Thank You!

Who ever you are, you made my day!! Imagine getting a anonymous surprise package in the mail that congratulated us on the mortgage burning - filled with confetti!! It made me smile all day long. Thank you!

Where Has December Gone?

I can not believe that the month has slipped by so quickly - with our family trip to Hawaii and then preparation for Christmas, the over the top holiday rush and inventory lists due to Edna, the month has come and nearly gone!
Our trip to Hawaii was excellent - we did not get lost even once, we got to experience a helicopter ride over the entire island and we went to an authentic Hawaiian luau ( I hope I spelled that right). Getting there was quite an ordeal, as Murray hurt his back severly just a few days before we left and was flat out in bed for about four days - we were not even sure that he was going to make the trip. The only way that he was able to stand the 24 hours of travelling, was to get both Murray and Mike seats in first class, so they had room to stretch out and Mike could take off his leg and give it some rest. So, while the two men enjoyed the luxuries of first class, Megan and I were stuck in coach. Our plane ran into a head wind on the way and it made the trip even longer, so by the time that we drove across the island to one resort, to pick up the keys to our condo, and then travelled to the second resort and fell into bed, we had been awake and traveling for a full 24 hours!! We were exhausted!
WTF!!!! We were awakened at 5:00am by seriously irritating, fricken roosters! The whole island is covered with Banty chickens and about 15 of them were in our back yard crowing up a storm. There was no way that you could sleep, as our outside condo walls were full of open louvers that allowed the breezes to blow into the house (I am assuming that this is to prevent mold and mildew from setting in, due to the high humidity) The noise of all of the roosters, had the four of us up closing windows and louvres - then we tried to go back to bed. Only to be awakened at 8:00am by the front desk, inviting us down to breakfast and a time share presentation. You have got to be kidding!! I am afraid that the lady was pretty shocked by the reaction that she got, and she probably wrote "cranky bitch" in our file, after Megan gave her a piece of her mind and slammed down the receiver. After that, we always let Megan deal with the people that harassed us about buying a time share, as they could not make any head way with her! Not that they didn't try - time share sales people are very persistent!
Two days of rain followed, and I was forced to wear my winter coat on the beaches. Everyone else was fine, but I was too cold, so I got some pretty weird looks from people who were walking by with shorts and a surf board! Then the sun came out for three days and we were able to explore and travel the island.
The day before we were to leave, we checked into the Marriott Resort in Luhui , so that we could be to the airport on time. I finally found my own personal heaven!! I could have stayed there for the rest of my life!!!! Lava Flow drinks, beautiful Hawaiian flowers, room service, spotless sandy beach - OMG, I had died and gone to the promised land!
Then we had to come home - 83 degrees in Hawaii, -13 degrees in Calgary. Why did we come home?

"Don't Do That!"

Way back in the summer, I was fooling around with my blog and happened to click on a little tab called "Next Blog". It shot me off to a random blog somewhere in the US and with another click, I was reading a funny blog from a 20-something girl in Sweden. Fascinated, I kept clicking just to see where it would lead me next. Then....the most exciting thing happened!! About ten clicks in, I stumbled upon something that has changed my life forever!! The blog was called "Confessions of a Plate Addict" and I was instantly riveted to the screen.

You all know how much I love dishes!! I would go without food and clothes ( and I do go without shoes, handbags, and buying new clothes) in favor of buying dishes. I can walk down a mall and walk right past all of the clothing stores and not even look in the window. Put a set of dishes in that window and you have me at first glance!!! I am a compulsive dish shopper - I have no shame! I actually just bought some pieces last week and gave them to Megan to gift wrap and give back to me at Christmas!! My mom has done that in the past for me as well. I am conniving, calculating and totally addicted!

So you can see why this blog affected me so deeply. I never knew that there were table setting competitions out there, where people from all over the world participated. One blog led to another and my heart nearly stopped when I discovered the blog "Between Naps on the Porch". This lady is talented!!! Her tablescapes ROCK...she has more dishes than you can possibly imagine - and no, she does not rent them or purchase and return after the event. I greedily devoured her blog, where all of the displays are categorized according to theme. I was happily clicking my way to nirvana when the phone rang. My husband - wanting to know if I was ever going to come home and make supper. Holy shit, I had been looking at the tablescapes for over two and a half hours!!

Later, at home, I must have been thinking about my new guilty little pleasure (and smiling) because Mike asked me what I was thinking about and smiling about. I didn't really want to tell him, knowing that he would laugh. He almost laughed, then a look of pure horror crossed his face when he realized that I was not pulling his leg and I was dead serious. "DON"T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!" he threatened. He has had the stress of trying to explain my themed "holiday" tree that used to sit in my dining room. In January it had snowflakes and snowballs and snowmen, in February it was decorated for Valentine's Day, in March, Saint Patrick graced the tree - you get the picture. Just remember that we live on a farm. Other people did not get it (the tree) at all. Mike was used to some neighbor asking "Why is your Christmas tree still up?" and then listening to me go through the explanation that it was NOT a Christmas tree. (At which point he was already rolling his eyes!) The thought of having to explain a table that was set, that no one was going to eat at, no company was going to come ...he just couldn't stand it!

He does not ever "forbid" me to do something. This time, he drew a line in the sand and FORBID me to cross it!! Well, what he does not know does not hurt him in the least!! My girlfriends and I adapted the concept to mean any decorating project and so we choose a spot that needs some attention or a theme for a holiday and we have fun doing it on our own. I also plan on doing the tablescape thing too - but I am going to be smart enough to plan a supper party so that it is not so obvious. As long as it involves food - then Mike will fall for it!!!

The reason that I chose this topic today was the beautiful tablescape that "Between Naps On The Porch" posted for this week. My decorating hero used a Christmas Village for the centerpiece of her Christmas table. The lit buildings are basically the candles on the table. It is beyond BEAUTIFUL and well worth looking at. I am always struggling to find places for my set that keeps growing and growing. I never thought of using it as a table centerpiece!!! Check it out!!! If you can not find it, just email me and I will help you discover it. Don't forget to look at the Beach tablescapes - they are breathtaking!

Where is the Confetti?

Today, I did something that I have been waiting for - for 21 years. (To be exact) Sometimes I never thought that it would ever happen.

First, about nineteen years ago, Mike broke the ball off the top of his right elbow. It healed. Then he broke it off again. We almost lost our roofing company in the aftermath of his extended healing time and the fact that we were just starting out in his business and we had just bought the farm. That was strike #1.

Then we tried to catch up by renting 150 Simmental cows in a partnership agreement. I was against it from the start. Mike was "all in". One particularly bad calving season, when we lost over 1/3 of our calves to viral scours and both of us were suicidal from all of the little black and white dead bodies, we almost "cashed in" the farm. Cows returned, partnership ended...strike#2
Did I mention that a big Simmental cow can eat a big round bale of hay a day! And if you think that my reference to the cows in comparing them to a poker game is just an accident, you are wrong. Owning cows is the biggest frickin gamble that you can ever take!!

Then the infamous 30 foot on the job site. Most of you know how that turned out. That was strike #3.

Then the slip on the ice and the implosion that spelled the end for Mike's leg. Strike#4.

But today, I walked in the Pincher Creek Credit Union at exactly 10:00 am and made the FINAL F------ payment on the farm. We are done!! Twenty one years. Twenty one years of scraping and making do. Twenty years of wicked blizzards and digging frozen calves out of snow drifts. Two years of bad grasshoppers that ate our crops. Three years when it was so wet that we didn't even get to seed. One year that the crop froze in the field. Nineteen years of raising our kids on the farm. Four life changing crisis situations. (All involve Mike, do you see a pattern here?)

You know what? Somehow I expected that there would be bells that went off, confetti would fly, a grinning bank manager would slap me on the back and say "Way to persevere, lady!" and hand me a glass of champagne. I was envisioning that something should happen like when you are in Vegas and you hit a jackpot. Lights go off, there are sirens, everyone stands around admiring your good fortune...Nothing! A little "blip" on the computer and the line disappeared and the teller asked "Is that all?" I wanted to shout right back at her "What do you mean, is that all, you -----!" I was so let down. It was so anti climatic. Twenty one years and no confetti. What the hell?

Spinach & Chicken Bake

Here you go girls - the recipe that you requested!

Layered Chicken & Spinach Bake

4 tbsp olive oil, divided
1 bag fresh spinach
6-8 chicken breasts, pounded to a uniform thickness
flour for dredging
salt and pepper
1 finely diced shallot
1/2 pound fresh mushrooms
1/2 cup Chardonnay
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 can of low sodium chicken broth
1 chicken bouillon cube
1/2 pound thinly sliced Fontina, Gorgonzola or Mozzarella - I usually have to use Mozzarella, as the other two, while delicious are hardly ever in the stores in Pincher Creek
Hot cooked egg noodles

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large saute pan, heat 1 tbsp of olive oil and over medium heat saute the spinach until just wilted. Remove from pan and spread in the bottom of a large baking dish.

Dredge chicken pieces (that you have pounded the heck out of) with the flour and season with salt and pepper. Using the same frying pan (because I hate doing dishes) heat the 2 tbsp of olive oil and saute the chicken until lightly browned and cooked through. You may have to work in batches so that you don't overcrowd the pan. Put the chicken on top of the spinach in the baking dish.

Add the shallot and the mushrooms to the saute pan (you may have to add just a touch of oil oil) and cook them until the shallot is translucent. De glaze the pan by adding the white wine and the balsamic vinegar, scrape up all of the tasty brown bits into the wine sauce.

Add chicken broth and bouillon cube, stir. If sauce is too thin, thicken it with a little cornstarch slurry. (If you don't know what this is, make a runny paste of cornstarch and water and add it GRADUALLY to the pan until you achieve the desired consistency) You want it to not be thick, and not water like. Somewhere in the middle. How's that for directions?

Bring sauce to a boil and remove from heat. Place cheese slices on top of chicken breasts. Pour sauce over the whole thing. Cover with tinfoil.

Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes, until cheese is slightly melted and sauce is bubbly.

Serve over hot egg noodles. Yummmmm!!!!!!

Good luck Shawn!

A Peaceful Day Christmas Shopping -NOT!!!

Yesterday I went to Lethbridge with Megan, Christmas shopping. It was "supposed" to be a peaceful girl's day out, with lunch at 360 ( a Tapas Bar that I have always wanted to try out), some shopping and just an all round "get out of our boring town" day. I thought it would be fun to spend the day with Megan. WRONG!!!
We were hardly out of Pincher Creek when the road rage started. Megan is a very impatient driver and she had me so stressed out that I wanted to open the passenger door and jump out into oncoming traffic! I told her that all this "emotion" is not good for her or the baby, but she just seemed to get worse as we approached the city. When we actually entered the city of Lethbridge, then there were even more pedestrians, stop lights and drivers to piss her off. It wasn't starting out to be a very good day. I decided just to sit in my seat and keep my mouth shut, after one warning that she was taking all of the fun out of the experience by being so hostile.
Then we had to run a Christmas errand for Mike at Home Depot. He was looking for a particular drill set that he wanted to give to my father for Christmas. We hardly got through the door before I irritated Megan into a bad mood, by looking through the sales flyer. Apparently, she does not "do" flyers and it was a waste of time to look at the tools section in the flyer, when you could just walk over and see the real thing! Then I made the mistake of asking a clerk for help. Apparently, she does not like asking for help either, because she was in quite a mood by the time that the clerk explained that the advertisement must have been a US ad - they did not have that drill set combo on sale. Megan had already determined that it was not available and me talking to the clerk just slowed up the process. Not to mention that the clerk's mustache (by the way, the clerk was a girl) REALLY irritated Megan. We ended up having words in the tool isle after the clerk left!! I clearly stated that if it was an errand for Megan that we were doing, then she did not have to look in flyers or ask for help - but if it was an errand for me, then she had better back off with the attitude and let me ask for help and look in flyers!!! It got a little heated, but I actually thought I had got through to her because the next store was "non-confrontational".
Then we had to go to Chapters. OMG - what a BUSY, BUSY place!!! Every sales clerk was busy, so I decided to use the computer, myself, to see if what I was looking for was in stock. I determined that they did not have what I wanted, but that it could be ordered at the kiosk, which I was unsure about - did I keep using their computer or ask for help. One look at Megan and I knew that either way, I was screwed. So, I decided to stalk a clerk. I followed one nasty lady for about 10 minutes before I decided that tactic was not working, so I set up camp at the kiosk. Megan was glaring at me from the racks. I just stood there until a clerk pushed me out of the way to use the computer. Literally. Finally, Megan took charge of the situation, and I just pretended that she was not my daughter - I am sure that my books will eventually come in and they will be marked "for the bitchy, pregnant lady". I paid the bill and hastily left the store.
About five stores later it was time for lunch. The tapas restaurant was wonderful, but I wisely did not order a drink with my meal, because I knew that was going to cause a fight. I really needed a beer by then, but because Megan could not have one, it would have been drama if I indulged, so I let that one slide. The meal was excellent - crab cakes and a blue cheese/bacon burger to die for. One highlight of the trip!
The roads home were not the greatest, but at least there was no traffic at that time of day, so I did not have to listen to the rant about crazy assed drivers that should have their licenses taken away. When we got almost home, Megan politely asked if she could wrap my gifts. That is her favorite part of Christmas, the wrapping of the presents. So here is my plan for next year - DO NOT GO SHOPPING WITH MEGAN!! Just give her the gifts to wrap and let her be in charge of that. Note to self: do not go back to Chapters for a while, either!

That Is Going To Hurt!

I don't know why this ultrasound is so dark, in real life, it is so much better!! Can you see the little boy's face in the photo? To me it totally looks like a boy's head - but Megan says it is a girl and one would not want to argue with her these days!!! Mike is so excited, it is going to be hard for him to wait, actually, I think he is looking forward to this birth more than with his own children. His comment to Megan, when he saw this ultrasound was, "Look at that head!!! That is going to hurt!!" Megan almost burst into tears, so we decided that we had better stop teasing her.

Turning Old and Going to the Pain Center (both unrelated!)

Yesterday was a milestone in my life - I had a significant birthday. Not telling which one!! It just happened to coincide with Mike's trip to the Calgary Chronic Pain Center - which was actually a very fortuitous accident for me. Here I thought that it was going to be a very boring day and it turned out even better than I could have expected! Here are my 10 unexpected, yet delightful surprises from an otherwise depressing pain center birthday:

The first good thing that happened was that Myra's GPS got us right to the door of our hotel and then right to the Pain center without causing any stress. THANKS MYRA!!!! Having driven in Calgary with Mike and not knowing exactly where to go can cause some tense moments. No such problem!!

The second thing that occurred was that we actually got a doctor with some compassion and understanding - more rare that one might think! He was EXCELLENT, and I would like to mention him by name because he was that good, but I am old now and I have forgotten his name, seeing as I have only met him once. The Doctor sat with us for an hour and a half and actually explained and sympathized with us. Much better than being told that it is all in your head and you are addicted to Percocet (that actually happened to us this year) It forced me, yes, ME - Cindy, non confrontational Cindy, to lodge a complaint against a Doctor. REALLY!!! I did!

The third, highly unusual, thing is that this doctor had some ideas that had not been tried on Mike before and he was willing to try all of them, in order, to be able to find even just one thing that might make a difference in the quality of his life. The most interesting ( to me) is the idea of freezing parts of Mike's leg and killing them. Okay, you can probably see why it appeals to me and not Mike. It is not my body parts that they are going to freeze and kill! It sounds sort of futuristic, but he has evidence to show that it works in certain situations. We would try just about anything at this point!

Most importantly for both of us, the doctor suggested that a lot of the work that needs to be done on Mike (that makes him sound like a project) can be done in Pincher Creek, without him having to stay for five to six weeks in the city. All of the drug tests, therapy etc can be done under the guidance of Doctor No Name and be monitored by his local doctor, thus leaving Mike at home back here with me. I was really worried about what could happen if it snowed like it did two years ago and my staff and I were not able to get into the workshop. Without Mike and John Deere, we could be up the snow drift without a shovel!!! The downside to that, is that I had planned on doing a lot of scrapbooking with friends while he was in the clinic. The good news is that when they freeze him up, he will have to be in Calgary, so I still get to come, just not for as long as I thought! Last night I had a bad dream - or at least a partially disturbing dream. Lots of people, when they meet both Mike and I, think that he is a lot older than I am. I guess falling 30 feet and having your body parts amputated on a regular basis can age you a little! Really, there is only one year between us, but most people think he is much older than me. I guess the whole cryonics thing must have been in my brain when I went to bed, because I dreamt that they totally froze him and kept him frozen, until I was wrinkly and then they thawed him out so that we looked more "even". God! What I don't think of!! Don't tell him about this, he is sensitive to the fact that everyone believes he is older. LOL.

The fifth great thing is that our hotel was only a couple of blocks from the Keg and I got to have supper - truly, the supper was not that great, but the ring that I got WITH supper is pretty damn cool! I got a major blingy diamond and lots of little blingy diamonds in a new wedding set.

Number six and seven are a toss up - on the way out of the city, Mike took me to Chinook Centre to Pottery Barn and Williams-Sonoma. My mothership!!!!!!!!! No, he would not buy me any dishes, but obviously kitchen gadgets and goodies do not fall in that category, so I got a whole bunch of new shiny things to play with. I did see some dishes that I could easily die for, but I did not want to push my luck - that ring is pretty sparkly!!! I am just hoping that they have them next year!

Then for number eight, we went to the Nanton Candy store. They did not have cotton candy - which would have made my day perfect, but they did have a lot of my favorites! (Cotton candy is one of my worst addictions).

The ninth best thing is that while we were there, I found out about a cake decorating course that is taking place after Christmas and I am going to enroll! Megan is going to come with me, she just does not know it yet. I want her to see how hard it is, so that she will quit bugging me about making her wedding cake (when the time comes). She already expects me to take the photos, do the flowers and cater the event. The cake is just too much!

Finally, we got home and the tenth best thing happened - Megan had cleaned the workshop and totally did all of my work, so that I did not have to. Sweeeet!

This is not my collage - I am not talented enough to figure out how to do this on my computer- can anyone help me?? I absolutely love the mason jars, I have collected different kinds ever since I was a teenager and I display them all over the house. This was just too cute for words and so I had to copy it, to enjoy it over and over again!
This summer I went out into the gardens and picked a big beautiful bouquet of flowers from as many plants as I could find blooming. Everyone loved it so much, that over the weeks, I kept refilling it as the blooms faded and different seasonal plants started to flower - the "look" of the bouquet changed many times over the summer and this week, I am going to scrapbook those photos! It will remind me of the warmer days, as it has been downright chilly here by the mountains the last few nights. I have pumpkins all over the place, sitting at the gate posts and around the house, I am hoping that they do not turn to mush!!!
I am trying to ignore the clouds and the snow flurry warnings and live in denial just a few more days. However, Megan told me that the pumpkins are "tacky" now that Halloween is over. And can I just say something here- this is the very same girl that a few weeks ago told me that she is not going to be so strict with her children (as I was) and she is going to be WAY MORE permissive and not so bossy ( as I was). Megan does not realize that she can't even stop bossing me (her mom) around, so I want to see how this "permissive" child raising theory is going to work for her!! From now on I am going to pack a notebook around and write down all the stupid stuff that she says, so that 14 or 15 years from now we can see how her "new" theories on raising kids has panned out. HA!!

I'm back!!!! My last post was October 4th - then I got sick and I believe that I contracted distemper! I have been ill ever since that last post, it started with a runny nose and the sniffles and progressed to the point that I actually thought I would die from a sore throat. The doctor (who shall remain nameless) would not give me any antibiotics and told me it was viral. So, check it out - my symptoms were uncontrollable shaking from being ice cold, my nose was all pussed up, my hair was scruffy, my eyes eventually stuck shut from the puss - now, doesn't that sound like distemper? If I would have been a farm cat, my family would have put me out of my misery with a 22 shell!! Yesterday, I went to a different doctor who told me that if I was not going to stay warm and stay rested, I was never going to get better (and he didn't even know about the Jingle Bell Crop where we worked until we were sick again!) It has been a whole month of hell, but I think that I am getting better, today is the turning point!
For those of you who requested the recipe for the dessert at the Jingle Bell Crop, here it is:

Cindy's Pumpkin Dessert

4 eggs

1 1/4 cups sugar

2 cans PURE pumpkin (14 oz.) not the kind with spices added

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 1/2 cups evaporated milk

Mix these ingredients in a bowl until smooth and creamy. Pour into a greased 9 x 13 pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a separate bowl, combine 1 box of golden cake mix (I have also used lemon when it was on sale and it was just as good) and 1/2 cup hard margarine. (not hard as in chilled to hardness, just hard margarine as opposed to those whipped, soft margarine tubs) Get it?

Cut the margarine in until it is crumbly and sprinkle the cake mix evenly over the pumpkin mixture. Bake for 1 1/2 hours.

*** note, keep checking the pan s it cooks and turn the pan end to end in the oven if your oven does not cook evenly. You want to watch the edges, as they may get brown and burn before the timer goes off. Just keep rotating the pan in the oven if you see any such problems.

Serve with whipped cream, that is sprinkled with a little cinnamon. At home, I picked up some very, very small plastic pumpkin decorations and I put one on the top of every slice. Too cute!!!

This recipe makes a large pan, about 18 servings, so invite some friends over!

Enjoy! Cindy

Fall Photos, Gingerbread and Cozy Sweaters

I love this time of year! Wood smoke curling up from our chimney, the smell of baking in the kitchen, bales strewn all over the fields, just waiting to be picked up by the ranchers that have bought them, dry leaves blowing into the garden, were the last rows of carrots are still residing, cows being trailed home from summer pastures, geese flying overhead. Fall just seems so BOUNTIFUL.
We are almost on our way to Creston for Thanksgiving, I am literally counting the days!!! All of our children and their girlfriends/boyfriend are coming , along with our best friends, Mel and Loretta - in all, five fifth wheel trailers. We will be a regular convoy!!! LOL. Everyone has their camera ready to go, because we plan on taking a lot of fall photos at the fruit stands. We are going to cook our turkey on the BBQ and hopefully the weather will permit us to spend a great deal of the long weekend outside. I have cold Coronas in the fridge and a new camera chip, I have charged my batteries and packed the tripod - I am prepared!!
Now, if I could just get my shoulder to behave long enough to enjoy the trip, I would be forever grateful. I am hesitant to say it, but I have a SCRAPBOOKING INJURY!!! I would rather give birth to more children than go through this pain, so if you know some of the stories of what my children have put me through, then you can appreciate the pain that I am in!! My muscles are so tight, that they have literally pulled my collarbone and ribs out of place. Just from working with my shoulders forward and my head down. Let that be a lesson!! When you are scrap booking for HOURS at a time, make SURE that you get up and stretch and exercise your shoulder muscles!!
For my friends, Amy, Edna ad Debbie, here is a recipe that I know you are going to love!! I baked them for Daniel and Andrew and did not tell anyone what was in them - the rest of my family enjoyed them without even knowing that they were gluten free!



Gluten Free Gingersnap Cookies



350 degree oven

1/3 cup butter, softened
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1 egg
¼ cup fancy molasses
2 ½ cups gluten free all-purpose baking flour
1 ½ tsp ground ginger
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp each ground cloves and cinnamon
Pinch of salt

In a large bowl, beat butter with 1 cup of the sugar, beat in egg and molasses. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cloves, cinnamon and salt.
Stir into butter mixture to form stiff dough.
Roll dough, by one level tablespoon, into balls, roll in remaining sugar.
Place 2inches apart on parchment lined baking sheet. Press to flatten slightly.
Bake in a 350 degree oven until edges are lightly browned. The center may still be a bit soft – approx. 10 minutes.
Transfer to rack and let cool.
Enjoy!!


This week, Megan gifted me with a new fall hoodie - my version of a sweater. I love it!!! I also found an amazing hoodie in Waterton Park when Lorrie, Megan and I went shopping. It is totally fall colored and very warm. I am saving it to wear at the Jingle Bell Crop. Some people get excited over shoes or jewelry - I am all about hoodies! (and new dishes) Which, by the way, I have two new sets waiting for me in Creston. Shhh! Mike only knows about one!! I will keep you posted as to how I snuck them home!

The Pumpkin Painting Is Mine At Last!!!!!!

Every year for about the last five years, I have gone to the same studio in Creston (where I buy my pottery collection) and I have admired the pumpkin painting titled "Thinking of Pies". The first year, it was priced at $895.00. For the next four years, I longingly admired it - but it was $600.00. Every time, I sighed wistfully and put it back on the display, dreaming of how beautiful it would look in my dining room, but knowing that I shouldn't be spending that kind of money on yet another addition to my fall decor (which now overflows a HUGE AREA of my basement.

Last year, on our fall trip to Creston, the owners of the pottery studio told us that they were putting the business and house up for sale and leaving Creston, to become full time residents of Mexico. I thought that might be the last time that I ever saw my pumpkin print, but I still put it back on the rack and walked away (which is a huge feat, if you know anything about me). Last weekend, I was surprised to see that the studio was still open, although the "For Sale" sign from the realtor impressed on my mind that this might really be the last time that we got to visit with the owners and buy the last installment on my pottery collection.

Sure enough, David told us that they had been successful in selling the business, the house was the last thing to go, and by October 1st, they were on their way to Mexico, not to be artists anymore, at least not for a living. I could not find the pottery pieces that I had wanted to purchase to complete my set, but David offered to custom make them for me and leave them behind, I could pick them up at Thanksgiving, when we come to take photos of all of the fall displays in the fruit stands.

I didn't even want to let my self look in the direction of the pumpkin painting. I was sure that it was gone. But it wasn't!!! Not only was it sitting in its place, when I turned it over to look at the price (one more time) it had been marked down for a quick sale to $150.00. I just about fainted!!! It wasn't getting out of my hands this time!! Mike came over, glanced at the price, smiled at me and took it away from my hot little hands, and added it to my pile - without a word!! He knew!!! He didn't even have to say a word. Not only that, when we got home, he arranged with his sister-in-law to do the framing for me. I had to take a photo of the painting, sitting on my veranda, because I was soooo excited!!!! "Thinking of Pies" is finally mine!

Lessons From My Mother

I was so inspired by our trip to Creston, B.C. this weekend that I just had to start scrap booking fall layouts! As most of you know, I "resist" making one page layouts and snottily refer to them as "one page wonders". Okay, I admit it, I am a snot!! Please don't take any offense by my put down of single page layouts!!! But to me, most often, these layouts contain one photo and next to no journaling (which is really my pet peeve in the scrap booking world) - sometimes only a quote and a date grace the page. They tend to show off a lot of pretty product, but don't tell too much about the person in the photo, or the person who made the page. But whenever I start a new album, there has to be a front page and a back page, no matter how hard I try to get around it!!! So I decided to use my one lone photograph of my canning jars, filled to the brim with pungent pickled carrots, to make a tribute page to my mom and everything that she has taught me.
I love the way the light is coming through the window and shining through the mason jars - which by the way, are one of my most favorite comfort items in the world. I love mason jars!!! As my moods strike me, I fill them with colorful flowers from the garden or sand, seashells and candles and cupboards full of jars get filled with crisp veggies and sun soaked fruit from our Creston trips. They are warm and homey and totally full of goodness!
Our trip last weekend, while short, was one of the best in recent years! Mike and I spent three days scouring the fruit stands, antique stores, my favorite pottery shop - we had so much fun!!! The truck and trailer were bursting with treasures on the way home. I will take some photos of my "finds" and post them soon!

Scrapbooking History

So you are probably wondering why I am scrap booking a page on slavery? This layout was one that I started last year, but found a little difficult. It is not like you can walk into any scrapbook store and find embellishments for slavery!!! It took a very long time to find all of the pieces of the puzzle. I googled slavery and downloaded a few images that showed slaves at auction and how they (the people) were advertised and what selling prices would be expected for them. I was also able to procure some drawings of the slaves loaded on ships and estate records that listed the human inventory along with the cattle, sheep, horses and other "belongings" to the estates. Some of the photos were very graphic and made me shudder.

By printing out the images and then collaging them together, I was able to create the backgrounds for the two pages. A clip art bull whip seemed to be the most appropriate embellishment for the page, considering that I did not want to cover up much of the text in the old slavery auction bills. I also used Barracks signature saying "Anything Can Happen" and included the People magazine article about Obama's historic election. But why scrapbook it in the first place?

From the very beginning of my scrapbook hobby, I have included pages in my family albums about significant events that have shaped our world. Because we are creating "history books" for our families, I feel it is necessary to include world events that have changed the way we live, the way we do business, the way we feel about things. Y2K, the terrorist attacks of 9-11, Amish school shootings, the stock market crash/Motor industry bailouts/recession and Barrack Obama's history making election all deserve a place in our scrapbooks. They have changed us in some way. Just try to get through security at an airport,with a liquid, and see what happens!!!

So the next time that a world event occurs that has a significant impact on you - scrap it!

Things I Love About Summer

If you could summer in a jar, my absolute favorite thing about summer is my soup recipe, with ingredients straight from the garden, it can not be beat! Try it out and see if you don't agree. It might seem a little complicated, because of all of the steps, but it is just a lot of chopping and dicing and nothing is too hard. Don't be freaked out by the title - it is not like the borscht that you have tasted that is just full of beets! This has a beet in it for color, but you fish it out and throw it away about halfway through the recipe. This soup is creamy and rich and chock full of good veggies! I have tried using the food processor to speed up the process (LOL) but it really made the ingredients too fine, almost like a big pot of baby food. Plus, there is something therapeutic about cutting all of the vegetables by hand and putting some "love" in the pot.

Cindy's Summer Borscht

In a large soup pot or stock pot, add the following ingredients and let simmer away :

1 quart canned tomatoes

1 onion, chopped finely

1 cup cream (I use whipping cream)

While that is cooking, peel about four large potatoes, do not cut them up fine, leave in large chunks so that you can fish them out of the soup later on.

Add to the pot:

the four large potatoes cut in big chunks

2 carrots, chopped

1 pint (2 cups) frozen or fresh peas

1 tbsp salt

Cover with boiling water and let it simmer away until the potatoes are cooked. While that is happening, crack a beer (LOL) and chop up the following:

5 stalks of celery, chopped up finely

1/2 head of cauliflower ,cut up finely

1 small head of green cabbage, cut up FINELY - no one likes big shreds of cabbage!

Fish out the big potatoes and mash them with salt and pepper, lots of butter and cream. They should be runny . Set aside. Add to the pot:

1 tbsp dried dill

the celery

the cauliflower

While that is simmering away, have another beer (you deserve it for slaving away over a hot soup pot) and fry 1/2 of the pile of cabbage and one onion, chopped in lots of butter. Watch this carefully, do NOT let the cabbage brown. You just want to sweat it and "almost" take it to the point of carmelization. ALMOST. If you cook it until it browns, it looks like there are "burnt bits" in the creamy soup.

When you are done frying the cabbage, finely chop and add to the pot:

1 green pepper, seeded

salt and dill to taste

Peel and dice four small potatoes and add to the soup:

raw pile of cabbage

fried cabbage/onion mixture

finely diced raw potatoes

Let that come to a boil once more. Turn off heat. Stir in mashed potato mixture. Cover the pot and let it sit, to fully cook the last vegetables. When you are ready to serve, bring the soup up to temperature. Taste for the last time and add salt and/or dill if necessary.

This sounds really complicated, but it isn't. It is just the best summer soup you will ever have! Enjoy!!

Summer Nirvana

Summer has so many attributes that I love, although it can never top autumn in my mind, it certainly gives it a run for its money. Have you ever had one of those days, were you don't really have any where else to be, you don't really have anything else to do, no one is expecting anything of you and this calm, serene peaceful feeling comes over you. It does not happen much in my life. Usually there are millions of pressing details every day that make those days just ordinary days. Only about one day of the year do I get that special feeling. Everything is good in my world, I have no worries and this state of mind just overtakes me. It is the day that you take the time to stop to smell the new rose that has blossomed, the day that you sit on the veranda with a cold beer and you SAVOUR it, not just drink it, the day that you really hear the different sounds of the birds twittering in the garden, the day that you realize that there is a hummingbird nest just a few feet from the veranda railing and it has been there all along and you just never LOOKED before. The day that you taste a warm from the sun, wild raspberry and you don't think that you have ever tasted anything so perfect and sweet. I imagine that this feeling is like the state that people obtain when they are deep in meditation. It's just too bad that it only happens one time a year.

Why do we push ourselves so hard? Why do I feel the need to fill every waking moment with some sort of productive activity? Why, when my whole yard is weeded and pristine, I decide to build a new brick wall and yet another flower bed? Another obligation that has to be met with regards to weeding and watering and dead heading. Another job, in an already "bursting at the seams" schedule.

Contentment. Why can I not achieve it? Why do I only get to feel calm and rested and wonderful just one day out of 365. IT'S MY MOTHER'S FAULT!!!!!

My mother is the proverbial energizer bunny. She never stops. She never rests. She can accomplish more in one day than most people do in a week. She expects perfection, she is demanding - on her body, on her production, and on her expectations. My need to fill every moment with activity is directly a result from being raised by an over achiever.

I have read that if you have an abusive or alcoholic person in your family, it takes four generations to undo the harm that one person has inflicted on the family. Looking at Mom and myself and Megan (my daughter) I can tell with absolute certainty that we are still a good four generations away from achieving a more peaceful, slothful, relaxed, lazy version of ourselves.

With that in mind, I am going to go and weed the vegetable garden.

Outta Here!!!

I am gone, loooong gone!!! Tomorrow starts my summer vacation - at least for three days! I am going north, heading out, AWOL... See you on Tuesday, when reality kicks me in the butt and it is shipping time! See you later!

My New BFF

Okay, this is my shout out for the week – hooray for Tide Stain release!!!! I love cleaning products…what can I say? I am a self professed OCD cleaner. This week, this little orange plastic container came to my rescue in a big way!!
To start off, I should let you know that I have to buy cleaning products when I go grocery shopping – even if I don’t need them at all. I believe that someday, there is going to be a war or a food /cleaning product shortage or a world crisis and I will not be able to get the cleaning products that I need. Your laughing at me right now I can tell! Well, I am sure that if there were a world crisis, cleaning might not be on the forefront of my concerns, but I have the food crisis covered (I am also a food collector) so my issue is that there will not be enough Mister Clean, Tide, Fantastic or Windex around for everyone. So my story starts in the grocery store, where lo and behold, a new cleaning product that I have not tested was on the shelves. So I bought some – Tide Stain Release.
This took place just before our black water woes in May. When the water was clean enough to do laundry (or so I thought) I ran a few loads of dark clothes through before I put a load of light colored sheets and towels in. They started out cream colored and ended up BLACK!!!! I ruined them all. So I went and bought another set of sheets and new ivory towels. I thought that the old towels might make good dog bathing towels and so I didn’t even try to save them. A week later, after the arrival of the Tide Stain Release, I tried it out on my black towels – which instantly became their rightful color. I was so excited!!!
Then more recently, Mike took me on a clothes shopping spree at Macy’s one day sale when we were in Couer d’Alene. In all of the piles of clothes I had on the counter, the sales clerk forgot to remove one of the dye buttons off of a really nice blouse. When I got home and discovered it, I had no way of getting it off without a dye explosion. It’s not like I could take it into a store and ask someone to remove the button – they would think that I had stolen it. So I asked Mike to remove it for me. Not on my veranda. Not while he was wearing anything good. If it wrecked the blouse, then I guess it had to be. Did he listen to me? No.
Mike pried the button off, on the veranda, wearing his best pair of jeans and POOF!!! It exploded. The blouse was ruined. The deck was covered and so was most of what he was wearing. I thought about throwing it away and then I remembered my earlier success with my new best buddy. Tide Stain Release not only removed all of the dye from the shirt, I watered it down and cleaned the dye off of my new Trex veranda. I am in love!!!!
So, here is my testimonial – buy some Tide Stain release and let your husband do whatever he wants – he is going to anyway!!!!

Father's Day Water Fall

For Father’s Day, both of the boys gave Mike two free days of labor to put our water fall back together. We planned the event for the weekend after Father’s Day, when Mike and I would be back from Coeur d’Alene and we could get all of the tools and equipment organized for the event.
This is the before...
　
　
This is the water fall at this point was almost complete - but very ugly!!! The rain barrel had blown over to the pond during the spring storms, you can clearly see our Christmas tree had blown there too, what a mess!!! It only took two flat deck trucks full of rock, one track hoe, a jumping jack to tamp the ground hard enough to support the weight of the water fall, both our sons, one guy from the roofing crew, a friend of Andrew’s ( who got roped into one day’s hard labor) Mike, to plan everything and two full days of putting a rock down...everyone looking at it...deciding that it was not the right shape, or the right slope, too big, too small ...moving the rock out with the track hoe...putting in another rock...etc. etc.
Finally, on Sunday, they decided that the structure was good enough and they turned on the waterfall. The water did not fall exactly as they wanted, so they made some last minute adjustments and called it quits. Now all I have to do is get in there and naturalize the edges of the pond, to make it look like it has been there for a hundred years, a few more rocks, a few shrubs and some flowers and then we can go and get some fish!!!!
　
If I could figure out how to get another picture in this darn blog, I would show you the totally finished result, with the water running down the falls. It is much bigger than in this last picture, as due to technical difficulties and a slip with the hoe, the large cap rock cracked in half and they had to build higher than originally planned. The darn guys stold some rock off of my dry stack stone fence to keep going and just before the sun went down, the falls were complete. I will have to post another photo to show you after I am done the planting. 　
　

Caught Red Handed!

For those of you who know me well, you know that I have a sort of obsession with dishes of any sort - I collect meat platters, complete dish sets, random dishes that appeal to me, I can't help myself!!! I am Cindy and ...I am an addict...I have not bought a dish in two days...

When I had to start hiding dishes in boxes, under the beds, in the front closet,

on the top shelf of my bedroom closet, Mike made me promise that it would come to an end. What came to an end was me hiding them where he might find them. I started being more creative. I started taking them over to the workshop and hiding them in closets over there. Edna, my accountant has a locking closet at the workshop where she stores my bookwork for Scrapbook Cupboard and Monday Night Class. I figured that if required unlocking a door, Mike would probably not look in there. I also had to find a "dish mule", someone who was reliable and not tell on me, make sure that the dishes were delivered on a work day when Mike was not around, and be willing to smuggle in my fix when ever I saw a set that I could not live without. Tanya has been my most often used dish mule, as she lived in Lethbridge and had access to Pier 1, Winners etc. She was also very safe, as I signed all of her paychecks ( so she knew that I was the boss) and she worked odd hours when Mike was not "around".

Recently, I saw a very pretty set of dishes in a Pier 1 catalogue and gave Tanya a cheque to cover some rather "extensive" dish purchases. However, my daughter happened to be around to see the deal go down and then very promptly ran to her father and blew the whistle on me. Tanya no longer could be used to smuggle, as Mike then started watching her like a hawk when she came to work. I had to become even more creative.

A week or so ago, Mike and I took a road trip to the States, just a few days off to eat and relax and see some new sights, before shipping started. Luckily for me, not so much for Mike, he can't keep up to me with his crutches. After a period of time in a mall or in a store, he usually goes back to the car to rest, while I finish looking around. I feel like a convict that has escaped!!! Straight to the housewares I go and check out all of the new patterns and colors. Then I have to figure out what I can buy that I can hide dishes in!!! This trip, I came home with a whole set of luggage.

What Mike does not know is that I had the clerk wrap up all of my dishes and put them inside the suitcases (I asked her to do it so they would not break as we were travelling) and I walked out of the store, right to the car, put the suitcases in - RIGHT UNDER MIKE'S NOSE- and he never suspected a thing. Later that night, when he went to take a bath, I transferred just enough clothes and purchases into the suitcases to camouflage the dishes. He never suspected a thing!!!!

Can you blame me? Look at that pretty platter with the crewel flowers on it!!! This is one that Tanya smuggled for me!!! I love this pattern! It is currently residing in the workshop on this shelf that my Dad built for me. You are probably wondering why Mike does not notice the dishes when they are out in plain view?? You have to see my house to understand. Or my workshop! I have been collecting fall decor and dishes for so long now that I can decorate several houses and I had custom cabinetry (in the house) built for my collections, so it would be very hard to notice a small addition here or there. Even I can't keep straight all that I own, so how could he? Long live the addict!!!!

You Weren't Here To Ask...

This is going to be a rant, a vent, whatever you call it when you want to get something off of your chest! It all started with the Summer Scraptacular and me being gone for a day and a half - almost two days. Not a very long time for things to go horribly wrong at home, but I guess my husband is extremely talented!

Mike is the first one to jump in when he sees something that needs doing, so I guess that I should be thankful that he has the "take the bull by the horns" mentality, but, honestly, sometimes he makes me crazy! This weekend, he decided that he was going to do me a favor by applying Roundup to any weeds that he could find hanging around our farm. Trouble is, weeds grow in between and around flowers, shrubs, trees etc. that should not be sprayed. Add that to the fact that Mike "strongly dislikes" some of my plantings and well, you get the picture...

He was proud as punch that in between rain storms, he was able to apply TANKS FULL of Roundup! I was horrified! To which he replied "Well, you weren't around to ask!". Do I look like a dummy? You bet I was around to ask!! It was planned that way in the first place! When I asked "exactly" what was sprayed, I got the reply "You'll see what I did in a few days". Of course, I will - as plants start to keel over and die.

Is the saying "You weren't around to ask" the female equivalent of "I've had this for ages!"? because I use that one on him a lot!!! I guess they're not as dumb as they look!

Yard Work!

This is a pretty picture of what I have in my mind to do this summer on our front veranda. I was just scrapbooking the building of the new veranda last night - last spring we did all of the hard work, replacing all of the floor boards to the no maintenance, never need to be painted again composite boards, we put up the new railings and the west wall of Plexiglas and I painted the church pew and the Adirondack chairs that reside on the veranda. Other than put up a hanging basket and putting my herbs outside, that was all that I had time to do - last summer was so busy!! First we hosted my parents 50th wedding anniversary and I was quite involved with the cooking, the very next weekend we had Mike's family reunion and the interment of his sister's ashes. It was stupid, crazy busy. Then haying season hit and before I knew it, it was back to work.
This summer, I want to fine tune all of the details on the veranda and transform it into a cozy outdoor living area. With all of the cold wind and rain that we have had, I really have not even got out there to wash it down. It has been so windy, that if I put the pillows out on the chairs, I would have to drive to Brocket to collect them in the morning!!! I hope that it is going to warm up a little so that we can enjoy the month of June!
I have made good use of the cold weather, to get the herbs started, do some more scrapbooking, clean my laundry room (from top to bottom) and clean out the closets. But, now I am itching to get outside with the rotor tiller and the whipper snipper and some FLOWERS!!! Winter has been bleak and I am longing for a shot of color!
Today, Megan hired a young man to come out to the farm and help her clean up our yard - it was her Father's Day present to her Dad. We are all feeling badly that he has so many spring chores that he can not do on crutches, that she decided to take Adam for the day and tie into some of the odd jobs that are needing to be done. Man!!! Did they ever get a lot accomplished in just one day. The yard looks amazing!!! Our boys are coming this weekend to finish the big koi pond that we started last fall. They are going to place some boulders, backfill around the pond and put the waterfall back in place and then we will be ready to plant, that is, assuming that it warms up a little!! Happy Spring!!!

A Clean Desk Is A New Lease On Life!

This was the weekend that I HAD to tackle my overflowing, piles on piles of paperwork, miscellaneous receipts that never match the cheques, dozens of notes to self, etc. etc. etc. that was overflowing my desk and the counter tops surrounding my desk. Two foot tall piles to be exact!!! My exploding paperwork clutter was even annoying my staff! Probably because every time that they asked for something, I would direct them to "the pile" and a half an hour later (or longer) they might find the answer to their question. It was paper "OUT OF CONTROL"! Today was D day and that hill had to be conquered. Bring on the beer!
Income tax, serious amounts of paperwork, forms that need to be filled out - all of these tasks require vast amounts of beer. Income tax requires cigarettes too! I have to admit that I usually only get motivated to deal with things such as these, when threatened with jail time, suspension of my bank account, or the arrival of a sheriff to seize our assets. Paperwork is mind numbing. There is no creativity involved, no satisfaction - just mind numbing torture.
My goal was to be able to see the top of my desk (in entirety) by Sunday noon. Thursday night I did the piles of stuff to the left of my desk, had some bottled beverages, praised myself for surviving even just that much and shuddered when I looked at what was left. Friday, I made sense of what was stored to the right of my desk. Today I had to come face to face with the actual desk itself. I was already down a case of beer and the worst part was yet to come.
I know that this probably sounds exaggerated, but what you have to realize is that not only am I the "keeper" of the paperwork for my company, but I also have farm books, WCB related paperwork that pertains to Mike and his injury, receipts that need to be claimed, CAIS forms, Monday Night Class memos by the dozens, client forms for four hundred people and notes pertaining to them, dozens of kit filling lists and designer notes, tens of dozens of memos regarding stock issues pertaining to certain kits, bills that need to be paid, need to be filed, need to be given to Edna, payroll, designers fee book, shipping lists, orders that have been filled, orders that haven't been filled, lists of card numbers that will not go through, and about forty notes for phone calls that need to be made - it just goes on and on and on... It is a wonder that I have not hung myself from the rafters a long time ago. It would be a full time job to keep it all up AND I DON'T WANT THAT JOB!!!!!
I can just about see the top of the desk and it is only Saturday night - I still have one more day! Then I am going to take a picture and rejoice in the fact that the allies have landed and the battle will be won! (Don't tell Edna that I threw half of it away!)

Water Woes (!*%#!*#*)

Do you see what this is? Black water, in my bath tub!! Two hours ago there was no water, and I'm not sure which is worse - no water versus black water? This whole saga started three days ago, on Tuesday morning when I came to work. I made a pot of coffee, flushed the toilet a couple of times before noon and after lunch I went to get a bucket of water to wash the chairs and tables down in the workshop and guess what? No water!
I wasn't too worried, I thought it was just an electrical problem. We have lots of trouble with the pilot light going off on the boiler and Mike just comes and starts it every time that I call, so I thought it was no big deal. Until Mike came and could not solve the problem. So we called Reed, our plumber. Reed worked on it for two days before he called in back up - our electrician that lives just down the road.
By now, I'm sweating bullets. Two years ago we trenched in a water line and a power line to connect the workshop to the well - some $30,000.00 later, we had flushing toilets for the staff that came to work. The electrical line is 6 feet down with the water line and our electrician told us that there was a fault in the line somewhere and we were losing power, at the well we did not have enough current left to start the pump. There is 2300 feet of electrical line between the well and the taps. WTF???
Gerry changed some wires around, using a ground wire for the hot wire and changing the faulty wire into the ground wire. Or something like that. Today, Reed came back to hook everything up and after a lot of hissing and spitting, water started to come out. At first, it was sort of yuckky looking, so Reed directed all of the water through a hose into the toilet and cleaned the system, or so we thought. Then Reed left. I went to clean up some of the muddy spots on the floor, turned on the tap and guess what came out? BLACK WATER!!! We shut everything off fast and went and got some garden hoses, turned on the outside tap and it has been running for over two hours now, but this is what is coming out.
It is oily and sticky and leaves streaks on everything. The only cleaning product that I have that will take it off and break it down is Comet. (Believe me, I have lots of cleaning products and I have tried them all in the past couple of hours). It is in every sink and toilet and shower and bath tub!
Have you ever had one of those days (or weeks) when it is two steps ahead and three back? That is this week for me!! I am going home to have a stiff drink. I'm going to let the water run wild all night if I have to. I'll worry about cleaning up the mess tomorrow!

Happy Mother's Day

I certainly had a great Mother's Day weekend, even if the skies were cloudy and overcast and it was generally yuckky outside. First, Andrew brought me the coolest cast iron towel rack that I have ever seen. I took one look at it and knew that I wanted to use it to hold scrap booking magazines instead. Then I was surprised by some friends with a bouquet of sunflowers for my dining room table. Then I got a phone call to come home from the workshop and when I got there Daniel gave me a new cell phone!!!!!! The slide kind, with individual keys for texting !!! Then Mike gave me two new charms for my Pandora bracelet - and a card that said that while I was NOT his mother, he decided to treat me anyway. Lastly, I got a phone call from Las Vegas, from my daughter, wishing me a Happy Mother's Day. (Megan is on vacation, with dyed hair and fake ID because she is not 21) At least she was not calling me from jail!!
The whole thing got me thinking about being a Mother and how hard it is to bite your tongue when you see one of your adult (or supposed to be adult) children doing something that you are dead set against. I guess the way that Mike and I ran things in our household was: if you were living at home, under our roof, you followed our rules. When you moved out, you were able to make your own decisions, but we always stated to our children that we raised them to know right from wrong, hoping that our example would keep them from making too many disastrous mistakes. WRONG!!! What were we thinking?? They're a bunch of idiots!!!!
I wonder then, how many times my own parents have lamented the fact that they raised a bunch of idiots too? I'm pretty sure that my own Mom must have bit her tongue until it was bleeding, when I decided, at different stages of my life, to change religions, start homeschooling my three children, scrapbook for a living, buy a car that cost more that our house, etc. etc. And I am just one of her three idiot children!!!
No wonder why people celebrate Mother's Day. It is one day that you can enjoy your children, before another year of bullshit comes along!!

Tribute To Guy!

Okay, I know what Christy is going to call this - food porn. I am addicted to Food Network TV, particularly to the show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, hosted by my favorite Food Network Chef - none other than Guy Fieri. This is Guy - a little "out there", very witty and really talented! He makes me laugh.

About a year ago, I saw an episode of Triple D, when Guy went to a cafe called Blue Moon Cafe and the owner was a young, 20 something, entrepreneur who was set up in business by her mom. She demonstrated how to make Captain Crunch French Toast. I played around with her recipe and this is what I came up with:

The Captain's French Toast

sliced strawberries (some for filling, some for topping) approx three cups

1/4 brick cream cheese, softened

slices of French Bread, approx 1/2" thick

Captain Crunch cereal that has been "pulsed" in a food processor until crumbly

four eggs

vanilla extract

splash of milk

In a shallow bowl, whip up eggs, milk and vanilla extract.

Pour Captain Crunch crumbs into a pie pan or other shallow container.

Butter insides of two slices of french bread with the soft cream cheese, place strawberries into the cream cheese and put the two slices together with the cream cheese/strawberries together in the middle. Make sure that the sandwich is "stable" and not wanting to slide apart.

Dip both sides in the egg mixture.

Roll the sandwich around in the Captain Crunch, making sure that even the edges get coated with the cereal.

On a grill, or in a fry pan, carefully grill both sides of the French toast, being sure not to burn the cereal. The high sugar content can cause it to burn easily!!

Serve with warmed syrup, sliced strawberries and sweetened whipped cream.

Enjoy!!

Thanks, Guy,for making me want to play around in the kitchen. You are my inspiration!

Spring Is Here!!

When we went to bed last night a spring squall was going through and it was snowing like crazy!! I was afraid when I woke up this morning, everything was going to be covered and I had plans today to clean up around the outside of the workshop today. I think that about one more dump truck should have it covered! There is just a little rubble left over that I wanted to move before the grass needed to be mowed. This morning, however, the weather was beautiful!

Mike arrived around 11:00 with this pretty bouquet of crocus blooms, just for me! I didn't even know that they were blooming - it has been so cold here next to the mountains and I just had not had the time to go looking around. It was such a thoughtful way for him to get my day off on the right foot!

After I caught up on all the emails, I decided to take a break and go looking around. It is warm out there today!! The meadowlarks were singing in the fields, on Indian Hill the crocus were blooming and there was lots of fresh snow in the mountains. It was just too pretty! I could not go back inside and try to get excited about what kits were going up on the website for May. I just had to take a little photo break!

My children are the fifth generation to be brought up on this land. I once thought that this is the way that it always would be, our family would always live here and raise families that would get to ride ponies all over the place, listen to the meadowlarks, pick spring flowers and enjoy the mountains circling around like pie crust. The past nine years, as Mike has tried to get back some semblance of his old life, I have been keenly aware that I need to take the time to more fully appreciate every day spent here. It may not always be so. We have had lengthy talks lately about what will happen if the doctors can not "fix" his leg in some form that will allow him to walk and be able to do all of the things that need to be done when you live on a farm.

Everywhere that you look on the farm, you can tell that we have not been able to keep up with the repairs and maintenance. The shelter belt needs clean up, the barns need painting and a few new windows, the koi pond was never finished, the fences are all in bad repair, the farm yard needs cleaning up and dejunking. Every view reminds Mike that he is not able to work like he used to. It is getting harder and harder not to agree with him that a smaller place would be a good idea.

But, for now, I am going to think about all things bright and beautiful - the blooming crocus, the singing meadowlark and the snow capped mountains, and pray for a medical miracle. If God can make these mountains, he can mend Mike's leg. I just need faith.

My Never Ending Dish Obsession

I have a confession to make. I only own three pairs of shoes and one pair of moccasins, I only have one purse and I have but one dress, which can be a funeral dress, a party dress or an event dress depending on the need. I am a hoodie and blue jean girl, nothing fancy, definitely not a clothes horse. But, can I walk past a pretty set of dishes in a store? Absolutely not!!!
I have so many sets of dishes that I have to hide them all over the house, under the spare beds, in the front closet, in with the decorations for that season. I must have about 15 complete sets of tableware, about a dozen partial sets for luncheons or teas or for parties. I can not stop.
I also collect antique platters, my collection numbers in the forties. I used to display a great portion of the platters on my dining room wall - until Mike told me to cease and desist, they were bothering him. I took some of them down and now I rotate the display as the seasons change and the platters need dusting. Marcie used to smuggle new dishes in for me when she came up from Lethbridge, but Mike soon caught on to her and put a stop to that.
For the longest time, Tanya was my new "dish mule" because Mike had not figured out that when she comes up to work from Lethbridge, she brings my latest order from Pier 1 along with her. She comes over to the workshop and unloads when he is not around and until recently we had not been caught. Until this week! Megan happened to be helping make kits when Tanya and I were discussing the new set of dishes that I wanted and that little brat squealed on me!!! She told Mike exactly now much money that I gave Tanya, and he decided to "trap" me when Tanya brought the dishes in on the sly. We were caught red handed!!! It was pretty funny. But now, I have to find a new way to smuggle contraband dish deliveries into the house.
This set of pottery was last summer's find. On a camping trip to Creston with Mike, I stopped by my favorite pottery studio and Mike bought me these new pieces to go along with the set that I was collecting. I love the fruit stands, the grain elevators and the bright cheerful colors of the glaze. I am eagerly looking forward to going back this spring and getting another piece or two.
Hi, my name is Cindy, I have a dish addiction, it has been two weeks since I last bought some dishes....