A Monday Morning List

1.  Jo-Jos.  I cannot believe the people do not know what Jo-Jos are.  We had an event at church yesterday, and, as luck would have it, Jo-Jos were on the menu.  Here is Daisy Mae posing with the beloved, fried potato wedge.

The poor picture quality is certainly not my fault.  The theme of the event was a sort of space theme and it was quite dark in there.

2.  Otherwise, the picture would have been super top notch.  As you well know.

3.  Yes.  My church has space-themed events.  Doesn't yours?

4.  The astute reader might recall that my cook top completely and utterly broke whilst I was canning the other day, resulting in me shunning peaches, canning, and my family name all in one fell swoop.

Well.

This weekend, country came to town.  David loaded up the truck and trailer.  We had rabbits to transport. We were hoping to get hay.  Also, perhaps bunk beds. Plus, we were in the market to get the little lady a new cook top.  I am sure we were quite the site, pulling up to the classy appliance store with our truck, trailer, animal cages, and four well-behaved, and not at all dirty, children.

But, I digress.

5.  To replace the exact cook top we had was going to cost us country folk $1,700.

6. I know.  It killed me dead, too.

7.  So we told the kind man we would let him know and walked our poor, country selves back to the rig.

8.  Fun fact!  Canning killed my cook top.  So, in order to pay for blowing up my old one, I will have to can for all eternity.

9.  As luck would have it, about 1 hour after we got the $1,700 quote, we found one on The Craiglist and my husband got it for $100!

Bam!  Be excited.

10.  Next, we were to join my parents for some blackberry picking.  I know.  We are relentless with the berries.  We have some friends who were going out of town and they said, and I quote,

"Please.  Come and pick our berries.  You can have them all."

Well, you know us.  So, we went and picked and picked and picked.  After a slight communication problem, we realized that we left at least half of the berries at our friends' house.  So, the next day, David and I went to fetch them and there were seven happy deer nearby and a very empty, clean blackberry container.  So, we basically picked berries to feed the deer. I am sure the deer appreciated the special treat of being able to eat berries without having to deal with thorns.

11.  It was an epic, berry picking fail.

12.  The boys got invited to their first (that I can recall) friend birthday party.  They were about to explode with excitement over these two facts:

A)  There might be cake.

B)  Their sisters were not invited.

Every 2.5 minutes, I was asked this question:

"But not the girls, right, Mom?  RIGHT?  MOM?  THE GIRLS CAN'T COME, RIGHT?"

They are so loving of their sisters.

13.  David wants to purchase 300 pounds of corn for $25.  It is another one of his Craigslist deals.

Just thought I should let you know.  So you could pity me.

14.  Take heart!  I shall not can any corn on my new $100 cook top. If you never learn anything from me while reading this blog (and you probably won't), please take heed of this warning:

Do Not Ever Can On A  Smooth Top Stove.

Don't!  Don't do it!

I will be taking my canning to the camping stove set up on my back deck.  Because I can't get any classier.

15.  I found a chicken's leg in the chicken coop.  It was horrifying and fascinating all at the same time.

Why was it there?

How did the chicken die?

And, perhaps most importantly, where is the rest of the chicken?  Why was that one leg deemed unfit for consumption while the rest of the chicken was a tasty snack?

Things to ponder on a Monday morn.