Then I Thought of Home

I talked  to my mother-in-law the other day and she told me they were planning a picnic. They were going to go to Spring Mill State Park. If you remember Mark's dad is 84 and his mom is 82. They still put out three greenhouses of tomatoes every year and work like they were still young. She told me she had been so busy canning  so she just wanted to get away for a day and rest. I'm awestruck and amazed as always at what she calls getting away and resting. Let me take you on a picnic with my mother-in-law. She does it the same every time. A day or two before the picnic she will get a clean tomato box and put it on the end of the couch. During the next couple of days as she thinks of things she will add them to the box. Matches, tablecloths, foil, camera, toothpicks etc. a jar of her candied dills from the cellar. She will make her Potato Salad,  (the best in the world) on Thursday for a Saturday picnic. Whatever dessert she will be taking will be made ...

When I referenced our house burning down years ago on fb this morning it reminded me I've never blogged about it., For those of you who know us and know the story I understand if you skip this one after all, you've heard it before so I'll catch you next time. Our house burned down on  Sunday morning, Febuary 29, 2004. They girls and I had spent Saturday painting the kitchen and utility room which we called the back porch. Our sweet little home.   It had been such a job I remember telling the girls I was never going to do that again. I thought of that later and wished I hadn't said it because I never did. Mark was down at the chicken barns and I was sitting on the couch looking at my Sunday school lesson when I looked up and saw smoke coming out of the kitchen. I got up and went in there and then on to the back porch and there was fire running down the length of the ceiling and the length of the floor. I went down to the cellar to check the wood furna...

My family is more of a pie family than a cake family. Me, I'm more of a cake person than a pie person but you now how we moms are, we give our family what they like so today I'm going to share my pie crust recipe. I'm sure some of you already have it. It's just a basic recipe that I got from my sister in law Susan, years ago when she and Mark's brother Keevin lived in Searcy, Arkansas while he was attending Harding. It was more than the recipe though, I got to watch her make it. I noticed how it all pulled together in the bowl and there was no flour left over at the bottom. It was beautiful and she made it look so easy. My mom, God love her, makes awful pie crust.  She always told us that she used to make it good until she gave her recipe to her friend Patty. Then she goes on the tell us how there is an old saying that says you should never give a recipe away or you will never be able to make it again. That's her story anyway and so far she is ...

Dad and mom have spent a lot of time over the last years helping us kids get our homes or farms in shape They have cleaned and painted. Papered and unpapered. ( might not be a word) They have uprooted, planted watered and sprayed round-up. They have shown up with furniture, curtains, tables, towels and sheets. Whatever the auction buy was that week or what they thought we needed. Sometimes it was bologna and cheese or Oreo's and milk. They would say things like, "Kelly, you need to wash your front door, you know that's the first thing people see when the come."   Or mom might say, "You know a little bleach down that drain would take care of that smell now your dad doesn't like it when I do that, he says it messes up the septic but I do it anyway."   The other day they were over and dad was pulling weeds and cutting vines  at the little house while Jess was coloring moms hair. We looked out the window to see dad decorating the gator and ...