…was nothing short of AMAZING!!! I just polished off the rest of my giant weekly salad bowl (see last post), along with a baked yukon gold potato (topped with a dollop of sour cream and Earth Balance – a healthy butter substitute) and freshly-steamed brussels sprouts, also with a spot of Earth Balance and of course all was sprinkled with freshly ground pepper. Oh how I enjoy my food! And, seeing that I’m needing to cut back a bit (according to my neighbor see January 12th post – Putting Things In Perspective), I went for an all-veggie feast, something the others in my house don’t get real excited about, as much as they enjoy their veggies. Guys do tend to be meat lovers.

I’ve spent no less than 3 days resting this week  - perhaps the most difficult of my tasks. RESTING is a job for me. I’m much more comfortable expending energy, actively engaged, producing something (or at least under the impression that I’m producing something - ha! – activity is not always productive, you know).

This isn’t necessarily a positive quality I possess. I thoroughly admire those who can shut the world out and chill. But, due to something – perhaps that roasted deli chicken I consumed over the weekend while hubby was away (he hates those things) or some bug I caught at the gym, or my stressful deadlines – I got sick.

I’m all better now and enjoyed winning my doubles tennis match this morning. I love to win as much as I love to eat! It was such fun to see the sun again today for a few minutes. Here in northern California we’ve been getting steady rain, clouds and in general, some pretty dismal weather. This forecast has been on repeat…

It feels like it’s been a good 6 weeks of this. I love rain, so that’s not a problem, and it did make my ‘imposed rest period’ much easier to endure. Rain = naps. But after living a decade in western Washington, I’ve had my share of grey and I’ve become a little intolerant of the stuff. They call it ‘fog’ here to make themselves feel better, but I call it what it is: clouds.

Since it’s been raining and I couldn’t play tennis or take very enjoyable power walks, I’ve been going to some classes at the local gym where we have a family membership. The first class I went to almost killed me. It’s called Weights In Motion and after 20 minutes of this motion, I’m sure my heart rate was at ‘dangerous’ (ok, well, sort of  ) and I thought I was in pretty good shape! I couldn’t be beat, however, so I persisted to the end of the hour-long endurance test and dragged myself home. Seeing that it wiped me out for the remainder of my day, I looked over the various offerings of the gym and decided on a lower intensity class called Ease-Into Health.

I showed up to the classroom, which was almost full – of elderly folks. They were playing Frank Sinatra and Elvis music in the background. (as opposed to the drrrrriving disco beat of the high-intensity class I tried!) On Love Me Tender I almost got the giggles. I must say the 80 year-old men in attendance were on track and their prowess on the ’stepper’ (portable block) was encouraging! I was afraid I’d turn my ankle on the ‘over the top’ part but all was well. The atmosphere was warm as these grandfathers cracked some fun jokes with the happy-hearted instructor and told stories about their kids.

I went back two days later and a good number of gals closer to my age showed up. For now, this is a good fit. As long as they don’t pull out the Bing Crosby and Andrews Sisters tunes…

Enjoy your weekend – hope you get some time to relax!

…in a BIG tossed salad! One of my favorite tricks to ensure our family gets its raw greens and things is a big, colorful, fresh salad filled with an assortment of delicious vegetables. Pretty much every week I stop and pull out every fresh item I have in the fridge that can possibly be added to a salad. (I do, however, leave out any type of raw onion and mushroom to accommodate my sons. I keep those separate because I figure if they’ll eat all the other stuff gladly, why have a war over mushrooms and onions?)

This ready-made salad is one key to good health, plenty of fiber in our diets and convenience. Although initially it costs me about an hour to wash, dry, dice and toss, plus all the clean-up involved, it’s well worth the effort all week long when we simply grab, serve and eat.

Here is the current salad we are enjoying – you can see it’s dwindling, so it will be time to prepare another one soon…

This time it contains romaine, mixed wild greens (purchased in a ready-made combination bag at the store), radishes, carrot, cucumber, fresh basil, shredded red cabbage, red and yellow sweet pepper, celery, cherry tomatoes and turnip. I’ve started slicing all the extra-firm veggies in a food processor to save time and get a much thinner end product. My kids remarked how much they’re enjoying the new texture of the sliced vegetables. Just a twist on the same ol’ veggie.

Branch out and add sugar snap peas, diced broccoli, snow peas and cauliflower, cilantro, and anything else that sounds fun. Today I added crumbled feta cheese, kalamata olives, green onions and freshly ground pepper to my portion. Then I tossed it with balsamic vinegar and flaxseed oil. So delicious I forget it’s healthful, too. Design your own version and dig in!

Papers and file boxes laying everywhere, feeling a little bit like the absent-minded professor for brief periods of time…

Computer screen numbing my eyeballs while I ‘chase rabbits’ at times, cutting and pasting and re-creating, clickety-clack, clickety-clack…

Necessary distractions to stay sane in the middle of my exhaustive word searches and tedious re-writes: late morning exercise, check the mail at 2:30, indulge in a self-made latte at 3 p.m. (yesterday was a mocha-lite, today an eggnog-lite ), throw in a load of laundry, organize a drawer…and when I can’t bear to read the words on the screen for one more minute, I walk to the sink, get a glass of water and look at my beautiful flowers.Hubby surprised me with them last week on a particularly difficult day, when I had been especially petulant (bad-tempered, cross, irritable, snappish, touchy, testy, disgruntled and cranky – aren’t words just so perfectly expressive?!) just before he left the house on errands.

He walked in the door later that day and handed me grace in a vase! I think that’s why they’re especially dear to my heart. I water them daily.

Anyhoo…back to my wearisome task…and I’m loving almost every minute of it!

Doesn’t every wife want to feel especially indulged by her man from time-to-time? So much of life is a flurry of activity and responsibility, mostly related to work and bill-paying and child-rearing, but occasionally, there is a pause when I am THE QUEEN .

Recently my husband remarked that he’d seen on the news that the latest women’s beauty trend is bright red lipstick along with black eyeliner and bronze eyeshadow. Now you have to understand that I’ve never heard my husband, in 30 years, make a comment like that. Hmm. That’s funny, I thought. That he would listen to, notice or remember such a thing. I commented that a friend had emailed me a photo of a particular haircut and the gal in the picture did indeed have exactly that make-up on.

So we’re floating about the mall one day shortly thereafter, looking for stocking stuffers for the kids, and he says, “you want some red lipstick?” I couldn’t believe my ears. What guy asks his wife if she wants to spend money on make-up? That doesn’t happen at my house, anyway.

Well, what could I say? “Why, of course!..I mean, if you think it’s…well, sure!” We just happened to be near a specialty store for women’s beauty products so we went in and asked about red lipstick. It was just so funny to be with my hubby, looking for lipstick. I sort of felt like I was in a dream – slightly giddy, even. He’s helping me choose a color as the gal rolls stripes of each color across her hand. He points to the two that he likes and they were out of stock – can you believe it?! (He knows his stuff and he picked the two most popular colors – what a guy!) So we switched brands and he found another very similar color and said it would work. She assured me that if I didn’t like it, I could bring it back. (America, the land of many happy money-back guarantees!)

So…this is exactly what he bought for me. It wasn’t Maybelline or L’Oreal or Cover Girl. It probably cost twice as much as any of those. I was feelin’ pretty fancy, indeed.

I’m loved.

Our weather is looking ugly and getting uglier by the moment if the weathermen are correct! No less than 6 storms are due to hit us here on the the west coast (northern CA), one after another beginning tonight, and bringing unusual wind, 6-10 inches of rain and 5-10 feet of snow in the Sierras. There’s been so much fuss made that if it all ‘blows over’ it will be a bit comical. I wouldn’t be surprised, and it wouldn’t be the first time the predictions weren’t correct. News shows seem to thrive on the drama they create and this impending storm has kept the networks yapping.

Back in 2006 we were hit with a wind storm that shook us to the core! Here are some shots of our then-neighborhood. We couldn’t even leave the house until clean-up crews took a chainsaw to the trees that had fallen across the streets of our community. I remember laying in bed in the middle of the night, thinking that our windows would pop out due to the ferocious gusts of wind beating against our home, which was perched high atop a hill smack dab on the Puget Sound, seemingly even more vulnerable to the storm.

We were without power for a week and finally moved into my husband’s office to keep from freezing! It was just before Christmas and we ended up not even decorating due to all the time lost just coping without power. The lines at coffee shops were out the door because folks couldn’t even boil water at home to make their own hot drinks. We suddenly became grateful for those simple things we take for granted every single day.

I’m reminded of Matthew 7:24-27, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

And Hebrews 1:7 “In speaking of the angels he says, ”He makes his angels winds, his servants flames of fire.”

We were kept safe, thankfully. God is in charge of the weather patterns and He is an awesome God. No flesh will glory in His presence and prideful human beings are suddenly humbled by such simple things as torrential rain, winds and the like. Natural things speak to us if we allow them to, don’t they? Hm. Just thinking.

I hate to waste food. Thus, my habit is to fill Ziplock freezer bags with odds and ends such as wilted celery, onions, tomatoes, extra veggies left over from meals, etc. I just noticed that I was accumulating quite a crop of these ‘extras’ so I decided to make soup. I began with some rock solid frozen stew meat at the bottom of my crock pot, and opened up my freezer bags, dumping everything else on top of the meat. I even had a couple of baggies of diced red and green peppers this time for extra kick. Fun! I added a few bay leaves and a couple of tablespoons of beef broth concentrate and crowned the whole thing with 2 bags of frozen mixed veggies (chopped carrots, green beans, corn and peas). Then I turned it on low and went to bed.

8 hours later I got up to make our morning coffee. I could smell the fragrance of stewing meat and veggies through the whole house…mmm…great food for a rainy, winter day. I added about a quart of beef broth to finish out the soup along with some salt and pepper.

All that was left to do was prepare a tossed salad and bake a whole wheat loaf in my bread machine. YUM!

P.S. My boys said my wheat bread was very tasty, but so dense it would make a great weapon! (First time recipe- I think I’ll adjust it next time with half bread flour )

Ya’ gotta’ laugh!

I ran over to my neighbor’s house to take them some turkey dinner. Several of our neighbors are at the age when cooking is a real chore due to their physical limitations. After cooking for a large family for so many years, I tend to cook a lot more than our family can consume, so consequently there’s often plenty to share. They always appreciate anything homemade since they rely on inexpensive fast food for many of their meals.

When I dropped off the meal, I noticed my neighbor was about to light up a cigarette out back in her garage. Her hubby was napping and she seemed to need some company. I told her I’d be right back to visit with her while she smoked and I ran home quick to grab a cup of coffee and a cookie to sip and munch while we chatted. (On this particular occasion, in my heart of hearts I was hoping to glean some wisdom from this ol’ gal who’s lived about 40 years longer than I have!)

The economic crisis was the launching point of our conversation, and from there she began to share all sorts of things with me. I listened intently as she reviewed her and her husband’s work history with me. I didn’t realize how many trials they’d encountered. Funny how we perceive things to be about other folks, before we know the facts.

She told me of the bad luck they’d had due to her husband’s retirement being, in essence, ’stolen’ by a large company before legal regulations had been implemented to secure promised benefits for long-term employees. His monthly draw is a pittance.

Then she went on rehearsing the pain she’d felt when the same thing happened to her at the end of her career so many years ago. She said that with the current economy, their meager investments yield so little, she’s not sure they’ll have enough to even pay their taxes this year. She expressed her fear of being dropped by her insurance plan.

She shared how a particular relocation hadn’t turned out so happy. She mentioned how most of her friends are all deceased or long-distance. Sigh. She poured out her heart as she spoke of her grown daughter’s divorce, serious health issues, lack of medical benefits and loneliness. Wow. So many burdens on this woman’s shoulders. So many disappointments. I listened intently, with compassion, and felt her pain as she spoke. We always end up talking about God and prayer during our visits.

I finally ran out of time and had to get home to prepare dinner for my family. I gave her a hug and turned to go. She had one last comment.

“Denise, you know you’ve gained some weight.”

UGH. I suddenly remembered the cookie I had just consumed. Gol’ dang, why did I eat that thing?!! While I nibbled she was thinking, “Denise is getting chunky.”

“Um, yes, Betty Ann, I told you I had,” I said as I sprinted out the door – (gee thanks, I feel so much better. Did I really need to hear you say that? I think it’s hot in here. Well happy new year to me. I am feelin’ the love…)

Life sure does keep us humble.

I was power walking in the park near our home when I began to smell a delicious fragrance…mmm…like a mountain of freshly cut pine trees! Sure enough – just around the bend was a sign declaring “Christmas Tree Drop Off Please Start Here.”

My eyes scanned the scene before me. Tree after tree after tree piled one atop the other. Hundreds. I’m sure there were probably Douglas Firs, White Firs, Grand Firs, Sierra Redwoods, Scotch Pines, Nobles…so many different styles, some flocked, short, tall, narrow, broad. All tossed haphazardly in a discard pile.

I thought about how carefully each tree had been selected by eager buyers only 30 days ago. Some folks had spent a bundle for a living room decoration so briefly enjoyed. Average tree prices this year were:

3-4′ Table Top tree w/stand $29

4 – 5′ ………………………$44

5 – 6′ ………………………$54

6 – 7′……………………….$69

7 – 8′ ………………………$79

8 – 9′ ………………………$110

9 – 10′ …………………….$140

10 -11′ …………………….$225

It occurred to me that sitting before me on the cold, wet, winter earth were memories of Christmas past for possibly thousands of individuals. Some good memories, perhaps many not-so-good memories. I’m not a poet, but these trees spoke so loudly to my heart!

I thought of broken families and busy parents and wayward children gathering around these token Christmas symbols. Human beings longing for some semblance of togetherness, warmth, family and spiritual wholeness had purchased these representations of celebration and prayed silently in hope of better things to come.

I thought about how much money, time and energy had been invested in what ended up becoming a very hollow holiday. I pondered how many had experienced an all-too-brief surge of spiritual seeking as they attended a Midnight Mass or special Christmas church service, only to return to their same ol’ lives the next day.

I thought about the many disappointments experienced. I tend toward optimism, but I know that in reality there’s so much sorrow and brokenness in lives due to the consequences of sin. Much of our nation and many of our neighbors are in distress.

The next day I happened upon these hills of shredded pine. All the trees had been ground into chips. Much had already been hauled away. Such a harsh scene.

Metaphors galore. (Perhaps I am a poet after all! )

Finally. The last box went to the attic yesterday afternoon. Sigh. Funny how much I love every sign of Christmas right about Thanksgiving time – until it’s Christmas past – then it’s like “turn off that music and pack those Christmas coffee cups. I don’t wanna see another candy cane or Frosty statue for 11 months, it is time to begin a new year!”

Our last houseguest departed on the 1st and the laundry marathon began. Rugs, blankets, sheets, towels – more towels. Then it was time to plan another week’s meals and send the boys shopping for some more groceries (why are the groceries always gone?!). Then I sorted out the stuff that’s going to the Goodwill. Tired decorations, anything broken and boring. Of course I had to take a few moments to reminisce as I wiped a few tears from my eyes…

Napping pregnant daughter and boys playing video games…

Pregnant lady satisfying her voracious appetite!

Newlywed daughter grabbing a corner to snuggle up and read her book…boys eating and eating and….

Me and Santa cutting up while trimming the mini-tree…

Brothers…

Newlyweds having a Christmas hug…

…so much to ponder, but not for long because my mail and bookwork was so far behind due to all the holiday hoopla! AND it was now time to somehow fit everything properly into boxes with bubble wrap, organizing in such a way that no box would be too heavy to hoist into the attic.
All done! Phew! Time for Mrs. Clause to put her feet up and eat some good chocolate