Thinking, doing, being, breathing...

There's got to be a balance somewhere between "doing things" and just "being" and hanging out with people.
I feel guilty if I'm not doing things and accomplishing something. I should be practicing piano, cleaning my room, finding a good job, teaching piano, making food, weeding the garden, (which hasn't yet been planted), writing, ...SOMETHING!! Just DO SOMETHING!!

And yet.....It's also important to rest, relax, learn...just be....just sit and think and process and absorb. Just sit on the porch and talk with people....just go for walks with people.

Where is the balance? Too much "doing" and you get frustrated, cranky and resentful of people who aren't doing as much. Not to mention exhausted and resentful of your lack of time to yourself.

Just "being" and nothing gets done. The garden overgrows with weeds, your diet degenerates into oversalted canned crap and the piano skills disappear. Not to mention the stresses of kicking yourself for your joblessness and wondering if you'll ever survive as a responsible adult...or if you'll just starve quietly in a rundown house with a scrawny stray cat because you don't have the wherewhithall to get up and DO something.

Gah!!!

I feel like that old beer commercial with the penguins...."Do be do be do......"

Where is the balance?

It's not about me

Use the gifts you've been given.

Share with others.

Most importantly....TAKE THE TIME TO LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE AROUND YOU.

Easter Kitty

We dyed the eggs. That was fun. Someone suggested eating one of the extra egg-dye tablets. Money was offered and a nibble was taken, turning a tonge deep green.
Then Ellie strolled by, all black and snowy white fur. And we had all this extra dye. There was only one thing we could do. We caught her, and stroked her into complacency. We tried dipping one snowy paw into a cup of dye. She complained and struggled. Then we took a red dye tablet and dipped it partway into a cup of dye. We rubbed the tablet along her silky fur, petting and calming her all the while. As I type this, I have a black and white tuxedo cat with a reddish streaked ruff and reddish streaked belly purring on my chest. We should dye the cat EVERY Easter.

Buckshot for Prez!

Apparently Ole Buckshot Cheney is comin' to town. He'll be at the Davenport Hotel on the 17th at 5:30 pm to help some senator in a fundraising campaign. Word on the street has it he'll be met by a "not-so-welcoming" committee dressed in blaze orange and wearing targets. (For their protection of course!!) As far as I can tell the quail down by the river don't seem the least bit concerned. Of course, he doesn't hunt quail...he hunts his friends. Me, I'm not taking any chances. I'll be out of town that day.

Click here for more information on activism in Spokane and the "not-so-welcoming committee."

Easter Landslide

Jon and I celebrated Palm Sunday at University Presbyterian Church in Seattle. We worshipped with around a thousand other people (at the 10:00 a.m. service....there were six services). Now begins the Easter landslide. Maundy Thursday is coming, followed by the darkness of Good Friday...break for Saturday, wherein we don't celebrate anything but we do dye the eggs and get ready for Easter Sunday dinner and such. Then Easter Sunday. He is Risen! Hallelujah!! Sunrise Service (at a cemetary nearby...we did the initial planning this morning....Westminster House is in charge of leading it.) Followed by regular service and Easter dinner.....and then I hop the train to ND!!!!!
HOME HOME HOME HOME HOME.....
I've NEVER been away from home for this long before...EVER.

HOME...HOME...HOME.

That is pretty much the main thing on my mind this week. Never mind the fact that I'm STILL jobless....and haven't started really looking for a new job yet. Nevermind that the next door neighbors believe it's perfectly acceptable to sing karaoke loudly and off-key until 11:30 pm and roughly 8 feet from my bedroom window. Nevermind that my car and room are both

gawd-awful messes.

In North Dakota there are new crocuses poking their heads out of the ground and baby chicks about to hatch. I hope to be there to see them. And of course mom and dad are there...and the cats...and my room...and my horse.

[My horse and I are going to have a chat when I get there. I'll say "See, Bandito, you're BIGGER than I am, by about 1500 lbs. And when you freak out at inanimate objects, like the mailbox. I tend to fall off of your back. This creates scar tissue in my neck. I know you understand scar tissue because it's probably in your foot and shoulder. The same thing that makes you limp and nearly sent you to the glue factory, sometimes makes my neck hurt." And he'll probably just look at me with big worried eyes and shove his nose into my chest, sniff me a couple times, and go back to eating hay...silly horse.]

IESG #2 - Shiny Bread

If you remember, I started the Introvert's Everything Survival Guide last fall. The first post involved chapstick and its potential for addicition. This time we're going culinary.

IESG #2 - Shiny Bread

Perhaps you've seen photos of loaves of bread in cookbooks or magazines like "Taste of Home." They look hot and delicious, fresh from the oven, with a sheen across the top that could only mean they were brushed with oil or melted butter. Good bakers recommend brushing your loaves of bread with some form of melted shortening to make the top crust tender. I have another way of getting that nice sheen.

1. Find a good bread recipe in a cook book. I recommend Betty Crocker's cookbook. There are also many recipes at allrecipes.com...Here's a good one!
2. Mix the ingredients well, let rise, punch down, knead, shape into loaves, cover with oiled saran wrap, put in warm place. Let rise again.
   
3. Preheat the oven and stick the bread inside. DO NOT remove the saran wrap. Set the timer.
4. When the timer beeps, come running inside from whatever it was that you were doing. Say to yourself "Wait a second....did I forget to remove the saran wrap?!! UH OH!!!
5. Remove the bread from the oven. The saran wrap has magically DISAPPEARED!!! Your bread has a nice plasticy shine on top.....and look! There's even plastic goo melted to the sides of the bread pan. YUM!!!

disclaimer:
There are in fact two loaves of bread, made with a recipe from Betty Crocker's cookbook, with a "nice plasticy sheen" sitting on top of the Westminster House oven right now. Yes, I did forget to remove the plastic wrap before baking. Should you ever be invited to the Westminster House for fresh baked bread, I suggest you think twice and ask who did the baking.

little hurts

It hurt to feel left out of a secret.

I've long struggled with the notion that I was inferior to my family.
I know that I AM good enough...for my boyfriend, for God...and on some days, for myself.

It's myself that's the problem. My family loves me, and they don't believe I'm inferior.