Sandi Chats

This past weekend we attended a couple of social events known as a "potluck dinner". They can also be called "fellowship dinners" or "carry-in dinners". One was a carry-in dinner to honor a couple of friends' recent marriage. The second was a potluck dinner at church to give the congregation a chance to visit with a visiting missionary family.  I am not really sure how wide-spread a potluck dinner is in our culture, but in our community you can probably find one to go to at least once a week. Everyone arrives bearing at least one, if not three or four, dishes to share, meat items, casseroles, salads, desserts, dinner rolls, appetizers, relish items...the list of possibilities is only limited by your imagination! Young women in our community are taught to cook. They learn from their mothers who learned from their mothers. Consequently, many of the dishes are made from recipes that have been handed down from generation to generation. For a potluck...

We've all heard the superstitions: "Step on a crack, break your mother's back". It's bad luck for a black cat to walk in front of you. It's bad luck to walk under a ladder. Breaking a mirror will bring seven years of bad luck. And I'm sure you can add many more, but you get the idea. We have our superstitions. Well today is Friday, the 13th. That is considered, in our culture, to be the ultimate day of bad luck. Supposedly we should all stay home in bed to avoid becoming victims of any unfortunate events. And since most of us can't shirk our duties and stay in bed we just have to get out and take our chances. Where did this superstition originate? I wondered that myself so I Googled the question. (How did we ever find out anything before Google?) According to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia of knowledge, this superstition has only existed for the past 150 years or so, which in the whole scheme of time is only a short time. It was based on an...

Life has so many days that just go by and are forgotten. Usually they are just the mundane days that seem like the one before, nothing special happening.  Then there are the days that are remembered for the wrong reasons. Most of us can remember September 11, 2001 and the terrorist attacks that has forever changed our day to day world. A few less of us can remember November 22, 1963 when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. And quite a few less can remember December 7, 1941, the "day that will live in infamy", when the Japanese attacked our base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. (I wasn't around for that one but have heard accounts from those who do remember!) And then there are days that are remembered for all the right reasons, weddings, births, happy events. It's fun to recall those days and remember the happiness that came with the event. One of the happy days in my life is October 10, 2010. Do you remember what you were doing that day? This one is kind of a r...

Recently the news has been full of stories and pictures of the disasters created by the various hurricanes that have hit the United States as well as some of the islands in the Caribbean. In some cases, the levels of destruction have been devastating...and in others the inhabitants and their surroundings have fared much better. When it comes to hurricanes, I am always thankful that a hurricane is an impossibility for us in the central United States. The most we reap from a hurricane is an occasional rainy spell that was fed by the storms on the coasts...and in Nebraska a rainy day is a good day! However, even though hurricanes are unlikely, we are susceptible to other types of storms.  Following is a story from one of those times: Our little town has a great fire and rescue team. If you need an ambulance, a team of trained EMT's will show up, medical bags in hand, to be sure you get taken safely to the hospital. If your house is on fire, they are there to dampen down the flames...