Library Haul

We are off to the beach on Saturday.  This is prep week. Gotta tidy the house, clean out the fridge, get things in order.

And I've got to bring a bunch of books with me too.  I wanted to get Born a Crime and a couple other books but couldn't find them.  Hopefully, these books I did get will entice someone in our group of 17 to pick it up and read.

The books from the top to bottom:

A new No.1 Ladies Detective Agency mystery.  I've read several of these but have not kept up with the series.  They are usually light, fun, interesting stories.  This is on audio for the long car ride there and back.

A Wilder Rose - this book is about Rose Ingalls Wilder.  Might be disenchanting as people seem to really be going after Laura and her legacy lately.  Still, could be interesting.  Also audio for the car.

An Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael mystery.  Haven't read one of those in a long time.

Margery Allingham - I've never read one of her books.  I often see her name in lists of cozy mysteries.

P. G. Wodehouse - I think this is the first in the Blandings series.

Rumer Godden - An Episode of Sparrows.  I can't remember if I've read this one, but Godden is such an excellent writer.  Someone was talking about her on facebook or somewhere recently.

Dorothy Day - The Long Loneliness - I read this ages ago.  Worthwhile read.

Nevil Shute - A Town Like Alice - loved this many years ago, as well as the miniseries.

Amazing Grace - Saw the movie; didn't even know it was a biography first!

The Year of Living Biblically - this could either be a really cool insightful book or really dumb and anti-religion. 

Tuesdays with Morrie - Book 20

I was going to go all condescending on this book, talking about how sentimental and full of tired truisms it is, but I admit I cried at the end.  And I think Morrie, that cheerful teacher with an indomitable joi de vivre, was right, even if he does sound trite.  The end of the book packs a wallop emotionally.

I've heard about this book for years and people have recommended it to me several times.  I finally picked it up at a book sale.  I've been reading it off and on for the past several weeks.  Morrie Schwartz was the author's professor in college, his favorite teacher ever.  He lost touch with him after he graduated and went on into the frantic business of trying to be successful in a cut throat world. But one day he's clicking through TV channels and he catches Ted Koppel interviewing his old professor.  Only the old professor is dying of ALS and is on the show for a human interest bit.  He wants to chronicle his dying so he can teach others about what it is like.

Albom, the author, gets in touch with Morrie and begins to visit him every Tuesday.  Tuesdays were when they would often meet when he was in college, it just so happens.  It seems to be their day.  The old friendship is rekindled and Morrie comes to love and treasure the folksy, loving wisdom his "coach", as he affectionately calls him, more and more.  The friendship is all the more dear because death must soon part them.  This encounter changes the author deeply.

It's a heartening book about how important it is to spend our time on earth being kind to others.

Two thumbs up.

For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

The Mystery of the Blue Train - Book 19

The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie is the next Hercule Poirot mystery.  I think it is number 6 in the series Christie wrote featuring her Belgian detective.

I found this mystery more engaging than the past couple of ones.  I think I like it when Poirot isn't emphasized quite as much.  I find Christie maybe gets a little heavy handed with trying to endear Poirot to us with all his quirks.  This book struck a nice balance with well developed characters operating outside Poirot's sphere until he steps in to solve the case.

There's not only a murder but a jewel theft as well.  Lots of mysterious goings on.  The plot kept me interested and was a nice escape from reality, all written in Christie's skillful storytelling style.

Two thumbs up!

For more book reviews go to 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

Housekeeping Diary 7/17/18

I didn't get much done today.  BUT I did declutter my dresser top, as much as possible. It was towering with junk!  I still, if you can believe it, have pictures stacked up on it that we took down when we got our room remodeled and painted.  I've decided that S, since he is home feeling bored, will be tasked with the job of putting all the pictures back up on the wall.   I also had a huge stack of papers that I honestly do not know how they got there.  The stack was full of random things ranging from 2013 (!) to papers from just last spring.  Huh?  Most of it went into recycling.  Some papers that I intend to keep but need to file, went into an old accordion file I found. 

This sounds silly but I rearranged the magnets on my fridge.  I'm thinking of making one side (the front isn't magnetized) a prayer wall.  I'm always telling people I'll pray for them.  And usually I do say a quick Hail Mary, but I'd like to keep a list visible so that I really am praying for them from my heart in an intentional way.  Also, I want something visible for my family, in hopes it inspires them to pray more. 

I made dinner and then completely forgot to clean the pots and pans afterwards.  Fortunately it was a quick dinner that didn't dirty much.  V has been really good at tackling the dishes during the day so there isn't as much to clean. 

I did take care of one nagging thing about the guardianship of my youngest sister.   So I can check that off my list.

I honestly can not remember what I did in the morning.  I took B to her theater camp at 11:30.  S and I went out to lunch together.  We got caught in the bad rainstorm which was scary.  I picked B up.  And I also drove her to youth group. Well, hopefully today will be more productive.  Oh B and I did a bit more literature. 

My cat is going insane.  He sits outside our bedroom door and scratches and meows at various points during the night.  He's going into wild frenzies where he attacks ankles and scampers around the house frantically.  I try playing with him, but he only plays for a minute or two.  I gave him a paper bag to hide in and that made him happy for a bit.    I still haven't put the halter on him to take him outside.  Today feels cooler after yesterday's rainstorms.  I will try today.  Poor J didn't get home til very late.  Due to flash flooding they closed the road by the marina for an hour.  Then the traffic was so backed up, it took forever to get home.  He was bushed.  I am glad he didn't get caught in the actual flash flooding.

Housekeeping diary - 7/16/18

At the beginning of the summer I was going to go Konmari on my house.  Well, that never even took off.  BUT, then my amazing husband, for some reason, decided to clean out our study a couple weekends ago.  I helped!  But he did the bulk.  Now there is still some stuff tucked in corners that I need to deal with but it is just so much better now.  It makes me happy.  I am not ashamed to have the study door open now.  This has inspired me.

Poor S got laid off from work a couple weeks ago.  He had an unfortunate incident with driving the golf cart with trailer attached and scraping the side of a client's truck in the parking lot.  He's been very bummed.  Poor guy. He is so lonely and so low in self-confidence.  But it took this incident to get him to finally go to the guidance counselor at the CC and find out just what he needs to do to transfer to GMU.  I have been nagging him for months now.  He needs 3 more semesters and a summer course in language.  That's because he has been going so slowly and never taking a full load, up until this coming fall semester.  This fall, he's taking French 101 (4 credits), Environmental Science w/ lab (4 cr), Introduction to Communication (3 cr), College Success Skills (1 credit required) and flute (1 cr. I think; could be 2) again.  He also really wanted to take piano again, so I said if you stick with flute, you can also take piano.  He's so talented with no discipline so he flits from instrument to instrument.  I said nope you are going to become a fantastic, trained flute player.  I am forcing him to stick with the flute, because if he had gone to Berklee that was his instrument of choice.  If he was prepared to spend 4 intense years becoming a jazz flute player that means he can commit to the instrument.  Though secretly I wish he would study the organ.  He is fantastic on the organ!  I so didn't want my mil's organ but now that we have it, I love it.  Just goes to show!

Anyway, the point of this post is to journal my housekeeping:

Monday - 10 minutes dejunking one corner of my bedroom. It's amazing how much one can get done is 10 intense minutes.  I also cleaned the sink area, scrubbed the shower and toilet.

Helped S dejunk his desk and dust it. Right after he got fired, I forced him to clean up his room.  It's better but still needs dejunking.  He so needs order in his life, but he simply can't produce it himself.  And I am not good at producing it either.  He loved getting up and having to go to work.  He needs external structure.  I was hoping school would provide it, but most of the classes he wanted to take are at night, so I can see problems there.  Somehow he will have to get up at the same time each morning and prep for his afternoon and evening classes.  Oops,  I got derailed again by worrying about S!  Back to housekeeping!

As you can see, J (3rd slot in from left) is the only one that actually collects his mail.

Also a couple weeks ago I established a new mail system.  I found an old metal file holder with lots of slots.  It's ugly but I put it in our front hall.  First slot (from left to right) is for me and R's mail.  Second slot is for V.  Third slot is for J, 4th is for S, last is for B.  Any mail we still get for W or H, we put in a pile on top of the marble top dresser (it was my grandmother's).

I didn't do this, but B cleaned up her own room and bathroom.  That's kind of her regular pattern.  Her room will get so awful and then she'll get in this deep cleaning mood where she spends an entire day just blitzing through it. 

Last night, I also somewhat cleaned up the kitchen.  V was nice and cleaned it mid-day.  I didn't quite get all the cups and plates washed but I did get most and all the pots and pans.  Goal for this week is to get the kitchen cleaned each night.

House Arrest

Our cat, Clover, is under house arrest.  He's an indoor/outdoor cat, half wild.  We've tried to put a collar on him a couple times but he always manages to get them off.  He roams the neighborhood pretty freely.  Welll, someone tried to pet him and he bit her.  Just a little nip, but enough to break the skin.   I think this person is not familiar with cats, as she said he was lying on his back and she thought he wanted his belly rubbed like a dog would.  So then she panicked because she thought he was a stray (no collar).  She took herself to urgent care because she was afraid of getting rabies (if you are afraid of getting rabies - do not pet animals you think are strays!)  Because she went to a doctor the doctor informed her that they were required by law to call animal control.  After Clover bit her, she snapped a photo of him.  Then she went around to every house asking people if they knew who this cat belonged to.  Eventually, somehow she found out it was us. 

Anyway, long story short, Clover has to be quarantined for 10 days indoors.  Then we have to notify the health department of whether he is healthy or not.  He got all his shots, so I am not worried, but now the poor cat must stay in doors.  We have to be careful about going in and out now.  And little D simply doesn't understand that chasing and terrorizing the cat isn't fun for the cat, like it is when humans play the "I'm gonna get you" game of chasing little D around the house and then catching him up in a big hug and a loud raspberry on the belly!

We are now on day three of confinement.  We got new scratching posts for him but I've yet to see him use them.  I'm worried about my newly reupholstered couches.    We also got some cat toys to keep him from being bored.  I can see already why indoor cats seem to get so fat.  They are bored and the temptation is to overfeed them to get them to stop meowing at you.  Plus they don't get enough exercise.  We actually got a halter and leash too.  Maybe today I will try to get it on him (good luck with that.  I know he'll hate it!) 

In the mornings when I sit at the laptop, I have to put my feet up on a chair or else he keeps brushing against my ankles at first patiently but then he gets frustrated at me and starts nipping.  Right now though he is curled up next to me.  I think he was lonely all night so he's glad I'm up. 

I am wondering what we should do for the poor girl who got bitten by him.  I only know her first name.  I kind of want to send her flowers or something.  Maybe just a note of apology.  I forget that cats can annoy others, plus a lot of people think you shouldn't have outdoor cats to begin with. 

We've had a lot of pet drama lately.  I still forget that Tillie isn't around anymore.  If I hear keys jangle I think it is her collar and tags jangling.  If I hear a dog barking outside for a second I think oh no, I've forgotten to feed Tillie or something.  I miss having a dog too because I really appreciate the watchdog aspect, especially when I am alone in the house. 

But right now I am resolving to be a better pet owner of my two cats.  Poor Thumbelina is so old and ill.  She's going to go any time now.  And my rascally younger cat, who got himself in trouble, needs more attention now that he's indoors all the time. 

In The School Of The Holy Spirit

In the School of the Holy Spirit is by a new to me theologian, Jacques Philippe.  This book was suggested by Father Paul who ran a spiritual classics book club at my parish.  I joined initially and then got too busy to continue.  But I always meant to go back when I could   Well, I thought I could start it up again but, alas, Father Paul got transferred to another parish (to be pastor!) so the book club is defunct for now.

Still I am so glad I got this book. It is beautiful, wise and simple.  Father Philippe is my new favorite spiritual guide and I am certainly going to read more of his books.  Father Philippe is a French priest, who I think is in his early 70s.  His books have become popular and have been translated into English.  This particular book, In the School of the Holy Spirit was translated by Helena Scott in 2017.  The book was originally published in 2002.  For a view of his books go here.

This book is less than 100 pages but packed full of simple, practical wisdom.  Basically, he answers the questions: how does one listen to the prompts of the Holy Spirit?  How does one know whether it really is the Holy Spirit or not?  How can one become better at listening so as to become holy?  Father Jacques synthesizes the teachings of a well known Jesuit (who taught Sts. Issac Jogues and St. John Brebeuf), Fr. Louis Lallemont, and the teachings of St. Francis de Sales, as well as pulling wisdom from scripture itself. 

This book made an excellent early morning meditation with which to start my day.  I'm trying to get in the habit of reading something spiritual every morning while I sip coffee and then praying lauds (and sometimes the office of reading) each morning.  I've become very hit or miss about this.  But I keep trying to be consistent.  I'm terrible at being consistent!

I highly, highly recommend this book.  For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

Pistols for Two

Pistols for Two is a frothy bit of entertainment; a book of short stories by Georgette Heyer.  They all have the same exact theme and honestly some of the paragraphs seemed to be lifted from one to the other, especially describing the men wearing blue superfine and Hessian boots.  Everybody has gray eyes.  Heyer certainly was masterful at telling the same story over and over again.  When you read her longer novels, you get caught up in the intricacies of the plot and all the comedic situations.  But when it is put into short story form, it becomes obvious that the stories are all the same and have a lot of the implausible and some downright silly romantic features too.  Still, I needed a light read, so I appreciated the first half of the book.  But then they began to get too repetitious, so it was a bit of an effort to finish the book, just to say I had.

For more book reviews, go to 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

Diary 7/10/18

Thursday my youngest turns 17!!!  I'm still not sure what we are doing about it. I mean I bought some gifts a while ago.  But how to spend the day and what to do for meals and cake?  Must sort that out asap!

Can't remember when I woke up; possibly just before 6.
Fed cats
Read more about Holy Spirit. Finished the body of the book but it has a big appendix with many quotes, so I think I'll continue to read through that.
Didn't pray lauds again.
Sat out on back porch.  Still having lovely summer weather.  I think this is the 4th day in a row.
Did some facebook stuff
Blogged
Said bye to J
Made R some eggs
Cleaned kitchen somewhat - watched Latin 101 lecture
Got B up and made her tea
Took B to ortho appt - we were hoping it was the last one, but they said she still needs a bit longer before everything is completely straight.

Afterwards we decided to eat at Silver Diner - went home and picked up S.  Poor S got laid off from work.  They had over-hired for the summer it turns out.  And then he went and had a little accident with the trailer on the golf cart and a client's pick up truck.  Oops.  He is very bummed.  Very.  He has no self-confidence, he is bored and lonely.  I feel for him but I don't know what I can do.

Had pleasant meal at SD.  S has decided he wants to learn more about economics.

Came home - cleaned junk out of car (B helped) so I could take it to Jiffy Lube.
Nagged B to do her math and history.  Nagged S to make some drs appts.

Went and got oil, new air filter, steering wheel fluid, etc done
Had to hang out in waiting room a long time - they were busy.

Stopped at the Maple Ave Market CSA which I never got to last week, and picked up some blueberries, a big heirloom tomato, some new potatoes, an onion, some local white peaches and some eggs.

Came home two hours later and neither teen had done what I'd asked them to do.  Grrr.

To rest, I don't like laying down anymore in the afternoon which is a tragedy.  But it seems to leave me so woozy when I get up.  So I've been nodding off in R's comfy office chair while watching either Latin 101 or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy lecture series from the Great Courses.  Since I did Latin 101 this a.m. I went went with CBT - somatic breathing technique for lowering stress rate.

Was idle too long and didn't come downstairs until after 5.  Realized B needed to get to youth group.
Fed cats

Started on using up leftover chicken to make chicken crepes.  However, I was afraid I didn't have enough leftovers so I quickly had to try to cook up some chicken breasts that were still frozen.  This delayed things.  Then I realized I didn't have any chicken broth to cook the leftover chicken in.  The kitchen was only half clean so I couldn't find anything and I was operating in a rush, not quite knowing what I was doing.  I successfully made crepes the week B was at workcamp but I cheated and used diary.  This time I used the same gf flour mix, 3 large eggs, coconut milk and ghee.  But the crepes came out as mini thin omelets.  And the chicken was kind of dry and not flavorful enough.  Fail.  V came up and helped me a lot; washing up the silverware,etc and slicing up some cantaloupe and cucumbers to have with the so called chicken crepes.

B and I ate hurriedly and then picked up a friend on the way and got them to youth group.

Came home and suddenly R and J were home and someone had gotten 5 Guys for their dinner.  They were not going to touch the weird chicken crepes.

R wanted to print out V's certificates.  She's finally gotten validation for her degree from Cote D'Ivoire.  She's got the equivalent of a BS in computer science.  Hooray!  But we were out of printer paper still.  So I ran to the store and got paper and kitty litter, since I kept forgetting to pick that up as well.

Home again, everyone was enjoying the Virtual Reality thing in the study.  R gave it to J for Christmas but since the study was so full of junk, they haven't been able to use it til now!  They are using google Earth and traveling everywhere from the Grand Canyon to Tokyo.  It's very cool but there's something really weird about it too.  V squeals the whole time.  LOL.

V took D to the eye dr this a.m. because we've been worried about his eyes.  One eye tends to turn in and he often rubs his eyes and says 'my eyes, my eyes!'  As if they are really irritated.  Well, he failed the little eye exam.  Apparently the doctor said it isn't his eye that turns in but the other eye!  So V has to get drops to put in his eyes and then go back in a week.  He might need glasses.  His vision is 20/20; it's just his eyes don't work together.  Must be this house!  All my kids had that same problem to one degree or another!!!

Proud moment:  our drain upstairs in our master bathroom sink was completely clogged.  I told R I thought his beard hair was the culprit - this offended him greatly.  He says he never lets his beard hair get in the sink.  This was so bizarre to me because of course I have cleaned up his beard shavings out of the sink for decades now. But it was one of those things where you realize that you aren't even on the same plane of reality when discussing an issue.  You know, when you realize the other person is so delusional you just say, uh huh.  And then deal with it yourself?  LOL.  Anyway, I used the baking soda and vinegar trick and it cleared the drain!  It still is somewhat clogged though.  But at least we didn't need the dreaded Drano.   However, the one thing I really am unhappy about with our new renovated bathrooms is the cheap hardware or whatever you call it that came with the bathtubs/sinks, etc. The drains are cheap and easy to clog and hard to fix.  The flusher lever on the toilets comes loose and will arbitrarily clatter to the tile floor below, usually in the middle of night when it makes the most noise and then toilet paper holders do the same thing.  They work loose and then fall.  It's annoying.  I blame cheap labor and parts in China for all this.  Somebody's making a fortune producing this cheapo stuff and charging a fortune.  We paid a lot at Ferguson's for this supposedly 'top of the line' stuff.  Grrr.

Hung out too long on the internet.  B came home.  Still moody.  I remembered that she gets like this for her birthday.  She's always gotten emotional about it, even back when she was very little.  I gave her one present yesterday.  I got her a tea subscription.  Each month she'll get a different kind of tea in the mail.  She seemed ok with it.  But I think she's a little depressed so everything's hitting her funny.  So since she seemed moody, I gave her another present.  The last Penderwicks book that just came out.  When she was younger she loved the Penderwicks.  She had the first book on audio and listened to it over and over again.  So I think she maybe liked the book.  But also I think it made her nostalgic and that made her sad.  When someone's depressed, no matter what, they get sad.

Went to bed and read some.  Darn.  Meant to take B's phone from her at night but she wanted to call Will.  I told her to bring it in to our room when she was done but she never did.

Just realized I never showered!

Diary 7/9/18

Got up about 6
Fed cats
Made coffee and read about Holy Spirit - did not pray lauds though
Blogged, sitting outside - still having beautiful summer weather
Started to clean pots and pans, etc leftover from yesterday morning - got some done
R went to airport - another day meeting in Hartford CN - he hates having to fly to and from in 1 day
J went to work
Got B up and out to math at 8:30
Had coffee at Panera and then went shopping at H/T
p/u B and came home
Showered
Read 3 pp of Odyssey to B
Put on slow cooker chicken

Took B to her Charitable Act camp - oops turns out it starts next week!  Summer schedules are crazy!
Got gas, must get oil and lube soon!

B wanted to go to Chick fil a - discovered her friends were there!  So left her there with them.
Stopped at Trader Joe's which I haven't been to in a million years.  Still forgot to get kitty litter.  That's twice in one day!

Picked B up from friend's house and drove to therapy.  Took a full hour to get there due to rush hour.

First therapy session - 1:20 minutes - good thing I remembered to bring my book!  Immediately had spat with her.  She was emotionally wrung out and mad at us because when she was younger she used to cover her ears with her hands saying we were too loud.  This always struck us as rich because she was often the loudest and she seemed very selectively suddenly sensitive.  Therapist told her that was unfair to her which has her angry at us all over again.  Uh oh.  Don't know if this therapy is going to work.  Last thing she needs is validation of her ability to feel sorry for herself over every little slight or perceived slight.  Honestly, I think she's depressed because her personality is such that she hoards every little thing and resents it so.  She is a natural grudge holder.   Sheesh.  We need to work on curbing this flaw not inflating it! 

Also, sending your kid to therapy makes one feel defensive.  Like how bad a mother am I, anyway?  Someone's about to hear all about everything I ever did wrong!!!

I forgot to eat lunch myself, so I was starving.  The slow cooker chicken was good.  I hadn't planned anything else so I just toasted some gluten free bread and put the chicken 'gravy over it and then ate a plum.  Dinner!  People just came and ate what they wanted.

S had been watching D since V had to go to class and B and I weren't home yet.  Fed D some chicken which he liked.  He's been going to a 'don't eat enough to feed a bird' phase but he really ate a lot yesterday.  He's tall for not even three.  He looks more 4 yo to me.  He doesn't have a baby face at all.

Took D for a walk and then we sat outside and blew bubbles for a while.

V came home and put D to bed.  R came home from his trip to CT.  He was tired but stayed up a bit to chat with S, J and B. 

J retired to his room, S and B played on the virtual reality thingie in the study.  I did a little bit too. I got to go to Greece! 

Oh I forgot!  I spent an hour in the afternoon cleaning out the study.  R did a lot of work in it over the weekend.  It was full of old computer parts and odds and ends of projects he'd been working on, stuff we dumped in there,  plus a ton of stuff from granddad's condo from when he moved.  So now the room has space!  The corners still have junk in them but at least it's are in the corners in tidier piles. 

Now I want to get a sleeper loves eat to put in there to make it into a guest room again.

Went to bed and finished my book. 

Immigrants Make America Great!

We went to the zoo yesterday.  The weather was beautiful:  blue sky, not too hot, not humid.  A gorgeous summer day.  We decided to take the metro in so D could ride on it.  He loves trains and riding on the metro.  But apparently a lot of other people had this same idea, to ride the metro and go to the zoo.  We saw way more people than animals.  I forgot that I don't like going to the zoo in the summer for this very reason.  I hadn't gone anyway in six years, I think. 

Anyway, the people visiting the Washington DC zoo are of every stripe and color.  You can hear people speaking any kind of language, English (with Australian accents - we overheard), Spanish, Hindi, German and all sorts of others.  Skin tone ranged from the very darkest to pale with white-blond hair and every shade in between.  I even saw three or four interracial couples. And everybody was there with their kids, their buddies, their significant other, or with grandma pushing her in a wheelchair, all trying to get a good look at an animal or two.  I saw a couple of people wearing the above t-shirt. 

The rise of anti-immigration, racism and antisemitism is so anti-American.  We really are a nation of immigrants.  The important thing to be an American is to uphold the Constitution.  That's what counts.  We have a terrible legacy of racism against African-Americans, but we also have a legacy of abolition and civil rights.  And the second legacy is more reflective of our noble national goals than the first.  Antisemitism has always been around but there is a reason why there are more Jews in the USA than anywhere else.  Why they have been able to flourish here. 

This whole border thing has been whipped up for political gain.  The very wealthy, like Trump who have taken advantage of immigrants from the south of the border.  We've been so bad at managing all this because corporate american ran on cheap immigrant labor.  They work in slaughterhouses, pick our lettuce, dig our ditches, mow our lawns, clean our houses and wash the dishes you eat from at restaurants.    Big industrial farms use illegal immigrants to get around farm worker unions.  The very industry that Donald Trump represents is one of the worst exploiters.  What a blustering hypocrite he is!   People can get really worked up about race, as we know from history.  Think of Rwanda where the Dutch colonialists literally made up the two races of Tutsi and Hutu that didn't exist before they entered the picture.  That hatred was whipped up over the air by hate talk radio. 

I am not for open borders, actually.  I do think governments need to know where their authority ends.  And we are living in an age of illegal drug cartels, international gangs and terrorism.  We need a competent organization that works to keep us safe and also has compassion on those who seek refuge here.  Who realizes that human beings are actually what make up a country. They are our greatest resource and treasure. 

Poor J and S have twice now had to rent a sailboat to a well known white supremacist who lives in our area.  J didn't recognize him but S has a morbid interest in the issue and recognized him from some youtube video.  So my two very Jewish looking boys had to rent this sailboat to this clown.  The funny thing is S was so rattled that he forgot to warn him of where the shallows were.  The guy and his friends got stuck in the mud and then my half Jewish sons had to go out and rescue the a**hole.  LOL. 

A Convenient Hatred

It has been a heavy time for a lot of reasons.  Trump and the horrible political climate right now is one contributor.  And then I've been obsessively reading about Cardinal McCarrick and his predatory behavior towards his seminarians for decades.  And the ongoing revelations that there are many active homosexual priests and bishops.  This has been deep in the hierarchy for generations.  Pope Francis, the one I love so much in so many ways, doesn't seem to be great at handling this stuff.  Though I am so ignorant of what can and can't be done about it, so what do I know.  But it has really shaken me up.  I've been collecting all the sordid articles.  I managed to make it through the pedophile catastrophe, which of course is still playing out, but it turns out it goes even deeper than that.  The Church I love is horribly corrupt.

And all the while I've been reading this book on the history of antisemitism.  And the Church was horrible there too.  It was so depressing to read just how much evil the Church perpetuated.  At times, it did try to speak out.  A pope would say something at some point to try to control the violence and cruelty.  But then another pope would help perpetuate it.  It was too little and too ineffectual.  Evil is an amazing thing.  The blind hate of antisemitism is almost bizarre in how it reappears over and over again throughout history based on lies, misunderstanding, fear of 'others' and a weird blaming of Jews, collectively for the death of Christ.

This book is a very well written narrative of the history of antisemitism.  The writing style is clear and succinct.  It is not polemical at all.  The authors are quite dispassionate and I think come off as being rather heroically objective and fair.  They begin at the beginning, biblically, move into explaining the long antagonism by Christians against Jews and the various ways this was expressed by Western and Eastern Christian churches.  Time and again they were persecuted, attacked and finally expelled from various nations at different times throughout the ages.  And it all culminated in the Holocaust.  Even after the Holocaust when you'd think people would be aghast with shame at what horror their bigotry had caused, people were still rejecting the Jews.  Then came the whole founding of Israel.  Even before that there had always been difficulty in Muslim lands.  Even though there was the concept of 'dhimmi' for people of the book, they still were treated as second class citizens and taxed for not being Muslim.  And how they were treated depended on the whim of whoever the local leader happened to be.  The whole rise of Zionism and Anti-Zionism put another layer over everything.

At the same time I was reading this book, I tried to listen to a book by Mark Kurlansky on audio.  I have read his books Salt,  and The Basque History of the World, both of which I enjoyed immensely.  So I was looking forward to his book on Non-Violence.  However, I found it a really hostile book!  I mean it was the angriest book ever on non-violence!  LOL.  Kurlansky had it really in for the Catholic Church in a way that I never felt from A Convenient Hatred.  He just kept making snide, jeering remarks.  Maybe it was Richard Dreyfuss' reading of it.  His voice is abrasive to me, rather too nasal and irritating.  Anyway, the book on Antisemitism was a better sell for non-violence then the bitterly resentful Kurlansky, who is so pissed off that nobody ever stuck to nonviolent principles.  We've all let him down!  So in contrast to that book, A Convenient Hatred comes off as possessing a lot of integrity and a real respect for its readers, no matter who they might be, Jewish, Christian or Muslim.  It is tough stuff to read, but important to acknowledge.  The authors are obviously sympathetic to Israel.

For more book reviews, go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

A Good Thursday

Yesterday was a good day.  I'd been feeling so blue.  I still can't believe Tillie is gone though.  I am astonished at my own grief.  R and I are both kind of amazed at just how sad we are.  I mean I know it is in no way the same as losing a human you love, but it has taken me aback a bit.

The first Thursday of the month, my parish supplies lunch to a local homeless shelter.  Usually, I just make chicken for 16, but because of the summer, no one signed up for rice or veggies either.  So they sent out a last minute can anyone help notice.  So I said I could.  I got up early yesterday morning and ran to Giant because it turns out I was fresh out of rice and I never buy frozen veggies anymore (trying to avoid plastic packaging).  So I wound up buying a big plastic bag of rice (usually I buy bulk but I didn't have time) and a big plastic bag of mixed veggies.  Came home and cooked up 5 cups of rice.  The only way I could do this was by using a big casserole dish and baking the rice.  I don't usually cook rice this way but it turned out really well!  However, it was exceedingly hot outside yesterday so I really didn't like having to put the oven on.  Oh well.  I just cooked up the veggies in the microwave and then cooled them a bit and put homemade vinaigrette over them.  I then took a quick shower and headed over to the shelter to deliver the food. 

Then I took off to Manassas where I was scheduled to meet up with the Latin 2 teacher at the co-op where I've been teaching Latin 1 for the last few years.  He's doing this weekly summer meet up at a Panera there at 11:30 a.m. to sit and translate a Latin text.  I am not even sure of the text.  I think it is a recounting of Erasmus' Lives of the Apostles or De Vitis Apostolorum.  He wound up being a half hour late though.  He is sandwiching this in between work and family and errands.  He hopes that some of the Latin students will want to participate.  But I think I am the only one to show interest.  So we sat there with our laptops open so we could consult on line Latin dictionaries and managed to translate the first paragraph.  He is way, way further along than I am in Latin so he'd say things like so what case is that word in?  Or what is the tense, mood and voice of that verb?  It was challenging but I actually got most of it right!  I find translating so hard but then when it clicks, it is so satisfying!  It's like solving a puzzle! I get that same sense of triumph.  So that was fun.

Then I had pre-arranged to meet with another homeschooling mom at the same Panera right after the Latin session.  She and I are planning a Not Back to School Catholic Family Camp Out & Conference for 2019.  This has been something I've had in my imagination for years and I decided as I leave the homeschooling world, as my kids age out, this would be my last hurrah.  We wound up talking over coffee for almost 2.5 hours.  It was really enjoyable and exciting.

Then I drove home and relaxed for a bit.  Then I made dinner:  I cooked up more chicken in bbq sauce on the stove.  I boiled up some more corn and I sliced up a watermelon and that was dinner.

There's other stuff going on too, but I won't detail them here. 

Today's agenda:
Plastic Free October campaign meeting at 10:30
B to math tutor at 12:00; pick up at 1:30
Make veggie chili
Adoration hour is 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.

4th of July Meals

I am skipping Tuesday.  Everyone just came ate whatever for breakfast, if they even ate breakfast.  And it turned out everyone was out and about at lunch time, including myself, so everyone just got something out.  And then I ate something (Chipotle) which has never done this to me before, but I had horrible heartburn all afternoon, well into the evening.  So V wound up making the rice and salmon cakes.  No veggies.  We didn't even get food on the table until about 8 p.m.

Today was better.  We were tentatively planning to go to a parade in the morning, but then everybody slept in.  So I made a brunch of Applegate chicken maple sausage patties, scrambled eggs with goat cheese and lots of seasoning and a beautiful fruit salad of lots of mango, kiwi, plums and blueberries.  We didn't eat until almost noon.

Then since we had such a late brunch we just had dinner around 6:30.

Rick grilled steak

Turn your head sideways!

And crab legs

I did not partake of this.  I do not understand why people enjoy cracking crab shells.  I'm fine with crab cakes and crab chowder and stuff.  But I don't want to have to work so hard to actually eat the crab.

And chicken kabobs (with peach bbq sauce) and pineapple (marinated in Earth Balance, brown sugar and cinnamon)

You can't tell from this photo but the darker, more orange-y food to the left is chicken and the yellower to the right is grilled pineapple.

I also sauteed up a big zucchini, two small yellow squashes, half a green pepper, half an onion and a tomato.

And I boiled up some corn.  First corn of the summer!  It was delicious!

A good feast.  I managed to avoid going to see fireworks (which frankly I have never enjoyed).  Instead I am staying home and cooking up the chicken to deliver to the homeless shelter tomorrow.

Happy Independence Day!

Monday's Meals

I forgot to take photos.

Breakfast:  I made eggs for R, but B had this delicious but expensive nut free granola from Michel's Granola.  I've got to figure out how to replicate it at home.  Instead of nuts, it's got sunflower, hemp and flax seeds.  And maybe pumpkin.  I forget.  It's delicious.  She mixed it with some berry goat yogurt.  I had a banana, coffee and snacked on some dry granola.  I also ate a small helping of the fruit cobbler.

Lunch - There were leftover fried green tomatoes and some meatloaf, so I heated them up and ate them for lunch.  Also, a little more cobbler.

Dinner - I made delicious pork roast in the slow cooker.   I put in a cup of water, a splash of red wine vinegar, a couple of tablespoons of honey, a big dollop of minced garlic, 1/3 cup of coco amino acids, cumin seed, tumeric, salt and pepper and half of a big onion, sliced.  It cooked all day and was really good!  I also steamed the new potatoes from the CSA then I just sprinkled salt and drizzled a little olive oil over them.  I also made a big tossed salad with CSA lettuce, green onions, red bell pepper, cucumber, carrot, beets.  I made a simple vinaigrette to put over it.

Agenda for Tuesday:
B needs to do literature, history and math
I am going to deep clean the kitchen and vacuum my room.
I never made Haymaker's punch yesterday, so I'll do that.
Chip away some more at S's room.  Probably tidy surfaces and dust today.
Need to take Suburu in to get dent and dings repair estimated.
Need to set up B's voice lessons for times over the remaining summer.  I think we've got 6 sessions.
Call St. M and get Latin study group room and time scheduled.
Prepare meals

Need to contact Mom's organic to find out about food donation for Plastic Free October forum (need to do this before Friday a.m.)

For my own pleasure:  watch Latin lectures to wake my brain up so I am better prepared for my first Latin reading group meeting on Thursday a.m.
Just started watching Great Courses lectures on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy - very interesting.  Watch next lecture.
Read - I've got three books going on right now.
It's so hot out I am going to exercise via dvd Walk at Home.

Food Week

CSA Haul:  beets, lettuce, yellow squash and zucchini, a dozen fresh eggs, cucumbers, blueberries, parsley, bok choy and new potatoes.

In an effort to cheer myself up and get myself eating better again, I'm going to focus this week on food.

While B was gone to work camp all week, I totally dropped the anti-inflammatory diet I had gone on in solidarity with her.  I ate gluten, dairy and junk food with abandon.  I also got two migraines a
nd felt like crap all the week.  Towards the end of the week, I'd lie in bed and ache all over.  Every joint was aching.  It dawned on me that maybe the diet does work.  It's not a cure all, but I think it really does help.

So I am back to clean eating. 

Sunday - I had coffee and a banana before church.  I really need to cut down on coffee.

Brunch was a big omelet made from local pastured eggs, goat and sheep cheese (I grated this up because this cheese doesn't melt as quickly as cow's or just plain goat cheese does), a few leaves of fresh basil chopped and a chopped tomato.  Along with this we had locally produced pork sausage and some leftover grilled veggies (green, yellow and purple peppers, sweet potato, red onion and broccoli) from the Whole Foods hot bar (leftover from Friday). 

Dinner - R grilled hamburgers (grass fed with slices of goat cheese melted on top.  So delicious!) and hot dogs, I had my burger on a gf bun.  I sliced up two cucumbers from the CSA haul and made a vinaigrette to pour over them.  The best thing though was the fruit cobbler I made.  I had a box of blueberries and a box of blackberries and two peaches from the CSA.  I used Jules Gluten Free All Purpose Flour which is the best flour I've found.  Everything I make with it seems to turn out really well.  I actually made crepes earlier in the week for the first time in my life.  And they were so easy!  And delicious.

And instead of letting the beets from the CSA go soft in the fridge all week before I remembered to do something with them, I boiled them right away.  I plan to just slice them up and add them to salads as the week goes by. 

Dinners for the week:
Monday - pork shoulder slow cooker roast
Tuesday - salmon patties (gotta get our salmon in and everybody likes these)
Wednesday - chicken (also need to cook up chicken for shelter)
Thursday - creative leftovers! (I'm thinking of using leftover chicken to make savory crepes).
Friday - veggie chili

I also plan to make Haymaker's Punch today to get a little probiotic fermentation into my system. 

Our Sheltie Passed Away

I'm too lazy to hunt for a photo of her.   Our dog of 10 years, Tillie, got sick and died this week.  I noticed she wasn't feeling well on Monday afternoon, but I had to go make pb&j sandwiches for work camp and then babysit D that night while V was in class.  Tuesday I had to deliver the sandwiches to the work camp site about 2 hours from here.  I then did shower security duty (when the girls get back from the work site they shower before dinner).  I didn't get back home until after 9:00 p.m.  Tillie had had bad diarrhea.  I thought, oh gosh, I have to clean her off before I can take her to the vet.  But Wednesday I woke up with a terrible migraine.  I was completely out of commission all day.  She was acting pretty sick.

So then Thursday morning I managed to trim and bathe her.  She seemed better after that.  She ate a little raw ground beef.  So I thought, I think she's on the mend and didn't take her to the vet.

Friday morning I had another appointment in the a.m. and then I had to make cole slaw for the potluck return home dinner for the work campers.  Josh was home from work on Friday.  He came downstairs iin the afternoon, took one look at Tillie and announced he was taking her to the vet.  She had had a little water that morning but she was barely moving.

The vet told Josh Tillie was basically dying.  It looked to him like she was in kidney failure.  But it could be bladder or kidney stones so he wanted to x-ray her.  Well they did and there were no stones and she was definitely in kidney failure.  Saturday morning I woke with another migraine.  We had the garden planning guy here and I couldn't even meet with him, but after he left I felt well enough that we went to the vet's and they basically told us to say good bye to Tillie.  We could take her home with us but she only had hours left and she'd probably start having seizures soon.  She looked terrible.  So miserable and bloated looking and she smelled really bad. Basically she was being poisoned to death by her own toxins.  So we said please put her out of her misery.  We didn't want to watch.  We said goodbye.  I struggled very hard not to lose it.  R was the same.

I am still in shock.  I've got this darn cat here who is slowly dying.  I thought she'd be the next pet to go after Milky died of a stroke last year.   We asked the vet if we had taken Tillie in earlier, if she would have survived.  I felt so guilty that I had been so preoccupied all week.  She said she doubted it.  When they did the x-rays her kidneys were unusually small.  She thought that maybe her kidneys had been functioning only partially to begin with and then something happened that put her over the edge.  And dogs can't handle kidney failure the way cats can.  They just go into rapid decline.

I know I need to clean up everything.  Her dish is still there, her leash is still out.  I've still got the dog shampoo in my shower.  There's open cans of dog food in the fridge.  I have a big case of cans of libby's pumpkin, I would supplement her food with.  What to do with that?

R is grilling Sunday dinner.  Tillie used to get so excited when he did that and follow him in and out, in and out.

Poor Tillie.