Calm Before the Storm

Most of our daffodils look like these

I found one this morning that is just about to open

These are from Trader Joe's

We are having another one of those weird weather weekends. Today is absolutely gorgeous. Blue, blue sky and 65 degrees. Tomorrow, they say another storm is coming through. It will start as rain and end up as 2 inches of snow. My poor daffodils. I hope they survive. We plan to make the most of today. Soak up some vitamin D. Alan has already taken a bike ride, and Grace is running in a 4K later this afternoon. As for me, I "might" take the dog for a walk. Who knows...

Our second Green Bean vegetable bin was delivered to our front door yesterday. This time I added fresh eggs. Grace and I had so much fun opening up all of the brown paper bags. Not sure what I'm going to do with the beets and leeks, maybe roast them and use them on a salad with some Feta cheese. Any suggestions? I'm looking forward to the asparagus and English peas.
Hope you are having the best weekend ever.
Sally

A Long Slow Week

Thank goodness it's Friday. It's been a very slow week around here. Honestly nothing much to tell you about. The highlight of the week was probably the 75 degrees and sunny day that we had on Tuesday. It was lovely, but only lasted a day. Wednesday brought more snow and even more is expected Sunday night. Yahoo... I did get a little crazy in the kitchen and whipped up a batch of Blueberry Biscuits. I know, sounds good doesn't it? We had some blueberries that were just past the not great for snacking on stage. A little soft and squishy. I wasn't in the mood for pancakes, and muffins seemed like too much effort. The biscuits were a perfect solution. Sorry for all the pictures, but like I said it was a slow week. Maybe this weekend something exciting will happen and I'll have more to share.
Sally

Trying To Keep It Real

I forgot to tell you Happy March in my last post. It just snuck up on me like that crazy lion of a winter storm we are still dealing with. Today is the 11th school snow day so far this year for Louisville public school kids. Poor kids and teachers will be in class until the middle of June now. Very bizarre Anyway, the good news is that it's March. Spring is almost here for real. Right around the corner. Soon we will be wearing way less clothing when we venture out.

That kind of in a round about way brings me to the title of this post. Most of you know that January was a complicated month for our household. January is usually when I set a bunch of weight loss and exercise goals and buckle down, trying to embrace the whole healthy living thing. .Well none of that really happened this January, instead we waited for February, and instead of the getting serious part we decided to ease into embracing a healthy lifestyle.  Doesn't that sound lovely? Just easing into it.

 Most of you know that I've been a Weight Watcher's member on and off for about 100 years now. Well, it seems like it anyway. Right now I'm an online member, or a not taking it very seriously member some might say. I considered going back to the weekly meetings, but after a whole lot of thought I realized that I totally hate keeping track of points. I hate it. I decided to switch over to what WW calls the Simply Filling plan. Basically you only eat from a list of "Power Foods" and never have to keep track of anything. The more I investigated the "Power Foods" the more I realized that they were just "Real Food" So do you see where I'm going with this? I researched "real food" on the internet and found hundreds of sites dedicated to eating healthy foods. I signed up for meal plan suggestions at two of these sites. One is called 
100DaysofRealFood.com and the other is thefresh20.com. Like I said, we are easing into this and I won't lie and tell you that it's been easy. I try and shoot for eating "real" breakfasts, lunches and snacks and plan on 4 dinners a week. Hopefully we will make it to 7, but for right now it's a start. Oh, I also signed us up to receive a bin of organic fruits and vegetables delivered right to our front door, every other week. The program here in Louisville is called Green Bean Delivery. Our first bin arrived last Friday and just let me say that we were not disappointed.  We got a great variety and everything was was super fresh. So, there you have it. I'm sure I'll share more about this adventure as we progress. Who knows, we could be on to something that works for us, or not. I'll keep you posted.

Sally

Sugarbush

I've been battling with a cold all week, the kind that just lingers around annoying you and making you cranky. I'm sure you know the kind I'm talking about, sneezing, coughing runny/stuffy nose. Despite feeling like yuck, I woke up yesterday morning determined to go to the 23rd Annual Maple Syrup Festival in Sugarbush Indiana. I had read a rave review about it and honestly we just needed a good reason to get out of the house. Between illness and the weather we have been quite home-bond this winter and this was as good an excuse as any to drive way, way out into the country. The festival website said "to fully enjoy your experience, dress warmly and wear sturdy boots!!!" So, Alan and I laced up our hiking boots for the first time this year and off we went. I'd say it was about a 45 minute drive from home, but so very worth it. First stop was the dinning house for pancakes and sausage. We also had cups of this amazing maple tea that they make right in front of you. They fill a cup with sap/syrup in the first boiling stage and add a tea bag. It was hot and sweet and very delicious. After we ate we moseyed along the grounds checking out the outdoor craft vendors. We sampled several types of maple syrup in the Sugar House and ended up buying the Grade A Dark Amber. If I'd been feeling better, we might have participated in some tomahawk throwing and candle making. Maybe next year. Now, like many of you we are battening down the hatches and waiting to see what this next big winter storm brings. They are predicting ice and snow and to plan on power outages. Just lovely. Stay warm.
Sally

Quiet Weekend

It's been a very quiet weekend around here. The weather yesterday was just about perfect. Blue sky, a slight breeze and 60 degrees. Supposedly it's going to rain, sleet and snow today... I guess you take what you can get.  We did enjoy yesterday, got some yard work done, Alan got his bike ready for spring. We cleaned off the deck and put away the winter door mat. I even washed the floor mats in my car. Speaking of my car, I took it in for it's 10,000 mile check-up on Friday. My only complaint was that the low tire pressure light stays on all the time, even when all 4 tires are full. The Toyota guy just laughed at me when I told him that. He asked if I'd checked the pressure in the spare. Really? Who knew the spare tire had a sensor in it? I had this same problem with my first Rav 4 and no one ever bothered to mention it. I probably never asked either, but still. Anyway, Have you spent the last 2 weeks glued to your TV watching the Winter Olympics? We sure have enjoyed it. I'm not sorry that today's the last day though. It's stressful for me watching the American athletes get so close and then missing out by just a point, or a second, or a 100th of a second. So heartbreaking. One good thing about watching so much TV is all of the knitting I've been able to accomplish. I'm almost done with my snugly cardigan, all it needs is pockets and I plan to put them on today. Of course it will probably be too warm now to wear it, but there is always next winter, which I don't even want to think about right now. I also finished up a pair of socks, and a long scarf like shawl that I knit out of the rainbow yarn that I spun. I'm already to start on another pair of socks and another shawl/scarf/wrap. Hopefully with less TV to watch I'll be able to get back to my sewing machine. I've got a couple of quilts tops that need to be finished and maybe a new quilt to start...
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Sally

Loving Something I Thought I Hated

I mentioned last week that I was way far behind on a block of the month quilt that I'm working on. I'm still not sure what was going through my head when I signed up for this project. I guess I was just so smitten with the finished sample that I totally overlooked all of the applique I'd be having to do. Have I ever told you how much I hate machine applique? Well, I thought I did. I've tried it so many times in the past and I've NEVER been happy with the outcomes. That is until now. After watching several YouTube tutorials last weekend, I decided to just give it another try.. I'm still pretty shocked at how well it turned out. There was even a point where I was kind of enjoying the stitching. I know it's not perfect and to be honest that bothers me a little bit, but who's going to look that closely anyway. It's a quilt for heavens sake. There are 8 more applique sections to go.  Hopefully it'll keep getting easier. Keeping my fingers crossed
Sally

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day. We are usually celebrating Grace's Birthday, but she decided to spend it with good friends in Lexington. It was a little strange not having cake, but Alan and I made due with these yummy chocolate lava cakes from Trader Joe's. Last week Alan thought he smelled lava cakes baking,  which is pretty funny because I've never made them before and I'm not really sure I know how to. When I was picking up a few things at Trader Joe's yesterday I saw these right next to the vanilla ice cream. I figured it was meant to be. Thank goodness I just happened to have some Valentine sprinkles. My diet starts tomorrow....
Sally