A Spot of T

Older and Mostly Wiser

I had lunch yesterday with someone I don't see too often.  And the reason I've distanced myself from this person is, well for one thing I find her quite rude, but for another she's one of these people who always....well here's an example......

P:  So you must have a lot of free time on your hands now, what with your kids being older.

Me:  I sure do.  Kelsey is out on her own, Michael is graduating in May and next year Samantha graduates.  Michael and Samantha will most likely move into the City as well so I will have even more time on my hands.

P:  Isn't that great, some of us don't have that luxury.  I sure wish "I" had time like that to do all the things you do now.  But "I" can't because "I" have kids to run all over the place.  So.  I know you like to go antique shopping, have you been able to get out anywhere.  Find any good deals?

Me:  Why yes I have been out antique shopping.  I went the other day as a matter of fact.  I haven't gone in awhile but I just took the day and went to a couple of my favorite shops and then went for lunch.  It was nice.

P:  Well isn't that nice.  "I" can't do things like that because "I" have too many other things to do with my time.  "I" have kids to raise and run with so "I" just don't have time.  I hope one day "I" can have the freedom of doing absolutely nothing if I want to.

If I could have recorded the conversation you would have heard the sarcastic ignorant tone in this woman's voice.  She is one year older then me, has three children like myself, but her oldest child is one year younger then my youngest child...who is turning 17 here right away.  Yep.  P has a few years to go yet.  She continually asked questions then continually got snippy.  "I like the color of your hair Joy, where do you go?"  "Oh I go to a place in St. Albert." and she would say "It's so hard to get into a hair dresser anymore.  I suppose you go anytime you want, now that you have all this free time on your hands."

At one point she wished her children were older, wished she had had her kids younger and the conversation continued like that with more "Must be nice" thrown in.  It got to the point where I just didn't know what to say anymore.  Uh sorry you decided to have kids a bit later then I did.  Sorry I've already gone through the stage your children are at.  Sorry I've been there and done that.  Sorry....ya.  Won't happen.  I finally just smiled and cut the lunch short.  To think there was a time I would have sat and endured such crap.

Man oh man oh man.

When I first decided to stay at home to raise these three kids, the comments were endless when people asked what I did for a living.  Things like "Wow, it must be nice to be able to stay at home....and have the freedom of doing absolutely nothing all day."  'Freedom of doing absolutely nothing all day' AAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA.  Three children under the age of three, 3 acres and a home, no husband in sight for weeks on end then home for only two days, and do this for 20 years.  'Freedom of doing absolutely nothing all day'????  People are so stupid.

Now my children are older and I get the "Must be nice.  "I" can't do that because "I" have to run with kids.  Maybe one day "I" can do that too.  But right now "I" can't."  Which is no problem if it's meant to be nice and the person truly realizes one day they too will have a bit of the freedom I'm experiencing right now.  But when it's said to be mean?  I smile and ignore.

The good thing about me is even though I'm writing it on here, hey it was either this or the mailbag, I do let it run off my back.  People who say things like that are....well they just are.  Certainly not worth my time.  There was a time in my life when I'd defend myself to the hilt on being a sahm and list off all the things I did in a day to try and let the world know how 'busy' I was.  Then I'd try and explain how freaking hard it was doing it all on my own.  Nowadays?  Ah yes, nowadays and for a few years now.  It's all good.  To be older and wiser and so much more secure with myself.  I don't defend myself to anyone anymore.

I am truly TRULY enjoying this time in my life and I don't plan on missing any of it.  I also look forward to what's ahead with my husband.  Should he ever decide to stop being a workaholic.

I went to an antique store the other day.  I had lunch.  I had a nice drive in the country another day.  Today I'm going for breakfast with some ladies.  Next week?  Well next week I might just sit and pick my toes all week.  In my pajama's.  With a purple hat on.

Six Non-Important Things/Habits/Quirks

She from The Screaming Pages tagged me for this Meme: Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.

Now again, I was going to stop doing meme's but decided instead to only do them once in a blue moon.  It hasn't been a blue moon since I was tagged for the last meme I did, but since I like She more then I like Blowpop suckers, I'm going to do this fairly painless meme......

1. I have to have something on my feet at all times.  NO bare feet for me.  And when I see other people in bare feet?  I get the ibby jibbies.  I'm a real riot at a swimming pool.
2. I have one tattoo.....a bee.  I'll be getting another tattoo....a bee....very soon.
3. I start out looking people in the eye when I'm talking to them, but find I tend to look away after awhile.  I'll catch people turning their head to see what I'm looking at but I'm not looking at anything, I'm just looking away while I'm talking.  I know this probably looks rude, and is, but it's a horrible habit I've gotten into.
4. I pay cash for just about everything.  But I'm finding it harder and harder to pay cash for things.  Retailers seem to want debit cards or credit cards any more.  And "I" like to pay with cash.  I have left a lot of items in stores because of this.  You don't want my paper money?  Then you can stick it in your ear.
5. I give myself facials weekly.  I never ever go to bed with make-up on.  I brush my hair for a good five minutes before I go to bed.  I moisturize moisturize moisturize.....and moisturize.  I shave my legs and hairy armpits not only in the summer, but also throughout the winter.  The first time I heard some women don't bother shaving in the winter, I sat there with my mouth open.  I'm not saying it's good or bad.  I could care less what anyone else does.  But it's funny how we just assume our 'regime' is the same for everyone.  Never assume.
6. A really unimportant thing is....I have an unusual fetish with men's hands.  Not office hands.  Not that there's anything wrong with you office boys now.  We love all men here at A Spot of T.  But hard working not scared to get dirty slightly rough hands?  Love it.  When people ask me what's the first thing I noticed about my husband.  I say his hands.  He's got huge hands.  The biggest strongest working man hands I've ever seen and I just love them.  And it's the first thing I notice on men.  Their hands.  I know.  Freakazoid.

Well that wasn't to painful.  For me.  You I must apologize to.

Mystery Solved

Mushu is in time out.

You may have heard Mushu whine on here before about not getting enough to eat.  Like his human mom, he has weight issues right now.  Unlike his human mom, he has someone...me...who keeps an eye on him and controls what he's eating at all times.  He dropped 5 pounds and was looking quite svelte for a pup of 8 years.  He has since gained some back.  But he's always starving.  Just ask him.  Add in that he has allergies....which I'll write about another time....and limited to what he can eat and...he's starving.  Just ask him.

I was going to make a fun little video with me talking in the background all not professional-like about Mushu's favorite treat I give him.  The same treats I found out are not allowed in Australia.  Or maybe they are but definitely should be kept in the sealed original package when sent.  Otherwise the border patrol (or whatever you call them) thinks you sent something illegal and will confiscate them.  Or something.  Uh.  Anyway.  Instead I present a really shaky video with my voice barely audible in the background, and if you do manage to hear my voice I want to remind you this sounds nothing like me because I was shocked at what Mushu had brought in from outside.  And?  I've been playing with the Flip lately and noticed something.  Why does my voice get higher when I talk to the dog?  Surely I don't talk baby talk to my dog.  *gasp!*

Anyway.  This Flip video does solve the mystery of why Mushu wanted outside 14 million times yesterday.  I have no idea where his new found steakbone came from and I have no way of knowing how much he ate before appearing back in the house with this in tow.

I do however, fear Mushu is trudging his way through the deep snow, then through all the trees that border our property and the neighbour's property......sneaking up to the neighbour's house....and stealing the neighbour dog's dinner.

Thief.

Butthead.

Living Under a Rock

Things I've learned while crawling out from under my rock.....

1. Jennifer Lopez is pregnant.  Correction.  Was pregnant.  Apparently she gave birth to twins, a girl and a boy, in the last few days.
2. Britney Spears is in the looney bin.  When I last paid any attention to Britney Spears she was doing just fine.  Ok ok.  Much finer then she's doing now.

And that's about it.  Well that's all I overheard from the two women in front of me before it was my turn to get my coffee in my favorite coffee shop the other day.  Heaven knows what else I'm missing on out there.  Good thing I could care less when it comes to celebrities although it was funny listening to the very passionate celebrity fans in front of me.

It's been a great few days off from blogging.  I?  Didn't get a darn thing done I wanted to.  Lucky for me I don't dwell on such things and hopefully I can get to this long list of things to do during the week.  The chaos has snowballed and is now out of control.  Do you know I still have some Christmas decorations sitting out?  Not a lot.  But some.  In my world that just doesn't happen so I'm not sure what's going on here.  Luckily (if that's a word) I know a lot of other people going through the same thing.  I blame it on the weather.  Or the planets not aligning just right.  Or the month of February.  Yes I know I said the same thing about January.  Something tells me I will be saying it about March too.

I've got a pile of emails to get through and comments to finish reading so I hope to get through those today.  Yes even the comments from the pervy but harmless funny people.  You know who you are.  And also to keep getting caught up on blog reading.  I tell you.  This blogging could be a full time job.  It isn't.  Which is why I'm so far behind.  But it could be.

Fun Monday #29

This weeks Fun Monday is being hosted by Mariposa's Tales and here is her assignment.....

1. Please share to us how the NAME of your BLOG was made?  I can't wait to hear interesting funny stories!
2. Please share to us (in words or photo, though a combination of both will be a bonus!) your favorite/ most common dish!

How my blog was named?  Nothing interesting and certainly not funny.  But it was totally by accident.  I mean I wanted to call it A Spot of T....but it was supposed to read 'Tea' not 'T'.  I believe it was on msn (I think, I can't remember) where I first started a little journal type blog thing and when it asked me what I wanted my name to be, quick finger Mcgraw here quickly typed in 'A Spot of T'....but before I could finish putting the 'ea' in Tea....I pushed the send button and there it was.  It had given strict instructions to make sure the name you wanted was correct before pushing the button because any mistakes could not be undone.  Ya.  So I couldn't erase it, I couldn't change it.  There it was.  A Spot of T.  Not A Spot of Tea how I had originally wanted it.

At first I thought "Aww jeez Joy, what a goof."  But then I looked at it and it just made sense.  Kill two birds with one stone sort of thing.  See, my last name begins with the letter T.  Add in that I drink tea on a daily basis and absolutely almost love every kind of tea out there.....well it just fit.  So when I started what I call a real blog, I kept the name because I liked it a lot.

#1 was easy.  #2 I thought was going to be just as easy but then I got confused.  Oh be quiet, it happens.  Now I knew, unlike some smart alecs out there, Mariposa didn't want to see our favorite dishes/china, but do we pick the favorite dish we ourselves cook, or just our favorite food?  I mean as a mom, I cook all the time.  All.  The.  Time.  And my kids love my cooking.  But when it comes to me?  I love going to a nice restaurant or just getting out someplace other then here once in awhile.  Probably because I cook...all....the....time...at home here so it's a huge exciting thing in my life when someone else cooks for me.  So I decided to go with something that my family probably doesn't even know I really like but I could eat all the time.....

Fish and Chips.  Really good crispy well made fish and chips.  What's amazing is I'm not a big seafood lover.  I like crab, don't mind lobster, but that's about it.  But when it comes to fish and chips?  I love them and can't get enough of them.  I know I probably don't eat them like most humans do because there's none of that tartar crap sauce for me.  Nope.  Give me lots of lemon to squeeze over my chips, lots of vinegar to put over both fish and chips, some ketchup to dip my vinegar laden chips in and...well....it's just a little bit of heaven right there on earth.

Crazy Busy and a Short Blogging Break

It's been crazy busy and I have so much to get caught up on it's not even funny.  I'm getting the house back in order slowly but surely, but my office looks horrible.  Which means?  It means I can't even work in here when it's like this.  I feel claustrophobic and icky.  Yes icky is a word.  Too much stuff piled high, things out of order and Joy turns into an extremely cranky human being.  I need order.  There's nothing I hate worse then taking 15 minutes to try and find something, or worse, not being able to find it at all.  Neat and orderly is the key for me.  Oh be quiet.  It's a sickness I have.

I did find time to roast some garlic yesterday and mmmmm-boy is it good!  There is nothing finer in this world then roasted garlic.  For a quick lunch I made some pasta, opened up a can of Aylmer Accents Petite Cut Tomatoes with Garlic and Olive Oil and then tossed in some...ok a lot...of this roasted garlic.  I eat tomatoes like most people eat apples so that pasta?  Was a little slice of heaven in my books.  Normally I'd make it from scratch but I'm telling you, for a quick meal Aylmer's canned tomatoes is the closest thing I've found to that fresh tomato taste.  Excellent product.

I found time to take one picture in the lightbox I made last week.  Whahoo.  This is a necklace my oldest daughter bought for me and I'm still trying to find just the right shirt to wear with it.  But now that I've played with the lightbox?  I want to play more.  Oh man do I want to play more.  And because I'm me?  For some silly reason I get the urge to stick my head in the lightbox and snap away with the camera every time I go by it.  I haven't.  And won't.  But how weird is that?  Ok I can't believe I just admitted that on here.

And for those who have emailed and asked, here it is.  I mentioned last week I'd show a picture of what Gregg asked for for his birthday.  What do you get a man who has everything?

Why you get him Lego of course.  We bought him other things as well, but he mentioned Lego at one point and I thought he was joking.  So the kids bought him a couple huge things to build, this Cherry Picker...thing....and also a huge truck...thing......and he loved them.  What can I say.  The man loves to build things.  As does our son.  I have Lego's put away in the basement from when Michael was smaller.  The kid just loved his Lego's.  They'll be passed down to his kids one day should he ever decide to have any kids.  So Lego's for Gregg.  Who would have thought.

I'm taking a break to get caught up on some things so I can come out and play more.  The entire weekend should do it.  You behave out there til I get back now.  I'm hoping to continue getting caught up on reading blogs too, so for pete's sake write something juicy will you.

A Haircut is Needed

Mom says if she doesn't get me into the groomers soon.......

....I'm going to morph into a whole other breed of dog.

This and That Tuesday

Phew!  The long weekend is over and it's back to normal around the T home.  Today?  It looks like a bomb went off in my house.  Which is a sure sign, in my books anyway, that a most excellent weekend was had by all.  But now I may need two days to recover.

I've received emails from people asking me if 'the cold took hold and that's why you're not posting'.  No.  I'm busy, not sick.  When I wrote the post on Thursday I knew I was catching the beginning of the flu.  Cold, chills, fever, the works.  But I've been using Oscillococcinum for years now and I'm here to tell you this stuff works.  So much so that I started taking it on thursday and by early friday I no longer felt like a truck had hit me.  Homoeopathic is the way to go people.  Well that and an incredibly good vitamin regime.

I have also been asked if I did indeed make the lightbox I mentioned in my Sunday Blueberry Cobbler post.  Why yes I did and here it is.....

Unfortunately, like my new toy the Flip, I haven't had two seconds to actually play with the lightbox yet.  But I'm hoping after tomorrow I can start playing with both of my new toys.  There's nothing worse then getting new toys to play with and no time to play with them.  Darn it anyway.

The lightbox was incredibly easy to put together and a big thank you goes to Lisa from Lisa's Chaos for including the link to the site who has the original directions on how to make this lightbox.  It was actually a lot of fun to put together.  Now I just need a place to store it when I'm not using it.  It isn't small.

And that's about it for now.  Now that I'm home I'm spending the rest of the day getting caught up on laundry.  No really.  Some people might think I'm going to get caught up on all the blogs I haven't been able to read for three days now, but that's not the case at all.  No way.  It's laundry all the way for me.  Uh huh.

Blueberry Cobbler

I didn't take the usual picture of the ingredients first.  You know.  Because I got sidetracked playing with the dog, then doing laundry, then picking at my ingrown toenail, then building a light box, then scrubbing my hands clean before I touched any food, and just plain forgot.  But here is the finished product.....

Blueberry Cobbler

**original recipe is called Blackberry Cobbler and it is from The Pioneer Women

Ingredients:

6 cups fresh (organic) or frozen blueberries

1/2 cup plus 5 tablespoons granulated sugar

Freshly squeezed juice from whole lemon

2 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 cup softened salted butter

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Combine blueberries, 1/2 cup sugar and lemon juice in a mixing bowl.  Stir to combine and set aside.

In a separate bowl pour flour, salt, baking powder and 1 tablespoon sugar.  Add butter and work mixture together with a pastry blender (I used my fingers) until the mixture is coarse.

Measure 1/2 cup milk, add an egg and mix together.  Pour into flour mixture, stirring as you go.  Mixture should be smooth and not dry, but not overly sticky.

Take clumps of dough and place them on top of the blueberries.  Lightly flatten dough with your fingertips.  Sprinkle with 4 to 5 tablespoons of sugar and bake until golden brown for 30 minutes.

Berry juice will be slightly thin, but don't be afraid.  It will gradually soak into the biscuity topping.

Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Joy's Notes:

I was at a loss as to how to write this recipe out.  I changed a few things from the original recipe yet I don't want to take credit for the recipe because it's not 'originally' mine.  I'm giving credit where credit is due in this post but I really hope I'm not stepping on any toes by changing the ingredients a bit and then posting it as a different recipe name.  Oiy.  If anyone knows proper recipe etiquette, I'm sure asking for your help here.

• I used the juice from a whole lemon by mistake because I didn't read the directions properly the first time where it only called for 1 tablespoon.  But I love my mistake.
• I don't own a pastry blender so I just used two knives in the flour to cut-in the butter until it was well mixed and then I used my fingers until the dough was coarse.
• Small clumps of dough about the size of a quarter and plop down on the berries until all the berries are covered.

• I should have taken the cobbler out of the oven sooner because 'I feel' the crust is too dark.  But in my defence I got side-tracked making a lightbox and was at a critical point and ignored the beeping of the oven.  Never ignore the beeping of the oven.  The entire cobbler was gone by the next day so even a crust that is a bit too dark didn't stop us from enjoying this spectacular dessert.
• Ice cream is a must.  I can also see using whipped cream, but ice cream would be my number one choice.
• The T teens gave this Blueberry Cobbler two thumbs up.  This from the two kids who swore they were not going to like it because it had...gasp...blueberries in it.

Once In A Blue Moon Meme

SJ from And All The Jones Men tagged me for this meme last week.  I haven't done a meme in a long time and swore I wasn't going to do any more.  But I like SJ even more then I like red popsicles so I decided if she was nice enough to tag me, then by george I was going to do this meme.  So here we go.....

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN BLOGGING?

I'm coming up to two years soon.  According to my side bar 'archives' I started in July of 2006.  I'm not sure of the exact date and I don't want to go back and even glimpse at that first post because I'm pretty sure I remind myself of a complete and utter dork.  And if this is a particularly good day for my memory, I think I even tried to end off each post with something like "And that's the buzz on this blog today".  I'm dead serious.  Just call me dork.  Spazz.  Or something equally embarrassing.  No offence to all the dorks and spazzes of the world.  We here at A Spot of T love all people.  Even dorks and spazzes.

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO START A BLOG & WHO ARE YOUR MENTORS?

I don't have any mentors.  And tonight when I'm typing this out?  I can't remember what inspired me to start blogging.  Boredom most likely.  But I'm dead serious, I have memory issues and it's just not coming to me right now.  Ask me tomorrow and I might be able to tell you.  I do know I answered this before though and I knew at that time.  Feel free to scan through all 637 posts if you really want to know.

I do remember my first commenters though and Debbie was one of my first and faithful blogger commenters.  To think it was way back in 2006.  What a lady.  Just as sweet and kind today as she was back then and I'm so glad I've had the privilege of having coffee with her a few times now.  Next was commenter Happy and Blue2.  Happy and Blue2 I remember because I learned a ton about blogging from him.  A ton!  Plus he was so funny.  Sadly he has since quit blogging.  Or if he's started up again I don't know about it.  Then came commenter Sirdar.  Sirdar and Debbie are friends in real life so I'm pretty sure that's how Sirdar found me....through my comments to Debbie's blog.  Sirdar is the one who came up with the name BA 'Blogger's Anonymous', or something like that, in a comment when I was talking about getting addicted to blogging and I should go to a meeting.  I have since met Sirdar's wife Dawn who started blogging not too long ago, I've met Debbie and I've met Emma.  The four of us have gotten together a few times now for coffee and unfortunately Sirdar is no where to be found at the club he formed.  Ok I'm going to say he formed it because he did show interest in him, Debbie and I getting together way back when.  So you know.  Now would be as good a time as ever to thank him for starting the awesome Blogger's Anonymous club.  Even though he's never been to one meeting.  We sure do have fun.

ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE MONEY ON-LINE OR JUST DOING IT FOR FUN?

I couldn't make money from my blog if I tried.  Wait.  Maybe I could sell Mushu and I'd make a quick nickel.  Ok nevermind.  I don't ever want to try making money from my blog so it works out swell.  Strictly for fun in my world.

WHAT THREE (3) THINGS DO YOU LOVE ABOUT BEING ONLINE?

I really like to write my posts.  I can't express how much I love to write my posts.  For someone with memory issues like I have, it helps tremendously to keep the mind sharp.  Oh be quiet you.  Tomorrow it will be sharp again.  And if not tomorrow probably the next day.

I also love being online because I'm at the beginning stages of being an empty nester.  I have one child who has moved out now and two more who will no doubt be moving out on their own in the next year or two.  My husband works out of town for weeks on end and I'm left wandering this house all by myself.  I can only clean so much and where I can get outside and fill my days with yard work in the summer, this winter has been pretty hard.  Future winters no doubt harder.  I am a person who has to be doing something at all times.  Blogging has given me a lot of opportunity to see what's out there in the world and to see where I want to go from here.  Will I return to the workforce, will I start a home business, will I just finally relax and take some time for me.  I can research and blog and see what's new in the world from the comfort of my own home.  And until I figure out what the next stage of my life will entail, I will continue to blog and research.  Was that three?  No?  Tough.

WHAT THREE THINGS DO YOU STRUGGLE WITH ON-LINE?

I'm only going to name one.  My biggest struggle??  My yakky long posts.  I am all too aware my posts are much much too long.  I know this, I try and make them shorter, but it's never happened yet.  Like I've said before, it's because I really feel with every fibre of my being that if I'm writing a post on...umm...say how to type a post...you absolutely without a doubt first need to know how I learned how to type.  At the age of 13.  Then and only then can I continue to tell you how to type a post.

So I know this about myself and I know people read a lot of blogs in a day and they look at my posts and groan and most likely click away in fear or just plain frustration.  And I'm aware of it.  I.  KNOW.  I just can't seem to stop it.  What can I say, I have more then just memory issues.