When baking becomes art...

French Silk Pie

Happy Thanksgiving Y'all

Poison Oaky AFTER IV antibiotic ...

I'd say it looks better.

It should.

After 2 nights in the hospital on IV antibiotics.

Now, time, rest and a little more antibiotics should take care of the rest.

:)

Perfect in November ... :)

... A loaf of bread, a jug of wine and you my love...

and maybe a little bacon and tomato...

Mr Stripey, Bloesser Pink and Yellows

ripened to perfection

(In the garage!)

A little vino

frying the bacon

Finished bacon.

BLT's

Perfect Sunday Supper in November!

:)

To the pain ...

Thank God for 800mg Ibuprophen

Wrist

Top of my forearm

Top of my elbow

swollen, red, angry poison oak rash

Poison Oak

=

To the pain : where I leave you in anguish.

Severe Reactions to ... Make that Poison Oak...

My Neck
The back of my upper right arm

These are my arms.

Please note how swollen the right arm is.

I lost my elbow today, totally disappeared.
Put in a missing limbs report.



You can really tell here...
where I have
**HULK HANDS**

"Hulk Hands SMASH!!"

But seriously ...

I went to Urgent care yesterday, the two main red spots you see were hot and red and swollen yesterday. So the UC Doc gave me Sulpha (Bactrim) to begin immediately for the staph skin infection and a script for Prednisone to start Thurday.

Apparently if you start Prednisone when you have a staph infection it can lower your immune system and you might not kick the skin infection.

so...

I took 3 doses of the Sulpha
BEFORE
I saw the lovely rash on my tummy.

YUP. I allergic to Sulpha family drugs.

Seriously?

So,

My regular doc, via phone call,
Tells me to quit the sulpha,
finish the Prednisone.
No probs.
..

We look up Prednisone.

um, nope, not taking that.
.
.

And what about the new more swollen Hulk arm I now own?

sure, it's great to keep the children in line...

but I might scare other people.
.
.

so,
.
.

Back to urgent care tonight...

To get new prescription
for Augmentin.

Let's all pray that works.
Thanks!

:)
.

and those 4 hours we spent waiting at Urgent care.
yeah, not getting them back til the end of time.
;)


We did learn that it is Ground Level Atlantic Poison Oak
Not poison ivy.

big deal.
But I bet I can spot that offender next time.

On poison ivy and the skin reaction that follows...

Obviously,

my neck





this is the top of my arm
it shows the blistering, but not the redness and swelling (ouch)

this is the inside of my elbow... with flash (sorry)

It is a deep dark red and swollen and hard.

Maybe tomorrow I will take better pics in the daylight.

So, I went out back and cut out some of the false honeysuckle growing at the fence line, specifically where I wanted the compost pile.

I certainly did not see the poison ivy.

Until today... you can see where some of it is growing up from the ground,

I must have missed it and gotten it on my left glove.

Judging by the tracks all over my right arm and neck.

Tall has a patch on her ear, where she carried the branches over her shoulder

to the pile where I thought we would let it dry and then burn it.

but no, we will be bagging that all up for the yard waste guys now.

Husband has a patch on his ankle? and his shoulder? no idea.

I threw out all the gardening gloves. :(

I had washed my shoes and the clothes I gardened in already.

Now I wonder if that is how it is spreading or

if I simply touched my face with those gloves that day last week.

Egads.

I guess I have to go the doc tomorrow and get anti-itch steroid something for this.

garden fail.

Oh well,

I can look forward to getting

my bulbs and poppy seeds planted this week

while we are having our unusual 70 degree days.

Poppies at my house,

Garden Pass!

On Declaring War ...

This was my shirt.

It became mouse food,

Now it is trash.

Seriously.

One Dead mouse in snap trap = September 20th

approximately 10 shirts - chewed & into trash = October 19th

Still smelling them, no other noticable mice tracks

One Dead in Snap Trap = November 1st

2 more shirts - chewed & into trash = November 2nd

I now officially Declare War on the Mice who have invaded my Home.

Baby dedications ... and Garden Mourning

Today we celebrated with some baby dedications at our church. These are precious to me.

Uniquely, we stood up with all three couples and prayed as they dedicated. One family are friends from our home group, one family are friends simply because we love them, and one family are friends from playing on Chris's HOP team. We love all of them and their precious little ones.

Today was a celebration, however, I had to actually hold back some tears.

See, we would have been dedicating Cadence today.

It was a little hard, when it hit me that this was the first set of dedications since what would have been his birth date.

I'm sure there will come a time that I do not measure the days like this. but that time isn't now.

As I sat in church and recalled what happened yesterday morning, I was touched by how important my grief and understanding are to God.

I went out yesterday morning to put the tomato plants back out in the sun from there nightly reprieve from cold in the garage. One of the newly placed raised beds had a stone knocked over and my first thought was "raccoons" since there have been foot prints in the dust. However, there was a strange sight in that raised bed. A hawk must have made a kill in that bed and knocked over the stone.

There were three things left behind...

(if you are weak in the stomach, read no further)

seriously,

There was a large tuft of rabbit fur.

There was an intact intestine. (they won't eat it)

There was an unborn rabbit carcass. (wild, huh)


Hubby disposed of it all for me. (My hero)


Today in church I was going to write down but as soon as I wrote:

"Garden in Morning"

The Lord called His word play to my attention ...

"Garden in Mourning"

Bittersweet.

But lovely to hear from Him always.

He holds my heart and holds me up,

amen

SHARE WALK 2010

Today,

I released this balloon for our precious tiny one.

Precious people.

Hundreds of balloons were released,


as hundreds of babies names were read aloud.

It was a beautiful and windy day,

carrying the individual balloons away,

and lifting the large balloon groups up.

Cadence's balloon got stuck in a tree.

Prophetically;
like he was stuck in my tube
and
then released to Worship God Forever.

Thank God for good friend support.

I miss my tiny person.

this is the link to the STL Today article

...

http://www.fox2now.com/news/ktvi-annual-share-walk-remembrance-100210,0,2233033.story

We want another child, but losing him

took my natural ability to create another.

I could have IVF.

If I had $14 K.

somehow the amount makes it seem simply selfish

even though adoption is twice that.

So, I'll just sing...

If I had a Million dollars...

hum along now.

:)

Cute !

This is our new eat in kitchen space.

(with the leaf in!)

Pretty cute all dressed up

with my mom's tablecloth.

This is the picture ad when I found it.
I would say it is a very unique Retro 1950's Dinette set.

I like it!

(Thanks honey for indulging me!)

It totally makes the kitchen.
We have eaten at it several times and had a family game night too!

:)


Funny story that goes with it.

I was looking on craigslist for an inexpensive or free retro little table and chairs for the kitchen. Many reasons, breakfast and lunch crumbs having a lot to do with it, plus we have the space in the kitchen. I found a table on craigslist at a local resale shop. So we went to look at it, but this resale store was closed, so we looked through the gate door. I saw this little set and liked it, better than the table we came to look at. Two days later we went to check out some retro white vinyl chairs. Which we bought and were headed back to this store to get the first table, because it was cheaper, having no matching chairs. When we got to the store, we looked and sat down at this table and then were talking with the owner. We asked her if she would consider trading us the chairs we had just bought and bringing down the price on the dinette set. She walked out to our van and looked at the chairs and to my surprise she agreed.

Now I have this sweet little set in my kitchen!

... and I may have a new favorite little shop too.

:)

But, how much retro can one house stand?

;)

Adventures in Living ...

Seriously.

Tonight, as we sat on our couch waayyy later than usual (11:30) eating some ice cream, several things were explained.

That funny smell in the house. Maybe musty, but maybe an animal lived here before?
(This is a no pets no exceptions rental.)

The boys room smelling like crib sheets needed to be changed, because maybe a diaper leaked.
only, it doesn't really help.

The little pieces of insulation on the ground in the basement, right around the base of the stack.
The fireplace area smelling like maybe a bird was caught in the chimmney the other day.

That funny smell in the house.

All explained by this:

A little brown mouse poking his head out from under our loveseat and totally freaking Chris and then me out.

Oh, I'm sure in a few weeks we would have figured this out. Like when we turned on the furnace.

Because when he disappeared...

IT was into the furnace return.

They have a nest in there. I'm sure of it. I keep smelling it.

YUK.

Mouse traps tomorrow.

Carpet cleaning this week...

More bleach in the drains. Just because.

Thank God most things in the basement are in Rubbermaid tubs.

YUK.

Well, better explained than not explained. :)

The dust is beginning to settle ...

Who knew it would settle all over the children?

(see my fireplace with the earthbox plants in front of it!)

Small and Medium are

having the time of their lives.

So cute and sooooo dusty.

Seriously, we went outside one day last week when it was perfect weather outside. Hubby and I planted some FREE Yucca's I found on craigslist and the boys played in the dirt. Waaaay too much fun.

The boys had baths 4 times in 2 days. :)

Oh I got my "Can" on...

and it ain't no Dalton Butt. (ha ha) ~ inside family joke.

This is the beauty I canned yesterday...

5 jars of low sugar Peach Jam

5 jars of Peach Jam

2 Jars of peaches in syrup (for topping biscuits)
this is what we started with...

This is what how beautiful they were

(before I put in them into hot syrup to hot pack them into

the jars ... they shrank down, a lot.)

Pits. I think we may try to plant them, It's science.



This juice we save along with the skins to make peach honey...

Mashing some for jam...

It is always fun to can. :)

Tall and I worked from about 1 until 5.

Not a bad haul for a busy afternoon.

:)

I do still cook ...

Here I am marinating some of my bi-color cherry tomatoes...

this is Shish-ka-bob

fresh brussel sprouts, banana peppers and sweet snack peppers from my garden

and some yummy mushrooms, just cause.

This is the meat...
Stew beef, marinated overnight and then

skewered with onion and bbq -ed.
mmm.

This is what the basket was full of...

We cleaned it all up ...

me, hubby and Tall.

Seriously, the boys declined to eat it.

well, medium declined, small was napping.

oops. :)

there was pineapple too, but tall and I ate it all, quickly.

(so we didn't accidently send hubby into anaphalactic shock)

so, I really am still cooking, especially fresh things from my garden.

Just haven't had time to post.

Still unpacking. :)

Some days they are just soooooo cute!

Small.

so small, so sweet.