My absolutely insane life

  I can hardly believe it has been 36 yrs since we said “I do.”  So much has happened….the good….the bad….the happy…..the sad…..so many changes, and so much grow.  I honestly would have never thought we would have made it this far and made it through so many of the ups and downs.   Tonight we went to the Melting Pot like we always do and like always the food was amazing.  I left feeling so full and so stuffed, and completely in bliss.  This year we changed it up a bit…..we got a different chocolate fondue LOL.  I was a little worried at first especially since this year I am living with diabetes.  Okay, so last year I had it too, but didn’t find out until after our anniversary.  I was a little unsure of how this would all unfold, but I decided I was going to go and enjoy my night.  I ate the cheese with bread, and it was so yummy.  The meat/protein options were absolutely scrumptious.  I ate half of it and gave the other half to Brad to finish.  The chocolate fondue worried me a bit bec

 A couple of weeks ago Brad mentioned to me that he wanted both of us to get our real estate license.  I thought he was crazy.  This was something I wanted to do years ago, but had to stop classes because at the time I had no one to watch the kids (back then classes were in person).  It was disappointing then, but my kids always came first.  After he mentioned it he told me he scheduled an appointment with a realty agency to talk to them.  He came home and was all signed up for the classes.  I decided I was going to go for it too, so off I went to meet with the guy, and I left his office enrolled in the online classes.   I came home and started working diligently on the classes, and studying fiercely.  School and studying has never come easy to me, but I worked and worked and worked.  One day my daughter came over and I told her what I was doing.  She said “mom have you heard of Quizlet?”  Nope, so off I went to explore that.  I started putting together notes in the program, and by the

 I left my home in June to attend a wedding, and then from there headed off to my daughter’s house to awake the birth of my grand baby.  I was gone a total of six weeks, and was super stressed out over what would happen to my garden.  This year (my first year doing this) I decided to plant a large (to me) garden.  My husband built me several boxes so that I could keep things orderly.  Everything was planted before I left, and my husband did the best he could taking care of it while I was gone.  When I came back I couldn’t believe how much everything had grown.  Honestly it was a little much for me to see because it was overgrown, there were weeds and it didn’t look anything like I had planned it to be.  That being said we are still getting a lot of vegetables from it.   One of the first things I decided to do was make pickles because we had so many cucumbers.  Yesterday I ran three batches of pickles through the canner.  I had planned on doing more, but my daughter came over so I put i

 Several weeks ago I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.  At first, I was pretty upset, but realized that this might have been the kick in the butt I needed to live a healthier life.  I stopped eating sugar, started counting carbs, stopped eating out, and made major changes.   Here I am seven weeks later…..26 lbs lighter, feeling so much better than I have felt in a long time.  In fact, almost all of my hip pain is gone.  I can walk now without limping and/or having pain.   There was one little thing that I kept struggling with, and that was finding alternatives for some of the things I like.  I kept thinking about my birthday coming up, and was kind of sad that I couldn’t have cake.  Several people I know kept saying “just cheat” or “a little piece can’t hurt too bad”, but you know what?  It will hurt.  I knew if I started cheating I was going to just keep cheating and then it would all fall apart.  So, I started exploring alternative recipes for foods that I felt like I was missing o

I have been so busy lately that I haven’t found much time to blog.  I have been trying desperately to keep up with all the freeze dried apples my daughter likes to eat.  I swear she eats 1-2 quart jar sizes each day.   In addition to that I started to look at what seeds I want to plant.  My plans are to start them growing this week in my green house.  I have also been planning where to plant various seeds.  This is my first time ever planning a garden so I have done a lot of research on it.  I found there are certain types of plants that should be planted by others and vice versa.  My goal is to create the most beneficial garden that I can.   I can’t wait to start seeing the fruits of my labor.

 It has been pretty cold here lately, with lots of snow, and now rain which is making everything super slippery, and just plain icky outside.  This got me thinking and got me busy.  I wanted to do something, but wasn’t sure what, and then just like always something fell into my lap…..hubby came home with some fruit and veggie boxes.  I spent 5 hours one day peeling, coring and cutting apples.  I put them on freeze dryer trays and into the freezer.  Also put some into the freeze dryer.  Was still left with a bunch of apples, so went through the canning book to see what I could do with them.  Found a recipe for brandied apples, so decided to make those.  Not really sure if I like them or not.  The recipe didn’t seem to call for much brandy, and to me there wasn’t enough.  I am hoping that as they sit or as they were in the water bath that maybe, just maybe the flavor will become stronger.   I also had some bell peppers in the box, so ended up canning those as well.  Then there were a bun

 I was at the store today and was browsing looking for a snack.  Went down one aisle and found freeze dried apples.  I couldn’t believe that for 2 ozs it was almost $8!  The package was also only half filled.  Every single day Genavieve eats probably twice that much and it costs me very little compared to that.  I buy a huge box of apples at Meijer for $5 which makes a ton of freeze dried apples.  I store the apples in quart mason jars, and Gena eats the whole thing in one sitting. She absolutely loves them. I can’t wait until fruit comes into season this summer.  I will be able to freeze dry so much fruit for her.  

   Ever since I got my newest scleral lenses I have had to wear reading glasses with hem as well.  The eye doctor told me he couldn’t correct for it……it isn’t due to my keratoconus, but instead is just due to getting older.  The hardest part is the fact that I don’t need reading glasses at all times, which means I often forget them at home.  This causes all sorts of problems when I am out and need to be able to read something.  For example, when I go to a restaurant I often cannot read the menu which is frustrating.  Add dim lighting like some places have and I am completely sunk.   Yesterday I went online to see what I could find.  I wanted to find portable type glasses that are small enough to fit in my purse.  I found one better.  They are very thin and tiny reading glasses that fit in the space of a credit card.  You can also get a case that fits on your keychain.  I wasn’t sure which power or strength I needed but I saw one company was offering their kit online for only $20.  The

  This post is a little bit of a frustration/rant about freeze drying and freeze dryers and the people who buy them without doing their homework.  There are a lot of factors that can go into having one.  It isn’t something that one should buy without knowing what they are getting themselves into.  For example, before I purchased mine I did my homework.  I read about them.  I joined groups to learn about them.  I watched many youtube videos, and I took lots of notes.  I read about the problems people have…..the solutions they have come up with……but most of all I learned to read the manual and trust the process because a lot of times it is user error or inpatients that gets them every single time.   Some of the issues I have seen people have…..they get their machine and go to set it up, but don’t read the manual and/or understand how to set it up. They set it up wrong and don’t plug the pump into the machine.  Common sense tells you if the pump isn’t plugged into the machine then how the