Raccoon Mountain, Chattanooga, Tennessee
God called the dry ground ‘land’, and the gathered waters he called ‘seas.’ ~ Genesis 1:10
We first noticed it yesterday afternoon. Our poor neighbors have birthed a screamer.
An uncontrollable, inconsolable, high-volume, practically non-stop screamer. Oh, she’s a cute little girl, about two years old, but the lungs on that child are the things horror movies are derived from. She does, however, seem to sleep at night. I’ll bet she sleeps well. I hope the parents do. They need to replenish the energy she surely sucks out of them during daylight hours.
We cranked up our music to help drown her out, following about ten minutes of wondering what we would’ve done had we given birth to one of those. The best answer we could come up with was duct tape. Which is most likely why the Father chose the children He did for us. Yet another reason to appreciate our marvelous sons!
There’s some truth in the half-truth of I Corinthians 1:13 that we often quote out of context as “God won’t give you more than you can handle”. The truth is probably more likely that He knew our breaking point was relatively low. 😊
At any rate, they left this morning. License plates say Illinois. That’s a really long drive should she suddenly decide to rev back up again. Hopefully they live in the southernmost part of the state.
It was a rainy day today, so we stayed indoors.
There was a very large mountain there when we first parked here.
I dealt with more technical issues. Good grief! Heavy Sigh. . . . . Eye Rolling . . . . maybe some Foot Stomping too . . . . . Well, no foot-stomping, that takes too much energy . . . By the time we’d worked for 3 ½ hours, I was ready to take lessons from that little girl on fit-pitching. But the people I live-chatted with – and there were three because we kept getting disconnected – (in India or wherever they are) who work for HostGator, worked with me the entire time trying to repair the issue. It was kind of a slow chat as they would ask a question, I’d answer it, then they’d work a while. I spent a lot of time staring at Blaine sitting across from me doing his own thing, or out the window, watching the rain fall and listening to music. In the end, the issues weren’t resolved, and we decided to wait until we move on Monday to see if it resolves itself with a different network, in a different location.
Comfort food for dinner! Homemade mac and cheese with ham and broccoli mixed in!
The original recipe is below, but I’ve made some modifications that we prefer. Instead of the extra sharp cheddar, I use 3 C. regular cheddar and 1 C. Velveeta. Also, for just the two of us, I make ¼ batch. In addition, when I add the ham, I don’t use any extra salt.
MACARONI AND CHEESE (from the Mitford book series)
1/3 c. butter
1/3 c. flour
3 C. milk
½ C. sour cream
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 ½ t. dry mustard
¼ t. cayenne pepper
½ t. pepper
4 C. extra sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
½ C. Parmesan cheese
1# elbow macaroni, cooked
¼ – ½ C. bread crumbs
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease a 3-quart baking dish and set aside. In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine the butter and flour and stir until smooth. Slowly add the milk and continue stirring until thickened and smooth. Add the sour cream and cream cheese, stirring to combine. Add the salt, mustard, and peppers and mix well. Stir in the cheddar and parmesan. Add the elbows and mix well. Pour into the baking dish. Cover with bread crumbs.
Bake uncovered for 40-45 minutes or until bubbly and hot.
HINT: Make this a meal by adding ham and/or broccoli. We discovered we prefer less bread crumbs. Believe it or not, the original recipe called for a full cup! Tomorrow . . . is another day! Or so says Scarlett O’Hara. 😊