Apple Hand Pies

I'm working on this recipe, they seem to be a hit so far. The photo was taken before the paper towel removal of the excess oil. Afterwards, I used a quick glaze on both sides. 

    

They're disappearing fairly quickly, so I am also considering making other fillings. The first sets are apple, similar to my chunky apple sauce. I'm considering a pecan pie filling next for my favorite tester ever. It's his favorite. Then cherry if I get my hands on some good ones.

Happy Baking, Heather

Chicken Soup Recipe

A couple of weeks ago, I made chicken & rice soup, inspired by a childhood favorite series that included Chicken Soup With Rice by Maurice Sendak. My brother and I memorized the Pierre book and used to recite it with fabulous voices ad nauseam. I'll save this topic for another day, but freely admit I'm a bit obsessed with children's literature. I became a collector of vintage story books when I was pregnant with my first born. 

I'm making large batches of our favorite soups to help fill the deep freezer as I find deals at the market. The family loves chicken noodle soup. I hope to keep building up the stockpile over the next couple of months before I get busy with the garden and sewing. This is the recipe I've used, updating it to meet our needs. I hope you like it! 

Chicken & Rice (or Noodle) Soup

1 whole chicken, frozen (less time if it's fresh or thawed)

8 c chicken stock

1/2 onion 

2-3 large carrots, peeled and cut into slices or diced

Rice/Egg Noodles cooked separately, added before serving and freezing. 

Add herbs to taste: 

2 bay leaves

garlic

thyme

parsley

onion powder

chicken soup starter/bouillon

celery seed or powder, whichever you have on hand

Leftover white rice (already cooked) or egg noodles: Fully cooked rice, served separately to control carbohydrate counts or added when the soup is finished cooking. I probably had about 4 cups of cooked rice last batch and used a whole package of wide egg noodles for this version today. 

Sauté onions if you’d like to keep them in the soup. You can substitute with diced onions directly in the pressure cooker or cut 1/2 onion and place in soup pot, removing before serving.

Combine everything except your already cooked rice OR egg noodles - add either before serving/freezing. If utilizing a crockpot, slow cook 8+ hours, Crockpot XL Pressure Cooker on high poultry for 1 hour and about 10-20 minutes (depending on the size of the whole chicken), or on the stove in a large soup pot (stock pot) for several hours. Remove whole chicken and shred, returning it to the crockpot or stock pot and cook on low about 10 minutes longer; this can be done on the slow cooker function or in your stock pot. 

I hope to return to the sewing room when the cabinets are finished and the countertops are reinforced. Hang in there with me, I've had Jane on my mind and am planning to put her together sometime soon. 

All my best,

Heather

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day, readers! I hope that you had a beautiful day & invested in some self care in addition to taking care of your loved ones. 

Sending my very best, 

Heather

Warm Welcome, Singaporeans!

Good afternoon, Singaporeans! I'm thrilled to see your massive and recent activity on the blog. Please let me know if I can be of any assistance at heather lint 02 (zero two) @ hotmail dot com.

Welcome and best wishes, 
Heather

Apple Crisp

Apple crisp is cooling on the stove and it smells divine. I had some small apples on hand and another bag already sliced in the freezer. I've been trying to bake some extras for the freezer or friends the past couple weeks. Sitting to cook is less than ideal, but I'm making it work with my helpers. I initially planned to make some homemade apple sauce but it's been so long since we've had an apple pie, crumble, or crisp.

It tastes best completely cooled. It will be even better tomorrow for breakfast with some coffee, I'm sure. I hope you're having a relaxing Sunday and enjoying some simple, joyful activities. 

Happy baking, Heather

Formal Writing Projects

Dearest Australian, Scottish, Irish, and English RF readers, I was just made aware that the cost of the new journal is higher for you due to printing limitations with Amazon KDP. I spent considerable time trying to format the guided journal for this particular printer because they do not require upfront orders and fees. Please message me or feel free to leave a message if you find the cost prohibitive for you or your loved ones at this time.

The second journal is in the final editing stages and should be available next month. I'm also working on a memoir, which demands more time and attention to detail than the journals. Reliving some of the content also slows the writing process. As a result, I am working my way through the healing journal and have opened a public FB page if you're interested in joining our healing & wellness community. I urge anyone struggling with their past or current conditions to seek professional therapy to support their healing journey.

All my best, 

Heather

Gardening

I'm moving the garden to containers on the deck this spring and truly look forward to growing fresh fruits and vegetables again. The last time I thoroughly planned our garden beds, the kids were in elementary school. Life has a way of bringing us back to what matters most.

I've been focusing on our budget and cutting back on expenses since losing my job back in March. As a result, I turned to Temu for some garden supplies including raised boxes that should work well on the deck. Hopefully this change is convenient and reduces the time we invest and physical labor associated with yard gardens of the past. Supposedly the raised beds purchased are self-watering. I have my doubts, but am willing to do some experimentation and hope for the best.

Tomato varieties, especially heirlooms and large leaf basil are my priorities for the family, used in homemade sauce and meatballs. I freeze rather than can because we don't have the storage space required, though I enjoy canning. 

A word of caution about Temu seeds: Most seed packets turn up from China without instructions, often unlabeled. Since multiple locations mail them out, you'll have no idea what arrives, how to plant them, the sun requirements, etc. Items that should have been bulbs or corms are delivered to you as tiny seeds. Save your money. I'm planning some experimentation, but sorting through the seeds will take up a lot of room for starts/seedlings or take years to work through, and I sincerely doubt it will be worth the effort.

The strawberry seeds, however, are identifiable, though growing strawberries from seeds can be challenging. When the kids were really little, we tried it with some free seeds and nothing happened. I purchased small plants and babied them so the kids could see them growing. Thankfully, we learned a lot all those years ago, and reviving the patch on the side of the house should be relatively easy this time around. I'll also try container gardening for the deck with the same plants.

If cheap seeds are unmarked, imagine the issues people have with tree and bush starts. No, thank you. The plastic containers from Temu should work fine, though we haven't tested them. This should take some time and documentation to sort. We are also looking forward to some sugar snap peas, pole beans, and flowers; I've yet to purchase those seeds. 

I sincerely hope that your weather is better than ours. If not, thinking spring and planning your garden helps.

Happy garden planning,

Heather 

Choosing Gratitude

If you're going through a difficult time right now, the last thing you'll want to hear is to "practice gratitude" and I get it. When you're struggling, being told to be grateful can feel really dismissive, like someone is telling you to slap a happy face sticker over genuine pain. But here's what I've learned through my own healing journey: gratitude during the most challenging times isn't about pretending everything is fine. It's not about toxic positivity or forcing yourself to feel thankful when you're hurting. Real gratitude is something different entirely.

Gratitude Doesn't Erase Pain

You can be grateful for the warm cup of coffee in your hands and still acknowledge that today is hard. You can appreciate a friend's text message and still feel the weight of loneliness. You can notice the sunset and still carry grief. Gratitude doesn't ask you to choose—you can hold both. This isn't about replacing difficult emotions with positive ones. It's about creating small moments of light alongside the darkness and reminding yourself that even in the midst of struggle, there are still things worth appreciating.

It Matters When You're Healing

When dealing with fears, trauma, anxiety, or depression, our brains naturally focus on threat and negativity. This made sense when we needed to survive difficult circumstances—our brains were protecting us by staying alert to danger. This negativity bias can keep us stuck in a loop even when we're trying to heal. Gratitude practice gently redirects our attention without denying current reality. It's like teaching your nervous system that yes, things are hard right now, but I'm glad that this is positive.  

Research shows that gratitude practice can:

- Reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety

- Improve sleep quality

- Increase resilience during stress

- Strengthen relationships

- Support trauma recovery

- Foster hope

Beyond the science, gratitude does something even more important: it reminds you that you're still here, still noticing, still capable of finding beauty even in the most broken places. Gratitude during challenging periods doesn't have to be grand or profound. It can be beautifully simple:

- The way your pet greets you when you come home

- A warm shower after a difficult day

- One person who gets it

- Your body keeping you alive even when everything feels heavy

- The fact that you got out of bed today

- A song that made you feel something

- The smell of rain

- That you're still trying

Some days, your gratitude might be: I'm grateful I survived today. That counts. It's real...and it's enough. You don't need a fancy gratitude journal or a one size fits all routine. You truly just need a willingness to notice and a routine that you're willing to stick to. The key is consistency over intensity.

When Gratitude Feels Impossible

It's better to notice one small thing each day than to write an elaborate gratitude list once a month only to feel guilty for not keeping it up next month. There will be days when gratitude feels completely out of reach. Days when the darkness is so thick you can't see even a pinpoint of light. This is okay. Gratitude isn't meant to be another struggle to add to the list. 

You can be grateful for your resilience. You can be grateful that feelings pass, even hard ones. You can be grateful that tomorrow can feel different. Or consider your basic needs being met, a kind neighbor, volunteers in your community delivering meals to the needy, a new sewing technique or quilt block that you found for free online, trying a new recipe, the softness of your favorite pair of stretch pants, the sunlight helping your seeds germinate, etc. 

The Compound Effect

Here's the remarkable thing about gratitude: it's cumulative. You won't necessarily feel different after one day of noticing the goodness in your life. But over weeks and months, something shifts. Good things become easier to spot. Joy is more accessible. Hope feels less foreign. It's like training a muscle or learning a language—slow, incremental changes that eventually transform how you move through the world. If you are working through a challenging time right now, I'll offer this: you deserve to notice the good things alongside the hard things. You deserve moments of light in the darkness. You deserve to acknowledge that you are doing your absolute best in a truly difficult situation. 

Gratitude is about honoring your wholeness—the pain and the beauty, the hard and the hopeful, the broken and the still-becoming. You don't have to do this perfectly - just keep noticing, one small thing at a time.

A Tool for Your Journey

If you're looking for a gentle way to incorporate gratitude into your healing journey, I've created a Healing Journal specifically for people navigating trauma recovery. Each day includes space for gratitude alongside prompts for processing emotions, grounding exercises, and affirmations. It's designed to meet you wherever you are—on good days and hard days alike. The journal acknowledges that healing isn't linear and gratitude isn't always easy. Some days you'll write full pages. Other days, you'll write one word. 

Healing happens in the small, consistent moments of showing up for yourself. Sometimes, just noticing one tiny good thing is the most radical act of hope that you can offer yourself.

All my best,
Heather

January Update

Hello, friends! I've been away for a bit due to some health issues, but I'm excited to share that my healing journal was approved, is almost ready and will be available in just a few days!! I’m working on several projects that I can’t quite share yet.

The JOURNAL is live! Reclaiming Yourself: The Journal - 365 days of Healing & Growth.

I've been ordering seeds and planning to move the garden to our deck this year for easier access. I'm hoping to get back into the sewing room soon and tackle some spring cleaning and updates next month. Thank you for your patience and continued support!

Heather