Happy Birthday, DrivingDutchman❤️

I always saw the birth of our only son as a Sinterklaas gift. He was born early morning December 6 after the day that millions of Nederlanders yearly celebrate Sinterklaas's gift evening (December 5).

He didn't want to wait for Dr. B. to show up for the scheduled C-section at 7:30 am. When my water broke an hour or so earlier, the medical staff put me on an intravenous drip to slow everything down until they were ready. That is just the opposite of the usual experience most mothers have when giving birth. Usually everyone wants to get through this birthing as quickly as possible.

When I called my husband to tell him that things could be moving quicker than we thought, he raced to the hospital. And all three of us then waited until the staff arrived and THEY were ready for a delivery.

After the Dutch doctor said to me in English, "It's a Boy!" my husband (who was waiting outside the delivery room) was prepared to keep an eye on his baby. He had heard too many stories about babies being swapped at birth. He did not know that there was only one other baby in the hospital that day, and that other baby was a girl. 😊

Our "pride and joy" (DrivingDutchman) was born 34 years ago. Yesterday he spent the day with his father doing what they both like to do--Driving fast cars and this time on a real racetrack (Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas). 

Like Father, Like Son❤️

Happy Birthday, Jan😘😘😘

I Don't Cook Thanksgiving Dinner

Actually, I don't think that I have ever cooked a complete Thanksgiving dinner. When I lived in The Netherlands, we somehow found a Holiday Inn or an invitation to a work colleague's home on this special feast day. Since returning to the US in 2006, we have hosted family potluck Thanksgivings or visited with our adult son and eaten with him.

Although I don't like to cook, I can prepare a reasonable version of sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole (Campbell mushroom soup variety), and pecan pie. I'll be preparing and taking the two casseroles to dinner at my youngest brother's home tomorrow, since that is what my sweet sister-in-law requested that I bring. We will leave the turkey and ham to the grill guy in the family, and then see what my SIL cooks up for the rest. It is never a disappointment at their house for any meal.

For you non-southerners who wonder what we eat for Thanksgiving dinner down South, here is a good news article. Southern Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow❣️I still need to shop for groceries. You think that the shops will be busy today?🙄

It's Not Okay

If all people come out and say that they have all done it, does that make it okay (right, normal, accepted, forgiven, legal, permitted, moral)?

Remember the biggest excuse that you ever gave when you were young was, "everyone else is doing it." Back then it was maybe staying out late or letting your hair grow or wearing frayed jeans. Today it may be borrowing your friend's Netflix or driving 10 or miles above the speed limit or spending way too much time "socializing" with strangers on social media.

But does it make the act right just because it has become the norm? I hate to open the "news" each morning to find out who else has done what "everyone else is doing or has done."

My Momma's Blog

My mother wrote the following blogpost exactly five years ago at the age of 87 years old.

Good and Bad Times.

For those of us who have survived all the ups and downs and good and bad times, we have a lot of stories. Let me share one of mine.

I am one of the depression children. Calvin Coolidge was president when I was born. His term was 1923-1929, and then came Herbert Clark Hoover who served from 1929-1933.These were the worst financial times in the history of our nation. It was a bad time for every body, especially for farm families like us. The banks were closed because there was no money and our little school closed because there was no way to pay the teachers. In our family there were five school age children who needed an education.

The school was finally opened, but you had to pay tuition to be able to go there. Our family couldn't afford the tuition, so when I got old enough to go to school I was taught by my older sisters. They taught me to read and write and do first grade work. I missed two years of public schooling. When I did get to start to school, I was put in the second grade. I was still one year behind the other children. I tried so hard every day at school to catch up. We had second and third grades in the same room with the same teacher. I would listen to her teach third grade and hope that she would move me up, but it never happened.

We walked two miles to school every morning and afternoon in the cold and rain  of winter. On some of the worst days our neighbor who had a car would give us a ride. Our road to school was a dirt road and it could be pretty muddy at times. So you can imagine what it was like at the time. Muddy shoes and wet clothes. We'd stand by the coal stove to warm our bodies and dry our clothes. Our clothes were hand made by our mom. She made them all, outer wear, underwear and even made overshoes out of inner tubes for the boys to wear around the feed lots. We never felt ashamed because we wore these things with pride. Our neighbors were in the same boat with us. Everybody was poor. Thinking back, we children didn't know we were poor. We had a nice family and parents who loved us.

Our lunches consisted of whatever food we could put together on that day so we could something to eat. There was no lunch room. We did the best we could.

Virginia Ridge Chapman (1925-2015)
Ridges of Lee County

Throw Back

Events of the last year threw me back. In fact, events of last year may have even thrown my back back. I thought that I was coping with the news (old and new), but this has not been my best year of my 69 years. Losing my mom and my confidante two years ago was difficult, but I am sure that the last 366 days have been more so.

Without dwelling more on what has been, I am moving forward. We finally put Facebook away as we should have done last December when we first discussed that break. There was a good reason that I never joined it personally, since I knew it wasn't right for me. 

I am a blogger, and I like to take photos. If I can just puzzle out how to get my photos on my blogposts again, I will be all set. Plus my Wetcreek Instagram is working out okay. 

Now, since I have that under control, can't someone figure out how to solve the other problems of the world?

Linda

Do You Ever Make Dog Bread?

Dog Bread

My mother sometimes made bread in a skillet on top of the cookstove and called it "dog bread." Although I have all of her favorite recipes in a recipe book handwritten by her, I don't think that she ever wrote down the recipe for "dog bread."

As I had about 1 1/2 cups of Greek yogurt that was still good but looked like curdled milk after spending 6 months in our freezer here at the Beltway Apartment, I remembered that you could make bread from equal amounts of some milk product and self-rising flour. I found a recipe for pizza crust or pita bread using equal amounts of Greek yogurt and self-rising flour and then frying it up in a lightly olive oiled hot skillet on the top of the stove.

After adding extra flour to keep the sticky dough from gluing my fingers together and flattening small pancake size pieces, I fried up the "dog bread." 

Our dogs are thousands of miles away, but I bet some hummus would be delicious on these bread patties.

We Go Places

Maybe you remember the question that our Baptist friend asked me a couple of months ago. "What do y'all do over there in Holland on vacation twice a year?"

Besides watch television ( as she assumed that we had available), we go places. 

Once it was Sicily. Another time it was Morocco. And we have even been to Croatia, Serbia, Mostar, and Montenegro. I could name all of the other countries, but these impress even me.

So we go places.

This visit we did not leave The Netherlands, but we had a couple of family members who came for short visits. Former travel guide hubby was in his element with tours of Amsterdam, The Hague, and Rotterdam. We even visited tourist attractions like Kinderdijk, where neither he nor I had ever been. And we finally toured Castle Cannenburgh in Vaassen that we missed last Spring (and almost missed this Fall🙄). 

Yep, we go places.