My-not-so-daily thoughts

You know you're Dutch when...

2009-01-12T20:19:00.001-06:00

You Know You're Dutch When..

The temperature is so low in your house that 2 sweaters is a bare minimum if you want to be remotely warm.
During the winter it's warmer outside than it is inside.
You open the freezer and are excited to find a container of ice- cream, only to open it and discover it's full of homemade soup or stamppot.
When looking in the fridge, you never trust that the yogurt or margarine containers contain what the label says.
You were green before it was popular. Why recycle when you can just reuse!
You have a pair a wooden shoes in your house.
Your china cabinet is filled with Delft.
You like pickled herring.
You've eaten oliebollen at New Years.
You enjoy chocolate sprinkle (hagelslag) sandwiches.
You have cousins who wear size 14 shoes and are over 6'4"
You wash and reuse plastic cups and plastic cutlery.
You have soup and open-faced sandwiches for Sunday lunch.
The most frequent phrase uttered growing up was "Turn off the lights!"
You get a chocolate letter every year for Christmas.
All the tables in your house are covered in tablecloths.
You like croquettes.
You know that Vla is better than regular old pudding.
You drink tea with breakfast, coffee at 10 am, tea at 3 pm, and coffee again at 8 pm (with cookies or biscuits of course!)
You have an afghan knitted by your Oma.
You collect coupons like they're going out of style.
Your Oma had a calendar with everyone's birthdays & anniversaries spelled out in capital letters (bonus points if it hung in the bathroom!)
You've been known to recycle aluminum foil. And ziploc bags.
You own a special utensil that is only used for cutting cheese.
You know that Gouda is the best cheese ever.
You have at least 5 relatives with the same name (and somehow you always know which one is being talked about).
You reuse teabags

When you hear all the "new ways to save energy" you yawn and say "I've been doing that all my life!"
You eat your sandwiches open-faced. "What? You want another slice of bread? I'll make you another sandwich."
You rarely have both meat and cheese on the same sandwich.
You have never met half the relatives at your family reunion
You have 100 roles of toilet paper in your house because they were on sale.
You put a little water into the jar of tomato sauce and shake it to make sure you got it all out.
You have trouble shopping for hats. There should be at least two sizes: 'one size fits all' and 'dutch'.

You wipe the last of the butter out of the container with your bun.
All your cookies taste like almonds.
You make the bed in your hotel room.
You have lace on your windows but not on your underwear.
You like dubbel zout drops, and have occasionally tricked a friend into trying one.
You've put mayonnaise on your french fries.
Your kitchen is filled with milk bags drying, waiting to be reused in the freezer.
You drink Heineken out of pride.
You have a front room but nobody sits in it (or it's only used for special occasions).
You have a spoon collection.
Your favourite mustard comes in jars that can be reused as drinking glasses.
You leave a window open year round to get fresh air.
You eat stroop waffles.
You love the colour orange.
You have a vegetable garden because there's no way you're paying that much for veggies at the grocery store.
Your fridge is always stocked with leftovers. Throw out food? Never!
You go to the "Dutch Store" because the smell brings back so many childhood memories.
You have pictures of windmills around your house.
Everything is Do-It-Yourself - it's cheaper than hiring someone.
You use "washandjes" (facecloths that you can put your hand into).
You have to explain what 'om' and 'tante' means when you're discussing your relatives with non-Dutch people.
You own tea towels and oven mitts patterned with windmills and dancing women in clogs.
You call it "MELK" not "milk".
All your cousins have the same names as your brothers and sisters, because everyone is named after Oma and Opa.
And finally, you know you're Dutch when..
You're laughing along with this list because you can relate to most of it!

Friends

2008-04-04T17:01:00.001-05:00

Somehow my friends on here all got deleted and I can't remember how to add them again. I clicked on add a page element but I'm not sure which selection I need to choose to add my friends. It appears to be more confusing than what it used to be.

In Loving Memory of Oma

2008-03-21T01:27:00.004-05:00

Tomorrow (March 21) it will be 4 years since Oma passed away. I'm sure it will be a hard day, but she's in heaven now - pain free - no more strokes for her. I'm sure she's having a party up there and looking down on us from above. I'm sure it will be a sad day, but I was never that close to her, but still sad to have her gone. I love her, and miss her but never did a lot of things together. She was a great mother, and grandmother - she had 10 kids, and lots of grandchildren (LOL) and 4 great grandchildren (is whad she would of had had she still be alive today.) I never went to visit Oma while she was in the hospital. Do I regret it? Sort of yes, sort of no. You ask why do you not regret it? Well, I don't regret it because Mom told me that she didn't look the same as she always did, and that isn't what I wanted my last memory to be of her. I do regret it because well...she's my grandmother and I feel like maybe I let her down (or the family) by not going to visit her, or that maybe I didn't love her enough, which isn't true at all. The amazing thing was that all her 10 children were at the hospital the day she died in that hospital room, praying and singing "My Jesus I Love Thee". I wish I could of been there to see that precious moment. As soon as they were done singing - she had her final breath. What a memory!?! Some of the grandkids said this about Oma at her funeral:

What is an Oma?

An Oma is someone who can make a mouse out of a hankie.

An Oma is someone who visits me so she can attend Grandparents Day at my school.

An Oma is someone who sings with me.

An Oma is someone who chases me around the kitchen because I called her grandma instead of Oma.

An Oma is someone who has a pet spider on the ceiling named Frederick.

An Oma is someone who tells me stories about Frederick.

An Oma is someone who will dance with you at your Auntie Nelly’s wedding – even if it means a sore back the next day.

An Oma is someone who loves to play games with you – dominoes, yahtzee, kismet, or pass the ace.

An Oma is someone who visits you so she can help celebrate the special occasions with you like your birthday, your grad or your wedding day.

An Oma is someone who loves to knit dolls and sweaters for us.

An Oma is someone who takes you camping.

An Oma is someone who pretends to be a pirate when she is wearing a bandana.

An Oma is someone who makes you the supper you like best = spinach and potatoes.

An Oma is someone who gives you tea and chocolate when you come over after school.

An Oma is someone who laughs at all your knock-knock jokes and other funny stories.

An Oma is someone who buys you gifts that you don’t always like, but it’s okay because you know she loves you.

An Oma is someone to love, to send letters to and to pray at bedtime for.
Oma, we love you and will miss you lots.

So, I'm trying to picture my Oma being a pirate - kind of commical really if you think about, but *sighs* these are all great memories of her.

Oma, we love you and we miss you!

We sang these 2 songs at her funeral:

My Jesus I Love Thee

1. My Jesus, I love thee, I know thou art mine;

for thee all the follies of sin I resign.

My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art thou;

if ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.

2.I love thee because thou hast first loved me,

and purchased my pardon on Calvary's tree;

I love thee for wearing the thorns on thy brow;

if ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.

3.In mansions of glory and endless delight;

I'll ever adore thee in heaven so bright;

I'll sing with the glittering crown on my brow;

if ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.

How Great Thou Art

O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder,

Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;

I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,

Thy power throughout the universe displayed.