Peggy's Jibber-Jabber: Jibber-jabber

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Hello, hello, hello!
Can you believe it?
Can you believe it has been a whole week since I’ve talked to you!
Signs of spring are popping up all over the place here in the middle of the country.

The daffies are bursting forth and it’s still February!

The weather is going to be nice again this coming week and I bet you we will have flowers in a day or two.
Oh I can’t wait! I love the daffies and this is a wild bunch.
Does anyone know if I can dig up the bulbs anytime of the year? If not, when do you dig the bulbs?

I worked with my glass for a little bit this past week. I made a red butterfly for Sharon, my sister-by-another-mother.

I also got an order from Chuck and Doris, one of our Saturday morning Golden Corral friends. Doris wants a set of chimes like I showed you two weeks ago. The ones with sixteen paddles and thirty-two diamonds. I am glad for a little bit of paying work.
Now, since I brought up Chuck and Doris, I told you a few weeks ago that for the past fifteen years they have had a standing Saturday morning breakfast date. Well, I was wrong. When they came to pick out the glass for their chimes, Chuck mentioned that they have been having their Saturday morning breakfast date for forty years!

I just wanted to set the record straight.

>>>>><<<<<

The last time I wrote, I showed you a collage of pictures my cousin Shannon sent me. In all fairness, I offered the photos to anyone who wanted them.
“What if several people want them?” you ask.
Already thought of that. I figured I could scan them into my computer and send an electronic copy of whichever photos they wanted or I could scan and print them if they wanted a printed a copy. My printer does a pretty decent job.
However, only one person expressed any interest.
It tickles me.
I send these letters out to a lot of people. Fifty-seven to be exact. Family…friends…people who have expressed an interest in reading me, plus my blog is public. No one ever asks me to stop sending these to their inbox or mailbox.
“Peg, I am too busy to read your jibber-jabber,” you could say.
Actually, now that I think about it, I have had one person tell me, “If you send me one a month that would be enough.”
LOL.
Since my letters often build on previous letters I didn’t think they would stand alone, so I just stopped sending them to him.
One gal told me this. “I don’t read your letters -- but I save them! I have a whole file with your letters in them and if I ever get laid up in the hospital or something, I’ll read them.”
LOL.
Whatever.
It doesn’t cost me anything on the email so I just leave the mailing lists alone. The only time I ever delete anyone from either list is if their emails or letters start coming back to me as undeliverable.
And yes, that has happened a few times.
Our friend Tom, who lived on the other side of the mountain from us in Pennsylvania, his letters started coming back to me. Tom had been paralyzed in a tractor accident and several years ago, when we were at our Mountain Home, we went to visit Tom and Carol.
“I can’t tell you how much your letters mean to Tom,” Carol told me. “He looks forward to them every week.”
That was about six months into our friendship and it was this one comment that kept me sending my letters to Tom for three or four more years after that.
Never once did they call or write me.
I would still be sending them to him today but about a year ago, with the new 911 addressing system, my letters were no longer deliverable as addressed. I hoped for a while that I would be missed and get a phone call or letter with the new address on it, but it never happened and Tom has faded from our memory banks.
“The point, Peg. Get to the point,” you say.
Okay.
The point is this.
I don’t know who reads my ‘jibber-jabber’. There are people on my list that I haven’t heard from in years and years! I don’t know if they are still getting my letters. I don’t know if they read my letters.
Paul, one of my younger and very handsome brothers, was the only person to say he was interested in the photos. “But I don’t need the frame,” he emailed me.
And it tickled me because I hadn’t known that Paul even read my jibber-jabber.
This photo is from the collage that Shannon sent and it’s a young Paul with a baby Farley, who is now a grown man with a baby of his own.

That reminds me…
Three times in the last two days, I have declared myself the family jabber-mouth. Not blabber-mouth because I won’t say things that are told to me in confidence and I try never to make anyone (but me) look bad.
I’m just long winded.

<<<<<>>>>>

I am so proud of my kids. Despite my shortcomings and failings as a parent, they turned out pretty well.
After Kat died, Christopher, the oldest, called me a few times, then I didn’t hear from him again.
Well, I guess he thinks it’s my turn to call him, I thought.
I called.
No answer.
I left a message.
A week or so passes and I call again and leave another message - again, and again, and again this happens as the weeks passed into months and the months passed by.
This past week I called and just as expected, no answer.
I left a message -
Just calling to say I love you and hope things are well.
- hung up and dismissed it from my mind. It doesn’t do to dwell on what you cannot change.
Surprise!
Chris returned my call. We chatted for a little while but not long because he was on break at work. He is well. The family is well. He is working overtime to support his family. He’s been at this job for nine years now.
Kevin, the youngest of the family, had a birthday this past week. I hadn’t planned on doing anything more for him because Mike and I had taken him and Kandyce to dinner to celebrate both their birthdays and that was really all we were going to do.
Monday, Mike and I went grocery shopping and I scored a good deal on a two pack of whole, fresh chicken and a nice pot roast.
Monday, I pulled all the photos from the collage that Shannon sent me in preparation of sending them to Paul.
Monday, I was wondering what I was going to do with the now empty photo frame.
And it came to me. Kevin’s birthday.
Last year I had set up a triple photo frame collection for Kevin’s birthday and he really seemed to like it. (These are three separate frames even though I have them all standing together and they look like one.) I had Kandyce help me select the photos so I was confident that at least one person in the family would like them.

“I love your photos,” Kevin has told me more than once, but I wanted it to be the best it could be and I wanted them to hang it in their house, hence, the reason I asked Kandyce for her help.
And Kevin did like them. Maybe not as much as he liked the Dewalt Impact Driver and Drill Combo Kit with a handy carrying case that Mike got him, but he still seemed pleased.
What if I filled the now empty frame with photos of Andrew?
Yeah!
And I could invite them for dinner and have pot roast. No cake though. I don’t have an oven to bake a cake in. I have a NuWave Oven but it won’t hold a cake pan. Well, maybe a little 8X8 pan, but that’s it.
“We could buy him one,” Mike suggested when I pitched my idea to him.
“Nah. I don’t want to do that. Maybe an apple crisp or something. He likes my apple crisp.”
Monday, I Facebooked Kandyce. (That means I sent her a message on Facebook.) Come to dinner tomorrow night? Pot roast with taters and carrots and homemade bread?
Can’t, she messaged me back, Lion’s Club meeting.
Do we get Andrew? I volunteered knowing he can be a little too much to handle during their meetings.
Sure! Kandyce replied.
Monday I sorted through photos of Andrew and printed up a bunch.
Tuesday I cut them apart.
Tuesday night Andrew was here. “Andrew, do you want to help me make your daddy’s birthday present?” I asked.
“Daddy’s birthday present?” he asked.
“Yes, Daddy’s birthday present.” I pulled out the empty frame and the photos I had ready and together we laid on the floor and planned out which picture would go where. Boy, if there is one thing that Andrew loves, it would be looking at photographs of himself!
Once we had gone through the photos a few times and I started to stage them in the frame, I knew I would need more time. It wasn’t going to get done this night.
Andrew had had enough of looking at his photos and went on to play with his toys while I picked up the frame and photos and put everything away. I had been hoping to have it done by the time the kids got back from the Lion’s Club meeting so I could give it to them, but that wasn’t going to happen. Maybe they will come for dinner on Thursday and I’ll bake a chicken.
Around eight-thirty Kevin and Kandyce came in for Andrew.
Andrew -- that little stinker.
Andrew smacked his daddy on the leg to get his attention. “Daddy! Daddy!”
“What buddy?” Kevin asked.
“Daddy birday present,” he said and went to where I had the frame standing and touched it.
“Andrew!” I exclaimed. He pulled his hand back. “Don’t tell!”
He went back to his daddy’s leg. “Birday present,” Andrew said slapping Kevin’s leg again and pointing in the direction of the frame - which didn’t have any pictures in it yet.
“Andrew! Shhh! It’s a secret!” I admonished.
Kevin laughed. “He doesn’t know what that means Mom.”
“And you don’t know what he’s trying to tell you either, do you?”
“No.” Kevin shook his head but was clearly amused.
We used the distraction method and went on to visit for a while.
“Come for dinner one night and I’ll bake a chicken,” I invited Kevin and Kandyce. “Mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, maybe an apple crisp?”
“Okay, but no dessert for me,” Kandyce said. “I’m on a diet. What night?”
“How about Thursday? It’s Kevin’s birthday.” And it was set.
Wednesday I set about making the final decision on which photos I would put where. That was when I realized that despite having printed thirty-seven photos for a twenty piece frame, I didn’t have enough of the right size photos.
“Why did you print so many?” you wonder.
Well, in this peon brain of mine, I know that photos don’t always translate well when they go from the computer to the printer. I thought if I printed all the ones that I liked that I would just pick the best of them. That would help me to make a decision as to which ones to use and I had to start someplace!
Then I discovered that I needed five larger photos and five smaller photos. Well, there wasn’t any help for it now. I’d have to decide which ones to make bigger and which ones to make smaller. It was during this process that I decided that since I had to print more photos anyway I might just as well see what’s up online. So I got up and Facebook and cannibalized photos from the pages of Kevin, Kandyce and Chi-chi, Kandyce’s twin (I don’t think I’ll get in trouble for that.)
Hours and hours and hours later, when it was done, I was pleased.
Thursday, crunch day. I had to get it finished. I decided to give the glass of the picture frame a bath before I put it together. I didn’t want to break it so I took great pains to have everything set up and ready. I got the dish soap out and set it on the edge of the sink where it would be easy to reach. I set towels on the counter top to have a place to put it after I washed it. I turned on the tap to get the hot water up to the sink. I wiggled the glass free of the frame, carefully put it into the sink, squirted soap all over it and …
Doggone it!
I forgot the scrubbie. I wanted to give it a good scrub so it would be shinny and sparkly when I gave it to Kevin.
Sigh!
So much for all my planning.
Peg, I said to myself. I always call myself Peg when I talk to myself cause that’s my name you know. (An old line my dad used to say.) Peg. Be careful.
So carefully, with one hand, I held the glass steady in the sink as I used my other hand to open the lower cabinet door and dig my scrubbie out of the dishpan where it lives when not in use. I shut the door with my knee and got to work. I scrubbed one side and was careful as I turned the glass over. I was feeling proud that I was going slow with my turns and being vigilant not to smack the thin glass on the cold, hard stainless steel of my sink. Once both sides and all four edges were clean I turned on the hot water to give it a good rinse. The hotter the water, the faster it dries and the fewer spots it’ll have.
I wonder if I should scrub the frame too? I looked over to where I had left the frame and ~crack~

Doggone it! I take my attention away for one second and what do I do? I hit the glass on the nozzle of the soap dispenser! I looked at the glass and it looks like I just lost a little chip from the edge. I breathed a sigh of relief. The frame will cover that. I finished rinsing it and went to set it on the counter to dry. That’s when I saw it. That’s when I saw an inch long crack running in from the edge.

Doggone it!
I was mad at myself.
I dried my hands, picked up my coffee cup and leaned my backside against the sink. Opposite me, sitting atop the toaster oven and cookbook was the completed project waiting for its frame.

I sipped my coffee as I contemplated what to do.
Maybe I could put it in the least obvious corner.
Yeah, like they won’t see that.
Get another glass? I could cut one to fit -- if I had a piece to cut it from.
Buy a new piece?
Nah. I don’t want to do that.
Which corner can I hide it in…
So I’m standing there, running all of this through my head when almost all of a will of it’s own, my head snaps to the left and what do I see?
There on the wall was my framed pictures.

Hey! Is that the same size? I wondered. I set my cup down and picked up the frame and compared it to the one on the wall!
Cha-ching!
They were exactly the same size. I took it off the wall, took the glass out, and the first thing I noticed was that the glass was a lot thicker. I put it in the sink and set about getting it cleaned up. I only had this picture frame because one of our tenants left it behind and there had been some boxing tape on the glass. I had never bothered to clean the residue off because I never intended to keep it. I think I thought I would give it away and I’d clean it up then but after it sat in my house, leaning against a wall for months and months, I decided to put some pictures in it and hang it in the hall where it was hardly ever seen. In other words, I really didn’t care. Now I cared. I got a knife out and scraped the glue off.
Thursday the kids came to dinner. The chicken was crispy (but not dry) and good. The potatoes were lumpy and the gravy was too thick.
Sigh!
Oh well. Sometimes you try too hard, you know what I mean. But the kids were wonderful and not only did they not complain, they complimented me.
After dinner and when the table was mostly cleared, I called Andrew. “Andrew!” He stopped his play and looked at me. “You want to give Daddy his birthday present?” I asked.
Andrew came right over to where the picture had been before, and where I had put it back after it was done -back facing out so they couldn’t see the pictures and ruin the surprise- and together we presented it to his daddy.

“Andrew, let’s give Mommy a present too,” I had taken all of the extra photos and put them in an envelope. I handed the envelope to Andrew who gave them to Kandyce.
“For me?” she exclaimed. “But it’s Daddy’s birthday!” Then she saw what it was and she was happy. “I’ll put these in an album.”
And I was glad they wouldn’t go to waste.
Kevin was pleased with the collage of Andrew and this year I had no Dewalt tools to compete with!

<<<<<>>>>>

For years and years I have bought the cheapest spices I could. I didn’t think it mattered and I’m just kind of frugal that way.

Then one day while shopping I see a brand called Wild Oats on the shelves at Wal*Mart.

They are in glass jars!
I love glass jars!
I picked up a few even though the price is three times that of the 5th Season brand.
“Wait, wait, wait,” you say. “McCormick has had glass jars for years.”
Yeah, another brand that is expensive but the jars never tempted me into buying them. But I love the shape of these jars and I thought if I collected six or eight of them, that would be enough. That was probably less than a year ago and since then I have at least six empty cinnamon jars. It’s the spice I use the most. I use it in our breakfast cereal and I use it in the unsweetened applesauce that we have as dessert most evenings.
Two weeks ago my cinnamon was running low and I put it on the grocery list. The very next trip to Wal*Mart I went to the spice section and the cinnamon was empty.
Doggone it!
I looked and looked and looked and Mike helped me look but no matter how hard we looked there was not one single Wild Oats cinnamon jar on the shelf.
Sigh.
Okay. I resigned. I needed cinnamon. “I’ll just get a different kind this time,” I told Mike and picked up the 5th Season brand.
The Wild Oats cinnamon ran out and I opened the 5th Season cinnamon and the first time I used it I didn’t like it.
It wasn’t as good and this puzzled me.
All my life I’ve switched around on brands and never noticed much difference but there was definitely a big difference between these two brands!
Does the difference between being packaged in plastic vs. glass make a difference in flavor?
Are there different kinds of cinnamon?
Are there different quality of cinnamons?
Maybe they use a different part of the cinnamon…what? Plant? Stick? Here I’m thinking maybe there is such a thing as the better quality cinnamons use the tender, flavorful center part and the cheaper quality brands use the tough outer bark? Or maybe it’s even visa versa. Maybe the outer bark is the best to use.
Maybe the cheaper brands use what the quality brands throw away? Here I’m thinking about coffee. You can make coffee from the grounds of a pervious pot, “Just put a little fresh coffee on top,” I was told. If you have to stretch your food or budget, it’s better than nothing, but it still tastes like you used the dregs.
All of this wondering on my part just goes to show you how very little I know about cinnamon.

>>>>><<<<<

As I told you at the beginning of all this jibber-jabber, the weather has been pretty nice here in Missouri this past week. Would you like to see some photos of my walk-abouts with the girls?
Another blue bird! I had just gotten done telling you I never get to photograph these beautiful birds and here was another one!

I snapped photos as I got closer and closer to him and he didn’t let me get very close before he flew away. But he didn’t go far and I was delighted when a female joined him.

Yeah. She’s further away than he is and my camera will only focus on one or the other, so I’m not as delighted with the photo as I could have been.
The geese on the pond is my current desktop photo.