Summer Soup

I had a LOT of things I didn't know what to do with in our CSA box this week. Eggplant for one. I always ruin eggplant. Shallots. Basil.

I had some items in the fridge that needed using up too. 1 lb of thawed hamburger. 3 quarts of homemade chicken broth. Baby carrots. 5 small red potatoes. I didn't have enough of any one thing to make it one its own.

So I made soup.

Basically I fried 3 large shallots chopped up in butter, added chopped potatoes (about 5 small red ones), a chopped up leek- fried until carmelized. Then added the chicken stock (3 pints.) and everything else chopped into bite sizes. Simmer for a couple hours.

5 red potatoes, skin on.
10 baby carrots
2 celery sticks
1 leek
3 shallots
1 lemon (juiced)
3 pints chicken stock
3 pints water
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 bunch of fresh basil chopped fine
1 cup of tiny ziti pasta (add at the very end)
2 eggplants (add at the very end)

Beef I made into bite size meatballs and fried in a skillet. Once browned I added them and their juice to the soup.

The in goes the eggplant and pasta. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes more. Serve with asiago cheese on top and a good chewy and crusty bread. Serves 8.

It was all eaten before I even thought to take pictures!

Grimy Yucky Chairs, Poof Presto=Pretty!

When we moved to the farm house we had to leave the dining room table we picked out as newly marrieds behind and take with us hand me downs. When we first moved here we recovered them with scrap fabric and sprayed them with lanolin on the poor advice of a "friend".  

Never do that. It was a magnet for grime and yuckiness. It refused to yield the yuck to the steam vac or any amount of scrubbing. Kind of an analogy on that friendship. I digress. I am still bitter about that piss poor advice. Lanolin is for sheep, for wool sweaters, for diapers. NOT for dining room chair covers. Not ever.

So I spent about a year now trying to come up  with a better solution. Diaper cover fabric? PUL? Vinyl cloth? I needed waterproof, washable, pretty, and cheap.  I need something not slippery. I saw on Pinterest someone used seasonal plastic table cloths, but then I saw an actual chair someone had used that on and a year later it was worn, split, and needed to be redone.  

But this, this was inspired. Browsing Amazon.com fabric I saw- indoor/outdoor cloth bolts. I bought one. Tested it. Water just went right through it. Easy to scrub. But what to do about the cloth cushion under it? If water goes right through, the bulk of potty accidents, lemonade, milk, and yogurt goo will saturate the seat through and through?

So.....heavy gage outdoor window plastic covers the pad, indoor/outdoor fabric on top. We used the old seat cover as a template. Cut with pinking sheers.

Staple gun all around, pulling fabric tight over the funny shaped edges.  The staples we used were long and required hammering in as a final secure.

Re-screw to chair base. Jessica comes bi-weekly to help me with projects. She's the best!

Bye bye grime thrones, hello pretty chairs.

Random Favourite Photos from this Summer....

Last night after the kids were all tucked in to bed dreaming (ie passed out in the living room watching movies), I walked to the mailbox. I took a deep breath of fresh air, gazed up at that great big universe of twinkling and shooting stars, thanked God for our farm and that I survived another game night, freaked out a little when the cats jumped out at me in the dark, only their little devil eyes gleaming.

In the mailbox was the final report from the ENT. So many times, the in person visit/results tell us one thing and then the report comes and it is totally different.

But here it was in writing. Zap has perfect hearing. No more fluid. Cleared from needing follow up. No surgery required.

So grateful. Not that I was scared or worried about him being deaf, he would have rocked that out of the park and we would have learned right along with him. This however has been a test of faith, of prayer, and a demonstration of how God works in mysterious and wonderful ways. He put in our lives the right people, the right healers, and the open hearts to try non traditional medicine. Now my baby doesn't need surgery.

For the record, I think that the tinctures we have been using for various ailments have made a HUGE impact in our health, but when I take ground ivy tincture, even my ears start draining. I was skeptical, but two of my good friends and people I really trust recommended it. I am so glad. Zap asks for it and points to his ears. It doesn't taste great so I can't help but think he understands what it is for.

Which leads me to another thought.....as parents of special needs children, dependent on the medical community for the health and well being of our children, but also as people who believe that natural remedies and good nutrition can be the best even better medicine, we are like rocks in a hard place. The balance is a hard one, and everyone walks that precipice with different shoes- some dance on by, some shiver with anxiety, some jump, some just curl up in  a little ball and beg to go home. We are all there though, at that same horizon, that same scary hard to explain place- feeling alone and isolated and misunderstood. All of us, the kind nurturing mothers, the fearsome bear mamas, the bitches, the fragile, and all of them are all of us. Some of us are hard for the nurses to deal with and some of the nurses are hard to deal with. It is a complicated dance, but really we are not alone.

Facebook has connected me with families all over the world who have 22q children, with published authors with the dx, with expecting mothers full of fear, with families whose children are near death, thriving, struggling, all of that. Life is messy and wonderful and short. One of the hardest things I have learned is that I can reach out, cry, ask, and help. Just when I was feeling the most alone, the world got a little bit bigger and more loving.

FB has also connected me with more families near me with special needs children or deepened casual relationships I already had.

This last 18 months has been interesting.