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I Normally Don’t Cuss

A New Page to My Facebook

I belong to Facebook, but most do. I used to be so hung up on it until I was introduced to WordPress, then my interests slowly changed.

I have a few pages over at Facebook, Arts, where you can get an old item looked at and get a value by others who love to search. Of course there is Finding Solutions, where most of my stories are sent to, so Facebook and friends can read them if they don’t want to go to WordPress.

My newest page is called, From Scratch, Recipes

https://www.facebook.com/pages/From-Scratch-Recipes/347995258619883

This is a new web page that I place recipes that were handed down from my grandma or my mom.Other recipes are just plain old-fashioned and I have tried them or eaten them. Each recipe is made from scratch.

I just added a recipe for Pumpkin Torte. My family has made it for years and years, so I thought I would share it. You can find Pumpkin Torte on From Scratch, Recipes.

You can find me over at Facebook,  under Terry Shepherd

I just wanted to let you know in case you are looking for home-made goodness!!!

The Great Pumpkin Cake Recipe
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
3 eggs
1 cup white sugar
4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 (18+ ounce) package yellow cake mix
3/4 cup butter, melted
1-1/2 cups chopped walnuts

In a large mixing bowl combine pumpkin, milk, eggs, sugar, and spice. Pour combined mixture into your greased 9 x 13 inch baking pan. Sprinkle the dry cake mix over top of the mixture — sprinkle, but do NOT stir. Drizzle melted butter over it all and top it off with a handful or two of chopped walnuts. Bake for 1 hour at 350°F, or until a toothpick comes out of center clean.

Best served unfrosted with a big scoop of your favorite vanilla ice cream on the side. However, your kids might want to eat it with a big scoop of orange tiger-tail ice cream.

This is a recipe gearing towards Charlie Brown show, The Great Pumpkin, that I posted tonight, on From Scratch, Recipes.

Thanks for reading friends and neighbors!!!!!

I Normally Don’t Cuss

Today has been a hell of a day. There, I cussed, I said it out loud. The day started with me waking up in a good mood, but before an hour had passed, hell came in and sunshine left.

First our kitten, Cali, who is seven months old needs to be taught some manners. She has definitely come to feel comfortable here in our home. I had noticed that when looking for something last evening, I had gone into dust bunny heaven under my bed, and saw that the dark gray lining that hides the boards of a box springs, had a nice big hole shredded in it, and I don’t think the dust bunnies did it! Today, when I got up,my one framed picture hanging above the couch was all crooked. I think someone named Cali had been on the back of the couch, trying to investigate exactly what that was.

If I let her in my room at nights to sleep, she constantly bounces off and on the bed, wanting to play, causing the master of her to become very cranky, from lack of beauty sleep. So I close my door now for my sake and her sake of living. On the other hand, I can hear her out in the living room racing through the house, playing, and as I try so hard to ignore her and drift in to la-la land, I wonder what she is doing. The picture told me one of the things she did. I have used water bottles with sprayers, and it works as long as the water is being sprayed.

I steam cleaned my floors this morning, and she was biting the cord, and chasing the mop, while I was yelling at her and hoping she would not get burnt. I took a break from cleaning and was sitting here at the computer, and all of a sudden felt four claws go straight into my skin. OUCH. Oh man, that hurt. She raced across the back of the couch, I don’t know how many times. I sprayed her, she got down, and then she went to it again.

With Al, yesterday he fell early in the morning, and fell into his closet door bumping  his head. He is alright, but ever since then walking for him has become bad. It isn’t from the fall that he is walking bad, it is from the stiffness and freezing. All day today he has walked with great stiffness, moving very slowly, cussing with each step. I have seen  tears and tears and he has put himself down all through lunch today. So today, I either saw tears, or heard downgrading of one’s self, or seen Cali in motion.

After lunch, I finally got the house cleaned, and I went to bed to watch television and just relax. I ended up taking a nap the same time Al did, and woke up a couple of hours later. I had forgotten to set something out for supper, I realized too late, so I got on the phone with my yawny voice, and ordered a pizza from Papa Johns.

Already Al is up, he is barely, and I mean barely walking. Tears are flooding and he wants to go to the ER to get help with his pain. I told him that if his chest hurt, or his head, or

stomach, I would take him, but for his stiffness in walking and the freezing mode from Parkinson’s, that going to the ER would be a bad idea, as they were giving him the medications he needed now. I explained how the rotten Parkinson’s was bigger than medicines.

So now the kitten is playing with the broom bristles, that I would like to chase her with, Al is crying from pain, and the door bell rang with the pizza.

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Free Write Friday, Sept.1, 2012

Free Write Friday, Sept.1, 2012

 

Today I am writing for Kellie, over at

http://kellieelmore.com. Each week she gives a writing prompt, and then I need to do something with it. So now I will give it a try!

Kindergarten. I have a couple of memories of Kindergarten that stick out in my mind. The school I attended had been just built, so our class was the first one to attend and graduate on the front porch. Now the school has been added on many times, and there is no longer that special porch, that I have proof of with my little cap and gown, anymore.

I remember my grandma walked me to school the first couple of days, and now looking back I know why she did it in the first place. I am terrible at directions. Now you are going to laugh at this, I am sure, but from my house, all eyes could see the red, big brick building, and yet my first day that I walked home from school, I had gotten lost. Isn’t that so pathetic? A block a way, and I lose my way. Sort of like Little Bo Peep! To this day, I have to use a GPS, plus make that same road trip a few times, before it is lodged in my head forever. Some things we do carry through out our lives, I am living proof!

I remember that inside the school-house there was a very big doll house, that stood taller than us kids, and you could go inside of it and play or talk with other classmates during recess times in the winter. Back in those days, you were not shoved out into the cold, just because it was recess. There were alternatives.

I had a six-year-old crush on a boy named Timmy. He must have had a baby crush on me also, because he and I would go inside the house and sit together on the benches and hold hands. Oh, if my mother only knew what I was doing at recess, she may have blown the whistle on my innocent flirting! lol. The teacher must either not have noticed that we did this, or she thought nothing of it. Back then words like molesters, rapes, child endangerment, were not part of our home vocabulary. If these crimes were being committed, it was always in the bigger cities. Our little town was safe!

We also had to take our rest mats and lie down either on the floor, or we could choose to rest our heads on our hands on top of our desk. Either way, Timmy and I always managed to be near enough to each other, so we could wink or smile or wave at each other.

As far as learning goes, which is what we are to do in school, I only know by going back to my report cards, what kind of student I was. I got all S’s, so I must have been keeping up, but I could find one thing in common all through my elementary years, and that was the comments made under the conduct section. Grades K-6, always stated that I talked out loud, and talked too much. One year I saw a comment, where the teacher had left my parents a little note, stating she, the teacher, had moved me several times during the year, and could never find me a seat where I would remain quiet.

This also has carried on through out my whole life. If  my situation was different, and I was out in society more, I can be known to talk your leg off. I am sure that one of my friends looks at her watch, when she calls me, to make sure she has the abundant time to talk to me, because we are usually on the phone for an hour. My excuse is to her that I don’t see her often, so I have lots to say, but the truth is, I love to talk. Life, thoughts, dreams, my life as a caregiver, you name it, I talk.

I do remember learning how to count and learn the alphabet and tying my shoes according to the singing directions of Captain Kangaroo. Now a days, you have to know all of this plus your address, phone number etc. I wonder why they have kindergarten anymore. What do they teach, first grade?

The last day of school for kindergarten came, and when Timmy and I were sitting on our oh so familiar bench, we both heard the teacher say that recess was over and to all return to our seats. It was like Timmy knew that he would never be coming to this school again, because he quickly gave me a kiss on the cheek, and then ran out of the doll house, and I never did see him again.

Oh for those innocent fun days of learning again. No bills, no cheating lovers, no time clocks, just fun and learn, all combined into one!!!!