summer 2011

summer 2011

Paul and I, all 16 kids and Ashley, Benjamin's wife...Christmas 2012

Paul and I, all 16 kids and Ashley, Benjamin's wife...Christmas 2012
family

Friday, January 15, 2021

negativity!!!!

 Happy happy day, Miss Char and Miss Cam both tested negative for Covid-19, through an asymptomatic testing program at school.  Sonja tested negative on Monday.  It's eight days since Florida, and we're doing all right.  phew.



Just a couple of bathrooms selfies, because, well, there's not much going on!  A few pics here and there on the blog are nice, and the animals haven't been cute enough for photos lately.  

I was just talking to the UPS lady.  Suri was outside when she came, and of course BARK BARK BARK. I had to go down to the driveway in my slippers to fetch that bad girl.  After safely locking her on the deck, I got the package, and the lady told me that she was almost attacked recently by a dog.  The dog was "friendly" according to the owner, and the owner was right there outside.  I chatted with the lady for a few, she is a really nice woman. 

There are all sorts of negativity, and not all as good as a negative Covid test.    I try not to stir things up, I rather like peace.  I think I was born with a black and white striped shirt and a whistle around my neck, or maybe it just appeared when I had more than one child.  When you have kids, they don't magically get along.  One can gripe about another, but as the mom, you have to let them vent, then gently steer them back to consider the possibility that they might be partly to blame.  Forgive and forget, you tell them.  Love covers a multitude of sins, you might say.  Or my personal favorite, "Behold good and pleasant it is when brethren dwell together in unity." (ppl.133)

In my book, part of growing up is learning how to get along.  When the name-calling starts on social media, I think they sound like kindergarteners.  We, as people, are vastly different.   But there is this distortion that happens, this equation that doesn't add up, this "if you are X, (or support X!)then you are automatically Y".    I am not a racist.  I am not anti-gay, nor am I "part of the problem". I am not pro-cop, nor anti-cop, as "cops" are people, whom are vastly different.  Most went into law enforcement for a steady career, maybe some turned into bad apples, maybe some were born into racist families, maybe some are as crooked as the day is long, as are many others in this world:  lawyers, judges, POLITICIANS!, even the local Little League treasurers.  

The problem is sin.  Every person is vulnerable to fall into it's clutches, it doesn't discriminate.   When we start finger pointing and accusing and judging each other, well, how is that going?  There's no doubt about it, awful things happen in this world, there is corruption at every level of everything.  More laws aren't going to fix it all.   

One thing I encourage my kids to do:  speak to the hearts of others.  Don't be put off by a bit of grumpiness, sometimes life is hard and people go through trials.  But don't lose hope for people!  We may not be able to fundamentally change the world, but we can each do our little part, in our little corner, to not just add fuel to the fires.  I am in that place where I want to keep peace, but also value that I am an American, and have the right to speak out as I see fit.  

I also welcome different points of view, if you want to comment and shed some light on a different angle, please do!   





Wednesday, January 13, 2021

there's no place like home, there's no place like home...

If we could name the year 2020, that would be a good one. When all this started, we couldn't have perceived that the new year would still be so restricted. I am super thankful that I live in the country, and can still go outside, still walk down the road.

Politics:  I am neither on the left, or on the right, but in the middle.  Freedom, I value.  More laws and rules, I hate.  Arguing and strife, I hate.  Violence, racism,  I hate.  Hypocrisy, dang!  Why, oh why was it applauded and generally okay when Target was trashed, and Walmart was flooded, and multitudes walked away with "free" t.v.s, when police stations were set on fire and innocent bystanders beat up, small businesses looted and smashed, all in the name of "peaceful protests", but storm the capitol, and well, just for the record, I do not support this either!  And call me a conspiracy theorist, but some stirring up trouble were there just to make Trump supporters look bad.  And don't get me started about who is in control of the media.  It's just WRONG.

I do not like everything about President Trump.  But he's done an awful lot of good for this country, including improving relations with N. Korea, he's wise in his dealings with China, not in bed with them for heaven's sake.  I actually feel bad for him, that he's been so absolutely disrespected.  "Not my president", I can't imagine being like that, no matter who is in office.  Was there election fraud?  I won't even go there.  It's just scary how far the media will go to paint the world how they want you to see it.  

So I don't want to be dragged down into despondency by the news, yet I don't want to live with my head in the sand.  I feel I owe it to my kids to teach them not to believe everything they hear, to read between the lines, think for themselves.  

With all of this said, life is still a gift.  If you are alive today, that is a gift from God.  Last night, I had trouble falling asleep (coffee, how I love/hate thee!).  Anxious thoughts were trying to edge their way in, so I was tossing and turning, and counting my blessings.  I was listing every single thing I was thankful for, and I finally fell asleep.  

There is no doubt this is a troubling time to live in.  We have a nursing home in our county, the very home my mother-in-law was in for rehab a few years back, which is FILLED with Covid-19.  I'm not sure the latest numbers, but over 30 have died, and close to 200 tested positive.  This is beyond sad.  Not only are the residents without their loved ones visiting, week after week after month, but so many are sick and dying alone.  That is the most dismal thing I can think of.  So even when I'm enjoying quarantine, sitting at the sewing machine, or binge watching Grey's Anatomy with the teenagers, there is that somberness running through the back of the mind, that awareness that all is not well in this world.  

This is the day which the Lord has made, it's up to us how much we get out of it.  I know that in our home, how I take things seriously sets the tone around here.  We have a turkey defrosting in the refrigerator, doesn't a turkey dinner sound good?  Last evening, we had homemade meatballs, with spaghetti and sauce, canned green beans for me.  I would prefer spaghetti squash, but one cannot always have what one wants, ha.  I also made some cuppy cakes for a little sweetheart who turned one year old.  Mama Molly Rose is a nurse, has had a vaccine, and was willing to intrude upon our quarantine, as we were willing to have her.  A grandma HAS to see her little granddaughters!

   I know that Ophelia Madeline Rose doesn't actually understand too much about birthdays, but big sister Lydia Eleanor certainly does!  (I wrapped a gift for her, too!)


Today I have to bring the girls to be tested, it's a voluntary, at the school.  Hopefully they'll be negative, and hopefully it'll help school be in-person again.  Online school gets boring!  

This is how I actually feel today:

When you can't fall asleep at night, when you've gotten to bed after midnight, then morning comes and it's like, ugh!  I can't function yet!  Ah well, the culprit comes full circle to the rescue, thank you, hot delicious cup of coffee...




Monday, January 11, 2021

help! I can't stop blogging!

So, turns out staying home three days in a row turns you into a stark raving lunatic.
The stool I recovered...I'll be honest, I don't love it. I bought the fabric online, and it's kind of retro, loud, but considering that I only paid $1.60 for the stool a few years ago (it was $19.99, 90% off, then I had a 20% off coupon), and it had a few drinks spill on it, a small chld played in it, it hurt my eyes to look at it...now, well, at least it's fresh and clean.
The dogs never fail to amuse me, they were so cozy...
Then Sonja K. jumped in for a snuggle...
So I bought crayons, the 96 pack, for $3.01, online from Walmart, while doing Christmas shopping. Mulling over whom should recieve them, I decided that the person who would love them best would be ME, and I do love them. Something about a new box of crayons, some of them are gel, some metallic, so many to choose from! Last night I got out the coloring book I found last year while visiting Kathryn in Oregon...
There was football on, everyone was in the living room, and it was so relaxing.
This fine day, after sweeping up, going with Sonja to get a Covid test, and doing some laundry, Sonja and I went for a walk.
She hasn't started up the semester yet for college, but the other kids are doing online school today.
It's a nice day out. We got some snow, it looked all festive, then most of it melted in the sunshine. Now, more hot yummy coffee, and...hmmm, not sure....

Sunday, January 10, 2021

oh dear, my goodness YUM!

Have you ever in your life had a chaffle? Well, if you want to cut carbs and still have yumminess, I recommend you look up the recipe and try them. Here's the thing: Paul made venison (deer meat) chili. I am a spoiled brat, and shy away from anything shot in the woods, preferring supermarket meat, go figure. But, we are in quarantine, and money is a bit tight right now, and well, we have a deer in the freezer, so...I tried to be open minded. Guess what? It's the bomb. Really really yummy, but so spicy! So, I tried to decide what to eat with it. Rice is too carb-y for me, so I decided to make chaffles! (1 egg and a half cup of shredded mozzarella, that's it. That's all. It'll make one big or two tiny chaffles.). I messed with the recipe, I always do, I can't leave well enough alone. So I added a teaspoon or so of almond flour. I made one chaffle, and it was very good with the chili...I had doubled the recipe, so to the rest of the batter I dumped some Hershy's baking cocoa, the unsweetened stuff. Then a big spoonful of stevia, and some other sugar-free sweetener, and voila: chocolate waffles! I do have some sugar free whipped cream from Walmart, and yummers. It tastes like dessert. Now, if you are a carboholic, or a sweet eater, it might taste like chocolate garbage to you, but to me, it's very nice.
I dragged out the sewing machine today, because the fabric I had the foresight to order from Walmart.com arrived. I covered one of the ugly stools in the living room, but I don't feel like taking a pic, and of course I forgot to take a "before" pic. I'm fired, aren't I? Being quarantined is really really fun. I washed some bedding, changed sheets, washed the couch covers, moved the furniture around in the living room and cleaned under it, cleaned out the microwave, shined the toaster, and and and. Yes, all the things I never find time to do. We aren't actually all quarantined. Jonathan is free to move about the country, as is Paul. And we had Margaret and Adrian over last evening, with their two little guys. We've always included them in our bubble, as Evelyn lives in the apartment upstairs from them, and is with them and us, frequently. They brought their air fryer, and we used ours, and made: fresh cauliflower bites, tossed in Buffalo sauce, butter/garlic/parmesean chicken wings, Buffalo chicken wings, barbecue chicken wings, and some frozen barbecued chicken bites, because we had just a few left in the bag in the freezer. Wings cook up crispy, tender, yummy, with minimal clean up. Sonja has to get tested tomorrow, and the little girls are getting tested on Wednesday. If they are negative, they're free...if they aren't, hmmm. Anyway. I don't get bored, at least I haven't yet.

Friday, January 8, 2021

what to do during quarantine...

1. Mull over that title. It's still rather surreal, the world we live in right now. 2. Blog every day, maybe twice, like today. Today, I did some awesome things! I drove to Aldi, and let Jonathan do the shopping! I only called him once and texted like five times. He did a good job though! I also cleaned the hall, vacuumed the stairs, did laundry, cleaned my bathroom, made an excellent dinner (chicken breasts marinated in lime juice and Montreal chicken seasoning, grilled outside by Jon, sliced up, served with a fantastic salad with freshly air-fried pecans (I LOVE the air-fryer! Pecans rolled in egg white with sugar, cinnamon, and chili powder, foil lined air-fryer basked with melted butter, mmm! 5 minutes at 300, stir, 5 more minutes, stir, a few more minutes, sprinkle with salt, and they'll be the best salad topping ever!) 3. I rumpled through some old papers. I found an essay Emily wrote when she was 12...she wanted to be a nurse! She wanted to help people because of her cousin Katie, who had leukemia as a child. 4. More Christmas decorations were packed away today. We took the tree down before Florida, but left some for...quarantine. 5. Today, I got some fun things in the mail! I ordered fabric, a small clearanced Christmas tree, and two nice baskets from Joanne's. I also got a gift that I ordered for Wulf...kind of. See, I ordered him a light for his room that will project stars all over the walls, thought it'd help him sleep. I got the email that it was delivered yesterday, but the box felt rather light. I opened it today, and voila! A package of Sour Patch Kids heart candy, for Valentine's Day. I messaged Target, they said I could keep the candy and the light would ship out soon. Can you imagine if I had just given him that box? Yippee, he would have liked it much better ha. 6. More fabric is coming from Walmart. Shh, they have really nice Waverly fabric, for cheap! 7. I threatened to take the kitchen cabinets off the wall and put them on correctly, but I'm not really going to do it. When we built the house, whoever put the cupboards in mixed two up, and it's still bothering me, almost 30 years later. 8. Tomorrow, I'm planning to take all of the dishes out of all of the cupboards, sort, discard, donate, re-organize. 9. The girls are busy catching up on school. Their in-person classes are postponed until January 19th. 10. Sonja is chalk painting things in her room to match her new comforter, a blush pink color. 11. Paul and Jonathan are sorting out the tip-ups. If you don't know what those are, you probably live in Florida or California. They're going ice-fishing tomorrow. 12. My diet was rather sabotaged in Florida. Pizza in the hot tub? Chipotle Chicken crispers as an AFTER DINNER SNACK, Door-Dash-ed from Chilis? Half a bag of chocolate covered peanuts? Pizza in the hot tub AGAIN, from the same place, because it was so good the first time? Yup. 13. Quarantine plans include walking and working out, neither of which happened yet. It WAS cold out, like 25 degrees. Jonathan managed to work on his four-wheeler, but brr, we backed out of the walk. 14. The girls want to make bracelets. Can Jon be trusted to go into Walmart and pick out the right beads and string? 15. It's been one day. Nine more to go. And shh, Linda :) 16. Do I get a million points for not talking about current events? Events that have me almost livid? 17. A million points are how many I earned the other day when a nice old lady in Florida complimented all the girls and I, said she could tell we were family. (she said we had pretty hair). Sonja said, "We're sisters and this is our mom." The old lady said, "Well we had four girls too, but also THREE BOYS." I just told her that was so cool, and kept my big fat trap shut, how is that for restraint? My girls could NOT believe it. 18. I wish I had bought things to chalk paint, back when I actually had the freedom to go where I pleased...this is killing me already. And shh, this is my blog, I can cry if I want to...

home sweet home!

Would I be happier if this was my home?
Or maybe one of these? I think so, don't you? A huge-0 house = happiness. Seriously though, I was so glad to be home. The puppy dogs, the kitties, Paul (not exactly in that order ha!), Mr. Jonathan... Celebration Florida is fun though, feels like you are in a movie set, small town U.S.A.
We had a little picnic, had some iced coffee, took pictures, then headed to gas up the rental car and...to the airport.
Charlotte Claire and Camille started dancing a little...
Miss Evelyn Joy, so cute. She managed to fit this new dress into the suitcase. Spending so much time with these girls of mine was totally AWESOME. Did you know we got to see Miss Suzanne Eleanor too? She met up with us, flew from California, with Aaron and Riley. I only got one pic of all of us:
Anyway, it's good to be back home again...I have sewing projects, and cleaning and organizing projects...the girls are all on remote/virtual only school for a few weeks, so it worked well with our mandatory quarantine. Yes, it's good to be home.

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

celebration? today?

Today, there is upheaval in the land of the free. There are spam comments, there are fingers pointing, there is unrest, and most likely, fear. In the midst of a pandemic, when we should be bonding and banding, there's rifting and hating.
Oh, how good and blessed it is when brethren dwell together in unity. Four of my daughters, getting along just fine, in Celebration, Florida, today. Have you ever read about Celebration? It's a planned community, it's like The Stepford Wives, or perhaps like a stroll along Wisteria Lane from Desperate Housewives. It's fake-y, yet it's real. It's Disney, but real people live there.
The houses are lovely, so well maintained. The driveways and garages are accessible by the little roads that run behind them, so they look almost magical.
We walked around a little lake there today, after getting iced coffees and sitting in the sun. We were looking for alligators, but didn't see any. We were going to go to Magic Kingdom, were considering it, but $135 per person, for one day, well, no thank you. We have to get to the airport and fly out tomorrow, so we wouldn't even have a full day there. So we talked about going to a place called Gatorland, but Miss Char says they tape the alligator's mouths shut, and it would make her too sad. We have to leave this house in the morning, and will have much of the day to find something to do...it's gorgeous outside though. We bought picnic food and have turkey/lettuce/cheese wraps, strawberries and blueberries, and little bags of chips packed, so we'll have a nice day, then fly out in the evening. We did a little shopping today too, but I didn't buy the three dollar fake snowballs...
I also did not buy this shirt:
We didn't stop at this place, either:
America. Florida. wowza. Goodnight!