Sweet

I shouldn't have bought them. In the first place, they are most definitely NOT on my sugar-free diet. Secondly, they were expensive, and I didn't know where they fit into our new budget. But, as I looked at that bag of Jordan Almonds, I thought of my dad. So, I bought them, because in that brief moment they made me feel closer to him.

When all the kids were settled back into the van, I handed out the gummy worms they had begged for. Then, I handed each child a Jordan Almond, explaining that they were my dad's favorite. (At least, I think they were. I remember that whenever we bought candy at movies, they are what he would choose.) Then we were off for our next stop, the grocery store.

After we had finished at the grocery store and were all buckling up to head home, I got a big surprise. 'Lashes asked, "Can I have another candy almond?" Immediately, all the kids wanted more. Bob said, "Since I'm named after him [my father], I think they are my favorite, too!" Sunshine Boy added, "After you suck on them for a little bit you can bite them and the candy coat just melts around the almond making it so delicious!"

I was almost speechless. I hadn't expected the kids to like the Jordan Almonds; they just don't seem like "kid candy" to me. And yet, not only had my kids liked the almonds, they had really liked the almonds. And, for may be the first time ever, I knew that my kids had made a connection to their grandpa in a real, tangible way.

I will forever remember this moment in my life as --SWEET. 

Good things:

--Jordan Almonds

--Remembering the good things.

--Princess Bug playing with my camera to help me get the "perfect" picture of the Jordan Almonds.

A Must Share Recipe

I went to book group at my mom's house today. We discussed The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom by Slavomir Rawicz. I'll post a review if anyone is interested. Apparently, it's being made into a movie, The Way Back.

Anyway, the lady who brought our treat brought these...and they were AMAZING.

Blueberry Citrus Bars
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup sifted powdered sugar
2-1/4 cups unsifted flour
½ cup finely chopped pecans
4 eggs
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup ReaLemon* Lemon juice from Concentrate
1 tsp. baking powder
1-1/2 cups fresh or thawed frozen blueberries (I used about 2 cups fresh)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter in medium sized bowl with mixer until fluffy. Add powdered sugar; beat until combined. Beat in 2 cups of the flour. Stir in 1/4 cup of the pecans. Press on bottom of greased 13 x 9-inch baking pan. Bake 20 minutes or until golden.
2. Meanwhile, for filling, combine eggs, granulated sugar, ReaLemon, baking powder and remaining 1/4 cup flour in large bowl. Beat with mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes. (Filling is quite runny.)
3. Sprinkle berries over prepared and partially baked crust. Top with filling and remaining 1/4 cup pecans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes longer or until set and top is lightly golden. Cool.
4. Sift additional powdered sugar over top. Cut into bars. Store leftovers covered in refrigerator.
Makes 24 to 36 bars.

Good things:
-Blueberry Citrus Bars
-The Long Walk
-Book Group with my Mom & Aunt

A Fun Link for My Fellow Foodies

Just wanted to pop in quickly and share a fun link for those who love food as much as I do.

Renaissance Man is a big fan of youtube. He is forever finding cool new things to watch and learn about. It's very common for him to spend time with the kids watching "how it's made" videos. Recently he found a video on how to cook onion rings. That lead us on a link to link chase through numerous videos by the same entertaining poster, foodwishes. Not only did many of these videos make my mouth water, they made me giggle too. So, without further ado, here's a link to the Foodwishes blog as well as a video clip to the onion ring recipe that started it all.

(By the way, I didn't find the Panko bread crumbs the recipe calls for at the grocery store on Saturday, so we used regular bread crumbs. Bad idea, they were a bit too much on the soft side and way too greasy. However, I am on a quest to find the right bread crumbs and try it again. :) )



Next up on my "New Recipe To Try" list: Bumblebee Soup.

A Little Dream Interpretation, Anyone?

I should preface this post by saying that RM has gone sugar-free. He stopped eating sugar in early July and has done really well with it. He is very strict. We will eat my homemade pancakes even though they have a little bit of sugar in the mix, but he doesn't eat jam or honey or syrup. He doesn't even eat peanut butter because it has too much sugar in it. Things like sweet & sour chicken are out too. He even stopped eating my home bottled fruit because they were canned with sugar, so this year I canned everything in juice instead.

He did allow himself some pie on Thanksgiving, some treats Christmas eve and day, and some fun stuff on New Year's eve and New Year's day. He also paid for his indulgences with killer headaches that lasted for a couple of days.

He has lost at least 11 pounds (I don't know when he weighed last to know if it's more yet) and several inches. He desperately needs to take his suit in to be taken in. It only stays on his body by the grace of his suspenders. Without them, he'd walk clean out of them in two steps. I keep encouraging him to keep going with it, because I can see a difference in how he feels and his health in general.

He has been encouraging me to join him for months.

Well, I finally decided to take the plunge, sort of. I knew my sweet tooth was out of control and I really needed to get my casual sugar snacking problem fixed. But, I wasn't ready to give up sugar entirely. So, starting after New Year, I decided to go sugar-free M-F, with permission to eat sugar with moderation on weekends and holidays. I'm not as strict as he is. I will drink juice without diluting it with water. I might have a PB sandwich now and again, etc. But, I am not randomly walking through my house snarfing sugar all day.

It's been a real challenge. I was actually quite resentful at first, but I've gotten over that. (At least most of the time. ;) ) I spend most of my week fantasizing about exactly what treats I'm going to eat when the weekend comes, though most of the time by the time the weekend has arrived I've lost the mania for what I wanted so badly. I've been really, really good. I'm trying really hard to keep the commitment, though I really doubt RM would give me too much grief if I strayed. However, some days are much harder than others.

Which brings me to the point of this post...

What does it mean if I dreamt that I ate a large bowl of ice cream for breakfast...and then felt hugely guilty when I realized it was Friday morning and not Saturday? :P

A Holiday Happy

I just wanted to share with you one of those "little things" that is making me happy right now. Two years ago I stumbled upon this at my local grocery store.



I am an herbal tea fan and it sounded so yummy I had to try it. I was right. It was perfect, probably my second favorite flavor ever. I bought a couple more boxes before the season was over. When they were all gone a few months later, I was sad. I made a mental note to watch for it the next year. Yay me! Something else to look forward to for the holidays.

Last holiday season came and went, but though I kept an eye open for Ginger Snappish, I never saw it anywhere. So sad!!

A couple of week's ago I stopped into the brand new WinCo grocery store in our area to check it out. (I must admit, I felt a bit overwhelmed. But, I digress.) As I'm nearing the check out stand, what do I see? An entire display of Ginger Snappish and it's sister, Eggnogg'n (which alas is a black tea flavor, so I had to pass it by). It was even on sale for a very good price. I promptly put three boxes in my basket. I may even go back and get more. :D

For those of you who are now curious, here is the description of Ginger Snappish from the Bigelow Tea website.

A snappy ginger herbal tea with a subtle hint of lemon! Bigelow's All Natural Ginger Snappish Herbal Tea...take a special moment just for you! This delicious caffeine-free herbal tea is a blend of ginger with a hint of lemon. 20 individually foil wrapped tea bags per box.

And, here is the list of ingredients:

lemongrass, lemon peel, cinnamon, ginger, lemon verbena, rose hips, natural gingersnap, and natural lemon flavor with other natural flavors (soy lecithin), licorice root, citric acid

If we're lucky, my very cool Master Herbalist sister-in-law will chime in and tell us all about the wonderful healthful properties of these various herbs. Then I might be able to tell you why it is that I crave this stuff. :D

Happy holiday find for me!

More Details & Other Stuff

Ok...I'm back with the details I promised. :D

1. Off and on (for a really long time now) Renaissance Man's right knee will give out without any warning. It just refuses to hold his weight. Once it gives out, it will keep giving out for hours. There have been times when he has actually fallen completely to the ground. It hasn't ever been painful, just really frustrating (and occasionally embarrassing when he falls in public). Well, it has been steadily becoming more frequent. Then, on Sunday, he was in the kitchen helping me clean up a spill on the counter when his knee popped. He was instantly in so much pain he couldn't walk. I helped him to a chair and we immediately iced his knee.

Monday he went to the campus clinic to have his knee looked at. They took x-rays and gave him a brace and crutches. They think it is a torn meniscus. He was told to ice it at night, take 800mg of ibuprofen three times a day and use his crutches until it stops being painful. If he is still in pain in 3 weeks, he's supposed to go back and they'll do an MRI. They are hopeful that it will heal without surgery, because sometimes they can. However, it sounds like surgery is quite common as well.

So, if you are a praying type person and you happen to remember, would you please pray for us that RM's knee will heal without surgery? Thanks!

2. I was reading diligently last night to finish The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow.



I really enjoyed this book. I felt there were some really remarkable insights and some great quotations to be had. It's a quick read and not much of a downer considering you know from the get-go that it was written by a man with terminal cancer. I thought he did a great job celebrating his accomplishments and sharing the lessons learned from them. However, I know one friend who felt like the author was arrogant. :) I guess I can see that, but it didn't bother me. I'd definitely recommend this one. ****

3. I had a friend call me to day to check up on my NaNoWriMo progress. You see, I was the one who got a couple of my friends to sign up. Of course, they are now both significantly ahead of my word count. I haven't even reached the first day's objective yet. Sigh. Truthfully, I wish I cared just a little bit more. My October was so outrageously busy that I still haven't recovered. It's just a bit strange to be in a position that I'd rather clean than write. :P Still, I've been writing at least a little bit every day on my blog for NaBloPoMo and finding that rather fulfilling. I'll be curious to see by the end of November how many words I've written for my blog as opposed to how many I've written for a novel. I'm not giving up on NaNoWriMo, but I'm also not fretting about it.

Other Stuff:

I'm canning again. I know, you thought I was done. Nope. I'm just now getting to the 7 boxes of apples that have been living in my garage ever since they were picked the first weekend in October. I just haven't been able to get to them until now. (See the aforementioned outrageously busy October.) There area few advantages to having my canning delayed this long.

1. My tart Granny Smiths have managed to sweeten a bit over time. I didn't have to put any sugar into the applesauce. It was darn close to what store bought unsweetened applesauce tastes like.

2. No fruit flies. They have all disappeared for the year. Yay!! No need to set fly traps. :)

3. I think my furnace has turned on a whole lot less than my AC would have. :)

I still have way too many boxes to use up, but hey, at least most of them stayed perfectly good until now.

I'm still hoping to find some pumpkins somewhere because I still really, really want to try canning pumpkin this year.

Crazy 8's

Well, this is a new one for me. I've been blog tagged! (I've had this happen on Facebook, but not here. I'm just too new to it all.) I guess Mignonne noticed that I've been hanging out at her blog and decided to initiate me. :D

Here's my lists of 8:

Eight things I did yesterday:

1. Went to the doctor for a strep test. Joy.
2. Lots and lots of laundry.
3. Loaded the dishwasher.
4. Rescheduled a date/playdate because of the aforementioned strep. Boo!
5. Added a bunch of blogs to my following list. It's fun to find friends' blogs.
6. Began reading Shannon Hale's River Secrets.
7. Made homemade pizza for dinner.
8. Stayed up WAY too late surfing the net and watching TV streaming from Hulu.

Eight Favorite Shows
Ok...so this is going to be tricky. Confession time. I own a 13" color TV and don't have cable. That HDTV converter box has more than doubled my available stations. On the other hand, I own a 22" flat screen computer monitor. Can you see my priorities here? :P So, the first three are the only shows I watch consistently. The others I watch now and again when I happen to catch them, or are favorites from my childhood, or I've watched on DVD or streaming online.

1. Bones
2. House, M.D.
3. American Idol
4. Dharma & Greg
5. Stargate SG-1
6. Enterprise
7. Star Trek: The Next Generation
8. Um...LDS General Conference? Nova? OH! I really liked ER for awhile...Or New Amsterdam, but they canceled that after the first season...

Eight Favorite Restaurants
Like I actually get to go to these places, right?

1. Bennihana - I think I can count the times I've been there one hand. Definitely special occasion stuff. Great food & fun.
2. Pizza Perfect - A great little restaurant in Centerville, UT. Yummy food and a memory place for RM and me.
3. Magic Wok - A local Chinese restaurant that I have affectionately nicknamed "The Jaundiced Lion" because of the unfortunate way they have painted the stone lion statues out front. Great food though. :D
4. Dee's Family Restaurant -- Wisconsin Cheese Soup & Cobb Salad
5. Leatherby's Family Creamery -- Everything there is great, especially on girls' night out.
6. The Spaghetti Factory -- Mizithra Cheese ala Homer or Lasagna and lots & lots of bread.
7. Sconecutter - Probably my favorite fast food type. My favorite menu item is actually a pita sandwich, not a scone. :)
8. The Roof -- I've only been once and I'm dying to go again.

Eight Things I Look Forward To:

1. RM's graduation.
2. Fall
3. Singing Christmas Hymns in church
4. Being out of debt
5. School starting
6. Hiring a housekeeper
7. Taking an art history tour of the world
8. Becoming a published author

Eight things on my wish list:

1. Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook
2. A second bathroom in my house.
3. New carpet in the bedrooms.
4. A working TV tuner card in my computer.
5. Guilt free scrapbooking/writing time.
6. Scrap Simple and/or Page Maps
7. A doTerra essential oils diffuser
8. A getaway with RM

Eight People I Tag
Here's the real question...Do 8 people even read my blog? Play along if you feel like it. :D

1. The Mamma Bear
2. Kate
3. Christine W.
4. Trashy
5. Helena
6. Sarah
7. Natalie
8. April