Knit and run

Ok, so how did you spend your week-end? I taught myself to knit! I have been thinking about this for about a year, and really contemplating it for the past 3-4 months. I kept flapping my mouth at church and telling the ladies, "wouldn't it be nice if we had a knitting group an made items to donate?". Yea, sounds like me doesn't it - LOL Finely someone took me up on it and then they made the time for it and the next thing I knew people were looking at me for guidance! Yikes. So Thursday I headed over to the trusty neighborhood library to beg someone there to help. I found not only a lady who said she could help, if we managed to coordinate our schedules, but a great learners book as well. Then on Friday a friend stopped by and was able to get me started, who knew she had this hidden talent and why did she not tell me like, oh I don't know, 3-4 months ago! LOL So anyway, yesterday I learned to cast on and knit. Today I perfected the knitting thing and figured out the purl thing as well. Now I am working on the knit one, purl two thing. I want to have a nice piece to show on Wed. night to the church ladies when we get this puppy rolling. Good thing I figured it out too, one of the ladies cornered me in the Dollar General Market this morning and grilled me on if I knew what I was doing or not and if I would be able to help her. Seems she picked up some nice yarn while she was in Mexico last year, in Christmas colors, and wants me to help her transform it into a great gift. Whew! Glad I can help : ) On top of this, all week-end each one of the kids has come up to me, independently, to tell me what they would now like me to knit for them - ha! Shaking my head here, gotta love them.

Blessings, Beth Ann

It's Friday

Well it's the last Friday of the month and I am here to tell you that not much is going on. Been a blessedly quiet week. I have spent my time with home school, visiting the handicapped puppy at Tate's, trying to hustle knitters for church and working with another church lady on revamping our church nursery. Huh, when I put it in writing, maybe not so slow? LOL

Well I cut up the ham I bought last week and I am proud to say I got four dinners and a lunch out of it. That worked out to about $1.85 a meal. Tonight I have some of it in my crock pot. We are having cheesy scalloped potatoes with ham in the slow cooker and home made cornbread for dinner. Smells pretty good in here right now. Or it could be the fresh pot of coffee I just made?

Two weeks from today we are leaving for our yearly trip to the ocean. We are so broke we almost don't have the money to go. This happens every year. In one way it's a blessing that we make and pay for our reservations back in February out of tax return money, but a real bear to come up with gas money nine months later. YOu never know what the current gas price will be, about $2.33 here right now. We qualify it as birthday/Christmas and anniversery gift for hubby and me each year, and as an investment in our family with the wonderful memories and bonding we share. Please keep us in your prayers and thoughts.
Blessings, Beth Ann

Menu plan Monday

It's been awhile since I posted a menu, so I thought today would be the day! LOL Right now I am mostly shopping the adds and trying to slowly stock up on "camping extras", like charcoal . We have less than 3 weeks until or annul trip to Edisto Island, South Carolina. I try to soften the financial crunch by picking up a few things at a time instead of all at once. I mean I don't usually buy stuff for smore's or paper plates and stuff. There is no sewer on the island so we try to do as little "washing" (dishes :p ) as possible. Here is a look at our menu this week:

Monday: Slow cooker cubed steaks in gravy w/ mashed potatoes and pea's

Tuesday: Ham (on sale at Bi-rite) w/garden green beans and corn bread

Wednesday: Church dinner and bible study (rumor that it's going to be stroganoff)

Thursday: Crock pot split pea soup (with sale ham bone and rest of meat reserved for other recipes) and bread machine dinner rolls

Friday: Slow cooker scalloped potatoes and ham w/glazed carrots

Saturday: Crock pot tater-tot casserole w/ green beans

Sunday: Spaghetti and home made garlic bread / salad

Whats for dinner at your place? For more menu plan Monday visit www.orgjunkie.com

Blessings, Beth Ann

Another SAturday

I have been trying to download or is it upload? Anyway, pictures of last week-ends rafting trip. No dice. More than likely it is my piece of junk computer. So, sorry. I will keep trying, maybe the library? Hmmmmmm. Anyway, it was a huge success! Everyone involved had fun. Hubby went as a chaperon and a driver, since we have a ginormous gas guzzling SUV and that is exactly what the church needed - LOL He waited until he was home to tell me he almost drowned. I heard many kids fell out of the raft and even one of the guides, but only my hubby got stuck under the raft! I could tell he was a little shaken up, but it wasn't until church the next day that one of the ladies who went, told me all the dramatic details. Made my stomach hurt. I guess the kids were freaked out a bit, remember only the older two went as this was a youth group activity. I was home comely watching Cinderella 52 times after wrenching the Backyardagains away from twin son (can only take so much of those backyardholagins). Anyway, I guess that is what makes life exciting, those little adventures. Hubby had been white water rafting before up in Michigan, but said the Ocoee in East Tennessee was much rougher. Next year the church youth group is going to do something a little safer, skydiving! : )

Not much else new and exciting. Only 21 more days until we head to South Carolina. Our British church friend with the yurt will be coming down off his mountain to house sit (not sure why since all the good stuff got stolen last year) in exchange for electricity and water, two commodities he does not posses up in his yurt. Sounds like a fair exchange right? To hear more up to date boring things about us, visit us at face book.

Blessings, Beth Ann

Catching up

I know I have been pretty hit and miss about blogging recently. Teaching high school in the morning and Kindergarten in the afternoon, is a bit time consuming : )

Just wanted to give an update on my miniature daschund, Howard. Last Sunday after church, we returned to find him dragging his legs - again. Three years ago he ruptured 3 of his disks in his back, leaving him semi-paralyzed and with no deep pain feeling in his hind section. Since then he has managed to over come this by figuring out a way to prop himself up on his legs, and do s funny hop-run around the house and yard (sometimes). He still needs to be crated sometimes (bed rest) to allow the swelling to go down. Occasionally he puts his back out (still can't feel anything) and this was the case Sunday. Nothing to do for it except get him some good drugs (anti-inflammatory) and bed rest. As of yesterday he was trying to stand again and the swelling seems to be going down as his hind legs were spasming most the afternoon. All I can say is good thing he can't feel that, I have been there, done that - ouch! Also when this happens we have to go back to expressing his bladder for him, as he can't empty it all on his own. Which leads me to the next issue. We also now have a cat with a broken back and she too needs to be expressed. The vet asked us to take her since no one wanted her or had experience expressing (lucky us, lucky Bubbles). Well, when I took Howard in for drugs, Doc mentioned that they now have a puppy in the same condition -hint, hint. Do I have sucker printed on my forehead? He is a five week old American bull dog puppy that was accidentally thrown down a flight of stairs. The owners brought him in to be put down, but apparently Doc is a bigger sucker than I am! His assistant told me that we were the first people they thought of for the little guy since he will hard to find a home for. Ok, my house is already full of a ton of kids (mostly mine) and a bunch of animals (unfortunately all mine) and now two pack and plays with semi and fully paralyzed animals in them. What am I to do about this news? Help! Well I have time to think about it anyway, they aren't ready to release him yet.

On more adventurous news, hubby took the kids over to East Tennessee bright and early this morning for a white water rafting trip with our church youth group. So just the twins and I knocking around here today. Hubby is worried he isn't as young as he used to be, and will be feeling "it" tomorrow at work - LOL Pastor already said no one is allowed to miss church due to much "week-end". Funny thing though, pastor didn't go! LOL Guess I will make some soup and get the heating pads ready for their return tonight.

Blessings, Beth Ann

Crock Pot Chicken Curry

Had the best dinner tonight ever!

Crock Pot Chicken Curry

3lb. chicken thighs
1/2 an onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup coconut milk
11/2 TBS curry powder, the good stuff
2 tsp. chicken bullion concentrate

Place thighs in crock pot and cover with onion and garlic. Mix coconut milk, curry and bullion concentrate together and pour over chicken. Cover and heat on low for 6 hours. That's it!

Serves 6

I served this with rice pilaf and steamed broccoli.

Enjoy, Blessings - Beth Ann

Back

Well we are back! I do have to say it was the best trip ever! I just love that campground and the kids were thrilled as well. We went with another family from church, so they had other kids to play with and we camped right across from the ginormous playground. The swimming hole was about 50 yards from us and it was still warm enough to swim. Only downer was that oldest son got bit up by chiggers when he went down the road and into an old graveyard looking for firewood. Boys, what are ya gonna do? Good thing we travel with cortisone cream. : )

Well spent the morning revamping our monthly budget to try and make a dent in the medical bills from oldest son. Good news, if I lower my grocery money even more, we can most likely have them paid off in three years! LOL Then I spent the afternoon trying to work up a menu and shopping list for this coming week on said lower money allotment. Now my head hurts. Sigh.

Fall is truly in the air. We have a Labor day party to attend tomorrow and then it seems like every week-end after that through the new year is booked. How can this be? When did we get so busy? Or that popular for that matter! But I love fall, it's my most favorite time of the year. Only 4 weeks until middle dd 13Th b-day and our annual trip to the Ceaderwood Farms Pumpkin Patch. Then a week after that we leave for our two week vacation to South Carolina. We do the pumpkin thing first so that we can take the pumpkins and my mums with us. The kids love to carve their Jack O'lantrens while we're camping and I enjoy decorating our site. One year we even brought our scarecrow with us! When we get back we have like 2 days until our church harvest party and since Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, a friend has invited us to her Halloween block party. Wow, that is just the month of October and leaving out about six more birthdays. We are thinking of going to Alabama for Thanksgiving, some friends invited us. It will be our first year without Grandma S and Grandpa D, dear husband is still undecided. He does a few vacation days to us up yet before the new year, but he is about convinced we will be heading out to Vegas this spring - heads up D & S LOL But that is another story.

Not much else happening here. Oh, my friend from church brought her adoptive son from Haiti home last week! Let's all give praise to the LORD! Amen.

Blessings, Beth Ann