Quick Takes (19)

- 1-

Last week I mentioned that I was thinking about doing the 365 day photo challenge.  Well, I’m not only thinking about it, I’ve set up a new blog and jumped in with both feet, dragging Himself with me.  I’ve got a link on the side of this blog or it can be found here.  Check it out.  I think you’re going to find that the pictures Himself takes will be quite artistic and beautiful while mine document the more mundane.  That’s okay.  That’s how we roll!

-2-

I have been terrible about eating breakfast each morning at home before work.  I’m not keen on cereal and usually am hungry again soon after eating it.  Anyone have ideas on good, make ahead breakfasts?

-3-

I never seem to go very long without a sewing project.  Himself has been requesting new curtains for the living room.  I promised to try to get new ones completed by his birthday in March.  Bye, bye ugly orange curtains!

-4-

-5-

I feel so forgetful lately.  I sat down at the computer yesterday to look something up on Google and by the time I brought up the browser I forgot what I was looking for.  In one of her mass e-mailings, a friend sent this link.  Has anyone heard of it?  Does it work?

-6-

Sunday afternoon we will be taking down the Christmas decorations at church as the season comes to an end with the celebration of the Epiphany.  They were incredibly beautiful this year and I will be sorry to see them go.

-7-

“We should thank God for beer and burgundy by not drinking too much of them.”

- GKC

Don't forget to check out more Quick Takes at Conversion Diary.

Have a great weekend!

AMDG

Thankful Thursday (6)

Today I am thankful for. . .

Snow tires.  Winter finally hit here, complete with wickedly cold temperatures, biting winds, and snow.  The car I normally take to work has rear wheel drive, which leaves a lot to be desired on slick roadways.  One day after work last week I couldn’t make it up the hill of our driveway.  The next day Himself went out and had snow tires put on the back wheels.  Now we get up that hill without the slightest hesitation!

Oven with a temperature probe.  When we replaced the range last year, my prime requirement was that it had a double oven.  The warming drawer really comes in handy when we have large gatherings.  An unexpected bonus was the probe.  Plug one end into the meat, the other into the oven, and program the desired internal temperature.  What you get is one perfect tenderloin roast.  Yummy!

Books.  Now that the holidays are coming to a close and the preparations have been completed, I have some time to sit back and relax.  I have found a few new authors that I have been enjoying.  I curl up under a blanket with a hot cup of tea and read away the afternoon.

Digital Photography.  For as long as I can remember I’ve always been interested in taking pictures.  On a trip I took way back when, I used over two dozen rolls of film.  The cost of processing that really adds up.  Plus, you have to wait to see the results of your work.  Digital provides instant gratification – did the picture come out or not or do I need to take another?    Plus I can snap, snap, snap to my heart’s content and it doesn’t cost me a cent more.

Check out more to be thankful for at The Road Home.

AMDG 

Wednesday Weigh In – It’s a new year!

Way back in July I thought if I publicly accounted for my weight
losses or gains I might actually be motivated to do better. It didn't
work out so well. I conveniently stopped posting when the little
needle on the scale started going in the wrong direction.
Too many quick, fast food breakfasts on the way to work and all the
holiday goodies has made me hesitant to step on the scale. This
morning I decided that it just could not be avoided any longer.Thankfully, it was not as bad as I thought it would be. I'm actually
down about two pounds from my previous high, which was opposite of
what I thought the scale was going to tell me. But, obviously, I
still really need to do something more.I think one thing that helped over the last couple of weeks has been
those yummy Clementine tangerines. At the grocery where I shop they
are only sold in small crates containing 25 to 30 pieces. On the way
out the door each morning I've been grabbing a couple of them and
snacking on them throughout the day. It's eliminated trips to the
vending machines where the snacking choices aren't so healthy.I think my next step is to revive the 30 day challenge – make one
change and concentrate on doing it for the next 30 days. I think this
time the challenge has to be giving up those fast food breakfasts. It
will mean planning ahead and perhaps even getting up a little bit
earlier each morning, but both the calories and dollars saved will add
up quickly. After all, how healthy can an Egg McMuffin be?What do you do to get the scale moving in the right direction?
AMDG

Have you seen that?

A year or so ago I got bifocals and decided I hated them.  The optician talked me into these graduated ones that go from distance to reading with middle sites blended in between.  When I wear them I feel like a bobble head, tipping my head this way and that, trying to find just the right spot to see whatever I’m looking at clearly.  Finally, I gave up, and just use reading glassing.  To heck with trying to see things in the distance! 

In all honesty, that hasn’t worked out so well.  Thankfully, it hasn’t affected my driving.  Much.  But in church, with needing to following the card with the new translation, either the priest is a big blur or the reading glasses go on and off.  And on and off.  It’s the same way at work.  And at home.  And in the stores.

It’s time to try again.  But this time I’m not getting those graduated things.  No more bobble head Donna! 

So guess what that means?  I need to find the prescription from the eye doctor.  Has anyone seen it?  Hee!  Hee! (I just love a good pun.  Too bad that wasn’t one, though.)

It wasn’t where I thought it should be, tucked nicely in the file drawer with all other of those kinds of papers.  Nope.  Not there. 

So what better way to spend New Year’s Day afternoon than going through the pretty, large, bottomless wicker basket of mystery papers.   Resumes from three jobs ago?  Nope, don’t need them.  Directions to the job interview I didn’t want to go on anyway?  Not that either.   Instruction manual for a radio I no longer have?  Gone.  And on and on it went.

The script, of course, was the very last piece of paper I looked at.  The last piece of paper.  Not, as in, “I stopped looking once I found it” last.  No.  As in, that last piece of paper at the very bottom of the basket” last.

Funny thing.  When I go on interviews, I am often asked what are three of my best qualities I bring to the job.  I always say “I’m organized”.  I’m beginning to think that’s a not so accurate statement.

AMDG

As the cookie crumbles

One of the ladies from my neighborhood book club brought her daughter over last week taking orders for Girl Scout cookies.  I had to tell them we weren’t buying them this year, or perhaps anymore, for that matter.

It’s not that I don’t like them.  I like almost all of them, especially the Samoas and Thin Mints.  Have you ever had the Thin Mints frozen?   One year I put them in the freezer to save them for later munching.  When I needed a sweet I raided the freezer and didn’t even wait for them to thaw.  Yummy! 

Actually, Girl Scout cookies and I go way back.  I went all the way through scouting – Brownies through Seniors.  I sold those cookies when they were only seventy-five cents a box.  They funded all sorts of great activities from camping trips to crafts to service projects. 



Me - middle left

Scouting was good for me.  It helped me come out of my shell.  It taught me to try new things. 

I went on two Wider Opportunities, trips for girls from all over the country, based on a theme.  Between my sophomore and junior years in high school I spent a week at the national Girl Scout camp in Ten Sleep, Wyoming, learning about photography.  A year later I travelled to Knoxville, Tennessee, to learn about different types of energy sources and attend the World's Fair. 

At one point I even applied and interviewed to go on an international Wider Opportunity.  Had I been accepted I would have spent a month in India.  I didn't go, but a friend did and had amazing experiences.





 

During Senior scouts, our troop learned about clowning.  I kid you not!  We learned to apply the make-up and I sewed my own costume.  We visited nursing homes, throwing parties for the elderly residents.

  

My last year in scouting I earned the Gold Award.  It’s the Girl Scouts’ version of achieving the rank of Eagle Scout.  It’s a lot of work and a high honor.  To this day I'm proud of that accomplishment.

Today Girl Scouting just isn’t the same.  I understand it’s going to change.  The badges girls earn today are different than when I was involved, just as those are different from the ones earned by girls generations before me.  

Somewhere along the line, though, they began aligning themselves with organizations such as Planned Parenthood and George Soros' Media Matters.  At that point they lost me.

Too bad.  I’m going to miss those cookies!

AMDG

Looking back, looking forward

It seems as we get closer to the end of the year we tend to start thinking about next year and how we want it to be better, different, more of this, less of that than the one coming to a close.  At least I do.  And in doing so, I look at this last year and take stock.  What was good?  What could be better?

As I’m trying to think back over this last year, it all seems to be a blur.  New Year’s Day 2011 seems so far away.  How was this year?  Good, bad, indifferent?  I don’t know.  This has to have been the hardest year of my life in terms of job/career, finances, marriage, mental, emotional & physical fitness. 

What was good?  God.  What could be better?  Me.

I just printed a calendar for my desk at work, using some of my favorite photos.  Across the top of it I added “Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam” – “To the greater glory of God”.  It’s my reminder that, good, bad, indifferent, my life has one purpose – to glorify our Lord. 

All the rest will follow.

AMDG

Quick Takes (18)

-1-

Happy 6^th day of Christmas!  I am so grateful that the season lasts 12 days so I can still work on celebrating it properly. 

-2-

As I’m writing this I’m “plugged in” to my iPod listening to my all-time favorite Christmas tunes.  It saddens me that the radio stations stop playing them so soon.  But then again, they start playing them so early.

-3-

My patron saint for 2012 is Our Lady of Guadalupe.  I shouldn’t be surprised, considering how she’s figured prominently in my life, but I am.  Guess there’s no such thing as coincidences, huh?  Get your saint at Conversion Diary.

-4-

How are you bringing in the new year?  Do you do anything special?  We’ll be at home, spending it quietly together, most likely with a fire burning and a glass of wine.

-5-

I’m thinking of trying to do Project 365.   It  consists of taking one photo a day to document the year.  I’m not sure I have the persistence to do it consistently, but I’ll give it a try.  I’m going to create a separate blog for it, and maybe I’ll even convince Himself to post to it now and then.  After all, he is the real photographer in the house.

-6-

 Someone at work told me about this video.  I laughed until I cried.  So funny!

-7-

“The reformer is always right about what is wrong. He is generally wrong about what is right.”

– GKC (ILN, 10-28-22) 

Check out more Quick Takes at Conversion Diary.

Asking Forgiveness

For any number of reasons, this Advent/Christmas season hasn’t been what it should have been or what I wanted it to be.  I would like to think I’m immune to all the commercial and societal expectations, but apparently I am not.

Himself and I hosted the family Christmas Day celebration as we have done every year since we married.   Even with a couple of deaths in the family, it has grown.  Now it’s not only our immediate family, it includes my sister’s in-laws and my aunt and cousin.  There’s not a lot more people but just enough to somewhat complicate the gift giving.  And we’ve somehow have come to be known as gracious and generous hosts.  No pressure there!

Combine worrying about getting ready for that along with decorating responsibilities at church and a nasty cold that wiped me out for a couple of weeks, Jesus didn’t figure into my preparation.  Not at all.  No Advent wreath.  No daily prayers or extra masses.   Zilch.  Nada.  Nothing.

And you know what happens then.  Things get ugly. 

I started keeping track of all the annoyances Himself caused me.  Didn’t think about the good stuff.  Nope.  Just the bad.  Which in the whole scheme of things, weren’t really bad.  But keep track I did.  And boom.  Out it all came yesterday after work.  Not pretty at all.

And for that I am truly sorry.

Prayer Buddy Reveal

I had the privilege of praying for G and her family over at Jeremiah 29:11.  Her joyful exuberance for her husband and beautiful son are a delight to read.  Although this was a difficult Advent in many respects, I offered all my masses and daily prayers for G's generous intentions.  I continue to pray that that all come to fruition.

Kids?

I recently ran into someone at this new job that I had worked with many years ago.  I had left that employer just after meeting my husband but before we were married.  Of course, in playing catch up, the inevitable question “Kids?” came up. 

I think I’m going to get some goats so I can say yes – Billy and Nanny.

And, no, I’m not kidding!