Ahhhhh...deep breaths.. life isn't about the breaths we take, it's the moments that take our breath away...
My nephew is out of surgery and they closed him up and said he should make a full recovery. It will be slow, but it will be blessed, I am sure, by the outpouring of love that envelopes him. And for this, I am grateful.
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I have just started some spaghetti sauce and will leave a nice pot of basketti (as my son used to call it) on the stove for my dear husband's supper. He's pretty much been feeding himself at least 2 or 3 days a week...on leftovers or whatever he finds to fix easily. I like to have something waiting for him when I can, as he works 10 hour days and gets home around 6 PM. I have some rolls in the freezer that'll bake and then he can just heat up to go with it. I don't have any greens in the house for a salad, or I'd make that too. lol He won't care. The pasta will hit the spot with him...he's a carb junkie.
With all the craziness of the holidays, there's been a lot of times that I just haven't had the time or energy to do much. Plus we've had plenty of leftovers. The fridge is actually starting to look a little bare, FINALLY! lol
I am using home canned tomatoes, homegrown frozen bell peppers, homegrown onions and garlic...yum.
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One thing I always get a kick out of is when I open a jar or a freezer bag of something I've preserved and see the date and remember the harvest. This morning it was 7/11/11 on the jar of tomatoes. July. Mmmm...something really nice about remembering July in the month of January. Even though it's 45 degrees today and not like January usually is around these parts. And my first thought was --WOW. That was 6 months ago already! yikes... I was pulling some of the older kale leaves for the chickens yesterday and thinking, as I looked around the beds all heaped with dead leaves, "It won't be long before we'll be out here turning the composted stuff under, watching the grass green up again and planting seeds...waiting for that miracle of faith...the one where you just know in your heart that the seeds will sprout and be true to their origins. THIS is true faith. It's that simple. To me, anyway.
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The sauce must need stirring...I'm starting to smell the tomatoe-y goodness.
I'm going through some winter doldrums, like I hear from a lot of people. I don't like it. lol I'm sure it's a combination of things...like bad eating around the holidays, not enough sunlight, and not enough exercise. Top that with the family emergency stuff and you've got a perfect recipe for the blahs. I hate the feelings of powerlessness that surround me when things are happening to other people, and I cannot do a thing about it. It used to be worse...at least now I can pray. But I still have moments of ...I don't even know what it is.
I think I'm going to try staying off the computer so much too...I come in here in the morning and before I know it, it's noon. And time for me to get ready to leave. I have so many connections to people, both in blogland and email land that it takes me hours to stay caught up. Maybe if I wait until the evenings to check in.... lol It's kinda ridiculous, when you think about it. I was thinking the other day about how I try to EAT locally..maybe I should try socializing more locally too. But...I probably won't. LOL It's hard to shrink your world once you've been on the information superhighway. (Do they even call it that anymore??)
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The deforesting tree cutters are back again. Our road looks like hell...and I understand that the branches need to be cut back away from the lines, but did they have to cut down the little kumquat tree inside my fence line? It was nowhere near the lines. I am really distressed about all this, and my husband says to just let it go, they will mostly grow back. But I can't seem to. I am (in my head as of now) composing a scathing letter to the electric company regarding all this. It hurts my heart, like the clearcutting that I saw in Northern California of the redwoods. It seems to me that it is so unnecessary. In our 7 years on this road, there was 1 time that a tree came down on a power line. ONCE. It does not require this kind of careless and unconscious devastation.
And that's all I'm saying for now about THAT.
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Okay. I need to shower and get ready to cook pasta and straighten up my house a little. I was going to try to get my car vacuumed, but that ain't gonna happen this morning. I am grateful to be able to live the life I live. Grateful that I can cook and eat foods that I have [mostly] grown myself, grateful for all the love in my life, and grateful that on Friday I will turn 59 years old and still keep my sense of humor about it all. There were quite a few times in my life that I NEVER thought I would live this long, lol. (And if I'd known, I would have taken better care of myself....) (maybe) lol
Have a good Wednesday, everyone. We're sliding down into the weekend!!
