Okay, so I don't know who Joan Jett is? Does that make me a loser? Maybe in Ohio it does.

Big fire going on the front of the property. No, don't call the firemen. It's on purpose to burn up all the junk collected that wouldn't go in the black bags for the trash guy to pick up - and the limbs and stuff from trees trimmed, etc. We haven't been able to burn because of the dryness, but after a bunch of days of rain; it ought to be okay.

Christmas cards are mailed and the Christmas letter sent by e-mail to most folks. Presents? I already got mine, so who cares about the rest. We're sending money to the kids - how much I don't know. Husband hasn't said how much we can afford this year. Last year, we sent Glenn's children 400 page notebooks with family genealogy stuff I'd researched and collected.

My Christmas gifts from my husband: a Kodak digital camera, a LED Mag Light flashlight (I requested), and a new dog bed/pallet. Yeah! I did okay! And in the bargain I got a trip to Tractor Supply, one of my favorite places...that's where we got the flashlight and the dog bed.

Someone peed on the new dog bed already. Dang! I hate that. Now, I'm washing it.

Took pictures of the cow, horses, and some of the dogs with my new camera the other day. They turned out pretty good. I'll have to post some in my album "The Family" 

Sure glad I don't get tired of hearing Aaron Neville sing. I need his music to calm down the other rhythms.....
 

Didn't get my quote quite right. Here it is in its original version:

Foggy but warm day here in Texas. Thanking Jesus for eggs, broccoli, cauliflower, and skim milk since that's what I'm having for breakfast. Eggs from our chickens, vegetables from our garden. Milk from HEB. Bessie Mae, our Holstein, isn't giving milk yet. She will when she has her calf (calves). After they (or he or she) are born, someone could say to them, "Yo momma was soooo fat.._____" Fill in the blank. She's huge right now in the belly!

Oh, and in the thankful department, I am righteously grateful for salt and pepper. They help pretty much anything taste better.

Every kid needs a little dog like my Buffy. IF I didn't like broccoli or cauliflower, I can slip it to her under the table, and she will gobble it up like it was candy. Actually, I think she prefers vegetables, especially since she had never had and never will have candy. She loves all vegetables as far as I can tell. I just now gave her some of the stems which I don't like so much. Gone! Plate licked clean.


Dang! I wish I could write something profound or poetic. In the scheme of life, it's not important; but it's so been a part of me, I miss it. Nothing stays the same except change. It keeps on keeping on moving in directions we can't always anticipate nor would we want to. If we always knew where we were headed, we might sit down and refuse to budge. Then we'd dry up and die there on our flat butts all alone because the parade had passed us by. Not an appealing picture.

Every morning, I take my deer walk around the pasture even when I don't feel like it. I walk the perimeter and say my morning prayers. Gets two things done at once. In case the hordes who are reading this don't know about what the "deer walk" is, I'll explain.

Weeks back, after the five big dogs got through eating in their kennels in the backyard, I let them out into the big pasture for their morning run like I always do. They made a mad dash to the back side where I saw a little deer running and so did they. She ran back and forth and then I heard her scream as the dogs took her down.

Begin old and fat, I couldn't run; but I hurried out there screaming at the dogs which did no good at all (the screaming part). When I got there, they were tugging at her from all sides. One dog had her by the neck. I beat them off with my hands and screamed, "Get away!" about a million times.

I picked up the deer who was heavier than I could really carry, but I didn't know what else to do. If I could have raised her up high enough, I would have put her across the fence; but I couldn't. So, I started carrying her towards the gate - a damn long ways away. When I couldn't go anymore, I sat down and covered her with my body - she still wasn't making any protest and had her tongue hanging out with blood on her mouth.

It then dawned on me that I had my cell phone in my pocket, and my husband was in the house. I struggled to get out my phone out of my pocket while beating off the dogs and covering the deer. I got him on the phone, and he said, "I'm right behind you." He'd looked out and saw something black in the pasture where it shouldn't be. That was my big jacket.

He took over deer covering, and I herded the dogs back into the backyard - a long ways from where the deer and my husband were. After I got them in, my husband let go of the deer. She was able to stand and run but not in the right direction towards the gate. After running back and forth several times at the back of the pasture with my husband following the deer who was frantic, the deer remembered how to jump over the fence into the pasture with the horses and the cow. She went on to the next fence and left our property.

Okay, so that is the deer story. Now whenever I think about letting the dogs out into the pasture without doing a deer walk to be sure there are no deer in the pasture, I heard that little deer scream. Her scream was like a baby calf who was being hurt real bad. I really can't deal with that - brings tears to my eyes just writing this about it.

Some days later when I was relating the story to our vet, he told me I could have been eviserated by the deer's hooves. This is apparently a favorite tactic of deer who are captured. They use their razor sharp hooves to slit the person who is holding them in the chest. The deer, my husband, and I survived with any of us being eviserated. The dogs would have accomplished this if I hadn't gotten to the deer in time. Okay, this pretty much explains the deer walk part of my day.

Later...til soon


 

I'm in my office, at my computer, eating no sugar-no flour-no margarine peanut butter cookies for post-breakfast time. They are actually pretty good, made with equal parts Splenda and Chunky Peanut Butter (1 cup each) and 1 egg. Mix and bake at 350 for about 10-11 minutes. I got tired of my normal breakfast, so I decided to make cookies. It sounds better, "I had cookies for breakfast." Yeah, I can get into that.

On my weight reduction plan, I've lost about 30 pounds overall and 13.6 pounds since October 18 when I began recording my weight loss on an Everyday Health web site. If I go by my REAL goal, I have 36 pounds more to lose. Yeah, I was a fatso! Damn! I've struggled with weight issues since I was 12. Been up and down, over and not so much under. Don't think I've ever been skinny, but I have been down for various periods of time where I looked good to even me. AND I've said these same things in blogs or letters or somewhere. I get real tired of repeating myself, but it's my life - going in circles, getting somewhere once in awhile when I burst out and take a straighter line. My line right now hardly has a crinkle in it - straight arrow right towards the bull's eye.

Fresh black coffee goes good with the cookies. Gonna get me some more and be right back.

My new motto for anyone who cares is: "It's burden lifting to not give a shit about a whole bunch of things." Makes me feel better just typing it.

Dang! Need to get back to collecting trash - a Monday task. A smirk on my face and a glimmer in my eye says I'd like to trash a whole bunch of things that I can't. Trash day, baby! Pick it up, take it out, let the collector come and make it someone else's problem. Yeah! Yeah! I'm hearing a song in there...
 

Nothing profound, just mumblings.

Organization, consistency. Sounds good. To what does it apply?

My Weight Reduction Eating Plan is based on those two things.
Early Early morning: 2 tablespoons of lemon juice in water with 2 tablespoons of Splenda to make it drinkable
Early morning: Black coffee
Breakfast: 1 scrambled large egg, 1 turkey sausage link, 1 glass of milk, strawberries dipped in Splenda
Lunch: 1 Gala apple, 1 slice of Havarti cheese, 2 slices of ham, 16 small crackers, 1 glass of water
Mid-afternoon: 1 glass of light cranberry juice
Supper: Taco salad and Diet Coke with Splenda - Taco salad consists of ground beef, taco seasoning, refried beans, cheddar cheese, green onions, cilantro, lettuce, and salsa.
Evening: Black coffee
Bedtime Snack: 1 ham slice, 1 triangle of light Laughing Cow cheese, 1 stick of celery, water - about 1/4 cup of Vanilla Bean ice cream

This is a little less than 1,200 calories per day

By eating the same thing every day at about the same time, I don't have to think about eating. I just do it. There is no thought of, "Oh, what will I eat? Will it be this or that?" My grocery shopping list is easier, too.

Once in awhile, the supper plan varies depending on what I cook for my husband. If its stir fried shrimp and vegetables, then I'm going to eat that instead of Taco Salad.

I've been able to stick to this and lose about 30 pounds over the past few months. Yes, there were deviations for Thanksgiving and a few other occasions, but I got right back to the basic plan and did not gain weight.

I need to lose at least 30 more pounds. I'd like to lose 40. We'll see how it goes.