Dishes. Oh how I despise thee.

Yes. I despise dishes. I wish every day that a dishwasher would magically appear in my house. I do realize that I wouldn't be able to put everything in the dishwasher but it would sure take care of most of them. The piles of bowls, plates, cups, silverware. I love to cook but I hate the dishes that come with it and the dishes are twice as bad when you're trying to maneuver and cook in a tiny kitchen. There is no perfect work triangle here.

Or I could just magically snap my fingers and all of these dishes could clean and put themselves away? That's not too much to ask is it?

Photo Friday: A Different Point of View

Have you ever taken the time to slow down and walk through a familiar place with a different point of view? Cowboy and I used to do this all the time before we got married and started a family. We would pack up our cameras and head out on a journey looking for interesting things. Over this past weekend we had the chance to set out on one of these excursions again. We packed up the cameras and headed downtown. Now our downtown leaves much to be desired when you're driving through in your car. A handful of shops, art gallery after art gallery and more empty store fronts that you can count. It's really just one of the streets that will take you to the beach. We took our time on foot, through allies and backs of main street buildings, not really looking for anything particular, just looking for something to jump out at us.

Wednesday Already?!?

Ah Wednesday. Is the week half over or has it only half begun? I'm having a "Is the week really almost half over already?!?!" kind of day. We're on a mission to condense our belongings to only a comfortable amount that fits in our own 866sq ft. home. We had so much STUFF in our basement as well as boxes of kitchen items we didn't have room for in our tiny metal cabinets that were stored at my mother-in-law's house. There were also boxes and boxes of my daughters things over there from the past 3 years of her life! If you put all the shoes one little girl has worn in 3 years, you would be amazed. I never realized how many pairs of shoes she had. Cowboy REALLY wants to have a garage sale this weekend so the "is the week already half over?!?!" feeling is from rushing and trying to get through everything. I don't know if I'm going to make this weekend! Might have to push it another week later or we just donate anything else we find from here on out because there is already a TON of stuff in the garage.

Today is also iFellowship day at Seeds of Faith!

Tasty Tuesday

I made a combination of the Stuffed Zucchini Boats and the Crunchy Stuffed Zucchini Boats recipes from Kraft Foods.

1. Don't miss the step about par boiling the zucchini. Thankfully cowboy likes his vegetables on the crunchier side and loved this.

2. I was trying to make this a light meal and it needed something more to the filling. Next time I make this we are going to put ground Italian sausage in the filling and more fresh tomatoes.

3. Plant more zucchini and yellow squash next year so I can have enough to try all these zucchini recipes I'm finding now at the end of the growing season.

Wake up and smell the peaches!

It's peach season here in my neck of the woods so we drove up to a local farm and orchard and picked up a big bag of peaches. They were by far the sweetest and juiciest peaches I think I've ever tasted in my life. Many of them were devoured as they were but the rest had another fate. After getting the hang of making jam with strawberries and blueberries already this year I thought I'd try peach jam. Even through following the directions exactly I thought I had turned it into candy. Thankfully it came out with a nice jam consistency but the little pieces of peaches in it taste like they've been candied. I don't know how much of it I will be using on toast with breakfast but it will definitely make a delicious vanilla ice cream topping!

The remaining peaches found their way into the jars with just a light syrup. This was my first try at just canning something simply the way it is instead of turning it into a jelly, jam or relish. I've been having great luck getting all of the jars sealed but I'll have to wait and see how these are when I open the first jar.

Goodbyes have been said...

tears have been shed and I guarantee there will be many more tears shed. On July 27th we said goodbye to my beloved greyhound. That day will forever be a bittersweet day as that was also the day 4 years prior we signed Doogie's adoption papers and brought him home.

To back up in the story of our life a little bit, on September 25, 2004 we adopted a very sick little beagle mix. She was to be mine. I wanted her and cowboy said okay despite how horrible she looked. A funny thing happened though, as much as we said Crystal was mine, she had other plans. From the day she came home she was cowboy's best friend and his lap dog despite being over 30lbs. Now cowboy is not a small man by any means at 6'5" tall or so depending if that's with or without cowboy boots. So Crystal has always been the perfect size to curl up on his chest on top of him on the couch. If I get up before cowboy, she immediately gets in my spot in the bed and continues to sleep until he gets up.

Skip forward to 2006. While cowboy was working a booth at the county fair he called me to tell me he had found a big dog for himself. Still claiming that Crystal was mine he still wanted a big dog to match his size. I looked at photos online and I said okay to this big dark brindle boy without seeing him. As soon as cowboy brought Doogie home, I spent most of the next few days with him getting him settled into, trying to get a routine going.

Now it wasn't always a match made in heaven. He escaped from the bottom of his crate and tore down our mini blinds in our bedroom. He broke out a hole in the side of his crate and chewed a huge hole in our lovely pillow top mattress. He pulled our bedspread and sheets into the crate and chewed holes in them. Okay, we won't put his crate near anything then. How about the middle of the living room where the crate didn't touch any furniture? He processed to break a bigger hole in the side of the crate and somehow got a hold of our couch, pulled it so it was touching the crate and chewed half of it up. So many of these acts remain a mystery at how he actually accomplished them. I would have loved to have had hidden cameras! Doogie started going to work with me for half the day and slowly he settled in at home, without a crate. He had free range of our bedroom and kitchen. There were many many times cowboy wanted to take him back but I said NO. Doogie was MINE! And that love grew stronger and stronger between us with each passing day until we overcame his "issues" of being home alone. He was such a good boy and he walked on a leash like a dream! Everyone that met him loved him. He persuaded many a non-dog people with those big dark eyes and a loving lean against them.

Two years ago Doogie started to have seizures. For quite awhile they were one every several months. Then they became more and more frequent. When we were at the vet to get his leg checked out again that was first thought to be an injury from a bad seizure turned out to be bone cancer. Osteosarcoma of the femoral head. The vet estimated no more than a month more he would be with us. We didn't even have 3 more weeks with him. We loved on him and spoiled him even more than he already was.

On July 26th, I came home from work and Doogie couldn't get up. His good back leg had given out and he wasn't using the leg where the cancer started anymore. Doogie tucked his head into me in the loving way he always did and I knew it was time. We said goodbye to him the next morning, 4 years to the date from when we brought you home. Maybe one day soon I'll pull out some of many of the photos we have of him, including the eaten mattress which by the way we are still sleeping on! There is a pillow stuff in the hole and it's duct taped on. Right now I can't look at many of them at a time.

We miss you more than anything sweet boy. We know you are in heaven with Cowboy's dad and his sweet Cleo, all three of you free from your cancer and your pain.