Fifty-Six Delectable Mountains

 

Slow Cooker Winter Vegetable Soup

 

1 large onion, chopped

3 stalks celery, chopped

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

3 Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and chopped

2 cans (14.5 ounces each) fire roasted tomatoes

1 (12 ounce) bag frozen mixed vegetables

2 bay leaves

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

2 teaspoons Italian Seasoning

8 cups vegetable stock (I used chicken stock, because it’s what I had.)

1 cup uncooked ditalini pasta

 

Dump all ingredients except pasta into slow cooker. Cover and cook on low about six hours. Half an hour before dinner, add pasta, cover and continue cooking. Remove and discard bay leaves. Serve with croutons and grated parmesan. 

Twenty Side Steps

 

I noticed on the calendar our neighborhood’s doing a food drive in a few weeks. I’m ashamed to admit most of the time, these events take me by surprise. I dash to my pantry and grab a few things I’m unlikely to need in the immediate future. But it occurs to me the foods I have little use for are probably not in higher demand at a food bank. Since I have some time to plan, I can stock up on things that will really do some good:

Peanut butter and other nut spreads

Canned tuna, chicken or salmon

Canned beans like garbanzos, black-eyed peas, and pintos

Dried pasta and canned pasta sauce

Canned soup, vegetables or fruit

Pantry staples like oil, salt, flour or sugar

While I’m on the subject, there are some things you should NEVER donate to a food bank:

Food in glass containers, as they’re easily broken

Food that’s been opened

Food that has expired

Roses Among the Thorns

 

The container ship Ever Laurel left Hong Kong the winter of 1991/1992 on its way to Tacoma, Washington. On January 10, a storm near the international date line washed a dozen 40-foot shipping containers overboard. One of these containers held 29,000 Friendly Floatees bath toys. Because of a collision with the other containers or perhaps with the Ever Laurel itself, it broke open and released its floating cargo. Many of the toys were small yellow rubber ducks, but there were also red beavers, blue turtles, and green frogs. Months later, these tiny travelers began washing up on Alaska’s shores, over 3,270 kilometers (2,030 miles) from where they were lost. Oceanographers tracked the toys’ movements, using them as floating markers to study ocean currents and how objects disperse at sea. Some of these adventurous little toys floated astonishing distances, with reports of them reaching European beaches years later, providing valuable insights into oceanic flow patterns. 

Antique Basket

 

Martin Swaden, a lawyer from Mendota Heights, MN was concerned because his daughter Sydney had failed the math portion of the Minnesota Basic Standards Tests. Sydney was a sophomore who found math difficult; she’d failed this test before. This time, she’d failed by a single answer. Thinking he could help his daughter focus her studies, Martin asked to see his daughter’s test papers. State education officials denied his request and told him simply to have his daughter study harder for next year’s exam. After Martin threatened to sue, he was finally allowed to see the questions and Sydney’s answers. Question #41 showed a rail fence and asked which parts were parallel. Sydney chose two horizontal rails, but was marked wrong. Martin discovered six of the 68 questions in the test were scored wrong – not just for his daughter. Math scores for 45,739 students were incorrect. 7,935 students were told they’d failed when they’d actually passed.

Thirty Diversions

 

“A journalist once questioned Mother Teresa of Calcutta about her hopeless task of rescuing the destitute in that city. He said that, statistically speaking, she was accomplishing absolutely nothing. This remarkable little woman shot back that her work was about love, not statistics. Notwithstanding the staggering number beyond her reach, she said she could keep the commandment to love God and her neighbor by serving those within her reach with whatever resources she had. ‘What we do is nothing but a drop in the ocean,’ she would say on another occasion. ‘But if we didn’t do it, the ocean would be one drop less than it is.’ Soberly, the journalist concluded that Christianity is obviously not a statistical endeavor. He reasoned that if there would be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over the ninety and nine who need no repentance, then apparently God is not overly preoccupied with percentages.” - Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Sixteen Side Steps

 

A few of my favorite one-liners:

"I don’t need glasses, but I’ve reached the age where curiosity is greater than vanity.” – Red Skelton

"The most effective way to remember your wife’s birthday is to forget it once.” – George Burns

"Housework won’t kill you, but why take the chance?" – Phyllis Diller

"If God had intended man to fly, He’d have made it easier to get to the airport." – Jonathan Winters

"I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member." – Groucho Marx

"My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met." – Milton Berle

"The reason I talk to myself is because I’m the only one whose answers I accept." – George Carlin

"The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age." – Lucille Ball

"A day without sunshine is like, you know, night." – Steve Martin

"Why do they call it rush hour when nothing moves?" – Robin Williams

Forty-Nine Delectable Mountains

 

American swimmer Mark Spitz became a legend after his performance at the 1972 Olympic games in Munich. But much of the media attention was focused on his facial hair. Mark had broken multiple world records at the 1972 US Olympic swim trials earlier in the year. He’d planned to shave his mustache before the Olympics started. (Swimmers often shave their entire bodies to reduce friction in the water. In the 70’s, many shaved their heads as well.) But during Mark’s last training session, a coach for the Russian swim team approached him and asked, “Doesn’t your mustache slow you down?” As a joke, Mark replied that his whiskers deflected water from his mouth and actually helped him swim faster. To keep the joke going, he left the mustache where it was. He went on to win seven gold medals at the Munich games. At the 1976 games in Montreal, the entire Russian swim team showed up with mustaches. 

Thirteen Side Steps

 

He’s been in office a month, and he’s been busy. I haven’t approved of his executive orders so far. None, as far as I can see, bear any resemblance to his campaign promises. Most seem to be about punishing people he doesn’t like, or people he thinks don’t like him. But last week I read about an executive order I can stand behind: an order to stop minting new pennies. There’s not a single thing you can buy for a penny, and there hasn’t been for a long, long time. Fewer people use cash to purchase items. Even if that weren’t the case, retailers could easily set their prices so they’d never need to make change in pennies. Moreover, it cost 3.69 cents for each penny we minted and distributed last year, making each coin a loss of 2.69 cents. If only he hadn’t written, “I’ve instructed MY Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies.”

Around the Corner

 

A group of guys, all turning forty, discussed where they should go to celebrate. They decided on Weatherspoon’s in Uxbridge, because the waitresses there were well-endowed and wore very short skirts. A decade later, when their fiftieth birthdays approached, they went to lunch at Weatherspoon’s in Uxbridge, because the food and service there were excellent, and it was a good value for their money. Ten years later, as they were turning sixty, the friends decided to meet at Weatherby’s in Uxbridge, because there was plenty of parking, and they could dine in peace and quiet, with no loud music. In another ten years, the friends chose to celebrate their seventieth birthdays at Weatherspoon’s in Uxbridge, because the restaurant was wheelchair accessible and had a nice disabled toilet. Ten years later, at age eighty, they considered where they should go for lunch. They settled on Weatherspoon’s in Uxbridge, because they’d never been there before.

Little Fish

Our local aquarium is too small for ocean sunfish, but I’ve seen these remarkable creatures up close. The Monterey Bay Aquarium has sunfish in their Open Sea Exhibit. At 4,400 pounds, they’re the world’s largest bony fish, and they’re like enormous fish heads, floating aloof and disinterested in their watery world. At least, that’s how they look. When Japan’s Kaikyokan Aquarium temporarily closed for renovations, their solitary sunfish began to show signs of distress. It stopped eating, became lethargic, and started bumping into the tank walls. The caretakers worried it might be missing the aquarium visitors, so they came up with a creative solution. They placed life-size human cutouts outside the tank to simulate adoring crowds. Gradually, the sunfish began to improve. Its appetite returned, it became more active, and it stopped colliding with the walls of the tank. Evidently, even fish may experience certain sensory input patterns which are anticipated and even missed when absent.

Red, White and True Banner

 

“I testify that our sincere gospel questions can provide Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ with opportunities to help us grow. My personal effort to seek answers from the Lord to my own spiritual questions—past and present—has allowed me to use the space between the lines of my understanding and God’s to practice obedience to Him and fidelity to the spiritual knowledge that I currently possess. I testify that placing your trust in Heavenly Father and in His prophets, whom He has sent, will help you to spiritually elevate and push you forward toward God’s expanded horizon. Your vantage will change because you will change. God knows that the higher you are, the farther you can see. Our Savior invites you to make that climb.” – Tracy Y. Browning

One Dozen Side Steps

 

Words to Live By:

If it costs your peace, it’s too expensive.

You can do anything, but you can’t do everything.

The magic you’re looking for may be in the work you’re avoiding.

If someone could only see your actions and not hear your words, what would they say your priorities are?

People only see the decisions you made, not the choices you had.

It’s okay to live a life most people don’t understand.

You can’t have a new reality with an old mentality.

Those who don’t move won’t notice their chains.

If you want to make the wrong decision, ask everyone.

Ambition without action becomes anxiety.

Fear doesn’t stop death; it stops life.

To live a life most people don’t, you must be willing to do what most people won’t.

Ships are safe in the harbor, but that’s not what they’re built for.

No risk, no story.

Never take criticism from someone whose advice you'd ignore.

Be My Valentine Banner

 

“The best proof of love is trust.” – Joyce Brothers

“At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.” – Plato

“Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.” – Aristotle

“The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.” – Audrey Hepburn

“Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“Love is friendship that has caught fire.” – Ann Landers

“You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.” – Dr. Seuss

“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.” – William Shakespeare

“The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.” – Victor Hugo

“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” – Charles Schulz

Nine Side Steps

 

My piano teacher used to ask, “How does a mouse eat an elephant?” The answer is, “One bite at a time.” He meant sometimes big tasks can feel overwhelming. If you divide them into smaller bits and accomplish one, it can give you momentum to tackle another. And another. Here are a few tasks requiring fifteen minutes or less:

 

Clean out your purse.

Make a shopping list.

Water your houseplants.

Strip and remake a bed.

Vacuum the living room.

Empty waste paper bins.

Clean a bathtub.

Dust light fixtures.

Start sauce for a pasta dinner.

Gather a bag of things to donate.

Scour the kitchen sink.

Scrub a toilet.

Polish the mirrors.

Fold a load of laundry.

Wipe down kitchen countertops.

Walk around the block.

Run an empty dishwasher with a cup of vinegar.

Empty the dishwasher.

Start a load of laundry.

Sweep the kitchen floor.

Purge the toybox of broken toys.

Clean out your car.

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood

 

Even if you zoom way in, you probably can’t read the Fred Rogers quotes in these little windows. Here are some:

 

“Often when you thing you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.”

“Anyone who does anything to help a child in his life is a hero.”

“You make each day a special day, by just being you.”

“How many times have you noticed that it’s the little quiet moments in the midst of life that seem to give the rest extra meaning?”

“Anything worthwhile certainly takes a while.”

“The connections we make in the course of a life – maybe that’s what heaven is.”

 

When this top is quilted and bound, it will be donated to Stitching Hearts Worldwide, to help “provide service opportunities for individuals, groups, and businesses wanting to help those suffering from natural disasters, human injustices, and unforeseen tragedies beyond their control.” I think Fred would approve.

Four Cactus Flowers

 

One of the things I wish we’d had time to see when we were in London is Highgate Cemetery. Highgate is a 37-acre nature preserve where 170,000 people are buried. The actress Jean Simmons is interred here, along with physicist Michael Faraday, novelist George Elliot, and author Douglas Adams. Perhaps the most visited tomb here is the resting place of Karl Marx. Marx’ radical ideas got him kicked out of Brussels Belgium, Paris France and Cologne (which was then part of Prussia). He was forced to live as a stateless exile in London for the rest of his life. His home was near Leicester Square and Chinatown. His tomb is five miles away, adorned by a large bronze bust. But Marx was buried on private property, which requires costly security and maintenance. So, if you want to see the grave of the man who believed everything should be free, be prepared to pay an entrance fee.

Diversions en Pointe

 

“I testify that you are not beneath the Master’s reach. The Savior descended below all things and is in a divine position to lift you and claim you from the darkest abyss and bring you into his marvelous light. Through His sufferings, He has made a way for each of us to overcome our personal weaknesses and sins. ‘He has all power to save every man that believeth on his name and bringeth forth fruit meet for repentance.’ (Alma 12:15) Just as it required work and pleading for heaven’s help to repair the painting, it takes work, sincerity of heart, and humility to bring forth fruit meet for repentance. These fruits include exercising our faith and trust in Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice, offering to God a broken heart and a contrite spirit, confessing and forsaking sin, restoring that which has been damaged to the best of our ability, and striving to live righteously.” – Kristin M. Yee

Half a Dozen Side Steps

 

I’ve had this nightmare several times. I’m seated in a large orchestra, dressed in concert black. The conductor walks to the podium to thunderous applause. As the performance is about to begin, I notice the music on all the stands around me is different from what’s in front of me. That’s when I wake up in a cold sweat, relieved to find it was only a vivid dream. But it actually happened to at least one pianist. In 1999, Maria João Pires was asked on short notice to substitute for another pianist at an open rehearsal (before a live audience) of Mozart’s 23rd Piano Concerto in A Major. The music starts, and Maria is shocked to find the orchestra is playing Mozart’s 20th Concerto in D Minor. She face-palms. Should she stop the conductor? Storm off stage? But, as the introduction continues, Maria composes herself and, drawing from memory, flawlessly performs the 20th. My hero.

Forty-Two Delectable Mountains

 

I bought this fabric as a fat eighth bundle (9x22”) of prints celebrating fifty years of Moda quilting cottons. I thought of submitting a finished quilt for their 50 Years of Moda Challenge. I love a challenge, and the $2,500 first prize sounded nice. I’ve always wanted to do a Delectable Mountains quilt, and that’s what I imagined when I looked at these wildly diverse prints. But I came to the game a little late. Even if I’d shelved all my other projects, I couldn’t have beaten the March first deadline. Delectable Mountains calls for 1/2 dark and 1/2 light prints, and the bundle only had a handful of light colors. Moreover, the entire quilt top, back, and binding must be made with Moda fabrics. Most of these are, but one or two may be Riley Blake or Maywood Studios. So, I’m making this to please myself. So far, it's doing great!

Four Side Steps

 

Rather than selling Bob’s Red Mill to a large corporation, Bob Moore transferred full ownership to his 700 employees. He founded the company at age 49 and passed away at 94 last February. In 2010, Bob established an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), giving employees collective ownership of the business. He made the announcement on his eighty-first birthday, emphasizing the importance of sharing the company’s success with those who contributed to its growth. The ESOP protects the company’s values and mission from potential takeovers. Bob’s decision to keep the company independent reflected his commitment to long-term success and his employees’ well-being. This not only ensured financial security for the workforce but also strengthened the sense of ownership and community within the company. Bob’s legacy lives on through the employee-owned business, which continues its focus on producing wholesome, natural foods. Several of these, like chia seeds, stone-ground cornmeal, and powdered milk are in my pantry right now.

Four Yellow Houses

 

Directly across Disneyland’s Main Street, USA from the Candy Kitchen, there is a blue-and-white "building" (it's really a facade) with a front porch and lots of Victorian gingerbread. You can climb three steps to the porch and sit in the shade (unless someone got there before you), but you can’t walk through the door. When Disneyland opened in 1955, this was the Intimate Apparel Shop, where a recorded Wonderful Wizard of Bras on a revolving stage taught visitors about the history of ladies’ undergarments. You could also buy unmentionables there, and admire a Singer sewing machine from the 1860’s. Today, the door on the porch is sealed shut and the space behind it is part of the China Closet. The Intimate Apparel Shop lasted only six months, for reasons you’ve probably already guessed. But it really would have come in handy that one time when a Disneyland ride shoulder strap snapped the underwire in my bra.

Lady of the Lake

 

The first London bridge was built by the Romans in 43 A.D. They needed a way to cross the Thames and connect the capital city of Londinium with the rest of Roman Britain. Theirs was a pontoon bridge, made of planks laid across anchored boats. That bridge was rebuilt by Anglo-Saxons, and then again by Henry II, as part of his penance for the assassination of Thomas Becket. Houses and shops were built on the bridge – at one point up to five stories tall – with any rents contributing to the bridge’s upkeep. The old London bridge was the only crossing point of the River Thames until 1729. Amazingly, the bridge survived the Great Fire of London in 1666 because a previous fire had destroyed some of the buildings atop the bridge, leaving a fire break. In 1968, an American tycoon bought the London Bridge – all 10,000 tons of it – and had it rebuilt stone by stone in Lake Havasu, Arizona. 

Twenty-Five Diversions

 

“Priesthood ordinances and covenant promises allow God’s power to flow into your life with greater efficacy, working in and through you, empowering and equipping you to reach your full purpose and potential. Carefully study and ponder the Aaronic and the Melchizedek Priesthood ordinances, the covenant promises we make with each, and the power of God we access through those ordinances. Remember, it’s not only who officiates in the ordinance that matters; what the ordinance and your covenant promise unlock also deserves the focus of your attention. Partaking of the bread and water is a weekly reminder of His power working in you to help you overcome. Wearing the garment of the holy priesthood is a daily reminder of the gift of His power working in you to help you become. We all have access to the gift of God’s power. Every time we partake of the sacrament. Every time we cross the threshold of a temple.” – Emily Belle Freeman

Side Step Block

 

When I was a little girl, I had a granduncle who always carried Tootsie Rolls in his pocket. For me. You don’t forget a thing like that, no matter how many years fly by. It’s difficult to describe Tootsie Rolls to someone who’s never had one. Chocolate-flavored, they’re not chocolates. They’re sort of like caramels, but not quite. They’re almost like taffy, but not really.  Leo Hirschfield patented the technique for making this unique candy in 1907. He named it after his daughter, Clara, who was nicknamed “Tootsie.” Tootsie Rolls were marketed commercially in 1908, making them the first American penny candy to be individually wrapped. According to the company website, the original recipe called for the inclusion of some of the previous day's batch, "a graining process that Tootsie continues to this day." If that’s true, then it’s possible the Tootsie Roll you buy today could have molecules from the very first batch.