Friday

The Power of the Mind

Everyone has heard examples of people using the power of the mind to achieve great feats.  People have been cured of disease aided by the power of their mind.  The mind has been known to be able to manipulate inanimate objects through telepathy.

Your mind can also be the cause of many illnesses. Most of us think of ulcers and other intestinal problems when we think of stress related maladies.  But you mindset can be the catalyst for almost any disease or illness.

Happiness is a choice and your mind is the biggest factor in determining your happiness level.  How a person perceives the world around them is based on their thought processes when dealing with issues that arise.  We all have problems but there is a huge variance in individual perception of the same occurrences.

Blogging as therapy - Old friends

Ultimate Blog Party 2010


Blogging can be therapy. Sometimes I don't know what I am feeling until I am actually blogging about it.

For example, have you ever lost touch with a dear friend? You think about that person and imagine how great it would be when you reconnected. I recently had that happen. I found an old dear friend after almost 20 years. I was so excited because we were so close. We talked for an hour on the phone and it was great. There have been a few emails and online chats, but I don't seem to be getting the same enthusiasm in return.

I bring up the special moments we shared and she doesn't even remember us being at the place, to say nothing of the special moment. It is such a let down, that at times I wish it was still just a wish to hope for.

Saturday

Being Prepared - Cooking for the whole week

This week I started with 3 lbs of Hamburger.  I decided to brown all of the hamburger at one time and make four easy meals.

MONDAY - I made stroganoff
1 pound lean ground beef
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
8 ounces sliced mushrooms
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup white wine
1 can (10 3/4 oz.) cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
1/2 cup sour cream
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
4 cups cooked egg noodles
chopped fresh parsley


Step 1: Preheat oven to 350. Spray 13×9 inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Place beef in large skillet; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Brown beef over medium-high heat until no longer pink, stirring to seperate beef. Drain fat from skillet; set aside beef.
Step 2: Heat oil in same skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add mushrooms, onion and garlic; cook and stir 2 minutes or until onion is tender. Add wine. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 3 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in soup, sour cream and mustard until well combined. Return beef to skillet.
Step 3: Place noodles in prepared dish. Pour beef mixture over noodles; stir until noodles are well coated. Bake uncovered, 30 minutes or until heated through.

TUESDAY - I made tacos - very easy with the prepared ground beef


THURSDAY - chili - I made my cheater chili
Cheater Chili Recipe
prepared hamburger - 1 lb
3 small onions
1 canned stewed tomatoes
3 cans chili with beans
1 large can chili mix beans

put in the Crock Pot for 6-8 hours
add crackers, sour cream and cheddar cheese to taste at the table

FRIDAY - Chili Cheese dog
use the leftovers from the tacos and the chili to make one of my favorite Friday meals - kids and grandmas both love them

Wednesday

Getting organized - When your things call out to be reorganized

Have you ever had your things call out to be reorganized.  I had something interesting happen today.

My mother lives with me and she was alone in the house today.  I get a call from her saying that she is hearing a load noise and she thinks it is the boiler (we have a boiler in the basement that heats the greenhouse).   I told her I would be home in about 30 minutes, so since it was a nice spring day, she should wait for me out on the  porch. 

So I hurry up and finish what I was doing and rush home.  As soon as I entered the house I heard a noise that sounded like a loud exhaust fan.  So I thought that she called me home because she forgot to turn off the exhaust fan.  But the noise was coming from my bedroom.

My dog stays in the bedroom when I am gone and when I opened the door, my 95 lb rottweiler came shooting out of the door.  I was startled to see that the noise was coming from under the bed.  It was my sleep number bed that I had stored under my bed - I am currently using a foam mattress.  When I took the sleep number bed apart I left it plugged to the electric. 

Apparently what happened is that the dog's leg hit the control to inflate the bed and it sure was inflating.  It was puffed up that I could not get to the plug to unplug it from the wall or the control to stop in inflation.  I had to go in the basement and shut off electric to the house.

I don't know how long before it would have burst!  I am sure glad my mom called me.  So now it is sitting in pieces on the bed.  So my chore is to disassemble all the parts and stow it safely under the bed.  But before I do that I will have to vacuum all the dust bunnies under the bed.  But if I am doing that I might as well was the sheets.  But if...... and it goes on and on.

Monday

Friend Making Monday - Spring


1. Favorite things about Spring: flowers

2. What I'm doing for Spring Break: working in the yard - mulching and preparing for planting

3. Favorite Spring flower: daffodil

4. Do you have a garden? yes and a greenhouse

5. If so, what do you grow. lots of hostas, ornamental grasses, vegetables and annuals

6. Do you do Spring cleaning? not officially - i just clean throughout the year

7. What is your weather *really* like right now? {Just b/c it's "officially" spring, doesn't mean that it feels like it for some of you} today is beautiful - sunny and 60 degrees

8. Snapped any weather related photos lately? Share one with us! on the previous post I posted pics of my daffodils

9. What's your favorite thing to do on a sunny afternoon? walk the dogs

10. Favorite TV show right now? anything reality - survivor - big brother - celebrity apprentice - the bachelor

Sunday

Truman Capote's unfinished book "Answered Prayers"

This interesting unfinished novel, "Answered Prayers", could only have come from the pen of Truman Capote.   He pokes fun at world famous celebrities.  Truman Capote considered this social satire to be his masterpiece.

Forced to support himself financially, P.B. Jones - the character in this novel -  must  resort to hustling and other slightly more socially acceptable activities. Jones learns about a low-life, but physically attractive, young woman who marries, then allegedly murders, a naive son of a millionaire, only to get away with the crime. Jones is requested to get involved in kidnapping and homicide by a woman who had married into a rich  family.  One woman, who fancies herself an animal lover, gains some noteriety by shooting a man who kills a white leopard.

The chapters of his work-in-progress ''Answered Prayers'' published in Esquire in 1975 and 1976, and are now republished as a 180 page book.

"Answered Prayers" is written as a collection of loosely connected short stories, some of them better than others. The book was never finished and the stories kind of hang in the air by themselves, leaving fragmented memories.

Truman Capote, who died in 1984 at the age of 59,  probably lost the friendships of a number of prominent people whom he so casually reveals conversations that were never meant to be displayed on the printed page. While some may deplore Mr. Capote's disloyalty to these individuals, it makes for some dishy fun reading about their ex-husbands, their scandalous love affairs, and other such dirty laundry.

 This book occasionally borders on the pornographic and it could never be called dull.

MckLinky Blog Hop

WVGSF84F5KQD

Saturday

Spring Fever - Strolling through the Daffodils - Stop and smell the flowers

My favorite new hobby - walking - spring fever has hit hard and I am sure enjoying walking in the fresh air.  The crocus and daffodils are blooming and they are so beautiful this year.

Here are a few that are in my yard - they seem to be just the normal yellow variety, but I am not complaining.  I love the yellow clusters.

Checking out the flowers makes me walk further - when I see some in the distance I want to walk up and see them first hand - so that helps me go further.


I am looking forward to the additional exercise I will get when I am out in the garden planting. Here in St. Louis we have to wait until May 1st to be totally safe from frost.  But I am preparing the beds, getting loads of mulch from the park and spreading them.

My body feels tired in a good way from all the mulching, shoveling and raking.  Definitely prefer this type of exercise - working my body hard and getting something accomplished.



 This is the time of year that makes us realize that we really do need to stop and smell the flowers.  Enjoy each moment, savor each daffodil and smell the fresh spring air.

What about you - what is your favorite natural exercise?

Thursday

Getting Motivated and Staying that Way - Achieve your Goals

What things can a person do to stay motivated?  I constantly am reading books and blogs about motivation, organization and general self-help topics.  One of my favorite sayings is :

"Action precedes Motivation"

To me this has really proven to be the case.  Even if I am not motivated, the large percentage of the time, if I actually get up and get started then I get in the mood and really get into it.  As you get further and further into the project and start to see the results, momentum can build and build, until you are excited to get started each time.

 Visual aids, such as vision boards, can be a great motivator.  I have a vision board, which basically is a piece of cardboard that I have pasted pictures and sayings of things I want to accomplish and acquire.  Note that I took a current picture of myself and cropped it with a scissors to the size I want to be (I know the head is a little scary, but it serves the purpose).

I also post inspirational sayings on various places in the home.  I try to keep them out of the mainstream of vision - so I put them inside the bathroom cabinet or on the inside of the bedroom door.  Some of mine are "Do one more thing today"  and "Live your life like everyone is watching" and "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit."

There are a lot of great books and blogs as well as television shows to provide inspirationSome of the organizational shows like "Clean House" or "Hoarders" never fail to get me up and moving.  I have yet to get through a full episode with out getting up and organizing something.

Small rewards along the way are helpful in keeping the momentum going.  Plan a shopping trip or get your nails done when you have done the first step of one of your goals.  Invite a friend and share your success.

Share your goals with others and you will be surprised how many will join in.  Together you can achiever your goals and help each other stay motivated each step of the way.  Be careful, however, not to let a friend's slip up to stall your progress as well.

Now, let's get up and get moving forward.



"See it - Believe it - Achieve it"


Wake Up Early and Wake your Weight Loss - Be a Morning Person

You are either a morning person or you are a night person, but does your weight play any role?  One thing I have discovered is that most all of my heavy friends are night people like me, while the thinner ones are all hopping out of bed in the morning.  So I got to wondering if there is something to this.

Now I know that I tend to snack late at night if I am up late, but I am not hungry in the morning.  Now this could be because I snack at night.  But on nights that I refrain from indulging in my late night snack, I am still not hungry in the morning.  I know all the gurus say that we should eat more in the morning and less as the day progresses.

Another fact that I hear repeated over and over is this:  you can lose better if you do your cardio exercises in the morning on an empty stomach.  The theory is that you will burn off fat and not any food and carbohydrates that you have eaten in the hours before the workout.  Now I have never tested this out, but I plan on testing it.  Cardio in the am and then strength training later in the day.  I think the exercise in the morning could get me energized and get me hungry for the nice big healthy breakfast that I probably should have.

The next problem is getting up in the morning when you are a night person.  So here are some tips I have been finding in cyberland:

*set the alarm at the same time each day
*don't worry about when you go to bed - go to be when you are tired and get up at the same time each day and your body will adapt - you will find the best bedtime for your needs
*don't over think getting up - just get up when the alarm goes off - the longer you lay there thinking about it, the more likely you are to go back to sleep
*have a glass of water by the bed and drink it first thing - this will probably make you want to get up to use the facilities and will also help wake you up
*wake up from the inside out - meaning program yourself to get up - at night set your alarm and your mental clock for the time you want to get up - you will find yourself waking up minutes before the alarm
*have a morning ritual
*use light to your advantage - turn on the light or go by the window right away

It is 1:00 am as I am writing this, so off to bed I go :)

Wednesday

"The heights of great men reached and kept, 
Were not attained by sudden flight, 
But they, while their companions slept, 
Were toiling upwards in the night."
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow