Dackel Princess

Groceries

Friday found Hubby helping me do the shopping. I had so much to get and really needed his help. You see, this wasn’t fun shopping, it was necessary shopping.

We bought dog food and laundry soap and Kleenex and drinks. Bread, milk, eggs and cheese, and the biggest purchase of vegetables and fruit.

We both noted how prices had gone up and tried our best to make good choices in order to keep to our budget, but it wasn’t easy!

I started to think that perhaps I need to plant a bigger vegetable garden this year. I’ll be planting, zucchini, summer squash, butternut squash, tomatoes, two kinds of cucumbers, eggplant, and beans. I also would like to have a little patch of herbs. Specifically Basil, which is my favorite!

We drove home and unpacked our haul, and then sat quietly, and talked before dinner. I was happy that on Friday all I had to do for dinner was warm up a bunch of leftovers.

As I looked outside after dinner I noticed the most beautiful moon that we have seen in a long while.

Now I am tired and so I will say, “Good Night Moon!”

Friday Fill-Ins

And…here we go!

1. I love to go to Germany because it feels like home.

2. I breed dogs carefully. It’s the quality and health of the dog that is most important to me!

3. The last thing I had to eat was a Weight Watchers Dark Chocolate Raspberry Ice Cream Bar.

4. Things are is no longer essential. What is truly important to me are my family and friends and their well being!

5. Please take a moment to Remember all in Japan who have died, and who are suffering.

6. My faith in God is what has have brought me you this far.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to A quiet evening with Hubby, after a long and crazy week, tomorrow my plans include taking down the curtains in the family room and washing them. Big job! and Sunday, I want to take one day to organize a few things. I guess I need a day just to think!

Have a great Weekend, Everyone!

Friday Fill-Ins are sponsored by my cousin Janet. Come on and join the fun!

Thursday Thirteen

Once again, on Wednesday we had more snow! So this week’s Thursday Thirteen is all about the snow! Again!

When I got up to go to Weight Watchers on Wednesday morning, it was very lightly snowing. I wondered if they would cancel class, but they didn’t
So I tossed my gear in the Jeep and off I went to class.
At first I thought that the class would be a small one, but almost everyone showed up.
I did not do well this week, which bummed me out!
However, it made me feel determined to persevere and do better next week!
I got out of class and started to drive home in the heavy snow. The roads were covered and it was not a good thing.
I did have the Jeep in 4-wheel drive, a seat belt on, and I drove slowly.
I felt the Jeep skid a few times, but I remained calm. (Well, sort of!)
I stopped to get the mail and newspaper.
Then drove carefully back to our home.
Where the snow continued to fall.
Hubby called and told me that the roads were bad where he was (on a major highway).
We canceled all plans and will stay in for the rest of the night.

Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. What would you do if you found a pot of gold? Let’s pretend this pot of gold is worth exactly $1500 (which would actually be more like a cup of gold at current values). Anyway, let’s also pretend you have to spend it as opposed to making a donation someplace. Now tell me what you would do with that cup pot of gold?

I would go on a cruise. I would just hop on the next cruise ship and go. I would lie in the sun and relax!

2. Do you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in any way, shape, or form?

I cook traditional corned beef and cabbage, with carrots and potatoes! This year I found the best corned beef called “gray corned beef”. It’s not as salty and it is not made with preservatives!

3. Have you been bitten by the Spring Cleaning bug? What spring cleaning job most needs doing at your house? What spring cleaning job are you most dreading?

Oh I have and it’s a terrible thing! I’ve been doing curtains and windows and mopping floors and dusting like crazy! Most of the rooms are not bad, but the office is still horrible! So I am dreading that.

4. lime-shamrock-sage-forest…your favorite shade of green?

Mint green. I wanted to use it for the font, but it would simply not be seen. I love mint green, it it so pretty. In general I think I do like pastels the best.

5. Thomas Jefferson once said, “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” So…do you believe in luck or do you believe we make our own luck?

I guess I believe more in destiny. I used to believe in luck, but then I keep seeing bad things happen for no reason at all. After a while I started to believe that sometimes things just happen.

6. Monday (3/14) was Pi Day. Get it? Pi =3.14. Those math types are so clever aren’t they? Since I’m not one of them tell me what’s your favorite piE (the edible kind).

Oh my all time favorite pie is banana cream pie. The one I was thinking about was made by a little old Swedish lady, Mrs Anderson, in the town near where Hubby and I lived when we first were married. Oh she made the best banana cream pie ever! The other kind of pie that I LOVE is pumpkin pie. That I can actually make myself and it comes out really well. Oh yeah, I am a pie girl!

7. That same date (3/14) happens to be the birth-date of the late physicist Albert Einstein. I bet he knew the value of Pi. So…what do you think is more important and or valuable in life… intelligence or common sense?

Common sense. I have seen and known many people who are incredibly intelligent, and yet they have no idea how to treat people. How very sad it is for them and those that love them.

I’m a common sense girl, and I can relate to people fairly well. (Although I admit here and now that there have been a few that I have totally not been able to “get”.) Being able to love, comfort, support and empathize with people is so important.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Joanne will being having surgery to replace her skull flap (this was removed after her stroke to relieve pressure) on March 24. She will also be moving to the Rehab Facility she will stay at until she can go home. Things are progressing well for her, and this week her sister even posted a wonderful picture where we got to see Joanne’s beautiful face!

I ask for you all to continue to keep Joanne in your prayers and remember her especially on March 24th.

Is It Spring?

My house is starting to look good. Again today I took time to work on some Spring cleaning. Today it meant that I picked things up and put things away. Did you ever notice how when you are busy or preoccupied that you will lay something down and forget it.

For instance, our newspaper has the habit of ending up on the floor between Hubby and I on Sunday. It will sit there, waiting for one of us (read that as me) picks it up and puts it in the newspaper bundle.

Today, needless to say I picked up the newspaper, sorted through the magazines and even changed the sheets on the bed, and did three loads of laundry! Why I was feeling totally productive and amazing! (I am patting myself on my back here!)

Hubby came home for lunch and I even got that done without a glitch.

Do you think I am so active due to the longer days and increase in the light? All I know is that the clocks went forward and my mood brightened and I have been moving right along with all of my work!

Our snow is melting and I need to move the stones I laid down last fall to keep Fritz from digging up the bulbs, so that the flowers can bloom!

Ah, Spring! I love Spring! And all of the wonderful things that come with it!

What I Did This Weekend

Our host is Gattina. Come join us and tell us what YOU did this past weekend! After all, you never know when you will need an alibi!

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What happens to the weekends? This one seemed to fly by! I woke on Friday thinking it was already Saturday, which was fine. I told myself, I would have two days after that to enjoy!

However on Saturday we were up early so that we could eat and stop at the Post Office before going to attend our yearly School Budget Meeting. We got to the meeting early enough to get good parking, checking in, saw many of our friends, and then sat and listened to a lot of angry voices before the three and a half hour meeting ended and we all left to go home.

After the meeting Hubby and I came back to our happy doggies and I made chicken enchiladas, which actually came out quite well. It was another “fund raising” weekend on PBS, so no episode of “From Lark Rise to Candleford”, but there were several good episodes of NCIS rerunning on TV, so we watched those.

I went around the house turning the clocks forward on Saturday night, and then went to bed.

Since I decided to get into the Spring Mood, after breakfast on Sunday morning, I got to work taking down the drapes in our bedroom, and then while they washed, I cleaned all the windows and dusted and vacuumed the room. The project was a big one, and it took me all day, but at the end of the day, I looked at the room, smiled with satisfaction, and knew that one room was done, and only six more to go!

As I sat down after dinner I realized that the weekend was over! Tomorrow I will wake up and it will be the start of a new week.

I ask again…where does the time go? Especially weekends?

Looking Forward

I was sitting listening to all the bickering at the Town Meeting today and soon I found myself zoning out. By this I mean, I just stopped listening to the bitter words, and started dreaming about some of the things that I am looking forward to this year.

Next week I go down to visit my girl friend and her new wire-haired dackel puppies! I can hardly wait to see those precious babies! Their Daddy is the same Daddy that Greta’s babies had. (In other words, he is Arnie and Anneliese’s Daddy) I will take pictures of their adorable cute-ness!

April, we will go to an event where local restaurants come together for charity to present “The Taste of the Lakes”. It’s a fun event and the food is always delicious! Many of our friends also will be there, and I am really looking forward to that!

April, is also our 23 wedding anniversary. I am really happy that after all these years, we are still happy, still friends, and still in love with each other. Lucky us!

Easter, will bring my cousin Janet and her boy-friend, Dave here for Easter. They’re bringing with them Dave’s daughter and grandsons!

May, brings Hubby’s birthday. He doesn’t celebrate it any more, but I sure do. We will definitely have some sort of celebration!

June will be Hubby’s 50th college reunion. We’ll go back to his college and celebrate with old friends. It’s a lovely college in the mountains.

August is my 35th reunion from High School. We’ll be going to that on Cape Cod, and I am hoping for good weather which will give me one or two beach days.

September is another Army gathering in upstate New York, and we will be driving to that as well.

October, Anneliese should be going into heat and I will drive her to Upstate New York and she will breed with an adorable boy named Joeri.

November, I have yet another birthday! Fifty three. Now how did that happen?

December will bring a new batch of babies! Making it a great way to end the year!

And then the Moderator banged the gavel, and I was back in the High School Gym and it was time to vote again. Three and a half hours later, Hubby and I came home!

Then I went back to daydreaming!

Gray Day

What can I say, Friday was one of those very cool, gray days. It rained, we had fog and I had no desire to go outside for any reason. I did force myself to walk the dogs, but hurried back in to dry off.

In order to increase my culinary skills, I tried to butterfly a pork loin for the very first time. It came out okay, but really I will need to practice more. I made a fruit stuffing and once I rolled it all up and baked it, it came out pretty well.

Greta wasn’t feeling too well on Friday and I spent a lot of time just sitting holding her. Now she seems back to normal, so I’m thinking I was had! Oh well, I’d do anything for my doggies.

Today is our School Board Meeting. It’s the yearly one, where the three towns that are in our co-operative get together and vote the budget. Last year our town was mugged by the smaller town in the co-op, and our taxes soared. I hope this year there are enough people who are angered over this, and will come to vote down the proposed increases.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my teachers and I respect what they do, but right now, no one is getting a raise, the economy stinks, prices everywhere are going up and I think we all have to work together to keep costs down.

Especially in a co-operative school system where the numbers of enrolled students is going down.

I sure hope that today’s meeting is not the blood bath that last years was.

I’m bringing my knitting and a snack as the meeting is at 10 AM.

Can you tell I am less than thrilled?

Friday Fill-Ins

1. Oh gross! I thought it was coffee. (It was, in fact cherry cola)

2. Driving all over England and Scotland, well THAT’s off my bucket list! (Love Scotland and England!)

3. No, way Jose!. (One of my favorite sayings)

4. I love my family with my heart and soul.

5. And then I was flying across the road and the Jeep smashed into the snowbank.

6. I can’t forget the sweetness of those that I love.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to making a new recipe for a stuffed pork loin, tomorrow my plans include _dusting. I have so much to do and I really hate it, but… and Sunday, I want to make a seafood stir fry, read the Sunday newspaper, and sip lots of coffee!

How We Spent Greta’s Birthday

For Greta’s birthday I made her a meat cake! She was not too thrilled that I held it while we sang, but eventually I blew out the candle and she devoured it!

I didn’t want you to think that she didn’t get anything, or that we gave her something unhealthy. It was the best treat and I’ll be doing this for all the other pups when their birthdays come along.

Hubby built some little steps into our snow bank, which allows the dackels to climb on top of the snow and tend to their needs. They are so adorable when using the steps, and Hubby and I really love watching them.

First he had to teach them to use them.

As you can see, Hubby is quite proud of his work, and the dackels love their own little stairway to their playground heaven!

All three dackels got baths today and so tonight we are surrounded by sweet smelling dogs! Next week when I feel slightly stronger, I will bathe Fritz, but today I just couldn’t handle him.

Lastly, for dinner I prepared zucchini boats that I had made last summer from our home grown zucchini, and then plash frozen. I poured tomato sauce that I made with our own tomatoes and canned and as a nice side dish had our own apple sauce.

It’s on nights like tonight that I know why I love my garden so much!