Midwestern At Heart

Mail

I got a letter in the mail today, something most people don’t hear anymore these days. It’s either a text message (which I tend to be the queen of) or an email, which too are becoming more rare, but letters in the mail… those are almost unheard of these days. I was recently reading a book, and it contained a quite interesting statement. The gal had bought an old farm house that had been left to “family,” but there wasn’t much family to leave it to. The man had no descendants, so he left the house to a distant relative, and eventually, she purchased it.

There were rumors that the house had hidden treasure, so she and the guy she eventually married (yes, it was a romance of sorts) started digging through the attic to see if they could find the “treasure.” One of the treasures happened to be old love letters. She commented then that our children and grandchildren won’t get to see our old love letters due to emails and texts. Wow! That hit the nail right on the head.

Honestly, I have thought about this before, but seeing it written by someone else just really made me have a WOW moment. People don’t just sit down and write letters these days. I’m also reading a book series that takes place back in the early 1800s. There are things about that series, too, that make me think about this whole writing aspect. (more…)

Finding Things (or losing them)

I once read that you spend a whole year of your life looking for things. Let that sink in for a minute.

That’s the average. For some people, it’s obviously longer, and for others, it’s shorter. I’m not sure where I fall into that category, but it’d be interesting to know. It’d also be interesting to know where they got that information and if it is correct.

Just this morning, I think I walked around my house for 5 minutes looking for my video and photos drive. I could remember seeing it, but I couldn’t actually remember where. Then, about the time I was almost ready to give up, I looked at the couch where I had been sitting, and as my dad would say, “If it’d been a snake, it would bite you.” Yup, it was right on the console by my left arm. Then I remember the last time I made note of that was yesterday when I was annoyed with myself that they were a) there and b) not with my laptop or desktop, but I was too lazy to get up and put them where they belong. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Fine, new scenario… Saturday was my daughter’s dance recital. My uncle and his farm hand came up to help out doing some things around here, but we told him we’d be kind of useless on Saturday because her first recital was at 3 pm. Around 1:30, I called my husband and told him that he and the oldest needed to head this direction so they could shower and get ready. He told me they were looking for the oldest’s wallet. I asked a few questions, then he said they were headed to the house (from my parents’ house). The oldest dropped him off and went back to their house to look for her wallet. I told him I’d go help her. (more…)

Writing

Here we are, another day, but still in the month of May. You know, some days I sing whatever I’m saying. Sometimes it is to a real tune, and other days I make up my own tune. I guess it is whatever strikes me at that moment in time. Other days, I rhyme. Man, when I start rhyming, I tend to say random stuff because, honestly, you can’t always rhyme what you’re really trying to say. When I start the rhyming thing, my daughter and/or niece usually roll their eyes at me. I just look at it as keeping things interesting.

The more I think about it, I think I learned some of these “characteristics” from my dad. He would do things like that to me growing up. Trust me, if my friends were there, we rolled our eyes just like my daughter and my niece do to me now. But it was fun, lighthearted, and kept things interesting.

The other day, I was texting one of these said friends, and she commented that I needed to write a poem like I did when we were kids. I can’t even remember what we decided the poem needed to be about, it was just the simple fact that I needed to write a poem about it. My dad once told me that when he was in school (can’t remember what grade), his teacher would assign the whole class a new paper every Friday due the following Monday. He said, sometimes it was difficult, but it caused him to become a good writer. Truth be told, the poems we wrote as kids, my dad usually helped me out on when I got stuck. (more…)

Pictures

I was scrolling through Facebook this morning. In fact, I sat down to write a blog post and came up blank. I have so many things I want to say, but gosh. Okay, so let’s get the elephant out of the room… no, I’m not sick… I lost someone extremely important to me. No, I’m not ready to talk about it… Jalapeño. (I’ll explain that someday, too) Anyway, back to the procrastination.

Two ladies pop up with ads constantly, but there are more ads related to photography. The two ladies I’m referring to always talk about polished photos wherever you go. No one around to take your photo, no problem, etc. I look at these polished photos and wish I had photos of myself like that. Come on, that’s what they want. They want to inspire you to buy their book or their course, or their Lightroom presets, so “You can look this good, too.” Here’s the thing… I’ll never look that good, both in real life or in photos, I don’t really want to spend the money on crap I already know (I’ve spent a lot of years studying photography), and three… well… I’m a goofball.

Circa 1998

Growing up, my mom hated photos. She hated being in them. She hated taking them. She hated them. When she and my dad got married, she wasn’t even going to have wedding photos done, but my grandma said that she was paying for it, she was getting her photos too, so my mom bought the smallest, cheapest photo package offered. Then, throughout the years, she’d hide them in the house. Mom and Dad’s marriage license was in between the pages, and when Dad would need the marriage license, he’d grumble. She wouldn’t give him the photos, and I’d be sent out to find them hidden in the house. Usually, I knew where they were, I just never said so because then she’d move them on me. (more…)

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. (more…)

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…)

Latest Blog Posts

31 Things to Add to Your January Bucket List

Seed Calendar for Missouri 6b

2021

Missouri 6b

Spring:

Summer:

Fall:

2020