Tuesday, December 20, 2011

it's christmas time, in the..... country

Back so soon you say? Well yes, I am trying to keep up with this for a little while. Hopefully I'll have a longer run than last time. I just finished making Aunt Jo's cream cheese braids, well actually they are Nancy Hollingsworth's but since I don't know who she is I call them 'Aunt Jo's' .. It's a two day process of mixing and dishes and flour all over the kitchen and it is so totally worth it.

Every year at Christmas our neighbors, the 'other Clarks', bring us a cream cheese braid and it was technically supposed to be saved for our Christmas Day Brunch, but in recent years I have been eating part of the middle out and sliding it back together so you can't tell I've been secretly devouring it at night while everyone sleeps. My mother probably thought they were just getting smaller every year. HaHa! So finally last year I begged my mother to ask 'Aunt Jo' for the recipe. I will post it under the recipe tag. :)

We had a Christmas oyster roast here on Saturday night and I discussed my ideas for a book club, etc. I had one taker on the book club, then someone's husband mentioned that people around here don't really read, and he meant that they can't, so I didn't feel so bad about my previous post. Then my sweet friend Katherine said that she was recently invited to a Pinterest party and everyone made a craft. Maybe I should really follow through with that idea. (Windsor: I'll let you skype in!)

I thought that Brent and I were really missing out on the social scene around these parts but I was informed that one doesn't exist, unless you are in the crowd that goes to places like Goast Island or the strip mall bar in Sumter, but we are most certainly not. And then I discovered that not only is there no social scene, but people don't even really entertain. I guess I will have to start the trend. I did hear that there is a supper club that we are not a part of, so I am determined that even though we don't live in Manning that I will find my way into that supper club. Or just steal the people I like away from that one and start my own. When else will I be able to use all of my fine china and my 16 foot dining room table?

I could keep rambling on, but it is lunch time and I will have to eat some more cream cheese braid and do laundry. Then start wrapping Christmas presents and pack to go home tomorrow. There seriously isn't enough time in the day...

[[cream cheese roll is NOT low fat... as my stomach hangs over my jeans. yay me. i feel like the truvia commercial of the woman eating doughnuts as they sing "jiggle bell"..]]

Thursday, December 15, 2011

seriously, it's been three months?

I honestly don't know where the time has gone. I can't believe that it has been three months since I have last written. Trust me, I have gotten plenty of grief about it but it hasn't hit me yet that it has been so long. So much has happened since September 16th.. WOW! Let's see, I've gotten married, gone on a honeymoon, quit my job, buried both of my grandmothers, celebrated Halloween, Thanksgiving, and now getting ready for Christmas. One of my best friends had a baby, one graduated from college (finally after 8 years..), three friends have gotten engaged and another is now pregnant. Time sure flies by! As I write this, Birdie is attempting to climb in my lap, she is completely unaware that she is no longer the tiny baby puppy that used to sleep in my lap while I worked at the computer, she now weighs almost 70 pounds and is barely 9 months old!

You would think now that I am a stay at home wife that I would have more time for stuff like this but I seem to always be busy and on the go. I have turned 'staying at home' into my full time job. I have a whiteboard in my office that I have turned into a schedule of sorts. It lists all of my household duties that must be done Monday through Friday. (I get the weekends off* haha, I wish!) For example on Wednesdays I vacuum and mop all the floors in the house and do laundry. Since these tasks don't take all day I have time to pay bills, unpack boxes, organize, take care of and keep up with our three sweet adolescent dogs, go to the grocery store, bake, cook supper, run errands for Brent, blow the leaves out of the yard, wrap Christmas presents, do dishes... you get the drift. It's not as glamorous as you may think. Sometimes I wish I did still get up and go to an office every morning instead of cleaning up dog poop, picking up socks and dirty washcloths, and playing maid all day, but like they say, the grass is always greener on the other side.

I think for the start of 2012 I will incorporate going to the gym and getting my nails done into my weekly schedule. Maybe one day this place will have a book club or garden club, although I'm not even sure the women down here my age read, much less tend flowers or a garden. I am by no means insinuating that they cannot read, just that skimming magazines or gossip columns probably seem more fitting. At least we have Pinterest now so everyone has suddenly gone Martha Stewart and people are cooking and making crafts. Maybe I should start a Pinterest club! We can all get together and make t-shirt scarves. :)

I jest, I jest. I am still getting used to the idea that I am going to live here forever. Before Brent and I got married there was always still the option to take off, but now I'm here to stay! I do love living on the farm. I love that our front yard right now is a giant wheat field and our back yard is a pond. The dogs are free to run and play and we have no neighbors or traffic going by, well, unless people are coon hunting. Then we might have someone in our back yard, but for the most part it is a life of solitude. The only thing I wish is that we had Harris Teeter and Target close by and somewhere I can dress up to go. I look sadly at the shoes in my closet and I know that they are totally jealous of my crocs and they want to go out and be seen. I could always start incorporating some of my fancier things into my church outfit, but then again.. I live in a super teeny tiny small town and people love to talk. I can hear it now "Did you see that girl Brent married in church on Sunday, who does she think she is?"

So for now I will just continue to wear my fancy shoes around the house and drink champagne in my pajamas. I have a secretly fabulous life. xx