Forest of the Plains

It seems like we have had more snow in December than we sometimes get all winter. At one point we required the use of a tractor to clear our driveway to a driveable state. My low-to-the-ground Saturn had quite the adventures dealing with snow drifts scraping its belly.

One day the wind was blowing the snow so hard that there was virtually no visibility. I thought of Laura Ingalls Wilder in The Big Snow. Life on the prairie was so difficult. It's hard to imagine, let alone understand, the hardships faced by the original settlers of this land.

When we had John's family over, several people made comments about our driveway that is lower than the fields on either side of it. "I'm glad the ground was frozen today so we could drive on the field instead of the driveway!" was a common refrain. It took a bit before I understood that there was some fondness for the driveway reflected in their comments. One uncle took time to explain: "We like to remind our wives that when we were dating, they meant so much to us that we were willing to risk that driveway in order to take them out!"

Gary Smalley likes to say that we become closer when we experience some adversity together (his example is camping because "something always goes wrong when you camp"). Apparently our driveway in its sorry shape has brought a few people closer! Was that also true for those first settlers, feeling alone and trapped in the blowing snow on the prairie?

Alternative title: "apparently we don't bathe our child often enough"

Jacob was playing, but seemed to be getting agitated about something. Suddenly he started crawling with obvious purpose. Through the living room, through the kitchen, through the laundry room (right past some usually tempting electrical cords), into the bathroom, straight to the bathtub. He then pulled himself up to the tub, reached into the tub as if there was water in it, threw a couple bath toys into the tub, and then looked up at me.

Jacob is often focused, but not normally so purposeful as to crawl past many tempting things in order to reach a goal. Still confused I asked, "Jacob, do you want a bath?"

"YEAH!"

So he got a bath. Does this mean he'll stop making a mess with his food in favor of cleaner living? Yeah, I don't think so either!

One of the nice things about hosting the holiday gathering for John's extended family is that everyone brings something, so there is limited work involved. (Like, the work is "limited" to cleaning the house and figuring out how many chairs we have.) Food-wise, I contributed two pies, homemade candy that I didn't make, and deviled eggs. We also supplied a cute baby who provided some entertainment.

Every time deviled eggs are served at a potluck or gathering they are gobbled up very quickly as if they are a luxury. That always amuses me because, although they do take some time to make, deviled eggs are easy and cheep. Any one can make them, and 99.8% of Americans can afford to make them. Just ask my favorite cookbook - Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook:

6 hard boiled eggs
1/4 c. mayonnaise
1 tsp. prepared mustard
1 tsp vinegar
paprika or parsley sprigs

Halve hard boiled eggs lengthwise and remove yolks. Place yokes in a bowl and mash them with a fork. Add mayonnaise, mustard, and vinegar; mix well. If desired, season with salt and pepper. Stuff hard egg white halves with yolk mixture. If desired, garnish with paprika or parsley. Makes 12 servings.

Terah's comments:
*This is the recipe I follow to make eggs, but I use lemon juice instead of vinegar.
*Thanks to Cliff's lovely wife, Marilyn, I was introduced to putting real bacon bits into the yolk mixture. For this amount of eggs, I add 2 Tablespoons in with everything else. Just make sure to get the REAL bacon bits and not the fake hard ones that you find on most salad bars. Very yummy!
*My dad would probably add a bit of sugar to this. I am surprised that I don't think it needs sugar.
*I have never tried adding the salt or pepper and think that sounds strange.
*I believe that eggs should have paprika sprinkled on top. They don't look right otherwise.
*You can make this several days ahead of when you'll serve it. Just mix up the yolk mixture and store it in the fridge separate from the hard egg whites. Assemble the day you'll be serving.

I'll also add that this was my first opportunity to use the cooling properties of my Pampered Chef Egg Server. It kept the eggs cold for 6 hours! That purchase was well worth the money!

And, thanks to the Kirklins for doing the pre-mixing for me this time!

My goodness, how 6 days without electricity can just turn your life upside down! I recovered from that excitement just in time to panic about the upcoming visit from my dad and step-mom. (I had recovered from being electricity-free, but the house and laundry had not.) They were here for 5 days, and left just in time for me to have 21 hours to panic about hosting 15 people for brunch.

I can't think of what to panic about next, but rest assured, I will find something. I'm good at panicing! In the mean time, I'll try to post some updates from the past month.

Thanks for hanging in there!

Today I learned about a website, Country Adventures, that helps to facilitate agri-tourism at its best. I'm thinking of putting together a Rural Tour that would be $15 per person.

*hike through authentic pasture land with beautiful wild flowers!
*picnic lunch beside the creek, just like the farmers 100 years ago would have eaten!
*wade and fish in the creek, right beside the cows!

Then I would offer optional ad-ons for $10 more per person (4 person minimum):
*visit neighboring goat farm, family-owned pumpkin patch, or family-owned cattle farm
*ride in a combine or tractor in field of Winter Wheat or Milo
*help clean out an old chicken coop
*clear a hedge row
*plant flowers and tend a vegetable garden
*special requests? Just ask!

What do you think? Would you come?

We've been without power since Tuesday (December 11). Today we were informed that they hope to have power to us by next Thursday (December 20). That is exactly 10 days too many without power.

The people a mile away from us have a different electric company and they do have power. Their lights taunt us each night.

Luckily John was on the ball and got us on a waiting list for renting a generator early, and we won the generator lottery on the 12th. The generator runs the furnace, fridge, server, and one light. All for a mere $35 per day, plus gas!

Our stove is propane-powered so we can cook things using a match to light the burner. We do still have water since we're on rural water service. And the phone works.

What fun! It's like camping. I am not a fan of camping.

Jacob is very sad that our lights are broken. He very much enjoys turning lights on and off, and looking at a lit Christmas tree. At least he also enjoys playing with flashlights!

On the "bright" side, the power company people have been very nice. They even have a live person very nicely who answers our daily calls for updates.

We don't have a lot of time or energy for elaborate parties around here. Yesterday Jacob got very excited about a cat and John placed a bid on ebay. That's about as exciting as we get!

This month I'll be attending one company Christmas party and, um, hosting a family brunch. Does a family brunch count as a party? I'm not so sure...

Thankfully this holiday season, I can party til the cows come home via Nora. She gets to attend all kinds of cool celebrations. How does she have time to party so much? She's up to Holiday Party #9 and it's only December 10!

Yesterday I threw out some yogurt that had expired while we were in Indiana. (Actually, it may have expired before then...) I felt rather wasteful throwing away yogurt and thought about those poor children in China who would be glad for my yogurt. Then I remembered a client that I worked with.

I learned early in my career as a mental health case manager that what a kid ate for lunch could impact the rest of their day. For example, a former co-worker would regularly take McDonalds to her clients and eat it with them in the cafeteria in front of the other kids. The other kids, and especially the school staff who had to deal with the other kids, did not appreciate this.

So, when going to eat with my first grade client for lunch, I made sure to pack myself a lunch and he ate the regular school lunch. In packing my lunch, I tried to pack regular stuff. I packed a peanut butter sandwich, an apple, yogurt, and water.

I learned a lesson that day while my client looked longingly at my lunch. Having such food available at my house was the same as being able to eat lunch at McDonalds. Oh, how he looked at my yogurt! Then he commented that he knew his classroom teacher also ate yogurt each day for lunch. In his world, eating yogurt was a status symbol.

We spent 9 days over Thanksgiving visiting friends and relatives in Indiana. Jacob met a lot of people for the first time, and did really well (for a 13-month-old with an ear infection) with everything. His highlights included a first-time viewing of live chickens, colored toothpicks in a plastic bottle, refrigerator magnets, and a piece of red plastic on a string attached to an exercise machine.

Going back to Indiana is really odd for me. My parents live in different counties than I one I grew up in, and many other people have also moved. Everyone seems to have aged faster than I have, and I barely recognize some cousins and their children. But, the most striking change is the landscape.

There is suburban sprawl everywhere! I almost got lost a couple of times.

I can hardly believe that I purchased a coffee at a Starbucks in Goshen. Partly because I remember when Goshen finally got a movie theater (1994) and partly because it seems like Goshen College alumni should have imposed some fair-trade coffee ordinance in the city by now.

There's a giant new mega-supermarket in town, and the friendly family-owned grocery store we always shopped at has gone out of business. I hadn't been inside Everett's for a long time, but I sure miss it now. I may never get to eat good ribbon jello again.

It's always sad to see the family-owned restaurant that I worked at though high school and college be closed. How I miss the Saturday Sausage, fried mush, baked swiss steak, rivel soup, cheese jello, and date pudding! I do have a neat old chair that the owner saved just for me when she sold the place.

At least there's some positive progress, too. The Chief, which normally sold ice cream in the summer and Christmas Trees in the winter, has started selling pints of ice cream along with the Christmas Trees. I got two pints of lemon. Yum!

It's odd to feel connected to a place that doesn't really exist any more. You can never go back home again.