My Life – Page 106 – The Dackel Princess

Making A List

Thursday morning, Hubby suggested that we go out for lunch, and then do our grocery shopping. This was good planning, as over a period of the last 10 days I had made a good and detailed list. I made sure that I carefully folded the list into my purse, along with a pen, then off we went.

At lunch I pulled out the list and added three things that I had thought of. Then we finished our lunch and headed off to the grocery store.

As we pulled into the parking area, I hopped out, while Hubby went on to fill up the car with gas, and then park.

Once I got into the shop, I opened my purse to get my list, the only thing was, I HAD NO LIST!!!!!

I used my cell phone to call Hubby, in the car, to see if I had dropped it. I hadn’t. It was sbeven miles back at the restaurant, on the table, or by then, in the trash! Great!

Well, this required me to use my superior brain to recall all the things that we needed. And I did try. I think I may simply have forgotten a flashlight and a fresh can of light whipped cream.

Oh well, over the weekend I plan to get my recipes out for the holiday meals so I can make sure I have all the ingredients that I need, and make a final list out.

This last list I will then glue to my forehead!

What I Did Last Weekend

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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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As you all know, when last you left me on Friday, I had begun the enormous task of cleaning out my office and doing the filing!

Currently I have three large trash bags of old correspondence, and once I clean out the file cabinet I expect another trash bag as well. I’ve decided that I have turned over a new leaf and from this day forward I will maintain a neat office!

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Also, on Saturday night I woke to the sounds of a dog on the verge of throwing up. I jumped out of bed, grabbed the dog (Anneliese) and we leapt to the bathroom where she got sick in the toilet! She had eaten some dirt and grass on Saturday and that turned her tummy inside out. She is fine now and back to her usual self.

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Besides the office, I did watch a couple of movies on the TV and the Patriots football game. After all a girl needs some down time, right?

Today I plan to finish up the office and begin cleaning the formal dining room, which currently has all my Christmas card items, lists, return address stickers and stamps, and get that room in ship shape as well.

This neatness thing is almost more than my relaxed housewife self can stand!

Happy Monday!

This & That Saturday

It’s quite a frustration to me to cook a perfectly good meal, only to find that the meat cut, which looked lovely in the package, was tough as shoe leather after being cooked! Had I known that this Angus Cut Beef was so tough I would have made Beef Stew, where I slow cooked it all day long!

Tomorrow I will make the stew. I hope that by putting it in the slow cooking oven, with lot’s a broth, I can somehow resurrect the rest of the beef.

How many times have you gotten a piece of meat or fish, and expected a wonderful, tasty, meal, only to find that all was not as lovely as you thought?

Hubby was gracious and shrugged it off. He’s good like that. I don’t have too may really horrific meals served in this house, but every once in a while, one slips by.

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On other food related notes, I am actually liking the “New” Weight Watchers program. Since I started to eat more fruit as snacks, I find that I am not nearly as ravenous at mealtimes. Tonight it was not difficult to eat only half of the tough roast beef!

Of course the proof that the new plan is better will come on Wednesday, when I weigh in. I have my fingers and toes crossed!

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Saturday finds me working at The Festival of Trees from noon to 3 o’clock. My ladies club is sponsoring it, and the proceeds will benefit the children in our area. I plan to dress warmly and bring hot tea with me in a thermos! Thursday night I froze, as I helped take tickets at the door for the opening event.

I promise to take pictures of the beautifully decorated trees!

Friday Fill-Ins

design by the true book addict

So…here we go!

1. The best thing about a birthday celebration is Being with the ones you love.

2. Feelings can either intensify or fade over the passage of time.

3. I went shopping recently and the most interesting thing I bought was can’t say. Christmas secrets.

4. Spinning around in circles is a child’s game that if you do as a grown up, people wonder what is wrong with you.

5. The reason is LOVE.

6. I want it to snow and be cold.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to cooking a roast beef for Hubby, tomorrow my plans include working at the Festival of Trees for Altrusa and Sunday, I want to put up my Christmas tree!

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

Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. What is the most interesting thing you’ve done in the last year?

I think it was going to Germany again. I love Germany, and seeing my best friend there, and this year I got to meet a new blog friend and that was also fun!

2. What is your most meaningful family heirloom?

One is the German Bible from my grandfather’s family. It is so old and the fact that it was carried here from Germany by my Great-grandmother, with all her hopes for a better life, mean so much.

The other is a wooden toy Noah’s Ark, that was my Grandfather’s.

He also carried it from the old country. I remember being allowed to play with it very carefully at Grandma and Papa’s house when I was small.

3. What food festival would you most like to attend?

Each year I work at a Greek Festival to help my neighbor’s church. I love Greek food! However, I also live for my trips to Germany when I can enjoy the wonder and goodness of German food!

What can I say, it’s in my blood!

4. Snow…do you love it or is it considered a four letter word where you live?

Love it! Both Hubby and I enjoy skiing!!!

5. Can you ski? Do you ski? Are you any good?

I can ski, I do ski (got a season ticket this year) but as to if I am any good? Well, I’m an Intermediate. Hubby is excellent and he goes skiing with some of his friends who are also excellent skiers, but we still ski together, too.

6. What quality in your spouse or best friend are you most thankful for?

My husband is my rock. I can get so upset and crazed and Hubby is calm and helps me relax. I am so thankful for that. In my best friends, I value their ability to listen to me, to always be there for me and to help me with my sense of style. I simply have none and they both help me to take a step outside of the box.

7. Describe the coziest spot in your home.

My old chair. It’s a wide seated recliner and can fit me and all three dackels in it!

Every night, when I end my day, the 4 of us find ourselves here cuddling.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Since we are on a winter theme here today I will tell you about my plan for today. I need to go and pick up my Season Ticket and this year I plan to do my hair, put on make-up and get a good picture. I have had Season Tickets that made it look like a prison mugshot, and I do not want to have one of those this year. I know, it is pure vanity but honest to goodness, isn’t it bad enough that my Passport picture is the worst in history, and I have 6 years left with that?

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 might need an alibi!

Here in the USA we are just coming off of a four day weekend! It all started on Thursday with Thanksgiving and continued with “Black Friday” when insane people ventured out into the Malls to Christmas shop. Into Saturday, and Sunday, when insane people continue to shop and brave parking lot nightmares, and I stayed home. Here is what I did, lest anyone think I was sitting in my chair, with my feet up, eating bon-bons!

I cooked a full Turkey Dinner on Thursday, complete with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, peas, pearl onions, gravy, and butternut squash. We even made a fresh apple pie that morning! It was great!
I used my 1/4 cup measure, so I did not overeat at all! There were challenges in not eating more than 1/4 of a cup of stuffing (I make the best chestnut stuffing), but I was true to myself!
I watched my first Christmas movie on Friday morning. “The Santa Claus”. It got me so into the season that I decided to put the electric candles in my windows. Unfortunately, the windows were dirty and I ended up cleaning them before the candles went in. BIG JOB! But it is done.
Next I made a pot of turkey soup, which wasn’t too good the first night, but was wonderful on Sunday.
Sunday I decided to decorate some more around the house for the holidays. I went into the attic and the only way to get to the decorations was to move the artificial Christmas tree. I decided to slide it down the steps and then the worst thing happened…the dachshunds started to stand around the bottom of the steps and I couldn’t slide the box for fear it would squash the dackels! I hollered for Hubby, while I lay on the attic floor, holding the ropes that go around the box, to keep it from dropping onto my precious babies!
Several minutes later, when I started to feel like my shoulders might be pulled out of their sockets, Hubby arrived to take the box!
We got that box and several other boxes too, and then I sat down and took it easy for a bit.
However, the Christmas Letter was now finished, so I started to print those up.
I also put out some of the table top decorations, and my all time favorite decorations, the Christmas tree my sister made for me, and the Christmas skating village that Mandy gave me!
I stuffed envelopes, made dinner and now as I write, I am happily contented with all that I have gotten done!

So you can see, I was a busy gal over the weekend, but I got a lot done too. What did you do? Anything interesting?

Christmas Prep Work

We woke to Snowy/icy/rainy weather on Friday. Hubby was excited because the ski area he wanted to go to was finally open for the first day!He filled his coffee thermos and off he went, leaving me and the pups with a blank slate for the day.

Originally I planned to read, relax and make turkey soup, but as I sat here watching “The Santa Clause”, I began to get the Christmas spirit, and I climbed up into the attic and took down the box with the electric window candles. I’ll just put them in the windows and life will be good, I thought!

Except that when I got to the windows in the bedroom and family room, I found I had a big cleaning job to do first! Two hours later the windows were clean and the candles were up in every room.

The turkey soup got made and it came out well, although I think it will be better tomorrow when I can skim off the fat. It just tasted slightly too rich for my taste.

Later in the evening I got a tag on Facebook with the link below. I sat listening, and felt tears well up inside of me. This is probably one of my favorite musical pieces!

Enjoy!!!

Friday Fill-Ins

So…here we go!

1. Three things I must have on my Thanksgiving table: Chestnut Dressing, Cranberry/Orange Relish and mashed Yukon Gold Potatoes.

2. Today, after I make the turkey soup, I want to gather the dachshunds and get sacked out on the couch.

3. This is a weird day, with ice and snow and white gray skies.

4. I am longing to decorate the house for Christmas.

5. Oh, man, thankfully it’s a day where I can stay in.

6. I would like to perfect the art of delicious cooking.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to reading my book, tomorrow my plans include getting our tree down and start to decorate it and Sunday, I want to Finish decorating the tree and put the candles in our windows!

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

Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. If you had known what they knew then, would you have boarded the Mayflower?

I would hope I would be that brave. I’d like to think so.

2. How far have you traveled on a boat and how do you feel about boats in general?

Hubby and I had a sailboat when we first married and we sailed from Miami, Florida to Maine and then back to Miami, Florida. We’ve also cruised from Puerto Rico through the Panama Canal to Mexico, and gone from Seattle to Alaska and back. We love the water, or at least Hubby does and I do when I have my seasickness patch on.

3. What traditions have you kept, acquired thru marriage, and/or tossed? If you’re single what are some of your family’s favorite Thanksgiving traditions?

Since we were older when we got married and I was already set in my ways, as far as what I cook and how I cook it, we pretty much just have had what I have always made. Hubby’s Mom did love her sage and summer savory dressing, so I do add those herbs to my stuffing so Hubby will feel comfortable with it, but…the main ingredient are the roasted chestnuts that is a family tradition of mine!

4. What time is dinner and how many will be round your table? And what is the one side dish you cannot do without on Thanksgiving day?

We usually eat about 2 o’clock in the afternoon. Chestnut dressing is the side dish that I MUST have or it just doesn’t feel like Thanksgiving. The other one is butternut squash prepared with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon.

This year it is just me and my Hubby for dinner. I still have gotten everything for a traditional turkey dinner, as I believe in being thankful for all that we have. Also, a Thanksgiving meal is my favorite!

Yes, I know it goes against all I believe in to ask for ‘just one’, but I made up for it by asking three questions here.

5. Have you ever used a fire extinguisher? Do tell….

No. So far I have never started a kitchen fire.

6. Tell about a situation that caused you dreadful trepidation and feet dragging, only to realize later it was a true blessing.

I am one of those people who tends to jump in feet first, so I haven’t had a lot of those moments. Perhaps it was going to my first Weight Watchers meeting three years ago. I just dreaded it so much. When I weighed in, I cried. However, Weight Watchers has been so good for me. It has taught me to control my food, that I am not the only one out there struggling and the beautiful, wonderful, people I have met have blessed my my life!

7. Baked, sweet, mashed, hash browned or french fried…which one’s your favorite?

Mashed Yukon Gold potatoes. The best hands down, and that is on our Thanksgiving menu too!

8. Insert your own random thought here.

As our Thanksgiving Day draws near in the USA, I am ever so grateful for a loving family, good friends and the sweetest dogs on earth. My life is not exactly as I had dreamed it would be, when I was a little girl, but I am blessed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

What I Did This Weekend

Our host is Gattina. Come join us and tell us what YOU did this past weekend!

The weekend seemed to fly by. I still had Bogart for part of Saturday until his Mommy came to collect him. We all kissed his little face good-bye, and off he went.

Arnie and Greta settled down for a nap, and Hubby was busy doing some computer work. Fritz lay by his side. Soon Anneliese demanded to go outside, so I opened the door and off she flew! I grabbed my jacket, but she had disappeared! I called and called, I even got out the cookie bone can, but nothing.

My heart was in my throat, beating wildly and I started running around the house. As I got to the front yard, there she was, down our neighbors driveway near the ROAD!

I called to her and she looked at me, as if asking, “Where is my son, Bogart?”

I got her inside and gave her a rawhide bone to take her mind off of things. This did help, although she was checking out the crate where Bogey slept at night. It just broke my heart. To think, it has been a year and a half since he left, but she still knows that this is her baby!

On Sunday, I worked some more on Christmas Cards, and composing the annual Christmas Letter. The cards are going well, but Hubby and I are disagreeing on the composition of the letter and which pictures to include!

Fritz came in from his morning walk quite lame. I think he re-injured his ankle, the one that the horse stepped on. I have wrapped it with an ace bandage and we have kept him quiet all day.

Sunday night I have no plans at all with the exception of perhaps soaking in a tub. I’m tired and in need of a little quiet time.