As things return to normal

As my cold subsides, business slows down to a more normal level, and all my custom soap orders are finished, I realize that I have been neglecting my blog. I have been reading everyone's even if I have not always commented.

Mum & I were in the health food store, last week, and the really helpful employee told me about some stuff that has helped the rotator cuff in my shoulder a lot over the past week and a half. I should be able to get back to carving the back of my violin soon .... (see the July through September archives). Since my new shoulder stuff has kicked in I've been able to bond with my banjo much more too, that was really a nuisance.

I've made a bunch of lovely soaps in the past couple of weeks and still after 11 years of soapmaking, I still check on each batch as if it's a newborn baby for the first couple of days. I made six pounds of soap that turned out simply awful, so I melted it down and tried a couple of tricks with it and now it's lovely.

I've been working on a couple of knitting projects from the stash and I've been learning crochet .... knitting's much more sensible.

Prior to the cold setting in, as I blogged, I was on the nutritional warpath making Stealth Foods for the smurfs. There was a batch of Chocolate & Beet Root Muffins that were outstanding. I highly recommend them. The elder smurf liked those, the younger smurf took a couple of nibbles and threw the rest to the floor making Muggins' day. It was a double batch, over half went to the smurfs, but a bunch were gobbled up with great gusto by Mr & Mrs Gryper when they were here last weekend. There were also batches with squash, zucchini, apple, and parsnip. All turned out yummy.

Our concert band has been working on our Christmas pieces and this Friday, we'll be in the local nursing home, to play for the folks there. There are a couple of tricky flute bits, but I'm working my way through them. This particular nursing home they must have insomnia 'cause they don't usually sleep through our concerts (hear that Gryper?), nor do they usually put their hands over their ears and wince. Makes me wonder what we're doing wrong.

We've got about 8" of snow now and it's still coming down, so it's "Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas". The lake isn't frozen yet, but a lot of the ponds are. Being out in the boonies, I've done a bunch of my shopping online, that's made it easier. I guess now it's time to do my Christmas cards, I made all the corrections on the address labels at 5:30 this morning when I couldn't sleep for the coughing. Hey, maybe I'll do one of those newsletters in a tiny little font that goes on for three pages.

Poor old Jonathon is starting to feel better after his bout with mono, now he's just dealing with the exhaustion ... remember that Vee?

I can't think of anything else to waste everyone's time with, so I guess I'll sign off and go make my meatloaf. I'm going to try to think of something really interesting and important to blog about. I did have one idea and took some pictures to go with it, so stay tuned.