Pigs

My children are raising pigs for the local livestock show and sale.  The pigs are headed to the sale in about two weeks.  But their record books, in which they are suppose to write down everything they do for/ with the pigs, is due Friday.  And they've lost the list they made of what they've been doing.  >.<  I honestly don't know what I'm going to do with these two, because if they don't turn in their books they can't be in the show.  And if they're not in the show, they can't sell their pigs, and if they can sell their pigs, they won't earn any money!  It's most frustrating, especially since we've worked so hard raising these things!

Hurt

So, back when mom died, I had exactly ONE local friend.  She was the only person I felt comfortable enough with/ around to talk to about everything that was going on.  I had stood by her all through her divorce earlier in the year, and didn't think we had any problems.  But within just a few weeks of mom passing, I stopped hearing back from her.  So I decided to call her.  The number was disconnected.  I thought maybe it was temporary, so I tried again a week or so later.  Nope, still disconnected.  Now it's been 4 months, and I haven't heard from her.  I was worried at first, of course, but since I had only been to her house twice, I couldn't really remember where she lived, so I couldn't go over to find out what was up.  Well, yesterday I found out she's been on FB for a while now, under her maiden name.  I feel...  I dunno, I feel almost like she used me, like I was good enough to be her friend for the year she was dealing with her husband giving her attitude about everything, through finding out he was cheating on her, then the entire divorce procedure, but then the minute I needed help and support, she was GONE.  It really hurts, especially since she was literally my only friend in this place.  And now I have no one.  It really sucks...

Cooking - An Experiment, of sorts

I decided to try my hand at bulk cooking the other day.  I've managed to make the Pioneer Woman's tomato soup, which is currently waiting to be packaged up into single serve containers so it can hit the freezer (I tried to make the Parmesan croutons she had with the recipe and while they were okay, I'm not sure I'll be making them again.  lol), I made a whole mess of meatballs, I cooked up about five pounds of ground beef and pork with onions, cooked about 3 pounds of chicken that I then cubed, and even managed to make something for dinner last night as well, another Pioneer Woman recipe, this time for hamburger soup, though I did have to make a few adjustments to it.  I didn't realize we were out of celery, or that we didn't have any green peppers, but I made it work just by leaving out the celery and using some leftover yellow peppers we had instead.  That soup was really GOOD, and great on a slightly chilly night like last night!  I ended up using a good deal of the cooked ground beef and pork mixture I made, but it was worth it to not have to wait for the meats to thaw before cooking.  Now I'm trying to decide what to make for dinner, or if I'll just feed the kids and my father leftovers again, but whatever it is, I'm happy to say it'll likely be made from scratch!  :)