A New Season Begins

It has been not such a great summer. And I was hoping for a kinder, gentler fall, but September has been anything but. Thursday nigh we were watching a movie and after it finished got up off the sofa and stepped in a lake. It had been raining really hard, and evidently, the roof that is no more than a year old is leaking, major big time leaking. Half of our living room was flooded and the entire basement was flooded. The insurance guy came Friday and helped pull up the carpet but left and we're sitting in a house with the furniture stacked on top of furniture in the living room, no place to sit, a total BIG mess! HOA was sending a guy to look at the roof Saturday, have no idea if he came or not, if so he never knocked on the door. The State Farm guy talked like they would just replace the pad under the carpet and put the carpet back down. I don't think so. I will rip the carpet up myself and paint the sub floor before I want the existing carpet to be put back down. I am terrified of mold. We still cannot figure out how the water came in, it had to have run down the inside of the wall and come through the floor that way. Which scares me about mold on the inside of the wall. Having an autoimmune disease, I sure do not want to deal with mold. I am really feeling a bit overwhelmed right now, which is causing a pretty rough flare up with my Sjogren's. I was just getting over a flare up the end of last week and now this. Geez!!! 

Not a pretty sight.

I did enjoy a great iced coffee one day last week. Too cool for iced coffee today. Gee, summer has left us. Not sure I am so ready for it to be over, but then it did not ask me if I wanted it to stay or go. 

Photo: SPBM

Was delicious!

Photo: SPBM

And one night last week I made BLT (I'm calling them tacos). They were fantastic. Made a dressing with avocado, a little mayo, and some seasonings and lime juice, turned out delicious. 

Photo: SPBM

And this I think is probably ture:

 “People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy.” ~ Anton Chekhov

June Treats

                     photo by spbm

I'm really into making my own iced coffee these days. It is so much better and so easy to make. I just make a strong coffee and put it in the fridge to get cold, then add whatever kind of milk you prefer.

Haven't been doing much outside, we've had so much rain I need to invest in a boat. 

I'll be driving to NC next weekend to see my kiddos. So very excited about seeing them and the trip. It's going to be so nice to have some time away and be with my kids. I'll be making Dutch Baby Pancakes every morning, they love them and what they always want for breakfast. 

I made some this morning after seeing a recipe for them with cherries and almonds. I think I have made them with every fruit available but did add the almonds and they are delicious. The fun thing about making these is that if you have individual skillets or pans, you can make each individual one with a different fruit, or plain. 

photos by spbm

The blog where I got the idea to add the almonds is here, but I used my own dutch baby recipe. They are all pretty similar. The one I have used for years has never failed me, so why change a good thing.