Daughter #1 tagged me in a post over the weekend. It seems she was going through items that had been in a storage shed for 15 years and came across a tin of hand made Christmas ornaments she and I made together when she was little. They were salt dough gingerbread men and I’m amazed they lasted this long. Three of them were broken beyond repair and disintegrating, but she laid them out on a paper towel and took pictures of them so I could remember with her.
I got a tiny bit verklempt. I still remember the day we made them. We didn’t have a ton of money when she was a child so we handmade a lot of things. I remember cutting the hole in the top with a straw so we could string that curly ribbon through it to hang. I remember how proud she was to paint the Girl Scout. I think she was only in Girl Scouts a couple of years so this had to have been elementary school. I don’t remember what we painted them with, but I do remember putting a coat of something like ModPodge on them to make them last.
It’s so cool to make memories with your kids when they’re growing up. And you don’t know what activity is going to stick with them and give them warm memories of their own. She remembers long bike rides and trips to the library because they were free. She also remembers what it was like to eat black and white boxes of macaroni and cheese and whatever you could grow in the yard out back. She remembers trips to West Virginia and combing her great grandmother’s long hair. This is the daughter that is not overtly demonstrative. She is a much more matter of fact, rub a little dirt in it and keep going, shake it off kind of person. I wouldn’t expect her to cry at a Kodak commercial. But this gal will drop what she is doing and run to your side in a moment’s notice if you need her. Sharing this little memory made my day.
Talk about making someone’s day, I made Mr. FixIt as fine a country dinner as I’ve ever cooked last night. My bonus daughter gave us some venison tenderloin the other day. Now, I’ve eaten deer meat maybe once or twice in my life and was never a fan. I wasn’t really sure how to cook it. I remembered Brenda Gantt did a video this fall about cooking the backstrap so I watched that a couple of times. I soaked the deer meat in water and squeezed the blood out, then I soaked it in buttermilk for a few hours. I cut it in strips, salted and peppered it and dredged it in flour. I put some homemade cornbread in the oven, heated up some pinto beans, fried potatoes, and then fried up the deer meat. It all came out piping hot at the same time. Of course, my kitchen looked like a bomb went off in it, but it was a great meal. I think the only thing that might have made it better would have been some collard greens.
Still didn’t get the decorations on the tree. I almost did, then my sweet husband snored his way through a couple of football games and I didn’t want to disturb him. So I just sat here and knitted happily enjoying a peaceful afternoon. I have another chiropractor appointment today. The back is MUCH better! So…maybe when I get home? We’ll see. I don’t seem to be in a terrible hurry with it this year, for some reason. It’ll get done.
❄️
“Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.”
Genesis 9:3-4 ESV