Latest Update

Thanks to all my encouragers out there. This is a big dose of reality for me, recovery from surgery, taking it slow during a time of year when things are still busy for me, but I am sooo thankful for all the prayers. I've been feeling much better (and still taking it easy, although I did start canning chicken soup today...two more batches and we should be set!). Tonight we had small group at church and I had about 3/4 of a slice of this really wonderful fruity-type cake with cream cheese frosting. AND....no side effects, yippee! I'm not jumping on the sugar bandwagon any time soon (nor do I plan to in the future), but it was nice to appease my sweet craving without added complications.....In fact, we just sent off three boxes to my nephew Andrew in Iraq filled with left over candy from the pumpkin parties as well as all the candy my mother keeps sending (note to precious grandma: STOP SENDING CANDY!!!) -- Andrew and his troops distribute the candy to local villagers as a goodwill offering.

Going back to the chicken soup, my friend Audra made a big container of home made chicken noodle soup (home made egg noodles, too!) after I got home from the hospital. It is the BEST we have ever had! So, I called her up, got her recipe, and that's what I'm canning this year. Audra's like me; we "taste" our recipes, so I don't have exact measurements, but here's the recipe:

bake some chicken covered with sage, oregano, basil, garlic, salt, and pepper, putting some water in the bottom of the pan. Meanwhile, saute diced onion and slice carrots (I also add celery) in butter. Add LOTS of basil (crushing between your palms to bring out more flavor), plus salt and pepper to taste. Add water and Watkins Chicken Soup Base (important to use Watkins, honest!), then add diced baked chicken plus the water and juices from the pan. For egg noodles, use 2 cups flour, 1 whole egg, 3 egg yolks, and between 1/3 to 1/2 water (depending on what is needed). Mix thoroughly, roll out, cut in strips, add to soup. Mix 2 TBS corn starch with 1/2 cup water, stir thoroughly, add to soup, cook about ten more minutes. And enjoy! YUMMY!!!

I've written before about my friend Chuck and his wife Judy from church. He's the one with the yummy mandarin orange fluff recipe, remember? Well, I'm thankful for Chuck because if I haven't updated my blog recently or emailed him with how I've been doing, he sends me a quick email to check in on me. I really appreciate it -- he reminds me that he prays for me three times a day, and that means so much to me. It means even more because I know the huge health problems his wife goes through, and some of the things he's endured, too. I'm still growing in that area, learning to focus on others during the times I'm feeling lousy.

I've taken some photos of the kids in the past few days, too...I'll have to get those posted. Susi has been battling this deep chest thing where she occasionally sounds really horse and has a deep cough or two, but she's not been running a fever, and menthol camphor really has been helping! Of course, I have some dry mustard on hand to expirament with, if needed!

In the midst of taking things slower, here's what's on my schedule for the next few weeks: We have a huge Christmas showcase coming up on December 6 that I volunteered to organize and run long before I started having health issues. Pretty much everything is done overall for it, although I still have to go through my Watkins stock and put together some catalogs and order sheets.

Our Sunday School Christmas program was moved up a week to December 14, which is putting me in a bit of a bind. We have dress rehearsal on the 13th and the afternoon of the 14th; not a big deal. But I always make lots of cookies for the kids as a "thank you" from me, too, and I'm running out of time to do that! They'll be getting way less cookies than usual this year -- I'll probably stick to snickerdoodles, sugar cookies, teacakes, and my favorite pastel wafers. Oh, and thumb prints.

On top of all that, I still need to clean my house (our bathroom is SCARY!) and set aside a few days just for laundry, yikes! And the farm accounts still need to be finished...that'll probably take one or two days sitting at the computer, ugh! I'm hoping we can maybe get our Christmas tree up on Saturday, get that done and finished, then I can start wrapping presents I've been getting on sale throughout the year which will clean out the mess our bedroom, making my hubby much happier. I do think my Christmas shopping is done as well as the birthday shopping for Luke and Susi. Ah, in about four weeks, I should have lots of time on my hands!

But I promise, I am not overdoing things (honest!) and take rests whenever I start feeling wiped out. Pray for me especially on December 6 (Christmas showcase), as that will be a very long day for me.