grandma zoomie

When I say “we are hillbillies” what I mean is we have random crap everywhere and the “tin” on our sheds doesn’t match because mismatched “tin” is only 9$ a sheet and we don’t care. Also, my husband can fix anything, we eat vermin, and we love Jesus! Also, we blurt out obvious truths that might hurt your feelings, but dang, bless your heart, some one shoulda told ya already. How rude that they didn’t.

lol. I didn’t realize a retweet of mine had like 50k views and tons of seething comments. It took me days to realize. I have a life to live. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, and to share them… just remember to touch grass and that this place isn’t real life.

I remember this phase. My marriage of 27 years has had many phases… When I felt this way he wasn’t helping. I was doing everything (cooking, cleaning, bathing kids, putting them to bed, dressing them… all the diapers) and didn’t see any value in him. I told him how I felt and said “give me a reason to need you.” And this phase ended.

Second straight interview where they did a final mandatory “in person meet the team” interview and I didn’t get the job. 1st one ghosted me - it was a diocese. Second one had the decency to call and let me know they had “accidentally over staffed” for the position. I hate this. I am a highly qualified and competent candidate - they obviously agreed with this to some extent - or I wouldn’t make it so far… but why are they wasting my time? Either they don’t believe my resume and the screening interview, various testings/homework, and panel interview - or they aren’t well managed. It’s very annoying.

Why are my in laws posting absolute degeneracy on Facebook AND setting it to public? I want a new last name.

I have a “final” interview Monday. I am going to bring up (again) that I had already planned to help a son and his wife just after Christmas - in another state. Pray the let me keep my plans. I want to hang out with my grandkids.

This is a subtweet: I cannot imagine being pressured to accept a sister wife by my husband. I don’t share. I am the apple of his eye. I would be devastated if he even implied I wasn’t enough. It would crush me. Any man that violates his wife’s trust this way, or via any form of infidelity, doesn’t deserve to be married. I can’t stop thinking about this situation.

Just got this call: “Yep. This is happening. We are replacing the entire front brake system.” “Wait, what?” “Yeah the calipers were broken. we had to drive all over the whole state (hyperbole) to get everything, and now we are doing it.” “Like, right now!” “Yeah.” “Are you pulling an all nighter?” “Nah. Just a couple hours.” Apparently, my husband is going to show my oldest how to fix his brakes at *checks watch* 9:15 pm on a Wednesday. Also, I guess we don’t say “hello” anymore.

DADS showing up doesn’t have to be big. My husband may have been gone for several years (cumulative) of our marriage and our older sons’ childhoods (Army life - he is a combat vet) but so long as he had access to a phone/computer, it didn’t matter where he was in the world - he called them at 7:15 pm our time to talk to them, say prayers, and tell them goodnight. Now, they are grown men and they know they can count on him. If they need help, they don’t hesitate to ask and he doesn’t hesitate to help. He missed birthdays, holidays, etc… but the 5-10 minutes on everyday he could spare mattered more. Consistency matters. Effort matters. Not perfection.

Blessed All Souls’ Day. You will die and so will I.

Hillbilly culture is huge on hunting for wild edibles; mushrooms, greens, berries… My dad took us out to do this as entertainment as a kid and it was like a treasure hunt! I loved it. (Always kept an eye out for ginseng and golden seal for some 💵.) It’s automatic for me now. My son fed his fellow soldiers during ranger school with wild edibles… lol. Anyway. Rules he taught us. *Mushrooms: gills=💀 *Berries: never eat red, orange, or glossy ones 💀. Segmented are usually safe. *Root veggies grow near standing water. *Violets, plantain, and dandelion have the most nutrients raw. *Always cook nettles and fiddle heads first. *never harvest more than 1:3. *never reveal where you found it. This regional wisdom. There’s lots more, and you need a book with pictures to help you with this, but those were his basic starter pack of rules for our region. DISCLAIMER: mushrooms and berries can kill you. So it’s really best to have someone who is skilled at this teach you the difference between false-safe mushrooms and safe mushrooms.

Buy books.

I lived without running water or grid power for 18 months- 2 years (I can’t remember exactly). I promise you: you don’t have enough water. There isn’t enough water, you can’t store enough water. You have drinking water, maybe cooking, but dishes, laundry, bathing, cleaning your house… Things you don’t think about until week 1 ends. Anyway. Ignore the fear mongering and start learning skills, like how to identify clean water sources where you can restock your water supply because you cannot store enough water. (Watercress aka “micro greens” is a good tell) Or learn how to collect and purify water safely. You need skills, not preps. Stop doom scrolling.

The All Saints party at our parish was a “rager”. All the cool kids were there. 🍂🍁💀😇👼 I loved seeing all the kids dressed up. 😍.

After un-enmeshing myself from an insanely dysfunctional family, and learning healthy boundaries and communication, you better believe that if you gas-light me I am going to respond first, by charitably reminding you of what exactly was said and when, and usually where (you learn to archive these things if you’ve been chronically gaslight your entire life)… and if you double down I will definitely respond with “well, that’s not how I remember it.” Because I will not play those games. Direct communication cuts out so much of leeway narcissism (tendencies) needs to operate. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.

You know how some people have RBF? I have that too, but I also rbt resting B texts. I am part of why some people prefer to hear you say it. Shoulda heard the way my mom sounded in conversation. Absolutely brutal, but without guile.

The y2k vibes are strong on here as of late.

My 14 yo is in 8th grade this year. This means I add a Friday “study skills” session to his regular Seton course work. Because in order to really be fully literate, he has be TAUGHT the skills needed to retain and organize the information he is reading. These are not innate, they have to be taught. Academic performance is positively correlated to this skill set. I do this with my kids (and I did it with my little brother) so they can be a garbage man, soldiers, or doctors or scientists or whatever they want. My middle son (NCO of the Year for his region) said several soldiers were dropped from his EIB class because, while they were given all the information needed to pass in written form, these guys couldn’t remember it. My oldest son is top of his class for his journeymanship. If my youngest does end up in Seminary (he says he wants to go), he can be as successful there as his brothers are in their professions. Teach your kids study skills. They won’t get it anywhere else.