A Double Batch of Bread Pudding

I had bought a baguette thinking we'd make spaghetti but then we didn't and the bread was getting a bit on the harder side; so tonight I decided to make up some old fashioned bread pudding. I had to double the recipe to use all the bread up so we have a lasagna pan FULL of bread pudding. YUMMY! I'd take it into work tomorrow if I thought anyone there would like it. Some of the old fashioned recipes are poo pooed by the younger folks.... they just don't know what they are missing out on. The house smells of nutmeg and cinnamon and comfort.

Handy Husband and Flowering Almond

OH! I'm one lucky gal as I have such a handy husband. The water pump went out on my Buick and Scott went right to work getting parts and looking up on how to do the job of replacing the water pump. Today I had my car back to drive to work and I was one happy gal! 

This is my Flowering Almond in our front yard. I absolutely adore this bush and have planted one at every house that we have lived in My Grandma Carr had one when I was growing up on the farm in New York. Every time I see it in bloom like this it reminds me of her.  It has some "babies" under it that I am going to try to transplant. I will definitely want these where ever I live in the future.

Something New to Read

I just ordered a subscription to Mary Jane's Farm magazine. I read about it on Heather's blog (link on the right). Mary Jane's website has some fun and creative videos you can watch as well - FREE.

If you are celebrating St Patrick's Day this weekend do be careful and have a designated driver.

I guess I better get to cutting a few things out - I'll be checking back in later today!

My Healing Cat

Last night I took a hot bath followed by an Aleve tablet and a glass of water and went to bed before Scott. It wasn't long after I got settled in that my "healer" showed up; Tesla knows when and where my legs hurt and instinctively knows where to apply pressure to give me some relief from the screaming muscles. I called to Scott and told him to bring the camera; this is what he captured...

The reason for the leg pain this time was I have spent a lot of time squatting; getting down on my knees; and bending and stooping working on the new scrap-book paper layout - LOTS of new papers including ACETATE SHEETS! Something that EVERYONE has been asking for. And yesterday I had also helped unload 4 u-boat carts full of yarn in a 2 hour period. I really enjoy stocking and setting plan-o-grams more than anything else so I am thrilled that this is the position they gave me the opportunity to fill. Now if my body will just hold up to it all. I did have to buy some reading glasses as the labels are quite difficult to read - REALLY small print. 

Tomorrow I want to do a little gardening and some sewing since I am off from work. Will post about it all tomorrow night.

On my mind.... Summer Sewing and Jewelry

I picked up 4 new patterns today and will be making some of these pieces for myself and I love getting the little "freebie" sheets for projects and may make myself some jewelry to match my new outfits. I especially love the skirt with the BIG pockets.
This is a weekly feature at Down To Earth . Why not join in the fun and write up an "On my Mind" post of your very own - leave a comment under Rhonda's blog with a link to your post and we can all visit each other via the web.

Birthday plans all fell through

I'm not going to Mary Jo's like I wanted to; I'm not getting to see my Mom like I wanted to and I'm not going or doing anything special for my birthday... BUT you know what it doesn't really matter. I'm enjoying a quiet day at home and have been organizing and filing all the craft ideas I've printed off the Interent and have them all in files now. Wondering if I will ever do most of them. If I had a decent lounge chair I'd go out and sit in the backyard and take a nap. 

Scott and I discussed the possible job in Virginia and decided it really wasn't a "fit" for us. It would take us farther away from our dreams. We aren't interested in living in any over crowded city or living in a house thats just a Mc-Mansion with a bunch of STUFF. We long for a quiet life away from all the hustle and bustle and all the excess consumption. Where we can work together to produce as much for ourselves as we can. We are going to hang on here for as long as we can and continue to hope and pray for something to become available right here and  we will down-size DRASTICALLY! We are planning to sell anything we don't use on a regular basis and clear out a bunch of stuff thats just taking up space and hoping to make a little money doing it. And as soon as we can get this house ready to sell it will be sold and we will move into a smaller home. We don't use all this space so it's pretty much a waste of money to stay here. Our "dream" now is to be in a smaller home with less "stuff"  to care for.  Perhaps a shift of housework to more gardening chores and some chickens and possibly rabbits. We should have just done that when we first got together instead of jumping on the Commercialism train to Bill Slavery. I completely understand the term "working poor" - thats what we are. We work to give someone else our money - doesn't make a bit of sense to me anymore. 

So the people around us are stuck with us!

OH I miss HIM so!

OH I MISS GREG!!! I'm in AGONY here!

Tesla is missing Greg SO BAD! He stayed near his bedroom door nearly ALL DAY yesterday waiting for him to come home for cat and kid time. I had to snap a few pictures just so Greg can see how much he is missed by his entire family...

Before we went out to run a few errands we went in our back yard and found some new blooms to share as well as a progress shot of Scott's hard necked garlic...

Grape Hyacinths

Hard neck garlic

Bradford Pear Tree