Freezing a Large Harvest of Corn -- Great Ideas!

Note from Erika: If you want to see the pictures, click on the title of the original article, and it will take you to the wikihow page. Have fun freezing your corn!

How to Freeze Corn

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Don't you love the taste of fresh, sweet corn? It's too bad it's only available a few weeks out of the year. However, if you know the freezing methods passed down by generations of farmers, you can harvest or buy corn in bulk and enjoy that fresh taste all year long. What follows is a complete guide to choosing, preparing and freezing large batches of corn.

Steps

1. Find the ears that are just right. A farmer only has a short period of time between when the corn is too small to be edible and when it's too big to be edible. Of course, everybody's got their own definition of what's too big to be edible! You can determine if it's just right by shaking hands with the corn. If the corn cob fills your hand nicely and the silk on the top is brown, it's ready to pick. If it feels too scrawny, leave it for another day.
   
2. Have a seat and take all the husks off the corn once you've picked enough corn to keep you busy all day - a couple of hundred ears of corn should do it.
   
3. Put the corn in containers or in a spot where you can keep an eye on your newly harvested bounty -- there are always critters (whether on the farm or in your backyard) that are looking for the easy mark and they will take your fresh corn away from you if you're not looking.
   
4. Clean the corn--unless of course you're the type of person who doesn't mind a bit of silky natural floss stuck between your teeth when you're done eating. It's best when you get the corn all clean and shiny with none of the little silky hairs sticking to it. This is kind of a painstaking and sticky job. It helps to keep a bowl of water on the table while working to dip your hands into, otherwise you end up acting like Spiderman with everything you touch sticking to your hands.
   
5. Move into the kitchen once the corn's all cleaned up. Shown here is one day's harvest (about 500 ears) all ready to be cooked.
   
6. Blanch the corn. There are other methods of preparing and cooking the corn, but many believe this method gives the best taste. Blanching means you put the corn in the water, put the lid on, then you look the other way while bringing the water to a rolling boil.
   
7. Take the corn out when the water's boiling and cool it down as quickly as you can. Once you take out one batch and put in the next, the fresh corn cools the water down a bit and you have to start over again, so it takes about 5-10 minutes to boil each batch. Now comes the hard part. You've got to cool the corn quickly, which is easy if you're doing 10 ears of corn. But how do you cool 500 ears of corn in a row? If you just put it in the water, the water gets warm and loses its cooling ability. You can put ice in the water, or you can keep changing the water, but both of those methods are for small batches.
   
   • Here's the farmer's solution to this problem. Use the right side of the sink to cool the hot ears just off the stove, then move the lukewarm ears to the left side of the sink to finish up the cooling. Cold water trickles in from the faucet into the left hand side of the sink (1). The magic happens in part 2, which is just a simple upside-down U-shaped pipe that acts as a siphon to move the cold water from the left side to the right side. You start by dunking these pipes under the water to get all the air bubbles out of them, putting your thumbs over the ends of the pipes to hold the water in, then put it over the divider in the sink. If you've done it right, the pipes are still full of water. When the water in the left side is higher than the right side, it will flow through the pipes and into the right hand side.
     
   • The second little bit of magic is the overflow pipe in the right hand sink. It's an S-shaped piece of copper tubing which stands up in the sink just short of the top and it runs down into the drain. When the water gets higher than the top of the pipe, it spills down into the pipe and goes down the drain. So now we've created a waterfall type of system where cold water enters a point 1, moves through the pipes in point 2, then exits at point 3. By the time it exits in point 3, it's actually pretty warm water because you keep dumping the boiling corn into that side.
     
   • When you remove the boiling corn from the stove, you'll want to dump it in the right hand side of the sink. The water on the right will be warm, but you'll have a continuous trickle of cool water coming through the siphon pipes. Give someone the job of agitating the corn by stirring it around in the sink. That's a job that the kids love to do, so usually that's the youngest person, although sometimes it's just the most tired person.
     
   • When the person cooking on the stove is ready to remove their corn, the agitator removes the cold corn from the left side of the sink and sends that on to the next step, then they move the warm corn from the right side to the left side of the sink. The hot corn from the stove is then dumped in to the lukewarm water on the right side of the sink.
     
   
   
8. Cut the corn off the cob once the corn has been blanched and cooled so that the ears are cool to the touch. This takes a little feel so that you get enough corn without getting too much of the cob. This one is probably the most highly skilled of positions in the process and takes some practice.
   
9. Chill the corn. Once the corn is off the cob, put it into cake pans for a good chilling. Cake pans work well because they spread out the corn and transfer the heat nicely.
   
   • To do this right, you'll need about 6-8 cake pans and a completely empty refrigerator. Put the pans into the freezer of an old refrigerator, then move them from the freezer down on to the shelves of the refrigerator as you get new pans filled. The warmest ones go in the freezer, and the cooler ones get moved into the refrigerator until you're ready to bag it.
     
   
   
10. Bag the corn. Once the pans of corn are completely cooled, you're almost done - all that's left is to package the corn up for final freezing. Use quart and pint Ziploc baggies. You don't want them totally full, just enough so you can close them easily and then flatten them out so they store easily. A quart baggie is about enough for one meal for 4-5 people, and a pint baggie works well for 2 people.
    
11. Clean up. Take out the garbage and mop that floor. Send the cobs to the compost pile and look forward to eating corn whenever you want.
    

Tips

• If you're harvesting the corn yourself, start picking it early in the morning. It's a great feeling when you walk through the corn field and the dew is still on the grass and on the corn stalks.
  
• 500 ears of corn should yield about 60-65 quart bags of frozen corn. It takes four or five people about eight hours to do the entire process, and you end up with enough to provide an entire family with corn for most of the year. Even though it sounds like a lot of work, it's a process that's been passed down for several generations, and once your kids learn how, they will always want to be there to help out if possible.
  
• To cook the frozen corn, take the bag out of the freezer and put it into a covered glass dish. Microwave a quart bag for about 6-8 minutes. Add some butter and salt to taste and you'll have fresh tasting corn in minutes.
  
• For another southern recipe, fry a few slices of bacon in a frying pan. Add a few slivers of onion (optional) and cook until the onion is clear. Add the corn and steam until the corn is done...This is delicious!
  
• A large rubbermaid tub works well for cooling corn also. Place a 30-gallon rubbermaid tub outside and drop in your garden hose. Leave the water running through the entire process and you will always have chilly water to cool off the corn.
  

Warnings

• If you're in a corn field, be careful to look for and step over any electric fence used to keep raccoons away.
  
• Keep things clean so that you don't end up with contaminated food.
  
• Although the raw corn tastes delicious and it's tempting to nibble, don't eat too much of it, because raw corn will give you a good case of the runs!
  

Things You'll Need

• Lots of corn
  
• Big pan for boiling the corn
  
• Some sharp knives
  
• 6-8 empty cake pans
  
• A mostly empty refrigerator and freezer
  
• Ziploc baggies
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Freeze Broccoli
  
• How to Freeze Cauliflower
  
• How to Cream Corn
  
• How to Save Money at a Farmers' Market
  

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Freeze Corn. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Life Through the Eyes of Children

My Aunt Dede sent this to me, and it was so cute, I thought I'd post it here. ENJOY!

1) I was driving with my three young children one warm summer evening when a woman in the convertible ahead of us stood up and waved. She was stark naked! As I was reeling from the shock, I heard my 5-year-old shout from the back seat, 'Mom, that lady isn't wearing a seat belt!'

2) On the first day of school, a first-grader handed his teacher a note from his mother. The note read, 'The opinions expressed by this child are not necessarily those of his parents.'

3) A woman was trying hard to get the ketchup out of the jar. During her struggle the phone rang so she asked her 4-year-old daughter to answer the phone. 'Mommy can't come to the phone to talk to you right now. She's hitting the bottle.'

4) A little boy got lost at the YMCA and found himself in the women's locker room. When he was spotted, the room burst into shrieks, with ladies grabbing towels and running for cover. The little boy watched in amazement and then asked, 'What's the matter, haven't you ever seen a little boy before?'

5) While taking a routine vandalism report at an elementary school, I was interrupted by a little girl about 6 years old. Looking up and down at my uniform, she asked, 'Are you a cop? Yes,' I answered and continued writing the report. My mother said if I ever needed help I should ask the police. Is that right?' 'Yes, that's right,' I told her. 'Well, then,' she said as she extended her foot toward me, 'would you please tie my shoe?'

6) It was the end of the day when I parked my police van in front of the station. As I gathered my equipment, my K-9 partner, Jake, was barking, and I saw a little boy staring in at me. "Is that a dog you got back there?" he asked. 'It sure is,' I replied. Puzzled, the boy looked at me and then towards the back of the van. Finally he said, 'What'd he do?'

7) While working for an organization that delivers lunches to elderly shut-ins, I used to take my 4-year-old daughter on my afternoon rounds. She was unfailingly intrigued by the various appliances of old age, particularly the canes, walkers and wheelchairs. One day I found her staring at a pair of false teeth soaking in a glass. As I braced myself for the inevitable barrage of questions, she merely turned and whispered, 'The tooth fairy will never believe this!'

8) A little girl was watching her parents dress for a party. When she saw her dad donning his tuxedo, she warned, 'Daddy, you shouldn't wear that suit.'
'And why not, darling?'
'You know that it always gives you a headache the next morning.'

9) While walking along the sidewalk in front of his church, our minister heard the intoning of a prayer that nearly made his collar wilt. Apparently, his 5-year-old son and his playmates had found a dead robin. Feeling that proper burial should be performed, they had secured a small box and cotton batting , then dug a hole and made ready for the disposal of the deceased.
The minister's son was chosen to say the appropriate prayers and with sonorous dignity intoned his version of what he thought his father always said: 'Glory be unto the Faaather, and unto the Sonnn, and into the hole he goooes.' (I want this line used at my funeral!)

10) A little girl had just finished her first week of school. 'I'm just wasting my time,' she said to her mother. 'I can't read, I can't write, and they won't let me talk!'

11) A little boy opened the big family Bible. He was fascinated as he fingered through the old pages. Suddenly, something fell out of thethe object and looked at it. What he saw was an old leaf that had been pressed in between the pages. 'Mama, look what I found,' the boy called out. 'What have you got there, dear?' With astonishment in the young boy's voice, he answered, 'I think it's Adam's underwear!
_____________________

I had to make a few comments about a couple of these, because I could really relate from my own experiences with children! I will list the number of the part I'm referring to, then the comment. I'd love to hear all your comments, or funny stories, too!

#2: I love this one, I think I'll send a note like that with a few of my children!! :) It reminds me of how often your children's school and Sunday school teachers know more about your family than you really want them to! I've heard some really interesting things back from my children's teachers at times!!

#3: This one reminds me of the other day. The phone rang, and I saw on the caller-ID that it was our dentist's office, calling to remind us of our appointment that day. I had just put lotion all over my hands, so I didn't want to pick up the phone. I told my son: "Just tell her that we know about the appointment and we're coming." So what does he say on the phone? "My Mom can't come to the phone right now . . . she has lotion all over her hands!" I laughed and laughed...and the secretary got a kick out of it, too!

#7: That one is soooo cute! I don't have an experience like it, but I can exactly picture my 6-year-old saying it! :)

#8: This one is like when I'm fixing my hair or putting on makeup. More than once, any child who comes into the room says, "Where are you going?"

#10: This is great! Funny, but that's the one thing my kids always have mentioned in Parent-Teacher Conferences. Talking too much! And can you believe, several of my children have gotten criticized by teachers for READING TOO MUCH in school! Wow, I'll take that one! Usually that's their #1 problem, trying to get the kids TO read!! :)

#11: This one reminds me of the time my daughter found a $20 bill in an old Bible of mine that she was reading. She brought it to me, wondering who's it was. I told her she could keep it as a surprise reward for reading her scriptures that day, after all, I told her, it's like they say, you can find treasures in the scriptures!

Hope you enjoyed these as much as I did!

Career Inventory Test Results

Tonight when I came home from Parent Teacher Conferences (SEP's Student-Educator-Parent), my teenagers were all having fun taking personality and career tests. So I took one. I would say that the career suggestions are about 90% accurate, so I thought I'd post the results. Enjoy!

Career Inventory Test Results Extroversion ||||||||||||||||||||| 63% Emotional Stability |||||||||||||||||| 56% Orderliness ||||||||||||||||||||| 70% Altruism |||||||||||||||||| 60% Inquisitiveness |||||||||||||||||| 60% You are a Persuader, possible professions include - entertainer, recruiter, artist, newscaster, writer/journalist, recreation director, librarian, facilitator, politician, psychologist, housing director, career counselor, sales trainer, travel agent, program designer, corporate/team trainer, child welfare worker, social worker (elderly services), interpreter/translator, occupational therapist, executive

Take Free Career Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

Focused vs. Pinball Cleaning

This is part 2 in the "Keeping your House Clean. . .ha, ha, ha!" series that I started a few posts back when I discussed "Tidy Rooms by Choice". (See November links at the right if you haven't read that post.) Today I'm going to share with you a few ideas about how in the world a busy mother of several children can even hope to keep her home relatively clean!

Have you ever heard this saying: "Keeping your home clean when your children are growing up is like shoveling snow during a snowstorm." I love that! I told my husband this morning that sometimes I feel like I'm holding up a drinking cup and trying to catch a tidal wave! :) Well, it's not always that bad. And it can be peaceful and you can have a relatively clean home even if you have a lot of children.

FOCUSED CLEANING:
In my 15+ years of being a mother with children at home, the type of cleaning I find touted by all of the "experts" is one version or another of "focused cleaning". Focused cleaning is when your goal is to clean ONE spot and you work like crazy to NOT let yourself get distracted. This is when you heard your mother say "If there's no blood, I don't want to hear about it!" Hahaha, my Mom really did used to say that!

This is when, for instance, you've just finished a meal and it's time to clean up the kitchen. You try and just focus a good 15-30 minutes and get the whole kitchen finished, top to bottom. This is when lists and routines are essential. You know the drill: Mondays-Laundry, Tuesdays-Errands, Wednesdays-Bathrooms, Thursdays-Floors, Friday-Free. That kind of thing. There is plenty about this kind of cleaning on other websites, so I won't go into too much detail here. If that system works for you, enjoy it while it lasts!

I have had some success with these kinds of routines, and they do have a place in keeping a home clean. The problem I run into with this type of cleaning is that no day with children is ever perfect. It's rarely predictable, and almost never goes exactly how you plan. Your 3yo son is throwing up on "errand day", your 8yo wet the bed, but it's not "laundry day". You had to run errands on "bathroom day", so now all the bathrooms haven't been cleaned for 2 weeks. And on and on, you get the idea.

So I have spent hours and hours, I couldn't figure the total if I tried, making lists and schedules, plans and routines, trying to create the "perfect system" that will work for my family. But it is not to be found. There's just not enough predictability. Even if you do, by some miracle, feel great on "mopping the floor day", and you work like crazy, likely your 15yo son will walk in with dirty cleats and ruin your carefully mopped, perfectly clean floor. Or your toddler will slip on the wet water and cut his head! So it can be very discouraging to try and stick to a perfect schedule.

Don't get me wrong, kids needs predictability and schedules. We have a pretty good daily routine at our home that is followed 90% of the days. But that said, to try and cover the whole home following a "perfectly scheduled" routine when kids are in the mix, well that's just insanity! If any of you do this perfectly and you have more than 2 kids, please email me and tell me all your secrets! In the meantime, let me tell you how I've coped with this situation.

PINBALL CLEANING:
The next type of cleaning I've affectionately named "Pinball Cleaning". I'd like to say I invented this strategy, but most mother's do it to one degree or another and just don't realize it. This cleaning style is a type of controlled randomness, that I've been "perfecting" lately. Think of the name: "Pinball Cleaning" and you probably already have an idea of what this is!

Imagine one of those pinball games that you used to play in the arcades. There's a little ball in that bottom corner, and you pull back on the stopper and send it flying! It bounces here and bounces there, getting you points like crazy all over the place. But it doesn't get stuck in one area for long, and it always ends up returning home, to rest for a moment, and then be shot out into the action again!

Well, pinball cleaning is like this. You touch one area here, one area there, just like a pinball does. It's a way to take advantage of the fact that your day is often chaotic and interrupted! Why fight it? Let's USE it!

Here's how it works:
1. Set a timer for 15 minutes, and pick a room to be "Home Base". This might be the room where your children are playing, it might be the front entrance of your home, or maybe the kitchen. I usually choose the kitchen because there's always something that needs to be done in there!

2. Look around the room. What is the most obvious problem that needs to be done to make that room look presentable if company was on it's way? Get busy on it! Start tidying, cleaning, dejunking, whatever you see that needs to be done the most in that room. Here's a good guideline if you're not sure where to begin:
a) Floors First
b) Flat Surfaces Next
c) Hidden Areas Last

3. Now here's the key that makes pinball cleaning different than regular cleaning: When you come across an item that goes elsewhere (which you certainly will if you have kids), grab anything else you can fit in your hands that belongs in that direction. Now pinball-bounce to the new workplace (the place where that item belongs.) Drop off items along the way, then start the cleaning process again in the room you are in now. (See #2) Spend time in that room just like you did at "home base", then move on to the next room, and so on. This way you are "touching base" in lots of different rooms & areas of your house, and getting the most obvious, needed things done in each room.

4. When the timer rings, take a 15 minute break if you need it.

5. When the break timer rings, head back to "home base" (image the pinball going back to the beginning place, ready to shoot off again.) This "returning to home base" keeps this random cleaning session somewhat focused as you head back to the room where you began. It also gives you a moment to check on the kids, and take a break if needed. Remember, during the cleaning session, you are moving quite fast, like a pinball, so you will get your exercise too! (I'm actually pinball cleaning as I type this, and I'm typing in my blog on all my 15-minute breaks!)

Here's how a typical real-life session of pinball cleaning went for me today:

1. Start in the kitchen. Begin clearing dishes off the table & loading the dishwasher.
2. Come across packing tape. Head to the office after a quick glance for other things that belong in the office or in that direction.
3. Drop off daughter's slippers in her shoe-bucket, some garbage in the trash, head to office and put away the tape. Start working in there. Straighten the tape drawer, find a vase that belongs in the kitchen. Finish straightening the drawer (don't put down the vase!), then look around for other kitchen or on-the-way items, grab the glass that was left out by someone, grab scrap papers from off the desk, then head back to the kitchen.
4. Drop off some garbage in the kitchen garbage can, put the glass in the dishwasher, put the vase in the cupboard, resume clearing the table. Throw leftovers out to the cat, tidy the back porch a bit, grab the plate one of the kids left outside. Head back to the kitchen, put away the plate, resume clearing the table.
5. Clear a few more things and put in the dishwasher, notice 6yo daughter's headband on the kitchen floor. Call her in to clean up her headband and clean up the rest of the kitchen floor as her consequence for leaving her item out. Pickup an item that belongs in the master bedroom. Grab other items that belong that direction. Head to my room.
6. Tidy a bit in there, find a letter that belongs in my treasure box file, and head back to the office, quickly grabbing the 2 mugs from my master bathroom counter. Drop off the mugs in the dishwasher, put the letter in my file in the office. Begin working on the office table.
7. Clear off most of the office table, find book that belongs in 12yo daughter's put-away drawer, grab that and some garbage to throw away and head back to the kitchen, dropping off the book along the way.
   
8. Back in the kitchen, drop off garbage and proceed to finish wiping the table & the counters. Notice spice cabinet open, and crumbs on the shelf in there. Wipe down the open space on the shelf and close the cabinets. Put away seasonal plate and straighten that cupboard while you're in there. Timer goes off.
9. WHEW! Time for a break! Head to office to type, check on kids along the way. When timer goes off, begin back at the kitchen.

Now this is just an example of one pinball cleaning session that I did today. Notice that in this 15-minute time period, I made a lot of progress in the kitchen (home base) and also did quite a bit in the office and master bedroom. I also tidied up the back porch. So while no one area is completely perfect (not the goal of pinball cleaning, you can use focused cleaning for that), many different areas have been touched.

Earlier today I did a session which led me downstairs to my son's bedroom where I rebooted laundry, turned off lights, cleaned up the downstairs bathroom, took garbage outside, picked up some items in the garage while heading through it, got some charity items, put them immediately in the car, which I cleaned up a bit while I was out there. Etc, etc. . . You can see how this can help you really make a dent when it seems like much of your home is in disarray (like every morning after the "hurricane" has left for the bus!)

So, that's your new idea for today! PINBALL CLEANING! What I love about this is that I can get really bored with the same old routine day after day. With this method, you never get bored! You never know where you'll end up or what you'll be doing! The key is to hit as many rooms as possible and get done the most amount of "little things" possible. This is not the time to begin completely overhauling a closet (focused cleaning), or sorting all the seasonal clothes (more focused work). This is the time to get lots of little things done all over the place, and to have a little adventure while you do it. Yesterday I was doing this, and I came across a book we hadn't read for awhile, so we sat down and read it as "part" of our "pinball cleaning". What fun for the children (and a nice sit-down break for Mom!).

This technique makes a fun little game out of the tedious daily chore of tidying and organizing. It's great for the kids too. When they call you for something they need, you don't mind that you are being "interrupted", because you can just continue your pinball cleaning wherever the child is. Interruptions are obsolete! Potty time? Wipe down the bathtub. Bath time? Clean the mirrors and sort the magazines in the bathroom. Kids on the trampoline in the backyard? Pull a few weeds. Somebody fell down? Hug and comfort, use it as a break, then start up the vacuum with that child helping with their toy vacuum.

And on it goes. Controlled randomness! Love it! Mom gets a lot done, the kids are taken care of, and Mom gets a lot of exercise, too! What better way to spend the morning? Give it a try!

ENJOY!

The Woman Behind the Children! :)

Several weeks ago, Christal tagged me on her blog. (You can see her blog in my links section, it's called "Live, Laugh, Love".) Cute name by the way!

So, from what I understand, I'm supposed to list 6 things about myself that not many people know. Change of pace for my blog, but I thought I'd go ahead and HUMOR everyone and participate. SO -- here goes!

1. When I was 15 I wrote & studio-recorded a song that was played on local radio stations! :) It was called "Memories of You" and was a love song I wrote when my very first "real" boyfriend moved away and I thought I'd never make it without him! :) Now we're both married to other people. Last I heard he has 6 kids, and you all know I have 7! So, life turns out differently than we think when we're young and in puppy love! :) I performed the song at an audition for our County Fair and couldn't hear the accompaniment because the speakers were in front of me, so I sang it terribly out-of-tune and that was the end of my pop singing career! But it was still fun to be interviewed on the radio and have my studio-recorded song played!

2. I grew up in the Chicago area, about 40 miles west in the Fox Valley area. Though I married a farm-boy and now love the country, I still absolutely love the city! People out here would think I'm crazy, and if I mention this, I think they want to kick me out of town! But I just love the hustle and bustle, the energy of the city! I love the smell of downtown Chicago, and just being there and seeing everything. I love to go to Salt Lake City for conferences for DH's work and just hang out there, go the the Family History Library, ride TRAX, tour the buildings, eat in fine restaurants, have a maid clean my room. . . and be a part of it all. BUT -- I love coming home and watching the horses in my back field and seeing tractors in the fields and the slower, value-based lives of these great people!

3. I started college as a music major, did that for one year, then decided it was too competitive and music was losing it's fun. Then I switched to social work for a semester, and decided it wasn't for me -- too depressing! So I tried nursing, but when I went to the first day of Chem 301, I knew that I was in the wrong place! By this time I was at the end of my sophomore year, so I searched through the school catalog looking for the shortest program that looked interesting. That's when I decided on family science with an emphasis in human development. I also finished my music minor with all my music credits. SO -- it was practically by chance that I ended up with the proper education for what has turned out to be my main career: raising 7 great kids! Incidentally, I took 5 years to graduate, getting married at the end of year #3, then having my first son at the end of my 4th year and going to school part time to finish up. I was pregnant with child #2 when I graduated in 1993!

4. I love to take long bubble baths in the jetted-tub and read a good book! ;) Reading is my passion, second only maybe to music composition and participation. I especially love to read things that teach. I love self-help, organization, parenting, finance & other educational books. I eat up a book in a few days and then try to apply whatever new, great ideas I find. There's always something new to learn, no matter how much experience you gain!

5. At our house, I control the remote and I'm the channel flipper, not my husband! Especially if I don't feel well, I can really get glued to that La-Z-Boy. Maybe we should call it a La-Z-Mom? I try to limit my sessions to one show unless I'm ill. I especially enjoy watching the morning news shows. The TODAY show is my favorite, but I miss Katie Couric, although Meredith is a captivating lady, too. I like old mystery shows: "Perry Mason" re-runs are my favorite. I like most of what's on PBS like NOVA, History Detectives, music programs, any educational shows are great. But I don't care for Charlotte Church, Lawrence Welk or that weird European guy with the long hair that plays love-songs on the violin and everyone in the audience is swaying! UGH! I used to really like Dr. Phil. I like the philosophy and figuring out what he's going to tell them, and to see if I agree with my own education. But I haven't watched it much this season because it's on when the kids are coming in from the bus, and it's sure gotten racy the last few years! I occasionally watch Oprah, as long as it's not one of the "meet the celebrity" shows. GAG. I can't stand most comedy shows (too many sexual innuendos and generally just a waste of time), drama/cop/medical shows (too illicit and violent). I do enjoy fantasy movies like Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia, Star Wars. So -- there's a little synopsis. . . whew! Makes it sound like I watch TV all the time. NOT!

6. I guess most people know this about me, but I like to rearrange furniture. I don't know if it's because my mother was always doing that (heck, she'd move around the WALLS!), or if it's just because I need a change once in awhile. Maybe it's because it's one of the few areas of my life that I am in complete CONTROL! :) Whatever the reason, I like to mix things up and make it different. I enjoy adding to my decor also, but I'm not the type that shops like crazy and then fills my house with little do-dads. I like to get a few nice quality pieces, and I even find those at yard-sales sometimes! I have this great heavy wood-framed antique mirror, I got it for like $1! I love bargains, but I don't just buy things because they're on sale. I'm not too sentimental about things, I can get rid of them and not feel like I'm giving away part of myself. The only reason I have too much stuff (and I do!) is because there are too many people living in my house who ARE sentimental about things! So they hoard and I quietly try to de-junk! :) Back to the furniture, one time my mother-in-law was visiting and she said, "You know, the one thing that is always constant in your home is change!" I don't know if she thinks that's a vice or a virtue, but but I'll take it as a compliment! I love change as long as it makes things BETTER!

Well, that's a little peek at the woman behind the kids. Hope you found it interesting!

Now I'm supposed to tag 6 people. SO -- here goes:
Valerie, Kellie, Tina, Christianna, Jessica, Dawn
So, now you're each supposed to post 6 things on your blogs that not many people know about you, then you each tag 6 other people, and let them know on their blogs. HAVE FUN!

Have a GREAT DAY everyone!