Memories of our parents

It's been a very difficult day.....6 years ago today, my mom passed on. I miss her terribly every day, but the pain is a little sharper today, and the tears have been flowing.

It's funny how little things will bring back memories. A smell, a sound, a glimpse of something, and you are back in time, reliving a day. I've been blessed enough in my life that memories are treasures to me.

I see my mother-in-law showing me the quilt she just finished, pointing out the parts that had been left-overs from a dress she made. I see her working in the kitchen, or sitting in her recliner, crochet work in her hands.

I see my father-in-law telling stories about his sawmill, accentuating each story with a wave of his work-enlargened hands. I hear him reciting the scriptures, and talking of how if people would just follow The Word, we wouldn't have as many problems in the world.

I see my dad, teaching me how to use his band saw. I hear him telling the stories of his youth. I hear his laughter, and see his eyes twinkle with the pride he had in Jessica and Kevin. I hear his rich bass as he sings beside me in church. I feel his arm around me when he would take me on the carnival rides when I was a little girl.

And, I see my mom, before Alzheimer's stole the last years from us. She's kneading bread to the beat of the 50's music she loved to listen too. She's hoeing the weeds in the garden. She's canning applesauce, she's sewing new clothes, she's listening to my day's events. She's being my mom, and my best friend.

George and I were both blessed with Christian parents. Were they perfect? No, just like he and I haven't been perfect parents. But they were GOOD parents, good friends, good advisors. Good people, the kind we need more of in this world.

We miss them, everyday. Some days worse than others, but everyday. And, we're thankful we had them, everyday.

So many times, I wish I could still go to mom and get her advice. But then I realize that I pretty much know what she would say. Our parents may be gone physically, but they are still very much alive in our hearts and minds.

If your parents are still here on this earth, tell  them you love them. And listen to their laughter. Keep that sound forever tucked in your heart.

French Breakfast Puffs recipe

We love these muffins! When Jessica and Kevin were growing up, we'd have these for a special breakfast treat when they had friends spend the night. They were always a big hit.

Once they moved out on their own, we kinda forgot about these muffins. Recently, I was looking for something different to bake, and I ran across this recipe again. Ahh yes! The love affair continues.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Stir together:
1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Set aside.

In mixer bowl, cream together:
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup shortening (I use butter shortening)
1 egg

Add 1/2 cup milk and the flour mixture alternately to the creamed mixture, beating well after each addition.

Lightly grease 11 muffin cups, or use paper liners, like I do. Fill cups 2/3 full.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes or till golden.

While they are baking, combine 1/2 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon.
Also, in a separate bowl, melt 6 tablespoons margarine.

When the muffins are done baking, remove from oven, and immediately dip them in the melted margarine, then dip them in the sugar/cinnamon mixture till coated.

Serve warm. Delicious!!!!

The original recipe makes 12 muffins, and they use lightly greased muffin pans. Personally, I hate washing the muffin pans (so many holes!), so I use paper liners. If I try to do 12 muffins in liners, they are a little too flat to dip in the margarine and sugar mixture, so I do 11.

When Kevin was little, he thought a Baker's Dozen was 11. Why? He thought the Baker always ate one. Imagine his shock when he found out a Baker's Doxen is 13!

Also, you can cut way down on the melted margarine and sugar/cinnamon mix if you use liners. The amount stated above is if you roll the whole muffin in the margarine and sugar mix. Since I use liners, I only dip the tops in. I just made some, and cut the stated amount in half, and still had too much.

ENJOY!

Insulators

I just washed a bunch of these old glass insulators. I had just emptied out this display shelf, and the glass insulators fit it perfectly. They don't show up as well as I had hoped in the picture, but you get the idea.

When I was a little girl, my aunt and uncle had a unique way of displaying their insulators. They had them lined up side by side around their front porch. If memory serves me right (it's been known to fail!), there was a row under their porch railing, and also on top of it. I don't know how many there were, but to a little kid, it looked like thousands!

Rusty hearts, stars and flags oh my!

Yesterday, when talking about the snow and ice, I mentioned that I would have pictures today of the project we were working on in the garage. I know you have been pacing the floor, breathlessly checking your computer every few minutes to see our latest project.

Ok. I'm being delusional.

But, I know I'm being delusional. When you know, you're ok. It's when you don't know that it becomes a problem. But, I digress.

The project is......................................

Rust!

As in rusty stars, rusty hearts, and rusty flags..........

These are cut from old, rusty, corrugated metal roofing that came off a barn.

Some of my long time customers may say, "hey, wait a minute, you've had those before!" And that would be true. We made a bunch of these a few years ago, and had just a handful left. We recently found more of the old roofing, and decided to make more. What you see in the pictures is not even half of what we have....

The ones in the box still need the wire hanger attached. Those are all smaller. We have lots of them still at home that I have to drill the holes in for the hanger, then of course, they need the hanger attached.

I thought I may finish them tonight, but that may have to wait.

Why? Because tomorrow...........THE TAXMAN COMETH!

I better make sure all my paperwork is in order - he probably wants to see everything in nice, neat rows. Nothing delusional. CPA'a probably don't do delusional.

But then, if you have to try to understand the tax code every year, delusional might be a good thing.

Speaking of delusional..........................when I put the above pictures on the computer, I clicked the wrong button, and they ended up in one of Jessica's picture files. And somehow, everytime I went into it to pull one out for the blog, it made another copy of each picture in it. And each time I went into the file, the first picture I saw was this...............

And because it was making copies, I'd see it over and over!

I beginning to think that not only is my son-in-law Brian laughing at me, but he's calling all his friends to tell them how crazy I really am!

Breakfast, Jessica style

I decided to have a bowl of corn flakes this morning, and while I was getting out the bowl, and the spoon, and the corn flakes, my mind started to wander (it's a common problem).

All at once, I realized I was absent-mindedly pouring orange juice onto my corn flakes! I started laughing, then poured off as much orange juice as I could. I looked at the bowl, wondered briefly if I should just throw away the corn flakes and start over, then laughed again as my mind went racing back.....

Who is that in the photo? Jessica, when she was close to two years old. (She's 25 now, where did the time go?) Jessica was eating her cereal, well, in this photo, she is actually feeding her cereal to a little plastic bear. Details, details.

Anyway, see that blue sippy cup on the left? That's orange juice. When Jessica got done feeding the bear, she would do what she did every morning  - she would pour the orange juice into her cereal. Being the unadventurous, boring adults that we were, her daddy and I would put milk on her cereal. She made life a little more exciting when she poured the juice in. It didn't take long for the juice and milk to start curdling. And that's when she liked it!

Well Jessica, it took me many years, but this morning I followed your lead. I did pour most of the juice off my cereal, but then I went ahead and added the milk. Guess what? It was quite good! It added a little sweetness, of course that may have just been because I was smiling at the memory.

While I'm telling stories about Jessica in a high chair, I also laugh when I remember doing dishes as she ate one morning. She was singing, but that was nothing new, she sang all the time. But I slowly realized what she was singing. "There's a bowl on my head, there's a bowl on my head". Oh no! I turned just as she was about to turn her full bowl of cereal over on her head. Whew, that was close!

Big difference

I took a couple photos a few minutes ago of a small cupboard I painted and brought in this morning. I then opened the camera to take out the SD card and transfer the photos onto the computer. Oops! No camera card. That's when I remembered that I had transferred some photos onto our home computer, and I had carefully laid the SD card where I wouldn't forget to put in back in the camera. So much for that plan!

So, I was looking through some photos already on the computer, and thought you might be interested in the following couple of photos.

I opened the store in October of 2002. And, to be honest, I got in too big of a hurry, and  opened before I should have. Why, you ask? Well, because I didn't yet have nearly enough inventory.

Look at all that blank space! And all that blank space.

And look closer - there's so much blank space!!!!

The hay rake is no longer in the store. It was never for sale, it was just a display piece, and a way to take up some room. It now sits in our yard. It was always interesting to see people's reaction to it. They would look at it, then at the door, then at me with puzzled expressions. "How did you get that in here?"

Ahh, it was magic! Or maybe it was that we took it apart, brought the pieces in, then re-assembled it.

Back to the topic at hand:

I tried to find a recent picture taken from about that same spot. This following one was taken in 2008...

Trying to find a blank space. Blank space anyone? Hello, need a blank space!

 

Old Clay Flowerpots

There's something about old clay flowerpots...............

I have oodles of these, all 4 inch and under.

I just love the patina on them.

One look, and you know these have been used.

I normally clean vintage items, but not these.

Well, I knocked off any cobwebs I saw, but I didn't wash them.

The bits of dirt that is sticking to them is part of their charm.



And I'm normally good about not keeping my finds for myself.

But I had lots of these, and I couldn't resist.

I kept out 15 pots & 15 saucers for my porch.

There's just something about old clay flowerpots!