Happy 1,401st post with Eating With Savages. (If you add in the posts from the blog I used before this one, it’s actually 1781!)
That’s a lot of blog posts…. in a row.
So tonight I’m not going to write much. Instead, I’m going to amuse you with a whole bunch of memes that have caught my eye over the past few months.
You’ve probably seen a bunch of them, but I hope a few make you smile. Let me know if you have any favorites!
Tim and I have taken on a side project that we are really excited about. I won’t be going into a whole lot of details at this point, but it involves disassembling a bunch of wood pallets.
So this afternoon while Tim was picking up C from a visit with her cousins, the boys and I spent time breaking some pallets down. We have a pallet buster, which helps considerably. Both the boys wanted to help so I let them take turns using it. Baby E lost interest pretty quickly, but Big E really enjoyed himself and pretty much disassembled a large pallet all by himself.
On top of breaking down the pallets, you also have to get the nails out of the boards so I split my time between break down and hammering out nails. I was really happy with how much we got accomplished in just a few hours and I am particularly proud of how Big E chipped in. He’s a kid that loves to work with his hands and this was a perfect outlet.
When the kids were younger, we would sometimes turn on Bob Ross in the evening to calm them down before bedtime. It didn’t take long for the kids to fall in love with the show and look forward to it each night. They would lay on the couch watching him paint, smiling at his comments, and be in complete awe of his paintings. Before I knew it they were pretending to be Bob during their waking hours, walking around the house ‘painting’ trees and happy little accidents. Needless to say, Bob Ross has held a special place in my heart since then.
When we heard that there was going to be a Bob Ross exhibit nearby, we couldn’t wait. We’ve had our tickets for weeks and this morning was out time slot. When we got there they had a documentary about him playing in the theatre. When we were done with that, we went into the gallery where we got to see about two dozen of his paintings. It was interesting to see his works up close. The kids loved seeing the vibrant colors and they were excited each time they saw a painting they recognized!
I try to make it a habit to take a few pictures every day. They don’t always make it to the blog, but I still have them to look at. It’s great to go back on the same date each year and see how the kids have grown and how life has changed.
Well, it’s 11:06 at night and I realized the only pictures I took today were of our apple head dolls… So, without further ado… you get a bonus picture of Moses this evening.
Did I forget to tell you that the Pawpaw Bread made me sick?
After eating two slices of divinely delicious pawpaw bread and some Little Caesars pizza, my sister and I went to the grocery store. About half way through our excursion I started not feeling so good. Not horrible, just off. But by the time we got to the register I was rather queasy and my sister didn’t look much better. We made it home, but by then I was feeling really shaky and Tim wasn’t well either. Needless to say, my dinner didn’t stay down.
Of the two things I had eaten, I honestly felt the pizza was to blame. I don’t picture Little Caesars as the height of restaurant hygiene practices and the Pawpaw Bread had been made in my own kitchen!! Also I had eaten plenty of pawpaw when we were harvesting and they hadn’t bothered me at all.
Finally I decided to consult Dr. Google. Come to find out, pawpaws can make you sick when you cook them!! Wait a minute?? Since when does something make you more sick when it’s cooked than when it’s raw??? And if they do make people sick when they are cooked… WHY ARE THERE PAWPAW BREAD RECIPES?!?
The heartbreaking thing about this sad pawpaw tale is that the bread was probably one of the best breads I had ever eaten. RIP pawpaw bread… If only we’d had more time.
With that said, I’m not deterred. We are on to our next foraging adventure. We have a large black walnut tree in our back yard and it has been dropping walnuts for the past few days. So this afternoon, the kids and I donned our bike helmets (safety first!!) and collected our walnuts. There’s a whole process to harvesting them, so we will see how it goes. Hopefully better than our Pawpaw shenanigans.
If you have any walnut experience or sage words of wisdom to pass on to me, now’s the time to do it. Hopefully in a few weeks our harvest will be complete!
Oh and we found an American persimmon tree back there too! They aren’t ripe yet, but they are next on my list!
A year ago this morning I was woken up by a phone call. The phone call. My dad had coded in the hospital. He was on life support. We needed to come to say our goodbyes.
But today isn’t the story of how I lost my dad. It’s the story of how he survived. It’s not a sad day, but a joyous milestone in a year of small and large victories. God is so good.
So here’s to my dad… I’m so incredibly proud of him. He has come so far. ❤️❤️
Tim often makes fun of me over the fact that I watch the same shows over and over again. I’m a sucker for British dramas, as I have said here many times. So when I am working, there is usually one playing in the background.
The other day Baby E came running up to me and told me that he and his siblings were playing Downton Abbey and that he was allowed to turn into the black Spiderman whenever he wanted.
Mixed genres aside, my kids really enjoy Downton Abbey- at least the parts I let them watch. I fast forward through the adult stuff when they are watching, but they enjoy seeing the weddings and hearing the accents. They have each chosen a favorite character, and get excited when they come onscreen.
When I heard the Downton movie was coming out, clearly I couldn’t take the kids (though Baby E begged to go.) My sister said she would come with me if no one else wanted to join me. Tim said, since every movie he has seen in the past 10 years in the theatre was a Marvel movie, he would branch out and take me, but I could tell he wasn’t thrilled. But I was sure I could do better than those offers! I called up my sister-in-law and she said yes!
So this evening, Laura and I, along with about 30 gray haired women (and a few gray haired men that accompanied them) went and saw Downton Abbey. We saw it at an Alamo Drafthouse, which neither of us had been to before. We ordered dinner and ate as we watched the movie.
The film was about what I expected… It had some fun moments and some sad ones. It wasn’t the best film I’ve ever seen, but it was enjoyable and I’m glad we got out to see it. The best part was spending the evening with my dear sister and friend!
By the end of last week, the apple heads were not as dried out as I had hoped. They had spent a lot of time in the oven and a little time in the sun, but they were still dense and rather squishy, (except mine, but I started with a smaller apple.) I decided to give them just a few more days and this evening I figured they were ready to complete.
Thankfully I had gone to Walmart last week and picked up a few things to decorate them… buttons for eyes, pipe cleaners for arms and legs, and fake fur for the hair. I broke out the remnant fabric scraps and the hot glue gun and we were ready.
To be honest, my expectations were VERY, VERY low. When I pulled them out of the oven, they were not at all what I had envisioned they might be when we started this project.
I began with mine so that I could work all the bugs out before trying them on the kids. I glued on her eyes, added her hair, and then made her body. We attached the heads to wooden sticks, which was much more stable than the pipe cleaners the directions had recommended. I reserved those for the arms and legs. As mine started to come together I was shocked that it was actually turning out kind of adorable. It looked like a little old lady that I imagined baked pies and crocheted blankets back in the day. I loved her immediately.
When the kids saw that mine was cute, they were even more eager to start theirs. Thankfully Tim had gotten home, so we tackled the other three together. The kids did as much work on them as they could, and what they couldn’t do, they directed us. They each took about a half an hour to complete and I think the final products are amazing!
They are quirky, odd, and strangely endearing. I can see how they would have been popular back in the day when buying a doll at a store wasn’t an option. By using what was around them, they were able to make their own toys. They would have used scraps and trinkets they already had, and these dolls wouldn’t have cost a thing.
I think the kids learned some valuable lessons throughout this process, and we certainly laughed a lot. And thankfully it turns out I didn’t have to set them on fire, bury them in the backyard, or call in an exorcist after all!
We were at the library last week when I ran across two books, “This Book is Red” and “This is a Ball.” The subtitle for each book is “Books that drive kids crazy.”
What? A book that will drive kids crazy? I need to try this out. So I grabbed one and cornered Baby E. “This is a Ball.” I said to him as I pointed to the cover of the book. “No, it’s not!! It’s a square!” he responded.
As I opened the book and started to read it, it followed the same logic as the cover, giving things the wrong names or colors. Before I knew it, Baby E was arguing with me in the library about the contents of the book. He got so frustrated, he walked away before I was even finished!
So, it truly is a book that drives kids crazy. Naturally, they both came home with me. I waited until Tim got home that night to bring them out. We had Baby E sit down and we read both books to him. He argued through both books with such earnestness, it was pretty adorable. He didn’t get angry, but he refused to give into the faulty logic of the books, but by the end of them we were all laughing.
Since then he’s been pulling these books out for me to read. They are definitely a hit in our house. So, if you are looking for a book to annoy your kids with, I recommend these… If you ever find them, pick them up, sit back, relax, and enjoy the show!
We went to a fundraiser event this morning for the archery club that we attend. It was their big end of the year event with vendors, games, and food. The kids had a great time, but when it was time to leave we didn’t really want to head straight home, so we just started driving.
We ended up near the old town pedestrian mall that my sister in law and I have taken the kids to in the past. In a spontaneous moment, we decided to stop and let the kids play in the splash pad. With most every other splash pad and pool closed for the season, it is refreshing that they still have theirs running. The kids got drenched in the clothes they were wearing and they even talked Tim into walking through it and getting a little wet.
Hearing the squeals and watching the laughter made the entire outing worth it. I’m really dreading the shorter days and colder weather as we head into fall, so I’m going to hang onto these moments as long as I can!
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