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- Yena’s Booklist 8/08-7/09
- Aisa’s Booklist ’08-’09
- Plan for High School, Paco 2010-2011
- Books We Love: Science
- The HHS Mandate and The Catholic Response, A Compilation
From the monthly archives: November 2007
Lunch yesterday: this yummy salad, adapted from Passionate Vegetarian
Dressing:
1/4 cup Vegenaise (or other mayo)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
juice and zest of half a lemon
2 large pinches dried tarragon
6 threads saffron
2 large pinches dried oregano
Whisk in a bowl.
Prepare 1/2 pound orzo pasta according to package directions. The recipe says chilled but I didn’t bother as all my other ingredients were chilled. I’m also a fan of cool, but not cold, pasta.
Mix-ins:
15 kalamata olives, chopped
2 Roma tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cucumber, unwaxed and unpeeled, chopped
1 rib celery, diced
2 tablespoons minced parsley
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
The recipe calls for a red bell pepper, roasted, peeled, seeded, diced — one of my favorite ingredients — but alas! I left it out of my shopping list so had to do without.
Romaine leaves, prepared (washed, spun dry, etc.)
Combine dressing, pasta and mix-ins in a bowl. Serve over the romaine leaves.
The recipe suggests topping with smoked tofu or smoked provolone, Parmesan, toasted pine nuts, parsley and mint — I used some grated Manchego instead. Absolutely delicious.
Trailer and more information here.
More about demographic decline, from Catholic Online
Europe Freezes in Demographic Winter, by Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation President Don Feder.
… were the lessons today.
Physics with K’nex, basically. The kids have been at it all day. We only stopped for a bit of Math. I haven’t quite recovered from Monday’s 6-hour drive. Have you ever had that feeling where you’re trying to catch up on energy and it just isn’t happening? I did forget to take my vitamins today.
So this evening, I am thanking the Lord that I have a wonderful teen who’s willing to take up the slack — she made the cupcakes for the Cake-Off and she’s going with the little one to Little Flowers because I just cannot.gather.enough.energy. I’m taking the boys to the Pack meeting, then we’re staying up all night cleaning what needs to be cleaned, because tomorrow’s Migi’s 9th birthday and we DON’T want to be doing chores tomorrow! We’ll be sleeping late. Last night we moved one mattress to the master bedroom and everyone slept there. What fun. We haven’t done that since our last hotel stay.
Whoops, gotta go. I hear fighting going on. Sigh. A mom’s life.
Sorry I’m posting this after Thanksgiving — got swamped again. Hopefully whoever wanted this can still use it for the holidays, or next year…
Coconut-Crusted Camaron Rebosado
1 egg yolk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup ice water
1/2-3/4 cup shredded sweetened coconut
1 lb. medium-large shrimp – 36-40 count, peeled to last segment (leave tail on, devein if desired)
Canola or other vegetable oil for deep-frying
Whisk egg, flour and ice water briskly in a bowl, just until smooth. In another bowl, combine panko crumbs and coconut. Dip peeled shrimp in batter, then in crumb-coconut mixture. Deep-fry over medium-high heat for 1-2 minutes on each side, just until shrimp is cooked through and coating is golden. Drain on paper towels. Serve with pumpkin soup as a starter.
Cranberry Achara
1/4 cup cider vinegar
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (optional)
1 12-oz package fresh or frozen cranberries, rinsed and picked over
1 cup raisins (Thompsons, golden or a mix)
1/2 cup thinly sliced shallots
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons thinly julienned ginger
1 cup pineapple chunks, each chunk halved if desired
1 cup julienned yellow bell pepper
1 Thai chili, minced, seeded if desired (optional)
In a non-reactive saucepan or casserole, heat vinegar, sugar and salt, over medium heat, stirring to dissolve. Add black pepper, cranberries and raisins. Continue to cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until cranberries ahve popped and mixture has begun to thicken, about 15 minues. Remove from heat, and transfer to a large mixing bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and fold gently to combine. Serve warm, chilled or at room temperature.
Cook’s Notes: I like my achara with BITE, which will come primarily from the shallots, the ginger, the garlic, and the optional Thai chili. If you want your achara more mellow, simply add those ingredients to the cranberries the last 2-3 minutes of cooking, instead of using them uncooked. Proceed with the recipe as instructed.
Sweet Potato Buko Pie
For the crust:
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
4 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into bits
3 tablespoons chilled vegetable shortening (Spectrum brand recommended) or lard (preferably all-natural, no preservatives)
approximately 5 tablespoons ice water
In the bowl of a food processor, pulse-process flour, salt and sugar. Add butter and shortening and continue to process using short bursts. You should get a meal-like texture. Add 4 tablespoons ice water and pulse again, about 7 times. Grab a bit of the mixture — if it holds together, you don’t need more water. If it’s still crumbly, add the remaining water and pulse again until incorporated. Turn out onto a sheet of plastic wrap. Gather dough together to form a disk, about 1-inch thick. Wrap with the plastic and chill for at least half an hour before rolling.
Alternatively, mix flour, salt and sugar together in a bowl. Cut in butter and shortening using a pastry blender, a fork, or two knives — or use your fingertips. Add water and knead lightly or use a plastic or wooden spatula to incorporate. Don’t worry if there are small lumps of butter and shortening in the dough — these will contribute to the flakiness of the pie crust. Proceed as directed above.
Prepare the filling:
2 large sweet potatoes (garnet yams preferred but jewel is quite acceptable)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup whipping cream
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground mace
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 package young coconut, thawed and drained thoroughly — about 1 cup buko shreds
Take the sweet potatoes, pierce them all over with a fork and bake them in the oven at 400 degrees for 1 hour, or in the microwave on high for 12 minutes. Chop off the ends (which tend to get fibrous), peel and mash (or, cut sweet potatoes in half and scrape out the flesh). You will need 1 1/2 cups, mashed, for this recipe. Combine mashed sweet potatoes and the rest of the filling ingredients in a large bowl. Set aside until needed.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. On a lightly-floured surface, roll out pie crust to an even thickness about 10 inches in diameter. Fold in half, then half again. Lift pie crust gently and lay point in the center of a 9-inch pie plate. Open up the pie crust (it should be nicely centered). Press gently to fill sides of pie plate. Trim off excess crust with scissors, leaving about 1-inch overhang. Fold overhang under and press onto pie plate edge to adhere. Flute edges decoratively or press with the tines of a fork. Set an empty baking sheet on the lowest rack of the oven (this is to catch any spills that may occur during baking). Pour filling into the crust and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. If crust is browning too quickly, use a pie crust shield or pieces of foil to cover the edges. Bake until center is set and crust is golden. Cool before serving.
More tomorrow.
The morning started out with cranky kids and a cranky mom — I woke up late and we didn’t get to attend Mass, then had several distractions early on. We started out Latin with not the best of attitudes/behaviors. Migi was up to his old tricks, yelling out the conjugations as if he was declaring war on someone, complete with facial expressions and fists raised, etc. By a strange coincidence, we all recognized it as rap-pish, and I had the (brilliant! 
) idea to have them say their conjugations rap-style. So they did. It was so much fun. They even put on hats and bandanas to make themselves look more like rappers. Muaha. That made for fifteen minutes more of classical lessons that were more delightful than the first fifteen (dictation and copywork). Hah! We were telling Migi, if he were in regular school, he’d probably have gotten detention, doing what he did:D. We love homeschooling!
mor·ti·fy – from Late Latin mortificare, from Latin mort-, mors
1 obsolete : to destroy the strength, vitality, or functioning of
2 : to subdue or deaden (as the body or bodily appetites) especially by abstinence or self-inflicted pain or discomfort
3 : to subject to severe and vexing embarrassment : SHAME
sanc·ti·fy – from Late Latin sanctificare, from Latin sanctus sacred
1 : to set apart to a sacred purpose or to religious use : CONSECRATE
2 : to free from sin : PURIFY
3 a : to impart or impute sacredness, inviolability, or respect to b : to give moral or social sanction to
4 : to make productive of holiness or piety
Along with some lovely ladies from 4Real, I am preparing for Consecration to Jesus through Mary (St. Louis Montfort). This is my second attempt. Last time I got derailed after the first couple of weeks because of travel and other “busy-ness”; this time I hope to complete it despite the travel sched and the upcoming busy-ness of the season, in time to make the consecration on December 8. If you feel so inclined, please say a prayer for me (us) that I (we) may finish this endeavor.
For the last week or so I’ve been meditating (again) on mortification. This was a word I didn’t really understand until just a couple of years ago. When I was younger all I knew of mortification was embarrassment, or something to do with death. I didn’t really know there was such a deep connection between mortification and our faith, and the way we live our lives as Christians and Catholics.
As a child in elementary school, I was part of a group called “Crusaders”. I don’t remember a lot of what we learned there, I do know we visited some orphans and prayed the rosary together… but I do remember the emphasis on Prayer, Sacrifice and Apostolate. (There was a fourth one, I think, but I don’t remember now what it was.) Sacrifice was something that stuck in my head because I knew I wanted to do it, but I didn’t have any concrete ideas as to how I should sacrifice — most examples we were taught had something to do with candy or giving way to a sibling’s wants. Perhaps, because I had never really been a candy person at anytime in my life, this was a difficult lesson for me to learn. I cannot say that I sacrificed much in all my youth and even into my adult years. Not to say that I didn’t do things for people, or gave certain things up, but these were done without the spirit that I now am learning to cultivate and exercise. Many of my “sacrifices” before were done in an effort to “be nice” or “do the right thing”. Which are okay goals in and of themselves, I suppose. Now that I understand a bit better, I kinda regret not having had the opportunity to sacrifice more, to live each day for God’s purpose, to “offer up” anything and everything that I could. I think of all the good deeds that I can remember doing and wish now that I could have done them more for the Lord than for anything else. I think of all the bad choices I made and wish I could go back and make the right choice, for Him.
Of course, I do realize that God reveals Himself to us when we are open and ready to receive His Graces, and in His time. But being human I still tend to look back sometimes and think of “could have beens”.
One of the things that learning about mortification brings me is the realization of how important these lessons are, not just to practicing Catholics like me who are just relearning the basic teachings of our faith (or seeing them with new eyes), but to our children. I am ever grateful that my 16-yo is a wonderful person who actually WANTS to learn more about our faith and about holiness. But I feel like I did her a disservice by not teaching her these things when she was a little child. She got the usual “be nice”, “be kind”, “do the right thing”. I wish I could have taught her about St. Therese, about Mary, about their “Yes” to God and His will, as little girls and as young women. She has a great devotion now to both, but I know how she struggles as well. Perhaps her struggles would be a bit easier had Mom taught her sooner than later. Sigh…
And so this dying to self thing is hard. Because I get so focused sometimes on what *I* am doing or not doing, one of my biggest challenges is to apply this teaching not only to my body but my thinking as well. It includes the lesson of learning to forgive myself, of seeing that sometimes I am much too proud to simply accept God’s love. Mortification, to me at least, right now, also means taking the focus off of what *I* did wrong and setting my eyes instead on what God is doing right, filling in the gaps that I have missed as a parent. Mortification teaches me to look at myself and see all my frailties and wrongdoing, but looking at these in the right light. It teaches me that without God, I am nothing, can do nothing. Mortification shows me that it’s NOT all about me. It is learning to silence that voice that keeps on saying “I could have done it, and I didn’t”, as if everything depended on ME. As if in my sinning *I’m* still the “star of the show”. Instead I am learning to say, “I fail, but God in His goodness and mercy takes over.” And say it with a thankful heart, not a begrudging one. If you know me at all, you know just how difficult this lesson is for me.
The past couple of years, I’ve tried to practice this “mortification thing”. For some reason, this time around, I think I’m finally GETTING IT. Allow me to share my beginner thoughts on this. Mortification isn’t just an offering up. [Though offering up is an excellent way to "get holy"; honestly, I don't know if there's a ranking of "must do's for Christians/Catholics" -- e.g., mortification = five stars and offering up = four stars, etc. -- I think as long as it gets us on the road to holiness it doesn't really matter, does it?] Mortification is the giving up of the little things, it’s denying oneself, it’s recognizing that we have weaknesses and desires and passions and inordinate wants: some are tiny weaknesses that are but cracks in our exterior, that if permitted to remain, can lead to deep fissures and eventually, if left unchecked, unrepairable damage. It’s in the LEARNING to curb the tiniest wants, in the practice of disciplining ourselves to say no to our minor inclinations — with the Almighty’s help — that we gather the strength to say no to the bigger temptations. It’s like daily exercise. Unless we practice on a regular basis, unless we learn to lift the 5 pounds first, then the 10 pounds, day in and day out, we will never get to lift the 50 lbs.
It goes hand in hand with doing great things. If we cannot keep ourselves faithful over the little things, how can we expect to be faithful in bigger things? If we don’t know how to deny ourselves the small desires of our body and our mind: the last piece of chocolate, the extra helping of cake, that episode of a soap opera, the cussing at a car that cut us off, how do we say no to excess in spending, to binging, to R- and X-rated movies, to allowing ourselves to be consumed by rage?
Some practical suggestions from the Consecration:
- Have water with your meal instead of your favorite drink, i.e., juice, soda, etc.
- No ice in your water if you like it cold.
- If you like bland food, add more spices.
- If you like spicy food, make it more bland.
- Stop eating before you’re completely full.
Looking at this list, it doesn’t look life-changing, does it? But it is. Every saint practiced some form of mortification.
It is in the emptying of ourselves, in putting to death our human nature that wants comfort and luxury, recognition, that “pat-in-the-back”, that we can experience new life. It is in mortifying our bodies and our brains that we learn to sanctify our hearts and our souls.
And because I’m sure I’ve muddied the waters with all my free association here…
Mortification, from Catholic Encyclopedia
Introduction to the Devout Life
The What and Why of Mortification
I’ve said before that I hate shopping. Hubby and I both. We just think it’s a bunch of wasted time. Zipping in and out of stores, keeping your patience in check (not so successfully) as you navigate through the hordes of shoppers, and it’s only going to get worse as Christmas approaches. So last Thursday, the 15th, was our monthiversary. We’d been married 17 years and 11 months. We went out for an inexpensive dinner at Chipotle. Then there was Panera. And Christmas-shopped for the kids. Online. In the comfort of a warm place. No braving the already wintry weather, no carrying bags while running to the car.
We had my laptop and the list of gifts the family had agreed on when we had our gift-meeting. And we shopped for each child, narrowing in on the items we really want, the shops/stores we were going to get them from, etc. In the process we talked about each child, how they’ve changed, about their strengths, their interests, our dreams for them, their own dreams, etc. Shopping was never so much fun as it was that night. So different from the rush of Christmases past, though of course, many such shopping trips do hold beautiful memories for us as well, despite the crowds and the misadventures and the tantrums.
But how wonderful that things have changed. Sometimes I don’t like technology all that much, though obviously I’ll be one of the first to admit just how many benefits it has brought to our lives and our family. This is one of them. Can’t wait for Advent. If things go as planned, this Advent will be the most *real* Advent we’ve ever had. Prayers appreciated!
A reader at one of my previous blogs asked for the recipes that appeared in 2005 in the Asian Journal, in time for Thanksgiving that year. I had them online at one point, but that blog is now dead and buried — I realized that wasn’t the direction I wanted to go. So here they are again. I’m re-typing them as I couldn’t find the original files, but do have copies of the paper still. I can’t do it all tonight, so watch for Part 2, etc. the next few days.
Also, as I’m reading the recipes, I can’t help thinking I haven’t prepared these since ’05 and while my tastes stay pretty constant, tweaking is a way of life for me. So while I was very happy with the way these turned out 2 years ago, I may not feel that way today — which means I’ll be tweaking these again either this Thanksgiving or next year. If so, I’ll share any changes here. Dear reader, I do hope you try them and let me know what you think! Suggestions for improvement, etc. are welcome anytime.
For starters, Pumpkin Soup
3 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons minced ginger
1 tablespoon bagoong (Filipino shrimp paste — if you can find one that’s not red at all, that would be great — however, I’d rather have our Pinoy bagoong than the Chinese uncolored stuff, just personal preference in light of more recent developments)
1 Thai chili, minced (seeded to reduce heat if desired)
1 teaspoon salt
2 15-oz cans pumpkin puree (organic if you have it; do not use pumpkin pie filling)
1 1/2 cups coconut milk with cream, either shaken or stirred (I’m not a Bond fan)
2 tablespoons Filipino fish sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
approximately 4 cups chicken stock, homemade preferred
Combine all ingredients except chicken stock in a large stockpot or casserole. Cook over medium heat, stirring and slowly adding chicken stock to achievec desired thickness. (The amount of chicken stock you use will depend on how thick the coconut milk is. I used Chaokoh brand, which is pretty thick. Other brands may be watery, and Chaokoh itself is inconsistent. You could also use reconstituted coconut powder, and of course freshly-grated-and-squeezed coconut milk, if you so desire.) Serve with Coconut-Crusted Camaron Rebosado, coming tomorrow.
Makes roughly 9 cups, serving 8-12.
to Mary Vitamin, and Helen, its creator, who started it two years ago! Mary Vitamin has been such a blessing to me and my family (mostly me, but of course my family also benefits!). Thank you so much, Helen!
To join the MaryVitamin e-list, click here. If you think you need Mama Mary more in your life, Helen’s e-list can help you grow in your devotion to Our Holy Mother. Come join!
Illuminated Ink just sent out an e-mail about their contest — entries have to be postmarked by Friday, November 16.
The original instructions and rules can be found here.
However, the prizes have CHANGED! So exciting! Here’s a copy of their e-mail:
We also wanted to let you know that we have made a
SIGNIFICANT
change in the prizes we will be offering for this contest.The FIRST PLACE winner in EACH category will now win a
$45 gift certificate from ‘Our Coats of Many Colors’
(http://www.ourcoatsofmanycolors.com/)
for a custom made SAINT COSTUME of their choice!WOW!!!
Additionally,
Each 2nd Place Winner will receive a
Free Saint Search Game…Each 3rd Place Winner will receive a
Free Litany Game…and each Random Drawing Winner will receive our
NEW Catholic Bookmark Set!DON’T FORGET…
This contest is open to children and ADULTS of all ages!
Don’t be surprised if there’s one adult from this household who sends in a coloring page:)
That first prize is awesome! Here’s the sponsor’s website: Our Coats of Many Colors. Take a peek at those kids, they’re just darling!!! And I promised the kids I’d make them their chosen saint costume next year, so if they win this, that’s one less costume I have to make:)
Today, while driving, I thought, how NEAT it would be if I could make a Catechism board game with the kids to make the learning more fun! And I thought, it would have to be geared to different ages/levels so that the kids can all learn from each other, the young ones can have questions they can tackle on their own, while hearing the more challenging ones, and the olders won’t be bored because they’ll have questions suited to their age! Well, I should have known: someone already made it! Hooray!
I’ve been forgetting to mention that the kids from the 4real teen forum have put together a magazine; they just published their 4th issue a couple of weeks ago. They are looking for more writers, more photographers, more subscribers, etc. They’re still trying to figure out how to handle the whole subscription thingy. Right now my daughter compiles the contributions into pdf files, sends them to all the contributors, and then they each print copies out for themselves and distribute as they see fit.
If you’re a Catholic homeschooling mom/dad and you have a teen who would like to get involved, or you want a copy of any of the issues, please e-mail me at stefoodie AT gmail DOT com with your details (homeschooling group, state/country, name and age of teen, etc.) and I’ll forward it to the teens.
Thanks!
One of the principles of GTD is to clear one’s head of stuff once a week. Here goes, a mish-mash of things that I learned about this week, my to-do-list, progress report on projects, and new projects to start…
- Plan liturgical year activities through end of Jan. Michele just shared a make-your-own liturgical year wheel, which would be perfect. I was going to order another one from LTP for this year, but thought better of it and now I think we’ll make our own.
- Found bake-able clay recipe, for Jesse Tree project. Need to get all 28 done by Thursday at latest so we can ship Friday at latest.
2 cups plain flour
1 cup salt
1 to 1 1/2 cups cold water
2 tablespoons cooking oilMix all and mold/shape. Bake at 300 degrees for about an hour or until hard. Color (with what, craft paint?) then spray with some sort of fixative.
- Order/request more books! Yikes! My book-devourers are much too fast for me!!!
- Friday was game-day here. Sungka and Monopoly for Math, Chess also for logic…. even Yena’s getting good! I think we’ll have K’nex for Science tomorrow.
- The FreeRice link is awesome. Never mind that they probably take a big chunk of whatever their sponsors give them, that is one neat game. I actually got first-hand proof of how knowing Latin and Greek can help! After approx. 1 year and a half of teaching the kids Latin, I was actually able to figure out so many words that I didn’t even know existed. I’m making this game part of our Greek and Latin curriculum, perhaps for Fridays. Oh, and it helps to know your swords, food terms, and body parts. So very useful for someone who wants to be a chef-knight-doctor.
- Most of the seeds have sprouted!!! I’m just waiting now for some true leaves and out they’ll go into the cold frame.
- New things to research: Jeffrey Smith stuff on GMO and allergies — yikes, scary stuff. Esp. that article re Kirk Acevedo and Monsanto. Finish reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
- Awesome article: Contraception: Why Not? — touches on many, many points found in JPII’s Theology of the Body (most of which we have not read, but are on our list!)
- Chore Chart needs to be re-printed and re-analyzed. Not working very well.
- The kids are just loving cooking right now! They always have, but much more so the past few weeks. Especially Paco, who prepared his own breakfast yesterday (bacon and cheese omelette, argh!) Migi wants to cook more, on his own. And they’re the ones reminding me now that it’s their turn to cook. Yay!
- Ais finally changed her mind re Discovery Camp, and went, and had the time of her life. I think it did her a lot of good, esp. after getting a bit depressed and missing her PA friends after Black Belt testing. There’s always that bit of a let down when we get back to OH. Sigh.
- Mommy and Papa and Alvin will be back in the country tomorrow!!! Yayayayay!!!!
- Dad’s been doing Squire and the Scroll with the boys. Going very well, and then we hit a snag with this Transformers thing. Long story. Short version: we’re getting the “Why do we have to be different” attitude these days…. Muaha. It had to come. Right timing too, around this age. But we’re standing firm, because it’s what we need to do. More prayers needed
It’s a phase. - Actually found two salads Aisa loved in a — of all things — diet book. I pick some of these up once in a while, looking for unique salad recipes that aren’t just greens-and-dressing, but also doesn’t call for 20 ingredients. Maybe I’ll share later if I have time.
- Had the family meeting re gifts last weekend. SOOO much fun! This is how we’ll do it every year from now on. I had everyone write down their gift ideas for each person, plus what they themselves wished to get. Tore the papers in half so I got all the wish lists. Each person came to “the meeting”, with the recipient sent to another room to occupy themselves. The rest of us shared our gift ideas for that person, picked which gifts we were going to buy/make for that person, based on their wish list, what we can afford, and what we thought the person needed/wanted. Everyone took turns, with dad and mom being last. I wish we had done this in years past.
- Christmas cards going well… got 33 done so far.
- Need to find the church envelopes and the November Magnifikids! St. Anthony, help!
- College night was great! Aisa got to talk to someone in admissions at the college she’ll be attending, got some questions answered. We also visited several booths and got brochures. The J&W guy was funny and sorta selling hard. If she didn’t have to worry about dorm I’d love to send her there. She’s decided to test in July.
- Will be driving home without B after Thanksgiving weekend, b/c he has to work at Cape. I’m actually looking forward to it, a bit.
- Started the Consecration again, which I didn’t finish last time. Hopefully this time.
- Funny, I actually have some food posts to blog. Haven’t done that in a while. Can’t say that I missed it a lot, but it would be good to record stuff for next year’s cooking.
- Now all I need is to get rid of this PILE on my desk. This is not how GTD is supposed to work:). I guess you could say I’m still working my way through it.
- Symphony seating came.
- Parents’ meeting next week.
- Yena’s next Little Flowers meeting in a couple of weeks.
- What to bring to the Thanksgiving Celebration?
- Get gift wrap materials and start wrapping!
- Schedule nutrition testing for Ais and B.
- Continue research on chelation therapy, mercury in the body, yeast overgrowth.
- That Openness to Life essay.
- That Blogging for a Purpose essay.
Okay, I think I’m all DONE!
I hate shopping. I hate shopping for shoes. But when I HAVE TO shop for shoes, there’s one place I love: Zappo’s. It’s like having my own shoe store in my living room. The UPS guy comes with several shoes I can try, without changing out of my jammies, without people watching me walk around trying to decide if I’m comfortable or not. I then decide which one I want, put everything else back neatly in their boxes, and send them back. Free shipping both ways.
After looking at new boots for Yena at eBay, Gymboree, Talbots, and other places, we found the one. I got three different sizes, they arrived the next day, she tried them on, parading around the house like a princess, took her pick, and that was it. No pain, no whining at the mall, no walking from store to store. It was on sale too:) Me happy. This was over a month ago, and Yena and I still both LOVE her shoes. Of course, the light-up effect is ALL that matters to her.
Now if I can find a way to have Zappo’s pay me for this post….
ETA 04/12/08: You know what, I changed my mind. They don’t have to pay me — they already do more than enough to serve the customer. Here’s one more reason to shop there. I may *heart* Zappos, but they obviously know how to *heart* the people they serve.
