Binge Cooking

Well.

After all that exciting news of last week. The more exciting news of this week is that on Thursday, when I was all geared up, prepped and prepared for this biopsy, the doctor looked at the live ultrasound, and after spending lots of time looking it over, decided that the lump (5 mm) is a cyst and no biopsy is needed.  I will have to go back in 6 months for another mammogram and ultrasound.  If there are changes then something else will be done.  

Whew!! 

I wonder if anyone wonders about things like my walking, (I'm having trouble with it on these cold days) or how my win/fail program is going, (not bad really, I can pour a glass of milk without splashing out almost 100%).

Actually, I really am starting...stopping? to think before I do things.  It would have been a good idea to pay attention before I dumped an entire glass of milk on the carpet.  That has been my most spectacular fail so far.  Last night I managed to wash my enormous cutting board and the cookie sheets without getting ANY water on the floor.  Sometimes, I make a little mess and wonder what I could have done to prevent it.  I suppose there are a few that can't be prevented.  

I don't like to work very quickly.  I know that just getting after a task means a lot of work can get done in a small amount of time. I just don't like to do it.  Thursday morning with the specter of biopsy hanging over my head I was inspired and I was really impressed with the amount of things I got done in 20 minutes.  

I put fresh sheets on two beds, picked up the out of place things in both rooms, put a load of laundry in the washer and put a load away.  Just think how much I could get done if I worked like that all the time!!

If I worked like that very often, pretty soon the only thing I would be getting done is my knitting.  

Today I went on a cookie marathon.  I want a selection of desserts and cookies for company coming at the end of the week.  Yesterday, I made ginger cookies and fruit cake as a warm-up.  Today I made Mounds Cake in muffin cups, oatmeal peanut butter cookies, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with nuts, and oatmeal raisin cookies. Sadly, I miscalculated and used all the raisins in the fruit cake so I had to make a quick trip to town for more raisins.  There were about 42,000 people waiting in line at Walmart so I went through the self-checkout.  That line was moving quickly, and I was moving right along with my three items, when it hit me just as I was swiping the spray paint....

"oh, no this will flag the checker".  And it did.  The only problem was that the checker lady was going  through every bag of someone else, and pretty soon there were two others waiting for her assistance.  The guy next to me was buying cough syrup.  Like me, he didn't think about what would happen. 

After what seemed like an age, it was my turn and I was on my way.  

I must say that even though the lines were long and there were problems, everyone was waiting patiently.  

This was NOT 5:30, it was 3:00.  I was reminded again why I don't like to go to Walmart until after the first of the year.  

I took a picture of the fruit cake, but I didn't take any photos of the approximately 15 dozen cookies I made.  I made them small so it took forever.  

Earlier this month I received an invitation to a bridal shower that would take place on December 8th.  When I received it, I told Jim, "Now, I know when the boys Holiday Concert will be."  Sure enough, in a few days we got word that the day of the concert would be the 8th, so I gave my gift early.  

Taking photographs from the top of the bleachers in an enormous gym doesn't work very well, at least not with my lame cameras.  

These at least prove we were there, and so were the boys.  

I tried to mark the boys, but the text didn't transfer correctly from picasa to blogger so Barry is on the top row with a white shirt

and Zane is in blue on the end of the 3rd row.

The only other remarkable thing that happened this week, is that it got cold.

Really cold.

I forgot, I made cinnamon rolls today, too.  

The Tuesday Muse

A week later...

My title idea is somewhat borrowed from a fellow blogger, but it fits what I feel like today.  I don't have any great message or photos, but I feel like writing.  

I have had the privilege of some very special days that I haven't had for over a year.  They are a reminder of all I hold dear and inspire in me a desire to do a better job of living.  

However, it also wore me out.  I see that I can go on with stimulation and food for several days, but home again, it was like walking around in a fog.  I went to bed early, as a resting place for mind as well as body, the two days I've been home.  I've also done very little around the house.  Unpacking and laundry are being done a very little at a time.  Office work, 15 minutes at a time.  I have piles of both waiting for me as I get rested up.  

I nap in the afternoons.  

I am trying to get the more important things out of the way first.  

At the end of last year, I made the debatable choice to be the treasurer of the theater booster club since no one was taking the job and I thought I could handle it.  I can handle it, but I am wondering about the responsibility of handling the money.  And of dealing with the politics involved.  Actually, there is going to be no dealing of that with me, I'm going to keep my mouth shut.  

Of course, since I started this post last week, and more exciting life has intervened during that time, I can't remember what I had to say.  Probably nothing that amounted to very much.  

I just really wanted to show these pictures of the snake.

I don't know what the deal is with these snakes.  The last one I saw was hanging out in the grape vine.  This one is hanging out by the mailbox, so when I get the mail.

!!!!

See his little head sticking out?

I had a moment with an entirely insane thought of poking him to see if his head would go into a better position.  I don't really mind snakes, I just don't like to find them under my feet. 

I was making homemade pancake syrup the other day, having washed and prepared jars and lids and filled them.  It wasn't until I tried to put a lid on THIS jar and it didn't fit that I realized it didn't have threads.  WHAT KIND OF A JAR IS THIS!

It looks just like half of my jelly jars.  I have no idea where it came from.  It looks just like a jar,  having a lip, under where the threads would be.  

Is it a vase?  Did flowers come in it during my treatment?  Did it ever have some kind of lid and come with food in it?  I have no idea, no memory of ever seeing this before.  It seems too nice to get rid of, so I put it in the cupboard.  It is now a glass.

Freshly canned homemade pancake syrup.

And what post of ordinary days would be complete without of photo of two young Bronco fans.  Not that I care anything about the Broncos, but their folks do.  I just love this.  

Big brother and little brother.  

My Daughters, The Cooks

My girls are learning their way around a kitchen.  I didn't have Lorene and still don't have Lynette have regular kitchen duties, but they both have been willing and able to learn how to read a recipe, and a box, and to make a few simple things, like eggs and grilled cheese sandwiches. Even my SON, could do things like that. It helps  that I'm the kind of mom that doesn't care to jump up every time my kids want something. They have legs, and a brain, and if they are hungry between meal times, they can do something about it themselves. 

So, when they want to make supper, I'm all for it 

Lasagna

Its' more about watching these girls working happily together, than what is for supper. This was simply not the case when they were younger.  It was partly the 4 year age difference and partly because they have such widely different interests. They enjoy each other so much more now, and it is lovely to watch.

I'm not the best cook in the world, but I am able to keep my family from starving.  I'm really an ordinary sort of cook that makes ordinary comfort foods. I like to make things from scratch. It's the way my mother cooked.  I don't remember her teaching us lots of things in the kitchen.  I remember doing a lot of dishes. My sister and I fought so much while doing supper dishes, that we were on our own, a week on, a week off.  We were supposed to sweep the floor and wipe off the stove as part of those duties, but it didn't often get done.  When the dishes were done, we wanted to be OUT OF THERE!!   I know I was baking early since I was in  4-H, When I took Home Ec. In Jr. High, part of our Home Ec. grade was to cook at home.  I learned a lot about cooking made a bunch of different things for mom that particular quarter to get my grade, and then went right back to my "only cooking when I was made to" status.  The older I got the more I helped. I was in charge of the potatoes and gravy for Sunday dinner.  I made jello and cookies and pies.  I helped with the canning in the summer.  I baked mostly for 4-H, but I baked for mom, too. Sometimes I even helped with supper.  In those days we didn't have anything electronic to shut ourselves off from the rest of the family.  We were all together in the three main rooms of "downstairs".  So, I had plenty of opportunity to watch Mom cook, and that helped when it was time for me to be cooking for a husband and family.

It was still hard work though.

I remember early in our marriage a very dear, older friend told me that roast, mashed potatoes and gravy was the easiest meal to make.  I didn't believe her.  I struggled to have all the parts of the meal ready together and on time.  

It wasn't until 15 years later, as I was making roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, buns, and jello, (for about the 20th time that year), that is really is the easiest meal to make.  It's easy because I've done it so often I don't have to think anymore.  I just cook.  

You know, I'm hungry just thinking about it.