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Last Sunday, we went to watch the Texans play the Cowboys and lose with family - on said family's large screen t.v.  Looking back, we probably wouldn't have made such a big deal of if we had known they would lose, but that's another thing. I was to make meatloaf for the football shindig.  I have a great meatloaf recipe (sorry, this is not a recipe post), which turns out wonderful every single time, except this time.  It was fine, but it wasn't the wonderfulness it normally is.  I think it might have been the quality of my onion.  I'm not sure. Thing is, this meatloaf is ugly.  It just always looks awful!  Maybe that's why i don't have any pictures of it on here. So, for Sunday, i decided to try something i've been wanting to do for a while.  Kris inspired me with her Bacon Explosion recipe , and i decided to cover the top of my meatloaf in a bacon weave.  I took Kris' advice and cooked my bacon a little before i wrapped the meatloaf, an...

Last week, while feeling splendid about having a sewing machine, i mentioned the word, " rice bags ."  (O.k. i know; it's two words.)  Since then, i have gotten a couple of questions, (one from Beth at Pursuing Life , who shares my name and many of my aspirations; you should check out her blog ) .   So i'm going to tell you about rice bags and why they're so wonderful.  Let us reminisce.... Here's the why: A long time ago....circa February 2001, very nearly before Valentine's Day, i came down with a mysterious illness that put me in the hospital for four days - one of those days being Valentine's Day - because said illness kept me from breathing.  I like breathing, so we went to the doctor.  The symptoms of this illness (hang on!  this is going to get interesting!) included very painful breathing of very shallow breaths and the discovery by doctors (with their tests and whatnot) that the lining around my heart and lungs were filled with fluid....

All the days in the world are waiting for their turn. And they never get another turn. Never. Ryley - 2009 This little quote has been on my fridge for over a year.  It was spoken by a little girl i have never met, but it has spoken to me over and over and louder and louder ever since i heard it.  Her mom is a dear friend of mine from college, whose blog i read regularly .   Little girls seem sometimes to have so much beautiful simple wisdom that gets so clouded as we grow into women. These words resonate in my heart and remind me of my own desires.  I want to take advantage of all of my days because none of them gets another turn.  This is the whole reason i so desperately wanted to leave my nine-to-five to work at home.  My heart desired so deeply to be able to make a home for my husband.  But i found myself unsuccessful and empty at the end of long days of shuffling paperwork and criminals and the politics of this world which i both dislike and...

This is kind of a big deal.  For me. Since we have moved in here, we have purposely not spent much time, energy, or money on decorating the inside of our house.  We were and are much more interested in improving the outside and feel that the inside can wait. All those things are still true. But it feels so good to have accomplished one small feat of pleasing inside decor.  I'm really getting a little giddy looking at the picture below, even though the real thing is right beside me.  The real thing, incidentally, makes me well up with .... ease.  It's amazing what a little bit of well-placed pleasing colors can do. Anyway, i didn't think i was going to get very far on the curtains today - if at all.  But this morning i got in a sewing groove and couldn't stop.  I've been sewing since about 9 o'clock this morning, and i think i finished about 11:30 tonight.  (There's a lot more to a curtain that i had imagined.) Here they are!  They're not...

This week has been get-groovy-stuff-in-the-mail week.  For my birthday, i ordered a couple of things.  (We don't spend money willy nilly around here, so it's kind of an event.) I ordered a sewing machine case, which is screaming for a paint job.  It's just way too blank! Then, so that the sewing machine case didn't feel like it was leading a pointless existence, i also ordered a sewing machine.  How handy. This is another step toward homestead skill-learning and all that good stuff.  I haven't sewn anything substantial since i was about eight, when i made a night gown for 4H (with help).  But i seem to be picking it back up sufficiently.  The model i bought was a couple of steps up from the bottom of the barrel, very inexpensive, had great reviews, and i'm enjoying it. It has lots of pictures on it to help me remember what to do.  Although, i still haven't figured out what that dial all the way to the left is for.  I guess i need to get...

Do you remember this snake?  The one with the bullet hole in his head?  He's still haunting me. For some reason, when this creature was killed, and i was finished taking pictures under the light, i just left him, right where he was.  In my front yard.   Good spot, right? See, at my house, there are lots of animals that eat kind of whatever's lying around.  I'm sorry.  It's true.  So, having never been possessor of a gunned down snake, i assumed that someone around here would eat him.  So i left him in the yard.   I was so wrong. I was shocked to find him still in the yard the next day. Then yesterday, when i walked out to the chicken coop, and that dead snake nearly knocked me down, i discovered that now that he's stinking up the whole neighborhood, someone actually pulled him closer to the house.  Yick. So i used  a shovel to move him - as effectively as you might imagine a shovel may be used to move a snake - a little f...

Because i knew that i knew, and i know that i know that you are the one God made me for and made for me. Because you looked at me like i was the most delightful thing you had ever seen. Because when you still look at me that way, i feel like the most beautiful woman in the world. Because you've never stopped looking at me that way. Because walking hand-in-hand with you is my favorite place in the world, no matter where it is. Because my mother was right when she said i'd never be bored. Because when i'm with you, my heart knows i'm home. I love you.  I am passionately grateful to know you as my husband. You're my gun-slingin' super hero and my very best good friend.   We're like peas and carrots, and i'm so glad i married you. Happy Anniversary! ************************************ These are my two favorite wedding pictures.  The second one is a wonderful double exposure of us walking up to and lighting our bonfire (unity candle) with our tiki torches...

Today's birthday festivities included eating breakfastish meal at Denny's and shopping for birthday presents for ourselves.  Not too bad, i say. Here's my gun slingin' super hero at Denny's.  Don't worry; there was no gun slinging to be had at Denny's, but he gets to retain that name for a couple of days for getting a snake in the head in the dark while half asleep. In this picture, we were waiting for our meal.  The faces of innocent co-customers who were accidentally photographed have been fuzzed out because they probably weren't ready to be published on the www without their permission - and because it's fun to use Picasa's retouch feature. Gun-slingin' super hero's birthday present includes a scroll saw.  Sorry, i didn't get the scroll saw in a non-fuzzy picture.  This is just the stand.  Boring, i know.  But i should mention that the gssh has a real knack for making really really beautiful things with wood, given the appropria...

Pre-birthday excitement galore.   I was lazy this evening, prematurely assuming some birthday attitude that, in my imagination, allows me to shirk my normal responsibilities.  And i was late putting up the baby chicks.  They had decided (for what reason i cannot gather) to sleep outside again tonight.  And when i saw that, i was reluctant to fulfill my required chores of laboriously placing them one by one inside the safe coop. Finally, between 9:30 and 10:00, i decided it best if i go take care of my babies. I used the flash light and found two groups of chicks lying around in the dirt, and then a third something i couldn't identify.  Finally, my brain figured out what i was seeing, and when it did, i turned and ran back to the house, busted in the door, yelling, "THERE'S A SNAKE IN THE COOP EATIN' MY CHICKEN! "   (Read this with exaggerated country Texas accent for maximum entertainment.)  The snake wasn't really in the coop; he was in the ru...

I promised you amazing chicken, and here i am to deliver.  I accidentally discovered recently that i am some kind of a cooking wonder because i accidentally made up this method, and it works so good . First you take your chicken.  You know what chicken looks like, right?  'Cause i didn't take a picture of it.  Your chicken might not be as wonderful as mine, since i raised and coddled mine and lovingly sent it to the freezer.  But i think the method will still work. Take some regular old thawed pieces of chicken and coat them generously in your favorite or preferred seasoning mix.  I used Tony Chachere's, so mine is pleasantly spicy.  Coat it thoroughly on both sides. Then, coat it even more thoroughly in salted flour.  I did this by use of a plastic ziploc bag.  You may do it by whatever method you prerfer. See how i placed the pieces sort of upside down on the cookie sheet?  I did this on purpose. Next, you need to grease your p...

I believe i predicted that i would share updates with you this evening.  Well, it's 11:15, and i'm just getting to tidbits of updates.  So here are your tidbits - with pictures!  Real updates will simply have to wait. Our chicks are starting to hatch!  This is number one.  He or she pipped more than 24 hours before finally busting the whole egg out of the carton and lying on the floor of the 'bator for several more hours before even moving.  Poor thing had a hard day.   In a completely unrelated matter, i'm still feeling sappy about love and happiness and snapping pictures of old photos.  Here's our wedding kiss.  So sweet and sappy!    In an even more unrelated matter, i have stumbled upon the easiest and most perfect method for oven fried yard bird, and i am in love and proud of myself every time i make it.  Sadly, i'm also out of chickens in my freezer.  But i took pictures of the one i made tonight, and i'm going to...

Today, i will begin my birth-a-versary celebrations.  I know i'm two days early, but i think i mentioned that we drag such things out from here to yon. Today, i have a hair appointment and a dentist appointment.  HA!  Not that the dentist appointment has anything to do with my birthday.  They just happened to have an appointment available right after my hair appointment - and they happen to be right next door to each other.  It's great to live in a small town. So at least i'll look pretty when i go to get my teeth cleaned.  And then i'll have extra pretty teeth for birthaversary. I will probably update with more sappiness this afternoon. I'm getting so exCITed!

This morning, i woke up very early in the morning.  VERY early in the morning.  I was lying in bed at three-something a.m. when i noticed that i couldn't hear my husband breathing, and even though i was yanking with all my might to get some of the covers back, he wasn't moving either. I didn't panic.  I've gotten better at not panicking over time.  But the imagination wanders sometimes. This is a picture of a partially damaged picture of my daddy walking me down the "aisle" at our wedding. This is symbolic of what i'm about to tell you. I remember, for as long and as far back as i can remember anyone talking about marriage, someone was saying how, "marriage is hard work."  "Marriage isn't easy, you know!" I heard it over and over.  I even repeated it to others (as if i had a clue). I prepared my mind for what hard work marriage would be.  We both took the whole proposition extremely seriously.  Marriage is hard work. Marria...

Animal Management Success! Tonight, all of my chickens put themselves to bed in the right place.  The incubator babies were all accounted for in their safety cage (as opposed to sleeping next to the run's gate).  My broody hen, Mathilde, finally took her chicks to the coop at night (after having to be carried there night after night), and no one rebelled and decided to stay outside.  All forty-eight chickens, inside. And i didn't have to put them there.  This is a wonderful success. To top it off, each of my three dogs, peaceably followed directions at dinner time and ate out of his or her own bowl without anyone wrestling or growling or fussing over the matter in any way. Maybe i'm doing something right. After such a great streak, i'm sleepy, and i'm going to manage myself to bed before my streak is broken. Good night.

My husband is a genius. No really.  He is. A long time ago, when i was out of college and he was out of the Navy, we were discussing when to get married, and my husband was just sure that even though the proposed date was only 2 months away, that we should get married on the day between our birthdays.  Eventually i agreed, more because i didn't want to wait until my proposed date in April than because i thought it was a good idea. My husband may be a genius, but he had no influence on God's arranging our birth dates two days apart. God's the real genius here!  Is it an insult to use a word like "genius" to describe God?  He's so much more than that. So, on the only day of the year that we are the same age (the day after my birthday and the day before his), we got married. This arrangement makes it very simple for us and others to remember our important days.  If either one of us can simply remember his or her own birthday, we can figure it out from t...

It turns out that other things happen in our lives on September eleventh.  Thankfully, time does not stand still, and all good things are not forced to stand aside on the anniversary date of horrible things. What am i talking about?  Oh, good question. Today, in our personal lives, is kind of a special day.  It is the anniversary of the date that we bought our home two years ago.  Our tiny little house in the woods for which we are extremely thankful. This was also the day before Hurricane Ike made landfall in Texas, the same year.  We almost didn't get to buy the house because all the insurance companies stopped writing policies all of a sudden.  Thankfully, we were able to find someone to cover us, and the sale was made. (We never do normal things when hurricanes are coming.  When everyone was evacuating for Hurricane Rita, we went birthday shopping at the mall.  It was great because it was so un -crowded!) That night, we went back to ...

Today was moving day. Yesterday, my incubator chicks turned 3 weeks old, and it became time for them to live life without supplemental heat in 90 degree weather. My set-up is this.  There's a coop, attached to a run (fenced in yard for chickens).  The chickens have a little pop door that allows them to enter the run from the back of the coop.  Only, the adult chickens don't use the run anymore.  They use the front door and the wide outdoors. So, for little chicks to get accustomed to coop life and the like, i place a wire cage in the coop, with it's door facing the coop's pop door.  This way the little guys and girls can sleep inside the coop, but be protected from very large bully chickens, and they can go directly outside from their little pen.  It works very well. So once i got the setup set up, i had to move the chicks from the brooder to the coop. Before i show you this picture, i would like to assure you that no chicks were harmed in the produ...

This morning, i went outside to give my dogs some treats (because i love them), and i found this. Muppet Bingo! Poor baby.  Apparently, i didn't seen him earlier when i went to let the chickens out.  I would definitely have noticed this! Poor Bingo! If you're unfamiliar with my dog, Bingo.  His face is usually half that size. I don't know if it's spiders or snakes or what it is, but this happened to Punkin once too (i didn't get good pictures that time).  Neither of them seemed to be in pain or even noticing their giant faces.  Punkin's was close to normal by the next day, if i remember right.  We'll see how Bingo does.  He wasn't exactly back to normal when i fed him this evening. In other dog news, and a possible explanation of the muppet face effect, i went outside a little earlier than normal to feed the bunnies.  Thank God i went a little earlier than normal (i normally feed the bunnies after dark).  The dogs went with me, of...