Finally done!

I got my website up finally. Many thanks to KWalshDesigns and the work she did for me!! Check it out and tell me what you think! Read Lila Williams.

Yet another pathetic excuse for a parent.

So I am working on getting rid of a headache and was just catching up on my news. A link on CNN's Nancy Grace's web page said "Toddler found dead in trash." I had to read it because stories like this just rip my heart out. Then I read the story and not only did my heart break but the anger factor went through the roof. I am so tired of reading and hearing about women who kill their children rather than ask for help or give them up. Race is no excuse, age is no excuse, laziness is no excuse, IQ is no excuse. There is no reason that children should die. Infants have safe haven recourse and older kids do have options. You can give up your rights. I know there can be legal ramifications but this has got to stop. I can't have any more children for a variety of reasons but we would love having more. We would adopt in a heartbeat and have actually talked about adopting a sibling pair from foster care once Squeak is older. My husband was in the system purely because his parents didn't want him. It was so hard sure, but better than being neglected and starved and abused due to shear stupidity and laziness. I miss the days when family was the most important and raising the children as a group was encouraged. It does take a village and all of us need to step up if we see a child in need so that these type of senseless acts never happen again.

We survived!

We are officially part of society again today as we are no longer contagious with the dreaded swine flu. The illness part of it wasn't any worse than any other cold.
What was so hard for us was the confinement. The kids had to stay home from school for a week. They felt well enough to fight and terrorize each other but were not allowed out in public. Once they were feeling better, I kicked them outside during the day when all of the other kids were in school. They had to come inside promptly at 3 pm and work on homework.
Today they can go back to school. FREEDOM!!!

Swine flu

I know the swine flu thing has been beat to death but now I have it (I think). I was pretty prepared because both times there was a local panic over it, I went to the store and got masks, hand sanitizer, meds ect. What I wasn't prepared for was how completely horrible I would feel. The kids got it first and are already almost over it. I on the other hand just came down with the worst of it this morning. I seriously want to crawl into a hole and die. I have a headache that makes my migranes feel like a walk in the park. My throat is sore and swollen, its hard to breathe. As fast as the kids felt better, I don't think we got it really bad. If this is mild, I am grateful we didn't get it really bad. I will keep you up to date on if I get better as fast as the boys. In the meantime, I have three hyper active boys home from school for a week. That might prove to be worse than the flu.

Mattress Woes!

With all the space we have now we wanted a guest bed. We also hate our bedroom set. We are not fans of particle board. We bought our set as a gift for Hub's brother and then discovered it would not fit into the room we needed it to so we kept it and gave him our raw pine set. I miss that set, lol. anyway we figured if we had to buy a mattress why not buy us a bigger one and put the old mattress and bed frame in the guest room. So we went online to search. We love our queen so we decided to look at the same model and name brand but in king. Found a great deal on USMattress.com. Their site said two-day delivery was available and we were stoked. We needed it by the end of the week so that we could have the guest bed for family coming in this weekend. So I ordered it and kept waiting through the process for the place to confirm shipping. It never came. I called and was told it never gave me the option because our mattress was not available for quick shipping. So I canceled the order. I need a bed this weekend not in 3 weeks. Well my money has yet to be returned because it can take "Up to 4 business days." Lovely. Anyway I went to a local furniture store and they had the bed I need cheaper than what I found online. We went with Englander instead of Spring Air. 5lb Memory foam layer on top of individually wrapped innerspring. Sooooooo excited. Iwould totally recommend Englander. They are super affordable and a lot of the big name actually use the Englander insides wrapped in their own covers at a huge price jump. Total score on the bed front. Now just to get my money back from the dumb online place. Luckily they took paypal so I can go after them if needed to get my money.

found in nature pain killers

I suffer from migranes, and am a big boob when it comes to pain. We do have some ibuprofin in our food storage but I think I would rather hold onto that in case of severe pain. I have books that talk about plants that are natural pain killers but I am a little scared to try them. Has anyone else had to resort to this? Or done it as an experiment? How effective was it? Any side effects?

Fried Green Tomatoes

When I see bright, shiny and oh so lonely vegetables just sitting there I can’t help myself. I have to buy them. It’s like they call to me “please please just take me home… I would go so well with that recipe you’ve been thinking about“. On a trip to the Farmer’s Market with the Boy, my sister and her husband I stopped at a stall I frequent often enough to buy some green onions. Then some cherry tomatoes. Then some carrots (the Boy won’t eat baby carrots anymore, spoiled brat) and then I saw them. The holy grail of my obscure vegetable cravings: the Green Tomato.

I bought the two tomatoes they had left, and scurried home with my spoils. The next day, I found a recipe and went to work. I sliced the tomatoes (the recipe calls for 1/2 an inch thick, I wouldn’t go that thick actually. 1/3 is the biggest I’ll go next time) and slathered them with salt and pepper.

I’m going to be honest. This is about the last step of this recipe I should have followed. I got it from a site I’ve gotten terrific recipes off of before (not Pioneer Women, FYI) , so I had quite a bit of faith in it. Not a good idea. The recipe called for dipping the seasoned tomatoes in milk, then flour, then eggs, then cornmeal and then pan frying them. Don’t get me wrong, they were okay. But they weren’t… right. Fried green tomatoes seem to be a lot like Fried Chicken; in that everyone has a way they like it. Some dredge, then coat. Some just coat. To coat people use cornmeal, bread crumbs, flour or cracker crumbs.

Personally this “double dip” technique I didn’t like. And I also wasn’t a big fan of the cornmeal. Next time I think I’ll go with a more simple recipe. Season with salt and pepper, egg dip, breadcrumbs, fry. In that order. In fact I think I might add some hot sauce to the eggs ala Paula Deen Fried Chicken for some spice. Even with my disappointment on the crust, they were pretty good, and look very pretty. Topped off with some homemade ranch, and they made a good afternoon snack.

Thief!

A co-worker of my husbands asked him last week if we wanted any tomatoes. He said he had a ton and would give me all that he didn't want to use himself. Now, I got visions of spaghetti sauce, tomato sauce, bottled tomatoes, ketchup and all sorts of wonderful tomato based products dancing through my head and told Hubby to tell him I would take anything he was willing to give me. I would in turn give him some spaghetti sauce or whatever else I had made that he might want.
Hubby came home from work yesterday evening and told me this co-worker had sent me something. I got all excited untill he picked up his lunch pail. What I had in mind would not fit into his lunch pail. He pulled out a ziploc bag with four tomatoes in it.
The co-workers garden had been raided and these 4 tomatoes were all that was left! He spent all spring tilling and planting, all summer watering and weeding. He went away for the weekend and came home to an empty garden. They cleaned out everything he had grown. He has NOTHING to show for all of his hard work. Why would someone feel they were entitled to something they had no part of producing? I don't know how this individual feels. but I would be furious if it happened to me.

Up to my elbows in apples

My neighbor paid my boys to pick and deliver around 70 lbs of apples to me. I had no idea this was happening untill they pulled a wagon right into my kitchen and started unloading them. I quickly called my mother and got her apple pie filling recipe. I have made 18 quarts so far. I plan on making a few more and them moving on to apple butter. There are still three more trees to pick so I should have plenty. If anyone else has an urge to do anything anywhere near this big of a scale, I would strongly recommend an apple peeler. I bought one that peels, cores and slices the apple in seconds. It cut my prep time in 1/3. It is going to be a good Thanksgiving : )

Jessica Simpson, this one is for you.

Ok so Hubby finally got a coyote yesterday. He skinned it and salted it and rolled it up. Today I get to take over the process of tanning (no, Ryan. I am not using brains.) the hide and disposing of the carcass. Bleck. Sound like fun? We (read I) will salt it for three days and then dry it and scrape it again. This is a practice hide and the dog gets it anyway so I am not too worried about making mistakes. I will let you know how it goes.