When we were younger, occasionally we'd have a dinner that the family dubbed “bits and pieces.” Now that I look back, I can see that it was a mother's (Auntie Leila's) clever way to stretch the meal planning a bit. The meal would arise when there was an assortment of leftovers that needed to get finished — you know, when you don't have enough of any one dish to make a full leftover meal, but you have a collection of the small remainders of past dinners that are approaching expiration. The little tupperware containers are piling up in the fridge and you don't want to make something new when all of those little things aren't finished…
Of course, I didn't see the meal as a leftovers affair. I don't believe any of us did. The random remainders would be supplemented with some special cheese and crackers, homemade hummus, maybe some smoked mussels from a tin to spread over homemade bread… Mom would announce “bits and pieces” for dinner and we'd all be very excited! Usually this dinner was set up as a little buffet where we could help ourselves, and then – if we were lucky – we'd even sometimes take our plates into the den to watch a movie during dinner! So much fun!
I definitely thought of it as a treat. It never occurred to me until much, much later that it was a frugal move in disguise. In fact, I was convinced that it happened seldom because such decadence can't be sustained on a regular basis!
Remember how I showed you the drab ‘before' picture of when we first moved into this apartment? I'm afraid I have really failed to get those lovely ‘after' photos I promised… But here's a glimpse from last fall of the apartment as a home, which it truly had become. Sadly, in a quick development, The Artist and I have moved once again, just this past weekend. So I'm afraid the ‘after' photos from our first little nest are never to be. (More on that later…) |
- Auntie Leila discovered this reading of an essay by C.S. Lewis accompanied by a charming animated drawing that matches Lewis' prose for appeal. The Laws of Nature (a doodle).
- If you're not already following the work of Ryan T. Anderson, who – along with others – is tearing up the intellectual scene in presenting the reasonable, principled, civic case for marriage, you should be. Check out his co-authored essay We Don't Need to Redefine Marriage to Fix Policy Problems for a perspective that cares about the fair treatment of people who are homosexual but also stands for the irreplaceable role of marriage.
- Do you live in Louisiana or near there? Do check out the new site www.nolaneedspeace.com. Really, anyone who wants to stem the wicked tide of PPFA should check it out, too.
- I recently came across this article on How to Burn a Lot of Calories Without Exercising and I got a little kick out of it. It basically outlines a common sense plan for how to be engaged throughout your day so that the little choices you make increase your health. Anyway, I like to view it as a fitness-based affirmation of the kind of life that we at LMLD embrace: the DIY, hands-on, traditional, time-taking, virtue-seeking life can be good for the figure! 🙂
- And, finally, if you haven't yet come across the I Like Giving campaign, I am very excited to be the one to make the introduction. I recommend starting with I like car and then going from there. I haven't seen all the videos yet but I look forward to doing so and perusing the site a bit more. (Warning: if you are like me, you'll be needing tissues — in a good way.)
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