Relaxation Time In a Week!

 A week from tonight instead of pounding out the last sentences of knowledge for my National Board entries, I will be here,

here,

and here.

I can't wait. Neither can JEJ, Annie, and Shelby!

Too Many Names

“On our earth, before writing was invented, before the printing press was invented, poetry flourished. That is why we know that poetry is like bread; it should be shared by all, by scholars and by peasants, by all our vast, incredible, extraordinary family of humanity.” Pablo Neruda

Too Many Names

Mondays are meshed with Tuesdays
and the week with the whole year.
Time cannot be cut
with your weary scissors,
and all the names of the day
are washed out by the waters of night.

No one can claim the name of Pedro,
nobody is Rosa or Maria,
all of us are dust or sand,
all of us are rain under rain.
They have spoken to me of Venezuelas,
of Chiles and of Paraguays;
I have no idea what they are saying.
I know only the skin of the earth
and I know it is without a name.

When I lived amongst the roots
they pleased me more than flowers did,
and when I spoke to a stone
it rang like a bell.

It is so long, the spring
which goes on all winter.
Time lost its shoes.
A year is four centuries.

When I sleep every night,
what am I called or not called?
And when I wake, who am I
if I was not while I slept?

This means to say that scarcely
have we landed into life
than we come as if new-born;
let us not fill our mouths
with so many faltering names,
with so many sad formallities,
with so many pompous letters,
with so much of yours and mine,
with so much of signing of papers.

I have a mind to confuse things,
unite them, bring them to birth,
mix them up, undress them,
until the light of the world
has the oneness of the ocean,
a generous, vast wholeness,
a crepitant fragrance.

-Pablo Neruda

Vernal Equinox

Happy First Day of Spring!

Only the crocus have bloomed in the garden. The rest are lovely bouquets

transplanted from the grocery store!

Living On a Raft!

I live kinda close to lots of places, but not close enough to any place to stop and pick up a quart of milk, go get takeout, or buy something on a whim. It takes at least thirty minutes for a whim. Shopping requires planning. The up side is we save money not going out to eat. Getting pizza at Papa Murphy's in Colville is a treat. Coffee drinks are few and far between.

The down side is when I do my "big shopping trips" I feel the urge to stockpile enough supplies and food for six months. I buy tomato sauce like it will never be on sale again. Yes, when olives are marked down it is a good deal, but how many cans do we need? Don't even get me started on what I think I have to bring home on my infrequent trips to Costco in Spokane.

I think part of it stems from being raised by my "depression baby, Bargain Betty, coupon cutting" mother. I used to find joy and rearranging the canned goods in our basement pantry. I still like that feeling when the shelves are stocked, the paper products are organized, and I have enough Campbell's soup for three years.

Then it gets out of control. There are too many bags of chocolate chips I didn't use for Christmas baking. Why did I buy maraschino cherries? How can we use the extra oatmeal? My friend SueDean introduced me to the term "living on a raft". That is what her sister calls it when they work to use everything  up. SueDean has a husband that loves to stockpile food also. She has also participated in the "living on a raft" project.

My goal is to live on the raft until the shelves are down, the freezer is ready to defrost, and the lazy susan in the cupboard can turn again. We will buy fresh food and staples, but that is it. So far we have had healthy meals using up canned beans, ground deer meat, frozen chickens, tuna, whole wheat flour (the breadmaker came out), and pasta. It will get interesting in a few weeks when I will be creating meals from canned tomatoes, water chestnuts, frozen berries, rice, dates, sliced almonds, mandarin oranges, maraschino cherries, and sesame seeds!

I feel blessed to have an abundance of food. I feel secure having shelves of canned goods. I share that abundance at food drives and local food banks. I just don't always need to stock up for the next year, even if the sign by the mayo says buy five get two free.

If I create any divine recipes with the combination of food I have left I will be sure to post them!

Another Sign of Spring

Spring is just around the corner.

The End of the Rainbow

As I got ready to sit down to dinner on St. Patrick's Day how fitting it was to look out the window and see a brilliant rainbow over Lake Roosevelt. I had to do some decision-making. If I jogged down the hill, jumped into Lake Roosevelt and swam to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow would it still be there? Would I survive the journey? Was it worth it?
After pondering these difficult questions I captured the image then sat down to eat dinner. I left the pot of gold intact for another treasure hunter.  Happy St. Patrick's Day!