Good Food, Good Reads

 Every day this week I'd say to myself, 'gotta make a new blog post' and nightime would come and I'd say 

'tomorrow, I'll do it tomorrow'. It took a week but here I am!

I had a great day yesterday, best I've have in a very long time. I was steady, strong, felt fantastic, had energy and I was happy. I just could not have asked for a better day. 

But, the nighttime wasn't so much fun! What the dickens! I just couldn't sleep. Nap coming up this afternoon. I can just feel it coming on.

I've had a problem that I finally found a solution to. I'd order things from the grocery store and then the cans or boxes would sit on the shelf for ages and I wouldn't figure out how to make a meal out of them. So.... drum roll, please.

I made a list of all my canned goods and posted it on the pantry door. Same with my box stuff. I can see at a glance what I have. I sat down with my recipe box and chose recipes to make this next week using up things I already had on the shelf. As I use each item, I mark it off the list. Sort of like taking inventory. When each item is all marked off I know it's time to order more. 

I found a can of tomatoes I had had for awhile. I like tomato pudding but I don't want to eat it very often. And, it had been awhile since I'd had any so I made some. 

Yeah, I know... if you aren't southern you are asking what in the heck is tomato pudding. It sounds gross! 

Back in the early 19th century when women had an abundance of tomatoes they devised a way to put them to use. All it takes is tomatoes (canned ones are used mostly), a little sugar, a tad of butter and you put that over broken pieces of bread and bake. It's sweet, tangy, a little tart and perfect with blackeyed peas, which I also made yesterday. I baked me a russet potato and I had lunch! 

I just finished reading 'Remarkably Bright Creatures' by Van Pelt. Oh my gosh, I loved it! A completely different story line. It was Van Pelt's first novel and I just don't know how in the world she'll ever top that! I thought immediately that it ought to be a movie so I googled it.... there's one already made for Netflix but it hasn't been released yet. I can't wait. Sally Field plays Tova, the lead character. If you get a chance give it a try. I know not everyone has the same reading taste but that's ok. 

I hope you all have a good week. We haven't had a maintence super for a little while and today we have a 'meet and greet' for a new one. His name is Alfonso. They even supplied snacks for the meet and greet. Can't pass that up. 

This is a prayer that I wrote during my cancer treatment back in 2002. 

                    Now I lay me down to sleep                                                                        I pray, dear Lord, My hand to take                                                        And guide me to the break of day                                                           So I can love and live and pray.                                                             And when the sun shall set once more,                                                 the darkness over comes the light,                                                         I pray, dear Lord, you'll take my hand                                                    And guide me with your wonderous  might.

                                        Willie Latane Barton 

I'm Back in the Saddle Again

 Okay...

I am ready to roll... but I don't know which direction to go in. It's been so long since I've posted anything of substance.. maybe my brain is still on pause. Who knows. Let's see where this is going!! 

First of all, I wanted to spend time with my kiddos far away but I really didn't mean to do the trips back to back. Lordy, that was a journey. But, I did fine. Proved to myself, that at 91, I don't have to sit at home, I can get out and go... nearly everywhere I want. 

I usually spend time away from home, reassessing my 'status', making new plans, getting rejuvinated. This time was no different. 

I decided that I wanted to try making one new recipe a week and sharing it with my friends. I don't cook much anymore so it won't be fancy stuff, just stuff that I thought might be good. So... here's my first weeks endeavour: 

Frozen Yogurt-Honey Blueberries 

This picture came from the internet

Ingredients:

1 pint blueberries, washed and drained

1/2-3/4 cup Greek Yogurt ( I use Chobain sugar free)

2-3 tsp honey

Mix honey and yogurt. Pour over blueberries, stir to coat. Lift individual berries out with a fork and place them on a parchment lined pan that will fit in your freezer. Keeping them separate makes it easy to lift out a couple, three for a snack anytime you want them.

Freeze then place individual berries in a ziplock bag and put back in the freezer. Yum

I also decided to rearrange the closet in my office but haven't felt up to that yet. Will keep you posted when I get the urge to tackle that chore.

I didn't feel like my balcony was very inviting so I gave that some thought and soon as I got home, I started redecorating it... Well, actually I can't say re-decorating it 'cause it wasn't decorated in the first place. 

Here's what the space looked like. Don't you agree it's not some place just calling you to come sit awhile? 

So far I have gotten this look going. Still working on it. Any suggestions out there? 

I also started reading a book 'The Good Life' 

I have been on a soul-searching path to find myself, improve myself for sometime now but more about that later. 

Have a wonderful Sunday! I've missed you all and hope to get back on a better posting schedule soon. 

Rambling Wednesday

 I don't go into all that celebrity worship like a lot of folks do, but I could not help but be sad about Dolly Parton's husband passing. I appreciate his role in her life. She needed the spotlight, he needed his solitude and they made it happen. That's what love is all about.... letting your 'other' be themselves without giving up who you are. My husband was always supportive of what I did. And, I supported him. Geez, I miss that man! 

A quick note and I'll shut up about my teeth. Man, have they dominated my life for months now but I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I just want to thank all of you who have posted such comforting messages. You girls are the best! 

I don't know when I have been more positive about life (what little there is left of it) and I am so thankful for that. I'm gonna make each day count big time and enjoy it all. 

I am heavy into reading self-help books and yes I have gone the therapy route in short spurts during my lifetime (it always seems I need that after me losing a loved one). It's not a bad thing to been as diligent about your mental health as it is your physical health.

Speaking of physical health. My son and I talk over the cell phone often about changing our eating habits. He's all for it and I am to a certain extend. I figure at this age I don't need to give up all my guilty pleasures! 

Oh, while I am on the subject of eating. What is your favorite SOFT food to eat after dental work? I am finding that it is tough to vary your diet much if you want soft stuff. Maybe you can help me out. 

Here's a blast from my past.....

(guess you can tell I don't have any BIG thing to share today so I am rambling haha)

me riding my daughter's horse, Charlie

back in the 1970s

Bits and Pieces

 I've been piddling with writing since I was in high school. I knew it was there, deep inside me, and I think it is still there but sometimes it forgets it way. The reason I think that... 

I started writing a book about a girl named Ruthie who lives in a mining camp. I have several chapters written, nearly 200 pages but then there was a brick wall between me and that book. I am not sure why. Do any of you  write? Do you ever have 'writer's block?' If so, how the heck did you get out of it. Maybe I need to check with ChatGPT to see what they suggest! I know how the book goes, just can't make my fingers hit the keyboard!!

The snow is gone! Mostly.... There is one strip of pine trees between the pond and the main road and that strip is still covered in snow. 

I got out Sunday. Knew that car needed cranking up so I drove it up the highway a ways, turned around and came back. Of course, on the way there happened to be a Bojangles and it just happened to be lunch  time!! haha. 

I noticed a bruise on my arm the other day. No recollection of how it got there. My skin is getting/has gotten so thin that any little bump can leave a mark. So, I am checking my arms for other bruises. There's a bunch of brown spots but those are old age spots. 

That was the only bruise I had. 

I just finished reading 'The Year of Magical Thinking'.

Written about Didion's attempt to sort out the meaning of her daughter's illness which was following by her husband's sudden death. I could relate to so much of that book, having lost my husband and also living through the death of a baby son and years later, an accident my daugher had that changed our lives. I recommend it if you have lost someone you love or if you haven't. It's about life as we live it. 

I'm always reading books that explain life, the complexities of living, how we all fit into that scheme of things and how I can learn and become a better person for having read those. 

Right how I am meeting with a life coach once a month. (I don't aim to go out of this life with regrets of not living it to the fullest). My 'homework' is to write a list of all my accomplishments and also write a list of gratitudes?

Do any of you keep a gratitude journal? I think it's a good thing. 

Well, I've rambled on and on... today the temps are going up into the 60s so I need to get out and enjoy. I hope you enjoy your day, as well. 

The Past, The Present, The Future.

 For several years now I have been interested in 'self-help' books on how to improve myself and my life. I was so taken by many quotes from all these books so I started handwriting them into a notebook. And, I started adding my own 'quotes' (thoughts of mine on different subjects, as well).

I often pick up that notebook, read a few pages, just to reset, get my focus back in line with what I want out of life and I find it very calming. I do use some of those quotes in my blog and instagram posts. 

Several months ago I read 'The Alchemist' by Paulo Coelho. I wondered at great length about this quote: "Because I don't live in either my past or my future, I'm interested only in the present."

I got to thinking of what it might mean. How do we not live in the past? That's where our footsteps have already taken us. I don't see living in the future for we know not whether we will have a future. The past, though, is where our memories are (good and bad) and those events shaped us into who we are today.

                                     What are your thoughts on this?

A Special Christmas Gift.

I've been participating in Blogmas. Never heard of it before but it looked like a fun thing to do. I really didn't know what it was so I googled it!! Don't we google everything these days! 

Blogmas is a seasonal blogging challenge. It occurs every December and bloggers use this time to commit to publishing new blog posts.

Some bloggers will try to publish one new blog post a day for the entire month of December, while other bloggers may commit to a smaller number of blog posts, like one every other day or one a week during December.

My Blogmas post for today concerns a tradition from my childhood. My aunt Lena was a teacher and she always saw to it that I got something 'educational' under the Christmas tree. When I was five, I got this large book. It was "Raggedy Ann in the golden Meadow". Beautiful, colorful pictures to look at. Later, when I learned to read it was a favorite of mine.

Guess what! I still have that book today, 85 years later! Think I'll drag it out and read it. Then I'll display it for the holidays. Sort of a Trip Down Memory Lane for me and a 'shout out' to the aunt who first taught me the importance of reading. 

How To Become An Author!

                              Some of you didn't know I'd written a book... 

Hey, that's ok.  It's not a new book and it certainly DID NOT make the best seller list. hehe

I started writing a bit in high school and then I got married, had kids and well, you know how that goes! No time for Mommy, right?

After we moved from Alabama to Virginia, kids all grown. Heck, we had grown grandkids by then. Elbert had Alzheimers (mid- stages at that point) and I decided that maybe we needed to take a trip back to Bama to see family and friends, before we couldn't! I knew that time wasn't far off.

Oldest daughter Marie offered to go along and so we set out driving south.

Our overnight stop was in South Carolina. Everyone got settled in bed, the other two started softly snoring and there I lay.... wide awake!

A book started forming in my head. That book kept me awake just about all night. Come morning, the other two were ready to hit the road but I told them just to sit down... and wait... and they did....

           I wrote down notes on everything I had been thinking about all night. 

              And, that's how 'Springtime in Magnolia' got it's beginning. 

Here are some photos from that trip... I am always disappointed when blogs do not have pictures! So, here's something for you to look at. 

Elbert and Marie at a Cracker Barrel

Visiting my Sister

That book was a detour that was both a blessing and a 'pain in the ...'

 So proud that I did it. I have half of the sequel written. Wonder if I will ever finish it. 

My Computer World

Yesterday I opened up the first segment of the classes by Martha Stewart on Masterclass (online) and had a good, fruitful hour. Look forward to the rest of her instructions. 

People either hate Martha or they love her. I am not sure where I fall in that category... maybe in-between. I do know that she works hard, is extremely motivated and successful. Boy, do I give her credit for that. 

I called Susan (she's the one who gave me Masterclass to begin with) and told her she needed to watch Martha's part. And, we got to talking about computers. Martha had said she was always very excited to try out new things and she had a computer by 1982. Computers weren't in general use at that time. 

So,  I told Susan that by 1989 I had walked into Radio Shack at the mall and walked out with a computer in my arms. I had heard about them but I had never even seen one. But, the clerk said it was what I needed to keep my genealogy straight so I was all in. 

I took it home, plugged it into the socket. It came on and I stared at it. I had no idea how to make it do anything!! I called my son, Michael, for tips for making that thing to perform for me. And, I haven't stopped since. 

Computers in those days were run by DOS, long before Windows came along. And, my printer was dot matrix (the paper ran through the machine by being fed on holes at the edges of the paper). Do you know... I still have some of that paper. 

The computer has been a constant companion for me. I wrote my first book, showed my great-grands how to play games, kept my genealogy up to date. I used to write emails to family,  started my hugemongous file of photographs I've taken. That machine provided me something to do while I kept watch on my husband who had Alzheimers. It kept me sane during the Covid epidemic. And, it has given me friends that I never would have even known about, much less learned to love. 

A lot of the people that live here in the apartment complex have never had computers. Now that they are older, they are missing out on having a connection to loved ones, friends, the world beyond. I think it is so sad. 

  In 2007 I got a big new computer desk. Still have it to this day!

Do you remember the first computer you got and how old you were or what year it was? I was 55 years old when I entered the world wide web and discovered how much I could learn and grow through it's opportunities. It's been a joy for sure. 

A Bump In The Night

 

I've always had an interest in murder mysteries. Remember when you could  buy magazines titled "True Crime" or "Real Detective"? 

I did my share of reading those. Back 'in the day' my husband was overseas and the kids and I were living in an apartment in my hometown waiting for Dad to return. After I got the kids to bed I picked up my detective magazine and read til I fell asleep. 

It wasn't long until something startled me awake. Scared the bee-gee-bees outta me. It was nothing really but I didn't know that. So, I called my aunt, got her out of bed. She pulled on a coat over her pajamas and drove four miles to my house and crawled into bed with me. Talk about devotion!!

There's so many crime shows on tv now so it makes it easy for me to get pulled into them again. And, I went through a time that I read only murder mysteries. But, they're losing their appeal. guess I've overloaded my brain with that all scary information.

When I saw this graphic, I had to laugh. I didn't get that 'careful' but it sure rang a bell with me. 

A Rat, Cheese and Me

 My daughter Susan has given me two books to read that I had to wonder why? I considered them children's books. But, I dived into one and then the other and found them both delightful... and it's okay if I am reading chidren's books. Maybe I am in my 'second' childhood!! 

The first was .....

so much fun to read and filled with life lessons like the one below. 

The drawing are charming.

Not a lot of text

It was a perfect read. 

And then along came this one....

I am over halfway through with it, a thicker book, more storyline that it like a fairy tale. It's about a mouse and a princess. 

The rats are in the dungeon but mousey has gotten out and saw the princess whom he fell in love with. I told you it was a fairy tale. 

I do other things, too. Like eat cheese! I am totally in love with Colby Cheese. Could eat a ton of it. 

Maybe it was reading about all those rats in that dungeon that made me buy a block of cheese the other day. At least I don't have rats around here so my cheese is safe! 

So, now you have the tale of a rat... cheese... and me. ha ha

Reading and Eating

My daughter Shirley loves Chic-fil-a !  She finds any excuse whatsoever to have lunch there. Since I moved to Suffolk (Virginia) in 2014, where the nearest Chic-fil-a was, she and I have eaten there too many times to count. 

In fact, she's made her love of that place so well known that  her husband was teasing her about it one day. He told her that when she died he was going to have her cremated and then he was going to sprinkle her ashes just outside Chic-fil-a's door. 

Right in the beginning there was this one waitress that caught our eye. An older lady, short in stature, long hair pulled up into a bun, friendly, always helpful. We tried to get in her line so she'd take our order each time. 

Sometimes she'd come by our table  and chat a brief spell. One day she said she was a writer. I am,too, so that gave us a topic to talk about for sure. Seems she has 19 published books on the market, those sweet little romance novels that are easy reading and so enjoyable. Her name is  Nan O'Berry. And, her books are on Amazon (just in case you need something to read these days 😃 I just finished this one and found it delightful. 

Friends and Other Important Things

 Mary  a friend from over at A Breath Of Fresh Air, said in my comment section that we cancer survivors must stick together ... 'cause we have a lot of living to do, places to go and chocolate to eat. Mary, I agree wholeheartly. Be sure to click on Mary and visit her if you don't already. 

My sweet Susan got me a box of  truffles for Valentines.

As you can see, they are long gone! 

Speaking of cancer... I know that several of my blogging buddies have come face to face with that awful fear of the big C. Each story is different 'cause we are so different. Glad everyone is still around, going places, eating chocolates.... Love you guys so much.

I guess I figured that since I was finished with radiation, I could put it behind me. Forgot the doctor said that after the treatments were over, it would get worse before it got better. So, with Susan here I did too much. She left and I  still thought I could come and go as I pleased. And,  I flat crashed. I am like a balloon,  full of hot air and flying high and all of a sudden a pin pokes me and I look like this!! 

I have a new follower named Sandy. I am always so  excited when  I get a new follower. We used to be  able to link to a new follower but most are not allowing that now. Another product of the nasties out in the world. So, Sandy... hi. 

I recently finished reading 'The Waters' by Campbell. Susan gave it to me to enjoy while I was 'lying low'. She said the reviews had been good but then someone said it was weird so that scared her a bit. Would Mama like it? 

Well,Mama did like it. Yes,it was different, a bit weird! But,it was well written and held me in the page-turning mode especially toward the end. 

                                I hope you all have a wonderful week. 

Hugs, Latane

My Week in a Nutshell

                                                                                                                      My Week

First of all let me say how much I appreciate all the well-wishes and support during this blasted Covid that's messing up my birthday celebration. I love you all and thank you so much.

                 Looking Out My Window....

I wasn't actually looking out my window this morning but I was standing on my balcony, buck-naked except for a towel wrapped around my wet, dripping body (I'd just gotten out of the shower) and waving frantically to my New York kids that had just flown in. That must have been a sight to see!! And, it breaks my heart that I can't hug them... but I'm working on getting well enough so that I can.

(this is not a picture of me this morning... nobody wants to see me in a towel!! This shot was taken when this Covid mess started back in 2020 and I was isolating myself.)

                     I Am Thinking About....

How life can just throw the craziest curve balls at you when you least expect it. The way I look at it, you better be ready for anything, just in case😁

                   Something New This Week....

Let's see, it is hard to have much new going on when you are holed up in a small apartment. About all I can think of is that my son cleaned off the top of my fridge for me. He said it was in a mess. Since I have 'shrunk' in height, I can't see up there! Glad he could and fixed it for me.

                     What I'm Reading...

Have any of you read 'Carnal Innocence' by Nora Roberts? Oh, lordy. You really should, especially if you are southern bred, love a good romance and murder mystery book. It was my entertainment while I was stuck in bed and I couldn't have wished for better. I can't decide what to read next. Any suggestions? 

P.S. Oh my gosh, I just discovered that 'Carnal Innocence' was made into a movie! Guess what! I'll have to watch it.