Dolly Parton and Alison Kraus

My daughters-in-law are huge fans of these women.  Deanna loves Dolly Parton with a passion, and Lindsay is a huge fan of Alison Kraus.  In fact, it was Lindsay who made me a fan of Alison Kraus.  She introduced me to her album with Robert Plant, Raising Sand, a few years ago and it has been a favorite ever since.  And Dolly, I’ve loved her all these years, and was lucky enough to see her a just few feet away from me on a float in Sevierville, Tn. during a parade for DollyWood.  Oh was she tiny,  she was positively mesmerizing.

And Kenny Rogers, oh my, I was such a fan back in the day.  I loved the look of the man, thought his music was the best, ever.  Hubby took me to a concert of his in the 80’s, and it was wonderful.  And then he had all that bad publicity with that 800 sex tape, got that awful eye job that made him look Asian, and I’m not so much a fan of him now.  I say that until I listen to his music, and am transported back to another time, and I forget all the bad stuff and just enjoy the songs.

So let’s enjoy a little music on a Saturday night, here’s a video I found of Alison Kraus and Dolly.

This one’s for you sweet daughters-in-law.  It’s so good…

 

And we might as well take a little trip down memory lane, this is my favorite Dolly and Kenny duet, Islands in the Stream.  Was there ever anything better than this?   Not for me, this was it!  

 

And here is one of our favorites from Raising Sand, Gone, Gone, Done Moved On…

 

An here is a recent interview with Kenny on CBS This Morning.  It’s very insightful. he’s surprisingly candid…

Must see tv for a certain family member of mine ;o)

If I were young again...

Watching all the footage of the big snowstorm on the East Coast this morning, I wistfullly thought that if I were young again and had a a big snowfall,  I would so make this happen.  Wouldn't it be wonderful, cross country skiing down a country lane, no noise, no people, nothing but the sound of my ski's whooshing through the snow, surrounded by nature, with a dog by my side, maybe a lab or a retriever.

But get real, Jan.  I would be huffing and puffing,  sweating from all the exertion, my face would be numb, my dog would run off  and I would have to pee.

So much for that dream... 

Abby and Ben

Grandchildren, what a wonderful, wonderful thing these precious little souls are....

Maggie, snoozing...

I put this in my Twitter feed, but it should be explained.  John bought Deanna this exact same throw last year and every time we go to their house, Maggie just loves it.  So I asked for it at Christmas, not thinking they could still find it, but they did!

Well, Miss Maggie Moo is one happy little Yorkie.  As you can see, she buries her face in it, and sleeps her life away.  I don't know how she breathes, but she manages..  

What would our lives be like without our sweet pets.  Maggie brightens my world every single day of my life...

MAC Archie's Girls Collection

Oh my, I love it ALL!!!!!!!!  Want to see more, here's the link...

 

 

 

Murphy Wet Disposable Soft Wipes

I've got another great product for all of you.  You may know about this already, but it's new to me.  

My kitchen cabinets had a buildup around the knobs, after all we've been here for ten years now.  TEN YEARS!!! 

I clean them, but that gunk gets around the knob and it's hard to get off, and to be perfectly  honest I would much rather be doing other things than cleaning around those knobs with a toothbrush, so I didn't and I had buildup.  But they were looking pretty bad when I put my glasses on, so I sent LC to Wally World to pick up some Murphy's Oil Soap to clean them.  He called me from the store and asked if I knew about these wipes, but I didn't.  I Googled reviews, people loved them, so he brought them home.

Talk about easy-peasy.  Wow, do these things do the job, fast!  He unscrewed the knobs. I held the wipe over the hole where the gunk was for a minute to loosen it, gave it a few wipes, and it was clean!  Fast, fast, fast!!!!!  I was cleaning them faster than he could unscrew and take them off.

The only negative review I read was from someone who said it left a film on her cabinets.  Well, it didn't leave one on mine!  And there always the naysayers, but if you do this, do a test area first to see if it leaves a film.

These things are awesome!  A big five stars for this great product!

 ~ Jan with clean cabinet fronts ;o)

I know just how Peppermint Patty Feels!

More about low carb….

I'm really reluctant to talk about dieting, because I jump on a bandwagon and fail, like most of the rest of the population, and I do it with regularity, just ask my friends.  Let's face it, we all love to eat!    And what do i love the most, carbs, bread, rice, white flour, sugar, pizza, McDonald's Filet-O-Fish, Donut Bank's Maple Glazed Pecan Rolls, any kind of lemon dessert, all things cherry, and did i mention bread? Oh and Cheez-It's, I adore any kind of cracker.

So this post isn't about losing weight, because I'm destined to fail once again, I know myself, I've done this so many times.  I do have a stopping point, though, that the rest of you don't have.  I can only gain so much and my legs get tight, so I  have to cut back.  And that's where I am now.

But anyway, this isn't about losing weight, this is about how I feel.  And, oh,  I feel absolutely marvelous, dahling!  It happens always, when I eat low carb, and then I go back to the pasta and the bread and all the other white stuff and forget how good I felt when I didn't eat carbs.  I was talking to my buddy Ang yesterday, who, because of allergies, has given up all things white, including dairy and lives the low carb lifestyle.  Same thing with her, she feels so much better, and she said that people don't realize what were talking about unless they've done it.

So how do I feel?  Let me explain...

Mental clarity, or as much as I can have in my old(er) age. My mind is clear, my  mood is extremely good, I have a ton more energy, I'm more even emotionally, it's hard to explain, but it's a wonderful thing.  It's hard the first week, detoxing from all things white, sometimes you have flu-like symptoms, headachy, no energy, but once you get past that week it is simply unreal how good you feel.  

I'm sticking to around 30-35 carbs a day, which is much more doable than Atkins 20 carbs, and there are so many websites now that have great recipes, it's not like all you eat is bacon eggs and butter like in the old days.  But I'm not trying to talk anyone into doing this, I'm on here just telling you how I feel, like I always do.

So that's what's working for me today.  Will I continue this, of course not, I never have stayed with it in the past, and I don't have any aspirations that I will do so in the future.  And even if I do lose weight, I'm old now,  and older people that lose very much weight look gawdawful.  It's much better to have a little meat on our bones at this age than to be skinny and stringy.  But my legs are fitting better, and the sun is shining again today, so life is pretty darn good.  

Cream Cheese Pancakes...

 

These pancakes were absolutely WONDERFUL!  I found this on ibreatheimhungry.com, and I ate them so fast I didn't take time to snap a picture, so I snagged the picture from her site, but I'm linking directly for the recipe.  Not right if I just take their recipe and post this as my own.

This is a low carb recipe, but it would be yummy regardless of what diet or non-diet you are using.  The only thing I altered was I used 1 egg and 1 egg white instead of 2 eggs to cut the calories a bit.  They taste more like a cream cheese crepe than a pancake, but oh my, they're wonderful.  

Just had to share….

Now hop over to www.ibreatheimhungry.com and check out all of her recipes.  I'll be trying more, if the rest are half as good as my breakfast was, I'll be such a fan of this site.

Ball Jars, what's old is new again...

The interest in Ball Jars seems to have skyrocketed in the past couple of years.  It took me awhile to catch up with the hoopla, but ever since I started making Salar-in-a-Jar, I, too have jumped back on the bandwagon.

LC worked for Ball Corporation in the 70's, so to me canning jars, or  "fruit jars" as mother always called them, will always be "Ball Jars" in my house, regardless of the brand.. But I was a new bride in the 70's when LC worked for Ball, mother had always been an avid canner, and since I had to prove that I was my own "woman" heaven forbid if I ever did the things that mother did.  In retrospect, how silly that was.  And how I wish I could talk to her today and show her all the ways I use Ball jars.  She would be so thrilled.  And think of all the "goodies" I could have taken advantage of back in the day.  I think the only thing I ever got was a Ball Freezing and Canning Book.

In the picture above from Country Living's website, they drilled a hole in the top of a an old zinc lid, inserted a plunger and made a soap dispenser.  I've had a badzillion of these old lids, but they're long gone now.  I'm sure the antique stores must still have a supply, and of course, eBay.  If this interests you, you can access the entire article here.  
 

My friend, Barb, told me last week about a deal on Decor Designs, which she missed, they were selling Ball jars with lids and straws. And it looks like some clever crafter has made them, the instructions are here.

And what is yours truly doing with Ball jars these days other than sealing them with salad in them?  Well, I make homemade salad dressing and for years I've used cruets to store it in, mainly those that you get with dry Wishbone Salad Dressing Mix.  But recently I had a flash of brightness and realized that it worked much better storing the salad dressing in a pint Ball jar.  It's easier to shake, easier to spoon out the dressing.  It just works!

And I store leftovers in them, all kinds of leftovers, my refrigerator is lined with these things.  And now that I'm making yogurt, they are invaluable.  I prefer the wide mouths, they're easier to use, and I have them in quarts, pints, half pints, and jelly jars.

Last week I ordered these plastic lids on Amazon Prime.  $5.74 for a package of 8 widemouth ones, no tax, free ship.  They had the same thing in our local Rural King for $4.50, but it's not worth the money or the hassle to truck over there to buy them, and you have to pay tax when you buy them locally.

To say these lids have changed my life is a bit much, but O.M.G. these things are wonderful.  It's taken my storage to a whole new level.  You can't can in these, or pressurize them, but once a can is open, these lids are perfect.  My fridge is already full of jars with these lids, I'm going to have to order more!  No more rings and lids, no more lids falling off the jars because Jan can't find a ring, plastic storage caps, where have you been all my life?

I hope I gave you some ideas on this gorgeous Tuesday afternoon.  It's 51 degrees, the sun is shining, Trisher and I have been out on the golf cart for-ever, just enjoying the day.

Now go order some plastic storage caps and see if it doesn't make your life a little easier.  It's those simple things, ladies...

Snoopy ALWAYS makes me smile, even on a gloomy Monday...

The Carpenters, now that was music!

Yesterday I working on a new header for the blog, happily listening to my favorite Sirius Channel, Escape Radio (thanks John for setting it up on my Mac) and they played The Carpenter’s music all day.  Oh my, talk about a trip down memory lane.

I thought of that later in the evening when I watched Super Bowl Half Time, how wholesome music used to be.  They didn’t need all the special effects, they just sang and they were wonderful.  I am a Beyonce fan, I think she is lovely and has a wonderful voice, but last night just wasn’t pleasant.  Her act was saturated with sex, all she needed was a stripper pole.  All the bump and grind was just awful.  Little children watch this, when her Blue Ivy is older, is that how she wants her to see her mother???

And the Hardee’s commercial was total tv porn!  I just don’t think all of this should be on network television.  And it’s not because I’m old(er), you all know that I’m a pretty liberal thinker except for politics, but it’s just not right!  Our kids shouldn’t be seeing this stuff.

*sigh*

Here’s one of my very favorites from The Carpenters.  Turn up your speakers and just enjoy the experience…

 

And Karen does a wonderful job with this Beatles song, A Ticket To Ride,  it’s my little Monday gift to all of you.

 

 

2013 Budweiser Super Bowl Ad — The Clydesdales: "Brotherhood"

 

There have been some great Budweiser Super Bowl commercials over the years, but I think this year is the best ever.  And yes, I cried at the end… So touching…

My daughter-in-law, Deanna, posted several of these commercials on her blog last week.  And I agree with her, before I saw this one, the little colt pulling the wagon was my favorite as well.  Her favorites can be found here.

I’m not a football fan, but I do love the ads…

Happy Monday!!!  ~ Jan