Author: boomingbanter

 

Today is Ash Wednesday the first day of Lent. That means Easter is forty days away so very late this year. Almost as late as it can be!

Seems the weather maker got the message as it feels like mid winter here rather than the start of spring.

Sixty million people are under a winter weather advisory for extreme cold all across the USA. It is -12C (10F) here in Columbus but with the wind chill it is much much much colder!

Dawn was beautiful though. With the snow on the ground the vibrant colors really stand out and Venus is so bright right now the sky is picture perfect.

As I took the bins down to the road a little bird was singing its heart out. Maybe looking for a mate or maybe just giving me the message that days for long walks, barbecues and cold beers are coming soon.

Blessing # 269 – Spring Song

 

 

This morning the First Lady’s solo tour around the country was covered on the news. She is promoting her Be Best campaign that focuses on well being, social media use and opioid abuse among young people.

We saw her meet with children in their classrooms and talk to them in a very gentle and loving way.

She came across so warmly and is so softly spoken. She asked one little girl if she had written the note on her desk. The girl said she had and the First Lady said it was really very beautiful.

For sure that little girl will never forget this moment and how it made her feel.

I can only imagine that these must be  difficult days for this beautiful woman. She must hurt sometimes. Let’s hope that someone is lifting her spirits too.

She may be a very important person but some part of her, just like that little girl, needs to hear a kind word and have a hug!

Blessing # 268 – Encouragement

We are having a fund raiser on Saint Patrick’s Day for Kairos and I have to provide the recipes for the soda bread and apple crumble.

Our volunteers will make these items the day  before the event so on the day itself we can focus on making the stew!

To be sure that the recipe I send out for the soda bread is good I’ve tried it out on the boys.

We usually don’t buy buttermilk so I used yogurt whey instead but put it like this it wasn’t like my Granny made it!

Today I’d planned to get buttermilk and start afresh. The boys are very kind but I’m sure they’re sick of soda. So it was with some joy that I read a mail last night from Pastor Dave asking if anyone would make bread for our TMG tomorrow.

Man the timing couldn’t have been better as I was so glad to have new tasters.

With a spring in my step and hopefully to bring one to the soda too I set off early to get the buttermilk. As with everything in the USA there was a whole cabinet full of different types of buttermilk    Low fat, full fat, goat milk (!), economy, premium the list goes on and on!

All had gums and starches though, I suppose to prevent separation so I wasn’t sure how that would impact performance and so it was that Gourmet was the only option! Why is it that things that have just what they are meant to have in this case buttermilk cost the most! Even the gourmet had a color added. Why oh why is that necessary?

Now to the baking board and all went to plan.

Krishna tastes and proclaims it good and then asks how are we going to serve this tomorrow. We agree with butter and jam would be best and then the man has a brain wave!

Instead of cutting the round into four farls why don’t you cut it into eight then each person can have one. Eureka for the fundraiser this is perfect much less hassle and handling!

He’ll be in my good books for weeks after this and along with his homemade yougurt we know have another item for the B&B menu!

Blessing #267 – Bread of Life!

Yesterday we went to visit the would be B&B and it did not disappoint.

The place is really dry, no mold or bad smells and many wonderful original features.

The cabinets in the kitchen are the originals from 1860 and the wood is simply beautiful.

All the old hardwood floors look to be in good shape too and while there are some funky color schemes the structure looks sound.

There are two staircases one out of the kitchen and the other sweeping up grandly from the hall. Little details like a cedar cabinet in one bedroom, to keep the furs flea free, an exposed stone cellar and a tree house in a big cherry tree make it really special.

A lucky little frog fellow was sitting in a window box on the back porch too. Should we kiss him and see if he turns into a prince?

All of this got us digging deeper into the history of Marion City and it’s most famous son President Warren Harding.

He was the owner of the local newspaper, ran his presidential campaign from the porch of his house across the street and died suddenly in office in his late fifties.

He also has a reputation as a ladies man having had several mistresses all Marion natives. Surely there is potental for a movie here as well as a B&B!

Funniest event of the day though was finding this quote coming from of all places the Harding Financial Group.

No relation to the President just a nudge in the right direction.

Blessing # 266 – History Trails

There seem to be weeks for focus on all causes. Heart disease, cancers, mental health, animal welfare, the list is long.

Today, thanks to several posts on Facebook, I learned that we are nearing the end of Eating Disorders Awareness Week.

Many of us know someone who has had an eating disorder. Some of us may have had or have one ourselves.

One of the Facebook posts today Had a link to BEAT the U.K. group that encourages  people to speak up and share their stories.

As a teenager I was a normal weight. I’d go on a diet now and then to loose a few pounds but it was in my early twenties that I started to take dieting seriously.

The reason for this was that I was spending a lot of time with someone who had anorexia. We started a diet together and being very competitive I could not let her win!

The more weight I lost and the more compliments I got about the new svelte figure the better I felt.

My weight never got too low because I took to eating huge quantities of breakfast cereal at night. My preferred cereal was of all things All Bran because it made me feel so full. Dieting was all about control and eating the cereal was all about loosing control.

This radical cycle of dieting and eating went on for theee years and it wasn’t pleasant. It stopped when I left the U.K. for Switzerland.

Once you have lived though this I’m not sure it is possible to ever loose consciousness of weight and keeping it in check.

Many people struggle with obesity as well as with eating disorders.

What would be really helpful is to hear from the people who have no issues at all in controlling their weight. If they spoke up and told us how and what they think of food it would be very insightful.

Some say the French are natural regulators because they eat everything in moderation but I’m not convinced. Having lived there and observed the nation first hand it strikes me they are just as weight conscious as the rest of us. They just have a good word for dieting it’s a REGIME! Vive la révolution mes amis!

Blessing # 265 – Sharing Stories

This morning a few local friends posted that they didn’t sleep well last night. Me neither! Maybe high pressure! Happens when you have things on your mind!

The year seems to be flying past and chez nous there is little to show for it! Already the first day of March! Spring just around the corner but snow in the forecast again!

The clock is also ticking on getting taxes done and we haven’t even started to get the paperwork ready. Another year another extension to file we’ve been there and done that so many times before.

There are other Groundhog Day events happening around us too. What can we learn from this? Perhaps as one friend posted today you calm yourself and not the storm.

As a speed freak patience is something that is not innate to me. Any lemons that come my way have to be squeezed fast and furiously. Usually things turn out fine and we have a good big jug of lemonade.

Maybe though it is better to  wait a while and suck those lemons just like we did as kids with those old fashioned sweets.

There are always multiple choices even if by nature you wish to choose the familiar option. It’s never too late to learn you can change, be selective and use a new formula especially if the one you are faced with is getting old!

Blessing # 264 – Resilience

This weekend sees the annual ARNOLD Sports and Fitness festival here in Columbus.

This event has been building strength over the past thirty years and Arnold himself always makes an appearance.

People from all over the world take part. This year up to 20000 participants and 200000 spectators are expected.

On occasion I’ve been traveling around this time and it is really something to see all these super fit people in the airport and to fly with them. They literally are solid muscle.

That’s about as close as we’ve come to the event until this year.

As you can imagine all the hotels in the region are booked out and Aaron is anticipating a busy weekend of work and maybe a little overtime. Glad he’s on the housekeeping and not on the breakfast shift or we’d need to be up at three in the morning to get the eggs and pancakes ready for these hunks.

Strong is certainly an understatement to describe the participants. Strong in mind and strong in body! Not something that would naturally come to mind when for myself.

So it was with great surprise, on arrival in China in 2001, after my physical to show I was fit to work, that I was told I was REALLY VERY STRONG.

I walked around for the next half hour with my head held a little higher than usual. Strong! I’m strong! I was so chuffed until someone was kind enough to tell me that STRONG is the Chinese way to say YOU ARE FAT!

Blessing # 263 – Getting Stronger

Cadbury’s Creme Eggs are one of my very favorite things.

Growing up in the U.K. we would wait with great anticipation for them to hit the shelves in the weeks before Easter.

The eggs were launched in 1963 in the UK so we were among the first kids in the world to eat them. We’d do all sorts of things with them like sucking the yolk out with a straw and later freezing them so the chocolate cracked like an egg shell.

Such a lot of fun from such a little thing!

Today they are available all year long but the Easter fun continues.

Currently there is a great TV spot running here in the USA and perhaps all over the world called Bunny Tryouts. It makes me smile every single time I see it and the tag line is so clever.

So today I caved in and decided our dear Dibley should enter the competition. He is such a beautiful boy I’m sure he is going to win and with his little fat tummy he looks more like a bunny everyday.

My Mother would often say it takes little to amuse the innocent! Well innocent I am not but I do know for sure that you are Nobunny till Somebunny Loves You 

Blessing #262 – Timeless Treats

 

Krishna has been part of a small group at our Church for eight years now. The group meets each Tuesday morning and so, not surprisingly, is know as the TMG.

Krishna joined the group when when they were studying the religions of the world. He quickly made many faithful friends who support and love each other

Recently I’ve been going to TMG too and enjoy it very much. We catch up on what’s happening in our lives, then we do some studying together, share some snacks and always have a laugh or two.

Today our subject of study was the book of Jonah. Many of you will know this story. In a nutshell, Jonah, trying to escape from God is caught in a storm and swallowed up by a big fish. Realizing he’s still alive he begs forgiveness and the fish throws him up on the shore.

Now the great thing about our TMG group is that everyone is so  comfortable with each other that they willingly give their perspective without concern. So it was today when we discussed this tale.

Some thought it was a legend, other that it was a dream but I gave everyone a surprise by suggesting maybe Jonah had been in a submarine!

Perhaps I’ve watched one too many episodes of Ancient Aliens but it does cross my mind that maybe, just maybe, we have had some visitors from other places here on our little blue marble.

Everyone had a good giggle at this so a few more jokes were then shared:-

What is the advantage of living in Switzerland? The flag is a BIG PLUS!!!!

What do you call a sleeping bull? A BULLDOZER!!!!

Did you groan like Jonah or have a good belly laugh?

Blessing # 261 – Band of Buddies

The past 24 hours brought us hurricane force winds in Central Ohio. While graded as only a force one it makes you wonder what force five must sound like. This howling is incredible.

The storm wreaked havoc for many with trees crashing on cars and houses and power outages for many.

We escaped with just a small tree and a few big tree branches down in the back yard. We didn’t loose power for a second.

So we were able to watch all of the Oscars uninterrupted and certainly there was no power outage when it came to Gaga and Bradley! They were definitely brewing up a media storm!

By the time we went to bed it was eleven thirty but that wind seem to howl even louder when everything else was still. It kept the furry one up all night. He was in an out a half dozen times so very little sleep was had by his humans.

Six o’clock came around too fast and not feeling rested is never the best way to start the week.

Rather than start the taxes as was part of today’s plan, the best solution may be to take a leaf from Dibley’s book and catch up a nice little afternoon power nap instead.

Blessing # 260 – A Wee Snooze