Are you enjoying your Father's Day weekend? I have a marvelous kit to scrap those memories. Whether you're scrapping about your Dad, your husband, your son or some other masculine figure, this kit will do the job beautifully. And, You cn scrap about what a great husband or father he is. Or you can scrap about his cooking abilities (scrambled eggs and toast on Saturdays or grilling out or gourmet fare). Or tell your funniest story about one of his DIY repair jobs or praise him for a job well done. Or, you can scrap about how highly respected he is as the spiritual head of your home or as a police officer. Or how his fondest wish is to be a cowboy, even if he is from Wisconsin. Let me show you this fun kit:
It hasn't been too bad a morning. I've not done much "design" work, but I'll get there.
I have weeded through some of the bathroom stuff that got stashed in the bedroom when I was supposed to be getting a "free" finished concrete floor. I now have two small trash cans filled with stuff I've weeded out. Also found several books that I will be moving to the bookshelves. I also unearthed my bathroom scale though it is desperately in need of a wipe down before I let it back in my bathroom. Anyway, I've cleared about 1/4 of the stuff that was stacked in there and filled to overflowing two small trash cans. Next, I'm dragging the big trashcan from the laundry area/hall in there!
I vacuumed the office and part of the living room. Still need to finish in there and get the hall. Remember, I said the pups had managed to get mud crumblets all the way to the back of the hall...... I know I just did this, but I'm going to have to go after corners/edges to get up more mud crumbs that the regular vac can't reach and I'm going to have to go on cobweb patrol. Geez, why can't these spiders stay outside where they belong. Then they could spin to their hearts' content and I wouldn't bother them. I HATE spiders!
And, I have deleted e-mail, unzipped files, tagged some stuff.
I have developed some kind of muscle spasm in my upper thigh/groin area. Now what's with that? Everytime I move my leg, it stabs me. Makes it pretty discouraging to move around, even to shift positions in my chair!
I emptied the dishwasher, mostly. I would like to have a serious chat with a few of the folks who claim they can empty their dishwasher in less than 3 minutes. Seriously???? I am convinced they must load up a plate, a knife, fork, spoon, cup and then run the dishwasher. I can't afford that, particularly in the summer when water around here is so expensive and so necessary to keep grass, etc., alive. My dishwasher was so full I was beginning to worry I wouldn't be able to get a couple of big things out! I had loaded normal things like tall glasses, plates, etc on the bottom rack and then added my largest metal mixing bowl and my pasta pot. Holy Moly. Those two items got wedged in there. I finally managed to get my hand and arm down through/behind the upper rack, move some things around and open the bottom of the dishwasher enough to extract that stuff.
I ended up having carbs for lunch. I know, shame on me. But, remember, I did say I was going to eat all that stuff because I do everything I can not to waste/throw away food. So, I had some frozen ravioli and I cooked some of those. Ate some, shared one each with the pups. Punkin almost swallowed the spoon!
Here's a not-so-fun fact: It is now just slightly more than 11 weeks
since I came home from the hospital. Would you believe my lower abdomen
is STILL bruised? What the heck did they do to me to cause bruising so
vast and so deep? Beat on me with a wooden mallet? Who ever heard of
bruises taking almost 3 months to heal?
Well, it's hotter than
Hades out here again. I think I have to refugee to the east end of the
house for a while. I have the a/c going and two fans spinning, one
overhead, one in the entryway from the living room to try to pull more
cool air into this room. They help, but not much........
I first purchased ACDSee years and years ago, not too long after I started digi scrapping. I was just sick of searching through file after file when I wanted some digital stitching, for example. I tried lots of methods. I even went through and printed out the previews for my digi kits and organized them all in a binder. I found that wasn't even as efficient as looking in a multitude of digital files because designers don't squeeze every little thing into the preview and, if they do, you have to squint to see the stuff anyway.
My first purchase was, I think, ACDSee 2. They just released ACDSee16. I purchased ACDSee 15 just before the release of the next version (Isn't that always the way it goes?). And, you know I've been endlessly tagging files ever since. And, I'm still working on CU stuff, the stuff I use in design. I haven't gone near my 400 gigs of personal use stuff or my piles and piles of stuff I've designed myself.
My usual procedure has been to unzip the files right in the download folder and then painstakingly move things into the correct folder for longer term storage. Once I completed one category for tagging with ACDSee, I didn't want to move untagged items into long term storage until I turned them into tagged items. So, I would unzip stuff and it would sit in my downloads file til I had time to move it and tag it.
Well, yesterday, I got a brainstorm. I tried it and it works. Or, I should say, it STILL works. I can unzip the files in ADCSEE, move the files into the proper folder through ACDSee using typical Windows right-click, copy, paste commands and then turn right around and tag them! Yay! Then I can delete them from the downloads file, again just using ACDSee. This will cut down on the number of files that are sitting in my downloads file, just waiting for me to be ready to tag them. This is going to make the unzipping, organizing, and tagging go much faster and help clear out my backlog. LOVE this! And, yes, I did this ages ago when I first bought ACDSee 2. But, along the way, I "lost" it. So glad it's back, LOL.
Well, Amazon notified me that they are shipping my over-the-door organizer and my calendar in two different shipments. That seems so stupid to me, but.......... Anyway, the over-the-door organizer will arrive today and the calendar will arrive tomorrow. So, I will be spending most of the day, one way or another, in the master bathroom. I cleaned that bathroom from stem to stern, all except the floor, yesterday. I have a small shelf unit in there which was emptied, scrubbed, and reorganized yesterday. So, besides the over-the-door organizer, I have 3 or 4 shelves waiting to accept the stuff I unpack from those boxes.
I pitched some stuff yesterday. And I scrubbed everything down with a vinegar and water combination. I laughed to myself that if I had gone anywhere yesterday, I would have made people hungry for salad. I am just sure the "scent" of vinegar was in my clothes, in my hair, and on my skin. But, it's clean in there, just like I wanted!
Here is a minor miracle in my life. Months ago it occurred to me that MAYBE the Lord was going to bring another man into my life, sooner or later. Well, believe me, I'm not in the mood for that at this point. However, due to my thyroid condition my hair was very thin. I had a conversation with the Lord about the fact that most likely any man who might be interested just might want a woman with more hair! It just might not do for both of us, Mr. Mystery Man and I, to be doing artful combovers. I now have more new hair growth than I've seen in a quarter of a century. My hair tends to be static-y and half the time I look like I'm walking around with some sort of halo. Hairs, from half an inch to 3 inches long, stand straight up all over my head! I am not in any way angelic, but I suppose a "halo" is a good thing. Beats horns, right?
Let's look at some more pages with the Menswear mini kit, shall we?
Deanna did this page. She and her husband have the most beautiful "garden" area at their house. I don't know how they do it as they live in a place almost as desert-like as where I live. But, somehow, they lost a tree this year. A tree they've nurtured and enjoyed for years. She chose to use the Menswear kit to scrap about it. There's LOTS of great paper layering on this layout. I also like the way she's used the elements! Great job, Deanna.
Here is Laurie's Project Life layout for the week. She's done 23 of these so far this year! There's a lot of "unity" to this page with the use of the striped papers as a background for the photos. I'm happy Laurie was able to show you the alpha with this kit. There's only one alpha, since this is a mini kit, but I think it's a good 'un. As always I am just tickled with Laurie's concept here. She scraps photos from each of her family members each week. So, when she finished week 52, she will have created an album that represents the happenings in her whole family during 2013. Now, wouldn't that be fun to look back on a few years from now!
Well, I'm going to go open up a bunch of boxes and see what I can re-situate on those shelves I de-cluttered and reorganized yesterday. I'm saving the stuff on the counter for a new home in that over the door organizer. YOU be BLESSED today.
I have been through so much emotional trauma in my life. Among other things, the loss of my husband. I have often likened my reaction to this kind of thing as having the pieces of me just blow apart. Pieces are scattered everywhere. And, only when not upset for a period of time do I begin to reassemble the pieces. I really do believe it is my own personal version of PTSD.
Well, I found another piece yesterday. I was reading the directions online for some sort of homemade spot cleaner for laundry. One of the ingredients for this homemade spot cleaner was Dawn Dishwashing Soap. And I found a missing piece. I remembered that I always just used a dab of Dawn on laundry spots and it did a good job. It did a particularly good job with spots that had any kind of "grease" in them--splashes of cooking oil, that sort of thing. Sure enough, I went in and took a good look around the shelf over the washer and dryer, and there was a bottle of Dawn. Not much left in it any more and what's left has been sitting there, unused, for so long that it's kind of congealed. Well, I know what to do about "congealed". Just add water. So, I have now spot treated a couple of tee shirts that are in the washer waiting for the next load.
I'm so glad to have remembered this! I have so many tee shirts that I like that have spots on them. Now, I think I have a good chance of wearing them with pride instead of embarrassment!
Years ago, I had a very disorganized house. Crazy as this may sound, I just "didn't know where things were supposed to go". It was a real shock to me to learn that in that it was my house, I got to decide where things went! Wow! What a discovery. I know some of you won't understand what I've just said but is absolutely real and literal! I read any number of books on how to organize stuff in your home and set to work. I even changed my work schedule to accommodate one day off out of every two weeks. That day off was primarily used for organizing though it did allow me to spend more awake time with my small daughter. (By the time I would pick her up after work and we would make the commute home, she was pretty much ready for dinner, bath, and bed.) Actually, I was very successful. I figured out at that time that my DD had somewhat of the same problem--badly organized storage space and no idea where to put things back when she was done with them. I actually paid her "father" to take her out for a day. During that time I completely organized her closet. She had a triple wide closet. I installed a set of metal shelves in there. Then I sorted everything into containers. They didn't really make all the purpose made containers that you can find now, but I used ice cube bins and dishpans and clear shoe boxes. And, when she took down the bin that held her crayons, there was a "hole" on the shelves where she'd removed the bin. When it was time to put the crayons away, she could easily see where the bin went. She was so young I couldn't just label the containers. Instead I cut stuff out of magazines and taped pictures to the bins. It worked beautifully.
My kitchen was organized, my closets were organized. I was so proud. And it really made things easier when it was time to put things away and/or find them again. My mother, who is Mrs. Clean, actually called me "Mrs. Organized"! Now that was high praise!
Well, along the way, throw in 3 moves, a broken marriage, a teenager, remarriage and death of my husband and any organization I had is just MIA. However, I can feel it coming back. Slowly, piece by piece. And, now, there is "the container store" online, and so many products available.
I told you earlier today that I'd purchased that 60-day calendar, with every intention of buying another next month. That product is to help me better organize my design life. I have found that holidays just sneak up on me and I am stressed trying to get a kit made in time. Well, maybe not if I hang a massive wall calendar across from my desk with holidays noted! Well, I found what my next purchase will be to go along with that 2nd 60-day calendar. Just look at these things:
What is so neat about this you might ask. Well, you affix a label to your tupperware or canister or whatever. You use a permanent marker to label it. And, with your purchase, you get an "eraser" for the label. It removes the writing from the label while the label stays in place. So, I could have put one of these labels on the single-serving container of Eggplant Parmesan I put in my freezer a few weeks ago. When the container was ready to be washed, I would then have "erased" the permanent marker. But, the label would have stayed in place. (There are some restrictions on handling--for example, you aren't supposed to expose the labels to extreme cold (freezer) or extreme heat (dishwasher or microwave) within 24 hours of sticking them to the container.) Then, when I was ready to store another single serving, this time of my sausage and cabbage one-pot meal, I would just have written that on the label. Apparently, it can be written on, "erased", and written on again, time and again! I LOVE this. No more missing masking tape. No more guessing at what's in various containers in the fridge and/or freezer. AND IT'S REUSABLE!
All of this just adds to my desire for organization in this house! I will only be able to buy things like this over months and months and months, but each little thing that I find will help. I'm excited.
Meanwhile, it's a smoothie day. I have to tell you, I really do think I'm going to have to replace my blender soon. It is just NOT doing a good job of chopping things up. Today's smoothie features a cup of blueberries, half a banana, an orange that was about to go round the bend, some kale, Greek yogurt, and some cranberry juice. I keep finding numerous bits of the kale and blueberries in my mouth. If the blender were working properly, I don't think that would happen....... But, I guess when I'm done with the smoothie, I can just swish my mouth out or something. But, I am really not enjoying "drinking" bits of kale and blueberries. It's kind of like "first you drink, then you chew". It does taste good though.
I have managed to eliminate some e-mail (nowhere near enough) and to organize some unzipped files. And, I've been working away at cleaning the master bath. I want it sparkly and ready to go when my new over-the-door organizer arrives tomorrow!
Now I'm off to drain the last of the smoothie from the blender container and get it filled with hot water before the bits of kale are glued to the container, LOL. Later.......
I know there are folks out there who really dislike Mondays. I happen to love them. For me, they signify a fresh start, a chance to do better this week than I did last week. That should be fairly easy. I didn't do so great last week!
So, this week I will put the very last design touches on the "lazy" kit, do the alphas, and get the previews all ready to go. I also hope to finish the "firsts" kit. But, for today, I want to get an older kit updated and ready to go. I have some good stuff coming to ACOT this week too. I will be putting out two kits simultaneously, one oriented for boys, the other oriented for girls, same theme. And, it's not a theme you see represented on every street corner, so I strongly encourage you to stay tuned! IF you have a use for one of these two kits, and so many of you will, you won't want to miss them!
Well, I am excited for tomorrow to get here. I ordered some stuff from Amazon that will be delivered tomorrow. Nothing fancy. Not even anything "fun" like a book or a movie........ But useful and needed? Yes, indeed. I posted here before that I really wanted a year-at-a-glance, vertical, dry-erase, undated wall calendar. Well, I had to give up on that. I'm sure SOMEONE must make those, but I searched and searched and couldn't find one in my price range. I settled. I settled for a 60-day version. Some other month, I'm going to try to pick up another one so I'll have 120 days covered. In any case that comes tomorrow.
I also ordered one of those over the door pocketed storage thingies. I have two major bathroom storage problems. I am relying on this thing to help me out. 1) I want to get stuff cleared off of my bathroom counter. It gets dusty, it slows down my ability to clean my bathroom counter, and it clutters up the surface. 2) The under-the-sink cabinets are FULL and I have boxes of bathroom stuff to unpack from the abortive "we'll do your floors for free" thing. This over the door thing should help me with both problems. Actually, I think it will solve the counter top problem and create some space for the boxed up stuff too. And, that will buy back some real estate and eliminate some clutter in the bedroom. It's all good.
I bought a canvas version of the over the door thing. I'm hoping that will hold up for a good long time, longer, I think, than a similar version in plastic. Oddly enough, it was less expensive than the plastic ones which I thought was odd. It is so cool that it comes with its own little over the door hooks too!
So, today is supposed to be bathroom cleaning day. I don't know if I'll get to more than that or not. If I do, it will have to be vacuuming. The yard guys came early this morning, the hounds ran in and out barking their fool heads off, and the spots in the yard that don't have grass hadn't dried out from the sprinklers running last night. SO......... lots of little mud clumps all the way back to the back of the hallway.
I have a cute little mini kit up this week at Scrapboook-Elements. I'll show you some eyecandy and then be on my way.
Laura did this page and I think it's a great example of a blocked layout. Laura uses something other than PSE or an Adobe product to scrap so, sometimes, she can't use the alphas in the kit. But this time she was able to. I think the dark glitter edge on the alpha really pops that alpha off the diamond-print background. And she has included so many cute little groupings of elements. Great job, Laura.
Karla created this page with the Menswear mini kit. Her husband's business was named "business of the year". A great honor and a great page to commemorate it! Look at all that layering going on behind the photo. The layering does a great job of drawing attention to the photo! Thanks, Karla!
Alrighty, that's it for now. I'll be on my way. YOU be BLESSED today.
So, it's Father's Day. And, essentially, I am the only father my daughter ever had. I was on duty 24 x 7, alone, for most of 17 years. Sometimes I was the mom and sometimes I was the dad. I raised her the best way I knew how. I took care of her. I supported her. So, happy day to me. I celebrate both Mother's Day and Father's Day!
I've been meaning to tell you about an experiment I tried. There's been this thing all over the internet about making individual salads in Mason jars. Have you seen that stuff? Well, I decided the other night to see whether or not it was all it was cracked up to be. I DO like having salad available at a moment's notice!
The instructions say to put the salad dressing in the bottom of the jar. Then, on top of the salad dressing you add all the other ingredients BUT you must put the salad greens on the top. I am sure that the greens would wilt if they were in the dressing for any period of time so that stuff goes on top.
I had a bit of a problem with the process. I decided to do two salads/two jars. And, I didn't have Mason jars. I had just some glass jars from my purchases of instant coffee. I put poppyseed dressing in one jar and French dressing in the other. Then began the mystery. I am not even a tiny bit used to building a salad "backwards". Usually, I start with the lettuce/spinach/greens and add other things. So, I found it really difficult to gauge how much of whatever I needed to put into the jars. I chopped up carrot, cucumber, red bell pepper, mushrooms, green onions, provolone cheese, Italian salami, and then topped it off with lettuce.
I ate the first salad the next day. It was fine. Today, 3 days later, I ate the other salad. Yes, it was still fresh. However, I have to tell you it was not absolutely fine. The lettuce had lost some volume just sitting there in the top of that jar in the fridge. It wasn't brown or whatever, but it did decrease in volume. In theory you're supposed to shake the jar and that will mix up the ingredients. Now, I didn't have Mason jars. The jars I used were skinnier. The shaking thing might have worked better in the wider style jar, I don't know. But, I shook the jars pretty vigorously and didn't really feel like I managed to mix stuff up very well.
The other thing that puzzled me was that I read somewhere that you were supposed to "vacuum seal" the Mason jars. Now, I'm quite sure you don't want to heat jars full of salad so that, as they cool, they seal. So, how does one do this????? I don't know. Wouldn't have mattered in my case anyway because I didn't have the "right" kind of jars.
So all those things on the web about making 7 jars of salads for a whole week's lunches? I think that might be stretching it. I honestly don't think I'd want to make more than 4 or 5 at a time. I think that if I had made 7 of them, by the time I got to #7, I wouldn't have found it very appetizing.
I've done pretty well, just makng a BIG salad in a BIG ziploc type container and adding the salad dressing to whatever portion I'm planning to eat in the next 5 minutes. Of course, my way isn't all that portable. But, I think you could certainly mix up the BIG salad, carry a portion in a Tupperware of ziploc type container and take your dressing in a small container, separately, and it would work just as well. And, you wouldn't have to worry about glass breaking. On the other hand, I know a lot of folks are kind of "off" the whole idea of food storage in plastic.
So, I don't really have any recommendations for you on the glass v plastic storage thing. But, I'm thinking I'll keep making the BIG salad all at one time and not worry about making a bunch of separate ones in glass jars. It just seems easier to me.......
I am dealing with pain in my head, neck, and shoulders again. So, I haven't had a very ambitious day. Just haven't wanted to spend my day quoting scripture just to get past the pain to do whatever needed done. Maybe, since I've not done much during the day today, I'll find more "fight" this evening. I hope so!
It's rare for me not to post something to this blog every day. I think I just used up my 25,000 words for the day elsewhere yesterday.
I started the day with my usual Friday morning activity--I updated the Creative Team on what I've been doing this past week. Then I got involved in a long chat -mucho typing, lots of words--on Facebook. And, then I typed out a long tutorial on digital scrapbooking design. And then I typed out another important document. By the time I'd done all that, I'm pretty sure I'd used up my words for the day.
So, you see, dear blog readers, it wasn't that I didn't love you yesterday. I love you everyday. I just had nothing left to say. Sometimes I think maybe you wish I had more days like that, LOL. I don't really lead an exciting life--no whirlwind trips to Morocco and no dancing with the stars for me. Do you get bored?
Today is my Saturday off. No uploads to do. I even did tomorrow's uploads last night. Good for me! I'm actually ahead of the game of life in one small area. This is good. Now, if I were only caught up in a lot of other areas, I'd feel really good!
So, what to do today? Well, I have all the usuals to do--delete e-mail, unzip files, tag stuff in ACDSee, advertising. And then there's this house. There's ALWAYS dusting to do. And, today just might be the day I go on a search for the drill and actually fix that broken drawer runner in the kitchen. I am thinking I might go to Lowe's and buy some spray paint today. I have three things I'd like to work on. First, if you remember, I salvaged a bunch of same-sized cardboard boxes to use for storage on the book shelves and credenza in this room. But, I'd like to paint them and I can't see myself painting cardboard boxes with a brush and a can of paint. I just don't think the paint would go on evenly no matter how many coats I did. So, spray paint.
I really need to paint the front gate. I have been dreading that because the thing is rusty and I really don't want to have to use the wire brush on it to try to get rid of all the rust before painting. I learned recently that there is a line of spray paint that will actually cover the rust and seal it. That sounds like a good deal to me!
And finally, I realized that the bench on my front porch is deteriorating badly. For the price of a couple of cans of spray paint and some painter's tape, I can save it. That seems like a worthy cause to me. At least it's worth a shot.
So, those are my exciting plans for today. What have you got planned for today?
I still have some eye candy to show off with Best Man for the Job. Let's do that now, shall we?
This page was created by Lori. I love all the little personalized details on this page. And the sweet photos. Lori gave us just one sentence to go with each photo to show us the sweet ways her son, the Dad in these photos, relates to her grandson. I smiled when I saw what she had added to the laptop screen. Can you read that? Originally it said "Is it Friday yet?". She added "I want to spend time with my son". So sweet and very creative. Lori, this page is going to be treasured, someday, by J.T. Great job....
And, here is Laurie's Project Life page for the week. Do you wait for these like I do? I get such a kick out of these pages because Laurie has found a super way to chronicle the events of the week in her whole family's life. Such a unique and super idea. Love this!
So, that's it for now. I'm going to see what I can make of this day. YOU be BLESSED today.
I'm telling you, that cabbage stuff I made yesterday with the sausage--it's addicting! I had just sort of shoved pot and all into the fridge when I made it. Last night, I heated up some for dinner and one serving was enough to satisfy me--until I started dividing up the leftovers into small containers and got another good whiff of that stuff. Even though I wasn't really hungry, I couldn't resist. I couldn't tell you when the last time was that I had a second helping of ANYTHING! And, it was just as good as the first helping. I packaged up 7 containers, each with 1 generous helping in them, for later.
I have lost my roll of masking tape. I used to have these fancy little labels to stick on plastic containers so I'd know what was in them. When I ran out of those, I started using masking tape, an idea I stole from DD. Somehow, my entire roll of masking tape has gone missing. I've been searching for it, on and off, for at least a week. Now, what the heck could have happened to that?
I have been doing some design work. The "lazy" kit has 61 elements now, almost double what it had yesterday. One took me at least 2 hours to do. I don't love it, but I know it's the best I can do. And, I think it's really important to have in the kit. AND, I can't find any graphics for it......... I don't draw well.........it's just a fact of life.
My stupid computer rebooted overnight. It saved two items on autosave. Everything else was closed. That includes Photoshop. I had just designed one element I REALLY liked, but failed to save it. So, now it's lost. I have tried recreating it, but I am not at all happy with what I've got so far........ I'll keep working on it. It either ends up looking a whole lot better or it ends up in the recycle bin.......... Bah!
I haven't done much around here yet today. Transfixed with the design stuff. When my tush began to hurt, I finally got out of this chair and got dressed. Quite an accomplishment! I'll get it in gear here real soon.......
So, since the inspiration is flowing, I'm gonna keep this short and sweet. Let's do eyecandy........
Would you look at all the layering on this layout!!!!!! Layers and layers of papers and elements and yet SO MUCH white space! How'd she do that? This layout is by Karla and I think she did a great job!
This layout is by Nancy. I love that she got so many photos on this page and still had room for elements and journaling. She constantly raves about this guy. Everything about this layout is well done, but I was particularly impressed with the quote she used as journaling. I have to copy it here for you: “Every woman deserves a man who calls her baby, kisses her like he means
it, holds her like he never wants to let her go, doesn’t cheat or lie,
doesn’t make her jealous of other women, instead makes other women
jealous of her, is not scared to let his friends know how he really
feels about her, and lets her know how much he really loves her.” ~
Anonymous Yup. Got that. Wow, I've looked for that all my life!
Okay. I'd love to stick around and spill some of my many words for today right here on this screen. BUT, I've gotta get going. YOU be BLESSED today!
Today I decided to throw together a one pot thing I used to make way back when I was first married. Somehow, over the years, this recipe faded from my memory. But, when I was making that onepot cabbage-roll-less stuff (recipe is linked up below), I remembered this. I've been wanting to make it again ever since.
It is definitely NOT fancy. But, if you're doing a low carb lifestyle, you'll love it. I have a hunch you could cook some pasta (maybe elbow maccaroni) separately and mix in with this if you really want the carbs or if you feel you need to extend it.
I used a large onion, about 1 1/4 pound of Italian sausage (I opted for the mild) and one head of cabbage.
First, I removed the sausage from the casing and dumped it all in the bottom of a 5 quart dutch oven. I started it browning while I chopped the onion. I dumped the chopped onion in next. I then chopped up the cabbage and dumped it into the same pot. Of course, I used my spatula to break up the sausage into bite-sized pieces and stirred this mixture from time to time as I was chopping. Once the cabbage was in the pot, I added about 4 cups of water. I think you could also use chicken broth, but I'd probably go with unsalted.......
I added some garlic powder. I didn't measure it, just added what looked right. I'd guess less than a teaspoon. And about the same amount of dried red peppers. I put the lid on the pot and let it cook for about 15 minutes. Then I served it up in a bowl and garnished it with some parmesan cheese.
Salt is not my friend. So, I am pretty conservative with it. You could certainly add some salt and pepper to taste, but there's salt in the sausage, so taste it first!
I would guess this made about 2.5 quarts. The 5 quart dutch oven was about half full before I pulled my serving out.
I am happy to say that the sausage did not render much fat at all. That surprised me a bit. When you're doing low carb, you don't really worry about fat, but still....... Less fat is less calories, n'cest pas?
Anyway for an inexpensive meal, this works. If you eat carbs, you couldn't beat serving this with some nice fresh Italian bread and butter--nice way to soak up the very tasty juice. This is also the kind of thing that will taste even more flavorful tomorrow so leftovers are good!
I haven't exactly been my most productive so far today, but not a total slouch either. I have dealt with a lot of unwanted e-mail. I did some general kitchen clean up. I also decided to clean out the top shelf of the fridge. I cleaned the rest of the fridge a couple of weeks ago, but I knew there were some science projects on the top shelf I definitely needed to get to. And I went back to dusting, giving that once-I-was-lost-but-now-I'm-found mini blind another going over. Still not "clean" but cleaner..... And, I washed a load of dark clothes which means I'm pretty well caught up on washing.
It is so darned hot in here. I have been trying to survive with the thermostat set at 78. But, the thermostat is in the hallway, away from windows, etc. This room is the farthest from the a/c unit and is traditionally the hottest in the house, particularly in the afternoons. It is living up to tradition today! I hate to think I'm going to have to lower the thermostat to survive. When it's 106 outside, lowering the thermostat even 1 degree can be costly. But, I just might have to do that to survive!
I'm gonna refugee to the east end of the house. Later.....
Well, we've made it to hump day! Isn't that good news!
Hey, I have a question for you........ It's a brain teaser and you can think on it for quite a while. Let's suppose you believe there is an all-powerful God. And let's suppose you believe the Bible is divinely inspired. Those things are the basic premises for this question. Here we go: You decide you are seriously sick. I mean SERIOUSLY, to the point of death. Now, the Bible says that God has appointed a time for each of us to die. Here we are seriously sick, and we are contemplating going to a hospital. My question is why? If the choices are live or die, and God has already appointed a time for us to die, why go to a hospital? There is nothing a doctor can do to change God's appointed time. A doctor cannot say "live" if God has said "die". Conversely, let's suppose the doctor screws up. Can a doctor say "die" if it is not God's appointed time?
I've given some thought to this question. I think we go to a hospital for one or more of the following reasons: 1) We are afraid and, in our fear, we forget that doctors cannot change God's appointed time. Or, 2) We are in pain and we want a doctor to give us a shot of something that will ease our suffering along the way.There may be other reasons, but I think these are the primary ones.....
Anyway, that's my little puzzle for the day. Tell me what you think.......
I did some tagging of stuff in ACDSee yesterday. NOT enough. Still so much to do. But every item I get tagged has the potential to help make my design job easier. Unfortunately as I roll along, I find things I thought were tagged that aren't. That's disheartening because it means I haven't made as much progress as I'd hoped. For example, I unzipped a packet of sewing elements yesterday. I immediately went to tag them. I found I had another packet of different sewing stuff in my "miscellaneous elements" file and it wasn't tagged. I looked a little further, only to discover that almost none of the stuff in "miscellaneous elements" is tagged. Wow, that's a lot of unexpected work still to do.
I also spent some time wrapping coins from the "retirement fund". I have now wrapped everything I can. I had no nickel wrappers when I started this mess so I asked my buddies at 7-11 if they had any they could spare. Well, the guy pulled out a whole handful of nickel wrappers and gave me 4. If he had given me 5, ALL the nickels would be wrapped, LOL. I don't have enough quarters or dimes or pennies to fill another roll. So, everything wrappable is now wrapped. Now I will see how I can go about getting that stuff back into circulation. I can hardly wait to go to 7-11 and buy 2 gallons of milk and pay for them with 6 penny rolls, LOL. THIS should be fun.
So, today, the usual. I need to delete e-mails, unzip files, and tag stuff in ACDSee. I need to do some advertising, and it would be nice to actually fit in some "design" time. I am going to work on my continuous round of dusting and I have promised myself I am going to spend just a tiny bit of time in that guest room and in the garage. I am going to "inspect" the garage and try to choose one small area I can do something with today. That will have to be done either this morning or tonight as it's too miserable to try to do that in the afternoon. I am also going to spend a few minutes trying to make that guestroom look a bit more "sane". I have to get this project of moving things out of this house going. I've neglected it for almost 3 months. I fell off that particular wagon during tax season and it's time I climb back on! I have a "fat" house and I want a "skinny" house!
Let's do some eye candy and I'll be on my way.......
Here is a layout by Carla. WOW! I love the display of photos and papers on an angle! The other thing that popped out at me immediately in looking at this layout is the balance. And, then, I don't know about you, but I am loving those denim rolled flowers. I think they add a "different" look to a layout. Great job on this one, Carla!
Laura did this layout. I think it is a perfect masculine layout! I just love that BIG star she's put behind the photo! What an attention getter that is! I love that she has used those arrows/chevrons to point directly at the subject of the layout. Perfect. She also cut her own alpha from the denimy paper and I think it looks great! Didn't she do a good job on this???? Love it!
Okay, I need to get moving. LOTS to do today. YOU be BLESSED today.
I hardly know what to do with myself! I'm just sitting here, and my face, I know, is "glowing". That was a polite Victorian way of saying it is covered in perspiration!
It has been a pretty productive morning. I spent about half an hour deleting e-mails. Then I spent about another half an hour unzipping files. I also ran the vacuum cleaner through the whole house. You know if you look for it, you can usually find something to be grateful for. Parker's little pile of mud bits was all pretty much in one spot. If I hadn't known that the rest of the house needed it, I could have vacuumed just a small 3 x 3 foot area and called it good. I also got stuff uploaded for the Creative Team and stuff uploaded at Scrapbook-Elements for Sunday's release. Also folded a load of laundry and loaded up the dishwasher and ran it.
I bought all that food yesterday and when lunch time rolled around, I couldn't figure out what to eat! Is that stupid or what? I finally found some eggplant parmesan, nuked that, and ate it. That will hold me for a while. I'm thinking of going back for a banana. Weird combination, I know. But, the objective here is to keep the hungries at bay, not to just eat things that other people think go together.The servings of eggplant parmesan that I put away are fairly small so a bit of augmentation may be necessary, LOL. I wish I had replenished the perpetual salad bowl, but I haven't had time for that just yet. A salad would have been a nice combination with the eggplant, n'cest pas? Perhaps I'll work on that for tonight's dinner.
Joe had 4 grandsons. Three of them were not from his biological children, but that made no difference to him. When he decided a kid was his, the kid was his. Stepkid, whatever. Made no difference to him and so, the offspring of those various children were his grandchildren, no matter what. Well, the second oldest "graduated" today from elementary school. He's on his way to middle school. I know if Grandpa were alive, he'd have found a way to celebrate that event! He would have been very proud.
Well, that's it for now. I HAVE to get out of this room! It's really stifling in here, a/c, fan, and all. Later.......
