THE SIMPLE WOMAN'S DAYBOOK

FOR TODAY JANUARY 14, 2009...

Outside my window...A dark, cold, wonderful Winter's night.

I am thinking...that I love having my family here and am sad that in just a few short months, they will all be gone, and we will have a very empty house.

I am thankful for...Oil lamps and history.

From the learning rooms...More on lab tests and connective tissues.

From the kitchen...Lemon Cinnamon cleansing tea with a few splashes of vanilla soy milk.

I am wearing...My Winter flannel nightgown.

I am creating...Some crystalized hearts.

I am going...Think happy thoughts this night.

I am reading...Jane Austen.

I am hoping...For God's hand to guide me in my career path, as I am unfortunately destined to work.

I am hearing...The furnace running, a calm sound to me. It means Winter and cozy evenings.

Around the house...All is quiet, as I usually write this Daybook very late at night.

One of my favorite things...Is to create.

A few plans for the rest of the week:Work tomorrow and probably Friday as well. Making a nice large pot of Split Pea and Ham soup.

Here is picture thought I am sharing...Some crystal hearts hanging.



If you would like to join us, please visit The Simple Woman’s Daybook.

MISSON AFGHAN

Elliott wanted an afghan to take on his mission. After several trial-and-error patterns, I decided upon a simple single-crochet pattern in the blue and orange colors that he wanted. It’s still baby sized but will grow! I was able to work on it the last couple of evenings, as I watched a favorite classic of mine, Pride and Prejudice.

CRYSTAL HEARTS

A cute idea that I saw on a website was crystallized hearts. I’m experimenting with these for my Etsy shop.

Using pipe cleaners, or what they now call Chenille strips, you bend them into heart shapes and suspend in a jar of water and Borax for anywhere from a couple of hours to overnight. Once thoroughly dried, they are then sprayed with a clear lacquer finish. These can then be used as ornaments, made into magnets, or strung together.

Never mind the orange yarn (these were just used to hang my hearts), but here is an example of some before they were made into anything. I’ll post some better pictures later on.

A HECTIC SABBATH

As I took my little men to church today, I felt a sense of responsibility and love, as if to say, “This is what I am supposed to be doing.” Buckled up and sitting nicely in their cute little suits and ties, we headed off.

I’m pretty sure that the hecticness of the day started with the wind, or at least that is what I choose to blame it on. It was absolutely frightful today and is the one element that I really don’t tolerate too well. As we headed into the building, over the snow and ice they ran. All the while, I was trying to keep my hair from flying every where but where it was supposed to be and to keep my skirt from eagerly trying to blow straight up in the air.



Once there, we dropped Julian off at his class and then took Adrien to Nursery. It was his first day there, and he wasn’t quite ready to go it alone, so I stayed with him and was proud to be there with my little grandbaby. All went well. There were snacks and games, songs and prayers.



It was now time to go and out into the wind once again we went. While trying to harness the elements and walk modestly out to the car, it was an effort trying to keep Julian out of the snow and ice and Adrien from following Julian into the snow and ice. For, whatever Julian does, Adrien is sure to follow!

We finally got to the car only to realize that I had lost my keys! With my extra set, we drove right up to the front door so that the boys could be seen and out of danger’s way as I flew through the church and crowded halls in search of my keys. They were no where to be found. Finally, a lady told me that her Bishop had held a pair up, which had been lost, in their Sacrament meeting. Off to find this unknown Bishop, down yet another hallway, and asking yet another person, (I didn’t know what their Bishop even looked like) I raced toward the chapel. There they were, in his hands, looking oh so familiar. I thanked him profusely and dashed out to the boys.

Of course, when I got there, Adrien was having a fit, a two-year-old fit or an I-need-a-nap-now fit, I’m not sure. But, fit and all, off we went. I felt like the pioneers must have felt, as I tried to negotiate the extremely rutted and overly bumpy roads! I am QUITE sure now, that if I didn’t need a front-end alignment last week that I most definitely do now. It was frustrating to say the least, humorous at best, and that’s pushing it! Going for a short-cut, we went the wrong way and ended up in a cul-de-sac only to have to turn around and maneuver the same ruts and bumps once again. Finally on a plowed thorough fair, we were off and flying. It’s only minutes now, I thought; we’ll be home out of the wind, and Adrien can get his much needed sleep.

Against my well ingrained knowledge that you NEVER place siblings so close to each other in the car that they are actually touching, heaven forbid, I had done it anyway. So, all the way home, either one of them or both were upset because the other one was taking up too much space, one wanted to lie down but the other was taking up the room, etc. etc. By this time, it was definitely Adrien’s nap time, and no amount of condolence could quiet him. So, amidst the fits and whining and angry drivers around us, we drove on, oh so gaily.
Finally, we reached the house, struggled out of the seat belts and out of the car, and off across the ice and snow they went. A dry sidewalk is no fun to travel on after all! As I caught up to him and tried to assist, so Adrien wouldn’t fall on the ice, his annoyance grew. He could do it himself after all. By the time we got into the house, he with his crumpled up Nursery coloring page, and me with my crumpled up face, we were greeted by Brattum, the horse-sized dog. A few hugs and kisses later, a once more upset Adrien who, trying to fight for space with horse dog, tried to reach me for a kiss and hug (ones that he didn’t want earlier). Our final farewells were bid, and the little cutest but oh-so-unhappy man walked off down the hall in a pout. All is well, I thought; all is well.

As I reflected once at home, I was so thankful that I have grandbabies, thankful that I am allowed to take them to church, and thankful that I can instill in them, as did my gramma in me, a love of the Lord Jesus Christ, wind, ruts, and all!

NEFFLA SOUP--FOR SURE THIS TIME

I had one more request for the recipe and thought I had printed it earlier in its entirety but hadn't. So, here, with a bit of memory to taste, is Gramma's Neffla Soup.

Growing up with 100% German grandparents and a full-blooded German mother meant LOTS of good eats, as Grandpa would say. Oh my! Gramma and Grampa never had much, but they always had yummy, tasty, German food on the table. It was all made from scratch, even the noodles and bread, and there was ne'er a recipe to be found. If one would ask Grandma how to make something, she would say, with a little laugh, "Oh, I don't know..." and then proceed to tell you to put a "little" of this and a "bit" of that into your bowl...

That hardy stock of people is too quickly vanishing from our planet and another more hollow version has taken over. The old stock were pure through and through. They didn’t have the veneer that shines so gloriously on the populous today. Like a good old oak door, they were solid. They knew how to work; they knew what living through poverty, the Depression, and hard times was like. They were real.

Today’s lot are like a fancy door on a extravagant house, beautiful and glorious on the outside but except for their “core” of air and Styrofoam, hollow on the inside.

Yes…I miss them. How I would love to sit a while longer…to linger at her table and converse, as she rolled out her precious bread dough. How I would love to hear her voice again…I can remember it, but memories are never the same. How I yearn to be able to ask, as I did when but a small child, “Gramma, how do you say this in German?” Then, she would tell me or say, “Oh, I don’t know; ask Grampa.” Grampa spoke the high and she the low. I don’t quite know why she was so humble about it or if she really didn’t remember certain words. But, with her sisters, I heard her speak her fluent brogue all the time. They would go back and forth between German and English. It was amazing to listen to.

When I grew up, I trained my dogs in German. When I was in K-9 school, I’d call back home and ask, as I did when I was small, “Gramma, how do you say this in German?” Those words stay with me. The alphabet (or most of it) remains—mingled with my more newly acquired Spanish. The Bible verses and songs she taught remain. These things fill my heart. And, what fills my tummy now, as it did then, are her wonderful, irreplaceable, German “recipes” copied down as best I could…as she told me, as best she could…while she rolled out her dough.


NEFFLA SOUP

1 Whole chicken or several boneless chicken breasts
Bouillon paste (you can use cubes, but I prefer the refrigerated paste)
Nefflas (German egg dumplings)

Bring whole chicken (or chicken breasts), enough water to cover, and bouillon paste to a boil. (I add the bouillon by tablespoon fulls to taste). Then, turn down to a slow simmering boil for several hours—long enough to have tender chicken that will easily pull away from the bone.

Debone chicken and cut or shred into bite-sized pieces. Usually, after cooking for several hours, my chicken is quite tender and easily cuts/shreds with a knife. Add back to stock and bring to a boil while you prepare the nefflas.


Nefflas (Can double)

1 egg
¼ cup water
Salt to taste
Flour—enough to make a ball that comes away from the sides of bowl when mixed.

Beat egg; add water and beat. Add salt then mix in flour a bit at a time.

Add neffla dough one teaspoon full at a time into boiling soup stock. Continue until all the dough is used up. Because we like the dumplings, and they always are the first to go, I make a double recipe. I also make a very large pot of soup, however; so if you’re making a smaller kettle full, one recipe of the dumplings should suffice.

Continue to boil for 15 minutes allowing nefflas to swell.

Serve hot soup in home-style bowls with thick crusty bread or rolls.

Enjoy!

THE OIL LAMP CHALLENGE

I brought out an old oil lamp the other day that we had stored in an effort to bring into our home some ambiance and a little old-fashioned feeling of nights long ago.

Before I could officially light my lamp, I needed wicking and tried several stores to no avail. A couple of days later, my dad gave me a piece that he just happened to have. (Dad is an extremely self-sufficient man and is totally prepared for any disaster that may ever come upon him or us. He has three bug-out bags in his truck alone.) I was so excited to finally get to try out my light, so home we went.

What I thought would be a simple process turned into a much longer one. The turner (don’t know the correct term) I found out doesn’t turn, so it took me forever to get the wick threaded through the wick slit. A half an hour later, with sore fingers to boot, I got the material up enough to where I could grab it with two skewers and pull it all the way through the top opening. Excited, I lit the wick only to have the kitchen fill promptly with a large cloud of blackened smoke.

Another soaking of oil to the wick and another 20 minutes of threading the last bit of wicking through, I attempted once again to burn my beautiful oil lamp. I had thoughts of reading at my table by lamplight, while visions of pioneer homesteaders danced in my head…I struck the match, lighted the lamp, and voila, another cloud of black smoke filled the kitchen air! Of course, I had already opened the back door and kitchen window previously to air the room out from the first cloud of darkness. Once again, I hurried to open up the house to let the black smoke out and the cold winter air in.

Hoping to squelch the flame a bit, I very carefully took the chimney to place it back on the lamp. While doing this, however, I missed a prong, and down it went, crashing into a million…well maybe 50…pieces all over the floor and table.

So, no more wicking, no more chimney, and a pretty little half lamp are all that remain of my old-fashioned re-enactment of nights long ago.

I was able, between clouds of black smoke and pre-chimney explosion, to snap a couple of pictures…

HOMEMADE LAUNDARY DETERGENT

Since I finally had accumulated all of the ingredients, my daughter came over the other day, and we made our homemade laundary detergent. It is quite easy to make and rather fun as well!

Ingredients: Fels Naptha soap, Borax, and washing soda (sodium carbonate).



With baby Christian as our supervisor, we began...




We shredded the bar of soap, put it in a double boiler and added the water to cover. Stir while heating until melted and mixed well.



While the soap mixture was melting, we filled our five-gallon bucket half way up with hot water then added our Borax and washing soda while mixing well. We then added our melted soap.



After all of the ingredients are mixed together until all powder is dissolved, we filled the bucket to the top with hot tap water. You then cover and let sit over night. You now have five gallons of detergent, which you then dilute 1:1 with water giving you a total of 10 gallons of laundry soap!



I got this recipe from the Duggar's web site and have also listed it below. They said that store bought detergent costs $60 per 180 loads. This homemade detergent costs $1.50 per 180 loads! Of course, the costs will vary depending upon what you pay for your base ingredients. My daughter and I split the 10 gallons of concentrate into two five-gallon buckets, each ending up with a total of 10 gallons of ready-to-use soap. We figure that they will last each of us approximately nine months. To top it off, the Borax and washing soda that I have will last for several years, so all we'll need to purchase in the future is more Fels Naptha. Since I got a three-pack of the bar soap, we each took one of the remaining two to use as a stain remover. You wet the clothing and rub the bar directly onto the stain. It is also said to be good for poison oak. Needless to say, we were both quite happy about our new frugal find!



I am also testing out a vinegar rinse as a substitute for fabric softener (also found on the Duggar's web site.) So far, I have only tried it on one load of dish rags, but there was no residual smell whatsoever. I am anxious to use it in a load of clothing to see if it truly takes out any static cling.

HOMEMADE LAUNDRY DETERGENT

4 Cups hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar
1 Cup Washing Soda
½ Cup Borax

- Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.

-Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.

-Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (will gel)

-Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per 2 gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.

-Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons.

-Top Load Machine- 5/8 Cup per load (Approx. 180 loads)

-Front Load Machines- ¼ Cup per load (Approx. 640 loads)