Time flys when you are having fun

Or at least that is what they say. I just know for sure time has flown by this year. Mostly this fall. It seems like I have been away from home since early last fall. I guess I kinda have tho. Starting in September with the hunting lodge, the loss of my Aunt Ann, home for a bit, house sitting, another hunting season at the lodge, home for a few days and the final round of the hunting lodge. I think the hunting season is over for this year till September at least. Unless Carl comes up with another brainy idea. And knowing him, its possible. But I do enjoying helping out at the hunting lodge and it keeps my aunts memory alive for me.

Back at home not much to do in the way of gardening or farming. Other than keep the chickens fed and watered. Water is not much of a problem with all the rain we have had and are presently having. The temperatures are nice tho. I wont complain at all about that. It was in the 60's here today. I even had the patio door open for a while. I guess it helps that the patio door is off the kitchen and I was cooking supper adding to the heat in here. Rodger came home from work feeling like crap. He said he had been so tired all day and just felt bad. I think he went to bed around 6 , right after supper. Not normal for him. But he was up a lil bit ago and said his back did feel better. He has had several people off work with the flu and such. Some schools in surrounding counties considered calling off school due to illness. For what ever reason my arthritis has flared up pretty bad today. Not sure if its over use of my joints, the weather or just plain age. But dang, its hurty. I guess the one joint that has most of my attention right now is my big toe. OK laugh it up. But do you know how annoying it is to walk with your big toes sore, stiff an hurting? Well it hurts. I guess if that is the worst of my problems, its all good. With all the work at the hunting lodge this fall, I feel really good about my over-all well being. I did well. Not as much pain as usual. Not as much soreness as usual. I can live with this. I do still have major bouts with fatigue but IF time and events allow I can most times sleep that off. That is IF I can crash and sleep 12 to 14 hours straight. It may take a couple days but I feel better after the fact. With fibro, rest is essential or your mental clarity goes out the window. It seems life and your whole body just stalls. I guess it kinda does.

Any who, its almost Christmas time and time to spend some quality time with family an friends. In our case mostly family. Our kids, Rob, Amoy and lil Liam will be home end of this week. Cant wait to see them. We have not seen our Rob since April when we were in Nevada for Liam's birth. That lil boy has grown bunches too and is crawling, pulling up, and will probably be trying to walk soon. Time flys when ya have a lil one, they change daily. So this grammy needs to get some junk food made to spoil the lil one with while he is home.

Oh its so nice to be home in my own world, sleeping in my own bed, on the down side, I have to eat all my own cooking. I have a mental list of several projects I want to get done this winter. Yeas I said
"mental" list. I have a couple quilts I want to finish. Some crochet projects I want to work on and a few embroidery pieces I want to do. Not sure where I got the silly notion I want to make a bunch of embroidery pieces to later set up into a quilt. But the idea is kinda stuck in my mind. Although it may change after I complete one square. But those projects are for when I am house bound in really cold nasty weather if we have any later this winter. But for now I really should be in the summer kitchen getting more of our potatoes canned up so we don't have such a large loss on them. They just are not keeping as well as they should. Not sure if it has to do with the wet growing season or a disease or just what their problem is. But if I get busy and can the good ones they for sure will stay edible till spring. We had to buy sweet potatoes this fall for the first time in forever. Ours did nothing. Well they did the best they could in the grass that took over. They yielded about 2/3 of a 5 gallon bucket in 2 rows 100ft long. May as well say they did nothing. But I got those lil fellows canned up last fall too so its all good. We can use the ones we have stored fresh first before they sprout and save the canned ones will we run out of fresh. They will keep in the jar. I never did but still want to make an can some goulash like my friend Rosie makes. I still remember the taste and it was so dang good. Meat, beef or in my case venison, cooked long with lots of onion in a tomato like sauce. I remember she served it with kraut. Oh my, so good. I guess I should get her recipe to make sure I can get close to the same taste. Nothing in life is more disappointing that having your taste buds set for a certain taste and then it not meet up to your specifications.

I think tomorrow will be a chicken noodle soup day. Rodger not feeling good, its cool and rainy. Yep a good soup day. Good ole comfort food. Nothing better.

Not much else happening here, so till next time, Merry Christmas and many blessings from the McGuire homestead to your family.

Stella