January ends and IRS 1099’s are coming into mailboxes everywhere. Ah the lowly 1099. A wonderment of information that most taxpayers will encounter at one time or another along the tax paying highway. The 1099 is a nice little note announcing that somewhere along the way you made a little extra … [Read more...] about Hunting and Gathering
Pants Are Not Napkins
Sometime ago there was a commercial on television for a laundry detergent that touted it could get out “ring around the collar.” Back then growing up in a house with a father who had this problem, my mother used the product to deal with the ring of the businessman. Then I married a farmer. I found … [Read more...] about Pants Are Not Napkins
Buying Unlikeables
Buying Unlikeables Sometimes there are things that you just can’t fix. No matter how much sugar or salt you add to a bad selection of a frozen dinner or a brand of coffee creamer it just will not sit in your mouth happily. That happened to me just this past week. It was coffee creamer. Now I have … [Read more...] about Buying Unlikeables
Routine or Rut
There is a lot of comfort in a routine. Taking a nap on the same couch with the same blanket at the same time on Saturday afternoons is a comfortable routine. There is a lot of fun to be gotten from a routine. Trekking to your family cabin nestled in the pine trees along the shores of Lake Tahoe … [Read more...] about Routine or Rut
Sniffers Unite
Just like the candy or the chip aisle in big stores there’s also another aisle that has a draw of irresistibility. So irresistible that the followers of the items in this aisle have created a market so big that specialty stores are now in vogue. Carrying the items that were once just a notion now … [Read more...] about Sniffers Unite
If You Sew Are You A Sewer?
Many days have passed under the bridge of life since I sewed something more than a repair on a torn seam or pegged a pair of pants. Yes, pegged a pair of pants. Way before skinny jeans. That’ll date anyone. This wild hair of an idea to write about sewing came after a recent jaunt through a store … [Read more...] about If You Sew Are You A Sewer?
Egg Appeal
About a dozen times a year I do something with hard boiled eggs. I am blabbity-blabbity years old so that equates to more eggs than one chicken could lay without putting her egg laying self into an old hen’s home. So after all those eggs one would think I would have come up with the perfect way to … [Read more...] about Egg Appeal
A Lightbulb Moment
Soon I will have to buy lightbulbs. This doesn’t seem to be a big deal. It’s just a light bulb right? Round on the top, screw in at the base. All the stuff in the middle is just glass and filaments. Light making stuff that when it is screwed into a fixture and a switch is flipped, my way to the … [Read more...] about A Lightbulb Moment
Blowing at Those Winter Blues
Starting around mid August there is a tug at my soul that I cannot shake. I have tried to nip it in the bud for years. Go outside more. Go for longer walks. Stand in the sprinkler and make myself burn the feeling into my brain. Then the dark cloud of winter finally wins about the end of September. … [Read more...] about Blowing at Those Winter Blues
What a Pill
Wondering about stuff is what a brain does when there is a break in the adventures of life. Say you have been up to your eyeballs in getting kids ready for school or getting the cat to the vet to find out you will soon be the proud owner of yet another five or more mouths to feed. Well after the … [Read more...] about What a Pill
It’s Always Sunny Some Where
The first time I stepped into my house my life changed. For the good, the change was for the good. The house I live in was delivered. It is not a trailer it is a house. Stick built in Idaho yes, but it has a wood frame and is considered what is commonly known as a modular house. As soon as I … [Read more...] about It’s Always Sunny Some Where
My Favorite Cookie Sheet
Baking season has begun in earnest as it is mid November. From now until the end of the year there will be pies and breads and cookies laden with icing and sprinkles. I love the baking season. It’s a time when you can just let your inner baker out and then give it all away. Well except the test pie … [Read more...] about My Favorite Cookie Sheet
Reading Out Loud
Will the fear of being called on in school to answer a question, or worse yet be asked to read out loud ever go away? Nope. Not for me at least. It’s in my nature to introvert. To become one of those hermit crabs that suck themselves up into a shell and not answer the knock on the door of the shell. … [Read more...] about Reading Out Loud
Not Popeye’s Gal
I don’t get olive oil. Not Olive Oyl, Popeye’s gal Friday. No the slick, light golden to green colored, virgin, extra virgin, pure as the driven snow virgin olive oil you use in your kitchen. Yes that olive oil. The mysterious oil that apparently has powers that will do magical things to you if you … [Read more...] about Not Popeye’s Gal