Sunday Dinner, May 25, 2008 & Some Pics

If you looked at my Sunday Dinner button for this week and thought to yourself, "Diane's cooking pinto beans again for Sunday Dinner," well, you'd be absolutely correct and they're simmering away on the stove as I type this.

Cecil and Ducky went in together to buy a smoked pork Boston butt for Sunday Dinner this week, so after we get home from church we'll slice it thin and put in the oven to warm up while the beans are warming on the stove top. They're bringing buns and barbecue sauce and everyone will assemble sandwiches from the hot smoked pork, and I'm making homemade slaw to go with everything. Some of us like our slaw on our barbecue sandwiches, some like it alongside, and others don't eat it at all.

What's that you say? You've never eaten slaw on your barbecue pork sandwich? You've never even heard of such? Why, you don't know what you're missing out on, my friend! And if you're sitting there in front of your computer thinking, "Blech!!", well at least try it before you condemn us slaw-on-our-bbq-sandwich-lovers.

So, what's your menu/plan for Sunday Dinner this week? If you want to participate, share your thoughts in the comments.Ducky's son and daughter in law, Danny and Mikki, invited us over to their home for a catfish dinner this afternoon. They also had one of those smoked Boston butts sliced for sandwiches, French fries, baked beans, sliced onion and pickles, and for dessert, fresh strawberries with strawberry glaze and short cakes, and Ducky made a pineapple 3 layer delight. Everything was delicious!

Danny caught the catfish on a recent fishing trip and was kind enough to share them with me, Lamar, Ducky (Danny's Mom) Cecil, Shelly, Marty and Genna (Danny's sister, her hubby and their daughter) Jessica, Jason, Justin (Jason's younger brother) and Emmy, and Danny and Mikki's friends, Johnny and Carrie.

I took a lot of pictures of Danny and Mikki's son, Seth, and Emmy playing outside. They had a little kiddie pool and a play table that you fill with water for Seth and Emmy to play with, but to be honest the so-called adults played with the water table more than the kids did! Emmy and Seth are still just a little too young to appreciate the water table, but it won't be long before they'll get the hang of it.

I took some pics of Jessica and Cecil, and Cecil took some of me and Jessica, and Jessica took some of me and Cecil. Confused yet? I think I took the rest of them.

I think this one of Cecil and Jessica turned
out pretty good, and the light was good for
taking pictures outside today.Me and Cecil.

Me and Jessica.Ain't Emmy a cool surfer girl
with her snazzy shades?
The bucket's bigger than Emmy!
Baby wedgie!Seth and Emmy playing with the water
table as their adoring fans look on.Emmy spent as much time crawling in and
out of the pool as she spent in it.Do you think Emmy's having a good time?Seth's in his little push car. Emmy seems to

be saying, "Here, let me help you with that!"

And of course I can't let the occasion pass without recognizing Memorial Day and what it means to all of us. In loving memory of all who've gone on before, and in special appreciation of all those who gave their lives in defense of life and liberty for those of us in the U.S.A. and all over the world.May God richly bless you by meeting all your needs, and may you have enough to share.

Y'all have a great Memorial Day weekend.

More Childhood Memories, Part...Um, I've Lost Track

I suppose watching Miss Emmy growing up before my very eyes has made me a bit introspective about my own childhood. As I see her experiencing new things and learning more every day, it tends to make me try to see things more from a child's perspective.

For example, Jessica and I were talking just the other day, wondering how much of what Emmy learns now that she'll retain as she grows older. What is she really thinking as she's playing and learning? What's really going through her little mind? Does she think we're totally insane as we sing silly songs and make rude noises at her, trying to coax her to laugh and mimic us?

I know that Emmy will have very different memories as she grows up because she's growing up in a very different world than the world in which I was raised, but it's my most earnest prayer that some things that I experienced will be present in her life as well. My childhood wasn't perfect by any means, and my sisters and I experienced some difficult times as we grew up, as most families do, but we had love and we had each other. Love truly does cover a multitude of sins. Thank you Lord for that!

I pray that Emmy will grow up surrounded by family and a host of life long friends, knowing that she's loved unconditionally, and that when the hard times come, as they inevitably will, that she'll have precious, happy childhood memories to cherish and hold close to her heart, as I do my own memories.

Our memories are unique to each of us as individuals and mold us as we grow and mature from infants to adults and into our golden years. These are just a few of my childhood memories about Spring and Summer as I was growing up in the late 1960's into the 1970's.I remember a little 4 room shotgun shack on a gravel road, just a mile outside of Trumann, Arkansas. We moved there in the late 1960's and after living in "Town", moving to a 2 acre yard with cotton fields on every side was like being let out of prison for Cecil and me, and the nieces and nephews that came along shortly after us.

That tarpaper shack was home. Not just home, but HOME. We had the run of the place and we made the most of it. I don't know if anybody else has noticed, but when you're a kid you tend to be short, which means you're close to the ground. When you're close to the ground you're closer to the plants and flowers and see things in closer detail than after you grow up and farther away from those things.

I remember the smell of clover flowers. Do you remember the last time you actually smelled clover flowers, or do you just think of it as a pesky weed that has no place in your lawn? We never had a lawn, we had a yard, and every Spring mounds of clover sprouted and awaited our scrutiny as we searched for four leaf clovers. When the blooms came along we alternated between making clover blossom necklaces and shrieking at the tops our lungs as we ran from poor honey bees as they innocently tried to collect pollen from the blooms.

Now I see them as innocent, but back then they were stinging devil-possessed bugs whose sole mission in life was to sting us to death. Or worse, whatever's worse than being stung to death. I remember also that my imagination was fairly vivid when I was 6 years old. Ahem.

I remember the sweet scent of that clover and the sun warmed grass when we'd lay in it, looking at puffy white clouds in that impossibly blue sky, searching for animal shapes in those clouds. Of course, I also remember the itching and stinging of my legs when Mama gave us a sponge bath with a soapy rag in the dishpan before bed. That grass got it's revenge for us rolling in it when those invisible and unnoticed grass cuts came alive with that soapy water!

I remember my sister Ducky's pear tree that bloomed every Spring. I loved those poofy white and pink blossoms. They had a sweet dusty scent that made me sneeze every time I inhaled a deep snoofle of their fragrance, but it didn't stop me from smelling them over and over again. They smelled like dusty sunshine, with a fruity undertone.

I remember making bouquets of dandelions and clover and whatever else I could cobble together. Some I kept to put in an old bottle I used for a vase in my playhouse out by the storm cellar, and some I presented to Mama. She'd accept them and say "Thank You!" just as if they'd come from the finest florist, and keep them in her little pink and white hobnail vase until they wilted beyond resurrecting before she tossed them out.

I remember red and yellow 4 o'clocks that bloomed every Summer under our bedroom window. I've grown some 4 o'clocks since I married and had my own place, but none have ever been as intoxicating and intensely fragrant as those that bloomed every afternoon on those hot Summer days. What a heavenly scent that wafted in through the screen on those Summer evenings as I lay sweltering on top of the sheets, thankful for every meager little breeze that found its way inside.

It was endlessly fascinating to me how those flowers knew to bloom every afternoon at the same time! Every afternoon, those blooms would open like, well, clockwork! If you were still long enough to sit and watch them, you could see those flowers actually open before your very eyes. And when the flowers opened I knew Daddy would be home soon, because he got off work at the Singer Sewing Machine plant at 4 o'clock every afternoon, you see.

I remember one time after a good rain, Cecil and I had the bright idea of throwing mud balls at the outdoor toilet. Of course the mud dried on there, and the next time Mama had to make a trip down the back path, it almost literally hit the fan! She made us rake off the mud we could reach with old cotton stalks and sticks.

When you're young and short, that puts you pretty close to the business portion of a privy. That was a punishment in itself, never mind dodging the various bugs and insects that always seem to be attracted to such, um, fragrant things. Of course the next hard rain took care of the mud we couldn't reach.

I remember we had a china berry tree (anybody besides me remember those?) which I dearly loved, even at 6 years old. It had beautiful smooth shiny bark and lacy foliage, and sweet smelling purple star-like flowers. The flowers made clusters of hard green berries that stung pretty good when chucked at you by a skilled thrower. Not that I'd personally know anything at all about that.

We had a huge sycamore tree in the front yard that had silver dollar-sized seed balls on it every Fall. Now they downright stung when you got winged with one of those. Once again, I came by that knowledge anonymously.

I remember coming home from school on one of those first truly warm Spring days to find all the doors and windows open and being greeted by the clean smell of Pine*sol and lemon*Pledge. We knew before we got up the porch steps that Mama had been cleaning house. After a long Winter of the house being closed up and having a wood fire every day, airing out the house was a welcome thing and signaled that Spring was surely in the air, quite literally.

I remember Mama forever getting onto us for slamming the screen doors. But when you're 6 years old and you run everywhere you go, (where did we EVER find the energy?!) who has time to slow down and gently shut the screen door behind you? Life is too short for that, even at 6 years old apparently.

I remember long Summer evenings when we could stay outside as late as we wanted and chase lightning bugs and look at the stars, or until 8:30, whichever came first. Daddy had to get up early to go to work, so that meant everyone went to bed by 9 pm every night. We didn't have air conditioning in 1969, and only one or 2 box fans, so we slept with the doors and windows open and the screen doors on a hook latch. For that matter, our door didn't even have a lock on it, except for a slide bolt on the inside to keep it from blowing open at night, and it was rarely used.

I remember simpler, happy days, growing up in more innocent times.I hope you all have happy memories of your childhood, and I challenge you to put some of those memories down in words on your blogs, not just for your children and grandchildren to treasure, but also to bring those memories alive again for yourself.

Also, I'm selfish. I'd like to read them as well. :o)

I hope y'all are having a wonderful late Spring week.

Sunday Dinner, May 18, 2008

As promised in my last post, here I am with this week's Sunday Dinner post. I' know you've all been holding your breath in anticipation, so y'all can all breathe now.

As I type this the smell of roast pork is wafting through the house, along with the aroma of white beans, or for y'all non-Southerners, Great Northern beans.

I have a big Boston butt pork roast in my biggest enamel ware roast pan, roasting away at 375º. I added some water to the pan to keep the drippings from burning and so I'll have the pan juices to make gravy. I'll let it cook until it's done through but not quite tender, then take it out of the oven to cool. It will go in the fridge for the night.

After my beans get done and I've seasoned them with salt and a little oil, I'll set them off the stove to cool, then refrigerate them until I get home from church. I'll reheat them slowly and stir them often to guard against them sticking and scorching. There's not much worse than burnt beans.

I'll peel some potatoes tonight and put them in a bowl of cold water. Tomorrow afternoon when I get home from church I'll put the potatoes in with the roast and put it back in the oven to finish baking until the pork roast is tender and the potatoes are done. I'll thicken the pan juices with a slurry of corn starch and water to make the gravy.For those who may not know how to thicken gravies with corn starch, use one heaping tablespoon of cornstarch for each cup of pan juices. Dissolve the cornstarch in a quarter cup of cold water. Bring the pan juices to a boil in a saucepan and remove from heat. Add the cornstarch and water to the juices, stirring constantly.

After it's well blended, put the saucepan back on the heat and bring back to a boil, stirring constantly, and cook for at least one minute or until thickened and glossy. When you add the cornstarch slurry the mixture will be cloudy, but as it cooks the gravy will turn shiny and almost clear.

If it's a little too thick to suit you, add a little hot water at a time until it's the consistency you like.I know Jessica, Emmy and Jason will be here, and as far as I know Cecil and Ducky will be here, along with Ducky's granddaughter, Genna. According to who's here and general consensus, I may fix some green beans or cabbage, or maybe some steamed broccoli to round out the meal.

Boy, that roast is smellin' good! I may have to have a sample tonight just to make sure it's fit to serve tomorrow. ;-)

Now, what's for dinner at your place this Sunday? Going to Grandma's or out to eat? Just share your plans/menu in the comments if you'd like to participate this week.Y'all have a great remainder of your weekend. May God bless you with all you need, and enough to share.

Emmy Pics & Rambling....Lots Of Rambling

Just in case you haven't gathered this information from my last several posts, it's been a really wet and stormy Spring here in the MidSouth: as in record setting flooding rains and tornadoes. What with all the rain, you might infer that there just might be some standing water and puddles here at Diane's Place, and if so, you'd be absolutely correct, Sherlock.

Tuesday it rained most of the morning but we didn't have any severe storms, thank goodness. Sue and Cecil were here in the afternoon and Jessica and Emmy joined us. Jessica had to work that evening but before she left she spent some time visiting with me and her aunts and we all enjoyed some time together with Emmy.

Emmy loves bath time and most anything to do with water. She takes after me and her Mama that way. Since it was warm and there were puddles outside, Jessica decided to take Emmy out to play in the water. As you'll see from the pictures, Emmy took to playing in the puddles like a duck to water, no pun intended.

She also really loved it when Jessica pulled her around my back yard in my old rusty red wagon. It's old and beat up, but it still works for the most part. Kind of like me. ;-)

I intended to upload a slide show but Rock*Me, the same site I used for Emmy's birthday pictures, kept giving me a hard time. It wouldn't let me upload any pictures because it said the picture files were too big. Keep in mind that I used the very same camera and same settings for these pictures that I used to take the pictures from Emmy's birthday.

Have I ever mentioned that this techy stuff, it escapes me?

And so I'll be uploading these pictures one at a time, Blogger style. Oy vey.

Also, I meant to tell everyone last time I posted, JESSICA has some pictures and slide shows from Emmy's birthday party and other occasions up on her blog, JESSICA'S WORLD. Click on the bold links if you'd like to check them out.

I'm not going to caption these pictures. I think they speak for themselves.

***CLICK ON ANY PIC TO ENLARGE***

Wednesday I made 2 homemade cakes. I made the marshmallowy 7 Minute Frosting to go on them and then sprinkled them with coconut. Good stuff, if I do say so myself. I had to make one for a special meeting that my church hosted. I was asked to make a coconut cake and since I had to mess up the dishes anyway, it's not that much more trouble to make two cakes than it is to make one. One went to church Wednesday night, and I shared some of the other one with my pastor and his family.

I didn't even know I wanted coconut cake until my friend from church asked me to make one for that meeting, but apparently she flung a cravin' on me. The recipe is a family favorite and I know it's been in my family for at least 40 years, maybe longer. A bonus is that it uses ingredients that most of us have on hand all the time.

If you'd like the recipe for my HOMEMADE COCONUT CAKE WITH 7-MINUTE FROSTING, just click on that bold link to go to the recipe on MY RECIPE BLOG.I don't know if I've mentioned it, but my hubby has been gone to Fort Worth, Texas to visit his brother this week. I've had Emmy every day except Wednesday and although I didn't get quite as much done as I usually do when Lamar's visiting his brother, between us Jessica and I did get some things done.

Bless her heart, Jessica has been helping out with some of my housework lately in return for my keeping Emmy and I'm really appreciative and thankful for her efforts. She keeps her house clean and then comes over here and works at my place before she goes to her actual job. She doesn't do housework here for me every time she's here, just when I need a little extra help or want to do something that's a little to much for me to do by myself.Thursday afternoon Jessica cleaned up my kitchen for me while I played with Emmy and fed and changed her. I think I got the better end of the deal, even though Emmy had a dirty diaper. Later, after Jason picked up Emmy, I did laundry. I washed, dried, folded, hung and put away 6 loads of clothes and towels. Whew!

Friday, Jessica and I cleaned, sorted, tossed, reorganized and put everything back under my kitchen sink. We also went through my pots and pans and organized them and I gave her a cast iron skillet and a few other things. One thing about it, you may get tired of cast iron but you won't wear it out!
After Jessica left for work, I fed Emmy and got her put down for a nap, then I cleaned my kitties' litter pan. While I was in the utility room I cleaned my potato bin and tossed out the ones that were growing long sprouts. I use one of those milk crate type square plastic containers with old newspapers lining the bottom.

I stripped my bed and sprayed it with Fe*breeze then let it air out for several hours. While it was airing I gathered up the trash from cleaning the litter pan and the various trash cans around the house and took them out to the outside garbage can. As I was coming in the back door Emmy was stirring from her nap so I had to put the rest of my plans on hold and tend to her.

Emmy had her one year shots Thursday and she's been feeling a little out of sorts. Praise the Lord she didn't get sick like she did when she was tiny. She's just been kind of whiny and clingy this afternoon but I think she'll probably be fine. I hope so because I'll have her all day Saturday!I was beginning to get hungry, so after Jason picked up Emmy I made myself some supper. I strayed from my healthy eating habits just a bit tonight. I fried some chicken thighs and drumsticks and had them with some turnip greens for supper, then I poured a cup of hot black coffee and cut myself a big square of my homemade coconut cake.

Do you think the greens cancelled out the fried chicken and coconut cake? If not, don't tell me, 'cause that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.After Jason picked up Emmy I made up my bed with clean sheets and a handmade quilt that I use as a comforter. One of my Mama's best friends gave her the quilt and when Mama died it came to me. After I got the bed made I took my shower and now I'm sitting here in my comfy nightshirt that my sweet bloggy friend GREENEYES sent me for my birthday last October and some fuzzy booty sock thingies.

One of my favorite things in the world is to take a shower and then crawl into a freshly made bed. The only thing better is if the sheets happen to have been line dried. Ah, bliss!Lamar called from his brother's place in Fort Worth a little while ago and we chatted and caught up on what's been happening here and there while he's been gone. He's supposed to be coming home on Am*Trak in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. Saturday he and his brother are going to Lake Whitney to a friend's lake house. They'll ride in Gary's speed boat and just generally goof off and have a good time. Lamar's got a hard life, don't he? ;-)And now that I've got all these pictures uploaded and caught you up on my week in review, I'm going to try to get this published and head for the bed. Emmy will be here early in the morning and I'll have her all day so I need to recharge my batteries. As of right now I don't have any particular plans for the day so we'll just play it by ear.

I'm planning on cooking Sunday Dinner this week so I'll be back on Saturday evening after Jessica picks up Emmy to do my Sunday Dinner post.

In the meantime, y'all have a great Saturday and a blessed Sunday.

Emmy's Birthday Pics & More

I have so many pictures from Emmy's 1st birthday party that I wanted to share that I decided to upload them to a slide show. I have a few more that I'll put in a separate slide show.

Emmy's party went well and she received a lot of very nice gifts. She got lots of cute clothes and some toys, including a little red wagon that Emmy will enjoy when she gets a little older. Right now we're afraid she'd jump out if we tried to take her for a ride in the wagon. She's still fearless and reckless when it comes to jumping from heights. It's enough to give her parents, grand parents and great aunts heart failure!

Sunday morning at church Jessica took Emmy to the front so we could sing Happy Birthday to her. Emmy was fine with that, but by the time church was over she was feeling sleepy and cranky. Jessica wanted a family picture but Emmy just wasn't cooperating as you'll see in some of the pics in the next slide show.

Jessica, Jason and Emmy treated me to lunch at my favorite Mexican restaurant in Jonesboro on Sunday. It was part of my Mother's Day gift. They also got me a nice card with some sweet stuff written inside that made me cry just a little bit, and took me riding around for a while last Friday night.

Thanks, kids! I had a great Mother's Day. I love y'all. :-)Today (Monday) I went with Cecil and Sue to Jonesboro and we met Jessica and Emmy at Dragon & Phoenix, a nice Chinese restaurant, for lunch. Lunch was good, then we went to a local book store to browse and get some coffee.

Afterwards, Jessica and Emmy joined us here at my apartment. Cecil and Sue took Emmy outside for a while and there are some pics in the next slide show that were taken out there. There are also a few that Cecil took today of me and Emmy.

Thanks to everyone who emailed, commented and prayed for us during the storms this weekend. We made it through the night without any more tornadoes, thank God. However, we're supposed to get more severe storms Tuesday night, Wednesday and on through Thursday. Arkansas is in Tornado Alley, but even for us this Spring has been a bad year for storms and tornadoes. Here's hoping this next round of storms won't be as intense or deadly.In other news, Jason has changed jobs again. Due to some office politics and some employee shuffling, even though Jason was doing an excellent job at his former place of employment, he was given a choice of transferring to another store in Illinois within 2 weeks' time, or being fired. Not really much of a choice if you ask me. Which they didn't, and it was a wise move on the part of Jason's former employers.

On the upside, the very same day he was given that ultimatum, one of Jason's former employers called him, asking him to come back to work for them, so Jason left one job with another job already in place for him.

He started his new job Monday morning at the same pay level as when he left them before. Usually new hirees have to start at the bottom, but Jason is already trained for the job and they sought him out to be rehired.

Jason is working on a water well drilling crew. They mostly put down agricultural irrigation wells, but they also do commercial and private wells for land owners. He's outside most of the time, which he really likes, except when it gets miserably hot. Unfortunately, it's miserably hot for a great deal of the Spring, Summer and Fall here in Arkansas.

We're all just thankful that God opened a new job door when the other one closed. All jobs have their pros and cons, and all things considered, Jason likes this particular job pretty well. After all, he's worked there before and knew what he was getting into from the beginning.

He'd actually considered quitting the other job to go back to this well drilling company a month or so back but had second thoughts and decided to stay with the job he had. When the other job played out and the well drilling company called the same day, Jason and Jessica prayed about it and felt like God was opening the door, so Jason took the well drilling job. We all see God's hand in the way things played out in Jason's job situation.

I think it's time to quit rambling on and get this posted. I'm TARD tonight and need to get to bed soon.

Y'all have a great week!

Sunday Dinner, May 11, 2008

Well, friends, it's already been an active evening weather wise, so I'll get my Sunday Dinner posted and I'll try to share pictures from Emmy's birthday party on Sunday night or Monday. I'm not sure how much longer our electricity will be on so I'm trying to hurry and get this posted.

Our power has already been off once and there are tornado warnings all around us. Our tornado sirens sounded for nearly an hour earlier this afternoon. Lamar and I actually got in the bathroom and shut the door earlier when I saw a debris cloud on the ground coming toward us. There are shredded leaves and other debris all over our parking lot, but thankfully the funnel cloud lifted back up and that's the worst of the damage in my neighborhood. Although other people in our town are without power due to trees and power lines being blown down we were blessed, thank you, God!

We're supposed to have tornadic storms all night long, and it's thundering again so I'll try to get this posted as quickly as I can.

Actually, Jessica, Jason and Emmy are taking me out to eat for Mother's Day, so I won't be cooking Sunday Dinner this week.

If you're cooking, or if your hubby and/or children are treating you to lunch, share your plans in the comments if you'd like to participate this week.My Mama has been gone for over 3 years now, but I love her and miss her so. Happy Mother's Day, Mama. I love you.

I hope everyone has a very Happy Mother's Day!

I'll be back soon to post pics from Emmy's 1st birthday bash.

"What Women Want" Book Giveaway Winner!

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Timestamp: 2008-05-10 17:36:58 UTC

SIOUX @ SIOUX'S AUBERGINE PENSEES is the winner of the book giveaway! Congratulations, Sioux! I'll email you to get your mailing information. Enjoy your book!

I'm about to leave with Jessica, Jason, Emmy and Lamar, headed to our church for Emmy's 1st birthday party. I'll be taking lots of pictures of the birthday girl and all the festivities to share on the blog.

We're also forecast to have severe storms and possibly more tornadoes this afternoon into tonight. South Arkansas is already under a tornado watch and the weather geeks expect they'll be issuing a tornado watch for our area soon.

Assuming we don't get blown away a'la Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, I should be back later tonight to do my Sunday Dinner post and to share the pics from Emmy's birthday party.