Busy week

Good morning! It's been a few days since I've posted. It's been a very busy week, meaning we have actually left the house every day since last Tuesday and eaten out every day, very unusual for us.

 

The glass company called on Thursday and set me up an appointment for Friday for my windshield so we dropped it off and headed out to breakfast and to the grocery store to pass the time. Since I filed a claim, the insurance picked up the tab less my $500 deductible so I am very happy about that. Since it was no meat Friday, we decided to go out for a nice Lobster and Shrimp dinner.

 

Saturday we went to the RV show and did a lot of walking. We wanted to see if they had the travel trailer that we are looking into but they didn't. We looked at other trailers and also looked at some 5th wheels, I like to see what is new on the market and all the gadgets they come with. The cutest one we saw was a Bay Hill 5th wheel, special "show" price of $80,000 which was ridiculous, but it was very nice the way it was laid out. It had a kitchen island with bar stools, dishwasher, ceiling fan, theater chairs and room for washer/dryer. It is amazing what is out there, there are some huge motor homes (2 bed, 1-1/2 bath, theatre room, washer/dryer and dishwasher) that cost hundreds of thousand of dollars. The Prevost motor homes are in the high $500K range for a 2007 pre-owned one, is that crazy or what?

 

When we got home there was a message from someone who wanted to come see our house that is for sale so we set it up for that same afternoon. They were a really nice couple and asked a lot of specific questions, so hopefully we will hear back from them. Wish us luck with that.

 

Yesterday was a great day, the weather was excellent and we had relatives in town. We got together with most of the family and also went out to dinner last night. Too much eating out is not good, my jeans said so this morning.

 

I also had Hubby get more pictures of the Hummingbird baby. It was 14 days old yesterday, so it probably only has another week and it will fly off. She has done a great job feeding this one because it's filling out the next fast. Isn't it amazing how fast it grew? I wish I could pick it up and feel how soft it is.

 

 

 

 

 

That's my recap of the last few day. Have a great day!

Cheryl

 

Storm clouds

I took these photos last night after it stopped raining, the clouds were so dark and the sun so bright. I am still learning how to use my camera and how to take sun shots and night shots so bear with me. Both of these were taken with the same setting, the only difference is, the first one has the sun mostly behind the clouds and the second with the shining through so that adds to the darkness. I hope we are finally done with the rain, cold and wind and hopefully it will be sunny and warm tomorrow. In the meantime, Hubby has a fire going since it may be our last one ever in the house. Gotta get it while you can.

 

 

 

 

 

We went out for an early dinner to our favorite little Mexican place. They have great food and awesome margaritas, the best I have ever had. We got our usual waitress so the service was awesome too, I love that girl. 

 

Have a great night.

Cheryl

 



Windshield and Baby Hummingbird

Hubby got the pictures of the baby yesterday and I forgot to post them on here for you this morning because we had errands and then we went out for a late breakfast. I also got an estimate on replacing my cracked windshield on my FJ. I was just going to pay for it out of pocket because I have a $500 deductible on insurance and I would actually save money because surely it would be less than that right? NOT! The estimate was $1146! I just about died when I heard that and thought the glass must have gold flakes in it for that price. The estimate shows the windshield is $241, it's the labor, moulding (yes I spelled that correctly) and the clips that all need to replaced when they pull the windshield out that make up the balance of that. That is crazy, so I ended up calling the insurance and filed the claim and all I am waiting for is for the glass place to call and say the glass is in. Our insurance company is so easy to deal with.

Sorry, I got distracted. Here are the pictures. The baby was 10 days old yesterday and is absolutely adorable.

Here is the mama feeding it, as soon as she shows up you can see that little beak peaking out of the nest. I hope you can zoom in on these pictures to see that. I need to check that and if not, I will need to crop them closer for future.

 

 

And here is the baby, it thought the camera was mama and had its little beak open and ready.

 

 

 

Cold, windy and rainy here today. Yuck. I know I should not complain because we get a few weeks of bad weather the entire year and I have friends and family with tons of snow and below zeros temps this morning and it's Spring. Sorry!!

 

Have a nice rest of the day!

Cheryl



Soup, Sushi and a chance of rain

It has been gloomy here for the past several days until late morning which has been great for my walking. The sun eventually pops out before noon and it ends up to be a gorgeous day in the 70s. Not today though, it's cloudy as far as I can see and it's 1:30. We have a 20% chance of rain today and 60% tomorrow, which makes me glad that I never finished washing all those windows. See? Sometimes procrastination does pay off.

 

Due to the gloom and cool weather, Hubby decided to make soup with the leftover Asparagus we had. You know, from that huge bag you get at Costco that you will never use unless you are catering a party?  I am getting better at using things up before they spoil and need to be thrown away, it's so much waste. He found the recipe on Allrecipes.com and here is the link and the photo from that website:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Fresh-Asparagus-Soup/

This soup was very flavorful and pretty low calorie I think. He used low fat milk instead of soy milk. I think this would be great with other vegetables in it like carrots, squash and maybe some fresh corn. We will definitely make this recipe again!

 

We decided to go out to dinner with da boys tonight instead of Thursday. They want to go get Sushi for a change so that will be fun. It's been a while since I have had it and to be honest I am not a big Sushi fan. I don't mind the raw fish, I love fresh tuna, I just think that the little piece of fish you get rolled in rice is not worth what you pay for it. I would much rather have some nice Yellow Tail Sashimi with rice on the side, at least your getting a whole piece of fish.

 

Doesn't this look good?

 

Actually, to be honest, I prefer steak over fish, but that's because I grew up on meat and potatoes.

 

I am planning on getting (actually Hubby getting for me) some baby Hummingbird pictures so I can post them tomorrow.

 

Have a great rest of the day!!

Cheryl

 

 

Mom's 6 week Coleslaw

Happy Sunday!

 

Since I had left over cabbage from St. Patrick's Day, I decided yesterday to make coleslaw and finished mixing it up this morning. I usually make it with a mayonnaise base, but decided to make my Mom's recipe instead. I've really been missing her a lot lately, more than normal for some reason.

Mom's 6 week Coleslaw

 

1 quart chopped cabbage

1/2 cup green pepper, chopped

1/2 cup celery, finely chopped

1/2 cup shredded carrots

1 small onion, finely chopped

 

Combine the above ingredients in a large bowl.

 

Add:

2 cups water

1 tablespoon salt

 

Leave above mixture set overnight in the refrigerator

 

Drain the next day

 

BOIL the following ingredients:

    1/2 cup vinegar

    1/2 cup water

    1 cup sugar

 

When cool, add it to the cabbage mixture. Mix well.

 

Can be refrigerated for up to 6 weeks.

 

I doubled the recipe and also added a heaping teaspoon of pepper when I was adding in the vinegar, water and sugar mixture this morning. I love pepper in coleslaw. I can't wait to try it with the homemade baked beans and stuffed pork chops we will be having for dinner tonight.

I took the day off from exercising and I think I will drag out my sewing machine and do some sewing today.

Have a great day!
Cheryl

I don't do windows...

I finally got around to cleaning some of those windows today that I was going to do 2 weeks ago. I am really on top of that, hey? I don't do windows....often, as it involves ladders and such, but I bought a long handled washer squeegee the other day so now I can reach them.

I need to share with you this glass cleaner product that I use, Sprayway. If you have never tried it, you need to, you will never buy another glass cleaner again. It's a foam spray, it smells terrific, it dries without streaking, it's absolutely wonderful and it's the BEST GLASS CLEANER EVER. It's also made in the U.S.A.

They have many other cleaners on their website too that I have not tried, but based on how well this product performs, I will not hesitate to try others they offer. This is my recommendation, I have nothing to gain from promoting this product.

That's my tip for today - I hope you try it and if you do, let me know what you thought of it.

I got my 40 minute walk in this morning, it was overcast until almost 11:00 which was great for me because you know how I love the sun - not!

Have a great day!

Cheryl  

 

Scallops and shrimp on the Barbie - take two

TGIF! Tonight we had scallops and shrimp on the Barbie again with pasta and garlic cream sauce - awesome. Here are some pictures that my son took from last night's dinner of the grill and his plate.

 

 

 

The seafood was so delicious from the grill and I marinated the asparagus in balsamic vinegar. It was a pretty healthy dinner if you went light on the pasta and sauce :)

 

I am finally going to start tackling those windows tomorrow like I have been meaning to.

 

P.S. I can't believe that jet has been missing for TWO WEEKS - what the hell?

 

I hope you all had a great day!

Cheryl 

Giving blood and giving back

So yesterday after my disappointing weigh in (-1.2 lbs.) and my work out, I went and gave blood. Hey...maybe I should have weighed in after I donated! (Note to self).

 

The people at the Blood Bank are so nice and I am not even black and blue today from the needle, thanks to Patrick :)  I am up to 3-1/2 gallons of blood donated so far, it really adds up quick. Anyhow, I thought it would be great if I volunteered there, I wouldn't mind working a few hours, a day or two a week. I will need to wait and see what the schedule is.

 

After I donated, they told me I was entered to win 2 tickets to the Stage Coach Festival in April which includes a room at the Hilton. That would be great if I won, it would be a nice weekend get away for us. I looked into buying tickets in January, but I thought they were really expensive, the cheapest one was over $300 I think.

 

I was up and walking before 7 a.m. today. I have only been up before 7 twice in the last 6 months, seriously. I walked the whole neighborhood and it took me about 40 minutes. We live about 3/4 of the way up a very steep hill. I start by walking down the hill and then all the way back to the top and the side streets and back home. It kicked my ass the first time I walked it last year. I was thinking of quitting that day, but a guy pushing a stroller with a toddler, running uphill passed me and then he passed me a second time before I finished the loop. I found my motivation very quickly after that and I never think about quitting now, thanks stroller guy!

 

Tonight is dinner with da boys. We went to Costco ($$$) to pick up seafood and decided to go with scallops and shrimp on the Barbie, Costco always has such nice seafood and meats and also a bunch of other stuff that you can't resist buying, like 2 new camping chairs and a fold up camping hammock, can't live without those things, right?.

 

Being the first day of Spring, I thought I would share some pictures with you of flowers in my yard and of course the Hummingbirds. I am very happy today and feeling thankful to be surrounded with great weather and these beautiful flowers. For those of you that are buried in snow and are wondering if Spring will ever come, I am hoping it comes soon for you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading and have a great day!!

Cheryl

Baby hummingbird and some me time

I promised you a picture of the baby hummingbird and here it is. It is so small and blends in so well that you can't even tell what it is. The fur you see is down the middle of its back, its head is pointed towards the bottom left and is tucked down. It's only 2 days old and approx. 3/4" long, so I am going to wait and get another pic when it is bigger. At least it will have room in the nest, the last nest we had there were two babies and it was a bit crowded by the time they flew off, I feared they would push each other out sometimes.

 

I went for a long overdue Mani and Pedi today at a new place and loved it. The leg and foot massage was the best that I have had so far and I will definitely be back. I don't buy a lot of things for myself, but I love my 'me' time at the spa, so relaxing.

I continue my exercising (mostly) and do it first thing in the morning. If I am up early enough I like to walk the neighborhood before the sun fully comes out otherwise I am on the Wii doing my workout. My Wii Mii doesn't let me get away with not working out everyday either: "Is that Cheryl? Well, it's been 2 days since I've seen you. Decided to take a little break from your workout routine eh?"  I guess I need to record the exercise that I do without the Wii so it can keep track of it and not hound me.

 

Guess what tomorrow is??? Weigh in day (and you were thinking Hump Day weren't you?). We will see how well I did from last week to this week. Now I'm thinking I shouldn't of had that grilled Rueben with cheese for lunch but I couldn't resist. The boys came over last night and Hubby made them Ruebens and they smelled so good, but since I was full from the early dinner, I vowed I would have one for lunch today. I even got rid of some of those Irish cupcakes, they said they would come back this afternoon and eat some more - yippee :) 

 

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Cheryl

 

 

 

 

 

Corned Beef & Cabbage Recipe

Here is the Corned Beef and Cabbage recipe we made today, just had to share it, it was amazing:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2014/03/corned-beef-and-cabbage/

Trust me, you will never cook your Corned Beef any other way.

Cheryl

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Oh my, what a delicious corned beef brisket we had today and cabbage wedges (new recipe). I didn't forget the Guinness either :)  Hubby cooked, so I have clean up duty but I don't mind. We had the in laws over and we had a great time visiting and catching up, I just love them to pieces.

I made Irish Soda Bread for the occasion and Hubby said it was the best he has ever had and we all know he would never lie about that, right?

Since I did not meet my quota for dirty dishes from the soda bread, I tried my hand at cupcakes too. The icing could have been darker, but it all tastes the same in the end :)

The hummingbird egg has hatched and several attempts to get pictures of that fuzzy baby have failed, it blends into the nest and I am too short to hold my camera that close, but I will definitely succeed tomorrow and will post pictures when I get them.

Hope you are all enjoying your day whatever you are doing.

Cheryl


 

TGIF, Chiles Rellenos Recipe

TGIF! Meatless Friday, so Hubby made Cod Fish Tacos and I made my Chiles Rellenos Bake, it was delicious and I shoved all those dishes into my wonderful glorious working dishwasher (I did not realize how much I missed that thing). Here is the recipe for the Chiles Rellenos if you are interested.

 

      The weather here has been great, 80s and beautiful and I have been sitting inside going through the 500 plus photos I shot since I got my camera a few weeks ago. I am not a sun person, I can be in the sun for about 10 minutes and once I heat up I am done (unless I am in a pool). I burn very easily and I hate being hot so that makes me a fall and winter person. You could tell this by the color of my legs, which reminds me, I need to stock up on some more Tan in a Can so I can wear shorts and not blind anybody.

Not much going on today other than grocery shopping, cooking and making a mess in the kitchen. The hummingbird egg is beginning to crack so hopefully we will have a baby this weekend!!! I can't wait to get some pictures, the babies are so cute and tiny it's amazing. One year we had them right outside the living room side window and we set up a camera to film them from birth to flight (about 21 days). The mother would fly up to the window when we were there filming so we pulled the curtain around the lens so she couldn't see us standing there. Before she would go back to her nest to feed she would then look into the front window to see if she could see us at the side window, it was bizarre, I didn't know they were that smart.

 

Have a great night!
Cheryl

Desert Camping

We took off Monday and went camping in the desert. There is nothing like being out in the middle of nowhere, no TV, no service, no electricity, just bacon and eggs being cooked over an open fire in the morning and barbequing at night.

When people think of the desert they think of sand dunes, but it's not like that everywhere. We camp in the cool months (October to April) and there is beauty all around, you just need to stop and look closely. Even cactus are beautiful. The desert is even more beautiful when all the desert flowers are blooming and I always seem to miss that time frame. Here are some pictures from our camp spot in Blair Valley. Here is a link to Anza Borrego also http://www.desertusa.com/anza_borrego/du-abpmain.html if you'd like to know more.



Various cactus

Little flowers (these are 1/4")




Looking south from camping spot, nothing like coffee and this view in the morning.



Sun going down over the Valley to the North, perfect start to the 5 o'clock hour.
 

At night we make a fire and I wait for the Kangaroo Rat to come out. It doesn't take it long once the food is there! Here it is packing its cheeks with Cheerios and it's not shy from the flash at all. I had peanuts but they were salted and we didn't think it would be good for it (they don't get much water and that's why they only come out at night) so I opted for the Cheerios, they are healthier, right?

Here are some pictures I took on our way back of blooming Ocotillo Bushes, the orange red color is so very pretty.

 

This is a view of the Carrizo Badlands, they are gorgeous, I just wish I could have captured the colors better.

That sums it up for me, we got a lot of walking in on this trip too. Tomorrow is clean up day from the camping trip and laundry, I didn't want to do too much in one day. With all the packing up I did this morning, I need to stretch that work out :)

I hope you are having a great week so far.
Cheryl

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Final assembly of cup cakes

Hello. Today is my day off from exercise so I finished those cupcakes I started yesterday. I frosted each of them with Nutella, then added whipped cream and strawberries to the ones in the large baking cups.

 

Then I peeled the wrappers on the ones on the right, put them on top and added the cream and the strawberries. They look so cute.

The next time I make them I am going to make a cupcake 3/4 full and then just put the stuff on top rather than have a 2 part cake. I did not think about how difficult it would be to pick up and eat, I was thinking about keeping it together for transporting. If you were serving this without the wrapper on a plate with a fork it would be great and super cute for a shower or something but I would not use the cake cup wrappers since they need to be peeled. Live and learn, that's why we practice and experiment.

 

We had smoked brisket for dinner and green beans with Feta, it was delicious. Hubby makes the best barbeque ever.

That's about it for me, most of my day was spent in the kitchen, these were time consuming.

Now it's time for me to relax. Have a great night.

Chocolate Strawberry Nutella cup cakes & hummingbird egg

Saturday has rolled around again. Today is my normal cleaning day since I don't like to go out on the weekend because of all the 'people' that are out there. I did my 30 minutes of exercise today and decided instead of cleaning, that I was going to bake since my dishwasher is fixed. I am going to give that baby a work out since it has had about a 7 month vacation and I can sit and file my nails or something.

A few weeks ago, I made a cake for my Father-in-Law's birthday. I got the recipe here: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2013/05/chocolate-strawberry-nutella-cake/ and it turned out really great, here is a picture to prove it:

I needed to transport the cake 20 minutes away while holding it on my lap through several stop lights, turns etc, and let me tell you, this cake does not travel well at all with the whipped cream and strawberries. However, it was absolutely delicious and there were no left overs! My son loved it, so today I decided I would make it for him. I used the same basic recipe but decided to make it into cupcakes instead, with a 2 part cupcake. I made the bottom half in tall cup cake liners and the top half in shorter liners, so when assembled, most will remain in the cup.  Here is the picture of the cakes, I will assemble them tomorrow and post another pic. Wish me luck.

Hubby made stuffed pork chops for dinner and I made roasted potatoes and opened a jar of applesauce, oh my, it was wonderful. What was more wonderful is that all the dishes went in to the dishwasher and it is running as I type this :)

 

When we were sitting outside after dinner, our resident mother hummingbird left her nest and I had Hubby snap a pic of the nest with the egg since he is tall enough to reach it. This egg is the size of a small peanut M&M and the nest is about 1-1/2" wide. I can't wait for it to hatch which should be very soon, and will post pictures of the baby.

 

That's about it from me, I will be back tomorrow with the cupcake assembly results.

Have a great night!

TGIF & Ahi Tuna

TGIF! No post yesterday, but I did my exercising and we made a Costco run (Costco=$$$). I love Costco, but we can never get out of that place without spending a butt load of money, but they do have such good deals.  

 

Last night we went to the beach and cooked burgers and hot dogs for 10 kids from the youth crisis center and their sponsors. We had a huge campfire and did s'mores. The kids had a great time, it was good to see smiles on their faces. They have a fun filled weekend planned for them, it's going to be awesome. I was planning on posting last night when we got home but after reading a friends sweet emotional post, my vision was severely blurred. As I get older, the more emotional I get over things. 

 

Today I actually JOGGED for 20 minutes on the Wii. I was shocked that I lasted that long because I walk only, I don't run or jog unless something is chasing me. Maybe this is the start to a running phase, then it'll be a 5K then an half marathon, then full...NOT!

 

The highlight to my day so far was the repairman that came to look at the dishwasher that has been broken since August (don't ask) and fixed it right away - woo hoo! I don't mind doing dishes since it's only the 2 of us, but when you have to do dishes every day it gets old quick, especially when you have a dishwasher sitting there that could be fixed. So now I am very appreciative and of course over the top happy. Maybe now I'll start baking again and dirtying all those dishes that I have been trying to keep to a minimum :)

 

Since it's Friday, and Lent, we are having seared Ahi Tuna that we picked up at Costco. I think I'll make rice and a salad to go with it, it's going to be fantastic.

 

Tip of the day: Before I showered yesterday, I sprayed my callused feet with Hydrogen Peroxide really good and sat there for about a minute or two. I did my shower and buffed my feet last and I swear the pumice stone removed a lot more stuff than normal and today my feet are a lot smoother and less dry than they normally are. Try it.

 

I hope you are having a great day so far!

 

Start of Lent & a healthy smoothie

Happy Hump Day! That does not have the same meaning to me since I don't work.

I had a nice day, did my exercising first thing on my Wii Fit (Yoga/Strength training routine) and then played 10 minutes of aerobic games on it. My Lent promise is to exercise a minimum of 20 minutes each day and I can have 1 day off a week. Yes, I know that is lame but it's a start to get back in the habit of exercising every day. If I had to commit to an hour a day I know I wouldn't do it, so I'd rather do a little something than nothing.

For breakfast I made a healthy shake:

1 bunch kale (about 1 cup packed)
1 apple, cored, but not peeled
4 HUGE whole strawberries
1/2 cup blueberries
1 cup 1% milk

All ingredients were cold so I did not add ice, I don't like ice blended drinks, they give me headaches. This was very good, the apple and fruit offsets the Kale perfectly.  The color looks like sage, which was better than the gray I was expecting!  You could add banana or any fruit or juice to this and could use yogurt instead of milk. I will definitely be drinking this more.

 

I made a Walmart trip today to get a bunch of things we need. I rarely used to go to the store because I worked and I didn't want to deal with the "people" that were out after work and on the weekends, but now I can go during the work day or early in the morning and I avoid most of that, it's fantastic. Whenever I do go, I always find myself in the housewares section. I don't even know why I want all those kitchen gadgets that I know I will never use, I just do. Then my practical side kicks in and tells me that I have never and will never use that gadget that I am holding and I put it back. Geez, just 2 weeks ago I cleaned out my kitchen drawers and was cussing at all the gadgets in there that I never use.  It must be an obsession or something. I did buy some bowls that we need, they are made by Nordic Ware, made in USA, dishwasher, microwave and freezer safe and are free of BPA and melamine. I am very happy with them and will hunt for more things from this manufacturer. I avoid buying things made in China.

 

Tonight was also dinner with the boys. Two of our sons live close to us and we try to get together once a week for dinner. Mostly we order in, but some nights we might grill something or make Mexican food. It's hard to believe sometimes that they are all grown up and out on their own. I still remember our youngest struggling to learn to tie his shoes. Oh the memories and the stories I could tell about the boys.

The skies were beautiful tonight after dinner, but I didn't grab my camera quick enough to catch the colors in time or I would have posted a picture, darn it.

 

Have a great night,

Cheryl

Last call for alcohol or....

Lent begins tomorrow, so if you participate in that you are probably giving up something for that time, like alcohol, or junk food, or maybe ice cream. Today I ate a lot of bad food, like Italian sausage, spicy chicken tenders and fried mozzarella sticks that I will regret tomorrow, but I got it out of my system and tomorrow is a brand new day.

It was a lazy day today, probably since I did way too much yesterday. I slept late, spent too much time on the computer and sat outside with my camera trying to capture the hummingbirds fighting for the feeder. It was a gorgeous day, clear, blue skies and around 70 degrees.

We decided to replace the linoleum floor with tile in our outside bathroom last week. My son laid it and got it grouted on Monday. Hubby got the tile and grout sealed and the toilet installed today so it is now usable, it looks great. We call it the outside bathroom because when we built an addition to the house for a garage /workshop we also added another bathroom that has access to the outside pool and patio area so people don't need to come through the house. That was one of the best ideas we've ever had considering back them we had carpet in the house and kids running in and out that were in the pool all the time...ahhhh, the good old days.

That about sums up my lazy day. 

Have a nice night,
Cheryl

Cleaning & laundry

Happy Monday! Our storm has passed and it was nice and sunny today. Rather than go for my planned walk, I cleaned the house while Hubby cleaned up the pool and debris outside and it ended up being plenty of exercise. I even decided to pull out the stove and clean underneath it, I don't know what I was thinking when that idea came along! But all is cleaned, the last load of laundry is in the dryer and I will save washing the outside windows for another day. Honestly, I don't know where all the dust comes from, our downstairs is mainly tile and wood, our carpet in all the bedrooms is brand new and we don't have any children or pets running around kicking up dust, it's a complete mystery to me.

Tomorrow is Shrove Tuesday/Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday then Lent will be upon us. For me, it is a good time of year to fast and give up something that I like or make a commitment to do something during that time, like exercising. I look at it as a "second chance" if I blew my New Years resolution to get back on track. Wish me luck to get back on that exercise train, I am sure the guilt from what I will be eating tomorrow will be all the motivation I need. 

Time to fold that dryer of towels and then settle in with the Hubby and watch some TV. Hopefully my posts will get more interesting as I get the hang of this.

Have a great night!
Cheryl

Winter storm & comfort food

Happy Sunday! I woke up to the smell of Bacon this morning, mmmm I love Bacon. Hubby normally makes a big Sunday breakfast and the house smelled so good along with fresh coffee.

We are in the midst of a 'winter' storm here, rain and very high winds. I believe we have about 2" of rain so far since Friday and since we get it all at once, it just runs off and causes flooding, mud slides and all sorts of problems. Our pool is full of leaves and debris but thankfully no damage. Our resident hummingbird almost lost her nest and egg due to the high winds. I thought for sure the egg would fall out of the nest due to the branch swinging in the wind, but Hubby fixed it and she is back on the nest, whew!

Since it is still cold and gloomy it feels like a good day to bake or make a pot of soup, I'm thinking comfort food today. I made butternut squash soup the other day and it was terrific. It was the first time I tried it and I will definitely fit that into my diet as a regular thing, it was a healthy version. Today I am thinking of a creamy soup, you know, the rib sticking kind with extra calories? I am also thinking homemade bread on the side, maybe with a little butter :) Speaking of calories, the weather should clear tomorrow and I am planning to get back out walking again. As long as I have a plan, right?

Have a great day!

Cheryl

6 months in

Today is March 1st, 2014. It’s unbelievable how time has flown, it has been 6 months since I left my high stress job. I have spent that time decompressing and wondering what it is that I really want to do with my life going forward. I am a person who likes to be doing something; I have been cooking, baking, reading, photographing and just catching up on everything that I didn't do when I was working. I can say my entire house is clean and mostly organized for the first time since we moved in over 21 years ago; it's amazing what you can do when you don't work. There are so many things I want to do, including gardening and I thought I would start this blog just to share things with other people that may have the same interests as I do.