My Weekend!

Gosh it's so nice to be back again! I am still having a lot of difficulty doing my post on Blogger but I am not giving up on things getting back to normal on here. I did take Patti's advice from one of my favorite blogs Arkansas Patti to download Google Chrome and it is working a tad better after taking her advice.
Thanks Patti for being sweet enough to take the time to help me with my computer issues.

Another reason why I love blogging is where else do you meet such sweet and caring people who care enough to be there for you whenever you need help. Blogging is an amazing experience that I hope I don't ever have to give up permanently.

I received several emails today from some of you asking me why I deleted my blog. That of course, scared me and actually the first time I tried getting on here it did say my blog was deleted. Thankfully the second try I found it. Scary to say the least. I do hope that does not happen because this ole grandma would have no clue trying to bring it back.

I hope you are well and enjoying the hot days of summer. It is so hot here I am counting the days to fall.
These triple digits are keeping me inside more than I care to be but by noon the heat will take your breath away.

As most of you know I have four brothers and no sisters. Yet God Blessed me 60 years ago with the Oliver sisters as my friends but really I think of them as my Sisters. Actually Linda is my Sister-In-Law of almost fifty years. We spent this past weekend together at Linda's house here in Brenham.

It was great being with them but my brother Billy had a stomach virus which put a damper on our weekend but as usual lot's of laughs and catching up. Bonnie is highly allergic to cats so we could not have it out here at the North Forty.

We did manage to get out for a short drive Saturday evening and visited my favorite place in this area Festival Hill.

Festival Hill has several different gardens. This one is the herb garden.

Isn't it cool how they used an old piece of equipment to plant herbs in it.

Most of the plants are labeled but we could not find it on this plant. Any ideas what this could be. It actually looked like some kind of tomato plant but I don't think so.

All of their Bougainvilleas are huge and so pretty.  

Someone is doing an amazing job of keeping this herb garden watered in these high temps.  I have a few herbs but nothing like these beauties.

On Sunday afternoon we were delighted that my younger brother Tommy and wife Susan came from on the other side of Houston to spend the afternoon with us. Tommy's daughter Erin met them here from the Hill Country and it was great seeing them. Tommy is the only brother that does not live close so when I get to see him it is a real treat. I love him very much and he actually reads my blog now and then. haha 

Stomach virus and all it was a fun weekend!

Since starting this post a few days ago I have caught the stomach virus from my brother. Yep I was afraid that would happen but I was around him a lot last week before the weekend so I was already exposed to it.

I went to the doctor today because my blood pressure was really high all day yesterday and has been on and off for a month now. Now I am on another pill so I am beginning to think that this growing old is not so much fun. 

I think I will stop now so I can visit some of your lovely blogs before going to bed. 

You are sweethearts for visiting with me like you do. I know my post have been boring these past six months and I wish I could promise you better but my creative juices seem to be a lot like blogger not working when I need them the most.

Oh before I leave I have been wanting to ask you a question. I notice that a lot of you reply to your comments on your comment page. I think this is great and was wondering if this is something I should be doing. The question is do you go back and read the replies and are you notified when a reply comment is left. Just curious so let me know what you think.

Thanks again for being my friend. I do love you.

Sweet Dreams,

Maggie 

This and That! Warning some issues are graphic!

If I thought screaming would help me right now I would be lifting the roof of this ole farm house right off it's rafters.

Trying to do a post on here is like me trying to keep my Ms Pearl from not going off which I hate to admit to you my friend she is well and very active these past weeks.  For you new friends on here Ms Pearl is the other me I try to keep locked  away and hidden from good friends like you. She is a Texas Tornado when released and a side of me I am not proud to admit exist.

I mentioned I am trying my best to get back into using some creative juices that have been hiding a long while now but if I am to be true to myself I know I had to start doing something with my life besides mowing the North Forty twenty four seven.

Blogger is not letting me post so it's very hard even now to type this but I am hoping to be able to share a little of what I have been doing..

The top picture is one of many pillows that my Sister-in-law Linda and I have been making the last few weeks. We both decided to do some projects together and it has been a fun release for both of us. She gets away from my brother Billy for a few hours and I get to enjoy her sweet company.

This pillow is made out of burlap material I found while visiting my kids in Austin. I knew I wanted it when I caught a glimpse of it on the shelves of Hobby Lobby. We have made several different sizes and hope to sell them in the fall when we plan on having a big yard sale here on the North Forty.

The big purple pillow is to die for in beautiful linen. I captured this picture alone with dozens other visiting a local shop here in Brenham. There were customers taking pictures so I thought hey I want Linda to see our next project so I had to grab my phone and take some myself. Wanted to share others with you but like I said Blogger is not letting me type or add pictures very well.

In my last post I mentioned that I have been taking better care of myself and eating healthy. It has paid off because I finally lost ten pounds. Of course I am stuck on these ten for a while now but I am keeping faith that maybe one day I can say Hey I lost another pound.

What I have been doing is for breakfast I would fix me a fruit yogurt smoothie, lunch I would usually have a lean cuisine dinner and for supper grilled chicken on a salad or maybe fix fish baked in the oven. Sometimes I chose to reverse lunch and dinner eating lighter at night time. I also gave up my cookies and other sweets that I was enjoying every day.

Only thing is after about six weeks of doing this my face broke out like I was a teenager.  I am pretty sure I have the horrible condition called Rosacea which when it flares up you want to stick your head in a hole for weeks until it calms down.

When something goes on with me that I can not figure out I look it up on the Internet and I found that two of the foods to avoid if you suffer with this is bananas and yogurt. Go figure that these two would be on the list to avoid. I have been eating this for breakfast every morning. I love my smoothies but gave them up. Now I have to figure out what to eat healthy for breakfast.

Also I like to eat cereal at night sometimes instead of cooking a meal and of course milk products are on the darn list too. Along with avocado’s which I love in my salads.

My face was so bad that I was thinking of everything I have been doing different besides just what I was eating. I then remembered that my doctor had put me on a cholesterol pill so I looked it up and side effects were skin problems. Geezzz Marie can’t win for loosing. Since it also was making me have severe leg cramps at night I stopped taking it. I now have to call my doctor and see what I can do because I know your thinking how stupid of her to stop with the cholesterol med but this out break on my face was very painful and could lead to other serious issues. I am hoping if I continue to eat right it will be enough to lower my cholesterol without medications.

This past month I was told that my name was on the list to testify in the murder trial of one of the idiot’s I use to guard at the Sheriff’s Office. Since he confessed to me during booking I was afraid of having to go to court.

I did a post about him a few years ago and told you that looking into his eyes were like looking into the eyes of the devil. I have been around lots of killers in my life but never have I shuddered and looked away while looking into their eyes.

This young man was no doubt satin himself and it was horrible each encounter I had with him every day after his horrendous murders. He killed five of his family members and the youngest a 18 month old niece who he decapitated and kicked her head around the house where her family were lying in their own blood.

Thank God the trial ended early and I did not have to testify. It was a horrible month for me thinking I was going to be called.

In all honesty I never wanted to look into this mans eyes again. He was given a life sentence for this horrific crime but I am sorry to say I would have given him death because never once did this young man ever show any remorse for killing his mother, father, sister, brother and niece.

Being around him day in and day out was depressing and not good for me. Actually when I fell and broke my back at the Sheriff’s Office I was dealing with five inmates who had murdered someone. So I think God has a way of getting us out of situations that we never would leave ourselves. He took me away from a very bad working environment.

Sorry for being so graphic about what this young man did. I just sometimes can’t get it out of my head. I made the mistake and looked him up on the Internet and was shocked when I saw some of the pictures displayed on the web.

So now I have told you a little of what I am doing these days be sure and leave me a comment and tell me how you are spending your summer. I hope your weather is a lot cooler than Texas.

We did get a few inches of rain this past week which has turned everything green again for maybe a week but we need at least 12 inches more to get us out of the drought we are in.

I hope I can visit you soon and say hello.

Love to all

Maggie 

Wow Blogger Has Been Goofy!

Unbelieveble for weeks I have been trying to do a post on blogger to check in with you but for some odd reason everytime I tried to create a post Blogger would not let me write or copy and paste anything on here. You guys were so sweet checking on me to see what was up with not writing. I am here but have to admit it was not a good feeling thinking I would never get to say even a goodbye on here. Here on the North Forty everything is burning up! Seriously we have had none of the rains that I am hearing about from all of you who are tired of the rain. I know if there were a way you would send us some. We are facing another horrible drought this summer if mother nature continues to be stingy with her rain drops. I am trying my best to run water hoses to the big oaks that surround the ole farm house because in the last year over twenty trees have been taken down due to the drought of 2011. No way can I water the other 50 acres but thankfully I can water these beauties around the house. Of course I have to complain about the temps being in the three digits every day. Yesterday we had to replace the duct work in this old farm house because for years now I have complained about my huge utility bills and turns out most of the ducts up in the attic had five inch holes in all of the ducts. Maybe now I will notice a difference in the utility bills and my comfort in this old house. There are several post I want to do about what I have been up to this past month so hopefully I can return without any blogger issues. One big complaint I have with blogger is there is so much nonsense that keeps showing up on here even when trying to write you. For example yesterday I could not get on here because an advertisement for checking who has been arrested. Check your arrest records. Who in the heck has time to click on that sight. haha I want to do a post about my weeks of healthy eating and what the results were from trying to eat right. You will be happy to hear that I have been working on some creative projects that I will share with you. Also I would like to tell you about one of the murderer's whom I booked in at the Sheriff's Office before my accident and his trial. Please know I have been thinking of you and wondering how you are so please let me know how you are doing. Hopefully I can stop by your site and say hello. Here is a recipe that I love and thought you might like to try. It's so yummy and not hard to make. If you like chinese food you will enjoy this. Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken  3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts  Salt and pepper to taste  1½ cup cornstarch  3 eggs, beaten  ¼ cup canola oil  1 cup granulated sugar  4 tablespoons ketchup  ¼ cup white vinegar  ¼ cup apple cider vinegar  1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce  1 teaspoon garlic salt Instructions 1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cut chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces and season with salt and pepper. 2. In separate bowls, place cornstarch and slightly beaten eggs. Dip chicken into cornstarch then coat in egg mixture. 3. Heat canola oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and cook chicken until browned. Place the chicken in a 9 x 13 greased baking dish. 4. In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine sugar, ketchup, apple cider vinegar, white vinegar, soy sauce, and garlic salt. Pour over chicken and bake for 1 hour. Got to run! Well Blogger is messing up on me again not letting me type or add picture of the sweet and sour chicken. Hopefully this is not going to be a problem I have to deal with every time I try to write you. Love to all Maggie

Amazing restaurant quality sweet and sour chicken that you can make from home!

Author: Alyssa

Ingredients

§                       3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

§                       Salt and pepper to taste

§                       1½ cup cornstarch

§                       3 eggs, beaten

§                       ¼ cup canola oil

§                       1 cup granulated sugar

§                       4 tablespoons ketchup

§                       ¼ cup white vinegar

§                       ¼ cup apple cider vinegar

§                       1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce

§                       1 teaspoon garlic salt

Instructions

1.                    Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cut chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces and season with salt and pepper.

2.                    In separate bowls, place cornstarch and slightly beaten eggs. Dip chicken into cornstarch then coat in egg mixture.

3.                    Heat canola oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and cook chicken until browned. Place the chicken in a 9 x 13 greased baking dish.

4.                    In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine sugar, ketchup, apple cider vinegar, white vinegar, soy sauce, and garlic salt. Pour over chicken and bake for 1 hour.

Amazing restaurant quality sweet and sour chicken that you can make from home!

Author: Alyssa

Ingredients

§                       3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

§                       Salt and pepper to taste

§                       1½ cup cornstarch

§                       3 eggs, beaten

§                       ¼ cup canola oil

§                       1 cup granulated sugar

§                       4 tablespoons ketchup

§                       ¼ cup white vinegar

§                       ¼ cup apple cider vinegar

§                       1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce

§                       1 teaspoon garlic salt

Instructions

1.                    Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cut chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces and season with salt and pepper.

2.                    In separate bowls, place cornstarch and slightly beaten eggs. Dip chicken into cornstarch then coat in egg mixture.

3.                    Heat canola oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and cook chicken until browned. Place the chicken in a 9 x 13 greased baking dish.

4.                    In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine sugar, ketchup, apple cider vinegar, white vinegar, soy sauce, and garlic salt. Pour over chicken and bake for 1 hour.

Amazing restaurant quality sweet and sour chicken that you can make from home!

Author: Alyssa

Ingredients

§                       3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

§                       Salt and pepper to taste

§                       1½ cup cornstarch

§                       3 eggs, beaten

§                       ¼ cup canola oil

§                       1 cup granulated sugar

§                       4 tablespoons ketchup

§                       ¼ cup white vinegar

§                       ¼ cup apple cider vinegar

§                       1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce

§                       1 teaspoon garlic salt

Instructions

1.                    Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cut chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces and season with salt and pepper.

2.                    In separate bowls, place cornstarch and slightly beaten eggs. Dip chicken into cornstarch then coat in egg mixture.

3.                    Heat canola oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and cook chicken until browned. Place the chicken in a 9 x 13 greased baking dish.

4.                    In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine sugar, ketchup, apple cider vinegar, white vinegar, soy sauce, and garlic salt. Pour over chicken and bake for 1 hour.

Life or Death!