Conversation with Lorelei....and other stuff...

I might as well start off with a Lorelei conversation...it will make three days in a row with something from her.  Today she was talking to her mom about candy and chocolate.  Lorelei says, "Me and chocolate are related."

Sarah says, "What!?!"

Lorelei says, "Me and chocolate are related cause I like it SOOOOO much!"

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This is the new kid on the block...I have been wanting it for soooo long.  I didn't really need it...just wanted it.  I had even made up my mind to get a lesser machine.  I was wanting one to have upstairs.  My other Juki is straight stitch only.  So I wanted to keep the Viking downstairs till I would have the other stitches if I needed them without running up here or taking the machine up and down the stairs.

Anyway, I don't know if  anyone else has realized how distracted I have been.  I am the  most indecisive person ever.  So on one hand felt like I didn't really need this.  But sewing machines are to me what jewelry is to other women, or guns are to a lot of guys or cameras to some.

These are all the stitches it does.

I even took a day and went and tried a different brand of machine, but to get one this nice I would have had to pay a lot more money.

the pressure feet

Even though the machine I was looking at was not that much cheaper, it did not have near the pressure feet that come with this one.

And though my Viking has a buttonhole thing similar to this, it doesn't have the all the buttonhole options.

Anyway, I ordered it Wednesday....from a place in Alabama.  Without ever seeing it in person.  Without ever test-driving it...I was going by the quality of my Juki 98Q...plus I posted a question on the Juki 98 group to see if others had this machine and what they thought of it.  The replies I got made me long for one even more.

So now I have it...I have played on it all afternoon.  I think I am going to love it about as much as I love my 98Q.

Time for Random 5 Friday

First of all, this is totally unrelated to the Random 5.  I did the previous post and at the end I included a couple things Lorelei had said in the past day or two.  Then later last night, Sarah sent me another text that said, " we(Sarah and hubby) were in the truck and she(Lo) got the hick-ups.  All of a sudden she did her deep voiced yell.  We asked what that was for, she said she was trying to scare herself to get rid of the hick-ups..."  Aren't grandchildren wonderful!
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It is that time of the week again...time to share interesting and sometimes not so interesting random facts about ourselves, our lifem our kids, our pets....  Just whatever we choose.

1. Weather has been a part of the news more than usual this winter.  Here in Indiana we have had record amounts of snow;  along with that we have had some bitter cold weather.  For here, anyway.    We have had snow on the ground much of the winter.  So, it shouldn't be surprising that snow is in the forecast for this weekend.  Right now, only an inch or so is predicted.  I would not mind if we did not get any at all.  I have had my fill of snow and cold.  Though the picture above is from years past, ponds are still covered with ice.

2.  I love anything with roosters....and chickens in general.  At one time I collected 'rooster/chicken' things.  I could count over a hundred rooster/chicken items that I had.  I cannot remember the exact number now.  I think it was over 120.  Now, most of them are packed away.  I still like them, and cannot bare to part with them.

3.  I just finished reading Sidonia's Thread:  The Secrets of a Mother and Daughter Sewing a New Life in America.  (Click that link to read about it.)  It is not the usual story of a holocaust survivor.  The daughter wrote the book, and it is about their life here after WWII.  I know it probably is not for everyone, but I really enjoyed reading it. I have also noticed with it, if the title of a book has the word 'thread' in it, I am going to at least look at it.

4.  Has anyone besides me started enjoying some of the commercials just because of the music that takes you back to your youth.  There is one for Mazda that has Teenage Wasteland as the background music.  Another for Hyunda uses Evil Woman.  Another commercial, I don't remember what its for uses Three Dog Night's Shambala.

There, I just could not resist posting it here.

And there are even more old songs/commercials but can't recall them right at the moment.   Is there any that you have noticed?

5. Now, for the fun read of the day, I am taking you back to February of 2012, to this post of The Run "A"Round Ranch.  Every time I read it, the next to the last paragraph cracks me up. 

Linking to A Rural Journal's Random 5 Meme....

Edited to add:  The weatherman is now saying that they are watching a winter storm that is heading this way for the weekend.  Thinking inches now!  YUK!  Last night or the night before they didn't know.

Cast iron pot...

Our mom had a big cast iron pot...I don't think it had a handle.  I also think hers was taller and not quite so wide in diameter as this one.  I don't remember where she kept it, or what has happened to it.  She only used it a couple times a year that I know of...well, maybe give or take a time or two.

She made lye soap in it.  I don't know of anyone besides her that ever made lye soap.  And I think when she made a batch of it, a batch lasted longer than a year.  I don't even recall what she used it for.  I think I remember her using it for laundry occasionally.  Maybe rubbing on a stubborn spot and washing on the washboard.  I almost think she maybe added some to the regular wash water.  (We were washing with a wringer washer.)

She also used this same pot to make lard in.  When I was growing up, we raised and butchered 4 hogs every year.  I say we...but I really didn't have much to do with it.  It was my mom and dad and brothers.  At least that I remember.  But the one thing I did do was help cut the fat into chunks for mom to make lard with.

I can remember every thing just being coated with grease from us handling the fat and cutting it into chunks.  I can remember the feel of it on my hands.  To the best of my memory, we cut the fat into chunks an inch or so...we were not exact.  

I don't know how long mom could wait till she made lard.  I would think she would have had to make it within a day or two because we had no place to refrigerate the pieces of fat.    Anyway, she used the cast iron pot.  She always built a small fire, and I think she used bricks to set the pot on over the fire.  And the pot was filled to the brim almost with the fat.

She always used a small fire...didn't want to get it to hot.  I am not sure why.  Hoping one of my brother will maybe fill in the pieces for me.  For stirring, she had a stirrer similar to the one the woman is using in this picture.  I can remember mom making me stand and stir...I think the fire was kept small and we had to stir almost constantly to keep the lard/grease and cracklings from scorching.

And she always made the lard outside, and sometimes did it for other neighbors.

How I wish I had written stuff down back then....or had better memories.

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Sarah sent me the following conversation between Lorelei and her daddy this evening:

Lorelei:  daddy, you're not the boss of me.
Jeremy:  excuse me?
Lorelei:  you're not the boss, God is.

I don't know what they were talking about...I didn't think to ask.
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The house was just soooo quiet after we got back from taking her to meet her mom.   While she was here, one of the morns we were talking about what we were going to have for breakfast.  She says, "I know what we could have!"  I ask "What?'  She says, "Biscuits, gravy, and sausage!"  Of course I fixed it the next morn.

But that is not the point of the story...the point is on Sunday night she was talking to her mom and dad...she told them, "I'm coming home tomorrow."  And I forget what they say...something along the lines of Oh, okay.  Then she pipes up, "But I Got to Eat First!"  I just figured she was saying that because I always tell her we have to have breakfast before we can leave.  She is fine the time she stays here, but usually on the day she says she is going home, she would like to get up and just leave.

Anyway, that night as we were settling down for sleep, she was asking me if I had packed her stuffed toys, and did I have her dirty clothes, etc....and I said yes, I thought I had everything but we would check before we leave the next morn.  She says, OK, but I got To Eat First!  I figures she was leading to having biscuits and gravy a second timem or more of her papaw's pancakses, so I asked what she wanted.  She didn't know...she just knew she had to eat!