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!