Friday, January 28, 2011

What Is Your Work Worth Per Hour?



Someone who knows told us that Christian women in Asia do not understand their special ness as a woman due to their culture and former religion.   That was on Wednesday evening at an IGO presentation.  Thursday a lady told me that women tend to think they are not worth as much as men per hour of work. 
Both Asian and American women seem to have trouble finding peace about their personal worth to themselves.  It’s not a new problem and every woman understands the feelings more or less.  But of any group of women in our world, Christian women ought to be the most settled about the question.
I don’t claim to be able to solve it for anyone else; but I would like to say that it’s been good for me to evaluate the good that I try to be by choosing to value my work as priceless.
Our own worst enemy is self.  And the most dangerous mind game is comparison.  For me to compare my work hours with my husband’s work hours and how we’re each getting paid is ludicrous.  There’s no comparison at all between what he does in his waking hours and what I do.  To think that my worth is somehow tied up in getting an hourly wage is demeaning. Who is going to be the nurturer, the home maker, and wear all the hats I wear so that he and the family can do what they need to do?  There’s not enough money in the world to “pay” a woman!
Every godly woman either Asian or American finds out that when she is a servant trying to be Jesus to everyone, she is content.  If she feels servile and used, she is unhappy and empty.
It’s all about attitude.  Do I feel used and under-rated? Or do I choose to be useful, painting every room in my life with the brush of order and something pretty to please others…and myself.
There is a richness that comes with working at creating beauty and peace for a busy family in today’s world.  And it doesn’t have to be expensive. I have been delighted with the “crumbs from the rich man’s table” that I have found at used shops for use in our home. Women who understand contentment are still turning collars, too, in a lot more ways than we’re ever going to say.  It’s fun to rearrange a room and rejuvenate the larder when we are making an art of it and doing it for pleasure instead of pay.
Order and warmth and good food at the end of the day for everyone is most fulfilling.  I don’t do it for an hourly wage; I do it because I know that nobody else can do it like we need to have it done.  Any woman can indulge in that legitimate pride and contentment in her own world if she chooses.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Another Day in January

It was cold all day today.  And now that it is evening; it is even colder.  I saw 0 degrees a few minutes ago and the evening is quite young.   We could have close to -30 degrees tonight.
So we are having cheeseburger soup in bread bowls for supper tonight. Frances and I settled on that plan as we were leaving to go clean a house together this afternoon.
We had to go check on Neiman’s house on Windigo Lake on our way.  We parked the car at the brink of the hill just as the road drops down to where the cabins are and then the lake below them.  We walked down to the gate and stood there to decide that there were no tracks into the property and no broken windows and no trees down on the two roofs.  The woods are full of snow, of course, since we have had snow fall almost every day for days.   If you did not know better you would think nothing living moved or even existed in these woods.  But closer inspection proves that there are critters here leaving tracks everywhere.
Which reminds me, (This is a rabbit trail. Is that a pun?) We noticed last Sunday that the field across the road from the church was full of coyote tracks.  They had been mouse hunting. You could see that they had trotted here and there smelling or listening or however they know and then a space of clear snow and then a dug up area where they had pounced and found their prey.  I thought this was  fascinating. It was not hard to visualize them, with the moon shining over the field of snow, running, waiting, leaping, and digging here, then there. 
Frances and I got back to the car at Neiman’s and headed over to our cleaning job.  There have been carpenters working there all fall and winter on a new unattached garage with living space above.  So the house had tracks from their coming and going and then the usual dirt and dust.  We had it spotless and beautiful again before two hours was up.
Home to soup and bread creations. 













Wednesday, January 19, 2011

A Day In January

      This morning my dad called to say that they're taking Mom to a doctor in Sand Point today to see about her heart.  She's been on my mind all day. Does she have blockages or is it just anxiety and stresses from agonizing over her children?  Maybe we will know by this evening.  If she has to have surgery my sister and I will find our way out to them as soon as possible.  
      Also this morning I chatted with our SIL about our daughter who has been having a difficult pregnancy.  They live in Thailand and we live in United States.  I should not have to explain what the first sentence has to do with the second!  You might say that even though I am not usually a worrier ; I am worried about them. 
       And later this morning I took our daughter to the dentist to find out that not only does she need a retainer; she needs fillings... galore.  I feel like a dud mom sometimes.
      These are my bundles to carry today; to Jesus...over and over.   

Monday, January 17, 2011

Sunday Supper

 We had venison roast for supper last night.  It cooked nicely on the wood stove all day while we were in church.  Our supper laid out on the coffee table by the fire was a lovely quiet way to spend the evening.
 We all got a kick out of using the knife that Gabe forged from an old railroad spike picked up off the Tuskobia State Trail over by Clarks.  Brad says he wants one of his own, Gabe, if you're in the mood to make another. "It was my spike." he informed us.  Here is how he does it.



Su

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Homemade Noodles

When my friend called me last week and asked me if I'd like to help make noodles; I had no idea I was going to come home with six bread bags of a finished product. When I arrived at her house yesterday morning she had a large yellow lump of dough resting in her bakery waiting to be processed into noodles.
Everybody helped. I am fascinated that we are in charge of what goes into our noodles. And it didn't take Dorothy and I long to find out if we could make them with bean flour instead of wheat flour. Oh yes, you can! 

 Making noodles seems so ridiculously easy and they are so yummy I have to wonder why we haven't done this before.  We will now have noodles in the pantry which is new for us. (We haven't had boughten noodles for years, since we don't appreciate them.)
If any of my readers has one of these nifty little machines hiding way back there in the kitchen closet and you'd like to sell it to me...Comment please, and let me know.



  
So we had Yummaseti for supper tonight. Now Yummaseti is a traditional Amish casserole.  Yes, you can find the recipe on line, but they all called for tomato juice. That didn't sound good to me. And I was sure that when I had made it long ago it only called for cream soups.  Here's a plug for Beth's Cookbook.  The Derstine Cookbook is probably the main cookbook that we have used for years around here.  So when the web failed me; I pulled Beth's cookbook down and found two recipes on page 51.
Here it is:
Yum-a-setta or Yumisetta or Yummaseti
1 lb. noodles
       3 lbs. hamburger 
1 onion ( I used a good big handful of dried onions) 
2 cans of cream of mushroom soup
2 cans of celery soup
1 pt. sour cream
1 pt. green peas
1/2 loaf of bread
1/2 to 3/4 stick oleo

Cook noodles until done.  Brown hamburger with the onions.  Layer the hamburger, noodles, and peas in a casserole dish.  Add the soups and sour cream. Make the bread into croutons and layer on the top before baking. Or you can do what I did and add some cheese and bake covered for an hour then uncover and crumble crackers over the top, dot with butter and return to oven till brown. Serve with apple sause and fresh, warm homemade bread.
 




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Monday, January 10, 2011

Filibustering

Frances is studying United States civics this last year of her formal book education. Right now she is learning about filibustering. I am not sure why this should be such new idea to her. Children are adept at it.

I recall the bedtime routines. You send the children to bed. The story has been read, the snack has been eaten, and the prayers have been said.

“Mom, I needa go potty.” I don’t know a parent on earth who ignores this one. It could be real you know.

“Don’t forget to get a drink while you’re at it,” You say hoping you’ve thought of everything. So you wait patiently for the footfalls down the stairs and back up the stairs to end in a second or third bed-going.

And the art isn’t forgotten by the time they’re teenagers. It’s quite honed by this time…into more like what happens in Congress. Talking for hours: with their friends at slumber parties instead of sleeping, on email instead of chores, and with Mom and Dad instead of going to bed at night. What’s so novel about filibustering, pray tell!

Friday, January 7, 2011

A Post About Whatever Is Happening Around Here


My Journal Of This Week So Far…

Slightly More Than The Usual Entry

Just For Practice

Sunday 1/2/11

I woke before dawn. I could see the stars out my window even without my glasses. The feather tick had slipped again and I was cold. I tugged and got some back. Elv threw his covers back in the startling cold and tramped downstairs to stash wood in that old barrel stove. It was important to stave off some of that Minnesota winter chill for a while longer but the tick helped the most. The stars were very brilliant. I would love to be able to open my eyes to tree tops and stars every predawn morning.

The chill was off the house by eight or so and Elv fried eggs for our breakfast. We settled in our chairs in the living room with our Bibles for a couple hours. I was looking for a phrase we had been hearing lately. The search led me in a rather thorough perusal of the four Gospels. If you sit and read every word of Jesus in one setting, it helps to see Who He IS a new way. Do it sometime.

By noon or so Elv and I dressed in our warmest winter togs and headed down the trail away from the cabin to visit our friends the Lattins. Herb has been sick for three weeks with dizziness pinning him to his bed and chair, so we were there to give them a Sunday fellowship. The trail was a foot path broken through two feet of snow. The trees were sugar coated with snow, and the sun gave color and depth to every animal track and over every surface flat or drifted. As we walked away from the cabin we both turned and looked back to see what our current shelter looked like in winter against the spruces and snow. Lovely! …

As was the day with Herb and Susan. We had a long afternoon of visiting. The temperature was around zero as we left the house to head back to our cabin. The snow crunched underfoot while our flashlight made a moving pool of light just ahead of our feet on the whiteness. There’s nothing quite like walking through the starry darkness through the woods in winter.

Monday 1/3/11 Back to work for Elv and home for me to catch up on a huge laundry. The house here at home needed sweeping up from 48 hours of firewood hauling and fire building. The children were doing school work when I got there. Brad settled down to his Language Arts book and announced to me that now he was going to write in cursive and asked for my help to get started. His penmanship is very nice this year; but a letter from a cousin at Christmas time in cursive had caused him considerable frustration. So I sat with him in the living room by the fire and he mastered cursive in about an hour’s time. I knew he could. It certainly wasn’t his first introduction to it.

Elv and Lance went to the regular Monday evening firemen’s meeting. Elv came home solving…again. He woke at 2:30 AM again, tossing and still solving. So he got up to “sit by the fire and study awhile”. I went back to sleep with a whole warm bed to myself and slept…till morning, decently. Elv was long gone off to work when I got up.

Tuesday 1/4/11 I went in to see Dr. Dunlap today. She is a good friend after “seeing” us for over 12 years. We visited for an hour. Her words as she walked out of the room, “I always have more to think about after being with you.” It is mutual, yes.

Frank’s friend Charity arrived at our house before supper. She is home for Christmas break from her job as nanny in Colorado and she and Frances have a lot of catching up to do.

Elv had a meeting with LaMar. He slept better for a change. I’m glad.

Wednesday 1/5/11 I was having quiet time this morning when I realized that we needed milk for breakfast. So I headed off to town to do the weekly shopping. Home again by 9 or so for breakfast. The two girls got ready to go for a snowmobile ride with their brothers. I was sweeping in the basement when I thought of getting pictures of the snowmobiles taking off. Raced out in my slippers and camera and did.

The day turned into a day for others, pretty well, what with Evangeline’s children here and running errands. There was no time to write, read, and work on the puzzle that lives on the coffee table. Since I had two extra boys at my disposal I made a deal with Lance that we’d go scrape the snow off the rink if he would flood it. He is on the fire department and has the use of a tanker to haul the water for that job. So I took three boys over to plow. We have two new barn scrapers that work perfectly for getting rid of a couple inches of snow. It just takes some time. But I had Jaden, The Innovator with me so he rigged up a way to plow with the homemade goalie box. That took two boys to push,(Brad, The Dreamer and Jaden) which left me and George, The Persevere-er to each use a scraper. It takes all kinds to make a world, they say. When we got home I had a few minutes to sit with the two little girls and scrapbook before Evangeline showed up to take them home again. It was a good day. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that Brad’s helicopter came today. We ordered it for him for his 12th birthday. It has the most amazing propensity to fly smack into ankles and around corners behind the wood stove almost out of reach.

Thursday 1/6/11 Happy Birthday Frances! She’s 17! Today, I settled down to fold laundry for a change. It had been all piling up on my chair downstairs beside the drying rack and the children had started gravitating to the pile to find duds. I had made quite a hole in it when Charlotte chatted in to say that she needed a ride to the clinic in Minong for our sick little Benny Baby. I left the house at quarter to twelve and returned about four hours later. The children did school without me and had started on evening chores of dishes, firewood, and cleanup in general. Amy finished folding up the laundry for me, too. But I enjoyed today’s errands. Benny is rather ill. He had a patient smile or two for me, and Charlotte is relieved that there is a tangible reason for his fever. He has his first ear infection. I was home about an hour when Elv got home. Knowing that we couldn’t take Brad to the rest home singing, because he has a bad cold; I offered to take the two girls and go to singing. Elv was happy to stay home with Brad. Lance had a breakdown today and had to run all the way down to Prentice for parts and is just now on his way home from work at 9 PM. (He has not had a chance to flood the rink.) I am home now with the family. Elv, Brad, and Frances are reading books here by the fire with me and Amy is upstairs rattling around in the sewing room looking into a new brainstorm, no doubt. Brad says his helicopter is breaking up and simply won’t respond to left and right commands on his remote.

Friday 1/8/11 It is cold this morning and the air is full of falling snow. I am sitting here at Spanish class with Amy. Another morning gone to running errands. This time I brought my computer along so that I could sort pictures and write while I wait. (The stove fan is too loud.) I think I could make excuse and never get anything done just running the errands each day.

This evening Elv and I are planning to go down to Rice Lake to drop something off at Moberg Electric before 4 o’clock. Then we will go out to eat somewhere. Clark asked where we will go, and suggested that we eat at the Casa Mexicana. I like the Mexican House well enough but was looking for more atmosphere than that. On the other hand, we have to dress so warmly in this weather that atmosphere seems a little facetious. So it could be a good choice. If we go to Norske Nook I won’t quite know what to order. It seems to me that the plates always look a bit scanty somehow. I’d use more gravy, more meat, and fewer potatoes than they serve. Or we could go to Perkins where the menu is like the law of the Medes and Persians which changeth not. Last time we were there, they were training in a batch of gelled and perky young men. But we would have privacy which is not to be had neither at Norske nor yet at Casa Mexicana. To be honest, Wisconsonites haven’t a clue about atmosphere. Or maybe they have used up the quota of said amenity at the Supper Clubs scattered throughout the woods of our state. So I don’t know why I mention “atmosphere” as something one can have at all.

Always more later.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Moving On

This is just a post to prove that we've come into a new year and added one more adventure to our lives.


The Lattin's homestead in Winter Wonder Land.

They still had the Christmas decorations up at their house.


We had a quiet Sunday afternoon of fellowship with Herb & Susan and their friend, Ray.

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