Catch-up Monday: Loose Ends

Happy New Year!

I hope and pray that everyone had a blessed holiday.

I am still healing. I have been told that it could take a very long time to heal because I have deep tissue bruising. There are still some things that I just cannot do without a lot of pain, but there are tiny victories every day. We started visiting a local doctor and she is concerned that my left leg still has some significant swelling and has sent for my old records. In the meanwhile, she ordered the routine battery of yearly tests: You know the ones. For the most part, I am fine, but I have some bone density and triglyceride issues, and I am looking into holistic/natural treatment for both of those. My biggest concern now is that my left knee arbitrarily decides not to support me. I appreciate any and all prayers for my health concerns. I will let you know what I learn.

At the time of my last post, Ed was still working in Independence. He was driving about three hours a day, and the trip was rapidly taking a toll on him and his truck. He found a cooking job closer to home for minimum wage, and took it, while still looking for something else. A few weeks later he was hired at a place walking distance from the house. Awesome! Well, it was, anyway. He was fired a week later for being too slow...I could write for days about that, but I won't.

Well now what? First, we prayed, and then, for the first time in his life, Ed decided to file for unemployment. It was approved, and so here we are. Ed, of course, is still looking for work, but the Lord has graciously took our little bit and made it go farther than we ever thought possible.  Phillipians 4:19 says: "And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus". In the last few months, He has proven to us, over and over again, that His word is true.

Anyway, now that I've brought you up to date on all that, I'll show you some of the things I've worked on over the last few months. Remember that road side dresser we found? Well, here it is in Kat's room.

She loves it! I splurged (when Ed was still working) and bought a gallon of latex paint in one of her favorite colors. I painted her bed frame, bookshelf, desk, and this dresser with it. I covered the drawer fronts with scrapbook paper and added the ribbon pulls. There were some tense moments putting the drawers back in, because the dresser sat in the garage for a few weeks. The garage was not as dry as we thought, and the drawers swelled. We managed to get all but one of them back in, and Ed is still working on it.

After two years, I finally finished Ed's beaded hat band. Unfortunately, the hat for which it was originally intended doesn't get worn much anymore. Here it is on his "church hat". 

Before Christmas, I pulled out some projects I started last year, but never finished. Here are snow man necklaces made from old keys Kyle collected when he was little. 

This snow man and angel came from pieces of wood fence that we got last year. Most of it wasn't good for more than fire wood, but I had Ed cut off a few end pieces.  The wings and subsequent angel came about because a board just snapped in half. I stapled the halves on to another board using my staple gun. Yes, I know, my painting leaves a little to be desired, but I had fun with it. Kat says the angel is "creepy".

That's all the news for now.
Connie

A Little Longer Than Two Weeks!

Sometimes, your life just gets stood on its head.

A few days after I decided to take a break, both my grown sons found themselves, rather traumatically, without a place to stay. So, suddenly, I have all three of my children staying in my daughter's room. Thankfully, both of my sons are very respectful of their little sister. If you are a regular reader, you know our house is very small, so we became very crowded.

Within a few weeks, #1 son took a bus to South Dakota to be with his girl friend. The end of that long complicated story is that they have an apartment, are both working, and are holding their own right now. We are thankful for those blessings.

#2 son is still living with us, but got on where Ed works, and has done very well there.

In addition to all the drama from my sons, we had decided to start homeschooling my daughter this fall. This is a long complicated story, which may become its own blog. I have spent a lot of time this summer researching and collecting cirriculum, as well as teaching myself how best to teach my daughter according to the way she learns.

Oh yeah, I had also convinced the Vacation Bible School "team" at church to try something differnt, spent a lot of time putting that together. It was a great success!

Plot twist #2. As most of you know, our house is a rental and in very poor condition. Our land lord plans to "bulldoze" it as soon as we move. We knew we could not spend another winter there, but also knew that we probably couldn't buy anything either. We spent a lot of time praying about a new house. Not only did God hear, he answered in a big way. Two weeks ago today, we closed on a five acre peice of property. It has a three bedroom house, a two car detached garage, and a barn. So, we have our little homestead!  Its about 75 miles from the old house so moving has been a challenge.

Enter plot twist #3. Last Saturday, as we had been doing for the three days previously, we met at the old house. My son in his car, me in mine and Ed in the truck. We had a  three vehicles loaded and were ready to make the daily drive back to the new house. Since I was parked on the street, I walked down the driveway to my car. My son got in his car, and since he did not see me, thought I was already down at my car. He started backing up.

I felt the bump from behind. When I realized what was happening, I started praying! Ed saw what was happening, and yelled at my son to stop. The back tires were on top of me. God is so good! After about four hours in the Emergency Room, I was on my way home! No broken bones, and no internal injuries! I am however, very SORE! My left knee is banged up pretty badly, my left shoulder has a serious case of road rash, and my right side is very bruised. I'm confined to using a walker for now. I was able to take a few steps without it yesterday. Needless to say I am finished moving! Now, I just have to sit and watch everyone else. I guess the Lord knows I need to work on patience too!

Friday with Food: A Week of Ham...and a Break

Welcome to Friday with Food!

First I want to say that I am going to take a few weeks off from posting. There are things that need my attention. I plan to be back by Monday, March 24. You can sign up for email notification, and you will get an email as soon as I post a new entry.

Last weekend, I baked an 11.5 lb half ham. I served it with buttermilk biscuits (made with a mixture of whole wheat and brown rice flour), and some roasted red potatoes. We ate that ham in one form or another most of the week. Katherine was thrilled. Ham is one of the things she does like.

The second day we had ham and swiss cheese on the remaining biscuits, The next day we had ham and eggs. I don't know how many "snacks" Katherine made of grabbing a piece of ham from the fridge. Finally, I took the bone, with a little bit of the meat and put it aside for beans. I took what was left in my meat grinder and ground it up. I put some in the scrambled eggs Ed and I had for breakfast yesterday, and I put the rest in the freezer for future ham salad.

This morning I made the flax bread I had been promising Ed all week. I took about a half cup of almond butter and mixed it up with a little molasses and mashed banana. I spread it on the flax bread and that was our breakfast.

Then I put the ham bone in a crock pot with some pinto beans, pepper and rosemary. That, and some cornbread, will be our supper tonight.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

See ya later!

Connie