Memories

Revenge!

January 25, 2014 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Once upon a time, somewhere around 13 years ago, a certain little 2-year-old watched her mommy fix a book. After the book was fixed, her mommy went into another room to do some other job. The little girl saw where the glue bottle was put, and she decided that her mommy’s Bible needed fixing. So, she got the glue bottle, and she very carefully squirted glue between many of the pages of the Bible, until the bottle was nearly empty. After awhile, her mommy realized how quiet the little girl was and came to investigate. She was not happy at what she found! She quickly grabbed a roll of toilet paper and started wiping glue out of the Bible. She was able to get most of the pages wiped clean, but some had already stuck together too much and there were holes in them when she was done. She still uses the Bible today, but she will always remember the day she fixed a book while her little girl was watching.

Now the little girl is a big girl, and has a little brother. The big girl likes to drink tea with milk. She doesn’t always finish her cup of tea, and she leaves it sit till later. Her little brother loves to visit big sister’s room while big sister is not in it, and yesterday, little brother decided big sister’s Bible would look good with tea dumped over it! Big sister got to spend half an hour separating pages of her Bible and trying to dry them. Now, she will always remember the day her little brother found her tea and tried to help her (with what we aren’t sure!).

This is the little girl-turned-big girl, drying the pages of her Bible. And by the way, I did have her pre-read this post before I put it up, and she said it was fine to share.

Black Chicken

August 9, 2012 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I was putting a chicken and a duck in the crockpot this morning to roast for supper, and told the boy who happened to be in the kitchen, “I’m cooking a purple chicken and a wild duck!” He laughed and reminded me about a Mexican who once bought some chickens from us. When we lived in Michigan we sold a lot of old laying hens to Mexicans–they liked them better than fryers and bought a lot from us live to butcher themselves. This particular man wanted a white chicken, and we happened to have one that was covered with white feathers. Now, it so happens that some white chickens (I think Silkie bantams) happen to have purplish skin, and the meat and even the organs are quite dark. This man took the chicken home and killed and plucked it, but the next day he was back complaining about the “black chicken.” His exact words were, “We eat cat, and we eat dog, but we don’t eat black chicken!” I think we gave him a different chicken, and we’ve been chuckling about it ever since.

By the way, this is a great way to use a tougher chicken, like an old laying hen. My sister-in-law discovered this method by accident, and I now do it a lot. Simply put one or two chickens in the crockpot with no water and turn on high for 6-10 hours, till they are fully cooked. Delicious and tender! I take off the breast meat when we’re ready to eat, and the drumsticks and thighs, then add water to the pot and cook again to make broth from what’s left.

Times Have Changed!

August 5, 2012 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Yesterday when we were cleaning I saw some notebooks I used to keep a journal in for the older children when they were young. I tried to write something once a week for each of them. I actually kept that up for about four or five years before life got too busy! I brought out the book I wrote for our oldest, and read her a few excerpts. She enjoyed that so much that she copied some things into her blog, and scanned a few pictures from the photo album I made her when she was small. I was reading that book and looking at pictures from back when we had a 3-year-old, a 2-year-old, and a baby. How times have changed! Back then, if something needed doing, I did it. Now, I can assign it to be done. Then, I was working with babies all day, with no adult conversation–no wonder I liked talking on the phone! Now, I can converse intelligently with my nearly-grown daughter, and the boys are even old enough to really talk to. And, they can do so much by themselves. For example, yesterday afternoon the 8-year-old wanted some play dough. He had come across a recipe in one of our science books. I told him to make it himself. He did, with only a little coaching while I was working nearby, and then he taught two of his brothers (10 and 6) how to, also! He also made dinner rolls, but was confused about Tablespoons and teaspoons and used the wrong one to measure the salt! Oops. Now we know what happens to yeast when too much salt is put with it. He made the rolls into tortillas instead and I’ll use them for a casserole that needs salt.

Notice the tabletop. So many blogs I read have pictures of immaculate kitchens. They always seem a bit unreal to me. This is very real life in our house! The ingredients for a meal or two are sitting there waiting to be used!