{pretty, happy, funny, real} - Life chugging along...

Linking up with Like Mother, Like Daughter for a {phfr} day!

There isn't much happening today, except that it's nearly summer in Texas and I'm cold.  Imagine that!  The one day when we'd like some heat, the heater isn't working and our property manager is (typically) MIA.  But, on the flipside, we slept amazingly last night all bundled up and cozy in the cooler air.  It was great!

{Pretty}

I realize this is a weed, but for some reason, I have an affinity for flowering weeds.  They are so perky and so determined in their perkiness that it's hard not to like them.  Not being a great gardener in any sense of the word, weeds and I are never in competition which allows us to have a pleasantly platonic relationship.  Dandelions are one of my favorites, but we don't seem to have as many here in Texas as when I was growing up in the far north of just-south-of-the-Mason-Dixon-line.  Isn't this just the cutest little thing?  It's only as big as a pencil eraser.

{Happy}

My grandmother gave this cookbook to my mom when she got married and moved away, and my mom did the same for me.  I love looking back at the recipes that have notes, dated, from both of them.  Some are comments about the recipe, but most are little snippets about what was happening in their day when they were cooking.  I've added some of my own.  Here, the note in red is my mom's, and is dated in February 1989.  I was four months old.  The note in black is mine from just last week.

This also happens to be a delightfully addictive peanut butter cookie recipe, especially if you add a bag of chocolate chips to it.  Heavenly.  Thank you Fanny Farmer!

{Funny}

Why is a bad picture of half-eaten brownies funny?  Well, it was suggested at my last doctor appointment that I change my diet.  (I am still contemplating this idea...while eating brownies.)  She recommended that I cut out refined sugar, as much as possible.  That's all well and good, but I'm still craving chocolaty goodness in a way that only we women can understand, if you know what I mean, so I decided to make "healthy" brownies.  I subbed out the 1.5 cups of sugar with a few tbs of brown sugar, a cup of molasses, and a cup of flour.  Probably could have skipped the flour as these were cakey instead of fudgy, but whatever.  They were also overcooked, a chronic bad habit of mine.  

I discovered, however, that molasses in large quantities - don't ask how large, I refuse to tell! - can have the side-effect of....how shall we say...relieving any possible stopped-up-ness one might have had.  Yes, your thoughts right now are correct.  I'm not sure if the Husband noticed or not, so maybe it was just me; hope so, since he's out on calls all day!  Haha

Word to the wise: just eat the sugar...

{Real}

See that weed?  The one that's nearly as tall as a large toddler?  I've been staring at it and planning to weed-whack it for weeks now, but unfortunately our hand-me-down lawnmower refuses to turn on for me.  The weed-whacker feels the same and also will not start.  I'm biding my time until the Husband is home to beat them into submission, at which point mankind will triumph over the weeds that are attempting to take over my corner of the world!  

That's all for today; dinner needs to be made so that work can be done.  My articles to edit came in yesterday, so I'm going to attempt to finish them before the weekend.  Fingers crossed :)