Christmas Meme

December 7, 2009 at 7:04 AM (Laura Ingalls Wilder, Meme's)

Saw this on another blob.  I live to copy.

1. Eggnog or Hot Chocolate? Hot chocolate. I use Swiss Miss no sugar added, but then I doctor it all up and make it scrum-tru-lescent with a splash of cream and DaVinci sugar free vanilla or toasted marshmallow syrup. YUMMO! I do need to say that I used to like eggnog as a child. I probably still would, but my family would probably act like it was serving liquid  yellow poison. They are finicky like that.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Oh, Santa just lines them up on the couch in their proper child spot. It makes it easier for Mrs. Klaus to take her picture.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?  White on the tree and I’m not sure why. I enjoy a good colored light on other people’s trees. Maybe it is just the way it has always been done. Maybe someday I will smash out of my rut. Maybe not.  When Honey used  to put lights outside, he always used colored, so see? We are not color snobs or anything. But, it has been a good many years since he has been moved to decorate the outside of The NutHatch.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? I DO, on the light in the foyer. Trolling for kisses, that’s me.

5. When do you put your decorations up? Usually Thanksgiving weekend. But it hasn’t been that way for the last couple of years. Last year, we were in Goomba protection mode. He did VERY well, the cats were actually WAY worse.. This year, because my groove has been thrown off because of all the travelling. I am a little more off my game than usual. Still not up.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Dish? with no plural? I can’t pick no stinkin’ dish!  We always have the same thing in our extended family. Because that’s the way we like it. We have other things added, but the main food remains the same. Turkey, ham, the best dressing (we were trying to figure out where the recipe came from on Thanksgiving), mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, corn, broccoli salad, rolls and butter, and some sort of cranberry business that I do not partake of. Someone always makes a point to bring it to our house when it is our turn to host, so it is an essential part of others holiday experience. I am ok with that. And then there is SCRUMTRULESCENT dessert. How can you choose. I will just say ALL OF IT.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? Probably putting up the Christmas tree.  Beeve and I always helped, but from the time I was in high school, it was my job. My mother had a lot of Christmas albums and we listened to those all season long. Even today, I put on my Christmas cd’s, that are the exact duplicates of her albums. Andy Williams, Johnny Mathis, Ray Conniff Singers, Boston Pops, The Carpenters. And now, just as way back then, Christmas isn’t Christmas until the cat is sleeping under the tree, furring up the tree skirt.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? Oh, I don’t know. I don’t think I ever really believed, so it probably wasn’t traumatic. I liked the idea of Santa, so I probably wanted to believe. I think our kids were the same.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?   We open the presents from ourselves on Christmas Eve. NutHatch presents!

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree?  I’m not sure what this question means. The order? The style? I’ll do both, because I am all about too much information. Order: lights(least favorite job, no one EVER helps me, they scatter like buckshot) children put on their own ornaments, gathered throughout their lives, I put on the rest, tree topper and then The Tweaking. That lasts pretty much the entire time the tree is up. The cats do a pretty good job of rearranging all by themselves. Those Fatso’s shake things up pretty good when they climb it and sleep in its branches.  Most things end up in the water bowl.

 As far as the style? Very eclectic.  We used to have two trees at our old house, because I like a tree in the front window and we happened to have one in the living room. That was the theme tree, and it was mostly grey and mauve and pearly, as I was all about  the grey and mauve at our first two houses. For that, I am truly sorry. Since we now have only a great room, we have only the family tree, which we have always had in the family room. It has all the kid’s ornaments that they have received through the years, along with ones that I have chosen or been given. No grey and mauve to be found. Once again, I apologize for that phase. I don’t even know that girl anymore.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?  I endure it. I have lived in The Mitten for 45 of my 47 years, so to wish for no snow? Well, to quote Honey, I wouldn’t waste a wish on that. It can be pretty. And I love it when we are snowed in, if all of my family is home safe and sound and we have all of our basic necessities, like food, heat, cream and butter. We are not The Ingalls Family, and I fear we would not have survived “The Long Winter”. Speaking of that, it’s time to reread it, right Tammy?

12. Can you ice skate?  I used to be able to, but I wouldn’t risk it now. I fall a lot harder these days.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?  Not a present specifically, but I remember being acutely aware of the gift of our whole family being alive and together the Christmas after the accident. That will always be my very favorite gift.

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? In the midst of all the wonderful, fun things that the holiday has to offer, that we don’t forget the real reason why we celebrate at all. The birth of Jesus Christ, God’s Son. And without that perfect gift and His sacrifice on the cross 33 years later, we would not have a way to have eternal life in heaven. Some years, we do better on this than others. Something to strive for. He’s worth it.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?  Once again, no plural? I’m sorry, it can’t be done. My Aunt Phyllis’ pies, Christmas cookies, fudge, shortbread. That is my short list.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? I’m pluraling this one too. Is pluraling a word? Decorating the tree with the kids, Christmas Eve with our Dear Friends, The Hostlers, making Christmas cookies with the kids and Honey, The Happy Birthday Celebration that our family does on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day with our loved ones, and playing games. That ought to about cover it.

17. What tops your tree? An angel that my Mom gave me. It has a pretty face. My old one did not have a pretty face. She creeped me out.

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving?  I think I’m going to say giving. But I surely like the receiving as well!

19. Candy Canes: Yuck or Yum?  Yum! But I don’t usually eat them. There are way better things to waste my carbs on.

20 Favorite Christmas Show?  I don’t think I have a favorite. I watch bits and pieces of a lot of them all season. I was telling my family that “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation ” must be on somewhere in the world every second of the holiday season! I think it’s been on every night this week around here! I like It’s a Wonderful Life, The Grinch, Elf, Die Hard, The Family Stone. I have a goal to watch White Christmas again. I have only seen it once, and I don’t think I caught the whole thing.

21. Saddest Christmas Song?  I’ll Be Home For Christmas, hands down. It used to make me cry every time I heard it. I used to have to leave stores, and go in the back room at work to get away from it. My Mom said she thinks it was her fault. On my first Christmas , when I was 3 months old, she said they were living in California and she remembers sitting with me on her lap and bawling when this song came on. It must have imprinted on my brain. I don’t do it anymore. I must have hardened my heart. I can do it again though if I think about military families separated at this time of year.

22. What is your favorite Christmas Song?  EASY one! It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year! by Andy Williams. And that’s all I have to say about that!

I tag whoever needs a post idea!

Today is the last day to vote for Suzanne, lets send her out with a bang!

4 Comments

This and That-Still Busy

December 2, 2009 at 7:12 AM (Family Life, Laura Ingalls Wilder, This and That)

Still hanging paper around here with one arm. I keep thinking it should ease up. I keep saying it should be better after this week.

Yesterday was the last day of The Walking Season with Keelyody.  That always makes me sad. The world will miss all of our conversation and problem solving skills. We have almost worked through Obamacare and yesterday ironed the kinks out of poor Tiger Woods life. Sorry, World, you are on your own for the next 4 1/2 -5 months.

I know we have never made it to December 1st before! That is how mild our fall has been. It’s been cold, don’t get me wrong, but no snow or ice. We are gearing up for some snow later this week though. Welcome to The Mitten. I think that by this time last year we had already had snow. I know we had a snow day before Christmas.

Yesterday, our cable, phone and Internet went out. For no good reason, and for ALL day. How did those Ingalls ever manage? One of our children asked me WHAT did people use to do before these wonder inventions? I reminded them that they used to work a whole lot more. They turned and left the room.

I have to give a HUGE thank you to my Friend, Jip The Farm Dog. She is doing me a favor and I am immensely grateful! She is my very favorite person today!! Is there anything you need Jip? Food, clothing, shelter? A daughter? BIG kiss on the cheek???

I am hoping to do a Way Back When-sday post again in my life time!  I have not abandoned them. It’s just that I am running out of old timey pictures and I need to crack the cat-o-nine tails on my Mother’s back so she will find our family pictures. I think I am going to ask for that for Christmas. I’ll let you know how that turns out.

OK, I have to git. BSF waits for no woman.

4 Comments

Back to Life, Back to Reality, Summer is Over

September 8, 2009 at 8:19 AM (Around Our House, Confessions, Family Life, Help Me Please, Honey, Laura Ingalls Wilder)

Labor Day is over. And in Michigan, that means BACK TO SCHOOL!

Only for Mousey, as the older ones started college 2 weeks ago. Hard to believe we have only one child left at the high school. Honey and I are flying towards the empty nest. That makes me sad.

We had a disjointed holiday weekend. We had big plans to start wrecking our landscaping, why should the sewer people have all the fun? We did have a fun get together with folks from our CareGroup on Saturday. We probably chose Saturday so we would have more uninterrupted time to move rocks.

But because people chose to sleep, and do other things that had nothing to do with moving tons of rocks, that operation did not occur until Monday afternoon, around 3. Honey, The Boy, Mousey and I worked steadily until about 5:30, when the floodgates of heaven opened on us and curtailed all the rock hauling. So clearly, 2 and 1/2 hours of hard labor on Labor Day Weekend was all we could possibly manage.

Even though that seems measly, I just now took a back pill to ward off the muscle spasms that I feel coming on. It would appear that I am no pioneer OR, demolition landscaper.

I spent the rest of my free time reading back postings of a blog that I didn’t know existed! I already read Bye Bye Pie regularly, love that June. But NOW, I  discover that she had a previous blog, Bye Bye Buy, that had been unknown to me until this very weekend! Buried like a treasure, a pirate’s booty of of hilarious gems!

Oh, I have to tell you how much I enjoyed reading this! The premise of the blog was to share, in great detail, about June and her husband Marvin’s decision to not spend any money over and above their allocated expenses.

Now, this subject interests me for several reasons. I once saw a woman on a morning news show who wrote a book about this very subject. I would tell you her name, if I could remember it, and the title, if I had a stinkin’ clue. But that information is just plain Bye Bye Bye. Complete with hand motions like N’sync.  Anyway, I checked this book out at the library and thoroughly enjoyed it. Except for her tendency to go on about her liberal political agenda, which I can’t even remember, so she made no convert here.

I really liked the way she thought about spending, and not spending. It made me think about the way I spent. Or shouldn’t spend. No hard core changes, but it made me think.

Another thing that  fascinates me on this subject. How people save money. As you KNOW, I am a devotee of The Little House Books, and their simple life has always been a source of curiosity and admiration. I also received “The Tightwad Gazette” newsletter for several years. That Amy Dacyczyn, aka The Frugal Zealot, she is a wealth of information on saving money. A good deal of it I would never do, but it is interesting to read her thought process. And I have to say, she is a very engaging writer. Oh, I was SO sad when she retired and stopped writing that newsletter. It was like losing a friend. I wish she would take up blogging.

OK, so I have established that I like to THINK about saving money. Honey is laughing his patootie off somewhere reading this.

Back to June. June Gardens, not the month. I have only read through September of her year of living without spending, but I have learned a LOT. Mostly about June and Marvin, but, hey, that’s just a bonus!  Once again, it has gotten me to think about how we can cut back, and why we spend on some of the things we do. All good information, since we are participating in the Ford Fiasco Family Budget and all.

So, even though there was not a ton of hard labor going on, it was a very productive weekend. In my mind.

What about you Guy’s? How was your weekend?

2 Comments

Destination:Virginia, And Not in a Covered Wagon

July 30, 2009 at 4:24 AM (Friends, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Television, Trips, Whatever)

Seeing as how we didn’t do much in June, and August looks fairly empty, July has been a MADHOUSE!

To cap off the hectic month, Friday morning, the Michigan Capri’s (Deb and Patt and I)  are heading down to Virginia to visit the 4th Capri, Mrs. Schmenkman. Aka Capri Lis.  And this time, we are taking some daughters! Deb’s daughters, Steph and Jackie, and our Girls. Patt’s daughter could not work it out schedule wise. So no Erin :(  

It will be a whirlwind weekend. But, a whirlwind chock full of all of the things that I love! Eating, shopping, talking and old friends!

I was thinking about all of the driving that I have been doing lately, and I have had a recurring thought.

Pa Ingalls would have been supremely envious of my van.

 It is a great vehicle to travel in. And we all know how he loved to travel.

Now, I know that it might surprise you that I think about Pa Ingalls. But I do. I also think about Ma, Laura, Almanzo, Mary and occasionally Carrie. But not Grace. Oddly, I never think about Grace. Or Rose.

I think about The Ingalls Family regularly.  I often wonder what they would think about this newfangled thing, or how that has fallen by the wayside. Mostly, I wonder what they would think about the life we now lead here in these United States, if they were plopped back here for the week. Wouldn’t that be an interesting conversation to overhear?

All that to say, wouldn’t it be funny to see The Ingalls’  driving across the prairie in my high top conversion van? With the comfy leather seats. Stopping at rest stops to pull out the old spider cooking thing to make up a batch of  jonnycake or corn pone? Crossing rivers using bridges, instead of taking their lives in their hands. Putting their little tin cups in the cupholders.  Watching “I Love Lucy” and “Laverne and Shirley” , “American Idol” and “STAR WARS”  on the DVD and VCR!!!!!!!  I have more thoughts about this. Perhaps I will save them for another  time. You’re welcome.

Thinking about it amuses me enormously!

We’ll be back next week. I’m sure there will be something to tell you all about.

Enjoy the dregs of July. August is coming full speed ahead.

2 Comments

The Handy Dandy Book List

February 20, 2009 at 3:10 AM (Confessions, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Lists, Muggins Q. Mouse)

Because I am feeling post-ally challenged today, Mousey gave me an idea. Actually, I made her  give me an idea. Her thought was to give you all a list of some  of my favorite books. I won’t say they are my most favorites, because that would cause me to have to think more carefully than I would like. So here are some.

1. The Little House Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder    No surprise here. She makes regular appearances on the blob. I believe I may  have mentioned that I like “The Long Winter”. Maybe once. Or twice.

2.The Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books by Betty McDonald   Some of my favorites as a child and they must be Mousey’s as well, cause she suggested them. My favorite stories were the little girl who didn’t want to take a bath,  The Tattler and the one with Lester, the neat pig.

3. The Mark of the Lion series by Francine Rivers    Oh, how I want to be Hadassah when I grow up. The first Christian series I ever read. I think Colorado Karen loaned them to me! It was the beginning of a long affair with the Christian novel.

4. Scholastic Dictionary of Idioms     Like I need to fuel THAT fire.

5. The Shiloh Legacy series by Bodie Thoene and all the others in the Zion Chronicles series that follow. Hat tip to Rachel for introducing me to them! Love Birch and Trudy. I think I actually cried reading their story.

6. I believe I may have mentioned that I am a fan of Ken Follett’s early work. Triple, Lie Down With Lions, Pillars of the Earth, A Dangerous Fortune are some of my favorites.

7. The Tightwad Gazette books by Amy Daczyczyn      I have been a fan of The Frugal Zealot since I was getting her monthly newsletter in the 90’s. I like the idea of being frugal. Application is always more difficult. Beyond any  of that, she is a very informative and engaging writer. I like how she explains her thinking. Even if I never had ANY intention of making a Halloween mask out of dryer lint, she made it sound fun and doable. A rare skill!

8. Back to Francine Rivers. She is probably one of my favorite authors. “Redeeming Love”, the pioneer journal part of “The Scarlet Thread”, and “Leota’s Garden” are among my recommendations.

9. “Goodnight Moon” Because all of our children were fascinated with that book and it has a soft spot in my Mama’s  heart.

10. It would be dishonest of me not  to mention the 2 most dog eared books in my collection. I have a confession to make. I read at least parts  of ”Shanna” and “The Wolf and the Dove” by Kathleen E. Woodiweiss, at least once a year.  The former is a summer book, and summer just isn’t complete without revisiting Ruark Deverell Beauchamp . The latter is a winter book. They would be what I believe would be called “bodice rippers”, but very high quality  bodice rippers. If there is such a thing.

I have to go. It’s winter, and I need to go see how Wulfgar and Aislinn are getting along.

What are some of your favorite books?

7 Comments

-17, The Magic Number

January 16, 2009 at 3:26 PM (Family Life, Honey, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Our Boy, Television, The Ab-Cat)

It is officially January. And that means it is cold and snowy in Michigan. Not really surprising, I have lived in the area for 44 of my 46 years.

The kids have a snow day today. Not because we have any more snow than we had 2 or 3 days ago. It’s because it’s -17 degrees outside. Which has me wondering, exactly WHAT is the magic number?

It has been below zero for the last 3 days. But only -7, -9. Clearly, that is not cold enough.

The Boy and Mousey both came home yesterday with tales of  “lots” of kids being sent home with frost bite. I do realize how these stories rip their way around the school. Gathering in speed and number of victims.

 The Boy told us yesterday that he was sure there would be no school today. Some of his teachers told the kids that they had been paid yesterday instead of today. And you know what that means? EXTRA long Martin Luther King weekend!!!!!!

The Boy has already been called in to work. A double bonus! No school, and extra money!

It’s a good thing that The Ab-Cat and I went to the library yesterday. She is good to get us many good movie rentals to ensure that we always have something  to stave off boredom. Plus, our DVR is full to busting with all of the many offerings on TV this week.

24, American Idol, Biggest Loser, Big Top Chef, and The Boy STILL needs to watch an evidently IMPORTANT Red Wing game (he just informed me it was “The Winter Classic”) that Honey so thoughtfully taped for him a week or so ago. The DVR is over 70% full. And that is giving Honey and The Ab-Cat fits, I tell you, FITS!  Have I mentioned they have purge issues? They are happiest when it is in the teens or twenties. They can’t blame me. I don’t touch the thing.

Our fridge is packed with food. I have been to Sam’s as well as Meijers this week. Many, many choices. Honey got one of the ovens to work (WOO HOO!!!!!!!) Our heat is working, we don’t have to twist hay into sticks to burn for fuel, we don’t have anywhere we have to be, we have enough down alternative throws for everyone, we have sugar AND cream AND butter, and plenty of things to do.  And Honey is off tonight! Life is good.

If anyone is looking for something good to read, give “The Long Winter” by Laura Ingalls Wilder a whirl. I learned all my skilz from her. I know I keep mentioning it. It’s just that good.

6 Comments

Coming Soon to a Mailbox Near You

December 31, 2008 at 1:39 AM (Family Life, Help Me Please, Honey, Idioms, Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Ab-Cat)

I am thisclose to a very important day. It is a date that I have not managed to make for the last 3 years. Not for lack of trying. It was due to lack of picture/letter.

My Christmas cards are done!!!!!!!

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Not much in my year causes me such great mental and technological angst. It reaffirms my procrastination skills, AND my lack of computer skills.

The first thing I do to start the whole process is easy. At the after Christmas 1/2 off sales,  I buy the paper and envelopes for the letter. This is simple, as I like to shop and  like to  have things on hand. A good bargain is also near and dear to my heart. I already have my next 2-3 years of stationary, because I am just that efficient.

The second thing is hard. I start off all cocky, because I mistakenly think that I have the whole year to accomplish it. I am almost always wrong. #2 on the list is, I have to get the picture. Usually of just the children, this year, I included Honey and I. Always a challenge, always hard to please everyone.

The third thing is moderately difficult. I don’t usually have a  problem writing the Christmas letter. I write it on paper, long hand. Just like Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote all of her classic children’s novels. She wrote them in lined paper notebooks she purchased for a nickel. Mine were 10 cents from Target. Just a fun fact to share with your friends.   One of the very few ways that I have actually emulated The Prairie Girl. It’s been a while since I slipped the Ingalls into a post. I heart The Ingalls.

The problem with #3 is, I am not a strong typer. I usually ask The Ab-Cat to do this for me. But she doesn’t usually want to. Because she thinks that Christmas letters are stupid and a waste of Earth’s valuable resources. So I am held hostage a little bit, waiting until I have a super good reason to twist her tail into doing me a favor.   

I also have NO IDEA how to get the words on the actual paper, around all of the dang holiday artwork. If I could get this bug worked out, I think I could type my own letter. Because my typing skillz have greatly improved this year, due to the extensive amount of “blobbing” I have done.   I have mastered ye olde hunt and peck.

Number four has never been a problem in the past. Actually getting the pictures from Sam’s. But, just for fun, we had to shake things up this year. We did it online. We  finally got that straightened out, and I picked them up yesterday afternoon. I was mildly disappointed. They said it needed to be cropped. I thought they would crop it evenly. That was far too much to hope for. They chopped from the bottom only, so The Girls and I are looking slightly like disembodied floating heads. At this point, my “give a durn is busted”,  and they are going out. GO-ING OUT!

Fifthly, and lastly, is taking the MASTERPIECE to the friendly neighborhood Office Max to get the copies made.  This whole process was so annoying. Our paper had these dumb swirls to work around, and they weren’t even the same on the top as they were on the bottom. So by putting the bottom on top, it didn’t cut anything off. Which I painstakingly explained to the copy person at the store.

 YES, I had to ask for help, cause I can’t remember how to use the copy machine from year to year.  Give me a break!   BUT, she SO unhelpfully forgot to remind me, that my copy needed to be on plain white paper, not the annoying snowflake paper. It’s a good thing that I made 1 test copy, or I would have pulled my hair out, in one fell swoop, right there in the store.

As it was, the words overlapped the colors a bit. But, guess what?  I.DO. NOT.CARE.

 I then had to have The Ab-Cat do me another favor. I could probably have done this myself, but it’s in her computer. I lose.

I am SO ready to mail these. And it’s all in the nick of time. It would seem that our Christmas card traffic was down this year, and that was my fear. That people would write us off. It has been 3 years.

There were not nearly as many of the  funny, newsy, informative updates that I have come to love. Maybe people were just not in the mood, or didn’t get their acts together. It’s not like I could say anything about that.

There could still be some stragglers coming in after New Years as well. Like mine will be.

 But HEY! If I get them in the mail tomorrow, New Years Eve, I will have made my own personal goal. If you will recall, it was between Christmas and New Years. I am more than satisfied.

I have to say it again.

MY CHRISTMAS CARDS ARE DONE!!!!!!!

That feels so good. :)

5 Comments

Still Stocking Up

November 10, 2008 at 3:38 AM (Around Our House, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Whatever)

There are a few things that I seem to collect.  Honey teases me about it all the time. Sometimes it happens accidentally. Like when I forget that we already  have a good supply of something, but then buy a little more. He used to call me the clothes pin queen. I’m not sure why they were such a hot item for me. I really don’t use them at all anymore.

Now, it’s usually things like kleenex, shampoo, Cascade, diced tomatoes, Chai, you know, the need to have items.

I stocked up on a few more essentials the other day. We have 6 bathrooms and we can’t  risk running out.

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The Ingalls’ Family would have loved to have this!

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It’s a beautiful thing.

6 Comments

Storing Up For The Winter, Like Pioneers. Or Squirrels.

November 3, 2008 at 12:32 AM (Around Our House, Family Life, Honey, Laura Ingalls Wilder)

Nothing noteworthy  has been going on around here. Noteworthy  being the operative word. Plenty of this and that and much schlepping, as usual.

On Thursday after BSF, I stopped at two places. First stop was the gas station  The gas station was rather exciting! I deliberately took the Ab-Cats little van, because I had noticed the day before that gas was ONLY $2.19!!! You may be wondering why I did not buy gas on THAT particular day. All I can say was it was cold and windy. And I didn’t want to. I couldn’t believe it only took $30 American dollars on my handy Visa credit card to fill her tank!!!!!!! Almost like a dream.

Second stop was to Sam’s Club to pick up cream, butter, cheese and rotisserie chickens. You know, the necessities. A full cart and $200.00 later, I was heading home. It’s a good thing gas was so cheap.

Honey said we have  to stop buying all the stuff, we have  to cut back on all the spending, they are cutting back on the overtime  at work. I said, well, good luck on the cooking thing without some INGREDIENTS. And HELLO, we have a 200 lb 17 year old son, who eats more than the rest of us put together.

 Besides, I am laying in my supplies for winter, like a good pioneer. I am NOT going to get caught without any food in the house like those poor Ingalls in “The Long Winter”. I can’t even imagine  the whining that would ensue if my family had to live on bread, potatoes with no butter and hot tea with no sugar. I like to have staples.  My pantry and downstairs freezer are things of beauty.

 THEN, that very evening, Honey said he was off on Sat. night and did I want to make spaghetti sauce this weekend? That involved another  trip to Sam’s, that he tried to weasel out of,  to BUY MORE SUPPLIES. I guess he had a change of heart on the spending freeze he tried  to impose on me.

 It was a good thing he came, because we always need to have two heads to figure out WHAT we are doing. Plus, we made the impromptu decision to ALSO make 3 pans of lasagna, which involved MORE supplies, and figuring. And the whole process involved math. I don’t do math. That’s why I married HIM.

 And he KNOWS it.

When he got up on Saturday morning, the prep work began. All the browning of the meat, the opening of the cans, the chopping of the onions, the opening of the cans, the measuring of spices, the asking of the question “did we do this last time?”, and then the opening of some cans. There were a lot of cans.

There were cans IN the cans.

We made up the lasagna, put it in the freezer, and then the plan was for the 2 pots of sauce, big pot and little pot, to simmer the rest of the day. Then Honey would shut them off before he went to bed (notice I said HONEY. I was already 10 toes up) and by morning they would be ready to ladle into our motley collection of ice cream, Tupperware, and various other containers.

After dinner, Mousey and I left to take Ab-Cat to her babysitting job, and to do a little shopping. Evidently she had a few needs. We returned home to the distinct smell of something burned. I was fearful.

Honey had caught it before the entire little pot was nasty. The big pot was fine. We were tasting them to make sure it was edible. The Boy said it tasted smokey, like chipolte. OK, we’re going to go with that.

So here is the haul

See the white strip of tape? That marks the “chipolte” sauce. So we aren’t surprised.

Dinner! Yummo! The little one is Mousey’s meatless one. She was very happy.

Now we have a little more food stored for the winter. And hopefully, the next time I’m in my friendly neighborhood Meijers grocery store, there won’t  be an old Native American Indian wearing a blanket and a feather telling me “heap big snow, big wind, many moons”. Cause then the frenzied preparations would really begin! 

If any of you weren’t tracking that last bit, you are really going to have to break down and read “The Long Winter” By Laura Ingalls Wilder. It will change you, it will. You will start laying in the supplies!

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What’s On Your Nightstand? October

October 29, 2008 at 12:28 AM (Confessions, Family Life, Laura Ingalls Wilder, What's On Your Nightstand)

I believe I may have confessed that I have always been a fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder. I am pretty sure  I mentioned this little quirk.

I have read the Little House books many, many, times on my own, as well as to our children. “The Long Winter” is my very favorite. I even have some extra books that I have collected over the years.

I guess I am a pioneer wanna be. Well, Honey could tell you that I am NO pioneer.

While looking around  in the biographies at the library a couple of weeks ago, I spotted this

I have never seen this one! So I got it. And one about Benjamin Franklin.  Then I went and read the People magazine, while I waited for the Girls to finish. I am eclectic.

It was an old book. When was the last time we checked things out at the library with a check out card?

It didn’t have a ton of information that I didn’t already know, but there were some tidbits.

Like,  Laura was a little bit more of a stinker  than I realized. When she was in her early teens, she had a teacher that she didn’t really care for. I believe he would have been a CloseTalker, and he had bad breath. And  he was a hand toucher. So she put straight a pin between her fingers and when he squeezed her hand, well, he never did that again!

I also knew their moving around wasn’t exactly in the same order as the books. But I had no idea the extent of all the back and forth  that went on. In a covered wagon! It’s really was quite remarkable. Poor Ma!

I didn’t know that Ma’s brother married Pa’s sister.

I did not know that Laura had a crush on Cap Garland! I always kind of liked Cap myself.

And lastly, I didn’t know that Mary’s face had been disfigured by her stroke. The author mentioned that she had some surgery  to relieve some of the contractures on her face. I guess I was surprised that they were even able to do that then.

Last Sunday, while our family was on our way to church, our children were complaining. They do that on occasion. They were complaining because they all had to sit next to one another  in Ab-Cat’s little van. They said they were squished, and people were touching each other!   Oh, for pity sake!

They are used to riding in the comfort of our high top, conversion, party van. Where the girls have their own captain seats and The Boy has the entire back seat to himself. And they make good use of the VCR/DVD/TV combo.

When the whining got loud, I reminded them of Laura’s humble family, and how they traveled in a COVERED WAGON, for DAYS and WEEKS, and MONTHS on end, and had to entertain themselves, and saw NO ONE but their siblings! Our three couldn’t even ride the 7 MINUTES to church without carrying on!

And THEN, they had the nerve to tell us that WE made them this way. It was the WAY they were raised! They weren’t RAISED to be friggin’ pioneers. And WHY do I keep comparing them to the Ingalls anyway?

All I can say is that Ma and Pa would have NEVER put up with them.

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