Agreed! Spent my childhood glued to a piano and performing. I was the weird kid who at 8 refused to go on vacation unless my parents guaranteed me two hours a day of piano practice. This was my obsession. There are mall music store salesmen across America who made an unscrupulous amount of money in commission because crowds would gather to watch me playing in the showroom, and parents would ask, "So if I buy a piano for Drisilla, will she play like that too?" to which the sales folks would respond, "Oh yes!" 😡 So that is who I was. And summers at Interlochen, and so on. My piano was my best friend. I spent exactly zero time in the kitchen with my mom or grandmothers. When I began cooking after we got married, I did not even know the names of basic utensils. I smiled like a deer caught in the headlights at my bridal shower when all the old ladies in my parents' church bestowed kitchen items upon me assuming that I would fulfill the traditional role. LOL, for a long, long time, those things were my husband's tools! I also left home at 16 to live with my aunt and uncle in order to attend college with my cousin full time. My cousin was every bit as inept as I! We were a pair. She was, hmmm, Temperance Brennan from Bones, and I was Angela. So she was obsessing on science and I would be "Sweetie, we don't say that!", and she would often drag me away from the piano to help her with an experiment. And on top of all that glorious weirdness, my aunt coooked so badly that it made people hate food. She wanted to cook very healthy food but seemed to think that this meant bad food because tasty apparently meant unhealthy. I used to say that eating her food reminded me of what it might be like to be a human who just grazed on lawn clippings. We spent a lot of time eating on campus or grabbing a bite on the way home from classes, and since she tutored, and I had piano students, we did have our own money to spend on that since both of us were in college on full scholarship. We were quite the pair! We still occasionally laugh together about that. Both of our husbands are amazing cooks. Dh swears that he won me over the evening he grilled a steak for us on the patio of his dorm. I maintain that I was in love before that, however, the steak may have had a hand in it! 😁 Extra funny, Mark's brother married an inept kitchen elf as well! 😂 As part of this confession I will admit that Anne B would be all over me about my knife cuts!

Whenever we have these discussions, I think about Worst Cooks in America. When I was first married, I could have easily been on that show. What's a lentil? What's a plantain? What's kale? Rosemary, isn't that a girl's name? Ohhhhhh, we don't garnish a plate with a tablespoon of safron??? Who knew!" 😲 I grew up on vegetables that could be dumped from a can of Dole and then over warmed to the point they turned unappealing shades and became almost baby food, and very few fruits in the house. My dad didn't give a generous amount to my mom for food - he always seemed to have plenty for his hobbies though 😠 - and mom's palette was untrained due to the food deprivation she grew up with. So I know where I came from and how disastrous my journey from incompetant to excellent cook was and try to have compassion for those who do not understand how to cook from scratch with wholesome ingredients. And so was terrified of meal planning and just the kitchen in general, so I get it. My mother is actually a very good cook when given the resources to do it properly which she didn't have when we were young. My father in law and mother in law were like "Team Anne Burrell and Bobby Flay". It was a bit embarrassing to have to evolve in front of them.

In music history class in college if the professor mentioned a work that we all knew from Looney Tunes - and Warner Brothers used a lot! - we would break out into Looney Tune lyrics if it was opera. Nothing like 32 people singing, "Wetoyn my wove I want you always beside me" and "Kiw ds wabbit"! Meanwhile, it would drsw.the most unamused blank on the professor's face, and we just couldn't understand why she didn't love it as much as we did. 😂😂😂

I need to admit that my ability to burn rice is legendary. Bless Dh's heart, he bought me a rice cooker, and that solved the issue. Often I toss beans or veggies like broccoli in there with the rice plus all the herbs and it gets done together without having to tend it, and I love that. I wish we gave those things away to every young adult in the nation because it makes it so simple to cook with rice. I also make quinoa with shredded spinach and finely diced carrots and red pepper in that contraption. It is the best thing he ever bought me. On the other hand, he bought me an Instapot and that has not been the same level of success. Mostly I end up resenting the space it takes on my counter top, while petting my rice cooker and telling it what a good girl it is! 😁

I need to try that cheesy white bean bake!

I am sooooooooo sorry! I hope no one becomes really sick. Much love and peace to you.

I guess there is this grey area where they can stump for issues they claim are related to doctrine so long as they don't stump for specific politicians or parties. But she stood there in front of the microphone and claimed certain politicians which she named were of the devil, and anyone who did not sign the petition following the anti-Christ. It was so gross! I can't think of any other way of describing it. Just gross. I do think it crossed the line of legality. But as a former Christian, what bothered me a whole lot more than the legality was the entire disregard for the Gospel and the Epistles while still claiming to follow Jesus and the N.T. I have no expectation of any church to follow any doctrine perfectly because humans fail. I expect them to use a.little critical thought about such egregious behavior. And it was WORSHIP! The worship service, not even in the fellowship hall afterward where people who don't agree with that political position or think this is inappropriate could at least escape. Beyond the pale..... Today Mark and I watched a livestream from a little rural church in Kansas from the ELCA denomination. We have long lost distant relatives in the area, and a not so distant aunt who settled there in the mid-1910's, a set of cousins still in the area. We have talked about visiting the church when we go out there this summer - ds is writing a book of family history and lore - but it was important to me to check it out well enough to know that it would be appropriate for us. I don't want to be the lone, masked visitor in there who ends up fleeing in anxiety because of white supremacy, nationalism, political stumping, etc. It was refreshing! Simple hymns, no rock concert musicians, just a pianist doing his/her best, and gentle singing, lots of scriptures were read. A lovely and appropriate children's message with several children gathered at the pastor's feet was offered, and the sermon was also rooted in Jesus teachings. I got the impression from the things this pastor posts on their Facebook page, she promotes the Beatitudes and fruits of the Spirit primarily. We especially needed to make sure this church was safe because our middle son's s/o is traveling with us, and our precious we hope will be someday daughter in law is not white. Walking into the heart of a racist church would be devastating. The church social media indicates they promote racial justice and actively work toward this despite being a very white church in the heart of a profoundly, predominantly white area. We will watch several more live streams this spring to be sure, but as long as that is the vibe we keep getting, we will make an in person visit since this was the home church of my husband's ancestors in the area. The service really met Mark's needs today.

Sorry to hear about your ds! I hope no one else gets it.

I think it is important to remember in times past, women were often wholly dedicated to food, cooking and food production all day long. Many of the things we do with our children, many of the things we are required to do in modern life, detracts from being able to do that. We do have a pasta attachment for our kitchenaid (a luxury many families do not have), and so still rarely make pasta from scratch even though it would save money over buying GF lasagna noodles since we can buy the GF all purpose flour in bulk. But it just doesn't happen. Especially not with caring for mother in law, running elders to medical appointments, etc. I think in past eras, elders and young children were not at all well cared for in the interest of keeping up with survival. Once there were children old enough to contribute, that would have definitely helped. I think food was pretty simple. Only the rich had a kitchen staff allowing for many of the dishes we enjoy today. For everyone else it was make a loaf of bread, toss root vegetables in a pot with water, stew it while working tail off at other things, and if lucky, there was enough to go around, often that wasn't the case. Childhood malnutrition being rather "normal".

There was a thread three or four years ago in which some of us got brave and shared deconversion stories. I don't know if you can find it to read. I have no idea what the title of that thread was. I am forever grateful to MercyA, Krgtok, Carol in Cal, and others for being so kind. For many, faith exits are very traumatic and the inclination of others is to try to "re-proselytize" them or worse, just get rough on them and use words like apostate, wicked, hard hearted, vicious accusations, etc. We had none of that and lots of love. It was good!

Absolutely no one has killed as many investment plant babies as me! No one! My record cannot be beaten except by companies leveling rainforest! 😁 I am glad my husband did not allow me to yank out the fledgling grape vine after the first year. It went so hopelessly dead looking in the fall after it was planted that when spring came and it just looked like a plant mummy, I wanted to pull it up and have a funeral pyre. He insisted I wait. Who knew mummies come back to life? Brendan Frasier movies were accurate! 😂 This past summer we got several pounds of grapes off it. Thank the universe we never lived in a time in which my children would have been dependent upon me growing their food. That just would not have gone well. There are three very evil animal entities that will try the last nerve of every gardener and fruit grower. Deer, rabbits, and gophers. Gophers are the worst. But deer can be problematic, and rabbits are a pain in the rear. Gophers though? They make people homicidal angry. And yes, those buggers have from time to time ended up on the wrong end of the pellet rifle. There are a lot of things I can handle in life but for some reason the utter decimation of broccoli crops is not one of them!!

Great tip, thanks!!!

Lentil Soup, saffron rice, and large salads Meatless chilli and salads Homemade meatless pasta salad (GF), and fruit Tuna melts and roast Brussels sprouts Roast chicken thighs, green beans, steamed broccoli, and savory polenta Stuffed red bell peppers (rice, ricotta, saute mushrooms, leeks - from my batch of autumn dehydrated leeks - garlic, celery, and parmesan for flavor) with vegetable stew Bean burritos with fajita vegetables and a small amount of taco seasoned ground beef for the college boy whose campus food is not great and will be home Saturday ravenously hungry My mother in law is making a roast beef with all the trimmings next Sunday and I do not have to cook which is great. College boy will probably attack that roast like a hungry lioness on a gazelle. The cafeteria food has been bizarrely unappetizing as of late.

My brother needed special speech therapy after his stroke, and not because he couldn't speak clearly - he regained that quickly - but because his brain needed to be retrained to carry on adult conversations. It took a while, but the therapist was an expert working with stroke victims, and did a very good job. I suspect your friend needs that. It is natural to feel yourself pulling away when the nature of your relationship has changed so fundamentally. Sad. But I do get it. She really needs a support group that can help her through all the changes she is experiencing and understands what she needs to overcome if she is going to return to a semblance of normal. Sadly, you also need a friend who as a peers has your back, so to speak. As for prognosis, my brother's doctor told him what you gain back in the first two years is what you get. There is virtually no improvement after that. I think the doctor is in general correct simply because almost no one can get any meaningful therapy after two years due to insurance restrictions that make lofty goals and then if not reached in a crazy short period of time, refuse to pay for more therapy, and likely people kind of give up. My brother did not. It has been 5 years and he has still made strides. But my brother is tenacious. Just tenacious about it. So instead of settling for "The therapist said I road a mile on my exercise bike so I am not going to get more of X therapy", he bought a bike, and in the winter rides 20 miles a day on a stand in his living room, and in good weather, 20 miles a day outside. When his wife and daughter pushed him about his conversational skills and speech patterns, he fought like mad with his insurance company until he got specialized speech therapy. I am going to guess that many patients cannot advocate for themselves that well or have policies with lower lifetime maximums and the insurance company cannot be forced to pay for anything.

From what I am seeing in online church streams and social media sermon synopsis from local churches, it isn't that they haven't read the Bible, it is that they are ignoring it or twisting the words of Christ, making Christ's teachings take a back seat, etc. in order to further a nationalist or personal agenda. These church goers and their leaders are not ignorant of Christ's instructions, they have decided that their public policy agenda trump's Jesus agenda. In discussing this with my sons, all in their twenties, and my daughter who is almost 31, they believe this behavior is a key ingredient in why their peers are rejecting the concept of organized Christianity. We watched one live stream in which during announcements which were done before the offering in the middle of the worship service, a petition for stripping the governor of emergency powers was presented and the whole service stopped while the pastor had an usher pass it around for people to sign! Can you imagine being a congregant who did not support it? DH left a comment on their facebook and shut it off the stream. He still enjoys livestreaming worship services, and I felt so bad for him. It really upset him. 😥

Agreed whole heartedly!

I agree with this. We have a major waste issue here.

I was thinking the same. Double or triple on all of it, and bananas are a dollar a piece right now. We will see a break once produce can be harvested. This is a heavy agricultural area so fruit and veggies abound from June-October. Michigan cherries can't be beat! I love and cook with lentils, beans/legumes, as well as rice and potatoes on a regular basis. But my mom is type 2 so her glucose would not stay down on the diet that was suggested. My son in law, in addition to wheat, seafood, alpha gal, dairy, and nightshade allergies also cannot have several different legumes. He can have the rice, and he can have veggies that are not nightshades so the potatoes are out as are tomatoes, peppers, etc. It is challenging to cook for him, and he feels bad about the difficulties his limits impose which is not something Dd and I want him to worry about. I love hummus, but apparently most people locally do not make it either because of lack of know how, lack of time, or lack of inclination. So the stores stock very little canned or dry chickpeas. I can't remember the last time I saw tahini on a store shelf. I usually have to drive to the city for that or more likely, remind myself when making an airport run, to stop and buy it along with chickpeas before returning home. I can buy Sabra hummus at Wal-Mart and one of the two other grocery stores in the county, $5 for a 10 oz container.

Blueberries do take a while to mature and produce. Those things are not instant like strawberry plants. Years if memory serves not just one growing season and then producing the next. You local extension office for Florida State should have a horticulturalist, ag specialist, and master gardener available by appointment or email. Email should solve this. Call, find out the email addresses, take cell phone photo close ups of your plums and blueberry plants, ask for help, and attach the photos. Someone should get back to you in a reasonable time frame with advice. I am going to have to do that in Bama because the varieties there ate so different from my Michigan ones. I am a newbie anyway, AND I am a botanical assassin which means I need a lot of help. The good news is that the Huntsville Botanical Gardens does not know who I am and lets me go there and frolic with my grandsons. Apparently the FBI does not maintain a database of garden killers yet! 😁

Blueberries. Hm 🤔. I am not super knowledgeable. I do know that Michigan blueberries grow in low spots that are quite wet, and are more prolific when surrounded not by direct shade, but some sun break around them. Our Bama blueberries, put in by the previous owners, are in a shady part of the yard along with grapes, and they had a soaker hose system which we maintained. They need a fair amount of regular water so this spring if there is a dry spell, dd will run that soaker house a LOT. Thankfully it is hooked up to the old well. The house is on city water though it is very rural and no town within six miles. Also, do you know what variety of plums? Michigan has a variety around this area that only produce a practically miniature size plum, like a Clementine orange size but shaped like a plum. They make a wonderful freezer jam from what I understand, but when the neighbors offer us some of theirs, my guys gobble them up so I never make any.

I think it sounds lovely, and you owe us a photo of this spread before you let everyone devour it! 😀

My daughter and I would also like to shake our fingers at Alabama. Come on Bama, get with it!

Yes yes, fingers crossed when the numbers come out Monday we get some yellow!

I am very worried about rentals. Very worried. Dh's brother is also. He is a house flippers, buys houses with good bones but needing to be entirely renovated. He said he is going to buy several homes and turn them into reasonably priced rentals. He feels it will be a service to his community, and if he can get reliable families in them, he won't raise rents if at all possible so that his families do not worry. We need more people with that vision.

We don't have an Aldi but the local paper says one is coming. I am looking forward to it. For price comparison, grade A large eggs are $2.59 right now. Milk is $4.99 a gallon. 16 oz of sour cream is up to $2.99, a lb of butter is $4.00, an 8 oz brick or bag of cheddar cheese is $4.00, apples are $1.50-2.00 each depending on the variety. Oranges are $1.50 each. Head of iceberg lettuce $2.79, other types of salad greens are more. $1.79 a lb for onions, 1 lb of baby carrots is $2.00. Strawberries are $5.00 a quart, $5.00 for a half pint of blueberries, and they look terrible often having mold on the bottom berries. I am not serving fresh berries at present. I have blueberries and raspberries in the freezer and make muffins for dh and whichever ds's are around at the time. They also use the frozen ones on pancakes and oatmeal. There were no dry beans or lentils on the shelves today when dh stopped to get coffee. I told him to check. This is not common, however, I do live in a rural agricultural area and a number of folks do know how to cook them so I suspect that if there are shortages in other things or they are feeling a grocery bill pinch, these items are flying out of there. People are back to bread baking too so flour and yeast were gone. But if anyone headed to the Mennonite Bulk Food Store, they would have been able to buy 25 and 50lb bags of these items flour, rice, and beans, plus large bricks of yeast, and 10lb bags of lentils. This issue with buying bulk of course is storage and being able to spend that much out of a single paycheck for one or two items. Side note: I know that the pastor's daughter is doing a lot of baking. Their 14 year old adores our dog Lewis so she likes to come and ask if she can walk him, and then is quite chatty when she arrives, and tells me about her endeavors. She is a really sweet young lady. She knows we are covid conscious, but her family is not. Yet, she still arrives on the front step wearing a mask and never takes it off while we talk. I have learned that she aspires to be a pastry chef and they give her a sum of money each month so she can practice her trade. I was gifted a marvelous loaf of bread that I can't eat due to my wheat allergy, but according to DH, is a work of art! Good for her. Apparently she binge watches Great British Baking Show. I love that show, but LOL, am not inspired to go run into the kitchen and try anything! 😁 At any rate, it is heartening to know a youth who is learning a wonderful life skill. I unfortunately, am not talented in anything but simple baking.