Thank You Notes

I was raised to write thank you notes for all sorts of gifts and graciousness while growing up. A note to the grandparents, aunts and uncles for Christmas gifts, to friends and family for birthday, graduation and eventually wedding gifts; and in my professional life to those who offered money to my causes or acts of kindness that I was able to use in my professional career.

After writing these notes for probably over 40 years, I have grown tired of this task. It could be that I have so many creative ideas to encompass and then I have to consider that I don't have the time to implement them that it distresses me. I also have a handwriting disability and don't care to write without a keyboard very much. Also, maybe now that it costs almost 50 cents to mail a thank you, couldn't I just send a text or email thank you instead? Another inhibitor is just the general boring nature of the thank you note, "Dear family member, Thank you so much for the blah-blah. I've enjoyed it so much and can't wait to enjoy it again. I will treasure it forever. Thank you again. Love, Alecia." What else is there to say besides making up some far-out way that I will enjoy it? I try to intersperse a bit of personality/drama/lifestyle into the note to hopefully make it better reading, but "dull" is just the way I would describe it.

But then, there's the plus side to the thank you note. The receiving of it. Snail mail has become so passe in the past ten years or so that it has become much more exciting to receive a piece of personal mail than it was in the past. Just reading a hand-written note makes it all worthwhile to the recipient, and that's why I still begrudgingly write thank you note after every Christmas, birthday or other special gift is received, and encourage my children to do the same. The benefit is definitely worth the effort. Got to go write them for 2012 Christmas gifts right now.

Happy New Writing Year!

A new year means a chance to change the date at the end when writing a check or a letter, the end of the government's tracking of the dollars you earned that year and in reality, that's about it. But we make such a fuss of it, people making resolutions about what to change in the new year, with little change actually occurring. Go on a strict diet, exercise more, be a nicer person and clean out the garage are a few common items. I heard on the radio the other day (which may be as close to fiction as the internet) that 50% of new year's resolutions are broken by the first week according to a random survey. My solution to that problem is to not make any resolutions until after the first week.

To make resolutions on January 1st is not the greatest of ideas because you may have eaten and drank too much the night before and not have had enough sleep. Planning to change when you are feeling guilty for a particular activity is not wise, especially when you have a few leftover treats in the refrigerator and pantry, and you can get pounds of candy for half price or less at Target and Wal-Mart. To make resolutions in the month of December can be challenging as well, for you are preparing for the holidays and again, possibly eating and drinking too much, spending a lot of money, and not getting enough rest. Once Christmas is past and the decorations are put away, with not much on the calendar except for baking Valentine's Day cookies, that's a good time to look at the past year and resolve to improve in the new one.

I'm not going to share all of my New Year's Resolutions but will tell any reader the one resolution that I hope to fulfill, and that is to write at least 50 posts in 2013. The other items that I will write out and resolve to do (while watching the Cotton Bowl with the Aggies playing tonight) will include better communication, more efforts to support my community and a usual eat and live healthy mandate. Happy New Year!

Brainstorming and Writing

Every year, I say that I am going to write at least one post a week. This year has been a miserable attempt that I can always blame on - I'm too busy, or I'm not creative right now, or I have nothing to write about. No excuses this year, even though I was just interrupted from writing for about 10 minutes.

My plan for 2013 will be what I did for my two daughters when they were younger every night before they went to bed. After reading a story or two - sometimes a picture book and sometimes a chapter book, I would have them give me two things - a name, an idea, a thing, a place, an animal or any other topics - and I would make up a story. For my blog this year, I am going to make lists of places (worldwide, home and office bound), things (foods, accessories, toys, cars, gadgets, etc.) and people (male/female, old/young, daring/timid and other characteristics). Each week (because my goal is 50 blogs) I will choose two items and either incorporate it into current events, address the meaning of them or make up a fantasy story.

So - Look forward to some good writing in 2013 - and you may just see more than 50 blogs!

Merry Christmas!

I Love Beans

Bean soup, beans and rice, beans on nachos, beans with enchiladas, beans with sausage - I love beans! SO healthy and delicious, I could eat them every day. My family is not as fond of them, maybe because I don't usually add meat, although I usually prepare the beans with homemade chicken broth. I make the broth from a chicken that I've baked and then boiled the remaining bones, along with the drippings from the pan for good use of the entire chicken, fat skimmed off the top of course.

Enough about the real beans, what I'm getting at is that I have a book in my head and halfway in my computer that addresses a little girl who plants her mother's discarded beans and discovers a world of adventure with them. My pleasure writing is so limited these days with two teenagers and a very preoccupied husband, plus a couple of part time marketing gigs, school events, grocery shopping, house maintenance, laundry, and certainly cooking beans and baking more edible treats. As I close out another year without finishing my book started in 2008, I have to consider my goals for 2013.

Here it is, December 13, and I'm just posting my 6th blog of the year. So many aspirations to write away every day, week, and month, yet just a half dozen have been written. I didn't begin the blog to make money with advertisements, although I've heard that it's a good idea. For 2013, I will again have a goal to write at least one a week, then, one a month - with at least a dozen by the end of the year. I will keep the faith and write 50 articles in 2013! On top of that, I hope to at least soft publish my book about beans and get it distributed to family members, maybe obtain the input from a few writer friends, and who knows where it will go from there? Next on the list is my novel/cookbook ...

Cheers to December and a great writing year in 2013!

Writing in the Kitchen

How I wish that every time I had an awesome thought that I had a fast computer to jot it down upon. If I did, I would be writing fervently throughout the day, blogging to beat all the reading odds with advertisers flocking to post on my site. But alas, I have two teenage daughters and a husband to serve. That means encouraging them to rise in the morning, making coffee, breakfast and lunches, and transporting them across three counties (really) to get to school and events each day (Kevin does have his own car). By the time I've gone to my part time job, done the grocery shopping, prepared meals, paid the bills, completed the laundry, cleaned the house, volunteered at schools and church, worked on another part time job; that leaves me little time to exercise, read and do pleasure writing.

My original thought when I sat down was to address that if I would spend all my creativity on writing instead of cooking and baking, I might have that first book written. I have at least three in the works now, each in their own stage of gestation. One, a children's book, is three quarters written but I haven't had the courage to finish it and put it out there. My second has reached the analytical stage with characters, timeline and a plot idea developed all on virtual paper - on a file on my slow computer. The third book is merely fertilized and still floating around in the gray space of my brain, and is one of my favorites because it has to do with baking and cooking. By the time I do have time to finish these projects I do hope that the actual book exists and it doesn't have to become a mere payment of $9.99 online to pop on a portable screen.I don't disdain the eBooks and audiobooks, I will just admit that I enjoy the feeling of a good book in my hands, turning the pages in anticipation of a superb finale.

Today I've accomplished a lot outside of writing. I have prepared two tasty treats outside of the usual breakfast and coffee. The first is a newbie but not really if you consider that I made almost the exact same one two weeks ago with another vegetable. The recipe is for a yellow-orange soup - Butternut squash the first time and sweet potato today. Creamy and delicious, it's exactly what I'm thinking about when I see fancy soups at the grocery. Why would I ever buy that if I can make it myself? Therein lies my problem. I like my cooking better than anybody else's.

The second edible item that I conjured up today was Christmas tree sugar cookies., another item I would never buy. A wonderful recipe from a composite children's pre-school cookbook is my latest favorite sugar cookie formula. You can't go wrong with 1 cup sugar, 1 cup buter, 3 cups flour, cream, an egg, vanilla and baking powder. I've been through probably about five different sugar cookie concoctions, and while I love them all, some are easier than others, and some I may not have particular ingredients such as cream or parchment paper.

This Friday was a wonderful day for me, wherein I got to cook, bake and write - all quite successfully, I might add.

Alee's Broccoli Casserole

"What I made when I didn't have all the ingredients for a broccoli casserole from three different cookbooks" is the official name of this recipe, but I didn't think it would be a very appealing title for readers. The recipe is below, and it was very easy and quite tasty!

1 head of broccoli, chopped into florets
2-3 T butter 1/4 cup onion, chopped
2 T flour 1 1/4 cup milk
1 1/4 cup grated cheese - divided
salt and pepper
1/3 cup chopped, salted almonds
2 pieces of bread and butter for it

Cook broccoli in microwave or on stove until bright green, and still fairly crisp. Meanwhile, spray Pam on 2 qt baking dish and toast two pieces of bread - a slow toast in the toaster oven works well. Butter the bread and put it back in the toaster/oven to dry out some more. When the broccoli is cooked, pour it into the dish.
Place almonds on top of the broccoli.

Melt butter on stove in a small saucepan on medium heat and when melted and hot, add the onion and saute for 5 min. Add the flour and stir for a couple minutes more. Slowly add the milk and stir for few more minutes until hot, add salt and pepper, stir, and then sprinkle in 1 cup of cheese. Stir until melted. Pour the sauce over the broccoli and nuts, add the cheese, then take the toast and break (or cut) it into small pieces and sprinkle over the top. Cook in the oven, uncovered, for 20 minutes at 325 degrees.

By the way, I entered this recipe while eating "what I made with navy beans when I didn't have the ingredients listed on the bean bag."

Tough to be a Writer

I just read an interesting, funny and engaging article about writing. The first instruction was that to be a writer, you must write every day. The writer has to "just say no" to the demons of folding the laundry, preparing and eating a snack, texting a friend, and the worst offender - perusing their Facebook page. "I need more time than 30 minutes," "I don't feel creative," "I don't remember what I want to write about," and my latest excuse, "I'm more of an editor than a writer," all crop up when I have that 30 minute time span available. Yes, I have promised here before to engage in the writing of my eventual book that will include drama, suspense, weird and wild (ok, interesting) characters, and recipes. The problem is that when I have my waves of creative energy flowing and I'm ready to start writing as soon as I open my back door and sit down at the computer, I may never even get there. Okay, excuses again. I walk through that back door and see the laundry that needs to be folded or remember that the wash needs to go in the dryer. Or, I make it to the kitchen table and see a bill in the mail and have to sit down and write a check. Or, I make it past the table to the kitchen sink and realize that I must clean up the dishes, which leads into deciding what to have for dinner, which leads to me looking in a cook book for recipes ... you can see where I'm headed. So, I might as well spit out what I was thinking of today on my walk that I wanted to enter. I've thought about entering some mystique to my book in answering the question of: What goes on inside each house? Answering that question is not the mystique though, it's the question it presents when you find out what's going on which is: Why? I suppose it's the wanna be psychologist in me. I have known many a wacky individual in my small post office address community, and I have a good enough imagination to add more details as needed. Let me know if you've been intrigued. I would have written this today, but of course as I was entering my driveway a client called and needed clarification of my email address. We took about a half hour of emailing and texting to try to resolve the problem (not happening). During that time Kevin called and then I returned his call and discussed our issues, then I had to get in the shower to go get the girls from school, get them home and go run another errand, to be back at the house to cook dinner. I just sat down half an hour ago. See why it's tough to be a writer?