OBSERVATIONS OF THE DAY

• This is still the "celebrity" that I most resemble.
• My grandsons are so darned cute when they are building those Lowe's kiddie clinic kits.
• Lincoln can "build" when he has a one on one adult helping him.
• Mariah made me proud when she plopped down on the floor in Lowe's and helped Linc build his dinosaur this morning.
• Gabriel is such a sweet little nerd.  he just had to wear his safety goggles while we ran errands after the clinic.  Everyone needs to think of safety first after all . . . especially at a fabric store.
• I can still take a 5 minute shower.  I can not however shampoo my hair and shave my legs in that time.
• Six hours of straight sleep made me a new woman today.  It almost didn't last through the evening though.
• When I get to work, I have the hardest time changing gears from little kid to how to work the techie register, what would you do, and how can I do such & such? 
• The customers seem to find it very funny when I take a short "power nap" (go blank) at work.  Mean old ladies . .  oops that would include me, wouldn't it?
• I seem to have become the one that has strange, sometimes wonderful but usually weird questions get sent to.  Just to entertain everyone in the store.
• Drat!  I spent some money on bargains at the soon closing Bernina "Store" that is in Hancock's.
• I LOVE to shop at the local $ .99 Only Store.  Definitely one of the better dollar stores, and they really have nothing over $ .99.
• I must be tired.  I parked in a handicapped spot tonight, without a tag hanging on my mirror.  Live with it people!  I am wearing a boot going on 2 weeks now.
• "Keeping Up Appearances"(PBS) is still funny as all get out.
• Sitting to veg and put the tired old feet up is definitely a daily requirement.  If you need to, get a doctor's note.
• Jon is still SO nice to hug and nuzzle.
• Jon is still cute when he dozes off . .  here, there, every where . . .  until he gets to snoring very LOUDLY.  Poor Jon.
• We have a new strange, busy life.  Not sure how I feel about it yet.  I'll work on it . .  tomorrow.
• Saturday night TV still stinks.
• I have lots to do . . . I would rather do some indexing, sigh!  That really relaxes me and helps me go right to sleep at night.  That's a good thing, right?

Some Favorite Institute Lunch Ideas

Posse Stew             (for groups down below)


#401 Can of Pinto Beans
# 401 can of Hominy (I like to use yellow but the whole country seems to have gone white)
#401 can of Diced tomatoes
1 Dice onion
1 # ground beef, cooked
1 can of diced green chiles ( I use 1/2 can of green chiles that I dice myself)
Red chile powder or taco seasonings to taste.

**Equal amounts of beans, hominy and diced tomatoes.  I usually use beans I have cooked myself.

Dump (dumping is an important part of the technique here) all of the canned ingredients into a big pot; add seasonings and simmer while you brown the ground beef and onion until they are softened.  Add to pot and check your seasonings.  Simmer a while until the flavors are blended nicely and serve with corn bread, crackers or whatever sounds good to you.  This has always gone like hotcakes when I have served it!

When you have a big crowd, there will always be some that want it hot as hades.  I put a bottle of Tabasco or Frank's Hot Sauce where they can add it to their bowls.  Yesterday we also had a bowl of HOT diced green chiles that had been given to us that we knew we would never eat (wimps here).  The kids liked both.

Tonight I will post the amounts I used for about 75 people and the chicken soup as well.

Posse Stew for a Crowd---


This should make about 14 quarts of Posse Stew and serve about 28 - 30 people.
 
I just realized that this would be a little hard since I was using left-over beans and beef from our stake BBQ in November.  So I will figure it as well as I can.

# Ten cans hold 3 1/2 quarts of food.  Did you know that?  We always call them gallon . .  NOT!  So to fill young people, we get the big paper bowls that hold "20 oz." .  That will give you a little head room with a good sized bowl of soup or chile.  Keeping that in mind, here is how I start out the Posse Stew:

1 - #10 can of pinto beans
1 - #10 can of hominy
1 - #10 can of diced tomatoes
1/2 - # 10 can of diced green chiles  (at home I often chop up a #401 can of "Hatch whole chiles" that come
         in pairs at Costco)
2 # ground beef
1-2 diced large onions

Serve with cornbread, biscuits, grated cheese crackers . .  it's all good.

This should make about 14 quarts of Posse Stew and serve about 28 - 30 people.

Nanny's Little Helpers

 Kiddie Gates. . . . . 

        plus Kiddie toys. . . 

everywhere . . .

equals . . .  this!




Lincoln, being the ever faithful little helper, has offered to be my  easy open gate kiddie gate, so I won't get hurt again.






Watching Nanny picking up and putting away toys is exhausting! (Lynneah is sound asleep right where she was laying)


On Tuesday morning, I was stepping over a gate with my hands full.  My left toe got caught on the gate . . . yet again, and down I went.   I must have the toughest bones.  All my weight fell in my right knee and boy does that hurt!

Ever since I did this in December, my foot has hurt and I have to bind it up very tightly in shoes with an arch support in it.  Since the strain never healed, I kind of demanded a boot so I can get over this, once and for all.  It is hard to turn that foot sideways when the soft tissue has been strained or torn.

The Little Things That Count

I was chopping some nuts today with the food chopper and it took me down a funny little sequence of little memories.

When I moved up to Provo in January of 1973, my room mate, Darlene saw me making cookies and kind of doing my version "chopping" nuts by crushing and twisting them between my fingers.  She chuckled at me and showed me how to chop them with a knife.  I was 23 at the time.  Not sure how my mom had done it, can't remember.

Years later, my MIL gave me a set of knives and had to show me how to used a chef's knife, I found that to be a wonderful improvement and I now own 2 long ones and at least 3 of the shorter Japanese versions. Could NOT live without them . .  OK, slight exaggeration.  I still had nuts go flying all over when I chopped them.

Fast forward to last summer.  I was at my big brother and sister-in-law's house and she got her food chopper out, went chop, chop, chop and had the nicest, neatest little pile of nuts ready to use.  I  had her show me what she did and now that is how I chop mine.  Those little cups they sell with those choppers to hold the food being chopped just get in the way.  Clean the counter if needed and put the food right there.  Whack, turn slightly and whack again until it is just right.  So simple . ..  and I might add, just a little obvious  ;= ?

So many knives, 3 choppers, three teachers and 50 years later, I don't dread chopping nuts.   It is the little things in life that count!  Thanks girls!

This is not a resolution . . .

. . . it is another new beginning.  I will put the same kind of ticker in my side bar to track my path to better health.  Once again, I am tired of feeling like this, tired of having nothing to wear with a closet full of clothes (that I am too big for, again) and tired of being tired.

I have tried to start this week by cubing my grazing, munching and just being kind of DUMB.  It has already made a difference.  Two pounds off, heart burn letting up and less bloating.  First baby step, the way that seems to work the best for me.  Slow and steady.

Summer is on its way and time is wasting, here I go again.  At least there is only ten pounds to lose again . . and then on to new territory.

DECEMBER 2011

We had fun running across town to for Brianna's first concert with her little girls' Choir.  the girls were so cute and on their way to lots of talented performances!














After this was the attempt to get a picture of all the girls.  As usual, Lynneah was not impressed!

 A quick pic of all the grand kids at one time.  They sure had other things on their minds!  But gave us the best they could.
Variety is the spice of life, and these little stinkers sure give it to us.  Love them so much.  Jon, Sarah and I were all getting over the stomach flu so the kids had to stay away from us.  That was hard.  We ended up with Lynneah on my lap, but there is a good chance she was one of the ones who exposed us all to it.

Next the kids opened the gifts from our name drawing/gift exchange.  It was pretty hard as Lynneah went first, well kind of.  She never did really tear the paper on her gifts.  Lincoln was next; no problem with the tearing into the package.  Tatianna was next and was pretty excited  to get "just what I wanted"!

FINALLY . . . it was Garrett's turn.  We worried he would get a hernia before he got to go to town!   He has always LOVED Cwisamus!  So glad he still does!


Next it was Arianna's turn for a doll that looked kind of familiar . .




. . . and then finally it was the "biggest" boy's turn. Gabriel likes claiming the "oldest grand child" title well enough, that he doesn't seem to mind the wait.  Funny kid.









Baby Neah was busy toddling around the whole time and just being cute, cuddly and her own little self.  Such a joy to watch.  I get hit with a little emotion so often watching her as she develops her own little way in this big old world.  In a couple of months her little world might be turned upside down when she is no longer the baby.  Should be interesting!  BTW, take a look at the little Buddha belly on the little miss.  Her pants are usually at half mast with it pushing them down . .  she and the little . .  thugs wanna-be's running around.  Hang a chain on her and she'll fit right in . .  hmmm, that gives me a funny idea.  Have to think about it!

Getting  late and I'm tired, finish the rest of the month another time.

First a disclaimer:  I am not an expert on quilting.  I have learned a lot of why they do, what they do, on quilting shows.  Since I have not been able to manage much in the way of quilting classes, I am truly flying by the seat of my pants in making this quilt and by learning things the hard way, I am learning to do it the easy way.

I'll be doing a post on my blog and adding to it as I go along on this second side to share and perhaps make it easier for others.

I must admit though, I think the first thing is to take some good quilting classes!!  Some day, soon, it will happen.

As I go along, I will just add to this post to keep everything in the correct order the easy way.

First let me share the first side of the quilt.  It is made with a Thomas Kincaid panel which was a lot smaller than normal.  So I put the smaller ones in the corners.  The ones at the top will get covered with pillows, so I wish I had thought of that before I did the design.  Live and learn.

I was constantly adjusting.  Should have squared up all of them before I started sewing.  Would have eliminated many headaches and save many hours.  I expect this second side to lay together better since the first thing I did was to square up the one panel that will center the quilt.

I was not as far sided as I had hoped.  The two small panels at the top will be covered by pillows eventually.  Now I wish I had thought to have the smaller panels off the corners of the main one in the middle.  It would have made it easier to tie through all the layers at this stage as well when it came time, without having them ending up in strange places.

As I sew each border, I will square it up before measuring or cutting the next border.  It should lay better and have no pulling that has to compensated for.  Pictures coming in a couple of hours.  I also iron, iron and iron.  this is such an important step to any kind of sewing that gets skipped so often.  As each strip is added, I press the seam over, using steam, to make sure it is set.

1:39 p.m.

I can not believe how much easier this first border is going in.  It is the same as the pink shiny border in the first side.  You can tell what problems I had with it.  Some of the shading is from not laying flat, some is from having trouble keeping the two pieces together.  I have had to square  the strips a couple of times, but it is paying off!

10:25 p.m.

I am just amazed at how much better this sides is going together.  I have realized that either, I still can not measure straight or  I can't count right or something.  It is turning out too big and I still have one more border to put in to get the Bippity Boppity Boo fabric incorporated into the Cinderella side.  So once again, I need to re-figure and be flexible to get it done.  Sigh.

I love watching the quilt/sewing shows on PBS.  I have even been recording them so that I can refer back to them.  Last Saturday the show that has the mother/daughter team on it, was discussing how techniques and methods have changed since rotary cutters have come along.  They have made it so much easier to make accurate cuts which can result in much more complicated designs.  So true!!  The correct equipment has been a life saver, no doubt about it!