Death to a Snail

It was 8:30 at night and time for the dog to go out. I leashed her up since she really shouldn't be let out on her own due to her age and ailments. It was dark and I was carrying a flashlight, and we were in the driveway. All of a sudden, I heard a crunch under my boots and I had to turn around and shine the light on whatever it was that made the noise.

I was saddened to see a crushed snail shell. I've loved seeing the snails on the deck rail and on the stone walls on my property over the years. To think that I killed one has really upset me.

I decided to leave it where it was. Maybe it could manage to save itself, I hoped.

In the morning, I will go see if it's still there. If it's gone, it either managed to move on or got eaten by a bird.

Good luck, Snaily (which is what I call the snails, thanks to my oldest child). I'm sorry I didn't see you and save you myself.

Happy New Year's Eve

Here we are on New Year's Eve, and I think this might be the first year that I don't stay up till midnight with the kids. I'm tired. I work a 9 - 5 job, which actually ends up to be 6:30 - 3:30, so I'm tired.  There are 2.5 hours left until midnight, but the kids are watching some movie that I don't care about,  and hubby is asleep. This is not turning out like I'd hoped.

Just a second ago, my youngest son asked if he and his brother could have sparkling cider, and I said that they could at midnight, but I didn't know if I'd be up till then because their movie was boring to me and their dad was asleep. He seemed to be fine with that, but truly, I want to go to sleep.

Does anyone else feel this way? Is it just me?  Am I getting old?  Am I showing my age?  I don't feel old. I work. I'm a mom and wife. I care for a geriatric and ill dog. I'm tired. I am not Wonder Woman, sorry to say.

We'll see if I can hang in there till midnight. If I can convince them to watch the Twilight Zone marathon, we'll be in better shape.

Different Dinners

Tonight we decided to eat out of the freezer, to some extent. My husband pulled a 12-pack of English muffins out of the freezer because they were in the way of something needing to go in, and when I saw them on the counter, I said that it would be fun to make mini pizzas out of them. That's what we did.

I should have taken pictures of the preparation, but it was so simple. He placed 12 halves on a foil-lined cookie sheet, then spread leftover homemade spaghetti sauce on top. After that, he placed salami (we often have small packages of salami in the fridge) over the sauce. The topping should have been mozzarella cheese, but after searching several times, neither of us could find any, so hubby opted for a bit of shredded cheddar, followed by shredded parmesan.

Quite the yummy meal! We're all full. And guess what? Tomorrow night I'll use the rest of the English muffins for tuna melts. YUM!

Chocolatey Goodness

It's time for holiday baking!  Any ideas what this is for?

Realization

A little while ago, I realized that the reason I have trouble staying on the South Beach Diet that worked so well several years ago was that when I was on it before, I was working in an office; now I work from home where the food possibilities are endless.

When I had to commute to work, I brought my lunch and snacks and stuck to them. Now that my office is in my house, all I have to do is venture into the kitchen to see what there is. My willpower is not so good at times.

What options do I have now? Well, a friend of mine is going to try a specific diet where you eat "their" food during the day but eat a sensible dinner. I can handle that. In fact, I'm going to give it a whirl. I'll try it for a while and see how it goes, and then I'll tell you what it is.

Fingers crossed that it works!

Wheeeeeeee!

Okay, so I have been in school for a year, and I have gained a lot of weight. I am embarrassed and ashamed, but I am at the point to do something about it once and for all.

I am going to try a new program (to me) and will post how things go.

Interested?

Thank God It's Friday! Really!

I will be the first to say that I am glad it's Friday and that a long weekend is ahead of me.  However, after the way today went, I don't see how Saturday will be much different except that it won't be a workday.

Today was a bit annoying in that I worked eight hours and then started on my schoolwork, all while my teen son spent six hours on his smartphone (texting and eating up shared data); my young son used a computer for a summer assignment and then played on it; and my ill husband watched t.v. because he really couldn't do much else.  I spent the day in my office, closed off from everyone except my dog (who sleeps in my office), typing away and editing documents and then writing an analysis of a news article for school.  All day at a computer.  My eyes are dry, my rear is sore, and I would really rather be anywhere but here!

Left-side Issues

I've just realized that most things that are wrong with me at the moment are on the left side of my body:  my left eye has the worst of the Blepharitis that my eyes are encountering; that same left eye has a slight birth defect in the pupil causing much blurriness in vision (I wear glasses now); my left ankle has an ugly scar on it from surgery a few years ago (I broke the thing in three places); my left ear doesn't hear so well (thank you, Victoria Clipper!); and my left cheek area has an ugly bump that just got frozen by a dermatologist.  Makes me wonder if my whole left side is just going to fall off and die.

Preparing the Garden

We're planning on doing pole beans again this year but not where they were last year.

Here's a picture of the garden as it is now.  There is straw on the top portion covering the soil. The straw is turned into the soil on the bottom portion.

Head cut off for sure!

I always think I'm going to have time to update my blog but it never turns out that way.  My last post was in September and here we are in January of a new year!

What's been going on in my world, you may ask?  Back in October I went back to school.  I am continuing to work full-time, however, along with cooking, cleaning, carting kids to and fro, and guess what?  I think I gained the "Freshman 15" that is so often talked about concerning Freshman in college.  I'm a Sophomore, but the stress of going back to school after three decades, working, raising a teen and a tween, helping my husband with his homework and his finals, I made bad food decisions and became rather sedentary.

The title of this post is self-explanatory, don't you think?

Solitude.

Canning 2013

I hope to show our jars from our canning event tonight. We did 6-8 large jars and probably 8-10 pints of pickled beans. These beans we grow in our own garden, and there are hot peppers from our garden in the jars as well.

Do you grow veggies?

Do you do any canning?

White Wines

Just so you know, white wines are not created equal. Take, for instance, Turning Leaf's 'Crisp White' wine. I bought it because I was looking for a new white wine and I knew from previous purchases that Turning Leaf wines were superb.

'Crisp White' is crisp, yes, but it's also somewhat sparkling or lightly carbonated - something I did not expect from a white wine. The aroma, when I took a sniff from the newly-opened bottle, was slightly sweet. Groan! I don't like sweet wine! Imagine my surprise when, after sipping from my glass, I found it to be very crisp and not sweet at all! Sure, there's a hint of sparkle or carbonation, but it's a welcome surprise!

Kudos to Turning Leaf for their imagination and ability to create new things which keep consumers coming back for more!

Freebie Finds

Do you like to get free samples in the mail? It seems ages since the day of companies sending things without us having to ask for them. Nowadays, we get to scour the net in search of these gems. I love a good freebie just like the next person, and you may as well. I'll post things I find that I hope you'll enjoy, and remember, these aren't being sent by me, personally, so don't complain if you request something and it doesn't come. ;-)

Bio-35 Nutritional Supplement

Brew Over Ice Snapple K-Cup Pack - You need to say that you own a Keurig in order to get this.

Oh, Happy Mail Day!

What to my wondering eyes did appear but a happy brown box on my doorstep. I thought to myself, "I didn't order anything, did I?" Then I remembered I'd ordered a FREE Kindle Fire with the points I'd earned from scanning my purchases for National Consumer Panel these last eight years. May as well get something for all that trouble! Actually, scanning isn't that bad - it's just time consuming. If you're interested in earning reward points for scanning (they send you a scanner for free along with instructions), go here: and sign up. The information that you scan is transmitted weekly via phone line. We don't have a traditional land line but instead have VOIP, so I had to replace my original scanner with an Internet-based one. It's still easy to use.

Well, I've gotten completely off topic! The Kindle Fire is very cool! I already have a Kindle 3G Wi-Fi model but after viewing the NCP rewards catalog, I decided the best thing (for me) was the Kindle Fire. I cannot wait to play with it! It has apps and Internet which I am not used to, except if you count my smartphone which has those as well. I am eager to see if I can purchase magazine subscriptions (my husband will love not having more paper coming into the house) as well as books from eHarlequin (which are not available for non-app Kindles). I will have fun playing with this thing!

It's gotta be a sign

After perusing the online work-at-home job listings this morning, I found the same ad I'd seen a couple weeks ago for a Verifications Researcher. Is this a sign? Should I type up a resume, pronto? How does one type one up pronto in the first place? I haven't made a resume in over 14 years! The job would be part-time (20 hours a week) and it is something I do have some experience in, so maybe I should pursue it. My fear would be not having the time but perhaps I should just give it a whirl and see how it goes.

Money money money

First of all, my sincere apologies for not posting since February. EEK! To glom it all together, since then, I have been to Vancouver, Washington and Disneyland. I have applied for college. I have cooked and baked myself into oblivion. I have planted a garden that is overflowing with green beans and zucchini. I've had houseguests, illnesses, stress, and then the real kicker - lack of funds. So comes the topic for today: Money.

Back in February, I came upon a blog of a woman who was a stay-at-home mom but the thing that I liked about her blog was that she offered suggestions for work-at-home opportunities and other ways to get extra cash, online. From her site, I clicked on a link for Fusion Cash and signed up (love this, they do actually send checks [and PayPal and Direct Deposit, if you prefer that]) and I also reinstated my account with Clix Sense (which I'd abandoned a few years earlier for no apparent reason, probably due to lack of time). Anyway, since my husband is a starving student (heck, we are all starving for funds in this house), I decided to click away on Clix Sense and found an ad for this thing called Instant Payday Network. Sounds great, right? Apparently all I needed to do was to sign up on a couple sites that then request me to refer people and voila' - instant money! I backed out of the screen when it wanted a bunch of info (what do they really need all that for anyway???) that I wasn't willing to give to a site that I knew nothing about.

Off to RatRaceRebellion.com to look for more at-home jobs. Like I really need MORE to do in my spare time? What's the name of this blog, anyway??? There was a job that I really wanted to do but it was for 20 hours a week and I really don't have that extra time right now. I tend to bite off more than I can chew. I don't know why that is.

Anyway, this post is more of a rambling mess than anything. Sorry! I just felt like talking about this whole work-at-home or earn-money-online thing. If anyone who reads this is curious about Fusion Cash, I have a referral link (by no means am I making you sign up for anything!!) which you can click on to go learn more. That link is

And also, with Clix Sense, my link is

Hello!

Say 'hello' to February! Where is this year going, already? Time does fly.

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. I've just been really busy. Work and things, you know how it is, right?

Today I have the issue of a teenage son who just wants to sit in his room. The floor needs vacuuming, and that's his job, but he sits in his room. Can I just sit around and not work? Would I still get paid? No. I'd get fired. It'll be interesting when the time comes for him to get a job! He actually did apply for a dishwashing position at a local restaurant (a week ago) but hasn't heard anything yet. In fact, he's supposed to call today and ask about it. Has he done that? No. I was going to take him up there later, on my way to picking up my other son, so he could speak with the manager. Why are teens so LAZY?????

Full Circle

As I'm sitting here at the computer, my husband sits next to me at his. We are at the dining room table with laptops. He is doing schoolwork and I am working at my job. Remember how I work from home? Well, here's the thing: I was talking to my husband about an e-mail I got regarding an endorsement on LinkedIn from a long-ago friend. I recall telling him about my friend a while back and how she was in a bad car accident and needed physical therapy and... my husband said to me, "I'm trying to work." I said, "Now I know how K feels." (K being our youngest son who always talks to me while I'm trying to work and who is often told to be quiet). My husband then said, "Do I have to move?" Aghast, I said, "No." I felt just like my boy, who is 10, and very talkative. I feel for that kid, now that I know exactly how he feels!

Dreaming

Wish I was there.