I'm Back!

It's me! It really is! I am so happy to be back with you guys again! This mornings post will be short and sweet but I have a wonderful surprise for you this afternoon!
To quickly update you...no they don't know what is wrong with me yet. I did see the neurologist at UK that specializes in epilepsy. He will be admitting me to the hospital on November 17th for 3 to 5 days.
He will be taking me off of my current medication, he believes these new yucky developments have have come from a reaction from that medication.
He also asked that I come off of my Lexapro....this is a medication that has come from 2001. It started with I think Paxil then Prozac and now Lexapro. Now granted they are VERY small doses but he feels that these medications are causing my weight to fluctuate up and down and he doesn't think they are good for my body. I had tried to come off Lexapro by myself but I get "brain shivers"...I won't try to explain what those are in a blog but they are very real and very scary. So anyway I have a POA to try to come off my small dosage of Lexapro too.
I start coming off my seizure medication shortly before going into the hospital....those days right before the hospital should be fun. Ugghh.

But anyway. I am going to sort of give you guys a present this afternoon. I know I have been promising pix forever and ever of my home. Well before I say goodbye to my fall decorations and start putting my my Christmas ones I wanted to snap some pix so I will post them this afternoon. :-) I am going to start early with getting my Christmas decorations up and do a little at a time since I am still not up to my usual strength and with me having to take a week a the hospital so close to thanksgiving it will put a damper on things. I want to have it all decorated before December 1st so as to sit back and enjoy December with my family. And since we are maybe, possibly, probably running away from home for Thanksgiving weekend that also knocks another weekend out. :-)

So come right on back this evening cuz....I have a special treat for you!

Mama's Jam Cake and Kentucky Cooking and Eatin'

"If beyond the pearly gates, I am permitted to select my place at the table, it will be among Kentuckians." ~Thomas D. Clark

Oh how true that statement is. If you have never been priviledged enough to sit at a Kentucky woman's table and eat then you have yet to really eat my dear one. And for those of us who are blessed to have been born and raised here in this fine bluegrass state well blessed we are indeed! As one of those Kentucky women I have so much pride and joy bringing food to my family and serving friends at my table. I also enjoy bringing dishes to potlucks and to shut - ins and friends and family who are "under the weather".

Nothing beats a Sunday dinner in Kentucky. As a child growing up on my dad's side of the family Sunday dinner would consist of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, green beans, baked beans, corn, cole slaw, biscuits or rolls, sweet potatoes, pies and cakes, deviled eggs, and more. On my mama's side it was meat loaf, mashed potatoes, corn, mac and cheese, and spinach. Mamaw always had peanut butter fudge and potato candy nearby as well! Both meals prepared differently but equally as yummy.

My mother's favorite cake is a Jam Cake. She loves them. At the catholic church picnics (which are a big deal here in Kentucky--if you are catholic or not), we always tried to win a jam cake at the cake wheel. Now the jam cakes always took two tickets, seeing as how they took so many ingredients and time to fix. Well there were many times that mom would just buy the board twice and walk right up there and pick up her jam cake. Some folks wouldn't like that way of doing things but mama would insist that it was fair n square!

Well here is my recipe of my own jam cake. My mother is not a baker but I am and since I am now a mama that is what this recipe is called and I now share it with you.

five eggs, beaten
two cups sugar
three cups flour
one cup butter
one cup buttermilk
one teaspoon soda
one-fourth teaspoon salt
one-half teaspoon cinnamon
one and one-half teaspoon allspice
one cup raisins
one cup chopped walnuts
one cup blackberry seedless jam

Cream butter and gradually stir the sugar in until mixture is light and fluffy. Add well-beaten eggs. Sift flour before measuring and add to the spices and salt. Dissolve soda in buttermilk and add it and the flour mixture alternately to the egg mixture and beat after each addition. Lightly dredge the fruit and nuts with extra flour and add them, with the jam, to the butter mixture. Stir to get good distribution. Grease and lightly dust with flour two 9 inch cake pans--fill to brim with batter. Bake at 325 degree for 40 minutes. Cool layers on racks and ice with caramel icing.

Caramel Frosting for Jam Cake

One and one-half cups firmly packed brown sugar
pinch of salt
one cup butter
three fourths cup flour
one cup heavy cream
one teaspoon vanilla

Mix sugar and flour. Cream butter until light and add sugar mixture, beating well. Mix in heavy cream and put in top of double boiler over boiling water. Stir constantly, and cook until about the thickness of medium cream sauce. Takes about 15 minutes after it melts. Allow to cool completely after cooking. Sets up after it's on the cake for a couple of hours.

Sunday Respite, Weekly Schedule, and more...

I love Sundays. It is the one day a week that we can relax as a family and regroup. Today I did have a shoot but it was with friends so it wasn't like work at all.

Church was nice tonight. I continue to be amazed at what God is doing in the life of my husband. This morning when we woke up I was in the kitchen reading and I heard the tv on in the bedroom. Usually it is on sports or news but it was on a morning preacher! He was in there alone and it was on a televised church service! I keep seeing these signs more and more each day. I keep praying that God will make him the spiritual head of our household.

I had a dream as a child that I would be married to a pastor. My pastor and his wife told me the other day that they see great potential in Kenny. They say that they feel a calling to nurture and help him on his walk. They understand that he is still a baby in his relationship with Christ but feel that God has big things for him. Wow....I just wonder. Oh I don't want to get the cart before the horse and I must remember that I am not in control, God is. I will just continue to pray and let go and let God.

My main goal this week is to focus on our family prayer and Bible reading time. In the morning when I first wake up I am going to be the first to read my Bible. I will pray for God to show me what to share with my family. I will write down what He reveals to me and also a certain scripture for the family to read. I will place this scripture on the refrigerator as the scripture of the day for all the family to see. Then right after our evening meal while we are still all seated we will bring out our Bibles and look up our daily scripture and read it again together. We will discuss the scripture and anything that we want to share together. We will also use this time to take prayer request from family members to start a family prayer list and we will pray this list together as a family every evening.

We are doing good with our new chores and Mattingly Missions. I have ordered Titus 2 books and hope that they give me some good ideas about how to organize my home better. Here is a glimpse into our lives this week...

5:45 AM - Hubby wakes and gets ready for work
6:30 - Mom gets up and starts getting ready for work
6:50 - Mom Bible study
7:05- Mom fixes breakfast and wakes up children
7:15-Eat Breakfast, Mom fixes lunches
7:30 -Kids get ready for school
7:50 - Morning Chores
8:10- off to school and work
=====
3:00-Hubby off work and picks up kids from school
5:00 - Mom off work and heads home (home by 5:15)
***if Monday then we go to the library right after work, if not then supper prep begins right after work
6:30 -Eat dinner
7:00 -Bible Study
*****if Wednesday then we go to church from 7 till 8:30
7:15- Prayer Time
7:30- Evening Chores and any leftover homework
8:00 - Art class on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays (we do this at home)
9:00- Read and then get ready for bed

The menu for this week is going to be kept fairly simple. Today I cut up a pork roast in smaller pieces and rolled them in flour that had been seasoned with garlic, salt, pepper, and several other seasonings and browned them in a skillet and then cooked them in the oven in a brown gravy. I served it with mashed potatoes and brocoli, carrots, cauliflower w/cheese. It was pretty yummy. Here is the menu for the rest of the week.

Monday - Breakfast -- fried egg, Lunch -- leftovers or lean cuisine, Dinner -- since it is library day I will put chicken breasts in the crockpot with a brown gravy and cook them all day while I am at work and serve it with scalloped potatoes.

Tuesday - Breakfast -- pancakes and sausage, Lunch -- hotpockets, Dinner -- leftovers (my friends are taking me out for my birthday so my family will eat leftovers tonight)

Wednesday - Breakfast -- cereal, Lunch --hotpockets, Dinner - at church

Thursday - Breakfast -- fried egg, Lunch -- sandwich, Dinner - fried chicken tenderloins, brown gravy, mashed potatoes, brocoli and cheese

Friday - Breakfast -- pancakes and sausage, Lunch - leftovers, Dinner- meatloaf, mashed potatoes

Well that's about it for this week. I will talk to you guys tomorrow.

Super Saturday

Saturdays around here are the big chore day. Although all days except for Sunday and Wednesday have chores assigned. Everyone has chores but it seems that mom and the kids get the brunt of most of them. But daddy sometimes has to mow yards and do other yard work, etc. Plus it seems that chores seem to fall more on the ladies of the house for some reason.
On Saturdays our chores are as follows:
Jessica - shine all wood surfaces in house, sweep kitchen, clean all first floor windows, laundry, tidy room, clean toilets, put away her clothes, wipe down walls in hall and kitchen, wipe doorknobs and light switches
Jenna- sweep house, clean all first floor windows, tidy room, clean sink and counters in bathroom, put away her clothes, wipe down walls in hall and kitchen, wipe doorknobs and light switches, clean bathroom mirrors
Mom - clean out refrigerator and freezer, inventory freezer and pantry, plan meals for upcoming week, scrub kitchen, bathe dog, vacuum upstairs and downstairs, cook meals,
Dad - mop kitchen, mop hardwood floors
Each day some chores are repeated and others are new for the day.

Today hubby and I also went to visit our pastor's sister-in-law's house. They were having a get together to celebrate her new home. They served yummy food and her house is very beautiful. It was good to spend the evening together with Christian people who love the Lord.

The girls are at Mamaws tonight. I wanted them to just visit for the day but they wanted to stay all night. They like to sleep over there. It will be up to hubby to pick them up tomorrow because I will be preparing for a shoot. I have a family coming over at 12:30 tomorrow for my sis and I to do family portraits of them. We are going to shoot a few here in our in house studio and then we are heading out to a park nearby for some off location shots.

This upcoming week will be pretty hectic with some meetings and things that we have planned. OES in LJ is wanting me to serve as Chaplain this year and I told them I would but I am thinking about calling her or telling them Monday evening that I feel it would be best if I did not serve at this time due to my illness. I am going to try to only do church, work, home and a few photo shoots and that's it. I want to destress and focus on getting better.

The last princess foundation banquet is coming up very soon. It will be a busy time coming up over the next few weeks. I look forward to the banquet this year but it will be sad as we say goodbye after seven years of service to the children. www.princessfoundation.org

Well I guess that is it for now. I will leave you with a post on an idea to help keep the kids rooms under control as far as toys and clutter. Give the kids time to clean thier rooms and get everything in its proper place. Then call them to you and ask them if they have thier rooms ready for inspection. Of course they will say yes. Explain to them that anything that is not in its proper place will be placed in a large bag that will go into storage for at least a month. Tell them they have five minutes to go back into their room and make sure it is in order, set a timer and give them five minutes. At the end of the five minutes get a large garbage bag, have the children leave their room so they cannot watch what you put in the bag. Go in the room and anything that is out of place pick up and put in the bag to be put in a storage/hiding place for at least a month. I tried this and most of the time they couldn't even tell what was missing at first. After a few times of this practice they will get used to picking up there toys unless they want to loose them for awhile. The key also is while you have the toys away from them go through the bag and see what is broken and can be thrown away or what you feel can be given to Goodwill.

Remembering

Today I had to take an FMLA day at work as I was dizzy and the headaches came and went today. Sometimes I had lack of use in both arms. But there were small bursts of good times throughout the day that I was able to do one load of laundry and wash the dishes. I mostly read today and took a nap and remembered. I was thinking back to some of my childhood times. I also spent sometime daydreaming and thinking about the garden for next year and what I would plant and about winter for this year and of course about how we were going to pay all of these wonderful doc bills.....especially if I had to take very many of these FMLA no pay days.

But I wanted to share with you guys a few of these memories I thought of today. One of these was wash days. I can barely remember as a child not having a washing machine (well not like we have now a days anyway). We lived with my mamaw, my mom and I did. One day a week was wash day and my aunt would come by and do her wash on that day too...she didn't have a washing machine either. If I am not mistaken it was Saturday that was wash day. So Mamaw, Mom, and Aunt Shelia would do washing on Saturday. Sherri and I would be there to but we were just kids and we would help some but we most would just fetch this and fetch that for the grown ups. Mamaw would get the big wringer washer and it would be in the kitchen of the pink house on church street. There was a big washer tub that held the soap and that is where the dirty clothes went and they were scrubbed clean there and then they were picked up one by one and put through the wringer and then dropped into the rinse bucket and then put through the wringer again and then out to the line they went. Now those were some clean clothes. But I swear those clothes could stand up on their own!

Another memory I have is winter time at mamaws. We were not a family with much money back then but we always made do. We would usually heat one or two rooms of the house and the rest of the house was sealed off with blankets that hung on the door frames. They were hung up by thumb tacks. I still practice this at my house by sealing off the front door every winter with a big wool blanket....I secure it with thumb tacks. Everyone knows to use the back door. If you don't know then you aren't someone I want to visit me anyway :-) But there is a sign up that says to come to the back door. Our front door is old and it would take a lot of money to replace it and its side lights and there are many other things that need our attention right now so it waits...and waits...and waits. But back to mamaws house in the winter, she heated with an old oil furnace so it is a wonder we didn't all die of carbon monoxide poisoning. But we survived.

At the age of about 7 I guess, my mother married a man with a really good job and over time our financial situation improved with the occasional layoff here and there. But the best times of my childhood were back at mamaws when we were poor and happy.

I also remember as a child at my fraternal mamaws when it would rain or storm we would go out to their large front porch (they were a little more well off so to say) we would sit and watch the rain. It was all so peaceful and I felt so safe. I could sit and listen to the rain hit the roof and see mamaw and papaw in their rocking chairs and all the aunts and uncles sitting around talking and telling stories. Those were the good old days. I spend my weekends there with my father. Since my mom and dad were divorced I lived a double life, one with one type of family and one with another. On the weekends I would welcome the rain, during the week the rain would make me cringe and cry. During the week if it rained it meant that my step father would be "rained out" from his job and he would be home when I got home from school. I would be a nervous wreck all the way home and when I got off the bus I would wish for anything to come and take me away rather than to have to walk through the door of my home to face him. But I learned ways to deal with him and shut him and the world away during the week. Rain during the week was terrible. It was awful. But I grew up into who I am and he has no control over me now. He did then and for awhile into my adulthood I let him continue to control me and make me think I was less than who I am but once I realized that he wasn't worth it I quickly let go and let God. I can now sit ANY DAY OF THE WEEK and let the rain wash over me and feel at peace and know that God is in control and that man has no dominion over me anymore! I am free in the name of JESUS! :-)

Welcome, pull up a seat and break some beans....

I can remember as a child at my Mamaw and Papaws house sitting on the back patio, visitors would come and visit....often. Mamaw and Papaws house was always bustling with family and friends....for that matter I guess it often still is.

But anyway in the summer time we would sit out on the back patio. The water well was there and it was covered with a concrete patio and it was on this patio that sat all of the patio chairs. They were metal and a light green in color. We would all sit out there and visit in the evenings. People would come and go, cars would pull in and out of the long drive that led up to the small brick house (of course back then I thought it was huge). As each person would come they were added to the flock of worker bees who were breaking beans with mamaw. You see over half of mamaw's back yard was a garden. It was by far the largest garden I have ever seen in a back yard before. She had rows and rows of green beans and that meant buckets and buckets of beans that needed to be broken and "destrung". So as we sat on the back patio....we broke beans. It didn't matter your age....you were taught to break beans. For weeks the beans were broke...then for days the beans were canned.

As I sat on the back porch again tonight slicing apples to be put up for winter I thought back to those times when neighbors and friends stopped by so often to visit each other. That doesn't happen anymore does it? Back then it just wasn't uncommon for a car to pull up several times a day and a visitor to step out (family or friend). Now I will go days, weeks without a soul coming to visit. It is rather sad really. We have become so secluded in our world today. Maybe we thing we no longer need each other. Maybe we are just to scared...maybe the world has gotten to the point that we just can't trust anyone. Or maybe, just maybe we have found our friends in the television screen....in the internet....and we lost the real thing along the way?

I was very thankful today that I came in from work to find that Nana had sent home a casserole for supper. That meant I didn't have to cook...yahoo! I fixed some corn muffins to go with it and headed out to the back deck to work on the apples. When finished I came back in and finished up some chores and then my mother stopped by to give hubby his birthday gift. I sent some supper home with her so she wouldn't have to cook either and she greatly appreciated it.

The girls didn't complete all of their chores today so they have to move some of them to tomorrow. Tomorrow is church night so they didn't have any scheduled but now they have a few that they must complete before I get home.

We got our new water heater put in today. Nothing wrong with the other one but we are converting to all electric. We cannot afford gas this year. We are going to bless a needy family with our gas water heater that is still in good shape. Our heat/air pump will be put in tomorrow...praise God!

A friend of mine commented today on how bad the tires on the jeep looked. I simply must find a way to come up with the money to replace the tires soon! I will pray that God will make a way. He always does. Until then I will pray that He will keep us safe.

Due to the weather outage some friends of ours have lost all of their freezer foods. So I am going to go through the freezer this weekend and try to come up with some items to share with them. I need to defrost the freezer anyway and this will force me to do it. The freezer is at the very brim and Angel food is next month.

In the morning I simply must get up really early and get the house cleaned up a little more since the workers will be here while we are away working on the heat/air. I am always nervous when strangers are in my home. :-)

Well I guess I better log off....God bless!

apples, apples, and more apples

Well yesterday was Monday (like you didn't know that already) and it was library day. Youngest picked out a kids' halloween book and a mouse book. Oldest picked out a couple of math books. I picked out a read along family book, two books on the great depression, a Janet Oke book, and of course our usual kids audio for the car rides. Once we got back home we jumped in to chores and finishing up dinner. I had put in a roasted chicken in the crock before I went to work so it was just getting the side dishes ready so it wasn't too bad. Hubby was busy outside getting the aftermaths of hurricane Ike out of our yard. Here in KY we aren't used to that kind of wind unless it is in a circular pattern and it has a cow sucked up in the middle! :-) (sometimes a trailer)
Once we got dinner finished and chores complete I headed out to the back porch with salt water and an apple peeler corer slicer in hand to tackle the two big garbage bags of apples that were picked from Mamaws apple tree. I sat out ther for over an hour slicing away and only finished one garbage bag. But I yielded three large gallon freezer bags full of nice sliced apples. It will be nice to have those for fried apple pies and baked apple pies and fried apples throughout the coming winter months. The tree still has several nice big apples at the top that we need to get to but we need a ladder. Since I am afraid of heights and with my "seizure activity" it would not be a good idea for me to be the once to climb the ladder. Maybe hubby will go get the rest for me in the next few days. He has been in a yucky mood though so I have been staying out of his way. The old grumpy bear! :-)
Well I gotta log off and get ready for work. It seems my work never ends and I never have a moments rest or peace but thats okay because God is blessing me. Last night when I cleaned up my apple mess on the back porch (hubby was quick to tell me I had better get this mess cleaned up before I come in) I pulled my aching back up straight and thanked God for a good day of hard work. I thanked him for food for my family and for providing for each and every one of us. I went inside and of course hubby and the girls starting hollering for this and that and I smiled and answered their calls one by one. :-)

Christ Centered - Family Focused

Well we have implemented our new Mattingly Mission... "Christ Centered - Family Focused". We started yesterday. It is working well so far. I have started our binder but haven't finished it yet. I promise pix when I am done. But any way the kids and hubby seem to be embracing the whole system fairly well.
Even five year old is pulling her weight. They seem to realize that mommy cannot do it all. :-) Maybe it takes a illness like what I have been through to get them to realize this. I still wish so much that I could be home full time with my children. Oh how I would love to be a homeschooling stay at home mom. I feel like I could be such a blessing to my husband in this way and I feel that my health would improve as well. But I don't see it happening anytime soon.
Until then I feel that I am doing the best I can with what I have been given.
We finished the craft center this weekend YAHOO. The kids go to a private school that used the PACE curriculumn. Unfortunately they do not have an art class. But that's okay we are studying art at home. This weekend we went to Michaels and purchased enough to get us started. We bought finger paint and paper, tempera paints and paper, oil pastels and paper, sand, funnels, sand art necklaces, modeling clay, markers, construction paper, foam, fabric, ribbons, and several odds and ends. Today the kids worked on an oil pastel drawing for their father for his birthday.
I made more homemade detergent today, a bottle of kitchen cleaner (vinegar, liquid soap, warm water), a bottle of bathroom cleaner (the same mixture just kept in the bathroom), a bottle of shower spray (alcohol and water - to be used each time you get out of the shower), a bottle of detangle spray (a small amount of conditioner and water in a spray bottle)....each bottle is a different color and is clearly marked not just with letters but pictures as well for the five year old.
After this container of powdered laundry detergent is used up I am going to move to homemade liquid laundry detergent. I think it will work out better for my family now that the oldest is in charge of the laundry.
We will be getting all of our October/Halloween decorations out soon. We love to decorate for halloween....I know many of you are probably going to comment back that you can't believe I go all out for halloween but I do. I really enjoy the season and I like the pumpkins and fun that go along with it. We like the whole halloween thing and have a lot of fun with it. WE don't do the whole scary thing but we decorate and camp and trick or treat at the camp grounds. It's fun and we enjoy it.
Well I had better sign off for now it is getting late and I am wanting to get up early in the morning.

I found one!

Well the kids (and hubby and I) have been looking for a WII system. We had pretty much decided amoungst ourselves that if we could find one that we would buy it and it would be our Christmas give to all of us. This would pretty much max out our Christmas budget but it would be something our whole family would enjoy.
Well today I received a call from a friend who works at Meijer and they just received a shipment in. So straight after work I ran up there and bought one. It is hiding at mamaws house so the girls don't know we have it...hee hee.
It will be so much fun. And now my Christmas shopping for the girls, me and hubby is done. All in one fell swoop. I already have several little things that I have purchased throughout the year that have just been a couple of bucks on clearance that will fill the gap of no gifts to open but the one.
I am so excited.

Also at Meijer today they had their 10 for $10 and their 11th free so I stocked up on a few items. Not much but a few. I placed angel food order last night at church. It was a good month but we are low on money with my sickness so I didn't order much this time but thank the Lord our pantry and freezer are full.

The furnace/air guy came out today and gave us our estimate on replacing our old gas furnace and air conditioner. God is good in that his bid was high but our friend called him and got it reduced by an additional $1100 for us! yah!

We finished our photos from our previous shoot....finally!! Yahoo.
Our next photo shoot is next weekend. I can't wait. I hope our business really takes off. I think it will and I think we are pretty good!

Well gotta go. I am tired and tomorrow is Friday and hopefully I will have a productive weekend of homemaking!

Where does the time go?

Well I had every intention of getting so many things caught up and started this week since I am starting to feel better this week. But the photo shoot follow up has been taking a lot longer than I anticipated. I worked Sunday night and last night and again tonight. I know the more shoots I do the less time it will take me but whew...this is hard work :-).
But anyway, I have managed to cook a nice supper for three nights in a row! Tonight we had baked chicken breast with fresh banana peppers and salsa topping, fresh fried corn, and mac in cheese, yummy.
I didn't get any more tomatoes put up tonight though nor did I get any of the Mattingly mission notebook done today as it was a very busy day at work. But the kids and hubby are fed and the house is "sort of" clean. The pix have been turned over to my sister/partner and I won't have anything to do with them until tomorrow evening or maybe even Thursday. Church is tomorrow night but hopefully I can squeeze some stuff in and get some stuff caught up.
I am a little off today but I keep trusting that God will heal me.
I know a lot of my problems are my medication and the side effects. I trust in Him and know that He is in control.
Hubby's bday is this Sunday and I want to do something special for him (my dad's is the same day! ). Our work is having a day at the zoo so maybe if it doesn't rain we can head up there....we shall see...I will start working on plans for that as well.
So little time....so much to do!