Woodland Log Cabin

 

Tuesday, John told me about a story he’d heard on the news. It was about Toby Price, assistant principal at Gary Road Elementary in Byram, Mississippi. Mr. Price read aloud via Zoom to 240 second graders earlier this month. Mr. Price hadn’t been scheduled to read that day, but the guest reader hadn’t shown up. So, Mr. Price filled in. The school district superintendent disapproved of the book he chose. Moments after the Zoom meeting, Mr. Price was placed on administrative leave. Two days later, he was fired. What was the book that caused all this trouble? Prepare to be shocked: it was “I Need a New Butt” by New Zealand author Dawn McMillan. If you’ve never read it, you should buy one from Amazon right now. When it arrives, find a seven-year-old to read it to. It’s the PERFECT book to read aloud to someone that age. What concerns me is that there are school superintendents out there who don’t know that.  

Scrappy Churn Dash

 

I remember studying weather in grade school. We learned how the moon and tides are connected, and how weather is predicted. We ran around in the pouring rain with sponges on our heads, then weighed our wet sponges to prove the running leaves you just as wet as walking (unless, of course, the running gets you out of the rain sooner.) But we never learned the words I hear meteorologists spouting these days. We covered rain and hail and snow, but not graupel (granular snow pellets). We learned about jet streams, but not about a polar vortex (which is always found near the poles, but sometimes causes other places to experience arctic conditions). I know we never discussed atmospheric rivers, thundersnow, derechos, flash droughts, or bomb cyclones. (If I understood these well enough to give a definition, I would.) Has the weather really changed that much in half a century, or have we just invented new words to describe it?

Lucky Charm Block

 

Slow Cooker Tuscan Chicken

 

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts

15 ounces bottled Alfredo pasta sauce

7 ounces sundried tomato strips, cut into thin strips (about 1/2 cup)

1/4 cup grated Parmesan

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1 cup chopped fresh or frozen spinach

 

Place chicken breasts in bottom of slow cooker. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over chicken breasts. Cover and cook on low at least four hours. You can leave the chicken breasts whole, or shred them and return them to the pot about half an hour before serving. We had ours with casarecce (the name means “homemade,” though ours was store-bought). It would have been just as lovely with fettucine, linguine or penne. 

Trip to the Altar

 

“We served a full-time mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Mbuji-Mayi Mission from 2016 to 2019. Armed bandits broke onto the road, disturbing the movement of travelers. Five missionaries traveling from one zone to another were victims of these disturbances. Having been victims of this phenomenon ourselves sometimes before, we began to fear for the lives and safety of all of us, even hesitating to travel on these roads to visit the missionaries and hold zone conferences. We did not know how long it was going to last. I drew up a report, which I sent to the Area Presidency, and I expressed my feelings of fear about continuing to travel when the road was the only way to reach our missionaries. In his reply, our president wrote: ‘Do the best you can. Be wise and be prayerful. Do not knowingly put yourselves or your missionaries in harm’s way, but at the same time go forward in faith.’” – Elder Alfred Kyungu

Spring Tulip Table Runner

 

Easter falls on the first Sunday AFTER the first full moon AFTER spring equinox. So, if the full moon comes right after the first day of spring, we get an early Easter. If the full moon comes right before (it happened yesterday), Easter will come later. I’m fine with that. By April 17, my lawn just might be ready for an Easter egg hunt. And by then, the weather might be fine enough for me to want one. Easter is a melting-pot holiday. The name comes from the Anglo-Saxon Oestre, goddess of dawn, light and fertility. The bunny comes from Germany (where rabbits are a symbol of fertility and spring), and the tradition of decorating eggs – called pysanka – is from Ukraine. I was reading about Easter traditions and discovered one I’d like to adopt. In Southern Germany, they eat pretzels at this time of year, because they look like arms folded in prayer. I’ll have mine with mustard.

Eagle's Nest

 

I haven’t made chicken cordon bleu in ages. I love the taste, but it’s SO much work! This was every bit as yummy, and practically effortless! 

 

Slow Cooker Cordon Bleu

 

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast

1 can condensed cream of chicken soup

1 cup milk

4 ounces ham, sliced and coarsely chopped

4 ounces Swiss cheese, sliced and coarsely chopped

1 box Stovetop stuffing mix (We used chicken, but savory herb and sage work, too.)

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

1/4 cup water

 

In a small bowl, combine butter, water and stuffing mix. Gently stir, then dump in one side of slow cooker. In a bowl whisk together soup and milk until combined. Pour half the soup/milk mixture in the other side of slow cooker. Arrange chicken breasts on top of the soup mixture. Top chicken with ham and Swiss, then pour remaining soup/milk mixture over. Cover and cook on low for 4 to 6 hours or on high for 2 to 3 hours. About half an hour before serving, shred chicken with two forks and return to cooker. We served ours with a side of roasted Brussel sprouts.

Lucky Charms

 

I never bought the pattern for this quilt. I saw a photo on the Internet, and liked it. It’s only a bunch of half-square triangles, quarter-square triangles, and flying geese, but the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. I already know how to make all these parts. The pattern might have let me know how much fabric to buy, but everything you see here was gleaned from my stash. It’s green, and Americans celebrate all things green on March 17. But it might be just as much fun to make in red, or blue, or black and white. I’m actually thinking of making another using all the colors. This one is 30” square, but it could just as easily have been 40” or 60” or 120”. I only did this without a pattern because I wanted to see if I could. But if you want to buy the pattern, you can find it on Etsy.