A Couple Things. And a Couple More.

First and foremost:  I'm not dead.  Yet.  Hear loud celebratory noises.  Yes?  No? Okay.  It's good for me, if not for anyone else!  Perhaps God still thinks I have work to do.  (Read:  I still have time to repent and straighten up!)  That's a good thing!

We've been dealing with what lots of others have at this time of year:  Hot days (in the 80 degree range) followed shortly thereafter with cold days (as in it was 29 degrees this fine morning when I got out of bed.)  Hence and therefore, most of us in this household have struggled with varying degrees of misery due to  head colds/sinus infections/allergies/ear infections/bronchitis--any combination of which is so pleasant, if not downright debilitating.  I'll not plague (cough, cough) you with whom had what and when, because we've had what so many others have had and still have.  (Occasionally we seem like the walking dead but seem far more grouchy, you know.)  Thank Heaven, the FLU seems to have missed us.  That dreaded miserable stuff.  (Knock on wood.)  And somehow, I'm not grieved by that fact.  Imagine!

So, now on my second antibiotic (the first was no picnic and only seemed to "take the edge off", and this far more expensive one (I thought of explaining that this newest antibiotic is over a130 times more expensive than the last, but then I remembered a foundational rule about multiplication:  zero multiplied 130 times still equals zero.  Oh well!)  had better do the trick!  I have many things to do!!!  I have high hopes of having energy, well-being, etc. to proceed with the hundred tasks my list is growing to for this fine month of December.  I'm very hopeful, if nothing else, of getting the house CLEAN and decorated for the coming of Christmas--with all children and grandchildren in attendance!  Yes.  Little Baby Cakes will be here to bless us for her first ever Christmas celebration, and maybe a slightly early First Birthday celebration, as well!  Much to do.  Much to do.

Our recent Thanksgiving celebration was wonderful. It was not fancy, but all in attendance, including small grandchildren, contributed to either cooking dishes of goodies, preparing the dining table for eating and/or cleaning up after the celebration of feasting took place.  I was so exhausted after all that cooking (my portion), and eating  (Yes.  I did eat too much, thank you.) that I went to bed for a 2 hour nap, and left the cleaning up/storing left-over goodies to everyone else!  One of the more-or-less wanted (more less, I think) I think I've gained back the 5 pounds I lost from the recent surgery/hospital stay back in October.  Oh, darn it!  (To quote one of Little Britches' more favored expressions to express his displeasure.)  And I just bought a new pair of size 8 jeans! Darn it!  Again.

One day--whenever I get on top of everything else--(I'm full of faith that I will, one day, be on top of everything.  Well, okay.  When I'm to a point of deciding that everything else can be put on hold, once more. while I blog a little.)  I plan to post a recipe I made a couple of weeks ago:  Mexican Black Bean Soup.  I don't think I've included it here previously, but with the way my mind works . . . it could be a duplicate.  Hope you all have a great holiday month, and a great Christmas celebration at your house!