Month: August 2008
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Dad loved taking a Sunday afternoon drive to see the country. In the 1980’s, after his last child had graduated, he lived in the New Mexico side of the four-corners where he found his perfect job – delivering fuel to gas stations across the western landscape. On Mom’s days off, she frequently accompanied him on…
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Flash floods in El Dorado
The downpour of rain Tuesday pounded our roof as I packed food for work and fielded my husband’s comments about the unusually poor drainage in our backyard. Hydroplaning my way to the north end of town to shop before I clocked-in, I observed with astonishment the deep, swirling water filling ditches and overflowing sometimes onto…
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Sewing class
I really didn’t intend to cut off anyone’s fingers last weekend – I just wanted to play home-ec teacher when I invited the granddaughters to learn how to use one or another of my three sewing machines. They looked at me in total astonishment. “I’m afraid I will cut off my finger,” one explained. “That’s…
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macaroni and cheese
Knowledge of my life-long affinity for homemade macaroni and cheese has spread across the Internet to the rural community of 500 in Goessel, Kansas where Terah Yoder Goerzen lives. In April, she wrote, “I came to read your blog through an odd open-source software and Mennonite connection that could only happen online.” It makes sense…
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Think green! Conspicuous consumer
Long before it was fashionable to Think Green, my husband’s mother Lived Green. She didn’t just think about modern ways to “reduce, reuse, recycle and recover,” Mrs. Hershberger lived an even older adage: “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.” Mrs. Hershberger became a family legend for her frugalities that…