Cowboy Caviar

(1) 15oz can of sweet white corn

(1) 16oz can of black eye peas (rinsed and drained)

3 avocados diced

1/2 C. flat leaf parsley or cilantro

1/2 C. green onion

1/2 C. tomatoes chopped

1/4 C. olive oil

1/4 C. red wine vinegar

1 clove of garlic minced

3/4 t. salt

1/8 t. pepper

1 t. cumin

Combine corn, beans, avocados, cilantro/parsley, green onion, and tomatoes.  Mix the rest of the ingredients to make the dressing.  Combine all.  Refrigerate.  It’s best when it sits overnight.  But, I mixed it up right before the picnic and it worked just fine.

Troy Garden Club – Perennial Plant Exchange – Saturday, May 21st from 10am-noon @ Huber Park at the Troy Civic Center – see website for details:  http://www.troygardenclubmi.com/TroyGardenClub/Perennial_Plant_Exchange_-May_21.html

The Waterford Garden Club

Meetings are held the first Thursday of each month at 10:00am at the Parks and Recreation Office, 2303 Crescent Lake Road.  With the exception of February and July.  If you would like more information, please contact Jane Sitko at 248-625-7484.
Perennial Plant Swap – Free
Saturday, May 14, 2011
10:00am – 2:00pm at Hess-Hathaway Park Gazebo
A great opportunity to share your perennials and gather some new ones.  Please label plants with name, moisture needs and whether it is a sun or shade plant.

The Clarkston Farm & Garden Club invite you to join us at this year’s  Perennial Plant Swap
Saturday, June 4, 2011, 9:00 a.m.
Clarkston Village Downtown Parking Lot (Washington & Main Streets)
 
Guidelines for the Swap:
 1.  Carefully dig, divide and thin the number of plants you want to trade.
 2. Pot or bag them up with enough soil/moisture to get them to the parking lot at 8:45 a.m. on the day of the swap.
 3.  Identify and label the plants using the following link:
      Please download the page of labels here and use one label for each plant:http://www.clarkstongardenclub.org/planttags.pdf
      (Garden Club members will also have extra labels at the Swap!)
 4.  Between 8:45 a.m. and 9:00 a.m., plants will be grouped and displayed by category.  In order to move the process along, you are encouraged to look over the available plants before it is your turn to choose.
 5.  At 9:00 a.m., each participant will draw a number and line up according to their number.
 6.  When it is your turn, choose one plant to replace one of the plants you brought.  Line up as many times as the number of plants you brought, choosing one plant at each turn.
 7.  Typically, there are plants left over after everyone has made their choices.  They will be available for a donation of at least $1.00 depending on the quality/quantity of each plant.
 8.  The Swap will take place rain or shine so, you may need your umbrella or sunscreen (hoping for the latter).
 9.  Most importantly, have fun and plant your new plants ASAP!
 10.  Mark your calendars for next year’s Swap…first Saturday in June.
 For more information, please call 248 620 2984 or email jkhorses@comcast.net

Enjoy!!

~AJ (Amy J. Hirt)

As many of you know, my girls and I will be performing in Pontiac Theater IV’s production of The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe this weekend and next.  There are 4 performances.  Tickets are $10/adult, $7/children, & $7/seniors.  There is a discount for groups of 10 or more, so, let me know if you would like to try to get  the discounted price: send your name, how many people will be coming with the ages of all, and which night you will be coming.  I will be collecting names for each performance & if I get 10 or more, the prices are a little cheaper!   Here are the times, dates, & location:

SHOW DATES & TIMES:
Friday, April 29th at 8:00pm
Saturday, April 30th at 2:00pm
Friday, May 6th at 8:00pm
Saturday, May 7th at 2:00pm

LOCATION:
At Pontiac Northern High School
1051 Arlene. Pontiac, MI

http://www.mapquest.com/?version=1.0&hk=3-XOL81arT

We’d love to see you there! Hope you can come!!

~Amy Hirt…. & Company

P.S. There will be an Afterglow on Opening Night, April 29th, and refreshments will be served for those who attend then!  AND, don’t forget that children 4 & under are free and a Season Pass to Pontiac Theater IV is $35 for the year and includes tickets to every show the theater puts on for your entire immediate family for a full year! It’s worth it, but you have to sign up before the show. You can call Maria Delgado at 248-499-2360 for more info.

The Charm Bracelet
fiction by Sarah Kistler

Sweet 16 had finally come! I never thought I‘d make it. But I did. And it was amazing. My parents threw the birthday party of the century, and I had more people than I could count. The whole day had been awesome. But as I watched the sun begin to set, I knew the best part was soon to come.

It was late in the evening. Confetti had been swept up, helium balloons had started to sag and gift wrap had been folded neatly and tucked away for my mom’s later use. As I sat at my window studying the dusky sky, Dad peeked into my room with a smile.

“Ready to go, Sweetie?” he asked.

Was that a trick question? I wondered as I scrambled to my feet. I’d been waiting for this night for five long years, and it was finally here! I was now officially allowed to date!

The plan was for my parents and me to go to my favorite restaurant on the night of my 16th birthday and officiate the agreement, go over standards and discuss rules and such. And now we were finally on our way.

I sat across from my parents in a quiet corner booth. Having just placed our orders, I figured it was time to get on with it. “So. I can go out with any guy I want to, right?” I squealed, hardly able to contain my excitement.

Mom and Dad chuckled. Dad answered, “Well, we agreed to that, didn’t we?”

“Sweet!” I exclaimed, doing a little victory dance in my seat. My parents had held me off for years, but now that the time had come, they would let me date any guy I wanted! Of course they knew I had a good relationship with God and wasn’t too short on common sense, either.

“Now wait just a second,” Mom interrupted with a smile. “You have to agree to a little something yourself.”

I was expecting a lecture of some sort, so I was already prepared. “So what do I have to do now?” I asked, leaning forward on my elbows.

“Just open this,” Dad answered, producing a small white box. He gave a mysterious smile.

One Little Rule
I hesitated a moment before untying the curly pink ribbon. I slowly opened the lid and saw a beautiful silver bracelet. But not just any bracelet. It was a charm bracelet. And they weren’t just any charms. They were gemstones, small but gorgeous. A dozen dainty charms dangled gently.

“Wow.” I didn’t know what else to say. I wasn’t expecting this at all.

“Now you have to understand this isn’t just any bracelet,” Mom informed me.

“I know,” I said. “It’s so beautiful!” I studied it closer. There were six small charms alternating with six tinier ones. The smaller ones were a deep blue. Sapphires, I guessed. And the other six were each different. One appeared to be just a rock, one was pink, a white one, a red one, green . . . and was that a diamond?

“This charm bracelet is symbolic,” Dad explained, leaning in closer to study it with me. “It represents you and your purity. This is what will guide you through your dating relationships. Your mother and I can only tell you what’s right. We can’t make you believe it yourself. Hopefully, this will.”

I looked up solemnly. “I’m listening.”

“This represents the first time you hold a guy’s hand,” Mom said, pointing to the gray one. “It’s just a piece of polished granite. Seemingly cheap, yes, but it’s still a part of your bracelet. This is pink quartz.” She gently rubbed the next one between her fingers. “It represents your first kiss.”

“This green one is an emerald,” Dad continued. “This is your first boyfriend. The pearl is the first time you say ‘I love you’ to a man other than me.”

I giggled. This was so amazing.

“The ruby stands for your first engagement. And the diamond represents the first time you say ‘I do,’ ” Mom finished.

After letting it all sink in, I cleared my emotion-clogged throat. “What do the six tiny sapphires stand for?” I asked.

“Those are to remind you how beautiful and valuable you are to us and to God,” Dad replied. “Now here’s the hitch in all this, the one and only rule you’ll ever have to follow when it comes to dating.”

Only one rule. Sounded good. But little did I know . . .

“Whenever you give one these actions of love-a kiss, an ‘I love you,’ a hand to hold-you also have to give the recipient the gem to match.”

I must’ve misunderstood. “I have to give him the gem?”

“You have to give it to him,” Mom restated.

I was silent for a moment. I thought they must be joking. But they weren’t even thinking of cracking a smile.

“But Daddy!” I suddenly shrieked. “These are insanely expensive! I can’t just give them away!”

He gave a soft, loving chuckle. “Did you hear what you just said?”

I thought about it.

“Baby, your purity, your heart, they’re far more valuable than a few little rocks. If you can’t find it in your heart to give away your little charms, I don’t think you should be giving away the things they represent.”

I could feel my insides melting, ready to gush out my tear ducts. On the one hand, it made me feel valuable and precious. But on the other, it made me furious. It made no sense. But it would.

Priceless Gems
A few weeks after that night, I was hanging out with my friends at the beach. Chad wouldn’t swim because I wouldn’t swim. I was more interested in reading than getting caked with sand, and he was more interested in sitting with me than swimming with his buddies. He was sweet. He was cute. And he tried to hold my hand.

I was thrilled for a nanosecond when a certain piece of ugly granite flashed through my mind and made me move out of his reach. I was severely annoyed-annoyed at my parents, annoyed at my bracelet-turned-handcuffs, but most of all, annoyed at myself. I was letting a little rock dominate my romantic life.

I furiously glared at it during the whole embarrassing walk to the bathhouse. But then God hit me upside the head with a shocking epiphany. I couldn’t give up my little chunk of granite. It was a part of my bracelet, which in a sense made it a part of me. I wouldn’t be whole without it. It wasn’t a priceless gem, yet it was still valuable. It made sense after that.

Kevin came along eventually. We had fun. We hung out a lot. I thought I might love him. I thought I might tell him so. I thought of my pearl. It turned out that I didn’t love him as much as I thought I did.

So my parents had been right. They couldn’t make me believe the things they wanted me to believe. So they let God and my bracelet do the work instead. Among the four of them, I figured out how valuable I was. How valuable my purity was. How not valuable guys were who just wasted my time and emotions. If they weren’t in it for the whole bracelet, why should they get one part of it?

Nate. He thought my bracelet was awesome. So he never tried to hold my hand. He never tried to kiss me. But he asked me to marry him.

I never knew that so many years of torture could amount to so much happiness. I’d thought it was silly. I’d thought it was overrated. But now, I‘ve never been more glad of anything in my life. As I gave my husband the charm bracelet in its entirety, I wondered why I had found it so hard to hang on to those little rocks when it was so amazing to give them all to the man I truly loved.

But it didn’t end there. Now our daughter wears it.

From: www.briomag.com

1.  What are your top 5 interests:

2.  What are your most experienced hobbies?

3.  Do/did you ever play any instruments? How long? When?

4.  What talents do you have?

5.  Do you have any formal training? List.

6.  Are you taking any classes or teaching yourself anything currently?

7.  Do you incorporate your hobbies/talents into your schooling?  If so, how?

8.  If you like to read, what type of books do you usually read and how often?

9.  Tell us a little more or something additional about yourself:

O.k…. here’s my answers:

1. Gee, do we have to just put down 5?? Who made up this survey, anyway??  Can we list “smart aleck” as one?  ;P  O.k., seriously- 1. music (worship, singing, harmonies, listening, playing, instruments, symphonic, etc.)<that still counts as ONE, 2. gardening (weeding, planting, propogating, planning), 3. crochetingknitting&sewing (still counts as one because I didn’t leave a space inbetween them!), 4.painting, 5.natureprayerevangelismcampingchickensactingwritingand toomuchtolist.

2.  singing, gardening, acting, guitar, song writing, crochet.

3.  flute (3yrs-6th,7th,& 8th grades), bassoon (2 years-8th&9th grades), guitar (7yrs. current)

4.  singing, acting, writing, home crafts, song-writing, color, art

5.  piano (1semester) & vocal (that’s all I can remember right now).

6.  I am teaching myself to paint with one-stroke painting techniques.

7.  Yes, I’m using my new painting skills to teach my children art, I’ve taught them some vocal & music training, crochet/knitting, and about plants.

8.  I like to read, but, don’t get to much.  I’m trying to read more.  I like to read books on our Christian walk, the Bible, allegories, some old classics and books about pioneers.

9.  I am always trying to simplify my life so as to purposefully & creatively follow Jesus, because, when I get too busy, I forget my First Love.  I don’t want to follow my own selfish ambitions &  forget to follow His heart that is for others.  I love to use my giftings for His glory and to further His kingdom in whatever ways I can.

O.k., now it’s your turn!!

In a 9×13 pan, cover the chicken breasts with the salsa. Cover with foil, bake at 350 deg. F for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for about 25 minutes longer or until juices run clear. Cover chicken with shredded cheese & bake an additional 5 minutes or until cheese melts. Serve with/over white rice, refried beans (I add a couple T.’s lime juice & butter), and tortilla chips (Cantina style is nice).

Oh, I did notice that Catherine’s email address is outdated.  She’s at cmkristian@comcast.net now.  Which reminds me do we have a direct email link for users to get  help on the site or do you think we need that?

O.k., now what button do I push to post?

~AJ (a.k.a. Amy J. Hirt)

1. Click “Site Admin” in the menu bar.
2. Click the “New Post” button at the top of the screen.
3. Create a Title and Body for your post.
4. Assign your post to “For Sale/Wanted” by selecting that category under the “All Categories” menu on the right hand side.