A Thank You to My "LIFERS"

A lot has happened since I last sat down to write.  I spent the week of Memorial Day weekend traveling.  During this time, I went to my oldest granddaughter’s 6^th grade graduation and my youngest granddaughter’s 4K graduation.  Nothing in the world is as sweet as grandchildren! I also spent time with old friends and with a very dear and special friend who is losing the war against Alzheimer’s.

As I was driving the eight hours back home, I had a lot of time to think about my life. There are so many people that are so near and dear to me. Some I see often, some once a year, some every five of ten years and some are gone and I would give ANYTHING for just one more day.

Everyone has family and most everyone has friends, but there are some of us who have been blessed with people who transcend these categories and blend into something totally different. They become part of who you are. I realized as I was driving that these people, living and dead are part of what makes me the person that I am today. My friend Lee has a term for these people. She calls them “Lifers”.

I was able to spend time with my oldest friend Lee this weekend. By oldest friend I mean that we have known each other since birth. Our parents knew each other even before we were born. We started kindergarten together, dealt with children, marriages and divorces together, cancer, job changes and moves. We have been together so long that we instinctively pick up the phone, sometimes after not talking for a year and say  “what’s wrong and what can I do?” Countless times, we sensed that the other was in need.

There are other “lifers” that I love.  And after spending time with my dear friend who is fading away, I think it is time that I let all of you know that I love each and every one of you. Even if we don’t talk often, you are in my thoughts and prayers and you are part of my very being!

I have been looking at old pictures recently and there are quite a few that I want to share! Unfortunately, there are some of my oldest and dearest friends that I have no pictures of.  The only excuse that I have is that when you have been friends for LIFE, you take for granted that you will always have that person. So, my “lifer” friends if you don’t see a picture, that is probably the case, and the next time I see you, expect to see the camera!

Until next time!

'"Call it Paradise and Kiss it Goodbye" or My Childhood Memories of the Beach

I am getting ready to go down to the Gulf Shores/Orange Beach area for a couple of days. As I am packing, I am remembering my childhood memories of the beach.

I grew up a little over 2 hours from Gulf Shores. At that time, it took much longer than that to get there due to road conditions, etc. But at least once a year, we would go to the beach. I remember several occasions when we would stay for a few days, but usually, we would go for just the day. Wow, what an experience!

Mama would go to the store and get stuff for a picnic.  She would fry a chicken the night before and we would also have sandwich fixings. We would carry potato chips and drinks.  In retrospect, this probably was not a vacation day for her, since she had to work twice as hard as usual just to get us all there packed and with food. But she always made the day special. 

We would leave early in the morning, wearing our swimsuits and away we would go. The entire trip was two lanes, so traffic was a variable. Also, there was the drawbridge over the river that we as children were always worried about. We were never certain that we were actually going to get to the “Beach” until that obstacle was overcome. One time, we waited and waited only to have to turn around and come home.

Once the drawbridge anxiety was over though, excitement would build. In those pre-seatbelt, car seat days, we would sit/lay wherever we had chosen as our spot for the trip and watch the sky or watch the wires swoop and hit the telephone poles. Sometimes, someone would say something that at the time we considered profound; usually it was my youngest brother. One trip he voiced his thoughts by announcing, “Wow, Granddaddy would have to have a long trot line to run this river!” as we crossed Mobile Bay.

We would travel through the piney woods of Clarke and Washington counties, go through the city of Mobile, cross Mobile Bay on the Causeway (pre Bay Way days) and head through the farm land of Baldwin County. At that time, there was nothing but farms, and the tiny towns of Spanish Fort, Fairhope, and Foley. We could tell when the journey was almost over by the smell of salt in the air.

Finally, we were there! The road came to a T. and there was the ocean.  There was asphalt for maybe a half mile in either direction, but otherwise nothing but ocean and beach. No fast food, tourist attractions or entertainment, just the Hang Out and the beach.

We would play all day.  It was one of the few times except for Sundays that we got to spend a whole day with Daddy. He would play with us the entire time. Looking back, I realize that he was probably exhausted and would have liked to just sit and do nothing, but he never let on.

Lunch was wonderful. There is nothing better than cold coke, cold fried chicken and pimento cheese at the beach. Nobody cared that occasionally the food was a little gritty from the wind blowing sand onto the blanket.

We would stay until we started looking pink. There was no sunscreen in those days, but I really don’t remember getting badly burned. Maybe it was because we played outside all the time and our bodies adapted. Finally, we would have to leave. There were tears and pleadings “just a little longer” but we would load up the belongings, and get into the car.  We would get in with our suits on, sand and all, and ride all the way home with the beach all over us.

At bedtime, after my bath with the bottom of the bathtub covered in sand, I would lie in my bed and feel the ocean moving me along and hear the waves in my dreams.

As an adult, I moved to Gulf Shores and my children grew up there. It was a great place to raise children and my dearest friends are still there, but it is now more of a destination location. The beaches are as beautiful as ever, the people just as friendly, and the food outstanding. However, I will always miss the beach that I had as a child.

Many years have passed since that time. My granddaughter Chloe' is graduating from 6^th grade at Gulf Shores Elementary this year but it seems like yesterday that I was her age and eating fried chicken on the beach!

Chloe' and me on the Beach!

Happy Memories and Happy Mother's Day

I’ve been thinking over the last couple of days about how blessed I am. I have been especially thinking recently about what a charmed childhood I had. Most children today cannot relate to the childhood that I remember.

I was born in the Deep South in a time when families still lived close to one another. I was blessed to have parents, grandparents, and great grandparents who loved me. That’s right, great grandparents. You see when I was born; I had all four grandparents living within 5 miles of my house along with 2 great grandmothers and a great grandfather.  My mother’s grand mothers were also living, one in North Alabama and one in South Georgia. Life for me was a joyful time of sitting on knees, receiving hugs, silver dollars at Christmas and on birthdays, and waiting for divinity, fudge, cards and letters to arrive in the mail.  I was a very happy spoiled little girl.

Besides the great grandparents, I had numerous great aunts and uncles, and even great-great aunts and uncles. These wonderful people who were actually my grandparents aunts and uncles also spent many afternoons and Sunday mornings at church molding my life.

I had cousins for days. There were thirteen of us on Daddy’s side and 5 of us on Mama’s. Not to mention the second and third cousins. Holidays were magical and Friday and Saturday nights as a small child were spent playing outside until dark and then lying on the couch while the adults watched Lawrence Welk or listened to Jerry Clower records or played a card game known as Rook.

Summers were spent in the creek or playing baseball in Grandmother and Granddaddy’s yard while waiting for Granddaddy to fry fish and waiting for the ice cream freezer to freeze. Sometimes the older boys would let me help with the ice cream by poking the drainage hole with a stick to keep the water draining or letting me sit on the top of the ice cream bucket to keep the churn in place.

The other part of my time was spent with Granny. Granny was single (widowed) and fun! I thought she was old at that time in my life but now I realize that she was very young. She died at age 51 when I was 12. With Granny and my aunt LaVonne while she was still at home, I had a great time! When I spent the night, we had what a 5 year old would consider wonderful meals. Frozen pizza and tater tots, or TV dinners, things that I did not get at home. Breakfast was buttered toast and milk coffee. We watched the Pink Panther cartoon because it was Granny’s favorite and she told us stories at bedtime. She played baseball with us and we spent time in the back yard picking up pecans and eating them.

Mother’s Day stands out in my mind as a very special day. We got up on Sunday morning and went to church as usual. But once there, it was different from the usual Sunday. Every mother there had a corsage.  The mothers who had lost their mothers had white corsages and the ones whose mothers were living wore colored corsages.  But all of the mothers were special on that day.

On this Mother’s Day, I would like to wish everyone a wonderful day and say, “I love you!“to my Mother, and “I miss you!” to my grandmothers and great grandmothers. 

I am going to leave you with some pictures of some of my favorite women in my life!

The Close of an Era

I love this time of year! Everything is green, pink, yellow and white! The birds are back and everything smells new and clean. I am so thankful for my life.

I had a wonderful surprise this week. My parents came to visit. I love my parents! We had a great time talking and spending time together.  We went out to one of my favorite places to eat, Demo’s.

My husband also surprised me this week and took me to the Grand Ole Opry. What a great time!  So many great acts, but my favorite performers were Jimmy Wayne and ALABAMA!!!

ALABAMA hasn’t changed since they first became famous when I was in high school! They are amazing. For those of you who haven’t been to the Opry, I encourage you to go if you get a chance. It is something that you will never forget!

It is ironic that the week that I get to the Opry, we lost one of the greatest singers of all time, George Jones. My favorite song EVER is “He Stopped Loving Her Today”. He will be greatly missed. When we first came to Nashville we lived in Franklin. You could see Mr. Jones most any morning in Cracker Barrel having breakfast. It was an experience that I will always remember.

Speaking of great entertainers, Waylon Jennings’s son Shooter was one of the performers at the Opry the night I went. He brought his mother Jesse Coulter who performed a piano piece and sang the first song. She is a beautiful, talented and gracious lady. I was very disappointed with Shooter however. Instead of entertaining and showing his talent, he sang a rant about Nashville that included the fact that Nashville “wouldn’t know country if it hit them in the head with a baseball bat” and how unappreciated his father was.  I understand that during the “Outlaw” period, his father and the other “outlaws” were ostracized, but I would like to think that this young man has enough talent that he could find his own way into the music world and not ride the coattails of the “outlaws”.

I am enjoying my new job and my new life. I am going to be the Marketing Director for the agency, but at this moment, I am writing a training manual and setting up SOP’s (standard operating procedures) for the office. I am also organizing and arranging the office to make it flow better.

I am looking forward to the marketing part of the job and will keep you informed on how it goes. I hope that all of you have a wonderful and blessed week and that you enjoy life as much as I do!

The moon this week has been spectacular! I am posting a picture of the moon from Mount Juliet!

Until next time!

Spring is in the Air!

Spring is here!!!! Finally! Today is the first day this year that it has been warm and sunny.  One of the biggest surprises that I had moving from south Alabama to Nashville was the fact that spring doesn’t arrive until late March - mid. April. Just because the weatherman says that the high for the day is 70, don’t be fooled! It will reach 70 around 4pm and then quickly begin to cool off again.

This winter has been especially long and hard so I was happy to wake up to a balmy and sunny 53 degrees this morning and hurried outdoors to spread mulch in the flowerbeds. 2 hours and 40 cubic feet of mulch later, I am tired but pleased with my results!

I have to say that I love my life! It is hard to believe 4 months ago that I was tired, depressed and dreading getting up every morning. Now, the days are happy and busy and there is never enough time to get everything finished!

One of my newest accomplishments and one that makes me very happy is joining the YMCA!  The Donelson-Hermitage YMCA is a wonderful place! I go 4-5 times a week. I enjoy the water aerobics classes, (Don’t make fun…. I have terrible knees and a bad back). Jean the instructor is amazing! She has us doing Pilates moves in the water. 75 minutes of cardio and aerobics twice a week will really change your life. I’ve also been working with a trainer and work out in the equipment room twice a week.  All of this is free to members! But the best part of my week is Yoga!

For those of you who have never tried yoga, you are really missing out on a wonderful experience! I have always loved yoga, but the cost is often restrictive. But here it is included in my membership! It has changed my life in so many ways. I feel better, hurt less, am more flexible but most of all my mind is much less cluttered. For one hour 3 times a week I don’t have time to think. My entire focus is on yoga. I leave the class feeling as if the weight of the world has been lifted from my shoulders.

I encourage you to try something new. I really think that one of the best ways to feel young is to keep introducing your body and mind to new things. Life is too short to be bored and to feel that your life is stale. Let me know what you think!

Making Extra Time in my Day!

Hello Everyone!  I hope ya’ll are doing well! I am enjoying the spring weather and hoping that it lasts.

I wanted to thank everyone for the great response that I received on my last post. Just to give an update, I am thoroughly enjoying this new lifestyle. I haven’t been to the store since my monthly trip and it is wonderful not having to wonder what I am going to cook each meal.

I’ve had several people tell me that they like the idea of monthly grocery shopping but don’t think that they can do it because they don’t know what to do about all of the fresh produce and the large amount of space needed. So, I decided to show you how I handle that issue.

 I have a small kitchen and I also use a lot of vegetables. Some of you might not know that my husband is from India, so although (thankfully) he is not vegetarian (I love the food, but am not very good at cooking it), we do eat quite a lot of vegetables.  I also refuse to waste food. Therefore, I have learned how to make the most of the vegetables that I buy and use them completely.

 I admit, when you first bring all of the groceries in, it is rather daunting.  But, it needn’t be. I start by putting away all of my frozen and refrigerated food. Then I put away my canned goods.  I try not to buy many canned vegetables, usually just tomato products and occasionally English Peas or canned Great Northern Beans. Why do I not buy canned vegetables? Because, frozen usually tastes better and I can cook all or part of a package. This allows me to buy large packages of frozen vegetables that can be stacked in the freezer and take up less room.  I buy beans dry and cook them from scratch. I can buy a pound of dry beans for around the same price as a can of beans.

After putting up my canned goods, I start on my meats.  I buy what is on sale, usually family packs. Since there are only 2 of us, I go ahead and divide my meat up into a serving size for 2 people and put in the freezer.

Next comes the produce. I have discovered that cutting up vegetables is the most time consuming part of preparing a meal. Also, I hate crying over chopped onions every night while I fix dinner. So, I chop all of my vegetables ahead of time and put them in Ziploc bags in the freezer. I usually leave a few onions whole in case I decide to make tuna salad or something where fresh onions with crunch are needed, but the rest go into the freezer. Then whenever I cook, I reach into the freezer, pull out the amount of chopped vegetables needed and cook them. I do not chop my potatoes, ginger, cilantro, or chilies.

As I chop the vegetables, I place all of the scraps from the vegetables into a stockpot. After I am done chopping, I cover all of the scraps with water and boil.  After cooking, I strain the vegetables and keep the liquid. I end up with the most wonderful vegetable stock! There is usually enough for 2 meals. I consider this free food! I use the stock to make homemade potato soup or tomato basil soup!

The strained vegetables go in the compost pile for the summer vegetable garden. I hope this has answered some of your questions!  Until next time!

Simplifying Meals

Hello everyone! Sorry that it has been so long since I caught up with you but things have been hectic! However, it is hectic in a GOOD way for a change!

I started going to the office with Shank this week and I am learning how the insurance business runs.  I plan to help out when they are short staffed and to act as Shank’s personal assistant! All I can say is….. I have a lot to learn.  I am having fun though. I have also started going to several different community and business meetings that he attends including Chamber of Commerce,  and BNI meetings and I have met some wonderful people.

The other thing that I have been working on is how to simplify my life at home.  I decided to try a new concept of food planning, grocery shopping, and cooking. I am now into the second month of my plan and I wanted to share with you what I am doing and hopefully get your feedback and input on how to improve.

I have decided that I spend way too much time and money buying groceries and trying to figure out what to cook after I get home with these groceries. Sometimes I get home and wonder why I had to buy groceries at all with all of the stuff in my pantry. This bothers me on so many levels. There are so many people who don’t have anything to eat and here I am looking at so much and can’t put a meal together!

So, after doing some serious thinking and meditating about this I decided that I would inventory my pantry, refrigerator, and freezer, make a meal plan, then implement it. You may be asking what is so different about this? Here it is…. I am only going to the grocery store once a month. Yep, once a month!

Here is what I did: I inventoried everything in my kitchen. I admit the first month took a while. I wrote down EVERYTHING in my pantry and refrigerator. I bet if you aren’t already doing this, you would be shocked at what you look blindly at everyday and never notice.

Next, I grabbed a calendar and started planning. I took the ingredients that I had inventoried and began making meals out of them. On the calendar, I planned out 3 meals for everyday of the month. When I got to the place where I had ingredients with nothing to put with them, I pulled out cookbooks and searched the Internet to find recipes to use these ingredients. I am determined to use everything in my pantry and to not waste any food. Listed below are 2 sites that take your ingredients and turn them into recipes for you!

http://www.recipekey.com/#main

http://www.recipematcher.com/

Once I had 3 meals for every day of the month, I made a grocery list. I planned for 3 meals because I cook breakfast every day and we take our lunches to work with us.  I have to admit, the grocery list for a month looked daunting. However, I went to the store (actually I usually go to 4 stores, I like to get the best prices available) and I bought groceries.  I stuck to the list, if it wasn’t on the list, I did not buy it! I was extremely worried….how much would this cost? But would you believe that I spent the same amount for the month that I usually spend in 2 weeks? I only spent $250.00. I brought it home and started the plan.

So here I am on my second month and I have to say, it works! I have learned some things. I don’t always cook what I have on the calendar for that day. Let’s be honest, some days, I don’t want what is listed for that day, or the meal is just too labor intensive. So, I pick another meal on the calendar. As long as I remember to cross out what I’ve cooked, I can go back and pick up the available meals later in the month.  Also, I had meals left over at the end of the month. Why? Because I did not take into account the days when there were leftovers.

So at the beginning of my second month, I was again a little anxious. My pantry was almost depleted and I did not know how to estimate how much the grocery bill would be. I started by adding the 11 meals that I had left from my first month to the calendar, and then I took a new inventory, planned my meals and set out to the store again. And guess what? This month, I spent $273.00!  Thirty-one days in the month with 3 meals a day for 2 people! 93 meals!!!!! I am extremely pleased with the outcome!

Also, I am ecstatic over the fact that I DO NOT have to darken the door of a grocery store or put up groceries again for a month!!!!!!!!

Please let me know what you think and any suggestions on how to make it better!

Talk to you soon!

 http://www.recipematcher.com/