He Brought Home the Bacon

Not only did he bring it home, but he fried it up right after church. Home-grown, not-exactly-certified organic bacon. We put the first hog up ourselves as chops, ribs, loin, and tons of ground pork, and Daddy got a good bit for sausage, but I was sorely dissipointed that for all his pig-farming ways, the master did not have the knowledge or the means to prepare ham and bacon. So, we sent some of our last little piggie (over 400 pounds) to a smokehouse for curing. Real bacon is nothing like what we buy in the grocery store. It is meat--hardly any fat at all--rather tasty. Kids are saying, "Dad, I don't like it, I love it!"

Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY...March 14, 2011
Outside my window... breezy, exceptionally clear night.
I am thinking...What a marvelous difference that one little hour makes. I actually have a tiny smidgen of energy at the end of the day. Oh, blessed sunlight! You will be hearing more from me in the weeks ahead--or at least until baseball season hits full swing.

I am thankful for... that the first day of spring break at S*nnyside was not the nightmare I dreaded, but turned out....sunny.
I am wearing... Thomas the Tank scrubs
I am remembering...my dog Sheba. These spring nights remind me of sitting on the front porch swing after school and petting her shaggy, black-rusty coat. Sweet puppy. (Also struck by the memory that there was a point in my life when I had the time to sit on a porch swing.)

I am going...to begin again on painting the house.
I am currently reading...Royal Marriages, The Gifted Preschool Classroom, and Shadows Bride.
I am hoping...to nail down several upcoming events in my life, Sunday school fellowships, birthday parties, CIA functions...
On my mind...the suffering Japanese
Noticing that...I feel more connected to myself when I write (journal, blog) regularly.
Pondering these words... "The anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God."
From the kitchen...After all that cooking I did over the weekend, we ate out tonight. So, what is up with that? But Monday nights at Carino's are more of a family tradition than anything else. Monday is half-price family platters. We can eat cheaper there on Mondays than we can at McDonald's.

Around the house...relative order and truly filthy floors. Clean laundry thanks to my beautiful, blessed mother-in-law.

From my picture journal:

Who could resist those eyes?

He's Still Working Miracles

In two short weeks we will celebrate her seventh birthday. Born two months premature to a heroin-addicted, alcoholic terminally ill prostitute in a country still desperately trying to recover from a fifty year reign of Darkness. Labeled with pages of dire diagnosis for her mental and physical development. Taken to a cold, sterile orphanage of 125 other abandoned children in a city of 69 such institutions. Placed in a group of 24 infants and two caregivers--who held her as little as possible for fear of a disease she did not carry. Her head became mis-shapen from laying in the same position in her crib, elongated on the sides, protruding forehead. Waiting--alone, yet, not alone--for over a year.
This same child reads above her grade level.
She, whose greatest dilemma in life is deciding which of her dolls she is going to play with.
This same child made a perfect score on her mid-term math test.
Last week, the pediatrician, declared this same child, "as healthy, beautiful, and strong a child" as he had ever seen.
This same child cannot walk around in Wall-Mart without drawing stares of admiration and compliments on her beauty.
This same child looked at me yesterday with tears in her eyes and shock in her tone and said, "Momma! Do you know what Sadie said on the bus? Momma! She said no one in her family prays!"


Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!
For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR?
Or WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN
For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. Romans 11:33-36

In the Kitchen

Spent most of today in the grocery store and kitchen. I tried my hand, once again, at cooking-for-a-month. We have to do something. With the master and I both not getting home until six-ish after working twelve to fourteen hour days, we've been eating out two or three times a week. It is killing our budget (Dave would be ashamed of us) and after a certain point, it isn't even pleasurable. I've started to crave my own cooking.
I didn't quite make a month's worth of meals, though. I've yet to see that whole, "cook for a day, eat for a month," gimmick work out, but I do have meals for a week, plus ingredients on hand and plan to see us through March and into April. We'll have Rachel Raye's Pasta Pesto tomorrow, pinto beans and rice for Monday, Tuesday pork chops and Catalina, Wednesday dinner is at church, Thursday pelmini, and Friday hamburgers.
I'm also hoping to teach K and Abby some simple meals that they can be responsible for coming home from school and preparing for the family, but that too, requires an initial time investment, that I'm not exactly sure when I can work in, especially now that baseball season is upon us. Abby knows how to make homemade pizza and last week, I taught her how to make meatballs, and she is eager to try her hand at more, but whenever I bring up my brilliant plan to K, he keeps saying "I don't know how to cook." With a tone rather reminiscent of my father when he would say, "I don't know how to program the VCR." Suggestions on how I can inspire him to culinary greatness--or at least willingness?

What A Week

Thank God it's Friday. A common enough phrase, but how deeply, sincerely I mean it tonight. It's actually been a rough two weeks. Should have blogged all through it...now it is too long of a story to retell. You couldn't hang with me for the duration of the narrative, I'm sure. And since ya'll are my friends, I wouldn't ask you to.
How is it that the longer I go without posting, the less I have to write about?
So here is to a better week--a much better week ahead of me--one in which I will blog every day, and you will only read pleasant, funny, or inspiring anecdotes from my life.

Twisted Minds

Upon Ian's return from a visit with his cousins...

Abby: Hey, Ian, you missed it! We had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner.
Ian: Awww, man! You're lucky. We had field peas and bacon, some meat Aunt Dinah fried on the stove...and rolls.
Abby (shaking her head): Too bad for you!

Saturday Nine

1. Tell us about a time that you had way too much Jose Cuervo.

Can't tell you about a time that's never happened. But me and my sister did love the song "Jose Cuervo" around the ages of four and five. We could sing every word, and we put on a little concert one Sunday after church...when were having dinner...with company...much to my mother's embarrassment--so I guess you could say we had too much "Jose Cuervo."

2. Do you agree with the following statement: "The older you get, the faster time goes by."?

Yes! Emphatically, yes!!

3. What do you usually do during your "down time?"

Down time? What's that?

4. When it comes to the opposite sex, do you feel you have a grasp on 'em - or do they continue to just surprise you?

I feel I have a grasp on 'em. At least on one. And that's all I need.

5. What is your home town famous for?

Oh, my, you are going to know I'm backwoods when I tell you what we are "famous" (and I use that term very loosely) for: we have a polka-dotted house. That's it. That's our claim to fame. Impressed?

6. How many romantic relationships have you had?

I only had one other serious boyfriend before the master. So, two?

7. What's the best concert that you've ever been to?

Oh, gosh, I'm just not a music officianado.

8. Which famous person would you like to meet? Why?

Sarah Palin. Based on what I've seen, I think I could really relate to her. I mean, I think we could be friends.

9. Has a newspaper or television reporter ever interviewed you? If so, what were the circumstances and what did you think when you read or saw what you said?

We were interviewed several times by the newspaper when we were adopting Marina. For the most part the articles were good, and I know of at least one other family that was inspired to adopt from Russia after following our story, so I'm glad we did them, but I do cringe a little when I read the spin the newspaper lady put on some of the things we said--and a couple of quotes that I swear we never said. Our local funeral home sent us nice, laminated copies that are in Marina's lifebook, and some day, I will have to sit down and do some explaining.