• 2008-Nov-11 - Oh, Brrrrr!
Posted By The Farmer's Daughter
Good Morning Girls!
It's another frosty morning on the farm. Actually, the past few days have been so cold and rainy I've hated to crawl out of that bed each morning. I know it's that time of year but I guess we're never ready for them. Of course with the colder temperatures has came the colds. Keith and I have both been feeling miserable. We've taken so much medicine to try and find relief that it's kind of put us into "La-La Land"! Yesterday we started the fireplace and spent the day reading and resting in front of it. It sure doesn't make for a clean house but we both feel better today so I guess it was worth it.
Yesterday was also our darling daughters eleventh birthday! We had celebrated Saturday when some of the older kids were here but of course couldn't let the actual day go without doing a little something special for her. I asked her what she wanted for supper and she said "Your home-made Pizza!" so that's what we had. Keith had bought her a special pair of birthstone earrings from the jewelry store so we saved those back from the other presents and gave them to her yesterday morning before she got on the bus. I also baked pumpkin shaped Sugar Cookies for her class (It's the third time I've baked a double batch of those things in two weeks and I'm SICK of them!!!!) so she was a big hit with her classmates! HA On Sunday afternoon my sister took her to a Musical our High School was putting on and then to the Dairy Queen for a treat. All in all, a pretty good birthday! And now for a picture of the birthday girl:
 Another thing that I did yesterday was go through even more cookbooks and find more new recipes to try. I can't believe how much better we're eating since I've started doing this. And not only are we eating better but we have so much variety in the things I fix. If your in a "cooking rut" I strongly recommend you try this. There's nothing better than a hot cooked meal with a new twist when the weather is cold. I can't remember if I told you how I do this so please forgive me if I repeat myself....What I have done is copy each new recipe down and put it in a "new" recipe box. (I have six recipe boxes so had to have a new one so I would know where they are at! HA) I then took a little book and wrote the name of each new recipe under the correct heading. (Steak, Salads, Chicken, Pork, Desserts, Pies, Cakes, ect..) Now when I go to fix a new meal, I get out the book and go to the section I want for my meat. I then go to the salad, vegetable and dessert sections. Once I know what I'll be fixing, I simply pull them out of my new box and I'm ready to cook. It really makes it easy to plan your weekly menus and we seem to eat so much better and cheaper!
Well girls, I think I'm going to give in and go lay down for a few more minutes before starting my day. I hope this finds all of you well and enjoying these crisp, cool days. Hugs, Sher |
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• 2008-Nov-10 - fall cleaning, Fireproof, and busyness
Yes, I"m still at fall cleaning. So far, I have worked out, cleaned the ceiling fan (which requires a ladder), did the gutters on the back of hte house (requiring same ladder), cleaned the kitchen light (that hangs) and the stove top. I really need new drip pans so maybe I"ll put that on my CHristmas wish list (Yes, I go big).
Joey's also got school donea nd Mat's almost done. I called and reordered my Rx and the insurance guy called and we are good to go. Only we'd never gotten out 529 stuff. That was cuz we'd not gotten the stuff to close out the acct (we were using that money for the 529). So I called that company and they were getting ready to stop payment and reissue (at today's market value!) and I was sifting thru the shred pile on the off chance the checks were in there. I FOUND THEM! Saved ourselves some money too since they were issued in JUNE!!!!! (pre market nose dive!) So the ins guy is coming out Thursday to wrap that up. I"m sure that he'll be glad to loose us as clients eventually!LOL
So my work for today is basically done. I've got a book that i"m going to start reading the boys about the Mayflower and Pilgrims. There is no way unless I read for HOURS a day that we'll get it done by Thanksgiving!LOL
All of this after after a hugely busy weekend. Saturday was the crop. Joey was up at the crack of dawn and Dh asked Joey if he wanted to go to work w/him. Joey said yes. This was HUGE! My hold up on going to teh crop was waiting for DH to get back adn get JOey. Mat's youth service project was from 10-4 so we got stuff done and I dropped him off at 11:30 (they even fed them!) and I got to the crop 1.5 hours early! So I got 17 pages done. That's well over 50 in the last month! Then home to clean up and get supper going. I also had made peanut butter balls taht morning and made no bake cookies that night. Joey's class was studing Jacob and Esau and the different cookies where to represent the differences in them. The boys have enjoyed the leftovers!LOL
Sunday was pretty hectic as well. I loaded 4 turkeys and a chicken for my sister (one freezer is getting bare!) along w/change of clothes, Joey's kid's club stuff and all the Sunday School lesson stuff. I also talked to 2 ppl at church about Mat's youth stuff. One is hosting a Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving Day. She knew nothing about it. ;( But I explained to the lady at the lockin that Mat would not be allowed to spend the night if there was no male chaperone. I'm sure the church is probably ready to throw me out between that and the communion stink I made. I'm not trying to be difficult, and I do want Mat there to help make the bread (they are selling as a fund raiser), but I just don't think he should be there w/o a male chaperone overnight. My sister or someone can go get him so it's not really a big deal (and I tried to emphasize that). Then to eat lunch and Dh and I finally saw Fireproof! What an AWESOME movie! I'm so glad that we were able to see it (we don't watch movies as a general rule). Then the flying dash to my sister's to grab the boys and to my mom's to get MY BIRTHDAY PRESENTS!LOL I saw my cousin at the theater and wasn't able to chat. We dtiched DH and Mat and JOey and I headed onto kid's club. Did I mention that I had on my mom's old coat? The one really from the 70's. It's CUTE style. It's also cream w/teal and avacado flowerish type design!LOL You either love it or hate it. I jokingly said that I tore an old davenport apart and made it!ROTFL! At any rate, we got home atou 7:30 and DH made grilled cheese and tomato soup for supper. YUMMY! He'd also done a load of laundry.......
Somehow between Sat and Sunday I read TWO books. FLuff so they go fast. But then I sat straight up in bed at 11 last night and said, "I WAS SUPPOSED TO GO TO BARB"S AFTER CHURCH!" DH was thoroughly impressed as usual!ROTFL! So now I get to send HER an apology email........ |
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• 2008-Nov-7 - Mom's cancer!
• 2008-Nov-7 - More work than I thought!
I somehow blanked that I needed to make bagels today. So after my workout and getting Joey started on school and laundry, I made bagel dough. Only I only had about half of the 7 grain flour that I use so I guess it will only be half as healthy?LOL I couldn't afford to not make them so I'll just get some more flour next week.
All the laundry is hanging up to dry, Joey's done w/school, I've prepped for Sunday School and Mat's over halfway done w/school. I stumbled across the pumpkin soup recipe w/sausage and since I have all of that stuff in the freezer, it will make a very easy supper! Which is great since I still need to make chocolate chip cookies for the boys to snack on today (they are really for Sunday School, but this takes care of both issues). Mat needs to vacuum before his friend gets here and I think that will wrap up most of my work for today. I'm not sure how long it will take the laundry to dry in this weather. I hope not long since the lines are full.;) |
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• 2008-Nov-7 - Precious Memories!
Posted By The Farmer's Daughter
| This past week has been a full week of making memories with my parents. On Saturday Mom called to see if I would go with her Monday to pick up pecans in Garnett. Of course I told her I would, so as soon as the little ones got on the bus I headed to the farm to pick her up.
What a day we had.....We picked up five, five gallon buckets in a little over an hour! While we picked we chatted, laughed and carried on like we didn't have good sense. (Those of you who know my family know we don't! HA) I honestly hated to see the pecans start thinning out but by the end of an hour we knew we had found most of them. From there we went out to a yummy lunch at Keith's favorite Buffet. I swear Mom ate more than any man there! HA And of course we couldn't go home until we hit our favorite thrift shop. Found tons of neat things there!
On Tuesday Mom wanted to work the Election Board so I told her I would come over and stay with Daddy. (Since his heart attack, we're not leaving him alone.) Mom had told me he'd be with his best friend Bob so I didn't have to hurry over. For that reason I spent the morning cooking things for them and I didn't arrive at the farm until a little before 2:00. Imagine my surprise when Daddy was sitting in his chair!!!! The first words out of his mouth were, "Where have you been?" I explained that Mom said he wouldn't be home until around 4:00 but he quickly told me it was to windy to fish so they had came home early and Bob had left to go vote.
Mom hadn't told him I was staying all night and I wasn't about to (He gets so upset that we don't feel he's well enough to stay by himself!) so I told him I had some things to carry in and then I was going to crack some pecans and we were going to pick them out. What I didn't know is they hadn't had lunch and when I sat some "Fig Newton's" down by his chair he dove into them. (For some reason he's on a "Fig Newton" kick and will eat them package after package.) I asked him if he was hungry and he said no so like a fool I didn't fix him anything.
It's been forty years since I've spent the night at my parents without my DH or children and to be honest I don't think I EVER spent the night with just the three of us. This was definitely a special one on one time that will never be forgotten. Memories that will be locked in my heart.
Even though my Dad is really ill you would never know it. He's never lost his sense of humor and it was so obvious that afternoon and evening. We laughed the day away and we're still laughing when we all went to bed at 11:00 P.M.!!!! When it started getting dark I told him I was going to fix him some supper and he told me to get on the road before it got any darker that Mom would feed him when she got home. That's when I told him I was staying all night. I was prepared to have him argue he didn't need me there but to my surprise he said, "Oh, I didn't know that!" As I was fixing supper (I fried him hamburger and made Chili Fries.) he was asking me what was taking me so long. Well, when my little sister was home she cleaned Mom's double ovens with Clorox and she took all the numbers off the knobs. You now have no idea what temperature your cooking at. I swear, it took me forever to get those fries done. I can not believe how much Daddy ate!!!! It was unreal! And even though he swore he was stuffed, when Mom got home he ate some of the Cherry Oatmeal Cobbler I had made!!!!
As Daddy and I picked out nuts through out the night we talked. None of us were sure he knew how seriously ill he is but I know now he does. Each year he attends a tractor pull with his dear friends down in Mississippi, and even at late as last year (At the age of 82) driving one of their tractors and placing with it!!! Mom was so worried about how he would take not going this year but once again daddy surprised us all. As we were talking he said, "I won't be going to the tractor pull this year." Not wanting to upset him I said, "Well, it's not until next month we'll see how you feel then." To my surprise he said, "Sherry, I could die down there and do you know what that would do to the guys vacation? Well, it would just ruin it for them!" We then looked at one another and burst out laughing! I said, "Yep Daddy, that would make their vacation pretty bad!" And then he said, "You know I could die picking out these nuts!" I shot back, "Well don't! My sisters would always swear I did something to you!" Then we started laughing again!!!!
If I ever laughed harder or had a better time I don't know when it was! When mom got home we all picked out more nuts and kept the stories coming....I just rolled when Dad told how Mom ran over my grandpa when she was learning to drive!!!! Definitely a wonderful, special time. And I felt special when I found Mom had turned the covers back on my bed and had a little angel night light turned on for me!
And while I was staying with my parents, history was being made....We have a new President! While not the man I voted for, it was The People's choice so like all good Americans, I respect that and look forward to his Presidency. I was so hurt when I read so many mean comments on this web site when I got home but I know there are a lot of uneducated, narrow minded people on this site (One girl wrote I don't know how many entries on the subject and kept commenting on other peoples blogs that it was obvious she was just "stirring the pot" to keep the trouble going. Course this same gal comments on everyone's blogs so she's always making a fool of herself!) so I just considered the source and let them go in one ear and out the other! As my dear old Dad said, "It doesn't matter who is our President, the world is in such a mess no one man is going to get us out of it. It's going to take every person working twice as hard as they've ever worked to bring things back around. The average man is still going to get up and go to work tomorrow and life is going to go on!" Amen!
Monday is Jeni's birthday so Keith and I took off shopping for it yesterday. On the way home we stopped by my folks as I had more groceries for them. That makes four days this week I've been at their home. Told Mom I might as well move back home so I wouldn't be spending so much on gas! HA
Well, the morning is slowly getting away from me. We have more of our kids coming home this weekend so I best get my tail around and get things ready for them. I hope your all enjoying these cool, crisp days and getting more accomplished than I am. Hugs, Sher |
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• 2008-Nov-7 - Catching Up On Our News!
Posted By The Farmer's Daughter
This has been one of those weeks when I have met myself coming and going. So many things to do, no time to do them. Since I use this blog to catch my friends up on what's going on in my life (Especially now when I haven't had the time to write) and to make a log on what happens when, I'm going to do this in several "installments". This installment will go back to Halloween night.
A normal Halloween night for our family is to have a special Halloween meal and then when it starts getting dusk we go out Trick or Treating for an hour or so. This year our plans changed a little. A little friend of Jeni's moved to Topeka at the beginning of our school years and when he called to say he was at his grandparents that weekend, he wanted to know if we could go to the annual town "Party". Normally I would have said no (Since it lasted hours) but after talking it over we decided it we would do it just this once. We ended up having so much fun, we'll probably do it every year.
So, late into the afternoon the little ones dressed up (Jeni then decided to be a "Good Witch" and we had to find that costume!) and outside we went for pictures. Drew hates to have his picture taken so he was running around acting silly. For that reason, Keith had me get take one with Jeni. Would you like to see what this almost sixty year old woman looks like??? Okay, here you are:
The party turned out to be so much fun. The women had done a super job of decorating and had so many neat games lined up for the children. For a small fee we had a nice little meal and the evening was rounded off with a hay rack ride. We only "Trick or Treated" for about half an hour and then it was home to sit around and talk about the evening.
So, that was Halloween 2008 at our household. Now on to what else has been going on around the farm. Fall Blessings, Sher |
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• 2008-Nov-6 - Bus tour
We had a city bus tour today. It was pretty neat really. And if you lived in town a BARGAIN! Students ride free and you can get a pass for $1/day! But they took us thru the bus wash (in the bus!LOL) and other stuff.
So that's why we went to town!LOL I got up and worked out and got everyone semi moving. Mat lost his nerf toys for the next 2 days thanks to his self distractions. UGH! But then I called my neighbor to tell her about the Wiimote charges for $22 at Costco. She told me of something that I needed to call someone else about so I got that done. I found out that gas was going back up (to $2.19) so I pulled in and got it for $1.97. Then we cashed in a free bfast sandwich (I did not get bfast so it worked out well!LOL). After the tour, I scoured Hobby Lobby. It's just not cheap unless you have a coupon! Then we did TONS of things. ONe of which was go to several stores trying to find 6-6.5 men's shoes! We found some boat style shoes at Target on clearance for $15 in size 7 (mens!) and they actually fit Mat pretty good. I was having cardiac arrest! But Joey wore a 12 in skates last May, 13 in October and a 1 yesterday (this is why we don't buy roller skates, altho I'd love to find me a pair on clearance or garage sale!) Also at Target, I bought myself a cute $5 Christmas Tshirt, and a nice athletic shirt ($2.48) and a cute brown plaquet shirt ($2.48). It's not as cute as the brown plaquet that it's replacing, but for that price, it will more than suffice. I promised the boys after shoes that we'd eat so we tried the Rally's .79 menu. Then to the grocery, where I dropped a bundle. But I now have the turkey, sweet potatoes and french fried onions for Thanksgiving.;) Lastly, to spend some bday money. I now own a Vera Bradley Morgan in Cafe Latte (a brown and black purse!LOL). Mat wanted to go to the book store while we were at the mall so we did that. We left at 8:45 and got home at 3:15. A long, but very productive today. Next week, we only have Mat's youth on Monday night and an event at the cultural center on Saturday. So we'll be home Tues-Friday ALL DAY! |
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• 2008-Nov-5 - so much fodder.........so little time.......
Ok, LONG DAY! But I knew that waking up--which was way earlier than I should have, but I was wondering if the election took a major swing by any change. Oh well. I got up and worked out. Both boys were up early, too. So they emptied the dishwasher and ate bfast and got ready and off to town we went. I dropped off the recycling and we went to MOMS. It went very well. I wound up buying a ton of raffle tix since I didn't sell many and won 3 of the prizes! They were the smaller ones, but ones that I'll use!
Then off to skating. I got a great workout there! We also had a parent meeting so I didnt' get my full hour of skating in, but that's OK. We got quite a bit accomplished and planned out a nice Christmas party. Now to remember ot make pumpkin soup and sugar cookies for that day............LOL I called Pizza Hut from the rink and ordered the boys personal pans, ran and got those and they ate while I did the banking at 2 banks and up to library. That was at least slow paced!LOL From there to Aldi to grab a couple of things and then to the chickenlady to pick up 6 TWENTY FIVE POUND TURKEYS and 3 dozen eggs and 6 bars of soap!LOL Clove and peppermint (not together!LOL)--YUMMY! The peppermint is going to be AWESOME!
Then home. Which sounds easy, but I took two tubs for the turkeys so I had 75 lbs of turkey to get out of the van, up the steps to the back door, down the steps to the basement. I told Joey to guard the van to keep the cats out. I was breathing heavy by the time I got to the freezer w/the 2nd load. But those fit int he freezer and my sister's ILs want them for Thanksgiving so I won't have them long.;) I just sat down from that and my sister called to tell me that the surgeon was pretty adamant about mom having the needle biopsy guided by cat scan. Meanwhile mom beeps in to tell me the same thing!LOL But that will be Friday. I may need to watch my neice. So Mat will vacuum in a few minutes and I"ll do some last minute picking up and we'll sit down to a fabulous (smelling at least!LOL) Italian roast and au gratin potatoes and wait for the ins man to show up at 7. Then I"m sure I"ll fall into bed.
I went out to put the van in the garage and opened the door and a cat nearly sprung on me! I about had cardiac arrest! So much for Joey guarding against cats......LOL
They just said that there is some chemical in red wine to reverse (fight??) aging. Too bad you need to drink 1000 bottles a day.;) |
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• 2008-Nov-4 - I VOTED!
In record time too! I'd heard of waits up to 45min at *my* polling place, but I walked right in and out in 6 minutes! And that's with the lady explaining to the boys how to use the electronic voting maching!
Then I dropped $60 at the bulk food store.........LOL |
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• 2008-Nov-4 - fall cleaning!
WAHOO! I started yesterday w/some inside stuff and today I did about half the windows! The ones I can reach sans a ladder!LOL But they are the ones that everyone will see at Thanksgiving so it works out well!ROTFL! I also swept down the front porch. We never use it and therefore it almost never gets cleaned.
I also worked out and I'm getting ready to hop in the shower! Joey's done w/school and Mat's on his way. Then we'll go to the bulk food store, post office and VOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!
I need to make au gratin potatoes for supper for tomorrow night and sloppy joes for tonight. So I'm pretty much on schedule! Next week we have virutally NO WHERE to go! So I'll be washing down cabinets/wood one day and doing more picking up another. I'm going to get a GoodWill pile together and haul that in about the end of the next week,too. |
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