Wintry beef stew

Guest post written by Grayce Caudill

There are just a few things that when I taste them, it just really feels like winter. One of them is turkey, but something else is beef stew. Well, something else that will definitely make you feel like you're in the dead of winter is all this snow and biting wind.

But that in turn makes me want some of those wintry, filling foods. Last weekend when I was stuck inside because of the snow, I searched fro a good recipe by looking through some food blogs online. When I was on my big search, I came across some stuff about satellite internet packages on this site www.Wirelessinternet.net and after I read through it some, I decided to o! rder one of those packages for my apartment.

I did find a recipe for winter beef stew that sounded pretty scrumptious, so I threw it all together. I decided to be nice and also share some of it with my roommate, but only so much so that I would have enough for leftovers!

Changing

It scares me but I see my life change before my eyes. When you age it happens! My tastes seems to be changing daily. When I was younger I liked my coffee, like some people like their cigars, black & mild .

As I have aged I honestly prefer a darker roast with a fair amount of half and half. I am not hooked on coffee like some of my co-workers who seem to chain drink. I have one cup on the morning, one for lunch, and maybe a nice decaf later in the evening.

My taste for candy has changed dramatically as well. I have always preferred the sweet and sour candies to chocolate. When I did eat chocolate I would never even dream of eating dark. All of that has changed.

Where is this posting going, well it is just to warn all you young'ins out there that life changes you in many different ways, not just physically.

Still Sick

Cal is still down and out with this nasty bug. Today will be day three of missed school and you must remember that we had the weekend mixed in there.

An answer to prayer: He normally works on Tuesday but this week he was moved to Friday. Hopefully he will be better because if he has to call in sick it might be a week or two to get back on the schedule.

Nasty Bug

There is a nasty bug going around Cal's school right now. He has it, of course, but so do six of his nineteen classmates.

Yesterday he was running a fever of 104. It was pretty scary for a few moments while we waited to see if it was going to continue to rise or go down. Thank God it went down and pretty rapidly. When kids are little they are easier to read. I thought he was getting grumpier but he didn't say that he was feeling worse and by time I noticed his entire face and neck were beet red, his temperature had soared to 104.

I expect him to go to school tomorrow but we are missing church today. This is much longer than the 24 hour bug that a few of them had. Today has been the toughest day of all, however, he is feeling better. He is feeling too good to just lay around but not quite good enough to be a productive part of society again.

He has done nothing but lay in bed for the past three days, by the end of this bug he will need muscle supplements in order to be active. There is a catch 22 with that much relaxing.

Argument

Yesterday Cal and I got into this huge argument. He wanted to blow up the air in his bike tires and I asked him to wait a second while I finished the bathroom. He didn't wait and ended up twisting the valve stem off the tube and destroying the tire. I was really upset and said somethings that were not nice. He has a little history of not waiting and then breaking things.

He stormed off and went for a walk. I called him about thirty minutes after he left and he informed me that he needed more time. I was pretty mean so I understood him needing more time to forgive me.

Over an hour later he finally came home with a gift for me. Yes he bought me a gift. It was a cute little candle holder. He walked about a mile and a half to our Hallmark store and bought me an apology card and the gift. He apologized for not waiting when I asked. This is the first time that he as really taken responsibility for his actions and most definitely the first time he has ever purchased a gift totally on his own without one of us initiating. My boy is growing up.

Beautiful but.....

Today the temperature is around 65. It is fantastic except for the fact that the wind is blowing all the winter dirt over everything. My hair and skin seem to have this thin layer. I wanted the windows on the car down so badly but every time I did, the wind would blow a mountain of dirt all over me and the interior of the car.

I wonder if anyone has every considered a screen for the car windows to prevent this from happening. It would have to be even more fine than a screen. Maybe that is why I have not seen any franchises for them before.

I would love to spend some time outside but I have had my allotment of dirt sandwich for the day. Have you heard about those people who obsessed with eating dirt, today would be their day in heaven. They could eat all they want without anyone knowing.

I found one!

I found a k-cup that I don't like. I was not sure that it was going to happen, but it did. I have a co-worker that loves coffee. We call him a chain drinker. I made the Mocha Nut Fudge the other day and even he said, "wow that doesn't smell that good, is it?" Nope, I don't like it at all. The chocolate is overwhelming for both smell and taste.

Usually I love anything that has the word Nut in the name. Now I have tried some other chocolate coffee's and was surprised that I enjoyed them, usually try to stay away from chocolate. Because I enjoyed the other one and this had Nut in the name I gave it a chance. I am just glad that I only purchased three of them. The only downside is now I have two k-cups that I will never use. Next time I will only purchase one if it is a flavor that might be questionable.

To a very dear friend

Hey honey, take a look at some of those photos before you post. Camel toe is NOT back in style. It really doesn't matter if they are "exercise pants" or not. I love you very much and if I didn't I would continue to ignore those photos. Maybe you cannot see it or don't think that others can but take it from me, we see!

Pickers

I have been watching the show American Pickers. I have been thinking about giving them my dad's address. I am not sure how many "antiques" he has but boy does he have a lot of junk. They seem to love these places where they pull up and the junk is just overflowing into the road. That would be my dad's place.

Several summers ago when I went down, Dad took me on a tour. He has some pretty good stuff there and I was drooling over some of his items. I bet he even has some gold bullion buried under some of those piles.

He could make a fortune on online auctions. The problem is he is just a little attached. His wife will try to sell something and he will turn down the sale.

He has about 50 Hess Trucks. I would love to take over his little business and make him clean it up and actually SELL things to people.

Answered Prayer

Sometimes God answers pray with a "NO!". Looking back in life I now see that some of the best answers that I have received have been a "NO!".

A country singer that will remain nameless has a song that states "Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers" Well technically God answers all prayers from believers. The answer is either Yes, No or Wait.

If you want to pursue your interest in religion, check out christiancounselingdegree.org.

Some of the worst answers are when God gives us exactly what we pray for.

Mud Paintball

Cal has a paintball activity on Friday. The Pastor has advertised this as Mud Paintball and sure enough he will get exactly what he is looking for.

It rained so hard yesterday I considered gathering the animals.

It should be interesting because Cal bought new rifle scopes for his gun. He is sure that he can finally be competitive at these events.

He has competed for a couple years now but never had a good gun with all the whistles and bells. His grandmother purchased him the gun of his choice for Christmas and he has been dying to us it ever since.

Woke up on Wrong Side

I definitely woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. I woke up annoyed with eBay. We do a lot of our selling on there. Starting in a few months they are no longer going to give us the 5% discount that they offer to sellers who satisfy their customers. Now they are only going to offer you a 20% discount if you do not have more than three people that complain about four areas of your store. One of those areas is shipping.

While the postal service continues to raise rates, lose packages, and the cost of shipping supplies continues to increase with each order, eBay gives customers the idea that it should all be for free. If a vendor does not offer free shipping they are not a valuable vendor.

In addition when customer rates you on the four areas there is no way to respond. It is totally anonymous. Therefore, you can purchase from someone who you consider your competition three times, each time giving them a poor rating and WHAM they now pay 20% more than you do. Since we are one of the larger sellers on eBay in our industry, guess what.

eBay needs to get their "think tank" out of India and into the real world and stop making all these asinine rules. They obviously have never sold a thing in their life. They have never made that trip to the post office knowing you will spend a half an hour in line with your international packages and then end up answering emails from these same customers for weeks because they have not received their package yet.

It never fails that the smaller the order ($5.00) the more that customer will hound us about a slow delivery. I have answered seven emails from a customer in Germany because he has not received the package he ordered three weeks ago. I proved to him that I sent it the day after he placed his order but he thinks I have a GPS on that package. The order was $7.95 and he wants his money back. The problem is that eBay insists that I give him not only the price for the part but the shipping cost. Yep, I paid the postal service the shipping, so in fact I now pay eBay to send me customers that rip me off.

Dante's Milestone

Dante turned 59 this year. It is an interesting time for both of us. We both seem to be struggling with his birthday. He is getting older and for some strange reason I don't seem to be aging quite as quickly as he.

It will be just a few short years before he will qualify for a Medicare plan and social security. He can start requesting his AARP cards as well as his senior citizen discounts. Me on the other hand, I seem to be having my mid-life time, I won't use the word crisis because I am far from doing something drastic. I am just not ready for social security or the early bird specials.

I knew this time would come in our lives. I am working on things. If I am honest maybe I am looking forward to those early bird specials. I know that my bed time seems to be earlier and earlier each year.

Conversation with Dante

Dante: I wish you had not started talking about Klondike bars, I really want one now.

Lukie: Didn't you say that you were going to start cutting back on the junk food.

Dante: Yeah but.......

Lukie: Oh my word, Dante, you have more excuses than Obama has terrorist friends!

Ready if God leads us!

Over the past year I have blogged about the many advantages of not owning a home. Another benefit that I thought of today is that we can move much easier than others. If God should lead us to another state, let's say California, we can be ready to go in just a few short weeks.

I always have my eye open for the possibility of a move, not because I am unhappy with where we are but, because God put us in this situation for a reason.

If we did move to California I am extremely interested in the San Diego Real Estate Market. Dante has been to San Diego before and talks about it often. As we all know, it doesn't matter where you go it seems to be a buyers market. If I were to purchase anything it would have to be an investment property. Something that I owned and payed someone to manage and make an income.

The second most important thing to think about when planning a move is a school. San Diego has some very good schools to consider. Now some people have a strong desire to keep their children in a private school. That, of course, would be my first choice. I understand that not everyone is as passionate about private school as I am.

Other things to consider are San Diego statistics on crime rates, economy, jobs / unemployment rate, and so on. Moving is not something that should be used to satisfy your "grass is always greener" syndrome.

Saturday Morning / Afternoon

I spent most of the morning and early afternoon with my dearest friend from work. She had a work project to do and we tend to help each other quite often. Honestly she helps me much more than I help her.

We were slicing and dicing fruits and vegetables for an event that is happening at the church Sunday evening.

We talked and had a fantastic time. I told her my entire pregnancy story and she pretended to be very interested.

I have developed a few good friendships and some very nice acquaintances, since starting my job. Good friends that don't just use me for a free babysitter.

My dad

I am definitely my father's daughter. I love tools, any kind of tools. I think my favorite are power tools. My dad had a garage full of drill presses, saws of every kind, and every had tool imaginable. Dante has not one speck of interest in tools. It is stressful at Christmas time because I go to HD and look at the tools knowing that I would love all of them and he could care less.

I do get a little satisfaction at Christmas because I can purchase some things for my dad but things have been so tight financially that I can barely afford band saw blades and cannot even think about the band saw.

Early on in our marriage I purchased Dante router bits and we didn't even own a router. My thinking was if he had the bits maybe he would get excited about the router. Nope I ended up gifting them to someone several years later

Nervous

I am getting very nervous about the condition of my teeth. Teeth has always been a very important feature to me. Right now I know that I need some work and a good cleaning. I have several sensitive spots and I know that I have periodontal disease. My gums are receding but they are not puffy or red so I think it is still in the early stages. My problem is that my gums have receded enough that my teeth feel loose. The gums are also low enough that I feel the part of the tooth that is not covered with enamel. That cannot be good.

I have to talk to Cal's dentist and see if he will be willing to work out a payment plan with us. I have not been able to find a dentist that is willing to do that.

Most common blog post

Back to expressing the desire to lose some weight. I have not weighed myself and I think I may have lost a little weight when I was working with the Active 2 for the Wii but I have not been able to motivate myself these past few weeks because work has been pretty exhausting.

I have heard that some people have had success with adapexin-p. I personally think I just need a little will power and lots of motivation.

Baseball is around the corner and Dante has said that Cal can play this year so I will be getting out there as soon as I can and practice with my boy.

It should be an interesting year, Cal didn't get to play last year. I am having some trouble getting a hold of the people in charge of the league to ask a few questions before we sign up. I hope they answer me soon.

Driving me nuts

Dante is getting on my last nerve. I turn the heat up, he turns it down. His reasoning is that it is "warm" outside today and we don't need the heat. He is refusing to look at the temperature in the house, about 57 to 59.

It is damp and cold but he walks outside and it feels warm so he insists that the heat be off. I just complained and he said fine I will turn it up. Ten minutes later I yelled and asked if he turned up the heat, Nope! He thinks I am so stupid that I won't notice when the heat didn't come on.

Missing

Summer is right around the corner and I will once again miss the ceiling fan that we had in the old house. Not because it did that great of a job but it was beautiful, in a rustic kind of way.

It was placed in the stairwell that connected the basement with the upstairs. We didn't really use it often but it brought that section of blank space to life.

I have thought about purchasing Casablanca fans for work, because that is where I will have to satisfy my cravings. I honestly do not miss home ownership and all the responsibilities that come with it

Any idea

Do you have any idea how much it will cost two people to fly from Manchester, NH to Nashville, TN? I do, and it is not cheap. I was really hoping to make some summer plans for Dante and Cal but it would take almost a months salary to pay for that trip.

I was also hoping to be able to tag along but I don't see that happening. I will try to concentrate more on just those two. If anyone sees any good Southwest deals let me know.

The Bridge of Peace Blog Tour

If you have been reading my blog for long you know that I love historical fiction. I am particularly fond of the lifestyle of the late 1800's to early 1900's. Personally I think I was born into the wrong century.

When I was asked to review The Bridge of Peace by Cindy Woodsmall, I jumped at the chance. Now the story takes place in present day but the characters are Old Order Amish, so they fall into the lifestyle that I love.

The book was a page turner from beginning to end. I so enjoyed the main characters and their struggles. Lena is a school teacher that has a very spunky spirit. She feels she has been cursed by God with a large birthmark on her face. This birthmark (in her mind) is the reason that she is still unmarried. Lena has always had men in her life unfortunately none of those friendships have ever developed into something more. Grey is Lena's brother Allen's best friend. He has known Lena for years but only sees her as a friend. After Grey's wife dies, Lena starts to wonder if Grey could or would ever have feelings for her.

Grey sees something different in Lena and tries to get other Amish men interested in his best friends little sister.

My only complaint about the book is that the author introduces so many characters in several of the chapters that I found myself spending more time trying to remember who everyone was rather than enjoying the story.

I would recommend the book to all my readers but would suggest that you read the first book in the series, The Hope of Refuge, first. Maybe that way the characters would make more sense. There is a main characters list at the back of the book but does you little good if you don't know it is there.

I received this book free for review from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group. Thank you so much!

Camping

Dante and I have some friends that go camping regularly. They have been asking us to go for over a year now. I have never really enjoyed camping but we have been discussing taking them up on their offer. They have a fifth wheel trailer, one that can hold their 8 person family.

We most certainly would not need that large of a vehicle. I have thinking about looking into renting a RV and trying a weekend trip with them. I want to look into a rv insurance quote, because that was a very large part of the rental cost.

Money is always a major issue when it comes to vacation plans, but this sounds fun. They just arrived back from a week seeing Mickey. I know that is not in the budget but it sure might be a future plan.

Tease

Oh this weather is driving me out of my mind. This morning I had to run and help a friend with a task. I left the house around 8:15 a.m. The eves were already dripping. It was gorgeous. I was so excited. This day was going to be fantastic.

About an hour after arriving at my friends house I look out the window and the clouds had moved in, the wind picked up, and I saw my wonderful gorgeous day flash before my eyes.

It is now cold, windy, and cloudy out! Not a good day. I wanted to go for a walk and spend time outside. Now I have to spend time inside, cleaning. Yuck. Not my choice.

Working Man

Cal has been working since the beginning of the year. He doesn't get many hours but he is only 14 and we are very thankful for the ones he does receive.

I am really looking forward to the nice weather when he can be totally responsible, and walk/Bike to and from work. Yesterday I had to work a little later and we cut it close, he was almost late. Oddly enough this is the first time that he has worked with the owner, of all times to cut it close.

He was a little concerned when he came home last night. He thought he made to many mistakes. His boss seemed to give him some very positive encouragement, so I think he is planning on Cal being a long term employee.

Having a job at 14 has to look good on your resume when you are looking for a full time job. When my boy starts job hunting for charlotte jobs I hope he stands out from the rest.

Nothing depresses me more than....

Nothing depresses me more than.... searching for medical insurance. Every so many months when things start to look up I venture into the waters again.

I cannot find anything that is even close to being reasonable. I do not consider paying $1,000 a month in premiums and then having a $5,000 or even $10,000 deductible reasonable ( don't even want to know if those deductibles are per person or family.) For as ridiculous as health care is I have to assume per person.

Now I don't for one second think that the government can run health care but I sure would like health care to be affordable. I also know that living in NH does not help. When we lived in NY thirteen years ago we paid much less than what NH was charging at the time.

Maybe when we start thinking about moving again we should look at the rates of each state before we make the plunge. BCBS of NC appears to be more reasonable than NH. I am going to have to start looking for a job with benefits.

Off Limits

There seem to be so many topics that are off limits on my blog. I cannot go into detail about family or my job. Sometimes I have so much to talk about but cannot put any of it in writing.

Blogging about family only causes friction even though our family certainly gives me more than enough material, it is all off limits.

Blogging about the job will only get me fired.

Netbook

I am looking to purchase a netbook. Not really soon because I think we should spend our money on needs instead of wants but I am starting to research whether I want a laptop or a netbook.

Someone just told me that I cannot print from a netbook. Is this correct? I have a couple brother printers that I want to be able to print to. I was under the impression that you could hook up a USB cord but am I off base on that assumption?

I guess I have to do some more digging because printing could be a major issue for me. I really don't print that often but if I didn't have that option I am sure that I would miss it!

I love him but......

he can be so anal at times. Cal and a friend have a meeting tonight at 6:30. It is literally around the corner. I might even be able to see the house from here. It is 6:08 and Dante is yelling at them to get in the car. I am sure the hosts are going to love two teenage boys showing up a half hour early.

Self Conscious

Dante bought me a purse for Christmas. It was the one that I picked out after seeing it at our local pumpkin festival. I really love my purse, it doesn't always match my outfit (because it is looks more like a quilt) but I proudly carry it wherever I go.

The other day I was in the grocery store and this very nice little old lady came up to me and started telling me how much she loved my purse. I guess it is the same style that 90 year old ladies like.

Now, I am a little self conscious about my purse. I am getting old and frankly have been acting a little older than I care to admit, I was even price shopping ekg machines the other day. I still love my purse but..... that seed has been planted.

Happy Birthday!

To my fantastic husband Dante. He is so nice that we have been arguing all week because he wants to by a Netbook for me for his birthday.

Light at the end of the tunnel

Things are going so well for us both personally and business wise. Although I stress and complain about my job at times, it doesn't change the fact that I have always stressed and complained even when we were making six figures.

God has been so good to us. As a family we understand that our troubles were self inflicted and God has taught us so much through the hardship He allowed us to suffer. It is like when your parents finally decide that you have to learn from your mistakes instead of them constantly coming to your rescue.

Things have eased up enough that we can start planning for the future. We were finally able to get some much needed insurance (not medical) the other day. We don't need home owners insurance estimates, but we were in desperate need of renters insurance estimates. After several phone calls we ended up with the company that writes our car insurance.

When I grow up.....

I wanna be............. can someone please fill in the blank for me! I have been working at my current job for about a year and a half and while I really do enjoy it, I find that I don't enjoy knowing all the details. I work at Cal's school and that is driving my nuts. I see things that I wish I did not see and know.

This morning I was so stressed I typed a letter that promptly went through the shredder. It does help to get it off my chest but knowing that things will not change is frustrating.

I am a firm believer that if you have a policy/law you need to enforce it. Why in the world create a handbook if you don't follow half the rules that you put in the book.

I cannot vent too much, because I tend to get myself in trouble with my emotions.

$2.97

Tomorrow is Dante's birthday and both Cal and I were struggling to think of a gift. This morning we decided to head to the mall to find something. In his golden years he has really grown out of sports so football gifts were not on the list. If we would have been shopping for me, that would have been another story. I am a sports nut! Anyway back to Dante.

I had a pretty good idea that clothes would be on the list. It has been quite some time since we have had some extra funds to spend on clothes for him.

After several hours in JC Penney, Dante had six shirts picked out. Five of the six were a size larger than he normally takes and they were $2.97 each. It is hard to pass up a deal like that.

On the way out of the store, he was talking about how he hoped that the extra size would not be uncomfortable. I said "if it is we can turn them into sheets". I am so funny I crack myself up at times.

Tax Dollars at Work

I usually try to avoid politics in my blog because honestly I just try to hide my head and wait for Jesus' return.

2 Timothy 3:1-5

¹This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. ²For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, ³ Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, ⁴Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; ⁵Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

The other day while watching TV I noticed the most ridiculous commercial regarding government waste. Even more ridiculous than the "free wheelchair" commercials that target the elderly. You know the ones where the older people still living in multi-million dollar houses are encouraged to get their chair for free.

This one was targeting kids and parents. They were offering free cell phones with 250 minutes for emergencies. 250 minutes worth of emergencies in a month! All of this for free with this government sponsored plan. You can bet your bottom dollar that the majority of these phones will be sent to inner city locations and will be used to aid in crimes.

Oddly enough we had to purchase Cal a new phone the other day. The battery on his phone was not holding the charge. We originally purchased the phone for him when we lived in Nashua and he had to walk to school everyday. We made the sacrifice, and made sure he was safe. Actually we just stopped stocking our refrigerator with beer and we both stopped smoking two packs a day. Anyway I digress, I tried to update the phone online but my company no longer offers the calling plan that we have and wanted to bump me up to the $90.00 a month plan. My point is a calling plan that has 250 free minutes has a value of approximately $50 to $75 and that does not include the phone. I have to ask myself how much is this program costing Americans.

Every child has the right to be safe whether they live in the ghetto, large city, small town, rich, poor, black, white, illegal or citizen. I do not dispute that fact. I just wonder how giving them a cell phone with 250 minutes is going to keep the kids any safer. How about we target the people that target our children. How about we spend the money that is wasted on this program building electric chairs for those that commit crimes against them.

The braces are on!

On Tuesday Cal had his bottom braces put on. It is funny how it changes the look of his face. He suddenly looks older. Things went very smoothly and he was back to school within an hour. He was very excited until that night when the pain started. I just kept reminding him that the pain could be doubled because most kids have both the top and bottoms put on at the same time.

The palette expander that he has to have inserted next is going to make this pain look like nothing. I like to be honest but not frighten him too much.

This entire process is suppose to take approximately three years. That just seems like a long time but it seems that he has several issues that need to be addressed and the least of these are the teeth that were knocked out.

The lady that did the work used to be an acquaintance that we knew from our old neighborhood. She is a nice enough lady. I am not sure, but maybe I should start looking into healthcare jobs. I need something full time. Right now I am working "almost" full time without any benefits. I really need to find something that can at least give me health insurance.

Indian Winter?

If we call that section of time when summer is over but we get just a few days of really warm weather Indian Summer, what should we call this section of time when winter just does not want to go away. The Indian Summer is just a few days but Indian Winter feels like forever.

I am so ready for all this snow to be gone. I want to get out and take walks every night. You cannot walk with all this ice. It warms up enough every day to melt all the snow just a little, just enough to make it slippery, then it cools down and we have massive ice.

I hate to wish my life away but I really need some fresh air, long walks, and figure out a way to get rid of these winter blues.