Fruit Fly Traps, getting ready for Winter and Easy Macaroni & Cheese!

I'm all about comfort foods at the moment.  We're working hard to get everything buttoned down for the season and Nanny likes food that's easy to eat. 

Macaroni & Cheese - how can you go wrong on that?
Easy Recipe:  Boil water, add two cups favorite pasta & cook til tender.  Meanwhile, put an egg, a cup of milk & two cups of shredded cheddar or combo of cheese (we like grated parmesan) and a squirt of honey mustard in a casserole dish.
When pasta is done, drain it, add it to cheese mixture, cover and bake at 350* for 30 minutes.  All done....

I'm about done working on Fall primitive projects.  Here are some tags I did....I've worked my way through pumpkins, bats, pigs, rabbits, witches & witches hats. 

Today I finished up a pair of Californian Rabbits, a
trio of Fat Lil Crows and started on some Gingerbread Boys.

  I had to quit after that because I promised myself I'd clean all my rabbit pans today - I was joking to myself about weakly rabbit cleaning (pun intended).  I have 24 'holes' in my rabbitry and they all have rabbits in them!  That's a lot of pans to empty and lots of bunny pals to pet!
I took my hummingbird & finch feeders down & cleaned them for the season.  I need to get the porch furniture put away and find all the scattered shovels, rakes & forks, too, but not today.

 How do you like my new 'designer' scissors?  They are a stunning pattern of orange - perfect for my favorite season....FALL!!!

 Recently we've canned apple pie filling and 12 half gallon jars of cider.  To finish up the apple canning, we made applesauce & apple butter.  This year the trees made GAZILLIONS of apples - the orchard floor is a carpet of apples, way more than we could even think of using.  Every night the fat bush bunnies and trio of deer come and stuff themselves. 

 My cellar shelves have changed.  When the kids were growing up I put everything in quart jars.  Now, it seems like we always end up wasting stuff, so we've canned a lot in pints.  We'll see how that works out. 

 Yesterday the sun shone long enough for me to get out on my beloved John Deere lawn tractor and mow, mow, mow my fields! 

My family thinks I'm weird because I LOVE to mow!  I'm in my own little world on my mower - high on my hilltop farm enjoying the air, the leaves, the hills...  I thank God every day for letting me live on this farm that I love.

On the other hand, I HATE fruit flies!  I cannot remember ever having a fruit fly infestation like this year!  GROSS.  However, I googled fruit fly traps and it actually WORKED.  Canning jar, paper funnel and vinegar in the bottom.  All gone fruit flies.  It only took about 3 days to get them all.

Ahhhhhhh.  Much better!

Well, the day is done.  Daughter had us down to her place for lasagna, green beans, garlic bread, orange jello & whipped cream and then coffee & blondies for dessert!  Back to the 'big house' now and time to settle down in my chair and catch up on some sleep reading now. 

Caregiving is hard so take a break and come tour my personal Sewing Machine Museum!

Fifteen weeks have passed since my last entry.  Seems like it's been longer...an age, an era.  Three weeks after my last post, my mom (hereafter referred to as Nanny) came down with chemotherapy-induced pneumonia and spent three long weeks in the hospital.  She came home changed. 

Now we are caregivers.  We have learned many new and exciting things.  Can you say.....oxygen?  Ensure?  Prednisone?  Depends?  Wheelchair?  Immodium?  Steroid psychosis?  Memory loss?  Confusion?   I used to be the mother of small children that needed my watchful eye upon them at all times; my finely tuned ear trained to hear the merest whimper, the slightest cry.  I am 55 and thought I was done with all that and then.....this.  And I am reinvented.  I alternate between patient and loving, then exasperated and frustrated.  And I am unhappy with me when I cannot be pleasant and detached during the hard moments.  I am newly devoted to prayer, to depending on God even more than usual.  I am insufficient for this job for sure.  The Lord gives me the grace to continue each day.  I am doing better as each day goes by.  But then, so is Nanny.  So am I only handling it better because she is getting better?  I have an all new respect and admiration for caregivers EVERYWHERE!  Bless you, whoever and wherever you are.

My refuge is my Sewing Room.  My Craft Room.  My Museum (don't laugh).  I shall take you on a tour and you will love it, too.  I'm serious.

There.  Don't you feel better now?  I should be slim, trim and beautiful before long.  This haven is UPSTAIRS in my house, so I run the stairs many times a day.  I have MANY machines (no, I don't know how many....)  Some are common, some are not.  Yes, I sew on them.  I make sure that each is complete and works as it was intended.  They are beautiful.

Recently I learned of a musician named Peter Hollens.  You can look him up on YouTube and listen to Shenendoah and then, The Prayer.   At the moment, they are my favorites and I have listened to them about a zillion times.

I made four loaves of bread today.  Dinner is in the oven.  Nanny is watching TV in her room.  Dinner is in the oven.  At this moment, all is well and peaceful.  Thank you Lord, for every good and perfect gift.....and this moment is one.

Until next time,

Matthew 6:34King James Version (KJV)

³⁴ Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.