PSST! Rantings, Musings, & "Not Your Mama's" Platitudes

 Hard to believe tomorrow is January. Today I took Rylee to Mom and Dad's around 10:30, saw Emery and Jack. Jack said, "Aunt Lindsey!" and ran into my arms! It was the best. I cleaned the cat boxes and did the dishes. Baked bread. Watched Full House reruns. Made turkey meatballs and pinto beans. I boiled the dried pinto beans for 5 minutes and let soak for 1 hour, then cooked on high in the Instant Pot for 30 minutes. I added a diced onion, pepper, salt, Adobo. Delicious. The bread was 3 cups of all-purpose flour, 1 cup of oats, 1 packet of quick-acting yeast, 3 tablespoons of honey, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, salt, and 1 & 1/4 cups of lukewarm water. I mixed together and emptied onto a greased countertop. Kneaded for 7 minutes and placed back into greased bowl to let rise for 1 hour. Then I shaped the dough as follows: 'Flatten the dough into a 6" x 8" rectangle. Fold the top down to the center (like you were folding a letter), pressing it firmly with ...

 2023 has been a year of transformation. Slow, brutal, agonizing transformation. I started the year off by working two jobs, both of which were new to me and required much adaptation. The central a/c went out and I needed two new capacitors, one which was complete trash and the other which was almost-complete trash. I replaced one of them due to the cost. The heat went out this winter which required a brand new motor and capacitor. The dryer went out twice this year. My mental health has been up and down, along with my daughter's. But this is also the first full year in my new-to-me almost-100-year-old home. I have a purple front door and had hundreds of lights strung on my front porch at Christmastime. I joined Facebook and quit 2 weeks later. Realized a month later that is one of several triggers for my poor mental health. Social media has the capability of completely ruining any personal successes that I could possibly acquire. I will stick with IG, which I have an hour limit on...