Ordinary Time

 

When people find out how many children we have, there are three areas that seem to be of highest interest: 1. How much food to I cook? 2. How much laundry I do and 3. What do we drive. Having just finished a food heavy holiday, I thought I would talk about Thanksgiving food and large families. We were hosting this year, so there were twenty-six people total for dinner. My sisters-in-law and I spread out the dishes, so we were only responsible for turkey, stuffing, rolls, and apple pie. I also made cranberry sauce as well as our family's own personal stash of cranberry-orange relish. This is because we are all about the leftover turkey sandwiches, which I may have mentioned before. Much of our Thanksgiving preparations are with an eye towards making sure that there are enough leftovers to have sufficient sandwiches. This is all to explain why I bought three 20-pound turkeys. The first turkey we cooked the day before and cut the meat off the bones, saving the bones. The second turkey...

This afternoon we headed out to our favorite Christmas tree place in search of a tree. We said hi to the donkey. We wandered around looking for the right tree. We wandered for quite a while, actually. Our indecision was aided, no doubt by the mild weather. And for the first time in ages we did not go back to our first choice, but went with a completely different tree. And we finished the afternoon off with hot chocolate. The tree is now home, though still outside. At some point we'll decide when we are having our annual tree trimming party to decorate it. 

We cleaned. We cooked. We figured out how to go from this:  to this: We feasted. We hugged people we haven't seen in person for nearly two years. We marveled at how nieces and nephews had grown. We laughed. And we were thankful. So very, very thankful.

Today was spent mostly doing things to get ready for Thanksgiving. We are hosting and there will be 26 of us. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to be able to gather with family again. I probably don't need to tell you because many of you will be feeling the same way. It also means that for the first time in nearly two years, we will be having people other than immediate family inside our house.  I don't know about you, but I usually use having guests over on a fairly frequent basis to be the motivation I need to clean. I'm pretty good about keeping things tidy, but that's not quite the same thing. We've spent a lot of time cleaning this week. Things look much better.  Things for the holiday are pretty much under control. D. made nine dozen rolls yesterday. We've cooked one turkey and I have the beginnings of gravy done. The cranberries are done. Tomorrow morning I'll make two apple pies and whip the cream. Oh, and make the stuffing. I can't forg...

Me : Thanks for taking the time to talk with me this evening. I've read the other interviews you've done recently, and it seems as though there were some other questions that could have been asked. Also Me : I'm happy to answer some different questions! Me : I know that you have repeatedly said that you really aren't all that special or amazing. Would you care to share why that is? It seems to be a pretty common statement. Also Me : Well, the obvious answer is that I'm not all that amazing. That never seems to stop people from singing that refrain though. Here's my issue with being told how amazing I am. It doesn't really allow for much failure or humanity. To be amazing is to be better. I'm not better. I make mistakes, I lose my temper, I get depressed, I get angry, I wonder why on earth we chose this path. Just like any other person. Also, if I am amazing because I love my children then it actually reflects very poorly on them. If it takes someone spec...

There was no post last night because I was too involved in my book. Sometimes good books take precedence over writing. Plus, I'm kind of done with talking about myself at this point. In the past week there have been four print interviews, one TV interview (for three minutes which is just silly), and one radio interview. Yesterday a newspaper photographer was here for a portion of the afternoon. Tonight was a Q&A that the director had set up. I'm sure you'll understand why I felt the need to retreat into my book. I'm really glad it is a riveting book, too. What is it? The political thriller, State of Terror by Louise Penny and Hilary Rodham Clinton. I picked it up at the library last week on a whim. You all know how much I love Louise Penny's writing, so I was curious. It is exciting and a bit terrifying and extremely well written. I highly recommend it. Unless of course you are particularly enamored with the 45th president, then I'm not sure you would enjoy...

This morning... if you can even call it morning since it was so far ahead of sunrise... A. and P. hopped into the car and drove to Ohio to bring D. home for Thanksgiving. They made great time and D. was home well ahead of dinner. It is so wonderful to see him! He has a full week off, so I plan on enjoying every minute of his time home. D. is doing very well and is enjoying school. His choice of university is a very good fit for him. K. and Y. have yet to see D., though because I drove them to B.'s apartment to spend the night. There have been times where I have inwardly felt sorry for my younger children as their older siblings grow up and move out on their own that they won't have the crazy, giant family experience. What I didn't realize was that they have a chance to do things their older siblings never did, namely have sleepovers at their older brothers' and sisters' apartments. This is something that they all love and is a very special treat. K. and Y. were thri...

It feels as though it has been a busy week. This is probably because I have talked on the phone more this week than I did the entire previous month. Inevitably the "just a brief 15 minute interview" becomes at least an hour. I won't miss this. I drove to Iowa today to meet my brother and sister-in-law to do our annual Great Beef Move. They raise grass fed cattle and I always get a side a beef. It always feels just a little illicit moving huge coolers of beef between vehicles at the edge of a rest stop.  My freezer is very, very full. It was a close thing as to whether or not I was going to get it all to fit. It's a good thing that Thanksgiving is coming up and I needed to thaw the turkeys.  This is a full side of beef and very nearly a full side of pork crammed into this freezer. There are a few other things as well... sixteen quarts of applesauce, frozen leftovers, vegetables, some chicken. The only thing I ended up needing to move was two packages of pita bread whi...

Thursdays wipe me out because they are our co-op day where I teach three classes, plus just being gone all day. More than once both R. and I have fallen asleep on the couch after I read at teatime. While this doesn't happen every week for me, it does for R. That is also after a brief nap she has leaning on my shoulder during one of our afternoon breaks. She loves the two classes she is taking in the morning and is doing a fantastic job of participating, but it exhausts her. Tonight, J. came home with her sound asleep next to me. I pretty much couldn't move, so he fixed dinner. It makes me think that I don't always appreciate how tiring some things can make our children.  All this to say, I don't have a lot to write this evening except for my current irritation. We've had several interviews and have several more on the calendar. I don't mind as I find myself saying pretty much the same thing each time. I have noticed something interesting, though. J. and I have b...

With D. having worked at our library for all of last year, I have finally gotten to know some of the librarians there. This makes me happy. I like being recognized when I walk into the library; it's what I'm used to. It is truly one of those things which makes this place feel more like home. This evening I was running in to the library because there were some books on hold that I wanted to pick up. I went to the shelf to grab the books and noticed there were a couple in the stack that I wasn't expecting. It was confusing because not only was I not expecting them, but they were books we actually owned. "Who the heck put these on hold since we already own them?" was the question that jumped to mind. Oh well, I decided to check them out and sort it all out later. I scanned my card and opened the first book of the surprise books to check it out and looked for the bar code. Funny, the bar code was scratched out. "That's odd," I thought. I looked at the bo...

J. and I have done a few interviews this past week because of the documentary and have several more on the calendar. (It's more than a little weird, by the way.) Consequently, we have been asked a lot of questions. The vast majority of questions are pretty much the same and are not that much different from the questions I get regularly just living my life. Every so often, though, we get a question that makes us pause because no one has ever asked it before. Tonight's was, "Do you have any hard and fast rules in your house."  J. and I paused for so long thinking about it that the interviewer thought she had lost the connection. In our current parenting mode, we actually couldn't think of any. J. came up with "Be Kind". (In our earlier, pre-connected parenting mode, I'm sure I could have come up with more than a few. But, when you know better you do better, so I'll leave it at that.) It kind of stumped us. To confirm, L. happened to be in the kitch...

I'm better, but still not one hundred percent. I decided to cancel my riding lesson for tomorrow which tells you that I really haven't been feeling well. So today's post is brought to you compliments of L. who provided a lovely bit of blog fodder today in the form of a note. Here is a transcript of it. 10 5 Reasons Why L. Needs a Dog Puppy 1. It will protect me 2. It will be cute 3. It will show how responsible I am 4. It will make me happy 5. I would learn with it Same with a kitten except for the first one __ I am sorry to say that I have already informed her that no puppies will appear on Christmas morning. Or kittens. Though if sheer badgering could bring such a thing about there would probably be ten puppies here on Christmas morning. You can't say she isn't trying. Every so often K. reminds me that he is older and should be at the head of puppy list. He isn't getting a puppy, either. Because I am the mean mom.

I haven't been feeling well this weekend, It's just a head cold, but I have zero energy. So, enjoy some pictures that A. took from her walk with Olive, L. and G. this afternoon.

It's Friday and we've had all the weather... rain, sleet, snow. every time I looked out the window the weather was different.  This sight never fails to make me happy. A new load of hay in the barn. And it's a good thing, because with this rotten weather, we burn through hay. Our co-op has a craft fair in December where students can set up a table and sell things that they have made. L. and K. have now stocked up on supplies in order to make enough things to sell. K. is planning on making cardboard Star Wars things (he needed hot glue) and L. is making clay Minecraft characters (she needed clay). G. would like to participate but is still deciding on what to make. I now have the three turkeys I need for Thanksgiving. We'll be 27 (if I counted correctly) at dinner, plus we really, really like leftover turkey sandwiches. We'll cook two ahead of time all cut off the bone and cook one turkey on the day. It is good that they need a long time to thaw because I have a side ...

My plan for spinning while watching MIT Neuroscience lectures is working out very well and I am enjoying it as much as I thought I would. As an adamant anti-multi-tasker, this is pretty much the only type of multi-tasking I enjoy. I don't need a lot of brain space for the spinning, but I do need to keep my eyes on what I'm doing. I don't need to watch the lecture most of the time, but when I do, it is easy to pause in the spinning. One keeps my hands busy and one keeps my brain busy. Add a cup of tea and the heat turned up in the studio and it is pretty darn lovely. I only have one of two afternoons a week that I can get away with this, but I take advantage of it when I can.  The lecture I was listening to yesterday touched on facial recognition which is one of those brain things I find a little fascinating. This is probably because I do not have terrific facial recognition. I can remember watching B. play soccer when he was six and there being many times I had no idea whic...

I am not stranger to private lessons. I have taught via private lessons for many years... piano, horseback riding, even knitting. My children have taken a wide variety of private lessons over the years as have I. I still take weekly riding lessons. My personal opinion is that if you are teaching anyone anything, you should also be in the process of learning something new yourself. Learning can be a humbling experience and a teacher needs to constantly have that feeling in the forefront of their mind by experiencing it first hand. This aspect of teaching and learning is not what I want to focus on tonight, though. My riding lesson was yesterday. On the face of it, it wasn't a fantastic lesson. I couldn't find my balance on the horse I was riding and was displeased with my performance. I ask a lot of questions during my lesson, especially if I feel as though I am not riding as well as I would like. Because of this, by the end of the lesson I had sorted out what my problem was and...

My promised story from yesterday. L. and I were out doing to the grocery shopping. We had just finished at one store and were heading to the second store on a street that is extremely busy and which I do my very best to avoid. (This first store was one of my stores I go to occasionally and stock-up on the things I can get there. Besides Aldi, I have five other different stores that I do this at because there is not one store out here where I can get everything I use and keep in my pantry. It just seems keeping a wide variety of items shouldn't be that difficult. I mean, if you can stock 135,239 different brands of breakfast cereal, can't you also stock more different foods? And don't get me started on the one "ethnic" aisle that most grocery stores have.) Anyway, so having spent far more money than I had really meant to stocking up on things such as bucatini, okra (!!!), arborio rice, and decent pita bread, it was time to head to Aldi. As I said, we were on a very...

The highlight of my day was arguing with a stranger over whether she was actually okay or not in the middle of a busy street because she had fallen asleep at the wheel. (There was no accident, so everyone is fine.) But we had a late dinner for various reasons and while I could take the time to write the story out, I would much rather go read the book I am in the middle of. I'll fill you in on all the details tomorrow. Sorry for the teaser; it's a really good book. Instead of actually writing anything of substance, I wanted to let you know about two virtual discussions that are being held before the documentary airs and afterwards. The director is hosting both of them, but J. and I will be participating. The first is Monday, November 22 at 7 pm CST and the second is Monday, November 29 at 7:40 CST. The documentary will be aired on World Channel on Tuesday, November 23 at 8/7 c. The Chicago station number is 369.  You will need to register to be part of the virtual discussion. ...

Don't you hate it when you take a look at the recipe prior to starting dinner only to realize that it requires something that you should have started in the morning? For this evening's meal the ingredient was shredded cooked chicken, which is very easy to do in the crock pot but not so easy to do an hour or so before dinner. So, that recipe was moved to sometime this coming week and we punted. This usually means that either a. we order pizza because I don't have the energy to think or b. I look at the ingredients I have kicking around and see if I can come up with something that will pass for dinner using them. Tonight we went with option b. Sometimes I actually enjoy looking at the odds and ends we have and see if I can turn them into something before they go bad. Since we had some pie punpkins (gleaned from a nearby field which had been tilled under and we found a few survivors) I decided to make a roasted vegetable soup, using the basic idea behind my actual roasted vege...

I love puppies. I really love puppies. I really, really love other people's puppies. W. and MC adopted a puppy today. She is adorable. They brought her over to meet everyone and join us for dinner.  Meet Magpie. A. and Olive were over for a while. Olive loves puppies, too. It was a good day. Beautiful weather, getting to see most of our older children, dinner together, and an adorable puppy.