School has begun/ New Bionic Hearing Aids/ Pumpkins ready

I finally bit the bullet and grabbed these babies from my yard.  I could not wait any longer.  Love, Love how bright and orange they are.  I am going to start making some puree for awesome pies or treats.  Yum, Yum.

5th Grade began with a bang.  My Lil Man took advantage and jumped into the pool to cool off after starting his history memorization work.

Happy Schooling.

We picked up our much awaited new set of Hearing Aids for our Lil Man.  I have just named them "Bionic Ears."  Technically, that is what they are.  He has access to a telephone, radio, TV, FM all from his awesome new hearing aids.  They are Oticon Agiles.  I am so excited for him to be able to enjoy his environments more comfortably.  It is amazing when you stop to consider what people with normal hearing can do all on their own without the need for hearing aids.  I could not help but cry while watching my Lil Man place his very first private phone call to his dad.  Imagine that?  A private phone call where you will not need to put it on speaker because doing otherwise would create feedback or a loud screeching noise.

What about sitting there watching TV and being able to hear the sound right smack into your hearing aids.  No more turning up the volume so the entire neighborhood can hear too.  Nope, none of that.  Now he simply pairs up with his streamer and he is set.

You know we all enjoy using our Ipods to listen to music while we either cook, bake, run or garden.  My Lil Man can now join us.  He can either pair it with Bluetooth or a simple connection to his streamer will give him this freedom as well.

We take for granted the blessings in our lives.  That is until we are face to face with a handicap.  One which disconnects you from the rest of the hearing world.  I applaud all the people who have made these inventions a reality.  I stand and applaud you.  Thank You.

Happy Friday Everyone

Its Friday guys! I have zero plans to head anywhere this weekend.  I will hop on my happy bike and go for a long, long ride tomorrow.  You all know I am in a boot camp right?  Well guess what?  I have lost almost 10 pounds.  Yep, TEN pounds.  I have lost inches.  I know because I measured myself upon starting the class.  I have also started really watching what goes into my body along with making sure I drink plenty of liquids.

It might be time to level my corn crop.  I am a little sad.

This is my big O'L gourd.  I am in love with this guy.

My pumpkin.  What a bright orange.

Gourd number 2 is sitting on a branch.  How cool is that?

Gourd number 3 is my baby.

Off to have a wonderful weekend riding my bike and creating stuff.  

Tomato, Tomato, and more tomato.

A simple task turned into an all day event.  I canned 24 (1Quart) jars of tomatoes.

Then, I made a gigantic pot of tomato soup.  It was so delicious.  I'm sorry.  I took absolutely no pictures of my soup.  I had to freeze some of it.  First, six people feasted then it was separated.  This stack for tomorrow.  This stack for next week or next month.  

I joined a boot camp here locally and I am so sore.  I have been getting up to be at my class by 5:30am.  It is so worth it.  I am already health conscious, just not hand to mouth disciplined.  Well, guess what?  I got my husband and I into a competition against two other couples.  30 days.  The couple to lose the most weight wins $500.00.  Three couples and each losing couple puts in  $250.00 to the pot.  Winner takes all.  My birthday is next month.  I am planning a nice getaway with the hubs.  A little less weight for both of us.  Yeah, I think a getaway is in the works.

So far I have lost 6 pounds and the competition started this past Sunday.  Not to worry, I am super health conscious about the amount of food I need to consume for this to be a healthy competition.  I took pictures.  So maybe I will get brave enough and post before and after.  Cross your fingers that I win this.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Fresh Eggs

How many of us enjoy fresh eggs?  Me, Me, Me!  I am in love with the idea of running out to your chicken coop and grabbing a warm egg to run back in your kitchen, cook it and eat it.  All less than 30 minutes.  Literally, the chicken just laid it and you consume it shortly thereafter.

I have a bias.  My favorite eggs are a light green color.  My good friends who own a farm tell me the chickens who lay light green eggs are called "Americanas."  No, they do not taste different.  My eyes simply have a bias to pretty colors.  'Tis all.

I snapped this picture while I was hanging out at my good friends farm.  I snap, snap so many pictures of my every day life.  You know, pictures tell a story.  As you can see from my posts, my pictures tell my life story or shine light on things I enjoy.

Happy Egg'n.

Call me silly, but I love to cook for my family.

Last night I just went a little crazy and spoiled my family with dinner.  The salad is compliments of my 19 year old daughter.  She sure knows how to put it together.  Julia Child's Clafoutis was magnificent.  I had some old cherries sitting in my refrigerator so I baked them with this delightful recipe.  It was a complete hit.  The soup is my version of Martha Stewart's Seafood Stew.  I omitted the shrimp and scallops.  I also used Salmon, Bass and another fish (oops forgot to get the name).  I followed the instructions otherwise to the letter.  I toasted some Sourdough bread and lathered it with butter with garlic.  I complimented that with some Merot.  Yes, I am in the know about white wine with sea food.  I was lacking some so Merlot won.  Dinner was ready in 30 minutes.  Yep!  You know this was delicious.  Yum, Yum

These are Gourds.  I am little sad because I really don't know what I am looking for other than a beautiful bean like ornament.  So far the waiting is treacherous.

I have several tomato plants.  You see the different color trellis'.  I wanted to show you guys that weird one with a nose like thing growing on it.  Trust me, I am just waiting for it to be ripe enough for us to eat.

This morning I watched this beetle take off from this spot.  First it crawled to the highest branch and off it went.  I hope he isn't eating my garden. And, there is that weird tomato again.  It sure has my attention. 

Sweet Muscat and some harvest

I picked some green beans yesterday along with a chile red plus some tomatoes.  Oh, and lets not forget to include the heirlooms (orange).  I think I have enough to feed my family tonight.

The Muscat is a very special sweet wine.  I have owned it for over 2 years and it has been in my family for over 6 years.  It came from France.  I brought it with me as a carry on two years ago.  The hubs and I finished it two nights ago so I was sure to take a picture of it.

Happy Tuesday.

Bread, tomatoes and Bulgaros

My tomatoes are looking so good right now.  I am eating them and cooking with them for almost every meal.  We are not close to canning yet since we can keep up with the tomatoes.  Soon, very soon that will change.
I have a purple bean growing too and so far I have only had one.  They are purple when you pick them but when you cook them, you can't tell it was purple to begin with.  It blends in with the green beans.

I made some Cinnamon/ Raison rolls too.  Talk about Yum, Yum.  The bread?  I made that too.  I spent a good day in the kitchen just whipping stuff up. 

I don't know if you know what these guys are.  They are Bulgaros and as of 7/19/2013 I have been consuming the liquid everyday.  Basically, a friend gave me the little balls which are a sort of a yogurt. Bulgaro information from LiveStrong  I am on day number four.  So far so good.  I am making smoothies with it.  I am adding nuts, granola, fresh fruit and my own jams.  It tastes just like a yogurt.

 

Not too sure, numb toe & numbing while I sleep

This is totally random.

I apologize in advance.

My hands go numb at night and my right foot has a numb toe.

What is going on???

The fruit of all my hard work

I have been encouraged to tend a garden for some time now and it has never really been something that draws my attention.  Until now!  I have been religiously tending my garden for months now and I am eating my homegrown tomatoes almost every day.  Can you see the yellow and orange ones?  Well, let me tell you, they are Heirlooms.  Yeah!  It is awesome.  I don't know how to explain what I feel knowing I did all the work.  Well, lets be honest.  My DH planted these tomato plants.  Then he got busy and I took over.  Hmm, something tells me it was all part of his plan.  I am enjoying it out there.  Just plain o' Lovin it.

I see some serious tomato canning in my near future.  Ohh, I can't wait.

I've been cooking and canning and baking and...

 

I spent most of my day babysitting the stove while I followed a very nice recipe for "Apricot Nectar."Apricot Nectar Recipe

 

 

I made some Apricot cream pie with all the pulp left over from the apricots.  I'm only sad that I could not press the seeds.  Apparently, the oil from the seeds is super fabulous!

 

We had so many little critters in our pond and they have this strong desire to swim in our pool.  We keep rescuing them and putting them back in the pond.  My Lil Man is loving the pool these days. He is my little fish, and loving those little critters.  All is well with the water and his ears lately.  KNOCK ON WOOD!

 

Oh, and lest I forget, the pumpkins are growing like mad men!  I have one that measures 17.5 inches in diameter and it is only July.  Wow.  This is going to be so much fun.  I have been told to carve something on the pumpkin before it finishes growing.  I might test it once the pumpkin is big enough.

I will start off with letting you all know this was my first time making preserves.  Apricot preserves or any kind of preserves for that matter.  Final opinion?  It was a bit too sweet.  So I have had to add them to my baking and omitting the sugar in recipes or liquids.  So far so good.

I scored!  I love my two new chairs.  I know they don't match, but isn't life all about pizzaz?  I present to you my new awesome chairs.

Keeping busy with projects

I've been busy with my laundry room.  Isn't it just amazing?  I think so.  

I made the little awesome blinds.  Yep, sure did.  I followed the advice of http://parkhouselove.com/2012/04/15/diy-roman-shade-from-a-mini-blind/.  It was such an easy project.

I got all my baskets at the dollar tree.  You guys will not believe me when I tell you I had no idea that place existed.  I am very content at the moment with my little space.

Those bowls sitting on my machines are enamel ware bought at antique stores and a flea market.  

Next up?  I am hosting a nice little dinner party.  It is time to celebrate and welcome summer.

Baked Doughnuts and Lovely Mason Jars

One of my all time favorite things to do is cook for my family.  Baking takes the cake.  http://yesterdayontuesday.com/2013/06/iced-blueberry-doughnuts/ posted this wonderful idea so I followed suit and guess what?  It was delightful.
Now, my other list of favorites is this mason jar filled with lemon/ lime water.  I just received my ShopLaughLove (etsy) so here we are having a whole bunch of fun right here in my office.

What are some of your "favorites?"

Off to the movies

I have just learned about the "Loop" system.  I am hoping the theatre has an option for my Lil Man.  The loop system?
http://www.hearingloop.org/

This all so new to me.  I had no idea what this was and I am all over the place trying to gather so much information.  

This past Friday I had my Lil Man's audiologist turn his T-Coil on. Can you belive that?  I had no clue what this was either.

http://www.hearingloss.org/sites/default/files/docs/HLAA_Telecoil_Brochure.pdf

As you can imagine, I am over the moon with all this wonderful resources for my Lil Man.

Friday, May 31, 2013 my Lil Man had his very FIRST private telephone conversation with his dad.  Private?  Is that ironic?  His telephone conversations have always been on speaker.  Do you see what I mean.  There is so much we take for granted.  So there we were driving down the road and my Lil Man was having his own little conversation- privately!

DHH Family Camp

I have deafness in my family.  I grew up speaking ASL and two other languages.  I THOUGHT I understood the overall concept of hearing impairement, having gone through it with a sibling.
I was humbled this past weekend when I came to realize that, I, was short on my understanding.  We spent the weekend surrounded by children and their families who are all walking our walk with hearing impairement, just at different paces.  We had Coclear Implants, hearing aides.  We had bio children and adopted children.  All connected to us by one common ground.
Hearing Loss

There is much to do.  I'd like to get our son involved with other families who have hearing impairement in their lives.  I'd like our son to learn ASL.  I want to never miss the DHH camp.

Our  LiL Man belongs to something so much bigger than "us."  He is a part of the deaf community.  I want/need him to know he is not alone and has the support of his own peers who like him, are walking little miracles.  Hearing aides are access to the "hearing world," yet at the end of the day when my LiL Man rests his head to sleep, he must take them off.  I must always look at him directly when we are giving kisses at night and saying our prayers.  There will always be this vulnerability.  Yet somehow, just like I get up every morning and mundanely wash my hair or get dressed without giving a second thought, so is hearing loss.  Every day my Lil Man gets up and reaches over for his hearing aides.  Every day we all just chug along.  We adapt and we plow through.  It becomes second nature.
Not everyone from the outside looking in can understand that our openness about hearing loss is not our "obsession" but in fact just us plowing through our own acceptance.
Knowledge is power.  The more we can get people talking about taboo subjects the more knowledge we will spread.  The more my son will continue to stand tall unaffected by peoples stares or by people fearing the unknown.
Some people reach over for their glasses every morning.  My son reaches over for his hearing aides.

Blessings....

Pain after trying to water ski

Over the weekend we were out at the river soaking up some delightful sun.  My Lil Man is so adventourous and jumped right into trying to water ski for the first time ever.  Something happened out there.  Everything was going great then all of a sudden he was screaming.
He had been pulled and submerged under water.  Usually, this is no big deal.  When you water ski this happens.  Well, not for Lil Man.  His ears hurt.  Swimmers Ear?
I ran off to buy some swimmers ear liquid, gave him something for his pain and had him take it easy for the rest of the day.  24 hours later it was all better and back to normal.  I should mention that he did not, could not wear his hearing aides during this time.  He said his ears hurt.
What happened

Moving along

My little man is now almost ten years old.  We eventually got the FM system and it was wonderful.  This year while in fourth grade my Lil Man was bullied by someone at his school.  He was careful in telling me and I went through the proper channels to get the situation handled.  The person bullying had been on vacation and on the Monday he was to return, my Lil Man was behaving rather strange.  I soon discovered it was the fear of this bully coming back to school.
I did the most unconventional thing.  I pulled him out of public school and brought him home to homeschool.
He we are six months into this journey and it was the best decision thus far.