The World Surrounding Me

Just a few random things I’ve been appreciating over the past few days: Brother’s All-natural freeze dried fruit. Available at Costco. No sugar added, just real fruit that’s been freeze-dried. The apples are a bit sweeter than I’d really like, but they are tasty. Pears & the combo pack of bananas & apples are better. [...]

Links about having an impact bigger than just me: Child sponsorship in six words. I saw this come across my twitter feed today: can you summarize what it means to sponsor a child in just six words? I tried, but haven’t come up with much. I wrote to our Compassion-sponsored child (in Nicaragua) and our [...]

Recipes and techniques I want to try: Pan-Crisped Potatoes (from Mark Bittman at the NY Times) Roasted chicken breast (cooked with two pans – from The Cooking Loft on FoodTV) While I’m mentioning The Cooking Loft, I also want to try her Mac & Cheese. Chicken & Green Sauce (with tomatillos – this is more [...]

Cupcake-themed art at Etsy. I love this one – zombies chasing after a cupcake. (initially found via notmartha.org) “Fresh Vintage” quilt patterns from Fig Tree & Co. I haven’t tried them yet, but the graphic design calls me. Thimble Blossoms patterns. This looks like the perfect baby quilt (if only I had time to do [...]

Matt’s playing softball, so I’m in time-waster mode tonight. Links: Time-Wasters: Terminology – believe it or not, I remember a time when I thought east was always “going towards the Atlantic” This cartoon reminds me of that. Shaun the Sheep game (from the folks who brought you Wallace & Grommit) Fantastic Contraption – I’ve passed [...]

I found this today – text of Rick Warren’s prayer for our country and our new President at the Inauguration. I was working, so I didn’t watch the entire ceremony (I did watch President Obama’s speech when it was replayed that night), so it was nice to be able to read this: Link via Out [...]

So, I was up early this morning (getting over a cold, which has turned into a cough/allergy thing, which really makes it hard to sleep). I don’t want to wake Matt up, so I thought I might do this nice quiet activity, like typing! I’ve noticed several links lately on friend’s blogs and sites I [...]

So, I took a personality profile / talent assessment over the weekend, the Clifton StrengthsFinder (put out by the folks at Gallup — you get codes to take it in a few of their publications). I took it when reading the book Now, Discover Your Strengths, which I purchased after hearing one of the book’s [...]