Author: LAH

by

www.compost-blog.com

I’m announcing a new name for my blog!

My kids are going to be so relieved. I will no longer be pestering them for inspiring names, names that subtly indicate this site’s awesomeness. After much soul searching and months of intense contemplation, I am changing the name to… Compost.

I can hear the thundering silence. “Huh?” you say, “Compost??”

Too late. I’m committed. I already spent my $9.98 for the domain name www.compost-blog.com and I can’t afford to change my mind.

Besides, it fits. For one, I’m a gardener. Compost is a big part of my life. Well, a significant part, at least. And compost is a good thing. You take leftovers—veggie parings, weeds, frost-killed flowers—and turn them into something valuable. Most gardeners would give a lot for a big pile of finished compost.

In the same way, I’ve had good and bad things happen in my life. What amazes me is that God is able to take my past—all of it—and turn it into something sweet-smelling and life-producing.

That’s what I want this blog to be. Fun, helpful, instructive, but most of all, life-producing.

So please change your bookmarks or RSS feeds, the three of you who actually regularly read my blog. Just don’t go away. The only thing changing is the name.

by

Give to Earthquake Relief, but Give Wisely

With the media inundating us with heartbreaking stories and photos about the suffering in Haiti, we naturally want to do something to help. However, not all organizations are equally effective at providing the relief they promise. Sadly, some even seek to profit from the situation, more than they intend to help. I suggest you read the article I’ve linked to here, as it provides some well-thought-out guidelines to help you give generously yet wisely: GuideStar’s Tips for Giving Wisely to Haitian Relief.

That being said, here are several organizations we know well, that I unreservedly recommend:

They are all already working in Haiti, have infrastructure there, and understand the situation. They will make effective use of your donation. And, they will minister in Jesus’ name.

by

Resolutions Fail

How many New Year’s resolutions did you make this year? Hmm, okay. Now, how many have you already broken? Yeah, thought so. Me too.

I’ve been pondering the fact that despite our best intentions, most of us are unable to keep our most sincere resolutions for more than a few days. We make our personal lists of dos and don’ts—do exercise, do be more generous, do read our Bible every day. Don’t lose our temper, don’t eat so many desserts, don’t buy things on impulse.

All our goals are laudable. Some are easier than others. We might even manage to achieve a few. After enough practice, they become habits, and we find we’ve made progress. We’re feeling pretty good about ourselves—hey, look at me, I eat two servings of vegetables every day!—until we compare how far we’ve come with how far we have to go. No matter how many resolutions we make and keep, the distance to perfection never seems to change. It’s always out of reach.

Continue reading →

by

Free Birthday Stuff

I confidently predict that every one of you will have a birthday some time during the next year. Let me be the first to wish you a very happy day.

A large number of businesses offer you free stuff on your birthday, ranging from ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery (or  most other ice cream chains) to free movie rentals at Hollywood Video. Some of my favorites include Red Robin, Noodles & Co., and Souper Salad, in addition to the aforementioned Cold Stone. (Did you know some Cold Stone stores have no-sugar-added Cake Batter now? This flavor will also be present in heaven, I’m sure.)  I was particularly impressed that Benihana will send you a coupon worth $30 for a free birthday dinner—I just wish our closest Benihana was less than an hour away.

Continue reading →

by

Fighting the Winter Blahs

Beyond Chocolate…

It’s cold, it’s gray, and I’ve got the blahs. January always does that to me. From September through December, our family celebrates. All our birthdays fall in those months. Add in Thanksgiving and Christmas, and we have lots of excuses for getting together and having fun.

In January, it all catches up with me. I’m staring at a calendar full of put-off medical appointments, household chores, and just plain work. Even making my to-do lists leaves me feeling exhausted. There’s not much fun to look forward to, at least in the near future. It’s a bit like coming home from a vacation and facing the pile of things that didn’t get done while you were gone.

Our daughters and their husbands, as well as other family members and friends, are all back home, dealing with their own piles. I miss them already.

Continue reading →

by

Making Soup

Happy New Year!! If you’ve made some New Year’s resolutions, at least one probably involves healthier food or healthier finances. Today’s blog will help you with both.

For years, soup was the refuge of thrifty cooks. There’s a reason places that offer free meals are called “soup kitchens.” With a tiny bit of effort, you can make a great-tasting new meal from leftovers, and it costs practically nothing.

I was at the market the other day, helping my elderly dad pick out some easy meals he can just heat and eat, and we ended up at the soup aisle. I guess I hadn’t looked at pre-made soups in a while. The prices were exorbitant. Why should a can of soup—not even condensed—cost $3.00? The ingredients are probably worth more like a quarter.

You do not need to buy canned or packaged soups. You can make your own. You don’t even need a recipe. It’s that easy.

Continue reading →

by

What Are You Doing for New Year’s?

This is my last post of 2009, so I wanted to say something significant, something to sum up the year and point with optimism to the days ahead. Instead, my thoughts turned to New Year traditions. A lot of them are pretty silly, when you think about it.

Take “Auld Lang Syne,” for instance.

Why do we sing this? Apparently, back in 1929, Guy Lombardo’s band played the song at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City after hearing some Scottish immigrants singing it. The Waldorf Astoria continued the tradition,  playing Lombardo’s version of the song every year until 1976. Radio (and then television) allowed the rest of the country to sing along at home.

Do you know the words? I didn’t. A web search turned up the lyrics (reprinted at the end of this post), but then I had more questions. What in the world is a pint-stowp? How does one “pou’d the gowans fine”? Happily Wikipedia had all the answers.

Continue reading →

by

Merry Christmas

A Christmas Card
from our house to yours:

2009-04-18-Snow-in-yard-002xcw

“… She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus,
for He will save His people from their sins.”
Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken
by the Lord through the prophet:
Behold, the virgin shall be with child and she shall bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel,”
which translated means, “God with us.”

by

Tradition!

I still cringe when I remember the year my parents decided to mess with family tradition. We’d always had a real Christmas tree, illuminated with those large, old-fashioned lights (now considered the height of retro-fashion!) and hung with lead-filled crinkled “icicles” (long banned by the EPA). But the year I turned ten, my mother decided it was time to update our decorations.

She and my dad went to our local Christmas tree lot, picked out a tall misshapen tree, and had it flocked. Spray-on flocking was quite the rage in the mid-60’s. (At least they stuck with white “snow” rather than opting for the very trendy blue, lavender or pink.) Hauled home in our pick-up, the tree went into our high-ceilinged living room. There it was spotlighted with a floodlight. Finally, gold balls were nestled in the fluffy white branches—tiny ornaments at the very top, giant shiny spheres on the sturdy branches at the base. I’m sure the tree was beautiful, with its avant-garde shape and mono-thematic decorations. I, for one, hated it.

Continue reading →

by

The Gospel According to Christmas Music

It’s pervasive. Whatever our faith, whatever our musical preferences, at this time of year we are all subjected to an unending deluge of “Holiday” music. We either love it or hate it, but it’s awfully hard to escape it.

As I was standing in line at the market recently, waiting to check out and listening to yet another version of Santa Claus is Coming to Town, I started to consider: what if most people learned their facts about Christmas from the lyrics of popular Christmas music?

Just think of how they’d describe the first Christmas. It all took place in a little town called Bethelem, in the middle of the night, in winter….

Continue reading →