At the hospital.....

My husband had surgery this week, the second revision to his 3 year old artificial knee replacement.

The hospital stay, at a civilian hospital paid for by his employer provided insurance, was so nice. 

I cannot say enough good things about it and we are just so thankful that it went so well.

This photo was less than 24 hours after surgery. He was already alert and happy. 

He has taken very little pain medicine since because he says even though he has some discomfort from the surgery, his knee hurts less now than it has in 2 years. 

He is feeling so good, we even went to church this morning. He was tired by the end of service but I am so happy he felt good enough to try. 

 Another happy surprise was the food at the hospital. We both could order anything we wanted off the room service menu. I was given complimentary meals for being his coach. It was so nice to eat in the room with him and not have to leave the hospital when I needed to eat. 

The meals were really good too. 

My breakfast tray one morning- fruit, oatmeal with little containers of cinnamon and brown sugar, bacon, blueberry muffin and hot chocolate.

Husbands tray- croissant sandwich with a cinnamon roll and fruit and orange juice. 

After the second day, we ordered less. Even though it was a real treat and tasted so good, we knew we should not eat quite that much.

Our last night, we did not order. This fancy meal was provided by the physician- steaks with steamed veggies, rice pilaf, dinner salad and chocolate lemon cheesecake.  

Who ever imagined a steak dinner in a hospital? 

We are home now and a home health nurse came this afternoon  Some of the advice she gave was to eat extra protein to help speed up healing after surgery.  The protein doesn't have to come from meat but her advice made the steak dinner seem like an even better idea. 

Thank you all who left comments and for the prayers. It meant so much to know others were thinking about us.

It is too early to know for sure, but we really think this surgery was a success!

Scenes from my home

Simple fall decorations

Beer bread baked in a yard sale Pampered Chef stone- the bread tasted good but was way too heavy- I'll look for a better recipe next time

A quilt spread on the living room floor makes for a cozy spot where my grandson likes to play

2 foot tall stack of fabric- a great deal purchased from a local swap and sell list

I've been dealing with yet another cold for the last 10 days or so- my next project is to try to improve my immunities.  

Husband's knee surgery is this week

I'll be back blogging as soon as I can or when I have something interesting to blog about. 

Moon Sand - fun but kind of a fail

We tried a moon sand recipe from Pinterest.

8 cups flour and 1 cup baby oil. 

I made 2 batches and mixed-kneaded them in gallon bags until they looked combined. 

I also added liquid food coloring with the oil but it just didn't show up.

The grandsons are having fun with it but it is messy. A change of clothes will be needed when we go inside.  I think only very neat children could play with it in the house. 

It is lots of fun even if it quite messy. 

Gavin tasted it and declared it "skusting" but I think he meant disgusting. 

Next time, I want to try a version that uses corn starch and sand, no oil. 

Have you made any play clays? Advice is welcomed.

My grands are really sweet but they are not neat. 

This week's CVS deals

24 rolls of paper towels and 2 bottles of Pantene conditioner

I think we have enough paper towels, to last well into 2014, maybe all of 2014......

I spent just $5.94 cash for all of it.

The towels were $5 a pack and I had $1 coupons on each

Pantene was 2/$7 - I used 1 $3/2 manufacturer coupon and a $2 CVS coupon. 

Also used a $10 ECB from last week. 

And got back a $5 ECB. 

Weekend doings

It was cold and rainy all day Friday and we had not yet turned on the heater so I thought an oven supper would be good - easy to cook and would help heat the house up a little.

I made cole slaw (not in the oven though)

also baked chicken and rice which tastes a lot better than it photographs

banana bread 

and brownies.  The chicken and bread both bake for about an hour, so after they had baked for 30 minutes,  I put in the brownies as they take 30 minutes.

Then everything came out at the same time

Banana Bread

1 stick butter, softened

1 scant cup sugar (closer to 3/4 cup)

2 eggs

3 medium or 4 small ripe bananas, peeled and mashed (about 1 1/4 cups)

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup or more chopped nuts, we prefer pecans or walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x5 loaf pan or 4 mini-loaf pans.

Cream together the butter and sugar. beat till blended. sometimes I use the mixer and sometimes I just do it by hand.

Mix in the bananas.

Stir in the flour, salt and soda.

Then stir in the nuts.

Pour in to prepared pans. A big loaf will take 60-70 minutes. Small loaves take 35-45 minutes.

Cool for a 10 minutes, then remove from pans.

Slice, spread with a little butter and feed to your family.

Brownies

* 1/2 cup butter
* 1 cup white sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
*
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour an 8 inch
square pan.
2. In a large saucepan, melt 1/2 cup butter. Remove from heat, and stir in
sugar, eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat in 1/3 cup cocoa, 1/2 cup flour, salt,
and baking powder. Spread batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. 

in Saturday's mail, was a goody box from Debby- isn't this table runner cute?  

Yes, she made it out of very fun seasonal fabrics.  I really like all the purple and green mixed with the orange and black.   Thank you Debby! She blogs at Nanny's Place and I always enjoy reading what she is up to.  

now, it is time to do some fall decorating inside our home so the table runner doesn't feel lonely.  

Sunday afternoon,  I did a little sewing.  First I sewed up 2 blue aprons for costumes for my son and a friend, something about a Banana Stand in the tv show Arrested Development.  I've never seen the show but I have had a little experience sewing up aprons.  

Then, I followed an online free tutorial to make a chevron necktie for grandson JJ to coordinate with his sister's pumpkin dress.  Cute, right?  Well,  the tutorial was well written and so easy to follow.  It was a quick successful project.  

I hope you all had a nice weekend too