Turkey Soup For The Soul

Star from Christmas Evening by Jodiann Cates

I’m taking a break in this busy Saturday to check-in. Oh, I’m, really just giving myself a break because my head isn’t in the school zone right now. I’m not in panic mode. The project isn’t due until a week from Monday. I’m really in okay shape if I take the rest of the weekend off and get to finishing my rough draft Monday morning. My study goal is to have everything done and turned in Friday night.

Dinner tonight is planned to be easy – Thanksgiving in review! We split the leftovers with Pop and Aunt Judy, so it gives us a great (and easy) dinner for tonight. Of course, I’ll get to wash all the dishes the leftovers came in, but dinner will be worth it!

David is out railfanning without me today. To be honest, I felt just awful this morning and that awful stayed with me into the afternoon. Around noon I took a couple of Advil and a B12. Golly B12 is wonderful stuff. It helps the brain and nervous system and in the formation of healthy blood. It really does help reenergize me and it clears my head, helps me focus. It just helps make everything feel better. I have a pretty full plate of life right now with the challenges and responsibilities I’ve had added with Grandma and losing John, which I wasn’t prepared for. I’m hoping that once my project is complete and thus, school is done for the semester, it will help. Of course the cat adjustment situation weighs heavy on me.

Carla is better from the respiratory infection, just a little weeping from her eyes still, but a lot less than she had! She goes in for a check-up Monday. She’s adjusting to the house and other cats now, although she is balanced by extremes. She either walks slowly and tentatively near either of them afraid to get them agitated or she is having so much fun playing she runs right into them and a hissing fit and fight ensues.

Baggle seems to be adjusting the best of the incumbent cats, but he adjusted to Kaline better than Chester did when they all first met too. He still will hiss or swipe a paw at her when she is being rambunctious too near to him, but he tolerant. Last night Carla was sitting on David’s lap and Baggle was next to him with no growling!

Kaline is really the last holdout. This is breaking my heart. She hasn’t been coming in to sleep with us and seems a little mistrusting, even of me. I just can’t stand that! She does sit next to me during the day and often plops down on the table behind the laptop, but she’s just not comfortable a lot of the time. She spends a lot of her awake hours watching or looking out for Carla. Now, that being said, earlier today she was sitting up on my desk upstairs and Carla jumped up onto the scanner, just a couple feet away. She growled at Carla. I growled at her. I matched her moan for moan and growl for growl that she gave Carla and she calmed down. I know that sounds silly, but it’s always worked with Kaline. If I “speak” to her as an angry Momma cat, she stops whatever she’s doing and gives me that “I’m growling at you in my mind” look. It helped get her through growling at Azreal when they met and through hissing at both Chester and Baggle when the girls met them.

Kaline has to revisit the vet about her tummy problems. To be honest, we really haven’t been able to administer the medicine for it, but she hasn’t been throwing up any more since the shot she got at the vet. The medicine is supposed to help her calm down and help her tummy. If she goes nuts and gets all worked up when we try to give her the medicine, how is that helping her? So David and I decided that the medicine would be there if she started having issues again, but we wouldn’t add to her problems by hogtieing her and shoving icky tasting liquid in her throat.

I want to share a link to a website/blog, I discovered! Simple Scrapper just started a six-week program yesterday that is fabulous for scrapping the holidays! I’ve downloaded the workbook and first template. The program is called Capture The Season and this week’s layout is about the things you’re thankful for. You’ll get prompts, ideas, templates and tips to make your pages better and quicker! There’s even a link for journaling tips too. I know a lot of people say they would like tips on doing that! I’ll definitely be showing off my first layout when it’s done, so if you don’t download the free workbook and template for week one today, be prepared to be tempted again!

::Deep Breath:: Mmmmm!

One of the best gifts I get from Thanksgiving is the turkey carcass! We used to have Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma’s and Mom would get the turkey carcass in the soup pot and make the stock Thanksgiving night. On Black Friday, instead of the outlet malls, Mom and I would go holiday shopping in Tawas, MI. Black Friday in a small lakeshore town is like being there in the summer. Small town means, just enough people for it to feel festive, but few enough fellow shoppers to talk to people and be greeted sincerely by shop owners. I loved that!

Now, there is a Walmart that’s killed a number of the businesses and what Walmart didn’t destroy the economy has really pressured. I don’t make a secret out of my dislike for “The Evil Empire.” Walmart is bad for local economies. It’s nice to save a little money, but I don’t think it’s worth seeing my next door neighbor stocking shelves at Walmart for minimum wage after his store was driven out of business. Kinda kills the Christmas spirit for me.

But back in the pre-Walmart invasion in that area, it was a wonderful day free from the sales hounds to really get in the holiday spirit. It was usually cold, sometimes gently snowing, but always fun in a classic Christmas way. When we got back to Grandma’s for dinner, we set up the turkey congee with that homemade broth and leftovers. It was just ambrosia, food of the gods! Now tomorrow, I’ll try a congee light-style for us. David isn’t a fan of the heavy veggie and meat soups I do. He likes a simpler brothy noodle soup. Cool thing is, congee can easily be both, so that’s the plan for tomorrow!

Okay, need to go stir the soup and adjust the seasoning. I do know the smell of that soup just washes over me with the holiday spirit and makes me feel good! Whatever part of the holiday season you partake in, in the face of the economical woes and the state of so much of the world, let the joy and peace of this season consume you. Happiness is contagious and we should do all we can to make it spread!

Links:

Simple Scrapper

Turkey Congee Recipe