Monday's are Tough

 

Mondays I typically try and do the entire house, so I can enjoy it the rest of the week.   Didn't happen.  I started out making egg/sausage/cheese and chickpea tortilla quesadillas for breakfast (next time will add jalapenos), cooked up ground beef for sloppy joes and had a mountain of dishes after that. Dinner was crock pot sloppy joes on Ezekiel bread and sweet potato fries (baked).

Laundry got started, but our mower guy arrived, so I couldn't put it on the clothesline.  I started on floors, but had to do other stuff too.  Just hard to keep up with.  I haven't even checked the garden yet.

I got another corner area of the upstairs carpet shampooed, but when Daughter E moved out she left trash and belongings.  Good luck getting her to come and clean it up, so guess who is doing it?  Yep.  Me and my husband.  I am gonna have one big party when the last one moves out.  These kids, and I didn't raise them that way, are so selfish and lazy right now.  

Anyway, it was stinkin' hot yesterday.  I'm glad I don't have a lot in the garden to deal with right now, but I may be canning this week.  

Hot but Productive Weekend

We were very productive over the weekend.  Got more taken out of the upstairs, weed whacking almost caught up, all flower beds but one weeded, herb garden weeded.  Picked up more totes and got more yarn and crafting supplies moved to the upstairs.  Started another box for donations, tore down more boxes, made a trip to recycling and more.

It's been ridiculously hot here.  No rain in sight. Watering is happening, but only on certain parts of the garden now.

Hubby finally looked at Daughter K's car.  The AC is not working.  Unfortunately, it needs more work than he thought.

Speaking of working on her car.....weird things happened on Sunday.  While he was out working on the car, and I had just got out of the shower (after working in the herb garden), a woman literally (kid you not) walked out of the woods behind our property, walked up to the driveway and asked for water and use of a phone.  We were like "what is going on?"  She had some sort of story that didn't make sense, had make up on from the night before (clearly), and her boots where soaking wet from walking in the creek.  We both took her to the nearest gas station and dropped her off.  I was so strange and odd.  We are out in the country and our closest neighbor is 2 fields away one way, and further away the other direction.  

Then, we saw a elderly guy walking up the country highway, pulling a cart full of stuff with a sign that said "Alaska" on it.  It was strange and odd.  

We hot more hot weather ahead, but I sure hope it rains to cool it off.

Lost Recipe (again) ~ First Bell Pepper

I found a recipe I lost once, but lost it again before trying it.  Urgh.  All I can remember is that it contained tomatoes, was baked and had kelp powder in the recipe.  I swear I had it in a recipe book I had, but so far I have not found it (again).  Story of my life, ha ha!  

I have gone through the pile of un-tried recipes, my scanned recipes, recipes in my document folder etc.  However, I believe I have figured out what cookbook the recipe was in.  Stay tuned.  Hope I am right.

Brought in our first harvested bell pepper.  Golly, I love the smell of freshly sliced bell pepper.  I grew them from seed as well.  First one to go in the freezer.

No rain here for a few days.  Hot and humid again.

Mom is still in the hospital.  No changes since Wednesday.  She will be going home today if all goes okay.

Daughter E left a lot of boxes, so I spent much time breaking them down for the garden and recycling.  Much of my day was reclaiming the kitchen. My husband and I were like sloths Wednesday due to being at the hospital so late and then back up early of course.  It pretty much caused me to delay much kitchen work until Thursday.

I hope everyone is safe and healthy right now. There are two cases of the virus at my husband's work (one was vaccinated, not sure who the other person is).

Pie Pumpkin ~ A Funny ~ Tidbits

 

We have one pie pumpkin on all 4 plants.  Sheesh.  Bad garden year for everything this year, but tomatoes and hot peppers.

Something funny to share.  When we went on our motorcycle ride we pulled into the front of our nearest Kroger. My husband hopped off and left the radio blaring and ran in for a few items.  I was standing there trying to figure out how to turn down the tunes, and an elderly lady walked out with a cart just sort of looking at me.

I'm thinking, she is mad it's so loud. I didn't want to touch any buttons and later my husband walked out and realized he left it so loud.  He turned it down and the elderly lady in her vehicle now, drove up to us.  She said we reminded her of her husband and their times riding around on their bike.  She literally said, "we need more of that" pointing to the bike with the radio on, ha ha ha!  

I love watching America's Test Kitchen in my crochet down time, but lately many of the recipes require using a microwave to speed things up.  I don't want to use a microwave.  I know they want to share recipes that are quick, but hmm.

More jalapenos made their way to the freezer.  My cherry bomb finally has peppers on the plants, but I need them all in sync to make hot pepper jelly.  I guess time will tell.  I also froze 2# of carrots.

More tomatoes are rolling in, but I've only harvested about 14# so far.  I hope to be canning something soon with them.  The Amish paste in the photo is from the plants I grew from seed this year.

The ladies have been very happy this week with all the squash freezing going on.

More Squash ~ Crazy World and No Cashiers at Wal-mart and other Tidbits

My husband brought home more yellow squash and zucchini.  So happy to get it, so  I'm blanching and freezing almost daily.  The hot peppers are rolling in daily too.

I've been pretty good at keeping my cell phone charged and on me.  Mom's blood pressure dipped and when she couldn't get ahold of any of us kids, she went into panic mode.  I'm making sure she has all are cell numbers in case she has to call from her house phone.  Last time I called, she was feeling a bit better. (I drafted this post before the event at the end of this post happened)

I had to order new shelves online.  The stores are pretty limited (again).  Daughter K could not even get them at her store.  I have more totes of yarn waiting to be moved upstairs.

Not sure what's going on in your neck of the woods, but here it's back to restaurants going curbside.  Meanwhile this coming weekend the National Tractor Pulls is happening with thousands of people gathering from all over.  I'm not sure if the Canadians will be there, but it's crazy.  I have a bad feeling the gathering will be a super spreader and that is not good.  There are fairs still going on in our area as well, and a big street event in the "Big City" next month.  

Daughter E went to the local Wal-mart and bought a lot of stuff for her apartment.  She said every single cashier manned check out was closed.  Everyone had to use the self-check out.  She was not happy, because her cart was very full.  Crazy times we are in.

We have a few more camping trips booked, but we are monitoring the parks to see if they close.

I've decided to make a 3rd batch of Four Thieves.  Just in case, as my husband reminded me.  At least I have two and not three people here working full time.

We had plans to take a longer motorcycle ride for dinner, and at the last minute changed plans for a much shorter one.  Thank goodness we did.

Mom called (and had we taken the longer ride, I would not have answered my cell phone) and we had to run up and take her to the ER.  They admitted her.  Three doctors (Heart, Kidney and Endocrinologist, for thyroid) will be called in this morning to access what she needs. 

We were there for almost 4 hours and got home very late. We are running on 5 hours of sleep (or less).  Please keep her in your prayers, send good mojo and good thoughts.  Please keep my husband and I in your prayers as we are running on no sleep and he had to work today.  We are running on zero energy and sleep and feel like zombies today.

We both literally left the house to get her wearing slippers.  We went out the door that quick.  When we got home around 11:30pm, I saw that my chickens were still out in the run.  Gonna be a long day.

Canning ~ Breakfast Frittata and other Kitchen Stuff

 My hot peppers are rolling in like crazy.  I'm thankful for that.

I canned some hot pepper mustard sauce with the hot banana peppers.

I also made fresh salsa, and now have tomatoes on the table ready to can more stuff.  Feels strange to be canning again, but very thankful.

My zucchini plants are dying, but thankful I picked up some free zucchini.

Breakfast frittata with zucchini, leftover taco meat, jalapenos and cherry tomatoes from the garden.

Got some jalapenos frozen as well.

Deer ~ Weekend

 

Chased this bugger off.  She was hanging out with the apple trees and berry bushes.

We had busy weekend.  I worked more in the upstairs, cleaning carpets, and moving totes of yarn.  We attempted to dismantle a desk and move it to Daughter E's apartment, but it basically fell apart.  We do have another desk she can have. 

We picked up a new jack for the camper, so that will get installed soon.  We checked more produce stands as well.

We visited Mom and my husband installed a new dryer cover for her, then took a late birthday gift over to Daughter T.

I'm so glad I am getting my yarn moved and into the upstairs.  I had so much shoved into our closet I can now better see what supply I have.  I had way more #10 thread than I thought.

My closet will soon be much better organized and with space to walk in and out again.  Golly, it was so over due.

Sunday evening we did a quick check on the garden and hauled in 7.14# of tomatoes and a lot of hot peppers.

We have rain and thunderstorms today.

Prayer list:  Daughter T's (my step daughter) sister J who is pregnant and has covid, little man grandson D who is sick with a fever and grand daughter A who has been having stomach problems, and my Mom who hasn't been feeling well and struggling with some issues.  Since she got her jab, she's recently been dealing with more health issues, and one is heart failure.  Three people we know who got the jab are having heart problems (praying for them all).