Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Not Much

It's been a few days. I hope everyone had a great weekend. We were blessed yesterday with cooler weather. The high yesterday was only 88 degrees. It was nice to be able to walk outside without feeling like you were suffocating.

Today, I'm going to be sewing a crib bumper pad for a friend. I have been promising it for the past 2 months, but just never have gotten around to actually doing it. But today is my deadline that I need to have it finished. I don't think it should really take me that long to get it done. I'll post a picture when I've finished.

Other than that, it's pretty quiet around here. Not much going on, so not much to post.

Later I'll be making White Chili which I will post the recipe and directions.

Have a blessed Tuesday!

Friday, June 26, 2009

Quickie Post

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Friday.

This is just a quickie post. I'm working a temp job at a law firm today. It's just a one day thing...but hey...every little bit helps and we can really use the extra $$$ right now.

I'll post later tonight and let you know how it went.

Have a blessed Friday!!!

***UPDATE*****
Work went great today! Everyone was really nice and I really enjoyed working the front desk. I hope it leads to more jobs that are similar in nature.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Ahhh...the dentist

Last week I took my 18 year old to the dentist for a regular check up and a cleaning.
When we left, we were told that my son would have to have extensive dental work done and that I needed to come back next week for a "planning" meeting. When you have to come for a planning meeting, you know that it's bad.

So, I went today, and I was right....it was BAD! How did my son's teeth get into such bad shape? One of the answers I was given was : too much soda. So, we have tried to cut out the soda...I don't really drink it anymore, but Brian does. So, he has snuck one in here and there, but for the most part is trying really hard not to drink sugary drinks. We mostly drink water here...occasionally tea or a sugar free drink like Crystal Light.

So....with all the work that needs to be done, the total comes out to be over $6000.00. You saw that right...$6,000.00!!!! Praise the Lord for dental insurance. It will reduce it by $4,000. But that still leaves us $2000.00 that we will have to pay out of pocket. Fortunately, we do not have to pay that all at once. If we did....he probably wouldn't be getting dental work done because we just don't have the funds at this time.

Anyway, we will start small and get some work done a little at a time as we can afford it. Luckily, nothing is causing him any pain at the moment and hopefully, we will be able to get stuff done before it does cause any pain.

I'm not going to freak out over this and will just try and go with the flow and know that God is in control...he will provide, he will provide.

On another note, I sent in my resume to a temporary staffing agency. Took my tests on Tuesday and they called me for a temp job yesterday for tomorrow at a law firm. It's just a one day job, but it's a little extra $$$ and I like that I'm not tied down to something everyday.

I'm going to try and get some pizza crusts made today for pizza tomorrow night. Other than that, I'm going to stay in (where it's cool) and try not to get into too much trouble :)

Have a blessed Thursday!!!

Monday, June 22, 2009

Monday madness

My youngest son made it back yesterday and I also brought home my 17 yr old nephew to spend a few days with us. It will give my 18 yr old someone to just hang around with. Wow...three teenage boys can sure eat A LOT!!!

I hope I have enough groceries to last the week.

My hubby has to work on Sunday's, so we are celebrating Father's Day today. He is off today and tomorrow so that works out well. He's taking it easy catching up watching the NASCAR race that he recorded from yesterday. Then we are going shoe shopping....for him. That is what he asked for - a new pair of gym shoes. He wants to get back in the gym. Both of us have kinda let ourselves go. Maybe he will inspire me to get back in shape as well.

We are having grilled New York Strip steaks for dinner. This is a real big treat for us. I have them marinating in the fridge right now.

Right now, I am emotionally exhausted. Maybe, I'll feel comfortable posting more about that some time in the future. However, right now, I just don't feel like doing anything but taking a nap. I have washed and dried one load of clothes, have another load that needs to be dried. I've cleaned up the kitchen, cleaned my room, baked a loaf of bread and made lunch for me and hubby. (Youngest spent the night with a friend and the other two boys are still asleep...so they are on their own for lunch).

It is hot, hot, hot, here...which is MISERABLE. I hate summer! Love spring and fall, but can't stand the extreme temperatures. Is there somewhere you can live that is just mild year round?

Well, I think I'm going to lay down for a bit while hubby is still watching racing and then I think we will be out the door for a bit. Thank goodness our car has air conditioning!!!

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Dinner Menu for the Week

Here is our dinner menu for the coming week:

Sunday: Tacos

Monday: Grilled steaks, fresh corn on the cob, baked potatoes

Tuesday: Creamy spinach sausage pasta with garlic bread

Wedneday: Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, baked beans, homemade rolls

Thursday: Crock pot steak with baby new potatoes and seasoned green beans

Friday: Homemade pizzas

Saturday, June 20, 2009

My Trip to the Farmers Market

We have a farmers market here every Saturday. Last weekend was the first time I went.
We met someone who owned a local cattle farm. It was great to learn that all his cattle and sheep are grass fed...no antibiotics and no hormones. Also, they only supplement the grass with feed in the winter. My husband and I really want to be able to buy a 1/4 cow and was delighted to find out that they do this for .90 cents a pound (live weight). Now we just need to save up the money (about $250.00).

Today I did buy 10 pounds of ground beef - I'm going to use one in some spaghetti tonight. This farm also sells lamb, chicken and eggs - so I also bought a dz eggs. We just love the brown fresh eggs so much more than the ones at the grocery store.

Along with the above, we visited several booths. I bought another pound of home churned Amish butter and some Hickory smoked cheese; small red potatoes, 1 dz ears of butter sweet corn, and some pure honey from a local beekeeper.

I am so glad we found this place and I'm looking forward to making it a regular Saturday trip.

Have a great weekend...gotta go and get the spaghetti started.

Friday, June 19, 2009

One Thing After Another

Yeah....its Friday! I love Fridays...I don't have a "cleaning schedule" to follow on Fridays because if I have done what I'm supposed to have done during the week...it should really all be done.

Today I am baking a couple of loaves of bread because I am on my last loaf and I didn't bake any earlier this week. Laundry is done, except for my clothes that still need to be put away. I also need to go ahead and make out my weekly menu and grocery list...I'll try and share that later today or maybe tomorrow morning.

Like my post title says, this week and really been one thing after another.
Earlier this week, I was washing a load of clothes and came back into the laundry room to check on where the cycle was when I noticed there was water all over the laundry room floor. I immediately shut off the washer. Our washer is on the wall that backs up to our outside storage room. Sure enough, the storage room was flooded as well...uggh! With my husband's schedule, he wasn't able to check it out until Wednesday. Poor guy....it was raining that day and he needed to climb on the top of the roof to check something out - don't ask me...he told me, but I can't remember.

He worked on it all day and after making two trips to Lowe's was able to get all the piping worked out and low and behold...I was able to wash clothes again!! I had LOTS of clothes to wash. It really starts to back up after a couple of days. Luckily, it was just three of us here and not the usual 8, the amount of clothes could have been a lot worse.

Also on Wednesday, our air conditioner was just not doing a great job cooling down the house. With the humidity here, the temp has been in the low 100's. Just miserable to be outside, and it wasn't much better inside. The inside temp was 82. And while, that may be ok for some of you, we couldn't stand it. My wonderful husband brought home yesterday and guage and determined that we were really low on freon. So, fortunately hubby has a friend in the business and was able to come over yesterday and put more freon in, check everything out and pronounce it good to go. Wow....what a difference!!! The air that is now coming out is 68 degrees. Yay...it is soooo nice to have a cool house again. I just couldn't bake in a hot house.

Hubby also had to work on our lawnmower yesterday, but was able to get that going as well.

I feel that we have been attacked from all sides lately. I am so thankful that God has blessed our family with such a mechanically inclined husband who is able to take care of things around our house.

Have a blessed Friday!

Thursday, June 18, 2009

It's Okay to Have a Lazy Day Sometimes

Let me first say this....I have been dealing with guilt issues a lot here lately. I won't go into all the details, but let's just say that it has been weighing me down more than I think I can bear sometimes. With that being said, I'm am learning that it is okay for me to just step back sometimes and not put so much pressure on myself to get it all done on a specified day.

I love having a schedule and it makes me feel so good when I can mark off my list things that I got accomplished that day. However, it can also be a two edged sword...when I don't get everything done that I wanted to get done, it can make me feel extremely guilty. I'm sure some of you know what I mean...oh, I didn't get this done, or that done...I'm a bad housekeeper, bad wife, bad mom....and this list can go on and on.

It's okay to let it go sometimes...but just don't get in the habit of doing it everyday.

Yesterday, I took my son to the dentist. We had to be there at 8:00 am. We didn't leave until a little after 10:00 am. Well, that little trip threw a wrench in my schedule. My husband was still home and thankfully had my washing machine fixed (I had been without a washing machine for 3 days..YIKES!)so I proceeded to go ahead and get some more clothes washed. Before I knew it it was lunch time. I hadn't so much had begun to clean my kitchen like I normally do on Wednesdays.

So I took a schedule "time out". You know...my kitchen will still be here and I can do a deep clean another day. So yesterday, I did as much laundry as I could before it got too hot in the house(another problem I am dealing with) and spent most of the afternoon on the phone with our mortgage officer.

So cleaning for the day was pretty much out....and you know what...it's okay! I spent the afternoon renting movies and watching T.V. with my husband and son....

So, I was "lazy" for a day...so what! Maybe we all need to be lazy sometimes.

Sorry if this post doesn't make sense. It is early here and I haven't had my morning cup of coffee yet - but I have given the dog a bath!

Have a blessed Thursday!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

The Best Banana Bread Ever

I usually try and bake on Wednesdays, but I have some bananas that I need to use TODAY. So, I'm going to make banana bread. My family absolutely loves banana bread and I've tried many different recipes. What I am using now is acutually not for banana bread, but I tweaked it a bit and now it is super! My son says it is the best banana bread that he has ever had. I will put nuts in it, if I have it on hand...if not, I just leave it out.

Best Banana Bread Ever
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups ripe mashed banana (sometimes, I will use even more)
1 1/2 cups bread flour (or all purpose flour)
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg or pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cups nuts of your choice

In a large bowl, you will need to cream your butter and sugar. We went to our local farmers' market this Saturday and picked up some home churned Amish Butter.

This is what it should look like once you have "creamed" your butter and sugar.


I had three bananas that needed to be used up, so it equaled a little over 1 1/2 cups when mashed.


Next add your bananas and 1 egg to bowl. Then mix well.


In a separate bowl, comine the flour, baking soda, connamon, baking powder, salt, and spices.


Mix your dry ingredients into your banana mixture using a large spoon. Once mixed well, you can fold in the nuts if you want to add them. Your dough should look like this:


Pour into lightly greased loaf pan.


Bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour.

I have to say that it will make your home smell so WONDERFUL while baking.

Take out and let cool.

Just a Tuesday

Sorry, I didn't get the pictures and recipes posted the other day for my homemade barbeque and coleslaw. Storms rolled thru on Friday and I didn't want to et on the computer much.

We also had bad storms come thru yesterday afternoon. We were under tornado warning for quite some time. There was a funnel cloud spoted about 2 miles south of us.
We cleared out the linen closet in our bathroom so we could get in...there was just the three of us yesterday. It did get extremely dark and it hailed. The hail was about nickel or quarter size. My son was very grateful that there was enough room to pull his car under the carport.

But we made it through that, and then about an 1 1/2 hours later, more storms came thru, but we were just under a flash flood warning and a thunderstorm warning at that time. Whew!! It made for an exciting late afternoon!

Other than that, things are pretty quiet here. Other than the fact that we are dealing with......FLEAS! We have been trying to bathe our 2 dogs everyday and I vaccum the entire house everyday. We have hardwood floors and not carpet, which I am thankful for. Does anyone have any good remedies for getting rid of and keeping the fleas away? I really don't want to use harsh chemicals.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Sigh

My dogs are driving me crazy! My pom woke me up early...actually, she has been whinny/barky all night long, but I just tried to ignore it. So, here I am up early, really early for me lately. And I don't want to be up yet. I just want to be back in bed. I let the dogs out and turned my back just for a minute and the next thing I know my pom has run out of the yard and down the street...she's that quick!

So, out I go in just my bathrobe calling down the street for her. I knew she was out front and down the street because I could hear her barking at a woman jogging.

Finally get her to come back to the house. Bad doggie!

This is not how I wanted to start out my morning.

Big Sigh.....

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Work at Home Ideas?

O.K...here's the deal. I would like to bring in some income to help my family. I always have been able to until we moved here.

Before I did some part time accounting work and I did in home childcare/preschool. I haven't had any luck here with the childcare, but it is something that I truly love.

Does anyone have any other suggestions? I do NOT want to do any time of MLM program. I don't have a land phone line either. I can do small bookeeping, and can type 75 wpm.

I can sew a little, but I'm still a beginner. I have tried selling my bread and stuff, but it's hard when you don't really know anyone and don't really have friends here since moving.

If you have something that has worked for you, could you PLEASE leave me a comment?

Upcoming for tomorrow: Today I am making homemade barbeque sandwiches, homemade buns, homemade coleslaw and potato wedges. I am documenting and taking pictures which is will post tomorrow along with all the recipes, so check back tomorrow!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Random Pictures

I know I have been promising some pictures, but our computer went whacko and my husband had to erase our hard drive and start over...uggh!

So here's some random pictures I took this morning.


This is one of my loaves of bread that I baked yesterday. We just love homemade bread. I have in the past made the sourdough wheat bread, but my family really doesn't like it. This is potato bread, which is one of my husband's favorites. You can find the recipe by going to the left and clicking on recipes.



These are our upside down tomato plants. We originally planted them in a half gallon milk jug, but transplanted them into these 5 gallon buckets I was able to pick up for free from our local freecycle group. As you can see, we only have one tomato at this time. My husband says he will really be disappointed if we only have the one. Keeping my fingers crossed for more.



This is my weekly dinner menu that I started posting on the fridge. I started putting it there because after awhile I really got tired of hearing 5 million time a day "What are we having for dinner?" Tonight we are having bacon wrapped steak fillets and baked potatoes and probably steamed veggies...yummm!



This is our T.V. showing what I have on in the mornings....Contemporary Christian music...My radio doesn't pick up K-Love here, and if I put it on the computer, I wouldn't be able to hear it in most of the house. So, I just listen to the contemporary music channel from our cable company.


This is the inside of my fridge today....pretty messy huh? Well, today is "Kitchen" day and the day that I clean out the fridge. Since I worked the past two weeks, unfortunately, the fridge was neglected. It needs some love. I usually try and not let it ever get this bad. Maybe I'll post an "after" picture tomorrow.


Here's the picture of the fridge after I cleaned it out. I took out the bottom bins and washed them out and wiped down all the shelves. Looks much better now. Also, I know that looks like beer on the bottom, but its non-alcoholic (for my hubby).

Well, I guess that's it for the random stuff. Like I said before, today is "Kitchen" day, so I've got lots to do. I try to schedule it the day before my garbage man comes so I can clean the fridge and stuff and not worry about it sitting out in the garbage for days.

I hope everyone has a blessed Wednesday!

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Productive Day and Bathrooms

Today was a productive day. I did get my three loaves of bread baked..yay! It's been over two weeks since I've baked bread. I actually had to go and buy store bought bread last week.

Since today was Tuesday, it's the day I have set aside in my schedule for cleaning the bathrooms. Normally, I will, on a daily basis swipe the toilet seats and wipe down the bathroom counters. However, on Tuesdays, I really clean the counters, sinks, inside and outside of the toilets, scrub the tubs/showers and clean the tiles. I also clean the mirrors, wipe down the light switch covers and wipe down the doors. The area around the handles can get really dirty with so many little hands touching it, so it is important for me to clean those once a week. I also will sweep and clean the bathroom floors.

If you do this once a week and just swipe the toilet and the counters on a daily basis, you can keep the bathroom clean.

I have a fear of someone coming over to visit and then asking to use the bathroom and my bathroom be nasty. Years ago, when my boys were little and I was working full time outside the home, this would be a problem. I cringed whenever anyone wanted to use the bathroom and would fly down the hall to check it out quickly and make sure the boys didn't leave it in a total mess (you know how little boys can be sometimes).

Now, I don't worry so much about that....It's not always spotless, but I'm not embarrassed by it either.

Great News!

Just a quickie here while I have a moment. Great news, my 18 yr old is moving back home with me! I have missed him terribly since we have moved.

Please pray for all of us as he will be looking for a job and we will be moving things around in the house to make additional room. This will be a big change for all of us since he has not lived at home in over a year.

Well, gotta go and clean those bathrooms!!!

Monday, June 8, 2009

Monday, Monday....

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Wow...it sure is quiet here with all the kids gone. My husband came home this morning and oops....I slept in. I didn't mean to. I woke up and looked at the clock and it said 6:40, so I thought that I would just lay there until 7:30 and get up and get things started. Well, about 8:30, my cell phone rang and it was my husband. He was at the back door without a house key. He took my vehicle last night and my house key wasn't on the set of keys, it was in my purse - oops!

He decided that he was hungry and wanted to go out to breakfast.....it has been AGES since we have done this, so off to IHOP we went. Yummo!!!

We got back and I really needed to get busy...so I've managed to get two loads of laundry done, deep clean my bedroom, deep clean the computer room/stepdaughter's room, and get one loaf of bread started, tidy up the kitchen and living room.

I still need to get another loaf of bread started, deep clean my son's room (while he is gone), deep clean the boys' room, get to the post office and bank (I might put off the bank until tomorrow), and get dinner going.

Hubby just went to bed and I hope to see him up around 7:00 or 8:00 tonight...otherwise, its just me!

I'm going to try and post a little later (but can't make any promises).

Have a blessed Monday!

Friday, June 5, 2009

Changes AGAIN

I promise that I am not trying to neglect my blog. It has been a difficult week this past week. I can't believe I haven't written since Monday...wow! I will definitely have to do better with that.

I took off work Wednesday because my son Brian was having some health problems and we ended back at the cardiologist office that day. Fortunately, his EKG and his blood pressure were fine. They determined it was probably just a panic attack. He is still here with me until Sunday. It will be hard to see him go. However, there is a chance that he might move back here permanently in the near future. We'll just have to see how that goes.

As far as my job goes, I hated it...so after talking it over with my husband, we decided it just wasn't for me. So yesterday was my last day. I know...short lived. It's not that I am opposed to working, but this particular job was just not for me. Plus I have decided that if and when I do go back to work, it will NOT be full time ....part time only. It was a difficult and emotional decision for me and I did cry because I felt that I was letting my husband down. He works so hard and I wanted to be able to give him a break. But it was truly making me miserable. And you know the saying, "When momma ain't happy, no one is happy".

So, here I am back home. Still trying to figure out where my place is and what I want to do. Going to try and leave it in God's hands and trust in his promises that He is in control and will provide for all of our needs. Sometimes it is easier to say than do.

My step kids just left about an hour ago and it will be much quieter around here. My youngest stepson and stepdaughter and I watched a movie last night and they gave me a great massage at the same time...how nice! They will be gone about 3 weeks before we see them again. My two sons will be leaving on Sunday for 2 weeks. I will have to find something to occupy my time while they are gone. It will be a good time to try and catch up on my sewing. I STILL have a baby bumper pad to sew that I promised almost a month ago....bad me!

Well, I guess that is all for now. Blake is bugging me to get on the computer. I hope your weekend is off to a great start!

Monday, June 1, 2009

Just a Followup

Well, dinner has been eaten and the kitchen cleaned up. Laundry has been folded and put away. I wash all bedding on Mondays and the kids are responsible for putting the sheets back on the beds.

The three oldest boys(18, 14, 13) are in the living room watching a movie. My stepdaugher, Kaylin (9), is in my son's room watching a movie and my stepson, Jared (10), is lying on the bed next to the computer reading a book. And my husband is in bed sleeping before he has to go into work tonight.

It is nice to just have a (little) break. Of course, I still need to pack my hubby's dinner for tonight, which I'll do in just a bit. But after that, I'm done for the night.

I realized I never elaborated anything about my son's surgery. We had to be at the hospital at 8 am on Friday morning. I went back with him around 9 am so they could do his blood work and the IV. While this was being done, his face turned scarlet red and he almost passed out. I had to rush to the bathroom to get a wet towel to put around his neck. After that, he felt much better.

Then they took him to the Cath Lab Pre/Post Room where we said our goodbyes before they took him into surgery. Back to the waiting room I went. I received a call about 10:30 that morning telling me that they were about to get started.

The staff was very good at calling me to give me updates throughout the procedure. His surgery lasted until about 2:30 or 3:00 at which time the doctor called me and said that they found something totally different than what they thought they would find.

In a previous post I wrote that my son has a condition known as Wolf-Parkinson-White Syndrome. When they did the catheter abalation this time, they discovered that the cause of his rapid heart rate was known as Atypical AVNRT. They said while this is common, it is very uncommon for a patient to have both Wolf-Parkinson-White Syndrome and Atypical AVNRT.

Brian was finally brought up to a room on the Cath floor of the hospital where we were informed that he was the youngest patient (18) on the entire floor. It was a rough night. The anesthesia gave him a very bad headache and he also suffered from severe nausea which caused MUCH vomiting (I know, yuck!). I felt really bad for him.
Also, after the procedure is done, you have to lie completely still for 6 hours. You can raise your head only 20 degrees. So you can imagine how hard it was being sick to your stomach.

It would take an hour for the nurse to get to our room after we made a call. Also alarms would go off in our room and the nurses would never come to check on them. This made no sense since his room was directly across from the nurses station. A couple of times, I had to open the door wide open and then ask them if they heard the alarm. Thank goodness there was not something going on that was life threatening!

Anyhow, he was released from the hospital on Saturday around 12:30 pm. I have called the cardiologist today to try and make a follow up appointment, but so far...no such luck. I'll try again tomorrow.

Again, thanks for all the well wishes and prayers!!

Why I Am Working

My first and foremost love is staying at home and being a supportive wife to my husband, keeper of our home and a caring mom.

If my children were younger, I would NOT be working outside of my home. However, since that is not the case, I decided it would be nice to be able to be caught up on our bills and give my husband a much needed break from working so much overtime.

Last week he worked 72 hours..he worked 21 days straight with only 1 day off. He has been great doing whatever is needed to provide for our family, but I can see that it is taking a toll on him.

And yes, it is only day 4 working away from the home and we are still adjusting. The kids have really stepped up by doing whatever is asked of them. It is really nice coming home to a cleaned up house. Since I made a computer schedule for everyone, there is no more fighting...whoopee!!!

My son, Brian, is home with me from surgery...so we have a full house - 5 kids...three of which are teenagers. I can tell you that my grocery bill was sky high this time around....they can eat A LOT!!!

Next week, however, it will be very quiet as we will have no kids. That's right...two weeks with no kids! I will miss them much probably after a couple of days (but I'm still looking forward to the peace and quiet and control of the T.V. again...LOL).

For tonight, I make Baked Penne Pasta with a tomato zuchinni sauce. My oldest stepson is a vegetarian so I try to incorporate some vegetarian meals into our menu.

Well, dinner is about done and I still have two loads of laundry to get done.

Have a blessed Monday!!!