How to Stage a Celebration!

I never thought this day would come so fast.  The day my daughter marries the man she loves and leaves our home for her own.

Ok, so THAT day has already come and gone, but now THIS day, the day we invited lots of people to share in their joy, came pretty quickly, too. 

And the really nice thing about this day, is that I was ready for it, ready enough so that I had a nice time, too. 

I've learned to make lists, and lists and more lists.  I've learned to start early on my lists and buy things over several weeks.  I've learned to make friends of people with punch bowls, and serving plates, and coffee makers.  I've learned that you can put on a pretty nice little reception, in two months, with a very little outlay of money.

Next time I would be earlier in sending out the invitations, but other than that, it all went pretty smoothly. I am learning how to delegate and how to give people jobs that ask for help.  So, if you don't want to help, you better not offer!

So, I bought things every time I went to the store.  The things I needed from Hobby Lobby had to wait until the last week, since I was waiting for  40% off coupons, and then I must have gone into the store about 8 times after I got them.

Other than traipsing into Hobby Lobby twice a day, I made the cake balls and dipped strawberries at the very last.

Cake balls are easy, just crumbled, baked cake, with frosting mixed in, then dipped in almond bark or dipping chocolate.  They are just yummy, but mine don't look so much like balls.

My daughter helped me with the strawberries.  I like to dip them from the double boiler, since the chocolate keeps warm on the stove, while I dip or do other things.

Dip then drizzle.

Then we had to see if they were any good.

They were.

At first thought, I wanted to save the money and make the sheet cakes to serve at the reception, but mom offered to buy Walmart cakes, so I took her up on it.  I'm not too keen on staying up all night and working on big projects, I just can't do it anymore.  My nerves just can't take it. 

Lorene wanted a round cake for a centerpiece, so I decided to make one, just to see what I remembered from the cake decorating class I took in 4-H when I was a senior in high school.  My friend, Lynisha, the cake decorator, (self taught I believe), gave me this hint, to fill the cake pans big enough to use the edge as a guide to make an even layer.

Icing!! Wilton's whitest.  I made it just like the recipe and it seemed so stiff.

Filling with stiff icing.

The problem with these large pictures, is that not only can you see just how to do things, you can see all the mistakes, too.

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One thing they taught us is my decorating class is to put a thin layer of icing on the cake and let it dry.  Which I did.  But, I'm not really sure it was necessary, since I put on a really thick layer of icing on anyway.

This looks really good here, all nice and straight and upstanding.

But, here I was globbing icing on and it's LEANING!!  By this time I felt it was too late to try to take off the layers and reposition them.  So, I just made sure the side I wanted to show looked the best, and less like the leaning cake of the reception.

I suppose there is a way to do it, but I didn't want to take the time, get icing all over me and everything else, and by not knowing what I was doing for sure, increased the risk of a major catastrophe, and no round cake at all. I'm just not good at careful and patient.

Here is the final product.

Then it comes to setting up time, cake balls and strawberries on my 2 tier stand.

Lorene made the mints.  These look nice.  The first batch she made using the color I gave her, were ORANGE.  Too bad no one bothered to read the color on the lid.

Guest book table.  Lorene and Aaron received in the dining room so people signed as they came in.

I ordered these cakes from Walmart.  I like the second one the best.  I learned a few things about what I'd like the next time I order cakes.

Aarons' mom rented the glass boxes and those are REAL roses in them.  Very elegant, and yet so simple to do. 

We set up in the garage.  The temperatures were supposed to be in the 40's and windy that day, so we had a nice little propane heater warming it up.

I was so pleased with the way everything turned out.  It looked nice, the food was good, it was warm enough that people didn't freeze and cool enough so they really enjoyed their coffee....

When the people came in.

And these nice ladies are the reason I had such a good time during the reception, and was able to take pictures.  Nothing like good help!

Red roses are so beautiful, we were able to enjoy them for another few days.

And...the happy couple!

It was a lovely day, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves especially the family.  It is nice to have an event you can remember with pleasure.

A Life in the Day of a Gramma

This article from Carolyn Hax has been passed around the internet and facebook and it a good pictures in a nutshell of what it is like raising little kids. link

It's funny, too.
So, as I had Zane today and will have tomorrow, and wishing I could attack the mess in the basement, instead I am blogging while he naps. 
I had already made my bed, had a load in the washer.
This is what we did today.  He comes early, 6:30 am, since mom works at 7. So, first thing first, take off his coat and hat and watch while he tries to take off his jammies, he can upzip them all right, but the sleeves don't' come off by shaking, So, I help.  And he can get his feet out, so he had a diaper change and his clothes on and then he finds the crackers in the diaper bag, Uh oh, not much breakfast after that.  So, he "helps "wake up auntie and uncle.  After which he has to be chased away from the bathroom doors a few times while I am trying to think about breakfast for Lynette, But she didn't go, too much exhausting time spent on  the play the last two weeks and didn't sleep the night before, so we wake her up again at 9 to go to second block.  And Zane is in his coat for the trip to school a half hour before time to leave. So, I have to tell him to wait about 10 times., then take his coat off. Of course, all during this I get up every 5 minutes to make sure he isn't, taking things out of the cupboard or the fridge.  As well as coloring with dry erase markers, and drinking chocolate milk, which he seems to spill half of.  He cleans up after himself, which means I clean up the other half. He ate a cookie with the milk, got frosting on the floor, showed me the frosting, and wiped it up off the floor and onto the stove??? Not sure about that one, Cleaning again.  Coat back on, into car seat, off to take Lynette to school, then Walmart. Every 2 minutes needs a "sit down in the car" reminder, and finally he's in the baby seat, while I hang on to him at the pharmacy, in the aisles, back in the cart again, to pick out oranges, which he sits on, then put them on the checkout counter, hang on to him again, to keep him from playing with the card reader, up and down so no playing on the toy cars. Some lady offers him a granola bar, but "not for naughty boys" says this mean ole Gramma. We go on to grampa's work.  I have to hold him while the backhoe picks up something really heavy then into the office for a quick look at the mail, on my lap he wants to play computer, so Grampa takes him outside to run, then inside the shop over the trailers, he picks up a hammer, shovel, broom, and I say "you can say 'no' ".   So, he's all dirty, so we wash hands.  Back into car seat,  drive though post office to mail letters, drive through at the bank, home for lunch.  On the way home  we splurge and have Culver's flavor of the day, ( it was red raspberry, my favorite) he's yawning, time to change diaper and he's dirty so ... "BATH" so in he goes with balloons, splashes all over, dumps shampoo, shreds bar of soap, howls while dressing (soap) and into bed with a treat, asleep in 2 min.  WOW!!

So, I'm blogging instead of cleaning the kitchen and making treats. (Well, I made a quick sketch of the morning, and then off too....)

Clean kitchen, sweep floor, make chocolate cupcakes, and glaze and sprinkle them, pick up toys, clean out an end table to put my living room afghan in. which meant recycling magazines and finding new homes for napkins and an old china tea set and a rock collection.

 I got off easy today, Zane slept until Lynette woke him up at four, then she could help watch this dynamo.

Then we packaged cupcakes for a valentine treat, (This was Valentine's Day)  Zane ate two mini ones, he needed cleaned up before chocolate got every where and the table too, and said no about 10 times for any more.

He had 1 1/2 clementines after that which I peeled. Then "no" throwing toys, or books, which he did anyway, and had to be told to pick back up, which he didn't want to, but I made him anyway.  And before time to go home, I watched him throw balloons all over. Oops, there goes one behind couch, so he had to be helped back there to get it and then picked up the other toys already back there (good boy!) and pulled back up.  Here's mom!!!  We watch at the window as she drives up, into coat, hugs and kisses and then I turn into mom mode, deliver valentines with 15 year old, go to library and back home to make nice supper for the my valentines left. here and hope my daughter isn't getting sick just because she looks like it.


Here's the Valentine cupcakes I made. 

And here is Zane eating them.

I suppose the rest of the day I did something, too, but I bet it wasn't more than getting the dishes done.

And going to bed.

I sure love that boy, but he WEARS me out. What makes it harder this time around is that fact that I'm older, and that I care about walking across the floor without tripping on something, and I like to have my kitchen cleaned up before noon.

Training Him Up Right

My daughter and family came to visit the other day. They came because we had other family here too, an auntie and grampa. It is strange having a daughter come back to visit. To a home that will always be home because we are here, but now she has her own home now, with her own things, and her own family.

So, what little boy doesn't love trains?  This little Zaney boy of ours sure loves them!  The next up cousin has decided he's too big for trains at age 9 and wants Zane to have them.  Auntie Cindy brought a box of some of them which provided entertainment for all the rest of us for the rest of the weekend. The adults had just as much fun as Zane did with putting together as elaborate a track as the pieces we had allowed.  We tried different configurations and different trains, and had them going different directions, and Zane was more hindrance that help in keeping them going.  But, it was all good fun. 

For everyone.

And of course Grampa, is helping make a nice track.

Zane is charmed with the tunnels. 

Now this box of train stuff lives at his house and according to all reports, he is still playing with them.

And I am charmed with just how cute he is.

Helpful?

One thing I love about little children is their willing helpfulness.  It isn't very long until the whatever it is inside them is telling them that it is no longer cool to do little jobs for Mom or Dad, or Gramma.  But, until then, I make sure to heap praise on the head of my willing helper now, even if it means that one person gets all the forks and spoons.

Drill Sergeant

My daughter knows how to do a lot of things and she is learning to do a few more.  She auditioned for and was accepted into the cast of the high school winter play, with two days notice.  Of course, the winter play isn't a big "oooo, let's go try out for the musical" sort of thing, but it sure is a good place to start. 

Anyway, every cast member has to be on a committee, or whatever the call all the different things that have to be done to put a play on, and she chose set.  So, she has learned a few things about building and putting a set together, including running a drill, and not wearing good clothes to paint in. 

So, when it came time to hang another shelf to put her grand champion trophy on, she used the drill to put in the screws.  Which she did quite nicely, the shelf was hung, the trophy ready to put on, and.....it's too big.  Not, too tall, we compensated for that.  The base it too big to put on a 6" shelf.  So, it is sitting on her bookcase, and she spread out the rest of her trophies.

She does have a lot of trophies, five years of competing in taekwondo, translates into a lot of fun and a lot of hard work.  If you want to see what her grand champion trophy looks like go here.

My First Try at Felting

I haven't posted to my crafting blog for a very long time.  But I made some felted coasters, and I liked the way most of them turned out.

Check it out here.

Time Changes All Things

I just finished reading "Bead on an Anthill, A Lakota Childhood" by Delphine Red Shirt. My dad recommended this one to me, being a fan of anything Native American.  This one was especially interesting since she is a Nebraska author, living here the greater share of her life so far. 

I enjoy reading stories about real life, most especially the kind of real life where it is just a simple story about the way people live their lives, especially when they are children. 

The theme of the story is the loss of the Lakota way of life, the loss of traditions, songs, language, and the way of life, interwoven in between how she lived as a girl.  What I found most disturbing is the role of the government in this loss in the 1960s and 1970s.  It isn't mentioned very much, but you can get the idea very clearly.  It seems rather too close to modern times for that kind of control to be allowed. 

My overall impression of the idea of the loss of "the old ways", is that it happens all the time.  The way we are living now isn't anything like living two generations ago, and very, very different from the way we lived 150 years ago, even to several hundred years ago.  This subject could be very well worked up into a medium sized paper, or even a book. 

In thinking about the topic of losing what we know of the old ways, I was thinking especially about the pioneers, since just off the top of my head they are the group of people I know most about.  This piece isn't intended to be a well documented piece of work, but a work on a few of my impressions.

We no longer get around using horses or other animals.  Most of us don't know anything about horse and wagon lore, care and keeping.  We don't know how to cook on the ground with wood or whatever fuel was available.  We don't know how to kill and clean meat.  We don't know how to make soap, render lard, identify edible plants growing wild, or make cloth.  Many of us don't have any idea how to make do with what we have. We don't know how to build oruselves a house or furniture.  Many of us, would think even making clothes an extreme hardship.  We don't know how to manage our money; we think using something that someone else has used is unthinkable. 

And sure, we don't HAVE to do any of those things.  Some people do know how to, and sell their knowlege and ability to the rest of us.  I for one, though, am sad that many of these skills are gone.  There are a few people who care enough about these skills, that they want to learn and pass them on.  There are people who make soap, bread, meals from scratch, spin, weave, sew, knit, crochet, build, plant, grow, harvest, preserve, and more.  They are teaching others because they don't want these old skills to die out. 

It works the same way with any set of skills for any people.  Every kind of people has special foods, skills, traditions, language, clothing.  When many people come to the United States, they are eager to lose their traditions and embrace new ones.  Then a couple of generations go by, and they are disappionted those tradtions are being lost.  Many people blame the culture of the United States itself for their loss.  It is the responsibility of each individual to decide what is important to remember and what isn't, and then take the time and the effort for those things to be remmebered. 

The sad thing about the Native American loss, is that the government thought of them as a people that needed to be "managed."  I believe, that if the reservation system had not been instituted, that after assimilating into the popular culture, like any other group of peoples have done, they would have had the resources to revive old traditions.  Some of that is happening now, but I believe it would have happened a lot sooner, and with less bitterness.

I don't know how far out into the world of cyber space, this little piece will go, but I am reminding those that read it, that this is an undoeumented opinion piece, and I am not inviting rude comments. 

One last comment about the reseveration system, if it is beneficial in perserving some native lands and special areas, that is a good thing, Perhaps some of those lands could have been made into National Parks and designated as such.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

There is a story behind every picture, so I looked up the origin of the phrase that is the title of this post, and gist of the matter, is that you can use a picture to tell a story rather than the words. 

Well, I like words, and these pictures have a story.  The first part of the story is that they are all found together with hundreds of other pictures in my "doubles and extras" box.  Those are the photos that would be used when a kid needed one for a school project or something.  They don't happen so much anymore now that digital photography has taken over the world.  One can choose the photos printed or not print them at all, instead of printing doubles of all 36 photos of the 35mm roll that resided inside the camera in long or short periods of time. 

Grandpa Kleeb

Jim's dad lived with us for three years when the kids were little.  Lynette was almost one, when it was decided by the powers that be that he couldn't live on his own anymore.  So, he came to live in our chaos until he needed more care and spent over 5 years in the nursing home, increasingly succumbing to Alzheimer's, until he didn't know anything anymore.  It is very sad to watch a relative living in that condition, and hard to understand what lessons we might be learning in watching another suffer. 

Jim's dad was 91 when he died in the summer of 2005.  It was one of the hottest summers we had for a few years, and Jim's sisters came to be with their dad until the end.  It was pneumonia at the last. It's what used to be called the "old man's friend."

And, while we were sorry Jim's dad had died, it isn't so hard because he lived a long, full, productive life.

So, on to the funeral.  Jim had to have new boots, his Sunday ones being all worn out.  And I bought a new pair of shoes.  I wanted something that didn't look like they came over on the Mayflower.  I love those shoes, and I still remember why I bought them.  They are just a little bit too big, so I have to wear inserts.  My feet were swollen because of the heat. It was SO hot.  It was at least 110 degrees. Wearing funeral clothes and all, you just deal with it, because there isn't anything else to do.

And Nathan had to have a haircut.  We were having a hard time finding someone who would cut his hair so that both he and I would like it.  And who would do it for less than $20.  This wasn't it. 

But, here we all are, gathered for our yearly family photo. It's where family gathers.  

It's a time when the family you don't see very often can get together, to comfort and remember. 

And take pictures. 

We don't have so many of the "three kids together".

Pictures will be taken at funerals.  They always have, and they always will.  It is a gathering time.

Friends--for Now, Forever.

I don't remember when this photo was taken.  In the early 2000s I assume, because Luanne hadn't been living in her "out in the country" home for very long.  This was a ladies only outing.  I don't remember exactly the occasion or the date.  What I remember is that these are my friends.  Some I know well, some I don't.  Some I've know for a very long time.  Some for not so long.  We would look different now, all lined up together.  But, this is the way we looked that day.  And we enjoyed it.

My Cousin

My cousin Michelle was the first of our cousins to leave this life.  It is hard to say "the first one who died." But, she was.  She LIVED her life.  She did a lot of things.  But, she didn't win her battle with cancer.  It's been 2 years and I still cry. 

My mother's side of the family seems very healthy and especially long lived.  We've taken that for granted over the years.  I've always thought belonging to the Appleman's was something very special, and I felt sorry for the people that didn't belong to my Grandpa and Grandma.  Grandpa died the same year Jim's dad died, 2005, two months to the day, shy of being 100 years old, He'd had skin cancer surgery, but didn't make it through. Two years later Grandma died.  This photo was taken at her funeral.  Michelle was between cancer treatments and was feeling really good.  Her hair had grown in for several months and she was beautiful and full of life.  But, there was a dark spot in there, one that we weren't really looking at.  Those numbers, that tell somehow in blood work, that there is probably cancer there, were going up.  We had no way of really knowing that the next funeral would be hers. They sang my favorite hymn there, the whole congregation:
"Precious thought, my Father knoweth, In His love I rest, For whate'er my Father doeth, Must be always best.  Well I know the heart that planneth, Naught but good for me, Joy and sorrow interwoven, Love in all I see.  Precious thought, my Father knoweth, Careth for His child, Biddeth me to nestle closer, When the storm beats wild. Though my earthly hopes be shattered, And the teardrops fall. Yet he is himself my solace, Yea, my All in all!"

My Little Girl

I just think Lynette is cute here.  We always took our nicest clothes when we went visiting anywhere.  We wouldn't want people to think we just wore any old thing.  It sure seems like when the kids have a lot of choice, it wouldn't be mine.  I'm also guilty of saving too many things for "good", and then they don't get worn.  Lynette is on the play set of the elementary school where I went to school.  Only, they didn't have any fancy play sets, 30 some years ago.  Now the school is abandoned, and a new school is built.  So, someday, that school will likely be torn down.  What sort of use would a large two story building be used for.  It had too many problems to fix for school children.  It will have too many problems for anything else, too.

My Son

I love this photo. And his dad loves it too.  Every dad hopes his son will one day follow in his footsteps.  So, Jim was especially pleased to watch Nathan take to the excavator like a pro.  It seems to be one of those things, that comes easily, or it doesn't come at all. I can't remember what we needed the hole for.  Perhaps we only needed it for Nathan to learn to dig.

Matching Dresses

These are some of my favorite photos of all time.  Lynette's sewing Auntie, did the smocking for these dresses, and I sewed them up.  I was going through a spell of whatever I made for Lynette, I made one for her dolly, too.  We went out to some of our friends in the country who had a picturesque setting for the photos, and made ourselves at home.  (They weren't.)

My Daughter at Home

I went to see my daughter today.  We thought we were going to have company and invited them to come and see us and the company this weekend.  But, they couldn't. Finding money for gas these days takes some doing. And the company didn't come either. So I went to visit.   My daughter, Lynette, who hasn't seen them living in their new home, came along. I wanted to visit Jim's auntie as well.  (The nice thing about Lorene being in Grand Island is that I can see both of them in one visit.)

I don't know what I expected this time when we visited.  I have been there before.  Mostly just drop off mail and presents sort of visits, not the kind of just relaxing and enjoying ourselves kind of visit. 

We were invited this time.  Invited to have lunch with them.  With the whole little family.  And so we came.  We came to a nicely lit, tidy house, to smiling, welcoming people.  We hugged and laughed and talked and looked at each other, and ate our lunch on a table brought out of the corner to the middle of the living room so they could use the couch to sit on.  They only have two chairs. 

And all these words don't really tell what it is like.  I could write about what we saw, and I might yet.  But to say exactly what we felt, that is harder.  I felt comfortable there.  It was homey.  Sure, it is about the tiniest place anyone could hope to live in.  But, they are doing it and they are enjoying it.  Oh, I don't think they'll stay in that situation forever.  It isn't ideal.  You can tell when you walk into a house, what kind of people live there.  It's the feeling you get when you're there.  It's the people that make a home.  It's the kind of feeling that a mother wants to feel when her daughter leaves home to make a home for herself and her family.  It's the feeling that I must have done something right.  

Part 2

When we first saw this place that Lorene and Aaron chose to begin their new life together,  Jim and I were rather appalled.  It is TINY. I mean really tiny.  And it was dirty.  They live in a little apartment that is made from two very small motel rooms, where one bathroom was made into a kitchen.  And into that little space they have put the three of them and a cat.

They had to clean every inch of that space with bleach and spray for bugs.  They had to decide which of their things were the most important things to keep.  There isn't room for it all.

And, you know, they're doing it.  They have what they need, and keep things they aren't using, put away.  They are teaching Zane to play with a toy and put it away again. They are enjoying themselves and each other.  They can't have everything they want now, they are just starting out.  But, they act like they know that, and are living accordingly. 

I don't have any pictures of how their place looks now.  But this is how it looked when we were moving things in.

The Millers at Home

I'm proud of those two "kids". I'm proud of the way they are starting out their life. And I like they way they are raising Zane.

Life is a Bowl of Cherries

I like to make candy.  A homemade candy project is so satisfying once it is all done.  Actually, it is fun in the beginning when the ingredients are assembled in a (hopefully) clean kitchen and it is fun at the end when they are all done and beautifully lined up for all to see.  It is only in the middle, that I wonder why on earth I ever make candy at all. 

I've been hungry to make Chocolate Covered Cherries, they are a little bit of a challenge, but fun for dipping in chocolate since they come with nice little handles.  (I have a problem with the "sticking a toothpick in to dip", they usually fall off and make big holes in my candy.)

So, this time, I decided I was going to go slowly, making sure I had plenty of time and not try to rush getting them done when I'm supposed to be cooking supper or something like that.   I made the powdered sugar/butter filling the night before since it is supposed to chill an hour.  I think they say an hour because that is the optimal temperature for forming dough around drained cherries.  I found that it was sticky when too cold and too warm.  There was a spot in there that was "just right"  (Just ask the three bears.)  So, I formed and put the done ones in the freezer to quick chill, and then I dipped the cold ones while the rest of the dough chilled in the fridge. It worked really well.

Drain the cherries well first.

Form the dough around the cherries in misshapen balls.  (I guess you wouldn't HAVE to do that, but it sure looks like that's what I did.)

Dip in chocolate and drizzle with white chocolate.

 Put in little candy papers for a fancy presentation. 

Candy really should "ripen" a bit before eating, at least a couple of weeks.  The sugar in chocolate covered cherries will liquefy inside if they are left long enough, but I can't remember how long that is and it wasn't written on my recipe.