Me Time

Clouds While Boating
August 17, 2007

I'm into the heavier canning season so spent much of the weekend cooking and canning. Keeping the motivation at a high level can sometimes be a problem this time of year at the best of times but I'm still tired from our move and settling in so fighting procrastination is a daily thing. One of the grocery stores have a sale on pork shoulder roasts at $1 per pound so that has been a good motivator. I canned up five test jars on Sunday (picture and method here) after a slow cook. It was a nice break from canning tomatoes. We are taking advantage of this sale so my husband brought home 16.4 lbs for $16.40 regular price of $53.96, a substantial savings. It's in the oven now slow cooking for canning later this evening.

With no tomatoes to process today and having no one home, I've decided on a little "me" time while I wait for the roast to cook. After filling the bird feeders, I'll do a walk-about the gardens, camera in hand. Then I'm going to settle in on the dock for an hour or two flipping through a couple of home improvement and scrapbooking magazines listening to the sounds of the water and pausing to catch the sights. It should be a very relaxing and reflective afternoon.

Enjoy your day!

Tagged Again :)

Billowing Clouds
July 18, 2007

Dana over at Southern Gal Goes North tagged me for this meme. Goodness, I tempted to use Gnome. In the spirit of the meme I followed the rules so there are five tagged bloggers :)

RULES: You have to post these rules before you give the facts. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog post containing your own middle name game facts. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged and to read your blog.

Here goes:
Mac user :)
Amateur photographer
Really enjoys Harry Potter books
Independant
Establishing a gnome empire ;)

I've tagged:

1. Mike from Mike's Blender - Japan
2. Castaway from Run-a-bout
3. Sandy Carlson from Writing in Faith
4. another mac user (sorry can't find their name) from The Loquacious Curmudgeon
5. Jade from Jaded Sunburns
   

Have fun!

Thinking Straight

Clouds
July 29, 2007

Have you ever had so many things on the go that you can't think straight? Of course everyone has this happen from time to time in their lives. So you know the feeling. With the quickly approaching anniversary party there are so many things happening it's hard to know where to begin and what to do next. Getting the house and yards ready as well as menu planning along with the logistics of a large party has not been without a few set backs.

Tuesday I was making progress with painting. The family room is now finished so I've moved to the upper level landing and lower level bathroom. At the same time the upper level family room has been prepped for painting. So after painting Tuesday afternoon, I decided to take a quick swim before doing more work. The water was wonderful...then it happened. The waves had washed up something likely a rock or broken glass that found its way into the archway of my foot. Eight stitches later and hobbling around, things came to a bit of a stand still Wednesday but I was back at it yesterday. A lot of progress should be made today with the help of my husband and our son.

Wordless Wednesday - Wispy Clouds

Wispy Clouds
July 22, 2007

Wordless Wednesday - Clouds

Clouds
July 5, 2007

Stormy...

Storm Clouds
April 10, 2007

As many of you know I have been undergoing a lot of dental work lately, something not really appreciated given my dental phobia. You will also know we have our house on the market so there is more stress then. Well, yesterday I spent a lovely two and a half hours bonding with my dentist. He froze then added more then added more until he was up to a total of five additions just to get my mouth froze enough to work on it. I'm classified as hard to freeze and despite the extra, most of my left lower side was unfrozen by the time I left his office. So that was my fun afternoon. The position in the chair had really aggravated my cervical injury so all I wanted to do was get home and lay down. I was not impressed when he said I need a crown for the one tooth to the tune of $850 CDN and that's after paying $375 yesterday. The worst part is the freezing makes me physically sick to my stomach. When I got home I thought perhaps I should keep moving knowing that it would help so decided cooking would take my mind off of everything. I nicely hauled out all the packages of chicken breasts to remove the skin and bones when the real estate agent called wanting to show the house at 7 giving me time to do the spit and shine but no cooking and perhaps enough time for a half hour nap. I just finished the spit and shine when she called again and asked if they could go through earlier. I was in tears! The showing went well so after they left I crashed on the couch somehow despite the pain blissfully drifted off to sleep with the food channel playing in the background.

Today's tick off concerns genealogy even though I am still in pain. I thought between cooking and genealogy today would at least be productive. A few years ago I wrote a very detailed essay that I want to include in my book. I know the hard copy was sitting on the printer but I have somehow misplaced it. I thought I had a back-up copy in Word but since changing over to Mac have not found it in the documents. Not being able to find these kind of things really irritates me as I tend to be a very organized person. So I now have to spend my time searching through drawers and computer files.

On the bright side, I must be doing something right with my blogs. My cooking blog got it's very first spam comment! It was very long so I lost interest after the first sentence but I really do promise to go back and read it (not!). It was by someone named Anonymous which is a pretty neat name. Thanks to Anonymous I now know everything that is wrong with the world and why. I can see a whole generation of kids being called Anonymous just because so many of their parents have communicated with this really cool person.

Interesting Clouds

Clouds
March 25, 2007

Winter has returned here despite a couple of very warm days early last week. By mid-week we had hail and fallen temperatures. Easter brought colder temperatures and snow. The cold spell has lasted all this week which is both good and bad for me. There are things that need to be done outside but it's too cold. Snow was predicted for yesterday and again today. On the bright side I've been able to focus on tasks indoors.

Fluffy Clouds

Clouds
Mar 29, 2007

It has been a whirlwind of activity here! Our kids have been down to help do a massive clean-out in preparation for listing the house. We had two family Easter gatherings and our first grandbaby was baptized Easter Sunday. The poor little angel is so exhausted from being passed around from person to person. They were down to help me on Wednesday, went home for doctor's appointments, then back down early Friday morning. She's becoming quite the globe trotter at 3 months of age! Despite all the work, stress and activity we so enjoyed all the kids home. That's what it is all about.

Today is the dog & pony show as one of my kids call it. The house was officially listed yesterday so around 11:30 am all the agents from the real estate firm will be parading through the house. I seriously hate the process of selling. People always comment on your stuff, decorating choices and homemaking skills even though they should be looking at the house itself. It's still our home but while listed I view it more as a house waiting to become a home. I think that is the only way I can deal with the process of selling.

Have a great day!

The Sky

Sunset and Clouds

I'm always looking to the sky not only to see what is to be but to reinforce what I am blessed to have. As a gardener I know the sky reveals a lot about the day's weather but as a person the sky reveals more sometimes. Sunrises give hope and faith that that day will be fine. Sunsets give peace and comfort in a day well spent surrounded by those I love and cherish. Then there is the night skies! They are so fascinating that I could easily spend hours outside watching them with the telescope pondering about those who went before us and those who will be. So for me, the sky is God's church where all are welcomed but it is also a connection to my ancestors and my past.\