Cooking

DSP Blog prompt: I'm going to deviate from the Fashion theme today and ask if you have ever been in the middle of cooking when if you realized you were missing a key ingredient and couldn't make a dash to the store? What did you do?

Ugh. Yes. More often than I'd like to admit. Most often when the kids were little, single mom, three young 'uns, pots full of food over an open fire...ick. So what do you do when you are making spaghetti and have no spaghetti? Hope you have rotini. Or, make sloppy joes on wheat bread.

I can't really think of any incident in particular, but I know I always find some way to improvise. Sometimes it doesn't turn out all that great, but I come custom built with Mammy's Depression waste-not-want-not attitude, and we usually seem to turn out okay.

I did have a friend one time who was completely broke with payday still 2 days away, who had one small pkg of hamburger meat left to his name, and had decided to fix himself a couple burgers one evening. He loved spiced so he decided to throw some cayenne in there. He was talking to me on the phone, and wasn't paying attention, and accidentally dumped cinnamon in the burgers insteads of cayenne.

He howled, and ate them anyway. It is still our favorite memory. (Except for the beer box, maybe, but that's a story for later.....)

Self Motivation

DSP Blog Prompt: Self-motivation. Ever get in a rut and didn't feel like you would ever get out? What did you do to pull yourself up and out?

Hm.

I don't think I ever get OUT of the rut.

The closets always need cleaned out. I got my summer clothes out in July this year. The autumn leaves from last fall didn't get burned until June. The dishes get left until I need to cook again, the checkbook gets balanced when I'm afraid I might have bounced something, the shopping gets done when we are out of EVERYTHING. The utility bills get paid late because I forget to mail them off. I don't want to do direct deposit because I forget to balance my checkbook on time.

I'm still legally married. I left my husband 8 years ago. We were only married for six. How's that for procrastination?

I do what I can do, until I get tired, and what's not done, someone else can do, or it gets left.

What do I do to get out of it? I don't really think I do. I haven't felt 'caught up' since I was 15 and didn't know what all that stuff is.

If anyone has any good ideas, pass them along. Usually the best motivation for me, though, is the onset of spring and fall. Which means, I'm about to get my butt up and going, right about now.

Maybe. I still have scrapping to do, and books to read, and costumes to sew......

Fashion Facts

DSP Blog Prompt: Fashion Facts. Over the centuries, fashions have taken dramatic changes. Do you know of any obscure fashion facts to add to our knowledge?

I think everyone knows corsets were made from whale bones. That's all I know. I'm not a fashion queen, and I never have been. But it's funny that a fashion prompt is up today, because today I finally took the time to stop by the mall and get myself some new jeans for work. After plugging through 10 stores, embarassing myself in the skinny stores (couldn't get the stuff past my hips) and being sniffed at in the stores that cater to heavier women, (yes she literally told me to go elsewhere, nothing would fit me there. Nice.)....I finally landed in the Gap, and while I did NOT want to pay Gap prices, a homosexual salesman made me feel so at ease and picked out the perfect jeans in less than ten minutes. The guy was awesome. He made me miss my old restaraunt coworkers so much!!!!! I love gay men! (Yes that's off topic, but I had to say it.)

So, I finally have a pair of jeans that fit. After almost a year battling my new weight, I'm comfortable in at least one pair of pants. I'd pay another 60$ for another pair that fit so well.

Let's see....little known fashion facts....sorry, drawing a bust on this one!

Shoes

DSP Blog Prompt: Shoes make the woman. Give us an insight into your closet. Your shoes closet that is.

I don't have a closet! (My stuff is in Kameron's closet.)

I have shoe corners throughout the house, and a shoe organizer, and some shoes in shoeboxes in Steve's closet. The shoe organizer is leaned up against the chest for the time being (which is probably a couple more years) until we can get the proper closet spaces built, or a kid or two grows up and leaves home, and I get some room. The boxed up shoes are dress shoes I don't wear often but need them just in case... I am flip flop and tennis shoe kind of girl, but when I dress up, I looooooooove boots! I don't have near enough boots.

Hats?

DSP Blog Prompt: Fashionably Correct. In years past one would not be seen without a hat to complete your ensemble. Not so much these days. When and where do you think it is fashionably correct to wear a hat?

Halloween.

I say this because it seems that hats ARE indeed socially unacceptable anymore....all the 'rules' point to where or how NOT to wear hats....Not in church, not at the table. etc etc.. And, then if all else fails, there's the adage that 'wearing a hat all the time will make you bald.'


What about do-rags???

Personally I think I look like a dork in hat, especially a baseball cap. Witches' hats are Okay, and the beekeeper hats are good when gathering honey. I haven't gathered honey, though, in over 20 years, not since Uncle Clyde's beehives.

Double Duty

DSP Blog prompt: Simplify life. We all have them, those household items that we purchase for one thing and then end up using them for another. What items do you have that serve double duty?

Wow, not many, off the top of my head. My son, well, you have to hide toothbrushes from him. No toothbrush is safe. He finetunes and polishes his shoes every night with a toothbrush, hopefully old!!!, some mild soap and water, a soft cloth, and shoe polish. I have never seen anyone so particular about his shoes!!!! I did eventually break him from toothpaste. I don't know where he got the idea that toothpaste was an awesome shoecleaner, but it took me about two years to get him to knock it off. He started this odd little habot when he was about ten. He'll be 16 this year. Too bad he doesn't clean the rest of his room like that!

As for me, I use the rubber cupboard liners to open tough jars. An apple goes in the potatoes to keep them from growing those little root/worm-looking things they get after you have had them for a bit. Lemon juice gets put on peeled apples AND peeled potatoes to keep them from going brown. OLD toothbrushes get the dirt out of the teensy tinsy cracks, should it live through the Boy, and oven cleaner is great for buildup on a linoleum floor surface. It's also the bomb for the bathtub. Come to think of it, oven cleaner gets out just about anything. Ink pens are used as hairsticks, socks as mittens in the winter....

Did I wear THAT!???

DSP Blog Prompt: Fashion Woes. What, in your opinion, is your most embarassing fashion moment.

Okay, I'll be back one of these days to post some photos of my poor little self as a wee babe in some awful, and I mean A W F U L high 70's fashion disasters. Too bad for everyone that my scanner died a slow and painful death, there are some funny ones.

Mom and Mammy wouldn't let me wear pants until I was in 2nd grade. And I remember one morning, my mother rushing me out the door as I screamed that we were forgetting to put on my panties. I was about 6. That would have been horrid.........sent to school in a dress and no skivvies!!!! She must've been running late that day. (I got my UnderRoos on before the bus came, thank goodness.)

And there is this photo of me in some type of dark green/brown PLAID ghetto/disco pantsuit and vest. I was about 5. It was horrid. It's not appreciated until I can post the picture!!!

Dress Code

Blog Prompt: Now that school has started back here, the big issue is the dress code. dDo you agree with having a dress code and if so, who should determine what it should be? Should it be the principal, the school board, the students, the parents, the state dept. of ed or someone else?


I think there absolutely should be a dress code enforced in all schools. I also think everyone should have a say in the dress code, since everyone is affected by it: The people who teach, who look at it, the people who wear it, pay for it, and are responsible for the ones who wear it.

I would love to see uniforms in our schools, but I don't think that's going to happen for a long time. Of course, when I was in high school, if someone would have ever said that would have come out of my mouth, I'd have fainted of mortification right then and there. I also would love to see the reduction of stereotyping (rich vs. poor, etc)

I DO NOT think open-ended dress codes clauses should be put into effect, as they currently are in our schools. (And have been for years) This means, if any given teacher doesn't like what your kid has on, for any given reason, despite the fact that the clothing meets all dress code conformations, then you ave to pick the kid up and take it home and change it. But, I guess if they want to be that way, that it would be fine, as long as they pay for the clothing. The stuff isn't cheap.

I don't care for clothing that should all but have "Please knock me up" pasted on the front. It's a proven fact that teens have still developing brains, and overdeveloping hormones, and do not make wise decisons alot of the time. I hate seeing marketing that targets these physical characteristics of a typical teen.

On the other hand, teens have a huge need to express and to just 'find' themselves. There's always going to be new, evolving steroetypes that help them fit into or gloriously rebel against a niche: Preps, headbangers, nerds, emos, jocks, etc etc etc. However, I feel such should be approached with caution, and closely monitored. (Parents: Just say NO to Thugs, Lolitas, and Stoners)....

Now that I have rambled I guess I should say, long story short, as with all things, proceed with Moderation.....

Herbs

Blog Prompt: Today is More Herbs, Less Salt Day. What herb(s) do you like in your food?

Olive oil is not an herb but I pay the extra price and use it for everything I can in place of butter or vegetable oil. It really adds flavor to things and has lots of health benefits. I love fried eggs and fried okra, so I use it for that...I use it in place of butter when cooking any of the packaged pastas, in my spaghetti, I sautee cubed meat in it alot, with some Italian herbs and that is sooooo good...so when I DO just HAVE to have something fried I use that instead. It doesn't take gobs, just a couple tablespoons. It's also wonderful on toast in place of butter.

I have to say I'm heavy on the garlic, and any herb considered Italian. My son likes to peel potatoes, brush them with olive oil and basil, and bake them. I like to make steak rubs. And I love lemon pepper!!!! Cubed meat (any kind, just make sure it is lean) in a tablespoon of olive oil, lemon pepper, and garlic, and I don't need anything else!

I want someday to have a garden...even though I'm not a green thumb. Faerie/flower gardens around the house, vegetable and herb garden in the back.

It's just late summer, and I am in the mood for shelling something, or shucking, or canning or 'putting up' something. Maybe I'll go visit the vegetable stand later and get my fix.....

Illness

Blog Prompt: Describe the most serious illness you have ever had.

Being pregnant!!!! Of course, that's not necessarily an 'illness', but it caused the most pain and suffering, ever.

I guess the most serious 'illness' was when I was about 15, and my stomach started hurting and it just never stopped, for over a week, gradually getting worse until I couldn't hardly walk. I remember finally going and hunting my mother down, and her being irritated at me demanding her to take me to the hospital. I was told that 'this had better be good.'

They kept me for 8 days.

It was eventually diagnosed as gastritis, a stomach condition that can be best descibed as numerous tiny 'pinholes' in the stomach. It took them that long to figure it out because it's not a condition common in teens, and they think mine was brought on by bad nerves. It doesn't go away. Luckily I haven't been bothered with a bout of the pain from it in several years. And the castor oil they fed me in the hospital.....well, if you reallllllly hate somebody, make 'em drink a half a bottle of THAT stuff. The 1/2 teaspoon Mammy gives you to keep you regular doesn't hold a candle to hospital doses.....


Speaking of nerves, they are still bad. Very rough this week, in fact. I have several things floating around right now, and I wish the problems would go away. The full moon has hit our house with a vengeance.

Just ONE Food.....

Blog Prompt: One food you would never give up is...

Oh ONE? BOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chicken. Fried, rotisseried, baked, Crock-pot'd, Alfredoed, stir-fried, grilled, bacon-sauteed, con-broccoli'd, you name it, I can eat the heck out of some chicken. Everyday. Never get tired of the stuff.

Maybe I should eat MORE chicken and less ice cream, and try to get a few pounds off.

E-mail

DSP Blog prompt: Name three people you last e-mailed, and why.

1. My sister, because she has a twisted sense of humor, so I sent her a good joke fitting her personality.

2. Steve's sister, sending her a good e-mail also befitting her personality.

3. At work I send about 20 e-mails a day so those are self explanatory and boring.

Relaxation

Blog Prompt: Aug 15 is National Relaxation Day. Tell what things you see, hear or do that relaxes you.



This is Wednesday's prompt. I'm late.



One very big thing is to eat and read, although, when I am super stressed like I have been this week, reading doesn't calm me much because the people in the books are always in trouble. This is the stuff of great fiction, no argumant about it, but I have to already be at a certain point of OK before I can even enjoy a good book or movie anymore.



I like a glass of wine in the evenings, sometimes, but I don't like the smell it leaves so I rarely even do that. I usualy end up going and brushing my teeth at least once after every glass. I should also state that I also can't stand the smell of alcohol on other people, either. That's a long story, not one for now.



Crocheting is relaxing. But, it is time consuming, so I usually don't crochet unless I have a specific project to complete.



Writing is relaxing. I know though, that I usually do not like what I write when I go back and read it, so my attempts at fiction are usually thrown away. This is a habit I've had all of my life, and now I wish I'd kept the diaries I'd made as a younger woman, so I could look back on them now.



I guess I find it very hard to relax!!! Today, anyway, when I need to be able to really bad. Nerves have been taut all week, for several reasons.



Probably the most relaxing thing of all for me is scrapbooking and trying to learn how to design. I can't hardly wait until I can get a copy of PSCS3 and really do some learning. I hate money being so tight.



I love to go to the lake and be near the water. The sound of water lapping on the banks is very relaxing.



I guess, given the burnout I am suffering and the nature of my job, NOT having to talk to people is relaxing!

Five Things Around My Computer

Hm. Well, right now I have two.

5 things around the desktop PC include:
A big stack of all kinds of computer paper
2 scanners, neither which will work properly
The bills
Miscellaneous software
Faery figurines and Steve's lava lamp

The laptop, which I cam currently on:
sofa
end table with lamp
blankets and pillow
coffee
small trash can


I'm not sure what this says about me.

5 things around Steve's computer:
desk organizer
flashlight
coffee cup
telephone
ashtray


5 things around the twin's computer:
Some software
a notebook
trash under the desk (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Spongebob Squarepants mouse pad
pens and pencils


5 things around Kameron's computer:
dirty dishes
candy wrappers and trash everywhere
high school notes from girls
school binder
small red wicker basket with software and misc things in it

Let's face it, the oldest boy is a pig.

I think the fact I have listed five computers is more ......disturbing......than what's around them. Except for, maybe, the boy's dishes. One of Mom's rules: No eating at the PC......

Look at your Hands......

Blog Prompt: Look at your hands. Why are you grateful for them?

For lots and lots of reasons....an unfathomable amount of reasons. I can touch my children with them. I can express my creativity with them. They help me earn our living. They help me learn, cook, clean, sew, crochet, read, (or hold the book, anyway) EAT!!!!!!! (lol) I can snuggle Steve with them....I can type, scratch, wash, shave, shampoo, curl, SCRAPBOOK!!!!.....and I'm pretty happy that God gave me some good fast growing fingernails. (Sometimes I look at them and think they might even be pretty. Sometimes.)

But most of all,

I can fold them and pray with them.

How would you spend a found $20 bill?

Blog Prompt: How would you spend a found $20 bill?

Before I quit smoking, on a pack of cigarettes. After I have quit, I SHOULD put it in the cookiejar labeled GYM to help me lose this 35 pounds I gained. I would realistically probably put it in my gas tank, or buy my kids or Steve something, go to the Dollar store for some cat litter or toilet paper, just give it to my kids, or get some DSP kits. Or maybe I would put it in the actual savings account to add to the Christmas fund (which has all of $24 dollars in it thanks to the new septic system)....

How has the Internet affected me???

According to the website "Daily Holidays of 2007", today is the anniversary of the World Wide Web. Blog Prompt: Tell how the internet has made an impact on your life.


I'm with lots of other ladies on this prompt---how has it NOT affected my life? I might say it has affected me in such a positive way that I wish it would have come along sooner. Maybe I would have sat at home instead of running around getting into trouble in my teenage years. I love to read, so the Net has saved me lots of money in reading material (but it will not ever take the place of a good book, a blanket, coffee and chocolates). I found my 'calling' in computers, and while I haven't quite made it to my goal career yet, I know that it will be with a computer. (If my bum neck will just permit it, anyway....) I have found hobbies and friends, and discovered things that interested me greatly I might not have found originally. I also use it as a tool to watch over what my kids and their friends are up to by perusing thier MySpace sites. It's amazing what you find out from that!!!!!!!! So, it is a very versatile tool of many many uses....so many I can't even think of them in one sitting. I also met my very good friend Eric, who lives in Chicago and comes to spend a week with me every year that he can afford to. I have missed him this year!!

How many Hats do you wear?

DSP Blog prompt: How many different 'hats' will you wear today? Will you be mom, grandma, employee, employer..etc. How do you balance all of it?

Employee
NOTE: The employee subhats include, but are not limited to:
Problem Solver
BrainStormer
Mediator
Coordinator
Psychologist
Victim
Therapist
Computer Geek
Punching Bag
Trend Analyst
Payroll clerk
Cashier
The Bearer of Bad News (yeah, the messenger gets shot ALOT.)
Oh and the list goes ON!

and then we have:

Mother (to three)
Girlfriend
Sister
Ex-wife
Head of Household
Finance Manager
Maid
Cook
Mediator
Referee

I am sure the list goes on here too.

If I am lucky I get to wear these hats:

Computer Geek
Scrapbooker
Blogger
Reader
Crocheter
Snuggler
Kitty Hugger

Makeup!

DSP Blog Prompt: (7/6/07)
Do you wear makeup? Love it or hate it? If you do wear it, is it for you or other people?


Yes, I wear makeup. I hate it for the most part. I mean, I am glad that it's been invented, because I'd scare the hizzy out of most people if I did not have it. I have never, even when I was very young, ever been able to be classified as a natural beauty. I have always needed help in that department! At least that is how I have always felt. I would say I wear it for myself, because it makes me feel better. I don't feel AS scary. And I have to say I enjoy applying it when I have the time. It's kind of like painting! But after it's on about an hour, I feel like I have lard all over my face, and all I want is just to go home and take the stuff off. I never wear it at home. They just have to love me as I look. Only, only if I am going to go somewhere and be gone awhile. And now, as I get older, I am even getting brave enough to skip the makeup for trips to walmart and such. I'm not going to be discovered as a beauty queen like Pamela Anderson was at such things like baseball games or trips to the grocery. And I'm never going to see those people again anyway, probably, and remember it, so, who cares if they think I look horrid?

More High School Memories

DSP Blog Prompt 6/29/07:
What were your high school colors? Team names? Clubs you belong too? Did you graduate? What do you remember most about your graduation day?

Highschool colors: Red, white and grey
Team Names: Greyhounds
Clubs you belonged to? Art Club, Choir
Graduate? Nope!
What do you remember most about your graduation day?
That Kameron was right at a year old, and that I had four weeks left before graduation. I had made A's and B's all year long. Kameron had caught a really BAD case of the chicken pox. We are talking pox bigger than a quarter, fevers of 104 degrees that sent my 17 year old self into a PANIC. He still carries some of those scars, and I learned that I had every right to be scared of that kid's fevers. He's no joke when it comes to a fever, but that's another story in itself. Anyway, I wasn't about to leave the kid with a sitter--he was too sick. The doctor wrote me out an excuse from school to stay home with him for two weeks until he got out of the woods. I could now collect all my schoolwork, keep my grade average up, and graduate, and be home with my sick child.
I took the doctors excuse in and the principal would not accept it because *I* was not sick. He didn't care how sick my child was. A heated argument ensued between us. I was to report to school unless I got the pox myself or I would not graduate. In the nastiest way possible I let him know just what I thought of his decision and stormed out. I still feel no better about him today. If I knew then what I know now, I'd probably slapped a lawsuit on that school. I did not graduate--I stayed home with my baby. Kameron recovered fine and I went back and got a GED. So, what I remember most about my graduation day is that I was at home in the living room playing with a laughing, bouncing, healthy baby boy, instead of standing in line in a cap and gown waiting to get a piece of paper that I could have lost a baby over.

To this day I do not regret my decision.