Tortoise Remodel Update

As we plod along - lets just mention - the weather has been pretty horrid. So so rainy. Which means MUD. Everywhere. But we have made progress on our little family room conversion. I really need to see if I can find some good "befores" of when it was just a porch...

More trusses, brought home. Had to wait for it to stop raining to get round 2 home, and that took quite a few days.

Sneak peak - more about it later, but - there's going to be an area of the floor that will be stenciled, and I am pretty confident this will be the pattern.

Flooring - and ceiling. The barrel ceiling will be the lighter wood, and the floor will be the darker. The livingroom is the "holding place" for things like the area rug we bought for the new room (Vale plays "Humpty Dumpty" walking across it rolled up and "falls" off to the floor), and boxes of hardwood flooring etc.

Concrete pad poured for the new HVAC unit, which is now sitting out there, but not quite connected yet. Our yard it is a literal mud pit at this point.

Rounded trusses up, old straight ones cut out - wiring for lights is run, and insulation is up. It's gonna be so amazing - I'm trying to be so patient, but I can't wait! I'm looking at furniture online and trying to see what will work well in this space. 

An Official Injury

We haven't had many "injuries" over the years - Small little things here and there, bumps and bruises - but we have been blessed with general good health, and apparently enough common sense to keep us safe 😜 So who would have guessed that one could sustain a fairly significant injury rolling over in bed?! Brooks was sleeping on Feb 4th, and rolled over...and popped his shoulder out! Unsure if it was a full dislocation, or a subluxation - seems like there's a difference, and it was probably a subluxation - however - 

He came out to the livingroom crying and holding his arm. It was nearly 10pm, and Brian thought we couldn't make it to the children's urgent care in time (closing at 10pm, even though just a few mins away), so he youtube'd a "how to pop a shoulder back in" video and he tried that. The pain lessened considerably after that - no tears anymore, but still painful - so we tried to rush him over to CHKD, but got there exactly at 10 and the doors were locked. Oh well! He was able to sleep on the couch propped up, with ice and advil, and I took him in in the morning. (The ER in the hospital is always open of course, but we didn't feel it warranted that, and with our insurance a trip to urgent care is significantly less expensive than a trip to the Emergency Room...like we probably saved over a thousand dollars, if not much more!)

Looks like the YouTube's served us well - all seems to be back in place.

They got him set up with a sling and an appointment to the Children's Sports Medicine Clinic.

He is growing right now, and it seems like needs to develop some muscle to help keep the joints and ligaments in place as they grow. He has another follow up with the Sports Clinic in 3 wks to check on the healing, but has to keep it immobile until then, outside of the small physio routine he is to do several times a day. He will have physical therapy at least a few times as well, we have yet to have that appointment, assuming it will be after the 3wk checkup! So yay for Brooks and the first "big injury" of the family! And yay for the rest of us who need to tie his shoes for him 😂

Claraderm Recipe

Claraderm is pricey, at $69 per 2oz bottle. But I'm kind of addicted to it...and it's been out of stock for awhile now - DIY to the rescue. I literally just read the bottle label, and used exactly what was listed.

Fractionated coconut oil

Myrrh

Tea Tree

Lavender

Sacred Frankincense

Roman Chamomile

Helichrysum

Ok, those are some heavy hitting (aka PRICY) oils. No wonder it costs so much! But lucky for me, I actually had all those oils. I did 2oz coconut oil, and then 3drops of each essential oil. I found it to be quite identical to the original, and since I had the oils, the cost for me was negligible. But, if you had to purchase Myrrh, Heli, Sacred Frank or Roman Cham just to make this and didn't have much other purpose for the oil, it's likely more economical to just buy the Claraderm...once it's back in stock!

I'm enjoying this DIY for sure, and it's giving me a way to use up Roman Cham & Myrrh, as I was given them as freebies for my monthly order awhile back, and haven't had too much use for them/don't like the scent. So glad it's not just sitting around in the bottle now!

 

Swedish Meatballs Recipe

Superbowl food is kinda my favourite part of the Superbowl 😉 This year I tried a new recipe at Brian's suggestion for Swedish Meatballs. I don't even think I've ever HAD Swedish Meatballs, outside of Ikea...so, I can't say I'm an expert in them at all. But this recipe I found online was easy, and fast, and DELICIOUS, and I'm posting it here so I can find it again when I need it. (Found on https://themodernproper.com/swedish-meatballs and there are lots of extra tips etc there that I am not including here). For the party, we just ate the meatballs (plucked out of the gravy), but I'll make them again and serve with the gravy over mashed potatoes or egg noodles! They were really good, and as far as a "fussy" food goes, they were really easy and not time consuming. Since I know how to cook, I am posting just the "simple version" of the instructions. If you happen to be less comfortable in the kitchen, look up the original recipe. 

MEATBALLS

1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
1/4C flat parsley, minced
1/2t ground allspice
1/2t ground nutmeg
3/4C yellow onion, grated (about 1 med onion)
2 t salt
1/2 t ground pepper
4 cloves garlic, minced
3/4C plain Panko breadcrumbs
2 eggs
2 T avocado oil (for cooking, olive etc ok)

CREAM GRAVY

1/2 C butter
1/2 C all purpose flour
4 C beef broth
1 t salt
1/4 t pepper
1T Lemon juice
1/4 t ground allspice
1/4 t ground nutmeg
1 C heavy cream

1. In a large bowl, mix all ingredients for the meatballs together until combined. Form into roughly 35 meatballs (1.5" each).

2. Heat oil in pan, and brown meatballs on all sides until they are well heated/browned (approx 5mins). When done, remove from pan, and remove any excess grease.

3. Melt butter in pan, add flour to make a roux. Add broth slowly and whisk. Add spices. Whisk, and gravy should be thickening. Slowly add the cream.

4. Once gravy is simmering, add meatballs back to the pan. Simmer until meatballs are cooked all the way through (about 10mins)

Serve over mashed potatoes or noodles.