Tag Archives: Sue-Cressel

Thanksgiving…Nine Days!

Here’s the thing about a daily Thanksgiving journal that is also a blog.  Sometimes it’s hard to post, and I’m nine days behind!  Over the past nine days, I’ve been thankful for so much.   Likewise, the tragedy in France makes me unsettled.   Why do people have to do this to one another?    I do not understand it.

On November 7, I was very thankful I had the weekend to myself.  Mike went to Akron, and I had the house for three full days.  I enjoyed having this space.   I had started to go with him but decided against it.   I wanted to clean the house.    I’m cleaning and trying to sort through things that I still like but do not have a place for….does anyone locally want this?  I do not want to ship it.  If you want it, please message me.   I  am not selling it.  I’m giving it away.   I stitched it in 1986.   My kitchen was all done in Williamsburg blue, and I made this to go with that kitchen.    Love what it says “Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want but the realization of how much you already have.”   Isn’t that true?

My Work

On November 8, I was so excited because I picked up a few things a local person, Pennie Jarrett, painted for me.  Here’s one of them..(excuse my.terrible picture).   She did this for me for $25.   Pennie rocks!  She actually made several things which I’ll show you later.

Joy to the World Sign

I’ll be using this at Christmas.  I’m decorating with Christmas carols this year.   All of my rooms are Christmas carols.

On November 9, I was glad that Mike was back home and had arrived safely.  I had the space I needed and was done with it.   On every day, I am grateful for this sweet face.   He’s enjoying having toys.

River looking really cute

Who could not love River?

On Tuesday, November 10, I had a great day at work.  It was nothing special, but I am lucky to work for nice people, have interesting work, and I have a BFF at work.    I am grateful for my “real” job, and following that day, I got to do something I’d wanted to do for a while.  I also do a bit of work for About Face, a great (as in “the best” !!)  med spa in the Bristol area, and Sue, the owner, recently purchased an IPL laser.   We’ll be rolling this out in December, but Rhiana gave me my first IPL treatment for those “spots” on my hands.   We took a before picture.  This will take a few treatments, and I’ll show you the “after” pictures in six weeks or so.  They’ll be gone.   This picture is not of my hands but this is what I can expect.

ipl-before-after9This laser is really smart and our estheticians, Lisa, Rhiana, and Nina are loving what it can do for clients.   I’m grateful for my relationship with About Face and Sue.   She’s a sister from another mister.

So, Wednesday thru Friday flew by.   I so enjoyed listening to the book from Jan Karon called “Come Rain or Shine.”   I love a good book whether it’s on audio or in pages.  Oh!  And I’m thrilled that Hallmark has started Christmas movies.

I was fixing dinner one of those nights, and I realized how grateful I am for locally raised beef.  I’ve quit eating processed meats but I still eat red meat, and Mike fixed me a rib eye steak that was the best.   I asked him what was different, and he told me that “it was one of the steaks you bought from your girlfriend.”    I could not wait to tell Sabrina Fleenor.  I’d bought the beef several months ago and just not got around to fixing it.    If you are local and want to get in touch with Keith or Sabrina Fleenor for your beef, let me know.  I love small business people.  Local beef packed locally at Russell County.

Fleenor Meats

Sometime during the group of days that I missed in my gratitude journal, I went shopping.  In Mendota.  Can you believe that?  I went up to the old store building in Mendota and bought a couple of things from “Doc”.    For $15, I bought this sled which I’ll put a wreath and bow on and have a great outdoor Christmas decoration for the porch.

Sled

This is all so counter to my plan to get rid of things, but I’ve wanted an outdoor sled to put up on the mantle or out by the door for a long time.

I also bought a chair to make a spring garden chair.  I have so many plans for spring.   Look at that chippy green paint?  I guess I’m thankful for chippy paint.  LOL.

Old Chair

There’s all kinds of good stuff in that old store.   After Christmas, I’m going to buy an old headboard with plans to do something like this for RiverCliff Cottage–our overnight guest house.   Someone tagged me with this on Facebook.  I love it.    Sorry it is so little.

images

There’s old wrought iron headboards up there that would look great on a wall.   I saw lots of old lanterns.  There is a Hoosier up there.   Lots of yummy stuff.

Finally, I’m thankful for those feet in the left of the picture –that’s Michael’s feet; he’s been hanging pictures for me.   He’s got some good help with our little man.

River again

Thankful for so many things.

 

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Mendota Daily August 12

I wasn’t in love with home canning at first.    It was the winter following the summer I learned to can that I fell in love with canning.   This hasn’t been all that long ago–less than ten years.   It was snowing and we didn’t go to the grocery store as we’d planned.   I made spaghetti and instead of a salad to accompany the spaghetti, we had green beans.   The spaghetti was topped with my sauce and the green beans were from the jars on top of the cabinets — all from the summer before.

Those green beans not only looked good on top of my cabinets — they were good.    I thought…I did this!   

 I then read a great book by Barbara Kingsolver called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and I realized how beneficial it is to eat local food.    I love that book…if you haven’t read it, you should!    The library has the book and the CD.   

On Saturday, I started this post describing my excitment over canning tomatoes.   I realize it appears I have a small life to be excited about canning tomatoes, but if you haven’t tried canning, it’s difficult to understand the satisfaction achieved from preserving your own food.  I think that many of us are still “wired” to want to gather and prepare for winter — even though Food City and Kroger are doing a pretty good job of taking over this responsibility!

Anyway, I canned 65 pints of homemade spaghetti sauce and 12 quarts of tomatoes — right at 100 pounds of tomatoes.   The spaghetti sauce grew challenging as I grew more tired.   I started yesterday and did not finish completely until 5 pm today.   I had to scald the tomatoes to get the skins off.  Then I had to skin and core them and put them in my handy KitchenAid food processor which I’d researched last winter in preparation for its use in dicing tomatoes   Great job!  Once I got about 20 cups of the diced tomatoes, I added seasonings and placed the mixture  on the stove to simmer for 25 minutes.  AFTER that, it was into the jars and then into the pressure canner for 40 minutes.  The worst part about this whole process  besides a sea of red sticky mess was waiting for the pressure canner to cool off enough to open and remove the jars.

I’m not complaining.  I have a pantry full of wonderful, yummy stuff that I’ll be quite smug about this winter.   I’m droning.  Here’s a few pictures.

Aren’t these girls pretty?   They are in the “hot tub” getting scalded.    Ouch.

Sue Cressel a nurse practitioner and friend taught me to can.   She went strictly by the Ball Canning Book.    This was 8 or 9 summers ago, and she and I canned 168 quarts of green beans along with many pints of tomatoes,  pasta sauce and salsa.  My right elbow hurt from breaking beans.   I am not sure why I did not learn from my mother…I think she saw me more as a bean breaker than a bean canner.     

So…much of the weekend, I was looking down into a simmering pot of this…

 

Even though I was busy in the kitchen, I tried to do other things during the “down” time when things were on the stove.  In the country, there is always something to do.  If we’re bored, we can go out and mow grass.

However, I did laundry as we’d had company all week.  I hang my sheets out to dry.  I have two washing machines, so I can zip through the laundry by using both machines and the clothesline and the dryer.   The sheets smell really good, but this has its hazards.  From above, the birds can poop on them, and if I hang them too low, the cat runs up and pees on them.  That red sheet is definitely in the danger zone.

 It’s always something.   And how has your weekend been?   

 

 

 

 

 

 

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