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March 21 – Day 4 of Our COVID 19 Adventure
There Is Nothing Wrong at Our House There is nothing wrong at our house except… The furniture has turned into a playground and the house is a racetrack. Izzy took off all of her clothes during nap time and realized she can use her toes to climb out of her playpen. I caught her seconds away from diving headfirst onto the concrete floor. Not exactly something I want to explain to her parents. Not to mention having to go to an emergency room these days. JW is at the age where everything (most of the time) is his. If he looked at it a few minutes ago, it is his. …
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March 20 – Day 3 of COVID 19 Adventure
Irony Okay. I was trying to fall asleep last night, but my mind was revisiting all of March 20th’s events. How would I make sense of them? Irony seemed to fit the bill best. Since school is closed for most, here is a vocabulary lesson. The first definition of irony is “the expression of one’s meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.” That isn’t my style… The second definition is “a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result.” Hmmmmm Okay, I thought, this is getting really close to…
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March 19 – Day 2 of the COVID 19 Adventure
It Is All About Learning I keep seeing lots of posts from my teacher friends about what they are doing to keep teaching during this. Many are plowing new ground in the virtual world, others are old pros. Some parents are also beginning to reach out. They are asking for ideas and support. Here at White Rock, we learned a lot today. Here are a few of our discoveries. Thunder Follows Lightning On top of our self-imposed semi-isolation, it was storming this morning. I am wondering if the rain is serving to make staying at home seem more natural or more painful. It changes moment to moment. This morning it…
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March 18 – DAY 1 of Our COVID 19 Adventure
The Adventure Begins On March 17, instead of celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, Jerry headed north to get our grandson. I headed south to get our granddaughter. I don’t know what it is about times of uncertainty, but when things like this happen, I want my babies with me. John and Beth are working from home. Jillian and Mike are basically doing the same. One daycare had closed, giving no warning to parents…the other was days away from making a similar decision. Jerry is teaching online for the foreseeable future and so it made sense for us to have the babies. We told the parents we wanted them for two weeks…
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The Most Interesting Room in the World…Seriously
I have a friend in Virginia who painted her laundry room a bright orange color that she loves in order to inspire her to keep up with the most thankless household chore. This is our 29th house in our almost 34 years of marriage. I have had laundry rooms that were windowless, located behind bi-fold doors in a hallway, in a dark and cold basement, and even out in a detached garage space. I have had to go upstairs, downstairs, and outside to wash clothes. When we lived in an apartment right after we got married, I even got to go to a laundromat located inside the complex. I guess…
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1st World Problems at the Homestead
Ha! It makes me laugh when my “worlds” collide. Back in Virginia, I kinda got on a subsistence life-style kick. I learned how to make wine, can vegetables from our garden. We even had goats so I could milk them and make cheese. It was fun and it was a lot of work. I loved the forced routine. When it was time to milk the goats…it was TIME. When the vegetables needed picking, we were out gathering. I loved the routine and the order it brought to my life. I had things that absolutely had to be done and it was fun to pretend that there weren’t grocery stores. …
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Christmas Decorations at the Homestead 2019
I’m dating this post because I have big plans for the future. This is what we were able to accomplish this year. Next year is still being discussed. I have hopes for garland and trees in the old part of the house. I need to do some research on what 1850 Christmas decorations in Scotland and Texas would have looked like. I want the house to twinkle. But this year, we just hadn’t really had time to plan it and we weren’t up to it. Seriously, the exterior isn’t completed. The yard is a wreck. There is very little traffic on the country road in front of our house. Lights…
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Christmas Food at the Homestead
I have been dreaming about my grandma house for a long time. I was disappointed that we weren’t in the Homestead last year, but the joy that we experienced this year certainly made it worth waiting for. First, we had the a great Thanksgiving which ends with us putting up the Christmas tree. That was an adventure in and of itself. We had a new tree this year and so, it was our first time to put it up in a new house where we had never had a Christmas tree before. Lots of firsts means lots of learning. The Cookie Exchange We hosted the first (hopefully) annual Cookie Exchange.…
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Pied Piping and a Cookie Exchange
A Bit of Bragging… I have been called a “Pied Piper” by my husband and others. Ric Hertless may have been the first to proclaim this in a work setting. I didn’t know how I felt about the moniker. It sounded to me like all I did was try and get people to do what I wanted and that smacked of manipulation. However, upon reflection, I think that I just get board and when I do, I try and get people I love and enjoy to come play. So far, we have come up with some interesting reindeer games… Burch Beach Like the time we built a beach in our…
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Christmas Tamale Tradition
Tamales I have no idea where the tradition came from or when it really started. We have tamales for dinner on Christmas Eve and we have for as long as I can remember. I don’t remember Nana or Mother ever making their tamales, however. They were purchased and steamed just before serving. Along with the tamales, there was queso, chili, chips, and so on. Jerry and I first made tamales back in 1993 while we were living in Athens, Georgia. We were a long way from home and we had a hankering for them. The Navy provided us with many opportunities to miss something from home and to have to…