Celebrating St Patrick's Day, Crockpot Oatmeal, Snow and Books

We were on the road for over a week , despite the fun we had it was good to be home. We saw many beautiful horses and horse property.  This is my friend, Liz's horse walking for therapy. 

Colorado got hit hard with wind and snow while we were gone and was one of the reasons we were late getting home.  The highways were closed. Here is what we came home to:

Norman is back with us after his days with friends at the Dog Bed and Breakfast. We celebrated with being together as much as we could  today! He loves snow and spent most of the time in it. 

We put oatmeal in the crockpot before bed last night.  Using pantry apples we canned last year and other things our food storage .

We layered a jar of apples, 2 cups of oats, 1/4 cup of brown sugar, a sprinkling of cinnamon, a pat of butter, and 4 cups of water.  Just before bed we put it on low. The house smelled wonderful.

It was more like dessert than breakfast!

Dude's breakfast.

I told my young friend Abby, I would make something for St. Patrick's Day out of a toilet roll and this is what I came up with. Silly but with little time and supplies, not bad. 

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day with colcannon.  I am trying not to eat meat during lent. No way would Dude do that too.  But he does love potatoes and didn't mind the "greens" in our colcannon tonight.  I made it potatoes, mustard greens, scallions, cabbage, butter, milk, salt and pepper... topped with an egg.

Books...

Here is what I am reading  and listening to from the Library.

And still reading and savoring... I am just enjoying it ...plus I am a slow reader. I read library books faster since they have time due. *smile*

I made my dinner for tomorrow since I head back to work.  I made vegetarian Korean tacos with tofu and marinated veggies to top them. 

That's all for now. Time to read Norman a bedtime story. 

peace 

Thursday and Friday.. . eletrical is fixed, jam and getting ready for St Patrick's Day

Thursday was a full day on the homestead but not of homesteading stuff.  Since we are on a well, we have filters all over the place . Today we had the reverse osmosis filters replaced today.  Then the electrician showed up to figure out why the kitchen had no power. Dude thought he may have done something while remodeling. I told him I doubted that.  He is a master carpenter and he would have made that type of a move.  I was right . The electrician found the problem over where our alarm system had been installed. The wiring was not connected and only working because every once in a while would hit each other and go on...weird . Anywhooo, it is working now.

I did go out and got some spinach.  As you can see I need to clean out all the dead stuff now.

I went through some of the seeds.  Typically in our area we plant greens, radishes, beets, etc on St Patrick's Day. 

Speaking of St Patrick's Day I decided to try and make as many things as I could for that day. 

March 1st 

I started with a simple card. 

March 2nd

Friday, I also made jam.  Strawberries are on sale right now. It's a great time to make jam.

Jam is fun to make and basically sugar and fruit. I do a pectin to mine. 

Turned out good. I like that there is just enough to taste in the bowl every time... even if Dude ate it all. 

peace

Happy St Patrick's Day!

"Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me." - Lorica of St. Patrick
Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Here we have the smell of corn beef in the crock pot . But the Archdiocese of Denver has announced, unlike other dioceses across the nation, they will not grant dispensation to eat meat since today is Friday and Lent. We are not alone as the Archdiocese of Lincoln, Nebraska has also said ... Just say No to meat today.    So we will save it for tomorrow's breakfast of corn beef and hash along with corn beef sandwiches next week -I plan to stretch out my Irish Heritage Celebration as long as I can. But we will have split pea soup (hey, it's green) and Irish soda bread.

 We will be practicing a bit of an Irish Jig tonight whilst listening to a wee bit of the Orthodox Celts and on to Dropkick Murphys and so much more tonight. Yes, I am torturing my Viking husband with all manner of Irish music and dancing like a drunkard in River Dance - grin. 

Along the way I stopped to see my grandsons.... sons of the Irish Mafia... okay, not really. It's a family joke. I have four sons and they have always protected me. 

And just to make it interesting, I got a knock on the door to ask if I was missing a lamb. Thinking it was mine Dude, aka The Viking, rode off without looking in the barn. I drove behind him, yelling out the window... "did you look in the barn"... when I spotted it.  Dude kept on to town to report a missing lamb and I saw this rag-a-muffin lamb wandering in the wheat field. It was not mine but I sure wanted him.  But it was not to be. The county's animal control came to rescue him. 

I did make a few crafts but my grandson out did me with his.  He surprised me with a lucky garden. I absolutely love it. Perfect gift on such a holiday! 

And here is what I made... mini coffee cups, decorated and filled with chocolates.

Then out to the hen house. 

One of the eggs is beginning to crack...hopefully babies will be revealed soon. 

A lot of green is going on in the greenhouse. 

That's my day. 

May you always have walls for the winds,
a roof for the rain, tea beside the fire,
laughter to cheer you, those you love near you,
and all your heart might desire.

peace be with you