Summer baking

What to do when it is too hot to be outside, and you really need to get a few things done inside? If you are me, you cross a few things off your list, then pull out the Flour cookbook (new to me!!) and make the maple oatmeal scones (aka the reason for purchasing the cookbook in the first place).

This little story of a tiny village in Spain winning the lottery reminds me of the movie Waking Ned Devine. Isn't it lovely that such happy stories happen in real life? And notice what the townspeople are doing with the money--and not doing!

This stuff keeps dreamers dreaming.

The Politics of Dignity. 

Humiliation is the single most underestimated force in politics. People will absorb hardship, hunger and pain. They will be grateful for jobs, cars and benefits. But if you force people to live indefinitely inside a rigged game that is flaunted in their face or make them feel like cattle that can be passed by one leader to his son or one politician to another, eventually they’ll explode.

Thomas Friedman has inspired me to post again. That man often shares such interesting thoughts. This one doesn't only apply to politics--I've been noticing this principle of human dignity a lot lately in the workplace. Without it, the same results: burnout, dissatisfaction, stagnation, lack of creativity.

There's so much encouragement out there to be on top of the new trend and the new technology--to embrace social media and allow it to transform your business, your life.

Is there potential in going the opposite direction as well? Can you make a business work without email blasts and facebook fan pages and twitter updates? I'm curious. Most of the design blogs and new business tutorials suggest that you cannot.

I don't want to be abreast all the new technological advancements, and I don't want to be a victim of the trends. It's too much pressure. It requires hours, even days of time to be spent researching and then purchasing and then over-communicating. And then the next day, the same all over again because it's always evolving. Where is the time to feel and think and create?

I keep thinking about something Ann Voscamp said at our spiritual retreat last week:

creative space comes from quiet space.


I love that.

It's probably a bit ironic that I'm posting this on a blog. I guess technology has its place.

Interesting related read: Waldorf School in Silicon Valley, where learning takes place without computers (shocking!)

More greatness from Thomas Friedman on the economy:

Neither party is saying: Here is the world we are living in; here are the big trends; here is our long-term plan for rolling up our sleeves to ensure that America thrives in this world because it is not going to come easy; nothing important ever does.

Sometimes the news is in the noise, like the Wall Street protests or the Tea Party. But sometimes the news is also in the silence. To me, the biggest protest in the country today is that when the Tea Party insanely blocked any G.O.P. participation in a Grand Bargain that involved taxes, most Americans were silent. Why? Because they didn’t think Obama was offering a big plan from his side, either — one that rose to the true scale of our problems and aspirations, one that would push us out of our comfort zone and make us great.

Read more here.

I was troweling through the old family photo archives a few weeks ago, and found this treasure.

This is little Rachel. Check out the modest shorts, the bowl haircut (nb: this was her own choice), the SAVE THE EARTH tee, the large granny glasses (hello, stylish) and of course the Grand Champion banana bread.

Funny story: that banana bread recipe won grand champion at the county fair every time one of us kids made it. After we had each won once (and collected our $13), Mom said we couldn't submit it anymore. It was a blow to our yearly allowance of Harvey County Fair earnings.

Great opinion post on Junk Food vs REAL Food. Read it, if you haven't already, and then get cooking!

Taking the long route to putting food on the table may not be easy, but for almost all Americans it remains a choice, and if you can drive to McDonald’s you can drive to Safeway. It’s cooking that’s the real challenge. (The real challenge is not “I’m too busy to cook.” In 2010 the average American, regardless of weekly earnings, watched no less than an hour and a half of television per day. The time is there.)

Read here.