I have ever been in search of a way to make good home-made pizza. I haven't tried this one yet, but I have finally found a recipe that might, at last, enable me to enjoy pizza at home. (The crust has ever been eluding me. I learned long ago how to make a good French bread pizza, but wanted a good crusted pizza. Now I think I have one.) I'll try to post, later, how I like it, after I try it. (Right now I'm following Weight Watchers and am seriously trying to crank up my weight loss, so won't be trying this for awhile.)
2 t yeast
¼ c warm water
2 to 2 ½ cups whole wheat bread flour
2T gluten flour (or vital wheat gluten)
½ c warm water
1 t salt
1 ½ T olive oil
In a mixer such as a Bosch or a Kitchen Aid add yeast and warm water. Let it sit for a few minutes to dissolve and activate. Add 2 cups of flour and all remaining ingredients. Mix dough well adding the extra flour until the dough will not stick to the sides of the bowl. Knead for about 4 minutes in the Bosch and 6 to 8 in the Kitchen Aid.
If you made this dough in a Kitchen Aid then let the dough rise for 1 hour. If made in a Bosch, skip this step.
Punch down dough and shape into a ball and roll out to fit a 14 inch pizza pan.
Add sauce and toppings and bake in a 475 oven for 15 to 20 minutes.
Whole Wheat Pizza Crust
Makes 3 crusts
2 Tbs yeast
¾ c warm water
6 to 7 ½ cups whole wheat bread flour
6T gluten flour (or vital wheat gluten)
1 ½ c warm water
1 TBS salt
4 ½ T olive oil
Follow directions above only dividing dough to make 3 crusts
3- 8oz cans tomato sauce 1- 6oz can tomato paste 1T Italian seasonings 1t minced garlic, heaping 1t salt pinch or two of cane juice crystals (or sugar) - according to your own tastes
I heated this up on the stove on low until it was hot.
Hello, everyone. Sorry I haven't been posting much. I am finally typing well enough that I thought I would take a few minutes to bring everyone up to speed.
Troubles began at least a year or two ago. My body is aging, and I was getting physical therapy for my left shoulder. We finally figured out that my shoulder has a bone spur. They wanted to remove it surgically, but it stopped bothering me, so I didn't get it done. I knew, at the time, that my other shoulder was bothering me as well, but it wasn't as bad (the squeeky wheel gets the grease), so I wasn't seeing the doctor about my right shoulder.
Fast forward, with gradual continued difficulty, to November, '08. Last mow of the season, last nice day of weather predicted, and the lawn mower wouldn't start. Spark plug didn't seem to have any spark, but I did NOT want to let that mower win! I fought and I fought to get that thing to start, over and over and over pulling that rope. No dice.
So, net effect, I put the mower away knowing that I had really messed up my shoulder now. I was in the process of switching doctors, and there was Thanksgiving, ... net effect was that I saw my primary care doctor about the shoulder on December 9th. She said it looked like a torn rotator cuff, go to the specialist and get an MRI done. Made appointment with specialist, saw specialist on 12/18. He said get special MRI with contrast, available at these places. Went home, started making phone calls. With 13 days left in the year, subtract weekends and holidays, I could not get in in December. I also could not schedule for January, because my insurance was changing and they would not schedule me until I had my new insurance information.
Weeks went by, and finally I had my new insurance information. I called and schedule MRI for mid-January. Well, that MRI got cancelled because there was a mix-up in who does what to get the pre-authorization cleared with the insurance company to get the MRI done, so it was rescheduled for the end of January. 1/30 I had my MRI done (1/31?). Made appointment to see specialist with MRI. 2/6 saw specialist. He said significant tear, needing surgery, could be two ligaments, could be completely torn by the time I got to surgery. Scheduled surgery.
Leading up to surgery my ability to type and make blog entries was already extremely reduced.
3/3 Surgery day finally arrived. Surgery done, I was now in a sling for six weeks, typing one handed! I have all these reviews that were due in February, March and April hanging over my head and I could not do them. I could barely keep up with my physical therapy schedule, could hardly keep up with homeschooling or the house, and certainly could not keep up, let alone catch up with the reviews.
So, now I am unslung. I am finally typing two handed again, but after this blog entry my shoulder is already aching. I need to go to my morning physical therapy exercises, and then shower and do school. I have reviews a-comin', but they'll have to come when they come... I can only do what I can do.
Thank you for reading! If your lawn mower won't start, I highly advise you find the nearest strong guy and have him try to start it (or rip out his rotator cuff) rather than fighting with the mower yourself. My two cents.
Imagine a volleyball that is being over-inflated... That's how my head feels right now. Hubby has it, too, and stayed home from work. He thinks he needs antibiotics so he's going to the doctor this afternoon.
Caboose kept coughing this morning and finally asked me to let him have a sick day. i told him that if he will stay in bed, he can have off school, but he can't call it a sick day and then go out back and play. So, he's in bed with daddy, with the humidifier on in the room, and they're watching The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe on daddy's computer.
I have 4-H tomorrow, and I can't plan, let alone lead it, so I have to go figure out what we're going to do about that...
Well, I'm trying, anyway... I am trying to think of my favorite Christmas memory so that I can enter the Homeschool E-Store's 12 days of Christmas contest for a free $50 giveaway that is being offered on Janne's Jabberwocky blog (http://janne.cc/blog/?p=308), and I am really pushing it to decide on one.
Well, there were a lot of things about my childhood that would make it hard to have had a favorite Christmas in my own childhood, so I think I am going to settle on a favorite Christmas with my own children. Because of the way my life has gone in the '00s, recent ones would not be my favorite Christmas memories...
So, I am thinking my favorite Christmas memory would be from over a decade ago, when DD1 and DD2 were little and we lived in Colorado. My favorite Christmas had snow. DDs were 4 and 7 years old. I had managed to sew the annual pairs of pajamas for them, which we allowed them to open on Christmas eve. We took the entire month of December off of academics to do art and gift projects. I had been able to sew dresses for my nieces, a flannel shirt for my nephew. I had managed to make lined, painted market baskets for all of my adult family gifts, and baked goods to include in some of them before mailing. We had made gingerbread Christmas tree ornaments using a recipe and instructions I got from a 1990 Women's Day magazine, which I can't seem to find online (duh!), but there is a recipe that would work here: http://il.essortment.com/gingerbreadchri_ripg.htm for heavy-duty gingerbread ornaments.
Instructions:
Trace your child's hand onto a piece of posterboard (either as a mitten or as a glove). Cut out the trace and use this as a pattern to make ornaments for your tree out of the gingerbread ornament cookie recipe. Before baking, use a straw to poke a hole at the wrist, and this will be the opening for a ribbon to hang your ornament. The WD also had a recipe for an egg white icing to decorate it with, which had to be used with the caution that kids sometimes eat cookies found on trees, and egg whites can carry salmonilla. Well, our DOG ate all the cookie ornaments over the years, so all we have now are the memories, but I think I'll do it again with JBoy this year and start our new memories.
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To participate in the Homeschool E-Store's "12 Days of Christmas" contest, either go to Janne's Jabberwocky, linked above, or go to HomeschoolEstore.com and read up on the contest. There are 12 blogs promoting prizes in the contest, and you can only pick to participate in... I think it is three, but read it and find out.
Merry Christmas, everyone! Let's go make some memories!
Now after trying to find any image of a mitten cookie ornament (I failed) found an adorable embroidered bird ornament at http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=242 (actually it links it to Sunshine's creations at http://sunshinescreations.vintagethreads.com/2006/11/how-to-make-embroidered-felt-ornament.html ) that I think I need to go try today... Hmmmm.....
J-boy and I are still doing Ambleside Online this year... Year 1... like we have been for going on 22 months... ::sigh:: time standing still in the land of family deaths and estates, etc.
So, let's see, an update since August. B-girl has been attending college out-of-state and not enjoying it there. It's been very expensive funding her trips home to help her recouperate from home-sickness and other sickness... She is going to attend school in-state next semester, and I couldn't me happier.
J-boy is bright and learning well. A good day of school includes nature-study, composer study, read-alouds from Fifty Famous Stories (finished), Our Island Story, Parables of Nature, Comstock Book of Nature Studies, Burgess Bird Book, Pinnochio, (not all on the same day, mind you...), but a bad day includes, "Here's your math book. Do two pages." and "Do a lesson in your handwriting book."
I have also been teaching from Romalda Spaulding's The Writing Road to Reading (TWRR), and it is working well for us. He learned to read on his own last year, using online program www.StudyDog.com - which I highly recommend for anyone in a panic about teaching reading. I was truly preoccupied from my homeschooling responsibilities last year by family deaths (4/06, 10/06, 6/07) of my parents (and step-dad), and corresponding responsibilities of being responsible for estates, not to mention being Taxi daughter and bedside attendant during end-of-life times... ::sigh:: I've taken up crafting for my favorite on-line charity (Online Angels) to keep my sanity. I've made amazing things I didn't know myself capable of (baby sweaters, slippers, hats, mittens, afghan squares...).
This year has included much more school, with an accelerated pace on the AO Y1 schedule, in my desire to manage to finish one year of AO before two years had gone by... As it is, I am still not finished with estates, and have decided to focus during December on estate issues in the hopes that I can wrap up all "estate" issues in early 2008. (Then I start on "Trust" issues, in the case of my mom, which will include selling personal property, finding living arrangement(s) for sibling(s), etc.) Don't get me started on why the plural is in parenthesis... One sibling should probably be getting living arrangements through the county penal system before too long...
Well, J-boy just went out back to rake leaves (I'm paying him $1/bag, cause we'd pay someone else if we could find someone willing, and the money certainly motivates him!....), and it's almost 10 a.m. and I'm still in my pj's!... Off to a quick shower and to dress.
I wasn't fond of the changes HSB had made, but they've asked me to give them another chance.
Also, it's just hard to believe that my life has gone where it has right now, so I haven't posted.
Okay, so any of you can remind yourself of what 2006 was like for me by reviewing my past entries. My most recent entry was March. In February I was working with my mom to get her affairs in order, since my step-dad had died in October, my dad in the previous April, and I never wanted another estate to deal with like my dad's (which STILL is not settled...). So in February the process was started, and through some misunderstanding between myself and the law firm, and my mom's standard motis opperandi of not getting things done, March passed by and things were not finalized. In April I got a call from my step-sister (who was living with my mom) that my mom was sick. We made a dr. appt. and I drove over, got her, took her to the appt. Net result, after hours, mom was admitted to the hospital and was there 9 days. Tests results: Lung cancer.
My mom went with me to see an oncologist on 5/1, but at the visit announced to us both that she did not intend to pursue treatment. She was going to pack a couple of suitcases, throw them in her van, and drive to Florida to live here days there somewhere. I appealed to her to wait a bit to finish the estate stuff, and she agreed. We got it finished 5/9.
She was working toward's her goal, to my understanding, but was still home as Mother's Day rolled around. We had her for dinner at our house on Mother's Day. She drove home that night, and called us to let us know she'd made it home okay. (It was the first time she had driven since her hospitalization.) A week went by and we didn'ted hear from her, and assumed she was working toward her goal. But, soon another call from step-sister, and mom in the hospital again. Treated for UTI, pneumonia, hypercalciumism... but it was all related to the cancer, and she'd told me she didn't want any treatments for the cancer. It was time to arrange hospice care.
So, hospice care was set up in her home, with my step-sister as the primary care giver. When mom went home from the hospital this time, she was bed-ridden. She, maybe, left the bed twice the first week. The 2nd week, 6/10, she passed away.
Unbelieveable. It just went so quickly. I am still numb.
So, that's why I haven't posted. She was cremated, per her request, and will be inurned at Arlington National Cemetary with her 2nd husband, who was laid to rest there 11/23/06 (at which time we had requsted space be reserved for her).
That's the story for now. The short one. So many other things have gone on, but that's all I've got time for right now. Maybe in a future post.
Okay, February came and went, and no entries from me. ::sigh::
The original estate deadline was Feb. 10, but there were some numbers the attorney was having difficulty reconciling, so he got an extension to Mar. 10. (I'm glad I made this entry... I had forgotten I need to get to the attorney today to sign papers...)
There is still a property in Texas to be sold.
There are still some stock transfers that didn't go through, that I need to follow up on.
Tax papers have been take to an accountant, but I now need to find out what price my dad purchased certain stock for, cause he sold it in 2005 (we still are working on filing 2005 taxes...), and the accountant needs to know acquisition price to determine capital gains...
Seems like there was stuff he needs for 2006 taxes, but I can't remember. I need to get back to him and ask him again.
And amidst all this, I have knuckled down to be doing school with JD. I am sorry, but I am not able to make school fun this year. At this point I am feeling under pressure from "the principle" to meet certain state requirements for education, whose wording is vague, whose attainment is difficult to confirm... My state law says:
Must provide "regular, thorough instruction" in the same subjects as the public schools including English, math, science, social studies, art, music, health, and physical education
(never mind that I just learned that the public schools DON'T PROVIDE regular (not to mention that it's not thorough) instruction in certain of these subjects, especially they don't even do PE any more!!!)
Anyway, at what point can I say that I have adequately provided "regular" and "thorough" instruction? Is my irregular and less-than-thorough instruction inadequate if my 1st grade son is reading at a 3rd grade level and is only half-way through his 1st grade math, but is accurately doing fractions on the math computer game that he likes to play instead of doing worksheets?
Anyway, gotta go. Thought I'd check in. Thanks for all your prayers. Someday I hope to post regularly again. It's been a rough and busy year.
Well, I have spent a significant portion of the past 24 hours at the hospital. Hubby felt so very bad, and after trying to get this taken care of through a doctor within our insurance plan and failing, we ended up going to the emergency room. Hubby was really hurting, and was nauseous, light sensitive, having chills, the whole bit. It was all related to spinal fluid leaking from his procedure/test on Monday (CT Milogram).
After tests to confirm that it was, indeed, related to spinal fluid leaking, he was admitted to the hospital (5:30 a.m., when we had arrived at the ER at about 9:30 p.m.). I went home for a bit to rest, then went back. The doctor would have to fit this into his pre-existing schedule. We finally saw the doctor at about 1:30 p.m., and he was going to do the procedure in DHs room, but after giving it further thought decided to do it in the operating room, where the correct tools and equipment were all available. So, at about 5:15 P.M. hubby was taken to the OR to have the procedure done (it was called a "blood patch", where blood is taken from his arm and injected into his spinal column to coagulate in the hole that is leaking). All told, it didn't take very long, and hubby was back in his room by about 6:10, feeling better.
After he was feeling better I went home again for a bit, thinking he'd come home tonight, but he still had a wee headache, and he and the doctor decided he'd stay at the hospital one more night. So now it is midnight, and I'm going to try to get a good night's sleep.
Well, Monday husband had a ct-mylogram done on his back. He has chronic pain, and they are trying to figure out something they can do to help him.
Except, sometimes the cure seems worse than the sickness. The test he had done left him with a horrific headache that put him to bed. After suffering with it hour after hour, he was advised to take a certain perscription pain reliever which we had in our medicine cabinet. We had one percocet, and then we had some vicodin. Well, once the percocet was gone, next time he took a vicodin. However, the vicodin ripped up his stomach, leaving him nauseous, etc. By this time, of couse, he couldn't even feel any back pain between the horrible headache and the awful stomach problems. Finally, by the 2nd afternoon after the procedure, even though he couldn't stand long he believed he was on the mend (which doesn't mean "back to normal", by the way). Since work kept calling him with this and that issue, he has gone to work to field questions and go through hundreds of e-mails, unless he can't, in which case he'll come home and go back to bed again. ::sigh::
Last week I was so excited! I signed DS ("JD") up for a year of Study Dog Phonics (http://www.studydog.com), which meant that his phonics would be taken care of. He does his math with very little help at this time. He is 7 and is in 1st grade. StudyDog does phonics for K-1st (Level 1), and 1st-2nd (Level 2). I had seen the material; it is good. I was so happy that I could focus on other issues, for December at least, and get estate stuff handled, decluttering done, etc. I think we signed up on Friday of last week...
So on Monday JD says to me, "I'm done with Study Dog, Mom." To which I reply, of course, "Just go on to the next level, hon." And he replied, "No, I'm DONE!" So I go to the computer to check it out and he is, in fact, done. So, I was correct in my suspiscion that he is reading well, but now I know that I can't let Study Dog be our phonics for the rest of the year... ::sigh:: Well, at least I only signed up for the absolute bare minimum charge of $24.95. It is so funny -- hubby and I had talked, and I was going to upgrade to the higher level where the company reports back to me with his progress and stuff for our files. Glad I didn't pay for that! I don't begrudge them the $25 -- I actually got three levels of Study Dog for only $25, because initially all of Study Dog had been free, and I had downloaded Level 1 (K) and Level 2 (1st), and did not save Level 3 (2nd grade) to my computer. Then, when I went back it was no longer free, so I paid.
Today will hold a run to the auction house to pass off some stuff for auction. Next I will have to devote some attention to finishing up the paper work for the stock transfers (requires visit to bank to get "Medallion" signatures on about 33 different pages...). Just found out the bank will only do the first one for free, so I'm going to call my friend, Nate, over at the Tapestry of Grace warehouse and see if he can do it for me. If I have to pay for it anyway, I'd rather pay a homeschool friend than a bank...
Hubby is working on the FL and TX property sales. Taxes still need to be filed, but we are getting there. I want to tackle paper clutter, next. DD wants me to decorate for Christmas. I feel badly -- this is probably her last Christmas in the home full-time, and I want her to have warm fuzzy Christmas memories, but I just don't think I have it in me. DH and I have planned to get a tree on Sunday, so I'm going to have to pull myself together and figure something out... I am going to try to make Cinnamon ornaments with JD tomorrow or Friday... But this clean up and decorate is so overwhelming when I can't even get the clean-up part done. I feel like such a grinch. All I can think, as I think of putting out decorations, is that they all need to be packed away again in a couple of weeks, and what a bunch of work!
Bah, humbug!
Well, hubby just came home. I don't even know if he made it all the way to the office. He barely spoke--just walked quickly back to the bedroom. ::sigh::
I better go. I have plenty to do. Hard to justify sitting here complaining about it. (Oh, was I complaining? Maybe I was just telling you about it...?) Anywya, that's my update, so thank you everybody so much for your prayers. There is nothing kinder you could possibly do for me. I appreciate so much each and every time one of you tells me you are still praying for me. Bless you all, my friends.
Memorial service at Colesville Methodist Church, 11/22/06, 10:30 a.m.
followed by reception in fellowship hall.
Leaving Colesville Methodist approximately 12:45 to drive to Arlington Cemetary (must arrive there by 1:30 p.m.) for 2:00 funeral services (or I guess it would be called "Inunrnment" in the Columbarium).
Regarding my father's passing away:
Still plugging away at estate issues. Ordered more death certificates today, which are needed for estate issues. Have obscure property to sell in TX and FL; hubby is working to assist me in finding real estate representation in these states. Have various stocks in my father's name that need to be transferred to the names of the heirs. This requires forms filled out, mailed to heirs, signed, possibly notarized or medallion signatures, mailed back to me to be mailed to the correct companies. Big headache.
Still need to round up paperwork to resolve tax issues for these matters.
Still sorting through things in my downstairs to determine what gets filed, what gets old at auction, what's not worth anything at auction but that I want to keep, and what gets pitched.
Still need to do LOTS of paperwork to present to attorney in January, Judge in February. (Things like this is what there was, this is what it was worth, this is what it was sold for... but down to the minute detail, such as every stinking thing he owned that had value... ::sigh::)
Gotta go do estate stuff. Or else homeschool stuff. Or else house work. Or else rake leaves. Or else finish mowing a lawn...
Grampa (my stepdad) slipped into the next world on Monday, October 23, 2006 at 11:46 p.m. He was in a lot of pain, was unable to walk, eat, drink... had sores that would not heal... may have had pneumonia at the end, we don't know. He was on pain meds to keep him out of pain, so he came to be in a sleep mode he couldn't come out of. And now he is gone.
He was a World War II vet, having served in the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1947, serving in the Philipines. He saw warfare there, that he was never able to talk to us about, and that kept him from ever watching any army movies on television. It was too real and too painful. He'd been there.
We might have his remains interred at Arlington National Cemetary. One other option is that his remains might be transported, when my mom relocates, and be buried at a military cemetary near where she relocates to. My step-sister, who will relocate with my mom, might prefer this so that she can "be near" her dad.
I am looking to have some "down time" (HA!), now that I will not be traveling daily, repeatedly, to and from the Hospice. I will be trying to get some of my bio-dad's estate stuff wrapped up. Then I can move my focus to helping my mom declutter 49 years worth of household clutter so that she can sell and relocate.
Oh, and I will try to homeschool, too. (Good thing Jboy is ahead, and not behind. He really learns well from computer programs, and likes to do Clifford Phonics, Study Dog Phonics, and Math Blaster, all of which are on the computer, freeing me when I need to be on the phone taking care of estate issues.)
I see I've let a few days slide, so here's the scoop.
Grampa is still hanging in there. The last entry, a visiting nurse had said he had less than hours to live... apparently she was evaluating him just after he had been given a crushed Tylenol tablet for pain, and she saw the red of the disolved tablet in his saliva and determined that he was spitting up blood. Not the case.
So, the next day Grampa was visited again by Hospice personnel, and was approved not only to be in the hospice program, but also to actually be transported to the hospice facility, which is something they only do for individuals when they are at an accute stage. He was transported later the same day.
So, now he is at the hospice facility, which is a huge help for me, because instead of driving 20-25 miles each way to my parents' house to help, now I drive only 8 minutes (not sure of distance) to get to the hospice facility, so I can go there multiple times per day, drive home, attend to other things, and go back.
Last night we thought, at one point, that the end had come (Grampa rolled his eyes back in their sockets and stepsister thought it was the end), only to have nothing changed on his vital statistics... and he's still hanging on.
He's not eating, and barely taking ice chips or anything else orally. He's not on a feeding tube (his preference), not on IV (standard to not be on IV for end-stage hospice care), ...so it's just a waiting thing at this point.
DB (my dear brother) has been reading scripture at Grampa's bedside. Being dull and worn down, I hadn't thought about the fact that 1) Grampa still might be able to hear and repent, even without acknowledging in a way we can understand, and 2) ds (my dear step-sister) and dm (dear mum) might be convicted and repent, or just have seeds planted at this time that it might not be possible to plant at a different time...
So, that's the situation. Today I go to hospice, then go to university for parents' day to visit my dd, then back to hospice. DF (dear friend) is making us an oven stuffer roaster, with sides, to be ready for us at about 6:00 tonight, so that's a huge blessing! Ciao!
