ME EITHER

CHICKEN SOUP FOR MY SOUL AND MY BELLY

Last week I roasted a big meaty chicken for dinner. Not one of those scrawny ones from the grocery store but a full grown bird from a meat market.

I stuffed it with a couple fresh lemons and rubbed that bird with some salt, pepper and a bit of Italian mix spices. Into the oven to roast up with an onion on the side. It got nice and brown and was so delicious.

I had chicken wraps for lunch for a few days and also some leftover chicken for dinner twice. It was just that good. There was still a lot left.

My BB Guy had developed a sore throat and was not feeling well. I developed the same symptoms as he did a day later and ended up with a very sore throat and constant headaches. Ugh.

Time to make Chicken Soup:

• 1 chicken carcass (I left the lemons in and I highly recommend this)
• 2 onions, rough chopped
• 3 large cloves garlic
• *4 carrots
• about 20 black peppercorns
• 1^1/2  Tablespoons of salt – note this is a really big soup pot
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 hot red chillies – don’t worry the heat tempers down but it is essential
• a baby finger sized piece of fresh turmeric root
• *4 more carrots
• 1/2 cup quinoa grains – added almost at the end
• handful fresh chopped cilantro – added at the very end

Put the first 9 ingredients into your big soup pot and cover with water to just above the contents. As the soup cooks the bones will collapse and everything will be very well covered in the broth.
Simmer for a few hours and then strain out the contents saving all the chicken meat and add the meat back into the pot with the broth.
Cut up the remaining 4 carrots into big chunks and add to the strained broth along with the quinioa grains and cook another 20 minutes or so until the carrots are tender. Toss in the fresh cilantro and serve.
You will not need any more salt or pepper and the gentle heat from the chillies will have you craving more and more. The hint of lemon comes through as well and it is such a bright fresh tasting soup.
This was the best chicken soup I have ever made or even had for that matter. I have been eating it daily to help with my sore throat and have reached the end except for some broth that I poured into two containers and froze for a later date when I will toss in some fresh ingredients for a quick lunch or dinner.

FOR A PRINTABLE RECIPE CLICK HERE

AGING WITH HUMOR– SONS OF WHO?

The other day on Facebook I saw a photo of a man in a t-shirt that cracked me up. That set me on a quest, albeit a very short and easy quest, to find the source of this shirt.

My search brought me to a website that has wonderful, humorous products for those of us who experience aging and arthritis in its various forms.

I had to order something to surprise my BB Guy.
(Big Burly Guy for you new folks)

For those of you familiar with the HBO series Sons of Anarchy you will get the humor here.

SONS OF ARTHRITIS – IBUPROFEN CHAPTER

Have a look at some of their product line. Father’s Day is coming soon so keep these in mind.

I live in Canada and it usually takes forever to get things that I order from the US but my package came so quickly I was amazed.

We are very happy with the merchandise and highly recommend ordering from them. Easy to use website as well.

And for those whose arthritis is of the rheumatoid variety they have a line for you too.

It is not just men’s shirts. They have a line of ladies as well.

 

This is just a sample of their product line. Go on over and have a look for yourself to see the rest of their fun gear.

www.sonsofarthritis.com

ALL PHOTOS USED WITH PERMISSION

YOU’RE RIGHT

This is a photo from my patio. Rain or shine it is an inspirational view.

HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN….

We are so happy to be back in our home. Staying in a hotel can be fun when you are on holidays and there is a beach or other fun attractions nearby. You can read about our mess here.

Not so much fun when you are getting ready for work and trying not to wake the other person. Not so much fun when you are tired after work and you still have to go out and have dinner somewhere when normally your spouse would have dinner ready when you walked in the door.

Not so much fun when you are running out of clean clothes and have to go to the laundromat or to a friend or relatives to wash your clothes. You can read a quick note on that experience here…

Here is how insurance works. If you have damage to your home/contents due to some sort of issue the house insurance covers your loss and repairs. They do not, however, cover the costs to repair the issue that caused the damage.

Imagine it this way. If your washing machine breaks and floods your house your insurance will pay for the damage to the house caused by the leaking water but they will not pay to repair your broken washing machine.

Now imagine a much bigger scenario where a sewer pipe on your property breaks underground. It is not a city pipe. It belongs to you. It is 12 feet below ground and you have to have heavy equipment brought in to expose the pipe so it can be repaired.

Imagine trucks taking soil away. Trucks bringing in gravel to properly support the repaired pipe (which wouldn’t have broken in the first place if the pipe had been given proper support to begin with) Imagine a hefty bill in the thousands that you are responsible for. They did a great job but boy oh boy it wasn’t cheap. Keep digging… almost there. We are still waiting to have the repairs to the inside done. Fortunately this part is insured. They have to replace the drywall that was removed in one room. Paint. Redo the baseboards in that room and re-carpet the entire downstairs and staircases since they cannot match the current carpet.

Have you ever had a big insurance claim?

LAUNDROMAT LAUGH

My BB Guy and I had to take some clothes to a laundromat recently when we had a broken pipe in our home. Click here to read that fun story.

We have not been in one for about 40 years. We are not experienced in the ways of the “mat”.

Pretty basic I guess. You bring your clothes and some money and you get ‘er done.

Oh wait. We give each other a puzzling glance. We should have brought soap. And fabric softener. Rookie mistake. So much for trying to look like you know what you are doing. Fortunately they sell soap there.

Load up two machines and head off to a nearby pub for some lunch. Over a nice cold beer we discuss the fact that the person working at the laundromat was folding up clothes out of one of the dryers.

WAIT A MINUTE HERE…. IT PROBABLY WASN’T HER CLOTHES…..DOES THIS MEAN WHAT I THINK IT DOES? DO THEY DO YOUR LAUNDRY FOR YOU? HALLELUJAH.

We looked up the phone number and call to ask if that is indeed true. It is! It is! While we sat our lazy butts down eating lunch and having a cold one this lovely woman would put our clothes into the dryer when they were done washing.

And the high cost of this service? $5.00. Seriously. I am thinking of going back every week to drop off my laundry. Who knew? We tipped her another $5.00 on top of that and felt like we got such a deal.

A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING–OH MAH GAWD

I did something I have never done before this morning. I am going to tell you what it is and then go sit in a corner and weep.

We moved last June into a beautiful house on hillside. We love it here.

The house is 7 years old.

Our first Christmas here was great. The house is fully decorated. My plan to pack up the Christmas items this weekend started with a note left for my husband asking him to bring my storage bins upstairs for me. They were all downstairs in a large media room that we use for storage.

My husband called me at work. When he walked into the far end of the room to get the bins he stepped onto very wet carpet.

Apparently we have a broken pipe somewhere. Picture the house on a hillside and this room is basically below ground because it is against the hillside.

He called our insurance company and they sent out a plumber and a restoration company. The plumber zeroed in on where the water was coming in and cut open the drywall to expose the sewer pipes.

Oh yes. We have a sewer pipe leak.

Nice.

We are going to have to have a backhoe in to dig up the front yard to get down to find where the leak is coming from.

We are hopeful the new home warranty will cover this as the house is only 7 years old and the warranties are 10 years. If not we are looking at many thousands of dollars for this repair.

As far as we know your house insurance only covers the damages and restoration to the house and not the costs of stopping the problem as it falls outside of the house.

The plumber had my husband flush an upstairs toilet to check the leak/flow and the also a downstairs one. He said we could use the downstairs toilets……which I did when I got home.

I then went into the room with the leak and turned on the light.

OH MAH GAWD

The entire contents of the flushed toilet came flooding, gushing, pouring into the room. I went weak at the knees.

Apparently we cannot use any of the toilets, no water usage at all. Peeing is fine because it will just sit there in the bowl, toilet paper going into the garbage.

So what did this mean for me this morning when I really, really had to poop.
(sorry but I have lost all sense of propriety here)
Well… I had to…. poop… into… a… bag. There. I said it. On the internet. I used a kitchen garbage bag placed over the toilet bowl, all rolled up so it wasn’t in the water. Shoot me now please.(Just a heads up for my co-workers… if I find plastic bags on my desk going forward etc. I will make you pay…. really pay. Love you) 

We have booked a hotel room for the undetermined future. We can pretend we are on vacation…which is a good thing since we just came back from a vacation to Mexico where we were sick as could be and had a terrible time.

So…what have you guys been doing?

A FAVORITE THING

About 4 years has passed since I posted this but it was such a well received post I wanted to bring it around again. One thing I noticed in the comments is that so many of you love the flannel pajamas for yourselves as much as for your kids. Now you just need to have someone tuck you in and read you a story.

Do you know what one of my most favorite things in the whole wide world, ever, ever, ever is? No, of course you don't.
My fondest memory is of my sons when they were little. You take two little boys and dip them in the bathtub for a while until they are pink and soft and smelling of soap. You wrap those little guys up in a big warm towel and dry them off and then here comes the best part...flannel pajamas. With their wet hair combed neatly, the flannel jammies tucked in and their cheeks still pink from the bath.
This is the best thing in the whole world. A clean, warm, cuddly, loved child.One who will be cuddled and hugged and tucked into bed with a story and a kiss goodnight.

My sons are grown (my eldest turning 27 next week) yet I can still smell and feel the way this felt. I hope they can too. 

What are some of your favorite things?

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