Monday, December 14, 2020

If You Are A Vegetarian, Just Skip This. Also- Love Languages


Jessie first introduced the term "love language" to me and to be honest, I really don't know much about the different love languages and you can google it if you want to but basically, we all have specific ways of feeling loved and we can get into trouble in relationships if we don't understand that. If one person in the relationship needs words of affirmation to feel loved, he or she will probably also offer that to their partner whose love language may be physical touch. Which is why it's really a good idea to at least have an idea what our partner's language is and also, what our own is. 
If we need quality time with our loved one to feel loved and our loved one needs gifts, things can get unintentionally screwy with neither person feeling loved while both are trying their best to give what they might need without being aware of the differences. 

Oh Lord. Just google it. 

And families can have their own love languages. For instance- my family's love language centers around getting together and eating good food and talking and joking and laughing at the kids and being together that way. Vergil's family, though, expresses their love in a more constructive way. They like to do projects together. They build things and make things together. Mr. Moon is more like this too, honestly. And so Vergil's idea of heaven and Mr. Moon's idea of a real good time is doing something like what we did today. 

Before I even got up this morning, Vergil had already chopped vegetables and sauteed some for the sausage they were going to make and the men got out to the garage and prepared the venison and pork, some of which would be combined in the sausage. Venison is really too lean to make good sausage. You can mix it with olive oil, which is what I do with ground venison to make meatloaf or even spaghetti, or you can mix it with fattier pork. 

I made pancakes and we all ate together and then there was more preparation in the garage and I mixed up the spice mixtures for both breakfast sausage and Italian sausage. Vergil had written out recipes and all I had to do was multiply those by whatever amount they needed for the amount of meat they had. I used the old coffee bean grinder to grind cumin seed and peppers, black, white, and red. And then the operation moved into the kitchen and I sort of stepped back while Vergil and Mr. Moon and Jessie and, yes, the boys, all worked together to make the sausage and package it for the freezer as well as packaging the cuts of deer and pig that they'd made. 

Here are August and Levon, grinding the meat with spices. 


They both already know what they're doing and are also good at helping run the vacuum sealer that we use to prepare the different products for the freezer. 

Say what you will, these kids are never going to have the moment that so many children do when they first realize that the tasty meat they're eating at the supper table came from an actual animal. And if they decide to become vegetarians, that will be fine and understandable. We are a very, very non-judgemental family when it comes to different ways of eating. We honor and respect everyone's choices because what could be more personal and important than what one person decides to put into their body? 

Anyway, a whole lot got done and as I said yesterday, we have plenty of protein around here. And despite whatever that saying is about if you've seen the sausage being made, you'll never eat it, we have no doubts at all about what goes into ours. Nothing nasty in the least unless you don't eat meat, in which case...
Might seem nasty. 

When the boys got tired of helping, we read some books. My love language is reading books out loud. If you let me read to you, you have made me feel loved. August and I read one book, a fairly silly one about a family of bunnies and the pictures are beautiful but the story is rather inane and I wasn't sure he'd like it. When it was over, though, he smiled hugely and said, "I like that story. Nothing bad happened!" And it's true. The worst thing that happened in it was that one of the bunnies fell into the little river when they were having a picnic but his family pulled him right out and his mother took his wet clothes off and said, "Run, run, run in the sun, little bun!" which made both me and August laugh. By the end of the book, all of the little bunnies were running around naked in the sun, happy as can be while their parents looked on indulgently. 

We had to shut down the project early in the afternoon as Jessie had a dentist's appointment and the boys were so tired. 


They had put every ounce of their energy into the day and when I gave August his going-away treat of some Chex Mix, he burst into tears. "I hate that! I hate it!" he wailed. I begged his forgiveness and took the Chex Mix away and brought some trail mix instead that had nuts, and raisins and a few M&M's that Mr. Moon had bought for his trip. This was satisfactory and away they went, all of us, I hope, feeling loved. 

And then I came in and after Mr. Moon finished cleaning up the equipment I set the kitchen back in order and mopped the floor and ran the dishwasher so now my kitchen feels loved too.

I certainly do. 

Love...Ms. Moon

24 comments:

  1. sausage day, the best day! My parents and the neighbors got together every November early December to make Swedish sausage , courve, I loved to play with the casing, all gutty and stretchy! Lovely day, Miss Mary! _ I LOVE Chex mix by the way!! Another MOM favorite with loads of butter and garlic.

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    1. Korv not courve. but you knew that already.

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    2. I have never heard of korv! Swedish sausage, eh?
      I like Chex Mix pretty well, too. But this was the kind that came in a bag so not as good. No wonder August had no desire for it.

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  2. Making meat is hard, hard work. My brother and brother in law worked hard together processing venison into sausage and whatever else they put in the freezer.

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  3. those boys are going to be pros at sausage making! So good to have them participating and understanding the process.
    susan M

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    1. I hope so! If they want to be, that is. If they don't- well, so be it.

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  4. I think it is good for kids to know where their food comes from. We get our meat from a local butcher who buys his meat from the Hutterites and it's good meat. I don't like ground beef because of the nasty bits that show up in it but our butcher's ground beef is just good.

    I need hugs to feel loved and attention but not too much attention:) I show my love by doing things for people.

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    1. I wouldn't want ground beef to have nasty bits either. I guess people just get sloppy or they try to increase the weight with bits of bone and gristle.
      I could have said exactly how you show your love, lady!

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  5. I think I need to do the love language quiz again. I loved this post -- so warm and happy and funny.

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  6. I remember one of my boys asking " Is meat an animal?" He was probably 4 or 5 at the time. No idea what my answer was....probably just " yes". ( he is 40 now and still eats meat!)

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    1. It does occur to every child to ask at some point, doesn't it?

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  7. Thoroughly enjoyed your explanation of 'love languages'--especially when you sort of got tired of trying to frame them all. :) But still, good job. Didn't feel the need to google it.

    So understand August's reaction the to chex mix as a parting gift. Yesterday, my 6 year old GS discovered I'd set out some H'Kisses for him and you would have thought I hung the moon. Guess it beat the PF Goldfish I usually give him as a snack. Sweet over savory this week.

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    1. Haha! Yes. I think I got the basic idea across.
      Sweet over savory goes for the boys all the time. And I will never insult August again with Chex Mix. I've learned my lesson.

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  8. My goodness. That's a very severe reaction to Chex Mix! I always liked Chex Mix. You can mail me August's portion. :)

    I have never heard of "Love Languages." But what an interesting idea. I'm honestly not even sure what my "Love Language" is. Hmmm...

    Dave will be impressed at your sausage-making venture. He made sausage earlier this year -- all pork. It was excellent!

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    1. I think August was mostly tired. And it's hard for him to leave, I think.
      Dave made sausage! Good for him!
      I think I'll take the love language quiz. There is one.

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  9. A big family project - making that sausage - nice to have everyone involved. Years and years ago I remember my Mom taking me to her Italian Aunt's home and we made ravioli with her Italian cousins. I think I was too little to help but was allowed to watch and I think we all ate some when it was done. Your post brought that old memory back to me. Thanks!

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    1. I think you're right Ellen, processing food used to be a way a family got together didn't it and I think many have lost that now (except for the Moon family of course)!

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    2. I love the memory of making ravioli, Ellen! How beautiful. And Treaders- Probably a lot more rural people still come together for canning and butchering than we imagine. I hope that families still gather to process their food.

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  10. Your Family is Loved Filled and the ways of expressing it are the making of Special Memories that shall last Forever and Ever!

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  11. I think a lot has been lost in this modern world, part of that being that the children from an early age helped with the survival of the family. not that kids shouldn't have free time and play time. and small children are very capable of being very helpful and the best part of that is at that age they want to be helpful. if you wait til they are older when you think they should be capable, by then they don't want to help.

    back when Frank of the Bountiful Garden was alive and after he died when Allen was still alive, the family would gather after hunting season to process and smoke the meat. since Allen died in 2017 that hasn't been happening. I noticed the other day that Allen's son was over at the property (this being the half acre next to me that the crazy bitch, Allen's widow, now owns) using the little smokehouse.

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    1. I think you're right, Ellen. Especially the part about there being an age when children do love to be helpful. Remember how Owen loved to clean windows? I had to get him his own cleaning gloves because he wanted them so badly. And he's still a pretty helpful guy to his mama. I love that.
      I'm glad that someone is using that smoke house. I wish we had one.

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