Saturday, February 9, 2013

Yum!

On Saturdays I get up before 5 in order to get to the campus at Louisville in time for class.  Then my work week runs from Sunday through Wednesday.  I try to do some cooking on Saturday night for the hubby and the kiddos to have some yummies!

 
Potato soup is my personal favorite!  

Potato soup
(This is as close to scratch as I get!)
3 pounds potatoes peeled and diced
2 boxes or 4 cans chicken broth
1 onion diced
1 tablespoon celery seed or 1 stalk diced celery
1 carrot shaved (optional)
1 can evaporated milk
1/2 stick butter
salt and pepper
 1 cup diced Velveeta

Boil potatoes and onion and celery seed in broth until tender.  Stir in the remaining ingredients and top with bacon, ham, chives, sour cream, whatever your heart desires!  So yummy!

My youngest loves chicken noodle soup.  Now, I buy generic as frequently as possible but making soup this way is so economical!

Chicken noodle soup
2 boxes chicken broth or 4 cans chicken broth
1 tablespoon celery seed or 1/2 finely diced celery stalk
1/2 carrot chopped, optional
1 small can chicken (white) or one cooked chicken breast, shredded
1/2 package egg noodles

Bring broth, chicken and celery seed to a boil stir in noodles and cook until al dente. 

Usually I double this recipe because my youngest LOVES it!


MMmmmm, soup's on!  Come on over!

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Ethical Frameworks ~~ Help!

My work this semester focuses on domestic violence, specifically, domestic violence in rural areas.  As part of my analysis, I am to analyze this issue using utilitarianism, deontology and distributive justice. 

Now I can debate potential solutions from all sides utilizing each of the above, but analyzing root causes with each framework is more challenging. 

This is my understanding of the ethical frameworks:


-          Deontology (first principles)
o   First order principles that can guide society (beneficence, justice)
o   What is best solution
o   Is it the right thing to do
o   Does it follow general moral rules of what we should be doing
o   There are a number of principles we should follow
§  Do good for others
§  Cause no harm
§  Justice
§  Autonomy
o   Look at policy to see if it is following these principles
o   Conflict between different principles
o   The principles are found in spiritual traditions, philosophical documents
-          Rawls:  distributive justice
o   The original position:  rational, impartial people will establish a  mutually beneficial principle of justice as the foundation for regulating all rights, duties, power and wealth
o   It is about those decisions that are about the collective, not individual
o   Levels the playing field by giving greatest benefit to the least advantaged
o   What would rational and impartial people do?
o   Focus on civil liberty and fair distribution of primary goods
o   Veil of ignorance – about who we are and how policy might influence us, remove from the equation gender, economic level, profession.  Be totally ignorant to our own lives, we would make the decision that would best benefit the majority
-          Utilitarianism
o   Purpose is to make the world a better place
o   Greatest good for greatest number
o   Making a decision that is in best interest of greatest number
o   Do whatever will bring the most benefit to all of humanity
o   About the consequences, weighing what is going to have the greatest net gain at the end
o   In policy, programs have merit if they have positive outcomes with low cost to benefit ratio
o   Morality is about producing good consequences, not having good inte4ntions
o   Requires tremendous calculations




If you can provide any input on how each of these frameworks can be used to analyze the problem of domestic violence, I would greatly appreciate it!

Friday, January 25, 2013

Coffee

Mmm.  Coffee.  My husband drinks his black.  No cream, no sugar, no nothing.  I, on the other hand, like my coffee to be a little fancier. I often pour skim milk into my magic bullet to make fluffy cream then nuke it for a few second to puff it up even more before spooning it onto my coffee.  Depending on my mood I may sprinkle cinnamon on top or add a spoonful of vanilla extract.
More recently, though, I have been going the way of convenience and just using refrigerated creamer.  Over Christmas I tried CoffeeMate's warm cinnamon sugar cookie, cafe mocha and peppermint mocha (my favorite).
Now that the holidays are over, I have reverted to generic french vanilla flavor.  My 13 year old has grown fond of coffee made pale with french vanilla creamer. 

I am a seasonal coffee drinker, only in the fall and winter.  Hubby can drink it year round, very strong in the morning at lunch or before bed.  I don't seem to be affected by the caffeine, which honestly, is a little disappointing. 

On Saturdays I have to get up before 5 to travel two hours for class and I set the coffee maker to make 6 cups before bed.  Some to drink while getting ready and the rest for the road. I'm always a little sad when I finish my Bubba Mug full of coffee before I get to campus.









Friday, January 4, 2013

1/4

1/4 doesn't seem like much.  It's half of the half.  A small portion of a whole.  It doesn't matter whether your say one quarter or one fourth or say 25%.  For me 1/4 is  huge.  It means I am one quarter of the way through my master's degree.

The social work master's program is challenging.  The quantity of work is phenomenal.  I spent my entire last semester stressed and had lots of tears.  I know the end result will be worth it.  My classes officially start on the 7th and my Saturday classes start next Saturday.  Every Saturday up at 4:45 for a two hour drive to school.

In addition to working full time and going to school full time, I also do a 16 hour per week practicum and I also must complete a minimum of 5 group counselling sessions.  Each of my classes have a group project.  It makes it very challenging when students in the online classes are sprinkled across the United States.

One fourth.  Such a small number to so many, but to me the first step towards achieving my goal.







Saturday, August 4, 2012

Rain, blessed rain.  I think this is a juvenile robin.  Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Oh yes, there was a fight.  The blue jay won.

God is great.

One of the can-can girls posed with the boys.  They were so embarrassed.

Oh but they were thrilled to pose with the actors who did the shoot out.


This was so much fun to watch.

The "bank robbers" after the show.

Posing at Gun Town Mountain overlooking Cave City.



The greatest gift from God is my family.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Gone but forgotten?

Isn't it amazing how you blink and months have passed?  I know I am.  It seems just like yesterday I was still a full time student.  Today, I am a full time social worker and will be starting my master's program in a few weeks.  This job has helped me realize how truly fortunate I am.





The boys will be starting back to school soon.  None of us are ready for the hectic mornings, late night projects, and homework.  But all of us are ready for ready for a routine again.  Summer has consisted of late nights, video games, and braces.   Yes, braces.





We put out our garden three times.  The first two times the deer and rabbits devoured it.  The third time everything died from lack of rain.  And of course I've snapped a few pictures.












While I may not post regularly, I still read your blogs!

Saturday, February 25, 2012

A few of my favorites through the years















These were snapped over the course of the last few years.  This outhouse is in Price Cemetery in the Hico community in West Tennessee.  I have no idea how long it's been there but I actually remember using it as a small child when we went to cemetery day.