I've never really considered myself a country gal. But I haven't thought of myself as urban either. I'm somewhere in between...possibly a suburbanite but I still don't think that fits either. When Michael and I started to think about buying a house(we still are but hey, you can't beat a free house) I said we would live in the suburbs with a nice big fenced in yard. Michael wanted something more rural. I didn't know if I could do it.
Now that I am here and we live so rurally there are still some annoying things about it but there are some wonderful qualities as well. There's beautiful scenery and lots of space for our dogs to play and run around and lots of privacy. It's nice to get up in the morning and have my breakfast and look out on the rolling hills. Country living can be very charming!
Lately I have been fantasizing about maybe having both. Have a rural house that is close enough to a city(less than an hour) where we can have nice shopping and entertainment and cool restaurants. That would be my ideal.
I was reminded of this when I was watching this new show on the Cooking Channel called Extra Virgin with actress Debi Mazar and her Tuscan husband Gabriele Corcos. She is a New York gal with a husband that cooks rustic Italian food like spinach, goat cheese gnocchi(yum!). They live in Los Angeles but have a quaint little house and two little girls who help them cook in the kitchen. The last episode they bought chickens so Gabriele could have fresh eggs to cook with. They set up a coop in the backyard in Los Angeles! Michael has always said he wanted some chickens someday and I am starting to fantasize about it. I can have chickens and a lovely garden and fields for Alli and Gumbo to run in and still be close enough to Starbucks. Why not? If Debi and Gabriele can do it, so can I!
I have been thinking about routine and how I have finally settled into one here in my new life in rural Alabama as a housewife. It's not that I planned it this way. I have been trying to find a job for a while. It's just that we live so far away from everything it's hard.
But I have discovered that I am now a stereotypical housewife. I do the dishes everyday. I do laundry everyday. I even make my husband breakfast and send him off with a kiss everyday. And I have been reading a bodice-ripper romance! It's usually not my sort of thing but I remembered this author as popular when I worked at the library in North Carolina and asked my mom to order me her first book to try it out through her paperback swap and I had no idea her first book was so Harlequin-esque. But I felt obligated to read it since she ordered it and had it shipped to me. I'm kind of embarrassed by the low brow selection but I shouldn't judge, it's actually not that bad and it's something to read.
Anyways, I was talking to my mom this morning and she was talking about how now that she is retired it would be very difficult for her to go back to work because of how she has created her own routine. It got me thinking...if I got a job who would do the dishes? Who would do the laundry? Would I have time to read anymore? I got panicky. How did I do all those things when I was fully employed for so long?
I guess I did all those things but not as routinely as I do now. Life is constantly a juggling act. I recently read James Patterson's book Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas. In it the narrator tells a tale called The Story of the Five Balls. Basically we are all juggling balls representing work, family, health, friends and integrity. You try so hard to keep them all in the air until you realize one day that work is a rubber ball and the other balls are made of glass. If you drop the work ball it will bounce back. The others will be changed forever if you drop them, even shattered. It is only when you truly understand the lesson of the five balls that you will have the balance in your life.
It was comforting for me to know that my routine allows me to juggle those all important 4 balls. And even though I've dropped my work ball right now, I can(and will!) bounce back.
I was named after my great-grandmother. That's my mother's mother's mother. I'm Mary Welby, my mom and grandmother are Janet Welby and my great-grandmother was Mary Welby Baker. I hear that I am so much like her and I like to believe it. My mom likes to tell me about the summer she spent with her in her house in Florida toward the end of her life. There were lots of grandkids and my mom felt blessed to have some time with her after my mom had spent time abroad in South America. I like to imagine what their time together was like.
I never met her. But my mom did find a picture of her with my great-grandfather Orville(it seems to me that all men at the turn of the century were named Orville..now, not so much) on their wedding day. She gave it to me at one of my bridal showers. It's on my bookshelf, I look at from time to time. She seemed like an awesome lady and I think I did resemble her for sure.
Anyway, since I am getting in the recipe mood since naturally now I am a housewife and I am nesting, I asked my mother for her banana bread recipe. Man it is serious good stuff!!!! It was so good when I was growing up that I would eat a piece and then lick my fingers when I was done. THAT'S GOOD!!!
My mom wrote me an e-mail with the recipe and mentioned to me that it was Mary Welby's recipe. It makes me happy that I loved it like she loved it. Michael was sure that he would not think it was the best ever because he knows what's best but he agreed that it was finger-lickin' good. Gumbo even gave his approval...it was on the counter and he jumped up and licked what was remaining, though Michael and I had no more after that:)
It's neat how you can have a connection to people you have never met through stories and food and traditions. I definitely feel I know her a little better. Maybe if I am blessed to have a daughter she will get the recipe. In honor of the tradition, I'm going to pass it along right now. Let me know what you think!
BANANA BREAD
(this recipe is not to be taken strictly and can be with whatever is handy)
INGREDIENTS
½ cup shortening, 1 stick margarine or 1 stick butter
1 cup sugar (brown, white or raw)
2 eggs
5 bananas (extremely ripe) mashed
2 cups flour (sifted) (bleached or unbleached)
1 tsp. Salt
½ tsp. Baking soda
1 ½ tsp. Vanilla
2/3 cup chopped nuts (optional) pecans, walnuts, almonds or whatever kind
2 quart loaf pan
METHOD
You need two mixing bowls. The smaller should be used for preparing the dry ingredients and the larger one for assembling the batter. First, in the larger bowl let the shortening, butter or margarine get soft naturally. Do not microwave. When soft add the sugar and cream well. Add the eggs and beat. Add the mashed bananas and mix. Add vanilla. In the other bowl combine the flour that has been sifted, the salt, and the baking soda. Mix dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the banana mixture and stir thoroughly. Add nuts. Place the mixture in the loaf pan and bake in a 300 to 325 degree oven for at least one hour. Use a clean toothpick in the center of the loaf to determine how long to bake. Toothpick should come out clean and not with dough on it. It is important to use a lower temperature and longer cook time if you want a moist loaf. I usually had to bake it longer than one hour but ovens vary so check it. Take the loaf from the oven and set it out to cool. You need to leave it for at least one hour. Remove from loaf pan and keep in refrigerator till serving. It slices better if it is left for one day before cutting but it can be served the same day.
Marion, Alabama. This is where I live. I never dreamed to even drive through this part of Alabama let alone live here. It is small. It is rural in a state that isn't that populated. To put it in perspective for all my North Carolina friends. The entire county has about 5,000 less people than the city of Lincolnton. Sometimes I just don't know what to do with myself here. I think some of the people here think I am an alien. Here are some interesting things that I have seen here:
There are numerous locations around town where there is a stoplight AND a stop sign in an intersection. It is very confusing and I don't know if I should stop or go. Why do they have both???!!!
There are numerous signs for the 3 or 4 restaurants we have that say "best in town!" such as "best margaritas" or "best burger." There isn't much competition!
At the lone grocery store I can't get ANY type of seafood yet I can choose from move than 20 brands of barbecue sauce(I counted) and there is an endless supply of pig's feet.
There is a town square and there are shops on it but I have never seen a single person go in or out of them. I wonder how they survive.
It's just funny to me how places are different. We went to a fundraiser for the board I joined this past weekend and I introduced Michael to one of the board members. She suggested that next weekend we go to the Wild Turkey Federation banquet so we can meet some more young people. I don't know if I will have anything in common with those people...just a wild guess :)
I love my new puppy. She is my first puppy ever since we didn't have pets when I was a child. Alli is the cutest thing and is learning so quickly. We originally thought we were getting a yellow female lab, but the first time I laid eyes on my little bit I couldn't imagine another dog being ours. I truly think she could have no other owners but me and Michael. She does definitely drive me crazy doing her puppy things, but I would like to dedicate this post to the sweet, sugar little girl that she is!!!! Here is a top 10 things I love about our Alli:
Her ears. i love touching and kissing them. I just shout: "Ears, ears, EARS!!!"
The way she does flips when I am getting her food ready. It makes me laugh EVERY TIME!!!
When she comes over and lays under our feet when she is tired.
The little noises she makes when she is dreaming.
Watching her and Gumbo play. They are all paws and ears and it is so CUTE!!!
Gumbo and Alli sleeping together on Gumbo's bed...which they are doing RIGHT NOW!!
Seeing her fetch and try to grab the toy when Gumbo is fetching.
The way she looks like a drowned rat when she swim fetches. Still adorable!
Her pre-bark. The actual bark is loud but the noise she makes when she is working her way up to it is way cute.
Our nicknames for her. Doda Bug, Bug, Little Bit, Smoked Allibit with a nice roumelade sauce and of course The Littlest Shrimp Boat Captain with her brother Big Brown Tugboat (Gumbo).
My camera is being pooey, but I do have some phone pictures to share....
Alli with her new red collar!
Alli and Gumbo enjoying their bones together
Alli with her new friend Nellie who is 7 weeks older
She falls asleep on the chair leg a lot
I can't resist...Our Littlest Shrimp Boat Captain the day we brought her home!
bI don't understand it. I spent a good portion of my youth in upstate New York. I shoveled feet and feet of snow and sat in my parents car for 30 minutes to warm it up and carried my shoes in a plastic bag to school so I could walk to school in my boots. I should be used to the cold!
But I moved to south, south Alabama as a teenager and now I can't stand cold weather. Most of my friends live north of me and are experiencing it worse than us, but it is still darn cold here. So cold that I refuse to do things I normally do to avoid it. I will do my running this afternoon because I refuse to be outside in that weather. Yesterday Alli was resistent to her walk and I thought, "I don't want to be out here either" so we went back inside. This is precisely the reason I despise winter. You get sick, your nose runs, your feet are frozen...yuck.
One good thing about winter though is that it is the perfect reason to stay inside with a book. One of the things I want to use this blog for is to record the books I read during the year. I just finished The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I have been reccommended this book by lots of people, most notably my mom and my friends Penny and Alice. Everyone was reading it at the library when I worked there. I wanted to see what the fuss was about...
It was actually a pretty good book. It is definitely not my favorite but it did keep me guessing and reading. What was interesting to me was that the big reveal was about 100 pages from the end. It caught me by surprise which was cool because usually you know that when you get close to the end you'll get the answers. But this way you are kind shocked like the characters. But also after that I just wanted to the book to over with. So it's good and bad. Yesterday, they revealed some pics of Lisbeth Salander from the American version of the film that comes out in December. Rooney Mara is playing her, and I must say she does look the part:
I have put the Swedish version on my Netflix and will probably see the film when it comes out and will probably read the sequels someday. It is definitely something I would suggest, especially if you like mysteries and thrillers. Stay warm everyone!
TMichael and I don't have similar tastes in our lives. I like cheeseburgers and he like hamburgers. He likes the movie 300, I like sappy romantic comedies that involve a down on her luck heroine who gets it all! The differences are endless :0) One thing we do agree on is the AWESOMENSS that is the How I Met Your Mother. We used to watch it on Lifetime every evening as we cooked dinner, but we have since started Netflixing it so we can see the entire series. We are about to start Season 4...
Not only do we agree that this show is....wait for it....LEGENDARY, but we also agree on our favorite character....Marshall. Marshall is the guy we all know. He's fun to be around (hello did you see his dance on Ecstasy episode?), is fiercely loyal to his friends, a little goofy (he sings what he does..."I'm payin' my bills...") and he knows the girl he wants and sticks with her through thick and thin ("I have a list of the people I have slept with...it's called my marriage certificate!") Plus I tend to think he's like the man I married :) (Marshall wants to protect the environment, he married a redhead and he is a hopeless romantic, but don't tell Michael I told you that!)
We also agree on our favorite episode so far. It's Season 2's "Showdown", the one where Barney goes on The Price Is Right and wins everything because he knows all the prices for it all (wrong, wrong, wrong!). He also thinks Bob Barker is his dad. Hilarious!
So anyway. If you haven't seen this major awesome show (*Salute* Major Awesome!), you should absolutely suit up and watch. I will make a slap bet with you that you will become addicted too!
This song makes me cry everytime I hear it. It is so beautiful and emotional. I may be a sap but I don't care...
This is also reminds me of a concert I went with my sister when I first moved to North Carolina when the Chicks played with the Indigo Girls and Ben Folds. Aileen wanted to see Ben and I wanted to see the Chicks. It was rainy and at Verizon so it was outside and we were late because we got off work late but we bought ponchos at the amphitheatre and we sat out there in the cold and rain and watched them perform and at popcorn and laughed and it was FANTASTIC. I love my sister and that is one of my fond memories with her...
The Dixie Chicks just rock. I need to see them in concert again :)
I can't believe it's 2011. That year just seems so futuristic to me. On New Year's Eve we were driving to a friend's house and all of a sudden I exclaimed to Michael..."In Back To The Future: Part II they go to the future and there is hovering skateboards and flying cars and junk and that was supposed to be 2015. That's only 4 years from now!!" I saw that movie when it came out on Thanksgiving Day 1989 with my cousins and aunts and uncles in Ohio when were visiting them. There were so many people in the theater my aunt had to keep my 2-year-old cousin Matt in her lap...I remember stuff like that...but I digress...back then it always seemed so far away...that future. It's mindboggling to realize that future is now. Makes me stand back and reflect for sure.
I usually don't do that though. I mean I make resolutions in the sense that I think of something I would like to do but secretly know I won't and say that. I never even attempt to make that resolution happen. Not this year, however. Maybe it was all that future/past reflection that got me going. I don't know, but I do know that it REALLY got me going on resolutions. I have several that I am attempting.
My biggest perhaps is my couch to 5k program. I have said for a long time that I really want to run a 5k, but I haven't really gotten that dream off to a good start. This week started the beginning of my goal to make it. Yes, sometime in the spring you will see (or hear about since most of my friends don't live near me) me running a 5k. Yes I want to lose the weight I've gainned, but mostly I want to do it because I've always wanted to and get healthier. Here's the web site I'm using:
We'll see how I do!! It's been good so far. Another resolution is to organize our house. Our house is old and has a lot of character and most importantly is rent-free but on the downside has only 2 closets in the whole place. It's been a challenge combining all our stuff. But we plan to tackle that this weekend. I will let you know the progress later. Till next time!
I made some delicious strawberry cheesecake muffins last night. Yes they were from a mix, but gosh they were really good. I've discovered that I really enjoy baking, especially since Michael likes to cook. It's convenient--he makes the meals and I make desserts. I've started a file on my computer for recipes for things. The maintenance man at Michael's work's wife gave him a whole bag full of recipes when we got married. She's been saving them for years. I've been going through it, setting aside the ones I think look good. I haven't put them in yet and I haven't tried any but I'm sure I will blog about them when I do try them. I have a feeling Peanut Butter Pie will be in my future....
I also finished a book last night by Sarah Addison Allen. She is a North Carolina author who lives in Asheville and writes magicl realism books. I read her first book, Garden Spells, for my old book club. I thought it was fantastic and immediately read her second book, The Sugar Queen. The Girl Who Chased The Moon, is her third and the one I just finished. I like certain authors but I can usually pick out my favorite of their books. With her books, it's hard for me. I think that says something. She has a new book, The Peach Keeper, coming out March 22. I definitely can't wait!
Her books are light and fun and beautiful. Yes, beautiful. I can't describe it properly but her words to me just paints a picture that is so pretty. She always uses female characters, and there is always at least one character who bakes and cooks (this inspires me to bake as well). I also really enjoy the magical touches like giants, apple trees that allow you to glimpse your future, wallpaper that changes on its own, a girl who attracts books and finds them everywhere and many others. Plus it is set in North Carolina and reminds me of where I used to live. It just makes me happy!! I recommend them to anyone!! www.sarahaddisonallen.com
Hi everyone! This is my first post of my new blog. Everyone seems to have one of these and I never thought I could dedicate the time to this but since I am unemployed and kind of secluded in a rural area I decided this would be a perfect time to start this.
A little bit about me...I got married in October to my husband Michael and now live in Marion, Alabama. I got my master's in Library Science in August and have been looking for a job in the field. We have an 11-week-old female black lab named Alli and we have a 6-year-old brown Chesepeake retriever male named Gumbo. I'm sure I will talk about them a lot here on this thing.
This blog will be a place for me to talk about what's going on in my life. The things I am enjoying and the things I am not. Hopefully, you'll enjoy what I have to say and let me know!! And so begins my new saga!!! Talk to you soon!
