Just Call Me a Cat

While growing up I scorned a lot of things. Not the least of which was country music and anything domestic. I learned to sew in Junior High only because they make you take the class. I use the term "learn to sew" very lightly because as an accomplished whiner I have the ability to make people feel sorry for me and do things for me that I should do for myself. So, believe it or not I got through my sewing class with my teacher doing all my pinning and practically sewing the jacket I took away from the class. That was the last time I touched a sewing machine. I didn't like to cook. I didn't know how to grow anything except mold which grew in abundance in our refrigerator in our student housing apartment. Canning was something your grandmother did and I am no grandma. There was no reason to make my own bread because that was what Albertson's was for. Lastly, scrapbooking....that was something I whined my way to get my sister to do and when she moved I got my husband to help. Sure I helped and told them what to do and mocked them severely when something doesn't turn out but I don't do it myself. Then something happened and to be honest I'm still trying to figure out how I became a domesticated house cat.

The first to go was my scorn for country music. My dad is a cowboy and I was raised on the likes of Johnny Cash, Willie Nielsen, Kenny Rogers, and any other musician with a lost horse, unfaithful woman, and a warble. In college I started liking country music because cute boys can country dance and before I knew it I was singing Willie Nielsen in my car with Gage and Luke in the backseat thinking what the crap just happened?

Next, I wanted to grow a garden. Both my grandma's survived the depression and can make anything grow. They both had glorious gardens while I was growing up but I never thought I would grow one. Again, Albertson's has all the produce I would need right? Wrong again. I grew my first garden this year and I'm bursting with pride for it. I removed all the grass by myself and with Tim's help tilling it I have these huge plants! I guess gardening gets passed in the genes as well. Which means I have a ton of zucchini, tomatoes, and pumpkins. All this produce leads to canning and I'm actually excited to do it and I don't have too many gray hairs to speak of and there are no Depends anywhere in this house. I grated zucchini to freeze this morning and thought how wonderful it will be to make zucchini bread in the dead of winter with zucchini grown from my very own garden. Seriously, what happened to me?

This gives you the prespective for how big our plants are.

Beautiful fruit

Lastly, I've had this yearning lately to learn to sew...for real this time. I tried to get my brother to sell me his wife's sewing machine, because she doesn't like to sew, but he discovered that he likes to sew and became my third sister so that was a no go. My mom said I could have her old sewing machine but could never find it. So for the last year or so I've had all the desire but no machine to learn on and too cheap to buy a new one. Then by a stroke of genius I decided to check out the DI and I found one for $25. Some of the parts were in their original packaging and even though it was an older model it looked good so I decided to take the risk. When I got it home the wheel wasn't driving the needle but thanks to Tim's tinkering and a really weird guy at The Sewing Company, Tim was able to replace the wheel for $14 and I now have a working sewing machine! Side note on my thriftiness. I found the same sewing machine on Craig's list for $379 so on top of all my other newly acquired domestic abilities I am thrifty too. The trick will be me disciplining myself so I don't get my mother-in-law do it all the pinning for me. The only thing that is NOT going to change is scrapbooking. I hate it and I vow to never do it. Especially since I can't cut straight. Other than that...I guess you don't have to wear dentures to like this domestic stuff. Who knew?