Midwestern At Heart

I’m Here

I’ve been here many times to write a post. I love looking back at these posts and seeing what happened, how I felt, etc. This morning, I decided I wish we were all back in the day of writing. Maybe we should blame some of that on the fact that I have a degree in Technical and Professional WRITING. See that word? That word that is in all caps, bolded, and italicized? It’s the word that says… writing.

Wow, a lot has changed since I started this blog. But I’ll let you in on a little secret… a lot has changed in the past year. And we’re only 5 months into this year. It’s been quite the whirlwind, and I just don’t even think I have the words. I love to write. I love to talk. I am shy (sometimes), but gosh words are eluding me right now. I wish I could get the words out. I wish they would come from somewhere, but right now I am just going day to day, one foot in front of the other.

Talking to a friend yesterday, she pointed out what I kind of already knew and just chose not to think about, and that is the fact that my 40s haven’t been playing nice. Truthfully, if I think back on it, my 30s were a little bit rude when I first started them, but I ended on a fairly high note.

I tend to be a pretty, well, I don’t want to say naive, I don’t want to say upbeat, I don’t want to say positive… But for lack of better words, I tend to try and see the good in all situations. Sometimes it’s hard to find, and here lately I’ve had to look really hard and have totally missed the mark. I really hate it when people are vague. It drives me nuts, and sadly, I’m being fairly vague right now, but again, I just don’t have the words. It’s not that I’m trying to be vague… It’s just how do you wrap up the last like 2 months into words… I haven’t figured it out yet.

So for now, while I try to formulate words, let’s look at the positive because there is some… Not that any of it has to do with the last 2 months of tragic sadness, but… I’m going to Greece! Not any time soon… 2 years, 2 months, and a few days. The exact dates aren’t set in stone yet. The website said we would know 90 days out, the lady who is leading our group said 45 days, so let’s just put it this way, in about 2 years and 2 monthish I’ll know when I’m going. haha!

So it is through my daughter’s school, but it is not a school-sanctioned trip. What does that mean exactly? Well, the lady leading it is a teacher, and it was opened up to students of the school and family members. We get to make monthly payments instead of having to fork up the money all at once, and we are going in 2 years, 2 months, and a few days. It’s super exciting and I can’t wait.

My great-grandfather came to this country from Greece in the 20s. Sadly, I don’t know the exact time frame. He came through Ellis Island. He and his family had no money in Greece and came to the US to find the freedoms that were afforded to Americans. Then he moved to Michigan, met my great-grandmother, got married, had 2 kids, came down with pneumonia, and died when my grandma was 5. This was just a couple of years before Penisilian got its FDA approval to be used to treat people.

LEAD Technologies Inc. V1.01

When he came to this country, he changed his name. He wanted to be American and thought his name sounded too foreign. My grandma and my great uncle were 1/2 Greek. My great uncle went on to marry a full blood Greek woman, and changed his last name back to his father’s original name. My grandma went on to marry my grandpa, which made my mom and aunt 1/4 Greek. My mom married my dad, and I come in at a whoppin 1/8th Greek. I seriously hoped that more Greek was lurking in my DNA, but there isn’t. Bummer!

Anyway, I have wanted to go to Greece for… gosh, longer than my mom can recall. So when the school put out this flier for a trip to Greece, man my daughter (who also wants to go to Greece) and I were on it. At the meeting they explained that we had 2 years to pay for it, all students and family members who were willing to pay for it could go, they wanted (well initially they said 35, not it sounds like 40) enough people to sign up so that we could have a private tour, and then, we’re headed to Greece!

It seems so far away, yet so close. It’s also sad to think my daughter will be going into 8th grade that fall (we go in the summer) by the time this trip happens. Oh, and days are long but years are short. I’m telling you, we’re already in May. How on earth did that happen? I mean, I basically lost the month of April, but whatever, another story for another day…

But that’s all the news for now… I broke my lawnmower yesterday. My husband fixed it when he got home last night (yey), so now I get to go mow the lawn. Wish me luck!

31 Things to Add to Your January Bucket List

If you don’t want to read my post, watch the video here…

Otherwise, I found this list the other day titled 31 Things to Add to Your January Bucket List. It intrigued me, so I had to read it. A few of the items left me scratching my head, but the rest—okay, I’ll buy them. If you want to read their description, click the link here. Otherwise, here is my take on their list.

31 Things to Add to Your January Bucket List

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Dust off the Cobwebs

Wow, it’s been a hot minute since I was here last. Looks like October 7th of 2021. I’m trying to decide if I even remember how to do this quite honestly. A lot has happened since then, we’ve now been around the sun 3 times plus a few days/months. The world started slowly moving away from Covid… although I’m not sure about that one some days. We’ve been through an election, weird weather all across the US and the world, We had Totality (the solar eclipse), quite honestly I could keep on and on… but I won’t. If you’re here, that means you lived through most of it too, not to mention the random little idiocracies we all deal with individually. (more…)

10 Years

I was thinking about this today… I started this blog in October 2009. That seems like a lifetime ago. This blog has seen me through dating my husband, marriage, having kids, losing my job, grad school, you name it, it’s probably there. That’s a super crazy and scary thought really.

A question that people like to ask is, “Where do you see yourself in 10 years?” I’m torn on how I feel about this question. Back when I graduated high school, I was 17 (going on 18) years old. I truly think it would have been crazy if we would have had to write ourselves a letter that was either sent to us or given to us at our 10-year class reunion. It would have been fun if it had been titled, Where You See Yourself in 10 Years. Could you imagine what we would have written to ourselves?

10 years from high school graduation, I was getting married. Well… technically 9. I hit our 10-year class reunion the same year as my 1 year anniversary. In that 10 years, I never would have pictured my life the way it went. The thought of that almost makes me laugh really. Then 10 years after that… would be this year (I graduated in 2001). First off, let’s address the elephant in the room… WHO would have predicted 2020? Seriously. Not me… that’s for sure. But it could have been interesting to see what I thought would happen in the last 10 years.

I’m pretty sure in my 101 in 1001 I wrote myself a letter that was supposed to be opened and read in 10 years. I’m not sure I want to read it honestly. I really don’t know how I feel about reading it. Last I knew it was in our safe. Maybe I threw it away. If not, maybe I should. Again, I’m a little leary about what I wrote.

This blog has served a great purpose to me. It has reminded me of things I totally forgot about. And I know there are a lot of cobwebs around here. I’ve debated tearing it down so many times. I don’t think anyone reads it. There’s a lot of information I question about having on here these days. Etc. Etc. And it doesn’t help that over Labor Day Weekend my Facebook account got hacked… I lost 2 pages I was an admin on. We’ve gotten one back, the other is gone for good I guess. I get a lot of spam messages on this blog. I’m almost tired of social media-type sites. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t. I haven’t gotten rid of them or even quit checking them, but I’ve tried to be a lot more present. I’ve stayed off them quite a bit.

I never could have predicted my life in the last 10 or 20 years. Not even a part of it. Some of it I remember, I was going to go on to be an Ag. teacher, possibly go on and become an ag. pharmaceutical rep. Heck, why not? I also toyed with the notion of going into Ag. Business. It always revolved around agriculture. I was going to be married by the time I was 23-25. 1-2 kids probably. I could go on and on… but I’m here to tell you NONE of that happened that way.

Don’t take my None of that happened that way as a bad thing. On the contrary! There might be a few things I’d like to change. A few things I can’t seem to wrap my head around… but I really like my life. But 2020 and Covid-19 can suck it… just throwing that out there.

Just remember… Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is a mystery, Today is the present. Live in the present!

Seed Calendar for MO 6b

Here is where I update and archive our yearly gardening seed calendar for Missouri & Hardiness Zone 6b.
This changes slightly every year depending on the current weather in Missouri.

Are your seeds still good?

Seed Calendar for Missouri 6b

Plant = Plant Name
Seeds = Date that seeds are planted inside unless otherwise noted.
Transplant = Date that seedlings are planted outside.

2021

Last Estimated Frost Date: April 18

Y’all, I got carried away with seeds this year… Just saying… WOW!

Missouri 6b

Plant | Seeds | Transplant

Spring:

Summer:

Fall:

2020

Fall:
Green Beans | August 12 (Directly in-ground)

Cast Iron Pan & Walmart

Over the Weekend I had to question what year we were in… Here’s the story…

Saturday we wound up in Pawhuska, Oklahoma at The Pioneer Woman’s places… (the Merc, her new store, and of course the Lodge where she films her show). You are invited to the Lodge on the days that it is open, you just have to get a ticket at the Merc. We wanted to eat at the Merc, but we had to put our name on the list. It was a 2 1/2-3 hour wait to get in and we arrived at 10:45 a.m. We got our ticket to the Lodge and the guy told us we had plenty of time to go to the Lodge and come back. We were like 68 on the list and at about 15 you needed to head back this way. Cool. (more…)

What to Say?

Here we are again… I sit here trying to come up with words to say and yet they elude me. They are not there.

Just a few weeks ago my family was headed to a tumbling competition. Halfway through our drive hubby got a phone call. A friend of ours needed help and we weren’t able to assist. We weren’t home. That was the last time hubby heard his voice. The last time I heard his voice was a couple of weeks prior to that when he came to my house and I loaded him up with freshly made candied Jalapeños.

When they say life is short, that’s truly how it is… Life is short. There are days when I think, oh I can put that off until tomorrow, but there is no guarantee that tomorrow will come. That is a scary thought. (more…)

Our Snow Apocalypse

My truck was totally cleaned off when I went to bed last night…

Saw this on a friend’s Facebook page… oh so true (haha) (It is meant to be harmless fun…):

Public service announcement for Missouri

All of you transplants that are new to Missouri are about to experience a “Missouri Winter

”. This is 6 or 7 days of cold

, maybe some ice

and snow

with single-digit temperatures and with a wind chill, it will be well below zero. The weatherman will threaten snow

. Know that it may snow

, and it may not and if the weatherman says 2 inches then it could be 10 or it could be 1/2”. It doesn’t really matter how much snow

it is, we’ll all freak out because we don’t see snow often.

The threat of snow

(or ice

) from the weatherman is your prompt to head to the grocery store and buy milk

, eggs

, and bread

. It doesn’t matter if you need these items. It’s just what we do. Everyone in town will be there.

You’ll also need to make a mad dash for faucet covers and finding them and getting out of the store will be like an episode of the hunger games. You’re in the redneck district.

Don’t look for a sled

. You won’t find one. In the rare chance, we get enough ice or snow to sled grab some cardboard or a trash can lid, and go find the nearest hill. You may become alarmed by the fact that you’re “sledding” towards a ditch, fence, tree

, or maybe into a road. Just go with it. You’ll be fine.

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GBB Bucket List

Those blue smoldering eyes. Gosh… They are almost intimidating. But the handshake would be awesome, am I right? Not a clue what I’m talking about? Well… The Great British Bake Off obviously. And who has those eyes? That would be Paul Hollywood, duh. haha.

Truth be told, I’d love to go to culinary school, but it’s not an option. That doesn’t mean I can’t learn to cook/bake at home, right? I’ve really gotten into watching The Great British Bake Off. Actually, the first one I saw was the American version when Jeff Foxworthy was the host. Man, that was a few years ago. Then I saw there was a British version and it seems to have taken off better than the American version. I’m ready to move to Britain so that I can join in… however, I’m definitely not as good as those guys. Wow! So impressive!

I’m pretty sure that if I were to get some of the technical challenges that they do, I’d cry because I wouldn’t have the first clue where to start. And while a lot of them say, I don’t know what that is… they do a very good job! It’s impressive.

The Judges

Paul Hollywood & Mary Berry were the original judges of the British version. Then starting with series (I assume season ;)) 8, Prue Leith took Mary Berry’s place. But those blue eyes are still wandering the tent. While Paul Hollywood is older than me by a bit, he’s still a very good looking man! And those eyes… wow! haha.

Technical Challenges

If you’ve never watched the show… They do a signature bake, a technical bake, and a showstopper.

Each week has a theme. The contestants can practice the signature and showstopper, but the technical is done blind. No one knows what the technical challenge will be. The looks on everyone’s face and their reactions are quite priceless really. And some of that is the editing department/videoing, but you know that’s how the contestants reacted… It was just caught on tape and edited correctly to make it even more entertaining.

I really want to be on this show… but until then, especially because I’m not British, I can always try to make their technical bakes. And my husband has blue eyes… maybe he can give me those smoldering looks. haha.

Technical Challenge Bucket List

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Look for the Good

Here we are… the last day of the year. We’re about to complete another trip around the sun. And while there is a lot to be upset about in 2020… there’s a lot of good that came out of 2020 as well. What?

One thing that keeps coming running through my mind was a fight that my husband and I had. It revolved around time. Not enough time. Not enough time to do what we wanted. It was a bad fight and I truthfully don’t want to go into detail… but still… it was a bad fight. I can’t remember when it happened. I know it was after Christmas, but before the shut down in March.

You know when they say, will the fight matter in an hour, a day, a month, or even a year, should you fight for it? This particular fight really did seem to matter. It kind of feels like it still matters. (more…)

Latest Blog Posts

31 Things to Add to Your January Bucket List

Seed Calendar for Missouri 6b

2021

Missouri 6b

Spring:

Summer:

Fall:

2020

The Judges

Technical Challenges

Technical Challenge Bucket List