All posts by Nichole

"Daddy, have you been drinking?"

04/07/2009 Nichole 1 Comment

It’s snowing here this morning. That has boggled my mind to the extent that I don’t have much to add about these letters.

Detroit, Mich
Nov 2, 1942

Dearest Daddy

Got your letter. Was sorry to hear you all were sick. I got a card from Polly and a letter from Cornell. They’re both O.K. Annis is down there with Cornell. Polly said Tallie and Mama was in Asheville. Are you and Lennis living with Beckey or by yourselves? Tell Lennis to be good. Daddy, have you been drinking? If you have I want you to stop. When you get my letters, Daddy, write straight back. Is it cold down there yet? It’s cold up here. Did Polly take all her clothes with her? She isn’t working is she? Tell Beckey we’re O.K. and tell J.T. Dougan Jr. is getting along fine so far but he might have to change his notch. Ha. Tell him I’ll write to him soon. There isn’t any news so I will close for this time.
Love to all
Mattie Pearl

Detroit, Mich
Nov, 1942

Dear Daddy & Bug
Will answer your letter. How are you all by now? We’re all OK up here. I got a letter from Mama today. She’s OK. But I’ll bet you can’t guess where she is – she’s at Sal’s in S.C. She said her and Polly was going to get them a job as quick as they could. I haven’t heard from Cornell since he went back. Say, did he get married, and how long did he stay at home? I sure wanted to see him, but I guess I will have to go see him when I come home. Daddy, I don’t know when we’ll be home, but before Christmas I guess when D.L. has to go to the Army. That’s when we’ll be there I guess. He hasn’t took his examination yet but I guess he will soon. Daddy, tell Beckey Hello and to write to me again. Tell J.T. and Junior and Bug hello and to write. Daddy don’t wait so long to write next time.
Where are you working underground? I hope it isn’t at John Burlesin’s old mines. They’re too dangerious, Daddy. So tell Bug to write a little. So answer soon.
Love to all
Mattie P.

P.S. Mama didn’t say anything about Daddy Talley.

A few years ago, my mom gave me a shoebox full of old papers that her grandfather had saved. Some of them were yellowed receipts and such, but there were also quite a few letters from various family members. This is one of them. Here are some others.

menu plan Monday

Livin' la vida wheatless

04/06/2009 Nichole 6 Comments

My nephew has some kind of wheat intolerance or allergy, so he’s been on a wheat-free diet for most of his life. I’d never given all that much thought to it — beyond “poor kid can’t have doughnuts” — until his dad decided to try it out, too. He’s been wheat-free for a month or two (or three, maybe), and he’s lost something like 20 pounds. So I thought I’d try it. And then we got home, and I tried it for a day, and we had dinner with friends and they made pasta and that was the end of that.

We visited the Poppins household again this weekend, and it renewed my desire to try the wheat-free diet. I’m not going to be hard-core about checking sauces, etc., but I am going to try to avoid the Very Obviously Wheaty things. Here’s my first wheat-free menu.

Kung Pao Scallops
After a long, long drought, I finally got to go to PF Changs again over the weekend. The kids were so hungry and tired when we got there; I was pretty sure it was going to be a disaster. Once they got a little food in them, though, they were fine. Poppy at a crab wonton and a plate of sweet and sour chicken. I had the Kung Pao scallops. And while they were great, they reminded me that I’ve made Kung Pao before. So I thought I’d try it again.

Veggie migas
When I was pregnant, I thought it would be a good idea to throw some cheese and salsa onto a plate of scrambled eggs. It was a good instinct, and I’ve since added tortilla chips and veggie sausages to the mix. I’ve come to learn that there’s a real way to make migas. I’ve never tried to follow a recipe, but it’s easier to call my version “veggie migas” than “scrambled eggs with Tex-Mexy flava.”

Indian Butter Chicken

Pizza
I found a wheat-free crust mix to try. I might still make some dough for Rockford and the kids, because I don’t think the mix will make a very large pizza.

Domestic Blitz

Prioritizing

04/01/2009 Nichole 2 Comments

Today’s tip is one I picked up from Simple Mom (which is a really great place for the picking up of tips, by the way). I put together my version of one of her Daily Dockets a while back, and it did wonders for me in terms of getting my stuff together. Then I thought it would be terrific to have my pages laminated and spiral-bound, so I could use them over and over again. That was a few months ago, when a work thing had Rockford stopping by Kinkos pretty much every morning. So I gave the pages to him, he took them to Kinkos, and … no one ever picked them up. I’m guessing Kinkos has tossed them by now.

But that wasn’t the point I was trying to make here.

The most helpful part of the Daily Docket for me is the making of the Most Important Tasks list. As the name suggests, you pick the day’s top priorities and give them their own special place on your to-do list. And then you do them.

There was a special place for those three-to-five items on my Daily Docket pages. Fortunately, though, I can write down a few important things on a non-specialized piece of paper. Yesterday I only managed to do three of the five. But on a day when I don’t write ’em down? I might’ve accomplished one of the five.

One of these days I’ll put “Reprint the Daily Docket” on my Most Important Tasks lists. Until then, though, jotting those MITs down on a scrap of paper will have to work for me.

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