A pleasing aroma, or a stinking house?

One of my favorite books is Pocketful of Pinecones by Karen Andreola.  I love it because it is the story of a homeschool mom (Carol) in the 30s.  It gently teaches lessons about parenting, marriage, homeschooling, serving others, and frugal living ... all in the form of a story. 

One of my favorite lines in the book is when Carol's sister-in-law encourages and praises her by saying, "Motherhood is the basket in which you have placed all your eggs."  I love the imagery that line creates ... being focused on one thing, cherishing it, protecting it.  I've always wanted that to be true of me ... that my marriage and children were the basket I placed all my eggs in.

I was thinking about that yesterday, and wondering if I was spreading too many eggs in other baskets, and how well I could protect the eggs in the motherhood basket with the other baskets filling up.  Then today I read this devotional about "The Homeschooling Mom's Perfume".   And I had to ask myself what type of aroma my daily life is creating.

Is my service at home a pleasing aroma to God, and my family?  Or am I stinking up the house with my attitude, harsh words, and impatience?   If I'm stinking up the house, is it because I've got rotten eggs scattered about from trying to maintain too many baskets?   Is one of the baskets my own pleasure, and is it overflowing with eggs invested in it?  Would the other baskets be better cared for if the basket of selfishness and wasted time was less stocked?

I don't have the answers yet, but it's something I will be pondering this weekend.  Are there too many baskets?  Which ones are most important?  How can I best tend my baskets? 

Take joy,
April

The Sea Turtle Hatchling Release

We went to New Mexico for the wedding of my baby sister.  After the wedding, we traveled with my parents and one of my sisters to North Padre Island, Texas.  My family enjoys vacationing there, but this was our first time joining them.  We had so much fun at the beach, fishing, enjoying the aquarium, etc. with Papa, Grandma, and Aunt R. 

On Thursday morning, we got up early and headed to the beach to watch a Sea Turtle Hatchling Release.  The National Park Rangers ask beach visitors to report any sea turtles observed laying eggs, and stand guard over the eggs until the rangers can arrive.  Then they gather the eggs and move them to an incubator to hatch in protection.  Once they hatch, they release them into the ocean, again under protection.

When we arrived, we saw a crowd of people gathered around.  It was hard to see at times, and hard to get pictures.  Here is Steve and some of the kids trying to see the turtles.

The park rangers had a net canopy held over the sea turtles to protect them from the sea gulls.  The sea gulls can't eat the baby turtles, but they will snatch them away, and either injure them by trying to eat them or by dropping them onto the parking lot.  They moved the net forward as the turtles progressed toward the ocean.  There were also several people documenting the turtles' progress on film.  Those of us in the crowd were asked to turn off our flashes, which might disorient the baby turtles.

I actually took this photo of the netting towards the end, when the turtles had thinned out.  They were releasing 245 baby turtles that were 1 day old -- from 3 different clutches of eggs.  At the beginning, most were grouped together like this. 

One park ranger had the job of moving the slow pokes forward, 6 inches at a time, so they didn't fall too far behind the pack.  She picked them up, one by one, to help them get closer to the ocean. 

Other rangers walked along the edges, pointing confused turtles back toward the ocean, keeping the crowd from pressing in, reminding us to turn off our flashes, answering questions, and showing a couple baby turtles to the crowd.  These turtles were Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtles.

The turtles made their progress toward the ocean slowly.  They often crawled forward 6-12 inches, then paused to rest before making another surge forward.  It was slow but steady progress.  This next picture shows a few confused turtles facing the wrong direction.

Two of them took the lead early on, and moved ahead of the rest of the turtles.

Finally, the very first Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle Hatchling reached the ocean on the morning of July 23, 2009.  The crowd cheered as the wave first touched him, and again as the next wave swept him out into the ocean.

The rangers said that the turtles would settle down amongst the sea weed and eat until they were larger.  In a year, they'll be as large as a dinner plate, about 10-12 inches across. 

This process got a little too boring for my 5 year old, who wandered off, but the rest of the children enjoyed watching the turtles and listening to the park rangers.

And finally, a picture of Steve and the children in front of the sunrise, to prove we were there.  Now I'll confess that I didn't want to get the kids up for this.  I wanted Steve to take a few of the older kids while I kept the younger ones in the trailer and let them sleep.  But, I'm glad Steve persisted and we were all able to see the baby sea turtles.

Take joy,
April

WFMW: An easy crockpot meal

I had another WFMW post all written out, before I realized there's a theme today.  So, I'll just post that one another week. 

We don't have air conditioning, and we live in hot humid Kansas.  We do have a wonderful all-house fan and an attic fan.  Those combined with lots of carefully positioned fans (including window fans) make life bearable.  Now when it hits 100* there's no way around it ... we will sweat and we will look like it.  But it's still better than nothing.

Why did I tell you that?  So you'll understand why I do NOT want to use the ancient propane stove/oven in my kitchen during the summer.  Even using the stove top heats up the kitchen.  And I definitely won't use the oven ... it can raise the house temp from 88* to 92* in just  an hour.   I spend lots of time looking up crock pot recipes during the summer instead.

One of the easiest crock pot recipes I have is one from my Mom's repertoire.  I don't know that it even has a name.  Potato Green Bean Sausage Casserole maybe?

It has just a few ingredients:

Potatoes
Onion (optional, my Mom doesn't use them)
Can of Green Beans with juice
Sausages  (Italian, Smoked, or Polish)
Black Pepper (also optional, since my Mom doesn't use it)

1.  You can peel your potatoes, or leave the skins on ... whatever your family prefers.  I like the time savings and health benefits of leaving my skins on.   Just wash them, and then slice them into 1/4 inch thick slices.  Fill the crockpot 1/2 full of potatoes.

2.  Slice your onion in rings.  Layer them over the potatoes.   (optional but I like them)

3.  Sprinkle with black pepper ... paprika would also work.   (optional but I like it, too.)

4.  Open a can of green beans (or two if your family loves them) and pour over the potatoes, juice and all!

5.  Slice the sausages (any variety except breakfast sausages) into 1 inch thick slices.  Place them on top of the green beans.

6.  Cover and cook for either 4-5 hours on high, or 8-10 hours on low.  (This depends on how hot your crock pot is.  I have two, and the new one cooks faster than the old one.)  It's ready when the potatoes are tender.

The sausages will flavor the potatoes and green beans quite well.  It's delicious, and easy!

It works for me!


To read other Works For Me Wednesday tips, go to We Are That Family blog.