Happy New Year! 2022

I don't know how long I can keep this up, but as we venture out into 2022, it is my goal to try and make a blog post just about every day to record how my day went. This has always been my personal journal, after all. I remember when I used to write on LiveJournal and DeadJournal every day, and I'd like to get back to that. ♥ So with that being said:

In 2021:

I had my duodenal switch surgery

I lost over 100 pounds

We moved to a new town

We bought a house

We added a whole lot more pets to our family
I went blonde this year

We got full custody of the kids

We had a well built on our land

I accidentally killed some of my quail

We had a Harry Potter marathon

I was on the news for the 4th of July

Snootz was murdered by my in-laws' dogs

Our new cat Binx had kittens on Christmas Eve

The girls joined Girl Scouts

Devin joined the basketball team

The kids went back to school and really liked it

Me, Adam, Tricity, and Khloe got vaccinated

Starting this year with:
2 adults
5 kids
11 cats
9 dogs
6 turtles
5 quail
2 bunnies

Let's see how different things will be at the end of the year! We're hoping to have a lot more farm animals (even though some of them will probably get slaughtered before the year is up).

Here's a toast to surviving 2021!

Hopefully in 2022:

Adam will get his kidney transplant surgery

We can expand our home and add an addition so each kid has their own room

We will get some farm animals (pigs, cows, goats, birds of sorts)

We will grow a garden (try to, anyway!  X-D  lol)

Tricity will finish with her braces

I can start some kind of at-home business or do some craft fairs?

Maybe get me and Devin braces?

I want to finally get the fire pit made and set up

Lay concrete for the basketball hoop, pool, and bus stop

Get the playground set up for the kids

Grow my beautiful flower garden from all the bulbs I planted in 2021

Finally get a headstone made for Snootz

Finish making the signs for our homestead and welcome sign

Get some work done on renovating our house

Maybe start working on writing a novel?

Teach the kids how to make more things like jerky, butter, food canning, etc

I'll actually get my computer area set up and pay more attention to my YouTube channel!

Maybe make a return to gaming???

If I can get even half of these goals done, it'll be an awesome year for me!

Our 2021 wasn't really that bad, even though a lot of people on social media would have you believing it was a terrible year for all... The only truly bad thing that happened was our kitty Snootz getting killed, but anything else that seemed bad this year was a blessing in disguise. Nevertheless, I hope 2022 is great for EVERYONE! May everything work out on in your favor. May this be a perfect year for you and your families, with good health, good fortune, and even better memories to be made!

I know that having a great year takes time, work, sometimes patience, and often money. I've got time, plenty of patience, I'll put in the work, but money is the tough one! lol But with all that, I know I'll make 2022 a year worth meaning. As I've said before, you have to appreciate the time that is given to you. Don't take anyone, anything, any moment for granted. Only you can make yourself happy. L.I.V.E. L.I.F.E.!

Thanksgiving on the Homestead

First off, I'd like to say a huge THANK YOU to anyone who follows my blog! I may not always update my YouTube channel like I want to, but I've been trying to keep this old thing updated, so I appreciate anyone who stops by for a view ♥

First of all today, I got up and we got the day started with taking care of the animals and cleaning up to make room for all the meal work. That included changing out the water filter, which meant there was still some water left in the end of the old bottle. Of course Khloe, being the goofball she is, decided to drink the rest of it, and it just looked hilarious to me, so I snapped a pic. We called it, "When you just love water soooo much!" X-D

I wanted to watch the parade like I used to do all the time when I was growing up, but of course Adam wouldn't let me. In the whole 16 years we've been together, he's never let me watch the Thanksgiving day parade, except when it was on at my Mom's or at his Mom's... Anyway, I got the turkey started first because I figured it would take the longest. I put it in the roaster on 300 to start with for the first hour, and then I was going to put it on 450 for the next 3 hours. Khloe and Devin watched me. They were very interested in it, which made me happy! I was also pretending to do a cooking video where I was setting up the turkey, and Khloe said technically in our new kitchen, I could actually do that. I said yeah, that's eventually my goal! To do cooking videos, once I get comfortable enough with my body.

As it cooks, I go and sit down, thinking - I can play online for a while and then when it gets to be 1 1/2 hours left, I'll start working on the sides! Right? So I'm playing online and I can smell the turkey cooking. It's smelling amazing. I get up and go to look out the front door, looking through the glass, and I just see Chief staring from far away.

Just staring at me. He's such a cutie! ^_^ So then I decide that since it's feeling nice outside, and I'm in my warm new Harry Potter pajamas, I'd go outside and check on the pups. I put on Adam's boots. I think it's funny that most of us in this house all wear the same shoe size! Me, Adam, and Tricity all wear the same size, and Devin and Khloe are one size under, but they're catching up fast! So here I am with my new jammies, and with Adam's boots on.

Then I check on the puppies (and Ruby), and they're doing just fine and as cute as can be! I also check on what's left of my quails. They're fine. Castiel and Chief are good. Everyone seems to be doing alright! The dogs will get their Thanksgiving dinner later, but I made sure to get this cute picture of the 4 pups all lined up ^_^ If you don't know, from left to right is Blue, Annie, Lilith, and Rowena.

Now it has been about an hour, so I turn the turkey roaster up to 450 and it is my intention to let it cook for 3 more hours, right? I could have sworn I had turkies before that took that long to cook! Anyway, I decide to check Facebook, and I see this memory for 10 years ago... 10 YEARS AGO!!! Can you believe it's been so long? Here is Tricity from 10 years ago when she was in Kindergarten doing her Thanksgiving Feast at school. Wasn't she just the cutest? ♥

After some time, the alarm goes off telling me there's 1 hour and 30 minutes left until the turkey is expected to be done. I need help cleaning some dishes so I can get the sides started, so I called for the older kids to come help. When they come in, I start explaining to them what I need, and when I look in the direction of the kitchen, there is smoke EVERYWHERE! The house was filled with it. How did I not know?! I jump up and run to the turkey and turn it off, pull back the lid, and this is what I see...

Oh no... I had burnt the turkey!!!  >_<  Adam tried saying it wasn't burnt, it was just Cajun style. The good thing is that it was just the skin! The inside was perfect and strange enough, it was very moist! The flavor was excellent (thanks to my prep work) and it was all cooked. Thankfully, despite it looking terrible, it tasted great! The turkey was saved! So I whipped up the sides as fast as I could, and then our feast was finally ready to be enjoyed for the next few days.

We had:

Turkey

Ham

Gravy

Green bean casserole

Corn on the cob

Salted butter for the corn

Sweet Hawaiian rolls

Cornbread stuffing

Cranberry sauce

Mac and cheese

Baked beans

Mashed potatoes

Deviled eggs

German chocolate cake

Pumpkin pie

Pecan pie

For being the first Thanksgiving since my surgery, it took me about 6 hours to get through my plate! Any other year, I'd have gotten 2 plates full and taken them with me to my seat so I didn't have to get back up, but this year, I was only able to have about a teaspoon of everything. I also ended up crying during dinner, because we went around and said what we were thankful for. When it got to be my turn, I was just so overwhelmed. I know some bad things happened this year, but there's been so much to be thankful for as well! Thankful for our home, our family, my surgery, our animals... So very much! And I made sure to stress to the kids how today is a day to realize all the good things in your life and not take them for granted. Hopefully next year there will be even more good things to be thankful for! Hopefully Adam will get his surgery, and we can fix up our home. So with that, I say Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours. Be safe, be thankful, and be full! lol

Ghostbusters: Afterlife

Today we had to take Tricity to her dentist appointment and me to my chiropractor appointment, so while we were out, we went to go see Ghostbusters: Afterlife. I was NOT disappointed! I certainly did not expect to cry during a part of it, but if you watch it, let me know if you cry too! I don't believe in spoilers, but I will say - that scene with Phoebe and Egon - we all knew it was going to happen, but I got lost in the moment and forgot, so when it caught me off guard, that's why I got teary-eyed.

I don't know how else this movie could have went. It was a perfect sequel for the series (even though I've never seen the one with the women cast). I absolutely loved all the nods to the previous movies! I could have sworn that Phoebe was going to be Jenene's grandaughter though, because she looked just like her only as a kid, but she wasn't. Still pretty cool though.

I also love how it was more like HER story. I figured it would have been about her brother since he was the more famous actor from Stranger Things.

I never recognized her from the previews, but after watching it, I realized that was the same girl who played Rose on Fuller House, and had a part on Handmaid's Tale!

When I went to look up movie images, I saw that the reviews weren't so great, and I can't figure out why. I thought it was good! Or maybe they're just part of that new cancel culture generation who tend to not like anything? Either way, I thought it was really great, and I hope there will be another!

You Can Literally Taste the Rainbow!

So we've been really into Christmas this year, and I think even The Grinch Adam is maybe just a little, too! He's been buying up different flavors of candy canes for us to try this year. We've gotten the standard peppermint, lemonhead, and cinnamon, but he also got ones like Dum Dums, Airheads, Starburst, Juicy Drop, Baby Bottle Pop, and my personal favorite - Skittles! I really wanted to find the Pixy Stix candy canes this year, but it seems no one is selling them this time around? Such a shame, those are a favorite that we ALL enjoy! Anyway, the Skittles candy canes are AMAZING! You can literally taste the rainbow since all 5 flavors are twisted into one! You lick one spot of the candy cane and it will taste like berries (cherry, grape) and then you lick another spot and it tastes like citrus (lemon, orange). It's awesome! And then there's the green, whatever flavor that is... but as a Skittles lover anyway, this is one of my new favorites for Christmas time! ♥

4-Legged Turkey

Check out Jazmin's turkey!  LOL!

I especially love the 4 legs.

In class, they also painted turkeys on paper plates, made turkey headbands, made Native American vests, and Pilgrim hats. I'm sad she's the only one who didn't get to be in a Thanksgiving Feast this year like the other kids, but at least they still did basically the same activities at this school, just without all of the classes coming together for snacks.

My First Time Cooking Quail (A Story of Tragedy)

Well I guess I got to get my first experience with cooking quail today... I went to go clip their wings again because one flew out the other day. I was lucky enough to catch it, so I wanted to make sure they weren't able to get out again. I clipped them as usual, with Devin and Khloe out there helping me. Then when I finished with one, I put it in a bucket and put the lid down. Then I got to the last 2.

I went to grab one of them and it flew out! We tried looking for it for some time, and I wish I had just continued what I was doing because now I regret it... We ended up not being able to find it, so I went ahead and counted it as a loss. I went to grab the last one, and it flew out too! Luckily that one was easily caught.

The kids decided to keep looking for the other lost quail, and I said I would go ahead and move them back into the coop. I went to dump the bucket out, and a few of them were dead :-( Khloe said "Oh! Because they didn't have air to breathe!" I said "DAMMIT!!!" and started crying. I forgot to leave some space with the lid so they could get some fresh air. I felt soooooo terrible!!! At one point, I think I even tried blowing air into their beaks... It was tragic... I finished up what I was doing with feeding and watering them, checking to make sure that the remaining birds were okay, and I took them inside with me.

They're full grown now, and I said I wasn't going to let them go to waste. It's not like they weren't healthy... They were just accidentally murdered :-( Especially since a couple of them were males anyway, and we said any males we had, we were going to raise for eating. I just didn't think it was going to be so soon... I watched a video about how to clean quails, and then I looked up how to cook them. Well the cleaning part was actually easy. I even saved some feathers to use for arts and crafts, so the quail went to good use in that way as well.

As for cooking, every recipe I saw called for some fancy-schmancy to-do with all kinds of fixings and additional ingredients. I figured - well hell! I'll just make it like I do chicken, and I'll bake it and see how it goes. Ya'll... It was GOOD! It tasted like turkey to me! Everyone loved it (except for Tricity and Adam. Adam tried it but didn't like it, and Tricity refused to have any part of it because she was horrified that it happened and that I continued with cooking them up. I told her "Girl, if you're not going to eat what is raised and slaughtered in this homestead, then you're going to starve!")

I also tried cooking the tiny little livers, gizzards, and hearts. The livers and gizzards were bitter (because I didn't know you had to soak them in buttermilk first to get rid of the bitterness), but the hearts were delicious! Next time, or when I slaughter our chickens next year, I will make sure to get buttermilk first. Anyway, all I did was lay them down (I spatchcocked them) and sprinkled on salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and soul food seasoning. Yum! While I'm still sad it happened this way, I'm glad they were tasty and they were put to good use. ♥

No Hot Water!

You know how I said the guys came, dug the well, and finished the job? Well now we don't have hot water!!! I don't know what they did, but it shouldn't have affected the water heater, right? Or would it? It still has to clear up, but it's brown for now and smells like chemicals. To me, it smells like nail polish remover, as if it's from the glue they used to put the pipes together. It looks like this. Can't wait until it's normal!

I Lost 100 Pounds!

Woo-hoo! I finally hit 100 pounds down! What an awesome milestone! I still have quite a ways to go, but wow, what an accomplishment! I was actually 102 pounds down, but because weight fluctuates throughout the day, I'm just saying 100. I don't see my surgeon until the start of January, so I'm hoping to be down another 25 pounds before then. Do you think I'll be able to do it??? :-D

They Finished the Well!

They finished the well today. They said they weren't going to get it done until after Thanksgiving, but it's already finished. The water is a bit brown, but they said it will take some time for it to clear up. They also said it will need to have a filter put on it some time down the line, and that it's going to cost another $1000+. I said - why couldn't they just go ahead and do that now? Then it could have just been added to the total charge of what we're going to have to pay back to Adam's parents. I don't know... This whole thing to me was kind of a crappy deal, but it had to be done :-\

So here's our spigot, and 4 new things that have been put up in the yard that I call an annoyance to mow around mushrooms. Why do I call them mushrooms? Because that's what I'm going to pain them as when I get a chance because they look hideous and are just going to be a nuisance. I guess by the way they tore up the yard, I'm going to have to see if we can plant grass seed next year. Yet another project for the list.

Allison was feeling sick so she slept most of the day. We went to get Mom's groceries and the rest of the stuff for Thanksgiving. This year, I wanted to be ready! All except pumpkin pie and cool whip. If there's any chance I can squeeze in a pumpkin pie before Thanksgiving, that would be great, because that's what Khloe and Devin really love! At least we will have a feast to kick off the first Thanksgiving in our forever home ♥

Elegant Armor Gown

I swear, if I ever won the lottery jackpot, I'd wear gowns and dresses like this every day just for the hell of it! And crowns, too!  Someone would come to my house to deliver something and I'd be like - Yaaaaas, bish. Welcome to my kingdom peasant! Just put that box down over there, and I may considering knighting thee! (This dress is GORGEOUS!)