New Year's Eve

What is going on in your part of the country or world?  We've been experiencing mild weather and it's been sunny the last couple of days.  With the new year just a few hours away, I've been hit with a spurt of energy.   Something about a new year always gets me moving.   (BTW, the repaired Canon camera arrived today from its second trip to the Canon Factory Repair Center.  The shutter was broken, which is what I told them on the first trip to the repair center on November 29.  Grrrr)

Everything is brown mainly because it is winter but also because we did not receive a drop of rain for over 6 weeks.  It rained 7/10's of an inch on December 24.  We are grateful for every drop. Anyway, I started cleaning the "little" garden at the back of our yard.  It should be ready for compost by Monday or Tuesday at the latest. 

Check out the full blue tub, and I've cleaned only about half of the garden.  That blue tool on the right is great for getting down to the grass/weed roots and makes it easier to pull them out.  Strawberries, for sure, will be planted in this garden in January and maybe some carrots and spinach.

Maggie wants to help too, but she, unfortunately, doesn't understand where to dig.  Hubby filled this hole up yesterday afternoon.  Not only did Maggie dig out the fill, but she made the hole bigger and deeper.  We have about 10 holes of varying sizes throughout the yard.  We only had enough fill for two; both were dug out by this morning.  lol

This is the big garden.  Do I ever have a job in front of me when I tackle this one.  I want to have it completely ready by February 1 for the Natural Gardener's super duper revitalizer compost.  Last year we added 6 cubic yards to this site; this year I may up it to 8 cubic yards.   Our natural soil leaves a lot to be desired and requires a lot of amending. 

We had a delightful Christmas surprise:  two calves.  Aren't they the cutest?  We were not anticipating calves until May or June of 2011.  Apparently a bull dropped in for a visit without our knowledge.  The little brown bull was born December 18, and we've calculated that the black heifer was born within the last 4-5 days.  Generally, a cow will hide her calf for several days up to a week.  However, we saw the brown calf when it was no more than 3-4 hours old, if that.  Hubby was walking the dogs when he came upon the brown's calf mother and him.  Fortunately, Luc was off investigating something, but Maggie was right beside hubby.  They got chased by the momma  --mainly Maggie was chased-- and the rest of the cows ran over to see if help was needed. 

I hope all had a wonderful Christmas, and here's wishing you a blessed and prosperous New Year! 

Until next time, God bless.

Merry Christmas

10 But the angel said to them,

"Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,

and on earth peace to those on whom his favor

rests.”

 
 
 
 
 
Luke 2:10-14
 
Until next time, God bless.

Christmas Blog Background and Banner

The last day and a half has been an exercise in learning more about Corel Paintshop Pro X3 and brushing up on HTML.  For the most part, I'm pleased with the outcome.  I wasn't so pleased at 4 AM, but after some sleep and more research this morning, I was ready to tackle HTML to change what I did not like on this template  - the pink gradient across the top and centered the banner. 

 

Now that I've got the hang of doing a banner in Corel Paintshop, I'll be working on the next background and banner after the holidays are over.

I downloaded the banner design elements from Cajoline Scrap.  I had a hard time narrowing down which of these wonderful elements to use in the banner.  Cajoline has marvelous designs on her site. Be sure to check it out.

Until next time, God bless.

Thanksgiving Day

Today was a great Thanksgiving.  I hope yours was too.   My youngest son, his wife and his son came over from Bryan.  Unexpectedly my son has to work tomorrow and they returned to Bryan this evening instead of staying overnight.  Nevertheless, it was a great delight that they drove the 120 miles for dinner.

I realized today that I do not use my china and silver as much as I should.  That is going to change for nothing is much prettier than a fancy table setting.  :D  When I went to buy some flowers, I found them to be a bit worn and opted to cut some fresh rosemary, lavender, and sage from my garden to fill in around the candles.

My mother used the above silver dish with cover for keeping the cornbread dressing warm; but I used it to keep the bread warm.  :D 

Meanwhile, Luc and Maggie made a new friend since my daughter-in-law brought along her youngest dog, Twist (with the blue ball), a Border Collie.  Jennifer has two Border Collies trained in Search & Rescue.

Dinner went off as scheduled and was delicious, if I do say so myself.  I used my mother's cornbread dressing recipe, and it was as good as I remembered it.   Everyone except me watched the game after dinner.  I come from a football family but was always the "black sheep" when it came to the game.  Even though I do not "fit" in with these football people, nothing beats having one's family around.

Until next time, God bless.

Happy Thanksgiving

Psalm 92:1-5

It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High.  To shew forth thy loving kindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night, upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon a psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound.  For thou, LORD, hast made me glad through thy works:  I will triumph in the works of thy hands.  O LORD, how great are thy works and thy thoughts are very deep.

Until next time, God bless.

Happy Day Before Thanksgiving

No doubt most of you have been busily preparing for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.  My son, daughter-in-law and their son will be driving over from Bryan for dinner and to stay the night.  They have several dogs at home and cannot stay more than a night.  One does not want to impose on a good friend for too long.  :D  Anyway, I'm so excited they are coming that I pulled out my mother's cornbread dressing recipe. 

As I was putting it together, I remembered why I always conned Mom into doing it when it was my turn for Thanksgiving or Christmas -- we traded off the holiday dinners between my mother, my aunt, and me.  Since her passing, I've had hubby pick up dressing and gravy when I did a holiday dinner.  But, this year I'm organized and wanted to do it.

Dirty bowls, measuring cups, and pans were everywhere.  I prepared just about everything for tomorrow except the turkey and a few last minute items.  I even did the egg and sausage casserole for Friday morning.

Generally, I clean up as I go but needed to unload the dishwasher.  So as I said above, dirty pots, utensils, etc., filled the sink and counter tops.  Am I the only one to dislike unloading a dishwasher?  The table gets decorated tomorrow.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Until next time, God bless.

Happy Resurrection Day

Matthew 28:1-8

Now ^aafter the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene ^band the other Mary came to see the tomb. ^2 And behold, there was a great earthquake; for ^can angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone ¹from the door, and sat on it. ^3 ^dHis countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. ^4 And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like ^edead men.

^5 But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. ^6 He is not here; for He is risen, ^fas He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. ^7 And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed ^gHe is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.”

^8 So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word.

^a Mark 16:1–8; Luke 24:1–10; John 20:1–8

^b Matt. 27:56, 61

^c Mark 16:5; Luke 24:4; John 20:12

¹ NU omits from the door

^d Dan. 7:9; 10:6; Mark 9:3; John 20:12; Acts 1:10

^e Rev. 1:17

^f Hos. 6:2; Ps. 16:10; 49:15; Matt. 12:40; 16:21; 17:23; 20:19

^g Matt. 26:32; 28:10, 16; Mark 16:7

The New King James Version. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 1982, S. Mt 28:1-8

Praise God, Creator of the heavens and the earth, King of the universe, for his mercy in sending His Son, Yeshua, the Lamb of God as sacrifice for my sins and to die for me and you.

Until next time, God bless.

Valentine's Day Dinner

Hubby and I were craving seafood and drove to Austin for dinner at the Red Lobster. It was delicious although I wavered between getting the shrimp or the Maine lobster. I decided on the shrimp and hubby had a seafood platter. I do not particularly like fish but will almost eat my weight in shrimp. :D I will wait until my birthday in June to splurge on the lobster.

This excursion gave me the opportunity to use my new camera. I probably should have stepped away from the table a few feet but felt like I was kind of making a spectacle out of myself with the camera, etc. So, I photographed sitting down and the food was not very far away.

Talk about filling a plate, well, Red Lobster made sure there was plenty of food. We each brought half of our order home. I'll warm it in the oven for about 10 minutes at 350, per our waitress's instructions. :D If your mouth is not watering by the last photo, you must not like seafood. lol

We started off with shrimp cocktail.


Red Lobster's famous cheese biscuits are yum.


I do Caesar salad. A diet trick is to dip your fork in the salad dressing then pick up your salad instead drizzling the dressing all over the salad.


Hubby likes a garden salad.


Hubby has a seafood platter. Usually he orders it broiled; but today, he blew that off and opted for fried then later made the remark that he should have ordered it broiled. Men!


I ordered the shrimp scampi and coconut shrimp. Gad, it was delicious.

If I wasn't being somewhat mindful of the calories consumed, I would have ordered a Key Lime pie for myself; however, we shared an apple crisp a la mode. Hubby does not like Key Lime pie; and since this was Valentine's Day, I did not insist on the pie. Again, I'll wait for my birthday in June to indulge in an whole piece of Key Lime pie.

Hope all had a wonderful Valentine's Day. We did.

Until next time, God bless.

2010, Day 1

If you want to insure good luck, health, and wealth for the New Year, you are not Texan if black-eyed peas and cornbread are not on the menu. The black-eyed pea tradition started during the War Between the States since that was all that was left when Union soldiers raided southern farms. Black-eyed peas was cow feed by those from the North and not worthy of taking. Here is a lot more info on the tradition -- much of which I did not know. Eating black-eyed peas on New Year's was simply something you did -- the background info was not particularly important.


Since I've been limited by a bummed ankle, I cheated this year by opening cans instead of starting with dry peas. Actually, I asked hubby to get the peas and he did -- two cans. One cannot be overly choosy when hubby is doing the shopping.


I also cheated on the cornbread, used Jiffy instead of making from scratch. I have the ingredients, but what the heck? Open a package, crack one egg, pour 1/3 cup milk and stir is much easier than gathering, measuring, sifting, etc.

Hubby and I are now insured to have a prosperous, healthy, and happy 2010. I hope you do too!

Until next time, God bless.

New Year's Eve 2009

Waiting for the clock to strike 12, and it is goodbye 2009!

I must admit that I'm glad to see this year go. It has been a good year, but also I've been plagued with little nitpicking physical ailments. Ugh. It is patch, patch, patch after 60.

I've done some exciting projects this year from building a Backyard Botanical Garden as a first veggie/herb garden, to making shades for the utility room, to learning to weave on a loom at The Old Oaks Fiber Arts Center, to redoing the front bath and designing the fused glass back splash, which is on hold since I need to get to the glass shop to use the sandblasting machine. I cracked my right ankle bone on December 15 and am very hesitant to drive with the "boot." Hubby is my source of transportation. I have to gauge my trips, grocery list, etc., and going to the glass shop is not on the trip list. :D



I love to do projects/crafts because I avoid doing those things I really dislike, such as filing the mail. I can hide it in the desk drawers. In getting ready for 2010 and since there is no escape, I'm filing the mail. Things are going to be so organized for the New Year! What chore do you put off?


My stomach has not quite settled down from the virus that hit early, early Christmas morning, and I decided to make chicken noodle soup. Saltine crackers are getting old and chicken soup just about cures everything. lol And, since I am somewhat home bound, I asked hubby to get some egg noodles at the grocery. However, I did not totally trust him to get the correct item and found this egg noodle recipe online. The lack of trust panned out; he came home with elbow macaroni.



The soup and homemade egg noodles turned out very good. Here's the soup recipe:

1 whole chicken
1-2 onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
4-5 chicken bouillon cubes
1/2 cup carrots
1 medium red potato, sliced very thin and chopped

Almost cover the chicken with water, add the onions, garlic, and bouillon cubes. When the chicken is done, remove the bones and return the chicken to the broth, add carrots, potatoes and noodles. Cook for about 30 minutes.

Do you have plans for this evening? I hope you have the very best New Year's Eve.

Until next time, God bless.

Be Not Afraid. . .

Be not afraid;

for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all people;

for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

May your Christmas be blessed.

Luke 2:10, 11

What Not To Do Two Days Before Christmas

After going to the endodontist's yesterday to have stitches removed from the repaired root canal on my front tooth, hubby and I went to Central Market which is across from the dentist office to do some grocery shopping for Christmas dinner. Now, just imagine Central Market two days before Christmas. As it is, Central Market is pretty much of a busy place whenever you go.....double, triple, maybe even quadruple that number. It was a total mad house with me in one of those riding carts. It was hysterical. I do not know the store very well since I only go occasionally when I can walk around to look for whatever I need. Finally, I saw a woman employee, started asking her where some stuff was when she graciously offered to finish up my shopping list. Needless to say, hubby detests shopping so just imagine "Mr. Happy Face" beside me.

We checked out but I could not get out the single door, left hubby to get the car, motored around to the double doors, zoomed (if you can call it zoom for these are quite slow -- I can crawl faster) over to a spot to wait for hubby. He does not come. I do not see him. I wait. Go back to the door where I think I left him -- it looks different from the outside than from the inside. Came back to my spot. Go back to the same door, to another single door, and over to the double doors. No hubby. Go back to my spot. Wait. No hubby. Go back to the double doors and into the store to a customer service counter to ask the woman to call out his name over the loud speaker. Waited while she answered another person's questions when it suddenly occurred to me that we both have cell phones. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, technology. Called him and he was looking for our car. lol We agreed to meet at the stacked pile of wood; fortunately I had seen him park and knew where the car was. In his haste to find me after dropping me off near the motor carts and after parking the car, he forgot to zero in on where he parked. He was about to just wait until the store closed, all the cars except ours had left the lot, and then drive home.

A few words of advice: do not ever, ever go to Central Market two days before Christmas if you must use a motor cart. I am getting cabin fever and sent a message to a good friend begging her to come get me next week so we can go to lunch in Johnson City. There is a very nice restaurant over there. lol Yes, even Johnson City has a cool restaurant...we are no longer country bumpkins in this part of the world. For good or bad, everyone is moving out here...Drippin' even has a WALGREENS, for Pete's sake!!!

I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.

Until next time, God bless.

A Small Mishap

Luc is showing me how sorry he is for what he did to me yesterday.


One of my new accessories. Old, muddy work coat for the background. :D


A pair is not required with this accessory, thank God.


Ice pack beside the new accessory.


Knee pads when I get tired using the crutches. Oh, yes, here is the Advil, the anti-inflammatory.

So how did I come by these items and why? Well, yesterday on the way home from the Christmas luncheon, I saw about a year-old English Setter running down the road. I stopped to see if he had a collar and tags; and if so, get him into the car to take him home in order to call the owner. He was young, lost, and scared. He would not come to me.

I decided to go home, pick up Luc, some food, water to see if I could lure him into the car. Hubby decided he would go along too, which was a good idea as it played out. I know Luc goes into hyper-exuberance upon seeing anyone or any dog. However, I thought I could control him with the leash that snaps around my waist.

He was all excited when I got him out of the Jeep, but when he saw the dog, he went nuts. I was on gravel, he was pulling and jumping all over the road, and started pulling me into a barbed wire fence. As I was trying to avoid the fence, I stepped down into a small ditch, the ankle rolled, I went down, and it took about 5 minutes for me to gather the courage to get up. Hubby helped me up, I hopped over to the Jeep, sat down in the tailgate area, and there was a golf-sized swelling on the right ankle. We still tried to get the dog, but he was not having anything to do with us. If I had taken Maggie, who is easier to control, I think we could have gotten the dog into the car.

After about 10 or so minutes, we went home. I hopped from the car to the grass, crawled to the porch, then slid on my backside into the house. As an aside, it is a tad humiliating to be crawling around the ground or floor at 70 years old! We filled a bucket with water and ice into which I plunged my foot. A bit of trivia, I understand that ballet dancers keep a bucket filled with ice water to plunge a foot into if a sprained ankle is suspected.

Anyway, my ankle looked pretty bad and we decide that perhaps I should go to the doctor for an xray -- just to be on the safe side. That decision was a good one because I did crack the tip of my ankle. Since the bone is still in place, I'm to ice for the rest of today and then start wearing the boot tomorrow for a month. By the weekend, though, I should be back in gear for some more Christmas decorating. :D

I hope I can drive a car since it is the right foot. Anyone had an experience with a right foot in a boot? I will be genuinely cramped if I cannot drive a car. Oh, and when I can walk normally again, Luc is going to have some serious obedience training!

Until next time, God bless and Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2009 - So Far

I've been to three parties this past week: one was a Christmas coffee, one was a surprise birthday party, and yesterday's was a Christmas luncheon. It is so much fun going to different houses to see how people decorate for Christmas. People bring out their very best Christmas decorations which have been collected over the years, dust and clean probably better than the rest of the year, and go into extraordinary detail for the food and presentation,
This guy greeted us at the front door when we went to the Christmas coffee. The hostess hubby is a big hunter.

The rye squares, cream cheese and cucumber tidbits are my favorites.

My friend's daughter gave a surprise birthday party for her. This rose is one of the gifts. There is nothing prettier than a rose.

Waiting for the birthday girl to arrive. BTW, food is everywhere.

Since the birthday party was held at the daughter's apartment club house, the men ultimately wandered over to the pool table while waiting for the birthday girl to arrive. She was told that a craft show was being held. As she walked in, she saw part of her mother who was somewhat hidden behind a wall. She thought, "Goodness, that woman looks so much like my mother."
As she walked closer, she decided it WAS her mother and what was she doing there at the craft show! lol

If so many of you were not doing reflections, I would not have picked up on the Christmas lights reflected in the mirror at the luncheon. Thank you all for calling those photographic details to my attention.

Isn't this tree magnificent?!

Approximately 75 women attended this luncheon. Isn't this a lovely table? Food was everywhere. Another table was devoted to desserts -- I had cheese cake topped with cherries. Yum. I cannot remember the last time I had such a rich dessert; thought I might go into a sugar comma. It was delicious! Cheese cake is one of my favorite desserts, on par with Italian Cream cake.

Loved these angels.

And, also loved these sheep.

One side of an entryway at the birthday girl's house.

This is one of three trees in her house. Wish I had more room to do something so different like this in addition to a traditional tree.

Isn't this the sweetest Christmas town? I could not get all of it in one photo. On the far right is an ice skating rink with skaters doing their thing. :D It is so cute. I am gathering ideas for next year.

Now after all this decorating, where am I in mine? Part of it is up and planned to put a fire in the fireplace then take a new photo for the header. The fire place looks a little ugly without a fire to hide the firebox. Unfortunately, there was a small mishap yesterday which will be detailed in the next blog entry. :D

Until next time, God bless and Merry Christmas!!

Thanksgiving 2009

We had the great pleasure of being invited by my best friend since the 7th grade for Thanksgiving. In turn, we had Thanksgiving at her daughter's house.

My friend's son-in-law is one of seven siblings and all gather at his house along with other family and friends. I photographed eight tables and may have missed one or two.


We started off with mushrooms filled with sausage and cream cheese, prepared by a grandson. I could have stopped right there.

Food was everywhere. Hubby and I have never seen so much food, but then we come from smaller families.

Sides overflowed onto the kitchen island.


Desserts. There was another cabinet for desserts. This photo was taken early, before 2/3's of the family and friends arrived. Both cabinets were covered with desserts. I had the Italian Cream cake, pictured in the upper left corner. :D

One brother went to Texas and the other brother went to A&M. Vincent arrived wearing an A&M shirt, but the older brother got him to change into the Texas shirt. lol


Thanksgiving in Texas must included football in the background if Texas and A&M are playing.

Trying to find the delay switch for group family photos with Grandma.


This is one of many group photos. Doesn't Grandma look totally delighted?!

!
We had an incredible Thanksgiving thanks to my dearest friend and her most gracious daughter and son-in-law. I hope you did too


Until next time, God bless.