Espresso -- All Jacked Up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JezOtqsRr2s

Several reasons for posting this amazing video.

First of all, it's just amazing. Song is by one of my all time favorite artists: Todd Rundgren. The Leggo guy actually looks like Todd.

Second, this is for my niece Erin. The darling is stoically giving up caffeine for her unborn child. What a brave person Erin is. Yeah Erin!

I hope you'll all take a peek at this video. What fun.

Head 'em up, move 'em out

Sorted through and packed almost the entire contents of my mother's home this last week. My sister did most of the work, bless her. So many decisions to make, my decider is worn out for a while. That's most unfortunate as we need to start shopping for Christmas in earnest.

Hauled home more than I should have. Can't think of a thing I let go that I regret. It's just stuff, but stuff tied to precious memories. Found an Easter egg from who knows how many years ago. Real egg, now petrified but still a lovely shade of purple. It's in my hutch. Kelsey will be the keeper of Mr. Duck, the concrete goose my mother lovingly dressed each season. Mom valiantly attempted to keep the squirrels from stealing duck's clothing for their nests. Miranda snapped up most of the Christmas ornaments. She loves all things Christmas. Nick ended up with more practical items and he's pleased with that.

All in all it was a wonderful time together with family.

Thanksgiving

Nearly two weeks since my last blog. That's unforgiveable. Grace is one of the things I'm most grateful for this Thanksgiving, so I'm hoping there's some available here.

Not one but two festive holiday meals planned in the next 72 hours. How fantastic is that? Shows how truly blessed we are as a family and as a country. Abundance is one of the hallmarks of our lives, for better or for worse. Learning about God's abundance in my own life. His infinite capacity where I am so inadequate. His compassionate care for me even if I have trouble being compassionate

OCD Snacking

My daughter has this problem. Maybe one of you can help. She can't randomly eat colored snacks. M&M's, (why is there an apostrophe in the name?), Skittles, Reeses Pieces, anything that comes in random colors causes her problems. As I understand it she has to eat them in pairs. Whatever is left gets handed off to someone else, she can't finish them. I understand her problem but have never felt compelled to give away snacks of any kind for lack of balance. If I have snacks I eat the largest color group first. Sort of a reverse survival-of-the-fittest mentality. Mostly I eat them right out of the bag so I don't see the colors at all. This habit was developed when they introduced blue M&M's. Food should not be blue.

Thank you for all your kind wishes during my recent bout of blogstipation. Hold your hats, I think the tide has turned. Now I have a million ideas and not time to get them posted. Do blog ideas have a shelf life? Can I blog about Halloween after Thanksgiving?

Blogger log

What do you do when you're blogstipated? Nothing comes to you to write about. Oh, there are thoughts in my head but they don't seem worthy. Then reality hits that the last entry was over a week ago. Now not only have I got nothing, I'm embarrased to even show my face again. What to do, what to do?

I could write about something profound like the fact that satan is NOT the equal and opposite of God.

Maybe I could share my daughter's issue with eating snacks and how numbers and colors have to be equal or she can't eat them. But that's not my issue so really not blog stuff.

No one cares anymore that the Huskers are stinking up the place. Plenty of blogs one can go to for that continuing saga.

Guess that means I've got nothing. Is there a remedy? Kristi? Anyone?

Paula Dean's Thanksgiving

Ladies Home Journal arrived with a lovely cover photo of Paula Dean and one of those beautiful, golden brown turkeys on a platter. Inside is a several page spread of Paula's menu plan. This treat included a recipe for something interesting to do with canned jelled cranberries. I'm personally anxious to try that one! It was a nice spread: corned bread stuffing, a cola basted ham to go with the turkey, sweet potato casserole with 900+ calories per serving. Yep, good stuff all the way around. There were however, some glaring omissions. Nothing pumpkin. I can live with that. But there were no mashed potatoes! Can you imagine? No mashed potatoes. You know what that leads to: no gravy!!!

To cut Paula some slack here, there were potatoes, but they were new red potatoes and cooked with the green beans. Now Paula, that's a lovely idea, but seriously!

What I haven't told you is that Paula deep fried the turkey. While some might say that explains why she didn't make gravy, no pan drippings. Why would she make mashed potatoes if there's no gravy. DUH! You have a whole fryer full of oil! Make all that into gravy! Hello!!! Have these people never planned a meal before? That's food utopia, a deep fryer of gravy and the stuffing and mashed potatoes to absorb it all!!!

Can we work cheese into that equation? Just asking, sheesh.

Big Thoughts

Marrianne Williamson gifted the world with these words in her book, "A Return to Love."

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?” Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”