Merry Christmas... is it really Christmas?

Have you ever had one of those days where you get working on something and then you look up and it's a couple hours later than you thought?

Yeah... that was the last six weeks...

Lisa has been running subjects for her dissertation and teaching (a lot....). So, she's been busy.

Meanwhile...

I have finally finished the first draft for the second book  (got that?) in the Johnson Farm series (just over 290 pages (71,304 words)). In this book our young hero gets ordained in the church, discovers people aren't always what they seem, and discovers precisely why you never get in between two fourteen year old girls who are angry at each other and carrying weapons (even pretend ones)😨😨😱.

Lisa is still hoping to defend her dissertation this spring, which means she needs to get her whole document written by mid March 😅.

Hopefully in about the same time frame I'm releasing the first Johnson Farm book for sale (Tune in in the coming month or so to find out how to get some cool book launch related swag😎).

In other news Lisa's music folks are doing a significant part of the Sacrament meeting this Sunday (Christmas). So she's working hard on that too...

Now that NANOWRIMO is done for this year and the first draft is in the can I'll be more regular on doing blog posts again (and Lisa will do some too when she gets the time). So, stay tuned for cool shiny things (including some that you can own), school news, book stuff, and other adventures that are sure to come in the next year!

That's it for this one...
There are books to write and things to do.
Merry Christmas everyone!

And for those wondering how we're going to get all this done...

Let's hope this year is calmer than... ok... maybe not!

Well, Christmas went well around the Kidder household, and relatively calmly since it was just the two of us. Significantly we made it through our first post diabetes diagnosis Christmas without too much trouble over the yummy food (though Lisa is basically having to finish a box of See's candy by herself...).

And then the new year started, and was pretty calm until about 10:00 AM on January first!

Words 'n junk...

This month I'm editing that novel Johnson Farm that I started as a NANOWRIMO project in November and I started on the first. So far the revisions are pretty good! There is one three line change and a couple of paragraph re-formats but those are the biggest items in the first 50 pages. I'm moving at about double the pace I was writing at, so the first editing pass should be done in about two weeks. The goal is to have the book ready for people to read by the end of February. Then in March I have special plans for the book that I will be officially announcing in a couple of weeks (if the events of this month haven't killed me by then...)

Also in March I will be doing final edits for my chainmaille book that's do to be published in April... I am also cranking away on the videos, but not as fast as I would like... Still I have one that should be up on the YouTube channel in a couple of weeks at the latest.

Since Lisa's dissertation has a lot to do with her work she's been doing less writing and more 'thinky stuff' over the break. Note: you don't really understand the value or real nature of 'thinky stuff' until you've done serious writing (and a fair amount of it). But she's moving forward again. She has also been doing A LOT of knitting. Don't worry no sheep were actually harmed in her efforts but a few  really resent the bad haircuts ;-)

The rest of the story...

That gets us up to January 3rd which was supposed to be a 'day of rest'. Well for Lisa it was, she was home sick... For me it was the day that they informed the members of the stake that all the ward boundaries are being redrawn... There's more to it, but I officially don't know about anything else until the official meeting next week...

I say officially because, lets face it, I've been a ward clerk for the better part of the last 15 years and a data analysis guy for longer than that... If I can't put together a thing or two by myself then there is a problem...

The first hint was at the beginning of December when they announced that all the wards were to have all the end of quarter and end of year stuff done by January 3rd... (we usually have at least until the 15th for a lot of it...

So to quote Apocalypse Now..."I wanted a mission, and for my sins they gave me one." This is quite probably the only process I've never had to deal with as a clerk. This is happening fast and I'm fairly close to the center of it.

Yes, the bishop has more responsibility. But, I'm the one that gets to make sure that all the records, data, ordinances/ordinations/callings, and related stuff get moved; happen; get recorded; or whatever else is necessary (and that it's all done by the book...). On the bright side, I'm sure that I won't get stuck with a calling I don't want in the next few months; and at least I'm not the executive secretary ("I have two phones and neither one will stop ringing!!!").

That's about it for this one...
Till next time...
This just seems like the thought to end on...

Christmas 2016

This has definitely been an eventful year; and it is about time that I (Lisa) actually write during my week.

We spent last Christmas in California visiting with family, and of course the Tourmaline mine.  This Christmas will be spent at home with some mini rock activities for the grandchildren of some friends - the 6 year old is really into rocks.

Here are some highlights from the year....

Lisa

• April: Missed the NW QM conference due to illness - but the presentations I organized were a success and prompted an invite to present at the National conference in November.
• May: (See Patrick's list).  Marisa came up to help and made a new chair cover!
• August: A trip to California to visit Patrick's mom and Lisa's family.  I began my 8th year working at ISU; 6th year in the ITRC.  This is the longest I have has worked at the same place!
• October: Lisa's mom diagnosed with breast cancer.
• November: Presented at the National Quality Matters Conference in San Antonio.  Won! the 3 Minute Thesis competition at the AECT Conference in Indianapolis.  All 5 members of dissertation committee finalized!
• December: Back to full steam working on dissertation.

Patrick

• April: Patrick's mom diagnosed with ALS.
• May: Patrick diagnosed with diabetes with a week long visit to the hospital.
• August: A trip to California to visit Patrick's mom and Lisa's family.
• September: Completed the first Chainmaille book, complete with pictures and detailed instructions for his own design.  It is currently being tested.
• November: Won NANOWRIMO! with 58,201 words for a new novel.
• December: Rockhounding in the parking lot of the Army Surplus store.

I'm sure some exciting things happened before April, but I just can't think of any at the moment. (and neither can Patrick)

In thinking about Christmas I ran across this beautiful quote which spoke to my heart about the message of Christmas.

The Advent message is that one homeless night long ago, in a place called Bethlehem, God wrapped humanity's broken songs and shattered chords with the music of the spheres.  

~Leonard Sweet

For several years the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has put together Christmas messages.  This year the tag is #ASaviorIsBorn and this video explains why we need a Savior - much like the quote above, the gift of a Son brought completeness and hope to everyone, everywhere.

Many others have shared their talents - a search of #ASaviorIsBorn will bring up many songs and stories, here is a playlist of some of my favorites.

Merry Christmas everyone!

A thought for the season

This week is a short one... Basically one thought that I had at church yesterday.

You can apply this to hymns, carols or what ever else you need, but...

When you sing songs about Jesus Christ you are singing to him. Give the best you have/can in the song.

The Little Drummer Boy in a carol of old played his drum for the young Savior as he had no other gift to give. I submit to you here and now that this is what we should be doing when we sing to our Savior.

It doesn't matter if you think your voice is good or bad. It definitely doesn't matter what the person next to you, or any other mortal being, may think. You are singing to Jesus Christ, your Lord and Savoir. As long as you give him your best your song is accepted by Jesus Christ the Lord. That is what matters.

I wasn't going to include a video in this one, but Lisa pointed out one of the videos I've linked to. So let's end by taking a look at a few variations on giving your best...

Till next time God bless...






 

New year new posts...

Ok, so the holidays kinda wiped us out on posting for a little while, but we're back.

We went down to El Segundo for Christmas and had a pretty good trip. We did not: blow our car up , blow our bank accounts, blow up at each other, or any other problems of that sort. We did get to: see my Mom and Bill, See Lisa's parents and some of the sibs/in-laws/nieces-nephews/other relations, dig some tourmalines (separate upcoming post (have to get Lisa to download the pics...)), pick a pearl (6.75 mm pink from a place at the Redondo Pier), run around in a Japanese grocery store (with attending Okinawa flashbacks), make pancakes for dinner, and other adventures that may come up as part of future posts.

Christmas stuff is actually still up here at the house as both of us had to jump back into "real" life almost immediately on arrival back home.

We did get a request this week that I wanted to respond to... One of the sister in laws asked about sourdough starter...

As part of our Christmas adventures we took some starter and made biscuits and gravy, and pancakes at Lisa's parents house, and I'm guessing that it went over because we got asked to make more pancakes (BTW I set a personal pancake record for number of people served in one meal... 12).  The portion of old Sudden Death that went with us died (due to some unwanted flies trying to get a bite); however, Sudden Death lives! I kept some in the refrigerator up here and it weathered the two weeks just fine. It would be sad to loose old SD as he's the longest lasting starter I've ever had (not really a big achievement some of the serious starters are old enough to collect social security!), but it would not be a disaster as they aren't really that hard to start...

There are basically two ways to start a starter: (other than buying one...)

1 the 'wild capture' method:

Basically put some water, flour, and sugar in a bowl. Mix well, and wait for what ever local yeast buggies happen to be in the area to start growing. Um no thank you... I've seen enough technicolor mold and other less than desirable buggies and I prefer a more consistent, dependable method.

2 the 'mix it your self' method:

In this method you start with the same basic mix of flour, water and sugar.

I use the following:
1 cup flour
1 cup water
1 tablespoon of sugar

Put it in a bowl that's at least double or triple the volume you're starting with (trust me give it too small a container and it will try to escape!). Wake up a teaspoon (or packet) of active dry yeast in a little warm water (that's warm not hot (we want to wake the little beasties up not make soup!)) and mix it in.

Note: Use non expired (by markings on container or just plain dead) active dry yeast. Don't fool with rapid rising yeast, yeast protein or any other 'modified' yeast products. You want a good strong yeast not a modified yeast or yeast derivative...

Now you cover your mix  with a towel, paper towel or similar covering that will allow the mix to breath and let it sit overnight.

The next day you can use your starter for whatever fun recipes you find (there are even a couple on the blog here...). Try to save a quarter cup of starter to keep it going... you really can keep one going for a long time.

Your starter will be happiest living on  a room temperature kitchen counter. Generally it is best to feed it regularly (like every 12 hours if it's on the counter) and use it regularly (it tends to build up pretty fast so you have to use it or throw some out on a regular basis). Most reasonable people will tell you to either use it or discard down to a 1/4 cup and feed it a quarter cup each of flour and water at each feeding (when you're going to use it soon (4-12 hours in the future say...) you can feed it more to build up).

You can also keep it in the refrigerator and feed it once a week. If you do this there are a couple things to be aware of...
1) let it warm up a couple hours before you try to use it in a recipe;
2) cover it but let it breath (starter releases CO2 if you put a tight lid on it you're building a bomb...); 3) when it stays in the refrigerator starter will generate a liquid, this is normal. The liquid is actually an alcohol product that comes from the yeast only partially breaking down its food. Opinions very as to whether you should stir the liquid in or drain it off, (I usually drain it off) but if you want to avoid it all together keep your starter on the counter! BTW if the liquid is black that really creeps me out and makes me wary of your starter (you may have some unpleasant bugs going there...time to start again).

The last thing about starter... a starter that sticks around should really have a name. The name is up to you, but it should have one.

Lisa's book chapter is coming along. So are my novella and novel. Yes... the novella was supposed to be out last month but that didn't happen. I decided some stuff needed to be added; it turns out it's really hard to write in a moving car (or at your in-laws kitchen table with family running around); and for some strange reason my writing partner insists on working on her doctorate and sleeping! It will be out this year though (before November) and the novel will be out late this year or next year. I also have some non fiction stuff coming up but more on that later...

I'll tell you more about the characters in the stories I'm working on in later posts (probably most of that will go on on my writing blog (I'll put up a link here when that happens)). In the mean time I found a fan video for the Avengers that resonates with me. I'm not writing an Avengers story (I create my own characters thanks!) but with the song I can place one of my characters in the place of just about every character in the video:



And no, I am not being derivative... I'm just saying that if my characters were superheros I know which one of these guys each of my characters would be.

Well, that's it for today... one of us will be writing here again next week.

A Belated Christmas Present :-)

Due to a variety of things, my Christmas/Anniversary present arrived with the Kings - a few days later.

My once empty cupboard is now very full.


Here is my present all tucked away nicely.


The cupboard is a bit small, I do have to lift it up to get it out on the shelf - but it is very easy. And it has a place to hide away and not take up space on the counter!

THANK YOU!!! to my dear husband. Now on to baking and whipping!

Merry, Merry Christmas Everyone!

I hope this finds everyone well this Christmas season. As I put the ornaments on our little Christmas trees today, I thought about each ornament as I found a place for it. My first Christmas ornaments were from a Young Women's lesson when I was a Senior in High School. Since then, every year I have acquired at least one new ornament. I have two from my mission - I was serving in France at the time. Many from friends who have traveled - I have two from Isreal. But the most important part of Christmas is remembering our Savior.

While it has taken me a while to get ornaments on our little trees, it did not take me long to put up the nativity sets.

I love thinking about each person who was present that night when Christ was born. Perhaps one day I will start collecting Santons. They are figurines made in France to depict the "Creche". The biggest difference is that not only do you have the Shepards and the Wise Men - but the butcher, baker, tailor - the whole town comes to see the Christ child.


This little tree is the one I went to JoAnn's for in 2006 - Mine and Patrick's first Christmas. All the Christmas decorations were in storage in San Diego. I thought I could do without since we would be going over to family's - but by the time the 22nd rolled around I had to bring Christmas into my home. This is similar to another tradition from France - the manger scene is under the tree.

I know things have been tight for many this year - us included. Remember that despite the economy and obstacles that fall onto our path, the Savior has given us the precious gift of the atonement. He loves all and invites all to come unto Him. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas.


Did you notice I'm singing one of the songs? Didn't know I was a country singer in my previous life, did you? :-)

Here is another wonderful song - just follow the link http://www.joytoeveryone.com