A tribute to Granny-isms

Several years back my grandmother (here on out known as "granny" because that's just what we call her) was placed in a nursing home facility so that she could have the very best care for the rest of her life.  She lived there 6 1/2 years!  I didn't go much, but the staff were always pleasant and my mom and her sisters have given them much praise since her passing.  I'm assuming she was well cared for there.
However, her living there ended the years and years of visiting the farm...

 This is it.  Their humble little house in Kevil, KY.  I thought driving there would absolutely kill me when I was little.  I didn't know it then, but it could have been so much worse had I been forced to wear a seat belt or ride in a booster seat!  Instead, when mom said load up (at 4am) I'd make a bed in the back seat floorboard and sleep most of the way.  Kara and I took turns laying playing the games we had brought with us (yesterday's version of a Nintendo DS was a miniature PacMan or Tron arcade game...still wish I had those!) Many hours later, I'd be running up that side walk to my granny who held the door open for me. "You're brown as a biscuit!" I later figured out that she was talking about my tan. 
The downstairs of the house had 2 bedrooms, kitchen, living room and bathroom.  The back porch was off the kitchen and in the winter the whole back porch served as nature's ice box.  Pies and cakes and whatever needed to be kept cold, could just stay there instead of the refrigerator if there was lots of company and a need to save space inside.  It was also where my granddaddy would come in from the farm and strip and streak to the bathroom! (We never saw that...so I'm not even 100% sure it's true.  I know it stunk like crazy when he came in though...he was a hog farmer.)  Here are the barns off to the side of the house. 


At some point in life we all had the nickname "toot-tail".  It typically referred to the kids that happened to be the youngest.  Thank God for Krisie and then Jason, who inherited the nickname shortly after me.  Kara won the title in 1982.  (There were only 4 grandchildren.) 
Over the years, we learned the "Granny-isms"...like "toot-tail" meant littlest kid. 

Granny was allergic to everything.  As a matter of fact, I remember being really small and seeing her in the hospital.  I don't remember much, but I do know my mom was very upset and scared she would die then.  I'm not sure if she was ever diagnosed with asthma or if she ever actually had anaphylactic shock, but perfume, hairspray, lotions, etc were forbidden.
Actually, upon our arrival, I'm almost positive granddaddy gave us the sniff test.  "You gonna have ta go warsh that plug-a-muckem off for you give granny a hug."  What the...what did he just say?  Yeah..."plug-a-muckem" was the granny-ism for anything smelly.  It plugs up your....I don't know.  Anyway, it makes her sneeze and wheeze and that's what she nicknamed it.  So on occasion, we use the granny-ism for anything super smelly....plug-a-muckem.   

Many meals were shared around her table.  We all squeezed in there so tight you couldn't put a hair in between...and the plates teetered on the edge of the table because the table was full (I mean full) of food.  I honestly don't know if I can even name all of it, but a large majority of veggies came from the garden she kept on the opposite side of the house (barns were on the left and the garden was on the right.)  I'm so glad she taught my mom how to garden, but I do wish I had granny's green thumb.  Anyway, my granddaddy would bless the food and I wouldn't do this post any service if I didn't mention that his voice was deep and loud.  His prayer every single solitary time started with "We thank Thee our loving heavenly Father for the bountiful table set before us...."  True story.  We ate and laughed and shared stories because we didn't drive to Kevil much...maybe twice or three times a year.  So we liked catching up and that usually happened while eating because that was the only time everyone was together.  "Good stuff Maynard!" someone would say while we were eating.  Wait.  Who's that?  No one here has the name Maynard.  I'm not really sure where that ism came from, but if something tastes good at Granny's house that's what you say.  Don't know who you are or where you are Mr. Maynard....but apparently you are there in spirit and make the food taste good (?)

Do you know why you say "bless you" when someone sneezes?  It's a drawn out story of life and health.  It's a common courtesy to say it when you hear a sneeze.  This granny-ism is one for the sneeze.  I inherited my granny's allergies to nature.  Shuck corn...sneeze, mow the yard...sneeze, basically anything outside...sneeze.  So, when you help on the farm guess what?  Sneeze.  "Scat Tom your tail's on fire!"  Who's What is on fire?  Where did this come from?  I literally just Googled it and it is an old Appalachian saying for a sneezer!  Who knew!?  Seems like a lot more syllables than Bless You, but not nearly as fun.  Each subsequent sneeze however, resulted in a "scat"....which to me means go away toot-tail, but apparently at Granny's it continues to mean bless you.  (Maybe a little confusing to a kid.)

Oh boy.  Dare I bring home a boyfriend?  Not sure it was the best idea, but I did and I know Amanda did (she's my aunt that's only 4 years older...my mom's youngest sister.)  The purpose of an introduction is to tell the boyfriend granny's name and to tell granny the boyfriend's name.  I don't know why, why, why....but in my granny's mind every boyfriend's name was "Goober John".  Ugh.  How embarrassing.  Yep.  Let's just say the boyfriend doesn't go to Kevil (Good choice), but you'd like to talk on the phone.  Ok, small farm house....ONE phone.  The phone was on the kitchen wall with a cord that would reach (I'm not kidding) anywhere on the first level of the house no matter what corner you might be crouching in.  The cord was so long (and so tangled) that your lazy butt could be on the living room couch and granny could bring you the phone!  So, what happens is Greg calls me at Granny's house and she has the receiver in her hand and yells at me wherever I'm at in the house..."Hey Jana!?  Goober John is on the phone!"  O.My.Word. for real.

Last one...the house isn't big.  I've already described the first floor.  The upstairs was literally 2 bedrooms.  No bathrooms, just go upstairs and there are 2 bedrooms, no doors.  Not really a lot of places to hide or get lost, but let's say you needed granny for something.  What do you do?  You say her name while walking through the house looking for her.  "Graaannnnyyyy...."  then you hear a "yoooooowhooooo".  Not "I'm in the bedroom" or "I'm in the bathroom" or "I'm upstairs getting something".  It's "yoo-who"....the granny version of marco polo. 

 

 

 

The photos in this blog were taken before the tornado of 2012 destroyed the barn by the house and both hog barns.  The buyers of the farm still use the land for corn and soy beans.  The little house is still there!  The upstairs was lifted from the house and in a nearby field, but has since been repaired.  Kara and I drove out to the farm the day of the funeral and literally went down memory lane.  I love these -isms.  They are forever in our family.  My maternal grandparents were faithful Christians.  I must give them credit here for instilling the faith in my mom, who passed it on to me so that I can share it with you and my own children. 

 

Hope you enjoyed the "Granny-isms"...

Have a very blessed day!
Jana



Girls' Bathroom part 3 of 3!

 

I think I should have made the Girl's Bathroom a 4 part series....I'll just title it the "finale" after I peel off the wallpaper and paint.

Ok here's a reminder of what we started with...

We finished the trim work and I'm ready to strip wallpaper and paint! Let me remind you that this is peel and stick tile with grout.  It looks really good, even if I did do it myself! 



This is behind the door...where we removed the folding doors. 

  Greg and I are getting fairly professional at installing quarter round (shoe molding), caulking, spackling, painting, etc., etc.  :-)
We removed the bi-folding doors on this linen closet and they will NOT go back up!  I'll include it in the finale, but I'm considering the following:

• leaving the closet open!  paint, add in wooden shelves, and use baskets for organization
• using curtains instead of a door.....I'm not crazy about having a door behind a door (it's behind the door that leads to the first section of the bathroom)

Ideas? Opinions?

Ugh, I just realized the finale may be a while away....we are going to redo their vanities.  :-/ Well maybe the finale will be in 2 parts!  LOL

As some of you know we have just gotten back from my grandmother's funeral.  I will be working on a very special blog post about her.  My hope is that it's inspirational and not a tear jerker because I look like I've been on drugs for at least 3 days since I have cried for 5 days in a row!  She wouldn't want that....she was a funny lady and I'll be sharing some stories with you!

I hope you have a very blessed day. 
jmh

Homeschool Room

Next in line: The homeschool room....We really, really, really want to paint the living room.....BUT, we found "oops" paint at Lowe's that was perfect for the hs room.  Each gallon is about $35 if you buy the printer + paint in the semi-gloss.  There were 2 full gallons of yellow (same color even) for $10.00 each.  SO, for the price of less than 1 gallon, we had enough paint for the room.  Throw in a pack of rollers and we spent a total of:
$20.00 for paint
$15.00 for supplies (because I broke down and bought a better brush for this room....I keep buying the cheap ones and throwing them away.)
$30.00 burlap curtains @ 50% off at Bed, Bath and Beyond
$10.00 curtain rod @Wal-Mart
$7.50 for the map valance
Less than $100.00 on this room....makes me VERY happy!

Before:

Good grief that's a terrible quality picture. 

After!

You may need sunglasses to walk into this room.  It's bright banana yellow, but hey, it was cheap AND it should keep them awake.  I still have some decorating to do on this wall above my desk.  Not really sure what to do here....I have those floating flowers that I'm thinking about using. The valance is actually a quilt panel that I cut to fit the hardware that was already here.  (That seems to be an expensive part of window treatments....the curtain rods!)  The panel was on sale for $6 and the accent green on the edges was in the clearance bin, both at JoAnn's. 


The World Map Theme is something that just happened.  

 

  

Just in case anyone wants to know my desk and both book shelves are from IKEA (expedit collection) and the girls' desks and green bookshelf are Legare furniture.  I love Legare and it's worth every penny.  Legare furniture does not have nuts and bolts and screws and it takes literally about 10 minutes or less to put a desk together.   

Low on the list of things to replace in the house are all of the folding doors.  There is lots of closet space in the bedrooms, which is good because we had to consolidate our "game closet" that was in our other house into the homeschool room here.  ALL of the smaller toys, puzzles, games, dress up clothes, crafts, and a large number of our books are in this closet.

Have you thought about homeschooling your child and can't decide if it's the right thing to do for your family?  Here's a snippit of our story:  I knew early on that Lendi would be a good candidate for homeschooling.  I also knew that she missed the cut off at the school we attended.  I really felt that it was best to not hold her back.  She was doing really good with reading and math already and in my heart she needed to go to Kindergarten.  Marli was going into 2nd grade and I decided to homeschool her too.  I didn't want to have 1 kid in school and 1 kid at home...I didn't know if that would actually work for us.  The bottom line is that we were just as busy at home (socially) as we would have been at school....if not more.  The whole "weird, unsocialized homeschooler" idea is an old and quite frankly lame excuse not to homeschool.  What I LOVE is that I can meet each child at their level and choose the curriculum that best suits their learning style.  Once upon a time, I was that mom that said "I would never homeschool." Yep. That was me!  I'm glad I'm on the other side of that story now, because I understand why families choose it.  I'm so thankful that God confirmed over and over that we made the right decision.  I'm also very thankful to the support from other homeschooling families that are in our area. 
Questions about homeschooling?  There are many resources out there!  I started with www.homeschoolreviews.com to explore the different curriculums available and I liked the comments.  Let me just be completely honest and say that not every day of school is perfect and goes smoothly.  However, if I had it to do over again.....I would make the same decision. (And yes, we have already started back to school!) 

Have a blessed day,
Jana

The Hallway!

The hallway is long....very long....what to do with the wallspace!?

Right outside the girls door, I have some inspirational stuff for them to see.  Will they notice it?  I'm not sure.  I think having some positive inspiration here and there in the house is a good thing!

 

On the wall facing our guest bedroom are the beautiful beach pictures that we had made about 3 years ago.  I just can't put them away....I love them.  If you visit the Pensacola Beach area, check out www.raeleytham.com 

And then the wall closest to the foyer is the extended family wall.  I hope to add to this for many years.  There is enough space here for it to get slightly out of hand....but I want our visitors to see our grandparents, parents, sisters, brothers, nieces and nephews.  

Our lovely "Pensacola Beach" piece by Mitzi Presley Holt has a wall to itself.  We are not art collectors by any means, but Greg and I have lived in some beautiful areas in the last 14 years.  We have tried to make sure we buy one piece of framed art to remind us of the locations we've lived in and always keep them hanging up in our home.  We loved our time in Pensacola and made lifetime friends there....it's so hard to believe that we've been gone 8 1/2 years!  

Now for the color.  I know you are wondering if it's the same as the foyer and the answer is....No.  It's not!  Can you believe that?  I wanted it to be lighter and it looks almost the exact same color.  It's on the same color swatch....two shades lighter than the foyer.  Oh well.  I still think the color on the wall makes all the difference in the world.  

What would you do here???  This is the last space in the hallway...you can see it from the kitchen and the foyer.  I don't think we need anymore portraits.  

Have a beautiful day.  
Jana 

The Whole Story on the snake drama

So yesterday on Facebook, I posted our morning adventure and last night when Greg was reading through my posts, I realized that he didn't have any credit for helping.  I told him I wanted to put it in the blog....so here is the full version of the snake trapped in the garage door.

Greg's mom had been visiting since Monday and was leaving Thursday.  On Thursdays, we (me and the girls) try to do the 10am summer movie series because it's a cheap date.  So, we said our good-byes to "Nanny" and went to the car.  Her ride to go back to KY would be there is less than 5 minutes and we were going to be late already.  (I like to be there around 9:45 to get a good seat.)  So, at about 9:30 The girls were in the car and I tried to raise the garage door and it would only go up about 2 feet.  I put it back down.  Tried again...it stopped.  Seriously.  I don't have time for this to happen.  They are looking so forward to seeing that movie!  I put it back down and started looking for what could be the problem.  I saw a black thing lodged in the track.  There it is! 

Oh frickitydoda, it's moving.....wait, is that what I think it is?  I went around the outside of the garage and he is about a foot on the other side sticking his tongue out at me.  That stinker had tried to crawl from inside the garage to outside.  Well, he sure didn't go fast enough and this means he was probably in the garage when Greg left for work!  Bwahahahaha!  How in the world did this happen!?  Well, too late for him...he's damaged from the garage door and clearly he can't get out.  He's stuck....tight in the track of the door.  

Now Faye shows up (Nanny's ride) and they smiley faced leave me there with two kids and a snake.  (I think Faye would have helped me, but I was in shock over the fact that we had a 4 ft snake in the garage and I didn't want the girls to watch her kill it either.)  

I sent the girls inside and told them what was going on....for them to watch TV and I would come get them in a few.  I go down to the building and get a spade, a hard yard rake and a pair of loppers. Yesterday I said "hedge trimmers"....I looked that up and um....I did NOT use electric hedge trimmers on that snake.  Shew that would have been messy.  So, I had to Google my exact tool this morning and they are "loppers"... :)  never knew that.  I talked to myself a lot and prayed and decided that if I'm going to make it to the movie, I better get going.  Be the mom and take care of business, so we can go eat movie popcorn see a flick we actually own on the big screen!  At 10:05ish....I called my friend that I was meeting at the movies and I explained that there was no way we were going to make it.  She and Lendi's little buddy would be on their way to our house instead.

By this time, I have called Greg's work phone, his work cell phone and his personal cell at least 10 times.  I texted the following "You need to answer your phone I'm fixing to call its semi emergency but everyone is fine" I called....he didn't answer!  I was getting very annoyed, but he did call back and I found out he was in a meeting in Cleveland with his boss :)  Sorry about that, but um....you have a snake in your garage door and I can't get out of the garage and uh....you and Shawn need to get over here and take care of it!!!  I think he and Shawn thought that was funny (I was being serious.)  Greg would be on his way.

Seriously y'all, I wasn't trying to be a superwoman....I just wanted to make the 10am movie for my girls!  So, I had already killed it and gotten my kitchen gloves and pulled and yanked as hard as I could to get him unwedged.  Wasn't happening.  

The great thing about Greg being in Cleveland was that it's not that far from our new house and it's on his way back to work.  By the time he got there, he was clearly like...."oh my word" when he pulled in the drive way....because (graphic visual here) his view would have been "a decapitated snake is hanging out my garage door and there's blood...and there's my woman with some purple kitchen gloves and a diet mountain dew" when he pulled into the driveway. 

He assessed the situation and we agreed that we needed to pull him from the inside as much as we could.  I seriously thought he was impaled by the track.  He was in the curve and there are some places there that...well, hard to explain, but I thought he was injured from the inside and going to die anyway.  I had on the gloves, so I pulled as hard as I could.  I mentioned yesterday that Greg was moral support and he was because the snake came un-lodged from the track!  I think him being there made me stronger :)  He was still stuck, but he wasn't in the track.  So, Greg got a tool out of the AT&T truck (looks like one of those things you open the water meter lid with) and pulled it through to where he was trying to exit. Clearly not what that tool was designed to do....but who cares.  THEN and here's the kicker.  We had to open the garage door.  At this point, I did experience a little anxiety....I'm not going to lie.  I held the snake and Greg opened the garage door.  He's yelling (not loud, but loud enough to hear over the opening of the door) "Pull it!  Pull it!"  Oh my word....it fell out of the door and I'm still holding it because I don't want blood everywhere.  I took it around to the driveway and stretched him out for a picture.

The kitchen glove is there for comparison.  We figure somewhere between 3 1/2 and 4 feet from tip to tip.  Holy cow. 





















Walking with it to the woods to throw him to the flying critters (we have a hawk and 2 owls that live around here), our friends show up....just in time for lunch!  LOL, just kidding...but it is funny to think back about how we used to dissect animals in college and then go eat together. 

Sigh.....yes.  I had a nightmare last night.  Yesterday when we finally got out of the
house, I took the girls to lunch.  A sit down lunch at Los Potros....no fast food and screaming kids at a playground.  I was a little frazzled and needed some sweet tea with chips and salsa.  Next door to that is the Tractor Supply company and I went in there to get some snake repellent.  I ended up not buying it, but the lady explained that it messes with their nose and they just go away...perfect.  I want them to catch mice, just catch them out in the woods.  Apparently that was on my mind, because in my dream, I'm sprinkling this stuff all around the house thinking that it was going to make the snakes stay away.  I got to the lower driveway and a very large, triangular headed snake was there.  I squeezed my snake repellent right on it's head and it didn't affect it at all.  He chased me until I woke up.  
 

It's a new day.....Thank God!

Jana
















  

Shhhhhh! DON'T tell Greg.....

...that he just completed his first, very own, Pinterest project!!!  Bwahahahaha!
Since we've bought this house that required a redo of every room (mostly just wall paint)...Pinterest has been my "go to" for various ideas from color to décor.  We have this lovely gold fireplace cover that is the eyesore of the living room.  We spend a lot of time in there and hopefully this fall we can enjoy either the gas logs (or if I have my way by fall....an all natural wood burning fire.)  So, of course on Pinterest I read that you can use the heat resistant Rustoleum spray paint (that's used for outdoor grills, etc) to update the gold fireplace cover!!! When he started talking about what to do about it, I casually mentioned that I've "heard of people spray painting them with the heat resistant paint".  Hook, line and sinker...he bought the paint and did it yesterday!  The history behind that story is that I have used the phrase "well, I saw on Pinterest....blah blah blah...." and he's so over that phrase.  With me, it's just about as common as "whatever". 

Here's the before:

And here's the AFTER! 

Any ideas for what to put above it??  It's a lot of space and goes to the ceiling...mirror?  Large art? 

True story: he got to the point where I had to start saying "you know there's a website I like that had the idea to ---(fill in the blank)"  We were to the point of hanging pictures in the foyer and I said something like..."you know there's a website that I like that says to use toothpaste on the back of the framed picture to show exactly where to put the nail instead of guessing how far down the nail should go from the top of the frame" 

Here's his face when he felt as stupid as the rest of us for reading Pinterest and having light bulb moments:

And then he said....OK you can say Pinterest for another month.

Have a GREAT day!
Jana

Half Bath Complete!

I'm way excited about the half bath being finished.  Greg installed the last of the plumbing last night.
We had been without a sink in there for several weeks and really couldn't find what we were looking for....to be quite honest, we couldn't agree on a vanity that we both liked!  I wanted a piece of small furniture and a stone sink on top.  He didn't want to cut a hole in a perfectly good piece of furniture.  We had a quote for a granite top on the former cabinet...way too expensive for a 1/2 bath and that vanity was too big anyway.  (That's why I ripped it out!)  We had looked at Lowe's and Home Depot to start....then branched out to some specialty stores.  Again, just not finding what we wanted.  We had to get plumbing supplies for the girls' bathroom redo and just ventured over to the vanities at Lowe's.  Viola!  It was a new display and we bought it on the spot.  SO, here it is! and here is a shot of the before and afters just as a reminder.  It's the only room in the house that is 100% made over, LOL, I'm glad it happens to be the bathroom.

Can you believe that???!!  It's a great color and even though its a very small 1/2 bath, the smaller sink gives it a roomy-er feel. 

Have a great day!
Jana