looking dish with the bright red, green and yellow colors.  And people: it's healthy! Thank you, Dana!  (Note: I substituted a Walla Walla sweet onion for the purple onion.)  For my local friends, I will be bringing this to Luke and Joanne's graduation celebration Friday. 

Black Bean Salad

3 cans (15.5oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
10 oz corn (I buy frozen and don't cook it before adding)
1 large red pepper, diced
1 large green pepper, diced
1 purple onion, diced

Combine black beans, corn, both peppers and onion in large serving
bowl.  Pour dressing over ingredients.  Stir.  Cover and refrigerate
for four hours.
Serves 8 adults.

Dressing:
1/3 C red wine vinegar
1/3 C olive oil
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3 cloves garlic, crushed

This salad gets better with age and when preparing I usually double
it, so that I will have leftovers.  That is, *planned-overs*

Here's one way to use this salad, despite the obvious of serving it twice as a side dish.

Use 1/2 C (more or less depending on tastebuds) in a main-dish
salad.  Starting with 2-3 C torn lettuce, I usually add 1/4 C cottage
cheese, some crushed Doritos, plus 1 Tbs Catalina dressing.  Yum!

I have also served the *planned-overs* as a dip.  I recommend using the stronger tortilla chips.

Amanda started a Summer Reading Challenge.  May 31st is the last day to sign up if you are interested.  The Challenge runs from June 1 - August 31. You decide what you'll read and then blog about your reading. I loved the idea several participants had of reading books from their own shelves.  

I typically dish up more on my plate than I can/should ingest and that goes for reading too!  I'm doubtful that I can finish all these books in the time allotted.  And I do get sidetracked so easily, so I can only imagine what it will be like reading about all the other books in this challenge.  Here's what's on my summer menu:

Temperament, The Idea That Solved Music's Greatest Riddle by Stuart Isacoff.  I list this first because it is the biggest challenge.  My esteemed friend, Dr. B., lent this to me with the hope that my enthusiasm for the book would help him get through it.  By all accounts I should love it: music and history fascinate me.  Science is my weakest area, for which I try to compensate by reading science history (i.e. Longitude).  There's enough physics (?) in the intervals and ratios to qualify for my science book of the year.

 Here's what Andre Watts wrote about this book: "A work of real virtuosity.  An exciting musical tour through Western civilization that reads like a thriller, filled with intrigue, discovery, jealousy, failure, and triumph.  it's a fabulous exploration of the forces that influenced the wonderful music we hear today."  I've had two false starts--it's quite technical and if any time lapses between readings I have to go clear back to the beginning.  If I don't make it through this summer, I'm returning the book unread. (sigh)

I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb  This is the other borrowed book on my shelf.  My friend Laura highly recommended it after I told her how much I appreciated The Kite Runner.  "It's different, but it has the same tone," was her description.  I know nothing else about it.

The Summer of My Great-Grandmother and The Irrational Season by Madeleine l'Engle.  I read A Circle of Quiet last summer, so I'm eager to keep reading the Crosswicks Journal.  l'Engle frames life's situations in a wonderful way; she challenges my thinking.  Her prose is plain glorious.  I have three dear friends dealing with older moms: I hope that I might gain some insight to pass along to them.

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis, translated by William Griffin. Ever since I heard George Grant talk about Gerard Groote several years back, I have been eager to read this.  Groote started the Brethren of the Common Life communities/schools.  Much of  a Kempis' work is the transliteration of Groote's sermons.  Griffin's shimmering translation makes me drool.  Here's a random excerpt: "Who cares whether praise or blame is raining on your soul when tranquility is puddling in your heart?"  I will be back to write about this book, oh yeah!

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard.   This falls into the category I-should've-read-this-before-now, I-don't-know-why-I-haven't.    Friends have sung this book's praises for many years and I read quotes by Dillard often.  It looks promising.  And it's been on my shelf for several years...

The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton.  Here's the thing: I need to read Chesterton at least once a year.  I enjoy the Father Brown books. I have a partially read copy of Orthodoxy but this shorter book is on my shelf and seems manageable for this summer. 

The Tolkien Reader by J.R.R. Tolkien.  This is a small paperback that has stories, poems and commentaries by Tolkien.  I have a solo plane trip ahead and this seems the perfect book to read on a plane and in an airport.  Again, it's manageable.

Every Living Thing by James Herriot.  I picked this up at a book sale.  When DH and I were first married we read through the earlier books of this series aloud before we went to sleep.  I remember laughing, crying, giggling, shaking my head as those lovely stories provided a fitting benediction to the day.  A few years back we read through his dog stories with our youngest son.  It was the first year with only one kid at home and the stories were a welcome way to end the day.

What's missing:  I have several books for homeschooling that I'll need to read through the summer that aren't on the list.  They are just a given.  I really like to read a Dickens and an Austen every year, but it looks like that gratification will have to be delayed until the fall.  And a new Mma Romatswe book should be out soon - I will not be able to pass that up.  All in all, I'm pretty excited about the books ahead! 

Do you have a book you'd like to read this summer?

Recently Donna  asked what our moms taught us.  It was easy for me to answer, but I could appreciate the awkwardness of those whose relationship with their mom was strained.   My own  relationship with my father was.......complicated.  I used to think I understood it, that I had made sense of the confusion.  But it inevitably comes down to a co-mingling of love and stubbornness, open and closed hearts, effort and apathy on both ends, mine and his.  When he was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer it was time to clear the chess pieces off the board, to begin again, to affirm our love, to cry and say good-bye. 

Privately, secretly, I used to resist the notion that I was like my dad; there remains no doubt that I am my father's daughter.  I acknowledge both the strengths and weaknesses I've received and am grateful for these lessons:

1.  To love the Word of God.  My father had an incredible mind and knew Scripture backwards and forwards.  We used to give him a verse and he would supply the reference (something BTW that I do horribly).  We would find obscure, really buried verses and he would tilt his head back, fix his gaze on some spot on the ceiling and work his way verbally to the verse: "Leviticus 10...no, 9, and, um, verse 22---somewhere between verses 20 and 25."    He was right so often that when he missed we marked it on the calendar.  12 years after his death, I received his Bible.  It was falling apart, bits of papers tucked here and there.  Reading through it, reading the notes in his writing, gave me a view of his heart that healed my own heart more than I can tell.

2.  To play the piano by ear.   I can close my eyes and hear my father's rendition of Jesus Loves Me full of diminished and augmented chords.  He influenced my playing more than anyone except Audrey St. Marie.  My favorite story: he was the speaker at a church conference.  For some reason the pianist was missing and he offered to play.  As he played the hymns by heart, he had his Greek New Testament open and was reviewing some verses before he spoke!

3.  To be frugal.   My father did the grocery shopping on his way home from work.  We called it the Suburban Safari: each day he took a different route home and stopped at grocery stores to pick up their loss-leader bargains.  When I was a young girl he taught me how to cut a whole chicken in pieces, feeling the leg joint before cutting.  For some odd reason, I also learned to save every grocery receipt.  My dear MIL finally convinced me that it was OK to discard the receipt.

4.  To rise to the need.   My dad taught at a very small Christian college.  His classes were notoriously difficult (i.e., Hebrew and Greek).  At times a subject needed to be taught and no teacher was available to do it.  More than once, he took on challenging assignments as a way of helping out.

5.  Books make the best gifts.   Every birthday and Christmas brought a special book.  I regret that I only have two of all the original Little House books that I received this way.  He enjoyed the best children's books and passed that love to all his kids.  The finances were necessarily tight, but there was always money for music and books.

6.  To always be prepared.   When you hear that phrase you may think of a Boy Scout with a Leatherman tool on his belt.  To me it means never, NEVER, go anywhere without a book to read.  One never knows what delays may come up and one must be prepared!

7.  Meet grief with few words.   It's always hard to know what to say when a tragedy strikes.  Sometimes the best thing is nothing at all. One time a colleague at the college lost a young child.  This colleague told me how comforting my father's visit was.  My dad came and sat with him for the evening.  He never said one word. 

For years I struggled with the whys and wherefores of our difficulties.  I can say with honesty that it doesn't matter anymore.  Maybe I've learned to trust God with the details and to let it go. 

I AM: a goofy person.

I SAID:  Tomorrow I WILL get up earlier.

I WANT:  to lose weight.

I WISH:  it were easy to do.

I HATE:  being lied to.

I MISS:  my mom.

I FEAR: my heart hardening to sin.

I HEAR: YoYo Ma playing the cello.

I WONDER: where the day went.

I REGRET: playing Spider Solitaire too much.

I DANCE: in the kitchen.

I SING: with a hairbrush in the bathroom.

I CRY: pretty easily - Hallmark commercials will do it.

I AM NOT ALWAYS: cheerful.

I MADE: a lot of mistakes homeschooling.

I WRITE: in my head, all the time.

I CONFUSE: affect and effect.

I NEED: lots of hugs.

I SHOULD: start making breakfast for the family again.

I START: with enthusiasm and buoyancy.

I FINISH: *when* I finish, I'm exhuberant.

I BELIEVE: God is faithful and true.

I KNOW:  I can trust Him.

I CAN: play the piano by ear.

I CAN'T: play Chopin very well.

I SEE: a floor that needs washing.

I BLOG: because it's fun.

I READ: because I can't not read.

I FIND: great quotes in books, magazines and other blogs.

I LIKE: finding and sharing quotes.

I LOVE: truth, beauty and goodness.

You are welcome to copy and paste this meme into your blog and put your own answers in.  Let me know in the comments if you do.

I remember attending an ACCS (Association of Classical and Christian
Schools) conference eleven years ago. By the last day I had brain bulge
and was overwhelmed with all the information.  The very last session
was "How to Educate Yourself."  Chris Schlect brought in a huge stack of
books and handed out a reading list.  Until that
point I had considered myself well-read, but I couldn't put a check
mark next to a book until I'd come to about 63 on the list. 

I learned to teach myself as I taught my kids; I leaned on any
support I could find.  Using the "one chapter ahead" method, I taught
Homer, Virgil, Spenser and Shakespeare to homeschool co-op classes.  But I was not without help.  My
beloved Latin teacher, Bernie, taught me so much more than Latin during our weekly classes. He told the stories behind the translations; he brought in his twice re-bound Greek Homer and whet our appetites.   He was the best tour guide, and only a phone call away. 

When Bernie moved, I relied on books to guide me.  This year we have read through some major texts of ancient civilization.  The books above have helped us understand what we've been reading.  These have been great resources.  Our primary guide has been Omnibus I and I can only sing its praises with a loud voice and a thankful heart. I believe that good questions are at the heart of good teaching.  Omnibus is full of good questions.  Peter Leithart is unparalleled for challenging my thinking.  There's a world full of chiasms that I've never seen before reading him. The others have been good books to dip in and read portions.

BUT!!  Next year!!   How is this for the ABCs:  Augustine, Beowulf, Chaucer, Dante and Eusebius.  I'm salivating...  I always find May challenging.  I'd much rather invest my time and thoughts in the year ahead then finish our task at hand.   It's more fun to check out  catalogs, read reviews, and dream of the ideal school year than to correct papers and corral wandering thoughts.

Last week we were sitting around the kitchen table when our mail was delivered.  My youngest son retrieved the bundle, and announced the return addresses as he sorted through the pile.  "WeightWatchers Lost and Found Essay Contest."  His eyes flitted towards me as my arm snaked out and grabbed the letter.  My blood pressure immediately soared and I tried to calm myself by repeating, "It's only a 'Dear John' letter, it's only a 'Dear John' letter." 

We are happy to inform you that your essay has been selected as one of the 2nd prize winners.

Two months ago I would have been discouraged that I didn't win the Grand Prize or one of the five 1st prizes.  Two months ago the winners were to have been announced and my hopes were high.  I recently went online and read the winning entry, which was excellent. After hearing nothing, I had assumed that what I had written wasn't what the judges wanted, and chalked it up to a learning experience.  Then the letter came: I was dancing, jumping, yelling, singing, telephoning DH, running-around-excited!!  Thank you, Lord!

Are those good-looking guys, or what?  They are the four most important males in my life.  The first load of wood is in!

Two things that have graced me today:  a prayer book and John Rutter's music. 

I picked up a tiny little book at the local book fair/sale, a Lutheran Book of Prayer.  They have a month's worth of morning and evening prayers for each day.  Part of Monday morning's prayer is on our white board for the entire week:

Isn't that a great prayer?  I need that reminder, especially, I think, in May.  While I was ironing (last post) I not only listened to opera.  I put on a CD of John Rutter's sacred music, given to me by my dear SIL Kathie.  The great thing about ironing (I can't believe I just wrote that) is that you can focus your mind while you work.  I listened to this CD several times, memorizing the words to my favorite songs.  John Rutter is one of the best living composers with whom I am familiar. This acapella song, in particular, grabbed me.  This seems to me a perfect prayer to put in with the graduation cards this year. 

Ironing is one of my least favorite chores.  So I end up letting it pile up until the basket, which is deep, is heaping over with wrinkled clothes.  Some of my favorite coping mechanisms are to listen to a book on tape while I iron, call a relative and talk all crook-necked for a while, listen to a sermon, or listen to music. 

Today I'm listening to the Three Tenors Live.  I opened the liner notes and read the words in English.  Guess what?  Opera lyrics and country western lyrics have A LOT in common:  women are fickle, my love left me, I can't live without you, I loved you and you mock me, you lied to me!  It doesn't have the twang and any lyric sounds better in Italian.  I'd call opera and country fraternal twins. Who knew?

Today: oh what a day!  I took a day trip, driving alone for two hours and with a friend for two hours in a borrowed car.  It was the first time in my life that I've driven a Cadillac.  A snazzy red Cadillac!!  It was the smoothest ride of my life, bar none!  I drove along a corridor of snow-capped mountain peaks, the Elkhorns on one side and the Eagle Caps on the other (the picture is the Eagle Caps).  As I passed the marsh a Canadian goose flew just above my car.  Cattle and antelope were placidly grazing on grass.   To say the day was glorious is so woefully inadequate.

I just met my friend at the first of the year.  Shortly after we met she was diagnosed with cancer.  Today we drove to her daily radiation treatments.  We chatted as effortlessly as if we'd know each other for decades.  She told me how to roast veggies in the oven on cookie sheets, about a great consignment store in her town, and together, we covered a host of other topics. She is so comfortable in her skin that it's a pleasure to be with her.

When I was alone I cranked up the stereo and gloried in the rich tones and aching beauty of classical music.  Sigh.   Offenbach, a Cadillac and the Eagle Caps.  All this, and heaven besides?