I cut my bangs.

Ever since Christmas I’ve been growing them out.

Why? I’m not sure.

I think it started when Dagmar had her hair cut and styled. As I sat there in the beauty parlor watching a professional turn my little girl’s pony tail into a young woman’s style – I started to feel a little dowdy. After all I’ve been wearing my hair the same way for years now.

Maybe it was the combination of country music and the intoxicating scent of hair product -  but I suddenly realized that I wanted a change. I would grow my bangs out and get a style.

The problem is that I have naturally curly hair. It doesn’t like change.  It does whatever it pleases on any given day. I’ve learned to subdue it by keeping it trimmed.

What was I thinking?

This life without trimming was fine at first – but slowly started to drive me crazy.

My subdued locks went wild with no restraint.

I actually bought <gulp> product to use. I gummed my bangs up with hair gel and sprayed them with hairspray – but as soon as I left the house the curls would bounce out every which way.

Sigh.

The family was supportive at first, although their eyebrows went up in amazement when the hair spray came out. Was their minimum maintenance momma actually using hair product?! What would be next? Heels?

When I would get discouraged the girls would say, “Just give it a little more time Mom”. Even my husband encouraged me to let it grow.

Until yesterday.

Yesterday was one of those incredibly awful bad hair days.

The humidity was high after two days of rain and no amount of hair product was going to subdue my errant curls.

I had corkscrews growing off my forehead in random patterns. I cringed every time I passed by a mirror.

I mentioned to my girls that I was ready to chop off those bangs – and in return I got wan little smiles that seemed to say, “Yes Mom – it’s time!”

This morning I casually mentioned to my husband that I thought it was time to cut my bangs. Even he agreed, saying, “Will you cut it yourself or go in to the salon?”

So I cut them.

It was such a relief.

I felt like myself again. It was comfortable. My curls and I were at peace.

I feel a little like Olivia Walton. In several episodes of the Walton’s she feels the need to make a change, to be or look different. Yet at the end of the hour-long show, no matter what she tried – soloist in the church choir or a new hairdo -  she realized that she rather liked things the way the were before.

She went searching for something that she already had.

Me too. It just took me four months.

But I found it – my very own style – the one that has worked for years.

It’s good to be back.

The temperatures are warming up, there’s rain – not snow in the forecast, and the 4 legged varmints are back.

You know the ones – raccoons, ‘possums, skunks and the like.

Although none of these animals actually hibernates during the winter months, they sleep longer and don’t do as much stuff. Some call it a state of “tupor” – waking from time to time to search for food.

That sounds very familiar – much like my own winter pattern!

As the days get longer and the warmer, they venture out and become nuisances.

We counted 3 dead skunks on the way to church yesterday. (Bet those cars will remember that stretch of highway for a long time!)

One friend reported that a critter had gotten into their chicken coop and killed every chicken. The intruder didn’t eat them – just killed them.

Another friend had a similar occurrence – but they only lost half of their flock.

At lunch today – I  saw a big fat ‘possum walking across the farm yard as if he owned the place.  I was concerned that he might be diseased so I checked online.

The site I found was full of interesting information. I discovered that although opossums are nocturnal, to have them wandering around in daylight isn’t too unusual – just like cats.

They are also very immune to rabies, but you should still avoid getting a bite. (Now that’s good advise!)

I also found that possum tastes like chicken, but if you wish to eat them, you should first catch it and feed it table scraps and other good food for a while to work all the carrion out of its system.

Right… like I really want to look the critter in the face and ask when it ate it’s last meal of carrion?! I wonder how long it would take to remove the effects of a carrion diet anyway?

But this particular sight didn’t recommend the practice of eating opossums at all. It sited that “a small cadre of renegade opossums has been known to have sought out people who have eaten their compatriots and lay siege to their dwelling. Armed with crude but efficient crossbows, they may shoot arrows into the car tires or capture and hold hostage the pets of the offending citizens.“

Wow! And since it’s online – you know it has to be true! I guess we’ll cross ‘possum off the menu this week.

I sent the boys out to take care of the offending critter.

Let’s just say it won’t be eating any of our chickens or eggs; nor will we be eating it.

Things will settle down here in a few weeks when the rest of our corner of the world wakes up and shakes off the winter doldrums.

But in the meantime we’ll keep the critter gun ready – and a close eye on the flock!

It was fabulous and disappeared quickly. As kids we would jockey for position in line to get a piece before it was gone.

Lasagna was a delicacy for us. It just didn’t ever show up on our table at home. We were Dutch – German and my dad was a meat and potatoes kind of guy.

When my oldest sister had a baby, one of her friends brought over a lasagna. She was kind enough to share the recipe and a family classic was born.

Soon after my husband and I were engaged, he leaned over at a family meal and whispered, “Do you think you could get your sister’s lasagna recipe?”

I’ve teased him ever since that he married me for the recipe!

Lasagna

1 pound hamburger
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Tablespoon basil
1-1/2 teaspoon salt
1 -lb can tomato sauce (2 cups)
2 – 6 oz. can tomato paste
10 oz. lasagna noodles (10 noodles)
3 cups cottage cheese (1 large container)
2 Tablespoons parsley flakes
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Brown meat slowly, drain. Add next garlic, basil, salt, tomato sauce and tomato paste. Simmer uncovered 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Cook noodles in a large amount of salted water, drain, rinse.

Combine cottage cheese, parsley flakes, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper in a small bowl.

Place 1/3 noodles in greased 9 x 13 pan. Spread with 1/3 cottage cheese filling, add 1/3 mozzarella cheese and 1/3 meat sauce. Repeat layers.

Bake 375 degrees for 30 minutes.

This can be made ahead and refrigerated or frozen. Just thaw before baking and allow at least 15 minutes more to the baking time.

Enjoy!

I’ve linked this post up with Design by Gullum’s Foodie Friday

They are my adorable adopted nieces from the Ukraine.

Their adoption story begins back five years ago when my husband’s brother and his wife gave birth to their fourth child, a little girl who was born with Down’s syndrome.

Annie immediately captured all of our hearts and become a very special part of our family.

As her mom started to connect with other mom’s of Down’s children she discovered Reece’s Rainbow.

Reece’s Rainbow is an International Ministry for Orphans with Down’s Syndrome. In many countries of the world, including the Ukraine, children with Down’s are placed in orphanages until they get older – then they are placed in mental institutions.

Once there they are – they are unable to be adopted and live with adults who are mentally unstable. Their future is heart-wrenching.

Although they are not an adoption agency, Reece Rainbow is an advocate for the children. They work to identify at-risk children, raise funds for adoption, and find forever families for them.

Our little nieces came from an orphanage in the Ukraine and are such a joy! It is so rewarding to see those little girls blossom and grow in the midst of a loving family.

They’ve discovered birthdays and Christmas and ice cream.

They now have Grandpas and Grandmas and aunts and uncles and cousins.

They giggle and give hugs and talk a mile a minute.

Why am I telling you all this now? Because Reece’s Rainbow was featured in a story in last week’s People magazine – giving them some much needed national publicity.

As I read the article, I was reminded once again of those little ones still waiting for their forever families and I had to say something. I had to tell you Katie and Emie’s story – to put a real face on the children and the ministry.

These kids are real. I know. I met two of them.

I’ve held them, hugged them, and tickled them.

We’ve played dress-up and went roller skating and ate popcorn and watched movies.

I’ve fallen head over heels in love with them.

My heart is broken over the ones left behind.

James 1:27 “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress…”

If you would like to read more about Katie and Emie’s adoption journey, check out Hidden Treasures.

Papa and I always experiment with one new item in our garden every year. Several years ago we tried sweet potatoes and they’ve become a “regular”!

The first year we trembled at the price of the purchased plants! Then we found out that we could grow our own plants by “rooting” a store bought sweet potato.

Every year in late February, we purchase a sweet potato or yam from the produce department at our local grocery store.

Then we stick toothpicks into the sides of the potato to hold it up above a container of water -a recycled jar works just fine.

We try to find the top or the part that was connected to the vine. The opposite end should go into the water.

We keep the water level up to the top of container and watch for roots from the part under the water. It won’t be long before we see some sprouts growing on the part above the water.

We let those green sprouts grow to about 3 or 4 inches long before we pinch them off the potato and put them in a container of water. They will make roots.

Once they have made some roots, we plant these in small pots until they can be planted in the garden.

Meanwhile , the potato in the water will keep making new sprouts. One potato should easily give us a dozen plants.

When the soil is warm enough, and all danger of frost is gone, we plant each plant on top of a mound of soil about 6 inches tall. (This gives the potato space to grow without having to dig a foot deep in the fall!) The plant will vine and the vines will root where they touch the soil. To prevent this from happening mulch mounds with newspaper or simply lift the vines often.

You can dig potatoes whenever you “feel” under the vine on top of the mound and discover a potato big enough to eat! We wait until the first frost. (Sweet potatoes will not tolerate a frost!)  We dig them carefully and lay them out to dry. If you have a cool place to store them – they will keep for several months.

In our modern houses without root cellars, sweet potatoes are not the best keepers for eating fresh all winter, but they do freeze well. We try to keep them as long as we can, then freeze the rest.

To cook a sweet potato, scrub it, prick it with fork, and bake in a 350 degree oven until soft when squeezed. Let them cool until you can handle them to peel off the skins.

Place the sweet potatoes in freezer bags or containers, label and freeze. Just thaw and use in your favorite sweet potato recipes.

Or you can cook them in the microwave. Just scrub, prick skin and place in microwave. Bake for 5 min on high and check for softness. Continue baking until they are soft, checking every 3 minutes. Peel and serve or freeze.

Our favorite way to enjoy fresh sweet potatoes is to eat them warm from the oven with Cinnamon/Honey Butter

Cinnamon/Honey Butter:

2 Tablespoons honey
1/2 cup butter
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon.

Mix together. This stores well in the refrigerator for several weeks. This is really good on toast and squash, too!

Until next time!

Nana Shirley

One of our favorite activities while driving is doing a little radio surfing. Saturday was no exception! My husband manned the controls as he drove through the hills, finding a little country music, then some news, then … Jackpot!

He found an oldies station.

And not just any oldies station – but a country oldies station!

A little vintage Willie Nelson, then the Sons of the Pioneers, ahh… now that brings back memories!

I can close my eyes and imagine myself in the back seat of our old station wagon heading to Minnesota on vacation with my parents and siblings. I can almost smell the pine forest and feel the August sun.

But when I opened my eyes – I was back in the Suburban with snow drifts along the road- and the five kids in the back seats were all mine. I took one glance at my husband driving and smiled, content.

The next song to play was the tear-jerker “The Last of the Silver Screen Cowboys” by Roy Rogers, Rex Allen and Rex Allen, Jr.

“Last of the silver screen cowboys,
Last of a fast-dying breed.
Cattle are grazing,
Six guns a blazing,
God knows this is what American still needs.”

Sniffle… sniffle… gulp…

We drive a few more miles before we lose the signal.

My husband picks up a little news at the top of the hour.

In a shocking story we heard that some Girl Scout Cookies are being recalled. They interviewed one woman who said, “I thought they tasted a little different from last year – but I couldn’t tell for sure. ”

She ate the entire box.

The entire suburban burst into laughter.

On to the next station as the miles rolled by…

I especially love this section:

“As she walked past a cab rank in Pont Street, Mrs. Miniver heard a very fat taxi-driver with a bottle nose saying to a very old taxi-driver with a rheumy eye: ‘They say it’s all a question of your subconscious mind.’

Enchanted she put the incident in her pocket for Clem. It jostled, a bright pebble, against several others: she had had a rewarding day. And Clem, who had driven down to the country to lunch with a client, would be pretty certain to come back with some good stuff, too.

This was the cream of marriage, this nightly turning out of the day’s pocketful of memories, this deft habitual sharing of two eyes, two pairs of ears. It gave you, in a sense, almost a double life: though never, on the other hand, quite a single one.”

Mrs. Miniver by Jan Struther

I love the idea of collecting ideas, events, attitudes, thoughts, etc… like pebbles in my pocket. Then when my husband comes home, I slowly empty them one by one and share them.

It really is the cream of marriage.

What pebbles did you collect today?

Not the romantic love that we celebrate on Valentine’s Day – but the love that God has for us.

It’s that kind of love that He wants us to have for others.

I was humbled by these verses in Ephesians -

“Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents.

Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.”

Ephesians 5:1-2 (The Message)

Wow.

Extravagant love.

The word extravagant makes me think “over-the-top”. I think of rich people throwing their money away as if they had an endless source.

While I may not be rich in money – I am rich in love! God has promised me an unlimited supply of it. There’s no way I could ever give it all away!

Webster’s dictionary defines extravagant as “exceeding the limits of reason or necessity” and “lacking in moderation balance and restraint.”

That’s how Christ loved us! He didn’t love us because of anything we could do for Him.

He loved us all the way to the cross.

It was a huge “over-the-top” kind of love that is beyond what we can reason or understand. It blows away our feeble ideas and selfish motives.

Do I love like that?

I thought of the group of believers in Haiti who, having heard about the earthquake but being far enough away from it to not be affected, gathered up whatever food and supplies they had and headed out to give aid.

These people are destitute themselves. They did not give out of their abundance – but out of their poverty.

That’s extravagant love.

Do I love like that?

Unselfishly.

Freely.

Beyond what is necessary?

Beyond the limits of reason?

Think of the difference we would make in our world if we loved like our Savior does – extravagantly!

Photo by aussiegal

]]> http://www.bluejeansandcottontees.com/how-do-you-love/feed/ 2 http://www.bluejeansandcottontees.com/how-do-you-love/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BlueJeansAndCottonTees/~3/K1cr9WUXanE/ http://www.bluejeansandcottontees.com/im-becoming-my-parents/#comments Sat, 20 Feb 2010 15:50:47 +0000 Country Gal http://www.bluejeansandcottontees.com/?p=2010 This is so embarrassing.

The other night we were sitting as a family watching the Opening Ceremonies for the Winter Olympics when I felt my eyes getting heavier and heavier.

The next thing I knew – I woke up dazed.

I had fallen asleep in the chair.

For years as I was growing up,  my siblings and I would laugh at my parents who could both sit in the recliner and drift off to sleep with their mouths open – sometimes snoring.

We kids would often joke about trying to drop things inside their open mouths – but never quite got up the nerve.

Now it was happening to me.

I thought my little “nap” was an isolated incident and chalked it up to a late night after a really busy day.

But then it happened again on Sunday afternoon – and again Tuesday night – and almost on Thursday.

I’m becoming my parents.

I gathered up the courage to ask Dagmar and Angel Girl if I snored. They looked at each sheepishly before Angel Girl said, ” Kinda.”

Dagmar corrected her with, “You didn’t really snore – you just snorted every time your head fell over.”

Snorted?

Ouch.

I was going to ask if I drooled – but decided that maybe I really didn’t want to know.

So what’s next?

Are my kids going to start laughing at me? Will they try dropping things in my open mouth? Or <gasp> will I eventually start snoring as loudly as my parents?

Let me tell you people – growing old is not for the faint of heart.

By the way – kids if you are reading this and are planning to drop things in my mouth – I prefer M & M’s, but chocolate chips  will also do.

I may be getting old – but I’m still a chocoholic!

It’s official now! We have ordered the garden seeds.

Spring is definitely coming.

After perusing the catalogs, researching the varieties, and studying all the options I have  finally decided to plant <insert dramatic pause with drum roll> the very same things I planted last year!

The only difference is that last year I didn’t start the seeds – they were given to me.

One of the guys my husband works with is big into gardening. He ordered several packets of heirloom seeds and took them into a local nursery to have them started. He specifically told them to start 25 of each kind.

They planted every seed.

Instead of several hundred plants to deal with – he know had several thousand!

He handed out heirloom tomato plants like they were zucchini’s in August!

I will admit that I was not happy when my husband brought home several plants (over 100).

My only experience with heirloom tomatoes was the year I didn’t get to the Amish store soon enough to buy my bedding plants. All they had left was the Brandywine variety.

What a disaster! Have you ever seen a bulbous nose? That’s what those tomatoes looked like. They never really turned a true red – and part of the tomato would rot while the other half was still green.

The texture was funny and they didn’t work well in my spaghetti sauces.

Major tomato fail.

But we planted the heirlooms anyway. At least they were free – and there wasn’t a Brandywine in the bunch!

It was a very wet year – and nobody had a very good tomato crop – but the ones we did get were really nice!

But the real winners were the peppers – both sweet and hot. We had a jalapeno variety that made the absolute best poppers known to man. The kids and I ate them every day for lunch for weeks on end. Seriously. Every day.

I crave them even now as I’m typing.

My husband found out where these seeds came from and last night we finally made out our order at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

I haven’t started plants for at least 10 years – the old house was just too small and cold; last year was just too confusing with trying to move and settle in.

This is the year.

In a few days a packet full of springtime will arrive in my mailbox – tiny little seeds full of potential and hope.

I will plant them, water them, and watch them carefully. All the while dreaming of my beautiful, weed free garden full of luscious healthy produce.

I can just taste those poppers now!

So – how about you? What state is your garden in?