Why do I do this to myself?

I've been at a loss since, my favorite farmer's vegetable stand has decided they're not selling at their stand any more.  I LOVED going there for my summer veggies that we don't have in our own garden, or for larger quantities that I can freeze or can (think green beans and corn).   I found an ad in our local shopper for a place that was about 30 miles away, north of Medford, WI.  Their website showed all kinds of veggies along with some fresh berries.   Let's go on a road trip!  

I was a little bummed out that ALL they really had were berries, but then again, I couldn't resist buying 8 pints of fresh RASPBERRIES!  Yes, they were rather expensive, but they were oh, so worth the money!  

What is one to do with EIGHT pints of raspberries?  

Why make raspberry jam, of course!  


This is where I start wondering why I do these things to myself!  You see, we didn't leave until 11:30 a.m.  By the time we got the berries, made a stop at Walmart and then the local grocery store, it was 3:00 by the time we got home!  



For anyone that does any canning, you KNOW that starting at 3 p.m. is probably NOT the best idea!  But, what was I to do?  I couldn't wait, as raspberries are WAY too fragile and need to be dealt with the same day they're picked.  I was told these were picked today, so there you go!  

Gotta start with all the prep work, and when you're doing any home canning, that means sterilizing.  The only way to do that is to boil the jars, lids and rims.   

The lids and rims are boiling in a small kettle.










The half-pint jars I bought at Walmart are boiling in one of my water bath canners.  I discovered today that I actually have THREE water bath canners!   And, as we'll find out shortly, that's a GOOD thing!  





The nice thing about raspberries is that they mush up really well all by themselves once you add some heat to them!  I put all eight pints in my big stock pot (and ya'all wonder why I have so many BIG pots, pans, bowls, etc.!  I really DO need (and use) them!).  

Most recipes call for a cup of sugar to each cup of raspberries, but I find that to be entirely too sweet.  My blood is sweet enough, I don't need to add that much sugar to it!   I like my jam sweet, but I don't want it to be overpoweringly sweet.  I want to taste the berries, too!  

The berries are here cooking with about 16 cups of sugar (almost 10 pounds!).  That's HALF of what is recommended in every recipe I researched!   They needed to be cooked until the candy thermometer reaches about 221 degrees.  Because of the natural pectin in raspberries, you don't need to add any "Sure Jell" to it when it's cooking.   




I filled up the twelve 1/2 pint jars I bought, and I still had a LOT of raspberries left.  Oh, geeze!  Abby helped out by running to get me more jars, which meant I had to start the whole sterilizing process all over!  ACK!  So, there I was, with one canner on for the jars of jam I had to boil for 15 minutes, and another on sterilizing pint jars, and yet another kettle on with the additional lids and rims!   

Doesn't everyone want to have three burners going on a HOT summer day?  Yes, I had the air on (thank goodness for air conditioning), but it still managed to heat up the kitchen! The new exhaust fan over the stove and ceiling fan over the kitchen table really helped disperse the heat I was generating!  

I think I was finally done at about 8:00 at night!  Yes, I ask myself . . . why do you do this to yourself!  LOL!  Oh, well.  I doubt I'll ever learn my lesson! 

I ended up with 12 one-half pints, seven pints, and one quart of raspberry jam.  Adding in the 10 pounds of sugar, it ended up costing about $2.00 per half pint (not including the cost of the jars, lids or rims).   The jam didn't jell as well as my strawberry jam did last year, and is a bit runny, but once you open it and put it in the fridge, it thickens up nicely!   

Oh, that whole "why do I do this to myself" thing?  Well, I'm in the middle of making homemade bread now (Sunday), so that I can take some incredible bread to work to toast and have with my amazing jam for breakfast!    Another hot day here, and what better than to bake some homemade bread!  LOL  

Hope everyone's enjoying summer and the bounty of summer as much as I am!  

Love, peace and prayers to all!

Julie

What Happens When You Buy me a Trifle Dish?

So, aside from a WONDERFUL surprise party for my 50th birthday, Greg and the kids got me something I've been wanting, but never bought for myself.  A TRIFLE dish!  

Seeing as it's been almost a month, I figured I better put it to use! I looked up some recipes on-line, and realized that I could pretty much do anything I wanted!  How simple is that?  

 I started with a layer of brownies that I just made and cooled. 

Then added a layer of vanilla Bavarian Cream that I bought at the Mennonite bulk food store, salted pecans, and a layer of chocolate Bavarian Cream. 

Then added a layer of homemade whipped cream.

Another layer of brownies. 

More Bavarian cream and pecans.

More chocolate Bavarian cream

More whipping cream. 

Final layer of brownies.

More whipping cream and pecans. 

And a drizzle of caramel!  

I'm pretty sure, officially, there are 10,000,000 calories in this!  I'm also pretty sure it's going to be awesome!  

THIS is what happens when you buy me a trifle dish!   

Minnow got hit by a truck. Prayers please!

Our neighbor across the street was pulling out of her driveway.  Minnow, being the jerk that he is, started barking and running toward them (he was not on a rope, but that's a whole 'nother story that I'm not going to go into).  One of our other neighbors was driving south on our road.  Minnow ran out to the road barking at the neighbor across the street, and the other neighbor hit him.  Fortunately, he was driving a truck, and Minnow escaped a lot of injury because Alex was able to "straddle" him (and Minnow's a little guy), but it seems that his injuries either came from hitting the rear axle or from rolling on the ground, because Alex saw him rolling behind his truck when he looked in the rear view mirror.  Poor Mater saw the entire incident, and just stood there on the side of the road.  He KNEW his little buddy was hurt and he's been very sad all day.  Animals KNOW.  They just do.  

Minnow's left eye was injured and was out of it's socket.  The vet was able to put it back in and stitched his eye closed.  It will need to stay that way for at least a week.  We won't know how much damage there is for a while.  It all depends on how stretched out the nerves, etc. were from coming out of the socket.  I know.  It makes me queasy too.  

Minnow had a lot of swelling in his head.  We still do not know if there is any sort of skull fracture.  Because of the swelling, they had to put him on IV meds to reduce the swelling.  My poor little boy was yelping in pain, but there was nothing the docs could do, because any pain meds would interfere with the meds he was getting for the swelling, and the swelling was more important to deal with.  They had him in a kennel with towels all around him, on an IV, and his head elevated, with ice packs on it, to help with the swelling.  When I went into the OR to see him, he heard my voice and tried getting up to come to me.  That was a good sign!  It showed he had spunk, and he recognized me!  YAY!  

Minnow is now "resting comfortably" according to the vet.  He is no longer yipping in pain, and some of the swelling has come down.  Based on my conversation with the vet, I believe she is very surprised at how well he is doing!  It appears that he's going to make it!  Thank you, Jesus!  We still have a long way to go, but so far, he is doing much better than expected.  I'm not sure how we're going to pay the vet bill, but I do know that God will provide!  Jesus is hugging my Minnow and healing him and I can't ask for more than that!  

Please pray for my little Minnow!  

ER Ambulance Trip -- NOT how you want to start your day!

Today was quite the day, to say the least.  I was supposed to work the late shift at work, which means 11:30 a.m. - 8 p.m.  Not a really fun shift to work, but there's a 10% shift differential, and I usually go in at 9 a.m., so I get 2-1/2 hours of time and a half, PLUS I get the extra 10% on those 2-1/2 hours.  Can't beat that!   Anyway, I got up around 6:15 to start getting ready for work. When I came out of the bathroom, Greg, who was still in bed at the time, has this conversation with me:  

Greg:  I'm confused.  Do I have a job? 

Me:  HUH? 

Greg:  Do I have a job that I go to every day? 

Me:  What are you talking about? 

Greg:  I'm serious.  Do I have a job that I go to every day? 

Me:  Greg, you're disabled.  You haven't had a job in three years. 

Me:  What is going on?  If you're messing with me, I'm going to hurt you!  

Greg:  What day is it? 

Me:  It's Wednesday.  What do you do every Wednesday night (he goes to prayer group at church) 

Greg:  I don't know. 

Me:  What did you do on Saturday?  (He went to a Christian men's conference)

Greg:  I don't know.  What day is it?  

And on it went!  I was really scared at this point and thought maybe he was having a stroke.  He was blinking his eyes really fast and looked SO confused!  I called our neighbor, Wendy, who is a nurse and asked her about it.  She had me ask him to smile and see if one side of his face was "droopy."  He smiled, as much as he could, and wasn't droopy.   I then asked her if I should just drive him to the hospital, she thought it would be better for me to call an ambulance, because if he WAS having a stroke, if something happened on the way to the hospital (about 25 miles away), I would not be able to deal with it, so I ended up calling an ambulance.  

You know, we've been pretty used to Greg being ill and being in the hospital, but this was DIFFERENT.  It wasn't the "normal" heart failure that he's had numerous times that I was used to.  This was SCARY, because I had NO IDEA what could be going on and what was happening to him.  I was actually quite scared!   I don't like that feeling!  

After the ambulance left, I called Pastor Will and his wife, Pastor Jen.  Neither were available at that time, but when I was riding to the hospital with Erica (she drove), Jen called me back.  I was totally OK, until she started asking about how I was doing!  I just about lost it, and almost started to cry.  I knew I couldn't do that, because Erica was in the car with me and driving (Abby was a short distance behind us in her car with my dear friend, Jessica, who made all kinds of arrangements to have her kids taken care of so she could come to the hospital and be with us!).  I had to be strong!  It's really HARD sometimes to be so strong!  This kind of stuff isn't about me, it's about Greg, so when someone starts to ask about me, I get all choked up, because no one ever asks about me!  It's not like no one cares, but it's because the main focus is on the sick person, not on the caretaker.   

Once we got to the hospital, Greg had already had blood taken for testing, an IV had been set up, and they were just starting to do some heart tests, because of his pacemaker.  The tests all came out fine, including when they tested his pacemaker.  Thank goodness! 

I have to thank Pastor Will and Pastor Jen.   She had some stuff to do in Wausau and Will went with, so while he dropped Jen off to do her shopping, he came to the hospital to be with us!  I do LOVE our church!  It was awesome to have him there, along with my friend Jessica.   Thank you, Father God, for putting these people in our lives!  I don't know what I'd do without them!

Next, they took him for a head CT.  The good news from that was that they shot some dye or something in his IV and were able to see all his arteries leading to his brain.  All of those were clear!  They said that while everyone has to worry about a stroke, in a normal sense, all of his arteries were clear, so he had no reason to worry any more than a normal person!  YAY!  That was GREAT news to hear!  

It turns out that Greg was having a reaction to his meds.  He's taking about 15 different ones, and they're tapering him off some, and increasing some others.   So, all is well!  Greg is fine and we were back home the same day. 

Praise God!  All is well, and Greg is as normal as he can be!  LOL 

Blessings to all! 

Julie

  

NEW Washing Machine!

I bought a new washer 2-1/2 years ago from a store in Wausau.  It was a model that didn't have an agitator in the middle, but you still had to put the clothes around the outside.  Well, it didn't last very long, and suddenly it stopped rinsing and spinning.  We had to go and hit the button to get it to rinse and spin, and it was kind of a pain in the butt, because we didn't remember to go and change the setting until we remembered it and it was time to dry the clothes, and then we'd find them sopping wet in the washer.  Here's what we had. 

Greg went to a men's Christian conference in Marshfield on Saturday, so I told him how much we could afford and to check around for washing machines.  I also told him I wanted a front load machine.  He went to a bunch of places and found a FABULOUS deal on a Sears front load washer, and even better, he was able to fit it in his car and bring it home!  How awesome is that?  

The only thing we had to do was get the old washer out and the new washer in! Not an easy task for me and Greg!  Fortunately, we had Abby to help us!  She's so good about helping out with stuff like this!  

So, thanks to Abby, we have our NEW washing machine in the house!  Fortunately, the washer and dryer are right inside the door, so once we got it in the house, we didn't have far to go!  

This washing machine is AWESOME!  So glad we decided to go with a front load! 

Blessings to all! 

Julie

What a Difference a Year Makes!

Today marks the ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY of me starting my new job!  It's hard to believe that an entire year has passed.  Since I started my new job, so many things have changed.  I'm not only making more money, but I have health insurance coverage that I can actually AFFORD, my daughter is working with me again, along with two of her friends and one of my cousins!   I have the ability at this point in time, to work unlimited overtime, so I'm putting in extra hours to pay for the things we need to fix up around the house that we've neglected for so many years while we didn't have anything extra.  I can even pay our mortgage and other bills without suffering a panic attack!     I paid bills the other day, and was amazed that I wasn't panicking after paying our normal monthly bills, and also paying Greg's doctor bills!   The transformation in our lives has been HUGE!    

I owe it all to God!  Every bit of it.  The new job, the ability to pay my bills, the ability to work overtime, the ability to replace old appliances and other things that desperately need replacing, being able to pay for vehicle repairs, and being able to help my children financially when they need it . . . It's all because of HIM!   All the glory goes to God!  The blessings He has bestowed on our family are amazing!    

So, to keep this short and sweet, YAY for me on my one year anniversary!  This is an awesome company, and in the top five of the largest companies in its field in the WORLD and I can see myself working here until I retire!  There are so many opportunities here that I can also see my wonderful Erica working here and growing and moving up for years and yeas to come, until SHE retires!  Yes, it's that awesome!  

Again, all the glory to God for He is the one that placed me and my family in this position and gave us these wonderful opportunities!  

Blessings to everyone! 

Julie

Springtime in Wisconsin!

So, yesterday morning, I woke up to 6 inches of SNOW!  Yes, I said we had SIX INCHES OF SNOW on April 10!   That was some sort of cruel joke from Mother Nature, to be sure!  

This was taken out my bathroom window when I got up to get ready for work. We knew it was coming, but it was still pretty awful to wake up to that!  It was so wet and heavy, I almost needed 4 wheel drive to get out of the driveway!  It ended up being in the 50's all day, so even though everything had to be plowed for the morning commute, most of the snow had melted by the end of the day. There were just some bigger "piles" left by the plows that ended up melting today. 

By the way, today was GORGEOUS!  It was in the 60's, so I was able to take almost all of my houseplants outside and get them all cleaned up!  They really needed to have the dead stuff cut off/picked out and be rearranged a bit. The plants I had to take outside were mostly hanging plants.  I have a gorgeous spider plant with TONS of babies.  It's actually two different kinds of spiders that I combined a few years ago.  I bought a Hawaiian spider when I worked at the greenhouse (that one is a green spider, with variegated babies) and combined it with a variegated spider that I've had for over well over 10 years.  They're doing great together, but needed to be cleaned up a bit. I also cleaned up a pothos, a Marantha (prayer plant), a helicopter peperomia, a brazil philly, a curly hoya, a purple wandering Jew, and a Chinese evergreen (or Aglaonemia, for those that know plants).  I have one other plant that I need to take outside and work on -- a HUGE mican philly that's hanging in my bathroom, but is way too big for me to take down myself.  I'll need Greg to help me with that one.   It felt so good to be able to be outside and get some spring cleaning done!  

Speaking of spring . . . the foul outside are LOVING this warm weather!  I asked Greg to bring out the goose "pond" today (we stored it under the deck for the winter) and turn on the outside water.  Once the "pond" was filled up, I hollered for Rufus.  It didn't take long for him to realize that he had a pool to swim in!

  

Rufus spent at least 20 minutes in the pond just going crazy and washing off all the winter grime.  He was SO happy!  The female watching here has not been in the pool yet (we just got her over the winter) and was having a hard time getting in it.  I'm sure she'll make it in soon enough, because she was VERY curious and excited about it!  

It was so awesome to spend time outside watching the chickens, geese and ducks enjoying themselves in the warmth that is a spring day in North Central Wisconsin!  

We have a few hens that are VERY friendly and let you pick them up and pet them.  We got them as babies last year, so this was their first winter.  They managed just fine, even in the sub-zero temps we had.  

Hope everyone else had a great day!  

Blessings to all! 

Julie