Who was the last person you offended?
Submitted by May.

Oh good gracious. Any number of people I talk to or read my blog will probably be offended by something I said. And I was just getting over the hang up of offending people, too. Heh.

But seriously, it's a talent I have. I've come to be quite familiar with the taste of shoe leather and it's not like chicken.

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Soccer party - thanks for asking Jen. It went well. Both the boys had a blast. NM was good and didn't get impatient when the other kids *didn't* want to play soccer. At some point, someone decided it was a good idea to dig a hole. "To hell" someone said. Well...okay. They didn't make it there if you were worried ;) J found another 4 year old to play with and they were cute, cute, cute! That age is all about imagination and play acting and it was fun to watch.

J is going through a very long phase of "everything must be right." I hope it's a phase. He can't stand sticky fingers, he can't stand that his sock may have a hole (he's finally wearing shoes over socks today) and I've put a limit on him: only one change of socks a day. Otherwise he changes them if they so much as get a drop of something on them. LOL. He's over changing his shirt all the time and that's nice.

This week has been one of our best weeks homeschooling. We've had no meltdowns even though we did eat things we weren't sure about at the soccer party. It was so rewarding! I was a bit bummed that I hadn't pre-planned and gotten together some of our reader books but it wasn't at all bad considering how well both boys did. I'm going to start J on a formal math curriculum soon, same one his older brother uses but at his level of course. He's zipping through the alphabet and a lot of things are starting come together in his brain. He's been asking for me to read Flat Stanley books to him even though they have only a few pictures. I'm glad that both boys can read (or listen to reading) for extended periods of time.

I'm working on some little flyers and things like that for church now. It's kind of fun and I like that church considers those important. We're small enough that we can have baby showers and invite all the ladies at church :) The shower is my next project and I'm excited about that one. Mom was one of my room mates at the retreat.

I haven't started working on my dress yet but I will soon. I can't find the pattern paper I had but I remembered I can use wax paper if I want. I have to put knitting aside for a little bit; my wrist and elbow are bugging me and that's not good. Opening the truck door or carrying a milk bottle in my right hand hurts and now and then, my wrist threatens to give out and I might drop whatever heavy thing I'm holding. Must go get ibuprophen. But I have the ruffle for Anna's tunic completed and I will start the bodice when I have at least an hour to focus on it. Once I get the first couple of repeats done, it's down hill from there, I think. I have hit a slump on it because I haven't found the right beads for it. I'll have to check Michael's since Joann didn't have the right color, not even close.

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This is a dish that I love, love, love. It's very traditional Filipino food and since it is, it's one of those dishes that has a lot of variation. It's basically a dish that has an equal amount of meat and vegetables in a "bath" of sour broth. Lots and lots of sour broth. That's the best part!

I was craving it the other day and managed to find a recipe that doesn't have tamarind (sampaloc in Filipino) in it. I wasn't sure I could find it at the local grocery store. I substituted lemon juice and distilled vinegar instead and ended up with a perfectly acceptable, American-grocery friendly version that my hubby really loved. This is how I made it:

2 lbs. pork stew meat (they were ribs I think)
6 cups of water, more if you like it soupier, broth if you like it richer
1 large japanese eggplant, cut in chunks
1 daikon radish, cut in chunks
1 bok choy or similar green veggie
1 medium onion, cut into strips
Half a bunch of string beans, also called long beans (not green beans) cut into 3 inch lengths
juice of 2 lemons
1/4 c. distilled white vinegar or coconut vinegar if you can get it
salt

Boil the pork in the water until the meat is tender. Add the daikon and onions which, next to the egg plant, is the best veggie in this stew. Cook for about 10 minutes. Add the beans* and eggplant. Cook for about 5 minutes then add the bok choy. Cook until the bok choy turns bright green. The daikon should be easy to pierce with a knife and will have soaked up a lot of the sour taste of the broth. YUM. Serve over hot rice. Make the rice swim in the broth!

Traditionally, this dish has patis (or called nam pla in other south Asian countries) which is a fermented fish sauce. It imparts a strong pungent taste. Since we can't have that on our diet (Feingold.org), I eliminated it. All I wanted was the sour and I got just as much as I wanted :) You can also use other veggies with this, of course, even okra (I like okra, but I am an odd one out I think). My grandma made it very simply and that's how I like this humble dish.

* I have no idea how long it takes to cook the beans. I couldn't find any at the store but my grandma always made it with string beans for me. I was sad that I didn't have any this time around but that's ok.

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My version of a recipe that's found here. I'll note my changes as I go.

6 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
Zest of two lemons
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Juice of two lemons
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

1. Generously grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, combine melted butter or margarine and sugar. Add eggs, and mix until light and fluffy. Add milk, lemon rind, and chopped nuts if using. Mix well. Sift flour, baking powder and salt and gradually add to mixture; mix to just combine.
3. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
4. While bread is baking, combine lemon juice and confectioners' sugar in small dish. Stir well before using. Immediately upon removing bread from oven, place pan on a cooling rack. Using a large fork, poke holes all over the bread. Pour lemon juice mixture over the top of the bread. Cool for 15 minutes, and then remove from pan.

My changes: I doubled the amount of zest and lemon juice to give it a much stronger lemon taste. I put the baking powder in with the other dry ingredients and I added salt. This recipe is for a single batch, but so far I've made double batches with no nuts and they taste fine. In fact, the kids took this to church and NM said the kids liked it better than the other snacks that were brought to his class. The second time I brought this, J's teacher took the leftovers home. Hehe.

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I had a good one. Church was the best part, of course. I enjoyed the study, enjoyed knowing the kids were having a blast and I can forgive pastor Bungee for making me think of my mom during the service. The kids each made me a card and the one from NM had tic-tac-toe games waiting to be played on the inside. Too cute! They're going to live on the fridge for a while before I finally take them down and put them away.

Afterwards we almost went out to eat but since the wait at Chuy's was 1 hour (it was 11 am!) we opted out. Instead we did our Costco shopping. Hubby got me flowers (they smell so nice!) and I found out they now sell sio pao except they call it hum bao and it comes with broccoli slaw and dressing. Not bad stuff! I love it. The only downside is you have to microwave it so you have to eat it quickly or the bread gets that icky texture that the microwave does so well. I need to learn how to make this stuff myself. Our rice maker comes with the right attachment for steaming them so I should take advantage of it.

After lunch at home, I took J to the fabric store with me. He decided that after I made his older brother new pillowcases I should make him a pair also. Why I thought I could get away without having to make him some is beyond me! I thought making J an odd-shaped stuffed animal named Blue Bumpy would be sufficient. 

The reason for making some for NM is that he is a wiggler in his sleep. The pillow cases, because they are loose, always end up off the pillows when he wakes up. So, using the ones that J has as a rough guide, I made NM a pair that have a pocket on the inside that keeps the pillow, well, inside.

J wants his own new ones and he picked a fabric with monkeys and the words "I <3 Bananas" all over it. He chose this over polar bears, Sponge Bob, Elmo and some other flannel with a mottled blue pattern.

Only I boo-boo'd. I said it out loud this morning too. "Oh oh! I boo-boo'd!" and NM had a giggle fit over it.

I boo-boo'd because I only bought enough for a regular pillow case not including the flap to keep the pillows inside the case. Ooops. That's ok, I have enough left over from NM's cases to add the flap to J's and the color is compatible. I'll try to finish them in the next day or two.

Hubby also gave me an allotment of cash that is only to be spent on summer clothes, in particular, dresses. No yarn (he capitulated and said maybe a little). Am I odd that I don't buy clothes? Only other moms would understand: going shopping with two boys in tow means shopping for things other than clothes for yourself because that is considered cruel and unusual punishment of boy children unless you are buying them clothes. And for my boys, clothing = costume so they are particular about what to buy.

Anyhow, I did buy myself a couple of Burda patterns (8517 and 7798), a zipper and some fabric to make a summer dress. I hope to post a finished product soon. It's about time the sewing machine and serger got a little love from me. They've been sitting unused for over a year!

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Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing,
But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised. Pro 31:30

To all the wonderful moms I know out there who give up so much for their kids and have a lot of wisdom and love to pass on to their kids, Happy Mother's Day!

There are so many of you out there who have been really great examples to me and I really love to hear about what you go through with those little folks who gave you a reason to celebrate Mother's Day.

For the rest of you who haven't had the pleasure of knowing what it's like to have little folks of your own to make you melt when they give you "those looks" and make you want to tear your hair out when they their their hair out or make you laugh when they give you "looks"  just remember your own childhood. This is a special day to remember that mom's sure aren't perfect, but there's a very real reason most phone calls are made on this day (please don't tell me that's an urban legend). Give your mom a great big hug and give her an extra one for me.

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For my boys.

Faithful are the Wounds of a Friend

February 1985 wasn't different from the norm, really. February 1 was celebrated of course and it was with flowers and cake. Mommy turned 42. I was looking forward to cake all week and more cake seven days later when I would turn 15.

But I was most certainly *not* looking forward to the presentation I had to make in health class. I was working on the health issues that came with the vice of smoking. I had researched the organs affected beginning with the fine cillia in the nasal cavity all the way down to the major ones, the lungs. Emphysema, got that down of course but I also did a lot of research on the big "C."

The symptoms of cancer include, among others, fatigue and coughing up blood.

For a few weeks now, Mommy had been dealing with both. I had been giving her hissy fits (not to excuse them but it comes with teenage girl territory) because she and my dad had been working late. Maybe she was trying to avoid my hissy fits by working? It was a vicious circle, if that was the case. But she would still cough up blood. I would mentally chide myself for putting two and two together.

In the middle of the following March, we had a very, very, very rare family conference. It wasn't good. It took my parents about two weeks (as I remember from mental calculations I made at the time) to finally get to this point of talking to us kids.

I don't remember how  most of the talk went. Daddy did most of it. "Kids, your mom has lung cancer..."

He did tell us what the doctors were going to do, how long it would take and that they weren't sure what the results would be. I didn't want to tell them that I knew. Somehow, that would ring hollow or sound presumptuous or both.

I was a little upset that I knew it was cancer because in some contrived and twisted way I felt responsible. In hindsight, God was just preparing me for what would happen. Getting the chance to know about it ahead of time made it easier for me to handle when we were finally told.

Not long after, Mommy had major surgery to remove her right lung and then underwent aggressive chemotherapy. When she came home after surgery, she was really weak and found it hard to move. She showed me the sutures and they were shocking because they went up her back and over the shoulder and the stitches were huge and black and ugly and she could barely pull her gown over her shoulders to show me. They looked painful.

Chemo wasn't fun and she didn't eat much, but it wasn't as aggressive as they thought it would be because she didn't lose her hair (or not enough for me to notice). After the chemo, the doctors said they were pretty sure they got the cancer.

She "worked" at her recovery. I mean "work" because when you have four kids, you have a hard time resting. I did my level best to only be around Mommy when she asked because most of her time, I knew, was spent resting and praying. She had taken my blue leather bound Book of Prayers from my days at good ol' Colegio de San Agustin. I remember going into the bedroom and seeing my book open and upside down so she wouldn't lose her place. She was looking for comfort that really no one besides God was going to give her.

More later.

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My SIL gets her master's degree today! WTG, Anna!

I really wanted to get a proper Yoda photo and I was going to make her a yoda hat but the patterns I found were baby-sized and since they were felted I didn't want to chance it. Besides, she's getting something lacy instead (it's taxing my brain and attention span). But I'm sure, by now, she's found some way to Yoda her cap and gown!

Have fun at your party, Anna and congrats again great mastah! May the Real Force be with you!

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My sister has entered a photograph in Digital Camera Magazine's contest.

Stop by and vote, please! Of course I mean for her ;)

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Is it because I asked?

Thing is, these things just keep coming up. Yes, I asked. What keeps coming up? These concepts:

- Spiritual gifts
- What are my spiritual gifts
- Stretching
- Leave your comfort zone
- Step out
- Be led by the Holy Spirit
- Be led by the Holy Spirit in every (little and big) thing
- Adventure
- "What God has for me"

Ah, but they're just "concepts" and "ideas" and I use parentheticals and "" too much and get too impulsive with blog posts.

:D

Ok. I will go visit some blogs tomorrow and get work done tomorrow and think about it tomorrow, Scarlet. Right now, I've got to go on a gift search.

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