Team Tam – a free crochet hat pattern

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This hat was inspired by the playoffs! Don’t crochet? No problem, buy it here at our ETSY store. Available for custom color orders too. Materials: 1 skein of any worsted weight yarn (if using the same color throughout) Or most … Continue reading →

Trader Joe’s Apple Blossoms

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These little gems are like a $1.99 slice of heaven!  If you don’t believe me, just check the gazillion other online reviews touting their supreme goodness.  In order to keep an open mind, I approached these cold turkey without reading a single thing about them.  In fact, I hadn’t even heard of them until I spotted them in the freezer case last week.

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Rustic Overnight Bread

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I never met a bread I didn’t like.  Except bread I made myself.  It either didn’t rise properly or was tough and dry.  (Probably because I live in a low-humidity climate.  Yeah, that must be it.)  After reading about making artisan bread in just minutes a day by making a single batch of dough – enough to last a week (who has room in their fridge for a ginormous container of dough when I can barely wedge in a gallon of milk?) and searching for an easy fool-proof method that didn‘t require kneading, I found this recipe on the internet a year ago and it has become a cold-weather staple in our house.  I say cold-weather because turning my oven up to 450 degrees isn’t very appealing in the summer.  I might try cooking it on the outdoor grill someday, but will have to find an appropriate pan because I’m afraid to wreck the finish on my cast iron Dutch oven.

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No New Years Resolution, just Random Acts of Kindness….

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Recently my family was disappointed while trying to Space-A (that’s a military hop for you non-military people out there) flight to visit family for the holidays. While consoling myself with Pinterest and other online past times I came across an article written by a company that counsels people to live their lives well by using biblical financial and giving guidelines. The article detailed things that wealthy people do in their daily lives and things that not wealthy people did in their lives. This got me thinking…. How do we live our lives? Not financially speaking but morally speaking. How do we perceive the world around us? Are we motivated to help others or help ourselves?

Those of you that know me know that I am a compulsive helper. I am unable to continue on in my day if I notice someone else that needs help. If I try to ignore the opportunities to help others means that I spend the rest of the day (if not the week) wondering how that person is doing, wondering if I could have lightened their burden for just a little while. I have learned to save myself the angst and just detour myself a little to help them. Most of the time it costs me nothing, and doesn’t disrupt my day perceptibly, but is a very big deal to those I help. You could say that I am into Random Acts of Kindness. I usually don’t talk about the acts I do, or post them on Facebook in pride, I just go about my day with a sense of joy at the ability to lighten someone else’s day even if it’s just a little. Over time I have noticed that RAK’s happen to me too. I have been in some tough situations where the kindness of strangers has made a huge difference in my day- if not something I will remember and give thanks for forever.

One day, specifically, I will never forget. I was in the process of moving across country while my husband was deployed. I was driving our dually pick up truck with a 44 foot gooseneck trailer behind it that was loaded with everything that we own. My Aunt Fern (another act of kindness- seven days in the truck helping out with the kids…) two kids (ages 4 and 1) and our dog were along for the ride. On a bridge over a river in Charleston, West Virginia the water pump bearing broke in the truck. It was a dodge, so there is only one serpentine belt in huge engine that everything runs off of. This meant that suddenly, at 60mph and weighing 28,000 pounds I lost power steering, the exhaust brake, and all cooling of the engine. All of my dash gauges died except for the temperature gauge which rapidly red lined. I had to use the clutch to slow down and take the first exit I saw. With no exhaust brake just stopping that beast a the bottom of the curved ramp was hard…. No power steering meant that I had to muscle the steering wheel with every bit of strength that I had! sweating and praying around every corner. It turned out that we were in a downtown neighborhood of Charleston with bars on the windows and parks littered with things that I did not want my children to see. Finding a place to park in a hurry since steam is now whooshing out of the hood as the truck slowly chugged along was iffy but I spotted a Dollar Store with a viable parking lot. We shakily and thankfully got out of the truck to a crowd of people all staring at us open mouthed from the dollar store and sidewalks. When I called the insurance company (a big shout out to USAA- they really saved my bacon that day!) it was the first time I have said “No, we are not in a safe location” when the operator asked me. There were already curious men sidling around our trailer and approaching to ask “whatcha got in there?” after they had carefully inspected the locks on the doors.

For the first time I started to think that the drag racing stickers left over from the trailers previous owner were not a good thing. It took two hours for a tow truck for the pickup to arrive, another hour to drop the trailer and load the truck onto the flatbed, and then the tow for the big trailer showed up. We broke down around 5pm, we did not leave the parking lot until 9pm. However…. A man and his wife (he showed me identification, and his employee ID card from Marshall University) arrived in the parking lot shortly after we did. They noticed our distress and the crowd of gawkers looking hungrily at the trailer and decided to stay with us. They stayed until both truck and trailer were ready to be rolled out. They helped by giving Aunt Fern and the kids a ride behind the truck that towed our trailer away- I went in that one with the dog (everything we own was in there!). To the Cummings diesel lot – which had graciously agreed to let us park big red behind their secure fences for the night, but also agreed to fix the truck for me even though they usually didn’t work on them. One of the tow truck drivers was the son of the owner of the local dodge dealership. He was calling mechanics at 10pm waking them up to try and find a new water pump for our truck because the Cummings guys didn’t have one. Then, once our truck and trailer were in place, the tow truck driver and our new helpful friends from that parking lot took us to five different hotels (yes, five!) looking for a vacancy that would also accept our dog, Lady, in the room too. We didn’t get settled until midnight, and they even helped us carry our bag and car seats and tired children into the hotel room we finally had.

Unbeknownst to us, the word had gone out that we were a military family moving across country while my husband was deployed. Just after eating breakfast at the diner within walking distance, the service desk at Cummings called. Our truck was fixed and a mechanic was on the way to pick us up from the motel. During the night the parts department at the dodge dealership went into work and found the only water pump in the store room, then drove it to the Cummings shop- whose mechanics and manager came in early to begin work on the truck. They replaced the pump, inspected the rest of the engine and replaced 2 1/2 gallons of coolant that had come steaming out of the engine while I was trying to get us off the road. The mechanic helped us load up our car seats and luggage and drove us back to the shop in our truck… He then loaded our big trailer for me (anyone who had hand cranked the landing gear on a trailer that big that is fully loaded can understand the effort required to do so…) after I backed the truck under the gooseneck. Then he went with me to drive the big trailer up a monster hill and then down the freeway for a few exits to make sure there were no lingering issues from overheating and that we would be safe on our trip.

When I went to check out and pay our tab I was surprised yet again. The manager charged us for parts only, no labor, because of our status as a military family. This was their way of giving back to us since we gave every day to them for their freedom.

I still get a bit teary thinking of all the people who came together to help us for those two days. We made it to Norfolk safely that night. Even more amazing was the timing of the water pump bearing breaking…. If that had happened another 50 miles down the road we would have been descending down the eastern side of the Appalachian mountains on a very treacherous stretch of I-64. There is no doubt that we would have been in serious trouble had I lost power steering and the exhaust brake while on those steep curves.

While waiting in the AMC terminal at Andrews Air Force base for five hours waiting to hear if we would be on the flight to California we were able to do some Random Acts of Kindness for other travelers. Some as simple as helping a couple to figure out how to ride the subway through Washington D.C. to a commercial airport, or helping a Dad with his sick daughter, or the family that had to purchase commercial tickets but didn’t have a car seat for their small child to ride a shuttle between Andrews and BWI because an airline had lost theirs on the last flight they had to take – so we gave them a ride to the exchange to buy one for $19 so they could be ready in time for the shuttle. Little simple things, but I like to think that we made their day a little better… Like the people of Charleston, West Virginia did for me. Because of that we didn’t feel like the car ride up to Andrews, the traffic, the disappointment of not making it on the flight, or the trafficky trip home was a waste. We arrived home tired and worn out…. But also feeling like we had made a difference, however small, in a strangers life.

I would love to hear what random acts of kindness from a stranger have made your day… Comment your story!

Kristin

Happy New Year!

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Happy New Year!  Well, the holiday craft-and-food-palooza didn’t happen since Kristin and family were bumped off their flight (thank you U.S. Military), so I am left to cook up a storm on my own this week since I already took the time off from work and purchased all the ingredients.  The good news is that I hope to have at least a month’s worth of food blogs under my belt by the time I’m done.  I had planned on testing recipes on my grandkids because little ones tend to be scrupulously honest but, fortunately, my husband has bravely volunteered to shoulder the load, although he’s not much of a critic – he thinks everything I make is yummy due to having had a wonderful mother who was a very interesting  cook (you have to read between the lines here), which is lucky for me!  On Christmas Day I pulled out all the recipes that have accumulated during the course of our long, long marriage which were written by longtime friends, former coworkers, Kristin when she was growing up (she was a good little cook even then), my mother and grandmother and various other relatives.  It was a sentimental journey, for sure, since they represent a history of our family.   It was wonderful just to see the handwriting of those who are no longer with us.  Since I can never leave anything alone, I plan to tinker with the recipes and see if I can streamline them and maybe even improve them a little.  You may also notice some subtle and not-so-subtle changes in our blog’s appearance in the coming weeks as I learn how to make it prettier and more functional.  Hopefully, Kristin will add a couple new craft blogs, as well.  For the coming year we wish you love, luck, lots of good food and great crafting!

Lisa

Holiday Decorating

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Now that the Thanksgiving leftovers are stored in fridge, the dishes are finally done, and my house is peaceful once again, I can turn my attention to my favorite holiday activity: decorating!  Some of our decorations have seen better days and it’s time to refurbish them.  This coming week we will do just that.  Hopefully, I’ll remember to take lots of photos and won’t have to rip things apart and start over!

Sounds nice doesn’t it? That paragraph was written by my Mom. Grandma’s houses always look so awesome! However, there is something about the drunken elf decorating that goes on at my house. A five year old and a two year old have their own ideas about Holiday decorations, not to mention the horde of neighborhood boys that always seems to end up here in the afternoons and on weekends. While grandma is posting about making the Pinterest Christmas house of my dreams I will be posting about a Christmas house full of gooey hands, tiny feet and laughter.

Then get ready for the New Years extravaganza, when worlds collide and the family all comes together…..

Kristin