Krueger's Journey to Simplicity

Time for a bullet list blog post

* I am having a high engery night and am getting quite a few things done.

* Why must my body always want to be awake when most of the country is sleeping? My mom used to say I've been this way since before birth.  I would always get energetic around 7pm.  Still do.

* We bought new tires for our truck today.  Woohoo!  How very grown up of us.  But what was really grown up was that we were tickled pink to get tires, lol.

* Remember last week when I said my indoor freezer died?  Yeah.  The fridge is now dying a slow death right along side of it.  We will be purchasing a new one hopefully in the next week.

* Hubby wants to get the standard no frills, nothin' fancy fridge.

* While I'm not much on fancy, I'd like one a little bit more....more than he wants.

* He'll win.

* Did I spell bullet right up there?

* My daughter is a much better speller than me.  And most other adults.  She can spell anything.

* I took my son clothes shopping tonight.  Such a less complicated experience than how we women shop for clothes.

* I'm still line drying all the clothes because replacing the dryer just IS NOT on the agenda.  But I actually like hanging the clothes.  I'm thinking of getting each bedroom it's own drying rack that way everyone can let their own clothes dry in their own room.

* We are having a HUGE youth rally at my church starting tomorrow night and going through Saturday.  People are bus-ing in from 6 states and spending the night.  We'll probably have a minimum of 800 people and could have as many as 1300.

* The singing will be AWESOME at the rally.  It will be my favorite part.  Gives you a little teeny glimpse of what the singing in Heaven will be like.

* I'm working registration tomorrow night and on Saturday I'm on 'Potty Watch."  Lol.  Really.  It's one of the many jobs that has to be done to keep the rally running smoothly.  I'm assigned a bathroom and before everything starts and then after each session I'll check to see if it need more supplies or cleaning or...... well let's just say that with that many people being split between about 4 bathrooms there are times when a plunger is needed.  But being on "Potty Watch" as opposed to kitchen duty or something else gives you the opportunity to slip into any class of your choice all day long.    That's one of the reasons I signed up for it.

* After the rally is over me and hubs are heading to Red Lobster for supper to celebrate our good news from yesterday.

* I keep forgetting to buy a new filter for the fish tank.  I'm not a good fish mom.  Sad but very, very true.

* When I get off of here I'm going to do more laundry and hang it all up.

* I need to wash dishes.  I hate washing dishes.

* I've been doing the read the Bible through in 90 days plan.  I know I've heard a lot of people say they don't like it because you read through so fast and they don't have time to dwell.  But I have to say that I am loving it!  Reading that much at a time (14 chapters at a time) really helps you to see that it's not really that much.  Most of us can read 5 times that much of a novel in a day and think nothing of it.

* In exactly 2 weeks from right now I will be at the OpryLand Hotel and Convention center for the Lads 2 Leaders & Leaderetts conference and I will be having SO. MUCH. FUN.

* We bought all new luggage that rolls for the convention because it's a quarter mile walk from your car to your room and last year we bout killed ourselves trying to get it all to our room.  Hence new luggage for this year.  We feel so spiffy.

* My son just came and kissed me on the cheek and offered me some of his milk duds.    He's such a sweety like that.

* I have to get off of here.  I'm going to make use of my late night energy.  I'll be back next week after the Rally is over with and I have recovered from it!

I AM SO HAPPY!

I am so happy right now.  And I can't even tell you why.  Let's just say that we've had something going on for **years** now that we've really needed a resolution to and we finally got it.  And it was better than I ever hoped, imagined, or prayed that it could be. 

I feel like the weight of about ten thousand elephants has been lifted off my shoulders tonight.  I can breathe.

Yes, life still does have it's challenges with everything from onery critters, cantankerous neighbors, to my daughter's health problems....but for now, tonight....I can mark a challenge off of my running list.  And it was a big one y'all.

Woohoo!!

CFS Brain Fog

Oh my goodness.  I am having a day, let me tell you.  It started out promising but quickly crumbled itself to a miserable albeit amusing state.  My son has been suffering from some stomach issues since Sunday afternoon.  I don't think he is sick, I think his regular sinus and stomach meds may need to be altered a bit.  I finally gave up on trying to get him to do his school work and sent him to bed.  Several trips to bathroom and obvious misery...I decided that bed was just the best place for him.

Then my daughter was finally able to get up despite her pain and nausea.  She went right to the shower and then was diligently trying to hit the books.  But she's having a bad day with her CFS...and the nausea just kept getting worse and our meds for it don't really help much.  She is resistent to so many medications.  And then...the CFS brain fog set in in a big way.  She was trying to do her math and I could tell that her brain was just not firing on all cylinders.  The more she tried to do, the more confused she got.  I tried to tell her to just put it down and rest and maybe she would have better luck later.  But she wanted to get her math done.  But the longer she sat there, the loopier she got.  Finally I had to just take her books away from her and tell her to stop and rest.  Period.  She felt too nauseus to go to her bed so I brought her blanket to her. 

Now she's laying over there talking about going to Paris (we're NOT going to Paris) and needing to brush her teeth.

CFS brain fog.  Yeah...

Thank you to everyone who has left me a comment about keeping us in your prayers.  I haven't had time to respond to them, but I do read them and they mean alot to me.  You are blessings.

Happy Birthday to my Baby!!

We celebrated his birthday with quite a houseful.  He had three of his friends here, plus a few other friends and family..  had to pull out a second table to serve dinner.. but it was lots of fun!   

Here are a couple pictures of my boy and his special day.. 

Love you so much Mr. I !!   

Trim the Budget: Sandwiches

    My husband takes two sandwiches to work every day.  Typically I was using lunch meat.  He liked lunch meat and it was easy and convenient for me.  But it was not great for the budget or a healthy choice either.  Lunch meat is processed and full of non healthy ingredients and loaded with sodium.   

So here is what I have been doing to cut the cost of purchasing lunch meat and improving health while I am at it!  

When I started I took a whole chicken and cooked it in the crockpot.  When it was done I deboned the meat and chopped it up into small pieces.  I divided the meat into 3 containers.  One I used the week I made it and the other two went in the freezer.  To make a sandwich I took the chopped chicken meat and added a little salt, pepper and mayonnaise to it.  I used this chicken spread for the week.  My hubby loved it and I loved the savings.   

Sandwich meat can run anywhere from $3.00 to $6.00 per pound (and up, but that is the range I have paid).  I buy about a pound or so a week.  My chicken cost me about $5.00 and I had enough meat from it for 3 weeks.   

The second type of sandwich meat I made was beef.  I will have a harder time giving you an accurate cost calculation on this because we buy our beef from a local farmer and buy a whole cow each year.  But I can tell you what I did.  I put a small beef roast into the crockpot (I will guess maybe 4lbs) and let this cook for a good long time… until the meat was falling apart.  I then removed bone and fat and chopped this up and was able to divide it into 4 containers (I figure about 2 cups of meat is what I need per week).  I used it the same way I used the chicken. I added salt, pepper and mayonnaise to the chopped meat and used this to make sandwiches.  I also added a little Dijon mustard as well and that gave it a really nice flavor.   

The cost of this meat would be determined by how much you paid for the roast.  You can use an inexpensive cut of roast like a rump roast or a chuck roast to do this.   

Putting the meat into the freezer also means that I have the added bonus of this being very convenient (one of the reasons I liked lunch meat).  After cooking just one chicken and the roast I ended up with enough lunch meat for 7 weeks of lunches. 

And just because I'm a bit anal about using homemade ingredients...

**These are things in the recipes for the caramel cakes, previous post.

To make your own half-and-half -

Melt 4 1/2 tsp. butter and put in a one cup measure.  Let it cool.  Add enough milk to make one cup.

Homemade caramel sauce -

1/2 C. butter (no substitutions)

1 C. brown sugar

2/3 C. heavy whipping cream (which is 3/4 C. milk w/ 1/3 C. melted & cooled butter added in -- for cooking only, not whipping)

1 tsp. vanilla

Melt butter.  Add brown sugar, whisk until combined & thickened, about 2 min.  Whisk in the whipping cream, until thoroughly blended, about 2 more min.  Mix in the vanilla until combined.  This sauce will thicken up more when refrigerated.

A tale of two caramel cakes...

I have two separate recipes, both for caramel cakes, calling my name.  I really have no excuse to make *2* cakes...I don't have another BIG potluck until June. And I simply cannot wait until June to try these recipes out.  Although April and May both have two youth/devo potlucks...

I may just have bake both of them and then share with friends. 

And because I do not want to be the only person preoccupied with these two cakes, I'm going to share the recipes for both of them with you.  Because your hips needs just a tiny bit more padding.  Trust me, they do.  I say it with love.

Brown sugar caramel cake w/ burnt sugar icing

(it doesn't get more southern that this y'all)

2 C. all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

3/4 tsp. baking soda

2 C. firmly packed light brown sugar

4 large eggs

3/4 C. vegetable oil

1/2 C. buttermilk

1/2 C. sour cream

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. maple extract

Preheat over to 350*.  Spray cake pans with baking spray and dust with flour.  In a med. bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.  Set aside.  Now beat brown sugar and eggs at med.-high speed with an electric mixer until smooth, about 3 min.  Add oil & beat until combined.  Set aside.  In a small bowl whisk together buttermilk, sour cream, and extracts.  Add flour mixture to butter mixture, alternating with milk mixture in 3 batches and beating well between each one.  Pour batter into pans and smooth tops.  Bake about 30 min. or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Allow to cool.  Top with burnt sugar icing.

Burnt sugar icing

4 1/2 C. sugar, divided

2 (5 oz.) cans evaporated milk

1 C. unsalted butter, softened

*Before you begin, note that 2 pans will be on the heat at the same time.

Place 1/2 C. sugar in a small saucepan or skillet.  Set on stove.  Place remaining 4 C. sugar, evap. milk, & butter in a large saucepan.  Set on stove.  Cook sugar in small pan over med.-high heat, whisking constantly until carmelized or amber colored, about 4 min.  At the same time, bring ingredients in large pan to a boil over high heat, whisking constantly.  The objective here is for these ingredients to come to a boil at the same time as the sugar in the other pan turns amber in color.  When milk mixture begins to boil, carefully add caramelized sugar, stirring constanty.  (This will be very hot and may give off hot steam, be careful!)  Cook for 3 min., stirring constantly.  Remove from heat & cool 1 min.  Beat at med. speed for 1 min. & use immendiately.

***Recipe #2***

Quick & Easy Caramel Cake

2 C. cake flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 C. unsalted butter, softened

1/2 C. sugar

1/2 C. firmly packed light brown sugar

3 large eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

3/4 C. half and half

2 (12 oz.) jars prepared caramel topping, divided

Preheat oven to 350.  Lightly spray a 13x9 pan with spray and dust with flour.  In a med. bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.  In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar at high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 min.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add vanilla, stirring to combine.  With beater at low speed, add flour in 3 batches, alternating w/ half and half and beating until smooth.  Spread batter in prepared pan.  Bake 25-30 min or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Using a wooden spoon handle, poke several holes in warm cake.  Pour 1 jar prepared caramel topping over cake.  Let cake sit at room temp. to absorb caramel and cool completely, about 2 hours.

Cream cheese & caramel frosting

2 (8 oz.) pkgs. cream cheese, softened

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3 C. confectioners sugar

Combine cream cheese and vanilla.  Beat at med. speed until creamy, about 2 min.  Add confectioners sugar, beating until smooth,  Spread over cooled cake,  Pour remaining 1 jar of caramel topping over frosting in a zigzag pattern.  Drag a butter knife through caramel topping to create desired design.  Store tightly covered in fridge for up to 5 days.

I'm not afraid of your buggy....

Within 48 hours my drier, indoor freezer and iron all died.  Good gracious.  Thank goodness for my two deep freezers outside.  I just moved all the food out there.  The iron...I'll just make do till I find one I like.  And as for the drier, there's just no replacing it now so I'm back to line drying everything.  Good thing I don't really mind doing that.  It's 7:30 and I've already got the first load of the day out there and a second load of jeans washing that will be put out when they are done. 

Today is such a pretty day.  It's been so long since we've had that.  It's so nice.  My son has a huge case of Spring fever and spent a good amount of time outside yesterday.  I hope the good weather stays.  We need it after the Winter we had.

One quick and funny story before I head off in regards to the post title...and I hope you don't think me too bad for what I did.  (giggle)  I was in Wal-Mart yesterday grabbing a few things we needed.  There has been a Paula Deen cast iron casserole cooker that I've had my eye on for *months*.  But it was almost $40 and I just couldn't bring myself to spend $40 on it.  I was hoping at some point they would clearance it out.   Well, yesterday there it was.  They had them clearanced down to $15!  And there were only 3 of them left.  But this cute, perky young thing was standing right in front of them.  She had one in her buggy and was obviously trying to block me from the area with her buggy.   (Grrrr)  The other two were still on the shelf.  But she was on the phone with her mom and her sister and was telling them about the casserole.  I do believe she was planning on taking all three.  I very quickly and quietly swooped my buggy up next to hers, leaned over, grabbed me a cooker and went on my way.  Judging that I left her with her mouth agape, I believe she was a bit perturbed. 

Look, if you want the last three of something you go aheand and put them in you buggy.  **Then** call mom and sis to see if they want the last two.  If not, you can always put them back.  But don't let them sit there on the shelf where all is fair while you're on the phone and expect that somebody nearly twice your age isn't going to come along and not be put off by your blocking buggy.

I'm just sayin'....

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Update

We are all fine for the most part.  My son got strep throat last week and though he has been on the mend with the help of antibiotics, he is feeling bad again tonight and I am wondering if he is having a relapse.

My daughter has had some good days.  I am cautiously optomistic.  Don't get me wrong, she is no where near what most 13 year olds are health wise.  But she has had a good 3 nights per week that she has been able to sleep the past two weeks.  The nausea had come in fits and spurts instead of constant and debilitating.  And she has been able to participate in a couple of youth group activities.  That was wonderful.  My momma's heart so wants to get it's hopes up that we have turned some imaginary corner.  But on the flip side, she has lost weight due to not being able to each much, because eating induces the nausea.  She is naturally very thin, so she had not a pound to spare.  And she is much more pale than normal.  She has noticed these changes herself.  We work to reassure her.  She has also started having these weird chest pains...which almost seemed like anxiety symptoms, which could be quite understandable.  But then I started to do some research online only to find that many people with Chronic Fatigue get random chest pains for no apparent reason.  Chest pains are on the secondary symptom list, along with the nausea that my daughter has so often.  I guess the having 7 out of the 8 symptoms on the primary list just wasn't enough.  The diagnosis is determined if someone has only 4 out of the 8.

I'm having trouble finding time to blog.  Finding my voice to blog.  But I'm not leaving.  I'll still be here and I'll still post, even if just in bullet form from time to time.  So many here have been so good to think of us, pray for us, and be a friend.  So I'm not going anywhere.  Just know that if I have a week or so lag in between posts, I'll be back.  I'm just trying to find my new normal and help my daughter find hers.

Love y'all. ~~

Time for a bullet list blog post

* I am having a high engery night and am getting quite a few things done.

* Why must my body always want to be awake when most of the country is sleeping? My mom used to say I've been this way since before birth.  I would always get energetic around 7pm.  Still do.

* We bought new tires for our truck today.  Woohoo!  How very grown up of us.  But what was really grown up was that we were tickled pink to get tires, lol.

* Remember last week when I said my indoor freezer died?  Yeah.  The fridge is now dying a slow death right along side of it.  We will be purchasing a new one hopefully in the next week.

* Hubby wants to get the standard no frills, nothin' fancy fridge.

* While I'm not much on fancy, I'd like one a little bit more....more than he wants.

* He'll win.

* Did I spell bullet right up there?

* My daughter is a much better speller than me.  And most other adults.  She can spell anything.

* I took my son clothes shopping tonight.  Such a less complicated experience than how we women shop for clothes.

* I'm still line drying all the clothes because replacing the dryer just IS NOT on the agenda.  But I actually like hanging the clothes.  I'm thinking of getting each bedroom it's own drying rack that way everyone can let their own clothes dry in their own room.

* We are having a HUGE youth rally at my church starting tomorrow night and going through Saturday.  People are bus-ing in from 6 states and spending the night.  We'll probably have a minimum of 800 people and could have as many as 1300.

* The singing will be AWESOME at the rally.  It will be my favorite part.  Gives you a little teeny glimpse of what the singing in Heaven will be like.

* I'm working registration tomorrow night and on Saturday I'm on 'Potty Watch."  Lol.  Really.  It's one of the many jobs that has to be done to keep the rally running smoothly.  I'm assigned a bathroom and before everything starts and then after each session I'll check to see if it need more supplies or cleaning or...... well let's just say that with that many people being split between about 4 bathrooms there are times when a plunger is needed.  But being on "Potty Watch" as opposed to kitchen duty or something else gives you the opportunity to slip into any class of your choice all day long.    That's one of the reasons I signed up for it.

* After the rally is over me and hubs are heading to Red Lobster for supper to celebrate our good news from yesterday.

* I keep forgetting to buy a new filter for the fish tank.  I'm not a good fish mom.  Sad but very, very true.

* When I get off of here I'm going to do more laundry and hang it all up.

* I need to wash dishes.  I hate washing dishes.

* I've been doing the read the Bible through in 90 days plan.  I know I've heard a lot of people say they don't like it because you read through so fast and they don't have time to dwell.  But I have to say that I am loving it!  Reading that much at a time (14 chapters at a time) really helps you to see that it's not really that much.  Most of us can read 5 times that much of a novel in a day and think nothing of it.

* In exactly 2 weeks from right now I will be at the OpryLand Hotel and Convention center for the Lads 2 Leaders & Leaderetts conference and I will be having SO. MUCH. FUN.

* We bought all new luggage that rolls for the convention because it's a quarter mile walk from your car to your room and last year we bout killed ourselves trying to get it all to our room.  Hence new luggage for this year.  We feel so spiffy.

* My son just came and kissed me on the cheek and offered me some of his milk duds.    He's such a sweety like that.

* I have to get off of here.  I'm going to make use of my late night energy.  I'll be back next week after the Rally is over with and I have recovered from it!

I AM SO HAPPY!

I am so happy right now.  And I can't even tell you why.  Let's just say that we've had something going on for **years** now that we've really needed a resolution to and we finally got it.  And it was better than I ever hoped, imagined, or prayed that it could be. 

I feel like the weight of about ten thousand elephants has been lifted off my shoulders tonight.  I can breathe.

Yes, life still does have it's challenges with everything from onery critters, cantankerous neighbors, to my daughter's health problems....but for now, tonight....I can mark a challenge off of my running list.  And it was a big one y'all.

Woohoo!!

CFS Brain Fog

Oh my goodness.  I am having a day, let me tell you.  It started out promising but quickly crumbled itself to a miserable albeit amusing state.  My son has been suffering from some stomach issues since Sunday afternoon.  I don't think he is sick, I think his regular sinus and stomach meds may need to be altered a bit.  I finally gave up on trying to get him to do his school work and sent him to bed.  Several trips to bathroom and obvious misery...I decided that bed was just the best place for him.

Then my daughter was finally able to get up despite her pain and nausea.  She went right to the shower and then was diligently trying to hit the books.  But she's having a bad day with her CFS...and the nausea just kept getting worse and our meds for it don't really help much.  She is resistent to so many medications.  And then...the CFS brain fog set in in a big way.  She was trying to do her math and I could tell that her brain was just not firing on all cylinders.  The more she tried to do, the more confused she got.  I tried to tell her to just put it down and rest and maybe she would have better luck later.  But she wanted to get her math done.  But the longer she sat there, the loopier she got.  Finally I had to just take her books away from her and tell her to stop and rest.  Period.  She felt too nauseus to go to her bed so I brought her blanket to her. 

Now she's laying over there talking about going to Paris (we're NOT going to Paris) and needing to brush her teeth.

CFS brain fog.  Yeah...

Thank you to everyone who has left me a comment about keeping us in your prayers.  I haven't had time to respond to them, but I do read them and they mean alot to me.  You are blessings.

Happy Birthday to my Baby!!

We celebrated his birthday with quite a houseful.  He had three of his friends here, plus a few other friends and family..  had to pull out a second table to serve dinner.. but it was lots of fun!   

Here are a couple pictures of my boy and his special day.. 

Love you so much Mr. I !!   

Trim the Budget: Sandwiches

    My husband takes two sandwiches to work every day.  Typically I was using lunch meat.  He liked lunch meat and it was easy and convenient for me.  But it was not great for the budget or a healthy choice either.  Lunch meat is processed and full of non healthy ingredients and loaded with sodium.   

So here is what I have been doing to cut the cost of purchasing lunch meat and improving health while I am at it!  

When I started I took a whole chicken and cooked it in the crockpot.  When it was done I deboned the meat and chopped it up into small pieces.  I divided the meat into 3 containers.  One I used the week I made it and the other two went in the freezer.  To make a sandwich I took the chopped chicken meat and added a little salt, pepper and mayonnaise to it.  I used this chicken spread for the week.  My hubby loved it and I loved the savings.   

Sandwich meat can run anywhere from $3.00 to $6.00 per pound (and up, but that is the range I have paid).  I buy about a pound or so a week.  My chicken cost me about $5.00 and I had enough meat from it for 3 weeks.   

The second type of sandwich meat I made was beef.  I will have a harder time giving you an accurate cost calculation on this because we buy our beef from a local farmer and buy a whole cow each year.  But I can tell you what I did.  I put a small beef roast into the crockpot (I will guess maybe 4lbs) and let this cook for a good long time… until the meat was falling apart.  I then removed bone and fat and chopped this up and was able to divide it into 4 containers (I figure about 2 cups of meat is what I need per week).  I used it the same way I used the chicken. I added salt, pepper and mayonnaise to the chopped meat and used this to make sandwiches.  I also added a little Dijon mustard as well and that gave it a really nice flavor.   

The cost of this meat would be determined by how much you paid for the roast.  You can use an inexpensive cut of roast like a rump roast or a chuck roast to do this.   

Putting the meat into the freezer also means that I have the added bonus of this being very convenient (one of the reasons I liked lunch meat).  After cooking just one chicken and the roast I ended up with enough lunch meat for 7 weeks of lunches. 

And just because I'm a bit anal about using homemade ingredients...

**These are things in the recipes for the caramel cakes, previous post.

To make your own half-and-half -

Melt 4 1/2 tsp. butter and put in a one cup measure.  Let it cool.  Add enough milk to make one cup.

Homemade caramel sauce -

1/2 C. butter (no substitutions)

1 C. brown sugar

2/3 C. heavy whipping cream (which is 3/4 C. milk w/ 1/3 C. melted & cooled butter added in -- for cooking only, not whipping)

1 tsp. vanilla

Melt butter.  Add brown sugar, whisk until combined & thickened, about 2 min.  Whisk in the whipping cream, until thoroughly blended, about 2 more min.  Mix in the vanilla until combined.  This sauce will thicken up more when refrigerated.

A tale of two caramel cakes...

I have two separate recipes, both for caramel cakes, calling my name.  I really have no excuse to make *2* cakes...I don't have another BIG potluck until June. And I simply cannot wait until June to try these recipes out.  Although April and May both have two youth/devo potlucks...

I may just have bake both of them and then share with friends. 

And because I do not want to be the only person preoccupied with these two cakes, I'm going to share the recipes for both of them with you.  Because your hips needs just a tiny bit more padding.  Trust me, they do.  I say it with love.

Brown sugar caramel cake w/ burnt sugar icing

(it doesn't get more southern that this y'all)

2 C. all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

3/4 tsp. baking soda

2 C. firmly packed light brown sugar

4 large eggs

3/4 C. vegetable oil

1/2 C. buttermilk

1/2 C. sour cream

1 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. maple extract

Preheat over to 350*.  Spray cake pans with baking spray and dust with flour.  In a med. bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.  Set aside.  Now beat brown sugar and eggs at med.-high speed with an electric mixer until smooth, about 3 min.  Add oil & beat until combined.  Set aside.  In a small bowl whisk together buttermilk, sour cream, and extracts.  Add flour mixture to butter mixture, alternating with milk mixture in 3 batches and beating well between each one.  Pour batter into pans and smooth tops.  Bake about 30 min. or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Allow to cool.  Top with burnt sugar icing.

Burnt sugar icing

4 1/2 C. sugar, divided

2 (5 oz.) cans evaporated milk

1 C. unsalted butter, softened

*Before you begin, note that 2 pans will be on the heat at the same time.

Place 1/2 C. sugar in a small saucepan or skillet.  Set on stove.  Place remaining 4 C. sugar, evap. milk, & butter in a large saucepan.  Set on stove.  Cook sugar in small pan over med.-high heat, whisking constantly until carmelized or amber colored, about 4 min.  At the same time, bring ingredients in large pan to a boil over high heat, whisking constantly.  The objective here is for these ingredients to come to a boil at the same time as the sugar in the other pan turns amber in color.  When milk mixture begins to boil, carefully add caramelized sugar, stirring constanty.  (This will be very hot and may give off hot steam, be careful!)  Cook for 3 min., stirring constantly.  Remove from heat & cool 1 min.  Beat at med. speed for 1 min. & use immendiately.

***Recipe #2***

Quick & Easy Caramel Cake

2 C. cake flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 C. unsalted butter, softened

1/2 C. sugar

1/2 C. firmly packed light brown sugar

3 large eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

3/4 C. half and half

2 (12 oz.) jars prepared caramel topping, divided

Preheat oven to 350.  Lightly spray a 13x9 pan with spray and dust with flour.  In a med. bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.  In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar at high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 min.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add vanilla, stirring to combine.  With beater at low speed, add flour in 3 batches, alternating w/ half and half and beating until smooth.  Spread batter in prepared pan.  Bake 25-30 min or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Using a wooden spoon handle, poke several holes in warm cake.  Pour 1 jar prepared caramel topping over cake.  Let cake sit at room temp. to absorb caramel and cool completely, about 2 hours.

Cream cheese & caramel frosting

2 (8 oz.) pkgs. cream cheese, softened

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3 C. confectioners sugar

Combine cream cheese and vanilla.  Beat at med. speed until creamy, about 2 min.  Add confectioners sugar, beating until smooth,  Spread over cooled cake,  Pour remaining 1 jar of caramel topping over frosting in a zigzag pattern.  Drag a butter knife through caramel topping to create desired design.  Store tightly covered in fridge for up to 5 days.

I'm not afraid of your buggy....

Within 48 hours my drier, indoor freezer and iron all died.  Good gracious.  Thank goodness for my two deep freezers outside.  I just moved all the food out there.  The iron...I'll just make do till I find one I like.  And as for the drier, there's just no replacing it now so I'm back to line drying everything.  Good thing I don't really mind doing that.  It's 7:30 and I've already got the first load of the day out there and a second load of jeans washing that will be put out when they are done. 

Today is such a pretty day.  It's been so long since we've had that.  It's so nice.  My son has a huge case of Spring fever and spent a good amount of time outside yesterday.  I hope the good weather stays.  We need it after the Winter we had.

One quick and funny story before I head off in regards to the post title...and I hope you don't think me too bad for what I did.  (giggle)  I was in Wal-Mart yesterday grabbing a few things we needed.  There has been a Paula Deen cast iron casserole cooker that I've had my eye on for *months*.  But it was almost $40 and I just couldn't bring myself to spend $40 on it.  I was hoping at some point they would clearance it out.   Well, yesterday there it was.  They had them clearanced down to $15!  And there were only 3 of them left.  But this cute, perky young thing was standing right in front of them.  She had one in her buggy and was obviously trying to block me from the area with her buggy.   (Grrrr)  The other two were still on the shelf.  But she was on the phone with her mom and her sister and was telling them about the casserole.  I do believe she was planning on taking all three.  I very quickly and quietly swooped my buggy up next to hers, leaned over, grabbed me a cooker and went on my way.  Judging that I left her with her mouth agape, I believe she was a bit perturbed. 

Look, if you want the last three of something you go aheand and put them in you buggy.  **Then** call mom and sis to see if they want the last two.  If not, you can always put them back.  But don't let them sit there on the shelf where all is fair while you're on the phone and expect that somebody nearly twice your age isn't going to come along and not be put off by your blocking buggy.

I'm just sayin'....

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Update

We are all fine for the most part.  My son got strep throat last week and though he has been on the mend with the help of antibiotics, he is feeling bad again tonight and I am wondering if he is having a relapse.

My daughter has had some good days.  I am cautiously optomistic.  Don't get me wrong, she is no where near what most 13 year olds are health wise.  But she has had a good 3 nights per week that she has been able to sleep the past two weeks.  The nausea had come in fits and spurts instead of constant and debilitating.  And she has been able to participate in a couple of youth group activities.  That was wonderful.  My momma's heart so wants to get it's hopes up that we have turned some imaginary corner.  But on the flip side, she has lost weight due to not being able to each much, because eating induces the nausea.  She is naturally very thin, so she had not a pound to spare.  And she is much more pale than normal.  She has noticed these changes herself.  We work to reassure her.  She has also started having these weird chest pains...which almost seemed like anxiety symptoms, which could be quite understandable.  But then I started to do some research online only to find that many people with Chronic Fatigue get random chest pains for no apparent reason.  Chest pains are on the secondary symptom list, along with the nausea that my daughter has so often.  I guess the having 7 out of the 8 symptoms on the primary list just wasn't enough.  The diagnosis is determined if someone has only 4 out of the 8.

I'm having trouble finding time to blog.  Finding my voice to blog.  But I'm not leaving.  I'll still be here and I'll still post, even if just in bullet form from time to time.  So many here have been so good to think of us, pray for us, and be a friend.  So I'm not going anywhere.  Just know that if I have a week or so lag in between posts, I'll be back.  I'm just trying to find my new normal and help my daughter find hers.

Love y'all. ~~