Domestic Adventures

I’ve been wishing for a recipe program that works like iphoto. You know, where I can drag a recipe to my “Sunday dinners” album, while still keeping it in my “slow cooker” album. Thank you, Darlene, for recommending MacGourmet. I’m still using the trial version, but it seems like exactly what I want. It even has something called “Chef view” so you can view your recipe extra large, and possibly move your laptop out of the spatter zone.
I’m a bit slow adding my recipes to the program, but I’ve managed to type in a few tried and true favorites. North Woods Bean Soup is one of those; quick, easy, and popular with everyone. A friendly recipe to go in my friendly recipe program!

I keep forgetting that it’s a hurricane day. After the storms of 2004, which really were pretty bad, everyone is a bit overly paranoid about them. It really looks like we’ll just have a bit of wind and rain, but not much more than our usual summer afternoon storms. I say this of course, before its arrival, so maybe I’ll be surprised. Still, school is cancelled around the state and I can’t help thinking they’ll regret having done that when they have to spend a nice sunny day in class to make up for it!

How precious are those early morning, waking up moments. It’s rare that we are wide awake before Emmaline and so we cherish these snuggling up, cozy, limp as a rag doll times. Good morning, Emmaline. Let’s have a lovely day together.

10. Collect all the trash in the car into a plastic bag found in the trunk
9. Collect all the non-trash but don’t-belong-in-the-car items into another plastic bag found under the seat
8. Organize cds
7. Organize loose change
6. Play with cell phone camera
5. Clean out glove compartment
4. Sing silly songs
3. Clean out purse
2. Try to chat with the nice people who ran into you, but are too worried about getting a ticket to chat
1. Praise God for keeping us safe!

Yes, definitely praise God!
This is how I spent most of my Saturday afternoon. I missed hitting the car in front of me, but was hit from behind. Fortunately, no one involved was hurt, but we did all spend four hours waiting for the police to sort things out. Darlene and Keith saved the day by coming to rescue the kids from the sweltering heat - many thanks to you! Aside from the fact that my muffler and rear bumper are about to fall off, all is well, and we’ll get that taken care of ASAP. Praise God for insurance too!

I love cordial glasses. Not that we drink a lot of cordials around here, but they are just so pretty and have plenty of uses. These I bought on ebay a couple of years ago for next to nothing and they are perfect for holding toothpicks and just right for a few little flowers. At Easter, I like to fill several of them with tiny candy eggs and scatter them around the table setting. They look awfully nice filled with strawberries too!

Even though it’s been a billion degrees outside lately, the kids have loved being outside. I’ve really enjoyed our newly enclosed backyard too and often drag a wicker chair and a book or my laptop outside while the kids play in the sandbox or run around eating popsicles. Ah, summer! I love it!

I’m happy to announce, I have wisdom teeth - well, wisdom tooth, actually.
As a kid, after lots of those really awkward xrays where the little cards are way too big for your mouth, I was told by my dentist, “Fear not, you are one of those rare individuals who have no wisdom teeth.” This was welcome news, as I’ve heard many horror stories. I was perfectly happy having no wisdom teeth until about a month ago when I noticed a bony bump growing in the back of my mouth. It looked like a tooth and felt like a tooth, but I didn’t have wisdom teeth. What could it be? Certainly nothing good. I am a master at overdoing the worry thing. Worry is definitely a spiritual struggle for me.
With great reluctance (I have a deep and abiding fear of dentists) I made a long over-due dental appointment.
Well, today the dentist took a fancy panoramic x-ray of my teeth, and low and behold, I have one wisdom tooth, and it’s just barely poking through my gums. He seems inclined to remove it and I have some other work I need done too, but I’m so relieved to has a wisdom tooth, I don’t really care what they do to my teeth.

Kids are able to carry amazing amounts of sand on their bodies. By the time they are done playing, they really need a bath. Try as I might to dust the sand off by various means (I even tried to feather dust them) I often just usher them straight into the bathroom. Lucky for us, our pooless house has a pool bath which opens right onto the back porch. In they go to be hosed off.
The other day, we skipped the bath and went straight to lunch. Emmie squirmed and squiggled in her seat the whole time. Finally at the end of lunch, she stood up and her seat was practically full of sand that had shaken loose from her pants! No wonder she had been so squiggly!

I’ve never really liked being called Mrs.Tuggle, and this raises a great debate in my mind. Should my children be calling other adults Mr. and Mrs?
When I was a kid, my mom encouraged my friends to call her Susan. I called my Sunday school teachers by their first names, and my mom’s friends by their first names. I was taught to respect adults but I was not taught to embrace the gulf between us.
I know a few people who feel very strongly about children using Mr. and Mrs, and when I reference them to my kids, I always use titles. On the other hand, I have friends whom I can’t imagine addressing so formally. When in doubt, I tack Mr. or Miss onto the person’s first name and hope that suits, but to me it often sounds silly.
I’m all in favor of please and thank you. I expect kindness and respect from my children, but I don’t generally encourage them to call adults anything different than what I call them.
Do your children call people Mr. and Mrs? Do you prefer to be called by Mrs. or Mr. by children? Do you think I’m missing out on teaching a foundational point in politeness 101, or is teaching the respect implied by the title enough?

“I’m decorating for a BALL!” Emmaline has exclaimed about eight thousand times today. Decorating means draping all her plastic beaded necklaces tastefully across the furniture and putting sunglasses and hats on all the baby-dolls.
What kind of ball? Well, this changes every time. “It’s an elder’s Tuesday night dinner party!” No, wait, “It’s a salvation credit card ball dance!” Then again, maybe it’s a “Beautiful delicious, yummy pretty party with flowers EVERYwhere!” But my favorite kind of party is the “Camping out, outer space dinner party with gymnastics…. and it’s yummy!”
She doesn’t even need a party. She’s having a grand time just dreaming one up!