Weather, gardening, cooking...

It has been an unusual summer here in Michigan. The average temperature for the last couple of weeks has been in the 60s. Everyone has been saying how it has been an odd July and mom was saying that maybe that means that winter will not be as harsh. I told her it probably means we are going to have a cold winter. Who knows?

We haven't gotten much rain to speak of, although it is raining as I type this. We have had to water the garden more often than usual. With the weather being cooler, it has stunted a lot of the growth in the garden. We have gotten one ripe tomato, a few zucchini and cucumbers, but things haven't really taken off yet. We didn't get very many beans because the critters got in the garden and ate them. Every other year, our neighbors have planted soybeans, so the critters have left our measly beans alone, but this year he planted corn. We have gotten quite a few of the dragon beans this year. They must not like those! We went to our local farm market and bought a bushel of green beans to freeze for the year. Nothing like fresh green beans!

This is a tree that we have in our yard that I frequently take pictures of. It has never had flowers before in the three plus years that I have owned my house. After some research, it was discovered that it is a basswood tree and produces the best honey. It was literally buzzing with bees. You could hear it all over the yard! It now has "fruit" on it that they said the birds like. It was very fragrant with all the flowers on it. We kind of stayed away from it for awhile because I counted four different types of bees and it was hard for me to take a picture without a bee in it.

Since we were surrounded by corn fields this year, I took some photos of my nieces and nephews "Children of the Corn" style. They were asking me about the movies and I told them that we would have to rent them sometime. I gave them some garden tools and told them that they couldn't smile. That was really hard for them!! When I finally told them to smile at the end, it was less than enthusiastic. It was fun for them though and I got some great pics!

I've been trying to do more natural cooking. I started things slowing because it takes awhile for mom to adjust to things. We used to make homemade soup and use everything canned, but I've slowly changed it and now we use everything fresh (or frozen if we cannot get it fresh). Even cutting out the canned tomatoes and dicing them ourselves. It tastes so much better this way! This week I am going to try to make chili from scratch. I have some beans that I am going to cook and cut up some tomatoes and stuff. Hopefully it will work out well. If it does, then we are going to make some for winter and can it. Nothing like canned homemade vegetable beef soup and homemade chili when it is cold out!

I am excited to do some canning this year. I want to can some tomatoes definitely, but also some apples. I am looking for a recipe to try tomato sauce. I really like it when I can then because we use 1/2 the amount of salt, so it is a bit healthier. Plus, it just gives you satisfaction knowing that you did it yourself!

I did my first IV chemo at work this week. It went pretty well. We have been floating to Cardiac Telemetry a lot lately and it has been crazy busy there. The last time I floated, I only had 5 patients (as opposed to the 7 the time before) and we were doing trivia. It ended with me trying to think of a question, but I couldn't come up with one. Did you know chickens have ears? I didn't. I also learned this week at work that battery acid does not eat through scotch tape. Okay, I don't really believe that, but for some reason, we have to tape batteries before we dispose of them. I don't know...I just smile and nod.

This week...

This week has been an interesting one with all the thunderstorms & power outages. My two sisters and my power went out. The only one who had power was my grandmother, meaning if we wanted to shower for work, we had to go there. I was at work when the first thunderstorms hit and the power flashed there and I'm not sure if it was the generator coming on or the power coming back on, but it was scary! I don't like being in the hospital when the power goes out. Scenes from horror movies from my youth come flashing back to me.

I have also been working on some little tweaks with my blog and working on the computer a lot. There isn't much else to do when it is wet outside!

We have some little tomatoes in our garden. I'm so excited! We also have the beginnings of beans, zucchini, and cucumbers. Our fruit trees are still doing well.

I haven't really done much else on my genealogy this week. I'm kinda at a standstill until I get more information. That means either going to Gaylord, MI or Pennsylvania. Neither is a terrible distance, it is just a matter of doing it!

On a lighter note, the sun is shining today. It is in the 80s. Hot, hot, hot. So, I am going to go and enjoy the sun!

Pictures, pictures, pictures...

Anyone who knows me knows that I love to take pictures...and I take a lot of them. Of everything and anything because you never know what will look really good. Well, I took some pictures of our fire pit, my favorite tree in the yard (which is actually a combination of like four trees), my lilacs (white and sensation) and the garden (including our fake owl.)





The tree at sunset and the fire. We put copper in the fire and it made it turn green. I couldn't get a good picture of that though. :(





















































Okay, that is all the pics that I have for today. I love the rhubarb, asparagus and strawberries in the garden. We had to re-plant them all, which means we might not get any yield this summer. On to more planting...tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins, watermelon, carrots, radishes, onions...I think that is all. Our garden is about 1/4 acre, so we usually have lots of room for things. You can see in some of the garden pics that we are surrounded by fields, and I think that helps our crops grow. :)

Yeah for Spring!!

I am so happy to be having warmer weather. It is so exciting to see everything growing. Mom and I planted beans and peas in the garden this week. I just cannot wait to get everything planted. (There is still a threat of frost for next week) Hopefully, our crop will be better than it was last year. It was just too wet last year and things didn't grow well...except for the weeds, of course. They grew just fine. Here is a picture of my flower garden. I love all the tulips and daffodils.

I had my first of three chemo classes today. When I am done, I will be certified by the Oncological Nursing Society to administer IV chemotherapy. Going to the class was kinda difficult because I'm used to being awake at night and sleeping during the day and now I have to take a class that starts when I normally am going to sleep. The class went okay, but I was super tired! It's a lot of information and I'm sure I'll grasp it eventually, it just seems like I am drowning in a wealth of oncological knowledge right now. (Good thing I have a manual for review!!)

The classes are on Friday for the next two Fridays. It's good because then I only have to work two days a week and then the class. Boy am I glad that it is getting warmer! Yeah for Spring and Flowers!!

Will the rain ever end?

Okay, it has been raining, raining, raining...and we haven't been able to start anything in the yard yet because everything is flooding. (The rain has been good for my fruit trees, however, and the blossoms are pretty!) My mom wants to 'till the garden a couple of times, but hasn't gotten the opportunity yet because of the constant rain. Our yard is a soft, wet yard, anyway. We have gotten all kinds of things stuck in the yard...trucks, backhoes, etc. One thing that is going for us is at least it is not snowing! I had to laugh because my sister Jennifer said "April flowers bring May showers" because we are wondering when it will be over! The forecast isn't looking so good!

I have worn my pedometer at work this past week or so and the average that I walk in a night is 8 miles when we are busy (which is like 95% of the time) and 3 miles when we are not. Both of them are not too bad. No wonder my feet hurt when I get home!

I must say a thank-you to Busi, a fellow nurse who works on nights with me. I had an interesting experience last night (Wednesday) where a pain medication rolled off the counter and into the trash in the med-room. (It was in a tube.) Busi helped me find it in the trash can. Luckily, they had recently emptied it. Now that's teamwork!!

Physical Therapy is going well and I have noticed some increase in strength in my back. Kudos to Courtney and Lyn for helping me.

This week I start my chemotherapy class so I can be certified to give it. I am kinda excited and nervous at the same time. It's something new, but there are a lot of good people on the floor who can help me out. I was going to sign up for a statistics class this term, but I just cannot afford it right now. I have to work on getting my house ready for winter. (I know it's crazy to already be thinking about winter, but it takes so long to remodel!)

Tomorrow, we are off to Wal*Mart again because mom needs to buy new wipers for her truck that she got at the slasher sale. She really hasn't been able to drive it because the wipers have no rubber and it has been raining ever since. She got a 1991 Ford F-150 that runs really good.

Updates...

It's been a little while since I've posted on my blog. I've been working and enjoying the sunshine (when we get some!).

It has been getting nicer lately...and I love that! I have been planning on what needs to be done in my yard. I did a lot last year, but there is so much more to do. I thought it was kinda ironic because I did so much to clean up the yard last year and then the value of my home went down a little. Not that I mind that much because it means that my taxes also went down, but it was just a little funny. Here is a funny picture of us (my cousins and uncle) working on my yard last summer.

My mom is excited thinking about what she is going to do with the garden. Our garden is normally 1/4 acre, so it is a big undertaking. We didn't have a good garden last year. The weeds were too outrageous. It was too wet. A lot of people I know said that their gardens didn't do well either. We usually can tomatoes; freeze beans, zucchini, corn, and carrots. The corn we don't even bother growing anymore because it hasn't worked for us. We can buy 5 dozen for around $20 so why bother with the headache.

A patient told me about a place in the town where I work where they can tomatoes and they will sell their "seconds" super cheap and he said they are good canning tomatoes, so it we don't get anything again this year, we might try that. He said that the tomatoes were better than anything he ever got out of his garden. That's a good recommendation and a good second plan.

I recently been wearing a pedometer at work because the new tower (designed with the patient in mind, not the nurse) is so spacious that we all have been saying that we walk miles every night we work. Well, the two nights I wore it, I walked 8.4 miles and 9.5 miles. Granted, they were crazy busy nights, but I wonder if that is the norm. I have my trusty pedometer in my locker at work, so I will be wearing it over the next few weeks to see what the average is...so I'll let you know.

My mom is going to this "slasher" sale this Saturday to try and get her a car for $88. She is going to be camping out Friday night at the car dealer to get in line. It is going to be crazy, but fun. I will let you know what happens!

I got low census at work tonight. When they called me (as I was about to leave, mind you) they asked me if I wanted to be off for 4 hours or 12 hours. I always say 12 hours because it is incredibly hard for me to come in at 11 p.m. By that time, I am already ready to go back to sleep. Even if I slept all day. If I'm not up actively doing something (starting to walk the 8 miles or whatever), I realize how tired I am. So, they called me at 9 p.m. asking me to come in at 11 p.m. I'm too tired to do it now, so I had to tell them no. I would never make it though the night. What else could I do?

I've recently been in physical therapy for my back so I don't strain it again. We are also going to work on some exercises to strengthen my right arm as well. Couldn't hurt! I have a wonderful therapist named Courtney who is working with me. It's kinda weird and nice because whenever I go into therapy, everyone knows me there.