Holy Moly

Holy moly! Can you believe it’s already December?!? We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and are so thankful for so many things this year. We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well. I usually make a large meal and lots of different sweet treats but this year we did a smaller thanksgiving because I just don’t have enough energy to do it.

We still had plenty of food and lots of leftovers. What are some things that you do with your Thanksgiving leftovers? We used the Smoked Gouda mashed potatoes the next day to make Shepherds pie (we call it ABC Casserole because the soup we make it with used to have ABC noodles in it).

Cheyenne helped by packing up the turkey meat into ziplock bags with 2 cups of meat in each bag. We will use those to make soups, pot pie and other recipes that call for rotisserie chicken.

This year we decided to try making turkey bone broth. We added a bunch of veggies, the turkey carcass, some spices and water to the Electric Roaster and cooked it for about 24 hours. We then strained it and canned the broth into 13 quart jars. We used one last night in our soup and it adds a good depth of flavor.

We had a busy month in November with doctor’s visits, crafting, cooking and court. I can’t remember if I shared about the court case or not so I will give a little back story.

Payton and her baby daddy split up and we had her ready to move to Kentucky, so she can have a fresh start in a beautiful state, find new employment and start college. Right before she was going to leave,the baby daddy’s family decided not to return the baby back to us.

They filed a custody/visitation petition with the court. So we hired a lawyer. The baby was promptly returned back to us, and with approval from the lawyer, we moved Payton to Kentucky in July. We were in Kentucky for about three weeks visiting and got a call from the lawyer about court for temporary hearing. We didn’t think that we would be able to get a hearing that quickly but we did.

After the temporary hearing was over, Payton and the baby had to stay in Childress or Plainview (since Chad got promoted to Formby/Wheeler units) until the final hearing.

Supervised visits were set but they didn’t show up for any of them or follow any of the other things set by the judge.

So fast forward to November 10th and they didn’t even show up for the final court custody hearing. Super frustrating to just delay Payton and the baby moving on with their life out of spite. So Payton and the baby will be moving back to the farm in January. I requested that they stay here until after Christmas so I could spend Christmas with them.

I am also sooo thankful that my sweet friend Kelli watched Roman while we were at court and afterwards she made a delicious meal for us…. I still need to get that recipe from her..❤️Roman had a blast playing with her boys and they were so sweet with him.

We have enjoyed having our sweet boy around the house all the time and we will be sad when he isn’t here all the time anymore. However we understand Payton is ready to be able to move forward with her life. We are glad she decided to move to Kentucky so when Chad retires in a few years we will all be together.

Chad had continued to have more testing and doctor’s visits with no answers yet on why he had seizures . He’s been doing well other than his back pain from the (2) compression fractures and boredom.

He has taken up leather crafting and has gotten quite good at it, I am very impressed how quickly he’s been able to catch on and make amazing things. He’s not used to having so much free time on his hands but I have enjoyed him being home with me.

My mom had surgery on November 14th and is doing well with her recovery. She had her knee replaced a while back but she had to have it re-replaced (probably not a real word but ehh this isn’t English class). She went and got a second opinion when she was still having continuous pain and swelling and they recommended the surgery.

I was hoping to be able to be there for it but with everything going on here, it just wasn’t possible. Luckily the physical therapist came to the house for a while and that helped tremendously.

Chad turned 50 on November 15th and is feeling every bit of his age (hahahaha). Unfortunately I was down with a migraine the whole day, but his wonderful sister Carla made him a German meal that he requested: Rouladen, spatzel, red cabbage, German potato salad and Black Forest Cake. I hope he had a wonderful birthday and we both will be healthier this year.

I received a call from my doctor regarding the results of my mammogram and they want to do some additional testing. Seems a little scary to get that call but I am sure that it is nothing.

I also rescheduled my urology appointment because I wasn’t feeling up to going to the appointment and it was just a medication follow up. I will see the urologist next year and we will see how things are going then.

I have been overly tired lately so I made an appointment with my primary care doctor and maybe we can try to figure out why. I get to meet my new neurologist soon and hopefully that will go good. I have had rough time lately with my headaches so hopefully she can come up with a magical solution.

The farm got a sprinkling of snow but the upcoming forecast shows more ❄️❄️❄️. I have received several memes from my dad about his displeasure with snow and the cold. I love the snow it’s wayyyy better than the heat and sweating.

You all know that I love Christmas and all the things that go with it. I have been struggling this year with low energy and have only had enough energy to put up the Christmas tree and sew a few curtains. I got a new tree this year to help figure out how and what we wanted for the library at the farm. So we have it up here in our living room.

I had a vision of a vintage Victorian style Christmas tree. I spent a while finding the best candles for the tree (battery operated with a remote of course). We found ornaments at different places and the most beautiful tree topper on Amazon.

I have the most amazing husband and sister-in-law on the planet. Chad and Carla made a plan to decorate the house a bit to brighten up my spirits. I love, love, love the house decorated for Christmas and they knew it was bothering me not to have the house looking like it threw up Christmas decor everywhere. Praying next year will be a better year for our health.

We have advent calendars every year and we have tried different ones over the years. Everyone always seems to like the ones with chocolate in them except for me (I am not a chocolate fan, except for Ghirardelli peppermint bark). We found an advent calendar book this year and you unwrap a chapter each day. We actually got 2 different ones but the other one didn’t wrap each chapter but I think it is much better to unwrap each chapter. So far chapter 1 was pretty good and it seems to be the Hallmark movie type of story that I love.

What are some fun things and traditions you do with your family during the Christmas season?

Oooh, I almost forgot but one night Payton and Roman were out Christmas shopping and found a kitten on the road (so she says 🤪) and brought it home. Chad named it Stimpy because of its tail being mostly gone. Somehow Stimpy and Coco were playing and Stimpy broke her arm right at the growth plate and is healing up nicely without a cast or anything. She is feisty just like Margaret and not scared of anything or anyone.

Last night, it snowed again at the farm!!! (Insert sarcasm here) I am definitely sure that my parents were ecstatic to wake up to the snow! They might even bundle up a make a snowman! Hahaha

I love the snow and I can’t wait to move to the farm and have snow each winter. If it’s going to be cold, then there should be snow. Do you like snow?