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Yesterday, James' friend, who is currently living as a single dad with three children, had a babysitter emergency and asked if his kids could stay with me today. I said yes. They start work at 6:00. I woke up to crying puppies at 4:30.....and just stayed up. I was feeling like an over achiever, so i decided to start a pot of beans and take pictures so i could blog to you about it, while watching 2 small children i've never met before...you know, in case my knowledge of pinto beans can benefit you and because i clearly need more challenges in my life (i don't really mean that, God; i'm joking). At some point, i lost my over achieving gusto, but i think i got enough pictures to make it a decent post. But i don't think i'll be posting it tonight.  That would require uploading pictures and patience and thought and that sort of thing. Anyway, back to the babysitting. The three children are 6, 3, and 1 or so.  The six year old has been getting on the b...

Well, i am writing to you, but i don't know what i'm going to say. I have had several good little blogs in my head the past week or so that just haven't really manifested for publishing. I guess this will be an update blog. My burly man had two teeth pulled today, and it hurts a lot - but not quite as much as it did before they were pulled.  The dentist let me stay in the room only after i promised him i wouldn't pass out at the sight of blood or throw up on his floor (the trash can, no problem).  I always think of something smart (or ridiculous) to say after the fact.  So at some point after it was way too late to be funny, i imagined pulling out a really back woods accent with, "well, i ain't never passed out when i killed them chickens.  you think that's a good way to know?" but from the looks of the clientele in the waiting room, i wouldn't have been very shocking. Jelly is successfully mothering her eight rolly polly puppies and all...

I didn't post anything on Valentine's Day, so this is my heart day post. The manly man and i aren't particularly big heart day people.  I mean to say that we love each other deeply all year round, and Valentine's day doesn't get a lot of extra attention. Birthdays and holidays are similar.  At Christmas, we mostly buy for everyone else - not so much for each other.  And on our birthdays and anniversary (which are three days in a row), we celebrate the most - basically by being together.  Sometimes we do something special.  In '09, we bought a house - decided that was going to get us through Christmas and few other things.  Some years, we spend an exorbitant amount of money on a nice dinner - or maybe just Denny's and a movie. This year, we were in the saving-money-way at Valentine's time, so there were no big to-do's about the holiday. But i'll tell you what i told my husband.  A sincere loving conversation about how much we mean to each ot...

I didn't blog last night because i was anticipating puppies. Jelly started acting like she was in the "puppy way" around bedtime, and having no idea what kind of time it would take, i stayed up to make sure she was o.k.  I spent most of the night trying to route her back to the area we had set up to contain the messy business of puppies.  I'm really glad i did that because otherwise, i'm pretty sure she would have had them on top of a box of my nice clothes that is under my bed. Anyway, after i had narrowed down her options by barricading all the places where i really didn't want her to have puppies, i was exhausted and decided to go to bed.  That was 3:00 a.m.  At 3:15, i awoke to the sound of whining puppy. Instead of the nice soft (protected) area we had prepared for her, Jelly chose the cold, hard cement of our storage area. Ungrateful dog. After she had a few minutes to get the "business" situated, i stole her puppy and helped her unde...

Can you say eight? Yesterday, i said, 'let's have 8 tomorrow.' Today, we have eight, and they all have SHELLS! Praise the Lord!  Tomorrow, how 'bout 9? Wise words will win you a good meal.  Proverbs 13:2 (NLT)

I'm sort of on a recipe kick right now.  I hope you don't mind. Sometimes i'm sort of shocked that everyone else doesn't do the things the way i do.  Ridiculous, i know.  So i will share some of them with you maybe, and you may or may not find a little simple richness in the kitchen (or elsewhere) because of it. Today, split pea soup. Now, before you say, "ew, green soup,"  well, just don't say that.  Split pea soup is good stuff and good for you and simple to prepare. I will say this.  Split pea soup is one of the only dishes i will ever say is best the first day.  But for split pea soup, it's true.  Many other things, i make in large quantities, so i can make them last several days, cooking on low, but split peas, i make a small amount, preferrably to be consumed in one meal.  They're not horrible the next day; in fact i'm having second day split peas right now, and i like them very much.  It's a texture thing.  And now i...

Discoveries galore.  I love learning new stuff....stuff they never teach you in school....stuff you will probably learn only by seeing it yourself.  But in this case, i will share it with you. First, lemme 'splain.  Eggs are a little bit like pearls (but much faster) in that they are formed in layers inside the chicken's body.  You've got your yolk, and then your white, and then your membrane, and then usually several layers of shell.  They have like a little paint factory in there that paints the egg in layers of color.  Sometimes, one of the sprayers gets clogged up, and the egg comes out speckled.  And sometimes, there will be little bumps of extra calcium on the outside of the shell. Well, up until yesterday, i had been getting five eggs, mostly regular.  And i decided i wanted seven eggs.  And that's what i told the chickens.  I kept going back out to the coop looking for more eggs and telling the girls who followed me around as t...