Influenza is the Pits

It has been an interesting week around  here.  Mostly due to the fact that I have been sicker than I can ever remember.  Matt and the kids did their best to take care of themselves as I mostly was a lump for about 6 days while I muddled through Influenza A and H1N1.  

Yuck.

The kids were sweet to me and brought me warm packs when I was shivering with fever and drinks of water when I coughed.  Matt did extra running to get the kids to and fro and he held down the fort.  Truthfully I don't remember much else about the days.

I am very grateful to my wonderful neighbors who helped with getting Joey to school and checked in on me every day. 

 It is really surprising to me as I look back at the week and who took time out of their day to give a call, send a text, let me know that I was in their thoughts.   

Smile.

Please know that I am deeply grateful for each one of you.

Christmas 2013, the highlights, and other random information

Christmas 2013 is officially in the books.  It was a wonderful Christmas filled with things the that Christmas should be.

 The kids and I jammed out to some fun Christmas music while we baked and decorated cookies on Monday morning.

We went to church on Christmas Eve (Yay for our new music director who picked all my favorite hymns!).

We had our fill of goodies at the in-law's house and exchanged simple gifts.  This included our new baby niece, who we got to share in her first Christmas.  

Santa came.

We had a "quiet" morning on Christmas morning and opened gifts here at home with our kids.

My dad and his girlfriend along with my brother, sister-in-law and nephew came for ham dinner later in the day.  The kids played in the snow and ate too many cookies.  We had a lot of laughs.

Now its all over.  The Griswold-ish Christmas tree that shed bucket fulls of needles is outside and will be filled up with assorted things the kids find to feed the birds.  The furniture is back in place and we can see each other without peeking through the branches of that enormous thing.

Now the living room is back together and thoroughly vacuumed and sap scrubbed off the walls.  I only have to return my laundry and dining room to their pre-holiday states.  Oh and find a home for the 1,001 toy kits my kids got for Christmas.  Their aunts and uncles hit the mark this year by getting them things they can build (oh and dinosaur stuff for Joey.  That kid is a nut about dinosaurs!) and I kind of want to hang onto some of those things for the next 4-5 months of cold/snow/mud/rain.  That means I need a place to put them, you know that's not on top of the laundry hamper.

Maybe today some of it will get done.  Today is a rare day when we all have the whole day off to just hang out together.  I'd hate to waste it on laundry.

I do know that we're going to town later this morning to see if we can find any artificial trees left on clearance (reference the above statements about buckets full of needles and gargantuan size trees) and to take the kids to the movies.  Movies at the theater are a pretty big treat around here.  Come to think of it, we've never gone to a movie as a family.  I have taken the kids a few times with some friends, but never all four of us together.  The last one we saw was Toy Story 3 in 3D.   There are a few good family shows playing so it should be a good adventure.

 The rest of the gang is still sound asleep at the moment. So, I think I'm going to curl up with my library book until they all wake up, which should be 30 seconds after I get comfortable.

Happy Christmas Vacation Everyone!

Why I'm With Phil

Every time I go online, there's another blurb about Phil Robertson and will "Duck Dynasty" survive after his scandalous interview with GQ Magazine.  Our family does watch this show.  We love this show.  It has no swearing, no nudity, and frankly, we identify with the goofy redneck characters.  That said, if I were in the Robertson family right now, I'd be hard pressed to want to continue with the show.

Here's why.  The article that started this whole mess was written by someone who clearly does not respect their beliefs.  I can say that positively just because of how many swear words are in the article.  Now, those words didn't offend me and I can see where the author was trying to be funny, but that kind of language is strictly forbidden in their family and on the show.  Who knows what was written that is out of context?

The whole thing is a train wreck.  First of all, let's take a southern Evangelical Christian and ask him point blank what he considers to be a sin.  Then let's make some leaps from there about what he "really means" by his statements.  And by all means, let's not draw any attention to his bottom line, that no matter what sins anybody is committing, we all need to love each other.

That is where I think the magazine and leftist media is missing the point.  Every denomination of Christianity has a different idea of what constitutes sin.  If we didn't then we'd all be Catholics.  His personal religious beliefs of what is a sin are not uncommon.  Are they 100% accurate? I don't know.  I am not theologically educated enough to make that call.  Even if I was, there would be a line of equally educated people waiting to disagree with me.  The two things all Christians believe is that we are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves and that we are all created in the image of God and therefore are all worthy of love.

That is the point I feel he is trying to make and why I agree with him.  Beyond the Ten Commandments, definitions of sin get a little sketchy for me.  I really hope I'm not going to burn for eternity because I cut my hair and wear pants.  I'm pretty sure that the Lord has bigger fish to fry with all of us.  

I believe that we are all created by God.  That said, who am I to say that He didn't make people homosexual?  I  know that I could not call myself a Christian and knowingly mistreat someone who is different than me.  God loves us all. Period.  What happens when we leave this earth is anybody's guess.  I believe in heaven and that's what I'm shooting for.  Will I make it?  That's up to Him.

I do not completely agree with Phil's definition of sinful behavior, but I do believe strongly that this is what it boils down to: we are never to judge someone on who's going to heaven or to hell.  That is the Lord's job.  We are just supposed to love each other and let God sort it all out later.  The world would be a better place if we all treated each other better.

Any Day Now

Any day now, winter could come to stay.  So far we are enjoying the late fall weather. The air feels crisp and clean. Waiting for the bus in the morning is frosty and just barely daylight.  Colorful leaves have gone and trees are bare.  The only remaining color is the tamaracks with their golden yellow-y orange needles.  Birds are starting to flock to the feeders.  Today I saw our female Pileated Woodpecker for the first time since spring. (Joey calls them "fluffyated woodpeckers").

This knowing that the weather could turn any day has me feeling the rush to get projects done inside and out.  The gardens are all cleaned out and mulched for the winter, leaves have been mowed and mulched.  The last of the garden has been harvested and canned.  (My garden didn't amount to much, but thankfully I have unlimited access to another huge garden, a co-worker's mom who shares her excess veggies and a dandy farmer's market to find my treasures.)

Just for kicks, I took out all the jars I have canned this summer and fall.
This is about 2/3 of the total jars I canned in 2013.  

More canning than I have ever done by far.  I still have a little bit more to do, as my selection is a bit light on protein.  So, beans and turkey are still on the "to-can" list.  Preserving the harvest has been a major part of my weekly schedule for several months now.  I've expanded my selection away from just jams and jellies and included pickles, relish, tomato sauces, apple pie filling, and pumpkin. 

Isn't that pretty?

We have been making steady progress on our fall to-do list over the last month or so, being grateful for every clear, dry day.  We finally cut down a dead birch tree that has been threatening to fall over near our house, along with a few other standing dead trees and got the wood stacked by our fire pit.  The garage and shed have been tidied up, recycling has been brought in and the yard cleaned up (We even made a long overdue trip to the dump on our anniversary.  Try not to be jealous.).

Soon the gourds and jack-o-lanterns will be fed to the chickens, autumn scarecrows replaced with winter snowmen.  Rakes traded in for snow shovels.  Any day now.

Until that day comes, the kids will be waiting as patiently as they know how to get out their sleds and Matt and I will be enjoying these last mild days before winter sets in.

Summer, The Highlights

Looks like its been a while since I've visited my own blog.  Apologies to my adoring fans.  Summer is coming to an end and so many things are changing in our household.  Since the peach canning wrapped up, we've celebrated birthdays, had a few visits from the tooth fairy, went to our county fair, welcomed a new niece, and started school.  In between there were lots of hot days spent swimming with friends, the building of a bird trap, a fish hook firmly embedded in the hand of our boy and our usual berry picking & canning sessions.  

Natalie swimming at her cousin's birthday party

Joey admiring his selection of tackle

Joey & Dad with the bird trap they built together

Close up of the bird trap and all its features.  The metal latch on the top is the trigger for when birds come.  The marshmallows are the bait.  The gator grabs the birds so they can't get away and the jumper cable thing is to shock any raccoons that try to get in.

Joey fishing with the Pocket Fisherman.  These are great for kids, by the way.

Natalie lost her first tooth!

Joey made friends with a goat at the fair

Natalie is a fan of the roller coaster

Our new niece.

Natalie's first day of First Grade!  Joey is really excited too!

Next week Joey starts preschool.  With both kids in school, I will hopefully have a bit of time to better keep up on things, like my poor neglected blog....

Peaches!

A few jars each of my canned peach slices and peach preserves
and the few remaining peaches left from the  1/2 bushel I started out with.

Have you ever wondered why I make my own jam?  Because I can.  Get it, I can. Heh heh  OK, I'm done now.

Anyway, on with the story.  Every summer, a vendor comes to one of our local hotels and sells Georgia peaches out of a semi trailer.  They are fresh and juicy and just plain delicious.  I bought a case this year.

My friend Erin is always canning something or another.  She and her mother and sisters have given me so many wonderful ideas about canning beyond basic jam.  She has canned fruit every which way possible for years.  Every summer, she does tons of peaches.  This year I decided it was time to give it a whirl.  So, I blanched the requisite ten pounds of fruit and put the kids to work peeling it.  We have the neighbor kids over today, so I took advantage of my expanded labor force.  They made short work of the peeling and before long, we had them all pitted and sliced and ready to go in jars.  I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.  I used the recipe out of my handy canning book "Put 'Em Up!" by Sherri Brooks Vinton.  I love this book.  It is a great companion to the standard "Ball Blue Book" canning guide.

One cool thing about this recipe is that it calls for 1/2 cup honey.  Just so happens that the aforementioned wonderful Erin sent me a QUART of raw honey for Christmas.  That worked nicely in the peach syrup.  Thank you :)

A closer look at the sliced peaches

Last year, my friend Amanda got a case of peaches from this same vendor and she made the most beautiful peach preserves I have ever seen.  After the sliced peaches were canned, I still had quite a few left, so I decided to make a batch of this too.  It tastes as pretty as it looks.  As my Aunt Iris would say "Oh my heavenly days."  I'm so glad she shared her recipe!  You can find it here.  Her blog is really spiffy.  I hope you like it.

Up close and personal with peach preserves

Thanks to my canning gals for all your ideas, inspiration and trusted recipes!  Oh, and thanks to my teenage neighbor girl for showing me how to work Instagram on my phone  and to Dion for telling me how to get the pictures off my phone :)

Treasure Hunting

  It is full on rummage sale season around here.  The not so great part is that the big rummage sale days in my town are days that I work.  Fortunately, I wind up with a few hours to kill in town each week.  And sometimes when I'm really lucky, there is a sale close to my work that I can check out on my lunch break.  It has been a good couple of weeks of thrifting.

There are so many things I love about rummaging/thrifting.  I love to look for unique things.  Maybe they were very average household items in their day, maybe they're a one of a kind creation..  I like to take these things and give them another life in our home.

While overly theme-y canned decor isn't my thing, I think I have come to have a more defined style.  I know what I like and what I don't.  This is a huge help when trying to find an item for a certain function. I like certain styles of things, so I no longer buy the first cheap thing I find.  I wait until I find one that I'm going to want to look at every day. As you can see, I kind of have a thing for enamelware and vintage linens.

I've been wanting a vintage kitchen scale for quite a while.  Every so often, I need to measure produce by weight, and it would be nice to have a measurement when packaging meat, instead of just eyeballing what is a pound.  I found this snazzy one for $15.  This is the highest ticket item I've bought in a long time, but so worth it.  I got the cute little beehive that is sitting up on it for $1.25 at the same shop.  I just love that place. 

Sorry this isn't the best picture.  Oddly,
this was a hard thing to photograph.

The purchase of the scale led to a total revamp of my kitchen storage situation.  See, it didn't really fit on my counter like I had hoped it would, so I had to come up with plan B.  Plan B turned into clearing the top of our fridge, cleaning it (you know how they get that weird gunk on them), and putting out some of my other items that had been stored in a cabinet and moving the other stuff to the cabinet.  The top of the fridge has been a real eyesore forever.  I have no idea why I didn't do this about five years ago.  This concept isn't original.  Obviously I'm not the only person who decorates the top of their fridge with this kind of stuff, but it is actually very functional.  And, it looks a lot better than having our lunch pails and electric griddle up there.  This just makes me smile when I walk by it.  Best of all, I spent next to nothing to put this together.  All this stuff was either a gift or was purchased at rummage sales or thrift shops. Oh wait, I lied.  See that wooden jobbie the squirrel basket is sitting on, that's from The Pampered Chef.  It is a stand for mounting an apple peeler.  It was taking up space in the cabinet, so I decided it could be a stool for Matt's squirrel basket (yes it is my husband's basket.  It was a cheeky birthday gift from his sister).  Even though its all pretty up there, it is still the place where our bread goes and where we stash the candy away from little hands.

This nifty little dish is a piece of vintage Pyrex.  It originally had a ribbed glass top and was part of their refrigerator collection.   I found it at Goodwill.  No lid, but I liked the size and color of it so I got it anyway.  It is a great place to keep the plug for my sink and my scrubbies.

This apron was too cute to pass up.  It was 99 cents at Goodwill.  I bought it a while ago and wasn't sure what to do with it.  Lucky for me, Dion gave me a great idea to hang it on a vintage hanger.  We found this gem the on the same treasure hunt as the scale.  It has an advertisement on it for the E.R. Moore Company in Chicago and set me back a buck and a half.  They hang in the laundry room.  Don't they look cheerful?

It has been great to have all my little treasures find homes. Finding cool stuff is only part of the fun.  Figuring out just how its going to fit in the house is the real adventure.  Its even better when one item brings together a display of stuff that has otherwise gone unseen.

Have you found any treasures lately?