3...2...1............................C'mon Thursday!!!!

“Tennessee springtime showed me new beginnings with the blooming of the flowers and trees
Tennessee summertime showed me new beginnings with sweltering heat and sweat bees
Tennessee fall showed me new beginnings with the changing of the leaves
And now the Tennessee winter is here to show me what it’s like to freeze!”

I thought I'd start you out with a quote today instead of leaving it for the end. This quote is different than the others though as it is one I wrote myself just a few minutes ago. I hope you like it and I hope you feel it reflects what I've been writing about since I started the blog. The day after Christmas marks my 9 month anniversary of being here and still I feel like there are millions of words to be written for your reading enjoyment. I hope you'll keep reading them as days go by.

What little bit of shopping I did this year reminded me of years gone by when it was such a hustle and bustle to get everything done. Going to this store or that one, dealing with the traffic, finding parking spaces, hiding gifts so my sister and kids wouldn't know what they were getting (thank you Ernie and Mom) and of course deciding what to cook and who all to have over. These days I take it easy and I don't worry so much about whether everything will get done. Somehow it always does, right?

Today is the first day of winter and last night there was a lunar eclipse. I don't think there will be another one for 3 more years. While I forgot to get up and go see it, I heard this morning on the radio that it was too cloudy to see it anyway. You may be asking yourself, how in the world I could remember to be awake at 2:15am in order to see a lunar eclipse...that's just how things work for me. I haven't used an alarm clock in so many years I can't remember. After a certain age, or after getting up at the same time year after year, my body just knows when to wake up. Of course, here lately, it's been waking up earlier than I want it to but at least I'm getting 6 hours in.

As office people will do, around here the food has been coming in non-stop since last week and it's all completely fat and calorie free (ha ha ha ha ha) so no one holds back. We have had chocolate covered pretzels with sprinkles on them, little spinach quiches, hash brown casserole with the cheese ever so slightly burned on the bottom, sausage balls, fudge, brownies, ham and cheese roll ups, a cream cheese ball with scallions and chipped beef (like Marcia makes!!), home made sugar cookies, chex mix and chocolate - chocolate - chocolate galore!!!!!

You don't know what it takes for me to stay away from that table!! But stay away I do - for the most part. I had a little bit of the casserole and two roll-ups. I had one pretzel and a small scoop of the cheese ball. I had to have that in Marcia's honor :) I had one cookie and that was it for me. I can't eat like that anymore or it upsets my stomach in the worst way...lol at work that's not a good thing.

Arriving home last night, the ho-dog house was lit in red so I knew the puppies had warmth. Still the old dogs wouldn't go in there them... :( Wally has been working with them but it's going to take some time. The little guys sit right on the edge of the doorway looking out to see who is passing by. They still aren't brave enough to take that first step so the dog house is kind of a baby sitter for now. They were barking when I got out of my car but settled down before I had time to get all the groceries inside. I had a trunk-load full I tell ya!

The weather has warmed up enough for the roosters to hit the trees again. They go under the porch when it's cold so I've missed seeing them fly up to roost. This morning they were cock-a-doodle-doing their little rooster heads off...it seemed like they were all going at it at the same time! lol I only hear them when I first wake up, while I'm making my lunch and when I'm leaving but Wally gets to enjoy it for about an hour or so after I've left the farm. I hope Neccy and company will get as much laughter out of my roosters as I do...lol!!

I was a little worn out after the grocery store as I was trying to find all the sorts of foods that I don't buy - ever. You know, Doritos, sugary cereal, frozen french fries, mac & cheese, Ramen noodle soup, etc. Indeed all the stuff that kids love to eat and that which is decidedly bad for them on the healthy scale.. I did find a very cool thing while I was looking at the frozen biscuits (whatever, they're easier when you're feeding a crowd, okay?) and that was whole wheat frozen dumplings... How about that?

As excited as I was about the sugar free cake mix, the excitement about whole wheat dumplings is doubled! Now we can eat them knowing that whole wheat is once again nourishing our bodies while tasting just as good, if not better (we'll know before long) than the originals... woo hoo!!! Sure there are still calories and probably some fat too but at least there is no refined white flour - evil words in the world of a diabetic.

So my buggy was overflowing with junk food. That's the only way to describe it. I bought soda, people...I never buy soda unless it's the Diet Mt. Dews that Wally drinks. Coke Zero (whatever that is, it was on sale so I bought it), diet Dr. Pepper (way too much caffeine - Jarrett is not allowed to have this even when he stops by the Oriole's) and caffeine free Coke all in 2 liter bottles. Yuck to all of it! If the kids don't drink it while they're here, I'm donating it to a food collection place. They would likely go crazy living here - there wouldn't be any of that on a regular basis, that's for sure!

After putting away all that food I was in the mood for something simple, warm and filling for dinner. BLTs won out over fried ham, egg and cheese sandwiches. There's just something about bacon frying in a cast iron skillet while you're standing in the kitchen of a log cabin on the eve of your first true winter...can't you just smell it? I know you can hear the sizzling... mmmm makes you want to go get a BLT,huh?  :)  C'mon up here and I'll make you one!

I'm hoping to get some farm fresh eggs for Mom and Darryl said he would check on them for me. Even if I only get a half dozen, they'll all be for her. She had them growing up and she's been reading about me having them all the time since my arrival here so it's the least I can do. The problem is, the hens have temporarily stopped laying so I'm in a bit of a situation. I'll check with Darryl tomorrow to see if he had any luck. C'mon little chickens, get to laying again...lol! I actually had to buy eggs at the grocery store :(

Today it's very cloudy and promises to rain. I'm sure it won't cut loose until I'm ready to leave work for the day...ha ha It's okay with me. Who cares if it's raining when you are off work for 7 and a half days in a row????? It's not going to be easy coming back on the 29th but I'll be here. I'm sure I'll have much to blog about so you can expect a long posting that day. Hopefully it will be entertaining enough to make up for not having anything to read in all that time.

My list of things to do is quite small. I have one gift card to pick up and get in the mail and then I'm bound for the cabin to make cookies. Instead of trying to buy gifts for everyone I've met since I've been here, they're all getting a tin of cookies. I found a recipe for Pecan Shortbread cookies on the Kraft foods website. It makes 5 dozen!! That's my kind of recipe. Mix, drop, bake, cool, pack, repeat from the word "drop" until all the batter is gone...One recipe, 5 ingredients, 12 minutes in the oven for each batch. Done.

I bought some tins at Rite-Aid the other day when we were making use of the beer special. They are Christmassy looking but I have to add my own little touch to them. I'm not sure if I'll wrap them or just make a nice big bow to go on top with some sort of ornament hanging from it. Maybe a little of both... you know what will be the deciding factor, don't you? Time - it will depend on how much of it I've got. We want to get them delivered to Pee Wee's on Wednesday because we probably won't make it back by there again before Christmas. Everyone who gets cookies is pretty much a regular at Pee Wee's so it's a neutral place to drop things off for other people. It's like we do at the club...

Wrapping is a favorite past time of mine and one I won't have much opportunity to do this Christmas. I'll have to do some fancy wrapping when birthdays roll around or surely I'll lose my touch...oh noooooooo!

Well, as you know, I'm only here until 11:00 (CST) today, which is 12:00 if you're in FL and 10:00 if you're in AZ. That time is quickly approaching and I have to finish up some work so this is it for today's blog.

Merry Christmas to all!!!!!! Love & miss you,
Darcy

Okay, I couldn't resist, here's your quote...
"The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other." ~Burton Hillis