Please visit my friend Kelly Wickham, known on the blogosphere as Mocha Momma, known to me as Simply Amazing. She speaks the truth as she talks about hunger and poverty, food “insecurity” and responsibility.
Look here for her speech, transcribed into a post for all to read.
Meanwhile, keep donating to your local food bank, and get on our lawmakers to set their priorities in order. You know what I mean.
In honor of Veterans’ Day, I offer you an encore post from a different holiday – Memorial Day. Enjoy.
Every year we start Memorial Day by throwing our lawn chairs in Amigo’s bike basket and hitting the road for half a block to stake our claim on a good place to watch the parade. Seriously, it’s half a block from our home. We watch from the front yard, and when the police are putting the traffic barriers up, we head over and park ourselves in the road under our favorite shade tree. Here’s Amigo and MIL cheering on the municipal city band. Chuck? He was relaxing.
And then we went home. Home, to help out our “real live veteran in our front yard,” as Amigo put it. FIL didn’t want to struggle all the way down the street with his walker, so he settled under our mock cherry tree and read a book. We gave him a little flag next to his lawn chair so he could be part of the festivities.
Happy I’ve just been low on time while I make sure that no child remains untested in the fair state of Wisconsin. But meanwhile, something I submitted wound its way through the review process, back to my desk, and back to the review process and eventually out of the pipeline onto my employer’s national blog.
Or you can look into the archives of Compost Happens and find the original here.
I used to use this example to teach my face to face students in the brick and mortar schoolroom that thinking like a writer meant opening their minds and noticing the world around them. The reviewers and editors interpreted that as “Carry a notebook.” Really, readers, that’s only one small postage-stamp size corner of the picture. Thinking like a writer means that I look up, not down. I look around and imagine. I look at that pile of dirt next to the porch and think, “Rock garden.” Where others see dirt, I see soil.
And when something interesting happens, I think “Blog!” Or I should say I think Blog! if Amigo hasn’t already said, “Mom, you should blog this.” He thinks like a writer, too.
So, peoples in Interweb Land, how does your outlook provide you with entertainment and/or writing fodder? Do you carry a tiny memo book in your bag?
It’s happening again, dear readers. A coworker and close friend starts radiation today to treat breast cancer. She’s a very strong woman, and the entire office is throwing our moral support her way.
Remember the Lions of the Valley project? More than a few years have passed since The Lion King made its appearance in our fair city. Here is one example of creativity and caring. Another friend and coworker teamed up with another artist friend to decorate this fiberglass lion. The lion’s title is lengthy, but straight to the point: Breast Cancer Survivors: Not an Endangered Species.”
It’s now several years later, and the lion is still pink, I think. It’s been moved from its former sponsor to a hospital’s entrance, and the pictures have been painted over. I’m a little sad about that. It was the humanity of the design that made it work for me. But in any case, the lion still lives, and so do many multitudes of those who had breast cancer. Had. Past tense.
Did I mention that I know four of the women pictured on the lion? Eat your heart out, Jeff Probst — these women are the real survivors.
Readers, if you haven’t been around long enough to recognize the Daisy Reality Show, here’s a brief introduction.
Daisy (yours truly) hosts a reality show at the O.K. Chorale. The director and her bumbling assistant keep the show on track and provide a running commentary off-screen.
Daisy: I’m baking cookies this afternoon. We have no snack foods worth eating. Well, few snack foods in the house. Peanuts, cashews, the makings for trail mix – that’s it.
Assistant: I see chips. What’s wrong with potato chips?
He had to ask, didn’t he?
Daisy: It’s like Michael Pollan says in his Food Rules: Eat food, not too much, mostly plants. In this case, I’m following his advice that whole foods are better than processed foods and junk food is okay in moderation when I make it myself.
Assistant (pretending to understand): Oh.
Daisy’s cell phone chirps, indicating a text message.
Daisy: Oh, it’s my daughter. She says:
So we were sitting at the fair eating ice cream and I spotted something terrifying — Paul Ryan.
Daisy (Laughing): That’s my daughter, a good progressive young woman! I’ll respond and tell her to run, run fast, run far in the other direction.
Director: Oh, I remember you were a volunteer for Obama last year. Was it really only a year ago?
Daisy (texting): It’s been a very full year. La Petite lives in Paul Ryan’s congressional district, and she took great pleasure in voting against him twice last November.
Assistant: She voted twice? Daisy’s phone chirps again.
Daisy: Here’s the next one!
I was walking towards him to document this with my camera and Audreykins followed. Her mom was all like, “No, nooooo! Don’t get too close!”
And then, after Daisy responds with “He didn’t try to talk to her, did he? Scary.”
No, I didn’t want to talk to him either, so I stayed my distance. Took a photo of people in line to greet him.
Assistant: Twice? Is that legal?
Daisy: She voted for his opposition in two different races — Congress and Vice President.
Assistant: Oh. Um — never mind. Oh.
Daisy: Back to cookies! Real food for snacks at the O.K. Chorale.
Director: Camera One, zoom in on the cookbook.
Daisy: The recipe is on my blog.
Director: Camera One, zoom in on the laptop on the kitchen counter.
Readers, with the exception of the reality show, this post is entirely true. Cookies can be a good snack, I looked up the recipe on a previous post of Compost Happens, and La Petite really did text me the conversation above. She was mixing work with pleasure by photographing the county fair and spending time there with her adorable cousin and family.
On the 50th anniversary of an amazing speech by a visionary, much more than a dreamer, I offer an encore post with a dream of my own.
A Mother’s Dream
I dream that differences will be valued, not disdained.
Eye color, hair color, body shapes, and skin shades will be appreciated for their beauty and variety.
Cultural traditions will not disappear, but will thrive and grow together into a rich and fascinating sharing of knowledge and beliefs.
I dream that blindness will be merely a different way of seeing, and deafness impair only the quantity, not the quality of the language ‘heard’.
Children will matter because they own the future. Their education, academic and social, will become and remain of utmost importance.
The mediators and the peacemakers will be recognized as the strongest leaders.
Questions will come from curiosity, not ignorance, and the answers will breed respect.Knowing each other, knowing ourselves, will lead to knowing that fights and conflicts, wars of all kinds, will cease to be of value.
I looked through all of my apple butter options and decided this was the best. It’s a combination of two different recipes, with the lemon juice adjusted to keep the acidity in the right range.
Ingredients
Directions
Core and quarter apples. Let sit in a big bowl with a little citric acid to prevent browning Since apple butter turns out a lovely deep shade of brown, you might skip the citric acid. I keep it in for its acidity. In the past I’ve had a hard time taking out the peels because the finished product was so thick. This time around, I’m going to use my food mill. I anticipate good results.
Place apples and vanilla in crock pot. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or until apples are very soft.
After cooking, mash apples with fork or potato masher.
Part II:
Ingredients
Directions
Add second ingredient list. Cover apple mix (now sauce-like) again and cook on low for 4-6 hours. If you like your apple butter smooth (I do), blend with an immersion blender.
This is very thick and flavorful and ideal for gift-giving. Serve on bread, graham crackers, or in place of the jelly on a PBJ. More ideas? Add comments, please! I’d love to hear them.
The Living Room
They called it their temporary living room.
Chairs, table, phone
Really, what more did they need?
Ye Olde Rotary Phone
Someone discovered that a rotary phone worked while the up to date touch tones didn’t. Without Internet access, the old fashioned phone book came in handy.
Camp stove and tea kettle
Camp stove plus tea kettle for boiling water equals coffee and social time!
It wasn’t the most beautiful day in the neighborhood, though. At the other end of the driveway, the next door neighbors’ house looked like this. They were still gracious and friendly shared their hot water with me every morning. Thank heavens for good neighbors.
‘Nuff said.
In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, lightning flashed and thunder boomed and winds blew and blew and blew – for about twenty minutes.
Twenty minutes. Mother Nature is a powerful force when she so chooses.
With electricity out and trees and wires down all over, we coped. We did what Wisconsinites do when bad weather hits. We don’t go it alone, either.
During this power outage I am grateful for:
As power returned to some areas in our fair city, there were examples of generosity.
The corner gas station gave away free coffee all day.
The Red Cross set up shelters in schools, and set up their own building (near my neighborhood) as a way station with sandwiches, bags of ice, bottles of water, cell phone chargers, and moral support.
What have I forgotten? Please add to the list. What do you value most in a crisis?
Readers; do you remember Grandma Daisy? She contributed to the blog as part of the Voter’s Voice series. Grandma Daisy’s voice gave Compost Happens a different perspective: the perspective of looking back in time, viewing events with the advantage of 20/20 hindsight. Well, folks, take yourselves back to the future and look at the creativity of Wisconsin citizens and the reaction from the top.
Oh, grandkiddos, you might remember that in the recall election of 2012, Governor Walker’s supporters weren’t exactly showing their best sides. Campaign signs spelled governor with an -er, as if the voters either didn’t know the difference or didn’t care.
You might also remember the Overpass Light Brigade and the Solidarity Singers. Walker had money on his side, so his opponents invested in creativity and time. Both the OLB and the Singers continued their activity after the election. They publicized issues in non-violent methods designed to get attention rather than cause trouble.
The Governor and his security detail didn’t see it that way. The Solidarity Singers sang protest songs in the Capitol rotunda every weekday at noon. The Capitol Police, acting on a hastily-made policy requiring permits for any public gathering, began making arrests and issuing tickets. For singing, you say? I hear you, children. Singing in the rotunda was now a crime.
The tactic backfired, of course. Instead of discouraging protesters, the aggressive action encouraged more people to show up and make noise, er, music. The Solidarity Singers stood up for their first amendment rights to free speech and the peaceably assemble. They knew that the greater number of arrests simply meant more PR for their actions and their issues.
As you might expect, young ‘uns, there were naysayers. There were folks who showed up just to watch the handcuffs go on and to poke fun at the so-called musical mayhem. You might not be surprised, I dare say, that some of the naysayers were in the same category as those who displayed error-filled yard signs.
Who?