March is here

Yes, March is here and we have 3 1/2 feet of snow(at least) on the ground. When this all melts it will be a watery mess!!! Our driveway will be so mucky, is that a word???? Roofs are collapsing on barns. We are hoping our pole barn roof doesn't, but the load is heavy. It has rained, then frozen, snowed, then frozen, then rained, then frozen, then more snow. It must be close to 12 inches thick on the roof. We are praying a lot!!!
Now onto another subject. I recently went to the library and got Deb Perlman's cookbook, The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. There are quite a few recipes I want to try, just not enough time to make them or test them out! One that stood out to me was "Leek Fritters". Sounds interesting to me, I'm trying to stay away from potatoes as I think they make the arthritis worse. When I get to them, hopefully soon, I will post it! Blessings!!!

Birthday

Today is my birthday!!! I have always enjoyed my birthday and getting older, but this birthday is even more special as last week I had a surgical procedure done on my back and it feels great. My left leg has quit hurting and that's a bonus!!! So, now my challenge is to get exercising and lose some weight. I can't do much for a month in the exercise realm as they don't want anything to move. I have slowly been cutting back the amount of food I eat and increasing fruits/vegetables. It's certainly good to feel this good as its been more than a year! Standing straighter and walking without pain is so amazing, we all take it for granted! So here's to a great year and start to less pain/more moving! Blessings!

Valentine's Day

Here we are almost to Valentine's Day. Can't believe it! How do you celebrate the day?? Is it just another day?? I hope not, not that we have to spend money because we don't! Sometimes we do, but mostly we spend the day telling each other how much we love each other a few more times than normal! This happens because my birthday is a few days later and then our anniversary, so Feb. is busy spending money!
Gordon comes to the store almost everyday to have lunch with me, we often say we should save money and I should pack my lunch, but he comes in and we spend 20 minutes together during the day. Breaks up both our day, if he can't he will let me know. Guess it might be part of getting older or maybe we enjoy each others company after all these years, still!
Tuesday is surgery day for me. I get the spinal cord stimulator implant. We travel to Amery, Wi. for the surgery which is about an hour from here. Surgery is 1:30 p.m. and we should be heading for home by 5p.m. I'm pretty excited and ready for not so much pain!!! Blessings!

Photos

I found a box of photo albums last month. What a project I have ahead of me!!! HELP!!! I don't like to scrapbook, it's too time consuming for me. So, with that in mind I had Gordon drop me off 2 weekends ago at Michaels's while he did an errand. I got a young man who was no help as he doesn't scrapbook either and tried to help, but not so much!! I found a lady talking to her niece on an aisle where I was trying to figure out tape for photos and found the courage to ask her a bunch of questions! She was very helpful, though she probably thought I was noisy!
I found 5 albums for $2.99 each and then added more paper for $12.99 and tape for $4.99, pens for 3/ $3.00 and extra pages for $6.99.I spent some where in the neighborhood of $60.00. I now have run out of background paper and ordered more from Amazon. So, the work and torture continues!!
I found many photos and made copies for my brother-in-law, as they are so fun of him and my husband as young boys!!So, wish me luck, come on over and help me out if you have the courage to put up with me. It gets a little frustrating for me from time to time, but hopefully I will do justice to the memories of these photos. Bless

ings!

winter life

Well, the winter goes on and on here in northern Wisconsin! Today's high was -2, last night it was -22 with wind chill at -40. Winter life is so different for the people who moved here in the last 8 years, this is actually the winter temps of yesteryear, like the 1980's when we moved here. We came to Wisconsin from Illinois in 1976, the first winter we were here it was -50 one day and that wasn't wind chill temps. So, you need to quit asking me when this is going to end, it will end in April. We will thaw out then and not much before unless we get an early spring which I don't see coming!!!We live here for a reason and the temps have made me forget why!!LOL!!!!:)
I realize this post is a little different from what I usually post, but I just wanted to tell you all that winter is winter and please learn to deal with it!!! Amen! Blessings!!!

soup

So, I have tried 3 times to post this with pictures and very frustrated not to get it to go. So, I will post this recipe without the pictures. Here is the recipe for easy chicken wild rice soup:
5 carrots, diced,
2 cups of chicken broth,
 1 4oz package of cream cheese,
 2 cups of wild rice mix
1 package of Hormel grilled and cubed chicken,
I made mine in the crock pot and let it cook for 8 hours, it was so..................good.
I softened the cream cheese in the microwave for 30 seconds, add the chicken broth to the crock pot with cream cheese and stir it together as best you can. Add the remaining ingredients and wait it our for 8 hours or go to work like I did. Blessings!!!!

New Year, new me

Well, the trial implant went well. I had no left leg pain and very little back. About 80 percent relief!! HUGE!!! So, the real implant goes in on Feb11th. It will be an early birthday gift to me!!! It will be good to have some kind of normal or not so much pain! So with all that said, the new year needs to help me get going on the "new" me or less of me. More exercise and less food. Finding the right eating plan is my next goal. I've done every diet(I think). I feel better on a Paloe diet, but I don't want to eat a lot of meat, so I will try and fine tune it! Maybe more fish. beans and vegetables will be the trick! I also think that grains are the bases for arthritis trouble for me. Just saying some grains are bad for me!! Blessings