Seesawing

Last night I was pretty sure that what ailed me was about behind me...including my cough.  Well...today the cough is back with a vengeance...seems like I have spent a good portion of the day hacking.  Woody is running errands tomorrow so I have cough medicine on the list (I have run out of what I had on hand when this mess started.).  So hopefully I can make it through the night and survive till I can take my next dose of cough medicine!  I mainly feel tired due to all the coughing...it wears me out!  I think all that is left of what has ailed me since the first of the year is the cough...now if it just won't linger too long!

Woody chose not to walk today due to the fact that it never rose much above 20 today...pretty cold.  We have both stayed in and attempted to stay warm!  Several of the neighbor grandchildren have been in and out today.  They were doing wash.  Their laundry room was in working order after their renovations...BUT the cold temperatures have taken a toll on their water line leading to the washing machine...so no water to do their wash so they drifted over here to complete that chore.  I have done a little in the sewing room.  I started work on getting some fabric prepared to make something...but didn't have the energy to go much farther than just getting the fabric pressed...but that is a start!  I finally sewed a button on one of Woody's shirt...a task that he asked me to do some time back...mending seems to land on the back burner...I would rather create something from the get-go!  But that task is now done.  Now trying to figure out where to put it so he will discover that it is done...or perhaps he will discover it is done when he reads tonight's blog!  We have both done quite a bit of reading today...a good day to just sit and read.  I am half-way through my third book of the year.  Woody wasn't able to print off his daily crossword puzzles because our printer is out of black ink.  But I am pretty sure that he has done some crosswords since he got a crossword puzzle calendar for his birthday.  I took care of ordering ink for our printer today...and, if what is promised happens, our printer should be back in business sometime tomorrow.  Well, I'm ready to head back to my chair and to more reading or perhaps just watch a TV rerun on my iPad.  At the moment my coughing seems to have settled down...hopefully that can continue so I can get some rest tonight.  This afternoon every time I was about to doze off the coughing would start up again...so no naps for the weary this afternoon...at least not for me...I think that Woody may have gotten a couple of short snoozes.

Almost a Heat Wave?

It actually got above freezing today...so really did feel much warmer than the days preceding this!  Still pretty cold!  Woody did walk four miles this afternoon.  Right now he is next door keeping an eye of the ones who aren't youth age.  The rest of their family youth and adults have gone to church for the activities that are for them.  The children's choir activities don't start up till next week.  I did sit in the living room this morning and enjoyed looking at the tree and other decorations while I had my morning cup of tea.  I decided while sitting there that I would attempt to work some more on getting the room back to the way it was before our Christmas family gathering.  I ran the vacuum in there and eventually pulled the coffee table back into position.  For our family festivities we always move the coffee table out of the way and in front of the toy closet door (puts it out of the way and discourages getting anything out of the toy closet on the day we have so many new items that have just been opened).  So it is back in position.  I put a few more things away that were on the couch and it looks closer to the way it looked on December 22 and before! Just that mild effort to clean sort of took a toll on me...I was pretty wiped out for a while this afternoon.  But after resting, I felt much better and was even able to do a load of wash and even get it put away after it dried.  Our warmer temperatures allowed the water line to the guest bathroom to thaw and we once again have three functioning toilets!  Temps are supposed to drop back down...I figure that that pipe will probably freeze again...but at the moment all is well and no broken pipes due to them freezing...knocking on wood as I type those words!!! Woody just came back from next door so I guess we are settled in for the evening.

Second Day into 2018

I think that we both have felt better today.  Woody felt well enough to WALK to the prayer room late this afternoon.  Brrrrrrrr!  He said that it wasn't too bad since there was very little wind. His other outside duties today included emptying our wastebaskets into the outside trash can and taking it to the road and emptying the compost bucket.  I will say that I think that I have had touch of the flu as last night my arms and legs ached.  But to my knowledge I have never run a fever.  My cough still lingers...but lots less frequent.  I dread when a coughing spasm does start up as my muscles are so sore from all my previous several days of coughing.  I took it easy for most of the day.  Tonight's photo shows my only accomplishment of the day.  I got the tree topper angel sewn together and just put her on top of the tree a little while ago.  I am pleased with her as our new adornment for the top of our tree and will pack her away carefully when I get up the energy to start undecorating!  I have been reading while I rested and am about to finish my first book of the year and have another book well underway too.  Woody has read, watched TV and worked crossword puzzles.  It actually got up to 26 degrees F today...a virtual heatwave in comparison to the last few days!  Our overnight low was 8 degrees.  Currently it is 18 degrees and not supposed to drop a lot lower overnight.  All I can say is "brrrrrrrrrr!"  I have stayed inside these last few days...glad to not have a reason to venture out!

Extremes Begin 2018: Super Moon & Super Low Temps!!

Looks like 2018 is starting out with extremes...a super moon and really low temperatures.  It went down into the teens over night and never made it out of the 20's today.  We have literally stayed in all day...haven't even cracked open a door.  It's cold enough to have frozen the pipes to the toilet in the guest bathroom...this happens about every time we have super low temperatures...and so far we have been lucky and the pipe hasn't burst when it unthaws.  Praying that is how things happen again!  Every time this happens I tell myself that when it warms up we need to have someone come and add insulation around those pipes...but never think about it when there isn't a problem!

Woody and I have had a pretty lazy day.  Neither of us feels all that great.  I'm still coughing...now to the point that muscles hurt when I do cough.  My coughing has lessened...I think.  Woody feels like he is having allergy problems and that is sort of what my ailment feels like also...I wouldn't question what is wrong with us if it weren't that the neighbors have had been sick with one ailment or another for the last few weeks.  Graham is the latest to not feel well at their house.

I found enough energy to make enchiladas this afternoon and also a chile relleno casserole.  So...good eats to start us off in 2018.

Wishing each of our blog readers God's grace for 2018!

A Week Ago--Before and After!

Before all the unwrapping! (My place is on the far end of
the couch--note the cameras holding my place!)

Last gift is opened--quite a mess! Note my place has now
been covered up with gifts!  

This shows the pile of boxes and wrapping behind the
love seat where Nathan and Kathy are sitting.

It's hard to believe that a week ago today was our family celebration...in some ways it seems much longer ago...and in other ways I can almost think:"did it really happen!"

Woody went to the local hospital to visit a church member, but found that he had already been released so he stopped at the Life Care Center to check on him.  Even though we are pretty cold today, Woody did take a four-mile walk.  Over the next few days it is supposed to get even colder.

I started out the day finalizing the Sunday School lesson for my ladies' class for tomorrow.  But as the day went on I started feeling not all that great so ended up going back over my notes for the lesson and condensed the notes into what the class can use on their own tomorrow...if they want to use them.  I think that I will be staying right here and not taking any chances on exposing anyone to anything.  I'm not sure exactly what I have...mainly a runny nose, some sneezing and a dry cough with a tickle at the base of my throat and the start of a feeling that I get when I have respiratory problems.  So I have taken it easy most of the day.  I'm glad that we have a nice big pot of gumbo!  I had wanted to make the enchiladas today, but they are put on hold for another day when I am feeling better.  I have done a little reading.  I did finish another book last night and am well underway with another book.

And, with that our year is slowly drawing to a close.  The next blog will see us in 2018.  So tonight I will end with a..."see" you next year!  'Tis the season!

Just One of Those Days!

It was a Chicken-Sausage-Shrimp-Gumbo-kind-of-day...but before getting to the pictured stage there is a not-so-fun story...or two! Woody went to the store this morning to do our weekly shopping.  While he was gone I began preparing the ingredients for the gumbo...chopping celery, onion, peppers, etc.  I couldn't go too far till he got home because he was getting a couple of ingredients that I lacked for the recipe.  This is the recipe that I chose to finish up the pulled barbecue chicken that we had for one of our Christmas dinner meat choices.  I had hoped to be able to do the dish that I plan to make with the leftover pulled pork (enchiladas)...but due to the happenings of the morning after Woody got back home...the enchilada making was put off for another day!  I decided that I wanted to make a real roux for today's gumbo...I usually make one that eliminates the fat...just browning the flour and then making the roux with chicken broth.  But today I decided that I wanted to make the "real thing."  That meant getting out our iron dutch oven which is waaaaaaaaaaaay back in one of the bottom cabinets.  I moved some things out of the way and reached way back and was pulling it out and it got caught on some other pans.  I tried to move them some so it could slide by...but didn't move them far enough and they all came tumbling out of the cabinet...wouldn't have been a "disaster" except that some of those pans have glass lids and one of the lids shattered when its pan hit the floor...so glass in all the pans (not the iron dutch oven since it was still on the shelf when all this happened) and all over the kitchen floor. It was safety glass...so broke into "pebbles" but still a mess!  Woody got me the vacuum and I sat where I was and attempted to vacuum up as much as possible...then I had to get the pots and pans off the floor.  I rinsed all of them out and put them in the drainer at the sink.  Then I vacuumed the whole kitchen floor.  At that point the vacuum was still picking up quite a bit of glass.  And, then I mopped the kitchen floor.  Finally I was ready to get back to my cooking!  It was time to make the roux...which gets very hot when it cooks and I was being very careful to use long handled utensils to stir the roux.  I hadn't found exactly the right one to stir with and was trying out several to see which I liked best.  Well...unbeknownst to me one of those utensils couldn't take extreme heat...but I didn't find out till I realized that black pieces that weren't pieces that had browned on the bottom of the pan started floating around in the roux and the celery, onion, pepper.  Oops...that utensil couldn't take the heat and now there were pieces of it in with the roux, celery, onion, and peppers...so got it off the stove and plopped it into another pan so it could cool enough to be able to throw it away and...I was back at square one!  I wiped out the iron dutch oven and got it ready for the oil and flour (had just enough flour to make this a second time!) and eventually the onion, celery, and pepper pieces...that is after I had to chop two cups of each of those veggies again!  I got all that done and had to go sit with the heating pad on my back for a while before I could go back to the constant stirring that it takes to make the roux.  This time all went well (I used my long handled metal spoon so no more melting!) and from then on each step followed according to the recipe and we actually had Chicken, Sausage, and Shrimp Gumbo along with brown rice ready in time for our supper this evening.  Of course I started something like 10 this morning...so a long day of cooking for me.  But in the end the delicious flavor made it worth all the disasters...I "think!"   And, you would never recognize that one of the main ingredients started out being barbecue chicken.  Fun to have a totally different dish with the leftovers!  I'm really looking forward to enchiladas with some of the pulled pork leftovers...at least I hope that I don't have problems like I did with the gumbo!  Oh, and the gumbo used another leftover, too--the V-8 juice that I used when making the homemade Texas Barbecue Sauce for the beef brisket.  This gumbo was a new recipe (not our tried and true gumbo recipe), but I decided that it was "meant to be" when it called for the V-8.  This is a more tomato based gumbo than the one that I usually make.

I will end with a couple of pictures of the newest additions to our neighbors' (Nathan and Kathy's) family--Georgia and Peaches.  They seem to be adjusting well to their new home.  They had a fun time playing in the sun this afternoon and I slipped away from my cooking long enough to snap a couple of pictures.  Esther is holding Georgia and as I snapped this picture Esther told me that Georgia was purring and that Georgia liked to purr!  Esther is quite the protective mommy...trying to keep them out of trouble.  Georgia is the cat that Esther picked when she thought that she was only getting one.  Peaches, the adventurous one, is Georgia's sister and Esther couldn't stand the idea of separating the sisters!  I imagine that the kitties are much happier to have each other when it comes to time spent without the children playing with them.  They like to snuggle in their nice warm kitty house.

Reflecting

Today I have been thinking back over the last week+ and "trying" to remember things that we have done!  Sort of a blur! I have the pictures sorted for Christmas, but I never really have gone through them to see what I captured of the moments leading up to Christmas and our actual family Christmas celebration.  So I started looking through them and decided that I would feature the "Pickle Ornament Finder" for this year.  Joy found the pickle this year and got to open the gift/s that stay at Grammy and Goosey's house for any and all the grandchildren to use when they are here.  This year the gift was some new art supplies (two sets of markers and a really nice set of Crayons.  The girls went upstairs after we opened presents and had our Christmas lunch and did some art work using them.  Today Isaac used a couple of markers to draw a Christmas tree to put in his art folder.  It's nice to have sharp points (for a moment anyway) and markers that aren't beginning to dry out.  Today while Isaac and Joseph were over here, I worked at straightening up the school room...one of my accomplished tasks was to throw away all the old markers.  While the boys were over here Joseph got to feeling bad.  Kathy ended up taking him to the doctor and he has strep and the flu! Most in their family has had the flu shot, but Joseph can't have it because he is allergic to eggs.  The doctor said earlier that Esther had the flu...but she never got to feeling really bad with it and we decided that perhaps she tested positive because she had taken the flu shot and had some of the virus in her?  Don't know!  But we are all washing hands diligently and praying that no one else comes down with either!  

The kitties fared well through the night.  Their heating pad in their kitty house did the trick in keeping them warm even with the temperature dropping down into the upper teens last night.  They have been out playing with Esther today.  I didn't go over to see them today.  I pretty much stayed in and kept warm.

Woody ran a couple of errands this afternoon...our city taxes are paid for another year and he found his wayward coat in the church prayer room and he also made a stop at the public library.  He found a couple of books about cats/kittens that he brought home for Esther to read.  One of the books is a cookbook for cat treats!  I'll bet Esther is REALLY interested in that one. After returning from his errands, Woody took a four-mile walk.  He has been enjoying a present that Nathan, Kathy and the children surprised us with last night...a new TV...boy does the picture look different than it did on our old one...and boy is this TV so much thinner than our old one!  Nice to have it take up less space and have such a good picture. 

I pretty much had a very lazy afternoon.  I spent most of it reading.  Last night I met my yearly goal of having read a book a week during 2017...in other words I finished my 52nd book.  That is the minimum number of books that I try to read in a year.  Some times I read many more, but sometimes sewing and other things cut into my reading time.  The last couple of months I haven't read as much as I usually do.  I think that I will probably finish one more book before the end of the year as I am closing in on the final pages of another one.  I told myself that I was going to work on straightening up the sewing room and then do a little sewing, but never got to that point today...well, I did do a little just a little while ago.  When I finish blogging, I will take the little table back to the guest room and put it next to the children's sewing machine.  I had been using it for the overflow of machine embroidery thread.  That thread is all put away now so no need for the extra table in here crowding us between the laptop and the sewing machine cabinet.  I do plan to finish a machine embroidered angel that I started before Christmas.  She is to become our tree topper.  She might get to perch on the top of our tree for a short time this year...that way she will be ready for next year's Christmas tree...that is if I like her as a tree topper!  I'll let her audition this year! It continues to be 'tis the season...at least for a few more days! I am enjoying the low-key part of 'tis the season that happens at this end of the holidays!