Birthdays and Waste Not Want Not

Twenty-one years ago today, I became a mom. My oldest graced us with his presence at 1:49 a.m. on a Friday morning. He was 3 days late and I had to be enduced. The most memorable part of his delivery was that I had several nurses and  my mother-in-law gathered around encouraging me to push; then all at once they yelled for me to STOP! Apparently the cord had wrapped around Patrick's throat and he couldn't breathe. They eventually got it unwrapped and the rest of the delivery went smoothly.

 These past two decades have really flown by. He is officially an adult in every capacity and we are very proud of him. 

Patrick is my 'old soul' and in many ways a lot like me. He loves food, the outdoors and isn't afraid to work hard or get dirty. He's a lot more adventurous than I am. And is usually liked by everyone who knows him.

On the topic of food... I'm always trying to find ways to use leftovers or small pieces of food here and there mixed in with other recipes, rather than toss them out. Sometimes it works and no one is the wiser.  Some times I think the end result is just fine, even tasty,  but it's visible and the rest of the family never lets me forget it (Shredded carrots in the spaghetti -- the horror!). I still maintain that sauce was perfect!

Well this morning, I needed to make something from the 3 overripe bananas and as I mentioned the other day, I keep sourdough starter, so why not sourdough banana muffins. I had made sourdough banana bread several times already and wanted something a little different and it was morning so muffins it was. 

I gathered my ingredients and found a recipe to use as a guide. I noticed it called for chocolate chips. I didn't have any chocolate chips but I did have two Sargento Sweet Balanced Breaks that my youngest just had to have and later declared she didn't like. This happens far more often than I care to admit.

Also, she had an apple with her breakfast and couldn't finish off the last few slices. So I diced those apple slices up and threw them in the batter with the chocolate chunks and cranberries from the snack pack and we were in business. I call them my 'Everything Muffins'

I've already had two. They're delicious.

Now to see what the rest of the family says. Patrick should be in this weekend to weigh in with his opinion. 

Here's my recipe:

180 g All-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 sea salt (iodized salt hinders sourdough).

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 c butter; softened 

1/4 c sugar

3 overripe bananas

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

227 g sourdough starter

*1 cup extras (optional) 

Mix dry ingredients

In separate bowl cream butter and sugar, then add eggs, vanilla and sourdough starter. Add dry ingredients mix just until everything comes together. Fold in extras* 

Spoon into greased muffin tins. 

Bake in 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes. 

Until next time,

Becky.

P.S. We celebrated the boy's birthday Saturday, September, 26 by going out to a new restaurant in town, Big Whiskey. He ordered two beers to go with his steak and I gave him my Southern Peach cocktail that I couldn't drink for fear of a bladder flare. 

Then we came home and he enjoyed a few Rolling Rock beers and a few Snake bite shots (these were his Dad's favorite drinks). A snake bit consists of Yukon Jack and Rose's lime syrup. 

Then I had him fix my tractor 😁 It's been shorting out and he found the problem! Even while being slightly intoxicated. He also brought his extra diploma for us to hold on to. NWTI lost his first one and reordered a new one, then found the old one. So, one for him and one for us. 

Later he had some German chocolate cake with ice cream. Then we delivered him to his friends house in town were he continued his celebration without us. 

I sure do miss him but really enjoy the few visits we have. They're never quite long enough.

Rainy, Early Mornings

Laney is starting her second full week back at her new job since being quarantined for 4 weeks. Ashley started back to school only to be sent home for exposure after just two and a half days. She's stuck at home for another two weeks and the poor thing has never tested positive herself. Jared has been working a few long shifts to cover for people being tested for Coronavirus at work, thankfully all their tests have been negative. 

I try to get up early with Laney and that leaves a couple hours of darkness before I can go feed and let out chickens. 

This morning it's raining. A slow drizzle.

I'm not sure if I have mentioned it before but I've been keeping sourdough starter since early February. I've made lots of things: pasta, pie crust, bread, pancakes, cobbler, dumplings, pizza crust and biscuits. The last time I made pancakes and was ready to fed my starter, I still had quite a bit left over so I measured out 4 oz and fed it and placed it back in the refrigerator. The remaining starter went back in the fridge, unfed,  to wait for a few days which brings us to this morning. I'm still a novice at sourdough and almost always use a recipe when making something. The biscuits recipe I used previously were made with butter and we're cut out. They were good but I prefer my hand rolled biscuits made with bacon grease better so without a recipe I dumped the remaining starter in a bowl, added self-rising flour, milk and bacon grease and made biscuits the way I normally do sans the sourdough starter. I love the way they turned out and can't wait to have one with butter and the homemade elderberry jelly I made a few weeks ago. 

I've also been at a standstill with Laney's blanket because I ran out of the brown (cafe latte) color. While waiting for more, I started on a blanket for Jared out of the yarn he picked out. He chose Red Heart Super Saver pooling (Haute Pooling). This is actually my fourth attempt at a blanket for him because planned pooling seemed daunting and I never liked the shift in patterns when doing several different stitches. So I "frogged" it for the last time and jumped in to planned pooling. Success!

I've actually been able to get and keep the argyle pattern.  Here's my progress so far: 

Well, the sun is starting to rise. I better get out there and feed the chickens and open the coop.

Until next time,

Becky

Masks, Masks, and More Masks

As I said earlier in yesterday's post, the youngest can finally attend school for the 2020-2021 school year. That means she needs masks. Several masks. One for every day of the week and two for holidays (insert sarcasm). 

Well today we drug out her Great Nanny's material we've used for several projects through the years, and made her five new masks to add to several others we've already made. A few are even reversible.

That rainbow frayed fabric was even used as carpet in her kindergarten diorama of what the oval office would look like if she were President. She's a sophomore this year. 

Time sure does fly.

I hope this year is full of good friends, great teachers and new experiences for her.

Until next time,

Becky

Finally

Four weeks later and I finally received a negative test result! This means the hubs and my eldest can return to work and the youngest can return to school on Monday. Hallelujah

I'm still coughing. It's worse in the evenings and in air conditioned car rides. My sense of smell and taste are returning but it's not 100 percent yet. But yesterday morning was the best I had felt in a good long while. Yesterday evening was pretty rough. I'm sure it's just a long recovery. 

This morning I made up my mind to finally mow and then we took Sister to the vet for her shots and a refill of her medication. We stopped at Lowes while we were out and I bought some chrysanthemums for the end of the driveway.

I also grabbed some potting soil to repot some of Laney's mother-of-thousands. All of these (even the ones in the window) came from the tiny start her art teacher gave her as a graduation gift. 

The past few weeks in the recliner has let me make considerable progress on Laney's blanket. I only have four more color changes (12 rows each) to go. I hope to have it finished by the months end. 

Until next time,

Becky

Life in the Time of Corona: Part 2

Well Sunday, August 30th, Jared finally received a phone call from the ADH and after going over our dates and symptomology we all three received letters of release.

Work however required a negative test to return to work so Tuesday, September 01, all four of us loaded up and went to the local health department to test again. Today Thursday, September 03, everyone received a text stating they were negative. 

Everyone that is except me. So I called and sure enough my test was still positive, three weeks after symptoms first developed. I honestly wasn't surprised as Tuesday evening I developed a low grade fever again and was constantly coughing. With each cough my head hurt so badly and I had a new symptom: a very sore throat on my ride side only that caused a shooting pain into my ear with each swallow. Another symptom I have forgotten to mention previously is this unquenchable thirst. I am always so thirsty. And hot-flashes of clamminess. Ick.  My symptoms seem to wax and wane. Some days are good. Some days not so much. 

I've gotten further along on Laney's blanket though, so that's a positive. 

Until next time, 

Becky

Zucchini and ADH

I planted squash and zucchini later in the season, hoping to avoid the dreaded squash bugs. Unfortunately, they arrived despite my efforts to thwart them. But my plants are still producing and for breakfast I was able to have one of my favorite seasonal breakfasts; eggs with spinach, onion, zucchini and tomatoes. And muenster cheese. 

 

I planted a new variety this year.

After breakfast, I began vacuuming. The house has been kept tidy at best while I've been sick, and was in desperate need of a deep vacuuming. While I was busy cleaning we finally received a phone call from the ADH and after answering their questions we were emailed our release letters. This means as far as the ADH is concerned, Jared and Laney can return to work and we can now start the 14 day count down to Ashley being able to return to school. 

We're still waiting for Gates to tell us if Jared and Laney still need a negative test to return to work. We should have that answer tomorrow. 

Today I was also able to see Patrick, since we were officially no longer under quarantine. He was at his friends newly purchased home in town and I wanted to deliver his finished blanket and some mail of his I had. It's always good to see him. 

After that quick trip to town, we came home and I crocheted a little more on Laney's blanket and made dinner. We had sourdough pancakes and sausage links. 

I got a phone call from Dad this evening. A neighbor of his has been hospitalized due to the virus and August had his truck vandalized and his new phone stolen from his truck. I really do hate the world we live in anymore. But otherwise they're all still healthy. Down but not out. 

I guess that's the gist of my day.

Until next time,

Becky

Life in the Time of Corona

After six months of staying coronavirus free, we finally got hit hard mid August. Jared started having sensitive skin, nausea and body aches around August 9th. I started having severe allergy symptoms (congestion, headache and cough) despite never suffering from allergies in the past, and body aches (especially my kidney area) as well as a loss of smell and taste (that has still not fully returned) around Wednesday, August 12th. I felt better by Friday but started feeling bad again Saturday and felt absolutely miserable by Sunday. Laney had allergy symptoms (earache, headache and congestion) by Sunday too. Monday Jared notified work (Gates Corporation) that I had decided to be tested for coronavirus. That meant he had to leave work immediately and Laney who had only just started work there the week before was not to come in for her shift. They couldn't return for at least two weeks. Jared and I went to the local health department and Thursday were notified that our tests were positive. We were told to expect a phone call from the Arkansas Department of Health for contact tracing questions as well as further information on our symptoms ECT (We never  received that call). I immediately sent the girls to be tested Thursday. On Friday, August 21st I started to develop severe hives.

This would continue for one full week. For days I could barely talk without having to cough. Out of the three of us, I definitely was the sickest. But I believe Jared and Laney had already had the virus back in mid March, making this infection much milder, but widespread testing wasn't being done then and they were refused tests because of the lack of a high fever and shortness of breath. It should be noted that even this time our fevers were never more than 99.7* And we were never "short of breath" either but I did breathe very shallow as to not cause coughing. And doing anything did leave me out of breath as if I had been exercising strenuously. I didn't start feeling normal truly until yesterday (I finally mowed our yard!).

Saturday, August 22nd Ashley received a text message that her test was negative. We notified the school district and were informed she could not start school on the first day back, Monday, August 24th and most likely couldn't  start in school instruction for a few weeks, not starting her two week quarantine until after the rest of us finally test negative. Laney received her phone call saying her test was positive on Monday, August 24th. Then she received her call from the ADH, she told them we still hadn't received our call. The contact nurse said she would send an email. 

Tuesday the 25th, Jared and I went to retest hoping we could get this quarantine/isolation over with but unfortunately these tests came back positive again on Thursday the 27th. When I called on Friday to try to schedule a whole family retest for Monday the 31st I was told we couldn't test again until the Arkansas Department of Health "released" us. I mentioned to the lady on the phone that we still haven't been contacted by the ADH. She said she would email them. So here's hoping we can make progress on Monday so we can get on with living. 

I started having bad heartburn and nausea yesterday and had a migraine all last night. The same kind of headache I had before, concentrated right at the bridge of my nose. Jared is starting to cough again.  I hope we're not passing this thing back and forth or that it's two different strands. Laney is completely better and Ashley still has never gotten sick. 

In the meantime, I took this down time as an opportunity to finally finish Patrick's camo crochet blanket and started back up on Laney's. 

Patrick's was a "v-stitch" and Laney's is a "shell stitch" in alternating colors ( Buff, Aran, Cafe Latte, Flecked Buff and Flecked Aran).

For size comparison, Patrick's blanket is spread across our king-size bed.

I've also left all my social media. This world is falling apart and I am tired of various "news" sources trying to manipulate us from every angle. So now, when I feel the urge to post about my life, maybe it will be over here.

Until next time, 

Becky