What a beautiful Saturday morning.. It's brisk at 34*, and yet the sun is shining so bright.. one would expect 90* .. but , alas, it won't be that way.  Too late in the year.  Winter is upon us, though snow is scant just yet.  It gets dark really early..

Next week is payday and I'm getting a list of groceries ready for that day.  Yesterday I baked 4 loaves of home made oatmeal bread.  Mmmmmm.. so delicious, but full of calories, so have to be very careful cutting < 1/2" slices and then only once a day.  I look forward to supper for just that reason.
I'm surprised to see that even hubby is willing to watch every item that goes in his mouth.  He says he feels like he's lost some.. we'll see next week.  He went from +/- 2600 cal /day to 2000 cal , a savings of 600 cal / day for him.  In a weeks time, he should lose a pound even with no  activity.
Mine went from 1600 cal to 1200 cal/day.. only a 400 cal savings, so my loss should be slower. 

Hello Dreamfields!  This is delicious pasta that is low glycemic factor.  We tried it last night for supper.   1/2c dry = 1 serving.  It makes 1c cooked.  Imagine how excited we were this morning to find that blood sugars were stable.. and 4hr after Wendell ate his, his blood sugar was 100.  YAY! 

It's chilly today- 23* at the moment 11am.  But it's sunny and beautiful.  WOW! what a gorgeous blue sky!!  God is blessing us in so many ways.

Speaking of God's blessings- I attended my first Women's Bible Study at Gibsonia last evening.  It was wonderful!  What a lovely group of ladies.  I learned a lot about the Philippian church.. it's first members were Lydia the wealthy lady, a jailer, and likely a girl tormented with a demon until Paul cast it out.  Notice, there weren't a lot of "official" type people.. just regular folk.  Paul loved that church dearly.  They were faithful to supply him with the things he needed while in prison.  Prison there was not like prison here.  If you wanted to eat, someone had to bring you food.  If you needed a change of clothes or a blanket, someone had to supply that for you too.  The church at Philippi did that. 
I felt blessed to go to that meeting.  Looking forward to the next one on next Thursday.
I'm also reading a book called The Sovereignty of God by AW Pink.  I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know about your relationship to God.  WOW!  Once again I find myself so very blessed by this book. 
On to the day.  I have worked this morning on the photo project.  I should take a picture of the mess I've made while working on it.  Ugh.  But there is progress and that's really encouraging.  I don't want our families to ever have the problem of identifying anyone in the family.  All the photos are marked and I'm also mounting them according to person or family.  Once this project is done, All the families will go into a file according to their family - in albums.

Soon time for lunch.  Am tempted to make that macaroni again today for lunch.. a tuna macaroni salad sounds appealing.

The bariatric surgeon's office called this evening and has accepted Wendell into their program! He will have his surgery !!Follow along with us on the DOWNSIZING blog at your right.

BARIATRIC SURGERY

If you are interested in what we learned at our education session last evening, check the DOWNSIZING blog at the right. We learned a lot about bariatric surgeries and have pretty much decided which is for us..

YORKSHIRE PUDDING

I've been on the search/lookout for recipes that have nutritive value but no yeast/sugar.
This morning I had something delicious that fit the bill~ Yorkshire pudding.
It reminded me of my mother's cream puff shells.. but the pudding is softish and the flavor comes from the eggs and butter. Yummy.. I ate 5 of them with my coffee- no guilt.

1c flour
1c milk
3 eggs
Mix ingredients in middle sized bowl

heat oven to 375 degrees

large muffin tin- 12 cups
put about 1/2 tsp butter in each cup
place this in the oven while it's heating to melt the butter

divide the batter evenly in all the cups
place in oven for 5 minutes, then turn the heat to 350 degrees
and bake for 25 minutes more.

They puff up and then sink when you take them out.. they are very airy inside- easy to eat a lot of them. The butter really adds the flavor.
I can imagine these would be good with maple syrup drizzled over them.....yummy!

HEADING FOR THE WEEKEND..

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13

Good morning ! Got my coffee here and I'm reading my e-mails and decided to throw in a blog for the day.
Judging from the SIB (sacro-iliac barometer), it's going to rain within the next 24 hours. Well, we need it badly. I think we must be in drought condition - bearly any snow this winter and little rain so far. And, no, I won't be out burning any papers for a l o n g time.

Today I get to work at the hospital, and then have a weekend off. YIPPEE! With Wendell getting stronger each day and able to do more for himself, I can devote more time to cleaning up inside and outside. There is MUCH to do........ spring cleaning, you know. I'll be pitching a lot of trash we've accumulated over the winter and last fall. No garage sale stuff, but just stuff that the garbage man will be happy to receive all packaged in bags.
There is a work day at the church tomorrow too, but I'm afraid neither Wendell nor I are able to do much to be of any help this time. Perhaps the next. We are so thankful for those who CAN be of help and are willing to do the work there that needs done.

Mandy took Wendell and I out for my birthday on Wednesday evening. I was so happy to have a quiet day with no more excitement. I was a little concerned that Wendell might not be able to make the choices he needed, but he did fine- he chose fish (baked scrod) and soup and veggies. He's still learning how to choose, but I guess my concern is really needless. When you have the same foods in front of you day by day, meal by meal, it sort of soaks in, and you get the idea.. X amount of protein (meat/cheese), X amount of starch (bread/potato), X amount of fruits and veggies.. and watch the fats! Not hard. He's catching on.
And if he should botch up one meal, it'll reflect in his next blood sugar, and he'll learn by that.
The thing is that until his blood sugars are totally consistant all day long, he'll be jagging his fingers for samples 4 times a day- so it's an incentive for him to get it right.
I spent a lot of time on the phone on Wednesday.. calls from family and friends wishing me a happy and peaceful day... thanks everyone! You all made my day.

Well, my coffee cup is about empty, and there is much here to do today before I leave for the afternoon/evening.
Happy blogging everyone! Remember that God loves you all and so do I !

TOO TIRED TO BLOG TONITE

Yeah, I'm too tired to do any blogging tonite. It's been a long long day- up at 3:30am and here it is nearly 11pm and though I took a short nap when I got home today, I'm still weary.
I got flowers from the "good doctor and the singing secretarial staff " at the office. I have taken quite a beating over the fire issue on Tuesday. The doctor asked me to make a choice for lunch today- on him. I chose Pizza- I haven't had any since we started on Wendell's diet. So he suggested to one of the staff that they put a single candle on a pizza and let me blow it out. About as quickly as he said it he retracted it and decided a small flashlight would be much safer in my case.. can't have the file room going up in smoke, now, can we?
What a hoot!
All in all it was a long day, but a day I really love and enjoy.
The picture above is from Christmas.. it's the whole group. We need to do a picnic in the summer too, I think.... just no open fires please?

Well, now, for not wanting to do any blogging, I'm doing a pretty good job, eh?
Wendell had a good day today.. he tinkered with the lawn mower till Paul came and made some adjustments, and then mowed off the old asparagus so the new growth would accelerate.
Thanks Paul!

We WERE planning a trip to Wendy's the last week of May. Unfortunately, when I got my tires changed, the mechanic tried and tried to balance them, but couldn't. It's something with the tires, but he couldn't see or feel any steel belts. So we need tires. I came home this afternoon noting the price of gas too.... By Saturday it'll be $3/gal. Really tough to fill a tank just to use here in Butler, but we want to go to church on Sabbath, so I'll take what I have and fill the tank as far as I can.

Okay......enough blogging for the night. I'm weary, tired and ready for my bed.
Good night all...... pleasant dreams...... and don't forget to pray!

ALL ABOUT EGGS

Now, here's a good site that tells you everything you ever wanted to know about eggs and then some..... informative and recipes too.

ASPARAGUS AND PUNCTUALITY

"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live." John 11:25

It's actually morning here. 12:30am. I just got home from the hospital. Slow night. I had 4 admissions that I never got to do anything with when I left. There is a night secretary, and she will be doing the honors.
I'm feeling more relaxed now after starting the day off on the wrong foot. Some days are like that- just can't seem to do anything right the first time, and then I have to redo, and I'm late with everything the rest of the day.
Growing up, we were fondly referred to as the "early Imms". My parents taught me to be punctual in everything. So I married into the "late Blairs" family. Thankfully, Wendell and I have been able to lean more toward my side of the family and should probably be known as the 'on time' Blairs. Of course, I'm punctual to a fault. I can't tolerate being late for anything.
I can remember telling Wendell's dad to be somewhere a half hour earlier than necessary, and then he'd be on time.
I never did get to the asparagus patch today. I'm so anxious to see whether it's coming through the ground yet. One of my favorite parts of spring is looking for it, waiting patiently for it to be big enough to snap off and make a meal for Wendell and me. Asparagus is not something one is born to love. You have to develop a taste for it. I had to work hard to get Wendell to even try fresh asparagus, but he did (loaded with melted cheese), and now he's a fan. We taught most of our children to eat it that way, and then slowly reduced the amount of cheese till we now eat it with just a little salt or seasoning. Yummy stuff!
My mother loved it too, and she did a lot of the harvesting when she was able a few years back. One day she'd keep the harvest and the next time she'd pass it to us. By the end of summer, we had bags of fresh asparagus everywhere in the refrigerator, and couldn't use it all.
We pick it every other day.
Mum told the story of her first experience with cooking it. Dad had enjoyed it all his life, but though Mum knew what it was, she didn't have a clue how to cook it. But she was up to the challenge. She cut off those tips and threw them away and cooked the stalks till she thought they were tender enough. Dad was horrified. I have to laugh just thinking about what it must have been like.
So he taught her how to prepare it properly. You don't cut it, you snap it on the stem. It'll break at the most tender point. And, of course, you keep the tips and cook them, not the tough stringy stalks. It's a totally different flavor and texture than canned.
I planted my patch about around 1980 or so. It was on the edge of the field corn Wendell's dad had planted. Every year we picked it a little longer, till now we can pick it all summer and not damage the roots at all. In the fall, we let it go to seed. It has such beautiful ferns, and then in the next spring, we mow it off and wait.
Later today I'll post about Wendell's office visit . It's his first follow up with his PCP. He will likely let him drive short distances now. We'll see.

ASPARAGUS PARMESAN

Asparagus Parmesan
This simple and delicious preparation for spring asparagus makes the perfect sidekick for roast chicken or grilled salmon.

Ingredients1/2 pound fresh asparagus (6 to 10 spears)
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese (go easy on it- adds fat and sodium)
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Trim the ends of the asparagus, about 1 inch or so from the bottom.
Place asparagus in a 2-quart microwaveable casserole dish with about 1/4 cup water.
Cover tightly with plastic wrap and cook in microwave, 10 to 12 minutes, or until tender to taste. Carefully remove plastic (steam will be very hot) and drain.

2. Gently toss the asparagus with olive oil to coat;
sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and pepper.
Cook, uncovered, 1 minute to melt cheese.
Let stand 2 minutes before serving.

Nutritional Information
124 calories
9 g total fat (2 g saturated)
5 mg cholesterol
5 g carbohydrate
2 g fiber
5 g protein
125 mg sodium