The Good Stuff

Friday was a special day for me. You see, I have this friend that I never get to see, and Friday, finally, was my opportunity to spend time with her. I first met Tricia right after I moved to Florida, and she was one of the first people to welcome me to my new state. Little does she know how much it meant to me to have a friendly smile and chat about two of my favorite things:  knitting and books.

Over the ensuing years we both got busy. She works as a waitress and I homeschool, so our hours tend to not overlap much. Also, I got more and more involved in church work, which meant I was spending less time at the knit shop where we first met. But we stayed in touch, and I'm so glad!

You see, Tricia makes me smile. She probably doesn't know this, but I'm going to say it out loud. She also makes me think, and that's a good thing. Practically speaking, the two of us probably cancel each other out in the voting booth, if you know what I mean, but that's one of the things I like about her. I respect her ideas and thoughts, and I feel that she respects mine, and I frequently learn something I didn't know when we get together.

And another thing... Tricia likes to spin! So this Friday we made it a spinning day, and boy was it fun! We started off at my community park, as it was such a warm sunny day, and eventually we wound up back at my house on the lanai.

I love the art yarn this girl puts out!

By the end of the day, I had FINALLY managed to finish up a bobbin of lace-weight that I've been working on forever!

By the way, you may notice her rather "butch" hairstyle. The previous day, this sweet gal shaved her head to get ahead of the hair loss she was experiencing due to her chemotherapy. Tricia found out recently that she has breast cancer. Stage IV. That means it's spread. But look at that smile! I am so inspired by her positive outlook. She is not letting this define who she is and continues to enjoy her new life with a smile.

Anyway, we both did a lot of smiling and a lot of spinning, and at the end of the day, I was impressed with both of our progress. Not only did I finish the bobbin, but I was able to take out my spindle and do some spinning on it as well.

Bobbin one:  complete!

This particular spindle that I was using is a trindle, and I love using it! I love how I can change the arms to be heavier or lighter. I love how the arms come apart for easy transport, and I love how I can wind my cop on at varying places along the spindle to ensure an even wind-on. I also love that I didn't break the bank to purchase one.

My Trindle and some blue roving of the Merino variety.

Now for the good stuff. Yes, it was good to get that spinning done, but the good stuff wasn't any of that. It was simply time spent with a friend for an extended period of time, some of it in laughter and some of it in silence. The gift of time with friends and family is the good stuff, and I hope you will seek it out in this crazy, helter-skelter lifestyle we all seem to find ourselves in.

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
Proverbs 17:17

It's What's For Dinner...(and a cool clean-up trick!)

Apologies in advance for the few that may have stuck with me. I haven't posted in a long time. My excuses are thin. Surgery, flu, cold. The usual. Then after I worked through all of that, I figured I needed to blog something BIG. So I thought. And thought. And thought. And hit upon some great ideas, but no time to expand, refine, and submit. So today I decided enough was enough. I was going to blog about... supper!

It's what we're having tonight, and maybe you were looking for some ideas of what to serve as well. This is an idea my sweet mother-in-law gave me a few years ago, and it is enjoyed in our home. Homemade pulled pork sandwiches! Here's how I prepare them.

First, I usually look for the boneless pork spare ribs for a 2-for-1 special. That way I can make enough to last awhile.

2-for-1! That's my kind of deal!

Once I pick them up from the store, I initially brown them in a skillet in a small amount of oil and spices. I'm not monogamous with my spices. This week I used Emeril's. Other times I have used fajita spices or lots of varieties of pepper corns. It's a whimsy kind of thing for me.

Today it's Emeril's, tomorrow, who knows?

After browning them slightly, I whisk them all into my crockpot and cover them with chicken broth.

The cooking begins!

I like to set the pot to cook on low all day. Once they're done (sorry, I can't show you that, as they've only been in the crockpot for about 10 minutes) I lift the cuts out with a slotted spoon and let them cool slightly. Once cooled enough to handle, I put on surgical gloves and hand pick the meat apart, placing it in a bowl. I pour a little of the broth over the meat to keep it moist and reserve the rest in the freezer for a future stew. They are fabulous sandwiches, and the prep time and cost are minimal.

And now for the trick. As you can probably imagine, the skillet gets quite messy from the browning process. Up until recently, I would set the pan to soak and then clean it up when my muscles felt up to the task. But no more! Thanks to my friend Liz (thanks Liz!) I learned one more reason to love my vinegar!

Take a look at the pan.

That browning is stuck on there pretty well!

This was always the part of the meal I never liked, but that is no more! Liz showed me how vinegar does a great job of de-glazing pans. All you have to do is pour a little white vinegar into the pan or pot while it is still relatively warm. Add a little dish soap, and the grime practically floats off! I did that, and with just a light wash, the pan came clean!

Clean, baby!

Truly. The pan is clean and my muscles never got their workout! Maybe that is a universally known trick, but I missed it in the year I took Home Ec. Why on earth didn't I take more? It would have been the most useful class for me... but I digress.

One other cool thing I wanted to share with you, by the way. I don't know if any of you use cast iron, but I pretty much use it daily. My normal M.O. to clean the pan would be to scrub it hard, and then dry it on the stove. Sometimes the scrubbing took a lot of muscle effort (maybe I'm lazy?). Anyway, I found a great product on Amazon that has made things ever so much easier. It's a chain mail pot scrubber and it's fabulous! The kids seem to think it's pretty cool as well. If you, like me, like to cook with cast iron, I'd encourage you to check it out.

So that's supper in a nutshell. I'm still knitting and spinning. Speaking of spinning, I have a beginning spindling class coming up at Knitwitz in Mandarin on Saturday, March 29th. It runs from 9 to noon, and I'd love to have you come out for it! I'd absolutely love to see you there! Give them a call to register today!

A Company of Women

One of the supreme pleasures in my life is sharing my passions, interests, and talents with other like-minded people. I love meeting new people and learning more about them in a framework of a class. Yesterday, I was privileged  to have the opportunity to meet and teach some lovely people how to knit my pattern, Hester's Hope.

The class was intimate, with just three students, but what fun we had! We met at Knitwitz, a Jacksonville knitting establishment that stocks lovely, yummy yarns. It was a day spent with great company, surrounded by gorgeous yarns. In other words, knitting bliss!

Another nugget I was able to share was my appreciation for the iPad/iPhone app, KnitCompanion. This powerful tool has made me a better and faster knitter. I spent about ten minutes the night before class getting the project formatted, and they were able to see just how easy reading those pesky charts becomes when it's in KnitCompanion.

Of course these ladies rocked Hester, and I'm so looking forward to heading back next week for the next installment of the class, the lace bind-off. For those of you who knit, you may wonder if you can complete this full-sized shawl in only a week, and the answer is absolutely. As it's worked in bulky yarn on size 13 needles, it truly flies, and before you know it, a last minute Christmas gift is completed!

What a great bunch of gals!

Here's a few snaps of the wonderful progress they made:

This beauty is being knit in Cascade 128 Superwash.

And this colorful Hester is being done in Marble Chunky.

This pretty periwinkle number is also being done in Cascade 128.

Thanks, ladies, for coming in and spending the afternoon with me! I had a blast! I can hardly wait to see all those finished shawls!

The Best Laid Plans...

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. I hope that everyone is spending this special day tucked up with family and friends, enjoying all the wonderful trappings we've come to associate with Thanksgiving. I am doing the same, except I almost wasn't.

This past weekend was a soccer tournament for my daughter's U12 team. My husband and I arranged to get separate rooms, as I was going to host not only my daughter, but one of her friends in the hotel room. All started normally enough, with me not sleeping in the room Friday night.

As I stated before, this is not normally unusual for me. I tend to not be a great sleeper anyway, and especially not when traveling. Here I was, tossing and turning the night away, unable to get comfortable for some reason. When 6:00 finally rolled around, I scooted out of bed, crawled into the shower, and began my day.

The girls spent all day Saturday out on the soccer field giving it their best shot. Throughout that day, my discomfort continued to increase. Upon conclusion of the team meal at Roadhouse, I took the exhausted but excited girls back to the hotel room, praying sleep (and relief) would come. It didn't.

A nearly completed scarf kept my mind off the pain as much as possible.

By 2:00 my pain was so severe, I became convinced I was experiencing appendicitis. I tiptoed across the hallway to my husband's door and quietly knocked on it. When he answered, I explained my fears. With his help, we found a hospital for me to travel to, and I packed up a backpack, hauled myself into our van, and began the 18 mile trip across town to the hospital. AT 2:00 IN THE MORNING.

Sorry, I was a little high on all the pain meds, so my photo isn't the best. I wonder what I was thinking when I took it!

Upon arrival, I was quickly greeted and gowned. Sarah, the P.A. on duty concurred, and off to CT we rode. By this time, I was in extreme agony. Except it wasn't appendicitis. CT instead revealed that there was a mass of some sort near my right ovary. To confirm, I was whisked into an ultrasound room, where it was indeed confirmed that I had a seven centimeter cyst attached to my right ovary.


The radiologist searched carefully and was unable to find any signs of torsion, so they decided to release me to my newly arrived husband, medicated with two rounds of morphine, one of Toredol, one of Fentonil, and one more of some other pain medicine. It would have been lovely if at least one of those meds would have helped.

It was a rough two and a half hours home. My stomach had completely rebelled. I gave up. Brett somehow got me to bed, and I slept for the next 12 hours or so. By the time I woke up, I decided I wasn't going to let a little (or large) cyst stop me, so I proceeded to get ready to head out for Sarasota, which is where we were planning on spending the holiday. We were within twenty minutes of leaving when my personal doctor called me and asked me to come in.

I did. I repeated the same ultra sound, and he saw the same thing, except he wasn't convinced the cyst wasn't torcing. And then he said, "I'd like to operate on you this afternoon." I was speechless. Instead of heading out for a fun, family-filled weekend, we instead rushed home to gather what necessities we could and returned to the hospital. Surgery was scheduled for 4:00, and at 4:30, only 30 minutes late, I was in the O.R.

Waiting for relief.

I understand the surgery was routine. The doctor's suspicions were confirmed, as the cyst had torced at least seven times (not a good thing) but it was out of my body, and that was the main thing. Our family was able to head out to Sarasota only a day later. While I've definitely not been feeling well, I'm glad the surgery is behind me rather than ahead of me. I've enjoyed spending time visiting with family and doing one of my other favorite activities:

Believe it or not, it's a shawl.

So, this Thanksgiving is different than any other I've experienced. I am truly thankful for the miracles of modern medicine. I'm praying for healing, and I'm resting in His Grace. I look forward to feeling better and am hoping this never happens again. I pray that your Thanksgivings are filled to the full with blessing upon blessing!

Feral

I never realized when I moved to Florida that I would become the crazy cat lady. That seems to be the case, however. When our family came down to Florida five years ago, we came with one cat. Jasper, our sweet kitty, was acquired unbeknownst to me by my husband on a blustery October evening while he took the children out to trick-or-treat. He saw her under a vehicle and she tugged at his heart strings. Cold, frightened, and hungry, this tiny grey cat was too great a temptation to resist so he scooped her up and took her home with us. We had just lost our previous cat and were still in mourning. While he was thus engaged, I was serving in our church bookstore, blissfully unaware of the future litter box demands to be once again placed on me.

Sweet Jasper, begging to be let out.

I quickly fell in love with this little cat, and she has been my friend and companion ever since.

Not long after we moved to Florida, though, we found another cat. This one, while very sweet, was quite wild. We watched her and observed that she was pregnant. Because of that, we called her Mama. Mama gave birth to her kittens somewhere in the community, and, as things would have it, she quickly became pregnant again. I'm not the most brilliant at math, but it didn't take me long to realize that a pregnant feral cat can quickly become several pregnant feral cats, so we decided to trap her as soon as we could and rescue her kittens for adoption. As luck would have it, she and her daughter from her earlier batch (we named her Fluff) both gave birth together. Mama had her kittens under my office window. She had ten orange tabbies!

Thus began the marmalade round-up. Between our neighbor and us (with our neighbor the most involved), we managed to capture all 15 kittens. Yes, 15, as her daughter, Fluff managed to have babies at the same time. Given that they were all orange marmalades, I suspect some incestuous activity, but nonetheless, all the kittens were duly captured. Mama and Fluff were successfully spayed, and all the kittens were adopted out.

Ginger, Mama's or Fluff's baby is now our baby.

One of the kittens, which we named Ginger, came home with us. Our house officially grew by one more indoor kitten, and two more (still wild but non-breeding) feral cats, namely Mama and Fluff.

Which brings me to today. Last week, I managed to capture a robust male our daughter affectionately christened "Tippy." I scratched the active plans to instead drive the new guy north to First Coast No More Homeless Pets, Two days later we came home with him. No longer locked in his love of the ladies, he quickly settled in for home life.

Tippy

My original plans were to do what we did with Mama and Fluff: catch, neuter, and release; however, this guy doesn't seem to want to leave. He's as gentle as they come and happy to be out of the crazy wild cat life. But now we have THREE cats, plus the two "wild" ones! I think somewhere along the line I crossed over to crazy, but for the life of me, I can't figure out how I got there. I'm going to blame my family.

Shining Moments

This past weekend, I experienced something very special. Very early on Sunday morning, I sneaked out of the house with my oldest son and drove to the seaside. Ostensibly, we were there to view the annular solar eclipse at sunrise. I had ulterior motives, however. The eclipse was simply the mechanism to allow me special, unhurried time with my son.

Awake!

He's growing up way faster than I ever imagined when I first took him home from the hospital, lo these sixteen years ago. All my children are. And I'm finding that in this growth and development process, I'm falling in love with the not-quite-yet-adult person he is. I like to listen to his insights. I enjoy hearing him laugh. And his hugs are heavenly!

So with my thinly veiled educational opportunity before us, we bravely (or unwisely) left the house shortly after six clad in untidy sweat pants and t-shirts and headed east where we were forced to stop about 20 minutes later lest we tumble into the Atlantic. And wearing our super cool solar viewing glasses...

Looking good, mama!

we were treated to this:

You can just barely see the "bite" out of the sun. This was towards the end.

This is what I imagine it means to have life, abundantly. This is the good stuff. It's not the possessions, the stuff, the minutiae of life. It's people. It's the opportunity to love and live and serve. And it's the delight of a mother over her son. Jesus said it best. "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you" (Luke 6:38, NIV). I am blessed beyond measure. The path less traveled has been the one to challenge and bless me over and above what I ever imagined.

And for thirty chilly minutes spent on a nearly deserted beach, I reveled in it.

Dressing Up

My two youngest kids had a great time dressing up in costumes last night to do the annual candy collection thing. I had two doctors in the house: the 11th Doctor from Dr. Who, and a medieval plague doctor. My daughter grumpily informed me at the completion of her rounds that no one knew what a medieval plague doctor was, so I congratulated her on informing them. 

Does anyone need a doctor?

No outfit is complete without a sonic screwdriver!

While my youngest were out doing their thing, my oldest was keeping watch with his friend over the kiddos visiting the house. They had a great time checking out all the little princesses, sumo wrestlers, and warriors (and I suspect helping themselves to the stash of candy) while I took their offering of pumpkin seeds from their carving efforts and roasted them into spicy treats. 

Who's eating candy? We're not eating any candy! No ma'am!

Out of these...

came these!

I hope everyone had a safe evening. Ours was very peaceful, complete with happy kids. Now that November is here, I'm looking forward to even more happy memories and cooler (hopefully) weather!