Four Chain Links

 

Alta Apantenco was a Texas waitress who needed someone to watch her 22-month-old daughter, Melissa. Alta placed an ad in the paper and hired the first woman to respond. The woman took Melissa and never returned. That was in 1971. For the next five decades, Alta and her family tried everything they could think of to find Melissa, even hiring private investigators. To add insult to injury, local law enforcement accused Alta of having murdered her own child. This autumn, the family tried home DNA tests from Ancestry and 23andMe and found a match. Melissa, now 53, has lived most of her life in the Fort Worth area believing her name is Melanie. She had no idea she’d been abducted. No criminal charges are expected, as the statute of limitations expired years ago. But Melissa/Melanie and her family were finally reunited November 27. I hope they have a great time getting to know each other again. 

Twenty Wonky Log Cabins

 

John likes to shop, and he loves to come home with more than I asked for. If a little is good, a lot is better, right? It’s thoughtful of him, and usually not a problem, unless he buys stuff with a short shelf life. A couple of weeks ago, I needed half a cup of buttermilk to make banana bread. Buttermilk comes in half pints, so I planned to use the remainder in corn bread. He brought home four times what I needed. I made banana bread, corn bread, buttermilk waffles, and:

 

Buttermilk Syrup

 

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

 

Melt butter in large saucepan; whisk in sugar and buttermilk. Heat to boiling. Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla and soda. When the foaming subsides, serve syrup warm over pancakes, waffles, or French toast. Refrigerate any leftover syrup. 

Butterfly

 

The California pipevine swallowtail butterfly begins life as a tiny, red-gold egg. It hatches into a voracious black caterpillar with orange spots, then metamorphoses into a stunning, iridescent blue wonder. It used to be a common sight in the San Francisco area, but the species is in danger of disappearing altogether. One man is determined to keep that from happening. Tim Wong is an aquatic biologist at the California Academy of Sciences, but restoring these blue beauties is his hobby. Tim has created a butterfly paradise in his back garden, surrounded with mesh to ward off predators. Inside are nectar plants, including the swallowtail’s host plant of choice, the pipevine. Tim has been raising and re-homing California pipevine swallowtails by the hundreds in local parks since 2012. "Improving habitat for native fauna is something anyone can do," he says. "Conservation and stewardship can start in your very own backyard."

Sixteen Louisiana Blocks

 

“We don’t join the Church for fellowship alone, important as that is. We join for redemption through the love and grace of Jesus Christ. We join to secure the ordinances of salvation and exaltation for ourselves and those we love on both sides of the veil. We join to participate in a great project to establish Zion in preparation for the Lord’s return. President Russell M. Nelson recently wrote: ‘Once you and I have made a covenant with God, our relationship with Him becomes much closer than before our covenant. Now we are bound together. Because of our covenant with God, He will never tire in His efforts to help us, and we will never exhaust His merciful patience with us. Each of us has a special place in God’s heart. Jesus Christ is the guarantor of those covenants.’ If we will remember this, the Lord’s high hopes for us will inspire, not discourage, us. ” – Elder D. Todd Christofferson

Chain Link

 

December 3 is National Roof Over Your Head Day. It’s something that’s been on my mind a lot lately. It’s come to my attention a lot of people (including a few I know personally) are homeless. I suppose the politically correct term is “unsheltered persons.” My dad would have called them “bums.” What surprises me is many of these people (including the ones I know personally) have cell phones and Internet access. Yes, I understand a mortgage or rent costs a lot more than a cell phone. But it’s the matter of priorities. To me, food, clothing and shelter seem like essentials. The ability to call a friend, play online games or stay connected to social media seem like luxuries in comparison; luxuries you can do without until the essentials are covered. Then there’s the question of who’s paying for the Internet, and the power to charge the phone. Maybe my dad was right.

Sixteen Wonky Log Cabins

 

In the early 70’s, Fort Lauderdale built an artificial coral reef by dumping millions of old tires into the Pacific. The idea was small marine life (coral, barnacles, etc.) would attach to the tires and create a thriving ecosystem. Most of the tires were tethered together with nylon or steel clips. Somehow, it never occurred to anyone long-term exposure to waves and salt water would render the clips useless. Before the new ecosystem had a chance to begin, the tires began flailing about, crashing into one another. Worse, hurricanes that are common in this area sent them smashing into nearby, natural coral reefs. Thousands of tires washed ashore on beaches as far away as North Carolina. Inevitably, all the tires had to be retrieved and disposed of in landfills. It’s said, “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” I wonder what ecological disasters we’re creating right now, in the name of saving the environment.

Nine Rooster Blocks

 

It was the day before Thanksgiving, and I was out of poultry seasoning, which was odd. I must have tossed it when I culled all the expired spices, and forgot to replace it. Odder still, when I ran to the grocery store to replace it, they were out of poultry seasoning, too. I was one of five people crowding the spice aisle, staring at the empty spot on the shelf labelled, “poultry seasoning.” Maybe the other four found the blend they wanted at another store. Maybe they didn’t. But I went home and made:

 

Poultry Seasoning

 

2 teaspoons ground dried sage

1 1/2 teaspoons ground dried thyme

1 teaspoon ground dried marjoram

3/4 teaspoon ground dried rosemary

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon finely ground black pepper (Our pepper grinder lets you choose coarse or fine.)

 

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl; mix well. Store in an airtight container up to four years.