ricardo

Casting on is easy, it's the rest that I have trouble

with and I was learning with a childrens book! My 14yo

can knit and crochet, lets just say she didn't inherit

that skill.

I started reading it again and can't wait for something

to happen! My husband is going to start reading Alas

Babylon. He's recently started getting into prepping.

I'm so glad, it's hard to do it on your own. For all

you who's husbands don't understand just talk about

what would happen in different situations and ask him

what would you do for the basic things. It may take

awhile but hopfully they will begin to understand.

Took mine over a year of contantly talking about it.

We had this for dinner last night and I thought it would

be good to put in here. The top recipe is the original

and the bottom one is mine, tweaked of course.

Zesty Tomato Mac 'N' Beef

1 lb ground beef

1 cup chopped onion

1 can zesty tomatoes with mild green chilies

1 cup dried elbow macaroni

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Brown the meat and onion in large skillet. Season

with salt and pepper, if desired.

Add undrained tomatoes and 1 cup water, bring to

a boil. Stir in macaroni. Cover and simmer 10

minutes or until pasta is tender.

Stir in cheese. Garnish with sliced green onions

and sour cream.

(Mine)Tomato Mac

1 lb ground turkey

chopped onion (usually 1/2 med. size)

1 can tomato sauce

2 cups water

2 cups dry macaroni

sprinkle of chili powder

shredded cheese

Use same directions as above. I use tomato sauce

instead of chunky tomatoes (kids). I use two

cups of macaroni because there are 5 of us. I

use chili powder to add some taste otherwise it

is bland. If you use the tomatoes with mild green

chilies then you don't need to add the chili powder.

I started reading Lucifer's Hammer but I'm only on

page 83 and so far it is boring!!! It was so boring

I had to put it down. After Christmas I'll try and

start reading it again. It is supposed to be a good

survival story. It has 629 pages so the good stuff's

in there somewhere!

After I put that down I read A Prarie Christmas. It

was very good. It's a christian romance novelette.

It has two stories by two authors and in the end the

two stories come together. So sweet.

Before I pick up the boring book, I have one more

book that I need to read. It's called An Old Fashioned

Christmas, yet another christian romance novel.

I LOVE christian romance novels. The stories are so

sweet. None of that stuff you wouldn't want your 14

year old daughter to read!

I'm here but there's just not alot going on right now.

Buttercup, is that from Christmas Vacation (movie) or

are you just miserable?

I keep Christmas simple. Do a little here and there

and by the time Christmas week comes up there's only

fun stuff left to do. Next week will be candy making

and gingerbread houses. FUN FUN FUN!!!

I guess you could say this is our first time starting out.

When we got married we moved to my inlaws farm. Our trailer

was 1/4 of a mile away so we were not close. My husband

went to college while working on this fathers farm working

with pigs and cows. Then my husband got a real job, and

still worked with cows.

14 years after living here my husband decides it's

time to move to town. Let me tell you it was the worst

mistake of our lives and we are still living with our

mistake. We could not sell that house and we are renting

it out to one of my friends, she doesn't have much money

so they are fixing it up and we are giving them a

discount on the rent. We lived in town for 6 months and

then moved back to our trailer. By now our trailer seems

really small compared to the house. So we had a house

put behind our trailer and now we are farming on our own.

Father in law moved to town, we still take care of the

50 acres. This is our second year raising meat sheep and

chickens. The good thing about sheep, is that after the

first year they double than they triple. This year we

should expect our sheep to give us twins, last year we

only had singles.

Before we were farming for his father and now we are

farming on our own. Much harder but worth it knowing

they (sheep) are your own.

It has been very windy here too. I don't like the wind,

makes it colder than it really is.

I have to get my list ready for my candy making day.

My mom will come over this weekend and we will make

peanut butter balls and mounds. Then while school is

out we will make the rest of the candy.

We got our tree up yesterday. Can't keep the new

kitten out of it.

What kind of self suffiency books are you looking for?

Gardening, terrorist, canning......

I just bought Lucifer's Hammer. Has anyone read this?

It's like Alas Babylon.

Her last post was on 11/15, it was Sometimes I forget

to say......

Husbands are very hard to buy for too.

I bought my husband a set of drill bits and I put

it with the kids gifts and over the weekend he

was looking through the gifts and said "What's this!"

I turned around and said "Oh, NO!!!" Then I thought

oh well then I told him "Merry Christmas!" Good thing

it wasn't the only thing he's getting. But the bad

thing is that it was his big gift, all that's left

now is the small gift. It doesn't really matter anyway,

he wouldn't care if he didn't get anything. Same with

me, I perfer to watch the children on Christmas morning.

I wish you a nice calm day.

When you have children they should warn you that you

will have insane days! The more children you have the

higher the insanity will be.

Just think about it this way, you will have wonderful stories to tell them when they get older. Just think

how boring you day would be without all this excitement.

I think you need these wild days to appreciate the calm

ones. Kids, you gotta love them.

Hope your feeling better. . That's all I'll be able to get

done today. Oh, I need to clean out my cat's crate.

That's another story, in short he got hit by a car

and has to stay in a crate for a month.

My days are sooooooo full now. Not like before Lukes

birth. Now I have him, my 5 yr old, and also

homeschooling my 9yr old.

Gotta go lotttttssssssss to do.

I hope you enjoy it, I know your kids will. This weekend

we went and bought a game cube. It looks fun, the kids

won't let me play yet!

I usually go the religious route too. I like polar bears

and penguins. This year I found I polar bear with a

scarf looking up at a bright star, so cute! We had our

pictures taken and we get to see the proofs on Thursday.

I can't wait, we are all dressed in jeans, white shirts

and fleece vest (red). My parents are in some of the

pictures and they are wearing the same thing except

their vest are green. Luke is in a basket in the

center wearing a green Christmas sleeper, so cute!!!!

He was eating his hands most of the time.

Computer talk is much harder than in person. You never

know what the other person is feeling or looking right

then. So I just wanted to clear it up.

Did you get your son anything yet?

Oh, I only meant that some kids are hard to buy for

and I was only trying to get you brainstorming.

Please don't take anything I say wrong, if you did

it was my fault, because I wouldn't mean it that way.

Ever, for anyone.

Let's see sleeping and watching TV..... What about

a 3D puzzle, a hand held electronic game, pocket

knife, watch, portable cd player, or computer game.

I think you could get these things for under $20.

Buttercup!!!

You of all people should know what he likes. What

are his interest? You can always find something

inexpesive to add to an interest.

I have a 14 yr old too, but she is a girl and she

is easy. Girls are very easy, but boys on the other

hand are harder.

This is one area that I'm always behind on.

This Saturday we are going to have our pictures done.

The lady who does ours is really fast on getting them

back to us. Thank goodness or we would be getting cards

out in mid-January. I haven't even purchased ours yet!

I'll have to do that today. I never can decide on what

to get, so many choices.

What do you look for in your cards? Do you like

winter, religious or Christmas themes? How many of you

make your own?

Yes, I think you have. I just miss you is all!

You can keep your wishes for snow and give me

rain. I don't like snow. The only thing snow is

good for is being pretty.

I have lots of things to do today, well with Luke

it might take several! I have laundry, phone calls,

need to make more cookie mix (we ran out last night),

clean off counter tops in the kitchen (as long as things

are off the floor I don't mind them being on the counter

top). I could keep coming up with more things but this

is about all that will get done today.

Well I should go now and start on that list.

I never could keep my eyes open past 10. I'm a morning

person. I'm up at 5 or 6, even on the weekends. Now by

dinner time I'm really slowing down. It takes alot of

Mt. Dew to keep me going til 10!

Earlier this week we ate at Wendy's and noticed that

no one got tomatoes on their sandwhiches. We just

figured that who ever made them forgot. We went to

Wendy's again yesterday, yes we like Wendy's, and

there was a sign stating that because of the hurricanes

in Florida there would be a shortage on tomatoes.

Has anyone else noticed this? I wonder how long the

shortage will be for?

Joan this one is great! I'll take it.

Sorry for all the trouble.

Thanks

Shannon