In haste, because I got back from a truly excellent conference yesterday and have an avalanche of stuff to get caught up on!
I’ve been Facebook friends with Nissa Gadbois for many years and am always a little intimidated by her tremendous focus and drive and willingness to serve. She and her husband, who is a deacon, have dedicated themselves to what I can only describe as several apostolates, including overseas adoption of special needs orphans. Look around Gadbois Family to get an idea of the many things they do.
Today, Nissa and her son Nick are preparing to travel to Bulgaria to bring educational supplies to the orphanage where he lived before being adopted.
Here’s some more about their work and how to help them reach their goal for travel expenses:
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Thank you for helping us to set down the first support of a bridge that will join our apostolate in America with children, youth, and young adults in Bulgaria! It’s why we call it The Bridge Project.
We begin in small ways – bringing educational materials to a little village in Bulgaria. While there, we have the opportunity to better understand what we can do to help, and how we are to accomplish our work. We will meet with people along the way to help us support our work with prayers, counsel, time, and talent.
This will lead to establishing a Bulgarian home for our work – not an office in a city, but rather a home, or a group of homes, meant to nourish body, mind, and spirit of the young people we serve as well as those of our missioners and volunteers.
If you know or have worked with an organization that works to build a culture that cherishes human life, please drop me a line at simchafisher at gmail dot com with “pro-life spotlight” in the title.
Here I am at the airport, waiting to fly to Chicago for the FemCatholic Conference! I can even list all the many things I’m looking forward do about this weekend. It’s going to be awesome.
But first, the food! Here’s what I’m having for lunch right now:
Bland, but not terrible. I did dribble tzatziki sauce all over my shirt. And here’s what else we dribbled on ourselves this week:
SATURDAY Grilled ham and cheese, sweet peppers and dip
and she ate the whole thing herself, because she was the birthday girl.
She had also asked for a Puffin Rock cake, but without any puffins or anything on it.
I’m not gonna claim it wasn’t 40% tin foil, but she liked it. Bababa boo!
She also requested pizza and Abba. Can do.
MONDAY Chicken quesadillas, nacho chips
I coated the chicken breasts with olive oil, then dusted them generously with chili lime powder, and roasted them, then cut them into thin slices, and sprinkled it in with the cheese in the quesadillas. Quesadillas are awesome. They are another food I never ate until I was in college, or possibly in my 30’s. It just goes to show.
I forgot to take a picture of this as well, so here’s a photo of quesadillas of yesteryear, back when there was still a sun.
TUESDAY Out for pizza!
Because it’s vacation, that’s why. We got almost all the way through the meal before Corrie discovered that one wall was entirely covered with mirrors.
WEDNESDAY Fettuccine with ragù, garlic bread
Damien made this. He always uses this Deadspin recipe, but it turns out different every time! I liked this iteration a lot. Very tender but you could really taste the wine, and the anchovies could not be denied. It’s ground meat, milk, vegetables, a little tomato paste, wine, and misc. If you thought a pasta meat sauce needed to be red, prepare to be the wrongest person in the world, that’s all.
Clara made enough garlic bread to . . . I can’t think of something that you need a lot of things for. It was good garlic bread.
THURSDAY Beef skewers with chimichurri, honey goat cheese, fig paste, cranberries, snap peas, and crackers
Some much-anticipated guests had their travel plans derailed, so that was a bummer, but we did have a good meal. This beef is much better threaded on skewers and grilled over the coals, but it was still far to Februaryish to send Damien out into the yard, so I just sliced the beef thin, doused it in olive oil and salt and pepper, and roasted it in the over right under the broiler.Then I just set out bowls of everything else and let people put together their own combinations.
Chimichurri:
Pickled onions:
Yum.
FRIDAY
Tuna noodle casserole again, because (a) it’s vacation and I will say yes to anything, as long as it’s not a lot of trouble, and (b) I won’t even be in the same time zone by dinner time!
We used a cheap cut of oven roast and it turned out just great (but I'm sure steak would be good, too!). Serve with chimichurri and pickled onions for a wonderful treat.
Ingredients
beef
olive oil
salt and pepper
Instructions
Soak wooden skewers in water for at least half an hour before skewering meat.
Slice beef across the grain into wide strips, trimming off fat if necessary. Thread them, accordion style, onto the skewers.
Build the fire and let it die down to coals. Just before cooking, drizzle the skewers with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Then lay the skewers over the grill, turning occasionally, until they are sizzling.
What often happens is that the Church really does teach something wise, just, and compassionate that would alleviate suffering or at least not compound it; but the suffering person is surrounded by Catholics who, in the name of the Church, teach or imply things that are cruel, unreasonable, and unjust. And their friends pile on, and they apply guilt and psychological pressure, and they ostracize anyone who doesn’t knuckle under to their personal opinions masquerading as dogma.
“Why do pro-life activists only seem to care about unborn lives?” asked a Slate writer in 2017, echoing a question asked by scores of people who want to discredit pro-lifers for focusing only on the fetus.
Well, some of them do only care about the unborn. But many of them, including the folks at Mary’s Shelter in Virginia, have a much wider and humane vision, offering not only physical shelter and goods to pregnant mothers in time of crisis, but also classes and mentorship, so women who want a better life get get themselves and their children on a track toward independence.
Mary’s Shelter volunteers warmly supply a broad range of encouraging and educational supports, from cooking and knitting classes to book clubs, mentoring, doula services and roundtables, transportation, a private thrift store, academic tutoring, guest speakers, and baby showers. Residents get help earning their GEDs or degrees and finding jobs, finding counseling, and building new lives. The homes are cozy and friendly, and many women go there and find hope when everyone, including other shelters, have abandoned them.
Mary’s Shelter provides an expectant mother, and any additional children she may have, with housing for up to three years in order to further her education and/or secure employment. She must receive counseling, attend in-house parenting and life-skill classes and adhere to the program covenants which offer structure, self-discipline and guidance.
Each resident is blessed with a mentor who provides hands-on support, compassion and encouragement. This foundation ensures that our mothers have the necessary time and tools to work toward their goals and provide for their children, making the possibility of independent living a reality.
They rely very heavily on donations and volunteers, and since their founding in 2006 have helped more than two hundred pregnant women work toward a goal of independent living. They started out with a basement apartment and now have four houses, capable of sheltering and mentoring as many as fifty women and their children.
Here’s a video from Mary’s Shelter that features some of the women telling their stories and explaining how their needs were met:
In 2014, I did a short interview with Kathleen Wilson, the director of Mary’s Shelter. Here’s an excerpt that gives more detail about what kind of support and community they offer:
Kathleen Wilson: If the woman is abortion-minded, we’ll give her a place to live, if that’s what’s holding her back. If a woman walks in and she’s in a domestic violence situation, we get her counseling. We don’t even kick them out if they’re drinking or doing drugs; we give them an opportunity to do a program and stay with us.
We give women up to two years with us; and women who are “rock stars” – the ones who are really looking to move on and get a nursing degree or something like that — she can stay up to three years while she does school and work and gets everything together. That’s all about the woman. That’s for her.
SF: I was amazed at the long list the services you offer: cooking and knitting classes, book clubs, mentoring, doula services and roundtables, a private thrift store for residents, academic tutoring, guest speakers, baby showers, and on and on. How many people do you have on staff?
KW: We have so, so many volunteers. The main group is me and two people that get small paychecks – a total of only $24,000 a year, and that’s for crazy hours. Then there are two or three volunteers I consider staff. Then there’s a whole slew of people doing other things.
For instance, we hook up every resident up with a mentor or two. And there’s a woman who comes every other week with a van, to take them shopping. A local church sends over volunteers to do service projects, paint room, put in a swing set, redo a bathroom – big projects like that.
SF:It sounds complicated. How do you coordinate everything?
KW: We started out in a basement apartment – didn’t even have a file cabinet! But it’s evolved. Everything we need comes along. Someone says, “Oh, I can do that.” We say we want a book club, book club leader comes along. These volunteers just fall out of the sky. We even have a volunteer coordinator who is a volunteer herself.
SF:I know you sometimes fit in more residents than you comfortably can. What’s the ideal number of women you’re set up to shelter?
KW: Yes, we will roll beds into our office, or put women in hotels in an emergency. We have four houses now, and we’ll be opening our fifth on the Feast of the Assumption, August 15th . When we open the new house, it could be seventeen or eighteen families in the homes all together.
We’re one of the few shelters that take in women with additional children. That really is rare. We’ve got a lot of kids floating around the houses. We don’t offer daycare, but we do have babysitters available during for classes, guest speakers, and baby celebrations.
SF:Do you feel like the residents form a community?
KW: Some of them do. At one of our houses, the women have family dinners together once a week. There’s independent living, but they get together once a week, and their kids play together.
They have babies, and they have to lean on each other a bit. They have to ask for babysitters, or just had a C-section, and they have to step up to the plate. A majority of them haven’t had family relationships. This starts opening that door.
SF: Are you a Catholic organization?
KW: Most of our staff is Catholic, but non-Catholic Christian churches have been getting involved. We’ve had a Muslim resident; there’s no religious criteria for getting involved. We believe life begins at conception, and we ask that if you work for this ministry, you respect that.
It would be lovely to convert everybody, but that’s not our mission. It’s to show them God through our witness, and we hope they will sees God’s hand in everything.
Expectant mothers, who are at least eighteen years of age and are motivated to make positive changes in their lives, are welcome to apply.
We welcome all races and religions and will support and respect your decision to keep your child or place him/her in a loving adoptive family. Please call us for an interview.
If you know or have worked with an organization that works to build a culture that cherishes human life, please drop me a line at simchafisher at gmail dot com with “pro-life spotlight” in the title.
Lots of color this week! It didn’t stop being February, though. Here’s what we had this week. Recipe cards at the end.
SATURDAY Burgers, chips, salad
Nothing to report. Except that I had mine without salt, because of my fershlugginer blood pressure. Next time I’ll either put a little salt, or skip the burger and just go straight to the blasted heath.
SUNDAY Beer can chicken, berries, home fries
Damien made a couple of beer can chickens, using more or less this recipe. He wasn’t happy with how it turned out, but I’m not sure why. I thought it was delicious and very juicy.
It could be just that ineffable essence of someone-else-cooked.
You know, the first box of blueberries I picked up at the store popped open and blueberries spilled all over the place, and all I did was just make an actual, audible growling sound, like a possum, and kick them under the shelf. When did I become a terrible person? Probably longer ago than I realize.
You put in some effort mixing up the sauce and slicing the meat and carrots and onions in the morning or even the night before, and boy does it pay off. This dish will warm you up inside from your guggle to your zatch.
Gochujang (fermented pepper paste) is now one of the thing we always have in the house. It is ready to please. Well, ready to grab you by the scruff of your neck and then please.
The broccoli dish is nice and easy, too. Just chop it up and toss it with sesame oil, drizzle on soy sauce, sprinkle on sesame seeds, and roast. Yum.
I made the rice in the Instant Pot using the 1:1 method. You can make this meal with either seaweed sheets or lettuce leaves, and make little bundles of rice and meat to pop in your mouth. It’s so good.
TUESDAY Beef barley soup, pumpkin mumpkins
Not everyone in my house like beef barley soup and pumpkin muffins, but those who do love it so very dearly. I put a few minutes into trying to work up some kind of extended King Lear/Cordelia grateful child joke here, to follow up on the barely-perceptable Shakespeare joke in the first paragraph, but nothing happened. Hey look, soup.
Bizarrely, we were out of wine, so the broth was based in beef broth and tomato juice. It was still good, but wine would have been better. For my heart.
The pumpkin muffins turned out perfect, as always. These are the most tender, cozy muffins imaginable. I skipped the toppings this time.
I made thirty-six of them, and Benny ate probably thirty herself. She kept taking another muffin, cramming it in her mouth, and then shouting, “People keep eating all the muffins!” and we kept shouting, “You’re the one who keeps eating all the muffins!”
WEDNESDAY Roast chicken and salad
A DIY meal, with mixed greens, grilled chicken, cucumbers, feta cheese, toasted almonds, diced red onion, blueberries, and tomatoes.
The blueberries and tomatoes didn’t really go together, but they were both so cheap, I couldn’t resist.
I toasted the almonds in the microwave. Spread on a plate, two minutes, stir, one more minute.
Perfectly fine salad. I had mine with wine vinegar.
THURSDAY Shish kebob, except not; pineapple, rice
Pork was super cheap, so I bought three large hunks of it. The first went to the bulgoki, and the other two were destined for shish kebob. But it’s a lot of trouble to thread all that stuff on skewers, so I was gonna do deconstructed shish kebob, and just roast them under the broiler. I expressed this plan by writing “deconst-o-bob” on the dinner blackboard. I did this because the kids were already treating me like an idiot, but I felt like this would be a good means of getting them to treat me even more like an idiot, and it worked!
So when I preheated the broiler, the heating coil made a thrilling blue flash and a puff of magical smoke, and then it — oh, I can’t resist — it shuffled off this mortal coil. Ha.
So I decided to mix up some quick spiedie marinade and just mix it up with the peppers, onions, mushrooms, and meat, and cook it on the stovetop. I know from experience that it gets less pretty after cooking, so I took some lovely meat rainbow pics while it was raw.
Cooked it up in a little oil, and it was fine. Nothing to write home about, but a decent meal. We had some pineapple and rice on the side.
We spent the rest of the evening addressing the concerns of children who had eaten more pineapple than their soft palates were prepared to handle.
FRIDAY Fish tacos
Gonna go shuffle off to the kitchen and make this now. I’ll keep it basic, just frozen batter-fried fish on tortillas with avocados, shredded cabbage, sour cream and cilantro. I feel like I bought some salsa.
Here’s the recipes for the things that aren’t self-explanatory:
Any number of variations. Use whatever fruit is in season and whatever nuts are on sale. Dried fruit is also fine.
Ingredients
chicken breast, seasoned, cooked, diced
salad greens
blueberries, strawberries, cranberries, fresh or dried
toasted walnuts, pecans, almonds, etc.
feta or blue cheese, crumbled
diced red onions
balsamic vinegar or other light dressing
Instructions
To toast the nuts: Spread them in a single layer on a plate and microwaving them on high for three minutes. This is the easiest, most reliable way to toast nuts, which improves the flavor and texture immensely for salad.
You can also toast them in the oven in a single layer on a pan in a 350 oven for 6-7 minutes, but watch carefully, as they burn quickly.
29ozcanned diced tomatoes (fire roasted is nice) with juice
1cupuncooked barley
salt and pepper
Instructions
Heat the oil in a heavy pot. If using Instant Pot, choose "saute." Add the minced garlic, diced onion, and diced carrot. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onions and carrots are softened.
Add the cubes of beef and cook until slightly browned.
Add the canned tomatoes with their juice, the beef broth, and the merlot, plus 3 cups of water. Stir and add the mushrooms and barley.
If cooking on stovetop, cover loosely and let simmer for several hours. If using Instant Pot, close top, close valve, and set to high pressure for 30 minutes.
Before serving, add pepper to taste. Salt if necessary.
When I buy clothing online and it’s available in fifty-three different colors, I always end up choosing this weird pinkish-cocoa color. I have so many things in this color, and I cannot for the life of me trace back my reasoning. I look fabulous in blue and green. Black is great. I can even pull off red and orange. But I keep ordering things in this shade that calls to mind weathered putty with a faint bloom of shower mold. Possibly I imagine I will dress it up with spanking white accessories, except I wouldn’t and won’t. Maybe I’d dribble some spanking white sour cream on myself and then Anna Wintour would spontaneously materialize out of the woodwork and use her veiny talons to applaud my fashion sense. But not so far.
Cavemanification of language. “I’m a boy mom!” Wow, so having sons is destroying your speech center? That’s rough. Or maybe you meant to express that you are the mother of boys. If only there were some linguistically comprehensible way of encompassing that idea, such as saying “I am the mother of boys” or “I have boys” or “No thank you, Bronxleee, putting our genitals on the cart is not Harris-Teeter appropriate, no thank you.” No, we must all stump around deliberately talking like we’re just coming out of anesthesia, because the world just isn’t stupid enough yet.
I have an excellent, relevant, interesting, well-researched and copiously illustrated story that would bring me tremendous traffic, and I decided not to run it because I can’t figure out how to do it without enlightened shitheads doxxing and probably sending death threats to some of the people involved in the story. Because everyone is now so woke, we start with death threats and then escalate from there.
Spiderman movie. Okay, I didn’t actually have any problem with it. It was very good and I liked it. We’re now on a really reliable schedule where Hollywood will allow the production of one enjoyable move every fourteen years, just like clockwork.
I’m watching my diet and started exercising again and it wasn’t good enough, and now I have to go on meds to control my blood pressure like a loser. This is stinkin’ thinkin’ and I know it, but the stink endures. The nurse helpfully told me that, when she was having some BP issues, she gritted her teeth and said no to the extra large, damp cardboard box of gas station nachos the other day. Not really my issue, friend-o, and don’t think I didn’t notice you turning sideways to get through the door. But thanks for the health tip. You really get me.
I have lost so many nice earrings. It’s just sad.
When I was at the clinic, there was a backless bench next to the registration line, with a small sign saying “please do not lean back.” If you want to know why healthcare is so expensive, that’s why: Because everyone’s sitting on backless benches and leaning back. They ought to just put in a trap door and a chute and thin the herd, SHE SAID PRO-LIFELY.
Where the hell is my garlic? I absolutely bought garlic, and now it’s nowhere. But sure, I guess I’ll go ahead and make salsa verde without garlic. Can’t wait to slather my carnitas with what will basically be hot grass clippings. Not that I can even find the blade for my food processor. It would be a terrible thing if I were allowed to have all the pieces at the same time.
This freaking cat is not going to be happy until he’s knocked every last thing I own off the table. But really, why would I want a cup of coffee to remain in an upright position? Where’s the excitement there? What’s really important here is that he follow his vocation as an asshole. I’m gonna make a backless bench out of him.
The local public radio announcer did a little blurb for a sponsor and then said the name of their website, which was “www.[something]dr.com”. The “dr” was obviously for “doctor.” But he pronounced it “durr.” Couldn’t agree more, you THUMB.
I bought some boots online and they’re great, except I can’t zip the right one up all the way. Yep, that’s correct, my right calf is significantly, measurably, boot-obsolescingly fatter than my left calf, because I not only have to be fat, I have to be halfway even fatter. If you think about how many years it took me to realize that it’s okay to buy myself boots, and then add on another three months while I waited for them to go on sale, this seems so thoroughly unfair, I could just cry.
You know what has sodium in it? Tonic water. A girl can’t even keep up with the fight against malaria without running afoul of her DASH diet. And I do *sob* not appreciate it.
Maybe I’ll run that story after all. Doxx you, February. Doxx you.
There is no one for whom Adoration is a bad fit. Shy? You don’t have to even make eye contact with anyone. Love ritual and tradition? Bring a rosary or say the Liturgy of the Hours. Prefer to free-form it? Go for it. Not sure what your relationship with God is or is supposed to be? Just be there. Not in a state of grace? Be with the Lord so you can hear Him calling you home. Have a hard time sitting still? Make it a short visit. Like doing things in community with others? There is perpetual adoration going on all over the world all the time. Like private, individual worship? It’s just you and Him.
I was wondering which group to spotlight today, and this message fell into my lap from the family of Laura Tepen, a Facebook friend from Bloomington, Illinois:
The Tepen family is heading down to McAllen, Texas to volunteer at the border for a different kind of field trip. We will be working with Catholic Charities at the Humanitarian Respite Center for those families who are released from ICE detention, often sick and underfed. Our family has a call to help together in the small ways we can, and this cause has been weighing on our hearts. We now have the opportunity to show the corporal works of mercy to people in need, as a family.
As volunteers, we will be assisting with the everyday operations to serve up to 450 people who stay at the center every day. Please read the links below for more information on what the center does for people seeking asylum at our southern border. Our kids will be able to help with distributing items to those who need them, and they can play with the children staying there to be a welcoming and loving face of our country to them.
We will be collecting goods to take with us, as the center is in constant need of toiletries, clothing, medicines, etc. If you would like to donate, the following items are needed, and I can get them from you before we leave on February 21st:
The Humanitarian Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley Humanitarian Respite Center needs the following items:
– Toiletries for men and women (deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrushes, combs, etc)
– Shoes (sandals, tennis shoes, loafers, etc) for men, women, children and infants of all sizes
– Clothes (pants, t-shirts, blouses, underclothing, etc) for children and adults of all sizes
– Baby supplies for toddlers (Pampers, baby wipes, baby bottles, etc.)
– Sealed snack food (granola bars, chips, peanut butter & cheese crackers, etc)
– Gift cards to purchase food items
– Phone cards
– Plastic bags for families to pack sandwiches, snacks, and water for their trip.
If you know or have worked with an organization that works to build a culture that cherishes human life, please drop me a line at simchafisher at gmail dot com with “pro-life spotlight” in the title.
We promised we’d have a podcast review of Kirk Cameron’s life-changing movie FIREPROOF for Valentine’s Day. And we lied! But we do have it just before midnight on the day after Valentine’s Day, and that’s, you know, fine. The good news is, we said twenty, but it’s actually twenty-seven.
This here is a special free podcast in honor of all men everywhere who struggle with trying to get their salt and pepper shakers separated when some asshole has glued them together.
Most weeks, our podcasts and archives are only available to patrons who pledge $1 or more through Patreon. These pledges keep this site going, and we appreciate them very much! How much? CONEY BONES MUCH!
I hope you enjoy it more than I enjoyed making this terrible graphic.
UPDATE: I should mention that it has been QUITE SOME TIME since we’ve managed to put out a podcast. We hope to start producing them again before too much longer, and we continue to be grateful to patrons for their support, but I feel the need to disclose what horrendous deadbeats we are at the moment.
Special Valentine's FREE Episode: 20 things we hated about FIREPROOF
