I‘m the queen of justification…

 

Two packets of 25 calorie Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa Mix, 12 ounces of water in my favorite Starbucks mug – that’s only one Weight Watcher Point – 3/4 cup of miniature marshmallows, another point, hey that works, only two points, BUT it’s white, it’s sugar, and that those packets of hot chocolate mix are  full of unnatural things,  but it’s ONLY 2 points for the entire mug of hot chocolate with all that ooey-gooey marshmallow topping.

Sure, I drank it, and yep, it was as yummy as it looks.  80/20 theory, remember??? Works for me…

The times, they are a changin’

This Election Season marks the beginnings of a new era in this country.

We elected an African-American president.

And in the tiny city of Silverton, Oregan, voters pulled off what California could not: looked past differences to see the person underneath and treat him without discrimination.

Stu Rasmussen has become one of the first openly transgender mayors in the United States.

Rasmussen has served 2 terms as Mayor of Silverton, but it was only this time around that he campaigned in a skirt and heels.

Rasmussen identifies as a heterosexual male, and his girlfriend is happy for his landslide win. He has always been transgender, but "came out" only a couple of years ago. He jokingly says that his bosom was the result of a mid-life crisis, "Some guys' mid-life crisis is motorcycles or sports cars or climbing mountains or trophy wives or whatever. I always wanted cleavage, so I went out and acquired some."

A little entertainment for a Friday afternoon….

V sent me this a few days ago.  She said it should be required viewing for young children.  I so agree.

All the great old Disney characters - The Grasshopper and the Ants (1934)

Thanks for the memory, girlfriend.

You get him, Barney…

I find it highly amusing that Barney bit that nasty old reporter’s finger.  He didn’t really hurt him, well he did draw a bit of blood, but the guy should have just left him alone.

Poor Barney, he’ had enough of Washington.  He needs to lie in the sun, chew on a bone, chase a squirrel, it’s time to go home to the ranch in Texas.

I bet President Bush and his entire staff is praising him this morning, truth be known.  It’s something I’m sure they would have liked to have done for years, bite a reporter… *tehehehe*

Scene from another lifetime…

I’m really lucky that my friend, Jean, takes such wonderful photographs and shares them with me on a regular basis. 

This great picture is my current desktop wallpaper.  She shot it yesterday in Southern Illinois, not far from where I grew up.

It’s a visual reminder of the Novembers of my childhood.  There were many old barns like this that dotted the countryside, and I’ve always loved them.

I look at this, and I smile.  It’s good to remember where you came from…

It’s a typical November day…

I just took the girls out on the patio, it’s been raining this morning, the leaves are mostly down now and it’s  much cooler, there is  definitely a nip in the air.  It makes me think of simmering a pot of soup, baking bread, snuggling by the fire with a good book…

The dogs are much feistier with this cooler weather.  They’ve been romping and playing and have now settled down with their Texas Toothpicks, chewing, no doubt,  until their little jaws get exhausted.

I’m working on the Christmas recipes  and catching up on past episodes of The Young and The Restless. It’s that kind of day in Heavensville.  Easy….

Something new to try this fall…

With aromas of birch, maple leaves, pomegranate, juniper berry, and orange blossom, you'll be sure to create a Fall-y warm and fuzzy atmosphere with this Autumn Leaves Scented Candles from Yankee.  .

Hey, hey, hey, birthday girl...

Winter is coming….

I just took the M&M’s out for their evening potty run.  The moon was filtering thru the trees on the cliff behind our patio,  the leaves are falling, many branches are bare now, and in the distance I could hear barking dogs.

That’s always a lonely sound,  the sound of barking dogs on an evening that signals winter’s approach.  It’s a country sound, a reminder of my childhood, those dogs barking in the distance.  Everything was so still and quiet, it was just the moon, the trees and the dogs…

Gleaning corn….

 

I love driving thru the country in the fall, seeing the newly harvested fields, the rolling countryside, and the woods showing their glorious fall colors before dropping their browned and withered leaves for winter. 

As I was looking at the cornfields today , reduced to stubbles by the pickers, I remembered gleaning corn in the fields as a child.

It was something I did with my family, after the corn had been harvested, because in those days the two row corn pickers weren’t efficient like the sixteen row corn pickers they have today, the air-conditioned enormous contraptions that suck up every single ear of corn and reduce the stalks to nubbins.  When I was a child, the stalks were left in the field, bent over, but intact, and the pickers left a lot of corn behind.  My Grandfather picked his corn with two work horses, Bill and Joe, tethered to a picker that they pulled behind them.

Mother worked at the local drugstore through the week, but on Saturday mornings  we would drive to my Grandmother’s house in the country, and I, along with Mother and usually my Aunt Idalene, would walk thru the fields, especially the popcorn fields, as popcorn was a lucrative crop  in the bottom farmland of Southern Illinois in the fifties, and glean the leftover corn.

We would trudge along between the cornrows, me listening to the older women talk,  dragging gunny sacks that we filled with corn, it would often be cold, usually muddy, and it was hard work as the wet ears of corn became increasingly heavy as we filled the sacks.

Later, we would shell some of the corn, leaving the rest on the ears to dry, sitting around my Aunt’s pot bellied stove, and then she would pop bowls of the still damp corn.  The undried kernels wouldn’t pop open, but they would swell, sometimes partially bursting,  and become very chewy.  Oh, they were wonderful, a taste that is hard to describe, and something that most of you have probably never had the opportunity to eat.

It was hard work,  a fall ritual that farm women in our family had done for generations, glean the corn.  We just accepted the labor and enjoyed the reward.  It was a simple time…

Meet Isabella…

My friend, Kate, has a new pup, a Shorkie (Shih Tzu-Yorkie).  Isn’t she just the cutest little thing?  Can’t wait to introduce her to the girls….. 

My gratitude journal…

Today I’m grateful that…

This morning when I dropped my glasses into the commode, I didn’f flush them.  Yep, somehow I did manage to do that, oh well Baby Boy dropped his cellphone in the commode once, that was much worse. hehehe, bet he loves me telling you that...

When hubby and I went to lunch at our favorite chinese restaurant, that the same hostess who every week tries to seat us in the wrong section, was again unable to do so, hubby is really good about telling her where to put us,  and as a result she throws down our menus and huffs off.  Oh well, c'est la vie…

The Quik Mart that we stopped by on our afternoon drive in the country was fresh out of Cheetos Puffs…

I got to observe Miss Larkin Ava Overton this morning, all of two years old now, standing on a chair stirring scrambled eggs at the stove, carefully watched by her Grandma Trish, I might add…

FOX News and The Drudge Report exist.  Without them, we wouldn’t get the truth about what’s really happening with this election.

And I’m really grateful for good health, good friends and family, cuddly fur kids, and a beautiful sunny November day… 

And I’m also really grateful that I stood in line for only one hour to vote last week.

Gotta count your blessings and smile, girlfriends…  Can’t let those politicians get you down!!!

And your candidate is???

I thought it would be interesting to see who you, dear readers, are casting your vote for this election.

The poll is on the left, totally anonymous, as usual…