Penguins, Chickens and a Fish Bowl

I know I already have your mind wandering what in the world penguins, chickens and a fish bowl all have in common. Well, I promise they all have some things in common...at least at our house.

We have now entered Day 9 of my grocery store strike. I have to admit a trip to the Farmer's Market might be in my near future because we are almost out of all fruits and veggies and I HAVE to have at few of these items for my mere everyday survival. But I digress.

Yesterday proved to be a very busy day despite my calendar being blank on September 10. Our family has now lived in the Tennessee Valley for almost 2 years and to say we have completely adjusted would be a lie. You see every year we get hit by what the Hubby and I have coined as the "Fish Bowl Syndrome". You ask, "What?!" You see we live in Tennessee Valley and when allergy season sets in I think it takes up residence for at least the next 6 - 8 months in our "Fish Bowl" and doesn't escape until a good hard freeze and/or a super scorcher of a summer with some afternoon rain to rinse the pollen away. 

Thanks to the "Fish Bowl Syndrome" make its grand entrance upon us this past week, our poor kiddos have invited this unwelcomed guest into our home first. Therefore, a trip to our favorite Decatur Pediatrician became very apparent during Saturday and Sunday when SG sounded like a chain smoker. (Sorry if you are a smoke but we are NOT for many reasons.) Then came our next little friend to enter the house...Miss Penguin. Yes, we now have a penguin, or shall I say a child's nebulizer, that resides at our home. She is like a pet to SG, for she cares for it and watches over it as she receives her breathing treatments every 4- 6 hours for the next week. So the Fish Bowl Syndrome brought us a Penguin and then lead us to having Chicken Pot Pie for dinner.

This is one of SG's favorites because it includes 2 of her favorites, chicken and eggs. The recipe I use was given to us from some friends from Seminary. We have loved every sinful part including the whole stick of butter that is poured over the topping.

As promised last week when I started this journey, I have prepared yet another tasty treat for my family to start off the week. I made honey cinnamon swirl bread. I was given a bread machine for Christmas and I LOVE it! I use it mainly for making doughs and then bake in the oven because the machine, itself, tends to over bake the bread and dry it out. I have found from other bloggers advice that just baking the bread in the oven makes it so much better. I was so stoked about my bread and had plenty of ingredients left that I  even made a loaf and took it to a friend today. I think what truly made this bread was the honey that my friend had bought me from the Savannah Honey company last year. DIVINE!

I must depart now to go turn on Miss Penguin, dose out some more Fish Bowl Syndrome antibiotics and figure out "What's for Dinner?" tonight.

One Cupful of Blessings,
Carri Duke

P.S. My kiddos had their pictures made today by an awesome Christian couple from Madison. Go check them out! Gallery Seven Photography