Winter Evenings

     I loved winter evenings. John and I used to hurry home from school and enjoy the snack that Mom would have waiting for us. Most of the time it was half of an apple with the center filled with peanut butter, but every once in awhile she would have a warm Raisin Oatmeal cookie waiting for us.
     After we had eaten our snack we would quickly do our chores. The wood box had to be filled with enough wood to last until the next evening, and then I would have to peel potatoes while Mom got other things ready for supper.
     Once we had eaten and the dishes were cleared away and any stray crumbs swept from the floor, Mom would start popping popcorn while John and I would go down in the basement with a flashlight and a bowl to get apples from the storage bin. We would all sit around the kitchen while Mom peeled apples and read stories to us.
     After Mom had finished reading, she would work on her knitting or do hand sewing. I would work at cutting out patches for a nine patch quilt. Daddy would help John and David play. A little before 8 o'clock he would say "Time to get things in order." We would put our projects away, and turn our chairs making that if we knelt down we would be facing the east. Daddy would get his little black prayer book and read the evening prayer.
     Afterwards us children would race upstairs, calling out "Last one to bed is the green pig!" The upstairs was chilly as we hurriedly changed and jumped into bed. As I lay there I could hear the murmur of Daddy and Mom's voices, and the whistling of the pine trees around the house as the wind swept through them and piled the snowdrifts deeper. As I snuggled deeper under my covers I was sure winter would always be my favorite time of the year.

Winter Recess

    Recess was my least favorite part of a school day. I loved books and learning knew things, and would happily have skipped recess if possible.
    During the winter there were several different snow games we could play that weren't too bad, but most days they weren't the activity of choice.
    Behind the schoolhouse there was a very long steep hill with a creek in the bottoms. Almost every recess everyone would run outside and get a feedbag that neighboring farmers had supplied for this purpose and slide down the hill on them. I used to stand at the top of the hill and watch the others go flying down, but the sheer size of the hill terrified me and there was no way I wanted to slide down.
     Teacher Hannah was sure I would enjoy it too if I would only try it. I didn't want to disappoint her and she assured me if I didn't like it I wouldn't have to again. She helped me sit on the bag and told me to hold it firmly so it won't get away from me. I sat down and she let go of the bag. The sliding path was worn shiny and slick from the many bags and children that had already been sliding on it for days. The hill was steep enough that as soon as I started off I was flying and my speed only increased the further I went. Halfway down I somehow managed to get my hand between the bag and the snow but the ride was so dizzying fast I had no control of anything. Once I got to the bottom I saw that my mitten was worn through and the back of my hand was bleeding.
     It took a long time to climb back up the hill. Once I got to the top Teacher Hannah looked at my hand and took me inside to bandage it. She never asked me to go sliding again and I never did. That was the first and only ride I ever took during all my school years.

Currently ...

Reading ... In the Bible I finished 2 Peter this morning, and am looking forward to begin reading 1 John tomorrow.  In the fiction world I finished reading  The One who Waits for Me by Lori Copeland. I used to really enjoy her books, but ... I think I may have changed, or at least my taste in books, because even though this was a quick, light read it annoyed me. The only thing that made it kind of fun was that Rosie Mae read it too, and we got to laugh together at the preposterous happenings in the book. Things that would never happen. There was so much going on, and every time you thought that it couldn't get more outlandish, it did. In non-fiction I'm enjoying a cookbook.

Playing ... The girls are wanting to teach me how to play Skip-Bo this afternoon. It's a snowy, stay indoors type of day, so I think it sounds like the perfect plan.

Watching ... Spring training baseball. Well, not really. It's playing in the background in the evenings while we read, play games, and do things way more enjoyable than actually watching spring training baseball.

Cooking ... We had fried chicken and salad on the menu last evening, and for tonight it will be breakfast for dinner, complete with waffles, bacon, chicken sausage, and eggs.

Calling ... I'm not calling anyone, but since Kenneth has his own phone I've been receiving calls from him when ever he starts for home from where ever he is, to let me know he's on the way. The first few days the caller ID always said, Norma Ogletree when ever he called, but we managed to fix that to have his name come up now. Much to the girls' disappointment. They had way too much fun with the whole Norma thing.

Crafting ... the girls and I will be working on sewing aprons this afternoon. That should be a lot of fun. I love sewing, and every time I sit down to sew I always have to ask myself why I don't do it more often.

Loving ... the convenience of having electricity. There's nothing like having the power go out for a while to make you realize just how much you love it, even though it's so easy to simply take it for granted when everything is going as it's supposed to.

Disliking ... when my children aren't feeling the greatest. Everyone seems back to normal now, and for that I'm very thankful.

Celebrating ... each new day. Truly each one is a gift.

Feeling ... content. I don't know what tomorrow holds, but today I'm feeling happy and content with what we have, where we are, and life in general.

Listening ... to the dry boring voice of the teacher on Rosie Mae's Algebra II computer program, as she does her lesson for today.

Wanting ... to take more pictures. I love being able to look back at moments captured by my camera.

The Tractor

     John, David, and I loved playing on Daddy's new Leyland tractor. We used to sit on the seat and turn the steering wheel and pretend we were working in fields. The farms we owned and worked on in our imaginations were beautiful.
     Daddy didn't mind if we played on the tractor, but we had been warned not to touch the levers or anything except the steering wheel. One day we were once again playing on it. Daddy had it parked in the potato patch on top of the hill. As I was driving through an imaginary field I pressed my foot on the clutch and the tractor rolled forward slowly. I quickly took my foot off and John and I looked at each other. That had been fun. We had not touched any levers and certainly had not started the tractor so we really weren't doing anything wrong we reasoned.
     John wanted to know how I did it. So I showed him as I pressed my foot on the clutch again. The tractor rolled forward again. It was exciting to be on a tractor that was actually moving. John wanted a turn too, so I switched places with him and he pressed the clutch in and clung to the steering wheel as we rolled further down the hill. I wanted another turn so we switched again and we rode the tractor down the hill almost to the road.
     Once we were there we were presented with a problem. The tractor that had so willingly rolled down the hill for us now sat stubbornly and would not climb back up before Daddy came home and saw what we had done. We were glad for the row of pine trees that had blocked our adventure from Mom's eyes but there was no way we could hide that tractor from Daddy. It would be the first thing he saw as he was coming home from work. Since we couldn't hide the tractor we did the next best thing and hid ourselves. We climbed into the attic of the old house next to ours, but today all the fun antiques didn't even look interesting as we sat in a corner waiting for Daddy to come home.
     After what seemed like a long time we heard him drive into the driveway. We peeked out of the window and watched him go into the house. Before long he came out again with the milk pail and called us.
     We knew we had to go so we climbed down and went to see what he had to say. He just said it is chore time and we followed him out to the barn. I stood and held the cow's tail as Daddy milked her. I usually enjoyed chore time as John, David, and I would tell Daddy everything that had happened that day, but tonight we couldn't think of anything except that tractor and wondering what our punishment would be for driving it down to the road.
     Once the cow was milked and Daddy poured a bowlful of fresh milk for the cats. He set the pail down and looked at us. He asked "Is something bothering you? You have been very quiet tonight."
     John said. "We drove your tractor today." I quickly added that we didn't start it up though.
     Daddy asked how it happened, and we told him all about it. He didn't say much but then warned us to never try something like that again because we could have easily rolled on out onto the road and been hurt.

Picture my Week

   The girls and I went shopping one afternoon. After we got home I wanted to make room in the freezer compartment of the refrigerator for some of the frozen things we had bought. There was a full bag of peas on the shelf. I got it to put it the freezer door, and that was the moment when I discovered it was not a full bag of peas. Peas went flying in a sweeping arc across the kitchen, and into the two adjacent rooms. I stood there, momentarily speechless as I tried to come to grips with what had just happened.
     Meanwhile the girls burst out laughing, while dashing off to grab a camera to properly document another one of Mom's messes.

    Rosie Mae has been sick. Yesterday the only thing she wanted was a cup of tea. A storm had passed through our area the previous night knocking out our power. I had to get creative as I tried to figure out a way to make some tea. This little candle setup took a while to heat the water, but it worked!

 

I thought the ice formations by the waterfall this morning were pretty.