Posts Tagged ‘Random thoughts from my brain’
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Absolutely everything!
I had a great discuss with some gals on the proper use of the apostrophe*. Can I confess that this is one topic that drives me crazy? Not sure why, but the overuse and/or improper use of apostrophes sounds to me like nails down a chalkboard in written form. So, I decided to inform the world around me of proper apostrophe usage.
The apostrophe has three uses:
- to form possessives of nouns
- to show the omission of letters
- to indicate certain plurals of lowercase letters
The first use of the apostrophe seems to cause the most confusion. The case my friends and I were discuss was in regard to last names – specifically when addressing cards. Is it Windhams, Windham’s, Windhams’?
Windhams – Used when addressing the entire family; “We saw the Windhams at the park.”
Windham’s – Used when showing singular possession; “That is Sarah Windham’s jacket.”
Windhams’ – Used when showing plural possession; “That is the Windhams’ house.”
With those examples set in place, that would mean, when addressing Christmas cards (or the such), you would simply write “The Windhams”, no apostrophe, just make it a plural noun.
One that trips up a lot of people are names like Jones or James (ending in “s”).
Joneses – Used when addressing the entire family; “Keeping up with the Joneses.”
Jones’s – Used when showing singular possession; “That is Bridget Jones’s diary.” (Here, it is also acceptable to put Jones’ or James’; “that is James’ book”)
Joneses’ – Used when showing plural possession; “That is the Joneses’ car.” (No ‘s is needed, just ‘).
The second use of the apostrophe is more straight forward:
would not = wouldn’t
I am = I’m
he will = he’ll
it is = it’s
1999 = ’99
The third use of the apostrophe is to form plurals of lowercase letters, and is more typographical than grammatical. Such as “minding your p’s and q’s”.
*Jonathan said I should back up my information with sources, so if you want go here, here and here for more information!
I’ve often wondered….
Posted on: December 5, 2009
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What could be considered child abuse.
I’m fairly certain this most definitely qualifies…
And if torturing just me wasn’t enough, my mom drug poor Fletcher and an innocent carousel horse into the mix.
A little Thanksgiving cheer
Posted on: November 24, 2009
We signed an agreement last night for our new house! Our closing date is scheduled for March 2nd. I haven’t done much daydreaming about where all our stuff will go and what color paints to use. But, one thing is absolute, we want need NEED this for our living room:
No Cook November update
Posted on: November 17, 2009
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We are officially 17 days in to NCN.
How’s it going so far?
A-maz-ing.
Seriously.
I love “not” cooking.
I did actually cook this past weekend for house church, but aside from that my cooking has been pretty limited (I made breakfast once). Most of the recipes I have used are big hits. However there are a few duds. One night we had pumpkin soup. Dud. Well, in all fairness, it was much better once I added more salt. A lot more salt. But, I went into it knowing it might flop, so I grabbed a rotisserie chicken from New Pi as back up. Jonathan was grateful. 🙂
The best dinner (in my opinion) has been Maple Dijon Chicken or Salsa Chicken and Black Bean Soup. The first dish has sweet potatoes that turned into these delicious buttery morsels. The second dish has some nice kick to it and the chicken was so tender and juicy. We had no leftovers.
Speaking of leftovers… That has been the one down side to NCN. We aren’t getting as many leftovers as I planned. Most of the dishes have been consumed that same night or only enough is spared for just Jonathan’s lunch the next day. But that’s a nice problem to have when it comes to leftovers I suppose.
I’m not sure I could do a 365 crockpot plan, but I most definitely plan to keep using it more after November is up. We’ve got some crazy life changes coming in the next four months and I’ve no doubt the crockpot will be a staple in our home.
This is normal, right?
Posted on: November 11, 2009
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Normal people iron their sheets, right?
They sweep then swiffer, right?
They can tell you the contents of their entire freezer, by heart, right?
They choose to clean their house rather than take a “break” when their husband takes the kids for the morning, right?
Please tell me normal people do this.
Please.
Pleeeaasse.
One hour, thirteen minutes
Posted on: October 26, 2009
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I ran my first (and hopefully not my last) 10K this past Saturday.
It was exhausting.
It was exhilarating.
I hated it.
I loved it.
6.2 miles is the furthers I have ever run.
In. My. Whole. Life.
It was exhausting (did I mention that?!).
It was exhilarating.
Special shout outs to Jonathan for all his continued support, to Jamie for her encouragement to run and Derricca for running the race along side me!
Looks like I’m gonna start training for this run in April ’10.
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This last week I watched King Corn. It was very fascinating. It’s a genuine eye opener about what Americans ingest and how corn has taken over our diets. I highly recommend it.
Anyways, two things I learned from this movie kinda unnerved me:
– 70% of the antibiotics used in America are used on cattle.
– Americans, on average, only spend 16-17% of their monthly income on food. 50 years ago it was closer to 50+%.
My friend, Dana, recently posted her thoughts on eating more organic. She’s taking baby steps towards using organic meat in her meals once a week.
I like baby steps.
Well, not really.
Really, what I love to do (and Jonathan can attest) is start these really grand wonderful schemes.
And never follow through.
So, in all reality, Jonathan likes baby steps for me.
And so, I like baby steps.
Rather than banish the 40+ pounds of chicken I have frozen in our freezer, I decided to make a list of the products we consume on a regular basis that could easily be substituted.
Here is said list:
potato chips
graham crackers
snack packs (100 calorie packs)
chicken broth
eggs
I went to New Pi to do a little more price matching. I knew the amounts for the eggs (roughly $3.50 for free range organic) but needed a better idea on the other items. Wanna know what? Organic potato chips are $5.99. Organic chicken broth – $3.99. Ye-ow!
But, really, if I step back and think about it, I’m use to only spending approximately 16-17% of my income on food. So, I need to change my expectations… and start experimenting.
Which leads me to my newest adventure:
potato chips
I borrowed a mandolin from Ambre and sliced up 3 potatoes. I did them in different sizes (1/4″, 1/8″, 1/4″ ruffled) to get an idea of what might work best. I covered them with a tad amount of EVOO and salt and baked them. So far, the only ones that came out crispy like a chip were the 1/4″. The other two were just french fries in a chip form. I think it might be because I had a smaller amount of the 1/4″, so they were spread out and given a better chance of baking without getting soggy. They turned out really tasty and chip like. Julia and I ate them all. So, clearly, no complaints. 😉 I’m gonna practice a little more tomorrow and this weekend. I’m hoping to find the perfect potato chip so we can start substituting as soon as our current bag runs out.
My second adventure was making homemade chicken broth. I’ve done this once in the past, but it didn’t turn out nearly as good.
This time I used the bones from a chicken we purchased at New Pi. I followed a trusted recipe and got 80+ ounces. I refrigerated most of it, since I will be using it next week in two soups. But I also froze two ice cube trays full, in order to have it on hand when needed in the future.
I’m kinda proud of myself. I felt all pioneer-y and susie-home-baker.
Next week I plan on tackling the graham crackers.
I must be crazy
Posted on: October 12, 2009
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On the 3rd of this month I ran a 5K with a group of girlfriends. It wasn’t a “real” 5K race, just a route we came up with on our own. We set out in August to train and run so we could each be more active. Guess how many times I trained?
Six.
Yep. Six times I went running. And I honestly thought I’d run a 5K.
I must be crazy.
Well, October came.
And I ran.
I must be crazy.
But, ya know what? It was actually not as awful as I expected. I figured I’d run 100 yards and walk the rest (no joke). But with a little inspiration from Leah I made it through without stopping – save for a red light when we crossed the street. Jonathan said it’s because I’ve been doing spin and Body Attack every week. Whatever the case may be, I went running the next day. I know, I know…
I must be crazy.
Then, because I can never just let enough be enough, I decided to run a 10K on the 24th.
I must be crazy.
So, for the last week plus, I’ve been running every couple of days. This last Saturday I ran another 5K and followed the next day by a 2-mile hill run. The goal for this week is another 5k then a 5 mile run on Saturday.
I must be crazy.
The funniest part of it all is my new motivating factor. Jonathan said I could download new songs on my iTouch the day I do my 5 miles. Talk about a goofy reason to run 5 miles.
Did I mention it was 5 miles?! Geesh, I really, really must be
CRAZY!
Intentional blogging
Posted on: September 27, 2009
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I’ve been wondering how to “launch” my blog into reaching out more. I connected with BlogHer, but haven’t done enough to really get into that community. When I did sign up, though, it asks you to categorize your blog. While doing that, I wondered what makes my blog stand out. What is one unique feature?
For several months now, I’ve been thinking how to make Truthful Thursday into a Wordless Wednesday or Menu Plan Monday.
So, this week, I am taking a leap of faith. I am asking all of my usual readers to post a Truthful Thursday. Here are the rules:
– Write a truth (mine are Scripture based)
– Link your post to my blog via Mr. Linky
– Post a comment in my comment section, leaving your name and blog link.
– Make sure to mention TT on your post, with a link to that week’s TT
We’ll see what happens!
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I never thought I’d stay at home with my children.
Truth be known, I never thought I’d have children.
I always thought that women who stayed at home were, well, lame. I couldn’t understand why someone would want nothing more than to be a mom. In the movie Juno, Vanessa says “Have you ever know you were just meant to do something? I was meant to be a mother.” Even after being a mom, I couldn’t fathom that quote. Meant to be a mother. Meant to be a mother.
Yesterday, while having a conversation about an upcoming business trip, Jonathan said that his boss has a lot of respect for me. Honestly, I didn’t really believe it. I believe it, because Jonathan said it, but not because I believe it. And I asked myself, “Why? Why don’t I think he would/could respect me?”.
And I realized, that is a loaded question.
Until I became a mom, I didn’t have a lot of respect for SAHMs. I figured I’d juggled college, work, extra curricular activities, minimal sleep and high stress situations, raising kids can’t be that hard. In my mind, SAHMs meant mini vans, soccer practice, cleaning house, and shuttling kids off to school. Then Julia came along. And like so many other things, I realized I was wrong. Being a mom is hard. Being called to die to self is hard. Facing your sins in the face, daily, in order to train someone else is hard. Knowing that you’re the first example of God, of the world, of everything to this one little being, who relies on you fully is hard.
And hard work does deserve respect.
What I do: wiping butts, cleaning up spilt milk, laundry, grocery shopping, doesn’t seem like much. And when paired against, I don’t know, brain surgery or rocket science, it really seems quite easy. But what I really do, training children into God-fearing, people-loving, perhaps even brain surgeon adults is respectful work.
To all you moms out there: Bravo! You are doing a marvelous job and I respect you so much!
To my daughters: My earnest desire is that you might grow up to say “I was meant to be a mom” and know, beyond all doubt, that your job is as important, hard and respectful as any CEO or doctor.
A Wife Loved Like The Church 
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