The Last Homely House is a home in Imladris, from Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Nestled in the mountains, nearly impossible to find unless you know where to look, Imladris is a beautiful haven where elves reside. Music, singing, and storytelling abound, and the peaceful atmosphere is a welcome refuge for a weary soul.
Lately I've really been wanting to start writing again. If I could only get my nose out of a book and start writing instead of reading! But I'm getting inspired in my reading, and will start writing more once I finish this book I'm reading. I'm seriously considering giving this a shot and seeing what I come up with. It would probably be a good way to get me writing again.
Tomorrow it will be one year since we evacuated for Hurricane Rita. It's strange to think back to this night a year ago, when we were packing up to leave. We live in a mobile home and were right on the projected path for the hurricane to hit us straight on, so we didn't know if we would have a home when we got back. A few weeks before, we were helping with some of the Katrina victims, so we got to see a lot of that firsthand and hear stories about what happened to them. It was mind-boggling to realize we were then evacuees ourselves! Here's another post from before we left, then here you can read the log I kept of our trip. One thing I didn't mention there is that it was 102 degrees outside when we set up camp! I love camping, but that was just too much. The lake was a wonderful relief though.
My asthma has been bad the last few days, and I've had a bad headache tonight. I thought I was having a rough night until I realized that one year ago tonight, we were packing up to leave thinking we weren't going to have a house to come home to. It's really all a matter of perspective.
After this post by Katie, I decided to try again to set up a network where our computers could access files from each other. Mama and I are often having to email files from one to the other, or put files on a cd to take to the other, so if we could access the files through the network, that would simplify matters greatly. I gave it a try a little while ago, when I needed a file off Mama's computer, and it was actually pretty easy, much easier than setting up the network system for the internet! This will be so useful.
I've been having really weird dreams lately, I think caused by the sinus medicine I've been taking. One night, I had a dream where I was riding a motorcycle, right after driving our van at breakneck speed to the grocery store. Then in one dream, we were fixing up some big, fancy house for a party, and there were Phantom of the Opera things all around, like a music box playing Music of the Night and a piano that played Phantom songs. In another dream, we lived in an underground house sort of like a hobbit hole(it was an awesome house, btw), and Mama went to some ladies meeting thing where she met Carmon. Oh, and there was the dream where I went to Virginia and Wyoming, and they were right beside each other. I got to see a lot of beautiful fall colors, as well as some snow, but I'm not really sure how I managed to get from one state to the other so quickly. Then last night, I had a dream that Doug Phillips started a church here that was an offshoot of his in San Antonio, because there were a lot of people here who wanted to go to his church, but couldn't make the drive every week. So he was going to have some people he knew well speaking at this church, and he would come up and visit every so often. It was quite interesting. I think Patsy Cline featured in my dreams somewhere as well, because I woke up with some of her songs stuck in my head.
This is a good post that makes you think about the extreme amounts of money people will spend on weddings, and how many other things one could do with the same amount of money spent on a typical wedding.
I'm still dealing with the bronchitis some, but I think I'm on the mend. The worst part of it right now is that bronchitis irritates asthma, so I'm struggling more with that than I had been. But if I could get over the bronchitis this quickly, that would really be wonderful, considering when I've had it before, it lasted several months.
I thought this quiz was interesting:
| You Are Incredibly Logical |
 Move over Spock - you're the new master of logic You think rationally, clearly, and quickly. A seasoned problem solver, your mind is like a computer! |
Mama and I went to Wal-mart tonight, and had a rather interesting shopping list:
Ragweed seems to be in bloom again. I have yet to see any, but I've been fighting bronchitis for the past week, and that comes in with the ragweed. I actually managed to avoid it last year, and just had problems with asthma, colds, and sinus infections. But for the two winters before, I had chronic bronchitis until the cold weather set in and killed all the pollen. I'm hopeful that it won't last so long this time though, and I'm doing what I can to fight it off. I've been taking some decongestants, which seems to help a lot, so if I keep on that, maybe this will go away sooner.
I did make an interesting discovery last week, which I probably wouldn't have made had I not been sick. A few years ago, I got glasses and wore them for a while, then didn't seem to need them anymore. Since then, I've worn them occasionally, but not regularly; when my allergies were at the worst, they would put pressure on my eyes and irritate them, so I'd sometimes wear my glasses while reading or on the computer if I was getting a headache. I would sometimes test them out, and didn't really notice any difference in my vision when reading with my glasses. Well, being sick this past week, I haven't felt up to doing much. There were some crochet projects I wanted to start, so I've been working on my crocheting a lot. Earlier in the week, I was watching a movie and crocheting, and realized it was putting a lot of strain on my eyes to look back and forth between the tv screen and my crochet project. I put on my glasses and felt much better. The next day, I wore my glasses whenever working on something like that, then that evening, I went to the store with Mama and left my glasses on. At one point when we were in the van, I took them off the clean them. I suddenly realized that everything outside the van was much more out of focus, and my eyes really had to work to focus on things. Looking back and forth between various objects, trucks, signs, etc., my eyes had to adjust and work to focus. I put my glasses back on, and I could see ever so much better! I had no idea how bad my vision was because that was normal to me. I think that when I would have any problems with my eyes, I would blame it on allergies; I believe a lot of "sinus headaches" I got were actually caused by strain from my eyes, not from sinus problems. Now when I don't wear my glasses, I'm amazed at how quickly I get a headache. I still forget to put them on sometimes after waking up or taking a shower, as I'm not completely used to wearing them, but I soon remember and put them on. At least I've stopped hitting them. At first, I would reach up to scratch my face or be signing to Sarah, and I would hit my glasses, not used to them being there. But I'm glad I found out I need to wear them!
I'll be tweaking my site layout some today with the new Blogger Beta, so things might look a bit odd from time to time.
Edit: I'm having trouble getting HaloScan commenting up with Blogger Beta, so I'll have to go back to Blogger commenting. However, anyone with a Blogger account who isn't yet using Beta can't use their Blogger account to comment, so you'll just have to type in your name and site yourself. When I first started having trouble with the comments recently, it was right after I switched to Blogger Beta. Blogger Beta has some good things about it, but I am getting tired of all the problems with comments. Anyway, thankfully my mom had the comments from my last entry open on her computer when I lost them all on mine, so I copied them and emailed them to myself and I'll go manually put them back in. Considering I wrote up a very long comment in reply to the long comments already there, I'm really glad I didn't lose them all!
...esa es la pregunta.
As you may have guessed, I've been working on my Spanish. Trying to get my brain around all the to be verbs...It certainly is a lot to take in! Do you use ser or estar, then which form of the chosen word do you use? I'm starting to make some sense of it all though. This is a wonderful site for learning Spanish. They have detailed lessons, then tests at the end.
I'm going to make some granola today, so I thought I'd share my recipe for anyone who might be interested. It makes a lot, but it doesn't last very long around here. My favorite way to eat it is mixed with applesauce. You can bake the granola after it's mixed to make it crunchy, but we all prefer it soft. Soon I'm going to figure out how to make granola bars as well. And the recipe is very adaptable, so use whatever dried fruits you want. I originally was using a recipe from Food Network, but I've changed it up so much that it's unrecognizable now. Now for the recipe. As you will see, it's not an exact science or anything.
Put 8 cups oatmeal and desired amount of sunflower seeds and coconut on two cookie sheets. Toast in oven at 350°, stirring occasionally, until golden brown.
While that is toasting, cook the following in a saucepan over medium heat: 1¾ cups honey, ¼ cup molasses, ¼ cup canola oil, 2 tablespoons vanilla, 2 teaspoons salt(only if using unsalted sunflower seeds). Cook until heated.
Put the oatmeal mix in a bowl and add: ½ cup chopped dried apricots, 1 cup chopped dried apples, 2 cups raisins, 1½ cups chopped dates. Add the contents from the pot and mix well. If desired, put back on pans in oven until crispy.
It's a beautiful day! Cloudy, overcast, and only 78°. It feels wonderful! It feels like autumn is in the air. Mama says it's just a tease. However, I shall revel in the gorgeous weather while it lasts! I want to spend all day outside in the lovely coolness.
Today I met a girl from Romania. She is 21, and she was adopted 6 years ago and moved here. We talked a lot about America, and she was telling me how different it is here. I've never talked so much about that with someone from another country, and it was fascinating to hear her perspectives. She said that many people in Romania would say they wanted to come to America where they could be free, but she feels that it was actually much freer in Romania. Here in America, we're so bound to our technology. You can't function in the culture without constant use of a vehicle. Many people microwave meals or order takeout rather than have homecooked meals. Generally, people eat so much fast food and other unhealthy food, then get little exercise, as they don't have to walk to go anywhere, or work in the garden to ensure they have food on the table. She said that in Romania, shopping was much easier. If you wanted cheese, you went into the store, and they'd ask if you wanted goat cheese or cow cheese. You would tell them which you wanted, and that was it. Whereas here, you go into the store, and have to choose between twenty different kinds of cheese. She said a lot of people consider that freedom, to have all these options here, but that back in Romania, people have so much more freedom, because they're not bound by technology and vehicles and all the complications we have here, or so caught up in material gain or making money.
I wrote this post at my old blog last year, and I feel even stronger about it now. How much better it would be to live a life poor in funds, but rich in friends, family, fellowship, and simplicity, than to have all the money in the world.
"'Tis a gift to be simple, 'tis a gift to be free,
'Tis a gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
It will be in the valley of love and delight."
There are several things I want to write about, and I'm not sure where to start. I think I'll share some now, then write a deeper post later tonight.
We go to a folk dancing group with some friends on a monthly basis, and recently started meeting at a different church. The church building has a timer for the locks, where they set what time the building automatically locks and unlocks. It's supposed to open at 6:45 for us, and lock again at 9:15. Last night, we got there at 6:47 and found the building still locked. We wondered if perhaps our clock was off a bit, but a few minutes later, we still couldn't get in. We then thought that maybe they had just set it for 7, since that's the time dance actually started. 7:00 came and went, and still the building was locked. After going all the way out there, we just couldn't go home again without dancing any, but we couldn't get in the building either. The solution: we danced in the parking lot instead. Thankfully, it wasn't too hot, and there was a nice breeze, so I enjoyed it. There was something lovely about dancing outside as the sun set. While the breeze and scenery was nice, the concrete wasn't so good on the feet. It was harder and shoes didn't work as well as on a smoother surface. I usually dance with my shoes on until about halfway through, then dance barefoot. After about an hour last night, I was starting to get blisters on my toes. I kept on a bit longer, then decided to take my shoes off and dance barefoot on the concrete. It really didn't feel bad at all...until we were finished dancing and I tried to bend my toes. Thankfully, the blisters are much better today. I thought I'd be limping around as I tried not to walk on my toes, but that wasn't necessary after all.
This morning, we went to a new church about 40 minutes from here(side note to the MacDonalds: It's only about 5 minutes from the Fialas!). We all enjoyed it a lot. Everyone there was very friendly and welcoming, we liked the music, and the message was wonderful. They have a potluck lunch every Sunday after the service, which is something we like a lot. It's wonderful to have that time of fellowship. At so many churches, you get there, greet everyone, have church, say goodbye, then leave so you can go eat lunch. When everyone eats lunch together, you can really get to know people much better, and I think the time of fellowship is very beneficial.