A Friday List
1) I am in a full-on war with the iron in my well. And I am LOSING.
Exhibit A:
Why, yes! I am glad you asked. That IS the soap dispenser for my washing machine. You see the part that is orange? That is supposed to be white.
Mmmm-hmmm.
Exhibit B)
Please notice the white towel that has been laundered in Ruralville water for over a year. Then notice the white blanket that is new.
Can you see it? Ok. the picture isn’t that great. But TRUST me. The towel is turning orange.
And don’t even get me started on scrubbing the shower.
2) I made grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch today.
Me to Handsome Dude: Would you like a grilled cheese sandwich?
HD (short for Handsome Dude . . . keep up!): I not want a girl cheese. Can I have a boy cheese?
3) It is official. The TRIPLE batch of jam I made this week failed. It is too runny. Who needs 3 batches of strawberry syrup? Certainly not me.
VA Girl commented and told me to go to this link to fix my jam.
Dear VA Girl,
I loveth you. Thank you.
Love,
Taylor, aka Maker of Runny Jam
I am so going to attempt to fix it. Not today, though. Wouldn’t be prudent. Gonna need to gird up my loins and count to ten. And buy more pectin and wide mouth lids.
4) Handsome Dude’s glasses have been repaired. Again.
See the shrink wrap?
David took them in for me and Duane, our optical specialist and new bff, told him that he made it just in time to get new ones again before the warranty. We know Duane is a liar liar pants on fire because the warranty was up on the 18th. We also know that Duane is da bomb and shall forever hold a special place in our hearts.
Duane might need to get some of my homemade runny jam, made with love and absolutely no talent.
5) My girls are getting bit by summer boredom. I am tempted to start school with them. Except I’m not.
Today, they have taken up sewing whilst listening to a book on CD.
6) A little birdie told us that the girls’ rabbits earned ribbons at the fair. Take that, Susie Fantastic!
7) The birdie also mentioned that all bunny entries won ribbons. But that is neither here nor there.
8) I have finished making all my freezer meals. I made 40-45.
Look at me with my mad cooking skills (or skillz. whichever you prefer).
Some people are deeply perplexed as to why I am doing this. No. I am not pregnant. No. I do not think the end of the world is coming. (how does that one even make sense?)
I am just trying to make homeschooling go easier this year.
To get myself started, I visited this Deb’s blog and read the book Don’t Panic! Dinner’s in the Freezer.
9) Hey, Lumberjack! Don’t Panic! Dinner’s in the Freezer!
10) I am going to say that every night. And he will find me delightful. Because we are married and what choice does he have?
11) I made a gazillion meatballs yesterday. Part elk/part beef. I am hoping to trick myself into trying them later on. Because I still haven’t tried the elk. The beautiful part about a meatball, though, is that you can easily push them off of your plate if you get cold feet.
12) Check this bad boy out:
Oh! Erin! I’m sorry! Did I beat the snot out of you?
That’s a shame. Better luck next time.
13) Did you notice Erin and I had 11 Words with Friends chats? This is because Erin doesn’t believe in texting.
That’s right.
She’s a non-texter.
I always knew I couldn’t trust her.
14) This post has no point.
15) I’d better stop now.
I cry foul! You have only beaten me in ONE game– that other one was resigned before we ever started playing.
AND it was my first ever Words with Friends game. I shall defend my honor as you drag my good name through the mud. I was learning the rules!
And it didn’t even let me finish using all my letters.
Oh, it’s on now Taylor Maliblahblah.
May I suggest you change #10 to Hey, Lumberjack! Don’t Panic! Tomorrow’s Dinner’s in the Freezer! Otherwise he may panic after all.
I am seriously impressed and quite jealous that you have all those meals in the freezer.
Oops, I meant #9.
Haha! That is a great point!! =)
Oh boy, belly laughs 2 days in a row – YOU GO GIRL!!
It scared me for a minute when you said This Deb`s blog. Because I have never cooked that much at one time in my entire life!!! 🙂
Oh boy, forgot to mention the iron!! My son, his wife, and daughter all have orange hair (well actually my son shaves his so no orange). People tell me over and over what an “unusual” color of hair my granddaughter has……. Absolutely EVERYTHING they wash with their water has an orange tinge to it and if it’s been around long enough it is downright orange……..oh and they have a freezer full of deer and elk and bear and moose and my daughter-in-law will only eat BEEF! You have a BFF you didn’t even know about huh???? They have TONS of animal heads hanging in their house!
Hello =)
Prepare to be impressed:
Back in the days of yore (1996) when I was a new mommy, the authors of the first Don’t Panic! book came and spoke at my MOPS group. They were very funny and very pleasant and we all bought a book. I still have it. It is stained and worn and dearly loved.
I always knew we had a soul connection Taylor.
We had the same iron issue. You just have to get a filtration system and all your problems will be solved. Well, that is until a new bacteria comes to town that feeds on iron and then you have to get another system to prevent the bacteria. It is starting to seem like a no win situation. But I can wash my whites and still have them be white. (P.S. Don’t bleach! Bleaching makes it worse!)
Have a happy weekend Taylor! Your girls look so sweet with their sewing and their audio book.
I’m SoooooooOOOOO bad at words with friends. Oh wait, you knew that.
Fun story. I tried to take a nap today. It did NOT happen, but now I’m feeling very angry. I guess I’m not handling it well.
Fun story (Again! IKNOW!): i planned on crock potting (?) dinner, but I forgot to defrost the meat. I have no idea what’s for dinner. I think I should panic.
I think I should be more like you. I think I should make more freezer dinners. Off to do some freezer dinner research. How much do you want to bet I get stuck for an hour on pinterest?
I put frozen meat in my crockpot. I put it on for an hour on low, then up it to high for the usual amount of time. I am sticking a chicken in mine here shortly.
You know what is even better than having dinner pre-made? The dishes/utensils it takes to prep the meal are PRE-WASHED!!! That was always my favorite thing about cooking and freezing meals! Cleanup was usually a casserole dish and some plates!
I have to hate you for the fact that you have that many dinners in the freezer. In fact, I have to hate you so much that I might never read your blog again. Ok, maybe not, haha!
I make good jam though! Trade you some freezer meals for some jam? What, that’s not a good trade? All right then. Nevermind. As you were.
You can give the strawberry syrup to all of your kids teachers for Christmas and Teacher Appreciation and…
Oh. Wait.
YOU are the teacher.
Sorry ’bout your luck.
Sorry about your iron problem. Here in Missouri it’s hard water and we fight the lime. Ugh. It’s better than orange towels and hair though, I guess. I will quit griping after reading this post.
I so want to have 40 meals in the freezer. I am going to that link. Thank you for posting it.
With 40 meals in the freezer you ought not feel bad about runny jam.
Handsome Dude makes me laugh! We had red velvet cake at our family reunion last weekend and my little nephew told us it was girl cake and he wanted boy cake. He refused to eat any, he was worried he was going to turn into a girl (his uncle may have helped to emphasize this point by talking in a high pitch voice as he ate the cake!)
“gird up my loins”…had to look that one up, i thought it was another freezer meal =o)
Yea!! for Duane!!! Customer service still lives in . . . Minnesota?? WISCONSIN?! I give.
boy cheese cracked me up! Put that runny jelly on ice cream and call it syrup. Not that I know anything about that from experience. have a great weekend.
Following along with your blog now! Love, Traci @ Ordinary Inspirations
http://www.ordinaryinspirations.blogspot.com
Do you already have a system in place sorta like this?
http://budgetwater.com/iron_filters.htm?pmc=iron-g&gclid=CPSA77by76oCFQs0QgodiG7RPg
Taylor, If you washer looks like that please tell me you aren’t using bleach….no bleach. There is a very wicked chemical product called Iron Out that can help. Also, Lime away products help as well. And if your dishwasher looks like this, well, try Lemishine and maybe a water softener or some other water system seems to be needed in Ruralvillle.
“Boy cheese”!! I love it! Handsome Dude is quite a character 🙂
Also, a big “YOU GO GIRL!” on the 40+ freezer meals! I’m thoroughly impressed. I mean, you might as well go ahead and get pregnant again. You’re already so prepared and all! 😉
Also also, I actually think runny jam sounds kinda good — mix it in with vanilla milkshakes? Maybe? I don’t know. But all is not lost — you have a freezer full of dinners lest you forget.
Thanks for the laughs! 🙂
Runny jam is DELICIOUS over ice cream. Ask me how I know. 🙂
Oh, and I used elk meat for the first 12 years of our marriage, until we moved here to hog hunting land. Now what do I do with all the sausage in my freezer? Elk burger I can do, but all this sausage? It’s TOO much!!
Oh, and I see your deer head and raise you one hog head. I wish I could get you a picture of “Harry the Hog” who is currently residing over the bookcase in our living room. 🙁
We love strawberry syrup.
You rock…you and your freezer meals. I SO need to do something like this. I’m starting to get requests like, “Can you make a real dinner tonight?”
I did 6yrs of orange “whites” while we rented the mobile home…but when we built the house we added a water softener/filter onto the same well and now I have whites again…also Oxy clean helps….I also used to be a bleach blonde until we moved out here and after it turned orange I returned to “natural brown” hair dye. (it is a graying issue…wish I did not need to dye it)
The worst thing about the iron is the fact the everything in the bathrooms of the mobile home is orange and it makes it very hard to sell it…They seem to forget that since we are selling it to be removed from the property they will not get our iron water….buyers are so stupid…but that is a whole other story.
Blessings Kelsie
PS: Hope those meat balls are good.
What?!? The Lumberjack’s Wife mentioned me??? I’m famous! Famous beyond my wildest dreams!
1. Though I devoted myself, I can in no way figure out #1 – the issue or the photo. I can only imagine it was some terribly tragedy but you overcame it and wore spandex.
2. I am crazy in awe of your food preparation. Clearly I need to be more on top of stuff.
3. It makes absolutely no sense to make tons of food in preparation for the end of the world. I’m not sure those people fully understand how the world ending would work.
Dude. Sorry about the iron. My bro was at one time using some kind of acid (that may actually be illegal to purchase) to try to clean the rust off the pretty fixtures in their new house. Ended up drilling a new well and now have great water. It only took 8 years.
And Taylor. What kind of vitamins are you taking? 40 dinners at your fingertips? Your freezer meal skillz are vast and yet to be appreciated. I honor thee. If your children don’t stand at the gate and call you blessed, they just might not be old enough to realize the good deal they’ve got goin’ on there in Ruraltopia.
Holla!
Boy cheese – hilarious.
Yes, runny jam/jelly is GREAT on ice cream 😉 Strawberry is probably really great LOL My runny grape jelly, not so much. Think the kids will notice their PB&Js are a little *juicy* ?