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!)

Christmas Before Thanksgiving

Every year I see people putting their Christmas trees up early before it's even Thanksgiving. Usually I'm one of those people that are like - come on, wait your turn! It's too early! I've even been noticing it a lot more this year. Sooooo many people have their trees (and even outdoor Christmas decorations!) up already! But you know what??? This is the one year in all of existence when I've actually wanted to put the tree up earlier than Thanksgiving. I guess it's because we finally own our own place, and because we've been getting out and enjoying the outdoors, we really feel the change in the season and we want to be in a Christmas mood. The only sad thing is... it's all still in storage! :-/

There's A Man in the Ground!

I looked out the window today, and I wished I had thought to get a picture or video, but there was a man's head walking back and forth right at ground-level! It was kind of amusing to see! I just saw this yellow hat moving back and forth over by the summer kitchen. I circled the spot in the picture. It was about right about here:

We didn't think the well guys were going to stay as long as they did today, but I'm glad they're working hard on it! It'll be so nice to not have to worry about the neighbors shutting it off during the whole day. The first day they worked on drilling our well, they left it off until about 10:00 at night! It wasn't the well guys who did it because they didn't even need the water turned off yet. Our neighbors are just jerks.

Anyway, I got a stone box in the mail today. I'm going to use it to create a memoriam for our cat Snootz. I figured wood would warp and rot. Metal would rust. Stone was a good option. It has metal hinges, but at least the stone part of the box should last a good while (unless it ever cracks)! I'm not sure what it's made of (other than stone lol), but it has a pretty design on top, and it arrived safely.

The plan so far is that I'm going to laminate the photos so they are water proof, stick them in a plastic ziplock bag, and put them in the stone box at her grave. Then if anyone happens to come across them, they will be able to pull them out, take a look, and see all about our baby girl. I know she was a cat, but she was special to us. All of our babies are. Eventually I want to make memorials for all of them, including some of our past beloved pets, like Phantom our ferret, and Onyx, our rabbit. You can view the angel statue I got for her on my blog post here:

https://themultimom.blogspot.com/2021/11/a-memorial-statue-for-snootz.html

Got My Thanksgiving Outfit On

On the @PotterworldMC server again. Got my Thanksgiving outfit on that I used to have back in the day. I had to make it new since I can't find the original skin. I'm sitting at my house table (Serpent instead of Slytherin for copyright reasons) and having turkey while waiting for Thanksgiving day!

You Can Only Have 1 Doughnut

I said number 2
Adam said number 1

Tricity said number 3, because that's the closest to glazed that she can see.

I also enjoy a plain glazed doughnut, a twist, and a chocolate-covered longjohn!

There's a Leak In Our Yard

The well guys came early today and left, but what is all of this? I'm guessing it's the sediment from drilling? It's like sand and rock all over the place. But there is water trickling out of the ground now! They put the pipe in and now the other guys will have to come tomorrow to hook everything up.

Tricity came home sick today. She still wasn't feeling too good after being home sick yesterday. We were supposed to go to Family Night at the middle school tonight, but Adam said he's not feeling good either, and to be honest, neither am I. All I wanted to do is sleep most of the day. Devin has basketball practice though, and Adam said he will at least take him to that. I wish I could get pictures of that, but we're not allowed in the gym for insurance reasons, just like with the girl scout meetings now. Am I happy about that? No. I'd much rather be at his practices to see what I can help him out with, or what he's doing great in, but it is what it is... It's not the same world that it used to be any more...

A Memorial Statue for Snootz

I got a memorial statue for Snootz today. It's an angel kitty. I'm going to figure out how to make a concrete slab with her name on it, and then I will use some kind of epoxy to cement it to the slab, making a pretty headstone. On a lower level of the headstone is going to be a box where I will put some waterproof photos of her for anyone who should come out to remember her, or whomever may happen to come across her grave.

The Kids Went Crazy For My Deep Fried Chicken!

Tricity styed home sick today. She was running a fever last night, so I gave her some Nyquil and let her sleep in this morning. We thought we were over it because it done made it's rounds once already, but when Devin stayed the night at my Mom's house, they both were sick and he brought it back to us. Now we're going through it all again. I've had it, Adam had it, Tricity has it... Then the girls, Khloe, and probably Devin again!

Anyway, for dinner I made fried chicken. (I keep wanting to type "friend chicken"! *gnaws on naughty fingers*) I haven't made fried chicken in over 10 years! I remember hating it because the breading would always fall off and it just took FOREVER! But now that I'm getting more brave with the deep fryer, and my fried fish was a success, I thought I'd try deep frying the chicken. Maaaaaan... I'm glad i did! The skin was so crispy and the kids just loved it! I couldn't help taking a bite of it before I took a picture! lol They said this is how they want the chicken made from now on.

I also made broccoli with cheese, and mashed potatoes. The potatoes got slightly burnt in the Instapot, but after fixing them up with some butter, cream, sour cream, and salt and pepper, the kids said they actually tasted really good, and they want them like that for Thanksgiving! haha It made me laugh. They weren't wrong though!

Meet Barry the Sleeve!

I saw this on Amazon and HAD to get myself an early Christmas present! It's a bariatric plushie! I love it  (When Adam finally has his kidney surgery, I'm going to get him a kidney one to mark the occasion lol)

 

I'm 5 pounds away from 100 pounds gone! I'm just feeling frustrated because I've been on a stall for a couple of weeks now, and it's so close! I just want to be at that point where I can celebrate this HUGE milestone! I also have a 6 month appointment coming up next month, so I'm hoping it will break soon so I can lose more before I see my surgeon again. In other words - Guys! I lost 95 freaking pounds!!! How awesome is that? :-D

The Next Plans For Our Homestead

So for now, I've got my little projects I'm been working on like like repainting the house, gardening (like when I planted all the bulbs), animals (taking care of the cats, dogs, quails, rabbits, etc.), but the next step is to expand the home with adding on an additional manufactured home so each kid can have their own room! We originally planned on Devin and Khloe sharing the summer kitchen. We were going to build a wall between the two sections and fix it up, but plans have changed since then.

Now they want to be in the main house, and I don't blame them! They don't want to have to walk across the snow in the winter just to come over and have dinner. I don't want that for them either. They also want to have access to all the cats, and I agree. I don't want to do without Junko. He's a sweet big boy! So now we're keeping an eye out for a cheap mobile home that we can move out here and connect to the main house. Then the room that connects the two will be a sun room for the cats, and I'll build little structures on the walls for them to climb and hang out. There will be a little seat hanging from in front of the window that they can jump into and soak up the sun.

Then since every trailer comes with a living room and a kitchen, I was thinking of maybe turning the living room into a gaming room, and the kitchen into a gym? All we need is at least 2 bedrooms. If it's 3 bedrooms, maybe we can put Allison or Jazmin in that room, or turn it into a spare bedroom for when someone comes to visit? (To be honest, it would probably be a room for one of the girls so that as they get older, they will have their own space, instead of it being a spare room that sits there for months unused.)

So it would look maybe something like this?

As for the summer kitchen, it would be great to turn that into my studio! I could record stuff out there, and it could be a huge craft room for me and the kids, and a gardening space as well! We could keep all that stuff out there so if we wanted to go paint and get messy, we could make a mess without worrying about destroying the main house.

Next year, I still have projects I want to work on as well, such as building a deck for a pool, a firepit sitting area, the remembrance gardens, the vegetable garden, the animal pens, the bus stop for all the kids in our area, and the playground. It's going to take time and money. Money is the biggest problem... but I sure can't wait to fix up this homestead and shape it into the home we always dreamed of!

Then it should be more like this:

And yes, that includes a bus stop for the kids in our area. All the kids catch the bus here at the end of our property, and so will Jazmin for the next 12 years, so I think a place for them to sit and be sheltered would be nice for me to do  We plan on having a cow, pig, chickens, maybe a goat or 2, and some other variety of livestock. Then there's going to be the huge garden where we will try our hand at growing everything, even if it doesn't turn out right. At least we'll try. I definitely must have a fruit orchard, which may take a few years to grow fruit, but at least it'll be there. Then there's the dog run for all our pups Adam wants to have. The playground will be for the swingset, trampoline, and any other play stuff. I'd like to build a deck out on the creek so we can just sit and enjoy the sounds of the water if we want to. The remembrance gardens will have one area for family and friends, and one for pets. Then in-between those, I'd like to eventually have a gazebo. Then there's the deck extension that wraps around the house to the pool, and the fire pit area, and a turtle pond will be right by it. Those are just some basic plans anyway. I've always dreamed big. Now let's home I can come up with the funds to make those dreams come true!

Doppelgänger

Sometimes I wish I looked like somebody famous so I could use that to my advantage by doing cosplays and making that person's fans really happy. I see these people on TikTok that look exactly like Hermione, Harry Potter, Loki, Robin Williams, Harley Quinn, Lucille Ball, and even a female Jim Carey! I just think it would be awesome to market on that and really make people feel just that much closer to their favorite character or celebrity by embracing it. Do you think I look like anybody???

Adults Love Bluey, Too!

Some time back, the girls got me into watching the cartoon Puppy Dog Pals. I'd say it was back in 2019 when I used to babysit Jazmin before we got custody of the kids. I thought it was adorable! And I loved that one of the voice actors was also the kid who voiced Catbug. I didn't mind cuddling up and watching it with her.

Now there is this cartoon that they watch that I ABSOLUTELY love called Bluey! I originally saw it during the time when we were staying at my in-laws house, and I had to find cartoons for the kids to watch. Allison saw the name on the channel menu and said they REALLY wanted to watch it, and even Tricity said "Yeah, I've seen it before, it's a cute cartoon" so I said sure, I'll give it a shot. I'm glad I did! I love how the Dad does a lot of the playing around with the kid, like Adam does with the girls, and how the Mom does more of the work around the house like me. Now when the opening comes on, instead of the names they say on the show, we say "Aunt Candice, Uncle Adam, Jazmin, Allison!" If you have little kiddos, I highly recommend watching it with them. So cute!

They Knocked Our Fence Down!

The well guys showed up today! One of the first things they did was knock our fence over... Did they bother to fix it? No... Did they offer to take anything off of the bill for it? No... I'm high-key upset. I loved this fence! It's part of the charm that made me fall in love with this place! It's very rustic-looking and I love how it went with the aesthetic of our homestead. GRR!

Anyway, the got to digging. It's an artisan well, and they have to dig until they get to it, then they have to run the pipes, and then they will set up the tank and get it all hooked up and going. Then they're going to tap off the line that runs to the neighbors house so we will be independent from them. How awesome is that? If you didn't see why, be sure to check out my last post (here https://themultimom.blogspot.com/2021/11/well-well-well.html ) where I explained about our asshole neighbors... It's expensive, but if we're going to be living here for the rest of our lives, it's the best decision.

The truck is huge! And it goes so high into the air, about as tall as the tress! It's very loud, too. I have to almost yell for Adam to hear me sometimes.

There's also a guy coming today to pick up some junk and take it off. he's charging $20 but for all the stuff he's taking off, it's a great deal! In Perryville, they would have charged $10 for each item. he's taking 2 stoves, a washer, a big bbq grill, and a mower deck that the woman left here who used to own this place. Then he's also taking 2 dryers of ours that quit working. I kept one of the dryer drums though, because I'm going to use that as a base for my fire pit when I build it next year. Just knock out the fins inside, build bricks around it, and there we go!

Well... *deep sigh* looking on the bright side of things... since the diggers knocked our fence down, I was wanting to do something like this along the driveway anyway with rose bushes and Italian cypress trees. The only issue will be coming up with the money to make it happen! Maybe space them further apart, though. But won't it look so fancy??? ♥