Stepahanie

[Roxy]

I hope that the support group is helping you. Everyone deals with tragedy in their own way. When the guy I was seeing in Nebraska died...I called my sister who is a social worker & .she told me "you are on your own." In my view..the worst feeling in the world..is feeling that you are all alone. I don't want members here to think that they are ever alone...we are here to help and guide each other..so I will post these songs and hope it puts a smile on your face....take baby steps Steph..we are here for you if you ever need to talk..never feel alone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPoS5ST6hXk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtGF2m102Wg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw6F3Sf-PGw

You can do this steph...I believe in you don't stay down..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS-zK1S5Dws

[krubinic]

Re: Stepahanie

Roxy, how sad your own sister told you that you are "on your own".........I don't even know her, but how sympathetic of a social worker can she be to tell that to her own sister?!

Unless..........I'm misunderstanding and what you meant is that what she was saying you are "on your own" as far as having any luck finding a support group. If the latter is the case, then forgive me for my first comment!

[Roxy]

Re: Stepahanie

No you understood it right...she meant that I had to deal with his death alone..she wasn't going to come over and talk to me....I had friends from over the computer from playing backgammon that I talked to and the wonderful man I am with now..played backgammon and that is all the support I had period. Noone gave a rat's ass except my friends from over the computer from playing backgammon.

[krubinic]

Re: Stepahanie

Well then a belated <<<>>>> to you, and I'm glad you are happy with a wonderful man now. If my kids ever did that to each other, I think I'd slap them silly. But I know they wouldn't, so I don't have to. LOL

[Roxy]

Re: Stepahanie

I hope your right...I don't say never anymore......because things can happen that you would never dream of happening.

[StephanieM]

Re: Stepahanie

Hey all, I am hanging in there. I read some posting, but I haven't been posting much lately. The support group is going pretty well. Work has been picking up that is good. I am trying to stay on a regular schedule. I speak with Michael's mom most everyday, which is great. I think I have been canning way too much. Some people drink, others do other things, I think this time has been me canning. My takeaway from all of this is I will never pick a whole bushel of peaches again and prep them all myself ever again. My fingers are all knicked up and stained. Oh, and just because something is 10 for a dollar on the side of the road, I don't need to empty out my pockets on it!

So far I have canned
7 quarts peach pie filling
10 pints peach preserves
8 pints blueberry preserves
i am brining about 1 gallon of dill pickles
3 pints dill pickle relish
5 pints marina sauce
4 pints crushed tomatoes
8 half pints of pate

Most of the vegetables have come out of my garden. The others I have purchased locally. I think I have finally found a nice church to go to, and I am begining to socialize some here as well. I also changed office locations which puts me around my team finally I hope to get back to some regular posting soon. It is hard when you feel everything in your life basically changed over night, but I am working on it.

You guys have been great and you all have been very supportive, I greatly appreciate it!

[roset]

Re: Stepahanie

Wow, Steph with all the canning. Good for you. I think about you everytime I get on line in this thread. You will heal in your own time. But you got to realize how much you did for us, you made us all family, starting up this .You are a wonderful person to start this up and make people happy. Met many friends and we all learn from eachother, never would have this unless you started it up. When you feel ready to chime in fine, we respect your time. We all love you and you got so many friends here, when you are ready so are we.

[janabanana]

Re: Stepahanie

Steph... I'm serious here... If I send you money enough to cover your costs and postage, would you please send me a jar of your peach preserves and a jar of your pate?? You are the only one, other than my mom, who has made homemade pate... My mom died years ago, and that was the last time I had homemade pate.. Please PM me !
I'm glad you're keeping busy... You know, you're always in our thoughts..

[Roxy]

Re: Stepahanie

I am glad you replied Stepahanie and I bet the food you canned with turn out great I am so proud of you I agree with you..when you said that people handle grief differently...some drink..you canned...I played backgammon. Just know that we are all here for you always and you are never alone...big huggssssss

[nommie]

Re: Stepahanie

Hang in there Steph, we are praying for you. All that canning sounds awesome--you better keep it quiet or we will all show up on your doorstep..LOL

[LAM3]

Re: Stepahanie

Hey Stephanie, good to hear from you. Sounds like you are doing what you need to do. I hope it gets just the teeniest better everyday. I think talking to Micheals mother is a great comfort to both of you and sometimes talking to someone is all you can do.

I think one thing that is so hard about losing a loved one is that things never go back the same. There is a "new normal" that you are thrown into and did not expect.

You continue to be in my thoughts and prayers.

[TexAnn]

Re: Stepahanie

My thoughts are with you Dear Stephanie.

[StephanieM]

Re: Stepahanie

About the request for pate... I got the recipe from www.canningusa.com. I am a little nervous about giving out the pate. This is the first time I have pressure canned raw meat. I want to make sure it ages well, and it comes out ok before I give any of it away. It wasn't that hard to do, but again I am not certain of how it will turn out.

The dog was rather fond of the smell. I don't think the may have gotten a perfect seal on every jar, as everything came out really greasy, or I might have made the jars dirty when packing everything into them. So I put the jars in the box that they came in, and sat down with some Clorox everywhere cleaning and cleaned off the jars while sitting on the floor. Lilly, my dog continued to sit by the jars of pate long after I finished cleaning them off gaurding her stash from the cats. I opened one jar and it was ok, but it said it would take 3 months before everything would season out properly.

[Ginger]

Re: Stepahanie

Nice to see you posting Stephanie. I think the hardest part of canning is making sure the jar tops are absolutely clean before you put on the lids. I am especially careful with any tomato products and will open and use immediately, or freeze the contents of any jar that does not seal.

Make sure to keep notes on what you made, how you made it and how it turned out. The notes will come in handy next year.

[StephanieM]

Re: Stepahanie

Everything else has sealed up just fine. The pate has me concerned simply because everything was sooo greasy. I packed the jars by hand, so it was a mess. I still want to put up some spaghetti sauce with meat over the next few days, I have more and more tomatoes coming in at this point. Good idea on the notes, that is one cookbook I may add notes too.