Stuck In a Rut

One year, 4 months, 12 days (that's 498 days - whoa!) since my last blog post.

Listening to... a mouse or other small creature running around in the space between our living room ceiling and the room above.  It's quiet at home since everyone else is at church.  I've been sick with another diverticulitis attack since Tuesday.

Planning... to finish up preparations for Christmas, though because I've been sick, I haven't had motivation to do very much of it.  I've ordered some presents on-line and made a couple of batches of peanut brittle.  Other than that, as often happens to me around this time of year, I'm nervous that I won't have it all done in time.

Wishing... that I could become the organized "together" person that I often think I see other people being.  I start things I don't finish, can't get my home in order and I gather up enthusiasm for things that often seem to fall flat.  Well, I guess I'm a little depressed because of the illness.  Again.  At Christmas.

Thinking about... wanting to be more like the mom I was to the first three for Aubrey.  At 51, it feels like it's so much harder to do all the crafts, activities and things I did with them.  We baked cookies for Christmas, did crafts, did "count-down" to Christmas calendars and more.  I'm sorry for my what my age and my illnesses do to make things less exciting for her.


Craving... not much since I've been sick and haven't had much of an appetite.  But I was thinking about the soup from a local diner - cream of turkey!  Yum!  I know my dear husband would bring some home if I asked... (stop everything to text in that request).

Looking forward to... Renae coming home for Christmas... and getting Christmas preparations done!

Last I wrote I was working on... Three areas of discipline in my life:  Eating better, exercising, and spending time in the Word of God.  Talk about things you gather up enthusiasm for and then they fall flat... that's the relationship between those three things and me.  After this illness, where I've been eating very little, maybe I can do better with healthy eating.  Excercise... not so sure.  Since my body hurts most of the time (between fibromyalgia and spinal stenosis), I don't have much "get-up-and-go".  And spending more time in the Word of God... I always have my cycles of determining to start anew and then falling off.  Is this something that I can change about me?  Do I even want to change it?

Reading... nothing comes to my mind because I've been flooding it with watching the entire 7 seasons of the Gilmore Girls.  I just finished that, so maybe there's room for a book, now.

Feeling:  Down and still sick.

Making me happy:  Jessa is home, Erin & Brandon live nearby and they've blessed us with the miracle of a grandson to add joy to our family.  No matter how down I get, these blessings should not be taken for granted!

And as I view this beautiful Christmas tree, I'll go on to... Eating and drinking a little something and then taking a bath.  Sounds like those things could work to help cheer me up a bit.

Imitation is the highest form of flattery...

I'm currently...

Working on a new blog entry.  I was using a Bible reading plan through the YouVersion app on my phone and found that several women had made comments about the entry for that day.  It included a young lady who used an interesting format.  I've decided that since I've always had trouble with the thought of "free forming" a blog, it might be a good idea to use her format.  So I'm borrowing it from Laura's Louisville Life... and I might get daring and add some different headings in the future.

Listening to:  Volume 5 of What's in the Bible.  My 8 year old daughter, Aubrey, is watching it and lying on the couch.  "Ishbosheth, Ishbosheth, nothing rhymes with Ishbosheth"... She covered herself up with the afghan my mother made and has asked me "Mom, do I look cozy?"  (Of course - and cute, too!)  She's also asking for chocolate milk which I'll have to take a moment to make in a bit here.

Planning:  To write some Thank You notes that I've been both procrastinating about and also finding some lack of opportunity to get them done.  The Thank You's are going to my family and one dear friend who were so wonderful to me on the occasion of my 50th birthday in July.  I sure felt loved!!

Wishing:   For some motivation to begin my necessary exercise program.  I'm going back to physical therapy this week to try to do something (again) about my back pain.  Also, the back specialist suggested that I start swimming and I have yet to get a membership anywhere to get that started.

Thinking about:  My daughter, Renae, as she is almost finished with her summer of work in Chicago.  It's hard to believe she'll be heading back to school in just a few weeks.  It was so great seeing her this summer on our annual mid-west trek.

Craving: Iced coffee - Decaf French Roast, to be specific.

Looking forward to:  1) Getting past this week - (see previous entry about physical therapy and) on Wednesday or Thursday I have to get two crowns on my teeth.  Reaching 50 has it's downsides as I guess I've just worn out some of my teeth.  I already have one crown - this will make three FAKE teeth in my mouth.  Hope it will end there, but I suspect not.  It's so great that they have those sealants that kids can get these days.  I think my kids each have one or two fillings in their mouths... My mouth is full of them and now my teeth are falling apart!
2)  An evening out with Steve a little later.  Aubrey got an invitation to go out to eat with a family from church who has a boy about a year younger than her.  They get along so well.  The family also has an older daughter who will be at a birthday party this evening and they offered to have Aubrey with them as they go out with their son.  So we'll get to use our Olive Garden gift card that was given to us for our anniversary in April by Steve's parents.  Mushroom Ravioli - here I come!

Working on: Three areas of discipline in my life:  Eating better, exercising (reference to swimming), and spending time in the Word of God.  After church today, I spoke with an older lady friend about working on these three disciplines and she said she would pray for me regarding that!  So great to have other women in the body of Christ who will do that for me.

Reading:  I'm going to start using a devotional reading plan by John Piper through YouVersion.  I have no doubt it will be challenging.

Feeling:  A little apprehensive about writing a blog.  I'm not really a writer and usually have a great need for approval.  So I'll probably write it and not do anything to promote it so that I don't have to "share" it or receive feedback in any way.  That's just easiest - and way less pressure!

Making me happy:  Aubrey is such an enjoyable child!  So thankful for her and the relationship that we can have even when she is 42 years younger than me! :)

Now on to the Thank You Notes... then I'll try to do a few light housekeeping chores so that we don't start this busy week with absolutely no advance organization.  Oh, and time to make that iced coffee and chocolate milk!  Yum - for both of us!

Welcome to my blog!  I'm sure it's not going to be much... It's starting because I wanted a place to create a web page with a recipe that I found on Facebook.  It doesn't appear to be from any website.  So in order to "Pin It" so I could remember it, I needed to give it a web page.  It's not my recipe... just want to point that out from the get-go.

Here's the recipe:   

 















Vegetable Tian (thinly sliced veggies topped with cheese and then roasted)...

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 medium yellow onion
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 medium zucchini
1 medium yellow squash
1 medium potato
1 medium tomato
1 tsp. dried thyme
to taste salt & pepper
1 cup shredded Italian cheese
 
Directions:

STEP 1: Preheat the oven to 180 (400 degrees f) Finely dice the onion and mince the garlic. Sauté both in a skillet with olive oil until softened (about five minutes).

STEP 2: While the onion and garlic are sautéing, thinly slice the rest of the vegetables.

STEP 3: Spray the inside of an 8x8 square or round baking dish with non-stick spray. Spread the softened onion and garlic in the bottom of the dish. Place the thinly sliced vegetables in the baking dish vertically, in an alternating pattern. Sprinkle generously with salt, pepper, and thyme.

STEP 4: Cover the dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil, top with cheese and bake for another 15-20 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown.