Creative and Healthy Cooking Pays Off

For the past several months I have been cooking healthy meals. No more pre-packaged foods, frozen pizzas, Subway sandwiches, and things that are easy and fast to put together for a meal.


I cook fresh vegetables at least once a day, serve fruit and cereal for breakfast, and either bake or grill our meat. Plus I cook some meat in a crock pot. No more fried foods for us. We eat salt sparingly (I have to have it on my sliced tomatoes). Never use sugar anymore; sometimes use Splendar if we need sweetner. We still drink coffee with caffiene and ice tea. This summer we are enjoying a lot of fresh fruit.


These healthy meals, plus walking a mile early every morning, going to the gym 3 or 4 days a week and walking on the treadmill, and working outdoors are committments I made to myself several months ago. So many of our friends (over 75) are "falling apart" and just sit at home and watch TV or go to a myriad of Drs. every week. Jim and I want to be in charge of our health and work to stay healthy. His recent cataract surgery was a great success and he no longer has to wear glasses.


We are making plans to celebrate Jim's 76th birthday on July 15 by going on a riverboat cruise in Chattanooga, TN, on our way to a family reunion in northeastern KY, near the Ohio river. We want to stay in shape so we can continue to travel for several more years - to visit our family in several other states.


About a year ago, I joined weight watchers and to date I haven't lost a lot of weight but I have lost two dress sizes. It was so much fun shopping this afternoon for some new clothes. I came home with a new pair of Gloria Vanderbilt denim capris that have no elastic in the waist and they fit comfortably. This time last year, I wouldn't have attempted to put on a size 14. I also bought two pair of knee length Liz Clairborne cotton shorts - those also without any elastic at the waist.


It has been years since I bought shorts or pants, or skirts, without elastic waistbands. I'll have to start wearing a belt now.


I have been taking clothes out of my closet and donating them to Good Will. Many of them were given to me by relatives over the years. I only dress up once a week and that's on Sunday to go to church. So I don't need many dressy clothes. In our hot Alabama climate, cotton is the choice of fabric for summer, and very casual. Nobody wears stockings to church here in the summer; wouldn't look right with sandals.

I asked Jim to take some photos of me in my new denim capris for you to see the "new" me. I am also attaching a photo made when I started my blog in July 2007 (see photo on left). Maybe you can tell a difference. The photo on the right was made tonight, June 23, 2010 on the back porch.

I wonder how I will look one year from now? I'm going to keep eating healthy and exercising. I might be another dress size smaller next year!!!

Remembering Father's Day

One of the first Bible verses I learned in Sunday School was "Honor thy father and mother". And I never forgot to do that. I always wanted to please my daddy and mother and tried hard not to disappoint them, as long as they lived. In turn, I taught our boys to respect us as parents and we always made "Father's Day" a special time in our home. 

I remember that the boys would make "coupon" books to give to their dad for chores he wanted them to do. Once Bill drew pictures of the chores and at the end of the book, he wrote "good until I die". The coupons didn't last too long.... Jim used them all.

Jim traveled extensively during his working career and when he was gone from home, I had to be mom and dad. We always tried to make things easy for dad and treat him special when he came home from his trips. Birthdays were very special. Bill shared his birthday with his dad on July 15. We always had one big party for the two of them.

When Jim retired, and we moved to our home in the woods in the middle of our tree farm in AL,

James and I had to get used to having Jim at home 24/7. We always did the grocery shopping while he was at work. We were getting ready to go to the grocery store one day, and James turned and looked at his dad as he was getting ready to go with us, and said to me "Does HE have to follow us every where we go?" It didn't take us long to get used to having him at home all the time, and he had to get used to us as well!

It's always "Father's Day" at our house - not just once a year.

Jim's New Computer Desk

For many years, Jim has been using a desk he made by putting a  top over two file cabinets. He had a shelf on the wall to hold things and the top of his desk was always cluttered.

When the boys gave him a new computer, I mentioned that he needed to look for a computer desk. He found just what he wanted at Office Depot, and it was 1/2 price. When he went to pick it up, they told him it comes unassembled. He asked the price to assemble it and when they told him $129, he said he'd do it himself.

After struggling with lots and lots of parts, instructions that were not too clear, and heavy boards to put together. we both decided that $129 was a good deal after all. But over a period of several days, we got it assembled and didn't have any parts left over!!

Then came the task of trying to make things fit in the spaces. First of all, some of the cords were too short. He had to buy extensions, some of which he found locally at Fred's. Others he had to order on the internet.

The keyboard sits on a "pull out" shelf and away from the monitor. He had to shop for some reading glasses in order to see the screen.

At last he has everything in place, and working. He loves his new "man cave". His love for research and genealogy keeps him busy when he's not outside mowing the lawn or doing his volunteer jobs.

Oh, and I failed to mention the new camera and microphone that sits on top of the monitor for him to "Skype" the granddaughters. They love dialing us up on the computer and talking to us on the computer screen. (I also have a camera and mike on my computer monitor.)

We use our computers for entertainment in the evenings. Not much on TV to watch and we don't enjoy parlor games. We both like Facebook, email, reading newspapers online, checking news and weather online, and "googling" for info we need. We sit side by side working on our computers and sometimes don't speak to each other for long periods of time. Doesn't sound very exciting, does it? But it's fun and relaxing for us.

Our Granddaughter's Confirmation and Graduation

Caroline Rose Gilmer, our youngest grandchild (out of 5) was confirmed by the Bishop of Charleston (SC) Diocese at St. Anthony's Church, Florence, SC, on Sunday, May 29, 2010. She is standing by the Bishop. Most of the kids in the photo have just completed the 8th grade.


We were unable to attend since we were at my niece's wedding the same day. The confirmation date was set after we made plans to attend Beth's and Matt's wedding.

I helped her pick out her confirmation dress when we were visiting them at Easter. Here she is pictured with Bill, her dad (our youngest son).

The next photo is of Caroline with her sisters, Katie and Nerissa. They are both in college (Nerissa a Senior at Clemson and Katie a Sophomore. at College of Charleston).

For her confirmation, Caroline had to prepare a scrapbook of her journey in life. It contained photos of her 14-1/2 years, as well as momentos of her years at St. Anthony.

We arrived in Florence on Tuesday morning around noon and spent the afternoon with the girls, planning a graduation party for the next day at noon.

The two big sisters were busy as beavers getting things together. Katie wanted to bake the cake and decorate and got up early on Wed. to bake it. My sister Alice and her husband Jerry arrived from Charlotte, NC,  in time for lunch on Wed.  

The girls' mother died when they were very young (Caroline was 1 year old) and Alice was always there to help them out and attend their school functions, ball games, etc. She is like a grandmother to them. They call her "Great Aunt Alice Dearest".


Graduation was at 6:30 pm on Wed., June 2 at St. Anthony catholic church. Just as we arrived at the church, it started raining and there was lots of lightning and thunder during graduation.


It was a mass as well as graduation so we were there an hour or longer. There were only 6 students in the 8th grade and next year they will all enter the 9th grade at different schools. Caroline will go to West Florence and be in a class of over 400 students. When I asked if she was nervous, she replied that she was going to play soccer  and that she was excited about the big class, just thinking of all the new friends she will have. I guess that's one way of looking at it.

Caroline won all of the awards in her class but one and it was in Music. She was an A student and excelled in everything, including Spanish, computer, art, principal's award, highest achiever, and some more. When graduation was over, we went to the Parish Hall for refreshments, just as a big fire truck pulled up to the church with lights flashing. Seems the lightning caused the fire alarm to go off!

So Caroline's graduation ended with natural fireworks and red lights flashing! And it continued to rain most of the night.

We came home the next day and Caroline went to Myrtle Beach with her classmates and several adult chaperones for 3 days.

On the way home we realized we have been going to events at St. Anthony school since Nerissa started to 4K there in 1992 - a total of 18 years. We are going to miss all the events but will still go to church with them at St Anthony's when we visit.

My niece gets married

Weddings area always such happy occasions. On Saturday, May 29, 2010, we traveled to Black Mountain, NC for my niece Beth Johnson's wedding to Matthew Peabody. The wedding took place at a Presbyterian Church on the Warren Wilson college campus at 4 p.m. Beautiful violin music filled the church before and during the wedding.

It was a family event with many young cousins attending. They passed out the small vials of bubble soap for everybody to blow bubbles to the newlywed couple as they exited the church.

We left the church and went to the Wild Hare 
restaurant in Black Mountain, NC,  for the reception.

Here you see Matt and Beth with her mother Carolyn on her left,

and her aunt; Susan on front, then left to right on back: Judy, Nell,

Chris and Alice.

It was a beautiful wedding and we enjoyed meeting Matt's family from Indiana and other states. Beth's brothers Doug and Greg as well as their wives Michelle and Robin were in the wedding.

The Wild Hare is a place that caters special events. The reception buffet meal was delicious and after dinner, a DJ friend from New Orleans was there to provide music for dancing in the ballroom. Following a toast from the best man and the fathers of the bride and groom, a slide show of Beth and Matt growing up was enjoyed by all. The bride's cousin Bill Gilmer prepared the slide show, complete with music. Then the beautiful wedding cake was cut and enjoyed by all.

The bride's 5 aunts (her mother's sisters) hosted a luncheon the day of the wedding for guests coming from out of town to the wedding. A large table of deli foods with cold drinks and cookies was served in the Senior Center building overlooking Lake Tomahawk.

The only member of our immediate family that could attend was granddaughter Liz who flew to the wedding from Austin, TX. We enjoyed visiting with her.

We left Black Mountain on Monday and attended our youngest granddaughter Caroline's 8th grade graduation in Florence, SC on June 2nd at 6:30 p.m. More about that later.

Preparing for a Slide Show

Recently I went on some garden tours and will be sharing some photos of the beautiful flowers with my Master Gardener group at our montly meeting tomorrow.


In order for everybody to be able to see the photos I have on my computer, I saved them to a Power Point Presentation CD which I put together this afternoon. I will put the CD in my laptop computer and hook it up to my projector, and project the photos to a large screen. Learning to do all of this has not been easy for someone who does not understand high technology. I have great difficulty coping with change when my computer decides to update programs that I have finally mastered, and people come up with new ideas and update things and I have to start all over learning how to use the new technology. Jim laughs at me because I get so frustrated and throw up my hands, exclaiming "I do not like change". I want things to stay the same so I don't have to learn something new. After reviewing the manual, I finally remembered how to project the images on the screen. Now if I can just remember which cable or cord goes to the right port to hook the laptop computer to the projector, I'll be ready to start the show.

The first tour photos I will be showing are from a Garden Tour I went on in Charlotte, NC in April when I visited my sister Alice one week-end. We went to several homes on the tour and all of the gardens were different. One of my favorites had a lot of fun things mixed in with the flowers. This sign was attached to an old bird house: Fixer Upper -- Available for a Song!

Our Master Gardener group went on a tour of a couple of gardens
in Hartford, AL a couple of weeks ago.

The first stop was a Prayer Garden at Hartford Baptist church. You enter the garden through a nice arbor where a sign hangs that says "Garden of Eden". The garden was started in 2005 and several members of the church work in the garden. We enjoyed the engraved plaques and sculptures. Many of the plants are mentioned in the Bible and scriptures were on the plant identification marker. This garden is so relaxing and there are many places to sit and look at all the beauty.  

The next stop was out in the country at the home of Buddy and

Patricia Guilford. Their huge yard is filled with many kinds of roses, and other flowers. One of the highlights of this tour was near the end of the walk around the big yard and you look over into a field and see the most wonderful wildflower display. It almost took my breath away! 

I also included in my slide show presentation some suggestions on landscaping - mainly things NOT to plant too close to the house. I

included some of my "mistakes".

I'm all set to go to the meeting tomorrow and plug in the computer and projector and take a deep breath, and pray that everything works as it should and the pictures will shine on the big screen so they can be enjoyed by all. And I do hope some of this modern technology will either slow down or get easier to use........

Enjoying Company this weekend

We enjoy having company come to visit and this week-end my sister Christine and her husband Al are visiting from Nanticoke, MD. They came to Elba for her 55th  Elba High School reunion today.

They arrived at our home mid-afternoon yesterday and we had fun visiting our brother Perry and his wife Carol after dinner last night. We sat on their big front porch and enjoyed talking about our growing up out in the country. There were 6 girls and one boy. Perry was in the middle. Our only brother is so special to all of us girls. He came to our house yesterday afternoon with a box of fresh veggies from his garden (new potatoes, squash, pepper and a dozen big red tomatoes). f

When Chris and Al got back home from their reunion this afternoon around 3 pm, our cousin Linda Westbrook stopped by for a visit. As she was getting ready to leave, her brother Tom and his wife Sharon Nix came over. Our afternoon was open - no plans, so we all had fun visiting.

We had so much fun remembering our past. I slipped into the kitchen and quickly put together an indoor picnic. We enjoyed hot dogs, slaw, butterbeans (left over), fresh corn on the cob, and an unusual dessert-orange jello with shredded carrots and pineapple! We ate on paper plates and had bottled water or canned diet Cokes.

What a fun afternoon! Tomorrow Linda heads for the NC mountains and on Monday, Tom and Sharon begin a long journey to Alaska in their motor home.

Next weekend all of us Wilson girls (6) and our families will be in Black Mountain, NC attending the wedding of our niece, our youngest sister Carolyn's daughter Beth Johnson.

We are one big happy family!  Twelve First cousins....