And in a blink and a blur, Thursday whipped by and it is already Friday! Even though I just got back from vacation, I’m glad it’s Friday. I have a LOT to do this weekend. My son and daughter-in-law told us this past week that they are going to bring the grandkids over for Easter! That means that my office project needs to be completed between this weekend and next, and my two Wednesdays in between, so my son and his wife have a place to sleep! If I put all of my focus on it I’ll be able to get it done . . . I hope.
Verse of the Day
March 16, 2018
As God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
Thoughts on the Verse of the Day
“Wonder what I’ll need to wear to that meeting?” Paul reminds us that there is a set of clothing that is always in style. We wear this clothing because we are special. This clothing is from the Ultimate Designer’s collection called character and is best worn when with other people. These qualities are hard to wear, but always a blessing to those who meet us when we’re decked out in this wardrobe.
www.verseoftheday.com
Food for Thought
Yesterday’s school walk outs really irritated me. No, they didn’t irritate me, they made me angry. For one, our tax dollars pay for the schools, and as such I do not feel that the kids who are benefiting from our hard-earned money should be able to walk out of school in protest of something that I can pretty much guarantee many of them do not even understand, much less truly stand behind. They are being used as pawns for a liberal agenda and it isn’t right. If you walk up to just about any of these kids and asked what it is they are protesting they would likely tell you its about guns. OK, fine. What about them? What is it exactly that is being protested? Well, the gun laws. OK, good – but which ones. Um . . . well they need to be stricter. Which ones need to be stricter, and why? Crickets. They don’t know. We have laws in place already. It is already illegal to commit murder. It is illegal to take a gun onto school property. It is illegal to own a gun if you have a felony record. It is illegal for anyone under 18 to purchase a firearm. What exactly is it that these kids think will change if the laws are more strict against law abiding gun owners who are already NOT going out and shooting up schools? Criminals do not obey the law. That pretty much is the definition of someone being a criminal. They commit crimes. Go back to class for more indoctrination. Most kids aren’t informed enough to even have an opinion, much less to be pushing it on everyone else and wasting our tax money.
Curlew Day – I had to look this one up when I first started this blog, as I had NO idea what on earth a curlew was! Turns out it is North America’s largest shorebird and breeds in the grasslands of the Great Plains and Great Basin. Here are some interesting things I found out about the Long-billed Curlew (copied and pasted from www.allaboutbirds.org :
- Both the male and female Long-billed Curlew incubate the eggs, and both are aggressive in defense of nests and young. The female typically abandons the brood two to three weeks after hatching and leaves brood care to her mate. Despite this abandonment the same male and female often pair with each other again the next year.
- Although the Long-billed Curlew’s diet includes many species of invertebrates and some vertebrates, its bill is best adapted for capturing shrimp and crabs living in deep burrows on tidal mudflats (its wintering grounds) or burrowing earthworms in pastures.
- The female Long-billed Curlew’s bill is longer than the males, and is a different shape. Hers is flatter on top with a more pronounced curve at the tip. His is gently curved throughout its length. The juveniles bill is distinctly shorter than the adults’ during its first few months, but it may be equal to the males length some time in its first year.
There is a lot more information on that website, and if you’re at all interested in birds, they have bird cams where you can watch birds feeding and interacting with each other.
Everything You Do is Right Day – Do you ever wake up and just KNOW that the day is going to be perfect? You can almost feel it in the air around you, that sense of anticipation that just increases as the day goes on. We’ve all had at least one that stand out in our minds as PERFECT. I’ve been very blessed to have a few in my lifetime, and have a hard time picking out which one would get top billing. I have perfect days from my childhood, perfect days with each of my kids, and perfect days with my hubby. I anticipate many more perfect days with the people I love in the years to come. Today just may be YOUR perfect day. Considering that yesterday was “Everything You Think is Wrong Day”, it would be great if perfection hit today to counterbalance it. It is a given – life will hand us good and bad days, up and down days. . . they are what we make them to be . . . so make today a PERFECT day!
Freedom of Information Day – How many of you know (without looking it up) who the 4th President of our country is? Anyone? Well, I’ll tell you! Today is the birthday of James Madison, who is recognized as the “Father of the Constitution” and the chief author of the Bill of Rights. Freedom of information and individual rights were very important to James Madison and I’m betting he’s rolling over in his grave right about now. These days his dream and wonderful outlook about the freedoms for the citizens of this country he loved with all of his heart are being stomped on and torn apart. Recognize this great man today, and let’s all stand up for the freedoms he envisioned for us.
Goddard Day – On this day in 1926 a hope and a dream came true. The first man to have dreams of space travel was American Robert H. Goddard. He successfully launched the world’s first liquid-fueled rocket at Auburn, Massachusetts that day. The rocket traveled for 2.5 seconds at a speed of about 60 mph, reached an altitude of 41 feet and landed 184 feet away. The rocket was 10 feet all, made out of thin pipes and fueled by liquid oxygen and gasoline. Can you imagine his excitement when that thing took off? The Chinese developed the first military rockets in the early 13th century, using gunpowder. They probably built firework rockets at an earlier date. Gunpowder propelled military rockets appeared in Europe sometime in the 13th century, and in the 19th century British engineers made several important advances in early rocket science. In 1903, a little known Russian inventor named Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky published a treatise on the theoretical problems of using rocket engines in space, but it wasn’t until Goddard’s work in the 1920s that anyone began to build the modern, liquid-fueled type of rocket that would be launching humans into space in the 1960s. Goddard was born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1882 and as he grew up he became fascinated with the idea of space travel after reading H.G. Wells’ science fiction novel “War of the Worlds” in 1898. While he was a student at the Worcester Polytechnic institute he began building gunpowder rockets and continued his rocket experiments as a physics doctoral student then physics professor at Clark University. He was the first person to prove that rockets can propel in an airless vacuum-like space, and also the first to explore mathematically the energy and thrust potential of different fuels, including liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. He received U.S. patents for his concepts of a multistage rocket, and a liquid-fueled rocket, and was given grants from the Smithsonian Institute to continue his research. In 1919 he published a treatise called “A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes”, outlining his theories of rocket propulsion and he even proposed the future launching of an unmanned rocket to the moon. The media picked up on his moon-rocket proposal and The New York Times published an editorial in January of 1920, declaring that Dr. Goddard “seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools” because he thought that rocket thrust would be effective beyond the earth’s atmosphere. I definitely giggled when I read that three days before the first Apollo lunar-landing mission in July 1969, the Times printed a correction to this editorial. At least they admitted they were wrong! Goddard continued his research, testing and working, until his death in 1945. During his life he made 31 successful flights, including one of a rocket that reached 1.7 miles off the ground in 22.3 seconds. Meanwhile, while Goddard conducted his limited tests without official U.S. support, Germany took the initiative in rocket development and by September 1944 was launching its V-2 guided missiles against Britain with devastating results. During the war, Goddard worked in developing a jet-thrust booster for a U.S. Navy seaplane. Sadly, he would not live to see the major advances that would make his dreams of space travel a reality. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is named in his honor.
Lips Appreciation – How often do we actually take a moment to appreciate lips? Oh sure, we notice them when we brush our teeth, put on lipstick, etc. but do we truly appreciate them? We should! Think about it! There are thin ones, fat ones, pouty ones and wet ones. There are red lips, pink lips, glossy lips and natural lips. No matter which lips you were born with, or prefer, today is about celebrating them. Think about how unappealing it would be if we didn’t have them? Our teeth would be exposed all the time, our mouths would dry out, it would be awfully uncomfortable using straws, drinking out of cups or kissing someone. Think about the difficulties of whistling! Heck, our food would fall out of our mouths when we ate! Yuck! Lips are one of the first features we notice on another person’s face, probably after the eyes, so it is important to keep them looking healthy. They are very vulnerable to drying out, and research suggests that you can lose up to 10 times more moisture through your lips than anywhere else! It’s a good idea to keep lip balm around to help them – especially in the dry and cold winter months. There are lots of recipes for homemade lip balms out there – I make my own sometimes even! It’s a wonderful treat. Keeping your lips healthy and kissable is pretty important! Appreciate your lips today and every day.
No Selfies Day – This celebration was inevitable . . . and I find it to be rather sad that it had to be. We have become a world of narcissistic individuals who will do pretty much anything to post our pictures far and wide to anyone who will look. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and anywhere else that they can be posted, are riddled with pictures of people . . . many of them that don’t need to be out there because quite honestly the world has enough duck face pictures of women who may be attractive if they weren’t making that horrifying face! Don’t get me wrong – there are times that taking selfies is fun. When you are on vacation and want to keep a special memory alive it makes sense to take a picture of yourself to save. We’ve done it when we go hiking, to the zoo, or camping. The irritating ones are the people who can’t seem to stop themselves – who obsessively show us their pursed lipped images while eating breakfast, combing their hair, driving to work (dangerous!), at work, etc. It’s ridiculous. Clue in people! Nobody wants to see the inside of your bathroom through your mirror. Nothing looks more stupid than you posing in your sexiest pose with your shower or toilet in the picture with you. Trust me! It’s true! For this one single day, please stop taking pictures of yourselves. Perhaps if you put a bit less focus on YOU, you’d see others for at least one day.
Saint Urho’s Day – The legend of St. Urho originated in Northern Minnesota in the 1950s. There are different opinions about who actually began the tales, but the legend has grown among North Americans of Finnish descent to the point where St. Urho is known and celebrated across the United States, Canada and even in Finland. (must be why I had never heard of him, I’m not Finnish!) St. Urho is celebrated on March 16th, the day before the better known feast of “some minor saint from Ireland who is alleged to have driven the snakes from that island”. The legend of St. Urho says that he chased the grasshoppers out of ancient Finland, saving the grape crop and the jobs of Finnish vineyard workers. He did this by saying the phrase “Heinäsirkka, heinäsirkka, mene täältä hiiteen” – which, roughly translated means “Grasshopper, grasshopper, go to hell”. The feast honoring him is celebrated by wearing the colors royal purple and Nile green. St. Urho is nearly always represented with grapes and grasshoppers as part of the picture. He has been recognized with proclamations in all 50 states. The Minnesota Governor – Wendell Anderson – issued a proclamation in 1975, declaring Minnesota to be the unofficial home of St. Urho. If you decide to celebrate this mythical Finnish-American hero, please let me know how you decide to do it. I’d be truly interested to know!
This Day in History –
1926 – Professor Robert Goddard launches the first liquid fuel rocket.
1968 – The Mai Lai Massacre takes place in Vietnam.
Food Celebration of the Day –
National Artichoke Heart Day – Artichoke hearts are delicious. I love them in salads, on pizza and MMMMMMM covered with delicious garlic breading, and fried, then dipped in a rich dip. There’s a place in Seattle near where I used to work that has DELICIOUS ones. I did not know this, but artichokes were illegal for one week in New York City in the 1920s. Officials declared the law to try to curb mafia-driven price gouging. Seems New York City has a history of banning certain foods . . . hmmmm . . .
A few interesting facts about artichokes:
The artichoke is the unopened “flower” bloom of a thistle plant.
A medium size globe artichoke is fat free and only has 25 calories.
3% of the world’s tea consumption is dried artichoke tea.
40% of the world’s artichokes are canned or jarred.
California is known as the artichoke capital of the world, supplying nearly 100% of North American fresh artichokes.
There are many wonderful recipes that use artichoke hearts- and here are a few suggestions I found when going a quick search:
* Spinach and Artichoke Mac n’ Cheese * Artichoke Pesto Spinach Lasagna * Hot Artichoke Dip * Cream of Artichoke & Mushroom Soup * Spinach-Artichoke Mashed Potatoes * Artichoke Linguine * Chicken Artichoke Garlic Pizza
I made a really delicious soup last night for dinner. The recipe is in Carolyn Ketchum’s “Everyday Ketogenic Kitchen” and was AH-MAZING! This is the picture of the soup – though it came out a bit light so it’s hard to see just how pretty this soup was. I am having it for lunch again today and already looking forward to it!
Celebration lists and information are sourced from the following websites: www.brownielocks.com; www.holidayinsights.com; www.thenibble.com; www.foodimentary.com and www.verseoftheday.com