Pie of thanks

My mother’s apple pie is the pie to end all pies. It will be served in heaven. But this year I was invited to make the apple pie for Thanksgiving. My mother will be bringing mincemeat pie. Today I made my apple pie.

Pie of thanksgiving
Thanks to God for making the apple.
Thanks to orchard growers who tend and grow the apples.
Thanks to those who harvest the apples.
Thanks to those who transport them to my local grocery store.
Let’s not forget all the other ingredients – thanks for those.

Thanks to my Mom who makes the very best apple pie.
Thanks to my Dad who taught me how to make those snakes out of the apple skin. He also knows how to make a pig out of a mango seed.
Thanks to both my parents for inspiring me to look for the low-cholesterol pie crust recipe.
Thanks to all my family for eating the pies I have made and for being so enthusiastic and most of all for just being yourselves.
Let’s not forget all the people – thanks for you.


Playlist during making of Pie of Thanksgiving
Mozart Symphony No. 39
Schumann “Think Spring”
Cheryl Wheeler “When Fall Comes to New England”
Vanessa Carlton “A Thousand Miles”
Oscar Peterson
News: $800 billion of new aid for the ailing US economy; girls in Afghanistan attacked with acid sprayed from squirt guns; Dow Jones up 3 points; NASDAQ down 25 points.

Thanks, Dovetail!

I just heard that one of my favorite organizations is closing up shop. Dovetail is, or was :-( an organization offering non-judgmental support for interfaith couples. We went to a conference they held once. It was very helpful for me. Someone there pointed me to an official statement of the Presybterian church on relations with Jews, which gave me some theological ammunition for speaking to some of the more conservative people around here.

But they have run out of people to take on the various tasks they did, and run out of money too, so they are closing. It makes me sad.

One more election campaign comment

I just realized that I have no idea what John McCain's middle name is.

Anybody know, without looking it up?

The picture of autumn

One child sick, husband soon to travel on business, night falling earlier... need this reminder of beauty caught for a moment.

Did you participate?

On election day, near the grocery store, I saw that someone had taken a bunch of those campaign yard signs, six or seven signs with candidates’ names from both parties, and stuck them in a tree. A sort of hanging in effigy? Or perhaps just a way of saying this election campaign has been way too long?

I expected a line at our polling place, so I thought I might take a book to read while waiting in line. Then I noticed that the subtitle to my book includes the word “Bolshevism.” Too risky to take that book. It turns out there wasn’t a line. (The book is “The World on Fire: 1919 and the Battle with Bolshevism” by Anthony Read.)

Assume national voter participation is at around 80 percent (percent of registered voters who actually voted), and 185 million Americans are registered to vote. This would mean that about 37 million registered voters did not vote. Were they sick?

The Bolsheviks got 100 percent voter participation, I believe.

Thoughts while cleaning

Many thoughts enter the mind of the Common Household Mom as she is cleaning the bathroom. Such as:

- Why is there so much hair on the floor?
- Who clogged the vacuum?
- I do not feel like scrubbing the shower stall.
- Chocolate.
- I am not going to scrub the shower stall.

What do you think about while you are cleaning the bathroom?