Instant Gratification for Knitters....

I knitted a Gnome! No pic, of course, because...apparently that is how I roll. Anyway, if you are wanting some nearly instant knitting gratification, go here and knit one of these...and she posted pictures so you can see how cute they are. She also sells them, in case you want one and aren't into knitting! http://plainandjoyfulliving.blogspot.com/2009/02/fun-knitting-gnome.html

I am truly amazed at how fast this project went. I am going to make two more today...and I'll still have plenty of time to spare to finish up the patio swings refashion! And on that topic...I have the cushions done and the pillows done. I have started on the canopy. I have decided I actually like working with gigantic pieces of heavier material! And I did find for sale online the actual replacement cushions and canopy for our model of swing and I have saved a ton of money doing it myself - about 1/3 of the price! That IS a good thing!

I have been doing a lot of blog reading, but not much commenting. Just wanted to say that you all rock and I love reading your blogs! :)

Have a great weekend! :)

A Math Scholar, I Am Not....

Wal-Mart carries outdoor fabric! I was thrilled. $9.97 per yard. I bought four yards. Turns out I needed 6 1/2! So I'll have to get back in to get 2 1/2 more yards. But the four yards I have is the perfect amount to recover the patio swing cushions and recover the pillows. When I was researching online yesterday I was thinking of ordering wider outdoor fabric, which would mean fewer yards. But since I bought it local and it was not as wide, that is where I got confused and didn't redo my math. Duh.

I also bought some size 18 needles for my machine for the heavier fabric and a spool of outdoor thread. Did you know they made outdoor thread? I didn't! :) And Wal-mart carries it! Ahhh...my love/hate relationship with the Wally-World continues.

I have also consulted with several sewing friends, as well as you all, and I am confident that both myself and my sewing machine CAN do this! I am excited. I promise, promise, promise I am going out right now to take before pictures. I'll warn you now...the swing looks terrible, the pictures WILL be scary! I will warn you now, I am the queen of "make it up as I go along" sewing. I am not so good with patterns...but give me a sewing project to figure out on my own and I'm a genius. Ok, not quite a genius...I have had a lot of things go south with this method....but this one is fairly straight forward and I am certain it will go well!

Ok, off to take pictures now and then....I am going to get busy and git-er-done!!

I Need Your Input...My Patio Swing Needs Desperate Help!

My patio swing is only a couple of years old, but the fabric is already worn and tearing. Has anyone ever remade the cushions and canopy for a patio swing? Any ideas on what is the best place to get the outdoor fabric? Can it be sewn on a regular machine? Please, help! :)

Speaking of Herbs...Wish I Had Some Comfrey AKA Knitbone!

My youngest daughter broke her index finger Friday! She's almost 6, and a daredevil at that, but it wasn't anything dare-devilish that led to the break. She was running laps in gym class, lost control of her feet, and hit the wall. Truth be told, at the time I was more worried about the lump on her noodle than I was about the hurt finger. I was on duty at the school and I iced both. Her head was fine. The next morning though, her finger was very swollen, painful, and bruised. So off to the ER. The middle bone in her finger is broken clean through. She has a plastic splint for the broken finger and it gets "buddy" wrapped to her middle finger. She isn't thrilled about the wrapping, but she is tolerating it well. She took a nice bath today and got to take it off for a bit. Afterword, she sat and watched a movie and kept her wrapped fingers on ice and elevated. She's a trooper!! :)

I was just thinking it would be nice to have had some Comfrey on hand to make a poultice. So far in my research, it seems to have many uses - treating breaks by encouraging healing is only one of them - so I think I may be growing it this year.

And in my 16+ years of being a parent...this is our first broken bone!

What Are the Most Useful Medicinal Herbs and Home Remedies?

I have a fascination with medicinal herbs and "old fashioned" remedies. To me, they just make so much sense. I'm a nurse, and I am not knocking modern day medicine by any means - I just think so much can and should be treated at home as simply as possible.

One of the things I would like to do is to replace some of the OTC medicines in my arsenal with herbs. And I'd like to grow those herbs!

Now, taking into account my strengths and weaknesses, I need to decide on some basics, do some planning, and start small. If not, I'll plant a billion herbs that cover EVERYTHING and will be overwhelmed and confused. I need to keep it simple. Believe me, I started a "wish" list of herb seeds from my Richters catalog and it is a LONG list! I need to narrow it down. I have to narrow it down. I MUST NARROW IT DOWN!!! :)

So I'd like to start small find herbs to cover the things we use most.

1. An herbal pain reliever/fever reducer. I think this is the one thing we use the most around here.

2. Something for coughs/chest congestion. Because we always end up with a cold or two each year.

3. Something that has antibacterial and antiviral properties - that can be used internally or externally. Some thing to treat external wounds, or colds internally.

I need them to be kid friendly too. I also need them to be able to grow in zone 5. Am I asking for too much?

So any ideas? Do you use medicinal herbs? What do you think the most important or useful medicinal herbs are? I'd love to hear what you think!!

PS We have applied for new insurance! It is a process though...so no news yet! And more to come...we are building another seed starting light! And I am gearing up to start seeds - planning, plotting, purchasing, and day dreaming for Spring! More on that later.

$17,000 a Year for Health Insurance? Are You Kidding Me?

Yesterday Hubby had his annual work meeting to go over health insurance and stuff. Mind you, he is currently not even working due to the weather.

Now, in 2008 our family plan for health insurance was $10,000 for the year. That is strictly health...no dental or vision so we pay for those things out of pocket.

Last year it jumped up 34%. Last year we paid $13,000 for health insurance for our family.

This year? He came home to tell me that it is going up 34% AGAIN and that for 2010 it will be *gasp* $17,000! Seven-teen-thousand-dollars. SEVENTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS! That is a hell of a lot of money. That is about 1/3 of his income.

Now, another thing...there have been no raises to go along with these increases.

And...since the winter months are especially unpredictable for work, they take the entire insurance premium out of his check from spring through fall over a period of 28 weeks. I'm not even going to do the math on that one as to what that means weekly or monthly over those 28 weeks.

Needless to say, we are looking into alternative companies to find something cheaper. We thought about doing that last year, but in the grand scheme of things, I didn't think 13K was that horrible or outrageous. 17K is a different story. Going up 34% every year is a different story. Where does it stop?

In the insurance company's defense, I will say that they are insuring a group of construction workers in a small company. A lot of them are older. I know there is one with cancer, one who has had a massive heart attack and surgeries. A lot of them are heavy drinkers and smokers.

And as a society we are in a health care crisis. Though we are in crisis in a lot of ways if you ask me. I suppose no one ever said it would be easy. Or cheap. I know the impact this has on us...and we are getting by OK, debt free, emergency fund in place. And it makes me wonder how others, who don't have those things, manage. What a mess indeed.

And speaking of mess...here is a little paper-towel-free update. One of the outdoor cats was inside yesterday and poo'ed on the floor. Gross!! Hubby cleaned it up with...with......one of my newly knitted kitchen dishcloths! Yes, I was appalled. Come on...use toilet paper...it was closer to the mess than the dishcloth. Use an old rag, the bag of them was closer too. But, no, he used...the dishcloth. And it was a runny kind of poo too. Is this a male vs female thing? Because I am pretty sure there isn't a woman alive who would use a kitchen dishcloth to clean up cat poop. Especially one she knitted herself. I wouldn't think it would be a man thing either...but I obviously got proved wrong already on that one. There is at least one man on earth who would. And I married him!

Oh my.

Why Things Should Be Labeled....

I thought I was thawing out a bag of precooked hamburger and onions to throw into the Cow Poke Chili I was making for dinner. I was cooking up the Italian sausage for that recipe and when I added the "hamburger and onions" I found it was actually precooked breakfast sausage and onions! Week before last I had made a crock pot dish that consists of cooked breakfast sausage and onions over quartered potatoes. Yummmmmmy. I like to at least double meat cooking and throw one recipe's worth in the freezer. Of course I didn't label it because I was sure I'd remember what it was. Apparently not! However, the Cow Poke Chili turned out just fine made with Italian AND breakfast sausage...and without the V8 juice because I forgot that too. :) I also don't make it with rustic croutons...I just buy the Texas Toast brand garlic and cheese croutons. But I have been saving bread butts and left over rolls in the freezer to make those rustic croutons someday!

One other idea from this week...We made Chicken Ranch roll ups yesterday. Instead of slicing up the chicken and pan cooking it with the fajita seasoning, I put the chicken in the crock pot and mixed the fajita seasoning with a little water and poured it on. Cooked on low for about 4 hours and then shredded the chicken with two forks and put the crock pot on keep warm until we were ready. Some tortillas, shredded cheese, lettuce, bacon bits, and ranch dressing and dinner was ready!

I am happy to report that we are doing well on our weekly budgeting and grocery shopping. I did check out a once a month cook book at the library today. I am not motivated at this point to try it, but maybe the inspiration will strike.

It has been a snowy cold week with Thursday and Friday off of school due to the weather. I have got a lot of spring cleaning done! My sewing/craft/seed starting room is now cleaned so I am organized to start seeds. My kitchen cabinets are all cleaned out too. So is my file cabinet...so I am ready to do the taxes when the time comes soon. And I got 6 dishcloths done for us to use. Hubby commented today how soft they are. I just love using them. We are on our last roll of paper towels, so I'll be reporting about a paper towel-less life soon!

Another Successful Recipe! Easy Chicken...

This time with chicken breasts. It is a modified version of a recipe I came across online. Put your chicken breasts in the crock pot (I had a pack of 3). Mix a packet of dry Italian dressing mix in a little bit of water and pour it over the chicken. Cook on low for a few hours. I then took out the chicken and shredded it. Then mix together a package of cream cheese, a can of cream of chicken soup, and a can of water in the crock pot. Add the shredded chicken back in and cook for another hour or two on low. Serve over pasta, we did bow ties, the Barilla brand (I think that is what it is called!) with the omega 3's and what not in it. I was a little leery, something about the cream cheese in this recipe sounded weired, but it turned out delicious! Like an Alfredo type sauce. We had it with a salad and homemade rolls. Yummy!

It is stinkin cold here and supposed to get even colder! Below zero temps, snow on the ground, and more to come. Winter has made itself known! Pretty sad when you wish it was 25 degrees! That would be a welcome relief! I have been knitting a set of dish cloths to go along with the table cloth dish towels. Oddly enough, these are the first dishcloths I have knitted for us! I haven't been doing anything fancy...cast on 36 stitches and knit each row til it is an even square and bind off. I can get 3 of them out of one ball of yarn! :)

Are you staying warm?

Pork Steak Recipe Success!

I bought already tenderized (pounded on) pork steak. They had that and regular. I bought a pack that had 6 in it. Browned them in my cast iron skillet, then placed them in a 9x13 baking dish and sliced up an onion over them (and cried because it burned my eyes!). I mixed together 2 cans of cream of chicken soup, a couple of soup cans of water, a packet of dry onion soup mix, some pepper, garlic powder and onion powder, and poured that over them and covered it with foil. Baked it for about an hour and a half (actually probably for a little longer). Served it with mashed potatoes, and green beans cooked with onions and a piece of bacon, and it was a huge hit with the hubby and kids! Definitely not low fat/calorie/sodium, but tasted good! And the meat was super tender, melt in your mouth. It made A LOT of gravy so I do think next time I will cut the soup to one can and the water to one can.