Today I am supposed to be cleaning house and getting ready for our Annual Oktoberfest. So I am writing on my blog instead. This morning there is a chill in the air so to celebrate I built a little fire in the woodstove. We celebrate everything around here. :) We didn't need it. I just wanted it. I wanted to send the smoke smell out across the mountain and to make it feel like Fall in the house. By the time Winter rolls around we will be sick to death of the woodstove and all the work that comes with it. By February the day starts out with the following conversation..."Do you think we need a fire today?" "Naw, it's s'posed to get up in the 40's, we'll be fine!" But in September, I am ready to get Fall started. Normally I don't enjoy Summer at all. It is usually a big bummer when everyone is hanging out at the pool or going to the beach. But not this summer. This was the year we finally started to really enjoy the beautiful River we have and for the first time since I was a kid I am actually a little sad to see summer end. But not that sad. I will miss my boat but I love Fall & I love Winter, there is so much to look forward to! Apples, fresh deer meat, Oktoberfest, leaves, cold beer, pumpkins, Halloween, fires in the woodstove. And then Winter which means SNOW! I LOVE SNOW! Peaceful snowy nights, sparkling trees covered in ice, no spiders or snakes or bugs, Christmas, birds at the window, reading by the fire, cats curled up in chairs & did I mention SNOW!? Getting ahead of myself. One season at a time. So this week we get ready for the Oktoberfest by the river with old friends, good beer & sausage around a big smoky fire, kayaking under the moon, then back to my house for apple pie & coffee. Which is going to require clean cups & a place to sit, so I need to get off this thing and get back to work. Would rather write about it. :) Gaston is going hunting this afternoon, so hopefully there will be fresh venison for stew! The man makes the best stew in the whole wide world. And yes, of course you are invited. Good bye Summertime, welcome Autumn! Okay, now that I am inspired, back to work.
I am so totally susceptible to signage. I like to be told what to buy, what to eat, etc. I hate shopping & I like not having to decide. Just like I need for the cinnamon sugar to be in the little plastic boy & the chocolate syrup in the bunny, I need for pancake syrup to be in the Jemima or the log cabin & bubble gum should always be in chunks, never sticks. I can't have television as I am completely powerless over the commercials. If I see someone eating pizza, that's what we have for dinner. My kids tried to convince me that the documentary "Super Size Me" was actually NOT meant to be a commercial FOR Big Macs. It is impossible to not gain weight while watching Gilmore Girls, if Loralei eats Pop-tarts, guess who else is eating Pop-tarts. :) If I am reading a book about factory farms or watch the movie "Babe", I become a vegetarian. My friend JB got upset with me once because apparently I had managed to convert everyone around me by zealously sharing everything I knew about meat production in graphic detail, rendering her unable to touch chicken for over a year while I casually munched down on chicken nuggets a week later. One of Jewl's kids hasn't touched a hot dog since she was 9. Also my fault. I, however, am blessed with absolutely no short term memory, so while everyone else can't get the images out of their head, I have moved on to the next thing. The next pretty bright light. But JB sure got me back. When she announced she was expecting their third child I suddenly wanted one of those too! In elementary school the teacher asked me once if my friend jumped off a bridge did that mean I would too. I got in trouble because I hesitated before I answered. I was not being a smart ass. When you find yourself wondering why the companies bother to pay to have their products shown in movies because it is so obvious... what idiot would actually fall for that? That would be me. When E.T, first came out I bought more Reese's Pieces than any other human on Earth. Everything in the house is still cinnamon flavored from a Cinnabon billboard I saw over a month ago. Poor Gaston. He eats whatever I come home with & never complains, never asks, but this week he wanted to know about The Potatoes. He noticed them because he put all of them away which is because by the time I get all the groceries home I have gotten bored with them and lost interest and have moved onto the next thing. We have lost a lot of frozen food this way. The groceries live on the table and couch and counters until someone needs them. Once when Wolfgang's friend Curtis was over when I came home he asked me later why I had hidden the cereal in the hamper and was it okay to have some. Silly boy. Anyway. Saturday at Martin's when I went in for One Thing, I noticed a little tag hanging everywhere that if you buy a certain number of certain items you get 20 cents off every gallon of gasoline. Knowing that Gaston actually knows how much gas costs & that it freaks him out, I decide to be a good wife and buy the 8 items and thus save money on gas. Then the Brilliant Evil Plan began to be hatched. As that was the Last Day of this Fantastic Offer I decided I would buy the items, get the points, run over to the gas station and fill the car up with my cheap gas THEN drive home and get the truck and go back to the store, buy 8 more items, get more points then fill up the truck. Simple. (In my mind) There is no limit to my wifely devotion. Gaston would think I was absolutely brilliant! (And there is a coffee shop at Martin's.) I was basking in my brilliance until I got to the register and didn't have my smucking bonus card. The nice lady says just bring my card back later and they will apply the points from my receipt. I drive back home, find the card under the couch, jump in the truck with Wolfgang, drive back to the store, they scan my points, we get into the truck and go to the gas station but of course the special GAS points didn't work, just my normal points. (Only 10 cents off) So we go back to the store to the instant potato aisle and from behind the stack of potato boxes he was carrying I hear Wolfgang ask, "Does it work if you buy anything other than potatoes?" and I say "yes, but I can't remember anything else and we are in a hurry so grab more potatoes." So we buy more potatoes, get the points then go back to the truck, back to the gas station and get 30 cents off every gallon of gas, so I filled up the truck. With gas and potatoes. To quote my mother-in-law, "I spend more money trying to save money". And I now had no gas in the other car which was now empty from the first trip to town that morning. So I burned over a quarter tank of gas and spent $12.00 on instant potatoes to save $3.00 on gas. Whenever I try to explain these things Tallulah says I am doing Mom Math again. So when we heard the quote "susceptible to signage" on Gilmore Girls we both looked at each other & cracked up and I immediately adopted it as my motto. Unfortunately this trait of constant change is something my poor dear daughter inherited from me. Although she refers to herself as "mercurial". I like hers better. That sounds so much nicer than just being "susceptible to signage". Mine sounds so victimized and unintelligent while mercurial sounds so colorful and artistic. Hey! I want to be mercurial too!! I guess I am stuck with plain old susceptible. Little Hank asked me if he could have a candy bar at the store the other day. I picked one up and handed it to him but he said no. He needed it to be in a classic wrapper, like on Willy Wonka...and when he opened it, he needed it to say Hershey in big letters on the... Oh dear. No wonder Gaston looked less than enthusiastic when I explained that he didn't have to worry, Martin's was doing the gas offer AGAIN this week, but with different products! Oh well. At least the guy at McDonalds finds me amusing. After he showed me how they flip the menu sign from breakfast to lunch (at my request) he gave me an extra Batman Happy Meal toy. I guess that is one advantage of being me. I am very easily entertained. :)
I simply do not do well with change. You may have noticed. I consider Pierre or Tallulah "cleaning house" a euphemism for "moving things". It makes me nervous. Our local Walmart is remodeling. I am on the verge of a nervous breakdown when I go in there. I also don't understand why you would remodel a McDonald's to look like a grownup coffee shop, making it more suitable for the WiFi crowd. If I do go to McDonald's I WANT to sit next to the plastic clown & I do not want to be offered apple slices or milk with my smucking Happy Meal. I am there because I want a damn hamburger & chemical laden fries. Wondering where Ronald went also makes me nervous.
Some things should not change. Some things have to. Some things just should not. I need them to stay the same. I need to be able to rely on the little things so I don't lose my mind over the other things. Today I just needed something normal so I went to buy that little cute container of the cinnamon sugar to make toast with. You know the one. Shaped like a little boy or was it a bear? Anyway, I know it when I see it....but it wasn't there. Just a plain cylinder wrapped in plastic with a picture of a monkey playing sports. That's not right. So I try the next store. Not there either. So this morning as I was standing in the spice aisle with tears streaming down my face because I cannot find the little cinnamon boy I wonder if I have finally gone crazy. Why do they have to change things that didn't have to be changed? Then it occurs to me I am not crying for the cinnamon boy. I am crying for all the things that didn't stay the same. I cannot fix all the bad things that have happened and make things the way they were. I can't do anything about planes full of people crashing into buildings full of more people. I cannot help my friend and all the others that have been forced from their homes by this terrible hurricane. I can't imagine how she can do the hard thing she is having to do to get her kids to safety. My heart is positively ripped to shreds at the thought of the loving attentive mother that had to pull her lifeless child from a pond this week. I have no words for that. Everytime I think of his beautiful little face I cannot breathe... I wish I could change those things. But since I can't I have just become the crazy lady frantically searching through the spices. I am heading back out in a little while. I have decided I have to find this particular little plastic boy. I need to know he is safe on my shelf where I can see him everyday. That he is still there. Nobody had better move him. I can't just sit here thinking about all those other things, all that change. So I am going to think about something completely unimportant instead. Something maybe I can fix. A meaningless errand that will keep my mind busy. I'm not coming back until I find him.Then I am going to make cinnamon toast for my little boys. Maybe some chocolate milk. Oh Lord, they do still make chocolate syrup in the plastic bunny don't they?
As the name of my Blog implies, I am a simple soul. I am never on the cutting edge of anything. It runs in my family, I can't help it. When I was a child, my Aunt Clare (one of the crazy ones I am supposed to be a lot like) pulled me aside to excitedly share a delightful discovery. They had found a brand new kind of gum & she wanted me to try it. This was the era of chocolate Hubba Bubba & new watermelon Bubble Yum, so the possibilities were pretty exciting. She opens her dresser drawer where she kept her treasures...and hands me a stick of Juicy Fruit. Juicy Fruit had been around for like 80 years at that point but because they always bought spearmint, it was all new to them! So, it is genetic, I can't help it. We only just started watching The Simpson's this year, I still refer to CDs as albums & I think of flavored Pringles, Super Mario & Jay Leno as "new". So imagine my surprise tonight when I happen across a satellite map of a humongous hurricane about to eat Texas....specifically Beaumont. So being right on top of the ball I urgently email my friend Jewls in Texas to share my findings and tell her I think it is probably a good idea to head, I'm thinking, North. Imagine my surprise (yet again) when she immediately emails me back from a diner in Mississippi where she is sitting with my son! Clyde-Pierre is having dinner with the Forsythes. Wow. Of course I think she is lying, so I check her blog...and she really is there! I run into Wolfgang's room to tell him the breaking news about the gimongous hurricane trying to eat Texas & about them all sitting there with his very own brother Pierre & he just looked at me as if I had just offered him a piece of Juicy Fruit. Apparently my son has escaped the genetic oblivion & actually knows how to use a phone and has been talking to Kullen all evening. HA! Oh well. I will try to go to sleep & stop trying to understand how she emailed me from a diner and can write blog posts while driving. I am guessing her blackberry is not the same as "my" blackberry. Some mysteries will always be too big for my little brain. Happy Evacuating Forsythes! Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on that weather for you. IHOP... is that new??
I have been struggling to start yet another homeschool year. I have been doing this since my 23 yr. old was in 2nd grade & the idea of doing it all again has made me very weary. The two oldest are grown up now but I still have the two little boys to raise. Listening to them fight yet again last night while trying to get the house together and go through things and try to get organized for another school year I find myself moaning, "Will it EVER end?" Then this morning I watched Clyde-Pierre jump into a car with a friend on his way to Mississippi to check out a college. I am used to him being "on the road" but this is his first road trip that he planned & involves bus tickets and being picked up at stations & arranging meetings with Professors, etc. I have gotten used to Tallulah's travelling. I have put her on an airplane to the Mid-East in the middle of an electrical storm when she was 15, so everything else has been pretty peachy. But another kid possibly moving to Mississippi next year causes all the same sadness & dread and it seems so far away. The heartache of another one growing up, the very thing I think I want so badly. So this morning when I ask myself if this will ever end I am dramatically reminded ...it does. Way too soon. All of a sudden I am not dreading another year with my little guys quite so much, I am looking forward to it and intend on enjoying it as much as possible. More about Clyde-Pierre later, I have to go be sad for awhile, I already miss my Wubba and he isn't even off the mountain yet. I know this because I called. :) Please keep Alex & Clyde in your prayers as they travel.
Did you know that their are no health department regulations governing wearing shoes? Turns out No Shoes No Service is a bogus claim and has no basis. You can legally go into any store or restaurant in this country & technically not be refused service. Can you believe that? Despite what we have all been taught, it is also not illegal to drive without shoes. I found this great site about the Society of Barefooters made up of people that go barefoot everywhere all the time. Isn't that great? Check it out. I'm not a big rock the boat kind of gal, so I won't be demanding my rights to eat at McDonald's barefooted. Just because we have a legal right to do something, I still wouldn't want to be disrespectful or offensive to others. But other than public establishments I am finding this whole concept of being barefoot most of the time fascinating. I went barefooted a lot in the summer as a child, but mostly I was raised by the generation of women that believed in buying only the" best" name brand shoes (Buster Brown usually) for support and proper foot development you know. If you wore "cheap" improperly supported shoes you would be crippled for life. Not to mention all the horrible tragedy that awaits the unwise who run about unshod. Well, I started doing a lot of thinking about this which always leads to trouble and a lot of research. I started wondering why people believe and insist they need $80 shoes "for support" which occured to me is an extremely new idea as far as history goes, definitely a current event. Or more accurately, yet another successful marketing ploy. We were brainwashed. I thought of all the peoples who walked this earth without the aid of Nike or Reebok for thousands of years, the Indians who hunted in only moccasins in the winter. Turns out my hunch was right, there is a ton of info out there about how shoes are actually usually more of a negative factor in the forming of our feet and most of the reasons we choose to need them so much are actually myth. Hollywood and society as usual have also put ideas in our minds of how it is supposed to be. For instance, in movies like Rob Roy Scottish Highlanders fought barelegged and barefooted, not in the nifty sexy manly leather boots the costume designer shod them in. Yesterday was my first full day in my entire life of going barefooted. Before my feet touch the floor in the mornings, I slip them into tenny shoes and they don't come off again til I crawl back into bed at night. As an adult I have never enjoyed being barefooted. I think that came mostly from embarrassment at a foot deformity I have. Which probably came from my Buster Browns. :) But I have decided this is one more thing I want to change in my life. I want to enjoy feeling the earth beneath my feet, get over not wanting to get my feet dirty & never again think about what I may look like. Friends have always teased me about how I always wear shoes, all summer long & even in the house. Well, now I am a believer! As usual, I didn't start in moderation or pick an "easy" day. My first day was while we were camping at the river. When I stepped out of the tent and slipped my foot into my shoe I decided this was the day. So I spent all day on gravel, ashes, rocks, glass, dirt, mud, grass & in the river. After a full day of having my poor confused feet out of shoes, I rubbed them with healing salve and put on little cotton footie socks to sleep in and within 2 minutes I was having to kick them off. I felt suffocated! I have given away all my athletic shoes and all my socks. I have a pair of sandals to keep in the car for going in to public places. I will get a pair of slip on boots or moccasins for the snow. And that's it. It is going to take some time but as soon as my sore feet get tough enough, I am going to do some hiking. As far as shoes and laundry and the never ending nightmare of keeping up with socks...my life just got a whole lot simpler. If getting rid of shoes and socks feels this good, I wonder...hhmmmmm. I am so sad for teaching my kids to wear shoes (Tallulah was right!) & for always fussing at Gaston for never wearing shoes outside. If you have something about yourself that you wish you did differently, something that makes you feel safe & comfortable but you want to be carefree about...go for it. Give it a try! You are never too old and it is never too late to do something new or different. If you hear yourself yelling "Get your shoes on!" several times a day...don't. Let'em go. If you haven't walked over moss or fresh cut grass or squished mud between your toes lately, give it a try. You will feel like a kid again and suddenly a lot of things that seemed important aren't anymore.
http://www.barefooters.org/
http://www.savingsimply.com/2007/04/25/the_butterfly_effect_of_not_wearing_socks/
