The Joy of the Holidays

My 7 year old showed me a different side of her yesterday morning. She came bouncing down the stairs to get ready for school singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer! Just as happy as could be and smiling at 7:30am.

I'm pretty sure she gets that holiday spirit from me (tee hee).

Apple Pie, 10 Stitches, and Good Food

Here is the photo of the homemade apple pie I baked. I have always made Dutch Apple Pie, but this was delicious! The recipe came from AllRecipes on-line. Here is the link: Apple Pie by Grandma Ople. I added cinnamon to the apples before I put them in the crust, just as another person had recommended. Of course we topped it with vanilla ice cream. My son said, "oh we have to take a picture of that!"

I haven't posted since we baked the pie. I had a little accident with my head and flying firewood. It was plain stupidity on my part and I got myself too close to the wood pile, while unloading a truck load of wood. Ladies, if you are unloading wood, be sure to be more careful tan I was. Luckily, it did not knock me out too long (just a second or two). After my brother kept insisting I get it looked at, I went to the hospital.

The doctor on duty convinced me that staples worked better than stitches, so I caved. "Fine, give me the staples, but can you please not shave too much of my hair?" I begged. I have to say the shot to numb it first didn't hurt anywhere near as bad as the thunk to the head. After a few staples, the doctor starts telling me, "uh, there's another cut and I think we are going to have to do stitches anyway." So out the staples went, and in went the stitches - 10 to be exact.

As I was laying on the gurney getting worked on and having friendly conversation I realized I was wearing my neon green socks. The photo doesn't do justice. If I had better lighting you'd see how awful they looked under those bright hospital lights (ugh!). To top it off, I was wearing a yellow shirt. I put the socks on because I was not going anywhere for the day (nothing matches with them). Or so I thought.

I guess the joke was on me! I had to figure that if the doctor saw them sticking out from my jeans, he was thinking "this woman is a case for sure."

My head hurts, but my arm hurts worse from the Tetanus shot I had to get. The kids keep asking me questions to make sure my brain is functioning correctly. This morning, I took the time to cut and chop and mix, to put beef stew into the crock pot. Just a few minutes ago I looked at it and wondered why it wasn't cooking. Once again, I failed to plug it in. Luckily it's early so it has time to cook, and luckily this is nothing abnormal. It's just another crazy day in the home.

The chickens are getting carrot peelings for a treat today. I read that they like peelings but not whole carrots. It's a great way to keep them fed organically and make good use of the scraps.

I have to say, that even though I was supposed to be resting, I made dinner the night of the accident. It came from The Cardiac Recovery Cookbook (how appropriate) and was Summer Vegetable Spaghetti. Now if you froze your garden tomatoes at the end of the season, this is the perfect recipe to add them too (and yellow squash. zucchini and green beans).

Summer Vegetable Spaghetti

I used a 15 oz. can of no-salt added tomato paste, double the vegetables, and did not add the extra salt. I also let the mixture simmer longer until the vegetables were softened. It was delicious. I also added parsley that I had dried from my herb garden and doubled the garlic. I made it as natural and low in sodium as possible. The Parmesan cheese adds enough salt to the dish.

Which brings me to my next synthesis paper for my English class. I'm working on a claim that is somehow related to the fact low cost foods, which many people are buying, are very high in sodium, and the dangers sodium has on the body. I'll have to figure it out and narrow it down.

One last note. Last night, my dear husband came home from work and handed me a pair of safety glasses and said, "Your hard helmet is on order." I had to laugh, but there was a serious tone to his voice about staying clear of accidents while I was healing (and to use safety measures more often). He got bonus points from me because the safety glasses were pink ribbon glasses. I'm sure I'll be wearing both on the next wood splitting day.

Fall Trees

I think I may write outdoors today. The trees are turning nice colors, and the weather is actually pretty nice. The tree in the photo above, is actually red today. I took this photo a few days ago. Maybe I'll take my camera and do a little walking too. School seems to be going along well and I only have a book review to write today.

I'm planning on getting work finished early so I can watch an hour of FoodNetwork. I haven't watched it in a long time.

Christmas Gift Ideas - Bead Projects

I found this wonderful link to many free bead projects. All of the instructions include a skill level and there are many ideas for Christmas gifts you can make yourself.

Friday Relief

The kids are very excited it is Friday today! The weather has taken and turn and it is raining and colder today, but the could care less about that. I can remember when I was in High School. I loved Friday's. I couldn't wait for the day to end so I could go out with friends. Now that we live in the country, it's more about just being able to do "nothing."

They still find it fun to see me struggle with my English class, but that's okay. Whey they are all grown up and have children of their own, they will see it differently. However, deep down inside, I think they are all cheering for me to get my book written, get a job related to writing or just want me to succeed in life.

They are already talking about our game of Apples to Apples we play on Sunday.

One dog, a rabbit and a kitten

It's not the best picture, but this shows how well they all get along. They were all in motion and I was trying to quickly take the picture, but forget to switch the setting on the camera.

One Rabbit and a Kitten ~ Milo and Tiger

You can tell by the amount of hair on the chair, that Tiger sleeps here all day long. The kids put the chair near the wood burning stove and he loves the warmth. We have weird animals. Who would have thought a rabbit and a kitten could get along? I'll have to post a photo of one of the dogs, the rabbit and a kitten who were all playing together on the kitchen floor.