I sometimes ponder on the state of our world today.  My mother is still one of the hardest working women I’ve ever known.  She still grows a huge garden, cans and freezes her harvest, cooks for ‘the boys’ two meals a day, and tends her flowers.  Her hands were so swollen from peeling peaches a couple of weeks ago, she was out of commission for a day or two.  Yet, she keeps getting by.  Her social security check helps he squeak by, and she refuses money from any of us kids.  She has her pride.  Now the unfair part:  Why is someone who never worked or put money into Social Security able to draw more per month than my mother (and thousands of other retirees) who worked for most of their lives and paid into the program?  I know there are some cases where government help is needed, but able bodied people?  There are jobs that need to be done-cleaning our roadsides, yardwork around public buildings, cleaning up public parks and recreation areas-the list goes on.  But ‘pride’ makes some people think that kind of work is beneath them.  I’ll take my mother’s kind of pride (which is earned) over the unearned pride of some of these freeloaders.  And don’t tell me that there isn’t enough money.  If the greedy politicians could have kept their hands off of the Social Security money as it was paid in, it could have been invested and made money.  They put in plenty, but our ‘leaders’ were not good stewards of the money they paid.  Maybe we should take money from the politicians who dipped into the funds for their pet projects and invest it to put money back into SS.  And that’s all I have to say about that!

You know something is wrong when cleaning the refrigerator seems like a good job for the evening.  Whew!  There was stuff in the back of the shelves that would make Dr. Alexander Fleming salivate.  I guess I should just go lie down for a few minutes and see if these strange urges will go away.

We enjoyed a night at the Braves game with Leslie and Bradley, with a tail gate party before the game. Despite fighting the traffic on I-75 North to pick them up, then fighting it south to get to the game, we had a really nice time. Weather was pleasant, the stadium was rocking with over 50,000 fans, and fireworks after the game.

The grillmeister

Chilling

The windup

The throw and the out!

Enough said

After game fireworks

After game entertainment- we could have gotten in without a cover charge, but maybe next time, huh?  I doubt it!

It is a good thing to work at the Open Hands Christian Ministry. Really makes me appreciate the good life I have. It is heart wrenching to hear stories of lost jobs, illnesses, and other catastrophes that could happen to any one of us. It is amazing that so many of these people in need tell us to have a great day, and ask God to bless us as they leave. Everyone should do some volunteer work with the needy and we’d have a lot less greed and ‘me, me, me’ in this world.

At the end of another day, I took some time to sit and enjoy all my hard work.  After putting up two new hummingbird feeders, I sat in the arbor.  Within a couple of minutes, I had a visitor.  Another couple of minutes, there were two of them, fighting so much that neither got to drink.  I think sometimes that’s like a lot of people.  Too busy trying to keep others from being happy to have the time to find their own happiness.  But it did give me some real enjoyment to watch those silly little twittering birds going at it.

I don’t think I’m winning my war against the squirrels.  Seems that for each one I trap and get rid of, two more move into the garden.  So far today, it’s me 0 tomatoes, squirrels 6 wasted, partially eaten fruits.  Tomorrow is another day, and I’m determined to outwit them.  I’m putting up bird  netting.  It will probably take them at least 10 minutes to figure that out!

At least I have gotten some sun dried tomatoes in the freezer before the squirrels got them all.  Here’s a great bruschetta recipe.  The price of the sun dried tomatoes encouraged me to dry my own.

Two Tomato Bruschetta                                                                                                                     Makes 4-5 servings, 2 slices per person                                                                                             Prep time:  10 min.  Bake time 350 degrees for 5 minutes                                                                   Ingredients
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese with tomato and basil
1/3 cup dried tomatoes (not oil packed), chopped
2 Tbsp snipped fresh basil                                                                                                                  2 Tbsp. snipped fresh Itlaian (flat leaf) parsley
2Tbsp olive oil                                                                                                                                    1 clove garlic, minced                                                                                                                           1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper                                                                                                 8-10 slices whole grain baguette (about 1/2 inch thick)                                                                    2 Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350. In a small bowl, combine feta cheese, dried tomatoes, basil, and parsley.  Set aside.
2.  In another small bowl, stir together oil, garlic, and pepper. Brush oil mixture evenly over bread slices.  Place bread slices on a large baking sheet.  Bake about 5 minutes or until lightly toasted.  Remove from oven.
3.  Top with tomato slices.  Spoon feta cheese mixture on top of tomato slices.
4.  Serve immediately, or broil 3 to 4 inches from the heat for 1 to 2 minutes or until cheese is slightly melted.

Yummmm!  Enjoy

Had lunch today with a group of my favorite ladies-retired teachers. We were all of one accord-glad we’re not having to deal with school anymore, and sympathize with those who are still hanging in there. Seems like more and more is expected of the teachers, but less and less of the parents, students, administrators. I loved teaching when I was in my classroom, but hated all the hoops we had to jump through just to get to spend some time teaching. God bless those who have the calling and are still trying to make a difference in the lives of kids.