How Much Does Your Life Weigh?

I just finished watching one of my favorite George Clooney movies, Up in the Air. And no matter how many times I see it, I'm always caught off guard by the opening scene where Clooney's character Ryan Bingham speaks to a group of men and women at a business conference. The question he poses goes something like this...


How much does your life weigh? Imagine for a second that you're carrying a backpack. I want you to pack it with all the stuff that you have in your life...


After having his audience think of all the "baggage" they have in their lives in the form of material possessions and personal relationships, he goes on to suggest that a person should empty his/her backpack of these things in order to achieve success and happiness. Even if you haven't seen the movie, you can guess that by the end, Bingham realizes he is delivering a false message but is helpless to change the impact it has had on his own life.


So how much does your life weigh? I ask myself the same question every time I see the movie. I've decided to post that quote on my desk at school and around the house in several places as a reminder to -  keep life real, pack my backpack with my most treasured items, and toss out the junk that weighs it down. If this is 
such a simple philosophy, then why do I find myself at times carrying an overloaded pack?


I can't possibly explore the answer to that question in such a short space, so perhaps I'll save it for a future blog. Or maybe I'll just toss it into the junk pile.

Fill it, Seal it...Not Homemade Jelly

Don't let the title fool you. This isn't another blog about filling and sealing jars of jalapeno jelly or my further attempts at homemade canning. I'd like to introduce you to Olay's must-have beauty products -  Regenerist Filling and Sealing treatment and their night time lifting and firming cream.

I remember watching my mother-in-law slather generous amounts of cream on her face and neck at night. At the time, I was a mere sapling and couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. As a matter of fact, back then I never even removed my make up at the end of the day. I simply got up in the morning, showered and washed my face with whatever bar soap was available.

Enter midlife...when I turned 45 I either suddenly gained better vision (not the case since I have recently purchased reading glasses and got a prescription for driving glasses) or finally noticed the tiny lines that have crept onto my face while I was living life. Now don't get me wrong, I am blessed with my grandmother's beautiful, creamy skin, it's just that I'm pretty sure she didn't worship the sun like I have.

So what's a girl to do when she wants to erase those crow's feet, laugh lines, and frown marks? There are more products on the market today than ever before including a list of injections and surgical procedures.  Aside from the obvious...reduce sun exposure, avoid smoking, reduce stress, keep your face moisturized, and eat a healthy diet... there are a few home remedies that might look pretty interesting.

You could always try applying the juice of green pineapples and apples to your face daily. Or you might make a paste of tumeric powder and sugarcane and use as a facial mask. I've heard cucumbers, bananas, papayas, lemon juice, and castor oil also do the trick, all used separately and applied to those difficult spots.

The Olay filling and sealing treatment does exactly what you would think. It fills the little lines and allows you to "hide" them under your foundation. The night time firming lifting cream seems to tighten the skin on my neck, and I'm pretty pleased with those results.

While I'm not quite ready to have someone stick a needle into my face to remove those testy lines, I don't see myself mixing up a bowl of fruit salad to apply to my trouble spots either. I guess I'll just stick with my Olay products for now.



Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kitsa_sakurako/

All in a Day

You know it's a good day when...the peach mango jam turned out beautifully, candied jalapeños are ready to go for Christmas, and the jelly finally reset! Now everyone in the family will have his/her own personal, edible gift straight from my kitchen.

Snapshot of Buster

After almost twelve years, my family and I are saying goodbye to an old friend tomorrow. Buster, our silly old bear, has been a  loyal companion, protector, and friend. As I write this, he is lying on the kitchen floor, ears perked back, eyes watching every move I make, but he just isn't the same dog. Age has taken its toll as well as a tumor that makes him look as if he has swallowed a basketball. I take a few moments in between memories to scratch behind his ears where he loves it best. I wish he would just close his eyes and take that final breath, but if he doesn't then we've decided to put him to rest.

Buster is a Pembroke Corgi, not a breed everyone recognizes right away. He's a tri-color with a perfectly shaped white diamond on the back of his neck. I remember the day we picked him up at a farm in Nacogdoches like it was yesterday.

He has definitely had some grand adventures in his lifetime. Buster was never afraid of the water and enjoyed a good swim once in a while. I remember one occasion when we were camping on Lake Sam Rayburn. We had gone out in the boat that morning, and of course Buster never missed a chance to tag along. My two boys wanted to find a swimming spot, so we pulled the boat up to a little island and tied off. We made a small camp and put out the lawn chairs. Buster would run up and down the sandy spots near the water barking and playing and watching out for Addison and Taylor. It wasn't unusual for us to get in the boat and troll around fishing and leave Buster to guard camp. But this one time, he didn't want to stay behind. We were a pretty good distance from shore when we spotted his pointed ears and long snout sticking out of the water. His  short, stubby legs paddled furiously toward our boat. From then on, Buster joined us like one of the crew.

Buster was a master squirrel chaser. Before we moved a couple of years ago, he spent his days keeping squirrels out of the backyard. You could always tell when he had one in his sights. He would crouch down low to the ground, which wasn't that far for him, and lay his ears back in stealth mode. And oh, he was patient. I've seen him stare down a chattering squirrel for what seemed like forever, only to suddenly burst forth like a super sonic rocket, sending the squirrel into an all-out panic up a tree. Now it must be said that Buster never caught a squirrel, but he tried his best and would probably agree if he could talk that those were the glory days. At our new house, there aren't any squirrels to case, so he took up harassing the mocking birds that tried to make our backyard their oasis. This proved to be more of an annoyance than anything for Buster because the birds simply flew away.

Our swimming pool became something of a personal watering hole and cool down spot for Buster. He loved to get his feet wet in the shallow end during the dog days of summer. While we swam he would run around the pool as if he wanted to jump in, but always changed his mind at the last minute. He was happy to simply "give sugars" from the edge if you would let him, and Adrian and I always did. When we barbecued, Buster was our chief taste tester. He would sit near the grill, looking up at us with those big, brown eyes, and wait to be handed a morsel of steak or chicken.

In his later years, Buster never missed a chance to join me on the patio in the evenings. I would recline in my chair with a glass of wine or cup of coffee, and he would sit next to me. We've seen many sunsets together and as many full moons. He never said much, but I could always count on him to be there. It won't be the same without him.

I've had a lot of dogs in my lifetime, but Buster ranks among the very best. Goodbye, old friend. Thank you for sharing your life and bringing us such fond memories and happiness.

Undomestic Goddess?

It appears that I will have to relinquish my coveted domestic goddess crown and title. After more than 24 hours, the second batch of jalapeno jelly has not set. The little 8-ounce jars sitting on my counter are filled with a beautiful green mixture, which tastes amazing, yet I have once again failed to produce jelly that is edible. Perhaps if the recipients of said gift were to drink the jelly? Maybe I can pass it off as a new holiday drink and call it cactus juice!

I'm not really sure what happened. In fact, most recipes I consulted online were very close to the one I used. Perhaps substituting 1 cup of vinegar for a cup of apple juice wasn't a good idea. Some people told me that using liquid pectin was risky because the results are never predictable. Third time's the charm? I think not. I've ditched the idea of Christmas jalapeño jelly altogether.

So what's a girl to do when she has more than a dozen Christmas gifts to make? I won't be knitting or sewing anything; my one attempt at making a wrap around skirt in high school was enough to ensure I never became a fashion designer. I do possess other domestic talents I'm certain, but they elude me at the moment.

Luckily, I found a recipe for candied jalapenos, better known as cowgirl or cowboy candy. If you want a really good source of cowboy on-the-ranch fare, you have visit The Pioneer Woman  hosted by Ree Drummond. There you will find a ton of great recipes.

My first time to try sweet, spicy candied jalapeños was at the Nutcracker market with my sister. I brought a jar home and soon understood what people meant when they said it's like fine tequila. It goes down cool and smooth, but doesn't always come back out the same way. But I digress...

Back to the recipe. I'm hoping this very simple process will produce a delicious candied snack that will please even the most discriminating palate. There are several versions of the recipe, but it goes something like this:

Buy a one-gallon jar of nacho jalapenos
Drain the juice from the peppers (some recipes say drain all the juice, others say 1/2) I am trying it both ways
Add 5 pounds of white sugar to the jar; seal the lid
Turn the jar over every day for seven days until the sugar dissolves and candies the jalapenos

We'll see...                                                   Day 2 of the process

The Making of Jalapeno Jelly

No more promises from me...no more plans to have planned adventures...I'm just planning to live life and write about it when I can. Today I've spent most of my time trying to perfect jalapeno jelly. My first effort a week ago resulted in  vinegary, sour congealed jelly that looked beautiful, but wouldn't win any taste tests. I'm hoping this second batch comes out a little better.


A colleague of mine shared the recipe she got from the Ball liquid pectin box. It's not a hard process, and it can produce nice little jars of green jalapeno jelly, you just have to tweak it a bit. I'm planning to give it as gifts to our family this Christmas.

**Updated after a complete failure of this batch of jelly to set! Apparently you can not follow the directions on the package of liquid pectin. I've been told that you should use 1 package of the pectin, not two. And the substitution of apple juice for the vinegar isn't necessary. Speculation is that the extra package of pectin caused the vinegary taste in the first batch.
Here's the final recipe after some changes and additions!
1 box Ball or Certo liquid pectin (2 packages)**
15 fresh jalapeno peppers
3 Serrano peppers
1/2 small green bell pepper (may substitute red or orange)
5 cups sugar
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 cup apple juice **

Wash and seed the peppers. This is by far the most difficult and time-consuming part of the process. Put the peppers into a blender with the apple cider vinegar. Blend on low so the peppers are chopped but not minced. Pour the pepper mixture into a large pot. Add 5 cups sugar and the one cup apple juice. You can adjust the amount of sugar to taste. Bring to a hard boil and let the mixture boil for ten minutes. Add the two packets of liquid pectin and boil for one minute longer. Pour the liquid into prepared jars, seal and screw on the lid. The jelly will set within several hours and is preserved once the seal on the lid pops.

Serve the jelly on crackers with cream cheese for an easy holiday snack.


If you want to dress the jars up a bit, you can do this with Christmas print material purchased at your local craft store. Cut the material with pinking shears into a square large enough to fit generously over the size lid you have. Tie ribbon or material of choice into a bow around the jar and add a gift tag.

You are on your way to becoming a domestic goddess!

Back to the '60s adventure!

This is pretty typical of me. I start out with the grandest of plans only to find that the best laid plans...well, you know the rest of that. Honestly, I didn't have any fabulous, profound, or life-changing adventure last week to write about. My hopes of riding the hot air balloon were swept away in all the rain and wind we called weather. And now the balloon has flown away to other lands. 

Disappointed, I went back to my original blog to find out just exactly what I had gotten myself in for with this year of adventure. Would I really be able to hold up to such a demanding goal? After all, I have a hard time getting the laundry done every week much less setting up a grand adventure in that same time frame. I guess in my mind I envisioned myself zip lining through the rain forest, which could still be possible, or swimming with killer whales, ummm strike that off the list!

Sometimes it helps to go back to the beginning and re-evaluate the goal to make sure you're on target. Here is what I said in my introductory blog in January: "I'm looking to find the adventure in everyday life. It might be something as simple as trying a different flavor of ice cream..." (Corn ice cream, anyone?)

Okay, that made me feel one tiny bit better about my intentions. So I started thinking about the week I had. Routine as usual? I don't consider entertaining (I mean teaching) a group of pre-teens usual, but it's my day job and I absolutely love it. And once I gave my week with those kids a good think over, I realized I had experienced one colorful adventure after all.

Take a walk back with me to the days of tie-dye, protests, and drugs, sex, and rock 'n roll. Not that I remember any of that since I was a mere infant at the time. No, my adventure doesn't include exposing 11 and 12-year olds to the vices of the '60s. But we did spend the day making tie-dye t-shirts and head bands in homage to our class novel, Schooled. The book is about a home-schooled hippie named Capricorn (gotta love it, especially since that's my zodiac sign) who finds himself thrown into public middle school. He is elected eighth-grade class president as a joke, but in the end Cap teaches the students a lot about life. He learns a lot about the real world in the process, too.

The bell rang and class started with 25 kids donning white t-shirts and head bands. Those who forgot to bring theirs asked if they could use their socks. "Sure, why not, but only if they are clean" was my reply. I guess that was okay since I didn't hear from any outraged parents. I turned on some Beatles music to set the mood.

I demonstrated the process which went something like this: "Kids, take your t-shirts and bandanas and pull from the center. Now grab the material around the middle." This action produced a room full of strangely pointed phallic symbols made of white cotton. I gave my stern, don't-even-think-about-commenting teacher look to a few boys who thought they might try to make a funny.

Believe it or not, the next step involved giving every kid a handful of rubber bands. I threatened them with their lives if they dared to take any from the room and get caught using them as lethal weapons. The purpose of the rubber bands was to tie up the t-shirt in eight or nine places. This went pretty smoothly considering.

The next two steps could have sent my students on a real high. They took brightly colored markers and colored in all the sections between rubber bands. It didn't seem like it should take a long time, but some students colored diligently making sure every inch of white was covered. That's a lot of magic marker fumes!

The final step in the process was to use a spray bottom to apply rubbing alcohol over the entire shirt. The alcohol causes the colors to run, thus producing the tie-dye effect. This is where my job began. I spread out an old shower curtain and started spraying down the shirts, bandannas, and socks. By the end of the class period, all the t-shirts were doused and laid out on the curtain to dry. I don't think the air quality in the room would pass EPA standards, but we got the job done.

The kids had a great time, learned the art of tie-dying, and gained an appreciation for Paul and the boys. Me, I made a memory and shared an adventure with some of the the greatest 6th graders I know.

Chocolate is for Lovers!

Honestly, I feel like my students do at times. I just haven't been in the mood

What to do for the Weekend!

I couldn't stand to let the week go by without mentioning a few suggestions for a great Valentine's weekend adventure!

February Adventure #1 - Literary Love

"When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore'

When the world seems to shine like you've had too much wine, that's amore'"

February promises to be full of adventure dipped in chocolate

Life Happens...The Ending

Quite frankly, I’m ready to put January with its dreary weather and tragic events behind. Since my last blog in which I recalled the demise of my uncle and my dad’s own brush with death,

Adventure #2 - Life Happens Part One

If you've never waited in the ICU waiting room for someone you love, it's not an experience you want to have. Thanks to my oldest son, this isn't my first rodeo,

Weather Woes...

A fellow blogger commented on my Year of Adventures in Midlife project and wanted to know how I came up with the ideas.

The Birthday Story

It's officially here! My 45th birthday! I'm not like a lot of people who don't care to observe the passing of time, who cringe at the mention of another birthday.

2010 Adventure #1 Psychic Reading

Adventure #1 Tarot Card Reading

When I decided that my first adventure of 2010 would be a tarot card reading, my friends gave me that are-you-kidding look.

Dance Your @ss Off alternative to the Gym

I'm sitting here at Starbucks using the free Wi-Fi you get when you have a gift card and wiping off the crumbs from a delicious mega oatmeal raisin cookie. I've switched from the expensive designer coffee choices to just regular brew with lots of cream and about three packets of Splenda. It all tastes about the same - strong enough to grow hair on your chest.

Adventure, You Say?

While the digital clock on my cell phone silently rolled over to midnight, the ricochet of a million Black Cats echoing throughout the neighborhood announced the birth of the new year! If you think about it, 2010 seems like some number out of a sci-fi movie title,