Gravel Road Musings

And it has arrived. The day we lived the whole year for. What is that day you ask? Why it is opening hunting season--the day all the men troop to the woods to sit around in tree stands, hunkered against the cold, waiting for that elusive buck to come across their path within shooting range. (Okay, you can breathe now) It is also the day for all the hunting "widows" to grab their purse and car keys and head off to town for a big day of shopping. (Which I am hoping will mean lots of sales from ladies with well-laden purses.) We get up at 5:00, put on a pot of coffee that when drank (or is it drunk) curls around inside your stomach because it is no longer a liquid it is so strong. Then we gather together all the clothes we can find, and put piles of food in the back pack, grab our coffee, water jug, and gun and we are off to the woods. Now, most people maybe wouldn't take food, because, of course, the deer could smell it and then all your grand plans of shooting the big one ...

Actually, I only have one reason, but it is important to me at least. The top reason that I can think to wait until you are 26 to get married and then even longer to have children is this: SO THAT TIME AND NATURE WORK AGAINST ME TO PREVENT ME FROM HAVING 15 BIOLOGICAL CHILDREN. So there you have it--the number 1 reason to marry later in life. This week, at the clinic, a lady gave birth to her 15th child. What else you need to know is this: she is only 39, she could easily have 4-5 more children. Ok, let's face it, I can't imagine having 1 child, let alone 6, let alone 15. It's just daunting to me. Now, if I could suffer for the short amount of time that she really suffered, I may be more tempted to attempt it, but then visions of 2 hours of hard work and I am frozen again and the adoption papers come back out. Oh wait, I don't actually have adoption papers, though I have been asked if we are considering adoption. Now, I can also name other reasons to wait until you are ...

While this is highly unusual for me to be posting two days in a row--I just feel the urge to write and so write I will. It's not like I have anything profound to say though, so be forewarned. Why does it seem that all the drama and trauma seems to happen to one family? You want to cry out and say--really God how much can they take? Are you wanting them to learn something or are you trying to teach those around them how to be more Christlike? What are some ways You want us to reach out? In that respect, it has been good for us--we need to be more generous and caring and sharing. But for them? Haven't they gone through enough? Can't you just heal him and make him better right now? I know you have a plan, but..... Isn't that what you want to ask when you don't understand what is going on? I'm sure God has a plan and I want to trust as I continue to offer my husband's assistance. But, in continuation, I did go help chore this morning. Yes, I did--got my bandana,...

So once again, I repeat myself in saying that by creating titles such as the above, I leave myself wide open to state whatever I want however I want in whatever order I want. Maybe I should also put a clause in too about using whatever grammar I want as well. There's definitely a reason I didn't major in English in school. I can identify a noun and possibly a verb. An adverb can be identified for sure only if it ends in -ly. But now that I write about it, it almost interests me to go back and learn it all over again. I was going to do a post on femininity. I read a devotional on it and Modest Mom has been having some kind of 31 days on it or something. I really haven't figured out what she is talking about yet or how the series works. I guess I have figured out a little of what she was saying. Anyway, does anyone have any thoughts on femininity besides the fact that it has a lot of i's in it? Right now doesn't seem to be the time to discuss such a weighty ...

I wonder: is it really worth it to make sure the Title goes with whatever is going to be discussed below it. Wouldn't the non-going-together part of it make it more modern. Kind of like the art you see now and then that makes no sense and I wonder why I don't throw some paint at a canvas and call it medieval wonderings or some other such name. I am currently at work and I believe we have officially entered harvest season. The place is dead today. I have been waiting for it to happen for about the last 2 months, so it's been a little delayed in coming. I am not sure it is going to last that long either. I have off the next two days and Friday looks busy, so yay for me. I should be occupied the next time I work. So I am sure you are all wondering what my latest craze is. It is this great new website that my friend, Jo, told me about. It has the yummiest looking food on it with readily available ingredients. Nothing high falutin' about it. Yummy things like French bread, n...

Tristan David joined the Glick household today, bring the family numbers up to 22, I believe. No 23 will be arriving later this year. I forgot how exciting it is to have a new nephew born in your area. We trooped on in to see him at the young age of about 5 hours. He is a cute little guy, long fingers, stuffed in lower jaw and a nice amount of hair covered by a Packer color knit hat. He looks like his brother just older than him. It was fun going to see him, though I was once again negligent about taking a gift or flowers or even a little balloon, but I think mom was understanding. Then I realized something-- It's been almost 22 years since I went to the hospital to see a new niece or nephew. That time it was a new niece, not only a new one, a first one. How exciting--me at the ripe old age of 7. As I recollect and have been told, I wanted to be nominated chief niece holder, but I think that got old when she got older and wanted me to do everything with her. Then it wasn't so f...

I was reading my devotional tonight by Emilie Barnes and the title was "Your True Movitvation". Do I do what I do because I'm afraid if I don't, God will punish me, or do I do it out of pure love for Him and to bring glory to His name. It was challenging for me to think about. This can apply to so many areas. I work for 2 reasons. 1. I do really enjoy my job. 2. I get paid to do it. But if I didn't get paid, would I still really want to work? I'm afraid right now with so many other things I want to do hollering for my attention or quietly sulking away in the corner, I wouldn't work for the shear pleasure of enjoying what I do with not monetary benefit. I don't know that I would do it any time either. But am I working to bring honor to God or to bring a name to myself? I want to be the best nurse, the best employee, but why? For my own pleasure or for God's glory? I have to be honest, normally for myself. Why do you do what you do? In othe...

I think there's a story I promised you a while back of something that happened at work. Now, I realize this blog doesn't have a wide readership at this point, but I just wonder for those who read it, what your husband would have done. It's 5:30 on a Tuesday evening. The time for the lady's prenatal appt. However, she is late, which is not unusual. She normally is, but then about 5:50, this man comes up to the counter, kind of leans on the counter and says, "My wife needs some help; she's having it." I don't recognize the man and my mind doesn't fully process what is going on. After further questioning, I realize he is saying that the 5:30 appt has arrived and Tillie (fictional name) is about to or has had her baby. I summon the doctor and grab some supplies and we head out to see Tillie in the back seat of the van trying to hide her baby. The van is full; they brought two children along, her sister is with her with her two children, plus the driver...

I don't know if anyone wondered about the flowers posted at the top of the blog, but if you did, let me tell you about them. Dave, for our anniversary, decided to get me living flowers instead of cut flowers. It was a nice gesture, signaling how our marriage is a living one that will last beyond the days of cut flowers or the days of nice romance, young love, and high ideals. The unfortunate problem with these flowers is I killed them. Now, I didn't do this on purpose, believe me. I tried to save these flowers. They were beautiful with buds coming out on them. I watered them regularly, possibly too much, and the buds started dying before they bloomed and then the leaves started falling off and so on and so forth. In a last desperate effort to save them, I trimmed off all the dead stuff, but it didn't help. So now my once beautiful azalea is sitting outside in the back of our flower bed, where I am hoping against hope it is only hibernating. Basically, in short, I am living ...

1. It is Dr. S not just S. If you want to shorten it go with Doc, not just the last name. It seems so crude. The secretary threatens to have the patient hold so she can go throw up when someone does this. 2. It is a Prescription, not a subscription. A prescription is medication that you get at a pharmacy, a subscription is often a magazine that comes through the mail. 3. It is Lyme disease not Lymes. There is no plural. 4. It is perfectly okay and welcome really to shower before you come to your doctor's appt. In fact, the nurse would way rather have to spray away the smell of your strong perfume/cologne than the smell of your few weeks old BO. 5. Appointments are not only prefferred, they are required. I know we will work you in in an emergency, but please for all other things, make an appointment first. 6. It is not okay to ask questions about the patient that was just in or your friend who came in last week. While we would love to discuss this with you, the government has put ha...

I'm back again. It's been a really, really good week. There is only one thing that will totally complete and that should happen in the next hour. D is coming. I have been at my parents since Wednesday evening and I am really, really ready to see D. I could dance around the house in my excitement about him coming, but I have refrained. I am trying to maintain a more "mature level of excitment." I've decided that if I think I can set up and design a web store for someone that I had better learn how to master my own blog design first, so maybe over the next few weeks, you will see new and different changes to the site. I won't say improvements, because I don't know if it will be that. First, maybe I should learn how to put pics on my blog. Blogs are ever so much more interesting if accompanied by pics, but I get so discouraged about the picture uploading and rearranging process that occurs that I don't upload any pics. This blog is really about nothing in...

Tonight feels like I should blog, but I feel like maybe I have nothing to blog about. I just read http://quiet_hearts.xanga.com/ and now can feel relatively uninspired. I like to think maybe I can write, but then I read hers and feel woefully inadequate and yet inspired to try a little more. I don't know that I'm trying tonight. In case you are still wondering I did get pies 12 and 13 done. It was Eva's Rhubarb Pie and a Chocolate Fudge Pecan Pie. Both were quite delicious. I love rhubarb pie. Now I realize I may be in the minority with that sentiment, but it is true. Rhubarb and me go way back. Way back to those summers when it seemed like everything we ate was rhubarb. On to other things, my mom and sister came today and helped me finish the garden. What a great feeling. Now to begin the weeding. So discouraging, but if only I can look ahead to the harvesting, maybe it won't seem quite so bad. When I am out weeding, then is the time to wonder why Eve ever ate the fru...

I can see you all now, you are frantically scoping out this post to see what pertinent informtion you can possibly find that relates to the title. HA HA!!! Good luck!!! I was just looking for a title that started with the same letter, or wasn't I? I guess you will have to read on and find out. Pies 11 & 12 were accomplished over the weekend, but I forgot to take any pictures of them. I made an Apple Custard Pie from Taste of Home and a good old Banana Cream Pie. Both were quite delicious in my opinion. I'm not a big apple pie lover, but D is and so I make them and normally like them. I just don't crave them. Okay, enough explanation on that. Life in the Clinic has been high energy lately. It's been one pain in the ear after another. But there have some humorous/interesting moments as well. I always like to be careful on here in case someone would stumble on this blog that would know the people I am talking about. So I will just phrase two questions. If you had numer...

You may wonder what happened to the pie plan. I'll tell you what happened. Life happened and there hasn't been time for pies. These three pies that are following were made the third weekend in March and taken to carry in. Well, only 2 were eligible for carry-in. The blueberry pie wasn't big on getting thick until we cooked the tar out of it. That is a fancy way of saying I kind of forgot about it in the oven until it looked a little well done. The reason the pic looks so nice is the pie was still in it's more runny form when I took the picture. Cream Banana Pecan Pie from Taste of Home. This was very yummy. I wasn't at all sure about it, but it has a really good pecan crust, then a layer of bananas, then a layer of cream cheese filling, then a pudding layer, and then cool whip. It was my favorite of the three. Blueberry Pie from the Basics and More, I think. This was good, but like I already mentioned I baked it a little long on its second go around so it looked a...

Okay, I have done it. I have my own Etsy shop now. It is nothing to brag about, but if you want to check it out you can by going here: www.gravelroadgifts.etsy.com Please, please offer me helpful hints and suggestions for how to improve my site. It needs some help. The banner looks odd and goofy and plain and uninviting, but I am creatively uninclined. Hopefully over the next few days I will be able to add more items to the site as well. Hopefully the next time won't take me 2 hours to list one item. Oh, if you need a baby gift, it's there waiting for you when you check out my site. :):)

Funny story from work today: this Amish man was coming in with his daughter for an appt. This is the same Amish man who had a discussion with someone from Nutri-Choice about whether the earth is round or flat. I guess in school he was taught that the earth was flat, so after discussing this for a bit, the Amish man concluded that he "guesses he will leave it in the Lord's hands." So today he comes in and I am listening to the baby's heartbeat and breathing with the stethoscope and I hear him asking how to say my name. I wasn't sure if he was talking to me or not, but after I finished we had a conversation that went a little like this: Amish: That thing up there (pointing to my name tage clipped to my scrub) is that your name? Me: Yep A: How do you say your name? Me: Aurelia A: looks surprised: huh? Me: Aurelia A: stammers a bit and then "Well, that's okay to have that name." Well thank you so much. My life is full and complete now because I no...

Okay, I just had a post done in which I had pictures posted and everything. I went to publish it and it said there was a conflict and I needed to hit the back button the browser. I did and ended up with a blank screen. I had my Pie No. 6 & 7 and pics of the quilt I had made, the azalea D bought me and our naughty puppies. So please feel free to imagine any or all of the above. They were lovely, even though the pics didn't do justice anyway. Pie No. 6 was a Coconut Cream Meringue Pie that was wonderful. Pie No. 7 was an Old-Fashioned Custard Pie that was exactly the opposite. While having a nice texture, it had an odd taste. I don't know if it was the nutmeg flavor or if it took on a flavor in the fridge. It will be food for the pigs, I believe. Anyway, that is all. I struggled to get these pics uploaded in the first place and I have no intentions of trying again. I am off to make stuffed animals. Hopefully, my sewing machine will not talk about editing conflicts...

It appears as though this post never was posted. Not sure what happened there. If this truly is a repeat, just ignore it and then ignore me. Pie No. 6 was a yummy Coconut Cream Meringe Pie. It looked quite pretty when I took it out of the oven. I really have no food taking abilities, but I try anyway. I want to blame at least some of it on the camera. Pie No. 7 was an Old-Fashioned Custard Pie. Not even worth a picture. It is awaiting a trip to the pig pen. It had a lovely texture, but a very odd taste. I think it was the nutmeg I put in; either that or it took on the taste of something else that was in the fridge. Not very good. Wanted to try a Pink Lemonade Pie this weekend, but D turned up his nose, so I guess we will wait on that. I think it sounds pretty good.... Well, next up was going to be a pic of us on our 2 nd anniversary, or a day before, I guess. However, it appears that I accidentally erased it and I have already tried 3 times to get all the pics and the right ones uploa...

So life or babies have a way of turning your plans upside down. I had been struggling to get enthused about making food for our church fellowship meal tomorrow. Finally, thought I had it narrowed down to a hotdish concoction of meat on the bottom, then some sliced potatoes, cheese sauce, then veggies and then cheese across the top. You know it's a requirement for all good church hotdishes to have cheese on them. Anyway, this was my own made up thought because everything I wanted to make needed the oven and our group at church has a tendency to do oven dishes and then we run out of oven room. So that was going to be the main dish and then I was going to make a Coconut Cream Meringue Pie and a Old-Fashioned Custard Pie in keeping with my pie tradition. But instead, I am here at work. The roasts that I put in the crock pot this morning are at home merrily cooking away and I am just hoping they are not burning to a crisp or drying out to some chewy leather. The Pies? Well, I don...

I suppose you can also tell that I have no talent for nice posts either. I think they change their looks from when I finish typing them to when I post them. But again, why apologize? I guess it's my site isn't it? Have a lovely day.

Well, the pies have returned after missing last week. If I don't get the crust figured out better, I will soon be skipping that part and just having the filling. Three pieces for one pie is a little much, but I got it in there and bake and it didn't shrink too bad. Then you put the filling on and nobody knows how terrible it looked to start with. Raisin Cream Pie This is one of Dave's favorite; I am not a big fan and I hope it tastes better to him than the little bite I took or we will have our first pie flop. Cranberry Cream Pie I got this recipe from my sister last night and decided it would make a nice pink pie for Valentine's. Yes, this picture was taken in the freezer. Please don't look around. This filling tasted very yummy. Can't wait to try it. And yes, I know to take nice yummy food pictures, I should have a piece of pie out on a really nice plate and not use my orange-pink countertop or my freezer for the back drop. I also should have a camera whose le...

Hello to everyone, I am having a nice? quiet evening at home. Dave is off working for the 4th night in a row. I went with him one night and realized I don't do much physical labor. After about 4 hours of putting stringers into the pallet machine and also trying to help with the pallets a little, I was a little sore. So tonight, I am at home. Going to go sew on a dress for Valentine's shortly. Feeling really, really lazy. Here are some pics from last weekend. So much fun; I wish I knew why they have to upload directly backwards, but I guess we will start from the end of the weekend and go backward. I don't have that many anyways. Devynn sleeping peacefully on the couch while the fans started to gear up for the big one. We babysat Jaedon and Kelsie Saturday night for awhile. Jaedone was trying out his ability to stand on his hands and then was blowing marshmallows with his marshmallow gun he had made. Dave and Jaedon playing checker...

Good morning, I was going to post a little story from yesterday at work on here, but I can't get this thing to copy and paste and I don't feel like retyping it, so unless I can get it to work in the next few minutes, you are all out of luck. But, I finally figured out how to do it, so here it is: We also had a newlywed couple come trompsing in yesterday, in which, I think, the husband was quite sure at any moment his wife was going to keel over and collapse and be gone. He rushed her in from the car, carrying her and put her on the wheelchair Kerra had out, raced through the waiting room into an exam room and was ready to deposit her gently on the table, when I said she had to leave a urine sample first, beings that is why she was coming in. But she was supposedly in so much pain and the husband didn't know if she could and she didn't know if she could, but I said that we really need it and the only other option was to put her on the table and then make her get up again...

Mother's Own My quilt project of the last while. I was so ready to have this quilt done. It turned out quite nice but was full of lots of little squares that were sewn into triangles and well....It was quite time consuming. Again, not the best in photography, but that isn't one of my highlights. There actually are a few better pics of this quilt, but my camera wouldn't show me the pics when I wanted to upload, so I just guessed.

Maybe I should start out with a before and after picture of the two of us, so you can see what this project cost us in terms of enlarged girth and new clothes. No, I don't honestly think it will be quite like that. Last evening, D and I went on a walk and we were talking about pie for some reason and I made this comment about how I could probably make a different pie every week for a year and not duplicate. D seemed a little dubious, so I named as many as I could think of, which only amounted to about 28. But then I was on to a notion and for those of you who know me, when I get on to something I am driven by it until I get it taken care of. It's not the most useful processing of the brain I have, but it works at time. So when I came home, I grabbed 3 cookbooks and wrote down the months and projected 4 pies a month for the rest of year with a few as misc for when I need a different idea or have already made all my pies. Do I think I will actually get 50 pies made this year? I d...

Okay, I really want to do better at updating than I have been doing, but internet at home is a precious commodity, along with time and writer's inspiration and work isn't always the best place to do it. I am at work now becaue I came in for the weigh in in which not very many showed up and now I have time to kill until 1:00. Project 1: Making Jerky. Has anyone ever made jerky? This was something D and I tried last year. (Wow, doesn't that sound like a long time ago?) It was December, I think. It is relatively easy and very good. Wow, I should make some more because it doesn't last long. It's a little gross if you think about the fact that it is basically raw meat dried, but I like to think of it as raw meat cooked at a very low temperature until it is dried. Give it a try if you have some old roast laying around that needs to be used because ice crystals are starting to infest their way into the innermost part of its being. Project 2: Making yogurt. This I...

I suppose for those few souls out there who actually follow my blog, you are probably wondering if and when I will ever update again. Plenty has been happening and occasionally I think to myself, I should blog about that, but I simply don't get around to it. After reading other blogs, I am somewhat challenged to make sure the stories I tell and the people I mention are not blogged about in an unfriendly and hostile sort of way. I want my blog to be free of that and yet I want to tell stories from work. How do I do that and not risk offense? I will do my best and please if you are ever offended feel free to tell me. After having said all that, I don't plan to blog about work, because I am at work and should be getting busy again. The secretary left the country and so I am trying to fill that role. I won't say more about my possible inefficiency to her efficiency because she does occasionally read this and I don't want to burst her ego. In my defence though, I do mo...