Hello again! :)

Hello everyone! Been thinking about posting a new blog for some time. I did actually write one and was going to post it a few days ago, but my computer's hard drive crashed, and then while in the fix-it shop, they told me the motherboard just went kaploey! as well. A rather large bummer, if you ask me. So it's going to be a quite some time before I'm back on a computer that I can call my own. I'm thinking I'll have enough money saved up to get one by February if I pinch my pennies strategically. Or perhaps my poor computer can be fixed up somehow? Time will tell.

Oh! And to those of you who prayed that my unretrievable lost books on the harddrive could be recovered (praying for the impossible to be possible)....the tech called me last week and said in an unbelievable voice, "Would you mind paying 60 bucks for a flashdrive? We recovered your information and we need a big place to store them. ...Do you know you are the only case we have ever had where we recovered information off a destroyed disk? And all your information got recovered. Do you know how impossible that is? (in the background of this marvelous news, I was holding my heart and sighing a breath of "Praise God!") You are so lucky! We should not have been able to get any of that information back for you. When I say impossible, I mean it. So, uh, your books alone are too big for the flashdrives we have. Do you want to spend the 60 to get your recovered info?" That snapped me out of grieving the loss of my writings (I write with my heart, so its a part of me...to lose it so snap-of-a-second quick was devistating). I jumped on paying the 60, telling him how I'd prayed and had friends and family praying, so it had nothing to do with luck- God answered prayer. Now I have all my information back, and most importantly, my books were reclaimed from the ashes. The impossible has become not only possible, it happened. Thank you for praying, and I thank God for answered prayer over even such simple things.

This morning, I'm using my parents' computer. Unfamiliar to my fingertips as the large keyboard is, it works. Figured being I had a few hours before my appointment, I'd write. My writer's itch is really getting to me this morning, so I figured I'd satisfy it by posting to my blog. So does that sound good? Good.

Its a foggy morning, like yesterday. The ground is frosted over and the standing water has zigzags of ice across the top. Winter is slowly overtaking the Fall. Yesterday at work, I made quite a game of it. Yeah, I got a bit -well, very- michievious. The shrouded vail of fog was intensifying my yearning to write. Ooo it made my writer's itch just that much more itchier. Being I couldn't scratch the itch, I chose to be impish about the weather. To passers by, customers and coworkers alike, I would randomly 'happen to look' at the window, widen my eyes, pointing and exclaiming, "Its snowing!!" and then take satisfaction in how predictable their shocked wide-eyed expressions were. Every single one that I did this to, did precisely what I assumed they'd do. It pleasured me greatly, and I laughed. To which they gave me "evil eyes," squenching their faces at me knowing they'd been had, making me laugh all the more. lol, it was great fun.

Looking out my window as I write, visibility has lifted to see to the edge of our field, but no further. Our garden is bare, and the only thing growing in there is the persistant collard greens. Surprising being that was one of the plants that my family and I were sure would never make it. It endured being tossed onto the ground and crushed in the windstorm that tore our greenhouse up, smashing the garden chairs into it. It survived the birds feasting on it while we tried to shoo them off and scoop up what Ma and I could save. Then it endured our chickens hopping the fence and scratching up the garden to get at the seedlings. Then the water ran out a few times this summer during the hottest days and so I thought for sure we'd lose them...but they stuck through it. The first frost hit and they stood tall, unwilted, and grew more! I know I've asked more than once: "God, can I be like that collard green patch? It's survived all of its tough days and for it, the leaves are huge and the plant is hardy!" We have about 10 of those plants left (I uprooted some and took it to church). Its past the 5th frost and yes, they are still growing. Everytime I pick some of it for supper, I shake my head and smile. The most hardiest green plant I've seen so far. I almost wonder if they will survive being burried in snow and pick up where they left off come Spring! (And no, I haven't watered them since first frost.)

The rest of the garden is quickly being pulled up. The last surviving sunflower is drying out, waiting till the last of the wilted petals fall before I chop it down, I guess. We had four of those, but the bear found three of them and snapped those down to his height, ate what he wanted and left the rest for the deer. We have enough of those left to hang-dry for the Spring birds, but nothing edible for us. Strawberries are covered under the straw. Sweet potatoes (yes they grew!) and potatoes are harvested. Golf tees are poked in the ground near all our bulbs (thanks for the idea, Pinterest!), so we know where all of them are and accidentally don't uproot them or spear them with the shovel, having forgotten where we planted them.

My Dad, Mom, Aunt and Uncle, and I gathered together, armed with pickers and boxes, and went out to our apple trees. It was great and memorable, especially when Dad accused Mom of throwing an apple at him (an apple fell off the tree and brained him in the head). "Duck under the ladder next time, silly!" I laughed. "I couldn't, its seven years bad luck!" Dad said shouted back to me. I laughed harder, "Dad, that's if you break a mirror!" and forgot I had my picker on a branch and brained myself in the head with an apple. "Throwing apples at yourself?" Mom laughed, "You're trying to be like Dad!" "That's not true, I have no ladder to duck under!" I rubbed my head. Our pupper-dog stood nearby, tail wagging and waiting with all eagerness for the next apple to drop (even though she had her mouth full with the one that bonked me on the head, and had five more at her paws). I'm convinced that our pup is as infatuated with apples as Marley was with mangos. lol.

So yep, I've got my work cut out for me. Today I'll search for the dehydrator and tomorrow I'll make apple chips, apple butter and apple sauce (I've been told the last two are very easy to do....I hope so! This'll be my first attempt at it!) Green beans were canned already and stored in the pantry. I braided garlic and hung it in the garage. Purple carrots are in a dark cool place, awaiting use. Kombucha will be brewed tomorrow, just sewing up the seeping bag. Can't wait for winter, then I can relax from all the tasks...and plan for Spring and Summer's crops. :P

Pulling out the wintertime clothes and searching for clothes, like I did during the summertime. Loving the comforting feeling of my warm sweaters and coats. Ooo, and hot chocolates with almond milk, or soy if I want it richly creamy. Speaking of good treats, I'm on the hunt for warm thanksgiving foods and deserts that I can eat. Some things I've found, but still searching for a pie crust recipe. Pretty determined that there's got to be a gf df recipe for one out there that doesn't contain potatoes in the ingrediets list. If I can't find it, I'll attempt making up a dough for it. Nervous, but hey, experimenting is part of the adventure, right? <.<.......>.> I hope its a pleasant adventure. My last experiment of homemade fluffy buscuits was for lack of better words: grittily intreguing. So back to looking for more...umm, edible....fluffy buscuits as well.

Well, as you can see, I've been keeping busy between home and work. Its been going pretty well. I'm slowly learning my can and can't do's, and my can do's are growing as I learn how to rotate meals and things to do. Hiking is still not in the picture, but perhaps next summer? It is one of my many goals to accomplish. The biggest goal is to take my mountain bike and pedal it all day on a trail that I love. That one will take working up to, training too, but I think I can reach that goal. lol, I won't be as eager as to just wing it and go. I remember a time when I decided against the doctor, pt, and nutritionist's wishes (as I didn't have enough strength or energy) and went bushwack-hiking with friends on their property. I laugh at it now. I mean, I was so determined that I heard they were going and when asked, lept at it so far that I did all that climbing over large dead trees, through poky brush, slurping through the marsh, all in a shaffon ankle length dress (it was on Sunday, after church) and borrowed mud boots. Shockingly no, there wasn't a speck of mud or tear on the dress when I was done. It was such a feeling, I was so jazzed to have done it that I felt I conquered the world! The next day, I felt miserable by a sickening feeling of the world spinning, a high pitch drilling into my brain with its squeal, and ultimately squished to the bed by gravity alone. It hit me: my team knew what they were talking about when they warned me. I'd realized I'd have to tell them why my energy and strength that I was building up was out the window. When I brought up the shaffon dress, they laughed goodnaturedly till they were in stitches. Told me I was a silly crazy girl, and shook their heads, laughing more about the shaffon dress and mudboots. Now they were convinced, they said, that I had the determined stubborn willpower that it would take to work up to the goal of hiking..with their permission (when my body was ready for such a feat)....and hopefully in jeans, not shaffon.

Well, its time for me to go. I'll write more later, promise. God bless. :)