For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows grace and favor and glory - honor, splendor and heavenly bliss! No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

Psalms 84:11

Friday, July 31, 2009

We have a WINNER!

The winner of the hand painted step stool is Angela! CONGRATS!

Here's what she had to say about selecting her new step stool:

"That was actually easier than I thought it would be. My son would definitely love the train!"

Chugga chugga CHOO CHOO! I hope he loves it! :)

Just send me your mailing address and I'll get it out to you ASAP.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

3 Quick Things to do with Blueberries!

First, a reminder! I'm drawing names for the winner of a fabulous hand painted step stool tomorrow morning! So if you haven't entered yet, you might wanna. There aren't that many entries so you're chances of winning are excellent! :)

Now on to bluer topics. BLUE BERRIES! Around here they're in season and it seems like this year in particular they're huge and juicy! And cheap! I just picked up a bunch of them at Safeway for $1.99, plus they're local! You really have to work hard to find a good reason not to buy them!

But then you get them home and you have to figure out what to DO with them. So here are my 3 quick easy things to do with blueberries.

#1 - Freeze them! Just wash them up, pick off any stems or bad berries, throw them in a ziplock and straight to the freezer they go! I love doing this because then I have yummy blueberries all winter to use in muffins or pancakes or whatever.

#2 - Make Blueberry Crisp! It's like apple crisp but with blueberries. Mix 5 cups of berries with 4 T of sugar in a casserole dish, then make up a crumble topping consisting of 1/2 cup of rolled oats, 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1/4 cup of flour, 1/2 teaspoon of whatever spice you like (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice are all good choices), then cut in 1/4 cup of butter until it reaches a crumbly consistency. Sprinkle the crumbles over the top of the berries, then pop it in a 375 degree oven for 30 minutes. Easy peasy! And EXCELLENT with vanilla ice cream!

#3 - Blueberry Muffins! There are tons of great recipes for them out there, just pick one and go with it. Here's one to get you started.

Need another excuse to go buy blueberries? Here's my recipe for blueberry pie!

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Harvest = Busy Times For Me

I've been picking, and pickling, and canning for the past week. WHEW! My feet hurt, my back hurts, my arms hurt, my fingers hurt, Oh, and my house is a total train wreck. But I have beautiful jars of preserved goodness, and my sanity is still intact.

I also have a broken toe. Yes, that's right, a broken toe. I was playing with Anya, and as we were playing she was getting closer and closer to the arm of the couch. I didn't think she'd fall over it, she's pretty aware of her surroundings. But wouldn't ya know? She fell HEAD FIRST over the edge, and I rushed up to catch her and heard a painful crack from my pinky toe. I failed to catch Anya, so she fell. She landed on her back and immediately cracked up laughing! So really I broke my toe for nothing! Thankfully it doesn't hurt unless I bump it into something. I probably would be just fine with it... if I didn't have 2 crazy herding dogs with big feet and twin toddlers and lots of canning to do. But I'm coping. So it's all good. Sorta.

BUT! There is a bright spot on the horizon! Not this coming weekend, but the weekend after that, Hubs and I are GOING AWAY! BY OURSELVES!!! Seriously, can't wait! It will be the first time we've left the girls overnight, so of course I'm a bit nervous about that, but they're gonna be with my folks so I'm sure they'll have a blast. We had originally thought about going to Seattle, but then I thought I'd rather go to the beach. So I looked into Seaside, but there's a huge volleyball tournament going on there that weekend and all the hotels are charging double their normal rate. Plus we're not huge volleyball fans, and I'm sure there will be huge crowds of fans there that weekend... so we're going to Newport instead! I'm SO excited! When I was a young sprout we spent many a weekend in Newport, but I haven't been there in a long LONG time. So it'll be fun to see what's stayed the same and what's changed over the years. I'm trying to convince Hubs that we should go deep sea fishing. I've never been, and I actually think it sounds like fun. But I'm sure whatever we do we'll have a good time, cause that's just how things tend to go when we're together.

I'm actually trying not to dwell on looking forward to it too much, because who knows what will happen between now and then. Just trying to live each day full up to it's brim with activity and lean on Him for support when I need it (seems like I need it a lot lately).

Just a little reminder, I'm giving away a super cute hand painted children's step stool on my blog on Friday. There's not a huge number of entries so everyone who comes by and enters has a really good chance at winning! Just click the link up at the top of my blog (for those of you reading this on FB notes http://theatoztwins.blogspot.com).

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Life is Just a Hill of Beans

After 2 days of canning beans I think I'm finally done. At least with the current crop. There's still more out there that I haven't picked yet. I've made a dozen pint jars of pressure canned green and wax beans and 10 pint jars of dilled beans. And I'm already starting to formulate plans to make some blueberry butter & syrup. I found a recipe where you use the same batch of berries to make both things. And Hubs LOVES blueberry syrup!

But I might just make a blueberry pie instead. Or crisp, or...

Anyway, I'm beat. So my plan for today is to do absolutely nothing. I haven't even taken pictures of my canned bean accomplishment, but I'm sure you can picture those lovely jars of preserved garden goodness just fine.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Update On My Mental Status

Ok, just thought I should let everyone know that I'm feeling a bit better since I posted this morning. Hubs got to his Dr. appointment early and was able to be seen and get back home. Then he sent me out to get the emissions on his truck checked and go grocery shopping. While I was gone he cleaned up the house, all I have left to do is the bathrooms. Hopefully that doesn't land him on the couch for the next few days (which may happen anyway since he's catching that cold).

I wasn't able to get the pressure gauge tested today. I thought it would be an easy drive to the county extension office, a 2 minute test, and then drive home (it's about 30 min. away). But no. I have to make an appointment with a specific person who doesn't work on Mondays or visit their next clinic at a local farm on Wednesday. They suggested I call back tomorrow and find out if someone will be in who can help me. I'm seriously wishing Home Depot or Lowes would offer this kind of service so that I could get it done on my time frame, but apparently that's just not how it's done. So my beans will just have to wait another day... and I hate waiting. Obviously.

The Pressure is ON!

I had a horrible no good rotten day yesterday. I got my pressure canner in the mail on Saturday, and yesterday I realized that my whole life right now feels like a pressure cooker. The steam is building, and pretty soon something will have to give otherwise I'll simply explode.

Let me give you a little back story. I haven't been writing about my current life circumstances much lately here on my blog. Why? Because I honestly don't want to think about it. And I certainly don't want to put it into words and make it even more real. But the reality is that although certain parts of my life are awesome right now, spectacular even, while other parts are downright horrible and frightening with no end in sight. The wonderful parts mostly include my domestic life with the girls. I truly love my life with them, and enjoy 99.9% of being a Mom. The horrible scary parts mostly have to do with my husband's shoulder injury...

Now, I fully realize that other people out there in the world have much worse problems. A shoulder injury after all isn't life threatening. But it has an absolutely HUGE impact on our daily life. Because of his injury he pretty much isn't able to do much of anything around the house, and the few times he HAS tried to do things (like tackle the dirty house and clean it from top to bottom) it always ends with him totally doped up on pain meds and completely out of commission for a week. Over the past 4+ months I've fully realized that his contribution to the household is vital, because I've pretty much had to go without his participation. It may sound like an excuse to sit around and do nothing, but honestly it isn't. The man barely has use of his right arm, and of course he is right handed. I've had to help him fill out workman's comp forms because it was too painful for him to hold a pen and write. It's that bad. He can't change a diaper, he can only lift the girls with one arm, and lets not even start talking about the numerous projects around the house that remain undone (like baby proofing our kitchen). It's crazy. And I've had to do a lot more heavy lifting (both literal and figurative) than I ever thought I'd need to.

I recently had a friend tell me, "But it's only temporary." Well, I guess that depends on your definition of temporary. So far all the doctors that have seen him have said that there isn't much in the way of treatment available for the kind of injury that he has (bruised bone, nerve damage, AC separation, and who knows what else). The only thing to do is wait. We've heard time frames like one year, 2 years, maybe 5 years, maybe never. Maybe this is as good as it's going to get.

And me? I'm furious. Because this never should have happened in the first place! I feel like when that idiot trainer injured my husband he practically stole him away from me. And I NEED him!

So we've done something I thought we'd never do, we've hired a lawyer. And although I DO think he's going to be able to help us, I also have to continue to live day by day without help. Going it alone, and burning out.

Back to yesterday and why it was so terrible. Ziva smeared poop in various locations not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES! Our stupid dog would not shut up due to the children playing with toys he didn't agree with. So ALL DAY LONG it was bark bark BARK at every single little thing. I was/am stressing out about canning green beans. I've never done it before, never even seen it done, but I purposefully planted extra beans back in April because I wanted to give it a try. Well, the beans are ready RIGHT NOW, and I have to figure out where to get the pressure gauge tested (I know the where at this point, but I still have yet to figure out the when, and those beans aren't going to wait forever) and buy canning jars, and check recipes, etc. etc. And I'm terrified about doing it all by myself, but I really have no other option since me and the girls are getting over colds, and Hubs is just starting to come down with one, and I don't want visitors in my house who would inevitably catch what we've got. In addition to that, my house is a total pig stye after me being sick for the past 2 weeks. I have dog hair balls the size of Kansas floating across my floor and my bathrooms are downright toxic.

And then I looked at my schedule for this next week. Monday, Hubs has a Dr. appointment and then works that night. Tuesday, same. Wednesday Hubs works a 12 hour shift. Thursday, same. Friday, Hubs has another Dr. appointment but thankfully doesn't work that night. So pretty much from now until Friday I'll have a "Hi, Bye." relationship with my husband and pretty much act as the single parent. That, my friends, took me right to my breaking point. I ended up sobbing last night because I just don't even know how I'm going to do it... AND can green beans.

So obviously, I could use some prayer. I really feel like I could crack at any moment, get my car keys and purse, hop in the car and just keep driving.

I feel slightly better today, mostly because Hubs decided to see his Dr. this morning rather than sleep and call in sick tonight.

Not sure how to end this post other than to say that if you have your health, you should thank your lucky stars.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Aloha Friday!

Be sure to enter my giveaway up top for a beautiful hand painted children's step stool!



From An Island Life

In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that we take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So I thought that on Fridays I would take it easy on posting, too. Therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.


If you'd like to participate with your own question on your own blog, head on over to An Island Life to link up and join the fun!

Today my Aloha Friday Question is: If you had a weekend in Seattle what would you do?

I think Hubs and I are gonna head that direction in a few weeks. It'll be our very first kid-free weekend since the girls were born! We're nervous, yet excited!

So far I'm thinking about hitting the Sci-Fi Museum and the Museum of Glass, maybe the underground tour, and then in the evenings dinner and maybe a concert or something. The last time I went to Seattle was during my high school concert choir tour, so it's been a while!
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