Jump to content

What are you up to today? This week?


heidiiiii

Recommended Posts

Hugs Holly!

Well my MOT didn't go so well :( The car needed £220 (325 US dollars, though a few months ago, it would have converted to $440!!) worth of work done on it. Sigh. It is very good that pay day is next wednesday, or I couldn't afford my insurance (due 28th)! B) Who really needs two lights and two brakes on the car??!? ;)

My sister is coming again this weekend with my niece, so we're going grocery shopping in the morning before picking them up from the train station. Then we're going to try and do something craft orientated to make something light to send to sisters parents in law for christmas. Any ideas?? Niece is 3 and a half, though seems much older, so need something we can do with her too. Was thinking of decorating a silk scarf maybe, or do a homemade calender with niece pictures (photos and her drawings)

Anyway, best be off to bed! Night night all.

:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

MOT sounds like theautomobile inspections we used to have.

Today I was a good do-bee and baked double recipes of oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies to take with us to the kids in Charleston. I think tomorrow I'll bake gingerbread; love the way it makes the whole house smell!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I finally put in some quality time on Marie Laveau's cottage, making accessories and changing out her headwrap and shawl. I love doing the details. And I think tomorrow I can start the photography. There is so much detail to capture that this is going to be a challenge.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Recovering from a serious bout of the flu, and was outside shoveling this morning in the dark in the snow.......came in and collapsed in front of the stove, then had to get up and make fresh rolls for breakfast.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was up at O`dark 30 this morning. It must have been 11 deg F or less! My good friend needed to go to the food pantry this morning to pick up her Thanksgiving basket. I drove her because her car is really old and I like the company.

She forgot her driver`s license so that meant I would give her mine if they would not give it to her (i was going to give her mine anyway).

We are standing outside in line and we are freezing. FREEZING! It was going to be 45 min. until they opened the door. Tears are streaming down my face. I blurt out to her *For the love of all that is just in the world...I will buy you your thanksgiving turkey if we can please end this torture!* She laughed me off and said I needed to suck it up...but I could tell she was cold.

I said the same thing 2 more times and finally she said..I will buy breakfast? Deal! We walk away and people thought we were nuts to lose our place in line..I think we were smart cookies.

We went and got breakfast, went to a church tag sale (i got a black background w/colored yo-yo afghan for $1..nice condition) and a double rosette and timbale iron for 50cents ( it is to make those Swedish type cookies that you powder with sugar) I have to figure out how to use them.

Then off to market to buy a fat bird..Home again, home again jiggity jig.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can't wait to see the updated pictures of Mme Leveau!

I once had the rosette irons, I followed the dough recipe exactly, got the oil perfectly hot, when I finally got the cookies to wehre they'd pop off the iron onto the draining papers, they were so oily even after draining they were inedibly nasty, and I was in terror that the bubbling oil was going to burn me or the house! I hung them up for decorations until a neighbor asked for them.

I forgot to mention I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast yesterday. They were SO good! It stayed cold ALL day yesterday, and still so this AM, I think I'll bake again today.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Deana,

No warming area. They give you numbers when you walk thru the door that they were to open at 8am. So you stand there, hopping around and freezing..I havent done that since I was waiting for concert tickets!! People were cutting in line..I was cold cold cold. I am a die hard born and bred New Englander but dangit..my booty was cold. I found out later that yesterday was the coldest day of this year so far.

We found Butterball Frozen birds for 99c a lb. After it was my turn at the meat case I grabbed her a 16-17lber. I forced her to tell me what else she needed for the day. I did drag her away from her holiday meal. We were able to get everything for her table. She works full time (plus overtime) and cannot work another part time job to supplement because of health and age. She is above water but turkey fixings were not in her budget.

As for Christmas, I told her her present from me will be the ham so she cannot put it under the tree! LOL I will make a couple extra pies this week and bring her them over to her house.

I have a very strong conviction when it comes to people who do not have food. If I have two lbs of hamburger and you have none...then we each have 1 lb of hamburger! I have never gone hungry in my life but Fred has when he was growing up. There is never a choice between a bill and food. The bill can wait...hunger cannot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i had a very busy day yesterday.

got up at moms house at 630 to be at the dermatologist by 8 then back to hometown for my patch study thing then to stop&shop for something to eat for breakfast because there was no food in the house then to oma's to borrow gas money then got gas then went back home then went to school then stopped at dads house, i also went to grandmas house and put away all her garden statues and plants and stuff for winter then back to home did homework, back to dads again so my sister could get stuff for the weekend then went for pizza with fam. After we ordered the pizza i left the restaurant went to work to pick up my money and got back before the waiter brought the pizza to us. back home, then dropped my sister off at a dance went to stop&shop again to get something dessert-y for me and mom then we went up to pick up her car because it was being fixed at the saturn dealer back home, tried to watch wall-e but it kept skipping so back to stop&shop for a third time today to exchange it fell asleep on the couch and missed the whole movie and here i am. i accomplished a lot today

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A busy busy day Jeff!

Last weekend when niece visited she wanted to go swimming at the pool, but I had a bad back and didn't want to wrestle with getting in and out of the pool, and Chris didn't feel like going. We tried to get her to have a swim in the bathtub instead, but she was clever enough to say 'I'll have a swim in the bathtub next time'. So this morning I helped entertain her in the bathtub after she'd reminded us that "i can swim in the bath today, because it is next time and I said i'd swim in the bath next time" She's 3.5 going on at least 5 years!

She's also playing with my dollhouse, which is great to see! There's a bit of room on the board beside the house, so she takes bits out of the house where she can reach them better, like the table and chairs, so she could cook and set the table for the dolls. Then she got the sink out to wash everything up, and the shelves out to put stuff away. She left the beds in their rooms so the dolls could sleep there, but whenever they need the toilet she takes the toilet out so there's enough room for her to sit them on it properly. It is great! :birthday:

The stairs for the willow are already made, but I was thinking of trying to take them apart again so I could just do the treads, and not the risers, so that you can see through them to the door. Not entirely sure yet though, because I also picked up quite a nice ribbon for a staircase runner! Might just see how easy it is to take apart and keep the ribbon for anther house.

What building/decorating have you managed to do this weekend?

:groupwave:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had the strangest dream last night, in which Lloyd and I consiged a lot of stuff to an auction. A good deal of time was spent waiting around for people to arrive at the auction. In that interval I had a chance to look at the items, none of which I recognized. Mostly foreign antiques, the stuff one would see in museums, apparently collected by Lloyd while he sailed the seven seas and never shown to me. I woke up before the bidding began, so I have no idea how much we made!

But I did wake up thinking about a little burgundy upholstered footstool I got at a NAME house party a couple of years ago. It came with a little orange tabby cat and would look perfect in Marie Laveau's parlor. I moved the sofa a bit, which left an awkward spot in front, just right for a footstool. Now all I have to do is find it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really don't want to go in and help with the screenings today, DH dragged me out of the house yesterday and I'm not quite ready to be around people. BUT, the screening crew is SO shorthanded and we're doing a smaller, charter school today; and there's a lady who wants the Barbie house & rehabbed Pocahontas dolls for a needy family at her church; plus I won't be doing it any more this week. So I will muddle through.

I made three loaves of gingerbread yesterday; unlike the cookies there was no "extra" for us!lol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Holly, I don't think I've ever seen gingerbread in loaf form. Is it more like a ginger-flavored sweet bread than the little boards that become cookies? I can smell it baking now!

Yesterday I made a cranberry/orange loaf in the bread machine. I substituted dried cranberries and fresh orange zest for the raisins and cinnamon in the original recipe. Yummmmm. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Holly, How much longer will you be screening?
I know they want to be finished before the Christmas break, to have that part of the health report done! Because I used to do all the screenings for my schools by myself, or with one health support aide, if I was lucky, I can do it all, and I can do it in English OR Spanish (but, alas, not Creole!), so I really need to go when I'm home.
more like a ginger-flavored sweet bread than the little boards that become cookies?

Yes, here's my recipe:

Pour

1 cup boiling water (I like raisins, so I pour it over 1/2 cup of raisins to plump them up) over

1 cup shortening (butter's best). Add

1 cup each dark brown sugar & sorghum syrup (I use straight ribbon cane syrup) and

3 beaten eggs (I use egg substitutes). Sift together

3 cups self-rising flour

2 teaspoons ginger (I use Indian ginger)

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon and beat into the liquid mixture.

I bake mine in greased loaf pans and it makes a lovely light loaf, or you can omit the raisins bake it in large shallow baking pans to make gingerbread houses out of it. Bake it at 350 fo 45-60 minutes and yes, it makes the whole house smell heavenly! You can also glaze the loaves with a confectioner's sugar & lemon juice glaze, is you really want to gild the lily.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have to wake up Fred in a bit..he has a doctors appt this morning (oh never mind I hear him creeping). I am going to make the bruschetta today for Thursday..I like it to marinate together for a while before we eat it...Mmmm!

Going to take apart the beaded tree and work on some mistakes that I made. Nice quiet morning time to do it. Then I am going to start cleaning the fishtank out.

I have to clean it..leave it alone for a couple days...put gravel in (black)..fill with water...leave it alone for a couple days...Start the filter to clean out the dust from gravel...get the chemicals for pH and such..leave it alone for a couple days...and then get a couple cheap fresh water fish to test it out. I want to get a lil bubble diver too! LOL

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Heidi have fun with the fish tank. We had one for yrs. We even had baby angel fish. They really help your nerves when you are frazzled. Good for the Blood pressure also. Getting ready for the Holiday. We are having 13 people.

Val

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the recipe, Holly. I've been thinking about what to make for the baked-goods friends this holiday besides cookies. A gussied up loaf of your ginger bread will be perfect! I just need to get some of the aluminum bread pans.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kathie, We had a very large one for years. I remember why we took it down. We had to do flooring in the room that it in then Fred`s brother fell in love with it so I dismantled it. He decided afterward that he didnt want it after all. It sat in the basement and then I gave it away on Freecycle.

It was way too large for our small house. This one is just right.

Fish Tank.

Off to disinfect my hands and start on food prep for holiday.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am finished with the screenings, there are a few absentees and kids who left their glasses at home to be finished up at the charter school and then there's just one highschool left to do.

Kathis, something else I used to make at Cdhristmas time was a stollen. I made an eggy yeast dough (the one for Hallah would work really well) and knead the crystallized fruit and slivered or sliced almonds into it after the second rising, and pat it out into a circle, and fold it in half. After it rises again, bake it and when it sounds hollow when you tap on it and it's done, rub it with a stick of butter and when it's cool, frost it with a confectioner's sugar, milk & vanilla frosting and garnish it with more crystallized fruit (green pinapple sections make nice leaves for cherry holly, and whole toasted blanched almonds look nice, too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kathis, something else I used to make at Cdhristmas time was a stollen. I made an eggy yeast dough (the one for Hallah would work really well) and knead the crystallized fruit and slivered or sliced almonds into it

Holly, this sounds much like the Bohemian houska I make at Christmas. It's formed into a double layer braid rather than a ring, but the dough and additions are very similar.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sitting on the floor enmeshed in miles of treelights and a box of bulbs trying to make them work and come untangled was always my job as a child before Christmas.

Today we run errands in town and take DS#3 his package of gingerbread & cookies.

Yesterday afternoon we delivered toys to our local police station for the local Christmas toy drive; the Barbie house with Pocahontas dolls got delivered yesterday AM to the lady whose church does their own toy drive..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sitting on the floor enmeshed in miles of treelights and a box of bulbs trying to make them work and come untangled was always my job as a child before Christmas.

T.

That was my job too. Sitting in front of the tv set replacing the bulbs in the strings of lights. I have to get the tree out too. I already went thru the boxes down in the basement last week. Do not know if I am going to drag up my big tote of Nutcrackers. Really not in the mood for them this year but that may change once I start decorating.

Oh yeah..I collect Nutcrackers too...hehehe

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...