Uuuuuughhhhhh

So far I'm really not a fan of 2025. :P And I'm not even actually talking about the political shitshow going on right now. 

About three weeks ago, Johnny got me sick with what I assume was the flu (I know it wasn't Covid because we tested negative multiple times). One of the other things going around lately is walking pneumonia...but I've had that before and it didn't really feel like that. We felt pretty crappy for the first few days. My biggest complaint in the beginning was stuffy/runny nose and Johnny's was more the productive cough. I only had a productive cough for a few days. But we've both been just so tired and blah...and now we have more of a dry cough. Honestly, I prefer a productive cough. This dry cough has been making my throat hurt really bad...and it's keeping me awake at night. Every few minutes it's like my throat feels dry and creates the urge to cough. It used to happen to me a lot as a kid...but I don't remember having a cough like this for basically my entire adult life. :P I hadn't drank coffee in years...but I've been drinking it everyday for the last week or so just because it's been soothing for my throat. 

I've had jaw/ear pain as well...I'm not really sure what's up with that. I don't know if I have an earache from being sick or if the pain is just from my jaw. I sneezed at one point and I literally thought I'd broken my jaw...it was such a horribly sharp pain that shot through my jaw. I've always had TMJ...which isn't uncommon with hEDS. I've never had this kind of pain in my jaw though. So I don't know what's going on with it...and not super excited to go to the doctor to find out. :P A lot of times, it seems like the treatment is more painful than just dealing with the pain from whatever the problem is. 

I've had several issues pop up over the last few years (especially pelvic organ prolapse...common with hEDS) and a lot of them require surgery to actually fix. And since I have adhesive disease, abdominal surgery is pretty much out of the question for me unless it's absolutely necessary. I had abdominal surgery in 2010 for a rectopexy repair and a pretty sizeable colon resection. It was an absolutely NOT fun experience. Then in 2011, I went in to have my tubes tied and the surgeon couldn't even find one of my fallopian tubes because my entire abdomen was full of scar tissue connecting all my organs together. Any future abdominal surgeries--including to remove the scar tissue--would result in more scar tissue. 

So yeah...whenever new issues pop up, I'm not super excited to get into what it's going to take to treat it. Even when it's medication...medications come with side effects and I'm already on several medications everyday. Oh the joys of chronic illness. :P 

And if health issues weren't enough...our freezer isn't working! Yeah...on the refrigerator we just bought in October. I was hoping after all the things we had to fix/replace in 2024 that 2025 would be a bit smoother. But it isn't really off to a good start. :P Luckily it's still within warranty, so we had someone come out on Friday. Apparently they're going to basically replace everything inside...but have to wait for parts to come in. He didn't know how long it would take. The refrigerator section is still working fine so far...which is good. But I'm still not buying a whole lot of groceries at the moment just in case it starts having cooling issues, too. My biggest complaint at the moment is the freaking beeping. :P There's a "HI" error that appears at least every hour or so that comes with beeping...and we have to go hit a button to make it stop every time. There's apparently no way to turn that off or at least silence the beeping. It's bad enough during the day...but it really sucks at night. Whenever the electricity flickers off...it also has an alert that will keep beeping every few seconds until you go hit a button. It's really, really aggravating for a person like me who hates noise. :P 

Other than that things are doing alright, though. Milo is starting to be more interested in the Litter Robot. He's still not actually using it...but he has been getting close to it and investigating it. I'm still leaving it turned off for the most part and then turning it on at least once a day to run a clean cycle. Today I turned it on and he was up here in the living room, heard the Litter Robot start to cycle...and then ran downstairs to go check it out. He didn't get close to it...but he did watch from inside the doorway. Leo will go the the bathroom in the Litter Robot occasionally but still uses the old litterbox too. It's about half and half for him. Angel still loves it and uses it exclusively, as far as I know. The only times I've seen her in the old litterbox is to bury the boys' poop when they don't cover it with litter after they're done. It's like she's cleaning up after the boys. LOL. ;) 

Work is still going well. Since I've felt so crappy...I haven't worked on many new designs lately. I still have some more custom letter name ones that I want to get listed. They're the ones where there are individual graphics for each letter. I've had quite a few orders for the ones I have listed so far. I've also been busy with some party stuff for my Grandpa's 90th birthday party next month. Mom has been coming over and we've been working on invitation stuff. So that's always fun. 

Ooh and I have a new exercise bike being delivered today! I'm excited for that. I like that it folds up so we can keep it out of the way when we're not using it. And it's supposed to be quiet, too, so that's good. 

Johnny and I are watching Season 2 of Night Agent. I forgot that's another show we started watching last year that we liked. We're almost halfway through now. We usually watch one episode a night during dinner...sometimes two. And then I also started watching Killing Eve. I really just have it playing in the background while I'm working so I only catch bits and pieces, but it's interesting. 

Well...I've got some work to do. Hope everyone is having a good 2025 so far!

RECIPE: Cheeseburger Soup

Another new recipe for the new year! This is a new soup in the pressure cooker that I basically just made up as I went. It turned out pretty yummy and it was super quick and easy. 

Cheeseburger Soup 

Ingredients:

1lb ground beef
1/2 tbs fresh minced garlic 

32 oz beef broth
1 small onion, diced 
1 carrot, peeled and diced

1 celery stalk, diced   

1 can petite diced tomatoes, do not drain 

1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce 
16oz Velveeta cheese, cubed
16oz elbow macaroni, prepared according to package

Directions:

1. Brown ground beef with minced garlic and drain. 

2. Combine beef broth, ground beef, onion, carrot, celery, paprika, salt, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce in the pressure cooker pot and stir. 

3. Pour the diced tomatoes in the pot then topped with the cubes of Velveeta cheese. Do not stir.

4. Set the pressure cooker to "Soup" and cook for 5 minutes. Carefully quick release the pressure when finished. 

5. Stir in elbow macaroni and serve. 

You can serve topped with crackers, corn chips, or whatever else you like! The picture below is of Johnny's bowl...he likes to add a lot more pepper. ;) 

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RECIPE: Garlic Butter Chicken Bites in Creamy Parmesan Sauce

I haven't posted a new recipe in quite awhile. I was wanting to use our new pots and pans so I decided to make something that actually isn't in the pressure cooker or air fryer. Aubry really liked it. It tastes a lot like chicken alfredo. 

Garlic Butter Chicken Bites in Creamy Parmesan Sauce 

Ingredients:

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cubed

4 tbs butter 

1 tbs fresh minced garlic

1 pint heavy cream

1.5 cups fresh grated parmesan

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

10 oz penne pasta prepared according to package

Directions:

1. Melt butter in pan on medium heat.  

2. Add chicken and minced garlic. Cook until the chicken is fully cooked (165 degrees F) and starting to turn golden brown. 

3. Stir in cream and parmesan. Turn to simmer and cook until sauce has thickened, stirring occasionally. 

4. Turn off heat and mix the pasta into the chicken and sauce. Season with salt and pepper.  

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Here we are...2025!

My first post of the new year already! 

I updated all my spreadsheets for the new year. I have a "home life" spreadsheet where I have all of our bills lined out for the year. They're all separated out by Johnny's pay periods. So every week he gets paid, I pay the bills after his checks hit (at least the bills that aren't set up on autopay). I plan them out so that the last paycheck of each month just makes the mortgage payment and the rest of the bills are paid during the earlier pay period(s). That way it kind of balances out his checks a little more. I also printed out a copy for Johnny...because he's always asking me which bills are being paid each payday. Of course...he'll probably still ask me. ;) 

I also updated my CandiMaker spreadsheets (I have SO many!) and closed out the year. Each day I update my Order Count and Daily Revenue calendar spreadsheets. I also record all my orders in a spreadsheet with all the order information and the fees/postage for each order. I also have a "receipt" spreadsheet that records all expenses separated by category for the Schedule C tax form...so all I have to do is input the numbers from my spreadsheet when I'm doing my taxes. And I have an annual Profit/Loss spreadsheet that I update each month. P&L records are mainly used for anything where you have to provide income information for things like financing. Then there's the "Sales" spreadsheet that I update each month. It tracks my "sales" (number of listings/variations sold in every order) for each separate Etsy shop. I record monthly, annual, and grand total sales based on my "Order Items" data download from Etsy. I also measure how many days between every 50 sales. September was the first month where I had 50 sales in 7 days...but in December I reached 50 sales in 5 days during the first week of December and then had accumulated another 50 sales 4 days later.  December was my most successful month ever. My previous record for orders in one week was 45 orders in the last week of November...and I passed that in the the first week of December with 57 orders. My previous record for most orders in one month was 137 in July...and I had 175 orders in December. December was also the month with highest revenue and highest profit...which has grown exponentially since 2023. In my CandiMakerStickers Etsy shop alone...my revenue is up 316% YOY. Number of orders in that shop is up 205% with 1082 orders this year versus 355 orders last year. I hope I can keep the same momentum in 2025! My goal for 2025 is to reach 3500 sales in my CandiMakerStickers Etsy shop. 

There's a lot of CandiMaker stuff I want to work on in 2025. I wasn't super pleased with my magnetic bookmark cardstock and laminate...so I want to work on finding the best combination of materials. So hopefully this year I'll have some magnetic bookmarks listed before November. I want to work on regular bookmarks and planner covers at some point, too. I also still have over 30 pages of quotes for sticker design ideas that I want to work on. I haven't listed new sticker designs for awhile. The last half of 2024 I spent more time working on new products than new stickers, so I haven't listed new designs for awhile. Right now I'm still focused on custom name stickers, though...so I want to finish those listings first. I also need to get my website up and running. I let my previous domain expire because I hadn't done anything with it since I bought the domain (which was awhile ago). So I got a new domain (registered for 5 years) and I want to get it up and running this month...even if it's just a landing/redirect page for now. I also need to upload more of my existing designs to eBay and Faire. I've been so busy with my Etsy sticker shop the last couple months that I didn't devote much time to anything else. My planner Etsy shop is pretty quiet too. I need to make more sticker sheet designs...but with my die-cut stickers and magnets doing so well, I don't really focus on sticker sheets. Maybe one of these days...I want to get to the other stuff first. :) 

Still working on getting Milo to go to the bathroom in the Litter Robot. :P I still have their old litterbox in the cat room...and even had to remove the hood because that suddenly made him nervous. He's still jumpy going into the cat room...so I've been going down there everyday to give treats, sprinkle some catnip, and coax him in the room for a little while. I also turned the Litter Robot off and just turn it on every day or two so it'll run a clean cycle and then turn it back off. I did see on the camera I put down there that Milo slowly walked up to the Litter Robot and was smelling it. He hasn't gone inside again yet, but it's progress. :) Angel still loves the Litter Robot and goes in there at least 4 times a day. She likes to run in and watch it do the clean cycle, too...which makes it stop mid-cycle. LOL. She's been spending a lot of time in the cat room since I put a new litter mat in there. She'll take her mouse toy in there and throw it around...sometimes into the Litter Robot and she'll jump in and grab it. ;) 

We're supposed to get winter weather this weekend. So far it's just been rain/ice but it's supposed to snow tomorrow. We let the dogs out one at a time after dinner (they get dirty wrestling around with each other when we let them out together)...and Boz seems to think ice is the same thing as snow and he has to flop around like a fish in it. LOL. He came in all dirty and wet. Thank goodness they go to the groomer on the 30th! But Johnny might have to give them one more bath before they go. :P 

I made a new dish for dinner in our new pots and pans! I generally prefer to use the pressure cooker or air fryer, but it's not so bad cooking with the new pans that are really non-stick...so they're easy to clean. I have another new recipe that I'm planning to make in a couple days, too. Now I'm going to post tonight's recipe...