Be Still and Know...Then and Now

I am thinking that all I want to do is make a hasty retreat to Walnut Grove and I don’t want to come home until January. I know life was hard during the pioneer days, however my longing for things to just be simple is palpable. I think that is what attracts me about baking bread. It’s a simple process, uncomplicated by the passing of time. Caroline Ingalls made her bread about the same way I make my bread today. I like that! Filling out health insurance applications and having someone else tell me what they will and will not pay for when I am paying for the premiums sends my blood pressure over the edge. Then that in turn renders me ineligible for health insurance. Not that I have high blood pressure but the process of getting health insurance is enough to send it though the roof. Caroline Ingalls didn’t worry about taking Half Pint to see Doc Baker or how she was going to pay for it! She traded him a basket of eggs or a quart of jam or invited him to Sunday supper. The fact that my h...

Y’all remember about two weeks ago I did a bit of canning. Pepper Jelly….SCORE! Tomato Jelly….not so much. I let it sit for a few days with great expectation that it would come together but with no luck. Not having the patience to wait the full two weeks I compromised and waited about 7 days and then re worked the recipe according to the directions included in the pectin package . Bla ba bla bla, bla bla bla……….yea, not so much AGAIN! At dinner one evening last week the Hubs asked me what I was going to do with all ther jars of failed tomato jelly sitting on my counter. Before thinking about it said that I was just going to let it go . Let it GO! It’s a great concept. A great concept in somebody else's kitchen maybe! The next day I was cleaning up the kitchen and de-cluttering the kitchen island and there was my nemesis lined up very neatly. Taunting me……  “Nanner Nanner Boo Booo you can’t make Taaaaomaaaaato Jeeeeeeelly!” Visions of little glass jars filled with sloshi...

Hey there y’all! Sunday, August 21 More knitting………if you remember last Sunday, well this Sunday was not very different. I think I have just reached my boredom threshold with the homespun and the crocheting. I am still keeping a crochet project going but I am really trying to focus on learning how to knit. I guess what I mean is really learning how to knit beyond just the basic knit and purl stitches. One day I hope to be able to describe knitting as easy. However thus far it seems to be taxing my mental capacity to the very limits. This stitch is a bit on the complicated side, complicated for me anyway. The problem I have is retention. As soon as I flip my piece to the other side I immediately forget what row I have just completed. Did I just do three or four? You may be laughing but in the split second it takes me to turn the piece that little tid bit of information just flies out of my head. If the television is going or if the DD walks in with a question well that just muddies th...

One of the things that sparks the most vivid memories of my Grandmother is Apple Butter. I remember being fascinated by the concept that you could make something from scratch that was so wonderful. Sadly by the time I was old enough to appreciate the pains it took to achieve my Grandmother was not able to share the recipe with me. It may have been written down somewhere but in all the recipes I have from her, her apple butter recipe was not among her treasured collection. She would tell me stores of going apple picking and coming home and getting together with her friends and making huge batches of apple butter. They cooked it in a giant black cast iron kettle that they simmered over an open flame in the front yard. They had an old worn wooden paddle they used to stir the apple butter with, She explained that they would take several handfuls of new pennies and toss into the bottom of the pot to prevent the apple butter from scorching. This intrigued me and I always regretted that I w...

    Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers; A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked; If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked? My translation: Me, myself and I picked a peck of sweet peppers A peck of sweet peppers I did pick If I did indeed pick a peck of sweet peppers Where’s the peck of sweet pepper me, myself and I did pick? Ready for the answer…   In a jar of jelly! Scrappy Sue over at My Home Wellingtontown gave me the idea. She made a comment the other day about making a relish with all my green peppers. That was just enough of a push to get me thinking past just chopping them up on a salad! So I dusted off the old mason jars, got busy doing an internet search for exactly what to do with my plethora of green peppers, and then went to the story for supplies. I did not exactly find any relish recipes (if y’all have any good relish recipes I would love to give...

We paid $67.41 to fill up my van today. Gasoline was 3.55 per gallon! I keep staring at the receipt and thinking of the really nice date that my husband and I could have gone on, or the flats of seedling I could have planted in my veggie garden, or the several meals that could have been placed on my dinner table. The sad fact is that in less than two weeks it will have to be filled up again. I am wondering when will the price of gas become prohibitive for the mobile lifestyle that we as Americans have become use to. When will we begin to alter our way of doing things to accommodate the projected $4.00 a gallon this summer? I have been giving this a lot of thought and I am wonder what will be the turning p0int for me. What allowance will I make to be able to get in my car and run to the store for the gallon of milk or loaf of bread? Would I be willing to walk or possibly borrow my son’s bicycle? This thought pains me to no end. I have often thought of the times of long ago when you fami...