A Little of This & A Little of That

 
For lunch the last two days, I made a variation of the Summer Salad from one of my favorite blogs.  One of these days (when I think ahead), I'll write out my shopping list and make the recipe the way that it is listed.  The ingredients I used in my quick throw together were: romaine lettuce, strawberries, goat cheese, and sweet & sour salad dressing.  The goat cheese is what had really inspired me and it is amazing on salad.  Yummy!!!

Pumpkin & Princess are playing castle this evening with the couch cushions.  Pumpkin is delighting in knocking the castle down around Princess, which of course elicits a high pitched scream from Princess.

Getting ready to pan-fry some catfish, have fresh green beans cooking, and loaf of sourdough bread awaiting on the counter.  If I feel energetic enough, I'll make a loaf or two of chocolate chip banana bread this evening.

Dad is in a regular hospital room now and is doing great today.  We had a great conversation earlier this afternoon about a little of this and a little of that.  

Well, I guess supper won't cook itself.  Have a lovely week!

Well . . . .

What a week!  Valentine's Day seems like it was years ago.  It was a good day though.  

The kids unwrapped the game Candy Land and it has been played almost every day since.  It is very good at teaching counting, colors, and taking turns.  Although, Pumpkin really does not want to draw the card on top, but we are working on that.  I think Pumpkin is addicted to the game.  Princess also enjoys it, thankfully she is not as competitive as Pumpkin when it comes to winning.  So, I only have one child to try to soothe during the game. 

Hubby got me a box of six fresh, chocolate dipped strawberries.  Yummy!  I sort of lacked this year in my gift giving.  He got a 12 pack of Dr. Pepper and a bag of Poppycock, but in my defense his birthday is in a little over a week and I got something GREAT for it.

Wednesday afternoon is when everything went downhill.  Dad was taken to the hospital and spent many hours in the emergency room before he was transferred to the intensive care unit.  The doctors have run many tests and think that he has viral encephalitis.  So he remains in intensive care for the time being.  He has been taken off of his chemotherapy regimen.  As usual cancer sucks, but we have to keep moving along even if it is slowly but surely.  My grandma, aunt and I have been visiting him off and on each day.  After hubby gets home from work, I'll head over for a visit with dad.  We are very thankfully for all of the prayers and words of encouragement.

We are also still working on getting ready for my sister's impending move.  Sounds like tomorrow evening or Monday now.  Hello, live-in cleaning fairy!!!!!! (wink, wink) 

Busy Day

Today has been busy!  Daddy went out and got donuts for breakfast.  Yummy!  Pumpkin, Princess, and I went to church.  While daddy headed out to the farm to help his dad check on some sick cattle.  

Pastor had a great sermon today.  He is not one of those ministers that just stands behind the pulpit reading his notes.  He steps down into the aisle and preaches with variation of volume and uses his hands and facial expressions to bring life to his sermons as he moves about the church.  What an amazing man!  After church we go to Sunday school.  The kids to their class and me to the younger adult class.  It is a wonderful time to spend together and explore scripture as it applies to our daily lives.  I like to sit back and listen more than use my voice, but everyone is different.

We had an interesting lunch.  Princess ate half of a banana, then decided she was tired so off to bed she went.  Pumpkin had half a cheese toastie with a slice of American cheese and a bowl of cheese crackers.  Daddy had a cheese toastie with two slices of provolone cheese and vegetable barley soup. And I had a cheese toastie with a slice of provolone and a slice of American cheese with tomato soup.  Cheese toasties are so good on a cold winter's day.

After Pumpkin headed to his room for quiet time.  I went down to the basement and got the Christmas decorations finally put away.  I had whisked them downstairs on New Year's Day, but wanted to wait until we found most of the Christmas stuff before I took the time to put it away properly.  I got the twin bed in the great room made and placed a new light weight comforter on it that I found on clearance yesterday.  It is is beautiful shade of light green and Princess will be able to use it later time.  Right now the northern half of the great room is the cleanest place in the house.  I'm sure my sister will be quite surprised.  

I still need to work on cleaning the southern half of the great room and clean the sun room today.  Plus we have a mound of laundry waiting for its turn in the washer.  I guess Rome wasn't built in a day and our house will not be clean in a day either.

My messenger bag sewing project maybe delayed again.  I had to move the sewing machine table to make room for the twin bed.  The new location does not allow the top to open.  So my options are I will either need to move the sewing machine to sew, borrow my grandma's sewing machine that is not attached to a table, or delay the project.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to supper tonight.  I am making creamy lemon chicken pasta, fresh asparagus and have some crusty bread.  We also have some leftover cupcakes and pudding in the refrigerator for dessert.  Oh heaven!!!!!!

Changes Are A Coming!

I do not know why I have this way of jinxing myself, but I do.  Sunday, I was so looking forward to Monday- to have a day to relax and chill out from the ups and downs from the week before.  Alas, it was not meant to be.  Within the span of two hours the world seemed to be caving in.  I figure you have two choices in life, either laugh or cry.  A majority of the time I am laughing.  And I've laughed A LOT this week!

Monday was a pretty typical day, up until about 6:00 p.m. then the chaos started.  I stopped by my maternal grandma's to drop a piece of paper off before heading to the grocery store and my aunt called.  Dad was not feeling well and she was planning to stay the night with him.  So she asked me to check in on my paternal grandma and make sure she got her evening medications which included an insulin shot. 

So I continued on and went to the grocery store.  I had six items on the list in my hand and managed to forget the first two items on the list- butter and eggs.  I got back home and was getting ready to go to grandma's when my sister showed up.  I love my sister, she is such a sweetheart.  Well, she stopped to ask if she could move in with us for a while with her cat and dog.  Like I said I love my sister, so it really was not a question of yes or no, but when.  

Then I headed off to my grandma's house.  The evening pills were placed in a dish, the garbage was taken out for the next morning, dinner was put away, and "Muttly" (my dad's nickname for my aunt's dog) was taken out for a potty break.  I did manage to give my grandma her insulin shot.  I had no idea what I was doing, so I carefully read the directions step by step.  Then apologized as I gave her the shot, which thankfully she said did not hurt.  So grandma and I both survived the en devour.

My aunt called around 12:30 a.m on Tuesday and dad was on his way to the hospital.  The chemotherapy meds and some other meds were not agreeing with each other, but they got it straightened out and dad went home on Thursday afternoon.  Looks like his bone marrow transplant will be sometime in April.

Now we are preparing for three more into our household.  Hubby and I talked and my sister had three options for sleeping- the couch, move a bed into Pumpkin's room, or move a bed into the great room.  We decided to moved a spare mattress from the basement into the great room.  So this afternoon, I moved furniture around the house, cleaned off the mantle above the gas fireplace, and cleaned the top of the buffet.  Pumpkin is sup-possibly allergic to cats so we will see how it goes.  There is still much more to do, but I think I'm taking a break.

Well I know better than to say I want to kick back and relax again.  So instead I think I will say: I plan to laugh and laugh and laugh and one of these days it will get easier.

Time To Kick Back . . .

. . . with a chocolate cherry coke and celebrate surviving this last week!

Surgery, allergies, 2nd child's birthday, cleaning/baking, children's joint birthday party, and 1st child's birthday!  I am so excited to think, I do not have to clean a single thing in my house tomorrow!  Although, I wish I had a few extra days to kick back and relax!

Things that I'm proud of this week:  
1) Making homemade birthday party hats!  That is an amazing feeling!

2) Not losing my sanity!

3) Saying what the heck and living with a not too tidy house for a house full of company.  Besides they are not going to remember how messy it is, just the laughter and memories that they had while visiting.

Pumpkin's birthday has been full of LOTS and LOTS of sugar!  We had donuts for breakfast, he got a donut after children's time at church (that was totally by a miracle of God), Pumpkin & Princess's Sunday school teacher made cupcakes to celebrate their birthdays.  Then he conned daddy into giving him a cupcake for lunch.  And guess what he wanted for supper . . . a cupcake.  I told him that he had to eat something healthy today, so he decided on cheese toasties and celery with peanut butter.  Hahahaha!  Well I guess he knows what he wants!

He finally was able to open presents by himself.  He did not have to share the limelight with his sister and he did not have to watch his sister open presents this time.  That has been the hardest concept for him to grasp this week and it had made him quite cranky at times.  But we successful made it through!

One highlight of the day . . . my dad stopped by for a visit this afternoon!  It was so nice outside (about 50 degrees) that hubby, dad, and I sat outside.  We had an hour long visit while gazing over the wintry pond and landscape.  You have to treasure these small little memories!  

Next up is Valentine's Day, then daddy's birthday before the month is over.  I think that we will start a new tradition this year, with Valentine's Day being family game night.  I bought Candyland for the kids to unwrap.  Shhhhhhh . . . it's a surprise!  That way the kids get to celebrate loving their family together, since they will learn soon enough in school that it is a holiday to celebrate but may not understand quite why.

Well Downton Abby will be on PBS soon, so I want to be ready to watch this addicting show!  Have a wonderful evening!