Wah, wah, siss boom bah!

The hubby is away hunting for the weekend. I have a "funny" habit of having things go wrong when he's out of reach. This weekend has been no different.

It started with Friday night when I returned home from taking my 12 year old someplace. On my way to the house, carrying 20 month old Squiggy Magoo, I tripped on my way up our outdoor steps and fell into the stairs. I blocked with my hands and arms to provide a barrier on the baby's back, so that he didn't get hurt. He narrowly missed getting his head bashed into a concrete step. I ended up with 2 hurt wrists, 2 hurt knees, 1 hurt foot, and a hurt back. Nice.

From there I discovered that we had a plumbing problem under the kitchen sink. Just a little trouble there...like all the water that went down either side of the sink OR the dishwasher would come shooting out into the cabinet and then flood the floor. I was able to see the problem, just wasn't able to fix it. I tried several things, while enjoying the fun of sitting on the floor hunching under the sink, and then trying to get up again with my previously mentioned sore knees, wrists, foot, and back. Great timing! It was 10pm and I had a dishwasher full of stuff needing to get clean, so I did what I had to do and used tape to solve my problem. I wanted duct tape but couldn't find any, so used wide masking tape instead. Looks stupid, but has held strong! Just call me Pioneer Woman.....

By Saturday my 12 year old was sick, the 6 year old was getting the diarrhea end of the Montezuma's Revenge that has been going around our family, the 20 months old still had it, and I was feeling kind of funky. By night time Saturday I realized that I had a UTI which started causing me such distress that I was in misery and pulling out all the stops with homeopathy, vitamins, water consumption, etc. to try to help myself. That took until something like 2am when I was able to go to sleep.

Morning arrived nice and early with kids at my bedside saying things like, "Why didn't you wake us up for school?" and "I'm poopy!" Time to get crackin' Dolly Mama! Nobody cares about your troubles. Change those diapers, make that breakfast, explain the days of the week AGAIN to the 6 year old.....

Fortunately, the hubby has gotten a deer and will be home in a few hours. My 12 year old is feeling somewhat better. I am not so bad off that I am miserable, which is a great improvement.

So, in celebration of survival, I've got a pot of chicken soup on. Thought I would share the recipe with you. This is a soup that is a big hit around here. It's easy and delicious.

Dolly Mama's Perfect Chicken Soup

In a large stock pot combine:
4 cups or so of chopped, cooked chicken
1 cup of chopped celery
1 cup chopped carrots (if you buy the matchstick carrots it is faster)
1 small chopped onion (we prefer the sweet onions)
12 cups water
9 cups chicken boullion
half teaspoon marjoram
half teaspoon black pepper
1 bay leaf
1 Tablespoon parsley

You will also need your choice of rice or pasta. About a pound of pasta or 2 cups of rice.

Throw it all together in the pot and bring to a boil. Then let simmer for 20 minutes or so. (less simmer time if you have the matchstick carrots and the pasta or quick rice, longer for bigger carrot and brown rice) Voila! Your soup is ready.

You can add more veggies, rice, or pasta, etc. This is a very forgiving recipe. Make it with what you have. We have had it with less chicken and more carrots, or whatever we had on hand. We love it every time.