I don't like to make a lot of New Year's Resolutions because I find it very depressing when I stop trying before February. I read an article recently about a person who made major changes in his life, but did it by doing a few small things. So instead of putting losing weight and eating healthy. I am going to try to eat something from the cabbage family every day (broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, or cabbage). I started doing this already, just in the past couple of weeks. I bought new walking shoes. So I'm going to try to walk more. Also I am always trying to come up with a great business idea. Most of the time, I look at the numbers and they don't make sense. So I have a new one I'm considering. I've given myself till March 31st to thoroughly work though this idea. That's all.

Scalloped potatoes with Ham. Loaded baked potatoes - Big baked potato with sour cream, ham, cheese, etc. Quiche - swiss cheese and ham.

Peas are easy. Plant as soon as the ground can be worked. They need trellis though. We do sugar snap (eat shells and peas) and shelled peas (eat peas only). I'd say worth it. Carrots are easy. I would get one of the variety packets. It is really fun to have yellow, orange and red carrots. You can plants these around the tomatoes. Potatoes are easy, but take some room. Onions are relatively easy. We usually do red onions or specialty onions otherwise you wonder why not buy them at the store. Shallots are also easy. Garlic is also easy, but we always plant it in the fall. Green onions are also easy if you get them to germinate. I like green beans, too. Depending on how much you need for a "mess of beans" it may take up more room than you have. Herbs are also good. Figure out what you really use and plant them in corners or pots.

Are you looking for unique or standard but good quality. You really see ornaments everywhere. If you are looking for better quality ornaments then look in better quality stories. We tend to have lots of simple red balls (big and small), big gold Martha Stewart balls from Kmart, some small blue balls. The rest are unique. We have some from places we visit. Some are from my childhood. Others are just ones that I found that I like. I saw a set of three ornaments at Michael's yesterday. I said if we didn't have enough, I would have bought them. There is a group of ornaments that you can find at Hallmark. I can't remember the artist name, but they never go on sale and they are so detailed and to me interesting. But at $35+ per ornament, I'm not buying them. I think that the best idea is to look everywhere.

I think I posted because I was curious whether or not I was the only one who did this. I guess I think if others do it, it isn't so weird.

That is a good attitude! As I'm tackling the junk drawer, the basement or the paper filing system, you might hear me yell "this is bringing me joooooooooy."

Figure out what you are very picky about and continue to do those things. Delegate the rest and do not worry if it isn't done correctly (by your standards). Also be sure to delegate to your DH too, if you can. Don't be picky about how he does things too. Go for "good enough" and not perfect.

Oh Julie! I don't know whether I'm excited or frightened of the prospect of having this carry over into the rest of my life. Systems will be my new mantra.

Her medicine is not usually the type that would cause hallucinations, but if she took way too much I suppose it might. We were going out to dinner with her. She didn't have any visible signs of a stroke ie both hands, feet, sides of face appeared to be functioning correctly. I know that isn't totally a reliable indication, but at least it was some indication. I asked what she had for lunch. I was afraid she may have not eaten and that was the cause. She indicated she had a sandwich. I'm going to try to discuss it with my sister tomorrow or soon. Her job is in a medically related field and I think she knows more about this stuff than I do. We went through a set of tests with the doctor within the last year. She does have spells of imbalance. I sometimes wish we had the old fashioned doctors who really sat and listened to a patient and really examined them.

My 83 year old mother was saying that there were people in her room. She lives in a senior condo by herself. We live very close by. We asked who and she said they were from the TV. We asked if she meant that she was watching them on TV and she insisted that they were in the room with her. She asked if they went out the front door. We told her that we came in the front door. There was no one that came out that way. We searched her condo, there was no one. The doors were locked when we arrived. When we asked again who they were, she named three people on TV. My DH asked if she maybe had fallen asleep and dreamed it. She didn't think so. She really believed they were in the room with her. Does this sound like a hallucination (maybe medicine related)? a stroke? a dream? dementia? She is usually in sound mind and very sharp, but she has been very slowly deteriorating.

I can't decide if I'm too organized for Christmas or if I should be at this level of organization in all aspects of my life. This is what I do: After Christmas, I go through all the gift bags, take off the used tags, I put in fresh tissue paper and a new tag. I have all the gift bags organized this way in a bin each bag has a tag and complimentary tissue paper folded neatly inside. Then I have all the other gift tags in an 4 tray organizer by color (1 red, 2 green, 3 gold and/or silver and 4 blue and other odd colors. Then I have a bin of ribbons organized by colors. I have a smaller bin with "extras" - flat ornaments that don't break that could be added to a package for extra decoration. I have a bin for wrapping paper. Each year I organize a little more. I usually buy the best tags, paper, ribbon I can find after Christmas on sale. Not only do I have this all very organized and neat, I feel I have a lot this type of stuff. My DH joked that we have enough gift tags to last for the next 60 years. I like to wrap gifts with paper, but my DH and DD do better with gift bags. So when I began, it was organizing the gift bags and it was really to make it easy for them. I really enjoy re-organizing this stuff after Christmas. Also it helps me to avoid buying a lot of extra Christmas things if I know I already have enough. The crazy thing is that I'm not very organized like this in the other aspects of my life. So I think.... maybe I should be this organized. Maybe I could do it. Or maybe it is because it is once a year, I can do it. When it is every day, it is more difficult. Am I too organized with my Christmas stuff or too little organized with everything else? Please share your stories.

Ours sits on the back burner of the stove. If it is used daily, why put it away?

There are some tomato varieties that were specifically developed for cold climates/short growing seasons. I saw a show about how they grow these tomatoes in Alaska. I think they did use plastic high tunnels to make the areas warmer in the spring. Depending on if you have the room, but potatoes and carrots would do great in your climate. New potatoes are great.

Martha Stewart's recipe doesn't have eggs.

Unless I'm incredible busy, next year I'm making potato salad for my FILs Christmas day meal. We all talked about how we don't like the potato salad from the store and everyone said it was too difficult to make. I love my homemade potato salad, but... Christmas is busy, so I may or may not. But at least I'll remember to think about it next year. I also will do lunch on Christmas eve with my Mom. It really works out the best. I'll try to keep my ears open all year. That is how we surprised my DD with several things she really liked. That's all. (That's enough)

We watched Dicken's The Christmas Carol last night. Scrooge wants to keep Christmas in his heart all year long.

Just FYI - The basic trivial pursuit is easier than the specialty versions.

For holidays/fancy, we use a ricer and add butter, sour cream, cream cheese, and a little garlic salt. Depending on the consistency, we might add a little milk. For everyday, mash with milk, butter, and a little salt. I add pepper to mine at the table. The rest of the family can add more salt or pepper at the table.

I would not have come up with that reference, but when I read it I thought "oh yeah, I kind of remember that". You know there are lots of dramatizations of Alice, so maybe the guy saw a version without the flamingos and was therefore confused.

I'm not sure. We usually bake the biscuits right before eating. If they are cool, I'd put them in a ziplock bag. If they get hard, I'd look up ways to refresh them. Like spritz them with water and bake them for a few minutes.

Call daily about the plans and remind them about which day everything is happening. You may have to say "today is Monday and we are coming on Wednesday".

My FIL makes fruit salad. He makes a simple syrup to put with it (ie sugar melted in water). My aunt made a fruit salad and did some type of mint dressing.

Martha Stewart has a good recipe. I'm always surprised how much milk is in most recipes, which I guess makes it creamy. Also you can you a mixture of cheeses.

thankful heart?

My DD is fairly honest especially on big things, so I would listen to her. I try not to accuse, but ask questions. How did something happen? or When something broke what was going on? I wonder if those who easily accuse and feel that is important to accuse are also the people who do not want a kid to talk back. I don't know. It just seems like they go together.