Dinner @ 5

I'm doing my best to have dinner ready at 5 PM for when Scott walks through the door. That way we can be done eating and the kitchen cleaned up before 6. Hopefully this will help us wind down earlier tonight and every night so that we can keep at our walking/running at 5 AM each morning. Tonight I am making smoked sausage, baked beans,corn and homemade Onion rolls. I use this recipe from my Kitchen Aide mixer cookbook (it came with the mixer) and I add 1 tsp Onion POWDER. I've also used 1 Tablespoon of dried onion before. You just add your choice to the dry ingredients before adding the wet stuff.


If you want rolls for a Spaghetti dinner just add 1 teaspoon of Italian Seasoning mix to your dry ingredients or perhaps just a teaspoon of oregano.

Tomorrow night I am planning to make stuffed shells. I'm wishing we still had lettuce in the garden to pick for a salad. Oh well - I'll come up with something good to go along with the shells.

You can tell from the stains on the page that this is one that I use quite a bit. It reminds me of the rolls that my Grandma used to make to take to church suppers. Can you tell I was raised on a Farm - Supper NOT dinner! Dinner is Sunday at midday only.

I went to Jo-Ann's today to look through pattern books to write down pattern numbers so the next time they go to $1.99 I'll have my list and I will also have gone through my pattern to be sure that I don't all ready have some of them - I don't need duplicates. Tomorrow I plan on having a sewing day FOR ME! I need some sun-dresses BAD and shorts. I have like a million (slight exaggeration) shirts but hardly any shorts. OH and some skirts would be nice as well.

When we can I need some new sandals and dress flats as I can't wear any of my shoes anymore due to daily swelling in my feet. This getting old is for the birds sometimes. Scott needs new sneakers as well. Our situation WILL improve - I'm sure of that.

It looks like only one person is wanting something fun in the mail. Several posts ago... http://lifeforus.blogspot.com/2010/06/dish-helper-give-way.html I offered up 2 hand crafted dish clothes to a lucky person that left a comment. So far only one person has done so... BUT it's not too late - just go back to that post and leave a comment and I'll throw your name in the hat so to speak.

Goof Ball Cat

This is why we love our cats.....


They can always make us smile. We never know what one of them will be doing when we walk around a corner or into another room. This is Tesla "guarding" the water dish. We have to put a towel under the bowl as Tesla will paw and paw and get the water flowing good and then empty it all out onto the floor.

The children down the street are fully enjoying the fireworks booths - they didn't stop firing them off until after 11 last night; which wouldn't be bad if it was the weekend and we didn't have to get up at 4 AM. I am amazed at how much money is wasted on something so non-essential. And with everything being so dry it can be quite the fire hazzard. Yesterday we got lucky and a storm moved through and dumped a bunch of rain before they started their evening of "fun". Hopefully we will get some more rain this afternoon. We just can't afford to water grass for "looks". I can't eat the lawn - not worth watering to me - City water is just too expensive. Even if we could afford to water it we wouldn't - waste of money.

I'm thinking when we put a new roof on the garage we will do a metal roof so that we can harvest rain water for our garden to save on the water cost of that and to avoid the nasty additives that they add to make it "safe" for us to drink. I will need to research some food grade tanks to store the water in.

Well I better get this day rollin~

Good Mornin'~

We got up at 4 AM and were on the Riverwalk by 5 and then back home a little after 6. Then Scott was off to work - temp work at Bose for 6 to 8 weeks. He will also start some training so we will see very little of him the next couple of months. The unemployment has not come in for over 6 weeks now and now we are being told it will take another 6 weeks for it to catch up to us. We quite frankly think they are out of money to pay us. All Scott wants is a good job that he can enjoy and earn enough to pay the bills.

I am just so burnt out I'm afraid to even look for a job as I fear my health would become a major concern. I am certain that I am saving us way more money than I ever earned anywhere by not spending, cooking meals from scratch and saving anywhere I can with every purchase that we do make. I don't need clothes to "work" in, I'm not buying meals out, I'm not burning a bunch of gas going to a job everyday... it all really adds up. Plus side is we are eating a lot more healthy and I'm not all stressed to the max so that I can enjoy my family more.

We are definitely not contributing to the economic recovery. What kills me is even though we are both without income the credit card offers just keep rolling in; everyday the mailbox contains 1 to 3 offers. CRAZY! I don't believe that we will EVER use credit like we used to... if we don't have cash to buy something it won't come home with us. The banks are NOT our friends anymore.

After Scott left for work I went out to the garden and planted okra, pumpkins, marigolds and zinnias. We need the flowers in the vegetable garden to encourage the bees to come and help pollinate everything. The tomatoes that I started from seed in the garden are getting quite large and have begun to bloom. The sickly tomato and peppers that Scott bought on discount at the Farmer's Market are recovering and putting out new growth. So I'm hoping that we will get quite a few tomatoes to freeze or can. We need some more rolled roofing for the new walkways to keep the weeds away; it's working GREAT in the walkways where we had the original beds set. I still have a bit of weeding and cleaning up to do out there but it's starting to get sticky hot and humid and I have a bunch of cleaning to do inside today as tomorrow is trash day.

Blueberry Muffins for Breakfast

This morning I finally made up some blueberry muffins using the blueberries that my sister, Robin gave to me and they were SO GOOD. We'll have muffins for snacks and a perhaps a couple more breakfasts. This is the recipe that I use; I cut it out of a women's magazine (can't remember which one) years ago.

BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

Bake at 375*F for 25 minutes.
Makes 12 muffins
Nutrient Value Per Muffin: 191 calories, 3 g Protein, 9 g fat, 25 g Carbs, 241 mg sodium, 25 mg cholesterol.

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup fresh OR unthawed frozen blueberries
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (opt)

1. Preheat oven to moderate (375*). Line twelve 2 1/2-inch muffin cups with paper or foil liners.

2. Stir (Sift) together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in medium-size bowl until well combined. Beat together egg, milk and oil in small bowl until blended. Add liquid all at once to dry ingredients. Stir lightly just until moistened (batter will be lumpy). Gently stir in blueberries and walnuts. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups; filling each 2/3 full.

3. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes or until cake tester inserted comes out clean. Remove muffins to wire rack to cool slightly. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Dish Helper Give-a-way

I've knitted up two little dish-clothes to give away to one of my readers.
All you have to do is leave a comment on this post.
I'll draw a name on July 1rst and once I get mailing info from the winner I will mail them out to the lucky winner.

These dish-clothes are knitted from 100% cotton and can be machine washed and dried.
And they are done in super fun Summer colors.

Pondering

I've always wondered why we are born to the families that we are and why birth situations have to matter so much to Society.

Why are some children celebrated and others made to feel less than the rest and cast aside?

Why do the actions of a parent or parents have to be put upon a child to bare a burden not of their making?

Why can't people see when a child needs help?

Where oh Where has this week gone?

Here it is Thursday all ready and I am up EARLY - 4 AM. Not sure why as I didn't get a nap yesterday and didn't get to bed until after 10:30 last night - just woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. Going to make for a VERY long day.

Yesterday I got a short visit from my sister, Robin; hadn't seen her in awhile. She had been to pick blueberries and she shared some with me. I will make muffins this morning. It was nice to see her again.

Busy Gal

I've been spending a lot of time in my sewing room both before and after my trip up to see my parents. I've decided NOT to combine the green and purple blocks with the red and blue that I started with; I think it's just TOO busy with them added. So I'm going to make the purple and green blocks into a baby quilt; I think it will work nice for the next baby girl that comes along in our lives. Here it is laid out on my cutting table before any have been sewn together as well as after it's been pinned for another trip under the machine.

I also made up these border strips in black and white with a red center. I am hoping that these will go right onto the next Round Robin that will come to me as I have heard it started out as a black and white center. If they end up not working for that I will utilize them on another project. I REALLY like this a lot - perhaps a black and white and red accent quilt is in my future.

I'M HOME!!!!

I just got home about 20 minutes ago and it's so nice to be home. Nickie cat came running up to me as soon as I got out of the truck and once we were inside he HAD to be brushed a little. ROTTEN! Mr Tesla is trying hard to not acknowledge me - I think he is mad at me for being gone for several days.

Scott was glad to see me too. After he finishes his breakfast we will go for our walk/run. It will be so nice to do that together; I've missed that.

HAPPY FATHERS DAY! to all the Dad's out there.

Spartanburg Saturday

I'm up visiting my parents in Spartanburg for a few days. Yesterday I cleaned the refrigerator and cleaned up the back deck. Got a pile of things ready to go down the stairs and into a truck to drag off to the dump. Would have had it loaded in the truck all ready but a wasp came out of nowhere and popped me twice on my right ankle and once I took a Benadryl I was out for the night. I slept on the couch and once the sun came up and the finches could see me moving they started chattering away at me. They really got upset at 5:30 when my alarm went off- something new I guess. They are really sweet to listen to but at our house the cats would think that they were light snacks.

I'm missing my walks/runs with Scott. Yesterday Mom and I walked up to Uncle George's place to see his water fall and water wheel that he has installed in his yard. It's pretty cool. He had to make some adjustments to the water wheel as it was rubbing on one side and getting hung up.

I guess I will get some breakfast made and start trying to get some stuff done around here as thats what I came up to do.

Reptiles and Birds by the River

We got down to the River for our walk early today and were able to walk/run all the way from Riverland Park's entrance to the #1 Bridge in West Columbia and back - about 5 miles. And today I took the camera because I didn't want to miss a thing and we were GREATLY rewarded....

Our Walk Yesterday

Yesterday we got a late start on our walk so weren't able to go as far as we have been as the heat and humidity made it nearly impossible to breathe but we still went. Walked from the Cayce Pavilion to the trail end by the chicken processing plant in West Columbia ( PEE EWWWWWW....). We decided to skip taking the camera along as it is a bit of a hassle to deal with when running and of course we saw several amazing things that we wished that we had the camera with us to capture on disk (can't say film anymore). At the end where we turned around there was a beautiful white Egret less than 15 yards from us and it just stood on the rocks and let us watch it. Then we saw what we believed to be a Kingfisher. Such wonderful wildlife along the river.

Scott has a job interview today at 1 and we have our fingers and toes crossed. We try hard not to get too excited about anything job related anymore so that we won't be so disappointed when it doesn't pan out. We are planning to get our walk/run in early this morning - I'd go right now if Scott was up and moving as it's only 73* right now; later it's to get up into the 90's. Today I will clean house and get all the laundry caught up so that I won't have to do anymore until Monday. I'm planning to go up and help my parents some this weekend so the guys will be living the Bachelor Life. I wonder what the house will look like when I get back.

They come in and......

I received 2 Round Robin's today; sat down and added my round and they are ready to go on to the next person. These are really turning out lovely and I can hardly wait until mine returns home so that I can see what the other gals have done to it. This is Irene's (purple and gold) and Kathy's (Patriotic) Round Robins....

Take note of my "helper's feet and tail - Thats Mr. Tesla doing his part (sleeping on the end of the cutting table).

I'm off to the post Office!

A day of sewing

When it's 100* outside what can you do but sew. Today I made 53 of these little blocks; to make it twin sized I will need a total of 252 of these blocks - they are 5" square. I am using "noodles" (2 1/2" strips) that I got in several "Noodle Swaps" with my on-line quilting group. I plan to work in purples and greens next. Then perhaps some black and white blocks after that. Scott wants it big enough for our FULL size bed - got to figure how many more squares that will take.... YIKES 288 blocks would be needed - not sure I have that many noodles. I'm thinking some borders will need to be added to get it large enough for our bed.

NO INTEREST SO WE ARE KEEPING OUR LAND!

   We have 10 BEAUTIFUL acres!

SOLD IN 2019!

Friday Again

Another Friday has arrived and I am indifferent about it being the weekend. Weekends are just more days to the week. They always have been but when you are working you think they are something special to be glad to get to each week. I'm going to try to get up at 5:30 every morning from now on so that I can get a walk/run in before it's hotter than H -E - Double L outside. It's all ready 75* F and the forecast says - "TODAY MOSTLY SUNNY. HIGHS IN THE MID 90S. NORTHEAST WINDS AROUND 5 MPH." Summer has definitely arrived. Now if I can just get Scott up and moving.

Yesterday I spent most of the day in my sewing room. I finally got all the blocks put together and in envelopes to mail to my swap partners for the May Pastel Block swap. Last month is just a blur to me; I think that I was depressed really bad but I've got to pull myself out of that and into my sewing room more as it makes me feel creative and productive.

A trip to Charleston

I absolutely LOVE going over this bridge in Charleston, SC; it absolutely amazes me how it holds everything up out the water of the Cooper River.

Scott and I took Scott's Uncle Jessie down to see a Vision Specialist at MUSC and they in-turn set us up to meet another DR at the VA Hospital and then we got Uncle Jessie entered into the VA's system. Tomorrow Scott and Uncle Jessie will be going over to the VA Hospital here in Columbia to complete some more paper work and to set some other things up so that perhaps the VA can help him get some Vision Aids.

I'm exhausted and have a tremendous headache time to just "chill".

Missing Ma...

This is my Grandma in her Greenhouse that she adored. It has all fallen in now and her plants are long gone. She passed away in 1992 and I find myself missing her a great deal this year. This year has been a struggle that I wouldn't wish upon anyone but memories of her and all that she taught me has helped us muddle through. I left my job in November to return to what I know and love - being a home-maker. I've saved us more money than I had ever made - cooking meals from scratch, hanging laundry out to dry, NOT spending money, not burning $40 worth of gas a week back and fourth to work, no new "work" clothes to buy, no buying fast meals out, all in all I believe returning home has been the best thing I could have done. Scott has been able to focus totally on his job hunt and less on trying to help me to hold it together from stressing out over my own job in Retail HELL. I don't handle stress and drama well and am happiest in my own dwelling where I can support my family best. I believe that a lot of people thrive on the Drama and Stress but it eats me alive emotionally and then my health starts to suffer; just not worth it to me. Perhaps this will help other's understand "why I left my job". I want to tend and nurture my family not work for money to attain more things that will mean nothing tomorrow. Another reason I had to leave retail - just don't believe in selling things to people that they don't really need to buy to be happy.

Blooms Along the River

I took these photos during a couple recent walks.



And here are a few of the most recent "River Critters"



And a photo of our son - LOOKING LIKE A LUMBER JACK!

Make-up and Skin care

This is a rant so you may not want to read it.

Make-up and Skin Care regimes are a lode of CRAP! The Fashion Industries prey on Human Insecurities and everyone seems to play along. We start our VERY young girls using make-up on tender PERFECT skin and then when they reach their 20's we start telling them how crappy their skin is and how they NEED our Skin Care Regimes. Well if they hadn't started using make-up in the first place they wouldn't "NEED" the skin care crap either. Keeping your skin CLEAN and drinking LOTS of water everyday is all a person NEEDS to do to look GREAT! I've reached a point in my life that I flat out refuse to use any of that garbage on my skin and cringe that I used to play along with the Fashion Industry. I would wear make-up "out" and would buy about once every 3 years; if that. All that pore clogging clay based products are terrible for skin and Lord only knows what chemicals are in them and what they really do to our skin. My Grandma NEVER wore make-up - called it "War Paint" and I'm so glad she didn't allow me to use a bunch of it as a young teen. The Fashion Industry is NOT our friend - they are out to make LOTS of money for THEMSELVES! They are playing on people's insecurities with-in themselves and I for one am NOT buying it!

One month

Scott and I took some photos today of each other to mark our first month of walking/running. I think we've both lost about 5 pounds - I'll take that!
Scott - June 5, 2010

Scott May 6,2010














Becky June 5, 2010

Becky May 6,2010

River Walk EXCITEMENT!

Today we saw a once in a lifetime opportunity. A pair of Pileated Woodpeckers showing their 2 hatch-lings how to get to bugs in a tree. When we went to pull the camera out all but one flew away and it let us watch it for quite some time. These were some of the best shots as well as a short video. AMAZING!

Artsy Fartsy Cat

I took this picture of Tesla a few days ago and decided to play around a bit with Gimp and turned it into an oil painting on canvas. I think it's really neat.

Dear Sweet Man

This week my Dear Sweet Man turned another year older and wiser. He has so much knowledge and ingenuity I wish that someone would hire him and take advantage of all he knows. It's like a Rare book sitting on a shelf and no one every taking it down to learn from it's pages.

I snapped this picture of him napping with Nick on his lap; this is something new as Nick usually acts like Scott is trying to kill him. So I'm not quite sure what brought this all on but it made for a nice photo. In another life I believe that Scott worked with animals - perhaps he was a Vet in a previous life.

We were talking the other day on our way back from the Realtor's office that we need a "Fresh Start"; in a whole new place to us. "Fresh Start" does sound a lot better than "we are having to start all over" - doesn't it? So FRESH START! That is what we need and desire - just need a job that Scott can enjoy until he retires - he has at least another 10 to 15 years he wants to work if only someone would give him a chance. We are even prepared to move NORTH! WAY NORTH!

Daily Rainstorms

We've been getting a daily rainstorm since the weekend. We need the rain so badly but it's not something that we are used to here. And I could do without the thunder and lightening but I'll take them as they come with the rain.

Yesterday we called a Realtor to list our 10 acres in Fairfield County. It's kind of a bummer but something we had to do. I'll post details about it as well as our Realtor's contact info once all the paper work is signed.

UPDATE: I went out to mow the lawn and ran over one of Amelia's chew bones and messed the lawn mower up. UGH! The last time the lawn was mowed the back right hand corner got skipped and had grown quite a bit with all this rain so thats why I didn't see her bone. It's always something.

It's getting hot outside now and then it's supposed to rain again this afternoon. So perhaps I will migrate to my sewing room next.