Game Review: BrainBashers

This summer I discovered a website that has pretty much every kind of puzzle that you can think of.  I really enjoy solving puzzles, so this was a great find for me!  (And maybe a not-so-great find considering the amount of time I've spent on it since finding it...)  I have enjoyed being able to try new kinds of puzzles, and have access to old classics as well.  So I thought I would share it with you!  I'm sorry in advance if you end up spending too much time on it...

www.brainbashers.com

Here are three of my current favourites.

Light Up:

This puzzle involves placing lightbulbs in the puzzle which shed "light" horizontally and vertically.  Each lightbulb can't shed light on any other lightbulbs.  There are numbers that indicate how many light bulbs are touching that number as hints to help you solve the puzzle, and the goal is to light up the whole grid.

Drop Quotes:

The letters in each column belong in the spaces under the column, and make a quote.  It's fun to solve, and sometimes the quotes are really good!

Killer Sudoku:

A much harder version of the standard sudoku, which has the same rules as sudoku but with the addition of the squares being grouped up into "cages" and given a clue which all of the numbers in the "cage" add up to.

What kinds of puzzles do you enjoy?

Abundant Poverty

"Abundant poverty".  That may seem like a strange phrase, or an oxymoron.  But it is a phrase that we have become quite fond of lately.

Because that is how we are living.

Let me explain what we mean by "Abundant Poverty". 

Poverty

I feel like poverty is a bit of an extreme word for our situation, considering the way that many people live around the world, so in some ways I hesitate to use it.  But we do use it, in order to make a statement.  Canada doesn't have a declared "poverty line" that decides who is living in poverty and who is not, but we are living on significantly less than that would be deemed "necessary" to live the average Canadian life.  Compared to the majority of Canadians, we have very little money to live on. 

To a certain extent, that is our own choice.  That is because we are choosing to live by our priorities. Priorities that believe that it is more important to spend time with family and friends than work multiple jobs and put in lots of overtime.  Priorities that believe that it is better to do work that you are called to do and have a passion for, even if it means earning less money, rather than working just to get a paycheque.  Priorities that believe that it is more important to make a difference in the world than to have comfort and convenience.  It doesn't necessarily follow that we have to be poor; it is possible to follow your passion and calling in a high-paying job.  But for us, it has meant living with less.

But I like to think that we are in good company.  Many people of our faith, both past and present, have found that following God's calling for their life has meant living with less.  Even our Saviour was counted among the poor when he walked this earth.

So we can't afford to buy our own house.  We can't afford the conveniences and "toys" that our culture tries so hard to declare as essential.  We buy things used and make do with what we have.  But our life is not defined by what we can't have, instead it is defined by abundance!

Abundant

We have more than enough!  We may just be renting a small apartment, but it is always full of people.  There is always room around our table for one more.  We have surrounded ourselves with friends and family (and people who are both!), and we are always excited for new people to join our community.  We've even invited random people we don't know at all to join us for a meal.  We love sharing what we have!  And we still haven't run out.  God always provides.

And we are looking for ways to expand even more - finding a larger place to rent, so that even more people can live with us!  So that we can continue following our calling of building community and living ethically.  We continue to dream of the day when we can live on a farm and do even more to care for the earth and live sustainably.

And so we meet each new day with anticipation, looking for what God is going to do.  Watching for his guiding and provision.  Eager to find more people to welcome into our home and our family.  Encouraging others to join us in our life of abundant poverty.

Ground Beef Ginger Bites and Stir Fry

I really like ginger beef.  I enjoy it when we go out for Chinese food, and I also make it pretty frequently.  (Well, maybe once a month, but I feel like that is pretty often!)  The primary obstacle to making it more frequently is the fact that it is pretty rare that we have steak or roast, and when we do that there would be leftovers to use for ginger beef.  So I thought that I would try making it with ground beef instead!  My idea was to make ground beef "bites", almost like a kind of meatball, to replace the strips of beef you usually would use. 

As this would be an "original" recipe, I thought I would share it with you, and include my process too!  I hope you enjoy.


How to Make Ground Beef Ginger Bites and Stir Fry.

1. Thaw some ground beef from the freezer.  Not an easy task on short notice when you don't have a microwave, but I found that the "warm" setting on the toaster oven worked pretty well.

2. Put on a pot of rice.

3. Mix ground beef with seasonings, bread crumbs, and an egg.  Seasoning raw meat is an interesting process, since you can't taste test it to see how it is.  I used some minced garlic and a bit of paprika, chili powder, powdered ginger, and a dash of hot sauce, and hoped for the best!  The egg and bread crumbs are to hold the meat together.

4. Turn on Christmas music, because we're allowed to now!

5. Use two small spoons to put small pieces of the meat mixture into the frying pan.  Kind of like drop cookies.  Or mini meatballs.  Except that they are not really round.  So meatblobs.  That does not sound appetizing.

6. Realize the fire is dying, so go give it a poke and add some more wood.

7. Return to frying the meat bites, while baby is hanging off your legs, desperately trying to get attention.

8. When the rice is done, remove from heat.

9. Wonder if baby's cries of "Nana!" mean that he is wanting water.  ("Nana" means a lot of different things these days.)  Give baby his sippy cup.

10. Decide to take a picture of baby with his sippy cup.  But as soon as baby sees the camera, he rejects his sippy cup in favour of trying to eat the camera.

11. Put baby in high chair and give him cherrios.

12. Mix the ingredients for the sauce, which includes soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, corn starch, red pepper flakes, and water.

13. Get a call from husband saying he is going to be late.

14. Notice the time, and think NO WONDER baby is grumpy!  He hasn't eaten in ages and it's almost his bedtime!

15. Feed baby sweet potato and applesauce, because that's what's in the fridge.  If there's any leftover ginger beef he can have that tomorrow.

16. Grab some mixed nuts to keep you going.

17. Stoke the fire because it is dying again.

18. Finish feeding baby, and notice that he has dumped water all down his front.

19. Change baby's diaper and onesie and put him to bed, realizing that this is the second day in a row that you've skipped brushing his teeth and reading his bedtime story but you can see how tired he is and want to avoid dealing with a tantrum at all costs.

20. Back out in the kitchen, contemplate the fact that nachos sound like a really good idea.

21. Decide that making nachos would be too much work.  Eat a bowl of cold cereal instead.

22. Realize that all of the spoons are dirty.

23. Find one clean spoon hidden at the back of the drawer.

24. Chop the vegetables for the stir fry while eating the cereal.  I used an onion, red pepper, zucchini, carrots, ginger, and garlic.

25. Hear a really loud banging sound that sounds like it's coming from the roof.  Wonder whether someone is coming to kill you.

26. Fry the vegetables.  I remembered that I also had two green hot peppers from my garden that I had just picked today, since I was cleaning out my garden plot.  With the cool weather we are having now they weren't going to ripen any more.  I figured I might as well add them!

27. Wonder how hot the hot peppers are.

28. With fear and trepidation, try eating a piece of one.  Realize they aren't too hot.  Chop them both up and add them to the stir fry.

29. Hear more loud banging.  Have the sudden terrible thought that it might wake the baby, and think venomously that if it did, someone would feel your wrath.

30. Add the sauce and meat to the pan, reduce heat, and simmer.

31. Put on one of husband's sweaters because you are cold.

32. Stoke the fire yet again.

33. Log into facebook and scroll aimlessly through your newsfeed.

34. Realize that supper is going to be ridiculously late.

35. Wonder why you didn't just order Chinese food.


Despite the fact that it was quite the process, supper did turn out well!  I would recommend it.  And just to be sure that you are not intimidated by my arduous saga, here is the recipe in a more traditional manner:


Ground Beef Ginger Bites and Stir Fry

For Meat:
1 pound ground meat
1 egg
3 tbsp bread crumbs
Powdered ginger, paprika, chili powder, and hot sauce "to taste"

Mix, and drop in small balls or "bites" in pan and fry until cooked.

For Sauce:
1/3 cup soy sauce
2/3 cup water
1 tbsp corn starch
1/2 tbsp hot pepper flakes
1 tbsp vinager
1/4 cup sugar

Mix in a small bowl and set aside.

For Stir Fry:
6 cloves garlic, minced
Chunk of ginger, julienned
Carrots, sliced
Zucchini, sliced
Onion, chopped
Bell pepper, chopped
(optional) Hot pepper, chopped fine

Fry in pan.  When softened, add sauce and meat.  Stir to combine.  Reduce heat and simmer for approximately 5 minutes, or however long you want.

See, that's not so bad!

How Long?

Dreams and longings
Grow no nearer
Unattainable goals
Tiredness
Disillusionment
Daily grind
Dulling the passion
Smothering the fire
And we cry
Oh Lord
How long?

Conflict with loved ones
Tensions rise
Friendships drift apart
Sickness
Brokenness
Fear and loneliness
Separate us
Isolate us
And we cry
Oh Lord
How long?

War and suffering

Fear and terror

In never ending cycles

Displaced
Terror-stricken
Victims of violence
All around the world
Too much death
And we cry
Oh Lord
How long?

TARDIS Costume

For Halloween this year, our family all wore Doctor Who costumes.  I was the TARDIS (basically a time machine that looks like a British police box, for those who don't know).  I had seen some pictures on pinterest of TARDIS dresses, so I thought that would be fun to try.

I started by scouring thrift stores for royal blue coloured clothes.  I ended up finding a skirt and top.  I also got a yellow shirt and a black sash.  I had some back heels at home, which completed what I needed for the costume.

Unlike my husband's and son's 11th Doctor costumes which needed very little done to the pieces I found at thrift stores, I had a bit more work to do for my TARDIS costume.


"Police Box" Belt

The first thing I did was add lettering to the sash so that it read "Police Public Call Box".  I used acrylic paint, since that's what I had around the house.  It was painstaking work to freehand the lettering, but I was very happy with how it turned out.

Windows

Next I had to make the iconic police box windows.  I decided to remove the front pockets off the blue shirt and replace them with windows.

I cut out white rectangles of fabric, pinning them where the pockets used to be.

Then I used a wide zigzag stitch to attach the white fabric and trace the shape of the windows.  I ended up tracing over it a couple of times to make the lines more solid-looking.

Police Box Sign

And finally I added the police box sign.  To do this, I researched how to print on fabric and found a helpful tutorial that explains how you can use freezer paper.

You cut a piece of your fabric that is slightly larger than 8 1/2 x 11 and iron it to make sure that it is very flat.  Then you cut an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of freezer paper.  Freezer paper has a wax coating only on one side.  You put your fabric on the ironing board wrong side up and place the freezer paper wax side down on the fabric, ironing it so that the freezer paper sticks to the fabric.  Then trim it so that it is exactly 8 1/2 x 11 (the size of regular printer paper).

Then you set up the printer to print high quality on "other" photo paper and print on the right side of the fabric that has the freezer paper attached to the other side.  This process worked pretty well for me, but I had a hard time getting our printer to accept the fabric/freezer paper.  But with Steve's help we were able to trick the printer into accepting it and the final product looked really good!

Then you peel the freezer paper off the fabric and trim the fabric down to the size you want to use.  I used my sewing machine to attach the fabric sign to the skirt.

Then all that was left for me to do was assemble all of the pieces together to make my TARDIS outfit!

Blogging 101

Blogging.  It seems like everyone and their great aunt is writing a blog these days.  This plethora of online material can be found all over the internet, covering every topic imaginable.  Because it has become so common, it is perhaps too easy to disregard or scorn the humble blog.

But the reality is that blogging is not an enterprise to be undertaken lightly.

For one thing, you need to come up with material to write about.  This is not always as easy as it may seem.

For example, on Tuesdays I just can't seem to think of much to talk about.  I don't have any poems just waiting to be written or thoughts on life just waiting to be shared.  I sit in front of a blank screen and contemplate the fact that my Thursday posts are so much easier to write.  All I have to do is make something and take pictures of it.  I don't have to try to be deep or clever.

But then on Thursdays, things get busy, or I'm really tired, and I don't have the ingredients to try the new recipe I've been thinking about, or the baby is fussy and doesn't want to entertain himself long enough to let me finish a project to post about.  Then I contemplate the fact that Tuesday posts are so much easier to write.  I don't need to have free time and the right supplies to make something.  All I have to do is think of something to write and write about it.

And then once you have a topic, the next challenge is actually writing about it.  This generally involves either an intense multitasking situation where you are typing with one hand while trying to stop the baby's determined effort to eat your laptop, or staying up way too late after the baby is in bed and the tasks of the day are done, desperately trying to write it fast enough so that it can be posted today rather than tomorrow because 11:59pm is coming really quickly.  And of course that includes editing it three or four times, because you have to second guess the way that you worded every sentence.

And beyond the actual writing process, being a blogger has a significant impact on your daily life.  Everything is fair game for becoming the content of a post.  Your friends become familiar with the sheepish question: "Do you mind if I take pictures while we're doing this?  I might blog about it later...".  You find yourself moving piles of clutter off your table so that you can take pictures of a craft or a muffin or something, only to move the clutter piles back onto the table after the pictures are taken.  Assuming that the baby didn't destroy them in the meantime.  And you take an embarrassing number of food photos while your family is waiting to eat their dinner.

But despite the challenges, blogging can be a very meaningful method of expression and communication.  I hope you enjoy mine, and if you have one you'd like me to check out, feel free to send me a link!

P.S.  Did you get the title of the post?  It's the 101st post on my blog, and it's about blogging!  Hahaha... ha... ha....  It's never as funny when you have to explain it...

One Hundred Posts!

Dear Reader,

This blog post that I am writing today is the one hundredth post that I have published on this blog!

So I thought that this would be a perfect day to say Thank You!  Thank you for reading and following my blog, for keeping up with my family and what we've been up to, for listening to my rants and poems and prayers.  Thank you for your encouragement.  You have all blessed me, and I hope that through my writing you have also been blessed and encouraged.

Much Love,
Leane

10 Months

10 months old!  Steven has been enjoying "swimming lessons" and going to mom and baby aquafit with mommy.  He is able to stand for increasing amounts of time without holding on to anything, can say "uh oh" (when he drops something) and "ta ta" (as he reaches for something he is not supposed to have) and is rapidly learning to have his own opinion about things (leading to the occasional temper tantrum).  He is also starting to dance to music, which is really fun.  And he loves it when big people dance along!

11th Doctor Costumes

The process of putting together two 11th Doctor costumes primarily involved several trips to thrift stores.  Pretty much everything we needed we were able to find second hand or already had around the house.  We ordered the sonic screwdrivers online, and I made the bowties.  (Check out the tutorial here.)

All of the pieces for the big doctor costume

All of the pieces for the little doctor costume

The jacket we found for Steven was way too big, but I didn't think we would be able to find anything that good in his size so we got it and I used masking tape and some temporary stitching to get it down to his size.

I love making thrift store costumes.  None of the pieces that you find are exactly right, but somehow when you put them all together they look great!

Trick or treat!

You can also check out how I made my TARDIS costume!

A Happy Halloween

Halloween has always been a bit of an awkward holiday for me, as I think it is for a lot of Christians.  I never liked the idea of celebrating a day that glorifies evil and gross things.  But this isn't a post about that.  It's about how this year I really enjoyed Halloween.

Loving costumes, and having a very cute baby, of course I will take any excuse to dress him up!  For the past couple months I had been planning themed costumes for our family.  The theme?  Doctor Who.  Now I don't actually watch Doctor Who, it's too intense for me, but everyone else around here loves it and I enjoy hearing about the Doctor's latest adventures.  Plus I saw some fun ideas on pinterest.

Since we were all dressed up, we took Steven trick-or-treating downtown.  I was surprised by the fun, friendly environment.  People were smiling and having a good time, and you could just start up a conversation with anyone.  It's not very often that I find myself in that kind of environment in the city.  I was glad that we went.  Of course, Steven didn't need the candy, but we just used the candy that we collected to give out to trick-or-treaters who came to our door later in the evening!

Then back at home we ordered pizza, made apple pie, and watched musicals.  I love family time!

Here are some pictures of our TARDIS, 11th Doctor, mini 11th doctor (we were operating in a paradox, or as a friend said: a pair-o'-docs), and a friendly Mongolian we had picked up in our travels.

"Bowties are cool!"

The TARDIS and her thief.

"She’s a woman. And she’s the TARDIS!"

"Geronimo!"