dahlia

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  1. Like
    dahlia got a reaction from Palerider in Easter Traditions   
    Now that I think about this, I am getting kinda sad. When I was growing up, we'd go to my great aunt's, who, with my grandmother, was a fantastic cook. There was all kinds of food, dyed Easter eggs (we used to give them as gifts to our relatives - do people do that anymore?), and the adults would all have a "taste" (some liquor). I guess people were more mindful of what they said in front of children back then. I certainly saw liquor bottles, but no one ever said 'Do you want some whiskey?' or whatever. They were asked if they wanted a 'taste.'
     
    Interestingly, when that great aunt got Alzheimer's, it manifested itself by her getting up in the middle of the night and going into the kitchen to cook.
     
    There were tons of dressed up kids and adults and we all had a great time. Many of those people are long gone now, which is sad. So me and the boy are reduced to scrounging in the fridge.
  2. Like
    dahlia got a reaction from Palerider in Easter Traditions   
    I'll go to church. My ward has an annual Easter music thing in the evening, which I usually attend.
     
    And, I don't care how old he is, I make my boy a 'basket' (usually grass in a Tupperware container these days) and I make 'Easter bags' for the missionaries.  I just like to do it, and since there are no grandchildren to spoil, I might as well spoil the missionaries.
     
    I grew up with ham at Easter, however, even though the son is an omnivore, neither of us eats pork, so no ham.  I have no idea what we'll eat.
  3. Like
    dahlia reacted to Quin in Palm Sunday traditions & chapel decor   
    I'm with ya.
    I have to periodically restrain myself from attacking with cut glass & lead (one college course in stained glass work has given me delusions of ability inside my own head), and dearly miss carved wood & stone, textiles, symbols. I'll often still go to cathedrals and mosques, shrines and temples JUST for the beauty. Whether gravitas or liveliness.
    Conversely, as someone who grew up in hotel rooms... I also like the simplicity of being in church for the purpose of people, but the world itself is where we find HF. Living in hotels one learns very quickly that the building doesn't matter. It's what and who you bring with you. Rooms are all the same. They aren't the important part. We are. And what we do with ourselves. (Every time I start living in a house, though, I start forgetting that. Putting emotional significance in the space, instead of what happens IN the space)
    It's very easy (for me, myself, & I...don't know about others) to lose sight of HF being absolutely everywhere, when Notre Dame is a 20 minute walk away. I'd rather go to the cathedral, than stare out over the Seine and see the Spirit right there with me. I LIKE going somewhere beautiful, and set apart. Compulsively like. Start designing windows in my head during sacrament compulsive.
    But I'm more and more growing to LOVE the simplicity that demands action.
    Like a hotel room.
    The building isn't important.
    It's what we do outside of it that matters.
    The building is functional, our lives are to be made beautiful.
    Just my own opinion.
    From someone who reeeeeeally misses art & tokens, so I may be overly adding meaning.
    Q
  4. Like
    dahlia got a reaction from Finrock in Power of Everyday Missionaries - thoughts?   
    I have become braver at doing this. The grocery clerk asked what I was going to do over the weekend, now that the 20' of snow has melted and the skies are blue again. I told her I was Mormon and this weekend was Coference, when we get to listen to the Church leaders, etc. It must have sounded good, because instead of just nodding, she said, "That sounds like fun."  Well, yeah. : )  Then I told her about the women's meeting.  I guess not hiding what we're doing, by saying up front, 'I'm going to a Relief Society activity," etc., would be 'Mormon words.'
     
    We also had a discussion in class about an activity that takes place in libraries, I forget what it's called, but they take old books that are going to be tossed anyway and black out words on a page and make a poem out of what's left. Interesting stuff. Apparently some people who see this get all bent out of shape because they are marking up books.  I mentioned that I almost fainted when the missionaries opened their BOMs and there was highlighting all over. : )
    I sent out a picture of a highlighted BOM, which also took the students aback. It's a librarian thing. You don't want to mark up a book, but then, it's just a book, it's a thing. Do what you want with it and don't get caught up in materialism (man, that hippie stuff dies hard, doesn't it?).
     
    Anyway, I've used LDS examples in class before, but have only 'come out' to a few people. These days, though, I'm feeling more OK about saying, "I'm Mormon..." to students. Hey, I've found some less active LDS amongst my students that way, as welll as peoplel who have questions. I just always feel I'm walking a line because it's a state school and I don't want people feeling I'm foisting religion on them.
  5. Like
    dahlia got a reaction from EarlJibbs in Cursing and Cussing at work...   
    My son worked for a car dealership for awhile, eventually quiting over the foul language (towards both men and women) and generally nasty atmosphere. We're hardly naifs here at chez dahlia, but he was just appalled people would talk that way at work.
     
    I guess there are professors who like to shock students by cursing, but I don't do it, though t've had to bite my tongue a few times not to say something inappropriate. I do show videos with 'adult' language, and I warn students that it's coming in case anyone would be uncomfortable and want to leave (that never happens).
     
    I haven't heard any cursing at faculty meetings. We must be a polite lot - I hear that faculty meetings in other places can be quite contentious.
  6. Like
    dahlia reacted to Lakumi in Would you say you're happy?   
    How do you know me? How do any of you know me?! Who's watching me?!?!?!
     
    But seriously... glad my antics bring some joy to someone lol
     
    so... lamb dance...

  7. Like
    dahlia got a reaction from pam in Take-in meals: your favorites?   
    A big family size of Stouffer's Lasagna with a bag o'salad and some ice cream.  Haven't met the kid yet who wouldn't eat lasagna or ice cream, especially if the ice cream is a little different such as a push pop or Klondike bar.
     
    I don't know if it's the right thing in terms of food ethics, but I will buy foods for others that I personally wouldn't bring in my home, for example, a cheese-laden lasagna. So, while my son loves my tofu lasagna, I hesitate to foist that on unsuspecting new moms.
  8. Like
    dahlia got a reaction from EarlJibbs in Power of Everyday Missionaries - thoughts?   
    I have become braver at doing this. The grocery clerk asked what I was going to do over the weekend, now that the 20' of snow has melted and the skies are blue again. I told her I was Mormon and this weekend was Coference, when we get to listen to the Church leaders, etc. It must have sounded good, because instead of just nodding, she said, "That sounds like fun."  Well, yeah. : )  Then I told her about the women's meeting.  I guess not hiding what we're doing, by saying up front, 'I'm going to a Relief Society activity," etc., would be 'Mormon words.'
     
    We also had a discussion in class about an activity that takes place in libraries, I forget what it's called, but they take old books that are going to be tossed anyway and black out words on a page and make a poem out of what's left. Interesting stuff. Apparently some people who see this get all bent out of shape because they are marking up books.  I mentioned that I almost fainted when the missionaries opened their BOMs and there was highlighting all over. : )
    I sent out a picture of a highlighted BOM, which also took the students aback. It's a librarian thing. You don't want to mark up a book, but then, it's just a book, it's a thing. Do what you want with it and don't get caught up in materialism (man, that hippie stuff dies hard, doesn't it?).
     
    Anyway, I've used LDS examples in class before, but have only 'come out' to a few people. These days, though, I'm feeling more OK about saying, "I'm Mormon..." to students. Hey, I've found some less active LDS amongst my students that way, as welll as peoplel who have questions. I just always feel I'm walking a line because it's a state school and I don't want people feeling I'm foisting religion on them.
  9. Like
    dahlia reacted to MarginOfError in Would you say you're happy?   
    I am very happy.
    I have two energetic daughters, a spouse that is finding more excitement in the world than ever before.
    I have one of the greatest jobs in the world working with highly engaged collaborators with incredible opportunities.
    I get to work alongside brilliant and committed scout leaders doing activities I live and watching young men transform into teachers and leaders.
    And I am in a calling right now that is allowing me to be myself and have the support and validation from leaders that find value in my unorthodox methods and beliefs (finally).
    I'm under an awful lot of stress right now from various sources, but I love where I am in life and the things I am accomplishing. There's very little I would change.
  10. Like
    dahlia reacted to Wingnut in Would you say you're happy?   
    I suffer from depression.  In the last two years or so, it's been clinically classified as "major depressive disorder."  I actually found that reading that diagnosis came as a relief, because I had initially (12 years ago?) been diagnosed with "mild depression," but I had been struggling a lot more than "mildly."  I've been taking an anti-depressant that has helped temper my stress and mood swings, but hasn't done much more than that.  In the last two months, I've added a stimulant to help with my ADHD, and in the last month I've noticed a change.  I've shared with more than one person on this board already, but I feel like I've come up for air from being underwater for so long.  At first I was gasping for breath because I needed it to stay alive.  But soon I found myself gulping down breaths just because it felt so good to breath again!  I feel happy!  I can't pinpoint when the change happened, or what specifically may have been a turning point for me, but I feel happy!  It's no longer putting on a good face so people don't know.  It's no longer suffering in silence.  It's no longer commiserating with other friends who are also struggling (though I still do that, but more empathizing than commiserating).  It's no more fooling myself into thinking I'm happy.  It's no more one or two good days a week.
     
    I FEEL HAPPY!!!
     
    I feel it inside, and it's the best thing I have felt in a very, very long time.  I had forgotten what it felt like to be happy.  It feels so good!  I'm happy that I'm able to feel happy again.
     
    And I'm so excited to share it with people!  I feel like I'm in a good position lately to help others who are still under their own waters, because I've seen the surface, and I know it's there.
     
    A small part of me is scared though, worried that this won't last long.  I pray that it will.
  11. Like
    dahlia reacted to mordorbund in Deathbed conversion?   
    You'll have to go to the first volume of the Church Handbook of Instruction (CHI) to see if something's there. CHI 2:20.1.4:
     
  12. Like
    dahlia got a reaction from Wingnut in Would you? Could you? Liquor   
    Taste the wine before cooking with it.  It's easy to say 'red goes with meat and white goes with poultry and fish' but there are many many types and brands of wine in both categories. I assume they don't all taste the same, which is why you might want to taste before cooking.
     
    As to bias - yes, I think you see a lot of Italian and French dishes on the shows. If it's more American slanted, you might get some beer thrown in there. No matter what they are cooking, you see a lot of the better chefs talk about their 'French training,' so yeah, there's probably some bias, no matter what they are cooking.
     
    We don't get a lot of Muslim inspired dishes on US cooking shows. Maybe something with couscous every once in a while, but not often.
  13. Like
    dahlia reacted to Iggy in It's the little things that make a ward...   
    The first Valentines day after I separated from my husband, the YW *Heart Attacked* me. They completely covered my front door with red and white lace hearts of all sizes, and sayings. The one that stood out and really got to me was the one on red paper with white lace doily cut outs of the letters: You Are A Beloved Daughter of God. Tied to my door knob was a small white paper bag decorated in hearts and kissy lips filled with valentine cookies and candies. 
     
    The primary children did a similar thing on my birthday (I was Primary 1st Councilor) - only with hand drawn 'birthday' decorations. I kept them all for years - till the mice in AZ got to them and chewed up all the paper!! 
  14. Like
    dahlia got a reaction from Wingnut in How do you cheer yourself up when you are struggling?   
    Smashing Pumpkins.  Adolescent angst always makes me feel superior, like thank goodness I've left that part of my life behind. . Good guitar makes me happy. Billy Corgan makes me swoon.
  15. Like
    dahlia got a reaction from classylady in What intrigues you to respond to a FB status?   
    I'm an awful person. I don't like any of that 'share if you love your sister' or 'like if you want a cure for cancer' stuff. I'm kinda sniffing around for a new position, so I don't like any political stuff, as much as I'd like to, because no matter how you have your privacy settings set, you don't know what might happen and who can see what. Too much conservative stuff can take you out of the competition when liberals are invovled - witness the recent issue with the Mozilla CEO.
     
    I do share a lot of animal rights stuff (shoot me). Films of animals being abused, cute pics of baby pigs, don't wear fur, etc. I also share stuff from Pure Michigan during the tourist season, because that is where my heart is, and library/librarian stuff. I think my favorite page to share now is A Mighty Girl, which has women in history who've done things; book lists for girls of all races, abilities, interests, backgrounds, etc.,;  and how not to be a princess - or if you're going to be one, how to be the most b.a. princess who can save herself. I post to inform friends who have girls and to honor the unsung female inventors, heros, artists, athletes, etc.
  16. Like
    dahlia reacted to notquiteperfect in The Death of Blunt Speech - good or bad   
    Agree with Wing.  There's a big difference if a person is talking to a group of 500 or 5,000 versus 5,000,000.  Different (varied) audience, different (varied) needs.
  17. Like
    dahlia reacted to Tricia87 in How do you cheer yourself up when you are struggling?   
    Retail therapy. Works every time
  18. Like
    dahlia got a reaction from Wingnut in It's the little things that make a ward...   
    My doorbell rang tonight and it was one of the men from the ward, accompanied by 2 of his kids. They handed me a little bag of heart shaped cookies and a bouquet of roses.
    I would have been happy with a single flower, so this was a really great surprise.
    How nice to remember the single sisters for Valentine's!