Exhausting Night

Have you ever had a dream where you are trying to get somewhere and it feels like you are slogging through molasses?

Or walking there on your knees?

Or perhaps you make a wrong turn and no matter how hard you try you can't get back on the right track?

Or a street you KNOW is the one you want to take suddenly has a different name?

Or you pull out your cell phone to call someone to come get you or give you directions and the numbers on your cell phone keep changing around on you?

Or even though you're sure you've dialed the right number you never get the person you're calling?

Or your cell has suddenly started doing crazy things, so you find a pay phone, and then ITS numbers keep switching around?

Or you finally get somewhere you want to go and you suddenly realize you have a dog on a leash with you, and not only have no idea how he got there, but you can't go in because he's with you?

Or all of the above?!?

Oh yeah, and there was that statue that you just HAD to climb over to get to the street sign, even though you really could have just gone around it!

Yeah.  That's what I went through early this morning.

I wonder what goal I'm worried about reaching to make me have such an exhausting and frustrating dream?

Maybe it was a fever dream.

Or maybe it was the Thera-Flu I took last night?

*For anyone who may have noticed:  I corrected the word "ITS" above, taking out the superfluous apostrophe.  I'm sorry about that to anyone who cares.  Blame it on the fever.

Tags: Dreams

Shades of Johnny Cash

This kid has a career ahead of him:

Read his profile and news article in a Seattle newspaper here.

Lecture Leads To Laughter -- Once Again!

The conclusion of a lecture about taking "no" for an answer without pouting or fussing, being given to Eler Beth while she and I were driving down the road yesterday --

Me: "...and I'd like to think that my NOs will be respected the same way my YESes are respected.  Do you understand?"

Eler Beth: "Yes....Well, actually, I didn't until you said the word 'YESes'.  But now I do!"

I actually had to pull over to the side of the road I was laughing so hard!  I could just see all the pictures and questions that must have been speeding their way through her brain in the split second between the time she heard "that my NOSE will be respected" and the time she heard the word "YESes".

I just love that girl!

The Mom Song

I'm probably the last person to see this, but just in case I'm not -- you must see this!

Because I Am The Mom Song!

Tags: Because I Am The Mom, Anita Renfroe

Potato Candy

I called my mom and asked about potato candy and here is what she said:

"Well, my goodness! Let me think!  You know I only made it a time or two, and I don't even know where I got the recipe or if I kept it."

But she told me what she remembered and I googled it, and here is what sounds like what she made:

Old Fashioned Potato Candy

1/2 (or 1 small) boiled potato
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
About 2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter

Mash potato, add butter, vanilla and enough powdered sugar to make a slightly stiff dough.
Roll out dough (on a surface dusted with powdered sugar) and spread on the peanut butter.
Roll dough up (as for jelly roll) to make a log.
Cut into pieces, (an inch or two long) let air dry for about an hour. Store in air tight container.
Makes about 2 dozen confections.

This sounds exactly like what Mom made.  I saw some where melted chocolate was part of the recipe, too.  I'm going to have to make this to see if it is as good as I remembered.  It was a very rich candy, and I could never eat more than a piece or two in one sitting.

These sounded great, too:  Dave's Irish Potato Candy which uses evaporated milk and cream of tarter; and a very simple German Potato Candy.

Tags: Potato Candy

A Sunny Break

Why am I journaling today?

We've had several rainy, rainy days in a row, and today it is sunny and will get to 65­­° (Thank you, Donna (Mosie), for telling us how to get that little degree symbol so easily!)  Then we have two more days of rainy, rainy weather before we get another dry day.  So we suspended lessons early to allow my daughter to get outside for a while.  I needed that break as much as she did.

I can't complain about the rain, though, because so much of Missouri and other areas are without power because of ice storms, and then the Northwest is still recovering from all that flooding. 

I baked a cherry pie last night, but the preparations didn't inspire such questions and memories as the potato preparations did.  Oh yes, Martha sent me the link to a very intersting Ore-Ida site with lots of potato trivia.  For example, did you know that there is a "Potato Museum" in Washington D.C.?  Well, there is.

I think I am prepared to just sit here at this computer for most of the rest of the day.  Yes, I do have a few chores that must be taken care of, like cooking dinner.  But I think everything else will be put on a back burner.  I really should get outside for a bit, but the ground is still really wet.  I may be lured outside for a while though.  Otherwise, I just may catch up with journal reading.

Several people in J-Land are recovering from surgeries or illnesses.  Lahoma is still in ICU, according to Nelishia, and I know a lot of journalers are extremely worried about her and her family and have her in their minds today. 

I guess that's about it for now.  I hope everyone is having a decent week, and if you are struggling with health issues or dealing with illnesses or deaths in your family, I hope you are able to find the strength and peace of mind to cope.

Please take care!

Potatoes, Part Three, Finale (I think)

My mother has always had a garden and she has always grown potatoes.  At 83 she still helps plant, cultivate, and harvest her garden, but my sisters, Lois and Barbara, have for years done most of the work. 

I can remember a few years ago for some reason they were having trouble finding potatoes to plant.  I think it had been a late Spring, growing-season-wise, and I don't know why but any of the feed stores or garden centers in their area that usually carried seed potatoes either weren't carrying them or had just sold out their supply whenever my sisters stopped by.  I think everyone in the area was carrying a lot of one certain variety but not the variety that my family was used to planting.

Anyway, for about two weeks whenever I spoke with my mother or one of my sisters they were bemoaning this shortage of seed potatoes -- to the point that I was about to suggest that I check where I lived and buy and bring them a goodly supply of the correct seed potatoes myself.  When I called to make this suggestion my sister Barbara said, "Lois went to Brandenburg this morning and found some.  She and mom are getting them in the hills right now."

She paused and then said in a relieved voice, "It's a good thing, too.  I could feel the ghosts of our Irish ancestors starting to panic!"

Tags: Irish potato famine