Help! The world is spinning out of control, what should I do? Eat a Chocolate Mouse!

I read more blogs than any one person should in any given day and what I find so often are recipes that literally make my mouth water. Sometimes I get busy right away gathering the ingredients from my pantry to bake or make what I found "in the blogs" because I just can't wait to taste the yummy goodness someone shared in their blog. A friend shared this recipe with me and I thought it was worthy of sharing in my blog. You can choose to use only a few of the ingredients, or all of them. I guarantee you, if you leave anything out you will miss the full flavor and aroma waiting for you in this journey of ours...LIFE! (Enjoy making the chocolate mice with someone you love.)

Help! The world is spinning out of control, what do I do?
A recipe for a healthy life...(and a little something extra)

• Take a 10-30 minute walk every day and while you walk, smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant. You'll be surprised how many people smile back!
  

• Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day. Talk to God about what is going on in your life. Lock the door, take the phone off the hook, turn off your cell.

• When you wake up in the morning say to yourself: My purpose is to______today. I am thankful for______.

• Eat more foods that grow on trees and on vines and in the ground. Eat less food that is made "in" a plant and not on it.
  

• Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, wild Alaskan salmon, broccoli , almonds & walnuts.
  

• Try to make at least three people smile every day beginning with yourself.

• Don't waste your precious energy on gossip or the energy vampires: issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive, present moment.
  

• Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out credit card.
  

• Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

• Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

• Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does.

• You are not so important that you have to win every argument, agree to disagree.
  

• Make peace with your past to have a peaceful present.
  

• Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea where their journey has taken them or where they will be going.
  

• No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

• Frame every "so-called" disaster with these words: 'In a few years, will this really matter?
  

• Forgive everyone for everything, beginning with yourself and everyone you love.

• What other people think of you is none of your business. What you think of them is only yours.

• However good or bad a situation happens to be, it will change with time.

• Your job won't take care of you when you are sick, your friends and family will, so stay in touch!
  

• Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

• Each night before you go to bed say: I am thankful for____. Today I accomplished _____.
  

• Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed. LET GO, LET GOD.
  

• When you are feeling down, think about your many blessings. You'll see the hand of God everywhere in your life.

It's Ash Wednesday today. A good time for all of us to get back to the basics in life and in thought. Spend more time with everyone you love, and sometimes don't love, because it's the little things that mean a lot. Talk to GOD in everything you do. He's interested, really. As our Holy Father He wants to be included in our lives just as you are interested in the lives of your friends and family.

Our world may seem to be spinning out of control but remember...it rests in the palm of His hand.

I'm ending this blog entry of mine with a recipe for something that will fit in the palm of your hand, but not for long or it will melt, besides they taste just too good...trust me! These are quick, easy and oodles of fun to make with kids. Remember, it's the little things that mean a lot...

Little, chocolate mice

• 4 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate
• 1/3 cup vanilla yogurt
  
• 1 cup chocolate cookie crumbs (Oreos work great)
  

What you will need to bring the little guys to life

• 1/3 cup chocolate cookie crumbs (to roll your mice in for their fur)
  
• 1/3 cup confectioners' sugar (for white mice)
  
• 24 silver dragees decorating candy (for the little eyes)
  
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds (for the ears)
  
• 12 (2 inch) pieces long red vine licorice (for their tails)
• cinnamon candies for their noses. I like to save some from Valentine's Day to make tiny, heart noses
  

1. Melt the chocolate, and combine with vanilla yogurt. Stir in 1 cup chocolate cookie crumbs. Cover and refrigerate until firm. I like to keep most of the dough in the fridge and just a little on my work surface as I make these guys. Once the dough gets too warm it's a bit messy.
   
2. Roll by level tablespoonfuls into balls. Mold to a slight point at one end (the nose).
   
3. Roll dough in confectioners sugar (for white mice), and in chocolate cookie crumbs (for dark mice). On each mouse, place dragees in appropriate spot for eyes, almond slices for ears, and a licorice string for the tail.
4. Refrigerate for at least two hours, until firm.

If you don't have the yogurt handy, you can use peanut butter for an especially yummy variation. Once you have the basic dough made, use your imagination!

For presentation, you can line a shoe box with foil for a little house. I've placed my mice in toasted coconut (shown). You can also sprinkle chocolate jimmies here and there to make it look like they've been in their box for a while.

Dieting? Scale doesn't move? Big, fat hips? Give yourself a boost and put on some old boots!

I've been sharing here on my blog for several weeks but one thing about me I haven't shared is that I have been on a weight-loss journey for the past few months. Now, before anyone gets all excited and thinks I'm going to share some magic pill, Snickers-diet way to drop 100 pounds in a month, maybe you'd better go read another blog because I am doing it the old-fashioned way. I am watching my calorie intake, logging in each and every morsel that goes into my mouth and moving my body more than I have in the past. When I stopped smoking my lungs got bigger and better but at the same time my hips got bigger...but not better. But that's not the point of this blog entry. What I want to share with you is the fact that a little known fact about weight loss took place right in my very own home...to me...regular, ol' me!

OK, I know things change when you lose weight. I know you take your measurements and compare the numbers at intervals to check your progress and to encourage yourself to stay on the right track. I know that. I read that. I know that if you are a good kid and stick to your plan the numbers on the scale will get smaller and smaller. I get it. But...my FEET?

For the past two years my warmest and most comfortable winter boots, the ones with the warm, fuzzy lining, made of soft, supple leather and nice, long laces have been off limits for me. For two winters I'd put them on, say a little "don't hurt ME" prayer, go outside, walk to the garage for my shovel and feel like a cripple in a matter of minutes. They'd pinch and poke and scrunch to the extent that I'd rather be barefoot in the snow than wearing those things. So, sadly, I'd limp back into the house using my snow shovel for a crutch, change into my less than stylish boots and go back outside to finish my shoveling. But I kept those boots, yes, I sure did. They cost me an arm and a leg a few years ago and at today's prices, they'd be at least two arms and a leg, so I kept them, determined that they were mine and no one else could have them.

So, I'd end up outside wearing my old clunker boots (the ones that my dog, Freyja, chewed on when she was a puppy) shoveling snow with cold, wet feet and feeling like I just lost my best friend. I'd be out there hoping that no one saw me, and if they did, they didn't offer me a buck or two thinking that I didn't have enough money to buy myself some new boots. Of course, that made for some pretty rapid shoveling so I could hurry back into the house to warm my feet and to hide from my neighbors, but it did nothing for my self-esteem.

The other day it was cold, and I mean cold (less than zero), outside, so I thought that I'd live with the pain just to keep my feet warm while I shoveled snow. I slipped those sweet cutie pies of mine on and...well, what-do-you-know...those boots, the very same boots that made me feel as though my feet were in a vise-grip FELT GOOD! I wore them out in the snow and I spent almost three hours walking around in them and they felt NORMAL! I even shoveled more and better than I had in years. I was a snow-shoveling marvel! My gosh, my feet lost weight...they really, honestly, for sure DID get thinner or smaller or more svelte (if you can call a foot svelte)! And the best part...my boots, the ones that were warm and cozy and soft, fit again!

I had read a while back that shoe size could change with weight loss (or gain) but I thought...um, aw, heck, not me. Well, yes, me! ME, ME, ME! My feet lost weight, size, stature, whatever you want to call it. My tootsies now fit into my favorite, stylish, warm-as-heck winter boots! This almost makes shoveling snow worth it...but lest I get carried away, I STILL DON'T THINK SHOVELING SNOW IS FUN, not really.

So, if you think you've been at a stand-still with your weight loss and the scale isn't moving and your hips are still the same size...try on some boots from the back of your closet! Heck, it's worth a try! And, at the very least, you'll burn some calories crawling around on your hands and knees checking out the closet floor!

I've become an obsessive "peeping blogger" and I just...can't...stop myself!

My gosh, this has to stop...it just has to stop. My brain is on sweet, cute, pastel, gorgeous, homemade, craft, precious OVERLOAD! I sit down in the morning after feeding my dogs and cats (thank goodness I still do that), boot up my laptop and get lost in the world of blogs! And, I mean LOST! I travel from blog to blog to blog looking at this pretty room and checking out that delicious recipe and noting how this blogger did that craft and making notes in my head about design, color and gardening. One blog runs into the next blog and I can't remember where I began or why! My mind runs in circles, twirling this way and that way...my tummy gets upset and I get nervous when I can't remember if I bookmarked what I just read that I thought would save the world, or at least make it cuter and sweeter and more adorable.

Have I become an obsessive compulsive blog peeper? Are there enough hours in the day for me to see it all, even if I don't sleep, or eat, or answer the phone? It's bad enough that I hold my "wee" until I can't stand it anymore and walk hunched over to my first floor powder room all cramped up. This just has to stop! I've got my notebook and computer and index cards loaded with ideas that will keep me busy for the next fifty years. (Note to self: take vitamins so you can live for another fifty years).

Right after this post I am shutting down my laptop, putting it in its case and walking away. I have to learn to walk and to talk and to think and to cook all over again. My brain has turned into frilly, fluffy, soft, cuddly, sweet, darling pudding!

Wait, I think I just heard the ping that tells me another comment just posted to my latest blog entry. I'll read that and then shut down the laptop...really, honest, I will...I will...sigh. Right after I limp into the powder room...I...really...have...to...go!

Welcome to my happy kitchen on this sweet, pink Saturday!

It's PINK SATURDAY again over at Beverly's blog HOW SWEET THE SOUND. As I looked around today wondering what I would share with all of you this Saturday, I decided that I would take photos of things that are all in one room of my home instead of bits and pieces from here and there. With that thought in mind, I'm sharing photos of items I have in my kitchen, which of course, is loaded with pink, what else?

The first pinkie that I enjoy so much is my pink, Zenith television. Made in the early '80s, I found it on eBay for $35.00. For years I always thought that having a television in the kitchen was just the most decadent thing imaginable, especially if it was hooked up to Cable. I have since moved on from that thought, but that doesn't reduce the affection I have my pink television. Every now and then it acts like it doesn't feel so good, coughing and burping with a not-so-wonderful noise coming from somewhere in the back and underneath. When that happens I hold my breath and close my eyes and wonder where on earth I will find someone to fix the darned thing if it dies. Then, like magic, it comes back to life. I breathe a sigh of relief, but in the back of my mind I know that the day will come (hopefully years from now) when I'll walk into the kitchen, flip the switch to turn it on...and nothing will happen. When that happens I hope someone is around to hold me tight because I'm sure I'll feel as though I have lost a good friend. Then I'll pull myself together, boot up my computer, log onto eBay and cross my fingers hoping that someone is selling a pink tv they found at a yard sale!

Next in line is something that is very precious to my ♥heart♥. Back when I still smoked cigarettes, I told myself that if the day ever came when I stopped smoking I'd get the cutest sign I could find to put in my house that would announce to my visitors that I lived in a smoke-free zone. Well, two years ago I gave up smoking and within a couple of weeks I found this cutie pie on eBay (again). A little more than two years have passed since then. I still haven't smoked and the sign is still on my kitchen counter to remind me that I accomplished something that used to be only a dream.


When I saw this little, pink, KitchenAid clock I knew that it had to be mine because I have the real thing sitting on my kitchen counter. KitchenAid is a brand that I rely on when it comes to small appliances. I got my small-appliance-admiration from my mother. I remember standing on a stool next to my mother when I was a little girl as she poured ingredients into the bowl of her mixer. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that whatever she was making was going to be delicious and she never let me down! I have two sons who have KitchenAid's in their homes. I guess none of us wants to break the chain of good luck that began in the '30s when my mother received her first in a long line of KitchenAid appliances.

I'm sharing my little polka dot miniatures today because I am hoping that one of you might recognize the pattern and be able to tell me where to find more. A while back I was browsing the isles at my local Goodwill Store (I love that place) and spied just one plate/saucer and one, itsy, bitsy cup. I plunked down my fifty cents, brought the two home and felt as though I had won the prize of the day. I'd love to find more pieces to add to these. To give you an idea of their size, those are three mini-marshmallows inside the cup. Cute, huh?

Lastly, every kitchen worth its salt needs a kettle on the stove, don't you think? I found this sweet piece of graniteware at our local Habitat for Humanity Re-sale Store. You've really got to rummage around in there, and can't mind getting dusty, but that's part of the fun when you're on the prowl with a couple of bucks in your pocket.

Well, that winds things up for me this Saturday. Be sure to drop by HOW SWEET THE SOUND to find all of the other blogs that are participating in PINK SATURDAY. Everyone shares a wide variety of pink goodies, some you'd never imagine would show up in a blog...but they do!

Beautiful words...

I love words. I love what words can do when placed "just right" in a sentence. I love the way words can instill hope, inspire bravery, bring tears of grief or of happiness. Without words, and the people who loved words in history, we would not have the word of God preserved for us in the Bible. Last evening I took the time to just browse the web to read some words. I found words that moved me to literally sob, sometimes in sorrow and sometimes with profound understanding. I read words that inspired me to achieve greatness and to create beauty and to work harder. I saved hundreds and thousands of those words. Tonight I am sharing some of the words that touched my heart deeply, so deeply that they cried out for me to share them with you.

Promise yourself to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. Look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true. Think only of the best, work only for the best,and expect only the best. Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. Give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others. Live in the faith that the whole world is on your side so long as you are true to the best that is in you! ~Christian D. Larson

A wise woman who was traveling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation. The traveler left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. But a few days later he came back to return the stone to the wise woman.

"I've been thinking," he said, "I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious. Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone." ~Author Unknown

Be still and know that I am God. Psalms 46:8

When GOD had made the earth and sky, the flowers and the trees, He then made all the animals and the birds and bees.

And when His work was finished and not one was quite the same, He said, "I'll walk this earth of mine and give each one a name".
And so He traveled land and sea, and everywhere He went, a little creature followed Him until its strength was spent. When all were named upon the earth and in the sky and sea, the little creature said: "Dear Lord, there's no name left for me!".

The Father smiled and softly said, "I've left you to the end, I've turned my own name back to front and called you dog, my friend." ~author unknown

Age does not diminish the extreme disappointment of having a scoop of ice cream fall from the cone. ~Jim Fiebig

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. ~The Holy Bible, John 15:13

There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colors are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again. ~Elizabeth Lawrence

He carried his childhood like a hurt warm bird held to his middle-aged breast. ~Herbert Gold

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie. ~Tenneva Jordan

Just a little bit flakey...snow flakey and a touch of cabin fever with a dab of spring fever

When it's all white, fluffy and clean. When we are inside and warm and cuddling by the fire with a cup of hot cocoa to warm our hands, little marshmallows floating on top looking like tiny icebergs...we tend to think of winter in an almost romantic way. We view the season in a different light. The snowflakes alight on the whiskers of kittens, or so we imagine. We bundle up and lay in the white feather-like mounds making angels. We giggle and laugh and literally embrace the cold and clean loveliness. Yes, that that is a part of winter that all of us adore. It's the part of winter that we yearn for when we are away from our northern home during the Christmas holidays. Songs are written about it and we sing those songs with friends and a tear in our eye when we long for the comfort of our childhood nest, the one our mother made for us when we were mere babes.


But, there is another side of winter. The ugly, mean, dirty and necessary part of winter when it begins to die as it is giving birth to the tiny smatterings of spring, a season yearned for after the cold and snow and high heating bills. We are tired of the dust and dirt when we clean out the fireplace. We tell ourselves that if we have to shovel one more pile of "that stuff" we will go crazy running from door to door on our block asking our neighbors if we can go to Disneyland with them and their kids for Easter break! We listen to the weather forecast wrinkling our nose at the mere mention of more of the stuff falling from the sky, the same sky that radiates the warmth of the sun. The sun that takes away the winter blues, leaving us with rosy cheeks and happy smiles.

Yes, there is a nasty, dark, dirty, messy and unwanted part of winter and right now, at this very moment, it is knocking on my door. I went out to meet it the other day and even spent some of my precious time cleaning up some of the mess it leaves behind. But right now I am hiding. I am warm and the sun is shining through the lace curtains in my dining room and I am pretending that it is summer and that my yard is green and that my tulips are blooming and that, if I wanted to, I could just open my back door, walk out into the sunshine WITHOUT my coat, and mittens, and boots, and muffler, and my winter survival tote that contains a flashlight, extra blanket, an extra cell phone battery (fully charged), a pack of power protein bars, and a pencil and paper to compose my farewell letter to friends and family, just in case no one comes to my rescue if I get stuck in that white stuff and no one ever hears my pitiful cries for help as the snow continues to bury me...my pathetic, curled up body not to be found until the spring thaw.


Or...maybe I'll tackle "every" part of winter...the beginning...and the end, through the eyes of a child. My grandson, Benny, knows how to enjoy each and every part of the season, no matter how he has to dress, or how dirty the snow looks, or how wet his socks get, or how cold his hands are (even when they are in his pockets), with a sense of joy and anticipation, looking forward to how many boats he'll be able to sail in his parents' backyard.