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November 2006
You Just Never Know
November 30, 2006
You just never know when diagramming sentences will come in handy. I could have sworn to Mrs. Leonard, Mrs. Nelson and Miss Popplewell that I would have no need of diagramming sentences once I got out of high school. But I would have sworn in vain. Today I have needed my diagramming skills twice.
I got an e-mail at 3:30 this morning from a college student saying, “I have a favor to ask you. I'm writing this personal essay . . . and I was wondering if you would look it over for me. I also have some questions at the end where I didn't have a concrete answer. Thank you.” I pulled out my mental diagramming sentence drawer and went to work. Luckily, the drawer with answers-for-questions-without-concrete-answers was right next to it and I had a couple of suggestions to offer.
I got another e-mail this afternoon from Cali that said HHHEEEEELLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPP in the subject line. The content said, “Mom, I am in a very desperate situation. I wrote this paper and I just found out its due date was moved up to today. . . . It’s due in three hours. I'm in class for the next three hours, but would you mind just reading through it and doing a quick proof-read . . . Just make any changes you think it needs, then I'll reread it during our 10 minute break and either change it back or leave it. . . . I sure love you. Cali. Luckily the drawer was still partly opened and I edited her paper rather quickly.
All in all, I have used diagramming sentences far more often than trigonometry and I was certain trig would come in handy someday. I just knew that I would need to compute the sign, cosign, tangent and (what was the other thing?) to figure out how tall a tree we would need to chop down to build a bridge across the river when we were stranded in the forest. But I never once suspected I would need to know diagramming sentences knowledge. However, sentence structure has served me well through the years as I have edited dozens of papers for our kids. You’d be surprised what I’ve learned in the process, too. I have intimately learned the plots of books I’ve never read, science experiments I’ve never conducted, philosophies I’ve never heard of and facts about things I’ve never studied. Someday I’m going to write a well constructed letter to Mrs. Leonard, Mrs. Nelson and Miss Popplewell and thank them for making me redo those assignments.
In the meantime, would you please overlook all of my typos, incorrect subject/verb agreements, misspellings and errors? I didn’t get that good of grade in sentence diagrams; I just learned enough to see others' mistakesJ.
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November 29, 2006
This smells like Christmas in a pot! The potpourri has cloves, cinnamon, apples, oranges and pine branches in it. It smells wonderful and is inexpensive and easy to make for gifts as well.
- Slice two apples and two oranges and put in a bowl.
- Sprinkle with ground cinnamon.
- Add 1 Tbsp of whole cloves and two broken cinnamon sticks and stir well.
- Mix in a handful of evergreen boughs.
- To use, put potpourri in a pot and add water. Simmer and smell!
To make a gift, put potpourri in a cellophane bag and staple it closed. Make a tag from cardstock and staple to the top of the bag or punch holes in it and tie with jute or ribbon.
Fresh Christmas Potpourri
To make your home smell holiday fresh,
add water to Christmas potpourri
and simmer in a pot on the
back of the stove.
This is a good way to use up mellow apples, trimmed tree branches, sour (or dry) oranges and old spices and turn them into something great! That works for me. For more tips and ideas, go to Rocks in My Dryer
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Please send your comments to jp@neighborjanepayne.com
That is a fabulous idea! I needed another quick homemade gift idea and I think I've found it!! Thank you for sharing it!
In Him,
Angie
Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe! I bet it makes a home smell wonderful!
Tracy
Sounds like a great potpourri! I’ll try it! Heather
I love this potpourri! Jane gave this to me last year and it was AWESOME!! Thanks again Jane! Susan Pyle
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Baby, It’s Cold Outside
November 28, 2006
Brrrrr. It’s not even 20 degrees outside and it’s noon. No worries. I like the cold because it makes being inside so much better. I’ve got a dozen things to enjoy where it’s warm today:
- The first thing on the list is to start a pot of chili. Cold—Chili, they call to each other.
- The next thing is to start a good Cd.
- The next thing is to light the Candle in the fireplace. Somehow it tricks my mind into thinking it is very, very warm in the house when there is a flicker in the fireplace. I think the best in-your-fireplace candles are found in the religious-candles section at Wal-Mart or the grocery store. I don’t know enough about them other than to describe them as the candles in the deep glass containers and though they have risen in price from $.96 to $1.08 this year, it’s a cheap trick to stay warm.
- The next thing is to start baking a Cake. I’m certain we need sugar on a day like today—at least it’s a good enough excuse for me. And after it’s baked, the oven will be warm and it’ll be time to start the Cornbread for supper, anyway.
- After that it’s up for grabs. I have some Christmas presents that I need to get ready to ship, some Christmas presents to finish and Christmas Cards to start. (I wish I could post the pictures and ideas, but then I’d have to come up with new ones again, so I’ll wait until after the New Year and put them in the affordable gift giving section of the website.)
- The last thing I need to do is bolster my enthusiasm for our little tree. I’m taking Darla’s suggestion and we’re watching “Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tree” and then decorating ours tonight.
*I had no idea all of these things started with “C” until I had finished typing them. Funny Coincidence, huh?
**I had the sweetest thing in my e-mail box the other day. Susan, a blog-reading friend, sent me pictures of her family just so I could see who I was writing to. It was so fun to put a face with a commenter.
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Blog Time
November 27, 2006
I used all my blogging time (as if I’m really good at budgeting it, but today I have to be frugal with my blog time because it’s Calvin’s birthday) on uploading the pictures for the Mountain River Lodge Retreat we had a few weeks ago. I love retreats: I love the people, the feeling, seeing all the ideas and projects and getting so much done.
And, I also love Calvin. Happy-Whole-Bunch-of-Birthdays, Calvin.
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In Which I Join the Ranks of an Artificial Tree Owner
November 25, 2006
We got an artificial Christmas tree. I never thought I’d join the ranks of an artificial tree owner, but how could I not? Home Depot had a 6.5 foot tall tree for $29.99 with a rebate for $30. Now, if they’re going to PAY me to have an artificial tree, well, who am I to say no? The only problemo? It’s pathetic. Really pathetic. We’ve had pathetic trees and I recognize pathetic when I see it. (The first few years we had sagebrush as our Christmas trees. They were free and sat on a tabletop so the babies wouldn’t tip them over, but sagebrush actually make pitiful Christmas trees.)
Calvin threw his hands up in the air when I showed him the floor model and laughed saying, “I want nothing to do with this tree. It looks like sticks with outdoor carpet glued to it.” He has an active imagination, doesn’t he?
Ande tried to be polite in her objections.
I said, “But Ande, we’ve never had a beautiful tree and this is a tree that I can handle. I won’t have to wait for your dad. I won’t have to hear him grumble when it’s time to put it up. I won’t have to wonder how the vacuum will pick up the needles one more year. We won’t have to wait for Cali to put the lights on or patiently endure while she redoes the lights. I think this is the tree for me.”
Ande said, “But mom, do you really want to be known for having ugly trees?”
To which I replied, “Yes. Because it’s free. And we’re going to string popcorn and cranberries and dry oranges and it’s going to be beautiful and fill in all the holes. And I promise I’ll get a new tree skirt. I will even buy one. I will throw away my skirt (my real to life red plaid tartan skirt that I simply cut up the seam and draped beautifully around our past trees) and get a new one.”
To which she said, “Well, you’re going to have to because your skirt will dwarf and swallow up this little tree. But in the meantime, how do you plan to hide the stump that they glued fake tree needles to?”
So…that is my only dilemma. What to do with the stump, but I think a present or two strategically placed will take care of that.
Cali was more like Calvin and balked when she heard the initial suggestion (and not too politely). But, after realizing that nice artificial trees are a couple of hundred dollars this time of year (and that would seriously intrude on Christmas presentsJ) she said, “Ok. Let’s go with that pathetic tree, but only if we take lots of pictures and make this a family joke and refuse to do it again next year and promise to rectify our ongoing tree problem.”
After teasing me mercilessly about the tree, Calvin whispered this afternoon that he is very relieved we got it. He hates putting Christmas trees up as badly as I hate waiting for him to put them up. I am very pleased with my free gift and promised the family that I can always sell it at a yard sale and earn the tax back. To which Calvin said, “I don’t think so. Not just anybody is going to want that tree.” He’s got me there, which secretly suits me fine because it is a tree that I can handle.
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Please send your comments to jp@neighborjanepayne.com
My husband complains every, single year that he can't stand our artificial trees, but being in the desert (and being that I want our tree up from the day after Thanksgiving on), we can't "do" real. It'd be dead by mid-December!
That being said, we got an awesome deal at the after-Christmas sales last year. We found a 6.5' pre-lit tree at Wal-mart that was 90% off! A normally $100+ tree for under $10. Now, not only do we not have to deal with pine needles, but having to put on lights is also ancient history. Doesn't get much better than that!
Enjoy your "free" tree -- I'm sure it'll be beautiful. (Just think how Charlie Brown's came to life after they decorated it!)—Susan Walker
Yesterday we walked around K-Mart and debated and debated over a fake tree. We HAD to have one this weekend—the next two weekends are gone and the third weekend in December is just too far away to wait for a Christmas tree. SO, we had to get one this weekend. I thought for sure it would die, and none of us wanted to shell out for a live tree that is only as big as a thumb. So walking around Kmart we had to make our decision. I kept telling Bert, "How can we buy one of these trees and expect it to look real? It has THREE different kinds of needles on it!!" So when I heard about you buying one with needles glued to the trunk I laughed, and laughed. I know EXACTLY what you are talking about. We decided to go to the grocery store while we thought. The grocery store was selling trees for nineteen dollars! What a steal. It was already bundled and everything. Kind of a grab bag type tree. Bert decided that we could buy a real one for nineteen and then in three weeks when it had died we could afford to come back and get a new one. We both know that will never happen, but it consoled us for the decision at the moment—Rachel
Good afternoon Jane,
I hope you and your family had a great Thanksgiving. I had to laugh at your blog today, because ever since I got my first divorce I tooo have one of the ugliest trees but....it's known as the famous "Charlie Brown Christmas Tree".. Now to get my kids to agree to it.. I had to lay down alot of guilt about how this poor tree deserved a nice warm home. It needed to be loved... it needed to feel special.. and our family was just the family to do it. All along thinking in my head I can get it in my car.. I don't have to wait for a man to put it up or down ...and it was free :) The kids thru jokes at me
left and right... Why not just paint a tumble weed green. Santa will pass us by cuz he will be so ashamed of it... Well for the past 10 yrs we've had the smallest, ugliest, Christmas tree around. We string popcorn, cranberries, fruit loops, marshmellows, anything we can put a needle thru or a string thru. The whole time we have to watch Elijah or he will have everything eaten faster than we
can get it strung. This has become our family tradition and they all look forward to it.... I'm not sure when Family Home evening is in your home but "Charlie Brown's Christmas" is on I believe on Tuesday... it will give them a whole new feeling for the ugly little tree *lol* . If Cali, Ande,& Calvin don't ever get over this tree... It will still be one Christmas remembered for the littlest, ugliest, best tree we ever had!!!! Darla
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Surprise, Surprise, Surprise
November 24, 2006
Remember when Gomer Pyle says “Sur-prise. Sur-prise. Sur-prise”? Today was a three surprise day for me, Calvin and Ande.
Surprise #1: Calvin wanted to go shopping in Spokane. He hasn’t so much as peeped his head out of the shop on the day after Thanksgiving for years. Usually he has a thousand projects going and shopping is not for him and crowded shopping is definitely not for him. However, he surprised Ande and me by saying, “Let’s go to Spokane and look for a couch.” I tried to warn him about the holiday traffic and the shopping crazed people, but he said it would be fine. And it was! Calvin wasn’t cross at all. Surprise. (Of course, we let Sportsman’s Warehouse baby-sit him for an hour while we went to the mall, but who can put a price on a good sitter?)
Surprise #2: We found a couch that was almost in our price range—and got it. Almost is close enough. We have never bought a new piece of furniture (other than a rocking chair Calvin bought me for Mother’s Day one year and an inexpensive dining room table) so buying a couch is a big deal to the Payne family. This new couch will seat all of us and we will no longer have to be disgusted with our handed-down-several-times pink couch that sits in the red, white and blue family room. Cali wrote Abe earlier in the week and said, “We are going to buy a nice brown leather couch . . . Good thing, because the pink one we have is grossing me out. Mom refuses to vacuum the couch out anymore because she thinks that if she lets it get gross enough, then she will be more driven to get a new one. So far it has just made it so NO ONE dares to put his hand or feet anywhere near the cushion cracks or else you have no idea what you will touch or will come out and touch you.” She’s right. Long live our new couch. Down with the pink couch. Surprise. Surprise.
Surprise #3: While we were shopping the furniture stores we went up several floors in one building. I was leading the trio, Calvin was behind me and Ande was bringing up the rear a flight behind us. We could hear her high heels click up the stairs. I began looking at couches while Calvin hid behind the wall so that he could jump out and scare Ande when she came out of the stairwell. I turned just as he jumped out to scare her, but it wasn’t Ande. One of the store managers had overtaken Ande on the stairs and it was her heels we heard clicking. She got Calvin smack in her face. Surprise. Surprise. Surprise. It made Calvin, Ande and me laugh heartily . . . after she left with a humph.
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Please send your comments to jp@neighborjanepayne.com
Well congratulations Jane!! Nothing makes a family feel so fresh as a new piece of furniture in the house. And to get it on "Black Friday"! Wow! Calvin was brave. --Susan
Hi Jane,
Thanks for thinking of me and thanks for the note. I have been going to drop a line to you to let you know that I am enjoying your newsletter so much and look forward to it each Friday. And I continue to enjoy your blog--I got a good laugh out of your adventures in buying your couch. This is something I need to do--Like you I have had very little new furniture in my lifetime and can probably count the couches I've purchased on one hand. Our present couch is blue and was purchased with the decorating scheme of our former home in mind. It definately wasn't meant for the turquoise rug in our present home. I read an article once in a decorating magazine about a lady who had a horrible olive green rug from the '70's. She made the statement that "if all people remembered about her home was the horrible olive green rug she wasn't much of a decorator". I keep telling myself that about my blue couch and turquoise rug as I think up things to draw attention away from them. --Ruth P.
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Happy Thanksgiving
November 23, 2006
We had a great day. I cannot believe Calvin and I are to the stage where we wonder whether or not the kids will be able to make it home for the holidays, but we are. Cali took a shift at the hospital, Abe is still serving a mission in the Philippines and Ty was invited by another cadet to join his family much closer to the Academy. It was fun to invite two other couples who have no children around to join us.
Good ole’ Ande. She made 5 pies, arranged the floral bouquet and kept the dishes done up—besides visiting and making everyone feel important and welcome.
What a great day.
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Leavenworth
November 22, 2006
Leavenworth, Washington is a Bavarian recreation. The whole town is disguised to look like a yodeler might wander in with his goats. It is a wonderful place to visit with its quaint shops and inns.
Jeff and Becky, some good friends of ours, have a time-share in Leavenworth and they couldn’t use one of their dates so Jeff called Calvin and offered a night to him. That made the trip even better, Calvin organized and planned the whole thing and all I had to do was pack my little bag.
Monday, after I was finished teaching, we took off. We stopped in Wenatchee at Costco and did a little grazing and Christmas shopping and then drove up the canyon to Leavenworth. The town was lit, town square was playing the carols and the shops were open. We checked into the Blackbird Inn, a darling place.
 
I especially thought the little cupboard in each room that opens to the hall was charming.
Guests are served breakfast through the cubbyhole, breakfast being a tray with hot chocolate, an apple muffin, sliced cheese, a boiled egg, thinly sliced turkey, hard-dark bread, grapes and sliced oranges. It was fun not to have to worry about the crumbs in the bed. We had a great time and meandered slowly home the next day through Blewett Pass where it intermittently rained, snowed, sleeted, hailed and shone brightly on us. What a fun little get-away—between pretending we were in the alps and getting all the kinds of weather, it was like we went far away for a very long time, but it took less than a tank of gas and 24 hours.
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Look-alike
November 20, 2006
One of my neighbors looks just like Harrison Ford, without the earring. I told him that once and he chuckled and said, “Ummm, he has a better haircut than I do.” Another one of my neighbors looks like Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Exactly. Especially when her hair is dyed dark. I told her that and she smiled and said, “Yes. Several people have said that.” And then, I have another friend who looks just like Richard Nixon. No kidding. The posture. The nose. The hands. The voice. Nixon through and through. But I haven’t told him yet. I just keep that one to myself.
So, can you imagine my delight when I found my look-alike? My friend, Melanie, drove through the dark, over the woods and through the river to bring her to me.
Melanie found this picture on a calendar of all places and said, “Jane, it’s you . . . right down to the box of Idaho potatoes. I just had to frame it and make her into a picture for you.” Imagine me, a centerfold.
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Please send your comments to jp@neighborjanepayne.com
Loved the look alike on the blog! Deb
I'm not sure it was worthy of a whole blog but thanks! I wish I could remember what month it was, what if it was the middle, the exact centerfold. Wouldn't that be exciting? =) Melanie
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Calvin with grapevine pile
Saturday
November 18, 2006
I’ve got an old green coat—the kids call it my park ranger coat. It’s a long, stadium-length, down coat and has a multitude of pockets that can hold way more stuff than a coat should. The coat hangs in the garage and each fall I wait till we have a good hard freeze before I put it on, just in case any spiders are hiding in the arms. I love that old green coat because it’s warm, but it is ugly with a U.
Today was like my old green coat because we fit more stuff in it than humanly possible. In fact, today is the first day this fall that I’ve worn the old green coat and it just may have been our good luck charm.
We woke up early and I deep-cleaned our bedroom—washed the walls, curtains, windows, baseboards, sheets and slid the bed under the other window and moved Calvin’s dresser. It felt good to get it cleaned right. Then I moved on to the bathrooms and scoured them. After that, I thoroughly vacuumed the house and even remembered to vacuum up the three flies in the living room windowsill.
In the meantime, Calvin started trimming the grapevines and burning the fallen grape leaves outside. Ande was cleaning the kitchen and Cali came home for the weekend. I joined Calvin outside while the girls finished dusting and cleaning the house.
Cali fixed us dinner (enchiladas) and after the girls did the dishes, Cali joined us outside while Ande got ready to go with her friends to a hockey game. Cali and I raked branches and leaves galore (at least six or eight pick-up loads) and Calvin started burning leaf piles and mowing the lawn. Then Cali trimmed the ivy off the sidewalk and swept the patio and helped me sweep the garage. Cali hung our new flag while I threw a pile of old clothes (not fit for Goodwill or rags) on the burn pile.
After I gathered the eggs, Cali and I found the camper shell behind the quail pen and loaded it on the back of the little brown pick-up. (We are in desperate need of a couch and we decided to sell the little brown pick-up and use the money from it to buy a couch.) In the meantime, the leaf pile kept on burning and Calvin kept on mowing (we have four acres of grass).
After it got too dark and cold to work outside, we came inside and I folded four batches of laundry and ironed a dozen shirts while Calvin fixed supper.
It just feels so good tonight. We’re all beat, but there’s nothing better than a Sunday after a long, hard Saturday. (The trick will be not to expect to get this much done every Saturday and frustrate me and the whole familyJ.)
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Please send your comments to jp@neighborjanepayne.com
Where did you get so much your energy to tackle all these projects in one day? I love my little kids dearly but they get in my way when I am trying to be that productive. They either undo my progress or demand my attention in other places. It is a phase, right? Good job for all you did, for now I'll just dream of getting all that done! mb
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Trivial Memories that Make Life Memorable
November 17, 2006
I’m almost done. One more good evening on my childhood album and it should be finished! I’m sold on this type of scrapbooking for some tough projects.
I was number seven in the line-up of ten children; sufficeth me to say there aren’t a whole lot of picturesJ. I’m not complaining, my mother had lots of things to do besides taking pictures of me (she did between seven and ten loads of laundry a day) and Aunt Cleo, the family photographer, only visited once or twice a year (but thankfully she came every corn season and helped us freeze between four and five hundred cups of corn). But, without pictures or stories I didn’t know quite how to put my story together. However, with the encouragement of Deb and Stacy Julian’s class, I broke my childhood down into four sections:
“All by myself”
“People I played with”
“People I loved”
“Things I was good at”
And then I did a compilation of the pictures that I do have in each section. I used only two colors (green and blue) of paper, ribbons, brads and staples. There were about eight patterns of the blue and green paper to mix and match.
This scrapbook gives an overview of my personality and reminds me of happy, important and trivial things in my childhood. Though I love it, I think Calvin and the girls (the boys haven’t seen it yet) enjoy it even more. They keep saying, “I didn’t know that you ________!”
I’ve also been amazed at the random information that popped into my head while working on it. Like Shig Morita. In one school picture I am sitting profile. I had terrible cold sores that year and mom asked the photographer, Shig Morita, if he would do a profile shot so I wouldn’t look so bad. Who would remember a name like Shig Morita? Me, when I saw the profile shot.
November 29, November 7, October 29, October 12, October 6, July 13, David, Bryce, Anita, Alan, Aaron, Tamera. Why would that trivia be stuck in my head? Because they’re the birthdates and names of some of my classmates. I knew each birthday because those were the days we got treats at school and a little girl like me always knows when there will be treatsJ. While putting pictures of “people I played with” in my book those dates and names came popping out.
Or why is my sister Rachel wearing mittens and long sleeves in a hot summer picture? Because I was afraid she’d get ringworm from the cats and made her put them on before she could play with them.
It was the random information that made this album fun to compile and ejoyable to see.
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Please send your comments to jp@neighborjanepayne.com
I love your all about me scrapbook. Will you let me see it sometime? I think with the criteria of sticking to a couple colors and categories, I could handle it and I would love to do it for my kids. I would treasure one about my mom when she was little. mb
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November 15, 2006
This week the theme for WFMW is Christmas ideas. Here are two gift ideas:
This saying matted, framed and embellished makes a nice and inexpensive gift:
“Am I one of the inn crowd or one of the stable few?”
For the last few Christmas Eves while the family was gathered, we wrote down why we love and what we appreciate about each family member on their own sheet of paper. Then we rolled the papers up into a scroll and tied them with a ribbon to the tree. On Christmas night, after the hub-bub and excitement waned, we gathered around the tree with hot chocolate and cider and opened the last gift of the day—our love and thoughts about each other. It makes a nice start for our new year and has become a great tradition.
For more ideas go to Rocks in my Dryer or to the NJP gift giving section . . . please send your ideas in as well and I'll post them in the comment section.
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Please send your comments to jp@neighborjanepayne.com
I just loved your idea for writing down special things to be read Christmas night. I think that even my little ones would look forward to this! Blessings, Mrs. C http://riverbend-ramblings.blogspot.com
Really really liked your WFMW ideas this week. Thanks for sharing. Ann
Hi, Jayne! Thanks for sharing your beautiful gift ideas! I do calligraphy and I plan to use your saying! I think I will use the scroll idea for my son to make one for everyone. He makes an ornament for family members every year and this will be one they’ll remember! Heather http://all-4-thebest.blogspot.com
Thanks for sharing such a lovely idea!! Blessings, Tracy
What a lovely idea for Christmas! Barbara H. @ Stray Thoughts http://barbarah.wordpress.com/
Great idea. I love "personal" gifts like that! http://fiddledeedee.wordpress.com
Wow! What wonderful ideas. Thanks so much for sharing. I just absolutely adore the quote. Shane from ShaneShares.blogspot.com
Wonderful gift ideas. I especially like the scroll on the tree with all the wonderful thoughts. Thanks!
Katherine Marie
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Retreat
November 14, 2006
I mentioned that Cali, Ande and I went to a scrapbook retreat last weekend. Deb Keeley and I put on a couple of scrapbook retreats each year. This fall we went to a place called Mountain River Lodge at the top of Snoqualmie Pass in Washington. It is a brand new, beautiful log facility. The lodge has two floors with eight bedrooms in it. Each room sleeps between eight and ten people. There are double-decker queen bunk beds and triple-decker single bunk beds. The scrapbook room has windows on three sides and overlooks the river. The lodge also has a hot tub, an air hockey table, pool table, ping pong table, fooze ball table and two projector TV’s, an incredible sound system . . . and a hot chocolate machine with foam!
Deb, Ande and I went up Wednesday evening to get everything ready. After we got all of the tables arranged and the scrapbook tools put out, we slept in the bunkhouse. There is a big bull hide on the split wood floor as a rug. It is a pretty cool place. Deb didn’t realize I could drop off to sleep in the middle of a sentence until that night.
The scrappers showed up early Thursday morning—pulling in by 9:00 am. The first one was Anita. This is the third retreat that we have hosted that she has attended and her husband dropped her off this time. Having seen him in dozens of scrapbook pages that Anita and her daughter, Tracy, have done it was easy to recognize him. That’s what happens at retreats. You start to become connected to not only others, but their families that they scrapbook. Soon all the scrappers had nested in (and believe me, we scrappers make fluffy nests—what with all of the paper scraps and fibers) and were working away.
For the next three days we sat in our chairs and got our memories, ancestors and lives on paper. It never ceases to amaze me how fast time goes by at a retreat. It flies. If I had to sit in an airplane or on a chair at church for that long, I would whine. But for a retreat? I can sit in one chair for hours and the only discomfort I feel is the gradual spreading of my hips as I eat more and more junior mints and Donna’s peanut m&m’s.
I am usually the retreat butt of the joke for going to bed the earliest. Not this time. It was like the timer on my internal clock got stuck on high. I stayed up until 2 and 3 am. Each morning Calvin would call and say, “What time did you get to bed last night?” and though I wanted to lie because I knew he would use it against me the next time I fell asleep on the couch at 8, I would tell him. Each time he said, “Janey Payney. . . I’m going to remember that the next time you tell me you’re too tired. If you can stay up that late at a retreat you can stay up that late . . . to watch a movie with me.”
Friday morning, right after breakfast, the lodge owners got a call that Bill’s brother had died. Bill’s brother lived next to the lodge. It was quite a shock to the family. All of the scrappers felt much sympathy and badly for the family. At Michelle’s suggestion we assembled a small scrapbook for the family’s memories of him. Each woman decorated a page and left a spot on the page for the family to put a photo in. It was really sweet and a comforting thing for both the lodge owners and the women at the retreat. The family expressed their thanks to us again and again for the simple gesture.
 
That same morning, Deb dropped her phone between the logs of the lodge and the stairs leading up to the scrapbooking room. Deb’s ear is part phone. She needed it back badly. However, even with part of her ear missing, she laughed and laughed. I suggested we get Cali, who has skinny little hands to reach down between the logs and the wall. Little did I know that Cali had watched a movie a few days before called “Life in the Undergrowth” about spiders, bugs, mites . . . little things. But not wanting Deb to be missing a good portion of her ear, she probed and reached and dug it out with kitchen tongs while Annette and Deb cheered her on with the broom. And me? Well, someone needed to be the photographerJ. It was quite a feat.
Other than that, the day was spent watching big, big flakes of snow drop and accumulate, drinking hot chocolate, laughing and scrapbooking, visiting and listening to good music. Everyone takes a turn—an hour at a time—choosing what will play. The selections were interesting, but my favorites were the Christmas music hours, the Toby Keith hours and the Peter, Paul and Mary hour.
Saturday was more of the same. It was a great retreat. I loved the visiting with everyone, seeing the incredible talent and personality in everyone’s work and laughing. It is especially fun for me to go with Cali and Ande.
Cali, Ande and I got home and Calvin had a hot supper of Tuscan steaks and baked potatoes cooked and waiting for us. He’d even hung the closet door that has been off for two years. And though I love the retreats, it felt good to be home with him again.
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Buffets
November 13, 2006
Buffets are almost too much stimuli for me—all of those choices and colors. I love them and get frustrated by them at the same time. Today is buffet Monday; I’ve got a thousand choices of things to do. After an incredible scrapbooking retreat weekend, a nap should definitely be considered; I way overspent my energy allowance. But, if I take a nap then I won’t get the laundry done and socks in the drawer would be nice, too. It would be like choosing dessert over the entrée. I’d definitely like to finish the scrapbook project that I almost got done at the retreat. And then, I really need to get some exercise—a walk would be a salad-picking choice. Or vacuum; Calvin had a rib-fest with the young men from church while the girls and I were gone and I’m fairly certain the floor could use a good vacuuming. I really should pull the frozen flowers from the pots by the garage (but in all honesty that job is like lima beans—no temptation). Choices. Choices. Choices.
For family night tonight, we’re taking a veteran out to supper . . . to a buffet J
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November 8, 2006
Here are a few tips we do most every evening to help us keep a clean kitchen.
- Set the cd to three of our favorite rousing songs and race to see if we can finish the dishes before they end
- Ajax the sink every night
- Sweep and quick mop the floor (get-on-your-hands-and-knees-and-wipe-it-up-with-a-rag-mop)
- Wash the water splatters off the window above the sink.
Just keeping the sink, floor and window washed every day make it seem like we’re on top of the whole house.
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Please send your comments and ideas to jp@neighborjanepayne.com
That's kind of like the way making a bed makes a whole room look neater! :)Clare (Mom2fur)
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Vote
November 7, 2006
I always wondered where I would stand on a battlefield. I sadly determined I would not be on the front line, but back at the kitchen preparing ice-water and cookies for the brave. I’m certain I would encourage them to fight fearlessly with the promise I’d be right behind them. I was woefully sharing this with Calvin one evening and he slowly nodded, “Yes. I can see you. You would have both hands over your ears, eyes scrunched closed, shaking your head back and forth saying, ‘Oh no. Oh no. I can tell. There’s going to be a fight.” I wish to be a calmer, but I dream to be a patriot. Can I be both?
Polly Cooper was a calmer. In the winter of 1777-1778 at Valley Forge, George Washington’s troops lay sick and starving. Chief Skenandoah relieved the suffering of the soldiers by giving them a gift of corn. Polly, a woman from the Oneida tribe, stayed behind with the Chief’s gift to nurse the soldiers and prepare nutritional and medicinal food. She wouldn’t take money for payment; put she did accept a black shawl in token of Washington’s gratitude. I want to be like her, what she did was significant.
Margaret Corbin was a patriot. Wives of the soldiers routinely cooked meals, laundered clothes, and nursed wounds, but they also watched the men do their drills and learned them also. Margaret fought in the Revolutionary War next to her husband, John. In November 1776 they were stationed in New York fighting British troops. John was assisting a gunner until the gunner was killed, then he took charge of the canon and Margaret became his assistant. Later, John was killed too, so Margaret continued loading and firing the cannon. She was wounded by grapeshot which tore her shoulder, mangled her chest, and cut her jaw. She was carried to the rear of the company where she received medical treatment, but she never regained the use of her arm. Today, near the place of the battle, a bronze plaque honors "the first American woman to take a soldier's part in the War for Liberty". I want to be like her, what she did was strong.
Can a peacemaker by birth become a patriot by life? Is it doable to be a Polly and a Margaret? Perchance I found the answer in the quote, “The pen is mightier than the sword.” I do feel more comfortable baking cookies to blowing cannons, but today I can stand on the election battlefield, wield a pen, and cast votes for candidates that will uphold the Constitution and defend moral values. Yes. Where is the drum roll? I feel more courageous and valiant just thinking of it—maybe my backbone is straighter than I thought. I can do my patriot duty and vote. And perhaps I’ll mail a box of cookies to a soldier when I send my ballot.
M. Russell Ballard said, “It may not always be easy, convenient, or politically correct to stand for truth and right, but it is the right thing to do. Always.”
Edmund Burke said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
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Money Talks
November 3, 2006
“Money talks, but it don’t sing and dance, and it don’t walk.” So sings Neil Diamond (he must have fluffed his way through English).
Sometimes when I’ve got a bunch of stuff to do (like the dishes, or a total house pick-up, or baking, or bathrooms, or vacuuming) I turn Neil Diamond, “Forever in Blue Jeans,” “Coming to America,” and “Hello Again” on loud. By the time those three songs are over there is a significant dent in my jobs.
Today I had Neil cranked up high and he was singing, “Money talks, but it don’t sing and dance, and it don’t walk” while I was bagging 98 cents a pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Money does too sing. Those bags sang, “Cheap. Do, do, do, do, do. I’m going to make a cheap supper.”
And then, I had to make some rolls for a church party tonight. As I was popping them into balls, I thought, “Wow. These six dozen rolls only cost about 98 cents to make, too. Don’t tell me money don’t dance. Half of these rolls will waltz to the oven and the other half to the oven and the beat will be economical…definitely an economical beat.”
And then, I had to put away these containers,
commonly known as Christmas presents. I found them at WalMart for a dollar and got ten of them. I thought I’d fill them up with red and green tortilla chips and fresh salsa, or fresh red and green vegetables with bacon dip, or crackers and cranberry dip, or cookies and candy, or something. And I definitely heard Christmas music as I was wondering where to store them and what I was going to put in them.
Money sings and dances and walks when you find 98 cents a pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, dollar Rubbermaid take-alongs, and make frozen rolls.
Yesterday Deb and I drove over to Bellevue to a Stacy Julian workshop. The class was “Album in a Day” and it was right up my alley—it required poor(er) pictures, Stacy already had the idea figured out, it was for people who want to get a lot of pictures used up in a little space, it was fast, it was balanced. . . .it was a way I love to scrapbook. I was leery at first, but completely sold and happy an hour into it.
Each student was to come up with a scope, a perspective and four sections to tell the scope. My scope is: Jane’s Childhood. My perspective is my childhood at a quick glance, written mostly for myself but will be enjoyed by Calvin and the kids as well. The sections are: “All by Myself”, “People I Loved” “People I Played With” and “Things I Was Good At”. The album is coming together so easily. I spent the whole day in one chair and didn’t want it to end. I just wanted more time. It was the first scrapbooking class I’ve ever taken and the first time I’ve done something like this (go away for the day for something . . . “just because” since college! I can’t wait to finish this book. It will make a huge dent in my pathetic photograph pile and tell my story. It was a great day. And as always, Deb was so fun to be with. She is a great friend.
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Good idea, Deb!
Another idea I remembered about hard candy after I uploaded my comment is to let the kids hide little candies around the room and refind them. A package of Runts lasts forever!
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