The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge... just my 2 cents

If you have a facebook account or sit near anyone who has a facebook account, you surely have witnessed an unprecedented number of people dumping buckets of ice water over their heads.  And it is all for the purpose of creating awareness and raising funds for research for Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Basically you film yourself nominating 3 people to take the challenge, then dump the ice water on yourself.  Or have someone dump it on you.  Either is acceptable.  Then off-camera you send a donation to an ALS charitable organization.  Pretty basic stuff.

And if you have a facebook account or sit near anyone who has a facebook account you also likely have seen that it has created a bit of controversy.

You mean to tell me that people are creating drama over such a good intention, you ask?

Why, yes, my naïve friend. They are.

And I was pretty content to just stay out of it until...

I WAS NOMINATED!!!! 

Ugh.  I had to decide which part of my brain I was going to listen to.  Was the cynical side, or was the good sport side going to win? 

Just so you know, I'm a card carrying member of the Cynicism Rules club.  A silver star member, thank you very much!

But every once in a while, my Good Sports United membership dues opportunity comes around, and I need to pay up.  I don't want to be dropped from the roster and I sure don't want to miss the newsletters!

So the downside of being a member of both clubs is that when I choose to participate with Good Sports United, I have to justify it before the board of Cynicism Rules.  And I'm not at all comfortable with public speaking, even if it is only imaginary. 

It went a little something like this...

Esteemed Cynics,  I know that you know that there are problems in this world that need to be addressed.  This isn't the Hard-hearted Jerks Club, after all!  And some problems are on a much larger scale than others.  Now, it may seem awfully ridiculous for thousands of people to waste buckets of water when there are hundreds of thousands of people around the world who suffer or die because of contaminated water and dehydration. 

But I ask you this... Does a person's decision NOT to waste a bucket of water help those poor people?  I doubt it.  Just like I doubt that cleaning my plate as a kid helped any starving children in China.

A hearty BRAVO! to you, though, for your tender heart for the plight of those living in areas with a lack of good water.  Send them your money!  Go to them and help them dig wells!  Do all that you can to ease their real burden.

It is a good, godly, God-given mission to help the people for whom the Spirit shows you to help.

But, please, I beg you, don't roll contemptuous eyes at someone who wants to do a good deed.  It is unlikely that they will ever be able to do a GREAT deed (if they even want to), so let them have this small gesture.  

If you are socially liberal, derision might not be the best stance for you to take in anyone's charitable endeavor.  I'd hope that you, especially, would encourage everyone to help anyone who suffers in any way that they can.  That way when you insist that our government put more and more money into health care (despite the enormous amount of waste and egregious misuse of funds), your argument might have a bit more umph.

If you are socially conservative then you should be thankful that, due to the donations, burdens are being eased without more government spending.  You win, too!

One of our own here at Cynicism Rules has said "I bet you that half those people aren't even sending in any money!"  I'd expect that from the most judgmental of us.  When you don't KNOW a statistic, make one up based on your supposition to give self-righteous legs to it.  She should be elevated to gold-star, lifetime membership!  But, with all due respect to the one who said it, if half of the people aren't sending in any money that means that half of the people ARE sending in their money!  I've never had half of the people I asked to participate in fundraising say "Yes!", let alone follow through on their commitment.

In closing, I'd like to say that although it is an awfully silly gimmick, it has been a successful one for which many are grateful (http://www.faithit.com/heres-what-an-als-family-really-thinks-about-the-ice-bucket-challenge/)

Thank you for your understanding that I will be participating with my Good Sports friends.


Okay, so that speech really didn't happen.  But I have an agenda, which is this...I want to encourage you (and myself) to encourage others to do good where they find good to do rather than dismissing their efforts as not enough or not quite as worthy.

So without any further ado,  I am accepting the nomination to do the Ice Bucket Challenge as an honor.  Thank you, Aunt Becky, for thinking of me as someone who is willing to help promote awareness of a terrible, horrible, body-stealing disease.  

I am so glad that regret that I do not have good video on my phone and have to just show a still shot of my drenched head. 

And now I nominate you all.  Give. Do. Promote.  Wherever and however you feel led.  To the extent you feel led.  And I applaud you!!!!

Hodge Podge Wednesday 9/3/14... Getting Schooled

It's Hodge Podge Wednesday again, where someone else asks the questions and I think I have all the answers.

 

{insert super-sized grin here}

1.  What's something you wanted to do this summer that you never got around to actually doing?

I think I did everything that I had planned to do, and more!  Unless you count not having custom cabinetry built.  That was completely out of my control.  I think we've come up with a good alternative until then, so I'm okay with it.

2. Share a favorite memory of your own back -to-school days as a child?

Making book covers from paper bags.  They started out so nice and crisp, then ended up tattered in no time.

3.  What's one chore or daily task you prefer doing 'old-school' ?

Reading books.  I don't think I could ever get used to reading a book on an electronic device.

4.  Share something you've learned in life through the 'school of hard knocks'?

Oh, dear!  What haven't I learned from the school of hard knocks?  I'm pretty hard-headed and it takes me repeated "lesson learned" moments to get the message.

5.  As a child, did you mostly bring or buy your lunch for school? What was your favorite thing to find in your lunchbox?

I'd say it was about half and half.  I would sit down with my Mom when I got the menu for the month and decide which days I would buy and which days I would pack a lunch.  I really liked finding 15 cents in my lunch box for an ice cream :-D

6. Football season is upon us which has me wondering... how big of a sports fan are you (not just football) ? On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being 'I scream at the players through my television screen' and 1 being 'is knitting a sport?' where do you fall in fandom?

Why is there no zero on this scale?  I couldn't care less about watching sports.  Enduring my own exercise is quite enough sport for me!


7. Share a favorite quote you think might inspire students of all ages at the start of a new school year.

"Be the one who smiles first, not the one who only smiles in return." 

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

Tonight (Wednesday) starts a new Bible Class for the little ones in our church fellowship.  My daughter-in-law told me that our grandsons had been asking for us all day yesterday so she kept telling them "Tomorrow you will go to church with Grandma and Grandpa." When we had to go over to their house last night to pick something up from our son, the twins were so excited!  They thought we would be taking them with us. (Oh, you see what is coming, don't you?)  Liam laid his little hand on his chest and said "Go to church. In Grandma's car."  When we had to leave without them (we couldn't take them with us because we were in the pickup with no car seats) Levi cried so hard that I  just had to walk out the door.  {sigh}  I love that they love us, but sometimes it is so sad when they are too little to understand what "tomorrow" means. 

Sometimes we get anxious for God's promise to deliver us and we become like a 2 year old... earnestly believing the promise but not understanding the timing.  And we cry out.  Passionately.  Like a wounded animal.  Often times angrily.  We want to know why this is not redeemed.  RIGHT NOW!  I don't have the answers for His delay.  So when answers fail, I must look to faith.  And that is so very hard.  But when I do, His reward is more often than not far better than I even expected.

In the Kitchen... Pickled Onions

At the beginning of summer, I was gifted a bunch of onion sets to grow in my garden.  We hadn't planned on growing any onions, but we received them gratefully and planted them all.

This is just a fraction of the onions I grew.  I gave some away and used quite a lot in cooking.

So I had all these onions and I wasn't quite sure what to do with them since I prefer milder sweet onions.  Then one evening "Pickled Onions" popped into my head for some unknown reason.  I've only had them a few times on fish tacos, but they seem like they would complement quite a few dishes.

But since all sorts of odd things pop into my head, so I wasn't disturbed by this occurrence.

Sitting on the back deck peeling onions wasn't something that I really wanted to be doing on a Sunday evening, but that's when I had the idea so I just went with it. 

I don't particularly like to cook but I do enjoy experimenting with cooking and creating new recipes.  If I could afford it I'd hire someone to do the day in and day out life-sustaining kind of cookery.

Since I had no idea what to put in pickled onions I  read through a couple dozen recipes for them. Not one of them was the same so I figured I could just wing it. YES!  That's my favorite kind of cooking.  Measuring is just too fiddly.

Also, I did not want to use any kind of sweetener so that I could eat the onions when I am doing a strict Whole30 dietary cleanse.  These are not for the faint of heart... NO sugar to soften the vinegary bite!

So here's what I used, measurements are approximate...

6 cups sliced onions
1 quart white vinegar
6 star anise
1 Tablespoon whole cloves
2 teaspoons black peppercorns
2 teaspoons whole mustard seeds
1 teaspoon salt
liquid from 1 can of red beets

The beet juice is for color only.  I wanted pretty pink onions!  Use red onions and the beet juice is completely unnecessary.

First I seasoned my vinegar with all the spices.  Just mix 'em together in a quart jar and let it sit for about an hour, depending on how strong you want it to taste.  Then I strained out the spices and poured the vinegar and beet juice in a glass bowl with the par-blanched onion slices. (Par-blanch by pouring boiling water over onions in a wire mesh sieve.)

You could put the par-blanched onions directly into the jars and fill them with the pickling liquid to skip a step. I didn't think of that until later because all the recipes that I referenced were small batch and did not do a canning process.   

I did a simple 10 minute water bath canning method (no special equipment) and all 6 half-pint jars sealed. 

Love to hear that Pop! Pop! Popping as they settle!



The jar on the far left has all the red onions.  It is only slightly darker so I think I did a pretty good job of using the right amount of beet juice.

I had some extra onion slices, not enough to make another full half-pint so I just threw them in a quart jar with the beets from the can and the extra pickling liquid and put them in the refrigerator to use right away.  Let me say again... These pickled onions are very vinegary.  VERY! 

That's about it. 

I tried them right away on a plate of chicken salad.  Um, YUM!  We had them with dinner as a condiment for salmon.  Eh, so-so.  They will probably be served with burgers later in the week. Zing!

What do you think pickled onions would add a nice touch to?

Welcome September {2014}

 

HAPPY LABOR DAY!!

I've been a little lax in the writing department recently.   For quite some time, really.

Inconsistent creativity.  Perhaps that is typical for a lot of people who possess a bipolar brain.

But this first morning of September brought with it a surge of newness that I didn't want to miss out on!  It doesn't matter if it fizzles out in a day, or a week. 

I am receiving this gift as if it were from the very hand of God.  Because it is!

Too often I've said "No, thanks!  It isn't going to last anyway so why get all excited?"  Sad, sad, sad!

Today I was to begin my new exercise routine with a 4 mile walk and a kettlebell workout.  The weather did not cooperate (rain and oppressive humidity) but not to be daunted I popped in an indoor walking program DVD and followed that for about 4 and a half miles.  I had never done this particular routine before (this is borrowed from a friend) and it was much tougher than the others I've used. 

This is the DVD I followed this morning.  I didn't provide a link because I am not endorsing it, only providing the information. 

After showering (did someone let an old goat in here?!?) and taking a quick trip to the grocery store, I worked on a recipe experiment.  I'll share the results regardless of their success.  Just a hint... you might want to have a tissue handy.

And now that lunch is done, I'm off to take a nap and do some other piddling things that need taking care of.  Hopefully Stewart will be home early enough for us to have a good chat before I go swimming later.  I'm going to try for a mile if the weather cooperates and the sun doesn't go down before I'm done.
 
See ya soon!

***UPDATE***  I did 80 laps in the pool.  74 is a mile.  Where'd all that energy come from?!?