Happy New Year!

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Happy New Year to all my Retirement Journey friends!  I am looking forward to 2011.  2010 had many ups and downs for me but I am planning for 2011 to be progressively uphill.

Do you make New Year's resolutions?  I don't usually but decided to try it again this year.  What can it hurt?!!  Sooo, my New Year's resolutions are:

1. Organize my craft room (it is scary right now!).
2. Get up at 5:00 every morning except Sunday.  Trust me, I need the extra hour:)
3. Exercise a minimum of five days a week.  I have a treadmill, weight set with bench and Wii Fit Plus--no excuses.
4. Lose 30 pounds.
5. Read at least one non-fiction book per month.  That should be easy because I love self-help books.
6. Make all the cards I give this year, including Christmas cards!
7. Become reacquainted with www.flylady.net--a great website to help you get organized and keep your house clean!  Should have kept up my friendship with the Flylady!
8. Remember to take more pictures.
9. Paint, paper and tile my kitchen.
10. Set goals for each of my resolutions.

Hope you are able to keep your resolutions!  I am going to blog about my resolutions one day per week so you can keep up with my progress...or not!  No, really, I am determined!

Have a wonderful New Year's Day and be looking forward to the best New Year ever!!!  Kat

Art of Manliness

My husband has been akin to the Grinch Who Stole Christmas for at least 30 years.  This year he was playing Christmas music, wanting to watch Christmas movies, wanting to put up Christmas decorations, wanting to entertain during the holiday season.  I must admit, I was getting very suspicious!  What happened to my husband?!  Was he abducted by aliens and a substitute put in his place?!!!  Finally he told me he had been reading about celebrating Christmas on the website The Art of Manliness.  He showed me the website and I found it interesting the vast variety of subjects that are discussed on The Art of Manliness website.  


If your husband needs some encouragement to have a Christmas Spirit during the holidays, encourage him to read The Art of Manliness.


theartofmanliness.com

What a Great Christmas!

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Christmas day was spent at Church and with friends.  It was a great day!  A high Sabbath!


I left to visit my darling daughter and granddaughter on Boxing Day (December 26)!  The weather for traveling was perfect and the trip was uneventful! My granddaughter thought celebrating Boxing Day was fun, especially when she found out it was like another Christmas--presents, goodies to eat, family!

I got everything I wanted for Christmas and then some--of course, my Keen Bern Baby Bern Boots plus Wii Fit Plus, Big Shot die cutting machine, the "doctor's" bag for the Big Shot, a Scotch Advanced Tape Glider and an iPhone App magazine.  What more could I ask for?!!!


My favorite part of Christmas was delivering our Christmas Jar.  I am so anxious to start our jar for 2011.  We only saved for one month this year so starting to save in January should yield much more.  Did you deliver a Christmas Jar this year?  If so, you know what I felt like.


I will be traveling home tomorrow to get prepared for our Church New Year's Party.  This is such a busy time of year and I am ready for the busyness to be over.  I told my husband I was going to sleep the whole month of January:)  Do you think I will get away with that?!!!


I hope you had a very Merry Christmas and that your New Year will be the best ever.  Kat


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing_Day--everthing you wanted to know about Boxing Day but were afraid to ask!
www.stamphappykat.stampinup.net for information about the Big Shot and "Doctor's" Bag
wiifit.com/ for information about the Wii Fit

Brad's Deals

Do you love a bargain?  I am a bargain shopper!  I love to thrift store shop because I love getting gently used, name brand items for next to nothing.  The only thing more enjoyable in the shopping realm than thrift store shopping is getting NEW for next to nothing!!!  A few years ago I discovered a website that told me the "deals" that were available today...this minute!  It was www.slickdeals.net. It is a great website, no doubt about it.  However, a friend shared one I like even better, www.bradsdeals.com!  If you have time to check both of them, they do have some different items.  Brad's Deals comes right to my inbox once a day.  I can quickly scan to see if there is anything I need or want.  This past year I got a pair of Croc flip flops for $10 (free shipping); Disney Princess flip flops for my granddaughter 2 pr for $10 (free shipping); a 600 thread count duvet with shams for $39 (free shipping); magazine subscriptions for $4 (Taste of Home, Family Fun, Rachel Ray, MacLife--just to mention a few), an atomic watch for my husband for $10 (he loves it because it sets itself when the time changes); memory card readers for $5 each.  Hmmm...I know I purchased more, just can't remember what!  Anyway, you get the idea!  Some of my favorite "deals" to watch for are from www.6pm.com.  When was the last time you purchased a pair of Dexter, Skechers or Rockport shoes for under $30?  


Purchases are made through the company making the offer, not Brad's Deals.  Brad's Deals also has in-store and online coupons and promo codes.


Check out www.bradsdeals.com and let me know what great "deals" you find.  Don't forget who gave you the tip!  Thanks, Tonia for telling me about Brad's Deals!  Kat


www.bradsdeals.com
www.slickdeals.net
www.6pm.com (so many brands, so little time:)

Another Yummy Holiday Recipe

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Christmas is sneaking up on me!  How can that happen when it is the same day every year?!!!  There is still so much to do and then there are the hiccups--unexpected events--that throw everything off kilter.  I am having more than my share of hiccups this year so feel like I am running in reverse:(  Today I made 14 Christmas cards, two gift card holders (turned out really cute), a quadruple batch of Russian Teacakes, wrote two blog posts and am now going to make Carmel Corn!  Tomorrow night is our church caroling night; Wednesday evening we have a group of kids/young adults coming for snacks, games and to spend the night; group skiing on Thursday...


I decided that since I didn't do much blogging last week, I would share two recipes this week.  This one is for the best Carmel Corn I have ever tasted.  If you don't like molasses, then don't even try it because that is the secret ingredient in this exceptional recipe.  I have been making Carmel Corn from this recipe for the last 25 years and it never ceases to bring rave reviews from friends, family, coworkers, etc.


Carmel Corn


10-12 cups popped corn


1 cup margarine
2 cups brown sugar
3/4 cup white syrup (I stopped using corn syrup this year so am making my white syrup by mixing 1 cup cane sugar with 1/4 cup water--don't know why I didn't think of this years ago)
1/4 cup molasses
1 tsp salt
1 tsp soda
1 tsp vanilla


Combine margarine, brown sugar, white syrup, molasses, and salt in a large sauce pan.  Boil for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and add soda and vanilla. Pour over popped corn.  Stir in--coat popped corn evenly.  Spread on cookie sheets and bake for one hour in 250 degree oven stirring every 15 minutes.

Our Favorite Holiday Cookie

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Are you up to your chin in flour, sugar and butter?!  Well, I am!  This recipe is the most asked for cookie for the holidays, from family and friends!  My husband can't seem to get enough of them.  Our friends hide them from their families. I have been threatened with bodily harm if I ever QUIT giving them!  And, of the holiday goodies I make, they are probably the easiest:)  Shhh! Don't tell anyone!  I hope you are able to make some of these nummy cookies for your family and friends this week.  I quadruple this recipe and then sometimes still have to make another batch before Christmas!

Russian Teacakes

Also called Mexican Wedding Cakes

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup finely chopped nuts

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix thoroughly butter, sugar and vanilla.  Work in flour, salt and nuts until dough holds together.  Shape dough into 1-inch balls.  Place on ungreased baking sheet.

Bake 10-12 minutes or until set but not brown.  While warm, roll in confectioners' sugar.  Cool.  Roll in confectioners' sugar again.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies (according to the recipe but I make mine a little bigger so only get two dozen per recipe)

Recipe from Better Homes & Garden's cookbook, page 147 (molded cookies)--I received this cookbook from my mom in 1972.

The Breast Cancer Site

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Nearly four years ago someone sent me an e-mail asking me to visit The Breast Cancer Site and click on a "pink" button to provide free mammograms for women who could not afford them.  My thought was, "Why not? What do I have to lose?" I knew women with breast cancer and some who lost their battle with breast cancer so actually became passionate about clicking on The Breast Cancer Site.  I signed up to have them send me a daily email reminding me to "click". And now, nearly four years later, it's just something I do--nearly every day!


A quote from The Breast Cancer Site says, " With a simple daily click of the pink button at The Breast Cancer Site, visitors help provide mammograms to those in need.  Visitors pay nothing.  Mammograms are paid for by the site's sponsors and distributed by the National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc."  Additional mammograms are provided through purchases that are made from The Breast Cancer Site online store. The Breast Cancer Site has provided 48,503 free mammograms since October, 2000.


Please visit The Breast Cancer Site, read some of the stories, check out the online store and click the pink button.  Maybe you, too, will become passionate about "clicking"!  Kat


www.thebreastcancersite.com