Oh My

By Shar Ann Packard

Nothing NEW Here On The Farm!

A few weeks ago, this “thing” started happening at our house...a chain of events that led to me realizing change is not a good thing here on the farm!

It all began when John decided for several nights in a row to place his glass on his stand while watching TV. When he sat it down it would tip and spill everywhere...this is not a little glass. We are talking about a huge tea glass...it could hold a liter of pop, I am sure. I found myself on my hands and knees, with several bath towels trying to clean up this ice tea mess at 10:30 pm. He was moving out his chair, moving the stand, and also trying to save all his “favorite” auction and farm papers from the tea-soaked towels I am throwing away as I clean. He was so happy with himself because unlike his last spill, most of this one went into the little wastebasket we have between the chairs. To this I was to be happy? He later tells me that the reason why he is spilling everything is because of the new “things” I put on the stand. They are too thick, and his glass doesn’t set on them right. Well, I thought they were so nice, and they soaked up the moisture and also saved the stand from water rings. On a good note, though, they did soak up a lot of tea when he spilled it!

I was making lunch the other day, and I was so proud of myself as I remembered to get the cucumber salad I had made out of the refrigerator. As I was grabbing it out it tipped a little bit. Wow, I was surprised that the top was not on it. It was heavy enough that as it tipped over, half of it went everywhere...I mean everywhere. It was on the top shelf. It had spilled into every drawer, shelf, and every nook and cranny throughout the whole fridge. Then, as it spilled, I was trying to stop it, and it spilled all over the floor and under the fridge. I had to have John pull out the fridge so I could mop the floor under it. I am telling you it took forever to get it all cleaned up. The reason the lid was not on tight? John tells me that the new bowls I bought were hard to place the lids on. He said the old ones “pop” right on, and you don’t have to “burp” the dang things, and he just set it back in there instead of fighting it.

we need to move up from the plastic containers the lunch meat comes in. I told him when I bought them “they were just perfect!” Glass bowl, plastic lids that fit nicely, and just so much better than the “reusable” free ones. Just maybe when someone stops over at lunch time, we don’t look like our parents that used the butter bowls for everything from heating up and storing your left overs in. Well, my plan failed miserably. When he grabbed out his Chicken Parmesan after heating and dropped it on the counter top because the glass was a lot hotter and heavier than he was used to. It shattered and went everywhere. I looked up and yelled “Are you OK?” He just stands there with pasta sauce splattered all over him...and shattered glass all over the kitchen floor and counter top. He is barefoot, so I ran and got our shoes...grabbed the wastebasket, and he grabbed the paper towels, and we started cleaning. I have never in my life seen sauce splatter so far, and for a pretty little bowl it sure held a lot. Again, we had to pull out the fridge because that sauce splattered and ran under it. It was on every cabinet (they are white by the way) in the kitchen, on the ceiling, and even on the table. I think we could have set a world record on how far that splattered and on how many things it landed on!

As I sat down after the mopping was done, I came to the conclusion that if you visit our home in the future, we will have paper napkins under our drinks on the stands, and I will even fold one nicely for you to use. I will be putting the “mug rugs’’ to good use as plant stand doilies. We also will be using bowls that the tops don’t match and are older than the hills...I am sure we have a few from our wedding in 1973! Our new 8 piece set of new colorful bowls will be used to put old bread and scraps for the chickens. I am sure they will appreciate them as much as I did! The best thing is, if we are blessed to have you join us for lunch, please forgive the butter bowls, and the cracked lunch meat containers. My beautiful new microwave bowls will be put on the porch for the cat that someone dropped off to us, because we need cats on our farm! I know in my heart that “Stranger” the cat has never seen such lovely dinnerware and he will eat out of it like the king he is!

I’m done trying to change the old to new, I now realize it is OK! Change is not good for my farmer. I have solved our problem; I am hoping we have no more spills. I now know we are old school...nothing new and fancy here. We just can’t handle it! “OH MY!”