Yeah well, if you are like me you have been trying but it's not been easy. Not with the utilities, not with the insurance, and not with the groceries. I am a frugal person. No doubt about that. But it's getting increasingly hard to buy food that you normally buy, to stock up when things are on sale, and to stick inside the confines of a realistic budget. I am spending more than I used to spend for sure. True, I have started buying things that I did not buy a decade ago in my

You think I should write a book? While I think it is true that I always have something to say I hesitate to think that it is an indication of a talent in authorship. I am not the writer in the family. Do you think it's possible that I could grab the talent via Osmosis? LOL How does NASA organize a party? They planet.

The Okinawa diet has gained attention worldwide for its association with longevity and vibrant health. One ingredient that often surprises newcomers to this diet is tofu. If you never thought you would eat tofu, the Okinawa diet might just change your mind. This plant-based protein plays a key role in the traditional eating habits of Okinawa, Japan, and offers many health benefits worth exploring. The Okinawa diet stands out because it emphasizes whole, minimally processed fo

Understanding Inappropriate Laughter Inappropriate laughter occurs when a person laughs in situations where it is socially or culturally unacceptable. This type of laughter can be involuntary and may not reflect the individual's true feelings about the situation. Or, they may have just found the situation downright hilarious. Several factors can lead to inappropriate laughter: Emotional Regulation: Laughter can serve as a coping mechanism to manage stress or anxiety. In tense

I finished watching NOS4A2 on Netflix and started watching a show on Paramount called The Mayor of Kingstown. Spoiler Alert and Warning!! This show is very graphic, bloody, gory, and at points even nauseating. After the third episode we almost decided to stop watching this show because of all that. If you dislike violence and cruelty, (which I do) then you may want to avoid this show, but if you can stomach it and can distinguish tv graphics from the real world with certai

I am guarding my thoughts. I am trying to ensure that my thoughts are focusing on what I want and what I like. My positive thought for today? "Everything is happening for me, not to me." I like that. I am paying attention to my 'resting face', which tends to look like a scowl, and telling myself to smile. Yes, for no reason, just smile. A little bit. For a moment. In my opinion the world is in a mess. But not my little world, my corner where I live, my section of town where

Working on trying to stick to a schedule of sorts. I have changed it a few times, AFTER printing it out of course. It being the first part of the month there are bills to pay and there is stock up to do on the inventory for the pantries. (If you read pantries as panties then you have a gnat in your eye like me. LOL ) How on earth do people really get bored? There is always so much to do. I think it's really that are tired, too tired to get up and do the stuff that needs to g

Decades of studies of happiness and emotional well-being have proven that experiencing greater happiness is within the control of almost every individual. There’s no magic cure for misery, but multiple cognitive, emotional, and physical behaviors can multiply your chances of feeling better about your life. Things Happy People Choose Not to Do They don’t dwell on setbacks or unpleasantness. Ruminating on negative thoughts crowds out space for positive thinking while also creat

I have heard it said that my office looks like a picture of one of those Hidden Object games. And they aren't wrong. I am one of those people who has trouble throwing things away. I will donate. I will refurbish, recycle, renew and reuse. But unless it's trash, I won't trash it. So consequently things stack up sometimes. To be honest, my whole house is a bit like that. Overfilled. Cluttered. Filled to the brim. Make no mistake though, it is organized, regardless of how some p

So they have turned the food pyramid upside down. What used to be a pyramid is now a...what....an upside down triangle? I do agree with some of it and think it's a good idea on those notes, but be careful of following it in it's entirety. Let me break that down to be clearer. On January 7, 2026, the U.S. government introduced a new food pyramid as part of the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. This marks a significant shift in federal nutrition policy, emphasizing a

Or.......how I spend a lot of my time. Gotta start the New Year out right, so I am working on a painting. I haven't talked much about my craft work in recent blogs. That's because I talk about it on another blog site that is dedicated to showing off all the craft work that I do and talking about it and showing pictures of it and it's where I sell my stuff and all that sort of thing. The painting that I am working on is of a setting in a Greek home with a view out the French d

Yup. I am in the mood for stew. I love stews. Especially when the cold weather hits, stews and chilis tend to hit my lists. So this week the menu is filled with various 'stews'. All of these are without any red meat (no beef, no pork, no lamb, etc.). There is fish, there is chicken, (white meat only) and there is chicken-apple-sausage, too. Certain recipes might ask for a copy-cat bullion, so I will provide the beef-style recipe here for your ease and convenience. Spice mi

I am a coffee lover. For sure. But because since I have gotten older and have developed mild hypertension (that's high blood pressure) I have had to cut down on how much coffee I drink in a day. Believe it when I tell you I could down a whole pot of coffee a day in past years. And, I am a tea-totaler, as they say. Anyways, these days I limit myself to only two cups of coffee per day. If I crave more I allow myself decaf. But for the most part I drink tea. All kinds of tea. My

I noticed that there is a pattern (one might call it a trend instead) of female weather presenters on television wearing 4 and 5 inch spiked heels. I had to ask myself why a person needed to wear the most uncomfortable looking shoes to talk about the weather? Well it turns out there are a couple of reasons. TV stations often have appearance guidelines meant to look “polished” or formal on camera. High heels are sometimes considered part of traditional broadcast fashion for wo

Netflix decided to take Supernatural off their list due to some sort of licensing issues or whatever stuff that I don't quite follow. So that meant that binge watching to the Nth degree had to take place in order to get in as much of the series as possible. Unfortunately in order to be able to understand how it all came together in the end, or in other words how did it end (?) meant watching it backwards. Last season first. Kind of ruined it a little bit doing it that way. At

I have had people lie to me. I have had people lie about me. Sometimes the lies were way out there tall tales that no one could possibly have believed. Could they? Sometimes the lies were about the person telling the lie for the most part and I somehow got a dishonorable mention. Sometimes the lies turned out to be a twisted up version of the truth. Has any of these ever happened to you? If so, did it make you ask yourself how their memory of a situation or event could be so

I forgot 2 things, plus to answer a recipe request .... I am updating today's blog. First, add Eggplant Parmesan with Twice Potatoes to the menu list for this week. Second, Happy Birthday to you Daron. Third, the recipe for Ratatouille on Polenta: Note: If you are making your own polenta then you need to start this well ahead of time and make the polenta, get it refrigerated and ready to use. I prefer to make it a day ahead. This time I bought a tube from the store. (Italian

I have gotten off schedule a bit and that's okay, nothing is written in concrete. I still have one meal to cook from the last menu, which is Rosemary Dijon Chicken. For the rest of the coming week: Ratatouille on Polenta Tilapia and Rice Medley Pasta and Chicken in a Pumpkin Sauce Gnocchi N Brussels Sprouts Last night was baked potatoes with leftover Awesome Sauce and cauliflower florets. That was not on the menu. It was a spur of the moment suggestion and it was quite go

It's not just the diet changing thing out of necessity as you get older it's a whole bunch of stuff. I was shocked to learn that people in their 30's are considering themselves as 'older'. It took me a moment and some head shaking but then I laughed. "Wait until you get to be MY age", I said out loud, to nobody. There are some things that are difficult to deal with as you age and if you want to take these as a warning, an alert to prepare yourself, or just as something to r

I am hearing a lot about "clean eating", so I thought I'd answer an inquiry about it here. It seems to be really trending right now, the idea of clean-eating. Honestly, it isn't new and it is not any different than what I have been posting about all along. So what is it? It refers to eating foods that are as close as possible to their natural state. This encourages us to make our meals from scratch to make them as “clean” as possible.  Once just a buzzword, “clean eating” is