Fun with School

All last spring you got to hear about my Anatomy and Physiology course and I am sure you breathed as large of a sigh of relief as I did when it was over and you didn't have to hear about it anymore.  However, THIS semester I am taking Microbiology, which promises to be just as difficult as good old A&P.  You are forewarned.  Now, to take about Microbiology. :)  I am actually having some fun with it so far as there are online activities I have to complete for the class which are basically flashcards.  The fun part is that the website keeps track of points for questions answered correctly and then ranks my classmates and I by who has the most points.  So my competitive side is getting satisfied (I'm in first place) and I am learning all about Eukaryotes and Prokaryotes in the process. :)  Also, I know that I am actually learning the information when I wake up in the morning thinking about chloroplasts...

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.

Favorite Musicals

My family is a big fan of musicals.  We have our favorites, which I am going to share with y'all.
The favorite musical in my family is Seven Brides for Seven Brothers without a doubt.  The music is great the dancing is fun and it actually has a good storyline as well (as opposed to most musicals that just don't have much of a storyline).  This movie has been watched so many times in my family that I am sure we could sing all of the words to the songs and quote half the movie to you.
Then after that there is a whole big pool of the "other greats".  These include My Fair Lady, Singing in the Rain, Mary Poppins, Fiddler on the Roof, On Moonlight Bay, and By the Light of the Silvery Moon.      We love all of these for their unforgettable music, hilarious as well as sometimes thought provoking lines, and great stories.
A musical that I enjoy but I wouldn't call a great by any means would be "Call Me Madam", which is a musical I just recently was introduced to by my cousins.  I am OBSESSED with the music and the story isn't bad either.  I was informed that on the second time watching it the movie was found more enjoyable.  However, I just enjoyed it from the start. :)
Some other sub-favorite musicals are Sound of Music, The Music Man (I am OBSESSED with its music too), and Calamity Jane.
So there are some favorite musicals from my family.  What are yours and how do your ratings match with my family's?  Leave a comment below!

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.

Finally... Another Blog Post!- Summer Happenings

I know it has been quite a while since I last wrote on my blog.  Life has been quite busy though so this post will just bring you up to date with all that has been going in my life recently.

Taiki and I

At the end of July my family was busy getting our 4-H projects ready for the county fair and about that time also our summer Japanese exchange student arrived.  Load on my job as well as getting prepared for classes and then this last week actually starting classes and you have a very busy Lois.   Most of it was fun though and though my summer was hectic, it was enjoyable as well.
My favorite part was definitely having Taiki, our exchange student stay.  The little 14 year old boy fit in perfectly with my family.  By the time he left he had learned and even mastered many of my family's favorite games.
My second favorite part of the summer was probably the county fair.  I was smart enough to not do too much but I still entered a few items.  I found time to bake a couple pies to take (peach and pecan), which turned out pretty tasty.  However, Taiki was quite dissapointed they were going to the fair and not to his stomach so I ended up making a peach pie (his favorite) for him again before he left.
Of course I spent lots of time with my family this summer, which was good.  We managed to watch all but one of the Star Wars movies and played multiple games together.
Recently I became addicted to online Dominion (see earlier post about Dominion), which was probably not good.  However, when you are feeling a need for Dominion and your family isn't available to play what other options are there?
All in all, a good summer and hopefully this fall semester will be bearable too.  God bless. :)

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.

Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies

A recipe for chocolate chip cookies is an important part in every cookbook.  There are a lot of good recipes out there.  Some like them crisp, some like them soft.  Some like them with nuts, or perhaps with oatmeal too.  There are a lot of different ways to make chocolate chip cookies.  I found this recipe via FoodGawker and absolutely loved it.  This makes a pretty much perfect chocolate chip cookie.  It is perfectly soft and chewy, which is how I like them.  This one doesn't have nuts or any other goodies but is just simiply a choclate chip cookie.  I have another recipe that does have nuts, oatmeal, and cocoanut that I love also but that, perhaps, is for another blog post.  I hope you enjoy these delicious cookies. :)

Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients: 

3/4 c. unsalted butter, softened 

3/4 c. brown sugar 

1/4 c. granulated sugar 

1 egg 

2 tsp. vanilla extract 

2 c. all purpose flour 

2 tsp. cornstarch 

1 tsp. baking soda 

1/2 tsp. salt 

1 c. bittersweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars until fluffy and light in color. Add egg and vanilla and blend in.

3.  Mix in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Stir in chocolate chunks.

4.  Using a standard-sized cookie scoop or tablespoon, drop dough onto a prepared baking sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes, until barely golden brown around the edges.  (The tops will not brown, but do NOT cook longer than ten minutes.)

5.  Let cool, on the sheet, on a wire rack for five minutes.  Remove from baking sheet and let cool completely.  Makes approximately 3 dozen. 

http://kelseysappleaday.blogspot.com/2011/08/best-ever-chewy-chocolate-chip-cookies.html

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.

Movie Review- Ghost Train

     I am a big fan of old movies.  In most cases they are just better due to many factors (for example, they tend to be much cleaner).  A new favorite for old movies was accidentally found by my cousins on YouTube.  After listening to them quote lines from it for a few months, I decided I had better go ahead and watch it.

     The story follows a group of passengers on a train that miss the switch and have to stay at the station for the night even though they are discouraged from doing so due to a local superstition.  The main character, Gander, who is a professional comedian, lends a lot of the humor to the movie as he continually tries to cheer all of the other passengers up but keeps failing miserably.  However, that never stops him but he just continues merrily along.  This movie kept me laughing but also put me on the edge of my seat at times.
     YouTube is a great way to watch this movie.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.  I will admit you modern people might think it is dated humor but I am sorry, that is what I really enjoy and if you like that kind too, then I am sure you will enjoy it as well.  And in case you don't want to go around YouTube looking for it, I am putting the video here on my blog.

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.

My Newest Crochet Projects

     This last weekend was the 4-H Fashion Revue competition for my county where we displayed many different items including our crochet patterns.  Like the great procrastinator I am, I didn't start working on my planned four projects until a week prior.   However, I ended up with two hats, a little doll satchel for my sister's doll, and a pair of earrings.  I had another pair of earrings as well but I could only enter four items, not five (as somehow my brain convinced me was so).  I learned several new things with these projects such as, don't leave everything to last minute or else you have to crochet several hours straight and hurt your poor wrists, which probably is going to give me arthritis later on in my life.  I did have lots of fun though.  Several of my patterns I found via Crochet Pattern Central, a favorite website of mine when it comes to finding crochet patterns.  I also was blessed to find one of my hat patterns from a book I chanced upon while working at the library.  All in all it was a good year for crochet and while I am in the crochet mood I had better get started for next year as it promises to be more busy then this one.

My sister's doll with the little satchel I crocheted for it.

One of the hats I crocheted.
The brim on this one had a unique stitch called a linked treble crochet.

My crocheted earrings.
I have crocheted several earrings before but they all used crochet thread.
This pattern used three strands of sewing thread, which was interesting to work with (by interesting I mean difficult).

My other crocheted hat.
I am sorry you can only see the front of it in this picture but you can get the drift.

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.

Too Much Romance

     I had the enjoyment of watching some favorite mini-series this past weekend.  The first was North and South, an adaption of Elizabeth Gaskell's novel of the same title, and the other was Pride and Prejudice, which is an adaption of course of Jane Austen's timeless classic and my overall favorite movie, though I do enjoy them both.  If you are acquainted with me much you will know that I am not a fan of romance novels or movies at all.  In fact, I tend to ridicule them.  Those two mini-series are probably the excess to which I would go when it comes to romance in movies or books and even then it isn't just about romance, far from it indeed.  As I told my siblings as we talked about Pride and Prejudice this evening, it would be an alright love story but without the depth Jane Austen adds to it with her understanding of human nature as well as the forever quoted (at least in my family) witty lines, it would be nothing more than another romance novel.  However, after watching both North and South and Pride and Prejudice just a day apart from each other, I think I am ready for something different, with a little less romance and perhaps with a sword fight or two.  Maybe Lord of the Rings is on the horizon. :)

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.

Tea in Summer

      The other day I was feeling the need for a cup of tea so I boiled the water and seeped my tea as  I always do.  However, as I went to drink it, I realized how hot it was and thought perhaps I needed a change of plans for the summer.  Iced tea was the obvious solution so I dumped my tea over ice and put it in the refrigerator for awhile and viola! Iced tea.  So for you all that think that summer is a "No Tea Zone" y'all are wrong.  I know iced tea isn't as amazing as a nice cup of hot tea but it is rather refreshing with the current hot temperatures. I have been enjoying iced chai black tea with honey as a flavoring, which is pretty excellent in my opinion.  I also tried some honey vanilla chamomile that wasn't too bad either.  I hope all of my blog followers are enjoying the summer and hopefully I'll be posting some more on my blog in the near future.

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.

Contra Dancing

The other evening I had the privilege to go contra dancing with my sister and a few of my cousins.   I had been a couple times before two years ago but apparently I had forgotten more than I thought.  To say I didn't have fun would be a lie, however to say it wasn't oftentimes confusing would also be a lie.  Contra dancing, is a partnered folk dance.  Normally there will be more girls than guys so a girl can do the guys part by wearing a tie, which the providers of the dance will normally supply.  Where I danced, there were an excess of girls so I ended up playing the guy all but two dances.  Once I got used to the guy part, it actually wasn't that hard.  The most difficult part of it was I was leader so that meant I was doing all of the guiding and if I guided my partner wrong we messed up.  That happened several times.  Everything is difficult when you first start out or when you are trying to get back in to the swing of things, so I hope when I go next time (and hopefully there will be a next time) it will be much easier.  Contra dancing is available in most of the 50 states of the U.S.A. so if you are interested in trying it search around on the internet and see if there is one near you.  It is definitely the most fun form of getting a workout.

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.

Sunset in the Flint Hills

My brother went out last evening to the hills behind our house (technically the Flint Hills).  He was able to capture some of the most beautiful sunset pictures I have ever seen.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.