Sweets for my Huny

Because of the weather Huny has been at the airport for more hours than I have seen him this week. During the snow he was gone for the duration, but it's one of the things that he loves about his job. He wasn't sure when he would come home so I didn't have a meal cooked for him and once he did get home we ordered Chinese since we hadn't had that in a good while.

Yesterday he came home earlier than we thought he would so I fixed him a meatloaf dinner with mashed potatoes, gravy, peas and rolls. This was our Valentine's dinner since weather was due to come in and we didn't know if he would be home today. So far, it looks like he might be coming home in an hour or so.

But, I did fix him some white chocolate covered strawberries with red sprinkles and I got him a card and one of those $1.00 Wal-Mart heart candy boxes. I think he will like it whenever he gets home.

The card is a store-bought one, but I fancied up the envelope a bit with some craft paper and lace. I had fun making this. (I was actually trying to put the lace on top of they Huny label, but it turned out better this way, I think). The tulips and the love word  came from a magazine that I was throwing in the recycle bin.

I have a fire going and a beer waiting for him, and even though he's getting leftovers, it will still be a good evening.

Happy Valentine's Day!

List to Live By ... Author Unknown

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. Life is too short to waste time not taking a chance.

3. You can take care of you.

4. Stay in touch with friends, old and new.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. "Agree to disagree".

7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It is OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

10. The past is the past. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

11. It is OK to let your children see you cry.

12. Don't compare your life to others. It’s your journey that is important.

13. If a relationship has to be a "secret", you shouldn't be in it.

14. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.

15. Take a deep breath and then another. It calms the mind.

16. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

17. Make room for something useful, beautiful or joyful and donate something just as wonderful for someone else’s joy.

18. It is never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.

19. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take "no" for an answer.

20. Today is special. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, and wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for “the” special occasion.

21. Over-prepare, then go with the flow.

22. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple, yellow, or orange, or all three together!.

23. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

24. Frame every so-called disaster with these words ''In five years, will this matter?"

25. Always choose life.

26. Forgive everyone everything.

27. What other people think of you is none of your business, and why should I care anyway?.

28. Time heals almost everything. Give time, time.

29. However good or bad a situation is, it will change for the best for you.

30. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

31. Laugh!

32. Believe in miracles.

33. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.

34. Show up and make the most of your life now.

35. Growing old, getting wrinkles – yoohoo!

36. Your children get only one childhood.

37. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

38. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.

39. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

40. The best is yet to come.

41. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

42. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

What a week!

Just like our Texas weather to go from balmy 70 degrees to a brrr it's cold 39 degrees. But that is okay because we will get to build a fire tonight.

News on Angelique is guarded this week. She had a pretty bad spell where she stopped breathing and her heart stopped. She was moved to a bed with a heat lamp and was kept in a more sterile part of the NICU for a couple of days. She was moved back to her crib and taken off of oxygen yesterday. She was a little cranky (I guess I would be too if I kept getting poked and prodded), but she seemed to be sleeping comfortably and she took a full bottle of milk. They suspect a bladder infection was the culprit. She's on antibiotics, high blood pressure meds and who knows that else. She has tubes everywhere. At least the little snowball is doing better and hopefully she'll keep getting stronger each day.

I did get to tell her about the work in the garden we did and that she needs to get strong so that she can help her Nana. I can hardly wait for the kids gardening stuff to get in the stores.

She is up to 5 lbs 4 oz and she is just about too big for her premie clothes. I didn't get pictures yesterday because I didn't want to add another disruption to her day, but I'll be out there again next week to see her.

We spent the week splitting the wood that we had cut, cleaning up the yard a bit and I planted some Texas Supersweet Onions and Georgia Sweet onions. I'm excited about that!

We got a little bit of rain as well and our compost pile compressed a little bit. I weeded up a bit up front and have some poppy seedlings coming up. yoohoo.

I have the itch to get in the garden, but I keep telling myself that it's still winter and to wait a little bit before I start getting in the dirt.

At HD they had fruit trees out and we thought about getting a peach tree, but really in a couple of years we will be thinking about whether to move from here or not, so we decided not to get one. Why plant a fruit tree when we may not be here? We have a pecan and a maple tree planted so I think that those two trees will be enough for the yard until we make a final decision.

Listended to a smidgen of Howard and he said a way to organically get rid of weeds in the lawn is to use vinegar. Going over to his site to check this out because I don't want Huny to use weed and feed stuff on the lawn.

New Pics of Angelique

My precious Snowball. I hadn't seen her for a while and when I walked in she was wrapped in this blanket and looked just like a fuzzy snowball. The name stuck. She is now 4 lbs. 2 oz. and is in a crib, but still in NICU. She was still on a breathing tube but that should be coming out soon. Hopefully she will be home in another month or so.

Me and Angelique

Mom (my daughter, Cora) and Angelique smiling for Nana.

Resolution = Flexibility

So how many of us actually stick to the resolutions we make at the beginning of the new year? Not many, if any of us do. Resolution is a word that to many sounds so final and as if there is no flexibility involved. But maybe if we see a resolution as more of a lifestyle change, or as a goal to be met then perhaps those 'resolutions' we make won't be so hard to keep. Seeing a resolution as a more flexible way to change things in our lives makes the end result seem as if it is something we can achieve. Lifestyle changes and goals have the flexibility in them to move in the direction that we didn't see at first when we made the choice to change.

Everyday life is not set. We wake up one morning and the path we saw for the day is way off course from what we had planned.

My 'resolution' is not such a big one in the grand scheme of things. But I felt that I HAD to get it done and it HAD to be done NOW so that I would have it DONE for the next time I looked for a recipe. So I pulled out all the bits of paper, books, notes, copies, etc. of all the recipes I have on just ONE shelf and had it all spread out and was thinking that I HAVE to get this finished NOW. Talk about pressure and all for a recipe book.

At the end of a couple of hours I thought I'll NEVER get this done, just LOOK at ALL these recipes. WHAT was I thinking? This will take DAYS.

While going through this self-imposed pressure cooker, I was surprised to see how many recipes I have cooked. A pleasant surprise. And, I did manage to find the potato pancake recipe that I've been looking for since Thanksgiving - yoohoo! Of course, now I don't have any leftover mashed potatoes, but at least now I know where to find the recipe.

Taking a walk away and then coming back to see it all laid out on the couch I decided to get real. It was crazy for me to think that I could get it started and finished just like that. This will be a project that will take days to get finished, and then it will be an on-going project since I am a recipe-holic. I put the ones I had cooked in a separate folder and put the others in another folder and put it away. For now. Instead of trying to get it finished all at one time, I'm giving myself the flexibility to take my time with it. To work on it a bit at a time. I want to have fun with this project and I was NOT having fun.

So I went to Barnes and Noble to take a breather. While there I found a notebook just for the idea that I have to keep myself in order in the kitchen. I didn't get it, but it was a great inspiration tool and I'm again looking forward to working on this project.

New Year's Resolution on Recipes and Cookbooks

So, y'all know that I have a gajillion recipes everywhere. For the ones that I managed to do an okay job on, I'll later forget where it is and wonder where and in which book it is, or was it a torn piece of magazine, newspaper, email, or what? So this year with my Christmas cooking, I made a New Year's resolution to make a notebook of recipes that I have tried throughout the year with the date and any modifications to the recipe that I made. And also whether it was a keeper or not. Or if I just killed the recipe and to never try it again.

I'm going to have sections of the usual, appetizers, fruits, breads, meats, ets and the killed file, because there are plenty of killed recipe attempts. It's just the way it is.

I want my new recipe book to be a bit of a work of art for me. I want to pick up the book and see things that stir my soul - maybe a picture of a wishlist kitchen or a beautiful tea set that I would love to have. And the recipe that inspired me to try and cook it and whatever notes I have made about how it turned out, what my family thought about it, what I added because I thought it might work for the recipe, etc, etc You know how that goes. I want to feel good about the cooking that I do try to do. I will never be a great cook, I know that and that is okay.

This will be a book just for me and my experiments in the kitchen. I'm not sure what it will look like yet but for now it's started in a regular blue kid's notebook and a stack of recipes that I have tried throught out the years (before Huny and after).

I'll post some before pictures and show you my progress as it goes.

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve! Huny wants Black Eyed Peas with Ham Hocks. Need I say that I've never cooked this before?

Texas Rock Rose

Pavonia lasiopetala is a Texas Native that is extremely drought tolerant.
Flower: 1" pink Hibiscus-like flower that is loved by butterflies and honey bees.
The Rock Rose will stay in bloom from summer till fall. This plant comes back every year in my garden. The plant can get leggy, but cutting it back several times a year keeps it in check and the look is still lovely.

Texas Rock Rose generally only last 3-4 years but will reseed freely and the seedlings can replace the older plants. The flower will open in the morning and will close in the afternoon, blooms can be extended if there is afternoon shade.

Package contains 10 seeds.

Clike HERE to purchase.

Where did all the snow go?

Well, I guess that Texas for you. HaHa. I don't believe that we got any freeze last night, although I was freezing when I got in bed. Huny had to work all night de-icing the planes at the airport so my bed was COLD.

When I got up all the snow was gone!  The weather is about 40 degrees, so I decided to take a walk. I opened the door and was greeted with songbirds going about their business. I immediately felt a weight lifted from my shoulders. I took the time to just relax and enjoy the morning mist and the bird songs in the neighbordhood. Because of the cloudy day, I felt as if I was alone in the world for a little while, and I found that that is exactly what I needed. I have been a little neglectful to myself as far as taking the time to be by myself and enjoy my own company. Solitude is not a bad thing. I think that being alone for a bit is an important part of our lives that we need to take and reconnect with ourself to replenish the soul.

I've been feeling a little stressed, as I'm sure a lot of us have the last few weeks, and taking the time this morning for my walk and to not think, was good. I just enjoyed the feel of the cool day and just let myself be.

Snow in the Garden!

It is snowing again!

Below are pictures of the snow we got on Christmas Day. We got three inches of the white stuff. Beautiful, but it also was icy and stopped me from going to see my grandson and new granddaughter - she's doing wonderful!  3 lbs. 12 oz.  She'll be home soon!

Do you know that feeling you get when you cook a meal and then you just KNOW that it's going to sit in the fridge until it grows into a science experiment? Well, this is the feeling I have about my taco meat from last night. And it's because it has more beans in it than usual. My guys don't know a good thing when it stares at them from their plate.

So, in order to save my taco meat, I think I will convert it to chili. My guys don't like chili either, but I do and since they won't eat anymore of my taco meat they can just go fix a sandwich. I bought plenty of lunchmeat for them.

Chili with cornbread mixed with jalapenos and a cold, cold beer.

I'll show them.

Today we have frost and it is COLD. The wind died down from yesterday so that is a good thing. In a couple of days we will be back up to the 60's during the day and low 40's at night. We had a fire going all night and have it going this morning again since Huny is off today.

I did another cooking experiment last night. I made Salmon Patties. I followed the recipe off the can since I've never made this before. The recipe called for one egg white, but I used the whole egg. It also called for a tsp of seasoned salt. Next time I will not use so much because it came out a bit salty for me. Huny warmed up a can of creamed corn and the recipe called for a dip of mayo and dijon mustard. I added some parsley to the dip.  Huny liked it and we'll make this again. He would like tuna patties, and I'll try it, but it does not sound good to me at all.

I also made some oreo balls. I got the recipe from Lisa from Tarnished and Tattered. She said that her husband makes this all the time and it sounded pretty easy so I thought I could make it here at home. The only problem I had was the frosting of the balls. I used a toothpick to dip the balls, but I think I needed to water the chocolate down a bit because it was too thick, I think. I haven't tried one yet because  - well, just haven't yet. But, I tried the mix before the chocolate and IT WAS SOOOOOO GOOOOOD. Yum. I'll have to keep trying these until I get them right for me.

Tonight will be a back to basics supper with tacos. I bought some fresh corn tortillas from a little store down the street. I had to eat a couple fresh from the bag on the way home. Tacos, with beans and rice tonight and salsa. Oh yeah.

Last Wednesday

I woke up to snow......

Angelique Marie

Taken 10/28/2009

The garden today....

Blooming in the garden today...

Garden we took out...

New butterfly and hummingbird garden...

Strawberry garden...

Thyme the ants love...darn them...

radishes, carrots, lettuce and lemon basil going to seed

Peas!

new garden in progress - this is where the tomatoes will go

parsley

Where do the days go?

We've been working on the garden and on the house and I've been working on items for Kindred Sisters our new boutique shoppe and I've been visiting Angelique. My days are full and by the time evening comes around I'm beat.

My little granddaughter is still with us, thank goodness.  She is still itty bitty, of course, and has had some spells, but so far she is still fighting to stay with us. She has gained about 1/2 oz. Her little head is probably no bigger than a tennis ball. I'll be seeing her again this week and will get some new pictures. Last week she was in the dark and I couldn't get a picture of her. She stopped breathing and her heart stopped as well while I was there. Scared me to death. It was only for a very few seconds, but still.....  All in all, the doctors say that she is doing fine. Despite these spells, she is coming along and is doing what they have seen other premie baby's do at that age and size. So, all is normal and good. Every day that goes by with her still with us is a blessing.

We bought a new front door and it is beautiful. But the color on the house trim (blue) didn't really go with the new look. So, we found a deep cranberry color and we (or rather, Huny) painted the trim and the house looks so much better. I didn't really like that blue anyway. He's touched up the house paint as well and caulked and did all that other Huny stuff to get the house ready for the winter.

We took out one of the gardens along the east side of the garden because I don't think anything really did well over there. That side missed the morning sun and got only the afternoon sun. So, we made another garden along the west side of the house and I hope it does better on that side. This is where our tomatoes will go.

In the other east garden we planted peas and they do seem to like the area there. We have flowers galore and one baby pea pod. The parsley on that side is also doing well. I have some lettuce planted in there and it is coming up but I've never planted lettuce from seed, so not sure it's okay or not. We'll see how it goes.

I finished the butterfly and hummingbird garden and can hardly wait for that to come to life next year. Speaking of butterflies, they are everywhere! I don't know if this is normal, I don't really remember what it was like at this time of year last year, but this year they are everywhere. I'm leaving as many of my flowers up for them to help them prepare for the winter.

We moved the strawberries from the garden against the house to another garden all by themselves. They were taking over the world. Now they have their own place to do their thing. The garlic chives were moved there as well. I also forgot about an elephant garlic that I had planted and it got moved over there as well.

We used up most of the compost from this year's batch and we have another compost pile going, but I still need more dirt. We're going to set up another bin. We've been picking up bags of leaves from the neighbors and have been adding that to the pile.

We've been fighting ants in the garden. They seem to like the thyme that I have in a cinder block. I stopped at the store and got some orange oil and killed them dead. I hope. They can just go someplace else outside of my yard.

When huny came home from workyesterday  it was 79 degrees out and by 3:00 p.m. it was rainin and the temp had dropped about 20 degrees. Good ole' Texas weather.  Today it is cool and windy and cloudy and a great day for working on the computer.

Busy, busy, busy.

I'll get some pics to post later today. Have a wonderful, wonderful week.

Halloween Greetings

Angelique Marie, Oct 19, 2009, 1 1/2 lbs, 12 1/2 in.