Super Powers

If I had any super power it would be to make people vanish of the face of the earth. I just think that a good portion of people in this world don’t deserve to live on it. They don’t appreciate it and the are just bad people that have no chance of changing. So they should vanish and I will become happy.

Meal Planning Week 2

This past week meal planning has had me grumpy. At first I was excited. I planned out some books from the FLB cookbook at this fan site for Francesca Lia Block. Then we went grocery shopping. I guessed that we were going to spend $95.00.  I guessed correctly too. It came out to be like 95.08 or something. And we even got extra things. Later in the week however, the little kids were here and the menu got really screwed up. I had to skip a lot of the meals because they ate all of the freaking food. And if I didn’t skip a meal I skipped ahead to a different meal. I hope this week I plan a little better.

Herland

        Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a good book. The
story line is very creative. It is about three men Terry O. Nicholson, Jeff
Margrave and Vandyck Jennings. Vandyck is the narrator of the story and kind of
the happy medium between Jeff and Terry’s views. The three men go on an
exploration with a group of people. As they get closer and closer to the end of
their exploration they hear more and more about a land of only woman. Finally
with some sort of evidence that there is a hidden civilization they return home
and get their own boat and plane together to discover this land themselves. 

As their plane lands on the civilization they don’t really
take note of how well built this civilization is. They come across three
children. These children climb trees and run like boys but the three men argue
on whether or not they were girls. Terry tries to bribe the girls into
assisting them but they take his bribery and run off. The three men run in the
direction of the children and come across a town. They go into the town, the
streets are empty. They turn a corner and there are a hundred women. Old women.. Terry presents them with gifts and they aren’t
flattered. Instead the women show that they want the three to follow them.
Terry makes a big fuss and they are drugged.

The three men wake up in a wonderful room. Nice beds, full
of clothes, and a bathroom. Then they knock on their door and see that there is
food and that the women, their tutors want to learn their language and history.
Although it doesn’t seem like they are imprisoned it is quite obvious that
these women do not want the men to be alone. Throughout time the men escape and
are taken back. The women explain that they are not prisoners and once they
learn the language and the history they will not need guards following them.

The history of these women is quite peculiar. It’s like all
the women just turned into a group of girl bearing Virgin Marys. At one point
these women had men. They had a civilization that reached to the shore and
fought with their enemies. Then a volcano erupted and they were trapped. Their
slaves tried to kill them all but the younger women resisted winning their
country back. One day a woman bore a child. She was sent to a sanctuary. She
had five children who each had five children who each had five children. This
one woman started a whole new race.

Throughout
the book the narrator starts to feel ashamed of his country and the way his
society looks at things. The women and men share how their world works with each
other. The men’s society, compared to the women’s, is vicious, full of creatures
that will harm you and it is unequal. The women are treated much differently. The
women in this land that they have built are just mothers. The only thing they
really care about is motherhood and sisterhood.

The three
men eventually get married to three of these women. Jeff is completely happy
and has no struggles. Vandyk and Terry however find it a little hard to deal
with them. These women don’t understand love before motherhood. In fact most of
their emotions are very blank. One night Terry tries to have sex with his wife.
She had the guards come in and drug him. Terry went through court and they
decided he must leave. Vandyk and his wife Ellador decide to leave with him.
They are asked to keep the location of this Herland a secret.

This book wasn’t really my favorite book. It kind of bored
me. Like the men did, I found the women in this book just too boring. I don’t
think that, in a civilization without men, women would act like this. Although
the book is not the best, I still do think it was a good book. It is an interesting theory about how a civilization without man could be. It’s better in some
ways and worse in others. You’ll have to read it to find out what I mean.

 

Tanakh: Hebrew Scriptures

The name for the collected Hebrew scriptures is Tanakh. This name comes from the Hebrew letters for the three parts of scriptures: Torah which means "teaching", Nevi’im which means "Prophets", and Ketuvim which means "Writings".
Isaiah is found in Nevi’im
Leviticus is found in Torah
Daniel is found in Ketuvim
Proverbs is found in Ketuvim

To Live Deliberately

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if i could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."
–Henry David Thoreau

I think that want Thoreau meant by to live deliberately was that sometimes people are alive but they aren’t intentionaly trying to live. So by  going into the woods to live, he’s  really living because he makes a conscious choice.  When he dies, he doesn’t want to have regrets because he did not make choices. He’s trying to take hold of his life?

The Commandments: A Legal Code

Here is a list of the 10 Commandments. The bolded ones are the ones that are enforced by laws.

1. You shall have no other gods but me.
2. You shall not make any idols.
3. You shall not take the name of your Lord in vain.
4. You shall remember and keep hol the Sabbath day.
5. Honor your father.
6. You shall not kill.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet our neighbor’s goods.

Sibling Rivalry

Growing up I was the youngest child. I have an older brother (Chris) and an older sister (Jenn). Many times there would be teaming up against one. It was always either my sister and I against my brother or my brother and me against my sister.

About 4 years ago 3 new siblings came along. So then I wasn’t the youngest. I liked being the youngest before but now I kind of like being the middle child. Having younger siblings is really fun for me. They stay out of my way because they are scared of me, lol, but when I want to hang out with them it’s still nice.

Meal Planning Redux

We made it through week one with just a few bumps in the road.  $30 over budget.  Tons of food in the fridge and cabinets because we over-estimated our food needs.  And of course we didn’t properly plan for weekend "Michelle excursions" when she wasn’t home to cook or eat (which means her moms did not eat according to the pre-planned menu). 

For the week ahead, we have to plan differently taking care to plan for the following issues: Wednesday Michelle starts a sewing class, 6-8pm and we don’t get TW home from work til 5.  So something quick and easy is called for.  Friday – Sunday we have little kids to plan for.  Three meals plus snacks and believe me they won’t skip a meal because they didn’t have breakfast til 12:30!.

Here’s the menu we attempted to stick to last week:

Tuesday
B – Eggs, Toast, Juice
L – Cheese quesadillas, chips, salsa
D – Leftovers that were already in the fridge
S – Cheese nips and apples

Wednesday
B – Oatmeal and banana
L – grilled cheese w/tomatos and carrot sticks
D – Spaghetti, salad, garlic bread
S – cookies (baked from school band sale cookie dough), oranges

Thursday
B – Banana rolled in peanut butter and cereal
L – Leftover spaghetti
D – Veggie Burgers & fries
S – BLT dip and crackers

Friday
B – Cinnamon Rolls, banana
L – Taco salad
D – pizza (Boboli crusts)
S – Deviled Eggs, oranges

Saturday
B – Apple Fluff Pancakes
L – Grilled cheese w/tomatoes and apples
D – Veggie Lasagna, salad
S – Banana Bread

Sunday
B – Banana bread, oatmeal
L – Leftover lasagna
D –   Chicken w/dumplings, green beans
S – veggies, dip, oranges

Monday
B – French toast, oranges
L – leftover chicken & dumplings
D – Veggie stirfry w/rice
S – chips & Salsa

Due to the weekend excursion, we never made it to the stirfry so I am expecting this will be tomorrow’s meal, though Michelle seems inclined to choose recipes from Francesca Lia Block’s books (which is scaring the little kids – apparently pink mac & cheese does not sound good to them).  She used recipes from her Teens Cook book that TW bought her for Christmas a couple of years ago.  She was pleased with the bacon dip, but it needed more bacon.  The veggie lasagna had no red sauce and was surprisingly good.  The chicken & dumplings (moved to tonight) were a hit with the little kids but not with Michelle (TW and I did not eat those – vegetarians that we are).   The apple pancakes were a hit with everyone and should stay on our regular recipe list.

Technorati Tags: mealplanning, cooking, homeschool

Nature

I do like nature. I think it’s pretty. About a year ago I skipped school for the day and went to nature parks with friends of mine. We went to three. That day we hiked and put our feet in a creek. We also found bones and teeth and I have a little collection in my room. When I lived in Panama as a child I loved being outside and going to "snake mountain". I do complain about bugs a lot. And I don’t like the types of plants that make you itch or prick you.

The Commandments – A moral code

I guess I think the 10 Commandments are a good idea. I don’t think that I could follow most of them. I don’t neccasarily agree with these 10 but I do think that 10 things could be thought up fair enough to everyone. Or whatnot.