Puddy Tat's New Home

Well, today has been a typical day. Worked~ heating issues to deal with. Puddy Tat will go to Miss Norma's for a forever home tomorrow morning... I'll miss him, but I know he'll be loved...

Road Trip to Toledo

Well, we left Joliet at about 7:00pm last night and arrived in Maumee, OH at about 11:36pm (both central time). We stopped there because I was tired and didn't want to drive the 16 additional miles to Toledo.
The Comfort Inn here is nice. Comfortable peaceful rooms. We're always satisfied when we stay at Comfort Inn.
Now we are taking turns at the shower, then we'll call my Mom and let her know we're in town to see her new house!
She'll be so surprised to see us!

Tenant Library

Hi! Heading up to check more apartments!
Don't you just love our library? It's nice for the tenants that are 'shut-ins'... This way they can borrow books without ever leaving the building!

If Bridges Collapse

Waiting on a train and wondering how long the supports for these railroad tracks will hold before it collapses?!
And...
Whom is it going to collapse on?

Checking Apartments...

Well, I checked one unit, a small studio. He keeps it in good shape. Just a bathroom sink to unplug! Love when tenants are clean, orderly and respectful!
Now I'm off to get Matt at school...

What's Up

And so today begins... Matt has Saturday school until 11:30am to prepare for ISAT testing... Took Puddy Tat up to Miss Norma's apartment this morning... Coffee's finally in my cup... Foggy day... Good thing I like fog! Fire burned nicely most of the night & when I added more wood to hot coals, it kicked right back up and the fan kicked on... Love that wood stove! For now, though, I am at work... Have to check some occuppied apartments for any maintenance issues, cleanliness, and so on...

The Pencil Tower!

Well, hello again! Welcome back to our humble homestead! Pull a chair up to the fire and let's chat.
this is a pencil tower Matthew built with his SASS worker during home therapy. Matt had So much fun with it and did not seem to realize it was a test. He was being tested for his ability to focus and his fine motor skills. Of course he did well! And he had a blast!

Yogurt Chips!

Hi! Welcome back! Hope the incessant rain and freezing drizzle isn't keeping yoou down!
Would you like to try the yogurt chips I just made? They are so yummy!
A tenant brought me a case of 'Trader Joe's Greek Style Vanilla Nonfat Yogurt' When she came back from food pantry.
At First I wasn't sure what to Do with all that vanilla yogurt and even gave four containers away! Then it dawned on me that I could make yogurt chips.
I spread the yogurt on the velum and sprinkled with chile-sugar. After drying in my Excalibur Dehydrator overnight, I had the most delicious yogurt chips, crunchy and ready to bag up!

2 Car Loads Later...

Well, two trunk loads later, Matt and I were feeling very productive and worn out!
We had to stop hauling wood from Miss LaKesia's yard to pick Candi up at work.
There was still so much wood to haul!

They said take half!

Hi! The response to my request for firewood was astounding~ this photo doesn't even show half the wood offered!
Matthew and I showed up at their house and were floored and overwhelmed by the amount of wood. The home owner wanted half of it gone as a woodchuck had decided to move in and she was tired of chasing it away!

An All-Night Burn?

Hi! Welcome to our evening routine! Sit down and put up your feet.

We're home from work, so the first thing I do is start the fire back up. Once we have a good bed of coals, around eight or nine pm, I can add a big log.

This log barely fit through the door! It caught right away and burned steady until about 3:00 am!It was so nice to have the fire self-sufficient. I was able to spend a little extra time talking with Matt and got a couple extra hours of much-needed sleep.

Hanging Out Laundry in Winter

Well, the deep freeze has passed for now so I went out to pull Matt's blankets and whites off the line. It was so nice to get back out to my clothes line. Nice to see the lot from out there. Nice to hear the peacefulness of my neighborhood. Really nice to find all the laundry dry and blowing in the breeze as it waits for me.
Today I am grateful for my clothes line!

Cake From the Missionaries

Although we were home from church today with the flu, and we've only been to church there once, the missionaries brought Matt a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and decorated with Reeses!
I can honestly say I have never been to a church where we felt so loved and welcomed!!!
God Bless the Latter Day Saints Church!

Cat Box Savings

As I've gone through the process of cleaning the cat box, I have evolved a system that works well for me and is free as well as a worthwhile fertilizer for my gardens!

So, I was sweeping up the floor by the wood stove after filling the cat box with animal bedding and shredded paper and realized that all the little bits and pieces of logs were very similar to the animal bedding. I swept up some of the log pieces and dumped these into the cat box and watched what would happen. Charcoal, our trusty cat, climbed gingerly into the box and did his business as usual! Success!

After that, I swept all the saw dust, etc from around the stove and dumped it all into a plastic tote.

There would be no more buying cat litter for this household!

Then there was the issue of disposal.

Well, about every other day, I simply dump the contents of the cat box into the stove. The fire roars! The litter is incinerated. The cinders are, eventually, hauled to the compost pile to fertilize our garden.

So, the cat box can be a great source of free fertilizer and cat litter doesn't have to cost anything!

A New Start

Well, happy Sunday to all! I am home today with sick kids. Candi, Aiden & Matt all have the flu. So... I am using the time to update my blog layout and the associated ads, do massive amounts of laundry, keep the fire roaring all day, feed the kids sickie-friendly munchies and re-organize my priorities.

One of my priorities is to make my blog more of a realistic portrayal of my life. To reflect here, on a daily basis, what I am up to. That was the original purpose of the blog, but due to circumstances, I veered away.

Thankfully, I am back and looking forward to sharing my life with you. I will be as open and sincere as possible and hope to hear likewise from you.

And so... today my people are eating cheerios, bread, rice, apple sauce, tea and toast. Am hoping the flu will pass today so we can get on with life.

The fire is going well... as well as can be expected with freshly cut oak... not as warm as I'd like and much higher maintenance, but still burning... and we are thankful for the wood...

As much as I am opposed to bleach, I'll admit I added a cap full to the bowl of dish water and poured about 1/4 cup of the dish water-bleach mix into the coffee maker, filled rest with water and ran... need to run vinegar and about four pots of clean water through...

Laundry is another project... on my 4th load... a cap of bleach in the cleaning rags and wet sheets... the rest is run with only our faithful home made laundry soap... fresh, clean and non-irritating!

Now to fold a bit of laundry and balance my check book so I can pay my bills...

You may stay as long as you like... there's always a spot for a friend in front of the fire!

Seasoned Pineapple

Hi! Tonight I am dehydrating pineapple slices. I've seasoned with a sugary/ chile mixture from the local Mexican store.
Yummy!

Again With the Hats!

Well, hello! Yes, I'm knitting again (still?). Can't seem to help it as it is my ministry.
What would I do without a ministry? Without devine direction? Wither away and die. At least spiritually!
Thank God my Heavenly Father is here to guide me!

More Firewood!

A good friend, Mike, cut this firewood for us today. He found it while doing outside clean-up and was swift to deposit it into our trunk.

Good friends are a true blessing when most of the world seems to have forgotten basic kindness!

Christmas Every Day

Imagine, if you would, having Christmas every day.

Not a huge meal every day.

Not a ton of presents for you every day.

Imagine, instead, making it Chistmas for someone else every day!

Imagine giving someone a good meal who would, otherwise, go without.

Imagine baking a cake, cookies or pie for your local shelter.

Imagine putting in a vegetable garden at your local shelter.

Imagine paying your phone, gas or electric bill and putting the same amount on the shelter's bill.

Imagine showing God's love every day as though it's Christmas.

"He who does for the least of these does also unto me..."

Winter Storm Security

It's so funny to look back at this picture (I took it a while back). I was so sure we were set for a month or two!
Then the storms hit and temps dropped! And, a week later, we were out of any decent sized logs!
What a scary day that was!! Now my mission is to stock-up more firewood than I think I could possibly use in one lifetime!
I Refuse to Freeze!