Well (Reta), I've been keeping up with the dishes since you were here. That's time-consuming in itself, but doesn't seem so for the simple reason that I'm doing small amounts more often. I don't wait for them to pile up. It's easy when I'm home all the time!
I also tried out a new recipe for soda crackers, adding sesame seeds and finely chopped onions to the dough. They turned out okay. Nothing spectacular, but pretty decent.
I went with Scott when he had to give bales to the cattle this morning. His brother, who usually does the chores with him, was nowhere to be found and the "coos" were hungry, so my help was enlisted. All I had to do was stand at an open gate and make sure no cattle came through it. Easy enough. They weren't trying very hard. But man it was cold out there! I wore leggings under my jeans, a winter jacket with the hood up, a scarf, tuque and gloves, and still the wind got the best of me. I'll never figure out how those two men handle the cold while taking care of their herd. Moving more than I was, maybe that's it.
I washed the sheets from all three of our beds. Cathy's coming tomorrow!
In the late afternoon I bundled up and walked three miles with Ducky Doodle.
So yeah, not too exciting, nothing to write about really, but there goes a day.
The article (titled The Importance of Little Things) following the link at the end of this excerpt is long but interesting; here's a brief taste:
"Many of the difficulties of modern couples and families can in part be blamed on the way prestige is distributed. Couples are not only besieged by practical demands at every hour, they are also inclined to think of these demands as pretty much humiliating, banal and meaningless, and are therefore likely to be averse to investigating them at length or offering pity or praise to one another, or themselves, just for enduring them. The word ‘prestige’ sounds wholly inappropriate when applied to the school run and the laundry because we have been perniciously trained to think of this quality as naturally belonging elsewhere, in high politics or scientific research, the movies or fashion. We seem unwilling to allow for the possibility that the glory of our species may lie not only in the launch of satellites, the founding of companies and the manufacture of miraculously thin semi-conductors, but also in an ability – even if it is widely distributed among billions – calmly to spoon yogurt into small mouths, find missing socks, clean toilets, deal with tantrums and wipe congealed things off tables. Here too, there are trials worthy not of condemnation or sarcastic ridicule but also of a degree of prestige, so that they may be endured with greater sympathy and fortitude." -From THE BOOK OF LIFE
