She had a good week up until the weekend. She went six days without an episode but over the weekend she had two. The one on Saturday lasted three hours and the one on Sunday lasted six and a half. We have been seeing improvement in her. She can walk through these episodes now although not like she normally does. Needless to say we are always excited to see her snap out of these spells and be her normal self again.

Last week we processed 37 quarts of homemade V8 juice and 15 quarts of tomato juice. One day I picked five 5 gallon sized buckets of tomatoes from our garden, so we are getting a good yield this year. Some of the tomatoes varieties in our garden are Early Girl, Beefsteak, and Roma. It is so good to fill those jars again with fresh, colorful tomatoes. I need to put more tomatoes into juice this week. I was hoping to get to it today but I also have a bushel of peaches waiting to be put into jars. The peaches are ripening too fast so I’ll do those instead. On the list for tomorrow is a bushel of pears. I don’t usually do pears but a friend gave me a bushel. My mother always canned the pears from our pear tree at home. Everything seems to be ripening at once.

My cucumbers need to be picked again and I want to make some more freezer pickles. I’ll also do some sweet and sour garlic dill pickles also. I slice the cucumbers lengthwise for these and put them in wide-mouth jars. When we have church services I usually drain off the juice and set the jars on the table so people can eat them or have them on a sandwich. Also on my list to do in the coming weeks is salsa, hot pepper butter, applesauce, and maybe grape juice.

School doors will open for the term in two weeks. Our youngest child, Kevin, will go to pre-school for half a day. It will be so hard to see him start off to school. He will be 5-years-old next week on Sept. 2. Where has the time gone to? He keeps himself busy tending to the four little puppies we have. This morning Kevin has all four of the puppies and the mother in the buggy. I told him he can’t take the puppies on the buggy. Most days he spends his time out with those puppies. Uncle Joe and Aunt Betty stopped by for a visit over the weekend. They also had my cousin Brian and family along.

I need to get busy again. I have a doctor appointment this afternoon. I have been battling with what the doctor told me is poison ivy. After a shot and two weeks of antibiotics it keeps coming back. After being miserable with it for over a week again I decided to go back to the doctor. Today is a cooler day which helps but on those hot days it gets really miserable.

With all the sweet onions in season try this casserole:

Sweet Onion Casserole

1 large sweet onion, sliced

1-1/4 sticks of butter

1 pack of crackers (Ritz is preferred for taste)

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

Salt and pepper to taste

1 cup shredded cheese

1 teaspoon paprika

Preheat oven to 350. In a pan sautee the onion in 1 /4 cup butter. Do not brown.

Remove from heat and set aside. In a 9” pie pan mix in packet of crushed Ritz crackers with 3 /4 cup of melted butter. Mix well and press into pie pan. Pour cooked onions over cracker crust. Mix Press butter and cracker mixture into 9” pie plate or glass baking dish. Pour cooked onions over cracker crust. In a separate bow mix eggs and milk and seasonings. Pour over onion mixture. Spread cheese over top and sprinkle paprika. Bake in 350 oven for 25 minutes.

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