Grease is the word.

Awhile back, I took pieces of legal size card stock and made lists of things I had to do on each of them. I have them hanging in the hallway, so I have to go past them several times a day, and I find that I'm actually seeing them instead of them blending into the wall, which is a really good thing. And today, after updating the wipe off calendar with upcoming appointments, I marked those things off the lists that I'd gotten done since I hung them up back in August.

Imagine my surprise when I realized that I'd completed all but 2 of the dozen or so things that were on Hopper's and Scooter's lists. There is still more to do, but I'm well on my way to completing the lists by the end of the year and possibly by Thanksgiving. That will be nice. Life will hopefully slow down a bit for us by then, but things will pick up again after the first of the year, I'm sure.

My goal for tomorrow and Friday is to get the last of the tomatoes from the garden canned or made into salsa or sauce. I'm really going to miss the fresh tomatoes over the winter. Store bought tomatoes just don't have any flavor compared to what comes out of the garden. I'm already looking forward to gardening next year and to the canned salsa, sauce and tomatoes that we'll enjoy over the winter months. 

I'm thinking about getting my pressure cooker canner out and canning some soups, chili and stews, too. It just seems like it would be so handy to have it available when I don't feel like cooking or am too busy to throw something together at the last minute. Plus we'd know what was put in it, and we wouldn't have to worry about all the junk and chemicals added to store bought canned foods. I haven't decided what I'm going to do just yet, but I'll have fun thinking about it, anyway.

One of the things I'd considered canning was chicken and dumplings. I attempted my first batch of chicken and dumplings a few days ago, and they turned out really well. Everyone seemed to like them, and nobody objected to eating leftovers the following day, so I know I'll make them again. We are all looking forward to that day.

But because we'd never had them before, Hopper didn't know what they were. And because of her speech and hearing issues, she struggles with retaining certain words until she's been exposed to them enough times that she's got them down cold. I was working with her the day before when she was asking what I was making, and tried to help her get the word, "dumplings", down. She was doing pretty well, so I thought she'd gotten it. 

So the next day when I was getting ready to heat them up for supper, I asked Hopper what they were called. She could remember the "chicken" part of it, but for life of her, she couldn't remember the "dumplings" part. So I tried prompting her by saying, "chicken annnnd _____?"

Her answer?
 ,

"Grease!!!!"


This girl cracks me up!

Busy. Busy. Busy.

I can't believe it's been 2 months since I've posted on my blog. I remember when I first started blogging I thought I'd never be one of those bloggers who waited so long to write a post. Ha. It's funny how life can get in the way of blogging.

Thankfully, I just have a really sensitive sense of smell, and my blood sugar was not very elevated back in August when I had it checked. My fasting glucose test was totally normal, and my A1C was at borderline pre-diabetic levels, and I'm sure it's gone down since then. Still, it was a much-needed wake-up call! We've made drastic changes to our diet because of it, and we're starting to see some really positive results.

While my asthma still is not under control, it is finally responding to the new medicines I'm on, and I've been able to start tapering the steroids. I am so very thankful! I'm down to half the daily amount I started on back in June, and I'm hoping to be off them entirely by Christmas. And the number of breathing treatments I've needed has dropped by more than half. At the peak of the fires this summer, I was doing 7 a day. I'm now down to 3. It's progress for which I'm very grateful!

We've been busy with medical appointments for the girls. We've averaged 3 to 4 appointments a week since the last blog entry. The only break we had in appointments was after Hopper had surgery a couple of weeks ago. It doesn't look like things are going to slow down much on the medical front before the end of the year. We've already got another surgery scheduled and another one that we'll be scheduling next week. I'm glad the girls are getting the medical treatment they need, but I'm looking forward to a break in the action. I'm tired. 

I haven't done a lot of active dehoarding in the last few months, but I have no doubt that will come in time. I've had bigger things on my mind. The whole blood sugar scare, along with one surgeon wanting Hopper to lose some weight, so she can have a major surgery sometime next year has really opened our eyes to the way we were eating. We're now making a very concentrated effort to eat as healthily as we can. As a result, we've all lost a little weight. I'm down 15 pounds to date, Hubster is down 18, Hopper has lost 5 and Scooter has lost a couple, although she had the least amount to lose. And the best thing is that we've all been healthier than typical for this time of year. Yay for fruits and veggies!

Speaking of which, I've got about 40 pounds of tomatoes from the garden that need to be processed. I already canned several pints of Tomato Basil Sauce that is amazing, but now I need to make some salsa and can it, some more sauce and some whole tomatoes to use this winter. Even though our tomatoes didn't do as well as they did last year, I'm thrilled that we'll have such yummy goodness from the garden all winter long!

I'm hoping to get back to some serious dehoarding one of these days as life slows down a little. I'm also hoping to get back to more regular blogging. I miss it. And now that we no longer need to have the air conditioner on, (it is just feet away from the computer), I can actually sit at the computer without freezing.

There's something to be said for good weather blogging.