This photo was not posed.  In fact, I don't think Grace even knew I took it.

Redneck

Some of my daughters said it was REDNECK to pile people onto a car hood,  two sleds, and a broken water tank, and then attach the whole train to a couple of draft horses for fun in the snow.

But some of my daughters weren't here.  The people who were here didn't say it was redneck. They said it was fun.

Audrey's Lap

Little people like to sit on Audrey's lap.

This one is Cousin Sophie, age 5.  She has Twinkle Toes shoes, and she likes you to know that.  They light up when she stomps.

Sometimes people who are too big to wear Twinkle Toes shoes also like to sit on Audrey's lap.

Grace G.

Mercy G.

Hannah G.

Peter G.

Stephanie G.

Hope G.

Andrew G.

"Sometimes love has to drive a nail into its own hand."

(Chris Rice)

Then and Now

THEN:   (ten years ago)

Now:   (earlier this week)

                   Accepted to Kansas State's Vet School!

Congratulations, Audrey. You go, girl!

Pralines

Erica and I made pralines, starting with some very basic, very white ingredients.  Sugar, buttermilk, baking soda.

You have to stir a long time, until the mixture caramelizes and turns brown.  It's best to make pralines with someone, so you can take turns stirring.  If you take too much of a break, the syrup will scorch.




Then you add nuts.  I usually have lots of nuts in my kitchen.

Stir some more, until the mixture starts to cool and thicken.  Then plop your pralines out onto waxed paper.  Do it fast, before they harden.  If you eat one, go run five miles. 

Aunt Bee's Pralines

2 cups sugar

1 level teaspoon baking soda

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup pecans

Boil sugar, baking soda and buttermilk in a deep pot until mixture reaches soft ball stage.

Remove from heat and beat by hand, adding vanilla and nuts when mixture starts to get creamy.  Dollop quickly by spoonfuls onto waxed paper.

Enjoy!

Forlorn in the Cold

Elderberry Jelly

Elderberry jelly is a part of Vic's history.  His mother plucked the small berries out of wild bushes poking up in the fences and thickets around their farm, stripped them from their stems, juiced them, and then boiled the deep purple nectar down into sweet jelly. 

Vic was probably nine or ten years old when she taught him what her mother had taught her, which Grandma had probably learned from her mother, and on and on and on as far back as his family goes through Nebraska history. 

Vic still likes to make elderberry jelly, and last weekend he was willing to share his trade secrets with Audrey. 

I'm happy for my currently nonexistent grandchildren.  Maybe this tradition will take root in our family, and they will get to grow up on elderberry jelly.

And I'm happy for me, because I get to sample it now!

Poppy Seeds

The fact that everyone agrees with you
doesn't necessarily mean you're correct.

The fact that someone is upset with you
doesn't necessarily mean you're wrong.

Man thinks from his own viewpoint, yet only God's perspective matters.

The Guilty Look

I think Piper had just a little bit too much fun while we were gone!

Sorry

I'm sorry that the raucus game of Sorry with Cousin Vickie has come to an end, but I'm not sorry to be home.

 

 

 

 

(don't these cousins 

look a little bit like alike?

Actually, they ARE a little bit alike...deeper than looks.)



Barefoot on the Upstairs Balcony

in January!

Cookie Factory

Aunts, Uncles and Cousins

Fried okra, pecan pie, and six different kinds of barbeque on the menu.

Alligator and elk hanging on the walls.

Twenty-seven people sitting at the table,
and we're related to every last one of them.



Must be Texas.

Train Brain

The trains rumble awfully close to my parents' house in small-town Texas.  This photo was taken in their yard; that's their fence in the foreground.  Because there is an intersection right outside of the picture, the trains are loud, blasting their diesel horns day and night at the railroad crossing.   Not only that, but the curve means the metal wheels continually shriek their friction as they pass around the bend in metal tracks.

I didn't grow up in this house, but I still remember the first time I slept here, long after I had established my own home.  I woke up disoriented in the middle of the night.  The train whistle, six inches from my ear and bearing down, screamed that I was lying prone on the railroad tracks, just about to be decapitated.  I woke up in a panic, my heart racing, until I realized I was sitting up in the dark, safe in my soft bed, with the train passing outside and rattling my bedroom window glass.   

The trains are still just as loud here, but I never hear them at night.  It is amazing how a brain adapts. I asked my kids if any trains passed last night ; they said yes, but I slept right through.  A train whistle this loud at home would be an emergency.  But, even though I'm only here a few nights each year, my brain has figured out that it is OK, and it doesn't wake me.

Our brains are definitely fearfully and wonderfully made.

Chess Lesson

Her Name is Alice

She married my grandfather when I was seventeen.  Because it was my paternal grandfather, whose last name I bore, and because her first name is Alice, I found myself sharing both names with her.   I was miffed.  Or downright irritated.  Incensed that she had married my grandfather, who, I thought, should have remained married to my grandmother.  And further annoyed that, in one bold stroke, she stole not only my grandfather, but also my first and last names.  The AUDACITY!  That was just way too personal for an impetuous teen-ager to bear, so I politely kept her at arm's length.

She, however, was not so small.  She stood firm, holding on to both my grandfather and my name, while simultaneously reaching out to me.   The Audacity!

She must have, in her youth, read the Aesop Fable in which the wind and sun battle to see who can get the coat off of a man.  The sun won; gentleness triumphed over brute strength.  Alice applied the sun over a period of years; I warmed up to her, and discovered a delightful, audacious, adventuresome woman.

Since then, I have discovered that Audacity should be her middle name.  After my grandfather died in 2004, Alice began racing sailboats.  To celebrate her 70th birthday--seventieth, mind you--she fulfilled a lifelong dream by buying some Harley-Davidson boots, signing up for riding lessons and then taking a solo spin on a Harley. 

And, when we met her for a meal the other day, she wore a Yankees shirt!  This was no accident--she is well aware of my hatred for the Yankees.   Nonetheless, she intentionally pulled that shirt out of her closet and then marched in and sat down right next to me, wearing the horrid thing.  The audacity!

Happy New Year to Alice, whom I love!

Run in the Texas Sun

First Ever Wood Family New Year's Day 5K Run.

I came in last.  Happily.