2010 RESOLUTIONS

Well, since everyone else is making resolutions I guess I better get on the bandwagon. My main resolution this year is the same as every year. Maybe I'll make it this time. I need to "clean out and clean up". I've gotten a bit of a start but I'm nowhere close to my goal. I found this great website that I'd like to try to follow.

Mom's Budget Squeaky Clean Challenge

I like the link to the make your own Swiffer duster. I gave in to using them a few years ago. I hate putting more junk in landfills so it was a real push to get myself to use them. This solution is perfect. I can still use the handle but wash the duster part.

I'm also going to follow Nancy's suggestions on coupon clipping.

I do have a Canadian Tire card and do save up and spend the money. Well, DH usually spends the money on stuff he needs, but still it's a savings. I was going to use only that card for everything to get the Canadian Tire money but then I discovered that I get points for using our Royal Bank Visa card. These points can be exchanged for certificates to pay down our Line of Credit. So now I use my Visa card for the things I used to use my debit card for. It's just been a bit of a shock to get such a big bill the last couple of months but I've always had the money to pay it cause I didn't pay for things straight out of the account. This only works if you stick to what you would normally buy.

A few other resolutions:

1. Volunteer for something again. I've given up working at the quilt shop so I need something else to do.

2. Use up my stash bits. I'm tired of all the little ones in the drawers.

3. Crochet afghans or make quilts for women's shelters.

4. Don't get so stressed.

Okay, so I've already broken one. I'd have to give a whole long explanation for that one so I'll just let it be. I'll go for "try not to get so stressed so often." A hard one but manageable. I'd like to leave you with a great thought a friend sent me.

The River of Life

The River of Life meanders without apparent purpose. To question Life is to invite suffering. To attempt to overpower Life is to tilt at windmills. Life is best enjoyed without resistance. Surrender to the flow of the River of Life, yet do not float down the river like a leaf or a log. While neither attempting to resist time nor to hurry it, become the rudder and use your energy to correct your course to avoid the whirlpools and undertow.

- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

That's quite a list I've made for myself. I better get busy. The day is almost gone now!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Hope everyone has a Happy and Safe New Year's Eve. We're going out for dinner (casual) and then home to watch the Canadian Air Farce New Year's Eve special. I'm so ticked they took that show off the air but they sure waste no time trying to get viewers on New Years by having them do a special.

I like January 1. It feels like a clean slate.. actually it makes Dec 31 not so bad either cause I can still be a slob til midnight.

Blue Moon

You know all those things you do or eat once in a blue moon? Well it's time. On Dec 31, 2009 there will be a full moon, therefore a blue moon. I was so disappointed to hear it won't really be blue :0( But it won't happen again until 2028 and I don't know if I'll be here for that so I hope I get to see it tomorrow night (tonight for those of you in Eastern/Central Time).

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas. We did. It was quiet but nice. Last weekend seemed to last forever but now the time is going by quickly again. I kept waking up thinking it was Monday and it took an awful long time to get here.

I haven't been quilting/sewing at all over the holiday. I did buy myself a humungous ball of yard that I supposedly can make an afghan out of for $8. I wanted to get back into crochet for awhile. It's so cold and yucky downstairs in the winter.. even if it is at ground level.. that it's really no fun to be down in the sewing room these days.

I got the Bonnie Hunter Shirtails and Scraps book for Christmas and I also got a GPS. When I was doing genealogy and found I'm related to Wrong Way Corrigan.. not by blood, by marriage... my husband said "Figures" *LOL*

Actually Corrigan went the wrong way on purpose. He wanted to fly across the Atlantic like Lindburgh and they wouldn't let him so he took off on a cloudy day and said he was going to fly New York to San Francisco non-stop. Then he headed for Ireland. When they asked for his papers in Ireland he said "Isn't this San Francisco?" and sat down on a log and ate a sandwich.  His uncle, my relative, was a Baptist minister and all the papers were interviewing him about it. I don't think he lied but he tried not to say too much.

We took it on our walk last night to see if she'd talk to us but I think we confused her. It's funny looking at it when you're walking cause it shows a car and it ends up weaving all over the road and at funny angles going around corners. The only time she spoke was when we were walking into the driveway. She said "You've reached your destination, on the right."

No pictures to share. Just wanted to get back in the swing.

Christmas Carols you just Gotta hear

A friend sent me this link this morning - it's just too funny. Request Jingle Bell Rock or Twelve Days of Christmas. Don't have coffee in your mouth when you do cause you'll spew it all over your keyboard *LOL*

Christmas Carollers

I went and had my root canal yesterday cause they had a cancellation. It was snowing here for a couple of days and people here aren't used to driving in snow plus it's a very slippery snow and hard to drive in. Maybe someone cancelled because of that.

It's been 24 hours so it's probably safe now to say this guy is amazing! He's worth every penny he charges. I didn't feel the freezing going in, didn't feel him doing the root canal, and when the freezing came out I didn't feel any different than I normally do. No tenderness or anything. Boy it feels good to get it done with!

Got most of my Christmas shopping done but haven't done much baking or decorating. I started to decorate but I took the boxes out from under the stairs, went to do something, came back and they were all gone. Michael moved them. They don't belong there, they belong under the stairs. He also doesn't like it when I move things to decorate.. or decorations period. So I have my mantle cover on and we have a fake tree that has built in lights. That's going to be all the decorations we have. He doesn't want them on the tree, he doesn't want lights outside, ARGH!!! But you know it's not so bad. This way I don't have to put them away again in 3 weeks and I've found the mantle cover and the tree with lights is enough. Like my daugther said they're not little kids anymore. I guess I used to decorate for the kids more than anything else. If I want decorations and lights and music I can go to a mall.

As far as baking there's only two of us. Michael doesn't eat cookies and stuff. So I did make some tarts and may make some gingerbread cookies but maybe that will be it. I don't want to gain any weight and neither does husband.

Getting older is so weird. Everything has changed.

Hope you all had a great day.

Yummy Appetizer

First off I want to share my daughter's favorite appetizer recipe. She was over here on Thursday night and I helped her make it. I think I chopped things a bit large so if you're making it maybe dice things smaller than in the photo.


GARDEN GREEK APPETIZER

Ingredients:
I pkg (8oz/250g) Philadelphia cream cheese
1 pkg (8oz/250g) Feta cheese
1/4c plain yogurt
1 garlic clove (Lisa used 2)
1/4tsp black pepper
2 tomatoes
1 med English style cucumber
3 green onions
3 black olives
mini pitas, assorted crackers & breads

Method:
-soften cream cheese
-crumble Feta cheese
-seed & dice tomatoes
-dice cucumber
-finely chop onions
-beat cream cheese, Feta, yogurt, garlic and pepper in small mixing bowl at medium speed with electric mixer until well blended.
-spread cheese mixture into a 10" pie plate; chill until firm. (Lisa uses disposible brownie sized aluminum tins)
-top with tomatoes, cucumber, green onions and black olives
-serve with mini pitas, assorted crackers and breads.

Makes 10-12 servings.

Unfortunately I can't eat Feta Cheese - I love it but it doesn't like me at all.

I don't know where the time is going. I think I have most of my gifts thanks to on-line shops but I also know there's a few things I'm missing that I have to go and look at myself. My dh needs a new housecoat and I want to be able to feel it before I buy. He doesn't sleep well so is up 3 or 4 times a night, watches TV for 1/2hr and then is able to sleep again. So he needs something warmer than the old one he has now.

My tooth/gum is feeling better thanks to the antibiotics but I'm going to go back in and see if I can stay on them for awhile.. like until after I've eaten Christmas dinner. It's so nice to be able to chew, although I'm still slow at it. If I stop taking the antibiotics it will just build up and be painful again. I asked my next door neighbour who is a dental hygenist for a root canal specialist.

I haven't been online much the past while. A month ago I went to the dentist cause I had what felt like a fistula on my gum. If you don't know what that is it feels like a little pimple and it means that you have an abcess. It was just beginning but I thought if I have to lose another tooth I'd rather get it over before Christmas. My dentist took an X-ray, looked in my mouth and said that couldn't be what it was because I have no tooth there.. it's on the gum behind my back tooth. He said to rinse with salt water, which I won't do cause I'm on a salt restricted diet. I just waited for it to clear up like he said it would. Well, it didn't clear up and I've been feeling lousy along with having a sore gum/tooth, so I went back yesterday and he looked at it again and said maybe it was an infection and he'd refer me to a specialist. I asked if I should have antibiotics. He said that was an idea, not his idea though, my idea.

So I have 7 days of penicillin, got in to the specialist on a cancellation today. He did a cat scan of my teeth. It was neat. Never had one of those before. I beeped Fur Elise as it travelled around my head. Same as the ringtone on my cell phone. I have an infection in there alright. It's eaten away part of the bone in my jaw. It's because the dentist didn't get the whole root cleaned out when he did the root canal. Geesh! So I have to go back in on Jan 14th and he'll redo the root canal and clean things up. I'm very nervous about waiting so long if that infection is still there after the anitbiotics are done. I'm gonna see if I can get on a cancellation list.

You know what though? If we still have the same dental insurance we had when the dentist did the first root canal the insurance company won't cover the specialist redoing it for $1450.00!!

So I'm not feeling real well and haven't felt like doing anything much. So nothing to show today.

Here's my attempt at the folded star trivet. It needs to go directly into the garbage but it does look Christmasy and it certainly is thick enough to use as a trivet so it stays until Jan 1.

Once I started this I realized I have done this before but it was on the lid of a cookie tin. They make neat tins for keeping stuff in or giving gifts in. But my tins turned out way better than this. When I made the tins I had no conception of what they were costing me in fabric for one thing. Geesh! Some girl on Etsy has them for sale for $7.95 I couldn't even make it for $7.95. I think what it was costing was distracting me from doing a good job. We had extra expenses last month which is exactly what you don't need right before Christmas.