knife skills

Well, there I was cookin' dinner and decided to put some garlic in with the veggies to roast. I have to say that when I was growing up, the only place garlic came from is the dry spice isle at the grocery store in a shaker. I had never even seen a clove of garlic. So now with FoodNetwork and everything there is to learn just by watching, I have gotten pretty good with a knife and can smack that garlic with the heel of my hand on the side of the blade of my knife just like the best of 'um. I was smacking and chopping away and feeling ever so good about myself and next thing you know, I shot one of those guys across the kitchen and it landed in the floor.. about 8 feet away! OK... not so hot with the knife yet. Cracked myself up. I wonder if Rachael Ray ever shoots garlic across the house?

So Blessed!

Sometimes I watch girls the same age as Boo and begin to wonder what happens to them when they enter the tween and teen years. I wonder if every drop of 'sweet' just drops right out of their heads sometimes! Girls can be soo mean to each other. Or in our experience, they can just be mean without Boo being mean back to them..totally unprovoked. (Sadly, she is hardly alone.) But I just don't get it. And neither does she. She is nice to a fault, which I guess I don't understand sometimes. She will continue to be nice to the same girls long after I would have given up and walked away. I've even seen her give her beloved things (nothing big.. trinkets, favorite pens etc) to these girls. I asked her about it one time with the tone of 'what in the world did you do that for?!?' (that wasn't just my 'tone'... those were my exact words! LOL) and her simple reply was 'she would like it'. I couldn't even respond. It never entered her mind to hold back something good for them even though they were not nice in return. It stunned me and made me feel guilty for my question about it. She was willing to be nice and expect nothing in return. wow.

Today I met a 'little girl' that is two years older than Boo. She is a precious girl. She is sweet and I was amazed just listening to her 'be nice' to Boo. She has a kind heart and is very patient with someone younger than she is. That is something that not enough kids/girls these days have the patience to be... kind! I felt so blessed to have met this girl tonight.

The Diet

I am one of those girls that everybody looks at and wonders what I'm talking about when I say I'm going on a diet. I have skinny arms and skinny legs and the number on the scale isn't HUGE, at least by some people's 'standard'. But I am what they call an 'apple' which means that I gain it all in the middle.. so I begin to be out of proportion and look like a stick person with a circle for a middle. Soo... after fretting a lot about what I would do about it, I decided to go on South Beach. I bought the book when it first came out and never actually did the diet. Although I liked how it worked and what he wants to accomplish with it. Soo, I took the plunge and started a couple of weeks ago.. well three weeks to be exact. But last week was spring break, so that week I gained a pound, so I guess maybe subconconsciously I'm not 'counting' that week. But anyway.. I think I'm 'down' by two this week, so thats good.

I have a hard time with his desserts since I'm lactose intolerant.. and he calls for lots of cheese stuff and milk stuff throughout the day AND for that late night yummy. Soo.. a friend of mine, who is a lifetime dieter of one sort or another, but who currently is checking out life at 'The Beach' too, recommended that I mix some Cool Whip with peanut butter and freeze it and it would make this ice cream sort of concoction! Yeah.. not what you would call sticking to the diet exactly and something that the good doctor that wrote the book would probably roll his eyes at, but I did it this week and I was down by two and I didn't even get the ratios right.. I got it a little fatter than I was supposed to.. but hey... I tried!

Well.. today I was heading back to the store for more of my 'ice cream mix' aka Cool Whip when I saw IT! CHOCOLATE Cool Whip! (Cue: celestial voices and light from above into the freezer case!). The thought of mixing the chocolate with peanut better and getting a little blob of 'heaven' was more than I could stand. So... The topping is in the freezer. I need to get it out so I can make my yummy 'dessert'. I'm so excited I could pop! The thought of my original dessert sitting in the freezer all day this week has kept me more or less on track because I knew I had a treat coming! Well... I've got another one coming now! I can't wait to see what its like. But how could you go wrong??? Its chocolate and peanut butter, people!

First post

This is my first post. I really don't know what this blog will turn into, except to say that at times I need to be able to express... to no one in particular, the things that are on my heart about God and life and this seemed like the best forum for that. I know my poor hubby gets tired of me talking. LOL

Life can be such a struggle. There are so many things to say. But for now I am more or less trying to get a post up so I can see it. : )