Is It Still 2020????

Hi there everyone. Hope you are having a good year so far. This might be a short blog, or it might be a long blog, depends on how wordy I am today.

January has really been a very eventful month so far and not completely for the good. Oh there were a few blessings along the way for sure, January has not completely bottomed out yet.

One awesome blessing I received was that I was gifted with a Simple Living Air Fryer!!! I had been wanting one for 6 months. But never really had the money (figured I had to wait for the stimulus)....first things first, the bills have to get paid first. I really love this air fryer. I have made french fries, potato chips, steak and mushrooms (yum), chicken, hamburgers and onions. Oh and I boiled small potatoes cut them in half, then mashed them, sprayed them, seasoned them and put them in the fryer, 15 minutes @ 400 degrees. After cooking, topped the crunchy potatoes with sour cream.....oh yeah, happy days!!!

A fellow blogger, My Bizzy Kitchen sent me this air fryer via Amazon. It was such a surprise, and I am really enjoying it. Dinner tonight will be chicken and those mashed potatoes. YUM!!!! Thank you Biz, I love this machine and have figured out how to work it.

Another blessing is "Weatherization" came into my house to do some work. More insulation in the attic, 2 new fire alarms and a carbon monoxide alarm. They changed 24 energy efficient light bulbs. Checked out the furnace. AND, this Friday I will be receiving a brand new Energy Star Refrigerator. My refrigerator is 15 years old. So this will be a good thing. I have to clean it and empty it of it's contents...of course, figured I would do that tomorrow and as long as it is cold, I can keep things outside. I shall see. 

Looks like this blog is becoming a wordy one, cause the really big problem we had this month is JP has been in the hospital since last Thursday. Dinner on Wednesday (13th) was french fries and a hot dog, bun and soup. JP's habit is not to eat things hot, so the food sat on the table for an hour till it was cold. He was eating the hot dog, did not chew it completely and swallowed it whole. Then he started chocking and spitting up, this went on all night. Little did we know he was close to pneumonia also. I called 911 about 7:30 am. (14th)JP was taken to the hospital and he has been there ever since. He might be home today, but I have not heard as yet. He is dealing with a few other issues and I guess they are working on those also. 

With Covid 19, I am not able to visit JP at the hospital, which makes it even harder and I have to go by what the Doctor or nurses say. I probably should call the nurses desk today. The last nurse I talked to did not give a whole lot of info. JP calls every day, but he kinda skims over things and can't remember a lot.

I have managed to clean a bit around the house, looks pretty nice right now. Dishes done, wash pretty much done, shopped last night so there is food in the house. Vacuumed, dusted etc. Not sure I will have time to do much when he comes home. I guess my new job description is "care giver". Guess it was that all along, but I did not realize that.

Another sad thing happening, my Chicago Blackhawks have not won a game yet. 4 games played and the same 4 games lost. They came close to winning last night, but hey, there is 52 games yet to play. I shall root for them through it all. I am sure there will be some wins along the way.

So now you know why I titled this blog...."is it still 2020"  personally I don't think 2020 left. 2021 is just a continuation of 2020. Not sure I am liking this New Year, it's not started out on the RIGHT FOOT....get it??? Lol

I am cooking some green pea soup with a ham bone in it. I am getting whiffs of it right now, can hardly wait. Think I will look up a recipe and see what spices I should put in it. So you all take care and stay safe from the Covid. If you think about it, do pray for JP and I. Just not sure what is around the corner for us. Keep looking up cause better days are coming. Cheers ~ Louise

Duckies in my Backyard

Hi there everyone....how you all doing?? It's still Quarantine time here in Wisconsin. Kind of getting tired of this staying home business....I needs to get out of here and just go shopping with out worries of getting sick. But my mind takes over and says...."oh, just be lazy and do nothing!!" So I listen, and only do what I feel like doing when ever I feel the need to do something. So everything sits for a couple of days till I finally get to it. Same thing with this blog...guess that is why you don't see too many posts from me...just lazy I guess.

So on April 9th we had some visitors to our back yard....Mr. & Mrs. Duckie. Wonder what drew them to our backyard...not really sure. Maybe they thought there was water near by. Maybe it looked like a good place to hide and take a rest. Whatever it was...glad they landed in our backyard.

Isn't this a handsome male duck? I love the way the sun hits his head....so pretty!!

See the female, she almost blends in with the dirt, leaves and moss. I was taking the pictures from the kitchen window....almost seemed like they were watching me, making sure I stayed my distance. They made their way around the tree and into the section behind my bedroom window. Then came around again to the patio.

They were keeping an eye on me....no sudden moves please!!! Then suddenly from above....comes a black squirrel down the tree....what are those big birds doing down there....WHAT!?! HEY!!! This is MY tree and MY yard...scram you's guys!!! Suddenly they were gone. Squirrel and ducks gone as quickly as they came!!!

Certainly am feeling like I live at a Wild Animal Preserve…they must know I am still missing my doggie. So when an animal shows up....it's picture taking time....love when the animals come to my backyard.

This rabbit showed up last September in front of my bedroom window....I zoomed in quite a few times to get this close up. I think he/she was watching me. No sudden moves please!!!

Pretty soon it will be time for me to go outside and start working in the yard....I have quite a lot of work to do. Well, a little bit at a time and I might be done by fall.

We finally got the stimulus check in the mail today....that helps for sure, We will have to use it to pay the property taxes and probably the Federal taxes too, but that won't be due till July 15th, thank God the due date was pushed up. We would not have had the $$$ at the time it was due and probably would have had to call IRS to get an extension.

I ordered 1/2 yard of some Chicago Blackhawk material on Etsy....I want to make some masks. Made two masks yesterday, using red check material, just to see if I could. They turned out okay and will be good to wear while my Blackhawk masks are getting made. I have to see if I can make a "single" layered mask....two layer is hard to breathe through....some of these masks being made on "you tube" have 3 layers. Now that would be very hard to breathe through. I tried making a bandana mask...with all the folds there were 8 layers.....whew, that was really hard to breathe through. I could only leave it on for a few minutes. My gosh....a person needs to breathe!!!!

One of these days I will start working on some cards...that is one of those things I keep putting off for another day. You would have thought I would have been doing cards all this time. Quarantine = card making. Guess not, not in my books.

Still making bread, buns, cookies, pizza dough, waffles etc. with my sourdough starter. Want to make some sourdough donuts one of these days....soon. Well, I think it is time to close here, this post is getting insanely long and probably boring. So you all take care and I hope in the next few weeks we can all escape "house arrest" and get on with our lives!!!! Cheers ~ Louise