My Life's Journey

I Love My Crock-Pot

I love to cook but some times cooking a big meal can be a bit of a challenge for me. Many years ago, I decided that using a crock-pot to make a good meal for my family was a wonderful alternative for me. Now that it is just Wayne and I, using my crock-pot is a must have. Wayne is a picky eater and I am on a restricted diet so this pot has been a huge help to me.That being said, this past Sunday I made one of Wayne' favorite slow cooked meals. I thought that I would share a couple of photos and the recipe. If your looking for a  hearty meal that also has lots of flavor trust me.......your husband will love you for making it. So much so that he will give you what ever you ask for. :) Okay well maybe not what ever you want but he will be grateful to you. Oh, and if you have a slow cooking recipe that you or your husband really like please share it with me.

 

 Cooking in the crock-pot.

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Plated up and ready for Wayne to woof down. I also serve this dish with peas. Carrots would be better but Wayne does not like carrots.  Since this is a meal that is cooked for him then peas it is.:)

 

Here is the recipe.

Sweet & Tangy Pot Roast

Six 2 inch gingersnap cookies finely crushed into crumbs

2 cups of peeled baby carrots ( sometimes I add them for flavor)

2 large stalks celery,cut crosswise into 2 inch pieces

1 medium onion cut into 1 inch  thick slices (Wayne will eat the onions in this recipe go figure)

6 Red bliss potatoes, washed, peeled and cut in half.

1 cup of dry red wine  (I use 1 cup of water and 2 beef bullion cubes)

2 Tbsp.red wine vinegar

1 cup raisins

a dash of salt

a dash of black pepper

1 boneless beef chuck roast about 2 pounds.

In a 4 1/2 -6 quart slow-cooker, combine all ingredients. Place roast on top of all of your vegetables and put setting to either low- 8 hours or high for 6 hours. I use the high setting. Add your potatoes when there is only 3 hours left of cooking.The meat comes out very tender and the veggies have wonderful flavor added to them.

Meet Wayne, my best friend and the love of my life.

 
  

Well, I am off to do some more blogging and then some laundry and cleaning.

Have a wonderful day. Keep Smiling. :)

December

 
I have a love-hate realtionship with the month of December. This is the month that I have so many appointments jammed into 4 weeks that getting ready for Christmas has become harder for me. I get stressed during this month like no other month of the year. And the end result is that I am finding it more difficult to enjoy December as I get older. And that is only a fraction of the hate part of December for me. But being who I am I still work hard at trying to love the fact that Christmas is on the way and that family will hopefully get together and all will be well. I try hard to make the season a happy one for others even when my spirits are not high. I try...... that is all  can do.  

This year I focused on keeping a  positve attitude, to take each day as it came and to do something that would make me smile. Using my camera to record some of the things that made me happy was my ticket to a much better December. I think I will make this my new yearly tradition. What ever works right? :)

 
 
Buying a few Poinsettia plants is the first thing I do every December. I love looking at the red, cream, pink and variegated colors that are available. This year I chose Red and cream plants.

Wayne and I put up our small tree this year and I decorated it with only pink and champagne colored Christmas balls.

 
And that was all I was going to put on my tree until I went to the Hallmark store and found 2 very sweet looking ornaments.

 

 
 
 How could I not buy these? They really did make me smile. And I loved them so much that I made sure that each of our daughters received one for Christmas too.

I made sure to take a few photos of our visit with Jen, Molly and Darcy. Darcy turned 13 on Christmas Eve. I asked here where she would like to go for dinner.She chose Friendly's.

 
 I told our waitress that it was Darcy's birthday when Darcy was not listening and after dinner a small group of girls came over and sang a birthday song to her.

 
While we were there Colleen and Caleb came over to our table. They were having dinner with one of her friends. What a wonderful surprise that was!

 
  A photo of the four of us together after Darcy opened up her gifts. Where did the 13 years go?

 While doing some last minute Christmas shopping I decided to stop off at Walmart for some wrapping paper.  I found the cutest santa figurine with a tea light holder.

 

He was just too cute for me not to pick up. The cost was 5.00 and each day that I look at him I smile.  

 This is just a sampling of my December this year. Wayne and I visited Colleen,Peter and three more of our grandchildren. I have lots more photos and thoughts to share but  this post is turning out to be  lots longer then I thought that it would be. Despite my inner war with the month of December I do believe I did well. I got through all of the hectic days and in the end it really was not as hard as I thought it would be. All in all I smiled a lot. :) Hope you did too.

 

 

I Love Fall

 
Here are a few reasons why I love the fall.

 

The leaves begin changing color. This year they started a little early.

 

By mid october the leaves were brilliant red, orange and yellow.

 

Wearing my newest fleece jacket.

 
 

Going to the farm to pick apples........

 

And take photos of Wayne picking apples and eating his donut............

 

And Apples.................

 
 

And pumpkins.

 

Going to the the country store and buying freshly made Apple Cider donuts.

 

Going home and baking a homemade apple pie.

 

Watching the smaller sunflowers open..............

 

 

Going for walks in our woods and finding things that are unique......

 

 

Taking our traditional Anniversary photo ............

 
                                                         ......  and celebrating our special day by having cake.

 

While walking I am able to surround myself with the smell, and the sights of the fall. I love breathing in the clean crisp air,the feeling of my cheeks turning red and thanking God for all of the beauty that he has given us. These are just a few of the things that I love about the fall.

What do you love about the fall?

Thanks for stopping by. I have been terrible at keeping  my blog updated but I'm shooting for at least updating it once a month. Whe Shall see. :)

 

 

 

 

A Quick Visit

I love my family and as I get older I understand just how very important they are to me. I wish that I had been able to spend lots more time with many of my sisters,brothers, aunts uncles and cousins. But time and life itself has a way of getting in the way. Of course my living in NH and most of my family living in NH did not help. But that is the past.

Since I became a member of Facebook I have been very blessed to find my cousins, sisters and brothers. I hope one day to see everyone of them. For now, just being able to keep in touch with them has been wonderful. I am so grateful to be able to be get to know these beautiful people even if it is just a little more then I had before we all went our separate ways.

This past week my cousin Kathy whom, I have not seen in over 20 years called me and asked what I was doing on Wednesday-Friday. Honestly, I had nothing planned until late Friday. She asked if she and her husband Smitty could come to visit Wayne and I. ABSOLUTELY! I was so excited that she and her husband would be coming to see me.  Although, March in NH is not a very good time for doing any thing fun Kathy did not mind. As she said "I am coming up to visit with you and Wayne".  As soon as I saw her I felt as though we were just young girls again. We had so much to talk about and that was great! It was such fun learning about my uncles, Aunts and cousins that I have very little memory of. She brought me lots and lots of photos and although I could not remember the faces or even most of the people I had a blast learning who they were . Kathy gave me these photos and I intend to put them in the book that she also gave me. My visit with Kathy was such a joy! Wayne and I are planning to go to NJ to visit with her and Smitty in the summer. We are also hoping to meet some more of my family.

I am so sorry that I let life get too busy and get in my way from keeping me away from my extended family. I may not be able to go back and change things but I have every intention of going forward to make up for lost time.

Here are a few photos that were taken during our very short visit.

 

 Kathy, Jennifer(my daughter) and me.

Me & Kathy

 

Wayne & Kathy

 

Smitty sleeping due to the long trip up.  here. :)

I hope that you will connect with your long lost family. It is one of the many regrets that I now get to scratch off of my shoulda,coulda,woulda list  .

Keep Smiling. :)

Shepard's Pie

I have decided to keep a photo journal of all of the different foods that I make for my husband,Wayne. One day I will make a recipe book using the recipes and my photos and I will pass it down to my children. I thought that I would share what I made for Wayne this past weekend. Those of you who visit my paper crafting blog have all ready seen this photo. The only difference is that I am putting the very simple recipe here on my personal blog. 

This photo was taken with natural light. Because I am not a professional photographer, I'm not sure why there is a good amount of shadows. Oh well, I tried.: )

Let me just say that cooking for Wayne has been a challenge for me from day one. He does not like a lot of the ingredients that I was taught to cook with. Who does not like mushrooms, onions and green peppers sauteed??? Wayne that's who. So I learned to cook bland  I mean simple dishes. :)  I loved my mother's cooking. Every thing she made was delicious. When she made Shepard's Pie it was made using cooked pork, lots of vegetables, mushrooms, onions and a wonderful sauce. Last but mot least it was topped off with mashed potatoes. I'm sorry that I never got her recipe. Then again, Wayne probably would not like it. So I make my Shepard's Pie the way that he likes it. As long as he is happy then that makes me happy.

Ingredients: 

2 pounds of Red Bliss potatoes

1 pound of  ground beef 85%

2 cans of Cream Corn

butter or the potatoes

Onions-sauteed(if your not making this for wayne)

Preheat oven at 350 degrees.

All I do is fry the beef. Pour off all of the grease.

Mash the potatoes.

Add one can of the cream corn on the bottom of baking dish

add beef next

add corn and then layer the mashed potatoes on top.

Cook for 40 minutes or until the first 3 layers are bubbling and the potatoes brown up a little.

So that is it. If you have a recipe for Shepard's pie that you would like to share with me please do. Who knows, it just might be a recipe that Wayne would love. 

 Until next time Smile on. :)

  
 
  
 
 
 

Lucy

I recently found out that a song was created for the Lupus Foundation to help raise money. I listened to the song went to ITunes and purchased it and now I would like to share the story and the song with you. This foundation is near and dear to my heart as many of you know.

Thanks for stopping by. Smile. :)

 

 

Some Old family Photos to Share

I wish that I could say that I remember a lot of things about being a little kid........but the truth is I can't. I do have lots of memories from  when I was in High School  up until now. Some times I think back on my HS days and miss so many of my friends and the awesome memories and some of the not so awesome memories. I could write a book about those years. But instead I'm going to fast forward to what is happening now.

My life is good. I'm married to a good man,I live in a beautiful part of the USA, the children are all grown, Wayne and I have 7 grandchildren and we live a comfortable life.  So life really is good!

Recently, something happened that made my life even better. Are you a Facebook user? I am and so very happy that I am. One night I decided to  do a search for 4 young people that I have thought about many times through out the years. I found 3 of them and the fourth who is not on facebook sent me an email. These 4 young people are the long lost family that I have missed very much. Two are my brothers and 2 are my sisters. We do not share the same mother but we do share the same dad. I have not seen them since our fathers funeral. That was June 1st of 1986. Twenty three years is a long time not to see someone that you care very much about. Although we did not see one another more then 3 times in our lives,I did hear how they were doing from our father or their Mom via telephone or through letters. Unfortunately,I lost contact with them soon after our father passed away. In the back of my mind I had always hoped that one day we would meet again. Well we have.... just not in person not yet anyway. I hope one day in the not to distant future we will all get together.

Here are some photos that I found this past weekend and I would like to share them with my family, Friends and anyone who happens to stumble across my blog. I wish I had a lot of them but I don't.

Life is good and I feel truly blessed. Here are a few old photos. They were scanned in and not in the best condition. In person they look better.

Dee Dee, Dolores(their Mom), Cheryl and Mike.

Dad, Robert (brother), Me (the dork) and my sister Edwina.

My brother Roberts Baptism. The little one is me and the young man is Dad.

 
Uncle Norman, Aunt Kay, Me and our cousin Cathy.

Edward (brother), Robert and Me.

Last but not least......

This is dad and Dolores.

Thanks for walking down memory lane with me Via a few photos. I wish that I had more photos from the past but I feel very fortunate to have these.  Maybe if I look harder I just might find some more. I would love to make a scrapbook of my family. keep Smiling. :)

 

Happy Spring!

I love the spring season. I love that the snow has melted, that the sun does not go down until 8 PM, the temperatures are warmer and I am able to go outdoors and take my daily walk. There are a lot more reasons why I love spring but it would take me too long to write them all down. 

I thought that I would share a photo that for me represents a part of spring. I took this photo today in my side yard. There is a tree that has white blossoms on it and they are lovely. I have no idea what type of tree it is but I can see it from my studio and looking at it from my window makes me smile. When I get time I will put some more spring photos up on my Photography blog .

 

It is so nice to see the color of green again. What do you love most about the spring? Until next time......keep smiling. :)

Cookies

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am a not a baker. I have always been able to cook up a storm but bake........................no. I can not tell you how many times I have tried through out the years only to fail. This past year though, now that I have to watch my weight and my cholesterol level, I can bake cakes, cookies and pies and not burn them. An even have my newly baked goods come out darn good. 

So tonight for New Years Eve I decided that I would bake Peanut butter Blossoms for Wayne and I. I thought that this recipe would take maybe 15 minutes for me to put together and then put in the oven. Then in 8-10 minutes I would have delicious cookies for us to eat. I certainly learned a lesson tonight. If a recipe calls for lots of ingredients with more then two steps to making it then it will not be a quick and easy recipe.  By the time I was finished gathering up all of my ingredients, getting my measuring cups and spoons, and then started measuring every thing that needed to go into my bowl I was a little tired. Then the instruction called for each ingredient to be placed into the bowl in steps. Between each step there was a lot of mixing. Then .............................oh, I wont go on if you have ever made these cookies then you know what the next steps are. By the time I was through with the mixing, the placing of each cookie on the cookie sheet and put them in the oven. I stood and stared at the disaster in my kitchen. So now it was onto the clean up. I don't think I was halfway through  the clean up when the timer went off letting me know that my cookies were now ready for me to stick a single Hershey kiss in each one. After doing so I had to at least try one cookie. I liked it. But no time to eat, time to clean up. When I was finished with all of the clean up from making the nicely looking cookies I was to darn tired to eat any more of them.

   

No they are not perfect looking but they really do taste good. However, next New Years Eve, I think I will skip the baking and buy a cake. :)

Happy New Years Day. I hope that 2009 will be a very good year for all of us.

Keep Smiling. :)

 

This Is The Face......

"This Is The Face Of Lupus".

 

I remember when this ad campaign bombarded  the TV channels and  many of the magazines. That was a few years ago. I'm not sure why it was stopped because it was a very effective way of getting the word "Lupus" out to the public. More then likely it was stopped due to lack of funds.

I was diagnosed with Systemic Lupus 14 years ago. However, I was sick off and on for at least 2 years prior to getting that diagnosis. I was lucky because I had a fantastic doctor who had been watching me and had the blood work done on me and badda bing Lupus was my diagnosis.I say that I was lucky because many men and women back then went a lot of years before receiving a proper diagnosis. Lupus was and can be a tricky autoimmune disease to diagnose.

I am also very lucky that my Lupus has attacked my joints so far and not my major organs. My mother had Lupus and everyone of her major organs were attacked. My mother passed away 8 years ago. Although she and I were not as close as I would have liked I miss her very much.

So why am I posting my very first post on my new personal blog about Lupus?  Because October is National Lupus Awareness Month. I wanted to get this post up way before now, but as some of you know I fell and hurt myself just enough so that typing was painful for me. As you can see I must be doing better.

Seven years ago I started the NH Lupus Support group in Concord, NH. It was at that time the only Lupus support group available. I met some very beautiful women and I believe that we all learned lots and felt the love and support from one another. A year later I accepted the position of Vice President of the NH Lupus Foundation as well as the publisher of the only NH LFA newsletter. Unfortunately I had to give up all of my positions one year later due to health issues. I'm good now. :)  Perhaps I will get back into doing some more volunteer work for the LFA soon. It is unfortunate that the NH Lupus Foundation closed it doors not too long after I became ill. I remember feeling so sad about that. Now our chapter is in Vermont.

I remember that the logo or symbol that we used was the butterfly. I wear a butterfly pendant just about every day in part because of the symbolism . The other reason is that every time I see a butterfly I think of my mother. The support pin and the wrist band are made using purple, one of my favorite colors.  If you would like to learn more about Lupus then please visit the Lupus Foundation. You may know someone who has this disease and perhaps knowing more about it will be helpful to you.

Okay,okay enough about Lupus. More then likely I will only be able to update my personal blog once a month. As some of you know I have my stamping/crafting blog It's All About The Journey and my photography blog. My photo blog needs updating and I will do that hopefully this week. The point of my starting a personal blog is to share things about me that do not belong on the other 2 blogs that I have. Like cooking, what books I might be reading, opinions I have, gardening etc... you get the idea. I hope to make this a happy and interesting place to visit.:)  If there is any thing that you would like for me to add to this blog I am open to suggestions. I would love to hear your suggestions .

Until the next time Smile on. :)