Winter Fun--Do try this at home.

Here in the East, we have had a day of snow with more falling. Many businesses have been closed as well as all of the schools. While I was looking for gloves to wear for the shoveling, I remembered a science project Theo did when he was ten.

It was one he thought up on his own and it was just right for a boy his age. His question was, "Which gloves will stay dry for the longest time while playing in the snow?" He conducted his experiment by gathering up all of the gloves in the house and making snowballs with them until his hands got wet. He used gloves made from seven different materials. The worst pair got wet after 16 snowballs and the best pair got wet after 90+ snowballs. (He stopped counting after 90.) See if you can guess which pair performed the best and which pair performed the worst.

He had gloves made from:

Deerskin
Deerskin with knit lining
Polar fleece with no lining
Polar fleece with polyester lining
Acrylic gray knit
Acrylic brown knit
Acrylic knit with leather grip

He thought the leather gloves would perform the best, but they turned out to get wet the fastest. The acrylic knit gloves did the best even though they were thinner than the polar fleece. The polar fleece were about half-way in-between the leather and acrylic knit gloves.

Now while this experiment and its results were interesting, that was not the best part according to Theo. The best part was the snowball fight he had at the end with his brother. I do encourage you to try this at home.

Today...

Today, I'm going to eat some fudge.

At Christmas time I made fudge and put the leftovers into the freezer. Today, I am going to retrieve it and have a special treat. It's good to indulge yourself then and again. Sometimes I forget that.

Thankful Sunday--January 19, 2014

I am thankful for the calmness of my cats.

When things get hectic, there's nothing like a purring cat on your lap to slow everything down. I am thankful that I have four of them so there is always one available for a little calmness when I need it.

Food Waste Friday and True Food Confessions--Jan. 17, 2014

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 and True Food Confessions

This past week I was unexpectedly called out of town to be with my mother in the hospital. Consequently, eating and food waste from my refrigerator were off my radar. But yet, food played very much into my week. As is often the case, it was a bonding element among those of us who were spending many long hours in a difficult situation.

Image from food.com

In the beginning of our stay, my sister and I soon got to recognize familiar faces and nodded in recognition. Next, as we were taking a few minutes in the lounge, we had brief discussions about the weather. However, the conversation soon evolved into something that everyone was interested in and something that took our minds off more serious matters--the cafeteria and its food.


Most everyone wanted to know how to get there. Directions were not as easy as they could have been because two of the elevators were broken. This caused lots of silly jokes like how you had to start calling the elevator for lunch as soon as you finished breakfast. Next item for discussion was what was on the menu for the day and what everyone had tried. Roast beef and hot dogs were favorites. (Familiar comfort food played a lot into these choices.)

And the hotdogs bring me to one of the better parts of this difficult experience--getting to meet Hotdog Man. We first met Hotdog Man when he asked where the cafeteria was. This was later followed with a discussion of what he had for lunch which was a hotdog in a square bun. He was none too fond of of this square bun and debating the pros and cons of square vs. round buns led us to more personal discussions. He was 78 and was at the hospital with his wife who had fallen and broken her back. He had seven kids and lots of grandkids. He used to be a coal miner and a truck driver among other things and had a botched hernia operation. We smiled every time we saw each other and chatted like we were old friends. Despite our friendliness, we never got to know Hotdog Man's real name. It's funny how we were so close in many ways, but real names didn't seem necessary. I already miss his smile and have been pondering a question, "If we called him Hotdog Man, I wonder what he called us?"

Life Happens

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." 

This saying was never so true as it has been for me recently. During the last couple of weeks, I have made two trips to the emergency room with two different family members. One was close by and one was several hours away. Subsequently, there was also a lot of time spent in a hospital. Both people are making forward progress, but it will be a long slow road. 

These events have brought a lot of things into focus, the most important being how lucky I am to have supportive family and friends. Also, it reminded me how very grateful I am for the people who have chosen the medical profession as their calling. It is not a job I could do. God Bless all of you.