Sunday, November 16, 2014

Blog Tour, Rain, Cats, Recipe, and Other Sunday Trivia

We took a break today, since we all need a Sunday off, then tomorrow the blog tour starts up again.

Here's the itinerary for this week:

Monday, November 17--Miriam Iwashige at Prairie View 
Tuesday, November18--Joanna Hendricks at What's in My Teapot? 
Wednesday, November 19--Shari Zook at Confessions of a Woman Learning to Live
Thursday, November 20--Keri Lewis at Keri Recommends 
Friday, November 21--Martha Glick at The Kitchen Cookie 
Saturday, November 22--Gina Martin at Home Joys

Today was one of those Sundays that was not restful and involved all of us spidering in all directions and of course the resulting complicated figurage of rides.  We had a missions committee meeting after church, so we 3 families on the committee brought lunch to church and shared it.  Then Ben was in on the meeting, Steven wanted to go to a concert in I think Portland, Jenny needed to meet someone in Albany at 2, and Emily wanted to go home.

So Emily took off in the family car, not knowing there was a crucial bag in the back seat that Jenny needed.  Emily didn't answer her phone, which is normal and wise when she's driving, but maybe she could make one exception.  So I hollered at Steven to "chase her down," a command that I later realized wasn't the smartest to give to Steven because he would do it, happily and literally.  The trouble is that Emily is like me and tends to concentrate on her driving and not what's going on around her, so even though Steven passed her and honked his horn, she just kept driving.  And frowning at the road, said Jenny, who was getting frantic.

Somehow it all turned out ok.

 I took a Waldorf salad to the lunch today.

Do other people do this?  I spent a good portion of my life deliberately not doing stuff because my mom did or liked it.  For example, in high school I never touched the Anne of Green Gables books because Mom thought  they were so good.

And certain foods, such as carrot salad--consisting of grated carrots in orange jello, which Mom always made for Sunday dinner company--I never made specifically because if Mom had made it, it was naturally provincial and old-fashioned and certainly not cool.

At some point the compass turned and I started reading and doing and making things specifically because it's what Mom did.

I love Anne of Green Gables.

The other day in a second-hand store I tried on a pair of shoes for the sole* reason that they were just like Mom would have worn.

*yes...

And today I made Waldorf salad because I had apples to use up and Mom used to make it.

Recipe:
Combine--
3 or 4 apples, cored and chopped
1 cup sliced celery
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raisins
Combine, pour over apple mixture, stir:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 t. sugar
1 t. lemon juice
1/4 t. salt

Speaking of coordinating rides, I am trying to get the family together for Christmas.  Four of them live at home, one is coming home from Thailand for a long vacation, so it shouldn't be that hard, right?  Well.  It is.  There is a sweet young girlfriend in the mix who must be visited, which I don't begrudge and am in fact encouraging, and a Navy project that won't be finished until the 23rd, and I have taught the engineer to be responsible, have I not?

But why does it all have to interfere with my precious plans for the family get-together??

Then of course the air fares are up in the jet stream for weeks except on Christmas Day.  Someone thought maybe this son could come and that one could go, all on Christmas Day.  I said absolutely not.

I am turning into a crazy woman, wild-eyed and shrieking: "WE ARE GOING TO BE A NORMAL HAPPY FAMILY FOR ONCE AND WE ARE GOING TO HAVE CHRISTMAS ALL TOGETHER AND HAVE A FAMILY PICTURE TAKEN IF IT'S THE LAST THING WE DO AND YOU ARE GOING TO BE COOPERATIVE ABOUT IT!!!"

I am obsessing about taking that family picture together.

And about three perfect family days at a house at the coast.

You know how this will go, right?  So do I.

Save me from myself, people.

It has been cold and rainy and then cold and dry.  You never met cold and nasty and wet until you've lived in Oregon.  We decided to take in an activity at the U of O the other night, where Emily attends, just Emily and Jenny and me having a happy Mother-Daughter Girl Night of Bonhomie and Making Memories [notice a theme developing here?].  It was about 35 degrees and pouring rain.  The drains were all overwhelmed so there were deep ponds at all the crosswalks.  Emily decided to be all scientific and smart with a plastic bag she found in the back seat of the car.  She pulled it over her one boot and figured she would step into the crosswalks first with that foot, since most of the lakes were small enough that you would only get one foot really wet, and the second step would get you close to the other shore.

So we went blazing off into the night, a trio of hunched shoulders and scarves and gloves and hooded winter coats.   Jenny leapt gracefully over most of the first puddle. Emily followed, into the huge puddle, according to plan, then out the other side. And as I gritted my teeth and splashed my foot into the icy deep, I noticed a plastic bag, floating calmly by.

A puddle and several wet sidewalks later, Emily yelled, "Hey!  What happened to my bag??"

We didn't get home til almost midnight.  We all had wet feet and wet coats and were very happy to get into warm beds.  I was worried we'd all get pneumonia.

Meanwhile our three--yes, three--new kitties are inside until it warms up just a bit.  First, Steven found a stray black kitty at the warehouse so of course he rescued it.  And named it Raven.

Then Tim and Rebekah from church are getting ready to go to Africa so wanted to place their kittens in homes of people they knew.  The girls each wanted one so the very fluffy JulieSara and EllieAnne arrived about the same time as Raven.

They sit under the kitchen chairs and hiss at him.  Raven likes to lurk behind a chair leg and then swipe the others as they go by.

They remind me of Paul's students at school.

Quote of the Day [or: why I sometimes read Craigslist for fun] [and: why I nag at writing students to be specific.]

"i am downsizing. i have normal stuff.

Normal stuff. Anything you want make an offer. If i dont want to sell it it will either be out of site or i will say no. Browse shopping. This is serious. I dont have time to set up a g sale. Buy everything i have for sale for $1200. Except.for the huge whirlpool side x siide frig. $300 firm on that. Cmon by."

5 comments:

  1. Oh boy. Never a dull moment!

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  2. I love how you jump from subject to subject. It's like you're trying to untangle your spaghetti so you can sleep better!

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  3. oh yes, I recall how manic my mother got on family pictures just as we were young adults and splintering in all directions!

    I made Waldorf salad recently for a Sunday dinner side dish and it was SO GOOD. Why have I never made this before? Pretty sure my mom never made it - her specialty was carrot-and-jello salad :) Which I love.

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  4. Love it; it's the ordinary things in life, all twisted together. The plastic bag floating away made my day!

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  5. It gets even harder to get Christmas together when all but one of your 5 are married. We have ended up planning it for Dec 20th. Whatever! And so I planned that with everyone. Then our middle son said he had forgotten to buy the airline tickets after we planned everything around their schedule and when they were flying in. Grrrr...

    Craigslist drives me nuts! If you put something on there for sale please answer my email!!!

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