Thankful Me

Thankful thought:  Thanks for beautiful blossoms. 

Here is the recap of last week's dinners at our house. Monday: Spaghetti with home-canned sauce, green salad Tuesday:  Butternut squash and cauliflower soup Wednesday: BLTs, green salad Thursday: Chicken fettuccine Friday: Ate out at Baja Fresh for date night Saturday: Tempura shrimp, Napa cabbage wraps (This dinner was a big hit with everyone. I used some of the sauce packets that came with the shrimp to flavor the vegetables in the wraps.) Sunday: Chicken breasts, mashed rutabaga and potatoes On a food-related note, I went back to Weight Watchers last week.  Years ago, I lost weight with WW (and kept it off for a couple of years), so I think I can do it again.  I think I just need to think of WW as a lifelong social group, in order to maintain the loss beyond a couple of years.  Thankful thought:  Thanks for goals and new beginnings.

Today after church, a sweet girl wordlessly handed me a note.  "Dear ____, Thank you for letting me pet Reno every time I see him.  Reno seems like a good dog. Your friend, ___________" Thankful thought:  Thanks for note-writers, who brighten days, and remind me that it really is the simple things that matter.

We belong to a produce co-op.  Each time I pick up a box, I wonder just what culinary delights we will enjoy that week.  Among other things in this week's box, I found these: On the right, you see a rutabaga of average size, while on the left, a rutabaga that is trying to be a basketball!  When I've used rutabagas in the past, I've just added them to other winter vegetables in a vegetable bake or stir-fry.  I think this time I'm going to have to come up with a recipe that uses massive amounts of rutabaga.  If any of you have any tried-and-true, family-favorite rutabaga recipes, let me know! One thing I like about the produce co-op is the ability to purchase bulk quantities of items for canning.  A couple of weeks ago, I was able to buy apples that were cosmetic seconds.  They might have been ugly apples, but they cooked up nicely into applesauce. Thankful thought: Thanks for farmers.  Thanks also to Mom, who taught a not-so-enthused ...

A couple of days ago, the great-great grandson of Ann Showalter Whitehead found my blog post about how I came to learn about Grandma Whitehead.  I couldn't believe my good fortune in being able to communicate with someone who actually knew some of the people whose names were on the back of the photo.  He told me he remembered the photo hanging in his grandfather's house.  Though I argued with myself a bit, I knew that the right thing to do would be to offer the photo to Grandma Whitehead's g-g-grandson.  He very graciously and generously told me that it belonged to me, and that he would just like a scanned copy of the front and back.  I used a photo editor to help clean up the images a bit.  I wish they looked even sharper, but I think they are better than the first ones I posted. I learned today about the great heritage of the Whitehead side of the family.  John Frederick Whitehead came to the United States from Germany, and became an ind...

The March visiting teaching message has been posted here.   I particularly love one of the scriptures that accompanies the message, and decided to use it on the handout.  Because I've been organizing my photos, I knew I had a photo of the St. George temple handy, and combined that with the scripture.  Feel free to right-click and print, if you find it useful. Thankful thought:  Thanks for an eternal perspective, which provides calmness in the midst of earthly trials.

After a month of menu planning, I've come to the conclusion that I'm not very good at this.  Rather, I do fine on the planning end but I struggle with the execution of the plan.  I'm way too fickle.  Cold, windy, cloudy day with a main dish salad planned?  Not happening.  That is soup weather.  Spicy dish planned and someone has a migraine?  Nope.  Time for scrambled eggs.  Probably my best worst reason for a plan change:  I don't wanna.  Can you believe I still yet haven't tried that yummy-sounding soup recipe from my mom?  (Sorry, Mom!)  I'm almost embarrassed to put up a plan for this week.  Curry, spaghetti, and soup again?! I think what I will do is forget the blogged plan, and start the Monday Menu recap for the past week.  So, starting next week, I will report what we ate at dinner the prior week.  That way I don't have to stress if life happens in conflict with a planned menu.  Just keepin...