Dec. 16-22, 2018 "Winter," Wallpaper removal, Xmas Break, Cookies, Fattening Beth and Bunny

Dec. 16-22, 2018 

Winter, Wallpaper removal, Xmas Break, Cookies

Hello Friends! 

Happy First Day of Winter!

Four Weeks:

It has been four weeks since Dh had his two surgeries on his left eye to fix his Detached Retina.  The doctor has taken off one of the four different eye drops this week since his pressures are improved.  He still reminded us that we "haven't saved the eye yet," apparently one of his favorite sayings.  He also said Dh has another 4-6 weeks of recovery to go.  He has to continue to stay sitting up at night; which is the hardest part of all---night after night of not sleeping well at all sitting in the living room high chair.

Our garden is still serving us well!  Yay, hoop houses!

Christmas Play:

Sunday night was our Christmas play: Rediscovering Christmas.  I was the director and had so much fun!  After church and Sunday School, Dd and I went home for lunch.  I had to be back at 3pm to set the stage---remove the immense quantities of Christmas decorations and trees from the stage before we could put up our set.  Dh had not been to church in over a month, but for his first non-doctor appointment outing he came to see our play!  He sure did get a lot of (unwanted) attention.  The play went very well!  One of our church members, in the audience, said it was the best Christmas play he had ever seen!  

After the play was a Pot Luck/ Pitch-In and quite a lot of people stayed for the treats!  Dd and Dh baked two desserts for our contribution.  By the time Dh and I got over to sit down, the tables were pretty full.  We sat beside a couple we didn't know and found them to be very friendly and chatted with us.  Somehow in the discussions, it was brought up that Dh had just had his eye surgeries and the couple had to laugh---they were happy to meet the man they had been praying for - for the past few weeks!!!!!  

Garden:

I finally dug up all the turnips this week!  We haven't eaten them yet, but I expect to do so soon.  The hoop houses are also doing well and I'm getting wonderful greens out of them too.  The chickens are also benefitting from the warm weather.  



I've picked green weeds and grass for them as well as the greens from the turnips and other green scraps from my gardening.  The chickens really, really like their greens.  They really aren't crazy about the bagged food I buy.  The only thing, from a bag, that they actually get excited about is black sunflower seeds.  

Wall Paper:

Dd somehow was motivated to peel off the old wallpaper in the basement hall this week.  I really don't have any idea why she decided to start on this long-overdue project, but I am glad she did!  I paid her in cash and bought her a new fleece to reward her for all the hours of work.



  It will be so nice when we get some projects completed again; it has been so long since we've made any new progress.  I'd love it if we could get the molding up around the french doors in the basement's Rec Room!!!!  

Ranger Cookies, Mexican Wedding Cookies, and the 9x13 is shortbread covered in caramel (chocolate was poured on top of that layer later).

Work Cookies:

Dh spent three days baking cookies.  I bought some new 'shirt boxes' that he lined with tissues and then filled with his assortments of cookies.  We drove them to his work and dropped them off on an evening for his friends to receive in the morning.  He worked really hard getting a full box of cookies made for them.

Prednisone:

My lungs have been hurting since Nov. 1st so I finally called and went to the doctor.  She had an x-ray to make sure I didn't have a serious problem; which I didn't and then prescribed prednisone to get the infection from my lungs out.  I don't remember ever having that medicine before, and boy, I didn't like it one bit!!  Prednisone can cause insomnia and it sure did!  I think I slept about 4 hours each night and was miserable until I napped again.  Wednesday I had TWO short naps!  I was so out of sorts I missed Olympians, but Dd went and volunteered without me.  I hope my lungs will be better after all this upheaval in my schedule.  It isn't any fun waking up at 2 and 3 am each morning!  Although, I did make progress in my Bible studies.  All three of us didn't feel very well this week.

Beth

Bunny

Fattening-Up Beth and Bunny:
The winter affects different chickens in different ways and I have two little chickens that are getting seriously skinny---gasp.  I can't have that!  This week I've decided to put a concerted effort into fattening up these two lovely girls.  I named the teeny-tiniest hen, "Beth" after Beth Moore!  That cracks me up!  The all white hen that needs some padding I've named, "Bunny."  I don't have a good reason, it just fits. It's good to have goals, mine are just a little unconventional!



Eggs:
Normally, Dh sells our chicken eggs at his work, but since he is home recovering from his surgeries I have had to be creative with our eggs.  Henry and our chickens have really been enjoying getting spoiled a little bit!  I did have one friend buy six dozen a few weeks back, but the past two weeks have been all us.  The Angel Food cake took 12 eggs to make; so that took down a lot.



Planning for Christmas: Food
Of course, AFTER I did all the grocery shopping and running around for the week, my two beloved ones decide what they want to eat for Christmas....nothing we have in stock!  I shopped and made more runs this week than in three weeks normally!




So, our line-up: Shrimp, Gomae (favorite awesome spinach dish), and Agedashi Tofu (favorite tofu dish...frying involved, not actually healthy but tastes great).  For dessert--Moo-Less Chocolate Pie.  It is made of tofu from Alton Brown.  We don't use a crust so it is also GF, and it tastes delicious!  

The Lichen grows like crazy in our woods; so many varities.

Visitors:
This week Hailee (Dd's bff from church), her mom and g'ma came over to see our Christmas tree.  Dh had a bunch of fresh cookies that we shared with them while they visited.  I was really happy they came over for a visit.  It is always my goal to be more hospitable and open my doors to friends more often---the way Heather LeFebvre showed me how to be!  We bought some ham, on sale, this week; I'm hoping to invite someone over from church soon to share the ham and a meal with.

Bible Study:
I'm still doing a daily bible study with Dh (Seamless by Angie Smith) and Entrusted by Beth Moore with our church. Again this week I am the substitute teacher and enjoyed relearning this weeks lesson again.  I'm getting lots of bible study in this month; especially since that Prednisone has me awake by 3 am each morning.

With the warm weather this week, I took advantage and brought in our metal summer table from the deck and squeezed it into our 'sunroom' to get some of the plants off the floor.

Dd's Academic accomplishments this Week:

Fun Reader:
Winter by Marissa Meyer

Bible Study:

each day Dd is doing her Word of Life Bible Study

Art:

Drawing and Painting

A card I found that Dd had made

Cooking/Baking:

Tis the season to bake, bake, bake! 

Home Economics:

Dd worked for three days this week on peeling wallpaper off the hallway in the basement---big job! 

Volunteering:

at church: Nursery Sunday morning (1 1/2 hours), and Olympians Games(1 1/2 hours).

at the library: Story Time (1 1/2 hours)

Next Week:
Christmas!!!  

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