Pinterest: not just a time sink

When Bridget introduced me to Pinterest, I was pretty sure it would be a mindless time sink, a frivolous toy.

Here’s how the folks at Pinterest describe it:

Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.

There’s a simple “Pin It” bookmarklet that you install in your bookmarks bar, and as you browse the web, you can “pin” the images that catch your eye. You can also browse within Pinterest, and “repin” things you find on other people’s boards.

It didn’t take long for me to see that this was more than a time sink.

Pinterest is a training tool for communicating with images. This is an important skill as we become a much more visual culture. Pinterest trains our eyes to scan for images that speak to us––ones we hope will communicate to others as we pin them to our boards.

Pinterest is also a useful discernment tool. I learned this when I created a “homestead” pinboard. Liesl and I dream of living on a piece of land, with a big garden, chickens and dairy goats, sustainable fuel sources, etc. We’re not ready to make that dream reality, but Pinterest is a place to “pin” images that make the big picture come into sharp focus.  (I’m also using this aspect of Pinterest to choose a new hair color, find my personal style, and other discernment issues of life-changing importance.)

Pinterest can be a spiritual practice.  I created a board that I called “center.” I started out with obvious searches: UU, Emerson, Thoreau, spirituality.  Then I started branching out: pictures of otters, an animal I feel connected to; otters led to a search for “flow”; labyrinths; things I long for, like strength, effort and power.  Each act of pinning was an affirmation of something important to me.  When I step back and look at an overview of the board, something inside me says, “Ahhh.  Yes.”

What about you? Are you using Pinterest? Is it a mindless time sink––or something more?

Coming soon to a garage near me!

Last month I saw an ad on Craigslist for an Electra Townie, a black bike painted with inspirational sayings:

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

Love is a choice you make from moment to moment.

It is because we do not dare that things are difficult.

Dare to live, dare to change. Life is beautiful.”

By the time I called the seller, the bike was gone.  But by then I’d done some research on Electra bicycles.  Electra pioneered what they call “Flat Foot Technology,” and I knew from the moment I saw the graphic about it that it was exactly what I needed.

I used to ride my bicycle all the time when I was a kid.  But it was a low-slung model with a banana seat.  My current bicycle fits me properly–the bike shop said so–but my toes barely touch the ground.  It makes stopping difficult, and I feel uneasy riding it.

REI’s anniversary sale this year included 15% off bikes, and after considering all my options, I ordered the Electra Townie 7D.  And a cute basket.  No streamers, though.  Liesl said she wouldn’t ride with me if I got the streamers.

Summer in Alaska is amazingly beautiful, and it has almost arrived.  We’re about half-way through our two-week spring.  Soon I’ll have a way to be active outdoors that works for me.

Small things: laundry

I decided last week that I don’t need to measure the laundry detergent into the cap.  I’ve know what the right amount looks like sliding into the dispenser.  I hate all the messy little dribbles down the side of the bottle–and the inevitable drips on the floor.  I imagine the gooey detergent crust that rings the lid represents a fair amount of waste, if you multiply by all of us using the measuring cap.

So I quit.  Now I just pour a quick dash of detergent into the dispenser.  With a front-loading, high-efficiency washer, you don’t need much.

I can’t tell you how much joy it gives me to have a clean lid.  I’m really excited to start a new, crust-free bottle.

Small things add up.  Waste.  Irritation.  Joy.

I prefer to multiply joy.

Half-Grain Egg Bread

Liesl is not a big fan of whole wheat.  I’ll eat almost anything (unfortunately), but she has a much more discriminating palate.  Her well-developed olfactory sense contributes to some of her dislikes–including whole wheat.

One trick that works is King Arthur Flour’s suggested addition of a small amount of orange juice–it neutralizes the taste of the tannins in the whole wheat.

Easier still is another offering from King Arthur–their White Whole Wheat Flour.   When Liesl was diagnosed with a barley allergy, I had to become a flour expert–which brands of wheat flour include barley, what stores stock those flours, how those flours work in various applications, etc.

Barley shows up in most bread flours.  I think it has something to do with gluten and/or browning.  I rotate between a few brands of all-purpose flour, but my favorite is the Organic Unbleached White Flour from Bob’s Red Mill.  Has to be organic–Bob’s regular white flour has barley in it.  But it’s hard to find.  I have the best luck at Natural Pantry in Anchorage, but even there it’s often out of stock.  All of the barley-free white flours are quite expensive–I think I paid about $6.99 for the last 5-pound bag I bought.

Enter King Arthur’s White Whole Wheat flour.  Not only is it barley-free, it’s less expensive, and a whole grain.  And–best of all–it doesn’t taste like whole grain.

Liesl’s favorite is the Egg Bread recipe from Bread Machine Magic.  I make the large recipe in my bread machine, set it on the “dough” setting, and divide the dough between two, one-pound loaf pans.  One goes in the freezer, and the other gets devoured pretty quickly.  Yesterday, though, I made one loaf of bread—and a pan of cinnamon rolls, which we enjoyed for breakfast this morning.

Here’s the adapted Egg Bread recipe:

Half Grain Egg Bread

• 1 cup milk
• 3 eggs
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 cups all purpose white flour
• 2 cups King Arthur White Whole Wheat flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons yeast

I also add two heaping tablespoons of vital wheat gluten, since I’m not using bread flour.  And lately I’ve been warming the milk and butter together in the microwave before adding it to the breadmaker–thirty seconds or so.  It seems to make a nicer dough.  If you’re more organized than I am, you could simply let all the ingredients come up to room temperature, and I’m sure that would accomplish the same thing.

Happy baking!

 

 

Which one is it, Brawny?

If you’ve been following the story about the Koch brothers bankrolling the Tea Party, you probably know that Brawny paper towels are made by Georgia Pacific, which is owned by Koch Industries.

Jane Mayer’s New Yorker article says this about the Koch brothers:

The Kochs are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry—especially environmental regulation.

This morning before church I caught an ad for Brawny paper towels on TV.  The music for the ad?  ”Lean on Me.”  As in, “Lean on me, when you’re not strong.”  Are the Koch brothers volunteering their personal fortune as a substitute for government-provided social services?