My Resolutions and Accomplishments

Thanksgiving has come and gone.  I had a wonderful 4 days with my kids.  It was so good to have the boys home from school for a few days!  (Even if they did spend the entire time working on final projects, it was wonderful to have them all over the house, with their books and computers spread everywhere!  Their semester ends a week from tomorrow.)

I worked that turkey all weekend.  We never had to go back out for food, and that turkey provided us with multiple meals:

1) Sandwiches.

2) Pulled turkey BBQ sandwiches.  I tore up some of the turkey leftovers, and smothered them in this amazing BBQ sauce that I made with the recipe I found here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/blackberry-bbq-sauce/.

3) Turkey Soup.  After Thanksgiving Dinner was finished, we pulled the rest of the meat off of the carcass.  We then took the carcass, as well as whatever meat we might have missed, and put it into the slow cooker.  We filled the pot with water, and let it cook for about 12 hours on low.  The next morning, I strained the broth out, removing the bones and assorted other stuff and put it into a large pot on the stove.  I added leftover mashed potatoes, leftover carrots, corn, and green beans.  I then cut up and added a potato, onion, and some celery and let it all stew for an hour more. When it was time to serve, I pulled out the wild rice and minced some leftover turkey.  The idea was to put the wild rice and turkey into the bowl, and then cover all with the hot soup.  (An idea I borrowed from the Vietnamese Pho. If you've never tried it, you should.  It is amazing.)

4) Turkey Wreath.  It's an old Pampered Chef recipe.  It requires the use of crescent rolls.  I can't eat it because of the gluten, but I pulled some of the turkey salad out and made my a very tasty panini on gluten free bread.  You can find the recipe here: http://tinyurl.com/mcvvwmg

5) Turkey A La King. The recipe is here: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/turkey-a-la-king-with-rice.  You can serve this over toast, rice, or noodles. 

I've got a very little bit of turkey left today.  I'm debating whether to make it into a casserole or a Chef Salad.  I only have enough to make one, not both.

With the exception of my spectacular pecan pie, Thanksgiving was a wonderful success!

Blackened Pecan Pie! Look at that black crust!

 

 

 

Back in January, I set a list of Resolutions I wanted to keep this year.  I've been checking back on them once a month, just to see how I'm doing.  Since it's the first of the month, here we go!

1) 365 Grateful.  Check out my Blog Post from yesterday: http://mini-van-mom.blogspot.com/2014/11/an-attitude-of-gratitude.html.

 2) Lose 10 pounds.  I've lost a total of 22 pounds.  I had hoped to lose 3 more in order to make it an even 25 pounds, but that just isn't going to happen.  Instead of stressing out about losing the next 3 pounds, I am going to sit back, enjoy the holidays, and strive to maintain the 22 pounds I have lost, so that I'm not going back and re-losing this weight again in January.

 3) Run/Walk. I'm walking long distances on weekends with my hubby.  In addition to parking on the far side of the lot from my office building, I am taking a complete turn around the lot before going in and after I finish for the day.  I'm not sure how many steps I'm adding, but that does add 5 minutes of walking both before and after my shift is finished.  (Even when it's raining/snowing, I'm still walking around the lot.)

4) Get out of debt.  Working on it.

5) Finish Cleaning Out the Basement.  BWah-Ha-Ha.  I should just bring a dumpster in and dump it all.  I sent a van load full of stuff to the White Elephant sale at the church, another to Goodwill, and still another to the dump.  I also burned out the motor on my shredder.  I'm going to have to get a new shredder so I can keep going!

6) Finish Oldest Child's Quilt.  The top is finished.  I added a border to it in order to make it long enough to fit him - all 6 feet some inches of him.  I pieced out the back, and purchased the batting to go inside.  I am going to have to find a big space of floor somewhere to pin it all together soon.  I still don't think I'm going to finish this before Christmas. It would take a miracle.

7) Spend More Time With My Family.  This month, I have spent time, a lot of time, with my kids, and I have loved every minute of it!

8) Finish the Book I Keep Saying I'm Going to Write.  Done!  I have it uploaded to Lulu, and I'm waiting for my copy to arrive - so I can make certain that the formatting is right and that I didn't miss anything in the way of spelling and grammar before I let it go public.  My goal is to release it no later than Dec. 15.

9) Finish The Hallway Bathroom.  Okay, this is a post for another day.  I've found the money suckers.  I'm beginning to save money.  It makes me wonder what's going to break next?

10) Get Back into my Music.  Have done.  The Christmas Cantata is two weeks from tomorrow.  I'll be singing Alto, but NO SOLOS!  (Ha... I sing solo no one can hear me! hahaha!   Alto joke...)

Lots and lots of progress is being made.  We have one credit card that should be completely paid off this month. More money to add to the "finish the yellow bathroom in the hallway" fund!