Good News Today....

I had my follow up exam with the surgeon today and he said everything had healed up just the way it should have. Thank you Lord. I was glad to hear that. I had tried to be careful with what I was doing, not lifting too much etc. , but I felt so good it was easy to forget I had even had surgery.

I spent the other day digging through my fabric stash. I gathered up enough to make 19 tops, dresses and jackets for me to wear, and fabric for 19 pillows, 18 aprons and 24 wicker baskets to line to sell. That's just for starters too, lots more after that. My Store blog is waiting to be published. I will let you all know when I publish it. I hope to sometime in late September. I'm glad the creative side of me is back . I'll just bury myself in my work and God!

I got a start on my sewing a couple of days ago, but as usual real life got in the way. I hope to get a chance to sew some more this week in between Dr. appts. etc. It really felt good to cut out a few tops and get them ready to sew. I'd be happy to just sit and sew and craft all day and forget everything else!! Wouldn't that be fun??? I think it would be!

It's getting to be that time of year to start thinking about doing some large batch cooking and then canning it up the next day. I like to have some canned meals on hand as much as possible. It is just to hot in this apt. even with the AC on to do much cooking in the summer. I would love to have the "Summer Kitchen" my great aunt had on her old farmhouse when she was living. It was large and open with lots of windows for those breezes to blow through and cool things down. I miss that. Those were the "Good Old Days" for sure, life was so much simpler then.

I have a lot to do tomorrow so I better try to get to bed soon.

Hugs and Blessings my friends,

Short little catch-up before I call it a night.

I hope you all have had a good day! We had a pretty good one here. I just keep thinking that next week this time the surgery will be over and I will be on the road to recovery, hopefully. I've been doing a lot of talking to the Man Upstairs to help me get through all of this. I know He's been listening because He's lifted a big weight off my shoulders.I can't imagine anyone not having God in their lives, but I know many don't and that is sad. They are missing out on the most wonderful experience.

I just finished making out my grocery list for tomorrow. I'll be lucky if I will be able to get 1/4 of what I need but we will make do. I thank God everyday that I was brought up learning how to stretch food and everything else as far as it will go. I don't think there is anything that goes to waste around here, be it food or other things, I can always find a way to re-cycle things into something else. Kevin is really good about eating some of the crazy concoctions I come up with. It fills us up and I make sure it is healthy. I can up the leftovers if there is enough for later meals rather than freeze them. I don't have to worry if the power goes out or anything thing, they will keep.

I just wanted to stop by and say HI and that I'm thinking of all of you. I want to try and get back in the habit of posting here daily, writing seems to help calm me down and put things in perspective. Thanks to you all for being here to listen. I'd love to here any comments or suggestions you may have, I value your input!!!

I hope to get an early start to beat some of the crowds in Walmart, Saturdays can be a real pain.

Take care and have a peaceful night.

Hugs and blessings,
Brenda

Real life....

just keeps interfering with my blogging time!! I hate that! I would rather spend time here with all of you, instead of cleaning, shopping, all that boring, necessary stuff!! lol!!

I have been trying to get the apartment ready for the cold weather and the pantry stocked up on staples. I need to take a few blankets to the laundry (they are too big for my apt. size washer) this week and that should be the end of most of my preparations. I still want to make some "candle heaters" just in case the electric would go out we could have a tiny bit of heat or at least heat a cup of water for tea...

I moved some appliances around on my kitchen counters today so I have more room next to the stove. I have my mixer there now instead of the microwave. I can roll out pie dough or cookies etc. and it also gives me room to sit jars when I take them out of the pressure canner. I like to make up large pots of food and then can most of it for future meals. I don't have to worry about things going bad in the freezer that way.

I've been spending time in the sewing/craft/office room too. I found 3 patterns that I was able to alter so they would fit. I really need something a couple sizes larger but these will work now. I've even gone through my stash of fabric and picked out enough that I can make 22 pieces clothing. I guess when I'm not cooking I'll be sewing during the day. My nights will be on here catching up with all of you. I will also be posting more recipes on the Kitchen blog. I have been been sorting through my stash of recipes and found a bunch more so keep watching over the next few weeks. I want to get as many posted as I can so I can move on to other projects.

I guess it's time for me to end this. Missy , my service cat, came in to help me type. She never seems to hit the right keys though.LOL!!

take care,
Hugs and blessings,

Busy couple of days!!

The last couple of days it seems like I have been going non-stop. I went to Krogers yesterday to get a "few" LOL!! more groceries. I come out of there an hour later with the cart so full you couldn't squeeze a feather on it.!!! lol. I had the pleasure then of unloading everything into the van and then of course unloading it all at home!!
You all know the drill !!! ;) The freezer had to be quickly re-arranged to make room for things , which I had to go back through it again today to see what all I had bought.

Today I went to the local farmers market with the intention of only getting a few tomatoes haha!! I came home with 5 bags full of produce!! I sliced up the green tomatoes and the slices are in the freezer now on a cookie sheet to be put into bags for later use.
I got a dz. ears of corn to cook & cut off the cob to freeze, green peppers to cut up & freeze. The green beans I will cook with potatoes and they will be canned the next day. The cucumbers will become freezer pickles, the 4 eggplants will be fried and then packaged and frozen for future use.

We will eat part of the watermelon and the rest will be frozen for another day. The tomatoes will be eaten or cooked into some of the dishes I want to make up and then can later in the week.
I want to make up some of the one dish meals I make(I usually double or triple the recipe) then can the leftovers. I don't have to worry about anything going bad if I can it, in case the electric would go off or anything else.

I have so many things I want to do I wish I was triplets so I could get everything accomplished. I think I'm trying to keep myself busy so I don't have to think about the problems we're having. My nerves are about stressed to the limit and I don't know what to do, time will tell.

It's getting late and I'm getting tired and tomorrow will be a busy day. I'll try to stop in tomorrow night but I'm not going to make any promises.

take care,
Hugs and Blessings,

I'm back and feeling better!

WOW !!!! the last month has been rough for both of us. We just couldn't seem to get the flu out of the apartment. We were taking turns feeling bad LOL!! Things seems to be on the upswing now. Thank you Connie and everyone else who was concerned about us and praying for us. It really helped!!! I can't believe it's been almost a month since I posted last!

I am so far behind on reading everyone's blogs I have a lot of catching up to do. I just didn't even feel like getting on here much. I tried to peak in once in a while to check on things and read a little here and there though!!

The last couple of weeks I have been trying to catch up things around the apartment. I hope today I can finish up the rest of that.

I made a huge stockpot of vegetable barley soup a couple of weeks ago and I was able to can 8 pints of that to use for future meals. Tuesday I made a huge pot of an Italian Sausage & Rice dish that I invented and canned 8 pints of that yesterday too. We now have 28 pints of future meals ready to eat counting the 12 pints of chili I made in January. I love seeing the shelves with canned food like that on them. I'm so glad I was finally able to get the parts I needed for my canner so I could get back to canning. It's been way too long since I did any canning but look out now. I will be canning up everything I can find!!!!!

It is really cold out today the temps keep dropping, it's down to 17º now with a 0º wind chill brrrrr. It's been snowing and blowing off and on too. The winds are so strong not much snow is staying on the ground though!!

I just wanted to stop in and let you all know we are ok and I will be back here daily now, God willing.

Take care everyone, I've missed you all so much!!

Hugs and Blessings,
Brenda