Family time

I cooked a LOT yesterday.  I even took time to pick a quart of cherries and make a pie, something I had not planned on doing.  I made meat loaf, using four-and-a-half pounds of ground beef; I'm trying to use the ground beef from the steer, Meat Loaf, and make room for Sir Loin in the freezer.  
All my grandchildren except my daughter's son, who works evenings, were here for supper.  So was my sister.  Because we don't all see my sister often, it was a special time.
  

That's my son, his daughter Amber, my sister, and my daughter's Natalie catching up on family news.  One of my sister's grandsons is soon going to be married in Hawaii, and she'll be attending.  And spending a whole week in Hawaii!
  

All eyes were focused on the great-granddaughter, Kammi.  That child is a world of entertainment all by herself (that's the back of her head in the lower left-hand area).  

And she's beautiful.

She loves my home-made peanut butter cookies.  Of course, she's never seen a cookie she didn't like.

And nothing goes better with cookies than a cold drink of milk.

My sister and I posed for a picture as she was leaving.

And then she got in her big white car and drove away.

And granddaughter Lyndsay took a turn driving the John Deere.  


Great day indeed.


Oh, and I have used the hand egg beater that a reader sent me at least four times daily since my guests arrived.  Thanks, Vicki! 

My son will be here in a few days

We see our son once a year, for a week.  This is when I hold my annual cook-a-thon.  Most of the time it's just Cliff and me here, and I've become lazy about cooking.  Of course, the fact that we both fatten up like prize hogs when I cook the way I did when the kids were growing up takes a lot of fun out of cooking.  But for this one week, I try my best to remember how to make all that carbohydrate-laden stuff the kids grew up on.  This week I'm planning meals, making notes so I'll be sure and get the stuff I need at the store.
  
Here are some breakfast meals I have planned so far:  Cinnamon rolls; rice-and-raisins (one of Jim's favorites that I'll probably make more than one morning); and biscuits and gravy.  
Dinner meals planned:  Home-made chicken pot pie; spaghetti and garlic bread; tenderloin sandwiches; Meat loaf, noodles, mashed potatoes and veggies of some sort.
  
Desserts:  Oreo Dessert and brownie pudding with ice cream.  Probably strawberry shortcake, but I'll be using strawberries from the freezer.  The berries are almost done producing for this year.  Cherries are starting to ripen, so I might make some kind of cherry cobbler... if I get in the mood to pick cherries and take the seeds out of each cherry, one at a time.  Sticky business, that.  And tedious.
    
I still have more meals to plan, but this is what I have in mind so far.
  
Oh, on Saturday, when other family members are coming to join us, we'll have brisket, pulled pork, potato salad, macaroni salad, etc. etc.
  
Any suggestions for my remaining meals?

It's been a great week

Cliff has so enjoyed working on his big tractor with Jim, and we always enjoy our yearly visit with our son and granddaughter. Next year the daughter-in-law will join them, come hell or high water... even if we have to change the dates of their visit to get that accomplished.

Thanks to Sugar for the flag day tag; not only is it flag day, it's also mine and Cliff's 43rd anniversary. Do you think we'll make it to the big golden anniversary?

Yesterday nephews came to visit and brought guns along; it was pretty noisy in our pasture, let me tell you!


Yes, it's been a great week. Lyndsay has been such a good girl, but we could tell she was ready to go home to her mom and her nieces and nephew. And her cat, of course. Here she is buckling up, ready to start the twelve-hour trip to Georgia.

Fun day

Jim has been here since last Sunday evening, and it's rained almost every day since; today we finally got our chance for a motorcycle ride. I needed to be preparing for a brisket dinner we're having today, but I did want in on that ride. So off we went.

That's Cliff and Jim, ready to go. You'll have to take my word that it's Jim, because since his accident two years ago, he doesn't intend to have any part of his body exposed when he's riding. Including his face. He also has plenty of body armor under his clothing.

We had a nice ride, probably three hours all told. I held my camera upside down over my head and snapped this picture of Jim behind us.

Then I cropped it into more of a closeup and got this picture.

Cliff sprung for $100 for fireworks, and we celebrated the Fourth early. We usually have our gathering on or near July 4, so this was in keeping with our usual tradition.

That's granddaughter Monica, enjoying the fireworks.

Checking in

I can't say I've been too busy to do an entry; we had a rainy day yesterday, and I fixed easy meals that everyone likes: pancakes and sausage for breakfast, tater tot casserole for the mid-afternoon meal. On the week our son is here, I usually do two meals a day: If anyone gets hungry between or after those meals, they can grab some leftovers or dessert, or make a snack.

Today my daughter has taken care of our dinner. It's lasagna, already made, and all I have to do is put it in the oven for an hour or so. She did this after a long day at work, and I so appreciate her efforts. I have cinnamon dough rising in the kitchen, for breakfast.

Tomorrow we may have turkey dinner. There's nothing wrong with Thanksgiving in June, is there?

Friday night we have a few fireworks for the kids, since we usually have our family gathering around the 4th of July.

Saturday is our biggest day, but I think it won't be so big this year. Our nephew Scotty will be here, and all the grandkids. And of course Rena, who lives on the property, and her son. The St. Louis sister-in-law and her husband may not venture forth, since he's out of a job and they're watching their pennies. They will be missed. I have a brisket to fix, for that day.

Cliff and Jim have spent almost all their waking hours in the shop going over Cliff's Oliver tractor with a fine-tooth comb. They enjoy working together on a project like this, and it's fun to watch them. I know tractors aren't the most popular topics here, so I'll just leave a couple of links that show the guys at work HERE (removing a muffler) and HERE (taking the heavy canopy off).

family bonding

I guess I'll stay with Blogger

No big surprise there, eh? I do miss my "followers" widget; one suggestion about that was to move it to the bottom of my sidebar, so I may put it back and see if my relatives can still get to this blog with it in a different location.

I've spent the last hour at Wordpress trying to figure out how to remove "categories" from the sidebar, with no luck. This old dog doesn't like learning new tricks, so I'll probably delete that blog.

That's granddaughter Lyndsay, with my son's work van. They were already loaded up and ready to come visit us yesterday evening. The daughter-in-law couldn't get off work to join them. I don't envy my son the twelve-hour drive from Columbus.

Questionable parenting

I just got done reading Pioneer Woman's post about her children riding a wild burro at a rodeo. There's a video of her eleven-year-old daughter getting tossed by the burro.

That's life in the country. It brought back some memories of my son, when he was five years old.

We had a Honda 70 minibike. Cliff had tried to teach our boy to ride it, but Jimmy was pretty intimidated by it all, and more or less opted out.

Our friend, Tom, actually got on the minibike behind Jim and they took off: then Tom stood up and got off, leaving my five-year-old son driving. Jimmy crashed when he realized Tom wasn't with him.

Now Cliff will tell you that I can't drive a duck to water. It's true. You wouldn't believe the pathetic attempts I've made at driving, only to be subjected to ridicule and finally giving up in despair.

But I wanted my little boy to be able to drive that minibike. I knew he could do it if he only had the confidence.

So one day while Cliff was at work, I straddled the minibike and started it up. I went to the alfalfa field in front of our house and rode (very slowly) in a circle until I felt like I knew what I was doing.

Then I got my kid out there and showed him how it was done; and he wasn't intimidated, because it was his mom showing him. He rode around that alfalfa field so many times that after awhile there was an oval track through it.

Later that summer, Cliff's brother's wife's dad took sick and went into the hospital to die. I volunteered to watch their three boys during that time.

The oldest of those boys, Scotty, was the same age as Jimmy. I showed him how to operate the minibike and he took off, never looking back. He was a natural.

I still don't drive. But I will never forget teaching those two little boys to ride our Honda 70, back about 1972.

Sweet memories.

Would you believe I don't have a single picture of that silly minibike? I sure wish I did!

To our veterans!

On Veteran's Day, I always think of my brother-in-law, Russell, and my Uncle Paul, both of whom fought in World War II. They've both gone on to their reward.

And it goes without saying that I think of my son, who spent several years in the Army. He fought in Iraq during Desert Storm.


Jim was only 18 at the time this was taken, and I'm sure had no idea what was in store for him. I searched for a later picture of him in his dress uniform where he doesn't look so unsure of himself, but due to the disorder of my photo collection, I couldn't find it. In fact, I couldn't even find the above picture around here. Then I went to my old AOL journal and found it was one of the few pictures that had made the trip to Blogger in the big move.

Cliff and I watched CBS Sunday morning this week, and were especially moved by a story about a rich man who has been giving some special "thank-yous" to a few wounded veterans. If you didn't catch the show, you can read about it HERE.

Thanks to Sugar for the Vet's day tag.

The flag

I don't own an American flag. I guess I'm so lazy that I'm afraid I wouldn't honor it properly. Lots of people in my neighborhood chose to fly a flag today, on 9/11. Those flags are still out there tonight in the rain.

My sister is a winter Texan. Every morning when she's living in Texas, she raises the flag outside her home (that's her in the picture). Each evening, she lowers it. You see, her late, beloved husband fought for this country in World War II.

That flag means so much to her that she intends to honor it. I love my sister.

And I love my country. If I ever decide to display a United States flag, I promise I will display it with due respect, remembering my dear brother-in-law and my Uncle Paul and my son, all of whom fought for this country. I will honor what they gave up for that flag.

I won't deliberately let that flag hang out there overnight in a rainstorm.

family time

Our son, from Georgia, has been here since last Saturday, and will stay until Sunday morning. He and Cliff have spent lots of quality time in Cliff's shop, doing chores that they both seem to enjoy. We're babysitting Cliff's sister's hubby's Mahindra tractor, so Cliff and Jim have replaced its vital fluids and walked around the beast, admiring it's bulk and power. Yesterday, with rain coming toward us, Cliff washed it until the red paint positively shone. He washed the Sidewinder mower, too. My youngest granddaughter stepped in some mud made by the half-inch of rain that was supposed to go north of us, so Cliff told her to toss them in a bucket so he could wash them. The girl has half-a-dozen pairs of shoes here; I'm sure she has more at home. Can you see the granddaughter in this picture? This mobile home has three bedrooms, but I turned one into my computer room. Our couch makes a bed, but we found that Lyndsay is awakened easily once we're all awake chatting around her. So I put an air mattress in the computer room floor for her and whoever is staying the night with her. Anyway, Lyndsay is actually on the floor between the mattress and the bookcase. See?

Oh, last night we got more rain. A full inch, this time. I wish I could share with someone who needs it.

Lyndsay has been riding Blue in the round pen; she's quite the cowgirl. To see a video of her riding, click HERE.

A blast from the past

In the process of moving, I unearthed a group of pictures from 1978 to 1980. I have very few pictures from that period, so I was elated to find these.
That's me on my horse, Lad, around 1980.
If I had to choose one dog to keep forever, it would be Suzie. How we loved that mutt. We think she crossed the highway chasing a rabbit and was struck and killed by a car. Cliff and I returned from a walk to find her lifeless body beside the road. We'd had her for perhaps four years. The kids loved this three-wheeler. The daughter's best friend, the local Baptist preacher's girl, broke her arm riding this thing. And tried to cover it up from her family. And then lied about how it happened so she wouldn't get in trouble with her parents for riding the three-wheeler. I spilled the beans.
My mom always made the kids unique birthday cakes. This was my son's "keep on truckin" cake. Must have been around the time of "Smokey and the Bandit". We had a friend named Tom with an in-ground pool back then. I think both kids learned to swim there.

That's Cliff with his mom and dad and siblings. Both parents have long-since passed, and also his brother Warren (bottom right).

A cheap giveaway... or a trip down memory lane for some

Sorry about the sideways picture; it isn't like that on my computer, but I guess you'll just have to tip your head sideways to read the covers. Click on the picture to see more detail.

I checked Ebay; these old 1984 Rock magazines aren't worth that much; but they're in such good condition that I hate to toss them if somebody would love to have them.

They belonged to my son; none of my family that I've asked wants them.

So, if you are a reader and would like to have them just for a trip down memory lane, I'll send them to you. I'll pay the postage.

Perhaps nobody's interested. But just in case more than one of you wants these relics, tell me why you'd like to have them; the person with the best reason for wanting them gets them. If you're unable to leave a comment, send me an email at mosie1944@aol.com.

This is also on my AOL journal, because I'm hoping some 38- to 43-year-old person is a packrat like me and loves going down memory lane. Yes, I do have a few readers in that age group besides my two kids.

Why this song means so much to me

In 1987, my son graduated his basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia. My daughter was in her senior year in high school... I think. Or maybe it was her junior year.

I so wanted to see my son's ceremony; Cliff hates to travel long distances. I don't drive, never did. But my daughter had her driver's license and loved to drive.

So she and I set off. I'll never forget that time, and I'm so thankful Rachel and I went.

It's a long, long trip back home from Columbus, Georgia, but Rachel was determined to get back as expediently as possible. I told her to stop the minute she got tired, and we'd get a motel.

She was wide awake until we hit St. Louis. By then she started getting sleepy, but we were in Missouri; and she didn't intend to stop at that point. It was only four hours to home.

Somewhere between St. Louis and Kansas City, this song came on the radio; and Rachel, trying to stay awake, said, "Come on, Mom; let's sing along." Or something like that.

So every time I hear this song, I get teary-eyed remembering a time that is precious to me, and would be totally lost, had not my daughter made me stop and listen to a song with which I wasn't even familiar.

I wouldn't take half-a-million dollars for the memory.

Oh, and by the way; Rachel's husband, Kevin, can tell you the whole history of Lionel Ritchie and the names of every group he was ever associated with.

You can play this one at my funeral; it's so tied up with fond memories of both my children.

History does repeat itself.

We moved to this place on Memorial Day, 1975. I remember the year only because it was the year before our country's bi-centennial, and all the hoop-la that went with it. And I know it was Memorial Day weekend because we waited until school was out to move. I believe it must have been 1976 (maybe '77) when our son had a motorcycle wreck on the Honda 70 minibike. I wasn't keeping any journal or diary back then, so I can't be sure. But he would have been 9 or 10 years old.

Evel Knievel was constantly in the news, jumping over buses with his motorcycle, flying over canyons, and breaking bones often.


I remember the day quite well; I was tending the garden, and the neighborhood children were at the bottom of our driveway playing. Some of them fashioned a ramp and were jumping their bikes from it, Kneivel-style. Then my son decided to jump his Honda from the ramp (I didn't see it happen; I looked up when I heard the Honda make a different sort of noise, and Jimmy was lying on the ground beside the mini-bike). Summer vacation had just started: Jim ended up in traction in the hospital for a month, and then he had to stay off the broken leg for another month after coming home. He was finally allowed use of the leg a week or two before school started up again. It was pretty much a lost summer for him. I recall he was still limping badly when he got on the bus the first day of school.

As a side note, I don't have a single picture of my son in traction, or any shots of him that whole summer that I know of. Hard to believe, since I'm so hooked on picture-taking at this point in my life. For instance, recently when I heard my grandson, Arick, had his truck buried in the mire, my first thought was to send a camera with Cliff. And when a horse threw Arick a while back, my first thought as he was picking himself up off the ground was, "Dang, I didn't take a picture!"

A year ago last November, Cliff got motorcycle fever, and we bought our used Gold Wing. We caught that fever from his sister and her husband, who kept coming over on their Harley, faces wreathed in smiles. We were sidelined for a few months while Cliff recovered from CABG surgery, but returned to our road trips with a passion when he had his strength back. Motorcycle fever travels over telephone lines and the Internet, and our son caught the dreaded disease. He borrowed a motorcycle for awhile, got his license, and finally bought his own.
Thursday night Cliff got a phone call at work; our son had ridden his motorcycle to get cigarettes and wrecked in a parking lot, breaking his leg. By the next morning, we knew for sure that no other major damage was done. It's the same time of year he broke his leg before. There are three breaks, but the damage starts right below the left knee, exactly where his old injury happened. And he'll be pretty much laid up this whole summer. He's in Georgia, so all we can do is get reports by phone. I'm thankful it was "just a knee", but it isn't some simple little break, so recovery could be complicated. Yes, we are still riding our Gold Wing. I've always been a little nervous on the silly thing, but I enjoy it. As long as my husband derives such immense pleasure from cruising on our motorcycle, I'll be going along for the ride.