Friday/Saturday

     I have to get my payments for last month posted as Sarah is getting so far ahead of me, but don't rest on your laurels Sarah because I am about to do great things in the next few months. Mom is busy sewing and I can't get to the machine.  Don't know if I will get to it the rest of the day.  If she ever moves in with me I will have to get her her own sewing station, she can't see very well but she insists on sewing, I just go behind her and try to clean it up.  Like I have time for that.

  When I get home I need to go right to the store for Easter dinner things.  I will go through the fridge and see what we need.


We are having steak (brought by friends)
Shrimp
fresh strawberry pie
tomato basil and mozzarella
Acini de pepi fruit salad
Deviled eggs

Lots of Easter Candy!

 I have stripped both of the beds in grandsons room and Mother-in-laws room.  I am doing the laundry now.  I need to get mother packed up, I am already packed and I have almost everything out in the garage ready to load in the truck. Daughter is going to have an awakening as I know her Mother-in-law does the cooking 5 nights a week and most of the housework and laundry.  Daughters job is very stressful and her husbands job is not any where near the stress level, so I am happy that her husbands mother realizes this and tries to make her life easier.

     Daughter called me from court house about 10 this morning as one of her co-workers had scheduled a day off and was called in at the last minute for some preliminary hearing mumbo jumbo.  She did not have a sitter so I raced to the court house in my p.j's as I had been waiting for my mom to get up to get in the shower.  I told her to have the bailiff wait at the door  I was not coming inside with my Chewbaca hair and jammies. Nice little girl she and grandson played and played.  What was supposed to be an hour turned into a 5 hour court nightmare.  Prosecution is not  for the faint of heart.

     I just checked on mom and she is having the time of her life at the sewing machine making and Easter potholder, with scraps of Easter fabric.  I guess I will go cut out some more hats as it looks like I will not have the machine for a while.

Saturday:  Mom and I drove to Nampa Friday night.  I stopped in Boise at Talbots and we found 4 tops to fit mom.  So with her three pairs of new pants(that actually fit) she will not look like such a scarecrow. We had a nice visit with Hub's folks.  They bought me a large package of new garden gloves which I needed desperately. I swear I go through a pair every day I work in the yard.  We took off on the 5 hour drive home this morning and it was really hard on Mom.  She was in a great deal of pain, just too much sitting in a car(truck).  Arrived home about 2:45 sent Mom immediately to bed. Had to get a suit out I had forgotten about for a client.  Of course it was a complex alteration.  A lined skirt and Jacket, that had to be taken in quite a bit. I had to remove the sleeves and cut down the shoulders, what a pain. Finally got that done.  I unloaded the car, it was packed to the gills with mom's crap and twelve penguin costumes  and all the fabric I had purchased in Twin Falls.

     I hurried and made up 4 pie crusts (froze two) baked two , boiled a dozen eggs then I took stock of the fridge made a list and went to the store.  First time in a week I had been without Mom in a store.  It was nice I was able to zip around and get things done quickly.  Came home unloaded again, Mom was still sleeping.  Started the Easter baskets and I was missing a few things because I had eaten them  (yes it is true) by this time Mom was up and we went to Wal-Mart so I could deposit a check to pay B's college rent and got what we needed. Stopped at Taco Time for a cheap dinner and came home.  Mom and Hub's died the eggs, Mom hulled and sliced all the strawberries, while I put the Acini De Pepi salad together and started 4 loaves of bread.  By the time I had put the strawberry pies together I and cleaned up the mess the bread went into the oven.  I am exhausted and ready for bed.  Tomorrow is conference for our church so we will watch it on the Internet.  I don't have to get up and get dressed.  Yippee.  Just sit in my jammies. 

     The house is pretty messy, as in floors need wiped up and laundry but I can tackle that between conference sessions tomorrow.  The girls are due in and they can help set the table and get the rest of the food ready.

     Came home

story:

     By late afternoon Nels had cleaned out the lean to.  Mrs.Strom watched the three little girls until the older children came home.  Nels immediately sent Osker with a note and some money to the dray service to fetch a horse and a flatcart.  Mr. Strom had been forbidden by his wife to come out of the Butcher shop while Nels had the younger boys sort everything into piles.  Rags, junk, wood, metal in respective piles.  Soon Oskar came with the horse and wagon and to the surprise of everyone he was driving it himself!
     "You came without a driver?" Nels asked.
     "They were too busy but I told him I was from a Svensk farm and the horse was not afraid of me,  so here I am!", he said excitedly.  Peter was skipping around the yard he was so happy about the horse.  The boys hurried to load the cart and at the last moment Mr. Strom insisted that they junk dealers would cheat the boys, so he,Oskar and Peter took off for Junk Row, while Nels waited for on Mr. Erickson.

     Chaos ensued with the arrival of Mr. Erickson and the teamster hauling broken washing machines.  They had to be unloaded out front and carted down the narrow dark passage between buildings to the back courtyard.  There were ten machines total and many bits and pieces of machines.  The younger boys formed a chain gang and between Nels, the teamster, Erickson, and the three younger boys the machines and supplies were in the back in no time.  Nels was grateful that Mr. Strom had taken Peter, who would have wanted to help and would have been underfoot.

     Soon the entire building was out in the courtyard.  Everyone was milling around excited and watching as Mr.Erickson and Nels tried to figure out how to put ten washing machines into a shed not big enough for six.  Three of the machines had to be fixed with in the next two days so they were put at the front of the shed, along with all parts, the machines that had fallen off the wagon that day and could be salvaged were put in the back.  The other four machines were taken by tenants on the second and third floors.  They had a little more room for storage and Nels promised to make the free storage worth their while.  It was starting to turn dark when all of the machines had found  homes, Erickson and the teamster took off for the Warehouse.   Olaf would return tomorrow at sometime, to help Nels with the machines.

     The younger boys clamored up the stairs and Nels came behind wondering what time Olaf would arrive  the next day, he just could not wait to tear into those machines.  New things always excited him.  It had been along time since he had really worked on an engine.  Not since he had left the farm and that seemed like a lifetime ago.  He had missed a whole day's work, yet he wasn't bothered.  The thought of a new project invigorated him. He knew he must wait and get the two clocks done that were waiting for him upstairs.  He had ordered the parts, "The parts"he had left that package in the wagon!  He turned to head back down the stairs to retrieve his package.  In the wagon with the package was the box of wash machine parts and also two motors.  He stood looking at them, arguing with himself about whether to take one of them upstairs.  Mrs. Strom came out in the hall and told him to move the box and motors into the front of the shop, she would see that Mr. Strom helped him tonight.

     Now Nels was running up the stairs.  He dashed into the flat as Millie was putting supper on the table.  Grabbing a piece of bread he told her he did not want to be disturbed until he had finished with the clocks he wanted to deliver them tomorrow.  If he could get them done with in the next couple of hours, Mr. Strom was going to help him with a washing machine. Millie understood Nels better than perhaps anyone.  He was driven like her.  She liked new things, new books, new patterns, getting things done satisfied her in a funny way.  Millie really wanted to hear about his day and the story behind this new development.

       She could not get much out of Violet or Ruth.  The machines did not interest them.  A ladies hat with a bird on it was all Violet would talk about.  Ruth told her about about the live pigs, they had seen driven into a stock car.  Audra was busy smashing a turnip with her spoon.  Millie did not ask Nels any questions, as she knew it would do no good.  He would tell her all about this day when he could slow his mind down. Right now she had to get the younger ones fed and homework done without his help.  If she did not hurry it would be time for her radio program. She went about rushing her younger siblings to eat, they were behind this evening and she wanted to get a new skirt basted, she needed the older boys help with the little ones. When Inga arrived she could talk of nothing but the washing machines.  The whole building was talking of them.  In broken English/German/Finnish/Swedish/Norwegian/ residents were visiting back and forth across halls about the machines.

     Millie had heard of a washing machine.  Their washing was farmed out so this  newfangled idea of Nels did not affect her much.  For those women who spent most of a day trying to heat water and wash in the court yard or in their flats in cold weather a machine to wash with a wringer attachment to remove water would be a blessing.  Just Audra's soakers and daily diapers were a chore, imagine having to do all the laundry for her eight brothers and sisters, plus the linens was beyond her comprehension. Before the girls radio broadcast was finished Nels came out of the front parlor and said he had finished the clocks and he grabbed two lanterns and headed down stairs with a wooden box full of tools. Millie told Inga she would be the first to know any new developments with the machines. The three younger boys wanted to go down to Strom's and Millie would not let them. 
     "Let your brother figure out what he is doing first, trust me in time he will want you down there helping him and you will want to be up here."  With much difficulty Millie was able to finally get the boys in bed.  She did not wake when Nels came in early in the morning.

cont:

Have a beautiful Easter!

Kim