Technology and the Media. . .

Some days I think, have we really come as far as we think we have with regard to technology.  There are many days that I feel we would be better served without all of our technology that we seem to depend on so much.  With the influx of all of our "fabulous" technology we have opened our homes and our children up to predators of all kinds.  Bullying used to be only at school, now it follows our children home on their cell phones and computers thanks to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
I know I am a dinosaur and you, like my kids, probably think I grew up in the dark ages but I think I grew up in the best time.   Our news was on only two times per day for an hour maybe two at a time.  I am not saying we do not need to be informed of what is going on but, not everything is news worthy.  Some days I think they are just trying to fill their 15 hours for their news slot.  Let's take the weather, my hubby calls these folks "weather weenies," please do not get me wrong I know we need to know when we have severe weather approaching and I am very thankful when they alert us.  Let's be honest, you have seen it too, when the weather person is almost giddy while talking about a tornado or a snow storm approaching.
I also grew up watching "Andy Griffith" and "I Love Lucy."  I like Facebook just like everyone else but I am shocked most days at the things I see on there.  I use it to keep in touch with my family and friends that do not live near me.  With all the things going on in our Country this last few weeks I have seen some very nasty and negative things posted.  This is where I think the news media use social media to stir up trouble.  They post things in the guise of news in the hopes to create trouble.  It works, you can look at any "news" (I use this term very loosely) post on Facebook and look at the comments to see people attacking each other.   They are just like teenage girls waiting to see how many comments they can get from that post.  What ever happened to unbiased news coverage?  I do not think I have seen an unbiased anything from the news media in decades.  

Monday Blues

Crazy last couple of days.  Feeling sad today.  A friend passed away suddenly this last week, leaving behind a beautiful wife and two very sweet boys.  These boys will know what a very sweet man their daddy was and how loved he was by our community.   He will be missed by everyone that knew him.  My heart breaks for this family.  
He was several years younger than my husband and myself.   It really brings everything in to full focus.  
When I am gone will my family know how much I loved them?   I have told you about the letters that I write to the boys periodically, they may get a novel this month.  You do not know His plan for you and you do not know how long you have with your loved ones.   Take every opportunity to tell and show them how much you love them.
Things I want to do better for my family: 
I will try not to sweat the small stuff
I will always give them my best
I will always give them my time
I will always let them know how much I love them

I hope that my family will know how much they mean to me and how important they are.
My heart breaks for this sweet family and I ask each one of you to say a prayer for them this week.

Technology Etiquette. . .

I was reading an article from Dave Ramsey about technology and it brought up an interesting fact.  Americans check their phones more than 150 times a day.  This reminded me of an observation I made while out to eat one evening with my family.   I looked around  and  more than half of the people sitting around us had their heads down tapping away on their phones.   This is where my etiquette issues come in to play.  I think it is rude to those you are eating with to have your head buried in your phone rather than being with those that are right in front of you.  I do not think these folks are being rude intentionally,  they just do not realize how it appears.   We are so tuned in to our devices that we do not even think, it is an automatic response to the sound of the ping or bubble.  I am guilty of it too, but I am trying to do better for my family's sake.   Sprat does not even carry his phone much anymore and of course Big T does not have one.  The hubbs and I are the ones in our house that need to tone down the tech time.  We never get on our phones at the table, unless of course I am trying to take a picture.  These days I have to snap them where I can and many times it is when they are pined in at a table while we are out to eat.  I know sometimes it is unavoidable, especially when you may have a loved one sick or trying to keep touch with a loved one out of town.   

I just wonder what Dear Abby or Mrs. Manners would say to the lack of face to face contact that we have today?  I saw a commercial the other day talking about "dead time" or "dead zone" meaning no cell phones or tablets during family/dinner time.  Do we really have to have that to remind us of what is important?  

Sometimes I wonder, has all of this technology really made our lives better or has it just made our work day longer?  I know my hubby does some of his paper work at home after work just to stay caught up.  He has a company laptop, ipad, and cell phone that makes his work "easier" and enables 

him to do much of his paper work long after the "work day" is over.  

"Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backward."  Aldous Huxley.  Here is another quote for today:  "Even the technology that promises to unite us, divides us.  Each of us is now electronically connected to the globe, and yet we feel utterly alone." Dan Brown, Angels and Demons.

Happy Monday. . . .Read On. . .

I have said numerous times that I read all the time; if it is not a text book it is a novel, magazine or blog.   My hubby is also an avid reader, of course he loves his war novels and history.  He loves Stephen King and has many of his novels.  I am very thankful that our kiddos both like to read.  Big T took after his daddy with a love for history books and Sprat likes a good mystery just like his mama.  I did not find my joy of reading until I was out of college and I found Robin Cook.  If you do not know him, he writes medical mysteries and I love them.  I was never a Harlequin romance girl, I did not care for those at all.  I even found a series of knitting murder mysteries, yes knitting.  They are easy and very interesting.  Give me a good murder mystery and I am set.   In the last several years, a group of my girl friends formed a book club and I joined.  I thought I needed to broaden my literary awareness beyond murder.  I have really stepped out of my zone in the books I have read with this great group of ladies.  This is not a hard core book club so if we do not finish the book it is no big deal.  We all have families and kids and they are very understanding when life happens.  I have tried to read every book but, I must admit there have been a couple that I did not read.
     One of our books we chose was sort of a murder mystery, "Gone Girl."   I was finishing this one up when my dear hubby got hurt.  He decided he needed something new to read and when I finished he started reading it.  I do not think we had ever read the same book, I thought this is going to be fun to talk about when he was finished.  I was very impatient for him to finish because I wanted to know what he thought and I wanted to see the movie.  I swore I would not see the movie until we both had finished the book.   I think you can gauge a good book by how you feel about the characters, I had definite feelings about both of these main characters.  I will not spoil the story or the movie if you have not seen it.  You will have definite feelings about this book and the movie.   The hubbs is now reading, "The Help," another good book and movie if you have not read or seen it.  
    I have started a new Stephen King  book that my mom gave Big T.  He is knee deep in another book right now so I did not think he would mind if I borrowed it.   I will let you know how I like it.  I only have a few months before I am back in my text books for school.  I will be taking a public speaking class and a Constitutional Law class.  Looking forward to August.

Update on a Couple Posts. . .

My hubbs went back to work on Monday.  I think he has had a good week, his leg  has been tired but that was expected.   He loves his work and is glad to be back at it.  He has been at this same job for 23 years and that alone, these days, speaks volumes.  
Now for the update on my sourdough starter.  I had lots of bubbles this morning, I am on day 5.  I think this one will be a keeper.  I will share a picture below.  I have about 3 more days of discarding and feeding before I can bake, I cannot wait.  Check out the Pocket Farmer www.thepocketfarmer.com,  great site with a lot of information. 
Today I will be making lots of casseroles to go in the freezer.  The zucchini is going crazy, I just wish I could freeze cucumbers too.  I am going to make some more zucchini muffins.  The hubbs loved those.  I would love to freeze those but I am not sure how they would taste after the fact.  They are very good fresh though.  

Look at those beautiful bubbles.  

Everyone Should Have a Hobby or 12. . .

Everyone should have a hobby, I have many hobbies.  I do not know if they are really hobbies but these are things that I love to do:  knit/crochet, reading, gardening, cooking, DIY (do it yourself stuff), fishing, and shooting.  I guess you could add blogging to that list too.   I have only recently learned how to knit and crochet.  I am not very good but I do enjoy it.  I do mostly scarves and shawls, I have made a hat or two.   I have found since starting to knit and crochet my eyes are really bad.   My distance vision is very good but up close I have to squint and strain, I think this is old age and I do not like it at all.

I have been painting too, this falls under the DIY section.  We have a cute wrought iron table and chair set for our back patio that has some rust and weather wear.  I decided I would steal wool the rust off and seal it with a spray to protect the iron.  Then I  sprayed in a gloss black, it's original color.  I got both chairs done but I have not done the table pedestal yet.  That is on my list to do this summer in between running the boys to and from football workouts.  I will share my chair pictures below.  

 I grew up fishing on our family vacations, I do not like lake fishing, I love salt water fishing.  The hubbs and I enjoy fishing together.  That is how I hooked my hubby.  I know corny right?  We went to the beach with some friends and he wanted to go fishing and he was surprised that I wanted to go too.  I out fished him that weekend and the next week he proposed.   Before we had the kiddos we would take little trips to the beach and go fishing all the time.   One time we even drove to the beach just to eat crab legs and drove back.   We were much more impulsive then, something about having kids that grounds you and makes you more responsible.  I would not trade our six years of impulsiveness for anything though.  That just makes me smile.  

My mom gave the gardening bug when I was little.  Mom always had a garden at the house and later she had one at the barn too.   Mom always had fresh peas, those were my favorite.  She used to get so mad at me because I would go out and sneak and pick her peas and eat them while she was busy in another part of the yard.  That has unfortunately bled over to my poor hubby, I sneak and pick his peas too and eat them before he can put them in the freezer.  I think he knows though, because each year he plants more peas.   I am so glad that my hubby caught his gardening bug from his mom and dad too.   I hope that my kids will learn from their dad and I the joys of gardening and eating fresh veggies.    Sprat loves the potatoes and he does help dig every now and then.  

My newest hobby is shooting.  My father-in-law gave me my first gun, he was worried about me being alone while the hubbs was traveling.  He was also a retired city police officer.  He knew the importance of a woman by herself being able to take care of herself.   I did not know how to shoot so I went to my dad, he took me out below our barn and taught me how to shoot my gun and a couple others.  I have since bought a new one and was in need of some refresher work with it.  I have found a great range that encourages women to learn gun safety and how to shoot well.  

Sourdough Starter. . . .

My sister gave me the best sourdough starter in the world.  It was a wild yeast starter, that means you do not add yeast to get it going.  I was a bad sister and did not keep it fed like I was supposed to, so I am trying to do my own starter.  I tried the one where you use whole wheat flour and orange juice and you feed it every 24 hours to start.  This one did not work for me, that does not mean it would not work for you.  I am now trying one from the Pocket Farmer, 1/4 cup of water and 3/8 cup bread flour. Add this every 12 hours and stir.  I am seeing some bubbles, which is good, that means it is active.  If after 24 hours you do not see bubbles discard and start over.  You also want to keep your starter (in the beginning phase) around 70-80 degrees.  It is a living organism and you must keep it cozy.   I am on my third feeding for this one and today I will discard 1/2 and add more water and flour.  Your starter, once it is growing should have a mild aroma of beer and should be the consistency of a good pancake batter.  You do not want it too thick or too runny.  Here is a picture of what I have so far.

My mom and my sister are my role models for cooking and caring for my family.  I know this is Fathers day week but I am going to brag about two of the strongest women in my life.   My mom always made homemade bread for us, not because she had to but because that is what her mother did. Funny how our moms influence our lives.  My moms homemade loaf bread is the best in the world, she did not buy bread until she and dad started eating whole wheat bread.   I am not sure if I shared this before or not but the hubbs started having food allergies not long after Sprat was born.  He could not eat any store bought bakery items, and that included bread.  My mom gave me her recipe that was her mothers.  This was the first time I had made bread.  It was a great feeling and every time I use that recipe I think about my mom and my grandmother (she passed away when I was little).  During this time of uncertainty with the hubbs and his diet, I made every thing from scratch.   That is a daunting task, to say the least, but between my sister and my mom and their wealth of recipes and help we survived and thrived.   The hubbs food allergies corrected themselves after a year or so and I do not have to make our bread any more.  I do make some every now and then just because my family and I like it.                                                   

I blame my sister for my obsession with sourdough bread and its' starter.  She gave me my first 

starter and I loved it but I was just lazy about taking care of and feeding it.  I guess it is a good thing my kids and husband are more vocal or they would be sitting around covered in mold too.    Just kidding. . . . . . .   Before I let her starter go to the dogs I made several loaves of bread and tried to make crackers.  My crackers did not turn out that great, they were a little thick.  I am going to give them another shot with this starter.   Once I get it going I will share the cracker recipe and how it turns out.