An Exciting Week!

This has been such an exciting and busy week for us!  Since my son's fiance lost her job she is camping out in the den.  (on the couch no less)  So that makes it extra challenging to do anything without her "knowledge"!

Don't want to write too much in case she is looking at this (I don't think she is)  

Saturday is the big day!  Yay!  The weather is supposed to be nice (thorough she would like snow..the rest of us hope it holds off and I think it will)  Her family is coming from NJ so snow would make it pret-ty hard for travel...

Will up date as soon as Saturday is past (and I recover!)   Hope we have lots of pictures to share...

                                                              
                                                                      
Will see you soon,

Janie

Hey! It's Been A While.....

 Hi there.  It's been a while.  Not quite a year but close!  And what a whirl wind it has been!  I thought my life was changing before but the past 8 months have shown me that changes NEVER seem too stop coming..guess thats a good thing because when life stops changing it usually means we are dead!

Briefly...no recent pics right now, just a note to say I am working on a new, better, schedule to get back to writing and blogging, on a more regular basis... My oldest son's fiance lost her job and moved into the den lock stock and barrel...they are getting married Dec 15th and STILL have no apartment to live in..so guess where they might be for a while..fun!  ...YIKES I need something to wear!  Very small, they will plan a party later..baby on the way...I now have the daughter I always wanted. 

We survived 12½ days with any power, (the whole area) because of Sandy. But we were still in better shape than so many others on LI (and still are!). Fortunately, I like to get ready ahead of every season, for what the seasons weather brings, and since I LOVE weather and keep close tabs on it (I do that because I want to know whats in store for me when I step out the door to take care of the animals) I was following that storm since it formed in the Atlantic.  So we had water, sand, food to make camp style, lots of clean blankets, and we had a big camping stay-cation (is that what they call it?)  More on that another time..LI is still recovering...  We had no internet/phone/tv for 21 days..we all got back into the habit or going to bed early REAL early.  (I was waking up at 5:45am with no alarm) We had to go to bed early to stay warm.   That was the one thing we didn't have....enough of burnable wood.  We had enough for a fire in the evenings, but in the daytime we had to make a fire in the fire pit to cook on...no biggy since we were always campers anyway, but after 12½ days it was getting tiring (I wanted a REAL shower!) and I was starting to think we would have to burn furniture next (joke..but not really) I was thankful for what we did have, and even after a few days, although we couldn't drive to local stores because so many streets were blocked by fallen trees and power lines, we could walk to local strip stores that had generators and partial service so it was nice to be able to have real hot coffee in the morning and a choice of deli, pizza, or Chinese food into the early evenings...  We had no house damage (except the wires ripped off the pole to our house) and although our neighbors tree is still sitting in my corral (an 80+' Oak....he said he would take care of it..still waiting) 

Anyway, I will be writing more next week and hopefully be able to add some new pics.  I see blogger has changed a lot since I was last here so have to figure that out over the weekend.  SO much is going on here, and there is so much commotion and busy stuff going on, I am hoping I can find a spot of time to do that but we'll see...

Our sweet very protective rooster (he is so smart)

                                                                                            

See ya next time...

Janie

Hi There!

I'm still here..STILL lookin' for my "True North"  (which I am thinking is everyone's life long search)

I hope to get back to the blog soon....so many life changing things have happened I had to let several things go because of the stress.  I am working on some funding some new things-a new camera-a new phone-I am still on my sisters lap top and would LOVE to get another desk top but I think that is going to have to get on the bottom of the list.

I still wonder if we should move (cost wise we should, but there are so many obstacles in the way right now) So I am still waiting for changes (because a move in the middle of what is happening now might NOT be the best move).  I think we will know for sure, between now and the next 2 years...

My poor garden tried to produce BUT there are TWO problems in the way of that.  First and foremost is the lack of sun, so if I am staying here I need to have some trees removed (at $800+ a trees, for the large oaks we are talking about, for a job to be done right, might take a few years, to afford it, so not sure it is worth it, AND since we are right up against the wooded park, there is only so many I can take down..we will still be in deep shade come 3-4pm every day.   AND the other problem "might" be, that I added some organic fertilizer to the garden last fall, and combined with manure, and the deep shade it just might be over fertilized. I got lots of growing and flower buds,  early before the trees leafed out and then it was all down hill...

My stove is going, the wood stove is 26 years old and has a crack on the inside, so I really should replace that too, my dryer is going (although I try to use what sun we have, as much as possible, (right at mid day-that's the most sun..and only for about an hour or 2 before it starts to shade..) but in the winter a dryer helps), we had cesspool troubles this summer..what hasn't happened to this house!

We have been here 26 years and the FIRST thing that happened was the day after we moved in, and woke up I looked out the bedroom window and said to my husband.."We didn't have a hole off the deck yesterday did we?"  (we were busy moving boxes in etc)  Maybe that was a clue to we shouldn't have stayed here.  It has been non-stop ever since... and not one thing at a time happens..several things at a time, so when they start to go again, it is also at the same time!

I am on SS now so it is a little bit more of a help... but I certainly don't want to throw it all away on what I call the "money pit...".

So hopefully with the change of seasons, and life circumstances, we can figure out what to do and find out true place to be... oh even the chickens changed (bad encounter with a raccoon a couple of weeks ago...sigh..)

We head into fall, and it feels a lot more like November than October..but....we got off easy last year.

I certainly DO like our location even if the house is a challenge!  So wherever we go, it has to be as good (TONS of migrating birds, spring and fall) or better... and certainly zoned for horses and/or farm animals.  If I can find a place that is less expensive (and I NOW they are out there) I might be able  to get another horse (or 2....)  I won't give up my chickens either!  And I am not giving up my search...if it takes til I am 100 I am finding where I belong... I am, fortunately,and still active,  in good health, so I keep trucking on...

Love all..see later, (HAVE to find time to work on the blog and do some updating but I need a chunk of time to do that!)

Janie

I Found a Nice Blog...And Some Garden Tid Bits.

Just a quick note.  I found a new blog to read.

It is called Re-Location: the Blog.... she moved from NY, to CA, to MA....

 Her name is Mindy, and she is a pastry chef, and has some interesting recipes, like these chocolate cupcakes with "Crispy Magic Icing"..Can't wait too try them...

http://relocationtheblog.blogspot.com/

Here is the cupcake recipe 


http://relocationtheblog.blogspot.com/2012_04_01_archive.html


 (I'd put the picture of the cupcake in a more appropriate spot near the blog title IF Blogger would LET me!)

I am still trying to figure out how to navigate this new Blogger, but it is my fault since I rarely have time to sit down and concentrate on it.

The garden is crazy this year.  Plants that did so well last year, had a hard time making it through the winter.  Too mild!!  They are straggly and some half dead.  I lost my Butterfly bush, and the hydrangea in the pot, completely died down.  I thought it was gone, but it did re-sprout but there no flowers for it this year..it too is acting like a new plant.

Yet others plants that did poorly last year, are thriving.

Last year the day lilies came out all at once, and this year, they have been spread out through the summer so far.  Which is great since I am getting very few other flowers!  The Phlox is straggly and thin, with only sporadic flowers, and there is some Echinacea blooming but only as if they were brand new plants, and putting out their first few flowers.   The red Geranium, on the patio, is bursting FULL of flowers, I have kept it going for about 6 or 7 years now.  When it gets leggy I break a limb off an stick it back in the pot..so there are quite a few "plants" in the same pot now.  (that Geranium came from a dear old friend's home after she died...) This is  picture from last year.

My green beans refuse to sprout and also the Swiss Chard..and there was NO sign of Rhubarb, so I will have to replant it next year.

The tomatoes and peppers and eggplant appear to be thriving, and e may yet have a bumper crop of something!
Oh!  I also have NO Marigolds, or zinnias!  This is a first for me since 1971!!  I tried direct seeding, and pot seeding, and transplanting and nothing is working and I can't figure it out...  So I have to be happy with the day lilies and finally, some nasturtiums came up...

The new chickens are thriving and I am seriously thinking of getting some more either in the end of the summer of next spring.   Simply because love watching them and I LOVE looking at multi colored eggs...this is the fewest chickens we have ever had..but..have to be realistic now....more will come I am sure...

I miss my Lass terribly....it has been a year to the day....but hay is just so expensive here I can't afford it right now.  (got a new roof so am paying that off, and I need a car.).  It's been one heck of a year, and looks like it is going to keep going....

That's about it...I am looking forward to getting "MY" camera back!!  (long story)   I have some garden pictures on it, that I'd like to get on my computer.....!  I'll be getting my summer pics on my header in time for winter...LOL!

See ya later,
Janie

OM Goodness!!

Is anyone else having troubles on Blogger?  I have been so busy getting the patio arranged and the indoor plants out, and getting the garden started....and cooking!  Gotta use those eggs!   That I haven't been here in almost 10 days and everything seems different..it took a while to find the link to VIEW the blog itself...  It seemed as if it changed even since the last time I was here!

I am not sure what to do..stay here?   Change blogger engines???   The last time I came here, I did find it easy to change the background to something more spring-y, but still haven't changed the header..I need a block of time to sit down and do that! 


The garden is a whole other issue this year... I started some spring crops in pots..some lettuce and cauliflower, but not much else.  Nothing was growing!  This winter was such a crazy winter.  I am not seeing the flowers we usually get in the spring.  There were little of no garden violets in the lawn.  Last year we had so many we didn't know what to do with them (the leaves have more iron then SPINACH!  And are great in salad (or cooked like spinach!) and the flowers can be used in salads also.).  The plants are there.....the leaves are not as big, or plentiful, as last year but the blooms are far and few between..   Even at our local stores.  Last year I bought a flat of white Impatience..this year no one even has any...  I am beginning to think learning about foraged plants might be a good idea.  (I know a few of them,  Lambs Quarters have more iron then spinach also.  And they do have taste..as do  the violets..) And then there's Chickweed.  I have a BUMPER crop of chickweed in the garden I have to remove. The chickens work their way through it, but as far as taste?   Not so much...although it is supposed to be healthy...
But all in all, I still prefer cultivated grown garden crops, but that brings us back to the weather and the garden this year. I am growing more and more in pots so they can be controlled, but that doesn't give much space for preserving amounts.  Next weekend (or whenever it stops raining) I'll plant tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, so we'll see how they grow.  And transplant I have to the cauliflower (2 kinds-a white and a golden yellow!) into larger pots.  I will keep them out of the ground until mid June or so, for a later crop.   Meanwhile, once June is up and running, plant beans (4 kinds), summer squash and winter squash, and one of my favorites..cucumbers..I LOVE cucumbers... I'll also plant more lettuce and spinach and other spring plants in pots..to go through the summer and into the fall...
 and of course there's annuals of marigolds and zinnia and more daylily's...

Here is but a few violets I picked last year (I put some up in the last post too) out of the lawn so they wouldn't get mowed and there was plenty more where they came form!  but throughput this winter I would see blossoms here and there...

This year I dared not pick any blooms, because there wouldn't be enough to seed for this spring, although it seems like the winter took care of that....  And the leaves, as I said were tiny this spring.

My indestructible New Dawn Climbing rose is all but dead in the back corral fence.   (the one I moved several years ago from a too shaded back fence..)  I will cut back the dead but after looking yesterday there only appears to be one or two branches still with leaves (I am very sad about that)

Much died over this winter because of lack of snow and water.  Not as many daffodils came up..the chickweed, as I said thrived!!

I am still in transition.  I thought that was over..my life is changing yet again ..(through others in my circle if not directly.  Which means I really have no control over the changes, and do not have a clue where things will end up...)  These changes used to be exciting for me, but at 65 I am wanting some stability now.   At least changes within my control!   I don't mind changes within my "realm" but if they would only stay inside that!

Every time we think we have a handle on what needs to be fixed in this house, something else comes up and we need to re-organize how we are going to go about doing the fixing...

Meanwhile...cooking!!  I made some thing for my sons the other day that was out of this world! (ops no eggs in it, BUT the strawberries were calling)

http://www.howsweeteats.com/2012/04/roasted-strawberry-brie-chocolate-grilled-cheeeeeeeese/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+howsweeteats%2FsmSp+%28How+Sweet+It+Is%29

It is a Roasted Strawberry Chocolate (dark) Brie grilled cheese.......

We just happened to have everything on hand and I made 2 for the 3 of us, not knowing how they would be, and cut them in small pieces......OM Goodness!  I never tasted anything so good!









The roasted strawberries, the butter and toast...OMG!  The melted cheese..(if you can not find brie I am sure a mild melting cheese would work..I am thinking Muenster.. but I think even mozzarella would work too)














I hope you get a chance to go there and try this recipe...I am not sure if it is a dessert or a meal..It FELT like a meal.... delicious, gooey, chocolatey, melt-y meal.... (even with the small pieces)  A decadent MEAL!  And I wanted MORE!

Great blog..."How Sweet Eats"....

That's all for now.  Hope to be back soon. 

See ya later,

Janie

Whew!!!!

Wow!  This has been some year so far!

I haven't yet had a chance to check out the 'new" blogger , to even see if I like it yet!  (Or change my header!)

 So much is happening at once, I don't have a chance to breath!  Do we ever get a rest?   Why am I still asking this?

My roof needs to be done..but I think before that..I need a car!  I have been sharing with my son (which is a pain although do-able so far).  But My old car is stuck in front of the garage..and the garage door just this past week broke!  (I actually knew that was coming because of a "repair' THAT  was done (I can't complain it was a favor, but the door never worked right after) and I knew from the beginning it wasn't right..anyway...I think that I need a car ( for obvious reasons) first, then the garage door, then the roof...whew!   Everything in its own time..I am not a rich person!  One thing at a time..

Anyway I am trying to put things in order..then my email gets hacked!  So I hope i didn't cause any problems for anyone.  (I have a friend in NJ who I think her email is compromised and she keeps telling me it isn't.  But every time I answer her, I end up with some sort of problem!)   Hopefully this time she is fixed..!

I have been so busy I haven't even started a garden yet!  I think this crazy winter we had (weather wise) totally threw me off..so I have lettuce and green onion (scallions) and some other spring things, started in pots...I am about to plant tomatoes, and other summer things..soon very soon...

I LOVE the new chickens.   Although certainly not our first flock, but our first from a new company (to us).  I Love the health and quality of these chickens, and you can order as few as 3!! (depending on where you are in proximity to them) in contrast to most companies that you need to order 25 at a time..  The PROBLEM is in deciding which ones to buy..I want them all!   When the boys were young and I had more personable neighbors ..(things change people move) I could use that many, but now it is just me, and the occasional extra breakfast.   And a neighbor here and there, that wants them.  I had 6 from an older flock left, and added 5 more.  Of course since then some of the older ones have passed, so I keep thinking I want more... (I love variety in egg color!)
  I am getting 6-7 eggs a day...nice...

http://www.mypetchicken.com/

 Well...I am off..my day doesn't end until way later then I hope it does!

 Here is a picture of last years garden. (with Lass still with me...) I am thinking of changing the whole garden (soon) .  Making more raised beds..and putting more in pots... My work is cut out for me... This is last years spring picture.  The beds you see here were farther over to the left (as you look at the picture). I moved one over (the one closest to the shrub on the right in the picture..it's just peeking into the pic) after my husband died..following the sun...  I am thinking of dividing the long beds into smaller shorter beds...  I don't know....I have to think about it...  I'll let you know...

See you later,

OH!  PS..In early May, my son's girl friend and her mother and me went to NYC to the taping of The Revolution....it was VERY fun.   It aired May 7th.   (technically I didn't really watch the show before, but it was fun anyway, and I watch it more now)  Then we met my two sons, and we went to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens..when I get pics loaded I will post them...  In June we are going to the Chew..one of my favorite cooking shows ever!

Janie

Hello!! I Haven't Quit! And Learning the New Blogger!

Well hello!

I wish I could say that I was just SOO busy I couldn't blog, but that hasn't been the case.  After a mild winter the WHOLE family came down with a flu-like virus with a bacteria attached that threw us for a loop.  When one of us recovered, we got it back from another one...it went around and around, back and forth, really depleting us.

Once we felt like we were recovering, I noticed my youngest son was coughing none stop.  And I was getting more and more fatigued (I have had a problem with chronic fatigue before, because I had Lyme for over 10 years before it was diagnosed) and fuzzy brained.  Literally at times tripping over my own feet like I was drunk..and never putting two and two together.  You see Lyme affects everyone differently.  For me it was almost all neurological.  But as years go by I noticed the knuckles on my fingers are getting bigger and bigger, then lately being very stiff, and sometimes numb in the morning.  Still, I thought I beat the Lyme.

Lyme Disease is a lot like malaria.  It revisits around the same time you were first infected, symptoms getting weaker and weaker each time..  At first I knew right away when it was back, and would run for a treatment (I lean towards alternative treatments after witnessing countless other who were treated with antibiotics, and faring way worse then me as time went by...) but as time goes by and the symptoms are smaller and smaller you don't notice them until they are BAD...and in this case it never occurred to me that it was Lyme because it's been so long since an episode.  I really, really thought I was done with this Lyme stuff....that makes me nervous... Problem with Lyme is you can't kill it.  It lodges in the base of your brain, and waits until you are weak from something else..then it regains strength.

So I had a treatment today.  My brain is like mush..I can't even think straight..it has taken me all day to make a food list, and it still probably isn't right.  I don't know why I bothered.  It's taken me over 2 hours to make this readable...But the treatment affects only last a few days so I expect to be back to relative normal soon, and go back in 3 weeks for another. 

THEN I go on the Blog and find Blogger, like FB, has reformatted everything "for you".... Now I need to learn this!

I am not running off to switch to Word Pres,s or any other Blog engine..at least not yet.  I listened to all the talk of panic about FB and was quite panicked myself..about Time Line.  It confused me... Rumors said, "they switch you without warning"  (they haven't), "they "undo" all your privacy settings"  (they haven't), "you have no control" (you have more). 

In fact.. I LIKE FB Timeline....it is even EASIER to make your settings, post pics, check what the public sees if they search for you..monitor posts...and who they go to.

Oh yes, there's SO much drama on FB....  No, there's as much drama as YOU make.  I noticed more and more young ones are leaving FB because of it.  Yet THEY make it by posting every and anything that pops into their brains..meanwhile I have reconnected with cousins in other parts of the country....and friends who have moved.    I have a good many favorite cooking blogs on FB now and I LOVE it...does this mean blogs are done?  Nope...I don't thinks so....I sure don't post things like this on FB..if someone wants to read what I really have to say, read the blog...FB is for connecting..blogs are for blogging...

Meanwhile..while sick as DOGS, all winter and spring..we just found out (at least my youngest son and me) that we have allergies for almost everything around us, and IN the house!  So work is ahead...

Life is about change, and it sure looks like ours is changing BIG time...I don't mind change as long as it isn't TOO fast...and I will post more about changes in upcoming weeks. 

My camera isn't up and running....the garden isn't even started!!  (we got hit with a BIG tax bill this April, and I have MORE to come this year ..then it gets better for us...well not great but better then this year will be... (I rearranged some stuff last year, and I really did know this was coming...not that it will increase anything for me....just make it easier for the boys when ..you know...)

Now!  I need to explore this NEW Blogger...so we'll see how long that takes!   Hopefully Blogger will turn out to be as good, and easy as FB time line turned out to be..if you haven't been switched yet...don't listen to all the hype and scare rumors..it is like an album..and contains as much or a little as you want...AND we get to keep our home page JUST LIKE IT WAS.. In fact I am having so much fun with it, I am posting MORE public things and then going "pubic" to look at it, then ever before!

Oh well..I can't wait til this Lyme is quiet again, and I can think straight again!

So I have no NEW pics to post  (yet)  so here is an old one from last years garden.. Here's hoping for some sort of garden before to long!

My favorite spring shrub....usually out in early May, has come and gone (this season has been s crazy!  I think most of the "May flowers are done!!)  Hope everything is readable.

                                                    


See you later (if I ever figure out the NEW Blogger)

Janie

Anyone Like Good Beer?

One of my son's friend LOVES beer...better yet he loves pairing beer and food..like wine.

He just started a Beer Blog....it's called Beer Blog   It is brand new, and he is mostly local...for now, but who knows... here's to launching a dream career...

http://philchesteakbeer.blogspot.com/

This is his latest...it is about Black Raspberry Lambic...

 (His picture since I don't have black raspberries and they are way harder to grow then red raspberries!)

http://philchesteakbeer.blogspot.com/2012/02/southamptons-black-raspberry-lambic.html

I think we need more GUYS doing blogs....don't you?  (same as we need more on Pinterest)

See you around the corner,

Janie

I Found Another Blog-Dragon Fly Dreams

I found another blog.  On Pinterest.  Dragon Fly Dreams....She does stamping art, as a hobby, and her studio is beautiful...

                                                    Here is a picture of her studio..
                                                
                               http://kimchaltry.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-stamp-studio.html


 

                                                          Here is another angle.... a real dream hobby center....which I understand the organization, given what her "day job" is.   She works in nuclear medicine!
                                                          There are many other pictures of the studio on the link-enjoy ...I know there are many out there that will enjoy this.



http://kimchaltry.blogspot.com/

Have to run now, visiting my sister today....

See you 'round the corner,

Janie

This is Just A Fantastic Plant Story..And A Rant....

Saw this on the news tonight..maybe you did too.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/21/science/new-life-from-an-arctic-flower-that-died-32000-years-ago.html

 

It is 32000 years old!   Russian scientists found it in the Siberian Tundra..buried by a squirrel (probably anyway) all that time ago...  with a lot more! 


It reminds me of what was supposed to be a  a small ground hugging Phlox I've had coming up in a small bed, for a few years now... I have ever been able to find an actual name for it, or a picture, but it kind of looks look this..even the leaves...

I think it attests to the resilience strength and longevity of plants. Of the earth itself.  It makes me think of the pines that need a forest fire to germinate...  The amazing-ness of the world we live in..could this all just "happen?   Could there be anything but a creator?  That creation just keeps on going on!  A creator that makes sure no matter what happens on earth, no matter what humans do to it, it will never be destroyed, but be renewed..over and over again...what ever it takes... 


If man would just stop trying to make it bend to what he wants......and "go with the flow" of life....work with it..instead of fighting it...or time.....or change....and renewal....it can take care of itself...renew itself...and us too...


Time to think about what BIG business, and corporation farming is doing not only to the planet, to the ground itself, to the seas...to the air and water, but to humans as well..and the animals, and birds and even the insects, and yes, the plants as well, that live on it.   Time to think about what pharmaceuticals are telling millions of people "what they need to ask their Drs for"...  GMO foods....ok..let them do that..but LABEL it so the ones who don't want to poison themselves and their families....OUR families, can say no to it...

They keep saying that "our" voices make a difference...so I figure if no one buys it....they will have to stop right?   But of course they should have to label it.  Wonder if thats why corporate farming doesn't WANT it labeled..  Because after all, it is all about the profit right?


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/annie-spiegelman/genetically-engineered-food_b_1245023.html


Sorry...That's my rant for the night..thanks for listening!  Wish I had some pictures to share...but the camera needs some repair!!  Too many people using it I guess...haha!


See you 'round the corner..

Janie

The NY Giants! Good night! Good Game! Sports And Families...

                                                       
                                                   

                             They did it!  Had no doubt they would...what a great diversion this was!

I made some snacks...I made some S'more bars for dessert.....I will post that tomorrow..I wasn't even sure how they would turn out but if you like s'mores these are dangerous!

Might not seem like a lot to some..maybe even most...My father came from the country...South Western PA. (Crucible to be exact)

Sports, even if you don't play, are a big part of this country...especially if you COME from the country.  Even high school teams play an important part of the country life....the community...Sports may actually be "glue"..even if you aren't a sports fan...

As a kid I wasn't that interested in sports..I did like running.  (only because it reminded me of horse racing..horses..yum....)  But my father and brother ate sports...Even now, a summer nap with a ball game in the back ground is heaven to me.  Especially on the radio!  And as I grew into a teen, as the games were on TV..ANY game.. I would sit in the living room, as they watched and sketch the players in action for practice.  And the family dog.

Horse racing...  Growing up, this horse crazy kid had to scour the sports section to find racing pictures, just to "see'" a horse, in this very non horsey no horse access community, I grew up in....  I even managed to get a hold of TB racing breeder magazines (I have no idea where I found one, or how I got it)!  Just so I could draw them.  (a brutal sport in that the actual athletes are treated like property, and discarded like garbage if they are not money makers (even now).)

Interestingly, my husband did not like sports.  He never watched any kind of sports in the 25 years we were married.  He did play soft ball with friends now and then at picnics, but never watched it on TV.  Me?  I LOVED the Olympics and watched every minute...in between doing what I had to do or go where I had to go with the family....(summer AND winter..) My 2 sons probably trying to figure out why???  Because since their father didn't like sports, neither do they.  Is that weird?  I LONGED for a game of catch with a mitt in the front yard.   I used to play catch with my brother, in the front yard, so he could practice for Little League!...But now I can watch baseball, and football, and if I want to, even basketball  (which I Loved to go see in High School, although not so much now..but I DO like the Harlem Globe Trotters..and now they even have a WOMAN on the team I hear!)  

Does this fall under the heading of "be careful what you wish for?".. I hope not..I hope it falls under the heading of women who put themselves aside (although that might not always be a good thing) for their families, because really, our families are the most important thing...families are what make up communities..even countries... Never mind the husband who likes sports, and their wives don't...but thats a whole other story...I am not talking about the husband (or wife) who excludes the family from what they do.)

But for me..sports are home..a family get together just doesn't seem the same without a game droning in the background...

It might be different for you and your family....whatever helps you all grow...and thats ok too..whatever is good for your family, is what is right to do...

But for today...tonight....for me...was a night of peace for me.....a respite from worries, or sadness...or even what I just "have" to do next...

And that the Giants won!  Was icing on the cake!

So from my picture folder..here's some thing blue for Big Blue...although is kind of violet....

See ya later,  have a great night...

Janie                                      

So Sorry.....A sign of the Times...Ground Hog Day...

So sorry I haven't written lately.

I am going through a very depressing, hard, bad time.

My camera is broke...I have no car....I think I messed up a relationship that I thought had promise...and I need a roof.  Plus my washer is ancient and showing signs of giving out..the stove only has 2 1/2 burners working and the glass on my self cleaning (albeit second hand) oven door broke...(I don't even know how)  On a deeper level..the electric in the house badly need updating...several plugs in the bedroom don't even read my laptop battery....thats nothing new..we've know for a long time now, that the electric wiring in the house is sub-par and not up to code......"wing and prayer", folks....(that sounds careless...ALL safety precautions are in place where we can put them..)

I am not giving up or stopping...I am still looking for my True North... I am actually not even "taking a break".  More like a "delay"..like the LIRR.......

On the good side, it was SOO warm yesterday in NY I went out and did garden work!  I raked out some chickweed...a LARGE patch formed in the garden in the fall when I left some broccoli raab in place because it was so warm...not wating to distrub it the weeds grew.

And BEST of all....THE GIANTS ARE IN THE SUPERBOWL!!

And lastly...it is Ground Hog day.....and they are saying 6 more weeks of "winter" if you can call it that...(actually the ground hog in PA said 6 more weeks and the one in Staten Island said early spring...BUT the NY weather people are saying 6 weeks all round.)  Now really...we are going to have 6 weeks til spring no matter WHAT the ground hog says!!  LOL!!  I just wonder what all this mild winter stuff is going to do to spring and summer!  We have had warm winters before....not even sure if these warm days have set any records..but generally when we have a warm winter, we have a cold wet spring and summer...so we shall see what we shall see.....  

I think I will post  few "happy" pictures..from last summers garden..

OOOKKKK..guess I won't...Blogger is giving me trouble loading pics!  What else is new!?

Is anyone else having this trouble?  I know they are making changes (merges whatever) but to not be able to upload pics for  your own files???  Somethings not right here...

See you later...I have much to do today, and if I can get a chunk of time, try to figure this picture thing out.  If I do I will post some posies...

Janie

Etta James

                                          

                                                                    Etta James.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etta_James

She was one of my favorites.  She sang as hard as her life was.  Starting as many do, with gospel music, then into R&B.. Later mixing R&B with gospel, jazz, blues, soul, rock and roll, doo wop, and even later adding elements of hip hop.  She was something very different.  Her own person..her own style. 

Her best remembered (popular) song were "At Last", and I Just Want to Make Love to You"... But she was great all round....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1uunRdQ61M&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUgvVAFFzN8

In January 2010 she entered the hospital for a MRSA infection and it was then they diagnosed her with Alzheimers.  Which has been said to be the cause of her tirade on Beyonce about singing her song.. Later on in early 2011, she was diagnosed with terminal leukemia, and she died just short of her 74th birthday, yesterday....

Good bye Etta.  Your last few years were very hard ones, and the road ahead, even without leukemia would have been torturous at best.   She can rest now. 

Have snow to shovel now, first one of the season (finally)!

See you later,

Janie

Do You Throw Money Way? Marking Events and Time..

Everyone has left overs.  Except a cousin of my great grandmother.  My mother used to laugh about her, and tell me, when her grandmother would take her and the family there for dinner, she never cooked enough.  And after dinner, her grandmother's cousin would look around at the table, and the empty bowls and say, "Look at that!  I made just enough..."

How many times do you open the frig to get something out, and find a container of some sort of green fuzzy thing?   And wonder when did you put it there and what the heck was it?

I have tried different ways to avoid that, once saying I was going to date all my leftovers. That works, but there are those times you forget because you are in a rush, or it doesn't seem like enough to bother with, but there's enough for a mini meal for one, etc.  I have also read that it is better not to put vegetable in the produce drawers because they get forgotten in there.  And sometimes things do.  But I don't think they keep long enough without the "environmental controls" on the produce drawers. 

Last year, I read a blog by a couple (and I am really sorry, but I don't remember who it was!  Senior moment?) who said they found a way to stop wasting food.

I have always kept a calendar in the kitchen.  I used it to mark Dr appointments or "dates", so I know what everyone is doing.  Sorry Flylady, I know you do this too, but I, as my father did.... always did this!  My dad left us a drawer full of calendars that record everything that ever happened in our family over the years...EVERYTHING.....births; deaths; anniversary's; marriages, everything.....we call them his calendar records.  All the facts and dates of our family...if anyone says, "When was it that "so and so" came to visit?",  we run and check the calendars...there it is.  He even marked when certain family members called.  Later on, as they got older, he even kept track of what my mother WEIGHED because we were all worried she was losing too much weight and she was tiny already...

Once I was talking to a friend on the phone, and my sisters work schedule came up.  And I said she was working that day.  The friend asked surprised, "You know your sisters work schedule?"  Yep..so does my other sister..because it seems like we "inherited" our dads calendar habit... 

I took a while to try out this couples method, of recording leftovers, and it does work. 

First I make menus for the week and write the plan at the top of the calendar square.  When I come home from shopping, I list all the produce and meat I bought on the calendar.  When I cook a meal, if anything is left over I leave the menu entry as is.  Once I use the left over I line it out, if it wasn't a raging success, or put a check next to it, if I am going to do it again.  This way I also have a calendar of menus that worked, then I know exactly how old a left over is, and what it is and better yet, when to use it!  And no more digging through the freezer to see what I have.  (It's a deep chest) because I have a running list.   If I make double soup, chili or stew recipes or anything I can freeze for an extra meal, I put an F next to it. 



It doesn't have to be a large calendar because this is the only thing I use it for.  Just make sure it has pictures you like, and boxes to write in.  Flylady has one but with no pics.  But it is large, and I use one as my master calendar and that is where I now put Dr appointments and tasks I am doing, or errands.   Right now, in the ktichen, I have a Farmer's Almanac recipe calendar in the kitchen.

Hope in some small way this might help someone keep track of a part of their lives.  Do you have any tricks you use to amrk leftovers?

I am in a no camera phase again.  Probably time to get a decent camera for a change!

See ya later  ; )

Janie

50 Healthy Recipes for 2012 from the Brown Eyed Baker

The Brown Eyed Baker posted this link on FB.  Everyone of these recipes sounds like a winner.  I am going to try them all..probably sooner, and more often, then one a week!  (that's how good they sound).

http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2012/01/02/50-healthy-recipes-for-2012/

 I hope you enjoy them...

Tonight it is getting colder (for a day or two!) 

But it looks like a good soup night. So I am making the (because it was planned before I found the above!) Rosemary Potato soup sent by Two Peas and Their Pod.  Pairing it with a green salad and I think I am going to make the Hearty Whole Wheat Sandwich bread from the Brown Eyed Baker's list..

   http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1CARcp/www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/potato-rosemary-soup/

Better get started..nary a picture to post today..my camera isn't working, and I need a new battery...and I don't have a car until next Sunday!!  I must do something about this!

See you later,

Janie