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Karen

Fab Home Made Soap

Karen · 1 Comment

As I mentioned in my profile, I have been making my own soap for more than 10 years. Jim and I have not bought a bar of soap in all that time. We were down to our last bar, so last week I made two batches.

I use palm kernel oil, almond oil, grapeseed oil, castor oil, and olive oil in my soap. In one batch I used peppermint and lavender essential oils for the scent. In the other batch, I used rosemary, peppermint, and eucalyptus essential oils. The Rosemary blend one is Jim’s favorite, so I make it every time I make a batch of soap.

In the picture above, the greenish soap is the lavender mint; the other one is the rosemary-mint-eucalyptus. My sad piggy bank from Mexico is watching over the bars.

I have some pretty molds that I use sometimes, but this time I was in a hurry, so I just used the loaf mold that one of my friends made for me. I gave him a bath size bar of Ivory soap and told him to make me a loaf mold that would make the finished soap that size. It is made out of pine wood, and has a divider in it so that I can make two different scents at the same time if I want to. I line it with a plastic trash bag so I can lift the loaf out when it is ready to cut. The picture below is my of my wooden loaf mold.

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Filed Under: Life on the road

Ebay Snatchers

Karen · 3 Comments

I can’t really express how I am feeling right now. Maybe the best way to put it is: ARRRGGGGHHHH!!!!! I received an email from Ebay, saying that someone had been using my account unauthorized. The email was addresed to my ebay username, with the wrong name attached to it.

I was not actually selling anything right now, and had no plans to sell anything in the near future, but I have had that ebay account for more than 8 years. I was MY account. MINE! How dare someone just waltz in and complicate my life just like that!

I did as instructed and went to the ebay website and tried to log in, and was refused entry to the site. I had to answer my “security questions”, and failed the test, even though the questions were such things as “What is your telephone number?” and “What is your date of birth?” Now, I know I am a grandmotherly type of person, but I do not have senility to the point of not knowing my birthday or telephone number, neither of which has changed in years.

My question is, how did this ebay snatching floosy get into my account? How could such a thing happen? And if they can get into my lowly ebay account so easily, do I now have to worry about my online banking, my email account, my BLOG??? Please, don’t let anyone take over my blog!! I can live with someone stealing my “mostly” plus ratings on ebay, but if they took over my blog, which is my “real” identity online, I would be devastated. My reputation could be ruined with just one post.

So, I spent most of the day changing my passwords everywhere I could think of to change them. I just hope I can remember them tomorrow.

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Filed Under: Life on the road

Workcamping On The Holiday Weekend

Karen · 1 Comment

My weekend started on Thursday, which is actually my “Monday”, because I work in a campground. We had forty checkins on Thursday, which was a slow pace, but the phone rang off the hook with people calling to either verify their reservations or to ask if we had camping spaces available for the weekend. We have been completely booked for this weekend since February. Get your reservations in EARLY if you want to camp on Memorial Day Weekend next year. And when you do make reservations, write down your confirmation number, and the name of the campground where you made them. You would not believe how many people called to ask if we had a reservation for them because they “could not remember if they reserved here or at the other campground in town”.

On Friday, my shift started at 2:00 p.m. At the end of the day we had checked in more than 250 campers. Most of the day we did not even try to answer the phone, which was STILL ringing off the hook. On the few times that we did have a second to answer the phone, the question of the day was for directions to the campground. Now, people, why do you wait until the very last minute to figure out how to get where you are going? Did you not look to see where it was before you made your reservation? Do you not know how to google a map? OH, and we still had people wanting to make reservations for the weekend. On Friday. I finally got to clock out and go home at midnight.

By Saturday, everyone who was coming to camp was here, but all their friends started coming in to “visit”. So they walk up to the counter and say they need a car pass so they can go in to visit. When they are told there will be a day visitor’s fee, they are universally shocked by it. Then they don’t know how to spell their friends last name, or better yet, don’t even know it, but if I would give them a car pass they can go in and find them. You would be surprized how many people think I am supposed to just let them in to use the campground faciltiies without a charge because they are not staying overnight.

Then we have the loverly children who are camping with us. Little children who can’t count money come in to the store, alone, with a fifty dollar bill to buy some candy. They can barely be seen over the counter, they are so small. I wonder sometimes if the parents even know they have that money. Then there was the brother and sister, who looked like they were about eleven and twelve years old. She was waiting in line to pay for something at the front desk. He was standing right beside her, yelling at her at the tops of his lungs, “Come on, Mom says we have to go, NOW!” The whole time he is yelling at her, he is hitting her, on the arm, on the back, on the head. I finally told him he could not fight in the store. He just looked at me like I was from the moon.

Oh, yeah, then there was the little band of teeny bopper girls, who prissed in and proceeded to tell me how “asinine” it was to have the dance indoors instead of outside by the pool, where more people could “just listen to the concert”. What? Concert? It was a DJ playing oldies music. I should have asked them if they could spell asinine.

The last one was a little girl about four year old and her brother who looked about five years old. She was laying on the floor by the toys, whining and kicking her feet. He was standing over her, with a toy in his hands, saying, “I can have this, but I don’t have enough money for you to get anything.” They had strewn toys all over the floor. I went over and started picking them up and putting them back on the shelf, and said to her, “Honey, you can’t lay on the floor in here. If you are tired, you have to go back to your camper.” She stopped her little fit and sat up, looked at me like I was the crazy one. Then she got up and went outside. Oh, I just LOVE working at the campground.

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Filed Under: Life on the road, Workamping

Gluten Free Bruschetta

Karen · 1 Comment

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Isn’t it strange what we start to crave when we know we can’t have it? The latest thing I have been about to die for is Bruchetta. You know, the classic Italian dish that starts out with Italian bread, toasted and buttered, then spread with a combination of chopped tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese, and basil? So, that was my cooking project for today. I took the pizza dough recipe from Meesh’s blog, cooked it without any pizza toppings on it. Then I put on my bruschetta salad, and Oh My God! Was it ever good.

Here is the recipe for the topping:

6 small ripe tomatoes, chopped
12 small “balls” of fresh mozzarella cheese, cut up
several sprigs of fresh basil, chopped
¼ to ½ cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, cover, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight, if you can control yourself. Spread over cooked pizza crust that has been cut into bread sticks.

YUM! This stuff makes a complete meal for me when I have a tossed green salad with it.

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Filed Under: Celiac Disease, Cooking, Gluten Free, Life on the road, Recipes, Southern recipe Tagged With: gluten free bruschetta, gluten free recipe, salad

The Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival

Karen · Leave a Comment

The Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival was held this weekend at the campground where I work. The music didn’t start until Thursday, but the diehard fans started arriving last weekend. They lined up at 3:00 p.m. last Sunday to put their chairs out in front of the stage, and the motorhomes, fifth wheels, travel trailer, pop-ups, tents, and whatever else they could find to camp in kept rolling in to the park until late on Friday night. I am the one in the window in the picture above.

There were lots of bluegrass acts, with music from 11:00 a.m til well after 11:00 p.m on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and from 11:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. on Sunday. As I am not really a bluegrass fan, I had not heard of any of the bands before this weekend. But, I heard two tonight while I was working in the “Festival Money Booth” that I thought were really good. The first one was Cherryholmes, a family band that has won Entertainer of the Year. The second was was called Seldom Scene.

While I don’t see myself becoming a bluegrass fan on the same level as those folks who turned out for our festival, I would probably buy a CD recorded by these two bands. The Cherryholmes family was very talented. Their act included singing, dancing, and yodeling as well as picking those instruments. The guys from Seldom Scene were good performers as well, and made it worth watching as well as listening to.

I’ll be glad when the last act has performed, and the show is over, as I am tired and ready for a day off, but it has been fun working here while it is going on. The next one is August 23-26, 2007. I will be here for that one, too. So, if you decide to come to it, look me up. I’ll be here then, too.

For those of you who are like me, gluten intolerant, don’t expect much in the way of food that you can eat. Like most other festivals, there are several food vendors and a snack bar on the property. A couple of things I found that I was able to eat were stuffed cabbage rolls from The Polish Guy, some french fries from Bricker’s Frys (without the vinegar), and a BLT salad from the snack bar. The BLT salad is not on the menu, but a BLT sandwich is. I asked them to put the guts from a BLT sandwich in a bowl for me, and they were happy to help me in that way. It was quite good as a salad. Oh, and those golumpkis were delish!

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Filed Under: Gluten Free, Life on the road, Pennsylvania, Workamping

Making Meals Ahead, This Week’s Menu

Karen · 4 Comments

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Last weeks experiment with cooking several meals at a time was a huge success. So much so that I did it again this morning.

Today’s menu was ham, baked sweet potatoes, boiled eggs, gluten free spaghetti, rice, and green beans. I cut the ham in half, and cooked half of it. I sliced half of that, and put it in a zip lock bag for sandwiches. I used the rest of the cooked ham for a homemade ham salad. The uncooked half of the ham will be used for cooking some beans tomorrow, for a macaroni and cheese with ham dish that I make (gluten free elbows of course) and for sandwiches and omelettes later in the week. I will probably use the sweet potatoes to make a casserole tomorrow. Here is my recipe for Ham Salad:

Gluten Free Ham Salad Recipe

3 cups ground cooked ham
2 boiled eggs
1/3 cup sweet pickel relish
2 tablespoons mustard
1 onion, chopped
½ cup mayonaise

Mix all ingredients well. Serve wth crackers, chips, or celery sticks, or as sandwiches.

It takes a lot of work for a couple of hours one morning a week, but it sure does make my life easier during the week. Althought it takes us all week to eat a ham, and it means that we eat it every day that week, we do love ham. It is also very versatile, and easy to cook, and easy to make a gluten free diet work with it. But, next week we’ll have chicken.

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Filed Under: Cooking, Gluten Free, Life on the road, Recipes Tagged With: budgeting, gluten free recipe, menu planning, Recipes

Hadassah House Ministries

Karen · 1 Comment

My niece Stacie is a truly wonderful young woman. She, along with her husband John, have a created a ministry to girls and women called Hadassah House. The vision of Hadassah House was given to Stacie in order to reach out to females of all ages, to let them know that through faith girls can recognize they are chosen by God, called for a specific purpose, and equipped to complete that purpose.

Perhaps Stacie’s screen name on MySpace says it best, “Complete, Lacking Nothing”. When I saw that, I was really surprised. I have known people who feel that way about themselves, but I have never seen anyone choose a screen name to let the world know it. I was even more surprised when I read her blurb about herself. She told a story of struggling with fear, insecurity, low self-esteem, and rejection as she was growing up.

She said she was an extremely shy and timid child, and had very few friends. I knew she was shy around me, but since she lived hundreds of miles away and we saw each other only two or three times a year, I just attributed that to her being a child amongst adults she barely knew. But, I could just not believe it when I read that she had always considered herself to be ugly and friendless. I always thought she was a very beautiful girl and well liked by everyone, not just us, her family. I am happy for her now that she can call herself “Complete, Lacking Nothing”. I feel that way about myself, too.

On the Hadassah House Ministry website, Stacie writes in her testimony “I no longer deal with the rejection, insecurity, and intimidation that haunted me for the first 29 years of my life. God has completely delivered me from low self-esteem, and I am confident of who I am in Christ. I know that He loves me, and He has called me for a specific purpose, and He will “Complete” that purpose in me!

Part of that purpose is to help girls, teens, and women realize that they, too, are special to God. He has a special name for them — just like He does for me, and He wants them to see themselves the way He sees them. It is my desire to see girls learn who they are in Christ at an early age so they will not walk in the intimidation and insecurity that I walked in for so long. I want to see teen girls build strong relationships with Jesus so they will not be moved by what the world around them has to say about them, but they will serve Him with all their hearts, that He may complete His purpose in them, and raise them up to be leaders in their generation. Finally, I long to see women become everything God has called them to be. No longer will they be pushed around by the lies the enemy tells them, but they can stand firm knowing God created them with special gifts and talents for the body of Christ, and He has equipped them with everything they need to fulfill their purpose.”

I am excited about Hadassah House Minsitries and what they have to offer to girls and women. But, like any other new venture, they are still struggling to fund their mission. They have several specific needs, from prayer to a building or office, to sponsorship of girls who are not able to pay for materials for the program. If you would like to find out more about Hadassah House and what they believe, and what needs they have, click here.

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Filed Under: General

The End Of The Story

Karen · 1 Comment

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about what Jim and I had to go through to finally get our bonus check from our former employer. When we picked up those checks, we saw that they had deducted $24.78 from Jim’s check for electricity that we had already paid.

So, the next day I wrote a letter to them and included a copy of the receipt showing the electric bill had been paid, requesting that they send a refund check. Well, I am happy to say that we received our refund in the mail today. We have ALL of our money, finally, after only six months.

Let this story of our misfortune be a lesson to you all—keep your receipts and documentation until you are satisfied with the outcome of the situation.

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Filed Under: Life on the road, Workamping

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