Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. Have you learned more from success or failure? Explain.
Most of my success have come about because of some sort of failure.  I try something, it doesn't work so I revise or adapt.  It is valuable to learn from failure.  Easy success hasn't the value of hard earned success.

2. What did you call your grandparents when you were growing up? If you have children, what do they call your parents? If you have grandchildren, what do they call you?
I called my grandparents Grandma and Grandpa.  My children called my mil Grammy, and my mom Grandma.  My grandkids call me Gramma, the great-grand who is four calls me Grape Gramma.

3. You're invited to a luau. In keeping with that theme, what dish will you bring to share?
At the luau we went to in Hawaii, besides the pit roasted pig, my favorite dish was:

Lomilomi Salmon

In Hawaiian, lomilomi means to massage, or in this case to break the salmon into small pieces, which are then mixed with tomatoes, onions, and other small condiments, giving it a delicious tangy taste that goes great with poi. This style of fish preparation, introduced to Hawaii by early western sailors, is a delightful surprise and a must-have item at any luau.
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

	Whole Tomatoes, 4 each
	Green Onions, 1/2 lb
	Round Onions, 2
	Diced Salted Salmon, 3 lbs

Instructions

1.	Core and rinse tomatoes; slice tomatoes in 4's; using diced cutter, place 1 tomato slice and hand push cutter; place in large 12" plastic bowl. Repeat same procedure for onions, Cut green onion thinly and add to mixture.
2.	Combine all ingredients and mix well.
3.	Divide evenly into bowl. Cover and place in refrigerator.

4. Besides Jesus, what one person's life story do you think everyone should know about?
I am fascinated with the life of Abraham Lincoln.  From humble beginnings to acts of political bravery that changed the face of America.

5. "Don't sweat the small stuff." Agree or Disagree? Why?
Agree.  So often I get bogged down in details that I miss the larger picture or wonderful things that go on around me such as a spectacular sunset.

6. June is National Rivers Month. When were you last on a river? What's the prettiest river you've ever seen? What's a river you'd like to see?
I fished on the Snake river last summer.  That was a fun trip.  I would like to travel on the Amazon River and see some of the wonderful rain forests of South America.

7. Speaking of rivers-paddling, fishing, swimming, or bird watching safely from the shore? Which activity would you choose? Yes-you have to choose.
I love to fish, and yes I eat what I catch, and never catch more than I can eat.  Trout fishing is my favorite, followed by bass fishing.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Summer heat has brought out the ants.  My house and yard have been overrun.  Thank goodness the exterminator comes today.

Fulcrum 1951--Part 3

This story has four parts that I want to share with you.  It was a story that changed all our families lives not only at the time that it happened, but for the rest of our lives.

 Life was never really the same after that fall.  Ruthie was in the Casper hospital for a year and a half spending much time in an iron lung.  Her left leg and right arm were paralyzed, and because of her lung problems, she couldn't sit up without a back brace. 

When Ruthie finally came home she needed extensive therapy.  In those days there was no way to have a physical therapist come to our ranch so in the nature of the frontier spirit my mother learned the exercises.  Mom performed the physical therapy that Sister Kenny had developed for polio patients.  

After being home for a few months, my little sister was accepted into the Shiners Hospital in Salt Lake City where she spent most of the next six years, undergoing several spinal surgeries, and extensive therapy.  Mom would visit several times a year while Daddy took care of the rest of us kids.  And during the summer we would visit Grandma in Tooele and she was able to spend time with Ruthie

About the time she left for Salt Lake City, I had left home to go to high school in Cody, having to work as a nanny, as there was no way I could make the daily 50 mile trip is the snowy Wyoming winter weather.

When Ruthie finally came home, she had to continue water therapy.  Daddy had a small stock water tank made that would fit in our dining room.  We would fill it with warm water heated on our coal stove and carried in buckets, and Mom would exercise her atrophied muscles, then after her therapy we would take the buckets again and empty it.  Day after day,  every day, this continued, and slowly Ruthie improved until with the aid of a brace on her back and left leg she could walk.

That fall of 1951 will always bring back memories of the terror of that horrible disease, the pain and suffering that took away much of the innocence of youth and the need to face adult responsibilities, ending the carefree days of childhood.  

The rest of the story will be published June 11th.  (For Part one see May 21)

Monday Quiz About Me

Here are FOUR QUESTIONS that everyone can answer and then you have the option to add a fifth question of your own for those who are visiting your blog to answer in the comment section, along with commenting on the four standard questions you answered! Grab the badge for your post if you like: 

1. June 3rd is National Repeat Day - what word or phrase do you find yourself repeating? I repeat...
Girls just want to have fun.  And by golly, I have earned the right after working for 30+ years, raising four kids by myself, and trying to keep everything on an even keel.

2. Who do you feel is a real hero?

Mothers today.  They have such a huge task trying to raise children to become productive additions to society and often having to also work outside the home.

3. Are you interested in traveling to countries where most people don't speak the same language as you?

I have done that and have always found a way to communicate.  I love experiencing other cultures.

4. It's also dairy month - what is your favorite dairy or dairy-like (for you vegans and allergy sufferers) food or recipe?

I love all kinds of cheeses.  A cheese tray with a glass of wine--what could be better?

And my question for you:

5.  June is a month for vacations for many.  Is there a vacation in your future?

I am not taking a summer vacation this year, instead I am going to get away in October to see the color changes along the east coast.

Sunday Meditation--Poison Ivy

A critical spirit is like poison ivy - it only takes a little contact to spread its poison. Do you know that people’s unfavorable, disparaging, disapproving, nit-picking, judgmental, unsympathetic, derogatory, and fault-finding attitudes can spread like gangrene? 

Be careful that you do not abort the dream or ministry that God has given you because of what others have to say or think; for when God measures a man, He puts the tape around the heart instead of the head.  1 Samuel 16:7b says …the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. 
Be more concerned with what God thinks of you rather than what people think about you.  You don’t need men’s approval because He doesn’t call the qualified, but He qualifies the call.  And whom he called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them he also glorified (Rom. 8:30).

God has called and equipped us as vessels to communicate His love and salvation to others.  Deuteronomy 31:6 says be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them:  for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. 

2 Timothy 2:16  Avoid worthless, foolish talk that only leads to more godless behavior.  (NLT)

The Secret Holocaust Diaries

How this story came to be written is a big part of the drama. The only World War II survivor of her wealthy Russian, devout Christian family, Nonna Lisowskaya Bannister (1927–2004)came to the U.S. in 1950, married Henry Bannister, and never spoke about her Holocaust ­experience––until a few years before her death in 2004, when she revealed her diaries, originally written in six languages on paper scraps that she had kept in a pillow strapped to her body throughout the war. Now those diaries, in her English translation, tell her story of fleeing Stalinist Russia, not knowing what was waiting in Hitler’s Germany, where she saw her mother murdered in the camps, escaped a massacre of Jews shot into a pit, was nursed by Catholic nuns, and much more. The editors’ commentary in different type constantly interrupts the memoir, but the notes are helpful in explaining history and context.
Nonna's story is a valuable contribution as a primary source and witness to the Holocaust. 

Don't pass up reading this book because it addresses an uncomfortable topic. If this teenage girl could live through this and write it as it happened, then we, in our comfort sixty years later, can definitely read it and be witness to her life and the truth. Despite the struggle, this is a tale not only of survival, faith, and courage, but also forgiveness, strength, and hope.