the month of love

The year is flying by and already we are into February, the month of love. Valentine’s Day became my favorite holiday way back in second grade when Tony gave ME the prettiest valentine anyone in my class received. The other second-graders sure made fun of him, of us, for that daring public gesture of tender affection. Although we never spoke of it, there was a quiet understanding between us until he moved away a few weeks later. Sweet Tony never realized how much it meant to me to be that “Special Someone” to “Someone Special” (perhaps that is why I never forgot his name). For me, it began a quest to discover the magic that is love. As with so many things, it is easier to discover what it “isn’t” than what it “is”; there’s an awful lot of counterfeit love out there. But real, true love is something we all want and need, something to make life worth living. And so for each day in this shortest month of the year, I will share with you something I have learned about love. I hope you will share it with your “Someone Special”!

the amazing body

Last Saturday afternoon I was working on a project involving a vise, and injured my hand. I didn't think the injury was severe, it involved only soft tissue, but my hand thought otherwise and revolted. The bottom picture is the third day. It has been interesting to watch my corpse-like hand go through the colors and shapes of the healing process. The top picture is the fifth day. Today it is still red, but the swelling is nearly completely gone and the color is slowly returning to normal. How great it is that our bodies know what to do. I learned a great lesson, too, about what NOT to do, next time...

things worth believing in

In the movie Secondhand Lions, Uncle Hub teaches Walter an important lesson:

"If you want to believe in something, believe in it. Just because something isn't true, that's no reason you can't believe in it. Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most: that people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that power and money, money and power mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil; and, I want you to remember this, that love... true love never dies. Remember that, boy, remember that. It doesn't matter if it's true or not, a man should believe in those things because those are the things worth believing in."

ooh, be careful!

"Dangerous" Chocolate Cake

In a two-cup capacity coffee mug, mix together:
1/4 C cake flour (or scant 1/4 C all-purpose flour)
1/4 C sugar
5 tsp. cocoa

In a small bowl mix together:
1 egg
3 Tbsp milk
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 tsp vanilla

Pour the liquid ingredients into the mug and mix with a fork or wisk until smooth.
Add 3 Tbsp chocolate chips, if desired.
Cook on high in the microwave for 3 minutes, or until done (microwaves may vary).
Turn out onto a serving dish. The chocolate chips serve as an icing, of sorts, or you can top with caramel or chocolate sauce and whipped cream, if desired. Makes 2-3 servings.

This is "dangerous" because chocolate cake is always only 5 minutes away!

new job

I began a new job yesterday! I left the work force nearly 30 years ago when I married and began a family. I officially retired as a Dental Hygienist six years later when we moved from Texas, where I was licensed. Now things have come full circle and I am working again, although not as a hygienist. I work for a local school district as an ESP substitute. That includes sub work in the library, office, study hall, and as a teacher’s assistant. Yesterday I worked in the attendance office of a middle school. I’ve come full circle again, and enjoyed the hustle and bustle of being back in school. The tardies and absences, forgotten homework and lunch money, basketball try-outs after school and visits to the nurse all brought back memories of my school days and the joys and challenges of being a young teenager. Those were the good old days. But there have been changes, too. I watched the detention kids while their teacher took his lunch break. Infractions included mouthing off to teachers, calling them astounding names; something my generation never dared to do. And then that afternoon a little 7th grader came to the office needing me to reach her mother; her belly-button ring had caught on something and ripped her tissue so much as to need stitches. And to think that someday, these will be someone’s good old days.

numismatists

My grandchildren were here the other evening and got out the bag of pennies to “feed” our little bank, a wooden lady whose head swivels to drop the coin from her mouth into her body. It is a fun game for them. When they left, we unscrewed the lady’s head to put the pennies back into the bag for their next visit and Eli (here to watch a movie with us) commented that he’d never seen a 2000 penny. Hannah claimed she’d seen several and thus began an evening of discovery into the magical world of numismatics. The movie was forgotten as Eli, Hannah and Isaac spread out all the pennies, sorting them according to year, lining up each year into a column so as to study their dispersion ratios. They had more fun than you can imagine, more than they ever imagined. When all the pennies were laid out on the living room carpet in an orderly array, but they weren’t yet satisfied with their game, I retrieved a handful of pennies from my purse and Hannah found 79 more in her coin dish (she counted them so she could get them back). They discovered there were far more from the year 2007 than any other year. The earliest was from the 40’s (not counting the 1918 penny I have stashed away for safe keeping). A couple of years weren’t represented at all, but Eli was quite happy there were several pennies from 2000. They discussed the statistical implications of their findings; they took pictures of their work, and Eli declared he might just give up his masters work in psychology to sort and order coins full time… we think that was spoken in jest.

less is more

"One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. One can collect only a few, and they are more beautiful if they are few." Anne Morrow Lindbergh