Thursday, October 21, 2010

The Pantry

When we first moved in here 14 years ago, the original owners had a washer/dryer in the little folding door closet in the kitchen. We put our washer/dryer in the store room downstairs (next to the plumbing) and Sweetcheeks put shelves in the closet and VOILA...my pantry was born.

In the years that passed, my pantry has taken a life of it's own. Occassionally I have to beat it back into submission and realign the shelves. As of yesterday, since I was recovering from bronchitis, I decided to tackle it. Guess what? I have a floor in it...The dining room table, however, is bowing under the weight of what I pulled out.....

Pray for me...I go back in and restock today....pictures may follow (if it doesn't eat me!)

Monday, October 18, 2010

WOW


I last posted in April and said I would return. It's October. I think it's about time, don't you?

Life, ya never know what is going to be handed to you. Due to the wonders for Facebook, I have found friends and relatives I had relegated to the cobwebs of distant memories. I have been able to reconnect with my cousins, and with college friends and this connection is the reason I post today.

I am a blog reader. Maybe not so good blog poster, but I do read them...incessantly. I have been reading a blog about the Duggars in Arkansas and most comments made are negative about them. Not that I am advocating moving to the Ozarks and giving birth to village of my own, but I honestly don't see the big deal about it. The problem that I see is that most people look at the Duggars as an oddity. On the other hand, I know these people.....not the Duggars directly, but people like them.

I think of my father's younger sister, Flora. Flora Ussery, in my estimation was a cross between a saint and a pistol! She and my uncle, her husband Bill, gave birth to 10 children of their own, and according to the write up I have after her funeral, they chose to open their home to a minimum of 12 - 15 foster children. There was never a time that I can remember, that her home was not filled with her children, her fosters, her nieces and nephews and the kids of the men Uncle Bill employed (I think my aunt had to stop and think sometimes if the Douglas kids really were hers or not!) She fed, clothed and raised this gaggle of kids and made sure they lined the pew on Sunday mornings. She wasn't 'only' a housewife...she did what needed done at church as well. When her kids were grown, she went back to work in the kitchen of a local elementary school. When she *retired* she worked part-time substitute teaching.....I guess once a cat herder, always a cat herder.

I have recently reconnected with a friend from college, Rudy Sheptock. Rudy's parents were not unlike my aunt and uncle. If I remember correctly, his parents had a similar number of offspring like my aunt and uncle, and they too took in and adopted children with disabilities and who had no one or no where else to go in the foster system. All this, and they, too, lined the pew on Sunday mornings.

I think of these families and look at the Duggars. They all are fed, clothed and loved. Their religious beliefs may be a bit more conservate than ours, but who are we to judge. All my cousins are decent human beings and every one who came under the tutelage of my aunt can only speak of how important she made each of them feel...I email with Rudy and hear the respect and love he still espouses for his parents, and from seeing his interactions on Facebook with others who knew his parents, I can only hear echos of what my cousins say about my aunt and uncle. People disparage the Duggars, but the children show love and respect for their parents and each other, but is this so bad? Of the two families I referenced today, all had in excess of 20+ children in their homes and they turned out alright. What we should ask, instead of what the Duggars are doing wrong, what are they doing right. Sometimes a little faith, discipline and respect for others is all it takes.