Random Thoughts, Thanksgiving Edition

There are so many things that happen around here that I don't understand. I accept them, but I don't understand them. Like this baby in this bucket, for example. Or when someone says something like, "Malachi is making holes in the finger!" I usually just say, "Oh, hmm." Occasionally something becomes clear: I'll find a foam finger with a neat three-hole-punch out of it, perhaps—but really, most comprehension simply passes me by altogether. I'm just getting used to it.

I hate that you're not supposed to capitalize the seasons. In fact, I hereby reject that rule. Fall, especially, benefits from the capital letter which I will unflinchingly continue to give it.

I had the pastry blender out tonight, cutting shortening into flour, and I thought, "How many women are there across the country, doing this exact same thing at this exact same moment?" Then I thought, "How many women have done it over the years?" It made me feel like I was One with the Ages. Just one of the many benefits of making pie!

Due to illness one week and Sam being out of town the next, we didn't hold our traditional Pre-Thanksgiving Run-Through this year. Next year in Jerusalem, friends! Without that run-through for fortification, I'm only making things I've made lots of times before: my rolls, this pie, and this carrot soufflé. I'm also remembering this pie and this pie with fondness. If we were having a bigger crowd tomorrow I'd make them too!

The other day Malachi told me, "Mommy, I literally hate infinity." He also said, darkly, after we somehow got sidetracked into talking about Schrödinger's cat and the two-slit experiment during school, "You never should have told us ANY of that!" Poor little lamb.
Nutmeg went to be a model in Sam's Gesture Drawing class at BYU one day. Daisy went too, to take care of Nutmeg. She was SO excited I thought she would explode. Afterwards she told me, "We went to the Creamery for lunch, and guess what I got there? ICE CREAM!"
There was some snow in the yard. Daisy used all of it to make this snowman, little Snowy. How she loved him!
Poor Snowy. His life was short, but it affected all of us. Out, out, brief candle!

5 comments

  1. That is such a cute picture of that baby,and, that bunny

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  2. We had a baby in a bucket last night as well. We bought the bucket for brining the turkey. Were you brining?

    I also had a similar thought while I was putting our turkey in the oven this morning. How many people in the country are doing this same thing this morning? But I didn't think about all those people throughout history. So I only felt a large sense of community spirit and not a "one with the ages" sort of thing.

    Also, the very tiniest bit of me is guilty of being glad we didn't miss your pre-Thanksgiving dinner after all.

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  3. I was so certain seasons should be capitalized, that, for years, I was happily, innocently and also . . . ignorantly capitalizing away. When I discovered my error, I was horrified. Partly because I was embarrassed I'd been doing it wrong, of course, but also because it seemed so wrong to let months and weekdays all be capitalized and then turn and call seasons too general to capitalize. Especially in UT where our seasons are so very . . . well, what they are.

    But then I named a child a season, and found, more than I might have guessed, people getting confused for a moment about whether I was speaking of Summer the person or summer the season; and I, who had capitalized incorrectly for so much of my life, found myself self righteously thinking, "Come on, people, I used a lower case!" Now, I find the non capitalized seasons have become quite useful.

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  4. Melissa: my mom cooked the turkey this year, but we have brined before—but how did it work for you? I never achieved quite the level of perfection with that method that I was led to hope for. I really still haven't perfected turkey cooking at all.

    Nancy: I was thinking about your Summer as I wrote this, actually. I was thinking, "I wonder if Nancy's Summer makes her feel differently?" :) Fall is the worst offender, I think, and I have tried to call it "Autumn" instead—but it just feels weird to me to call it Autumn. And I know people named Autumn, but none named Fall. So, I don't know, maybe context is the only way to distinguish. It's not like we use sentences like "I had a nasty fall" (Fall or fall?) that often anyway. Although you might say, "I had a lovely Summer" and cause confusion. :)

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  5. I never comprehend or notice much of anything. Tonight, for example, four of my six children managed to slip out the back door (breaking a rule) to go caroling (in the dark--breaking another rule) without permission (yet another rule broken). Then they caroled at my door and I found out most of it. They sounded heavenly but got a much deserved talking to.

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