euphrasyne

My DD16 is hearing impaired, ADHD, and has an executive functioning disorder. She will probably live with me for the rest of my life.  We went through several therapists over the years and I think some actually made it worse.   We are blessed that we found this one.  The differences have been night and day since finding him and I kick myself for trying to make the last one work when she obviously wasn't helping.

I have several of the same issues.  Some days I just have to sit back and decide that I am going to have to let something go.   Sometimes that is standards my family tries to keep and sometimes it is my mind.  We put my oldest in counseling and found an excellent therapist.   I think it has saved my sanity and my blood pressure.

The smell of eggs didn't bother me with any of the other kids, so I'm not sure how long it will last.  I'm really hoping this passes soon.     Nausea is usually a 1st trimester thing, but I had it for my entire pregnancy with DD10.  

Dinner last night: We ate out again because my late afternoon nap ended when someone woke me up at 645 asking about dinner.  :/  I have a 5p dinner alarm on my phone but someone turned it off so I could get extra rest.    We went to Longhorn Steakhouse, so the hubbs didn't mind too much.  

Dinner tonight:  Baked brown sugar pork chops, green beans with bacon.  I also made hash brown casserole for everyone not me.  

The meatloaf and carnitas sound like good ideas.  I had forgotten about carnitas and the family loves them.  

I can't do any pasta at all so Mac & cheese and lasagna are out.  I had a gastric bypass about 3 years ago and even one bite of pasta just comes right back up immediately.   Occasionally I still make homemade pasta (I have a pasta maker attachment for my mixer) and people love it, but I can't even taste it to see.  :/    I've found that spiralizing (got that attachment too) veggies like squash works very well for a 'fake' pasta but it doesn't freeze well at all.     I use almond flour in my pie crust for quiche and pot pie, but it makes a lousy pizza crust.    

15 hours ago, Jeepers said:

Barf-a-palooza. 

Not laughing AT you but come on...that's funy.  

The hilarious part was that husband had cooked the eggs and they made me start heaving  from the other end of the house.  He had to take his plate and the pan he cooked them on out to the back porch to eat them.  I would have appreciated the guilty look on his face while he scarfed them down more if I hadn't been  hugging a trash can.  

I like shelf stable items for weather, economic, and long term storage, but the freezer is a massive blessing for health and life chaos issues.   I usually keep things at least moderately stocked, but the shelf life in the freezer is limited and I want to do a full rotation before known issues get here.  

The new baby is due at the end of Sept, so I'm hoping to rotate and restock my deep freezer with about 60 pans of food and 30 quarts of soup.  It is a big freezer and that still gives me plenty of room for meat and some frozen veg.  I know I'm going to be exhausted and leaning on the teens, so my goal is to have easy things that require zero prep other than thawing and tossing in the oven or crockpot so that I can tell one of them to put in dinner and not have to oversee anything. They can make basic and moderately complicated pantry sides if needed.   I cannot eat pasta, so many of the casseroles I used with my older kids are a no go this time around; rice is ok in moderation.   I figure I can finish the planning and clearing out of the freezer in the next three months.  That gives me about 12 weeks to restock and prep the meals.  

I'm not sure what to make.  My current idea is

5 quarts chili

5 quarts French bean soup

5 quarts chicken soup

5 quarts beef barley soup

5 quarts Santa Fe sausage & Corn chowder 

5 quarts gumbo

2 Chicken pot pie

2 Salsa Chicken

2 Thai Chicken

2 BBQ chicken

5 chicken tikka masala

5 chicken enchiladas

5 Beef & Veg roast

5 Beef Broccoli in teriyaki sauce

5 BBQ pork roast (for sandwiches or beans)

2 meals ham turnovers (think homemade hot pocket)

2 meals Cubanos (baked pork sandwiches)

2 Sausage & Spinach Quiche

This gives me a bit more than half of what I need, but I'm not sure what else to make.  I need suggestions! 

My goal is to fully rotate and restock the deep freezer and the pantry in the kitchen in the next six months so I can be ready for fall.  Also, I'm nauseous as can be and don't feel much like cooking so there is that.   

Tues: The last of the leftover pork roast minced with some BBQ sauce, homemade baked beans, lemon pepper peas, brussels sprouts, and lemon poppy seed muffins

Wed: Husband fed the kids fast food because I was busy being ill and giving ultimatums about eggs having to be cooked in the RV, not the house for the duration of barf-a-palooza

Thursday:  Chicken cordon bleu (homemade in large batches and frozen back in sept,) the last of the frozen stuffing from thanksgiving, green beans with bacon.  

My doctor saw a heartbeat!  This pregnancy is viable.  We aren't out of the woods yet, but my chances just went up astronomically.  WHOOT!   Now I can look at prepping and stocking up for a new baby.  

I imagine he is on blood thinners.  You are not supposed to eat leafy greens (broccoli, kale, spinach) while on blood thinners because they are high in vitamin K and that interferes (a lot) with how blood thinners like Warfarin or Coumadin work.    

Im really lucky.   My A1C is awesome and my blood sugar has not been above normal in almost 3 years now since the surgery.  I have several health issues, but none of them are related to diabetes and haven't  been for several years.     

We are back on the roller coaster.  I'm pregnant again!  Hopefully this one is viable.  I'm a basket case and the smell of everything makes me puke.  DD15 is looking at me sideways and asking why smells are bothering me so much right now.  I have an appointment with my OB tomorrow to see where we are at with this pregnancy.   

I had a major falling out with the MIL after she got up from the dinner table, threw her dinner in the trash and made herself a sandwich the night I made chicken cordon bleu, pistachio mushroom rice, and squash.  She is currently staying with her brother to help him out after he was released from the hospital after a major stroke and I'm seriously hoping it ends up being a permanent thing.    Either way, I'm NEVER cooking anything for her ever again and I'm standing firm on that.  

I had onions, peppers, and hamburger buns that I needed to use or lose, so I made Italian sausages with onions, peppers, and mushrooms in a balsamic reduction  served over half a homemade hamburger bun with a side of chips.  It was a 30m start to finish meal and the kids were very happy as well as hubbie.  

Calibre will read .azw3 (kindle) formats.  That is why I use it.  It will open pretty much EVERYTHING except .cbr.    Pocket books won't read the azw3, buy you can easily convert it individually or in bulk with Calibre.   I have a ton of books in pretty much every format imagined, but I dislike azw3 and usually convert those to epub.   If  you don't like Calibre for whatever reason, there are several other programs that will also open azw3 that are not related to amazon.     MobiReader, FBreader, EBookDroid are a few that come to mind that will handle azw3 files.  

You should always use the app you like best.  But I'm not sure what you mean by have to go through Calibre.  I only use Calibre when I read on the computer which is infrequently.  When I read on my phone, I just open the book with pocket book.  New books get sorted into my storage system and then just transferred around as needed.  The vast majority are never even opened on my desktop.  I usually just hook up my external to my computer and thus my home network and everyone just downloads the books they want from my filing system (alpha by author and in series order, and Non fiction sorted into specific categories and subcategories.)  

*   edit.   I just realised that maybe you are talking about the calibre library cataloging program.   I don't use that, my system is better for me.   I just use the calibre reader because it can open all file types except for cbr which I have another program for.  

Sunday was pork roast with sweet potatoes and green beans

Monday was carnitas with some of the leftover pork roast, chopped tomatoes, avocados, tortillas, & rice

Tuesday was breakfast of eggs, sausage & cinnamon rolls (because people were tired of pork)

Tonight was more of the leftover pork roast shredded with BBQ sauce served on hamburger buns, with some fruit that needed to be finished off.   (we had a veggie plate for lunch).

Those bolillo rolls look amazing.

My MIL has a kindle.  It is the same color as pocketbook on my phone.  The way the screen colors for books is adjustable for most of the book apps. I usually use a 'tanish' low lighting background with an antiglare font.  I also hate bright screens and this is comfortable for me to read.     You should check it out if you are looking for something with different lighting.  

My older daughter has an ipad, it uses a special flash drive for extra storage.  It is about $15 for 32Gb.  

I usually get them cheaper locally, but this is what they look like:

https://www.amazon.com/Lightning-Suntrsi-External-Storage-Compatible/dp/B075H8KX2T/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1548251012&sr=8-9&keywords=storage+device+for+ipad

Almost all devices can be memory expanded if you know what to look for.  ^^

I read on my phone with an app called pocket book.  I read on my computer with a program called calibre library.  I just transfer a couple (dozen) books to my phone from my computer and delete them off the phone when I'm done.  I have ….more than anyone would admit too, probably more than my library has physical books.... books on an external hard drive.  It takes up roughly a Terabyte and I've room to grow.   

You would be better off buying a tablet than a 'book reader.'  They cost the same, there are numerous free apps to read books and the tablet has many more uses than a book reader.    Storage is a non issue.  Anything you buy is going to use an SD card or a micro SD card and they are very cheap to upgrade for more storage.  I think I pay about $89 for 5 Terabyte external (for use with a computer, not compatible with devices,) $40 for a 400GB micro SD, and roughly $10 for 32GB micro SD.  

The easiest way to access the cloud is to sign up for a free google email.  Go to google, click on the app button.  Third icon from the right that is squares.  Choose the green & yellow triangle that says google drive.  You can now drag and drop any information to your 'cloud.'    Download google drive app on your phone or tablet to access your info on that device.  it will use your data plan if you are not on wifi.    I use it to move data around, not for permanent storage.  

We are getting ready for Hurricane Florence.  School is out due to mandatory evac and the kids are home all week.  Between them and my retired MIL who lives with us, it is very loud.  I've been trying to eat down my freezer to nothing to fully rotate it before restocking it.  As long as Florence is a temporary problem and not TEOTWAWKI, it is actually coming at a good time to help us eat down the freezer.  We are doing the same with the pantry, but I already rotated and restocked rice, veg, and protein.  We are just eating down the extras like sweets, nuts, and random tins of tea.  If we lose power for more than a day, any overflow freezer meat that will not fit in the RV freezer will get canned.  This evening I'm doing full meat inventory and working up an emergency canning menu plan.    

Its been two years since my gastric bypass.  The type I had rerouted my GI and vastly changed the way I produce enzymes and other chemicals; it was not 'restrictive only.'  I actually eat more carbs now than I did in the few years before the surgery and my diabetes is still gone.  I have to have regular lab work done and it is all normal for that.  This surgery worked for me and my body is processing things like it should.  I would highly recommend it to anyone who has diabetes due to metabolic reasons.    On a sadder note, I'm recovering from an ectopic pregnancy.  They gave me methotrexate (a chemo drug) and managed to save my tube, but the medicine makes me feel like crap. Earlier this year, I had to have a D&C at week 12 due to a miscarriage with complications.    That makes five miscarriages and 2 live births for me.  I love my daughters and my step daughter, but it is hard to stop crying for the ones I didn't get a chance to hold.  

I worry about the safety of all my children--especially the one rolling her eyes at me right now.  DD15 and DSD21 are giving me gray hair and turning me into my mother.  DD10 continues to be sweet and I pray that lasts through the teenage years.  My MIL has more issues than every other family member combined.  I have no idea how to deal with the situation and it continues to escalate.  She lives with us since she cannot support herself and we are locked into a passive aggressive 'I have to live with you' battle.  Every day is filled with Soap Opera worthy squabbles and drama.  I live in hell and I just want peace.  

We have decided to stay here in this house in suburbia for another 5 years.  Property values around here are going up and, after assessing market trends, I think that we will still be in a good position to sell at that point.  DD15 will be out of school and something should come to a head with the MIL one way or another by then.  We keep washing back and forth on moving out to the country.  Goats & Gardens vs low maintenance Suburbs. I was the biggest proponent of country living, but lately I just feel old and tired.   

This is what I make a few times a year.  My recipes are in my crazy shorthand, so please forgive the sparse directions.

Pepper Jam

6c pepper puree

6c sugar

3/4 c vinegar

1/4c salt

Clean and remove stems and seeds from about 20 red (or green or whatever color) bell peppers.  Cook down to mush and run through a sieve to remove skins.  Combine all and  cook to jellying point.  Pour into hot jars with 1/4 in head space.  Process 1/2 pints for 10m in hot water bath.  Makes 8-9 half pints.  

*Sometimes I add a bit of tobacco sauce or toss in a hotter pepper for extra heat

I grew up with my grandparents and my grandfather was type 1; I'm type 2. There has never been a time in my life I haven't had to deal with someone one having it. I've prevliously done close to zero carb diets and my A1C was still high enough to be classified as diabetic. I've tried almost every diet under the sun. Nothing worked and I gave each plenty of time. Currently, my A1C and the 'glucose' test are not high enough to classify me as diabetic. ​The type of surgery I had changes the way my chemistry reacts and I'm very happy with it. I will continue to monitor everything and be careful, but this isn't something I could do without the surgery and I'm very glad that I did it. All of my physicians are taking the diabetic diagnosis off my current list. I'm glad that you found a diet that worked for you XD.

That pumpkin protein pie sounds good. I'll have to try it.

My sugars have been 80-120 since the surgery. It definately worked. No oral meds and no insulin. Health prep is always on our minds and we are so glad to be slowly moving into a better situation.

Things have been a bit topsy-turvy for a bit, but it is starting to settle down.

DH has been working a lot and is going out of the country for a month right after thanksgiving. He is having some health issues and we are waiting on VA stuff.

MIL has a lot of health issues and personal issues. I don't see her circumstances changing for the better, and she will most likely be living with us for the rest of her life. Originally she was going to be here for a few years to get back on her feet.

DD1 is still waiting on the insurance to approve her hearing aid......since may. She does have an FM system for school and we have a loner aid, but I wish BCBS would quit dragging their feet. She has bilateral congenital loss severe R and moderate L. New meds have drastically improved her twitch, and we are back in special ed.

DD2 made GATES which is the gifted class so she has extra work. I had a meeting with her teacher yesterday, and was told that she is a wonderful citizen, an all around good person with excellent manners, and a blessing to have in the classroom. She is very quiet and patient and understands more than she lets on.

DSD (dear step daughter) so much going on there it keeps us up at night.

I had gastric bypass surgery a month ago. My diabetes is gone, I am off all medications, and I'm down over 30 pounds. But everything makes me sick and I can pretty much only eat scrambled eggs and protein shakes. I still have to cook regular meals for everyone else. My computer died and DH accidentally wiped my back up external trying to fix it. I lost everything. My new computer is awesome, but it was a huge lesson in not relying on digital.

DH and I have a plan and a timeline for moving further out into the country and plans are slowly falling into place for everything else. We cleaned out the tiny upstairs junk room (it is the size of a large walk in closet) and turned it into the 'prep' room. I moved all my extra supplies up there for easier inventory and climate controlled storage. It freed up a lot of room in the garage and sunroom as well as made the kitchen pantry look more organized. I'm still under a lifting restriction from the surgery, so I have to get DH or one of the kids to bring some things down, but overall it has really made things much easier to organize. It is like having my own little general store and I'm thinking about decorating it that way when I have the time.

Our goal for the next year is to exercise more, put in a garden, visit local u-pic farms, and do some serious home canning.

--euphrasyne

I make orange jelly all the time and it turns out fine. I usually make a quadruple recipe because my kids and MIL blow through all that I make.

Spiced Orange Jelly
2 cups orange juice and grapefruit juice total (I usually use about 1/2 and half or 2/3 orange and 1/3 grapefruit)
1/3 cup lemon juice
2/3 cup water
1 package powdered pectin
2 tablespoons orange peel, finely chopped
1 teaspoon whole allspice
½ teaspoon whole cloves
4 sticks cinnamon, 2 inches long
3½ cups sugar
Yield: About 4 half-pint jars
To make jelly. Mix orange juice, lemon juice, and water in a large saucepan. Stir in pectin. Place orange peel, allspice, loves, and cinnamon sticks loosely in a clean white cloth; tie with a string and add to fruit mixture. Place on high heat and, stirring constantly, bring quickly to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down. Add sugar, continue stirring, and heat again to a full rolling boil. Boil hard for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Remove spice bag and skim off foam quickly. process 5m for pints or half pints.

The lady who kept my eldest used to fry it up like pork chops in a cast iron skillet. it smelled wonderful--just like smothered pork chops.