Funny Friday - Sign of the Times

 I didn't learn shorthand and was never in a Steno Pool but I do remember those.  When I was young and watched "The Beverly Hillbillies", I remember that Miss Jane and the other secretaries in the Steno Pool would use shorthand.

I did, however, use an IBM Selectric.  In fact, it is what I use to learn to type.  It was so cool to me to use an electric typewriter with that cool round ball instead of a manual typewriter.  I loved it!

Typing class was a class I looked forward to everyday.  It was fun.  I am sure they no longer teach typing or keyboarding in high school.  Today's kids get to miss out on that fun class since they now grow up typing.  

THE QUICK BROWN FOX JUMPED OVER THE LAZY DOG 
(If you know, you know) 😄

June 2022

June and July are busy months for me, especially July.  Hopefully, this time next year, I will be retired and I can actually have a real summer!

 Because I've been busy, my blog has been neglected a bit.  Not that I have a ton of readers sitting on the edge of their seats or anything just dying to know how my goals are progressing - ha ha!

So how are the goals going?

1) Daily Bible Reading/Prayer - Fantastic....as of yesterday, I have read 200 straight days!! I'm not Catholic but I have chosen to read the 7 books that are in the Catholic Bible that are not in the Protestant Bible.  Side note:  Martin Luther decided to follow the newer Palestinian canon, which includes only books originally composed in Hebrew or for which a Hebrew text was available in the late first century A.D. Therefore, 7 books were removed. The King James version follows Luther on this matter.

2) Weight Loss/Eat Healthier/Exercise - Just okay. I am maintaining my weight but not losing but I haven't been really doing what I need to lose weight.  I know it sounds like an excuse and part of it is...but it has been too freaking hot to exercise! Plus, I have been so busy with work!  I know I could exercise in the early hours of the morning, which is what I was doing before I started slacking.  This is really something I will focus on in the upcoming weeks.

3) Watercolor - again, no time to paint recently.  I have ideas swirling around in my head though.

4) Crochet/Knit - Not much crochet/knit time in June...still have a prayer shawl and afghan that I am working on.

5)  Personal Journaling - Pretty good - I'm not writing daily but I am about every 2-3 days so that is an improvement.

6) House Projects - Nothing new in June...again, several ideas swirling around in my head but need more time and money to accomplish them.

7) Scrapbooking/Project Life - very good.  I am up to date with my weekly layouts.  I do want to catch up my "cat" book for the year - maybe this weekend I will be able to do that.

8) Genealogy - Good but again, just very busy.  I haven't had a lot of time to work on it.

So how do I feel? OK - I am most excited that I have kept up with my Bible reading because normally I have stopped by mid-March/early April. But I need to work on thing like better health and house projects.

Here are my Project Life/Scrapbook pages for June - click on photos to enlarge.

 

 

May 2022 Project Life

 Here are my Project Life pages for May 2022

I noticed I used very similar pictures in weeks 20, 21 & 22.  They were all taken different days, guess it shows that my kitty cats are creatures of  habit and apparently I am too, since I keep taking pictures of them - ha ha!

Click on the photos to enlarge

May 2022 Recap

Monthly check in time!

 How are the 2022 goals coming along?  Let's see....

1) Daily Bible Reading/Prayer - Fantastic....I have read the Bible for 158 days!!  God is so good!!

2) Weight Loss/Eat Healthier/Exercise - Pretty good, but could be better.  I lost 3 more pounds last month..I know, not a lot, but hey, the scale is down and not up so even a one pound lose is better than a one pound gain.  I'm happy with a loss.  (Darn those Trader Joe's Peanut Butter Cups - could have lost more).   Exercise...I've been so, so, so, so busy with work, but that isn't an excuse (well, maybe a little).  I had planned to start getting up early and going back to the gym this week but my boss is on vacation and therefore I do get up early but have a lot of work that has to be completed by 7 am - current plan is to start back this Saturday.

3) Watercolor - no painting so far this year...that is okay though.

4) Crochet/Knit - Almost finished with a prayer shawl for church...started a new afghan and loving the pattern for that - easy pattern but not boring - stay tuned.

5)  Personal Journaling - Hmm...not too good there.  I "think" about journaling..I "think" about what I am going to write and want to write about but I haven't been putting pen to paper lately.

6) House Projects - I got a couple of things done and managed to maintain other things...going good so far.

7) Scrapbooking/Project Life - A+ - I am still current with my Project Life pages (will post the May pages - possibly tomorrow) but I have completed LOTS of recipe pages.  I'm excited to finally be getting all of my "tried and true" recipes together and to have one book.  I have a few more to document before I print them out.

8) Genealogy - Good!  I updated a lot of people on my family tree last month and I even located an old photo of my uncle and his family when he was about 4 years old.  He is no longer with us, but I sent the photo to my aunt and cousins and they were blown away.  My aunt immediately recognized everyone of the siblings.  He had 15 siblings!!  They were not all in the photo because by then some were married and some hadn't been born yet, but can you imagine having 16 kids !! Yikes!

So how do I feel? Pretty good.  I do wish I had done a little painting and I do wish I had exercised a bit more in May but I'm really chuffed that I am current with my Bible Reading and Project Life pages.

How was your May ?

Product Review - Trader Joe's Chicken Soup Dumplings

I love soup dumplings...but let's admit it, they are time consuming to make.  Also, you typically need a bamboo steamer to steam them.  While I have a bamboo steamer, for exactly that reason, I would love an easier and faster way to make soup dumplings....enter Trader Joe's

I found these Chicken Soup Dumplings in their freezer section.  There are 6 in a box for $3.29 and there is one serving in a box - which is plenty.  It has 250 calories and 7 grams of fat...so for a whole serving, that is not bad diet wise or price wise.  

They are called Chicken "Soup Dumplings" not "Chicken Soup" Dumplings - does that make sense?  In other words...they are Soup Dumplings (also known as Xiao Long Bao) filled with chicken...not chicken soup inside a dumpling. 

You have to be careful eating a soup dumpling.  You put it on the spoon, take a bite and drink out the soup and then eat the dumpling.  That is challenging for me.  What I typically do, is put them in a bowl, cut them in half and eat the soup and dumplings together.  

So...here is how they are packaged

And here is what they look like when you open the box

6 cute and perfectly sized frozen dumplings.  The best part...they come in a steamer package.  So all you do is cut off one corner and pop it in them microwave for 2 minutes.  

Then they come out...looking almost like they looked when they went in...but just not frozen

 I typically eat soup dumplings with some kind of soy/vinegar sauce but I wanted to taste the true flavors of these and not have them masked by anything else.

Photo Courtesy of Two Cousins Haul It All 

Verdict: Delicious and filling.  They are a great light supper, especially after a long day when you don't feel like cooking, but you want some good comfort food. 

Product Review - Trader Joe's Peanut Butter Cups

Danger...Danger...Will Robinson!!!  These Trader Joe's mini Peanut Butter Cups are SO GOOD!  

They come in Dark Chocolate and Milk Chocolate.  I'm more of a Milk Chocolate kind of girl so got a container to give them a try...I won't be buying these again.  Not because they are bad, but because they are AMAZING and I could eat them all day long.  

If you have good self-control, help yourself to these next time you go to Trader Joe's.  If you find peanut butter cups challenging to resist - don't buy these...you will become addicted to them.  Seriously!

Note: Container says the serving size is 3 pieces and there are 13 servings - so roughly 40 in a container.

Product Review - Trader Joe's Almond Croissants

I made a recent trip to Trader Joe's for a particular product and ended up picking up a few things.  The employee at the check out commented on every purchase I had made (except for one) and said "Oh, you picked all my favorites" and proceeded to tell me why she liked each item and even how to prepare some of them.  She was super friendly!!

So...I decided to do a product review on some of them.

First up...Almond Croissants.

Now...I have had the Chocolate Croissants before and they taste so similar to the ones I have had at the French Bake Shop in Las Vegas. I had never seen the Almond version before so decided to give them a try.

It is really cool how these bake up.  You lay them out the night before (or at least 9 hours before you plan on eating them) and you let them rise overnight.  Here they are from the frozen state. They look puny and flat and you you might be thinking - "uh...I'm not to sure about this"

 But after letting them sit overnight - you wake up to THIS - they double in size!!

 

It is impressive to see how much they rise.

The packages says to bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.  My experience with the chocolate ones told me to go with 20 minutes and I am glad I knew that.  They were just the right amount of brown.

They have sliced almonds on top and some kind of almond (maybe marzipan) filling (which seeped out a little bit while baking).

Verdict! Very easy to bake, impressive looking, but a just a little bit on the sweet side for me.  I would get them again, especially if I were to have overnight guests.