I'm homesick....

Growing up in West Virginia creates a bond and a closeness like no other place on earth. I've lived in Tennessee for 22 years and yet I have moments when the homesickness gets to me.

I go home about 3 times a year and family comes to visit down here. But there are little windows in time when I want to go back to that old country road and sit in the yard of the old home place.

I can close my eyes and hear Daddy pounding and sawing as he works on another project in his building. I can hear the cling clang of pots and pans touching the old porcelain kitchen sink as Mommy stands at the window washing the dishes.

I can picture going to bed on hot summer nights with no air conditioning, just the cool breeze that drafted down the holler and came in the open windows. I remember sleeping with the "big" door open and the screen doors unlocked. I can remember climbing between cool, fresh sheets that hung out on the line that day and the wonderful smell as we snuggled in bed in our shorty baby-doll p.j.s Mommy had made for us.

I remember cook-outs and get-togethers with my cousins as we romped and played all over those old hills and walked in the woods. I can see my sister and I with our books and a glass of lemonade or tea as we reclined in the yard trying to get a suntan. I can remember fussing at our brothers because they wanted to play ball and we had to move our chairs over near the clothesline so we wouldn't be in their way.

I can remember getting our first car when my sister was 16 and us going places without having to walk or catch the "town" bus. I remember our dates picking us up and Daddy insisting they come to the house to get us. If they pulled into the driveway and honked, we weren't allowed to go.

I remember walking down those wooden steps and driving to my graduation. I remember the day I moved out and got married. I remember bringing my children back to that old house up the holler and watching them with their cousins. I can picture each of my children and my nieces and nephews as they too enjoyed the fun times to be had in that old house up the holler.

I remember that old dirt country road with such fondness and such wonderful memories. The years have marched on. Daddy has been gone since 1999. Mommy moved into town. My brother owns the old home place and has remodeled and redecorated until it doesn't look the same any more. The nieces and nephews are grown and married with kids of their own. The family still gathers in that old yard for cookouts and baseball games. The great nieces and nephews hear the old stories about what it was like growing up in the holler. When I go home to visit, I can still see that old white house in my mind, sitting on top of that hill. I can envision being in the yard, watching for Daddy to walk up that old dirt road when he got off work for the day. 

But most of all, I remember the love.  And I get homesick.

Waiting for the weekend....

We spend half of our life wishing it away, don't we. Every Monday, we drag ourselves out of bed and head off to our work day....whether it is on the job or at home with the laundry and housekeeping. We look forward to Wednesday since we know that we will be over the hump. Come Thursday, we can't wait for 5:00 Friday to get here. Then we cram all the fun and excitement we can into two days and start all over on Monday, waiting for the weekend to get here.

But you know what? It's kind of fun to have something to look forward to, isn't it. If you are like me, you usually have something going on every weekend. It's supposed to be for relaxing but I don't like to take the time to relax when I could be having fun or doing something cool.

This weekend, I get to keep my littlest grandson all day Saturday. He is such a happy baby and when he smiles those two new teeth are just adorable. Saturday night will be a birthday party for the second grandson. He just turned 8 and we are going to celebrate at Mr. Gatti's for pizza and games.

Sunday will begin a week of exhausting fun. Vacation Bible School. The Big Apple Adventure. Nightly dinners served in the fellowship hall. I'll be fixing a dessert each day to take to help out. The "train" will be running for the kids to ride. There will be Snow Cones and Popcorn and Lemonade. I am helping with Pre-K crafts and music. We will have three 20 minute classes. It's always a blast.

So even though I'll have to work every day next week, it will be like a "daily" weekend because I get to have fun every night. Wait a minute? Did I say fun? Yes, I consider it fun to work with over 60 kids a night from the 4-5 year age group. I either love children or I've not got a lick of sense. Haven't figured out which one yet.

Bring on the weekend and let's get the show on the road.

Household gadgets and giveaway....

 I may not be a big cook or spend a lot of time on dinners, but I love my kitchen gadgets. There are a few things I have accumulated over the years that I cannot live without. What is your favorite gadget? Here are a few of mine. Be sure and read at the end how to enter for my Kitchen Gadget Giveaway!

 My newest addiction is The Micro Egg™ which I purchased for $7 at Smoky Mountain Knife Works. It is an easy way to microwave a boiled egg in just a couple of minutes. I'm not a patient person and if I put an egg on to boil, I get so sidetracked that I get an egg that is ready for Easter coloring. You adjust the microwave time for soft, medium or hard boiled eggs.

My next favorite gadget is one that also involves eggs. Even though Hubby does the cooking, I do make the deviled eggs for any occasion. I hate mashing them with a fork and I don't like to drag out the food processor just to chop up the yellows. About 3 years ago, I got the Mix-N-Masher from Pampered Chef. It was just around $10 and it was the best investment I ever made. It can mash eggs, potatoes, all kinds of goodies. It can be used to blend ice cream for milk shakes and a ton of other things. I can't live with out it.

 My next item is one I have used for 30 years. It's my Butter Cutter. This thing is awesome for making pats of butter. I make several cooked cake icings and fudges that call for "1 stick of butter, cut up" to help it melt faster on the stove.  Of course, I know it is easy to stand over the pan with a knife and slice off pieces of your stick of butter. But with this, you open the paper off the butter, place this on top of the butter and push down. Just pick up you butter wrapper by the ends and turn it upside down over your pan and you have your butter all nice and sliced. It also comes in handy for a fancy dinner if you want to have your butter in pats on a butter dish. This is my second one as I lost my first one. I bought this at Smoky Mountain Knife Works, but you can also find them at Food Service Warehouse. The $3.00 investment I ever made.

 Another thing that I adore is my Prep Bowls from Pampered Chef. I use these for so much. We chop up onions and tomatoes for taco night. I use them for pudding, jello, peaches, etc. They hold one cup. I love to make pudding in them and that way, the kids can just reach in and grab a bowl of pudding when they want it. I'm trying to eat more fruit. I like storing a bowl of apples, peaches, or mandarin oranges in my little bowls. That way, when I want my fruit, it is already prepared. They run about $20 for a set of 6 but are so worth it.

Since I bake about a cake a week, I also like my little cake tester from Pampered Chef. This was a special they did one year for Breast Cancer Awareness. I love the pink ribbon and the little whisk on the end. It's nothing spectacular but I love it. It was the best $1.00 I ever spent.

Kitchen Gadget Giveaway

I will be giving away a set of Prep Bowls and a Micro Egg™ to one lucky winner. To enter is very simple, please click to follow my blog (if you are not already a follower) and leave me a comment on what your favorite kitchen gadget is. You can also email me at mamawsplace@gmail.com to be entered once you sign up as a follower. The drawing will be on June 15th. Winner will be announced on June 16th.

My weekend in review...

It's been a wonderful four day weekend and I'm glad to be back to blogging world.

Thursday afternoon my sweet niece Cindi presented us with a beautiful new great-nephew. Allow me to introduce you to Chase Matthew, 6 # 10 oz. Isn't he a cutie!



That was a great afternoon, but it went down hill from there. We had a major hail storm come through.

After the hail storm and the rain stopped, I went out to inspect for damage. Mine and hubby's vehicles took a beating. His is repairable but mine suffered more damaged and the insurance company is going to total it. I had a cracked windshield, cracked trim, dents in the hood, trunk, roof, quarter panels and light covers cracked.

His was some hail damage on the hood and a little on the top.

You would think I would be devastated about all this damage, but for some reason I was very calm. I've been thinking about trading my car in. I've never been happy with it since I bought it. Guess I won't have any choice in the matter now.

What really upset me was what the pounding hail did to my patio swing. I never knew hail could beat a hole in material. My swing was only a year old and I had babied it and there was not one single tear or scratch in the material.....till now. The storm roared up out of nowhere so we didn't have time to bring the cushions in like we normally do.

I think I'm going to look for a wooden swing to replace this one.

Friday, I ran errands and spent a wonderful evening at the ball field with my son and his family. Got to watch Garret and Alexis both have a game. Saturday, I went shopping and car scouting with my daughter and her children. Her Explorer took a beating and is totaled as well. So we went to get some ideas while we wait on the insurance company.

Sunday was a beautiful Memorial Service at church and the rest of the day we just relaxed some more. I even took a LONG afternoon nap...which I NEVER do.

Monday, Hubby and I went antique shopping. I could not find the pitcher I was looking for. But I also wanted to start a collection of salt cellars (also known as salt dips). They are little tiny "bowls" that would be placed at every plate with a little salt in them so you could salt your food. A friend of mine has some and I thought I would start collecting them. Some have little lids such as roosters, rabbits, swans, etc. And some are just open containers.

I found these little rooster ones that I just had to have. My mom and grandmother had the larger size of these that were candy dishes when I was growing up. The jadeite and the pink one are my favorites. They range from $2.00 - $3.95 each. They made my day. Each one is about 2 1/2" long.

This little salt dip is adorable as well. I want to find some more to go with this. It was just $2.50.

I found this cute little bowl/dish. I have no idea what I will use it for, but I fell in love with it and for just $5.00, I had to have it.

After antique shopping all day in 90 degrees, I was exhausted. I came home and took a bubble bath and read. Then hubby fixed me biscuits and bacon gravy for supper. I had that with homemade apple butter and vegged out on the couch all evening. It was a very relaxing weekend. I'm ready to face the world again. I needed these four days off. Sunday starts Vacation Bible School at our church and I'm helping with crafts and music for the Pre-K kids. Relaxation kind of goes out the window that week but I love every minute of it.

Time to refresh.....

I am so excited. Hubby and I are taking a four day weekend. Since Monday is a holiday, we've decided to take tomorrow off as well. Most of my clients will take advantage of the four day weekend, so I'm going to join the masses. It's a great way to kick off your summer.

I'm going to knock off early this afternoon and clean house and hubby is going to catch the laundry up today. That will give us four days of doing whatever we want.

I think tomorrow we will go get our flowers and work on our flower pots. We never put any out until Memorial day every year. Since our departed loved ones are all buried in West Virginia, we don't get to decorate on Memorial day so we plant our potted plants in honor of our loved ones every year at this time.

I'm not sure yet what the plans will be for Saturday. Sunday will be church and we are going to have a Memorial Service for our fallen military, POW's, and MIA's. We have some beautiful music planned along with some video scenes that are very poignant. We'll probably go out for lunch that afternoon and a nice long Sunday drive.

But Monday is the day I'm excited about. We are going antique shopping. We have some of the neatest antique stores around here and I'm on a mission. It's probably a futile mission, but a mission all the same. I have some old bowls and pitchers that are in my cabinets and I want to incorporate them into my kitchen. Since my kitchen is sort of a cross between French Country and Country, I have some ideas to bring it all together. I saw this beautiful pitcher at http://emmallamb.blogspot.com/2011/05/thrifty-finds.html

This is all the new decor rave "Granny Chic". So I'm heading out Monday to see if I can find something similar to fit into my decor. Now, here's the problem. Emma is from Scotland and found her treasure in Edinburgh. I'm thinking my chances are slim of finding one here, but who knows what treasures I may find.

We'll finish up the day with a delicious meal from the grill. We are planning to have a great weekend and I hope you each will as well. I'm not going to check emails, do any "work" work or write any blogs all weekend. I've been burning the midnight oil and the early dawn oil for so long, I need a break. So I'm sleeping in (which will mean until 6:30 or 7:00 for me) and enjoying my four day mini-vacation.

I hope you all have a wonderful Memorial day. I'll see you back on Tuesday.

How did things get so out of hand....

It started off so simple. People began wearing flip flops for all occasions. They became an acceptable form of fashion footwear. I am not a shoe person and never have been. I have one pair of winter tennis shoes and one pair for summer. I have one pair black winter boots and one pair of brown. I have one pair of black dress shoes and one pair of brown and a pair of black flats and a pair of brown. I had three pairs of sandals (black, brown and white).

Then the flip flop phase came and I was sunk. Growing up, I always lived for summer when we could wear our "floppies" as we called them back then. But a couple of years ago, I started buying a couple of new pairs of flip flops and then a couple of more and now, I have 25 pairs of flip flops.

How did things get so out of hand? I am going to blame part of it on Kohl's for having $12.99 flip flops on sale for $5.99 when I have a $5.00 coupon. I'm going to blame the other part on Payless for their Buy One Get One 1/2 off sales. I guess I'll take the rest of the blame since y'all already know I love to collect things. Do flip flops count as collectibles?

My daughter bought her two year old daughter, Shelby, her first pair of flip-flops Saturday. Shelby was all excited and had to wear her new "flollups" out of the store. I think I've started something.

Collecting makes me happy...

I love collecting. Whether it is Emmet Kelly Clowns, teapots or kitty cats, I am a collecting fanatic. As I was preparing for my yard sale last week, I mentioned I had stumbled on a box of memories. There were many items in there that are treasures to me. One thing I had forgotten about was my thimbles.

Growing up in a family where we didn't own a car, vacations were unheard of. We went to Grandma Garretson's up in the country 2 or 3 times a year either on a Greyhound or my aunt would take us. When I married my hubby, he was a traveler. We would take one long 1-2 week vacation every summer and little weekend trips periodically through the year. I was so fascinated with the junk shops in the vacation spots. I had never traveled, so all this was new to this old country gal. Being a born shopper, I loved to scour around the quaint little towns for treasures. That is how I stumbled on and fell in love with collecting.

Everywhere we went, when you went up to the counter they would have these adorable little thimbles so I decided to start collecting them. Just about every trip, I would pick one up as a souvenir to show I had been there. As my collection grew, I started getting them as gifts from my family and friends as they went on vacation. My first one came from the Great Smoky Mountains about 10 years before we moved here from West Virginia. I have them from Myrtle Beach, Panama City Beach, Daytona Beach, Virgina Beach, Gulf Shores, Luray Caverns, Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, New York, New Orleans, Maine, Pittsburgh, The Amish Country, Kings Island, Chattanooga, Helen GA, Hershey PA, and many more.

I can pick up each one and it will bring back a ton of memories either of my trips or of my family who bought them for me. Who knew that little ol' thimbles would come to mean so much. I think I'll bring them out of storage and set up a new display for them. That way, when I feel the need to get away, I can pick up a thimble, close my eyes and take a vacation in my mind.