Well all i am getting ready to leave to go to the hospital in the next town over to have my test on my kidney. Please pray that Gods will be done. And that i will have some peace in all of this.. Also pray for my two younger children that will be with me while i am having this test. That they will also have peace.  My older children are doing ok in ohio however i can tell by there voices that they are worried about the outcome of this test. Pray for peace for them. Pray that the doctors have great wisdom..

God bless you all

glenda

To me this is one of the easiest things to can.. Honestly it is... Here is what we do..

Wash squash. I also can Zucchini this way also.. Anyway wash your squash, do not peel... Cut them up into nice slices.. I like my not to think as i fry them and i dont want them to fall apart.. ;-) Steam or boil them for 2 to 3 minutes. place them in hot jars. Add 1/2 salt to pint jars, 1 tsp salt to quart jars. Top with boiling water. Wipe off rims and place seal and ring on top. put in pressure canner and pressure can for Pints 30 minutes, quarts 40 minutes at 10 lbs of pressure...

That is all. Like i said it is so easy and you dont have to worry about putting them in the freezer.. One less thing in there. :-)

god bless

glenda

Rebecca and I have done good today.. Even with me not being able to help out that much.. I did help her get the food into jars and I helped prepare the food for the jars.. I also watch the pressure canner from my chair as she was a little freaked out with the whole thing being her first time.. But we did good. We ended up with:

5 jars of chili

2 jars of squash

8 jars of okra

And we have enough squash to can I would think four or more tomorrow or the next day... Plus i have peas to pick and that will at least give me 6 to 8 jars. I am hoping that i am up to helping her can some tomorrow after i get home from the hospital. I have my kidney test tomorrow to find out if it is working or not. If I can not help her tomorrow after the doctor visit then i will do my best to do some canning saturday.. I figure if we get five or six jars of food canned a day before we know it one or two things will happen either we will end up with a pantry full of food or we will run out of jars.. Either way I figure is a good thing...

The more food we have in our panty the less stress i have on me to worry where we will come up with our next meal.. :-) Also my church family has ordered me 2 angel food packages a month and will do this every month until i am on my feet again. This was a gift from the women in my church.. With there help and the work from us in our garden we will make it on food....

That is one less stress for me to worry about while i am sick.. As far as the bills i am cutting everything that is not needed. Example the cable, internet, phone. We have a cel phone from a person from church and i can text as much as i want it is unlimited, Also I have a good amount of minutes if i need to talk to someone like the doctors.. And it is only 15 dollar a month. They have allowed the children to wash cars, mow yards things like that to pay the bill...  They normally hire kids from the church to help them and well this way we all help each other... So that takes care of the phone issue. The next thing is the electric. I have got to really watch that. This months bill is over 200.00 I can not afford that.. So off goes everything we do not need.. Ac etc.. With the fans and all running it is not bad inside here.. Not using the ac should help bring down the electric a lot.. Plus we will hang out our clohes and that will save money also. Our water bill is something i really can not cut anymore. I am already watching every penny we spend on it.. And well right now i have it at around 60.00 a month and that is not bad with the garden. The only other bill i have for the house is the insurance for the cars  and all.. That is 65.00 a month.. So if i get my electric back down to 100.00 and the water 60.00 insurance 65.00  that would be 225.00 a month. My biggest money taker right now is the doctor bills. I have already spent over 400.00 this month on doctors and meds... I just can not afford that... and that is with insurance.... ;-(

But anyway with wise budgeting and writing down where every penny we have and are able to make goes to I know that we can make it this year. Is it going to be easy.. NO but we have something now that we did not have a few years ago.. WE have a wonderful church family, we have a great set of friends.. And we have each other.. I am so thankful i have my children.. They give me a good reason to not give up.. To take the pain and deal with it and stay strong. I have much work to do for them and for the Lord.

I am going to get all the kids school work done out for them. I think if i can get some sort of normal back into the house while i am sick it will be better for them.  They are old enough to keep up with there studdies and all i will have to do is lay around and allow them to bring it to me and i can look over it and grade it and we can go from there. I will have two in 12 grade this year, one in 11th, one in 9th and one is 8th.. Oh my where have the years gone to...

I am a little sad i was not able to get the girls room painted while they were gone. I so wanted to work on that for them but well it just did not happen. I asked them on the phone to forgive me for that and of course they are like no big deal. But it was a big deal to me.. We have the paint it was a gift and it is just a matter of getting enough life in me to help the kids paint it... one day.. soon we will..

Well I am having a issue with sleeping tonight. I am sure a little bit of it is the test tomorrow. We will find out if the kidney is working or not.. I honestly am just praying that what ever God feels is best to allow it to happen.. I mean what else do you pray for.. If i pray that the kidney is working then I have to go thru the issue of having a tube in my side for months as they remove all the kidney stone and months in the hospital. If the kidney is not working then i go into the hospital to have the whole thing taken out.. Either way it is not going to be fun.. Either way with medical help I will hopefully stop hurting so bad in the long run... So I am open to what ever God wants here. let his will be done.. I just want to feel better and be able to spend time with my children.. to work on my little farm..

Well all. I am going to go over there and sit on the couch for a little while. I want to do a little reading in my bible tonight. I really think it will help me to get a few hours of sleep..

god bless all. I will try to post when i find out something from the doctors if i have internet. I know it should be off by monday at the latest. :-(

God bless

glenda

I have to say my 15 year old daughter is sure stepping up to the plate here. We had okra that needed to be put into the canner. I asked her if she would help me.. Without delay she said YES.. So in the kitchen she and i went..

I am not able to stand for to long. The pain has been bad today.. There will be days like this until we get it all taken care of.. Anyway I told her how to prepare everything and I sat down watching her She got it all done up and then i helped her get 6 jars of okra in the pressure canner. WE are now waiting for it to can.. We still have at least 2 or three more jars to go into the canner once those are done.. Once that is done we have at least that many jars of squash to get done up.. 

We are doing everything we can as a family to bring in as much food from the garden as we can.. It is not doing that well this year but better than it sould since i have not been able to work it like it needed.. I  am thankful for what we have got off it..

Well i am going to go and lay down on the couch and wait for the timmer to go off to get the jars out.. Have a blessed day all

glenda

Well my kidney doctor called and he wants me to go to the hospital in the little town right up the road from us on Friday at 730 to have a test to find out if the kidney is even working still. This could make up the mind of the doctors before they even have  a chance to go in.. If the kidney is not working then he will go ahead and make the hospital papers for me to have the kidney taken out. If the kidney is still working then we will start next week with the hospital on getting the tube in my side and the stone slowly being broken up.

I have been very fearful about this whole thing. When i talked to my doctor he said that this is a kidney diesease and that we have to watch the other kidney very careful. That scared me. However the word of God is giveing me strength. HE healed a dead man, he healed a women with blood disorders.. HE can heal me.. Either by a mircle or with the help from the doctors..  And i know that he will. It is up to me to keep the right attude in this all.. Things could have been worse.I could have had cancer. I could be dieing right now... But i am not.. I will be around to be a pain to my children.. Maybe just a little less of me :-)

I will so miss each of you.. Everyone on here is different, we have differnt likes and dislikes yet when it all comes down to it we are all the same. All brothers and sisters in the Lord. I love you all and will miss you all dearly.. please as you find time write me.. I will write as i can.

Rebecca has had a good birthday.. She is just hanging out with mom and brother.. :-)

God bless

glenda

Today is my daughter Rebecca's 15th birthday!!! I want to wish her a very happy birthday and let her know that i am so proud to be here mom.. I love you dearly my little one. You will always be my little girl. You are growing into a wonderful young women and i thank God every day  for giving me you!!!

Have a blesed day today my sweetie and mommy loves you with her whole heart....

god bless all

glenda

I have been asked many many time for my address. I want to say that your prayers and best wishes are more than one could ask for. I will so miss each of you.  I feel like it is ok for me to post my address here. I am not sure that some would agree with me but I will be honest with you all.. It is in the phone book anyway.. :-) So with that being said I would love to get letters from all my friends.. I know that it will lift my spirits as i go thru all  of this..

Anyone who would like to write please feel free to. I am not sure when i will get to write you back it will depend on my energy levels but i will do my best to write each person back..

My address is:

Glenda Gay

36 jarrett road

Hartselle alabama 35640

God bless you all

glenda

I wanted to sit down and write everyone. If you have read the post that was before this. I have a major health issue that is going to take many many months to heal from. I will in wrost case loose my kidney in best case i will be in and out of the hospital for months... And will be out of work for up to a year. My stone is the size of my kidney.

I am haveing to make some hard choices. One of those choices is  I will be turning off my internet, phone, and cable. I am praying that i will be able to post as I am up to it using a neighbors computer or the computer at the liburary. However with the health issues i can not say I will be able to do that weekly.

I pray that each of you will grow in the lord, and your farms and homestead will grow and be bountful.

May God bless each of you. I am not sure when my internet will go off. It will be within the week.

God bless each of you

glenda

I am asking for your prayers.. I went to the doctor today and they took x-rays again. I am going to have  to go to a special hospital in huntsville. my kidney stone is the size of my kidney.. The worst case is i will loose my kidney. We are looking at months of NO work, and rest as we work on this issue.

Please pray for  us.. I am scared, I am worried about bills,

glenda