Friday Brain Dump

Or, a round-up of random thoughts, rattling around in my head...


1.  You'd think I'd be smarter than this...  my wonderful friends gave me their recipe for the bread Tate and I loved when they visited them.  It's a sourdough bread and requires making and using a starter, as well as a very long rising time (two 12-hour rises).  Though they clearly wrote "3 T potato flakes", I somehow found myself using instant milk powder (this is known as a "brain fart" in our house) and then - in shocking news - my bread didn't rise.  We're trying again.


2.  I found this Cinquain that Tate wrote about five years ago.  (Just FYI, there are lots of guidelines for writing a Cinquain, but the creator of the form actually only had these rules - a five-line poem, the lines have 2-4-6-8-2 syllables.  You can be more specific, but those are the only original rules.)  Here's Tate's:

Downed elk

Sinks to the ground

And sleeps the final sleep

A fat elk makes a fine dinner

Let's eat!

3.  Panhandlers.  We've got 'em, and you probably do too.  I hear (and read) a lot of muddled thinking about helping them.  Particularly frustrating is the mentality of, "I can't judge them, so I'll just be generous and give them money and let God sort it out."  Because God didn't trouble to give you a brain, or expect you to use it???

Our local rescue mission published an article with some great thoughts.  Here's a link to the article, but I don't think they'd mind me sharing some of their thoughts.  Before you hand someone money, ask yourself some questions:

• Will giving them money change the situation they're in?
• Will it solve any drug or alcohol abuse problems they might be facing?
• Will it help them find employment, provide needed counseling, or offer other skills?
• Will this help them face and overcome obstacles that have defeated them in the past?
• Will this continue to enable them?

In other words, (i.e. my own...)  If I give them money, is it actually likely to help them, or is it all about my feelings?  Though they did NOT say this in the article, far better to support your local mission than to give panhandlers money!


4.  Love, love, love this graphic.

Especially "not clapping on 1 and 3".  Amen?  ;D


5.  I spent a year in West Australia.  Great memories.  *happy sigh*  Especially since, being on a student visa, there was no question about me getting any kind of employment (not allowed).  What's a girl to do all summer, but go to the beach?  And there was a great one in easy walking distance of my summer host family.  On these cold, winter days (so often dark and rainy!) I frequently check this webcam.  It takes a minute to load, and even then you may see... darkness.  You have to remember that they are 15 or 16 hours ahead of us (Pacific Standard Time), so I check in the late afternoon or evening.  Oh, those brilliant turquoise blues.  That's exactly how I remember Scarborough Beach...

I spent whole days (weeks!) with this view...

6.  And since we're looking at happy pics...  I snapped this one of the boys on Christmas Eve

And with that...

7.  Time for lunch :D  Have to feed those teenage metabolisms ;D