We ate (very) well

I hope everyone (who celebrates it) had a nice Christmas. We did.  We certainly ate too much, but don't a lot of people do so around the holidays?

Christmas Eve my husband played at our church's 2 Christmas Eve services, one at 3 p.m. and the second at 4:30 p.m.  We wanted something quick to put together for dinner that night so we threw this Wild Mushroom Stew in the crock pot that morning.  Easy to put together and so delicious!  We had bread with it (and of course wine).  Doesn't look real appetizing, but truly the taste was very good.  We had enough for leftovers on Sunday night and to freeze some for hubby's lunch meals.  

Christmas morning we made a Make Ahead Breakfast Casserole (though we didn't make it ahead like you could according to the recipe).  We also used ground turkey instead of pork sausage to reduce the sodium content in the recipe.  

(Just a note, any recipe that says to use salt, we omit it since we are eating no/low sodium and we try to find substitutes for other ingredients, like no salt tomato sauce, no salt beans if the recipe calls for them, etc.).

It wasn't too labor intense, but did take some time to assemble and bake.  It had to sit for 15 minutes when the casserole came out of the oven.  

Here is how it looks when it is cut.  It was really good.  We had it with small bagels and strawberry cream cheese.  

(By the way, that bag of M and M's you see on the table came from my hubby for a little sweets on Christmas Day.  They are almond M and M's.  Let's just say if you like M and M's and almonds and chocolate, don't buy a bag of them.....)

(The Penguin's name is Wally; just in case you are interested).

The breakfast casserole serves 10.  We gave some to son/wife (the kids won't eat it) and had enough for 2 more morning breakfasts.  

We made a rum cake for dessert for Christmas Night.  It is really good and moist but after eating a lot of M and M's, I didn't have any of the cake except a little nibble to see how it turned out.  (I'm usually not a big dessert eater....unless it is chocolate.....)  We gave half of the cake to son/wife (the kids won't eat it).

Christmas dinner was salmon, twice baked potatoes, and crab/shrimp stuffed portabella mushrooms.  No formal recipe used; just how hubby wanted to prepare the dishes.  And wine, of course.  (Usually my dessert is wine, unless there is chocolate in the house).  

(I don't keep chocolate in the house except around Christmas and maybe a few other times during the year, but not often....)

We were in the kitchen a lot cooking/baking on Christmas.  Poor Winslow.  He had to keep an eye on us so he didn't get his usual naps.  He was one tired pup! 

All in all, it was a fun holiday season.  Now we are off to 2022! 

May you all have a Very Happy New Year!

When you got to go, but you don't want to go

So, it rained on Christmas Eve.  Really rained.  Like pouring down rain for hours (literally).  We had huge puddles in the backyard.....

and a corgi that had to take care of business, if you get my drift.

A reluctant corgi.......

You want me to go out there??  I don't think so......

My husband coaxed him out on the lawn.  There, Winslow decided maybe he wanted to play ball, but......

He eventually took care of business.  (This was shortly afterwards, lol).  

The things we do for our pets! 

Cards

Hubby and me for the past several years haven't really exchanged gifts at Christmas (mainly because we pretty much get anything we want during the year and we don't really want too much extra clutter at this stage in our lives), but one thing we do is exchange cards.  Sometimes we'll buy candy or a little treat for each other and last year we each picked out a bottle of wine as a gift for the other.  The caveat was it had to be a wine we hadn't had before and we had to say why we chose that particular wine.  We drank one bottle for Christmas dinner and the other bottle for New Year's Eve dinner. 

But anyway, back to cards.  We've been together 42 Christmases and married for 41 Christmases and we have exchanged a card every year.  We don't keep the cards after the season.  We usually keep the cards to the next holiday or birthday.  So we'll keep Christmas cards now to Valentine's Day, get rid of them then, then Valentine's Day to Easter and so on.  

Tonight I stopped after work to get his card.  I waited a little too late in the season to have a big choice of cards, so there wasn't a lot of options to choose from.  However, I did find a nice one and purchased it, but in the back of my mind I'm thinking "I've given him this card before."  Of course I have no way of really knowing that for sure since we don't keep the cards and I doubt he'll remember.  Maybe I'll need to take a picture of the card in the future as a reference.  

Do you keep your cards you have exchanged?  Have you felt that you received or gave a card previously given?  

Merry Christmas from Winslow and me! May you all have a wonderful time however you are celebrating!!! 

They just make it too easy!

By they, I mean Amazon, especially Amazon Prime.  I know it is "eating alive" the mom and pop stores and it is making tons of money off all of us, but it is so incredibly easy to order off it and I have not (yet) gotten an order that was wrong.  And if I got something I wanted to return, returns are so very easy.  

I can listen to music, watch movies, shows, etc at work as long as of course I'm using head phones/ear buds, whatever.  Lately, I've been watching movies on Amazon Prime for free.  They aren't recent ones, some are their own movies made by Amazon, but they have been interesting for the most part and I've enjoyed all I have seen.  

I just found out that you can even get to read books  through Amazon Prime for free; some are recently released ones.  I downloaded a couple to read.  Haven't gotten into them yet, but will do so shortly.  I have been trying to read during my lunch break rather than scrolling through Facebook.  

By far the best thing about Amazon Prime is how convenient the shopping is.  A few weeks back at work they were doing a toy drive for the Salvation Army's Forgotten Angel (that's when someone takes a tag from an angel tree and doesn't bring back the tag/gift, so they have other toys there they can substitute so the child gets one).  My hubby and I usually do something for the "less fortunate" at Christmas and we hadn't thought of what to do this year before I saw the toy drive so we decided to participate in it.  They had suggested toys, breaking up kids into four age groups; baby to 2 years old, 3-5 years old, 6-8 years old, and 9-12 years old.  We decided to get a gift from each age group, so four toys.  We were going to go to Target or Wal-Mart to shop for them, but I said "let's look on Amazon."  Within 30 minutes, we had picked out four toys, ordered them, and because we spent over $35.00, we got same day delivery! We ordered them at 9 a.m. and by 4 p.m. that afternoon they arrived! I do know we have several distribution centers here in the Phoenix area.  It was funny because I got the notice that one of the packages had come (shipped in 2 different ones) right before my hubby was going to leave to go to play at church on the worship team for Saturday night service.  So he got that one for me.  After he left, Winslow and me went out to the backyard.  I sat down and started scrolling through my phone and saw that the other package had been delivered, like 2 minutes after the first one had come.  Amazing customer service I thought! 

You guys all know this about Amazon and Prime.  For me, it definitely has proven to be a worthwhile investment to get it.  Sure makes shopping easier, especially if one doesn't really care to shop (me).  

Are you an Amazon Prime user??? 

Catching up

Quick catchup post from things happening over these past 3 months.  

I'm still working the temp job processing/scanning termed employees records.  I've been there six months already and have taken on some new responsibilities relative to garnishments and processing some of the forms sent by the courts or social service agencies for parents required to provide medical insurance for their dependent children.  I enjoy the work, the commute is less than 20 minutes, the pay is good, and there may be potential to become a permanent employee, if not in that department, perhaps in another.  Several permanent employees have started out as temps, so who knows? 

Winslow is still as spunky and energetic as always.  He is mellowing just a bit as he will be 2 years old next month.  That is hard to imagine.  Updated pictures coming soon.

I got vaccinated.  I was late to the party of doing so and its a party I really didn't want to go to.  I am not an anti-vaxxer or a conspiracy theorist.  I wanted to be sure I knew what was going into my body, what the effects may or may not be, and the efficacy of it.  I reluctantly got it because it was mandated at my place of work.  If anyone was going to remain working in-house as opposed to remotely, they had to be vaccinated by a certain date.  I did a lot of thinking about it and praying about it and came to the conclusion that I wanted to remain employed there (for reasons above) and chances are if I went some place else to work, it could be mandated there as well to be vaccinated.  I wouldn't be considered for a booster shot anytime soon and the jury is still out whether I would get one or not. So far, the company has not required anything than the initial 1 Johnson and Johnson shot or the 2 shots from Pfizer or Moderna.  We lost a temp whose husband did not want her to get the vaccine and she had to quit her job the weekend before the mandate took effect.  I had to show proof of my vaccine to my supervisor to be eligible to keep entering the building. There is a huge sign on the door that says only vaccinated people may enter the building. We are still required to wear face masks while not sitting at our desks and walking around the building.  Ironically the temp who quit, her husband was required a month later to get the vaccine for his work and he got it.  She did find a job to do at home which worked out better for her with having still school age children.  My supervisor refuses to get the shot, but is able to work from home.  Because of it and because of them limiting the other permanent employees from coming into the office except for maybe once a week if they can work at home, that is why I have been given extra responsibilities there.  I'll take it as it helps me to learn more and be more marketable perhaps down the road and I've been working in office since May 2020, first at the unemployment office and now here, so working out and about does not bother me.  

Both son and DIL got Covid; son in September; DIL in October.  She didn't catch it from him (it was a good month after his case) and neither of the kids have gotten sick.  We saw both son and DIL a week before their respective outbreaks and we didn't get sick.  Son had a more "severe" case than DIL.  He had lots of chills and shakes, cough, congestion and body aches.  DIL had mainly body aches, cough, nose congestion.  Both temporarily lost the sense of taste and smell.  Both made complete recoveries and did the mandatory quarantining they had to do for their employers.  Several people where son worked got sick about the same time; they are not sure how they contacted the virus.  DIL thinks she got it from going out with friends at a loud, noisy bar with lots of young people.  

End of August, hubby went in for a routine checkup at the doctor's and found out that his blood pressure was literally through the roof.  First reading was close to 225/number he can't remember; 2nd reading was 198/100.  Why they didn't hospitalize him, I don't know (or at least send him to the emergency room).  Those were stroke numbers! In August our hospitals were not overwhelmed with Covid cases so I don't think that was the reason they didn't send him to the hospital. They recommended weight loss, a low salt diet (the DASH diet), and for him to monitor his blood pressure for 2 weeks and then let them know the numbers. I was livid at them for their almost cavalier approach to a really seriously high blood pressure.  But, we reduced sodium significantly in our diet almost down to less than 500 mg of sodium a day (recommended under 2300 mg daily).  His downfall was he liked Campbell soups for lunch (VERY HIGH SODIUM) and our downfall together was Lean Cuisine TV dinners (high sodium).  All those were cut out.  We basically reinvented what we ate.  The good result.  His blood pressure within a week went down to very acceptable numbers; even lower than average numbers.  The benefits.  I've lost 18 pounds so far; he's lost 25 pounds.  I'll gain a few pounds back over Christmas as I know I'll indulge a bit but we'll get back on track in January which is our reset month.  We have loosened a bit of how much sodium we will eat occasionally.  For instance, we went to San Diego over Thanksgiving and ate out for all the meals, not really choosing carefully the most healthiest item on the menu.  But upon our return, when checking his blood pressure, it was still in the normal range.  He just knows he can't go back to the high sodium foods eaten in the past on a consistent regular basis.  

I think that catches me up on all the major things that happened here in the Valley of the Sun over the past 3 months.    

A new year (almost) and a new blog (almost)

Within a few short weeks it will be 2022.  It is hard to believe it has been 22 years since Y2K.  Everyone alive remembers the hype about that.  For me, 2021 went by incredibly fast.  Probably one of the fastest years of my life.

I'm going to be blogging here on this blog from now on.  I have had this blog since 2012/2013.  It was originally called "A Bench's Notebook" and if anyone goes back and reads old entries, I wrote mainly about my faith, Jesus, God, scripture.  There were big gaps of time where I didn't write here, then other times where I wrote almost daily.  

A few months ago I changed the title to "Walking Humbly with My God" based on a favorite scripture of mine.  Micah 6:8 (NLT)  "No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God."  That's how I want to live, but I'll admit, I'm a work in progress and I often struggle with doing what is right, loving mercy, and walking humbly with my Lord.  But, again, I'm a work in progress who will not be completed until I take my last breath here on this earth and my first breath in eternity and with Jesus! (What a day that will be!) I was pretty content with keeping the title "Walking Humbly with My God" but I was praying about returning to blogging lately and out of the blue I thought "Walking Humbly with My Dog." I wondered if it would be sacrilegious and asked hubby about it but he did say God seems to have a sense of humor, which He has proved to me so much over the years, and certainly with the current pup we have with Winslow.  So I think I'll keep the title "Walking Humbly with My Dog" as I try to truly walk humbly with my Lord :) And that way perhaps I can include a few (maybe more than a few) pictures of that pup of ours.   

I became burnout with blogging over the past year and a half since this whole Covid mess, then the contentious election, then the vaccine, the mandates, the masks, the this, the that, the mess our country is in and so much more.  I had to walk away from social media when I did so back in September.  Not only did I walk away from blogging but I deactivated my Facebook account for about 6 weeks.  I spent the time I used to spend blogging and scrolling Facebook reading my Bible and really taking time to study it as well as spending more time in prayer.  It was good for me to do so.  

But lately I've struggled with wanting to come back to blogging or not.  I've thought about it over the past month and wrote several posts about returning but didn't feel right yet doing so.  However, I'm just going to jump in and try this again and hopefully not get burnt out.  This time around I'm going to take a different approach from my recent previous blogging and write what I want to write, hopefully in a kind respectful way, regardless if it is not the popular opinion and regardless if people agree with me or not agree with me.  I'm going to write about my faith, scripture, politics, whatever I want to write about, whenever I want to write.  I'm also thinking of introducing new features down the road, but will do so gradually over the next few months.  

I'll be doing a catch up post within a few days with what has been happening here over the past 3 months.  Nothing earth shattering.  

One thing I know, God has been faithful during this time, as he is always faithful.  I have said it before and I know I will say it much more in the future.  He has never let me down and He never will let me down. 

I'm going to share my walk of faith here for anyone who happens to stumble upon this journal and these words of mine.  

Hopefully, I will be able to write my opinions in a respectful way, humbly and with love.  And perhaps also while walking humbly with a rambunctious corgi (hoping I don't trip in the process).