Tuesday 1-5-10

Another day, another dollar short!! Paid utilities yesterday. Gas, water, electric. Wow, my MIL passed on (we owe her) her old Sun Cloud electric heater. What a HUGE difference!! This would have been worth a $500 investment! We run it constantly, it has a thermostat that we set to 70 and we can never get this monstrosity of a house up to 70, it costs about $1 a day on the electric bill and, by my estimate, saved us $150-200!!!!!!! Now, if I had a small, one-level house I don't know if my furnace would kick on AT ALL!! This thing is so awesome. Paid my gas bill and for the months of Dec AND Nov it was $280. This is what it costs us PER MONTH at a minimum in the typical winter. Woo Hoo!!

If you have the extra $300 or can scrape it up I highly urge you to look into this heater. What a difference!!

Anywho.....on to today. Doctor appointment at 11:15 for Abbie to check out that hip again. She told me yesterday that she would just as soon have surgery. Whatever!! Apparently she has no concept of how long she would be out if that happened! Maybe the Dr. will have a miracle cure but I am sure he will tell her just what I have been telling her...Rest it, ice it, anti-inflammatories, and when the pain is gone start working it slowly...

Last night for dinner I made a brown rice pilaf with little bits of ham, onion, dried cranberries, and pecans seasoned with balsamic vinegar, s&p, and olive oil to go along with pan-fried trout fillets, and broccoli. Amazingly, Tom loved the brown rice (which he hates). So, this is a recipe I will be using again.

Today will be roasted red pepper and tomato soup and ham and cheese sammies on homemade bread. Since it's game night this is something we can eat early and still have a snack when we get home and not feel like we over ate.

Yesterdays bread (Family Bread from hillbillyhousewife.com) came out great. I used 4 cups of spring wheat flour and the rest unbleached white and it was awesome. Great toast this morning with home-made blackberry jam. Today will be laundry and kitchen work until we have to leave for WPHS for games. Will be a busy one when I get back from her appointment!

Wishes for a great day for all! See ya later!