odds and ends

This has been an interesting week. Last Sunday we had Easter dinner at David and Erin's house. It was good--ham, turkey and all the trimmings. We had an Easter Egg hunt, put together by Amy, with scriptures telling the Easter story from the scriptures and they had to find the next egg from clues hinted at in the scripture. It was fun.

It would be nice if Spring would come so that the boys could get to work landscaping. Even with the economy down there have been a few calls. Some are having "fun" living from their food storage. More on that later.

Was it Tuesday that we woke up to nearly a foot of snow? One of my purple leaf plums had heavy enough snow to break off a big branch which fell into the swimming pool. Saturday the boys came and pulled it out. There's nothing to be done except cut it up and put it in the wood pile. But they forgot the chain saw. (See Susan's blog.)

The missionaries at the MTC think it's funny that I drive a 4-wheel drive Jeep Cherokee and know how to use it in the snow. I didn't miss any of my appointments anyway.

Then Friday night at eleven o'clock my brother, Bob called from Alaska to say that his wife was in the hospital and her heart had stopped for 3 minutes. She's had a pacemaker for a while now, but it didn't seem to be working. The doctors want to try something new that will help her heart pump enough to give her a little more time. Bob wanted to know what you do when your best friend and spouse dies. He says he isn't religious but this may be the time for him to learn. He is in Alaska! how do I manage that?

Well, let's try a family history story about living on food storage. When I was little we were just coming out of World War II and there were not a lot of jobs to be had. I've told you about our huge gardens and canning and root cellar storage.
Mom always taught us that a meal should have a protein, a starch, and a couple of vegetables or fruits, and milk to be well balanced.
So she always was thinking of ways to use a little can or amount of meat to give everyone a little bit every day. Meat was the most expensive part of the meal planning. They tried raising rabbits, chickens etc. But no one wanted to kill them to get them ready to eat. My Dad went hunting a time or two but he never got a deer.

So one day Mom had some fish, probably a can of Salmon. We were still pretty little and she wanted to be sure that we were excited about what she was making for dinner. She told us she was making fish balls. I assume that she added egg, bread crumbs or cracker crumbs, maybe onions or finely chopped carrots or celery and then formed them into balls on a cookie sheet to bake in the oven. It would have been kind of like fish sticks or nuggets or something today. Anyway, she had us all hyped up and excited to try the fish balls, and when Daddy came home we all rushed to tell him that we were having fish balls for dinner.

He was just teasing, but he said,"Fish Balls! OOh!" and wrinkled up his nose. We kids said, "Then we don't want them either." Mom burst into tears, and that may have been the first time I remember them really having a fight in front of us kids. Everyone was very upset, Daddy said he was just kidding that they really were good, but I remember Naty, who was an especially a picky eater, refused to try them. As I recall when we did take a taste after much munching and antics by Daddy to show how good they were, I thought they tasted fine. Course I was the one who like Salmon loaf or patties, too.

So all you young husbands, when your wife tries something new to meet the nutritional needs of your children, please help her be excited about it, too. And make sure you have plenty of ketchup in your food storage in case you need a cover up taste.