The thanksgiving non fun has begun between my sister, mom and me. Dh is already dreading the day. This year my mom did say, well, you can come here or I can come to you or you can pick me up and we can all go to your sisters. My mom doesn’t remember how to get to my house, she hasn’t been here in 12 years, and dh was like nope, if we are getting together we are doing it at her house so we can leave whenever we want. Oh and get this, the answer from my sister to the question what would you like to eat for thanksgiving? TACOS. Yup, the food that got thanksgiving canceled a couple of years ago. And if anyone remembers the ice cream war from a few years ago, it has come back around. She started out saying she wanted to make those “holiday sugar cookies” that no one likes and that we always brought home and gave to the chickens. The kind that have like Rudolph’s face on them and you bake them? We can make ice cream sandwiches. And isn’t someone’s favorite ice cream mint chocolate chip? (Hint-It’s my mom) I said some of the kids will eat mint chocolate chip but two of them will not eat anything mint. She says, we’ll, I’ll just get two kinds of ice cream. I said if you do that, REMEMBER, no one will be taking that ice cream home. She started to argue. I said if you want ice cream and you want everyone to have some , I suggest buying one carton of something everyone will like, or just get vanilla. You can do whatever you like, but know that all ice cream leftover will be left at your house. And don’t be mad if some people just eat ice cream and not ice cream sandwiches, it’s ok for them to do that. Because I bet only one of my kids would eat an ice cream sandwich with those hard as rock cookies. She was like well I don’t see why they would t just eat an ice cream sandwich… so at least this year I know ahead of time what one of the problems will be. Dh was like oh please, not the ice cream again…

I love this!!!!

Well now we need to know…

So sorry, praying for you today

A squeeze of lime juice is enough? Or added to vinegar? Would bottles lime juice work? haha can you tell I had a life changing taco experience??? I keep asking questions because we have no wiggle room in the budget for expensive Ingredients or for failures, and I really want to make something good but cheap

Aw, I’m sorry. I’m sure you aren’t the first person to do something like that. My dd works at a library and she says you’ll be amazed at the stories people will come with about a destroyed book. This week it was childrens hard back someone put in the book drop full of holes in the cover and first pages. Turns out, after a phone call, the couple had gotten married the previous weekend and one of the groomsmen’s belt was too big, so the groom looked around, saw the hard back book and used it under the belt to stab a new hole in it! At least you’re owning up to it

Can someone tell me about pickling things for a taco? I would never have thought something pickled went with tacos, but there were pickled jalapeños and pickled red onions for some of the choices. I also saw on a different menu about pickled red cabbage. Also, what balances the pickled element? Thanks!

Ugh, I’m sorry

Why do you keep it?

A conversation with one of my kids sparked a survey of everyone I am in some contact with and No one I know in real life has ever tried anchovies on a pizza. They are not offered at any of our local ish pizza places. That’s why I asked here.

Wow, way more people have eaten them than I would have expected!

Praying for you guys

Just now getting to this, I’m sorry for you and your son. I agree everyone just needs to block her. You, kids, everyone just circle the wagons and leave her on the outside

That’s it, just wondered if anyone has actually had anchovies on pizza.

Ok, so I’ve got several meats to try, do you put anything besides iceberg lettuce, tomatoes and sour cream?

We have been an Ortega taco family my whole life. Yesterday we had a life changing experience in a taco restaurant while visiting dd20 at college and I really want to branch out now! So hit me with your favorite taco meat filling. Chicken, ground beef, shredded beef roast, shredded pork roast any and all recipes! I looked online for copycat recipes from this restaurant but didn’t find what I was looking for. Thanks

I have a nightgown I wear all summer that I made from a stained tshirt and the tail of one of dh’s dress shirts. He had ripped the sleeve in a way that was a noticeable fix and he didn’t need anymore working around the farm shirts. So I cut from the second button from the bottom off all the way around and sewed it to the hem of the tshirt. Then zigzagged over the join and have worn it for three summers now! All those premade seems made it easy. I took a couple pairs of worn out flannel sleep pants and made them into cloth napkins. I just used the parts that weren’t too thin. I love to figure out how to take worn out things and turn them into something else! 🥰 dh has a pair of jeans that has patches on patches. Everytime I see him wear them it makes me smile. I’m not a sewer per se, I dont make clothing or anything, but I use my machine to make repairs or remake something into something else. The best part of working with old clothing is if you mess it up, no big deal!

I do a chain for the first row and then a single stitch for the rest. I can’t seem to manage anymore than that 🙄 but it makes a rug! I forgot, I also made some sit upon sized plastic rugs for the ladies at the library, they wear nice clothes but like to eat lunch out in the picnic table, but it was leaving dirty marks on their clothes so I made a couple they could set down to sit on. They also use them to kneel in the flower beds

Joanne fabrics sells these gigantic crochet hooks that are perfect for rug making. I literally only know one stitch but it works!

I have done this! I crocheted a mat for the bathroom using all of dh’s worn out white undershirts and random blue tshirts I gathered up from the kids. We have been using it for at least four years everyday and it is holding up beautifully! Since that was so successful, I made one for inside the fro t door in an oval shape made from a set of cheap sheets that the fitted one had worn out in the middle. I do t wash it in the washer like I do the bath mat, just shake it out because I think it would unravel. Both dogs have plastic mats in their dog houses and I have a big oval one on the back porch! It did take a whole lot of plastic bags, but everyone I know was happy to give them to me. The rugs do wear out and end up in the trash, but that is where they were headed anyway, so glad to have free dog house mats. Our local grocery just started finding out bright blue plastic bags for some reason, so I have people saving those and the gray Walmart bags so I can make a prettier rug for the porch than the one I have now

@knitgrl that is very kind of you! Thank you for the phrase. I have heard a lot of “it is what it is” lately and I like yours better. I am sorry you have been traveling a rough road too. I don’t know anyone who has gone through chemo treatments but it must be awful and scary. I hope you are doing well and will pray for you too

I think as long as he’s still able to work (he doesn’t drive anymore so I drive him) he won’t be amenable to seeking out any kind of services. His job so far has been amazing at accommodating him. We have definitely standardized a lot around the house, changed lighting. He has a red drinking cup. Shaving was a problem so he has grown out his beard and his dad trims it up when he cuts his hair. I do a visual inspection before we leave for his work. Ds12 has taken on a lot of the outside jobs around the house dh used to do, like anything that needs done after dark, the mowing etc. We got him this huge phone and changed the layout of the living room so he could sit much closer to the tv.

I made all the adaptations he would let me. He doesn’t want to reach out to any organizations yet. We definitely changed lighting, furniture placement, things like that. He said his socks slipped. I really appreciate hearing how you guys adapted over time. Please share anything else you found helpful.

Dh fell coming down the stairs this evening. He doesn’t think he did anything to his eye. I’m holding my breath. Separate question, he is occupying so much of my mental space, how do I make sure I’m available to the kids? Is it ok to be like listen kids, today I just have to focus on your dad, can you save it til tomorrow? I mean unless it’s an emergency obviously. Or is that a bad thing? I see online people talking about “well my dad was so wrapped up in my moms illness” etc. I don’t want that, but there is only so much of me to go around.

Yes, person could not have completed the task without us, so by us not helping the thing would not have been done, and danger avoided. But I went along, and now every time I see anything related to that task it upsets me all over again, even two weeks later. I am still struggling to forgive myself for not listening to my gut and going along with something dangerous