Tradition # 2 - Red Beans and Rice on Mondays

Okay for all of you out there that was not born in New Orleans let me explain the significance of this. In the days..before washing machines and such..when women hand washed all the clothes and linen, which was done on Monday..they would put a pot of beans on the stove to cook all day while accomplishing this...I mean Heaven forbid if the men of the house did not eat!!!!! (ha ha)...They would simmer or cook all day, which is actually the secret of a successful pot of red beans. Red beans by no means is a dish that is meant to be whipped up in an hour. It takes it own pace, kind of like living in New Orleans does. Anyways..not sure about now (post-Katrina), but pre-Katrina...you could go to a restaurant or a hole in the wall mom and pop place and their Monday special would be red beans and rice with sausage and cornbread.

I adopted this tradition after I was married to my second husband. It was great and even though there is no way I could let my laundry sit for a week at a time...I would do this on Mondays. Well, it has been awhile since we have done this...one being that beans other than Camilla beans...just seem not to work and now that I have a stock pile of them after a recent trip to New Orleans...the tradition is once again starting. So next Monday and every Monday here on out...we will be having red beans and rice with sausage.

I remember cooking this for several functions, especially church functions. I remember several people asking me for a recipe and me not being able to produce one because you just "eye it." I remember going over to one sister's house, Jenny Dahl, and "teaching" her how to cook my red beans. I remember her telling me that they came out close to mine and I was ecstatic that someone, who was only in New Orleans for a brief time while their husband was in medical school, would be able to leave New Orleans with a little bit of history and a little bit of what makes New Orleans, well New Orleans. I am wondering if that sister still makes red beans and rice???

I miss my city..my comfort zone...I was scared to leave and as Ignatius J. Reilly from A Confederacy of Dunces said, "Leaving New Orleans also frightened me considerably. Outside of the city limits the heart of darkness, the true wasteland begins." Gosh how true this is. I remember driving west and thinking, "Is this how the pioneers felt?" (That is so another blog!!!)

As I make my home in San Antonio....I will implement every little bit of New Orleans that I can. I will make my New Orleans here in San Antonio, which is also another great place with so much history and little things that makes San Antonio, well San Antonio. I prayed about where to leave and HF knew my heart and sent me here. I am so grateful that I walked by faith and not by sight. For one...I am not too far from my 1st love.....New Orleans.

Until next post,

Always Susan :0)~

Tradition #1 - Lowes Build-to-Grow Workshop

This is something that was started when we moved here to San Antonio in June of 2006. We do this every month. It is usually held on the 2nd Saturday of the month and the children have so much fun. They get to build something, receive a patch, a certificate, and of course a job well done from the person over it at the Lowes by our house.

We have missed a couple of them, once because mom did not write it down, another time due to just plan of forgetting about it, and another time because Austin had to go to the ER the night before one and we all voted to just sleep in.!!!!!

They have made a desk organizer for pens, paperclips and such, a race car, a birdhouse, and a fire truck. We cannot wait for it to start back up this month and have a goal of trying to make everyone...even if we are out of town. We made it to the Lowes in Harvey in October, a day after arriving in New Orleans, and we made fire trucks with our cousins. We had so much fun and as soon as mom gets the other camera and loads the pictures...you will see how much fun....1 mom and 5 children.

If you have not done this with your children, nieces or nephews....etc. you should...take pictures..tons of them, it is something that they will treasure forever.

Always Susan :0)~
No More and No Less

New Year...New Traditions, some old and some not yet born

This is my attempt to keep a journal. I have tried to do it on paper, but it seems that I spend most of my time on here and that it is easier for me to sit down and type it rather than sit down and write it.

This is something that is important to me and have had some great distress over the fact that I have not been able to jot down the things that happen in my family's life on a day to day basis..so here I go.

Today is the first day of the New Year - 2007. I spent most of the day with my sons at home resting and watching movies. This is the second year in a row that I have not had my daughter with me due to her being with her father in New Orleans. It seems weird not having her here, like you cannot celebrate the New Year until she comes home, which is in two days. At that time, we will have the tradition of eating black eye peas, cabbage, and corn bread.

This year I have so much I want to accomplish in my life and my children's lives and with them. First and foremost, you could say that I am a trend setter. I follow no one and am so non-conformist. I do what makes me and my children happy, not what others would want us to do because they just cannot fathom their lives the way I live mine. So with that said and done...here is to a year of traditions whether it is bringing old ones back, starting new ones, or just continuing old ones.

If you have any traditions that you and your family do, by all means post them, but fair warning...they might just become a tradition of ours!!!!!!

Always Susan :0)~
No More and No Less

Original first post on Blogger - dated 09/17/2006 - Initial reason(s) for starting this......

Okay, finally after throwing this idea around for the past, ummm, four weeks I have finally decided to do this. I seem to spend more time at the computer (work, lesson planning for children and personal study, and just plan entertainment) and not a lot of time where I can actually sit down and journal.

About three weeks ago, we had a sister who gave a talk about journaling, preserving memories, and such (1st subtle nudge from HF), and since then is seems that there are so many things that have happened and are happening, that I am saying to myself, I need to write this down because I so do not want to forget this (2nd not so subtle nudge) and thirdly, these incidences are happening ALL THE TIME, while the nudging is becoming a very hard PUSH. So, after today and the talk on Faith...I have decided to begin this.

One sister said that even the littlest things that you might think are insignificant, i.e. what you ate, what you wore, how your day went, etc., was one of her most cherished things.

I am also doing this for my children. I want them to emulate me and grow a love a journaling, at the same time I do, which each of them will eventually have their own page and contributing to that page.

So please enjoy, comment, and contribute if you have that prompting and also, as my title says, you can count on one thing from this and that is for me to be Always Susan, no more and no less. Don't we all deserve to be who we are down to the very core?

Until next post,

Always Susan :0)~

As you can tell...the nudging has not stopped..so with the New Year..this is one of my goals that I have set. To blog, "journal" every day as to not to miss those little things that makes my life what it is.......GREAT!!!