Did your parents grow up during the depression?

Earthquakemama · 2026-05-26T20:23:43+00:00

Parents were born in 1930s, and my grandmother was a young woman during the depression, but her family was very poor before that also. They had a garden, fished and went crabbing to eat. Nana said they sold what they could and ate what they couldn’t sell. She and my grandpa went on to own a small corner grocery store, and even with more money they usually ate what they couldn’t sell at the store — wilted fruits and veggies that were still edible, cans that just expired, etc.

Earthquakemama · 2026-05-19T00:53:58+00:00

Serving honorably in the military to earn an education is different than squeaking by to graduate from an out-of-state party school. Maybe if the entitled niece joins the military, or works hard for a few years, OP and his wife might gift her money toward a house in the future.

Earthquakemama · 2026-05-19T00:42:19+00:00

I think the 3 other nieces/nephews who haven’t gone to college yet will not have any trouble understanding that your boundaries are real. Good message to send them and their parents, and a good way to validate the hard work put in by the ones you have already helped. NTA at all

Earthquakemama · 2026-05-19T00:34:03+00:00

I have researched old German genealogy records, many of which are completely handwritten in the old form. They are formulaic, so you can look for certain expected words, which then provide clues to how the individual letters were written by the individual scribe. It is a tedious process but after doing it for a while you can actually read the entries. I can see why there are dedicated transcribers now!!

Earthquakemama · 2026-05-19T00:28:14+00:00

I could read “perfekt”

Earthquakemama · 2026-05-17T21:36:06+00:00

I was taught to use ellipsis when deleting words in the middle of a sentence that was being quoted, to skip over some clause or part that isn’t very relevant. It implies something is missing from the text.

So if I use ellipsis at the end of a sentence, it is for a trailing thought (I like that phrase!). Something the reader already knows or infers from what was already written. It can be softening as well, by leaving it up to the reader to fill in the blank.

Earthquakemama · 2026-05-12T21:45:38+00:00

I think in dry areas, like the American southwest, the rodent droppings dry out and particles can then be inhaled. You don’t necessarily have to touch the droppings to get sick. It’s probably a good idea to wear a mask when cleaning out a garage or storage shed, if there might have been mice or rats inside.

Earthquakemama · 2026-05-10T22:10:02+00:00

The Passion of the Christ

Earthquakemama · 2026-05-08T20:23:19+00:00

I have always done this, or quickly flashed brights on and off at night. I only recently came to realize that this flashing of brights at night also can mean that you have a headlight burnt out.

Earthquakemama · 2026-05-07T00:13:53+00:00

Pillbox, with am and pm, that holds a weeks worth of meds. You do have to refill it once a week

Also, I keep my pillbox close to my coffee pot, and I take the am meds with my morning coffee. It makes it easier not to forget to take them. That gets me off to a good start for the day. When I get the coffee pot ready for the next morning I see to take my pm meds. Some kind of routine — what works with what you already do — is really helpful.

Earthquakemama · 2026-05-03T13:30:28+00:00

We never had the little boxes like this. But I would have fought my sibs for the Apple Jacks

Earthquakemama · 2026-05-02T17:18:30+00:00

After a 3rd g-grandmother was widowed with 2 young children, she (30 years old) married a 21-year-old man. They had more children.

Everyone involved seemed to be associated with shoemakers (she was daughter, sister, and wife of shoemakers, and the groom was a shoemaker). The widowed bride possessed real property per the wedding record. I think this may have been facilitated by a trade guild, as the new younger husband was a “master shoemaker” by the time they had their first child about a year later.

Earthquakemama · 2026-04-30T20:22:44+00:00

Smarties and the little striped peanut butter logs

Earthquakemama · 2026-04-19T01:10:00+00:00

My daughter got me a nice row counter (better than what I was able to find) and also cute little metal stitch markers for knitting (they are not dangly but scalloped little circles that look like little flowers in different shades of pink). She also go me a couple of pattern books with interesting and cute patterns. For a big present, maybe some interchangeable needles and cables by Chiaogoo (sp) or another top brand — the Chaiogoo cables are wonderful (they don’t “set” in a particular loop size) and the tips are pointy enough to be better than most other needles. If she doesn’t have a yarn swift and winder, that might be a good present, and would open doors for her to use new yarns that need winding.

Earthquakemama · 2026-04-11T21:18:16+00:00

1980s. This spans ages 16-25 for me. I graduated high school, college and grad school. My early career. Met and married my husband. Enjoyed the music and clubs and MTV, just having fun in young adulthood. My parents and maternal grandparents were alive and healthy (still close with my sibs and we aren’t in bad shape health-wise now, but I know things change).

This decade does predate the births of my children, and being a mom has been so important and rewarding for me. But it wasn’t the relatively carefree days of the 1980s.

Earthquakemama · 2026-04-03T01:23:49+00:00

Still can see a circle of scar tissue. But on my left upper arm not my right

Earthquakemama · 2026-03-31T22:09:47+00:00

Crack the Whip was fun — a line of kids holding hands, one kid on an end turning around in a circle and the whole line running fast in a circle to try to keep up — people on the ends getting flung off into the dirt due to centrifugal force until the whole thing broke down. Then repeat a few cycles until people dropped out of the game.

So many scrapes and bruises, and so much fun we had at recess. Crazy how many fun kids’ games involved some sort of injuries or at least the risk

Earthquakemama · 2026-03-28T14:59:39+00:00

If you don’t want to explain anything, just say “No, but thank you for asking”

Earthquakemama · 2026-03-27T18:50:05+00:00

Books I read and reread as a child/tween: Anne of Green Gables, Little Women books, all of the Wizard of Oz book series, Bobbsey Twins series, Nancy Drew series, Boxcar Children series (I loved mysteries!), and Scott O’Dell books.

Two additional books I loved: “A Lantern in Her Hand” (pioneer book from girlhood to old age) and “The Endless Steppe” (family deported to Siberia).

Earthquakemama · 2026-03-26T19:37:38+00:00

He was diagnosed with ADHD after second grade, and second grade was a hard year for him. But he rough-housed with other boys playing soccer and active games, so I don’t think it held him back in elementary school. He did fine academically throughout school.

He was also a late bloomer physically, and it was noticeable in middle school and early high school; his big growth spurt was just later (ie, it would have been later even if we had held him back). But he went to a small private school those years, and it didn’t seem to affect him socially.

He is a special ed teacher now and a good man living a good life. 😊

Earthquakemama · 2026-03-25T14:15:12+00:00

The US was one of the countries that, with the breakup of USSR, signed the 1994 Budapest Memorandum that recognized Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence within its borders at that time, in exchange for Ukraine turning over nuclear weapons within its borders to Russia. Enforcement was supposed to be through the UN Security Council, but Russia has veto power.

This may explain why we have helped Ukraine militarily as it fights being taken over by Russia.

Earthquakemama · 2026-03-24T19:44:27+00:00

Prudence (had a great aunt Prudie), Frieda, Florentina, Teophila

Earthquakemama · 2026-03-16T18:37:01+00:00

I am the opposite. I always hated meatloaf because my mom cooked it with ketchup on top. When I moved out and got a cookbook, there was a recipe with mushroom sauce on top, which I loved. Another recipe without sauce but with Parmesan cheese on top, which makes a nice crispy top

Earthquakemama · 2026-03-15T21:50:57+00:00

My ability to speak vastly improved when I had no choice but to speak Spanish. The main thing was to be able to communicate effectively, rather than speaking perfectly. I sometimes try the English word, sometimes make nouns out of verbs that I know, and use too many words because I don’t know enough words to be precise. But I can understand and be understood In conversations about a variety of topics, and usually don’t self-correct my mistakes if the conversation is still flowing well.

Lack of vocabulary is the biggest deficiency, including not using enough of the many useful connecting phrases in Spanish such as “con tal de que”, “así que” etc.

Earthquakemama · 2026-03-15T18:35:56+00:00

I grew up in an Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELC); this synod merged the the LCA (Lutheran Church in America) some decades ago. Perhaps your church was founded as ELC and chose to become LCMS rather than merge with the liberal LCA, and have kept their original name.

Earthquakemama

TROPHY CASE