I made those Krispie Krackles and took them to a work do. Now, whenever I turn up at a work social event, people ask me for those cookies! They love them, which is great if I brought them but not when I slaved over making Tia Gelato and everyone was like, “Oh, no cookies?”

I thought there must be an easier way to clean the smell out and she told me just what to do. And it worked, thank goodness, because I was making them keep their sports bags in the garage.

She was a sweet young thing – all energy and light. And she loved her beans – your recipe. Aye, they made her toot somethin’ fierce but she loved ’em. So I made them for her and she always gave me a smile.

This is sooo groovy baby. My roller derby togs are clean and smell-free and I didn’t wreck any of them, well at least not in the laundry. Thanks, you’re a laundry QUEEN!

There’s a whole lot of nasty out there. My neighbor is one of ’em yet when she wrote to you to ask about putting up canned pears you just answered her all polite and quick like and she can’t help but blab it to all the neighbours. I’m tired of listening to her crow. Couldn’t you at least TRY to not be nice to people?

I just want to thank you for the stuffing recipe. No dried cranberries or quinoa, just the normal stuff like my Grandma used to make. But she didn’t have a recipe and I was too much of a fool to ever ask her for it, so it died with her…Until last weekend. The smell of your stuffing when we passed it at the table brought tears to my eyes. My sister’s too. It was like going back in time. After all these years I thought those memories were all gone, but for a few golden moments, I was 10 again, eating at the kid’s table in my Grandparent’s kitchen. As I write this, I can smell her cologne, hear her voice, feel her hugging me like she always did, like we’d better do it now before we ran out. I can’t thank you enough.

I love you! If you close your eyes and breathe and be still, you’ll know I do!

I took to heart what you said and I’ve made a lot of changes to the way I do business. I wasted a lot of time when cleaning because most of my clients aren’t very tidy even though I ask them to tidy before we come because clutter slows us down so much. I’m trying to bless their lives with cleanliness so I didn’t want to scold them. Then I tried your idea and started leaving thank-you notes for a tidy kitchen, bathroom, etc. Low and behold, the houses started being tidier when I arrived. Way easier to clean and I bet they are happier with where they live, too!

Thanks for the tip with yeast. Since I started keeping it in the deep freeze, I haven’t had any flat yeast and no emergency trips to the supermarket to get more. Turns out you can teach an old dog new tricks. 😎

I’ve always been afraid to not follow the rules. I’d follow recipes to the letter, even if I’d made it and didn’t like it, I’d make it the same way again. So I tried your insane suggestion. I’d ask each dish, “What small thing could I do to make you better?” and, by gosh, they started answering me. I’d try what the dish suggested and marvelous things started to happen. Now I’m on a new path with my friends, the recipes, along for company. This hasn’t always made me popular with everyone – there’s never been black beans in the tacos before. But I’m popular with me. It’s so simple. I discover what I want to do next. I don’t invent it. I don’t stress about what I think others might say. I don’t give in to the pressure on the cooking sites. I just tune out the noise of everyone else and myself talking or thinking and I listen for that still, small voice. Ha, who knew the voice of God would say, “Why don’t you add a can of black beans?”

It’s good to find someone who doesn’t talk when they have nothing to say. I value your suggestions because you don’t just talk for the sake of it. I guess you don’t work under deadline.

I’ve been cooking for over 50 years so when I find something new and good, I celebrate. It’s so wonderful to make something new. Although my grandchildren always welcome lunch when they come over, they weren’t big on soup. But I made them you’re borscht and they’re all crazy about it.

My little sister’s growing hostility in very poor soil. Her kitchen has always been a bit of a mess because she doesn’t pay attention to it on a regular basis, that’s all. But it wears on her. Anyway, I made your chili and cornbread when they came over last weekend and her husband devoured the cornbread. I listened attentively as she told him that she could never eat cornbread ever since I had told her the corn was ground between two skulls in ancient Mexico. That was news to me. When we were kids she refused to eat so many dishes, especially anything new our Mother made, like cornbread. It was great and I tried to get her to try it but she was tucked up in the corner of her comfort zone and even gentle coaxing just made her furious. Maybe because she had squeezed herself into a comfort zone so small she couldn’t breathe properly so she always had a headache. She tries to keep that same hostility standing between us. It keeps her from hugs but I still love her to pieces and I miss her terribly, even from across the dining room table. Her husband is really a lovely man. How does she keep herself from knowing that his heart is big enough to love both her and my cornbread?

I have to admit I was miffed when you said not to rely on any big recipe site or even you to make good chili. I just kept trying different recipes hoping one would taste like the chili from youth group when I was a kid, but they never did. Finally, I did what you suggested. I stopped hoping for the perfect recipe from on high and I started making one myself. Like this: Make recipe. Enough beans? Right kind of beans? No. No. Adjust recipe. Then, make recipe. Are the beans right? Yes. What about the meat? I’ve been working at it for over a year and when I made chili for dinner on Halloween, it was really good. Who knew that relying on yourself to make things better would taste so delicious? And we had the sweetest little vampire come by. He had a bat for a bowtie. Adorable!

I read sometimes you wake up early and can’t get back to sleep just like me. You ever hear it called the Witching Hour, that time around 4:00 am? My husband’s Grandma said the Witching Hour is bad enough by itself without adding to it. It’s too early to be awake unless there’s cows to milk or babies to feed. But it is a terrible time to decide that things were bleak, because they would be at that time with or without you thinking about them, especially since you share the hour with the ghost of every other woman who has been up at the hour casting about for the strength to go on. So that’s not the time to decide the cough you have really is cancer so you should just go walk away barefoot in the snow. The time to think about your life is after you have breakfast in you and you can be at your best. Anyway that’s what she said. I don’t know why I’m telling you this only that I’ve had my share of being awake at the Witching Hour and feeling like I just wanted to sob my heart out only I didn’t want to wake the kids. Instead I started doing what you do. I get up, sneak down to the living room and curl up with a good book. The wisdom of  good writers has brought me more comfort than ruminating ever did. And I try to remember to say a prayer for those ghosts, those sisters by another mother.

It was my husband’s birthday and I made him his favourite chocolate cake. We were supposed to have a little dinner together on Saturday night, that’s what the cake was for. But someone tried to break into his truck and wrecked the lock. He had to get it fixed and he was so mad. So at dinner he said his Mama made better chicken and dumplings than I did. I tried to keep control of myself because the kids were there, you know? And then I gave him a nice shirt for a present but he says, “What, this is a large? You calling me fat?” Then we had cake and he said, “It’s got too much icing on it. No wonder I’m gettin fat. You makin me fat.” I had to bite my lip to keep from crying. Travis, he’s my boy, he followed me into the kitchen and said, “Mama, why you crying?” I told him I just got some soap in my eye while washing dishes. And his little eight year old eyes gave me that old-soul look that just tore my heart to pieces. I can’t leave him, for the kids sake, you know but he’s so unfair and there’s nothing I can do about that except pray that he will change. I know now why my own Mama was so sad some days she barely said a word.

Don’t pretend it’s so easy to clean up. It’s not and I ought to know. No, you haven’t heard MY story before. You see, I feel I wasn’t meant to live in a clean house. And anyway, if I clean it up, it’ll just get messy again and then I’ll feel way worse. The mess is so bad, it can never be cleaned up. And besides, everyone in my family lives in a mess. And the mess I grew up in, it means I can never live otherwise, it’s my nature and I have no control over that. The other pressures in my life are real and I can’t take time away from worrying about them to spend any time cleaning up my house. And besides, what difference would it make? I’ve always lived this way. I’ve resisted every order by my mother, my aunt, my ex-husband to change. I’ve resisted every well-meaning suggestion because I ought to know they won’t work because I won’t work ’em. Don’t you think I know that?

That one you wrote that started with what Dr. Harris said, “Over the years, I’ve worked with literally thousands of people who have put their hopes, dreams and ambitions on hold because they ‘don’t have enough confidence’. And the sad thing is, this lack of confidence is not due to any fault of their own. It is certainly not because of stupidity, or laziness, or negative thinking, or a deprived childhood, or a chemical imbalance in the brain. It is simply because they do not know the rules of the confidence game.” Well, those words smacked me right in the face. And when I finished swearing, they made me read that book. Now that I’ve learned the rules, my mountain of sadness and broken promises to myself will not run the NEXT 10 years. I’ve read it 4 times. New rules. New game. Bring it!

Lying is very powerful because you can manipulate the world with your language. And you can get what you want lots of times; or escape from things you don’t want.

So, why not lie all the time?

One is that you can’t trust yourself if you lie. And there will be times in your life when you have no one to turn to.

So, if you’ve stuffed yourself full of lies, you’re going to be in a crisis one day, and you’re going to have to make a decision, and you’re going to decide wrong, and you’re going to be in real trouble.
You won’t have the clarity of mind necessary to make the proper judgment because you have filled your imagination and perception with rubbish.