Good News, Bad News and an Ode to my little store

Hi all.

I have good news and bad news.

Good News!!: I have sold my store. Hallelujah! I am now free to further pursue my dreams. Like, going back to school. I want to go back for Graphic Design. I have discovered that is something I really like and wouldn't mind having a degree in. Took me till I was almost 38 to find out what I wanted to do when I grew up...but, I suppose, better late than never.

Bad News: I will not have internet access for a while. So I will not be able to be on here for a little while. I am actively looking for an alternative to our local phone company. We have several internet needs between school for my kids and just keeping up with life in general. So, I WILL find a way.

I was so excited, relieved and at peace with the store selling. I am finding now that I am mourning it a little. I have spent time crying. Somebody put it into a neat perspective for me. She said "You birthed this." And I did. In lots of prayer and hard work. I knew I would never keep it forever. I knew that I opened it to sell it. And the fact that it has is an absolute testament to the power of the Word of God. I just feel so stupid for crying over something I've been aching to get rid of. Almost like never being happy even when you get what you want. Except I am happy. I am most moved and touched by how much God loves me and takes care of me. He has totally held me in the palm of His hand and has rescued me right at the point where I thought I would come apart at the seams. But, I'm going to miss my store. At least for a little while. And then life will get busy and I will be so glad for the freedom that the pain will go away.

So, goodbye little store. You have been good to me. I have learned many things and gained much experience. You are in a cherished little corner of my heart.

Crock Pot Pulled Pork Loin

Another "came up with it one-day" recipe for you to try.

Crock Pot Pulled Pork Loin
by Elizabeth Mareno

Need:
3-4 Lb Pork Loin or Roast - Lean
Minced Garlic
Dried Basil/Oregano
Salt and Pepper

Place roast in crock pot. Cover entire top of roast with minced garlic. (no kidding, the whole top)
Sprinkle Basil/Oregano over the top till its dark and everything looks covered in dried herbs. ( i know this is vague) Even if it looks like too much, trust me, it's not. I use a salt grinder. I made a few passes over the top with the salt and the pepper....and cook for 8 hours.

Simply shred the pork roast into the juices it created and serve on buns. It's incredible.

Crafting and Life Update

I don't have much to say, really.

I have still been working so much that I have not done any designing. I didn't even get my submission in to the magazine in time. Trying to decide, now, whether or not to just put it on here as another free pattern. I want very much to share the pattern. But, I want very much to see if I am good enough to have a pattern submission accepted as well. It's a conundrum.

Have great ideas in my head about things. Have a Vulpix (pokemon toy) about 1/4 done. Actually more, I just have to do his head and tail. But, I have had no desire to work on that. To be honest the carpal tunnel in my arm is getting ridiculous. I HAVE to go see a doctor. I lose sleep at night from the pain in my arm. I can't knit or crochet very long and I have to set things down cuz I can't do it anymore. That is seriously cramping my style. Seriously.

As far as what I have on the hooks and needles. I am currently working on a ripple afghan in crochet being done in scraps only. And this one really is scraps. I will not buy any yarn for this one. I know you've heard that a hundred times from me if you've heard it once. But, I mean it this time! On the needles, I just finished up 3 pairs of wool mittens **for the family. I just have one more pair to go. And I have a 'mind of its own' log cabin-ish afghan on the needles. This one, too, is scraps only. This one is the almost full skeins of yarn that get left over in the pile. They are too little to do a big project and too big to just use for potholders, etc. So...I'm making it work. :) But, these, too are moving very slow. The whole arm thing.

We've made some decisions about the store. We currently have a buyer in the works. I'm believing that God is going to move things and we will be able to sell. Just be in agreement with us. And if you can't be in agreement...then just don't say anything at all.

I'm tired. I'm worn out. I work way too much. I'm ready to go back to being a part-time employee and being home with my kids. They are at an age where they need me even more than when they were babies. Then, it was the physical need. Now, is the time of life where the big questions and big decisions come up. I don't want to be absent when they happen. Or be too tired to care. They are arrows and I have every intention of pointing them with a destination and a future.

**Leave the fun fur out of this pattern and use Wool-Ease chunky for a GREAT mitten! Size 9 needles for women's hands. Size 10 needle and a few extra rows before the finger decrease for men.

Crock Pot Southwestern-ish Chuck Roast

No pictures for this. Just don't have a working camera at my disposal. After thinking about this, somebody, somewhere probably came up with this idea before me. However, I didn't get this recipe from anyone but my own brain, so I'm posting it as an original recipe. I hope you enjoy this as much as my family did. :)

Crock Pot Southwestern-ish Chuck Roast
by Elizabeth Mareno

Serves about 5-6 people generously

Need:
3-4lb chuck roast- frozen
1- can tomatoes and green chilies- do not drain.
1- can Bush's Texas Chili Starter (we use medium heat)
Ground Cumin
Instant Rice (we made a 4 serving size and had tons left over)
Shredded Cheese (optional)
Large crock pot (ours is an oval 6 Qt)

Put the frozen chuck roast into crock pot. Pour can of tomatoes/chilies over the top of the roast, juice and all (don't add extra liquid). Sprinkle generously with cumin. Cook 8 hours.

About 15-ish minutes before serving, remove all fat and bones from roast (i just leave it in the crock pot and do this), then shred meat. Add the can of chili starter. Let cook in crock pot about 15 minutes while you get the instant rice ready.

Serve over rice with shredded cheese. Last minute serving add-in's could be jalapeno's for some heat, extra green chilies, sour cream, crushed tortilla chips....use your imagination.

This makes AWESOME leftovers!!

Oatmeal-Fruit Preserve Bars

This is my family's current favorite dessert. Wonderful for Fall parties. We've used raspberry preserves and apple butter....wonderful any way you slice them!

Oatmeal-Fruit Preserve Bars

1-1/2 sticks of butter/margarine (3/4cup)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1-1/2 cups of rolled oats
1-1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
10 oz jar of preserves, any flavor

Cream together butter and sugar till fluffy. Mix flour, salt and soda together to incorporate. Add oats and flour mixture to butter mixture till crumbly.

Take 2/3 of oat mixture and press into the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Spread preserves over the oat mixture. Sprinkle remaining oat mixture on top of preserves.

Bake at 400 for 20 minutes or until browned. Let cool for at least 20 minutes before cutting. Also serves great right out of the oven as a 'crisp' with ice cream.

Time Flies..

..when you are having fun, right?

Well, this morning as I was enjoying yet another perfect cup of coffee and having my devotions, I noticed that my Mountain Ash tree in my front yard has beautiful orange berries all over it. (I've tried to find a picture...but blogger won't let them load today.) This is the tree that the environmental activists came through a few years ago and marked as a 'tree at risk' because a birdie moves in and lives in its trunk every year. They went through our whole town cutting down "at risk" trees...finding out that some of the oldest and most beautiful were perfectly fine. But, now they're gone and there is a new, twiggy looking tree in it's place. Never mind that they just cut down a perfectly good 100 year old tree.

OK, I'm done ranting...back to our Mountain Ash that they didn't cut down...

Seems like a week or two ago it was beginning to bud. Then it was filled with flowers. Then **BAM** just like that..we have orange berries.

That can mean only one thing. Deer. Every night. In my yard. Driving the dog insane. (the naughty dog that has earned himself a life on the leash, because he runs away every single day.)

Then we will have massive flocks of birds in our yard eating the berries. It's quite the smorgasbord, apparently.

Oh and let's not forget. Cold is coming. Soon.

A perfect day for the perfect cup.....

As I sit here blogging @ 6:30 on a Saturday morning, it is about 44/46 degrees outside. In August. It is the perfect day for the perfect cup.

I have brewed myself the perfect 1st pot of the perfect 1st bag of perfectly & freshly ground coffee beans. It is Cameron's Vanilla Hazelnut..fully leaded.

I have to tell you about this coffee for which my heart has longed. About 2 years ago my husband and I decided that we would try drinking coffee. Tony would doctor his up with about 9 pkgs of sugar/sugar substitute and about 1/2 cup of milk. Not much coffee there. But, he was slowly beginning to like the taste. Little did I know that it had become an obsession for him. He was buying it at the gas station and drinking it at the shop with my mom *gasp*....till one day he came home with a travel mug. Where did this come from?? He liked coffee that much? My husband, who swore he would never drink the stuff?

Yes, he liked it that much. So along with his new obsession came everyone's cast-off bags of coffee. 'Oh, I didn't realize you guys drank coffee, here take this, use it up.'.....oh, ok, thank you.
In amongst all of these gems was a bag of Cameron's. It was just regular 'ol coffee. But, by this time we had tried Douwe Egberts and Gevalia and decided they were nasty. So what was one more brand we didn't recognize? I mean, all we saw in the stores were 8 O'clock and Folgers and other pre-ground coffees. We were looking for beans, people!

Cameron's was a head above the rest from the start, we just didn't know it. First of all it was almost a full bag of beans 'handed down' to us by my brother and sister in law. They don't drink coffee and they were pretty sure that it was a bag that was left at their house by a family friend who doesn't drink coffee. (Yes, this is how 'back alley' our procurement of coffee beans was back in the beginning.) And it is not as if we were jumping for joy at the thought of another bag of ultra left overs....but we didn't know how to say no. So we took the Cameron's home. It sat in the refrigerator while we finished off what we were currently drinking. (We were STOCKED at this point.) Eventually, we pulled the Cameron's out and ground up our first batch.

While we were grinding it we noticed that it looked almost woody with large flakes of white-ish coloring. I still don't know the technical terms for those flakes. I'm assuming it's just "coffee". So as I'm watching these beans grind I'm thinking, "Oh great, it's going to be gross." True first thoughts, scouts honor (which would mean more if I had actually made it to girl scouts..I never made it past Brownies). *Sigh* Ok, so I'll make it.

It smelled good brewing. And when I poured my first cup....

The planets aligned. What was this heavenly, nutty flavor on my tongue? A robust flavor with perfect acidity. It wasn't overwhelmed by my creamer. It stood up for itself and declared, "I will not be hidden with artificial flavors and colors!!" It was the perfect cup!

We buzzed through that bag with great joy. All the while thinking that "We'll just get another bag".

Apparently not. Apparently nobody carries Cameron's in stores. And the family friend couldn't remember where he had purchased it. (I didn't know there was such a thing as 'random' coffee purchasing) And at that point, we were not aware that we could just look it up online. (Which I did this morning and bing, bing, bing..there it was. Why didn't I do it before?) So we thought it was a Mnpls/St Paul only coffee (Which, it actually is, but we couldn't find it). Nope, not over there, either. We kept the bag and carried it with us everywhere. Cameron's was never to be found again. Finally we gave up and threw away the bag. We even forgot our first love's name.

So when I was walking through my local grocery store and turned the corner to the coffee aisle and saw the name "Cameron's", I had to pause. Cameron's. Cameron's? Wait....Cameron's!! No freakin' way!!!! So I sniffed and lovingly fondled bags of coffee. (Yes, I unabashedly draw attention to myself in the coffee aisle, to the complete embarrassment of my children) At this point in our coffee drinking we have settled on Hazelnut as our flavor. We don't vary from it. It's our flavor. Anyone who drinks coffee understands what I am saying. So I decided to purchase a bag of Vanilla Hazelnut. (But! Then I saw the baby bags of pre-ground samplers and bought a bag of Chocolate Almond Swiss, too. I know it's not our flavor, but it was cute and it sucked me in! I made a pot of that yesterday.)

Today's first sip of Vanilla Hazelnut inspired me to share with you my journey to the perfect cup.


**Ok, here's something completely random. As a homeschooling mom I'm always looking for validation that I am doing right by my kids. Validation that they are learning and not being left behind and are getting more than I feel they would with public education.

Here are my two validations for this week. #1- While traveling back from my 20th reunion last weekend, my daughter was telling us about something and right there in the middle of her sentence she used the word "scoff". She said it so completely natural that I just sort of burst out laughing. So, then, I had to explain to her that it was her wording, which was brilliant. How many kids use the word scoff, naturally? There may be alot of them, but not in my world. #2-Last night at the local football game the freshman football players were manning the concession stand. They could not do simple math....I kid you not. My SIL gave them a five for a 3-something bill and got $4.25 back.... They could not add $.75 and $.75 together for my and my husband's sodas. My son got popcorn and a soda which came to $1.75. He gave them $2...they gave him $.50 back. So as we are walking away my son sort of laughingly tells me that they gave him a quarter too much (as he's tucking it into his wallet). I stopped him and said "You take that quarter back. We don't keep money that isn't ours and you never take advantage of the stupid."

Ok, yes, I probably shouldn't have said that (and I told my son that I shouldn't have said that)but it was a good lesson for him and TOTALLY validated my position in life as homeschooling mom. :)

Fall, already?

I was at my mom's for coffee and chatting this morning. As I was leaving, I took a deep breath and thought "Mmmm. I love that smell...."

Then my brain said, "Wait, what was that?"

So I took another deep breath.

Brain said, "Hmmm...Spicy undertones...Moist earth...Fog.....That smells like....like....FALL!"

What?!?!? We didn't even get Summer, yet!

Where does Earth get off changing seasons already? Scuze me! I still live in a state that has technically ordered 4 seasons from the menu of choices....why am I only getting 3??

I swear I will slap the next person that utters the words "Global Warming".


**random note** To DragonFlyLady: I am submitting to a crochet magazine. But, because I haven't completed the process yet, I'm not saying which one. :)

20 Year Class Reunion.

I totally forgot to tell you!

I went to my 20 year reunion in one of the three cities I went to high school in this weekend. It was my first high school. These were the kids I grew up with through grade school and middle school. I left October of my freshman year. And they invited me to come to the reunion. :)

It was so good to see them. Many people I couldn't recognize. I just didn't spend enough time with them when we were kids apparently. But, I readily recognized Michelle, Brenda, and Deb. They don't look any different. And I got the chance to sit and talk with Michelle for quite a while. Found out she lives only a few hours from me and we could actually get together for lunch or go shopping or something! Too cool. She was my closest friend at the time that we moved. Apparently she had been looking for me for years and finally found me on Facebook.

I never thought that they would remember me. They all did. It meant the world to me. I hadn't seen any of them for so many years that it was almost like Arcadia never happened. But, it did. This reunion meant alot to me. It completely validated my childhood.

Somebody remembered me. :) And quite a few of them had stories about me that I never even remembered!

We drove out to the valley I grew up in and drove all the way to the back of it and then turned around, so that they could see the whole thing. As we were driving along one of my kids (i think my son) said "Wow, this is a really pretty valley, Mom". And it is. It is still as beautiful as when I was a child. Maybe even more so. I love that side of the state. I miss living there. Someday, I want to own the place where I grew up. The old house is gone now and somebody else built there. But, I want that piece of land. So many of my memories are wrapped up in that valley.

Someday.

Pattern Submissions and stuff like that.

Today I have to sit down and figure out how to write a pattern for submission. I have never followed anyone else's rules for writing a pattern before. I hope I don't have to change alot. I'm really quite nervous about the whole thing. I have to get it submitted before September 8th. Nothing like procrastination??

I have had to work so much lately I haven't had any time at the yarn store. I was there on Friday last week. By that time there is so much to do I don't get to really deal with the extra-curricular stuff. Did I mention that the store is on the market again? Well, it is. I just want to move on with my life. We have had so many people come in and say "Oh, it's so sad that you are closing." and then we say "But, we aren't closing." and we had one person say.."What's the difference?"

Well, here is the difference, we are selling the business..we are not having a "going out of business" sale, therefore closing the doors forever, never to be seen or heard from again. We are selling the business. Hopefully, to someone that has every intention of staying right where they are and continuing to serve the community as we have. It's a needed business in our little town.

Here's another small pet peeve. Why does everyone assume that when they buy a business all they are obligated to pay for is the inventory? Why is that the first thing that people ask?

Just for future reference for anyone out there looking to buy an established business. You will be buying more than the inventory. You will be paying for the blood, sweat, tears and time that the former owner spent on their knees seeking God's direction for that business...so that one day you can come along and buy a well-established business with a very comfortable and faithful customer base. You will not have to put in the long hours making something out of nothing like they did. You will not have to put lots and lots and lots and LOTS of money into building a business that carries the product lines that customers want, built completely out of trial and error and losing your shirt more than once on an unsuccessful venture.... You will not have to work NEARLY as hard as that original owner did. So, when you ask what they want for their business and they say "X" amount of dollars...don't let the first question be..."Well, how much do you have in inventory?" and then try to short change them when you make an offer. Remember how much their hard work is worth.

Just sayin'.