A Debate and Mucilaginous Gruel

First - the Republican Debate on CNN. Here are my impressions - short and sweet:

1. Anderson Cooper. Yuck. What a weenie.

2. Mitt Romney - came across as fake and way too oily.

3. Fred Thompson is the man.

4. It won't kill me to vote for Giuliani in the General Election if that's what it comes down to. (BUT! Go Fred!!)

5. Ron Paul is a complete whack.

6. Gay General is a plant from the Clinton campaign. Good going, CNN.

7. Sucky questions from a lot of stupid college kids. There were a couple of good questions posed by adults, but only a couple.

8. McCain loses my vote AGAIN - except that he never HAD my vote.

9. Wish all of the candidates could have been given the opportunity to answer all questions. Anderson Cooper sucked.

10.I liked Mike Huckabee, but not enough to vote for him. He seems soft and pliable like the Pillsbury Doughboy.

On to the Mucilaginous Gruel. Grizzly Mama brewed some up this evening, as it seems that many in the Sloth are having some stomach problems. I decided to make Slippery Elm Gruel to help with our digestive complaints. I have used this along with other herbs to help overcome bronchitis as well.

It is the inner bark that is used medicinally when it comes to Slippery Elm. According to this, Slippery Elm gruel has been used historically not only for medicinal purposes but also for survival. Of course, legally I cannot make any claims that this herbal will help in any way, shape or form - - but I can guarantee that it won't kill you as I've used it many times. Once the gruel is prepared, I consume a teaspoon or two several times a day for 2 to 3 days in a row. It has a pleasant smell and taste even if it is mucilaginous in texture. We normally don't eat it plain - but add it to whole cooked oats with plenty of pure maple syrup, or in yogurt or applesauce. I cover the gruel and store it in the fridge and use the 3 day rule that I use for pretty much anything that I save in the fridge.

Think slippery/mucous membranes. It's slippery and will help mucous membranes in the body. Lungs, digestive tract.

Here's the play-by-play:


This is what it looks like - very finely ground inner bark.


One teaspoon Slippery Elm to about a cup of water.


Yup. Put it together in a saucepan.


Slowly bring it to a boil. Stir occasionally. I like using a whisk.


Once it starts boiling, reduce heat and simmer stirring constantly. Do this for a couple of minutes.


Then I pour it into this little jug and let it cool. Cover it and store in the fridge. I don't think that you have to cook it. You can just take it, but I think with plenty of water. I like this, though, and it has worked well for us in the past.


Here I've tried to give you the sense of just how mucous-like this concoction is.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day! We are going to visit a museum in Lancaster City in the morning. We will be learning about the Amish.

Happy Thanksgiving

Here is our 'Thanksgiving Tree'. The little one brought it home from CCD - which to the non-papists out there is Catholic religious education for those kids not attending Catholic school. I thought it was a great idea, so all of us in our little family wrote what we were thankful for on a paper leaf and hung it on the tree. Troll's leaf is awaiting his arrival. We are in the midst of making the pumpkin pies for dinner tomorrow.



The girls have never made pie-crust before, and it's been a couple of decades since I've done it myself. (Love those Pet-Ritz pie crusts!!) This year we decided to do it ourselves. You can see us working the pastry cutter.



Ohp! Here's that Thanksgiving Tree again!



We can't forget to include a picture of the molasses cookies that we made. The older decided that she wanted to make them. The rolling pin is doing double duty. It hasn't seen this much action in years.



These cookies have a bite to them! The girls thought they were a bit too strong. I liked 'em. They're the old fashioned kind, the kind that burn a bit. Old Grizzly Mama likes the burn - it lets me know that I'm still alive and kicking. Just like that burn with the nicotine lozenges...Hmmm. Makes me want to quit smoking again. (Which Troll and I are doing after the holidays. He wanted to quit at Halloween - I told him, 'No way, Jose.' We both go through a little bit of changes during the holiday season, so we'll just wait until it's over.)



And here they are, just as pretty as can be. Time to go to sleep so that we're rested up for the long drive to Grandma's, and the chowing to begin.

Have a great holiday!

The Hildebeast Can Levitate!

At Mike's request I have entered my creation into the mix over at Flopping Aces. Curt has instructions on how to add speech bubbles or thought bubbles to images. Too Fun!

Thanks you guys.




Here is the link to get to the captioning thing:

Captioning Tool.

I would love to see your creation!

Ron Paul

I like Ron Paul's stance on public education - but that's it. From there he goes completely off the wall.

Oh! 2nd Amendment too. He's strong on that. That's good.

Ron Paul.

Just to clarify - I will not be voting for Ron Paul.

The Nerd Family Hosts the Homeschooling Carnival

Check it out - you'll be amazed at all the things that we are thankful for! You will also be amazed to know that homeschoolers aren't just the lunatic right-wing fanatics. I know some of you lefties think old Grizzly Mama is a right-wing fanatic, but you also think that you are just left of center. :-)

Perhaps reading through the entries you will start to think, 'Hey - I could do that.' If you are blessed enough to live in the United States of America, your right to homeschool is recognized by all 50 states. There is plenty of support out there for you.

I will end with stating the one thing that I am most thankful for, that God saw fit to craft me in the womb of a citizen of the United States of America!

The Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List

By Deborah Markus, from Secular Homeschooling Magazine, Issue #1, Fall 2007, and thanks to Tweetey for sending this list to me.

*1 - Please stop asking us if it's legal. If it is — and it is — it's insulting to imply that we're criminals. And if we were criminals, would we admit it?

*2 - Learn what the words "socialize" and "socialization" mean, and use the one you really mean instead of mixing them up the way you do now. Socializing means hanging out with other people for fun. Socialization means having acquired the skills necessary to do so successfully and pleasantly. If you're talking to me and my kids, that means that we do in fact go outside now and then to visit the other human beings on the planet, and you can safely assume that we've got a decent grasp of both concepts.

*3 - Quit interrupting my kid at her dance lesson, scout meeting, choir practice, baseball game, art class, field trip, park day, music class, 4H club, or soccer lesson to ask her if as a homeschooler she ever gets to socialize.

*4 - Don't assume that every homeschooler you meet is homeschooling for the same reasons and in the same way as that one homeschooler you know.

*5 - If that homeschooler you know is actually someone you saw on TV, either on the news or on a "reality" show, the above goes double.

*6 - Please stop telling us horror stories about the homeschoolers you know, know of, or think you might know who ruined their lives by homeschooling. You're probably the same little bluebird of happiness whose hobby is running up to pregnant women and inducing premature labor by telling them every ghastly birth story you've ever heard. We all hate you, so please go away.

*7 - We don't look horrified and start quizzing your kids when we hear they're in public school. Please stop drilling our children like potential oil fields to see if we're doing what you consider an adequate job of homeschooling.

*8 - Stop assuming all homeschoolers are religious.

*9 - Stop assuming that if we're religious, we must be homeschooling for religious reasons.

*10 - We didn't go through all the reading, learning, thinking, weighing of options, experimenting, and worrying that goes into homeschooling just to annoy you. Really. This was a deeply personal decision, tailored to the specifics of our family. Stop taking the bare fact of our being homeschoolers as either an affront or a judgment about your own educational decisions.

*11 - Please stop questioning my competency and demanding to see my credentials. I didn't have to complete a course in catering to successfully cook dinner for my family; I don't need a degree in teaching to educate my children. If spending at least twelve years in the kind of chew-it-up-and-spit-it-out educational facility we call public school left me with so little information in my memory banks that I can't teach the basics of an elementary education to my nearest and dearest, maybe there's a reason I'm so reluctant to send my child to school.

*12 - If my kid's only six and you ask me with a straight face how I can possibly teach him what he'd learn in school, please understand that you're calling me an idiot. Don't act shocked if I decide to respond in kind.

*13 - Stop assuming that because the word "home" is right there in "homeschool," we never leave the house. We're the ones who go to the amusement parks, museums, and zoos in the middle of the week and in the off-season and laugh at you because you have to go on weekends and holidays when it's crowded and icky.

*14 - Stop assuming that because the word "school" is right there in homeschool, we must sit around at a desk for six or eight hours every day, just like your kid does. Even if we're into the "school" side of education — and many of us prefer a more organic approach — we can burn through a lot of material a lot more efficiently, because we don't have to gear our lessons to the lowest common denominator.

*15 - Stop asking, "But what about the Prom?" Even if the idea that my kid might not be able to indulge in a night of over-hyped, over-priced revelry was enough to break my heart, plenty of kids who do go to school don't get to go to the Prom. For all you know, I'm one of them. I might still be bitter about it. So go be shallow somewhere else.

*16 - Don't ask my kid if she wouldn't rather go to school unless you don't mind if I ask your kid if he wouldn't rather stay home and get some sleep now and then.

*17 - Stop saying, "Oh, I could never homeschool!" Even if you think it's some kind of compliment, it sounds more like you're horrified. One of these days, I won't bother disagreeing with you any more.

*18 - If you can remember anything from chemistry or calculus class, you're allowed to ask how we'll teach these subjects to our kids. If you can't, thank you for the reassurance that we couldn't possibly do a worse job than your teachers did, and might even do a better one.

*19 - Stop asking about how hard it must be to be my child's teacher as well as her parent. I don't see much difference between bossing my kid around academically and bossing him around the way I do about everything else.

*20 - Stop saying that my kid is shy, outgoing, aggressive, anxious, quiet, boisterous, argumentative, pouty, fidgety, chatty, whiny, or loud because he's homeschooled. It's not fair that all the kids who go to school can be as annoying as they want to without being branded as representative of anything but childhood.

*21 - Quit assuming that my kid must be some kind of prodigy because she's homeschooled.

*22 - Quit assuming that I must be some kind of prodigy because I homeschool my kids.

*23 - Quit assuming that I must be some kind of saint because I homeschool my kids.

*24 - Stop talking about all the great childhood memories my kids won't get because they don't go to school, unless you want me to start asking about all the not-so-great childhood memories you have because you went to school.

*25 - Here's a thought: If you can't say something nice about homeschooling, shut up!

Oh - whoever came up with this list - Thank You! I think it just about covers everything. I have run into SO many people who have SO many misconceptions about homeschoolers. It's gotten to the point that the girls and I just bust out laughing at people when they say some of this stuff. I have also run into plenty of people who take our decision to homeschool as a personal judgement of their decision to send their kids to public school.

I do get tired of listening to this stuff sometimes.

Are They Using Current Standards to Judge This?

Get a Cash Advance

Hat tip: Zendo Deb.

Grizzly Project

Okay - so we have a couple of problem windows in the house. The first problem are the 2 front doors. They both have windows and the previous occupant had installed mini blinds on both doors. YUCK! I despise mini-blinds - DESPISE them. These blinds were old and dirty and one was gray, for goodness sakes. The next problem is the breakfast nook. Dark and Dreary. We need some energy in that space. Yet another dirty, musty, stained mini-blind on that window. The 3rd problem, as identified at that time, is the window in the upstairs bath. You guessed it, another nasty, old, dusty, crusty mini-blind and a sad looking valance that should have been installed with a 3" rod and wasn't. This window is right next to the hopper and I don't like sitting on the throne with those dirty slats staring at me.

What is a Grizzly Mama to do?? Why - search the internet for a solution of course! I found a wonderful place called Wallpaper for Windows. I ordered Everleaf etched glass for the two front windows - piece of cake to install and down come the mini-blinds. I ordered Grapevine (clear) for the breakfast nook and Rhapsody (privacy) for the bathroom window.

I installed Grapevine on the breakfast nook today. Quite easy - it's just that I had to measure for each individual pane of glass and make sure that it was centered the way I wanted with the middle grapevine going straight up the middle pane of glass. That required me to start 1 5/16" in from each edge of the roll. I duly calculated and recorded all measurements on the back of my beloved Weekly Standard bill envelope.



I needed to keep this close by throughout the project, because my nerves were bad and I had to verify the measurements constantly. It's crossing the Rubicon, folks, the minute that single edge blade starts cutting.

Here is my work surface. The kitchen floor is protected by a broken down packing box and my straight edge is the Wallpaper for Windows box itself. Don't want to razor up those old planks.



The first cut is the scariest. But it seemed that all was well...



I had to do a bit of trimming once I got the vinyl cling on the window pane itself. Those bad girls have bubbles and wrinkles in them - old glass. That's okay. It's the way I like it. After a slip of the razor blade, I finally discovered that using a straight edge while trimming on the pane makes the prospect of trimming a lot less anxiety provoking. Just like any red-blooded American, I learn from my mistakes.

Here's the beginning: (I forgot to take 'before' pics...)





And here is the end:







This little piece of glass above the door to the garage - which is right next to the breakfast nook - is going to need some work. Gross, isn't it? I'll need to scrape it, clean it and then I have just enough of the grapevine vinyl left to apply a vine going across. I think it will be pretty.





Now, if that doesn't look Grizzly - I don't know what does.

I can hardly wait to get to the bathroom window - now that I know what I'm doing I'll have the girlies do all of the measuring. When it's done, it will be either frightening or beautiful. No matter what, it will slap you in the face when you walk into the room.

Goodbye mini-blinds!! Woooo-hoooo. All of the nasty mini-blinds will be stored in the cubby next to the fireplace. They came with the house and they're staying with the house.

CAIR Trying To Silence Michael Savage

I received an action alert from CAIR-PA. They are not happy with Michael Savage because he doesn't like islam. Here is the text of their email:

Subject: [CAIR PA] ACTION ALERT: Ask Advertisers to Pull Spots from Anti-Muslim Radio Program


ASK ADVERTISERS TO PULL SPOTS FROM ANTI-MUSLIM RADIO PROGRAM
Michael Savage tells Muslims 'take your religion and shove it up your behind'

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 11/1/2007) - CAIR today called on radio listeners of all faiths to contact companies that advertise on Michael Savage's nationally-syndicated radio program to express their concerns about the host's recent anti-Muslim tirade.

Savage, whose "The Savage Nation" airs on more than 300 radio stations nationwide, screamed attacks on Muslims, Islam and the Quran during his October 29, 2007, program. A number of concerned listeners contacted CAIR about Savage's attacks on Islam.

Savage's shouted anti-Muslim attacks included:

"I'm not gonna put my wife in a hijab. And I'm not gonna put my daughter in a burqa. And I'm not gettin on my all-fours and praying to Mecca. And you could drop dead if you don't like it. You can shove it up your pipe. I don't wanna hear anymore about Islam. I don't wanna hear one more word about Islam. Take your religion and shove it up your behind. I'm sick of you."

"What kind of religion is this? What kind of world are you living in when you let them in here with that throwback document in their hand, which is a book of hate. Don't tell me I need reeducation. They need deportation. I don't need reeducation. Deportation, not reeducation. You can take C-A-I-R and throw 'em out of my country. I'd raise the American flag and I'd get out my trumpet if you did it. Without due process. You can take your due process and shove it."

"What sane nation that worships the U.S. constitution, which is the greatest document of freedom ever written, would bring in people who worship a book that tells them the exact opposite. Make no mistake about it, the Quran is not a document of freedom. The Quran is a document of slavery and chattel. It teaches you that you are a slave."

To listen to these and other bigoted statements by Savage, click here.

"Michael Savage obviously cares little about the safety or civil rights of American Muslims, but the stations that carry his hate-filled rants do care about listeners' attitudes toward advertisers who pay to air commercials during his program," said CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina Rubin. "Americans of all faiths should take a few minutes to contact any local station that broadcasts Savage's inflammatory tirades to say they will not buy the goods or services of his advertisers."

Rubin added that hate-filled words can and do lead to violent actions against American Muslims.

IMMEDIATE ACTIONS REQUESTED: (As always, be POLITE. Hostile comments can and will be used by Savage to further defame Islam and Muslims.)

1. FIND OUT which station carries Michael Savage's program in your area. LISTEN to the program and write down the contact information for both local and national advertisers. CONTACT those advertisers to POLITELY inform them that you and your friends and family will not purchase their products or services as long as they continue to subsidize a hate-filled program.

For a partial listing of radio stations that air Michael Savage's program, click here.

2. CONTACT Talk Radio Network, Michael Savage's syndicator, to express your concerns about his hate-filled attacks on Muslims, Islam and the Quran.

Mr. Mark Masters
Chief Executive Officer
Talk Radio Network
P.O. Box 3755
Central Point OR 97502
Phone: 541-664-8827 or 541-474-2297
Fax: 541-664-6250 or 866-876-5075

E-Mail: mmasters@talkradionetwork.com, eterry@talkradionetwork.com,
gregdoyle@talkradionetwork.com, info@talkradionetwork.com,
affiliates@talkradionetwork.com, rubend@talkradionetwork.com

3. SEND COPIES of all correspondence to CAIR. E-Mail info@cair.com or fax to 202-488-0833.

4. ORGANIZE local coalitions with friends of the Muslim community to challenge Savage's hate rhetoric.


SEE ALSO: CAIR-PA hosts National 'Islamophobia Tour' Event
http://pa.cair.com/index.php?Page=seminar&Side=about

The Council on American-Islamic Relations-Pennsylvania (CAIR-PA) will host a seminar on the growing problem of Islamophobia and the ill effects of this hate-mongering upon American Muslims, their families and institutions on November 4 2007.

WHAT: Seminar on Islamophobia
WHEN: November 4, 2007, 1:30 pm - 4:00 pm
WHERE: UPenn Hall of Flags, Houston Hall, 3417 Spruce Street, Philadelphia

Limited seating. RSVP: cairphilly@gmail.com or 215-592-0509.


--
CAIR Pennsylvania Philadelphia Office
1218 Chestnut Street; Suite 510
Philadelphia, PA 19107
215.592.0509
http://pa.cair.com/

CAIR's vision is to be a leading advocate for justice and mutual understanding.

CAIR's mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

I am emailing, to the above referenced emails, my support of the First Amendment and Michael Savage's right to say whatever he wants to say about islam. I agree wholeheartedly with Michael Savage on the issue of islam. I am not a huge fan of Michael Savage but this is the United States of America. We have a right to say what we want about islam. We do not have to agree with CAIR - an organization that has been proven to be tied to known terrorist organizations. CAIR can kiss my ass.

The second part of their email gives information about a meeting they will be having in Philadelphia. I wonder if it will be anything like the LAST meeting that Troll and I were able to attend?? Unfortunately, we will be unable to attend this meeting. If anyone goes, we would love to hear about it.

************************************************

Here is the email that I sent to: mmasters@talkradionetwork.com, eterry@talkradionetwork.com,
gregdoyle@talkradionetwork.com, info@talkradionetwork.com,
affiliates@talkradionetwork.com, rubend@talkradionetwork.com;


To Whom it may concern,

Please be advised that we support freedom of speech in America, guaranteed by the 1st amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. Michael Savage has the right to express his distaste for islam in the United States of America.

This email is to notify you that we will stop buying from any sponsor who pulls advertising from Michael Savage's show.

We will not be intimidated by the likes of CAIR - an organization that has proven ties to terrorist organizations.

Sincerely,
Grizzly Mama's name here
The City Troll's name here