Christmas Music

I have been listening to Christmas music since the beginning of October.  I have to restrain myself from waiting that long.  There is such a variety of styles and songs out there that the month of December just isn't long enough to listen to everything I want to.  Don't ask me to pick my favorite song.  I have particular arrangements of different songs that are my favorites, such as the Drifters' version of "White Christmas", or Eartha Kitt's "Santa Baby".  Then there are the sacred songs..."Silent Night"(In German, of course) and "Joy to the World".  I especially love some of the old English carols, like "The Holly and the Ivy", "Jesus Christ the Apple Tree", and "Tomorrow Shall be My Dancing Day".  Then there are some German favorites, "Kling Glöckchen, Klingelingeling", or "Leise Rieslet der Schnee".

Today as I was out and about, I was playing Mercy Me's Christmas Sessions CD.  They have an arrangement of Longfellow's "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" that is quite nice.  The year that this CD came out, some other Christian artists performed their own version of this song.  The lyrics are quite simple:


I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

I thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head:
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men."

Till, ringing singing, on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,
Of peace on earth, good will to men!

The third and fourth stanza are appropriate to the events that have happened in recent days.  We have witnessed several ways that hate can mock our ideal of peace on earth.  If we focus on these events, we can see the strength of hatred in our world.  Yet in the face of these events, we also witness how communities can gather together to support and love each other.  The families who were victims of the home explosion on the southside of Indianapolis have received generosity from the entire city.  The students of Sandy Hook elementary have been adopted by an entire nation.

The message of the song, "God is not dead, nor doth he sleep" is evident in the response of the nation to these recent tragedies.  Many would say that if God weren't dead or asleep, he would never have allowed such horrors to occur.  I can only respond by saying that we live in a fallen world, and God does not cause such events to happen, nor does he desire them.  However he has given us free will and doesn't control us.  He lets us make our own decisions and then we must cope with the consequences.

I believe that God uses such events in our lives, the good and the bad, to help us become the people he intends us to be. He uses our strengths and weaknesses to his glory.

Christmas Vacation Cooking...Taco Soup

I love Christmas vacation.  I love cold weather, and we haven't had any properly cold weather until today, my second day of vacation.

Yesterday, on my first day of vacation, I helped my mom babysit my little niece.  She needed to sew my niece's Christmas dress, and watching an 8-month-old baby is not conducive to sewing.  So I went over and watched my niece while she sewed.  For lunch, I ate leftover taco soup that my sister made, and it was quite yummy.  I asked her how she made it and she told me her "recipe"...originally she used a recipe but now she does it by memory, and innovation each time she cooks it.

Last night, we got our first real snowfall of the season AND it was appropriately cold and windy.  (It's about time, because earlier this week we had temperatures in the 50s!)  I had an appointment and did a little shopping and so I was out and about in this blustery, cold weather.  It put me into the mood for soup.  On my way home I thought about the contents of my pantry and realized that I had all of the ingredients to make a version of the taco soup as she explained it to me.  

I took my first Christmas vacation nap and then decided to cook the soup when I woke up.  I didn't take pictures as I went, but I did take a picture of the final product in a bowl.

So here's the recipe; realize that I made this up as I went along, from my sister's explanation of what she did.  Also realize that I cook for myself, so this will yield about 4-5 servings.

Taco Soup

Ingredients:

1/2 lb ground turkey (you could probably use ground beef)

Taco seasoning to taste (I used this homemade version that I found on Pinterest.)

1 can of Campbell's Fiesta Cheese soup

1 tsp of beef boullion dissolved into 1 cup of water (I imagine you could use 1 cup of beef broth)

1 can of diced tomatoes, seasoned for Chili (I used Aldi's brand)

1/2 can of black beans

about 1 cup of frozen corn

about 1/2 cup of frozen bell pepper and onion mix (Kroger has a nice sliced red and green pepper with onion)

1. Brown the ground turkey with the taco seasoning.
2. Combine the bouillon and water and bring to a boil, adding the cheese soup and mix it so the cheese soup is combined with the bouillon.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients, including the cooked turkey, and simmer until the vegetables are cooked.

Serve with your favorite taco accompaniments: cheese, sour cream, tortilla chips, guacamole!

Are we really safe?

The last few days have been quite stressful for me as a teacher.  Not only have I been preparing myself and my students for the end of the semester (final projects, final exams, etc.), but I have also had to deal with what happened on Friday in Newtown, Connecticut.  The entire nation is again in shock at the horror of this latest mass shooting.

As is typical, we are asking all kinds of questions, demanding answers, and wondering how another tragedy like this can be prevented.  People from both sides of the gun control debate are offering solutions.  Religious leaders blame the lack of faith, the rise of godlessness, and the removal of God from the schools.  Politicians and others blame parents, the lack of access to mental health care, and more.

Everyone is demanding an easy answer, and many answers have been proposed from all over the spectrum of those responding.

The thing is, there IS an easy answer, but it isn't the one we want.

How can we prevent tragedies like this from happening again?  We can't.  That's the easy answer, but as I said, it isn't the one we want.

Because I was raised in the Christian tradition, I believe that our world and our flesh is NOT inherently good, but inherently evil.  The New American Standard translation of Psalm 51:5 reads, "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me."  Sin (iniquity) is part of our world, part of our nature.

Anyone who has been around young children for any amount of time should know that we have to teach them how to be unselfish, kind, and polite.  Children are naturally selfish.  They throw tantrums when they don't get what they want.  They grab.  They hit.  They cry.  These behaviors are not learned; they come naturally.  Sharing, caring for others, and all of the other acceptable behaviors must be taught.

We can pass all the laws we want, we can regulate guns, we can allow teachers to carry concealed weapons, we can do any number of things to make us feel secure, but it won't change human nature.  Someone will still find a way to bring about mass tragedy.  Many have noted that it is easier to obtain the ingredients for a bomb than it is to get a gun.  Locally, a house was blown up, killing 2 people and displacing hundreds of people.

We can point the finger of blame at any number of specific causes, but ultimately the blame rests on human nature.  If we don't perpetrate such horrible crimes, we glorify or minimize them.  Sensationalizing and glorifying such acts encourages those who seek the attention.  Minimizing violence creates a sense of apathy to our fellow men.

Perhaps the problem of minimizing such actions results from the fact that unless we are directly, personally affected by any kind of tragedy, it is easy to move on with our own lives.  My daily life isn't directly affected by the shootings, my daily life wasn't affected by Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Sandy, I don't have a family member who is deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.  Without a direct connection to such tragedies, we can get over it much sooner than those directly affected by it.

I don't feel unsafe in my daily life.  I don't worry about whether a crazed gunman will enter my school building.  I don't imagine a drunk driver will plow into my vehicle as I drive throughout the city.  I don't expect a devastating tornado to reduce my home to smithereens.  I'm not guaranteed safety any more than anyone else is.  Honestly, I don't think about my safety very often.  Perhaps I should.  Will worrying about how safe I am make me safer?  Not likely.  I can just pray for God's protection and trust that his will is done in my life.

All I Really Needed to Know in Life I Learned On....Pinterest

This summer I got sucked into the internet phenomenon that is Pinterest.  This online "pin board" is a way to find and organize web sites that contain information you want or need.  You can "follow" other people's pins and then re-pin those pins onto your own boards.

It's really absorbing, as is most of the Internet.  One can go through Pinterest pins for hours without noticing the time go by.  I have found great recipes, DIY projects, tutorials for fixing things, teaching ideas, and much more in my hours of Pinteresting.  I have pinned significantly more web sites and projects than I probably will have the time to ever try, but I have tried several of the things I've pinned with mostly success.

I even started a Pinterest club at my school for our Activity Period Club time.  I have over 30 girls who bring in supplies to make treats or other projects they found on Pinterest.  We've had all kinds of fun making glitter t-shirts, doing nail art techniques, and of course making yummy treats.

In my months of Pinteresting, I have learned several things.

1. Regular blue Dawn dishwashing soap, hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and vinegar are miracle products.  There isn't anything on the face of this earth that you can't clean or improve with one of these (or a mixture of them).   Thank goodness all of these are so inexpensive.  I stock up on baking soda, especially.  Jillee (One Good Thing by Jillee) is the queen of home cleaning tips with these products.  Here she talks about Hydrogen Peroxide Magic.
2.  People love the flavors of pumpkin pie and s'mores.  Even in the middle of July, Pinners were pinning recipes that involved these flavors.  I brought in this S'mores Dip to my Pinterest club and the only illustration I can think of to describe the reaction of those girls was that they looked like piranhas around a piece of meat.
3. Nail art is cool.  Impossible to do on your own (I tried a couple of them), but cool.
4. If you can't find a tutorial to DIY something, you can't DIY.
5. Reusing and recycling are definitely possible, especially if you have a lot of old t-shirts.  There are so many things you can do to "upcycle" or recycle t-shirts beyond cutting them up into rags.  Quilts, headbands, tote bags, you name it.  Face it, all of us have so many t-shirts that we will never be able to wear them out.  Jillee has some links to stuff you can do with old t-shirts to make them useful.  This has led to a problem...saving things like old jars, paper towel tubes, plastic containers and more, "just in case" you could find something to do with them.
6. You can find a slow cooker version of almost any recipe, even bread.  Slow cookers are the miracle appliance in the kitchen, evidently.

I'm sure there are more lessons I could explain, but these are the best.  If you haven't been sucked into the internet black hole that is Pinterest, find someone to invite you.