Thoughts for a Tuesday

Monday was smashing.  I TORE up my house (and when I say “tore” I actually mean “tidied up”).  It looked so good, and I was so proud of myself, and it lasted all of a few minutes while my son finished his nap and my daughter and I sat at the table and colored.  Then I busted out some gloves, cut up more jalapenos and made a boat load of poppers to take up to mom’s last night.

You know the poppers I’m talking about…


Everyone gobbled them up and we passed around butternut squash, pulled pork, and a few of the candied jalapenos I made last week.
It was nice. Then I came home to a house I’d spent the entire day cleaning, ignored the mess, and went to bed. I thought -and even quickly sent a facebook status update from my moe-bile -WHY is it that when I see clean kitchen counters, I don’t think ‘wow, what an accomplishment!’… I see ‘WHEEE! A BLANK CANVAS!’ and I proceed to figuratively paint all over it? I think the right side of my brain is uncharacteristically controlling.

Really, though, the big stuff is done. It makes my week go by smoothly when my floors are mopped and my furniture is dusted -even though my counters get cluttered with stuff, it helps that when I clear the clutter (daily) there’s a clean counter underneath.
Today is cooking day. I’m hoping it will be just as successful. I didn’t really get one solitary cooking day last week on account of the jalapenos taking up the better part of a day and ALL of Saturday spent canning and freezing.

Let me tell you something:
There’s precious things only women know -some of them come instinctively, some we have to learn the hard way.
After the birth of my first baby, I learned how to tell if my Dear One was running a fever or not. NO ONE taught me how, I just KNEW how. All it took was one kiss on that itty-bitty forehead, and I knew with every fiber in my being that my child was running a low/fighting/high fever.
My husband stood by, wishing he were privy to the super-secret fever kiss.
OTHER things, we learned the hard way: by opening our mouths.
For example: If you are the sort that can not stand being “one-upped” you should NEVER, as a woman, bring up your own experiences in childbirth OR canning.
I don’t mind being one-upped, actually, so I bring it up all the time. In bringing it up, however, I have learned that Suzy So-and-So had a much harder time in labor and delivery than I did AND that she canned 100 quarts of peaches while standing on one leg.
It’s true. Don’t believe me? Just ask her.

My prize for Canner of the Century goes my Grandma Hansen who actually used to can 100 quarts of peaches every year, and who made the absolute best and most beautiful canned peaches I’ve ever seen. She never blanches her peaches to get the skins off -she’s mastered the art of perfectly peeling. She knows canning secrets like the back of her hand, and I often slink over to her house with my kids in tow and pick her brain. Did you know that she had two kitchens put in her house? One upstairs for regular cooking and one downstairs -just for canning. The woman beats all. No really. Have you met her?

My prize for Queen of Labor and Delivery goes to Charlsye, my friend who lives across town. She recently found out she was pregnant with TWINS, and after having labor stopped several times over and being admitted to the hospital several times over and discharged completely hopped up on labor-stopping meds several times over, she was finally scheduled to be induced (WHAT?!). However, she happened to make it to the hospital and give birth to one baby 10 minutes later (I know that feeling!), and then HAD TO HAVE A C-SECTION for the other baby.
My dear friend is lying in bed, healing up from a natural birth AND a c-section. But here’s the part you really want to see:

Awwwwww.

One baby boy and one baby girl are going home to their two older brothers (who, by the way, are ridiculously adorable as well).

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to clean my kitchen again. An artist can not work with this kind of canvas on cooking day. It must be cleaned first!

Comments

  1. I’d have to admit that I don’t want to be one upped on this one…but not for pride or vanity. Simply because I don’t wish that labor and delivery upon anyone. Although I did get two miracles out of it and those miracles were worth all of it!

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