days in the life of a
Previous POSTS
August 2009
click here to read older August 2009 posts....
August 26, 2009
MAYBE IT'S BEST THAT THEY'RE BUSINESS MAJORS
While cleaning off a bookshelf in the boys' old bedroom and sorting through some books, we came across this gem.
My two youngest are published authors!
And we've got the book to prove it.
Kyler was an 11-year-old sixth grader when he wrote
this poem.
Simple. A little overuse of the words "fight" and "fear," but not bad. I'm thinking it
must have been a Veteran's Day assignment.
Kamaron was a 14-year-old eighth grader.As you see, he got a bit more crazy and creative. I have no idea who Aunt Bee is. She must be a culmination of Kamaron's Great-Grandma Fuson and a queen bee, best I can tell. He had me going until the end. Something about his soul being "sucked out like a leech" just didn't do it for me.
But creative? I'll have to give him that!
And we found one more written by someone near and dear to us.
Our dear Kara (Kyler's girlfriend) was also a sixth grader, 12 years old at the time.
(I did find a photo of her at 12, but it wasn't the most flattering picture and I thought it might be wise not to post it for the whole world to see without her permission).
Her heartfelt poem was short and sweet, to the point. She wanted presents!!!
Some things never change. (Just kidding, Kara!)
What a treasure! Kyler and I had a fun time reading these poems from their middle school years.
And while the poems are fine and apparently were good enough to get published in a real book, I'm not sure that writing poetry is their calling....
...maybe it's best that they are all business majors!
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August 27, 2009
THE LARDER IS FULL
I have to admit, when I began typing in the title to this post, I began to wonder if "larder" is really a word and does it really mean what I think it means.
It is and it does. And I have no clue why that word popped into my brain as I've never used it before in my whole entire life. Must've read it somewhere, sometime....
But anyway, "larder" means "a place where food is stored; a pantry." (I looked it up!) And for those of you who might be interested, the word dates all the way back to the 1300's when it meant "a place for meats." Lard...meats. Get the connection?
Okay, now you know more about "larder" than you ever cared to know. On to my post...
Our larder is full. There is nothing that relieves me more than when summer is over and our canning and freezing season has come to an end.
Green beans, plenty to last all year. (The shelf is a lot longer than you can see in the photo.) Peaches and pears left over from last season.
Tomato juice on top. Tomato sauce on the bottom in the smaller jars. Plenty for chili and vegetable soup, lasagna and pizza and whatever other tomato-ey taste treat strikes our fancy.
Corn in the freezer.
I'm not sure a freezer is considered a larder. Probably not. But I'm counting it anyway.
More corn and frying chickens in a freezer that should have been defrosted this spring before I started filling it up.
Oh well. That'll give me something to do NEXT spring.
And, in the other freezer, baking chickens and rotisserie chickens.
Looks like we'll be eating a lot of chicken this winter. Okay by me!
Yep, the larder (and freezer) is full...which means the canning and freezing are done for the year...and THAT makes me happy!
August 28, 2009
END-OF-SUMMER MISCELLANY
Where in the world did summer go?! Here it is, just three more days until September, when all thoughts turn fall-ish.
I don't believe there's been a faster summer. Except maybe 2008. Or 2007. Never mind.
The older I get, the quicker the days seem to fly by. When I was a child, "old" people used to say that and I thought they were nuts. Now here I am, saying the same thing.
Does that mean I'm "old"?
Don't answer that....
But still, I can't get over that fall and that dreaded "w" season are just around the corner. Oh my!
We've had a lot of foggy mornings this week. The other day, as I was climbing onto my treadmill (that I've gotten out and dusted off and, dadgumit, it still works and still is just as much fun (?) as I remembered...), I looked out the window and saw this. The sun was just rising over the cornfield through a haze of fog.
Quick!!! Jump off the treadmill, run into the house to get the camera, take a few shots, put my camera down and get back on the treadmill. Now I'm too tired to walk, but I sucked it up and did it anyway.
Yep, summer is over and it's back into the old routine again.
Got my youngest moved back to college. He's living in the very same dorm where he's lived and worked for the past 2 years, the very same one that I lived in 30+ years ago.
Most kids move off-campus by the time they're juniors, but Kyler's got it too good at Wright to leave. He couldn't live closer to the Kelley School of Business (where he'll have almost all of his classes) unless he slept on the sidewalk outside. He's a short walk from the student rec center and he works as a student supervisor at the Wright Food Court.
He's got a double dorm room all to himself...2 desks, 2 beds, 2 dressers, 2 chairs...a pretty sweet set-up.
Doesn't have to worry about buying and preparing meals.
Didn't have to buy and haul a lot of furniture around.
And the best part...he's got himself as a roommate!
The only drawback is it's not air-conditioned, but hey...like I said, fall is just around the corner!
Before he left, Kyler cleaned out his and Kamaron's old room so I could redecorate it (more on that later).
And somewhere or another, he found ALL THESE PILLOWS!!! Where in the world did they come from???
And how come I never could find a pillow when we had guests and needed one?!
I pitched the old ones (Oprah says you should change your pillow every 6 months...yeah, right! We keep ours for years! Unless they've been incessantly drooled upon...) and piled the rest away for future use.
Next summer, THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN!!!
If I have to force myself outside when it's 100 degrees in the shade and pull up some plants, this will not happen.
I mean it!
I like the purple coneflowers, I really do. They are hardy and apparently they reseed like crazy!
And you know I like bees...
...but bees like coneflowers too, a lot. Especially the bumblebees.
Honeybees and bumblebees all around our front sidewalk are not a very good welcoming committee.
We don't even need a watchdog! People are afraid to even walk down our sidewalk because it's bee heaven!
Which might be a good thing, but I can't even let my darling grandson or the little girls that visit me walk down my sidewalk, for fear they might get stung.
I'm just not having it, Kim!
The coneflower jungle has got to go.
Next summer, things are gonna change, I'm tellin' ya!
Speaking of the front of our house (I was, wasn't I?), something weird is going on with our fish pond.
It's all foamy! Like someone dumped detergent in it.
The plants seem to be fine.
The fish seem to be fine, too. Maybe they're enjoying a little bubble bath here at the end of the summer.
We're clueless as to what caused it. Kim has cleaned out the filters to no avail.
Always a mystery to be solved around here!
The very best part about the end of the summer is the FRESH TOMATOES!!!
We've got oodles and oodles of tomatoes this year, beautiful rich red tomatoes.
The best crop in several summers.
There is nothing in the world like a fresh, vine-ripened tomato out of the garden. You just can't buy them in the store that have the same delicious taste. It's like eating fresh air and sunshine!
Definitely one of the perks of Indiana country life in August!
Remember back in July (click here to read that post) when I told you how our family was featured as catalog models for Sahalie? Here's a some follow-ups/footnotes to the story.
First of all, if you want to see the catalog (and us in it!), you can do it online. Go to the Sahalie website (click here for direct link to catalog page), choose the Early Fall 2009 catalog and either the Broadband option (fast internet) or the Dial-Up (slow). You can virtually turn the pages of the catalog...very cool in itself!...and our family is on pages 40-41. Very cool!
Secondly, Kim took the catalog in to show his co-workers and especially his boss and amaze them that he was a catalog model. His boss told his wife, who is enamored by the weathered (to put it kindly!) honey house/barn that we used for the background. She wants to have their photo taken there too!
Kim tried to tell his boss that things are not as they seem, the camera can do wonders, and that honey house looks much better in the photo than it does in real life! I mean, seriously...if she saw how rustic the honey house REALLY IS...so, we shall see...
Maybe instead of tearing it down like Dad plans, he can loan it out to photographers for a primitive backdrop. Instead of trash, he has a treasure. You just never know...
Thirdly, Melinda, the owner of the local restaurant "The Iron Kettle," came up to me yesterday while I was having coffee with my girlfriends and told me one of her customers had recognized us in the catalog and was showing it around to the Kettle patrons. She had hoped I might show up so she could get my autograph (jokingly, of course!). The Gray gang from Sulphur are having their 15 minutes of fame, in our neck of the woods anyway.
Given my love for quiet sunsets, I just had to throw this photo in for good measure!
Yes, it's been a great summer....too short, but we sure packed a lot of fun and laughter into 3 months!
I think I'm ready. Almost.
Bring on autumn!
August 29, 2009
MAMA'S SANCTUARY
Most everyone has a special place where they feel most at peace and at home, a favorite spot where they do their best thinking and dreaming and creating.
Where they feel closest to God. Their own personal sanctuary.
For Mama, that place is her sewing room.
Mama is a master seamstress. A creative genius when it comes to fabric.
There's nothing she can't make.
So when I have a project that involves sewing, she's the one I turn to. Last week she helped me make cushions for the upstairs windowseats as part of my redecorating project. (More to come on that, I promise!)
This week she helped me figure out how to do paper-pieced quilt blocks.
I love it when she "helps" me. I do the cutting and pinning, she does the actual sewing which involves precision and skills that she definitely has a lot more of than I do!
Mama's always had a sewing area, but when my brother Mark moved out, she moved her sewing room upstairs into his old bedroom.
Wonderful natural light, an outdoor view, and nice breeze of fresh air blowing through.
It's small and comfortable and cozy, and she's surrounded by all of the tools of her trade.
She keeps it conveniently cluttered, clean but with everything she needs close by. Her furniture and storage areas are a hodgepodge of furniture that no one else needed any more and somehow made its way into the sewing room.
I don't even know how many sewing machines Mama owns, but she's got three set up and easily available whenever she needs them.
Her cutting and ironing area is wonderful, the perfect height with lots of space to spread out.
And on her sewing machine cabinet, just to her right, miscellaneous supplies she just might need at her fingertips at any time. Threads, bobbins, thimbles, needles, pins, odds and ends of all sorts.
And these...
...pincushions that have been around for as long as I can remember.
That faded tomato cushion on the left has entertained me and countless other little ones standing by Mama as she sewed. I can remember pushing straight pins all the way into it, forming patterns and designs with the heads of the pins. It aggravated her when we did that, because when she needed a pin she had to dig down to pull it out. But it kept us busy and quiet, so I guess she was willing to sacrifice a little convenience for a few peaceful moments of sewing.
The one on the right? I was a little girl when she made that when she was taking a tailoring class. I remember Mama using hair to stuff it. That was a LONG time ago!
She's made hundreds of quilts and dresses and pillows and baby clothes and even balls and who-knows-what-else right here in this sewing room.
But it's so much more than just a place to sew.
It's her own personal refuge from the world. Her quiet place.
A lot of problems have been solved and frustrations aired and love shared...
...right here in Mama's sanctuary.
August 30, 2009
10 LITTLE-KNOWN FACTS ABOUT EMILY
Today my little girl is 25 years old!
A real adult now...25! Amazing how the years have flown by!
In honor of my beautiful daughter on her birthday, here are 10 random facts you may not know about our Em.
1. The morning Emily was born (10 days before her due date!), I chased our cows that had gotten out. It was 90 degrees, very humid, a typical Indiana day. But the exertion seemed to do the trick. By afternoon I was in labor, and that night I gave birth to my daughter. She came into the world as easily as a birth can happen, completely natural with no drugs, perfect and healthy in every way. She's the only one of my 4 children that didn't have some health concern or issue at birth. Look how tiny her feet look next to her daddy's fingers!
2. While she was healthy and strong, Emily was also my most accident-prone child. She has had more stitches than my 3 boys combined! When she was about 3 years old, she fell down the stairs during the night and cut open the back of her head. Kim stayed home with the others and I took her to the emergency room, with her sobbing uncontrollably. She would hardly hold still while the doctor took an X-ray of her head, and in an attempt to distract her and stop her crying, he told her if she would be quiet he'd show her the picture of her head. She calmed down momentarily and he put the X-ray up to the light, pointed to her skull, and told her that was her head. At that point, Emily started screaming and crying even more hysterically, saying, "My don't have bones! My don't have bones!" Guess that technique didn't work.
3. I know this may shock you, but Emily always had something to say! What a talker she was! And if she didn't know what something was called, she made up a name. A couple of our favorites: peas (which I never fixed because Kim or I neither one like peas!) she called "circle beans." And once, as we were in the car, she saw a bulldozer and Emily said it was "a mud-mower." Creative little gal!
4. And quite a little dancer! She took tap and jazz lessons for 7 years, until conflicts with sports forced her to give it up. Emily always knew her routine and had NO PATIENCE with other girls in the class who didn't! She was also a charming entertainer, loving being in front of the audience and always with a huge smile spread across her face!
5. Shenandoah schools didn't give her an opportunity, but Emily was a good soccer player. And...she was the Soccer Shoot-Out State Champion for 3 consecutive years...as a 10-, 11-, and 12-year-old!
6. Growing up with 3 brothers was hard. They teased Emily unmercifully, sometimes making bets on which one of them could make her cry first every morning. And, not being much of a morning person anyway, it didn't take much to set off her tears. That, along with the hormones of puberty, caused her to pretty much cry all the way through her middle school years. But as it turned out, growing up with the boys made her tough, which has come in handy teaching high school. She's not easily intimidated!
7. Emily hit a 3-point shot in Conseco Fieldhouse during the state championship game her junior year! How many girls (or boys, for that matter) do you know that can say that?
8. The girl's got more championship trophies,rings, net pieces, and ribbons that anyone I know.From her sophomore year through her senior year,Emily was a member of 7 straight sectionalchampionship teams, including 2 for volleyball,3 for basketball, and 2 for tennis. That's a stringthat may never happen again in the history ofShenandoah athletics. .....Not to mention the3 regionals, 3 semi-states,and 1 STATECHAMPIONSHIPfor basketball! 9. Emily's the only high schooler I've ever known who had a first-name friendship with her principal! She called him "C-Dub" (his initials are C.W.) and ate breakfast with
him and her basketball coach/assistant principal every Friday morning at the local restaurant. Who chums around with their principal...except our Em?!
10. Emily finished her senior year with a bang! She was voted Prom Queen and then a few weeks later graduated as Valedictorian of her class.
In our eyes, she'll always be our beautiful and precious baby girl. We love you, Em, and we're so proud of the terrific woman you've grown up to be!
Happy 25th Birthday, Emily!!!
August 31, 2009
EAU DE DIFFERENT
Feminine frivolities are lost on my husband.
He's rarely notices things like shoes, clothes, make-up, nail polish, hair styles, girly-stuff. And if he notices, he rarely cares.
He's a pretty basic guy, and isn't impressed by such things.
If I want to impress my man, I fix him a steak and potatoes dinner.
I learned early on in our marriage that all those frivolities are for me, to make me feel pretty and good about myself, not for him. He loves me for who I am, and it really doesn't matter much what I wear, look, or smell like.
But even if he doesn't give a hoot, I do.
A Mary Kay consultant gave me a perfume sample a few days ago, and Sunday morning as I was primping for church I saw it laying there and decided to try it.
I don't wear a lot of perfume. I do love Bath and Body Works Warm Vanilla Sugar
body splash, not exactly a fine perfume but a light fragrance that I like to use. I don't dress up very often, and it seems silly to wear perfume to go to the Y or play tennis. Kim doesn't care, so I usually go natural and light.
But yesterday I decided to give Mary Kay's Eau de Parfum "Affection" a try.
I dabbed it on my wrists, arms, neck, chest, and behind my ears. Very pretty, sweet. I liked it.
Kim was getting ready on his side of the bathroom, so I pranced over to him, wrapped my arms around his neck, giggled and hugged him, and asked, "Do I smell good?"
He hugged me tight.
"Smell my neck! Do I smell good?" (hint, hint Kim!!!)
He sniffed.
"You smell...different."
Different? DIFFERENT??? DIFFERENT that WHAT?????
(*sigh....*)
Not exactly what I wanted to hear...but exactly what I should have expected!
Next time, I think I'll smear chicken manure on my neck and see what he says. Just my luck, that would probably bring a smile to his face.
My Kimmie! Gotta love him!!!
