What I Love About Winter

Accuweather's 10-day forecast for Mount Savage, MD
on Dec 30, 2017

Has your skin turned blue... are you frozen through and through?  Oh, baby, it's cold outside! But I'm trying to stay positive this chilly night before New Year’s Eve and find some things to make winter seem more like an old friend than such an evil intruder throwing a wrench into whatever I have planned.

What I love most about winter:

Sweats are fashionable

Hot cocoa

Crockpots full of simmering soup

Guessing at animal footprints after fresh snowfall

A crackling fire in the fireplace

Fuzzy socks

Little kids stuffed into puffy coats 'til they can barely walk
Snuggly puppies
Electric blanket (or electric mattress pad so it's warm from below)
Ice cold water from the tap
Chicken pot pie
Fluffy bathrobes
Hot spiced cider
Looking at seed catalogs & dreaming of spring gardens
Watching kids sled down a hillside
Colorful birds flitting about in bare tree branches
Lasagna
The way falling snow makes it look like you're inside a snowglobe
Catching snowflakes on your tongue
Steaming bowls of chili
Being covered in the afghan you're crocheting
Daydreaming about a Hawaiian vacation
Dogs with crazy sweaters
Slathering butter on bread right from the oven
Videos of dogs learning to walk in their new booties
Binge watching Hallmark movies
Rolling the "r" when you say brrrrr...
Cute boots (and cute hats and mittens and scarves, too)
All kinds of apple desserts
Fondling the Christmas decorations as  you  put them away


And probably my very favorite... Complaining about the cold!

Life's Lessons

You know those 'Life Lessons' pictures and posts you see make the rounds on Facebook?  Sometimes thoughtful, sometimes amusing, often trite... they usually just annoy me.  So along that vein here are some things I've learned, so far, in my own life:

• Only your dog loves you unconditionally, accepts each day for what it is and is happy to eat exactly the same thing for every meal.
• Most people don't want to hear about your problems... that's when you nod like a bobble head and just move on.
• The people you expect it from the least are usually the ones who are there when you've failed and need help picking up the pieces.  And failing is part of life so just accept that it will happen to you now and then.
• Having relatives and being part of a family aren't the same thing - blood may be thicker but water surely tastes better!
• Money can help soothe misery but it can't buy you happiness.  Happy and 'not miserable' are not the same thing either.

• Please and thank you are truly magic words when spoken from the heart.
• Take the risk!  Stuff that scares the crap out of you usually isn't that big of a deal once you actually do it.
• The voices inside your own head are always your harshest critics.
• There will be times when you feel like you just can't catch a break and times when it seems like everything comes easy.  Remember the easy times when life is hard but even more, remember the hard times when life is easy!
• The men in your life will leave the toilet seat up.  It's no bigger a deal for you to put it down than it is for them to put it up every trip to the bathroom.
• Own up to your mistakes.  Being honest is a heck of a lot easier than keeping all the lies straight.
• Learn to pick your battles.  Quite often whatever someone has done to make you angry is very very far from the worst thing they could have chosen to do.
• Yell, scream and stomp your feet very very rarely.  It's only effective when it's a surprise!
  
• Practical help always trumps good wishes.
• Sometimes what you get is not what you give or deserve.  There's a reason 'karma' isn't referred to as an angel...
• Smiling is a great reaction no matter what the situation.  It may not solve the problem, but it doesn't make it any worse and you get to make people wonder what you've got up your sleeve!
• The little things in life are the important ones.  You take care of the details and the big picture will take care of itself.
• When you are totally distracted by what you want now, you'll lose out on what you want most.
• Learn to talk with anyone and appreciate their life story.  There's less difference between you and them, no matter who they are, than you think.
• Never think you've seen it all.  Life takes that as a challenge!

(All photos without attribution on Pinterest.)

5 Products I Wish I Could Find

Obviously I found them... What I REALLY wish is to find them in my local grocery store in Georgia.

Photo credit:  Amazon.com

Cinnamon Bears
Even better, but I can make my own in a pinch, would be Chocolate Covered Cinnamon Bears.  I do occasionally give in to the craving and drop $20 for a 5-lb bag on Amazon.com then ration them out to myself a handful at a time for the next few weeks.  But it would be so much easier to pick up a little bag now and then at the grocery store...  Before giving in to Amazon orders I searched Publix, Kroger, CVS, Walgreens, Rite Aid, Walmart, Target, Dollar Tree, Dollar General - basically every store with a candy counter that I stepped foot in for over a month.  No one had ever heard of them.  And more than a few looked at me like I was a little nuts claiming there was a bear-shaped candy that tasted like an Atomic Fireball and had the consistency of a Swedish Fish.

Photo credit:  Amazon.com

Redmond Real Salt
I love this for cooking and the occasional sprinkle on food at the table.  The package claims that it tastes different.  And, like a lot of people, I thought that was a bogus claim until I did their test and tried a few grains of regular salt on my tongue, big drink of water, and a few grains of Redmond Real Salt on my tongue.  It was different.  And better.  And so pretty with those pink and copper colored mineral inclusions.  Also available on Amazon.com... one day I will get some!  And then replace the salt in every shaker in the house!!

Photo credit: http://www.brandeating.com

Claim Jumper Chicken Pot Pie
Sorry Marie Callendar... I get yours as a substitute once in a great awhile but only because I can't get Claim Jumper's here.  That makes me sad, even now, during the much too hot to eat pot pie summertime.  Claim Jumper's pot pies just taste so much better to me!  Better seasoned filling with more chicken and a flakier crust.  And usually a bit cheaper price tag, too... sigh.  Baking them is the best, but I usually couldn't make myself wait and microwaved them and that was perfectly acceptable.

Photo credit:  grandmaspasta.com

  Grandma's Frozen Egg Noodles

  Or any frozen home-style noodle, for that

  matter.  The days last   week when it was chilly

  and raining so hard I wanted with every fiber of
  my being to make a pot of chicken noodle
  soup.  I didn't do it.  And the only reason was
  because I'd have to either drag out the pasta
  machine and spend half a day making them
  first or use those dried egg noodles and that
  just sort of ruined the whole appeal of even
  making soup.

Photo credit: http://www.coxshoney.com

Creamed Honey
As a child I learned that the flavor of honey depended a lot on the food sources available to the bees.  Growing up in Shelley, ID the main source of food for those bees was clover.  And it made for the absolute best honey in the world!!  I admit, I've bought some pretty decent honey here in GA.  It works fine on toast, or in tea, or to cook with.  Perfectly palatable!  But runny honey is just not quite what I'm craving...  (And terms like "creamed honey" and "runny honey" get me that questioning raised eyebrow look from the grocery manager!)  All I need is money, and I'll be placing an order.

Just Do It Myself...

You've seen the funny saying about asking a man to do something and not nagging because he'll get to it in 6 months?  More or less...  Yeah.  Well life with an infamous "putter offer of doing stuff in hopes the problem just goes away" breeds this attitude in me!

Some of the projects left on my "Get Shit Done" list for May:

• Break paint seals and have windows that open all over the house*
• A dishwasher that serves more of a purpose than being a cabinet ornament*
• Clean out the growing clog in the master bathroom's shower drain
• Get rid of the yellow jacket nest suddenly being built in the basement window frame**
• Spray the yard for ants - something like 14 different kinds of ants all building massive hills out there*
• Drag that concrete diverter thingy that was buried under crap in the backyard around front and under the last undiverted rain gutter downspout*
• Get all the unearthed bricks in one place and decide if they'll rim the firepit or one of the terraces in the front flower garden
• Put the last couple of shelves in the china cabinet so the last box of dishes can be unpacked and put away*
• Get the boxes we're keeping, the moving dolly, and the tools and garden implements in the storage room and out of the kitchen, living room and carport*

*  Help has either been requested or volunteered with this task.  I'm just sick of waiting for it!

** I'll give him a pass on this one since  he's so allergic to their stings that he'd swell up like a bloated corpse and have to spend the day in the ER.  Have to admit THAT is a pretty good excuse...

A Few Of My Favorite Things

Or maybe not....

Some of my favorite things:
Gooey chocolate chip cookies warm from the oven.
Sloppy wet puppy kisses.
Strawberries.
Mint chocolate chip ice cream.
Laughing until I'm in tears and I can't breathe... or stop laughing.
Someone else washing my hair and massaging my scalp.
Pecan brittle.
My fiance's cologne.
Freshly washed bamboo sheets.
Christmas lights.
Hugs.
Comfy slippers.
Taking off the bra and shoes as soon as I walk in the door.
Fresh cut french fries.
Pizza made with white sauce, chicken, spinach and lots of cheese.
Backyard barbeques with family and friends.
Passionate kisses.
Pink roses.
A cherry red '67 Chevelle convertible.
The moon when it's bright and full and oh so big.
Home-made chicken noodle soup with home-made wide egg noodles.
Bread, hot from the oven.
A tear-jerker of a chick flick.
My best friend's voice on the phone.
Snuggling a brand new baby.
Watching tv in bed.
Hot buttered popcorn.
Christmas carols.
Creamy avocados sliced onto a turkey sandwich.
A good back scratch.
Tart lemonade on a hot afternoon.
Splashing around in the intensely blue water of the Caribbean.
Ripe tomatoes picked and eaten right in the garden.
Bright bolts of lightning and loud crashes of thunder.
Houses with window shutters and wide covered front porches.
Fluffy long-haired kitties.
Fettuccini Alfredo (with chicken and broccoli).
A good old-fashioned love song playing on the radio.
Rain.
The scent of a rose.
Rich dark-stained wood furniture.
Conversation and 'smores over a campfire.
A crackling fire in the fireplace on a cold night.
Freshly polished silver.
French toast.
The peppery bite of watercress pulled straight from a mountain stream.
Wild flower bouquets.
Holding hands.
Old red brick churches with stained glass windows.
Shiny new pennies.