“Mother knitted and rocked in her high-backed rocking-chair. Father carefully scraped a new ax-handle with a bit of broken glass. Royal carved a chain of tiny links from a smooth stick of pine, and Alice sat on her hassock, doing her woolwork embroidery. And they all ate popcorn and apples, and drank sweet cider….Almanzo sat on a footstool by the stove, an apple in his hand, a bowl of popcorn by his side, and his mug of cider on the hearth by his feet. He bit the juicy apple, then he ate some popcorn, then he took a drink of cider. He thought about popcorn……Almanzo looked at every kernel before he ate it. They were all different shapes. He had eaten thousands of handfuls of popcorn, and never found two kernels alike.” Farmer Boy, Laura Ingalls Wilder
I am sitting on the floor in the livingroom. Sarah Joy is beside me, playing and talking. I’m sharing my morning toast with her. The newborn day is almost two hours old for us….I got up at 5:15 thirsty….and found Rich watching the news before getting ready for work. We were able to spend a nice hour together before he left.
Today on my blog, I am sharing some pictures from last week. It was the end of a long day here at home and I was exhausted, feeling sort of blue. I had turned on the news just to take a peek at the outside world and what do I discover but the fact that it was National Popcorn Day.
A jolt of new energy got me off the couch….I would make popcorn to celebrate the day. I truly enjoy the funny, (unnecessary) random “days” that are devoted to foods. I remember years ago I took pictures for my blog of an egg, for World Egg Day. And I have done several posts for Pancake day.
Now, for the love of popcorn. And what’s not to love? It is a very inexpensive snack and a whole grain, healthy one. If you don’t add too much butter and salt, that is.
We have an air-popper and every time I pull it out I get an audience of children who want to watch. It makes a pleasant, humming sound, it’s warm, and it’s super exciting to sit and wait for the first kernels to explode. Plus we always overfill the bowl and have to run squealing, to get another one as popcorn avalanches off the counter.
We popped and popped and popped. Until I was laughing again. And throwing it. And amusing my children.
It was great fun.
Some of us wore our popcorn on our sweaters.
Rich came home late to dinner that night, but he was right on time to sit and share popcorn with the last remaining group of us who were still munching and crunching. When it comes to drama, he is quite my opposite (a good thing) and when he came home he didn’t even say a word about our “party”…the children all explained, “Mom popped popcorn!” and he said pleasantly, “I see that!” and just started eating it. “It’s National Popcorn day!”…..”Hmmmmmm” was his reply, and just calmly munched. While I ran around flushed, taking pictures and crying out, “Don’t give Sarah the kernels, just the soft parts!” 
The kitchen was filled with popcorn remains by the time we were done…but it wasn’t very difficult to clean up. I just swept the floor and brought up the dog to eat the pile. Then, we swept what was on the table off into one last bowl and the next morning the chickens got a very nice treat.
Like I mentioned, National Popcorn day was last week……BUT if you happened to miss it I have some fantastic news:
TOMORROW is NATIONAL CHOCOLATE CAKE DAY! Let’s all bake chocolate cakes and post pictures of ourselves and our cakes on our blogs tomorrow! Who’s with me!?
Good to be Home 
That is a LOT of popcorn! I had some the other night too — just a small bowl for me — I’m the only one that likes it! My you were up early this morning — enjoy the day!
Really, tomorrow is National Chocolate Cake Day? My mom’s favorite cake is chocolate with white frosting. I’ll have to make one for her. I was wondering if you let Sarah eat it, until I read about you saying “only the soft parts.” I used to do the same thing. Enjoy today, whatever it is. The day the Lord has made, for sure.
We LOVE popcorn too….it isn’t sticky, it doesn’t stain and it isn’t even fattening! (minus the butter, of course)What a lovely reason to have a party!
You are hilarious!
Oh man. We missed Popcorn day….but will DEFINATELY have a chocolate meet up with you here on Xanga!!!!! :))) That will be fun!!! 😀
Hmmm I don’t know about cake but maybe I’ll make some brownies.
I don’t like chocolate cake…how about a batch of brownies? i love the pictures and we do stuff like that sometimes. I love you!
EVERYDAY is popcorn day at our house!!!! We love it, especially since we discovered Amish Popcorn while in Indiana last year. I brought some home and we immediately discovered it is THE BEST! And thankfully, they have a website, so I can always have it on hand. I gave some to our son-in-law for Christmas along with a new Whirly-Pop (Sam’s fourth).Yes, our family LOVES popcorn!P.S. We LOVE chocolate cake, too–wonder if I can find time to bake a cake tomorrow???
I’M WITH YOU!!! =) Yay, how fun.I didn’t know it was Nationl Popcorn Day! Funny thing, we had a great discussion about popcorn lastnight at dinner. My husband is a popcorn fanatic and has been for the past couple of years thinking about making and selling kettle corn. We make popcorn almost everyday in our house….. Microwave is never allowed.- Jeff’s rule.My dad is also a popcorn lover. He has a long ride to work, and will make 1-2 batches of popcorn and eat it during his drive! Everyday he does this!I wish I knew it was NPD yesterday, I would’ve done something special for them, or at least said”Happy Popcorn Day”.I on the other hand am more excited about this Chocolate Cake Day. =)
How cute and fun! I like the idea of a chocolate cake day. : )
what a great idea! i’ll join you!! thanks for the inspiration!! and, i cannot believe how your little Sarah is growing!!
This is so fun and sweet to me! Amazing how little things like “Popcorn Day” can brighten any day. 🙂 And I would totally be in on the “Chocolate Cake Day”, but I just baked a chocolate cake on Monday, and my sweet husband and I still have lots left over in the fridge. Maybe I’ll still take a picture and say I celebrated a few days early. Thanks so much for sharing!! 🙂
We started a new Christmas tradition this year of sharing a huge bowl of popcorn while decorating the tree. Of course the littles spread the popcorn everywhere, but it was so fun, just the same, and really much easier to clean up than all the pine needles scattered everywhere when we were finished with the tree!Love the picture of the popcorn spread all over the kitchen counter … as well as your description of the scene when Rich came home. Sounds just like the way my husband would react! (and I’d be the one tearing around like crazy)If I bake a chocolate cake, I’ll be the only one eating it, sadly. So I think I’ll pass on this particular food holiday!
how fun!!! i’m with ya on chocolate cake day~ if i remember to make one! ;)chocolate cake w/ homemade buttercream icing is my favorite.
Popcorn, a warm memory of me and my siblings sitting on the counter watching our airpopper and the butter dripping onto the white fluff coming out! We had choc. cake with peanut butter icing yesterday 🙂 maybe we’ll have popcorn today, everyone loves it here cept hubby. And we’ll use my christmas gift from my MIL – a stircrazy popper. what seasonings do you put on yours?
well I had no idea yesterday was national popcorn day. My dad made some but I didn’t get around to getting any before it was all gone 😉 I’m really hungry for it now though 🙂 I might just have to make some now. I’ve been wanting to try some new versions…garlic, cinnamon/sugar, as well as white chocolate. Chocolate cake day, huh? Well some warm cake sounds good but I’m not a chocolate person. Maybe I’ll make a cake with the kids I babysit this afternoon.
You are hillarious!!!! You never fail to make me tear up,think or smile or in this case have me laughing out loud! YES lets make a chocolate cake tomorrow!
We may celebrate Popcorn Day today! And I will definitely be making a chocolate cake for tomorrow!!
ccuuute! love sarah joy’s sweater :)thanks for giving me a reason to eat chocolate cake tomorrow! heehee
Now I want popcorn!! The boys are out at a CPR/First Aid training so I am going to watch a movie and eat POPCORN!! You are soooo fun. Someday, I hope to make it out to you. I like that the popcorn was everywhere. Maybe, on the Chocolate cake…if I can make it for youth group then I would have enough eaters
Looks like fun!
Wonderful popcorn pictures.
Oh I wished I had read this earlier because I could be baking a cake right now!!! Maybe later after work . . . . To cute, you’re a hip fun mom Shan!
You always find the neatest quotes to attach to your posts. I know I’ve told you that before, but I’m saying it again because I’m impressed by your quotation repertoire! I have a pre-op physical at 1pm, but maybe I can squeeze the cake in before I leave and frost it when I return! Thanks for the incentive (I don’t need much when we are talking about chocolate!)!!!!!! xo
Your family is just downright awesome! Loved the pictures!
I just am reading this on Thursday afternoon, the day’s not over yet, funny thing is I woke up wanting to make a chocolot cake! Had no idea it was the day for it LOL Yours sure looked good!
You are so funny! Popcorn always takes me back to my childhood. We always popped it on Sunday afternoons. And what a mess we made! I don’t remember my folks getting after us. We could eat as much as we wanted and usually had tomato juice to go with it.