2022 Coming In Hot...

Happy 13th day of 2022 friends! Who else is on a positive start to the new year? Oh this girl right here 🙋🏻‍♀️ is doing everything in her power to stay positive. Call it a mindset game if you want, but I'm doing my best! And I'm hoping all of you are having a great start. I know there are a lot of people out there coming down with 'the sickness'. I think our family has had our share, I know I have. But fortunately, with a lot of love, patience, compassion, and teamwork from all our family members, each of us have pulled through!

And this is our group!!! What a fantastic holiday season we had. All our kids were able to be home to celebrate with us both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinner (which is when this pic was taken). It's the first time we had all 5 dogs together indoors! But I was ready for it and I honestly found it hilarious to see everyone scramble trying to keep an eye on their fur baby. Our newest grandpup belongs to our youngest, sitting at the top of the steps holding her. She is a German Shepherd like our Kimber and Karma and her name is LOVE❤️.

It's so funny when she gets in trouble and you reprimand her with her name and a cuss word! "Oh damnit, Love". It almost sounds non-aggressive lol. The two pups at the bottom are Nash and Maia (the Boxer). They are a handful, the party animals, the drunk girlfriend you have to keep an eye on kind of dogs...and the happiest bunch of nuts ever. Our daughter and her boyfriend had to be strategically placed at the bottom of the steps to keep them still! And yes, it was pajama night!

And while I'm sharing family photos, here is one from Thanksgiving! I have to tell you, this has been on my bucket list forever. I have ALWAYS wanted to do this, but I also wanted to eat outside (for more authenticity), but the weather wouldn't cooperate...so indoors it was!

I'm pretty sure this will be an every year thing. I even captured a ceremonial drum performance from our son (he didn't know I was looking). You know it was intense when the headdress came off and the braids got pinned up...And before anyone says something, this was not in disrespect to Pilgrims or Indians as I'm sure my Cherokee ancestors would find a way to come back and let me know of their unhappiness if it were!

New Year's brought my daughter and her friend home (with grandpup LOVE) again for an extended weekend visit. It was a calm New Year's eve as I was in the heat of not feeling well at all. Food was fun as we kept it finger food style, eating appetizers and cheeses, dips, fruits, and veggies from an impromptu charcuterie board! Sadly, I ended up giving my daughter more than hugs by the time she got back home to Virginia...

And now that the Christmas decor is put away and we are all on the mend, it is time to plan out 2022 and I'm ready to do it! January is my month of planning. I've been making lists of house projects and Bill has gotten a big one started and almost done. I'll be showing pics of that soon. I think we are on the same page about getting our floors done on the second floor LIKE NOW. It feels so incomplete up there and it bothers me tremendously. So, I'm hoping that will be the next project. Even though that's an indoor project I still have to plan for the outdoors now. Seed starting is coming up and I have yet to figure out what we are going to grow this year, what we're not, and what other little things we may want to do to the gardens and yard.

This was Bill making his way through the garden at the end of the season last year, collecting some final harvest!

As you all know, I'm not big into "resolutions", but what I am into is making an ETT list (Encouraged To Try). This year I've been trying to get a little more organized. I'm setting certain days to do certain "jobs". Not the normal everyday housekeeping jobs as I already am on top of that, but more of the other things like my Etsy shop, my blog (!!!), my Norwex business, my letters to my greatest friends over seas. My goal is to keep from feeling mentally overwhelmed and trying to push myself to do it all in one day. Another organizational chore I'm excited to start is cleaning up my pictures from my phone and computer, getting some books made from all those pictures, (which I just did for my gardens of 2021-it's been ordered and I'm excited to get it and share it with you), and cleaning up EMAIL! Oh my God does anyone else have so much junk mail sent on a daily basis like me? I love a clean slate, a fresh start and organized life...gets my OCD burners all fired up! I even got this website all updated! Even though the site looks similar to what it's been, it's actually been updated (behind the scenes kind of thing). I think the biggest change you'll notice is the Recipe section. I've added a new program so the recipes are like reading real recipes from a cook book plus you can print them out. I currently only have the recipes that I've mentioned in blog posts, but I plan to add many more favorites soon, which I'm pretty excited about.

And speaking of recipes, one of my ETT items I have been dying to try is this!⤴️ This is a Sour Dough starter! I have been wanting to make my own sour dough bread (and other sour dough baked goods) for well over a year, it's just that I am not a bread maker! Bill and I currently eat sour dough bread and have for a while because it's much better for you, but finding a reliable source and not spending an arm and a leg...well, let's just say it's time I make my own bread! So, after following a few Instagram accounts and being tempted to give it a whirl, I finally decided the New Year was the time to do it. One of my favorite blogs to follow is a young mom with SEVEN kids out of Missouri. She is a homesteader, simple living, health nut and a wealth of information and recipes! You need to check her out...Farmhouse on Boone. She has a blog, facebook page, Instagram, and youtube channels. I got her sour bread starter recipe from her site and 7 days ago I started it.

It takes 7 days and a bunch of flour to get started, but I am happy to say that mine is ready to go and tomorrow morning I'm making pancakes! And this weekend I am also going to make my first loaf of sour dough bread (I have a store bought one in the freezer for back-up!) I will be following up with results.

One of my favorite gifts I received for Christmas was from Bill...(actually, all of my gifts I received were my favorite because my family is so incredibly good to me...) was a one year membership to MasterClass. Are you familiar or have you seen the commercials for MasterClass? (I linked it for you to check out) I have wanted a membership for a while, mainly because Gordon Ramsay has a couple of classes there🖤. But after I got all signed up and checked out all the Masters in the program, I found a french bread maker on there. I watched her classes on sour dough and it's just fascinating. So I have my fingers crossed and butter ready!

Tonight however, we won't be having sour dough, but instead I'm making these incredible, fall off the bone crockpot slab of ribs. This is our favorite rib recipe when we aren't smoking them so I'll be posting it soon to share!

On that note I'm going to leave you with a pic of our first snowfall of 2022. I know many are expecting a snow storm this weekend, my daughter in Virginia is expecting 12 inches at least, so stay safe, prep best you can, and snuggle up with a fire and a good book or a great television series! I plan to even if we don't get snow!