Its the dress!

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How To Scare the Children

According to a recent study, one in three children (ages 6-11) are afraid the Earth will not be around when they are adults.
According to the study, minority children have more anxiety about the end of the world than white children. Girls worry more than boys, urban more than suburban.
They worry about a major weather catastrophe and they are concerned of animal extinction. They are concerned that no matter what we do, the world will be destroyed. (www.treehugger.com)

I pondered why that is. Then I remembered the fear I had in the 70's that the world as we know it would be destroyed, no- not by global nuclear annihilation, (and I lived near missile silos) but by GLOBAL COOLING Yes - you read that right.

We were being inundated with "scientific evidence" that the world was cooling at such a rate, we could expect an ice age within 20 years. The ice glaciers would be covering MOST of the continental United States, covering most of the farming states, bringing about famine, death and disease.
The rain forests would cease to exist, because the area would be too cool to sustain the forests, and without new trees to cover the planet, oxygen levels would decrease and Carbon Dioxide would increase and the population would decrease and many bloodlines would fall away.

If that didn't kill us, a giant meteor would crash into the planet and kill us like the dinosaurs - as they talked about how we only watched a tiny portion and another one would come at anytime...

We are doing the same things with our children - but worse, now they are inundated with these messages at school, on the internet, over cable TV. They saw horrible visions after Katrina and the Tsunami. This is followed up with Discovery telling us "This is what would happen if it hit the US" and Al Gore running around saying the weather is directly related their evil parents who don't care about the planet...

No wonder they are afraid.... Come on! We can do things to help the planet without scaring the hell out of our children!! We can take steps without totally destroying our way of life...

Well - except for the damn mercury filled lightbulbs...

Off my soapbox

Oye Ve!

So I decided I would clean up the big ‘flower garden’ in the front yard…  well, reality is that is was more of a weed garden. 

I dug and I dug and I pulled weeds and I turned over soil.. I pulled out the border.  The garden was far too big, and I need to make it smaller, so I have to figure out exactly how big I want it.

Anyway.. after all that, I know I am going to be sore tomorrow..

YIKES.

Amish Bread

This is an awesome and easy bread recipe – it does use yeast, but fear not, you CAN do this!!!

2 C warm water (110 degrees F)

1/2 c sugar

1 1/2 Tb active dry yeast (this is NOT a full packet)

Dissolve sugar and water in a large bowl, add yeast to “Proof” and let it sit until you have a creamy foam on top.

ADD

1 1/2 tsp salt (I use Kosher)

1/4 C vegetable oil (I use canola or peanut)

then mix in

6 C flour – 1 cup at a time

knead until smooth.

Put dough into a well oiled smaller bowl (metal or glass if you have it) turn the dough over so it has oil on both sides. 

Put someplace warm, cover with a clean wet cloth and let it be for about 1 hour.

Punch down (yes, punch it) and divide it in half, shape them into loaves and put it 2 greases loaf pans.  Let raise again for about 30 minutes,

Cook for 30 minutes at 350….

turn out of loaf pans onto a cooling rack.

Easy breezy and super yummo

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To cut bread, turn bread onto it’s side and use serrated knife..

Family

Here it is, a photo of our new Aunt and Uncle.

Well, not new, per se, but newly discovered.

Terry Ruby and Debbie Aragon

This week was CRAZY

This week, my sister got hold of Harold Ruby’s prison record… big deal? Well it would be, except Harold is my mothers long lost father.

He spent a lot of time behind bars. He was in prison in Montana, Oregon and Nevada. He was virtually lost to Mom when her parents divorced when she was only a few years old, back in the 30’s. We assume it was around the time of his first incarceration.

We know she had contact with her Aunt Helen (Harold’s sister) but, except for finding out that he had died, they didn’t discuss him. I would imagine it was due to my grandmother.

Now Gram was a very strong woman who came from a very influential family, and if they said, “NO” that was it.

Well – after getting hold of a link that had a series of messages about Harold, I dropped a quick note on it, never thinking it would yield anything, after all, they were old, I found my mothers 1/2 sister!!!

Mom has three siblings. Debbie, Sherry and Terry

Crazy!!!!

Great Hiking Trip

We had a great time at the Wichita Wildlife Refuge today.

Nick and Gayle both had to work, so it was just Ali, Rob and I. We went out and found the buffalo down by Prairie Dog town and found some young males fighting – well, I think it was just playing, but they got close enough to us we could hear their horns clanking against each other.

It was so fascinating to watch, we couldn’t stop – even though we should of, being as we had gotten out of the car.

We then went hiking up to my favorite spot – oh I love that place…

~sigh~ I feel good.

A week in review

This has been an interesting week.

It started out Monday – Ali grabbed a girl by the throat and bashed her head against the wall. I mean – OK – so the girl needed to learn she wasn’t all that, but that’s a wee bit much. Oh, yes, she’s suspended.

Luckily she was going to see her counselor anyway, so we did have that. She finally decided Alissa should be on meds, but she couldn’t prescribe them, they had to be prescribed my an MD.

soooo

Tuesday, we end up at the doctors. We get a months worth a prozac for her, as well as a referral to an MD who can follow her.

then we get home and find out Nick has a job interview!!!! HORRAY!!! His interview is 9am on Wednesday.

Alissa’s meds made her silly and a little jittery – we are assured via internet that this is normal at first.

Wednesday – 9 am Nick’s job interview, and Gayle and I were shopping at Walmart (I mean, since we were there) Nick got the job but needs to go and get a drug test done. We have to get home to get Rob to work (we have but one car) and I told Gayle we need to get the escort up (new tires, new battery) so after dropping Rob off at work, off Nick and Gayle go to get a pee test and tires/battery for the car. They came home, we put the car together and ZOOM!

Thursday – I had the devo at PWOC, I was a wee bit nervous because of the seizure, but I think it went OK. Got some shopping done and now I am sitting here…

Wonder what tomorrow will bring??