Recipe of the day - Chicken Salad

 I have always been a big fan of chicken salad.  It was a staple in our household when I was growing up.  I watched mom make it many times and often helped her with it.  I almost use her recipe for making it whenever I make some for us now.  One of the things I most remember about making the salad with her is that she never chopped her chicken or her celery with a knife.  She always used her kitchen scissors.  And she had a yellow tupperware container that she always put her chicken salad in.  I still have that and use it whenever I make chicken salad!

But, I decided that I wanted to try something a little different with my chicken salad.  It's not because I don't like the way I've been making it, I just did not want to burn myself out on it, so decided to look for something different, yet still basic.  I'm not one for a whole of ingredients in my chicken salad.  Too many flavors mess it up for me LOL  But I will always give it a chance, just to try it.  Anyway, I found this recipe online and enjoyed it.  It will become part of my rotation.  

Chicken Salad

2 cups cooked chicken, chopped*

1 stalk celery, sliced

1 green onion, sliced**

1/2 cup mayo

1 Tbsp brown mustard

Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir until the mixture is well coated.  Chill in the fridge for awhile before serving on a sandwich or bed of lettuce.

*to save time, I sometimes used the bags of precooked sliced chicken, they work well

**any onion will do: red or white, just a small amount as to not overpower the dish

Enjoy!

Moon River

 Today has been a crazy, hectic day for me.  It started off badly but did improve, it was just busy.  And it's not over yet.  I'm just taking a break before heading out to handbell practice and then back home for dinner.  I just wanted to listen to something that always relaxes me.  The music of Henry Mancini is something that I love and listen to a lot.  This song, which I've posted before, just makes my body sigh and I need that in this moment before I get my second wind.  That is all.

The next challenge - exercise

 Overall, I have been doing a good job keeping up with my daily challenges.  I have definitely increased my daily water intake, though I still need to reduce the amount of other things like tea and soda.  I am trying to limit that to just meal time.  Most days, I am successful at it, but some days I do drift off course a bit.  All in all, though, I am pleased with the progress.  I have also been doing well with my wardrobe.  I enjoy dressing up for work and people have definitely noticed.  Only occasionally have a "dressed down". And that has usually been because my shirt is too short to tuck in LOL  People have noticed that too when I'm a little more casual.  I'm enjoying it though!

So, I am looking for my next challenge.  This one is one that I have constantly had in the back of my mind but haven't done anything about it yet.  Frankly, because I have been lazy and have been complacent in my daily routine.  Basically, I need to start doing some kind of daily exercise.  And I have to stop counting work as exercise, even though I get in a lot of steps each day at work.  I can't use that as an excuse anymore.

My doctor advised me to get in at least 20 minutes of good walking every day.  I can do that, I believe.  It's just a matter of making myself do that.  Of course, I have to figure out how to get that into my routine.  Where to insert it, to be exact.  Now that the time has changed, I'm not sure how much daylight will be available to me after work and I don't want to use that as an excuse.  I also am not crazy about walking around my neighborhood after dark either LOL

But, it also does not have to be walking all the time.  There are other things I can do.  Heaven knows we have enough exercise equipment to open our own gym it feels like.  And we don't use what we have so I need to start taking advantage of that.  It will help me physically and mentally, I believe.  I have never been in good shape and now, as I am inching my way towards 50, it is time to start working towards that goal.  Here's hoping!

That is all.

Escapades in Adulting - when your fur baby isn't feeling well

When you take on the responsibility of a dog, you have to take the bad with the good.  And, in the long run, the good far outweighs the bad.  At least that is the case with our Squirt.  He came into our lives the day after a vacation some 10 years ago.  He was found by our next door neighbor literally stuck in the fence in the backyard.  David and Vicky could not keep him at the time because they had 2 dogs already, so we took him in while we looked for his owner.  Long story short, Squirt became ours and I am so grateful for it.

Today, Squirt is not feeling well.  He is having a hard time going to the bathroom and he is so uncomfortable.  I don't know exactly why he is having such a hard time with it.  He did have an accident in the den earlier, so I know he's capable.  But he keeps wanting to go outside to poop but once he gets outside, nothing much happens.  It's cold and he doesn't want to be there.  But I can tell he has to go because of the way he's keeping his tail down over his bum.  And he's walking like someone who is trying to find a bathroom quickly.  I know that I have walked that walked before and yes, it is totally uncomfortable.

I feel badly because I cannot help him with this.  He can't tell me what's wrong or how to help him.  Now, I understand that we can totally communicate with animals, but here I am talking about words.  I just want him to tell me what I can do to help.  Alas, he cannot and so I just have to let him be.  As a parent of a fur baby, that is hard to do.  I want to make him feel better but there's only so much I can do until whatever passes...literally.  

The sun is out and so he's been sitting at the front door, enjoying the sunshine.  I put one of his beds there so he can at least be comfortable while soaking up the sun.  It's hard not being able to help.  It has created a lot of anxiety in me this morning but I know it will all pass.  I'm worried about him because he's not feeling well but am hopeful that his rest in the sun will do him some good.  It does me some good just to see him resting there.  And I do stop and stare just to make sure that he's breathing.  I always tend to expect the worse in situations like this.  One of my faults.

I can only imagine what it's like for parents of children to have to watch them when they're sick.  It has to be heart breaking.  Especially when you can only do so much to help them and have to sit back and let nature take its course.  Mom was a great nurse to us when we were sick and if she was ever worried, she never let it show.  I wish I had that gene when it comes to Squirt.

It will all be fine, I know.  I just worry in the meantime.  That is all.

Working on a Household Inventory

One of the things I used to love doing as a young man was household inventories.  I realize that this sounds like an odd activity for a teenager and yes, it is.  But still, I loved doing it.  It all started when Aunt Sara passed away.  Mom was her executor and among Aunt Sara's papers were 2 household inventories that she had done.  One was of her own personal belongings in the old homeplace and the other was the belongings left from her parents in the homeplace.  I was utterly fascinated with this concept.  I loved reading them.  I loved learning the history of the pieces...where they came from, who they had belonged to, etc.  It was a wonderful piece of history.

So, I was determined to do the same thing.  I cannot remember if I started with our house or with Grandmother's.  But I took note of almost everything and wrote it down.  Now, I didn't do things like clothes and household items like cleaning supplies and toiletries.  This was an inventory for records purposes.  I would gather all the information that I could about a piece and notate it. I believed, and still do, that it is extremely important to know something's history.  To me that makes it worth more, definitely personally and historically and possibly even financially.  Doing research on items that I did not have background on was fun.  I learned many different styles of furniture and names of patterns of glass, china and silver.  

I would spend hours, days even, doing this.  I eventually did an inventory for Aunt Billie as well.  And these inventories came in handy when both she and Grandmother passed as it gave record to what was in the house. I felt like I was accomplishing something both for myself and for them.  I think I have copies of all of these somewhere.  If I can't find them, then most of the information is still stored in my brain.  I spent so much time doing it that I remember a great deal of it.  I also had a cousin, Isabel, that I have her inventory she did somewhere as well.  Hers was for appraisal purposes for things she was selling upon her death.  Still, it's fun to read and see what she owned since I don't remember much about her house LOL

Recently, I started working on some inventory of my own.  I started with a set of china.  The purpose of this particular inventory is because I am hoping to pass this set on to a member of the family and want them, whoever they may be, to know what their getting.  But, I had such a great time in the process of doing this one.  I had almost forgotten how much fun it is and now much I enjoy it.  I should translate this into some kind of business...except I'm very slow and thorough LOL  But I enjoyed the research and information getting.  And I hope to do more of it.

That is all.

Getting the weekend going

 I stated on FB last night that I have a long weekend ahead of me in that I took today off and don't have to go back in until Monday.  I'm very much looking forward to it but I do worry that I will waste my time.  That may sounds strange to some people.  They'll be like "just relax" or "don't do anything, just be lazy".  That's all well and good but not exactly satisfying.  I want to have a weekend of both relaxation and productivity.  Sometimes, for my anyhow, those 2 go hand in hand like when I'm in the kitchen cooking.  It relaxes me and I'm also doing something that we benefit from.  A win win situation.

I also realized this morning that I want to make sure that I put things that I enjoy into the weekend as well.  I'm not exactly sure what that will be yet, but I am determined to do that.  Sometimes, like I have said before, it is hard for me to do something that I enjoy simply because I am too busy making sure everyone else is enjoying whatever their plans are.  This weekend, I'm going to do some things for myself.  Whether it be at home, or going someplace, I'm going to rediscover those things that I enjoy doing for no other reason than that I like doing them.  That's more than sufficient a reason, don't you think?  Michael is very good at that, so I should follow his lead, no?

As for this morning, I am starting off my weekend having my coffee and going over my list of things to do.  I have some errands to run this morning and will get started on household chores like laundry.  All the while, I will think of other things to accomplish and to have fun with.  I can do that.  As for now, I'm going to pour myself another cup and relax with some music for a bit before getting myself going.

That is all 

Quote of the day

 Some days, it is hard to wrap my mind about the way people treat each other.  After browsing today's headlines...local, national and international...it was disheartening and I wanted to find something hopeful to carry through the day with me.  That is all.