http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DilbertDailyStrip/~3/LzryUsMeAHU/

http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2009-11-28/

this evening we drove to seattle for our annual day after thanksgiving tradition: the lighting of the enormous christmas tree at westlake center in seattle. the event includes singing from local choirs and visiting artists, an address from the mayor, and fireworks. afterwards, we go to pacific place--another downtown shopping mall--where they make it snow indoors using machines that blow tiny soap bubbles that float from the towering mall's upper stories.

taken with my cell phone for project 365, 2009. see the original photo on posterous, or the whole collection.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DilbertDailyStrip/~3/Jg2KxHawe_M/

http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2009-11-27/

today was thanksgiving! it only comes once a year and it is very nearly the perfect holiday: there is very little commercialization (it is hard to make money off people being thankful for what they have) and there is family togetherness and good food and friendship and pumpkin pie without all the stress and expectations of other holidays--christmas, i am looking at you. anyhow, l to r: dj (friend), david (brother in law), megan (sister), tim (sister in law's boyfriend), rusty (brother). these were but a few of the guests that graced our table. kelly made a veritable feast, ron barbecued the turkey, and we closed the evening with the traditional kickoff for the christmas season: a viewing of national lampoon's christmas vacation.

taken with my cell phone for project 365, 2009. see the original photo on posterous, or the whole collection.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DilbertDailyStrip/~3/Pp0g5KXrqwQ/

http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2009-11-26/

today at the office i took a break to give tim (my sister-in-law's boyfriend) a tour, which involved a visit to the visitor center, which lead to a mutual fondness for its life-size photographs of the nerds who founded the company, which became a good place to have one's photo taken, which wound up being the picture of the day. also, tim and i enjoyed some lunch at the commons and later we all had a lovely dinner of soup and bread, all homemade by the beautiful and talented kelly.

taken with my cell phone for project 365, 2009. see the original photo on posterous, or the whole collection.

So I'm the Potato Captain of tomorrow's Thanksgiving festivities. When the office was offered to me, I was all excited, picturing parades, medals, a snazzy uniform...


Turns out, I have to bring my own apron and peel the potatoes. Bummer!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I was reading a book the other day, and within it the thought was presented that in some ways, it's very difficult to be a "missionary" when you're still at home, in your quiet neighborhood, maybe staying home with your kids or heading off to an office job. Certainly, there are dangers and difficulties with traditional missionary work...but mentally, one would wake up every morning reminded that one is somewhere different, that one is there for a purpose. Every waking moment of seeing foreign things about you would be a reminder to stay on task, to keep that higher goal in mind, to continue in an important work.

It's hard to do that at home. Sometimes, when the kids were small, I would wonder how on earth I was supposed to be an example to anyone when I couldn't manage to shower AND eat both on any given day. I moved on to a part-time job, then to a full-time job, and still sometimes I think about how much effort I spend in any day or week on things that are simply "maintenance."

I put books away, only to have them checked out, returned, and awaiting shelving once again. I wash dishes, cook dinner, and have dirty dishes again. The laundry I wash today will be dirty again this week and need washing. Over and over.

Sometimes I chafe at this. If only I didn't have to eat! If clothes could clean themselves! If dust never settled on my shelves! I could be doing important work!

But one thing I am learning through life and through working at the school is that there realy isn't unimportant work. No one at the school has a "little" job. It doesn't matter who it is, their job is vital. I think that the point can be stretched to all us "little" people, without glamorizing it.

I'll take motherhood as a starting point. Sometimes, I think that it is portrayed in a glamorized light, as some task that--done right--should be rewarding every minute. In my experience, it's not. It's rewarding overall; there are large spaces of loveliness, there is delight in the developing people that share our house, and I enjoy being a mom. On the other hand, there are also tears, struggle, fatigue, crushing moments of not knowing what to do or how to do it. Even if most of the time you're hearing, "I love you," the times you hear, "I hate you" break your heart.

Or what about housework? Some really enjoy it (if you are one of them, I salute you!). I don't. I hate it. I hate washing up dishes, I hate doing the laundry, I hate dusting. I love the results, but let's be brutally honest: I don't mind a bit of untidiness. I tend to stack books and papers wherever I'm working. I have a bad tendency to take my shoes and earrings off wherever I am when the thought occurs to me. So when I do clean, I'm afraid it is often done with a restive spirit. It seems so trivial!

But it's all important. Putting the books away, washing the dishes, doing the shopping, loving the children. Our values and our character are on display constantly, whatever work we are doing. If we have children, we are an example no matter what we do. At the grocery, we are an example--do we cut in line? Do we report an item that rang up at an incorrect (drastically low) price? Or do we rush back to buy fifteen more? Are we courteous to the cashier? Do we ever think about how long she's been standing on her feet? Are we pleasant?

We may never link our example directly to the faith we profess, insofar as those we meet are concerned. I'm not sure that's the important bit, somehow. Wherever we are, whatever we do, we're an example of something. Make it something good.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DilbertDailyStrip/~3/HRsU9kNKKec/

http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2009-11-25/

tonight was the night that i realized that i liked goat cheese too much. i did not realize this while actually enjoying this delectable entree; i realized it minutes beforehand when kelly had finished with the cutting board and, without thinking, i began to scrape off and eat the remaining slivers of cheese, abandoning my dignity and probably looking a bit like a child licking a beater full of cookie dough.

taken with my cell phone for project 365, 2009. see the original photo on posterous, or the whole collection.

Pumpkins. I’m not going to lie, I avoided pumpkin pie for most of my childhood. It just seemed so inferior to pecan pie or blueberry or apple or blackberry or any type of pie really. The appeal of pumpkin pie for me was the spray whipped cream, which I liberally applied to my slice. So delicious that way. As you might be guessing, this recipe is not for pumpkin pie. It is for pumpkin bars. While I have come to love pumpkin pie, these pumpkin bars are a favorite! We do not usually have them on Thanksgiving day because they would compete unnecessarily with the pie, but they are worth mentioning here.

 

Pumpkin Bars

Ingredients:
For the bars
4 eggs
1 2/3 cup sugar
1 cup oil
1 (16 oz) can pumpkin
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 pkg cream cheese, softened
1/2 butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar

Put first four ingredients into a bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Stir in remaining ingredients. Spread batter into ungreased 10×15x1″ pan (jellyroll pan).
Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.
Cool. Frost with cream cheese frosting.
Try not to eat the whole pan. Really, the max you could eat at once is probably four. Maybe five. Anymore than that gives me a stomach ache.

Enjoy!

Originally published at Oatmeal for Breakfast. You can comment here or there.

And I'm just throwing this out there for what it's worth: pants tend to fit better if, when putting on a belt to hold them up, you actually thread the belt through all the belt loops.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DilbertDailyStrip/~3/yNTB2os2gwM/

http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2009-11-24/