A little more inspiration

Remember a while back when I posted about the Storylady, a cry for help, and an international ring of cook book thieves? Today I read the column Mama F (Did's mother) wrote for the Sunday paper using some of the responses to her recipe query for her friend, The Storylady. This is what it spawned:

When Husband & I were dating I found out he wasn't a big fan of cakes. For his first birthday after our wedding, I wanted to surprise him with a special treat. I decided on his favorite sweet, coconut cream pie . I'd never tackled anything like this before, so I asked some of the older ladies I worked with for advice. One friend offered to give me her favorite from scratch, coconut cream pie recipe.

She called me that night at midnight to sneak me the recipe over the phone while Husband was showering (we all worked second shift in a factory at the time). At one point in the telling she said, "When you get to this stage you'll think, 'I have really botched this up. This is horrible!' and you'll be tempted to toss the entire mess in the trash. Don't. Trust me. It will be fine."

That Saturday, while he was gone to work, I gathered my ingredients & started on the pie. It was not as simple as I thought it would be. My friend was right, I was tempted to toss the entire mess in the trash about half way through the process, but I persevered. I even made my first meringue to top it all off. When it came out of the oven, I was so proud!

Husband came home from work & I presented him with his birthday pie. He ate it without saying much & I got antsy. Finally I couldn't stand the suspense & asked him how it was. "Good," was all he said. "Um...how good?" I asked. "Probably my second favorite coconut cream pie," he replied. "OK, that's good. What's your favorite?" I pestered. Husband said his favorite pie was the one his grandmother used to make for him. She passed away 2 years to the day before we were married.

The next day we had dinner with his parents. I told my mother-in-law that I needed her mother's coconut cream pie recipe because it was Husband's favorite. "Well," she began, "you take a box of coconut instant pudding and you follow the directions on the side that say 'To make pie.'"

Needless to say, I have never since made him a coconut cream pie from scratch.

A word on hand-me-downs

When QM brought BabyGirl home 2 weeks ago, she also brought a huge box of hand-me-downs from Princess for yours truly. You remember Princess, don't you? My fashionista baby sister who lives & breathes retail? I love her. Really I do. I'd love her even if she didn't send me new wardrobes with great regularity.

In the box were 2 pairs of jeans that looked like they'd never seen the light of day. Nice jeans. One pair are Guess Jeans, the others, I don't remember right now. There was also the bold print halter dress she wore to HT's first birthday party that I loved but never thought I could pull off (but happily can). There were some adorable capri jeans & a really cute green & white striped Henley. A fabulous navy blue Converse halter tankini, a Jem & the Holograms tank top, a dusty blue twin set, and some cute skirts rounded out the bunch. I was quaking with excitement as I dug through the treasures.

But I know something very certain about my sister & my self. We can both appreciate the same article of clothing, but we also have vastly different styles & tastes. Princess could pull off the low rise jeans & belly shirts while I was rockin' maternity wear for 6 years. For some reason, Princess decided to send me a few of the belly shirts in my giant box o' clothes. I'm pretty sure she just cleaned out her closet & sent me things she no longer needed....but I have to ask, what am I going to do with an orange tube top? Wear it around my waist? I'm not 14 & I'd look a bit ridiculous wearing a tube top with my bra straps sticking out the top....and a strapless simply will not cut it any longer...not after breast feeding 4 ravenous, little, squirmy things.

But by far, my favorite thing she sent me is a black t-shirt printed with large white letters that reads: I like your boyfriend (and he likes me, too). Yeah, I'm saving that one for Parent Teacher Conferences!

4 is a perfect fit

This week I have learned that it's a good thing Husband & I decided to stop at four kids. Monday QM, Daddy, and HT met us at the 4-H Fair to take a gander around the livestock barns. They brought Katie with them. Katie is my cousin Scotty's 6 year old step-daughter. She's here spending 2 weeks with Uncle Gick & Unkie Di. Adding her & HT to my mix was enough to make me mildly crazy. It's not that either one of them are really difficult to take care of...HT was busy, but stuck close to his Pa & Grammy, and Katie behaved better than my four put together. There's just something about adding 2 extra heads to my head count that made me nearly frantic.

I do head counts on a regular basis. At home, in the yard, at the store, visiting with family, you name it, I'm counting 1-2-3-4. That 5 & 6 really threw me for a loop. Before Bitsy was born, I tried to add one to our number frequently. I'd count 1-2-3 & start to panic thinking we'd lost #4....#4 that we didn't even have yet! 4 must be my magic number.

Katie is here today to play with the FarmHands while Uncle Gick bales hay & Aunt Di takes her dad to E'ville for surgery. I'm beginning to wonder if I can't switch her & BabyGirl out when it's time for Katie to go home. She's so quiet & laid back & easy going....they're both blond, I'm sure no one would ever notice. :) OK, so maybe that's not such a great idea after all.

QM, Daddy, and HT headed back to Tennessee yesterday. I have to say, I miss them. I love having Mama & Daddy up here visiting, and adding HT to the mix makes it even more special. He'll be 3 this fall & he's a big ball of energy.

When QM first brought him & BabyGirl here after BabyGirl's big vacation, he was overwhelmed. He ran around the house like it was FAO Schwarz at Christmastime. He didn't know what to play with first! And to have four kids at his beck and call...it was almost enough to make his 2 year old head explode. He cracks me up.

He was here just long enough for me to become nearly fluent in HT. I thought twin speak was supposed to be reserved just for twins, but HT has tossed that theory out the window. He calls his dad, Dah, his mom, Bum, his grandmother (QM), Deem (his version of Grammy), and he calls me Hunch. It's an odd smashed up version of Aunt FarmWife. As we were leaving the fair Monday he grabbed my hand, drug me to the cars and said, "Hunch, Deems car. Hunch in Deems car." He wasn't happy when I told him I really needed to drive my own car.

I only hope he decides to stay my friend the next time I see him.

Ice Cream! We're Gonna' Eat Ice Cream!

Anyone who grew up listening to old Bill Cosby LP's will remember Tonsils. I've had the bit running through my head since about 10 o'clock this morning. #1 Son is having his forcibly removed on August fifth at a yet to be determined hour of the morning.

When he had his last sore throat (June 5th), Doc called his tonsils "impressive." Not really a word you want to hear in relation to lumps in the back of your child's throat. Today BabyGirl & #1 Son saw their ENT for a follow up on their tubes (2+ years & counting!) and I asked him to take a look at #1 Son's throat at the request of our Doc. The ENT agreed that they need to come out. We battle sore throats way too much around here & #1 Son snores like an old man.

At the moment he's thrilled with the prospect of ice cream & Popsicles for days on end....but he doesn't really know the full story. I think that can wait for a few more weeks.

Luckily Pa was there to help at the appointment. Pa had his tonsils removed when he was about the same age #1 Son is now. He reassured the little man without scaring him at all...BabyGirl, on the other hand, is determined to terrify her brother if possible. This should be fun. :P

Bits of Farm Life captured just for you.

As promised, some pictures of life on our little spread. I would post pictures of our garden, but it's in a sad state this year. The massive amount of rain we've had has stunted everything but the grass & it has flourished where it shouldn't. It doesn't help that I have had absolutely no drive to get out & work in my garden this year so the weeds are thriving while my beans are struggling. Whoops.

Instead, I offer you a picture of Bitsy rocking in the yard:

I should explain that her hair is not always that fabulous. She had in pigtails & was looking as cute as a button, but decided she'd had enough of them. When she pulled the bands out, she refused to let me try & comb her hair back into submission....hence the wings.

She was trying to rock Moon to sleep (Moon is the little black fuzz ball on the ground fleeing from Bitsy's loving intentions). Moon was uncooperative, so Bitsy decided to rock by herself & shout at Moon to go nigh-night instead. Oddly, her plan did not induce Moon to nap. I wonder why.

We spent some time naming cats this weekend. Some of last years kittens had never really been named & three of them that looked very similar were named Rose. Baby is our oldest cat & mother/grandmother to many of the others. Jasmine is probably next to her in age. Now we also have Baby's Rose & Rosebud (to differentiate two of the three named Rose), Sweetface (who used to be the third Rose, named after Did's dearly departed cat), Sydney, and Sammy. The kittens are Moon, Follow Cat (named by B.B. because "he follows me"), Amelia, Grey Ghost, Fiddler, and Teveya (both named for Fiddler on the Roof characters because of their penchant for hanging out on the roof of Fort FarmHands). There are two others that need to be named, but as they're hard to tell apart, that will have to wait until they're a bit bigger. That's a lot of cats!

While we were exploring the creek last week, we lugged a bucket with us to gather up our treasures so I wouldn't end up with pockets full of rocks in my washing machine. The FarmHands decided to gather up pretty rocks & bits of shale to put on Andrew's grave and a few crab apples. I found the piece of glass.

I never have figured out what the glass was from, but it was covered in writing & was fairly thick. The dogs found it & drug it out into the drive-way where I found it smashed up yesterday. But here's a closer shot of what it said:

I could make out dates & a few words, but would love to know what it was from. One of my favorite things about living in the country is all the old "junk" that can be found when you take the time to explore. Not all of it is fun....we've found lots of rusty barbed wire buried on our land. Chunks of broken jars & bottles are not uncommon in ditches. But then I have a decent little collection of bottles brought up from old country dump sites. The FarmHands like to find old bones. A cow leg bone is often mistaken as a "real life T-rex bone!"

Such adventures! There are times when I miss living a half a mile from the grocery. There are times when I long for sidewalks & paved roads. There are days when I wish we could still walk to the library. There are moments when I miss having the neighbor kids knock on the door to come play with BabyGirl. But then I see something like this & I don't miss it so much anymore.

If we lived in town, the FarmHands wouldn't be the FarmHands. They wouldn't spend hours fishing tadpoles out of the pond. They wouldn't have 8,000 kittens to pack around. They wouldn't have a creek to get plastered in mud in. They wouldn't have "Huckleberry woods" to tromp through. They would be different kids all together.

Tweet-tweet, not Twitter

My Internet connection has mysteriously righted it's self. I am wary & untrusting of it's intentions. I believe it to luring me into a false sense of security only to snatch the rug out from under my feet when I least expect it. Oh the evils of the digital age.

Until that time when I am again sent spiraling into the black hole of internet-less despair, I will continue to keep you all informed of the goings on around here....hmmmm....let's see....Oh, first of all, Ordinary Sarah begged for more farm pictures a few days/weeks back. In response to her lovely request, I dug out my camera & took loads of pictures of my wild children, the new kittens, our freshly sheared sheep, and other farm-like things. I came in the house, bathed the FarmHands, and uploaded the pictures only to have my connection fizzle out on me. I will try to return to that train of thought at a later (but hopefully very soon) date.

Then I had a few Hot Mama epiphanies after sorting through my giant box o' clothes from Princess. I've been dying to share my newly acquired wisdom, but that will also have to wait for a slightly later date.

Since I've been on my mini-hiatus, the FarmHands & I have had many adventures. We've explored the creek that runs through our property well past our boundary lines (much to their delight & mine). We've learned about shale, had lessons in skipping stones (I'm not really good at it, but I try), ridden Lexi's miniature horses (that Bitsy was convinced were dog-dogs), four-wheeled all over the country side, gone out for ice cream & taken Busha & Bucka some, ate far too many nearly ripe black berries, had an impromptu campfire, been swimming in our little pool, and Uncle E's big one, and generally kept very busy. My bath tubs have permanent rings around them, the dishes piled high for a few days, & every towel in the house was dirty, but it was all worth it. Every minute.

Saturday, we loaded the crew up & headed south to check out CMOE (Children's Museum of Evansville), where we tried to take them for BabyGirl's birthday before #1 Son got sick on us. 10 minutes from our destination, BabyGirl started complaining that she was sick. When we parked, she told me she wanted to go home. I was not very happy & was pretty sure she'd feel fine in a few minutes (she couldn't tell us what was bothering her...it was a very vague complaint). After being in the museum for about 45 seconds, she was miraculously better. Go figure.

A few words on CMOE: if you live in our general area and are looking for a fun way to wile away a few hours with your young children, go for it. $6 admission for anyone over the age of 18 months. Most everything is hands on. It's not a huge place. It can all be done in a few hours, or you can spend all day depending on what you decide. Husband wasn't impressed, but the FarmHands loved it. I wouldn't suggest it for anyone over the age of 10 unless there were younger kids along for the trip.

After CMOE, we stopped by at the "new" Gander, Mt. store so Husband could drool over bass boats & the FarmHands could marvel at the massive assortment of fishing lures. BabyGirl & I picked out a pink hand gun, but couldn't talk Husband into the $400 price tag. He's just no fun at all.

Next came a quick trip to McDonald's where we even "WENT INSIDE TO EAT!!!!" We are pretty strict drive-thru people, especially with all 4 kids in tow. And we finished up our outing with a "quick" stop at PetSmart. I say "quick" because this has been the scene in our house for the past 2 days following that "quick" trip:

The FarmHands have been begging for a new inside dog since Andrew passed away. I'm happy with just Lilly May and have firmly stated so on many occasions. Instead we opted for a different species to fill the void.....Budgies.That is, parakeets. They are the newest members of our menagerie. I've been coveting them since our trip to Kentucky Down Under last summer. Husband had suggested them before, but I wasn't ready & didn't want to skimp. This time we found a really nice cage (complete with bowed Plexiglas front to better watch the birdies), and they had the color birds I wanted, so we came home with a small box & my two new babies. That's Emmett on the swing & Quill on the perch looking in the mirror. We're pretty sure Emmett is a boy....Quill, we're not quite sure about yet.

All the way home from E'ville, B.B. kept asking if he could "hold the chickens," and Bitsy kept shouting "bock-bock-bock" and pointing to the box on my lap. Eventually we convinced them both that they weren't chickens & that birds say "tweet-tweet" not "bock-bock."

QM glared at me when the FarmHands told her about their new birds (we were at church Sunday morning & she & HT were there). She told me to take them back to the pet store because she already picked up two of them for me & they would take much less maintenance....they're plastic.

I decided to keep both. Sorry, Mama.

I'm not dead

Fear not, my dear internets, I have not passed away. My internet connection, on the other hand, is not doing well. I think I may need to call Benny Hinn to lay hands on my phone line & pray for healing....either that or Peoplepc needs to answer my email PDQ & tell me how to fix things. Grrr.

At the moment I'm blogging from Uncle E's house. I promise to get back to work as soon as things get ironed out. Until then, I'm trying to treat my Facebook withdrawls with copius amounts of trashy novels & made for tv movies. Well, not really.