Putting Together Memories

February 24, 2016February 8, 2017 / apronsandappetites.com / 7 Comments

For Christmas, I went to Shutterfly to make a really cool Christmas gift for my brother and two sisters. Since so many of our memories of Mom are surrounded by her cooking for us, I wanted to make a cookbook of some of our favorites of Mom’s cooking. It turned out great!

Mom was a really good cook and cooked for whoever would show up for lunch, or she would bribe us with fried chicken and dumplings to come on weekends.

Her utmost joy was derived from feeding and caring the best she could for her children. And her grandchildren. And her great-grandchildren.

She might mutter and complain about Jill not knowing what good food was as she made her the requested grilled cheese while bowls of delicious food (mashed potatoes and dumplings and home-canned green beans and Mom’s coleslaw to name a few) sat on the table ready to be gobbled up by the rest of us. Just her way of saying, “I love you.”

Those were hard words to say by a little girl raised in the depression to become the hard-working woman who didn’t have time for frivolity. Not often anyway. Every once in a while if we begged she would get up and do what she called “The Shawneetown Stomp” with my older sister. It was great!! She would laugh and dance, and so would we. At least try to dance. Mom was a great dancer. So is Tish. And they looked awesome together!

Mom used to tell stories about growing up in her family, the hardships. As it does most people, that upbringing weaved its way into who she became. It caused her to worry about having the money for a home and food. She was frugal, very frugal. Yet I still had a beautiful dress for prom and homecoming that she made from royal blue velvet material. We still managed to get high school class rings, probably wanting us to have one because she didn’t make it through high school. Each of the girls had piano lessons, something she would have been good at considering her lovely voice when she sang and her rhythm when she danced.

And, of course, the only boy in the family received a really cool car on his 16th birthday. (No, I’m not mad about it anymore. Not that I ever was, really. Well, maybe a little. But not anymore. Hardly.)

A few of Mom’s recipes, most in her own handwriting, were included. This dumpling recipe was from the sessions Mom and I had as she tried to teach me how to make them. She was too weak by then to roll them out, but she sure enjoyed sitting there teaching me, smiling ear to ear.

There was a little bit of history of Mom’s family because they were a close bunch of sisters. And like my own family, one boy in all those girls. (Did I mention that my brother wrecked that really cool car by jumping over the levee and breaking it right in half?” Not that that bothers me or anything anymore.)

So along with pictures of kids and grandkids and recipes, I included a few pics like this one:And just so we wouldn’t forget that once upon a time our Mom had a real life, a life with laughter and flirtation, I included some like this one.

Being the middle child in a family of four children, my characteristics and qualities have been woven in ways such as those that made my Mom into who she was. And that is why on the back of the book I put a really good picture of me and a not-so-really great picture of the rest of them.

My brother is the one in the silly birthday hat. And I only used that picture because it was one of the best I had of him. Not at all because I may still be just a tad incensed by the fact that he got a car on his 16th birthday, and I did not.

If you want a free book, here is the link for you to get one. https://invite-shutterfly.com/x/SOm1IE

Noaming

February 16, 2016February 16, 2016 / apronsandappetites.com / 2 Comments

No, the title is not supposed to be “roaming;” however, it is sort of like roaming. When we go a “roaming,” we learn all sort of things, discover wonders, revisit once-discovered favorites, learn something new, see something we haven’t seen before… the list is long.

So as I have moments of time during this day, I plug in my earphones and listen to/watch Noam Chomsky. I may or may not agree with all he says, but listening to his perspective and educated opinions causes me to question some of the opinions I may have had or bolsters some that I still have. Those opinions that we make based in feeling, tradition, or the biased/ distorted media.

Here is just a little sample:

One video leads to another to another to another. And from Professor Chomsky, I then want to see the opinions of other learned people, people that really, truly know what’s going on in the world and know who is/are making the decisions. I want to find out just exactly what the decisions are that are being made and how those decision affect the world.

I will warn you: It’s addictive to watch these types of things that inform and develop independent thinking, perhaps provide a thought outside the box of memes on Facebook.

But so worth it.

The Clan

January 10, 2016February 16, 2017 / apronsandappetites.com / 6 Comments

checking the photo booth

We are Scottish, Irish, English, and some sort of ancestry with high cheekbones in their DNA from somewhere. Our sense of humor and love for pranks and making up musical ditties attest to at least part of the origin of the clan. The DNA test that Ancestry.com offers may solve the mystery to the rest. I’ve been contemplating swabbing my mouth and sending my DNA off to be analyzed just to see where my ancestors trod once upon a time. Just for the heck of it, the fun of solving the origin mystery and maybe creating a couple more mysteries.

All of us, the siblings and the young’ns, (most of them anyway) got together for a New Year’s Day Reunion/late Christmas Get-Together. It was great!!

Ava unloading presents

Santa had left a bunch of presents!! So Ava helped put them under the BIG tree. It was a madhouse for just a bit as the girls passed out gifts to everyone.

Darla with hubby Dave

The talent show was exceptional this year with blues singers accompanied by the guitar as well as acapella; original songs written by the participants; a hover board exhibition; Watch Me Whip/Nae Nae dance routines; a chorus of girls singing Jingle Bells; gymnastics and ballet. I am expecting more to be on the program for next year. We are a talented bunch in this clan.

It took a little coaxing to get some of the kiddos out there while others had two or three things planned to do. We had no agenda and no idea who would do what. Most of it was spur of the moment and turned out awesome!

Kate and Nia

Hover board hotties

Charlotte, Kate, Nia, Maci, Ava

Blues Player Dave with Henry taking everything in.

“Sant Won’t You Give Me the Scoop”

This girl rocks!!

watch me whip

Stanky Leg

Maci gets down to Watch me Whip. Her brother, Owen, was awesome as well, but somehow I don’t have his picture. Charlotte, the ballerina in the clan, was also whipping and nae-naeing. Yeah. That doesn’t look like a word to me either. Even little Henry, the pre-K kid, was stanky-legging!

Then there is always the game of “Write Down One Thing Nobody Knows About You.” Little Ava won this year with her “I have been a mile underground.” We have a few coal miners, so of course everyone guessed all of them first. Nos abounded. They were clueless, and would never have guessed if not for the big grin on Ava’s face and her sister seeing it. Sisters just know when the other one is up to something. We had gone to Ruby Falls in Tennessee last summer which had taken us deep into the earth. Darla used the same one she used last year (she has to have some excitement in her life this year!). And we should have all gotten “I am a word Nazi” right off the bat (Keely) but had to guess a while for some reason. We all know how she loves to read! Mike returned the joke “fact” Davy put in the pot about Mike last year with a “fact” of his own about Davy this year. We were all staring at Davy in disbelief for just a brief minute!

Rutherford clan

Donny and Keely

Benna and Amanda

Part of the Martin clan, Wes, Darla and Will

Nate and KaLee

Mike, Steve, Julie, Amanda, Benna eating, drinking, and being merry

Mike, Steve, Benny, Julie, Amanda, Benna eating, drinking, and being merry

Turning the garage into a party zone wasn’t too hard with the help of the cheap 25-cent red plastic tablecloths for the “stage” and some white disposable tablecloths for covering up all the garage junk. Wah-la!! Pristine white temporary walls!

There was enough food for the 30 people and enough desserts to fill our tummies. We started the year off right with black-eyed peas and cornbread and cabbage on the menu as well. (Thanks to Donny, the cook, for the latter two.)

It was good to catch up, to see how the kiddos had grown, to reminisce, to laugh at each other and with each other, to tell tales of old and some of new on one another, to meet some of the new people in the clan this year and yell a little louder at some of the older people in the clan.

We are a clan of game players, a clan of laughers. So after the last game that involved some fast and furious thinking up sounds, one-word clues, and actions, we were beginning to settle down. That’s when the grown-ups ventured over to the photo booth. The kids found it early on and had already created images and movies galore! I would so love to put the video of Nia on here with Owen: he pretending to pick his nose and she, well, it was just interesting.

And kind of gross.

Nia putting on her mustache

Looking back… Taking Kate to School

December 25, 2015February 16, 2017 / apronsandappetites.com / Leave a comment

It’s the end of yet another year, and I am going through WordPress, looking at anything left undone.

Because I am very very good at undone whether it’s leaving a project in such a state or getting myself into such a state. Here is what I found, and I thought it worthy to post. Even if it was nailed up and left to linger on the blog tree — oops — I mean post for, um, about four years:

Kate in the first grade

This week I have only taken Kate to school one day. It is a treat to take her… but I suppose it wouldn’t be if it was my job every morning to get her up and fight with her about her clothes and try to get her little sis ready to go as well.

She came bebopping out of the house, all pink and brown, with her little skirt and boots with the tassle balls, . Her boots were pink with the Disney princesses. We had gone shopping a few days earlier and she had new clothes and new shoes. Adorable. I should have taken a pic, but didn’t have my camera.

On the way to school we sing “Hi Ho Hi Ho It’s off to school we go.” Then I make up verses, but her favorite part, she says, is the chorus. We walk in the school together — unless she sees some of her friends. Then it’s a kiss and hug and off to walk in with the other kids. Kate is very social this year. She started last year in Pre-K getting a little more social, wanting to talk to people. She will be the traveling reporter who finds out all kinds of things about people because she is full of questions and interested in them. She also has a concern for everyone.

The trees will talk to us as we travel down the road; sometimes in a voice that sounds a lot like Gigi and sometimes in a voice that sounds a lot like Kate. They say things such as, “oooh, what a pretty little girl; I want her bear.” Because sometimes she takes her little blue bear with her in the car to school, leaving him to wait on her return trip home. Then a tree will respond with “No, I don’t want her bear.” Those trees are real talkers. And on every curve the wheels on my vehicle go “Errrrk.”

This year, she loves school. She loves her teacher and her classmates, and she loves learning the letters and numbers, sounding out the letters, making rhyming words.

Kate this year with Santa

We still hear the trees talk to us every once in awhile. Not as often as before because Kate is now in the fourth grade and Ava is in the first grade. Little blue bear stays at home now, replaced with her Ipod or IPhone. She is still very social. I am thinking politician. So is Ava. I am still thinking politician.

There are now two little girls bebopping out to the car. Kate has chosen the comfy jogging pants and comfy shirts over her cute little first-grade outfits. Ava choosing her cute little first-grade outfits. They both love school: A tribute to the teachers and staff at our school. And they both are good students, although Kate is still more interested in what’s going on around her, I think, than the school work, itself.

It is still a treat to get to take them to school, and we still listen to our Sunday School songs on the CD and make up little ditties to go along with songs we know, and we still look for things of interest along the highway. Of course, this is mixed in with the bickering. Ugh!!

Now, instead of one little girl there are two. Now, instead of walking them both in like I have up until this year, I stop at the door, and they grab their stuff and hop out, catching up with friends, forgetting they have a granny in the vehicle watching them with a heart full of love.

Thinking about Thanking

November 26, 2015February 16, 2017 / apronsandappetites.com / Leave a comment

Today at my brother’s house, my little niece, Charlotte Ann, had a prayer/speech she had prepared. In it she wanted us all to think about what we were thankful for, and the plan was then to share those thoughts.

We never did get around to sharing our thankful thoughts. We were too busy eating and playing games and eating and yelling over each other to try to be heard and eating and laughing and eating and accusing the guys of cheating and eating and actually cheating ourselves. Until we were so full and so hoarse and so tired that we all scattered and went our own ways to our own abodes or wherever else we had planned to go.

The thing we didn’t do, of course, was share in our bounty of thankfulness. And bounty is an accurate description of the list of things to be thankful about:

1. My salvation through Jesus the Christ.

2. Family who love and fight and play and strive to make time to get together as our families expand and that time is more precious.

3. A home.

4. Plenty of food.

5. Work that provides me with a paycheck and work that must be done in order to keep a clean house, grow a garden, have a lawn… you get the drift.

6. The opportunity to help others whether it is monetarily or hands on.

7. Good choices.

8. Good doctors and staff that actually care about one’s health.

9. My church.

10. You guys who read my blog. 🙂

As I ponder on my good life, my heart cries for those who are in real struggles right now: mental health, the fight for life as they struggle with a disease, the loss of a loved one, drug addiction, sexual abuse, hunger, oppression of different forms…

God, pour mercy and grace upon these people. Give me direction to turn my thanksgiving into theirs as well.

All Potential Fathers, Please Stand Up

November 20, 2015August 10, 2016 / apronsandappetites.com / Leave a comment

The counties in which I work may be small in population, but our courthouses are large in their history and stand rather regal in our rural towns.

courthouse 2 We have over the last few years begun to designate certain days of the week for certain types of court hearings. Monday, for instance, may be traffic day when all the traffic cases from parking tickets to DUIs are heard. Tuesday may be the day that all the felony cases are before the judge. Wednesday may be civil cases such as divorce or probate or small claims. All the counties in my circuit have done or are perfecting this regulated system of scheduling court cases on certain days.

Of cou courtroom joke 1 rse, we are a circuit in a rural area, therefore, we don’t have the volume of cases that a city or bigger town may have. Everyone knows each other in most of the counties, and although things are run professionally, we are just friendlier with everyone from defendants to their lawyers.

That doesn’t mean we don’t have some high profile cases or some heinous cases or even some very busy days. It does mean we have some downright hilarious incidences.

One such particular incident happened a few years back when we still had a variety of cases on the docket for that day. There was a room full of people waiting their turn, watching the proceedings until their own cases were called. courtroom audience

At the particular moment we were having a paternity hearing with the mother sitting at counsel table along with two putative fathers also sitting at the table. The case had been before the Court on several other occasions since she had already named some men who had been dismissed from the proceedings for one reason or another.

She was a likeable gal, someone in the community the attorneys and the judge knew, a bit of a rounder perhaps. She had several children but tried as best she could to take care of them. courtroom judge 2 Before beginning the hearing, the judge looked at her and ever so kindly said, “Ms. So-and-So, are there any other prospective fathers you want to name?”

Ms. So-and-So turns around to the gallery and looks at all the men seated there. She then says, “Yeah, maybe him,” and points to a gentleman sitting in the pew, waiting to have his case called.

courtroom surprised man

His surprised response — “I’m just here for a traffic case!” — didn’t keep him from being asked to come up and sit at the counsel table to be a part of the putative father hearing.

His shock lingered throughout the hearing.

It was hilarious. court reporter laughing

New Blog – New Theme Day

November 19, 2015November 19, 2015 / apronsandappetites.com / 2 Comments

In my quest for just the right theme for my dear-to-me-yet-mostly-neglected blog in the last year or two, I am changing the theme (background and set-up of the page) about as often as I post a blog. I want something clear and easy-to-read.

This one looks promising.

I WILL find the perfect theme!

It’s bright; it states the name and purpose of the blog well at the top; I kind of like the apron signature on the top left with my mission statement and AAA, etc., at the top so anyone curious can click on them to find out a little more about me.

I haven’t changed much or any since I started blogging, so no need to update. Maybe I’ll swing by there to make sure. Maybe I should put an updated photo, but I haven’t changed too much there either: a few more wrinkles perhaps, a few extra pounds that will be gone by spring or sooner.

OOPS! NOT ME! MY DAUGHTER! But isn’t she beautiful?

Keep going all the way to the bottom, and it very precisely and easily lets you leave a message–

I LOVE MESSAGES!

— as well as gives you other sites to visit, “Tasty Tidbits,” or topics from which to choose to read, “Whet Your Appetite,” or how to subscribe to my blog. Free. You can subscribe to something for FREE! Now isn’t that an incentive?

Ewwww, YUCK….

November 17, 2015February 16, 2017 / apronsandappetites.com / 2 Comments

My sweet little pumpkin (it IS Thanksgiving time, pumpkin time), Ava, comes over to play with me. She is a game player, and this year, since she is now the ripe old age of six, she has caught on rather nicely to the intricacies of the games with all the skill that goes into blocking your opponent and planning the strategy for the big win.

We play Animal Sequence, Uno Mooo, Bingo, Mickey Dominoes, War, Spoons, anything we have on hand or that looks interesting.

Sometimes we go for playing house, taking turns at who is Mom. Or we play school where she is always the teacher. Last year, in kindergarten, she was such a sweet, demure, kind, soft-spoken teacher, but this year in first grade she has an edge to her while she points her finger and says, “I’m not telling you again.”

Then there are the days I am not really quite sure what we are supposed to be playing. She usually centers her make-believe whatever-we-are around my working in the yard. I tell her that, no, I can’t play house today because I am working in the yard. She in her very matter-of-fact voice says, “I know! You can be the daughter that works at the plant-selling place, and I will be the mom.”

No excuse will suffice. She comes back with some other angle in her tenacious we-are-going-to-play attitude.

I, of course, always give in.

How could I not?!!! Just look at her!!!

Sunday, after I had beat her once again at Bingo, she jumps up on the couch and does a big raspberry in my face. Spit everywhere! So I jump up and pull her hands away from her face (she fought fiercely) and raspberried her right back!

The big coup for this old Granny?

Ava says “Ewwwwww! YUCK! Grandma spit!”

I can remember how I hated when my mom took her cloth hankie (it was all in super slow motion) and brought it up to her puckered lips glistening with spit and put a big glob of spit on the hankie. Then her arm and hand with the spit-globbed hankie would so slowly (oh the dread, the dread) come toward my face to wipe off (I’m almost certain) an invisible spot of dirt or food or snot off of me.

Ewwwwww! YUCK!

I’m still laughing about doing it to Ava. Only it’s twice as bad.

GRANDMA SPIT!!!!

On Being Me

November 7, 2015February 16, 2017 / apronsandappetites.com / 3 Comments

Soooooo I haven’t blogged in awhile. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to or I don’t have ideas flying around my brain in the middle of the night (when I really don’t want to get up and get on the computer because I would really like to sleep).

Soooooo I have chosen to change the theme of the blog periodically until I decide if I am going to keep blogging (more than sporadically) or chuck the whole project that I started those years ago. Annnnndddd, since I can never make up my mind about almost everything, I need your help, you faithful few. Check on me every now and then and tell me which theme you like best.

This one is One Strange Town (or something like that). I really liked it for a few minutes. Now, I’m not so sure.

Old Gringo Women’s Sora boot

The winner will receive an awesome prize. A prize worthy of Blogville. A prize-almost-not-quite-sort-of-like the prizes my favorite blogger Pioneer Woman gives away. She gives away the neatest stuff. Do you know she has a line of dishes at Walmart?!! And it is so cool.

She blogs about her dog a lot. And her cows. She even has a basset something-or-other in the dishwear. Is dishwear a word? It pops up with a red underline.

I need a dog… or some cows… I want to market my dishwear or underwear or whateverwear at Target.

My goal is to look around here and see what I have of interest to blog about (according to my college English classes that should really be “of which to blog”) (at least I think that’s what they taught me – it’s been a long time since I was in college).

My garage!!! I have so very much stuff in there with BIG personality.

I’m going to go check it out!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

October 31, 2015 / apronsandappetites.com / Leave a comment

From Halloween past…

Wishing you a fun-filled evening!