Kickin' It Keto Style

  I sit here eagerly  awaiting the snows first arrival of W inter  2022-2023 kick off while I take small sips of my mock Starbucks coffee. It is cookie dough flavored today. Straight up black coffee with Toll House creamer and a small swirl of keto whipping  cream that was left over from an uneaten 4 slices of pumpkin pie. The drink tastes nothing like the "real" stuff but who am I to complain really? I am just happy to have some calm before I start a night shift.      Yesterday teased me into a frenzy . I spent most of the evening looking towards the blackened sky hoping for ... well, you get it. If we don't dream- dreams can't come true. I am still finding my gaze is  upwards  towards the quick forming clouds. It is 38* right now so anything that falls to Earth around here will  only be water in its drippy-est form. As I burn my tongue and the back of my throat while taking another sip of my almost to sweet happiness- I tell myself: ma...

                                           10:30 am on Turkey Day! I had a revaluation. If that is even the proper term to say in this spot? I will do little writes of all day festivities  - when I get a moment to steal away. Much easier then a full on secession at night - cramming .      Que the Christmas music. For once - okay twice in The Woods lifetime together, our bird is in the oven.  Get this. In.The.Oven.  Now anyone who know us knows this isn't a thing at our place. Most, okay ALL Thanksgivings start with a mad rush at 10pm the night before to get a frozen turkey - get it home, try to figure out how to thaw a 25 pounder before morning when it needs to be stuffed and shuck in the oven. Midnight is about the time we sit down. For us it is just a thing.       This year though the time has evolved somewhat. Just finish...

                                          " Never get to busy making a living that you forget to make a life." What a wonderful motto to live by yet sadly, one that I can not say that I follow at this point in my life.      When the pandemic "hit - " I stopped working. I fell into the "lazy" middle class of not wanting to do anything. I was at edge the first few months but then I quickly slipped into the routine of just ... doing nothing and to be honest, it was a great feeling. I didn't have alarms to wake me to let me know I was already late to go deal with people who, like me, didn't even want to be in the place they were in. I didn't have to shower at a certain time or have my bed made before my eyes were even open anymore. This was a feeling that was becoming normal to me and I wasn't about to question it. I didn't need too. I was able to be "FREE" ...

A bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos.  A lit Peppermint Sugar Cookie candle from Bath & Body Works. A White Chocolate Pumpkin Mocha from Starbucks  and here I sit, wrapped in my bee blanket searching for something to write about.      Today was Lucee's birthday. She turned 9. Her theme was: On Cloud 9. How appropriate . Everything  was rainbows & sunshine. It didn't start out that way - more sophistication  honestly.  The rose colored pink hues & gold tones - so grown up. Still just a child though. Why rush time? Only one candle was placed on her cake today. I think one candle is just enough - after all, you only get one wish.   Like others, I often wonder what one wishes for? The young and old a like. Mine are simple wishes. Not of money or fame. I wish that I had more time with my children.  Any time. All time. I miss them so much. All the who-has of celebrations while they were growing up. I have 5 kids. I guess that is some...

                        "If your gonna play in Texas                                                   You gotta  have a fiddle in the band." Each of us have very found memories of our first concerts - maybe all the concerts that we have ever attended but even though they just seem to get better with time - it is always the first one NO matter how good or bad it was - dare I say, will always be the most magical.  Mine being no different.      I have always loved Freddie Prinze. Not ... Jr. but the original. He was back then and still to this day a favorite of mine. Before he took his life - one of his greatest  friends was Tony Orlando from the group Tony Orland and Dawn. Okay, I might have known at tops - two songs they sung but that didn't matter. I heard they were coming t...

 

  Birthdays Come and Birthdays Go every year. It has become a tradition , somewhat - within my house between Shailah (my youngest daughter) and myself to see if I am able to come up with a perfect birthday cake for her. One to top the previous years sweet celebration.      I can't say that I always win at this game but you know me, I will take the challenge and well, okay - WIN! We started off simple - I am sure there were others before this but having 5 kids and 14 grandkids, it isn't easy to go through 100,000 photographs to find just what I am looking for so we will just start with this one.      Tai has always been well, kind of full of herself. Not saying that statement to lightly either.  So I figured what a better way then to let her know - I will put HER face on a cake. I did it as a joke but she really liked it and I honestly   believe  this is where the whole "better then last years cake dare started." I used a picture of her f...