Five Minute Friday - We know nothing!

Linking up with Lisa-Jo Baker for Five Minute Friday!  Today's word is...*drum roll*..."nothing."

Well, the very first thing that came to my head with this was the recent video put out by Bill O'Reilly that has me utterly convinced that my generation knows absolutely nothing.

Source

They don't know history.  They don't know geography (the Civil War was between the South and the...Northeast?  What about the northwest?).  And, they don't know how to dress.

I'm okay with a bikini that gives decent coverage.  String bikinis are for home pools and honeymoons.  But I don't have a problem with a cute halter and skirt bikini or something similar.  However, there is a girl on this video that I shall link to that is wearing a thong bikini!  Ouch...just...no.  Don't care how good you look...no.  And the fact that you could not answer any of the questions that Watters asked doesn't make the bikini look better.

Okay, rant over; I'd just never seen anyone in real life - if FoxNews is real life - wearing one before.  In case you're nervous to watch, it's only a couple quick glimpses; besides, I'm assuming it's only women reading this, and let's be honest ladies: she doesn't have anything we haven't seen before!

Seriously, though.  These are simple questions being asked.  Do people really not know this, or where they just playing dumb to get attention?  What do you think?  Is it some new kind of flirting that I'm unaware of at the decrepit age of 25?

Question for all of you well-educated and well-informed people out in the web: did you get all of these questions right, or did you miss any?  If so, which ones?

Please answer!  I'm so curious!  And I won't laugh too hard if you missed any...hahaha.

Check it out; it's pretty funny.  My poor, poor generation, what has befallen you?!

{p,h,f,r} Small joys!

Linking up with Like Mother, Like Daughter for a little more down home contentment!

{Pretty}

This is only the second dandelion I've seen.  Maybe Texas just doesn't have as many, but dandelions always heralded summer to me.  We used to have tons, and even though I know they are weeds, I really like them.  They're so joyful!

{Happy}

This makes me so happy because look at all that sand!  I have been going to this beach since I was two, and my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents have been going there before me.  For the last few years, the sand decided to depart, so it was rocky as all get out.  Really, underneath that sand are rocks.  Lots of rocks.  While it was nice, it wasn't running at 100%, and I think the toddler-toting crowd felt the lack of sand worse than the rest of us.  

So, despite all the hippy libs that said we killed the beach (they blamed it on a storm wall kind of thing that is keeping a house from falling into the ocean people!), as all the wise old ladies have said for years, it's cyclical.  Sand comes, sand goes.  It always comes back.  And right they were, as this picture is less than a week old.  Is it vacation yet?!!  

{Funny}

Source

Not really appropriate, but I ran across this silly picture earlier today and it just struck my funny bone!  God bless the animals for their trusting nature, because oh baby do we abuse it!  Can I have a dog now?

{Real}

The dishwasher isn't working, so all those nicely loaded dishes....are dirty.  I'm about to attempt to make dinner without washing anything so that I can do it all while dinner cooks.  One fell swoop sort of thing.  I like to bring in my groceries in the least number of trips, wash my dishes once a day, and otherwise attempt time-saving activities that do not actually save time.  Real me, whatdayaknow!

Time to return to my unspoiled days and go wash dishes by hand.  First world problems - yep!

The Responsibility of Marriage

Do you ever think about what marriage means?  I do.  We were discussing this in the Women of Grace group I've been going to the past couple months and I thought it would be interesting to throw out there to the blogosphere.  Oh, and if you're looking for a Catholic women's study group program for church or just some friends, check out WoG.  It's really good!

One of the ladies mentioned that her future son-in-law had attended a wedding in which the priest gave a wonderful sermon about what marriage really was.  The part that stuck out to her son-in-law was when the priest told the man getting married that it was his duty to return his wife to God at the end of her life, pure and chaste, just like she was when God gave her to him.

Isn't that beautiful?!  Not only is it a reminder that spouses are supposed to bring each other to heaven, but also a reminder about the beauty of purity within married love!  I thought it was lovely.  Simply lovely.  Shall I find a reason to say "love" one more time?  No?  Okay.

The red jacket was a joke on me; he actually wore a very nice brown suit.
That's my mom's wedding dress, altered and fitted to yours truly *awwww*

Wouldn't it be amazing if more people knew that?  Knew that when they married, they were promising to love their spouse?  Not like them, but truly love them as Christ loves the church, as self-giving as possible, always seeking the good instead of the quick 'n easy.

What a different world we'd be in!  Bet there wouldn't be half as many divorces, and I also bet there wouldn't be as many "marriages made in haste!"  Not that I can talk - 15 months got us from "Hi" to "I do" but we covered just about every topic we could think of in those months, and I'd run out of marriage prep questions before we were engaged (I googled them as skype conversation topics haha! Worked great!).

If you could define the responsibility of marriage in a sentence or two, how would you do it?  What key point stands out to you?

Also, if your marriage was ever on rocky ground, what helped you either discern God's hand leading you out of it, or His hand helping you to fix it?  A friend of mine (not me, geesh, stop reading into everything!  women!) is in pretty bad straits with her marriage and at the rate it's going, I'll be surprised if it lasts the year.  Any words of wisdom or prayers for them would be most appreciated, as it makes my heart just ache to watch.

(Linking up with the Catholic Blogger Network for some good old Catholic fun!)

Americana

I hope everyone had a nice day off!  In honor of all those who served and are serving in the military, I am only going to write about the holiday aspects of Memorial Day, because I was appalled at how the government (coughobamacough) handled the memorial part.  So, rather than preach to the choir and bore you all with my political opinions, we're going to talk holiday.  You're welcome!

Oh, one note sort of on politics.  The Husband's work car still has Sirius radio and it is soooo nice!!!  We got to listen to all sorts of interesting news about the VA scandals, live coverage of the Memorial Day events at Arlington National, and lots of other good things.  If I were looking for a splurge, and I drove a lot, Sirius radio would be it.  Hands down.  It is so great!  (And no, no one paid me to promo this - it's pure radio fangirl.)

Isn't this beautiful?  I wish I'd had a panoramic lens to use because the sky Sunday evening was absolutely beautiful.  When you hear the words, "Oh beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain," this is it.  The plains of the western USA produce stunning skies.  Stunning thunderstorms too, as I learned - it sounded like the thunder was right in the attic and I was rather concerned for my in-laws house lest it (and us) get fried.  Anyway, we survived.  But just look at that sky, and the pump jack too.  Americana.

We spent Sunday evening celebrating Memorial Day and my in-laws 30th anniversary by going redneck and barbequing on the back porch.  My dear sweet husband was marching around with the grilling tongs in one hand, a loose grey tank top, sports shorts, and cowboy boots.  He then topped the ensemble off by putting his earmuffs (mother in law attempting to shoot a rabbit that keeps procreating enthusiastically in their backyard and allowing her multiple offspring to eat what little green there is!  Poor rabbit, haha!)...what was I saying?  Oh yes, he had his earmuffs on but was wearing them above his ears since there was not much shooting actually happening.  Between the wifebeater shirt, the shorts and boots combo, and the 'muffs, he looked like someone Uncle Si might approve of very much.  Quite a sight!

And what's worse than the outfit...get ready for this...I've truly fallen into redneck territory here...I thought he looked darn good wearing said outfit.  Gotta love it.  

The other item of note from the weekend was that we saw Godzilla.  Don't laugh, I didn't pick it!  Considering that I walked in expecting it to be somewhere along the lines of painfully awful, it wasn't bad at all.  Quite politically correct, but actually halfway decent!  If anyone has teen or preteen boys and is looking for a good action flick, boys would love it.  Good monster fight scenes, and a happy ending.  Definitely PG13 violence and some language, although I don't remember too much potty mouthing.  In all fairness, however, I often don't notice it anymore because a member of my house has a bit of a mouth so I've gotten quite adept at doing the good ol' mental bleep :)  He more than makes up for it in good qualities.  So if language really bothers you, check a pluggedin.com review or something before taking my word 100%.

Has anyone seen X-Men?  I really want to...contemplating the drive-in later this week, but we'll see.  

Well, somehow the afternoon has slipped by again and it's time to make dinner.  Already.  Toodles kids :)

Happy memorial day weekend!

Have a fun long weekend!  We're at the in-laws (hence the lack of posting).  

My family doesn't really have any good Memorial Day traditions; do you? I'd love to hear about them!

 

Random pretty beach picture I took last year. Can't wait to go back!

This and that, and my outdoor nemisis

Today is an exciting day.  It's the first Wednesday in, oh gosh, at least a month (I think?) where I haven't had to rush to clean up breakfast, rush to shower, rush to get an hours' work done, rush to my Women of Grace meeting (church thing), and then rush home and work for as many hours as it takes to get five total for the day.  Not including making dinner or anything else; we might have had a few Panda Express runs, but that's just a rumor.  Ask not, and thee shall not be asked.

The reason for all the rushing was because something was happening on Friday or Monday of all those other weeks, so my five hours of Friday/Monday work got bumped to Wednesday.  I know, first world problems, right?  

So now, with nothing to hamper me from working both tomorrow and Friday, I have an afternoon free!  Yippeekyayay!  What I ought to be doing is reading My Antonia so I can start grading the papers for it, but unfortunately, classic or not, I'm not a fan.  Antonia drives me crazy.  She's a strong persevering figure, braving the olden days of the Out West wild, but really she and I just don't hit it off.  I kind of want to smack her one.  Gently, ya know?  Just a, "wake up girl and get your act together" kind of smack.  Anyway, that's what I ought to be doing.  

Instead, I decided to be super uber productive and mow the lawn now that we have grass for the mower.  It wouldn't start.  I braced myself and pulled that danged cord as hard as I could, many times, and had absolutely zero luck.  It made sort of a little whirring sound, but not the real sound that tells listeners it that the mower might be about to start.  

And, what does any self-respecting girl do when the boring chorsey plans fail?  Hit the dessert section of the cookbook while munching raisins and peanutbutter.  Healthy, right?  I know, I know...  I can fast for the Lord, but simply reining in my own cravings all by myself is a lot harder!  But at least it wasn't bread and honeybutter.  Back on topic, rather than make the chocolate cake that looked sooooooooooo good, I made tapioca pudding.  It's that minute tapioca so you don't have to let it soak for forever, and it actually came out quite tasty!

Now, while my weeds reach for the heavens in happy ignorance of the perils in store for them when the Husband arrives home and starts the mower for me, I am off to start dinner. It has to simmer for an hour and a half.  And, while it simmers, I shall work on organizing my sewing room/office/future guest room.  

Can't you just hear those dang weeds laughing?

P.S. Look what just came!!  My wedding pictures (half of them, anyway)!  There's something special about seeing the pictures for real, instead of the digital versions.  Can't beat good solid paper.  Dinner can wait - time to peruse prints (wink)

Never-fail Popovers: The easiest side-dish ever! (sort of)

Microwaving frozen veggies might be easier, but that's boring.  Even my husband, who announces to me, "I like peas," every. time. I. make. them. got a little tired of frozen veggies (isn't he cute?!).  So, when you're having something that, perhaps, already has a serving of veggies in it, or maybe you just aren't in a veggie mood, try these. 

These are especially good with honey butter, and served as a side to a warm and comforting soup.  Another plus to these ridiculously easy little muffin-cousins is that they don't have that much starch in them, relatively speaking anyway.  And, I'm sure that anyone even semi-creative could turn them paleo without a problem.  If I had any paleo flour I'd give it a try, but honestly...I'm a happy carb consumer.

If you come up with a paleo version, please post it in the comments - I'd love to hear how it worked!  It'd be great for those fat days where you want carbs soooo badly but know you ought to lay off for a while.

This recipe is beyond easy, and makes about seven generous popovers. We usually go through six. Don't judge; they're mostly protien...ish. 

So here's what ya do. Get a mid-sized mixing bowl. Crack into said bowl two eggs. 

Dump in a cup of flour. 

 

You can estimate. Exact proportions don't seem to be necessary. 

Add into your bowl a cup of milk, and half a teaspoon of salt. 

Mix it all up, but don't go too crazy. A few lumps are okay. 

Pour into greased muffin tins and place into a cold oven. Turn the oven to 400 degrees for 25 minutes (or 350 for 30, or 450 for 20...depends on how your oven cooks. Just watch them. If they're brown, they're done.)  I add water to the empty tins but I don't know if you have to...my mom always does so I do too. 

When you first take them out, they're big and puffy and delightful!  They'll settle a bit in a few minutes. They'll also last for at least a few days in the fridge.  You're on your own for after that; mine don't last more than a day!

Happy eating! Yum yum! 

For the quick version:

Ingredients: 

2 eggs

1 cup flour

1 cup milk

1/2 tsp salt

Mix all ingredients and pour into greased muffin tins. Put in a cold oven, and bake at 400 for about 25 minutes til puffed and lightly browned. 

Serve warm with honey butter and enjoy!