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Anne from Cooking with Anne did a post on her pantry staples. Those things she wouldn't be without. Some of you might even remember the post I did on keeping my pantry stocked. I think I may have Bettina's syndrome and her idea of an emergency shelf. Any way - Anne's list is a great list. I keep most of those things on hand also. You never know when you might have last minute guests or need to make the budget stretch for another few days or a week. Here you can find my standard pantry and cupboard items that I pretty much have on hand all of the time. Open my cabinets and plunder around and you'll find all sorts of things. My make-do and make-it-last list is different. Part of me is the ingrained be preparedness of growing up with a grandmother who canned and prepared a lot of summer produce. The other part of me thinks about FEMA's emergency preparedness recommendations and takes heed. I probably wouldn't go to as great a lengths if I still lived in Georgia but with us living so close to D.C. and seeing how grocery stores empty out in bad weather I can imagine if we went into a state of emergency there would be NOTHING to be had in the stores around here. We live in the rural country side. We figure if something major happened the cities would most likely evacuate to us. We base this on the fact there is an underground shelter a few miles away that is intended to house important members of Congress and supposedly the Vice President. There may seem like a lot on my list but there are six of us here much of the time. FEMA recommends that we be ready with an emergency food and water supply just in case a disaster should occur. (Do you know you need to store 1 gallon of drinking water per person per day? For us we would need to store at least 18 gallons of potable water. That is alot of water. Nursing mothers, babies, elderly and sick people need to consume more. Plus water for other needs.) Here are things I try to keep on my shelves -just in case. I do rotate out flour, meals and the like so that it is not more than a month old. When I empty a bag I use the reserve bag then replish that with a new bag. Baking Goods -Flour -baking soda -baking powder -powdered milk/buttermilk -Crisco and/or Lard -Vanilla Extract (real vanilla, my mother brings it back when she goes on her fall cruise to the Bahamas or I buy it at Costco for a fair price in a large bottle) -Yeast (one of the small 3 pack strips) With these items I can make, biscuits, pancakes, waffles, muffins or any number of quick breads that do not require yeast. Pancakes and waffles are excellent for both breakfast and supper. My kids find it a real treat especially during the cold weather months to have pancakes for supper. They also are huge fans of cornbread. Can Goods (at least 2 - 4 cans each) -Green Beans -Whole Kernel Corn -Tomatoes -Light and Dark Kidney Beans -black beans -Pintos -Turnips -Carrots -Peas (Sauers only!) -Tuna -Chicken -Peaches -Pineapple -Cranberry -Fruit Cocktail Jarred Goods -Spaghetti Sauce -Jarred Salsa - (there is a lime and garlic and a black bean and white corn salsa that is Walmart brand that is great to pour over chicken and bake or to add to rice and serve as a mexican style rice, or layer with hamburger, tortillas and cheese for a casserole. Condiments -Mayonnaise -Ketchup -Yellow Mustard -Specialty Mustards -Soy Sauce -Worcestershire Sauce (with ketchup, mustard, worcestershire and spices I can make BBQ sauce, tomato gravy, etc.) You never know when a can of vegetables will come in handy. Either to stretch a meal or to add to a soup or stew to make it go just a little bit farther. I have a selection of other things we like on hand at most times as well. Soups and crackers and other things the kids like both canned and dried. Gracie is a big fan of romein soup. She has been known to survive a week or more on that stuff for supper every night. Not that I don't cook. There are days when I know she won't touch anything I have cooked because she doesn't like it. I also keep the canned beans because they do not need hours to cook like the dried ones do. Dry Goods Beans and Peas (dried limas, yellow and green split pea, black beans, kidney beans, black eyed peas, white beans, navybeans, pintos, etc.) Rice (risotto, basmati, jasmine, japanese rice for sushi, etc.) Cornmeal (yellow and white) Pasta (several varieties) CousCous Barley Grits (in the winter my kids want grits every morning, especially Gracie) This includes things that are prepackaged like a quick mac and cheese, dirty rice, spanish rice, red beans and rice, yellow rice, etc. Things that will not go bad even if they sit on the shelf six months or more. They also require no special storage just a closed dry place. Many things I buy when I have a good coupon or the store has a buy one get one sale like pickles, olives, sauces, carnation milk, eagle brand condensed milk etc. I can't even list everything out there on those shelves. I do keep check of things and rotate them out before dates expire. A supply of seasonings -Mrs. Dash -Pepper -Salt -Garlic Powder -Chilli Powder -Onion Powder -Cinnamon I have a stockpile of tiny little jars and bottles of spices. I am sure alot of us do. Buying even the tiniest of spices available for just one recipe we are left with a nearly full jar of something we don't use often. You name it I probably have it. This list above was just the basics. With onion and garlic powder it makes up for not having fresh onion and garlic to season things with. Chilli powder is a quick kick-em-up. I also keep a jar of local honey, air tight pouches of tea bags, and an extra small can of coffee. I buy peanut oil for the fryer in the 2 gallon container. Peanut oil keeps well, it has a very high burn temp and things will cook without being greasey. A 5lb bag of sugar will last us almost a year. I use it for baking for the holidays and for birthday cakes. Sometimes I may need to buy two bags depending on how heavy my baking will be especially at Christmas. If we were to lose power for a couple days or longer I have the wood stove we can cook on. During the cold months when I burn the stove daily I practice and challenge myself to see what I can cook, what I can learn to cook and how to regulate the heat to cook all sorts of things. The kids laugh at me and make fun but they always gobble up whatever it is I have prepared. Especially pancakes and sausage. (see previous post). I also have a couple gallons of fresh water. I probably should think about setting in a few more -just in case. 6 people for 3 days is 18 gallons of water. That is so much water! I also keep my tank filled on my truck. I encourage Colby not to let her tank get below half full. I keep the tractor and cans filled with diesel as well. I keep first aid boxes upstairs and down also in our car and trucks. We also have a medicine cabinet and drawer in the bathroom filled with all sorts of things. When I buy over the counter medicines for the kids I usually buy the Walmart brand where you get two bottles for less than one of the name brand. We have plenty of bandaids and the like. I also keep a bottle of alcohol and peroxide. I have witch hazel as well. Back in Georgia I kept it in the fridge. Here I don't. I don't know why. Perhaps too many hands going in and out of my fridge all of the time. If we had to I know we could do fine for a good while without feeling like we are doing without because I also have a deep freezer I keep stocked with premade meals, extra meats bought on sale, etc. If I needed to preserve things in my freezer I do have a supply of jars and a large pressure canner. I have a small supply of pickling lime, pickling salt, vinegar and whatnot on hand most of the time as well. For his big Christmas gift Steve's parents gave him a large generator. If we had to use it we could power our refrigerator and/or freezer for a while until we could eat what was stored in there. A few years ago Steve picked up one of those radios that you wind up and it generates its own electricity to run on for two or three hours at a time. We also tend to have extra batteries due to the kids having several items that require batteries. We have not set out to be prepared for a disaster. A disaster is the last thing on my mind. But I do think about it sometimes. You know, just in case. We seem to be pretty well set on the home front if we had to be. We also have a few spirits on hand. You know, the kind used for snake bites. (Hahaha!) How about you? Do you keep a standard stock of staples for your family? Do you keep a emergency supply in your pantry?

- Steven is 6 months old. He weighs 19lbs 7oz and is 28 1/2 inches long. He has 2 teeth and is VERY verbal. He lets it be known he is around. Scrumptuousness!! - I donated my hair to Locks of Love. - Next week is a week of mostly dental appts. Gracie is having a baby tooth extracted before it causes harm to a permanent tooth. I have to have a crown. Colby is having 3 wisdom teeth out. Yayyy us?!? :-s - The following week is Back To School week. The kids are ready to get back to school and have time with friends. They are currently bored of reading, swimming, bike riding, movie watching and the like. - I am making a trip to Georgia at the beginning of September. My aunt will be home from Washington and I want to see her. This will be Steven's first trip to Georgia. I am hoping he will travel well. Colby is so excited to be going back home. Gracie is just happy she will be seeing my mother. - The heat has wrecked my pool chemical balance. - Fall is in the air. The leaves are beginning to drop from the trees. Some leaves are already turning. The nights are getting cooler. There is something in the air. I can smell it. Fall is close at hand. - The countertop for my island came in this week. I will have new photos of the kitchen soon. - I am at a brisk pace trying to get alot of small chores completed before the end of next week. - J. goes back to her mother's next weekend. Her six weeks with us will be over. She is ready to go back. Steve gets depressed about it but like I tell him every summer, she is ready to go home, she is excited and happy, he should be, too. The only reason to be depressed would be if he had to send her back crying and upset wanting to stay here, which is not the case. - The damsons are ripening! - Pumpkins and watermelons are growing. - I want to plant collards and turnips as well as other fall crops VERY soon. - I have had to close the comments on MANY past posts because of spam. I am sick of some of the disgusting things that get spam linked! Who are these sickos?

Prepared Thursday 2 gallons boiled shrimp with cocktail sauce (to be served ice cold) 3 batches peanut butter blossoms 1 batch chocolate chip cookies 2 - 2lb cheese balls with raspberry jam dill and chive dressing for smoked salmon black and green olive tapenade french onion dip 3 batches sausage and cheese balls This morning I have baked a Red Velvet Cake and a Pistachio Cake. It snowed/iced/rained last night and this morning. No school. My kitchen is toasty warm and I am loving every minute of the cooking I am doing. As I cook throughout the day I may update this post with what I am preparing. *******UPDATED******* Lil' Smokies Crockpot Appetizer (Beef) Pigs In A Blanket (Pork) Sweet and Sour Meatballs (Beef) NotYoMomma's Nachos Cheese Sauce Fudge

- Painted and redecorated the upstairs bathroom. -Installed new towel racks and soap holders, etc. Also broke a drill bit deep in the wall. I have no idea what I hit. - Cleaned out every cabinet in my kitchen. - Cleaned and organized with containers the upstairs linen closet. - Scrubbed everything upstairs. - Turned my bedroom into something more than a bed surrounded with 4 walls. Bought decorative pillows for the bed, rugs for the floor, set out photos, etc. Stuff I have failed to do for 10 months. - Packed yet another box for the Goodwill (to be taken today). - Took Steven's 3rd pair of boots to the cobbler for resoling. Picking them up today. - Steven and I worked on and finished the wainscoting in J.'s bedroom. - Finished my Thanksgiving dinner shopping. - Posted a lot of recipes on my recipe journal for things I might or might not be preparing for Thanksgiving dinner. - Shopped for special items for my mother's visit (linen water, toiletries, chocolate covered cherries, etc) - Baked a coconut cake that must now rest for 4 days before eating. - Made fudge. - Made cookies (big chunky cookies with nuts, raisins, dried cherries, dried cranberries, chocolate chips .. yummy!) - Made my favorite icebox fruit cake (1 for us, 1 for my mother, 1 for the neighbor, 1 for Steve's work). - Took a truckload of crap to the county dump. - Had lunch with Gracie at school. - Washed what seemed like millions of loads of laundry ... sheets, towels, curtains, clothes, rugs, etc) - Signed, stuffed, addressed, stamped my christmas cards. - Planned a Christmas party and designed the invitations to go out at the end of the week. - Had an OB appointment. - Took a glucose tolerance test. - As well as the normal cooking, cleaning, fetching, doing for all the people who live in my house and the million and twelve trips up and down stairs. - Have reached the point where everything gives me major heartburn, my boobs ache because the booby fairy came and I am now a bit lopsided. :-/ - No apologies to male readers for the above. Men seem to appreciate the visits by the booby fairy. - My due date has been changed to January 30th. I look like I am going to deliver at any minute. I have gained 1 pound and look like the broadside of a barn. - Failed to tell my mother the weather has predicted some snow flurries because she is the kind who would stay home rather than risk a tiny flutter of non-sticking snow. - Thought about all of you alot but really needed to take care of this stuff. Starting friday my Christmas plans go into full swing and I can't lollygag around!

Monday - Electrician came to do electrical work for the pool - Drop donations at Good Will - Leave Steven's boots (2 pair) at the cobbler to have them resoled. - To Lowe's to arrange for the mulch delivery - Grocery shopping - Cook supper (chicken, shoepeg corn, sweet potato fries, mixed green veggies) Tuesday - Try to arrange appt for dog and cat with vet closest to home. People acted like royal bitches. I walked out after giving them a piece of my mind. - Made appointment with another vet for both cat and dog, to include grooming, teeth cleaning, shots, frontline, etc. - Ordered 2 loads of firewood. The first to be delivered this weekend. - Electrician is working on pool again today. - cook supper (meatloaf, whipped potatoes, turnips, spaghetti squash, and biscuits). Wednesday - Steve working from home - Picture day at school for Gracie - Last piece for Gracie's room to be delivered - Appointment for sonogram - pick up J. @ 5pm - Cook supper (no idea what) Thursday - J. to school - Cat to vet at 10:30am - Mulch to be delivered - Cook supper (thinking about chicken and dumplings) Friday - Pick up Steve's boot - Exchange a pair of shoes (wrong size) - Drop off dry cleaning - Pick up J. @ 5pm - Cook supper (no idea what) Saturday - Take kids to pumpkin patch - its supposed to rain! - Start spreading mulch - its supposed to rain! - 1/2 ton of firewood to be delivered and will need to be stacked (1 of 2 loads coming) - its supposed to rain! - I have no idea what else the day or week will bring In the middle of all this is laundry, kids to school, breakfasts, lunches to pack, entries to write, my full time job of gestating, planning for Thanksgiving and working on my Christmas stuff. By the time I have this baby I will need a vacation. Oh, did I mention the sonogram is today?

Mowing: - the yard - the orchard - 2 fields around the chicken barn - clearings around the livestock barn - trim around the house, the boxwoods, the fences, the roadside ditches Clear everything from the side porch and store it properly in the barn. Continue filling the sink hole where the pool heater gas tank is buried and the rain settled the earth. Take everything I have been throwing out of the house and attic to the landfill. Fill the back of the Excursion with all the things I need to take to the Good Will. Lay with me in the dark and dream about our baby. ******* The last time I posted a photo of my house several people commented they had never seen my house before then. Here are a couple photos. The front of the house and the back. The back view was taken before they destroyed my yard constructing the pool -which is still no where near being finished because of 8 straight days of rain. It is now 2 feet deep in rain water. Front of house Back of HouseThe huge bush at the back of the house, nearly reaching the second story roof, is a boxwood. The boxwoods here are the same age as the house. We have at least 25 that size or bigger. They look like trees not shrubs. Koi Pond Path to the Koi Pond Water Garden Damson Orchard I am off to order a truck load of mulch in preparation for the coming winter. We need about 200 cubic feet. Anyone care to volunteer to come help spread it? We do have a front end loader and cart but it will still require lots of shoveling and raking.

Channah asked about my mentioning red velvet cake in my post on biscuits. I have alot to say about red velvet cake so you should go refill your coffee cup and settle the babies in front of the TV for a few minutes. Back yet? Ok let's get started. Any google search will pull up a million red velvet cake recipes which to my belief are NOT red velvet cake recipes! Many foodie scholars tribute the cake creation to the red cake served at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in the 1920's. Some even dispute the date as the 1950's. It is my belief that somewhere along the way someone confused a traditional southern red cake served only at the Christmas holidays with a red devil's food cake that later circulated through American kitchens. A southern red velvet cake does NOT have cocoa in it. No one I know raised in the part of the country I come from that have a deep traditional southern heritage makes this cake with cocoa. The red devil's food cake has cocoa -not the red velvet cake! Chocolate cake icing is made with cocoa. Hot chocolate is made with cocoa!Chocolate run balls are made with cocoa. Red velvet cake is NOT made with cocoa! Can we all say that together because it needs to be shouted and repeated many times until it sinks into the depth of some peoples consciousness. If you make a 'red velvet cake' with cocoa I am sorry but that is not a traditional southern red velvet cake. It is a faux southern red velvet cake but a real red devil's food cake. I am sure your cake is very tastey but it is not the cake I and many generations before me grew up eating only at Christmas and at no other time of the year. I still to this day do not cook this cake for any other occassion but Christmas. It is one of a few cakes my children get to eat for breakfast on Christmas eve and morning. It is a cake they dream of having during the holidays. I only serve red velvet cake, orange cake, ambrosia and rum balls at Christmas. My coconut cake is served at Christmas and Easter, sometimes Thanksgiving. It all depends on my mood when it is time to bake. I am thinking this year I will make the coconut cake for Thanksgiving. Colby, Gracie and I will be the only one who eats it but that's cool my mom is supposed to come up for the holiday and she loves coconut cake. Steven and J. do not eat coconut cake. Want to know why? His mother does not like coconut. She never cooked with it in any way in his childhood and he grew up thinking he did not like it. But you know, so many foods he and J. have done this way only to be surprised (and pleasantly so) to find I have been cooking them and they have been eating them without knowing it and liking them! He claims to hate sweet potatoes. After eating what he had been served as a child I see why. It made me gag. :-/ However the carrot casserole was the best ever. My grandmother was not one who shared her recipes outside of the family. Some things she learned to cook on her own. Some things she remembered being taught to her by her mother. Some things she remembered being taught to her by her grandmother -who died after my grandmother had bore three children in the late 1940's. It is a cake her grandmother baked only at Christmas time. It was a special treat and very expensive to make pre-1920. Grandmother's Red Velvet Cake Recipe -do not substitute ingredients or take short cuts because you will get a yucky cake. 2 2/3 c. self-rising flour 1 1/2 c. sugar 1/2 c. vegetable oil 1 stick butter (real butter) 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp distilled white vinegar 1 tsp vanilla extract 3 eggs 1 c. buttermilk (no substitutees -only real buttermilk) 4 bottles red food coloring Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 9 inch round pans or line them with waxed or parchment paper. (I often will divide the batter and make 5 - 8 very thin layers. It makes the cake more decadent to me.) Cream butter and sugar. Add oil and eggs one at a time mixing well after each egg. Mix together vinegar, buttermilk and then all 4 bottles of the food coloring. Yes, you do need all 4. You want this to be a rich deep Christmas red cake not pinkish or weak red. Sift together the flour and baking soda. Alternately add the three mixtures a little at the time until all three are combined. Stir in the vanilla and mix well. Pour into the cake pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean - 20 - 25 minutes maybe more depending on your oven. Let the layers completely cool before you try to frost them. Cream Cheese Icing 1 package of cream cheese (philiadelphia brand is best) softened at room temp. 1 stick of butter softened at room temp. 1 box confectioners sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract 1/2 - 1 c. finely chopped pecans Mix the cream cheese and butter together until it is well combined. Add the confectioners sugar a little at a time to combine it well. Add the vanilla and mix well. Add the chopped nuts and mix until it is creamy as if whipped. Frost each layer. If you make the several thinner layers you will most likely need to make 2 batches of icing -which I do anyway because I like thick coats of icing. This cake is fine on the countertop for a day or two. After that time refrigerate. It never lasts long enough around our house to need refrigerating. Let me remind you to not substitute ingredients. When you see red food coloring in your grocery store go ahead and start collecting it. It will begin to disappear fast at the holidays and the day you decide to make the cake is the day you won't find the first bottle left on the store shelf. What do you only cook at Christmas?

I need therapy after yesterday's back to school retailing. 3 girls 2 malls 8.5 hours 1 pair flat black boots 1 pair brown bowling style shoes 1 pair girls black dress shoes 1 pair women's black dress shoes 1 pair women's pink converse 12 pair jeans 3 jean jackets 8 sweat/lounge suits with shirts 1 black pant suit 3 dress shirts 4 bras with matching panties 24 pair panties in 3 sizes 7 girl's sport/training bras 4 sets pj's 3 maternity gowns various earrings various lip glosses various hair do-dads various Paul Mitchell hair products 1 new perfume with free bracelets 2 bathrobes 2 jean capris 1 dressy capri 3 jean shorts 10 pull over shirts 2 front button shirts 4 thermal shirts 2 girl's dresses 1 school bag 1 pink lunch box More stuff I can't remember 1 trip to Costco They shopped. I was there to drop the cash. I want to be a kid again with me as a momma! Honestly, it was needed. We have gone through the summer in shorts and tshirts and very little else. We do not buy J.'s school clothes. I do make sure she has things she wants here in her closet. Plus I can't buy for 2 and not buy anything for the third. Gracie has outgrown every pair of pants and jeans she owns. The hems hit her legs about mid shin. I did not realize she had grown that much in the past few months. Colby is going to college and needed a more dressy look included with her normal casual look. I treated her to her first real shopping spree. She chose the things she wanted and I added a few things to the pile. Last week we went shopping for atheletic shoes. We got Adidas. Adidas was a hot brand when I was in high school. It proves the old addage everything old is new again. Adidas is also the new owner of Reebok. I have always loved back to school shopping (not the bills though). Back to school shopping means excitement and chattering, bright eyes and constant changes as to what will be worn the first day. I see what my kids gravitate toward. I see things they want (and it gives me ideas for Christmas). I love to look into a school classroom on the first day seeing all those children in crisp new clothes ready to learn all the amazing things the teacher has planned for them. I am tired, my feet hurt and I have three smiling just as tired girls upstairs trying on their new fashions.

I sat in a 10th grade English class. The teacher passed out paper still slightly damp from the memeograph machine. The purple print at the top read "Required Reading". A bunch of the kids groaned But secretly I was excited. Back then it wasn't 'cool' to be an avid reader. My eyes scanned words on the paper, title of books I had never heard of, all in alphabetical order. 1984 - George Orwell Animal Farm - George Orwell As I lay dying - William Faulkner Brave New World - Aldous Huxley Catch-22 - Joseph Heller Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger Death of a Salesman - Arthur Miller Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway Great Expectations - Charles Dickens Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain Ivanhoe - Sir Walter Scott Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte Lady Chatterly's Lover (abridged) - DH Lawrence Little Women - Louisa may Alcott Lord of the Flies - William Golding Moby Dick - Herman Melville Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens The Call of the Wild - Jack London The Crucible - Arthur Miller The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald The House of seven Gables - Nathaniel Hawthorne The Lord of the Flies - William Golding The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway The Red Badge of Courage - Stephen Crane The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë Selections to be read on approval: Henry David Thoreau Walt Whitman I can't even begin to remember everything on the two column page. I read several of the books in the first six weeks. When asked what a particular book was about Mrs. D. would tells us to read it and find out for ourselves. She gave the analogy that it would be like telling what was in a wrapped present before we had a chance to pull the pretty ribbon and rip into brightly colored wrapping paper. I believed her. Over that year I hopped around the page picking from the titles in no particular order. Around mid-year I chose To Kill a Mockingbird. For me it was the BEST present ever! I fell in love with this book. I read it over and over. I can't even remember how many time I read it. I still have that book and I still read it periodically. I have seen the movie more times that imaginable. I also fell in love with Gregory Peck. I related very closely in many ways with this story. Growing up in my grandparents house it was very easy to put myself in the place of Scout. I was familiar with the setting of the deep south. My uncle, 3 1/2 years my senior, was my Jim. The neighborhood boys interchanged as Dill. We didn't have a Calpurnia but still the setting was so familiar, the conversation so real to life, the thoughts of a child so clear to my way of thinking. Our Boo Radley was Wyman, the neighborhood drunk. He looked just like Otis on Andy Griffith Show. In later years, as an adult, I was shocked to find out Wyman was married to the lady who lived in the house directly opposite our house across the back ally. I also learned Wyman was his last name. I never found out his first name. Mrs. Wyman, my grandmother called her Janet, would lock him out of the house at night and he was left to sleep in the closed in portion of the back porch. Sometimes I can recall his drunken singing as he stumbled down the dirt ally between our houses, the slam of the screen door and his loud bawling to Mrs. Wyman to open the door. She never did. He slept on the porch. Early mornings I would see her hanging out the wash on the clothes line as I helped whomever in our house do the same for us. When she went back into the house she would slam the screen door. As a child I knew slamming the screen door was not a good thing. I once asked my grandma why Mrs. Wyman slammed her screen door. My grandma told me that what other people do was no concern to children, just don't slam our screen door. Sometimes we would be playing outside and we would hear Wyman when he woke up. He would tell Mrs. Wyman not to be so loud. Often he would sit at the picnic table in the far corner of their backyard and drink coffee or what we thought was coffee. I never knew what really was in that cup. I also always felt sad for Mrs. Wyman. She worked in a cotton mill all the days I can remember. I always wonder what shame she felt in front of the other neighbors knowing everyone of us knew who her husband was. I always felt bad that he never had a job yet he was always given a place to sleep even it was on the porch. He always had something to eat. I have no idea where he got his money for his liquor but I suppose he got it from Mrs. Wyman. There is one passage from the book that always comes to mind when I think of Mrs. Wyman. "Atticus said to Jem one day, 'I'd rather you shoot at tin cans in the back yard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.' That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it. 'Your father's right,' she said. 'Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up peoples gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.'" To me Mrs. Wyman was the mockingbird. I will always wondered why Wyman spent his life killing her slowly. Wyman died many years ago, long before his wife, she buried him proper and never hung her head in shame. **********UPDATE******** I thought of some more books that was on that reading list. Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes Main Street - Sinclair Lewis Look Homeward, Angel - Thomas Wolfe Silas Marner - George Eliot The Jungle Books - Rudyard Kipling Treasure Island - Robert Lewis Stevenson White Fang - Jack London A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - Mark Twain The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe Can you believe this!!!!!??? Most frequently banned books in the USA (ca. 1994) Of Mice and Men The Catcher in the Rye The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Lord of the Flies The Grapes of Wrath The Adventures of Tom Sawyer I would prefer my children read these than some of the books I have seen on current high school reading lists. Flat - She was my all time favorite teacher. She is still teaching and I have been out of school for 21 years. She is head of the English Dept. Hoss - Most kids only read 1 book per 6 weeks to meet the demand. We had to write a report on the book and present it in oral form in front of the class. It counted as 1/3 of our grade.

It is June 2nd. Please tell me why it is so cold in my house that I am on the couch wrapped in a blanket. I am not kidding. It has been rainy all day. The temp outside is 62 and in my house it is always 15 or more degrees cooler than outside. I have never experienced a June that required long sleeves and a blanket. Which reminds me of my sunburn. I have very fair skin. I burn easily even if I use a 4,000,000 SPF sunblock. It is more than a sunburn achieved in one day. I was slightly pink Wednesday. I was red Thursday. I slightly burned Friday. I was roasted Saturday. I cooked a little more Sunday while pressure washing at the townhouse. I wore a long sleeved flannel shirt to cut grass Monday. I got burned anyway. So there you have it. 6 days of scalding sun did me in. But the work got done and I get to have today while it is raiing to do much of nothing. I am currently sipping a hot mocca java, freshly brewed in my kitchen. I probably won't sleep later but at least it might warm my bones. In honor of a cold rainy day in June I give you this list of things to do. 1. Finish reading last 2 chapters of The Lovely Bones. It was ok. Not great, but ok. 2. Finish The Mermaid Chair in one sitting. Much better book than the one I finished before it. Note: I read Gods in Alabama last week. I did not buy it. I got it as a free selection in a book club bonus. Had I bought it I would have considered asking for my money back. 3. Finish Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents in 2 sittings. 4. Nap on the couch wrapped in a blanket because the cabinet guy called and needed to change to tomorrow for our meeting. 5. Listen to Gracie whine about homework: "Why do I have to do homework? We only have 1 week and 1 day of school left." 6. Eat tacos. 7. Eat chocolate cake. 8. Drink coffee. 9. Read every journal on my list. 10. Comment on most of them. 11. Spend one hour soaking in a hot bath and reading. 12. Make up the bed then lay on it and mess it up again. 13. Look at the clock at 7:05pm and wonder when my husband will be home. 14. Look for cabinet hardware online. 15. Look for tin ceiling tiles online. 16. Listen to children fuss. 17. Demand everything not belonging to me be picked up from the living room. 18. Listen to the sound of rain when children go off upstairs in a huff after collecting their things. 19. Be thankful for a day of rest. P.S. I will not be selling a kidney to pay for my kitchen. I am frugal and cheap. No way in hell would I pay a designer to spend my money. I am in total control. I know what I am willing to spend and will find a way to get what I want for what I think it is worth. As I always seem to manage to do. Ask Steven. It is one of the things he loves best about me. :-) P.S.S. Flat - This area is just eat up with the varmits. The fact that they are fat and waddle shows how well they go around eating things. It is also illegal in Va to take an animal from one natural habitat and remove him to another, even if the new habitat is a neighbors field. They will be shot on sight from now on. They can clean a garden of all vegetation in a day.