When God's Hand Moves

When Rachael and Michael were established here, I wanted more than anything for my whole family to be in church together.  Michael had always gone to church services with me when he and Rachael visited.  But in Westerville we had no good congregations to attend, Rachael’s job made her work on Sundays and the closest congregation was too far for me to ask Michael to drive.  So we hadn’t gone to church together for several years. 

Notah and Kerra have been attending a little Nazarene congregation since they moved here.  It is closer to our house than any congregation I’ve ever attended—only about ten minutes’ drive.  I hoped Rachael and Michael would go with me.  Another blessing, when Sunday rolled around, both of them were up and dressed and ready to go without my saying anything.  It blessed me because some of the Christians Michael had experience with had not been the best examples. 

The wonderful thing was that he liked Pastor Chad and enjoyed the services.  He listened to the messages and seemed to soaking it all in.   Then in October brother Arnie came to hold a revival for us.  At the end of about the last service Michael took Rachael’s hand and went forward to pray!  Thank the Lord.  It has been wonderful.  And there has been a real change in Michael.  Every once in a while he’ll make reference to the ‘old Michael’ doing something different from the way he is now!  He and Rachael have always had a good marriage, but I can see them both growing in the Lord together. 

They bought the house in Tierra Grande and from the first planned to have family and church people to visit in the big courtyard at the back.   Incidentally, and again this had to be the Lord, the house had an in-ground pool in that courtyard.  Not many houses in the desert have swimming pools and they hadn’t been looking for one.  When Rachael injured her back in the accident at Kroger’s the company had refused to pay the medical bills and compensation for it.  She has suffered with it ever since and her private doctor recommended that she swim as rehabilitation.  The swimming pool was simply God planning to take care of her!   

On January first or second, they began cleaning the house!  And it was a major job.  Two thirds of the house had to be gutted.  ALL of the floors had to be torn up; it was so urine soaked that it couldn’t be saved.  When all of the carpet, ceramic tile and wooden flooring had been ripped up, the subfloor was scrubbed with bleach and detergent but still had to be coated with a special sealer to be rid of the odor.  The central portion of the house was broken up with half walls and posts.  Those were torn out and the area turned into a beautiful great room.  The master bath had to be gutted also since the bathtub was cracked and the shower needed renovating.    

Now it is nearly complete, only the master bath needs finishing.

The landscaping looks like a different place.  The wild brush and trees have been pulled out and cut down.  The fruit trees and larger landscaping trees have been pruned.  The pool has been cleaned and Michael had the pool men out to tell him how to maintain it.  It’s like a little paradise.

This is June.  Our family have gathered several times for late dinners after church on Sundays.  Last Sunday Seth’s friend, Andrew from church, came and they spent the whole afternoon in the water! Everyone was in and out, too. 
Now I’m only waiting for this house to sell so I can move into the room they’ve designated as mine.  I was praying and meditating the other morning and the lord gave me the most wonderful assurance that when everything was complete at Marta Court this house would be sold.

He has already done so much for me.  Why should I doubt him now?

A List of Miracles

I haven’t spent much time here in the last months.  It isn’t that there haven’t been many, many blessings, but simply that my time has been taken up with so many other things.   

Looking back, I see that I’ve neglected to mention that we have moved from Ohio to New Mexico.  Rachael and Michael have had A Plan to move here from the time they were married.  They had a beautiful house in Ohio. They loved their house and its location, but it wasn’t New Mexico.  Their plan was to save their money, upgrade their house and accumulate enough money to make the move.  When Rachael and Michael set their minds to something, they DO it. 

Shortly after the first of the year in 2015, they decided the Time Had Come.  They began putting the finishing touches on their property to make it as attractive as possible.  They made a trip to NM to scope out available properties.  That provided a contact with a realtor and access to a very attractive house.  Things moved forward for the move

One of their problems was getting ME moved.  I have a lot of junk!  After a number of conversations with Notah they hatched a design to move me and some of my things first, at the end of April.  I began packing my personal things and cleaning drawers, shelves and my closet.  Some of the things I boxed and left for them to take their moving truck.  My clothes, some of my books and my plants I took with me.  My bearded dragon and Maggie were at the top of the list to go along.  Moving pets was a bigger hassle than moving myself.  In addition to them, I took Rachael’s turtle and her cat, Cole. 

Notah was in the process of purchasing a cargo van for the moving company.  He would have to pick it up at some location since it wouldn’t be shipped to them directly.  He elected to pick it up in Columbus as the least expensive way to go.  See how God works things out for his children?  His time table is NEVER wrong.

I stayed with Notah’s family while Rachael and Michael moved forward, listing their house with a realtor and arranging their move.  As soon as that was accomplished they began packing.   Their house was listed in May and sold within a month!   We have an amazing Lord!  How often does a house sell within thirty days!  Yet when God has His Hand on the timing, it happens.  There was blessing after blessing but by mid-July Rachael and Michael arrived in New Mexico!!  How can I help but praise the Lord?!

By this time I was living in Notah and Kerra’s  ‘old house’ that they were preparing for sale.  Rachael and Michael were able to store their things in the back room and live with me while they were job hunting and getting organized for a few months.  But after six months of rushing and working and organizing, they took a little time to kick back and relax.  Rachael wanted to show Michael her homeland.  He had seen the area around Albuquerque and Gallup during the times they had visited Notah and our family in Rock Springs, but there was the whole southwest that he’d never seen.  They took a week or two as a break and visited Monument Valley, Zion National Park and other.’ landmarks around the reservation before they began looking for jobs.

Now another example of how the Lord works things out for His People.  When they returned and began job hunting they both had jobs within a month.   Again, how amazing is that!!  In a time when jobs are hard to come by, especially good jobs they found good jobs almost immediately.  Michael was hired to manage an ironworks shop—the same position as he’d had in Ohio.   Rachael was hired as an assistant manager in a bank!  I could hardly believe it! 

The next issue was finding a house.  They explored the area around Albuquerque, north to Santa Fe and south to the Tijeras area.  They wanted a house ‘in the mountains.’  After they had made a few rounds viewing houses, Kerra mentioned that some friends of theirs had a house for sale in Tierra Grande.  I didn’t thing they would be at all interested; Tierra Grande is a wide flat plain lying in the bowl between the Sandia Mountains, the Manzanos, Los Pinos and the Ladrones.  I liked and still do like, having the distant mountains watching over us, but the land could by no stretch of imagination be called ‘mountainous.’

But when Rachael and Michael looked at the house they liked it immediately, in spite of many drawbacks.   The people living there were horrible housekeepers.  Their could-be beautiful house was in an awful condition. They had goats and pigs and dogs running loose.  Their granddaughter kept Rabbits and chinchillas in wire cages on the floor in her bedroom.  The property was overgrown with well-intentioned but improperly maintained vegetation.  I couldn’t believe it when Rachael and Michael began talking of buying it.   Now THAT was the Lord.

At any rate, the sale finally went through and they took possession the first of December, 2015.. 

Remembering Linda

Michael brought home the DVD for “The Hobbit.”  Of course I watched it.  I’ve written of the Tolkien stories before in these blogs

I first found The Hobbit when I was in about the sixth or seventh grade, perhaps 1957.  It may have been before that because I began reading from the adult section as soon as I was allowed.  I believe that was at the beginning of the eight grade.  I found The Hobbit in the children’s section of the library.  I can even remember exactly where I was standing when I found it—in the front left hand corner of the library.  There was a shelf section of about eight feet or so between the corner and the window.  The hobbit was on the second or third shelf in about the middle.  I remember because I went back there to pick up The Hobbit again several times even after I graduated to the adult section.  It was considered a “children’s book.”

The Trilogy of the Rings did not become widely available in the US until later in the 1950’s and I probably found it in 1959 or ‘60.  I devoured that as soon as I discovered it on the adult shelves.

When Peter Jackson presented his movie version of the Trilogy I was excited to see it, even though many of the exciting portions had to be cut in order to keep it from becoming a long running series instead of three movies.  In the end of 2012, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opened and just a few days ago it came out on DVD.   Michael and Rachael surprised me with it Friday evening.  Saturday morning (March 23) I watched The Hobbit: The Unexpected Journey.  It was ‘okay’ but only because I had read the book before.  If I hadn’t known the story I would have said the movie was great.  This morning I watched the second disc.  It was a compilation of ‘extras”—scenes of New Zealand, video blogs about production, and copies of the trailers as well as previews of the games the movie has spawned.

The blogs were what impressed me the most.  They were made to give fans insights into the production and shooting of the movie. 

When I was director of the day care, my head teacher for quite a few years was Linda Mitchell.  I’m not sure how she became involved in day care but she was an excellent early childhood teacher without the degree in early childhood education.  Her first love however was the theater and movies.  Her bachelor’s degree was in Theater, I believe.  She was involved the local little theater group, interested in movies and sci fi conventions. We spent a lot of time, in between the business of caring for children and the needs of the day care, talking about the little theater.  Linda was seldom involved in the on-stage aspects of the productions, the acting, singing, dancing, etc.  She was interested in the back stage production.

 These video blogs have brought memories of her back in force.  How she would have loved the scope and wonder of the Rings and the Hobbit!  The intricacies involved in costuming especially would have drawn her in.  I was amazed to see the actors and then the dwarves they became.  Because there were 13 of them and they were the ‘stars’ of the show, their costumes involved foot after foot after foot of costumes for the myriad of scenes and actions.  Transforming them from men into dwarves required several hours of make-up.  I enjoyed watching the process.  Linda would have loved the wigs and prosthetics and actual make-up to achieve coloring that would film correctly!

The set requirements were extensive.  Hobbiton was built of polystyrene for the Rings movies.  For The Hobbit it was built of real materials on site then left for tourists to experience.  The intricate planning and construction was breath taking.  And of course, not everything could be filmed on site so there were acres it seemed of sites constructed on the production lots—the goblin caves, Elrond’s house, the interior of Bilbo’s hobbit-hole.  And they were all intricate to the last detail. It took my breath away.  I could envision Linda involved in each and every part of it, whichever allowed her talents for drawing, painting and creating effects.

For the very first time I caught a glimpse of the reason for her fascination with behind the scenes work for the theater and, by extension, movies. 

Linda Mitchell, you were loved and remembered fondly.

Pat

 Notah has a friend; he is such a good friend that the kids call him “Uncle Pat.”  For the last several years, ever since Notah moved out here, Pat has been aiming at getting moved himself.  This year when Notah came after me, Pat came too.  He shipped his belongings and brought enough in his car to live a few days until they arrived.  He brought his dogs; we brought his cats. (surprisingly good cats, considering they had never been confined to a travel kennel for any length of time at all.)

We left at nine am on a Friday morning.  Pat still had stuff to do so he didn’t get started until later in the afternoon.  We didn’t exactly travel together, but he and Notah kept in touch as we went.  By the time we got to Oklahoma, Pat was only about 3 or 4 hours behind us. 

Now there are only two legs left to go from Oklahoma City.  You go Ok. City, Amarillo, Albuquerque, then cut down to Belen.  Simple eh?  I mean there is only ONE ROAD west.

If I hadn’t been so tired I think Notah would have driven on through that day; it is only about 5 hours more to Belen.  But we stopped in Amarillo.  (Remember, we wanted to eat at the Big Texan?)  We were all relaxing in the motel when Notah’s phone rang.  It was Pat.  “Okay, I’m here where do I go now?”

Last exit on I-44 before it ends.  See?  A-b-i-l-e-n-e!

I-44 ends 1 1/2 miles

It turned out Pat had neglected to switch from I-44 to I-40 in Oklahoma City.  Where was he?  WITCHITA FALLS, TEXAS!   Fortunately I-44 ended there.  Pat didn’t know where to go and wanted to know the route to take.  If the route hadn’t ended the man would have ended up in Mexico!   Passport?  I didn’t need a passport the last time I was out here!!

Notah said, “You were supposed to follow the signs to Amarillo and Albuquerque.”

Pat said, ‘I did.”

Notah said, “No, you went south into Texas. You were supposed to be going west to Amarillo.”

Pat said, ‘Well, I was going to Albuquerque or Amarillo or something like that.  The sign said, A-B-I-L-E-N-E”

Notah nearly swallowed his teeth laughing, “Pat!  That’s Abilene!  You wanted  Albuquerque!”  These southwest place names are gonna be the death of Pat.

So instead of catching up with us in Amarillo, as he would have done if he had stayed on route, he was still four hours behind and south of us.  Luckily Notah was able to find routes to angle him back up to Amarillo instead of his having to backtrack to Oklahoma City.   After doing a little online research, Notah told him the routes to pick up and even which little Texas town had motels.  Pat traveled about another hour, found a motel, got a few hours of sleep and managed to find his way to Albuquerque the next day! 

Seriously though, we are really concerned about him losing himself in the desert.  The southwest is a really BIG place and the roads are few.  Pat is as much of a “herpe-phile” as Notah and likes nothing better than to roam around back roads looking for snakes and other such things.  Notah developed a sense of direction when he was just a kid, but Pat—no.  He doesn’t even read maps!  The first thing we encouraged him to do was to get a GPS so he could at least give Notah the coordinates of his location if he did get lost! 

Oh, I have visions of that!

Saturday, Notah had to work a few hours in the morning and when he came home at noon we all loaded up and headed for Wal-Mart.  I was sitting in the truck while Notah and Seth hustled around looking for something. 

Pretty soon here came Seth dragging a huge logging chain.  Seriously the links were as big around as my thumb and the thing was 15 feet long at least.  He had to drag it.  There was no way he could have picked it up.   He put it in the back of the truck and Notah came up, still hunting for something else.  When they both got in the truck, he laid a smaller chain on the center console. 

I said,  “WHAT are we doing with that?”   Pat was stuck in the sand!  He had been able to describe to Notah where so the chain was to pull him out.

Notah has this big four wheel drive pickup that is a powerful machine.  We bounced over some nasty stretches of road (and I say that as someone used to NM roads.)  and found Pat.

The man was well and truly stuck.  His front bumper was about an inch from a hump in front of the car and Pat was on his hands and knees digging.  He had dug out a space to get his jack under the frame, hoping to lift the car high enough to clear the hump. 

Sand can be really deceptive out here.  It can look smooth and solid, but bury you in seconds.  That’s what happened to Pat.  When he told Notah where he was, Notah knew exactly the sand hole he was in.  There were only two or three choices on that road!

Happily it was on our way to Wal-Mart.  We bounced over a couple miles of rutted road—Pat was looking for snakes and  reptiles, you don’t find too many along paved roads.   When we got to the second sand hole, there was Pat!

 Notah hooked that big old chain to Pat’s little Honda.  The first time the chain came off the frame before the pull started.  The second time Big Red Truck just backed up like he was on a smooth road pulling a Tonka Toy.  The Honda came out of that hole and over the hump without a stutter.

I told Pat that I’ve lived out here quite a few years and many of those years traveled back roads, but he had done the Best Job of getting stuck in sand that I’d ever seen.

I hope he is able to afford that GPS soon!

Wednesday

Yesterday was a lovely day. It was a Wednesday and both my ‘kids’ were home! Rachael had the day off for her birthday and Michael took the day off to be with her—the best birthday present she could have. Sarah, Billy and Nicky were here too. So they spent the day acting like teen-agers. Well, R & M got up early to go and do ‘grown-up business’ as Rachael calls it. She had to go and renew her driver’s license and then stop at the bank and withdraw some cash that I had lent her Tuesday night. They also stopped at the grocery and to get Peanut some alfalfa hay and cedar chips for his box. (That’s one spoiled cat. He isn’t satisfied for plain old blankets or straw. NO! He has to have alfalfa and cedar or he won’t go in there! )

Then they came home, fixed some lunch (for R & M, and me) breakfast (for the rest of the crew) and spent the afternoon playing Uno. I told them later that I considered coming out and putting them in opposite corners of the room a couple times.

I used to wonder at how much Grandma Howe seemed to enjoy having the Rachael and Notah visit her when they couldn’t talk with her very much and spent most of their time out running around the desert with Lenora and their other cousins. Now I understand it. Just the sound of their voices laughing and coming and going makes me happy. I enjoyed having R & M home all day and I didn’t really spend that much time with them. Funny thing was-I spent the day thinking it was Sunday.

Now it’s Thursday and we are waiting for another snowstorm. It’s supposed to be moving in any second. Grove City already has a couple inches. The weather man said, “North of I-70 would get one inch, south of I-70 would be getting two to three inches, and on south around the Ohio River would get four to six!” Now that’s quite a range in only about 250 miles. I’m anxious to see what really happens. So far it sounds like they are on course. We have no new snow yet and Grove City has going on two. And that is a pretty narrow belt north to south… probably no more than 20 miles, although I’m not too good at figuring mileage.

Looks like there is a very, very fine snow falling now with no wind.

Bilbo comes home

When the war of the Five Armies was over and the treasure of the Dragon all divided, Bilbo took only tow small chests and a bag of gold back hom with him.  He and Gandalf set off toward Hobbiton again.  they finaly came back to Rivendale and rested there for several weeks. 

"On May 1  that the two came back again...to..Rivendale"  (If you look closely you can see Bilbo and Gandalf and the pack pony in the center of the drawing. This is another by Alan Lee.)

When they continued on their journey they stopped to pick up the treasure of the trolls and to see them still standing turned to stone.  Gndalf left him on the border of the Shire and Bilbo continued on home alone.   The Sackville-Bagginses were in the process of holding an auction to free up his cozy hobbit hole so they could move in!  they never quite got over the irritation of not getting it! 

And there you have the synopsis of The Hobbit.  I encourage you to read it.

We have company from Kentucky this week.  Michael's sister, Sarah, and her fiance, Billy, arrived with Billy's brother, Nicky last evening.  They a re going to be here for a few days.

And Today is Rachael's birthday.  She is 33.  Unbelievable.  I was just writing on Chosen Highway about the stress and depression I went through right after she was born. And now I'm reminded that was a long time ago

reunions

Yesterday was the Elliott Reunion. I aways enjoyed it. My mom's name was Elliott and they are all good down to earth people. And boy! Can the Elliott women cook. Food at the Elliott reunion is to die for!

We used to go every summer until my knees got bad enough that I had to hope Kerra and Rachael came home to fix the food. And they did for several years, but I haven't been able to go for the last four or five. While Notah and Kerra were living with me in Dover, Kerra cooked and Notah would load my big chair so I was able to sit in it with my feet up for the afternoon. Since they moved I haven't been to the reunion. Actually the next year after they moved ( I believe it was) I moved to Columbus with Rachael and Michael. Now the two hours down and two hours back plus two or three hours of sitting on a picnic bench are just more than I can do.

The great thing is that some members of Aunt Rene's family always stop by on their trips east. Today, Dobbie and Brenda are bringing Aunt Rene to visit a while. Last year it was Lee and Lonnadene who brough her. I love it! Growing up, my brother and I probably spent more time with Lonnadene and Dobbie at Aunt Rene and Uncle Arthur's that with any of our other cousins. I'm glad the connection remains even as we are all into our sixties now. Isn't that amazing.

I can remember when Lonnadene was a cute little girl with a mass of curls who yelled bloody murder when her mom tried to sort them out. And Dobbie! LOL Aunt Rene tried her best to dress him in a neat little shirt and tie for church, but they just never stayed that way very long. He and my brother used to trekking around into all sorts of things. And when he grew up! He grew this amazing beard and a head full of long wild hair! Poor Aunt Rene-how mortified she must have been. lol

And now look at him-some sort of executive with a clean shave and a regular hair cut in a big steel company. And Lonnadene has clipped her mass of curls short enough to care for so easily a it makes screaming bloody murder a distant memory! She and Lee are on a world cruise right now.

Life goes on and things change, but the bonds forged in early child hood remain...

Labrador Retrievers!

Well, I’ve been back in Ohio for a week plus a couple days now. Such a short time seems like a month!

After a few hiccups the first couple days when we were catching up on shopping housekeeping and doctor visits, we have all slipped back into the routine. The nice thing is that Rach is in Management Training so she has regular hours. She leaves at seven forty five and is back at six fifteen. Today is Saturday and she is OFF. How great is that?

She and Michael like being together in the evening and on weekends. And it is nice. We have company for the next couple days- Jess and his brother? friend? old roommate – have come to visit. Jess brought along his ‘new’ dog, Biff.

Biff is the result of several weeks/months of searching. Jess liked Maxim so well he wanted a chocolate Lab, too. One of the sad things is that a lot of people see these beautiful dogs and get all excited about the noble, obedient, calm dog walking quietly beside his master. If the did their home work they would discover that the noble, obedient, calm animal they are looking at is the result of about three years of patience and training.

Labrador retrievers are very energetic and intelligent. The combination makes for months of enthusiastic and careless destruction. Tails wipe knick-knacks off tables and shelves. Swinging behinds knock over stools. Bouncing bodies run into toddlers and hit you in the back of the knees at unexpected moments. This is not to say that Labs cannot be trained, but it takes a lot of patience to restrain and focus the energy without breaking the dog’s spirit.

Labs also like to carry things. They aren’t terrible chewers but they will pick up anything that is loose and within their reach. Balls, toys, rugs, and random objects are carried around the house and dropped in haphazard places. My Labs have carried dog toys, kid toys, sticks, chance stones and small animals. I had one Lab who loved to carry his favorite kitten around in his mouth—he never hurt it, just carried it around fully enclosed by those big teeth and lips with a little yellow tail hanging out. The kitten didn’t seem to mind at all and slept on Aspen. That was cute, but Lab pups have to be taught to drop things from their mouth at an early age because some things are not meant to be clutched in a moist mouth-not even gently.

Many enthusiastic, but foolish, new lab owners find themselves with a cute little puppy which grows too quickly into a good sized dog that is like a bull in a china shop and they cannot deal with the activity level. After a few weeks of futile screaming and crating and kenneling and frustration, they end up ‘getting rid’ of the dog. Unfortunately this usually means sending the dog to the pound. That’s sad. A Lab is a wonderful animal devoted to his family or owner, willing to obey and enthusiastic about playing. He will hike with his Human, swim, retrieve anything and nap, happiest when he is close by. But it requires months of patient training to have that dog. Most people aren’t willing to put in the time.

The only positive result of an abandoned dog is that Jess found himself a gorgeous chocolate Lab. It is still a little “over eager” and “excessively enthusiastic” at nine months old, but he is friendly and obedient in what he has learned so far. Jess is willing to put up with the enthusiasm and spend the time training him. He came last night and wore Maxim out in just a few hours. That is Biff wore Maxim out-not Jess.

I’m anxious to hear how he does today. Everyone is taking the dogs swimming on the other side of the reservoir. That’s one of Maxim’s favorite treats and Biff has never been swimming. He is going to love it.

If you want a dog, you can’t beat a Labrador Retriever-yellow, black or chocolate. BUT don’t get one if you are not willing to put up with the busy-ness and innocent destruction for the time it takes to train it. And don’t get one if you are not able or willing to give the dog as much exercise as it needs. Maxim gets time in our yard everyday retrieving far flung balls and frizbees and big plastic horseshoes. Plus he gets regular trips to the reservoir for swimming and hiking. Biff gets a two hour walk every night and would gladly take more. Lots of exercise is vital if you want a Lab. Otherwise you will end up with a destructive dog or one that gets dumped in a pound.

Later in the day

Biff and Maxim came back from the reservoir soaking wet and happy as clams. Maxim immediately went and sacked out under his favorite magnolia tree. He was pooped! Biff, however, was tired but still willing to socialize and chase a ball. Jess has only had him three weeks and he isn’t very well socialized or focused on humans yet. The people that owned him previously kept him in a crate or kennel all the time and did nothing with him. So Biff is learning to focus on the human who is talking to him. In just a little while with Rachael he learned to make tentative eye contact and watch for what he was supposed to do. He isn’t real good at retrieving (Incomprehensible! A lab who doesn’t chase a ball and bring it back for more) but in just a little while Rachael had him listening to her and at least tryng to figure out what she wanted.

Maxim went to bed a tired old boy. Biff went to bed pleasantly tired. Oh, to be a pup forever!

MOVING DAY

Well, It is moving day here in Belen. We are going to the new house right now!

I know that they plan to have ME in the new house tonight…. And I think everyone else too. I mean they’re moving the beds… There will be no place to sleep here.

Kerra left about seven o’clock with a load of stuff in the Izuzu. She should be back soon for another load. Since it is only a matter of about 20 minutes away, they aren’t packing things in boxes…Just taking it out of the closets and laying it on the seats, then carrying it back in again and hanging it up in the Manzano house.

Notah brought a moving truck home with him last night. He is delivering a load of household stuff to someone here in Belen and then he will bring the truck back and load furniture. I wish he had another guy to help him manhandle furniture. Kerra will help, but she’s only like 5’1” and doesn’t have a lot of bulk to handle the end of a sofa… Seth and Keva will help too, but they are kids.

I am situated still here in my chair. I have all the loose stuff of mine packed in a suitcase or bag and I’m ready to be moved. I’ll be sitting in my camp chair for a while and then back to my recliner in the new house! And I can look out the window at the Manzanos. I can hardly wait!

This move, like my last one, involves me sitting and watching people do the work. What a way to move houses!

I guess that’s all to day.

saturday morning

I woke up this morning with no pain! Not my knees, nor my elbows, nor my shoulders. Not my back or anywhere. Now that may not sound like much to most people, but to me it is a wonderful blessing. My knees hurt almost constantly, just having to stand up usually takes a couple minutes of building up my nerve and then actually standing is dependent upon whether or not my knees decide to work at the first try. Sometimes they won’t straighten out. Sometimes they straighten out but don’t want to hold me. And sometimes it is all three. If I’m standing for any length of time, I rest on my crutchtops, which presses on a nerve or blood vessel or something in my underarm and consequently makes my hands tingle or go numb.

By evening most times I am seriously hurting. And most times the pain will slacken off to an extent over night. It is still there in the morning, but usually its’ less. But sometimes in a wonderful blessed day it is not there at all. On those days I don’t even want to get up. I just want to stay perfectly still and revel in the freedom from hurting.

Today is another gorgeous day. It will be hot later on but right now it’s cool and cloudless. There is a great cool breeze coming in the window and everything is quiet. Notah and the boys, Seth and his friend Zack, have gone into Belen to get some stuff at the hardware store. Kerra and Keva have gone over to decorate the church-hall for Sunday afternoon anniversary celebration. They took Chloe with them so it’s just me and the big dogs—well, Gable is here, too. He doesn’t qualify as a big dog, but he’s a ‘grown-up’ dog.

Thain is lying here under my foot rest dreaming. He has yipped a couple times and grunted. Wonder what he’s chasing. Gab is curled up in his bed. I can’t see Huck, but I believe he is in the corner of the loveseat closest to me and Sadie is in on Notah and Kerra’s bed. It is all peaceful. For so many houses around here it is surprisingly quiet for a Saturday morning.

This afternoon, everyone is going over to the new house to check things out. The tenant is gone and the house is empty at the moment. I believe we have possession on Monday. All the paper work was done on Tuesday or Wednesday and the house was officially ‘ours’ then. I say ‘ours’ because technically it’s Notah and Kerra’s house, but I think of it as mine too.

It is a wonderful place. Don’t assume it is all classy, cuz it isn’t. But it is a nice stucco house with a walled courtyard on the westside and a fenced courtyard on the east and south. The southern side off the fenced yard has a big fenced area that was once a vegetable garden so the fence is to the ground with a varmint guard along the bottom (small grade fencing in the ground) It is a perfect place for the dogs to run—large area and Chloe can’t get out! Neither can a coyote get under to eat her! Of course there are always owls and hawks who would like to snack on a tiny dog. But Thain and Sadie are there. That should discourage anything that’s thinking about swooping down. I doubt if Chloe is going to be any bigger than Spider. (And a hawk tried to take her once!) Our little biscuit-toasted twinkie really is a tiny dog.

In front of that garden space is another section that once had fruit trees but now only has a couple and in front of that along the road is another section of trees.

Behind the house on the north side is an almost attached garage, then a big open field. And on top of all that all long the north side if the parts I’ve described is a big pasture field! Wow. “Eleven acres of peace and solitude” as Notah says. He is a country boy at heart!

company and Pizza del Rio

Notah’s friend, Petey, came to visit for a few days. He is such a pleasant guy and as crazy about snakes as Notah is. :o) He arrived on Thursday morning but Notah had to work all day so he picked up Petey and dropped him at the Rattlesnake Museum in Albuquerque. It is just across the street from Old Town. The two of them were almost guaranteed to fascinate Petey for the day. And they did. I’ll bet he spent hours in the Rattlesnake Museum alone.

We all had dinner at Sopa’s restaurant in Belen that day and then Notah took him on a quick road cruising session. Unfortunately, it was too cold and they didn’t see very many things at all. They were home by ten o’clock if not earlier. On Friday Petey spent much of the morning catching up on his rest from a very late night and early rising on Wednesday before his departure. He had stuff to get done Wednesday night and didn’t get to bed until one or one thirty then had to get up at 3:30 to be at the airport by 4:30 Thursday morning. He was pretty beat when he finally got home after the road cruise.

Friday morning he did get up around ten thirty or so and after breakfast, set out on a walk around the area following Notah’s hand drawn map. I was a little worried. If you walk too far out you can get lost in the desert. We are civilized, but only along the main highways. And Petey is a city guy from Ohio! I made sure he had water and his map and his cell phone when he left. ( I thought if worse came to worst, he could always call Notah and say, “I’m lost!” LOL) I have to admit I was relieved when he came back!

We chatted in the later afternoon and after supper he and Notah went road cruising again.

Yesterday Notah and Seth took him on an all day hike through the desert and up the mountains. Actually they came in about 4:00 just after Keva and Kerra had stopped painting the house. Kerra had to run into the store before supper, but Notah suggested we go to Pizza del Rio instead of Kerra cooking. I was glad of that because I’d been worrying about her having to cook after working outside most of the day painting. So she ran into town while Notah and Petey set out for another short sally into reptile country. When Kerra returned (with a cup of no carb ice cream for me!), we headed on out to meet Notah and Petey at this little tiny pizza place called Pizza del Rio.

This was absolutely the neatest restaurant I have ever been in! Notah calls it a ‘mom and pop’ place and I guess that is the best description. Let’s see… there were probably only six tables in the whole place. They were a variety of styles. We sat at an old pedestyle style dining room type table. The one opposite us was a four-legged type wooden kitchen table. The one on the other side of the room was a 'dinette' style chrome and formica table from the early fifties. The others were a similar type as these three! Most of the chairs were those molded plastice kind from WalMart or Target, but there were some faux-bentwood type, too. They all had 'oilcloth' tablecloths on them. I believe the flowers-and-fruit pattern on that matched on all the tables.

At the back of the ‘dining room’ there were a piano, an organ, sound equipment for electric guitars and a couple microphones. A nondescript young cowboy/student type man was playing a guitar and singing when we went in. Notah said it was generally open mic so anyone could play or sing. We wanted Petey to play. The guy can play just about anything, but his tastes run to forties and early fifties big band harmonies, rather than country or bluegrass. The music in this little place, or at least the guys singing and playing, was a kind of eclectic mix of country, bluegrass and old, old rock.

There was no one there when we first arrived except three or four Socorro county sheriff deputies! And a couple more pulled in after we arrived. Notah said that we could rob northern Socorro county blind and they’d never catch us! All the deputies were in Pizza del Rio! I think they must have been at a training in Albuquerque and decided to stop by our little eatery on their way back down to Socorro.

Oh yeah!!! I forgot to say that when you went directly across the dining room there was a little rectangular wood burning stove against the far wall. (It was just like the one nihi’ ma cooked on in Rock Springs. I’ve fried a lot of potatoes and stirred a lot of stew on a stove just like that—not to mention stuffing a lot of wood into it!) That little stove is the heat in winter! Unbelievable! Only in NM would you find that in a public place.

Anyway, there was an older guy that looked like Uncle Crazy-Pat behind the counter when we went in. He was wearing a Willie-Nelson type head band and had a mostly-white beard- kinda like what you’d expect to see on Willie. His hair was long but just on his collar, not real long; the thing was, he didn’t have a collar, just a tee shirt with an apron on over that and his jeans. He looked like an old hippy that had cleaned up just enough to fit in society. I thought he was the general owner and waiter, but Notah said he’d never been there before. Go figure.

People behind the counter said hello when we went in but we were left to find our own seats and get situated. Keva carried my chair along with us because the ones there were the cheap-y plastic ones that I can’t sit in. That was fine, nobody cared. Can you imagine carrying your own camp chair into Pizza Parlor! They would fall over! We got me situated at the big table over by the wall closest to the musician. I sat comfortably in my chair with a good view of most of the restaurant and the ‘stage’ area.

I thought we were kinda close at first, given the volume of the music, but I soon got used to it. A nice lady with pretty brown and gray peppered hair came and asked us about drinks. Then she brought us our iced teas in big Styrofoam cups that were made to feel like nubby ceramic on the outside. Neat. When the guys arrived, Notah went up and ordered our pizzas. There was no menu, only a chalk board with items written on it. I don’t know if they were always the same or not. They served pizzas, and strombolis and something else that I can’t remember now.

The young guy kept singing. Some of the songs I recognized from my teen aged years—old rock and roll. Others were I can’t think what it’s called, not quite rock and not quite country, but that area in between that hippies liked—‘Folk’ maybe? Yeah, Joan Baez and that crowd of singers-- those were the songs!

We listened and talked for the length of time it took to make our pizzas. Then just after our Stromboli came (Neat Stromboli—it was about two inches thick and shaped in a long moon shaped curve. Notah cut it in six pieces each about three inches long. It made a good muchie until the pizza was done. ), just about that time the big guy with the beard that I’d thought was the waiter came out, picked up a guitar and began playing and singing with the young guy. He led off on some old country tunes that I didn’t recognize and some old Eagle’s songs.

Just as he started playing or maybe a little before this old couple walked in. There was an old thin, thin cowboy with a scraggly beard and longish gray hair. He wore beat up jeans and a worn, shapeless plaid western shirt. He had on old boots and a cowboy hat. His wife/ girlfriend was pleasingly plump and wore jeans with a plain muslin-colored shirt under a brown vest. She had short hair and a cowboy hat with boots on, too. I thought the cowboy was in his seventies at least. I still think that, but Kerra thought he was just a well worn fifty or sixty year old. The woman was definitely in her mid sixties. She looked like a jolly person. Both of them sat at the table just opposite us closest to the musicians. They seemed fairly familiar with the older hippy type guy because they talked to him between songs. (Later, just before they all left, I would bet money that the two of them, the old cowboy and the hippy guy, snuck out behind the building for a couple of quick hits on a joint! They both disappeared. )

They sheriff deputies finished their strombolis and left. Another old couple came in and picked up a pizza. Other older men came in from time to time for coffee or to pick something up. I mean old older men, sixties at least. There was one old guy, who fiddled with the sound system and sat around talking to the people who came in but other wise didn’t seem to be doing much. We were the youngest people in the place.

Our pizzas came and we chowed down for a while. Petey finally got up nerve, or maybe the kid played something he knew, and he went up to accompany him on the piano. Everybody clapped big time for that. When Petey came back to the table he told the guitar player (the old hippy guy and the cowboy had already gone out for their marijuana hits :o) ) that if he wanted him to accompany him on the organ to let him know. Of course, the guitar player said, “Oh yeah! Come on.”

It took them a couple minutes to get set up and in sync then they played several pieces together. Some I didn’t know, but I did recognize ‘Crazy’ and ‘Lay your head on my pillow’. Those two the kid knew the words to well enough to sing them. They got enthusiastice applause when they finished.

Finally, suddenly, it was ten o’clock and we had to leave. It was a fantastic evening. Such a tiny restaurant, but so packed full of atmosphere and friendliness, ‘camaraderie” I guess you would call it.

If you are ever in Albuquerque on a Friday or Saturday night, make a special trip to Belen and find out how to get to Pizza del Rio. What a mix—Italian food, Mexican décor, country atmosphere, and an incredible combination of eclectic music. And it’s ALL LIVE!

weather such a humdrum subject

I was sitting here in the dark this morning after Notah left for work. It’s a good time of day on our hill. I can see across to Belen in the valley and across the other way to the far-off highway with its high bright lights. This morning and every morning I hear the distant train whistle blowing. I love this time of day. I can’t wait until my chair comes and I can sit on the deck.

This morning, Thursday, I would need a jacket and a blanket! Two days ago it was 84 degrees at five pm. Goodness knows what the temp was at three, usually the hottest part of the day. This follows SNOW a week ago on the 19th. Now today it is back to cool temps. Predicted high today is 54 in Albuquerque, 57 here in Belen and 51 on the Sandia slopes where Seth is going for a field trip.

I’m worried to death that he’ll freeze. If you’ve never lived or more especially spent time outside in New Mexico’s mountains or desert, you won’t know how quickly temperatures can drop and the wind can chill your bones. Tuesday people were in shorts and tank tops and complaining of the heat. Today, Kerra made Seth go back for a jacket in addition to his sweat shirt. He’s gonna be real put out if he doesn’t need it.

I love New Mexico. I only wish I could hike with Notah and his biyaazh.

my computer was unplugged

This morning I’m thinking about how difficult life must be for the handicapped. I am somewhat handicapped because my knees simply don’t work. I talk about them all the time because they so limit my world. I often wonder exactly what is wrong with them. I’ve never been able to afford an x-ray or CAT-scan or MRI or any of those diagnostic things.

I hurt each of them in falls. The left one I hurt when I stepped off the wrong side of a step stool while painting our 10 foot kitchen ceiling. The doctor said I ‘hyper-extended’ it. Translation: I bent it backwards. He wanted x-rays but that wasn’t something I could in anyway afford at the time. So his second option was to tell me to stay off of it for a couple weeks. Well, yeah. That was gonna happen. I had two kids and a huge old house. We slept upstairs and did laundry in the basement. I did use a cane or crutches as much as possible, but you have trouble fixing a meal on crutches so I compromised and hobbled around holding on to the counters. As soon as it stopped hurting except for ‘just a little’ I abandoned the crutches and cane completely and just walked anyway. It hurt but not more than I could live with.

The second knee I did a few weeks later. I was going out the back door with a pan full of cat food in my hand. If you’ve ever fed cats, you know how anxious they are when there is the remotest possibility that you might give the food to someone else! They were all twisting around my feet and in an attempt to avoid stepping on a cat, I danced right off the side of the back stoop. It wasn’t very high, maybe six inches, but the leg I stepped off on was my bad one, so I did a little jig and landed on my right leg, consequently doing exactly the same thing to my right knee. I’m not sure I even went to the doctor for the second one. It was a long time ago.

I believe I tore the tendons in both knees. At any rate, my knees pretty much bend whichever way they want. It is a weird sensation to have a two year old grab you around the legs and feel a knee bend backwards or to have a big dog squeeze between your crutch and your leg and feel one bend sideways. It doesn’t even hurt exactly, just a clicking or snapping feeling. I always worry it won’t go back where it belongs, but so far, thank the Lord, it always has.

The situation has been further complicated because I’ve not been able to hike and walk and do the things I did before I hurt my knees. The lack of exercise has prompted a weight gain which has contributed to arthritis in my knees and, I’m sure, an extensive erosion of the cartilage.

I don’t know what the x-rays must have looked like when the Social Security office required that I be examined by their doctors for my Disability application. It must have been shocking because my application was approved the very first time. That is unheard of in the annals of Social Security bureaucracy.

So, I’m ‘disabled,’ but not to the extent that many are. This morning it came home to me what their lives must be like.

I’m forced to keep my knees and feet elevated most of the time with pillows supporting my knees and lower legs. Propping my feet on a foot stool or hassock for any length of time doesn’t work because it allows my knees to flex backwards. After a while that becomes extremely painful and I have trouble bending or straightening my legs. Standing is difficult and yeah, that hurts, too. Walking is nearly impossible until I have allowed my knees to adjust to just plain standing. Sitting with them bent in a normal position results in the same kind of problem but with added swelling in my knees and subsequent circulation difficulty in my feet.

Anyway. I finished my trekking around with the dogs and my breakfast and my clean up and so forth this morning and finally I sat down in ‘my’ recliner. (It’s not really my recliner, but Notah’s family didn’t have a recliner until I came to visit. Then he made it a point to get one. While I’m here it’s ‘mine’ because it is the only place I can sit comfortably. ) I got myself set down and settled with my pillows in place and my laptop propped up in front of me. When I reached for the cord I discovered it was unplugged! How much trouble is that for you? You twist around and plug it in, or if you can’t reach you jump up, turn around duck down, stretch back and stick it in the wall. It takes what? Two minutes, maybe?

For me it was a major undertaking. First I had to maneuver my recliner to the upright position. The handle doesn’t work to lower the foot rest. It is designed to just go down with lower leg pressure. Well, I can’t apply lower leg pressure. My knees have no strength in them to press my calves onto the foot rest. So I have to lean forward and pull with my hands on the armrests until I can shift my body weight forward enough to counterbalance the foot rest, which then goes down. I remove the two pillows I use to support my knees and put them to the side. I reach for my crutches, always propped within arm’s reach. My knees won’t just ‘stand me up’ like a normal person’s do. Standing up is again a process of counterbalancing my weight over my knees. I can’t describe how I do it—just a way I’ve developed to continue leading a semi normal life. It isn’t graceful, I guarantee.

Once I’m standing I use the crutches to maneuver the couple of steps around the arm of the chair and back in the space between the chair the window and the wall. Then I put the crutches behind me against the window frame and hold to the chair and the wall while I stretch back, keeping my knees straight, barely able to reach the plug. A normal person would stoop down and lean back and plug it in.

Getting up and turned around again is another studied procedure. I used my hands and arms to ‘walk’ along the chair arm until I am upright. Again I reach for my crutches and duck-walk with them in the little semi-circle until I’m again in front of my chair. Sitting down is easy. Leaning back in the chair is easy. Situating the pillows under my knees and lower legs is a bit of a hassle, but once it is done my knees stop hurting.

I lean back, put the blanket over them (if there is any draft across them, they ache) and pick up my computer. I prop it on a long tubular foam pillow and plug the power cord to it. I’m ready to go. A two minute process takes me at least eight or ten.

Wild isn’t it. But I didn’t write this to make anyone feel sorry for me. I do just fine. My kids love me and help me constantly. My daughter-in-law loves me enough to come 1800 miles to get me in the spring and my daughter loves me enough to come and get me on her vacation in the summer or fall. I’m good. BUT, the next time you see someone on crutches or in a wheel chair remember this little discourse. Think how the simple process of plugging in a computer takes me longer than it has probably taken for you to read this. Think how involved such a simple action is for me and imagine how vastly more difficult it must be for someone who doesn’t have a loving family to support them and is even more handicapped than I am.

I'm blessed.

Well, I told you it was snowing in my last post here. It kept on snowing until we had between 8 and 9 inches here in Westerville. Happily Rachael was off on Saturday so we had a great day. I had my breakfast in the normal 6:30-7:30 time frame, then I had lunch when R & M had their breakfast about 11:30! Nice!

The big dogs were overjoyed with the snow. I let them out late at night and Mika was jumping around and yipping like a puppy. It was really cute because she is usually very sedate and lady like. It is a good thing that Mika’s bark is as gentle as she is or she would have awakened the neighborhood! The little dogs on the other hand were not so enthused. The way the snow fell, over such a long period of time, developed a firm crust about 3 inches below the surface. They had to wade through thetop fluffy stuff, but every once in a while they would break through and nose-dive into the deepness! Add that to the fact that it was cold to boot and they had a hard time of it. Gable came back looking like he’d been playing snowplow with his nose.

In the after noon R & M took the big guys for a walk over to the reservoir. They came back with fantastic pictures and two tired dogs. Mika had to have two rounds of aspirin in the evening and some more on Sunday. She had to be helped up the stairs to go to bed with R & M and Rachael had to pick her up to put her on the bed. (Yes, our dogs sleep with us.) The good thing was that the walk wore Maxim out! Hee, hee, hee. No romping dogs in our house this weekend. Everybody is resting up.

Then after they came back and got warmed up, we all went in the living room and began sorting through boxes that were still packed from my old house. What fun! I sat while Rachael pulled surprises from the boxes. It’s funny but no matter how carefully you label the boxes you always forget what is in them until you open them up. Especially after a year and a half! I moved in with Rachael so I didn’t need most of the stuff and we didn’t have to bother unpacking. Now we are settled in our new house and Michael wants to get rid of the boxes have been stacked in the basement. It was fun looking through things and ‘downsizing.’ I gave a lot of stuff away when I moved the first time. Now I’m sorting again and making piles—stuff for my brother, stuff we want to keep and stuff for Notah and Kerra. Then the rest of the junk goes in a yard sale mountain. Rach thinks she is gonna have time for a yard sale. HA! B ut let her try, then we will take it to the Salvation Army. It isn’t really ‘junk’ I just call it that. It is mostly household things that everybody needs but not in multiples.

All in all we had a great day.

Then on Sunday, Rachael had to work but Michael and I were home all cozy. We had lunch/breakfast and he cleaned up the house and went to buy ‘grazing’ supplies for Super Bowl time. And of course we watched the Super Bowl when Rachael got home and ate Michael's goodies for the whole time. No need for supper at our house! All in all, it was like the Christmas holiday when we were all together and Michael had all of his much loved tradition-“grazing goodies.” It was snowy outside but warm inside; we were opening boxes with surprises inside; we finished up by watching the football game as the holiday wound down. And even though Michael stated getting the flu in the evening, it still didn’t spoil it for us. Having the flu wrapped up on the couch with a dog on your feet is better than being sick any place else.

And to make things even better (for me) was that he didn’t go to work on Monday and Rachael was off. So we were all together again and it was like a long holiday weekend. Another Christmas!

Now it’s Tuesday morning and the weather forecasts were right when they predicted another snow storm. The snow began around five oclock and is still coming down hard and fast in tiny fine flakes. Roads are nasty, everyone is driving really slow to work. Michael left at 7:30 and called Rachael at 8:45 to say he was still stuck in traffic about 10 minutes away from the house! She was a couple blocks from her store by then. It's never smart to take the freeway in this kind of weather--that's where all the idiots are. Hmmm, don't tell Michael I said that. The weather man is calling for another 6-8 inches, depending one what weather man you are listening to.

gingerbread houses

I got a Pix message from Kerra the other day. Some background is needed before I tell the story.

When Seth and Keva were old enough for both to have some manual dexterity (Kindergarten for Seth) Kerra began a Christmas tradition of building a gingerbread house. She made the gingerbread, of course and assembled the house. Then the kids did the decoration.

The first time was at my house. Keva was pretty much able to apply her own decorations, but Seth and I collaborated on our two sides. He put the candies on and I helped with the fine details. Kerra has continued the tradition as the kids get older and the houses more elaborate. I used to have copies of the houses from each year on my phone, but I’ve replaced the phone at least once and I may have erased the one from last year even.

This year’s house I will keep for posterity. They built this fabulous hogan! I love it. Right now I only have one photo, but if more come I’ll come back and past them in this post. Traditional hogans have no windows and only a smoke hole in the top, so there wasn't a lot of room for embellishment. Theirs had a few flowers or scrolls or something and I don't know what the circles are on the sides. Still, grandmas aren't the most critical audiences in the world and I think it is great.

This absolutely has to be the FIRST gingerbread hogan in history!

new year's day

You know, the internet is a wonderful thing. This morning I had a New Year’s Day present that was almost as good as being there… Notah posted a video on photobucket for me. It was their Christmas morning! I loved it.

My grandkids are growing up so fast. Keva is beautiful. Notah will have to fight the boys off with sticks and stones when it dawns on them. Seth is his handsome humorous self. ( In the midst of the present opening he started singing, “I saw mama kissing Santa Claus!” He has always been full of song and even as a baby would ride along in his car seat singing to himself. When he learned to talk then he could put words to the songs! )

There were pictures of the Thain and Sadie sitting on the couch wrestling with each other while everyone opened presents. Thain was a fuzzy puppy when I last saw him. Now he is a Big Dog, but he still acts like a simple pup. And his tail!!! He has a tail as long as he is! He is going to be very striking when he is grown. I’m so thankful he survived the rattlesnake bite. There were a couple shots of Huckleberry laying in a patch of sunlight taking life easy. He’s too old to get involved in such foolishness as wrestling and presents!

Kerra got a new video camera. She was thinking the box was a handgun. The kids and dad got a big kick out of surprising her! Now I expect some pictures of my favorite son. The only problem with my New Year’s Day present was that there were no pictures of Notah. He was running the video recorder. As much as I love the kids and Kerra, Notah is my little boy. How strange. Our kids grow up and become adults but deep in a mom’s heart there is still the memory of that cute little kid she watched grow up.

In fact, since Kerra has a camera, I’ll expect videos to get posted all the time.

I think so often of Louie’s Mom. Now I can relate when I remember how happy she was when we visited in the summers. She loved the pictures I sent her of Notah and Rachael and put them up all over her little house. Wouldn’t she have been thrilled to get movies of them! Probably every bit as thrilled as I was.

navajo tacos

A long time ago we began a tradition in our house. Instead of the traditional turkey, ham or goose (we had that when I was a child) for Christmas dinner, we began to have Mexican food-- tacos, enchiladas, tamale pie, sopapillas, tortilla soup not to mention a pile of tortillas. We made it all from scratch except the corn tortillas. I never learned to make those so we resort to the plastic bag packages.

I remember one of my son's friends and his girlfriend joined us one year. The girl stood watching me as I made tortillas. She asked in amazement, “Can you make those? I thought you had to buy them.” And the enchiladas were even more amazing. “Don’t you ever get them in a can?”

Yesterday, Rachael and I made a modified version of our old meal. We had Navajo tacos, enchiladas and roasted green chilis. The enchiladas were simple enough and anyone who has ever had Mexican food knows what they are. The Navajo tacos were a major production but soooo worth it .

The first time I ever ate Navajo tacos they were made by a navajo cook in a little restaurant over toward Fort Defiance. A Navajo taco is built on a piece of Navajo fry bread instead of the usual tortilla. And you don’t wrap the innards in the bread the way taco bell does. You lay the big slice of frybread flat on the plate and heap everything else on top. The very first one set the standard for Navajo tacos as far as I was concerned. It used slivered mutton and pinto beans fried together with onions, and chopped green chilis with a light tomato sauce. A generous couple spoonfuls of this was heaped on a plate sized piece of frybread. On top of that was a layer of shredded cheese and then lettuce and then chopped tomatoes! A big dollop of sour cream finished it off with salsa around the center. Navajo tacos arent really as manageable as a plain old taco. You eat them with a knife and fork if you don't want a mess. Mmmm.

In consideration of anglo tastes, most Navajo tacos you get around dineh country have switched to hamburger. And our Navajo tacos, because we can’t get decent mutton in Ohio, have beef too. We use a nice roast sliced into thin strips.

Yesterday when Rachael went to get the roast from the freezer to begin slicing it, there was NO beef! Either it had not ever come home from the grocery store or she just plain hadn’t gotten it. The essence of Navajo cooking is practicality. Navajo women have fed their families from what ever was available for hundreds of years. We had a nice pork roast so our Navojo tacos were made of pork and pinto beans, two steps removed from the good old mutton. Pretty good, but I still like mutton better.

I saved my carbs again. So I was able to eat the taco and the enchiladas. My glucose reading this morning was only 108. Yay!

(Good grief! Looks like this has become a food blog! Well, at least it isn't boring food.)

Mmmmm.. chicken and dumplings

Somewhere Michael got the idea he wanted chicken and dumplings. I have no idea where he even heard of it. He asked Rachael if she knew how to make them and she humphed. Rachael doesn’t believe in anything that takes more than twenty minutes to prepare. She especially doesn’t like two or three stage recipes. She does menu items that require quick easy steps. One, two, three, done - with each step requiring a corresponding number of minutes. I don’t blame her. She works all day and then comes home and fixes dinner. Nobody feels like working another hour and a half to get dinner. The good thing is that she doesn’t have hungry kids fussing to eat. Michael and I don’t care too much when we get around to eating. Often we don’t have supper until seven or after.

Hence. When Michael asked for chicken and dumplings it didn’t meet with a lot of enthusiasm on her part. The immediate response was, “Mom knows how to make them." So a little while ago I cleaned and cut up a chicken to put on for stewing. It is sending good smells all over the house right now and it still has to cook a while. I’m gonna be the World’s Number One Mother-in-law when Michael comes in the door and smells that!

I learned to make dumplings when I was really young. Dumplings are a good source of energy for poor hard working people. My grandma raised 13 kids on a poor farm in southern Ohio on the river. There were ten boys and grandpa believed in making them work. Grandma had to supply the energy for that. Dumplings are loaded with carbohydrates - a great source of energy. She could take stewed fruit or vegetables or meat and drop dumplings in to stretch them and add needed calories. She could stew one old hen that had quit laying and use the broth and shredded meat to feed the whole crew. It might not be good dietary consideration today, but in the early 1900’s it was a god-send for mothers of hungry, growing kids.

When I was little we were definitely better off financially that Grandma and Grandpa, but the thrifty measures learned in childhood stood my mother in good stead. Her favorite recipes were chicken and dumplings or peas and dumplings. And before you turn your nose up at peas and dumplings let me say you are missing a good meal. Take a couple cans of peas, juice and all. Heat them up in a good sized kettle, add a little chicken broth or milk or even water in a pinch with some additional salt and a good dollop of butter. Then when it boils carefully drop dumplings, either by teaspoonfuls or cut into squares, into the boiling liquid. Good stuff.

Okay, gotta go check my chicken.

Chicken and dumplings is at best a two phase dish and if you want to get fussy it’s a three step. First you clean and stew your chicken. If it is an old hen it has to stew on low heat for at least an hour and a half, maybe more. You also need to chop celery and onions in the stew water to add flavor and vitamins, but if you leave the skin and fat attached to the chicken you don’t need to add anything else for flavor. Many recipes today call for added butter. That is only because the recipe also calls for canned broth and the butter is needed for flavor. ( I get really disgusted with ‘chicken broth’ in a can. It has NO flavor because people are so stupidly worried about fat. Okay, don’t eat tons. But fat is very necessary for good flavor) Make your own with a fat old chicken!

When you have stewed the chicken for about 90 minutes or more the meat should be removed and placed in a separate covered dish. While it is cooling, take the big chunks of celery and onions out of the broth. You can strain it if you want. I just use a slotted spoon and scoop out most of it. Or you can leave them in. I happen to think they are unattractive after they have stewed for an hour and a half - kind of like greenish and gray rags.

When the chicken is cooled it is time to pull it off the bones. (This is the step I skipped. I figure it is easy enough to do that while you’re eating it!) To be fancy though you really need to remove the bones and cartilage and fat from the chicken. Pull it all apart and keep the bones separate from the rest. Dump the fat and skin in the same dish with the limp vegetables you removed from the broth. Stir it all together and moosh it up. When you feed the dogs, there is just enough to put a couple big spoonfuls in each dish. (Well, you gotta have four dogs… but you get the idea) They love it and the vegetables provide fresh vitamins. Set the chicken aside till just before you serve the dumplings. The cats like it, too.

The third stage is the dumpling stage. The nice thing, I think, is that the first step and the last step can be widely separated. Once you have the broth and meat prepared you can stick it in the fridge for hours or even until the next day.

My Mom taught me to make dumplings. I’ve read some other recipes that were chiefly flour and water, but I learned to use eggs and milk, flour and baking powder. Oh yes, a little salt, too. You make a heavy dough, slightly softer than cookie dough. It makes the best dumplings ever and takes about three minutes to stir up.

Bring the broth to a rolling boil-and I do mean rolling. The broth has to be boiling hard enough that you can drop the dumplings in without decreasing the heat. I’ve seen some people who roll out their dumpling dough and cut it into squares. That seems too much like noodles to me. Mom used a teaspoon and scooped a skimpy spoonful, cutting it against the side of the bowl. Wetting the spoon in the hot broth before you start makes the dumplings roll off smoothly when you dunk them in the broth. The dumplings will sink when you put them in, but soon pop to the top. When the dough is all gone, use a big spoon to gently fold them all under the hot broth once or twice, then carefully put the chicken back in the kettle. DON’T STIR. Fold carefully. You don’t want to break up the tender dumplings. It literally takes no more than ten minutes from start to finish when you make dumplings this way.

Mmmmm. I saved my carbs all day for this!! And it was worth it. We had chicken and dumplings, beets, peas and green olives. (Michael and I had the green olives. Rach doesn’t like them.) If you want you can put some vegetables in the broth and cook them just before you put the dumplings in. Peas, carrots, corn and green beans look especially pretty. Or you can serve vegetables on the side like we did.

And I was right. Michael did love them; so did Rach for that matter. She just didn’t want to make them.