Just a quick post to share my day today. Got up at 5:15 to get hubby off to work. As of right now, I am down one child. My daughter had Bible Bowl practice last night and ended up with an invitation to spend the night. She misses out on so much, how could I say no? So she's still not home and I fully expect for her to be comatose most of the day when she returns.
I'm fixing to head to the kitchen to make some homemade pizza crusts for tonight's supper. I'm also going to make a batch of homemade brownies. Planning on making enough so that hubby can take it to work wit him tomorrow to eat on for lunch.
We have a Friends and Family Day at church on Sunday which means a big, pull out all the stops potluck afterwards. I'm planning on doing a lasagna (two actually as one will stay here at home for hubs), put together my big veggie basket (I scored this AWESOME basket at a yard sale years ago that is perfect to fill with raw veggies and has a center section for dip), and a couple of chocolate cream pies. I'm thinking I'll do one more thing as a main dish...maybe some meatballs in the crockpot. So I'm all in the planning stages for the potluck today.
Speaking of potlucks...I'm always interested in other's opinions on this. What is your rule of thumb for how much food to take to a potluck? I grew up in a home where my mom was a big cook and when we went to a potluck she really made sure she had plenty to contribute. Her rule of thumb (and mine now as well) was always, "Bring enough food to feed your entire family plus two more people." That way, if everyone did that, no potluck table would be found wanting. I honestly don't know if this was just my mom's personal rule or if it's more of a Southern or local thing, but it works quite well. Potlucks are sort of a pet issue with me, lol. I grew up in a little local church where those ladies really knew how to put on a potluck. Then I got married and moved away went to some churches where entire families would bring one little teeny tiny dish and by the time half the people were through the line almost all the food was gone. I just can't stand that. If you're going to do it, then do it right. Thankfully, I am back in a church where once again, they know how to do it right. AND they do it OFTEN, lol. It's fun.
So ~ what is your rule of thumb for how much food to take to a potluck?
First of all, I want to say a big THANK YOU to those here at HSB that held me in your prayers over the weekend while I was trying to get my husband home. I knew I had the prayers of some here at home, but was so pleased and comforted when I got online only to realize that many of you had been holding me in prayer as well. It was one rough weekend which I do not hope to have to repeat but well worth it just the same. As of this morning, we are back into our old routine and that is wonderful.
I was up at 5:30 this morning to help get Hubby off to work. I fixed his breakfast and coffee and got his lunch packed. After he left I prepared some 15 bean & bacon soup and put that in the crock pot. Cleaned the kitchen from all of that and then took my shower and got dressed. The first load of laundry for the day is in and I've had breakfast. A quite productive 2 hours if I do say so myself. 8-)
The rest of the day will be filled with schooling, some housework and hopefully some cross stitching as well. I have a recipe for homemade crescent rolls where you make the dough and then you can let it sit in the fridge for 24 hours before you have to use it and I'm tempted to make some of that for tomorrow. We will most definitely be staying in today. After this weekend past, I'm ready to hunker down in a comforter and not go anywhere, lol!
Hope you all have a blessed week!
I braved the weather and the ice and went and got my hubby! It was an awful experience really, with stranded cars and people spinning out all around me, but I wanted him home! It was an ordeal of about 7 hours, with lots of prayers and tears on my part, but we are home safe and sound. Exhausted and it's time to hibernate...
Yesterday's plan was to get my hubby home. I got all the snow off of the truck, we bundled up and getting out of the driveway required a shovel and kitty litter. I had the goal of the interstate in mind, thinking if I could just make it there, I'd be home free. First I had to drop Brianna off at our friend's house because that is where she was to stay. About half way there I made the realization that their road would be in bad shape. I had a half second fleeting thought of stopping at the end of the road and letting her walk to the house but I knew that with her CFS this would be an impossibility. Now, this road is one lane. I got her there, but then would have to back out quite far. It was at that point I got stuck. My friend's husband and son came out, confident that they would have me righted in no time. But we got stuck, really stuck. No amount of pushing or creativity was going to make that truck budge. Eventually, we had to call a tow truck. The tow truck came....and got stuck itself while trying to get me out. During all of this time, I was inside learning more about what was going on in the surrounding area. It was soon made clear that leaving town was not an option.
I called hubby to let him know and reserved him a room close to the airport. My truck was eventually set free and we all very carefully came back home. At that point we found out my husband's flight was cancelled and he was stuck in TX.
As of this morning, he is on the move and headed towards the Nashville airport, but I have no way to get to him. There is ice everywhere and the roads are impassable. It is not supposed to start melting until Monday. So even if he gets into our airport, he is still stuck. And I'm at home just praying that the power does not go out.
I'm so stressed.
I think a bullet list is the best way to go today ~ I'm super busy!
* Woohoo!! Hubby and I have been skrimping and saving every penny like crazy for the last three months or so because **today** we had a HUGE bill due. A bill of gigantic proprotions! And I am so happy because our account has the money in it needed to pay for the bill and get us through to our next payday. Big weight lifted and I feel like I'll just woohoo all day long!
* My husband comes home tonight. He's been in Arizona for the past two weeks and we miss him! He misses us and says that he is sick and tired of resturant food and wants homecooked meals. His flight gets in at 9:10 tonight.
* We are under a winter storm advisory. So that means that my son and I will be driving (well, *I'll* be driving) the two hour trip to the airport in sleet, freezing rain, and probably some snow as well. I'm not relishing the thought. Also, I'm hoping that we don't have to deal with any delays that would cause my hubby's flight to get in in the middle of the night.
* My daughter has Bible Bowl practice for convention tonight which works out perfect because it is at a friend's house so she is just going to spend the night there. That way she doesn't have to go all the way to the airport or stay home at night by herself.
* Things with my daughter are about the same. I am currently looking into special progams at the high school for her next year. She wants to go back to school but will have to have some special accomodations. I started the process of talking to that department yesterday. Hopefully, everyone will be understanding and accomodating.
* I'm almost done with all the housework as I want things perfectly spic and span when hubby gets home. And actually, he wants it that way too, lol.
* I've been doing lots of cross stitch and I'm really enjoying the piece I'm on. I'll have to show some progress pics soon. Here is a listing I found of the pattern I'm working on so you can see what it is. It is really huge and I'm enjoying it so much. I also received all of the cross stitching stash goodies that my friend was mailing me. I now have a stand to hold my work while I'm stitching it. I'll have to share pics of it soon.
Well that's about it for me and my neck of the woods. Hope y'all have a great weekend!!
Today has been a good day. My daughter was able to sleep last night...during the night...and actually was able to get up this morning at 6:00! Woohoo! She's felt pretty good today and decided to take advantage of it by asking me to take her clothes shopping. She's felt so bad and hasn't gone out anywhere so long that her allowance money has just been piling up for weeks so she had a good amount to spend. So I took her shopping and she was able to find herself some cute things.
I even found a few things for myself! At our local thrift store I found a warm pair of pajama/around the house flannel pants and a pretty cream sweater, both for $1 each. I'm going to pair the sweater with brown pants for church tomorrow. I also found a sturdy rubbermaid type rolly cart for the kids and me to take to convention in April. (Our church attends a big convention each year in April.) Since it's a good 1/4 mile walk from the parking lot to our hotel rooms, everything we can have on wheels helps! This cart will hold quite a bit. Then we went to Target where I found a flannel robe on sale for $4 and a pair of slippers on sale for $1.98. I *love* me some comfy robes and slippers y'all. So I'm very happy about my deals.
Also, I got a phone call from a dear friend and she is an avid cross stitcher. She had gone through her HUGE stash and sent me three boxes full of stitching goodies! Everything from charts and books to kits and even one of the big cross stitching stands you attach your piece to so it can sit in front of you while you stitch. I am soooo excited for those boxes to start arriving this week!!
Well, I'm off of the computer for now. I want to go and get everyone's church clothes ready for tomorrow so it will all be ready when we wake up in the morning. Hope everyone is having a good weekend!!
This day is half over and I almost managed to get it to the point that it was one to go down in the record books for non-productivity. I stayed up waaay too late last night which meant I slept in waaay too late this morning. And that just puts my whole day in a negative place. As *hard* as it is for me to go to bed and get up early (due to my insomnia) my whole life is so much better when I do. And with hubby being away for 2 weeks right now ~ it just makes it all the harder for me to keep normal hours.
So. I'm fixing to get off of this computer, quite possibly for at least the next 24 hours, and salvage this day! I'm going to clean my living room, lay out everything to put supper together tonight, make sure clothes are ready for church tonight, and supervise school work.
I *refuse* to allow this day to be a loss!
I don't know who this woman is, I was just traveling down internet rabbit holes and ended up at this video. This will leave you speechless...beautiful...
copy and paste...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3WA9iHz5ww&feature=related
I've had several people here ask me how my daughter is doing after our scare last week, so I thought it would be best to just answer here instead of trying to answer everyone individually.
Yesterday was a pretty good day. She got up late morning-ish and had a good amount of energy during the day. She is still fighting some nausea, but I still think yesterday was a good day compared to most. Since she was feeling fairly decent, I had her work on some school work yesterday evening. She completed a rather long spelling assignment. I was happy about that.
Today has been a bit harder. The day after a good day usually is. She stayed in bed quite a while, but she is up now and showered and dressed. Today seems to be an in between day. Not a good day but not one of the worst either. I will do some school with her in a while.
School has really suffered during this time of illness. But she and I both decided it would be for the best for us to just continue schooling all the way through summer so we don't feel like we are under so much of a time constraint. And I'm having to learn how to do my teaching with my son during the day and with her during the evening. It's just the way it has to be.
We're taking it slow. Like I said last week, I'm not pushing her at all at this point. Everyone I have spoken with who has this says to not to and after what happened last Friday, I just gave it over to God and told Him that I will not push her to do anything more than she says she can do. At all. And if that means some things in her life take her longer than they are "supposed" to then so be it. She is not the type of kid to take advantage of things or to use it to get out of things...but at the same time in the back of my mind I know she is a teen and as such I wonder if at times she might say she feels ill to not have to do school work or get up, etc. But that is what I gave over to the Lord, that He will guard her heart against doing things like that. Because after last week, I simply will not push the envelope with her at all. It's just not worth it.
It really doesn't get much easier than this. And the taste of real hot cocoa is lightyears better than that of it's store bought counterparts.
*Pour into your crockpot: 1 can of sweetened condensed milk, 1/2 C. cocoa, 1 tsp. vanilla, about 1/8 tsp. salt and 6 1/2 C. hot water. Turn your crockpot on while whisking all that together. Once it is rather warm, stir in about 2/3 package of milk chocolate chips. Stir until they are mostly melted.
*Let this simmer in your crockpot for a good hour and a half. Oh my, your kitchen will smell soooo goooood by the end of that time! Turn crockpot onto warm or low or perhaps even off for a time. You can always turn it back onto low later to keep it warm. Ladle into mugs and enjoy! For my family (usually just me & the 2 kids drinking it) this makes enough for me to keep warm for us to drink off of during the whole day.
Ladies, I've had such a bad day. And such a huge scare. Brianna was put on a
new medicine for sleep on Monday. She started having really bad side effects
and by yesterday we had to take her off of it. She didn't sleep at all last
night. Not one bit. Today I was trying to keep her up so she would be able to
sleep tonight instead of sleeping all day and then up all night again. She got
upset and then I thought she just zonked out on the couch. What I didn't know was that she was not asleep, she had passed out. The way she was laying, her long hair was over her face. I thought she was just asleep, but what I didn't know was that she was passed out and her nose was smushed into the couch and she wasn't getting any air. She laid like that for about ten minutes. Finally she came to screaming and sputtering. I ran to her but she was unable to move, still had her nose smushed and could hardly breath. I pulled her back and she was just limp, disorented, could not move or feel her arms or legs, and had no color to her. I quickly called my friend Traci who works two blocks away and told her to come to my house asap. She came and between the two of us, we carried Brianna out to her car and she took us to our town's ambulatory care.
Brianna finally came to a bit better and her color started coming back. They
did a blood work up and luckily, that turned out all good. The doctor said that
when someone isn't getting air like that, that once they start breathing again
especially if they are upset it can make your calcium levels drop very low very fast and that will make your extremities numb.
By the time we were done there, she was able to stand again and very slowly
walk. She's really sore tonight just from the whole ordeal and me and Traci
bodily picking her up and carrying her like that, but we had no choice. She is
asleep now. She does have an eye doctor appointment that she has to go to
tomorrow, but other than that I'm going to let her rest all weekend.
I'm exhausted. It was just so scary to see her limp like that and unable to
feel or move. Even once we got home she was still acting kind of weird and out of it a bit ~ she just really needed to sleep. So she is doing that now. I'll probably sleep in her bed with her tonight just so I can be close in case she needs me. We're just having a hard time with all of her health problems right now.
*Here in our neck of the woods measurement cups are called measures. Just so you know.
A thought has been rattling around in my head today. It seems that so many are going through such trials right now. And even when the trials are blessedly absent for a season, contentment can still have a way of being elusive.
In my mind's eye I picture a woman. She can be any woman ~ you or me ~ it doesn't really matter because we all take turns at being her at one point or another. She's walking around with her big glass 4 cup measure needing it to be filled so desperately. Constantly trying to find something that will fill her cup.
Sometimes she goes to her friends. "Can you please fill my cup? It's been so long and I need it filled so badly." But no matter what her friends do or don't do, it's like she has a hole in the bottom of that cup that she cannot see. It never gets filled. Sometimes she goes to her husband. Surely, if anyone can fill her cup to overflowing it is him. But no matter how hard her husband tries, her cup remains only half full at best. It leaves her feeling bewildered and him feeling frustrated. Other times she throws herself into her children's activities, hoping this will help plug that invisible hole. Even that does not work. Next she tries to fill her cup with her hobbies and homekeeping activities.
But her cup never gets filled. And she is exhausted and can't understand why. All they while, she is still puttering back and forth and forth and back, tugging on people's sleeves saying, "Can you fill my cup? Please? I don't know what I'm going to do if I can't get it filled. I can't take much more of this."
It is then that the Lord speaks to her in the soft and still way that He has and tells her that she has been searching in all the wrong places. And that, truth be told she never really needed to search at all because what she needed was always right there all along. She just needed to stop, slow down and think about it in order to recognize it.
She never really had to power to fill her cup up to begin with. Her friends, family, and activities...they never had the power to fill it up either. They were all blessings that He had given her as building blocks for her life but it was never intended for her to use them as a replacement for Him.
I think it is so easy for us to get so involved in the day to day-ness of our lives that we lose our focus on the one thing we are to always be focused on. Without a daily renewal of focus on the Lord, our cup will never be filled and we will always be searching for that one thing that will work to fill it up. I don't know about you, but that sounds like a miserable way to live to me. We so easily lose our focus. It's just part of being human I think. So, when we find ourselves running around with our big 4 cup measure, desperately trying to find something to fill it up...stop ~ slow down ~ and refocus on the One... the only One who can truly fill that cup up.
Have a blessed day everyone ~ hugs to each of you ~~~
Today is going to be a busy day. We all slept in, but once I was awake I was *wide* awake. We hope to finish the floor renovation today. I surely hope so because walking back and forth over the unfinished section all week long has drove me nuts. I also need to refill all my canisters of flour, make more homemade bisquick, etc. A short trip to the vet to pick up some worming medicine. I discovered one of our cats is wormy so it's possible the whole critter clan is. I'll have to talk to the vet about that. A short trip to the store for a few necessaries.
We start school work back on Monday and I have some new curriculum so I definitely need some time this weekend to sit and read and plan our lessons. We have decided to school all the way through summer because my daughter especially has missed so many days due to her chronic fatigue.
I have leftovers in the frige that need to be eaten up. Not the least of which is the *wonderful* baked potato soup I made for supper last night. Sooo goood!
If there is any time after all of that, I have to start a major pantry reorganization. I hope to start it, but it will have to come after all the above in terms of priority.
This is our third day of snow! Ug, I'm ready for Spring. At this point, I am having a little trouble keeping the cottage warm. We are all dressed in layers and I keep all the faucets dripping at night so it's so far so good I guess.
Well, I'm off ~ lots to do today!~~
A friend and I have a small Yahoo group for cross stitch and hand embroidery and we're hoping to see it grow and become more active. Right now we only have a small handfull of members. We want for it to be a chatty group and we do small swaps from time to time. But doing the swaps is not mandatory ~ everyone gets to choose if they want to swap or not. If you would be interested in the group, you can either comment here or message me here on HSB and I'll send you the link to the group, ok? Hope to see some of you there! ~~
It is cold and snowing this morning. I am here with my coffee & wrapped up in a soft blanket that I often use as a shawl. The first load of laundry for the day is started & the kitchen sink is full of hot, soapy water for the few dishes that got left behind from last night. Our hopes of hubby being able to work from home today were not realized and he has been sent off with lunch packed, a thermos full of hot coffee and one large mug filled to the brim with steaming cream of wheat. And so for a little while, everyone else still sleeps & my house is quiet with the exception of the dulcimer radio station I listen to online playing quietly in the background. It's my favorite time of day.
Yesterday I wanted to make a rustic farmhouse type of apple tart. The dough normally used is a puff pastry. My current endevour is to not purchase something I can make myself...but this is puff pastry we're talking about. I couldn't think of a more delicate or finicky dough to try and make from scratch. But, I decided to take on the challenge. There are many recipes out there for puff pastry and many of them are rather complicated. I did not want complicated. I wanted straight forward and to the point. I found one to try and I love it! It was super easy to assemble and only a tad bit finicky but even that was helped as long as I kept the dough well chilled. Now, I have to say that this homemade version did not puff as much as store bought, but it did still have some puff to it and the flavor was lightyears better than store bought. I'm hooked. This is going to be my go to dough from now on when something calls for puff pastry.
Homemade Puff Pastry
1 1/2 C. flour
1 C. butter
1/2 C. sour cream
Cut butter into flour until it resembles crumbs. Stir in sour cream. Turn onto a floured board and knead until it just holds together. Form into a ball, flatten it a bit and wrap it in saran wrap. Refrigerate at least 2 hours. Work with half the dough at a time and keep the other half refrigerated. Roll dough out between two sheets of wax paper. Use as you would normal puff pastry.
I tried to upload some pictures of the process, but it's being difficult and not uploading. If I can get it to work later, I'll share some pictures.
I got a good response last week to doing a weekly post such as this, so here we are for this week's installment. I must admit, my activites of the week past have overwhelmingly involved keeping me and mine warm during this season of cold weather. I actually got a surprise this week when I realized how different our winters are going to be here since we moved a bit higher in elevation. I was not expecting just a slight difference in elevation to make such a difference, but it has. We are due for snow by Thursday and when I asked a good friend this week how much snow to expect compared to where I lived previously, she laughed. Quite a difference apparently.
So beyond adding to and shoveling over our compost and adding another thick layer of leaves over the garlic bed, there were no more outdoor activities. So I kept most of my endevors pantry related. (And you just may have to bare with me doing pantry posts through the winter due to the weather.) I did receive my order of dried whole egg powder today. Six #10 cans - yay! And with all the biscuit making of the last week I also pulled out the recipe for homemade bisquick. I'm endeavoring to not buy things that I can make instead. So for those who do not have the homemade bisquick recipe, here it is.
Bisquick
4 C. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 C. shortening
Combine all ingredients and use a pastry cutter to cut in the shortening until everything is coarse and uniform. I store mine in an airtight Tupperware canister.
Now, I discovered an awesome cooking method this week that uses only a tiny bit of electricity. These people are a wealth of information and I am slowly working my way through all their videos. I know you're going to enjoy this. (I wish I knew how to embed a video here on my blog, but I dont.) So watch this video. And here is a link to their blog as well: Pockets of the Future
If you've made any improvements to your homestead or towards becoming more prepared for your future, please share them here! We're all learning from each other.
Today has been a two steps forward, one step back kind of day for me. We have something kind of big going on in our financial life that we are waiting on an answer for. Today was the day I was to fax in all the information required for things to progress on to the next step. And at that point, good or bad, it was all going to be out of my hands. I have been stressing over this paperwork for the past week. Hoping that what I have put together would be good enough, that those making judgments on it would be kind and not want to give us the run around. Things can go one of two ways here and one is **much** better than the other. But at least once all the paperwork is faxed in, it's out of my hands whatever the outcome. So I was at least looking forward to that.
But then I call them only to find out that their system is down and they cannot take any of my information today. (Sigh) I will have to call back tomorrow and fax everything in. So another night of not knowing anything. I'm so ready for this to be over!
It's so cold today! It got down to 9* last night. I have to remember now that we have moved, the temps here will be a little bit colder than what we are used to because we are at a little bit higher elevation. Things are staying reasonably warm, but I will admit to there being a little chill in the air here in the cottage. I'm just dressing in layers and trying to get the kids to do the same. What is it about kids when they hit a certain age, they do not want to dress appropriately for cold weather anymore? It seems universal. Last year I was at an Amish home purchasing some produce and made a comment about kid's not wanting to where coats in that age group. The Amish lady looked stunned and said, "You mean your (meaning non-Amish) children do that too?" Lol, yes it must be universal.
I found something kind of neat that I want to share in my "What have you done to improve your homestead and/or prepare for the coming times" post. If I have time, I'll post it tonight but it may have to wait until tomorrow morning. We'll see.
I'm making chili and baked potatoes for supper tonight. I'm also thinking about baking a cake too. It's been a while since I made a cake and it sounds good. Hugs to everyone ~ stay warm!~~~
Brrr...it got down to 12* last night. I know that's not too bad for some of you, but for this Southern gal...woosh it's cold. But we are staying reasonably warm. We do not yet have any central heat or air here in the cottage, we are simply winging it until we can afford to have that installed. And I have to say that I am pleased with the results so far. I was worried that we would be just miserably cold this winter and, while it's not the same as having central, I really can't complain too much about our state of warmth. We generally don't get any colder than 10* here, even in the worst part of winter. So if last night was an indication of the worst, it really won't be so bad. I would even venture to say that the summer heat using only window unit air was much worse than the cold has been.
My daughter didn't sleep at all last night because of her insomnia. She is up and getting ready for church now, with plans to crash afterwards. Hubby and I will work on the floor some more this afternoon and get as much of it done as we can before he has to start his work week tomorrow. If we don't finish, it will be next weekend before we can pick that project back up. I would *love* to finish today! But I don't know how long it will take the polyurethine to dry. I have a big roast in the crockpot for bbq. It's been cooking on low all night and I'll let it continue until I get home from church. I have a second crockpot of beans going as well. That's what we'll eat today and have for lunch tomorrow. Some time today I've got to find some time to think about school tomorrow. We are going to be using our new microscope for the first time and I need to find things we can use to put on the slides.
Well, I had best get going ~ church is in an hour and I'm still in my flannel nightgown!
We have spent the better part of the afternoon working on fixing the flooring outside the bathroom where it flooded the other night. It looks as though there is previous water damage and whoever lived here before just cleaned up the top layer of carpet and left the rest. We have some spots of soft wood. (Sigh) Truly, pulling up the very bottom layer of flooring and replacing it is just not an option financially right now. We have pulled up everything there is to pull up right until the actual "floor." We will go back into town tomorrow and get some polyurethine and use that on the wood, then put down a new piece of underlayment and then put our new linolium down on that. I hate it that that's the best fix we can do right now, but it really is the best we can do at this time. We're about 50% done tonight but we're really tired so we've called it a night. That area of floor is soooo ugly, lol, laying there all mid-project like that.
Well, I don't have much else to share tonight. The floor is taking up most of my time and thoughts this weekend. Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend. ~~
It seems as though we have all taken a collective sigh of relief, doesn't it? Like we are all feeling renewed and refreshed and appreciative of a new start. 2009 was such a difficult year in so many ways ~ with the country as a whole right down to each individual household. Of course we know that 2010 will also hold it's share of challenges, but 2009 was difficult for so many in ways that our country has not seen in decades. And it just feels good to know that it is over and now we can take the lessons learned and wisdom gained and start all over! Yes, it does feel like a big sigh of relief. 
I think I'm off to the Mennonite market to get some baking supplies. Taking advantage of hubby being home which gives me access to the truck. (HUGS) everybody!! Have a great day!!!