Good for the Soul

Getting outside.  Nature can untangle a stressed mind.

 

Cowboy's Boat Challenge

Cowboy's Boat

One of Cowboy's "Let's just see what Happens" projects was building a boat that could actually float and be used on a lake or river.  For starters, he had used some fiberglass filler, then an all-purpose bonder.

On the first attempt to launch, the wind was against us.  But it was fun!

Later, PVC pipes were added on the side for better buoyancy.  Cowboy also added a trolling motor.

Second attempt on Grapevine Lake.

 

The boat surprisingly floats, but is heavy.  So a boat trailer/wagon was needed!

Those pictures and the video were also taken on Lake Grapevine a little over a year ago.  Cowboy has since torn down this boat and sold the trolling motor.  Building another is on the back burner, but with the goal of less weight. Never a dull moment around here!

If you're not making it better for someone else, then you're not doing it right.  This is true in any area of life.

Down Home Again

I found my sunflower!

I am taking a different direction.  About four years ago, I fell in love with my soulmate Cowboy.  It was just like when a werewolf imprints on someone!  If you don't get that, read the Twilight series.  Being with Cowboy has brought me full circle to who I was in the beginning...back at home as the firstborn of six.  Playing in a backyard full of dandelions and bumblebees.  The white picket fence.  When Moms and Dads stayed together.  Camping.  Swimming in the lake.  Riding horseback....You get the idea.  All the things that made life interesting.

So this blog is going to take a turn.  I'm going to create a page called "Shenanigans" that will show life.  Our three kid-- his son--my redheaded stepchild, my son A.C., and my daughter Kel-- have all grown up.  Kel is the only one at home right now, and I see so little of her as her new adult life is growing larger.  Her flights out of the nest are getting longer and longer.  I was once worried about how I would handle this phase of life.  I'm fifty-five now.  I've had some major health issues, but the scary part is past for now, and the rest is managed by pills that I am working on getting off by making those wise, good lifestyle choices that we all know but usually ignore.  It might be time to settle down a bit, but it doesn't mean I have to always behave!  I'll tell you more.

Another page you may see soon is simmering on the back burner for my rantings about work/leadership/government.  A page for this might be a good idea for those who don't want to hear my BS all the time.  I'm considering it.  I don't have a business anymore.  At least not for now.  I currently have one of those jobs that you prefer not to give out a lot of detail to.  Where you work eight hours, get pissed off at the boss sometimes, and go home.  I like most of the people I work with though, and I like the basic core idea of what I do:  helping others.  Upper management just makes it a little chaotic.  I have ideas I'd love to tell them, but...you know how that would go!  I would hate to have to sing for my food right now!  The audience  would pay me to shut up!

I'll continue to post recipes, and the memories tied to them.  I really like food, and I love eating out, but honestly, most of the time, they can't top what we cook at home.  When a restaurant does, though, I'll let you know.

Hope you will come back for more!

Ted's Special - "Carnijasada"

Some of my fondest memories are from time at Dad's gas station, the Exxon station off Lee Street in Greenville TX, where he and any of my brothers pumped gas and sold used cars.  It was one of the last full-service stations.  In a back room off of the bay, sometimes there'd be something cooking for lunch.  Whatever it was, it always smelled good.

After finding a handwritten recipe titled "Ted's  Special - Carnijasada" in Mom's stash of recipes, after she had passed away, I suspect that perhaps cooking on the job was something that happened at the Ford dealerships he worked at as well.  I imagine one of the mechanics had this "brewing" in a slow cooker and the aroma filled the bay.  Dad probably couldn't resist and had to sample.  Probably the whole crew had to check this out.  It smells so good!  Here's my adaptation.

TED'S SPECIAL - CARNIJASADA

1 2.8 lb chuck arm pot roast or pork butt roast
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 large cloves garlic, chopped
canola oil for frying
7 oz. can sliced jalapeno peppers
3 oz can chopped chiles
salt & pepper to taste
1tsp. cumin

Heat oil in large pan and brown meat.  Remove, placing in crock pot.  In juices, saute onion and garlic, till onions are soft (you may need to add more oil).   Add onion and garlic to the crock pot along with remaining ingredients.  Add 1/2 to 1 cup water, just to cover bottom.  Cook on high 4 hours, then turn down to low to continue cooking 8 hours.

Serving suggestions:  Use in soft tacos, enchiladas, burritos, or nachos.

Original Recipe

Never Always

Life is never always easy or good or wonderful.  There is pain and aching and hurt.  It has good and wonderful and easy in it, but never always.

(Look up.)

When people and things are taken away from you, and you are left empty-handed
There's only one thing to do.
When that something you never could've expected suddenly rocks your world
and it doesn't look good,
There's one thing left to do.
There's a moment when suddenly the earth you were standing on
just melts away.

(Look up.)

There's someone who will catch you when you fall.
Someone who hears you when you call.

Look up.

Look up.

When Winter Comes to an End

It’s been another long, difficult winter in North Texas, thanks for our boys in Congress who do not seem able to man up and make the hard decisions for our country.  We are streamlining business, and I have taken a full-time temp job to help keeping the home fires burning so to speak.  Despite the political scene, business is starting to awaken a bit from its winter hibernation, with more calls coming in this month than usual for February.  It truly smells like spring is on the threshold and it’s going to be a great year.

In anticipation of a great year, I have restarted a new hobby, and planted some cucumber and tomato seeds.  They are doing very well!  I used the idea of toilet paper rolls to start the seeds, and found it’s a feasible idea.  You have to have a container to keep them in, because they are wobbly and obviously do not hold water.  And you should probably keep it down to one seed a roll, unless you plan to thin seedlings (pulling out the weaker plants).  I had some old seed packets and chose to plant about three seeds each roll, because I wasn’t sure if they would still be good.  The cucumber seeds were only from last year, but I really don’t remember when I got the tomato seeds, which were in packets that really do not tell what variety they are.

My dear son decided to help my enthusiasm along, and after a week from planting the seeds, he took leaves off of a honeysuckle and stuck them in the dirt to make me think the seeds sprouted!  It was very suspicious, since these “mystery plants” just appeared overnight, but I have to admit it was a funny prank on someone who is known to not have a green thumb.  A week later, those honeysuckle leaves are still green.  The prank may turn on him, if those leaves are taking root, because I’m going to need a fence built to train them to grow on and who might I be thinking about to help build it!  Today I separated some of the vegetable seedlings into separate peet pots to give them some room to grow.

Hopefully, my green thumb and 2013 will both grow into some greatness!

The seed packets

After transplanting some, I still have other seedlings still in the toilet paper rolls.  The larger seedlings are the cucumber.  The shorter "plant" that is darker green are the honeysuckle.  Smaller seedlings are the tomatoes, which only just started sprouting a few days ago.

The transplanted seedlings, in 3 inch peet pots.

 

Baby tomatoes.  I just put the whole toilet paper roll in a larger pot.  I wasn't sure if the seedlings would handle being taken out of the roll and transplanted just yet.  Off to the side is another honeysuckle.

 

These are a couple tomato seedlings that I did transplant into a larger pot.  Grow, babies, grow!

Epithany

The bright idea.  The illumination.  The moment that we suddenly “see” for the first time.  I was reading a devotional that started to explain how other religions held a certain belief.  Then the light bulb came on with the next words.  “But we Christians….” 

It didn’t matter what the particular belief was for either Christianity or the other religions that were noted by that author.  “But we Christians….”  That phrase separated us from other religions.  It separated us from their different beliefs.  It separated us from other people.

2 Corinthians 6: 14-18 says, ¹⁴ Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?   ¹⁵ And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?  ¹⁶ And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  ¹⁷ Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.  ¹⁸ And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”

Did God really mean for us to stand of the rooftop and point out another’s errors while thumping our Bibles and exalting ourselves for our “righteousness?”

So often I see comments on the internet, where Christians are arguing with people who have different religious or political beliefs, and I often believe if they were able to take a virtual bat to their heads, the “Righteous’ would indeed take a swing.

I am no better, with my countless dignified Bible-thumping moments.  All that I accomplished was drawing a line, with me on one side gloating and the “offender” on the other side glowering.

We really have to be careful about what is in our hearts, what our motivation is.  Are we reaching out to help a brother or sister, or parading our self-made sanctity?

Merry Christmas and a Bright...Wonderful...New Year!

Hopefully you have and continue to celebrate the holidays with your loved ones.  It has been a difficult year to celebrate, being so close to the incident at Sandy Hook Elementary and the other in Beijing.  My heart and prayers go out to those families.  I hope that as wise people consider ways to lessen the chance of this occurring again, they will also consider whether the system for helping mentally ill needs fixing.  Nonetheless, I hope that you have been able to celebrate and honor your own family despite any tragedies or personal circumstances that may hinder joy in this holiday season.

I am keenly aware this particular season of the various sensory components of celebrating.  We watch the lights dancing on the Christmas tree.  We feel the warmth from a crackling fire in the fireplace.  We hear the old Christmas carols and the wonderful Christmas shows that we all have favorites of.  We relish the taste of homemade treats that come out only this time of the year.  And we especially hug a little tighter.

If you have been unable to enjoy the holidays, please somehow, some way, find help.  Whether it's counseling or if you just need an extra push to connect with family or friend, I hope you will find your way home, to a place filled with love and hope.  If what you consider "home" has been full of sadness or dysfunction, maybe it's time to build something new in its place.  Who can you connect with in a positive way?  What new traditions can you start?  How will you begin to stir hope in yourself?  Awaken your senses to a new beginning!  Awaken your senses to love one another.  That's what Christmas is for.

Maraschino Cherry Nut Bread

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

¾ cup sugar

 2 eggs

½ cups butter, melted and cooled

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp. juice from cherry jar or vanilla extract

1 cup chopped walnuts

10 ounce jar (appprox. 1 cup) chopped maraschino cherries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour one 8 x 4 “ loaf pan.  Combine flour, baking soda, salt and sugar in large bowl, mixing well.  In smaller bowl, combine eggs, butter, buttermilk and juice or extract.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, mixing only till moist.  Stir in walnuts and cherries.  Spoon batter into prepared pan and bake for 60 minutes.  Cool in pan before cutting.

Optional glaze:

½ cup powdered sugar

¼ tsp. vanilla extract

1 tbsp. milk

Mix together till smooth and drizzle over cooled bread before cutting.

Happy Veteran's Day

---

Happy Veteran’s Day to all you wonderful vets and troops out there!  I hope you have a few good stories to tell about your military days.  I salute each of you for your sacrifice, and wish you all the best.

---

Charlie Dee Melton

Dad used to talk fondly about his time in the U.S. Air Force, especially in his later years.  As I remember his stories, he was 19 years old when he enlisted.  He was mad at his dad—again—and decided he wasn’t going to live at home anymore.  Those were his party years…black and white photos show him standing proudly with fellow servicemen, or holding up a bottle of liquor trudging through snow with a big grin on his face.  There were also photos of him standing near a prized car.  He was known as “Tex” or “Reb” (short for Rebel), because he had grown up in Texas, in and near a small town called Savoy where Grandpa was a carpenter and built several houses from ground up.

He talked mostly about being in Alaska.  He loved it there, and wanted to drive up and see the country one more time.  He also spoke about being in the Philippines, and how you’d know when the noobs came in:  they’d get sunburned hanging out on the beach too long and smelled like vinegar which took the sting out of the burn.  It sounded like a rite of passage there!

Betty Ann Rassbach Melton

Mom also had a story to tell about his time in the military.  She was graduating from high school and sent her senior picture to her brother, who was stationed with Dad.  Dad saw the photo and asked who she was.  Mom’s brother grinned and said it was his girlfriend.  Dad replied, “not for long!” and started writing.  Mom used to have a stack of letters bound up with a ribbon that were from him, during the next six years he was in service.  In one letter—which I had only got to steel a read from after Mom had passed away, he asked her what she thought about a house full of little brats running around.  After leaving the Air Force, he traded in his party days, settled down and married the love of his life in her hometown of Menomonie, Wisconsin, bought a house, and he worked at the local Ford Motor Company dealership, up till in the 70’s when we moved to Texas during the gas shortage.  Oh, and he got that wish about a houseful of brats…there’s six of us kids!

1960 - Betty and Chuck Melton

Welcome - Again - to Down Home

Sat down a bit and let my mind wander from the stuff of business.  I’ve been pulled away from blogging here.  Not sure it really matters, because I’m not sure anyone really reads it.  Business has been rather slow.  It could pick up after the election results are in and we know where the country is going—wait.  I kind of liked wandering and wasn’t to keen on getting back on that stuff.

I’m almost fifty.  Been looking for a job to pull us through winter, but I’m getting the impression no one wants to hire anyone my age.  I’ve been reminded that a job, or business doesn’t really define who I am.  And I’m the culmination of all those fifty years, and it’s been a lot of accumulating!  I guess the reminiscing brings me back to my “down home.”  You have yours, and it’s probably different.  But it has molded us.  Some of it’s family and friends, and how they are wired, some is what we value, where we’ve been, what we’ve done.  Some of it might not be good…maybe even down-right shameful or maybe unfair.  The present that has preoccupied me so much lately has been uncomfortable.  Some of my past was too.  But worrying about it has taken too much of my time, and the meanderings of my mind bring me to the conclusion that there’s a lot there that is pretty darned good, both in the present and the past.  And probably the future will be okay.  The bumps have a way of working itself out, and when the present becomes the past, from what I’ve seen, it’s a lot easier to look there and see what’s good about it.

Closing in on fifty seems to be clarifying the fact that the stuff and the jobs aren’t as important to hang on to as the people who love you—or mildly like you!—and the good…your values, your good memories.  Be your most unique and random self, and have fun.  Love God, and love your family and friends.  Breathe.  Notice.  Live.

Irish Soda Bread

I haven't posted for awhile, and even longer a recipe, so I am posting my Irish Soda Bread recipe that I baked a few days ago.  I first used this recipe when homeschooling Kelcie and we were learning about Irish culture.  This bread has a wonderful flavor.  Expect the crust to be a little tough, but to me it just adds character to the homemade bread.  It's so much better than a loaf from the store!

IRISH SODA BREAD

4 cups flour (spoon in lightly, don't pack it in)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. sugar
2 cups buttermilk

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.  Thoroughly mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Add buttermilk and quickly mix ingredients together, kneading lightly.  (Too much kneading will toughen the dough.)  Form a round loaf about as thick as your fist.  Place it on a lightly greased and flour baking sheet.  Cut a cross in the top with a floured knife.  Bake for 30 to 45 minutes.  When baked, the bread will sound hollow when rapped on the top with your knuckles.  Wrap immediately in a clean tea-towel to stop crust from hardening too much (this also somehow keeps bread from tasting like baking soda.)



With the weather cooling down and autumn upon us, what are you baking?  Please share!  : )

A Few of My Favorite Things

This is probably a silly post, odd at best, but here we go....


I rearranged my bookshelves.  This includes most of my (indoor) chicken collection!  : )

Yes, my family loves World of Warcraft.  We play a lot and have some of the books and trading cards here.  Older books were my mom's.  What-nots include a white chicken I bought at a customer's garage sale, other chickens from Linda, who was a coworker at housing, a pot and vase my kids made, and the mom reading to a boy was from sister-in-law Thea who said it reminded her of me and Andrew when he was younger.

That's a baby picture of me, far left!  White chicken, horse clock and chicken pitcher was Mom's.  The two black and white photos are Mom and Dad.  He was in the Air Force, when she had mailed that photo to her brother, CR.  CR told Dad that was his girlfriend and Dad said "not for long!"  and started writing to her.  He finished his stint with the Air Force, and they got married!  My favorite fairytale come true!  : )

Here is the cowboy cookie jar my Grandpa Melton used to put his snuff.  He gave it to me sometime after getting my first apartment with my sister Shirley.  The rubberband gun in front of the cookie jar was a momento of old rubberband fights with a coworker (Jim) at housing.  Baby picture is my daughter.  Vases at the right of the shelf were from two dear ladies I knew from working at housing. Oh, more World of Warcraft books here.  Author Christie Golden is awesome, if you are interest.

 Picture of my kids when they were younger, blown up and framed by my sister Shirley who works at Walmart's camara department.  My son's Left Behind books, a cup my sister Christie gave me.

More chickens and old books belonging to Mom.  Cookbooks are laying on top of the other books.

The celtic cross was from former pastor Clay, who said the circle represents life.  The cross is bigger than life and reminds us to keep things in perspective.  I need that reminder every day!  Red cup is advertising from High School football games here.  First white chicken "lays" jellybeans!  Other two are salt and pepper shakers.  The majority of my cookbooks are here.  The photo albums are filled with family memorabilia and clipped recipes Mom had stashed.

I got so many of my chickens from coworkers at housing, where I was the "crazy chicken lady!"  The glass chicken was from coworker Shannon and the yellow chick and the candle holder were from Linda.  The brown one is a cookie jar Mom had.  I think both rocks were from a "business" trip to Hawaii, and I usually leave one Christmas thing out--not on purpose--and this year it was a pine cone ornament, up front.

Remaining books.  No what-nots here.  Our black lab Nacho has a habit of grabbing stuff and running off with it, so why tempt him?

What are your favorite things and the stories behind them?

Most Amazing Road Trip!! | lifecoachingplus

A reminder for us to take the road less traveled. 

Kathryn Schulz: On being wrong | Video on TED.com

Kathryn Schulz: On being wrong | Video on TED.com 

Ms. Schulz presents an interesting, thought-provoking topic about being wrong.  Think about this:  my viewpoint is only what I can see.  All my past...my experiences, my beliefs...color my perspective.  What would the world be like if we kept that in mind each time we talked to another person?  When leaders of countries clashed or when anyone gathered to problem-solve?  What would we bring to the table?  What could be accomplished if we set aside our "rightness" and listened?  Really listened to what another person was saying?  Would we learn something new?  Would our solutions be more substantial? 

What if?

My viewpoint is only what I can see.

Perfection in Nature

Yesterday afternoon was really hot and Tamera seemed to have a hard time with it being in the coop.  I got the mister going on the outside of the coop, trying to cool it down a little without getting them wet, and offered the hens some water to drink.  After I backed away a little, the girls stood up to drink.  Then it happened!  I saw the eggs move!!!!!  It was the slightest quiver in about 5 or 6 of the eggs, like water on a lake when there's a slight breeze blowing.  It was almost the same excitement as feeling one of the kids kick for the first time or seeing them in a sonogram!  Those babies were moving around in those shells!  I couldn't believe my eyes!  I asked my chicken friend if it were possible and she said, sure we only have about 6 days till hatching.  She once had one fertilized egg that did a complete 180 degree turn!  I'd probably had fainted right there in the pen if that happened! lol  It was absolutely amazing.  Wow, I'm going have a hard time not tearing up when those little fluffballs poke through for the first time.  Just seeing the eggs move for the first time was such a high!  I'm so glad I have the opportunity to watch all this!

The natural world is so full of amazing simplicity.  The clean lines found when you look intently at a leaf or the petal of a flower, the patterns of the sun dancing through the trees or on a lake.  Birth.  That simple egg that we take for granted...that helps make cakes fluffy and gives us energy for the day in the form of breakfast, whether they are served sunny-side up or scrambled.  How the whites will whip into meringue.  These are such eggs that are protected and kept warm by my two hens and are full of life.  Look at a leaf, the patterns you will find in it and think about the functions of the cells that form it.  The changing of sunlight into food, its breathing in carbon dioxide and breathing out oxygen.   Think about how that oxygen the plants exhale is what we breathe in for life.  Now...inhale.  Exhale.  The simple things of God's design are so amazing, so inspiring, and yet so overlooked in our busy lives.  Take some time to find those things around you, and let me know...what are you finding there?

Day 9 of Baby Fever!

Claire, our Easter Egger on the left in the picture, has decided to join in keeping the eggs warm.  She seems to be a part-timer though, alternating between setting and leaving the chicken pen to hunt bugs.

I took this picture this morning.  Claire was setting on the majority of the eggs, while Tamera is behind the wall of the coop with others.  Claire has the motherly spread going on now! lol  They tend to flatten out to cover all the eggs.  I'm so amazed they are sharing the eggs.