Chocolate to the Rescue

Lately I've been having deadlines to meet. This is not my favorite way to work as a writer. I like to have all the time in the world to get something right, however, deadlines to force me to focus on tasks I don't enjoy.
My most recent deadline is self-imposed. As part of my volunteer efforts for Heifer Happening Grand Rapids, I set myself the task of creating their first ever press kit. I wanted to get it out to the area's magazines by the end of July so that I have a prayer of getting into the October issue when our event will be taking place. To that end I've been gathering information and materials and writing, writing, writing.
The last piece of the puzzle was a ready-to-print article to include in the kit, so that editors can just slap my article in their publication and be done with it. I was having a horrible time moving from informational writing to journalistic writing. My hooks were awful, and I couldn't seem to wade through all the mountain of material I'd amassed and get to the heart of it. Finally, I packed up my computer and headed out to the local bookstore where I do my fiction writing. Settling in with hot tea, I wasted several sheets of paper getting nowhere. I had to do something, so I bought a chocolate cupcake. "Aaaah!" The light shown from heaven and suddenly it was all so easy. I have noticed this side-effect of chocolate in the past, but it really is amazing how reliable that particular addiction is. Thank God for chocolate, the deadline's worst nightmare.

Bulk Cooking

My sister is cooking up a new little niece for me, so the least I could do was fill her freezer with easy prep or no prep meals. We had a great day working in the kitchen, and I remembered the joy of bulk cooking
Bulk cooking, also know as once-a-month cooking, is a handy way to reduce your work load at times of high stress like the first month or two of a baby's life. You take one day and cook everything, throw it all in the freezer and voila, you are set. I was introduced to the concept by my beloved sister-in-law who knows that a cookbook is always a good gift idea for me. She gave me a copy of Once-A-Month Cooking by Mary-Beth Lagorborg and Mimi Wilson. While that got me started I've found that everyone is much happier eating food they know and love, so I adapted the idea to meet our family's tastes.
Here's the basics. Choose two or three meats that you'll use for the bulk of your recipes. We chose turkey, ham and ground beef. It's also a good idea to make a vat of spaghetti sauce. Using those meat selections as a guide, select recipes containing those ingredients. We made Lasagna, Mexican Chicken/Turkey Lasagna, Turkey Tetrazini, Saucy Chicken/Turkey and Bow Tie Pasta, To Be Baked Ziti, Turkey Burrito Meat, Taco Meat, Ham and Macaroni and Cheese, Ham and Fettucini Alfredo with Peas, and a vat of chili. There was left-over spaghetti sauce which we froze in bags that will be used with purchased meatballs and ravioli.
She's set. We used purchased disposable 9x13 pans and lots of freezer bags, but you can also line your glass 9x13 pans with plastic wrap and freeze the food in place. You need to grease the pan with Pam, but after the meal is frozen just pop it out and wrap it with aluminum foil or use 2 gallon freezer bags to store it. When you make the homemade spaghetti sauce it is likely that you'll have a giant can that was full of the tomatoes from the bulk food club. Rinse the can out and put your freezer bags over the can to make filling simple and neat.
Enjoy. This is a great gift to give anyone you know who is having a baby soon.

Home again, Home again, jiggity jog.

I spent last Thursday and Friday at a writer's seminar, specifically, The Soul Tells a Story led by Vinita Hampton Wright. It was sponsored by Calvin's Gainey Institute and was really very lovely. Vinita created space for us to explore and create and helped suggest routines and exercises that could help us in our work as creative people. I let myself become immersed in that part of my life that I've come to realize has to have an outlet. Holy Hell is the result of our final exercise about a three day journey until our dream came true. Now though, I'm back home. It took me two days to really return to my life. I had to write for one day, and absorb other people's stories for another before I was any good here with the kids.
I'm home now, and I'm finding I'm much better for the excursion into that troublesome creative side of myself. It's easier to manage reality if I have a bit of a vacation now and then. I also wrote my first sex scene. I'd known it was in the book, but I'm writing chronologically and Harriet is still eleven. What was that all about? I don't know, but for my first try it's pretty good. Thanks, Vinita.

Holy Hell

On the first day I lit the all-consuming flame.
I danced in the center in ecstatic pain.

On the second day I wept until I doused the fire.
I wept away all other desire.

On the third day I asked for the glass,
and through the pane I walked at last.

Congratulations, Dr. Peter!

My double brother-in-law (my sister married my husband's brother) recently finished his residency and is entering a family practice in Battle Creek, Michigan.
Here are some web links--from the Battle Creek Enquirer and Indianapolis Community Health.
We are all so proud of our family doctor.

Pondering the Imponderables

After all, what else is worth the time? A few items of the moment:

My father has been licensed as a minister of the gospel by a small Baptist church.

The emergent church I am currently attending has a self-serve communion station.

The Immaculate Conception makes more sense to me than Hal Lindsay's, Late Great Planet Earth.

I'm thinking of just giving such things up to God to understand. My job is thankfully much smaller.