ABC's of Homemaking

I've seen this on several blogs I read and thought I'd join in.

Please feel free to copy and play along on your blog. Just take out my answers and put in your own.


A ~Aprons--y/n If y, what does your favorite look like? Yes and my favorite is my brown one with some candies screen printed that says "Nobody knows the truffles I've seen."

B ~ Baking--Favorite thing to bake? Bread and cookies. I've found a good simple oatmeal cookie recipe that the folks at Tony's work love. Now every Wed. I have cookies to send in for his team meeting. Also, I'm making Grandmother's Bread. (Thanks Suzanne)

C ~ Clothes line? No, I'm a dryer person.

D ~ Donuts--Have you ever made them? No, never made them. I get my donut fix at the Shell station which sells Krispy Kreme.

E ~ Everyday--One homemaking thing you do everyday? Clean the kitchen. I'm a messy cook.

F ~ Freezer--Do you have a separate deep freeze? Yes, it's not huge, but the right size for the two of us. I fill it with soups and stews and chili, mainly.

G ~ Garbage Disposer? Yes, and I use it, but I also am trying to start a compost pile out back.

H ~ Handbook--What is your favorite homemaking resource? The Joy of Cooking. It's the one I go to for basics and other helps.

I ~ Ironing--Love it or Hate it? Or hate it but love the results? HATE to iron. I'd rather clean 10 gas station restrooms. I'm not crazy over the results either. I'm not good. Tony is much better and would rather iron his stuff himself. Works for me!!

J ~ Junk Drawer--y/n? Where is it? Yes. Kitchen, study, living room, uh, too many

K ~ Kitchen--color and decorating scheme. White

L ~ Love--what is your favorite part of homemaking? Having a baking day or a soup making day. I like seeing and enjoying the finished product, but I also like the processes.

M ~ Mop--y/n? Yes, after trying the swiffer thing, I'm back to a regular mop and bucket. Works much better. I hate the smell of the swiffer cleaner. The kitchen always smelled like old, dead cigarettes to me after I used it. Yuck

N ~ Nylons, machine or hand wash? Machine wash when there are any to wash.

O ~ Oven--do you use the window or open the oven to check? Both. It depends on what I'm cooking. I don't like to lose the heat by opening the door, but sometime you gotta.

P ~ Pizza--What do you put on yours? First, it's my homemade so I control the quantity of ingredients. Lots of pepperonis, mozz cheese, fresh mushrooms. I'm a traditionalist.

Q ~ Quiet--What do you do during the day when you get a quiet moment? Knit

R ~ Recipe Card Box--y/n? What does it look like? No box. I have a notebook of favorites, plus a bookcase of books

S ~ Style of house--What style is your house? 1950's ranch

T ~Tablecloths or Place mats? Both. It's usually placemats for daily and tablecloths for company or when the table isn't in use.

U ~ Under the kitchen sink--organized or toxic wasteland? Organized and not too toxic

V ~ Vacuum--How many times per week? Minimum of once a week. I've been doing more lately because of all the little bits of dried leaves coming in.

W ~ Wash--How many loads of laundry do you do per week? Gee, I've never counted. I wash when I need to.

X's--Do you keep a daily list of things to do that you cross off? I try to, but I'm not always successful

Y ~ Yard--y/n? Who does what? Yes, with lots of trees. I do the yard work and the gardening. I love to mow!

ZZZ's ~ what is your last homemaking task for the day before going to bed? Make the coffee so it will be waiting on me the next morning

Festival

The 37th National Storytelling Festival has ended. Tents are coming down. Chairs are being stacked. Port-a-potties are heading back to wherever they come from. Restaurants are going over what inventory is left. The golfers at the Ridges have their carts back. ISC is $1 million closer to the $3M goal for the Horizon project. Actually there's a little over $250K to be raised.

And yet stories are still bouncing around the town.

The weekend started with a trip to the airport to pick up Karen Chace, Teresa Clark and Meg Gilman. We dropped Teresa off at Joseph Sobel's and headed to the house for a quick supper, then on to the Library tent for the NSN Storynight. They had a great lineup of Diane Ferlatte, Barbara Freeman, Bobby Norfolk, David Novak, Gayle Ross, Faye Wooden, and Rixon Lane. The pros were good, but I thought Rixon (youth from my native SC) and Faye (local) were the best.

I had traffic duty for four hours on Friday morning, so after getting Karen and Meg downtown, I picked up my ticket at the Christopher Taylor cabin and went to work. That afternoon I wandered from tent to tent. In the evening I heard John McCutcheon, Ben Haggarty, Beth Horner, Antonio Rocha, Kevin Kling, Won-ldy Paye, Erica Lann-Clark, Tim Tingle and Katheryn Windham. IMHO, all but one were good to great. It was my first time hearing Haggarty and he's now a favorite.

We had other guests who arrived Friday afternoon. Faye and her daughter Robbie were first-timer festival attendees. Faye won the tickets Jimmy Neal contributed for the Kiwanis Convention in August. They were great to have with us and enjoyed the festival.

The Midnight Cabaret featured Andy Offutt Irwin whom I love. I got my festival ticket by ushering at Andy's Teller in Residence program in July. I was a little disappointed because he really built up his new material in summer about Aunt Marguerite Van Camp and there wasn't much of it. But I still enjoyed him.

Sat. morning my traffic duty was early (7-11). It was fun, watching folks come in to town, saying good morning to them, answering their questions (where can I get coffee?, where can I park? and where's the College St. tent? in that order.) One guy said it was nice to have a sunflower greeting them and that made my day. Me...a sunflower. How 'bout that!

I grabbed some lunch and then it was on to Onawumi Jean Moss and then Kevin Kling. I was done for after that and headed home.

Sunday morning was the Featured Listeners breakfast. The room was full and the stories abound. David and Jeff (owners of the former Dogwood Lane) and others put on quite a spread. Mike and Susan welcomed us to the Parson's Table.The group lost two members this past year. Emotions were right at the surface. It was good to hear George stories.

The afternoon was more stories. I heard Bil Lepp who told one old and one new story. The old might have been new to the festival. Michael Reno Harrell was next. He's new the the festival crowd, but has been to Jonesborough many times. Tony and I had supper with him and Joan one evening when he was playing Jonesborough Days. His song Southern Accent kept me sane the 15 months we spent in Assachusetts. (My spelling of the state.) After his set, I headed home.

The fun continued that evening at Alta Cucina in Johnson City. It's a tradition to end the weekend at dinner somewhere with any Featured Listeners who are still in town, plus us Jonesborough folks. Meg came along with me. We filled the patio there. Tony and Karen were supposed to go to Joseph's after festival party, but I forgot and took the van. He doesn't have keys for my car. So after we ate, we came home and picked up Karen and went to Joseph's to end the evening with some good music.

Monday morning was a trip back to the airport for Karen and Meg to catch their flight. Then it was home to an empty, very quiet house. How many more days until the festival???