New Year's Resolution #12





The Baked Potatoes

So the last item on my resolution list was "Get Serious About Freezer Meals."  Honestly, you'd never know we've been married over 30 years.  Dinner is as much a struggle now as it ever  has been.  Session starts in a week and I figure I'd better start getting ready.  Many sessions I've gone into with a whole freezer of meals prepared, not so the last few years.  I bought 15 pounds of potatoes at Winco for less than $3.00.  I washed them all, stabbed them, and baked them for an hour at 350 degrees.  Then I took them out to cool.  I wish I had just let them cool a little and then proceeded, but I didn't.  I let them cool overnight and they were much more difficult to work with today.  I finally put the bowl in a warm oven for a few minutes to warm them up as it made scooping out the insides much easier.  I scooped out the insides, mixed them with some milk, sour cream, butter and a little salt.  Whipped everything together in the mixer and restuffed them.  Then I wrapped them in wax paper (I don't like putting plastic next to my food, and bagged them four to a bag.  Then I put the small bags into a large freezer bag, so they won't get lost in the freezer, plus its an extra layer that helps prevent freezer burn, and both plastic bags are reuseable since no food actually touches them.

The Stuffed Potatoes



To use, let thaw and baked in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.  You can top them with all kinds of good things:  chili, cheese, meat mixture, taco meat.   Yummy!

The only thing I'd do next time is prepare less potatoes.  Ten pounds would have been plenty and I ended up putting some whole potatoes in the frig for my husband to fry up for breakfast instead.  Not that he will probably complain.

~Jane

Bucket List 2012

My daughter and I were chatting about the coming new year and things we wanted to accomplish.  This is my list.

1. Get my blood sugar under good control.  I am so bad about this and I really need to make it my number one priority.  I do well for a while and then backslide.
2. Going along with 1., lose 25 pounds.  Not only would this help my blood sugar, but my knees.
3. Get to bed by 11 every night, she writes at 12:36 p.m.  Again, sleep affects blood sugar and I'd just be so much more alert at work.
4. Finish up my mother's house.  There are still a lot of steps involved with this:  lawyer, accountant, bank, loan, stuff to send to auction, stuff to try to sell to dealers, stuff to sell at yet another garage sale, stuff to throw out, cleaning, painting, floors, moving washer and dryer, finishing off unfinished part of house, and ultimately selling it.  But I need to have progress every week no matter what.
5. Be actively working through a devotional and my Bible every day.  God so often gets neglected and then I wonder why things fall apart.
6. Sew up all the flannel yardage in the house.  Nightgowns, baby quilts, burp cloths, pajama bottoms - it doesn't matter what as long as it all goes.
7. Sew a french fashion doll dress from materials from my mother's stash.  She never achieved actually making something from all the stuff she collected.  I want to make at least one outfit a year, but would rather it be two.
8. Get some of my counted cross-stitch pieces framed.  I have these nice samplers folded in a drawer.  They need to come out and on the walls.
9. Redo the guest bedroom.  I've had new wallpaper for it for 10 years and it still has Elsie's bunny wallpaper on a couple walls from when it was her nursery.  Enough.
10. Organize the upstairs landing and the family room.  Both are full of junk.
11. Have a garden this year and use it.  Except for the past couple years, I've always had a garden, however, I don't always use what I grow which is a waste.
12. Get serious again about freezer meals.  Dinner time around here lately has been appalling.

I'm trying not to plan too much.  I'd also like to have more date nights with my husband and invite some friends over more often.  We have a couple we're friends with that have moved to a different church and the husband is my husband's best friend.  We need to actively stay in touch, but I am so bad about having people over.  If I did this, it might even count as a date night, since it would make my husband very happy. 

If I can just manage these 12 things, I think it will make a huge difference in my life.  I guess we'll see.

~Jane

Happy New Year 2011!

I've been looking forward to 2011.  It's just got to be a better year than 2010.  With my mom's passing away last February, a good friend passing this fall, and a friend and family member both being diagnosed with malignant brain tumors, I'm ready for this year to be over.

So here's to the New Year and my resolutions:

• To do whatever it takes to get healthier - more sleep, better eating, more exercise - I want to lose some weight and get my blood sugar down to a normal level.
• To get through the stuff at my mom's house and get it ready to sell.
• To finish up all the unfinished projects I have floating around.
• To clean out and wallpaper the guest bedroom.
• To paint the linen closet!  
• To send a bunch of stuff from around the house to the thrift store.

I'm so thankful for my wonderful, patient husband who takes such good care of me and provides so well for me.  Who is and always has been the spiritual leader of our home and who prays with me every morning before he leaves for work.  Who makes me a lunch each day to take to work, poop scoops the dog yard after my dog, faithfully takes out the trash, and unloads the dishwasher.  Hhe takes care of the cars and the yard; de-leafs the gutters; picks up the horse chestnuts; prunes the grapes; feeds the chickens; and collects the eggs.  Our home would fall apart without him. Last weekend he crawled under the house to remove a dead rabbit that was blocking the sump pump hole.  What can I say?  He is my rock!

I'm thankful for my beautiful daughter.  Words just can't express what she means to me. She's been a delight every day of her life and fills my life with joy.  No one could have a better child.  She has never given me any trouble, and loves me even though she knows all my faults and fears.  I don't know what I'd do without her.  She is my right arm in every and any endeavor.  

I'm thankful for the Little Guy.  What an incredible privilege to be a grandparent.  Every minute I spend with him is priceless.  What an opportunity to do it all over again, but better this time.  Again, he fills my life with joy.

I'm thankful for my son-in-law.  He makes my daughter happy and that makes me happy.  He is a wonderful daddy to the Little Guy.  He has brought dimensions and depth to our family that I couldn't have dreamed of.  I'm excited to see what God has planned for him this coming year.

I'm thankful for our home, our friends and family, our jobs.  Without them life would be so much harder.  God has so richly blessed us.  I pray his hand of protection on all of us for the New Year!  Happy New Year!

~Jane

Christmas Resolutions?

You can tell the Little Guy's been visiting.
Everything breakable is placed out of reach.

I'm re-evaluating our Christmas.  Overall it was wonderful.  Time spent with family, good food, a beautiful tree, and the Little Guy.  But there is always room to improve.

Next year I want to start earlier, so that the last few weeks before Christmas aren't so rushed.  I didn't do much decorating at all, except for my tree, and I didn't do any baking.  I miss that even though I can't eat much of it.  I'd have liked to have enough goodies to share with friends, family, and co-workers.  Next year I want to have time to do some baking with the Little Guy and maybe borrow him to take Christmas shopping for his Mommy, Daddy, and Papa.  (The Little Guy calls me Grammy and his Grandpa, Papa.  Isn't that cute!  Just warms this Grandma's heart.)  

I'd also like to have a little more time to straighten up the house.  Nobody who came over is critical and I didn't stress out over housework, but immediately after Christmas it gets very busy at work.  We start training our temporary session hires the next work day after Christmas and from then on life is busy.  I'd like to have a chance to get things organized before work takes over for the next four months.

Who wants candles?  Everyone needs trucks
and teddy bears decorating their coffee table.  
I just love that Little Guy!

I'd really like to do a little more decorating outside and have enough time to go see what other people did.  One year my son-in-law and daughter made a tree of lights on the gable end on the outside of my entry way topped with a star my dad had made.  It is still one of my favorite Christmas memories.  I wish I could do that every year.

I'd like to make a few more presents.  I did pretty well, knitting Elsie and a friend pairs of fingerless gloves.  But I'd have liked to make a few more things for co-workers, and I'd like to knit some socks for family members.  I'll have to start now to be ready for next Christmas.