Rick's Corner

Month after month, I watch as Nancy writes the content for the web site and newsletter (I actually publish it - I'm her Webmaster, {and husband, among other things}), so we thought it would be interesting to give my perspective. Comments are often made after a cooking demonstration or entertaining guests about how fortunate I am to be married to someone who prepares such good, healthy food, and I couldn't agree more! I am no slouch in the kitchen, but I can't hold a candle to my wife. I have often told her, "You can never leave me or I'll starve" which is not too far from the truth.



As I talk to people who are looking to change to a healthier diet in order to lose weight, reverse or prevent disease or just because they're tired of poisoning their bodies with the standard American diet, I tell them to start with simple changes and build on them. That's what we did. Don't try to make the jump too fast because it usually won't stick. How many people do you know that have tried and failed to lose weight or eat healthier, only to fail and end up worse off than where they started? Lots of people don't stick with the changes because they don't lose 25 lbs the first month. What if they only lost a measly ½ pound per week, would it be worth it? That comes to about 50 pounds over 2 years! Definitely worth it! Point being, this is a lifelong journey and it's worth doing it right. I would strongly advise those of you who are new to use this site to learn the basics, start with some easy recipes and build on them. I think you'll be amazed at the changes you will see!

God has a funny way of getting my attention

God has a funny way of getting my attention sometimes. Lately, it seems I have been hearing God chuckle at the lessons He has been teaching me through my little broken toe. Yes, that’s right – lessons from God in a little broken toe. It really didn’t start out as being a funny affair, but the longer I struggle through with taped toes, ugly shoes and a definite limp – I find myself chuckling with God. No one spends much time thinking about little toes, until they stick out a little too far and get caught on a bed post or a corner. Then, that seems to be all you can think about. It is amazing how many simple, daily activities are affected by a broken toe. Until it happens to you, it’s hard to imagine. I am amazed that a little toe is so useful while lifting small children, taking dinner out of the oven, shopping for groceries, taking the family on a long awaited camping trip when the bathroom is almost a half a mile away and sleeping with heavy covers on. That little toe has a way of making itself known and limiting my activities. Every day I am reminded of 1 Corinthians 12 where the apostle Paul describes how important all of us are to the body of Christ. In 1 Cor 12, verses 21-22 Paul states “The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable…” So it is with little toes, and all of us who belong to the body of Christ. All of us are indispensable. We may feel like little toes, ugly little things without much purpose. But without us, the body of Christ will not function properly. We all have a purpose and when we are unable or unwilling to fulfill that purpose, the whole body suffers. We all can’t be the head, nor would we want to be. But it can be really hard to be a little toe most days of the week. It is hard to imagine that ministering to our family through cooking, cleaning and kissing small boo-boos is very important – but it is. We may not be teaching a class, evangelizing on a street corner, or traveling to the far corners of the world to reach the lost, but we are all where God has placed us. All of our daily lives are important and without us being faithful and diligent in all areas, the whole body suffers. So, the next time I feel ignored, unimportant and weak, I will remember my broken toe and thank God for being part of the bigger body of Christ.

Don't Join the Army of the Overweight!

Reading the following story has me shaking my head and feeling terribly sad at the same time. A town in West Virginia has the dubious honor of being named "the fattest city in America". The problem is that apparently most people living there don't care. According to the article, they're too concerned with the local economy to worry about treating or preventing diabetes, heart disease and cancer. It so clearly reminds me of the old Fram oil filter commercial of "You can pay me now or you can pay me later". If you choose later, I can guarantee the cost is not only going to exponentially higher but the resulting poor health will be far worse than most can imagine. And here's the kicker: it isn't that hard!!! It's not hard at all. It is simply a case of making a decision, then backing up the decision with action. That means doing whatever it takes - researching, reading, being willing to try new (healthier) things, failing and being willing to try again. When you read the article, see how your attitudes compare to those in the story. Then decide which side of the fence you're going to land on. I hope it's on the side of improving your health on a daily basis for the rest of your life

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081116/ap_on_he_me/med_unhealthiest_city_2

Zucchinni and Sun Dried Tomatoes

Tonight I took dinner over to Nana’s house so that my wonderful husband could watch an NBA play-off game on TV. (We have the most basic cable channels you can get. They are a “package deal” with the high speed internet service we have.) Nana doesn’t cook very often since most nights she is eating at our house so I had to use my imagination to create a meal which required very few pans and/or spices. I decided tacos, refried beans and some stir fried zucchini would fit the bill – especially since I already had made guacamole and salsa. The trick was to figure out an appealing way to prepare the zucchini without any interesting spices. (Since Nana doesn’t cook, her selection of spices is not only VERY limited, it’s also VERY old – and probably not very tasty.) So, I quickly grabbed a yellow pepper, an onion, the zucchini and some sun-dried tomatoes that had been looking at me very accusingly for quite a while. I love sun dried tomatoes – just right out of the bag – and had bought some quite a few weeks ago at our old produce market. I had eaten a few and then forgot about them – until today. So, once at Nana’s I sliced the pepper and onion, water sautéed them until tender. Next, I added the zucchini and some salt and pepper. I occasionally stirred the zucchini until it just started to turn tender, and then I added the chopped sun dried tomatoes. Boy, not only was it delicious but it was also very colorful. Sometimes a little creative ingenuity is all that is needed to make a new dish that every one loves.

Five minutes to spare!

Wow – It’s almost 5 o’clock and I am actually getting to sit down at the desk for a couple of minutes! Today was a good day – actually got quite a bit done – including school with the children. I also made fresh bread (which is baking in the oven now) and Pasta Fagioli (for dinner tomorrow – it always tastes better after it sits for a day.) Tonight we are having some Tofukey bratwurst that I bought on sale and we all love. I’m also planning on some sweet and sour cabbage and some leftover lentils. We tend to eat quite a bit of cabbage – probably because it’s not only incredibly healthy, it’s also normally pretty inexpensive. Our local produce store normally sells cabbage for about 45 cents a pound or less – and that’s a great price for budget conscious healthy eaters. When shopping and planning for our meals, if I can find fruit or vegetables for 99 cents a pound or less – we get them. Just the other day we found D’Anjou pears for only 99 cents a pound. This has been a great year for tasty pears and we eat them plain, diced on our salads, sautéed with a tiny bit of Earth Balance and brown sugar, and we enjoy them in pies and cobblers. Cobblers are what I call desert when I am too lazy to make a crust and just top the pears with the crumbly topping I normally put on our pear pie. With my pressure cooker, I can get the sweet and sour cabbage ready for the table in less than 5 minutes. I don’t know what I would do without my pressure cooker – except not have time to sit and blog for 5 minutes so close to dinner time.

Sea Veggies in Pressure Cookers

Pressure cookers are fun, easy and a real time saver. But they are also a wee bit persnickety! Tonight while making some fresh garbanzo beans, I decided to add a few sea vegetable flakes to them for extra seasoning. I have recently learned quite a bit about the importance of iodine in our diet and sea vegetables are an easy and tasty way to add a natural occurring source of iodine. (No, I am not really weird – just health conscious and if I can improve our diet and nutrition without spending much money – I do it. I don’t like supplements – I like getting what we need from whole foods. Besides, I love sea weed salads when I go out to eat and I love vegetarian sushi – although I can rarely afford it.) Anyway, so I tossed in the soaked beans, added the water and then added about a tablespoon of seaweed flakes. (Seaweed flakes are much less expensive than seaweed sheets and if you aren’t making sushi – go for the flakes!) Well, much to my surprise, my pressure cooker began to make some pretty strange noises. Just enough strange noises to make my children leave the kitchen in a real hurry – they are a little scared of my pressure cookers and convinced they are going to blow up some day. Quickly, I grabbed the jiggle valve and removed it from the cooker – only to see a lot of brown ooze coming out of the vent. Oh my! Sea Vegetables! I released the pressure, drained and rinsed the beans, cleaned the cooker and the pressure valve, and put the beans back on. Next time, I think I’ll pay a little extra for the sea weed sheets if I am going to use them in the pressure cooker!

Finally - they are eating salads!

It’s only been recently that my son has started begging for a green salad. Oh – music to a mother’s ears. For years, I have tried to get my children to eat a nice green salad. I have tried plain salads, many different greens, a wide variety of toppings and an even greater variety of dressings. Anything to easily get nutrient dense, raw foods in my children. Although they have always had to eat what I have prepared – it kind of took the fun out of family dinners when I watch their faces as they eat. Then – I went to visit a friend of mine and watched how she served salads to her children. The lettuce and all of the ingredients were finely chopped or grated. My husband says I chop them so fine he almost doesn’t even have to chew. Although I don’t quite chop them that fine, I do chop, dice, grate, toss and mix so that the salads are easily eaten with a spoon (no more struggling to get them on a fork) and the texture is quite appealing to the children. I have also found that I use much less salad dressing when I chop the salad. Once the lettuce, carrots, cucumbers and bell peppers are mixed together, I add their favorite toppings – black olives and garbanzo beans. My daughter is still a little resistant, but my son now says salads are his favorite thing to eat and he even likes to eat them with no dressing. That’s pretty good coming from someone who would be happy to eat toast and rice krispies at almost every meal – if I let him. Now my biggest challenge is to keep his little hands from trying to grab handfuls of salad as I am mixing them up. Someday he just might just lose a finger if he isn’t careful.

Plate full of green tonight!

We had a wonderful dinner tonight – full of green vegetables. Yesterday I stopped at the produce market and just couldn’t resist the first of the Florida okra. I had stopped for only some Kirby cucumbers, but ended up with a basketful of veggies – including some of the best okra I have seen in months. My kids love fresh okra. It wasn’t always that way. I have always loved fried okra and when we owned our own produce market, I finally started making it myself. Now, when I say fried – I don’t mean breaded and deep fried. I simply slice the okra and pan fry – without any breading – in a very hot cast iron skillet with a very small amount of oil. (I used to try breading the okra, but the breading always ended up in the bottom of the pan and my okra was naked. So, I started leaving off the breading and discovered how much we like it that way.) To make a long story short, my children’s love affair with okra took many, many, many meals before they became as enamored as I am. Now, I have to buy at least 2 pounds of okra to satisfy everyone’s appetite. I have found that quite a few of the vegetables and main dishes I serve the family take several presentations before they are well accepted. Taste buds can be trained and old unhealthy habits replaced with new ones, but it takes time. Rome wasn’t built in a day – and neither was our overwhelming love of okra. I can’t wait for summer when fresh okra is available all the time!

Just returned from a week of fun camping!

As many of you know, we just came back from a long week of camping. We had a wonderful time enjoying the spring weather in Florida and the beautiful sunny gulf coast beaches. We managed to squeeze all of our bicycles in the back of our van so we even managed to do quite a bit of bike riding at several state parks while on vacation. Camping is an activity everyone in our family loves. Although I still have to prepare all of the meals while we’re gone, it just doesn’t feel like work when it’s done outside while enjoying God’s marvelous creation. As we sat outside the camper enjoying our dinners – made all the more delicious by our camping appetites – we talked about how different our meals are than most people’s meals. But, boy, we do love ours! We really ate well on this camping trip without a lot of hassle. I brought some bags of frozen vegetables (just kept them cold until we ate them) and a wide variety of produce that didn’t require refrigeration. We feasted on sweet potatoes, white potatoes (both fried and baked), cabbage, corn on the cob, broccoli, spinach, tomatoes, apples, pears, bananas and dried fruits and nuts. I also made some healthy muffins, bean spreads, spinach dip and salads before we left. A small investment in ice kept it all nice and cold and delicious. Last year I wrote an article on 10 Tips to Healthy Eating While Camping – which outlines a lot of what we do while on the road. The most important thing is that we had lots of fun and could have stayed another 7 nights!

On the way to camping in Georgia

Camping is so much fun for our family. There is just something about being outdoors in the beautiful weather that we all love. This is the time of year when we begin enjoying the great outdoors. In the summer, it’s a little too hot and humid to want to be outside all day. The fall, winter and spring are great times to soak in the glory and splendor of the day and night. Normally we stay in Florida but this year we decided to venture into Georgia – partly to see if we could see any leaves change before the weather got too cold to camp. We left on Saturday and enjoyed our 6 hour drive into the interior of Georgia. We were playing games in the car and got to laughing so hard at the unintentional humor of our soon to be 7 year old son. We were playing Brainquest as a type of trivia challenge – with homeschooling everything becomes a teachable moment. The question was if boots is the plural of boot – what is the plural of foot. I guess I worded it a little differently in an attempt to explain plural. I posed the question as if you have one boot it’s b-o-o-t, if you have two boots, its spelled b-o-o-t-s. So, if you have one foot it is spelled f-o-o-t, so if you had two, what would it be? In an attempt to answer before his sister, our son yells out shoes, s-h-o-e-s! He might not have given the answer we all expected, but he was right on track! We thought that started our trip out well – we haven’t stopped chuckling and enjoying our time together since. It’s wonderful to spend the time enjoying being a family – even when things aren’t quite what we expect. Often, the unexpected is much better than what we expected.

It's Been A While!

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to sit down and write what is happening in our lives and hearts. I often think of all the things I want to share, and then get so involved in living, I hardly take a breath to pause and reflect. I am rethinking my family schedule and going to make sure there is more time for writing and sharing. There’s just something special about inviting others to join in and celebrate LIFE with us!

It was a great weekend this last Saturday and Sunday. The weather was a little gloomy, but we had a great time anyway. I held my first cooking class at Paradise Health and Nutrition on Minton Road. This was a new location for my cooking class, although I shop there frequently. The people who attended the class were wonderful and friendly and encouraging! We had a great time together learning how to cook Mushroom Stroganoff with Soy Curls, Vegetarian Chili and Tofu Cubes with Brown Gravy. (YUM,YUM,YUM!) Three dishes is less than an hour – we were cranking! I love talking about food almost as much as I love eating and preparing it – so I was in heaven – getting to combine two of my passions at once. The staff at Paradise was also incredibly accommodating and helpful. I love shopping there because I always leave feeling better than I did when I entered the store. There are VERY few stores you can say that about anymore.

Today, we are enjoying the sunshine – finally! The kids have been outside as much as I will let them chasing bugs, snacking on grapes and generally creating adventures of all kinds. We had a picnic for lunch, although it is still warm – much to my chagrin. Pretty soon we will be embarking on another camping trip – this time for 8 nights. We can all hardly wait to go north – to Georgia – and hopefully encounter some cooler weather. Last weekend we camped at Fort Clinch State Park. The park was absolutely gorgeous and the weather very pleasant. We were able to enjoy a half-mile long fishing pier, deserted pristine beaches, a Confederate army reenactment at the Fort and a relaxing family time together. I am so grateful to God that He has blessed us with health and vitality as we enjoy His creation and all of it’s majesty.

Emails from Friends!

A good friend of mine sent me a funny email today and for the first time in a long time I took the time and answered it. In the past, I have gotten emails which ask a long list of questions about yourself to answer and pass on to friends. I’ve always loved everyone else’s responses, but never filled out one for me. Today was different. I don’t know why. Perhaps I was avoiding cleaning the bathrooms and making dinner. Any excuse to put off the inevitable seemed like a good idea. So I sat at the computer for about 15 minutes and totally indulged myself. Hopefully, it will brighten my friend’s lives too since I tried not to take myself too seriously. It’s been a rough couple of days trying to get it all done and keep everyone’s attitudes cheerful and joyful, including my own. Homeschooling requires me to sacrifice my self everyday, as do many other things in life. I love it, I wouldn’t change it, but I sure would create more hours in my day if I could. But of course, as soon as I created them, they would be filled up and I would be left desiring even more. I guess I’m that way about most things. There never seems to be enough. Although, perhaps that’s not really true. There are certainly some things I could do with less of – like sagging skin, hot flashes, summer heat and spelling questions from my children when I am trying to write. Oh well, off to the bathrooms and dinner – one can only put off the inevitable for so long!

The Science Experiment

As a science experiment for my kids, we starting experimenting with sprouts. As a homeschool family, we experiment with lots of things – although I don’t think we’ve ever experimented with something so tasty before. Okay, I’ll admit it – I have NEVER been a big fan of sprouts. Alfalfa sprouts have always tasted too “green” to me and mung bean sprouts normally go bad before I can use them in our favorite stir frys. So, when Andy begged at the health food store for seeds and a sprouting lid, my husband thought it might be fun and educational. It has been, but I think Andy hasn’t gotten to experiment much with it – my husband has taken it over. If it’s a bean or a seed, he’s going to sprout it. Perhaps this is a phase that will pass, but we sure have been enjoying them. We started with mung beans which sprouted nicely. We used them in our smoothies and salads. They tasted quite good, and according to my husband and about 1,000 websites, they are incredibly good for us too. Next, we tried sprouting wheat berries. I wasn’t sure what to do with them at first. I searched around the internet and everything I found sounded way too difficult to try. So, I did my usual thing and decided to add them to a recipe I was already comfortable with. I threw them in the VitaMix and then added them to my regular bread recipe. The sprouts came out of the VitaMix like a glob of gooey glutenous mess – a perfect addition to bread dough, I hoped. And I was right! What a wonderful feeling! The bread rose higher than it had ever risen before and had a delightfully delicious taste and texture. WOW! Emily said it was the best bread I had ever made! It was good and I have more wheat berries sprouting right now in the kitchen. Sometimes experiments turn out really good – and sometimes they don’t. The key is to be willing to keep trying.

Click here for the recipe.

Rainy days!

It's raining again this afternoon! In Florida, we relish these afternoon storms which really help cool things off. Once the storms pass through, we are often left with a wonderful evening. It’s even possible to sit out back after dinner and enjoy the fresh air. Often it’s a time we go fishing or play tag or simply chat about our day. It’s nice not to be tied to a full schedule. Don’t get me wrong, our days are full – very full. But our days are not overly scheduled. We love to own our days rather than be slaves to them. In the past, we may have been tempted to say yes to every opportunity that came our way. There are always so many good opportunities for field trips, visits, team sports, classes and hobbies that we often struggle with which to choose. But good opportunities aren’t always the BEST opportunities for us. We have found that through prayer and self control, we are often doing more by doing less. God has called us to serve Him in a variety of ways and the most important way we serve Him is by training and disciplining our children. That’s pretty hard to do when we are too busy running them from one activity to another, where other people train them instead of us. So, we’ve learned to say no to many things in order to say yes to a few things – which are the most important things in our life. Perhaps it’s not pure coincidence that often our first words in life are NO! Perhaps we need to remember how to say that word again – and use it to our and our children’s eternal benefit.

Okay, perhaps I am a little weird and perhaps I am a little too attached to my cooking – but I am so excited because I made bread today and the loaf turned out BEAUTIFUL! The loaf didn’t have one blemish on it. It wasn’t too dark or overcooked and the top hadn’t even begun to split because I had let it rise in an oven that was too warm. My husband came home talking about a gorgeous sunset and I keep talking about my perfect loaf of bread! But oh – it is beautiful and perfect. It’s so nice when that happens. When all of my effort not only tastes good, but looks good too! If you have ever made bread from scratch, you know what I am talking about. There is no sense of accomplishment which can replace the feel of a perfectly done loaf!

Water Basketball - Beating the Heat!

It’s really hot in Florida right now! Unbearably hot in the middle of the day!. But I guess that is the price we pay for such mild winters. It’s normally not the heat in July that gets to me, but the heat in October. Although I have always lived in Florida, October seems to be a month when long sleeves and sweaters should start coming out of storage and the night air get crisp. October in Florida is never that way. It’s still 90 degrees and uncomfortably warm. However, I expect July to be hot. We just spend a lot of our late afternoons at Nana’s house, enjoying the pool and the shade. Today the four of us had a game of water basketball. Trying to arrange the rules so that the kids don’t get too rough with each other was a real challenge. We had a great time though swimming and tossing and dunking the ball. What a way to work up an appetite. It was a glorious day – enjoying the time we take on Sundays to slow down and truly enjoy our blessings!

Back from Vacation!

Well, it seems it has been a while since I’ve taken the time to sit down and write. We’ve been a little busy – preparing and enjoying a wonderful vacation in the absolutely beautiful mountains of West Virginia. We went for the first family reunion in over 40 years. We had never thought about vacationing in West Virginia, although we do love to vacation in the mountains. (With all of the flat land and ocean around us, the mountains always seem like the perfect place to get away from the ordinary!) The scenery and the wildlife was especially beautiful and we truly had loads of fun! Of course, in our family, salamanders seem to be especially high on the must-do list and we were overwhelmed by the great number and variety of salamanders we found on this trip. (I often wonder if when my 6 y/o son grows up a little more, just what will we do on vacation to fill our time!) My husband and I have always loved to go hiking and our children have been full of whines whenever we attempt hiking! On this trip though, there were absolutely no whines! We took a 3 mile hike with a naturalist DOWN the mountain and across the Bluestone River. When we were finished, we took an aerial tram back up. Along the way, we found over 52 salamanders, 1 box turtle, 5 millipedes, 2 snails and numerous bids and deer. When we reached the Bluestone River and had to walk across, boy were we surprised! I had assured the children that the water would only be ankle deep or so. Boy, was I wrong. It was mid-thigh on the adults, which meant over the waist on our two children. It was a blast, and after the initial shock of the cold we had great fun trying to walk through the swift moving river without losing our balance on the rocky bottom and ending up swimming our way across. By the end of the day, both children told us that they were beginning to really like walking in the woods! There couldn’t be better music to our ears and there was never another complaint all week long. Of course, when your favorite past time is salamander hunting, it can take hours to hike even 1 mile through the mountains! So much for speed hiking! I am sure as the children get older and their legs get longer and their interest change, we can gradually increase speed and distance. For now, I am just thrilled that hikes in the woods are no longer a burden but a source of joy to all of us!

Summertime Monopoly

It’s almost the end of the month and it’s hard to believe that summer is really here. It finally got warm enough that we had to shut up the house and turn on the air conditioner. I love the fresh air blowing through the windows and miss it during the summer. Don’t get me wrong, I am VERY grateful for air conditioning. When I grew up, we didn’t have air conditioning and our schools weren’t air conditioned either. It’s hard to believe that we didn’t completely melt into puddles during the summer months. But we survived and enjoyed our free time immensely. We used to sit in the breezeway to the house and play board games all during the long summer. I used to have the monopoly board memorized and knew the price of every house, rent and property in the game. I miss having all that free time. There is always something on my list to do these days. But, at least I’ve learned to use a list and make it my friend. I keep a daily, weekly and even monthly to do list. It’s where I park my brain so that I don’t have to keep it in drive. I schedule out my household chores, homeschooling tasks, menus and miscellaneous. It helps keep my mind uncluttered and gives me the ability to claim free time when I can. The bathrooms might be getting messy today, but tomorrow is my day to clean it. So, today, I can overlook the mess knowing that it will be clean tomorrow. It’s amazing the freedom it gives me to “goof off” when I can. I’m not an overly organized person, but having a schedule is freeing for me. Well, gotta run. It’s time to enjoy some of my free time and go have a game of tag with the kids. I love to do lists almost as much as margin!

Living in the moment - What a blessing!

I’ve read a lot lately about decreasing your stress by living in the moment. Rather than physically doing one task while mentally doing 5 others, living in the moment means being truly present with the one task you are doing. I thought that was impossible and no one could live that way. I am always planning four or five things while doing what is at hand. Well, being sick has really opened my eyes to the importance of living in the moment. I am still recovering from pneumonia and trying to take it easier than normal. Yesterday seemed like a pretty relaxing day. I wasn’t stressed and I wasn’t overly tired by the end of the day. But then I reflected on what I did do yesterday and I was astounded. I had done 3 loads of wash (all folded and put away); homeschooled the children; prepared breakfast, lunch and homemade black bean soup for dinner; gone to the vet, the dollar store, the bank, the drug store, the post office, the library and the grocery store where I did my week’s worth of shopping; and returned home to unload and put all of the groceries away. I am not superwoman, but I was not overly fatigued. What was my secret yesterday? Besides relying totally on the Lord, I realized that I had also lived only in the moment. I knew I couldn’t do everything on my list, so I did what I could without beating myself up that I wasn’t doing more. I didn’t make phone calls while driving and I didn’t write blogs in my head while cooking and I didn’t plan cooking classes while homeschooling the children. I simply lived in the moment. I talked to the kids while driving and listened to them while we did our errands. I’m hooked – I hope! I never really knew how stressful and tiring it was to mentally be engaged somewhere else rather than in the present moment. And I never really knew how blessed I would feel to be recuperating and not at my fullest. I have really learned that God’s strength provides and he is always teaching me lessons – if I live in the moment enough to hear him!

Too Much Help in the Kitchen!

We have a large black Labrador Retriever named Sharlotte which we all adore. She was a wonderful gift from some friends just as my daughter was praying and begging for a dog. God always provides! But that’s another story. Sharlotte has a slight drinking problem as most labs do. When she drinks she also deposits a large amount of water directly on my kitchen floor. We always keep a small towel by her bowl to wipe the floor with after she gets a drink. When not in use, it normally “hides” under my kitchen counter. Really, it helps keep my kitchen floor pretty clean because several times a day I find I am using it. But that’s another story too.

Today, I was busy in the kitchen after dinner cleaning the dishes. Normally I feel a little like an Egyptian. I am getting quite good at building small pyramids of clean dishes and pots in my sink to drip dry. But today, I was concerned that my 9th wonder of the world may collapse, spilling all of my clean kitchen utensils onto the floor. So, as my 6 year old son was walking by, I told him to get the towel and start drying my dishes. I probably should have been more specific when I unknowingly made what I thought was a simple request. Andy was quickly obedient and started taking layers off of my pyramid and drying them. We had a nice visit while he helped and the time and chores seemed to fly by. It was only after I finished putting away all of the washed and dried utensils did I turn around and begin to sense that perhaps things were not as they had seemed. I quickly called Andy and asked him to tell me which towel he had used to dry ALL of the pots, pans, dishes, silverware and assorted other kitchen utensils I had used to prepare dinner. Much to my belated surprise, he told me had picked the towel up off the floor and used that one. ARGH! Next time I guess I need to be slightly more specific in my directions and perhaps I may be a little slower asking for help. Sometimes, there IS such a thing as too much help in the kitchen!