Radishrain

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I have a story for you if you have a moment. It's about prayer, answers to prayer, and grace.
 
So, one day (in the year 2011), I lost my little notebook with the voicemail password for my mom's phone. I couldn't find it. I needed it. I prayed for help finding it, but try as I might, I didn't find it then. So, I went on to do something else.

Then, I couldn't find my tax binder where I put a lot of my financial stuff. My mom didn't know where it was. I looked everywhere I thought it would be—or could be—but, I didn't find it.

Because it was still lost, I prayed for help. Then, I got the thought that I still had a lot of places to look, even though I really didn't think the binder was in any of those places. But, I figured if I did my part and did everything I could first, then God would step in and help me find it.

I began to look around in places I had previous neglected (because I didn't think it likely to be there). One of them was under my bed. It wasn't there, but when I turned around, before I got up, I saw a stack of things on a large plastic bin up by my window; I saw my tax binder in the stack! I felt it was a direct answer to prayer and a sign of God's grace. Then, I got up to get it; I removed a box of Legos to unveil the tax binder, and I found the notebook with the voicemail instructions (which I may have forgotten about) there with it! That was miraculous. I knew of no reason those two things would be there, let alone together (they were completely unrelated objects).

It was a cool experience.
 
I knew that God had answered my prayer with grace because I had been willing to do what I could first, even if it didn't seem like enough.

Sometimes, God doesn't directly show you where something is, but through grace changes your perspective so you can plainly see what was once hidden from view. But, we should be willing to get down on our knees, and look under that bed.

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Disclaimer (added on 14 Sep 2021): I believe this post was added before the whole Republican party became conspiracy theorists coincident with President Biden's COVID-19 vaccine advocacy. Nowadays, I probably wouldn't have touched this topic, since it would make me look like a conservative (I have some conservative values, like I'm pro-life, but I'm an independent, and I don't believe in tribalism; this post wasn't directed at converting tribal conservatives to your own cause).

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For those who want to debunk conspiracy theories, perhaps the primary way to do it effectively is to establish trust.

Many believe trust must be earned. So earn it.

Stop wasting time telling people they're wrong, and why, unless your words truly, sincerely, do debunk the myths. There are so many 'debunked' conspiracy theories that are not debunked.

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This smoothie was phenomenal! Excellent flavor and very nice creamy texture. My mom invented this smoothie.

Ingredients:
• 1 cup of frozen black/purple grapes (frozen in our freezer; harvested from our garden, this year)
• 4 ripe bananas with black spots (frozen in our freezer; purchased from the grocery store)
• Karoun whole milk plain yogurt (fill up the rest of the blender with it; I think our blender holds 7 cups)

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Macaroni and cheese is really good with artificial bacon bits added!

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So, I've decided to begin the process of trying to make homemade egg-free mayonnaise. I read that you need twice as much oil as milk. So, I put ¼ cup of evaporated milk and ½ cup of avocado oil in a blender and blended for a good while. No emulsification. I looked up natural emulsifiers and discovered mustard and honey among them. So, I dumped some ground mustard in it, some salt, and some distilled white vinegar. Viola. It looks and smells like thick mayonnaise! The texture is nice. However, it tastes like wasabi. I think I used  way too much mustard! 😄 On the bright side, I can figure out how to make some nice wasabi and horseradish type sauces without store-bought mayonnaise, now!

Time to make some tuna sandwiches with this stuff.



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https://phys.org/news/2020-11-duckbill-dinosaur-fossil-africa-hints.html

What if dinosaurs primarily lived in the ocean? Has anyone done any deep sea archeology, lately? The article doesn't speculate about that.

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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201102142242.htm

This sounds pretty good to know about, if it's true.

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https://www.bbc.com/future/bespoke/follow-the-food/the-spray-that-turns-deserts-into-farmland.html

This tells about how clay nanoparticles can be used to make sandy desert areas perfectly farmable with traditional practices for about five years. It mentions how such a practice might become more economical than buying new already farmable land in the future.

It's also cool what they said about the resulting produce and the pandemic at the end of the article.

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I've been thinking for a long time now that powdered food is extremely useful. Here are some of my reasons:

• They take up very little space for how much nutrition, flavor, or usefulness they offer.
• They last a long time (without refrigeration, canning, or freezing).
• They require less chewing than before they were powdered.
• They're easy to mix into dishes minimal preparation (including smoothies)
• If you powder a lot of stuff, you have a lot of flavors to work with at a moment's notice, without having to go to the grocery store every other day/week/month to resupply (which is nice in the case of a pandemic, for instance).
• Powdered stuff can taste very good.
• You can season stuff with it (use it as a spice, herb, or a flavoring).
• You can powder all sorts of stuff (not just the things you see for sale in powdered form).

Anyway, you can powder food at home. All you need is a food dehydrator (or an oven), a blender (or some kind of grinder), jars, lids, and storage space. Some things you might normally discard can be quite valuable powdered (such as citrus peels; you can use the peel powder for desserts and stuff, even when you don't have a citrus fruit on hand).

I encourage society to embrace powdered food (and making it yourself). Doing so would reduce waste, improve food security, assist in social distancing, make shipping/storage easier, increase the flavors chef's have to work with, and so on and so forth.

I really want to make some powdered culinary mushrooms the next chance I get. That would be so awesome to have on hand.

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