4 years later

Four years ago was the last time I posted to this blog. Around that time my life changed. I went from being an active woman, walking three miles a day and working 46 hours a week at a high stress physically demanding job to someone who hurt. That's all I did. I laid on the couch and hurt, went to work when it went was time, go home, try to sleep, can't sleep, I could just hurt.

When I became sick I cut off my long hair to a pixie cut because
it was just too much work. I couldn't even wash my hair.

It took a year and a half of doctor's trips to find out what was going on. Fibromyalgia explained it all. Medications help now, but I still hurt, not as much, but I do. I've lived this way for four years.

Hurting at the boat show

I no longer work 46 hours a week, I clock out at almost 30 hours, and I can sit and be still most of the time. I walk a mile or two sometimes. I take breaks, and naps. Sometimes I wake up  at 4 or 5 am and don't go back to sleep til night time. I go to bed at 9:30 pm almost everyday. I am 32 now and had started to accept this is just how it is. However something new is coming. Today I visited a medical cannabis dispensary, and now I begin this journey to see if I can live better. Today I came home sore from work, grocery shopping,and my appointment. My back was done for the day, so I tried my new "vape"pen. My pain was eased, back to "normal", I put away the groceries, did laundry and took a nice bath. It's a start.

Twilight and I heading out on our journey

The Homestead

Hef's dad has been on a business trip for the past two and a half weeks, so to keep myself entertained I bought the complete set of Dr, Quinn, Medicine Woman. Man, it's a great show! Let me tell you I am one for a theme, which led to a big pot of hearty chicken and dumplings! 

For the life of me I can't dice an onion, so when I spotted the already chopped on sale I took the easy way out.

Step 1: Brown both sides of chicken thighs in oil, crispy yummy chicken skin! The skins are then discarded, but the pups and I had some as a little snack, just like peeling off the thanksgiving turkey! Reserve the chicken fat for the dumplings!Then sautee the  veggies until they start to soften.

Add some stock and  milk and simmer until the chicken is falling off the bone.

Shred the chicken and keep it simmering.

 Now I am not one for doughs or pasteries, so I was very pleased these turned out. I didn't give measurements before because when it comes to veggies or meat a little more or a little less won't hurt in my eye, but I fear the dough! So here is the exact if you try them, 2 cups flour, 1 tablespoon baking powder, and 1 teaspoon salt, mix that together. Then warm 1 cup milk with 3 tablespoons of reserved fat. and stir that into the flour mix.

Drop them into the pot, it was so easy! Let them simmer, covered, about 15 minutes until they are fluffed up nice!

I DID IT!

Dipping our toes back into blogging

Oh, it has been a long time since I have blogged. It has been tough, and even the other day I considered adopting a bunny and couldn't bring myself to do it. Hef remains the be all end all bunny in my heart. I still think of that bedroom as Hef's room. "I think that's up in Hef's room..." and I still think of my hoppin kitchen as The Bunny Lounge. I had created another blog, but never posted, it wasn't the same. So I am taking a break from my marathon of cooking today (mainly because my dishwasher is full and I really need to get a third set of measuring spoons and cups...) to try blogging again.
I woke up today and wanted to cook, man I wanted to cook. If your a cook you know that's how it is sometimes, you just get the calling. I knew I wanted a creamy chicken stew,  beef broccoli, and teryaki jerky.After perused my favorite cookbook to grab another recipe since I was heading to the store, I was making my list and saw that the Daytona 500 started a lot sooner then I realized and made a crazy dash to the store to get back in time. So far I have made Chicken and Dumplings, along with Skillet Lasagna, it remains to be seen if I get to beef broccoli or not, the teryaki jerky is about halfway done and I'm about to rotate my racks. For today let's cover Skillet Lasagna, because you might just have everything in your pantry to make this tonight!

Kitchen Helper Bandit
Main job: eating food bits that fall on the floor, she has a great "leave it" in case raw meat or other dog unfriendly foods get dropped.

Once I was watching The French Chef, and Julia Child was making chocolate almond cake. She starts off getting all her ingredients together because, "Otherwise you may have to run to the supermarket in the middle of your cake and that simply won't doooooooo!"

Shadow doesn't help as much, she just tastes what she gets.

Shepherd Oven

So the lasagna is in the back, one medium onion has been browned and 1lb ground beef is  browning now.

10 lasagna noodles cracked into approx. 2 inch pieces, this is really fun to do and makes a great cracking sound.

Pour on one 28oz can of diced tomatoes with juices and 8oz tomato sauce (which I forgot to add until the last five minutes of cooking, but oh well) and cover for about 15 minutes until noodles are soft, then plop on some ricotta and remove from heat. Cover about 5 minutes, so ricotta is warmed through.

DIG IN!

Good-Bye

This morning Hef was not acting right and I rushed him off to our emergency vet. The vet didn't have much to say and gave Hef some antibiotics and referred us to a specialist if he didn't improve. I came home from work today and Hef was gone. My best guess is Hef had a stroke or something because he was shaky and very mellow.
I've been slacking on this blog, but this was more Hef's blog then anything and I don't think I will keep it up without him. Hef was five, and my baby boy. Good-bye my baby bun.

Snowbun

Snuggle bun

NOM!

The King of Hearts, of course!

Don't touch my salad!

Mr. Playboy

Peek-a-boo Bun

Explorer Bun

"Mama, I love you so much!"

Good-bye Heffy

Mr. Hef at the bunspa

"Um, excuse me Mama, where am I going?"

"Just a little trip outside to  get prettied up. After all your living across the way from  a doe now, you have to look good."

Mr. Hef really liked picking up the comb and tossing it.

"Thanks for grooming me Ma, but I actually part my fur like this..."

I tried to treat Hef to some mint from the garden but he started
 nomming me instead, oh well, it was darn cute.

 P.S. Hef's Dad and I went to a luau party on Friday, not a bad looking couple huh?

Do you know what day it is?

"No, I'm new here, what's going on?"

 Today is Hef's 5th birthday!

"Me? Then let's party!"

"PARTY EARS UP!"

"Oh, and you can leave your presents right here" *taps paw*

Happy Birthday Heffy! It still feels like I just got my baby bunny!

Post 551, In which we try to find Hef

"Heffy, please come out. Your fans are clogging our inbox!"

"Hmph!"

 Yeah, I tried. Shortly after this last photo Poor Hef got humped in the face by Carrot and I decided to conclude the play date at that point. I'm not repeating the comments Hef's dad made about this incident. I think you can figure them out, ugh!