Took me awhile

No presents under there yet but soon

The tree is finally decorated. Natalie had put the majority of the ornaments on the tree but she forgot to put the beaded garland on. Too late now. I aint taking everything down to do that. The boxes of glass ornaments sat there for a week. Yesterday I finally gave in and put them on the tree. One year I was yard saling and this lady had a couple boxes full of old glass ornaments. Not just balls but Santas, a taxicab, and acorns. So many designs. She was getting divorced and the ornaments came from HIS Mother. Now she could have just thrown them away or broken them but she sold them. And now we enjoy them every year. I think we have had them for over 5 years now.  Milo has started climbing the tree again this year. He is our marmalade. He is going to realize that one day he will be too fat to do that. Oliver is trying to be oh so slick and steal a piece of bacon off my plate as I type this. Maybe I should stop now and pay attention to my brunch.

Today is definitely jam day. I totally misplaced the canner rack in the house. Fred and I could NOT find it anywhere and I used it like last month. I called around and found one a few towns over. It was a half hour drive both ways for Natalie and I. But I have the piece that is critical so that your jars don't crack in the canner from the heat. The strawberries are defrosting nicely. I think today will be the lavender jelly. Kitchen is clean. I just need to change my clothes, marinate the chicken for dinner and get moving.
 The strawberry jam and strawberry jalapeno will have to be done tomorrow because I am defrosting the shit now.
 I have to make 24 half pints for other people. Whatever is leftover out of the batches, is mine to can for us and I have a couple friends that would like some also. I have to make another batch of blood orange marmalade before the 19th but if they do not come out in the stores, I will just make orange ginger flavored. That is another 8 half pints of those for other people. I am getting compensated for my work. The money will help pay for Christmas dinner! This is my Sunday.
 I changed dinner plans last night and we had hot dogs on buns instead. Tonight will be roasted chicken breasts (on the bone) with mashed taters and string beans. It has been unseasonably warm here in my part of New England. No snow accumulations at all. I let the dogs out and it felt like early Spring. You know like late March/Early April where you still have to wear a sweater but it feels green outside. It is weird to feel that way in early December.
  Oh! I changed my post op appointment this week. I will be going on Friday instead of Tuesday. It was more economical for us to do that. It costs $25 in gas just for the trip up and back and I just wont have that on Tuesday. Plus paying the co-pay for the appointment.
Fred just came in with my 4 Sunday papers. There are two sets of coupons in each one. Two of the papers were given an extra sleeve of coupon. I have a shitload now but I know that is just a drop in the bucket. I have two objectives this week. I need to make a list of all the meals for dinner that I know how to cook and the family likes. Like a master list. I have to figure out if the printer is truly dead or did I flip a switch I cannot find (you know those printer switches that locks it when you are moving it), and I need to buy a binder and those plastic baseball card inserts. I have decided that I am not going to sort by area of the store but alphabetically. If I am looking for a coupon for Tide, I will go to the T section. Much easier for my brain.  I am also going to be meeting my niece and her family for dinner on Friday after my appointment. She is one year younger than me. The last time we saw each other was before I had Natalie. Over 20 years. I am not good with trying new things but after having been sick all year and surgeries..I think it is time for me to change. Fred, Natalie and I are going to her house for dinner. Chelsea has to work unfortunately. Hoping we have a nice time.

I also wanted to say that I have been back to weighing myself recently and it has steadily been 262. Booyah!
I know. That is a long way from being a super model of any caliber and I am not looking for that anyway. But very close to 250. I think I am going to go for a push to get to it for the new year. Once I am 250, I can fight that other 50 this year. I may be right were I am at right now in Dec 2013 OR I could surpass my goal. I just wanna be 210. That is good for me. That is all I ever wanted to be. I just need to get a good pair of walking shoes so I do not fuck up my feet again. I think that is what I am afraid of.

I have wasted a chunk of YOUR Sunday blah blah blahing along about me and what is going on. Hope you are having a great YOU today. Have a good one and enjoy the last of the weekend.
That is about it for my plans for today and the next coming days.

Sunday Chicken

Cradle of our love it was

*266*

 I thought the computer viruses and such were taken care of yesterday but we were wrong. I have to wait for this guy to wake up on the west coast to help me. I have to leave soon to take Rainbow to work too.
 It is gorgeous out. Nice and cool. No rain at all. I am going to go to the garden after I drop him off, do some harvesting and some weeding.
Today is going to be fried chicken Sunday. I have two whole fryers that I am going to cut up and make into oven fried chicken. It is an old recipe that I used to use when I was young. I sucked at making fried chicken, so I tried it this way and it was wonderful. This is a simple recipe for the chicken. You can add whatever spices you like to it. I like to soak my chicken in milk in the fridge for a couple hours. It tenderizes it. Add a couple cloves of garlic to the milk, Yummy!

I will have two big pans of this waiting to feed the masses today. I hope you have a good Sunday yourself.

Chilly Sunday Morning

Peanut butter 

*266*

 
I made bon bons on Thursday because I had to mail some out. Today I am going to make a second batch. I have some other people to give them out too. I am hoping to make the second batch an actual double batch so that I can crank out so many that I will not have to do it again till next year. Making candy is a pain. But I like to do it because people like it so much.
  My friend, Margaret, taught me how to make them one Christmas. She used to live on our street with her hubby, Sonny. They were both ill and on disability (he was getting it from work) and they had to move away to live with their daughter. I was sad that I lost her as a friend. She was the one that told me that I might have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I went to her Dr and I was able to get some help and realize I wasnt crazy. That there was something wrong with me! I have that to thank her for. Oh and teaching me how to make these bon bons. I have changed them up over the years to suit my taste but the core of the candy is from her.
Today is Sunday and it is never a day of rest. I am continuing my saga of purging my house of crap. Fred rented a steam cleaner and I am going to toss things in the trash like I did yesterday. I want to not see the same cluttery things over and over again. I guess this is what my shrink calls my manic phase. I clean.
So I will clean today. 

Positivity!

*266*

I am in a better mood today which is sort of surprising. I need to be more positive. Noticing that you can be a downer is not cool. It is Autumn now and I am happy about that. We do not have any cold or colored leaves yet but that will come. I would love to go to the cider mill today but it is the weekend and that place will be a mob scene. I will wait until the middle of the week.
 Fred is home today  (Yay!)and he is not going to his friend`s house to watch football.
He is going to help me clean the house! I am so happy. When I have someone helping me, it does not seem so daunting. Of course our darling daughters will not help but I am not going to get into that today. I will bitch about them another day. LOL
 We have to go out and run some errands. The Wii sensor bar on top of the tv is not working, so we have to go replace. It is not a bunch of money so it is no biggie. And Nintendo now makes wireless ones, which is so much better then the one with the wire. I am going to pull all the boxes out from under the tv and all the dvds and dust and wash everything.
As for the busted Mac..Fred and I discussed this. We are going to buy a cheap $300 laptop and then we will have 2. Then we will save for a Mac. That way, there will be no fighting over this one and we will survive until I can get a new desktop. If anyone knows of any good cheap laptops, give me a note to let me know.
Ok, I need to finish my coffee, take a shower, and start to working. I know I should probably forgo the shower till I am done but it is humid and I feel icky.

Happy Sunday!