why I am going bald

I found this picture on the internet when I googled woman pulling her hair out and it sums up my last few days. I hope to never have to go through a time like this again. I think one of the hardest things a person has to do is watch someone they love be in horrible horrible pain and know that there is nothing they can do about it. My wonderful husband has back problems and his back gives him pain alot and for the last couple days the back of his left leg has been cramping. I dont mean a little cramp like I sometimes get in my toes I mean an awful cramp that is in his whole leg. He couldnt even move because it hurt so bad. Thankfully the pain lessened last night and he was finally able to get some sleep which meant I could get some sleep also. He still hasnt been able to get out of bed but I am praising God that he isnt in severe pain right now. Please pray that we do not go back to the pain he was in. Please also pray for my grandma, she had a hip replacement about a week ago and is still in the healing process.
God bless you all!

~April

Produce calls my name!

This is a picture of my daughter. It has nothing to do with my post today but I wanted to share how beautiful she is inside and out. She has the biggest heart of anyone I know and I am very proud to call myself her mom. 

Yesterday my mom texted me and asked if I wanted to ride out to the farmer's market with her.  Not wanting to pass up a chance to go and maybe find some good prices on produce that I can put up for winter I said yes and told her I was ready now! I actually went expecting not to buy anything (that is a lol moment). Farmers markets and Tractor supply are this girl's 2 favorite places to shop. My dream would be to walk into both those places with unlimited funds and buying anything and everything I want. But since I live in reality and am one of those shoppers who tries to only buy what she needs I leave that kind of shopping for my dreams. I do have to confess that this thrifty mom has moments of weakness, too many actually. I will confess today that yesterday we ordered calzones because I was still busy canning beans and didnt feel like making dinner. Gasp!! I hope I did not disappoint too many of you. Anyway, enough rambling and back to my trip to the farmer's market. I just love looking over the fresh fruit and veggies that are filling the shelves and my favorite sign to see is the ones saying that the produce is from their own farm. Sometimes it is from local farms also so I watch for the signs. I found a basket of apples that were calling out my name, they were saying "April, April, oh April come see us. We know you already have a crisper full of apples but we are supposed to taste comparable to honeycrisp!" I stopped dead in my tracks, What did they say? Did they say they were comparable to honeycrisp apples? That is only the very kind I have been looking for for the last few year. If I cant find the original honeycrisp then maybe just maybe I can find ones that taste just as good. So I just had to put a big basket in my buggy, those little baskets are for the kids right? Big girls buy the biggest basket there. I was like Tom Cruise in one of his Mission Impossible movies guarding this basket so that noone can take it. Even though there were close to 20 more baskets there I knew that if someone saw mine they would fight for it, cause I got the best one right? As I was walking around waiting for my mom to get  a few peppers and some other little things I saw it, I couldnt take my eyes off of it. Want to know what it was? It was a half bushel of the tastiest, prettiest looking canning tomatoes man or woman has ever set eyes on and they also knew my name. How do they do that?! How could I pass up such pretty tomatoes, and there was so many things running through my mind to do with them. I can just taste the stewed tomatoes and spaghetti sauce I can make with them. I was already drooling. I didnt even have to think about this one, if I did I might have remembered the garden with about 15-20 tomato plants in it or the freezer full of tomatoes waiting to be peeled and turned into sauce. I also might have thought about the amount of jars I have at home, on payday I will be buying some jars. After putting the tomatoes in my buggy and let me tell you a half bushel of tomatoes is heavy I caught up to my mom and we checked out. She must be used to shopping there with me cause she didnt even bat an eyelash at the produce I was buying. :-) After I returned home from our trip and lugged the apples and tomatoes in the house I remembered the 3 baskets of green beans that I had on the table to can so the tomatoes had to wait until today. I am happy to say that I canned 19 pints and 10 quarts of green beans yesterday. Yummy!

Wishing you all a blessed and happy day!

~April

Disclaimer: Some of the reactions I stated in this post about how I reacted to seeing certain produces might have been slightly exaggerated but I thought it might be more entertaining then just saying I went to the farmer's market and bought some tomatoes and apples.  Happy Sunday!

Coffee

One of the things I decided to do in my new learning to be self sufficient is to grind my own flour, cornmeal, coffee, etc. My first attempt was coffee. The grain on the table will be for my next attempt which will be flour. The coffee was very easy except for the tiredness in my arms from cranking it. This is a picture of my hand grain mill.

                                                     Coffee beans waiting to be ground up.

     Finished product. Wow did my house have a wonderful aroma while I was grinding them.

                           I hope you enjoyed seeing my first attempt at fresh ground coffee.

~April