Marvelous Monday

Great weekends make Mondays seem so much better to me. It also helps when the sun shines and the weather is pleasant! It was great to get home from work and walk, then spend some time in the yard and garden. I definitely will miss my garden over the winter, but hope to get a cold frame made, so that I can still do a little growing! This weekend I finally got all the household chores entered into Chore Genie and now we can get the house cleaned up before the holidays. Everyone has their own list of chores and deadlines. I got lots of help through the flylady website, organized Christmas home and chore genie. All the rooms of the house are divided into zones...so you concentrate on one zone each week. We'll see how it goes. Well, time to get dinner out of the oven and then concentrate on cleaning the master bedroom while the bengals game is on Monday Night Football. Hoping for a Terrific Tuesday!

Raining Again Today

Well, the sunshine lasted a total of 3 hours yesterday and never came back. The women's Fall Fantasy was very nice last night...great salads and beautifully and cleverly decorated tables with themes as diverse as "Bath Night" to "Get the Vote Out" to a medical table complete with flowers in bedpans! Saturday has been a rainy day - which only leaves indoor cleaning to do, so I decided to lay on the couch and read "Return of the King"...perfect weather for that. I did manage to print out all the pages for my "Holiday Countdown" binder and went to the craft store with Michael to get some materials to finish the Christmas gifts I am working on. Now it's time to get some dinner together for the guys and then spend the evening stitching. Hoping for sun tomorrow.

Sunshine!

Well it has taken all day - but finally around 3 PM the sun has come out. But we hear that it is supposed to rain tomorrow. I may never get my yardwork done before winter. Oh well, I certainly have plenty to do inside. Today I am feeling overwhelmed with how much stuff is laying around the house. I need a dumpster and just start pitching it all. Where does it come from? It seems like no matter how organized I try to be...it piles up. Well as FlyLady says, baby steps. I just want it all done NOW! If any of you want some encouragement along the housekeeping lines - check out www.flylady.com and www.organizedhome.com - they are great sites.

Sleeping In

Another sunless day in Cincinnati, but I hear that we may finally see it again tomorrow! It's way too early in the season for all this grey! First we have drought conditions when the garden could have used the water and now at the end of the season it's wet. Well as long as it dries out so we can get the rest of the leaves up. Tomorrow Daniel has the day off school - so we are planning to sleep in! A great way to start the weekend.

Lazy Day

Well the weather is grey and gloomy and my allergies are acting up - with a bit of a cold starting, so it seemed like a good day to be lazy and just read! The benedryl knocks me out, so I just read and dozed the day away. Oh well, the housework will still be there when I get around to doing it (no one else does any cleaning). I still need to get alot of the outside work done before the weather gets bad - but it is so wet, I can't get out there. Maybe this weekend we can close up the garden for the winter - except one bed where we are putting the cold frame. Back to work tomorrow!

We're Back!

Back from Buffalo and we had a wonderful trip! Today it was really back to real life as we took Daniel to the allergist and found out that he has been very sick for a long time. Last spring when he was suffering with headaches and we had an MRI done, his GP said that the MRI didn't show anything, except a little swelling in his sinuses. Well after trying medicine for migraines, medicine for allergies, we finally decided to see a specialist as he was missing so much school this fall with a variety of problems.
The allergist read the MRI and said that it shows that Daniel has Sphenoid and Ethmoid Sinus Disease. He also conducted several breathing tests and Daniel is only using 60% lung capacity. He suspects that the allergies have affected his lungs. So we went to the hospital for a chest x-ray and blood tests to see if he is allergic to cats and dogs. He put him on an inhaler, steriods, zyrtec and flonase. We will see him in two weeks to discuss options and see how the meds have helped. So even though we thought that Daniel might be complaining of being sick to avoid school - he really has been sick. He has lost weight and the doctor says that it definitely would effect his sleep - thus the sleeping all the time.
We hope that we are on the right track now. But we hope he isn't allergic to the cats, because we all love them so much! Well it's been a long day with getting back to work, grocery shopping, mail to go through - vacations are great, but it is always a chore to face all the things that waited for you.

Buffalo!

We made it! Great trip yesterday - sunshine all through Ohio and the leaves were gorgeous! We enjoyed a nice evening visiting with my cousin David and my mom and dad. Daddy is doing so much better and is entertaining us with many of his great stories. It is so nice to be with them. Well, back to work on my parent's computers - getting them cleaned up and virus protection renewed, etc.

Cooking, Cooking, Cooking

I am having the best day...in the kitchen! Everything smells so good - it's like the holidays! And now when we go to my parent's house...no one will have to be in the kitchen. This will be the best vacation! Okay, I'm off to pack and settle down to Smallville - then the debate!

Ready or Not - The Last Debate Approaches

Okay everyone, grab your salsa and tortilla chips and let's get through the last debate. I hope we hear something different, like actual plans for paying for everything that is being proposed. And more on domestic policy - I think we know where each candidate stands on foreign policy by now.
I am looking forward to cooking all day tomorrow in preparation for our trip to Buffalo. Taking all the meals up with us, so we can concentrate on visiting with my parents and my cousin, and my sister and her family. Since I love to cook, I am looking forward to tomorrow and can't wait to drive the boys crazy with the good smells and then not being able to eat any of it yet!!!
Here's the menu:
Thursday: Seafood Rice Casserole with Asparagus Almondine
Broccoli Salad
Pumpkin Roll
Friday: Cabbage Rolls
Cheesy Potato Casserole
Chocolate Mississippi "Share" Cake
Saturday: Eggplant Lasagna
Garlic Sticks
Pesto Green Bean Salad
Plus a cheese ball for appetizer and Chex Mix for snacking......yummy, can't wait! If Andrew reads this, he might try to come too. He's probably getting tired of doing all his own cooking. Don't worry AJ - Thanksgiving is around the corner.

How to comment on my blog

Okay, today's lesson is how to post a comment on my blog without joining Blogger:
At the bottom of my entry click on comment. This will take you to a sign-in page asking for your user name and password - and there is a button that says "sign in" now look just underneath this button and you will see the following:
or post anonymously
Click on "or post anonymously" And you will be taken to a page with a comment box you can type into. You will have to let me know who you are in the body of your comment (if you want me to know) because it will say anonymous at the bottom once you post your comment.

I hope that will help many of you who have told me that you want to make a comment, but not join Blogger.

Debates or the Day After - which is more irratating?

Well, I watched the debate but I didn't enjoy it...I heard a football commentator put it well today (much better than his comments on the Ohio State game) anyway he said, "Alright we all know what each of these guys think...let's just get to the vote!" I really didn't hear anything new or different from either candidate. Of course then we have to hear what all the newsies and pundits think today. Well to cheer myself up I visited one of my favorite political satire sites - jibjab! They have a new short on their site about DC - check it out if you have a chance - their parodies are hilarious! It's www.jibjab.com
Our big surprize for the day was that John didn't have to work...those Saturdays are rare - so we made the most of it. Got lots of yardwork done...it has been so dry that the leaves are falling off early. John raked and put them through the chipper to shred them while I got the garden beds ready for the leaves to be put on top of. John changed the oil in the Explorer for our trip to Buffalo on Thursday and I cleaned the garage. Now we are waiting for the eggplant lasagna to come out of the oven and I think we'll spend the evening with "Return of the King"

Gardening is Glorious!

Another perfect day to be outside in the garden! Today's task was to pull all the dry beans and then get them out of their pods. This year because I grew so many tomatoes to re-stock the pantry with sauce, salsa, etc. I didn't have much room for dry beans....but I did try a little of several varieties: soldier, kidney, black, pinto and jacob's cattle. They look so pretty in their glass jars. Have to wait until we get some really cold weather before making them into bean soup!
Still picking tomatoes...and I even have some yellow squash still growing! I picked a couple small heads of cabbage and cooked it for dinner tonight. I fried some bacon, sauted the cabbage and some onion in the bacon drippings and then added some chicken broth. Just before serving cut up the bacon into pieces and added back in. It was very tasty! I also began the big task of washing all the plant containers and putting them away for the winter. I like to clean the containers with a bleach solution after removing the plant and dirt...that way in the spring when I start my seeds - all the containers are clean and ready to use. Well, it's homecoming tonight and Daniel is playing in the pep band at the football game so I have the evening to myself...guess I will watch Bush and Kerry debate - although every time I hear Kerry talk, I get upset with his spin on things. But I would rather hear them both myself than listen to what the media "thinks" they said tomorrow!
Have a wonderful weekend everyone and enjoy this gorgeous weather!

Salsa, Seeds and Shopping

A wonderful Wednesday, I got to do all kinds of things that I love to do! The cold weather is gone for awhile, so I worked in the garden, uncovering my tomatoes and peppers and everything looks like it survived the frost! Worked with the tomatoes and peppers I had picked two days ago and got another big batch of salsa started. Michael brought home a whole bag of ripe bananas - so I made banana bread. Monie and I got to try out McAlister's Deli for lunch. It is a great lunch place - soups, salads, sandwiches and stuffed potatos! We're going to recommend it for the next staff lunch. Worked on my grocery list and got $56 worth of groceries for $46! Not too shabby! Picked up Daniel, and then enjoyed some more time outside gathering seeds for next year. Dinner's in the oven and Smallville's on tonight....like I said a wonderful day!

Monday, Monday

Pretty typical Monday...lots of work. Beautiful day weatherwise, but tonight we are under a frost warning. So I spent quite a bit of time in the garden covering up the tomatoes and peppers, and carried most of the flowers into the porch. I still need to throw a blanket over those. Got some work done for Deaf Ministries and entered all of Kroger's products and aisles into my new shopping program "Simply Shopping" - it takes alot of time to set up, but it will simplify grocery shopping - so it will be worth it. When I make my grocery list, it will list the items in the order I walk through the store.
Had several people ask me this weekend what a blog was....short for web log - or online journal is a good way to explain, although many question why I would want to journal online. Oh well, I can't convince everyone to use technology...but I love it!

Fabulous Friday!

What a gorgeous day! Haven't we had the best weather this summer and early fall in Cincinnati? Spent the day outside working in the garden and in the flower beds. Finally got John to clean out the poison ivy in the bed next to the driveway, so I could get in there and clean it out. Put down mulch and added some flowers....much improved! Also dug up all the onions, so they can dry and be stored. Cleaned up some bean beds. Hopefully tomorrow will be nice enough to get out and do more, although it is supposed to be much cooler. We have our first frost warning for Saturday night...guess I need to get the blankets out for the tomatoes.