Category Archives: Uncategorized

2024, Family, Gatherings, Kids, Uncategorized

Naughty!

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We went to a very early Christmas Eve Service at 1:30 PM on Tuesday. It was nice to be in the congregation instead of being a church musician. Nice, that is, aside from the three very naughty children in the pew in front of us.

The children in question were apparently cousins sitting between their mothers. One was an 8 year old girl in a green, spangly dress. The other two were brothers, ages about 8 and 4. The girl’s mother was somewhat attentive. The boys’ mother was somewhat inert. Their father was seated on the other side of her from the boys, and he didn’t seem to notice what they were doing.

No one sat still. There was constant movement and activity. The four year old was the major instigator of trouble. The adults had wisely provided crayons and papers to color on, but the four year old decided crayons were weapons to draw on his brother and stick in his brother’s ears. He blew raspberries at his brother and cousin and they pushed and shoved him. Sometimes they tried to ignore him. There were snacks and crackers all over the pew. The boys’ mom sometimes whispered to them to settle down, but did nothing to stop any of the activity. This went on the entire service.

It wasn’t until the four year old decided to start smashing Goldfish Crackers in his brother’s hair that I intervened. I tapped him lightly on the shoulder with my bulletin. He spun around, saw my glare, sat down, and didn’t move for the rest of the service. I am happy to say that our grandson colored quietly for the majority of the service.

What were the most difficult venues for you to behave in? How would your parents have handled the naughty ones I encountered?

2024, Art, Family, Kids, Uncategorized

Art

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I am amazed by the wonderful art kits and projects that are availble these days for children. We got our grandson something called Paint By Stickers. You can see one of his creations in the header photo. We also got him this amazing art kit:

It has water color pencils, pastels, charcoal pecils for sketching, and things I can’t even identify. He loves doing art projects. He set straight to work with it after opening it on Wednesday morning.

I sure can’t say the same for me either now or when I was a child. I despised art class and art projects in school. Sewing and embroidery made sense and I enjoyed them. I still do, but drawing? Forget it. My fingers don’t do what my brain tells it to do when I have an art implement in my hand. My hand writing is and always has been awful. I think it has something to do with a lack of patience.

One of my favorite college classes was Art History. I love other people’s art and learning about artists and their lives. .Just don’t make me create anything. I will leave that to the proficient.

What art projects did you like or not like as a child? How about now? Who are your favorite artists?

2024, Food, Gatherings, History, holidays, pets, Uncategorized

Family Time

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My parents and I always opened our presents on Christmas Eve after church. That was a German tradition from my mother, and also cleared the way for Christmas with family on Christmas Day.

We usually headed for Magnolia, MN late morning on Christmas Day to either my paternal grandparent’s farm or the farm of my dad’s younger brother a couple of miles east. My dad’s sister and family would come from Sioux Falls, and we would have a huge meal (usually turkey and all the fixings), and then we children would have to wait until after the dishes were done to open presents. That was a long wait! Late in the afternoon we would head to Pipestone, 25 miles north, to whichever of my mother’s family would host Christmas. There usually were no presents, just a big meal and lots of desserts.

Yesterday we spent time in Brookings opening presents, taking turns cooking, napping, reading, doing art projects with our grandson, and listening to grandson read aloud the various books he received (Cat Kid, Wild Robots, or Dog Man). He also received some pretty wonderful art kits which he started to use right away. It was very foggy outside, and we didn’t go anywhere. We watched The Muppets Christmas Carol after eating the French Canadian tortiere that grandson and I assembled and baked. He was a good dough pincher. It was a restful day. The Westie and cat napped on various soft blankets. No one had to wait for the dishes to get done before opening presents. We cleaned as we cooked. We listened to Christmas music on MPR all day. It was a great time.

What were your family gatherings like when you were a child? What were some of your favorite presents? Who did the dishes?

2024, Family, holidays, Travel, Uncategorized

Whoops!

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YA is waiting for a package.  I’m not sure what’s in the shipment, but it left Columbus on November 20.  Then it hit St. Paul, Minneapolis, San Antonio, Puerto Rico, Jacksonville, Chicago.  Four days ago it got back to Minneapolis but apparently has moved from one Minneapolis station to another.  Supposedly it’s out for delivery today (Tuesday).

I had a trip once that went really awry.  It was supposed to be Minneapolis to Chicago to Barcelona.  The ship was departing Barcelona at 5 p.m.   Chicago got delayed so I jumped onto a flight to New Jersey.  Was going to taxi to LaGuardia but the flight I wanted was also delayed.  So I ended up on a flight to Frankfurt.  I literally missed the flight from Frankfurt to Barcelona by minutes.  The door had closed but they plane was still sitting there.  I even tried bribery.  It was now noon.  They put me on a quick jump to Munich where I thankfully got on the plane on time to Barcelona.  Luckily no delay.  I got to Barcelona at 4 p.m.  Managed to talk my way off the plane first and my supplier rushed me to the port.  Unbelievably they held the ship departure 10 minutes for me.  I was shaking a little when I checked in on the ship.  The rest of the trip went very smoothly but I had to talk through all my itinerary changes a couple of times with accounting when I submitted my expense report. 

I’ll do a quick update if the package actually gets delivered today.  YA seems supremely unconcerned about it so I’m guessing it’s not for Christmas.

When has something gone spectacularly sideways for you?

2024, Family, holidays, Kids, Travel, Uncategorized

Grateful!

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I am feeling incredibly grateful today. I am comfortably ensconced on my son’s sofa. I am listening to my 6 year old grandson read aloud. It is amazing how his reading has taken off since September. Our 8 hour trip yesterday had some of the worst driving conditions I have dealt with for a very long time. I am so grateful we didn’t crash, we didn’t end up in the ditch, and we don’t have to go anywhere until we choose to. We made it here about 6:00 pm last evening.

Son bought a standing rib roast that we will cook and eat today. We will go to church tonight for the late service, and we will open presents after church. Life is good.

How are you spending Christmas Eve? What are you grateful for?

2024, holidays, Seasons, Travel, Uncategorized, Weather

Halfway Weather

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I hope that as this post is read, I am on the road to Brookings, SD. We have had days of “halfway weather” lately, a phrase I coined to mean weather that is nasty, but not nasty enough to make you stay home.

Last week there was an ice storm that closed the interstate 20 miles west of here after 27 semis couldn’t make it up the hills. There was freezing drizzle predicted northwest and north central here yesterday, and by Sunday afternoon there was no travel advised on the the roads to the north of us. The two counties just east of us that we need to drive through today were also expecting a “wintery mix” last night. We may slip and slide to Bismarck, but after that we should be ok all the way to Brookings. Driving on icy roads are my worst nightmare. Being the anxious person that I am, I also have been obsessively looking at the long range forecasts for next Sunday, when we are slated to drive home. Like my mother, I worry about the weather and many other things that are totally out of my control. I don’t imagine I am going to stop any time soon, though. Old habits die hard.

What bad habits would you like to stop? What bad habit did you stop, and how did you do it ? Ever slid into the ditch?

2024, Family, Farming Update, holidays, Uncategorized, Weather

Don’t Do It

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Today’s farming update comes from Ben.

Well, we finally got measurable snow. Maybe 5” for us on Thursday. One benefit to it being so cold before it snowed is that the ground is frozen hard and I’m not ripping up quite as much sod as I generally do. Oh, I can still rip some up if I do it right, but certainly not as much as I would if it the ground wasn’t frozen before it snowed.

Bailey, my tractor buddy and I, spent an hour re-learning how to blade snow off the road and clear the yard.


I realized I forgot to put markers at the corners of the shop concrete, and I haven’t gotten the snowblower in the shed yet, but really, I don’t know where I’d put it anyway. I still gotta get the four wheeler in the shed, and the trailer for the lift I’m borrowing (and that I also don’t know quite where to put). Once the shop project is fully finished, I’ll have a bit more room; right now I’ve still got 14’ sheets of pole barn steel laying in the way. And once I get the tools and extra crap sorted out, then I can rearrange better for next winter. Heck, maybe by next winter I’ll have the lean too done on the back side and some of this stuff can go in there.

As I write this on Friday, my car is getting an oil change and tire rotation and I’m watching the snow melt and drip off. What a yucky job for the techs. Everybody has to start somewhere and presumably that’s doing the sloppy messy jobs.

We’ll be having the longest night, and shortest day this weekend. The days get longer from here on out and there’s light at the end of the tunnel!

The other morning as daughter and I were headed into town during the snow, we saw a box truck struggling and I commented that those kinda vehicles have terrible traction and don’t do well in this kind of weather. I was about to launch into a chronicle of rear wheel drive vs front wheel drive, and wheel base length, and how those things impact winter driving, but I stopped myself, and I asked, “Do you want me to keep talking about this or should I stop?” She gave it some serious thought and finally said “Naw”.

I’ve always appreciated her brutal honesty.

Do you all have that magic ten minutes in the morning? As we’re trying to get going in the mornings, I think we’re just about to leave and suddenly it’s ten minutes later and she doesn’t have her shoes on yet. I don’t get it. Where does that ten minutes go? This has been a thing since the kids were small. We’re almost ready to go and then it’s ten minutes later and now we’re late. It’s a magic ‘time hole’.

I hope you all have magical Christmas’ or Solstice events. Remember to spend a little time being grateful for what you have one way or another. Take some time to ponder.

DO YOU KNOW ENOUGH TO STOP TALKING?

WHERE DO YOU LOSE TIME?

2024, Family, Food, Gatherings, holidays, Uncategorized

Kransekake

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While my parents have predominantly British and German ancestry, you wouldn’t know it from my upbringing.  No culturally relevant foods,  no traditions, no nothing.  It wasn’t a void that I ever looked to fill, but it does mean I’m a bit of a tabula rasa where culture and tradition are concerned. 

There are just a few things that I’ve carried from my childhood to my adulthood; most of the traditions that YA and I observe are things we made the decision to do, not things that I did growing up.  I was going to list a bunch, but the list is too long!

I’ve lived in the heart of Scandinavian culture here in the Twin Cities for 44 years.  I’ve taught myself how to make aebleskivers and Swedish pancakes, visited the Swedish American institute.  One year we did a Saint Lucia observation at our church (UU); I made YA  a white dress and we fashioned the candle wreath for her head, although none of the kids actually had their candles lit (phew!).  We have a nisse watching out over our garden and I have a few heavy Scandinavian sweaters. 

But for some reason, I have never gotten around to making a kransekake, the stunning tower of cake/cookie rings that you see on the covers of many Scandinavian cookbooks.  It’s called a crown cake and sometimes a wreath cake as well.   Well, this turned out to be the year.  I knew our Anna had the rings/pans that you need to make the individual rings/wreaths and she graciously offered to let me borrow them.  I found several recipes and decided on one that I could pipe out of a bag rather than roll out the dough in log forms.  It turned out to be ridiculously easy… truly the hardest part was figuring out which of the two largest pans was actually the biggest one.  My recipe made way more dough than I needed… next time I attempt this, I’ll have a plan for this.  Maybe save it until after the first batch is baked and make a smaller tower.  I know purists would not have added sprinkles but I just had to. 

It made a lovely party centerpiece and if I do say so myself, tasted really good.  The only problem is that people were afraid to mess with it.  I’ve had this problem before with pretty cakes or rice krispy trees; I usually end up cutting them up so they don’t look too daunting.  I did this with the kransekake as well.  About ½ of it got eaten at the party and I’ve been nibbling away at it since then.  This turned out to be a fun attempt for me; it may get added to my stable of traditions.

When was the last time you pushed yourself to try something new?  How did it turn out?

2024, Family, Health, Medicine, Uncategorized, work

I Got a Few Thoughts

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Today’s post comes from Ben.

Our scale is broken. It doesn’t show the weight we want it to show. Especially after a day of wandering around the shop trying to find my tools. And swearing. Evidently swearing isn’t an aerobic activity no matter how loud or flowery I get with it. Humph. Who knew?

How many rings have you got? They weren’t always a big deal. 1886 is when Tiffany and Co introduced the popular diamond setting, then after WWII, De Beers created the ‘Diamonds are Forever’ slogan and now I have 4 silicone rings. My everyday ring, two middle ground rings, and the dress ring that Kelly gave me which says “Adventure is Out There”. Sometimes I wear it so you can read it, sometimes so I can read it. Depends how I’m feeling. When we got married in 1990, we had the real gold bands with diamonds. Kelly had the engagement ring plus wedding band. I have a silver band with tiny diamonds in it, but I wouldn’t wear it farming. So, then I got a plain silver band. And I wore it for a lot of years, and I put it in my pocket one day while working on some machinery and trying to fit my hand up in a tight spot and I didn’t want to get my hand stuck up in there by my ring. And then I forgot about it for a few days and then it wasn’t in my pocket anymore.

I’m still hoping to find it someday.

My brother-in -law wore his ring on his pinky, snagged it on a railing when jumping off something, ‘degloved’ his pinky (peeled the skin off, right down to the bone) and then had to get his pinky amputated. And that’s why we wear silicon rings now. Plus, they’re cheap and come in fun designs. Kelly has several as well.

HOW MANY TIMES DOES / DID YOUR PHONE RING BEFORE THE MACHINE ANSWERED? DID YOU DO FUNNY MESSAGES?

or TALK ABOUT YOUR RINGS.

2024, Family, Uncategorized, Words

Words To Live By

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My mother told me more than once when I was young that I shouldn’t get married until after I was 19. She was likely to say that after my father did something exasperating. It was no secret that she was 19 when she married my father. They were married for more than 70 years and were very happy together, but I took her words to heart and waited until I was 25.

Husband stands by his assertion that if we are going to do much traveling in the fall, we better have it done by Veterans Day, because you can’t depend on the weather after that. He is usually correct.

I stand by the assertions that lefse needs to finished and in the freezer by Christ the King Sunday, that pepper seeds should be started by March 15th, don’t plant your garden here until after Memorial Day , and Montana is not a sane or reasonable place to live, so don’t even think about moving there.

What are your words to live by? Any words of wisdom that you remember from your parents? What words of wisdom would you like to impart on young persons?