Ponderings of Theodore

or How to Blow Up a Balloon Carefully

A Second Look--October 31, 2012

or Okay after Sandy

As everyone knows, this has been the week of Frankenstorm Sandy. I was able to get out and explore a few days before she came, and I went out today in her remnants of cold rain to access the damage. We were very lucky that the only real effects we had from the storm were a few downed branches. My thoughts are with those who were not so fortunate.

Here's what I saw this week during a Second Look.

These mums were covered with flies and bees*. However, the flies were too fast for me to get a picture.

This Virginia Creeper added some welcome color to this tangle of briars and vines.

Hydrangea

Ward surveying one of downed branches from Sandy.

Of course the storm brought down lots of leaves.

These are pictures of the same mushrooms taken several days apart. The blue one appeared after the storm.

* Please forgive me if this is a wasp. I know that wasps and bees are not the same thing, I just don't know how to tell them apart.

Sandy

or Anticipation

Noon, October 29, 2012

The water and food are secured. The generator has been tested and the flashlights have fresh batteries. The lawn chairs have been put away and the firewood is in the garage. The laundry and dishes are washed and we have extra bread and toilet paper. And now we wait.

Even though the rain has started and winds have picked up, they are nothing to write home about. But the "best" is yet to come. Or so they say. I hope "they" are wrong.

School Days--Wally's Field Trip, Part Three

  School Days is a reoccurring feature in which I ask people about their early memories of school. Everyone has a story to tell about this and I hope to give them a voice here.

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This week will be a little different with an account of Wally's first grade field trip instead of an interview. I wrote this soon after we returned from the trip, so there's no looking back with nostalgia here. The story is fairly long so it will be posted in three installments. They will follow each other weekly on School Days Mondays. Today is the last installment.

Wally's First Grade Field Trip 

Part One and Part Two found me reluctantly going on the field trip and trying to control some very active first graders as we toured the zoo.

Now for Part Three

A favorite joke on the bus ride home.

After continually hearing that they were hungry, we stopped for a snack at noon. Before the trip, the chaperones agreed that we would buy each child one treat. They could chose one thing from the zoo snack shop and everyone in my group chose ice cream. The first thing that they had agreed upon all day. However, they didn't seem to understand the one treat per child policy. After they finished their ice cream, they said that they were thirsty and asked if they could have a soda. When I showed them where the water fountain was, the used the, “Everyone else got to have a snack and drink,” argument on me. When that didn't work, they tried to make me feel bad by saying, “I wish I was in a different group.” As soon as they figured out that I was unyielding, they all had a long drink from the water fountain.

When our snack was finished, we headed for our ever important stop at the gift shop. Jessica finally purchased two small plastic animals with her money after receiving a lot of advice from the other group members. It was almost one o'clock by now and time to head back to the front gate to load the bus. I was glad the trip was almost over because I was exhausted.

The bus ride back to the school was a little more subdued than the ride in the morning had been, so I guess the kids were tired too. Krystal and Pink Feather weren't talking to each other because of something that had happened in the gift shop. However, they insisted on sitting together. Many of the kids were delighting in telling riddles. I actually found this riddle funny--Why was 6 afraid of 7? Because 7 8 (ate) 9.

But the kids found their version equally funny--Why was 2 afraid of 3? Because 3 ate 4.

The trip was officially over at 2:15 when the kids followed their teachers back into their classrooms. As I was driving to pick up Theodore from the sitter, I realized that the trip had been successful. Even though it hadn't left me with a warm, fuzzy feeling, I had managed to survive the entire experience without the need of a single aspirin. Having children has taught me to appreciate the small things in life and surviving six hours on a first grade field trip was one of them.

Thankful Sunday--October 28, 2012

I am thankful I get to spend time with Sarah today.

Below I am rerunning a post about Sarah so you will see why.

The Present is the Present

I am lucky that I get to spend some Sunday mornings with my friend, Sarah, a special needs teenager. I buddy with her during Sunday School as we visit different programs that she enjoys. Two things you need to know about Sarah (other than how sweet she is) is that she loves nature and can be quite determined.

She was exhibiting these two traits one day last fall as we were walking from one building to another on the church campus to go to a singing activity. I was trying to hurry her along only half listening as she showed me a bug or a leaf that she found interesting along our path. When we were almost to our destination, she said she was not going any further and sat down under a maple tree. After a brief moment of frustration, I stopped and remembered that there was no agenda for the morning except for Sarah and me to enjoy ourselves. It was okay if we skipped singing this time.

Sarah then told me to come and that we were going to play a game to see if the falling leaves would touch us as they fell from the tree. We sat still and felt the warm air of the morning and watched the leaves float around us in a gentle breeze. Up until this point, I hadn't even noticed what a beautiful morning it was.

You have probably heard the saying, “The present is the present.” Never has this been more evident than it was that morning with Sarah.

(In case anyone is wondering who won the game—she did. Sarah had a total of three leaves fall on her and I had two.)

Voting

As cliche as it sounds, I'm glad to live in a country where I have the right to express my opinions on many issues including who is going to represent me. So today I'm going to vote and I encourage you to do the same when you can.

You may wonder why I'm voting early. I'm going with Theodore who won't be able to make it to the polls on November 6th. However if I'm going to do a full disclosure, here it is. I heard that once you vote, your name will be taken off the call rosters and you won't get any more political calls. I hope it's true. I don't think I can stand another political ad whether it's by phone, mail, sign, or TV.

Note: I have a good example of exercising your right to vote. My mother, who is 82 years old, has never missed voting in an election--local or national. I think that's impressive.

Food Waste Friday and True Food Confessions--Oct. 26, 2012

 It's time for Food Waste Friday, when the Frugalgirl encourages us to post pictures from the previous week of wasted food from our household. This accountability hopefully will help us to be more careful with our food and maybe save some money. Also, I am using this public forum to encourage us to eat out less which includes better meal planning. You can follow how we are doing in this endeavor by reading True Food Confessions.

This week's food waste.

Practically, no waste

We had no food waste again this week. Well, let me qualify that. A few things went to waste, but I didn't count them. There was a quarter of a piece of bread that was leftover from a sandwich and a few rotten leaves from the salad greens. If you blink really fast, you would never see them. So if you don't look very closely, we had no waste this week. Yea!

Thanks to Simply Being Mom for hosting Food Waste Friday this week.

This week's True Food Confessions.

Our cooking this week used mostly what was on hand.

We ate at home every week-night after a weekend of being away and eating out. I could tell you everything we had to eat at home, but I'd rather talk about what we had to eat at the pig roast we went to on Saturday.
I love it when people share their favorite dishes.

There were three kinds of cheeses that I sampled--mac and cheese, cauliflower and cheese, and broccoli, rice and cheese. All were topped with bread crumbs and were "cheesed" to perfection. There were two kinds of sauerkraut--one cooked with bratwurst and one made with champagne. Theo reports that they were very tasty.  There were also dozens of deviled eggs that disappeared quickly and a green salad that had everything in it except the kitchen sink (just the way I like it). I ate mine with a pasta salad made with delicious homemade pesto. We also had baked beans and homemade BBQ sauce which satisfied the taste for both sweet and spicy.

Then there were the desserts. There were at least five chocolate desserts that involved sauces, rich cakes, and mousse. I know that there were more sweets, but my eyes didn't make it past the chocolate.

I think that's all of the time I have for food talk now before I start drooling down my chin. Maybe another time, I'll tell you about the appetizers and I'll get the carnivores in the house to tell you about the meat that was there.

Today...

Today, I am not going to make things more complicated than they need to be.

A Second Look--October 24, 2012

Fall is here in all of its glory. The trees are really starting to turn while a few flowers are still blooming. The nights are cool and the days are warm. I'm glad that I got a chance to enjoy it this week.

See what I found this week during a Second Look.

We have a new color of mum blooming. (Notice the criss-crossing spirals in the middle.)

Most of the coneflowers have gone to seed, but a few are still hanging on like this one.

Fungus always grows more vigorously in the fall.

Most of the sweet gum trees, like this one, are in prime color.

I found a violet and fleabane both of which usually bloom earlier in the year.

We have a big crop of black walnuts this year. Too bad we don't like them.

Last week, only one of these mums was blooming. Now there are many.

Honeysuckle vine twisting around itself and a wild cherry tree.

File of Life

This File of Life information could save a life someday.

I was doing one of those rare clean-offs of the outside of refrigerator the other day and found something of importance that I thought I would share. A few years ago when were visiting a health and safety fair, we picked up some File of Life forms. The idea behind the File of Life is to record important information that an emergency rescue worker would need and that you may not always be able to provide.  This could be in a situation where you are unconscious or in a panicked state and unable to think clearly. The files include information about medical conditions, medicines, doctors, and insurance among other things.* Emergency workers are trained to look on the refrigerator for a document like this.

These forms are usually given out by the local fire department, so I suggest that you give them a call. If you can't find any, I would make up a similar document. Print it on bright red paper and hang it on the side of the fridge in a sheet protector. Who knows? The life you save could be your own. It is so important that I hadn't updated mined for two years. Oops! Out of sight, out of mind. I will do better in the future.

*Information that is included:

• Date
• Name, address, gender
• DOB
• Doctor name and phone number
• Existing medical conditions
• Allergies
• Medications
• Emergency contacts with addresses and phone numbers
• Religion
• Medical insurance information
• Living will on file at:
• Social Security Number

School Days--Wally's Field Trip, Part Two

  School Days is a reoccurring feature in which I ask people about their early memories of school. Everyone has a story to tell about this and I hope to give them a voice here.

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This week will be a little different with an account of Wally's first grade field trip instead of an interview. I wrote this soon after we returned from the trip so there's no looking back with nostalgia here. The story is fairly long so it will be posted in three installments. They will follow each other weekly on School Days Mondays.

Wally's First Grade Field Trip 

Last week found me unsure about going on the trip and the long bus ride to the zoo.

Read about the details here. 

Now for Part Two.

One of the highlights of our tour.

 We arrived at the zoo at ten o'clock and had forty-five minutes for lunch before we actually entered through the gates to look at the animals. Forty-five minutes seems like such a short time when I'm trying to run errands, but it seemed like an eternity when I was having lunch with my group of first graders. They spent the first three minutes eating the meat and sweets from their lunches. The next five minutes were spent feeding the pigeons everything else that was left. The remaining thirty-seven minutes were spent by me trying to control four very excited children. I was partially successful with my cries of “Stay out of the mud!” “Come back here!” “Get off of the railroad tracks! and “Where has the rest of the group gone?”

At eleven o'clock, we finally entered the zoo and had two hours to tour it at our leisure. As we started to explore the zoo, the personalities of the members of my group became evident very quickly. I had two boys, Wally and Andy, and two girls, Isabel and Jessica. Andy was somewhat quiet and wanted to look at everything very thoroughly. Wally, my son, was determined to always be in the front of the group. Isabel was very talkative and eager to tell every fact she knew about the various animals. Jessica was concerned with when we were going to visit the gift shop so that she could spend the money her mother had given her that morning. Also the girls decided that they were going to have aliases for the day. Isabel would only answer to April or Krystal. Jessica informed me that she should be called only Jasmine or Pink Feather.

We covered most of the zoo during our visit even though we didn't have a well thought out route. Pretty much whatever they saw ahead of them was what the kids wanted to see next. However, they all seemed to be looking in different directions. As we were touring, I got hoarse from calling out, “This way Isabel, I mean April, Krystal whatever your name is. Over here, Pink Feather. Slow down, Wally.” and “Come on, Andy.”

The highlights of our tour were watching a king cobra snake eat some white mice for lunch, and observing an orangutan watching us. As the orangutan came up to the glass and stared at all of the kids, I was reminded that she was close to the same developmental age as they were. I wondered what she thought about all of the little monkeys jumping around outside her cage.

After continually hearing I'm hungry, ...

Tune in next week when we go to the snack cart and the gift shop. See if the bus ride home is any different than the bus ride there.

Thankful Sunday--October 21, 2012

I am thankful apples--especially this time of year when they are tree ripened.

Apples from the Shanholtz Orchard in Romney, WV.

Food Waste Friday and True Food Confessions--Oct. 19, 2012

 It's time for Food Waste Friday, when the Frugalgirl encourages us to post pictures from the previous week of wasted food from our household. This accountability hopefully will help us to be more careful with our food and maybe save some money. Also, I am using this public forum to encourage us to eat out less which includes better meal planning. You can follow how we are doing in this endeavor by reading True Food Confessions.

This Week's Food Waste

Salsa, that didn't last long.

Another week of no waste. That's two in a row. I saved some ripe tomatoes. I made salsa from them. The salsa disappeared very quickly.

(Can you find the hidden pattern in the above paragraph. See the end of the post for the answer.)

This Weeks True Food Confessions

We ate well this week.

I think this cooking and eating at home is becoming somewhat comfortable to us. How do I know? Cooking is not such a big event now that I rush to get the camera to document it. Taking a picture is usually an afterthought, if we remember at all, so I will have some pictures for the blog. I hope next week works out as well.



Answer to Food Waste Question: All of the sentences have five words in them. Once again, I'm amusing myself.

A Second Look--October 17, 2012

The mums are blooming, the leaves are turning, and the nights are freezing. Autumn is really here. 

See What I Found This Week During a Second Look.

These are the first mums to bloom this fall.

Chinese lantern seed pods

We're seeing more activity at our feeder these days. This is an adult male house finch.

One of our many squirrels taking a drink from the bird bath.

After a rain one day, these mushrooms sprang up.

The dogwoods were the first trees to turn colors. They have been red for a couple of weeks now.

This maple is also starting to turn. Notice that it does it from the top down. The bare branches transition to red leaves which transition to green leaves.

This impatiens was close to the house, so it survived our first frost.

A Second Look--Early Addition, October 16, 2012

This is an early edition of a Second Look that features the first frost of the season. The regular Second Look will be posted tomorrow.

Here's What I Saw One Morning This Week

Notice the white on the hill. That's all frost.

Frosted Japanese Maple Leaf

Frosted Sedum Bloom

Frosted Violet Leaves

Frosted spider web

Frosted Marigold Bloom

Frosted violet leaf.  Notice the drop of dew to the right of the leaves.

School Days--Wally's Field Trip, Part One

  School Days is a reoccurring feature in which I ask people about their early memories of school. Everyone has a story to tell about this and I hope to give them a voice here.

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This week will be a little different with an account of Wally's first grade field trip instead of an interview. I wrote this soon after we returned from the trip so there's no looking back with nostalgia here. The story is fairly long so it will be posted in three installments. They will follow each other weekly on School Days Mondays.

Wally's First Grade Field Trip 

Part One

Wally with his teacher before loading the bus.

Wally came home from school one day excited about some papers he had for me. It was time for the first grade field trip to the zoo, and he had a permission slip and a volunteer form. This was just the opportunity I had been dreading waiting for—a chance to ride on a bumpy school bus with 50 first graders, and then chase them all over the zoo as they showed a life size example of Brownian motion. However I couldn't ignore Wally's enthusiasm, so I filled out both forms and waited to learn my fate. There were only had a limited number spaces for the trip, so the school used a lottery system to pick the chaperones.

I was given a false sense of relief when Wally brought home a note saying that I had lost the lottery and my services wouldn't be needed. My relief turned to dread  excitement when two days later, I got a call from the principal that one of the chaperones had canceled, and I was the next lucky person picked to go.

Quickly I went to work on finding childcare for Theodore and an attitude adjustment for myself. Maybe the trip wouldn't be so bad. The kids had matured a lot since kindergarten where my attitude about school field trips had been formed. Maybe the trip would actually be fun. Certainly the general population seemed to think so. “Wow, that sounds like a lot of fun!” was the universal response when I mentioned the trip to anyone. Perhaps they were right. I hoped so.

After a lot of effort on my part, I arrived at the school Thursday morning of the trip with a positive attitude along with some Kleenex, extra band aids, a blanket, and a bottle of aspirin. (As positive as I was trying to be, I still had to be practical about the situation.) The day was looking promising. The rain had stopped  and all of the kids had remembered their lunches. After group assignments and a bathroom trip, we loaded the bus at nine o'clock.

We were off and not a moment too soon. The kids were ready to explode with excitement and essentially did once the bus started moving. The sound was deafening as 50 six year olds started screaming with excitement. As their squeals got louder and louder, the mom in front of me looked back with an expression of horror and said, “We're not even out sight of the school yet!”

The first half of the hour-long ride was filled with the kids calling out the name of every eating establishment we passed. “There's McDonalds!” There's Jack-in-the Box!” There's Ci Ci's!”  The second half of the trip was teeming with questions like, “Why are we going this way?” and “Are we there yet?” During the bus ride, trying to keep a positive attitude, I reminded myself that the kids had matured a lot since last year. I saw very little running up and down the aisles and no fighting as I had seen on the kindergarten bus.

We arrived at the zoo at ten o'clock.

Tune in next Monday to see what happened at the zoo.

Thankful Sunday--October 14, 2012

I am thankful for this kind woman who explained the quilts at the Apple Harvest Festival quilt show.

Last weekend Miss Landers and I attended a quilt show. As we were looking at the quilts, this woman struck up a conversation with us. She is a member of one of the local quilting groups so she knew a story for every quilt. She not only told us about the different patterns and techniques used to make them, she told us about the people who made them. It was the highlight of our day.

Food Waste Friday and True Food Confessions--Oct. 12, 2012

 It's time for Food Waste Friday, when the Frugalgirl encourages us to post pictures from the previous week of wasted food from our household. This accountability hopefully will help us to be more careful with our food and maybe save some money. Also, I am using this public forum to encourage us to eat out less which includes better meal planning. You can follow how we are doing in this endeavor by reading True Food Confessions.

 This Week's Food Waste

After many weeks, we finally have a week with no waste. Hooray! In the past, produce always seemed to be our nemesis, but not this week. All of tomatoes that were ripening on the counter are finally gone, so I think that helped. Also, we didn't bring any new produce into the house except apples which also helped.

This Week's True Food Confessions

"Once again, plans to cook a grand dinner were dashed on the rocks of apathy and proximity to a Chipotle."

I borrowed these words from Eddie's Facebook page because they perfectly explain our day yesterday. No one was interested in cooking, so we had Chipotle. However, I will say that we are having fewer of those days than we used to. We went away for the weekend to Miss Landers' cabin and planned ahead for our food there. It was nice to come back from the Apple Harvest Festival and find chili in the crock pot and wake up the next morning to bacon and eggs. Although we didn't have a menu planned this week, we managed to cook a big pot of tuna mac which, along with leftovers from the weekend, kept us at home for our other meals.

Letters of a Pioneer Homesteader

or A Book Review

"When you think of me you must think of me as one who is truly happy. It is true, I want a great many things I haven't got, but I don't want them enough to be discontented and not enjoy the many blessings that are mine."

I discovered these inspiring words recently when I read  Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart. This nonfiction book is comprised of letters that Stewart wrote from 1909 to 1913 to a former employer. During this time, she was trying to establish a homestead in Wyoming and gives a good snapshot of life during these frontier times. The letters are published just as she wrote them except for an occasional omission or name change.

Although Stewart had no formal education, she is a good storyteller and writer. She tells stories about her life, her neighbors, and adventures she had when she was traveling throughout the vast area. At that time in Wyoming, your neighbor could be days away by horse or wagon and she thought nothing about gathering up her babies and heading out. Though usually not the main emphasis of her letters, you also get a good idea of what every day life was like. 



What did I think of the book?

• I enjoyed this book more that any others I have read for a while. I found myself wanting to know what was going to happen next in her little community.
• Stewart is clever.  She made me smile more than once with a joke or humorous word play.
• I highly recommend it especially if you like to read personal accounts of history.

The book also gave me some food for thought.

• Oh, my goodness, people were isolated during those times.
• They had so little access to things, they really took pride in what little they did have.
• Life went on even when the snow was over their heads or mountains were hard to cross.
• When letters were the main form of communication, everyday writing was rich.
• Hard work and determination were very important assets.
• A positive attitude can help you survive most anything.

In conclusion:

• When I grow up, I want to be like Stewart. She lived life trying to better herself, working hard, and having a positive attitude. A winning combination if there ever was one.

A Second Look--October 10, 2012

We've had some cold, overcast days this week with rain here and there. The result was that I've been cold, but I haven't gotten out my heavy jacket yet. The marigolds are still blooming and the maple trees have just started to turn. Many plants are ready for winter either by setting their blooms for next year or forming seeds to sprout in the spring. During this week's Second Look, I focused on seeds. Although they may not be as colorful as the flowers before them, I find seeds have their own beauty.

Here's What I Found This Week

Coneflower seed heads. Notice the flower on the right has had some seeds eaten by a goldfinch.

Acorns from our biggest oak tree

I plan to save seeds from these marigolds for next year.

Siberian iris seed pods. I leave these up during the winter for interest.

Japanese maple seeds

Milkweed seed pod with milkweed bugs (and a lone lady bug).  Even though they look like two different kinds of bugs, they are all milkweed bugs. The difference is maturity. The more mature the bug, the more black it has.

Day lily seed pod

Dogwood berries

Sunflower