Heredity

Growing up I had two grandmothers--like most people.  There was California Grandma and Saskatchewan Grandma.  Both of them were very different and I only realized recently how much impact they actually had on me.  We moved a lot while I was growing up and both grandmothers provided a sense of constancy--they never moved.

California Grandma was artistic and musical.  She had a grand piano that I inherited and her house was full of books.  There was always something to read and usually a jig-saw puzzle needing to be finished.  She did not like to cook.  In fact she was a terrible cook.  She worked in the psychiatric field.  And her house was always a disaster.  She also loved to travel and would visit us with some frequency.

Saskatchewan Grandma was pragmatic and practical.  She didn't like to cook either, but her food tasted good.  Her house was clean and she had an enormous, weed-free garden.  Although, she was a firm believer in education, there were very few books in her house.  I don't know how many times I read James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small because it was the only book I could find to read.  Well, I guess there were also some Ukrainian books, but I didn't speak Ukrainian, much less read it. Because of the farm and the work it entailed, Saskatchewan Grandma rarely traveled.

Here is where things become interesting.  I am artistic and musical.  I love to read.  However, I love to cook and I am both good at it and can make food that tastes good.  My house is not spotless, but it is not usually a complete disaster.  I have an enormous garden, but it is not weed-free...I am able to preserve what grows in my garden.  My house is also full of books and music.

I am amused to discover that I am not like one grandmother more than another, but am a combination of the two with my own twist thrown in for good measure.

Flying Summer

 July has sort of rushed on by!  I can sort of remember a barbecue with family and friends for the Fourth.

And then I got busy.  I started to help cook for harvest.  Not only that, add in all the job hunting I'm doing, and the somewhat neglected garden.  I'm also supposed to be making something for an upcoming art show as well as make beads for a friend's wedding.

I could be perfectly happy puttering around at home--as long as I could figure out how to pay all those pesky bills.  I have some ideas and would certainly welcome more suggestions.

My morning glories have started to bloom and they are so pretty.  They always make me happy.

Yesterday I had the day at home.  So I did a little yard clean up and did some shoring up of the irrigation ditch.  Then I went to war on the milkweed growing in my raspberries.  I like the milkweed, I really do, but it is completely taking over the raspberry bed.  So it must go.  We have some growing somewhere else for any misplaced Monarch butterflies who might pass by.  But that sap!  It gets all over my skin and makes me wildly itchy!  If I don't wash it all off, it leaves burns.  I persevered and pulled out about a third of the milkweed before I had to go and scrub.  Note to self--WEAR JEANS when working in the milkweed.

Today it rained, so again, I couldn't cook.  I finished most of the beads for the wedding.  And I am now off to find and price out everything I need to finish my piece for the art show.  The deadline is August 10.

Tribute

 Recently I was reading through one of my cookbooks and this was a recipe title that I found:  "Faux Fondue Au Beurre d'Arachide".  I looked at that title and without reading the recipe to see the ingredients, I loosely translated it to mean "Fake Fondue of Sipder Butter".  THEN I looked at the ingredients.  Ah...Fake PEANUT butter fondue!

Then, for some reason, I was reminded of my 9th grade language teacher.  Mr. P. was a very interesting individual (which, at 15, I couldn't quite appreciate).  He was a short, rather round individual and was quite as bald as the proverbial billiard ball.  He had emigrated to Canada from Lithuania or Latvia.  I don't remember which one.  I just know it was one of those little countries that were part of the USSR.  His native language was neither English nor French--this might explain the strange accent that people complained of later when I took French in college.

Mr.P had a number of entertaining quirks.  He was a firm believer in students arriving on time and not only paying attention, but acually looking like they were paying attention.  He also found gum to be anathema.  The thing I remember best from class is him bouncing between the rows of desks either inquiring,"Do you haf a chewing gum in your mouth?"  or demanding, "Seet op, seet op, seet op!!"  (Sit up!)  And heaven help the poor student who actually fell asleep in his class.

Partway, through my 9th grade year Mr. P decided for some obscure reason to invest in a bad toupee.  I don't even think he waited for a holiday or weekend.  One day he was hairless and the next he had this amazing wig.  We had all managed to close our mouths long enough to get through class, when the next class of students started arriving in the hallway.  The window in the classroom door was soon full of staring amused teen-agers.  In exasperation, Mr. P pulled the shade, so that they were unable to see.  Whereupon, one enterprising young man--being taller than most--proceeded to jump up and down in order to see Mr. P through the transom window.

At some point during my high school career, Mr. P also sponsored his sister and she also emigrated to Canada. 

I only had Mr. P for one year, but it is obvious that he made a lasting impression on me.

Summer Vacation

 Summer vacation...so far it has not really been much of a vacation.  I have been busy catching up on all the things that had gotten neglected while I was working.  Oh, and let's not forget...every "free" minute is being used to file for unemployment and look for work.  I shall soon be an expert at filling out on-line job applications.

I find filing for unemployment and all the necessary requirements to be extremely tedious.  I begin to suspect that I don't like to play by someone else's rules...And I am very frustrated by the wait.  I keep receiving letters telling me to continue to file for unemployment, but that I will not be receiving unemploymnet benefits for the weeks I have already filed.  Deep breath in...deep breath out...this too shall pass.

I have quite a few new beads and I have a new necklace started--pictures to come soon--all over the dining room table...AND I rearranged all the furniture because we have a major house repair project coming up (Yes, ANOTHER one!!) and all the furniture will have to be relocated out of the master bedroom.  Trying to find a place to put everything is requiring great skills of creativity and imagination because our house is not that big.

But for now, I'm going home to make a new recipe for Pad Thai.

Unemployed

I have been rather ungently ushered into the frightening world of the unemployed.  Last Friday was my last day of work.

I have already filed my claim for unemployment and have been looking for work for some time.  Knowing that it will likely take some time before I can actually find another job, I have decided to treat my lampworking and jewelry making as a business.  So...each morning at 8:00 I go to work.  I even have a schedule to which I am trying to adhere.

Every day I am melting glass for at least an hour and completing one piece of jewelry to add to my inventory.

I also have allowed time to choose glass, colors, clean up and look for ideas and learn new skills.

I am not buying anything new at the moment.  The challenge is to see how much I can make with what is already at hand.  And should I run out of things to do or grow bored, I still have to stain the back deck and the remodeled bathroom requires paint.

Fifty-two

Last week one of my preschoolers wanted to know how old I was.  I told him I was old.  I was sooooo old that I couldn't remember how old I was.  Well, that didn't fly.  He looked at me with a great deal of skepticism and said, "Nuh uh!"  I relented and told him I was fifty-two.

About this time another child, who was avidly listening to this conversation contributes this little nugget--"Teacher, you aren't old!"  Then she moved on to the really important stuff..."I'm five!"  she reported, showing me five fingers, in case I didn't get it.

This little conversation started me thinking.  What if we all were to consider our age a matter of great pride?  We have managed to live to be five, fifteen, thirty-five, fifty!  What if instead of bemoaning our age--which we can't do anything about anyway--we were to celebrate it?  What if we used our birthday as a time to look back over the year and see all the things we accomplished?

Guess what?  I'm fifty-two!!!!!  I'm still married twenty-nine years later to my first husband...I bought a new camera and am learning to use it.  I learned how to blog!!!  I paid off another debt!  I tried vegan cooking!  It doesn't matter what we decide to do, we just need to continue learning new things, or maybe just being excited about the old things we know.  Or how about doing new things with our old knowledge.  I learned how to crochet dishclothes!  I started a new exercise routine--Zumba!  Whatever...just pick something.

Internet Experiment

I recently read on a friend's facebook that baking soda and peroxide mixed into a paste make a very good cleaner.  So--being the chemistry student who mixed all the chemicals to see what would happen--I tried it.  I happened to have both baking soda and hydrogen peroxide in the house at the same time.

I got my husband's popcorn popper.  We have one of the old-fashioned ones that you use on the stove and turn a little handle.  We have managed to kill several of the fancy electric poppers and so are back to a basic one which we hope will last a long time.  Anyway, it hasn't been cleaned since it entered the kitchen (I don't think) and was covered with a dark, greasy residue.

I covered it with baking soda and then squeezed hydrogen peroxide onto the baking soda.  There was none of the bubbling that I get when I combine vinegar and baking soda.  I let it sit for a while and then began to clean it off. 

For a non-toxic cleaner it works quite well.  However, it ONLY works if one applies copious amounts of elbow grease.  It doesn't appear to make everything wash off by magic--it requires major scrubbing.  I'm not sure it's any better than vinegar and baking soda.  It may not smell quite as wild as vinegar and baking soda does.

And here's my little experiment for today--frosted blossoms with sugar frit and my own headpins.

The headpins are made from rubino, light violet, and medium blue transparent effetre glass.  Since I'm still experimenting, I used a 20 gauge black annealed steel wire for the headpins.