A View of the Valley

by Linda Schwanke There are two times of year when life moves so fast it’s hard to keep up with everything. One is the holidays. From Halloween to New Year’s, there is so much to do and see that it all passes in a blur. The second is right now - from the middle of April until art fair. Fortunately, with the planning we expect from women, Mother’s Day on the second Sunday of May hopefully gives us a little break from the hustle and bustle and we can take the opportunity to honor moms. This year, as I’m assuming you know, Mother’s Day is May 8. There is so much we can do to let our moms know we care, from buying flowers to helping with a chore, from going out to eat to getting on the phone and just chatting, recognizing our moms on Mother’s Day is a precious time to share our love. My mom has been in heaven for a long, long time. I still miss her. Miss knowing that I just have to pick up the phone and know that she’ll be there for me, regardless of whether I need a recipe, help with the kids or to pass the time of day. I will think of her on Mother’s Day. Before that though, as my family lays out our plans for the day, I have to help granddaughter Mildred figure out what to give her mama for Mother’s Day. Mildred is full of grandiose plans but building a tree house – her first idea – is probably out of the question. Homemade gifts from little ones are best. I treasure the ones I have from my kids when they were that age. So I’m hoping to find a project we can both enjoy working on. Mildred likes to paint and I like to paint. Sometimes we paint together. I paint flowers and she paints the sun and sky and grass. On top of them. It’s… interesting. Maybe paper mache? That’s fun and hugely messy. But I don’t know if I have that much strength.   Making handprints out of homemade dough, baking them and painting them could be fun and do-able. There are a ton of recipes for homemade dough but I read one that appeals to me which I’ve made with Mildred before but never baked. Take one cup of salt, four cups of flour, a tablespoon of vegetable oil and one and a half cups of warm water (more or less). Mix them up – with the expectation that it will be messy but we also enjoy cleaning up messes together – and knead for 10 minutes.  At the point of mixing, Mildred and I often add food coloring. Gwen and I prefer the gel kind of food coloring because the colors are true. It is, however, highly attracted to the cracks and crevices of tiny hands and will dye them as thoroughly as the dough. In the interest of having hand-colored hands for Mother’s Day instead of pink, purple or blue ones and not spoiling the surprise, we are going to skip the food coloring. Once the dough is mixed and kneaded, it’s time to roll it out and make handprints. Mildred may want footprints, too. She will, in fact, probably want prints of her nose and mouth and maybe ears. We’ll see but I’m not sure I want to go down that road. The dough can be baked low and slow – in a 250 to 300 degree oven for an hour. After it’s cooled, I want Mildred to paint the print and then we can mount it on a piece of heavy cardboard, wrap it up and be ready for Mother’s Day.  As with any small kid, keeping all this a secret is going to be tough so I want to do the project on Saturday night. And then keep my fingers crossed. With any kind of luck, it will be nice out on Mother’s Day and we can get outside to have a picnic lunch on the patio. Then Mildred can give her mama the best present ever and I can sit back and relax. Because now that I’m a grandma, I get to do that, right?  Stay in touch. My phone number is (608) 574-3159 – call or text me anytime. I’m planning to take the day off on Sunday which I’m sure you understand. You can also email me at homenewseditor@newspubinc.com  The news deadline is 12 noon on Mondays.  Visit our website at homenewsrv.com Get in touch with Gwen for sports or features at homenewssports@newspubinc.com. If you need a display ad, Dave Pronold can be reached at homenewssales@newspubinc.com or by calling him on his cell at 588-4777. Display ads, or ads that are in boxes, are due by 1 p.m. on Wednesdays. The classified ad deadline is noon Thursdays the week prior to publication for both the Buyer’s Guide and Home News. Classified rates are $13 for the first 10 words, then 30¢ per word for each additional word. Call (608) 767-3655 or email classifieds@newspubinc.com  Legal notices are due by 2 p.m. on Fridays, email them to legals@newspubinc.com Call the NewsPub central office at (608) 767-3655 for subscriptions and all other information Monday through Wednesday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon, although afternoon hours can vary. Closed Fridays. Write to us at P.O. Box 286, Black Earth WI 53588.