Life Goes On…A Backache, A Bazaar, Flying Fur, & Some Baking

Grab your cup of breakfast and let me tell you a story of my weekend. In my case I made some pumpkin scones (actually they are made with squash). I’m having a cup of coffee and a scone this morning…but I’ll get to that later…first a story of a backache, a bazaar, flying fur and some baking

My daughters and I had a Holiday Bazaar to attend on Saturday.   As I was sitting down Friday afternoon trying to finish some hooks for my ornaments, my back started to spasm.  After trying to tough it out, I finally had to call my husband to come home and help me out.  My youngest came home to find me in tears, lying on the couch unable to move. 

When my husband came home, I begged him to take me to the doctor.  He said the doctor wouldn’t be able to help.  My husband gave me some pain medication and sent me to bed.  He came up and laid down with me.  The pain was excruciating.  I promised to do some stomach exercises to strenghten my back.  I promised to adjust my computer table and chair so I wasn’t hunched over.  I promised to replace my computer tablet with a regular mouse.  I promised to never sit on the floor with no back support.

I learned when my girls came along that even if your sick, life goes on.  I never promised to stop working.  We did go to the Holiday Bazaar.  My back was killing me, but I made it through.  I sold a little bit of stuff, mostly inexpensive magnets.  The kids wheeled and dealed and sold most of their things, sometimes below what it cost them to make!  When they wanted to do it again next year.  I told them they had to pay all their expenses, the materials and the booth rental…sometimes a lesson can only be taught in baby steps.

With Thanksgiving right on the tail of Bazaar, I really needed to get going on my cleaning and baking.  The first thing on my list was to get the dogs cleaned up and trimmed.   When I found out that each of my Cockapoos would cost $50 each time I wanted them groomed, I decided to buy the grooming table, razor, trimmer, scissors, brushes, combs, blow dryer and everything else I needed to groom them.  I figured if they lived to be at least 15, I would have plenty of time to learn how to give them a hair cut.

 When you live in the country in Northwest Oregon, you have a lot of mud.   Trying to keep the floor clean with 2 dogs and 3 cats has been impossible.  I decided to shave the dogs paws.

Poor Honey.  When I shaved her paws, she looked like a white ham on sticks.  If she had seen herself in the mirror, she may have decided not to pose for a photo.

Dibbs actually didn’t look as bad.  It’s hard to tell though, he refuses to stay still for a photo.

Now back to that scone in the first photo.  We ended up with quite a few volunteers in our garden this year. My husband decided to just let them grow.  I know the green and yellow cucumber shaped squash are Delicata.  The green and orange ones, I think are pumpkins. 

When I was cooking one of our sugar pumpkins for pies, I decided to cook a few of the orange and white squash as well.  I made the scones using the flesh of the orange and white one.  The orange colored flesh had a wonderful smooth texture that taste wonderful in scones.  I’ll be making Thanksgiving pies later.

My mother and stepfather are coming for Thanksgiving.  Even though my mom always says “Don’t go out of your way for us”, I know she’ll be looking around my house with a critical eye.  She’s obsessive about her cleaning.  She used to have me clean and polish all the kitchen cabinets prior to guests coming on Thanksgiving…like anyone is really going to look that close at the kitchen cabinets.   Backache or not I will be cleaning up as much of the clutter as possible for the next 3 days and baking a few pies and other dishes.

 BTW, my studio is just a few cabinets away from complete.  I’ll have to take some photos.  I am so pleased with how it turned out!