"If you think you're too small to make a difference,
 try going to bed with a mosquito in the room.” 
                                                                African Proverb

A Solution to Crime

I came by this during my reading of "Habits of the Heart" for one of seminary classes.  I thought that it raised a very good idea.  It certainly is not actually the solution to all crime, but perhaps some . . .

John "Winthrop saw justice as a matter more of substance than of procedure.  . . when it was reported to him during an expecially long and hard winter that a poor man in his neighborhood was stealing from his woodpile, Winthrop called the man into his prescence and told him that because of the severity of the winter and his need, he had permission to supply himself from Winthrop's woodpile for the rest of the cold season.  Thus, he said to his friends, die he effectively cure the man from stealing."

I thought that this was a wonderfully inspirational story and leads me to think about how I might embody the same idea.  I don't have anyone stealing from my woodpile, but what could I do to lighten someone else's load?  What could you do.

Children's Sermon for Trick or Treating UNICEF

Some of you know that I have gone back to school. I am actually going back to school to get my Masters in Divinity and hopefully become a minister like Ian. In fact I am going to the same school that Ian went to, that Mardi goes to, and that our student minister, Peter, went to. I have a long way to go but at least I’ve started.


This semester I am taking a class called Congregational Imagination. Do you guys have a good imagination?

Let’s see – can you picture a purple bunny with blue polka dots and a lion’s tail?

You guys do have good imagination.

Well, the kind of imagining we do in this class is a little different. We imagine about churches that we might work in. Let’s say this church. Imagine I walk in and notice the peeling ceiling up there and so I imagine how the church might look nicer with a flat ceiling and so I figure out how to fix it.

OR we have great congregation imagineers right here. Our bells stopped working and so a couple people started talking about imagining that the bells would work again and they imagined not just that they would work but they would be able to play multiple melodious tunes. Their imagination became the carillon that now plays in our steeple.

The imagination used like this is a powerful tool. This is truly one of our gifts from God.

Well there is an organization that has used this same kind of imagination.

In 1946, just at the end of WWII several people got together to talk about the children of the world. They were very worried about the kids. They worried about them not eating properly, about not having clean water, about not being able to go to school.

These people got together and they imagined. They imagined a world where children weren’t hungry, where children weren’t sick, and could go to school. They then created UNICEF, United Nations Children’s Fund. And start to work to solve all these problems. They imagined a day when they wouldn’t have a job anymore because all the children would be healthy and educated.

Then about 1 year after UNICEF was founded a minister and his wife in PA were out for Halloween and they saw all the kid’s tick and treating. And they imagined . . . Imagine if we could use trick or treating for good. So they painted milk cartons to have children collect money for UNICEF. Now 60 years later, the imagination of these people has collected

$164 million dollars

1.6 billion people have safe water

2.3 billion doses of vaccine have been delivered

UNICEF built schools and buying supplies

Improved nutrition for countless children.



This Halloween, we are going to ask you to join in this imagination ideal and Trick or Treat for UNICEF. Vivian will be handing out your boxes and collecting them after Halloween.



Let’s take a minute to pray:



Dear God:

Thank you for blessing us with imagination. We are thrilled with the wonders that fill our minds. We are inspired by now others have used their imagination to change the world. We appreciate the opportunity to help bring other’s imaginations to life in tribute to You. And hope one day our imaginations will also help bring Your heaven to Earth. In Jesus name we pray. AMEN

Wondering Where I've Been

So I'm sure at least a few of you are wondering where I've been.  Well, even if you haven't been wondering, I'm going to share it with you any way.  I have gone back to school.  Actually, not just school but seminary.  I am beginning the process to become a minister.

This is a huge step in my life (and that of my family).  I believe that God has set this path before me and has been pushing me toward it my whole life.  It has been an exciting, but also a scary step for me.  I look forward to the many things that I will be learning and hopefully I'll have more than a minute or two to share some of it with you.

Strange Juxtipostion - Sexy Minister?

Ok,  this post is going to seem a little odd if it is read immediately following my previous post.  Stick with it though,  isn't this a prime example of what it means to be a woman?  We are a bit of everything.

This has been a very exciting week.  I received word that I have been accepted into a masters of divinity program.  Yes,  I will be working toward becoming a minister.  This was a very big step, and I still have several more steps to get everything in order, but I'm trying to get it all done to begin the program this September.

I questioned whether it was too late to take a step like this.  I really worried whether I was putting myself before the kids who are only minutes away from college themselves.  I fretted over maintaining our family balance.  Then I prayed, and I followed through.  I figure if I am listening correctly and this is where He is aiming me then it will work out and I have to be ready to try.

If you ask Me where to go, don’t be afraid to follow when I lay the path.

Where is your path leading?

Are you brave enough to follow?

How to be Sexy

  You know that old phrase, "beauty is only skin deep"; well, I am beginning to think that it doesn't even run that deep.  Recently my daughter has been pushing me to try colored and patterned bras.  I've got to say that I was hesitant at first, but relented and tried. I'm hooked, literally.  Wearing sexy bras, makes me feel sexier. 

I'm not quite as adventurous as my daughter, who would wear a bra like this:

She thinks the more colors the better.  But I definitely have turned a corner.  My most recent purchase:

which I guess is pretty racy and certainly way beyond my traditional white or beige that I have worn for the first half of my life.

The best thing is that I swear when I put on these bras I feel prettier, sexier, more attractive.  The only one that sees them (except for an occasional bra strap - my bra straps are forever peaking out) are me and my husband, but I would bet that others see the different attitude that I have been exuding because of my new underclothes.

Ironically, I was talking to the minister's wife the other day and she admitted the same thing.  Her daughter had been encouraging her to get out of the grandma underwear.  She pulled her shoulder strap out and bared a purple strap.

In fact I heard on the radio this phenomenon is not just a local one: http://health.msn.com/womens-health/daughters-seem-to-influence-mothers-fashion-sense .  Daughters in general are affecting mom's dressing habits.  I don't think I'll ever be as cool as her, but she definitely has uplifted my spirits and my sex appeal.

Can you find a Tomatillo in your grocery store?

I had a revelation yesterday at the grocery store.  Some of you more exotic cooks may already know this, but those of you that are just beginning some experimentation may not.  Do you know that we are not all shopping in the same grocery store.  Ok, I know that what I find in my grocery store vs. what is found in Spain or some other foreign country is totally different.  I know that if I am making some rare Martha Stewart 20 ingredient masterpiece, I'll have to go to a chef store.  I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about regular recipes out of Cooking Light or Taste of Home.

I had to find Flank Steak for one recipe.  Ironically another woman was looking for the same thing.  We scoured the steaks to no avail.  We finally asked the butcher.  He said, "We don't get too much of a call for flank steak at this store.  We don't always have it."  Ok, I can understand that. 

Next,  I was searching for tomatilloes.  It didn't help that I didn't even know what I was looking for.  I could find them neither fresh, nor canned, so I asked my helpful fresh produce stock boy who promptly pulled out his vegetable book to show me what one was.  Apparently, it is in nightshade family.  But alas, there was none in this store.  He advised me that if I went to the Chicopee store (about 20 minutes away), they carry them.  What?  A store 20 minutes away from the same grocery chain has different food on a regular basis.  What am I missing?  I think I becoming adventurous, but I've only scratched the surface.  Alas,  there is even more on this planet to see and do than I already know.

What interesting food have you found in a recipe that you have never used before?

Challenge:  Go to a grocery store that you don't normally frequent and search out the differences.  Try something new.