Birthday Haul 2019

Yes, I turn 32 today...or rather, I turn 32 at exactly 11:02 this evening.  Mama tells me that on the night I was born there was a full eclipse of the moon, and that I was apparently born during the time of totality.  It was also the night that the Cardinals clinched the National League title for the 1987 season; my dad was keeping tabs on the ballgame while Mama was having me, LOL.  There will be no moon for me to look at tonight as it is raining and thundering a bit, and no Cardinals baseball either since I don't have a television, but I can show off the stuff Mama got for me.  I like to top my ponytail with goofy-looking hair bows, the goofier the better, and Mama got me three from Etsy.

One with a Nutcracker-themed print, one with Legos, and one with a Christian theme.  The Lego and Nutcracker bows have my initials monogrammed on them.

Here's a closer look at the Nutcracker bow.  It's got Clara, the Nutcracker Prince, and the mouse king.  I really love that, because they all look like a set of Christmas ornaments that my grandmother had.  The mouse king was my favorite of the ornaments.

The Christian bow is my favorite color (green) and has a verse that should be familiar to all of God's children.

Now...the Lego bow and the items that match it require a bit of explanation.  Back in August the library ran a Lego-themed back-to-school program.  The prizes were all Lego sets, but as extra incentives these really cool Lego erasers were given out as well.  The erasers not only functioned as erasers, but they also hooked together like the real blocks do.  I was sorely tempted to keep a few for myself, but I ultimately decided to play fair and give them all away.  Anywho, during this period Mama asked me if I had any Lego-themed clothing to commemorate the event with.  My answer was "no."  Surprise!  Now I've got a ballcap for bad hair days!  See how the front matches my bow?

Mama also got me these earrings to match everything else.  To my delight they're made of real little Lego pieces!

I was a huge Lego fan when I was a little girl, and the sets we gave out to the children tempted me to start the hobby again.  I may have to wait on that though, since I don't currently have an empty room to hide those tiny pieces from my snoopy cats.

The other item that I received also requires some brief explanation.  In recent times the Little House book series has come under fire for being politically incorrect...yeah, kids' books.  Some folks want them banned.  As long as RagingMoon1987 is in charge of Malden Library there will be Little House books, but I digress.  I'd never read the books, so during September I sat down and did just that.  I read on up to Little Town on the Prairie and enjoyed every second of it (On the Banks of Plum Creek was my favorite).  Somewhere along the line I vocalized a desire to Mama to own some more pioneer-themed doll items, and as usual Mama heard loud and clear.  She got me this neat cooking set.

I apologize for that picture being so dark; all of my light bulbs are burned out and I've yet to replace them.  Anyway, these are all wood painted up to look like cast iron, except for the tripod and the fire pit.  The big cooking pot, the spoon, the frying pan, and the spider are all high-quality wood, the fire pit feels like resin (I'll thus have to be careful with it), and the tripod, unsurprisingly, is metal.  If any of y'all are historians, chefs, or Addy fans, then y'all will probably know what a spider is.  For those of y'all who don't know, a spider is a frying pan with legs (sort of like a wok), and Caroline Ingalls did indeed have one.  See the legs?

I think Caroline's spider was mentioned in the very first book, Little House in the Big Woods.  I'll have to look again to be sure, but I know she had one and put it to good use.  EDIT, 1/10/2020:  I was told in the comments that Caroline used the spider in Little House on the Prairie, and upon re-reading the book I found that to be true.  In Chapter 3 Laura wrote:

"Then Pa raked more coals over the fire, while Ma sliced fat salt pork.  She fried the slices in the iron spider.  The spider had short legs to stand on in the coals, and that was why it was called a spider.  If it had had no legs, it would have been called only a frying pan."

The same chapter notes that the large cooking pot was called a bake-oven, and this was used to bake johnny cakes.  Johnny cakes could also be cooked in a spider (they were sometimes called "spider cornbread" because of this), but Caroline used the bake-oven instead.  Caroline also utilized a coffee pot, which unfortunately was not a part of this set.  And that was a simple but tasty supper on the open prairie!  End edit.

Regarding the spider, Addy Walker also had one available in doll size at one time, and it was real cast iron.  Apparently one could actually cook in it.  Thus how I knew what a spider was when my fourth grade teacher read one of the Little House books to us!

As a last little tidbit, I had a devil of a time setting up the tripod until I found that the fire pit has three holes to accommodate the tripod's legs.

I'll soon be digging out my historical American Girls to help with Z Yang's review, and when I do I'll set Kirsten up with this cook stuff and show y'all how she looks.  Kirsten predates Laura Ingalls Wilder's era by a good twenty years...but we can all pretend we don't know that!

Mama says that she's got a couple more things coming for me, which makes me feel guilty since all I got her was a pair of much-needed shoes.  When whatever-it-is comes I'll show y'all that too.  In the meantime I'm going to shove some Cheetos in my mouth and listen to the glorious rain, which may be the best present of all...except for that danged thunder!  Now it's getting loud!

God bless y'all,
RagingMoon1987