Sundried success

Dear Blog Reader, take a moment. Pause. Take in the sight of my homemade success. That's right, yours truly has made sundried tomatoes... and they're tasty and delicious!

Alright, they aren't actually SUN-dried. I dried them in my oven for almost 18 hours. But they're dried. And they're yummy. And I did it all by myself. I'm quite proud of this!

Enough typing! There's mozz and maters to be eaten!

Day Two Post Trauma

I think I'm still in shock. Not clinical shock, but stunned at what we have all been through over the past few days. My daughter, however, seems to be a human rubberband and has bounced back and is completely back to normal.

We (my husband actually) rearranged the bedroom so that a tall chest of drawers is in front of the window now. It looks weird, but it's safe and I'll take safe over chic design without hesitation.

Yesterday afternoon, I was picking up stuff and walked into the room to hang up Shggy's jacket. Out of habit, I walked towards the window. Just couldn't make it any closer than four feet from the window. I started shaking and crying. I fell asleep last night with visions of that empty window in my head.

This morning, Shaggy came over and asked me for a hug which I happily gave her. Started crying again as I hugged her. But this time it was because I was so thankful that she was unhurt, back home, and back to her normal self.

I have been trying to gently urge Little M to talk about it whenever the time feels right. He saw his sister, his best friend in the world, fall out the window. That had to be scary for him. He has a hard time labeling his emotions so it's even more important that we help him process it. He is so happy to have his sister back though. It's wonderful to see them playing together. He missed her so much while she was in the hospital.

Ease up, wouldya?

2009 was a rough year for our little family. I just *knew* that 2010 would bring brighter and better things to our lives.

Yo. 2010. Ease up on us, would ya please? Throttle back, m'kay?

So far...

• My husband lost his job in January. The restaurant completely shut down and operates no more. He's pretty much still unemployed although he'll be working waiting tables again next week.
• We were informed that we owe over $9,000 to the IRS. Fortunately this is an error on their part and they acknowledge it. But it also means that until it's fixed, they're going to snag our $4,000 return this year and send it back to us once everything is fixed. Nice.
• Our car broke down and required $1,600 worth of repairs (Thank you, Daddy, for help us!!)
• Various illness such as cold and flu have run through our family
• My husband developed a nearly-antibiotic-resistant staph infection and is still dealing with that mess
• My back has gone out numerous times
• We're fighting trying to get Medicaid to approve testing for our son. We're concerend with possible Aspberger's syndrome and some OCD tendencies. So far, Medicaid no wanna.

And today, my three year old daughter fell out her second story bedroom window. She's fine.. no broken bones, no trauma.. she's totally fine.

But seriously... 2010.. start being nice to us!

Okay. I'm done complaining. Now for some positives...

• My children are healthy. This is a huge positive. Huge.
• I have amazingly supportive family and in-laws. Again, a HUGE positive.
• Never in my life have I had such incredible friends as I do right now. My girls -- and you all know who you are -- never fail to be there when I need them. I just hope I can give all of you as much love and support as you give me.
• We have a roof over our heads and two months of rent paid.
• I have an over abundance of love in my life.
• I'm getting healthier and taking much better care of my diabetes.

No matter how defeated I'm feeling, I have so much to be thankful for.

Seeds!

Today, the kids and I visited the Farm to Family traveling farmer's market bus. This was my second trip to the farm bus; my first trip was to purchase the sausage and kale for the amazing soup I made last week. I want to make more of that soup and can't imagine making it with a different brand of sausage.

On the way there, I tried to explain to the kids that the school bus had been changed into a farm bus with lots of yummy fruits and veggies in it. They weren't sure what to expect!

We climbed on board and they immediately started exploring. My daughter had a long conversation with Daisy the bunny and my son investigated the oyster mushrooms. Both kids picked out some apples to snack on during the trip home.

As we were leaving, we were given little packets of produce seeds. I'm determined to do some balcony gardening this summer so I could hardly wait to get home and examine the contents! I have seeds for: Mariana tomatoes, Grano onions, lettuce, spinach and mustard hybrid, Orange Smoothie pumpkin, Megabrew muskmelon F1 hybrid (huh??), arugula, fenugreek, onion, Turbo cucumber hybrid, broccoli, and cabbage. That's a lot of seeds!

I'm all a twitter with excitement!

The seeds are courtesy of:

• The Dinner Garden
• World Food Garden and
• Ample Harvest

Thank you because I can't wait to get my seedlings going and start my balcony garden!

Eating the yummy apples the kids chose from the Farm to Family bus