An entry from 2010

When my daughter was about four years old, she went through a time where she was having frequent nosebleeds; I don't really know why; perhaps because, like most little kids, she picked her nose.  Usually I'd have her lie down and be quiet, and the nosebleed would stop.

One day, though, the profuse bleeding would not stop, and I became worried; I called my mom and asked her to pick us up and take us to the local doctor, who had just opened up a clinic in Oak Grove.  Once Rachel and I were in an exam room, younger-than-me Doctor DeBlase came in, asked what the situation was, and rather gruffly showed me where to apply pressure to my daughter's nose (up around the bridge of her nose, I believe).  Then he stated, "Anyone can stop a child's nosebleed; it's not hard."

And he went on to another exam room to see another patient.

I sat there obediently holding on to Rachel's nose for at least forty-five minutes; when he finally returned, he said, "OK, you can stop.  It should be all right now."

  
As soon as I took my hand away, the nose started gushing again.  "Ha," I thought, "that's what you get for being so short with me."  He then cauterized a place inside my daughter's nose, which stopped the bleeding. 

 
Down through the years after that, there were various doctors we patronized, but I always remembered that young smart-aleck who had tried to brush me off.  
As old age approached and I realized I needed a regular family doctor, I went back to Oak Grove Medical Clinic, but I chose Dr. Deblase's partner as my physician.  No way was I going back to that punk who had been so rude to me thirty years earlier.  It never occurred to me that the man might simply have been having a bad day. 

 

Then my husband had a four-way heart bypass, and I said, "Cliff, I think you should use Dr. Deblase as your primary-care doctor now; he's had a heart attack himself, and I think that would make him more sensitive to your needs."

  
Oh my goodness, how glad I am that I came up with that idea, because Dr. Deblase was as sweet and caring a man as you would ever want to meet.  On our visits, we'd swap motorcycle stories:  the good doctor rode a Harley, we had our Honda.  He regaled us with stories of riding to Sturgis, and told us of times he shipped his bike to the west coast so he could ride out there.  His wife didn't really enjoy riding, he told us.

  
One time we were discussing Cliff's Lipitor (don't ever stop taking it, he said) and Doc talked about a new study that hinted at some possible new benefits of the drug; he looked at Cliff and said, smiling, "We're going to live forever!"

  
Unfortunately, he was wrong.  A couple of years ago, he woke up one morning and couldn't feel his legs. 

 
I never saw Dr. Deblase after he was diagnosed with brain cancer, but I inquired about him when Cliff and I visited the clinic; I could tell by the answers I was given that he was going downhill.  Yesterday Cliff was scanning through a two-week-old copy of The Odessan and saw the obituary; even though we had expected the news for some time, it hit us like a ton of bricks.  

I've spent some time reading the doctor's guest book; he left his mark on a lot of lives.  Dr. Joseph Deblase, you will be missed more than you'll ever know.  You were a prince among men.  Rest in peace.  

Another good day

We recently found out our car insurance we've had for many years was going to go up by $200, making us pay over $700 every six months.  Cliff hasn't had an accident for many years, and we don't go on long trips.  I googled a couple of things about car insurance and landed on a page that said, "Get an auto insurance quote." 

Cliff was outside in the shop, so I couldn't ask him it I should do it.  Finally I just decided to do it; the worst that can happen is I start getting a lot of phone calls for awhile.  

Thirty minutes later I got a call from a lady offering to see if State Farm could help us.  From what I told her about our insurance, she said she thought she could save us some money.  I told her to give me her phone number and I'd have my husband call her.  Then I went to the shop and told him about what she said.  When I mentioned she was from State Farm, he said, "My nephew Scotty's son sells State Farm insurance, so if I'm going to get that, I'll get it from him."

After our noon meal he made the call, and signed up over the phone.  We will save almost $200 every six months.  It's still a lot, but I'm happy.

I'm getting back to my walking now.  Starting back after the cold and snow was very painful, but this morning it has started getting easier.  Oh, and when I reached the spot where my cabin in the woods used to be, I saw an eagle flying over the riverbottom just north of our place, probably looking for a rabbit or mouse to eat.  I love seeing eagles.     

I have a working oven

This is an interesting story, at least to me.  

Cliff and I decided to look at places that sell used appliances, including Mr. Fixit, fifty miles away from our house.  None of those places we talked to had any kind of a gas stove, let alone a propane gas stove.  I would have been happy to buy a used one to save money.  I've also been watching for a kitchen range on Facebook Marketplace ever since mine bit the dust, and only saw one for propane.  The seller had just sold it before I got to her.  

The guy in Blue Springs, though, told me a story about Samsung stoves:  there is a class action lawsuit for that stove because of oven failure.  When Samsung noticed this, he said, they took away the warranty.  Also, he told me all the new appliances are junk, but I remember hearing that quite some time ago on the news.

So we went to Home Depot, where we buy all our junk appliances.  They only had one gas stove on the floor, so if you want to buy one, you can't really see it in person; you have to order it on their website.  There one they had was a very basic white stove, and it was cheap for a new one because evidently they wanted rid of it.  The cost was $499, plus $45 sales tax.  Then there is the gas to propane conversion kit at $29.  And because of my last stove failing after only four years, I added $135 to the total so if anything happened to it, they would have it fixed.  I did not feel good about it, but I WANTED AN OVEN!!!!!  They told me it would arrive on Monday.  I handed the guy my credit card, and we left after being told it would be at our house on Monday.  As we approached Oak Grove, Cliff suggested we eat at the Chinese place there.  It isn't my favorite Chinese place, so I suggested the Mexican place we never get tired of.

We hardly ever eat out any more, so I really enjoyed it.

At home, I still wasn't really happy about spending all that money.  For some reason, I got my computer and went to Facebook Marketplace. Lo and behold, the first thing I saw was a propane gas stove; they had been asking $150 but had just changed it to $100.  Now get this:  It was less than two miles from me, in my little town of Wellington!

I messaged her.  She and her husband were at work, but when she called to tell us they were home, Cliff and Arick went and got it.

First, though, I called Home Depot and told them to cancel our order.

It is a basic stove too, and hasn't always been treated well, so it's sort of like myself, because I'm just about as basic as anything gets.  But the seller told me the oven worked.  The first thing we did was make sure of that by putting a dial thermometer in the middle of it.  It got to 350° in no time.  This morning I made homemade biscuits (at 425°).  No problem. 

I think maybe Jesus was watching out for me yesterday.

Let the sunshine in!

It's 20° now, but we're heading up to 40.  Oh, how nice it will be as we see springtime highs before spring arrives.  Of course it won't last, but I intend to make the most of it.  

Last fall I didn't do much cleanup in the garden, so there is plenty I can do toward getting ready for planting on these nice days.

I am so proud of myself for finally figuring out how online grocery coupons work.  I've been missing a lot!  I sign on the Internet to my-Price-Chopper-dot-com page, see what they have, and click on the coupons I want to use.  A while back I got three two-pound boxes of Velveeta for either $3.99 or $4.99... I don't recall; and I could have gotten five of them!  I just don't have room to keep extra food around.  This week I brought home five 16-ounce packages of Oscar Mayer bacon for $2.99.  We don't always go to Price Chopper; our regular go-to is Walmart at Oak Grove, 15 miles away.  But when they have something we use, if it's a good buy, we drive on five miles.  Also, we go to Blue Springs pretty often, which is another five miles from Grain Valley.  Cliff's cardiologist is there, and his sister lives there.  So a trip to to Price Chopper isn't always a dead end.

Anyhow, if you are near a grocery store that uses online coupons, it may be worth the trouble of learning, even if you're as old as me.  I will admit I had a hard time of it, and came home with something that had a coupon that I forgot to click on, which means I paid the full price.  That's how we learn.  I get almost all of my meat from Price Chopper when it's on sale.  

I wish for all of you some great weather!

Well, what a surprise!

I have always wished I had a picture of my grandmother in her rocking chair, but I didn't take pictures inside her house, and I'm not sure anyone else did.  On holidays if the weather was nice, the whole family would go outside for pictures.  What a treasure it would have been if I had pictures of every blessed room.  I would have taken a picture of the upstairs room where she spent hours making beautiful quilts, and every one of the four rooms downstairs.

Grandma sat in that rocking chair to listen to her radio soap opera in the afternoon (One Man's Family), crocheting all kinds of pretty things as she listened.  On Sunday afternoons after church,  she sat there to write letters to friends and relatives.  One of my cousins has the rocking chair now, and she has it looking like new.  

My first blog was on AOL, but they were losing customers by 2004 and decided to drop all the blogs.  They did make a way, however, to move our AOL Blogs to Blogger.  Unfortunately, I had used AOL most of the time for any pictures I put on an entry, so the AOL photos were mostly gone, but a few remained that I had put on a different platform.  However, each word was still there, and that's really the most important thing.  By 2004, I was using both AOL and Blogspot, knowing that AOL might do away with their blogs.  However, I didn't put the same stories in both of them.  I had more stories back then!  

I always wished I had a picture of Grandma sitting in her rocking chair.  

I went to my first blog, My Country Life, to look for a picture I'm trying to find.  Instead, I saw a picture I had totally forgotten of Grandma in her rocking chair, holding me as an infant.  It wasn't in its place in her living room, though; nobody had flash bulbs in 1944, so I'm sure my father carried the chair out so the picture would have enough light to show our faces.

My parents married in 1932.  My mother had at least one miscarriage, and also one boy that was delivered dead, full term, choked in the last two weeks before he was born by the umbilical cord.  That was in 1938, the same year her father died.  She said the baby moved around like they all do before birth until the last two weeks, and she knew something was wrong.  For those of us who have had children alive and well, just imagine how terrible that would be.  I can't even imagine.

But here I am, on Grandma's lap, looking much like my mother did as a baby.  

 

Such lovely weather!

The temperature is 5° now at two o'clock P.M.  I went outside an hour ago and spent 20 minutes doing chores.  The goats didn't come to the water I carried out, but they were glad to see their hay.  They had a big drink yesterday afternoon, and I'll take their water early in the morning.  Believe me, they'll be glad to have a drink by then.

Gabe thought he needed to go outside mid-morning, so I put his sweater on him and fastened his leash; he peed about half an ounce and decided he wanted back in the house.  I took him with me when I did my chores, though, and he got down to business that time.

They say it's going to be zero tonight and seven below tomorrow night, but there are good news for the future:  We are expecting 60° Monday, and it appears like the rest of the month will be much warmer.  March will be coming in like a lamb, bless her heart, but if that happens they say she will go out like a lion.  Tornadoes, anyone?  

I'm hoping to get my glasses back at Costco this week.  I'm also thinking about getting another stove so I'll have an oven, but I'm not totally sure yet.  I've had enough money all along; I just hate to buy a stove after the oven of my current one stopped working after just four years.

It's snowing again now; how much fun can one woman have?  Originally the weather folks said we might get 8 inches, but I doubt that.

Mother Nature is mad at the world, I suppose. 

Mostly family stuff, and the picture Debby wanted.

 Who knows what stuff I'll put on my blog today?  Not me.

For baking, three tablespoons of mayonnaise equals one egg.  My mother-in-law often made chocolate mayonnaise cake, and it was a winner for all her children.  You can read the history of mayonnaise cake HERE. 

I shared my love of Grandma's house recently, so here are some pictures I've shared in other posts.  This is her house, as well as the smokehouse.  I took this picture from the road in front of her place in April, 1963.  All the cars are there because the whole extended Stevens family usually celebrated Easter at her house.

There I am in the middle, with my cousin Betty on the left and Royce on the right.  Behind us is the porch where Grandma kept her African Violets until winter, and that's where people entered and stepped up to the kitchen.  

 

Below is a video I made some time ago to tell the story of the music box my grandfather gave his wife early in their marriage.  I still have it, but the more it ages, the worse it looks.  My Aunt Ruby had it after Grandma died, and later gave it to me.  My children never knew my grandmother, so it means nothing to them.  I hope somebody in the Stevens family will be interested in it.  I have always loved it.  As a child, one of the first things I did when I went there was to listen to the three tunes on it.  

This is something Grandma created.  She did a lot of crocheting sitting in her rocking chair.  

Below are two Afghans Aunt Ruby made for me.  My favorite is the one on the right, and she made it from all the leftover skeins of yarn she had.

Here is Gabe after his grooming.  We don't do the fancy Schnauzer look because he's outside with me a lot, and the long hair on the feet and skirt just get dirty.  So he doesn't look as cute as the full Schnauzer cut would make him, but he'd be tracking in a lot more dirt into the house.  

And there you have it.

Pork chops

I have two Instant Pots:  a small one and a big one.  I really haven't used them much, except for beef roasts, and sometimes a Chinese sesame chicken item... which I'd love to have today if I have all the ingredients!

I know we eat more meat than is healthy, but at our ages we really don't pay much attention to healthy eating.  I buy whatever kind of meat is on sale, and we always have plenty of meat in our freezer.  I buy more 80/20 ground beef than anything, because I can make so many different things with it.  But a couple days ago I was wanted something different, and I dug out a package of six one-inch-thick, boneless pork chops.  I must have felt very brave when I bought it, because I've never been good at pork chops; they always turned out tough!  I tend to worry they won't be done so I cook them too long, knowing pork definitely needs to be cooked well.  Realizing I was going to have to use them sometime, I looked up Instant Pot recipes, found one that looked weird to me, but decided to try it.  I promised myself I would do it exactly as the recipe said, and was amazed at how good it was.  It's called The Best Damn Instant Pot Boneless Pork Chops!  

I only used three of the pork chops though, figuring I'd try a different recipe  for the other three the next day.  It was very good too, and very different from the other one.  The only thing about it was that that first recipe said to brine the chops, which I did.  It was fine for that recipe, but I brined all six of them and left the three I didn't use in the brine until the next day.  Well, let's just say the gravy was very salty.  I had never brined anything before, so what would I know!  The chops were fine, but if we put more than a tablespoon of gravy on our mashed potatoes, it was too much, although the grandson came over and ate with us and thought it was great.  

We are back in the single digits as far as the temperatures are going, so I'm reading a lot.  There's snow on the ground again, too.  We'll take the dog to Bed and Bones today for his haircut, but that's about all the excitement we can stand.

That's all, folks!

The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

Wow.  As a fairly new football fan, I had a strange feeling all day yesterday.  At church when someone asked about the Super Bowl game, I told them I had no idea who would win.  What I didn't mention was that I had a feeling they'd lose.  All day, Cliff and I hardly mentioned the game.  After it started turning out so awful right from the beginning, I went to bed at half time.  But first I told Cliff, "I had a feeling."  He said he, also, had that feeling all day.  

You know, sometimes if you get too high and mighty, you get a hard lesson.  Right before the game I the camera went to Patrick Mahomes; he was yawning and I wondered what that was about.  How could he yawn at a time like that?  And let's face it, the team hasn't had the best season.    

It's time for the fans of another team to have some fun.  I intend to always watch the Chiefs games, win or lose... although I might go to bed at half time a lot!  We've had a lot of fun since I started watching football with Cliff in 2020.  I feel sorry for the team, but they're all millionaires, while we live on our monthly social security .  I know the Chiefs aren't worrying about me!

Peace.

Thinking about the good old days

 Since the oven in my four-year-old Samsung isn't working, I can't make cookies.  Yesterday I was thinking about casseroles I make and realized I can't do many of those, either.  Maybe I could use a crock pot, but I'm thinking those recipes would come out of a slow cooker more wet than I would like.  I know I will eventually get another stove, I've just been putting it off as long as I can.  

We have bought cookies when we're shopping, but that isn't the same.  The grandson comes over, goes in the kitchen, sees store-bought cookies, and is disappointed.  He forgets my oven doesn't work.   

A few days ago I remembered something my mother gave me when she had baked a cake and made too much icing:  It's a simple thing that even a small child could do.  You take two graham crackers and make them a sandwich cookie by putting cake icing between them; you can eat them right then, but I seal them in a baggy or a plastic container with a tight-fitting lid for a few hours.  The graham crackers won't be as hard, which I think makes them better.  They are better than store cookies, but I doubt the grandson would eat them. 

Mentioning cookies makes me think about my grandmother.  Sometimes Cliff and I talk about our childhoods, and wonder if this generation could even stand to live the way we did as children.  No running water, and the only hot water we got was in the teakettle.  Going outside if you had to go to the toilet after dark, hoping there wasn't a snake or spiders in there.  

Sometimes if I'm lying in bed sleepless, I think about my grandma's little house in the country and, in my mind, I walk through her house like I did as a child: Through the front door to an enclosed porch with her African Violets sitting in the window in spring and summer; then two steps up into her kitchen.  I can see everything just as it was then:  The stove, the cabinets, everything in it.  I notice the gallon jar topped with a lid, in a window by the refrigerator.  It's full of sugar cookies, and I always ate several of them.

From the kitchen I go to the living room.  In winter there was a big stove taking up a lot of room; my uncles took it out in summer.  When I stayed at Grandma's house, I slept in a feather bed in one of the two downstairs bedrooms; Grandma Stevens slept in the other bedroom.  In my early years, she didn't have an indoor bathroom, but later on my uncles put a flush toilet in the bedroom I always slept in.  It was just there in a corner... no actual bathroom.  They did it for Grandma so she wouldn't have to go outside to the toilet any more.  Upstairs was where she quilted, and there was always a quilt in the frame being created.

I cherished that house.  My parents moved often, I can't even count the times; but my grandmother lived in the same house all of her married life.  Most of those years she was alone, because my grandfather died in 1938, I believe it was.  So I never knew him.  My mother and aunt thought he was a saint, but one of my cousins told me the three brothers had a different story.

Well, this may all be boring to others, but every time I "go to Grandma's house", it settles me down.  I could write a book about it, but it wouldn't be very exciting... just peaceful.  

I wish all of you had that happy kind of childhood, because many people didn't.  If you did, try going back to your favorite place at a time when you had no worries and re-live just a little of it.  Remember the cousins you played with and the holidays when the whole family gathered.

You will be surprised how much you recall.

It's the best meditation I know of.  

Goats

I've managed to get two good walks in after the snow all melted.  Today is supposed to bring us light rain at some point, and it isn't supposed to freeze.  Looks like it will be awhile before we get in the fifties and sixties again, but at least I haven't seen anything about snow.  Oops... I missed something here, because I saw some people on Facebook say the roads are slick in the city.

The lady I bought my goats from said if I want to, we can bring a billy goat over to breed both of my goats, so I'm taking her up on that.  She said I should have him here with my girls for 45 days, just to make sure he gets the job done.  The bad part of the deal is that billy goats stink so bad, and when they are breeding, they get that stink all over the girls by peeing on them.  Yuck.  You don't want to know!  I don't know of anything nastier that a male goat when he's romancing a lady goat.  I don't intend to breed them again, and I may not even keep the babies very long.  But it's fun to watch them play.  I'll give them away if I have to... goats are pretty plentiful around this area.  

That is, of course, if I even live and keep my sanity that long.  

Thelma only had one baby for her first pregnancy, but sometimes goats have two, three, or even four babies.  I sure don't want to buy hay for that many!  We have eaten goats before, but these little dwarf goats wouldn't even be big enough to eat when they're grown!

The Chiefs and the Eagles are down in Louisiana waiting for the Super Bowl.  I don't have any idea how it will go, but it should be a good game.

May the best team win!      

How I feel

Most folks know I do not care for our president.  Maybe you also know I do not care for Joe Biden.  For years, I've not been true to myself because I have been voting for the one who I think is the least dangerous.  I've decided that's like having to choose what kind of poison I'd like to have to kill myself, and I'm done with it.  I am betraying myself when I do that.

Just so you know, I used to be a Republican.  When I first became old enough to vote, I didn't realize it, but I was voting Republican because my parents did.  Later on I saw reasons why I was leaning to the right.  Over the years, with the left looking worse, I stayed on the right.

I don't like to take part in killing babies.  I don't try to convince other folks about that; it's their business.  They have the right to their opinion, and that's how they should feel about me.  I do remember telling two of my granddaughters long ago, "If you ever get an abortion, please don't tell me; I don't want to know."

I don't like people giving teenagers (or younger) a sex change.  Young people don't even know what they want.  I am not talking about gay people.  

Adults can do what they want with their own lives.  I may not like their choices, but that's their right.  They don't scare me and they have their right to live as they want to.  I just don't think I should honor them for simply breathing, but I will accept them.  I don't think anyone should treat a kind, good human being with hatred.  

I would like to have a president who is real and doesn't brag about how smart he is, one who wouldn't make fun of people and lie about everything.

If that's all I have, I'm not voting.

Here's something I've noticed:  When Trump first appeared on the scene, his followers were all trying to change those of us who didn't like him.  This time it's the Democrats doing all the talking.  I know they think they are saving the country, but it isn't that easy to change people's minds.  

This is an unusual thing for me to be talking about, and it's the last time I'm talking politics.  I know I have very nice people who won't agree; I just want you to know what I think, since I've already seen your views more than once and will likely keep reading them. 

Peace.   

I'm doing some cooking today

With everyone talking about the price of eggs, I have to admit that it isn't hurting us as much as other folks.  We have perhaps four eggs between us for breakfasts in a week, and often not that many.  And since I don't have an oven, I can't make cookies, which normally is where most of my eggs go.  I do have a small chocolate cake recipe I make in a nine by nine cake pan, putting the pan in the electric skillet; so Cliff can have some cake once in awhile.  

I also found out I can make dump cake in the crock pot.   At least, I've found many recipes that say I can.  We'll see.  It's only been cooking for a little over an hour and a half, and it needs three or four hours to finish.  I imagine everybody knows what dump cake is.  There was a time in the past I made it often, simply because it's delicious with ice cream and it's easy to make.

Back to the subject of eggs.  It's been three or four weeks since I  bought the last dozen eggs that were in my refrigerator, and I thought maybe I'd better use them sooner rather than later.  There were three left, and since that's exactly how many eggs it takes for noodles, and we so love noodles, I decided that's how I would use them.

Normally I like to cook chicken legs or thighs, bone in and skin on, because the bone and skin are what give broth and noodles their great flavor.  After they are boiled, I remove the skin and bones and just the meat goes into the lovely broth.  Unfortunately, all I had in the freezer was skinless breasts (none of the fat I needed), but I also had some of that weak broth that comes in a carton to help the situation; I also tossed half a stick of butter in to compensate.  I was just getting ready to pour the chicken broth in the pan in and I was prepared to boil the breasts when I noticed something new: The box said "SPICY chicken broth".  I took a taste thinking maybe it would be all right, but it was really hot!  It would have been great in soup, but spicy noodles?  I don't think so.  I had half a quart of regular broth in the refrigerator and put it in.  It's still pretty spicy.  Here's hoping I'm not ruining my noodles.

Either way, I'm going to eat those noodles if it kills me!