Tomato and cici bean salad

This inclusion to my blog is partly for Kris and partly for GCC.  It’s just too good not to share.  Also, this is totally my mom’s creation, I have nothing to do with it except to make it occasionally.

Tomato and cici bean salad

1 pound fresh tomatoes, diced

1 cup sweet red onion, sliced thin

1 can cici (garbanzo) beans, drained and rinsed

1 cup cucumber, peeled and diced

1 bunch (about 1/2 cup) fresh basil, chopped

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

1/2 cup olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Mix everything together and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before eating.  The longer the better.  And this is a GREAT salad to serve with BBQ.

Tomatoes on the floor

There are tomatoes on my floor and I can’t reach them.  Maybe later I’ll move the kitchen table and get them but for now I just don’t have the energy to go get them.

It seems like everything in my life has been fucked lately.  Extremely long days at Granny’s house sorting through stuff has yielded nothing. The only estate sale lady can’t do an estate sale until maybe December, maybe not until February.  And because I’ve been spending so much time over there I’ve been spending no time at home so the house looks like hell and my counters are all covered by stuff from her house.

This was the total count for the almost week of canning: 106 jars – 21 currant jelly, 17 currant pepper sauce, 17 blueberry jam, 25 raspberry lemon jam, 11 raspberry jelly, 20 mixed berry jelly.  Out of that one cousin took a jar of each, one aunt took 2 jars of each, Bishop’s parents took 2 jars of each and the rest didn’t take any.  We also gave some to Granny’s neighbors and friends but in the end there was like 60 jars left.  One aunt is coming back next week and we set aside 3 of each kind for her and split the rest.  That is one box on my counter since I don’t have the cupboard space to put them away.

Also is a box of beading and jewelry making supplies.  Some stuff I’ll use I suppose, I could make a nice bracelet for myself or something but that’s it.  Also is a box of bathroom supplies.  You know, band-aids and hair spray and lotion and stuff.

The state’s budget cuts have come down and as of October 1st I’m out of a job.  So the last 2 days I’ve been rewriting my resume and asking for help hoping that I can have a nice enough resume to mean something in an economy where everyone is looking for a job.  I’ll probably end up working at Safeway and I’m ok with that. Mom said she will watch Derek for me so I don’t have to worry about child care costs but I’ll probably pay her something anyway.  That way it doesn’t feel like I’m using her.

And hopefully I’ll have him weaned, or mostly weaned by then.   His 9 month appointment was a week ago, he is now 18 pounds and 27.5 inches long.  Kinda small since he has only gained 8 ounces and 1 inch since he was 6 months old but he is super active, trying to walk and crawling top speed back and forth around the living room.  Also he is about to cut another tooth and that means that his eating is off right now.  He only wants to eat cereal, Kix and Cheerios and the Beechnut yogurt bites.  And maybe some pasta or cheese but no meat or veggies are interesting him right now.  I can’t wait until that next tooth comes in and he goes back to normal.

Also at his appointment his Dr told me that he can eat anything we eat except nuts.  That means that he can have whole milk.  I’ve been trying a bottle or a sippy cup with a little bit of milk once a day.  He isn’t into it much but he doesn’t seem to hate it.  It’ll take time, I know.

Now Derek is getting fussy so I must sign off.  And pass a Happy Birthday to Mason.  Hope you all had a great 1st birthday!

Hello there.

So I know I have been kinda behind on blogging so even though it’s almost midnight, 12 minutes to midnight in fact, and I should be asleep but I’m not tired so I’ll update you all in what is going on.

We finally finished the canning.  I don’t have the total count of how many jars we ended up with but it was 2 batches of currant pepper sauce (it was supposed to be jelly but it never set.  That’s ok, it will be a great sauce on pork or lamb.), 2 batches of blueberry jam, 2 batches of currant jelly (or if it doesn’t set it will be sauce, it didn’t look like it was setting after it cooled but who knows, we may get a miracle after all and end up with jelly), 2 batches of raspberry/taeberry jam, and 6 batches of raspberry/blueberry/taeberry jelly.  It’s a whole sea of jars on Granny’s table.  I’ll make a final count and take a pic of them, I know you all will be impressed, no wonder it took 5 days to do it all!

MIL and FIL came the other day, we haven’t seen much of them but it’s ok.  They are having fun tootling around.

My aunts will be here on Thursday. I’m not looking forward to the drama that will ensue with them being here and going through Granny’s house but once they leave we’ll be able to clean it out the rest of the way and sell it.  No more worrying about watering the plants and making sure everything is clean and organized.  Saturday we are supposed to go scatter her ashes.  I still haven’t mourned for her, I have a feeling that will be the time.

Tomorrow is our anniversary, 7 years.  Wow!  And Thursday is Bishop’s birthday.  He will be 34.  We’ve been together since he was 25 so that makes almost 10 years.  It’s amazing, I don’t think either of us thought we would be here 9 years later.

And finally Bishop is feeling better, a little better anyways, but Derek and I both have the cold he had.  I’m all gunked up and ave been downing anything with vitamin C in it and taking as much tylenol as I can.  Derrek can’t blow his nose so I have to suction it out.  That is the worst job in the universe, let me tell you.  I don’t think he will ever forgive me for doing that but at the same time after I’m done unclogging his nose he smiles at me and takes a deep breath through his nose.  I guess he isn’t that mad at me for doing it.  He was running a fever tonight, 99.4.  I really hope he doesn’t get any sicker.  He fell asleep at 8 tonight, I’m hoping that he will sleep in late in the morning, I know I could use the sleep.  But tomorrow Bishop is off of work so maybe he can watch him for a while while I nap.

What’s going on?

Well, a lot of things have been happening since my computer broke so I have some time, the kitchen is clean, the dishwasher is running and Derek is napping so I have a couple minutes to tell all of you. 

Bishop had pneumonia, he was running a fever of 102 for almost a week before he went to the Dr then after 6 days of an expensive antibiotic he is all better.  Yesterday was his first day back at work and he is feeling tired but almost normal again.

Somehow I managed to sprain my left wrist doing laundry last week, I thought I had tore a tendon or something but it’s feeling much better even with all the stuff I’ve been doing so I think I just stretched it out too much.

Mom and I have been working like hell to get Granny’s house organized before everyone comes.  My aunts are supposed to be here on the 13th and her memorial and the scattering of her ashes is going to be on the 15th.   Yesterday I spent 10 hours straight processing berries (blueberries, raspberries and currants) out of her freezer and making blueberry jam.  Today after our appointments mom and I are going to work on making the raspberries and currants into jelly.  I hate canning but I love the results so I do it.  We had about 2 gallons each of the berries, and that is juice only.  All the pulp and seeds were discarded after going through the juicer.  Today’s job is the easy part, I only hope that we have enough jars for all of this canning.

Derek has 2 more teeth, he had the bottom middle 2 already, the new ones are on the top, but aren’t the middle ones, they are the ones on either side of where the middle ones are going to be.  He is starting to look like a jack-o-lantern.  Maybe a good idea for halloween.  He will be 9 months old on Monday, I can’t believe it’s gone so fast.  He is almost walking now, he is getting closer and closer, standing up on his own for a couple seconds here and there, letting go of the couch to walk the step to me on the floor before falling down or reaching me….it’s so cool!

Bishop’s mom and step dad are going to be here tomorrow, I thought they were coming later in the month but I guess not.  They are supposed to be here for 2 or 3 weeks…with my aunts being here at the same time it’s going to be crazy hectic.  I’ll be glad for the extra pairs of hands to help with Derek but at the same time I wish she had waited until after my family is here.

And finally here is some pics to share with all of you…

A new way to crawl, he hates the feeling of the cement under his knees so he ends up crawling/walking like this when outside.

Me and Derek and Lin on the beach….poor guy had a runny nose but had a great time chewing on the big rocks and little pieces of drift wood that he found.

Here he is on grandma’s lap, he didn’t want to wake up from his nap and kept smiling so sweet when my mom would jiggle him and talk to him.  I couldn’t resist taking a pic…