I have three wonderful children and 14 beautiful grandchildren. Eight of them are “home bred” and six are “inherited and love bred.” When I tell people how many grands I have, they always tell me how blessed we are. Believe me, we truly know this!
One of my children has an “open door” policy. If you are a friend of one of her boys, you are her inherited. On any given night, she never knows how much to cook because she never knows how many she will be feeding. And, they are all big boys, so she knows they can eat an Army ration. Then when she gets up in the mornings, she may find some of the straggler friends have stayed overnight and are hurriedly getting ready for school. You may ask, “Why do the parents allow the overnight visits?” Well, my daughter is an everything mom. She loves everybody's child, she nurtures all the boys that come and hang on after their first visit, she helps with homework, she feeds them, she loans them money if needed, she is a consequential mother.
I have benefited somewhat from this mothering. We have been called Meme and Pawpaw for many years by our grandchildren and now our newly acquired call us the same. I doubt some of them even know our given names. Several times we have needed help out here at the Circle S and one of our grandsons or one of our newer ones are quick to answer the call. You can hear, especially on weekends the loud pipes as the pickup trucks pull into our driveway on the way to the barn to switch out vehicles to a four wheeler or an ATV as they roar back into the pastures and woods of the ranch. We have been woke up early in the morning as one of them pulls in to hitch to a trailer to carry his bike to an early riding destination or to go into the woods to hunt. Then on some mornings, after the deer hunts, duck hunts, turkey hunts, or coyote or whatever is in season at the time, the boys will stop back here at my kitchen to eat an early breakfast of biscuits. This is a time I truly cherish. I just wish I could get them all here more often.
I love all the camaraderie, the trust and friendships that we have with these “extras.” I am also a mothering type of parent and any of my children will tell you I would be completely happy with a somewhat of a compound where all my children lived out here within hollering distance of us. Then I could feel as if I am still taking care of them. I’m not sure my children would agree to this living arrangement.
I don’t ride the four wheelers the way I used to before all my “falls” but I do enjoy all the family and new friendships that we treasure.
We love pork chops cooked any way I fix them. We really like the thicker chops so I buy half a big pork loin and cut my own to the thickness we like.(About an inch to an inch and a half thick). Then this is two different ways I cook them.
Rub the chops with a mixture of seasoned salt, garlic pepper, roasted paprika, and thyme. Let set for about an hour and then batter in flour and fry in about 3 tablespoons of Olive oil until browned. Pour a cup of hot water in the skillet and simmer for about 40 minutes. The gravy forms from the flour in the skillet.
Sometimes I pour a cup of cream of mushroom soup mixed with a cup of water over the chops and simmer. Either way is delicious.
