Motley Moose – Archive

With one in six Americans living at risk of hunger, our food banks are stretched thin and providing food assistance to nearly six million people each week. Food donations are crucial to our goal of a hunger-free America. ~ Bob Aiken, President and CEO of Feeding America.

The statistics are staggering. From Feeding America, some facts on food insecurity and very low food security:

•  In 2011, 50.1 million Americans lived in food insecure households, 33.5 million adults and 16.7 million children.

•  In 2011, 14.9 percent of households (17.9 million households) were food insecure.

•  In 2011, 5.7 percent of households (6.8 million households) experienced very low food security.

•  In 2011, households with children reported food insecurity at a significantly higher rate than those without children, 20.6 percent compared to 12.2percent.

•  In 2011, households that had higher rates of food insecurity than the national average included households with children (20.6 percent), especially households with children headed by single women (36.8 percent) or single men (24.9 percent), Black non-Hispanic households (25.1 percent) and Hispanic households (26.2 percent).

•  In 2011, 8.8 percent of seniors living alone (1 million households) were food insecure.

•  Food insecurity exists in every county in America, ranging from a low of 5 percent in Steele County, ND to a high of 37 percent in Holmes County, MS.v

As you may know, our son will be graduating with his master’s in Mechanical Engineering, and accepting a commission as Second Lieutenant in the United States Air Force. We’re having a party to celebrate, with a menu that includes pulled pork sandwiches, chicken sandwiches, baked beans, chips, cut fruit, and COOKIES!

I plan on making about 15 dozen cookies, in total. Double chocolate, chocolate chip, peanut butter, lemon cookies, they all sound good to me.

This recipe for double chocolate cookies makes about 4 dozen. They are terrific. Each time I’ve made them the texture has been fabulous, and they freeze well, too.

I have the first two dozen out of the oven, and the next ones are baking. You can imagine the smell…

I just “failed” a comment! And as I looked, the order of fail, meh, fierce in that diary had been reversed.

What the hey?

This is the way we’re used to:

and this is the surprising OTHER way:

Be careful out there!

An origin myth

At ground level, thistles reached upward, tough and tall. Goldenrod, flowering heads brushed lengthwise, reminded me of ancient brooms, worn down from years sweeping the stone hearth. Queen Anne’s lace had curled into tight clusters, pregnant with seeds waiting to spill forth.  

Pelicans were back, flying so high, wingtips reflecting the late afternoon sun. They looked like confetti drifting slowly in a circle, until they wheeled and changed direction, moving closer in view. For me, the pelicans’ appearance always seemed like a gift. Now, with such perfect timing, the pelicans must be a good omen.

I needed a good omen. The year was difficult in many ways, full of extremes, joy marred by illness and tragedy. The cancer and anorexia were merely death threats. The murders were unbearable and incomprehensible, tearing the fragile scrim, the illusion of safety.

I flew, too, but I flew alone. As with the pelicans above me, it was easier to fly than walk, my body awkward and unbalanced on the ground. Like Icarus, I used my wings to escape. Unlike him, I flew low, skimming the rooftops and crowns of trees. The view from above, in motion, removed details I needed to ignore. Instead I could focus, just on moving forward, and then on landing safely.

The sun shifted and blackbirds and pelicans moved on. As the leaves curled and fell, as dew on the dried maize reflected morning light, death hovered around us. The sky became broader still, opening through stark bare branches.

Waiting, I still flew. Crows bossed during the day. In the evenings they settled, scores in stands of trees, chattering odd noises like rusty hinges.

I posed no threat to them, did not disturb them from their roosts, even while I prepared to make my own. Landing, nesting, I had flown past the sorrows of the summer, though they were visible to me when I turned.

Flying snow, flurrying, melting; the fall did not readily concede to death. The rising sun brightened the sky, warming the earth again. And on that day, I gave birth to a flyer.

Fledged now, he flies for us as well as himself. Soon he will fly like the pelicans, broad wingspan carrying him higher, beyond view. Leaving and returning, a good omen.

Cross-posted at Our View from Iowa

UPDATE:

Federal agents on Wednesday arrested a suspect in the mailing of letters to President Barack Obama and a U.S. senator that initially tested positive for the poison ricin.

The suspect was identified as Kenneth Curtis of Tupelo, Miss., federal officials told NBC News.

Both letters carried an identical closing statement, according to an FBI bulletin obtained by NBC News on Wednesday.

According to the FBI bulletin, both letters, postmarked April 8, 2013 out of Memphis, Tenn., included an identical phrase, “to see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance.”

In addition, both letters are signed: “I am KC and I approve this message.”

According to Mark Memmott for NPR

A letter addressed to President Obama containing a substance that preliminary tests indicate was the deadly poison ricin has been intercepted at a remote mail facility, the FBI confirmed Wednesday.

Just a few miles away from the White House, suspicious packages delivered to two Senate office buildings brought bomb experts to the scene and forced police to tell staffers to remain in their offices. The packages were removed and after about an hour police gave the “all-clear.”

This follows a letter that tested positive for ricin found yesterday, addressed to Republican Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi. And of course, the incidents raise the possibility — though no link is known at this time — that they are related to the Boston Marathon bombs.  

This morning I helped fix food to serve about 150 people for lunch. Here is the menu:

Roasted chicken thighs

Baked beans

Lettuce salad with fresh tomatoes, carrots, celery

Peas and cheese salad

Cottage cheese

Peach crisp

Buttered rolls, white or wheat

Beverage

Six days a week, volunteers prepare, serve, and clean up lunch for 100 or more people. The counts have run high recently, with well over 100 stopping in for this free meal.

For many of the customers, this is the only meal they get for the day. Many of them fill their plates, and once the line is opened for “seconds,” they come through again.

The food quality is high, the service is friendly, and the price is… astoundingly high. Though patrons do not pay a penny for their meals, the circumstances that lead them to the free lunch program take a tremendous toll.

Long-term unemployment and underemployment, medical expenses, mental health problems, education expenses, and other issues all lead community members to the free lunch line. They are veterans, they are students, they are retirees, they are working poor. They are hungry, and people gotta eat.  

It’s been a busy three months of quilting for me.

The Charity Quilts

I started the year with a group project. An online group in which I participated was creating two quilts for auction. Each quilt is to support a different non-profit organization. There were 12 blocks made for each quilt, and each quilt used a different color scheme. Each contributing member made a block to finish to 12″. Then they sent the blocks to me. My task was to assemble the individual blocks into attractive quilt tops.

Before I started I asked my good friend Beth to come over to consult. She’s a quilter, too, but more than that, she’s an artist. We are creative in somewhat different ways, so we find solutions differently. I knew I would need to frame the blocks to make them all the same size. She suggested framing all the blocks with the same fabric I used for the sashing and borders. That would allow the size differences of the blocks to disappear completely. Besides that, she helped me choose fabric from my stash for the first of the two projects.

The color scheme for the first project included black, red, white, yellow, and tan. The project supports a Native American community in South Dakota. The fabric we chose for the framing, sashing, and borders is almost black, with a coppery brown graphic design on it, so it reads as brown. After trying several others, and then seeing the black/brown, we knew that was right.

I made the twelfth block and then assembled the top. When I was done with it and with the second one, I mailed them to the professional quilter who was finishing them. The quilter is Laura at Butterfly Quilting. She’s known at Motley Moose as lauraquilter. She does amazing work, and the group was very fortunate to have her services.

This is the first quilt. It’s in the process of being auctioned now. The second one is on the frame now and will be sold later. I’m proud to have been part of the effort.

The Comfort Quilt

I had another project in the works at the same time. A friend had asked me to make a comfort quilt for his significant other, a woman with whom I’m acquainted but do not know well. She’s planning to have hip replacement surgery soon. As an avid bicyclist, the pain of a hip joint with no cartilage has become too much.

I do not make quilts on request. It’s a “thing.” I just don’t. A quilt from me needs to be a gift from me. And though I always make a quilt trying to please the recipient, I don’t take orders for them.

This time, though, I agreed. I would make a quilt for her, in return for a donation from him to a food agency. We agreed on an agency and a dollar amount. I began the quilt and finished the top. Her surgery was delayed, and another friend’s life changed quickly, and I switched gears.

Who needs it, really? What does it mean to forgive someone, and why is forgiveness important?

I grew up un-churched, a heathen, so my faith-structure is weak. But I still have a belief in a higher power, a god-creator, if nothing else. I do believe in love and forgiveness and connection. I believe we are connected. I believe love is ours for the accepting, that we are all worthy of love.

Forgiveness is a more difficult concept, but my god would not require a physical human sacrifice to allow us all forgiveness. I believe the sacrifice, instead, is in humbling ourselves, in reviewing our wrongs, in asking for forbearance for our humanness, our imperfections. We need to forgive ourselves for this, and we need to forgive each other for this. I don’t know if we need to ask God for forgiveness, but where we have hurt each other, part of humbling ourselves is asking the other for that special grace, that blessing. We need to learn to see each other’s perfection, and have compassion for each other’s faults.

A parent dies; a child moves out. Time passes and we accumulate things, usually at a faster pace than we rid ourselves of them. And one day we look around and realize we have a problem. In many ways it’s a problem of good fortune, but it’s a problem nonetheless.

The problem is stuff. Well, I take that back. The problem isn’t stuff. It’s what stuff does to our mental and physical spaces. Stuff is in our way.

What spurs you to finally get rid of stuff? A change in circumstances, such as a move, an addition or absence of a family member in the household? A look around in disgust or frustration? How much time do you spend moving things, cleaning around things, pushing through things? How much stuff do you need?  

Amaze your friends! Astound your neighbors! Confuse your enemies! Calculate the day of the week for any date, all without consulting a paper OR electronic calendar!

Several years ago my dad, a brilliant man, told me about a calendar trick he used. The trick allowed him to figure the day of the week for nearly any date. While other people were still looking in their paper planners (back in the old days,) he already knew.

In 2013, Thursday is the MAGIC DAY, a reference day around which the calendar trick revolves.

March 14 (Pi Day!) is a magic day on the calendar. In fact, March 14 is a magic day regardless of which year it is, or which day of the week the date falls upon.