New Year's Resolution

 I am not big on resolutions or specific goals as I often flop on them after awhile.

However, I am trying to deep clean the house and so I am going to get rid of 2021 things in 2021.  (This can include throwing out something, but not just trash (example: torn gloves)).

I figure if I get rid of 15 things on  each of 135 days this next year I will make my goal.  But the good news is goal or no goal, my house will be cleaner!

I started a bit early with 35 items today.  Mostly kid's clothes and outdoor clothing.  I am sorting through all our hats and gloves and I will admit that my strategy in the past has been to bag up all of the hats and gloves at the end of the season.....bad strategy.  Oh well.....last week I ordered a shoe bag to keep everything in order and today was the day that I put it into action. Hats, gloves, scarves and 2 umbrellas for good measure!  I LOVE THIS.  All of the gloves are with their mate!

I think that gloves are worse than socks when it comes to missing mates.  On the right side of the photo you see right handed gloves without a match and on the left side of the photo the left handed gloves (again no match).  How did we end up with 3 identical right handed blue gloves without one matching leftie?  sigh.

12/29/30

Winter in Iowa

Our neighbors left for Florida at 4 am this morning.....SMART  The boys are going to shovel for them while they are gone for 5 weeks.  Visibility is terrible!!  It feels like night time in the middle of the day!

Our clinic closed today at noon and we were asked to leave by 1:00.  I think I had a big win leaving at 1:15.  I am off until Monday, so there is only so much I can leave undone!!  Driving home wasn't slippery, but it was slow and definitely a wheel clencher!  I wasn't my worst drive since starting this job, but among the top 5.  (normally driving is a snap because they do such a good job cleaning the interstate and most of my trip is on I 235, but during my drive it was an actively snowing!)  

I could have gotten my first Covid vaccine tomorrow, but I was too worried about today's predicted weather to schedule then.  I think I made a good choice.   No sense breaking my neck to get a vaccine when I can just wait until next week.  I did participate in a Covid research project today that the hospital is supporting.  They are asking all team members who want to participate a bunch of questions about their job responsibilities and their habits in and out of work and then are going to test for antibodies.

  Rumor with a bunch of nurses and doctors today (only on Tuesdays do I see doctors and nurses because they sedate my babies for a test) said that there was a team member who had Covid in April and they had NO antibodies during the study.  Several of the doctors and nurses have had Covid, so it will be interesting to see the results of the study.  Even more interesting will be the people who have antibodies but never knew that they had Covid!

 

12/26/2020

 

Joel and Anna and I tried to go ice skating at our local free rink.....FAIL.  I do think they will add water soon!  (This doesn't stay up over the summer, which is why I have faith.  If they went to the trouble to set up the walls, the ice has to follow - right?)  Information about the rink is on our town's webpage!

sourdough!

ready for action.  The lady that offered the directions on the internet said you need to name your sourdough starter.  Ours is called GrowGoo, Baby Yoda Soda!!  (for my dad, this is a Mandalorian reference...a TV show Anna and Joel like.) I used a cup and the rest went into the fridge so that I can ignore it until next week.  The first week you have to "feed it" daily with flour and water.

the bread

 - good but not to die for.  (Might partly be because I wanted it to be healthier and used mostly wheat flour.)

Christmas 2020

 

Christmas celebrations really started yesterday at 8:00 when we watched my home-town's Mass with the much of my extended family also tuning in.  Although we are going to Mass in person regularly we decided that it might be too crowded despite having a sign-up for Christmas services.

Christmas day started with an extended Schilling family Zoom.  I have a screen-shot on the lap-top that I will add one day. 

The tradition stairs photo.

The kids really love buying gifts for everyone, which must come down from Ken's gene pool because I gift giving isn't my love language.

The kids created their gifts to me, which of course is the kind of gift I like the most!

I just liked this picture of Ken!

In case anyone was wondering where many of us hope Joel goes to college....he has it narrowed down to 2 (Uof Iowa and Iowa State).  (I bought him PJ bottoms and Ken bought him the blanket and socks.)  Truthfully, I also would love him at Iowa State because it is so close!! 

Carolyn received a fancy coffee maker (think latte maker with steamed milk/expresso) and she made everyone their favorite coffee drink.  Matthew made custom order breakfasts for everyone.  It actually was lunch time, but it was breakfast food and was the 1st meal for our late risers!

We went for a lovely cold weather walk and had a lovely ham dinner (no pictures!).  It was a very nice day.

Christmas Eve

I was doing a little sewing, when I decided I should make a stocking for Carolyn's boyfriend.  His mother had given her a stocking, plus I knew it would make her happy.  In making Leslie's stockings I re-remembered how to make a finished lining.  I am posting pictures here, because it is unintuitive and have to relearn each time.  Now I can just look at the pictures.  The outsides of the stocking go on the inside (with right sides out).  The insides of the stocking are placed on the outside (with the right sides in).  I created a hole in the lining of the stocking to pull the insides out!!!  Sew around the top to get all the pieces together, then I re-stitched the lining's toe.

after this you tuck the lining inside!

tah dah

 (it is the patch work stocking 3 from the left).  It actually doesn't have a home on the mantel, which is fine since Carolyn's boyfriend hasn't been here to get his stocking yet anyway!!  (Just here for show!)

I convinced the 3 kids at home and Ken to go on a very cold walk!!  (Ken is getting his coat on while I take this photo!)

 

Christmas Eve Eve (I think)...nope there was one more Eve in there!!

Anyway, a subset of my children and I went for an evening walk!  The picture doesn't do these trees justice.....so lovely....drenched in lights.  These trees also were lovely when their leaves turned....not our house, just along one of our walking routes.  

It wasn't too cold that night....the next night.....watch out brrr!  I walked in the morning that day before the wind practically blew down the house!

 

12/23/20

Anna crocheted a Mandalorian Christmas ornament.  (fyi to my Dad, this is a character in a show who wears a helmet all the time.  (Star War's spinoff)

 

Last January I created a baby Yoda ornament, but it went missing, so I made another.  This one took a fraction of the time of the first.  

My children's employer gave everyone at my hospital a gift card for a ham/turkey or cheese tray!  Thanks HyVee.

Another Anna creation.....Hot Chocolate Bombs.

tasty but rich, I had to add a 2nd cup of milk!

 

Joel's deer

 There was a day when Joel was doing at home learning and he looked out the window to see:

I don't think that I have ever seen a deer in our neighborhood (fox once though!), but members of my family have.  It is a rare sighting to be sure, especially in the middle of the day. 

12/20/21

Ken, Joel and I walked to the post-office to mail 2 more Christmas cards for which we finally got the addresses. (ok...that sounds grammatically wrong.....but I am sticking with it!)  We were about a block away when the snowball fight started.  I hurried ahead so as not to participate (and then to get my camera).  In Joel's defense, Ken started it and is an excellent snowball fighter!  The man can catch snowballs out of the air!

Then Joel called Anna out to play and they had a fight.  Since they are no longer sledding, this was our snow fun for the year!  (I think Joel hid behind the shovels for part of the fight....because there was no shoveling needed today.)

 

food update

Final Hello Fresh Meal: Pork bowls.  They were good, but I could make these on my own in a snap.  They were easier than the other 2 Hello fresh meals and they made 6 large servings and fed Anna and I a light lunch.

My sourdough starter warming in the sun! (day2)

 

Sourdough

Baking homemade bread has become a popular Covid thing.  Especially trendy right now is sourdough.  Everyone knows I am very trendy.......ok no.  Anyway this morning we jumped on the sourdough bandwagon.  Here is our starter on day one.  They say it takes approximately 7 days to get a good base.  You don't do anything on day 2, but after that you take out part of your starter and add more flour.  We shall see.  The kids LOVE homemade bread and I am sure they will happily make sourdough with the starter once it is ready.

 

11/17/20

Ok...this is the photo from the Hello-fresh people.  Anna and I made this, but it didn't look quite this nice.  It tasted fine (the green beans were wonderful and so easy).  However, I know how to mash potatoes (which we also added since Ken doesn't like sweet potatoes) and bake chicken, so I don't know why I would order it from Hello-fresh.  (I don't see the value added here.)  We defrosted one more chicken breast  than they sent and also added 3 russet potatoes and it made 8 meals, so that is good.  I had one leftover bowl for lunch at work on Friday and froze the last meal.  I feel like the Hello-fresh introduction has been fine and not overpriced, but regular price would feel ridiculous to me for what is offered.  (Take out wouldn't be much more and I cook to eat, not for pleasure!!)

 

12/16/20 trying to spice up cooking

 Sometimes I get tired of cooking.  Anna and I made several dishes using Home Chef this fall and it was fun, but I made the critical error of not cancelling before the the next week's meals shipped.  The price was still decent, but I knew I wouldn't keep paying that much for a meal kit.

Yesterday we started trying Hellofresh, but I was smart and made sure they wouldn't automatically send me meals without my asking for them!!!  I bought 3 meals for 4 people each and decided we would "stretch them" with some of our own ingredients (ex: chicken breast and a pepper yesterday)

Matthew was the chief cook and thank goodness.  It was way more work than I like to do, especially since the whole idea is to make things easier...right?

Luckily Matthew actually likes hard (and normally unusual) recipes, so this didn't phase him one bit.  The final product was delicious, but again for me too much work!!

Note Anna was joking in the photos: "pretend I helped"

I now present: FLAUTAS

Better dumpling zoom photo

 

This is the photo taken by the chef!  I like it much better than mine and it brings me such joy.  I am definitely printing this for my album!!!!

12/16/20

Here is my walking buddy J. all bundled up for the cold and snow!

We walk even when it is cold and when it is raining.  We don't walk during active snowstorms (icy) or when one or the other of us is afraid we were exposed to Covid.  It is a crazy year to be sure.  Last year, days like today would have found us walking side by side on the treadmill at the gym!  We decided it is all about wind...if there isn't wind (or ice on  the sidewalks) things are fine!  We even walk in the dark with flashlights!!  Good times (really!!)

Covid news

 Last Thursday 12/10/20, the FDA approved emergency use for the Pfizer Covid 19 vaccine.  

Today they started to ship from Michigan.  This week my hospital will start vaccinating staff.  (I am not in the first tier, because if you are sick from Covid you are supposed to stay away from my clinic!)  I think I am 2nd tier because I am with patients for more than 15 minutes at a time.  3rd tier at my hospital are people who don't work directly with patients for more than 15 minutes at a time.  The hospital is not requiring the vaccination, but I hope everyone takes advantage.

Right now, Anna won't qualify for vaccination because she is under 16 years of age.  (not that the release will get to young people anytime soon)  1st the people who are most at risk!

Anna and Joel are back in school hybrid-style and the Iowa case numbers have gone down.  It looks like we might have missed getting a Thanksgiving bump.  Iowa is still 3rd in the nation for cases per million population.  Sigh.  Our governor resisted taking many measures until the hospitals pleaded with her.  I feel like now we are doing what we should have been doing all along.  So at least we are hopefully going to start heading in the right direction.

(I'm not a fan...although I was in March and April and I voted for her.  Her line was, "I trust the people of Iowa to do the right thing."  Her trust was misplaced and she often did not do the right thing herself.  Even people I otherwise respect made bad choices until the choice was no longer theirs to make.)

To end on a positive note...researchers think that the Flu is much lower than normal this year and we might not have a "twindemic" as some feared.  Last January the flu was so bad in Iowa that we had to stop some outpatient procedures because the nurses were so busy with inpatient flu patients.  Masking and hybrid learning, might have helped us here!  (and increased flu vaccinations!!)

12/13/20

Joel, Ken and I went for a walk in the snow.  All but one person on our walk had cleared their sidewalk, I thought that was pretty decent!!  It was crisp and we had to watch for slick spots, be definitely doable until the treadmill arrives.  (still about a month due to high demand because of Covid!)

I lost track of time and then realized it was time for Family Zoom Dumpling Cooking day!  We quickly started cooking the veggies I hadn't already prepped and got ready.  The key is the TEN minutes of kneading the dough.  I usually try to make things that don't require kneading and have never made anything that needed 10 minutes of kneading, but they turned out fantastically.  (We had never made dumplings before.)

The event was organized by Cynthia (show here, the girlfriend to my nephew Christopher) and Lauren and Allie (nieces).

Most of the family was represented by someone (except Paul's family).  Mary and Leslie were late because sweet Joey had to get his chin glued.  :0(

(for my Dad....here is who was there: Steve, Mary, Christopher, Cynthia, Kate and her Chris, Mike, Cathy, Lauren, Allie and her Chris, Mary and Leslie, Emily, Erin and Kullen, Matthew Anna and I.)

Here we all are showing off our work. The chef's screen was large so we could follow her directions.

(dumplings are 1/2 cooking 1/2 art) don't mind the coffee machine on the table, we had to make a lot of room on our kitchen counter, but then for this part we needed to sit down!!)

Here we are chatting after the chef signed off (she is shown at the bottom).

Here is the before shot of Anna's work.  (Anna, Matthew and I participated.  You had to be committed because there was a fee and the others don't like to cook as much as Anna and Matthew.  Carolyn was out with a friend and Joel had Christmas shopping to do.  Ken watched the Hawks.)

After being steamed.  These were as good as any I have had in a restaurant.

Very fun event and it was so nice to see everyone.