Wisdom – Page 44 – Home's Cool!

There’s Hope For Me!

Posted on April 13, 2011April 12, 2011 by Katharine

Today let me tell you about one of the loveliest writers I know.

I don’t really know her, I guess, as we have never met in person, and she probably seldom reads my writings, although I read hers. She inspires me through her simple, sweet tales of taming chickens and frosting cupcakes, weeding and traveling, speaking events, and her little deaf and blind pooch, Dixie.

The dog is a profound parable to me. She loves and provides for it although it could hardly fetch slippers or newspaper, or ever protect her from much, and probably is more needy than anything else. Being deaf and blind, it revels in her touch, probably the main way it can feel “all is well”. I can think of only one reason she bothers with this pet: She just wants to, perhaps out of mercy. It reminds me of me and the Lord.

To top it off, her name is Hope. How prophetic for everyone she reaches!

Hope recently wrote a great introduction to her weekly writers’ post. Although it makes a point about writing, at the same time it is an appealing description of everything we should be. My blog is not about writing but I am a writer and I recognize great communication when I see it. I absolutely love this rendering of my exact thoughts and I have received Hope’s permission to copy it here, with her contact information.

Visit her soon!

DO YOU WRITE FROM SCRATCH?

There’s something about a box cake mix that shouts short-cut to me. I was raised by Martha Stewart, Jr. Actually Mom is a few years older than Martha, but she had all the moves before Martha became a household word.

No box cakes in the house. Uh-uh. All from scratch. And if you didn’t have a family recipe, you relied upon a Southern Living Cookbook for no-fail recipes. But you did NOT open a box. And heaven forbid you tried canned frosting.

That kitchen work ethic has stuck in my head. Having grown up on homemade fixins, I can taste the difference. Guess that’s why I garden. If I can cook with the real ingredients instead of freeze-dried, frozen or canned, I just feel more accomplished…healthier…proper.

Writing is a scratch recipe. No excuses and no substitutions for the long haul in developing a good story. If you want it quick and easy, it doesn’t taste nearly as good – to you or to those you serve it to.

There’s something about carefully measuring ingredients to get it right, even if you have to repeat the recipe to make it rise, brown, or bake properly. Nothing beats the look on someone’s face when he tastes an original combination of items married into a perfect recipe. You have to admit, when you savor homemade then taste a box mix, the difference is striking. Simply, one is memorable; the other is not.

It’s like comparing Gordon Ramsey’s gourmet risotto to powdered macaroni-and-cheese.

There may be times where five-minute mac-n-cheese fills the bill. Maybe you throw a cake mix into cupcake molds for a second-grader’s birthday party where all they want is the icing and sprinkles anyway. But memorable? Don’t think so.

It takes time to create anything from scratch. The trial and error aspect of it is what makes the end result so superbly satisfying. The balance is better, the flavor sublime, and the experience is one remembered for a whole lot longer.

After all, who marvels over a mix? Every church bazaar baker understands that made-from-scratch miracles make other cooks jealous . . . leaving them with a craving to duplicate the success.

Thanks, Hope! I’m going to work on my kitchen work ethic . . .

And now, Friends, here is where you can read more of Hope’s writings. What a treasure house she is building!

C. Hope Clark
Editor, FundsforWriters, www.fundsforwriters.com
Writer’s Digest 101 Best Web Sites for Writers – 2001-2010
A decade of recognized excellence
Blog – www.hopeclark.blogspot.com
Twitter – www.twitter.com/hopeclark
Facebook – www.facebook.com/chopeclark

Homemaking, Inspiring, Wisdom

My Favorite Woman

Posted on April 12, 2011April 12, 2011 by Katharine

Today, as I folded old newspapers for the bottom layer of mulch around our front porch, I remembered the news. I hesitated to fold up the miners’ widows and children and place them down there with the earthworms. From an armload of the past year, I folded up wars and rumors of wars, and earthquakes in diverse places. I folded up a presumed leader or two who are all but jumping up and down with whining to rule the world. I put them all, all, all where they would molder and kept on about my business as if nothing were happening, only slightly disturbed, only somewhat concerned. I’ll probably mail more money somewhere, to help.

Yesterday I bought and planted. Tomorrow I hope to sell a few things. Tonight we’re having leftovers from a couple days of entertaining. I jokingly told my husband, “It’s either eat leftovers or else buy another fridge, take your pick.”

My calendar blackens fast. I face deadlines. The socks will not fold themselves.

Annie Herring called this state “earthbound”. That’s what I am—thinking about the dryer buzzer, or worse, the mulch, instead of the pain around me.

Just in this country, how many women lost their husbands to unfair mining practices lately? How many to unfair auto accidents, unfair divorce, unfair medical mistakes, unfair imprisonment? How many women lost children to similar causes, and more, such as school attacks and Ritalin-induced suicide last week, or murder? The toll is breathtaking. They would not all fit into the sanctuary of my church. Each one needs to know the power of God to get them through this. Few do. This, at last, breaks my heart. How will they cope? How will they survive without our wonderful Lord?

The world’s ways will not cut it. Although the world now acknowledges the need for forgiveness, it refuses to acknowledge the gift and the Giver of forgiveness. Only those who know the Lord’s way will truly thrive. Healing is right at hand, but few will take the cure. Most prefer the slow, scarring way with pockets of infection remaining below the surface.

I need to know forgiveness. I need to become closely familiar with her. She is such a true friend and has the balm for my every sore spot. I want to heal, to have only faint scars, not deep pockets of infection. I want to walk straight and with only a slight limp. I never want any wound to disable me permanently. Forgiveness can give me this.

Forgiveness is an often mis-defined, mysterious lady, so seldom sought out, yet totally reachable. There is no reason for the mystery, except our stubborn disinclination to hear her hidden song.

Oh, the glory of shedding misconceptions about forgiveness and taking up her gift!

Inspiring, Scripture, Wisdom

Sunday Scriptures – Old

Posted on April 10, 2011April 10, 2011 by Katharine

In honor of the 400th anniversary of the translation of the Bible into English, commissioned by King James of England in 1611, and originally published by Robert Barker, printer to the King, I will use this version for the rest of this year in these posts. Hope we can enjoy the quaint differences we find here and appreciate all that went into it.

Remove not the ancient land marke, which thy fathers haue set. Proverbs 22:28

Remove not the old land marke, which thy fathers haue set. Proverbs 23:10

I haue beene young, and am now old; yet haue I not seene the righteous forsaken, nor his seede begging bread.

Inspiring, Sayings, Wisdom

Saturday Sayings – Light

Posted on April 9, 2011August 14, 2011 by Katharine

A new day rose upon me. It was as if another sun had risen into the sky; the heavens were indescribably brighter, and the earth fairer; and that day has gone on brightening to the present hour. I have known the other joys of life, I suppose, as much as most men; I have known art and beauty, music and gladness; I have known friendship and love and family ties; but it is certain that till we see God in the world—God in the bright and boundless universe—we never know the highest joy. It is far more than if one were translated to a world a thousand times fairer than this; for that supreme and central Light of Infinite Love and Wisdom, shining over the world and all worlds, alone can show us how noble and beautiful, how fair and glorious they are.

–Orville Dewey

Light and Love

The night has a thousand eyes,
And the day but one;
Yet the light of the bright world dies
With the dying sun.

The mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one;
Yet the light of a whole life dies
When love is done.

–Francis W. Bourdillon

In darkness there is no choice. It is light that enables us to see the difference between things; and it is Christ that gives us light.

–Julius Charles Hare

Love is something eternal—the aspect may change, but not the essence. There is the same difference in a person before and after he is in love as there is in an unlighted lamp and one that is burning. The lamp was there and it was a good lamp, but now it is shedding light, too, and that is its real function.

–Vincent Van Gogh

When the Light of Life falls upon the life of men, secret powers begin to unfold, sleeping perceptions begin to awake, and the whole being becomes alive unto God.

–John Henry Jowett

There is not enough darkness in all the world to put out the light of one small candle.

Believe it or not!, Who's the mom here?, Wisdom

It Is Kidnapping and It Is Legal

Posted on April 8, 2011April 8, 2011 by Katharine

Question: When is a person not a person?

Answer: When he is a child.

Ladies, just think: You are one day post-partum and your doctor tells you that you may take your baby home if you want. But the nurse doesn’t want you to, so she calls the police. In an unheard-of tug of war, Dear Mommy, weary from labor and drained from lack of sleep, this nightmare unfolds before your eyes, in the land of the free.

And as sorry as you may feel for yourself, you cannot escape the fact that your precious new daughter is a mere pawn in a manipulator’s reach.

Read about it here.

And as sad as that may make us feel, should your child ever feel sadness, herself, better be prepared for another attack.

But don’t you DARE die!

If your precious daugher ever loses her parents and must be placed in foster or adoptive care, the State could place her in a home with two mommies or even with two daddies because it might hurt their feelings if the State did otherwise.

And this is no matter what the voters think.

Read about it here.

Oh, protect the children!

And pray…

Inspiring, Scripture, Wisdom

Sunday Scripture – Light

Posted on April 3, 2011April 1, 2011 by Katharine

And the citie had no need of the Sunne, neither of the Moone to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lambe is the light thereof. Revelation 21:23 KJV 1611 Edition

Blessings of Habit, Coffee-ism, Homemaking, Inspiring, Recipes, Wisdom, Womanhood

The A-OK Breakfast – Veggie Frittata!

Posted on March 30, 2011April 17, 2011 by Katharine

Good morning!

The hardest thing about dieting, for me, is that the only way I can really lose weight and stay healthy is to cut carbohydrates. I dread that. I love chocolate-coated sugar bombs with milk and cream on them. I love pancakes with too much syrup. I love granola bars, instant milk stir ins, and smoothies.

The only way I can make myself follow a low-carb diet is to keep telling myself that sweet = poison. In a way, it is true, for me. Sugar sure is sweet and sure is poison. Most sugar substitutes are, also. Since I stopped allowing sugar past my lips, I have been tons healthier. I try hard to stick to only 10 grams of sugar per day, although I often go up to 15 or 20. Still, I try.

Now, lest we be confused, in my book, starch = sugar. If you paid attention in school, you learned that starch changes to sugar in the body, often as soon as while it is in the mouth. So–no sugar = no starch.

Exit: breakfast as we know it. Enter: eggs, the wonder-food.

Long ago when scientific empiricism ruled, children learned in school that eggs are nearly a perfect food. Soon after that, media sensationalism took over and we all became scared of the egg. Impossible! Now, surprise, surprise! the egg is coming back into vogue, probably because if we want, we can circumvent media tripe by watching the computer, instead, choosing to read the research for ourselves, instead of trusting the interpretation of those who have agendas.

Slowly it trickles down and grows to a deep sea of truth. The truth is, I cannot eat the average donut or cereal breakfast and lose. I ate that way for most of my life, and now, the part of me that processes sugar is worn out. It’s gotta be protein and greens for me.

I have learned, from long years of perfecting my breakfast menus, that I cannot tolerate egg after egg after egg, unless I do something drastic about the boredom. So I collect amazing egg recipes. Thinking others may be in the same boat, I have decided to share, every Monday, how I have beat egg boredom. (Yes, I know today is Wednesday. Minor glitch. Just think–you only have to wait five more days for the next installment.)

Today will be the Vegetable Frittata. It is so NOT breakfast-y, that it shocks the taste buds into sobriety while delivering tons of great nutrients to the fasting body, including one of the most easily digested protein sources, the lowly egg.

Here it is, in all its glory. Adjust it to meet your taste buds and your veggies on hand. Enjoy!

Vegetable Frittata

2 T. olive oil or butter
4″ sprig rosemary
1 or 2 green onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, pressed
1 or 2 mushrooms, sliced
1 small tomato, chunked
2 eggs
grated parmesan cheese (opt.)

Warm oil with rosemary in covered saute pan for a minute. Add onion and garlic and saute briefly, stirring, until clear. Add mushrooms and increase heat slightly. Saute, stirring, until mushroom begins to shrink and brown. Onion should brown, also, and garlic should be nearly overdone. Increase heat slightly and add tomato. Stir and fry until tomato just begins to peel.

vegetable frittata-1 — Just After Adding Tomato

Beat eggs with 1 teaspoon water and add to pan, stirring constantly until done. If desired, contents of pan may be pushed into interesting shapes before egg sets.

vegetable frittata-2 — Prepared with Love

Sprinkle lightly with parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper, if desired, and serve with 2 ounces of pomegranate juice and/or 1 cup coffee or tea. Serves one.

Enjoy!

Okay, I know it’s a shock. Move to a sunny window, close your eyes, pretend you’re in Italy, and learn a new thing.

See ya’ tomorrow!