Friday's Fave Five, Friday Follow, AND Flashback Friday









1.  This has to be #1 on my list for this week!  Spending the day with this handsome young man:

2. A quote from one of the school psychologists from her Facebook Status:   
"I'm going to alter my thinking so that instead of looking at this as the last day of summer vacation, I'm going to think of tomorrow as the first day toward next summer break."

3.  An unexpected dinner out.  I bought some chicken that already had marinade on it.  Add that to husband grilling at 500 degrees and what do you get?  WHOOSH!  I looked outside and noticed there was an awful lot of smoke out there!  Good thing the hose was close by!  And, to top that off, when we got  to the restaurant and I opened up the menu, the first thing I saw was:  Crispy Chicken Salad.  I think the waitress thought I was out of my mind when I started laughing!

4.   A quote from another friend on Facebook:   
"Some say the glass is half full some say half empty; I say who keeps drinking my drink?"

5.  The last lunch of summer with YS.  I go back to work today, and he picks up his schedule, then he starts classes on Monday.  Where did the summer go?   But more importantly:  when am I going to get in my afternoon naps?


 What are your FFF for the week?  Go visit Susanne and link up!   Don't forget to link up at Java's for Follow Friday 40 and Over!



Okay, okay!  This week's Flashback is pretty good, so I've gotta participate in it, too!

What were meals like when you were growing up? Did your mom (or dad) cook (and was it from scratch or from a box?) or did your family eat out much of the time? Did you eat together as a family or was everyone on a different schedule? What did you call meals? (Dinner vs. supper, lunch, etc.) 
As a rule, we ate supper together.  In fact, it was  rare when all 12 of us (10 kids  + mom & dad) didn't all sit down together.  We had a really long table with chairs on one side, and a long bench on the other.  At either end there were chairs for mama & daddy.  The older kids got to sit in the chairs, so it was a big deal  as they started moving out and someone else took their place.   Mom did all of the cooking since she was a stay at home mom.  Although, she says that she didn't know how to cook when she & daddy got married and credits daddy with teaching her how to cook.  For breakfast and lunch we were pretty much on our own.  I do remember when I was little, sitting down as a family for Sunday brunch
What were some of your favorite things that your parent fixed? What did you dislike and vow never to fix once you grew up? 
It seems like  we had roast a bunch on Sundays.  I absolutely hated lima beans.  One time, I came to supper with my batman boots, slid them off, and snuck the beans into the slippers(One of the advantages to being in a big family...my parents were preoccupied with someone else!)
Did your family have any food traditions, things that were a must on certain occasions (such as Sunday dinners or holiday meals)? 
I've already mentioned Sunday brunch.  Holidays were major meals!  Easter:  ham & potato salad, Christmas & Thanksgiving:  Turkey & mashed potatoes.  Of course we had other things; those were just the "main" parts!  OH, and how can I forget Friday nights?  Being Catholic, we either had fish sticks, mac & cheese, and peas OR "Catholic Casserole", aka Tuna Casserole.  It wasn't until we had all grown up that mama found out daddy didn't like fish sticks & peas!  The poor man stuck it out all those years!
Did your parent teach you to cook or did you wing it once you were grown? How similar or different are your family's eating habits today than when you grew up?
I pretty much winged it after I got married.  Mama was never farther than a phone call away, and she got plenty of calls!
We eat together as a family as much as we can.  That may mean that we eat later or earlier than usual, but we think it's  very important to come together at least once a day.  We eat out some...when I was growing up we never ate out.  I think I was in jr. high before I had ever even been to a fast food restaurant.  When I was in jr.high or high school (I don't remember exactly when this happened), daddy's job changed in the company and he switched shifts every week or so.  When he was on night shift, that was "hamburger week"!  It gave mama a little big of a break from cooking, and gave us a rare treat!
When people I've known for most of my life reminisce about coming over to our house, they always talk about the long table with the bench against the wall.  And the noise.  We were happy eaters!

Share your answers by linking up at Linda's!

25 comments:

  1. Thanks for the memories! We also had fish sticks and mac&cheese on Fridays. Sunday dinner was usually roast beef and mashed potatoes. Any leftover beef either got sliced for sandwiches or ground up for beef-a-roni! My aunt, who had 10 kids, also had benches at the kitchen table. I used to love to go there-thought it was the greatest way to sit!

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  2. Visualizing your big table made me think of The Waltons!

    You're the second blogger whose dad taught her mom to cook.

    Fun memories - thanks for sharing!

    (Oh, and I loved the quote about the glass on #4!)

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  3. First of all, I so stole that quote about milk for my facebook status. Too funny!

    And 10 kids - go mom!

    I popped over from both Follow Friday and Mocha with Linda:)

    http://scraphappychristinescorner.blogspot.com/

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  4. Stopping by from the Friday hops to say hello.
    Have a great Friday!
    http://harrietandfriends.com/2010/07/can-you-tap-a-500-word-text-in-6-seconds/

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  5. You're back at work??? Today??? No Way!!! It's tooooo early!!!

    Have a great weekend!

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  6. Thanks for the great stories!

    The walk down memory lane, growing up in a big, Catholic family...to this day I CAN NOT stand fish sticks. I've never purchased them as a grown woman and my kids have never eaten them. I can choke down mac & cheese if I absolutely have to which is rare.

    I remember thinking how horrible it was to eat home made food all the time...never getting any Hostess cakes or McDonalds FF.

    Love your blog, Mary. Hope your school year goes smoothly...how many days till summer vacation?!

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  7. what a sweet man, your daddy!
    i'd have enjoyed your supper table

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  8. I'm still trying to get a summer nap!

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  9. Wow! What a big family. I loved visualizing all of you sitting around the table and you sneaking lima beans into your batman slippers. :) I hate lima beans too so I would have tried the same thing if I could have gotten away with it!

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  10. Such fun memories! Glad you joined in today! :)

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  11. Oh yes, the good ole fish sticks and mac and cheese on Fridays! Maybe that's why the thought of a fish stick to this day makes me queasy! ;)

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  12. Absolutely love that quote about the half full glass & who's drinking my drink!

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  13. Thanks for the smiles! I especially like #2 ... I'll have to adopt that attitude. :)

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  14. back to work already? Wow! Time flies. Love the FB quote too....

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  15. Always enjoy reading your posts! I can't imagine how your mom and dad managed with all those kids! We always ate dinner together too, but we only had 4 kids in our family. ~ Tuna casserole reminds me of my brother. That was his favorite home cooked meal. I actually have a great stove top tuna casserole dish that is much quicker to make that baking it in the oven. Have a great week!

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  16. I have never been one to think of clever status updates.
    You are back at work....your son is back in school??? I think you both got ripped off.

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  17. I'm glad you can see 'back to school/work' as a Fave. I'm still on summer break and refusing to thing about the end of summer.

    Have a great weekend!

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  18. enjoyed your fave fives especially the FB quotes! and wow...you come from a large family! My mother made roast beef just about every.single.sunday. I don't. nuf said! :)

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  19. Can you believe our posts have a lot in common? I almost mentioned Dad not telling Mom about the fish sticks but didn't. How funny!

    Love the picture of OS. I can tell you really had a good time.

    And isn't it great to have lunch with your son one last time. I remember both mine (separately) rode their bikes to meet me for lunch before they had to start to school.

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  20. beans in the Batman boots...too funny!

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  21. Your trip down memory lane was so much fun to read! We had roast often on Sundays. I remember my friend (who lived next door) and I would sit together at church and we would always ask each other what was on the lunch menu at our respective houses. We would decide at that point which one of us would ask our parents if we could invite the other one over for lunch. We both hated roast days and loved taco Sunday. I still feel the same way. :0)

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  22. Sometimes burning dinner gives us a unique opportunity. But at my house we probably would have just made pancakes :)

    It is fun to see all the clever things posted on Facebook.

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  23. That's a great quote from your friend. Enjoyed it. I also enjoyed your food memories from the Flashback Friday questions. In our family, there are so many great memories centered around food. It's just the way our family was. Have a great week.

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  24. Wow, I enjoyed reading both of the mems you participate in :-) And that young man is very handsome indeed ;-) How nice you got to spend some time with him. I smiled at the crispy chicken in that menu... you already had plenty of that at home!

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  25. Funny quotes.

    I would have laughed at the menu too. How ironic that that would be on the menu. LOL.

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