Calling All Jars... To The Basement!

The Christmas holiday is over. We got home from Sunday school and church and something clicked. Something that clicks about this time every year. The subconscious urge to get organized. I don't know if it's a subliminal superstition that things need to be put away, floors need to be swept, empty canning jars to the basement, or if it is simply a mental reasoning, "every thing's in it's place" feeling that I need when a new year is coming. Either way... it has to be done before the stroke of midnight on January 31st.

I actually think I did read the superstition once, maybe in a feng shui book I picked up while trying to cleanse my home. I, to this day, after reading a small belief book of red doors and plants in certain corners, have nothing under my bed. Actually there is a dog bed but she prefers it be there... not me.

Today I have completely cleaned my crap/craft room, moved my jars, put up the Christmas tree and stockings, organized the VCR/DVDs and feel much, much better. Yes... we do still have and watch VCR tapes. We live in the country, 1/2 mile off the road. Who can afford to run the cable TV that far? I did, however happily accept an outdoor antenna from my husband this Christmas which I am so excited about. Not that we will have tons more channels to find nothing to watch on but for the shear fact that on Monday nights at 7:00 p.m. from now until free television is no longer offered I will be watching the Antiques Roadshow and eating my bacon, egg and cheese sandwich with plain Lay's, dill pickles and beverage of choice with a gratifying smile upon my face.

As for the new year ahead, I will be ready. I still have to arrange the top shelf in the dinnerware cabinet to stop the clinking of glass up there and whatever else I come up with to straighten, dust and regulate. I believe in not taking a bunch of clutter, dirt and disarray into a new year for fear that the year that lies ahead will too be cluttered, dirty and in total disarray. Even if it's just a silly Old Wives' Tale, sweeping out all of this year's dust is a good feeling.

While cleaning out my, messy as all get out craft room today, I came across some inspiring notes that I took when I was watching a sermon on television one Sunday morning. I am at a constant struggle in my mind between work and my impatient mind in what I really want to be doing with my life. I keep having a nagging in my heart to "just do it" and a pulling in my mind that says "do what?"


My notes included: Lord, take my creativity and make me creative to make a difference. Help me to use the right and left side of my brain together. Help me to use my talents for others.


There are a lot of choices for New Year's Resolutions. One year I made a resolution to stop storing pans and pots inside my oven. I realized just yesterday that I succeded in doing just that. My thoughts today are this, if I can stop a simple habit such as pots and pans storage I can make what I really want to be doing just as simple as that. Can't I?

I'd better get to thinking of what it is I can use my talents for in the coming year.


All things are possbile with God.

All In A Day's Thankfullness

After a day of orientation at my new part time job, which included five hours of training via computer, my jaw hurt from clinching, my eyes from staring at a white screen and my head from a combination of the two. Not to mention the nauseated feeling from taking quizzes after each session. I have never been a test taker. Even my mother said this after putting myself through real estate school twice and flunking the state test three times. I was still puking the following morning on the way to work after the third time... which was not my charm.

The average person or should I say the "normal" person would have come home, took off their shoes and laid down to rest after an anxiety filled afternoon. Not I. As soon as I rounded the corner of the driveway leading to the house I felt better. I saw Miss Pepper, who is finally old enough to stay out from her pen (at fourteen) while I go out during the day.

When I pulled in the garage and got out of the car I was instantly energized. I came in to the house and immediately threw out the casserole in a bag that had been thawing out all day in the sink. I had just finished learning the do's and don'ts of freezing and thawing and bacteria growing for five hours. There was no way I was cooking it.

I opened the freezer, pulled out two chicken breast and got busy creating a fabulous meal of chicken parmesan, a salad with cukes from the garden and garlic bread for my hard working, good smelling man... and myself. When I hear that diesel engine coming up the drive it puts a smile on my face like no other... every time.

I can have fun at my new job. I get to make things, and clean up after myself and learn new things. And to boot I get to love what I come home to.

Blackberrycello

Blackberrycello... well that's what I am calling it. After picking berries Sunday morning I couldn't decide what to make with them. I didn't want to make a cobbler because Shaun and I never eat it all and it would just wind up going to the pigs. So I thought I would make a liqueur sort of concoction out of the berries which is what I did.

Feel free to try this yourself. Although I won't be able to give results for some time the berries are free in the woods right now so what the hell.

P.S. this is only part one to the recipe since I am kinda winging it. I will have another post in 40 days with the second step... K?


Blackberrycello

2 1/2 cups blackberries
3 cups vodka or 750 ml
lemon zest of 1 lemon

Put blackberries into a large glass jug.
Take your potato masher and squash the heck out of them. Next using your lemon zester, scrape the yellow off of the lemon. Try not to get any of the white pith... pith... pith is something you do behind a truck at a party... after dark of course. Not a fan of that word. Add the lemon zest to the mashed blackberries.

Pour in the vodka, put the lid on and give it a good shake to mix it up well. It doesn't really matter what kind of vodka you use. Cheap stuff, expensive stuff... it all gets you where you want to be. Just make sure it's 80 to 100 proof because this will probably be stored in the freezer.


Now comes the wait. Place your jug in a cool, dark place. Mine stays underneath our steps in the basement. Pretty much any time of the year you'll find something in a jar under there... fermenting... in a good way. Leave it there for lets say forty days. You can visit it from time to time and give it a little shake and a smooch if you want to. Then we'll go to step two.

I actually made mine on the 28th. So somewhere around August 6th or 7th I will post the second stage of our experiment. If your planning ahead you will need sugar, water and more vodka. So you (I) have time to save for the next bottle. Hey I'm the one with no job here!
I am thinking about trying a different recipe to see which one turns out the best so stay tuned.