ONGOING FOOD ADVENTURE:


   Now that things have settled down, I am back to eating better and exercising consistently, and the results are good! I have lost a pound this week, and I intend to lose another one before another week has gone by. After months of trying to find time and energy to make soup, I made a pot of Rachael Ray's Chickpea and Fire Roasted Tomato soup. It looks disgusting, but it is pretty good. It is seasoned with garlic, coriander, cumin, and turmeric, so it's really good for you. I have been eating it with salad, and that's another story.  I have always thought it would be disgusting to eat a salad with just oil and vinegar on it; I'm a Ranch dressing kind of girl, the more the better. In fact, I like salad with my ranch dressing. But I have some heart healthy dressing from the Olympia Restaurant that is olive oil based, and I put a little of that and two teaspoons of safflower oil on my salad Tuesday, and I realized about halfway through that I really couldn't taste anything but the vegetables, and it was good!  I used safflower oil because the latest finding is that 2 teaspoons a day will melt belly fat. They said that without changes in diet or exercise it would melt the most stubborn belly fat: the fat in postmenopausal diabetic women. Yay! That's me!  Lord, please let this work!


STAMPING:
   My stamp club had it's Christmas get-together today. Better late than never! The gifts were great, and the fellowship was wonderful. We exchanged gifts, went to Charlie Magrooder's for lunch, came back and talked some more and did show and tell. Did we put a stamp to paper? Of course not! Next week hopefully we can get together and actually do something. We have a tendency to do a lot of talking and very little of anything else when we get together, but we do have fun! And we have produced some really nice projects, such as the antique optical lens necklaces we made some time ago. Oh, that reminds me, I took a picture of the faux porcelain flowers that Tammy made last week.

She die cut flowers from cardstock, formed the flowers from Wendy Vecchi's instructions which you can find on Tim Holtz's website, and then dipped each round of petals in Ultra Thick Embossing Power (UTEE). The results are spectacular! Tammy is my BFF and stamping buddy, Tammy Harper. I am going to be putting more of  her stuff on when I can get some pictures. She's good!

SPIRITUAL JOURNEY:
   I am still reading The Misunderstood God, and I read the most tremendous chapter this week. I had been questioning whether God kept His hands off of things completely and let nature take its course in order to honor free will, or if He helped us when we are in trouble. I understand why bad things happen up to a point, but then I get stuck on the question of why some people are helped and others aren't. Then I picked up the book a few days ago and read a chapter that addressed the very things I was wondering about. I can't explain what he said, but it was very helpful. At one point he said that when bad things happen to us that is the proof that God loves us and is protecting us. I was like "WHAAAAAAAAT?" But the more I read , the more it made sense. I am going to read it again, and if I can explain it, I will in a later post.

QUIRKS OF MY LIFE:
   I flipped the channel to QVC last night, and saw a blank screen which said at the bottom: Kitchen Ideas. I said, Ok, Janis, you can watch this but you CANNOT BUY ANYTHING! I already have a kitchen full of gadgets to make cooking easier. No sooner had I started watching it when they showed a silicone thing that you can put stuff in the bottom of, like garlic and herbs with a little water, then put a colander on top of that with a vegetable like potatoes, a rack and then another vegetable on top, then a lid.You then put this IN THE MICROWAVE and cook it for a FEW MINUTES! I'm there! Then I got on the computer to order it, and discovered a little option that I hadn't noticed before: Speed Buy. I clicked twice, and it was mine! I really didn't need to know about that little feature; it's too easy. If this thing works like they say it will, it will be worth its weight in gold to me. Especially when I 'm staying in the camper with Andy. It is supposed to steam the vegetables and infuse the flavor of whatever herbs you put in the bottom into the veggies. Man I hope it works well. It will be healthy too, if nuking the food doesn't hurt us.