Merry Christmas and a Bright...Wonderful...New Year!

Hopefully you have and continue to celebrate the holidays with your loved ones.  It has been a difficult year to celebrate, being so close to the incident at Sandy Hook Elementary and the other in Beijing.  My heart and prayers go out to those families.  I hope that as wise people consider ways to lessen the chance of this occurring again, they will also consider whether the system for helping mentally ill needs fixing.  Nonetheless, I hope that you have been able to celebrate and honor your own family despite any tragedies or personal circumstances that may hinder joy in this holiday season.

I am keenly aware this particular season of the various sensory components of celebrating.  We watch the lights dancing on the Christmas tree.  We feel the warmth from a crackling fire in the fireplace.  We hear the old Christmas carols and the wonderful Christmas shows that we all have favorites of.  We relish the taste of homemade treats that come out only this time of the year.  And we especially hug a little tighter.

If you have been unable to enjoy the holidays, please somehow, some way, find help.  Whether it's counseling or if you just need an extra push to connect with family or friend, I hope you will find your way home, to a place filled with love and hope.  If what you consider "home" has been full of sadness or dysfunction, maybe it's time to build something new in its place.  Who can you connect with in a positive way?  What new traditions can you start?  How will you begin to stir hope in yourself?  Awaken your senses to a new beginning!  Awaken your senses to love one another.  That's what Christmas is for.

Maraschino Cherry Nut Bread

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

¾ cup sugar

 2 eggs

½ cups butter, melted and cooled

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp. juice from cherry jar or vanilla extract

1 cup chopped walnuts

10 ounce jar (appprox. 1 cup) chopped maraschino cherries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour one 8 x 4 “ loaf pan.  Combine flour, baking soda, salt and sugar in large bowl, mixing well.  In smaller bowl, combine eggs, butter, buttermilk and juice or extract.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, mixing only till moist.  Stir in walnuts and cherries.  Spoon batter into prepared pan and bake for 60 minutes.  Cool in pan before cutting.

Optional glaze:

½ cup powdered sugar

¼ tsp. vanilla extract

1 tbsp. milk

Mix together till smooth and drizzle over cooled bread before cutting.

Happy Veteran's Day

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Happy Veteran’s Day to all you wonderful vets and troops out there!  I hope you have a few good stories to tell about your military days.  I salute each of you for your sacrifice, and wish you all the best.

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Charlie Dee Melton

Dad used to talk fondly about his time in the U.S. Air Force, especially in his later years.  As I remember his stories, he was 19 years old when he enlisted.  He was mad at his dad—again—and decided he wasn’t going to live at home anymore.  Those were his party years…black and white photos show him standing proudly with fellow servicemen, or holding up a bottle of liquor trudging through snow with a big grin on his face.  There were also photos of him standing near a prized car.  He was known as “Tex” or “Reb” (short for Rebel), because he had grown up in Texas, in and near a small town called Savoy where Grandpa was a carpenter and built several houses from ground up.

He talked mostly about being in Alaska.  He loved it there, and wanted to drive up and see the country one more time.  He also spoke about being in the Philippines, and how you’d know when the noobs came in:  they’d get sunburned hanging out on the beach too long and smelled like vinegar which took the sting out of the burn.  It sounded like a rite of passage there!

Betty Ann Rassbach Melton

Mom also had a story to tell about his time in the military.  She was graduating from high school and sent her senior picture to her brother, who was stationed with Dad.  Dad saw the photo and asked who she was.  Mom’s brother grinned and said it was his girlfriend.  Dad replied, “not for long!” and started writing.  Mom used to have a stack of letters bound up with a ribbon that were from him, during the next six years he was in service.  In one letter—which I had only got to steel a read from after Mom had passed away, he asked her what she thought about a house full of little brats running around.  After leaving the Air Force, he traded in his party days, settled down and married the love of his life in her hometown of Menomonie, Wisconsin, bought a house, and he worked at the local Ford Motor Company dealership, up till in the 70’s when we moved to Texas during the gas shortage.  Oh, and he got that wish about a houseful of brats…there’s six of us kids!

1960 - Betty and Chuck Melton

Welcome - Again - to Down Home

Sat down a bit and let my mind wander from the stuff of business.  I’ve been pulled away from blogging here.  Not sure it really matters, because I’m not sure anyone really reads it.  Business has been rather slow.  It could pick up after the election results are in and we know where the country is going—wait.  I kind of liked wandering and wasn’t to keen on getting back on that stuff.

I’m almost fifty.  Been looking for a job to pull us through winter, but I’m getting the impression no one wants to hire anyone my age.  I’ve been reminded that a job, or business doesn’t really define who I am.  And I’m the culmination of all those fifty years, and it’s been a lot of accumulating!  I guess the reminiscing brings me back to my “down home.”  You have yours, and it’s probably different.  But it has molded us.  Some of it’s family and friends, and how they are wired, some is what we value, where we’ve been, what we’ve done.  Some of it might not be good…maybe even down-right shameful or maybe unfair.  The present that has preoccupied me so much lately has been uncomfortable.  Some of my past was too.  But worrying about it has taken too much of my time, and the meanderings of my mind bring me to the conclusion that there’s a lot there that is pretty darned good, both in the present and the past.  And probably the future will be okay.  The bumps have a way of working itself out, and when the present becomes the past, from what I’ve seen, it’s a lot easier to look there and see what’s good about it.

Closing in on fifty seems to be clarifying the fact that the stuff and the jobs aren’t as important to hang on to as the people who love you—or mildly like you!—and the good…your values, your good memories.  Be your most unique and random self, and have fun.  Love God, and love your family and friends.  Breathe.  Notice.  Live.

Irish Soda Bread

I haven't posted for awhile, and even longer a recipe, so I am posting my Irish Soda Bread recipe that I baked a few days ago.  I first used this recipe when homeschooling Kelcie and we were learning about Irish culture.  This bread has a wonderful flavor.  Expect the crust to be a little tough, but to me it just adds character to the homemade bread.  It's so much better than a loaf from the store!

IRISH SODA BREAD

4 cups flour (spoon in lightly, don't pack it in)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. sugar
2 cups buttermilk

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.  Thoroughly mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Add buttermilk and quickly mix ingredients together, kneading lightly.  (Too much kneading will toughen the dough.)  Form a round loaf about as thick as your fist.  Place it on a lightly greased and flour baking sheet.  Cut a cross in the top with a floured knife.  Bake for 30 to 45 minutes.  When baked, the bread will sound hollow when rapped on the top with your knuckles.  Wrap immediately in a clean tea-towel to stop crust from hardening too much (this also somehow keeps bread from tasting like baking soda.)



With the weather cooling down and autumn upon us, what are you baking?  Please share!  : )

A Few of My Favorite Things

This is probably a silly post, odd at best, but here we go....


I rearranged my bookshelves.  This includes most of my (indoor) chicken collection!  : )

Yes, my family loves World of Warcraft.  We play a lot and have some of the books and trading cards here.  Older books were my mom's.  What-nots include a white chicken I bought at a customer's garage sale, other chickens from Linda, who was a coworker at housing, a pot and vase my kids made, and the mom reading to a boy was from sister-in-law Thea who said it reminded her of me and Andrew when he was younger.

That's a baby picture of me, far left!  White chicken, horse clock and chicken pitcher was Mom's.  The two black and white photos are Mom and Dad.  He was in the Air Force, when she had mailed that photo to her brother, CR.  CR told Dad that was his girlfriend and Dad said "not for long!"  and started writing to her.  He finished his stint with the Air Force, and they got married!  My favorite fairytale come true!  : )

Here is the cowboy cookie jar my Grandpa Melton used to put his snuff.  He gave it to me sometime after getting my first apartment with my sister Shirley.  The rubberband gun in front of the cookie jar was a momento of old rubberband fights with a coworker (Jim) at housing.  Baby picture is my daughter.  Vases at the right of the shelf were from two dear ladies I knew from working at housing. Oh, more World of Warcraft books here.  Author Christie Golden is awesome, if you are interest.

 Picture of my kids when they were younger, blown up and framed by my sister Shirley who works at Walmart's camara department.  My son's Left Behind books, a cup my sister Christie gave me.

More chickens and old books belonging to Mom.  Cookbooks are laying on top of the other books.

The celtic cross was from former pastor Clay, who said the circle represents life.  The cross is bigger than life and reminds us to keep things in perspective.  I need that reminder every day!  Red cup is advertising from High School football games here.  First white chicken "lays" jellybeans!  Other two are salt and pepper shakers.  The majority of my cookbooks are here.  The photo albums are filled with family memorabilia and clipped recipes Mom had stashed.

I got so many of my chickens from coworkers at housing, where I was the "crazy chicken lady!"  The glass chicken was from coworker Shannon and the yellow chick and the candle holder were from Linda.  The brown one is a cookie jar Mom had.  I think both rocks were from a "business" trip to Hawaii, and I usually leave one Christmas thing out--not on purpose--and this year it was a pine cone ornament, up front.

Remaining books.  No what-nots here.  Our black lab Nacho has a habit of grabbing stuff and running off with it, so why tempt him?

What are your favorite things and the stories behind them?

Most Amazing Road Trip!! | lifecoachingplus

A reminder for us to take the road less traveled. 

Kathryn Schulz: On being wrong | Video on TED.com

Kathryn Schulz: On being wrong | Video on TED.com 

Ms. Schulz presents an interesting, thought-provoking topic about being wrong.  Think about this:  my viewpoint is only what I can see.  All my past...my experiences, my beliefs...color my perspective.  What would the world be like if we kept that in mind each time we talked to another person?  When leaders of countries clashed or when anyone gathered to problem-solve?  What would we bring to the table?  What could be accomplished if we set aside our "rightness" and listened?  Really listened to what another person was saying?  Would we learn something new?  Would our solutions be more substantial? 

What if?

My viewpoint is only what I can see.

Perfection in Nature

Yesterday afternoon was really hot and Tamera seemed to have a hard time with it being in the coop.  I got the mister going on the outside of the coop, trying to cool it down a little without getting them wet, and offered the hens some water to drink.  After I backed away a little, the girls stood up to drink.  Then it happened!  I saw the eggs move!!!!!  It was the slightest quiver in about 5 or 6 of the eggs, like water on a lake when there's a slight breeze blowing.  It was almost the same excitement as feeling one of the kids kick for the first time or seeing them in a sonogram!  Those babies were moving around in those shells!  I couldn't believe my eyes!  I asked my chicken friend if it were possible and she said, sure we only have about 6 days till hatching.  She once had one fertilized egg that did a complete 180 degree turn!  I'd probably had fainted right there in the pen if that happened! lol  It was absolutely amazing.  Wow, I'm going have a hard time not tearing up when those little fluffballs poke through for the first time.  Just seeing the eggs move for the first time was such a high!  I'm so glad I have the opportunity to watch all this!

The natural world is so full of amazing simplicity.  The clean lines found when you look intently at a leaf or the petal of a flower, the patterns of the sun dancing through the trees or on a lake.  Birth.  That simple egg that we take for granted...that helps make cakes fluffy and gives us energy for the day in the form of breakfast, whether they are served sunny-side up or scrambled.  How the whites will whip into meringue.  These are such eggs that are protected and kept warm by my two hens and are full of life.  Look at a leaf, the patterns you will find in it and think about the functions of the cells that form it.  The changing of sunlight into food, its breathing in carbon dioxide and breathing out oxygen.   Think about how that oxygen the plants exhale is what we breathe in for life.  Now...inhale.  Exhale.  The simple things of God's design are so amazing, so inspiring, and yet so overlooked in our busy lives.  Take some time to find those things around you, and let me know...what are you finding there?

Day 9 of Baby Fever!

Claire, our Easter Egger on the left in the picture, has decided to join in keeping the eggs warm.  She seems to be a part-timer though, alternating between setting and leaving the chicken pen to hunt bugs.

I took this picture this morning.  Claire was setting on the majority of the eggs, while Tamera is behind the wall of the coop with others.  Claire has the motherly spread going on now! lol  They tend to flatten out to cover all the eggs.  I'm so amazed they are sharing the eggs.

Spring is for Baby Fever!

My faverole hen, Tamera, has mommy fever!  She has been broody for about two weeks now, and I haven't been able to break her of it.  Typically you can take them out of the coop and lock it up for the day, and after doing this...probably a few days at least...they will come out of it.  So we are going to try to hatch eggs.  I have a friend in Decatur who is collecting fertilized eggs for me, and I'll pick them up on Sunday, Mother's Day.  (Isn't that cute?)  This will be our first time to try to hatch eggs so I'll keep you posted as we progress through the 21 days till they hatch.  In the meantime, I've been reading on the net, and one of the fascinating things I've read was that you can hear peeping a day or so before the chicks break through the eggs.  That will be so cool!  Since deciding to let her have some fertilized eggs, I've left her in the coop and everytime I get close she fluffs up her feathers at me, like in the picture, and cackles at me.  Sometimes she sounds like one of those little dinosaurs from the Jurassic Park movies!  Thankfully broodiness has not brought pecking, but then she's always been a fairly docile hen, who although doesn't like being picked up, will tolerate it when I finally catch her and sometimes will even snuggle against me.  I think she will be a great mom!  Happy Mother's Day, Tamera!

Spring has Sprung!

The crepe myrtles are making a show!  I love this time of the year...the fresh green of new growth and the bright colors of flowers blooming.  It's time for Down Home Design & Glass to come out of hibernation.  We are gearing up for a busy summer.  If you have been on our business website lately, you have seen that we are looking for an experienced glazier.  My goal for the end of summer is having two to three trucks running full time, and three to five employees.

For businesses like ours that are gearing up for their busy season, spring is a time of preparation.  Time to make sure vehicles and machinery are operating correctly,  and operating procedures are fine-tuned as well.  How is marketing?  Other than adding signage to the truck(s) this year, and possibly improving our online presence in the Yellow Pages, I don't think I will do anything different than what our current marketing strategy is, unless is falls substantially below our 15% threshold.

What are you doing this spring?  Do you have a business idea you have been mulling?  Is it time to act on that idea?  Are you planning any home improvement projects?  Do you have any special plans to spend time with your family?  Planting anything in the garden?  Or maybe you are considering raising a few chickens?  : )  Whatever your goals/ambitions are, I hope you enjoy this wonderful season!

Keeping It Simple

If I’ve said it before, I am going to say it again:  it is exciting to watch a small business grow!  I wish I had started a business a long time ago, back when Dad and I toyed with the idea of opening a restaurant.  Of course, it hasn’t all been a joy ride.  I personally have had enough peanut butter sandwiches and chili dogs (with a side on indigestion!) to last this lifetime.  And my sleep schedule is pretty screwed up, although I remember Mom’s doing the same thing at about the same age, so I can’t really blame it all on entrepreneurship.  But when I wake up for the abrupt bathroom break in the middle of the night, something kicks my brain into high drive and the break usually ends up at least an hour or two, and swirling ideas, hopes, and dreams happily keep me a wide-awake hostage until they finally slow down for a very peaceful and comfy slumber.  I still can honestly tell you I don’t regret a minute of it!  We’re into February 2012 right now, supposedly the slowest month of the year in the glass business, and we’re working on a commercial job that will pull us through winter.  We also got a surprise financial break from what had seemed an unlikely source that is going to greatly help us reach our most successful season yet (okay, so it’s just our second peak season in business…I know, it’s supposed to be better than the first!)

I am sitting on the edge of my chair waiting for spring, when business comes out of the winter hibernation and is strong and healthy and ready to run hard in the warm sun.  It’s gonna be good!  I can smell it in the chilly morning air; I can taste it in my first cup of coffee!  Yet in the fervor and excitement of coming into a very good year, I have to remind myself to hold the course.  All those hopes and dreams and such must fall under the mantra of keeping it simple.  The thrill of progress must be tempered with the reality of wisely choosing the very best of the dreams and goals set for this business year.  All of the bells and whistles that I could add to Down Home Design & Glass to make it bigger and better (or bigger and louder) must be in proportion to what is currently going on.  It must be measured against the revenues that are actual.  If I get too overly zealous, the business could get too big in oh so many ways.  Overspending could result in debt too huge to easily rein back in.  Marketing and aquiring the right team for the business has to be in proportion to each other, or it could result in being too short-handed to adequately meet customer needs in a timely manner.  After all, the ultimate goal is not creating a huge, successful company.  The ultimate goal is nurturing and growing our small business so it will become and remain a vehicle to nurture my family, my staff and their families, and our community.  As an entrepreneur, I must remember that it is the business which will serve us and not us serving the business for the sake of the business.  I must keep my expenses in check, wisely choosing how to invest revenue back into the business so that it will properly care for the people it needs to be caring for.  No one can tell you specifically how to do that for your own business.  You have to take a good look at what your own goals are, and manage your business finances accordingly.  The Day of Peanut Butter Sandwiches does pass.

Mom's Chicken Noodle Soup with Dumplings

Nothing says comfort like my mom's chicken noodle soup with dumplings!  This has been and always will be one of my favorite recipes, and I have it cooking in the crockpot right now.  The house smells wonderful!
You need the following:

one fat whole chicken
cream of chicken soup
carrots
one package extra wide noodles
seasonings:   salt, sage, sweet basil, oregano, thyme, garlic powder (just a little), celery salt

For the dumplings:
1 1/2 cups flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. shortening
1 egg
2/3 cup milk

I like to start cooking the chicken in the morning using my crock pot, but you can cook it over the stove if you want.  Rinse chicken off and place in pot and season as desired.  I use all the seasonings listed above.  Add water up to about 2/3 of the height of the chicken, and cover to cook for about 4 to 5 hours in the crock pot.  Chicken is done when it falls off the bone.  Chop carrots.  I usually end up with about 1/2 cup chopped baby carrots.  When chicken is done, remove from broth to debone.  Add chopped carrots to broth and return the chicken meat to the pot as well, shredded to bite size portions.  Add cream of chicken soup and cook till carrots are tender; I usually let it go for about an hour.

About 30 minutes before serving time, thoroughly mix all ingredients for the dumplings.  Add noodles to the crock pot.  Your soup should have about 3 cups liquid at this point, and if not, add boiling water to compensate.  Drop dumpling dough by spoonfuls into soup; cover and let cook for 10 to 20 minutes.

Warning:  lifting the lid during cooking will guaranty your family will be ravenous by supper!