Avoiding Blogging

I've been avoiding blogging because my mind has been filled with what has been happening in Japan.  There are doomsdayers all over the place.  What to believe?  How much to believe?  What about the lives lost?  What about those who are still waiting to receive help?  How to get help to them that will actually get to them?  (Unlike other disasters where you donate and the donations never actually make it to the people.)

By the way, if anyone is interested in an organization that could use support and is actually helpful, I strongly recommend Doctors Without Borders. 

It does get a person thinking, though.  There is panic.  People are reacting and possibly over reacting to the situation.  There are all kinds of groups and whatnot stocking up on potassium iodide and potassium iodine.  I'm even getting stuff in my spam folder on this.  (Along with meeting hot single women, pharmacy aid training, and warnings that my chase account and bank of America accounts need verification information.)  There have also been news bits about places running out of this stuff.

Are we headed for a nuclear winter?  I doubt it.  Not today anyway.  At least not from Japan.  That doesn't mean I'm not concerned.  There are nuclear reactors here in America.  They are in quake zones and tornado-prone areas (anyone remember the b-grade movie Atomic Twister or the other b-grade movie Atomic Train?) as well as other areas that have their own specific brand natural disaster.

My point is that even though Japan may not affect us personally in terms of quakes, fallout, radiation, tsunamis, etc and maybe the economic impact of all of this might not be a blip on our radar, it is a sharp reminder that what happens there can happen here.  I live a couple hundred miles or so from the New Madrid Fault Line.  People have been talking about the Big One that will rival the one from 1811/1812 where the Mississippi ran backwards.  As I said, it gets a person thinking.  What will happen if????

We talk about it.  I waited a few days before telling the children what has been happening and showed them a couple of news videos.  They naturally asked questions.  We assured them that we will be ok should something like that happens here.  No tsunami will hit us here.  If there is a quake, we will take cover.  If the house gets flattened, we will rebuild.  We did assure them that no matter what happens, we have God on our side.  That offers more assurance and brings more peace than any words I could possibly say.  I need to remind myself through all of this that ultimately God is the one in control.  He knows what is going on and He will protect and deliver.  That gives me more comfort than any scientific article I could read or any predictions that someone may try to make or anything else anyone might try to say.

If all that sounds disjointed, it is because all of this still feels disjointed.  I try to make sense of it and I can't.  So, I am going to put it aside and share what all else has been going on.

I made chicken and rice soup yesterday and spent today canning it.  I successfully canned on my cook stove.  YIPPEE!  While I was doing that and had the fire going hot in there, I decided to bake.  The bread came out like biscuits because the yeast had expired.  But, they are still good and the children kept snagging them as I was putting them on the cooling rack.

I also made some drinkable yogurt and Greek style yogurt.  The drinkable yogurt I mixed with peaches and the Greek style I mixed some raw honey in.  Again, the children (Bethany especially) loved it and wanted a lot of it.  Then Bethany starts with the whole "I love this so much and I missed it so much and I also miss the ice-cream you made.  When will you make me ice-cream again?"

It looks like we may be selling Davarge on Thursday.  I am hoping.  He is friendly and affectionate.  He is also stubborn and won't do as he's told unless he feels like doing it.  He is also dangerous to load.  So, he is gone.  When I mentioned the possibility of another donkey, Husband said that there will be no male around here more stubborn than him.  Then I asked about a jennet.  (Female donkey.)  I won't repeat what he said to me about that.