We've been to see the grandkids!

 

Oh, they're SO sweet!  Abby has strong opinions about everything, she doesn't miss a trick.   She's having boy problems at school, apparently there is this little boy named Nathan in her class who is not nice.  So she proceeds to tell her Daddy, very loudly, while walking up the steps to her class, right behind Nathan and his mother that Nathan is mean!  I asked Ry if the little boy's mother heard Abby, he said there was no way that she didn't hear her.  That's our girl, a strong, opinionated woman.  No guy is going to best her!  Take that Nathan!!!

And our little Benjammin, oh he's so just precious.   He talks to us in baby language, drools  and laughs and best of all he crows like a little rooster.  He grabs his toys, wiggles and squirms and bounces in his chair.  He's an adorable little guy.

And, I forgot my camera, so these pictures from my phone aren't the greatest.  Bad, bad, Jan!!!

Gushing Grammie here...

Minnetonka Moccasins….

 

I have loved moccasins my entire life.  I had soft soled ones similar to the ones above when I was a teenager.  I also remember white soft soled and turquoise.  Oh, I thought they were SO cool.

Now, let's fast forward to 2013.  Just the touch of leopard brings out the Thelma Roper in me.  I do like these a lot!!!

 

 

Oh, and these feather ones, they are ringing my chimes.

 

And if I was twenty-something, or maybe even early thirty-something, I would be all over these like butter on a hot potato.  I'm old(er) now, but I could wear those feather ones or the leopard ones, I'm not that old yet.  I could wear them, yes I could, I  just might need a pair of these...

Are you a Moccasin lover, too?  Just click here and drool over Minnetonka's entire line.  They are wonderful!!!!

Frugal Ways to Wash Fruits & Veggies

 

 

My friend, Holly sent me this -

Organic fruits and vegetables certainly cost more than their counterparts in the produce section. But, if you cannot buy organic because of your budget, you need an easy solution for washing your fruits and veggies that doesn’t cost a small fortune.

Special produce washes can be really expensive but if you are wanting to remove pesticides from your food, they can be very tempting. Honestly, these products are just not necessary. All you really need is a vinegar solution. Cook’s Illustrated tested and found that vinegar kills about 98 percent of bacteria – including salmonella – on the surface of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Instead of spending a chunk of your grocery budget on chemical solutions, try these four, frugal ideas for washing your produce.

Click Here to go to Penny's website to read the entire article.  Super DIY ideas...

So here's how it's going...

I made yogurt yesterday at 3:30pm, it's only supposed to take 4 hours in my not so nifty YoGourmet Yogurt Maker.  I gave it longer, checked it at 9:30pm, it was soup, which entailed me leaving it in the incubator hours longer than it was supposed to be in there and ha vine poor hubby getting up, turning it off and putting it in the fridge for me at 2:30am.  That was the bad news, the good news is that it's yogurt!

Fast forward to this morning, we're heading to see the grandkids.  NOT!  We have ice, Louisville has more ice, so we're hanging around until mid-day hoping the roads clear, "hoping" being the operative word.

In the meantime, I have to give Maggie a bath and she has tangles!  Not fun for her or me, either.  It must be some kind of strange karma this month, every day is a new disaster!

Laughing Quadruplets

Could this be any cuter, really???

Tammy’s Eye Tutorial

 

This woman is simply amazing.  Everybody, regardless of their age, can learn wonderful makeup tricks from Tammy.  I love her eyes, she’s using MAC's Saddle and Down Brown, two of my very favorites.  I just wish my end results looked half as good as hers.  And mostly I enjoy her because she’s so real.  No pretense here, this lovely woman just tells and shows it like it is.

At the end of the video she contours her face, this is absolutely fascinating, ladies.  Enjoy, enjoy… ~ Jan

And don’t forget to subscribe to her YouTube Channel, you will be notified every time she posts a new video.

Here’s her link

Little grandchildren can be brutally honest!

Abby and I just had the following conversation:

Abby:  How many numbers are you, Grammie?

Grammie:  (not understanding what she's talking about) Huh, how many numbers?

Abby:  Yes, Grammie, how many NUMBERS?

Grammie:  (the light dawned) Oh, I'm 63 numbers, Abby

Abby:  Sixty three, SIXTY THREE, wow, those are really big numbers Grammie...

And you know, she's right,  those are  really big numbers, Abby...

It's gonna be one of those days!

I got up this morning, ready to put green beans in the crockpot, and couldn't find the can opener, anywhere!  LC and I have turned the kitchen upside down, even looking in the trash, because I'm not so bright anymore, with no luck, it's gone, kaput, vanished.  How does a big red can opener just disappear?  Only in my kitchen.

So then I'm making bacon for breakfast, because as you all know, bacon is the perfect food.  And I bought this wonderful Wright's Hickory Smoked Bacon at Sams yesterday, so I was in for a treat.  And I always eat mustard on my bacon, always.  Doesn't everybody???  But the bacon splattered and burned my face, it still hurts, waaaaaa.

Then, as the picture shows, the lid fell off the mustard and dumped on my plate.  Which brings up another grievance.  I love, love, love Plochman's Mustard, it's just so much better than that nasty French stuff.  But the cap is horrible.  It clogs constantly, you can't get the mustard out, it's been this way since the beginning of time.  That's why I have this big blob of mustard on my plate and the mess on the jar.  I was squeezing really hard and I just popped the lid off.  I don't know my own strength, obviously.  *blush*

Last year, for a brief moment in time Plochmann's changed that gawdawful lid to  a snap top and I was estatic.  But wouldn't you know, they abandoned the snap top and went back to the old top.  Why????  Which reminds me, I need to send Plochman's an email this morning begging and pleading for the new and improved cap again.  Oh, and it's time for my monthly email to Trader Joes, begging them to come to Heavensville, looks like I'm going to be a busy girl, even if nobody listens to me.  Hey, you gotta have a cause!!

But back to breakfast, I clean up the mustard, hubby announced that he would trek to Wally World this morning to get me another can opener, but it won't be a red Kitchenaid like the one I have now,  but at least it's a temporary fix.  Then I fix coffee.  How can you screw up a K-Cup?  Well, I didn't, but when I poured in my splash of Half and Half that I just bought yesterday, it curdled the damn coffee!!

And it's only 8am!!!  Oh joy...

Brrrrrrr….

The evolution of dinner….

When I was growing up we never had  "dinner" we had  "supper."  But we've eaten "dinner" now for years, thanks to a hubby who has little quirks about these things.  He hates it when people eat supper, and he a has a thing about always including a spoon with the table settings, even if you're just eating a sandwich.  The man has issues.

But anyway,  I was reading a book yesterday, it was from the turn of the century and they were talking about "getting supper."  It made me smile and think how much we've changed.

When my grandmother "got supper" she had to kill the meat and preserve it, grow and can the vegetables, churn the butter, gather the eggs, her whole life centered around gathering food for breakfast, dinner and supper for her family of ten chldren and cooking it on a wood stove.  But in my mother's house, our "supper"  consisted of newly evolving foods from the grocery store.  Things like frozen corn, packages of dry spaghetti sauce,  our beloved Jeno's Pizza Mix in a box, my favorite Blue Bell Bologna and the always present packaged bear claws and Maxwell House Instant Coffee, mom's "treats" that were always in the house.  Oh,  the times they were a changin.'

And then came my years in the kitchen when the boys were young, when "getting dinner" often consisted of boxes of Kraft Mac & Cheese, and fish sticks, which our family still loves, with peas, you have to have peas with that meal.  We had things like Hamburger Helper, and Totino's Pizza, Campbell's Condensed Soup and we ate box after box of Velveeta,  it was all about processed foods in those years.  And even though I baked bread, stirred together homemade pasta, baked pie, cakes and cookies, and cooked "real" food for my family, we all enjoyed the salty, processed food that was affordable and readily available in the grocery store.  We bought cooking oil in a gallon jug and fried everything.  I went thru countless tins of Crisco and always used Blue Bell Margarine.  It was so good, but oh, it was not healthy eating.

And now here I am in my old(er) age, trying to eat clean, not much processed food, a lot of whole grains, fresh fruit and veggies, yogurt, olive oil, and lean meat.    But I wonder if I'm in the minority, the younger generation's dinners often consist of eating out, or fast food, or picking up pizza.  Things aren't what they used to be, but when I look back at what has evolved over the years, I'm more than ever convinced that grandma's way was the best.  Fresh meat with no hormones,  eggs, vegetables grown with no chemicals, butter instead of margarine, that's the way people are supposed to eat.  But to do that today costs a small fortune!  

Just an observation from me this week, makes you think about what you've eaten during your lifetime, doesn't it?

Darius Rucker and Adele “Need You Now”

They’re absolutely phenomenal!  It just doesn’t get any better than this….

Precious little grandchildren

 

Oh my, Lindsay sent these today, its the first picture of them playing together. They're growing up so fast...

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Paul and Linda McCartney

They were so young.  A little nostalgia for you this morning, thanks to Carlene who sent me this charming video.

And, this old footage of Merv Griffin and the then unknown, Sharon Stone, touring Kings Row and Carnaby Street is wonderful.  Oh, she was so lovely…

Enjoy this little trek down memory lane on a Sunday morning… ~ Jan

Okay, so I put on my big girl panties and got a flu shot...

This was a major step for yours truly.  Eighteen years ago, the year I got bacterial meningitis, was the only year I had ever gotten a flu shot.  I know it had nothing to do with the meningitis, but I've had a huge mental block about flu shots since, and understandably so. 

But this this year the flu is raging and I have been so leary of getting sick.  I've stayed home the past few weeks, only venturing out a few times, and it's ridiculous.  I blogged about getting the shot days ago, and I still didn't do it.  But we're going to be out this weekend, and next weekend, and hopefully next week, so I just sucked it up, went to the grocery store pharmacy and did it!

The pharmacist was administering the shot, and I'm telling him that I don't even feel it.  "It's because I haven't done it yet," he said. And then he says "damn."  It's a bit concerning when the pharmacist curses, and when I asked why, he said he was just frustrated because the plunger wouldn't go into my arm.  But then I felt a sting, and the deed was done!

But you know what, I had zero symptoms afterwards.  I didn't feel bad, my arm wasn't even sore, it was painless.  Had I not felt the sting, I would have sworn I didn't really get a shot.

And now I'm protected, well as much as I can be, so I'm going out and enjoy my life.

But I didn't get a sucker, and I think I should have!  He didn't even ask if I wanted one.  *sigh*      

Aunt Bea's in the kitchen...

 

Just like Aunt Bea, Jan's in the kitchen cooking.  The kids are coming home for the weekend, the weather is going to be gorgeous, life is good.

Missing the grandkids like crazy, though.  But I'll see them soon, just can't take it much longer without seeing those precious little faces..

Best Friends–a kid, a dog and a puddle…

My friend, Mary sent me the link to this.  Another cute video.  You just can’t beat kids and animals.  This one is precious, but there will never be one as cute as little Emma and her Mustang Cinnamon, I’ve watched it over and over again.

Here’s the link if you want to watch it again, too….

Now the eyelashes are going, what's next????

Actually, the eyelashes are just going on one eye, the one that I got the blob of wax on.  But this happens a lot, I lose a clump of lashes right in the middle of that eye, not the other one just the left one.  Didn't you always want to know this????  Usually when I switch mascara they regrow, but I switched a couple of weeks ago, and so far they aren't coming in when I stare into my 10X mirror.  Eeeeeks!  Panic time!!!!

So I'm researching false eyelashes.  Hey, I'm desperate!  I Googled "Good Drugstore Eyelashes" and these came up.  People like them, they're super cheap, so  I started reading the comments.  Here's what one woman said:

"Use either a safety pin or a needle to apply the glue to the lash line. Press gently with another safety pin to the lash line to apply and the glue dries perfectly without any white showing."

What???? What???? A needle????  Me stick a needle on my eyelid????  Are you kidding me, no way, no how.  This is a disaster waiting to happen!

This obviously isn't going to work, I guess I'll just start wearing a patch.  Or maybe I'll grow my hair long and wear it over one eye like Veronica Lake did in the old days.  I know, you're asking, "who is Veronica Lake?"  Like I remember her???  Even I'm not that old, I just had a brain flash and her name popped into my addled brain.  She was born in 1922 after all, that was my mother's generation, not mine.

Oh I might just as well give up on this, if I did manage to get the things on I would look really stupid!  There is just no hope, there just isn't!  Poor pitiful me!!!!!

Oprah says Lance Armstrong's confession interview is riveting

 

I don't care how riveting it is, I wouldn't give former saint Oprah or Lance Armstrong one minute of my time.

She's in it for the ratings, why he is doing it is beyond me.  They announced on GMA this morning that he left his home in Texas yesterday and flew to Hawaii.  Is this bozo living in the real world?

Maybe not now, but he may be singing a different tune after all the lawsuits hit.

Oh, I'm so opinionated in my old(er) age.  The older I get the more I sound like my mother!

But seriously, does he think he'll get redemption for confessing his sins.  This is the biggest travesty in the history of sports!  The man is a disgrace, not only to his fellow athletes, but to all people around the world that admired him at one time and especially to the the younger generation that emulated him!  Shame, shame on you Lance Armstrong...

Dinner was a TOTAL disaster!

Oh you have no idea how bad this was, it ranked right up there with my jumbo cornburger, one of the most horrible things I've ever made.

I don't know about you, but I have my "go to" meals, things that are quick, fast, simple, and yummy.  One of my favorites is to put frozen chicken breasts in the crockpot with a can of cream of chicken soup, and in 3-4 hours I have tender chicken and a flavored gravy like broth that I can just mix cooked noodles into.  And who doesn't like chicken and noodles, it's comfort food on a cold winter day.

So this afternoon we had to run errands, I got out a bag of frozen chicken breasts, put them in the crockpot, but I only had a few, so I asked hubby to get another package, with a butterflied chicken breast in it, out of the freezer to add to them.  He was such a help, he added it to the crockpot for me, added the can of cream of chicken soup and we were out the door.

We come home to dinner simmering in the crockpot, life was good!  WRONG!!!!!!!

I finish dinner, cook the veggies, cook the noodles, add them to the crockpot, and stir it up like I always do.  But wait, something's not right, there is a brown film on one of those breasts.  I'm thinking, ewwwww, it must have been spoiled.  So then I pulled it apart, and it flaked.  IT FLAKED!!!!  Hubby had gotten out a package of mystery fish, thinking it was chicken, and added it to the crock.

Ever the optimist, I'm thinking, maybe it's a nice mild fish, it will be okay, or if not maybe we can just eat the minuscule amount of chicken and the noodles, right????   So I plate dinner, we sit down at the bar to eat, take one bite, and it's like oh no, oh no, oh no, this is wrong on so many levels.

Poor LC, he felt so bad, he got up and made mac and cheese and hot dogs, while I sat and fussed.

I may never feel the same about chicken and noodles again.  And I love chicken and noodles.

Oh dear, what a flop that was!!!!!  I may need some ice cream to recover….

A little online window shopping on a rainy Sunday afternoon

 

Soft Surroundings - I know, I know, you want the link.  Here it is, enjoy!

and this ring from Sundance

and their Smoky Mountain Earrings

and their gemstone 5 wrap bracelet

and this great ring for spring, i do love turquoise

No, I'm not buying, just dreaming.. Spendy, spendy...

 

 

Film vs. Digital, a little giggle for you this afternoon..

This is so true.  I remember back in the day, when I got ready to take pictures of Ryan's high school graduation, his 8th grade graduation pictures were still in the camera, same roll of film.

Now we take thousands of pictures, which we never develop.  Are mine organized?  Oh heck no, they're strung out all over the computer and backed up on multiple external hard drives .  I remember a few years ago when I got my MAC, I was so excited about iPhoto and face recognition.  Well, that lasted about a week, and I gave up on tagging all those pictures.  And I think at this point, the number of pictures i have is so overwhelming that they will never be organized into any type of albums.  

I suppose when I'm pushing up daisies and the kids are going through my things, they will have to figure it out.  Somehow, I doubt that it will endear them to me, but that's just the way the cookie crumbles.

It's too mind boggling to even attempt figure it all out, so Scarlett will just let the family go for it!  Let's see, I'm sixty-three now, so if I live another twenty or twenty-five years, that's gonna be a whole lotta pictures.  Forget the endearing, they are going to hate me!  

But they will go through them, because by then they will want to see what they looked like all those years ago.  Sucks to be them, huh...

And remember, no matter how much we dislike having our pictures taken, we will never look better than we do right now.  I look back at pictures of myself from five or ten years ago that I thought were terrible at the time and now I think they don't look so bad.  ;o)

That Cwazy Wabbit Strikes Again!!!

 

Get your motor runnin'
Head out on the highway
Lookin' for adventure
And whatever comes our way
Born to be wild
Born to be wild

I go out on the patio this morning, it's warm today in Heavensville, 64 degrees at noon, Maggie was trotting behind me, anxious to do her business.  I look straight ahead, and there sat Butterbean on top of the waterfall.  He's just sitting up there looking at me.  I look over, one of the doors to his hutch was open, "apparently" hubby hadn't locked it properly yesterday, so who knows how long the little scamp had been running free.

I was in a panic, because even though the patio is enclosed with a fence,  I'm always afraid he will jump off the back of the waterfall to freedom, but apparently he has no desire to do so.  I'm  yelling for hubby, he comes out and the chase begins.  Round and round they go, with Butterbean zooming from one end of the patio to the other.  He's in the shrubs, he's under the shrubs, he's behind the tree, and all the time I'm thinking...

"Run, run, as fast as you can. 
You can't catch me! 
I'm the Gingerbread Man!

He stops long enough to say hi to Maggie.  They're sniffing noses, she gets bored with him, he follows her for a bit, and then he's off again.  I get the bright idea to drag out Petunia's (John and Deanna's bunny) cage, put some alfalfa and a carrot in it, in hopes of luring him inside so that we can shut the door on him, but oh no, he didn't want any part of that.  He stood on his hind legs, sniffed the outside of it, and then he was off to the races yet again.

By now LC is getting frustrated, and I'm reminding him that it's his fault that Bun-Bun is loose in the first place, so he hangs in there.  And finally, finally Butterbean is tired of the chase, and thinking his home sweet home is looking pretty good, after all there is a heated pad to lay on, fresh water, rabbit chow, alfalfa, he has all the amenities, so he "allowed" a frazzled LC to pick him up.

He put him in his cage, gave him his carrot, and now he's happily munching away.

Where is my camera when I need it?????   Where??????

Louise DuArt, the woman is amazing!

I just saw Louise DuArt do this impersonation on Home and Family.  The woman is brilliant, just watch this!

The flu is scaring the beejusus outta me….

I don't do flu shots, I just don't!  But, I'm changing my mind and hot footing it down to the pharmacy to get one.  The media has me in a panic, then this morning I read on Facebook where one of my friends spend four hours last night in the ER with the flu, one of her friends commented that they had been to the ER with it as well, that was enough for me!

I'm just going to suck it up and do it!   How about you, have you had yours????

So profound ;o)

Who's superior, dogs or cats?

 

Highly debatable, and I'm highly prejudiced, but dogs are, if not superior, at least cleaner.  Dogs don't use a litter pan and then jump on your kitchen cabinets.  Eewwwwww!!!!!

Flu Symptoms

The flu season is in full swing, and frankly, it scares the beejusus outta me.  I don't want to be sick!  It takes me FOREVER to recover now that I've gotten old(er).

So I'm online, reading, and find the following information.  Looks like if I develop symptoms, yours truly is going to be hotfooting it to the convenient care clinic ASAP!

Seasonal flu is a contagious respiratory infection caused by different flu viruses.  It's important to understand flu symptoms so you can seek immediate treatment, especially if you have a chronic medical condition.

The earlier you recognize that you have the flu can also make a difference in how long it lasts. Prescription medications called antiviral drugs -- Relenza and Tamiflu -- are most effective when given within 48 hours of the onset of flu symptoms. These flu drugs are effective against the typical strains of seasonal flu.

Always dreaming….

 

When it's summer, it's hot, I dream of fall.  Then I'm tired of fall and dream of winter.  Now I'm tired of snow and dreaming of spring. We had a taste of it today, sunny temps, out and about on Milly with the Maggin Waggin.  

In case you're interested, spring begins at 7:02AM, on March 20th.  That's not very long….

Life is good...

Downtown Abbey: 5 Best Moments from season 3 Premiere

 

It's back!  The best television, possibly ever.  Oh, it was delightful last night, I enjoyed all of it, it's so witty, so well scripted, those Brits sure know how to do it right.

If you  missed it, you can read all about the best moments here.

Why maybe it's not such a great idea to wax your eyebrows yourself...

Now, I've been waxing my eyebrows for years with pretty good results.  I heat the wax in the wave, put on a blob with a q-tip, let it set, rip it off.  It works pretty good, not perfect, but good.  Well, once I did rip out a chunk of skin, but I won't go there. *blush*

So, me, being me, decided that I could do a "better" job if I used those little cloth strips.  So I trudge to Sally's, bought the  strips, come home and Friday I decided to give it a try.  Well, let's just say that every.single.time I do something like this, who appears magically in my bathroom??????  Hubby, yes, hubby!!!!!!!

It's like he has some kind of radar, the man will watch westerns in the den for hours, i never see him, and as soon as I start to do something like this, he shows up!  And I don't particularly like him hanging around when I do these "procedures" as he is usually full of advice, albeit, good advice, but not something I particularly need at the moment, and he makes me nervous as hell!

But before he arrived,  I had waxed my right eyebrow, then stuck the strip into the wax, now you can imagine what I looked like, bad, really bad, and just as I was putting  the q-tip to my left eyebrow, here  he comes.  Oh crap!  I saw him, got rattled, stopped midair with the q-tip in my hand and a big blop of wax dripped onto my eyelash and cheek.  "What happened," he said.  Arrughhhhhh, "it's no biggie" I told him, but this was what I didn't need at the moment,  hot wax on my face, and in my eyelashes.   Now I'm really rattled, and he continues to stand there, so when I put the wax under my brow, somehow some of it slid up, don't ask me how it slid up, I haven't a clue, onto my eyebrow.

By now I'm starting to get frantic, because I know that I have a major problem, so I go ahead and stick on that other piece of cloth, look up at him with those strips hanging over my eyes and shoo him out of there as fast as I can.

Now I go to work.  I was able to rip the wax off of my cheek, but it's attached firmly to my eyelashes, which are sparse anyway, so I take oil, and try to massage it out.  It worked pretty good, I didn't lose too many eyelashes, but the eyebrow was a whole other ballgame.

There was this big old blob of wax that wasn't going to come out with oil, no way, no how, and I was forced to peel it off, and of course all the hair on the side of my eyebrow came off with the wax, and now I'm left with half an eyebrow.

Geezy Pete, what a mess!  I was on the fence as to whether I should just put the wax on the other brow, peel it off to even them up, and just use eyebrow pencil to shape them, but there is nothing worse than an old(er) woman with penciled in eyebrows in a thin line.  Sooooooooo, I'm I'm applying my soft brown MAC eyeshadow with my angle brush, recreating the eyebrow, and thinking that as old as I am, the damn thing probably won't even grow back in.  You know how it is, at our age, hair only grows where we don't want it. =o(

Thank gawd for bangs.  Mine are long, and I'm sure as heck not getting them cut anytime soon.

It was all hubby's fault, it was.  He rattled me.  MEN SCHMEN!!!

When he's smilin' the whole world smiles with him...

 

 

Ben's almost five months old now.  What a little cutey patootie he is...

Your morning giggle...

 

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Let the Good Times Roll...

Just following Pioneer Woman's herd….

Ree blogged this morning about how wonderful WoodWick candles are, but what sold me was the fact that they crackle when they burn.

I may just have to order this Applewood fragrance from Amazon, it's totally ringing my chimes.  I would love this burning in my sunroom.

Amazon.com: Woodwick Candle Applewood Medium Jar: Home & Kitchen

Here's their homepage, they had a huge variety.

WoodWick Candles and Diffusers, Best Prices and Free Shipping

Maxine, how about a smile this morning...

A man left his bike chained to a tree when he left for WWI in 1914

 Sadly, he never came back...
 

 

What an amazing picture this is.  My friend, Roxie, posted this to her Facebook wall this morning, I had to share.

 

Kids and pets...

 

I snagged this picture from Facebook. Doesn't it make you feel good, just looking at it? What an adorable pair these two are...

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What is my problem?

I couldn't wait for cold weather and snow, now I can't wait for spring.  Is it human nature to be dissatisfied, or is it just me.  Jeez Louise, I don't have a chance in hell of a garden like this anyway.  I snagged this picture online, it's Susan Branch's garden, complete with a picket fence, one of my favorite things in life.  Isn't it wonderful?

It's a sunny day, temps in the low 20's.  I just may go for a ride on Milly after while, since hubby put her winter cover on.  That should at least be invigorating.  Ya think?

Happy New Year

'Twas the month after Christmas and all through the house, nothing would fit me, not even a blouse.

The cookies I'd nibbled, the fudge I did taste, all the holiday parties had gone to my waist.

When I got on the scales there arose such a number! When I walked to the store (less walk than a lumber)

I remembered the marvelous meals I'd prepared, the gravies and sauces and beef nicely rare.

The pies and the cakes, the bread and the cheese, and the way I never said "no thank you please".

As I dressed myself in my husband's old shirt, and prepared once again to do battle with dirt, i said to myself as only I can "you can't spend the winter disguised as a man!"

So away with the last of the sour cream dip, get rid of the fruit cake, every cracker and chip.

Every last bit of food that I like must be banished, till all the additional ounces have vanished.

I won't have a cookie, not even a lick, ill want only to chew on a long celery stick.
I won't have hot biscuits, or corn bread or pie, ill much on a carrot and quietly cry.

I'm hungry, I'm lonesome, and life is a bore, but isn't that what January is for?

Unable to giggle, no longer a riot... Happy New Year to all and to all a good diet!

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Well, my New Years Eve was a disaster...

Holy Schmoly, nothing worked the way it should have yesterday.  I spent forever in the kitchen, made a cheese dip in the afternoon, we didn't enjoy it, neither one of us enjoyed the Country Club Chicken, the bananas were too green in the banana pudding, it just didn't do it either, and we couldn't find anything good on Netflix, we watched a horrid movie, fell asleep in the second one, gave up and went to bed at 9pm.

This will be a better day, this has to be a better day!!!!!!

And don't worry, I'm not going to bore you with a recap of last year.  I hate those, too.  Been there, done that, time to move on. 

♫♪Move 'em on, hit 'em up, hit 'em up, move 'em on
Move 'em on, hit 'em up, Rawhide Cut 'em out, ride 'em in, ride 'em im,

let 'em out, cut 'im out, Ride on in, Rawhide!

H'yah! H'yah ♫♪

 

Black-Eyed Peas for New Years Day

If you’re one of those people who makes black-eyed peas on New Years Day, I have a wonderful recipe for you.  My neighbor, the one with the fantastic German Potato Salad recipe, makes this every year, and it’s a fabulous dish!

2 cans black-eyed peas, I drain and rinse for a more subtle flavor
2 cans italian stewed tomatoes 
1 lb. sweet italian sausage, with casing removed 
1 large onion 
2 tablespoons of italian seasoning 
1 teaspoon of oregano, if desired

Brown onion and sausage, drain, crumble and dump all in a crockpot, simmer on high for 3-4 hours, meanwhile cook a cup or so of pasta, any small pasta will work and stir it in at the end.  
This is so good, and so easy….

Enjoy and Happy New Year

My day so far...

I was going to lunch with a girlfriend, I was!

Hubby and I were going to Angelo's, our favorite Italian restaurant for dinner tonight and then to a movie, we were!

Instead, I woke up this morning with a Tri-State Boomer of a headache and legs aching, due to the latest front coming in.  So much for girl's lunch out.  And rain/sleet/freezing rain is forecasted for this afternoon, so much for going to Angelo's, I had to cancel our reservation.  And there was el zilcho that I wanted to see at the movie anyway, I was all excited to see Quartet with Maggie Smith, but they've backed the opening until January 13th.

We had to rethink our New Years eve, which meant eating in and cooking, so we had to go to the grocery store, so despite the fact that I felt like el crappola, we trudged out in the weather this morning, hubby maneuvering me thru the ice patches on the driveway to get to the car.  The SUV has to sit out because Tootie is in the garage, heaven forbid Tootie sits out in the weather, and the golf cart is in the garage, as well,  no room for two cars.

 And, in an attempt to make me feel better, LC did take me to the Donut Bank for a maple pecan roll and a cup of the best coffee in Heavensville.  

The Donut Bank was packed this morning, and it's always interesting to people watch.  I sipped my coffee, ate my yummy roll while sitting at a window table watching the flag blow in the wind, the snow swirling around, and for awhile, life was good.  But, alas, it was a temporary fix, the sugar rush was gone by the time we got to the grocery store, where the entire population of Heavensville had congregated.  By the time we had waded through the aisles and checked out, my Tri-State Boomer, which was bad before, was now attacking me with a vengeance.

Now I'm home, not leaving either.  I ingested massive amounts of caffeine and Excedrin in order to soothe my aching body and throbbing head, which will no doubt result in the jitters.  But we do have a nice dinner planned, Country Club Chicken, which my friend Barb made recently and loved, a green salad, baby peas and a loaf of french bread to bake.  And dessert?  What we didn't get for Christmas, because we had to leave Ryan's early due to the weather, a comfort dessert we both love, homemade, warm banana pudding.

And that's my day so far.

Hope yours is going better than mine. 

~ Whiney Jan