He is Risen, Indeed!

The family is coming over in about an hour, so just a quick note to wish you all a Happy Resurrection Sunday!

For fun, this year I made these:

Italian Sweet Bread with Easter Eggs in the middle.  I did a trial batch yesterday.  NO PHOTOS of that batch.  Today the yeast worked better, and I was more confident!

The recipe is easy, so let me know if you want me to send it your way.  OR, you can go get it from theitaliandishblog.com

I also made a German Potato Salad.  This is really yummy.  No photos though because no time!

4 potatoes
4 sliced bacon
1 Tbs all purpose flour
2 Tbs white sugar
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 cup chopped green onions
salt and pepper to taste

Boil potatoes in skins for about 15 minutes.  Drain, cool, peel if you want to, and chop.

Place bacon in a large, deep skillet.  Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown.  Drain, crumble and set aside.  Reserve bacon fat.

Add the flour, sugar, water and vinegar to skillet and cook in reserved bacon fat over medium heat until dressing is thick.

Add bacon, potatoes and green onions to skillet and stir until coated.  Cook until heated and season with salt and pepper.  Serve warm.

Enjoy your day!

From church this morning.  That handsome trumpet player is my son.

UPDATE:  Google (picasa) or Blogger or Apple (iPhone) is jerking me around and the video won't play.  My apologies.

Easter Beagle?

When my kids were little we'd pull out a videotape (yeah, back then) for every holiday.  I loved the Charlie Brown Christmas special because Linus got to share the real point of the season.

For Easter we also had a Charlie Brown tape -- but it was all about the eggs and the bunny and spring and somehow, it just seems hollow these days.

The most important day of the Christian calendar is NOT Christmas. It is tomorrow. The world calls it Easter, but it's Resurrection Sunday. Because if there's no resurrection, there's no point at all.

Sure, the eggs and spring are symbols of rebirth. And cultures have celebrated the earth re-awakening after the winter for many thousands of years. But the world around us is NOT celebrating the glorious news that Jesus is ALIVE.  They're missing the point!  Death could not hold Him.

He willingly gave His life as atonement for my sin.  Your sin.  The whole world's sin.  Whether or not those people He gave his life for wanted Him or NOT...

I know there are people in your life who you love very much. But would you sacrifice them?  If you're a parent, would you sacrifice your child so that another might live?  Of course not!

But God did. Do you realize how loving, generous and amazing that is?

Then how can you continue to spurn Him? How can you continue to look in the face of the Creator (you can see Him all around you) and say, "I do not want you?"

There's no gimmick. No special way of praying.  No putting in money or joining a particular church. No new way of dressing or rules about what you eat.  Just accepting.

He Died For You.

Is that not enough?

Spring Break Day 5

Not a good day.  Went to the class I love that occurs on Friday at the Y.  It's a sports-fitness class.  I was taking it a little easy and doing okay but then rolled my ankle coming off a Bosu.  End of class for me.  Fortunately, I don't think it is very serious.  I iced and elevated yesterday.  Today it's just a little swollen, and feels more tight than sore.  So I'll try to stay off it today.

The only thing about this that really ticks me off is that I just missed two weeks of workouts being sick.  I NEED to get back to the gym...or stop eating.

NO Easter candy for me tomorrow.

Rats.

Spring Break Day 4

Met some Friends of the Library cronies for brunch at a local kitchen.  It's always fun to see them outside the area we usually see them.

Our Friends group has encountered some difficulties lately. We received a donation of some very high value, unique books. Despite them being behind a locked door, someone (staff, volunteer, maintenance?) stole some of them. This isn't the smartest thief -- the books are part of what is called the Dietrichstein collection.  They were wealthy European collectors of the 18th century, and their books are eagerly watched for.  So unless it goes into a private collection and never sees the light of day again, there's no money to be made.

What's interesting is the positive response we've received from the antiquarian book world.  They have watch lists and postings and people who regularly view the ebay-type sites looking for stolen items.  Book lovers, unite!

My friends and I are also trying to look down the road 10-15 years.  Donations to libraries are down because people are not buying as many physical books. Yet, county governments have come to rely on the friends groups for money. In 10 years, when our book sales are much smaller due to dwindling supply, it is doubtful that county demand for revenue will be any less! So we need to look at how our Friends group might morph into something different.  Some Friends groups raise money with gala events or big dollar author talks.  If we go that direction, they'll have to do that without me.  I don't mind packing boxes and running a cashier stand, but I am so NOT a gala-event type person!

What is your library doing to enhance its collection?

Here are some photos of unique items we offered during the recent sale.

Spring Break Day 3

Yesterday we traveled to Annapolis, Maryland to visit a college my daughter is interested in. The college is awesome.  St. John's College is a Great Books school, with an amazing record of producing graduates who can THINK. They area eagerly sought by graduate schools.

The school is small -- fewer students in the undergraduate body than in her class year at our high school. And if she'd been in the public schools around here the entire time she'd been in school, she would be woefully unprepared for St. John's. But she was in a Classical school through 8th grade, so she is not only prepared, but eager to continue learning for learning's sake.

St. John's does assign grades, but does not tell them to the student except by specific request to the registrar. They would forego them altogether if graduate schools didn't need them.

This school is not  a good match for everyone. But if you know a student who delights in learning, not in just "getting the highest grade", you might want to tell the parents to look into it. You can read more about it at these links.

St. Johns College Website

St. Johns College Wikipedia Article

And here are some photos of the day. The college is in lovely old town Annapolis.  The main building was started as a governor's mansion back in the day, but that governor ran out of money and was not re-elected, so the building was given to the college.

Street side of the main building -
where each class meets for chorus class.
Beautiful to sit outside and listen.

Building that contains the dining hall.
See the actual hall below.

The library is my favorite building (big surprise). From the outside, a 17th century building. But inside ... well, judge for yourself.

Formerly the hall of records for Maryland. When they outgrew the building,
they donated it to the college. It was moved here through the streets of
Annapolis.  Can you see the dates?  The Hall of Records was established
1634.  The Greenfield Library, 1696.
Yeah, I thought so too.  But check out the inside below.

And finally, the ENTIRE student body gets their mail here. That's how small and personal the place is.

Upside:  Incredibly great place for students who love to learn through the classics

Upside for my daughter: A perfect match

Downside: Same people every day for 4 years might get really old

Downside for my daughter: Tuition is $42,000 per year

Ouch.  Yeah, we're praying about that.

Daffodils

Daffodils cheer me.  When I was growing up, no matter where we lived, those cheerful bright yellow faces and bonnets were a sure sign spring was on its way.

Last fall I ordered some bulbs through my son's school.  They were "mixed daffodils."  My dear friend who is really good at gardening (she spends 15 minutes twice a day spraying all her garden with stinky anti-deer spray) helped me plant them. She told me they were a good choice because deer don't eat them.

HOWEVER, she warned that squirrels would dig up the bulbs if I didn't keep the area covered with dried chili peppers.  I was so faithful last fall and it has paid off!  Here are some of the happy flowers in my yard.

My Spring Break - Day 2

Spent the morning at the car dealership.  Supposed to be a minor maintenance check, and in the end, the cost WAS minor.  It just took a REALLY.LONG.TIME.  They have an appointment system, but their bosses tell them they cannot turn work away. So jerks who just stop by to get something done get squeezed in, which makes those of us who made an appointment have to wait longer.

However, their 'after action' surveys punish the service representative if you say anything that can be remotely construed as negative. And I like my service rep.  He's been taking care of my car since I bought it -- and he's always in the hot seat to get folks in and out of there, and has to take the heat when they don't like the news or the bill, or...

At any rate, I'm home now, and here's my MUFFED TARGET photo for the week.  Thanks Thom for hosting this!

We were trying to show the features of one of the pop-up books we had for sale during the Used Book Sale, but I had already taken about 30 photos of really expensive books and didn't want to take the time to set up a good shot of a $6 book!  Laziness = bad photos.

But, the book sold anyway.  So there.

Thom said this photo wasn't awful enough.  So here's another to prove that I can be underwhelmingly bad at photography!