Wow, some of that 54% Catholic vote is in our own family. . .

To me, it seems pretty simple when you vote as a Catholic - - - you find out which candidate is pro-life and a true American who wants to preserve the dignity of our country and not try to work around it's laws in his own interests. I wasn't totally shocked but after all that has come down the last three years, I thought there would surely be a change of heart with my supposedly Catholic in-laws. Not a bit as I found out in a conversation today. Still, knowing it is true of them and hearing it said out loud was a shock. To hear sane and thinking people overlook so many issues and vote, again, without real information is very sad.

The in-law said she was very anxious about the 2012 election with  hopes of the current president's re-election. I said that I could not ever vote for someone who supports abortion whole-heartedly. I said he proved that his first week in office by rescinding all the safeguards he put in place for the unborn. She said she couldn't believe that. I said his current mandate takes away our religious freedom and she totally disagreed. I said his main action in the senate was to vote against the Born Alive law. She said she didn't know there was even such a law in reality. Then she said she didn't want to talk about it as one shouldn't think about politics that much as it is upsetting. She once told me that it makes her feel uncomfortable. Perhaps, her conscience it trying to get her attention?

Prayer found on the Internet:

May we consecrate ourselves and our families to pray and take action as never before, asking God to turn the tide in our nation this year! May we fast often, and use our influence to recruit everyone we know to do likewise. May we join organized prayer calls, attend prayer events and use our citizenship privileges to speak out, write letters to the editor and support god-fearing candidates (Ex 32:29-34; Neh 4:20; Eze 33:2-9; Joel 1:13; 2:12-18; Jonah 3:5-10; Mt 3:7-12; Acts 3:17-26).

Lord, have mercy upon us and our children. Grant wholehearted repentance to your people and mobilize us to be the spiritual army you intend us to be. Deliver us and our governments from evil. Raise God-fearing men and women to positions of public leadership and service. May pastors and churches mightily engage this year to influence the outcome of November's elections for righteousness! May You give America cause to rejoice this year (Jdg 5:1-15a ff; Ps 75:4-10; 86:5-15; 110:3; Lam 3:22; Eze 38:5-10; Mk 10:47).

May God grant us discernment to elect a President and other officials whom He can bless! May we cry out to God while we can, and may He send a gracious turning in our nation - a turning back to Him! In Jesus name. Amen (Ex 18:21; Dt 17:14-20; Josh 24:15; 2 Chr 7:14; Pr 1:22-33; Joel 2:12-18; Lk 12:51-56; Jn 9:4).

Blame never helps . . .

"All blame is a waste of time. No matter
how much fault you find with another,
and regardless of how much you
blame him, it will not change you" - Wayne Dyer

Easy and Healthy Carrot Orange Pineapple Cupcakes

Carrots seem to be the least expensive vegetable on the market so we always have a lot of them on hand. You can, however, get mighty tired of steamed carrots with dinner too many evenings of the week. My goal in life is to find different ways to use this healthy vegetable and keep it interesting and tasty. The most popular use of carrot has always been carrot cake. Carrot cake, it turns out, is one of the most fattening desserts out there probably because of the cup of oil that the recipe calls of and the cream cheese frosting. I'm learning to substitute ingredients to bring the fat level down and still make an enjoyable dish. Here is my offering of the day!

Carrot Orange Pineapple Cupcakes
1 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons of your favorite vegetable oil
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon orange extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
Dash of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups finely shredded carrots
1/2 cup diced, dried pineapple bits
1 tablespoon freshly grated orange zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line your muffin tin with cupcake papers. This recipe should make 20-24 cupcakes depending on the size of your tin, etc.

Combine all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir to mix throughly.  Fill the muffin cup about half full to allow for rising and bake for approximately 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cupcake comes out without any wet crumbs. Cool in the muffin tin for about ten minutes and then remove the cupcakes to a rack to comple cooling.

Orange Frosting
3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon orange extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 stick softened butter
1/4 cup shortening
2 teaspoon freshly grated orange zest
Fresh orange juice as needed

Combine the powdered sugar, extracts, butter, and shortening in a mixing bowl and beat to combine. A drops of orange juice as needed to form a spreadable frosting. If you put in too much, don't worry, just add some more powdered sugar. When you have the consistency you want, mix in the orange zest, and frost your cupcakes!

Ideas . . .
No pineapple? Leave it out!
Like some crunch? Add 1/4 -1/2 cup chopped nuts.
Treating the children? Add some chocolate chips.
Dried cranberries go will in this cupcake.
You can even sneak in some crushed bran cereal to the mix.
Still want a cream cheese frosting? Use non-fat cream cheese instead of the butter and shortening.

The first one makes great sense . . .!

"Sometimes the appropriate response to reality is to go insane."
-- Philip K. Dick

"I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it."
-- Edith Sitwell

"It is not worth an intelligent man's time to be in the majority. By definition, there are already enough people to do that."
-- G. H. Hardy

"Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together...."
-- Carl Zwanzig

The World Doesn't Make Modesty Easy . . .

My younger daughter is on the hunt for a job. She has put in a lot of applications and is just waiting to get a nibble from some company. With that in mind, she wanted to get a nice outfit for going to interviews. She was thinking of a black pant suit and I figured that shouldn't be too difficult to come by. We even had a gift card from Christmas for a large department store and counted on the whole shopping trip to take less than an hour.

We got to the store and they are having a lot of sales. We happily begin looking and found . . . nothing! The tops were either too short or cut too low . . . or both which made for a high price for not much fabric. The skirts were short, short, short. If they were long, they were made out of transparent fabric that didn't quite give the impression of a person serious about finding office work.

After browsing seriously for an hour at the department store, I decided that even with a higher cost, we'd try a couple of stores that were of a higher caliber and should have something decent for going to job interviews. Nope! Just more expensive for basically the same lack of fabric.

We then thought about getting a nice pair of dress slacks and fixing it up with a nice shirt and jacket. The dress slacks were cut two inches below the waist. The jackets were just plain weird. Since this was not a teen section for clothing, you had to wonder about the 30-plus office workers who were wearing these items.

There was a time when you could get both sides of the clothing factor. Sure, there wasn't as much choice for modest clothing but it was available. Does the majority of the world really want to dress immodestly? Why haven't the mothers of the world objected? Judging from the other shoppers, the mothers of the world were buying into immodest attire.