Long time no post

I didn't realize it has been over a year since my last post.  I'm very sorry about that.  I will try to update about what has happened since then.

My husband is much better.  He is able to walk and do a bit of work.  He was on disability for a year and then they just cut him off without any communication.  He is currently only working once in a while and waiting until he can draw social security.  It will have been a year with no income.

We are selling our house and moving to be closer to my mother.  That should be accomplished within the next couple of months.

I don't have time to post anything else.  My helper is here so I need to get to work.  I will try to not wait so long next time.

I hope all of you are doing great.  Take care.

Life changes

This is only May but already our lives have changed so much.  Jeff had the automobile wreck on the 25th of January which was the biggest change in our life.  We are thankful that he is now mobile and can walk with a cane.  He is even able to do a little outside work for a short period each day.  It pretty much wrecks him for the rest of the day but as opposed to being bed ridden we are genuinely thankful.  He did get put on long term disability so that means our income has been drastically cut.  Its something we have to learn to live with.  His retirement was only two years away so we had been planning for that somewhat.

The other big change is that Hannah is formally moving out and will have a different address for the first time.  Its been unusual for me because I have had a child at home for the last 39 years almost 40.  Good grief.  That's a long time.  That's two thirds of my life.  I was either a child growing up or briefly a young married woman for the first third of my life.  When I put it like that it seems incredible.  I wish Hannah great success and I know she will do fine just like the other four daughters are doing.  I raised them well if I do say so myself.

We suddenly realized the other day that we don't have to stay home all the time and that we can actually travel as much as Jeff's health allow.  That was a stunner.  We are so used to me doing the majority of the traveling and Jeff working that it was a surprise to realize we can both go places.  Now we just have to do it.  

Another change for me is I've learned to set my alarm if I am watering or need to go somewhere at a certain time.  I even set my alarm so I remember to read the Bible with Jeff each evening.  That's terrible that I would forget that.  But I guess a person learn to compensate.

I have been enjoying selling Tupperware and I love their products.  I have found out being a Tupperware Lady that pretty much everything goes on sale at some point.  And they do have real good sales.  If you would like to shop on my website just go to :  DebbieKOlson.my.tupperware.com or click on the link to the right of the screen.  It will take you right to my webpage.

I hope each of you has a great day and week and that God puts his hand on you and keeps you safe and healthy.

No Christmas Party for us this year

Last year we decided not to attend the company Christmas Party for who knows what ever reason.  This year we decided to attend.  For the party you get to go to a town a couple hours away and check into a nice hotel, then go to a fancy steak house.  I don't understand it exactly but something about they bring the meats around and you choose what you want.  There is also a salad and vegetable bar the way I understand it.  Last year it was in San Antonio Texas and after the meal they all went and rode the river boat which I heard was a lot of fun.

So, we decided to go this year and made our reservations according to company directions.  Then work happened.  The party is supposed to be today in San Antonio.  Yesterday at 4:30 am, my husband got a call and had to get up and work on his computer until it was time to go to work.  Then he went to work and came home at the regular time.  About an hour later he got another call and had to work until 11:00pm.  So he basically worked from 4:30am to 11:00pm with a couple hours off in that time span.  Then he gets another call at 6:00am this morning and is still working 6-1/2 hours later.  It looks like we will not be going to the party.  Oh well, he is making extra money for over time which we cant complain about.

I used the extra time to sew and clean a bit in my craft corner so it wasn't a total bust for me.  I am a little disappointed but I also feel like there is a reason we were not supposed to go.  In my life I always feel God has his hand on me and my family and protects us from things even when we think things are not going our way.  I keep getting the feeling that today is just such a day and there is another reason besides the work that is keeping us from attending the party.  It could be that we might have had a car accident or something like that.  In any case I am grateful to God for always watching out for us and that he cares about our lives.  Even though we were made to serve Him doesn't mean he doesn't care about us and our lives.  

A good thing that came from this is I got to buy a new blouse for the party and now I will still have a new blouse.  Its red.  I always go to holiday parties and a lot of the ladies are wearing red blouses or sweaters.  Now I have owned red sweaters in my life but for me a sweater mean (Debbie is going to sweat)  I don't care what the temperature is.  I have always been hot blooded my whole life and require much less heat than most people.  And now that I am at the lovely stage of life where the heat is turned up a sweater is not a good idea for me.  So, I found a pretty red blouse in a stretchy fabric with 3/4 sleeves and long hemline which I like.  Now to have an occasion to wear it.  : )

Missing in action

     I know that I have been MIA for a while here on the blog and I apologize.  I have closed my facebook account and all other media accounts.  I found I was spending far too much time on them.  I could check my phone for the amount of time I was spending on them and it was out of line.  Plus the controversy was getting to me.

      I have found I am getting a lot more done around the house now that I don't spend so much time reading about other peoples lives.

     As always I have been enjoying my crochet and when I last went to Dodge I brought along 35 hats I had made and donated them to a friend who teaches at one of the poorest schools in that town.  I hope they warm many children's heads this winter.  I am working on many more hats to take along with me to my daughters in Missouri for them to distribute to needy children.  It saddens me that so many children don't have the basics like a warm hat for the winter here in our own country.

     I have also been crocheting baby blankets.  I now have several made up and need to figure out what to do with them.  I have a niece who is expecting but one will be sufficient for her I am sure.

     Jeff and I have been working on writing our Wills.  Do you and your husband have Wills?  We are making Holographic Wills.  Do a search to see if they are valid in your state and how to prepare one.  Then it would be a good idea to get it done.  We are not promised tomorrow.

     For my extension club I am putting together a program about hurricane preparedness.  I think it is a good time since we just went through hurricane Harvey.  There is so much devastation in our area its unbelievable.  Fortunately we just had high winds and not floods like Houston and that area.  High winds are bad enough but at least there isn't the MOLD to contend with.  Our house only suffered a few trees down and singles blown off the roof.  We do get a new roof but really we were fortunate.

     Bill and Christina Derixson our friends and former pastors church was flooded and they had to quickly rip out the carpet from the sanctuary and that was a lot of work to unbolt all the pews and then remove them and then the carpet.  Then the water wicks up the sheet rock so that had to be removed as well.  They are having service in the fellowship hall and are working on redoing the sanctuary.  

     Hannah worked with a turtle capture and then they took scientific measurements and released the turtles.  That is right up her alley.  She is studying range and wildlife management at Texas A&M Kingsville.  She worked for the state park for 3 summers and last summer worked for a graduate student doing controlled burns and plant collection, identification and measurements.  She would really like to work on a cattle ranch this summer so if any of my friends who read this blog know of a place she can work this coming summer please let us know.  She is interested in range management but also wants to learn cattle and other stuff like that.  she has always been an outdoors girl.

     I will try not to be such a stranger and post more often.  Y'all take care.

Hope you had a happy Mothers Day

My mothers day was very nice.  I heard from all five of my daughters and I called my mother and mother in law.  My husband even called my mother.  Then my niece and her husband called.  It was a very nice day.

Hannah was home and brought a friend along and they cooked stir fry, Mexican rice, guacamole, Pico sauce, and lemonade.  It was so very good. 

Hannah had started they day by weed eating the entire yard.  I had mowed yesterday so now the yard looks very nice.  After she did they I started the water on the lawn.  We usually get a fair amount of rain and seldom have to water but occasionally we do and this is one of those times.

I continue to read via skype with Sammy and J'tihya Monday through Thursday.  First they read their assigned story to me and then sometimes I ask them about the story and then I read a chapter to them.  With Sammy I am reading Hank the cow dog and with J'tihya we just finished The Secret Garden and will start Little Women this week.  I already have bought the Little house on the prairie set so that will be up next.  I really enjoy reading with these kids.  It helps them in their reading and keeps me connected to them.

Well its Sammy's day to read so I will close this for now.  May everyone who reads this have a blessed day, filled with health and happiness.

Do you blog?

     I am interested in reading others blogs and I was wondering if any of my readers have a blog.  If so I would love to read it.  I know a couple of you have blogs but leave a comment anyway and I will do a post with your blogs listed.
     It will help us get to know each other better.

     Also, is there anything you want to know?  Anything you want me to blog about?  Let me know and I will see what I can do.

Have a great week.

Creating less waste

     I have recently come across blogs and stories about people who are trying to live a waste free or less wasteful life.  I was intrigued.  I wondered if that was something I could do. I have already cut way back on paper towels, Kleenex and even toilet paper by using a bidet and cloth wipes I make from old t-shirts.  I am pretty sure that I would never be able to live a waste free life but could I at least cut down on the amount of waste I create? 

     Yesterday I decided to make a few washable bags to take with me to the grocery store to see how much I could buy without using the disposable plastic bags on the roll.  I made 4 cloth bags with shoe string ties from materials I had on hand.  After all, if I go and buy more stuff to make stuff to waste less stuff it makes no sense, at least to me.  Anyway, I took my reusable shopping bags and the cloth bags with me when I went shopping.

     I figure by using the cloths bags I saved getting 6 plastic bags.  I even used the cloth bag to buy to bulk rolls.  The checker just looked in the bag and rang up two rolls.

     In the produce department I used the bags on jalapeno peppers, avocados, and tomatoes.  I shopped at the vegetable stand and the grocery store where I save getting two plastic bags to haul the vegetable in the plastic bags.  In other words I bought 4 items at two stores thereby not getting 6 plastic bags.  I know its not much but take that times several shopping trips a month times 12 it could really add up.

     I looked around while I was in the produce aisle and realized that I could buy carrots separately and save .11 cents a pound, just by putting them in a bag myself.  Wow

     I think next time I shop at the deli I will take along jars in a cooler to see if they will slice the meat and cheese and put them right into the jars and save the packaging on them.  They can put their packaging label on the top.  I will let you know how that goes.

     I will be making more of the cloth produce and bread bags to use on my shopping trips.  I am just one person, but I can do a little.

     Do you have any tips on living a less wasteful life?

I was out of pocket for a while

I've just returned from spending almost three weeks in Kansas.  A while back they had a horrible ice storm and were even declared a disaster area.  I got there about 3 weeks into the clean up and it was still quite a mess.  I can just imagine how bad it was at first.

While I was there my family worked like beavers cutting limbs down and hauling them to the burn site which was only a mile away from moms place.  They worked tirelessly.  I cant work as hard as those young people so I watched the children.  They said that helped a lot.

We have been working to get the farm back in good shape.  When my step dad got sick it sort of fell into disrepair.  But my family has been working very hard to change that.

A few of us have partnered and gotten a few calves to raise for meat.  We started out with six but are down to four.  The first one died of who knows what but the second died while I was there by being attacked by three pit bull dogs.  Needless to say we were not too happy about that.  Those dogs should not be running loose destroying livestock.  I was pretty ticked.  My dogs alerted us to the fact that those dogs were in the corral with the calves.  Even calves are expensive now day so it was a big loss in investment.

Jeff has been working out of town helping get a new gas plant up and running.  Its good money because he works long hours but I miss him when he is gone.

He bought me a new computer and I am using it today for the first time.  I have a lot to learn with it.  Windows ten and all.  Ugh.

I'm still plugging away at my 40/40.  Getting rid of a bag of stuff a day for forty days.  I think its something I need to do five days a week for a couple of years, lol.  How does a person collect so much stuff?

I have decided that I am going to try really hard to not buy things.  I have plenty of things and I don't need to buy any more things.  I'm trying to simplify my life not add more crap to it.

I also decided that anything I drink cannot have calories or artificial sweeteners except my hot tea at night, I can put honey in it.  It silly to drink soda pop and waste so many empty calories.  So that means I will be drinking only tea and water  now.  I like unsweet tea, which is just tea anyway so that's a good thing.

Why do they call tea. unsweet tea and sweet tea anyway?  Shouldn't it be tea and sweet tea?  That's how I've always referred to it but here in south Texas even the dispensers say sweet and unsweet.  That's just another thing that makes me go hummm?

Truth

Not much to report

     I spent the last week out of town with Jeff for his work.  Now that the girls are grown up I am able to go out of town with Jeff occasionally.  I am involved with the Agri life extension and belong to the local club where I am the vice president and treasurer.  I enjoy it and attend one meeting a month with our club and one meeting with the area association because I am an officer.
      I also attend the Ladies missionary club from the Mathis Baptist church.  We meet once a month for a luncheon and to discuss who we are going to help.  We also maintain a small food pantry at the church.  There are a few of us who crochet hats which a lady sends to Franklin Graham's Samaritans purse where they distribute them.  I also crochet hats for other groups.
     Anyway, if I don't have any meetings and Jeff has to go out of town I sometimes join him.  This past week we went to Plano which is near Dallas.  Jeff had work to do there.  I spent the time in the hotel room crocheting and doing other crafts.  Its boring but I do like to be with Jeff.
      I've been working on a fancy baby blanket which I had hoped to enter into the fair but alas, I did not get it done in time as the entries are due tomorrow.  Oh well. 

     Today I am making bone broth.  Right now I am roasting the marrow bones.  Then when they are good and browned I will add them to the crock pot.  I have the vegetable parings I have been saving in the crockpot already.  I will add water and 3-4 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar to the crockpot to allow the goodness from the bones to come out.  I will cook this on low for a couple of days.  Then I will strain the broth and keep it in the refrigerator.  I love cooking with this fresh beef broth.  I could can it but I tend to use it fast enough that it isn't necessary.

      No bake cookies sound good too.  Maybe I will stir up a batch of them today as well.

I pray that all of you who read this are blessed and healthy.

New benches

As you can see we need to trim and tack the lattice around the bottom of our new porch but this post is about my new benches.  I ordered four benches to be made by my Amish friends.  They didn't think they would have them done in time for Thanksgiving but I was able to pick them up today.  Just in time.

I am very pleased with them.

The picture shows two benches put together.  They are six feet each.  We now have plenty of seating on our new porch.

Have a happy thanksgiving y'all.

What I've been up to.

• At the first of November I had meetings two days in a row that I brought food to.  The first one I made a breakfast casserole and breakfast burritos.  The second one I provided the main dish which was spaghetti.
• The next day I went to the local annual Amish auction and had lunch.  I didn't get a number or buy anything except lunch.  There was a good crowd and it looked like there was a nice variety of items for sale. 
• Jeff and I flew to Arizona for a training class Jeff was taking for work.  Everything was paid for except my plane ticket.  We were there for a week.  During the election so we voted early before we left.  I had not flown in 45 years so I was a bit apprehensive but obviously it turned out good because I'm still here.
• While in Arizona I worked on some craft projects and had time with two different sister in laws and my mother in law.  Its always nice to spend time with them.  One sister in law and I took a road trip to a neat mining town and looked around.  It was neat.  The town is called Jerome.
• I have mastered the virus stitch and am making a baby blanket.  I had been trying to get that pattern down and after printing the instructions out and watching and following along a you tube video I was able to figure it out.  I want to make a shawl one day with that pattern.
• The weather apparently was cool, as in the 70's while we were gone.   It warmed right back up though as soon as we got home.
• I managed to Skype with my phone every day I normally do with my grandson and great niece to listen to them read.
• My Amish friend called my yesterday to see if I wanted a fresh turkey for thanksgiving.  I said yes of course.  I had thought it was too late to order one.  Yippie, fresh home grown turkey again this year.
• That's all I can think of right now.  It doesn't seem like much when I write it down but I sure have been keeping busy.

Stuff I dont understand

• I don't understand why when someone asks you to do them a favor and you gladly do it for them at your own expense and then they don't even let you know that they received the items they asked for let alone a thank you.
• I don't understand why when you help someone out financially they don't let you know they have received the money, let alone a thank you.
• I don't understand why people say they will stop by your house later today, and then they don't show up, call or anything?  Is that not common courtesy?
• I don't understand a whole lot of things and the older I get the less I understand.  I thought as a person got older that they would understand things better, I understand less and less.
• These are just things that have happened within the last two weeks.

Only God can judge me

It seems that everyone thinks that if they throw out the words don't judge me or only God can judge me that they can continue in what ever behavior they think they are being judged for.  I saw this on Facebook today and thought it was fitting.

I praise thee oh Lord

Psalm 63:3King James Version (KJV)

³ Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.

This

Pretty much

Lone fisherman on Corpus Christi lake

My husband took this picture at dusk last evening at the Corpus Christi Lake.

The deer were out feeding also.  We must of seen at least 30 of them.

Apples, apples every where

Last year I bought three bushels of apples and put them up.  They were and are quite tasty.  I made apple pie filling, applesauce, apple cider vinegar and apple butter.

This year I again bought three bushels of apples and shared half of a bushel with a friend.  I am making dehydrated apples, apple cider vinegar, apple pie filling, applesauce and spiced apple rings.

I canned the applesauce in quart jars last year and this year I plan to can several in half pint jars so they can be taken in lunches.  I am also canning some of the spiced apple rings in half pints as well.  Those things are more of a treat for us and we don't eat tons of it so it made sense to use smaller jars.

I also plan to dehydrate the apple skins and powder them for flavoring foods.  I think I might also make some apple peel jelly.

I've been keeping the dehydrator going for the last few days and it will continue to run until I get done with all these apples.

I think I will take a break from apples next year.  We will see.

I just wish I could get peaches by the bushel.  You would think I could since they are grown not too far north of here.

The story of the little red hen

The little red hen found a seed. It was a little seed. The little red hen found a seed. It was a wheat seed.   The little red hen said, “Who will help me plant the seed?”   The pig said, “Not I.” The cat said, “Not I.” The dog said, “Not I.” The little red hen said, “I will.”   The little red hen said, “Who will cut the wheat?” The pig said, “Not I.” The cat said, “Not I.” The dog said, “Not I.” The little red hen said, “I will then.” And she did.   The little red hen said, “Who will thresh the wheat?” The pig said, “Not I.” The cat said, “Not I.” The dog said, “Not I.” The little red hen said, “I will then.” And she did.   The little red hen said, “Who will grind the wheat?” The pig said, “Not I.” The cat said, “Not I.” The dog said, “Not I.” The little red hen said, “I will then.” And she did.   The little red hen said, “Who will make the bread?” The pig said, “Not I.” The cat said, “Not I.” The dog said, “Not I.” The little red hen said, “I will then.” And she did.   The little red hen said, “Who will eat the bread?” The pig said, “I will.” The cat said, “I will.” The dog said, “I will.” The little red hen said, “You shall not eat the bread. I will eat it.” And she did.