Chicken Soup and Horses

We have had an ongoing battle here with scratchy, itchy throats and now it's moved along to stuffy noses to boot. Poor Emily has a hard time sleeping at night...lying down, her poor little throat is just coated with her nose trying it's best to drain. She wakes off and on all night. I'm about to move on to something OTC for her after all of this. I haven't yet, but the temptation is there.

We haven't had so much as a strong 'cold' in a long time. Scratchy throats are expected this time of year as we turn heat on and the air outside battles with itself. But it's dragging out this year and moving through the whole head.

We have missed church a lot over the last month, and I don't see much difference this month really given the path of illness/discomfort right now. LOL...I know, not much of a Baptist am I? Skipping church because of a little cough and sniffle? Baptists like to share those kinds of things :o)

Seriously though, we don't go to church when we have anything going on. I've never been one to drag coughing, sniffling, gooky-nosed children off to church to share the illness with everyone. As the day progresses here we'll determine who goes and who stays, or if we all stay. Could be I'm the only one going tomorrow. Having a hand with the Sunday School class, I really should be there if at all possible.

This week we were getting the teens together to bake bread -- well, to teach them how to bake bread :o) Only my girls have the least idea how to do it. We will probably stick to the Quick Rise bread we do as it's easy and quick and makes a delicious bread. We'll keep it basic, just plain white wheat. They are also making and decorating sugar cookies. All of this is for Thursday -- the teens are visiting a couple of nursing homes here in town, handing out cards the children's class made, singing some carols and handing out a mini loaf and some cookies to the residents. This will be our second trip to the nursing homes, and they are all really excited about it. e only have one teen (out of the 7 we have) who is uninterested. She made a couple of cards, but spends her time sitting with her cell phone. She won't be coming along.

I'm terrible -- I'm glad she isn't coming with us. She has a tendency to put a shadow over everything we try to do. Her attitude spreads, slowly and quietly, to a couple of the other teens. It just makes for a bad time for everyone involved. She will stand with that blasted cell phone and make snide ccomments the whole time, like she does at church. I
hoping if she continues to not join in and sees that everyone else is interested, having a good time, sharing and such, maybe she will come around. And no, her parents aren't interested in how she behaves at church either. Already tried that approach.

Today's agenda...keeping warm and cozy in such cold windy weather. Making a pot of chicken soup...carrots, onions, celery,green peppers, lots and lots of garlic, and home-canned chicken. It's simmering now and smells soooo good! Later we'll make some egg noodles to add in. I like lots of noodles, but I think we need more broth today than anything.

Sewing...I finished a dress for Debi, 3 for Miss Rachel that still needs buttons, and countless boxers and bloomers waiting on elastic in the waist. Now for a dress for Jennifer. We moved the sewing machine to the dining room...it's sitting under that side of the island.. Really, it's in the way of regular daily life, but we need to get sewing done, so it will work well out there. The sewing room is rather open to everything, but I'm more in the mix being in the actual room now. The table was covered yesterday with fabric laid out, patterns all over and odds and ends. The cookstove is all but hidden with the ironing board :o) It's very compact on that side of the room right now, but it works for the time being.

I'm making our bread for the week today so it's done. I think we'll use the new mixer and give it a test run. I'll double the batch -- making 12 loaves -- and we'll do some cinnamon rolls as well. If we end up at church tomorrow, I'll take a few pans along, otherwise we'll freeze them to bake later. One full batch will be our bread for the week. I'm itching to play with that mixer :o)

Horses...Rebel is ready anytime we are.

We are not anything near ready.

We have barn work, lots of new fence to run around the pasture area behind the barn. More hay to get as well.

No where near ready. Personally, I'm not even interested in having a horse out here, but Jennifer gave Miss Escapee away, and she misses having her here. Our mail lady and family felt terribly taking her, and have been working with Rebel all along to bring him out here. He's very calm, very laid-back around even young children, and will be perfect for each of them to learn to ride and such. George trains horses (it's his true calling in life, but doesn't pay the bills just yet) and has done wonders with our wild green Miss Escapee in the months he's had her. She's just beautiful to see in the field. Rebel is probably a perfect match for us, given the age ranges of the children and all. Sharon and George want to start training Jennifer in horse keeping, as well as get her on some of their weekend trail rides. She's excited. I suppose I am as well, for her. Just wasn't looking at a horse on this homestead. Not yet, anyway.

So, I guess the next couple of weeks, we will try to get more T-Posts put up and run some wire out there. Right now, Rebel is pastured with several other horses, but just 2 strands of wire for them, so I think he'll do fine here.

I'm not fence-builder, and I certainly can't manage those decent wood corner posts in this clay muck out here, but given some time, and remembering to wear my wrist braces, I'm sure I can pound a couple dozen or so T-Posts in and run some wire. I won't guarantee his arrival by Christmas week when Dewey is home, but maybe after New Years.

Back to sewing and baking...