First Chili Recipe Attempt

For Super Bowl Sunday at my brother-in-law's I decided to try to make chili. It had to be gluten-free (for husband and BIL). For day's I looked for recipes and found none that I liked. I decided to use ingredients that I saw in the various recipes and created my own. Everyone seemed to like it. I just started throwing beef, beans, spices, etc. in the crock pot and just tested it all day and added more spices as needed. I don't think I could recreate it exactly if I tried. My husb. did try to help when I was out of the house. He put hot red pepper in and made it WAY to spicy. I spent the rest of the day to cool it down without real success. I can't let him near the crock pot again. I'll admit we only went to the party for the company. We are not big football fans. We did enjoy some of the commercials and the kids always like to get together. My daughter even took her boyfriend along to meet some of the family for the first time.

Now we are in the midst of a stomach bug. Both kids came down with it within an hour of each other and of course it always start during the night. My daughter actually ended up in the ER with severe dehydration. She passed out repeatedly in my arms and looked as white as a ghost. I hope I never have to go through that again. Next week the kids have a week off and I hope it is a quiet one.

Where have I been?

I can't believe it has been almost a year since last posted. I was so excited to start a blog and then life got in the way. I will definitely post more often this year. So much has happened to us in the past year. My oldest turned 17 and I certainly don't feel old enough to have a child who is almost an adult. She got her first job AND her first boyfriend. Yikes! is that scary. My youngest just turned 13 and is just finding an interest in girls. The job search has not gone well but my previous boss did ask me to help out for a few months at the sewing shop she has been managing. We were hoping it would turn out to be long term, but with the economy, the owners are closing the shop. We are all devastated. We were feeling like a family again. So, I am back on the search for a new job.

I am ecstatic to be volunteering at a local organization that cares for birds-of-prey that are injured and cannot be re-released back into the wild. It is a dirty job but I LOVE it! This is a Saw-Whet Owl called Blaze. It has neurological injuries from hitting a car. He is one of my favorites. I am learning to handle the birds and hope to be able to go out on programs with them soon. My family has said they have noticed a difference in my mood since I started. It does make me feel very good to help out and I always come home happy. If I were younger and had the money I would go back to school for wildlife biology or zoology. I have been doing a lot of reading and research to learn as much as I can about care and rehabbing of wildlife.

I have been working on various projects and will post some of them soon. My latest craze has been learning crochet. I also found a store that teaches classes on spinning wool into yarn. Maybe I'll have to try that.

Sorry for the long post. I hope that this blog will inspire me to be more creative and will inspire others to get out of their comfort zone and try something new.