One thing leads to another.

Have you ever started one project and it lead to another? Well, that is what happened to me today. Always told the girls the bathroom was one place a person should make sure is clean because it is the one room that most guests have the opportunity to inspect. Time to practice what I preached.

It was time to give the bathroom a good cleaning. Hubby cleaned it the last time and he did a pretty good job- for a guy. But it needed a deep cleaning. Threw the throw rugs in the wash and grabbed the cleaning products. Scrubbed the tub, the sink and cleaned the toilet. I was thinking this is going great. I will be done in no time.  But then I decided to dust the baseboards. And that led to washing the baseboards. And after making it half way around the room, I decided it wasn’t washing the baseboards needed but painting. Hubby said the reason they needed painting was because of all the scrubbing I do. Anyway, I went to the basement, got the paint and brush and got with it. An hour later, I was done. Rugs on the floors, clean towels hung up and smelling nice. Now if only the rest of the house was as clean.

Have a great weekend,

Rose

HELP. What do you use to mop your floors?

The kitchen and bathroom floors needed mopped. Haven’t got to that job in a while. Also, I had laundry to do, a bedroom to clean and sheets to wash. I decided since hubby was just playing on the computer, he could do the floors. He had been mopping for about 10 minutes when I walked through to put in another load of laundry. Whoa, I noticed that the floor wasn’t wet. I checked the pad, we use a Swiffer Wetjet for quick mops, and it wasn’t wet and still snow white. Something wasn’t right. Water was dripping out but not spraying out. A while back it broke where the handle and mop head meet.  Hubby got out the duct tape and it was good to go. At least for a bit.  So, I got out the bucket and regular mop and put hubby back to work. I do feel that does a better job than the Swiffer but the Swiffer is nice and easy for us old people between the deep cleaning.  I am now in the process of looking to buy another similar mop. I didn’t have the Swiffer all that long and so I am not sure I want to invest in another one or look for something else. What do you use for mopping your floors? Have you had it long? Do the floor steamers work? Any thoughts or comments will be appreciated. At least the floors are good for a while.

Thanks,
Rose

Shoeboxes and oven doors.

This week’s question was” Tell me about when, where and special details about when you were born”. As usual, I got carried away and I see I answered some of the questions for following weeks. And since I can’t remember much about my birth, I am going to go with what I have written.

Rose

I was born on Jan 24 at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Omaha Nebraska. I forget the year. My mother’s name was Mary Wisnieski Mona and my father’s name was Kashmir Michael Mona. Born my parents were born in Poland, my mother in July 7, 1908 and my father in June 14, 1905. My dad’s family migrated to Canada. My dad found his way to Omaha to work in the packing plants in South Omaha. He worked at the Armour plant. My mother at age 15 and her Dad came to America and stopped in Pennsylvania.  My grandfather, Frank Wisnieski, heard of the building boon in South Omaha and moved there. He was a house builder by trade. The rest of my Mother’s family, her mother Fexila Trojanoski Wisnieski and her five siblings, followed a year later. My parents lived in South Omaha all their adult life and belonged to St. Stanislaus parish in South Omaha.  I grew up in South Omaha and lived there till hubby and I were married. I graduated from St. Stanislaus Elementary school and from St. Joseph High school. Oh, I didn’t really forget the year. It was 1943. Just wasn’t sure I wanted to reveal that fact. There were five of us; I had two older brothers, Cash, Frank and two younger brothers, John and Ron.

Jerry

I was born in Hepburn Iowa on Sept 13, 1939. It was a home birth with a doctor present. Home births were very common at that time in rural Iowa and probably rural America. According to 2010 census, there were 23 people, 8 households and 7 families and in 1939 81 people..Very small town Iowa..  My parents were John Harvey and Lucile Collins Hascall. I was born early and very small. Just over 3 lbs. In order to keep me warm, the oven was lit and I was put in a box, shoebox I was told, and placed on the open oven door. Don’t remember much about my early years as we moved to Shelby when I was around 6. Dad was working for a farmer in the area when he joined the Army during World War 2. When he returned home from war, he became a butcher at the Emerson Iowa Locker plant and we moved to Emerson. The Shelby Locker came up sale and Dad bought it and we moved to Shelby. He not only butchered for local farmers, he opened a meat counter for the public to be able to purchase fresh meat. He ran the Locker in Shelby till he retired. Mom worked with him all those years. My dad could butcher a cow and the blood didn’t bother him but human blood was another story. Mom lost a finger on her hand while tenderizing minute steaks. He almost passed out and the lady that worked for him had to pretty much handle the situation. Mom came through it all with flying colors. The missing finger never bothered her except in the winter. Gloves never did fit right again. She loved to knit and the missing finger didn’t stop her.

There were four of us boys, Darwin Wayne, Dave, myself and 1 girl, Donna Sue. We all graduated from Shelby Tennant Elementary and High School. The school is now closed and being made into 32 apartments. And life goes on.

Look for another question next Sunday.

Take care and have a relaxing Sunday.

Rose

Nothing better then Homemade Bean Soup.

It is another windy day here in Iowa. We are in a wind advisory till evening. Snow showers are predicted. So far just wind. The cornhusk drifts just keep growing. Spring cleanup will be a real pain this year. Since it is such a blustery day, I decided a pot of bean soup would fit the bill. Besides, I wouldn’t have to cook all weekend. It is a really easy soup to make especially since I found out that using the navy beans in a jar doesn’t affect the favor at all. But they save a bunch of time and work. No rinsing, sorting or soaking beans overnight. Hubby is happy. It is favorite soup and I make more often now.

Ham and Beans Soup

1 large jar precooked navy beans,

1 small can tomato juice (optional)

2 Sliced carrots

1 cup chopped celery

1 cup chopped onion

2 Tablespoons cider vinegar

2 to 3 cups ham-I use a cut up ham steak*

Put the carrots, celery, and onion in a soup pan. Cover with water and simmer till the carrots, onions and celery are done.

Then add the ham, vinegar tomato juice and beans and simmer for an hour or so to let the ingredients blend.

*A ham bone or ham hock cooked with the carrots, celery and onion adds a lot of favor. If used, remove before adding beans, ham, tomato juice and vinegar.

Enjoy

Rose

Question of the week? Roy Lake South Dakota and Grand Canyon

What is your most humorous family vacation memory?

Rose:

We went to Roy Lake Resort, South Dakota every July for many years. We rented a cabin on the lake that slept 6 and spent the week fishing, sunbathing, reading and swimming. Great times. So many different summers come to mind. But one of the first summers that I thought of happened in the later years of traveling to Roy Lake. Our girls were older and so they asked if they could have friends come along. We thought it would be fun, so we rented a second smaller cabin. Friends of ours and their family were, also, coming along that year. So our small caravan of four cars headed to South Dakota for a week of fun and relaxation.  My hubby decided to take a so called short cut. After wandering around country roads for hours lost, actually it probably wasn’t that long, I convinced him to stop and I would ask a farmer we saw mending fences for directions. I asked the fellow how we got back to the highway.  When he said” mam, what highway would that be?”, I had to chuckle. With his directions we finally found the road to the back entrance to Roy Lake State Park, only to have to wait another hour or so as a cattle drive was blocking the road.  Not a fun thing to do on a hot day in July in South Dakota.

Jerry:

The vacation trip that I found humorous began with a trip out West. It was Shelby’s centennial that year, 1970. We owned the Corner Tavern and had a very good week due to all the events and people in town. I decided to take off for Las Vegas. So we piled all six of us, plus a sitter into the car. We stopped at Grand Crayon on our way. Our youngest daughter was 2 that year and took along her imaginary friend named “boy”. As we stood at the rim, she said” Daddy, Daddy, boy fell down there” pointing at deep canyon” go get him”. I answered” I’m NOT going down there”. After that boy was never mentioned again. A fact that made her sisters very happy. They no longer had to make room for boy in the car, at the table or while playing. She even slept on the floor of her room, while boy slept in her bed.

What is one of your humorous vacation memories?

More questions to come. Stayed tune.

Time is flying like the cornstalks in the wind.

Time is flying as fast as the cornstalks in the wind. We are already in the middle of January. It is cold and windy here in Iowa but, at least, it is sunny. My yard is filling up with cornstalks instead of snow. But at least the cornstalks don’t affect getting around but then, again, they don’t melt either. Not sure if raking is easier than shoveling but at least it is a warmer job.

I have decided, thanks to the suggestion a creative daughter, to change the way I post on my blog. As most of you have probably noticed, I have been pretty lax on posting. Not that I haven’t wanted to, but it seems I am busier then I was before I retired. Not complaining or making excuses, but having more time to pursue other areas of interest, takes up more time than daycare. Anyway, my daughters are going to provide questions for us, (yes we are bringing in good old dad into the world of blogging).  I will post the question, give my answer and then hubby will give his answer. This will serve as a flash back to 50 plus years of marriage, of raising four girls, of doing daycare, of owning a business, etc. Who knows where the questions will take us.  Stay tuned. This could get interesting.

Have another cup of Coffee and stay warm.
This is my favorite brew.

Ouch- Planters Fasciitis

Do you know what Planters Fasciitis is? I didn’t. Not until I started having this terrible heal pain. It was especially painful when getting out of bed in the morning.  Moving hurt but the pain would get better as I moved around. Some days I feel like I am falling apart and a bout of planter fasciitis convinced me I was.  It took a few weeks of wearing these weird boots/braces at night. I suppose if one left them on all night, they would work faster. But I only managed to keep them on about four hours a night. I couldn’t sleep with them on. They aren’t very comfortable. Trips to the chiropractor helped with the pain, too. The pain is almost gone and I am back to normal, sort of. But one thing I have to do now is wear shoes every day. That is very hard for me. I have always been a barefoot kind of girl. Even when I worked for the school, I wore clogs, remember them, so that when I was sitting and working with a student, I could slip my shoes off. I did find some really comfortable, light weight shoes by SKECHERS called Go Walk 2. They are great shoes. But my feet get so hot by midafternoon, I have to take them off. Maybe after some time, I will get use to wearing them all day. I hope. And who knows, maybe I will even get use to not going barefoot in the summer. But I doubt it.

Take care,

Rose