the fine line between rest and lazy.

On Tuesday, I wrote this in my prayer journal:

“Lord, please help me to find the line between rest and lazy.”

The next day, I received a card from one of the ladies in my circle. In it she wrote:

“I pray you continue to feel stronger and better every day! Be extra gentle with yourself . . . and don’t push too hard. It seems a lot of surgeries are more involved than imagined. Give yourself permission to rest without guilt. Soon you’ll be ready for the beach!

Yesterday, I went for my second plastic surgery post-op, put away a few things on the back porch (while FirstHusband filled two garbage bags from even more stuff on the back porch) and went to PinkGirl’s 1/2 hour Cheer Camp performance.

Then? I laid down for a few minutes and woke up 3 hours later. When I woke up, FirstHusband told me that FavoriteSon’s Middle School State Track Meet would be webcast this morning. We decided that I should stay home and watch it on the internet instead of spend the day at a track meet, over an hour from home.

I was disappointed and told him so. I said,

“I just thought I’d be a little more active by now. It’s been two weeks. I spend a few hours out of the house and need a three hour nap? What’s that about?”

FirstHusband picked up my friend’s card and read,

“Be extra gentle with yourself . . . and don’t push too hard. It seems a lot of surgeries are more involved than imagined.”

sigh.

So, I’m home this morning, watching a webcast of FavoriteSon’s track meet. Isn’t the internet cool?

In other news:

My GYN post-op was Wednesday. Turns out my uterus was 138 grams and filled with polyps and fibroid tumors. A normal uterus weighs 70 grams. My friend wins, though, her uterus was FOUR times as large as normal. She had her hysterectomy the month before I did and I saw her yesterday. She looks and feels GREAT. I’ll catch up.

But the BIG news for me?

I got the second drain out yesterday!!!!! YEAAHHHHHHH!

I am SOOOOO happy about this. REALLY happy! REALLY, REALLY HAPPY!!!!

and

I can now take a shower using TWO hands instead of one! (no more holding the drain)
I get to drive my van for the first time this Monday!
I can’t do ANY strength training for another month.
I CAN walk – no restrictions on that, so I’ll soon be updating my exercise log again.
I still have to wear a compression binder for another month.
My stitches look really good. I’m starting Mederma and Vitamin E moisturizer.
I’ve lost at least 10 pounds since the day before my surgery and I still have a lot of swelling.

Baby steps, baby steps.

Then Sings My Soul Saturday: We Shall Behold Him

There are certain songs . . .

The great Satchmo, singing “What a Wonderful World” on Thanksgiving Day.

The Walt Disney Candlelight Processional Choir singing the “Hallelujah Chorus” at Christmastime.

And Sandi Patty, singing “We Shall Behold Him” at Easter.

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For more Saturday music, check out Then Sings My Soul Saturday every Saturday hosted by Amy at Signs, Miracles and Wonders.

Easter Bunny Cake

Growing up, my mom often made an Easter Bunny cake like this one for Easter.

Easy, not too crafty (thank goodness), I think I’m making one this year. Judging from the number of available photos on Google Images, I’m not the only one. Check it out:

Bake a cake, any cake, in two round cake pans. Mine will be chocolate. There is no reason for me to eat cake unless it is chocolate. Let it cool and then cut it like this:

On the serving plate (my mom always used a piece of cardboard covered in aluminum foil), CAREFULLY arrange it like this:

Then, frost and decorate! My mom always frosted it white and covered it with coconut shavings as a base. Dark chocolate cake with coconut – mmmm – just like a Mounds bar. But CAKE!

That does it. We’re making this cake.

Here’s a video and some more samples:

A Zooma Zooma Zooma Zoom!

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Find great recipes and helpful kitchen tips at Kitchen Tip Tuesdays hosted by Tammy’s Recipes!

And click on over to check out the recipes at Tempt My Tummy Tuesday hosted by Lisa at Blessed With Grace

Need more? Head over to Tasty Tuesday hosted by Kim at Forever . . . Wherever!

Find more ideas over at Works for Me Wednesday, hosted by Kristen at We Are THAT Family.

Works for Me Wednesday posts prior to February 2009 are archived at Rocks In My Dryer

And I’m jumping ahead to Friday with my Would You Like Chocolate With That? hosted by Lisa at Stop and Smell the Chocolate

If you’ve got a few minutes, check out my previous chocolate posts.

chocolate strawberry bunnies

You may recognize the pink fingernails. I’ve posted videos from this lady before. She made chocolate Gobble Berries (turkeys) for Thanksgiving and spiders and ghosts for Halloween. Her level of patience is astounding.

Let me just state. My children will never eat bunnies such as these. This is way too close to crafting for me.

Besides, is it just me or do these bunnies look a little like rats? Their noses are way too pointy. Easter rats. No, that won’t catch on. Easter mice?

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If you have anything chocolaty to share, post and link to Would You Like Chocolate With That? hosted by Lisa at Stop and Smell the Chocolate

If you’ve got a few minutes, check out my previous chocolate posts.

Our “Best Practices” for Disney in the Summer.

Walt Disney World in the summer is HOT. And I mean REALLY Hot. If you can go ANY other time of the year, do it. You will not miss the melting, the heat rash or the dehydration. And I am not exaggerating.

Expect the lines to be long. And I mean REALLY long. 120 minutes for Space Mountain is normal. It is possible to spend 12 hours at a Disney theme park and ride only 5 or 6 attractions. If you see a 45 minute line, be thankful. You will NEVER see this:

That’s Pirates of the Caribbean in February of 2008. Three days ago we waited 12 minutes. (February is a GREAT time to go to WDW.)

The heat and the lines aside, we’ve vacationed there in the summer for years. Even though we live 45 minutes from Walt Disney World, we’ve stayed in the resorts. Due to school schedules, we had to go in the summer just like everyone else. But we learned a few things about going to Disney in the summer:

We try to go when surrounding counties are still in school or back in school. Since we’re in private school, our calendars are sometimes off from public school by a week or two. For instance, the last day of school for Osceola County, where WDW is located, is June 4, 2009. Surrounding counties get out on June 3rd. Our last day of school is May 21st. The public schools begin again on August 24th. We begin on August 13th. So THIS year, if we were to go to Disney for a week, we would try to go at the beginning of the summer so we wouldn’t have to contend with locals so much.

Extra Magic Hours. Each day, one of the four theme parks at WDW has Extra Magic Hours. Resort guests – DISNEY resort guests – are allowed admittance into one of the parks one hour early and can stay inside that same park an extra three hours after closing. (You can leave and come back. You don’t have to stay the entire time.)

We NEVER take advantage of MORNING Extra Magic Hours. For example. Today, Sunday, February 15th, Magic Kingdom has extra magic hours. If we were staying on property we would NOT go to Magic Kingdom MORNING Extra Magic Hours because Magic Kingdom would be MOBBED with resort guests. We would instead, go to one of the OTHER parks because MOST of the resort guests are at Magic Kingdom.

Exception to the Morning Extra Magic Hours? Animal Kingdom. By far, the hottest of the parks. Not a lot of air conditioning at Animal Kingdom. If you want to see the animals, go EARLY. Leave when it gets hot. Come back in late afternoon or early evening. When you are on the safari and you see the animals lounging in what seems to be the perfect Kodak spot, it’s no accident. There’s an air conditioning vent out there to make that spot more attractive to them. The animals get air conditioning. You don’t. For years, we flat out skipped Animal Kingdom in the summer. It’s better in February.

We ALWAYS take advantage of the EVENING Extra Magic Hours. Even when PinkGirl was little. She adjusted to the change in schedule very quickly. Sometimes FirstHusband or I would take her off into a nook somewhere so she could nap in the stroller, but for the most part, she was right there with us, having fun.

My FAVORITE Extra Magic Hours are at Typhoon Lagoon on Saturday nights. A water park in the dark is FUN. Blizzard Beach doesn’t do Extra Magic Hours.

Water to Drink, Water to Spray.
Drinking. A bottle of water is $2.50. And it’s Dasani. We either bring our own bottles of spring water or buy ONE bottle of Dasani and fill it up at water fountains. We invested in the Disney bottle straps and either wore them around our neck or hung them on the stroller when PinkGirl was younger.

Spraying. Disney sells bottles of water with battery operated fans attached. For $17.00 each. Because they have Disney characters on them. Walmart sells similar bottles for about $3.99 each. No Disney characters. (A few years ago – the price is probably higher now.) We have both, but I got my Disney “misters” at garage sales. (okay, except for one. I bought ONE for $17.00 one year.) FirstHusband rigged up a fan and mister for PinkGirl that attached to her stroller canopy.

Sunscreens and Hats. Waterproof sunscreen. Nowhere near a baby or toddler’s hands. They WILL rub it in their eyes. That only happened to us once. Once was enough. Hats or visors means sunscreen isn’t needed on the forehead – which means it won’t run into eyes. Sunscreen in the eyes: BAD.

Extra Change of Kids Clothes. There are various places in the parks that kids can get squirted with water. And it is a GREAT way to cool off. But later? Wet socks can lead to blisters. Wet clothing can lead to chaffing. We kept a change of clothes for each kid in a a Ziplock bag. Wet clothes went in there after the kids got soaked. I’ll write another post on our “best practices” with regard to clothing, but let me say here – denim is NOT moisture wicking and when it gets wet, it can take a while to dry, no matter how hot it is.

Take a Break During the Heat of the Day. When PinkGirl was little, we would take a break during the heat of the day. If you’ve read ANYthing on Disney vacations, you’ve seen this before. DON’T IGNORE THIS ADVICE if you have little ones. We stayed at the Yacht and Beach Club resorts, for 3 summers. They are within walking distance to the back gate of EPCOT. From EPCOT, you can take a boat to Hollywood Studios or a monorail to Magic Kingdom. So it was VERY easy for FirstHusband and I to split up during the day. One of us would take PinkGirl back to the room for a nap while the other would take FavoriteSon on some “big kid” rides. It was wonderful. One grown-up got to rest with PinkGirl and the other got one-on-one time with FavoriteSon. (We were able to stay at these resorts because we had friends and family who got us what is called a “Friends and Family” rate, but there are less expensive resorts in that same area, still within walking distance from the back gate of EPCOT.)

But our BEST strategy for going to Disney World in the summer?

We Went Nocturnal. When PinkGirl got older and didn’t need naps, we adapted again. We went nocturnal. Here’s the typical schedule:

Sleep in.
Spend the heat of the day at (1) Typhoon Lagoon, (2) Blizzard Beach or (3) the resort pool.
Take showers and get washed up for an early dinner (between 5 and 6pm)
Go to a REALLY nice dinner on property. (Character dinners are GREAT!)
Right after dinner, go to whichever park has Extra Magic Hours.
Stay for extra Magic Hours after the park closed for regular guests.
Leave that park around 2:00 a.m., getting back to the room and in bed around 3:00 a.m.

This is a GREAT summer schedule. By the evening, most of the resort guests who were at the theme park gate bright and early for Extra Magic Hours have long since left that park because they’re exhausted.

I’ll be writing more on our Walt Disney World “Best Practices” and I’ll list them under the “peace.love.mickey” page above, so check back!

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Want to learn cool tips and tricks from lots of different people? Click on over to Works for Me Wednesday hosted by Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer!

little known facts & a youtube debut

I’ve been tagged for a “little known facts about me” meme by Debbie over at Midnight Musings. I haven’t added to my “little known facts page” (upper right corner) in quite a while, so this is good prompting. I’ve been doing a little recipe research/menu planning lately, so I’ll get some food facts out of the way first.

1. I like “clean” food. Not really a “sauce” person. Especially sweet sauces. Or thick sauces. FirstHusband is a sauce man.

2. I almost ALWAYS order salad with dressing on the side. I don’t care for salad soup, where there’s a puddle of salad dressing at the bottom of the bowl when I’m finished. Instead, I dip my fork in the little bowl of dressing before using it to stab some salad. At home, I can measure and add just the right amount , so it’s no big deal.

3. I love mushrooms. In anything. Cooked or raw.

4. I hate salmon. I went to London on an MBA class trip and was inundated with salmon everywhere we went. My classmates were convinced I would like it if I tried it baked. or grilled. or smoked. or poached. or whatever. I finally said, “How much salmon do I have to try before you all believe I DON’T LIKE SALMON?”

5. Sometimes, when we go out to dinner, I ask FirstHusband to “surprise me” and place my order for me. When I’ve made enough decisions for the day – or maybe for the week – and I just don’t want to make even one more, no matter how small, he graciously does this for me. Knowing my anti-sauce, anti-salmon, dressing on the side and mushroom preferences, among other things, he always does a GREAT job.

6. I’ve mentioned before that I’m a vocalist, but I’ve been too lazy to post any clips. Well, I finally took the time to figure out how to capture video from my antiquated camcorder, convert it to the “right” format and upload it to youtube. FavoriteSon was the camera man and he’s new at it, so we’ll cut him a break. I cut the beginning of this song because there was a dad/kid dispute near the camera which was louder than the music. This is Mary Did You Know, performed by me on Christmas Eve.

My daughter and I also performed a duet, singing Away in a Manger. She sang the first verse, we sang the second together and I sang the third verse alone. Two things of note. First, when she leaned over and whispered into my ear, JUST before we started singing the second verse, she whispered, “I accidentally farted.” (NOBODY tell her I posted that!!!) Secondly, notice her sneaky grin at the end of the song on the last few notes – JUST before she “bunny eared” me.

This last song is one of my favorites, Breath of Heaven, originally made popular by Amy Grant, but more recently by Nicol Sponberg, formerly of the group Selah. My camera man had a little trouble in the beginning, was too shy to tell a guy in a suit that he was blocking the camera in the middle and the tape ran out at the end.

7. I’ve probably mentioned that I also do a little public speaking, but until last year, I didn’t have a recording of any of my presentations. (And I didn’t know anything about uploading videos to youtube). This was recorded last May at a Mother’s Day Brunch. Please forgive the quality of the video, the lighting was not conducive to videotaping, but the audio guy did a great job!

So, Debbie, THANK YOU for the meme tag. It prompted me to FINALLY do this! I was recently asked if I had any recordings of my work and I knew I needed to get that May 2007 video up on youtube, but I was just dragging my feet. done. It’s after 1:00 a.m. – Kristin – are you up?

UPDATE: October 2009 – Uploaded more speaking samples to my youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/JulieStilesMills

Aunt Margie’s Cranberry Salad, with a pragmatic twist.

For years decades, we’ve made something special for my dad for Thanksgiving and Christmas. It’s his sister’s recipe for Cranberry Salad. I remember making it as a kid, as do my sisters, but since we grew up and moved out, my mother – who fondly calls this dish “cranberry crap” – took over the job again.

This year, since my mother is in Arkansas, my father asked me if I would make it. Actually, my mother also asked me if I would make it for him and offered to give me the recipe. My father thought it would be nice if I called his sister, my Aunt Margie and ask her for it. I hadn’t spoken or seen my Aunt Margie in over ten years – not because of any problems, just logistics and lack of effort. It was a great impetus for renewing my relationship with my Aunt.

We easily fell into a very nice conversation and as she gave the me ingredients and instructions, I realized. My mother had a different version of this recipe. We had not been making my Aunt Margie’s Cranberry Salad all these years. I’ll explain and show photos as I go through the recipe.

Ingredients:
2 bags of cranberries
2 apples (peeled and cored)
2 oranges
1 can of pineapple chunks (drained)
1 cup of sugar
walnuts to garnish

Instructions:

Wash the cranberries and discard stems and rotten berries.

Now here’s the pragmatic twist. My father delivered a hand grinder to me when he asked me to make this recipe. A hand. grinder. Serious flashback. I remember hand grinding the fruit and cranberries. Every. Year. What a mess. Cranberry juice everywhere. Seriously. A MESS. As soon as my sisters got old enough to use the grinder without losing a finger, I gladly passed the job to them. In their young naiveté, they thought it would be fun. By the time they realized it was a sticky and disgusting job, the cranberry crushing baton was completely out of my hands. When my mother took over again, I think she switched from hand grinder to blender. So over the years, the whole thing went from cranberry goo (in the grinder) to cranberry soup (in the blender).

Although resistant, I tested the grinder and my memory on the apples first. Yep. Just like old times. Applesauce anyone?

So I pulled out my handy dandy Oster chopper attachment.

And I tried again. MUCH better.

The red pieces in the applies are from the cranberries.

I chopped the cranberries, the apples and the pineapple using the “pulse” button on my chopper. Filling the container multiple times allowed me to chop in different . . . textures? Sizes? Basically, there are three different textures of cranberries and apples, ranging from finely chopped, medium chopped and barely chopped. I didn’t have to chop the pineapple very much since it started out in small chunks anyway.

That leaves the oranges. I made two changes which were a HUGE difference from how I made this as a kid. First, I zested the orange. We NEVER did that. NEVER. Didn’t even have a zester in the house growing up. I don’t own one now. I had to use a small grater. I got the sweetness and the taste, but not the texture. I’m buying a zester for next year.

The second difference with regard to the oranges? My Aunt Margie strongly emphasized removing the “white stuff” from the orange. It’s called the “pith” and while it is actually good for you, it tastes a little bitter. There are a few ways to remove the pith, but I just rolled the orange on the counter, peeled it and then cut away the white layer that remained. I also removed the inner white stuff – I’ve been calling it the “cartilage” of the orange. It’s hard and crunchy and bitter and it is THE reason I would never eat this cranberry salad. I hate that stuff. yuck.

Here’s the finished product sans the walnut garnish. I wasn’t serving any at the time of the photo and I didn’t want to waste the walnuts. I actually prefer pecans, myself. This can be made ahead and I’ve been told it freezes well too. Panara’s got nothing on my Aunt Margie.

My dad said he could tell the difference before he even tasted it, just from the way it looked. So could I. I tasted it, my younger sister tasted it, our dinner guests tried it – all with positive reactions. None of the kids would touch it. Big chickens. My dad took most of it home. I understand it’s great with vanilla ice cream.

I’m wondering, if I retain some of the fruit juice, heat it up and thicken it with cornstarch and stir it into the fruit mixture – would it make a good pie? I may test it next year in a Pillsbury pastry.

As always, I’m providing a print friendly version – CLICK HERE.

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Find great recipes and helpful kitchen tips at Kitchen Tip Tuesdays hosted by Tammy’s Recipes!

And click on over to check out the recipes at Tempt My Tummy Tuesday hosted by Lisa at Blessed With Grace

wassail

When I was in high school and college, I sang at a few madrigal dinners. If you’re unfamiliar with madrigal dinners, here’s a sampling. (and no, I’m not in this video).

Wassail Song

One thing was a constant in every madrigal dinner – wassail. It’s a kind of warm cider drink my choral director would make every year. I’ve made it on Christmas Eve for years. It’s a family favorite and a longstanding tradition. And it only takes about 5 minutes to prepare!!!

Wassail

Needed:
1/2 gallon apple juice
2 cups pinapple juice
2 cups orange juice
2 cinnamon sticks
2 teaspoons whole cloves

Instructions:
Pour all juices in a pot or crockpot. Place cloves in a coffee filter and tie with a twist tie. Float Cinnamon sticks and cloves in the pot. Simmer for 30 minutes or more.

Enjoy!

I know some would cover an entire orange with cloves and float it in the wassail. My hat is off to you, but I can’t find my thimble. Actually, I haven’t looked. But you go ahead. More power to ya.

The bonus is the way the house smells while it’s simmering.

For a print friendly version CLICK HERE.

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Find great recipes and helpful kitchen tips at Kitchen Tip Tuesdays hosted by Tammy’s Recipes!

And click on over to check out the recipes at Tempt My Tummy Tuesday hosted by Lisa at Blessed With Grace

Shannon at Works for Me Wednesday is on a blogging break, but check out her past issues for more great tips, tricks and recipes.

pragmatic cookies

I’ve mentioned before that we make a boatload of cookies at Christmas time? Let me clarify. FirstHusband makes a boatload of cookies.

Last year, he was busy and it was up to me to make the cookies. So, I made a boatload of . . . cookie bars.

Cookie bars, while tasting the same as cookies, are much more pragmatic:

No scooping one cookie’s worth of dough at a time.
No more hours of switching cookie sheets out every 11 minutes.
No more removing cookies from a cookie sheet. one. by. one.
No more waiting for the cookies to cool on little tiny grates.
No more broken cookies.
No more!

I mixed up a batch of our cookie dough, slathered it on a cookie sheet that happened to have a short edge all the way around it, and baked it all in one shot. All the “cookies” are the same size and height for easy stacking and packing. This year, I’m perusing my collection of cookie cutters for some interesting shapes. I know that will leave cookie remnants, but we’ll just have to deal with it. Such a chore, gleaning the cookie chaff.

I’m baking tonight and tomorrow, so no photos yet, but check back! And I’m employing behaviors incompatible with eating cookies – while I’m baking cookies. I’m out of red wine, though. It will have to be Super Bubble.

I had to bake brownies for a party yesterday, so that’s the photo you get first. Oh, and one more pragmatic thing: I cut the brownies with a pizza cutter.

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Find great recipes and helpful kitchen tips at Kitchen Tip Tuesdays hosted by Tammy’s Recipes!

And click on over to check out the recipes at Tempt My Tummy Tuesday hosted by Lisa at Blessed With Grace

Want to learn cool tips and tricks from lots of different people? Click on over to Works for Me Wednesday hosted by Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer!

Would You Like Chocolate With That? Disney Chocolate Carousel

We haven’t gone to see any of the Disney resorts this year, I’m not sure if we will, but this is always amazing. Supposedly, this ENTIRE thing is edible.

The video doesn’t even come CLOSE to showing the detail. It truly is an amazing work of art.

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If you have anything chocolaty to share, post and link to Would You Like Chocolate With That? hosted by Lisa at Stop and Smell the Chocolate!

a christmas story.

My favorite Christmas movie was on the other night, and I had an epiphany.

It’s the department store window. That’s it. It marks the beginning of the materialistic Christmas. Evidenced first by all the little faces pressed “before a golden, tinkling display of mechanized, electronic . . . joy” and then in little Ralphie’s face at four and a half minutes into this clip.

Here’s the original trailer:

And I know, it’s mean to like this part, but . . . but . . . they didn’t really stick that kid’s tongue to the pole . . . it was done with suction . . . so it’s not really mean . . .

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Need a few more chuckles today? Check out Friday Funnies hosted by Homesteaders Heart!

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“. . . therefore I quote” Marjorie Holmes

I read, therefore I quote.

This week’s quote comes from a classic fictional account of the Christmas story. I know! Fiction! I’m quoting Fiction! With the shower repair and the subsequent unexpected “spring” cleaning to recover, I’m a little late into the Christmas season. Rather than lament that fact, I’ve decided to “reset my watch.” Or in this case, my calendar. I got the idea from a story I heard (or more probably, read).

An American sports coach got a job coaching a team in Italy. Their observance of time was not exactly similar to an American’s observance of time. The coach had a daily schedule, which begain at 8:00 a.m. The Italian players didn’t show up in time to begin every day at 8:00 a.m. They arrived . . . when they arrived. After a few frustrating days, the coach devised a plan. He waited until everyone showed up. And then he set his watch back to 8:00 a.m.

That’s what I’m doing. I’ve consciously decided to keep my tree and decorations up into January. I’m not going to allow a disruption to shorten my Christmas season. I’ve decided to observe “Three Kings Day” on January 6th. Feliz Navidad!

On Christmas Eve, I’m singing “Mary Did You Know” and Nicole Sponberg’s version of “Breath of Heaven.” So, I’m a little focused on Mary’s perspective right now. These fragmented quotes from Two From Galilee: The Story Of Mary And Joseph by Marjorie Holmes only heighten that perspective.

“But it was not the priest, it was Joseph who bent near in love and reverence, telling her, ‘ I can see its little head. You must strive harder, beloved. Bear down, bear down.’

She obeyed, gratefully. There was a great ripping and flooding and burning, and he came forth out of her, out of Mary, his mother. Thus in blood and pain he came into the world, this son of God who was also man and the son of man.

And Joseph lifted him up for her to see. And they looked upon him together and marveled at him, his wholeness, infinitely small and red and perfectly formed. And when he squirmed in Joseph’s arms and uttered his first cry, the thrill of all mankind ran through both of them, for this was life, human life, and they knew that a miracle had been achieved . . .

. . . She smiled in her half-sleep and pressed the hot little bundle closer. Yet what bliss, to direct the nipple to the lips, to be the source of its sustenance. Ecstasy flooded her, the ecstasy of a new mother, who finds herself with the child safely cradled in her arms after the long ordeal. The only reality is this wonder, this sense of harmony and love so intense it is scarcely to be endured, and the tears escape the eyelids and roll foolishly down the cheeks.

And so Mary rested on this night that her child was born. And Joseph kept watch, near exhaustion himself, but too excited to sleep.”

I’ll continue quotes from this book through the holiday season.

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“. . . therefore I quote” Thursday: If you have a quote to share from something you’ve read recently, feel free to comment and/or include a link to your own “quote” post.

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