Thanks to Skyline for this.
Subject: 2009 Contract

After serious & cautious consideration . . .

Your contract of friendship has been renewed for the New Year 2009!

It was a very hard decision to make. So try not to screw it up!!!

My Wish for You in 2009 May peace break into your house and may thieves come to steal your debts.
May the pockets of your jeans become a magnet of $100 bills.
May love stick to your face like Vaseline and may laughter assault your lips!
May your clothes smell of success like smoking tires and may happiness slap you across the face and may your tears be that of joy.
May the problems you had forget your home address! In simple words . . .

May 2009 be the best year of your life!!!

Well the snow came last night.  Big fluffy flakes fell so softly that unless you looked out you would never know.  I was up until after 1 am finishing The Graveyard Book.  The snow had already coated the deck and the truck.  This morning I was awakened first by a hand resting on my forehead.  When I moved it hubby sleepily said, “Oh is that you?”  I thought to myself who else would it be a redhead with a red ribbon around her waist..  A while later someone pulled the hair on my head and woke me again.  O K I thought enough of this and I crawled out of bed.  A glance at the clock on the dresser told me it was 7:30 am.  Oh boy I thought a whole six and a half hours, not counting the pee breaks and the forehead tap.  It is now 10:26 am and hubby is still sleeping, Brandy has been outside (now back in my bed), Molly has been fed and watered.  The dishwasher has been run, emptied, and contents now in the cupboard.  The laundry from last night has been folded and all but one pile put a way. I have had my bowl of Red Berry Special K and a couple of cups of coffee.  I have read two chapters in The Broken Window by Jeffrey Deaver and as I sit by the french doors typing a dove has been flying into them (not hard but getting my attention).

The Doctor’s appointment don’t start until next week so I am debating starting to pack Christmas away or just concentrating on a little vacuuming, sweeping, and mopping.  Hopefully friends Mike and Darlene will be up on the week end for a long overdue visit so I think the house work will win this debate.

I also need to start packing records for 2008 in a box and starting new envelops for 2009.  I will locate older boxes full of receipts and miscellaneous paper to shred and throw out.  It is like stocking the shelves in a store—Old items out and new in!  We think oh boy a new year is upon us.  We forget all the duties of the transition until a day or two before and then the weight of it all hit you in the back of the head.  Of course if your hubby is the records caretaker you are home free.  But that is not so in this household so I will dig in, grin and bear it until the mission has been accomplished. 

Again I am wishing my eldest son a very Happy Birthday and all of you a very Happy New Year!  May we all find 2009 starting to improve our lot in life!

I took my first walk down this driveway in regular shoes since August.  Two hundred feet down and back and the results was a slight headache.  I wanted to do this before the snow hit tonight.  After that happens I will be back to limited walking and then it is baby steps to keep my balance.  It is funny how important it is to get that first shower after a cast comes off.  Or that first long walk when it is clear enough to get around.  I certainly have learned a lot about mobility this last year.  I’m not quite over the healing yet but it is a far cry from Thanksgiving a year ago.  Two ankles have been corrected I hope for a long time to come. 

I have just finished Beedle The Bard by J. K, Rowling. I had bought three copies so the grand daughters could have one too.  I am now in the middle of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book . Les had a chapter of it on SEB and after listening to it I had to have it so I bought two copies so Les has one too.  Both are a light fantasy to escape with.  Next I’ll go back to a Deaver novel I started quite a while before Christmas.  Then there are several others, purchased over the last few years that just got shoved away when a craft had to be done.  I even have Stephen King’s new one, a gift from Mike and Dar to read. 

But I must confess the the fingers are itching to work on the tiny X’s again and my book on Punch Needle( also from Mike and Dar last year) hasn’t been tried out yet.  But at least I have a whole year now to complete some of these things I had bought for Christmas gifts!!!

The only thing that bothers me is that with all these projects to do I don’t dare order anything else ( even if it is on sale) until I make a dent in the stash I have!

Tomorrow is my eldest son Wes’ birthday.  Sad as it seems, I not sure, but I believe he is going to be 47.  I have trouble with this because that means I’m old as dirt!!!  As in the past few New Years Eves we will not be there to celebrate with him.  That is the bad part about getting old, traveling even a short distance in winter, and a birthday on a holiday.  But we wish him a very Happy Birthday along with a Happy New Years Eve

Since Saturday night late until about a half an hour ago we have been off line.  Our cable people had trouble with the high winds for a couple of days but we are up and perkin’  now. 

First the other half of our family came up Saturday for Christmas dinner sans the grand-kids.  This gave us a chance to play a game of pinochle.  Jay and Richard (our old friend/ my pseudo son) against my son Wes and I.  Jay and Richard won 537 to 518.  But I thought that it wasn’t too shabby a score!

Dinner picture are as follows.

Jay and I, Wes and Debra, and Jay and Richard completed our seating at the dinner table.

It was really quite pleasant and relaxing.  I would have love to have seen the Gran-kids but as with all families they had prior commitments with friends for Saturday. 

On to other things:

We canned 12 and a half pints of bean soup with the honey baked ham bone and still had enough meat to feed us on Saturday.  Yesterday we took all the equipment and canned goods back down to the food room and generally got the kitchen back in order. 

Today we took advantage of the weather and removed all the outside decorations before the snow moved back in again. 

A question for you!

Look closely at this picture and tell me would you honestly let this person drive your $20,000. pickup down an icy driveway?  I felt like a kindergartner trying to get ready, without the teacher help, to go home after school.

Yes indeed they took a picture or two of me this time.

I really don’t think I look brain dead—do you?

Well I’m Back !  I had heard that the weather on Christmas Eve would prevent company so I was sitting, fat, dumb, and happy (though a little disappointed) thinking I had nothing to do.  Wrongo!! Cindy called to ask what time is dinner.  A little while later Les called and said he and Courtney would be up also. Oh boy I had potatoes to peel, cook, and mash or candy.  The table needed to be extended and the holiday table cloth put on it. The cookies and candy had to be put in dishes.  The cheese and crackers would go out when help came to set them up.  Also the dishes and silverware had to be set out.  But most importantly I needed to take a bath.

Wes called me from work and said he didn’t think he could get out in time to be able to spend any time with us before the ice storm hit.  He said that he and the family would be up on Saturday instead.  That was fine because our friends Jeanie and also Richard will be up then. 

So the Eve dinner had these sweet people at it. 

I think you know all of them so I’ll start with the meal Mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, Caesar salad, Honey Baked Ham. deviled eggs, and canned corn.  Also home canned pickled beet, bread & butter pickles, and dill pickles.  For dessert it was pumpkin pie and assorted slices of cheese cake.  There were truffles and homemade cookies also.  No one went hungry. 

I took the ham bone and made bean soup with it today after setting aside ham slices for dinner tomorrow.  Again we will go with the two potato dishes, a lettuce & tomato salad, the ham, the home canned extras,  two different kinds of cheesecake, and ice cream.  I also made a dish for more company on either Sunday or Monday.  While I was messing around in the kitchen today I made Lasagna for supper tonight.  The bean soup is out in the cold so we can skim the fat off it.  Tomorrow morning we will heat it then pressure can it for meals later on. 

I think I’ll make some more truffles for tomorrow.  The cookies seem to be holding up well enough to come out of the fridge and onto a plate in the morning.

I had some problems this morning getting out of bed at 5 am.  The covers seemed to be twisted and very heavy.  By the light of the bathroom I saw the problem and grabbed the camera to take this picture in the dark.

Now tell me isn’t a little crowded with one full grown man, myself, a 10 pound dog. and a 12 lb cat fighting over who gets what covers in a 65 degree bedroom.  I’m used to Brandy but Molly coming in to share a space is new.  My knees couldn’t get warm!

It is funny how one appointment change can screw up the whole day.  At around 8:52 am the phone rang.  It was someone from Davita asking Jay to come in today instead of tomorrow to dialyze.  So I got him down to the end of the driveway to meet the Your Ride vehicle then went back up to the dome to get ready to go pick up the Honey Baked Ham.  That was on the list for today but I thought he was going with me.  My list of 19 things to do is shorter by eight items but after the drive to Flint I was ready to relax not work.  So that was all that got done today. 

A call from my eldest saying he had to work Christmas Eve so if the rain forecasted for that day starts to freeze his family won’t be here.  Les’ wife and daughter, I think,  are working too so if the weather is bad I want him to cancel too.  As I told Wes I love the tradition of family getting together but I I love my families alive and safe more.  I will call Cindy tomorrow and tell her the same thing.  We can get together on a better day if need be.

As you can see the snowmen are done but delivery will depend on the weather also.  It could turn out to be a quiet day here at the old homestead but knowing that everyone is safe is a great comfort. 

Yesterday was a very busy day for us.  The deck needed to have a path shoveled so I could get to the seed box.  I had gone into town and bought both Thistle and Jolly brand seed for the outdoor feeders.  Now I needed to put both seeds into containers to fit in the seed box on the deck.  I started with setting up the mud room to work there.  In the process I cut and packed the cardboard boxes that were on the floor for recycling so I could move around.  Then proceeded to sweep up spilled seed from past fillings and throw it out on the snow.  With room to work I filled plastic coffee cans with outside bird seed and gallon milk jugs with thistle. 

With that accomplished I readied them for transporting up to the main floor on the back of the pickup.  In the meantime Jay had moved the chili, chutney,  canning pots, and utensils from the kitchen to the back of the pick up for taking them to the basement food room through the garage down below.

Jay took the broken screen off the french door and I shoveled the area from the door to the feeders.  I moved the blue seed box closer to the door after shoveling out a spot for it.

We exchanged the items on the back of the truck with Jay placing the canning items in the food room while I loaded the seed containers on the truck.  Then he drove the seed containers up to the kitchen door and unloaded them in the kitchen.  I took them from the kitchen out to the deck and place them in the seed box. 

Now this is four days before Christmas Eve dinner.  No snow men stuffed with cotton yet, the selection of homemade canned goods still to be determined, and the wrapping not quite done.  Still lists and plans of what to accomplish to be thought out.  Sure don’t look too promising.

However this morning I took a deep breath and started my list of chores to be accomplished over the next three days.  I also checked supplies and started a shopping list for the grocery store.  I am not going to panic.  I can accomplish it all if I stay calm and spread the on my feet time over the remaining time.  The object is not to try to clean, bake, or work on these projects all in the same day or two or I will be limping around on Christmas Eve and that would spoil the day. 

So how are you doing with accomplishing your projects.  I hope all is going well for you.  OK time I got started!!!

The truck was cleaned off before 10 am this morning so I could drive Jay down to the end of the driveway to meet the Your Ride vehicle.  It started snowing sometime around 4:30 am and hasn’t let up yet. 

Jay was out at 8:30 am with the tractor. 

With it snowing the whole time he looked like a snow man driving through a white blizzard.  I am counting my blessings that we had enough brains to do the shopping yesterday afternoon.  I’m timing the first batch of Maple-Cranberry Chutney in the canner and have at least one more batch waiting to go in.  I bought six pounds of fresh cranberries yesterday .  One package went into the pot for four batches of chutney and the second one went into the freezer. 

After a break to attend to my chutney I have to tell you there is a total of 15—8 oz. and 3—4 oz jars of what I call my liquid gold (chutney) because of the ingredients.  I also have about 3 oz so Jay can taste test it when he gets home. 

It is still snowing with about a foot of it on the top of the outside bird feed box.  I’m trying to get up enough courage to go out on the deck, clear away the snow from the box, and feed those little critters.  I also have to call Your Ride to get some Idea what time I should clear the truck and meet Jay at the foot of the driveway.  He has fallen three times in the last week so walking up is out of the question. 

Guess what I still don’t have those snowmen stuffed yet.  I keep finding other things to do. 

A glance out the french doors show that it is starting to slack off on the snow fall so I guess I’ll get the boots on and wade the deck. 

Take care, stay warm—-and you guys in Florida and California you can quit smiling ( I know you are doing it!)

“Jay when you go down to the basement please bring up some chili from the freeze for supper”, I said.  A few moments later a voice replied, “We have no more chili”.

No more chili, I couldn’t believe it.  My mouth was all set for chili and there is none.  I went into the utility room, pulled a big box from under the desk containing all kinds of cans,  and told Jay to read up on the new pressure cooker instructions because tomorrow we will can chili.  I found all the ingredients after pulling hamburger from the freezer and hunting down a new bottle of ketchup from the pantry. 

Thus the adventure began.  The mixing, the stirring, and the tasting with Jay helping with the bottling and setting up the pressure cooker.  I bowed out at that point because when I was a kid my mom had an unpleasant experience with a pressure cooker. 

All progress slowly but went very well and results were 15 pints of chili to go on the shelf in the food room and no freezer space taken up.  But this momma is still cooker shy.  Many a few more projects with it and I’ll turn pro using it. 

The whole procedure brought something else to mind though.  While the supplies still last I’m off to the grocery store for more fresh cranberries because the the Maple-Cranberry Chutney is disappearing fast from our shelf.  I think there are three jars left.  Fresh cranberries (like rhubarb in the spring) is hard to find out of season so it is make hay (chutney) while the sun shines or something like that.  That project is water bath canning and won’t take a whole lot of time to do. 

I also want to make some more truffles and Magic Bars when the Eve is closer. I bought those ingredients the other day.

So how you plans progressing?  Very well I hope.