What's going on.

As in 'this is what's going on'.  It's a slow day, a Netflix day. It's raining, we need it, our water source lake is something like 11 feet low.  We are on stage 4 water rationing and can only water our yards twice a month and then only between 6 and 10.  As of right now my candles on the deck are floating in 4 inches of water.  Woo hoo! 

I completed my second week of school.  Last Monday and Tuesday we had Open Enrollment.  We had over 100 kids grace our doors, probably close to 120.  About 50 didn't come with either their proof of residency or immunization records, or they were sent back to get needed immunizations.  These kids won't be processed until we have the proper records, all others I managed to process and enroll Wednesday and Thursday!  I've never typed so fast in all my life.

Last year I acquired over 50 hours of comp-time processing folders.  Granted I was new to the district and learning a new system.  This year so far I only have 2.75 hours so far.  That's awesome since it's really hard to take a huge chunk of comp-time.  I'm feeling really good about this. :)
 
Warning to those that don't like foodie posts, this is about to become one:   I thought I'd show you what I do every Sunday after lunch.

Breakfast Biscuits - Back off Ronald McDonald and take your friend Hardee with you!

I guess it was during the summer that I decided I'd start making breakfast biscuits for the hubby.  After 33 years of marriage, he'd decided that he really should eat breakfast.  I think I read something to him about people who eat breakfast are less likely to have trouble loosing weight.  Something like that...  Yeah he could drive through, but that starts adding up over time.  I can make them for mere pennies.

I picked up this awesome pan at a hardware store.  I'd been making the biscuits in a 9X9 pan but they weren't coming out round even though I used a round cutter and the empty corners ended up in Hubby's lap on his drive to work.  That whole square peg in a round hole thing was going on.  I was also using 3 tiny 3inch iron skillets to cook the eggs.   It was a bit of a time consuming endeavor, but hey, I've got plenty of time.  With this new pan, my biscuit assembly line takes about 40-45 minutes, the biscuits take 30 of that.

It's a Lodge Biscuit Pan - check Amazon

Biscuits are cooled and opened. Add Canadian Bacon

Cook those eggs in the pan too!  Wash it first.

Add more bacon for Bacon Bacon Biscuits

Flip those eggs after the salt and pepper. Did you notice I broke the yolks?

Add the eggs on top of the bacons.

Cheese 'em up!

Put their hats on and wrap them in paper towel.

 I let them cool down after I wrap them.  That way they don't sweat in the bag that they go into the fridge in.  It's the sweat that makes them go soggy.  In the morning Hubby just pops one in the microwave for a 1.5 minutes and out the door he goes. 

I'm loving this pan!  Just think.... corn bread, tiny little pineapple upside down cakes, chocolate lava cakes!!  And when we have a breakfast for dinner night, no egg cooking in shifts!!!  I'm so excited.  Maybe I'll try pancakes!

Have a great week!  Don't skip breakfast.... it's the most important meal of the day.

Just a little sewing.

See this shirt.

New - too small for hubby.

So I cut the back and sleeves off to make a halter looking piece.

Then I ran the Serger over all the raw edges.

Turned under the raw edges and top stitched them down.

Made some straps from the leftover back piece.

Stitched them down.

Voila!  An apron!

This is what I do when I'm supposed to be reorganizing my sewing room.  And my hubby doesn't think I have ADD.

I'm off to walk my 3 miles.  Have a great day!

And the fun continued.

 Where was I?  Oh yeah, into 'the park'. 

 Big Bend National Park, on the border of Texas and Mexico.  Not a place that sees much traffic during the summer months because of the extreme heat conditions, but we weren't scared.  We carry our own water.... and snacks.

This view is called The Window.  I'm not afraid to ask people if they would like for me to take a picture of their group in exchange for them to take a picture of our group.  Little do they know, I'm a crappy photographer!

 At the Chisos Basin. 

 On the road to Terlingua.  Don't let the website fool you, Terlingua looks like Hell.

 Knitting on the bank of the Rio Grande River.  I probably could have swam/wadded across to Mexico.

Crossing the Pecos River.  As kids, our family used to camp at the headwaters of the Pecos River high in the mountains of New Mexico. 30+ years ago I would drive all over West Texas delivering Oil Field parts to Gas Plants.  On my deliveries I'd cross back and forth over a tiny dried up stream that would proudly be marked as The Pecos River.  This looks like the Mississippi compared to that tiny trickle of water.

Di and I did a selfie!

We picked these figs on a morning walk around the Amistad Acres where Mike and Di had the 5th wheel camper parked.  The figs were the size of lemons!

 I don't know why I didn't end up with any pictures while on Lake Amistad,  I guess we were just boating along too fast or we were in the water.

The Pecos River has oodles of canyons and cuts running into it.  If you didn't know this river it would be easy to get lost and turned around.  This is the split between the river on the left and Deadman's Canyon on the right.  We took Deadman's, more shade, it was in the upper 90's.  Luckily Mike knew his way around even though the river was down by 8 to 10 feet and it had been years since he'd been on it.

The canyons are beautiful.  Some places are wide with room for goats and sheep to graze.

There are places where you can see Native American cliff drawings. 

 Other areas are straight up!

 So peaceful!  So quiet.  We drifted along, lost in our own thoughts.

 Our Captain and beer handler.

 The wind blows through these canyons creating scooped out spaces in the rock called wind caves.  Some are so big that you can camp in them...  Mike and his buddies used to do this years ago.

 This is the train trestle still in use today.  That little house-like structure is the old pump station from the 1800's when the trains ran on steam.  The water from the river would be pumped up to the trains on the trestle.  It has been underwater for a long time, and Mike was amazed to see it almost completely above water.

 This is the vehicle bridge otherwise known as The Pecos High Bridge.  Di and I took our selfie from the look-out at the end of the bridge on the far left.

 This picture was taken from the top of the boat ramp.  As Di and I walked up the ramp to get the truck and trailer we noticed goats climbing on the side of the canyon wall.  Of course I didn't have my phone/camera.  If you look REALLY close, you can see a black goat on a rock just above the water, he's almost in the shadow of the cliff.

 On the left of this shot you can see the rock wall that edged the old highway that wound it's way down the bank of the river.  There used to be a lower bridge to cross by.

 It linked up with the right side of the river, which is now used as the boat ramp.  This was the steepest and longest boat ramp I had ever been on and the backing up job that Di did was stupendous!  Have you ever backed an empty boat trailer?  You can't even see it! 

 This is where the Pecos meets the Rio Grande.  The Pecos is in the foreground and the Rio Grande is in the back coming from behind the cliff.  That is Mexico on the far side of the Rio Grande.

There was a HUGE Border Patrol presence in the area.   We saw several boats on Lake Amistad, and then checking for sunken rubber rafts and such on the Pecos.  They patrolled by car through the neighborhoods on the lake and down the dirt roads leading to them, checking for tracks and footprints. 

We returned back to the ranch Monday.   I snapped this picture before I left for home Tuesday Morning.  It's the bathroom at Mike and Di's house!  So zen!  That huge window in the steam shower looks out onto the pool and the mesas beyond.  Just beautiful!

Another great vacation for the books thanks to Michael and Di.

Well that was fun.

I drove out to my brother's ranch in West Texas on Sunday, where we began conditioning ourselves for the extreme heat and sun that we would be experiencing in the coming days.  In order to do this we laid out by the pool several times a day and had cocktails promptly at 5:00 every evening.  After a couple of days of this brutal conditioning we struck out on our adventure.  First we had to provision in Midland.  Since we were staying in a house we planned on cooking and eating in for our days in Marathon and also once we got to Del Rio and the lake.

Midland was not a happy stop, Mike lost a wheel off the boat trailer as he was driving over an overpass.  Thus resulting in hours of working on the boat trailer (with the boat on it) to repair the hub before getting the wheel back on.  My brother Mike is one of the most resourceful people I know (including my Dad, my husband, and my son.) Speaking of my son, Jeff just happened to be working in Midland and he came running to the rescue to help his Uncle Mike out.  In short time they had done the repairs and checked the lights on the trailer all on the side of the road in 90+ heat.  What should have been a 1.5 hour stop for food and supplies in Midland ended up being 5 hours.  We still had 2.5 hours of driving to get to Marathon.  We would arrive after dark, 9ish as the sun sets out there around 9PM. 

Mike and Di had invited me along on a 'business' trip to the Big Bend area of Texas.  When you live remotely as they do you plan all your business to be taken care of in one huge circling swoop.  This trip was to drop off a headboard that Di had designed for a hotel in Marathon and then on to Lake Amistad to pick up their 5th wheel camper.  Once you leave the house, there is no going back until you are done.  I have lived in Texas all but 3-4 years of my entire life and had NEVER been to Big Bend.  They felt this was a sin and that it should be remedied as soon as possible.

Di is doing some decorating business at the Gage Hotel  so they had rented a friend's home to stay in.  (If you look at the website for The Gage, just know that the beds are not going to look like what is shown in a few months, Di is in the process of changing them...)

We even had an impromptu dinner party while there with some of their long time friends. (Di can throw a dinner party at the drop of a hat, and she can create dinner out of whatever you have on hand, she is amazing in the kitchen.)  No one turns down a chance to eat when Di is cooking.

The house was awesome!  Eclectic, with touches of modern art AND treasures of the southwest and Mexico.  The owner had built and decorated it on a budget and used LOTS of recycled objects such as commercial doors like you would see in a department store and the overhead bay doors you can see in this picture were used in the living area/dining area and also in the master bedroom.

Please disregard our laundry hanging on the doors, we didn't have a clothesline....

These 'glass bricks' are actually Patron Tequila bottles!

I love this sliding door!  This picture was taken from inside the bedroom that I slept in.  The wall stopped just above the door and it was open to the living room on the other side.  The other side of this wall was covered in corrugated tin.  Needless to say, I could live in this house!  Here is the AirBnB details on Casa Wilma if you are interested.

While staying at Casa Wilma it was just a hop and a 20 mile (at least) skip down the road to Alpine, a bit farther on to Marfa, where the classic movie Giant was filmed and you can see the famous Marfa Lights if you are lucky.  We had drinks at the Hotel Pasisano, and dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant in Marfa. It's their favorite place to eat when in the area.

We struck out the next morning heading south into Big Bend National Park, or as the locals refer to it "the park".

 I had been all but told by friends that I was crazy for going to Big Bend in July.  Normally the temps run 100+ degrees, but that morning when I stepped out of the truck for Di to snap this picture it was in the low 80's!  We had conditioned ourselves, remember.... 

This trip is to be continued.....  it's becoming another of my long stories.  Just know I have some beautiful pictures of Big Bend and the Pecos River valley to come tomorrow.

I did it myself - FAIL

That's a Mexican Freetail Bat.  He's climbing up a branch of our oak tree.  I found him/her on the stepping stones in front of our house the other evening and returned him to the tree.  NO, I didn't touch him!  I used a take-out container and a stick.  I think he may have been on the ground because of this crazy wind we have been having this month.

OK, on to the DIY - FAIL.  If you remember, I have done several DIY or as I call them MIY,  make it yourself.  It's not just a doing thing, you have to make the stuff in order to do it... am I right?  So, I've made probiotic soda like Kevita, aka Water Kefir or exploding beverages as my husband calls them.

I've  made dishwashing detergent that grew into a bubbling blob that took over my deck, FAIL.  I'm still looking for something that works.

I've finally found a MIY laundry detergent that I really like and have recently made my 3rd batch.  Each batch lasts me about 7 months!  The cost is so worth it, I'll let you know about that in a future post.

This past week I have decided to try making my own shampoo.  I had seen several blog posts on Pinterest and then in a weekly email from Mother Earth News with the directions.  Hey, if it's on Mother Earth News then it probably works, right?  I'm not about to go the NO Poo route. 

I had some coconut milk already open  in the fridge and it needed to be used.  All the other ingredients were a given as we keep those in the house all the time.  One of them being Dr. Bronner's Soap.

Don't get me wrong, I love Dr. Bronner's Soap and we use it a lot!  You can wash anything with it.... but NOT your hair.  Long story short (it's always a long story with me), my hair was squeaky clean, squeaky like brakes locking up on a semi-truck squeaky.  I couldn't get my fingers through it, so I couldn't get a comb through it either!

It didn't want to dry.  After blowing it with the dryer on every setting for 20 minutes, it still wasn't dry!  Normally my hair only takes 5 minutes to dry, it's short.

Look at this!  There's a comb stuck in the back!  This is after I rewashed it twice with regular Herbal Essences shampoo.  Once I did get it somewhat dry it felt like straw. So yesterday I decided to MIY my own remedy for that.  Why not have two fails in one week?

When I got back from my walk I was hot and sweaty and was going to wash my hair anyway because it was a dry ratty windblown mess, I decided a nice big dollop of coconut oil would be a good thing.  I'm a sucker for the coconut oil.  Hey, the comb slips right through my hair when it is totally saturated in grease!  I was sporting that 50's greased lightening look, even after TRYING to shampoo it all out.

Three shampoos yesterday and one this morning and finally my hair is somewhat back to normal.  My findings on this session of research is, leave it to the professionals.  Paul Mitchel and Vidal Sasson know what they are doing.  Just let them do it.

I wish Herbal Essences would bring back their original scent from the late 60's, anyone else feel this way?  How about Gee, Your Hair Smells Fantastic?  That stuff was nice.

Have a great 4th of July!  I'm headed west to the ranch and beyond this weekend... ROAD TRIP! 

Wow 6 months goes by pretty fast.

(I hope that I remember how to do this)

Haven't had much to write about.  So I didn't.  I still don't have much to write about.

So, school's out.  It was good.  Actually it was the best year I've had in about 4 years.  I'm used to the drive... POD CASTS!  The Moth, Selected Shorts, This American Life, The Budget Minded Traveler.   Hey, if you know of any others that are good for a 30 minute drive, let me know.

Hmmm, what else?  Oh Hubby quit his job at the Big Name Semiconductor company and went to work for a long time friend that has his own company making touch screen control panels and stuff for Semiconductor Companies.  It's the same place that Jeff has been working for about 2 years.  The owner and Hubby have been friends for about 8 or 9 years and he's wanted Hubby to come on board for the longest.

I went to Austin to visit the kids.  We went out on Jeff's sailboat.  Awesome!  Can't wait to go again.  His boat makeover is coming along.  It's a lot cleaner than it was last winter.

Jolea's apartment is so cute and it's perfect for her.  She's so happy not to have to deal with roommates.

Jeff will be moving down when his lease is up later this summer.  He'll just work out of Austin instead of Dallas.  He flies out or drives long distances to work as it is, this will just save him lots of time and money driving to Austin every weekend.  We'll probably see him more because he'll stay with us when he is up here working.

That's it for now... maybe I'll have something more to write about later.

20 questions for a New Year’s Eve reflection

 

We're almost a week into the new year but here's something to think about....

1. What was the single best thing that happened this past year?   I got a new job.

2. What was the single most challenging thing that happened?   Deciding to leave my old job.

3. What was an unexpected joy this past year? Jolea moved back to Texas.

4. What was an unexpected obstacle? Living with pain in my joints.

5. Pick three words to describe this past year. Stressful, hopeful, thankful.

6. Pick three words your spouse would use to describe your year—don’t ask them; guess based on how you think your spouse sees you. (If you’re not married, have fun guessing the answers from other friends and family, or just skip this question.) Unhappy, stressed, happy.

7. Pick three words your spouse would use to describe their year—again, without asking. Busy, exhausting, thankful.

8. What were the best books you read this year?  Happier Than a Billionaire, do a truck-load of knitting magazines count?  How about 5 or 6 books on Essential Oils?

9. With whom were your most valuable relationships? My husband, he did help me with a bunch of hard decisions.  My kids, both assured me that there was nothing wrong with wanting to be happy and in order to find happiness I would have to make a change.

10. What was your biggest personal change from January to December of this past year?  Taking responsibility for my happiness.

11. In what way(s) did you grow emotionally? I created more calm in my life.

12. In what way(s) did you grow spiritually?  I take time to meditate and that is helping with my spiritual growth.

13. In what way(s) did you grow physically?  Why would anyone ask this of a fat girl?

14. In what way(s) did you grow in your relationships with others?  I have made some new friends and become even closer with some old friends who also went through the job changes of last summer.

15. What was the most enjoyable part of your work (both professionally and at home)?  My new job... so much more fun.   At home... it's so calm and peaceful to come home.

16. What was the most challenging part of your work (both professionally and at home)?  At the old job...  keeping my mouth shut and not walking off the job.  At home... keeping myself on track to get rid of the things we don't need.

17. What was your single biggest time waster in your life this past year?  Pinterest, I have an embarrassing amount of Pins.

18. What was the best way you used your time this past year?  Knitting and yoga.

19. What was biggest thing you learned this past year?  Not to be afraid to take the big step toward a new direction.

20. Create a phrase or statement that describes this past year for you.  It's the past, it's done, let go of the unpleasant parts and feel blessed about the good.

Happy Holidays!

Here's hoping you are all having a wonderful Christmas.  Be sure to make some lovely memories!

Thanks to you loyal readers who come to the backyard to check on me from time to time.  

See you next year!