back update

I'm not sure who reads this anymore as no one leaves any comments, but maybe some one looks at this, God bless you!!!
So, tomorrow I will have an outpatient procedure done which is called "spinal cord implant" test trial for tomorrow's purpose. If this works for my back and left leg pain, I will have the real implant done in January! I wear this for 4 days and then figure out if it has helped! We are praying it helps me as there is not another alternative at this point. Makes me feel like I am backed up to the corner with no escape clause!  Loving you all and blessings!!!

Christmas Time

Well, it's this time again for celebrating the birth of our beloved savior, Jesus! Gordon and I wish you a warm, heartfelt Christmas! WE hope that you and yours have a wonderful day and year ahead!! Jesus is so amazing, with all we have personally gone through this past year, Jesus has been there for us, holding me, comforting me, walking beside us and making our moments easier that should have thrown us off our game, Jesus was there to whisper to us, "I'm here for you, Trust me." So, we have and He never lets me down, it may not be the answer I wanted or the path I want to walk, but it's what He wants for me! Merry Christmas to you!! Blessings!

Pilgrimage the book

I've been reading the newest book I got from Bethany House written by Lynn Austin. It's hard to put down and get anything done! We were off to church and Gordon got 2 calls for furnace outs, so off he went to work. I sat down and read about 3 chapters. It's really good, speaking to me about the dry and weary land I've been living in lately in my spiritual life. God is here, but at times I can't feel Him around me, though I know He's here!! I see where God is everywhere I go! He feeds me through His word if I would only open the book!! So, I will start again today and open my Bible to see what God has to say to me for today! Thank you to Lynn for writing this wonderful thought provoking book, to walk a deeper walk with Christ!

Venison sausage with green peppers and onion

Last weekend, our son, Kurt and Gordon (the hub) made venison hot Italian sausages, brats, and sweet Italian sausages. Today I was craving the sausages with green peppers and onions with spaghetti sauce for lunch. We like to have our big meal at lunch time, which our grand parents used to dinner, mostly confusing for a kid to remember. It smells heavenly throughout the house right now!! Blessings!

books I'm reading

I am a book lover! I also love the Kindle, but mostly paperback books!! So, in saying that, Bethany House has me comment about certain books from time to time on my blog!! I have received 2 lately from my favorite author, Lynn Austin! You need to read her books, there I said it, AMEN and AMEN!! I first heard on her about 7 years ago. I bought the Hezekiah(God and Kings) series she wrote, what an absolutely fantastic series of 5 books!!! Get them if you can from the library or buy them, they are quite excellent! So, I was pretty pumped to get the newest one, "Return to Me", the restoring chronicles. I haven't gotten to far into the book because of the holiday and all, but what I have read it will grab you right away! Today, in the mail came her newest book(to me), "Pilgrimage". This for a deeper walk with Christ. It is more like a devotional. This is such a wonderful time of the year for a deeper walk with God! Please check out these 2 books, ASAP!!! Blessings!!

last Saturday craft show

 Here 's my friend Nicki. She is a real crafter and wood artist. She made these incredible wooden caddies. She sat there and was making rag rugs. I'm inspired to make one now!!

 This is Deb Parsons' booth. She makes all this lovely jewelry and scarves. I bought myself a poncho that she had made. Love it!

 Another crafter, so cute!

 Mark and his signs.

Chris and her sewn items. She also knits hats for American Girls dolls! Blessings!

Happy Thanksgiving

I pray for each of you today that you have found something to be grateful for, I know I have, I two girls here with me and I love it!!! Shealyn hasn't spent with us in 5 yrs. We love having her! She is a teenager and does it well, LOL!!! The guys are out hunting and we will have a very nontraditional meal tonight. Saturday, Erika and Trevor come over for the afternoon! She is bringing the pies! We got some snow over night and its very pretty outside! Well, have a blessed day and I feel blessed to have you follow my blog! Thank you!!!

Saturday- craft day

Saturday is the annual craft sale day for me. For about 8 years I make my Mom's famous fudge to sell at the American Legion sale. I thought about quitting this after last year, but decided to do one more year. I'll see what happens this year, sales were okay, but the amount of people coming through was down. This is time consuming for me. Not complaining just telling you the way it is. So, if you are out and about, come see us at the legion hall. Here is a snap shot of the fudge. Blessings!!

I'm back

A few of you have asked me where I have been lately. Well, the truth be known, I've not felt like saying anything! Between work, my back acting up and life, there's little time for blogging!
So now, I'm back with a partial plan! More recipes and more interesting things to talk about with you! We are on a plan to change our eating life style(again), because I need to lose some weight and Gordon needs to lower his cholesterol. If you have any ideas let us know! We are eating more salads and planning more soups/chili meals, but this can get tiring! We also make a few smoothies every week. So here is our favorite smoothie recipe: 2 bananas, 1 cup of frozen fruit( strawberries or blueberries), 1 cup of almond milk, 1 cup of Greek yogurt ( Greek Gods is our favorite), ice cubes, some times spinach or kale if I have it on hand, 2 scoops of protein powder. Blend till smooth or less lumps. Blessings!!!!

Fall

Fall is fading away quickly here in Wisconsin(north). Snow fell again today but to fine and didn't stick to the ground. We all know what that means, don't we!!! It means I'm sad! Winter isn't my favorite season, it lasts too long and is so messy!! It looks pretty, all new snow looks pretty, but it doesn't take long for a person to get weary of the white stuff!! Anyway, saying all that, fall is going quickly, so Thanksgiving will be here and then Christmas! I really would like to change my mindset and be grateful for all the seasons, for the changes that God has provided us. To sit back and look at the splendor He has set before us! Blessings!!

The Weekend

Well, now that Sunday is almost over I am getting around to writing something here! I made applesauce in the crock pot yesterday while I was at work, it made one quart and is the refrigerator as we speak. I'm thinking about pork chops to go with the applesauce, yum!!! 

Gordon and I went to the show today and saw "Captain Phillips: with Tom Hanks. It was very good and full of action! Then we drove up to Webster to eat a late lunch or early supper(it was 4 p.m.) and ate at Quiznos. I love Quiznos and who would of thunk that little Webster would have such a hot spot. It was busy and our food was great! We came home the back roads and saw the beautiful colors of fall. Have a great week! Blessings!!

APPLE WALNUT BREAD OR MUFFINS

 I was cruising around my blogs tonight about an hour ago, I saw on Debbie-debbiedoos.com a recipe for this apple walnut bread. I decided to make them and make muffins! I did have enough dough made to make a small loaf for my friend , Cheryl! She fixes all my jewelry for free and loves baked goods, so yay for Cheryl!!!  Recipe follows: 8 oz of yogurt( I used Greek Goddess, Salted Caramel flavored), 1 cup of brown sugar(yum), 2 eggs, 2 cups of flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, 1 1/2 cups of cubed apples( i used Red Free), 1 cup of chopped walnuts. Mix the wet together and fold in dry ingredients. I used my jumbo muffin tin and 1 small loaf pan, sprayed them well. Place in preheated oven at 350 for 35-40 minutes. I used a cake tester to see if the middle was dry or wet. It was dry, so I took them out to cool for 10 minutes in the pans and them cool them on a rack. Breakfast is ready! A nice slice of cheddar cheese to go along with the muffin for breakfast sounds so delicious!! Blessings!!

weekend

WE have taken on a project of trying to fix up a few things around the house. This little project we started dreaming about started in May( the dream). It is to replace the corner shower in our bathroom. So, we ordered a very nice corner shower from Menards and picked it up in June. Well, we have been waiting for the plumber son to come up and help install it! So, 2 weeks ago Gordon and his brother ripped out the old one, this weekend Kurt came up for a birthday party, which is great for us as they did 80% of installing the shower. Some things are not lining up and there has been a lot of words that I won't mention!! We can use the toilet, sink and laundry area, but no shower yet!! It should be very nice when it's done! We will do the floor and paint next spring! I'm thinking about cork for flooring, what do you think??? Let me know, blessings!! This picture is from the party, cousins!

new food show

I read on Thursday about a new cooking show to food network. It was in the Star Tribune from Minneapolis. Amy Thielen is the shows hostess and she is a professional chef who lives in northern Minnesota now with her family. It's called , " The Heartland Table". I loved the show, it was all about using butter and not worrying about the salt or calories or how to use something else in it's place. I will look at her cookbook if the library can get it for me, I don't need another cookbook!! Just ask Gordon!! So next Saturday morning check out her show, at 9:30 a.m., I do believe and check out her blog. Very entertaining! Blessings! I know I already posted this picture of the peaches, but I just love the picture, sorry!!!

this and that

Good evening,
It's been a week or longer since I said anything clever(if I ever do say clever things). It's been busy! Work has changed a little for me again and I like it. Demos are getting a spit shine in that I'm trying to jazz things up and not really spitting on anything!!!! Any ideas?? I'm thinking like doing a taste test on pickles, BBQ sauces, Pasta sauces and new salsas! Pizza is getting old for Fridays, how many ways can you serve pizza!! I'm not sure and don't care! Well, got that off my chest!
So, I've been making peach jam, PT again for my back and trying not to cry at work because my brain is on overload!! Trevor and Erika gave us some pole beans that are purple, but when cooked they turn green, so cool!!! The water in the pan becomes lime green color, so weird!!!! They are excellent beans. They also gave us some Zebra striped tomatoes, that stay green, but turn a dark green when ripe, so totally weird and I liked them! So, keep calm and drink some coffee, blessings!!

Michigan peaches

I forgot I ordered a box of peaches and when I saw the truck, I stopped to get my box. When Holly said, I will give you deal if you take 2, I said okay! So, now I have 2 boxes to deal with. Oh well!!! So, last night I made little individual pies using my jumbo muffin tin. Then I made a free form peach pie. I have my simple syrup ready to pour over the peaches when I get them into the jar. When we get back from lunch I will start the process of processing the peaches!! We are having with lunch with Erika and Trevor to celebrate her birthday as they will be at a wedding.
So all of this brings me back to the peaches. I have a new favorite blog, onehundreddollarsamonth.com with Mavis. For her 19th anniversary, her hub brought her 2 boxes of corn, how romantic!! She asked what was the most unromantic gift you ever received. I responded with the post of how once upon a time I said I would love a new over the stove exhaust fan because at the time I had none. Well, that's what I got for Christmas that year, I think it was 2004 or 2005. Do you have a unromantic gift story??? Post it here!! Good thing I always buy myself for something under the tree!!! That's all I can say about that, blessing!!

fish fry

Last night Gordon and his friend Bob( who is his fishing buddy) went fishing on Shell Lake. Bob and his wife live on Shell Lake and Bob know the hot spots. So, we got fish to eat and I fried them! I have been using Shore Lunch Cajun. It's very good, hot and wonderful! Try it and I hope you like it! We have enough fish for tomorrow night! YUM!!!!!!!!!!! Blessings!

Last Week

Last week Gordon and I had a great time with our granddaughter Olivia. She is one of the twins who are 10, she came home with us after celebrating Kurt's birthday on the 10th. We had so much fun with her, we went mini golfing, fishing with Grandpa only, playing games, watching movies, going to Rice Lake shopping for clothes, going to the Barron Farmer's Market with Auntie, eating lunch with me almost everyday and just hanging out!! We rode bikes and ATV's with helmets on, safety first!!! I hope the other girls will sometime come by themselves and stay a week with us, getting to know them is so important to them and us!! Blessings!! Olivia is the twin with long hair!

are you missing me???

Well, it's been a few weeks since I wrote anything. I'm not sure who is reading this anymore, maybe no one and I'm just blowing smoke!! Anyway, last week for demo I made Kool-aid cheesecake. It was 4 ingredients and good. Recipe: 1 8oz. package of cream cheese softened, 1 8 oz of cool whip thawed, 1 can of sweetened condensed milk(not evaporated), 1 packet of Kool aid flavor of your choice( i used Blastin' Berry Cherry). Beat the softened cream cheese until smooth add sweetened milk, Kool-aid and then the cool whip. I used the hand mixer for all of it! Pour into graham cracker crust and chill for 2 hours or longer. It was good for a no bake item to have. We served with graham crackers in a little portion cup. Much easier that cutting skinny, skinny pieces of cheesecake for the public! Blessings!!

what a week!

Last weekend started off well. On Sunday, we went to the twin cities to see our twins that turned 10 on the 17th of July and celebrate! We had a wonderful day and the weather cooperated for the day!! We brought the twins home with us for the week!! We ate chicken, BLT's, pancakes, corn dogs( not me), spaghetti and a few smoothies!! We met Kurt on Thursday night so they could go home!! We had fun, I took a day off from work and we went shopping! Another day we painted ceramics at The Potter's Shed!

cookbook

Last night I went to a cookbook dinner. The author is a very nice lady and she has written about 5 cookbooks. Teresa Marrone is her name. She is grew up in Aurora, Il. and now resides in Minneapolis area. She was very entertaining and visited every table to discuss her books.

She has written mostly books on eating what you find in a  forest, more like scavenger eating. I sat with people I didn't know and had fun meeting new people. I also bought 2 of her cookbooks. Last night was about food that is seasoned with maple syrup. WE had a 10 course meal, really small portions so you didn't feel so full!! It was really fun and I hope they offer something like it again! So, I bought the maple syrup book and one on slow cookers!

BBQ sauce

I have a new favorite website that I check daily called "onehundreddollarsamonth.com." The author is a gal named Mavis and she tries to feed her family for one hundred dollars a month. She has a huge garden and lots of tips for gardening, lives in the northwest and is a smart shopper! Her grocer gives her produce he would throw out, ours won't as it was abused when he did! But anyway, to get to the BBQ sauce recipe. Mavis made strawberry/chiptole jam. I thought, YUM!!! So, I bought a pail of berries and had the chiptole in the freezer. So, I made it, found it to be way too spicy for me. I realized quickly( smart of me) that no one would eat this stuff, so I can't throw it out, thinking about the cost I had into so far. What to do with this stuff??? God, what to do?? Help me figure out something. He did, I love BBQ sauce and thought why not, so I added some apple cider vinegar, more sugar,some salt, and water. I cooked this for 2 days so it would get very syrupy. It's still a little hot, but when added to chicken, it was mild. So, I got 4 pint jars and so, starts the canning season for me!! Blessings! So recipe for this is: 6 cups of strawberries, cut up and washed, 5 cups of sugar, 3 Chiptole peppers diced, 1 cup of brown sugar, 2 cups of apple cider vinegar and 1 cup of water. Of course, mine had 2 packets of pectin in it to make the jam, so I am not sure if that helped it get more syrupy quicker or not.

This and that

I have not been cooking very much with the heat, but I have been making soup! Go figure, as hot as it has been, I'm hungry for soup. Saturday I went to the Farmer's market (local in Spooner), and bought 3 pounds of peas. So, I made soup with leftover hamburger patty, carrots, peas, and orzo. It was good, weird eating it on a hot day, but so good. That lasted for 2 meals, last night I made soup again. It is a prepackage mix by Giada ( from the food network). It's an Italian soup and very good. Called Pasta Fagioli. I found it at Target, last time I was there. Giada has a line of food there, plus cookware. Well, that's all from here today. Blessings!

Happy 4th of July!!!

I was going to make this a very short post, but decided not too.  4th of July is a very special day for celebrating, but I think we as a country have forgotten what it really means! So here's my list, it's short! 

1. Freedom is a privilege, many men and women died for this privilege!

2. Freedom should not be taken for granted! Be grateful!

3. Freedom to come and go as we please. Freedom to worship where you want, go to school where you want, shop where you want, blog what you want, watch what you want on TV. and many more!

4. Freedom to enjoy your life! Pursue life, liberty and happiness!

This is a extremely short list, but you get the drift! Blessings, enjoy the rest of the day and the fireworks!

beans

I made a pan full of beans on Sunday afternoon. I started with Cranberry beans which are a wonderful and beautiful color bean, Pinkish color. So I soaked them for about 3 hours in a pan of water. Slowly heated them up at 3 hours soaking, added a sliced onion to the water. After cooking for 2 hours, I added 3 large pieces of cubed ham to the beans, 1/2 cup of molasses, 1/2 cup of ketchup, 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of black pepper and made sure the water was above the beans. I cooked them for another 2 hours, let them cool down and put the pan in the refrigerator over night. When I got home Monday from work, most of my meal was done! I warmed the beans up for another 2 hours, then we made grilled ham sandwiches to go with the beans. Well, we are still eating the beans, but they are getting better as they get heated through each meal!! Blessings!

garden photos

I have traveled so far away from what the blog started out as, sharing recipes with you all, so sorry!!!! So, with that in the forefront of my brain, I really want to start back to recipes, but want to share the photos of my beautiful flowers that I have spent hours planting, transplanting and breaking in a sweat to get them to look pretty in the yard! Tomorrow I will give you some ideas for smoothies that we have found we like and those we don't! Blessings! The top photo is day lilies that my mom gave me a long time ago. The bleeding heart bush is huge, then the petunia are from the HUGE hanging basket I bought myself!

back to quiet

Well, we returned the 2 girls on Saturday! Our house is very quiet!! Oh what fun we had with them. Played UNO every day, played Tri-ominoes every day, went fishing, ate ice cream, had lunch with Grammy at work, had breakfast with the old men group, ran around outside, looked at the bluebird eggs, and just had fun!!!
 So, now it's very quiet! Oh yeah, I already said that! Back to "normal" stuff and regular hours at work! Gordon did not plant a garden. But we did get 4 straw bales that were fertilized and found out we can use that to grow tomato plants which we have 4. They seem to be doing well. I was going to take a couple of photos and camera is missing! No clue where it is! So photos will be coming soon. Blessings   P. S. found the camera, my man found it, I should say!

fun

We have 2 granddaughters staying with us this week, we are so happy to have them. We went fishing last night and caught fish. Tonight we went to my friends house for a party, then to the park! Tomorrow depending on the weather, we may go swimming or to the movies!
 Did you finish up on the food challenge?? I did pretty good. Gordon said it was a normal thing to eat what I have on hand, but lately I had gotten lazy about getting food out and taking things home from work. So, this was good to use up what we have on hand!!
 Do you ever get lonely for the Lord?? I have lately. I have needed to spend more time alone with Him! So, here's the next challenge, to spend 30 minutes by the end of next week daily with the Lord! So, please ask me how I am doing with my time alone with Jesus!! Blessings!!

gardens

I dragged Gordon with me to Winter, Wisconsin to this huge greenhouse! Acres and acres of ideas!!! Anyway, they had a miniature village! So stinkin' cute!!!!! I want one and now have to figure how to do it!!! Blessings!!

food challenge

So, I'm at work minding my own business and someone came up to me with a challenge! Did I think I have enough food in my house/freezer/ refrigerator/cupboard to make a week's worth of meals that taste good??? I said yes, I think I do(Gordon just rolled his eyes and looked at me, we have a lot of freezer meat and canned food)!! No buying after Sunday for supplies need to be bought by tomorrow like bread, milk, eggs, butter( which I have in the freezer). So who else is up for "the challenge"???? I will blog what we ate that night with photos (I hope), if they turn out! Let's do this!!! Hugs!

Memorial Day weekend and strawberries

Growing up I never quite understood Memorial Day until I was about 10 or 11 yrs. old. We went to the local park, watched the parade of sorts and heard the band play many military songs. Then we would walk home the 3 blocks and have strawberry shortcake or watermelon. I humbly thank the men and women who have served, and are still serving our country! Laying down their lives for me and you is almost unimaginable!! Thank you and bless you!!
So with that in mind I made Jennifer Reese's pound cake which is the best recipe out there, thank you Jennifer!!! We will have some later tonight with a little coffee!! Recipe for pound cake is this with one minor tweak: 2 sticks of softened butter, 2 cups of flour(you can use cake flour, however I did not), 2 cups of sugar, 5 eggs, 1/4 teaspoon baking powder, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. Beat the butter with the whisking attachment of the mixer, add the sugar and beat for 5 minutes(not 4 or 6, but 5 minutes)!!!! Add the eggs one at a time, then the flour, baking powder and lemon juice. PLEASE have the oven preheated to 325 degrees, pour the batter into greased loaf pan and place in oven for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Insert a toothpick or cake tester to make sure the cake is done, Center should come out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan. I try to tap the pan on the counter to release the loaf, or try a knife around the outside edge of the pan. Wrap well and it will keep for a week, yeah, if you can leave it alone and quit slicing a little slice all day long!!!! Blessings and Hugs!!!

update on juicing

Well, it's been interesting to say the least with the juicing. I take my hat off(if I wore a hat) to those who do this all the time for any reason!! It's a lot of work, cleaning the juicer mostly! I found out that I clean it a lot, rinsing off the leftover pulp, and all that stuff. But saying all that I still like the juicing process! We plan at this time to juice at least once a day. We are still trying to find a juice that will fill us for a few hours. Joe Cross recommended the "mean green juice", and so far that will stay with you for about 3 hours. Have a great day! Please send any juices that you like my way! Blessings!!!

Let me introduce to you, Royal, our grandpuppy

So, the title says it all!! We are so happy for Erika and Trevor, he's pretty cute! I got my foot peed on and that's pure love to allow that!!LOL!!!

lifestyle change coming!

As you can tell from the title, we are on a quest to change a few things!! I need help with my arthritis and Gordon needs to lower his cholesterol. So, the other day, I DVR Dr. Oz who had Joe Cross on. He was sick and had a immunity problem, so he went to see Dr. Joel Fuhrman and he was put on a juicing diet. So, we are on a experiment to see if it will help us. With summer finally here, it's the perfect time with the farmer's market starting up very soon to juice. We will try this all summer, so please ask how's it going for us!!! We bought a Hamilton Beach Big Mouth juicer. It's not high end, but affordable. Menard's had the best price. I know, who knew Menard's??!!! Hugs to you all!!!!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

Hey!
 Hope all of you will have a great day! I plan on it! Mother's day used to be an very unhappy day for me, but I knew that only I could change that, so this what I did! For a few years I delivered flowers for a local florist! It made my day better especially after my mom died! Gordon has gotten better with the whole day thing in the past years! Love you girls and hugging you all!!!

vacation is over

We made it home last night. Gordon did all the driving yesterday which totaled up to 684 miles or 14 hours!!! YIKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We did stop about 6 times yesterday for gas, food and bathroom breaks! We crossed the Mackinaw Bridge which was scary for me as I don't like it, but hey, I'm not one of workers up there! We had a great time and one small disagreement which was yesterday! We are somewhat planning out next trip, it's a secret for now and it won't happen for a year at least! Well, I thank you all for your prayers and here are a few pictures to enjoy! Top picture is of Dan and Jill, our dear friends! Second one down is Gordon and his buddy from school, Larry. The last one is the bridge at Mackinaw City, Mi.  Blessings!!!!