Peony Moss: August 2003 Archives

Sabbatical

Starting tomorrow morning, I am going to be taking a little break from the blogosphere for at least one week, maybe for two. I need to catch up on some projects, and it will be easier to avoid procrastination if I set a "no blogging, period!" rule for myself. (I will be checking email, in case someone needs get in touch with me to chastise me for miscopying a cookie recipe or or for whatever reason.)


I also want to humbly beg the assistance of St. Blog's with another, more personal project.

A couple of weeks ago, when Sparki shared with us the happy news of her pregnancy, she also included a very gracious nod to women of St Blog's who desired to conceive.

I am one of those women. I have occasionally alluded to the fact that I have polycystic ovarian syndrome, a hormonal disorder that makes conception difficult. When we were married, my husband and I dreamed of having a small army of children. We went through three years of infertility before Hambet was conceived. Now Hambet is two and a half. He needs brothers and sisters. I would be so grateful for prayers for our family, that God might grant us again the gift of life.

(A few weeks ago, Hambet was pointing out a baby he saw at the mall. I asked him, "Would you like a baby?" He seemed interested, so I asked again: "Would you like a baby in our family? A baby brother or sister?" He announced, quite firmly, "Baby sister!" So that is his intention. Hambet is exactly two and a half today.)

Garden Report

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Garden Report

I went out and did a little work in the garden. I'm harvesting carrots now, and I think I'll have enough basil for a batch of pesto this weekend -- yum yum! The Roma tomatoes have lots of green fruit, and one tomato is starting to turn red. The Brandywine tomato is very tall now and has two green fruits. And -- hooray! -- no blossom end-rot! That blight took half my little crop last year. All that soil amendment and eggshell paid off.

I planted a watermelon for the heck of it and it is taking over its patch, so I made a little tent of poles for it to climb on. It has two fruit already that are about the size of bocce balls, and a few more little fruits the size of ping-pong balls. I'm still trying to grow those white eggplants. I have two plants that are still alive, but they haven't set any fruit yet.

I consulted the planting guide that the state extension office sent me, and was full of chagrin to find that I've missed the target date for planting broccoli again! I should have started seeds for transplants a month ago. I may just try planting anyway and see if I get anything.

I do have a garden tragedy -- three of my rhubarbs have withered away! I don't know whether it's the heat, or whether some of the weed killer my husband was using drifted over and killed them. How I hope they come back! But if they don't, I'll just try again next year -- in a different spot. We are setting up a little bed near our shed, and that seems like it might be a nice spot. Meanwhile, I've written to ask the state extension office for advice. I hope they'll have some encouraging news for me.

Katolik Shinja on the roots

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Google Fights! I found out

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Google Fights!

I found out about Google Fights thanks to Roberto Diaz in his comment over at Fr. Sibley's.

Let's see.... (winners in bold)

Harry Potter (5,810,000 results) versus Luke Skywalker(123,000 results)

Gordie Howe (20,700 results) versus Wayne Gretzky (94,400 results)

Dominicans (68,400 results) versus Fransiscans (302 results)

(but, as Davey's mommy points out, correct spelling can change things!) Dominicans (68,400 results) versus Franciscans (79,500 results)

sorry, Kathy and Steven: Dominicans (68,400 results) versus Carmelites (33,400 results)

Opus Dei (84,600 results) versus Regnum Christi (11,300 results)

SSPX (6,780 results) versus FSSP (83,100 results)

St Michael (561,000 results) versus Satan (419,000 results)

Rush Limbaugh (148,000 results) versus Sean Hannity (39,700 results)

We still have more work to do: Mother Angelica (81,800 results) versus Hillary Rodham Clinton (113,000 results); Pope John Paul II (459,000 results) versus culture of death (2,220,000 results)

but hope springs eternal: Hillary Rodham Clinton (113,000 results) versus Blessed Virgin Mary (249,000 results); God (42,700,000 results) versus abortion (2,340,000 results)

Cardinal Ratzinger (22,000 results) versus liturgical abuses (7,380 results)

mutual submission (454,000 results) versus beer (7,940,000 results)

Here's one for Erik: home rendered lard (5,190 results) versus shortening (492,000 results)

breastfeeding (938,000 results) versus bottlefeeding (5,180 results)

Two Sleepy Mommies (2,220 results) versus chirp (133,000 results)

Pansy (299,000 results) versus Peony (166,000 results)

Baby Veronika's baptism pictures are

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So what does wifely submission

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So what does wifely submission look like? (or, you catch more beer with honey than with vinegar)

In the discussion over at Jeff's blog, Michelle wonders about how wifely submission works out on a practical scale. Maybe we can toss that around a little bit here.

Perhaps people would be more open to the teaching of hierarchy in the family if they knew that there were actually wives out there trying to live it. As I commented at Jeff's, I think a lot of people out there -- women and men -- have deformed ideas about obedience and authority -- that obedience is abject servility and authority is arbitrary, absolute power -- and that they have to unlearn these old ideas before they can be open to this teaching. Otherwise, you're going to have a lot of throughly modern Millies tossing their heads -- no way are they going to be subject to any man! -- because they think submission is servility, that it means not feeling free to spend $2.00 on a latte at the mall, that it's fetching beer for some cartoon fundamentalist tyrant in a recliner. There are also men out there who jump at the chance to be petty kings in their own home, forgetting that Godly kingship is service, not tyranny. They want to be the Sun King instead of St Louis.

Our marriage prep classes (conducted in the Archdiocese of Washington) actually did (briefly) touch on this teaching. One of the presentations was a "video presentation" -- part of a taped lecture by Dr. Scott Hahn on the chapter on Ephesians. In the lecture, Dr Hahn clearly discussed wifely obedience, and made it clear that this was not some first-century relic -- that it was a model of the Church's obedience to Christ. And he did not forget St Paul's instructions to husbands: You are to love your wives as Christ loved the Church. That means you have to lay down your life for her. (I noticed that my fiance seemed to be a much more attentive during this part of the presentation.)

in practice, I think the headship of the husband is going to look slightly different for each family, based on the different talents and personalities of the spouses. In our own family, the first time I consciously thought, "ok, time to do that wifely submission thing" was when we were engaged and deciding where our first home was going to be. In the D.C. metro area, there is a cultural divide between Virginia people and Maryland people. Usually it's just the stuff of gentle teasing, but some people get really worked up about it (especially Maryland people.) When we were engaged, we were both living in Virginia, but we started considering moving to Maryland. At that time I was a confirmed Virginia person. My husband had moved to the area a little more recently, so he didn't see this as the huge identity issue I did.

We looked at apartments on both sides of the river, and went back and forth in our minds. I made my case for Virginia, he made his case for Maryland. But eventually it was time to make a decision, and he said, "Maryland."

I still didn't want to move to Maryland, so what was I going to do? Was I going to whine and moan and henpeck and wheedle and manipulate until I got my own way at last? Or was I going to heed St Paul and... submit? I chose the St Paul route.

(When I told my good friend Iris, a confirmed Virginia person (and a member of a fundamentalist church), that we were planning to move, I only mentioned that my fiance was firm on Maryland and that's where we were going to go. She immediately (and approvingly) commented, "doing 'the Ephesians thing,' aren't you?")

Same thing with buying our house. We discussed together whether or not it was time to move, but he had the final word. When we were choosing houses, he paid attention to my input and I paid attention to his, but when he vetoed a house I liked, I didn't whine, moan, wheedle, etc. just to get my own way -- we moved on and looked at other houses. And when it comes time to decide how Hambet will be educated (parish school v. homeschool), the decison will be made the same way. I trust my husband, and know he will show respect for me by discussing the issue with me and listening to my thoughts on the issue. But if we come to differing conclusions, he will have the final word.

Anyway, that's how this particular wife thinks about submission and puts it into practice. It is easy to do, in that I know my husband pays attention to my thoughts and that I know he is making decisions with the best interests of the whole family in mind. In daily life, I do most of the cooking and cleaning, and I try to keep my husband's tastes and preferences in mind in the way I run the house. At the same time, my husband doesn't act like he's condescending, or doing me some immense favor, if he runs the vacuum or cares for his own child. I don't feel like I'm "being ordered around." He doesn't lie around in the recliner demanding beer, but I'm happy to bring him one because I want to do something nice for him.

But it's easy to do when things are going well (and it doesn't always run this smoothly at the Maryland Moss household, for that matter.) For families where the husband is domineering or neglectful, or where the wife is greedy or contentious, this is where obedience and authority become crosses, and I don't know what to say about that.

A little milestone We've just

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A little milestone

We've just cracked 10,000 page views! (that's from the installation of the site meter, not the launch of the blog.) (Of course, 6,000 of those were probably disappointed seekers of lyrics + lindsay + lohan....)

DEO GRATIAS: FOUND! A big

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DEO GRATIAS: FOUND!

A big thank-you to Saint Anthony, the guardian angels of the house, my dear husband, and everyone who prayed for the safe recovery of my engagement ring (and the other ring I lost!) I just found them-- and in one of the first places I should have looked: the air return duct in our family room. Hambet, the little magpie, loves to see what he can fit into that register cover. I've recovered bank cards and all kinds of other things from that duct.

I had actually lost two rings -- an engagement ring and another ring I keep in the same place -- but the engagement ring was the one that really had my stomach in knots. Yesterday I was tearing my house apart looking for the rings: moving the refrigerator, completely taking apart the dresser, emptying drawers, turning out pockets, the bit. I even sifted through all the trash, including the trash that we'd already taken outside. On his way out the door this morning, my husband remembered the register cover and suggested that I check it today. Before I did, I wanted to check at Home Depot to see if I could get a replacement register cover (it looks awful, so as long as I was taking it off, I might as well replace it.) They didn't have one in the right size, so I just came home, unscrewed one side of the cover, and peeked in. And there they were!

I am so grateful to my husband for being so calm and understanding about this. Not a word of rebuke; only forgiveness and optimism.

Notes to self: 1) Keep an eye on the jewelry, and keep it out of reach! 2) Next time something small is missing, check the register cover before looking anyplace else.

Davey's mommy and daddy, take note!

Wifely submission HMS Blog has

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Wifely submission

HMS Blog has been kicking around the topic of wifely submission, and Jeff has further commentary, with an excerpt from Casti Connubii, over at his place (including illiterate ravings in his comment box by yours truly.)

Not praying the Divine Mercy

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Not praying the Divine Mercy chaplet?

This may be a good reason to start. (WaPo; marketing questions.)

Thanks to Mark Shea for the link.

Saint Anthony 911! This is

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Saint Anthony 911!

This is going to sound so frivolous, but my engagement ring is missing. I am alternating between frantic searches and wanting to just plop down on the floor and weep.

Would be so grateful for prayers for its prompt reappearance.

A trip to the fair

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A trip to the fair

Today I took Hambet to the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair. Normally I would have gone with my husband, but we couldn't figure out a good time to do it -- last year, we went the first weekend and some of the exhibits weren't up yet. The year before that, we went on the last weekend and half the exhibits were being taken down. Going during the week proved to be a good time as far as everything being up, but I still didn't get a chance to leisurely stroll around contemplating the prize-winning zucchini because Hambet was with me (and he was determined to leave me behind.)

I love fairs. Forget the midway, I love strolling around and looking at all the animals and being glad there are kids in this world as happy and normal-looking as these 4-H kids. (A couple of boys set up their goat stall with a hilarious "Monster Goat Barn" theme: "If it's tense, and under pressure, and about to burst....MILK IT!" I am not recounting the jokes very well, but trust me, it was funny.) Hambet liked looking at the animals in their stalls, and sheep-shearing held his attention for a minute or two, but he really liked the petting area, especially when he got to feed the animals. He wasn't sure about the pony ride at first, but after the first lap he started to get into it. (I still don't think he fully understood the significance of a pony ride.)

It didn't seem like there were as many booths this year. Usually you can come away with buckets of literature and pencils and weird little toys, but not this year. Maybe I just wasn't looking as hard.

After a couple of hours, Hambet was starting to droop. I revived him (and myself!) with a strawberry milkshake so thick that the straws kept collapsing, and we headed off to the midway. Our destination was the Fire and Rescue display. Hambet got to see fire engines up close (including the tower engine, with its tower fully extended), and when the fire fighters gave him a little plastic helmet, I think his little cup of joy ran right over. They had an inflatable slide shaped like a fire engine, so he got to scramble around on that for a while. Finally I poured him into the stroller and we headed on home. I am getting ready to take him up to bed, and I suspect he's going to insist on bringing that hat to bed with him.

Speaking of babies.... baby Veronika

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Speaking of babies....

baby Veronika has her own spot now on the family server, with plenty of adorable pictures. I cannot get over how big she looks in these pictures, and how many of them catch her smiling!

What Use Is Literature? I

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What Use Is Literature?

I so liked this article. It articulates perfectly why I swooned over novels and poetry as a teen, and why I longed to be a Writer myself. He even discusses Emma, my favorite Jane Austen book.

New treatments for hypochondria A

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New treatments for hypochondria

A very interesting article about hypochondria and its possible link to obsessive-compulsive disorder.

How to find the Two Sleepy Mommies

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How to find the Two Sleepy Mommies

freaky + friday + Lindsay + Lohan
anime + mommies
lindsay + lohan + lyrics
tom's + of + Maine
old + Catholic + kids + poems
attachment + parenting + pediatrician + Westchester + County
enfamil + by + the + pallet Check here first, okay?
lindsay + lohan + lyrics
lindsay + lohan + lyrics
lindsay + lohan + lyrics
kids + Spanish + Hail + Mary + activities
annabella's + salon + washington + dc
fudge + pie
rhubarb + crisp
lyrics + to + lindsay + lohan
lizzie + maguire + lyrics
dieting + while + nursing You too.please
Archbishop + Lefebvre + pictures + evil

Wow! Mr Lileks went shopping

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Wow!

Mr Lileks went shopping at the same grocery store my parents go to all the time! (It's at the end of the piece.)

Ok, it doesn't take much to get me excited.

Check out chirp's new look!

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Check out chirp's new look!

including Davey's mommy's post explaining New York pizza.

Public Policy Targeting Obesity (may

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Public Policy Targeting Obesity (may require answering a couple of marketing questions)

My favorite part:

"The word 'epidemic' doesn't even do this justice. It is one of the most profound medical crises we've had in generations," said Eric Topol, who as the chief of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic treats the most serious obesity-related heart cases. "We are at the point now where it is so profound we have to be creative, and we can't take decades to fix this because it's happening so fast."... If he were a politician instead of a heart doctor, Topol said, he would have every American weigh in at the post office on tax filing day each year. (emphasis added)

To put my comments in perspective, I have been overweight as long as I can remember. I went from being mildly chubby as a child (although I thought I was enormous, since I took to heart the comments of my peers -- Hey, I saw you at the movies, Jabba the Hutt! -- and the disapproving looks of the school nurse) to being a plump teenager to a fat young adult. (The last phase took place when I watched my weight shoot up by about 50 pounds when I was in nursing school and then starting my career.)

First of all, Dr. Topol, have you not learned yet that shame and humiliation are not effective ways to get overweight people to lose weight? More on this to come.

How much of this obesity "epidemic" is real and how much is manufactured? I resent being asked to get all excited about numbers that seem inflated -- it seems like every time the government juggles the definition of "overweight" by twiddling with the BMI statistics or whatever, another ten million Americans wake up to find out the government thinks they're fat. When they get these numbers, are they factoring out the very fit and muscular, whose high BMIs make them statistically overweight? How about the outliers -- the very, very large people? If you have a couple of five-hundred-pound people in your sample, that's going to throw off your statistics. What about the aging of the population, as more and more boomers discover middle-age spread?

That being said, there are more and more overweight Americans, and more and more heavy kids. And a good deal of this collective weight gain is directly related to the fact that we as a nation eat more and exercise less than we used to. People got much more exercise in the 'forties and 'fifties just by going about their lives: they walked to the bus stop, they drove cars with manual transmissions, they used manual typewriters, they hung laundry on the clothesline, they went bowling in the evenings instead of hanging around watching cable. When they did stay in to watch television, they were getting up and down to change the channel and adjust the antenna. They did not eat out as often, and when they did, they were served smaller portions

I don't think that hectoring people with public service ads (Get off the couch, fatty!) is going to do any good, though. Has it yet? And the government can slap as many taxes as it wants on DVDs and sodas; I doubt it's going to make much of a dent. To me the real root of the problem is the frenetic pace at which we live our lives. Our society's disdain for housewives and traditional domestic arts has led to adults that don't know how to plan meals and cook in the best of circumstances. People are working longer hours now, and when you're putting in a ten-hour day and going home to small children and a house to clean, when are you going to have time to go to the gym and make some healthy food from scratch? So much easier to pick up some take-out and flop on the couch for a while. Take-out and convenience food, though, is highly processed and full of sugar and fat. Plus, all this grinding, day-to-day, never-goes-away job-commute-whining-tired-children-not-enough-sleep-dirty-house stress causes our bodies to release stress hormones that further aggravate obesity by increasing both our appetites and our bodies' propensity to store fat.

Look around -- food is everywhere, in restaurants, mini-marts, vending machines, and any kind of store you could think of. I don't buy candy on impulse, and I tend to just not even see it when I'm shopping. Having a toddler, though, opened my eyes -- candy is everywhere (and Hambet sees it all, of course, and loudly asks for it!) I just about gave up when I went to Borders and couldn't even get past the front door without Hambet pointing out the candy and soda displays by the check-out desk. (I suppose one never knows when one might pass out from hunger while waiting five minutes to pay for the books.)

It's just normal life now to be surrounded by food in large quantities, and when you're already stressed and not eating well, your body is not in logical, "It is not rational to purchase a Big Gulp and a Snickers. It is not rational to heat up a frozen pizza for the third time this week. It is not rational to eat ice cream out of the carton while standing in front of the open freezer. The rational choice is to go to the grocery store, choose some healthy food, stand in line to buy it, bring it home, find a clean pan, open your low-fat cookbook and learn to cook something." mode. If your body is starved for nutrients and crazy with stress hormone, that rational part of your brain is not operating at all. Your body is in that animal, Calories! Familiar food! Now! Eat it! mode.

And as for exercise, there are still a lot of people out there who think that exercise means looking like the models in the Bally ad -- that exercise is for other people, people who are already thin and beautiful, not for people like me. Other people simply don't have a safe or pleasant place to walk. Try walking to lunch in Tyson's Corner, Virginia! I dare you! In my county, more people are killed by cars than are killed in homicides. Some women are embarrassed about their appearance, especially wearing exercise clothes. I wonder if Dr Topol has ever gone for a walk, and had men lean out their car windows and call him a fat bitch?

Add to this that our society is not big on temperance and delayed gratification... (go ahead! buy that car! have sex! don't worry about waiting for marriage, just take a pill now or take care of it later -- not that it's really a baby...)

Doctors and anti-obesity harpies would be a lot more successful if they would be a little more sympathetic and remember that "eat less and exercise more" can involves enormous amounts of relearning and reprogramming. People who were once thin and then gain a little weight may have more skills to call on. People who have always been fat and don't know what it's like to be thin -- who can't even imagine themselves thin -- may not have those skills.

I also think that it would be helpful if doctors would realize that sometimes obesity is the symptom and not the disease. There are over 200 genetic components, yet to be studied, that control appetite, satiety, and metabolism. There is so much that is unknown about how our hormones and nervous system work together in our incredibly complex bodies.

I know for myself it was very discouraging to rapidly gain about fifty pounds in my early twenties and not be able to figure out why. Of course, at the time, I was preoccupied with the fact that I was depressed, had bad acne and a deranged menstrual cycle, and was trying to launch my nursing career even while feeling stressed and very lonely. It took ten years before I was finally diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome, which is a hormonal disorder that, among other things, makes it easy to gain, and difficult to lose, weight. And even after I had this diagnosis, I consulted an endocrinologist for help (Can you please tell me about treatment options for this disorder that makes it almost impossible to lose weight?) and his "help" was, "Well, first, lose some weight -- you could easily lose at least sixty pounds...." Easily? Thanks, pal. I much preferred the candor of another doctor who, after I asked him "tell me how to lose all this weight you want me to lose", admitted, "well...I don't know."

(While I'm ranting, I'd also like to give a shout-out to the doctor who told one of our patients that the reason that her legs suddently started hurting was because she was morbidly obese (never mind that she had been obese the week before and had not had leg pain.) She did get a second opinion, but by the time her doctor discovered the genetic blood disorder that was causing her blood to clot abnormally, the clots in her legs that were causing the pain had led to so much tissue damage that she had to have both legs amputated below the knees.)

Some practical public policy initiatives might include subsidizing more exercise programs, including more innovative "starter" classes reserved for those who are very fat or unfit. Some health insurance companies already offer their members discounts at certain gyms; maybe more companies could do this. Local governments could encourage developers to make new projects pedestrian-friendly. Go ahead and get those candy machines and Channel One freebies out of the school. Reinstate P.E. (perhaps you could free up some time by cutting sex ed?)

We could also tone down the immoderate way in which we approach health, in which we get all excited about the latest study and look at food as aggregations of biochemicals instead of as nourishment? First it was cholesterol, then it was dietary fat. Food manufactuers happily put the American Heart Association seal on any low-fat, low-cholesterol food that met the AHA's numbers, leading people to think low-fat Lucky Charms are good for you -- they're low in fat, aren't they? Now trans fat is the villian du jour, and Dr. Topol thinks it should be not just labeled but outlawed. How long until we move on to the next dietary bad guy? All we're doing is training people to either become food fanatics or roll their eyes and say, "well, everything's going to kill you, so pass the ice cream."

And, memo to the medical establishment: how about doing more research into why people become fat? Why do some people become fat and some people stay lean? How in the world do some people gain hundreds of pounds -- are their brains or their metabolisms wired differently? Tell us more about why women gain quickly and lose slowly. Maybe there's a reason for middle-age spread that we haven't discovered yet. Maybe people are somewhat right when they say, "It's in my family" or "it's my hormones." How about doing more research into therapeutic strategies to overcome poor body image, eating disorders, and learned helplessness?Maybe we should focus on fitness and health instead of on weight, so that people don't wreck their metabolisms with yo-yo dieting.

Ultimately, I don't think this problem is going to be solved by having the government throw money at it and having doctors nag at us. This problem is not going to be solved until we address the crazy way we live our lives; until our society winds down to a saner pace that affords us enough time to take a walk, get some rest, and learn to cook real food and eat it with our families; until we remember what real people look like (especially women who have had babies), stop worshipping youth and beauty, and stop expecting women to look like adolescent boys all their lives; until we leave perfectionism and gluttony behind and embrace temperance.

Fructus Ventris has moved.

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Wow! Thank you so much

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Wow!

Thank you so much to Mr. Peter Vere for plugging us not just once, but twice in one week over at Envoy Encore!

To new visitors to our blog, welcome! We're not much into protracted comments-box bickering over current events and theological issues. But if you want to get away from that kind of thing for a while and talk about just living the Christian life, especially Christian family life, pull up a chair, pour yourself a cup of coffee, and have a cookie.

Keeping kids reading Today, I

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Keeping kids reading

Today, I found Lynn's blog Scattershot Direct ("Truth, beauty, darkness, and ire, all coming to you directly through the random focus of a Catholic mom, horror writer, and wannabe organic rancher"), which looks full of all kinds of interesting tales and observations. A sample:

the kid agreed that it was rather dubious that the Vatican would ever agree to give priests some sort of bioengineered/nanotechnology modifications, even if it did make them into superior vampire killers....

She's got a three post series on encouraging children to develop the habit of reading (be patient; at this writing her page is loading erratically):

Part One: Harry Potter is an easy book for children to enjoy-- the reading level is not too high for most readers, but it's straightforward enough to appeal to even higher level readers. The action is both swift and predictable-- something is going to happen in each season, there will be danger and jokes, and there will be lots of images which are easy to visualize. Chocolate frogs, say, or a giant bearded groundskeeper, or a ginger-furred tomcat with torn ears. It has a very broad appeal. It gives children a taste of the pleasure that is to be had from reading. And then, when the children attempt to replicate that pleasure by reading another book, the troubles begin....

Part Two: Now comes the tricky part: how do you get parents to understand books? You know, something as simple as *more* categorization of juvenile and young adult titles might help a great deal, for the children and their parents. Grouping books of similar reading difficulty and subject together, that might work. Having the shelves organized by topic (there could be a special shelf for seriously depressing, albeit noble and topical novels that are in line to win lots of awards.) How difficult would it be to make sure 10 year old kids can *find* Eager's "Magic" series when they finish HP? It can't be too trying to put game and movie tie-in novels on the same shelf as the video game magazines. (I know, this falls into the area of the big agreements between retailers and companies, but those are evil anyways. Abolish.) What must be overcome, however, is the public perception that books are something esoteric and rare, something you buy only once in a great while. And while I hate to say it, the answer may rely partially on the Evil Corporate Entity that starts with "Wal" and other corporations of that ilk....

Part Three: Unlike television, books allow for a slower and more developed view of character, motivation, and plot. This deeper involvement is what gives books their emotional resonance....

Looks like Lynn lives around San Antonio. Does Blue Bell Ice Cream still have their Cherry Amaretto flavor? If so, I hope she'll scoop herself a nice yummy bowlful for me.

A prayer request Bill White

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A prayer request

Bill White of Minute Particulars is requesting prayers for his wife.

Thanks to alicia for the heads-up.

Blogkeeping

Our comments are afflicted with the same quirk that's been bothering Alicia: they are showing "zero", even when there are indeed comments. This seems to be affecting all the posts from Thursday on.

So don't be fooled -- go ahead and click, there might be something there!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is a favorite family recipe. In college, a friend used to call these “destroyers” (as in, they destroy your will to resist.)

It makes a light, flavorful cookie with a hint of crisp. To Christmas-ify it, you could substitute red and green M&Ms for the chocolate chips.

My sisters and I used to experiment with adding different flavor extracts. I liked almond; we also got good results with a hint of peppermint extract.


Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup shortening, butter, or margarine (I get the best results with half shortening, half butter. Shortening gives a nice texture and butter gives a nice taste)
1 cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
12 oz chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease cookie sheets.

Cream shortening and sugar until fluffy. Stir in eggs and vanilla until smooth.

Sift flour, soda, and salt together and stir in.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes. Cool on a cooling rack.

*sniff* I guess I am

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*sniff* I guess I am rich

According to the link Pansy posted, our advance refund should have been mailed on July 25. But it hasn't come yet!

Where's our bling-bling?

Another baby story: Happy (slightly

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Such hard labor, such blessed

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Such hard labor, such blessed results.

Dinka has posted her birth story.

Thanks to gnat from Mothering With Grace, who gave us this recipe.

The first time I made these, last fall, I turned my back for a moment (the fatal last words) and turned back around to find Hambet standing on the table with a muffin in each hand and a third stuffed in his mouth. He looked up at me and explained, "yummy!" Later, I sent the recipe to my mom, who made some for my grandma, who also pronounced them "yummy." So there you go, endorsements from age 2 to 92.


1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup chocolate chips

Mix dry ingredients and set aside.

In large bowl, beat eggs. Stir in pumpkin, melted butter and chips. Slowly add dry ingredients, mix well. Spoon into muffin pan. Bake 2-25 minutes at 350.

For mini-muffins, use mini chips and decrease baking time to 15-18 minutes.

(gnat says milk chocolate chips are especially good in this recipe)

Dave Barry ate bars during

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Recipe Week Continues!

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Let's continue the ethnic food theme with a North Dakota delicacy: bars! Bars are a kind of very substantial cookie. They are great for picnics because they don't fall apart easily. They sit at the very tippy-top of the food pyramid -- purely recreational food.

Scotcharoos

In a saucepan, bring to a boil:
1 cup white sugar
1 cup corn syrup

Remove from heat and stir in until smooth:
1 1/2 cups peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla

Stir in 5-6 cups rice-krispie type cereal (cheerio-type, special-K type cereals also work too)
Mix until the cereal is coated and put in a 13x9 inch pan

Frosting:
12 oz bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
6 oz bag butterscotch chips

Melt these together in a microwave or on the stovetop until they're just soft (try 1-2 minutes in the microwave at first); mix until chips are blended. Spread over the bars in the pan.

Put it in the fridge to set for a couple of hours. After they set, they can be left at room temperature.

Scooped again! I fell over

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Scooped again!

I fell over laughing last Sunday at this Baby Blues comic strip.

Alicia beat me to actually blogging it, though!

Now for the cum omnibuspart.

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Now for the cum omnibuspart.

So what do you like on your pizza? It took me a couple of reads to figure out what was going on at the chirp house with that zucchini pizza. At first I assumed that the zucchini was being used as a pizza topping. Then I looked again and saw that the zucchini was part of the crust of the pizza. It sounds like it was some kind of weird quiche thing. I guess I am a food Tory or something, because to me that is not pizza. Pizza involved bread with stuff on it, not stuff on top of non-bread stuff. Mollie Katzen should call that thing what it is, and it is not a pizza.

And the stuff on top of a pizza should not involve zucchini, either! No trying to sneak broccoli on the pizza either, that is just fake.

I like smaller amounts of things with a strong flavor, so even if I weren't opposed to zucchini on ideological grounds, I think it would just be too bland and watery. I actually do not care for pepperoni, it makes me unbearably thirsty. I like things like ham (especially prosciutto), well-drained sausage, mushrooms, olives, things like that. The pizza I made last week had chicken, olives, mushrooms, and bacon. One of these days I'm going to make what I am told is a pizza quattro stagioni (ham, mushrooms, artichokes, and anchovies.)

I am open to trying exotic and unusual ingredients. My dh and I honeymooned in California (Carmel and Monterey), where we tried pizza topped with smoked salmon and gorgonzola. We really liked it, and we make it at home sometimes.

There is a restaurant nearby that lavishes such vast quantities of toppings on its pizza that it's hard to see the (mounds of) cheese through the swarms of toppings. Then you lift your slice and the toppings rain down on the plate. I am not crazy about that "dump every possible ingredient in huge quanitities" approach. So I guess that means I am not of the tribe of Chicago-style pizza.

It is amazing how deeply satisfying pizza is. Did God give us a pizza-loving gene? As soon as Hambet figures out I am making pizza, he literally jumps for joy. He stands at the oven door and watches it bake. When I pull it out of the oven, he leaps into his booster seat. Once I slid the pizza onto the cutting board, turned around for a moment, and turned back around to find Hambet standing on the table, crouching low by the pizza, rolling the pizza wheel all over it.

Da mihi nunc sis crustum

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Da mihi nunc sis crustum Etruscum cum omnibus in eo.

Now it is my turn to comment on pizza dough. First, the disclaimers. I have mentioned occasionally that my upbringing was mostly suburban, and my early culinary experiences were heavily influenced by my mother's growing up on a farmhouse on the prairie. (For real! They had electricity and all that, though.) What this means is that I have no Italian heritage to call upon, no fond memories of Noo Yauk pizza parlors (I wouldn't mind, by the way, if someone were to give me the 411 on what exactly makes a pizza "New York" style.) I don't own a pizza stone -- I had one but I accidentally broke it, and I haven't replaced it because I found it to be bulky and difficult to store, and because I hated the pizza peel.

My mom makes pizza that we always liked just fine when we were growing up. She made the dough herself and baked the pizzas in jelly-roll pans. For a long time, homemade pizza was our family's traditional Christmas Eve dinner. I also made pizza in college that my friends seemed to like (I never had leftovers.) Cooking in college was one step up from camping -- my pizza pan was the metal lid to a 13x9 inch baking pan. I also am not an experienced bread-baker; pizza dough is pretty much the only thing I make with yeast.

The point of all this is that purists and pizza virtuosos are probably going to laugh and sneer at these reflections. They are going to scoff at my crust and denounce it as too puffy, not authentic, whatever.

Well, they can go jump in the lake. This is not even pizza 101, but it's a reasonably successful recipe and my friends always ate the pizza all up. It is a combination of the recipe as given to me and my own annotations. I tried to stay away from anything too fancy or scary sounding.

Equipment: A baking sheet is essential. I strongly recommend an oven thermometer for this and any kind of baking (this lesson learned after many tears shed in nursing school over ruined cookies baked in an oven later discovered to be running 100 degrees too hot.) I also like using an instant-read meat thermometer (the kind that looks like a dial on a stick, or like a tire gauge). An oven safe mixing bowl (two bowls are helpful), a hand towel, measuring cups.

Pizza dough for two a la Chandler Hall (makes one 11-inch pizza):

1 pkg active dry yeast (I never got the rapid-rise, the regular kind worked just fine for me. If you double the recipe, you still only use one package of yeast)
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup warm water, about 110 degrees. You can use the thermometer to check the temp of the water if you're nervous. It should be about the temperature of a newborn's bathwater, not the temperature of your bracing hot (or cold! shower.) You want to give your little yeast organisms a nice spa experience.
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
1 cups bread flour, with more flour for sprinkling (I got satisfactory results with all-purpose flour. If you are just getting started, I would hold off on whole wheat flour until you get the touch; it will make the dough stiffer. Then use half white, half wheat, experimenting until you get the ratio you like best.)

1. Turn your oven to warm or whatever its absolute lowest possible setting is. Get a pastry cloth or a board ready (a cutting board or any clean surface will do) by sprinkling about 1/3 flour over it.

2. In a large bowl, sprinkle yeast and sugar over water; let stand for 5 minutes to soften. Don't worry if you see beige foam on the water -- that's the yeast cranking up.

3. Add salt, the 1 1/2 Tbsp oil, and 1 cup of the flour; mix until dough is elastic and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Take the dough and turn it out on your board. Knead 5-10 minutes until the dough is smooth and springy (I've heard some people say, "like a baby's bottom") with small bubbles just beneath the surface (don't get too anxious about the bubbles, this is a subtle sign and you will be able to feel them better than you can see them.)

4. Lightly grease the oven safe bowl with olive oil and plop the dough in it. Turn the dough over so the top is greased too. Cover it with a towel, pop it in your oven, and turn the oven off. Let rise until roughly doubled in volume (45 to 60 minutes.)

Pizza sauce

If you want, you can make a nice pizza sauce while the dough is rising. You need a 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes in tomato puree.

Take a saucepan (a 4 qt should be big enough) and pour in some olive oil. Heat it on medium until the oil is warm, shimmery, and sizzles a little (but not spattery.) Meanwhile, if you want garlic in your sauce, peel two cloves and mash them flat with the flat side of your knife. (You can use garlic powder in a pinch) Add the smooshed garlic to the oil. Mmmm, doesn't that smell good? Don't let it burn or get brown. When the garlic is kind of soft, add the tomatoes and stir in 1 tsp oregano, 1/2 tsp of basil, 1/4 tsp garlic powder if you didn't have any fresh, and around 1/4 tsp of salt.

Let the sauce simmer on the back burner on low heat for at least 30 minutes. Get your pizza toppings ready: grate your cheese (or cheeses), fry your sausage, slice your mushrooms, whatever.

Lightly grease your baking sheet (I use shortening.) You can dust the sheet with cornmeal if you have it.

When your dough is ready, take it out of the oven and punch it down. Move your oven rack to the lowest position and heat your oven to 450 degrees.

Take your dough and start shaping it. It sounds like is the tricky part for everybody. This article on pizza has some hints on stretching the dough out. (It also has a pizza recipe that I have used with some success, but it calls for a food processor.) I still can't do it exactly the way they talk about in the article -- it might be because I make smaller pizzas -- and it definitely won't work exactly as written for this recipe, because this recipe makes a small pizza. Basically you want to start shaping the dough in the air, using your hands to gently stretch it into a disc, a little at a time in each direction. If the dough tears, don't panic, just scrunch it together and try it again. In his comment over at Kathy's, Erik suggest popping the dough in the fridge to cool it down if it is too springy. I will be trying this hint at the first opportunity.

When the dough is as streched out as you can get it in the air, move it to your baking sheet and finish up there. Use your fingertips to gently stretch the dough. I have better results if I keep moving, doing a small section at a time, not letting any part of the dough get too thin. Sometimes I'll even pick a section up and pull it a little bit. I wish I could be more exact, but I'm not good at describing what I mean. With each pizza I get a bit better. And phooey to the Authenticity Police, I do use a rolling pin if nothing else works.

Turn up the edge if you like, and let's put the toppings on! First take some of that delicious sauce and spread it out over the pizza. Then add your cheese (I personally do not care for gobs of cheese, and prefer smaller amounts of mozzarella combined with sharper cheeses.) and your other toppings.

Slide your baking sheet into the oven on that lowest rack and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Pull it out when it's done and let it stand for a couple of minutes. Slide it onto a cutting board (use a spatula to loosen it from the pan, if needed, and guide it onto the cutting board) and enjoy.

If you have any leftovers, they freeze well. You can also use this dough to make calzones: On a board, shape the dough into smaller circles (6-9 inches in diameter.) Put some toppings on half of each circle and fold the other half over. Press the edges together. Prick the tops with a fork and lightly brush the tops with olive oil. Transfer to the greased, cornmealed baking sheet. Bake as above. I made a couple of these on Friday and froze them for my husband's lunches.

Great, another overly-long Peony post. I hope this was helpful to someone.

I feel a little embarrassed

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I feel a little embarrassed to be posting on something as lightheared as pizza dough after Pansy's troubles and her heartfelt posts.

Thank you, dear readers, thank you so much. Please let's keep praying together for healing and reconciliation in Pansy's family....

Silent Suffering: Enduring the Pain

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House Report This afternoon I

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House Report

This afternoon I went on a huge dust-and-vacuum crusade, including wiping the baseboards and the tops of the door frames. Now the house smells sweet and clean, and Hambet has dozed off in a chair, where he was taking refuge when I was vacuuming.

It's so easy to put stuff like this off, and the longer you put it off, the worse it gets, and the more you want to put it off, losing sight of how easy it is to put things to rights and how much more pleasant it is when you finally do it.

Someday I'll be watching the movie of my life, and I'm not sure which part will be the most dreadful: reviewing the opere or the omissione.

Garden Report I am excited

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Garden Report

I am excited about gardening again -- now that we've finally gotten some sun, the plants are perking up nicely. Both of the Roma tomatoes have blossoms and are starting to set fruit. I think the biggest threat to my tomatoes now is going to be Hambet -- he picked two of the tiny tomatoes last time we were out! The Brandywine is tall and vigorous but no blossoms yet.

A couple of weeks ago, when I was training one of the Romas around its little teepee, I was a little too rough and snapped off a piece of stalk with its leaves. Just for fun, I tried just sticking it in the ground to see what would happen. It's rooted and is starting to grow. So I transplanted it to the square vacated by the poor departed "Taxi" tomato. I will be quite tickled if it survives. More of the basils are starting to sprout -- some in really weird locations -- so I transplanted them to better locations. If the basils all make it, I will be running a pesto factory by the end of the summer. The white eggplants are starting to revive, too, so perhaps they will end up being a success as well.

I'm really pleased with this square-foot scheme -- the intensive gardening idea really does seem to help keep the weeds down, and it's easy to spot and yank any weeds that do pop up, so there's less temptation to put weeding off.

The front bed -- herbs and flowers -- is looking a lot better, too. I did lose another lamb's ear, but the rest seem to be doing really well. The herbs are doing great. I moved two rosemarys and they seem to be adapting to their new spot. The mints and purple sages are also flourishing. I've been making ice cream with the mint; perhaps Erik can suggest something to do with all that fresh sage.

Blessed Junipero Serra. A blessed

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Blessed Junipero Serra. A blessed saint's day to all (or whatever one calls a Blessed's day -- yet another way I was cheated by poor catechesis -- but I digress), especially our California bloggers, and to Dinka, who may be having a really exciting day today!

UPDATE: Oh, for silly -- I somehow failed to notice that the calendar was still turned to July. Happy St Alphonsus Ligouri Day!

While I was poking around

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While I was poking around this morning and updating the links, I came across this little treasure, originally posted on Apologia:

We are not sent into this world for nothing; we are not born at random; we are not here that we may go to bed at night and get up in the morning, toil for our bread, eat and drink, laugh and joke, sin when we have a mind, and reform when we are tired of sinning, rear a family and die. -- Cardinal Newman

I think I may have posted this before, but I like it so much, dad gum it, I'm going to do it again.

Wow, Erik has moved too.

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Wow, Erik has moved too.

At this rate, Pansy and I will soon be the only ones left at blogspot. It's unlikely that we'll be using any of the pin money on a paid host.

Apologia has moved. Wow, dear

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Apologia has moved.

Wow, dear Mr. Luse has his own domain name now!


Di Fattura Caslinga: Pansy's Etsy Shop
The Sleepy Mommy Shoppe: Stuff we Like
(Disclaimer: We aren't being compensated to like this stuff.
Any loose change in referral fees goes to the Feed Pansy's Ravenous Teens Fund.)


Pansy and Peony: The Two Sleepy Mommies



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