Thanksgiving Check

I am all set for Thanksgiving except for a trip to the store this morning.

I literally have a fear of crowded grocery stores and avoid them like the plague.

So for as far back as I can remember, I have always done my Thanksgiving grocery run the Monday morning prior.

No crowds and everything well stocked. I do enjoy this shopping though. Everyone with their Thanksgiving fixins tucked in their carts. Such a wonderful family holiday.

So are you like me and an early shopper or do you like the hustle and bustle of last minute?
Sharing with Tweak It Tuesday and Tabletop Tuesday and Home Sweet Home

Sunny Simple Sunday

This has been quite a week and now sadly my laptop has died. I am struggling to use a very ancient desk top computer we still have. Let's hope my baby can be saved. Hope you all are having a great pre-Thanksgiving weekend. I am so looking forward to Thursday. Love that meal and all the traditional fixins. I will do features this week as I figure out how to do things on this old dinosaur.

Thankful Times

Last night we enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving performance and Q's preschool. Here she is marching in and clapping. We little kids performing is one of my favorite things in life. How can you  not smile. They are so funny.

I am thankful she was able to go to school this week and take part as this was her last week sick as can be. Finally had to get her to the doctor but after the weekend she was right as rain. Below was a shot of  her asleep at the table. Couldn't get her through lunch. The doc says it is preschool and they will have about a good six months of getting every germ that comes through until they build up their immune system. Not sure I will survive three more months of the plague.

 Sharing with a favorite thing Saturday at Mockingbird Hill Cottage.

What Have I Learned From Hurricane Sandy

After watching the ordeal so many are facing on the east coast, I have come to a conclusion. During an emergency YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN. Even if aid gets to you let me tell you we had all better plan on the opposite. The former head of FEMA was on TV and said the same exact thing. We are all on our own. Officials can blame this or that but large cities with such huge numbers of people would require some major changes in order to ever be ready to react quickly to disasters.

Best we all accept the fact that we are on our own and we need to prepare for it. I saw folks on TV that did not even have water stored ahead. Maybe there was no money or they failed to take the warnings seriously, but we all better carve a few bucks out of our budgets to have the basic things together to stay alive and have provisions for a period of time.

In our recent power outages the one thing that has provided us with the most comfort and benefit is our little generator. It kept our fridge, T.V., lamp and laptops/cell phones charged. If at all your are considering purchasing one of these I can't say enough about them. They are easy to use and I can start it up myself as well as the kids. To have some small amounts of comforts is immeasurable. I feel it is a worthy investment.

Since my post on preppers we have not done enough to get our own family fully prepared. We have done a few things like more water storage, stockpiled batteries and increased our food supply but we have a lot to do. I will share in future posts the steps we are taking in hopes that if you have not made any emergency preparedness plans, that you will begin with small steps.

List of Our Current Preparedness Goals:
Find a way to store more fuel for our generator
More water storage for cleaning and flushing of toilets
Purchase at least a months worth of dehydrated meals
Purchase required meds to have a long term supply
Gun Safety class for our older kids (hopefully they would never need use of this but I want them fully educated on our fire arms)

A Hard Couple of Days

Our dear friend that I mentioned recently lost his wife this last week. It has been a very tough week of visits and comforting our friend and finally the wake and funeral which was yesterday. It was very sad but a lovely celebration of her life. My husband went to spend some time with his friend Saturday and when I had not heard from them in hours a text let me know that they were at the gun store. Men are funny. It is what our friend wanted to do. Go buy some ammo. I chuckled.

Times like this always make you clearly see all that is important in life. When we came in last night I had a house full of kids, friends, cousins and a sink full of dishes. I just quietly, but tiredly did the dishes and prepared my husband's lunch for the next day. Just glad all was well in our house and my kids were happy. That is all that matters. Over the last few years as we simplified our lives, not in busyness but in those things we felt were important to our family, the happier we have been. Does that make sense? The more I focused inward, on my home and family and the less I focused on what the outside world was doing, the more content I have become. That has been such a blessing. Yesterday was a reminder again of where my thoughts need to be focused. Prayers for our dear friend, he was clearly heart broken. He will really need my
husband in the months ahead as he begins a new chapter in his life.

Sunny Simple Sunday and Some Thoughts on the General

First, happy weekend. We have had a long week and I am glad the weekend is here. Hubby and I celebrated with a quick dinner out and a trip to Barnes & Noble. Nothing bought but a nice time perusing the aisles. You know I just have to pop in and say something totally unrelated to Sunny Simple Sunday. There should be rules. Rules that don't allow female married biographers to be embedded with married men for a year. Really? Were there no available male biographers? While Mrs. Petraeus was home keeping the family together all alone, no good was going on. Where are our brains people? If the general was so bright as they say, why did he, as a married man, allow a woman to embed herself with him for that period of time. Anyone could see no good was going to come of that. I will not apologize for being the defender of that wife. Just saying. 

Now for some blogs of note from last week. I just love blog headers don't you?

Ms. Redo

A Sentimental Life

My Sister's Pantry

Egg Sausage Bake, Pickle Juice and Those Glorious Eggs

So simple. Take one chub of breakfast sausage browned, about half a loaf of white bread that got smashed beyond sandwich use in the freezer, tear up the bread, mix with the sausage in a buttered 13x9 pan and cover with 4 eggs whisked with some milk, salt and pepper. Bake at 400 for about 25 minutes or until the bread is crispy on top. Wha-la!

Do you love pickled eggs like we do? They are a favorite around here. All jars void of pickles but left with juice are always saved for pickled eggs and splashes of the juice are wonderful in potato salad and macaroni salad. Gives you flavor, moistness but not as much fat as if you used all mayo or sour cream.

Thank you Rocky and Flower Muffin for a summer and fall of fresh eggs and wonderful egg dishes.. I had to buy my first eggs yesterday as the girls are not laying everyday like before. They are taking a seasonal rest and give me less eggs now.

I love this chicken. This is Rocky and she is so smart and isn't she just the most beautiful girl?

Linking to:
A Favorite Thing Saturday
Sat. Night Special
Weekly Top Shot
Backyard Farming Connection

What to Do With Stale Cereal

Now if your house is like mine, you sometimes have a box of cereal that has gone stale. I hate to throw anything out so here is what I do with it.

Yep, I take any unsweetened stale cereal and mix it in with the dogs' food. They love it and have never had any problems with it. If you have a dog with allergies than I am not sure about this, but mine do not and they gobble it right up. I also mix it with the chicken feed too. Here's another freebie treat you can give your dog with an old peanut butter jar.

Linking to:
Farm Girl Blog Fest

Fall Favorites

I love blogging for the ability to go back and see how we had the house last year at this time.

We sure changed things around but these are some of my favorites from last fall.

Oh my dear pots from the patio. I haven't been able to have as many with with the chickens. We are starting a fenced run in the back yard for them this weekend. Even with two chickens, they can be hard on a small garden and gardening is my first love. 

Linking to:

BNOTP

Share Your Cup Thursday
Katherine's Corner

November Garden News

I headed out to take some pics of the garden in November. It is still so warm here. The veggies are loving it. I had to show you the porch. Isn't cute? I didn't do it though. Guess who did?

Now this I did. I found another cinderella pumpkin. I am so happy to finally have grown lovely pumpkins. The secret. Chicken compost. It really made the vines explode.

Look at this cucumber plant. I could not get them to do much in the hot summer but fall came and I decided to throw some more seeds in and they are doing wonderfully. I will do this again for sure. Continuing in my goal of growing something in the garden all year long.

Some new volunteer tomato plants have even set new maters with our warm nights.

Peppers are abundant. Have been picking them almost daily.

The lettuce it coming up but with our very warm days still it may prove to be bitter. I have read that warm weather causes this and ours often is not very tasty. May have to wait to plant the seeds until later in the year.

Linking to:
Down Home Blog Hop

I am a Political Animal

I love election day!! My family and friends all know that presidential elections are like a drug to me. They know not to call me unless it is about the election and that I will be up all night if need be watching the returns.
It all started in college. I became a political science major and it has been in my blood ever since. If I had not had the privilege of being a wife and mother, I would have loved to live and die for a campaign and work tirelessly on one every four years. When I went to work for the Federal Government, the Hatch Act prohibited us from doing much of anything bipartisan, so I have been happily an observer.
It is discussion at the table every night of the year. My kids know all the issues and politicians from a very early age.
Would you have guessed this about me? It is true and I love this country and for the few short hours before returns come in, we all have the excitement of Christmas as we wait hoping our candidate wins. I have been known to even dress in black the day after when the outcome is not what I had hoped.
So celebrate with me, as an American, on this most wonderful of days in the United States. God Bless America!!

Monday Monday

The house has been de-Halloweened. We brought out our Thanksgiving decor and I really love this season more and more. A time for our family to focus on thankfulness which I believe is the key to happiness. 

I will have to share all the changes that were made when I mentioned I wanted to move a couch to the lineman. He is a sick man. He wears me out. He started moving things all over. I just don't have the energy he does. Sure wish I did.

I am trying to prepare more healthy options for lunches. Made a big batch of black bean salad as a healthy salad for all the lunch boxes I prepare daily. It is so pretty. You can find the recipe on the salad section of my recipe page.

I am sharing with Tweak It Tuesday,  Tabletop Tuesday and A Return to Loveliness

Sunny Simple Sunday

Well we spent all of Saturday without electricity due to upgrades on the power lines in our city. So a quiet day around here. We did have our generator running so the kids watched TV and I de-Halloweened the house. Now for Thanksgiving. What did you all do this weekend? I hope you all are well my friends.
Now to spotlight a few blogs from last week:

Fabby's Living

Rosemary and Thyme

Must Love Junk

Now let's see what you have been up to. Have a wonderful Sunday.

Chicken Chores

I really enjoy caring for my two hens. They are so funny and come running whenever they are out to see if I have any treats but a typical day starts with me letting them out for some free roaming every morning. They get so excited and one of them jumps up and down. It cracks me up.

Next to the coop I keep a big can of all their supplies. With just two it doesn't take much. Food lasts a long time. I give them all the heels of the bread and old apples. They adore them.

My local produce store sells lots of bulk grains so I add some goodies to their feed. Usually flax, millet and sunflower seeds with some calcium.

But these girls all time favorite treat is raw sunflower seeds. I buy them in bulk and they get them every night when I put them in for the evening.

This gives them a nice extra boost of protein. You can see how much they love their treats. They thank me with eggs though so a nice trade off. With the shorter days I am down to an egg a day, sometimes two. I have read they will stop laying when the days really shorten. Guess they will be ladies of luxury then.

Linking to:
A Favorite Thing Saturday

80s Themed Halloween Party

I wanted to share pics of my sister in law's awesome 80s themed Halloween party. She always spends days decorating and this year she did not disappoint. This is a fountain on their patio. 80s album covers were part  of the decor.

So here is our $6 costumes. We found a mask at the 99 cents store. I said hey when did that movie come out, Friday the 13th? 1980. Yes, let's do something with that. So he wore a jumpsuit from work and I bought a $5 fake hatchet and went as his 1980s victim. I kept running into things with the handle.

A 1980s candy bar. All the goodies we loved as kids and teens.

She added the neon bright colors of the 80s to the decor. I thought it was perfect.

My oldest and her date.

Here is our hostess with her oldest son, dressed as Slash.

And one closing shot of my littlest trick or treater last night.

Linking to:
BNOTP
Home Sweet Home

Just Mom

This week has been one of the busiest so far this year. Take two teenagers home sick with fever and horrible cold, a party you are planning for a four year old preschool class and an annual Halloween dinner for family with trick or treating on the 31st and you only have time for one job. I had no time to be a blogger, gardener or even turn on the computer. I had to buckle down and bring sick kids home and get games and food together for the preschool.

The party went well, as my four year old said, "That was the best Halloween party ever!" Not that she has been to that many in her life but I will take that compliment. As I was washing dishes thinking of those affected on the east coast I reminded myself of how we need to be thankful for the ordinary days of runny noses, Kleenex boxes, rice krispy treats and over excited four year olds on too much sugar. These are good times of wrapping my arms around my kids under my roof that is solid and fine and I will enjoy the fun of the week and dote on my sickies because I can.

Really nothing else matters right? So I took the last few days to focus on the family and the basics and it felt good to hunker down and do what moms do best. I will have to post some pictures of my SIL's Halloween party from last weekend. I have not had that much fun in years. It was 80s themed and I was a teen in the 80s and all the great music just was a blast. We danced for hours and are still paying for it but it was just the best. I think I smiled and laughed all night just hearing great songs that took me back. That or I really needed  a night off to let loose. It was awesome. She did a great job.

So the bowl is ready full of candy, I will be cleaning and cooking for our guests that will arrive tomorrow night around five and be prayerful for those that are suffering because of that giant storm. Are still suffering for that matter. I will keep you in my prayers and on my mind. Just amazing how life can change in one day like that. Take care my friends.

Sunny Simple Sunday

It's the weekend. Anyone heading to a Halloween party? We will be tonight. My contribution: rice krispy treats and pasta salad. Fun! Pray I don't eat too much candy corn. I cannot afford the calories.

This week I am sending you on over to the four most visited blogs from last week. It always fascinates me to see what folks were drawn to. Head over for a visit after you link up.

Call Her Blessed

Make Do & Mend

Decorating Tennis Girl

Chenille Cottage