Peas Please.....

IF the week before last wasn’t bad enough, I had to endure yet another week of ….I am not really sure what you would call it. At school, we along with the other 67 plus school districts, kindergarten through 12 grade, started FAIR testing. If you don’t know what that stands for let me explain ….sheer chaos, butt chewings, hate email mixed with electronic progress monitoring that throws you off the Internet each time you log on. This however, happens to be mandated by the state!!! I am beginning to wondering why I choose to leave the class room to assume the position of Reading Coach. Needless to say the last few days at work have been anything less that invigorating.

Last Thursday night, I came home completely exhausted mentally, physically and emotionally, due to “the sister’s” soon arrival. My feet felt as though elephants had trampled on them. I have no one to blame for my feet except me. I like a total idiot wore heels, you know, the uncomfortable kind to run the FAIR Marathon in. The six teachers that tested that day were literally located at the three furthermost points on the campus. I had to run back and forth to assist teachers and combat Internet demons that only Jesus could call out. After school, I had stopped by the store to pick up a few needed items to make tacos.
Any way, by the time I had arrived home I could barely trot as my mother would say. I went to the wash machine to rewash the clothes that had already been rewashed 2 other times, when I noticed a peculiar stench. Not the normal aroma of our cow pen after a heavy rain, more ….well…. a sickening, a foul smell. I took a quick look around my laundry porch, when I noticed the unbelievable. There dripping from my freezer’s door was my Blue Bell’s Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream, mixed with blood from all sorts of meats and stank ice from the freezer. I can’t believe as a kid, I loved to scrap it from the top of my Grandma and Grandpa Q’s freezer and make icy drinks. We were too poor to get them from the Jiffy so we thought that was the BEST. My first thought was “Oh no, surely the rest of my peas aren’t gone!!!!! IF you don’t know what I am talking about, check out my last post. We had close to a 100 bags of peas stolen. I could have laid down in my puddle of yuck and cried. But, I did what any southern girl would do I called mom, not mine she lives too far away. I called my sweet blessed, precious, priceless, irreplaceable, loyal, fantastic, kindhearted, dear sweet mother-in-law. She immediately walked the 50 steps over to my house and began helping me rescue my remaining peas, Steven’s deer meat and a couple of packages of corn from 2006. I called the best brother-in law, I never had and his quick thinking, wonderful wife to come and help us eat the Feast of the Defrosted Freezer. I use the words never had, because my honey is an only child, Kelley P. is the closest thing to a sibling he knows. He loves and treats her like a little sister.

Our adventure began. We worked and chiseled.

We used the blow dryer.

We banged and busted. We gouged and poked. My mother –in law and I looked like gold miners digging for treasure in the Alaskan snow. As matter of fact, she even called me a “gold digger”. It embarrassed her so, she couldn’t stop apologizing. I just laughed. I knew what she meant.

We called Pete, a man who use to work on the farm to come get the remaining thawed meat. He was thrilled to death to leave our house with 3 coolers of choice beef, buffalo burger meat, venison, smoked turkey and a whole bunch of other stuff. I believe that the Lord will provide you with opportunities to bless others even when you feel as though you do not have an offering.

Before long we had the freezer empty and it was time to cook all the un-selected thawed remnants from the freezer. We grilled Omaha steaks, pork chops, and turkey breast. I made hash brown casserole. I made a big pot of peas and delicious cream corn.
While we labored on the freezer and prepared the meal, Katie, Dillon and the men worked with the show heifers.

I think this year we are hauling the most we have ever carried to shows. Katie has 6 heifers she is breaking, 2 bulls and 1 Braham, not to forget the ones from last year….I do not know how the child does all that she does. But that’s a whole other post.

At supper, our table looked as though it was set for a King. That was until the peasant smelling (and looking) partakers sat down. We enjoyed the feast of the defrosted freezer. Everybody had a plenty. It’s amazing how my meal went from simple tacos to a full blown dinner on the grounds.

After dinner Kelley, so sweetly she immediately started cleaning the kitchen and the younger men head off to tackle the remaining mess on the laundry porch.

They scrubbed and bleached everything.

Notice Steven's mud boots

The girls and I headed to bed. It seemed just as my eyes would close, my honey would give a holler, I would jump out of bed wondering what the commotion was only to find him seeking my approval—I know your husbands never do that. Finally they had conquered the beast. They placed my precious remaining packages of peas, corn and venison back in the freezer. Steven and Tom must have prayed over the freezer, to date my freezer continues to freeze and no one else has snagged anymore of my peas.