Life, Love, Long Hair, Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth, and other mysteries

All this and more, from a semi-Serbian, slightly sane, former editor for physicians and surgeons, who is the mother of seven kids.


Thursday 26 January 2012

Life, Family, Home, and Bread

I was requested, by my newest friend on the planet, to write a blog entry on "life, family, and home". But prior to that, he had asked me to write about bread.

Being one who is short on time but loves to write, I will attempt to blend all four subjects in one note.

Life. Hmm. Well, I'm breathing, so that must mean I'm alive. But simply to be alive isn't really living, is it? In the words of George Strait, "If you ain't lovin', then you ain't livin'."

And I'm definitely lovin'. I'm one of those people who has more love than can be contained in one bag of bones. Good thing I've got seven children on whom to lavish love.

One might think I have no time to write, with all these children. I would argue, however, that because I have so many children, I MUST write, to keep a semblance of sanity.

"Home. Home again. I like to be here when I can. And when I come home cold and tired, it's good to warm my bones beside the fire." Oh, how I love the music of Pink Floyd.

I've been to a psychiatrist or two in my day, where I asked if there was anything wrong that needs to be fixed. Apparently, at least according to the DSM-IV, I've got nothing they can fix, but I do see some traits of OCD in me. Maybe everyone has a bit of that.

You see, for me, I've got to have my home in order or it's hard for me to focus and relax. That's not to say my home IS always spotless, because it certainly is not. But until it is at least close to clean, I do not feel relaxed. If there are crumbs on the carpet that need vacuuming, I feel stressed out every time I see them. However, once I, or my husband, or one of the kids, get around to vacuuming, I love to admire the cleanness of my old crappy carpet, and just "breathe... breathe in the air... don't be afraid to care... leave, don't leave me... look around, choose your own ground..." (Oops! Pink Floyding again!)

Someday soon, I want to choose my own ground. I want to rip out all of this old crappy carpet and have laminate flooring installed. That would be so much easier to keep clean, with all these people in our home.

Two and a half more truck payments and I will no longer have any debt, other than my mortgage. I am seriously thinking that my next debt will be because of laminate flooring.

People need to eat, and people need a place to eat. Unfortunately, all too often it ends up being in the living room. Bread crumbs are not nice to see on the carpet.

Sigh. Bread. Bread and I go way back. Right now, I've discovered that if I eat bread, I gain weight. So I try to avoid it. In years past, I baked all of my own bread. It became a thing of pride for me, to never buy "store bought bread".

Since about 1995, I have been buying sacks of wheat and storing them in my deep-freeze, to grind in my electric grain grinder. Anything that requires flour gets the fresh-flour treatment in my home. No rancid store-bought flour lurking in my baked goods if I can help it.

But, oh, there goes that pride again. Yes, I do sometimes buy (gasp!) white flour. And occasionally I use it. But so seldom do I get time to bake anything anymore, it's not that big of a deal.

I can bake a mean batch of whole wheat bread. Ask anyone who's tried it - it is GOOD. But when it doesn't turn out, it can sap my joy for the rest of the day. All that work and nothing but a load of bricks to show for it.

Back in the bad ol' days, I cooked everything from scratch. It was expected of me. Now that I am free, it costs me more, but freedom does come at great price. "I can't complain, but sometimes I still do." (Thank you, Joe Walsh, for that quote.)

And that is all I am going to say about life, family, home, and bread for today. I now leave you with the George Strait song from which I quoted earlier.

3 comments:

  1. This all makes sense to me, coz I wrote it, but I really wonder if it isn't a big jumbled mess to someone who doesn't have my eyes. Tell me!

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  2. I read this yesterday but I'll listen to the song and comment now :3

    Oh dear this country music is a bit TOO country for my likin. Ohhh dear.

    My mom used to bake quite often, back when I actually liked store-bought bread, unfortunately.

    I've never tried bread made from fresh-ground flour though.

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  3. I appreciate your honesty, PIAN (hey, add a word that starts with "O" to the end of your user name and see who you'd be?). It irks me when people pretend to like what I like just because they are my friend. I'd rather them be themselves. We don't need two me's.

    My taste in music is extremely varied. There is some country music I cannot abide, but much that I love. You should've seen the cassette tapes scattered around the front of my car back in the 80s... Metallica, The Judds, Megadeth, Ten Years After, Charlie Daniels Band, homemade mix called "Southern Sheep", Mozart, homemade mix from a penpal in California of stringed instruments like cello et al with harpsichord... Eclectic.

    Once there was a time (LOL, "Ten Years After" quote) when I only liked white bread, mostly store-bought, but when my mom baked bread, which was white, it was the best thing I'd ever tasted in those years before I discovered grain grinding.

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