I'm Back!

Wow.  So that was an unexpected break, wasn't it?  I've had a few breaks over the last few months, this one was a little more unexpected.  It came from a few different reasons.  I felt overwhelmed, uninspired, and just in general stuck.  I know most bloggers can relate to struggling to figure out what to write, and I struggled with that and a few other things.  During this break I got a set of blogging goals defined for myself, along with what I want my blog to be about.  You may notice subtle changes, more consistency, and being more active in the blogging "community".  Another big change though, that will go unnoticed, is my decision to organize my life and home.  Blogging takes quite a bit of time.  The writing part kind of depends, sometimes it doesn't take as much time, but reading other blogs and commenting takes time, joining up to linky parties, takes time, and for me, working on tutorials or blog design takes time.  I've struggled keeping priorities straight, and I think I may have developed a better working system!  Now, let me give you an update on what's been going on...(you should have seen it coming!)

• Last Sunday we dogsitted/stole my mom's dog Teddy for a sleepover.  We thought Dutchess would throughly enjoy playing with someone, being as playing with Duke has been off limits.  Teddy and Dutchess had so much fun!!  However, we were all outside together when Dutchess cried loudly, and fell to the ground.  She tried to walk but couldn't.  Her left back leg was hurting her (the same leg as Duke). We were so scared!  She seemed to walk on it weird for awhile, and when we looked at it I was rubbing her leg and it poped and went back to normal.  She was completely fine afterwards, and we've had it happen one other time briefly till I massaged her knee area.  Since then she has been fine, and acting normal.  We're going to keep record of when she has problems, and see if it's something that persists or not.
• Duke is doing really good!  We went in last Monday to have the staples removed.  The vet said we should do physical therapy exercises with him in which we extend his leg to the ground, and push it back up.  He said we should do that several times a day.
• On the same day the vet told us to exercise his leg, Duke decided to start using it more!  He went from just using tippy toes, very, very, very occasionally, to just walking around on it during our walks, or when he gets excited inside, or at other random moments.  We also started glucosamine and chondroitin plus msm, which I think is really helping.  On a side note, does anyone know where you can get that stuff for cheap?!
• You know the post I wrote awhile ago, about finding a huge pumpkin plant?!  Well, God has a good sense of humor because it's actually a butternut squash plant!!  Have no fear though, you can definitely make butternut squash taste like pumpkin, AND who said you can only use pumpkins to decorate with?!
• Fall is being ornery here in Missouri.  We had some glorious cool fall days, the leaves were hinting at yellow and orange, and then BAM! it's 80 degrees and hot outside!  The leaves are turning, and are quite beautiful, and thankfully today is our last day in the 80's for awhile.  What does fall feel like where you live?
• I've actually made a cleaning schedule for myself that I think will work!  I've struggled greatly with getting and keeping a clean half way clean home.  Previously I've always cleaned the entire house at once.  Then I'm so burnt out and hating cleaning so much I decide to not clean the next day, and sometimes the next day.  Then I have to reclean the ENTIRE house.  Now I'm deep cleaning a specific room each day of the week!

I hope everyone has been doing well, and I'll be posting again tomorrow about something new and interesting...freezer cooking!